The Bread of Life.

John 6:51; I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Although some may not see the significance of What Jesus was saying here I sure do. Do you remember in the Old Testament (Exodus) when God commanded Moses to construct a Tabernacle "according to the pattern which I show you"? God also gave instructions to Aaron the brother of Moses on the Priestly Ministry of the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle consisted of three main parts; the outer court, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. It was in the holy Place (the second room) that there was a table set before the priests' and upon it was twelve loaves of unleavened bread. Each loaf represented a Tribe of Israel, Until Christ!

There had been so many perversions to the purpose of the Tabernacle along the way that by the time Jesus was to appear on the scene it was not even recognizable by Him. Instead of One High Priest over the Tabernacle, there were now two. You can also bet that there were perversions to the meanings of the bread as well. The bread represented nourishment for the body but in scripture it represented so much more. The bread goes from being a natural life substance to an eternal life substance. So, what was the bread symbolic of? The true bread from heaven as it was in Exodus (Manna) was eaten before the entrance into the promise land. (Then it can be seen as priestly as eaten in the Holy Place before entrance into the Most Holy Place) Jesus said (John 6:54) Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. On many occasions Jesus became the source for feeding many from nothing. His miracles of feeding thousands with just five loaves was simple another key into understanding His use of symbolism. The five loaves were each symbolized here for the five fold ministries being divided up among the whole body. The two fishes were symbolic of the two divisions of people Jew and Gentile. The twelve baskets were symbolized as "the twelve men called disciples". Twelve is also the number for true & perfect government. We can now see that Jesus was showing us what was to come. He took the twelve and used them to graft the nations back together and they were to become the new government in which the believers would find their place in the body through five fold ministries. We fail to recognize that we all have a place. It is not up to Pastors to find a place for you; your gifting (Calling) will make room for itself. The Pastor is merely there to bring you to maturity for your work in the Kingdom. There is so much to be said here but I must move on. The bread (Christ) is a substance for our eternal life. When Jesus said that you must "eat of His flesh" he was referring to Communion. Later in the gospels we see Christ breaking bread with the twelve as a symbol of intimacy with Him. The word Communion is also derived from the word "to communicate". That's right. Eating of His flesh is merely your prayer or open communication with Christ. The relationship between you and Him. We have trivialized this meaning of communion as the Jews did. We have made it about traditions without understanding why it was made to be so. We have turned purpose into perversions again. Rituals are what Jesus was warning about in everything He did from pointing out the men praying at the wall to the reading and order of the scrolls in the temple. When Jesus broke with traditions he baffled many. How can a twelve year old boy confound the top scholars in that day? Easy......He was God incarnate. The embodiment of God's presence in the world. Jesus took the twelve loaves and became the one that we who were lost in our transgressions could be saved. From what you may ask? Ourselves! The Bread doesn't stop here. You have only just begun to understand its complexities. To communicate with Jesus is to eat of His flesh. He also stated that He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life! (The only way for redemption) The Truth is where will focus now. John says in Rev 10:9 and I went unto the angel, and said unto him, give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. Rev 10:10 And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. Here we see Christ as the Truth. Truth divided appropriately. Here is an even greater mystery of the loaf (the word) consumed in us. Eating of His flesh is also consuming the truth. If Jesus is The Word then we have to consider that it is The Truth given to John. The little book was Jesus. When we consume Christ it can become too much truth that it makes us bitter to our stomachs and we will regurgitate it. Spew it back up. It tastes great going down but man it will make you sick deep in your soul. This is a warning to take you time and don't eat too much. You can't handle the truth, Just kidding! The purpose of eating this truth is to help the whole body consume the whole loaf of Christ unto Her perfection. We are to present a whole loaf to the world. We are to entice them to eat of Christ. Not many Christ's. Not many prophets or teachers but one truth. The problem the world has with the Church is this. There are too many contradictions. There are denominations due to that. Denomination simply means Division of Nations in the Latin. Jesus said a Kingdom divided against itself would Fall. Let me ask you this with an honest reply. What is it that the world perceives as our first problem? Division! We are not of the same mind. The mind of God. The intent is to bring the whole loaf as one. Acts says they had all things in common. They presented a complete loaf to eat from. The fact is that we allow pride to get in the way and our egos get ahead of God. When this happens we take the truth and pitch our tents in that wilderness, when the cloud has moved on. The glory is gone when we think we have pinned the truth around our so called doctrine. It is only when the next morsel has been consumed by someone else that we begin to reject it because our man made doctrines contradict them. This forms a division. Then when we can't agree among ourselves we run off and start our names. The Baptist, The Church of God, The Wesleyans, The Catholics or the Non-denominationalist. These are merely titles to tell the world of our disagreements and divisions. The truth isn't grey people. Neither is God. He made it to be understood one way. Just because we all think differently doesn't mean we all have a valid point. The Word (Christ) of God is one loaf not twelve. I understand that many people see things from a different perspective but does that mean that God wrote it to mean twelve different things. No! Our egos can't quite handle this one. Is your stomach upset yet? Go ahead let go and regurgitate so that you can consume it rightly divided by the Holy Spirit and not doctrines of men. I could go on here for days but you really would get an overloaded potato and not and unleavened loaf. May God bless you and show you His face as I have seen. He is our beautiful morning and the hope that tomorrow will bring the same. So rest in Him that He may become your Sabbath and not a day of the week. Thanks Scott