What It Means to be Filled with the Holy Spirit # 10

"And When the Day of Pentecost Was Fully Come" (continued)

Christ is Our Passover

With these words, the Lord Jesus Christ proclaims the principle of Life in the New Creation; for as the Bread of Life, He gives Eternal Life to the believer - Life in the present, and Life in the future, and Life forevermore. And we receive this Gift of Eternal Life because He gave His Life upon the Cross; for as the Bread of Life, Christ is saying of Himself, "I AM the Living Bread which came down from heaven: If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever: and the Bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (John 6:51).

Furthermore, Christ is saying, "I AM the Living Bread," I AM the Bread that endureth, which means: I, the Christ, will sustain your Lives before the Lord forevermore. Notice that John 6:47 tells us, "He that believeth hath everlasting Life"; and John 6:51 states that, "If anyone shall eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever." So in these two Scriptures, we find that we not only have Everlasting [Eternal] Life, but if we eat (partake) of Him Who is the Bread of Life we shall live forever, we shall have age-abiding Life. The Emphasized Bible puts it this way: "If one eat of this Bread, he shall live unto times age-abiding." Beloved, Jesus Christ is the Living Bread, and as we partake of Him, He alone will sustain our lives before the Lord God both now, and forevermore - through Christ, we shall live breath by breath, moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day, year after year, age after age - for in Him we have age-abiding, everlasting Eternal Life.

Now, what was the reaction of the people to these Words of Life spoken by our Lord? First of all, we are told that the Jews murmured at Him, complained discontentedly among themselves, because He said, "I AM the Bread which came down from Heaven." In the Gospel of John, the phrase, "the Jews", is usually used of those who were in active opposition against the Lord, and who rejected Him as the messiah; usually, they were the religious and political leaders, or someone who represented them (John 1:19-24). So among the people who sought Jesus, because He fed the 5,000, were a group of "the Jews". And when Jesus said, " AM the Bread Which came down from Heaven, "the Jews" knew He was saying that He was the Son of God, they knew He was saying that He was the I AM, the ONE Who had spoken to Moses, they knew He was saying that He was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And they thought that He, Who was only the son of Joseph in their eyes, was surely a blasphemer.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 11)