Keswick at Portstewart 2026 - Saturday 4 July 2026 - I am the Bread of Life

 

KESWICK AT PORTSTEWART – SATURDAY 4 JULY 2026 – JONATHAN THOMAS

 

I love the book of Psalms. And even though this evening we're actually going to be in John's Gospel, I want to start in Psalm 81 verses 1 and 2.

“Sing for joy to God our strength. Shout aloud to God of Jacob. Begin with music. Strike the tambourine. Play the melodious harp and lyre.”

It's a wonderful invitation, isn't it? A call to come and worship God. And that's what we've come to do this evening. And what the psalmist does is he tells us how we get excited to worship him, how we get energized to worship him. And so what he does is in the psalm, Psalm 81, he goes back and looks at the Exodus and the Passover. He says in verse 6,

“I removed the burden from their shoulders. Their hands were set free for from the basket. Into your distress, you called out and I rescued you. I answered you out of a thundercloud.”

You know, in the Old Testament, really what the psalmist does is when he wants to praise God, he looks back at how God has saved them. And so, when you get then to that whole kind of beautiful idea of calling out, he remembers the Exodus and then he does a strange thing. I don't know if you've ever noticed this in Psalm 81, but in verse 10, he remembers, you know, they came out and after he'd saved them, he gave them the law. He gave them the ten commandments. And so he kind of alludes to it here in verse 10. He says,

"I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt."

Now, if you weren't looking at your Bible, and I quoted that, what would you expect him to say next?

“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt.”

It should say, "You shall have no other gods before me." But actually, it says these amazing words,

"Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it."

Isn't that a wonderful promise? The God who has saved us wants to satisfy us. Now I'm a Welshman and a great Welsh hymn which is known in English as Guide Me oh thou great Jehovah. You get it in churches and in rugby stadiums. And it's a wonderful hymn because it looks back at the Exodus. It looks back at the Passover and the wanderings. It looks back at the journey of the Israelites. But then in the chorus, whether you're in a rugby match or in church, you are going to sing “Bread of Heaven, Bread of heaven, fill me now until I want no more." What a great line, isn't it? Fill me now until I want no more. And friends, that comes from this promise. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. On this first message of the conference, I want to give you an encouragement and a challenge - when you come to a convention like this, you need to come with mouths wide open. Some commentators look at Psalm 81 and say it's like chicks in a nest, little birds in a nest with their mouths wide open waiting for the mother bird to come and bring them food. We need to come expectant to feed, to hear God's word, and to be filled until we want no more. Perhaps you've come this week and you're in a season of life where you're just going on empty. You feel hungry spiritually. You know you need a word from the Lord. Come open up your mouths and he will fill you.  Perhaps you've come this week and you know what? You've been snacking on things you shouldn’t be filling your life with. All manner of things but not the Lord. It's a funny thing. I get little addictions to different things like popcorn. Those are the kind of addictions I'm talking about. Sometimes I eat them until I'm full and then I just feel sick. I don't feel happy. I don't feel energized. I feel lethargic. And maybe you're coming this week and you've been filling your life with all manner of things. And this week, you need to come back to God and repent and say, "God, I want you. I want to open my mouth and I want to hear your word. I want to be filled. The idea is to see how we can be rooted in Christ, how Jesus changes everything. So I want to do that this evening from John's gospel. So turn to the New Testament.

John chapter 6. John chapter 6 and we're going to look at a well-known passage and a well-loved passage. I love John's gospel. It introduces us to Jesus. It's rich, isn't it, of every kind of thing that Jesus ever did. And I love when you just get to the end of John's gospel as if he just goes at the end “Oh, do you know what? I can't get it all down because if I did, there wouldn't be a library big enough in all the world to contain all that Jesus has done. But let's just have a look at this one little chapter. John chapter 6. Let me read the first 15 verses. John chapter 6 beginning at verse one. This is one of the most well-known and well- loved stories in the Bible. A great crowd coming following Jesus. They've seen his miracles and they want to see more miracles. And so Jesus deliberately here shows us that he's going to do a miracle, but it's going to be a sign. is going to show them something greater. And so Jesus wants to see, do they grasp who I really am? Have they got my identity yet? So what's the situation? Huge crowd, not enough food. It would take half a year's wages to pay for the food. And so this little boy comes with his five loaves and two fishes. And I love the simplicity of it. Jesus prays. And he just breaks the bread and breaks the bread and breaks the bread and breaks the bread and just this food just keeps going on and on and on. You can imagine at the start, can't you? Some people take a little bit. I better not take too much because Mrs. Jones won't have any next to me. And then next thing, another piece of bread comes. Oh, well, if there's a bit more going on, I'll have some more. And then before you know it, they're eating to the point that they're full. And guess what? The bread is still coming. They have to get the baskets to pick up the leftovers. I mean, it is phenomenal. What we have here is an overflowing miracle of abundance. An overflowing miracle of abundance. And in many senses, that is the promise of the gospel. The promise of the gospel, the Christian hope is an overflowing miracle of abundance. Do you believe that God is a God of overflowing abundance who just wants you to open up your mouth and to receive your fill to be able to say, "Fill me till I want no more." Well, I want to try and show you that that's true.

Here’s the first point I want to show you from the passage. The first point is this. Jesus gives bread. What an amazing day to have been there and to see all of this bread. Now, if you put yourself in the text and you were in John 6 and you had seen Jesus's miracles and then you'd eaten the bread, here's the question. Would you have got who he was? Would the penny have dropped? Well, interestingly, look at their response. Verse 14. After the people saw the sign, he's trying to show them who he is. It's a sign. It's signposting to him. They began to say, "Surely this is the prophet." Oh, prophet. Is that right? Is that wrong? Jesus is a prophet. Have they got him? Surely he's a prophet. And then

Jesus verse 15 “knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force withdrew again to a mountain by himself.” Did they get it? Not completely. You see Jesus did this amazing miracle as a sign that he was going to come and give them eternal life. And actually what they saw was the prophet come who they had hoped would do another Psalm 81. Psalm 81, looking back at the Exodus when they kind of took off the shackles of slavery. Here are a people under Roman occupation who were thinking, "Here's the prophet. He's going to do it again. He's going to get us freedom." You see, what the people wanted who came to watch these miracles was more miracles. What they wanted when they saw

these physical phenomenon was more physical things. Let's get rid of the Romans. I wonder as you come this week to Keswick what is it that you want? What's the bread that you desire? When you hear the promise this evening that God wants to fill you, what were you hoping he would fill you with? Let me give you a couple of ideas of what it might have been. Some of us have come this week and you know what we want? We want peace. Some of us just want peace in the world. We're fed up of turning the news on and seeing yet another conflict, someone else just announcing another war. Some of us want peace internally inside. We're just we're just tired of being constantly worried. Some of us might come this week because we want the bread of health. We want to be physically healed or psychologically we just want to be in a happy place again. Or maybe you're coming this week and you're just desperate for security. Maybe it's financial security. Maybe it's a security in your relationship. What do you do when you come this week and the passage says that if you cry out to the bread of life, he will fill you until you want no more. Well, this is where we've got to be careful because if we get this wrong, we're going to expect and hope for the wrong thing and we're going to be disappointed in a misunderstanding of God rather than what God has actually promised. You see what was going on here? They were getting the signs wrong. Jesus was giving them bread and doing miracles and they were thinking, "Yeah, we want more bread. We want more miracles. We want more physical. We want you to do what you did in the Old Testament. Yet again, they got the sign wrong. And as Christians, even today, we can get the signs wrong. We can apply the scriptures in a wrong way. You see, they were looking at what Jesus and was saying and had done, and they were looking at what God had done in the Old Testament. And this is what they were saying. These are signs and so they're going to do exactly the same again. But the thing about signs is that signs are never the same as the reality. You know, when you're driving down a road and there's a school sign and it's like what? Three kids crossing a road. If there was only three kids crossing a road, why the sign? There's hundreds of them. That's the problem. Or maybe you see a couple of little pebbles falling off a cliff on a sign. Well, if it's only a few little pebbles falling off a cliff, why the sign? The sign is showing you here's something greater. And in the Old Testament, the Exodus, even though it was the kind of greatest saving moment in the Old Testament, it was but a sign to what Jesus was going to come and do. The Passover, the manna in the wilderness, all amazing things, but yet signs. Believe it or not, Jesus was going to do something greater. You see, Jesus didn't come just to overthrow the Romans, just to give them one last chance of freedom. He came to do more. Even if we are desperate for peace, desperate for health, desperate for security, as important as all of those things are, Jesus comes to offer us something far, far greater. There is a way in which the gospel gives us something that goes beyond even those needs. Now, what happens here is they don't get the sign. They still want Jesus to give them stuff. And the other thing, I don't know if you noticed in the text, but actually they don't really realize it's going to be given to them for free. Let's read on to see what happens. Let's read the next section, verses 16 to 31.  Let's see what happens. Verse 16, John 6. It's a strange thing, isn't it? Because we're going to get back into the bread of life. He feeds them and then he should really get on to the next section and teach that he's the bread of life. But we have this little story, this little account about Jesus walking out onto the boat and being with them. What's going on? What's Jesus doing in this passage? Well, he's wanting them to understand the main question. The main question is this of John's gospel. Who is Jesus? You see, Jesus in walking with these people, with these crowds and the disciples, he needs to get them not to look at the miracles and keep their eyes on the miracles, but to see the miracles as signs and lift their eyes to the one who is doing the miracles. They need to see Jesus. You see, the passage is clear. Their hearts weren't right. They weren't looking for the right thing. Look back at verse 26. exposes their hearts. Verse 26, “very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, but not because you saw the signs I performed, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.” We want more bread. We want more stuff. They weren't coming to him and saying, "We need a Saviour. We need you." They were looking for the gifts, not the giver. They were looking for the miracles, not the miracle maker. One commentator goes far as to say that this following is not faith. In fact, the commentator goes on and says this is not faith but unbelief. How can you be so close to Jesus and see the miracles but yet not grasp who Jesus is? Not want him but have wanting the stuff that he gives. But it's not only that. Not only did they get it wrong, they get it wrong in that other way where in verse 28, you remember what did they say? What must we do to do the work God requires that is they still think they have to do something to get something from Jesus. Their relationship is transactional. If we do something, you will do something for us. And I think we can do that, too. Now, I could take the easy pot shot tonight. The easy pot shot is prosperity gospel.  I think actually we follow a similar theology, but in a more subtle way. that is there are times when I want something from God. I want that peace or I want that security or I want that kind of health. And do you know what I do? I become more devout. I read my Bible more. I pray more. Don't they sound like good things to do? And they are good things to do. But I'm doing them in a transactional way. If I do this, you will do that. Do you know if you don't believe that you think that way? Let me reverse it. Here's the reverse of it. How many of us when something goes wrong say this? What have I done to deserve this? If you've said that, you're in a transactional relationship with God. I do God good and God should do good to me. But friends, what this passage is teaching us is that actually Jesus is far more than this. Jesus is far more than giving us bread, giving us miracles, giving us things. Do you know what? He's going to give us those things as well, but he's going to give us something greater. He's going to give us not something that spoils, but something that is personal and permanent. That's what he's going to give them. And so, let's see what he gives them. Have a look with me. Verses 32 to 40.

Do you see it? Here's the second and final point. Jesus gives himself as the bread of eternal life. Jesus gives himself as the bread of eternal life. Here's what he's saying. I am coming as the gift of God. Verse 32, this is the Father's gift. Verse 38, this is the Father's will and I'm coming you to give bread from heaven, which is me, which won't just keep you alive for one day, but will keep you alive for eternity. I wonder if we sometimes miss what's going on and what Jesus is offering us. Imagine you turn 17 years old and on your 17th birthday, your grandparents come in. They're very rich and, you know, spoiling grandparents and they come in and for your birthday, they hand you a set of keys and you turn to your grandparents say, "Wow, I've always wanted a set of keys. I've actually got a really good key ring that I can put on this set of keys. I've also got a key box. I think there was actually a gap in there. The keys will go there.” And so you go to school and you show your friends, look at these keys. Aren't they great? I love my keys. Thank you for my keys. What are you missing? You're missing the car they've given you on your 17th birthday. Don't play with the keys. Look to what they give you. The car. This bread miracle, they were keys to see what Jesus has come to give them. We need to be careful that as Christians, we're not missing the true heart and enormity of the gospel. You see, what is Jesus offering them? He is offering himself. Verse 35 is amazing, isn't it? “I am the bread of life.” What a stunning image. Jesus is offering himself. Can I ask you a question? Does the idea of Jesus offering you himself excite you? I'm going to say that for a few years as a Christian, it didn't excite me. I thought Jesus was the way I got into the kingdom to get all the good stuff. I I still believed that Jesus was a means to the end. It took me that sermon series by Ted Donnelly and Albert 25 years ago to realize that Jesus is the end. That actually he is the one, he is the gift. Jesus is wonderful, isn't he? I mean, I could spend all night, we could spend all week, couldn't we, preaching on Jesus. We could look at his incarnation. We could remember how Jesus left heaven, left the worship of angels. He, as one hymnwriter in Wales puts it, he was contracted to the span of a hand. And he grew as one of us. And he lived his life as one of us. Why? Because he came to rescue us. We could look this evening at his crucifixion, his death on the cross. that after living a perfect life of complete obedience to the Father, doing everything the Father told him, loving everybody around him, not only not only preaching amazing things like love your neighbour, but actually loving his neighbour. And then he goes to the cross, an innocent man, but guilty people. We could talk about how he who knew no sin became sin so that I could become the righteousness of God. I mean, what a wonderful Saviour. We could preach this evening on his resurrection, couldn't we? How on that third day he rose from the dead, how that stone was just rolled away. And how in that moment death was beaten, completely beaten. We could preach all week, couldn't we? On the  ascension of Christ. I'm going to be honest, this is the one that really excites me. The idea that Jesus, the man, is in heaven today. That he is there as the victorious one. He is there preparing a place for us. He's there praying for us. He's there pleading the blood for us, saying, "I died for him. I died for her. They're mine." That he never forgets us. that he always remembers us each and every day. Jesus is wonderful. So when Jesus says, "I am the bread of life, he is the offer of the gospel," it should excite us. It should be wonderful.  I think sometimes we can look at all the things we want and need in life and think, "I would love it if God would give me those things and then go, but he's given me Jesus. I know I should be excited about it, but cherish the other things I want. Jesus is not a simple one thing that is just, oh, I've been given Jesus, but I wanted so much more. No, no. He is everything. He is wonderful. He is everything you're looking for and more. He is everything you need. Whatever season of life, whatever you face, whatever happens, Jesus is enough. He wants to offer himself to you. He is saying this week, come open up wide. I will come to you. I will fill you. I love spending time sitting down reading the gospels. I love every year I try and read a new book on Christ. I just want to know more because with every passing year of my faith, I realize there's so much more about Jesus than I ever understood. I love I've said the incarnation all night. We could preach on the incarnation, but you know what it means? It means he understands me. It means he gets me because he's lived here and he's one of us. He has compassion on me. I love the crucifixion, the cross. Why? Because it means he loves me. It means he covers all of my sins. He forgives. He cleanses me of all my shame. I love the resurrection because it means I live in victory, assurance, and eternal hope. And I get blown away by the ascension - that he's ruling, he's reigning, he's praying, and he protects. But when you pray the Lord's prayer, it's just amazing, isn't it? I'm one of these odd people, you know, when I pray for my daily bread, I pray for my daily Jesus. I do want to pray for bread. And I think it's great to say grace before meals, but I tell you what I need. I need Jesus every day. I need to see him. I need to feed on him by faith. What are you facing? If you're facing guilt, Jesus is the answer. If you're facing shame, Jesus is the answer. If you're worrying, Jesus is the answer. If you're struggling in anger, Jesus is the answer. If you're disappointed, Jesus is the answer. If you're weary, Jesus is the answer. Do you remember the old hymn? This is how the old hymn puts it.

What a friend we have in Jesus.

All our sins and griefs to bear.

What about later on in the hymn?

Are we weak and heavy laden,

cumbered with a load of care,

Precious Saviour, still our refuge

In his arms he'll take and shield you.

You will find a solace there.

This is where we need to be rooted. This is why understanding that we are united with Christ is so important. And this is what we need to pray for this week. That we would see Jesus, we would be satisfied in him. We would rest in him. And we would hear him. A friend of mine once said, "John, I think we treat Jesus like UHT milk." We're just going after life and the blessings of life and all the things of the world. And well, if it goes wrong, at least I've got Jesus. He's my milk. Jesus is far more. Jesus is blue top full fat milk. He is everything and we need to learn to trust in him. But he's not only better than UHT milk in taste. He's actually better than UHT milk in longevity. Because Jesus not only gives you himself, but actually he gives you himself forever. Look at verse 27. Do you remember it in the text? Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. Jesus is the one who not only satisfies when he saves you, but he sustains you forever. And the gift he gives you is eternal life. Jesus will never run out. Whatever you face, Jesus is enough. This week, come for Jesus. Come to him. What you have to do to have this Jesus? I love it. It's so simple, isn't it? Verse 29. What does he say? Verse 29, what do we have to do? He says, verse 29, “the work of God is this, to believe in the one he sent.” To have Jesus, you just have to believe in him. Just have to trust in him that you need him and he has done enough. Perhaps you've come here this week and you know what? You've been looking at Jesus, been looking into Christianity and you're starting to see who Jesus is and you're getting that he's the Saviour of the world and he could possibly be yours. But maybe you haven't had the confidence yet to believe, to trust in him, to say, Maybe God has brought you here this evening to hear the call to hear him say that he is the bread of life and if you believe in him, he will give you eternal life. Why not make this the time to come to him and have the eternal life that he offers you. Or perhaps you're here this evening and you're a Christian and you are struggling at the moment. You're just hungry for reality. You're hungry for God because of what's going on, what you're seeing, what you're struggling with. Come expectant to hear his voice. I want to open wide my mouth because I know you will fill it.