Names of God: Artos

 

The last name of Christ we looked at in our names of God study was Aletheia and today we are going to be introduced to our Savior through His name Artos.

Artos is the Greek word for Bread. It means, food composed of flour mixed with water and baked. The Israelites made it in the form of an oblong or round cake, as thick as one’s thumb, and as large as a plate or platter hence it was not to be cut but broken. Loaves were consecrated to the Lord and it also speaks of the bread used at the love-feasts and at the Lord’s Table. It can also mean food of any kind.

We have this name of our Savior revealed to us in John 6. This chapter begins with the miracle of Jesus feeding a multitude with the five barley loaves and two fish of one young boy. Jesus gave them bread to fill their bellies and a miracle to fill their eyes… but what He desired was to fill their souls with eternal life.

Jesus saw that the people where not responding to the miracle of the bread in the spirit… they were all flesh. They wanted more bread and they wanted this Jesus to be King over them now… I mean really a man who could feed the nation with the breaking of a few loaves of bread. So Jesus retreated to the mountains alone. He was not after an earthly political kingdom… His kingdom was not of this world.

The very next day the crowd returned to get more free food from Jesus. Where there is free food the people will come. That has never changed. The crowd discovers that He is not where He was… (God rarely lingers in the past, He is a moving forward kinda God)… and well they chase Him down in Capernaum.

When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” (John 6:26-28)

Oh this, is so funny to me… can you see it…

Have you ever had a child (or even an adult) who was wanting something, a toy, a happy meal, to go somewhere… and they knew the people who could make it happen… like Grandmothers and Papaws… and they walk in the door and they see them and it’s like “Hey, when did you get here?” And you know that tone, you know that this child has just seen the ones who can get them exactly what they want…

Here is the crowd… Hey, Jesus, when did you get here? Ummm hello. They were searching Him out, but they speak to Him as though they had been there all along and Jesus just showed up. And you know what they are thinking is, Dude we’re hungry and we know you can like break bread like crazy! And well we want you to show us how to do cool stuff like that!

Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.’” John 6:29-31

Really? The crowd had just searched Him out and followed Him across the river to another town because they knew about the miracle of the bread and the multitude and then they come and have the audacity to ask Jesus to show them a sign… to prove Himself to them… when my guess is that it really had nothing to do with Jesus proving Himself, they just wanted to try and manipulate Him into some more free bread. Our God just does not fall for the tricks of man…

Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, 

it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven,

but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven.

John 6:32

Jesus takes this opportunity to remind these people that Moses was not the one who gave the bread in the wilderness God was… and He is letting them know that He is not just a prophet… He is not just a man doing works for God. He is God.

For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven,

and gives life to the world.

John 6:33

The bread of God is that which comes down out heaven… which means its origin, its home, is not of this earth. That which is of this earth can never give life because this earth is dying, only that which is of God has life and can give life. Only that which is of God can truly satisfy.

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life;

he who comes to Me will not hunger,
John 6:35

Jesus looks at the crowd and he looks at us and He says I am the Bread of Life. I am the Artos.

You know we live in a day we are surrounded by fakeness. We have fake hair, fake faces, fake clothes, fake boobs, and we have fake food.

You know I can be hungry. And I grab me a handful of the skittles pictured above and it will stop my stomach from growling. I can taste the rainbow and get filled up on the fruity flavors, but how beneficial is this handful of skittles to the health and life of my body? If this was all I ate, what quality of life would I have?

If I take these handful of skittles and plant them in the earth can I come back weeks later and see a new birth of skittles springing forth?

No, I can’t. I can’t because skittles are dead. They are fake food. This food is man-made. It is not God-made. God-made food is made with life. It is made with seed. it is made to produce life after itself. If we eat living food… we receive life.

Not only do we have fake food… but we have fake gods.

Jesus, however, is not a fake. He is the Living God. If we eat of Him we will have life because He is life. He is the Bread of Life.

Now lets look at the process of bread becoming bread…

Bread begins here. It grows up from seeds planted.

And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.

Genesis 3:15

Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.

He does not say, “And to seeds,”

as referring to many, but rather to one,

“And to your seed,” that is, Christ.

Galatians 3:16

Then that wheat is cut down.

Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing

Daniel 9:26

 Then that wheat is beat…

 

 

and threshed and slung…

 

and beat and beat and beat.

The wheat goes through all this in order that from it we might receive life.

 

But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him

Isaiah 53:5

After the wheat is cut down, threshed, and beat it is ground

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium

and gathered the whole Roman cohort around Him.  

They stripped Him and put a scarlet robe on Him. 

And after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head,

and a reed in His right hand; and they knelt down before Him

and mocked Him,

saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 

They spat on Him,

and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head. 

After they had mocked Him,

they took the scarlet robe off Him and put His own garments back on Him,

and led Him away to crucify Him.

Matthew 27:27-31

…and then the broken, beat, threshed, ground wheat is mixed with a liquid and its placed in an oven… shut up in a hot tomb to wait until it’s ready.

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph,

who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. 

This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. 

And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 

and laid it in his own new tomb,

which he had hewn out in the rock;

and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.

Matthew 27:57-60

Then the bread comes out of the oven and it comes ready to give life to all who will eat of it.

I am the bread of life.

Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

This is the bread which comes down out of heaven,

so that one may eat of it and not die.

I am the living bread that came down out of heaven;

if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever;

and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
John 6:48-51

 

So when Jesus says that He is the Bread of Life.

He is the Artos.

He gives life because He is Life.

 

 

 

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