John 6 - Consume Jesus, the Bread of Life, Or Die
Introduction
A. In the first chapters of John, Jesus presents the source of life
1. John 1 – Jesus is the Word that was made flesh (v14). He was God, the Creator. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. (v1-3)
2. John 3 – Jesus presented the gospel to Nicodemus with the demand that he be born again (from above) to see the kingdom of God (v3). In more detail he repeated the demand that he be born of water and the Spirit, to enter the kingdom of God (v5). The metaphor reflects the teaching of John the Baptist and Jesus himself as found in the previous gospels both of whom demanded the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3:3-14). In verses 15-36 Jesus preaches "eternal life" which is also the light that came into the world that is offered to those who believe in him. He says, “But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (v21) The chapter ends by saying (v34) “For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.” John explains, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (v36)
3. John 4 – Jesus presented the same gospel to the Samaritan woman, when he offered her "living water" which would become a spring of water that gushes up bringing eternal life. (v10-14) When she asked for that water, Jesus began by correcting the sins of her life, and also the mistakes in worship that the Samaritans offered to God. Again, we see that eternal life has to do with the new way of life that Jesus brought from heaven. The repentance that Jesus preached was the new way of thinking and living which required man to leave behind the previous life which was not in accordance with the will of the Father in heaven.
4. John 5 – Jesus challenged the right claimed by the unbelieving Jews to command and guide the whole world according to their traditions. The question Jesus chose was the Sabbath tradition. They condemned Jesus for violating the Law when He healed a sick man on the Sabbath. Jesus answered that the Son does what He sees the Father do. Only God can heal, and He gave Jesus the order to do these works of healing (5:19-27). In addition, the Father gave Jesus the work of raising those who dead in sin. According to the will of the Son, He gives life to those He wills, for the Father had given all judgment to the Son. The main point is that “whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (v24) Hearing and believing the word of Jesus means putting into practice the teachings that the Father commands from heaven.
B. John 6 begins another series of statements on Jesus' part. He introduces them in the form of "I am." There are seven words that describe who Jesus is and what he offers to the world. 1. He is the bread of life. (John 6:35) 2. He is the light of the world. (John 8:12) 3. He is the gate of the sheep. (John 10:7) 4. He is the good Shepherd. (John 10:11, 14) 5. He is the resurrection. (John 11:25) 6. He is the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6) 7. He is the true vine. (John 15:1, 5) In the middle of the seven, He says that He is the "I am," (John 8:24, 28, 58; 13:19). Jesus proclaims that He is the great "I am." Jehovah is the great "I am." (Exodus 3:14)
C. Let's examine the first of the statements: I am the bread of life. John 6:35, 48.
I. Jesus fed 5,000 bread and fish by multiplying 5 loaves and 2 small fish. John 6:1-31
A. When God brought Israel out of the bondage of Egypt, He cared for them for forty years in the Sinai desert by giving them the daily bread they called "manna." (Hebrew for “What is this?”)
1. Among the many signs God taught them, this miracle informed them that God can sustain millions of people for many years through unknown food, until the emergency passes. God created the earth and furnished it for man by the words of His commands. Out of nothing God fed humankind, Adam. Out of nothing but God’s word, He fed Israel in the Sinai desert.
2. Deuteronomy 8:3. Moses explained, “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
B. Jesus fed 5,000 by creating bread and fish. He took five loaves and two small fish, blessed them and distributed them until there was enough to feed the crowd and have 12 baskets of leftovers.
1. When the people saw the sign, they recognized him as Messiah ("the Prophet") and tried to force him to accept His place as the earthly king of Israel.
2. That night, Jesus walked on the sea. He again proved that he had power over nature. The Son of God was with God and was God. (John 1:1-3)
3. The next day, the crowd searched for him.
C. John 6:26. Jesus rebuked them for having carnal reasons. He commanded them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”
1. He declared that the Son of Man would give them the food that produces eternal life. Since Jesus said, "work" (v27), the multitude asked, "What must we do to do the works of God?"
2. “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” If it seems strange to you that Jesus would say that believing in him was the work that God wanted them to do, it is because you probably do not understand what Jesus meant by using the word "believe." When Jesus used the word believe, he spoke not only of the thought of the mind, but spoke of obedience to the message that Jesus brought from heaven. That obedience that is also called "eternal life" was to deny oneself, to take up his cross, and to follow Jesus, doing as commanded by the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. This is the life that remains forever. It is the righteousness of God that never fails.
3. Since they understood the demand that Jesus placed on his shoulders when he spoke of believing in him (doing the work of God), they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” They were rebels in the face of the Son of God who had just shown the glory of God by feeding the 5,000 with the 5 loaves and 2 fish. Instead of "believing in him," they asked for another sign before submitting to the leadership of Jesus of Nazareth. They asked for the sign of manna, “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” Something for the belly, something carnal.
II. The true bread of heaven. John 6:32-71
A. With a double “amen” (Truly, truly, I say unto you), Jesus declares that Moses did not give the fathers of Israel the manna in the wilderness of which "it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat."
1. On the contrary, the Father of Jesus gave them the true bread of heaven. V32
2. The bread of God is the one who came down from heaven and gives life to the world. V33
3. Jesus has already begun to give us the implication that "life" results from "eating" Jesus, the true bread of heaven.
4. Without realizing what Jesus was saying, the crowd asked, "Lord, always give us this bread." V34
B. Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life." V35
1. He explains the metaphor: “whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” He adds another metaphor that reminds us of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:6, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." Jesus offers righteousness. In this context, he speaks not only of the forgiveness of sins, but of the righteous life, the life that triumphs over the practice of sin. 1 John 3:1-10 "he appeared to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. (v5) ... Little children, let no one deceive you; he who practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. (v7) ... everyone who does not practice righteousness, and who does not love his brother, is not of God." (v10) Jesus also offered the Samaritan the "living water" which would quench her thirst forever because it would be in her "a fountain of water that springs up for eternal life." (John 4:10-14) He immediately began to correct her sins.
2. He who comes unto Jesus is the one who seeks Jesus to fulfill the teachings that correct his sins and false beliefs. In chapter three, he told Nicodemus that it was necessary to "be born again" (literally, from "above"). That birth had to be of "water." That is, they had to be baptized (v23-26) according to what Jesus taught, and it had to be "of the Spirit" according to the teachings of the Holy Spirit who descended upon Jesus when John baptized him, Luke 3:21-22. Jesus told him that they testified of what they had seen, but Nicodemus and the other disobedient Jews did not receive the testimony; to say that they had not repented, nor had they been baptized. Laws are called the "testimonies" of God in Deuteronomy and in the Psalms. The Hebrew word "torah" translated "law" is the word for "instruction." God from heaven sent his instructions through Jesus, but they were still in rebellion. They were not faithful to the Father, because they did not believe in the Son of God. Jesus told him, "He who practices truth comes into the light (instruction), that it may be manifest that his works are done in God." V21 For the Jew, the word "faith" and the word "truth" is the same. One who follows God’s instruction, heeds God’s laws, also walks in the Light of God, even He is in the Light. (1 John 1:7)
3. He who believes in Jesus is the same person who believes in Jesus' message and obeys what he believes. Such a person believes not only that Jesus is the Son of God, but also believes in the message he brings from heaven, from the Father who is in heaven that sent him. The message is called "the truth." (John 1:14, 17; 5:33; 8:32, 40, 45; 14:6; 16:13; 17:19; 18:37) The message is also called "faith." (Acts 6:7 “became obedient to the faith"; Jude 3 "contend for the faith that has once been given to the saints.") Both words encompass the entire heavenly message.
4. John 6:36-46. “But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.” Jesus corrects the unbelievers in the same way that he corrected Nicodemus in John 3. Believers are the ones who come to Jesus. Coming to Jesus is another metaphor for obeying. Those who refuse to believe, those who disobey the orders of heaven, resist and oppose the will of the one who sent Jesus. The heavenly Father wants to save and resurrect those who respond to Jesus in faith and with love.
- Another way to describe them is that they "see the Son." (V40) No one can "see" God, but "the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the father, he has made Him known." (John 1:18; 1 John 4:12) He is the same one who believes in him and has "eternal life." Jesus helps us to know the Father by teaching us the laws (the instructions) that are the will of the Father. Therefore, we do the will of Jesus. Jesus does the will of the one who sent him (John 4:34) and urges his disciples to evangelize, “Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.” (4:36) The "fruit" is a metaphor for men who hear and obey the message. It always involves the good deeds that faithful men do, works of righteousness, which are called “righteousness.” (Matthew 21:32; Acts 10:35)
- Those who "see" God know God and God knows them. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 7:20-23, "by their fruits ye shall know them." Furthermore, in the following verses, he condemned those who claimed to know the Lord but did not do the will of the Father. Jesus said, “And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” Neither God nor Jesus knows the person who does not know the Father in the sense of doing his will. God rejected them by saying, "I never knew you." Now in John 6:37-40, Jesus recognizes those who come to Him by saying, "In no way will I cast him out." Those who hear his words and do them are the ones who do the will of the one who sent Him (v38). They are those whom Jesus accepts as what the Father has given to Him (v39). They are the ones Jesus will raise from the dead on the last day. In Matthew 10:32-33, Jesus had said that those who confess Him will be the ones He will recognize on the last day. The context then well describes those who have eternal life. They are alive now because they are faithful to Jesus and will be welcomed into the everlasting portals of God for the same reason.
- They are precious to Jesus. He won't throw them out. The Apostle Paul captures this manner of speaking from Jesus in Ephesians 1:1-14. The saints who were in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus, had received “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” The concept of choice in Christ expresses what Jesus taught in John 6. They are precious and they know God because they hear and do the words of Jesus who came down from heaven, sent by the Father. Again the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:2-8 and 28-39 explains that those who live according to the words of the Holy Spirit will be “more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Life is in Christ. Life is not in Moses, John 6:32. (Romans 5:17-18; 6:4; 8:2,6,10,38; 11:15; 2 Corinthians 2:16; 3:6; 4:10, 12; 5:4; Philippians 2:16)
- John 6:41, The murmuring of the unbelieving Jews against Jesus is the complaint that Jesus had said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." The disbelievers said, “How can this be?” (v42) The true bread of heaven is for those whom the Father “draws,” because the Father teaches those who hear and learn, and therefore come to the Son Jesus Christ. The Father is invisible in heaven, but the Son who descended from heaven has seen the Father, knows him, and brings the teachings of the Father. He who hears the Son hears the Father. He who believes has eternal life because he lives according to the teachings of that message. It is the true bread of heaven, the Manna, so that whoever eats of it does not die. He'll live forever, v50-51. The nature of life that God teaches sustains man as the "Tree of Life" of the Garden of Eden. Death to the saint means nothing. Hebrews 2:14-15 Jesus by his death and by his example and by his teaching frees us from the fear of death that subjects us to slavery throughout our lives. In Christ we die with Him so that we may live with Him forever, Romans 6:3-4, 16-18, free from the bondage of sin and the fear of death.
- "Come unto Jesus" (John 6:44-46) The Father brings those who come unto Jesus in the sense of Isaiah 54:13's prophecy: "And they shall all be taught by God." Jesus then explains that those who hear the words that Jesus preaches, hears the Father and learns from him. They are taught by God, the Father. Jesus said, "So whoever heard the Father, and learned from him, comes to me." (v45)
- When Peter confessed to Jesus the good confession of Matthew 16:17, Christ told him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” Listening to Jesus, Peter received the words of the Father, who revealed to him the truth that Jesus was Christ, the Son of the living God.
5. Again Jesus says in John 6:47-48, “He who believes in me has eternal life. I am the bread of life.” Go back to the theme of manna which, under Moses, the ancestors ate and died. Jesus is “the bread that descends from heaven, that he who eats of him may not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven, if any man eat of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
- When we listen carefully to this line of thought presented by Jesus, we begin to understand that Jesus demands that the listeners be completely filled with those concepts, making them part of their bodies as the flesh is digested and becomes muscles that moves us in life. Every movement is governed by the words of heaven. The double sense is that Jesus was going to offer his body on the cross as the sacrifice and redemption price to redeem us from the guilt and the practice of sin. Redemption would not be complete without the change in the way we think and live.
6. Again the unbelievers say, "How can he give us his flesh to eat?" (v52) The metaphor was not so complicated as to make it hard to understand if they really wanted to understand. In any case, Jesus continued to press the issue. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” Jesus had given them enough proof that he was "Christ" (Messiah) who identifies himself in the prophets as the "Son of Man." The Savior of the Jews they supposedly sought was planted in front of them, but to save them, they had to completely believe in his words, deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Jesus. Who needs the life that Jesus offers more than the one who has no life in himself? The unbelievers by denying the eating of the flesh that Jesus offered them were left without life, the eternal life that, just like the water of life, becomes a source of eternal life within one.
7. John 6:54-58. In addition, Jesus explains that the eternal life that results from consuming the flesh of Jesus, (listening carefully, diligently, and by the putting the teachings into practice) that life is communion with God. He said, "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, remains in me and I in him."
- In the epistle of I John 1:6-7, “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
- Returning to the theme of knowing God, 1 John 2:4-6 says, “Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” To remain in God, in communion with the Father and the Son is not possible if we do not listen to his words and obey them.
- Jesus also taught love for our brother. 1 John 2:7-11, “Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him[b] there is no cause for stumbling.”
— 1 John 2:15-17. “whoever does the will of God abides forever.” The one who abides forever is the one who does the will of God. Can you misunderstand that?
— 1 John 2:24. “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.” The promise Jesus made to them: "eternal life." (v25)
8. John 6:57-58. “As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Moses declared, "What man is there that has heard the voice of the living God speaking of the midst of the fire, as we have, and survived?" (Deuteronomy 5:26) None of the ancient gods had shown themselves alive as the God of Israel. Peter confessed, (Matthew 16:16) "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." The God who lives and remains forever. The Creator God gave life to animals and to man, Genesis 1:20, 30; 2:7. He also offered the eternal life of the "tree of life" in the orchard. God himself offers the words of life of heaven through the “Word” (John 1:1-3), the Son of Man who came down from heaven to be God's last spokesman, Hebrews 1:1-3. The man who hears and accepts those divine counsels as if it were his daily bread, the "manna" of God, will live for Christ Jesus. He'll live forever.
III. The Failure of Faith Among Many Disciples.
A. John 6:60. Many disciples of Jesus said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” They turned away and no longer walked with Him. (v66)
B. John 6:61-65. Jesus does not forgive them for their disbelief. It was not a matter of not being able to understand the metaphor, but the willingness to fully accept the demand that Jesus made that they obey His teachings. After all that Jesus had shown of signs, wonders, and miracles, they rebelled with irrational doubt. Christ himself cannot believe that they were so incapable of accepting his words. He says,"Well, what if you saw the Son of Man ascend where he used to be?" To this day sectarian preachers declare that it is necessary for Jesus to make such a sign of appearing in heaven to convince the unbelieving Jews, and they say that he will do so on the day of his Second Coming to convert them into 144,000 Jewish Billy Graham’s. However, here Jesus explains, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” (v63) Obviously, Jesus did not speak of literally eating his flesh and drinking his blood, but of accepting the words of the Holy Spirit which Jesus taught, and thus receiving the benefit of God's counsel, eternal life. His words are Spirit and they are life.
Postscript
In modern terms, the unbelieving world has produced an alternative religion that trusts the elite government. It's called "communism." (and socialism, Marxism, humanism, etc.) They repudiate the faith and morality of Jesus and the Gospel. They profess the faith that claims power to lead humanity to the peace of "utopia." The truth is that after more than a hundred years, the world has seen the slaughter of a hundred million human beings as a result of the revolutions, the corruption, and all the hatred which that religion produces. It doesn't bring anyone to life. It is death. It is a system of lies and teaching that turns one group against another group until it descends into the darkness of conflict and carnality. It doesn't give life because it doesn't touch the heart for the purpose of improving relationships between men. They turn the poor against the rich by saying that we must re-educate the rich, to live poor by robbing them and distributing to the poor by the force of government. But at the end of the day, the elites are left with the fortune and everyone else descends into hunger and despair. They always say that "religion" is guilty of sowing hate. They defame the faith of Christ and belittle the morality that protects families, marriages, and the ability of men to provide for the family. They despise mothers who are engaged in home care. They support all forms of fornication and perversion as if it were normal and superior to what God established at the beginning. The truth is that there is no life without Christ and the gospel.