The Bread of Life:

Context:

• Jesus had fed 5000+ people with 5 loaves and 2 fish.
• He had sent his disciples into a storm on the Sea of Galilee.
• After praying, He walked out onto the water brought things under control.
• The next day, the crowd, doing some detective work, realized that the disciples left in a boat without Jesus, but Jesus was now gone.
• some boats from Tiberias come by and took the crowd across the Sea.
• finding Jesus there, they questioned Him about when He came.
• instead of answering their question, Jesus reveals their hearts.

John 6:26-27 “...Jesus answered 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. 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...”

What logical reason for seeking Jesus wasn’t on their hearts?

• they weren’t seeking Jesus because they witnessed His ability to perform miracles.

Why did they seek Jesus?

• they liked eating.
• they missed the bigger picture by living in their basic natural desires.

 How are we guilty of the same responses?

• God is always at work.
• we tend to only see what satisfies our basic natural desires.

What challenge did Jesus give the people?

• labor for eternal, not temporal things.
• be wise enough to see beyond the basics and work for things that last.

What is the main object of your desires?

John 6:28 “...Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?...”

• Jesus was successful in challenging their thinking.

John 6:29 “...Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent...”

How would this answer be confusing?

• simply believing doesn’t seem like doing much.
• until you find out what believing in the sent one means!

John 6:32-33 “...Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world...”

How was Jesus directing their thinking?

• they knew the manna in the wilderness was a sign.
• Jesus connected the dots.
• both the manna and Jesus himself were life giving gifts from God.

John 6:35-40 “...Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day...”

How is Jesus expanding their understanding of belief?

• it’s not just recognizing the existence of Jesus.
• it’s embracing the reality of movement from the temporal to the eternal.
• it’s believing that Jesus is the life giving essence of current and future existence.
• it’s understanding that coming to Jesus is central and critical.

John 6:41-42 “...So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?...”

Why did the Jews grumble?

• they could only see the temporal.
• they were trapped in natural thinking.
• they couldn’t accept that He was bread from heaven.
• they wouldn’t accept the requirement to “...believe in him whom he has sent...”

John 6:43-51 “...Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh...”

Who comes to Jesus?

• only those that the Father draws.
• can you make someone come to Jesus?
• can you pray that the Father will draw someone to Jesus?

How was Jesus superior to manna?

• those who ate manna eventually died.
• those who eat Jesus will not die, but will live forever.

Who has eternal life?

• those that the Father draws, who believe.
• what belief? < that Jesus is the bread of life, sent by God to be eaten >

John 6:53-58 “...So Jesus said to them, “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. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 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. 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...”

Why is this a hard concept to grasp?

• in the natural realm it sounds like cannibalism.
• in the spiritual realm it makes perfect sense.
• those operating in the natural will not understand the spiritual.

John 6:61-65 “...But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 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. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father...”

How much help is the flesh in finding eternal life?

John 6:66-71 “...After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him...”

What caused many disciples to turn back and no longer walk with Jesus?

• saying that the flesh is of no help?
• saying that no one comes unless it’s granted by the Father?
• talk of eating His flesh and drinking His blood?
• all of the above?

Were all who continued to walk with Him pure in heart?

• Judas, said to be a devil, would betray Him.

How do we betray Jesus?

• by trusting in our flesh.
• by not believing in the bread from heaven.
• by not eating of His flesh and drinking His blood.