John 6:28-58: “Jesus’ Bread Of
Life Discourse”
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study we looked at verses 15-27 of chapter 6.
1.1.1. Jesus sent His disciples across the Sea of Galilee in
a boat and then retired by Himself to the top of a hill overlooking the
1.1.2. Jesus then came walking to them upon the sea. They became afraid because they thought that
He might be a ghost. Then, when He told
them that it was He and not to be afraid they allowed Him into the boat.
1.1.3. When Jesus entered their boat they were transported
and suddenly found themselves upon the
1.2.
In our
study today, we are going to look at verses 28-58.
1.2.1. We will see that the multitude that He had fed the day
before comes looking for Him and when they see that He is not there they cross
the lake to Capernaum looking for Him.
However, Jesus will rebuke them for their motives in seeking Him.
1.2.2. Previous to this study, we saw that in the previous
chapter that Jesus in defending Himself in the temple to some Jews for healing
on the Sabbath, went into a long dialogue with them revealing seven things
about who He was in the very essence of His person, things which affirmed the
fact that He had to be God in the flesh.
We looked at the depth of these sayings by Jesus and realized that we
were able to only skim over the top of them.
Then, at the beginning of this chapter we saw that Jesus miraculously
fed 5,000 men (meaning that perhaps as many as 20,000 total were fed with woman
and children), and this most public of all of Jesus’ miracles and the only one
mentioned in all four gospels, so impressed the multitude present on that day
that they were considering taking Jesus by force back with them to Jerusalem
and installing Him as the king over all Israel.
Next, Jesus went and rescued His disciples who were in danger for their
lives in a boat being beaten by wind and waves on the Sea of Galilee, as He
revealed His power over all of the forces of nature by walking on the water and
calming the wind and the waves and then transporting the boat to shore as soon
as He stepped into it. Then, the next
morning the multitude who had stayed in the area realized that Jesus was gone
and yet no boats were missing and so they figured that somehow He had crossed
over the lake to Capernaum. So, they
came looking for Him until they found Him.
Popularity was quickly building up in Jesus’ ministry you see, and with
the masses involved and the momentum gained one would think that at this point
in time that things would just continue to build for Jesus and that He would
now begin to mobilize a massive campaign and rally the people together to come
and to make Him king over Israel.
However, instead of things getting bigger and bigger for Jesus, instead
when He sees that the multitude is seeking Him for wrong motives rather than to
know and serve Him in truth and from the heart, Jesus gives the multitude a big
dose of truth and substance telling them what it involves to know and apprehend
Him. As a result of this revelation by
Jesus all of the outward success of His ministry vanishes almost
instantaneously.
1.2.3. Realizing that the multitude needs to have their
motives for seeking Him checked, in this study Jesus will make His first of
seven “I am” declarations when He declares, “I am the bread of life.” Had Jesus left His message so general the
multitude would have continued to embrace Him.
However, instead Jesus will then begin a discourse in which He will tell
the multitude that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood if they want to
have eternal life in themselves.
1.2.4. After this “Bread of Life Discourse” by Jesus
the multitudes who on the previous day wanted to come and forcefully take Him
to
1.2.5. This discourse is perceived by the multitude as being
such a “hard saying” that it becomes a death sentence for as a result of
Jesus saying these things from this point on He can no longer openly go into
Judea for the Jews will now be seeking any opportunity to kill Him.
1.2.6. Jesus may have only been left with the 12 after this
discourse and we believe that even they were wondering if Jesus had lost His
mind when He asks them in verse 67 of this chapter, "Do you
also wish to go away?" Peter
took the lead for the group and spoke up with the greatest words he had ever
uttered to this point in his life, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the
words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy
One of God," (verses 68-69).
1.2.7. The Jews on this day should not have been totally
shocked that their Messiah would tell them that they must eat His flesh and
drink His blood to have life in themselves.
After all, every year as part of their Passover Meal the Jews prepared a
meal from a lamb whose blood memorialized the blood of the lamb that in
1.2.8. Interestingly, in John’s account of Jesus’ last supper
He does not record Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper. However, this discourse of the “Bread Of
Life” includes the elements of the bread and wine and the precursor thought
of the consumption of them in remembering Him.
2.
VS
6:28-29 - “They said therefore to Him, ‘What shall
we do, that we may work the works of God?’
Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you
believe in Him whom He has sent’.” - The
multitude who had sought Jesus out on the shores of Capernaum the day after He
had miraculously fed the 5,000 ask Jesus what they needed to do to work the
works of God
2.1.
Here in this passage, we see that the people had hung
on the word Jesus used for ‘work,’ when He had previously rebuked them
for their motives in seeking Him out and told them to ‘work’ for the
things that are eternal in nature. They
now ask Him how that they might do the works of God?
2.2.
Some have speculated that the multitude revealed their
inadequacy and general inability to perform the works of the Law of Moses in
asking this question. This may be
reading a bit too much into their statement for we don’t really see that they
are convicted of their sins here.
2.3.
Jesus tells the multitude in answer to their question
that they can only be saved and do the works that count for eternity by
believing in Him as their Lord and Savior.
Salvation is by ‘grace through faith,’ thus Jesus lets the people
on this day know that they cannot achieve the righteousness of God by
performance of mere righteous ‘works’ for God, even those which are “good
works.”
3.
VS
6:30 - “They said therefore to Him, ‘What then do You do for a sign, that we
may see, and believe You? What work do
You perform?” - The
multitude asks Jesus to perform a sign so that they may believe in Him
3.1.
The word “numbskull” comes to mind. It boggles the mind that on the day before,
this fickle crowd was ready to make Jesus king they saw and personally
experienced and were benefited by Him miraculously feeding 5,000 men, and now
inexplicably they ask Jesus to perform a sign so that they might see and
believe Him?!
3.2.
Truly, these people were spiritually blinded and had
hardened their hearts since they believe that they need yet another sign
performed by Jesus to believe in Him as Messiah. This multitude does not have spiritual eyes
and they hadn’t seen the sign that He had already performed. They had only seen loaves and fish...
4.
VS
6:31-33 - “Our fathers ate the manna in the
wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave
them bread out of heaven to eat’. Jesus
therefore 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. For the bread of
God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world’.”
- The multitude tells Jesus that their
fathers ate the manna the fell in the wilderness, which was a sign, but Jesus
tells them in reply that it was not Moses who gave the people manna from heaven
to eat, but rather His Father in heaven
4.1.
Now, the crowd makes a request that Jesus give to them
a sign the equivalent of the ‘manna’ that God fed to the people in the
wilderness, in order that they might believe in Him. However, they were still interested in Jesus
only for the material blessings which He might be able to give to them, since
they were still focused completely on what is ‘earthly’ in nature.
4.2.
Throughout this study, Jesus refers to Himself as ‘bread’
not ‘manna.’ It is interesting to look for a minute at the history of
this Greek word translated ‘manna’ used by the multitude here as they
challenge Jesus by comparing Him to Moses who had performed a great miracle by
providing the people ‘manna’ to eat in the wilderness. In Exodus 16, when the people were grumbling
to Moses that having just come out of Egypt that they were now going to die of
starvation, the Lord told Moses to tell the people that He was going to rain
down onto the ground “bread” every morning for them to eat. However, it was the children of
3899 לֶחֶם [lechem /lekh·em/] n m. From 3898; TWOT 1105a; GK 4312; 297
occurrences; AV translates as “bread” 237 times, “food” 21 times, “meat” 18
times, “shewbread + 6440” five times, “loaves” five times, “shewbread + 4635”
three times, “shewbread” twice, “victuals” twice, “eat” once, “feast” once,
“fruit” once, and “provision” once. 1 bread, food, grain. 1a bread. 1a1 bread. 1a2 bread-corn. 1b food (in general).
4478 מָן, מָן [man /mawn/] n m. From 4100; TWOT
1208, 1209; GK 4942 and 4943; 14 occurrences; AV translates as “manna” 14
times. 1 manna. 1a the bread from Heaven that fed the Israelites for 40
years of wilderness wanderings. 1b means ‘What is it?’.
4.3.
Jesus answers the multitude in such a way that He
causes them to recognize that it wasn’t Moses who gave to them the ‘manna’
in the wilderness, but rather it was God.
However, He points out that He Himself had fed the 5,000, something that
Moses could in no way have done in and of himself.
4.4.
Jesus says here that the Father gives to this group
the ‘true’ bread, that which comes down out of heaven. By ‘true’ is meant that which gives ‘real,’
and ‘lasting’ nourishment to those who eat of it. Jesus is speaking of Himself as being this ‘true’
bread.
4.5.
Jesus, who refers to Himself as the bread that comes
down from the Father in a similar manner to the manna in the wilderness, says
that through this bread (Himself) that the Father actually gives ‘life’
to the world. The word which Jesus uses
for ‘life’ is the Greek word ‘zoa’ which is usually translated as
“eternal life,” depicting the fact that it is eternal in duration and is
the highest quality of life.
5.
VS
6:34-37 - “They said therefore to Him, ‘Lord,
evermore give us this bread’. Jesus said
to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he who
comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who 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 shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will
certainly not cast out’.” - The
multitude ask the Lord to give them this bread of which He speaks, and He tells
them that He is the bread of life and that He who comes to Him shall not hunger
and never thirst
5.1.
The crowd tell Jesus that they would like to forever
have this bread which Jesus offered, or so they thought. However, being confused they still do not
realize that He is speaking of spiritual realities for which they have no
ability to understand.
5.2.
Jesus tells this multitude that He is ‘the bread of
life.’ He is that which we all need to
consume in order to know all of God’s blessings and riches in our lives, and
experience that highest quality of life.
5.3.
Jesus says that those who come to Him will never
hunger or thirst again. However, He then
rebukes them because they have seen Him yet they have not believed in Him.
5.4.
Jesus then tells the people that they can’t come to
Him unless the Father brings them to Him, and whosoever comes to Him, He will
not cast out.
5.5.
Some
Christians ask if it is possible for a person who is truly saved to choose to
turn away from the Lord. However, Jesus
tells us here that you partake of Him (‘the Bread of Life’) that you
will never hunger or thirst. If you have
truly tasted of Jesus you will not desire anything more than Him and you will
never be lacking to such a degree that we desire for something else to fill up
our life.
5.6.
We Christians need to constantly come to the Lord to
meet our every need, for only in seeking Him will our thirst and our hunger be
filled. We need Him for His humanity, in
all that it entails, and we need His blood for the atonement and cleansing that
it provides.
6.
VS
6:38-40 - “‘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
of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last
day. For this is the will of My Father,
that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him, may have eternal
life; and I Myself will raise him up on
the last day’.” - Jesus tells
this multitude that He came down from heaven to do the Father’s will and that
all of the ones whom the Father has given Him He will raise up on the last day
6.1.
Jesus tells the people that always in all things, He
does the Father’s will, not His own.
This is an interesting thing for Jesus to say because it reveals that
within the three persons of the Trinity that the Son is in submission to the
Father and His will. Yet, we saw in
chapter 5 that Jesus also spoke of the fact of His being sovereign in the
things that He did. Something that
revealed His divinity. There is mystery
in our understanding of the Trinity and the person of the Son Himself who was
fully God and fully man.
6.2.
Then, Jesus says that it is the Father’s will to give
eternal life to all whom the Father brings to Jesus to be saved.
6.3.
Jesus promises to raise up from the dead everyone who
believes in Him to eternal life on the last day.
6.4.
Jesus
tells the people here that every single one who ‘beholds the Son and
believes in Him, may (or will) have eternal life.’ Further, all of those
who believe in Jesus for salvation will be raised up on the last day.
6.5.
The phrase
‘last day’ used by Jesus in this chapter is an eschatological term
referring to the end of time, that period when the scriptures tell us that
Jesus will return for His people, judge the world of unbelievers, and establish
His kingdom upon the earth.
7.
VS
6:41-42 - “The Jews therefore were grumbling about
Him, because He said, ‘I am the bread that came down out of heaven’. And they were saying, ‘Is not this Jesus, the
son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?
How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven?’”
– The Jews in this multitude were now grumbling against Jesus for saying that
He is the bread that comes down from heaven, and they were doing this because
they knew His father and mother
7.1.
Jesus was teaching in Capernaum of Galilee on this
day, in which Nazareth, Jesus’ home town, is a city. This group gathered were from the locale and
knew and had heard enough about Jesus to know that He was the son of Mary, and
evidently word had not been widely spread that Jesus was immaculately conceived
for they think that Jesus is the son of Joseph.
7.2.
Because of their familiarity with Jesus and His family
(familiarity breeds contempt they say), this statement of Jesus’ that He came
down from heaven didn’t sit well with this multitude, and they began to
grumble. The Jews were infamous for
grumbling and being discontented ever since they were in the wilderness with
Moses.
7.3.
Jesus is equivocating Himself with the “bread”
(not “manna”—What is it?) that the Lord rained down upon the Israelites
every morning in order to provide food for them to eat. Jesus knew that He being the eternal Son of
God had left His throne in heaven in order to come to the earth to die for our
sins providing us with the eternal life that is to be our genuine or “true”
sustenance.
8.
VS
5:43-43 - “Jesus answered and said to 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
shall all be taught of God’’. Every one
who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me’.”
- Jesus tells this multitude not to
grumble amongst themselves and that no one can come to Him unless the Father
draws him
8.1.
Jesus tells the multitude not to grumble among
themselves about Him, and then He repeats what He had said to them earlier,
that they could not come to Him unless the Father had drawn them.
8.2.
Quoting from Isaiah 54:13, Jesus tells the people that
all who are raised up on that last day will be taught of God, “13 “All
your sons will be taught of the Lord;
And the well-being of your sons will be great.”
8.3.
Jesus tells the people also that only those who have
heard and learned from the Father shall come to Him. The people had heard Jesus speak and possibly
teach, but they had not learned anything from their hearing. I believe Isaiah is saying in this quoted
passage that it is the believing remnant that will all be taught in the
Messianic era.
9.
VS
6:46 - “‘Not that any man has seen the ‘Father, except the One who is from
God; He has seen the Father.”
- Jesus tells these Jews that the only
one who as seen the Father is the One who is from God
9.1.
Jesus tells the people that He alone has seen the
Father. In all of the Old Testament
stories where men saw God, in which there are only a few, the men only saw God
in a very limited sense, not in all His fullness, as He really is.
9.2.
Jesus tells the people here though that in a sense in
which no other person on earth has seen the Lord, that is in a direct kind of
way, He has seen the Lord. Jesus, the
eternal Son of God, was with the Father from all eternity.
10.
VS 6:47-52 - “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, he who 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 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
shall life forever; and the bread also
which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh’. The Jews therefore began to argue with one
another, saying, ‘How can this man give us His flesh to eat?’”
- Jesus tells these Jews that one who
believes has eternal life and that He is the bread of life and that if anyone
eats of this bread that he shall live forever
10.1.
Believing upon Jesus Christ will give one eternal
life. The manna in the wilderness was
symbolic of what Jesus would give to mankind, and Jesus says that the manna in
the wilderness was inferior to Himself, as far as bread is concerned, because
those who ate the bread that fell in the wilderness all died, but the one who
eats of Jesus’ bread shall live forever.
10.2.
Notice here that Jesus makes a play on these Greek
words we already discussed translated ‘bread’ and ‘manna.’ He says that He is the ‘bread’ that
came down from heaven, and refers to Himself only using the word ‘bread.’ However, Jesus says that the Israelites of
old only ate of physical food, or what He calls ‘manna’ (What is
it?).
10.3.
Jesus says here also that the bread that He gives for
the world is ‘His flesh.’ His humanity, which bore our griefs and sorrows
as well as our sins upon the cross, was given that we might have life. The Jews began to argue with His statement,
not understanding how they would ever be able to eat of Jesus’ flesh. They thought that what Jesus said was
barbaric and cannibalistic, and it wasn’t the kind of “feel good” stuff
that they wanted to hear.
10.4.
What Jesus told the multitudes on this day was simply
the truth, however they couldn’t perceive it and it didn’t give them the “warm
and fuzzies” they desired in Jesus.
Preaching and living the truth doesn’t attract the fickle multitudes and
it never will. Today, in churches in
10.5.
This teaching of Jesus on this day stuck in people’s
minds. Many years later Nero incited a
persecution of Christians claiming that they drank blood and were
cannibals. However, sadly people often
miss spiritual truth in the scriptures.
11.
VS 6:53-58 - “Jesus therefore 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
yourselves. He who eats 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. He who eats 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 he
who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.
This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate, and died, he who eats
this bread shall live forever’.” - Jesus tells
this multitude that unless they eat His flesh and drink His blood that they
have no life in themselves, but if they do so they will receive eternal life
and be raised up from the dead on the last day
11.1.
Jesus repeats His theme that in order to have eternal
life and be raised up on the last day to eternal life, one must eat of His
flesh and drink of His blood in this life.
11.2.
What does it mean to eat Jesus’ flesh and to drink of
His blood? I would say that it means
more than to merely believe in Him, take up Jesus’ cause, read and believe
Jesus’ teachings, etc. It must mean to
actually partake of the offer of eternal life that He gives, to receive the
forgiveness of sins that His death upon the cross provides for us, to receive
the indwelling of the Spirit of God, and to be brought into personal fellowship
with the Lord, the barrier created by our sin having been taken out of the
way.
11.3.
The Catholics have apparently taken their view of
transubstantiation and practice of the mass from this passage. The Catholics teach and believe that the
elements of communion (bread and wine) become transformed into the body and
blood of Jesus during their
11.4.
This saying about having to eat Jesus’ flesh and drink
His blood was offensive to these Jews and many of His disciples, and therefore
most chose not to follow Him anymore after this.
12.
CONCLUSIONS:
12.1.
Since
Jesus is the “Bread of Life” my encouragement is seek Him and the
sustenance He alone can give to you.
12.2.
We Christians need to abide in Jesus as we are commanded
to do, just as the branch which abides in the vine (JN 15) which gives it life,
for in doing so we are eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood. When we abide in Jesus we will also bear much
fruit as a branch (JN 15:5).
12.3.
Seek the
Lord in all of your needs for it is His desire and He has the ability to fill
you and meet your every need.