John 6:59-7:18: “Finishing Up Jesus’
Bread of Life Discourse / Jesus Goes Secretly Up To
By
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In our last study we looked at verses 28-58 of chapter 6.
1.1.1. We saw that at this point in Jesus’ ministry that He
was gaining greatly in popularity, especially after He had miraculously fed the
5,000. The multitude fed that day had
wanted to come and take Jesus by force and make Him their king. Had Jesus then just continued to do His great
miraculous works and not preach too much or too directly to the people, they
would have embraced Him as their king and He would have had unstoppable momentum. However, this would have been for Jesus to be
made king without going to the cross, the same temptation that the Devil gave
Him when He was being tempted in the wilderness after His baptism and offered
all of the earth’s kingdoms without having to go to the cross if He just bowed
the knee to Satan. But, Jesus knew the
great need of mankind involved the fact that men and women were sinners and
that “all have sinned and fall shore of the glory of God,”
1.1.2. Realizing that the multitude who the morning after His
feeding of the 5,000 had sought Him out on the other shore of the Sea of
Galilee was seeking Him for wrong motives, not wanting Him to be the king of
their hearts and lives, Jesus made His first of seven “I am”
declarations in this gospel when He declares, “I am the bread of life.” We saw that had Jesus left His message vague
and general in application the multitude would have continued to embrace
Him. However, instead Jesus began a
discourse in which He told the multitude that they must eat His flesh and drink
His blood if they wanted to have eternal life in themselves.
1.1.3. In this “Bread of Life” discourse, Jesus was
trying to make the multitude realize the error in their hearts and motives for
seeking Him, as well as the true way to receive Him as their Savior and
Messiah. The multitude had not
understood the significance of any of the things that He had said, nor who He
was in the essence of His person, and they were seeking Him merely because they
had seen and partaken of the loaves and fish which He had multiplied. Jesus in His discourse was trying to make
them see that religion that consists merely in the external aspects of your
life (the keeping of religious rules and laws) is not enough to give a person
eternal life. One must know Jesus as
his/her Lord and Savior and have a relationship with God that is in spirit and
in truth. A person must know the Lord
and partake of the Lord in substance and in reality.
1.1.4. We observed the fickleness of the multitude, for after
Jesus’ “Bread of Life Discourse” the very people who on the previous day
wanted to come and forcefully take Him to Jerusalem and make Him king were now
completely disillusioned and dismayed with Him and left Him, including most or
all of the 72 disciples. Fortunately,
the 12 remain with Jesus.
1.1.5. Jesus discourse to the multitude was perceived by them
as being such a “hard saying” that it became a death sentence for we saw
that as a result of Jesus saying these things from this point on He could no
longer openly go into Judea for the Jews will now be seeking any opportunity to
kill Him.
1.1.6. We saw that 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
1.1.7. We saw that in John’s account of Jesus’ last supper He
does not record Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper, however that Jesus’
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.
1.2.
In our
study today, we will look at verses 69 of chapter 6 through verse 18 of chapter
7.
1.2.1. We will continue with the conclusion of John’s telling
of the story of Jesus’ “Bread of Life Discourse.”
1.2.2. We will observe Peter’s confession of Jesus when Jesus
asks the 12 if they too want to leave Him as the rest had left Him.
1.2.3. After we finish our discussion of Jesus’ “Bread of
Life” discourse we are going to go into chapter 7 which will begin a new
section of the book of John and we will see that Jesus is now finished with His
Galilean ministry. Jesus will again be
ministering with His disciples in
1.2.4. Knowing the Jews in
2.
VS
6:59-60 - “These things He said in the synagogue,
as He taught in
2.1.
John reveals that this whole discourse by Jesus had
actually occurred in the synagogue located in
2.2.
We see in these verses that not only did the multitude
have a problem with what Jesus said on this day, but also many of Jesus’
disciples were offended and disgusted when they heard Jesus talk of coming down
from heaven so that they could eat His flesh and drink His blood. We see here that concerning this discourse
they say, “Who can listen to it?”
2.3.
It wasn’t one thing that Jesus said that bothered the
multitude it was everything that He said.
He told them of spiritual realities using terms that they considered to
be barbaric and cannibalistic, they would have to eat His flesh and drink His
blood to have eternal life. He told them
also that they were so depraved in their nature that they could only come to
Him and believe in Him if the Father drew them to Him.
2.4.
What Jesus had said on this day was not something that
the multitude and even Jesus’ own disciples considered too obscure to
understand and thus they were offended.
The problem with what Jesus had said was that it went against everything
that they believed and it also rubbed their pride the wrong way. They wanted to embrace a Messiah who didn’t
make any claims on their lives and was simply pleased that they were religious
and tried to keep a certain amount of ritual and regularity in their religious
observances. They wanted a Messiah who
did not tell them that they were in the wrong and needed to repent of their
sins and in order to have life in themselves, and partake of and embrace Him as
their Savior who paid the full price of the debt of their sins.
2.4.1. In the church in
3.
VS
6:61-63 - “But Jesus, conscious that His disciples
grumbled at this, said to them, ‘Does this cause you to stumble? What then if you should behold the son of Man
ascending where He was before? It is the
Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits
nothing; the words that I have spoken to
you are spirit and life.” - Jesus is
aware that His disciples are grumbling at His teaching and asks them if His
statement causes them to stumble, then He encourages their faith
3.1.
Jesus’
disciples grumbled just as the multitude grumbled on this day. The grumblings of men reveal so sharply the
depravity of men. In the Old Testament
we see that the children of
3.2.
Jesus’
deity is again seen in the fact that He knew that even His disciples were
grumbling at His statement.
3.3.
Jesus seems now to be telling His disciples that if
this discourse concerning eating His flesh and drinking His blood made them
stumble, what if they were to learn of something more unusual and particular to
His actually calling on earth, such as that ‘the real purpose of His coming
was to die on a cross and rise again to ascend to the Father, so that all men
might saved’?
3.4.
Just as Jesus’ speaking of His body as bread that is
broken and eaten and the drinking of His blood intimated His crucifixion, so
here by His stating that He will be ‘ascending’ up to God implies that
He will be resurrected from the dead.
3.5.
Then, Jesus reveals the real perplexity involved in
the hearers of His teachings and these particular sayings. His words reveal spiritual truth which go
against all of the earthly and fleshly logic and thinking to which they were
accustomed. Jesus tells them that His
very words themselves are ‘spirit and life,’ and the Holy Spirit must
reveal them to individuals because with the natural understanding they won’t be
comprehended. The Spirit gives life, but
the flesh profits nothing!
3.6.
The fact that Jesus’ words are ‘spirit and life’
refers to their regenerating power when believed by men.
4.
VS
6:64-65 - “‘But there are some of you who do not
believe’. For Jesus knew from the
beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He was saying, ‘For this reason I have
said to you, that no one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from
the Father’.” - Jesus tells
His disciples that He knew that there were some who really did not believe in
Him
4.1.
Jesus reveals that He knew the hearts of all men, who
was believing in Him, and who was not.
Thus, He must have known from the beginning that Judas would betray
Him. Peter knew that Jesus was the Holy
One and spoke the words of God because he had ‘believed’ in Him and His word.
4.2.
Jesus states in these verses that the problem with the
people understanding the words He said and His teachings was the fact that they
did not ‘believe’ in Him. It is
impossible to understand spiritual truth without first believing. This is something that seems to go against
our understanding. In our natural minds
we tend to think that “seeing is believing,” but it is opposite when it
comes to spiritual things, “believing is seeing.” You must believe God and His word first in
order to understand the truth about God, the scriptures reveal this:
4.2.1. In Hebrews
11:3 we read that it is by faith that we understand how that the Lord created
everything that exists from nothing, “3 By faith we understand
that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not
made out of things which are visible.”
4.2.2. . In Psalm 27:13 the Psalmist wrote about how
believing had affected his life, “13 I would have lost heart,
unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living.”
4.2.3. In 2 Peter
3:1-7 notice from verse 5 that Peter states that not believing what God has
made obvious to all constitutes willful ignorance, “1 Beloved, I
now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your
pure minds by way of reminder), 2 that you may be mindful of the
words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of
us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, 3 knowing this first: that
scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4
and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers
fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of
creation.” 5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God
the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6
by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with
water. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now
preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and
perdition of ungodly men.”
4.3.
A friend of mine, John Lamb, who had a great influence
in my early Christian life, used to when witnessing to a person and having them
state that they wanted to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior, ask them if they
were willing to believe that He would come into their life, forgive their sins,
and give them eternal life. More and
more I realize the wisdom of asking that question and getting the person to
commit to believing these things before they simply mimic a prayer of
salvation.
4.4.
Reitterating what He had already stated, Jesus
explains that a person can not come to Him unless the Father had granted it to
occur. The Holy Spirit must reveal
spiritual truth to a man for him to be able to understand it, therefore Jesus
says that men cannot come to Him unless the Father draws them.
4.5.
In saying over and over in this discourse that no one
can come to Him unless the Father draws him to Jesus, Jesus is not trying to
dissuade people from believing upon Him.
In fact, He is doing the opposite.
He has reached out to this group with the truth concerning how one can
come to have eternal life, now He challenges them to consider whether or not
the Father is in fact calling them to believe in Him and have eternal life.
4.5.1. When the guy
who first shared the gospel with me had shared what I needed to do in order to
receive Christ and thus the gift of eternal life, after he had shared with me
he said, “Now we will have to see whether or not you have been chosen to
salvation or not.” If I heard and
responded to that message then indeed I had been chosen to salvation.
4.6.
I believe that very possibly many of the people in
this large group may later have come to be His disciples, after He had died
upon the cross and risen from the dead.
Jesus was planting many seeds with the multitude that He miraculous fed,
and then preached to.
5.
VS
6:66-69 - “As a result of this many of His
disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore. Jesus said therefore to the twelve, ‘You do
not want to go away also, do you?’ Simon
Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go?
You have words of eternal life.
And we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of
God’.” - John tells
us that as a result of this teaching that many of Jesus’ disciples no longer
followed Him, however when Jesus asks the 12 if they too want to go away Peter,
speaking for the disciples, makes a glorious confession of His faith in Jesus
5.1.
We see here that this hard saying of Jesus drastically
reduced His following, as it says that many were not walking with Him
anymore. Perhaps only the 12 were left
with Jesus after this discourse.
5.2.
Jesus asks the twelve if they also wanted to depart
with the crowd, and Peter speaks up for the crowd, perhaps being a little
impetuous as he probably did not know really how everyone felt, that there was
no one else to whom they could go, for Jesus alone had the words of eternal
life.
5.3.
Peter also declares that everyone in the twelve also
believed that Jesus is the Messiah, ‘the Holy One of God.’
5.4.
It occurs
to me that the 12 stayed with Jesus in spite of this public disaster of His “Bread
of Life Discourse” because they had spent so much time close to Jesus that
they had seen and heard so much more than the rest. A huge benefit of walking close to Jesus over
your life is the fact that your faith is not rocked nearly so badly as others
when difficulties and trials occur.
6.
VS
6:70 - “Jesus answered them, ‘Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?’ Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to
betray Him.” - Jesus tells
the 12 that He knew that one of them was a ‘devil,’ and John tells us that
Jesus was speaking of Judas Iscariot
6.1.
Jesus reveals that He knows better than Peter (who
spoke for all of the disciples in his confession) for He knows that one of the
twelve is going to betray Him, and He calls that man (whom we know is Judas
Iscariot) a ‘devil.’ This
revelation is just another indicator that Jesus is divine for only God knows
all things.
6.2.
It is an enigma that Jesus willfully chose a man to be
an apostle, knowing that the man would betray Him. He was fulfilling what the scripture had prophesied
of the Messiah that one of His disciples would lift himself up against Him.
7.
VS
7:1 - “And after these things Jesus was walking in Galilee; for He was unwilling to walk in
7.1.
A new
section of Jesus’ ministry now begins.
Jesus’ Galilean ministry is now over as He goes into
7.2.
What is
sad and tragic is that the people in Galilee had rejected Jesus just as the
people in
7.3.
Ever since Jesus had healed the man with the 38 year
infirmity on the Sabbath, the Pharisees and scribes were plotting to kill Him,
and now they were more determined to do so that ever.
7.4.
For these reasons, Jesus was avoiding
7.5.
In the gospel of John we see Jesus alternately
ministering in Judea and
8.
VS
7:2-5 - “Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was at hand. His brothers therefore said to Him, ‘Depart
from here, and go into
8.1.
The “Feast
of Booths” is the same as the “Feast of Tabernacles.” This feast, being one of the three recorded
in Deut. Chapter 16 in which all males in
8.2.
The three required feasts also had a prophetic
significance associated with them. The “Passover
Feast” found its fulfillment in Jesus going to
8.3.
Arthur Pink writes the following about the activities
associated with the “Feast of Booths,” “First, the Feast
began on the fifteenth day of the seventh month (v. 34). Second, it was a “holy convocation,” when
8.4.
This incident occurred 6 months before Jesus’ final
Passover when He would be crucified.
8.5.
In chapter 6 verse 4 of this gospel we saw that the “Feast
of Passover” was at hand. Therefore,
from the beginning of chapter 6, when Jesus miraculously fed the 5,000, and the
beginning of chapter 7 about six months has elapsed.
8.6.
The Roman Catholics have long foisted the view that
Mary must have remained celibate after Jesus’ birth, and therefore the ‘brothers’
of Jesus in reality were actually not brothers but cousins. They have had a hard time imagining that
being the mother of the Lord that she could have sexual relations later, or
even that should could ever have sinned.
They also believe in the sinlessness of Mary as well as her own
immaculate conception. Most scholars now
believe however that the ‘brothers’ of Jesus which are mentioned in the
New Testament, are the children born to Joseph and Mary after Jesus’
birth. The Greek word used in the New
Testament for ‘brother’ can also mean ‘cousin’ though, which has
caused encouraged this confusion.
8.7.
In any case, these brothers of Jesus challenged Him to
go up to the feast and publicly perform the miraculous works that He was doing
in
8.7.1. There is a
question as to whether or not Jesus’ brothers even comprehended or believed in
His miracles.
8.7.2. Perhaps out
of unbelief Jesus’ brothers looked at the complete failure of His ministry in Galilee
after the debacle of His Bread of Life discourse, and they prod Him to go to
Jerusalem where the religious experts were so that perhaps His works could
persuade those in power and “the know” that He was who He claimed He
was.
8.7.3. Jesus’
brothers may also have been wanting Him to leave their country because He was a
thorn in their side. They may have also
wanted Him to go to
8.8.
At another time recorded in the gospels, Jesus’ mother
and brothers came to get Him because they thought He had gone to far (possibly
out of His mind), and He refused to see them but said to the group with Him that
His mother and brothers were those who heard the word of God and did it!
9.
VS
7:6-8 - “Jesus therefore said to them, ‘My time is not yet at hand, but your
time is always opportune. The world
cannot hate you; but it hates Me because
I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.
Go up to the feast yourselves; I
do not go up to this feast because My time has not yet fully come’.”
- Jesus tells His brothers that His time
is not at hand yet, however their time is always opportune, and the world hates
Him because He testifies that its deeds are evil
9.1.
Jesus tells His brothers in essence that they are in
alliance with the world in rebellion against God, and therefore have nothing to
fear in going up to the feast, however because He testifies that the world’s deeds
are evil, the world therefore hates Him.
As we saw in verse 1, Jesus knew that the Jewish leaders in
9.2.
Because Jesus’ brothers are in alliance with the
world, He tells them that their time is always opportune to repent and begin to
perform the works of God in their life.
9.3.
Jesus says that His time is not yet at hand, and this
may refer to the time which He would go to
9.4.
When we as Christians are trying to live the life God
wants us to live, we shouldn’t be surprised if we also experience the world’s
hostility. If we aren’t experiencing
that hostility, this is evidence that the edge of our testimony isn’t very
sharp.
9.5.
Sadly, Jesus’ brothers leave Him (the Lord) in order
to go to a religious activity. However, isn’t
it also true that sometimes we Christians are found being more committed to
observance of religious activities than spending time alone with our Lord.
10.
VS
7:9-10 - “And having said these things to them, He
stayed in
10.1. Jesus had
said that He would not ‘yet’ go
up to the feast, so He stayed in
11.
VS
7:11 - “The Jews therefore were seeking Him at the feast, and were saying,
‘Where is He?’” - The Jews in
11.1. Jesus hadn’t
gone up in the large caravan of people in which His brothers traveled to
Jerusalem, but rather He went up in secret so as to not be detected. Therefore, the Jews were seeking Him to kill
Him, but Jesus couldn’t be found.
11.2. If Jesus actually appeared the way that the Hollywood
movies about Him (with the exception of “The Passion”) then He could not have
hidden from anyone and would have been easy to spot because He had a huge glow
around Him.
12.
VS
7:12-13 - “And there was much grumbling among the
multitudes concerning Him; some were
saying, ‘He is a good man’; others were
saying, ‘No on the contrary, He leads the multitude astray’. Yet no one was speaking openly of Him for
fear of the Jews.” - There were
various opinions concerning Jesus among the people on this day, some saying He
was a good man and others that He led people astray
12.1. It is interesting the variety of opinions concerning
Jesus amongst the people in
12.1.1.Today, there are many opinions about who Jesus
is. Just as it was in Jesus’ day, the
most important thing that a person could ever do is find out who Jesus really
is, and come to know Him as Lord and Savior.
12.1.2.Who do you believe Jesus is?
12.2. By this
time, Jesus had healed many people who were sick and afflicted of many
things. He had performed many miracles
that had been widely discussed among all the Jewish people in the holy
land.
12.3. For three
years Jesus had been among the Jews and performed His works, so everyone had
heard of Him. However, there were
various opinions concerning Him amongst the Jews. And during this feast, no one spoke openly
concerning Him in any sense because of fear, since the Jews were seeking to
arrest Him amongst all of the people.
13.
VS
7:14-16 - “But when it was now the midst of the
feast Jesus went up into the temple, and
began to teach. The Jews therefore
were marveling , saying, ‘How has this man become learned, having never been
educated?’ Jesus therefore answered
them, and said, ‘My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me’.”
- The Jews marveled at Jesus’ teaching
wondering how that He had become ‘learned’ never having been educated, and
Jesus told them that His teaching was not His own but His who sent Him
13.1. The Feast of
Tabernacles lasted 8 days total. It
began on a Sabbath, and ended up on a Sabbath day. Jesus went up into the temple and began to
teach in the middle of the eight days.
13.2. The Jews,
especially the teachers I suppose, marveled at Jesus because He was
knowledgeable of all their literature, and yet He had never been formally
educated in their schools. He spoke with
the accent of the learned scholars , and with an authority which none of their
scholars possessed.
13.3. In this
verse, Jesus declared how it was that He was able to have deep insight into all
matters of religion. Every word of His
was divinely inspired, for it was not His teaching as He was sent from
God. This saying is just another which
the Jews would consider blasphemy, and therefore have more reason to kill Him.
14.
VS
7:17 - “‘If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the
teaching, whether it is of God, or whether
I speak from Myself’.” - Jesus tells
the Jews on this day that if anyone is willing to do the Father’s will that he
will know whether or not His teaching is of God or not
14.1. In this
verse, Jesus reveals that primarily ‘unbelief’ in Him is a matter of the
heart, not of the intellect. A
willingness to do God’s will is always prerequisite to knowing whether or not
His teaching is from God.
14.2. One of the
prerequisites to knowing truth from God’s word, and receiving wisdom when we
seek it from heaven, is to be willing to do God’s will once He reveals it to
you!
14.3. Are you
willing to do the Father’s will in your life?
15.
VS
7:18 - “‘He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One
who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him’.”
- Jesus tells the Jews here that the
person who speaks from himself seeks his own glory but the One who is seeking
the glory of the One who sent Him has no unrighteousness in Him and is true
15.1. Another thing
that made a prophet’s word reliable was when he sought only to glorify God who
sent him. Jesus says that of Himself,
that He only sought the Father’s glory and therefore His word is true and there
is no unrighteousness in Him.
15.2. If we are
seeking only the glory of God, then we also will be given opportunity to be
used of God as He leads us, and we will have the wisdom and knowledge that He
wants to give us to meet each situation.
16.
CONCLUSIONS:
16.1. From our
previous study, In John 6:56 Jesus stated, “56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I
in him.”
However, the tense of the verbs there is present tense which
means that we must continually eat His flesh and drink His blood if we are to
abide in Him and He in us. Are you
continually abiding in Jesus, partaking of Him in substance and reality, in
spirit and in truth, all day of every day?
As much as you do not do this you live in the flesh and miss out on the
great blessings that God has for those who walk in faith and obedience in Him. Abide in Jesus all day long every day. Seek Him early in prayer and quiet times and
stay before Him all through your day and the needs that day brings.