Answers Bible Curriculum: Lesson 5 - Jesus Is The Bread Of Life

Father, you are good to us today and we thank you that we get to be here. Thank you for life. Thank you for your word and what it teaches us. Thank you for being a presence in our life and to, and for drawing us to yourself, giving us light, giving us understanding.

And, giving us hope for the future. Lord, you're amazing to us. Your grace is overwhelming, and I just thank you so much for it and may, our time today as we spend in your word be very instructive for us, helpful for us, encouraging. And also enlightening that we may, live lives in a more reverent and godly way in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, I hope you all had a good week this week. We're gonna be looking in to John chapter 6, the feeding of the 5000 today. what, we have our opening question.

What do we mean by literal interpretation and, that's just a sideline issue, unless, of course, you're a critic and, and, a biblical critic and And that may mean a lot to you. And so we'll, we'll be dealing with that a little bit today, but mostly we're gonna be dealing with Jesus' understanding or interpretation or even purpose of his miracle of the feeding of the 5000. That's gonna be the really the big deal of our lesson today. This, series is on the authority of Jesus, as we've talked about, before and, and we keep mentioning it because it isn't part of the context of, of our whole series.

We began with Genesis and, and we've been working our way all the way through. We're now with, with the, the life of Christ and, and what his purpose was and what he actually did, why he did what he did. And what he demonstrated was authority. And so these series of lessons that we're in right now are for that demonstration of his authority.

And today, we're looking at Jesus being the bread of life. This is, lesson 5 in this, session of lessons. So Let's review just a little bit. We have looked at the power of death or the power of Jesus that he displayed over nature, over disease and over death so far.

We've looked at those things in, in these very powerful miracles and demonstrations, that he, gave to his disciples, to the people around him, and then now to us as well as we see the testimony of it in his word. we've looked at the purpose behind these demonstrations of power. And as we talked about last week, one of the things that, that we should always keep in mind when we look, we read the Gospels, we look at the ministry of Jesus. Is that, that Jesus coming into the world was God's keeping of a promise that was made back in Genesis chapter 3, that God did not abandon us.

To this realm of good and evil that we willfully walked into. when, Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They opened the doors, went into a realm, and those doors closed behind them. There's no getting out of it.

And that realm of good and evil is what we have lived in ever since. and, and as we look at, at life around us, we, we experience it, we see it, that there's some good things that we experience in life and then there's the evil, the bad things that we experience in life and And that evil, just as a way of review, it is not a word that, that means only wickedness. That, that, that word evil means other things, calamity. It can mean pestilence, it can mean disease, it can mean even up to death.

and, and so those are the things that, we experience as well with the goods. We have the good and then we have the bad and, and we live in that realm. But God did not let us go in there alone. He didn't abandon us to that.

He immediately already had in place a plan, as we, we would find out thousands of years later, Paul writes about this, that being, from the beginning of time, that, that God already had this plan in place. And, and so Jesus then, when the fullness of time came, comes into the world. And he's going to intervene. He's going to be that, that person of intervention for us.

And that what he's gonna do is bring about this plan of rescue, this plan of rescue to, to take us to, to make possible for us to go from the realm of good and evil to the realm of good. The, the place that he has for us. And Jesus will talk a lot about that in this section, that we'll be looking at today. One of the things that we can, we'll see contrasted here in this, this whole story of the feeding of the 5000 is the contrast between the bread of life.

And daily bread. And what we'll be noticing is that as human beings, we have this, this very powerful tendency to view life just from our, perspective, from what we can see and what we see are our physical needs, and we tend to really be, Well, that tends to dominate our thinking. our, our thinking goes toward Our daily bread. what's, what's more, vital to our survival than our daily bread?

We all need to eat. That's, that's a fact of life, we have to have nourishment for our bodies. And so that's a very powerful motivator and, and, that has great impact upon the way we think. Jesus is, is introducing And has been throughout his ministry.

He introduces it with his ministry, this idea that there's something bigger. There's a bigger need that we have something that's very much more powerful. Now, he's not the first one to talk about it as we will see in this lesson, but he makes it, he clarifies it so much for us. And so when we read the gospels, It really helps in our clarity and in, in helping us to understand where we sit in, in the universe, as far as our needs and, and where, where do we come from and where are we going.

And those are important matters for us. Before we get into John chapter 6 though, I do want to take us back to John chapter 1. And as we did last week, John chapter 1 in the first few verses there is really a preamble to the rest of his gospel. And if we will read those 1st 15 verses or so.

and, and, and have those as a reference point. Then when we read the rest of his gospel, we will see that he's, laid out his purpose, his point, and then the rest of it is to explain all of that. And in this, these few verses here, 9 to 13, He, he sets up some things that really help us in our understanding of John chapter 6. He says, there was the true light which coming into the world enlightens every man.

He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them, he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. But of God.

And that gets talked a lot about in this section that we'll be looking at today. So let's go to John chapter 6 and we'll begin reading in verse 1. After these things, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee or Tiberius. A large crowd followed him because they saw the signs which he was performing on those who were sick.

Jesus went up on the mountain and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. By the way, that little item of the Passover will play heavily into the thinking of the, the people. As for the next day as they get into this discussion with Jesus.

So try to keep that in mind that this is right around the time of the Passover and the Jewish people are already thinking about what that means. Remember, the Passover is their deliverance from Egypt. God taking them out, out of Egypt and the Passover is a way for them to remember and, and one of the things they do to remember it is the sacrifice of a lamb or a kid and then they eat it. So this is really powerful.

Keep that in mind. That this is something that, that should be on the minds of the Jewish people that Jesus is gonna be talking to. Right? Let's go on.

Verse 5. Therefore, Jesus, lifting up his eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to him, said to Philip, Where are we to buy bread so that these may eat? This he was saying to test him, for he himself knew what he was intending to do. Philip answered him, 200 denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.

One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, There is a lad here who has 5 barley loaves and 2 fish, but what are these for so many people? Jesus said, have the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place, so the men sat down in number about 5000. Jesus then took the loaves and having given thanks, he distributed to those who were seated.

Likewise also the fish as much as they wanted. When they were filled, he said to his disciples, Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost. So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the 5 barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. Therefore, when the people saw the sign which he had performed, they said, this is truly the prophet who is to come into the world.

OK, we'll end there. no, let's read verse 15. So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come to take him by force and to make him king, withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone. All right.

Here we have this story and, in, in this account really of, of an, an amazing miracle. Not all, all miracles are amazing. That's why they're miracles. there's, there's things that we can't explain.

They're, they're outside of the realm of our physical world and they're, they're really a demonstration of God's power in his stepping in and interrupting the natural flow that he created. God is the one who created the laws of physics. He's the one who created in, in the case of our food, the ways, the way food is grown and the way we harvest and, and so, all of those things, he created all those things. He created it the, the way things are so that in fact, that because of the curse, we have to work for our bread.

Remember, Adam was told by the, you will eat by the sweat of your brow. So, this, that's where our food comes from. That's, that's the system, that's the order that God has created. But in this case, Jesus steps in and, interrupts that and does his own thing here just to demonstrate something.

And he's demonstrating an amazing thing, right? It's, he's taken, 5 loaves, 2, they're, they're like 5 tortillas. And two small fish. It could be actual little fish.

It could be just one commentator said it was, it was a fish-like jelly that you just put into the, to the bread and you roll it up. And so it could have been that, whatever it was. Jesus Multiplied it, so there was enough to feed these thousands of people. If he fed 50 people with that, that would be an amazing miracle.

But 5000 men, not including the women and children, and so we see that Jesus, just performed this thing, and it is a startling event. Something though to, to really see in this. I That Jesus in this point in his ministry is gathering a huge following. There's a lot of people coming after him.

The, the excitement is building. And it says there that they're following him because they've seen his miracles, the healings that he's done, and this excitement is building because they have a sense that there's something special about to happen in their nation. And they had this hope. They've been hoping for this for hundreds of years.

they've been, thinking about the prophecies that have been made and, and the things that they know are supposed to come for their deliverance, for the deliverance of their nation. And so their excitement is peaking and rightly so, that this is the, a person they should be looking for and in Deuteronomy 18, which they're going to refer to, so I want to look at it right now. Moses, in, in restating the law, that's what Deuteronomy is, he's restating, how they got where they are right now before they go into the promised land, and he says this in verse 15, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen.

You shall listen to him.

And they're gonna refer back to this. this is something they're looking for, and this feeding, breaking of the bread and spreading it, around to all these people is reminiscent. of God feeding the whole nation with manna, and they're gonna refer back to that as well. That's how they're seeing this.

And so they're getting very excited. Another thing that we see from this that they are so infected with the, the event. that they want to make him king. they, they're, they're ready to go for it now.

They see this power. They've, they've seen the miracles, the healings, and so on. And, they're, they want to make him king. But this wasn't the time for that.

And there's a whole lot they don't understand, as we're going to see today, but what that is. Jesus is going to the next day, turn things around and he's going to force them to take a look at what that would really mean. If you're gonna make him king, that means something. And in his kingdom, which by the way, he, his message was as he comes into, begins his ministry, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

so he is announcing his kingdom, but what begins that? Repent. And they, at this point have no idea what that means. They're looking for national salvation, a national reconstitution, of their kingdom, of the, of their, them as a people group being exalted as a, as a kingdom and a powerful influence in the world.

But what they, they're, they're missing some things and things that they shouldn't be missing. Zechariah prophesized about the coming of this king and that it would be, but what would happen with that coming of the king would be a national repentance and great mourning. And so they, they're missing it. That's not the only thing they miss either, in this whole process, but they did want to make him king.

So what we see in this first section here. is the building up and of, of the excitement for him. And they're gonna be so excited that in, excuse me, we get to this next section. during the night, we have the walking on the water, the, the storm, the disciples in the sea.

We've already talked about that. in an earlier lesson. And so the next morning, they find him on the other side of the, of the sea. They're, they're so excited they actually pursue and come after him trying to find him and so we'll be picking it up there.

So let's look at verse 25. 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. 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. 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. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him, Lord, always give us this bread.

And one of the things that That pops out as we, as we look at this is the, the still, the focus on the physical realm. they, they don't see or understand what Jesus is talking about with this, This idea of bread from heaven. What does that really mean? they, they, they're still taking him literally.

And he's intending them to, to understand spiritual truths, spiritual things, that there is another dimension that, that they, they don't understand, and he's trying to open their eyes to it. He's, he is giving them this message. And the, the sad part is this is a great illustration of how human beings normally operate. Many seek religion for this reason, aiming for the loaves and the fishes.

Rather than peace with God. I think about people, you maybe you experienced this earlier before you became a believer. many people go to church or, or join some religion. Because their life needs to be tweaked.

They have this sense that something's not exactly right and they need to fix it. And so they want their life to be adjusted somewhat so they can get it on course. And so they'll, they'll seek a religious experience or some religious guidance and trying to tweak their life, tweak their marriage, fix their kids, Their finances, maybe they have a job situation that they're insecure about. There's a whole lot of things that, that, can, can bother people and make them look for help.

And so they'll, they'll, look into religion to see if this can, can, can help them. But here's the thing about Jesus. Jesus doesn't do tweaking. Right?

For those of us who, who follow Jesus and understand it, he does major overthrow. That's what he does. and so when he comes into our life, stuff gets thrown out, stuff that we treasured, stuff that we thought was important, and he just trashes it and says, no, you need to follow me. And, and he, he helps us to have actually a healthier perspective about our whole life.

He changes us. And that's what we really need. We don't need to be tweaked. We need a revolution.

And, and so that's what he does for us and that's what he's trying to get these people to see. they're seeking the bread and the fish because that's what they understand. This also reminds me of When Jesus in John chapter 4 met with the Samaritan woman. Remember, he's at the, at the well and this woman comes up to draw water.

And so they begin having this discussion about water. And, and the upshot of it was, he's describing living water, well, she'll never thirst again, and she says, sir, give me this water. So they're having a similar reaction to this bread of life thing. It, it's a, a very similar a statement.

That, that's there. We also see that that when they ask about what work should we do, Jesus said, believe in me. Believe on the one who is sent by God. That's the work we can do.

And one of the things that just should be jumping out at us is that Our relationship with God and, and our being fixed, so to speak, our getting into this, this thing of, of partaking with God is not something that we do, right? It's not a work that we can do to make happen. Jesus is making it clear, no, believe in the one that's sent by God. That's, that's the thing that we do.

That's our response. It's a response to God is to believe in Him. Then we see the question changes. It's so interesting that the psychology of, of, of how they think and, and, and the progression of their thoughts as they're in this discourse with Jesus.

It goes from what shall we do to what are you gonna do? It, it really changes and it's become such a an amazing flow of their, of their thinking. And it's really amazing, they're asking for a sign. They've already been, this whole crowd the day before came after him because of the signs he had been doing, right?

So he's already been doing signs. He's already been healing people. He's done some amazing things. Then he feeds them all.

With 5 loaves and 2 fish. And they were content with that. They, they, they had as much as they wanted to eat. There were 12 baskets left over.

so, The, the question, show us a sign seems to be a little out of place. but that's, that's, what they want. They're They want him to be king, and yet. they want another sign.

They want more. And they, one of the things they do is throw down a standard. you see, Moses gave us manna for 40 years. What, what are you gonna do?

And it's really, an odd way of approaching someone that you think should be your king. Someone that you are starting to have respect for, something of you, so you're starting to have little glimmerings of belief at least, to, to, to think about that and, and, yet they, they throw down this standard. Of manna. Now, Moses is, as we said, we talked about, this is right about the time of the Passover.

Moses is already on their minds. And so maybe that's what triggered it. I think probably what triggers this is the, the, the feeding with, with the bread the day before triggered all those thoughts of manna cause the manna was used to make bread and, and that's what fed them for all of those years. And what they were doing was focusing on the physical need rather than their spiritual necessity.

And that's typically human. That's, that's what we do. We were looking for our daily bread. And we pretty much ignore the bread of life that we need.

What they should have done was remembered Moses. Moses wrote again in Deuteronomy chapter 8 about manna. He says this, he humbled you. And let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know that he might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.

That should have, they should have remembered that, they should have known that. if, and Jesus says this in, in other places in his mystery, if you really read Moses, you would believe me. They, they, had they really read Moses, they would have really known that, that, that, that, that God was gave them manna to teach them something. And this is what he was teaching them, that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.

You see, there are deeper issues at stake than even our daily bread, right? We've all probably discovered that, that, that there are deeper things, things that, that we need to understand and grow in. even As important as bread is for us, the, the, the daily necessity for our well-being. Unless, of course, you're on that key whatever diet, that you can only eat fat and protein and so I guess you're not into bread, but whatever that diet is, anyway, bread for most of us, normal people, it is important to us.

but yet there's something of greater importance, something of, of much higher, value to us. Well, let's move on to John John 6:35-40. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will 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 the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.

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 will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day. Jesus makes a definitive statement here. I am the bread of life.

He's being clear, right? They've, they've been misunderstanding and, the bread from heaven, and what is all that? And he says, I'm it. I'm the bread of heaven.

From it, they should have seen, oh, he's speaking metaphorically, right? but as we're gonna see later on, they're still not, understanding. How this metaphor works. they're, they're not really getting it.

But he is very clear, he's definite here. I am the bread of life. And so, with that definite statement, Then he, he talks about, and he says it in, in 4 verses in this whole section. he says, the Father gives those that believe to the Son.

4 times he makes that point, twice just in these, these, this section that we just read. But We, what Jesus is clarifying and, and this is going to be one of the objections that we'll look at later on, that not everyone who is Jewish is going to believe. Just because you're born in a certain people group doesn't make you part of the family of God. your, ancestry is not what's going to make it for you.

And that's gonna be, that's a foreign idea to them. Because their way of thinking is that Israel is God's people, and God rescues Israel as a people. And those are, that's their understanding of the prophecies, that's, that's, that's how they see their, their past and their future is in that light. but there, there, there are incompletions, in, in that whole picture.

That's one of the things when you read the, The argument of Stephen in Acts, and he, the argument that he makes, which is so inflammatory, he ends up getting killed for it, right? But it's such a brilliant argument for this very thing that, that of how in the history of Israel, there has, there have been rejections, points of rejection, and how God has, has, made, brought judgment for those things. And yet at this point in time, They aren't seeing themselves as being some as being individuals, they're seeing themselves as a group.

And this whole group is supposed to, to be redeemed by God, that God is supposed to rescue them all, but they're not.

They're not getting that here. And he is challenging that idea that it's the father who gives to the son. And then another statement that gets made a lot or made 3 times at least in this whole discourse is I will raise them on the last day. He's talking about eternal life for those who get brought to him by the Father.

They get eternal life. I will raise them on the last day. And so these, this gets mentioned 3 times. So these are important points that Jesus is making to these people who are at least at this point in time, not yet believing in Him.

They are struggling with their understanding. So, moving on to verse 41. Therefore, the Jews were grumbling about him because he said, I am the bread that came down out of heaven. 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? 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. Excuse me.

It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father.

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 1 may eat of it and not die.

I am the living bread that comes 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. Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, how can this man give his flesh to eat? 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 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 will live because of me.

This is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the fathers who ate and died. He who eats this bread will live forever. Now, if that doesn't twist your mind, then you're not paying attention. this is Jesus.

Really confronting them and they are going to go into a tizzy on this. In fact, as we're gonna see, they're, most of them are gonna quit following him. Objection number one that gets raised in this section. How can he be from heaven?

We know his parents. So we know he's just a guy like us. he was born, he was, he grew up in Galilee here just like most of us did. we know his parents.

How can he be from heaven? So that's the first objection, that they have. Objection number 2. No one can be greater than Moses, especially a carpenter's son.

Moses was very revered in the nation of Israel and rightly so. they had a very high view of Moses. He's one of the greatest people in, in their national history. and so they had this great view and, because of his, his writings of the Pentateuch, they In some, they studied at least parts of it, but as we have already seen, they don't really know at all.

And what they aren't understanding, of course, is who Jesus really is. They don't get it. They, and some of them never get it. And that's the, the point that John makes back in the preamble.

Remember, we read that. He came to his own. And his own received him not. But to as many as received him.

To them, he gave the right to become children of God. And so, that is, this is an example. Of what John meant when he said he came to his own and his own received and mocked. This is one of the examples that he gives of that.

They were objecting to Jesus saying, my bread is better than Moses' bread. How could that be? Jesus makes this point, and not subtly either. That those people ate the bread and what happened to them?

They died. They're not still around, I didn't give them eternal life. but my bread, Jesus says, gives eternal life. And That didn't sit well with them.

Objection 3 was that God would save all that he had chosen and those only. And as I already talked about, they're expecting national salvation, and he's talking particular salvation, individual salvation, and that the fact that, that God has chosen, God is bringing to him those who would believe, and they're not understanding this. he claimed to be bread from heaven. That was an objection.

And And their response to this is, how can we eat this? This doesn't fit our paradigm. How can we have this, have, have any understanding and that's, that's one of the things they, they say, these, these are difficult statements. Who can listen to it?

This, this makes no sense that they would say later on. Objection number 5, that it was necessary to partake. believing in the atonement that would be made. That again is not part of their thinking, that there would be a grand atonement that would cover the sins of the world.

They're used to sacrifices, offered up to cover their own sins. They're used to, one day a year, the day of atonement where they come and, and offer sacrifices for everything that's gotten missed. And so that's what they're used to, that, that, that their sins being covered by their, their, sacrifices that are made. they're not understanding that there's gonna have to be something bigger and greater.

That would, that would have to be taken and they're gonna have to partake in it. And Jesus making the statement that, you have to eat of my flesh and drink my blood. This is a, in, in our reading, this is a gruesome statement that this isn't that different from what they should be already thinking about coming up to Passover, right? They have to sacrifice this little lamb or the kid.

And, and roast the flesh of it and eat of the flesh. And so this is part of that, part of their thinking already that there's something that's that's, the deliverance comes from this and those, and even though that's symbolic, and they know it's symbolic, They're, they're not able to, to make the connection, because God had not enlightened their minds to be able to see it. That there would be atonement that they would have to believe in. Albert Barnes explains it this way, and he, he starts off with a plain meaning, and this goes back to our original question, what do we mean by literal interpretation?

What we mean by that is plain meaning. You read it and, and you see what, what is it, really said. Are there metaphors that are being talked about that we go with the plain meaning. We can clearly see that Jesus is talking in metaphors here, that he's tell, talking about himself symbolically.

And so the plain meaning of the passage is That by his bloody death, his body and his blood offered in sacrifice for sin, he would procure pardon and life for man, that they who partook of it, of that or had an interest in that should obtain eternal life. He uses the figure of eating and drinking because that was the subject of discourse, because the Jews prided themselves much on the fact that their fathers had eaten manna and because, as he had said, That he was the bread of life, it was natural and easy, especially in the language which he used to carry out the figure and say that bread must be eaten in order to be of any avail in supporting and saving men.

To eat and to drink among the Jews was also expressive of sharing in or partaking of the privileges of friendship. And so Jesus is taking their normal, their, their, the flow of conversation.

And he just adapts it and turns it around to, to say, this is what you have to do. You have to eat of my flesh, you have to drink of my blood. And, but it's part of their course of conversation. He's not trying to gross them out.

he's not trying to, to, in, in that way, so offend them that, that, that they would, just walk away. Although he does offend them. And in fact, It's interesting to me. That Jesus doesn't follow any of the rules of personal evangelism here.

If you've ever taken a, a, a class on personal evangelism where, you're learning how to, to share your faith and you're learning how to in some ways, be persuasive and to help people understand what the gospel is all about. Jesus throughout his ministry violates all those rules. Of course, he's Jesus and he gets to do it his way. But we do learn some things here and, and that is that people come to have faith and belief because God gives that to them, not because we persuaded them.

And yes, we should be knowledgeable about our faith and we should be able to share that as best we can. And be diligent with that. But understanding that it's God who changes the human heart, and everyone gets saved the same way, not because they were persuaded and talked into the kingdom, but because they humbled themselves before a holy God and repented of their sins and and expressed their faith in Jesus. That's how we come into the kingdom.

It, we all get saved that same way. We don't get to negotiate terms, and Jesus isn't negotiating here, is he? He's not trying to make a deal. No, he's just telling the cold hard facts.

This is it. All right. John chapter 6. Verse 64.

The second half of the verse really is what I wanted to, to get on with, 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. As a result of this, many of his disciples withdrew and were not walking with him anymore. Unlike the woman at the well and fellow Samaritans who happily received the living water, when the, the only miracle that they knew about was her testimony that he told me everything that I've ever done.

That was the miracle, the sign that they saw.

And yet they received with gladness, this living water. In fact, he and his disciples spent 3 days there. These people could not accept the bread of life. It was, it was too much for them.

it overwhelmed their sensibilities. This doesn't fit their theology. And so they walked away. They no longer followed them.

And I believe what we see here too is that Jesus perfectly, purposely exposed their unbelief. Rather than accept superficial acclaim. The day before, they want to make him king. They're excited.

They, they want all that. Jesus is putting the brakes on that, and he confronts them. On what was just superficial. we want bread and fish.

No, Jesus said, you need bread from heaven. And, and so they, they don't know how to handle this. They don't know where to put this in their theology. And, And so they, they just walk away.

So how do we apply this? Well, I like the way, this closes down. Verse 67, Jesus said to the 12, you do not want to go away also, do you? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. And so the The upshot is this, there are those who believe and there are those who don't believe. And with Jesus, there were those who did believe.

And faithfully followed him. And then there were those who didn't believe. And that's the reality of our world, isn't it? That's the way it is.

And, yet, as John said in, in chapter one, as many as received him. He gave the right to become children of God. He's not seeking. Fawning acolytes.

He's seeking those who will become children of God. That's what he's after. And how it is when people get, you get a group of people and they're all excited and enthusiastic and following after a person or after a, a, a rock group or after whatever it is, and they're cheering and they're happy and stuff. That's so shallow.

We all know it's shallow. we can even sense it ourselves. But what is real and substantial, that's what Jesus is looking for, the real belief, and that's why he wouldn't let them get away with their shallow enthusiasm for what he was doing. He wasn't gonna let them get away with that, and he doesn't let people today get away with that.

there needs to be something real. What, what is real is believing that he is the Christ, that he is the chosen one of God. This is intervention. God inserting Himself into the reclaiming of the relationship with mankind.

with, with the miracles that Jesus performed. It's so easy for some people to misunderstand the whole purpose and to see Jesus in, in the wrong light. These people did at the beginning. They're seeing him in the wrong light, and people today do that as well.

I've read a book where and, and seen accounts where people describe Jesus in his ministry in such trivial ways where, the, the miracles of throwing the nets on the other side, those, that happens twice with the, with the, the disciples. And so, they almost described Jesus as being the greatest fishing buddy that ever was because you never get skunked. And, and, well, that would be great to have a fishing buddy like that, but that's not what Jesus is. They read the miracle at the wedding of Cana, where he turned water into wine and they think, wow, what a great buddy that would be.

A great drinking buddy cause you never run out of hooch, right? but that's not what Jesus is. That's not why he did his miracles. Not to satisfy our physical desires.

But to point to something that we have a greater need, we have something that's, that's beyond what we can ever experience, a need that we can ever get filled with our physical world. That we're trapped really in this dimension and we need help from someone who's outside of it. And that someone is our creator. And that someone is our Creator who has entered into this creation with us, become one of us.

And has died for us and made a way for us, then to have life. And that was the purpose of his, his miracles, to demonstrate his power. There it is. And whoops.

Sorry. To clarify true belief and separate out the true believers and That's what Jesus does, clarifies the true belief. And separates out the true believers. Any questions or comments before we close?

I like the way he finishes with that last verse. We didn't, we didn't go to. Jesus answered and said, Did I not choose you, the 12, and one of you is the devil? And I think the application that I take from this is that, We're able to see beyond the physical aspects of the bread, we're able to see the spiritual nature of.

In understanding who Christ is and it's not just Purpose in life, but also the applications when we go out there is to understand people are always going to Temperate Humble amongst them because they're not going to Many of them Knowing that God does it. He's the one. Enjoy Right. a lot of people aren't gonna get it.

And, and as we talk to people, we should be praying for God to open their eyes. we're not gonna argue them. Into the kingdom. We're not going to persuade them into the family of God.

It's really the Holy Spirit who opens their eyes. And that from your own experience. Becoming a, a, a Christian, a follower of Christ, how it was for you that it wasn't someone else who talked you into it. But it was the Holy Spirit awakening you, opening your eyes and letting the light in, and then you have the understanding.

And that's the way it is for every single one of us. And so even like we have children that we've raised in the faith and we've taught them the best we can and, and, and we've prayed for them and, and maybe they even prayed a prayer when they were, small, and yet they grow up and, and it seems that they've, they've wandered off on their own. I've had that experience. I know what that's like.

And It's, we, we, we actually should feel helpless. We feel helpless and rightly so. Because we can't save them. We can't convince them it's not our place to do that.

Our place is to love them, to pray for them, to live out before them, what faith really is. But it's God who opens their heart and to see, our son. who went through this, during the end of his college years, then after that, when he did, come back to faith, when he came to faith and really grasped it was because God opened up his heart. Wasn't because I was such a great teacher and, I talked him into it.

No, actually, I felt pretty helpless. We had a lot of conversations and I'd walk away, sometimes in tears, sometimes just shaking my head, like, I can't get through. And you can't. None of us can.

We don't have that ability. God doesn't give us that ability. That's his realm. That's, that's his job.

And so our thing is to pray. We pray for them. We, we pray, we pray diligently because we love them, and we want them to know the truth. We want them to know forgiveness of sins, right?

We want them to know peace with God. We want them to, to know that there's purpose in life and that there's a future that they have, they can have a destiny with God. We don't want them stuck in the hopelessness of this realm and then The destruction of the realm after that, that we don't want that for them. so we pray, and we have loved ones, we have co-workers, people that, that, that God puts around us, and so we pray.

and, and we're available when the time comes. God chose with our son not to use us. God use other people. God has people all over the world that he uses to touch and, and to, to share, to shed light.

And so, be hopeful, be thankful with that. God is good to us, and God hears our prayers. All right, let's close in prayer. Thank you, Lord, for Your grace To help us to see the light.

And Lord, it does bring up to us The many that we care about that don't yet see it. And so Lord, I, I, I do ask that you help us to To be patient and to trust in your, your will, trust in what you're doing. Knowing that you are always right. That you never choose wrongly.

And And Lord, may we be able to be confident in your place, your plan that you have for all of us. We thank you for being the bread of life and for Giving us That chance to have eternal life. And we look forward to that day when we do get to truly experience it. Until then, Lord, may we be faithful in living out the lives that you've given to us to live in Jesus' name.

Amen.