João 6
Charles Spurgeon · Citado em PreceptAustin
João 6
Spurgeon says that it’s in all four gospels so that we won’t forget how much the Lord can do with little things that are yielded to Him. The feeding of the 5.000 precedes Jesus’ discourse on being the living Bread that comes down out of heaven to give His life for the world (Jn 6:32-58). So it’s also a miracle that points to salvation. John wrote this sign “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (Jn 20:31). (See his full message below How Christ Meets Needs) Training of the Twelve - A B Bruce - THE MIRACLE JOHN 6:1–15; MATT. 14:13–21; MARK 6:33–34; LUKE 9:11–17 THE sixth chapter of John’s Gospel is full of marvels. It tells of a great miracle, a great enthusiasm, a great storm, a great sermon, a great apostasy, and a great trial of faith and fidelity endured by the twelve. It contains, indeed, the compendious history of an important crisis in the ministry of Jesus and the religious experience of His disciples,—a crisis in many respects foreshadowing the great final one, which happened little more than a year afterwards, when a more famous miracle still was followed by a greater popularity, to be succeeded in turn by a more complete desertion, and to end in the crucifixion, by which the riddle of the Capernaum discourse was solved, and its prophecy fufilled.2 The facts recorded by John in this chapter of his Gospel may all be comprehended under these four heads: the miracle in the wilderness, the storm on the lake, the sermon in the synagogue, and the subsequent sifting of Christ’s disciples. These, in their order, we propose to consider in four distinct sections. The scene of the miracle was on the eastern shore of the Galilean Sea. Luke fixes the precise locality in the neighborhood of a city called Bethsaida. This, of course, could not be the Bethsaida on the western shore, the city of Andrew and Peter. But there was, it appears, another city of the same name at the north-eastern extremity of the lake, called by way of distinction, Bethsaida Julias.2 The site of this city, we are informed by an eye-witness, “is discernible on the lower slope of the hill which overhangs the rich plain at the mouth of the Jordan” (that is, at the place where the waters of the Upper Jordan join the Sea of Galilee). “The ‘desert place,’ ” the same author goes on to say, by way of proving the suitableness of the locality to be the scene of this miracle, “was either the green tableland which lies halfway up the hill immediately above Bethsaida, or else in the parts of the plain not cultivated by the hand of man would be found the ‘much green grass,’ still fresh in the spring of the year when this event occurred, before it had faded away in the summer sun: the tall grass which, broken down by the feet of the thousands then gathered together, would make ‘as it were, ‘couches’ for them to recline upon.” To this place Jesus and the twelve had retired after the return of the latter from their mission, seeking rest and privacy. But what they sought they did not find. Their movements were observed, and the people flocked along the shore toward the place whither they had sailed, running all the way, as if fearful that they might escape, and so arriving at the landing place before them. The multitude which thus gathered around Jesus was very great. All the evangelists agree in stating it at five thousand; and as the arrangement of the people at the miraculous repast in groups of hundreds and fifties made it easy to ascertain their number, we may accept this statement not as a rough estimate, but as a tolerably exact calculation. Such an immense assemblage testifies to the presence of a great excitement among the populations living by the shore of the Sea of Galilee. A fervid enthusiasm, a hero-worship, whereof Jesus was the object, was at work in their minds. Jesus was the idol of the hour: they could not endure his absence; they could not see enough of His work, nor hear enough of His teaching. This enthusiasm of the Galileans we may regard as the cumulative result of Christ’s own past labors, and in part also of the evangelistic mission which we considered in the last chapter. The infection seems to have spread as far south as Tiberias, for John relates that boats came from that city “to the place where they did eat bread.”3 Those who were in these boats came too late to witness the miracle and share in the feast, but this does not prove that their errand was not the same as that of the rest; for, owing to their greater distance from the scene, the news would be longer in reaching them, and it would take them longer to go thither. The great miracle wrought in the neighborhood of Bethsaida Julias consisted in the feeding of this vast assemblage of human beings with the utterly inadequate means of “five barley loaves and two small fishes.” It was truly a stupendous transaction, of which we can form no conception; but no event in the Gospel history is more satisfactorily attested. All the evangelists relate the miracle with much minuteness, with little even apparent discrepancy, and with such graphic detail as none but eye-witnesses could have supplied. Even John, who records so few of Christ’s miracles, describes this one with as careful a hand as any of his brother evangelists, albeit introducing it into his narative merely as a preface to the sermon on the Bread of Life found in his Gospel only. This wonderful work, so unexceptionably attested, seems open to exception on another ground. It appears to be a miracle without a sufficient reason. It cannot be said to have been urgently called for by the necessities of the multitude. Doubtless they were hungry, and had brought no victuals with them to supply their bodily wants. But the miracle was wrought on the afternoon of the day on which they left their homes, and most of them might have returned within a few hours. It would, indeed, have been somewhat hard to have undertaken such a journey at the end of the day without food; but the hardship, even if necessary, was far within the limits of human endurance. But it was not necessary; for food could have been got on the way without going far, in the neighboring towns and villages, so that to disperse them as they were would have involved no considerable inconvenience. This is evident from the terms in which the disciples made the suggestion that the multitude should be sent away. We read: “When the day began to wear away, then came the twelve, and said unto Him, Send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages and country round about, and lodge and get victuals.” In these respects there is an obvious difference between the first miraculous feeding and the second, which occurred at a somewhat later period at the south-eastern extremity of the Lake. On that occasion the people who had assembled around Jesus had been three days in the wilderness without aught to eat, and there were no facilities for procuring food, so that the miracle was demanded by considerations of humanity. Accordingly we find that compassion is assigned as the motive for that miracle: “Jesus called His disciples unto Him, and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat; and if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way; for some of them are come from far.”3 If our object were merely to get rid of the difficulty of assigning a sufficient motive for the first great miracle of feeding, we might content ourselves with saying that Jesus did not need any very urgent occasion to induce Him to use His power for the benefit of others. For His own benefit He would not use it in case even of extreme need, not even after a fast of forty days. But when the well-being (not to say the being) of others was concerned, He dispensed miraculous blessings with a liberal hand. He did not ask Himself: Is this a grave enough occasion for the use of divine power? Is this man ill enough to justify a miraculous interference with the laws of nature by healing him? Are these people here assembled hungry enough to be fed, like their fathers in the wilderness, with bread from heaven? But we do not insist on this, because we believe that something else and higher was aimed at in this miracle than to satisfy physical appetite. It was a symbolic, didactic, critical miracle. It was meant to teach, and also to test; to supply a text for the subsequent sermon, and a touchstone to try the character of those who had followed Jesus with such enthusiasm. The miraculous feast in the wilderness was meant to say to the multitude just what our sacramental feast says to us: “I, Jesus the Son of God Incarnate, am the bread of life. What this bread is to your bodies, I myself am to your souls.” And the communicants in that feast were to be tested by the way in which they regarded the transaction. The spiritual would see in it a sign of Christ’s divine dignity, and a seal of His saving grace; the carnal would rest simply in the outward fact that they had eaten of the loaves and were filled, and would take occasion from what had happened to indulge in high hopes of temporal felicity under the benign reign of the Prophet and King who had made His appearance among them. The miracle in the desert was in this view not merely an act of mercy, but an act of judgment. Jesus mercifully fed the hungry multitude in order that He might sift it, and separate the true from the spurious disciples. There was a much more urgent demand for such a sifting than for food to satisfy merely physical cravings. If those thousands were all genuine disciples, it was well; but if not—if the greater number were following Christ under misapprehension—the sooner that became apparent the better. To allow so large a mixed multitude to follow Himself any longer without sifting would have been on Christ’s part to encourage false hopes, and to give rise to serious misapprehensions as to the nature of His kingdom and His earthly mission. And no better method of separating the chaff from the wheat in that large company of professed disciples could have been devised, than first to work a miracle which would bring to the surface the latent carnality of the greater number, and then to preach a sermon which could not fail to be offensive to the carnal mind. That Jesus freely chose, for a reason of His own, the miraculous method of meeting the difficulty that had arisen, appears to be not obscurely hinted at in the Gospel narratives. Consider, for example, in this connection, John’s note of time, “The passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.” Is this a merely chronological statement? We think not. What further purpose, then, is it intended to serve? To explain how so great a crowd came to be gathered around Jesus?—Such an explanation was not required, for the true cause of the great gathering was the enthusiasm which had been awakened among the people by the preaching and healing work of Jesus and the twelve. The evangelist refers to the approaching passover, it would seem, not to explain the movement of the people, but rather to explain the acts and words of His Lord about to be related. “The passover was nigh, and”—so may we bring out John’s meaning—“Jesus was thinking of it, though He went not up to the feast that season. He thought of the paschal lamb, and how He, the true Paschal Lamb, would ere long be slain for the life of the world; and He gave expression to the deep thoughts of His heart in the symbolic miracle I am about to relate, and in the mystic discourse which followed.” The view we advocate respecting the motive of the miracle in the wilderness seems borne out also by the tone adopted by Jesus in the conversation which took place between Himself and the twelve as to how the wants of the multitude might be supplied. In the course of that conversation, of which fragments have been preserved by the different evangelists, two suggestions were made by the disciples. One was to dismiss the multitude that they might procure supplies for themselves; the other, that they (the disciples) should go to the nearest town (say Bethsaida Julias, probably not far off) and purchase as much bread as they could get for two hundred denarii, which would suffice to alleviate hunger at least, if not to satisfy appetite. Both these proposals were feasible, otherwise they would not have been made; for the twelve had not spoken thoughtlessly, but after consideration, as appears from the fact that one of their number, Andrew, had already ascertained how much provision could be got on the spot. The question how the multitude could be provided for had evidently been exercising the minds of the disciples, and the two proposals were the result of their deliberations. Now, what we wish to point out is, that Jesus does not appear to have given any serious heed to these proposals. He listened to them, not displeased to see the generous concern of His disciples for the hungry people, yet with the air of one who meant from the first to pursue a different line of action from any they might suggest. He behaved like a general in a council of war whose own mind is made up, but who is not unwilling to hear what his subordinates will say. This is no mere inference of ours, for John actually explains that such was the manner in which our Lord acted on the occasion. After relating that Jesus addressed to Philip the question, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? he adds the parenthetical remark, “This He said to prove him, for He Himself knew what He would do.”2 Such, then, was the design of the miracle; what now was its result? It raised the swelling tide of enthusiasm to its full height, and induced the multitude to form a foolish and dangerous purpose—even to crown the wonder-working Jesus, and make Him their king instead of the licentious despot Herod. They said, “This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world;” and they were on the point of coming and taking Jesus by force to make Him a king, insomuch that it was necessary that He should make His escape from them, and depart into a mountain Himself alone. Such are the express statements of the fourth Gospel, and what is there stated is obscurely implied in the narratives of Matthew and Mark. They tell how, after the miracle in the desert, Jesus straightway constrained His disciples to get into a ship and to go to the other side. Why such haste, and why such urgency? Doubtless it was late, and there was no time to lose if they wished to get home to Capernaum that night. But why go home at all, when the people, or at least a part of them, were to pass the night in the wilderness? Should the disciples not rather have remained with them, to keep them in heart and take a charge of them? Nay, was it dutiful in disciples to leave their Master alone in such a situation? Doubtless the reluctance of the twelve to depart sprang from their asking themselves these very questions; and, as a feeling having such an origin was most becoming, the constraint put on them presupposes the existence of unusual circumstances, such as those recorded by John. In other words, the most natural explanation of the fact recorded by the synoptical evangelists is, that Jesus wished to extricate both Himself and His disciples from the foolish enthusiasm of the multitude, an enthusiasm with which, beyond question, the disciples were only too much in sympathy, and for that purpose arranged that they should sail away in the dusk across the lake, while He retired into the solitude of the mountains.2 What a melancholy result of a hopeful movement have we here! The kingdom has been proclaimed, and the good news has been extensively welcomed. Jesus, the Messianic King, is become the object of most ardent devotion to an enthusiastic population. But, alas! their ideas of the kingdom are radically mistaken. Acted out, they would mean rebellion and ultimate ruin. Therefore it is necessary that Jesus should save Himself from His own friends, and hide Himself from His own followers. How certainly do Satan’s tares get sown among God’s wheat! How easily does enthusiasm run into folly and mischief! The result of the miracle did not take Jesus by surprise. It was what He expected; nay, in a sense, it was what He aimed at. It was time that the thoughts of many hearts should be revealed; and the certainty that the miracle would help to reveal them was one reason at least for its being worked. Jesus furnished for the people a table in the wilderness, and gave them of the corn of heaven, and sent them meat to the full, that He might prove them, and know what was in their heart,2—whether they loved Him for His own sake, or only for the sake of expected worldly advantage. That many followed Him from by-ends He knew beforehand, but He desired to bring the fact home to their own consciences. The miracle put that in His power, and enabled Him to say, without fear of contradiction, “Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled.” It was a searching word, which might well put all His professed followers, not only then, but now, on self-examining thoughts, and lead each man to ask himself, Why do I profess Christianity? is it from sincere faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Saviour of the world, or from thoughtless compliance with custom, from a regard to reputation, or from considerations of worldly advantage? Only the resurrection and the feeding of the 5000 are found in all 4 Gospels. Clearly feeding of the 5000 is very significant and one of the main points is that this miracle (largest number of people affected by one miracle) was clear demonstration that Jesus was God and not only God but Creator! In addition, in the Gospel of John, this miracle set the stage for segue into the profound teaching that Jesus Himself was the Bread of life (John 6:25-70). John
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Spurgeon - THE LAD’S LOAVES IN THE LORD’S HANDS - LOOK, there are the people! Five thousand of them, as hungry as hunters, and they all need to have food given to them, for they cannot any of them travel to buy it! And here is the provision! Five thin wafers—and those of barley, more fit for horses than for men—and two little anchovies, by way of a relish! Five thousand people and five little biscuits wherewith to feed them! The disproportion is enormous: if each one should have only the tiniest crumb, there would not be sufficient. In like manner, there are millions of people in London, and only a handful of whole-hearted Christians earnestly desiring to see the city converted to Christ; there are more than a thousand millions of men in this round world, and oh, so few missionaries breaking to them the bread of life; almost as few for the millions, as were these five barley cakes for those five thousand! The problem is a very difficult one. The contrast between the supply and the demand would have struck us much more vividly if we had been there, in that crowd at Bethsaida, than it does sitting here, nearly nineteen hundred years afterwards, and merely hearing about it. But the Lord Jesus was equal to the emergency: none of the people went away without sharing in his bounty; they were all filled. Our blessed Master, now that he has ascended into the heavens, has more rather than less power; he is not baffled because of our lack, but can even now use paltry means to accomplish his own glorious purposes; therefore let no man’s heart fail him. Do not despair of the evangelization of London, nor think it hopeless that the gospel should be preached in all nations for a testimony unto them. Have faith in God, who is in Christ Jesus; have faith in the compassion of the Great Mediator: he will not desert the people in their spiritual need, any more than he failed that hungry throng, in their temporal need, long ago CHOICE EXCERPTS FROM SERMON THE LAD’S LOAVES IN THE LORD’S HANDS .....When things get into Christ’s hands, they are in the very focus of miracles.....Notice, first, then, the providence of God in bringing the lad there ....Christ never is in need but he has somebody at hand to supply that need. Have faith in the providence of God ......Next, this lad with his loaves was brought into notice ......So, rest assured, that if you have the Bread of Life about you, and you are willing to serve God, you need not be afraid that obscurity will ever prevent your doing it .....in due time, when God wants you, he knows where to find you. You need not put an advertisement in the paper; he knows the street you live in, and the number on the door. You need not go and push yourself to the front; the Lord will bring you to the front when he wants you; and I hope that you do not want to get there if he does not want you .....When brought into notice, the loaves and fishes did not fare very well; they were judged insufficient for the purpose; for Andrew said, “What are they among so many?” ......Though seemingly inadequate to feed the multitude, these loaves and fishes would have been quite enough for the boy’s supper, yet he appears to have been quite willing to part with them .....Yes, but the boy whom God uses will not be selfish. Am I speaking to some young Christian to whom Satan says, “Make money first, and serve God by-and-by; stick to business, and get on; then, after that, you can act like a Christian, and give some money away ......I want to get hold of you who think that you have very little ability, and say to you, “Come, and bring it to Jesus.” .....Though nobody seems to need you, yet make bold to come out; and who knows but that, like Queen Esther, you may have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? God may have brought you where you are to make use of you for the converting of thousands ..... come and yield up to him all the little talent that you may have, and pray him to .....The time that you have not used for self, but given to Christ; the knowledge that you have not stored, as in a reservoir, but given to Christ; the ability that you have not wielded for the world, but yielded to Christ; your influence and position, your money and home, all put into Christ’s hands, and reckoned to be not your own, but to be his ......When the feast was finished, there were fragments to be gathered. This is a part of the history of the loaves—they were not lost; they were eaten, but they were there; people were filled with them, but yet there was more of them left than when the feast began. Each disciple had a basketful to carry back to his Master’s feet. Give yourself to Christ, and when you have used yourself for his glory, you will be more able to serve him than you are now; you shall find your little stock grow as you spend it. Remember Bunyan’s picture of the man who had a roll of cloth. He unrolled it, and he cut off so much for the poor. Then he unrolled it, and cut off some more, and the more he cut it, the longer it grew. Upon which Bunyan remarks— “There was a man, and some did count him mad; The more he gave away, the more he had.” Given thanks (2168)(eucharisteo from eucháristos = thankful, grateful, well-pleasing - Indicates the obligation of being thankful to someone for a favor done <> in turn from eú = well + charízomai = to grant, give.; English - Eucharist) means to show that one is under obligation by being thankful. To show oneself as grateful (most often to God in the NT). Eucharisteo is a word that at its very core (eu = good + charis = grace) means to acknowledge how good God's grace is! Thanksgiving expresses what ought never to be absent from any of our devotions. We should always be ready to express our grateful acknowledgement of past mercies as distinguished form the earnest seeking of future mercies. Eucharisteo - 37v - Matt. 15:36; Matt. 26:27; Mk. 8:6; Mk. 14:23; Lk. 17:16; Lk. 18:11; Lk. 22:17; Lk. 22:19; Jn. 6:11; Jn. 6:23; Jn. 11:41; Acts 27:35; Acts 28:15; Rom. 1:8; Rom. 1:21; Rom. 14:6; Rom. 16:4; 1 Co. 1:4; 1 Co. 1:14; 1 Co. 10:30; 1 Co. 11:24; 1 Co. 14:17; 1 Co. 14:18; 2 Co. 1:11; Eph. 1:16; Eph. 5:20; Phil. 1:3; Col. 1:3; Col. 1:12; Col. 3:17; 1 Thess. 1:2; 1 Thess. 2:13; 1 Thess. 5:18; 2 Thess. 1:3; 2 Thess. 2:13; Phlm. 1:4; Rev. 11:17 "A small circle of usefulness is not to be despised," observed Hudson Taylor, the pioneer missionary to China. When Jesus depicted usefulness, He often startled His listeners. He used a boy's picnic pak to make more than five thousand fish sandwiches for a supper on the grass. We know nothing about the boy except that he shared what he had. In contrast, the disciples worried about how much it would cost for this unplanned shindig—eight months of salary. The crowd was not exactly a grateful group; Jesus was nothing more to them than a fish-in-every-pot politician. The disciples and crowd both missed the point; perhaps the boy understood. A barley loaf in Jesus' hand became life-giving bread because it pointed to the Bread of Life; only He could take the insignificant and make it important. In the Old Testament, God did not give Israel water from the rock to promote the use of mineral water; He took common water and gave it uncommon symbolism. Every drop should have re-minded Israel of the everlasting Water of Life. To paraphrase Paul's words, we are nothing but old jelly jars; yet He takes what we have and who we are and reveals Himself through us (2 Cor. 4:7-12). When we are faithful in giving Him what we have, He increases our circle of usefulness. He takes all things great and small and makes them wise and wonderful. About halfway through a rehearsal conducted by Sir Michael Costa, with trumpets blaring, drums rolling, and violins singing their rich melody, the piccolo player muttered to himself, "What good am I doing? I might just as well not be playing. Nobody can hear me anyway." So he kept the instrument to his mouth, but he made no sound. Within moments, the conductor cried, "Stop! Stop! Where's the piccolo?" The most important person of all missed the piccolo's seemingly unimportant contribution. At certain times in life we all feel insignificant and useless. Sur-rounded by people with greater talent than ours, we are tempted in our weak moments just to settle back and "let George do it." We reason that what we have to offer won't make much difference anyway. We forget that Jesus used five loaves and two small fish to feed a multitude. Like that young boy on the mountainside, each of us has something important to offer, and we are foolish to hold back because we discount the value of our contribution. Whether our talent is great or small, the performance isn't complete until we do our best with what we have. —R W DeHaan In God's eyes it is a great thing to do a little thing well. John 6:12 When they were filled, He said to His disciples, "Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost." BGT John 6:12 ὡς δὲ ἐνεπλήσθησαν, λέγει τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ· συναγάγετε τὰ περισσεύσαντα κλάσματα, ἵνα μή τι ἀπόληται. KJV John 6:12 When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. NET John 6:12 When they were all satisfied, Jesus said to his disciples, "Gather up the broken pieces that are left over, so that nothing is wasted." CSB John 6:12 When they were full, He told His disciples, "Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted." ESV John 6:12 And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, "Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost." NIV John 6:12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." NLT John 6:12 After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, "Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted." When they were filled: Ne 9:25 Mt 14:20,21 15:37,38 Mk 6:42-44 8:8,9 Lu 1:53 9:17 so that nothing will be lost: Ne 8:10 Pr 18:9 Lu 15:13 16:1 John 6 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passages: Philippians 4:19+ And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. JESUS SATISFIES OUR HUNGER Yes, the crowd was physically filled, but tragically their souls were still empty! They lacked the heart attitude which Jesus had promised to bless in the Sermon on the Mount when He declared "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (chortazo)." (Mt 5:6+). Sadly, the crowd hungered for physical sustenance, not spiritual sustenance! When they were filled (empiplemi) When Jesus feeds you, you will be satisfied! He gives more than enough! This reminds us of Ephesians 3:20+ Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us. Brian Bell - Jesus takes a hopeless situation & turns it into a scene of hope! a) Jesus loves taking question marks & turning them into exclamation marks! (This is a Test and Wonder Bread) John Heading - The Lord provided all that was necessary to fill the people; additional kinds of food were quite irrelevant, a lesson today for some who are not solely satisfied with the sincere milk of the Word. He provided the right food (Luke 11:11), and it was with “good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over” (Luke 6:38). (What the Bible Teaches - John)
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Spurgeon - It did not matter however. For if his disciples be in a storm, so long as Christ is praying for them all the storms in the world are unable to sink them. They had a good protector. From the outlook of that hill his eyes, which could see through the distance, observed and regulated every breath of wind, and every wave upon the lake. (See Spurgeon's exposition of the Gospel of Matthew) Do you find yourself in a storm today? Ask God for the strength and courage to weather it and for the wisdom to understand it, not waste it. -- Warren Wiersbe Brian Bell - Did Jesus know the storm was coming? Yes. Did He deliberately direct them into the storm? Yes. Isn’t this like, telling a child to cross the street when you know a car is coming? No! It’s like, creating waves w/ your left hand in a bathtub & holding a toy boat perfectly afloat w/ your right hand. 2 Kinds of Storms: 1. Storms of Correction - When God disciplines us (eg. Jonah). (Heb 12:5-11, Ps 119:67, 71) 2 Storms of Perfection - When God helps us grow (eg. here). In the 1st storm, Jesus rode it with them (Mt 8). This one, He tests them being out of the boat. Do you think that obedience to God always brings smooth sailing? No! Sometimes obedience places you right in a storm. [i.e. every storm is not of the devil] a) Example: Acts 4. Peter & John, obediently preaching & teaching. Result? Jailed. Be assured, If He has brought you into the middle of a storm...He cares for you and He prays for you. (Mt 14:23+, Heb 7:25+, Ro 8:34+) We now are on the sea of humanity as He sits upon the shores of heaven interceding for us. What if I told you Jesus was right in this next room praying for you. Wouldn’t it not give you new courage to endure the storms/trials of life? He saw the disciples & knew their plight. (Mk. 6:48+) (This is a Test and Wonder Bread) J C
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Spurgeon - “The apostolic crew rowed, and rowed, and rowed, and it was no fault of theirs that they made no progress, ‘for the wind was contrary unto them.’ The Christian man may make little or no headway, and yet it may be no fault of his, for the wind is contrary. Our good Lord will take the will for the deed, and reckon our progress, not by our apparent advance, but by the hearty intent with which we tug at the oars.” “Moses,as a servant, by the power of God divided the sea. But Christ, the Lord of all, by His own power walked on the sea.” -- Theophylact They saw (theoreo) Jesus walking (peripateo - present active) on the sea and drawing near to the boat - They saw Jesus but Mark 6:48+ says Jesus saw them first "straining at the oars." Recall that in Jn 5:6+ Jesus saw the lame man lying there, even though the man did not see or know Him. Beloved, He is ever omniscient and thus still sees us when we are in the storm and "straining at the oars!" And He is always just "in the nick of time!" (Heb 4:16b, Heb 2:18) Mark 6:48 adds "He came to them, walking on the sea; and He intended to pass by them." Our trials cannot prevent Him from coming to us, even if we can’t imagine how He will do it. -- Steven Cole Robertson on saw (better "beheld") - Graphic dramatic present active voice indicative of [theoreo], vividly preserving the emotions of the disciples (Word Pictures)
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Spurgeon - Jesus is sure to come. The night wears on and the darkness thickens; the fourth watch of the night draws near, but where is he? Faith says, “He must come.” Though he should stay away till almost break of day, he must come. Unbelief asks, “How can he come?” Ah, he will answer for himself: he can make his own way. “Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.” He comes in the teeth of the wind, and on the face of the wave. Never fear that he will fail to reach the storm-tossed barque: his love will find out the way. Whither it be to a single disciple, or to the church as a whole, Jesus will appear in his own chosen hour, and his time is sure to be the most timely. (From his sermon Good Cheer From Christ's Real Presence) And they were frightened (phobeo) - "they became afraid.” Sudden change to the regular historical sequence." (Robertson Word Pictures) Twelve brave men are reduced to fear by a storm and a Savior. They recognized the storm but not the Savior. They should have been excited but were terrified. It would have been better perhaps if they had known the passage in Isaiah which says "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you." (Isaiah 43:2) THOUGHT - Are you passing through deep waters? Recall to your mind His promise "I will be with you!" Man's Extremity is God’s Opportunity. J C
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Spurgeon - I have known people who have been content to remain seekers all their days. They have felt comforted by the thought that they are seekers. Now, such comfort is daubed with untempered mortar. A man out of employment has been walking up and down the London streets to find something to do. His family is in need and he must find a situation. He is quite right to seek, but he will not be satisfied with seeking; he wants to find. Tramping the street will not feed his children. He is not contented with having called at many shops; he will not rest till he finds what he is after—he would be very foolish if he did. So to be a seeker after Christ, walking up and down the streets as it were, will not fill your hungry soul; you must get Christ himself. If any unemployed father of a family were to say, ‘Well, I walk about so many days in the week and so many hours in the day, and I am quite satisfied, though I do not find anything to do,’ you would think him a great simpleton. And so with you. It is a good sign when there is an appetite, but a mere appetite does not satisfy a man; he must eat the food provided. Your seeking Christ will not save you, unless it leads you in very deed to believe in Jesus. It is an ill sign when a man says, ‘Well, I am doing my best. I am always at a place of worship, I am a Bible reader, I practise prayer at home. I do my best.’ My dear friend, if you settle down in that idea, you are self-righteous and are off the road altogether; besides, you are lying to your own heart, for after all you are at enmity with God and the sign of that enmity is this, that you refuse to believe on his dear Son. If you were reconciled to God, you would love Jesus Christ and trust in him. (Seeking for Jesus) Robert Hawker - THIS, my soul, should be thy constant employment. Wherever thou art, however engaged; in going in, or out; at rising up, or lying down: whether in public, or private, in the church, or market-place; the closet, the family, the garden, the field, the house; the question ever arising in the heart should be, Where is Jesus? Blessed Spirit! thou glorifier of my Lord! wilt thou constantly excite this seeking for Jesus in my heart? Wilt thou, Lord, give me every moment a sense of need, then a view of his fulness, suitableness, readiness to impart, then bring Him, whom my soul loveth, and me together; and then open a communication, in leading me forth in desire, and giving me faith to receive, from the infinite fulness of my Lord, and grace for grace? Lord Jesus! I would desire grace to seek thee, as for hidden treasure. I would seek thee, and thee only, oh! my God. I would separate myself from all other things. It is Jesus my soul chooseth, my soul needs. I would trust in nothing beside No duties, no works; neither prayers nor repentance; no nor faith itself, considered as an act of my soul, shall be my comfort, but Jesus alone I would make my centre; and every thought, and every affection, and every desire, like so many streams meeting in one, should all pour themselves, as rivers, into the ocean of thy bosom! And the nearer, as a stream that draws near the sea is propelled to fall into it, so the more forcible and vehement let my soul be in desires after thee, as my soul draweth nearer the hour of seeing thee. Oh! Lamb of God! give me to be seeking after thee through life, pressing after thee from one ordinance to another; and when ordinances cease, and all outward comforts fail, then, Lord, may I gather up (as the dying patriarch did his feet in the bed) all my strength, and pour my whole soul into thine arms, crying out, I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. John 6:25 When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, "Rabbi, when did You get here?" BGT John 6:25 καὶ εὑρόντες αὐτὸν πέραν τῆς θαλάσσης εἶπον αὐτῷ· ῥαββί, πότε ὧδε γέγονας; KJV John 6:25 And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? NET John 6:25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?" CSB John 6:25 When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, " Rabbi, when did You get here?" ESV John 6:25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" NIV John 6:25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?" NLT John 6:25 They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, "Rabbi, when did you get here?" NRS John 6:25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?" NJB John 6:25 When they found him on the other side, they said to him, 'Rabbi, when did you come here?' NAB John 6:25 And when they found him across the sea they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?" YLT John 6:25 and having found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, 'Rabbi, when hast thou come hither?' Rabbi: John 1:38-39 John 6 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passages: John 1:38-39+ And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?” 39 He *said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. Matthew 6:33+ “But seek (present imperative see our need to depend on the Holy Spirit to obey) first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. CROWD QUESTIONS THE RABBI When they found (heurisko) Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, "Rabbi (rhabbi), when did You get here?" - This is a fair question. Even better would have been "How did You get here?" This is the first of 6 questions the Jews ask Jesus in His teaching on the Bread of Life and they increase in antagonism with each question - notice how they move from works, to unbelief, to clear cut rejection (Jn 6:25, 28, 30, 42, 52, 60). The spiritual eyes of these Jews were blinded and they miss the sign of His supernatural transit across the lake. Jesus does not directly answer their question. Rabbi (4461) rhabbi from Hebrew rab 07227 = >400x in OT - great one, master, chief) means my master (most common rendering in KJV) or my teacher. It was an respectful title of honor by which one would address a teacher who was recognized for their expertise in the Mosaic Law or Scriptures. Jesus' disciples repeatedly address Him as Rabbi (Jn. 4:31; Jn. 6:25; Jn. 9:2; Jn. 11:8) The suffix -bi signified "my master" "and was a title of respect by which teachers were addressed. The suffix soon lost its specific force, and in the NT the word is used as courteous title of address." (Vine) It is interesting that In Mt. 23:7-8 Jesus forbade His disciples to desire to use it ("do not be called Rabbi"). " (Was Jesus a rabbi?) Rabbi - 15x in 15v - Matt. 23:7; Matt. 23:8; Matt. 26:25; Matt. 26:49; Mk. 9:5; Mk. 11:21; Mk. 14:45; Jn. 1:38; Jn. 1:49; Jn. 3:2; Jn. 3:26; Jn. 4:31; Jn. 6:25; Jn. 9:2; Jn. 11:8. Not found in the Septuagint. See Wikipedia on Rabbi. John 6:26 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. BGT John 6:26 Ἀπεκρίθη αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς καὶ εἶπεν· ἀμὴν ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ζητεῖτέ με οὐχ ὅτι εἴδετε σημεῖα, ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι ἐφάγετε ἐκ τῶν ἄρτων καὶ ἐχορτάσθητε. KJV John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. NET John 6:26 Jesus replied, "I tell you the solemn truth, you are looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate all the loaves of bread you wanted. CSB John 6:26 Jesus answered, " I assure you: You are looking for Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled. ESV John 6:26 Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. NIV John 6:26 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. NLT John 6:26 Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. NRS John 6:26 Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. NJB John 6:26 Jesus answered: In all truth I tell you, you are looking for me not because you have seen the signs but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat. NAB John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. YLT John 6:26 Jesus answered them and said, 'Verily, verily, I say to you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw signs, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were satisfied; Truly, truly John 6:47,53 3:3,5 you seek Me: John 6:15,64 Ps 78:37 Ps 106:12-14 Eze 33:31 Ac 8:18-21 Ro 16:18 Php 2:21 3:19 1Ti 6:5 Jas 4:3,4 John 6 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passages: Psalm 106:12-14 Then they believed His words; They sang His praise. They quickly forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel, But craved intensely in the wilderness, And tempted God in the desert. Isaiah 55:6-7 Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. CONFRONTATIVE DISCOURSE AT CAPERNAUM Steven Cole prefaces his sermon on this section asking "What are you seeking for in life? We all seek happiness, but where are you looking for that happiness?" Cole then addresses what and who we should be seeking in his full sermon Seeking Jesus Rightly (see full message below) Jesus answered them and said, "Truly, truly (amen, amen), I say to you - Another "Amen, Amen" (1 of 25 times, only in John) saying calling attention to the importance and truth of what follows, so the hearers had better give ear and even better give heart (and heed what they hear - cf Ro 10:9-10). His declaration about their motives is a clear indication that Jesus supernaturally read what was in their hearts even as John had written earlier stating "He knew all men and...He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man." (Jn 2:24-25+) In John 5:42+ speaking to a group of antagonistic Jews in Jerusalem after healing the lame man on the Sabbath declared to them "I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves." Mark it down beloved! Jesus knows our heart! Are you as convicted as I am? W E Vine divides his second discourse "into two parts: (1) Jn 6:26-40, (2) Jn 6:43-59. The first answers the application of the multitude to Him because of the miracle that He had wrought; the second is a reply to the murmuring of the Jews. (ED: THIS IS ACTUALLY Jn 41-51) Each part contains the same two leading truths, (1) that Christ is the Bread of Life, (2) that as such He came from Heaven to earth to give life to men. These subjects are conveyed in four distinct statements in each section." Jesus says you are looking for temporal satisfaction, not eternal salvation. They sought gratification of their flesh, but salvation of their souls! You seek (zeteo - present tense) Me, not (absolute negation) because you saw signs (semeion), but because you ate of the loaves (artos) and were filled (chortazo) - Now Jesus confronts the fickle crowd! They had missed the supernatural and could only focus on the natural. Their motive for seeking Him was selfish and distorted, so He seeks to get their full attention by using Truly, truly. Jesus says you are looking for temporal satisfaction, not eternal salvation. They sought gratification of their flesh, but salvation of their souls! In Jn 6:2 they followed Him because of His supernatural signs and now their motive for following Him was natural food! In short, they had filled stomachs but empty souls! John Heading - The Lord knew why the people were seeking Him; He knew their hearts (cf. John 1:47; 2:25; 3:20; 4:18; 5:6; 6:61). To them, the sign meant nothing; as they had sat around on the grass, most must have been at a distance from the Lord, so had not seen what had taken place. Neither did they care; they were merely interested in receiving and partaking of free food without having to work for it. This is an entirely carnal attitude towards the Lord and His work, a very low appreciation of a miracle. Moreover, when the Lord said, “Ye seek me”, He was referring to their carnal attitude in seeking for more free food; others sought for Him with similar base motives, as in Jn 7:34; 8:21; 18:4, 8. Yet others sought Him spiritually, as in Jn 1:38; Jn 13:33. (What the Bible Teaches - John) Comment - They must have missed His Sermon on the Mount where He commanded the hearers "But seek (present imperative see our need to depend on the Holy Spirit to obey) first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Mt 6:33+) R Kent
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Spurgeon - Faith is the creature acknowledging its God. While a man says, ‘I do not care about my soul,’ he lives in atheism, disowning God, living as if there were no God. When a man says, ‘I need no saving,’ that is contradicting God’s testimony, wherein he declares that we ‘are all gone out of the way’ and have altogether become abominable. When a man says, ‘I may be wrong, but I can get right of myself. My own good deeds will save me,’ he is setting himself up in independence of his God, in fact, making himself his own God, and so, practically, setting up another God. But when the man cries, ‘I have sinned,’ there is an acknowledgment that the law is ‘holy, and just, and good.’ When he then adds, ‘I have so sinned that I deserve punishment, and I submit myself to it,’ there is a recognition of the court of heaven, and an admission of the righteousness of its sentences. The rebellious heart submits itself to the authority of God. When he further says, ‘But I have heard, great God, that thou hast given thy Son to bleed and die for sinners, and that he is able to save to the uttermost them that trust him, and I do trust him,’ the submission of the man to God is complete. Before, he said, ‘I do not believe it. It does not stand to reason’; that is proud reason still a rebel. Or he said, ‘It may or may not be so, but I do not see the peculiar beauty of an atoning sacrifice.’ There again is the proud heart kicking against God. But the man comes into his right place when he believes. When he believes in Jesus Christ and accepts mercy through the great sacrifice, God is well pleased because his poor erring creature has come into its right place, and God sees in the act of faith the restitution of rectitude. (Sermon - A Plain Answer to an Important Enquiry) John 6:30 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? BGT John 6:30 Εἶπον οὖν αὐτῷ· τί οὖν ποιεῖς σὺ σημεῖον, ἵνα ἴδωμεν καὶ πιστεύσωμέν σοι; τί ἐργάζῃ; KJV John 6:30 They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work? NET John 6:30 So they said to him, "Then what miraculous sign will you perform, so that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? CSB John 6:30 "What sign then are You going to do so we may see and believe You?" they asked. "What are You going to perform? ESV John 6:30 So they said to him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? NIV John 6:30 So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? NLT John 6:30 They answered, "Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? (NOTE: I DO NOT THINK THIS IS AN ACCURATE PARAPHRASE. THE JEWS DID NOT SAY "BELIEVE IN YOU" AS JESUS INSTRUCTED BUT "BELIEVE YOU." I THINK THERE IS A DIFFERENCE.) NRS John 6:30 So they said to him, "What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing? YLT John 6:30 They said therefore to him, 'What sign, then, dost thou, that we may see and may believe thee? what dost thou work? What then do You do for a sign: John 2:18 4:8 Ex 4:8 1Ki 13:3,5 Isa 7:11-14 Mt 12:38,39 16:1-4 Mk 8:11 Lu 11:29,30 Ac 4:30 1Co 1:22 Heb 2:4 so that we may see, and believe You: John 6:36 10:38 12:37 20:25-29 Isa 5:19 Mk 15:32 John 6 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passages: 1 Corinthians 1:22+ For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; JEWS CHALLENGE JESUS FOR A SIGN BEFORE THEY BELIEVE So - For this reason. What reason? He had just stated that they needed to believe in Him whom He has sent. So they now seek to challenge His credentials (as if they have not already seen an abundance of evidence of Who He was!) Remember also that these are the same Jews about which John had said "when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” (Jn 6:14). "As if the sign of the day before was without value." (ATR) But they demand more evidence that He was sent from God. THOUGHT - Are we not at times just like the spiritually obtuse crowd, so quickly forgetting what God has so miraculously done in our lives in the recent past. Lord, keep us from spiritual amnesia. Amen They said to Him, "What then do You do for a sign (semeion), so that (hina - purpose clause) we may see, and believe (pisteuo) You? - While it may not be significant, I think it is - the Jews responded "believe You," NOT "believe in (eis) You," which He had instructed in Jn 6:29. The Jews demand proof! He has already done many signs, including the bread sign 24 hours earlier, and yet they still have not believed! "It is hard to have patience with this superficial and almost sneering mob." (ATR) Signs authenticated His message of salvation (cf Jn 6:27 = Father's "seal" of approval/authentication), but it was only by believing His message that one could be saved, not by believing the signs! It is interesting that they equate the sign they call for with a work He would do. These Jews have been misled by the false teaching of the Pharisees who were "blind guides of the blind." (Mt 15:14+). THOUGHT - How often you hear people say "Well, if I saw those miracles I would believe in Jesus." That is a smokescreen. First, they know Jesus is not going to appear and perform miracles and second, they would not believe in Him even if He did appear and perform miracles. Faith must be placed in Jesus based on His Word, not on His miracles which simply and powerfully authenticate His Word. Does He still perform miracles for the lost to see? Absolutely! If you are reading this and it makes sense to you, you are an illustration of the supernatural work of the Spirit of Christ giving you a new heart (2Co 5:17+)! I would submit your salvation and new life in Christ lived out before those who knew the old you, is more miraculous that any of Jesus' miracles 2000 years ago! And your miracle is not one and done, but daily gives evidence of the "sign" of salvation! (cf 2Co 2:14-16+)! Don't hide your miracle under a bushel basket beloved! (Mt 5:14-16+)! Sing it out - This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine (try not to tap your feet)!!! They wanted to see first, then to believe. This is inverting God’s order. -- D L Moody What work do You perform (ergazomai)? - The NLT says "What can you do?" What work do You work? Think about the audacity and ignorance of that question! Jesus has just accomplished an incredible work! 5000+ people were just filled to the brim with bread in a deserted place and they do not have eyes to see this as a clear sign! Unbelief and hardness of heart invariably make one spiritually blind (see 1Co 2:14+)! I think of the before and after with Paul because of the supernatural work of the Spirit on his heart Luke recording that "immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales." (Acts 9:18+). These Jews were like people from Missouri, the "show me" state! They held to the old saying "Seeing is believing." Jesus tells them, they have the saying inverted! Warren
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Spurgeon - Soul-Satisfying Bread - John 6:35 All believers bear witness that Jesus Christ is satisfying bread to them. When do you get most satisfied on a Sunday? I do not know whom you may happen to hear, but what Sabbath days are the best to you? When your minister rides the high horse and gives you a splendid oration, and you say, ‘Dear me, it is wonderful,’ have you ever felt satisfied to think it over on the Monday? Have you ever felt satisfied with sermons composed of politics and morality, or very nice essays which would suit the Saturday Review if they were a little more caustic? Do you enjoy such meat? I will tell you when I enjoy a Sunday most—when I preach Christ most, or when I can sit and hear a humble village preacher exalt the Lord Jesus. It does not matter if the grammar is spoilt as long as Jesus is there. What some call platitudes are dainties to me if they glorify my Lord Jesus Christ. Anything about him is satisfying to a renewed spirit—cannot you bear witness to that? Sometimes when I have preached up Jesus Christ—and I think I generally do so, for the fact is I do not know anything but him, and I am ‘determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified’—I know you go away and say, ‘That is what we want—Christ crucified, Christ the sinner’s substitutionary sacrifice, no sham Christ, no mere talk about Christ as an example, but his flesh and blood, a dying, bleeding, suffering Christ: that is what we want.’ Now I have the witness of every Christian here to that! You are never satisfied with anything but that, are you? No matter how cleverly the doctrine might be analysed, or however orthodox it might be, you cannot be content with it; you must have the person of Christ, the flesh and the blood of Christ, or else you are not content. James Butler - BREAD John 6:35 “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” Jesus described Himself in many different ways. One of the ways He described Himself was to tell the people He was the bread of life. We use the term “bread” to mean the staff of life, that is, it refers to more than just bread. It is the main thing for survival. This bread which Jesus speaks of will bring you eternal life. As physical bread gives you physical life so does spiritual bread gives life which is in Christ. FIRST—THE SOURCE OF THE BREAD “I am the bread of life.” There is no doubt as to Who the bread of life is in our text. It speaks of Jesus Christ. This means that Christ is what man needs the most. Christ will give man life, eternal life. No bread on this earth will do anything close to that. Christ is what man needs the most. Now there are many substitutes on the market. The devil sees to that. These substitutes are often cleverly packaged and put in enticing wrappers but immorality, drugs, loose living and other similar lifestyles are not the bread our text is speaking about. Our text is speaking of Jesus Christ, the true bread of life. SECOND—THE STIPULATION FOR THE BREAD “He that cometh to me … believeth on me” The only stipulation to obtain this bread is to come to Jesus Christ. This means that the bread if available to anyone if they will by faith come to Christ for soul salvation. There have been, periodically, free food giveaways. However, there are so many conditions laid down to obtain the food, that it means the free food is not available to all. But the stipulation to the best bread of all makes it available to all people. The Gospel is the Gospel of “Whosoever.” It is only limited in the stipulation of coming after Christ. Income, family size, where you live etc. do not affect whether or not you can have this bread. It is available to all. THIRD—THE SATISFACTION OF THE BREAD “Shall never hunger … shall never thirst.” Jesus Christ satisfies. He does not disappoint. Once I was visiting a person who had tried everything in life and admitted that none of it satisfied. Is it any wonder that the person tried to commit suicide. Thankfully the person came to Christ and found that He satisfies like nothing else. The world claims they will satisfy you. That is their big advertisement pitch. But after you have tasted of the bread of the world, you wake up the next morning with a dark brown taste in your mouth and an emptiness that the world cannot fill. But Christ satisfies. I have never net a person who after they came to Christ wanted to leave Christ, for He did not satisfy the longing of their soul. Christ does not bring emptiness to your heart and soul, but He fills it to the brim so you are completely satisfied. After partaking of Christ you will “never” hunger or thirst but will be satisfied with His bread. (Sermon Starters) C H Spurgeon - Soul Satisfying Bread (excerpt from his sermon) (LISTEN TO AUDIO) - OUR Saviour used expressions concerning himself which might be turned to another meaning than he intended. He did not guard his words by saying, “I am like bread, and faith is like eating and drinking;” but he said, “I am the bread of life;” and “except a man eat my flesh and drink my blood there is no life in him.” He did this not only because from his own sincerity of heart it was not in him to be for ever fencing around all his speeches, but also with a set purpose, because his speech was so plain that if any man misunderstood him it would be the result of his own perversity of mind, and not the effect of any obscurity in the Lord’s language. Thus by fixing a low and sensual meaning upon elevated spiritual language the men of his time would be discovered to be none of the Lord’s chosen, and the thoughts of many hearts would be revealed. While he was preaching, his words were like a refiner’s fire, bringing out the pure metal, but separating it from the dross, and making that dross to appear the worthless thing which it really was. It would clearly appear that men hated the light when they perverted the clearest expressions of the Lord of light into foolishness or mystery. Our Lord’s mission was not so much to save all whom he addressed, as to save out of them as many as his Father gave him; and he used his mode of speaking as a test: those who were his understood him; those who were not his and were not taught of the Father, viciously put a literal meaning upon his spiritual words, and so missed his divine teaching. To this day the memorable expressions of our Lord in this chapter remain a stumblingblock to some, while they are full of glorious instruction to others. We see the world every day parting more and more definitely into two camps, the camp of the chosen of God, to whom is made known the mystery of the kingdom, the babes in grace who read the simple teaching of the gospel and rejoice in it; and on the other side the carnal host who hear the word, but look no deeper than its outward letter, to whom it becomes a “savour of death unto death,” because they pervert the Lord’s spiritual word to a carnal meaning, and straightway heap unto themselves abounding ceremonies, and pierce themselves through with deadly errors. I scarcely think that the prominence of sacramentarianism nowadays is to be altogether regretted; it is only a more clear and manifest severing of the precious from the vile. There is a division as marked as between death and life, and as deep as hell, between the spiritual church which believes in Jesus, and the carnal church which believes in sacraments; between the regenerate who look to Christ upon the cross, and the twice dead who believe in a piece of bread and pay reverence to a wine cup But now, speaking to those to whom the Lord has given to understand his meaning, let me say, our Saviour uses very simple figures. Think of his calling himself bread! How condescending, that the commonest article upon the table should be the fullest type of Christ! Think of his calling our faith an eating and a drinking of himself! Nothing could be more instructive; at the same time nothing could better set forth his gentleness and humility of spirit, that he does not object to speak thus of our receiving him. God be thanked for the simplicity of the gospel. The longer I live the more I bless God that we have not received a classical gospel, or a mathematical gospel, or a metaphysical gospel; it is not a gospel confined to scholars and men of genius, but a poor man’s gospel, a ploughman’s gospel; for that is the kind of gospel which we can live upon and die upon. It is to us not the luxury of refinement, but the staple food of life. We want no fine words when the heart is heavy, neither do we need deep problems when we are lying upon the verge of eternity, weak in body and tempted in mind. At such times we magnify the blessed simplicity of the gospel. Jesus in the flesh made manifest becomes our soul’s bread, Jesus bleeding on the cross, a substitute for sinners, is our soul’s drink. This is the gospel for babes, and strong men want no more. Again, it strikes me as being very noteworthy, and especially very worthy of thanks, that our Saviour has taken metaphors of a very common character, so that if our hearts are but right we cannot go anywhere but what we are reminded of him. At our tables we are very apt to forget the best things; the indulgence of the appetite is not very promotive of spirituality, yet we cannot sit down to table but what the piece of bread speaks to us and says, “Poor soul, you want even bread to be given you, you are so needy that your bread must be the gift of heavenly charity. Jesus has come down from heaven to keep you from absolute starvation; he has come down to be bread and water to you.” As you take up that loaf and think of the processes through which it has passed before it has become bread, it preaches a thousand sermons to you concerning the sowing of Jesus as a grain of wheat in the earth, his grinding between the millstones of divine wrath, his passing through the fiery oven. We see the sufferings of Jesus in every crumb we put into our mouths. Why, the Lord has hung the heavens with his name, and made them tell of his love: yon sun proclaims the Sun of Righteousness, and every star speaks of the Star of Bethlehem. You cannot walk your garden, or go into the streets, or open a door, or put on your dress, without being reminded of the Lord Jesus. I remember once visiting a poor Christian in the hospital, who had often attended my ministry, and he said, “Why, sir, you have given us so many illustrations, that as I lie in bed everything I see, or hear, or read of, brings to mind something in your sermons.” How much more true is this of our Great Teacher: we are glad that he has hung up the gospel everywhere, till every dewdrop reflects him, and every wind whispers his name. Day and night talk to each other of him, and the hours commune concerning things to come. With this as a preface, let us come to our subject. Soul Satisfying Bread “Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly, While the raging billows roll, While the tempest still is high. Hide me, O my Saviour, hide Till the storm of life be past.” “Come, guilty souls, and flee away, Like doves to Jesus’ wounds; This is the accepted gospel day Wherein free grace abounds.” Kenneth Osbeck - JUST AS I AM Charlotte Elliott, 1789–1871 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never go hungry, and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and whoever comes to Me I will never drive away.” (John 6:35, 37) Often we feel that if only we were in different circumstances or had some special talent, we could be a better witness for God and serve Him more effectively. Today’s hymn was written by a bed-ridden invalid who felt useless to do anything except express her feelings of devotion to God. Yet Charlotte Elliott’s simply worded text has influenced more people for Christ than any hymn ever written or perhaps any sermon ever preached. As a young person in Brighton, England, Miss Elliott was known as “carefree Charlotte.” She was a popular portrait artist and a writer of humorous verse. At the age of 30, however, a serious ailment made her an invalid for life. She became listless and depressed until a well-known Swiss evangelist, Dr. Caesar Malan, visited her. Sensing her spiritual distress, he exclaimed, “Charlotte, you must come just as you are—a sinner—to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Immediately placing her complete trust in Christ’s redemptive sacrifice for her, Charlotte experienced inner peace and joy in spite of her physical affliction until her death at the age of 82. Charlotte Elliott wrote approximately 150 hymns throughout her lifetime; today she is considered to be one of the finest of all English hymnwriters. “God sees, God guards, God guides me,” she said. “His grace surrounds me and His voice continually bids me to be happy and holy in His service—just where I am!” Just as I am, without one plea but that Thy blood was shed for me, and that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come! I come! Just as I am, tho tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt, fightings and fears within, without, O Lamb of God, I come! I come! Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind—Sight, riches, healing of the mind, yea, all I need in Thee to find—O Lamb of God, I come! I come! Just as I am, Thou wilt receive, wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve; because Thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come! I come! For Today: Psalm 51:1, 2; John 1:29; John 3:16; Ephesians 2:13 Give God thanks for His acceptance of us just as we are. As we respond in simple faith to Him, we will find “all that we need,” not only for our personal salvation but also for the particular place of service that He has for us. (Borrow Amazing grace) This Ain’t the Ritz Scripture: John 6:35–40, especially verse 37b: . . . the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. Introduction: If we visited Paris and strolled like gaudy sightseers into the gilded lobby of the Ritz Hotel at the Place Vendôme, the concierge would look on us with disapproval. The hotel is exclusive, and we wouldn’t feel comfortable milling around in our tourist garb. I wonder if some people feel similarly uncomfortable coming to church—or coming to Christ? Does anyone feel unworthy of Christ, thinking their life is too soiled or their past too messed up? The Lord’s response: “The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.” The Greek phrase is emphatic: “I will absolutely never reject—cast out—the one who is coming to me.” This verse has comforted many people. 1. Personal Examples A. While dying, Bishop Joseph Butler fell into uncertainty. A sense of his own sinfulness filled him with terrible concern. A friend, trying to comfort him, said, “You know, sir, that Jesus is a great Savior.” “Yes,” replied Butler, “I know He died to save. But how shall I know He died to save me?” “My lord,” said the friend, “it is written that him who cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out!” Butler’s eyes brightened. “I am surprised that, though I have read that scripture a thousand times, I never felt its virtue until this moment. Now I die happy.” B. A man came to D. L. Moody, thinking his life was so messed up that not even God could help him. Moody quoted this verse: “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” The man had further objections, but was finally converted through this verse. C. W. F. Thompson was converted by seeing this verse in a Gideon Bible while recovering from a gunshot wound. He later entered the ministry. D. John Bunyan was poorly educated, the son of a tinker—a mender of pots and pans. He was godless and his language was vile. One day he overheard some women talking about the Lord. He was impressed by their words and demeanor, and he craved this kind of life; but, fearing he had committed the unpardonable sin, he sank into depression. One day he found John 6:37. That verse changed his life, and later, in Pilgrim’s Progress, he used it to point poor Pilgrim to Christ. E. Charlotte Elliott of Brighton, England, was an embittered invalid. Hoping to help her, a Swiss minister, Dr. Cesar Malan, visited her. Over dinner, Charlotte lost her temper and railed against God. Her family left the room, and Dr. Malan, alone with her, stared at her across the table, saying, “You are tired of yourself, aren’t you?” “What is your cure?” asked Charlotte. “The faith you are trying to despise.” As they talked, Charlotte softened. “If I wanted to become a Christian and to share the peace and joy you possess,” she asked, “what would I do?” “You would give yourself to God just as you are now.” Charlotte did come just as she was. Her heart was changed that day. As time passed, she found and claimed John 6:37 as a special verse for her. Charlotte later wrote a poem which was sold across England in a leaflet that was headlined with John 6:37. Underneath was Charlotte’s poem, which became the famous invitational hymn: “Just As I Am.” 2. Biblical Examples. Levi was despised, but Jesus came to him, loved him, received him, and made him a new person. Bartimaus’ friends told him to keep quiet, but Jesus heard his voice. A demon-possessed woman named Mary Magdalene was scorned by her own people, but Jesus made her into a new person. Conclusion: The operative word is “Come.” Him that cometh to Me . . . What does it mean to come to Jesus? • “C” stands for “Confess your sins.” • “O” stands for “Open your heart.” • “M” stands for “Meet the Master.” • “E” stands for “Enter into everlasting life.” Come to Me I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger. — John 6:35 Today's Scripture & Insight: John 6:30-40 When Jesus lived on this earth, He invited people to come to Him, and He still does today (John 6:35). But what do He and His Father in heaven have that we need? Salvation. Jesus is the only way to have forgiveness of sin and the promise of heaven. “Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:15). Purpose. We are to give all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength to following Jesus. “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mark 8:34). Comfort. In trial or sorrow, the “God of all comfort . . . comforts us in all our tribulation” (2 Cor. 1:3-4). Wisdom. We need wisdom beyond our own for making decisions. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, . . . and it will be given to him” (James 1:5). Strength. When we’re weary, “the Lord will give strength to His people” (Ps. 29:11). Abundant life. The fullest life is found in a relationship with Jesus. “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). How can I grow closer to God today? Jesus invites us to come to Him for life. Our Basic Need I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger. —John 6:35 Today's Scripture: John 6:26-35 Field Marshal William Slim was leading the British forces during the Burma campaign of World War II. Concerned about the men under his command, he learned that one soldier was extremely despondent over bad news from home. So the commander asked his senior chaplain to have a member of his staff talk to the soldier. Shortly afterward, the field marshal sent for the senior chaplain. Keenly dissatisfied and upset, he said, “One of your chaplains went to see the man. He was very nice and they drank a cup of tea together, but he never showed the soldier what he needed to see.” “And what was that?” the surprised chaplain asked. Field Marshal Slim answered, “The Man on the cross.” Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (Jn. 6:35). When we interact with needy people, it’s important to remember that Jesus is the answer to their loneliness, depression, and heartache. It’s true that we must be pleasant and sociable, but we must also point them to the Man on the cross, the sin-bearing Savior in whom there is forgiveness, strength, grace, and hope. Until You Are Full I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. —John 6:35 Today's Scripture: John 6:25-29 A friend who lives in Singapore told me about an old Chinese greeting. Instead of “How are you?” people would ask “Have you eaten until you are full?” The greeting likely originated during a time when food was scarce and many people did not know when they would have their next meal. When food was available, it was advisable to eat until they were full. After Jesus miraculously fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two small fish (John 6:1-13), the crowd followed Him wanting more (vv.24-26). The Lord told them not to work for physical food that spoils, but “for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you . . . . I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst” (vv.27,35). As followers of Jesus, we should help those who lack adequate physical nutrition. And with all, we can share the good news that our hunger for inner peace, forgiveness, and hope can be satisfied by knowing Christ the Lord. Thank You, Jesus, that You call out to those who are weary and thirsty and say, “Come to Me and be filled.” We are hungry and are thankful that You satisfy us. Amen. There is a longing in every heart that only Jesus can satisfy. Heart Hunger I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. John 6:35 Today's Scripture & Insight: John 6:32–40 Riding along with my husband on some errands, I scrolled through emails on my phone and was surprised at an incoming advertisement for a local donut shop, a shop we had just passed on the right side of the street. Suddenly my stomach growled with hunger. I marveled at how technology allows vendors to woo us into their establishments. As I clicked off my email, I mused over God’s constant yearning to draw me closer. He always knows where I am and longs to influence my choices. I wondered, Does my heart growl in desire for Him the way my stomach did over the idea of a donut? In John 6, following the miraculous feeding of the five thousand, the disciples eagerly ask Jesus to always give them “the bread that . . . gives life to the world” (vv. 33–34). Jesus responds in verse 35, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” How amazing that a relationship with Jesus can provide constant nourishment in our everyday lives! Jesus alone offers the only bread that truly satisfies. Crave Him Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:35 Today's Scripture & Insight: John 6:25–35 Why is it that when we say, “This is the last potato chip I’m going to eat,” five minutes later we’re looking for more? Michael Moss answers that question in his book Salt Sugar Fat. He describes how America’s largest snack producers know how to “help” people crave junk food. In fact, one popular company spent $30 million a year and hired “crave consultants” to determine the bliss point for consumers so it could exploit our food cravings. Unlike that company, Jesus helps us to long for real food—spiritual food—that brings satisfaction to our souls. He said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). By making this claim, He communicated two important things: First, the bread of which He spoke is a person, not a commodity (v. 32). Second, when people put their trust in Jesus for forgiveness of sin, they enter into a right relationship with Him and find fulfillment for every craving of their soul. This Bread is everlasting, spiritual food that leads to satisfaction and life. Why do you think we crave things we know can never satisfy the deepest cravings of our souls? What are some practical practices that will help you crave Jesus more? Jesus, Bread of Life, may I crave You and find all I need in Your perfect provision. ILLUSTRATION - John 6:35, 51 - During World War II, the Germans forced many twelve-and thirteen-year-old boys into the Junior Gestapo. These boys were treated very harshly and given inhumane jobs to perform. When the war ended, most had lost track of their families and wandered without food or shelter. As part of an aid program to post-war Germany, many of these youths were placed in tent cities. Here doctors and psychologists worked with the boys in an attempt to restore their mental and physical health. They found that many of the boys would awaken in the middle of the night, screaming in terror. One doctor had an idea for handling that fear. After feeding the boys a large meal, he put them to bed with a piece of bread in their hands, which they were told to save until morning. The boys then slept soundly because, after so many years of hunger, they finally had the assurance of food for the next day. Do you have Jesus as your Savior? If you do, you hold the Bread of Life in your hands and therefore have the assurance that you will not go out of this life in terror and fear. The Bread Of Life I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger. — John 6:35 Today's Scripture: John 6:41-51 On World Communion Sunday, our pastor used a simple object lesson to make a powerful point. Instead of the usual bread for the Lord’s Supper, a large basket on the Communion table held an amazing variety of loaves. When the bread was distributed to the congregation, some of us received part of a tortilla while others took a bit of pumpernickel, pita, chapati, or rye. Bread from around the world reminded us of our unity with believers in Christ everywhere who were remembering the Lord’s death. Jesus also used bread to teach a powerful truth about Himself. After His miraculous feeding of more than 5,000 people, the Lord stated His true mission by saying: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world” (John 6:51). Christ did not die for one special group. He gave His life on the cross so that people of every tribe, language, and nation can find life through faith in Him (Revelation 5:9). When Christians join in blessed fellowship Commemorating Jesus' sacrifice, They sense a common bond of unity Because for every race He paid the price. —Hess Only Christ the Living Bread can satisfy the world's spiritual hunger. John 6:36 "But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. BGT John 6:36 Ἀλλ᾽ εἶπον ὑμῖν ὅτι καὶ ἑωράκατέ [με] καὶ οὐ πιστεύετε. KJV John 6:36 But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not. NET John 6:36 But I told you that you have seen me and still do not believe. CSB John 6:36 But as I told you, you've seen Me, and yet you do not believe. ESV John 6:36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. NIV John 6:36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. NLT John 6:36 But you haven't believed in me even though you have seen me. NRS John 6:36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. NJB John 6:36 But, as I have told you, you can see me and still you do not believe. NAB John 6:36 But I told you that although you have seen (me), you do not believe. YLT John 6:36 but I said to you, that ye also have seen me, and ye believe not; That: John 6:26,30,40,64 Jn 12:37 Jn 15:24 Lu 16:31 1Pe 1:8,9 John 6 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passages: John 12:37 But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. John 15:24 “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. Luke 16:31 “But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’” 1 Peter 1:8; 9 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. A TRAGIC CONTRAST SEEING BUT NOT BELIEVING! But - Alla is a Strong Term of contrast is like an "about face" (military term) or a 180 degree pivot. Jesus "reverses" direction in His discourse. But is a small word that functions like a "hinge" on a door and just as small hinges open big doors, so too this specific "but" opens a huge door, the door that will ultimately affect Jesus' hearers eternal destiny! I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not (ou = absolutely do not) believe (pisteuo) - Sight had not yielded to faith. They had called Him Lord (kurios albeit probably more of the sense of "Sir"), but as discussed above, that was a superficial acceptance of Him, and certainly was not genuine belief. They had just seen His ability to feed the multitude and that is the kind of "King" they wanted. Jesus states the fact simply so that no one could miss it (either then or now dear readers) -- they saw Jesus, their promised Messiah, even doing miracles that would be expected of the Messiah, but they refused to believe in Him.
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Spurgeon - The Certainty and Freeness of Divine Grace ‘All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.’ John 6:37 It says, ‘Him that cometh,’ and this shuts out no comer. John Newton was a blasphemer of so gross a kind, that even the sailors in the vessel in the storm said that they should never get to port with such a sinner as John Newton on board; but he came to Christ and was not cast out, but lived to preach the Word. John Bunyan was so foul a blasphemer, that even a woman of the street, who passed him by and heard him swear, said that he was enough to corrupt the whole parish; and he was astonished that a woman of so bad a character should so rebuke him. John Bunyan came to Jesus, and he was not cast out; he lived to have the honour of suffering for his Master, and to be the winner of multitudes of souls. Saul of Tarsus had stained himself with the blood of saints; he was a very wolf after Christ’s sheep. He was not satisfied with worrying them in his own land, so he obtained power to persecute them in Damascus; but when he fell upon his face and cried for mercy, he was not cast out. Manasseh was blood-red with the murder of God’s prophets. It is said that he cut the prophet Isaiah in two with a saw; and yet, when out of the low dungeon he cried for mercy, he was not cast out. So that any kind of ‘him’, though he may have been a persecutor even unto blood, though he may have been exceeding mad against God till he could not speak without blasphemies against the name of Christ, though he hated everything which is good, and despised everything held precious by believing men and women, yet if he comes to Christ, he shall not be cast out. Spurgeon - HIGH DOCTRINE AND BROAD DOCTRINE ‘All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.’ John 6:37 I want you to notice in my text the blessed certainty of this salvation: ‘him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.’ Two or three negatives in the Greek language make a negation stronger, though they would have no such effect in the English tongue. It is a very strong negative here: ‘him that cometh to me I will not not cast out’, or, ‘I will never never cast out.’ As much as to say, ‘On no account, or for no reason, or on no pretence, or from no motive whatever, will I ever in time or in eternity cast out the soul that comes to me.’ That is how it stands, a declaration of absolute certainty from which there can be no escaping. What a blessed thing it is to get your foot on certainties! Certain preachers, who are much cried up nowadays, are very uncertain preachers, for they do not themselves know what they will be propounding tomorrow. They make their creed as they go along, and a very poor one it is when they make it. I believe in something sure and certain, namely, in infallible Scripture, and that which the Lord has written therein, never to be altered while the world stands. My text is certain as the truth of Christ Jesus, and if we had ever seen that beautiful face of his we could not distrust him. Can your imagination picture for a minute the ever-blessed face of the Son of God? Could you look into that face, and suspect him of a lie? And when he says, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life’, the saying must be true. If you believe in him, you have everlasting life. When he says, ‘him that cometh to me I will never never cast out’, the declaration must be true. He never, never, can cast you out, whoever you may be, however long you may live, or whatever else may happen, if you come to him. Spurgeon - Morning and Evening - “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.” —John 6:37 This declaration involves the doctrine of election: there are some whom the Father gave to Christ. It involves the doctrine of effectual calling: these who are given must and shall come; however stoutly they may set themselves against it, yet they shall be brought out of darkness into God’s marvellous light. It teaches us the indispensable necessity of faith; for even those who are given to Christ are not saved except they come to Jesus. Even they must come, for there is no other way to heaven but by the door, Christ Jesus. All that the Father gives to our Redeemer must come to him, therefore none can come to heaven except they come to Christ. Oh! the power and majesty which rest in the words “shall come.” He does not say they have power to come, nor they may come if they will, but they “shall come.” The Lord Jesus doth by his messengers, his word, and his Spirit, sweetly and graciously compel men to come in that they may eat of his marriage supper; and this he does, not by any violation of the free agency of man, but by the power of his grace. I may exercise power over another man’s will, and yet that other man’s will may be perfectly free, because the constraint is exercised in a manner accordant with the laws of the human mind. Jehovah Jesus knows how, by irresistible arguments addressed to the understanding, by mighty reasons appealing to the affections, and by the mysterious influence of his Holy Spirit operating upon all the powers and passions of the soul, so to subdue the whole man, that whereas he was once rebellious, he yields cheerfully to his government, subdued by sovereign love. But how shall those be known whom God hath chosen? By this result: that they do willingly and joyfully accept Christ, and come to him with simple and unfeigned faith, resting upon him as all their salvation and all their desire. Reader, have you thus come to Jesus? Spurgeon - Morning and Evening - “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” —John 6:37 No limit is set to the duration of this promise. It does not merely say, “I will not cast out a sinner at his first coming,” but, “I will in no wise cast out.” The original reads, “I will not, not cast out,” or “I will never, never cast out.” The text means, that Christ will not at first reject a believer; and that as he will not do it at first, so he will not to the last. But suppose the believer sins after coming? “If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” But suppose that believers backslide? “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.” But believers may fall under temptation! “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” But the believer may fall into sin as David did! Yes, but he will “Purge them with hyssop, and they shall be clean; he will wash them and they shall be whiter than snow”; “From all their iniquities will I cleanse them.” “Once in Christ, in Christ for ever, Nothing from his love can sever.” “I give unto my sheep,” saith he, “eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” What sayest thou to this, O trembling feeble mind? Is not this a precious mercy, that coming to Christ, thou dost not come to One who will treat thee well for a little while, and then send thee about thy business, but he will receive thee and make thee his bride, and thou shalt be his for ever? Receive no longer the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption whereby thou shalt cry, Abba, Father! Oh! the grace of these words: “I will in no wise cast out.” Spurgeon - Faith's Checkbook - “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”—John 6:37. IS there any instance of our Lord’s casting out a coming one? If there be so, we would like to know it; but there has been none, and there never will be. Among the lost souls in hell there is not one that can say, “I went to Jesus, and he refused me.” It is not possible that you or I should be the first to whom Jesus shall break his word. Let us not entertain so dark a suspicion. Suppose we go to Jesus now about the evils of to-day. Of this we may be sure—he will not refuse us audience, or cast us out. Those of us who have often been, and those who have never gone before—let us go together, and we shall see that he will not shut the door of his grace in the face of any one of us. “This man receiveth sinners,” but he repulses none. We come to him in weakness and sin, with trembling faith, and small knowledge, and slender hope; but he does not cast us out. We come by prayer, and that prayer broken; with confession, and that confession faulty; with praise, and that praise far short of his merits; but yet he receives us. We come diseased, polluted, worn out, and worthless; but he doth in no wise cast us out. Let us come again to-day to him who never casts us out. James Smith - WHOSOEVER WILL JOHN 6:37 1. A Great Opportunity, “Come to Me.” 2. A World-Wide Offer, “Him that.” 3. A Simple Condition, “Cometh.” 4. A Precious Promise, “I will in no wise cast out.” Robert
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Spurgeon - The Father's Will John 6:39–40 Never fear that there is anything in the secret purposes of God which can contradict the open promises of God. Never dream, if you are a believer, that there can be any dark decree that shuts you out from the benefits of grace. Decrees or no decrees, ‘this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life’. Therefore, lay hold on Christ with all your heart, poor sinner; ask not to know whether your name is in the Book of Life; come just as you are, by God’s own invitation. The woman in the crowd could not tell whether it was written in the book of the decrees that she should be healed, but she came behind the Saviour, touched the hem of his garment and was made whole. The dying thief did not stop to enquire, ‘Was I chosen by God before time began?’ but said, ‘Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.’ In like manner act upon your present need and fit your prayer to the present opportunity. The doctrine of decrees never operates upon a man’s ordinary life. What hungry man would hesitate or say, ‘I cannot tell whether it is the purpose of God that I should eat’? When the provision is spread out before him he eats. Would the weary man vex his soul with misgivings and say, ‘I want to know whether it is the purpose of God that I should sleep’? He acts like a sensible creature and goes to his bed at the time of rest, grateful for the interval of deep repose that can renew his strength and freshen up his vital powers. Go and do likewise. Do not rebel at the purposes or deny them, but act upon the precepts and rejoice in them; they are the guide for you. Rely upon the promises. Our Living Hope God . . . has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. —1 Peter 1:3 Today's Scripture: John 6:39-54 The morning after my mother died, I was reading the Bible and talking to the Lord about my sadness. The Bible-In-One-Year reading for that day was John 6. When I came to verse 39, the Lord whispered comfort to my sad heart: “This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.” Mom’s spirit was with the Lord already, but I knew that one day she would be raised and given a new body. As I continued reading, I noticed three other times in John 6 that Jesus said He will raise His people from the dead at the last day. He was repeating this truth to those who were listening long ago as well as to my heart that day. Our hope of resurrection will be realized when Jesus returns. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:52). After the resurrection, believers in Jesus will receive their new bodies and rewards for their faithful service (1 Cor. 3:12-15; 2 Cor. 5:9-11). Jesus arose and conquered death; He robbed it of its fear and power; And one day He’ll return to earth, Though we know not the day nor hour. —D. De Haan The risen Christ will come from heaven to take His own to heaven. John 6:40 "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." BGT John 6:40 τοῦτο γάρ ἐστιν τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πατρός μου, ἵνα πᾶς ὁ θεωρῶν τὸν υἱὸν καὶ πιστεύων εἰς αὐτὸν ἔχῃ ζωὴν αἰώνιον, καὶ ἀναστήσω αὐτὸν ἐγὼ [ἐν] τῇ ἐσχάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ. KJV John 6:40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. NET John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father– for everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him to have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." CSB John 6:40 For this is the will of My Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." ESV John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." NIV John 6:40 For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." NLT John 6:40 For it is my Father's will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day." NRS John 6:40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day." NJB John 6:40 It is my Father's will that whoever sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and that I should raise that person up on the last day. NAB John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him (on) the last day." YLT John 6:40 and this is the will of Him who sent me, that every one who is beholding the Son, and is believing in him, may have life age-during, and I will raise him up in the last day.' beholds: John 6:36,37 1:14 4:14 8:56 Isa 45:21,22 52:10 53:2 Lu 2:30 2Co 4:6 Heb 11:1,27 1Pe 1:8 1Jn 1:1-3 and believes: John 6:27,35,54 Jn 3:15-18,36 5:24 10:28 12:50 17:2 Mk 16:16 Ro 5:21 Ro 6:23 1Jn 2:25 5:11-13 Jude 1:21 I will: John 11:25 John 6 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passages: John 3:15-16 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see (ETERNAL) life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” John 12:45 “He who sees (theoreo) Me sees the One who sent Me. WHEN SEEING REALLY IS BELIEVING For (gar) - A term of explanation. What is Jesus explaining? This is the will (thelema) of My Father - What follows expresses the desire of the heart of the Father. That (hina) introduces a purpose or result, the working out of the will of the Father. Everyone who beholds (theoreo) the Son and believes (pisteuo - present tense - continually) in Him will have (present tense - continually have or keep on having) eternal (aionios) life (zoe) - Everyone who looks with eyes of faith at Christ. Note the emphasis in this statement on human responsibility. Both beholds (with the eye of faith - Jn 12:45) and believes are in the active voice signifying a volitional choice, a choice of our will (which I believe is energized by the Holy Spirit). Will have defines a promise, in this case the promise of a possession which will never end, the promise of eternal life! J C Ryle on beholds (looks) - It is such a look as that of the Israelites, who looked at the brazen serpent, and, looking, were healed. (See John 3:14, 15, and Num. 21:9.) This is the fifth time John refers to belief (Jn 6:29, 30, 35, 36, and he will repeat it again in Jn 6:47, 64, 69). Clearly a crucial keyword in John 6 is believe!
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Spurgeon - FEEDING ON THE BREAD OF LIFE - OBSERVE carefully the order in which our Lord puts the two blessings he mentions;—first, life through believing on him, and then food to sustain that life;—first, “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life;” and next to that, “I am that bread of life.” Life comes first, and food follows afterwards. It is impossible for a dead man to feed, or to be fed; only the living can eat and drink. I once went into the monastery of the Capuchins at Rome, and there I saw certain of the departed brotherhood dressed in their regular habits, although they had been dead, some of them a hundred years, some fifty, and one gentleman, I think, had scarcely been dead more than a year or so; but there they sat, with their breviaries in their hands, just as if they had been alive; yet I did not see any preparations for feeding them. It would have been as ridiculous to attempt to feed them as it was to keep them there at all. Now, when we preach the gospel, unless you have spiritual life, you cannot feed upon it; and if you were to come to the communion table, unless you were truly alive unto God, you might eat the bread, and drink the wine, but with real spiritual food, the body of Christ, and the blood of Christ, you could have nothing to do. We do not give food to people in order to make them live. That would be a useless experiment; but, because they are alive, they take food in order to sustain and nourish the life which is already in them. Always recollect, dear friends, that the best spiritual food in the world is useless to those who are spiritually dead; and one very essential part of the gospel is that truth which our Saviour so plainly taught, “Ye must be born again.” All attempts at feeding the soul are of no use until the new birth has been experienced; even that precious, priceless bread of life cannot be assimilated unless the soul has been quickened by the Spirit of God Spurgeon - Verily, Verily ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.’ John 5:24 ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.’ John 6:47 Here is a person standing right in the middle of a railway track, and I say to him, ‘My dear fellow, if you do not come out of that you will be smashed to atoms within the next five minutes, for an express train is thundering along the line.’ He laughs and answers, ‘Do you mean to say that my shifting the position of my body a couple of feet will make all that difference? Do you tell me that if I move I shall be safe, and that if I stand here I shall be cut to pieces?’ ‘Yes, I do say it with tears, begging you to believe me, and come out of the track.’ ‘Then,’ he says, ‘you are very uncharitable.’ ‘Yes,’ I reply, ‘and you are very insane.’ What more can I say? It is never uncharitable to speak the truth for the good of the person concerned. A small matter may suffice to shape the destiny of an immortal soul. In those ill times, when there were slaves across the Atlantic, a lady went down to one of our ships, accompanied by her negro servant. The lady remarked to the captain that if she were to take this black woman with her to England, she would become free as soon as she landed. The captain replied, ‘Madam, she is free already. The moment she came on board a British vessel she was free.’ When the negro woman knew this, do you think she went on shore with her mistress? By no means; she chose to keep her liberty. But what made her rise from a slave to a free woman? Why, only a few inches of separation from the shore. I do not know how far the ship was from land; the distance may have been very little; still it made all the difference; she was free on board, and a slave on land. How slight the change of place; but how great the difference involved; marvel not that faith involves such great things. John 6 Spiritual Hunger Even an atheist, Franz Kafka, recognized the importance of satisfying his own spiritual hunger. In one short story, The Hunger Artist, he summed up his thoughts. He wanted his other works burned but insisted that this one story be saved. In a typically bizarre fashion, Kafka has the hunger artist making his living by professional fasting. He is the practitioner of a once venerated profession. Seated on straw in his small barred cage, he is marveled at by throngs of people. After forty days, his fasts were terminated in triumph. His manager would make a speech, the band would play, and one of the ladies would lead him staggering in his weakened state out of the cage. However, the day arrived when fasting was no longer understood or appreciated by the people. He lost his manager and had to join a circus. His cage was placed next to the animals. He became depressed by the smell, the restlessness of the animals at night, the raw flesh carried past him, and the roaring at feeding time. The people barely glanced at him in their hurry to see the animals. Even the circus attendants failed to limit his fast by counting the days. Finally, he was discovered lying in the straw, and in his dying breaths he told his secret: “I have to fast,” he whispered. “I can’t help it. I couldn’t find the food I liked. If I had found it, believe me, I should have made no fuss and stuffed myself like you or anyone else.” Kafka was a writer of parables. The parable of the hunger artist is not about physical hunger but about spiritual hunger. Kafka was the hunger artist, and he realized he was starving to death spiritually, but he couldn’t find any food he liked. (BORROW The Agony of Deceit by Michael Horton, Editor, 1990, Moody Press) James Smith - CHRIST, THE TRUE MANNA John 6:47–51 There can be no question as to the manna being typical of the character and mission of Christ, for we have the Lord’s own authority for believing it to be so. A beautiful type it is. Like Christ— I. It was Needed. The children of Israel were ready to perish for lack of bread. There was no help for them in the wilderness. It was so with this world before Christ came. There was a great hunger in the hearts of men for the true bread. The world needed Christ. II. It was the Gift of God. The manna was not, and could not be, grown or manufactured on earth. The Saviour that man needed could not be man-made. All that the world could give the Christ was a cross. God loved the world and gave His Son. The manna, like Christ, was not deserved, but was the gift of infinite mercy to grumbling, discontented souls. III. It was Satisfying. The manna was exactly suited to meet all the cravings of hunger. It was prepared by God for this very purpose. So Christ’s character and work, as appointed by God, meets all the needs of a destitute soul. Bread is not more suitable for the hungry than the Saviour is to the sinner. The one is the divinely-appointed remedy for the other. IV. It was Within the Reach of All. The manna did not fall on the tree-tops, but on the ground, and so was quite within the grasp of every soul in the camp. No price was put upon it. It was free to all. Christ, the Bread of Life, is also within the reach of all who hear the Gospel. We don’t need to climb to Heaven to bring Christ down. The Word of salvation is nigh thee, even in thine heart. Whosoever will may take. V. It had to be Personally Received. No one could eat the manna to save his brother. It had to be taken into each individual life. So with Jesus Christ, the gift of God. “As many as received Him, to them gives He power to become the sons of God” (John 1:12). As every man must breathe for himself if he is to live, so must he believe for himself if he is to be saved. VI. It was the only Means of Saving their Lives. Not to appropriate this Heaven-sent gift was to die of starvation. There was no alternative but to eat or die. “If ye believe not that I am He,” says Jesus Christ, “ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). There is no alternative but to accept Christ or perish. “There is none other name under Heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” “He that eateth this bread shall live for ever” (John 6:58). What It Means To Believe He who believes in Me has everlasting life. — John 6:47 Today's Scripture: John 6:30-40 A missionary in Africa experienced great difficulty in trying to translate the Gospel of John into the local dialect. He faced the problem of finding a word for believe. He continued to do his best, but he always had to leave a blank space when he came to that particular word. Then one day a runner came panting into the camp, having traveled a great distance with a very important message. After blurting out his story, he fell completely exhausted into a nearby hammock. He muttered a brief phrase that seemed to express both his great weariness and his contentment at finding such a delightful place of relaxation. The missionary, never having heard these words before, asked a bystander what the runner had said. “Oh, he is saying, ‘I’m at the end of myself, therefore I am resting all of my weight here!'” The missionary exclaimed, “Praise God! That is the very expression I need for the word believe!” And so he was able to complete his translation. To believe correctly, you must first admit that you are a sinner and that you cannot do anything to save yourself. Then turn from your sin and cast yourself wholly and unreservedly on Christ for salvation. Yes, I know Him as my Savior, For my sins are washed away; And I'll never cease to praise Him For this truth through endless day. —Hallan Faith is simply taking God at His word. John 6:48 "I am the bread of life. BGT John 6:48 Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ἄρτος τῆς ζωῆς. KJV John 6:48 I am that bread of life. NET John 6:48 I am the bread of life. CSB John 6:48 I am the bread of life. ESV John 6:48 I am the bread of life. NIV John 6:48 I am the bread of life. NLT John 6:48 Yes, I am the bread of life! NRS John 6:48 I am the bread of life. NJB John 6:48 I am the bread of life. NAB John 6:48 I am the bread of life. YLT John 6:48 I am the bread of the life; John 6:33-35,41,51 1Co 10:16-17 1Co 11:24-25 John 6 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passages: 1 Corinthians 10:16-17+ Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? 17 Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread (CHRIST). 1 Corinthians 11:24-25+ and when He had given thanks, He broke it (BREAD) and said, “This (BREAD) is (SYMBOLICALLY) My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” John 6:35+ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life (zoe); he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. JESUS' GREAT "I AM" -- THE BREAD OF LIFE I am the bread (artos) of life (zoe) - Jesus repeats and amplifies on the incredible phrase "I am the bread of life" (Jn 6:35). In the first section we read about Jesus' miracle of providing bread for 5000+. In Jn 6:31 Jesus begins to shift the focus from literal bread to spiritual bread, for this physical bread the Father gave from Heaven (Jn 6:31-33). In Jn 6:34 the Jews missed Jesus' emphasis and thought He was referring to physical bread, a misunderstanding He immediately corrected in John 6:35 clearly stating "I am the Bread of life," even as He repeated in John 6:41 declaring "I am the bread that came down out of Heaven" which caused the Jews to begin grumbling. In John 6:44-47 He pointed out that eternal life was for the one who believes (in Him is clearly implied). And now He returns to the metaphorical statement that He Himself is the spiritual Bread that gives life (eternal life in previous passages). Spurgeon - THE BEST BREAD - YOU will observe that our Lord here speaks concerning himself. He speaks not of his words merely, nor of his offices, nor of his work, but of himself. “I am that bread of life.” And herein he teaches us all to fix our eye mainly upon his blessed person, and to think of himself first and foremost. He is the centre and soul of all. There is a tendency about us all to get away from Jesus, and to look rather to the streams than to the Fountain-head. Why are we more taken up with bits of glass that sparkle in the light than with the sun himself? That tree of life, in the midst of the Paradise of God—we forget to eat of that; and we wander to the borders of the garden, to pluck the fruit of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I wish that our ministry—that mine especially—might be tied and tethered to the cross. I would have no other subject to set before you but Jesus only. Moses and Elias are well enough in their places; but when they disappear, and Jesus is the better seen, we are gainers by their loss. If I might dig for copper, silver, and gold, I should think it no deprivation to be obliged to find gold only. It is no loss to lose all but Jesus. You may wander from Dan to Beersheba, and you may not sin, for it is all holy ground between the two places; but he is wisest who does not ramble even there, but keeps to Calvary, and is content to speak only of Jesus crucified. “God forbid,” said one who was a great and a wise man—“God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul would have considered it a terrible calamity if he had become fascinated, or even influenced, by the speculations of the cultured men of his period: he felt that the atoning sacrifice deserved all his admiration, and he had none to spare for anything else. If you go in your pantry and look at the bread on the shelf, your life will not be nourished unless you take and eat the bread. The same is true of this Bread! There is a common saying that you are what you eat. You are a Christ follower if you eat the Bread of life. Life (zoe) is a keyword in 11 verses - John 6 used Jn. 6:27; Jn. 6:33; Jn. 6:35; Jn. 6:40; Jn. 6:47; Jn. 6:48; Jn. 6:51; Jn. 6:53; Jn. 6:54; Jn. 6:63; Jn. 6:68. This gives us a "clue" to one of the main themes in John 6 - Source of Life, Life in Christ, Eternal Life.
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Spurgeon - Human Inability “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.” John 6:44 When man fell in the garden, manhood fell entirely; there was not one single pillar in the temple of manhood that stood erect. It is true, conscience was not destroyed. The pillar was not shattered; it fell, and it fell in one piece, and there it lies along, the mightiest remnant of God’s once perfect work in man. But that conscience is fallen, I am sure. Look at men. Who among them is the possessor of a “good conscience towards God,” but the regenerated man? Do you imagine that if men’s consciences always spoke loudly and clearly to them, they would live in the daily commission of acts, which are as opposed to the right as darkness is to light? No, beloved; conscience can tell me that I am a sinner, but conscience cannot make me feel that I am one. Conscience may tell me that such and such a thing is wrong, but how wrong it is conscience itself does not know. Did any man’s conscience, unenlightened by the Spirit, ever tell him that his sins deserved damnation? Or if conscience did do that, did it ever lead any man to feel an abhorrence of sin as sin? In fact, did conscience ever bring a man to such a self-renunciation, that he did totally abhor himself and all his works and come to Christ? No, conscience, although it is not dead, is ruined, its power is impaired, it has not that clearness of eye and that strength of hand, and that thunder of voice, which it had before the fall; but has ceased to a great degree, to exert its supremacy in the town of Mansoul. Then, beloved, it becomes necessary for this very reason, because conscience is depraved, that the Holy Spirit should step in, to show us our need of a Saviour, and draw us to the Lord Jesus Christ. DON’T LET JESUS DOWN - “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?” John 6:66–67 We should not let Jesus down because: 1. He Is Counting on Us 2. He Is Our Only Hope 3. He Did Not Let Us Down A W Tozer - THE CROWD TURNS BACK - (BORROW MORNINGS WITH TOZER) From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. John 6:66 Our Lord Jesus Christ called men to follow Him, but He plainly taught that “no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father” (John 6:65). It is not surprising that many of His early followers, upon hearing these words, went back and walked no more with Him. Such teaching cannot but be deeply disturbing to the natural mind. It takes from sinful men much of the power of self-determination. It cuts the ground out from under their self-help and throws them back upon the sovereign good pleasure of God—and that is precisely where they do not want to be! These statements by our Lord run contrary to the current assumptions of popular Christianity. Men are willing to be saved by grace, but to preserve their self-esteem, they must hold that the desire to be saved originated with them. Most Christians today seem afraid to talk about these plain words of Jesus concerning the sovereign operation of God—so they use the simple trick of ignoring them! Oswald Chambers - The drawing of the Father - Borrow My Utmost for His Highest No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him. John 6:44. When God draws me, the issue of my will comes in at once—will I react on the revelation which God gives; will I come to Him? Discussion on spiritual matters is an impertinence. Never discuss with anyone when God speaks. Belief is not an intellectual act; belief is a moral act whereby I deliberately commit myself. Will I dump myself down absolutely on God and transact on what He says? If I will, I shall find I am based on Reality that is as sure as God’s throne. In preaching the gospel, always push an issue of will. Belief must be the will to believe. There must be a surrender of the will, not a surrender to persuasive power; a deliberate launching forth on God and on what He says until I am no longer confident in what I have done, I am confident only in God. The hindrance is that I will not trust God, but only my mental understanding. As far as feelings go, I must stake all blindly: I must will to believe, and this can never be done without a violent effort on my part to dissociate myself from my old ways of looking at things, and by putting myself right over on to Him. Every man is made to reach out beyond his grasp. It is God Who draws me, and my relationship with Him in the first place is a personal one, not an intellectual one. I am introduced into the relationship by the miracle of God and my own will to believe, then I begin to get an intelligent appreciation and understanding of the wonder of the transaction. John
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Spurgeon - “This was as much as to say, ‘The Father has never taught you. You have learned nothing from Him, or you would come to me; but in your rejection of Me you prove that you are strangers to the grace of God.’” "As none can come to Me but as divinely drawn, so none thus drawn shall fail to come." -- Jamieson Everyone who has heard (akouo) and learned (manthano) from the Father, comes (erchomai) to Me - Note first the word everyone (Greek word 'pas" = "all" repeating the all inclusive idea of "SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT...") which refers to the whole quantity or extent of a particular group. Not just "all" Jews but all men (and women). Note the three verbs in this clause and their order - heard...learned...comes. You have to first hear truth! (cf Ro 10:14-15+) Heard (akouo) as discussed in the definition below in this context conveys the sense of not just to hear (like "in one ear and out the other") but to hear with understanding and attention and ultimately with obedience. Who hears this way? Jesus' sheep hear (Jn 10:27, cf Jn 10:4,8,16)! Note the first and second Person of the Trinity are involved in this coming to Jesus for salvation. Although the Spirit is not mentioned, He is surely a silent "Partner" Who blows "like the wind" (Jn 3:8+) and gives individuals the desire and the power to come to Jesus and be saved. In summary, those who come to Jesus must hear and learn the good news and respond to it, all of this energized by the Spirit of Christ Who brings men and women to Jesus. Edwin Blum - In support of this doctrine of salvation by God's grace, Jesus cited the Old Testament. The quotation, They will all be taught by God, is from the Prophets, probably Isaiah 54:13, though Jeremiah 31:34 has the same thought. This "teaching" of God refers to His inner work that disposes people to accept the truth about Jesus and respond to Him. Everyone who listens to and learns from God will come to and believe in Jesus. (See The Bible Knowledge Commentary) Expositor's Bible Commentary - v45 indicates that God would do his drawing through the Scriptures and that those who were obedient to God's will as revealed in the Scriptures would come to Jesus. He had been delegated by the Father to have life, give life, secure life, and restore life.
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Spurgeon - Every man feeds on something or other. You see, one man getting his Sunday newspaper; how he will feed on that! Another goes to frivolous amusements, and he feeds on them. Another man feeds upon his business, and upon the thought of his many cares! But all that is poor food; it is only ashes and husks. If you did but possess true spiritual life, you would know the deep necessity there is of feeding upon Christ.” Steven Cole introduces his sermon John 6:48-59 asking "“What are you eating?”—not physically, but spiritually. We hear a lot these days about the importance of a healthy diet. You are what you eat and a lot of Americans eat a lot of junk food, resulting in a lot of serious, but avoidable health problems. Most of us could benefit by being careful about what we eat. It’s the same spiritually. If you gorge yourself on the latest movies or on the fare that is offered every night on TV, and you seldom feed on the Bible, don’t be surprised if you’re not spiritually healthy. If your spiritual intake consists of a sugary devotional that you grab on the run, like a donut, and an occasional sermon when you aren’t doing something else on Sunday, don’t be surprised if you’re feeling kind of spiritually sluggish. You are what you eat. (For full sermon see What Are You Eating?) Spurgeon - The Best Bread ‘I am that bread of life.’ John 6:48 Here is a brother who never eats bread, but, instead of eating, he studies the theory of nutrition and he is ready to discuss with anyone the whole system of digestion and assimilation. He has a theory that bread should always be baked in a certain way and he feels bound to discuss and discuss and discuss, till all is mouldy. My dear friend, you may discuss if you like, but I want to eat, and I think that, if you intend to live and not to drop down dead in your discussion, you had better eat a bit yourself and not put discussion into the place of eating. Some of you have been hearing the gospel for years and you have never fed upon Christ yet, but you have a great liking for religious controversy. Why, perhaps, this very afternoon you have been discussing this ‘ism’ and that ‘ism.’ Why all this chopping of logic? Why do you not eat, friend? Why do you not eat? What is the use of talking about bread when your fainting body pines for a substantial meal? You are at this time ready to fight anybody about the shape that the portions of bread ought to take when they are cut up for a feast. No, no, I am not going to accept your challenge! I am hungry and want food and to me the form of it does not matter much. Bread is nothing to anybody till he eats it and even our Lord Jesus is nothing to any man until he believes in him, until he receives him, until he takes him into himself. That is the one thing that is wanted and the Lord Jesus Christ silently hints as much when he says, ‘I am that bread of life.’ When he calls himself bread, he does in effect say, ‘Partake of me; eat me; feed upon me. Come and eat! (Horatius Bonar, "The Bread of Immortality") "I am the bread of life." John 6:48 "I am the living bread." John 6:51 All food is for the sustaining of life. Jesus announces Himself as the bread which will sustain the life of the soul. Not merely some doctrine--but Himself. He is the bread; not merely bread--but the bread--the one true bread; without whom the soul cannot grow, nor its life be sustained. For only by this life-sustaining bread, can such sickly souls be nourished. As such, Jesus is necessary to the soul as its food--its bread. Outside of Him, there is no nourishment, no sustenance. He feeds--He alone. He feeds us on Himself! All else is husks, or mere air and vapor. Jesus, in His glorious person, is our food--the true bread and sustenance of the soul; the hidden manna. Jesus applies various names to it: "bread from heaven" "true bread" "the bread of God" "bread of life" "living bread." All these are names indicative of its excellence, its power, its suitableness. It is the very bread we need; no other would do. Jesus is the soul's eternal food. This storehouse is inexhaustible--and ever accessible! Come as you are, poor prodigal, starving on husks--come and eat! Eat, O friends! Eat, and live! Eat, and be strong! Eat, and be in soul health! Life Without Bread I am the bread of life. — John 6:48 Today's Scripture: John 6:25-35 In cultures with an abundance of food choices, bread is no longer a necessary part of the diet so some choose to live without it for various reasons. In the first century, however, bread was viewed as an essential staple. A diet without bread was a foreign concept. One day a crowd of people sought out Jesus because He had performed the miracle of multiplying loaves of bread (John 6:11,26). They asked Him to perform a sign like the manna from heaven that God had provided for His people in the desert (6:30-31; Ex. 16:4). When Jesus said He was “the true bread from heaven” (John 6:32), the people didn’t understand. They wanted literal daily bread. But Jesus was saying that He had been sent to be their spiritual bread; He would supply their daily spiritual needs. If they, by faith, applied and took His words and life into their very souls, they would experience everlasting satisfaction (v.35). For Further Thought What are some ways you can let Jesus, the Bread of Life, and His words satisfy the hunger pangs of your soul today? Only spiritual bread satisfies the hunger of the soul. Bread! I am the bread of life. John 6:48 Today's Scripture & Insight: John 6:34–51 I live in a small Mexican city where every morning and evening you can hear a distinctive cry: “Bread!” A man with a huge basket on his bike offers a great variety of fresh sweet and salty breads for sale. I used to live in a bigger city, where I had to go to the bakery to buy bread. So I enjoy having fresh bread brought to my door. Moving from the thought of feeding physical hunger to spiritual hunger, I think of Jesus’s words: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever” (John 6:51). Someone has said that evangelism is really one beggar telling another beggar where he found bread. Many of us can say, “Once I was spiritually hungry, spiritually starving because of my sins. Then I heard the good news. Someone told me where to find bread: in Jesus. And my life changed!” Now we have the privilege and the responsibility of pointing others to this Bread of Life. We can share Jesus in our neighborhood, in our workplace, in our school, in our places of recreation. We can talk about Jesus in the waiting room, on the bus, or on the train. We can take the good news to others through doors of friendship. Lord Jesus, I want to be Your witness everywhere I go. Share the Bread of Life wherever you are. Cotton Candy I am the bread of life. — John 6:48 Today's Scripture: John 6:47-51 Years ago my wife and I took our children to an amusement park in Texas. By day’s end, Vicki and Torrey were tired and hungry. As we were leaving, we passed a concession stand and Vicki asked for some cotton candy. I told her we would get some real food in a few minutes, but she wouldn’t hear of it. So I decided to invest $1.50 to teach her a lesson. Vicki got the cotton candy she begged for. But as she bit into it, she discovered there was nothing to it. Finally she handed it back to me and said, “Daddy, it’s not real!” She knew she was hungry, and she learned that cotton candy promises something it can’t deliver. There is a deep hunger within all of us. Sigmund Freud believed people are hungry for love. Karl Jung insisted that we crave security. Alfred Adler maintained that significance is what we are after. But Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life” (Jn. 6:48). Jesus was saying that if we want the deepest hunger of our life satisfied, we need to go to Him to be filled. He knew that our hunger and thirst are really for Him. Now none but Christ can satisfy, No other name for me! There's love and life and lasting joy, Lord Jesus, found in Thee! —Anon. Only the Bread of Life can satisfy our spiritual hunger. John 6:49 "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. BGT John 6:49 οἱ πατέρες ὑμῶν ἔφαγον ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ τὸ μάννα καὶ ἀπέθανον· KJV John 6:49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. NET John 6:49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. CSB John 6:49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. ESV John 6:49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. NIV John 6:49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. NLT John 6:49 Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. NRS John 6:49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. NJB John 6:49 Your fathers ate manna in the desert and they are dead; NAB John 6:49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; YLT John 6:49 your fathers did eat the manna in the wilderness, and they died; fathers: John 6:31 and: Nu 26:65 Zec 1:5 1Co 10:3-5 Heb 3:17-19 Jude 1:5 John 6 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passage: Numbers 26:65+ For the LORD had said of them, “They shall surely die in the wilderness.” And not a man was left of them, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. John 6:30-33+ 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? 31 “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘HE GAVE THEM BREAD OUT OF HEAVEN TO EAT.’” 32 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. 33 “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” MANNA IN THE WILDERNESS DID NOT PREVENT PHYSICAL DEATH Your fathers ate the manna (manna) in the wilderness (eremos), and they died (apothnesko) - God provided manna for food for Israel for 40 years on wilderness wandering, demonstrating even in His wrath (punishment for disbelieving Him) He showed mercy and grace, giving them what they did not deserve! Jesus will now unpack "I am the bread of life" (Jn 6:48). First He will speak of manna (initially introduced in Jn 6:30-33+) that all who ate the manna and all died and contrast that in the following verses (Jn 6:50-51) with the fact that all who partake of Him ("the bread which comes down out of heaven" - Jn 6:50, "the living Bread" - Jn 6:51, "My flesh" - Jn 6:51) will not die but will in fact live forever. The contrast could not be more striking. In short, Jesus makes it clear that the manna could not bestow eternal life. Note He says "Your fathers," which in effect is a way of dissociating Himself from these sinful men. In Jn 6:31 the Jews had stated "our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness." Jesus states a clear, unambiguous, non-figurative truth that every Jew knew was truth. The manna or physical bread from Heaven, as miraculous as it was, was still not sufficient to prevent all (except Joshua and Caleb) the first generation from dying physically in their 40 years of wilderness wanderings. As Paul says "Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they were laid low in the wilderness." (1Cor 10:5+) Jesus' point is that while the manna in the wilderness met physical needs, they still died. This prepares His hearers for the bread from heaven that does give eternal life to all who eat it (by grace through faith). John 6:50 "This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. BGT John 6:50 οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ ἄρτος ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβαίνων, ἵνα τις ἐξ αὐτοῦ φάγῃ καὶ μὴ ἀποθάνῃ. KJV John 6:50 This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. NET John 6:50 This is the bread that has come down from heaven, so that a person may eat from it and not die. CSB John 6:50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that anyone may eat of it and not die. ESV John 6:50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. NIV John 6:50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. NLT John 6:50 Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. NRS John 6:50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. NJB John 6:50 but this is the bread which comes down from heaven, so that a person may eat it and not die. NAB John 6:50 this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. YLT John 6:50 this is the bread that out of the heaven is coming down, that any one may eat of it, and not die. the bread: John 6:33,42,51 Jn 3:13 that: John 6:58 Jn 8:51 Jn 11:25,26 Ro 8:10 John 6 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passages: John 6:58 “This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” John 8:51 “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he will never see death.” JESUS CONTRASTS THE TWO BREADS This is the bread (artos) which comes down (katabaino) out of heaven (ouranos), so that (term of purpose) one may eat (esthio) of it and not die (apothnesko - like those who ate manna) - While the two breads discussed in this section both originate in Heaven, only one was sufficient to meet man's spiritual needs. The physical bread (manna) brought only temporal life, but the spiritual Bread (JESUS) brings eternal life! In Jn 6:49 those who ate manna died, whereas those who eat "Jesus Bread" do not die. In this verse Jesus is speaking of spiritual death. He is not saying believers will not experience a physical death for all will (unless we are raptured). Jesus uses "eat of it" as a metaphor for "believe in Him." (cf Jn 6:35, 47). To make "eat of it" mean anything else is to ignore the plain reading of the text and to end up with an erroneous interpretation! And in so doing, one is adding to the Scriptures, making them say something they do not say, and this is a very dangerous practice (cf Pr 30:6, Rev 22:18-19+)! Augustine was correct when he said “Believe and you have eaten.” A T Robertson on so that - Purpose clause with hina and the second aorist active subjunctive of esthio and apothnesko. The wonder and the glory of it all, but quite beyond the insight of this motley crowd. Bob Utley on one may eat (esthio) of it and not die (apothnesko) - This verse, like John 6:31-35, is a play on the meaning of bread, physical bread (manna) and heavenly bread (Jesus). One gives and sustains physical life, but must be repeated and eventually cannot stop death. The other gives and sustains eternal life, but must be accepted and nurtured and puts an immediate end to spiritual death (i.e., broken fellowship with God; intimate fellowship with sin and self). Warren Wiersbe on one may eat of it and not die - He was using bread, a familiar material object, to teach a spiritual truth: You receive bread into your body and it sustains life, but receiving Jesus into your heart by faith gives you eternal life. Later He included “drinking blood” (Jn 6:53–56), which obviously was not to be taken literally any more than “eating his flesh” was to be taken literally. To “eat” something means to assimilate it and make it a part of your physical being. But language uses the metaphor of eating to describe the process of understanding and receiving statements expressed in words. We say things like, “Well, I’ll have to digest what you just said” or “I can’t swallow that” or “That’s food for thought.” A pastor might say, “My congregation is so young in the faith, I have to spoon-feed them.” A businessman says to his staff, “Now, here’s a program you can sink your teeth into.” A student says, “I really devoured that book.” Nobody takes this literally. Scripture uses similar metaphorical language in describing our relationship to God and His truth. “Taste and see that the LORD is good” (Ps. 34:8). “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth” (Ps. 119:103). “When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight” (Jer. 15:16). “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good ” (1 Peter 2:2–3; see also Heb. 5:11–14). “People do not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). The prophet Ezekiel and the apostle John were each commanded to eat a scroll of the Word of God so they could proclaim God’s truth (Ezek. 2:1—3:3; Rev. 10).....How, then, do we “eat” His flesh and “drink” His blood? By believing in Jesus Christ and receiving His Word into our hearts. Jesus said, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63 NASB). “The Word became flesh” at the incarnation (John 1:14), and believers “feed on” Jesus, the living Word, as they meditate on the written Word. Peter got the message, for when Jesus asked the Twelve if they would also go away with the crowd, He received the answer He expected. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68–69). Believe in Jesus and receive the Word! When I trusted Christ as my Lord and Savior, the Spirit gave me an insatiable appetite for the Word of God, and the Bible has been my “spiritual diet” since 1945. I “feed on” the Lord Jesus Christ daily through His Word, and I can say with Job, “I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread” (Job 23:12). That Jesus would compare Himself to such a common article as a loaf of bread shows the depth of His humiliation. It also shows us that we cannot have life without Him. Bread is called “the staff of life” because for centuries it has been the primary food of most people. Jesus Christ is “the bread of life,” and we cannot have spiritual life—eternal life—without Him. (Jesus in the Present Tense) The Old Testament manna Jesus, the bread of life Met a physical need temporarily Meets a spiritual need eternally Only sustained physical life Imparts eternal life For only one nation, Israel For the whole world (Jn 6:51) For only thirty-eight years From Adam to the end of time At no cost to the Lord At great cost: Jesus had to die Only delayed physical death Conquered spiritual death God sent a gift God sent the Giver of all gifts A "type" or "shadow" The Substance (Col 2:16-17+) Adapted and modified from Jesus in the Present Tense by Warren Wiersbe John 6:51 "I am the living bread that came 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." BGT John 6:51 ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ἄρτος ὁ ζῶν ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβάς· ἐάν τις φάγῃ ἐκ τούτου τοῦ ἄρτου ζήσει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, καὶ ὁ ἄρτος δὲ ὃν ἐγὼ δώσω ἡ σάρξ μού ἐστιν ὑπὲρ τῆς τοῦ κόσμου ζωῆς. KJV John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. NET John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." CSB John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh." ESV John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." NIV John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." NLT John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh." NRS John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." NJB John 6:51 I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.' NAB John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." YLT John 6:51 'I am the living bread that came down out of the heaven; if any one may eat of this bread he shall live -- to the age; and the bread also that I will give is my flesh, that I will give for the life of the world.' GWN John 6:51 I am the living bread that came from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. The bread I will give to bring life to the world is my flesh." BBE John 6:51 I am the living bread which has come from heaven: if any man takes this bread for food he will have life for ever: and more than this, the bread which I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world. RSV John 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." I am the living bread: John 3:13 4:10,11 7:38 1Pe 2:4 and the bread: my flesh: John 6:52-57 Mt 20:28 Lu 22:19 Eph 5:2,25 Titus 2:14 Heb 10:5-12,20 the life: John 6:33 1:29 3:16 2Co 5:19,21 1Jn 2:2 4:14 John 6 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries THE LIVING BREAD PROVIDES HIS FLESH FOR ETERNAL LIFE Jesus is clearly alluding to the cross in this passage, beginning with the metaphor of bread but ending with His literal flesh. I am (ego eimi = continually) the living (zao - present tense - continually) Bread (artos) that came down (katabaino) out of heaven (ouranos) - Manna, even warm and fresh from the "bakery" of heaven, was still inanimate, non-living bread. In dramatic contrast Jesus states He is the (definite article in context signifies something like the "one and only") living Bread. How is He living Bread? He lives eternally in Himself and He Himself is life-giving. This is the third time (which should have been the charm!) Jesus tells the Jews He is Bread (Jn 6:33, 35, 48) which should have been the charm!), but this time He calls Himself "living Bread" (instead of the related description "Bread of Life"). Bob
João 6
Spurgeon - you eat the flesh of the Son of Man - Eating is the taking into yourself of something which exists externally, which you receive into yourself, and which becomes a part of yourself and helps to build you up, and sustains you. That something supplies a great need of your nature, and when you receive it, it nourishes your life. That is the essence of the metaphor, and it well describes the act and the result of faith. In John 6:50 Jesus associated eternal life with eating the bread out of heaven, describing Himself as that bread that alone would give eternal life. Now Jesus adds not only must they eat His flesh but drink His blood. While this statement about His blood is enigmatic if taken literally, it does present the crucial truth that drinking His blood is to be done figuratively by belief in Him (thus entering the New Covenant in His blood Lk 22:20+, 1Co 11:25+), which is the only way one can receive eternal life (life in yourselves). Marvin Vincent on drink His blood - Appropriate the saving merit of His death. The Passover was approaching, and the reference may well have been to the flesh and blood of the paschal lamb (cf 1Co 5:7+). This could not refer to the bread and the wine used at the Lord’s Supper
João 6
Spurgeon - Truly Eating the Flesh of Jesus ‘Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life.’ John 6:53–54 What a man eats and drinks he appropriates to himself, and that not by laying it on one side in a treasury or casket, but by receiving it into himself. You appropriate money and put it in your pocket—you may lose it; you secure a piece of land and put your hedge about it, but that hedge may be broken down; but when you receive by eating and drinking, you have placed the good things where you will never be robbed of them; you have received them in the truest and surest sense, for you have real possession and enjoyment in your own person. To say, ‘Christ is mine’ is a blessed thing; but really to take Christ into you by the act of faith, is at once the vitality and the pleasure of faith. In eating and drinking a man is not a producer, but a consumer; he is not a doer or a giver forth; he simply takes in. If a queen should eat, if an empress should eat, she would become as completely a receiver as the pauper in the workhouse. Eating is an act of reception in every case. So it is with faith: you do not have to do, to be, or to feel, but only to receive; the saving point is not a something which comes from you, but the reception of something imparted to you. Faith is an act which the poorest, vilest, weakest, most condemned sinner may perform, because it is not an act requiring power on his part, nor the going forth of anything from him, but simply the receiving into himself. An empty vessel can receive and so much the better because it is empty. Are you willing to receive Jesus Christ as the free gift of divine mercy? Do you this day say, ‘I have received him’? Well then, you have eaten his flesh and drunk his blood. Norman Geisler - JOHN 6:53–54—What did Jesus mean when He said we should eat His flesh? (Borrow When critics ask : a popular handbook on Bible difficulties) (Or here - page 350) PROBLEM: Evangelical Christians believe in taking the Bible literally. But Jesus said, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). Should this be taken literally too? SOLUTION: The literal (i.e., actual) meaning of a text is the correct one, but the literal meaning does not mean that everything should be taken literally. For example, the literal meaning of Jesus’ statement, “I am the true vine” (John 15:1) is that He is the real source of our spiritual life. But it does not mean that Jesus is a literal vine with leaves growing out of His arms and ears! Literal meaning can be communicated by means of figures of speech. Christ is the actual foundation of the church (1 Cor. 3:11; Eph. 2:20), but He is not literally a granite cornerstone with engraving on it. There are many indications in John 6 that Jesus literally meant that the command to “eat His flesh” should be taken in a figurative way. First, Jesus indicated that His statement should not be taken in a materialistic sense when He said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Second, it is absurd and cannibalistic to take it in a physical way. (ED: WHICH IS HOW THE JEWS TOOK IT). Third, He was not speaking of physical life, but “eternal life” (John 6:54). Fourth, He called Himself the “bread of life” (John 6:48) and contrasted this with the physical bread the Jews ate in the wilderness (John 6:58). Fifth, He used the figure of “eating” His flesh in parallel with the idea of “abiding” in Him (cf. John 15:4–5), which is another figure of speech. Neither figure is to be taken literally. Sixth, if eating His flesh and drinking His blood be taken in a literalistic way, this would contradict other commands of Scripture not to eat human flesh and blood (cf. Acts 15:20). Finally, in view of the figurative meaning here, this verse cannot be used to support the Roman Catholic concept of transubstantiation, that is, eating Jesus’ actual body in the communion (see comments on Luke 22:19) Spurgeon - from TRULY EATING THE FLESH OF JESUS - OUR Lord Jesus did not in this passage allude to the Lord’s supper, as some desiring to maintain their sacramental superstitions have dared to affirm. I will not dwell upon the argument that there was no Lord’s supper at the time to allude to, though there is certainly some force in it; but I will rather remind you that with such an interpretation this passage would not be true. It must be confessed even by the most ardent advocate of the sacramental meaning that the expressions used by our Lord are not universally and without exception true if used in that sense: for it is not true that those who have never eaten the Lord’s supper have no life in them, since it is confessed on all hands that hundreds and thousands of children dying in childhood, are undoubtedly saved, and yet they have never eaten the flesh of Christ nor drank his blood, if the Lord’s supper be here meant. There have been also many others in bygone times who, by their conduct, proved that the life of God was in their souls, and yet they were not able to eat bread at the sacramental table, from sickness, banishment, imprisonment, and other causes. Surely also there are some others, though I would not excuse them, who have neglected to come to that blessed commemorative ordinance, and yet nevertheless for all that they are truly children of God. Would the highest of high churchmen send every Quaker, however holy and devout, down to the bottomless pit? If this should refer to the Lord’s supper, then it is certain that the dying thief could not have entered heaven, for he never sat down at the communion table, but was converted on the cross, and without either baptism or the Lord’s supper, went straight away with his Master into Paradise. It can never be proved; indeed, it is utterly false that no one has eternal life if he has not received the bread and wine of the communion table; and on the other hand, it is certainly equally untrue that whosoever eats Christ’s flesh has eternal life, if by that is meant every one who partakes of the Eucharist, for there are unworthy receivers, not here and there, but to be found by hundreds. Alas, there are apostates who leave the Lord’s table for the table of devils, who profane the holy name they once professed to love: there are also many who have received the sacramental bread and wine, and yet live in sin, who increase their sin by daring to come to the table, and who, alas, we fear, will die in their sins as many others have done. Unregenerate persons are very apt to make much of the sacrament and nothing of Christ. They think a great deal of the bread and wine of the (so-called) altar, but they have never known what it is to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ: these eat and drink unworthily—carnally eating bread, but not spiritually eating the Redeemer’s flesh: to them the ordinance is a curse rather than a blessing. Our Lord did not refer to the feast of his supper, for the language will not bear such an interpretation. Vance Havner - Blood and Bread "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." John 6:53 The Christian experience begins with Christ, the slain Passover Lamb and the blood applied by faith. With that truth sound believers are familiar in experience and doctrine. But the Christian experience continues on the strength of Christ, the Passover feast of the Bread of Life, as we feed upon Christ by faith. With that we are not so familiar. Do not stop at the Passover, go on to the feast of unleavened bread. The blood must be followed by the bread. The lamb was not merely to be looked at and sung about but also to be eaten. Christ is our song but also our sustenance. All the lamb was eaten; Christ is for every need, all of him for all of us. The lamb was eaten with bitter herbs and so must we feed on Christ with broken and contrite hearts. No work was mixed with this feast nor are we to supplement the provision of Christ with works of our own. The bread was unleavened and we must allow no leaven of sin, malice, strife. The Israelites ate the feast girded and ready to travel: so must the believer sit loose to this world, a pilgrim and stranger, seeking here no continuing city. The blood must come first, but the bread must follow. His words are spirit and life (John 6:63). Are you feeding daily on him? John 6:53 - Borrow Jehovah's Witnesses Answered Verse by Verse - David Reed Accordingly Jesus said to them: “Most 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.” (NWT) This is an important verse to bring up in a discussion with Jehovah’s Witnesses. They have been taught not only to reject taking communion but also to reject the new life that comes to all who put faith in the shed blood and crucified body of our Lord. They exclude themselves from the New Covenant ratified by the blood of Christ. For suggestions on how to discuss this with them, see Matthew 26:27 and Revelation 7:9. Related Resources: What is transubstantiation? | GotQuestions.org What is consubstantiation? | GotQuestions.org Do eucharistic miracles really happen? | GotQuestions.org Should a non-Catholic Christian participate in a Catholic Mass? | GotQuestions.org John 6:54 "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. BGT John 6:54 ὁ τρώγων μου τὴν σάρκα καὶ πίνων μου τὸ αἷμα ἔχει ζωὴν αἰώνιον, κἀγὼ ἀναστήσω αὐτὸν τῇ ἐσχάτῃ ἡμέρᾳ. KJV John 6:54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. NET John 6:54 The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. CSB John 6:54 Anyone who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, ESV John 6:54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. NIV John 6:54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. NLT John 6:54 But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. NRS John 6:54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; NJB John 6:54 Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise that person up on the last day. NAB John 6:54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. YLT John 6:54 he who is eating my flesh, and is drinking my blood, hath life age-during, and I will raise him up in the last day; GWN John 6:54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will bring them back to life on the last day. BBE John 6:54 He who takes my flesh for food and my blood for drink has eternal life: and I will take him up from the dead at the last day. RSV John 6:54 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. NKJ John 6:54 "Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ASV John 6:54 He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life: and I will raise him up at the last day. MIT John 6:54 One who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will resurrect him on the last day. DBY John 6:54 He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal, and I will raise him up at the last day: NIRV John 6:54 Anyone who eats my body and drinks my blood has eternal life. I will raise him up on the last day. RWB John 6:54 Whoever eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. WEB John 6:54 Whoever eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. eats: John 6:27,40,63 4:14 Ps 22:26 Pr 9:4-6 Isa 25:6-8 55:1-3 Ga 2:20 Php 3:7-10 has: John 6:39,40,47 John 6 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passage: John 6:39 “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. John 6:40 “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.” John 6:44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. THE WAY TO ATTAIN ETERNAL LIFE He who eats (esthio) My flesh (sarx) and drinks My blood has eternal life (zoe) - My flesh is repeated 4x in this section (Jn 6:51, 54, 55, 56), in the preceding passage as a condition that must be met in order to attain (spiritual) life, and now repeats the same thought in a more positive declaration. Compare this verse with John 6:47 where Jesus says “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life." What is the parallel? How does one receive eternal life? Clearly the figures of speech (eats My flesh...drinks My blood) are parallel with "he who believes." And so the way to receive eternal life is by belief where from context Jesus is the object of our belief. Note that in Jn 6:40 the gift of eternal life is for the one who beholds (looks at Jesus) and "believes in Him," and here in Jn 6:54 the gift of eternal life is for the one who eats His flesh and drinks His blood. From this parallel, it is clear that eating and drinking equate with belief in Christ. And I will raise him up (anistemi) on the last day As noted above the concept of resurrection is a keyword (idea) in John 6 - Jn 6:39, 40, 44, 54. Once again Jesus clearly links this resurrection in this passage with eternal life, speaking only of the resurrection of believers, every believer's great hope (Acts 23:6; 24:15; Titus 2:13; 1Pe 1:3, cf 1Co 15:12-19+). Unbelievers will suffer a separate resurrection (in time and space) from the grave in order that they might stand in person before the very One now offering life, and be judged by Him at the Great White Throne where they will be found "guilty as charged" (unrepentant sinners) and sentenced to "life imprisonment" (not a death sentence resulting in annihilation!) in the eternal lake of fire which will tragically bring conscious eternal punishment. (Rev 20:11-15+) Merrill C Tenney explains that "The progression in thought in Jn 6:51-54 is significant. First, Christ said he gives his flesh "for the life of the world" (Jn 6:51). Then he says whoever has not partaken of his flesh and blood has "no life" in him (Jn 6:53). But then whoever eats his flesh and drinks his blood "has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day" (Jn 6:54). The Lord again gives the promise of resurrection to those who are associated with him (cf. Jn 6:39-40, 44). If there were any Sadducees among the "Jews," they really would have been infuriated. They did not believe in resurrection, and Jesus was offering them something their theology denied. (BORROW Expositor's Bible Commentary) Blum - Sacramental interpretations appeal to the words eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood as evidence that Jesus was speaking of the eucharist. As stated earlier, the basic objection to this approach is historical: Jesus did not institute the Communion service until a year later. Drinking "His blood" is another bold figure of speech. The Jews knew the command, "You must not eat... any blood" (Lev. 3:17; cf. Lev. 17:10-14). And yet blood was the means of atonement. It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life (Lev. 17:11). Jesus' hearers must have been shocked and puzzled by His enigmatic words. But the puzzle is unlocked by understanding that Jesus was speaking of His making atonement by His death and giving life to those who personally appropriate Him (cf. John 6:63). Faith in Christ's death brings eternal life (cf. vv. 40, 47, 50-51) and (later) bodily resurrection (cf. vv. 39-40, 44). (See Bible Knowledge Commentary - scroll up and down for more text) F F Bruce points out that "“In Jn 6:54 it is the person who eats the flesh of the Son of Man and drinks his blood that will be raised up by him at the last day; in Jn 6:40 the same promise is held out to ‘every one who sees the Son and believes in him’....Augustine of Hippo...sums up the truth in an immortal epigram: Crede, et manducasti ('Believe, and thou hast eaten").....Appropriating Christ by faith not only assures His people of life in the age to come when He raises them up at the last day; it makes that life of the age to come their heritage to be enjoyed by anticipation her and now. Moreover, this life is secured to them by the death of Christ, for the terms in which He describes their appropriation of Him by faith imply that the one who they so appropriate has yielded up His life in sacrifice. ” (Borrow The Gospel of John or see The Gospel of John - scroll up and down for more text) Warren
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Spurgeon - The Meat and Drink of the New Nature ‘For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.’ John 6:55 Do we know our own strength? I do not mean our natural strength, for that is weakness, but the strength which lies in the new nature when it has fed on Christ. Brethren, we are strong to do, strong to be, strong to suffer. And to take an easy illustration of this, look at how the saints have suffered. Take down Foxe’s Book of Martyrs: read of Marcus Arethusa, stung to death by wasps without a sigh. Think of Blandina, tossed on the horns of bulls, exposed in a red-hot iron chair, and yet never flinching. Give up Christ? They never dreamed of such a thing. Think of Lawrence on the gridiron, and other heroes innumerable, who were made strong because Christ was in them. Turn to humble men and women over yonder there in Smithfield, who could clap their hands while every finger burned like a candle, and who could shout, ‘None but Christ.’ Why, they fed on the flesh and blood of Christ, and that made them mighty. They were tortured on the rack like Anne Askew, and yet they scorned to yield. Brave woman! The priests and the friars could not vanquish her. Neither could all the Bishop Bonners in the world burn Christ out of poor Tomkins. When Bonner held the poor man’s fingers over the candle and said, ‘How will you like that in every single limb of your body?’ Tomkins smiled on the bishop and said that he forgave him the cruelty that he was doing him. Christ in a man makes him a partaker of divine strength. Do you not think that as you are not called to suffer, you ought to lay out your strength in the line of doing, giving, self-denial and serving Christ by holy living? Certainly you should try to do so, and your strength will be found equal to it. You do not know how strong you are, but Paul shall tell you—‘I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.’ Well may you do all things if you have fed on him who ‘is all, and in all’. John 6:56 "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. BGT John 6:56 ὁ τρώγων μου τὴν σάρκα καὶ πίνων μου τὸ αἷμα ἐν ἐμοὶ μένει κἀγὼ ἐν αὐτῷ. KJV John 6:56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. NET John 6:56 The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me, and I in him. CSB John 6:56 The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood lives in Me, and I in him. ESV John 6:56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. NIV John 6:56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. NLT John 6:56 Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. NRS John 6:56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. NJB John 6:56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in that person. NAB John 6:56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. YLT John 6:56 he who is eating my flesh, and is drinking my blood, doth remain in me, and I in him. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood La 3:24 abides: John 14:20,23; Jn 15:4-5; Jn 17:21-23 Ps 90:1 91:1,9 2Co 6:16 Eph 3:17 1Jn 3:24 4:12,15,16 Rev 3:20 John 6 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passages: John 14:20 “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. John 15:4-5 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. John 17:21-23 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. PROMISE OF UNION WITH CHRIST He who eats (esthio) My flesh (sarx) and drinks My blood - This is figurative language for "believes in Me." David Guzik on eats My flesh and drinks My blood - Such radical statements offend many; in part this was Jesus’ intent. In response to those who twisted His words and meaning, He made the metaphors stronger, not weaker. He refused to back down from the truth: I am the bread of life, and the substance of that bread is His sacrifice on the cross, the giving of His flesh and blood. What He gave at the cross, we must receive. Abides (meno) in Me, and I in him - Jesus emphasizes the oneness, fellowship and communion every believer now has with Him forever! Abides is present tense picturing our present supernatural and eternal union, communion and koinonia with our Lord Jesus Christ! The idea is the picture of the believer remaining where he is (in Christ) forever. To abide in Him and have Him abide in us speaks of the oneness we experience when we enter the New Covenant in His blood by grace through faith. To eat His flesh and drink His blood is to believe wholly in Him as our substitutionary, fully atoning sacrificial Lamb. In Me is a locative of sphere which in simple terms pictures believers as living in the "atmosphere" of Christ forever (cf Gal 2:20+). Paul has a parallel thought writing "Christ Who is our life." (Col 3:4+). In Him, we live and breathe and have our being, now and forever. Hallelujah. Amen! As Adam
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Spurgeon - Faith's Checkbook - WE live by virtue of our union with the Son of God (ED: SEE The Oneness of Covenant). As God-man Mediator, the Lord Jesus lives by the self-existent Father who has sent him, and in the same manner we live by the Saviour who has quickened us. He who is the source of our life is also the sustenance of it. Living is sustained by feeding. We must support the spiritual life by spiritual food, and that spiritual food is the Lord Jesus—not his life, or death, or offices, or work, or word alone, but himself, as including all these. On Jesus, himself, we feed. This is set forth to us in the Lord’s Supper, but it is actually enjoyed by us when we meditate upon our Lord, believe in him with appropriating faith, take him into ourselves by love, and assimilate him by the power of the inner life. We know what it is to feed on Jesus, but we cannot speak it or write it. Our wisest course is to practice it, and to do so more and more. We are entreated to eat abundantly, and it will be to our infinite profit to do so when Jesus is our meat and our drink. Lord, I thank thee that this, which is a necessity of my new life, is also its greatest delight. So I do at this hour feed on thee. H. A.
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Spurgeon - Observe, dear friends, how careful the Holy Spirit is that we should not make a mistake about our Lord Jesus Christ. He knew that men are liable to think too little of the ever blessed Son of God, and that some, who call themselves Christians, nevertheless deny Christ’s divinity, and are ever ready to forge an argument against the true and real deity of the Saviour out of anything which appears to limit his power or knowledge. Here is an instance of the care of the Spirit to prevent our falling into an erroneous conclusion. Our Lord consults with Philip, asking this poor disciple, ‘Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?’ Some might therefore have inferred that Jesus did not know what to do, but felt embarrassed. From this they would argue that Jesus cannot be Almighty God, for surely embarrassment is inconsistent with Omnipotence. Why should Jesus consult with Philip if he knows all things? Now, the Holy Spirit would have us beware of falling into low thoughts of our great Redeemer and Lord, and especially of ever being so mistaken as to think that he is not God; therefore he plainly tells us, ‘this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.’ Jesus was not asking information or taking counsel with Philip because he felt any doubt about his line of procedure, or needed help from his disciple. He did not want Philip to multiply bread, but he desired to multiply Philip’s faith. Take heed, therefore, dear friends, that you never think little of the Saviour, or impute any of his acts to motives that would lessen his glory. Learn here, too, that we, being very apt to make mistakes concerning Christ, daily need the Spirit of God to interpret Christ to us. (Jesus Knew What He Would Do) Brian Bell - THREE ATTITUDES! (60-71) Y. DEFECTION! (60-66) Z. This is the 1st group. Unbelievers who choked on the bread going down. 1. Did you know...Many sharks have the ability to turn their stomachs inside out and evert it out of their mouths in order to get rid of any unwanted contents. AA.(60) Hard saying - Yes, very difficult. 1. Not hard to understand, but hard to accept! – skleros (dried, rough, harsh), from skello (to dry). 2. This fresh bread from heaven just became stale & crunchy in their mouth fast! Disciples (3101) mathetes from manthano = to learn which Vine says is "from a root math, indicating thought accompanied by endeavor". Gives us our English = "mathematics" - see matheteuo) describes a person who learns from another by instruction, whether formal or informal. Another sources says mathetes is from from math- which speaks of "mental effort that thinks something through" and thus describes is a learner; a follower who learns the doctrines and the lifestyle of the one they follow. Discipleship includes the idea of one who intentionally learns by inquiry and observation (cf inductive Bible study) and thus mathetes is more than a mere pupil. A mathetes describes an adherent of a teacher. As discussed below mathetes itself has no spiritual connotation, and it is used of superficial followers of Jesus as well as of genuine believers. The Lord calls everyone to grow as a disciple (a learner of Christ; cf. also Mt 11;29,30), one who lives in faith, who lives in and by His Word in the power of the Holy Spirit. Mathetes in John - Jn. 1:35; Jn. 1:37; Jn. 2:2; Jn. 2:11; Jn. 2:12; Jn. 2:17; Jn. 2:22; Jn. 3:22; Jn. 3:25; Jn. 4:1; Jn. 4:2; Jn. 4:8; Jn. 4:27; Jn. 4:31; Jn. 4:33; Jn. 6:3; Jn. 6:8; Jn. 6:12; Jn. 6:16; Jn. 6:22; Jn. 6:24; Jn. 6:60; Jn. 6:61; Jn. 6:66; Jn. 7:3; Jn. 8:31; Jn. 9:2; Jn. 9:27; Jn. 9:28; Jn. 11:7; Jn. 11:8; Jn. 11:12; Jn. 11:54; Jn. 12:4; Jn. 12:16; Jn. 13:5; Jn. 13:22; Jn. 13:23; Jn. 13:35; Jn. 15:8; Jn. 16:17; Jn. 16:29; Jn. 18:1; Jn. 18:2; Jn. 18:15; Jn. 18:16; Jn. 18:17; Jn. 18:19; Jn. 18:25; Jn. 19:26; Jn. 19:27; Jn. 19:38; Jn. 20:2; Jn. 20:3; Jn. 20:4; Jn. 20:8; Jn. 20:10; Jn. 20:18; Jn. 20:19; Jn. 20:20; Jn. 20:25; Jn. 20:26; Jn. 20:30; Jn. 21:1; Jn. 21:2; Jn. 21:4; Jn. 21:7; Jn. 21:8; Jn. 21:12; Jn. 21:14; Jn. 21:20; Jn. 21:23; Jn. 21:24 Difficult (harsh) (4642) skleros from skéllo = to harden, dry up; English = sclerosis) literally means hard, stiff, dried up, dry, severe. When referring to voices or sounds it means hoarse or harsh (Jn 6:60). When referring to things it means hard or tough. When referring to people, it conveys an inhuman character. "The word always conveys a grave reproach; it indicates a character harshly inhumane and uncivil" (Trench). Figuratively, it describes something harsh, unpleasant, or hard to accept (cf. Matt. 25:24; Acts 26:14; Jude 15). Distressing news or challenging concepts would be called “hard.” For more background on the word group see Skleros - Hard as Rock Skleros refers to winds as fierce, violent, rough (Jas 3:4; Pr 27:16). In Acts 26:14, skleros refers to Saul of Tarsus; "hard to kick against the goads." Figuratively a "hard man" is a master who is difficult to please (Mt 25:24) Webster on Harsh - Rough to the ear; grating; discordant; jarring; as a harsh sound; harsh notes; a harsh voice. Austere; crabbed; morose; peevish. Rough; rude; abusive; as harsh words; a harsh reflection. Rigorous; severe. Though harsh the precept, yet the preacher charm´d. John 6:61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? BGT John 6:61 εἰδὼς δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐν ἑαυτῷ ὅτι γογγύζουσιν περὶ τούτου οἱ μαθηταὶ αὐτοῦ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· τοῦτο ὑμᾶς σκανδαλίζει; KJV John 6:61 When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? NET John 6:61 When Jesus was aware that his disciples were complaining about this, he said to them, "Does this cause you to be offended? CSB John 6:61 Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples were complaining about this, asked them, "Does this offend you? ESV John 6:61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do you take offense at this? NIV John 6:61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you? NLT John 6:61 Jesus was aware that his disciples were complaining, so he said to them, "Does this offend you? NRS John 6:61 But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, "Does this offend you? NJB John 6:61 Jesus was aware that his followers were complaining about it and said, 'Does this disturb you? NAB John 6:61 Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them, "Does this shock you? YLT John 6:61 And Jesus having known in himself that his disciples are murmuring about this, said to them, 'Doth this stumble you? John 6:64 2:24,25 21:17 Heb 4:13 Rev 2:23 John 6 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passages: Romans 9:33 just as it is written, “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” 1 Corinthians 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, Galatians 5:11 But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished. 1 Peter 2:8 and, “A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE (skandalon)”; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed. GRUMBLING THAT CAUSES STUMBLING But Jesus, conscious (knew their hearts Jn 2:25+) that His disciples grumbled (gogguzo present tense - continually) at this - Jesus conscious speaks of His complete knowledge of the hearts of men, His supernatural knowledge. Of course in this context, He was probably also conscious because of the low "rumble" in the crowd! Grumbling is usually in a low tone that is not easy to hear (unless there are 1000's rumbling!), but in His omniscience He discerned the attitude of their hard, unbelieving hearts. Said to them, "Does this cause you to stumble (skandalizo) - "Does this scandalize you?" NAB = "Does this shock you?" NET = "Does this cause you to be offended?" This is a rhetorical question. Jesus knew that grumbling would lead to their stumbling, not literal stumbling when they walked, but spiritual stumbling when they thought. Jesus knew the end result would be that that they would end up "grumbling and stumbling" all the way into the Lake of Fire! John
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Spurgeon - A Blow for Puseyism ‘It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.’ John 6:63 Do not men receive the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper? Yes, spiritual men do, in a real and spiritual sense, but not in a carnal way—not so as to crush it with their teeth, or taste it with their palate, or digest it by the gastric juice; but they receive the Lord Jesus, as incarnate and crucified, into their spirits, as they believe in him, love him, and are comforted by thoughts of him. ‘But how is that a real reception of him?’ cries one. Alas, this question reveals at once the world’s thoughts; you think the carnal alone real, and that the spiritual is unreal. If you can touch and taste, you think it real, but if you can only meditate and love, you dream it to be unreal. How impossible it is for the carnal mind to enter into spiritual things! Yet, hearken once again, I receive the body and blood of Christ when my soul believes in his incarnation, when my heart relies upon the merit of his death, when the bread and wine so refresh my memory that thoughts of Jesus Christ and his agonies melt me to penitence, cheer me to confidence, and purify me from sin. It is not my body which receives Jesus, but my spirit; I believe in him, casting myself upon him alone; trusting him, I feel joy and peace, love and zeal, hatred of sin and love of holiness, and so as to my spiritual nature I am fed upon him. My spiritual nature feeds upon truth, love, grace, promise, pardon, covenant, atonement, acceptance, all of which I find, and much more, in the person of the Lord Jesus. Up to the extent in which my spirit has communion with the Lord Jesus, the ordinance of breaking of bread is living and acceptable. DEMONSTRATE YOUR FAITH - A W Tozer It is the spirit that quickeneth…the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. John 6:63 We know of many who have been deceived into believing that the learning and the memorizing of Christian doctrine is all sufficient. They actually think that somehow they are better off for having learned the doctrines of religion. God actually asks of us what He asked of Noah long ago! “Demonstrate your faith in God in your everyday life!” It is evident that God did not say to Noah, “I am depending on you to hold the proper orthodox doctrines. Everything will be just fine if you stand up for the right doctrines.” I have read a statement by Martin Lloyd-Jones, the English preacher and writer, in which he said: “It is perilously close to being sinful for any person to learn doctrine for doctrine’s sake.” I agree with his conclusion that doctrine is always best when it is incarnated—when it is seen fleshed out in the lives of godly men and women. Our God Himself appeared at His very best when He came into our world and lived in our flesh! (BORROW MORNINGS WITH TOZER) J R Miller - John 6:63 - God's own life is in the words of Scripture. Put a handful of flower-seeds in your window-box, under the sunshine, and they will soon become lovely flowers. Put the truths of the gospel into a human heart, and soon the life will begin to grow into the beauty of Christ. Its effects will be seen in the disposition, in the character, in the conduct, in all the daily acts. At an auction, a crude jar of common earthenware was bought by a seller of perfumes for a penny. But he filled it with attar of roses, and soon every particle of the substance of the jar had partaken of the sweetness. The fragrance within it had permeated it. Long, long afterward, when emptied and broken, every smallest fragment was still sweet with the precious perfume. So it is, when even the most common life is filled with the Word of Christ. It flows out, as it were, in the character, in the feelings and affections, in the thoughts and desires, in the tempers and dispositions, until the whole being is permeated, filled with the spirit of Christ. For where the Word of Christ dwells—the Holy Spirit dwells; and where the Holy Spirit dwells—is the kingdom of heaven, heaven begun in a human life. We see the effects of this indwelling—in the gentleness, the sweetness, the purity of heart, the truth, the patience, the love, which the Word of Christ always produces. Kenneth Osbeck - Borrow Amazing Grace - WONDERFUL WORDS OF LIFE Words and Music by Philip P. Bliss, 1838–1876 The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. (John 6:63) One of the basic precepts of the Sunday school movement has always been that God’s Word must be carefully and systematically studied by believers of all ages. Study it carefully, think of it prayerfully, Till in your heart its precepts dwell; Slight not its history, ponder its mystery, None can e’er prize it too fondly or well. —Unknown One of the earnest concerns of many present leaders is the biblical ignorance of so many church people. Often precious Sunday school time is spent in teaching everything but the Bible itself. Yet the churches that do teach the Scriptures diligently and apply their teachings to modern living are the churches that are experiencing the greatest growth. We never outgrow our need for the Bible; it becomes more helpful to us with the years. We must also realize that God’s truth revealed to us is never contrary or apart from the Bible. Often there have been those who have claimed to have extra revelations through visions which supersede the Scriptures. God’s Word clearly warns against this false assertion (Jeremiah 23:16). Philip P. Bliss was one of the most important names in the development of early gospel music. Before his tragic death at age 38, he wrote many favorites still enjoyed by congregations. “Wonderful Words of Life” was written by Bliss in 1874, for the first issue of a Sunday school paper, Words of Life. These words still speak to both young and old of the importance of God’s Word in our daily lives: Sing them over again to me—wonderful words of life; let me more of their beauty see—wonderful words of life. Words of life and beauty, teach me faith and duty: Christ, the blessed one, gives to all wonderful words of life; sinner, list to the loving call—wonderful words of life. All so freely given, wooing us to heaven: Sweetly echo the gospel call—wonderful words of life; offer pardon and peace to all—wonderful words of life. Jesus, only Savior, sanctify forever: Refrain: Beautiful words, wonderful words of life. For Today: Psalm 119:103, 172; Jeremiah 15:16; Matthew 4:4 Reflect on whether God’s Word has the place of importance in your life that it should have. Consider ways that this could be improved. Sing this musical reminder— Kenneth Osbeck - Borrow Amazing Grace -THY WORD HAVE I HID IN MY HEART Words and Music by Ernest O. Sellers, 1869–1952 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. (John 6:63) O cleansing Word, O precious Word, Your promises are true; They keep and purify my heart; Your truths are ever new. —Unknown God has made provision for each believer to live holy and pure lives—regardless of his or her environment. That provision is the power of His Word. The ability to live above the filth and evil in the daily world around us can be achieved only through listening to and responding to the truth of the Scriptures. (ED: AND I WOULD ADD LEARNING our need to depend on the Holy Spirit to obey) Portions of the wonderful 119th Psalm, with the majority of its 176 verses speaking pointedly regarding the importance of God’s Word, were paraphrased by Ernest O. Sellers and set to a melody in 1908 to provide us with a hymn that still has an important place in our hymnals. 'The first stanza of this hymn is based on verse 105: “Thy Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.” Stanza two is based on verses 89 and 90: “Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.” The third stanza is taken from the 44th, the 62nd, and the 164th verses of this psalm: “Seven times a day do I praise Thee, because of Thy righteous judgments. At midnight, I will rise to give thanks unto Thee, because of Thy righteous judgments. So shall I keep Thy law continually forever and ever.” The final stanza is based on the 41st verse: “Let Thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even Thy salvation according to Thy Word.” For the chorus of his hymn, Mr. Sellers used the words directly from Psalm 119:11. They provide a strong closing summary for the reason we hide God’s Word in our hearts: “Thy Word have I hid in my heart—that I might not sin against Thee.” Thy Word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path alway, to guide and to save me from sin and show me the heav’nly way. Forever, O Lord, is Thy Word established and fixed on high; Thy faithfulness unto all men abideth forever nigh. At morning, at noon, and at night I ever will give Thee praise; for Thou art my portion, O Lord, and shall be thru all my days! Thru Him whom Thy Word hath foretold, the Savior and Morning Star, salvation and peace have been brought to those who have strayed afar. Chorus: Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee. For Today: Psalm 119:11, 41, 44, 62, 89, 90, 105, 164; 2 Timothy 3:16, 17 Take one of these choice verses from Psalm 119 and let it saturate your life. Carry with you verse 11 in this musical form— Vance Havner - "Try His Own Words" "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John 6:63 From far-off Norway a sailor, who once attended my church, wrote to tell me of a wonderful experience of healing. Evidently not well acquainted with English he puts his sentences together oddly but in the very phrasing there is beauty: "Will you... thank the Lord Jesus Christ, that he has given me a new spine in body by his own words from the Bible?" Then he adds what is very significant: "Just because I'll try his own words." That is just what we won't do. We will try this theology and that, this devotional book and that, this exposition and that, this fad and that, but we will not try his own bold and naked words! Alas, even fundamentalists are often guilty of sizing and sorting Scripture to fit the dimensions of their own private theories, lopping off this verse and stretching that, to suit the procrustean bed of some favorite school of interpretation. Blessed are they who, weary of the Babel of many tongues, press back through all the sermons and books and isms and ologies into his own dear presence, and who dare to "try his own words." It is possible even to search the Scriptures and yet not come to him that we might have life. Take him at his own word and see what happens! John 6:64 "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. BGT John 6:64 ἀλλ᾽ εἰσὶν ἐξ ὑμῶν τινες οἳ οὐ πιστεύουσιν. ᾔδει γὰρ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ὁ Ἰησοῦς τίνες εἰσὶν οἱ μὴ πιστεύοντες καὶ τίς ἐστιν ὁ παραδώσων αὐτόν. KJV John 6:64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. NET John 6:64 But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus had already known from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) CSB John 6:64 But there are some among you who don't believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning those who would not believe and the one who would betray Him.) ESV John 6:64 But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) NIV John 6:64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. NLT John 6:64 But some of you do not believe me." (For Jesus knew from the beginning which ones didn't believe, and he knew who would betray him.) NRS John 6:64 But among you there are some who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. NJB John 6:64 'But there are some of you who do not believe.' For Jesus knew from the outset who did not believe and who was to betray him. NAB John 6:64 But there are some of you who do not believe." Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. YLT John 6:64 but there are certain of you who do not believe;' for Jesus had known from the beginning who they are who are not believing, and who is he who will deliver him up, GWN John 6:64 But some of you don't believe." Jesus knew from the beginning those who wouldn't believe and the one who would betray him. BBE John 6:64 But still some of you have no faith. For it was clear to Jesus from the first who they were who had no faith, and who it was who would be false to him. RSV John 6:64 But there are some of you that do not believe." For Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. NKJ John 6:64 "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 would betray Him. ASV John 6:64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who it was that should betray him. MIT John 6:64 But some among you do not believe." Jesus, indeed, knew from the beginning who the nonbelievers were and the identity of his betrayer. DBY John 6:64 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 would deliver him up. NIRV John 6:64 But there are some of you who do not believe." Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe. And he had known who was going to hand him over to his enemies. RWB John 6:64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who he was that would betray him. WEB John 6:64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who he was that would betray him. there: John 6:36,61 Jn 5:42 8:23,38-47,55 10:26 13:10,18-21 For: John 6:70,71 2:24,25 13:11 Ps 139:2-4 Ac 15:18 Ro 8:29 2Ti 2:19 Heb 4:13 John 6 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries JESUS KNOWS WHO WOULD NOT BELIEVE But - Term of contrast. He has just spoken of the fact that the way to attain spiritual life is by the Spirit and the Word He had spoken. There are some of you who do not (ou - absolutely do not) believe (pisteuo) - This is amazing -- Jesus has Jesus spoken words that give life (Jn 6:63), but "some" refused to believe and sadly soon "some" would prove to be "many" in John 6:66! They refused to receive His life giving words and could not receive life from the Spirit. The problem was not lack of information but lack of reception and faith (Jn 1:11+)! These Jews who had just heard the words that give eternal life were like those Jews described by the writer of Hebrews who recorded "For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard." (Hebrews 4:2+)
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Spurgeon - CLEAVING TO CHRIST - “Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.”—John 6:67, 68. In the case before us, we see that the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ acted like a great winnowing machine. His nominal disciples were like a heap of wheat and chaff all mingled together on the threshing-floor. His words were like a mighty wind passing through the whole mass, separating the chaff from the wheat, and driving it away, and leaving only the good corn lying all around him. This leads me to say that, apart from afflictions, temptations, and persecutions, the preaching of the gospel is in itself a means of dividing the true followers of Christ from those who are only his disciples in name; and wherever there is a faithful, Christlike ministry, you will find many going away from it for the very same reasons that those nominal disciples went away from Christ. “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” D L Moody - John 6:67, 68. THE sun is thousands of years old, but gas is new. Shall we then use gas in place of the sun? Block up all the windows of your houses, and have nothing to do with the sun! You might as well do that as give up the Bible. Outgrown it! Why, there is no book to be compared with it. No other book will lift up the world. If you could go into a town where men were trying to live without that good book, you would flee from it as they who left Sodom and Gomorrah. Have infidels ever produced a Knox, a Bunyan, or a Milton? C H Spurgeon - A Home Question and a Right Answer ‘From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?’ John 6:66–68 We know some that used to walk with Christ, who walk no more with his people; their hearts have gone away from Christ. The Sabbath is ignored; the house of God is forsaken; the Bible is put away; prayer is neglected and perhaps despised. They walk no more with Christ, for they prefer a broader or smoother road. If anybody mentions what they used to be, they slink away, and seem to say, ‘Never mention it again: we wish it to be ignored.’ I remember a household where the sons and daughters all professed to be converted to Christ; but some of them were fond of amusements that were not consistent with the profession of religion. When they were found in such engagements, they blushed a little; but by-and-by they boldly averred that they had never been converted, that they were forced into it by persuasion, and hurried on by excitement to do that which their better sense led them to regret. Their excuse was as false as their former profession. They knew that they acted of their own accord, and willingly professed Christ. Alas, just as willingly, when temptation came, they forsook him. Ah, apostate, it is all very well to say that you were persuaded; but you know that you deliberately confessed your faith, or you would never have been baptized by us; you deliberately sought membership with the church of God, or you would not have been received. If you have gone back from Christ you yourself must bear the shame in time and eternity. But when any openly sever themselves from the companionship of the Crucified One, well may the question pass from heart to heart, ‘Will ye also go away?’ Spurgeon - Morning and Evening - “Will ye also go away?”—John 6:67 Many have forsaken Christ, and have walked no more with him; but what reason have YOU to make a change? Has there been any reason for it in the past? Has not Jesus proved himself all-sufficient? He appeals to you this morning—“Have I been a wilderness unto you?” When your soul has simply trusted Jesus, have you ever been confounded? Have you not up till now found your Lord to be a compassionate and generous friend to you, and has not simple faith in him given you all the peace your spirit could desire? Can you so much as dream of a better friend than he has been to you? Then change not the old and tried for new and false. As for the present, can that compel you to leave Christ? When we are hard beset with this world, or with the severer trials within the Church, we find it a most blessed thing to pillow our head upon the bosom of our Saviour. This is the joy we have to-day that we are saved in him; and if this joy be satisfying, wherefore should we think of changing? Who barters gold for dross? We will not forswear the sun till we find a better light, nor leave our Lord until a brighter lover shall appear; and, since this can never be, we will hold him with a grasp immortal, and bind his name as a seal upon our arm. As for the future, can you suggest anything which can arise that shall render it necessary for you to mutiny, or desert the old flag to serve under another captain? We think not. If life be long—he changes not. If we are poor, what better than to have Christ who can make us rich? When we are sick, what more do we want than Jesus to make our bed in our sickness? When we die, is it not written that “neither death, nor life, nor things present, nor things to come, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” We say with Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go?” Oswald Chambers - Borrow My Utmost for His Highest - The time of relapse Will ye also go away? John 6:67. A penetrating question. Our Lord’s words come home most when He talks in the most simple way. We know Who Jesus is, but in spite of that He says—“Will ye also go away?” We have to maintain a venturing attitude toward Him all the time. “From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.” They went back from walking with Jesus, not into sin, but they relapsed. Many to-day are spending and being spent in work for Jesus Christ, but they do not walk with Him. The one thing God keeps us to steadily is that we may be one with Jesus Christ. After sanctification the discipline of our spiritual life is along this line. If God gives a clear and emphatic realization to your soul of what He wants, do not try to keep yourself in that relationship by any particular method, but live a natural life of absolute dependence on Jesus Christ. Never try to live the life with God on any other line than God’s line, and that line is absolute devotion to Him. The certainty that I know I do not know—that is the secret of going with Jesus. Peter only saw in Jesus Someone to minister salvation to him and to the world. Our Lord wants us to be yoke-fellows with Him. Jn 6:70. Jesus answers the great lack in Peter. We cannot answer for others. John 6:68 Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. BGT John 6:68 ἀπεκρίθη αὐτῷ Σίμων Πέτρος· κύριε, πρὸς τίνα ἀπελευσόμεθα; ῥήματα ζωῆς αἰωνίου ἔχεις, KJV John 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. NET John 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. CSB John 6:68 Simon Peter answered, "Lord, who will we go to? You have the words of eternal life. ESV John 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, NIV John 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. NLT John 6:68 Simon Peter replied, "Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. NRS John 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. NJB John 6:68 Simon Peter answered, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life, NAB John 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. YLT John 6:68 Simon Peter, therefore, answered him, 'Sir, unto whom shall we go? thou hast sayings of life age-during; GWN John 6:68 Simon Peter answered Jesus, "Lord, to what person could we go? Your words give eternal life. BBE John 6:68 Then Simon Peter gave this answer: Lord, to whom are we to go? you have the words of eternal life; RSV John 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; NKJ John 6:68 But Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. to whom: Ps 73:25 You have: John 6:40,63 5:24,39,40 Ac 4:12 5:20 7:38 1Jn 5:11-13 John 6 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Related Passages: John 6:40 “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.” John 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. SIMON'S GREAT RESPONSE Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life (Jn 6:63) - Guess who speaks his mind?! Simon spoke for the twelve (minus the one betrayer), acknowledging that Jesus' words in His Bread sermon were those that would give eternal life and that there was no one else to go to for eternal life. (cf Peter in Jn 13:36-37; Matt. 14:28; 15:15; 16:16, 22; 17:4; 18:21; 19:27; 26:33, 35; Mark 11:21; Luke 5:8; 8:45; 12:41). One is reminded of the confession at Caesarea Philippi - " And He continued by questioning them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter *answered and *said to Him, “You are the Christ.” (Mk. 8:29+, Mt 16:16+) Peter was a "realist!" He knew (undoubtedly the Spirit had given him understanding) that to leave Jesus, would leave the deserter with no chance of entering eternal life and the Kingdom of God. It was Peter who later declared (speaking of Jesus) "“He is the STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED by you, THE BUILDERS, but WHICH BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone. And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other Name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:11-12+) A T
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Spurgeon says that it’s in all four gospels so that we won’t forget how much the Lord can do with little things that are yielded to Him. The feeding of the 5.000 precedes Jesus’ discourse on being the living Bread that comes down out of heaven to give His life for the world (Jn 6:32-58). So it’s also a miracle that points to salvation. John wrote this sign “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name” (Jn 20:31). John begins the story (Jn 6:1): “After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias).” The last time note in John (Jn 5:1) mentioned an unnamed “feast of the Jews.” If it was the Feast of Tabernacles, five to six months have passed. The other gospels inform us that Jesus has sent out the twelve on a ministry tour. They have come back and reported their experiences to Him. Meanwhile, they got word that Herod had beheaded John the Baptist. Jesus and the disciples were so busy with all the needy people that they didn’t even have time to eat. So Jesus invited them to get away to a desolate place for some much needed rest. So they took a boat across the northern end of the Sea of Galilee to a spot in the country north of Bethsaida (home of Philip, Andrew, and Peter). The problem was, the crowds saw them go, ran around the lake on foot, and greeted them as they disembarked (Mark 6:33). The disciples must have thought, “Oh no! We can’t get away from these needy people!” But Jesus felt compassion for them, taught them, and healed their sick (Mark 6:34; Matt. 14:14). John 6:2 notes, “A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs which He was performing on those who were sick.” These people weren’t following Jesus because they recognized Him as the Son of God who could save them from their sins. Some were fascinated just seeing the miracles. Others needed miraculous healing for themselves or their loved ones. But overall their reasons for following Jesus were misguided and superficial. John adds (Jn 6:3-4): “Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near.” I’m not sure why John reports the detail of Jesus going up on the mountain. But coupled with the mention of the Passover, he may want us to draw a parallel with Moses, who led the people out of Egypt after the Passover. Later, he went up on the mountain receive the Ten Commandments. God also used Moses to give manna to the people in the wilderness. So the mention of the Passover being near is probably more than just a time notice. John wants us to see Jesus as the new and better Moses. He fulfilled what the Passover lamb typified. He gave Himself as the permanent manna or bread of life. He is the Prophet of whom Moses wrote (Deut. 18:15; John 6:14). But in this case, although Jesus could have called for manna to float down from heaven, He didn’t do that. Why not? Jesus used this miracle and those that follow to train the twelve. John shows this by Jesus asking Philip (6:5), “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” The other gospels report that the disciples had asked Jesus to dismiss the multitude so that they could go buy their own food. But Jesus pointedly told the disciples (Mark 6:37), “You give them something to eat!” Here, John adds (6:6), “This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do.” Jesus was showing Philip and the other disciples their woeful inadequacy to meet this need, along with His all-sufficiency. So this miracle teaches us that … Christ uses inadequate people who surrender what they have to Him to meet the overwhelming needs of others. Note four main lessons: 1. People are needy. There were about 20,000 people out in a remote place (Luke 9:12), with many needing healing. They were hungry and there was no place nearby to buy food. Their physical hunger and their inability to satisfy that hunger pictures the spiritual needs of this sinful world. As Jesus will later tell them (6:26-27), they were following Him because they ate their fill of the bread, but they should have been focused on the food that endures to eternal life. They are typical of so many in this world who are living for material things that will shortly perish, but they don’t see their need for the food that endures to eternal life. While it is right for Christians to engage in ministries of mercy to meet the physical needs of the poor, our ultimate goal should be to introduce them to the Lord, who can save them for eternity. So we need to pray that the Holy Spirit will convict them of their sin so that they will see their true need for Christ to rescue them from judgment before they die. Evangelist Ray Comfort helps people see their need for Christ by walking them through some of God’s commandments that they have broken. He asks, “Have you ever lied or stolen anything?” “Yes.” “What do you call someone who lies and steals?” “A liar and a thief.” “Have you ever taken God’s name in vain?” “Yes.” “The Bible calls that blasphemy. So you’re saying that you’re a liar, a thief, and a blasphemer!” “Have you ever been angry with anyone?” “Yes, many times.” “Jesus said that God views such anger as murder.” “Have you ever looked on someone with lust?” “Yes, of course.” “Jesus said that to do so is to commit adultery in God’s sight. So you’re saying that you’re a liar, a thief, a blasphemer, a murderer, and a multiple adulterer! How do you think it will go when you stand before the holy God at the judgment?” It’s only when people see how spiritually needy they are that they will cry out to Jesus to save them. 2. The Lord’s people are inadequate in themselves to meet people’s needs. As I said, the other gospels report that the disciples’ easy solution to this multitude’s need for food was to send them away so that they could buy their own food (Mark 6:36). Problem solved! Well, at least it was solved as far as the disciples were concerned! But Jesus told them (Mark 6:37), “You give them something to eat!” Specifically, the Lord asked Philip (John 6:5), “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” It would have been great if Philip had responded, “Lord, I’ve seen You turn water into wine. I watched You heal the royal official’s son from a distance. I saw you heal the man who had been unable to walk for 38 years. I’ve watched You perform dozens of miracles. Surely, You can provide bread for this hungry multitude, even as God provided manna in the wilderness!” I’d like to think that that’s how I would have responded. Ha! No, I would have responded just as Philip did. He started calculating, but he calculated without Christ. He did the numbers without considering the Lord’s power and concluded with businesslike efficiency, “Eight months’ salary of a working man (200 denarii) is not sufficient for each one to receive a little.” The problem was, they didn’t have 200 denarii and even if they did, it wasn’t enough. And even if they had more, there weren’t supermarkets just down the road that had enough bread on hand to feed 20,000 hungry people. But how often we throw up our hands and conclude that we can’t do something for the Lord because we calculate based on our inadequate resources! Then, along comes Andrew who says (6:9), “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish ….” So far so good. But then he adds, “But what are these for so many people?” I’m not sure why Andrew even bothered to bring this boy and his little lunch to Jesus. Maybe the boy had offered and Andrew felt obligated to acknowledge the boy’s good intentions. But his comment, “But what are these for so many people?” seems to reflect his embarrassment to bring this pitiful lunch to Jesus. The loaves were not the size of our loaves of bread. They were small, flat barley cakes, probably about the size of a small pancake. Barley was the food of poor people and animals. The two fish were either pickled or dried small fish, like sardines. But Andrew’s comment accentuates the obvious inadequacy: “What are these for so many people?” So people are needy, but the Lord’s people are inadequate to meet those needs. 3. Jesus Christ is all-sufficient to meet people’s overwhelming needs. Jeremiah prayed (Jer 32:17), “Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You.” If Jesus is the Lord God in human flesh, Creator of heaven and earth, then nothing is too difficult for Him! John brings out Christ’s all-sufficiency in at least five ways: A. CHRIST IS IN CONTROL OF EVERY SITUATION. John 6:6: “This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do.” Jesus never tested anyone in the sense of tempting them to do wrong. But He does test His servants so that they can learn to trust Him more. As someone has observed, “It was not bread that He was seeking from Philip, but faith.” John’s comment, “for He Himself knew what He was intending to do,” shows that Jesus wasn’t stumped and asking the disciples to brainstorm on how they could solve this perplexing problem. Rather, Jesus was in complete control. No problem that you or I ever face takes Him by surprise or causes Him to wonder, “How in the world am I going to solve this one?” B. CHRIST IS MORE CONCERNED FOR NEEDY PEOPLE THAN WE ARE. The disciples wanted to solve this problem by sending the multitude away to buy their own bread. They were more focused on their own need for a break than they were with the multitude’s need for food. They viewed the hungry multitude as a bother. But Christ was concerned for them. He wants us to learn to look at needy people through His eyes. He has compassion for them and delights to meet their needs. C. CHRIST IS NOT LIMITED BY OUR INADEQUATE RESOURCES. When Philip came up with his 200 denarii estimate (that he didn’t have), Jesus didn’t say, “Go take a collection from the crowd and see how much we can get.” When Andrew offered his apology, “But what are these for so many people?” Jesus didn’t say, “I’ll bet there’s more food in this crowd. Let’s get everyone to share!” Jesus wasn’t limited in any way by this meager lunch. And, He isn’t limited today by the fact that we don’t have enough money or time or talent to get the gospel to the whole world. As Watchman Nee put it (Twelve Baskets Full [Hong Kong Church Book Room], 2:48), “The meeting of need is not dependent on the supply in hand, but on the blessing of the Lord resting on the supply.” D. CHRIST DOESN’T JUST BARELY MEET NEEDS; HE ABUNDANTLY SUPPLIES ALL THAT WE WANT. John draws a contrast between Philip’s “for everyone to receive a little” (Jn 6:7), Andrew’s “but what are these for so many people?” (Jn 6:9), and Jesus’ distributing to the people “as much as they wanted” (Jn 6:11). It reminds us of when God sent manna to the Israelites in the desert and we read (Exod. 16:18), “Every man gathered as much as he should eat.” To emphasize the sufficiency of the manna, the text repeats (16:21), “They gathered it morning by morning, every man as much as he should eat.” Nobody went hungry. When Jesus fed the 20,000, everyone was satisfied and there were 12 baskets full of leftovers. Paul wrote (Phil. 4:19), “And my God will supply all your needs (ED: NOT ALL YOUR GREEDS!) according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” E. CHRIST IS SUFFICIENT NOT ONLY FOR PHYSICAL NEEDS, BUT ESPECIALLY FOR SPIRITUAL NEEDS. This isn’t just a story about feeding hungry stomachs. This is about the spiritual satisfaction that Jesus brings to all who feed on Him as the bread of life. As He says (John 6:35), “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.” As Paul put it (Eph. 1:3), God “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” Are you satisfied with Jesus as your living Bread? When Jesus was dealing with the Samaritan woman at the well, the disciples were focused on the physical: “Rabbi, eat the lunch that we brought to You!” But Jesus was focused on the spiritual food of doing His Father’s will. Here, the disciples are still looking at things on the physical plane: How much money will it take to buy bread for this many people? The multitude was also focused on the physical. After this miracle, they wanted to take Jesus by force and make Him king (6:15). “This man can solve our economic problems!” But later (6:26-27), Jesus rebukes them because they were only interested in filling their stomachs. They had no concern about the food that endures to eternal life. Even so, today people come to Jesus because they need physical healing or they need a job or they need Him to solve some pressing problem. He can meet those needs and He often does. But He wants us to see that we all have a deeper need: We need to be reconciled to the holy God. Jesus provided the only way for that to happen by giving Himself on the cross (6:51). No matter how great your sin may be, Jesus is more than sufficient to forgive your sin and save you from God’s judgment. So this miracle shows us that people are needy and the Lord’s people are inadequate to meet those needs. But Jesus Christ is powerfully sufficient to meet the needs of all people, especially their need to be reconciled to God. How does He do it? 4. Christ meets the needs of people through His inadequate people who yield their inadequate resources to Him. Briefly, here are four ways that Christ meets needs: A. CHRIST USES PEOPLE TO MEET THE NEEDS OF PEOPLE. John does not specifically state what the other gospels state, that Jesus used the disciples to distribute the bread and fish to the people. But he does show how Jesus involved Philip and Andrew and it’s only from John that we learn that the five loaves and two fish came from a boy’s lunch. As I said, Jesus easily could have prayed and called down bread from heaven without involving anyone else. But He used people, including a boy and his lunch, to meet the needs of other people. If you know Him, He wants to use you to meet others’ needs. B. CHRIST USES INADEQUATE PEOPLE TO MEET THE NEEDS OF PEOPLE. Jesus could have looked around the crowd for the obviously rich and appealed to them for the funds to feed the crowd. He could have asked those with plenty of food to share. But instead, He used people who were painfully inadequate to meet this overwhelming need. If you think that you’re adequate or competent to serve the Lord, you’re not ready to serve Him. Someone asked Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to China, “Do you really expect to make an impact on that great land?” “No, sir,” Morrison replied, “but I expect God to.” Hudson Taylor, who followed in Morrison’s footsteps, said, “All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on God being with them.” God only uses inadequate people. C. CHRIST USES INADEQUATE PEOPLE WHO YIELD THEIR INADEQUATE RESOURCES TO HIM. The boy had to give up his lunch, not knowing for sure whether he would go hungry or not. He ended up eating more than he gave up! But we can only give to others what we have first received from God ourselves. We can’t give and the Lord won’t use the 200 denarii that we don’t have. But He will use the inadequate resources that we do have if we yield them to Him. What has the Lord given you? Remember, it was the slave who only had one talent who buried it and didn’t use it for his master. If you think that you’re just a “one-talent” Christian, make sure that you yield it to Christ and use it for His purpose. D. WHEN CHRIST USES YOU TO MEET THE NEEDS OF OTHERS, HE ALWAYS PROVIDES A BASKETFUL OF LEFTOVERS FOR YOUR NEEDS. Unlike the manna, which spoiled if they gathered too much, in this miracle the Lord directed the disciples to gather the leftovers, so that nothing would be wasted. We should learn from this to be frugal with what the Lord supplies. Even though He can provide far more than we need, we shouldn’t waste it. But this also shows how the Lord provides for those who serve Him. There were 12 disciples and there were 12 baskets full of leftovers. We hear a lot about “burnout” today, especially among pastors and missionaries. While we all need adequate rest and time off, if we’re feeling burned out in serving the Lord, it’s likely that we’ve been trying to meet others’ needs in our own strength. We’re trying to feed the multitude with the 200 denarii that we don’t have, and it isn’t sufficient even for everyone to have a little. But if we come away tired, yes, but with the satisfaction of the fullness of Christ in our souls, then the Lord’s blessing was on us. Remember, the bread is a picture of Christ. When we yield to Him our inadequate abilities and gifts to use as He pleases, He will satisfy us with a full measure of Himself. We’ll have food to eat that others know nothing about (John 4:32). Conclusion I have two concerns in this message. First, if you’ve never tasted Christ as the living bread to give you eternal life, then that is your main need. Your main need is not for Jesus to heal you or give you a job or provide you with a mate. Your main need is to come to Jesus for eternal life. Just as you eat bread to sustain your physical life even though you don’t understand exactly how it works, so you need to trust in Christ for eternal life. He promises (John 6:35), “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and He who believes in Me will never thirst.” Second, if you have trusted in Christ, my concern is that you offer yourself to Him to use to meet the needs of others. We always have many ministry needs in the church. Some are behind the scenes, servant-type jobs. But also, the Lord wants to use you to give out the bread of life to others, whether to fellow believers or to those who don’t know the Savior. Don’t live for yourself. Live to be used of God and you’ll be satisfied with a basket full of the Living Bread for yourself. Application Questions Since there are so many needs in the world, how do you know where to devote your time, effort, and money? When is it right to say “no” to the demands of needy people? How do spiritual gifts fit in with service? How do you know if God wants to use you in an area you aren’t gifted in? Are there conditions that we must meet in order to experience God’s blessing? What are they? John 6:14-21 GROWING TO KNOW THE LORD FOR WHO HE IS by Steven Cole Many people come to Christ in the hopes that He will make them happy. They struggle with personal problems and they hear that Jesus can help, so they trust in Him to gain the peace and joy that they long for. Or, they’re in an unhappy marriage or having problems with their kids and they heard that Christ can help, so they decided to “try Christ.” Whatever the need, they want Christ to make them happy. But after they come to Christ, they find that the problems get worse, not better. Things aren’t exactly like the salesman—I mean evangelist—promised! They feel like when you sign up for some offer, only to find that it was a bait and switch. If you had known what you were in for, you never would have signed up. As I’ve often said, the crucial question in life to answer is Jesus’ question to the disciples (Matt. 16:15), “But who do you say that I am?” If Jesus is who He claimed to be and who the Scriptures show Him to be, then we must follow Him as Savior and Lord, even if it results in being tortured and killed. The Bible is quite clear that many godly saints have suffered terribly because of their faith. In fact, Paul promises (2 Tim. 3:12), “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” The main reason for following Christ is not because He can make you happy—although He can, even in your suffering—but because He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). He is the eternal Son of God, sent from the Father to provide the only way to heaven through His death and resurrection. Thus, as we’ve seen, John wrote his Gospel, and especially the miracles or signs that Jesus did (Jn 20:31), “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” It’s important that we believe in Jesus for the right reasons and that we grow to know Him as He is, not as we might wish for Him to be. John (and Matthew 14:22-33; Mark 6:45-52) follows the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 with the miracle of Jesus walking on the water, but he gives a compressed version of the story. For example, John doesn’t tell us that Jesus compelled the disciples to get into the boat. He doesn’t tell us that Jesus sent the multitude away or that He was praying on the mountain. He omits Mark’s comment (6:48) that Jesus saw the disciples straining at the oars or that He intended to pass them by when He came to them on the water. He doesn’t say that the disciples thought that they were seeing a ghost (although he does say that they were frightened). He doesn’t mention Peter’s walking on the water (Matt. 14:28-31). He doesn’t tell us that the storm was instantly stilled when Jesus got into the boat. And it’s puzzling why John, who wants us to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, omits the disciples’ worshipful response, “You are certainly God’s Son!” (Matt. 14:33). Also, John doesn’t offer any comment on why he includes this story. He just gives it in this compressed form and then the following narrative goes back to the feeding of the 5,000, as Jesus expounds on His being the bread of life. So you have to ask, “Why did John include this sign in his Gospel? What does he want us to take away from meditating on it?” One clue to these questions is what John told us back in 1:14, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John reports this miracle so that we, too, will see Jesus’ glory and trust Him in life’s storms. Also, this miracle was private; only the disciples saw it. Thus it was for their training (and ours). We’re not reading too much into this story to say that the disciples were confused and disappointed with Jesus’ response to the multitude after He fed them with the loaves and fish. (R. C. Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord [Baker], p. 173, and G. Campbell Morgan, The Gospel According to John [Revell], pp. 102-103, point this out.) The crowd proclaimed Him to be the prophet of whom Moses spoke and they wanted to take Him by force and make Him king (John 6:14-15). The disciples had placed all of their hopes in this Galilean carpenter-prophet as the promised Messiah-King, who would deliver His people. They had given up their livelihoods to follow Him. Jesus has sent them out on a mission to proclaim that the kingdom of God was at hand. They were expecting Him to establish that kingdom at any moment. And now, after Jesus has shown Himself to be the new Moses by providing bread for this crowd in the wilderness, the people want to make Him king. This was what the disciples had been waiting for! But rather than capitalizing on the mood of the crowd and moving ahead with their desire to see Him enthroned, Jesus forced the disciples to get into the boat and head back toward Capernaum, while He sent the multitude away and went up on the mountain by Himself. What was He thinking? And then, to make matters worse, after Jesus forced them to get in the boat and put out on the lake without Him, a strong wind came up against them. They had already been in one storm on that lake when Jesus had been asleep in the boat with them. He woke up, rebuked the storm, and the sea was instantly calm. But now He wasn’t even with them! So it’s reasonable to assume that the disciples were confused and disappointed as they were trying to row against this storm. Here they were, trying to help bring in God’s promised kingdom and to help people see that Jesus is the promised Messiah-king. In obedience to Jesus, they had set out across the lake without Him. But now, they were caught in this storm. In that setting, Jesus came to them walking on the water to teach them that even though He wasn’t the kind of Messiah-king they may have hoped for, He still is the Lord of all creation. They needed to get to know Him as He is, not as they had hoped that He would be. The lesson for us is: Jesus does not want followers who use Him for their own purposes, but followers who grow to know Him and trust Him for who He is. 1. Jesus does not want followers who have misconceptions about who He is, who use Him for their own purposes (Jn 6:14-15). John 6:14-15: “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.’ So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.” Moses was the revered leader who had led Israel out of bondage in Egypt. Through him, God gave the law and provided manna in the wilderness. If Jesus was the prophet of whom Moses had prophesied (Deut. 18:15), then maybe He could deliver Israel from Roman domination! Maybe He could usher in God’s kingdom where Israel would enjoy peace and prosperity. So they wanted to make Him their political king. But they didn’t want to repent of their sin and submit to Him as Lord. Rather, they wanted a king who would improve their living situation. They wanted a king who would usher in peace and prosperity. In short, they had misconceptions about who Jesus is and they wanted to use Him for their own purposes. Even the disciples fell into this wrong way of thinking about Jesus, as you know. Right after Jesus asked them that crucial question (Matt. 16:15), “But who do you say that I am?” Jesus told them that He had to go to Jerusalem, where He would suffer many things, be killed, and be raised up on the third day. But (Matt. 16:22), “Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” But Jesus rebuked Peter (Mt 16:23), “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” Peter had a wrong conception of Jesus that didn’t include the cross. I hope that that doesn’t describe you, but it would not be uncommon if it describes some of you. One Sunday several years ago a woman who was visiting here for the first time came up for prayer after the service. She and her husband had moved here for a good job that she had been offered. But after a short while on the job, she had been terminated. She was very angry at God for leading them here, only to lose her job. I wasn’t able to help her see that this trial was from God’s loving hand for their good, but that she needed to trust Him, submit to Him, and even give Him thanks for this opportunity to grow in her faith. She had misconceptions about who Christ is and she wanted to use Him for her own happiness. When that didn’t work out as she envisioned, she grew angry and bitter. 2. Jesus wants followers who grow to know Him and trust Him for who He is. In Isaiah 55:8-9, the Lord says, “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Part of growing to know the Lord is growing to know His ways and to submit thankfully to His ways when they run counter to my ways. One test of whether I am truly submitting to God’s ways with me is whether I am grumbling or giving thanks when things don’t go the way that I wanted them to go. If I’m trying to use Him then I’m acting as lord and He’s just my servant. Biblical Christianity means that I submit joyfully to Him as Lord and I’m His servant. John’s account of Christ’s walking on the water brings out five ways that we grow to know and trust Jesus for who He is: A. We grow to know and trust Jesus’ person through the trials that He puts us through. John tells us that Jesus withdrew to the mountain by Himself alone. The disciples got into the boat and started to cross the sea without Him. John adds the puzzling statement (Jn 6:17), “It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.” Not all agree, but I take it to mean that John anticipates the rest of the story: Jesus would shortly come, but He hadn’t yet come. So the disciples were on the lake in the dark in this storm, without Jesus. Not only was Jesus not with them, He also let them struggle against this storm for many hours. John says that they had rowed “25 or 30 stadia,” which was about three and a half miles. The other gospels say that it was in the fourth watch of the night (between 3-6 a.m.) that Jesus came to them. They were probably exhausted and perhaps wondering whether they should turn around and let the wind blow them back to their starting point. At that point of great need, Jesus came to them, walking on the sea. If we could interview John as he recalled this event, he would probably say, “It was an awful thing to be on the lake in the dark in a storm for that long without Jesus in the boat. But if He had not sent us into that situation, we would not have seen His glory and power when He came to us, walking on the water. The fresh vision of who Jesus is made it worth all the toil and anxiety.” Although such trials are never enjoyable at the moment, as the author of Hebrews tells us (Heb 12:11), “Yet to those who have been trained by it [the trials of God’s discipline], afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” The late Malcolm Muggeridge wrote (A Twentieth Century Testimony [Thomas Nelson], cited in Reader’s Digest, Jan. 1991, p. 158): Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and painful with particular satisfaction. Indeed, everything I have learned, everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction and not through happiness. Also, that storm kept them from joining the crowd in their error of wanting to make Jesus a political king. I think that when we’re in heaven, we’ll look back and see many instances in our lives where some trial or situation that didn’t go as we had wished actually kept us from some temptation that we would have fallen into. If I may use a rather homely personal example, when I was a teenager, I had a bad case of acne. Also, like most teenage boys, I struggled a lot with lust. I’ve thought that maybe the Lord used my bad complexion to keep me from getting involved immorally with girls at that vulnerable time of my life. So one result of this miracle was that through it, the disciples grew to know Jesus’ person in a way that they never would have if they had not been in this storm. Jesus often sends us into storms so that we will grow in our understanding of who He is when He comes to us in a powerful way in the midst of the storm. B. We grow to know and trust Jesus’ purpose in the trials He puts us through. A. W. Pink (Christ Walking in the Sea John 6:14-27) points out that these people proclaimed Jesus as their prophet and were willing to make Him their king. But they were omitting the other office that must come before He is crowned as king: He is the priest, who offered Himself as the final sacrifice for our sins. The disciples did not learn that lesson until after the cross and resurrection. But this miracle was one of the many times that Jesus had to repeat this lesson before it finally sank in. One of the main lessons of the Christian life is that God’s purpose is not centered on me and my glory. It’s about Jesus and His glory! God’s purpose is to sum up all things in Christ (Eph. 1:10). To that end, He is working all things in our lives for His glory. Maybe you’re thinking, “I thought he was working all things together for my good, as Romans 8:28 says.” He is, but your greatest good is bound up with Jesus’ glory. Your greatest good and your ultimate glory is to be conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29-30). When we’re perfectly conformed to His image in heaven, it will be to the praise of His glory (Eph. 1:6, 12, 14). C. We grow to know and trust Jesus’ providence in the trials He puts us through. The disciples here went from the mountaintop experience of the feeding of the 5,000 to the valley of the violent storm as they struggled to cross the sea without Jesus being with them. Just as Jesus knew what He would do with the feeding of the 5,000 (6:6), so He knew that He was sending the disciples into a storm and that He would come to them to calm their fears and to increase their understanding of who He is. Mark 6:48 says that Jesus saw them as they rowed against the winds. They were at least 3-4 miles away, so Mark is referring to Jesus’ omniscience. Also, Jesus had to know exactly where they were on the stormy sea to walk to them. They thought that they were alone, but they were really not alone. They learned that even though they didn’t know it, Jesus was fully aware of their circumstances and He would come to them in His time. And, as the other gospels state, He was praying for them while He was on the mountain. But they didn’t know that until later. God’s providence means that nothing happens to us apart from His sovereign, loving will. Jesus isn’t asleep in heaven; He is there praying for us, even as He was praying for the disciples while they were fighting against this storm. In His perfect time, He will come to us. But we’ve got to trust Him when we can’t see Him or figure out any reason for why we’re in the storm. D. We grow to know and trust Jesus’ power in the trials He puts us through. The disciples had just seen Jesus create bread and fish to feed the large crowd. Now they saw Him as the Lord over His creation, as He walked on the water. Our trials cannot prevent Him from coming to us, even if we can’t imagine how He will do it. At the same time, it is not always His will to use His power to deliver us from trials. Here, He stilled the storm and the disciples got safely to the shore. But He didn’t deliver John the Baptist from Herod’s sword. He didn’t call legions of angels to spare Himself from the cross. He later delivered Peter from prison, but not James. As Hebrews 11:33-37 shows, by faith many experienced powerful deliverances from their trials, but also by faith others were tortured and suffered martyr’s deaths. But whether it’s God’s will to deliver us or to take us to glory through death, we should know and trust His mighty power in the trials He puts us through. E. We grow to know and trust Jesus’ presence in the trials He puts us through. One of John’s main emphases in recounting this miracle is that Jesus’ presence with them in the boat got them immediately to their destination (6:21). This may have been another miracle or John may mean that with Jesus in the boat, they quickly got to their destination (solid commentators hold to both views). But at any rate, Jesus’ presence with the disciples calmed their fears in this storm. As Jesus says (6:20), “It is I; do not be afraid.” When we experience Jesus’ presence in the middle of life’s storms, it calms our fears. “It is I” is literally, in Greek, “I am.” Some commentators say that this is the only way that a person could identify himself in Greek, so Jesus is not claiming to be Yahweh, who identified Himself to Moses as “I am” (Exod. 3:14+). But perhaps John, in light of his overall purpose, wants his readers to at least see a hint of this here. It is obviously Jesus’ point in John 8:58, where He says, “Before Abraham was born, I am.” Because of who He is, Jesus’ presence with us gives us comfort. When the Lord gave the Great Commission, He also gave the reassuring promise (Matt. 28:20), “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” That was David Livingstone’s verse as he endured countless hardships in the 19th century, trying to open the interior of Africa to the gospel. He said (A Frank Boreham Treasury, compiled by Peter Gunther p. 106), “On those words I staked everything, and they never failed! … It is the word of a gentleman of the most strict and sacred honor, so there’s an end of it!” Conclusion So, why do you follow Jesus? Is it so that you can use Him to make you happy? Or, is it because He is the sovereign Lord of creation, who demands your submission and loyalty, even if His ways are not what you expected? Another underlying current of this story is Christ’s patience and grace toward the disciples. Mark (6:51-52) reports that they had not gained any insight from the feeding of the 5,000. Later, they were still clueless about how to feed the 4,000 (Mark 8:4, 16-21). But the Lord did not give up on them. Even though we’re slow to learn, He is gracious with us as we struggle to know Him and trust Him for who He is. Even when things do not go as you expected or hoped, you can know that Jesus is still the Lord over all. Through your trials you can grow to know His person, His purpose, His providence, His power, and His presence. You will look back and say, “The storm was worth it because I grew to know more of who Jesus really is!” Application Questions How can we keep our prayers from turning into idolatry, where we use “God” to get what we want? Since it is not always God’s will to deliver us from trials, is it wrong to pray for deliverance? What else should we pray for? Why doesn’t the Lord protect those who are seeking to serve Him from difficult trials? How can we grow to experience God’s presence with us in all situations? How would this affect our behavior and emotions? John 6:22-36 Seeking Jesus Rightly Steven Cole What are you seeking for in life? We all seek happiness, but where are you looking for that happiness? Some think that they will find it in financial success or a satisfying career, and so they devote themselves to those pursuits. Others think that they will find happiness in sex. They become enslaved to pornography, or they go from one partner to the next. Many try to find that pleasure in alcohol or drugs, only to destroy their lives. Some seek happiness through marriage and children. While a happy family is a blessing from God, it should never become our main source for happiness, because we can easily lose it through death. And often our families can be the source of great pain. As Solomon makes clear in Ecclesiastes, any earthly thing that you seek to satisfy the inner void is like chasing soap bubbles. You catch one only to have it burst in your hand. The Bible is clear that our ultimate source of happiness and pleasure is found only in God. David wrote (Ps. 16:11), “In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” Jesus told the disciples (John 15:11), “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” We will find fullness of joy and pleasures forever when we seek God. A. W. Tozer begins his spiritual classic, The Pursuit of God (p. 11), by pointing out “that before a man can seek God, God must first have sought the man.” As Paul says (Ro. 3:11), “There is none who seeks for God.” Tozer adds (ibid.), “We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit.” Thus we can’t take credit for our pursuit of God. And yet at the same time, the Bible clearly exhorts everyone, including the ungodly, to seek the Lord. Isaiah 55:6-7 calls to us, Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. So there is a mystery here: no one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws him (John 6:44), and yet we are commanded to come to Jesus and to seek Him diligently. We begin by seeking Him for the mercy of salvation and we keep seeking Him for the grace to live in a manner pleasing to Him. It’s a lifelong quest. The prophet Hosea said (Jn 6:3), “So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.” The apostle Paul echoes that (Phil. 3:7-11), where he says that he has counted all of his former gains as loss for the surpassing value of knowing Christ. Even though he had known Christ for about 25 years when he wrote that letter, he admits that he had not yet attained what he desired. Then he added (Phil. 3:14), “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Tozer put it like this (Pursuit of God p. 14, 17), Come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God. They mourned for Him, they prayed and wrestled and sought for Him day and night, in season and out, and when they had found Him the finding was all the sweeter for the long seeking…. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. In our text (John 6:24), many of the people whom Jesus had fed with the loaves and fish “came to Capernaum seeking Jesus.” The morning after the miracle, they couldn’t find Jesus. They knew that He had not left in the boat with the disciples and that there had not been any other boats there the night before. But they couldn’t find Him. So when some small boats from Tiberias came there, these people got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus. Their question when they found Him (Jn 6:25), “Rabbi, when did You get here?” shows that they couldn’t figure out how He got there because they didn’t know about His walking on the water to the disciples. Jesus could have replied, “I got here early this morning after I walked on the water to the disciples and joined them in the boat.” That answer would have caused some jaws to drop! But Jesus didn’t answer their question. Instead, He confronted them because even though they had gone to a good bit of trouble to seek Him, they were seeking Him wrongly. They sought Him because they wanted a political Messiah to bring peace and prosperity. By reversing their negative example into a positive one, we can learn how to seek Jesus rightly: Seek Jesus for the right reason, by the right route, and through the right relationship to give you eternal life. These Jews were seeking Jesus for the wrong reason: They wanted Him to provide them with material comfort, not with eternal life (Jn 6:22-27). They were seeking by the wrong route: works, not faith (Jn 6:28-29). And, they were seeking Jesus as the new Moses, to provide them with what they wanted, but not as the satisfying bread of life whom they could know personally (Jn 6:30-36). 1. Seek Jesus for the right reason: Desire eternal food, not temporal food (Jn 6:22-27). Jesus confronts the multitude (John 6:26): “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” He means that they had missed the true significance of the miracle that He had just performed. Rightly understood, the miracle of the loaves and fish should have turned them to Christ as their Messiah, who could satisfy their spiritual hunger for time and eternity. But, as one commentator put it (Lange, cited by F. Godet, Commentary on John - Volume 2 - John 2-10), “Instead of seeing in the bread the sign, they had seen in the sign only the bread.” Their minds were on the temporal and material, rather than on the eternal and spiritual. They wanted their stomachs filled, but they weren’t seeking Jesus for eternal life. They had no sense of their sin or their need to be reconciled to the holy God. They sought Jesus only for what He could do for them materially. Jesus’ words here obviously refute the popular heresy that it is God’s will for every Christian to be financially prosperous. The false teachers who promote this damnable teaching are preying on people’s greed. Sadly, this teaching is rampant in many poor countries, as well as in the United States. It deceives people into thinking that their real need is more money, when in fact their real need is the eternal life that Jesus offers. So, Jesus becomes Aladdin’s Genie to help you get what you want out of life. But He isn’t the Savior from sin, who satisfies your soul whether you are rich or poor, living in a nice home or locked up in a cold prison cell. So Jesus exhorts (Jn 6:27), “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.” Jesus doesn’t mean that you should quit your job and take a vow of poverty. The Bible commends hard work and commands us to provide adequately for our families (Col. 3:23; 1 Tim. 5:8). It does not condemn having earthly riches, although it does warn about the dangers of riches (1 Tim. 6:8-10, 17-19). Rather, Jesus is showing us by way of contrast where to put our focus. As He said in Mark 8:36, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” Or, as Jesus graphically illustrated with the parable of the man who wanted to build bigger barns to store his wealth, but who died that very night, to end up rich in this world’s goods, but to die poor toward God, is a huge mistake (Luke 12:15-21). We should not be so caught up with working to put food on the table that we neglect working for “the food which endures to eternal life.” I’ll comment more on this when we look at Jn 6:28-29, but note the irony of Jesus’ statement that we should work for this food that endures to eternal life, and yet at the same time, the Son of Man gives it to us. It’s the same as when Jesus exhorted His hearers (Luke 13:24), “Strive to enter through the narrow door.” Or (Matt. 11:12), “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.” There is a lot of effort involved in “striving” and “taking the kingdom by force.” And yet at the same time, Jesus gives living water to the spiritually thirsty and the true bread of eternal life to the hungry (John 4:10; 6:27, 32, 35). What does it mean to work “for the food which endures to eternal life”? J. C. Ryle (John 6 Commentary) sums it up well: How are we to labor? There is but one answer. We must labor in the use of all appointed means. We must read our Bibles, like men digging for hidden treasure. We must wrestle earnestly in prayer, like men contending with a deadly enemy for life. We must take our whole heart to the house of God, and worship and hear like those who listen to the reading of a benefactor’s will. We must fight daily against sin, the world, and the devil, like those who fight for liberty, and must conquer, or be slaves. These are the ways we must walk in if we would find Christ, and be found of Him. This is “laboring.” This is the secret of getting on about our souls. As always, Ryle cuts to the quick! Evaluate yourself in light of his words and put them into action. Figure out how to rearrange your busy schedule so that you take the time and effort to work for the food which endures to eternal life.” Before we leave these verses, note three important truths here about Jesus. First, Jesus knows your motives. He saw right through this crowd that was seeking Him for the wrong reasons and He lovingly confronted and exhorted them in the way they needed to change. When Jesus confronts your wrong motives through His Word, pay attention and respond with repentance. He’s doing it because He loves you, not to hurt you. Second, Jesus gives spiritual food to those who seek Him properly. He could not do this if He were not God. He knows exactly what you need to grow in Him and He will give it to you when you diligently seek Him for it. Third, Jesus is God’s only approved source of spiritual blessing. He says (Jn 6:27b), “For on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” A seal in that day authenticated a document and showed that the owner of the seal approved of it (Leon Morris, Borrow The Gospel according to John p. 359). D. A. Carson explains (Borrow The Gospel according to John Pillar Commentary Series p. 284), “The idea is that God has certified the Son as his own agent, authorizing him as the one who alone can bestow this food.” So don’t fall prey to any false teaching that diminishes the full deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Seek Him for the food that endures to eternal life. 2. Seek Jesus by the right route: by faith, not by works (Jn 6:28-29). John 6:28-29: “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.’” Their question picks up on Jesus’ command not to work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life (Jn 6:27). John
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Spurgeon wrote (High Doctrine): The doctrine which leaves salvation to the creature, and tells him that it depends upon himself, is the exaltation of the flesh, and a dishonoring of God. But that which puts in God’s hand man, fallen man, and tells man that though he has destroyed himself, yet his salvation must be of God, that doctrine humbles man in the very dust, and then he is just in the right place to receive the grace and mercy of God. It is a humbling doctrine. Has God humbled your heart and drawn you to Jesus? If not, stop grumbling and start praying that He will do it soon! Application Questions Discuss: Many modern evangelistic methods are much too influenced by American sales techniques than by biblical models. Some argue that unbelievers are able by themselves to believe in Christ; otherwise, God wouldn’t command them to do so. Why is this fallacious? Support your answer with Scripture. Have you ever tried to witness to a skeptic? What did you learn from the experience? What can you learn from our text? Why is grumbling such a serious sin (Exod. 15:24; Num. 11:1; 14:2-5; 1 Cor. 10:10; Phil. 2:14)? How can you overcome it? John 6:48-59 What Are You Eating? Steven Cole Perhaps the Sunday before Thanksgiving is not the time to ask, “What are you eating?” The holidays are the most difficult time of the year to stick to a diet. You say, “Ask me in January!” But that’s the question that our text implicitly wants us to consider: “What are you eating?”—not physically, but spiritually. We hear a lot these days about the importance of a healthy diet. You are what you eat and a lot of Americans eat a lot of junk food, resulting in a lot of serious, but avoidable health problems. Most of us could benefit by being careful about what we eat. It’s the same spiritually. If you gorge yourself on the latest movies or on the fare that is offered every night on TV, and you seldom feed on the Bible, don’t be surprised if you’re not spiritually healthy. If your spiritual intake consists of a sugary devotional that you grab on the run, like a donut, and an occasional sermon when you aren’t doing something else on Sunday, don’t be surprised if you’re feeling kind of spiritually sluggish. You are what you eat. In John 6, after He fed the 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, Jesus repeatedly offers Himself as the spiritual food that gives eternal life and eternal satisfaction to all who eat: John 6:27: “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.” John 6:32: “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.’” John 6:33: “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” John 6:35: “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.’” John 6:48: “I am the bread of life.” John 6:50: “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.” John 6:51: “I am the living bread that came 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.” In 6:52, the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” Rather than softening the analogy so as to be less offensive, Jesus goes on to make it more offensive! He changes the bread analogy to His flesh and, in a statement that would have grossed out just about every Jew, He added that not only did they need to eat His flesh, but also they needed to drink His blood! John 6:53-57: “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.’” Then He goes back to the bread analogy (John 6:58): “This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” Then John mentions (Jn 6:59) that Jesus spoke these things (probably from Jn 6:41 on) as He taught in the synagogue in Capernaum. At another time, Jesus lamented of Capernaum (Matt. 11:23-24), “And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.” That’s an awful warning! It’s going to be worse for Capernaum on the day of judgment than for Sodom because the people of Capernaum did not eat Jesus’ flesh or drink His blood when it was offered freely to them. So we need to be clear about what Jesus means here and we need to take it to heart so that we don’t follow Capernaum into judgment. The lesson is: Feeding on Jesus by faith is necessary for eternal life, for temporal sustenance, and for temporal and eternal satisfaction. This is an eternal life or death matter. In Jn 6:50, Jesus says that if you eat of Him as the bread from heaven, you will not die. He states the converse in Jn 6:51, if you eat of this bread, you will live forever. In Jn 6:53, Jesus warns the Jews that unless they eat His flesh and drink His blood, they have no life in themselves. In Jn 6:54, He again states the converse of 6:53, namely that the one who eats His flesh and drinks His blood has eternal life. He reinforces it again in Jn 6:57, “He who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.” And in Jn 6:58 he again contrasts Himself with the manna, which the Israelites ate and died, by saying that the one who eats this bread (probably pointing to Himself) will live forever. Thus … 1. Feeding on Jesus by faith is necessary for eternal life. Some interpret these verses to refer to partaking of communion, or the Lord’s Supper. The Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church also base their views of transubstantiation (the view that the communion elements actually become the body and blood of Christ) in part on John 6:53, where Jesus says that we must eat His flesh and drink His blood to have eternal life. So before we examine what Jesus means, we need to look at what He does not mean: A. Eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood do not refer to partaking of the Lord’s Supper. A. W. Pink (Christ in the Capernaum Synagogue John 6:41-59) gives four reasons that John 6 does not refer to communion. First, communion had not yet been instituted. Jesus instituted it on the night He was betrayed. Second, Jesus was speaking here to unbelievers and communion is for believers. Third, the eating here is unto salvation or eternal life, while eating the Lord’s Supper is for those already saved and points to fellowship. Fourth, the Lord’s Supper does not produce the results that are here attributed to eating and drinking Christ. If Jesus’ words here refer to communion, then you gain eternal life by partaking, which contradicts many other Scriptures that show that salvation is through faith in Christ, not through participating in a ritual. So, as J. C.