A study of the Sixth Chapter of the Gospel of John
Five thousand people came to hear this Man. He was said to be the Messiah. He had recently satisfied the hunger of this great mass of people with just five barley loaves and two small fish. A miracle! Yet there were leftovers! Twelve basketfuls! (v1-13)
14 Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
The crowd wanted to make Him King! (v15) But it wasn’t God’s time. Therefore, Christ went off to a mountain alone.
(v16-20) Later, He walked the sea. A miracle! Coming near the boat with the Apostles, who had gone out to look for Him, He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” He entered the boat and then immediately, yes, immediately, they were on the shore! They had been moved three or four miles to the shoreline! Another miracle!
The next day, in Capernaum, Yeshua cautioned the people:
27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
A food that “endures to everlasting life”?
To Jews who knew their Scripture, the food or bread is meant to be understood spiritually as the Word of God. Many Scriptures show this:
PSALM 119:103 How sweet are Your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Earthly food perishes. Spiritual “food” builds the soul and “endures to everlasting life’!
Yeshua was making a point: He was talking about His Word that they all had heard just the day before. Then the people asked what to do. Yeshua replied:
29 … “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
Belief in Yeshua = Everlasting Life.
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These people asked for a sign. Like the feeding of the 5000 wasn’t?
31 Our fathers [Jews] ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”
But Yeshua replied:
32 … “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven [manna], but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
True bread! The true bread is Christ!
33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
35 … “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
Obviously, Yeshua, as the Bread of Heaven, was speaking spiritually. All of us have physical hunger pains and we physically thirst everyday. Therefore, He was speaking metaphorically. When one knows the LORD, one will never hunger or thirst spiritually, for now one knows the Blessed Savior! One doesn’t go around looking for some new-fangled “religion” or “way of life”, because one knows the Truth!
Belief in Yeshua = Everlasting Life.
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Furthermore, Yeshua proclaimed:
40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Belief in Yeshua = Everlasting Life.
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Again Yeshua declares:
47 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. 48 I am the bread of life.
So again,
Belief in Yeshua = Everlasting Life.
Hear what the LORD is telling you!
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Now we see that the LORD has stated FOUR times in this short passage (27-47) that belief in Him yields eternal life. So why do some people get confused on what comes next in verses 52-58? They take it out of the whole context! Firstly, Christ was speaking symbolically as He compared Himself to bread. Then why would He now be talking about physically eating?
These are the passages that cause confusion:
52 The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” 53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. 58 This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
Spiritually eating this “true bread”, our souls are renewed to live forever!
The LORD is using these words “flesh” and “blood” metaphorically! Yeshua spoke in parables and metaphors for those wise enough to discern.
The Messiah’s “flesh” is His bodily sacrifice upon the cross. His “blood” covers our sins for “without shedding of blood there is no remission.” (HEB 9:22)
Our sins must be forgiven and it is through the blood of the perfect Savior that they are.
1 John 1:7 … and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
MATT 26:28 This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Christ is NOT literal “bread”, but He is the spiritual food for life eternal. After all, He is the Word of God!
JOHN 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
So, continuing on with the Scriptures:
61 When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you?”
Yeshua offered them an explanation:
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
Word = spirit = life
But many didn’t believe the LORD’s clarification:
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. 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. 65 And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”
It is only at this point, these flaky “disciples” left the Messiah! Maybe they had been listening but not spiritually hearing. Yeshua knew these Jews (maybe Sons of Esau) were unbelievers, so they slipped away.
66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. 67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”
Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”
But this is the crux of this matter:
68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE. 69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (My emphasis)
Yeah! Jolly good for Saint Peter! He understood that faith in Yeshua and His Word lead to everlasting life!
The LORD declared that belief in Him yields eternal life FOUR times and now St. Peter reiterates it. There are tons of other Scriptures throughout the Bible that confirm this.
Belief in Yeshua = Everlasting Life.
Do you want to live forever? Believe in Yeshua!
The Apostles continued on (except for Judas the betrayer) with the LORD. After the Ascension of Christ, they served Him in various places and died a martyr’s death, except for John. Yet, the Apostles didn’t have a round host in a monstrance that looks like the sun! Follow the Apostles. They came together to “break bread”: to share the Word of God!
From Messianic Publishing: The idiom of breaking bread has a long Jewish history, originating with the twelve breads that were broken and shared each Sabbath in the Temple. We will then see how Messianic Jews understood that the Messiah and his teaching fulfilled this idiom as the true bread, the bread of life. This is what the New Covenant scriptures on breaking bread refer to, and this was the idiom where the phrase “breaking bread” originated.
An Added NOTE
Where is Christ today? His Spirit is with us, but where is He physically?
ACTS 3:20 … and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things …”
A well-known pastor, Alistair Begg, in his sermon stated:
“Christ has a resurrected, physical body in heaven. His Spirit is omnipresent. Yet His resurrection was a physical resurrection. His ascension did not send him nowhere; it sent him somewhere. It sent him, the Bible says, to the place in which he is now located. So the physical presence of Jesus is in its exalted state in heaven. … Where is Jesus physically present, then, according to the Bible? In the presence of God the Father. Therefore, he is not physically present anywhere else. Right? He is present in other places by the Holy Spirit, but he is not physically present anywhere else. He is corporeally―which is the word―in heaven. Therefore, he is not corporeally on earth. Therefore, loved ones, he is not present in the Roman Catholic mass. He cannot be! He is in heaven, exalted in his body. Therefore, bits and pieces of him are not down in some little place. They cannot be! You’re sensible people. Think it out.“
Christian music by Carolyn Anne Venable may be heard on Spotify, Pandora, Apple & other music apps.
Please see more on this subject at:
https://hisinheritance.org/destroying-mountain/the-true-bread-from-heaven
https://themessianicfeast.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/TMF_Course_3.pdf
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