John Lesson 20

Introduction

Very pleasant good day to you, and welcome to Let the Bible speak. Get your New Testament and open with me to the reading found in John chapter six, where we shall begin our study today in verse 46, and we’ll continue right on through the end of this chapter. John chapter 6 is one of the longest chapters in this gospel, according to John, and we’ve had to study several different segments because of time. And actually, we do not even start with verse 46 and properly understand it without knowing a little bit about what comes before it. That’s really why we’ve been studying verse by verse through John. You take any verse of the Bible, if you do not know its context, you probably will not come up with the right understanding of that passage.

But you take a verse and you read what comes before and what follows after. And it’s not going to say a lot of different things to a lot of different people. I’ve heard some say, well, you know, you read the Bible and you understand it one way and somebody else reads it and he understands it a different way. And I say that if that happens, it’s usually because somebody does not know the context in which a verse is written. But the language of the Bible is written so that we can understand it. And we need to study it verse by verse and make certain that we have the understanding within the context of the setting in which it is delivered unto us. In John chapter 6, the scene begins where Jesus works a miracle.

1. The Signs Prove Jesus Is of God

The miracle of feeding the multitude with the five loaves and the two fishes. That is a small lad’s lunch. There’s a multitude of five thousand people there, plus the women and children, the Bible tells us. And for him to take that lad’s lunch and to feed that multitude, and then for them to take up twelve basketfuls afterward, prove the power of Jesus Christ, that God was with him, that he was not simply mortal man, but that as they said in verse 14, this indeed is the prophet of God. He’s the one that the scriptures promised. He’s the coming, he’s the Messiah who was to come. Nobody could do the signs that Jesus did except God be with him. Well, the scene of John chapter six then shifted to to the fact of his disciples rowing their boat back across the Sea of Galilee and Jesus coming to them by night, walking on the water.

2. Labor Not for the Food That Perishes

And that was another sign or miracle which proved that Jesus had to be of God, for no man can walk on water. But then the next day, when the multitude began to search for Jesus, and they themselves came across the Sea of Galilee, and finding him across the Galilee, they were concerned. How did he get there? Jesus at first admonished them that really what they had done was searching for him, that was good. But he said, You search not for the right reason. They were searching for the loaves. They had not sought Jesus because that he’s the Son of God, the miracles that he worked, but rather they had sought him because he was able to feed them with bread. And then he exhorted them to the lesson, labor not for the meat or the food that perishes.

That is, don’t labor just for the material things here and now. Get your eyes enlightened to those things that are of greater value. He said, labor for that which endureth unto life everlasting. Then the scripture talks about how that they then asked the question, Well, what shall we do that we might work the works of God? And Jesus taught them that they ought to believe. This is the work of God that ye believe. We ought to hear the word of God and then obey what it says. And that is doing a work that God has ordained. That is, what God has appointed for us to do, we’ll find in the Word of God. Belief or saving belief will obey what God said. That’s a work, all right, but it does not nullify grace.

3. I Am the Bread of Life

Then they raise the question, Well, show us what sign that will prove to us that you really are of God, that we may see and that we may believe. What does thou work? And then they raise the question or raise the point that our fathers did eat manna. Moses gave them manna to eat. Well, what can you do? And Jesus replied unto them that Moses, not really Moses gave you that bread from heaven, but the Father gave you bread from heaven. And really you’re looking for the wrong thing when you’re just looking for some kind of sign in comparison to Moses. You ought to be looking for some spiritual truths to prove that prove that he is the Son of God. And really, if you look at Jesus Christ, you’ll realize that he is of God.

That just as God gave the manna through, or by that not Moses, but God gave the manna during the time of Moses, so it is that it is the Father that is convincing men through the signs that Jesus is working, that Jesus Christ really is the Son of God. But Jesus made this statement more clearly when he said in verse 35, I am the bread of life. You’re looking for manna or something like that? Well, manna, but when you when our fathers ate that, they later died. But the bread of heaven, the bread that God really gives, a spiritual life is what he said. I am the bread of life. But notice how it is that we can never hunger. He says, I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger.

And he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Jesus is not talking about literally eating him. Though he is food, it’s a metaphor or a figure of speech to describe how that he is that fulfilling food, but in a spiritual way. If you come to him, and if you believe on him, then in a figure of speech you eat of him. Now, as he continued with that thought, he said, I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And then he talked about how that he would raise up those at the last day who have believed on him. Even as he came to please the Father, others who believe on Christ believe on the Father, and they’re the ones who shall be saved.

Well, the Jews murmured at that. And they they said, Well, uh He says that I am the bread which came down from heaven. But isn’t this the Son of Joseph? Don’t we know this one? Why? He’s born of Joseph and Mary, isn’t he? You see again, they could not look beyond what just the physical eye could see. They were not understanding the spiritual truths that Jesus was trying to teach them. But in verse 44 and 45, he said, No man comes to me except the Father draw. How can you be drawn to Jesus Christ? Verse 45 is a very important verse that we studied in our last one. They shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard of God, and he will draw you, as you’re taught by God, or taught of God, but you will hear and will learn of the Father, and then you can come unto him.

But read with me now, verse 46, where Jesus said, Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The bread that I that I will give is my flesh, now he said.

That’s which I will give for the life of the world. Well, somebody may say, well, that sounds like he means we ought to eat his flesh. But that really isn’t what he’s saying. He’s here indicating, of course, the death that he would die.

He died in the flesh, that we might live. But the kind of bread that he really gave in the death of his body for our sins, Jesus Christ provided eternal life for us. And so in that sense that as we come to him and believe on as a Son of God, who love died for us, then we partake of the spiritual feast, in fact, that eternal feast in heaven that is yet to come. But now how does it how is it possible for us to really come to eat his flesh? How can we participate in this bread of life? Well, in verse 48, or verse 49, he said, Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness. They are dead. Now, if you’re going to think in terms only of the physical, then look at those who ate the manna.

4. Eat My Flesh and Drink My Blood

That was physical bread that filled their physical bodies, but they are all dead. In effect, Jesus is saying, I’m not talking to you about things that are temporal in their nature. I’m talking to you about things that are spiritual and that are eternal in their nature. I am the living bread. Well, they didn’t quite comprehend this. In fact, look at verses 52 through 58. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily I said to 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, and I will raise him up at the last day.

For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and die in him. As a living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father. So he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. Now, notice in this text, where he talks about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. There are those who have confused this passage and immediately thought, Well, he must be talking about the Lord’s Supper. When on the first day of the week Christians assemble, we have a memorial feast we refer to, the Bible refers to as the Lord’s Supper.

And Jesus, about a year after the incident here in John chapter 6, did institute what he called as this memorial feast. He took unleavened bread and he said, Take heat, this is my body which is given for you. You can read that in Matthew chapter 26, about verses 26 through 29, where he also took the fruit of the vine and said, This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Also you might read 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verses twenty-three through about verse 30, where there the description is given for us how that this is as a memorial we should discern his body and his blood as we partake of the Lord’s Supper. But while that is a memorial feast, and we take those emblems and we remember his death and we remember his body given and his blood shed, yet that is not really, it seems, what the context here in John 6 is talking about.

He isn’t talking about the doctrine of transubstantiation, as our Catholic friends try to say is what occurs with with the Lord’s Supper.

On even before he died, and if transubstantiation occurs, and that’s what he would have had to have done in Matthew chapter 26. But rather those are but emblems, they symbolize, they’re figures for us to remind us of his body, and to remind us of his blood. But in John chapter 6, Jesus is yet talking about something broader than just a memorial feast of his literal body and of his literal blood. Let’s let the text, our context, define for us what he’s talking about when he says, Eat my flesh and drink my blood. Look at three different verses. Verse 35.

Now, how can we never thirst and never hunger? By coming to him, by believing on him. As we come to him and believe on him.

How do we come to him? Well, he’s already said in verse 45, as we’re taught of God, as we hear and as we learn, we come unto him. So if you want to really eat of his flesh and drink of his blood, then you come to hear the word of God. Believe on him. Follow his word. But more than that, how do we eat his flesh and drink his blood? Look at the text in verse 56 that we just read. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and die in him. Now those who dwell in him eat his flesh and drink his blood. What do you mean, Lord? You know, in the Gospel of John, and really throughout the New Testament, there are several figures of speech.

But particularly in John, you remember Jesus told the woman by the well in John 4 that he was the living water. Is he literally water? No. It is a metaphor. It’s a figure of speech to describe the thirst-quenching ability of Jesus Christ in the lies of those who would come unto him. He said in John chapter 10, I am the door of the sheepfold. Is he literally a door? No, but he’s the entrance. As John 14 and 6 says, I am the way, the truth, and the lie. If you want to come to the Father, you come by me. Passages where he said, I am the true vine, John 15, is he literally a vine? No. Neither are we to take the language here in John 6 and have to establish it and say, oh, that literally means to eat his flesh and literally drink his blood.

Not at all. But it’s a figure of speech. Dwell in Christ. How do we dwell in Christ? Galatians chapter 3, 27 says, as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Those who put on Christ have gotten into Christ, he’s in them. And there’s a sense in which those who are his children, they’ve come, they’ve heard, they’ve obeyed. They’re eating and drinking. That is, they’re participating in fellowship with Christ. But not only does verse 35 and verse 56 define for us what Jesus meant. Look at verse 57. As the living Father has sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. The one who lives by Christ is the one who eats him.

What do you mean by that, Lord? You remember the statement Paul made in Galatians 2 21 2 in verse 20, when he said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. As we obey the will of God, we live by him. As we obey the word of God, we come to him. You want to eat his flesh and drink his blood, then be his disciple, faithfully keeping his word. That’s how you have that hunger quenching, that hunger fulfilling. He indeed satisfies us spiritually and grants unto us eternal life. We’re going to pause for a moment.

5. Many Disciples Went Back and Walked No More

We’ll come back and conclude our study in John chapter 6. I hope you’ll stay with us. We’ve come now in John chapter 6 to what must have been one of the saddest occasions in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. For as he was teaching the multitude about the bread of life, and coming to him and believing in him, that they could eat and live forever. There were many who did not believe, and they turned back from him. The master teacher was not able to convince everyone. And sometimes we get discouraged because we find people who do not want the truth and they turn back from it. But we should learn a lesson even from this story in John chapter 6, verses 59 through 66. For the scripture said, These things, said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum.

Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This isn’t hard saying, who can hear it? Then Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it. He said unto them, Doth this offend you? What, and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before, it is the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 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. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.

Jesus had taught them concerning life, taught them about believing on him. But when he had used the metaphor that they should eat his flesh and drink his blood, there were many who just could not comprehend the spiritual message that he had in mind. They said, This isn’t hard saying, verse 60. It’s a difficult say. We can’t understand this. It doesn’t make sense. You know, there are those today who sometimes reason about the Bible, well, we just cannot understand it. It is too difficult to understand, and it isn’t relevant, and you hear a lot of different criticisms. And sometimes there are preachers today who have tried to dilute the message of Jesus Christ and make it so palatable that anybody could believe it. In fact, the way some preachers have it is that everybody can go to heaven.

You really don’t have to do much of anything other than just want to go to heaven. But they have diluted the message of the Lord to such a style in such a fashion in an attempt to try to please everybody. They’re actually teaching false doctrine today. Christ did not please everybody. And if you’re just trying to find where the crowds are going, where the multitudes are going, you may not have followed Jesus in the first century either. For the multitudes rejected him. In fact, there are here who there are many here who said, This is such a hard say. Verse 66 says, From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. You may say Jesus drove some away who did not want the truth.

Why do they turn back? Well, when we read this whole context in John chapter 6, we can see some reasons why some turned back, and you know the same things happen today. Man hasn’t changed that much, and some of the reasons why they turned back are reasons why people today turn back from following Christ. In fact, when you look back at verse 26, we see the first occasion where it says that Jesus said, You seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled. They sought him for the wrong reason. They were seeking for the material things. And they’re those today who are drawn by a social gospel. And you start Peter with just this life and the fun that they can have here and now.

And you may have the crowds by that method, but you aren’t really saving their souls. The multitudes sought, but they sought the wrong reason for Jesus Christ. And they turned back when he said to them some hard sayings or what they consider to be hard and difficult. But also when you look at verse 30 through 31, when they said, What sign showest thou then that we may see and believe thee? What dost thou work? Our fathers did eat man in the desert. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. They challenged him by the wrong standard. They challenged him by a material standard. Moses gave us bread. Why don’t you give us truth that they might be saved? For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they might believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

If you’re seeking the wrong thing, you’ll find it. If you’re not willing to accept the truth, what it says, and obey willingly, then you can find something else that’ll satisfy you. You can turn away from the Lord and think you’re following him and pat yourself on the chest and say you love him, but lip service means nothing if you’re not willing to do his will. And you know the devil will help you along that way, because his preachers come as preachers of righteousness. In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, verses 14 and 15, it speaks about how Satan will come as an angel of light and his ministers as preachers of righteousness. That’s why Paul exhorted the young preacher Timothy in 2 Timothy 4 2 through 4, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.

6. Lord, to Whom Shall We Go?

The time will come when men will not endure sound doctrine. After their own lush, shall they heap themselves teachers having itching ears. There are some who will turn aside from the truth and turn to fables. Don’t be of that number. Don’t be like those who rejected Jesus, turned back from following him. They must have thought they were wrong, but they really were not serving God. But in the concluding verses of this chapter, verses 67 through 171, 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. And we or he it was that should betray him being one of the twelve. Jesus said, Will you also go away?

Conclusion

It must have been a sad time for him to see these people. He would have saved. He would have had as his disciples, and they turned back. And then to his closest ones, his apostles, will you also go away? But here the great response of Peter. Lord, to whom shall we go? If you turn from Jesus, what are you going to turn to? What else is left for you? You can turn to men in this life who claim to be prophets of God, but they don’t have the words of eternal life. Christ has the words of eternal life. If you turn away from Jesus Christ, to what can you turn? All this world can offer you is but a few moments’ pleasure, and then it’ll be over with.

He’s the living water. Come unto him. One of the proofs that he has that power even here. He spoke of how that he knew that there was one who would betray how that referred to Judas Iscariot. We hope you’ll continue the study with us, and our next study will go into chapter.