2019-5-4

John 6:1-71

Bread of Life

John is a wonderful Gospel narrative.
So far into John, we see a number of miracles Jesus performed in front of people (healing, resurrection, water into wine, etc.).
Chapter 6 begins at the point after a series of miracles He performed. The crowd followed Jesus even after seemingly a long day of preaching and miracles. As people got hungry, Jesus fed the crowd.
Notice the breads and fishes did not blossom as Jesus blessed the food or multiplied all of the sudden; rather, the disciples realized there were abundance of food through the collection of the food fragments.
The miracle was performed slowly and steadily while dispersing the food!
Next miracle Jesus performed was Him walking on water, met the disciples on a boat, then reached their destination.
At the destination, Jesus met with another crowd of people waiting for Him to preach.

Before we head into what Jesus preached, we have to notice all of the miracles follow a very interesting pattern.
In each and every miracle performed by Jesus, Jesus was in front of group of people, performed a miracle, revealed a snippet of the Gospel, then moved on.
This snippet of Gospel sounded like crazy talk to the people listening, because they did not fully understand who Jesus was and what He was talking about.
Notice the nature of these miracles; sure, they do appear to show God’s omnipotence. But Jesus performed these miracles in the way God led the Israelites in the Old Testament, stories that are all too familiar with the crowd.
Jesus walked on water shows Jesus’ power over nature, just as God controlled the rain with Noah, and Moses’ ability to part the sea.
Jesus fed the five thousand just as He provided for the Israelites Manna while they were in exile.
Jesus did these things before the crowds to show His validity, that Jesus is God in human flesh. So, Jesus showed that He has legitimate power from God, now what? He has a message for the people. Jesus established His credential to tell everyone about the Gospel, and what is going to happen on the cross.

Verses 26-34 brings out the Gospel message Jesus wanted to preach.
Every miracle people saw, every works Jesus and other people did (such as Moses) were works of God, not of men.
Works done by men do not bring eternal life, but only through believing and seeking Jesus that people may be saved. Those who believe in Jesus will receive the bread of life that you would not be hungry again. Nothing you do will give you eternal life but believing in Him.

Critical Thinking Questions

Do you believe in Jesus?
What CAN you do to help you gain eternal life?            —– Isaac Chang