The good news on a day with tech issues is Jesus encourages us to seek eternal treasures rather than chase after earthly things. I trust this email will be more uplifting than the accidental email you received this afternoon while working on my website! Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Jesus’ followers (I use that term loosely; not everyone in the crowd was a true follower) had picnics on their mind. With spring weather, we might also. Jesus reminded us to seek spiritual nourishment for our souls above all else and to focus on things eternal.
The Greek word apollumi translates as perish in verse 27 and lose, or be deprived of, in verse 39. In other places in John, it is translated eternal death, the opposite of eternal life. Each use implies a “change from one state of being to another.”1
Read John 6:25-27.
- The crowd found Jesus and asked him when he’d crossed the sea.
- He called them out: they weren’t really looking for miracles, only free food!
- I imagine that would describe people’s response today too.
- When Jesus answered them, he used a phrase we’ve encountered before in our study.
- “I who am the Amen [Truth itself] tell you as a … certain and infallible truth.”2
- He truly knows our hearts.
- Jesus’ teaching in verse 27 echoes what he taught in his message on the mountainside.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21 NASB).
- Don’t put your effort (time, money, resources) into (earthly) things that won’t last.
- Seek eternal life and eternal nourishment and sustenance that will last forever.
- God approves of those who seek the eternal.
*What would Jesus say to you if he said, “truly, truly” [I know your heart\]?
*Why does Jesus remind us to seek the eternal?
Read John 6:28-36.
- They asked about works, “which God requires [as] duty toward Him.”3
- Perhaps they remembered the prophet’s writing and wanted to test Jesus.
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).
- Jesus answered by stating God’s work: believe in him, the One God sent.
- The people asked him for a miraculous sign (again).
- They still wanted to see “wonders and miracles wrought by Jesus … in proof and deliverance of [his] divine mission.”4
- However, they still have breakfast and lunch on their mind:
- They mentioned the example of God providing manna—bread from heaven—in the wilderness.
- In this context, it’s interesting to remember the Hebrew word for manna means “what is it?”
- Jesus told them again not to focus on bread to eat, even Moses’ “bread from heaven,” but on the Father, who gives true bread from heaven.
- Heaven here refers to the “residence of God—from which Christ descended.”5
- “The bread of God is he who comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world.”
- Sustenance and nourishment from God provide true eternal life.
- The people asked Jesus for this “bread from heaven.”
- Jesus clearly stated, “I am the bread of life.”
- In the same way, he gives water that refreshes our souls and provides life.
- Those who come to Jesus will never hunger or thirst, specifically for spiritual nourishment.6
“… whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).
- They had seen his miracles and still did not believe.
- Jesus said, you want bread from heaven? You saw a miracle yesterday and still don’t believe.
- They were “face to face” with Jesus in a situation in which they could “converse with” and have personal fellowship with him.7
*What is the connection between how the prophet Micah described what God requires of us and Jesus’ description?
*As the Israelites failed to fully appreciate God’s provision in manna, how do we also fail to recognize what God provides?
*How often do we doubt our ability to have a personal conversation with Jesus?
Read John 6:37-40.
- The Father draws people to the Son, and those people come to Jesus as a friend.8
- They believe and accept Jesus as God’s Son.
- Jesus came to do his Father’s will, to keep safe all those the Father gave to receive eternal life.
“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).
- He will never cast out of the kingdom9 those who accept him as the bread of life.
- Jesus came to complete his Father’s purpose.10
- Everyone who not only looks at the Son, but also recognizes and accepts he is the source of eternal life will receive.
*How does God the Father draw us to his Son?
Read John 6:41-50.
- The Jews complained about Jesus’ claim to be bread from heaven. They knew him as Joseph the carpenter’s son.
- Jesus said clearly God the Father draws people to Jesus.
- God the Father teaches people about his Son and the plan of salvation, which leaves them with a personal, moral, responsibility to respond.11
“All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace” (Isaiah 54:13).
- Only Jesus has seen the Father.
- Jesus repeated the same things again:
- He who believes has everlasting life.
- He is the bread of life; Jesus is life.
- God sent manna to the Israelites, which did not give them eternal life.
- Jesus is the bread come down from heaven.
- Those who eat the bread of life will not die.
- The word for “die” can refer to Christ’s death when he atoned for sin, making believers dead to the law and alive to eternal life, “bliss and privileges of [the] Redeemer’s kingdom.”12
*How does God the Father teach us about salvation?
*What can we learn from Jesus’ repetition in these verses?
Jesus wanted to make sure those who heard his words understood. You might want to print or copy this passage and underline or highlight similar phrases.
More on this fascinating topic next week!
- Spiros Zodhiates Th.D., The Complete Word Study New Testament, King James Version (AMG Publishers, 1991), 230.
- Zodhiates, 135.
- Zodhiates, 650.
- Zodhiates, 1286.
- Zodhiates, 1075.
- Zodhiates, 1135.
- Zodhiates, 1055.
- Zodhiates, 709.
- Zodhiates, 535.
- Zodhiates, 721.
- Zodhiates, 447, 942.
- Zodhiates, 224, 698.