11.5.17~John 6:30-50, The Bread from Heaven.

11.05.17 ~ John 6:30-50, The Bread from Heaven.
Last week’s study ended with John 6:28-29, where the people ask what they

need to do to be right with God; Jesus tells them they must believe in the One sent by God, the One Who came from the Father.
John 6:30-33... Clearly, many of these people had witnessed the healing Jesus did before providing a meal for some 20,000 (men, women and children), made from a young boy’s lunch of five small barley loaves and two fish. And yet, despite the miracles they had already seen, these people ask Him what “work” He will do to prove that He has come from God with authority and power.

These people were spiritually blind and deaf, always demanding another sign, yet unwilling to be convinced of Jesus’ deity. Jesus repeatedly rebukes the unbelieving hardness of heart of Israel (Luke 16:31), “they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."

At the Cross, the religious leaders of Israel mocked and taunted Jesus in His suffering (Mark 15:32), “Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.”

When Jesus rose from the grave, the Jews paid the soldiers (who were guarding the tomb) to spread the story that Jesus’ disciples had taken His body away.

The crowd before Jesus in Capernaum demands that He prove He is from God by doing a repeat performance of yesterday’s meal. They challenge Jesus (verse 31) to provide bread from heaven for them, as Moses did for the nation of Israel during their 40 year journey in the desert.

Clearly these Jews are unaware of the facts of the events that occurred when Israel wandered through the wilderness headed for Canaan.

Yes, God had provided manna for Israel (along with quail, for meat), but the manna was not (verse 32) “the true bread from heaven,” given by the Father, for the true bread was yet to come.

The “true bread of God” is a person, God’s Son, “He who comes down from heaven and gives life [Gk. zoe = spiritual life] to the world” (see John 1:1-4, 14, 18). Jesus is the true bread from God [heaven]; He is the One sent by God, full of grace and truth; the One who came down from heaven to show us the Father; and yet, these Jews are now comparing Jesus to Moses?
Hebrews 3:3, “Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.”
Moses was Created; Jesus is the Creator...

It was God who provided manna for Israel, not Moses. Moses was simply the food server, Jesus was the bread. Moses was just a man, Jesus, however, is God!

Read John 6:34-40... Again, the people have completely missed the significance of what Jesus had done and what He is now saying to them.

Instead of coming to the Jesus Christ, the Messiah, God’s Son, who now stands before them, in order to receive forgiveness and eternal life, it seems they would rather have a continual supply of bread.

Jesus tries again to break through their stubborn, carnal and self-centered hearts, telling them that He is the bread of life, and if they would come to Him they would never be (spiritually) hungry or thirsty again.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said (Matthew 5:6), “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” to overflowing.

Physical bread is eaten and satisfies the body for a time, but it must be acquired and eaten again and again and again, in order to provide sustenance and relief from hunger.

Jesus wants to satisfy their deepest and most critical need, to be made right with God; but in order to do that they must believe in Him as Savior, confessing Him as Lord, repenting of their sins, i.e., they must come to Him to have life [forgiveness and eternal life], and yet they just want to see another miracle and to have Jesus provide another free meal.

How dull these people are (cf. verses 28-29), instead of asking for forgiveness and eternal life, they demand that Jesus prove Himself by providing bread (cf. verses 30-31, 34); they are asking for miracles that satisfy their physical needs, and yet, Jesus has come down from heaven, from the Father, to do the Father’s will in providing spiritual life, eternal life; but in order to receive this they must believe in Him (cf. verses 38-40).

Read John 6:41-50... These people are incredulous! All they have seen Him do and heard Him say (miraculous signs of healing diseases and feeding large crowds; not to mention walking on water, calming the storm, teleporting the ship and twelve disciples to their destination), and now they are grumbling; saying this is Jesus, whose family they know, how can a “mere man” say He came down from heaven and is able to grant eternal life. Jesus commands them (verse 43) to “stop grumbling!”

Jesus has come from the Father (who is in heaven), to do the Father’s will on earth, as it is written in the Prophets.
Isaiah 54:13, “All your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be your children's peace.”

Last Wednesday night we studied how God the Father gives us peace through His Son, Jesus Christ, who is called (cf. Isaiah 9:6) the “Prince of Peace.”

Jesus brings peace from God to all those who believe in Him, for they receive eternal life from (John 6:48) “the Bread of Life,” all that is necessary for the forgiveness of sins and life eternal, is found in and granted by Jesus Christ.

Orthodox Jews are proud about being “children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” they are also self-righteous as followers of Moses, the giver of the Law. But the truth is, Moses didn’t provide the Israelites with manna, God did, and yet all those who ate the bread eventually died; and Moses didn’t write the Law, God did, and yet no one would be made acceptable to God by keeping the Law!

It is not through human ancestry or strict adherence to law keeping or religious rituals that a person is made righteous in the sight of God (cf John 1:11-13).

Jesus says (John 6:50) we must eat or partake of Him, Who He is (metaphorically, this is to believe in and receive) Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life, Who came down from heaven to provide forgiveness for our sins.
John 11:25-27, Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this? ‘Yes, Lord," she told Him, ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.’"

It really is all about Jesus Christ, God’s Son: Crucified, Resurrected and Coming Again. He is the Heavenly Bread of Life from God, in Him and through Him we have been given everything we need for our temporary life on earth and our eternal life in heaven.

Pastor Mike <‘(((><