John 7:14-16 - How does he know so much?

7:14

Jesus chose the time to go public. All the events surrounding Jesus’ life are under God’s control, including, indeed especially, the events surrounding Easter (which are still several months away). Jesus went to the temple and began to teach. Teaching was central to Jesus’ ministry (see e.g. Mark 1:21, 1:38; 3:14; 6:30). The people need to hear Jesus’ teaching because without it we do not know the truth.

7:15,16

The Jews marvelled at Him. Given the earlier distinction between the Jews and the people (7:11 and 12) I think we have to take this as referring to the Jewish leaders and teachers. They were amazed that Jesus could teach with authority and learning. Clearly He came across as knowing what He was talking about. Unlike other rabbis, Jesus had never studied at the equivalent of a divinity college, yet He knew so much! Now it is good to go to Bible School, but it is not essential. A respect for God’s word is far more important than academic learning, but academic learning linked with a fear of the Lord is a powerful thing.

Jesus explained why He was able to teach with authority and knowledge. His teaching came from the One who had sent Him, ie from the Father. The rabbis of the time would frequently quote other rabbis for what they said, thus claiming authority from earlier rabbis. So the concept of your teaching not being your own was well established, and if someone was teaching purely on their own authority they would be dismissed as irrelevant. Jesus had the best teacher of all, His Father.

John 7:11-13 - Watching and wondering

7:11-13

These verses give us a picture of the atmosphere in Jerusalem with respect to the attitude of various people to Jesus. “The Jews” refers to the Jewish leaders, not the people in general. They were looking for Jesus. Why were they doing this? Probably twofold. First they were out to get Him, so were looking for an opportunity. Secondly they were wondering what He was going to do next, what teaching or healing would He do that would further threaten their authority?

The people in general were also wondering about Jesus. “there was much muttering about Jesus”. The attitude of the people is non-committal. Some saw the good that Jesus was doing, the goodness of His teaching, and, if they had encountered Him directly, the goodness of His nature. Others were worried about the effect that Jesus was having or could have. Jesus would upset things and they didn’t want to upset the Romans. The Jews had come to an accommodation with the Roman occupiers, most of them didn’t like it that much, but they could live with it. So why make trouble? There is a big difference between appeasement and compromise, and it takes wisdom to know what is happening on any one occasion. To never compromise on anything is a foolish attitude and not to be commended, but we are well aware of the history of appeasement. In the Jewish context the Romans would destroy the city in about forty years time anyway.

So out of fear, no one would speak openly for Jesus. We need to be aware that we must never rely on non-Christians speaking up on our behalf. Sometimes they will, but it cannot be relied upon.

John 7:6-10 - A question of timing

7:6

Jesus knew when the time would be right to go to Jerusalem, but it was not yet. He also knew what His real purpose was. We need to have an understanding of what God has called us to do and to have a godly appreciation of the importance of our lives. This does not always mean knowing specifics about times and dates, but understanding God’s ways. For instance we may be urged to take some action that would seem to bring about self-fulfilment or riches, but we know that in a particular circumstance something else is far more important. Or in the current climate where the world’s views on sexual morality are so at odds with a Biblical understanding, we need to know to follow God’s truth, even when this puts us in opposition to the world. Sadly much of the church is doing the precise opposite.

Jesus’ brothers had no understanding of the kairos, ie when it is the right time for something.

7:7

This is an important verse, we sometimes have this mistaken view that the world will naturally like Jesus. It won’t, rather it will naturally hate Him.  We also get the reason for this, “I testify that its works are evil”. Now that isn’t a very nice thing to say! But it is the truth, and it goes completely against the popular misconception of what Jesus is about. Jesus came because we have sinned, because we are living in rebellion against God, and because this is the root cause of all our problems. The way we are living life is not good, and it is not just the axe murderers and dictators that this applies to. Jesus came to save us from our sins and from our sinfulness.

7:8-10

Jesus tells them that He is not going up to the feast. Some manuscripts add “yet” here, for in verse 10 it says that Jesus did go up to the feast, and the copyists wanted to avoid a contradiction. However, verse 10 says that He went in secret, so want Jesus meant was that He was not going in public. So Jesus made a private visit to the feast.

John 7:2-5

7:2

The Feast of Tabernacles was one of the main Jewish Festivals, Passover and Pentecost being the others. It had a dual purpose. One was that it came around harvest time, but the primary purpose was that it reminded the Jews of the time that God had led them through the wilderness and they had lived in tents, so for the festival they lived in tents again. God had looked after them while they were in the wilderness, providing for all their needs, even when it looked it impossible. This is a reminder that it is God who provides. For each of us it is the Lord who provides for us. Sometimes our circumstances are easy, at others they are very difficult even threatening. Whatever the circumstances we should rejoice and dwell in safety, for the Lord is the same each day and His faithfulness endures forever.

7:3-5

His brothers did not believe at this point. Indeed throughout His earthly ministry they failed to understand what He was about. There were words perhaps contain a mocking tone to them, something along the lines of “if you think you are so good ....” So they urged him to go to Judea and do some miracles there then he could get a really big following. Now we need to realise that getting a big following was not the goal. Jesus came to do the will of the Father. The most important part of that at this stage was His going to the cross. Of course, Jesus did many miracles, but the overall purpose was not the same as his brothers thought it was. John adds verse 5 to stress to his hearers that there was nothing unusual about people not believing in Jesus.

John 7:1 - Avoiding being killed

These events happened about six months or so before the events of Easter at Passover. It is now the feast of Tabernacles. Jesus had been staying in Galilee, avoiding Judea because the Jewish leaders wanted to kill Him. This was not out of cowardice, but because the time was not yet right. Later on we see how Jesus resolutely went to Jerusalem and to the cross when the time was right. There are several lessons we can learn from this:

• There is a time to avoid confrontation and a time to face it. We have already seen this, and will do so again. There are times when a contentious issue arises and far from backing down Jesus makes the point of confrontation even sharper. And as we have already noted, when the time was right He went resolutely to the cross. But we see here that Jesus did not seek confrontation or trouble for the sake of it. We see the same pattern in Paul’s life and it is something we should emulate as well. We need to exercise wisdom.
• Things that seem bad are not always bad. The Jewish leaders being out to kill Jesus seems like God is not in control, but as we know the precise opposite was the case. So when we see intrigue and conspiracy around us we should not fear. The words of God to Isaiah (Is 8:12,13) are well worth remembering.
• The Jewish leaders were deliberately planning to kill Jesus, the One who could truly save them. Men will plot evil against God, but the plans of evil men will not succeed.

John 6:66-71 - To whom shall we go?

6:66

At this point many disciples turned back. We must never measure the success of what we do by numbers. This section is undoubtedly one of the greatest teachings that has ever been given, yet its effect was to greatly reduce the number of followers that Jesus had. Conversely we must not go to the other extreme and think that the more people we offend the more faithful we have been! We do the will of the Father as well as we can, the results are up to the Holy Spirit.

6:67

Jesus then turned to the twelve and asked them if they wanted to leave as well. Now why did He ask this? Jesus knew what was in the heart of men, so He knew what was in the heart of the twelve. So I guess it must have been to make the twelve think. There are times in life when people seem to be deserting the faith, or there are problems in the church and some are leaving. These times can be troubling. So the question came from Jesus. This is significant for it puts our focus on who Jesus is and what He is doing, which is far more important than what men are thinking or doing.

6:68,69

In some ways Peter’s words are not exactly a ringing endorsement “to whom shall we go”, ie what choice have we got. But then the rest of the words actually show true faith and insight. “You have the words of eternal life”. Whoever or whatever else you might turn to you can sure that it will not have the words of eternal life, it will not be able to give life.

Then Peter goes on to say “we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God”. Peter recognised who Jesus was. Jesus is Lord, so there can be no question about what we must do. So there may be much debate, much grumbling going on around us, but we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus.

6:70,71

Jesus now tells them that He chose them, yet one of them is a devil. At this point Jesus does not name Judas, though John adds a note that Jesus is indeed speaking about Judas Iscariot. So again we see that Jesus knew all along what was going on and what was going to happen.

Notice also that Jesus did nothing about it. One might think that Jesus should have got rid of Judas at that point. Now we know that it was all part of God’s plan, but let’s just think about this a little more. When we look the future there are lots of times when there are things that we hope don’t go wrong or don’t happen. We will be anxious or fearful about something, half expecting disaster. Our prayer, secret or otherwise, is “please God don’t let such and such a thing happen”. This is often not actually our greatest need. Things going wrong in our life is not the worst thing that can happen to us! If we walk with the Lord then we will overcome in all circumstances.

John 6:63-65 - Father and Spirit

6:63

So far the emphasis has been on the Father and the Son, now we get mention of the Spirit. The Spirit gives life. So the Father gives life, the Son gives life, and the Spirit gives life. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are co-equal, they are One, living and working in perfect unity, but they are also distinct.

“The flesh counts for nothing”. Human wisdom will get us nowhere, it cannot give us eternal life. Indeed human wisdom usually denies that there is eternal life. Yet so often we rely on human wisdom. We are fools to do so. Jesus’ words are full of the Spirit. We need to live by Jesus’ words, for that is the way that we get life.

It is worth noting that one cannot believe in Jesus without believing His words. There are some who do claim to follow Christ, but do not believe what He says, such people are deceiving themselves.

6:64,65

All sorts of people followed Jesus for a time, just as today there are people who seem to be following Christ, but not all truly believe. Jesus knows the truth. He knew the truth then and He knows it now. No one can fool Jesus, He knows what is really going on in our hearts. He even knew that Judas would betray Him. Nothing took Jesus by surprise. Too often people try to interpret the Bible as if Jesus did not always know who He was, or what His mission was, or that Judas would betray Him. This will only lead to worthless interpretation for Jesus did know.

“That is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father”. So often people think that we can choose the terms on which we follow Jesus, a moment's thought should show the stupidity of such an approach. We are totally dependent upon the Father, we cannot dictate the terms.

John 6:60-62 - Taking offence

6:60,61

Jesus’ words caused consternation among the disciples. Note that while “disciples” often refers to the twelve, that is not always the case, and the later verses make it clear that here it is not the twelve we are talking about, but others who were following Him. They found the teaching “hard”. It wasn’t that they couldn’t believe it, but they didn’t want to accept it. We have earlier referred to the Law forbidding the eating of food with the blood in it, and of course the concept of eating human flesh is abhorrent. So if they took Jesus’ words literally their reluctance to accept it is understandable. What if they took the words in the sense they were meant? Or did Jesus intend for them to be offended?

The gospel is shocking and offensive to human understanding. It tells us that we are sinners, that we need to repent of our rebellion against God, and our independence. It tells us that the death of Jesus on the cross is the only thing that gives us forgiveness. The gospel does not fit well with human wisdom, even religious human wisdom, maybe even especially human religious wisdom.

6:62

Jesus knew that the things He had been saying would offend many, but “worse” was to come. As an aside, there is a great emphasis on not offending people, with even laws about it in some cases. If we faithfully preach and teach the gospel then we will offend people. Now we most certainly should not needlessly or gratuitously offend people, but the gospel faithfully preached will inevitably offend.

Jesus asks them what they will think if they see the Son of Man ascend to where He was before. Commentaries seem to see this referring in part to the cross, but the sense of the words seems much more applicable to Jesus’ ascension up to heaven.  Why did He say this? Well, maybe because the whole crux of the problem of their unbelief was that they did not believe that Jesus had come from heaven, being sent by the Father. So, if they saw Him ascend back to heaven would they believe then? Would they still be offended by what He had been teaching, or would they finally believe?

John 6:57-59 - Living forever

6:57

We then see something else that is quite remarkable, as if Christ abiding in us is not remarkable enough. There is a close parallel between the relationship between the Father and the Son and the relationship between Christ and us. In a sense the way that Christ relates to the Father is the way that we should relate to Christ. The Father sent Jesus, so Jesus sends us. The Son lives because of the Father, we should live because of Christ.

6:58,59

Back in Deuteronomy 8:3 we have the words quoted by Jesus when being tempted by Satan, “man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”. The full quote is:

And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

As an aside, we are all familiar with the start of John’s gospel and Jesus being called the Word. In this chapter Jesus has been repeatedly saying that He is the bread from heaven, and in Deuteronomy 8:3 we have talk of bread, manna and the word. So perhaps this is a further reason for John using the term Word.

The manna, wonderful though it was, was not the true bread. Jesus is the true bread, the bread that gives life. Let us feed on this bread today.

All this teaching on the bread of life was given in the synagogue at Capernaum.

John 6:54-56 - Real food and real drink

6:54,55

If we believe in Jesus and trust in His atoning sacrifice then we have eternal life. In any and every situation and circumstance we need to trust in Christ. Then we are guaranteed to be raised up on the last day. Then Jesus tells us that His flesh is true food and His blood true drink. Now do remember that He is using metaphorical language here! In the natural we know that we need food to provide sustenance and that without water we will die. Now we come to where the scientific naturalism view of the world is completely wrong. This says that the material is all there is. What we are is a system of biochemical reactions. We are purely physical, everything about us can be completely explained in physical terms. Because we can measure various electrical patterns in our brains, that explains what emotions, thoughts and consciousness are. This view is so wrong, not to say plain stupid. The physical and spiritual have an effect on each other, but we are so much more than just the physical. Through sin our spirit has been corrupted, put to death. We need the atoning death of Jesus to give us life. And it is by trusting in Jesus that we are sustained, that is where our strength comes from.

6:56

Again remember that the eating and drinking here metaphorical. If we believe in Jesus and trust in His atoning sacrifice then we abide in Him and He abides in us. Believing in Jesus is not an academic exercise, it is about a relationship. We live in Christ. God is the source of our being. None of us chose to be brought into existence, none of us had any say in the matter! Now the materialist will say it just happened by chance, though that seems a very poor and inadequate explanation of being, and of all the abilities that we have. The truth is that God brought us into existence. Now when we rebelled against God, saying we would go our own way, death immediately came into our life. We lost connection with the source of life. When we repent and believe we regain that connection.

Notice also the close fellowship and unity that God desires. We abide in Christ, and He abides in us.

John 6:52,53 - Taking things literally

6:52

The Jews decided to take Jesus’ words literally. Remember that Nicodemus had done the same when Jesus told him about the need to be born again. Taking things literally is an important matter. On the one hand we have the liberal theologians who don’t take anything literally, seeing crucial things like the resurrection as purely figurative. This is clearly wrong and makes a nonsense of the Bible and the gospel. Then we have those who think any attempt to interpret Genesis 1 and 2 as anything other than six twenty four hour days is setting off on the slippery road to rejecting the whole of the Bible. I exaggerate a little in both cases (though the caricature is accurate in some cases!), but it makes the point. Sometimes people missed the truth of what God was saying because they were over literal!

6:53

Jesus then adopts a tactic that He frequently uses in John in response to an attack or challenge. “If you are offended by this, try this for size!” He makes matters “worse” by telling them that they not only have to eat the flesh, but they also need to drink His blood! Now remember that the Law positively forbids eating meat with blood in it (Lev 17:10-16), so imagine how much of an offence this would be to the people, and how abhorrent the thought would be. Then look at Lev 17:11: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given to for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, it is the blood that makes atonement by the life”. And compare this with Jesus’ words hear about us having no life in us unless we drink of His blood. And of course the allusion to the cross is obvious. It is only by believing in Jesus and by His death on the cross that we can have life.

John 6:47-51 - I am the bread of life

6:47-50

Another “truly, truly”. Believing in Jesus is the key, if we do this we have eternal life. Jesus is the bread of life.So we see that the manna that the Israelites ate in the desert was not the final manna, it was pointing to what was to come. Now the manna was miraculous, it came straight from heaven. Indeed some of it was kept in the ark of the covenant (Heb 9:4). In Hebrews the overriding theme of the letter is that the new covenant has superseded the old, the old was but a shadow of what was to come. But all those who ate it died. So we see a very down to earth interpretation of the facts. But God has something much better in mind, His goal was that His people will have eternal life. So if we eat of the bread of life we will not die. And this bread is Jesus Himself, and we “consume” Him by believing in Him. And we should remember that God’s goal for our lives is eternal life. Whatever is going on in your life right now God’s destiny for you has not changed, and that destiny is eternal life, life in His presence. If things are going well then enjoy it and be thankful, but do not make an idol out of it, do not think that it is the destination. If life is really difficult, or even absolutely horrible, do not despair. God’s destiny for your life has not changed, the present circumstances are a passing phase. This is not to minimise the awfulness of the present, but you need to keep it in perspective. We need to have an eternal outlook on life.

6:51

Jesus again refers to Himself as the living bread that came from heaven. So He is better than the original manna in two ways. First, if eat of the true bread then we receive eternal life, we will not die forever. Secondly, the real manna is living bread, not dead bread.

So we need to believe in Jesus, ie to eat of His bread. The outcome will be eternal life. Then Jesus says that the bread that He gives is His flesh for the life of the world. Without Jesus there is no life. Notice that Jesus says He gives this bread. Jesus went to the cross of His own free will.

John 6:43-46 - Coming to the Father

6:43,44

Or maybe the Jews were just keeping the grumbling among themselves. Either way Jesus commands them to stop grumbling. “No one can come to me unless the Father draws them”. Why did Jesus say this? Is it just a statement of truth explaining why, despite the overwhelming evidence, so many do not believe in Jesus? It is this, but it is also getting the people to stop looking at Jesus from a purely human perspective (cf 2 Cor 5:16). The Jews were just looking at the Jesus from the immediate human context. Likewise today if we view Jesus just as a good man, or just as a great teacher, then we will totally miss the point, we will never realise who He really is, nor ever understand Him. We need to view Jesus from the Father’s perspective. We need to see Him as the One sent by the Father, then we will see who He really is.

Jesus then says again that He will raise us up on the last day if we come to Him. In Jesus we find eternal life.

6:45,46

Jesus knew that He was the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets. Here He quotes from Isaiah 54:13. The context of this this is interesting, for Isaiah 54 comes right after Isaiah 53, the chapter that most clearly predicts the sacrificial death of Jesus, and also the resurrection. Isaiah 54 speaks to an oppressed people, and a people who are in a mess because of their sin. In short, it speaks of God bringing true freedom. The failure to appreciate that sin is our biggest problem is the point of failure for most people to appreciate who Jesus is. Often we speak of Jesus coming to meet our need. Now this is true enough, and He does indeed meet many needs, but we do need to appreciate that our need for forgiveness, justification and sanctification (ie the problems of sin!) are our greatest need.

Now see how Jesus switches again from God’s action to our action. In the previous verse He has said “no one can come to me unless the Father draws him”, stressing the Father’s side. Now He says that everyone who has heard and learned from the Father will come to Jesus. So if someone is not coming to Jesus it is a sure sign that he or she has not learnt from God.

Then we get a warning in verse 46 that no one has seen the Father except the Son. People can be very ready to claim to have seen spiritual visions and the like. Now these sorts of things do happen, and instances are recorded in the Bible, but they do not occur very often, and no one has seen the Father. So if they claim to have done so they are lying, or at least are mistaken.

John 6:41,42 - Joseph's son?

6:41,42

The Jews now start to grumble about Jesus. This is the first time in this exchange that John has referred to “the Jews”, previously it has been “the crowd”. In using this term John is definitely not being anti-semitic, afterall he was a Jew himself. Rather he is referring to the Jews who opposed Jesus, largely the religious leaders, Pharisees etc. Prior to this they had been concerned only about the “free bread”. Or maybe the crowds were just concerned about the free food, the Jews (religious leaders) had come along to see what was going on and to keep an eye on Jesus, as they had previously done. Remember they had sent people to investigate John the Baptist (1:19), and in 5:16 it says “they began to persecute Him”. In “grumbling about Him” they may have been trying to spread bad reports about Jesus among the crowd. The nature of these “reports” is given in verse 42. Who is Jesus? He is just the son of Joseph. So casting doubt on the validity of the claims Jesus was making for Himself. How could Jesus be “from heaven”?

They were of course wrong in this, for Joseph was not Jesus’ natural father. Jesus did come from heaven. This, by the way, is why the virgin birth is important. It is not a non-essential incidental that doesn’t really matter, and probably isn’t true anyway. It is true and it does matter. Jesus was not the offspring of a human union. He is the Son of God made flesh.

John 6:39,40 - Losing none

6:39

And now we are told what the will of the Father is. First that He shall not lose any of those who the Father has given to Him. Again there is a little insight into how predestination works here. The Father has given some to Jesus. One might have thought that was the end of the matter, for if God has decided something is so then there can be no doubt about it. And at one level that it is the end of the matter, those whom the Father has given to the Son will not be lost. However, there is a reality to go through, Jesus needs to make sure He does not lose any of them. Now we can be completely confident that He will not lose any, but the process is real.

So it is true that I could never have come to know God unless He had graciously chosen that it should be so, but my faith and my love, imperfect as they are, are real. The events and circumstances and trials and victories we go through in life are real. The decisions, actions and attitudes that we make and have matter. That is the clear and consistent teaching of the Bible. How does all this work out on an intellectual level? I don’t know. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t seek to understand a little more, but we do need to realise the limits of our understanding and not rush ahead. Perhaps more importantly, we need to get on with life, loving, trusting and obeying God.

Then Jesus is going to raise us up on the last day. We might wonder what happens after death. We don’t know the details, but we do know that Jesus will raise us up on the last day. We can be completely confident in Him.

6:40

Now in this verse we see the Father’s will, our will and the Son’s will all working in complete harmony. The Father desires for us to have eternal life, we look to the Son and believe in Him, and the Son raises us up on the last day.

Do you realise that when you look to Jesus, when you believe in Him, when you trust in Him, you are working in harmony with the Lord of All, the creator of all things? That should be a thought of enormous encouragement to us.

Let’s go back to predestination. The parts of the Bible which speak of the sovereignty of God, predestination and the like were not given so that we could have pointless and endless theological debates. Rather they were given so for our encouragement and motivation, to help us live a life worthy of our calling. When we come to appreciate the truth of them we do not lose any freedom, rather we become truly free. What we do and think does not matter less, it matters more.

We can so often feel overwhelmed by circumstances, despairing at our own weakness and failings. We should look to the Son, knowing that this is what the Father wants us to do and that He is working with us, and we are working with Him.

John 6:36-38 - Doing the will of the Father

6:36

This verse expresses the tragedy of the Jews and the tragedy of the human race. They had seen Jesus and yet still did not believe. They had seen the miracles and heard the teaching, they had seen the man, but still did not believe. Atheists are forever complaining that there isn’t enough evidence. This is not the problem. The problem is that we refuse to believe, even when there is evidence.

6:37

We now get the start of the description of how salvation works. What have we had so far? Jesus is the bread of life, if anyone will go to Him he will receive life. But people will not go to Him for they refuse to believe. So how can anyone be saved? The Father has given some to Jesus, and these people will go to Him. So we see the centrality of God’s part in the process. And those who go to Jesus will never be driven away.

So the Father is at work too. Salvation is not a man centred process, but man is involved. The Father is at work and we need to respond to that work. Now Jesus here is talking about salvation, but the principle has wider application. We can look at ourselves and think the situation is hopeless because we know the double mindedness within ourselves. Have you ever despaired at your inability to believe Jesus, to trust in Him? We should not despair, for the Father is at work, causing us to do His will. And when we sense that happening we should respond with faith and obedience.

6:38

This is a crucial verse in understanding who Jesus is and what He is about. “I have come down from heaven not to do my will, but to do the will of Him who sent me”. There are some who see Jesus as somehow appeasing a reluctant God so we can be spared. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Father sent the Son with the explicit purpose of providing our justification, of redeeming us and making us children of God. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are completely united. There is one God in three persons.

John 6:35 - The bread of life

6:35

We now get one of the famous “I am” statements of Jesus, “I am the bread of life”. This the first of seven of these I am statements. Jesus has just said that the Father would give the true bread that gives life, and now He claims to be this “bread”. Jesus is the One who gives us life.

It is important to realise that the gospel calls us to believe in the person of Jesus Christ, not a set of ideas, not a theology, not a philosophy, but the Person of the Son of God. Now that absolutely not to say that theology doesn’t matter, nor that it does not affect our lives. If you know me at all, or have read much of my blog, I hope you realise that I greatly value theology. Moreover, sound doctrine is vital.Those who say things like “I’m just for Jesus”, which is usually an excuse for ignoring something that the Bible says, are completely deluded fools. However, if we try to base our life and our faith on believing a set of precepts rather than trust in the Person of Jesus Christ we will come a cropper. Earlier Jesus has criticised the Pharisees who diligently studied the Scriptures but had completely missed the point. In Revelation the church at Ephesus is criticised for forgetting their first love.

Note also that Jesus says “whoever comes to me ...”. Later on (6:44) He will say “no one can come to Him unless the Father draws him”. We need to hold these two aspects together. There are two very silly versions of Calvinism and Arminianism. On the one hand there is the version that says it is entirely upto the Father, and on the other is the version that says it is entirely up to us. Both are wrong. It is indeed up to the Father, but we have a responsibility. We must go to Jesus.

And when we go to Jesus we will never go hungry, never go thirsty. Now Jesus is talking about spiritual food here, but we can be certain that He will meet our deepest needs. We experience all sorts of things in life, go through all sorts of traumas. We should go to Jesus. And when there is nothing in particular happening in our lives, we should go to Jesus. He is the source of life.

John 6:32-34 - Bread that gives life

6:32-34

Jesus then makes another of His “truly, truly” claims. First He corrects their misunderstanding of  Moses. It was not Moses who had given them the manna from heaven but God Himself (Exodus 16:4). In some ways this was a small mistake to make, but it was now having big consequences, distorting what they were expecting from God. So this was their first mistake. Then we come to the second, and perhaps more important mistake. The people were fixated on the manna, but the manna was only a sign pointing to what was to come, something, or rather someone, much greater. Indeed this was the whole problem for the Jews, they thought the Law was it, when what it was doing was pointing to “it”. Paul in his letters, and the writer of Hebrews make a big play of this on several occasions. So once again we see the consistency of the message in the Bible.

Jesus was the true bread from heaven. He will claim this explicitly in verse 35. For now in verse 33 He says that the bread is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. So Jesus is claiming to come from heaven, to be sent by God, which He has already done, and to give life. Again He has already claimed to be able to do this. So the two key aspects of the Messiah are that He is from heaven (or from the Father), and is life giving.

The people then ask to be given that bread. Like the Samaritan woman and the water of life, they want the bread of life.

John 6:29-31 - The works of God

6:29

Jesus replies that the work of God is to believe in Him whom He has sent. This is still the work that God requires of us today. Now believing is not just a mental assent to some facts, nor just an emotional response, rather it is a whole life commitment. Indeed, in John’s gospel there are several references to times when people believed but the faith was only skin deep.

Now Jesus is telling the people that God requires them to believe in Him. Note that it is not to believe in some facts, or some philosophy nor some ideology, it is to believe in Jesus Himself. Our commitment is to a person. Note also the arrogance of this if Jesus is not actually the Son of God, if he was just a man. The deity of Jesus is implicit throughout the gospels.

6:30,31

The people then asked for a sign. This at first seems totally unreasonable, for Jesus had healed people, and fed people miraculously. What more did they want? Well we need to think a little more. They were expecting a prophet like Moses (Deut 18:15) and part of the teaching they had (though this bit wasn’t in the Bible) was that the one like Moses would provide manna from heaven, just as Moses had done. So the situation is that the miracles did indeed show that Jesus was someone special, but what He has just said showed that Jesus was not just claiming to be from God, but was claiming to be the One promised in Deuteronomy, so the people wanted more of a sign than they had already had. And verse 31 shows that this is what they were thinking.

John 6:27,28 - Food that endures

6:27

We think that food is so important, but we need to have a right perspective. Jesus teaches the same sort of thing in Matt 6:25-34. Food does matter, but it is not what life is about. One of the tricks of the enemy is to get us completely focused on our daily needs. He can do this through getting us to worry constantly, he can do this through some forms of so-called prosperity teaching, he can do it in all sorts of ways. Material goods are ultimately worthless. Jesus is also looking ahead to what He will say next. The Jews, based on Deut 18:15, were expecting someone like Moses, and someone who would provide manna from heaven. But the manna, although it came from heaven, perished as well. It lasted only for a time. Jesus was bringing the food that would endure for eternal life. Like the water He promised the Samaritan woman, He was bringing bread that would last forever. And it is Jesus alone who can give us this eternal food., and He can do this because the Father has set His seal upon Jesus.

6:28

There were two crucial elements in what Jesus said in the previous verse: (i) work; and (ii) I will give you. The people focused on the work. They wanted to know what the “works of God” are, although Jesus had not actually mentioned the term “works of God”. In Romans 3:20 Paul declares that no one is justified by “works of the law”. And in 1 John 4:23 John tells us that “this is His commandment, that we believe in the Name of His Son”.

Again, after Peter’s first sermon in Acts 2:37 the people asked “what shall we do”.

John 6:22-26 - Ever seeing, never perceiving

6:22-24

After the feeding of the five thousand, and all the healings, the crowds wanted to see Jesus again. They had tried to work out where He was, but were unable to do so because things didn’t add up. Quite reasonably they had not factored in the possibility of Jesus walking on water! Perhaps this is part of the reason why John records this incident. So the crowds went off to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

6:25

We now come to the real meat of the chapter, or perhaps it should be the real bread. The crowds had finally found Jesus and ask Him when He got there. Remember his walking on the water had confused them to say the least! We need to remember that God does not tell us everything that He does, and He does not always act in the way we think He should, and He also does things that we never imagined He would. So the basis for our confidence is trust in God, knowing His love and goodness, not in our understanding of God. Of course we should seek to understand Him and His word (that is part of the reason I write this stuff!), but knowing Him is the heart of the matter.

6:26

Now this seems a strange thing to say, “you did not seek me because you saw signs”. This seems to run counter to the facts. The reason they were there was because Jesus had fed the five thousand, and prior to that He had healed many people, that was why they were there. So what does Jesus mean? The people were there purely because Jesus had fed them bread. They didn’t care how He had done it. He could have rolled up in a Tesco delivery van and started handing out free pizza’s, they would have been equally happy whether they got the food by natural means or by miraculous means, it was the free food that counted in their eyes! They didn’t really see the miracle, did not think it about its significance. They truly did not see any sign, they just saw bread.  As it says in Isaiah 6:9, they were ever seeing but never perceiving. Two people can see or hear the same thing, and yet see or hear something completely different. We need to be careful about the eyes we see with. If our hearts are full of greed, envy, hate or pride we see something completely different than if our hearts are hearts of faith, hope and love.

John 6:16-21 - Going for a walk

6:16-21

There seem to be two miracles in this section. One is Jesus walking on water, the other is the boat immediately getting to the land they were going to (v21). Sailing in the dark would not be a problem to the disciples, particularly those who were fishermen as it would be something they were used to. The Sea of Galilee was subject to strong winds, so storms did blow up periodically.

Now why has John put this incident in his gospel? Possibly it is just to confirm Jesus’ authority over nature. Note also that the disciples were afraid, they clearly did not expect Jesus to be walking on the water. Jesus tells them not to be afraid. Indeed, “do not be afraid” is an oft repeated phrase in the Bible. From time to time God does things that are beyond our comprehension, and outwith our expectations.

Mark in his account tells us that they thought Jesus was a ghost (Mark 6:45-52). He also tells us that the disciples were completely amazed because they had not understood about the loaves. Jesus has complete authority over nature. Matthew, of course, also tells us about Peter walking on water as well, at least up to a point (Matt 14:22-33). Now the reason that this is not mentioned in Mark is probably because Peter was Mark’s primary source and Peter was not wanting to draw attention to himself, but why doesn’t John mention it?

John 6:12-15 - Leftovers

6:12,13

Jesus then instructed the disciples to gather up what was left. So in this whole episode while the miracle itself is clearly the primary point, we should also note how order plays its part from beginning to end. The people were arranged into groups, the food was distributed, and then everything left over was collected. Just because there is order does not mean there cannot be supernatural intervention, and just because there is supernatural intervention does not mean we do away with order.

6:14,15

The people were amazed at what had happened. There have been some who have suggested that the boy giving the five loaves and fish prompted others to share what they had. There are no grounds for thinking this at all, except a complete rejection of miracles. A miracle had occurred and the people recognised it. They also drew the conclusion that Jesus was special, thinking that He must be the Prophet. The Prophet is prophesied in Deut 18:15-18. There the emphasis is that the people should listen to the Prophet. We also must listen to Jesus.

The people’s recognition might have been thought good, but Jesus knew that there understanding was very incomplete and had serious flaws. The people wanted to make Him king by force. Now why did they want to do this, and why did was Jesus not going to let this happen? They were an oppressed people, the Romans occupied the land, which they would resent, they were probably not all that impressed by their religious leaders either. In their culture and history there was a deeply held belief that God had something better for them, and now they saw their chance to get this freedom. Freedom from Rome, and a leader who was Godly yet somehow far better than any religious leaders they had known.

Jesus knew that there was a far deeper problem and need that all the people had, the sin within their hearts. And the same is true of all of us. There may be times when the circumstances are bad, but the real problem, the biggest problem, is the problem of sin, and like the Jews we can often have little interest in addressing this problem.

Jesus knew what His primary purpose was and was not going to be diverted from it. So He withdrew to a mountain by Himself.