John Bible Study - Lesson 18
Read the passage
below using the 2 different Bible translations:
John
6:25-59 New International Version (NIV)
Jesus
the Bread of Life
25 When they found
him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you
get here?”
26 Jesus answered, “Very
truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I
performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do
not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which
the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his
seal of approval.”
28 Then they asked
him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The
work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
30 So they asked
him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What
will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in
the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
32 Jesus said to
them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread
from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For
the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life
to the world.”
34 “Sir,” they
said, “always give us this bread.”
35 Then Jesus
declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will
never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.36 But
as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All
those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will
never drive away. 38 For I have come down from
heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And
this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has
given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For
my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him
shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
41 At this the Jews
there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that
came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is this not
Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he
now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
43 “Stop grumbling
among yourselves,” Jesus answered. 44 “No one
can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise
them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the
Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the
Father and learned from him comes to me. 46 No one
has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the
Father. 47 Very truly I tell you, the one who
believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of
life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the
wilderness, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread
that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die. 51 I
am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this
bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life
of the world.”
52 Then the Jews began
to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to
eat?”
53 Jesus said to
them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of
Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at
the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my
blood is real drink.56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks
my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as
the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who
feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the
bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but
whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He
said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
John
6:25-59 New Living Translation (NLT)
25 They found him
on the other side of the lake and asked, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus replied, “I
tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you
understood the miraculous signs. 27 But don’t be so
concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the
eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has
given me the seal of his approval.”
28 They replied,
“We want to perform God’s works, too. What should we do?”
29 Jesus told them, “This
is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”
30 They answered,
“Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? 31 After
all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The
Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”
32 Jesus said, “I
tell you the truth, Moses didn’t give you bread from heaven. My Father did. And
now he offers you the true bread from heaven. 33 The
true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the
world.”
34 “Sir,” they
said, “give us that bread every day.”
35 Jesus replied, “I
am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever
believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But you
haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. 37 However,
those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. 38 For
I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my
own will. 39 And this is the will of God, that I
should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise
them up at the last day. 40 For it is my Father’s
will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I
will raise them up at the last day.”
41 Then the people began
to murmur in disagreement because he had said, “I am the bread that came
down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Isn’t this Jesus,
the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down
from heaven’?”
43 But Jesus
replied, “Stop complaining about what I said. 44 For
no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at
the last day I will raise them up. 45 As it is
written in the Scriptures, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who
listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46 (Not
that anyone has ever seen the Father; only I, who was sent from God, have seen
him.)
47 “I tell you the
truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. 48 Yes,
I am the bread of life! 49 Your ancestors ate manna
in the wilderness, but they all died. 50 Anyone who
eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. 51 I
am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will
live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my
flesh.”
52 Then the people
began arguing with each other about what he meant. “How can this man give us
his flesh to eat?” they asked.
53 So Jesus said
again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. 54 But
anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise
that person at the last day. 55 For my flesh is
true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Anyone
who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 I
live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who
feeds on me will live because of me. 58 I am the
true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die
as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.”
59 He said these
things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Note:
Here are the 3
questions for you to answer. I have given some basic answers below the questions
to help you understand the passage. Answer the questions first yourself before
you look at my answers. Take a moment before you begin and ask God to help you
understand what you are reading.
3
questions to answer:
1. Content: What
is this passage about?
2. Lesson: What
do I learn from this passage?
3. Application: How
can I apply what I have learned to my life?
Answers
to the questions above and some background:
Content: What is this passage about?
·
The
people find Jesus when they get to the other side of the lake
·
The
people ask Jesus about when He got there
·
Jesus
tells the people the real reason why they came to see Him and then offers them some
spiritual truth
·
The
people ask Jesus about how they can do the things He was doing
·
Jesus
tells them to believe in Him
·
Jesus
goes on to explain more spiritual truth
·
Jesus
said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum
Lesson: What
do I learn from this passage?
·
They
people referred to Jesus as Rabbi/teacher
·
Jesus
sheds light on why the people came to see Him. They were looking for food to
eat more so than spiritual truth.
·
The
people did not understand Jesus’ miraculous signs
·
Jesus
tells them to focus on gaining eternal life rather than perishable food
·
Jesus
explains that God had given Him His seal of approval, with the authority and
purpose to offer eternal life
Matthew
17:1-5 New International Version (NIV)
The
Transfiguration
17 After six days
Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led
them up a high mountain by themselves.2 There he was
transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became
as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared
before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
4 Peter said to
Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three
shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
5 While he was
still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am
well pleased. Listen to him!”
·
It
is God’s desire for His people to listen to Jesus and obey His commands.
·
When
the people asked about how they can do works for God, Jesus explained the
importance of first believing in Him
·
Jesus
tells the people that Moses didn’t give them bread from heaven but His Father did. Jesus was referring to God
providing manna to the Israelites in the desert after they fled Egypt.
Exodus
16:3-5 New International Version (NIV)
3 The Israelites
said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s
hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we
wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire
assembly to death.”
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for
you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this
way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On
the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as
much as they gather on the other days.”
·
Jesus
refers to Himself as the Bread from
Heaven who gives life to the world.
Jesus is the
Bread of Life:
·
Jesus
is essential for eternal life
·
Jesus
is fully human and fully divine. In His sinless human nature He can be the
perfect sacrifice for our sins. In His divine nature He can pay the price for
our sin. Jesus is the one true Redeemer; He delivers us from the consequences
of sin and spiritual death.
·
Jesus
invites people to believe in Him
·
Believing
and receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior will
satisfy our hunger and thirst as well as be made
righteous in the sight of God
·
We can’t earn our way into heaven
·
Only Jesus can offer us eternal life
John
14:6 New International Version (NIV)
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and
the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Truth: No
one can snatch believers away from Jesus
John
10:28-30 New International Version (NIV)
28 I give them
eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My
Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I
and the Father are one.
Truth: Jesus
will return. Jesus will raise all His followers up when He does.
What the Bible
says about Jesus second coming:
No one knows when the Lord will return.
His return will be a surprise to all, even the
faithful.
When Jesus does come, it will be universal! Even
the doubters and unbelievers will know of it.
When Jesus returns, God will raise the dead in Christ.
Those still living shall join the dead in meeting
Jesus.
Believers will be with the Lord forever
Those who reject The Lord will be separated from Him for all
eternity
Read: 1 Thessalonians
4:13-5:22 (Jesus’ second coming/The Day of The Lord)
·
Anyone
who believes in Jesus and receives Him as Lord and Savior will be given eternal
life
·
The
people had a hard time believing Jesus’ teaching and accepting His divine
nature due to the fact that they could not get past His human nature.
·
People
today still struggle with believing that Jesus was fully human and fully divine.
They said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother.
How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
Truth: no
one can come to Jesus unless God the Father draws them to Him
When
Jesus says that no man can come without God’s drawing him, He is making a
statement about the total depravity of the sinner and the universality of that
condition. So darkened is the unsaved person’s heart that he doesn’t even
realize it:
Jeremiah
17:9 New International Version (NIV)
9 The heart is
deceitful above all things
and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Therefore,
it is only by the merciful and gracious drawing of God that we are saved. In
the conversion of the sinner, God enlightens the mind:
Ephesians
1:18 New Living Translation (NLT)
18 I pray that your
hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope
he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious
inheritance.
God
inclines the will toward Himself, and influences the soul, without which
influence the soul remains darkened and rebellious against God. All of this is
involved in the drawing process. Only those who have been drawn through special
revelation—by the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God—will come to
Christ. (excerpts
from GotQuestions.org)
·
The
people were confused by Jesus’ teaching about eating His flesh and drinking His
blood. Unless the Holy Spirit supernaturally opens our eyes and heart to Jesus’
teaching we will not understand it. That is why we need to ask God regularly to
teach us the meaning of the scripture we read.
·
The reference
Jesus made to eating his flesh and drinking his blood is the metaphorical way
of describing the person who draws on, claims, or lays hold of the reality of
his atoning sacrifice by putting personal faith in him
The flesh and the blood are words which point to Jesus' death as a
sacrifice
(excerpt from J. I. Packer)
Application: How
can I apply what I have learned to my life?
·
Pray
for clear understanding of Jesus’ teaching
·
Seek
to be spiritually fed
·
Embrace
Jesus as Lord & Savior
·
Put
Jesus first in your life
·
Submit
yourself to being obedient and following His teaching
Don’t forget:
John’s main purpose
in writing this Gospel:
·
To
tell the world that Jesus is the Messiah for the Jews and Gentiles
·
The
events were recorded so that we might believe and have eternal life
John 20:30-31 New International Version (NIV)
The Purpose of John’s Gospel
30 Jesus performed many other signs in
the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have
life in his name.
Questions
to ponder:
·
Are
you seeking Jesus’ material provision more so than His spiritual?
·
Does
the fact that Jesus was fully human cause you to doubt His divine nature?
·
Will
you ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand the harder teachings of Jesus?
Have a great
week…………….Dave
