JOHN 6: 41-51
THE BREAD OF LIFE
[Numbers 11:4-8]
Jesus’ proclaimation that He is the Bread Of Life and that the way to eternal life comes by Him were not what the crowd wanted to hear. They rebelled against Him and the claims implied in His words. They felt they already knew who Jesus was. In the face of such opposition Jesus emphatically repeats what He has said and takes the thought further by speaking of the bread which He will give as His flesh.
I. THE BREAD OF HEAVEN, 41-43.
II. DRAWN TO JESUS, 44-46.
III. THE LIVING BREAD, 47-51.
The response of the synagogue leaders to Jesus’ amazing claim is found in verse 41. Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.”
When John says Jews he is referring to the Jewish leaders, for both Jesus and John were Jews. The Jewish leaders were hostile toward Jesus, just waiting for Him to say or do something they could jump on and talk up to others. They had it. Just who does this guy think He is. So they grumbled about Him. They were angry and in opposition. Their forefathers grumbled about manna in wilderness that they now say they want also.
As verse 42 indicates, they had no inking about the Incarnation that Isaiah prophesied. They thought of life and Jesus on a purely human plane. They were saying, You can never understand life or Jesus on a human plane “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?”
The leaders saw Jesus as a carpenter/mason’s son from Nazareth. They refused to listen with an open heart despite what He had done b/c they could not tolerate His message.
Many people say they reject Christ because they cannot believe He is the Son of God the Creator, but in reality the demands that Jesus makes for their loyalty and obedience are what they cannot accept. So to protect themselves from the message, they find fault with the messenger and reject Him.
In verse 43 Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.
Jesus tells them to cease their murmurings among themselves. That is not the way to learn divine truth. If they had questions they should ask Him in a respectful and sincere manner.
II. DRAWN TO JESUS, 44-46.
In verse 44 Jesus repeats the teaching of verse 37 but in a stronger manner. “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
Now Jesus proclaims that no man “can” come unless the Father draws him. The thought of divine initiative is one of the great doctrines of the gospel. Men like to feel independent. They think they can come to Jesus of their own volition. Jesus asserts that this is an utter impossibility. [Morris, NIC, pp. 373.]
God, not man, plays the most active role in salvation. When someone comes to Jesus and receives Him as Savior and Lord he or she does so only in response to the leading, the urging of God’s Holy Spirit. God does the urging, then we can decide whether to believe or remain in unbelief. No one can place their faith in Jesus without the personalize work of the Father.
A man was telling a friend how Christ removes the LOAD OF SIN when a person becomes a Christian. "I don’t feel any weight of sin,” said his friend. “I can tell you why,” responded the believer. "A dead person can discern no pressure put on him, even if it were a thousand-pound weight. So also, many who are spiritually dead in sin feel no burden of guilt."
We may have witnessed to unsaved family members and friends, only to have our words fall on deaf ears. We must cling to the hope expressed by J. R. Naylor in the following poem: "Dear Lord, I have a friend who’s lost; without Thy love and care. I have a friend who’s lost tonight - out in the dark somewhere. 0 Shepherd of the sheep, there’s one not in the fold. O Shepherd of our souls, help my friend to find the way! Dear Lord, I cannot help my friend, who’s lost and deaf and blind, but Thou the great Physician art the Savior of mankind. And so I bring my prayer to Thee in earnestness of heart that Thou who draws men to Thyself -will bring him in from the dark. [adapted]
One who knows he’s going to heaven will not want to go alone. Do you have an unsaved friend or family member? How often do you pray for that one’s salvation? Have you asked God for an opportunity to speak to him or her about Christ? Don’t despair over your unsaved loved ones. Keep on lovingly speaking the truth of God’s Word. Above all, continue to pray that the Holy Spirit will convict them of their need and draw them to Jesus.
Verse 45 gives the result of what happens to those God saves. “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.
The contexts from where this quotation is extracted are where God’s prophesying a New Covenant. The Old Covenant or Testament Prophets Isaiah (54:13) and Jeremiah (31:31-34) proclaimed a New Covenant and a messianic people. These New Covenant people are those who have the Holy Spirit and can be taught by God. God teaches us through the Bible, our experiences, the thoughts the Holy Spirit brings, and our relationships with other Christians.
Are you open to being taught by God? Jesus came not only to seek and save the lost. He also came so that the saved might be taught of God. I praise God that you here tonight came because you want to be taught of God. I pray He will teach you and make you wise in the eternal salvation of your soul and spirit. That He would impart His divine wisdom as you walk with Christ.
The Father and the Son have a unique relationship with each other as verse 46 states. “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.
Jesus claimed authoritative knowledge of God and intimate relation with God such as a son could claim concerning his own father. The only way He could see and hear the Father is that He is from the Father and the same essence as the Father (1:18).
III. THE LIVING BREAD, 47-51.
For the third time in this discussion Jesus uses the solemn formula in verse 47. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.
As emphatically as He could, Jesus solemnly assertions that the one who believes in Him has "everlasting life." The short statement precisely connects believing with eternal life. The particular sentence construction used here to describe the believer is a participle, which indicates that the person’s life is characterized by belief in Jesus and does not just begun in faith. Continuous belief reveals those who have eternal life.
A missionary in Africa experienced great difficulty in trying to TRANSLATE THE GOSPEL of John into the local dialect. He faced the problem of finding a word for believe. He continued to do his best, but he always had to leave a blank space when he came to that particular word.
Then one day a runner came panting into the camp, having traveled a great distance with a very important message. After blurting out his story, he fell completely exhausted into a nearby hammock. He muttered a brief phrase that seemed to express both his great weariness and his contentment at finding such a delightful place of relaxation. The missionary, never having heard these words before, asked a bystander what the runner had said. "Oh, he is saying, ’I’m at the end of myself, therefore I am resting all of my weight here!’" The missionary exclaimed, "Praise God! That is the very expression I need for the word believe!" And so he was able to complete his translation.
Faith is taking God at His word. To believe correctly, you must first admit that you are a sinner and that you cannot do anything to save yourself. Then turn from your sin and cast yourself wholly and unreservedly on Christ for salvation.
Have you believed on Jesus?
Again in verse 48 Jesus precisely states His claim in all its grandeur and then explains its meaning in verses 49 and 50. “I AM the Bread of Life. (49) “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. (50) “This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
Again Jesus says, "I AM the Bread of Life" In verse 35 He linked this statement with the supplying of man’s basic needs; hunger and thirst would be permanently alleviated. This time Jesus links the statement to life itself (4. 47).
Jesus is referring to the manna that Moses had given their ancestors in the wilderness (Ex. 16). When the Jews ate the heavenly bread ("manna") in the wilderness, their physical needs were met. However, they still died (v.49). This bread was physical and temporal. The people ate it and it sustained them for a day. But they need more everyday and this bread could not keep them from dying.
Manna was for them physically what the Word of God is to us spiritually. It is food that we daily need for our sustenance so that we do not die in their case physically or in our case spiritually.
Jesus is a far greater bread from heaven. He is the Bread of Life. He offers Himself to us as the Bread of Eternal Life from Heaven. He offers Himself to those who will hear the Father’s voice and respond to the Father’s urging. He the bread that comes down from heaven, which one may eat and not die" [Eat is punctiliar past (aorist) indicating a once and for all receiving of Christ.]
The one who partakes of Christ as the Bread of Life has within him life that is eternal. Jesus was offering them food which brings life for which there is no death.
In verse 51 Jesus refers to Himself as the Living Bread. “I AM the Living Bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
Bread and eating obviously go together. What good does bread do if you don’t partake or eat of it. Any one who takes Christ as his own or appropriates Christ or partakes of the life of Christ as his life will, Jesus promises, live forever. To eat of Living Bread is thus to appropriate Christ as one’s life. [It is a figure of belief, for no one will eat what he cannot trust to be edible.]
After renowned missionary Jonathan Goforth (1859-1936) had spoken in a chapel in southern China, a man asked to talk to him. The man said, "I have heard you speak three times, and you always have the same theme. You always speak of Jesus Christ. Why?”
The missionary replied, “Sir, before answering you question, let me ask, ’What did you have for dinner today?" "Rice," replied the man “What did you have yesterday?" "The same thing."
"And what do you expect to eat tomorrow?" "Rice, of course. It gives me strength. I could not do without it. Sir, it is-“ the man hesitated as if looking for a strong word. Then he added, “Sir, it is my life!” The missionary quickly responded, “What you have said of rice, Jesus is to our soul! He is the ‘rice’ or ‘the Bread of Life.’”
The phrase which ends this verse; the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh, introduces the concept of Jesus’ vicarious death, the sacrifice of His body for the sins of the world.
How does Christ give Himself as Living Bread to the world? By dying in the flesh for man’s sins. By giving His life in broken sacrifice on the old rugged cross Christ becomes the Living Bread who life ever one who would live must partake.
Are you nourishing your eternal soul on the Bread of Eternal Life?
CONCLUSION / TIME OF RESPONSE
The manner of this last statement constitutes an invitation to come and eat Living Bread, the Bread of Life. The one who partakes of Christ has within him the life that is eternal. Jesus was offering them food which brings life for which there is no death. That food is attained, eaten, by appropriating His life, by sustaining your life with His life.
As the congregation Jesus spoke to was preparing to eat the Passover lamb we remember John’s words; The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. There is no other sacrifice sufficient to authentically forgive your sins and give you life other that Jesus, the Bread of Life whose body was broken for you.
