John Chapter 6

Jesus feeds five thousand

The feeding of the five thousand is unique, as it is the only miracle rec­orded in all four Gospels. It is the fourth of Yochanan’s seven signs.

Note the connection with Moses and the Children of Israel in the Wilderness.

The question is relevant, because the place was remote and the people were numerous

A test: whether the disciples were recognizing the picture of the Exodus that Jesus was carefully orchestrating around them.

Philip missed the whole point of the question!

• There is no spiritual dimension to his answer

• He doesn’t consider supernatural possibilities

• He’s thinking only of what men are capable of doing to solve a problem of this magnitude

• And since the disciples lack the capability, he reasons the situation is hopeless

• Matthew’s Gospel adds that the disciples went a step further at this point and recommended that Jesus send the people away since they had no solution

Jesus moves ahead with a supernatural solution as God intended

• From his birth to His exile in the desert to His return for Israel to His role as a mediator and so on (see our Exodus study), Moses pictured Christ

• Moses set Israel free from slavery to Egypt, but Jesus sets men free from slavery to sin

• Moses led Israel to the Old Covenant in stone while Jesus leads men to the New Covenant in His body

• Moses’ conquered the army of Egypt, while Christ conquers the forces of Satan

Calling something a sign means they believed God was revealing something to them through these events

They were correct, but they misunderstood the meaning of the sign

(See Deut 18:15-18)

CS: Now, because they were all fed and full, they wanted to make Him king of Galilee (Jn. 6:15). Their motive was to continue to be fed physically. When Yeshua perceived that they were forcibly going to make Him king of Galilee, He separated from them

Yeshua rejected the people’s offer of kingship over Galilee for three reasons.

First, the leadership of Israel had already rejected Him, thus committing the unpardonable sin. They had irrevocably reached the point of no return. It was too late for them to crown Him king.

Second, they were trying to make Him king of Galilee; however, Old Testament prophecies, such as Psalm 2, declared that Jerusalem, not Galilee, was to be the place of Messiah’s enthronement.

Third, their motive was wrong. They wanted to make Him king only because He had met their physical need, and they liked the idea of being fed without working. Yeshua commented on wrong motives when He met these Galileans at a later time. (CS)

Jesus walks on water (see also Matt 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52))

17 got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.

Note there are two Bethesda a word that means “fishtown”.

Darkness in John means unbelief, light means belief.

18 The sea became rough because a strong wind was blowing.

‘stirred up’ meaning completely battered by a gale.

6 km

20 But he said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid."

What is Jesus teaching? His identity

• If the disciples knew the Genesis account, they could recognize Jesus as the Creator, with power over the elements

• If they knew the Exodus account, they could understand that Jesus is the Lord of the Exodus, leading His people to the mountain and feeding His people with bread

• If they remembered Deuteronomy, they could recognize Jesus as the Prophet Who comes in manner of Moses and fulfils the promise of Moses

• And if they knew the Psalms, they might see Jesus as the Shepherd Who causes His sheep to lie down in green pastures

• And now as the One Who leads them by still waters

The lesson included the principle that obedience to Yeshua’s command does not automatically remove all obstacles. Yeshua commanded Peter to come, but that did not guarantee that the wind would cease.

The wind was still blowing, which is what caused Peter to become so fearful. (CS)

Mark notes upon seeing Jesus walk on water and the wind cease so suddenly, they began to worship Him, declaring Him to be God’s Son implying there not unbelievers, but had not learn the lessons duet to hard hearts.

And like the test at the mountain of Bethesda, the disciples have failed

• The succumbed to fear because they didn’t know Jesus as God

• Twice now, they have failed to anticipate Jesus’ ability to command the elements

This is the difference between knowing Jesus as Lord and abiding in Jesus

• To know Jesus as Lord is to accept the Gospel

• To abide in Jesus is to live according to the Gospel

• These men all recognize Jesus as the Messiah

• But they aren’t in a position to live in the light of that revelation

• All Christians are learning how to make this same transition, and some are farther along that path than others

• But we all all challenged by the word of God to move further and faster in the direction of spiritual maturity

• There will be more lessons for the disciples, but this one has come (SA)

I am the bread of life

Jesus engages them in a spiritual discussion while the crowd remains stuck in earthly, fleshly concerns (SA)

Jesus calls them out for false motives

The sense of their question is what can I do to earn eternal life? See Matt 19

It’s a matter of faith, which requires expenditure of energy – of the heart and of the mouth; the heart believing what the mouth confesses (See Deut)

So this is their thought here, If Jesus is greater than Moses, let him perform a sign that is greater than the one which Moses did when he gave us bread from heaven.

To be sure, yesterday Jesus multiplied the bread-cakes, but He had bread, and from it he made more bread. So, he had something to begin with (five bread-cakes, two fishes); and besides, he gave us earthly bread, but Moses gave us bread straight out of heaven!”

They thought Jesus’ feeding was less significant because manna fed the whole nation for 40 years.

This crowd missed two things. First, many of the Israelites who were fed 40 years did not believe. The important thing is not the magnitude of the sign but whether you realise the significance of it (cf. Luke 16:29–31).

Second, both Moses and Jesus were authenticated by God’s signs; therefore both should be listened to and believed.

• They misuse scripture in an attempt to bait Jesus into providing another free meal

• Even if Jesus did what they requested, it wouldn’t convince them He is truly the Son of God

• If a miracle of this type was all they required to know Him as Messiah, then the previous feeding in Bethsaida would have been enough

• They make this request simply because they want the free meal (SA)

Jesus corrects their understanding of Scriptures

The manna that descended for the Israelites was designed by God to create a picture of Jesus

• First, the bread was a provision of the Father

• Secondly, the bread came out of noting, descending from Heaven to Earth

• Thirdly, the bread was a source of life for Israel in the desert

Jesus distinguishes between the bread of earth and the bread of Heaven

Manna provided nourishment, it only lasted a day except for the Sabbath when it lasted two, but Jesus is providing life, in Him was life back in 1:4, this life is the life which the father has in himself, and which He gave to the incarnate Son to also have life in himself, it is eternal.

See Mark 8:35 – 37

• To put it simply, Jesus could have agreed to their request and fed them again

• But the best that would have simply meant sustaining their earthly (SA)

Simply put, seek for a solution to your spiritual needs rather than physical needs

• Those who have ears to hear will see the sense of this call to believe and seek for Christ so that they find Him

• And having found Him, they will rejoice for what they gain eternally and care little for what they lack physically

• For whatever they lack (or gain for that matter) on earth is temporary

• But what we gain eternally can never be taken away from us

Note – this episode commenced with bread already on earth.

• In the time of Exodus, the manna was a representation of Christ to come

• He had not yet descended from Heaven

• So the symbol the Lord provided to the people was of something materializing out of nothing from Heaven above

• That was a perfect picture of Jesus’ coming arrival

o In the miracle of the loaves and fishes, the Lord was already resident on earth...He had already descended

• And He came presented in a meagre form, one that hardly appeared sufficient to meet the qualifications He claimed

• So the Lord changed the miracle of the bread to match Jesus’ appearance

• Since Jesus, the Bread of Life, had already descended, He used bread already present among the people

• But it was a meagre, barely noticeable and entirely inadequate provision to meet the people’s needs – or so they would have thought

• Nevertheless, it multiplied to meet every need abundantly

Jesus gives us the answer to why this crowd was unable to accept Jesus as Lord

There is a two-way street here: Jesus brings people to God, but they already belong to God and are God’s gift to his Son. God has chosen them from before the foundation of the world, and they will come to Jesus. So, God is aware of those who refuse to come and believe, and their refusal is indeed part of his plan.

The elect will come, and those who come are the elect, and “whoever comes” Jesus will “never drive away” and keep secure (John 10:27–29; 1 Pet 1:5). They belong to God and are given to Jesus, so Jesus not only accepts them but also watches over them. The balance between divine sovereignty and human responsibility in verse 35 is on full display also in verse 37.

The teaching of John 6:37 clearly shows that salvation does not originate in our own choices or decisions (pride would have otherwise think so).

See also Eph 1:3-6, 2:8-9, Rom 8:31-34

Based just on the first half of this verse, we learn two fundamental aspects of the doctrine of salvation, soteriology

• First, our salvation rests on a decision of the Father to bring us to Christ

• Secondly, the Father’s election always leads to a person to accept Christ

This is the definition of grace according to the Bible

• Grace is not defined as the offer of the Gospel, as some have erroneously defined it

• The Bible describes grace as God’s willingness to save us even while we were His enemies (SA)

The idea that our salvation originates in the Father’s choosing of us can be a challenging and disorienting revelation

One aspect of the Father’s will is for Jesus to hold on to all believers, losing none of them. Those who have been given to Jesus, the Savior, have guaranteed resurrection. The physical body may die. However, because the new life is eternal and heavenly, eventually it will produce resurrection life, and the body will be raised.

This passage is affirming the eternal security of the believer.

• He says everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life and be resurrected

• And He prefaces this conclusion once again with the phrase “this is the will of my Father”

• We could read v.40 in this way: “It is by the will of my Father that someone beholds the Son and believes, and these I will raise up”

Jesus speaks to the Jews

Specifically, they didn’t approve of the idea that someone so ordinary as Jesus of Nazareth should compare Himself to God.

They were unable to come to Him on their own; but those whom God drew would come to Him without fail. The word translated “draw” means to drag or pull with force; it implies the inability of the people to perform the act by themselves and so requires the drawing power of the one bringing them to the action. This drawing of God is not limited to a few.

Jesus said, “I … will draw all men to Myself” (12:32). This does not mean that all will be saved but that Greeks (i.e., Gentiles; 12:20) as well as Jews will be saved. Those who will be saved will also be resurrected (6:39–40). Jesus is saying that rejection of him is a rejection of God’s drawing power, an act that leads to eternal rejection and judgment by God.

they will all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to and learns from God will come to and believe in Jesus.

Yeshua continues to explain that if they wished to have eternal life, they must eat His flesh and drink His blood (Jn. 6:46-51).  

The idea that our salvation originates in the Father’s choosing of us can be a challenging and disorienting revelation

And in response to their rejection of Him, Jesus teaches a corollary truth to His earlier statements

• Just as everyone the Father gives will come to Jesus, so also those who are not given by the Father will never come to Jesus

• As Jesus says, no one can come to belief in Jesus unless the Father draws him

• Jesus quotes Isaiah 54:13 to emphasize that this is not a new concept

• God has always worked this way in bringing men to Himself in faith

• Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father will come to Jesus

There is an important difference between manna and Jesus

• The Jews in the desert had to eat manna every day in order for it to sustain their physical bodies

• Yet a man need only take in Jesus once to be saved for eternity

We understand that Jesus was referring to His sacrificial death on the cross for the sins of the world

• In that sense, His flesh was like bread, given to the world to consume so that we might live

Few passages of Scripture have been so painfully wrested and perverted as these few.

The Jews are not the only people who have striven about its meaning. A sense has been put upon it, which it was never intended to bear. Fallen man, in interpreting the Bible, has an unhappy aptitude for turning meat into poison. (JCR)

Just as food taken into the body becomes part of the body, the Messiah becomes part of the person who puts his faith in Him.

He will live in that person, and that person, in turn, will live in the Messiah. Yeshua reiterated that He is the bread that came down from heaven and will produce eternal life (Jn. 6:58).

Manna sustained the physical life in the wilderness, but it did not provide eternal life.

He’s using a figure of speech called a synecdoche, which means using a part of something to stand for the whole of it.

• Jesus’ flesh and blood are parts of His body, but by the context we can see Jesus meant the whole of Himself

• He’s telling the crowd they must take in not only Jesus flesh but also His blood, meaning all of Him

“You must accept everything about Me, everything I claim to be and do, or else you do not have eternal life”

Our salvation depends on consuming Christ, which means to believe in Him

Jesus speaks to his disciples: Life-everlasting – Eternal Life

Jesus had pointed out that it wasn’t the manna about which they had heard so much, but he himself was the true bread that had come down from heaven; that in his quality as the true bread he was offering his flesh; and that in order to have everlasting life (i.e., to be saved) one had to eat his flesh and drink his blood. This was too much for these people to take.

Note: a disciple was simply someone who chose to follow Jesus at least for a time

If they cannot accept Jesus’ word in one thing, then they cannot accept Him at all

Jesus adds that if they are unable to accept this teaching, how will they accept Jesus resurrected from the grave and ascending into Heaven?

What Jesus meant was this: “My flesh as such cannot benefit you; stop thinking that I was asking you literally to eat my body or literally to drink my blood. It is my spirit, my person, in the act of giving my body to be broken and my blood to be shed, that bestows and sustains life, even everlasting life.”

Notice in v.65 Jesus repeats His central tenet on the origins of our faith

• No person can come to believe in Jesus unless it has been granted by the Father

• So that if someone rejects Christ, it is evidence in itself that the person is not given to Christ

• Or at the very least, the day of their salvation has not yet arrived

Calling Jesus, the Holy One of God is unusual (a demon addressed Jesus that way; in Mark 1:24.

Jesus was consecrated unto God to fulfil his Messianic task; he is set apart and qualified to perform whatever pertains to his office (cf. 10:36; Acts 3:14; 4:27; Rev. 3:7). He is God’s Holy One, belonging to God and appointed by God

God’s sovereignty is so certain and His plan so intricately worked out in advance that even Jesus’ betrayer was selected by God in advance