Lesson #15

JOHN 6:22-59
Lesson #15
THE BREAD OF LIFE

• Memory verse: Joh 6:35

• In chapter 6 of the gospel of John, Jesus begins a series of statements to tell us exactly who He is and how He ministers to us. To understand these “I am” statements better, we need to look at the floor plan of the Old Testament tabernacle.
• =1= The tabernacle consisted of an outer courtyard where the altar of burnt offering was located. If a person were to approach God, he would come through the gate into the outer courtyard with his lamb for a sacrifice for sin.
• John told us that lamb of God that takes away sin is Jesus Christ. (Joh 1:29)
• The priest would sacrifice that lamb on the altar in the courtyard. That sacrifice covered his sinful nature inherited from Adam.
• Then John told us about Nicodemus who was born again. (Joh 3)
• =2= The next object in the courtyard of the tabernacle was the laver where the priests performed rites of cleansing.
• For a believer to get closer to God, he must be cleansed not only from his sinful nature, but also from the personal sins he commits every day.
• John told us about the water of life that cleansed the sins of the woman at the well. (Joh 4)
• =3= From the laver in the courtyard, the priest would enter the first room in the tabernacle building called the Holy Place. There were 3 pieces of furniture in this room. On one wall was the table of showbread. On the opposite wall was the candlestick. At the far end of the room was the altar of incense.
• Many believers in Jesus Christ never get beyond the outer courtyard in their personal relationship with the Lord. They remain in a superficial relationship with God. For a believer to go deeper in his relationship with Christ, he must enter the Holy Place in his relationship. He needs to experience Jesus in regards to the objects in the Holy Place of the tabernacle.
• The first object is the table of showbread where 12 loaves of unleavened bread were placed and then changed every week.
• In Joh 6 Jesus fed the multitude with a few loaves of bread. Then He tells us the significance of this miracle by making the first “I am” statement, “I am the bread of life”. (48)
• Read Joh 6:22-27
• The day after the feeding of the multitude, the people look for Jesus and the disciples. When they don’t find them, they go by boat across the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum.
• When they find Jesus, they asked how He got there, but Jesus does not tell them that He walked across the Sea of Galilee on the water.
• Instead, he knows their hearts. They only had interest in what they could get materially. They were not even interested in seeing the power of God in action. (26)
• He tells them of spiritual bread that only He can give them from God which will bring eternal life. (27)
• If water was the symbol for the Holy Spirit that gave one eternal life in Joh 4, why does Jesus tell us about the bread that gives us eternal life?
• Both water and bread are the essentials of physical life on earth. Both are spiritual symbols that originate in the Old Testament that give us two different aspects of our personal relationship with God. It is that personal relationship with God that gives one eternal life. (being born again).
• Notice that Jesus mentions both the symbol of bread and water in verse 35.
• Work
• Jesus tells them not to work so much for physical bread for it is temporary.
• Read Joh 6:28-34 The manna in the wilderness
• The people’s question:
• How do you work for spiritual food? (28)
• The people focused on the word, work. It is human nature to want to work for salvation, but it is not God’s way.
• Jesus’ answer:
• You do not work for eternal life or spiritual food.
• Many people and religions today think they can merit eternal life if they do enough good deeds. However, eternal life and spiritual things cannot be obtained in this way.
• You must believe in Jesus. (29)
• Read Gal 2:16
• Believing is God’s definition of “work”.
• Believing means you accept Christ into your heart.
• Believing means you yield your life and all your desires to Christ.
• Believing means you commit yourself to obedience.
• The people’s response (30)
• They requested a sign that He was truly God.
• He had already done a miracle for them when he fed the multitude, but that was not sufficient for hardened hearts. They wanted more than just one day’s supply of bread. Even their forefathers in the wilderness received more than one day’s supply of bread.
• They introduced the subject of the manna in the wilderness that fed their forefathers.
• Jesus tells them that the manna in the wilderness was a type or prefigure of Jesus Christ the true bread from heaven.(32)
• Jesus tells the people about the bread in the wilderness in order to tell us about himself.

The Old Testament Manna in the Wilderness	Jesus, the Bread of Life
The manna came down from God, not from Moses	Jesus came down from heaven, not from Joseph.
The manna was a symbol of spiritual bread	Jesus is the true bread
The manna gave temporary life	Jesus gives eternal life
Manna was a gift from God for which they did not have to work.	Jesus is a gift from God, for which a personal relationship with Him does not require work.
The word, manna, means = What is it?	The important question is, “Who is He?
The Jews thought the manna came by the power of Moses	The power of God gave Jesus Christ to the world.
Every man gathered manna according to his eating. (Exo 16:16-17)	Each person must come to Christ and partake personally. (Joh 6:40)
No one lacked.	In Jesus Christ, there is no more spiritual hunger or thirst.
The manna perished. (Exo 16:20)	Jesus’ presence in a heart endures into everlasting life.
Manna sustained physical life on a daily basis	Jesus sustains eternal life
The manna was freely received by the people	Jesus is freely given by God

• The manna in the wilderness represented Jesus Christ and the Word of God.
• Read Mat 4:4 and Joh 1:1,14
• These verses tells us that the eternal name of Jesus Christ is “The Word of God” and we cannot live without Him.
• While the Word of God is primarily Jesus Christ, his truth is embodied in the scriptures of the Bible that we call, the Word of God.
• Lessons for the believer from the manna in the wilderness:

The Manna in the Wilderness	The Word of God (The Bible)
It must be gathered every day except the Sabbath. The day before the Sabbath, they were to gather double the amount so they could eat it on the Sabbath.	The believer must read the Bible every day.
The Israelites had to eat all of it.	The believer must consume all the Bible, Old and New Testaments and apply it totally to his life.
Manna was sweet to the taste and satisfied hunger	The Bible is sweetness to the soul and satisfies spiritual hunger
Manna sustained them while they wandered in the wilderness	The Bible sustains the believer while he is wandering through life in this world.

• Read Joh 6:35-40 Jesus is the bread of life

• “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me;”

(37)

• Everyone that has a heart to come to Jesus is chosen by God, and God will see that he get to know who Jesus is.
• “…and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”

(37)

• Everyone that comes to Jesus by faith will be accepted for eternity.
• “…that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing,…”

(38)

• Salvation is unconditional and eternal dependent on faith at the beginning of one’s acceptance of Jesus Christ as his savior (Rom 3:25), and dependent on faith for the rest of the believer’s life until we are taken home to be with Him. (Rom 1:17 2Cor 5:7)
• Therefore, of all those that initially come to Christ, none are lost along the way. All will be resurrected to eternal life one day. (40)
• Read Joh 6:41-59 The living bread
• The anger of the Jews
• Why were the Jews so angry with Jesus’ words?
• Primarily the “I am” statements anger the Jews. When Jesus identifies himself with Jehovah, the “I am” of the burning bush in Exodus, He is claiming to be God.
• To the Jews, this was blasphemy, worthy of death.
• When Jesus says that he came down from heaven, He is claiming God as His source and His father.
• The Jews saw Jesus only as a human who had an earthly father. (42)
• Therefore, Jesus is affirming his virgin birth.
• Divine election: and free will (44-45)

• “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him…”

(44)

• God “draws” the non-believer to the gates of the kingdom of Christ.
• The word, “draw”, literally means = to drag.against heavy opposition.
• It is the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of man that drags us to the point in our lives when we are made to realize that we need a savior. This is God’s election.
• “…they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.”

(45)

• The Holy Spirit begins to teach the non-believer about Jesus Christ, who He is and what He does.
• Man has free will to choose.
• It is man, at this point, that decides to accept or reject Christ. This is man’s free will.
• Seeing God, the Father:

• “Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God…”

(46)

• Why does Jesus say that no one has seen God, the Father, when Moses claimed to see God in Exo 33:11 “And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face…”
• Read Exo 30:20-23
• We learned in Joh 4:24 that God is a Spirit. Humans cannot see a spirit. Therefore, in the Old Testament when people saw Jehovah God, they saw Jesus Christ in what is called a theophany or Christophany.
• How do we know it was Jesus they were seeing in the Old Testament?
• Jesus tells us in Joh 14:9, “…he that hath seen me hath seen the Father…”
• Therefore, there is only one who has truly seen God, the Father, and that is Jesus, the Son.
• Believers in Jesus Christ will one day see God, the Father, when we are in eternity and no longer in this human body. (1Joh 3:2)
• Jesus, the eternal and living bread of life: (48-51)
• To eat of the living bread brings eternal life. (50)
• How can a person eat the bread of Jesus and drink His blood?
• This was the question the Jews asked. (52)
• In fact, it is interesting that Jesus’ statement was so mis-interpreted that many non-believers accused Christians of being cannibals. Christians were accused of eating Jewish babies.
• Obviously Jesus is speaking spiritually not literally.
• He is preparing the disciples for the last supper when He would institute Holy Communion.
• Read Mat 26:27-28
• Of course, they did not understand the meaning of His statements at the time. Not until the last supper and the crucifixion would they understand it.
• To eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus is to personally identify with His crucifixion.
• A person who believes in Jesus identifies himself with Jesus every time he takes Holy Communion.
• Notice the unity of identification in Joh 6:56.
• However, there is more to understanding Jesus’ words than just a picture of Holy Communion.
• There are some verb tenses in the verbs that Jesus used that give us some insight:
• In verses 51 and 53, Jesus says, “…if any man eat…” (51) “Except ye eat the flesh…” (53)
• The verb tense of the word, eat, is a one time event. In other words, if a man does not receive Christ in his heart at one point in his life, he does not “eat the flesh and drink the blood.”
• Therefore the one time event is being born again.
• In verses 54 and 57, Jesus says, “Whoso eateth my flesh…” (54) “…he that eateth me…” (57)
• The verb tense of the word, eat, is a continuing process. In other words, the born again believer must continually get nourishment from his relationship with Christ.
• Therefore, the continuing process includes an on-going relationship with Christ through Holy Communion, prayer, and reading God’s Word.
• Drinking the blood:
• The actual practice of drinking blood was forbidden by God in Lev 7:26-27 in that it was a pagan practice.
• These words from Jesus about drinking His blood made the Jews angry.
• Only through a personal identification (at one point in time, and continually) with Jesus Christ can a person receive eternal life. (54, 58)
• Does taking communion saves a person? No.
• The elements of bread and wine in communion are only spiritual symbols:
• The Jewish “matza” is a bread without leaven (symbolic of sin) just as Jesus was without sin. The bread is beaten (just as Jesus was beaten). It is pierced to keep it flat (just as Jesus was pierced on the cross). It is baked in a hot oven (just as Jesus went through the fires of suffering).
• To make wine, the grape is crushed (just as Jesus was crushed by the torment and suffering) until the red juice flowed out.(symbolic of the blood of Christ), and producing the choice wine (just as God produced the best for us in Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sin and eternal life.)
• The Holy Communion is an outward practice of identifying oneself with Christ. However the spiritual identification with Christ occurs when one is born again by the Holy Spirit. He repents of his sins and receives Christ into his heart.
• The believer, then, participates in Holy Communion, outwardly practicing what has already taken place spiritually in his heart, his identification with Christ and His crucifixion.
• Then is Holy Communion simply a ritual? No.
• There is a great spiritual blessing when a believer takes communion with the right attitude, for he affirms his relationship with Christ and receives spiritual food.
• Eternal life:
• The verb tense in verse 54 indicates that the believer has eternal life the minute he is born again. He does not wait until he dies before he receives eternal life.
• Four times in this chapter we are told that the believer will be resurrected “at the last day.” (39, 40, 44, 54)
• For the New Testament church, the resurrection of the body will occur at the Rapture of the church.
• Mutual indwelling:
• Various times John tells us of a mutual indwelling between the believer and Christ. This is his first mention of this mutual indwelling in verse 56.

• “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him..”

• This mutual indwelling begins when a person is born again. Jesus is in the new believer and the new believer is in Jesus.

HOMEWORK
John 6:60-71
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of Joh 6:22-59
• What is it that impresses you the most about Jesus as the Bread of Life?
• How will this make a difference in your personal relationship with Jesus?
• What results do you expect to see played out in your life as a result of this revelation of Jesus as the Bread of Life?
• Preparation for Joh 6:60-71
• Review your notes from lesson #15.
• Read Joh 6:60-71
• Why did some people who had followed Jesus and considered themselves disciples now fall away?
• What do you learn in this passage about discipleship?
• How do you explain verse 64 in your own words?
• How do you explain verse 70?
• What do you learn in Joh 6 about man’s basic nature?
• What do you learn about God, the Father from Joh 6?
• Memory verse: Joh 6:54