Transcription
Last week, we studied John 6 where Jesus declared that he's the bread of life. And this week, we'll continue in that same chapter as Jesus doubles down and explains exactly what he meant by that claim. Now, this passage is one of the most debated in scripture because it's often used to support false teachings like Calvinism and transubstantiation. But as we look at the context of this chapter, we'll see what Jesus was actually saying and how [music] we should respond to his words.
Hi, my name is David Criano. I'm a youth pastor and here in this channel, we're currently going through a Bible study series through the Gospel of John. Today, we are continuing through chapter 6 and we're going to start out by reading verses 47-51. Jesus says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat mana in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus gave seven metaphors to describe himself, also known as the seven I am statements. Jesus is the light of the world. He's the door. He is the good shepherd. He is the resurrection and the life. He's the way, the truth, and the life. And Jesus is the true vine. But the first I am statement that Jesus ever gave comes in chapter 6. Jesus said, "I am the bread of life." You see, bread was necessary for those people for their physical life just as Jesus was necessary for their spiritual life. Just like the mana, Jesus had been sent from God the Father. But unlike that mana, Jesus would make you never hunger again and he would give you eternal life, not just physical life.
So last week we were studying this um claim, the bread of life, and we looked at verses 15-40. This week we're going to cover verses 41-60. And as I said earlier, this is a very debated section of the Bible. It is used for and against very controversial teachings such as transubstantiation and Calvinism. So, we're going to break down this passage into three stages. The first one is disbelieving denial.
Now, remember that um in the context here, Jesus was in one of his many arguments with his rejectors. And he said back in verse 40, "And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth a son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." So Jesus claims here to be the son of God. He claims that belief in him results in everlasting life and that Jesus will raise the dead at the last day in the end times. But those who rejected Jesus were offended at these very bold claims. They weren't believing in him and they were angry at him for saying these things. It says in verses 41 and 42, "The Jews then murmured at him because he said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." And they said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?""
Throughout chapter 6, in a very short time, the people's opinion of Jesus has changed. You know, people are often very quick to change their minds about somebody. I've noticed this with sports players. A player might have a really great moment or a really great season, but then the next season they um mess something up, they have a down year, and people will totally change their minds about that player. People do this in relationships because one day that person is the greatest thing that's ever happened to you. You can't wait to spend the rest of your life with them. But then sometimes through um an argument or through some minor um problem, people will change their minds about that person very quickly and where they once loved them, they now hate them. People often do this with politicians. you know, before that person gets elected to office, this person is going to be the one who will save their country. But then maybe they don't keep their promise or maybe people had been let down and disappointed by them and then now all of a sudden they hate that person.
And earlier in chapter 6, Jesus sort of experiences the same thing where he fed the 5000 with the five loaves and the two fishes and the people loved Jesus. Back in 14 it says then those men when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did said this is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world. So earlier in the chapter people believe in him. They see him as the prophet that had been prophesied of back in the book of Deuteronomy. But now within that same chapter they're rejecting Jesus. Verse 42. And they said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I am come down from heaven?" You see, at first they had recognized Jesus as the prophet. But then through some unmet expectations, they changed their view of him. In one moment, he was that prophet that should come into the world. But now he's just the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know.
And I'm afraid that sometimes we do the same thing where our disappointment in Jesus turns into us changing our minds about him. Maybe for you that thing has been an unmet prayer request. Maybe it's been a problem that wouldn't go away. Maybe you feel like you've been waiting on God for too long and you're getting impatient on him. Maybe you've had some trouble um answering some hard questions about your faith. Sometimes we have these unmet expectations and it leads us to change our minds about God. This is just a reminder to not measure God's goodness by life's circumstances. As the saying goes, God is good all the time and all the time God is good. And we need to believe that God is good even when our circumstances are not. Even if people aren't good to us, even if life doesn't seem all that good in the moment, God is still good. The people are experiencing some disbelieving denial because Jesus hasn't met their wrong expectations about him.
This leads us to point number two, divine declarations. Jesus makes a couple of bold claims in this following passage. He says starting in verse 43, Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, "Murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me, draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. Not that any man has seen the father save he which is of God. He has seen the father."
Right here Jesus has just made divine declarations. The first one is that Jesus is the son of God. Now in verse 44 which we just read that is a verse that is often used to prove Calvinism. If you don't know what Calvinism is, it teaches that not everyone is able to be saved. Only some can. They believe that God has unconditionally chosen certain elect ones and these are the only ones who can believe in Jesus. They think that Jesus only died for some, the elect, and that there is no way of salvation for everybody else in the world. And furthermore, if you happen to be one of these elect, then your salvation is irresistible. They even think that God saves you before you believe. that regeneration precedes faith. And Calvinists will often point to this verse, John 6:44, to support their beliefs. Jesus said, "No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me, draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day." And this is often used along with a verse from later in that same chapter. and he said, "Therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my father." And so Calvinists will often point to um this chapter and specifically these two verses to support their beliefs.
But notice here that Jesus never says that there are people who haven't been drawn to him. Yes, Jesus did say that you can't come to Jesus unless God the Father has drawn you. But in verse 44, this isn't about who is able to be saved. It's rather about how we are able to be saved. Jesus isn't saying that certain people couldn't come to him. He's rather explaining how people could come to him. And the reason why we can come to Christ is because God has drawn us. I think the Bible is very clear that everyone can be saved and that God wants to save all. Jesus said that God so loved the world. 1 Timothy 2:4 says that God will have all men to be saved. Peter says in 2 Peter 3:9 that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And so, if Calvinists want to use John 6:44 to prove unconditional election or limited atonement, then how do you explain this? Jesus says in John 12:32, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." Jesus here is prophesying about his death on the cross. And he says that whenever he's lifted up from the earth on that cross, he would draw all men to him. Jesus never once said that only some have been drawn and that everybody else was not drawn. Rather, Jesus is saying that we are only able to be saved because of God's invitation. Because God has drawn us. And the truth is that all have been drawn by God. Because Jesus died for all and he wants to save all. Jesus promised that he would draw all men to him.
So whenever people look at John 6:44, it typically turns into a debate about Calvinism. And I think that sometimes we get so caught up in the Calvinism versus provisionism or Armenianism debate that we actually miss the real emphasis of this verse. The real emphasis here is that Jesus is claiming to be the son of God. In other words, this is a claim to deity because to be the son of God means to be of the same nature as God and to be of the same nature as God is to be God. So in John 6:44, this is really a claim to deity.
Jesus also made another controversial claim right here. He claims that he gives everlasting life. In verse 47, he says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life." If you have believed in Jesus Christ as your savior, then you've had everlasting life from the moment of your salvation. And since this life is everlasting, then it can never be lost or forfeited. If it could, then calling it everlasting would be a lie. It would be like if you had a lifetime warranty to a product, but then that lifetime warranty expired. That would be pretty deceptive. And notice that Jesus isn't saying here that he who believes in him will one day in the future have everlasting life. No, he says, "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life." This is not just a future promise. It's a present reality. Similar to what he said in the previous chapter, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death unto life."
So Jesus makes some divine declarations here. For starters, he's the son of God. He gives everlasting life. The third one is that Jesus is the bread of life. In verse 48, he simply puts it this way. "I am that bread of life." You see, in that culture, bread was an essential staple food. People would eat it at every meal and it was their most eaten food. They were dependent on bread for their survival. Bread was to the ancient Jews like pasta would be to the Italians, like potatoes would be to the Irish, or like rice would be to the Asians. This essential staple food that is always being eaten. You see, whenever Jesus makes a claim that he is the bread of life, what he wanted them to see was that just like how they needed bread physically, they needed him spiritually. Just like how you need bread for your body, you need the bread of life for your soul. And Jesus is that bread of life.
You see, throughout the gospels, the people kept trying to get Jesus to meet their physical needs. People wanted to be healed. They wanted to be cured from their disease. People wanted him to raise the dead or to cure blindness or deafness or to provide food for them. And Jesus often did that. He sometimes did those things to prove himself as the Messiah. But Jesus was ultimately there to meet their spiritual need. Yes, Jesus does care deeply about our physical needs, but he cares even more about our spiritual needs because those are the ones that eternally matter the most. This bread of life would satisfy their souls, not just their stomachs. I mean, think about how Jesus had just fed the 5000 and he provided so much food that there were 12 baskets of leftovers. They had eaten and eaten until they didn't want to anymore. And yet, the people got hungry again. But on the contrast, if they were to eat the bread of life, in other words, believe in Jesus, then they would never hunger again. Once again, demonstrating how our salvation is permanent. We can never lose our salvation. If you are saved, then you are always saved.
Jesus says, "I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat mana in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." Jesus here was prophesying of his future death on the cross. Just as he did in Matthew 20:28, "even as the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many." Jesus gave his life for us, dying on the cross for our sins and suffering the penalty that we should have paid.
But sadly, the people that Jesus was speaking to didn't really understand or believe what he was trying to say. Because in verse 52, it says, "The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?" The people misunderstood and misinterpreted his words and they think that he's talking about cannibalism. That's why they said, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" And sadly, those people are not the only ones who don't get it. I think about how the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, they believe in something called transubstantiation. That is a doctrine which teaches that the bread and wine in communion, also known as the Lord's supper or the eukarist, that the bread and wine literally turn into Christ's physical body and blood. They would say that the bread is Jesus literal physical body and that the wine is as literal in physical blood. They take this passage way too literally and they act like figurative language doesn't exist.
What Jesus really meant whenever he said to eat his flesh was to believe in him. And this is really similar to the statement Jesus made about drinking the living water. Jesus wasn't meaning literally, but poetically. Yes, it was true. And yes, it should be taken seriously, but that doesn't mean it should be taken literally. Think about what Jesus says to the woman at the well in John 4. Jesus answered and said unto her, "Whosoever drinkketh of this water shall thirst again," But whosoever drinkketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." So Jesus talks about drinking this living water. And what he's really talking about here is belief in him as savior. And I think that this is proven throughout the context of John chapter 6. Jesus says, "And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth a son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." A few verses later, he says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life." So Jesus is really talking about belief. And he sometimes uses poetic figurative language to describe that belief. And we have many other examples of Jesus using figurative language to describe him and having faith in him. Jesus talks about the living water. He calls himself the light of the world. He calls himself the door and the vine. Jesus also used figurative language. So, I'm not really sure why Catholics and Orthodox Christians pretend like Jesus couldn't have been speaking figuratively in John 6.
Also realize that this passage is not really about communion at all. Communion wasn't instituted until later at the last supper. And so, yes, communion is commanded for us. It is something that we should observe reverently and seriously, but it is not required for salvation like the passage would mean if Jesus were talking about that because after all, salvation is by faith alone. And so, it doesn't really make sense in my opinion to say that communion is necessary for salvation in the sense that it saves us.
So repeatedly throughout this chapter, we see that the people that Jesus was speaking to just aren't getting what he's saying. I mean, over and over again, it almost feels like they aren't even trying to um understand it. I mean, they ignore Jesus rebuke earlier whenever Jesus was saying, "You don't really want me. You just want something from me." The people were trying to do the works of God without wanting God himself. The people asked Jesus for another sign to prove himself. Even after Jesus had just fed the 5000, the people didn't realize that the bread that Jesus talked about was a metaphor for himself. They're still thinking about physical bread. Later on, they think that Jesus is talking about cannibalism, but he's really just talking about belief. The people are in disbelief. They're not getting it. They're confused and they're skeptical. But instead of backing down and changing his position, Jesus actually doubles down. Jesus had the chance to say, "I didn't mean it. I'm not crazy." But he didn't because he meant it all. He meant exactly what he said.
And that leads us to this third point, doubling down. You see, whenever you say or do something controversial, but then you double down, you must really mean it. For example, I recently saw a video of a person at a tennis match and the professional tennis player, they were signing autographs with the fans and the tennis player took off his hat and he started to give it to this little boy. And while he was giving it to the boy, he was signing autographs to the side, so not really looking. And all of a sudden, this grown man swoops in and he takes the hat that was meant for the boy and he runs off with it. Well, the video of this went viral online and the internet actually found out who this adult was. It was revealed that he was a CEO of a business. So, people started reviewbombing him on Google, giving him one-star reviews. And so this guy is in this um viral heated situation. People hate him. He's really controversial. But instead of immediately apologizing, this guy actually doubles down on what he did. He literally said this, and I quote, "If you were faster, you would have it." And he threatened to sue the people who are criticizing him. You see, whenever you say or do something controversial, but then you double down, you must really mean it. And that's what Jesus does right here.
Jesus claims to be the bread of life and the son of God. He claims to give everlasting life. And the people reject him. They think that he's crazy. But Jesus doubles down because he meant every word. If we start reading in verse 52, "The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Then Jesus said unto them, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Who so eateth my flesh and drinkkeeth my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinkkeeth my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat mana and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever."
So consider for a moment how crazy it must have sounded for Jesus to say, "Eat my flesh and drink my blood." But it's so important to recognize that Christ did not mean this literally as in the wine and the um bread become his literal flesh. Jesus was talking spiritually and figuratively. And there are many times whenever Jesus spoke figuratively like when he said I am the light of the world when he said I am the door of the sheep. Whenever he said I am the vine ye are the branches. And so to interpret John 6 as figurative is not inconsistent. It's not mental gymnastics and it's not twisting. I mean figurative language exists. And there's no reason, logical or contextual, why Jesus couldn't have been speaking figuratively right here. And as we compare between literal versus figurative, figurative obviously makes a lot more sense. And it fits the context better, too. What Jesus meant whenever he said to eat his flesh and to drink his blood was just to believe in him.
But the people didn't want to believe in him. They didn't want to follow him. They didn't want to be his true disciples. They just wanted him to meet their material needs. They wanted Jesus to make their lives easier. They weren't looking for someone to save them from their sins. In verses 59 and 60, it says, "These things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernium." Many therefore of his disciples when they had heard this said, "This is an hard saying. Who can hear it?" Now again this um verse is used by people like Catholics to support their idea of transubstantiation. After all Jesus follows this up by saying this isn't a hard saying. Who can hear it? And if transubstantiation were true if the um bread and the wine and communion literally turned into Christ's physical body and blood, that certainly would be a hard thing to accept. But the problem with the people in John 6 was not that they misunderstood. It wasn't that they rejected the idea of transubstantiation. The people just didn't want to believe because they rejected Jesus. They were offended at his bold claims. They wanted to choose their legalistic religion instead because Jesus didn't meet all of their expectations. So, they changed their minds about him. where they once saw him as that prophet that should come into the world. Now to them he's nothing more than the son of Joseph. They think Jesus is just an ordinary guy pretending to be something that he's not.
And this passage should really remind us that Christianity was not designed to just be comfortable, easy, or whatever we want. So many of us want this faith on our own terms, but that was not God's design. Life is not all about you. You see, Christianity requires faith in Jesus Christ. And faith is often difficult, especially whenever Jesus makes such bold claims about who he is. And so, whenever you believe, even when it's hard, that is true Christianity.
And so in John 6:41-60, there are really three stages to the passage. First, there's disbelieving denial. Second, there's divine declarations where Jesus uh makes some bold claims about himself. And after he makes these claims, he doubles down. The people um don't believe in him and they reject him. But Jesus doubles down because he meant what he said.
Now, in John 6, this um passage often gets turned into theology debates, and sometimes things become more doctrinal and less practical. And I'm not trying to say that doctrine isn't practical or that doctrine doesn't matter, but sometimes I think that we get so caught up in the debates that we miss the practical truths for our lives. So, I want to end this episode by giving you five practical takeaways from this passage.
First of all, don't change your mind about Jesus just because he didn't meet your expectations. Early on in the chapter, after Jesus fed the 5000, they loved him. They had a belief in him. They saw him as the prophet. But then very shortly after, Jesus has disappointed them because they had false expectations about him. But don't change your mind about Jesus just because he didn't meet your expectations.
Takeaway number two, God wants to save all people. Nobody is excluded from the plan of salvation. Don't believe in Calvinism. Don't fall for the idea that God wants to save some but not all. No, God wants to save you. He wants to save everybody.
Number three, if you've believed in Jesus as savior, you've had everlasting life that can't be lost from the moment of salvation. After all, Jesus said that if you believe in him, you have everlasting life. Not that you one day will have it. No, it's present and it is already everlasting.
Number four, just like how you need physical bread for your body, you need the bread of life for your soul. Jesus is essential to our souls, just like how food is for our bodies.
And then last of all, Christianity is not about whatever we want. It's about faith in Jesus Christ. So many people try to use faith or religion as something that just helps them. But in reality, Christianity is about faith in Jesus Christ. And yes, I do believe that Jesus answers our prayers. I believe that he can make our lives more peaceful and better. But life isn't all about that. Now, if you are a Christian, you ought to be following Jesus Christ, even if you don't like what he says or if you don't want to believe or even if you have trouble believing. Christianity is about faith in Jesus.
Well, that's going to wrap up today's episode. If you haven't already, then make sure to click the like button and subscribe for more biblical teaching like this.