Lesson 4

Bread of Life

Read John 6

Now, I can't imagine what it must have been like for Jesus to teach that many people. I mean I led a small women's Bible study for four years, with an average of 8-12 women in attendance. Most of the women were young moms with kids ranging from infant to ten. We had childcare provided, but most women weren't real comfortable with putting their babies into childcare until they were a bit older, and there are times when little ones of 2 or 3 just want their moms.

You see, at the time I led the class, our church had no building, so we were meeting in homes, the facilities weren't perfect to say the least. So, there were times I was trying to teach on the Second Coming of Christ, drawing all kinds of time lines on the board, while a little one was crying, well I guess I should say screaming in the next room, or a baby was sitting on the floor having a wonderful time playing and talking his or her own language, and every woman in the room was looking at the baby instead of answering the questions I was asking.

There was one week when we had most of the women in class, so the living room was full, our hostess had just gotten a new puppy she was trying to train, we had a couple of little ones on the floor with their moms and the room for the kids was packed.

I was going over the seven seals that the Lamb of Revelation opens (I sound impressive don't I…well let me tell you as I was writing this I had a hard time remembering what any of the stuff I was teaching back then meant…so really I was just regurgitating information I got from Kay Arthur, so don't be too impressed) anyway, I was trying to explain a significant part of the overall picture of Revelation, when the puppy decided to walk under my easel and twist his leash around one of its legs.

It was not the most sturdy of easels either…it was one of those that has really skinny black legs, and barely enough room to support a small dry erase board. So, just as the dog is about to run toward it's toy, I grab the easel, lean it toward me, freeing the lease from the leg just in time to prevent the board from being thrown into the lap of the lady sitting a couple of feet away from me.

At around the same time, one of the babies started crying, and the kids came out of their play room to go outside and loudly called to their moms (my three calling to me as well) as they marched out in single file lines. I turned toward the board, kept talking and writing, assuming that someone might still be paying attention, all the while lifting up the easel on one side or another the keep the dog leash free for the rest of the class.

I remember thinking after that day that that must have been what the early church was like. Paul was preaching one night and as he was talking a boy feel asleep sitting on a window seal, and feel out of the open window.

He actually died, and Paul brought him back to life. Can you imagine, Paul's teaching them that the law cannot save them, that the law is a guide that points them to Jesus, and then all of a sudden there is a mother's scream, a dull thud and then more shouts from below? Paul startled from his messages gets up, goes out and lays hands on the boy, they bring him back in, and then they break for pie, praising the Lord all the while.

Well, when I thought of Jesus trying to minister to over 5,000 men, not including their families, I remembered my own time of teaching in a less than sterile environment. I thought of the difficulties of speaking to that many people, and the fact that there was no microphone, no sound system, no band to warm the people up, no chairs for them to be comfortable, no spot light on Jesus so they could easily see him, no donuts in the lobby and no order of service so everyone knew when they could go home to eat. It was Jesus living in the real with people, and having a heart to love them.

Can you see any television preacher standing on a hill trying to talk over the crying babies, playing kids, yelling moms and hungry dads? I think our entertainment methods of today would leave us totally uncertain on how to relate with people at the same level Jesus related to them. He knew them, because He did not simple preach to them, He lived with them, He was one of them, and He knew that their souls were hungry. Jesus is the bread of life.

Father, thank You for Jesus. He loved, and continues to love people, not for show or for His own purpose, but simply because of real love. Create in us that kind of love for You and for others. Build in us a desire to love You with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Jesus had compassion on the masses of people He was teaching. He realized they were hungry and met their physical need for food. The next morning the same people He fed the day before came to find Him.

Jesus tells them, “You are looking for Me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.”

Do we come to Jesus to follow Him so that He can meet our needs, or because we love Him? I had never considered that there was a difference until I started to study this section of John.
At one point Jesus tells a crowd of 5,000 that they are only following Him because they want their stomachs filled again. He said they weren't even following because of all the signs He had preformed, but instead for the free bread they thought they could get from Him.

I was struck when He said, "You are looking for Me, not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill." The day before He provided dinner for all of them from two fish and five loaves of bread….they thought they had a free lunch ticket if they kept following. Jesus had a different plan in mind. He basically told them, I'm not here to feed you physical appetite, but instead your hungry souls.

So take a minute and think about the question. Why do you want a relationship with Jesus? If you already have one, think about how you see the Lord. If you don't have a relationship with Him, what are you looking for?

When I first considered the question, I was shocked at my answer. I thought back to the beginning of my walk with Christ. In the beginning I followed out of a deep need to be loved. I came to Him for the same reason the Samaritan woman did, to be safe and valued.

But once I was in Christ, well I think it started to be more about me and how it made me feel. I felt special, and in and of its self there is nothing wrong with that, but when that feeling becomes the focus, then there is a problem. Jesus said to me, you are looking for me because I make you feel good, don't work to feel special because there will be trials that will knock you down, instead keep your eyes on things that are eternal and lasting.

He knows that we will get hungry and need to eat; he knows that we need to feel safe and loved and He will meet those needs for us. What He asks of us is to keep our eyes on Him and to make His will more important than our own needs.

After Jesus tells them to stop working for food that spoils, they ask Him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"

Jesus points them in a direction they just don't understand. And I am not sure we get most of the time either. He says, "the WORK of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent." That is a hard one for us. We tend to say ya, but….I want to do this or that for you Lord. Here I am Lord send me. Is this it God? Didn't you make me for something bigger than this? In the end, it is not what we do for Him that brings Jesus pleasure. He wants us to believe in Him, He wants us to know Him.

The crowd heard what He said, but they wanted more from Jesus if they were going to believe in Him. They said, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe in you. What will You do?"

They wanted a sign, they wanted Jesus to prove Himself to them…now mind you, they started to follow Him because of the miraculous signs He was performing (Jh 6:2). He fed all of them from the meager lunch a little boy had of 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread the day before, but that wasn't quite enough for them, and sadly it isn't usually enough for us either.

I can't really count the number of times the Lord has shown Himself to me in a tangible and real way and I end up saying, "Was that really You Lord? How can I know it was You working in my life? Can You show me something else." I end up missing Him, not because He isn't working, but because I choose to close my eyes to what He is doing.

In First Corinthians, Paul says that Jews look for miraculous signs and Greeks for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks. The cross is a stumbling block to the Jew because they thought the Messiah or the Christ would come as a conquering King and defeat Rome.

Instead He came as a humble peasant to die for the sins of the world and was killed by the ones He was suppose to set free and the ones He was suppose to defeat. The cross is foolishness to the Greek because why would anyone follow someone who was so easily defeated, and whose message was sacrifice. Jesus came to the uneducated and the weak, why would a great leader do that?

So if Paul were writing to us today, what would He say?

Jews demand miraculous signs, Greeks look for wisdom, and Americans what do we look for? (MONEY, MONEY, MONEY).

I would say we would call Christ crucified foolishness because

He held no property

He had no wealth

He wasn't famous

He died teaching that we should die to self. What proof do we as American's want in order that we may believe Jesus is who He says He is?

We want success.

So they are looking for a political leader, who will not just set them free from Rome, but who will also provide them with an endless supply of bread.

For many years, I wasn't very different from the crowd. I thought that government could bring about the kingdom of God on earth, so I worked in the political realm to help and try to bring that about. I work for an organization much like Center for Arizona Policy here. My organization brought issues important to the stability of families and others to the forefront of the political debate.

There was and continues to be great value in this type of work. God placed us in a democratic system, where each one of us is held responsible for the direction our laws head.
The problem that arose for me was that I placed so much value on making sure that Government was headed in the right direction that I forgot that Jesus didn't come to make sure that any certain party held political sway, but instead that people were reached with the gospel.
Thankfully God reminded me of this through the example of the man I worked for at the time. I found that he stood for what he believed while at the same time loving his "enemies" along the way. I on the other hand, was a young twenty something, just graduated from college with a fire inside and assumed they were our enemies. I was shown by this man's example that it is possible to stand up for things and still care for those who don't agree with you.

It was just before I started working for this Family Council that I found myself in a poli-sci class with a woman who worked in the political realm on the other side of the isle.

We had a civil relationship and talked on and off about different subjects. She told me that she had worked for a certain cause for a time and when she had to confront a problem in her own organization she was shunned and rejected.

She then told me that man on the other side had shown her kindness and concern during that time. After working at Family Council for a few months, I realized she had been talking about my boss. He lived out Christ to this woman and to everyone else around Him. He cared about good laws, but his greatest calling was to love others. He knew Jesus had not come to establish His kingdom on earth, but instead to feed their hungry souls.

I learned that my focus should never be on a cause, or on what I think Jesus came for. His ways are not my ways, and all I need to do is believe in Him.

So, the crowd asked Jesus for a sign. It wasn't just any old sign. They wanted a sign like the ones God did through Moses when He led the Israelites out of Egypt. The crowd was beginning to compare Jesus with the greatest of prophets; they were beginning to compare Him to Moses. So they said to Him, "What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written; 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"

Jesus had given them bread to eat out of pretty much nothing, so would He now use signs to convince the Romans to leave just like Moses had had used against Pharaoh?

Jesus' response to their request for a sign is to tell them, "The bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

But just like the woman at the well, they were taking His words literally. They say, "Sir, from now on give us this bread."

"I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty." You have seen me, and still you do not believe. I have come down from heaven not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that I shall lose none of all He has given me…..My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day."
Jesus tells them you want a sign, I am the sign. He says, here it is, I am the Bread of Life, and all you have to do to have it is to come to me, and believe then you will never be hungry or thirsty again, but you have chosen not to believe so you will be hungry and thirsty forever.

The next few verses are the ones that really reveal that the crowd was not following Him because they wanted to know God, but instead because of who they thought Jesus was. Once He did not fit into what they wanted, when He said something that was too hard for them to accept, they were gone.

Those who refused to believe started to (read Jh. 6:38) grumble among themselves, Who does this guy think he is?

“How can He give us His flesh to eat?”

And when they heard all of His teaching, many of his disciples (not the 12) said, "This is hard teaching, who can accept it... From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed Him."Jh 6:60;66

The crowd fell away because they came to Jesus not to follow Him because they wanted a relationship with Him, based on denying themselves, but instead because they wanted Him to meet their preconceived notions of what the Messiah would do and be for them. When the teaching got too hard, they left.

In the end, Jesus said the hard things, because He was not concerned about impressing people. He told them they would need to eat of His flesh and drink of His blood in order to meet the hunger in their lives. What He meant was they needed to share in His suffering.

Let's go back to the question I asked earlier. Why do you follow Jesus? Is it to meet your need, or your own ideas of who Jesus is, or do you follow Him because you love Him? "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you." (Jh 6:27) He is the only one who can meet the hunger in our hearts, because Jesus is more than enough.

Study Guide

1. You are looking for Me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Why do you want a relationship with Jesus?

2. What must we do to do the works God requires?



3. What signs do we now demand of God? What signs do we demand of government?

4. Our nation is in an economic crisis, our own church family as well as the families within our church are hurting, in such times do we look to Jesus for strength, wisdom and guidance, or are we looking to a false savior?

5. Some people place their trust in money, power, possessions, relationships, where do you place your trust?

6. The teaching of Jesus is not easy. He said that we needed to take up our cross daily and follow Him. Are you willing to give up your own needs, your own ideas of how God should meet your needs, and follow after Jesus?

7. Too often, we make knowing the will of God into a mystery. We want to hear a special word from the Lord, or have a “new” revelation. What we end up missing when we are searching for the new is the One who is the will of God. All we have to do to know that will is to BELIEVE in the One that He sent, Jesus.