Daily Scripture Reading John 6:28-51
Just as humans have an ongoing need to eat food, so too humans have an ongoing need to have meaning in life. As people get up each day and eat, drink, sleep, work, and play, they want all that activity to have a purpose.
It is tempting to try to find meaning in the activity itself. It is easy to get sucked into the belief that if we collect enough stuff or indulge in enough play, they we will feel fulfilled. Jesus taught that humans should work for things that are eternal, not temporal. In today’s passage we will see how He taught people to do that.
Jesus was on a mountain near the Sea of Galilee. A crowd came to Him and Jesus fed them with only five loaves of bread and two fish. Then He and His disciples went to Capernaum. The crowd followed Him to Capernaum. After pointing out the real reason they were following Him was because of the food He had given them, Jesus told them to work for food which endures to eternal life.
John 6:28 Therefore they said to Him, “What should we do, so that we may work the works of God?”
Jesus had just told the crowd to work for food which endures to eternal life. The crowd essentially asked how to do that.
John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
Notice the phrase “believe in Him”. The pronoun “Him” refers to Jesus. The way to work for food that has eternal value is to believe in Jesus. Believing in Jesus means believing Jesus was a real person and that everything the Bible says about Jesus is true. It means believing that Jesus is God, He was born of the virgin Mary, He performed miracles and healed people, He died on the cross, He rose again from the dead, and he is Lord.
John 6:30 So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform?
The crowd wanted to see a miracle. These are the same people who had just witnessed Jesus feed 5,000 men with only five loaves and two fish.
John 6:31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘HE GAVE THEM BREAD FROM HEAVEN TO EAT.’”
John 6:32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
John 6:33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Jesus often spoke metaphorically. I am not sure the crowd always followed His metaphors. In this case the crowd was probably thinking about physical food coming down from heaven and giving sustenance to their physical bodies, but Jesus was referring to Himself coming down from heaven and offering eternal life to the world.
John 6:34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.”
John 6:35 ¶ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me will never hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.
Jesus claimed to be the bread of life. Just as food is necessary for physical life, so too Jesus is necessary for spiritual and eternal life. Jesus is necessary to find fulfillment in life. Anyone who goes to Jesus will not lack spiritual sustenance and will not suffer hopelessness and meaninglessness.
John 6:36 But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe.
Jesus had already performed miracles to prove He is God, and yet some people still did not believe He is God.
John 6:37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out.
John 6:38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
John 6:39 Now this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.
John 6:40 For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
Note again the phrase “believes in Him”. People must believe in Jesus in order to have eternal life.
Some Christians supposedly lead people to salvation by telling them to ask Jesus into their heart or to have a relationship with Jesus. What is often missing from their message is the necessity to believe in Jesus, to believe what the Bible tells us about Jesus.
John 6:41 ¶ Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
John 6:42 They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
The Jews watched Jesus grow up, so they believed He was just a man like them. By claiming He came down from heaven, Jesus was claiming to be different than the Jews.
John 6:43 Jesus answered and said to them, “Stop grumbling among yourselves.
John 6:44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
The world claims there are many valid religions and paths to salvation. They reject the Bible’s claim that Jesus is the only way. Verse 44 is not the clearest statement regarding the exclusivity of Christianity, but it ties in with it. Jesus said the only way to come to Him and feel the fulfillment that is available through Him is if the Father draws him.
John 6:45 It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT BY GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
Isaiah 54:13 contains a promise in which Yahweh promised that the Israelites would be taught by Yahweh Himself. Jesus was fulfilling that promised. Jesus is Yahweh, and He was teaching the 1st century Jews.
The Jews had grumbled about Jesus claiming to be from heaven, but Jesus did not back down. He continued to claim to be God Himself.
John 6:46 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.
John 6:47 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.
Once again we see the link between belief and eternal life.
John 6:48 I am the bread of life.
John 6:49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
In verse 31 we see the Jews were the ones who brought up the topic of the manna in the wilderness. They had asked Jesus to perform a sign to prove Himself just as God provided the manna in the wilderness to prove His power.
Here in verse 49 Jesus pointed out that the fathers who ate the manna in the wilderness died physically.
John 6:50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
In contrast to the fathers who died in the wilderness, anyone who partakes of Jesus, the bread of life, will live forever in heaven.
John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and also the bread which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
Jesus was speaking metaphorically again. If anyone did not grasp or follow the metaphors, then the statements of Jesus would have sounded gross and brash.
Tomorrow we will continue reading this story and see that the Jews did not grasp the metaphor and they found His statements to be gross.
As people get up each day and eat, drink, sleep, work, and play, they want all that activity to have a purpose. It is easy to get sucked into the belief that if we collect enough stuff or indulge in enough play, they we will feel fulfilled. Jesus taught that humans should work for things that are eternal, not temporal. Eternal life and true fulfillment come through believing in Jesus.
What are some ways you have been tricked into thinking that if you collect enough stuff or indulge in enough pleasure, you will feel fulfilled?
What are some false ideas about how to be saved that you have adopted over the years due to false ideas being presented by society or your church?
Who are the people in your life who need to hear a clear presentation on the need to believe in Jesus in order to have eternal life?
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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”