The crowd followed Jesus to Capernaum the following day (John 6:22-25 ). Their puzzlement had to do with not only the 'when' of Jesus to the other side of the lake - it had to do with the 'how', because although there was the time factor - they had probably witnessed the disciples departure without Him. So they sought an explanation. Instead of the answer they expected, they received a direct challenge as to their motivation. Motivation of the hearts of men is fully known to the Lord (John 6:26-27 ). Their seeking was out of selfishness. It was the loaves and fishes they sought. They had their eyes on what the sign produced, not on whom the sign pointed to.

Teaching today that creates longing after material, earthly satisfaction, and not after Jesus, will deceive them and dishonour God and the kingdom. Don't make material prosperity your goal. Make your priority assimilating:

John 6:27 "... the food which endures to everlasting life, ..."

Satisfaction is found in Him whom the Father has sent. God marked Him with the descent of the Holy Spirit, and His declaration "My beloved Son" and with miracle signs. All that is need for life abundant, for everlasting life is found in the appointed and approved one, Jesus.

Every one has to perform the supreme work of God (John 6:28-29 ).

John 6:29 "... This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."

They expected to do something to merit salvation. The only thing required, that saves, is the action of reliant faith on the Sent one, Jesus. Those who are not convinced because they do not want to be convinced are still given convincing answers (John 6:30-33 ). They want another sign, claiming bread from heaven was something done in the past (John 6:30-31 ), and claimed greater material blessings than Moses had given. The Lord asserts that it was not Moses, but God who fed the people with manna (John 6:32 ). It is a common mistake to attribute too much to the human instrument and not appreciate the divine Giver.

John 6:32 "... but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven."

The Lord now turns the emphasis from the symbol to the real.

In John 6:32 Christ is the true bread from heaven. The word "true" means "real". "From heaven" speaks of the Son, the bread that satisfies, sent, and for the whole human race. In John 6:33 Christ is the bread of God, very God, eternal, He is life-giving and life-upholding, or imparts life and sustains life. In turning from the symbols to reality He declares Himself as the one who gives life to the world. Carnal, soulish minds crave only for a continuous supply of the bread that perishes.

John 6:34 "... Lord, evermore give us this bread."

They were not asking for the real, spiritual, eternal life in Christ Jesus, they coveted material blessing, and in soulish idleness were expecting to get without working hard. They filtered the answers of Jesus through their sensual wants, leaving their spirits starved of the spiritual life that was being offered them.

So that there can be no further ground for not understanding, Jesus declares Himself in the first of the great I AM's of this gospel.

John 6:35 "And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: ..."

He alone is the one who gives, nourishes and sustains life eternal. Faith comes to him as the bread of life, receiving, relying on Him, brings the unending supply. Plenty and peace in Him. There are those who are given full revelation, yet do not believe (John 6:36 ). Believers are the Father's gift to the Son - all who come in faith will not be refused, rejected, nor relinquished (John 6:37 ).

Father has pre-determined not only the deliverance of believers, but their resurrection and everlasting life. These verses teach:

	Christ Jesus came to accomplish the will of the Father (John 6:38 ).
	It is the Father's will that nothing given to Christ, be lost (John 6:39 ).
	All who are given to Christ will be raised up (John 6:40 ).
	It is the Father's will and the Son's word that believers will be raised up - by either being caught up or resurrected. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 ).

Unbelievers quibble out of contempt for the truth they refuse to accept (John 6:41-42 ). They quibble about Christ's coming from heaven. Remember that in John "the Jews" are the blind, spiritual leaders, and are so distinguished from the crowd. They were blindly ignorant that Jesus was God the Son come in the flesh, and that He was of supernatural birth. Their blindness was the blindness of pride and self-righteousness. They could not believe they needed one to come from heaven to save them. It is still true today and for the same reasons - and the truth as it is in Jesus is murmured against. Man's hope for salvation is not to be found in man - man's help comes from the Lord. That is why Jesus answered:

John 6:43,44 "Jesus therefore answered and said to them, "Do not murmur among yourselves. ⁴⁴ "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day."

These religious leaders cannot come to Christ unless they acknowledge their need of help from God. The help is available through the drawing power of the Father, who, by the operating power of the Holy Spirit, convicts and convinces of personal sinfulness, and that their self-righteousness is totally unacceptable to God. "Drawing" is God urging the sinner to come and appropriate the life in Christ. Such that respond have everlasting life, and are sure of being raised up by Christ. The Spirit of God uses the Scriptures to make sin known, and cause the sinner to know His need of Christ (John 6:45 ). Coming through the Word, having learned of the Father, they find in Jesus the full revelation of the unseen Father (John 6:46 ) because Jesus is the sent one from God the Father.

The Lord, in His answer to the Jews repeats several truths:

	He states emphatically again that believing in Him, and everlasting life are linked (John 6:47 ).
	The fact that He is the bread of life (John 6:48 ). That the manna sustained only the temporary life (John 6:49 ).
	He is the life-giving bread from heaven (John 6:50 ).
	That which is life-giving is His own flesh (John 6:51 ). By which He is referring to His atoning death, which at that time was still future (John 6:51 ).
	That His sacrifice was for the whole world (John 6:51 ).

The proper response to this saving teaching is faith. In the form of a well-known acrostic faith means

Forsaking
All
I
Take
Him

Carnal reasoning will put a wrong sense to spoken words of life, to their own loss (John 6:52 ). The Lord's answers say the truth in the same terms, emphatically asserting that not to partake of His atoning sacrifice by personal appropriation, is to have no life; and to accept personally, shed blood for sins' remission is to receive eternal life (John 6:53-54; Romans 5:18 ). Christ is the essential food for salvation (John 6:55 ). The Old Testament sacrifices were shadows of Christ, the reality.

John 6:56 "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him."

This meaning being, partaking of Christ brings union of the most intimate kind - believers take up safety in Christ, and Christ dwells in their hearts by faith (Ephesians 3:17 ). The believer has access to the life of the Father in Jesus Christ (John 6:57 ). In the climax of His answer, Jesus plainly shows life and death hang on acceptance or rejection of Him (John 6:58 ). John says where this teaching was given (John 6:59 ).

The disciples referred to in John 6:60 are distinguished from the twelve (John 6:67 ). They were offended by the teaching that they needed to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man. They were repulsed by it, not knowing the spirit or life in the words. They should not be offended, thinking in repugnant terms. It would be impossible to eat in the sense in which they were thinking.

John 6:62 "What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?"

He would be, and is, bodily in the glory of the throne. The explanation of how to receive the life available through His giving His flesh and blood:

John 6:63 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life."

So partaking of Christ is continuing to have faith in Him and receiving with full acceptance His Word and obeying it. The Word becomes spirit and life in us. The Lord knows the hearts of men, and is not surprised by those who turn back because they have no real heart faith. He even knew who would betray Him (John 6:64-65 ). The turning away from Christ indicated no faith and therefore no resultant work of grace in them by the Holy Spirit.

John 6:67 "Then Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you also want to go away?'"

Disciples of Christ are not held against their will, but are held by commitment to the Person and work of Christ as the only source of eternal life.

John 6:68,69 "But Simon Peter answered Him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'"

The answer of the twelve through Peter testified to the work of the Spirit in their hearts, and this distinguished them from mere professing followers. There is a qualifying of Peter's answer for the twelve by Jesus, He knew that one among them was not spoken for by Peter (John 6:70-71 ).

John 6:70 "Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?"

It may surprise us that one of the enemy has been sown among us, but it does not surprise the Lord.

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QUESTIONS FOR GROUP INTERACTION

1. Can the motivation of mens hearts be hidden from the Lord? (John 6:25,27 ).
2. Do you give special attention to truth that is reiterated? Can you summarise and apply the re-stated truth? (John 6:47-51 ).