Tag Archive | eternal life

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 291

Oct18

  Day 291—We are in the TENTH month of Bible reading and studying the New Testament Gospels.

    Day 291 – John 6 (Another recount of 5,000 fed and walking on water, the Bread of Life discourse, believing in Him, Peter’s proclamation.)

John 6. This chapter covers a lot. The first part is about and adds some details to the feeding of the 5,000 (it was near Passover; they sat on grass; the crowd wanted to make him king) and Jesus walking on water (immediately the boat was at land).

THE NEXT DAY, Jesus teaches one of His most difficult discourses on the BREAD OF LIFE. The crowds He’d fed so handily now rush around the lake to confront Him again.

“Rabbi, how did you get here?”  (Um, I walked on water, then got into a boat that came instantly to shore.)

“You all are seeking me for the miracles and the loaves,” Jesus says. “Don’t work for the food that perishes, but the food that endures to eternal life, which I will give you.”

“What must we DO to be doing the WORKS of God?”

“The WORK OF GOD is to believe in Him whom He has sent.”

“What sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?”  (Duh, what about the free bread/fish they got yesterday and all the miracle healings?)  “Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. He gave them bread from heaven.”

“It was NOT MOSES who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father. And He gives you the TRUE Bread from Heaven that gives life to the world.”

YAY!!!  “Sir, give us this bread always!!”

“I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.  You’ve seen me, but you won’t believe it.”

And Jesus tells them that EVERYONE the Father gives Him will come to Him.  He has come down from heaven to do His Father’s will, and He will lose no one that the Father gives him. And “THIS is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 

Grumble, grumble, grumble. “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose mom and dad we know?  How can you say you come down from heaven???”

Jesus tells them not to grumble but to face the facts. No one can come to Him unless the Father draws them.  He is the bread of life. Their fathers ate manna, but they died.  Those who eat the LIVING BREAD will live forever.  “And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

What????

“Yes, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. For my flesh is TRUE FOOD, and my blood is TRUE DRINK.  If you eat and drink this, you will ABIDE IN ME AND I IN YOU.

This was WAY TOO MUCH for those Kosher Jews, and they left Him. Many of his followers also turned back and no longer walked with Him. 

“Do YOU twelve want to go away as well?” Jesus asked them.

“Lord, to whom shall we go?  YOU have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to KNOW that you are the Holy One of God,”  said Peter.  (YES! Amen, Peter.)

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NOTE:  Jesus was teaching in an analogy that had SPIRITUAL rather than LITERAL meaning.  Just as eating and drinking are necessary for physical life, so is belief in His sacrificial death on the cross necessary for eternal life.  The eating of His flesh and drinking of His blood metaphorically symbolize the need for accepting Jesus’ work on the cross.  To the Jews, a crucified Messiah was UNTHINKABLE. And they could not see the absolute spiritual truth behind Jesus’ statements.

PS: Jesus is not speaking here of communion. That ordinance does NOT teach that communicants would receive eternal life.

Our Daily Bread

May19

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John 6:37-66  I read this section this morning and pictured the scene.

The crowd of 5000 men (plus women and children) had been fed by Jesus the previous day, by breaking a little boy’s five small loaves into pieces, blessing them, and giving out them out until everyone had had their fill and then some!

Jesus had to slip away into the mountain, because He knew the would come – mob style – and make Him their king. (Imagine someone who could miraculously feed you from almost nothing!!  

The next morning they found him again, intent on more of the same…..

 

Give us BREAD!” Cried the thousands! “Give us bread! BREAD like Moses gave us! BREAD so we won’t hunger! BREAD so we won’t have to labor! BREAD! Give us bread every day and… we will make you KING!”

“I am the Bread of Life, he who comes to me shall never hunger.”

“GIVE US THIS BREAD FOREVER!”

“My father gives you the TRUE bread. The Bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

“Wait, what does he mean he came down from Heaven? Isn’t this Joseph and Mary’s son?’

“I am the Bread of Life. He that believes on me has everlasting life.”

“Grumble, grumble.”

“I am the Living Bread that came down from heaven. If anyone “eats” of this bread he shall live forever.”

“This is a HARD saying, who can listen to it?  Man, all we wanted was bread.”

 

(“You ask and don’t receive because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts.” James 4:3)

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How often I am concerned only with “my daily bread” and forget the rest of the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples about how to pray.

First off my lips should be a realization and praise for who God is – holy, almighty, immutable. Praise Your name forever!

My desire after that should be for HIS will to be done, and HIS righteousness and HIS kingdom to come, and how He could use me to accomplish it in my small way.

After recognizing who God is and giving myself to Him, Jesus then said I can confidently – as a small child approaches her Daddy – ask for my daily needs, with sure expectancy that they will be supplied according to my Heavenly Father’s riches in heaven.

Confession of my sin – for which Jesus has ALREADY paid, and the acknowledgement and thanksgiving for His forgiveness of them all – past, present & future – should raise JOY in my heart.

A plea for help in temptation and deliverance from evil as I walk in His will and his way will remind me to seek his face, listen to the Holy Spirit’s promptings and obey his Word.

Bread (daily sustenance) is vital to life, but this life will eventually pass away.  Believing in Jesus – the True and Living Bread of Life – is the only way I will have ETERNAL life and be raised alive again in that last day. Thank You!