Jesus Fed the 5,000

INTRO

I’m excited because today we are studying the first “I am” statement. There are seven “I am” statements in the Gospels. In John 6:35, we are going to unpack what Jesus meant when He said, “I am the bread of life.” The text we are studying today contains some hard truths that left people scratching their heads and questioning if they could really be followers of Christ. John 6:1-21 sets the background for the conversation Jesus was to have with the crowd and His disciples.

TEACHING

John 6: 22–24: Warren Wiersbe wrote, “We see four responses of the crowd to the Lord Jesus in John 6: seeking (vv. 22–40), murmuring (vv. 41–51), striving (vv.52–59), and departing (vv. 60–70).”¹After a big football game, like the Super Bowl or, in this case, after a big miracle, people tend to get hyped up. When the crowd couldn’t find Jesus, they took to their boats to track Him down. Hebrews 11:6 has this theme of seeking. As a follower, we must all be seeking Jesus. (Jeremiah 29:13). This approach of the crowd seeking Jesus is biblical (Proverbs 8:17; Matthew 6:33).

John 6:25–26: The crowds eventually found Jesus. When they found Him, they began to ask questions. With Jesus’ first responses, He went straight for the jugular, “You are looking for me because you think I can provide food for you.” Wiersbe wrote, “Jesus pointed out that there are two kinds of food: food for the body, which is necessary but not the most important, and food for the inner man, the spirit, which is essential.”²

John 6:27: Jesus said, “Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that gives eternal life.” In our study, we are beginning to see more and more how the Father was testifying of the Son. We need to have this eternal mindset (Matthew 6:20; 2 Corinthians 4:18). This situation was a classic - the crowd seeking Jesus for wrong motives.

John 6:28–29: The crowd’s mindset was this: show us what we need to do to experience this eternal food. Wiersbe wrote, “The people picked up the word “labor” and misinterpreted it to mean they had to work for salvation.”³(Ephesians 2:8–9). Jesus replied, “This is the work of God, not your work.” These works were done so they would believe in Jesus as the Son of God (John 14:1: Acts 16:31).

John 6:30: The crowd responded, “So what are you going to do?” The crowd was seeking signs. (1 Corinthians 1:22). This was a common mindset of the Jewish people who were constantly looking for signs. They had just witnessed the feeding of the 5,000, and now they wanted another sign.

John 6:31–32: The people questioned, “If God provided manna for our fathers, why can’t you?” They were implying that Jesus needed to show up and provide manna as well (Psalm 78:24). They were reciting the Psalmist because they obviously hadn’t experienced this and were implying that the manna was from Moses instead of the Father.

John 6:33: This phrase “who comes down from heaven,” is seen multiple times in the Gospel of John. Jesus was conveying to the crowd that what they were going to see was truly a shadow of what was to come (Colossians 2:17). Jesus was saying that the substance is the Messiah.

John 6:34–36: The crowd replied, “Give us this bread always.” In John 4:15, this same mentality is seen. It is like the crowd was thinking, “This would be great! We don’t have to go to Walmart anymore.” Jesus dropped the first “I am” in Scripture when He said, “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35). This is one of the seven “I am” statements. Jesus was saying, “No one who believes in me will ever be hungry or thirsty.”

The crowds needed to come to Jesus and to believe in Him. Wiersbe wrote, “Believing is not merely an intellectual thing, giving mental assent to some doctrine. It means to come to Christ and yield yourself to Him.”⁴Jesus was again equating Himself to God (Exodus 3:14). Jesus said, “You’ve seen me, but you do not believe.” Isn’t that the craziest thing? They were seeking Him, but they didn’t get it.

John 6:37–40: These verses are the process of personal salvation. The Father gives Jesus to everybody, and the ones who come to Christ are never cast out. There is a balanced approach of divine sovereignty and personal responsibility. We could unpack this for 16 weeks, but we are not going to! My emphasis is that as people seek Christ, He wants them to understand He is the bread of life.

John 6:41–45: The crowd began to complain. Now this sounds like the Old Testament Jews! The crowd exclaimed, “This is just the son of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth. He is not the bread of life. He’s my neighbor!” Because their hearts were hardened, they could not see who He was. Jesus told them to stop complaining. Then, He reiterated that no one could come to Him unless they went through the Father. He was paraphrasing Isaiah 54:13, using Old Testament Scripture to point back to what the prophets were saying.

John 6:46–50: Anyone who believes has eternal life. Jesus pointed out that while their fathers ate manna, they also died. Jesus proclaimed, “I am more than the manna your fathers had. Yet you have the audacity to complain! My work is greater than that.”

John 6:51–56: Again, Jesus proclaimed that He is the living bread that comes from heaven. Wiersbe wrote, “The manna came at night from heaven, and Jesus came to this earth when sinners were in moral and spiritual darkness. The manna was small (His humility), round (His eternity), and white (His purity).”⁵Jesus was saying, over and over again, “I am a sacrifice; I am atonement. I am giving everything up for your life.” In John 3:16, Jesus died for the world; in John 15:13, Jesus died for His friends; in Galatians 2:20, Jesus gave up His flesh so that we could have life. This language about the flesh can be difficult to understand. The Jews were constantly taking Jesus literally, which kept them from understanding the true meaning of His words (John 2:19-21).

John 6:57–62: Jesus was stating the hardest truth and not backing down from it. He was constantly emphasizing the tie between the Father and Son. Jesus is the answer. He said it repeatedly, hoping they would hear Him. Because the truth was so hard, the people departed, including many of His disciples.

John 6:63–65: Wiersbe wrote, “Jesus explained that His language was figurative and spiritual, not literal. There is not salvation in ‘flesh.’ In fact, the New Testament had nothing good to say about ‘the flesh’ (Romans 7:18; Philippians 3:3).” You cannot find confidence in flesh; it has everything to do with the Spirit of God. There are some who don’t believe, and people who don’t want to participate. Once again Jesus talked about God’s sovereignty and the human response.

CLOSING

Jesus needed the people to turn toward Him. Living a life dedicated to Christ is a lifestyle that is uncomfortable. We are to deny ourselves and pick up the cross. Our prayer is that none of us will depart.