John 6:41-71

Last week we looked at two great sign-miracles that took place up north, in the Galil, in the Spring, around Passover time. The first took place when God used Yeshua to perform a great miracle, multiplying five loaves of barley bread, and a few fish, so that there was enough to feed the 5,000 men who were there in that unpopulated area with Yeshua and the disciples.

Through this miracle, God wanted us to know that through Yeshua, He is able to miraculously take care of our needs. Yeshua is the promised Messiah, the One sent by God to meet all the needs of the Jewish people. God will use Yeshua to provide for us, miraculously if need be, apart from our circumstances.

It also gives us encouragement that even if our resources are very limited, like that of the boy with some bread and fish, if those few resources are given to God and Messiah, they can accomplish much! That’s encouraging, because most of us have very limited resources.

Now, when the people saw the sign which Yeshua had performed, they said, "This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world." But they didn’t yet understand the most important aspect of the Prophet’s mission. They wanted to take this prophet and make Him the King of Israel, who would liberate them from the Romans and provide for their physical well-being, but Yeshua refused. He knew that first He had to suffer and die, to make atonement, to reconcile the world to God. O, He will be made King one day, and He will save Israel and bring untold blessing to our nation - but that will only come later, at His Second Coming.

That evening, while Yeshua was alone up in the hills, the disciples went down to the lake, and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the lake to K’far-Nachum, on the northwestern side of the lake. It was dark, and the lake began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. Yeshua, aware of their sudden difficulties, just as He is aware of ours, walked three or four miles across the lake, got into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going. We noted that Yeshua can likewise help us get to our destinations, because there is no obstacle too difficult, no distance too far can separate us from His help.

The next day other small boats from Tiberias came across the lake, and the crowd got into the boats, and came to K’far-Nachum seeking Yeshua. But Yeshua knew that they were seeking Him for the wrong reasons - they wanted to see more miracles, and they especially wanted more free bread.

Yeshua told them that it was essential for them to seek God for the right reasons. True religion must be inspired by true motivation. Seeking Yeshua because you want material gains is not the right reason to seek Him.

Instead, He encouraged them to seek, to strive for, to put their energies, efforts, labors, to work for the food which endures to eternal life, for the true Bread, the Living Bread which comes from Heaven, and that there was just one way to obtain this spiritual food - to simply believe that Yeshua was the Messiah that God had sent, to accept the truth that He was the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and the One destined to rule over humanity.

But, they crowd still wanted more free and miraculous bread, and so they quoted Scripture, trying to manipulate Yeshua into providing it, but Yeshua knew what they were trying to do, and what was best for them, and again encouraged them to work for the true bread, the real bread that was being sent by God, the bread that comes from Heaven, that if eaten, will give life, eternal life, true life, real life, God’s life. That’s the bread we so desperately need, the food that will nourish and sustain.

But even though the Son of God, through whom God made the universe, was standing there in front of them, telling them the truth, most would not believe. Only human beings that God the Father, gives to His Son, will listen to the truth about Yeshua, be drawn to Him, and come to Him. They will hear about Him, be intrigued, and they will seek Him, finding out more about Him. The more they discover about Him the more they trust Him, and believe Him, and place their faith and trust and confidence in Him. As they do, they will understand that He is the Messiah, and the only Savior of the world.

And, the Son of God is willing to receive each and every individual that His Father gives to Him. There is no one too unimportant, too sinful, too unattractive, that the Son of God will reject. We have His solemn Word, His inviolable promise, which can’t be broken.

All who come to Him, Yeshua promises to accept. Everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and Yeshua Himself will raise him up on the Last Day.

Well, there were some Jewish leaders who were part of this huge crowd, and at some point, Yeshua went into the synagogue in K’far-Nachum, and continued this conversation with the Jewish leaders. And there, in the synagogue, as they listened to Yeshua’s amazing claims, they were not happy. Therefore the Jews (which I understand to mean the Jewish leaders) were grumbling about Him, because He said, "I am the bread that came down out of Heaven." They were saying, "Is not this Yeshua, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, 'I have come down out of Heaven'?"

Yeshua answered and said to them, "Do not grumble among yourselves. Stop objecting to what I’m saying, stop complaining about My claim to have come from Heaven. It’s the truth!

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; Why can’t you accept the truth? Why can’t you believe in Me? There is a mystery at work - the mystery of the drawing activity of God.

Every person who comes to Yeshua, and we come to Him by believing that He is the Messiah, and the Son of God, and the only Savior, and start following Him, and obeying Him, is able to do so only because God, the Father, is drawing him. Through His Word, through His Spirit, through the preaching of the Good News, through life's circumstances and events, God is teaching people about His Son.

Those who are being drawn will come to Yeshua. They will listen, believe and become obedient. Those who are not being drawn will not listen, will not believe, and will not become obedient.

You see, behind the scenes of the play of life, the Creator of the universe is revealing truth about Yeshua to certain players, wooing them to Yeshua, drawing them to the Son of God, and thereby to Himself.

The truth is that God takes the initiative in our salvation. If we hear truth about God, and about Yeshua, and pay attention to the truth, and understand it and embrace it, and come to Yeshua, and experience God’s salvation, it is because of the prior divine activity of God operating in our lives. We are drawn to God, not because of our own wisdom, our own insight, our own understanding, but because God takes the initiative, reveals truth, and draws us.

Yeshua continues: and I will raise him up on the Last Day. God the Father reveals truth to certain human beings, and woos and draws them to Yeshua. That person comes to a saving faith, lives his life, and most eventually die, except for the generation alive when Yeshua returns, and then the Son of God promises to resurrect that man, that woman, that Jew, that Gentile, at the Time of the End.

And, Yeshua appeals to the Hebrew Scriptures to confirm these truths: "It is written in the prophets, ‘and they shall all be taught of God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.

The prophets predicted (see Isaiah 54:13 and Jeremiah 31:34) that a very special time would come when God Himself would teach the Jewish people. God would be our Rabbi, our Teacher.

And, Yeshua claimed that time the prophets predicted had begun; God Himself was personally teaching us the truth, revealing to the Jewish people that Yeshua was the Messiah, the King of Israel, the Son of God and the Savior. Those Jewish people who had been taught by God, who were hearing and learning and responding to the teaching ministry of God, were coming to Yeshua.

The same thing is still happening today. God the Father is still teaching - not just Israel, but all mankind. He is teaching, directing everyone to the salvation that comes simply by having faith in Yeshua, the Atonement Bringer. All those who are being taught by God, hearing from Him and learning from Him, are still coming to Yeshua. If they are not coming to Him - Muslims, Jews, Hindus, other religions, it’s because they are not hearing and being taught by God.

Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. “Don’t misunderstand Me” said Yeshua. “No one, absolutely no human being, is being taught by God in Person - not yet anyway! I am the Only One who has really seen God face to face. Since unlike everyone else, I have seen God, don’t you think it makes sense to listen to Me, to believe what I am telling you?”

No prophet had seen the Father. Even the greatest of the prophets, Moses, who had the clearest vision of the Father, never saw God’s Face (see Exodus 33:18-23). Yeshua is the only one who has seen the Father’s Face, knows the way into God’s presence, and can help us see the Father and come into His presence.

Listen carefully to what I am about to say, because I am speaking to you with the utmost sincerity, and what I am about to say is absolutely true and reliable: Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. It’s so simple My people - all you have to do is believe - have faith in God, and in Me. Trust Me, place your confidence in Me, and you will live forever!

And I can deliver what I promise, because I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of Heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of Heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.

What! Some of you still want bread? What good is bread, even miraculous bread, like the manna that appeared in the wilderness, if the people who ate it died - spiritually? That miracle food never enabled their hearts and souls to be yielded to God. They remained alienated from Him, unreconciled to their holy Creator, lost, dead in their trespasses and sins. Your ancestors saw many miracles, and ate miraculous bread every day for forty years, but they will not live forever with God. They died.

But what I am offering you is even better than that miraculous bread. I Myself, Yeshua of Nazareth, I am true spiritual food, food from Heaven, food that is alive, bread which is able to give life - eternal life - to others. If you only believe in Me, trusting that I am who I say that I am, you will not die, but live forever. And, I am going to accomplish this great task by dying. I will give My life so that many human beings in the world may live. Then the Jewish leaders began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” Yeshua, You know the Torah forbids eating human flesh. That’s cannibalism! How can You give us Your body to eat! That’s a disgusting thought!

Of course it is. It contradicts the plain meaning of the Torah, which Yeshua never would have done, and so when we apply the principle, “If the literal sense makes sense, seek no other sense, but if the literal sense doesn’t make sense, then seek a non-literal, symbolic sense, we understand that Yeshua is not talking literally.

He is not teaching us the false doctrine of transubstantiation, which means when a Catholic priests says the right words, the wine and blood are transformed into the real body and blood of Yeshua. No, no my friends! We eat Yeshua’s body and blood by believing, by making His words, His thoughts, His mind, His will, His commands, part of us. If you are what you eat, then we become like the Son of God - holy, pleasing to God, full of life, as we feast our faith on Him.

But Yeshua doesn’t respond to their disapproval by backing down, toning down His statements or compromising in any way. Instead, He intensifies His declarations: So Yeshua said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you - I’m speaking with the utmost truthfulness and reliability; I’m telling you the truth, and I can’t lie, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. You are not really alive. O, you are walking and thinking and moving, and you have a kind of life, you but are not really alive in yourself, in the deepest part of you - your soul, your spirit. Down deep, in your innermost being, you are dead - dead to God, dead to life.

You need a spiritual rebirth. And the way to come alive, and get this life - real life, true life, God’s life, is not by Torah observance and prayers and good deeds - not even by offering sacrifices at the Temple in Jerusalem. I know that’s radical, and very different from what you have learned, but I am telling you with the utmost sincerity and truthfulness that we are in a new dispensation, and new period of time, and God’s life can only come to you now when you join yourselves to a Human Being - Me.

He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood - by believing in Me, trusting that God sent Me to be the Messiah, and the Savior, by making My words, My teaching, My thoughts, My mind, My will, My commands, part of him - has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the Last Day. I have the power and the authority and to resurrect every human being who joins themselves to Me. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. I am the source true spiritual nourishment, vitality, refreshment, life. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood - by making My words, My teaching, My thoughts, My mind, My will, My commands, part of him - abides in Me, is intimately connected to Me, is joined to Me, lives and dwells in Me, and I in him.

As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. Here is the way the universe works. God has a hierarchy. God the living Father, the Father of life, is in control of all life - even Mine. I share life with God the Father. In the same way, He sent Me into this world so that certain human beings who join their lives to Mine, will share My life, which is shared with God. Yeshua the bridge between the life of God and the life of man. Are you sharing Yeshua’s life?

This is the bread which came down out of Heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever. Yes, religious leaders of My people, I really came from Heaven to restore life to the world. And, I am infinitely better than the manna. The generation who ate the manna remained alienated from God, and they died spiritually. They will not live with God.

But every human being who believes in Me, and joins themselves to Me, will assuredly live with Me, with My Father, with the Righteous of all ages, with the Angels, the Living Beings, the Cherubim and Seraphim in the new Heavens and the new Earth and the New Jerusalem forever and ever! These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in K’far-Nachum.

Wow! Amazing statements by this young Carpenter-Turned-Rabbi. Most of the crowd, even those who considered themselves Yeshua’s disciples, didn’t like them: Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, "This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?" Yeshua - we really don’t like the things that you have just been saying. These things are just too hard to believe.

But Yeshua, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, "Does this cause you to stumble? These mere words, even though they are true, cause you problems? What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? I’ve got news for you - if you dislike My proclamations about Myself, about God, about you, about the only way to obtain salvation, how are you going to react when you see Me back in Heaven, seated at the right hand of God, sharing the glory of God, and ruling over the universe? And, one day you will see Me there, glorified, with all power and authority in Heaven and on Earth. I suggest that you are better off getting used to the idea now!

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. O My people - you don’t really know it, but believe Me - you are not really alive! You need the true life, that comes from the Spirit of God, who is also My Spirit! It is the Spirit’s indwelling, transforming activity that takes a dead human soul and breathes into it the breath of eternal life. The flesh - all the humanity activity you can ever muster, all the religious activity you can ever do -all the studying, reading, all the religious ceremonies you engage in, all the prayers you pray, all the mitzvot and good deeds you will ever do - will amount to nothing on the economic scale of eternal life. It will profit you nothing.

Why? Because it’s absolutely impossible to get life - true life - God’s life, real life, lasting life - that way. Just believe Me, hear and receive My words, and you will receive My Spirit, and receive God’s life.

But there are some of you who do not believe. For Yeshua knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. Not all will believe. Not all will truly receive my words, and My Spirit.

Yeshua knew that even among His core group, there were those whose faith was not genuine, who were mere pretenders. In fact, there was one who not only didn’t really believe, but would actively betray. There can be twelve disciples - all hear the same truths being taught, all do the same miracles. Eleven truly believe, and one betrays. Why?

And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." Salvation originates with God. He is the Author, the Originator, of our salvation. Two human beings can listen to the same message about Yeshua, and one will listen and learn and believe, and come to Yeshua and be saved, and one will not. Why? What’s the difference? One is smart and the other stupid? No - it is the sovereign will of God, willing, granting, giving, drawing some, but not all. This is a clear declaration of the sovereign choosing of God in man’s salvation.

Well, most of these people didn’t like what Yeshua was saying - and they still don’t. As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. A lot of those who used to follow the Rabbi on His journeys quit following. But not all. The faithful core group remained, but with so many others leaving, even they may have considered leaving:

So Yeshua said to the twelve, "You do not want to go away also, do you?" Do you too want to abandon Me because My words are too difficult for you too?

Simon Peter, speaking for the other eleven, answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God."

Simon Peter, and ten of the eleven others, even though they may not have understood everything that Yeshua taught, were being taught by God. They were being drawn to Yeshua, and they knew that He was God’s Holy One, Someone very very special, Someone sent by God, Someone set apart to serve God, and that somehow He was speaking the truth that would lead them to eternal life. They knew this, and knew that there was no viable alternative to go to.

True disciples will stick by Yeshua even when they don't fully understand, even when He is unpopular or misunderstood or rejected by the majority.

But not all were true disciples: Yeshua answered them, “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?" Now He meant Judah the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.