John 6:41-59:

The Bread of Life--Part II

By Dr. Hal Harless

Foundation Fellowship of Greenville, TX

October 4, 2009

 

I.  Introduction

A.  Please turn to John 6:41. 

B.  While you are turning.... 

            One bitter cold day at the police court they brought a trembling old man before him [Judge Fiorello La Guardia], charged with stealing a loaf of bread.  His family, he said, was starving.  "I've got to punish you," declared La Guardia.  "The law makes no exception. I can do nothing but sentence you to a fine of ten dollars."

            But the [judge] was reaching into his pocket as he added, "Well, here's the ten dollars to pay your fine.  And now I remit the fine."  He tossed a ten-dollar bill into his famous sombrero.  "Furthermore," he declared, "I'm going to fine everybody in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a man has to steal bread in order to eat.  Mr. Bailiff, collect the fines and give them to this defendant!"

            The hat was passed and an incredulous old man, with a light of heaven in his eyes, left the courtroom with a stake of forty-seven dollars and fifty cents.[1]

 

It was a wonderful act of kindness to help that old man keep his family alive for a while.  However, even more wonderful is the Bread of Life, the true source of life--Jesus Christ, who provides life eternal.

II.  Exposition

A.  Background

1.  We are still in Jesus' public ministry (John 2:1-12:36a).

2.  Chapter 6 is entirely in the Galilee; with chapter 7, the focus returns to Judea where it will remain until our Lord's death and resurrection.

3.  Jesus had feed the 5,000 (John 6:1-14), which was the occasion for this dialogue, which took place in the synagogue in Capernaum.

a.  The discussion falls naturally into three parts.

1)  Last week, we looked at the interchange between Jesus and the crowd (John 6:22-40)

2)  This week, Jesus and the Jewish authorities (John 6:41-59)

3)  Next week, Jesus and the disciples (John 6:60-71)

b.  Although the section begins with Jesus' popularity at an all time high, by the end of it, many have turned their backs on Him.  Wiersbe calls this chapter, "Jesus loses His crowd."

c.  As we listen to the debate between Jesus and the authorities in the synagogue at Capernaum, we find that opposition to Jesus is growing.

B.  Exposition: The fourth discourse: the Bread of Life: the Jewish authorities (John 6:41-59)

1.  Question one: "How are You the bread that came down from heaven?" (John 6:41-42).

⁴¹ Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, "I am the bread that came down out of heaven."  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 out of heaven '?" (John 6:41-42).

 

a.  "Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, 'I am the bread that came down out of heaven.'"

1)  The Jewish leaders were upset that Jesus claimed to be the bread that came from heaven. 

2)  When John refers to "the Jews," he often means the Jewish leaders who are in opposition to Jesus since all present were Jews.[2] 

3)  They were offended by Jesus' saying, "I am the bread that came down out of heaven."

b.  "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 out of heaven "?'"

1)  They complained that they knew His origins; they knew His father and mother.  Therefore, they considered His claim to come down from heaven ridiculous. 

a)  They appear to be ignorant of the virgin birth. 

b)  However, John certainly is not, "The Word was God....  And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us....  the only begotten God" (John 1:1, 14, 18). 

2)  The Gk. word translated "this" (literally "this one") contains "an element of discouragement, w[ith] a note of disgust or despisement."[3]  This conveys the tone of, "Who does this one think he is?" (see "this man" [GW]).

2.  Jesus' first answer (John 6:43-51)

a.  I came from God the Father and you must come to Me (John 6:43-47).

⁴³ Jesus answered and said to them, "Do not grumble among yourselves.  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.  ⁴⁵ 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.  ⁴⁶ Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.  ⁴⁷ Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life (John 6:43-47).

 

1)  "Jesus answered and said to them, 'Do not grumble among yourselves.'"

a)  Jesus told them to stop grumbling. 

i)  The Gk. grammar indicates stopping an action in progress.[4] 

ii)  Wuest translates this, "Stop grumbling, conferring with one another secretly in undertone mutterings" (NTET);

iii)  Like Israel in the wilderness, they were murmuring (Exod 15:24; 16:2, 7, 12; 17:3; Num 11:1; 14:2, 27).

b)  Jesus proceeded to answer their complaint about His origins. 

i)  In effect, He said that it was not just about His origins, but also about their destination. 

ii)  Jesus asserted that, not only did He in fact come from heaven, but that they must come to Him.

2)  "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day."

a)  Jesus said that it is not possible for anyone to come to Him without the Father drawing Him. 

i)  Rabbi Hillel used the term "bring near to the Torah" for conversion.[5] 

ii)  The rabbinical view on God's sovereignty and human responsibility was, "All is foreseen, but freedom of choice is given."[6] 

iii)  Jesus uses "he who comes to Me" and "he who believes in Me" interchangeably in a synonymous parallel structure in John 6:35.[7] 

iv)  Jesus said, "I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself" (John 12:32). 

v)  Other verses (John 1:9, "There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man"; 16:8, The Holy Spirit "will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment") speak of God's universal drawing. 

vi)  However, since some are lost, the drawing cannot be irresistible.[8]

vii)  It is as if I were to issue an invitation to everyone to come to a party.  Then I could say that it was not possible for anyone to come to my party without an invitation. 

(a)  First, There would have been no party without my invitation. 

(b)  Second, all have an invitation so that all may come.  I both make it possible for them to come and extend the invitation to all.

b)  The Gk. word translated "draws" basically means "to move an object from one area to another in a pulling motion."[9]

i)  This is often translated "drag" (Acts 21:30, "taking hold of Paul they dragged him out of the temple"; Jas 2:6, "Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?"). 

ii)  However, even with this primary meaning, there is an "implication that ... in the case of [a] pers[on] is unwilling to do so voluntarily."[10] 

iii)  Harris notes that "whether it is binding or irresistible is not mentioned."[11]

c)  The secondary meaning of the Gk. word is "to draw a pers[on] in the direction of values for inner life, draw, attract."[12] 

i)  The Gk. word is often used this way in secular Gk. 

ii)  Josephus used the Gk. word in the sense of "entice."[13] 

iii)  The LXX uses the same Gk. word in Jeremiah, "The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore have I drawn thee in compassion" (Jer 31:3 [38:3 LXX] Brenton). 

iv)  In Song of Solomon, the beloved says, "Draw me after you and let us run together!" (Song 1:4 LXX). 

v)  In all of these instances, the pull is strong, but not irresistible.[14]

d)  Jesus promises that He will resurrect anyone that comes to Him. 

i)  The Calvinist position assumes that the one drawn and the one resurrected are the same person.  Therefore, they conclude that those drawn must be the elect only.

ii)  However, if Jesus' promise of resurrection were linked with the subordinate clause "unless the Father who sent Me draws him," then the future verb "will raise up" becomes part of the exception, i.e., no one can come unless he is drawn by the Father and raised up by the Son.  Since the resurrection has not yet occurred, those who could come to Christ would be a very small group. 

iii)  Additionally, it makes no sense to base a present situation (coming to Christ) on a future condition ("will raise him up").

iv)  Therefore, Jesus' promise "I will raise him up" must apply to the one who comes to him and not to the Father's drawing.[15] 

v)  Barclay translates this, "It is impossible for any man to come to me, unless the Father, who sent me, draws him.  But, if he does come, I will raise him up on the last day" (Barclay).

3)  "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."

a)  Jesus supports this by quoting from prophecy.

i)  The word "prophets" is plural; so, it is a combination of more than one prophecy. 

ii)  The quote resembles Isa 54:13 LXX, a prophecy that a time would come when God would teach all of Israel. 

iii)  Moreover, it alludes to Jer 31:33-34. 

iv)  Isaiah prophesied that during the millennium people would go up to Jerusalem to be taught by God and that "the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem" (Isa 2:3).  It was a significant foreshadowing that the spread of the gospel began from Jerusalem. 

b)  Jesus then explained that all who have both heard and learned from the Father, in fact, do come to Him. 

i)  Both "has heard" and "learned" are aorist tense (snapshot action) verbs. 

ii)  Williams translates it, "Everyone who ever listens to the Father and learns from Him will come to me" (NTLP). 

iii)  This defines how the drawing works.[16] 

iv)  Note the interplay of divine sovereignty and human responsibility:

(a)  God's part is to draw and teach; our part is to learn and come.[17] 

(b)  Nonetheless, the initiative is with God.

4)  "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father."

a)  Jesus, returning to the subject of His heavenly origin, claimed to be the only One to have seen the Father. 

b)  This is the same thing that John said in the prologue, "No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him" (John 1:18).[18]

5)  "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life."

a)  Jesus solemnly promises that the one who trusts has eternal life. 

b)  "He who believes" is a present participle indicating that the person's life is characterized by faith.[19] 

c)  This is another of the four double amens (John 6:26, 32, 53) in this discourse, "I tell you the solemn truth" (NET). 

d)  Barclay translates this, "I tell you, and it is true, to believe is to have eternal life" (Barclay).

b.  The Living Bread, My flesh, is greater than the manna  (John 6:48-51).

⁴⁸ "I am the bread of life.  ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.  ⁵⁰ This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.  ⁵¹ 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" (John 6:48-51).

 

1)  "I am the bread of life."

a)  Jesus states again that He is the bread of life (see John 6:41). 

b)  This is another of the famous "I AM" statements that echo Exod 3:14. 

c)  The Gk. word translated "I" (egō) comes first in the sentence for emphasis.[20] 

d)  Wuest translates this, "I alone, in contradistinction to all others, am the bread of the life" (NTET).

2)  "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died."

a)  Jesus pointed out the obvious fact that, since none of the Exodus generation were still alive, all of their ancestors that "ate manna in the wilderness" died. 

b)  Clearly, that manna did not impart eternal life.

3)  "This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die."

a)  Jesus is offering the bread from heaven; those who "eat" of it will not die. 

b)  Therefore, Jesus is greater than the manna.

4)  "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."

a)  Jesus calls Himself the "living bread," which should have alerted them to the use of a metaphor. 

i)  Those who "eat" this bread, those who partake of Christ, live forever. 

ii)  This is another of the famous "I AM" statements that echo Exod 3:14. 

b)  Jesus then explained that the bread in this metaphor was His flesh, which would be sacrificed in order to offer life to the world.[21] 

i)  This verse contradicts the Calvinist idea of the limited atonement.[22] 

ii)  For John "world" (kosmos) means "the world, and everything that belongs to it, appears as that which is hostile to God, i.e. lost in sin, wholly at odds w. anything divine, ruined and depraved."[23]

iii)  John would later write, "He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world" (1 John 2:2).

3.  Question two: "How can we eat Your flesh?" (John 6:52).

Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" (John 6:52).

 

a.  Since cannibalism is the ultimate of non-kosher, this saying offended the Jewish leaders. 

b.  The Jewish leaders are taking Jesus too literally (cp. John 2:19-21; 3:4; 4:11).[24] 

1)  They should have realized that Jesus was employing a metaphor because of such terms as "true bread" (John 6:32) and "living bread" (John 6:51) as well as the obvious fact that Jesus was not made of dough. 

2)  Jesus said later that "the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life" (John 6:63). 

c.  The Gk. word translated "argue" means literally "to engage in physical combat," but here "to fight, to wage a war of words."[25]

4.  Jesus' second answer: You must eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man to have eternal life (John 6:53-59).

⁵³ So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.  ⁵⁴ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.  ⁵⁵ For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.  ⁵⁶ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.  ⁵⁷ 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.  ⁵⁸ 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."  ⁵⁹ These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum (John 6:53-59).

 

a.  "So Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.'"

1)  This is the fourth time that Jesus has used a double amen in this passage (John 6:26, 32, 47), "I tell you the solemn truth" (NET).

2)  Jesus makes it even harder for them in hope that they will see His meaning. 

a)  The Torah forbad drinking blood (Gen 9:4; Lev 17:10, 14; Deut 12:23). 

b)  He solemnly states that unless they eat the Messiah's flesh and drink His blood they have no spiritual life. 

b.  "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."

1)  Jesus promises those who do eat His flesh and drink His blood that they have eternal life and will be resurrected. 

a)  If there were any Sadducees present, all of this talk of resurrection would have upset them greatly.[26]  

b)  The Gk. word translated "eats" was used "orig[inally] of animals, 'munch,' 'crunch,' 'eat audibly.'"[27] 

c)  The use of this Gk. word makes the saying even more graphic.[28] 

2)  This verse illustrates the principal of already ("has eternal life")/not yet ("will raise him up"). 

3)  The same outcome is stated in verse 40 for "everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him" (John 6:40).  Therefore, seeing and believing is the same as metaphorically eating and drinking.

c.  "For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink."

1)  Jesus says that His flesh is the true food and His blood is the true drink as opposed to temporary food that does not satisfy eternally. 

2)  Roman Catholics take this to refer to communion. 

a)  However, since the Lord Jesus did not institute the Lord's Supper until the Last Supper, this cannot be that to which Jesus is referring.  He had not even spoken of it to the disciples, yet. 

b)  Moreover, Jesus equated eating and drinking with faith, not communion (John 6:54). 

c)  Additionally, the verbs for eating in John 6:50, 51, 53 are in the aorist tense (a snapshot action), but communion is performed repeatedly. 

d)  Finally, Jesus made it clear that He was not speaking in literal terms (John 6:63).

d.  "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him."

1)  Jesus taught that He remains in those who partake of Him by faith and that they remain in union with Him. 

a)  Williams translates this as "live in union with" (NTLP). 

b)  Phillips paraphrases this, "The man who eats my body and drinks my blood shares my life and I share his" (NTME). 

2)  When we eat, we internalize food and it becomes part of us; when we place our faith in Jesus Christ, He becomes part of us. 

a)  Paul wrote that the Holy Spirit unites us together in the body of Christ, "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body" (1 Cor 12:13). 

b)  Paul also wrote, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Gal 2:20). 

c)  Believers are in vital union with Christ.

e.  "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."

1)  Jesus derived His life from the Father and we derive our life from Him by partaking of Christ by faith. 

2)  This is the same Gk. word ("munch, crunch") as John 6:54.

f.  "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.  These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum."

1)  This dialog took place in the synagogue in Capernaum.

2)  Jesus concludes by summarizing that those who partake of Him by faith live forever in contrast to those who ate manna and later died.

3)  Only partaking of Christ by faith satisfies with eternal life; anything else will not satisfy forever and ends in death.

II.  Applications

A.  What this says about Jesus Christ ...

1.  Jesus Christ is the bread that came from heaven.

a.  He is from heaven.

b.  He provides eternal life to those who partake of Him.

2.  Jesus Christ is the divine "I AM."

B.  What this says to us ...

1.  We must come to Him by faith for life.

2.  We can only come because God draws us to come.  This drawing is:

a.  Universal.

b.  Resistible.

3.  Only partaking of Christ by faith satisfies with eternal life; anything else will not satisfy forever and ends in death.

4.  When we eat, we internalize food and it becomes part of us; when we place our faith in Jesus Christ, He becomes part of us.