Turn to Jesus and Live

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

TURN TO JESUS AND LIVE

John 6:52-59

52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

53 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."  59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

NIV

Some men just don’t get it and it is for certain these Jews Jesus was teaching in the synagogue were ones who did not get it. They were only thinking in the seen, or the temporal, thinking that somehow in order to gain eternal life they were going to have to become cannibals and feast on the body and blood of this man Jesus. That had to be the most absurd thing they ever heard. It was ridiculous to even suggest such a thing.  They must have thought this man, Jesus, was either insane or possessed. We will see a little later many stopped following him and even his disciples had a difficult time with this teaching. But once again we understand Jesus was speaking metaphorically as if one had to eat of his flesh and drink of his blood in a literal sense, anyone who was born after Jesus died and was raised and ascended back into heaven would not have a chance to be saved. But the fact remains that in order to obtain eternal life we have to consume or take Jesus into our heart, we have to take all of Him, all his words, all his life that he gave up for us on the cross. The idea of food that we actually eat gives us the truth as to how we must consume Jesus. If we do not eat food, if we starve ourselves for long enough, we will die. We cannot continue to live if we do not eat, our body requires food and liquid in order to sustain life as we know it. However, this life is only temporary, as no matter how many years we eat and drink the food of this world, we are going to die anyway and that is because of the sin of Adam of whom we follow after. Because of being his descendent and under the same curse, we are doomed to a temporary existence, a certain, defined number of days. But if we accept the teaching of Jesus and eat of the eternal food that he gives, we are released from the curse and are reinstated into God’s original plan that man should be eternal. Had Adam obeyed God and never touched that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but had eaten from the tree of life, we would not even know of evil and we would be living forever still in a world that would have been a complete paradise of God. So, Jesus is the newer bread of life, and we must forsake that evil we know of, repent of it and turn to Jesus and live.

Taught by God

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

TAUGHT BY GOD

John 6:41-51

41 At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven."  42 They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?"

43 "Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered. 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. 45 It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. 46 No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. 47 I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." 

NIV

So we just were told to look to the Son and we would live, that he is the bread of life that came down from heaven. Now the Jews could not accept this as all they could see is who he was in the flesh. All they could see is that he is the son of Joseph and Mary, another human being, just like them. Once again Jesus makes this statement that would seem the Calvinists could make into their reason to believe the way they do. Jesus says no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. This does mean the Father is the reason people come to Jesus. But we have to remember that the entire Old Testament, which the Jews have, speaks all about Jesus. The Father has been showing them and drawing them toward Jesus all along, but they cannot see it. Jesus tells them that is exactly what has happened. He tells them those who are drawn to Jesus will be those who have read and understand the Prophets as Jesus quotes, “They will be taught by God”. If anyone listens to the Father and learns from Him, comes to Jesus. That it is, it is not about the Father choosing who he draws to Jesus, but it is whoever listens and learns from the Father will come to Jesus. If someone refuses to listen to God and refuses to learn from the Father, they will not come to Jesus. Somehow, and we cannot be sure exactly, but we had to have listened and learned for we did come to Jesus. We heard the word from the mouth of another believer, we never read the word until we came to Jesus and then we consumed the word. Perhaps that is what Jesus means when he said he is the bread of life and this bread is his flesh. Is Jesus speaking metaphorically? It would seem, as we will see next, he has to be, because he tells them if they do not eat his flesh and drink his blood, they will not have life. Us moderns have made so much of this as far as how we engage in the doctrine or act of communion. Some have taken on the doctrine of transubstantiation, meaning the host actually becomes the flesh and blood of Jesus. Others just see the bread or waver and wine, or grape juice as emblems or symbols of his flesh and blood, as he did when he used them as such when he ate the last meal with his disciples. What this comes down to, at least for us, is the only way to fully understand is to be taught by God. We have all sorts of traditions that men can teach us and those traditions may not bring anyone to Jesus, but only to some sort of religious exercise, which may be based on some truth of scripture, but not all truth, as God would teach us.  What also comes to mind is many might come to Jesus, but how many will take of the bread of life, consume the word, learn from God and see Jesus as their only hope of eternal life, accepting him as Lord and Savior. The proof of that is seen in how so many say they believe in God, but in reality, do not believe God. They do not believe they need to be born again. As long as they are good people, believe in God, they are going to heaven. How is that possible? It’s not. Unless we come to Jesus and eat of the bread of life, we will not go to heaven. We have to not just believe in God, we have to believe God, listen to him and be taught by God.

Look to the Son and Believe

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

LOOK TO THE SON AND BELIEVE

John 6:35-40

35 Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." 

NIV

Having considered the fact that Jesus is the bread of life and the difference between wanting the temporal things of life verses the eternal bread of life, we should deal with this concept of all that the Father gives me will come to me. It almost sounds a bit like what the Calvinists thinking that only a select few are chosen by God to be saved. The idea is that the Father has decided who to give to Jesus. We don’t have a choice in the matter, if the Father does not select us to give to Jesus, then we are doomed no matter what we do. The problem with all that type of thinking is that one has to stop right there at the end of that verse. However, the need to take all things in context requires us to continue on to verse 40. The will of the Father is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life. Now we have to consider that anyone has to be included in the “everyone” who looks to the Son and believes in him. The reason we have to believe this is because of the “everyone” and the “anyone” is included in the “whosoever” stated in John 3:16. So then because we looked, which is an action of our heart, separate from the predetermination of God, and we believed, which is a determination of our mind, by the predetermination of God that he has given us the freedom to make that choice. This does not mean the Father has nothing to do with our wanting to look to Jesus or that he gives us to Jesus. The point being that if we were to get into the finer concepts, the Father does not give us eternal life, Jesus does. The Father has given all authority to Jesus, therefore in order for us to be saved, for us to say we believe in God is not completely accurate for salvation. We have to say we believe in Jesus, for the Father has given us to Jesus in order to be saved. If we come to God, who is the Father, Son, and the Spirit, only Jesus has to power of eternal life. However, in another sense, Jesus has sent the Spirit to convict all men of their sin and need for repentance. So in that sense, all three persons of the Trinity are involved in our salvation. However, that still does not remove our freedom, given by the Father, to make our own choice to eat of the bread of life and live, or refuse and by doing so condemn ourselves to death, whatever that consists of. The joyous thing is that because we have eaten of the bread of life and have eternal life, Jesus will raise us up on the last day. There is a whole other concept that needs to be considered. When are we raised up? Are we asleep in the grave until that day? What about being absent from the body and present with the Lord? We better leave that for next time, so, for now, let us simply rejoice because we have already started our eternal life because we looked to the Son and believed.

The Bread of Life

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

THE BREAD OF LIFE

John 6:30-40

30 So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? 31 Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" 32 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."  34 "Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread." 35 Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." 

NIV

Jesus has said a lot here, but we cannot separate his words or we would miss the whole of his point. These people are living in the past of events that were not even theirs but of their ancestors. Jesus is standing right in front of them and all they can see is the record of what happened to their forefathers. Jesus even told them their view of the past is not correct for Moses did not provide the manna from heaven, but it was His Father who gave them the manna. It was a type. Soon after crossing the Red Sea and God providing water for them, they grumbled about hunger and he fed them bread from heaven to sustain their lives or give them life. Jesus now tells them he is the true bread of Heaven, the true bread of life. Even though their forefathers ate the bread from heaven, they had to gather more each day because everyday hunger was once again an issue. The manna was a type of Christ, the bread from heaven. The difference is the manna was only good for one day and Jesus is good for eternity. Once we eat of the true bread of life, we will never hunger again. This speaks to the desires of the heart. There are so many material things we yearn for, we hunger for, so to speak. But no matter how many of them we obtain, it seems it is never enough, we always want more. We will ever get over this insatiable hunger for more?  It is like the more chocolate we eat, the more chocolate we want. This applies to so many material things, the desire to accumulate almost becomes overpowering. For some, it is just stuff like, how many books do we need, or our collection of movies, or some sort of other entertainment? For others it might be just simply accumulating money, never having enough. Some like to collect accolades or praise from men. Whatever things of this world we hunger for, it will never give us life, it will never sustain us, for we can be sure, it will all fade away, we will leave it all behind at the moment of our last breathe. Sure we can enjoy the moments we have it, just as those forefathers enjoy that daily manna, but they eventually died anyway, and they never got to see the land of milk and honey because of their disbelief. So we have eaten of this bread of life, we have accepted Jesus and we have this eternal life, and we praise the Lord we believe. Stuff is just stuff, but Jesus is life. How can we ever want more of stuff went Jesus is all we need? We have enough stuff, and if for some reason that stuff should wear out, Jesus will replace it, for he promised he would provide all our needs. But then many that promise is all about all we need is eternal life. We could go down so many ways with all this, we would never stop. The point is that Jesus is the bread of life and we will never go hungry again. We do not have to keep searching for other ways to attain eternal life. Nothing we can do will brings us eternal life except to believe in Jesus. He is the bread of life.

Doing the Work of God

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

DOING THE WORK OF GOD

John 6:25-29

25 When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?" 26 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. 27 Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval." 28 Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" 29 Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." 

NIV

It always seems that Jesus does not directly answer a question, but rather speaks to the heart of the issue. That is what he did with Nicodemus and he is doing the same thing here. They asked him when he got here, but he did not tell them but spoke to their reason for searching him out. Who had ever seen such a miracle? One man takes a few little fish and a couple loaves of bread and feeds thousands of people and then has leftovers. Who wouldn't want to stick around, maybe he will give them something else or feed them again? Jesus speaks right to the issue. All they were concerned with was their temporal stomach, or the things of the world, working for food that spoils. Jesus just gave them food for their stomach and now he is telling them to work for food that will endure to eternal life, which he will give them. He just proved he could give them food that spoils, so why would they not believe he could give them food that leads to eternal life? Wow, just think, we can have food for our stomach and food that gives us eternal life! This is the best of both worlds. But Jesus is referring to only one world, his kingdom. Don’t spend your efforts on the temporal, spend them on the eternal. Ok then, what do we have to do in order to do the work God requires in order to have this food that leads to eternal life? Believe in Jesus. That seems way too simple. Don’t we have to do anything else? No, that is it, just believe in Jesus and we have eternal life. Wait, just a second, God requires all sorts of good deeds from us. God wants us to witness, he wants us to love each other, he wants us to give, he wants us to stop sinning, he wants us to give up all sorts of things and start doing all sorts of things. He wants us to go to church every Sunday, well maybe not so much, because we invented Sunday, God only invented the Sabbath. Well, maybe there are many things as believers we should do and some things we should not do, just out of our love for God, but all of that is not the work of God. Sometimes some believers get confused about the work God has prepared in advance for us to do. How can he make it any simpler? The work he prepared in advance for us to do is believe in the one he sent, Jesus. That was and is the plan of God from before the foundation of the earth. There is more to this conversation between Jesus and the crowd, but this is enough for now. Just to think about the fact all we need to have eternal life is to believe in Jesus. Now that does not just mean to believe Jesus existed once, but it means to put our faith in Him, to trust Him, to accept Him as our Lord and Savior, that believing in Him is the one and only way we are going to get to heaven for all eternity. This is not about Jesus plus something else. It is just about believing in Jesus. It is about doing the work of God.

Searching For Jesus

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

SEARCHING FOR JESUS

John 6:22-24

22 The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. 23 Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

NIV

So, Jesus

 and his disciples were not to be found and it would seem a sense of loss had settled in. After spending some time with Jesus and having been the recipient of his blessings, being feed by him, then realizing he is gone, they just had to find him. What is interesting is that crowd according to John was five thousand men and who knows how many women and children. How many boats arrived from Tiberias? Was there enough to haul thousands of people? But that is what we are told, they get into the boats and headed to Capernaum in search of Jesus. We already know the Sea of Galilee is not that big, but we also know it is possible that a storm wind can come up at any time and become such a great storm on the sea, such as the one that happened the time Jesus was sleeping in the boat and was woken up and he calmed the storm. Although many may have made their living on the sea, fishing, they also knew it could not be friendly as well, if a wind came up. Nevertheless, it was of the utmost importance they find Jesus. Whatever happens in life, searching for Jesus should be the prime motivation of life. This has to be especially true once we have been with Him. This ought to give us a clue as to how we should always be searching for Jesus. It is a good thing in life to be born again, to have found Jesus and accepted his grace giving life on the cross. But our search should not end there. We have to continue to seek after Him. We have to always be in search of Him, his words, his truth, his grace, mercy, and love. When we find a life mate, one that we love unconditionally and would never part from, we cannot wait to spend time together. In our dating years, we would go to great lengths to find moments together, then after marriage, we find our love grows even stronger and our desire to be with each other is even greater. This is how it is with Jesus. The more time we spend with him the more time we want to spend with him. We should always forever be searching for Jesus.

Don't Be Afraid

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

DON’T BE AFRAID

John 6:16-21

16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17 where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. 18 A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. 19 When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were terrified. 20 But he said to them, "It is I; don't be afraid."  21 Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

NIV  

There is some division among our scholars as to exactly where they were supposed to go on their boating excursion. According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus had told them to go to Bethsaida. The question is, where they started off from. What John tells us is that the after Jesus was in Jerusalem and when he healed the lame man on the Sabbath, he crossed over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. We cannot be certain as to where that exactly was, but if he told them to go to Bethsaida, it would have been a coastal excursion. Mathew tells us they landed in Gennesaret which is on the opposite side of the sea then Bethsaida. It is supposed the wind was against them and that is the only direction they could go. Although all this is interesting and we could get caught up in all the suppositions as to the how and why they landed where they did and as to their exact point of origin, the point is about the words of Jesus. Because we live in this world, there are times when we might experience a storm in our lives. As much as we believe in Jesus and that we know we are children of God and live in His kingdom, we are still subject to circumstances of our physical life. Someone very dear to us dies and we feel grief, but it is inevitable we all will die at some time in our lives. It is interesting how we can live each day without being so depressed because we are going to die. Of course, we believers do not even fear death because we know it is the beginning of our eternal life with Jesus. Yet, they are other situations which might cause some stress in our lives. Some physical infirmity or serious illness could cause us an amount of fear. Again it would seem all that kind of fear is about whether we are going to get better or worse. If we get better we find there was nothing to fear. If we get worse, what we could fear is whether we are going to live or die. If we die, we have nothing to fear, but if we live we have other things we could fear. Some fear or are concerned heavily about money matters. Who knows what fears lurk within others, but what we need to understand is that if we find fear creeping into our hearts, we need to hear the words, of Jesus. “It is I; don’t be afraid.” So then let us not have any fear of life or death for Jesus has assured us, it is him and we have no reason to be afraid.