The day following
Jesus the Bread of Life
I. OUR LORD’S AVOWAL OF HIS DIVINE NATURE AND HIS HEAVENLY ERRAND. More than thirty times in this one discourse does He use the personal pronouns “Me” and “I,” in such connections as that it would be blasphemy if He were anything less than really God. The Jews saw this (John 6:41-42), the disciples also (John 6:66).
II. THE SPECIAL DOCTRINE OF THE GOSPEL WHICH ALWAYS SEARCHES THE HEARTS OF MEN. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is what universally tests pride the most severely. In this discourse our Lord intentionally sifts His hearers. He avows with startling suddenness the most extreme views of human helplessness without vicarious redemption. Then He puts the plaintive question, “Will ye also go away?”
III. THE PARAMOUNT NECESSITY OF AN ATONEMENT FOR HUMAN SINS. “Without shedding of blood is no remission.” So striking are these utterances of Christ, that there can be no mistaking them. They cannot possibly be discharged of their meaning by any notion of mere pattern-setting on His part. Bread is not example, and blood is not conduct, and eating is not imitation.
IV. LET US BE SATISFIED WITH THE EXPLANATION FURNISHED US HERE OF THAT SENSE OF CRAVING AND RESTLESSNESS WHICH MANY FEEL UNDER THE APPEALS OF THE GOSPEL. The soul hungers after Christ. The sound of feeding awakes deeper pangs. Every living thing must eat or die. (C. S.Robinson, D. D.)
Jesus the Bread of Life
I. THE SELFISHNESS OF MEN REGARDING JESUS CHRIST (John 6:22-24). The people before us, having “come to Capernaum seeking Jesus,” desired Him only for a temporal benefit. This is like many in our day. They go to church, pretend to be religious, make a show of piety, because it is fashionable, profitable for trade, or a convenient method of getting “bread” without toil. The pious fraud is a more dangerous enemy to Christianity than outspoken infidelity.
II. MEN’S SELFISHNESS IN RELIGION REBUKED (John 6:25-27).
1. By having the shallowness of their pretensions exposed (John 6:26). How keen-cutting these words are! And so it is everywhere in the Bible--hypocrisy is condemned with severity. Any one who would speak for Jesus must not be afraid to rebuke the pretender.
2. Presentation of the true motive (John 6:27). We must be sincere in seeking Christ as the Saviour of the soul--i.e., “everlasting life” must be with us a deeper consideration than the life of the body. To give this eternal life, or righteousness, unto the world was the purpose of Jesus’ coming here: “For Him hath God the Father sealed”--i.e., set apart and given authority to perform the high office of imparting to all believers the Bread of Life. To secure this, salvation must be our only motive.
III. BELIEF IN CHRIST MAN’S SUPREME WORK (John 6:28-29). It is in the human heart to think of salvation as a matter of “works” (John 6:28). The Scriptures everywhere declare that to be saved--i.e., “to work the works of God,” we must believe on the Son of God (John 6:29). Man’s good works exclude this belief. But true belief or faith, includes good works Ephesians 2:8-10; James 2:26). Both Jesus and Paul declare that faith saves the soul. James explains the kind of faith that saves.
IV. MAN’S UNWILLINGNESS TO ACCEPT JESUS (verses 30, 31). From the miracle of the loaves, the multitude would gladly have received Him as a king; but, being informed that they must believe on Him as a Saviour, they demanded more evidence (verses 30, 31), intimating that Moses, in giving the manna for long years, was greater than Jesus, who only furnished one meal. So men are always willing to exalt Christ as a great personage, but are reluctant to receive Him as their Redeemer. Yet He must be this or nothing.
V. JESUS URGES THIS HIGH CLAIM (verses 32, 33). He admits of no comparison. Moses did not give the manna (verse 32); manna did not secure life (verse 49); Jesus was the Bread from heaven which conferred eternal life (verses 35, 41, 48, 50, 51). His atonement secured the Holy Spirit, who works regeneration, to experience which is to enter into life. This is what Christ means in verse 51.
VI. THE CONDITIONS OF OUR SECURING JESUS AS OUR LIFE (verses 34-36).
1. The Divine condition. The Holy Spirit must convict, enlighten, draw (verses 37, 45).
2. The human condition. Man must come of His own free will (verses 35, 36, 53).
VII. JESUS THE EXECUTOR OF THE FATHER’S WILL (verses 37-40). This will was to secure eternal life to all believers. Those who do not take Jesus as the source of their life perish through unbelief. All who do are kept in perfect safety. This is God’s will, and Christ is able to execute it. (A. H. Moment.)
Jesus the Bread of Life
I. A TRUE MIRACLE MAY FAIL TO PRODUCE ANY RELIGION, in which case it fails of its chief purpose. This one simply stimulated an appetite for loaves and fishes, without stimulating gratitude for those already given.
II. THE PURPOSE OF GOD IN GREAT MANIFESTATIONS OF POWER IS TO TURN ATTENTION TO THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST (chap. 5:36). The works of God in creation and government have no greater end than this. We do not please God by admiring His work in nature, in being awed by miracles; but in being led by the gift of daily bread to faith in Him who is the Bread of Life.
III. A WONDERFUL PYRAMID OF PROMISES POINTS THE SINNER TO A PERSONAL SAVIOUR (John 6:35; John 6:37).
IV. THE PERSONAL FAITH IN CHRIST DETERMINES THE CHARACTER OF OUR PERSONAL RESURRECTION. Four times in this chapter Christ repeats this, or a similar refrain: “I will raise him up at the last day.” Whether we share the resurrection of shame and everlasting contempt spoken of by Daniel, or that which causes us to shine as the brightness of the firmament, will depend on our faith in Christ now. (Monday Club.)
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The meat that endureth
I. CHRIST’S KNOWLEDGE OF THE HUMAN HEART is seen in exposing the false motives of those who followed Him. So now He reads all secret thoughts (1 Samuel 16:7). The folly of hypocrisy is as great as its sinfulness. It is not hard to deceive the wisest of men; but it is impossible to deceive Christ (Revelation 1:14; John 21:17).
II. WHAT CHRIST FORBIDS. Labour for the meat that perisheth.
1. Our Lord did not mean to encourage idleness. Labour was the lot of Adam in his innocence, and of Christ Himself.
2. Our Lord rebuked excessive attention to the body to the neglect of the soul. One thing is needful (Matthew 6:33).
III. WHAT CHRIST ADVISES. Labour for this meat that endureth.
1. How are we to labour? In the use of the appointed means. Bible study, prayer, struggling against sin, etc.
2. Labour like this is uncommon. In prosecuting it we shall have little encouragement from men, but much from Christ (Matthew 11:12).
IV. WHAT A PROMISE CHRIST HOLDS OUT (John 6:27). Whatever we need, Christ is willing to bestow. He has been sent for the very purpose. (Bishop Ryle.)
Tiberias--A city of Galilee, in the most beautiful part of it, on the western shore of the lake. It was named by Herod Antipas, in honour of the Emperor Tiberius. It was the capital of the province, from its origin until the reign of Herod Agrippa
II. Many of its inhabitants were Greeks and Romans, and hence foreign customs prevailed. Our Lord, who spent much of His time in Galilee, appears never to have visited this city--probably because Herod, the murderer of John the Baptist, chiefly resided in it. After the dissolution of the State, it was for several centuries the seat of a renowned Jewish school, and one of the four sacred cities, Here the Mishna was compiled (A.D. 190) by the Rabbi Judah Hakkodesh, and the Masorah originated in a great measure at Tiberius. Coins of the city are still extant of the times of Tiberius, Trajan, and Hadrian. The ancient name has survived in that of the modern Tubarieh, which occupies the original site. Near it are the warm baths, which the Roman writers reckoned among the greatest curiosities in the world. The population at present is between 8,000 and 4,000, and the town is the most mean and miserable in all Palestine--a picture of disgusting filth and frightful wretchedness. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)