Chapter 6

 

            The purpose of miracles was not to alleviate suffering; that was a secondary aspect. Miracles always did. The primary purpose of miracles was to focus attention upon the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The miracles announced to Israel that He is and was the eternal Son of God and that He was also Messiah. But they also had another purpose and that was to gain a hearing for the message. The message is what is important. So the purpose of the message goes far beyond the alleviation of suffering, it was to prevent eternal suffering in the lake of fire.

            In the first half of this chapter we have two miracles and then we have four messages. The first miracle is found in verses 1-5, it is generally called the feeding of the five thousand. It was obviously a very public miracle. This is the seventh witness to the deity of Jesus Christ, and we have not one witness but a group of witnesses — 5000 men, not counting the women and the children. Then there will be another miracle to follow it immediately and to test the disciples.

            Miracles have a secondary purpose. As far as the unbeliever is concerned the miracles of Jesus Christ were designed to call the unbeliever’s attention to the issue of the cross — Christ bearing our sins, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” But miracles were also used to test believers, in this case the disciples. There are going to be two miracles in which the disciples are going to be tested. The disciples have been listening to the message of the deity of Christ, the discourse given on the steps of the temple. They observed the lame man being healed on the Sabbath. They saw the lame man walk through the streets carrying his bed. They heard the tremendous discourse by which Jesus put down the religious crowd. So not only did these two miracles focus attention on the Lord Jesus Christ and His work but the two miracles coming up, one on land and one on sea, are designed to test the disciples, to see if they have learned anything. The disciples are going to flunk both tests. These miracles are designed for a purpose. They are designed also to challenge believers to apply Bible doctrine. It is one thing to know doctrine, it is something else to apply it.

            The disaster situation: verses 1-15. The background is given in the first four verses.

            Verse 1 — “After these things” means after the events of the previous chapter, the healing of the impotent man, after the man carried his bed through the Sabbath, and after the discourse on the steps of the temple. Jesus got out of town! Why? Because He has just put the religious crowd down in their own back yard, on the steps of the temple, and they are out to get Him. It is time to move into another area where people are going to be more responsive to the Word.

            “Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias.” It has been called the sea of Galilee since the time that the Jews first were there but when Tiberias Caesar came to the throne they tried to get him to cut down on the taxes so they changed the name to the sea of Tiberias.

            Verse 2 — “And a great multitude followed him.” Why? Because of the tremendous miracles which He performed. At this time Jesus was at the peak of His popularity. He was not popular because of His wonderful message and because of who and what he was, He was popular because people loved to be entertainment and in that day the number one type of entertainment was the performance of a miracle. This is imperfect linear aktionsart which means they kept on following Him. They were going to stay around until He performed a miracle and then they would go home.

            “because they kept on seeing miracles” — this is the reason they kept on following. Imperfect linear aktionsart.

            “which he did to them” — He kept on doing to them; “that were diseased” — present linear aktionsart. In other words, He would come into an area and find sick people and perform miracles. So the people kept on seeing ‘their favourite program.’ This crowd is not with Him because they say, “Here is the Son of God, here is the only saviour, we accept Him as such.” This is an unstable crowd because it is made up on unbelievers who are seeking entertainment, they have positive volition toward miracles, their number one type of entertainment.

            Jesus had to break from this crowd, it is not a saved crowd at this point. This is a crowd made up primarily of unbelievers who simply want entertainment. This was like the religious crowd that went out to see John the Baptist in the desert.

            Verse 3 — “And Jesus went up into a mountain.” If you want to get away from a crowd, climb a mountain. There are a lot of them that cannot do it; “and sat there with His disciples.” We do not know whether this is the twelve or a larger group at this time. Usually when it is talking about just the twelve they are mentioned, included, but apparently at this time there were other disciples.

            Verse 4 is a parenthesis, it explains why Jesus is way up north around the sea of Galilee and not way down south at Jerusalem. Why isn’t Jesus in Jerusalem. This is the place to be at the Passover, but the Passover speaks of Jesus Christ and the religious crowd in Jerusalem have rejected Christ and therefore Jesus Christ is on a mountain by the sea of Galilee at the Passover time. The religious crowd rule in Jerusalem, and since they do, what are they going to do on the Passover? They are going to go through all this ritual. They will slaughter a lamb. That lamb speaks of Christ on the cross bearing the sins of the world. They are going to sprinkle the blood, they are going to eat part of the lamb which is a picture of faith, and yet this is the religious crowd and they have rejected Christ. So they are going to have ritual without reality, which is meaningless. The whole observation is a farce. The Passover teaches the work of Christ on the cross, it has to do with eternal salvation, and yet it is strictly ritual in Jerusalem. The person of whom the Passover speaks is on earth and about 175 miles to the north, sitting on a mountain with His disciples. It isn’t until He is ready to go to the cross that in the Passover He will be in Jerusalem, and Jesus Christ was actually crucified on the Passover. Then He will be in Jerusalem, but in the meantime He is as far away from the religious crowd as you can get. That is a reminder to you and to me that separation means separation from religion.

            “And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh [near].” It is almost there. Jesus is in the north and He is going to send a message down. He is going to perform the biggest miracle of all. Down in Jerusalem they have ritual minus reality. They perform the ritual that points to Christ and up on the mountain Jesus performs the miracle which says “I am here, I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” The religious crowd is always on negative volition toward doctrine. As a result they have a vacuum in their minds into which is drawn legalism. Legalism includes ritualism as an extension of it, and so they have ritual without reality. Up in the north country we have the reality and we have a searchlight focusing on Christ, a miracle of all miracles. They were performing a ritual, slaying a lamb which represented Christ. But he is here and they have rejected Him. When ritual becomes religious then the people involved are blinded. That is why we have a reference to the Passover at this point. The Passover that was held that year was a condemnation of the religious crowd in Jerusalem.

            In verses 5-7 we have a dialogue with Philip, one of the disciples.

            Verse 5 — Jesus told the disciples to lift up their eyes and look to the fields white unto harvest because these people were wearing white clothes and they were coming down the mountain looking up when He was speaking to the woman at the well. Now, Jesus is at the top of the mountain, looking down. Just the opposite. He and his disciples are topside looking down, whereas before they were bottom-side looking up.

            “When Jesus lifted up his eyes” doesn’t mean that He looked up toward heaven, it means He opened His eyes and focused them on something moving. When these people got to the top of this mountain they were going to be hungry, they are out in the wilderness with no food around. The words “lifted up” is an aorist participle and it doesn’t really means to see, it means to discern. The Greek word here is qeaomai, a word which was used for a general who looked out over a panoramic view and immediately got the tactical picture. Jesus realised the situation by looking down the hill and seeing the people climbing it and He knew exactly what was going to happen. “When Jesus discerned with His eyes and saw the great company coming unto Him” — proj plus the accusative, ‘face to face with him.’ In other words, they didn’t all come at the same time. The verb ‘to come’ is present tense, which means they arrived at different times, they didn’t all come at once.

            “he saith unto Philip” — Philip apparently was standing right by Him and now Philip is going to get a question. After the discourse on the deity of Christ in the previous chapter the question should be answered very quickly and very simply, it should be no problem at all.

            “Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” There was no place around to buy. On the surface it is a silly question but in a reality it is a challenge to Philip. Philip is a believer with a human spirit. Does he have any doctrine or is his human spirit minus doctrine. It is a challenge to say we don’t have to go anywhere to buy bread, “Thou art the Son of the living God.” The word ‘whence’ is where.

            Verse 6 — why did He ask? “And this he said [kept on saying] to prove him.” Jesus kept repeating the question. This is a present active participle of peirazw which means to test something. It is an assayer’s term for testing ore, it means to test to see what is inside of Philip. It is a test to see if there is good or evil. Is there doctrine or no doctrine? He is testing to see if Philip can apply doctrine which he heard in the discourse at the temple. Jesus is simply trying to bring out what is in Philip. Is there doctrine in Philip or not?

            “to keep on proving him,” literally — present active participle; “for he [Jesus] himself knew what he would do.” ‘He knew” is a perfect tense. He knew in the past, eternity past, with the result that He still knew it now. It is actually a pluperfect tense of o)ida. The pluperfect is a perfect tense used as a present tense for information in the frontal lobe. Here is omniscience. Remember that Philip has heard the dissertation on the deity of Christ and he is thoroughly familiar with that type of information. After hearing all of this does he have the ability to apply it?

            “he would” is the imperfect active indicative of mellw and it doesn’t mean ‘would’ at all, it means what he was about to do.

            “to do” is a present active infinitive of poiew. It means to do — present tense, dramatic present; Active voice: Jesus would do this all by Himself. The infinitive: it was God’s purpose to present His Son through this miracle to this group of people and to the entire land.

            Verse 7 — “Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.” This is two hundred denarii (plural). At this time in the Roman empire a denarius was a day’s wages. Philip was saying, in effect, that it would take six and two thirds months [two hundred days’ wages] to pay for the food to feed this crowd. Philip is not thinking Bible doctrine: ‘This is the Lord of glory, He can handle this deal.’ He has been estimating the crowd.

            “not sufficient” is the present active indicative of a)rkew, and it means not even close to covering it; “that every one of them may take a little” — literally, ‘to seize a little.’ The word lambanw means to grab. He knew the crowd was hungry. Philip sees the problem strictly from the human viewpoint rather than the divine viewpoint. He is neutralised by the wrong mental attitude. This called for doctrinal application and he is simply giving it a human application.

            Verses 8-9, unbelief in contagious.

            Verse 8 — “One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him.”

            Verse 9 — “There is a lad here, which has five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?” Andrew has been observing, he watches the people go by. Philip is practical — 200 days wages wouldn’t cover this deal. That is practical unbelief. But Andrew has been counting all day and only one boy has brought his rations; it’s hopeless.

            Verse 10 — “Make the men sit down.” The word to make and sit down is an aorist active imperative, it is an order. Get them seated, in other words. In other words, this unbelief and hopelessness is so contagious that He puts them to work. So now they become organisers, ushers, program men. That’s all they can do.

            “Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.” The Greek word for ‘men’ here is a)nhr, which means a man — sex, male; an adult male. Sometimes it even means a noble person but it does mean an adult male. In verse 14 the word a)nqrwpoj is used, which is mankind, homo sapien. It means male and female, boy and girl — human race. So in verse 10 we have 5000 adult males, but in verse 14 we have more than 5000 people there.

            Verse 11 — the performance of the miracle. “And Jesus took the loaves” — ‘having taken,’ aorist participle; “and when he had given thanks,” aorist participle — ‘having given thanks.’ He took what the little boy had; He took what was available. There is a principle here. All the twelve disciples can do is usher people into the proper spots and that is just about all they are good for. But the boy had just a little something, a little for himself. Jesus takes the little that the boy had and multiplies it into one of the greatest meals of all time. He multiplies it into a banquet. Jesus takes the little that you have — the bread which speaks of the principle of Bible doctrine — and He multiplies it into something fantastic, The impact on the human race is Bible doctrine.

            So He “took” it and He “distributed” it. These are two aorist indicatives. In other words, He took it and He broke it and distributed it. He kept breaking it and kept breaking it, and there was just always more. This was the miracle. Jesus did not scorn the loaves because they were only five nor the fish because they were small and were two. God is pleased to use the weak and the small — Zechariah 4:7-10. Jesus took the loaves and He used them. He did not work independently of what was there. Here is the point. Five loaves and two fishes is not even going to feed that hungry boy who brought them, but Jesus took the little that the boy brought and he used it. Point of doctrine: Jesus Christ honours prepared people. He honoured that boy. Jesus Christ today does not work independently of prepared people. Who are prepared people? People who have bread. What is bread? Doctrine! Doctrine that you have in you God will use. God uses prepared people.

            Notice what the disciples did. They should have known but they did not, so all they can do is get into a program. The boy stands there hopeless, helpless, weak, but he was prepared. He brought this along for himself. God uses prepared people; God does not work independently of prepared believers. God uses us in spite of our weakness, our frailty. He employs the little things and therefore under His grace He takes the little things and makes them strong — 2 Corinthians 12:9,10. God is pleased to take human instruments in the execution of His plan.  

            “as much as they would” — the verb is qelw. It is a desire from the emotion of the soul. It is imperfect active indicative — “as much as they wished to eat.” The imperfect tense is linear aktionsart. In other words, they ate a little, they wanted more, they wanted more until they were filled. Everyone was stuffed, they loved this food.

            Verse 12 — “When they were filled.” Every person on the spot was filled, 5000 adult males plus the women and the children. “Filled” is aorist passive indicative. The aorist tense is the point of time when they were filled, a point of time divorced from time and they will remember it, but they will never again eat a meal like that. The passive voice: they received it. They didn’t earn it, they didn’t deserve it, they didn’t bring a thing along — except the boy, and God used the prepared boy. They received it, that’s grace. The indicative mood is the reality of being filled. This doesn’t mean to be filled uncomfortably, this means to have had an experience which is fantastic in the field of eating. Here was an experience they would never forget. This means to be filled in a way that they were satisfied — total satisfaction. When everyone was completely filled means to be satisfied.

            “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.” The word ‘fragments’ does not mean crumbs. A fragment is at least half of a loaf, chunks of bread.

            Verse 13 — “Therefore they gathered them together, and they filled twelve baskets.” Twelve baskets; twelve disciples. Twelve no-account, no-good, hopeless, useless, practical, impractical people. So they have a little momentum. There were only twelve people who carried any food down the mountain. They didn’t carry any baskets up but they carried twelve baskets down. This is a reminder that Jesus is God, Jesus is the Lord of the universe. You just depend on Him, it is His battle. You don’t have to sweat out the no food problem. You don’t have to worry about anything. You are related to the Lord of the universe, so who ever told you to worry. The disciples carried the baskets to remind them of how stupid they were!

            Verse 14 — most of the people were unbelievers and they were getting ideas in a hurry. Here was someone who could perform a miracle and He could probably get rid of the Romans and establish Jewish nationalism again. They want the Millennium, the crown. They want to bypass the cross. Jesus has an eternal kingdom but His kingdom starts with the cross. If you are going to be in that eternal kingdom you get the crown but you only get that crown by way of the cross. You have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ before you are in His plan. The crowd missed the point of the miracle too, just as the religious people did in Jerusalem.

            “This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world” — Deuteronomy 18:15ff, the prophecy of Jesus Christ coming into the world to rule. So they say this is that prophet. They are not going to accept Him as saviour, they are going to accept Him as ruler. They understand Deuteronomy 18 in part. It is talking about the saviour becoming the ruler — Millennium. But they scratched this, they just want that part which gives them a ruler. This is Jewish nationalism. They want the political but not the spiritual.

            Verse 15 — Jesus walks out on them. “When Jesus therefore perceived” is an aorist participle. He read their minds.

            “that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone “ — He got away from it all completely because inevitably it is the spiritual that makes the difference and not the political. Jesus has an eternal kingdom. He wanted them to be in His eternal life kingdom, not simply in a Jewish nationalistic state that may last for 200 years. What is 200 years compared to eternity? In other words, to get into His eternal kingdom you have to believe in Jesus Christ and the purpose of the miracle to focus attention on the cross but they simply by negative volition went on negative signals toward the gospel. By implication they simply wanted the political kingdom. They stressed the political, He stressed the spiritual. Through the spiritual they would have eternal life, they would live in His eternal kingdom forever and ever. They rejected that and since they rejected them He rejected them. He would not ride in on their political platform.

            Chapter 6:16-21

 

            Verse 16 — this is the sea of Galilee. The disciples had decided that they had had enough of the rugged country and they want to get back across the sea. At evening carrying their twelve baskets full of food, a reminder of the faithfulness of the Lord, a reminder of the hypostatic union, a reminder that Jesus Christ is God as well as true humanity, they went down to the sea.

            Verse 17 — “And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum.” They are going to have another test. They began to go over. This is an incohative imperfect which means they began to make the trip across the sea.

            “And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come unto them.” Remember that they know, they have heard, and they have seen evidence of the fact and received it by faith that Jesus Christ is the unique person of the universe, He is the God-Man. They have failed in the application of this doctrine.

            Verse 18 — they now have a great opportunity, a storm on the sea of Galilee. The storm depicts the pressures, the cares, the trials, the desires, the heartaches, and the frustrations of life. These disciples have seen once again, as they have previously, miracle after miracle demonstrating the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. God’s faithfulness continues toward us even when we fail Him. The disciples are going to fail again but there is something here that is amazing. They have just failed in the feeding of the 5000, they are now going to fail on the sea; but when the storm clears they are still going to be alive. This tells us two things. The storms to do not last forever, they only appear to last forever when we are going into them. But the storms always have a purpose. The pressures, the disasters, the trials, the difficulties of life: if they are not direct blessing they are indirect blessing. Where discipline is involved it is indirect blessing, when there is no being out of fellowship involved then it is direct blessing. But this type of storm had one purpose in mind: “Disciples, sit there with your baskets of food and fall apart!” That basket full of food talks about who and what the Lord is. It should say to those disciples, “The battle is the Lord’s.” It should remind them that the Lord is faithful. He is always faithful, even when we fail.

            Now the issue: Will the disciples understand and apply the doctrine of divine essence and utilise the faith-rest technique? Or will they, on the other hand, just simply fall apart? The application to us is that no matter how difficult things get in this life Jesus is aware of the situation, He will deliver. As long as we are alive He has a purpose for our lives and often our greatest growth and blessing will come in these storms, provided that we utilise Bible doctrine which is exactly what they did not do. In other words, we should do what they didn’t do. Let’s learn from the disciples. Application of Bible doctrine. They had it. They not only had it their minds they had it, as it were, in a basket. Each disciple carries a basket on that ship and the food it contains should remind them of something — the faithfulness of the Lord, the essence of God.  

            “And the sea arose” — imperfect linear aktionsart, it kept rising. Why did it have to keep on rising? There was one disciple who wasn’t frightened, that’s why. It had nothing to do with spiritual things, he just wasn’t the type that was frightened. He was a fisherman by the name of Peter. To Peter it was a storm and he had been in lots of them, so he wasn’t frightened by storms. It had to be a big enough storm to even frighten Peter, so it just kept getting greater and greater.

            Verse 19 — “So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs.” This is the Greek word stadia which is ‘once around the track.’ Their track was about 600 feet generally. So thirty stadia would be eighteen thousand feet or about 3.4 miles. So when the storm hit they were 3.4 miles out into the sea. They were far enough away from the shore where they couldn’t get back to the shore.

            “they see Jesus walking on the water, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid” — they weren’t afraid because they saw Jesus, they were afraid all the time but now they are still afraid. The fact that Jesus is walking on the water is no encouragement to them at all. None of the disciples drowned, not even Judas Iscariot. They did worse than drown, they turned into a frightened mass of jelly on the inside, a mental attitude sin called fear. It has a twin brother called worry. Pressure makes you concentrate on yourself, and you so concentrate on yourself that the survival of self and the catering to self and the blessing of self that you completely exclude any occupation with Christ. Jesus is walking on the water and they are still frightened; they are holding a basket and they are still frightened.

            Verse 20 — “be not afraid” is present active imperative: ‘Stop being afraid.’ Being afraid is one of the best ways that Satan has of getting to you and using you. Isaiah 41:10; Deuteronomy 31:6,8; 2 Timothy 1:7; Psalm 56:3. Psalm 103:10 expresses God’s grace in the midst of our failures.

            “It is I” — It keeps on being I, literally.

            Verse 21 — “Then they willingly” — incohative imperfect, ‘Then they began to be willing.’ The Greek word is qelw which means that it came from their emotion. This is imperfect active indicative.

               “and immediately the ship became at land whither it went” — this doesn’t mean it zipped into land. This is an idiom which means ‘like being on land.’ Immediately the storm ceased around them and it was so smooth. The wind stopped suddenly, the waves stopped, and the sea smoothed out like glass, and it was like being on land. That is a miracle.

               What does it mean to have the Lord aboard? It means to have doctrine active in your soul.

            The feeding of the five thousand was a miracle. Not only was it a miracle but it was a test to the disciples to see if they could apply doctrine. Obviously they could not, they failed to apply doctrine to the situation. However, the grace of the Lord overruled and the 5000 men plus women and children were fed. The crowd was made up of not only unbelievers but as we are going to see in the rest of this chapter it was primarily unbelievers with negative volition at the point of God-consciousness. Very few people in that crowd were actually willing to receive Jesus Christ as saviour. We know a great deal about this crowd from the rest of this chapter. Jesus will say at the end of the chapter, “You have refused to believe in me.” This crowd was a political group who were most anxious to overthrow the Roman empire. They were a group of Jewish nationalists living in the northern part of Palestine, in Galilee. And while they did not respond to the true implications of the miracle, i.e. they did not focus on the message and receive Christ as saviour, they were most impressed by the miracle performed by Jesus Christ and were anxious to use Him as a means and even as a weapon for overthrowing the Roman empire. In other words, their interest was an interest not in getting saved and having eternal life but simply to get the Roman empire out of the land and to establish Jewish nationalism. They had therefore a political interest only. These people in this 5000+ crowd are going to reject at the point of entrance into the plan of God, and they are going to try to use Jesus Christ to get rid of the Roman empire, but they are not interested in eternal salvation.

            The rest of this chapter actually has four messages. The first of these is in verses 22-40 and is addressed to the seeking crowd. When the crowd first lands in Capernaum they are seeking the Lord Jesus Christ. It begins with a simple question on the part of the Jews which is not really a simple question. The second message is found in verses 41-51 and in this we have the murmuring crowd. This is when they begin to object. This message was given in the synagogue at Capernaum and it results in a tremendous amount of dissatisfaction on the part of the crowd. The third message, verses 52-59, is addressed to the disputing crowd. This was also in the synagogue at Capernaum and this message results in practically a riot. In verses 60-71, the fourth message is addressed to the disciples — those who deserted and those who stayed.

            Behind all four of these messages is going to be bread. Jesus Christ fed 5000+ from five loaves, so the miracle was the miracle of the bread. Jesus uses this miracle to reminds the crowd of the significance. The crowd actually did some eating, they were able to eat the bread. The bread represents Christ and eating represents faith. Eating is a non-meritorious activity. The ability to eat is given to all members of the human race, good, bad, and indifferent. Therefore eating is the perfect illustration of faith. Faith is thinking but faith is non-meritorious thinking. The feeding of the 5000 thousand was the illustration or the introduction. The four messages were given across the Sea of Galilee at Capernaum at the synagogue. Throughout this message the key is “I am the bread of life.”

            Verse 22 —”The day following.” It took a whole day to get 5000 people from Tiberius over to the western shore and then back to Capernaum.

            Verse 24 — the people noticed that Jesus was not there and that He had not taken the long path around, and that He had apparently by some miracle moved over to the other side.

            “they also took shipping and came to Capernaum, constantly seeking for Jesus.” In other words, when they arrived the next day they were constantly seeking Him, looking everywhere for Him. They finally discovered Him at the synagogue.

            In verses 25-27 the message actually begins. Verse 25 — And when they had found him,” aorist tense. This is in contrast to seeking which is present linear aktionsart at the end of verse 24. They looked for Him all over the city and then suddenly found Him at the synagogue.

            “they said unto him” — they address Him as Rabbi, they do not address Him as Lord. They call Him Rabbi because they are impressed with who He is and therefore they simply give Him an academic degree but they do not give Him His true place which is the God-Man, the unique person of the universe, the only saviour.

            “when camest thou here?” — apparently there had been a lot of speculation. The word “camest” is not camest at all, it is the Greek word ginomai which means to become. Usually it means to become something you were not; here it means to be in a place where you shouldn’t be. There is a mountainous path that gets to Capernaum and it took a couple of days that way, and they knew that He couldn’t possibly have taken the path otherwise He wouldn’t be there. They also saw the disciples disembark without Him so they knew that if He was there the same day that they were He could not have come by road, He could not have come by sea as far as their observation is concerned, and so obviously they were puzzled. They put this in the perfect active indicative which means, you are here, you have come here in the past with the result that you are here now, and we have no explanation of it and we would like an explanation. Again, you can see that they are great for details, they are great for speculation, they are impressed by His power, but they are not impressed by His person — who and what He is as far as saviourhood is concerned. Again, this indicates something of the crowd. How did you get here, by some miracle? If by some miracle you can also defeat the Roman legions! This is what they are thinking.

            Verse 26 — Jesus had an answer. Every time you see “Jesus answered” it is actually an aorist passive participle from the verb a)pokrinomai which means to discern from the ultimate source, but it is in the passive voice which means that Jesus had received an answer in eternity past — He is omniscient, He knew this was going to come up in time and obviously He was well prepared for it. This would be better translated “Jesus had an answer.” So this brings in the omniscience of the Lord Jesus Christ.

            Now when Jesus is going to make a point of doctrine He uses a very simple Hebrew phrase which had been brought into the Aramaic as an idiom and which is now brought into the Koine Greek from the Hebrew, and it is translated into the English, “Verily, verily.” Modern translators call it “Truly, truly,” and all that does is translate an idiom and still doesn’t mean anything. Wherever you find verily, verily in the Gospel of John it means “point of doctrine.” So Jesus had an answer for them and communicated, “Point of doctrine.”

In other words, the way that Jesus came across that water is a point of doctrine. The point of doctrine that He is going to make is one about their own thinking. Jesus Christ is God. As God He read their minds before they ever existed.

            “Ye seek me not because you saw the miracles” — Jesus knows what is going on here and He isn’t going to let anyone use Him. It takes doctrine, it takes discernment not to get used by people — “but because you did eat the loaves and were filled.” Notice a fine distinction. They received the food but why were they seeking Him now? Not because of the miracle. What is the point of the miracle? The miracle indicates that Jesus Christ is God, that Jesus Christ is the God-Man, that He is the only saviour, and that He has come in order to present Himself in the courtroom of the Father, the cross, and to bear the sins of the world. This is the purpose of all miracles performed by Jesus. The miracles were to focus attention on Himself as saviour. The purpose of miracles was not to alleviate suffering, not to help people in need, as such. That was secondary. The primary purpose was to present Himself as saviour, to focus attention on the message, and to lead people to eternal life. But these people failed to get the point of the miracle. They did not accept Christ as saviour. There is a reason for this. It is no accident that these 5000 people came together. They are malcontent with the Roman government. Yet, Jesus never spoke against the Roman government because while there are evils in any government, and often evil men, Jesus Christ recognised the point of divine institution #4, and divine institution #4 at this time was SPQR. Jesus did not advocate Jewish nationalism at this time. The Romans were actually doing an excellent job of governing. So who were these 5000 people? These are 5000 people who are malcontents. These people are trying to overthrow Rome and that is one reason they kept following Jesus. Here is someone who can help us, He has unusual powers, etc. All of these 5000 people reached God-consciousness and when they did they went negative. They didn’t want any relationship with God and neither did they want anything to do with the type of government that was actually bringing them freedom and was fulfilling the concept of divine institution #4.

            “but because you did eat the loaves, and were filled ” — they saw five loaves and two fishes and yet every one of them had a great dinner. This carried them for a whole 24 hours and they are impressed with the fact that Jesus provided food for them in a miraculous way. In other words, they had their eyes on the food but they are not impressed by the one who provided it. This is the whole concept of what Jesus is saying. This is the first indication of negative volition toward God.

            Verse 27 — Jesus is getting ready to turn them from the food they have eaten to spiritual things. “Labour not for the food which perishes.” There is more than meets the eye in this. This is a present middle imperative. The present tense means stop it, the present tense plus the negative means they are already doing it. The word for “labour” here is e)rgazomai, and it means that these 5000 people have actually organised a political party to throw out the Romans and they are spending all their time in politics. Jesus told these people, “Labour not.” They are too involved in politics, they are up to their ears in politics. E)rgazomai here means to be involved in something and taking it out of its perspective. This is a present middle imperative plus the negative — stop doing it!

            “the food which perishes” — refers to the details of life. These people are more interested in the details of life but they are not interested in Christ. They want to use Him to get what they want.

            “but for that food which endures unto everlasting life” — the food which endures to everlasting life is Christ. He is the bread of life as He will say. He is working up to the bread of life concept.

            “which the Son of man [Jesus Christ] shall give unto you; for him hath God the Father sealed” — this is an aorist tense for a scene that took place in eternity past. At a point of time in eternity past God the Father sealed the Son who would come into the fullness of time [the Roman empire] and present Himself and go to the cross and die for the sins of the world. This is not the time to overthrow of Rome, this is a time when Roman law has reached its peak and it has provided something wonderful at that time. Before you have the crown you must have the cross.

            Verse 28 — at this point they are ready to start talking back, but they don’t do it at first. “What shall we do” — the same old story, give us a plan, give us an outline. Every political organisation must have a plan. They are trying to deviate Christ from His plan, providing eternal life, and get Him into their plan. They don’t want to go to His plan, they want Him to come to their plan.

            “that we might work the works of God” — they want to do something to work the works of God. They have missed the point of grace immediately. In the works of God Jesus Christ provides salvation. The plan of Jesus Christ is grace. Grace is God doing the work, and man simply receives in a non-meritorious manner what God has provided.

            Verse 29 — they had asked Jesus how they might do the works [plural] of God. Jesus had an answer, “This is the work [singular] of God.” He is talking to unbelievers, they are outside of the plan of God. The plan of God begins at the cross: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” The issue to these people is in the singular, it is the work of God the Son who bore their sins on the cross. Therefore it isn’t works, it is work.

            “that ye believe on him [Jesus Christ] whom he [the Father] hath sent” — “believe” [pisteuw] is a present active subjunctive. This is thinking, thinking a decision. But it is non-meritorious thinking. And pisteuw is a transitive verb which means it must have a subject and also an object. The object is Jesus Christ the only saviour. This is a dramatic present tense. Active voice: each person must believe for himself. Subjunctive mood: whether you believe or not depends upon your free will. It is potential.

            Verse 30 — this is the crowd who actually were fed the bread, so their question is almost unbelievable. ”What sign showest thou, then, that we may see, and believe thee?” He had performed miracle after miracle. That crowd was formed on the basis of miracles, they had crossed the Sea of Galilee on the basis of miracles, they had become the recipients of one of the greatest of all miracles and now they are asking for a miracle. That is the human race! “What dost thou work?” E)rgazomai again, so they are saying in effect, “Come over and join our plan.” That is not salvation. In other words, if Jesus Christ joins their stupid plan they will believe in Him. The principle is that we have to come to God’s plan, God doesn’t come to our plan. God’s plan begins at the cross and we have to come to the cross.

            Verse 31 — they come up with their illustration and they tell Jesus exactly what they expect from Him. “Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written” — these bird are quoting scripture. “He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” It is a mistake to capitalise “He.” How do we know? Because in the next verse ”he” is Moses. In other words, Moses was a great guy in his day and we figure your about as good as Moses. If Moses gave them bread for 40 years come on in to our plan Jesus and give us bread for 40 years.”

            What did they quote? They quote from Psalm 78:24. God for forty years gave them bread from heaven. But notice that the Galileans said that Moses did this. It was not Moses who did this, it was God. They were referring to Moses. Jesus knew exactly what they meant.

            Verse 32 — “Then Jesus said unto them, Point of doctrine, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father keeps on giving you [present linear aktionsart] the true bread from heaven.” In other words, He switched from divine provision for this life to divine provision for salvation. They were missing the boat. They need the bread of life. In this verse Christ is called the true bread, in verse 33 He is called the bread from God, in verse 35 He is called the bread of life. Jesus sticks with the Father’s plan right here. He is saying what they really need is salvation, eternal life.

            Verse 33 — “for the bread of [literally, from the source of] God keeps on being [present linear aktionsart] he who comes down from heaven, and keeps on giving [present linear aktionsart] life to the world.” He keeps on giving to anyone who will believe.

            Verse 34 — “ … evermore give us this bread.” This looks like they have had a change. What they want is the physical food, not the spiritual food.

            Verse 35 — “… I am [I keep on being, always was, always will be] the bread of life.”

            “he that cometh to me” is proj plus the accusative and should be “he that comes face to face with me.” Salvation; “shall never hunger” — this is being in the plan of God. This is an aorist tense. Once you are in the plan of God, God will provide everything you will ever need, there will never be a problem in your life too great for the plan of God.

            “and he that believeth” — dramatic present — “on me shall never thirst” has to do with provision. In other words, once you accept Jesus Christ as saviour and enter into the plan of God, from the point of salvation all the way to eternity, there never will be a time that there is anything that is too great for the plan of God.

            Verse 36 — we see the problem of the unbeliever. “ … ye also have seen me, and believe not.” “Keep on refusing to believe” is a better translation.

            Verse 37 — He summarises. “All” refers to anyone who will believe; “that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will never cast out.”

            Verse 38 — “I came down” is the perfect tense, “I came in the past with results which will abide forever.”

            “from heaven” — a)po, from the ultimate source of heaven; “not to do my own will but the will of him [God the Father] that sent me,” i.e. to go to the cross.

            Verse 39 — the focus is on eternity future. In other words, every person who believes in Jesus Christ will be involved in the resurrection unto eternal life.

            Verse 40 — “And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone who sees the Son.” While He is on earth they observe Him, they observe His miracles, they understand His message; “and believe on him” — first of all they must get the message of the gospel; “may keep on having everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

            There is the Father’s plan. He is going to take everyone who has entered the plan of God through faith in Christ all of the way to eternity. At the resurrection they will live with Him forever. There is nothing that is too great for the plan of God. Jesus Christ is saying at this point, “Come over to the Father’s plan and leave your silly plan.”

            Verse 41 — this second message is given to the murmuring crowd at the synagogue at Capernaum. “The Jews then murmured at him” — these are Jews from Galilee in the northern kingdom who want to overthrow the Roman empire in Palestine. These are the recipients of the feeding of the 5000 and consequently they can now see that Jesus is not going to bend into their program. They are not going to be able to use Him and they therefore began to complain against Him. The word “murmur” does not mean to whisper or to talk in a soft voice, it means to complain. It has as its background a mental attitude. Exodus 16 is linked to this passage where the murmurers were believers. In John 6 they were unbelievers. They are murmuring because He said, “I am the bread of life.” “The Jews kept on murmuring at him” — linear aktionsart. Cf. Exodus 16:2,12. The Jews were murmuring in the Exodus generation, the Jews were murmuring on the steps of the synagogue of Capernaum.

            Verse 42 — they can’t understand something that is clearly taught in the Old Testament, the doctrine of the hypostatic union: that Jesus Christ is God and also true humanity. They understood that He said that He was God when He said “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” Here is their problem. They have rejected the very doctrine which would help them. The Old Testament clearly taught that Jesus Christ is God. He had to become a man to go to the cross. They couldn’t understand because firstly they were unbelievers, and secondly they were unbelievers who wanted to bypass the cross. They wanted the crown now, they wanted the Roman empire out of it, and they didn’t care about going to the cross. “Jesus said, I am the way.” The only way you can get into the kingdom is by way of the cross. “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph.” They recognised His humanity, they will not put it together with His deity.

            Verse 43 — “Jesus had an answer … Stop murmuring among yourselves.” In other words, Stop and listen.

            Verse 44 begins the second message of Jesus Christ, the message to the murmuring crowd. “No man” — o)udeij, means mankind in general. It means ‘no one,’ human race.

            “can” is a present active indicative from the Greek verb dunamai which means to be able. “No one is able” is the literal translation.

            “come” is an aorist active infinitive. This is the word e)rxomai used sometimes for salvation as well as a simple coming or going, entering. This is the word used in Matthew 11:28. “Come” here has to do with salvation. It is an aorist tense: in a point of time.

            “to me” is proj plus the accusative which means face to face with. This means a personal relationship. This is an idiomatic phrase which means salvation, personal relationship.

            “except” — should be translated ‘unless.’ Man does not have the ability to approach God on the basis of his own works, his own human good, his own activity, his morality. “No man is able to come to me unless ...” When Jesus used the third class condition plus the negative mh He is saying that already they are locked in negative even though they have heard a clear delineation of the gospel. They are expressing negative volition at the point of gospel hearing.

            “the Father, who hath sent me draw him” — the word ‘draw’ is e)lkuw. This word was used in the Greek for drawing a sword out of a scabbard, for a fisherman drawing a net through the water. It was also used for a public speaker drawing or attracting a crowd by his message or by some other means. Here it means to be attracted to, to be drawn to something. The word as used here refers to positive volition at the point of God-consciousness. There are two points at which every person faces the issue of relationship with God. First of all, God-consciousness. This occurs by the act of the mentality of the soul. The issue he faces is positive or negative volition. If he goes on positive volition at that point he simply is saying he wants to know God, he wants relationship with God. On the other hand, if he goes on negative he expresses at that point his indifference toward God. The crowd standing before Jesus Christ went on negative signals. This is brought out by two Greek words, e)an mh which should be translated “unless.” [e)an is the word “if” in the third class condition; mh is the negative] Why is He putting the word ‘unless’ in here? It is clear in the Greek but not clear in the English. Because e)lkuw actually describes positive volition. Whom does the Father draw? The Father draws those who go on positive signals at the point of God-consciousness. And how does He draw them, attract them? He attracts them with the gospel. At the point of God-consciousness when a person goes on positive volition God is therefore responsible to provide gospel information for that person — John 7:17; Acts 17:27; Jeremiah 29:13. God will provide positive signals with the gospel. In other words, everyone has a chance. The word e)lkuw simply indicates that when a person at the point of God-consciousness goes on positive volition then the Father will then provide in some manner gospel information whereby that person can express his positive volition by faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself is the one the Father is using at this point to ‘draw.’ The word e)lkuw is an aorist active subjunctive. The aorist tense refers to the point of time of gospel hearing. The active voice indicates that the individuals who went on positive volition at the point of God-consciousness will hear the gospel at the point of gospel hearing. When they hear it, it is the gospel which will draw them. In other words, they will hear the gospel or some portion of the gospel and they will respond to that gospel through positive volition again.

            “and I will raise him up at the last day” — the word for raising up here is the future active indicative of a)nisthmi [ana = up; isthmi = to stand]. To stand up becomes technical for resurrection. The future active indicative indicates that the resurrection is future and that no resurrections have occurred. At the time Jesus was speaking on the steps in Capernaum no one in history had been resurrected. That means that people who were brought back to life were resuscitated, and they died eventually. In resurrection you never die again, you are not subject to death. Why? Because Jesus Christ is the firstfruits and until He is resurrected no one is resurrected. The last day here refers to the last day in a dispensation.

            There was a last day in the Age of the Gentiles. It was the day when the first UN building [Babel] was destroyed. There was no resurrection. Why? The principle of resurrection is when the dispensation is over you get a resurrection body, and that is true except that in a dispensation that ends before Christ is resurrected they cannot. So what happened was that all of the Old Testament believers cooled their heels in Paradise, waiting for a propitious moment, i.e. after Jesus Christ is resurrected. The Age of Israel has three parts — the period of the patriarchs [Abraham to Moses] , the period of the law [Moses to Christ]. That interrupted the Jewish Age, it isn’t over yet. We have the insertion of the Church Age and then the conclusion and third part of the Jewish Age which is the Tribulation. The resurrection of the Church occurs in the future and is followed immediately by the Tribulation. At the end of the Tribulation all Old Testament believers will be resurrected. At the end of the Millennium there will be another resurrection, that of the Millennial saints. But Christ is the firstfruits. The end of the Church Age — 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; the end of the Jewish Age — Isaiah 26:19,20; the Tribulational martyrs are included — Matthew 24:31.

            The emphasis in the phrase at the end of this verse is eternity. This is because these Galileans are only interested in phase two, life on this earth. They want Down wit Rome! They want to skip the cross and get on to the Roman empire. They wanted a kingdom now. They had in their minds something contrary to the plan of God and Jesus is not going along with it. Because He knows Bible doctrine perfectly He is going to stick with the plan of God, the will of the Father.

            Verse 45 — we have a quotation. “It is written” — perfect passive participle. It is written in the past with the result that is stands written forever, and we now have a quotation from Isaiah 54:13.

            “in the prophets” — the prophets is one of three sections in the Old Testament canon. The first is the Torah, the second is the Nabiim or the prophets. In the prophets we have Isaiah. The third is the Kathubim or the writings. Isaiah 54 is a Millennial passage. This passage is talking about how all children are going to learn Bible doctrine, but when Jesus quotes this passage He takes the word ‘children’ out to show that this is not being fulfilled but it is a principle He is using to illustrate e)lkuw.

            “they all” — is substituted for the word ‘children’ in the Hebrew. It refers to the human race and immediately He is using this passage as an illustration. The literal fulfillment of the passage in Isaiah is the Millennium but ‘they all’ illustrates the principle of the entire human race. Every member of the human race gets a chance, from Adam right down to the end of the Millennium, at the point of God-consciousness and at the point of gospel hearing.

            “shall be” — future active indicative. The future is from the point of God-consciousness. “Shall be” is the future of e)imi, an absolute status quo. The future tense here indicates that even though this crowd went on negative at the point of God-consciousness God still gave them another crack at it at the point of gospel hearing.

            “taught” — didaktoj in the plural here. The noun is in the plural because it means that each person will be taught. These people are didaktoj at the point of gospel hearing and they are still on negative signals.

            “of God” is qeou, genitive of source. God is the source of providing the information. The genitive of source is important. It goes right back to e)lkuw, the Father will draw them.

            “Every man, therefore, that hath heard, and hath learned” — these are two descriptive verbs, both aorist active participles, and both of them express gospel hearing. “Hath heard” is the actual hearing of the gospel as Jesus presented it — a)kouw which means simply to hear the content of the message, which they did. There is another word also here — manqanw which means to comprehend what is heard. Jesus made sure they understood the issue. These two aorist participles actually describe the e)lkuw concept. These two aorist participles preceded the main verb, e)lkuw, so they got the full treatment and had the maximum attraction. God has an attractiveness to the unbeliever and that attractiveness is only the gospel. If the unbeliever rejects the grace of God at the point of the gospel he rejects God and God’s salvation.

            “of the Father” is a prepositional phrase, and the word ‘of’ is the preposition para which means immediate source. From the immediate source of the Father, which means they are not only getting the gospel, they are getting it from the one who is going to die on the cross for them. They all rejected Him but when Christ goes to the cross He will bear every sin of every member of that crowd.

            “cometh unto me” — e)rxomai plus proj plus the accusative which has to do with relationship. Literally, it is “coming face to face with me” and it means having a relationship with me.

            Verse 46 — why do they have to come to Christ? “Not that any man hath seen the Father.” This means no one has actually seen God. ‘Seen” means to observe from eternity past, in the perfect tense.

            “save” means ‘except’ ; “which is from God” — from the immediate source of God. This is the word para and it explains the para in the previous verse. They were getting it from the immediate source of God because Jesus Christ is the immediate source of God.

            “hath seen the Father” — Jesus Christ has seen the Father in the past with the result that He always sees the Father. The only time when He didn’t see the Father was the last three hours of the crucifixion when He was bearing our sins in His own body on the tree.

            Verse 47 — Jesus is going to make a point of doctrine. “I say unto you [for your advantage], He that believeth on me.” The present tense is dramatic present. The most dramatic decision in history made by any individual is faith in Jesus Christ. Active voice: you have to make the decision; “keeps on having everlasting life.” He never will lose it.

            Verse 48 — “I keep on being the bread of life.” This is the absolute status quo verb, present linear aktionsart.

            Verse 49 — “Your fathers did eat manna in the desert, and are [physically] dead.”

            Verse 50 — “This is the bread which cometh down from heaven (Jesus is speaking of Himself), that a man may eat thereof, and not die [spiritually].”

 

            The doctrine of manna

            1. Manna came down every day, but it didn’t. Exodus 16:4,5,22-27. God rained this manna every morning, Sunday through Friday, before the sun came up. The seventh day of the week is Saturday, the Sabbath, when there was no manna. But God gave them double manna on Friday. If the Jews believed the word and gathered the double portion on Friday they wouldn’t go hungry on Saturday. In other words, it pays to believe the Word, the divine instructions. Some doctrine is used daily, like rebound and promises. There are some doctrines we use only when we are under special pressure.

            2. Those who gathered a lot did not have any more than those who gathered a little. Exodus 16:16-18. People only gathered what they could eat. Each person had a different capacity for eating. So the person with the lesser capacity learned that he wasn’t to try to eat the amount his neighbour with a greater capacity did. He learned from this that he was to live his own life as unto the Lord. At the end of the day both will be full. We as believers have different capacities. Capacity is developed through learning doctrine, through orientation to the plan of God, orientation to the grace of God. Capacity is something that is developed through growth. No two believers have reached the same stage of growth. Capacity is based upon knowledge of doctrine.

            3. Manna spoiled, but it didn’t spoil. Exodus 16:19,20. The Jews had to learn to obey the Word. That which they didn’t eat was spoiled. That tells us that the Bible is loaded up with doctrine for you — doctrine which means blessing, doctrine which means orientation to grace, doctrine which is your life. But that doctrine is no good unless you take it out and put it in your human spirit by exposing yourself to Bible teaching. The doctrine in the Bible doesn’t help you, it is the doctrine in your soul that does. You can never learn enough doctrine. Manna which was taken in and assimilated was not spoiled.

            4. Manna spoiled if kept over night, but it was preserved for hundreds of years. How? Exodus 16:19,20. They took manna and put it in a golden pot and placed it in the ark. It stayed there generation after generation and was never spoiled. It was in the ark. Exodus 16:33; Hebrews 9:4. What does it mean to us? The tabernacle in which the ark of the covenant was located speaks of doctrine. It is doctrine in the human spirit which is the doctrine we can use; doctrine in the Word we cannot use. it we let the doctrine sit in the Word then we have a miserable life. But we wipe that out by transferring doctrine from the Word to our human spirit. The Word of God is preserved. While during those 40 years in the desert the manna spoiled, in the ark of the covenant it did not spoil. So now the ark of the covenant = the Word of God, and the Word of God will have that doctrine there forever, and even though the Exodus generation failed, failure in any generation does not hinder us from getting doctrine. It is still there and available for anyone who is on positive signals.

            5. Manna melted, but it didn’t melt. Exodus 16:21. Only manna gathered withstood the rays of the sun. Just at dawn they would come out of their tents and the manna was all over the ground. They would take it into their tents. Manna on the inside was preserved but as soon as the sun came up all of the manna which had not been gathered was melted. Again, only Bible doctrine which we have learned can we apply. We cannot apply what we do not know. The sun rising speaks of the pressures of life, the tragedies of life, the difficulties of life, the frustrations of life, and if we are minus doctrine we are going to sit in panic palace and act like any unbeliever. The believer must know Bible doctrine. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

            6. Manna tasted good to some and bad to others. Exodus 16:31 cf. Numbers 21:5. What is the difference? Mental attitude. There are two attitudes toward doctrine on the part of the believer.

            7. While manna was free to those who received it (grace), it was expensive to those who rejected it. For those who accepted Christ, eternal life. For those who rejected Him, eternal condemnation. Salvation is free, but for those who reject it it is very expensive, it is eternity in the lake of fire — John 3:36.

            8. Regardless of how the Jewish believers sinned and failed in the Exodus generation God gave them manna every day as promised. Exodus 16:35.

 

            Verse 50 — “This is” is present linear aktionsart, absolute status quo verb, “This keeps on being.” Christ is now referring to Himself. “This is” is a transition from the literal manna given in the desert to the Lord Jesus Christ. In the desert the manna sustained physical life but Christ is now speaking in the synagogue at Capernaum the manna or Christ the bread of life provides eternal life. Just as manna sustained physical life during the 40 years in the desert so Christ provides eternal life. In the case of manna they would eat it. Eating is a picture of faith. In the case of Christ they had to have faith in Him or believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God — John 6:47.

            “which cometh down from heaven” — the incarnation. The incarnation is the most dramatic point in history and begins a series of dramatic points leading to the cross, burial, resurrection, ascension, and session.

            “that” introduces a purpose clause; “a man may eat thereof and not die” — notice at the end of verse 49, “are dead.” The manna sustained physical life to a certain point and then these people are dead — physical death. Now, “not die” is the contrast. They are dead; Jesus Christ is offering Himself, He provides eternal life. But we have a difference of death here. The words “eat this bread” is an analogy to faith, the aorist tense is the point of time when a person believes in Christ. That point of time is divorced from time and perpetuated forever — aorist tense. The word for eating is the common word for eating food — e)sqiw. Jesus is going to also use another word, trwgw, which means to eat vegetables and fruit; e)sqiw means to eat everything, and especially meat. Jesus is going to switch eventually from e)sqiw to trwgw because in between those who are unbelievers listening to His message about the bread of life are going to start to murmur, they are going to reject, they are eventually going to state their rejection and peel off; and Jesus, before they peel off, is going to explain that e)sqiw is not literally eating His flesh. This is a great passage for two reasons: a) It shows that the Bible itself when it is not being taken literally has its own set of rules for a passage which must be taken spiritually. When Jesus says “eat of me” He is not saying for them to start chewing on Him. This is not operation cannibalism. But those who rejected Christ were offended. Why are they offended? Because they fail to see that this is spiritual, not material, not physical. b) The Roman Catholics have a false doctrine called transubstantiation in which they say that the bread becomes the literal body of Christ in the communion, and the cup becomes the literal blood of Christ. The body is the thing they emphasise. There is an offshoot of this used by the Lutherans called consubstantiation. Neither is true, and here is a passage which indicates what Jesus meant when He said “This is [represents] my body which is given for you; take and eat thereof.” There is no cannibalism in the Lord’s table. The eating of the bread is always an analogy to faith. Why is eating such an excellent analogy to faith? Because anyone can eat; anyone who is normal has the ability to eat. The whole point is that good people eat, bad people eat, moral people eat, amoral people eat, immoral people eat, any kind of a stinker you want to name can eat, nice people eat. Eating is physical illustrating the spiritual. Whenever you find the word “eating” or “drinking” in the spiritual realm it refers to faith. When a person rejects Christ as saviour he cannot understand these things, he is offended by these things, and many of these disciples now use the message of our Lord as an excuse to break off. This is because while Jesus made it clear to them they refused to accept that there is a spiritual area in which a message can be brought and it is not literal. Jesus was actually saying “Believe on me.”

            “this is the bread” — Christ is now referring to Himself as the bread of life, as He did in verse 35.

            “which cometh down” — God’s plan. The Father’s plan calls for the incarnation. Jesus Christ has to be humanity in order to go to the cross and bear our sins. As deity He cannot do so. This has to do with the hypostatic union.

            “a man” — this means any member of the human race; “may eat” — eating here is in the aorist tense, the point of time when we believe in Christ. The active voice: the subject produces the action of the verb; you must believe for yourself. The subjunctive mood — free will, you may believe or may not. If you believe you will be saved, if you do not believe you will not be saved. The subjunctive mood is important here because it indicates the potentiality of salvation. While Christ did all of the work you still have to respond and appropriate in a non-meritorious way, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Or reject: “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life.”

            Verse 51 — “I am” is the present active indicative of e)imi, the status quo verb — “I keep on being.”

            “the living” — present active participle of the verb zaw which means “always living.” “I am that always living bread.” This anticipates resurrection, ascension, and session. It also indicates the fact that when you believe in Christ you enter into union with Christ, Christ is zaw [living], and when you enter into union with Christ you are zaw [living]. 1 John 5:11,12; “which came down from heaven” — the incarnation.

            “if any man eat of this bread” —’if’ introduces a third class condition, e)an. Salvation demands the expression of man’s free will in a non-meritorious manner compatible with grace.

            “he shall live” — future tense indicating eternal life in the future as well as now.

            “and the bread that I will give is my flesh” — this is where those who are negative begin to get upset because He has been using the Word e)sqiw and now He uses the word “flesh.” The giving is comparable to grace. Whenever you find God giving He is giving on the basis of who and what He is, He gives on a non-meritorious basis.

            “which I will give” is not found in the original; “which is for the life of the world” — the bread is for the life of the world. Christ’s flesh, the humanity of Christ, is the basis of salvation, it was necessary for Him to become true humanity.

            “for the life of the world” — this is the use of the preposition u(per in its substitutionary sense. The ordinary word for substitution is a)nti which means “against” and also “instead of.” But u(per means a substitution for a purpose. So generally, u(per is used wherever you find salvation. Christ died on behalf of our sins. U(per denotes purpose and design. In other words, the death of Christ wasn’t accidental, it was all a part of the design and plan of God.

            `The third message, verses 52-59. This is to the disputing crowd. Now they are becoming openly antagonistic and the reason is because they have finally found some daylight in the word e)sqiw used in connection with the flesh of Christ. This will be the message which will cause the final break with those on negative volition.

            Verse 52 — “The Jews” is the Galilean crowd, the nationalists who want to throw off the yoke of the Romans; “strove among themselves” — ‘strove’ is taken from a Greek word, maxomai [maxh = combat] which means to quarrel and to fight. ‘Strive’ means they kept on quarreling. There is now a split among the disciples; “among themselves” is proj plus accusative. In other words, the unbelievers in the crowd started arguing face to face with each other. Between the second message and the third everyone turns around and they start to argue.

            “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” They are thinking operation cannibal. They use the same word that Jesus used, e)sqiw which means to eat meat. So Jesus in His third message is going to start using trwgw which means to eat vegetables. When He does they know that He is not talking about literally eating His flesh, He is talking about faith. He switches His verb to show that this is a spiritual concept, not a literal, physical concept.

            Verse 53 — “A point of doctrine which I keep on saying to you.” Jesus is going to repeat many things that He has previously said. He is going over the whole thing again, still using bread, still talking about eating bread. The bread is His flesh. But He is going to change the verb now to show that this is spiritual.

            “except” is a third class condition with the negative; “ye eat the flesh of the Son of man,” and again He uses the aorist tense of e)sqiw. The flesh is a reference to the perfect humanity of Christ bearing our sins; “and drink his blood” — not literal blood. The blood of Christ always refers to one thing: the spiritual death of Christ on the cross. This is the whole picture of propitiation. The person of Christ [flesh] dying on the cross satisfies the righteousness of the Father; the blood of Christ [Christ bearing our sins] satisfies the justice of the Father. The righteousness and justice of the Father are His holiness, the holiness of the Father is satisfied by the cross. Love and eternal life can now come to man by way of the cross. The person of Christ plus the work satisfies God the Father. Since blood is a liquid and bread is solid eat and drink are both used to represent faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

            Verse 54 — “eateth” is a present tense now, and He now switches from e)sqiw to trwgw; “drinketh” is a present active participle, it illustrates faith; “my flesh” — the humanity of Christ is impeccable, satisfying the righteousness of the Father; “blood” — the work of Christ on the cross satisfying the justice of the Father. Flesh and blood together answer to the whole doctrine of propitiation.

            “hath” is present active indicative, meaning “always will have”; “eternal life.”

            Verse 55 — “For my flesh is meat indeed” is not what it says. It says, “My flesh is true food.” In other words, He is telling them again this is a spiritual analogy. “True food” is to give you eternal life; “my blood is true drink,” literally. By true food and true drink He is referring to eternal salvation. This was analogy.

            Verse 56 — He states again eating flesh and drinking blood as analogies to faith in Jesus Christ. Now He adds something in anticipation of the Church Age — “dwelleth in me.” Present active indicate of the verb menw which means to abide. When people in the Church Age accept Christ they dwell in Christ.

            “and I in them” — every believer is in union with Christ; Christ indwells the believer.

            Verse 57 — “As the living Father.” The Father, too, has eternal life. The word ‘living’ is present active participle of zaw; “hath sent me” — this means to send on a mission.

            “and I live by the Father” — dia plus accusative [dia plus the genitive always means through, or through the instrumentality of] means “because of.” This should be translated “I keep on living because of the Father.” This is because in eternity past God the Father made provision for Jesus Christ in phase two, every step of the way.

            “so he that eateth me” — again He uses the word trwgw to show that this is not literal eating, it is an analogy to faith.

            “he shall live because of me” — For thirty-three years from the virgin birth to the cross God the Father took care of Jesus Christ. Now we have dia plus the accusative again, and this time it has to do with phase two of the believer, the believer in time, from the time of salvation to death or the Rapture. He provides everything that we need.

            Verse 58 — Jesus repeats. “This is the bread that came down from heaven.” Repetition is the only way to communicate. Christ is the bread of life. Incarnation of Christ.

            “not as your fathers did eat manna in the desert and are dead” — they are dead because after that forty years the generation had died out under the sin unto death. They ate manna that sustained them while they were alive but manna could not sustain in death because literal bread cannot sustain in eternity. You must have the bread of life, and the bread of life for eternity is Jesus Christ.

            “he that eateth of this bread” — the impersonal approach. He goes over and over the same thing with variations so that they get the point; “shall live forever.”

            Verse 59 — all of these messages are given in the same place at the same time.

            Verses 60-71, the message to the disciples.

            Verse 60 — the word ‘disciple’ here means simply those who are hanging around, it doesn’t mean those who believe in Him. There are some who believer. These are those who have been following Jesus during His Galilean tour.

            “when they had heard” — aorist active participle, “having heard.” The word a)kouw is used twice in this verse. It means three different things: a) to hear; b) to hear and understand; c) to hear and accept. First of all, they heard the message. They have heard the first three messages and are about to hear the fourth.

            “This is a hard saying; who can hear it?” ‘This is’ is present active indicative of e)imi, “this keeps on being.” The word ‘hard’ is sklhroj. This is something onomatopoetic and it means something that grates on the mind, something that antagonises the mind. It doesn’t mean not understood. It is something that is offensive to the individual. We are now hearing from them the fact that they are on negative signals at the point of gospel hearing; “saying” is logoj — “word.” They are referring to His messages.

            “who is can hear it?” should be “who is able to hear and obey.” The present active indicative of dunamai — “who has the ability,” “to hear” — this time a)kouw means to hear and obey. These are people whose minds have been irritated by the grace of God. They are not believers. They have heard before and have rejected, and this rejection brings to a close the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ in Galilee.

            Verse 61 — Jesus was not taken by surprise. “When Jesus knew in himself.” The word to know here means He always knew — second perfect active of the verb o)ida which means inherent knowledge. The second perfect active means that in eternity past He knew it. In other words, it refers to His omniscience.

            “that his disciples murmured” — the word for murmur here means a verbal expression of negative volition; “at it” is literally, “concerning this” — peri, concerning the message.

            Verse 62 — Literally “If [3rd class condition] you should see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?” (Then would you understand?) What is the approach now? What does this mean? If Jesus Christ is the bread of life and He ascends up where is the flesh, the bread of life? In heaven. Where are these people who are supposed to eat? On earth. Once more He is going over it: what does eat mean? Jesus will be in heaven, His humanity is going to ascend. You standing on the earth cannot stretch up and take a bite out of Jesus Christ! So eating represents faith, non-meritorious perception/appropriation. They said ‘This grates on our minds.’ Jesus said, in effect, this isn’t cannibalism, this is spiritual. Eating the flesh is a spiritual principle. The Son of man is a title for the Lord Jesus Christ in the hypostatic union.

            “where he was before?” — this is imperfect tense which means where He kept on being forever in the past. He was God when He was there before, He goes back as the God man.

            Verse 63 — Here is the last call to these people. “I am not talking about cannibalism. It is not a literal eating of the flesh, it is not a literal drinking of the blood.,” says Jesus.

            “It keeps on being the spiritual” — in other words, eating the flesh and drinking the blood keeps on being a spiritual issue; “that qickeneth; the flesh provideth nothing” — literal physical food cannot provide it. This is not literal flesh, this is a spiritual issue.

            “The words that I have spoken unto you” — perfect tense here [I spoke them in the past with results that will go on forever]; “they are spiritual” — He makes it perfectly clear; “they are doctrine [truth].”

            Verse 64 — “But” sets up the contrast, this is the end of the line. He has made the issue clear for the last time; “there are” — present active indicative, there keep on being; “some of you [from among you] that believe not ” — literally, keep on not believing. Every time He makes the issue clear they say no.

            “For Jesus knew from the beginning [in eternity past] who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.” Why does He make a distinction? Those who keep n saying no in the crowd are going to withdraw, they will depart from Him. But there is one who will not depart who will betray Him and that one is Judas Iscariot. He will hang around. What Jesus said was so strong that it drove out those who rejected Him, with one exception. And Jesus is not taken in by Judas even though he hangs around.

            Verse 65 — “And he said” is imperfect linear aktionsart and it should be translated “And he had said” in verse 44.

            “Therefore I say unto you that no man can come to unto me, except it were given unto him.” Notice a contrast here. In verse 44 when Jesus said this the first time we have the verb e)lkuw — “unless someone draw him.” But here we have didomi, “unless it is given him.” The change is to show the principle that Jesus provides everything necessary and only negative volition actually stands in the way. Translation: “And he had said, Because of this I said unto you [in the past] that no one can come unto me, except it were given unto him.” This means that the Father had a plan, He provided salvation for positive volition. Those who are on negative volition will not accept the gift, and therefore while everything is provided it is their own free will that causes them to reject. The words “except it were given” is in the perfect tense. Salvation was provided in eternity past with the result that it is available to all now. It is in the passive voice: salvation is received under grace. Subjunctive mood: salvation is conditional depending on whether you go on positive or negative signals.

            “of my Father” is really “from my Father” in the Greek.

            Verse 66 — “From that time” is not what the Greek says — e)k toutou, should be translated “from this [message].”

            “went back” — but they didn’t go back at all, they took off! This is a)perxomai [a)p = ultimate source; erxomai = to go]. To go from the ultimate source of one’s self is to go away. The word means to depart.

            “and walked with him no more [no longer, literally]” — they stopped walking with Him, in other words. “With” is the preposition of association. They stopped their association with Him entirely.

            Verse 67 — Now they have left, they have all walked out. There are twelve men standing there. The crowd was at least 5000+. They have rejected Him and walked out.

            “Will ye also go away?”

            Verse 68 — “Then Simon Peter answered” is an aorist passive participle and should be “Simon Peter had an answer.”

            “Lord” — he recognises that Jesus Christ is God [kurioj = deity]; “to whom” — the word ‘to’ is the preposition proj plus the accusative and it should be “face to face with whom.” Face to face means personal relationship. Where else can we get salvation, is what he is saying.

            “shall we go” — this is, again, a)perxomai which means to depart; “you keep on having the words of eternal life.” In other words, those people are going out to nothing. Peter is saying, ‘I am staying for the saviour, I am staying for something.’

            Verse 69 — “And we believe” is literally, “We have believed.” This is a perfect tense, perfect active indicative. Active voice: Peter is speaking for himself and all of them. We have believed in the past with the result that we keep on being saved.

            “and are sure” — again the perfect tense and is translated “and are confident.” This is the verb ginwskw which means to know. In the perfect tense it means we have known in the past with the result that we have confidence now.

            Verse 70 — Jesus says, Peter you are right but there is one exception: “one of you keeps on being a devil.” Devil possessed.

            Verse 71 — “He kept on speaking of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon; for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.” When all this is clarified Jesus and the disciples depart from Capernaum. His ministry is finished in the northern part of the kingdom for a while.