Jesus' Ministry, strictly per John (part 2)

   1. Jesus is the Bread of Life

• John 6:22-40 Jesus "explained" the idea of what he was "teaching" when he fed the 5,000+, that the disciples had the special bread (the daily bread) because they had Jesus (the bread of life) in their hearts: The next day, after walking on the water (which was the night after he had fed the 5,000+, the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore, the NE shore, of the lake realized that only 1 boat had been there, & that Jesus had not entered it with His disciples, but that They had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias of the western shore landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread supplied by the boy after the Lord had given thanks. Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor His disciples were there, they got into a boat & went to Capernaum in search of Jesus. When they found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, Rabbi, when did You get here? Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, you are looking for Me, not because you saw miraculous signs & want to believe but because you ate the loaves & had your fill-- receiving them with joy. See Parable1 1.(all 3 pts. in Explained to the disciples). Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give you-- as he moves into your hearts. The same parable referred to says that those who received with joy soon loses as he lasts only a short time (Matt 13:20-21; Mark 4:16-17; Luke 8:13). On Him GOD the FATHER has placed HIS Seal of Approval. Then they asked Him, What must we do to do the works GOD requires? Jesus answered, The Work of GOD is this: to continually believe in the 1 HE has sent. So they asked Him, What miraculous sign then will You give that we may see it & believe You? What will You do? Is this not true, the simple truth: Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: HE gave Them bread from Heaven to eat (quoted/from Exo 16:4; Neh 9:15 & Psa 78:24-25)-- end of story (they just received)! Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the descended symbolic bread from Heaven, but it is My FATHER who now gives you the true bread fom Heaven. For the Bread of GOD is He who comes down personally from Heaven & directly gives life to the world-- to all who receive him. Sir, they said, from now on give us this bread. Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me, not just having received with joy, will never go hungry, & he who believes in Me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen Me, the miraculous sign as I fed the 5,000+, & still you do not believe.  All that the FATHER gives Me will come to Me & whoever comes to Me I  will never drive away-- I will never leave nor forsake. For I have come down from Heaven not to do My will but to do 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. For My FATHER'S Will is that everyone looks [comes] to the Son & believes in Him shall both have [endure & remain confident that he has] eternal life, & I will raise Him up at the last day.

   2. Jesus claimed that his flesh should be "eaten" & his blood "drunk"

• John 6:41-59 Near/in Capernaum (see the very last v. of this passage below, v. 59): At this the Jews began to grumble about Him because He said, I am the bread that came down from Heaven. They said, 'Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father & mother we know? How can He now say, I came down from Heaven?' Stop grumbling among yourselves, Jesus answered. No 1 can come to Me unless the FATHER who sent Me draws him, & I raise Him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: They will all be taught by GOD (from Isaiah 54:13). Everyone who listens to the FATHER & learns from HIM comes to Me. No 1 has seen the FATHER except the 1 who is from GOD; only He has seen the FATHER. I tell you the truth, He who believes has everlasting life. I am the Bread of life. Your Fathers ate manna in the desert, yet They died & are now the cloud of witnesses. But here is [I stand as] the bread that comes down from Heaven, which a man may eat & not die. I am the living bread that came down from Heaven. If any man spiritually eats of this bread, He will live forever. The bread is My flesh, which I will give some months hence for the life of the world. Then  the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, 'How can this man give us His flesh to eat?' Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man & drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh & drinks My blood has eternal life, & I will raise Him up at the last day. For My flesh is real food & My blood is real drink. Whoever eats My flesh & drinks My remains in Me, & I in Him. Just as the Living FATHER sent Me & I live because of the FATHER, so the 1 who feeds on Me [digests my word] will live because of Me [I have ordained it so]. This is the bread that came down from Heaven. Your forefathers ate manna & died, but He who feeds on this bread will live forever-- see John 3:35. He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

   3. How many disciples reacted

• John 6:60-71 Similar to what we just saw (Jews began to grumble): On hearing it, many of His disciples said, 'This is a hard teaching-- that Jesus was the embodiment of the manna that God had long ago provided through Moses (Why was it an issue in Jesus' time). Who alive now can accept it?' Aware that His disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to Them, Does this offend You? What if You see the Son of man ascend to where He was before. The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing-- clarifying the matter that he had been talking about eating his physical flesh, that doing such alone made him better than Moses. The words I have spoken are spirit & they are life-- the receiving of them has value only if the said receipt is followed by belief & the acceptance of eternal life. Yet there are some who do not believe. For Jesus had known from the beginning which of Them did not believe & who would eventually betray Him. He went on to say, This is why I told You that no 1 can come to Me unless the FATHER has enabled Him. What was the great offence? The idea that God enables them according to his distantly-scoped will. From this time many of His disciples turned back & no longer followed Him. You do not want to leave too, do You? Jesus asked the 12-- just so that they could make, hear & consider their own verbal/nonverbal response. Simon Peter alone answered Him-- thinking to answer for all, Lord, to whom shall We go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe & know that You are the Holy One of GOD. Then Jesus replied, Have I not chosen You, the 12? Yet 1 of You is a devil also enabled/allowed by God (that his will might be done)! (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though 1 of the 12, was later to betray Him-- a simple example of his accepting the Father's will). 

   4. What Jesus' own brothers suggested

• John 7:1-9 Some time after this, Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from approaching the region of Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take His life prematurely. But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near, Jesus' brothers said to Him, You ought to leave here & go to Judea, so that Your disciples may see the miracles You do. No 1 who wants to become a public figure acts in secret-- not understanding that his desire was to become popular per his Father's timing. Since You are doing these things anyway, show yourself to the world. For even His own brothers did not believe in Him. Therefore Jesus told Them, The right time for Me has not yet come; for You any time is right. The entire world cannot hate You-- you're not bearing their sins (shoot, you'd be a Jewish Idol), but it already does hate Me because I testify that what it does is evil. So You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast [Jerusalem], because the right time for Me has not yet come. Having said this, He supposedly stayed in Galilee.

C. In Jerusalem (for the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles) [19] above

   1. Jesus to the Feast; halfway through the Feast

• John 7:10-31 The political climate of Judea (& Jerusalem) was that there were at least 2 crowds: Jews & non-Jews. The Jews were not just tolerated, but highly respected-- to the point of being feared. We saw above (in 7:1) that Jesus went around in Galilee,  purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take His life. But we shall see that though Jesus irritated the rest, no 1 would say anything publically about Him for fear of the Jews. No 1 dared meddle in their affairs! However, after His brothers had left for the Feast, He went also, not publically, but in secret. Now at the Feast the Jews were watching for Him & asking, 'Where is that man?' Among the multiple crowds there was widespread whispering about Him. Some said, 'He is a good man.' Others replied, 'No, He deceives the people.' But no 1 would say anything publically about Him fo fear of the Jews. Not until halfway through the Feast did Jesus go up to the Temple courts & begin to teach. The Jews were amazed & asked, 'How did this man get such learning without having formerly studied at a seminary?' Jesus answered, My teaching is not My own. It comes directly from HIM who sent Me-- sometimes I open my & it just flows; but as to teaching, that's generally preceded by my climbing a mountainside & praying. Either way, whether casual speaking or while teaching, my words come from my father. If anyone chooses to do GOD'S Will, He will find out whether My teaching comes from GOD or whether I speak on My own. He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the 1 who sent him is a man of truth. Has Moses given You the Law? Yet not 1 of You keeps the Law. Why are You trying to kill Me? You are demon-possessed, the singular (Jewish) crowd answered. Who is trying to kill You? Unlike with Judas, who God had enabled (see c.2. above), & therefore Jesus chose as 1 of the 12, it was not yet the father's will-- Jesus chose to ignore the issue, rather chosing to move on. Jesus said to Them, I did 1 miracle, feeding the 5,000+, & You are all astonished. Yet because Moses gave You the minor matter of circumcision involving a body part (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), You circumcise a child on the Sabbath. Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so [in order] that the Law of Moses be not broken, why are You angry with Me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath-- pointing to the origin of their anger (the 2nd time he had been in Jerusalem, at which time he had healed an invalid on the Sabbath-- see PerJohn1 E.1.; s.a. John 5:9c). At that point some of the other crowd people of Jerusalem begen to ask, 'Isn't this the man They are trying to kill? Here He is, speaking publicly, & They are not saying a convicting word to Him. Have the authorities really concluded that He is the Christ? Here's what we believe: But we know where this man is from; you see, when the real Christ comes, no 1 will know where He is from.' Then Jesus, still teaching in Temple courts, cried out, Yes, you know Me, & you know where I am from. I am not here on My own, but HE who sent Me is true. You do not know HIM, but I know HIM because I am from HIM & HE sent Me. At this they tried to seize Him, but no 1 laid a hand on Him, because His time had not yet come. Sounds like that time much earlier [see Cana/Nazareth B.1.(end)] in his hometown of Nazareth, where All the people in the synagogue were furious when They heard this. They got up, drove Him out of the town, & took Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But He walked right through the crowd & went on His way-- except: Still, many in the crowd faith in Him. However, They said, 'When the Christ comes, will He do more than this man?'