John 6

Haystack bible commentary

"Stacks and stacks of commentary...."

==John 6:1:

After these things Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias

The opening verse of John 6 serves as a geographical clarification that the Sea of Galilee and the Sea of Tiberias refer to the same body of water in modern-day Israel. This verse marks the beginning of the well-known miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, a significant event in Jesus' ministry.
"After these things"indicates that some time has passed since the previous events in Jesus' ministry.
"Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee": Jesus crossed the large lake that is located in Galilee.
"Which is the Sea of Tiberias": This is a clarification, stating that the Sea of Galilee is also known as the Sea of Tiberias, which was a common name for the lake at that time.
The verse provides a geographical setting for the ensuing events of Jesus' ministry, establishing that a significant portion of his time was spent around this lake. The Sea of Galilee serves as the backdrop for many of Jesus' most famous miracles, including the feeding of the five thousand mentioned in the same chapter. The use of both "Sea of Galilee" and "Sea of Tiberias" highlights the multiple names the lake has been known by historically and how those names became associated with the lake itself

==John 6:2-3:

Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His signs which He performed on those who were diseased. And Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat with His disciples.

The miracles of Jesus had created such a stir in Jerusalem that it was necessary for him to leave the area if He were to teach His disciples. A miracle is the display of divine or superhuman power in some unusual manner; hence its nature to attract attention. Every day God feeds millions of humanity with the multiplied fruits of the earth, and no one marvels. Christ, by a shortened process, changed water into wine and everybody was astonished; but every year God does this in the usual way--through the vine--in almost limitless quantities, and no one is astonished. A divine miracle, therefore, wherever performed, is wrought to heal and to save, and to call attention to the source of divine power.

==John 6:4-14:

Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.  5 Then Jesus lifted up His eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him, He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?”
6 But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.
7 Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.”
8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him,
  9 “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?”
10 Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.
  11 And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.
  12 So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.”
  13 Therefore they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten.
  14 Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

Jesus was not tempted by the flattery and honor bestowed upon Him by men who had a wrong conception of His purpose and ministry.

Just five barley loaves and two little dried fish. You get the feeling that there is no mathematical formula was involved. It’s not that Jesus can feed 5,000 with five barley loaves and would need a sixth loaf to feed an extra thousand. Jesus can provide all they need from whatever is on hand.
The fish probably helped round out the meal that day, but today’s Gospel is essentially a story about bread. Bread is an important sign in scripture for what we need to live. So that when Jesus says we are to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” the answer to that prayer is that we have the essential needs for life for that day.

The Bible loves bread stories, for the story of bread is God’s own story. In scripture you find two big stories of bread that compete with each other. There is the bread of slavery and the bread of freedom.

Here’s the story of the bread of slavery found in the first book of the Bible, Genesis: There once was a boy named Joseph, whose father, Jacob, loved more than all his other sons. He gave his beloved boy Jacob a coat of many colors as a sign of his love. The other brothers were jealous. They thought of killing Joseph. Only slightly cooler heads prevailed as they sold Joseph into slavery then coated Jacob’s special coat with the blood of a slaughtered animal. They took the coat back to their father as a sign that beasts had killed Joseph. The father Jacob was heartbroken and allowed no one to console him.

Once in Egypt, everything Joseph did prospered so that though a slave, he was given more and more responsibility. Joseph rose in status until he was running the household of Potiphar, an officer of the Pharaoh. Joseph was falsely accused of a crime and cast into prison. There he interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh’s baker and cup bearer. Each of his interpretations proved true. The cup bearer remembered this and when Pharaoh was plagued by dreams no one could interpret, this cup bearer mentioned Joseph’s God-given gift for interpreting dreams to his boss.

Joseph told the Pharaoh that his dreams predicted seven good years for agriculture followed by seven years of famine. Further he offered that if Pharaoh would set a discerning person in charge of collecting food during the good years, there would be plenty of food when the famine hit. Pharaoh loved the plan and put Joseph over the massive, nation-wide program of saving grain to make bread in the years of famine.

When the famine hit, Joseph and all Egypt were ready for it. Joseph’s father and brothers were unprepared and the brothers soon came to Egypt looking for food. Joseph eventually told them who he was and had his whole family brought to Egypt to live. This is the story of the movie, “Joseph: The King of Dreams.” However, it is only the set up for the story of the bread of slavery. For Joseph did not give away the grain stored up for time of famine. Joseph sold the grain when the famine hit.

First the people paid for the grain, but soon they ran out of money. Next he made them exchange their plows and oxen for bread. After taking away their means of livelihood, Joseph next made them exchange their land for the bread. Once this was completed and the people were still hungry, Joseph made them exchange their lives for bread. Joseph made them all sell themselves into slavery in order to get bread to eat. From one end of Egypt to another, the land became Pharaoh’s and then he came to own the people too.

This is the bread of slavery. The story would be unbelievable if it had not repeated itself again and again in history. One recent example came when coal was found in the mountains of West Virginia. The people traded away their livelihoods to the coal companies and in time came to have nothing to show for their work. People lost their means of livelihood, their land and their lives as corporations gobbled up the coal-rich countryside. In the end, as one song puts it, they sold their souls to the company store.

Just after the bread of slavery, the second Book of the Bible introduces the story of the bread of freedom. Four hundred long years, the Hebrew people were slaves in Egypt. Then God called to Moses from the burning bush and told him to go to Pharaoh to demand that he set the slaves free. Moses story goes through a number of twists and turns, but in the end, Pharaoh sends Moses and the Hebrews packing. Not only were they free, but they were weighed down with the silver, gold and clothing from the Egyptians.

Of course, they had not gotten too far before Pharaoh changed his mind and came chasing after the former slaves. In the special effects miracle of all time, the Hebrews walked through the sea on dry land and then the water closed in over Pharaoh and his army. The People of God were free indeed. Of course, they were also in a barren wasteland. It wasn’t long before their stomachs were grumbling. Soon after the people were grumbling to go back to Egypt where at least they could eat their fill. They preferred the bread of slavery as it seemed they would otherwise have no bread at all.

Instead, God gave the people Manna, Bread from Heaven. Manna is the daily bread of all time, the bread of freedom. The Hebrews spent 40 years in the uninhabitable wastes of the Sinai Peninsula fed by Manna.

Manna is the exact opposite of Pharaoh’s bread of slavery. Pharaoh came to own the land and then the people because he had stored up bread. But Manna could not be stored. You go out to gather Manna and the one who gathers much ends up with an omer of bread while the one who gathers little gets an omer of bread. Everyone gets just what they need for their labor and no more. Furthermore, if you try to save Manna for the next day, it breeds worms and goes foul. Manna is only good for the day in which you receive it. Then you have to trust God to provide bread for the next day. God used Manna to teach the Hebrews that they could count on God to provide all their needs if they would but trust and obey.

So now we have the two overarching stories of bread—the bread of slavery and the bread of freedom. The bread of slavery is the bread of the market economy. In our market economy, we assume that there are scarce supplies. No matter how much we produce, there will never be enough. You might become a millionaire only to find that a million dollars is not as much as it used to be and you can never afford as nice a lifestyle as your neighbors.
A friend of mine who lives in a very nice gated community on an island outside Savannah told me that when he and his wife visit with neighbors they often come home and say, “Did you notice that they had more stuff than us?” The reply is, “Yes, and their stuff is nicer.” The bread of slavery is the bread that is never enough. You can never arrive because you always need more and to get it, you will have to trade your livelihood and your very life.

The bread of freedom is God’s bread. This is the bread of grace that works under the assumption of abundance. No matter how much you have it is more than enough. This is the bread that Jesus gave to a crowd that day as they lounged around on the grass wondering what this teacher and miracle worker was up to. The little boy only had five barley loaves and two fish. Barley loaves, by the way, were poor man’s food. The nicer stuff was wheat bread. The poor boy with five barley loaves and two little fish turned out to have wealth enough in his lunch sack to provide more food than could be bought with six months wages.

This meal was Jesus’ gift. There was no charge. There were no strings attached. Eat the barley and fish that day and walk away owing no one anything. But what was really taking place was an enacted sermon. Rather than telling the people that God can provide all your needs, Jesus showed them. Jesus could have said, “I am the source of life.” Maybe they would have listened, maybe they wouldn’t. Instead Jesus took a little bit of food and created more than enough, showing that he is the source of life in a way no sermon could.

What is the story of the bread you eat? Who do you count on to provide for your needs? If you counted on Gilman or Durango to provide all your needs, you might have been eating the bread of slavery. If you count on the Navy or any other employer, you could end up going hungry. In the end, any bread other than the daily bread God provides can become the bread of slavery. The path to freedom is trusting that whatever you have is enough because God knows what you need and your Lord won’t let you go hungry.

I don’t want to overly spiritualize this sermon. If you read about the boy with the barley loaves and dried fish and come away with the lesson that God will provide for all your spiritual needs, then you have missed the point. For the story of bread is God’s story. Whether you make God a part of how you get the essential needs for life or not is up to you. What the two stories of bread teach is that we can work the way of the rest of the world and then we’ll always be working from the assumption of scarcity. But if we trust God to provide for our needs we will always have more than enough.

The time this lesson really hit home for me was when my wife, Victoria and I started to tithe. At the time, God wasn’t getting much off our 10%. Heaven would have done a lot better the previous year as we had been working making pretty decent money. But in the meantime, Griffin was born, we had both been working 50 hours a week or more for companies that really wanted our whole lives. We quit, and went to work doing writing and photography freelance. That’s a nice way of saying we never knew where our next meal was coming from.

Every time we got a check, we took ten percent off the top and in some way shape or form gave it to God. This included offerings to churches and to other charities. It was a checkbook without a net. We never knew when we would get paid, though we were pretty sure when the bills would arrive. I argued with God a lot in those days. My chief complaint was daily bread. I hated daily bread. Daily bread gave me heartburn and kept me up at night.
The way daily bread works is that you always have enough to pay that day’s bills, but you are never sure if there will be enough to make the payments due the next day. I asked God for annual bread, monthly bread, or if it wasn’t too much trouble, a bit of weekly bread. God never really provided any of those things. But God did always come through with the daily bread.

What we had was more than enough. It taught me to appreciate the way the Hebrews grumbled during those 40 years in the wilderness. Daily bread is life without a net and it is easy to grumble. But it’s grace too. Daily bread is Manna, bread from heaven, God’s gift that shows that it really will all turn out all right. We might not have all we could desire or all we want, but we have all we need. God has provided bread enough.

Jesus once took bread, blessed it, broke it, gave it to his disciples. Then he said the oddest thing—“This is my body.” The story of bread is the very story of Jesus’ life. The story that began with the people enslaved for want of Pharaoh’s bread ends with Jesus emptying himself to offer up his very life to become the Bread of Life. Jesus came to break the power of the bread of slavery and give you the bread of freedom.
The deeper reality in the story of bread is that Jesus was and is the source of life. God can’t fulfill all your desires or supply all your wants, but God can and will provide all you need according to his riches in glory, if you will just trust God with the very stuff of you life. --Frank Logue

==John 6:15:

Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.

Unlike men with earthly ambitions, Jesus was not tempted by the flattery and honor bestowed upon Him by men who had a wrong conception of His purpose and ministry.

==John 6:16-28:

Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea,
17 got into the boat, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was already dark, and Jesus had not come to them.
18 Then the sea arose because a great wind was blowing.
19 So when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near the boat; and they were afraid.
20 But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”
21 Then they willingly received Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land where they were going.
22 On the following day, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there, except that one which His disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with His disciples, but His disciples had gone away alone—
23 however, other boats came from Tiberias, near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks—
24 when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.
25 And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You come here?”
26 Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
28 Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”

This was Jesus response to his disciples after they had witnessed him walking on water. “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?” They asked. His response in vs 29 wasn’t really a direct answer. So, instead, after just seeing him walk on water, they ask “What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee?” Jesus, instead of offering prosperity, health, and a lifetime of abundant happiness, joy & pleasure, went on talking about bread, blood and eating flesh. (Of course, this was before Osteen, so maybe Jesus was missing the point of Himself:-)). It is the work of God which will provide the ability to believe in the one sent. These guys were always close to Jesus and had just seen him walking on water. They still did not get it. John 6:65: “no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.”

==John 6:29-31:

Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”30 Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do?
31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”

==John 6:32-34:

Yesterday they wanted to crown Him as king; today they wanted another miracle for further proof He was worthy.

Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”

In the Old Testament God provided the Israelites with manna from heaven. They were told only to take what was required for a one day supply and they had to trust that God would send more the next day. The manna served as salvation for the Israelites physical needs on a daily basis. God, however knew of a greater need for the salvation of man's soul and he also had a plan to meet that need -- His Son, the Bread of Life. The Israelites needed to eat daily, but once one has tasted the bread of life he does not need to ask for it again, because his soul has been saved.

==John 6:35-39:

And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
36 But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.
37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.

Salvation by Christ’s work is a gift of grace received through faith. This salvation is total (Romans 8:30) and we see its totality in John 6. In Christ, we are:

1. Satisfied (vv.35-36) No more hunger. No more thirst. When we are full of Christ, we are truly full. He is the end of our fruitless searching for satisfaction, our appetites for idols.

2. Secured (v.37,39) Never cast out, never lost. His securing hand (John 10:28), like his securing love (Romans 8:35-39), is omnipotent. If a Christian is united to Christ, he is as secure as Christ is.

3. Supernaturalized (v.39) Heaven has come down to invade earth in Christ, and by God’s grace, heaven invades the very souls of his children (John 14:17, Romans 8:9) and sets up shop (Ephesians 2:22). Indwelt by the Spirit who seals (Ephesians 1:13), guarantees (2 Corinthians 1:22), instructs (John 16:13), and empowers (Acts 1:8, Ephesians 3:16), we are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17), growing in grace (2 Peter 3:18) and bearing capital-S Spiritual fruit (Galatians 5:22-23), consecrated for the day we will receive our inheritance — glorified bodies (1 Corinthians 15:42-49).

By and in Christ, we are utterly saved

==John 6:40-44:

And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Rejected by His Own
41 The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.”
42 And they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
43 Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves.
44 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.

The late author and astronomer, Carl Sagan, said, "The universe is all that ever was and ever will be." As an astronomer who studied the heavens, he didn't see the glory of God, he didn't see God at all. Julian Huxley, who was an English evolutionary biologist, said, "It is all accident, all a matter of chance. No reason, no end, no purpose at all." These men didn't just view, they studied God's creation, and they never saw Him or His glory. Natural man says that the matter of which the universe is made somehow over billions of years organized itself into all that we see without any outside assistance or intelligence.
What is called, "natural or general revelation" will not bring anybody to God; just like special revelation won't bring anybody to God. The only way man comes to God is if God draws him to Himself:
"No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:44 NASB
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 1 Corinthians 2:14. The man without the Spirit cannot appreciate God's glory through the heavens, or through special revelation. God must first effectually call a man, then man can see His glory in creation and in the Word. How much do dead men see of the glory of God?:
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 1 Corinthians 1:21 NASB This verse destroys every variety of "natural revelation" and natural theology: "The world through its wisdom did not come to know God." Knowledge of God comes only through His propositional revelation. -Berean Bible Church

Thomas Boston

Just as a person who has fallen into a pit cannot be expected to help themselves out of it except through one of two ways—either by relying solely on their own efforts or by seizing and utilizing the help offered by others—likewise, an unconverted person cannot be expected to help themselves out of their natural state except through either the path of the law or the covenant of works, by relying solely on their own efforts without Christ, or through the path of the Gospel or the covenant of grace, by exerting their own strength to lay hold of and make use of the help offered by a Saviour. But alas! the unconverted person is dead in the pit and cannot help themselves in either of these ways. Not the first way, for the first passage tells us that when our Lord came to help us, "we were without strength," unable to recover ourselves. We were ungodly, burdened with guilt and wrath, yet "without strength," unable to endure it or remove it. Thus, all of mankind would undoubtedly have perished had not "Christ died for the ungodly" and brought help to those who could never have recovered themselves. But when Christ comes and offers help to sinners, can they accept it? Can they make use of the help when it is within their reach? No, the second passage tells us they cannot. "No one can come to me," that is, believe in me, John 6:44, "unless the Father draws him." This drawing is what enables them to come when previously they could not; it enables them to come and make use of the offered help. It is a drawing that is always effective, for it can be nothing less than "hearing and learning from the Father," which leads everyone who partakes in it to come to Christ, verse 45. Therefore, it is not merely a moral persuasion but a drawing by mighty power, Ephesians 1:12, which is absolutely necessary for those who have no power in themselves to come and take hold of the offered help. --Thomas Boston; Human Nature in its Fourfold State

==John 6:45-71:

45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
46 Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father.
47 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.
48 I am the bread of life.
49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.
51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
52 The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?”
53 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.
58 This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
59 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.
60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”
61 When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you?
62 What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him.
65 And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.”
66 From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.
67 Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?”
68 But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
69 Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?”
71 He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.