Latest / Finding Jesus Again / Episode 12; The Bread of Life

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Episode 12; The Bread of Life · Finding Jesus Again

• John Smithson: Hey guys, welcome back to episode twelve of Finding Jesus again. We're gonna pick up today where we left off, verse forty one in chapter six. Yesterday we stopped when Jesus was speaking to his disciples and to the people and and telling them that that he is the bread of life and that those who would put their faith and trust in him they would never hunger or thirst again. And we just had I felt like yesterday's podcast was just an amazing reminder of what Jesus has come to to give us and that is to li to give us life. He didn't need to. I mean, he could have wiped us all out and started over. Said, here, let me let me create some people who who will love me, who will care for me the way I care for them, but instead he he redeemed us. Well let's read verse forty one and see how the people responded to his claim to be the bread of life. Verse 41. So then the Jews were complaining about him because he said, I'm the bread that came down out of heaven. So they were complaining. They were like, ⁓ come on, who are you? Who are you to say that? It's blasphemy. How dare you say that? Instead of just receiving it, they were complaining. And they were saying, Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? And so they they're like, We know you. We grew up with you. We know, we know your mom, we know your dad, we know you're not. The bread of life, you're Jesus, the son of a carpenter. Verse 43, Jesus answered and said to them, Stop complaining among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. So, you know, we don't just decide to come to Jesus on our own, but there has to be a drawing. There's nothing about this message that we hear and go, ⁓ that sounds really cool. I think that I want to be a follower of Christ. There's a drawing in this. And so If you've been feeling a draw, if you've been feeling like a tugging at your heart, so to speak, if you've just been feeling an attraction toward Jesus and toward the faith, that's not just, you know, that's not just by chance. God's drawing you. God's talking to you. He's pulling at you. He's showing you the truth. He's showing you the way. Just understand that, that that's God who's drawing you in. No one could come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him on the last day. Again, talking about resurrection, talking about eternal life. You know, we we Jesus has talked a lot in his chapter about the fact that he has come to to give us eternal life. Verse forty five. It is written in the prophets, and they shall be taught of God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father. Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes has eternal life. There it is again. The one who believes has eternal life. Verse forty eight, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the man in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down out of heaven so that anyone may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats from this bread he will live forever, and the bread which I will give for for the life of the world also is my flesh. In case you don't know the story, in the wilderness when the Jewish people were rescued from Egypt, they were a million people in the wilderness. And where are you going to find food for a million people? Well Jesus called. gave them bread from heaven. He sustained them. He saved them. And this daily bread that they received every morning, they would go out and they would gather enough for the day. They couldn't take too much. If they took too much it would rot. They were only to take exactly what they needed. And every day they had to rely on God for their bread, and God sustained them. He fed them. He gave them bread for life. But this pointed to Jesus This was a miracle that took place then that would prophesy about Christ who would come to be the bread of life. And that's what Jesus is saying. He's saying, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate that manna in the wilderness, that miracle that you're talking about, and they all died. But I am the bread that comes out of heaven, so to anyone who eats of this bread, they're not going to die. I am the living bread that come down out of heaven, and if anyone eats from this bread, are going to have eternal life. So back then this manna that came out of heaven gave them life, physical life, but temporarily, but it was pointing to the fact that Jesus, the Messiah, would come, and he would be the bread that would give eternal life. And then Jesus goes on to say that if anyone eats from this bread he will live forever, and the bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. So he's talking about his H his sacrifice here. He's talking about that he has come to die. Now, of course, no one knew what he was talking about. They didn't understand this. They couldn't decipher it. They didn't know what this meant. But Jesus was basically telling them that he was going to give his life for mankind so that they could live forever. Verse fifty two, then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? And I can understand that that sounds pretty crazy. Like this guy saying, Hey, I'm gonna give you my flesh to eat. But he meant it more symbolically, because he was talking about bread, and they were just twisting his words. They didn't want to hear what he had to say. They were just taking what he had to say, and they were twisting it. Verse 53 So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. And I will raise them up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living father sent me and I live because of the Father, the one who eats me he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died, the one who eats their bread will live forever. So again, of course, this obviously caused them to flip their lid because here Jesus is talking about, eat my flesh, drink my blood, and you're going to live forever. But they were missing the entire point. They missed the entire analogy of the manna that came down for their forefathers and how that sustained them. But now God is sending real spiritual bread and real spiritual drink that if we take of it, that we'll live forever. And he's talking about his death, and he's talking about his crucifixion that's going to take place. And also this is where we get communion. You know, later in the New Testament, they use these scriptures to to talk about how we take bread and it reminds us of Jesus' sacrifice, and we take a drink of wine and it reminds us of his blood. This isn't literal. We're not literally eating Christ and drinking his blood, but we're doing it as a reminder. That he is the one that brings spiritual nourishment to us. So let's read verse 59. These things he said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernum. So then many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, This statement is very unpleasant, you think? Who can listen to it? But Jesus, aware that his disciples were complaining about this, said to them, Is this offensive to you? What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh provides no benefit. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life, but there are some of you who don't do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who it was who would betray him. And he said, For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the Father. Verse sixty six we're going to finish it out. As a result of this many of his disciples left and would no longer walk with them. It's interesting there, right? ⁓ I think it's another one of those points kind of jump out at me that I think I've ever really thought about. Many of his disciples left and would no longer walk with him. This was this whole exchange here about eating and drinking of his flesh and blood, it was very offensive to them. And then he even went as far to say, Listen, I know some of you don't believe, and I've known it from the beginning. He knew who really was believing him, and he knew who was not and said that he knew who was going to betray him, and all of us know that he was betrayed by Judas. Jesus already knew that Judas was going to betray him. He already understood what was going to happen and how it was going to happen. And so this offended them. As a result, many of them left. So Jesus said to the twelve, You do not want to leave also, do you? So obviously at this point more than twelve had become his disciples. But they were weeded back down to the twelve, because the rest of them couldn't receive what he was trying to tell them. Simon Peter answered to him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life, and we have already believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. Jesus answered them, Did I myself not choose you the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil. Now he meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him. It's an amazing thing that Jesus knew the entire time that Judas was going to betray him, yet he still loved Judas and he still involved Judas and he still treated him the same way that he treated everybody else, I believe. Judas may not have known that he was the one who was going to betray Jesus. I don't believe that Judas set out From the very beginning to betray Jesus. Some people do believe that, that Judas was kind of a plant who was planted there for that purpose. I don't believe that. I believe that Jesus knew just knew Judas' heart. Jesus just interacted with Judas enough that he knew what was in his heart and what kind of man he was, but Jesus still gave him that opportunity and he still gave him that chance to choose correctly and to choose right. But Judas chose the other. You know, it just goes to show that God loves us enough to to make our own decisions, and God loves us enough even though he knows that we're going to do dumb stuff and that we're going to make mistakes. God still loves us, he still cares for us, and he will embrace us to the very end, even if we choose at the very end to reject him. He he doesn't reject us. He doesn't look down on you and go, I know that you're never going to receive me, so why should I bother with you? He don't do that. He will still draw you. He will still love you. He will still speak to you. He will still do everything he can to communicate his love to you. I just want to say that I appreciate you being part of this journey, and we are just trying to find Jesus again. Past all the noise and all the junk and all the other stuff, we just want to find Jesus again. Thank you for joining this podcast and you guys have a great day.