Lesson 20: John 6:60-71 - The Bread of Life (part 3)
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”
61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?
62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)
65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,
69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.”
71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.
We take one last look at Jesus’ saying He is the Bread of Life. In the last lesson Jesus said without the Bread of Life there is no eternal life. Here Jesus continues with this thought – only the Bread of Life will make it possible for a person to go to Heaven. Some people even turned away from Jesus because of His statements.
Many of His disciples found this teaching totally unacceptable. Many also left and no longer walked with Him. Jesus asked the twelve if they were leaving too. Peter confirmed they could not go because nobody else spoke the words of eternal life.
The Bible warns us not to try to understand Scripture with human wisdom. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” We must always be careful not to set our faith on just our understanding of one verse or passage alone – if it does not completely agree with everything we read in the rest of the Bible we can know for certain we have misunderstood this one verse or passage. Each time we open the Bible to read, we need to first ask the Holy Spirit to teach us Jesus’ truth (John 16:13). Only when He teaches us will we be able to say with Peter, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
How then can we understand the Bible? Every time we open the Bible to read it, whether we have been a Christian for 5 minutes or 50 years, we ask Jesus to teach us through the words we are about to read. We know we are hearing His teaching correctly when what we understand agrees with all the rest of Scripture.
*Have you read anything in the Bible that made you think you no longer wanted to follow Jesus?
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?”
61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?
62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)
65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”
66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,
69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”
70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.”
71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.
We take one last look at Jesus’ saying He is the Bread of Life. In the last lesson Jesus said without the Bread of Life there is no eternal life. Here Jesus continues with this thought – only the Bread of Life will make it possible for a person to go to Heaven. Some people even turned away from Jesus because of His statements.
Many of His disciples found this teaching totally unacceptable. Many also left and no longer walked with Him. Jesus asked the twelve if they were leaving too. Peter confirmed they could not go because nobody else spoke the words of eternal life.
The Bible warns us not to try to understand Scripture with human wisdom. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” We must always be careful not to set our faith on just our understanding of one verse or passage alone – if it does not completely agree with everything we read in the rest of the Bible we can know for certain we have misunderstood this one verse or passage. Each time we open the Bible to read, we need to first ask the Holy Spirit to teach us Jesus’ truth (John 16:13). Only when He teaches us will we be able to say with Peter, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
How then can we understand the Bible? Every time we open the Bible to read it, whether we have been a Christian for 5 minutes or 50 years, we ask Jesus to teach us through the words we are about to read. We know we are hearing His teaching correctly when what we understand agrees with all the rest of Scripture.
*Have you read anything in the Bible that made you think you no longer wanted to follow Jesus?