The True Bread from Heaven

MEMORY VERSE: “Jesus said unto them, I am the Bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger: and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” —John 6:35

JOHN 6:35-44, 48

JOHN 6:1-14 gives the account of Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the five thousand. The people who benefited from this miracle were greatly impressed and concluded, “This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.” (vs. 14) “Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king,” so “he departed again into a mountain himself alone.” Jesus’ disciples, meanwhile, entered into a ship. That night a severe storm arose, and Jesus came down from the mountain, walked on the water to join his disciples, and saved them by stilling the storm and making the sea calm.

The next day the multitude that Jesus had fed sought him out at Capernaum. Jesus said to them, “Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.” Then Jesus admonished them, ‘Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life.” (vs. 27) Jesus left no doubt as to what constituted “the meat which endureth,” for in our memory text he said, “I am the Bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” Jesus also said that he was “the living Bread.” This “Bread,” he said, was his flesh, his humanity, which he would give in death for the life of the world.—John 6:51

Jesus used the miracle of feeding the five thousand as a basis for his lesson concerning “the Bread of life.” He also used the experience of the Israelites’ being fed manna in the wilderness. In both cases he emphasized the temporal character of the “Bread.” “Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead,” Jesus said. (vs. 49) The five thousand fed by Jesus on the preceding day knew that what they ate would not give them everlasting life—that they also would die.

But Jesus stressed the fact that be was “that Bread of life” which was foreshadowed by the manna, and that those who believed on him would actually enjoy everlasting life. However, Jesus explained also that this did not mean that their present lives would go on forever, uninterruptedly. It was simply that they would now have everlasting life upon the basis of faith, and that faith would be rewarded with reality in the resurrection. Three times in the lesson Jesus said, “I will raise him up at the last day.”

This is a promise of the resurrection, and would be so understood by Jesus’ hearers at that time. When Lazarus died, Jesus said to Martha, “Thy brother shall rise again.” To this Martha replied, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” (John 11:23,24) The great thousand-year day of the resurrection had been foretold in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament the resurrection is described as a release from the captivity of death. This release of the Moabites and the Elamites from captivity is referred to as taking place “in the latter days.”—Jer. 48:47; 49:39

The Apostle Paul wrote, “If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.”—I Cor. 15:16-20

The reason anyone will be given everlasting life is that Christ died as man’s Redeemer. Paul speaks of this as a “ransom,” stating that Jesus “gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” (I Tim. 2:3-5) Those who are drawn to Jesus by the Heavenly Father, and accept the invitation to follow the Master into sacrificial death, and are faithful to their covenant of sacrifice are exalted to immortality in the resurrection.—Rom. 2:7

This, of course, will be everlasting life, and those who partake of it will reign with Christ in the messianic kingdom. Through the agencies of this kingdom mankind in general will be awakened from the sleep of death and given the opportunity, through belief in Christ and obedience to the laws of his kingdom, to receive “everlasting life,” which will not be immortal. It will be life dependent on continued obedience to divine law.

QUESTIONS

Relate the circumstances leading up to the lesson.

How do those who now believe in Jesus receive everlasting life?

Explain the difference between immortality received by Jesus’ followers and the everlasting life to be received by the faithful of mankind during the Millennium.

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