00:00:00:25 – 00:00:29:11
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for starting the week with us. Grateful that you’re back. We are in the book of John, working our way through the sixth chapter, working our way through a kind of extended story that has to do with Brad and in the aftermath of the feeding of the 5000. Just a quick recap. Jesus has been followed by the crowd, and he’s been talking to them about the fact that they followed him because they wanted more bread, and that he should give them bread that would be eternal.

00:00:29:11 – 00:00:50:39
Clint Loveall
And they they want that, but they don’t understand. And there’s conversation about a sign and and we pick up the story there in verse 34 of chapter six. So read a few verses and then we’ll come back and unpack it. They said to him, sir, give us this bread always. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

00:00:50:43 – 00:01:15:13
Clint Loveall
Whoever comes to me will never be hungry. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe. Everything that the father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me, I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

00:01:15:18 – 00:01:36:13
Clint Loveall
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he’s given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my father, that all who see the son and believe in him may have eternal life. And I will raise them up on the last day.

00:01:36:18 – 00:02:04:28
Clint Loveall
So in this conversation, we get to one of the major distinctive of the Book of John. No other gospel does this, but John will, in, in the words of Jesus, cover seven statements that begin with I am. And there’s 70 instances in the Gospel of John where Jesus uses an I am statement to give himself a title, and this is the first one that we encounter in this gospel.

00:02:04:33 – 00:02:32:00
Clint Loveall
I am the bread of life, and really, this is the kind of pinnacle that John has been working to ever since the feeding of the 5000 story Jesus. John has used that story when Jesus feeds the multitude to kind of build toward this moment where Jesus makes this first proclamation, I am the bread of life and, you know, I think you said this, maybe last week.

00:02:32:00 – 00:02:48:51
Clint Loveall
It could have been further back, Michael. But the words I am have a certain significance in the Scripture, and Jesus is using them here, not simply descriptively, but for a really specific reason.

00:02:48:55 – 00:03:12:16
Michael Gewecke
Now, the I am statements are critical for John’s telling of this story. And you got to remember here that John is writing this account of Jesus’s life, not to just give us a historical record. This isn’t like a textbook that you get in seventh or eighth grade when you’re trying to sort of get the basic fundamentals of, say, American history.

00:03:12:16 – 00:03:37:01
Michael Gewecke
What are the key dates right now? The the thing that John is doing here is present to us through Jesus’s story, the moments in which we can connect with and see the signs of who he actually is. In other words, when you see Jesus’s life, his actions, the things that he does, and thus in the forefront, it may just appear to you.

00:03:37:12 – 00:03:57:18
Michael Gewecke
Here’s another religious teacher, and John goes to great lengths to show us people for whom that’s exactly their interpretation of who Jesus is. But now we’re coming to a pinnacle moment. We’re coming to a time here, and we’re going to see more like it, where Jesus, not in some kind of implicit, you know, wraparound, sort of a subtle way.

00:03:57:18 – 00:04:39:32
Michael Gewecke
No, this is an explicit reference to a well-known John. Way of speaking of God, because when Moses encounters God at the burning bush and he hears those words, those powerful, shaping identity words of who God is, I am who I am. Now Jesus here lands in a very particular rephrasing of that I am what the bread of life, and that should all automatically fire in our minds with all of these other ways that John has worked to set this up, remember the woman who Jesus promised that, she would have water so that she would never once again be thirsty?

00:04:39:32 – 00:05:02:27
Michael Gewecke
Remember, the first miracle was a miracle of wine. Remember now that the the 5000 were just fed this bread. Now Jesus here once again talking about the fact that you’re trying to make me king because you like the fact that your stomach was full for a time. But when Jesus says, I’m the bread of life, he’s not talking about being a baker, though some interpreted it that way.

00:05:02:27 – 00:05:29:45
Michael Gewecke
Know what John wants us to see is that Jesus is claiming to be the sustainer, as God is the. I am that Jesus is the one who lives within God’s people, and that in that spiritual reality, Jesus is the one who’s going to nourish them. This is very, very sophisticated and deep theological movement in which John’s been building up to all the way to this point, and then it’s going to carry on beyond.

00:05:29:45 – 00:05:41:22
Michael Gewecke
So it’s amazing, I think, Clint, how much effort is put into getting us ready for this moment. And now Jesus delivers it and and we begin to unpack some of the depth of it.

00:05:41:27 – 00:06:10:04
Clint Loveall
Right? I think any time we see him in the gospel or in the Scripture, we ought to immediately hearken back to that moment that God reveals himself and hear likewise, Jesus reveals something about himself. And interestingly enough, just pre Bible study we were talking about some of our favorite breads and bread is a staple of human life and certainly in Jesus time, this this is completely true, right?

00:06:10:04 – 00:06:33:58
Clint Loveall
We we say it in the Lord’s Prayer. Give us this day our daily bread. And in so many parts of the world, one of the daily tasks is to make bread for the day. And Jesus here says, I am the bread of life. And the context for that is a misunderstanding in which Jesus is saying something about physical life.

00:06:34:03 – 00:07:03:13
Clint Loveall
But what follows makes it clear that Jesus is talking spiritual life. Whoever comes to me will not be hungry. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. We’ve heard that thirsty language already from the story of the woman at the well. But I say to you, and again, we’ve already seen this theme well-established in John. You have seen me, yet you do not believe.

00:07:03:18 – 00:07:33:52
Clint Loveall
To see is not to necessarily believe in John is to be faced with the choice of whether to believe or not. And Jesus is criticizing the crowds here because they’ve experienced the miracle. They’ve seen his work, they’ve heard his words, and yet they have not believed. And then Jesus, you know, goes on to have this discourse about what God has given me, I’m going to take care of.

00:07:33:57 – 00:08:03:18
Clint Loveall
And I have those things, and I’m going to keep them until the last day. This is the will of the father. But I think if you if you really wanted to take away from this, it would be just that to come to Jesus is to give up or to lose spiritual hunger and thirst, and to see Jesus is to be met with the choice of whether or not to believe.

00:08:03:23 – 00:08:26:20
Clint Loveall
And this really is the tension. I know we’ve said this often already, and we’ll continue to work on it through the rest of the book. This is the tension of John, that there are those who see Jesus and have enough information. They have what they need to believe, but they choose not to. And that’s maybe more striking in the Gospel of John.

00:08:26:33 – 00:08:39:18
Clint Loveall
I think it’s in all the Gospels, but but I just I think John goes back to that idea more often. I think it’s more central to the way that he tells the story.

00:08:39:23 – 00:09:10:21
Michael Gewecke
Well, and Clint, let’s not think that this is just an ancient problem that John’s addressing. I think, you know, we would do well to remember here that it requires something, this belief that you speak of, I think you very helpfully frame it for us through the lens of action. We choose to believe. And through that doorway we are open to a whole new world of possibilities and connections and meaning.

00:09:10:26 – 00:09:49:04
Michael Gewecke
So this idea in verse 36, but I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe. Can we just in a previous video that we did, in the course of this study, we had someone go to the comment section and say, when did you see Jesus? Like, seriously, when did you see him? And the mistake that they made was that they interpreted literally what we were saying as a literal statement, as if we had seen Jesus walk through the door here into the studio and friends, that’s an easy trope to get caught on that that faith is somehow connected to the physical eye.

00:09:49:04 – 00:10:15:34
Michael Gewecke
But the reality is, all of our lives are framed through basic assumptions about what is and what isn’t. And here in this story, what we’re seeing is that Jesus’s provision is more than one in which he comes and bakes you bread. No, his provision is that he provides for you the daily essential. And it goes on here. And I think we should miss this.

00:10:15:45 – 00:10:36:09
Michael Gewecke
The will of him who sent me in verse 39 is that Jesus would not lose anything, lose nothing of all that he has given me, that there’s so much built in to that. There’s the sense about the people that he’s been given. There’s the sense of his own life which he’s going to offer up that that he’s a steward of that clean.

00:10:36:10 – 00:11:15:45
Michael Gewecke
I just think that John is presenting for us a kind of Jesus who first asks something of us, asks him, asks of us that we might come to him to see, him as the provider, the one, the nourishment of today. But if we make that choice, if we walk through that door, what unfolds before our very eyes is a kind of deepening a new awareness about how on the other side of Jesus is a radically different kingdom, a kingdom in which God is always present, where the people who once thought themselves separate have now been united.

00:11:15:55 – 00:11:44:30
Michael Gewecke
And this is a mysterious, beautiful union that we are only continuing to uncover and to see. And we don’t see it with our physical eyes except through those glimmers, those moments of thin times and spaces where we do have that rapturous vision. But but now, in our daily life, we see Jesus Christ at work in this mysterious choice and belief that he’s invited us to.

00:11:44:34 – 00:12:13:50
Clint Loveall
And so many Christians know John 316 but notice how much verse 40 here resonates with that idea. Indeed, this is the will of my father, that all who see the son and believe in him may have eternal life. And I will raise them up on the last day and notice and notice that the two things that Jesus is saying here, all who see the son and believe so it’s it’s not simply enough to encounter Jesus.

00:12:13:55 – 00:12:43:57
Clint Loveall
For John it is to put one’s trust, one’s faith in Jesus as well. And we see that those two things here lead to eternal life to encounter Jesus, which many have done already in our story. And yet that smaller group that in that encounter are moved to trust in faith. And it’s as if to prove the point. The next thing John tells us, just I’ll just read a couple verses here.

00:12:44:02 – 00:13:04:58
Clint Loveall
Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, I’m the bread that came down from heaven. They were saying, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, who’s mother and father we know? How can he say, now I have come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, do not complain among yourselves. Go ahead, and we can kind of stop there.

00:13:04:58 – 00:13:42:02
Clint Loveall
But here’s the response. And this is why the fundamental controversy between the Jewish people, the religious leaders in this context, and Jesus, because instead of being moved to believe their encounter leads them to complain. They see in Jesus a person they don’t understand. They would nit pick his words. They they take them literally. Instead of understanding that Jesus is giving spiritual truth and that they see flaws in Jesus words instead of here life in them.

00:13:42:07 – 00:14:21:09
Clint Loveall
And again, for John, that’s the great illustration of the divide that Jesus provides. They all encounter him, some believe and some do not. And this book is, is remarkably comfortable, I guess, with that idea that Jesus leads us to that kind of choice, we will have to decide when we see Jesus. Do we then also believe in Jesus or do we attack Jesus, criticized Jesus, doubt Jesus, misunderstand Jesus or one of the myriad of other things that people do in order to get it to the wrong answer?

00:14:21:14 – 00:14:51:03
Michael Gewecke
You know, scholars often talk about John being written later, having a little bit more historical time. And I think in a way which I do think that’s relevant here in this section of the story, is one of the problems that that John obviously and readily admits to us is that for those who are farther away from the revelation, we need to know something about who Jesus was and what he did so that we can believe.

00:14:51:03 – 00:15:12:30
Michael Gewecke
Right? So part of the problem is believing. But I think that John is equally aware of, if not in some ways more focused on, the problem of what do we do with the people who have access to this and don’t believe what happens for those who have access to the Christ? And their response to the Christ is not belief.

00:15:12:39 – 00:15:34:08
Michael Gewecke
They don’t walk through that door and instead we have what we have here. Is not this Jesus, the Son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know right when Jesus is making this claim to be connected to the I am, I am, the bread of life is what we just had today. And then the crowd says, no, you are the son of Joseph of Arimathea, right?

00:15:34:19 – 00:16:13:42
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. The idea that, of Nazareth, that sorry you that you are that you’re the person who is bound and defined by the physical reality of this moment where Jesus wants us to see that his glory and splendor is far, far broader than that. If you have the faith to see. And I think that John, in a way does us a great service in that way, because he, John, offers us a vision of belief and also an illustration of unbelief and how we as believers are always walking that in our lives.

00:16:13:51 – 00:16:21:18
Michael Gewecke
I, whether within our own hearts or with those who surround us, who we love, who are engaging in that in various ways themselves.

00:16:21:22 – 00:16:56:35
Clint Loveall
I think because John doesn’t tell parables, and because John returns to this theme over and over again, I, I there’s probably a sense in which John can feel repetitive, but it, it reminds us of how important this idea is to John. The idea of choosing belief, of putting one’s faith in Christ. And and I think that, not surprising when you look at the whole scope of this gospel, that John’s going to be back at that main theme very often.

00:16:56:40 – 00:17:16:32
Michael Gewecke
Well, there’s a lot here. There’s a lot more to come, to be honest with you. We just want you to know that due to some schedule things, we’re going to be out tomorrow and Wednesday, but we’ll be back on Thursday and then be back to our full schedule again next week. So we look forward to seeing you on Thursday and can’t wait to continue the study.

00:17:16:37 – 00:17:19:01
Michael Gewecke
Certainly hope that you like and subscribe and we’ll see you then.

00:17:19:06 – 00:17:19:49
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.