Bread You Can Believe In John 6:25-70 January 3rd, 2016
I. SEARCHING for the WRONG thing. (v.25-34)
A. Making the SIGNS about US. (v.26,30-31)
B. Making the WORKS about US, (v.27-28)
Jake did an excellent job last week showing us that John points us past the symbols of faith to Jesus as the embodiment of all that the symbols have been pointing to. We see the same thing in the text today. They search of bread instead of the bread of life. They want to do the work instead of realizing the work is done.
1. What were the things that first drew you to Jesus? What are the things that keep you with Him now?
2. What does God want from you at this point in your life? How do you feel about your ability to give that to Him?
3. Would you say your faith is more based on past truth or present experience? If both, which is most important to you at this moment? (There are no wrong answers here.)
II. The WORK of God is to BELIEVE. (v.29-35)
A. To ENTRUST ourselves to HIM. (v.29)
B. To FEED on the BREAD of LIFE. (v.35, 48-59)
This is a challenging verse – The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent. (Jn 6:29) Is it really that simple? Do we really just believe? I think that we doand that is what Jesus is saying. We believe and then all of life flows out of that. All our doing is response to belief in Jesus, not evidence that we do believe.
4. Read John 6:29 over out loud several times. What do you think that passage means? How does it apply to your life right now?
5. If someone was to ask you, What does it mean to eat the flesh of Jesus?, what would you say?
III. The CHALLENGE in UNDERSTANDING. (v.41-70)
A. This doesnt FIT our CATEGORIES. (v.41,52,61,66)
B. We were MADE for something MORE. (v.56-58)
There are a lot of ideas between John 6:25 and John 6:70. So many that we can often get lost. Jesus talks about eating His flesh and drinking His blood. He says thats the only way to have life. Its no wonder that the people grumbled. They couldnt grasp what He was saying. Its so different than what we think and HOW we think. That, in a nutshell, is why we need Him in the first place.
6. Which of the ideas from this text are the hardest for your to wrap your mind around or to understand? What might God be saying to you through those ideas?
7. In v.57 Jesus says that He is inviting us to a relationship like He has with the Father. What exactly does that mean?
IV. EATING the bread of LIFE today?
A. We ENTRUST our LIFE to Jesus. (v.29,37-40; Phil 1:21)
B. We NOURISH ourselves on His TRUTH. (v.53-58; Jn 4:32-34)
C. We FORGET then we REMEMBER. (v.67-69; I Pet. 2:1-3)
So what does it mean today? To believe in Jesus? To eat the bread of life? To drink His blood? All of these ideas seem so metaphorical. How do we actually apply them to our day to day lives? Good questions
8. How can we know if we are entrusting our life to Jesus fully? What might be some clues that we arent?
9. What are the ways that you seek to nourish your spiritual life? Is it growing?
10. When have you, like Peter, known a truth (v.69) and yet failed to live it out later? What does this passage say to you about that?