John 6:27-40

This week has overwhelmed me with righteous anger. It has inspired me to educate myself on the lives of the black community in America…may I dare say we are not the United States. 

The Talmud reminds us, "Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly now, love mercy now, walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it."   Micah 6:8!

Manna satisfied physical needs for a while; Christ satisfies spiritual need forever. NKJ Bible.

The only “work” necessary for salvation is faith in Jesus as the Messiah sent by God. The manna in the wilderness was physical bread for their physical needs. The “true bread from heaven” is spiritual. Jesus is emphasizing His role as the one sent from God in heaven to fulfill God’s plan to sustain His people with eternal life. No one who believes in Jesus will be rejected by Him. 

Jesus briefly sets aside the topic of the “bread of life” to expound on the issue of the Jews’ persistent unbelief, reiterating His role as agent of the divine will and stressing that eternal life is gained through belief in Him. Faithlife Bible.

The Son provides life as a gift. The Father has authorized and authenticated the Son as the Giver of life. 

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity who exercises the power of the Father and the Son in creation and redemption. Because the Holy Spirit is the power by which believers come to Christ and see with new eyes of faith, He is closer to us than we are to ourselves. Like the eyes of the body through which we see physical things, He is seldom in focus to be seen directly because He is the one through whom all else is seen in a new light. This explains why the relationship of the Father and the Son is more prominent in the Gospels, because it is through the eyes of the Holy Spirit that the Father–Son relationship is viewed.

The Holy Spirit appears in the Gospel of John as the power by which Christians are brought to faith and helped to understand their walk with God. He brings a person to new birth: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”. “It is the Spirit who gives life”. The Holy Spirit is the Paraclete, or Helper, whom Jesus promised to the disciples after His ascension. The Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are unified in ministering to believers. It is through the Helper that Father and Son abide with the disciples.

This unified ministry of the Trinity is also seen as the Spirit brings the world under conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He guides believers into all truth with what He hears from the Father and the Son. It is a remarkable fact that each Person of the Trinity serves the others as all defer to one another.  The Son says what He hears from the Father, the Father witnesses to and glorifies the Son, the Father and Son honor the Holy Spirit by commissioning Him to speak in their name; the Holy Spirit honors the Father and Son by helping the community of believers.

The Holy Spirit’s attitude and ministry are marked by generosity; His chief function is to illumine Jesus’ teaching, to glorify His person, and to work in the life of the individual believer and the church. NKJ Bible.

John 6:27-40

 27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”

28 Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”

29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

30 Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”

32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”

35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

John 3:16 | For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 4:14 | but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

John 10:28 | And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.