09/07/2026
Hello all, the article on the Weekly Bible Reading will be posted here on Saturday mornings, as well as emailed to members. Below is the article on last week's bible reading, John Chapter 6. This Saturday's article will be on John Chapter 7.
John Chapter 6
We read in this chapter two amazing events during Jesus’ ministry: the feeding of the five thousand and Jesus walking on water. These miracles led to Jesus being sought by the crowds. Jesus presents themselves as the bread of life. This teaching gets mixed reactions from the crowd.
John 6:1-15: The Feeding of the Five Thousand
John moves to a new event in his gospel narrative. A large crowd chases Jesus up the mountain where He is sitting with His disciples. Jesus is the one who asks Phillip about how they are to feed this crowd to test his faith and to give him and the other disciples a teaching. Jesus multiplied five loves of bread and two fish so that everyone had their fill, plus leftovers. Seeing that the crowd wants to make Him king by force, Jesus withdraws to the mountain alone.
John 6:16-21: Jesus Walks on Water
John, like Matthew and Mark, record Jesus walking on water after the feeding of the five thousand. With Jesus on the mountain alone, the disciples make their way across the sea to Capernaum. The sea begins to become rough due to the wind going down across the Sea of Galilee (the King James Version says that the “sea arose”). The disciples see Jesus walking on the sea and are afraid at first, but Jesus tells them they shouldn’t be afraid. The disciples gladly take Jesus into the boat, and the scripture says that, at once, they reached their destination safely.
With these two miraculous events, Jesus has shown divine power over creation, distance and circumstance.
John 6:22-71 Jesus is the Bread of Life
The crowds track down Jesus and His disciples in Capernaum. They ask Jesus why He came there and He exposes their motive of material satisfaction (free food), not genuine faith. The crowd didn’t realize what the miracle revealed about the one who was doing it. They ask what they must do to do the works of God, missing that Jesus told them that eternal life is something given to those who work for “the food” that endures to eternal life. This “food” is the nourishment found in God’s redemption through the sacrifice of His only Son and the coming salvation for all. Jesus tells them the only work of God is believing in Jesus as the Messiah.
They ask Jesus what sign he performs so that they may believe, citing that Moses gave them manna from heaven. Jesus reminds them that it wasn’t Moses who provided the bread from heaven in Exodus 16, but the true bread from heaven comes from God. Jesus identifies himself as this true bread from heaven that gives life to the world. No one will be rejected by Jesus, for He is doing the will of the Father and He will not lose what has been given to Him.
The Jews grumble about Jesus, because of His claim that He came from heaven and that they know His earthly father. Jesus tells them that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws them to Jesus. That is, the father brings His people to the Son. Those who believe will be drawn to the Son and they will be raised to new life. Jesus says that He is the living bread, unlike the bread that Moses gave, which still resulted in death. The bread that Jesus gives for the life of the world is His flesh.
The Jews ask how Jesus can give them His flesh to eat, thinking physically. Jesus presses the point that whoever does not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drinks His blood, there is no life in them. If they do, then they abide with Jesus. Jesus lives because of the Father, so whoever feeds on Jesus will also live, because He is the living bread from heaven. Whoever eats of this living bread from heaven lives forever.
The disciples struggle and grumble at this teaching, but Jesus reminds them that the flesh alone does not give life. The Holy Spirit gives life, and Jesus’ words are spirit and truth. Jesus tells them that He alone is the way to eternal life. God allows those who have sinned to come to the Son in faith.
Many disciples turn away from Jesus at this point. Jesus asked the twelve who were remaining if they would turn away. Peter tells Jesus that they will not go away because Jesus has the words of eternal life, that they believe, and that He is the Holy One of God. Jesus doesn’t seem very surprised at Peter’s expression of faith, pointing out that He did choose them Himself, and that the devil is hiding among them.
In Christ,
Josh Burks
