{"id":30759,"date":"2024-04-24T22:00:34","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T05:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john-6_16-31-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-04-02T16:50:59","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T23:50:59","slug":"john-6_32-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/john-6_32-40\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing Is Not Always Believing"},"content":{"rendered":"

John 6:32-40\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 6:32-40.\u00a0 I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

John 6:32-33 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n32\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.
\n33\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 32-33:\u00a0 Keep in mind the context:\u00a0 Just the day before, Jesus has fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread (v5-15).\u00a0 So now the crowd continues to follow Jesus, hoping to get another free lunch from him.\u00a0 They ask Jesus for another miraculous sign and talk about how their ancestors got to eat bread from heaven in the desert (v30-31).\u00a0 In this context, Jesus makes two important clarifications:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0 First, it wasn\u2019t Moses who gave the Israelites bread from heaven.\u00a0 It was God (v32).\u00a0 Moses was a conduit for that bread, but every good and perfect gift is sourced in your heavenly Father (James 1:17).<\/p>\n

–\u00a0 Second, Jesus clarifies that the true bread from heaven is not actual physical bread, but a person.\u00a0 The true bread of heaven is not the manna that the Israelites ate in Moses\u2019 time.\u00a0 Rather the true bread of heaven is \u201che who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world\u201d (v33).\u00a0 It\u2019s Jesus himself.<\/p>\n

John 6:34-35 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n34\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Sir,” they said, “from now on give us this bread.”
\n35\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 34-35:\u00a0 As the bread of life, Jesus came to satisfy a much deeper and more important hunger than just our need for physical food.\u00a0 As Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, God has set eternity in the hearts of people.\u00a0 Jesus came to fill the God-sized hole in our lives, and only He can fill it completely, such that you\u2019ll never need to look for that filling anywhere else.\u00a0 As Jesus says, \u201che who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.\u201d (v35)<\/p>\n

John 6:36 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n36\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 36:\u00a0 Seeing is not always believing.\u00a0 That\u2019s because faith is not just a matter of the eyes but a matter of the heart.\u00a0 If your heart is closed, Jesus himself could appear before you and still you will find an excuse not to believe.\u00a0 That was the case with the Jews here.<\/p>\n

John 6:37 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n37\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 37:\u00a0 I\u2019ve met people who were much less important than Jesus who wouldn\u2019t give you the time of day.\u00a0 But praise God, when you come to Jesus, he will not drive you away.\u00a0 Though he is the king of kings, the holy of holies, still he does not push away or reject anyone who comes to him humbly and with an open heart.<\/p>\n

John 6:38-40 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n38\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
\n39\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.
\n40\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 38-40:\u00a0 We see Jesus\u2019 shepherd\u2019s heart here.\u00a0 The Father has given to Jesus people for Jesus to call his own, and Jesus is intent on protecting them and not losing a single one (v39).\u00a0 That\u2019s the heart of a shepherd.\u00a0 Also, notice that in verses 38-40 a key idea that keeps getting repeated is the Father\u2019s will.\u00a0 In verse 39, Jesus tells us the Father\u2019s will for His Son Jesus, that Jesus would be a faithful shepherd who does not lose anyone the Father has given him (v39).\u00a0 In verse 40, Jesus tells us the Father\u2019s will for us, which is that we would look to Jesus the Son and believe in him and in so doing have eternal life and be raised with Jesus in the end (v40).<\/p>\n

God has a will for your life.\u00a0 He is not indifferent or apathetic toward you.\u00a0 He desires for you to be with Him for eternity.\u00a0 Still, God does not impose His will on us in that we still have a choice whether to receive Him and believe in Him, or to reject Him.\u00a0 Now it is up to us to choose either to align ourselves with God\u2019s will, believe in Him and find life, or reject God and His will and in so doing lose our lives.<\/p>\n

Jesus, thank You for being the true bread of life, the One who satisfies our deepest hunger in ways that no one and nothing else can.\u00a0 Thank You also being such a faithful shepherd, committed to taking care of, protecting and not losing anyone who comes to You.\u00a0 Thank You that everyone who looks to You and comes to You You will not drive away but You give them eternal life.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is John 6:32-40.\u00a0 I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help, then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!
\n\u00a0
\nJohn 6:32-33 (NIV)
\n32\u00a0\u00a0Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.
\n33\u00a0\u00a0For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
\n\u00a0
\nOn verses 32-33:\u00a0 Keep in mind the context:\u00a0 Just the day before, Jesus has fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread (v5-15).\u00a0 So now the crowd continues to follow Jesus, hoping to get another free lunch from him.\u00a0 They ask Jesus for another miraculous sign and talk about how their ancestors got to eat bread from heaven in the desert (v30-31).\u00a0 In this context, Jesus makes two important clarifications:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0 First, it wasn\u2019t Moses who gave the Israelites bread from heaven.\u00a0 It was God (v32).\u00a0 Moses was a conduit for that bread, but every good and perfect gift is sourced in your heavenly Father (James 1:17).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30757,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30759"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30762,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30759\/revisions\/30762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}