Skip to main content

{I AM} #2

 “I AM” [the Bread of Life] 

John 6:25-51_ 

 
Most of us love to eat – at birthdays and weddings and holidays and Christmas and New Years and Easter! The people in Jesus’ day loved to eat as well. The one fact about eating that we learn very quickly is that, even if we eat until we are full, a few hours and we’re hungry again! 

 

[Group discussion starter] Talk about your favourite food or favourite restaurant. How do you feel after you have eaten what you enjoy? 

 

One day Jesus feeds a LOT of people by multiplying a few small loaves of bread and a couple of dried fish (John 6:1-14) - but the next day the people are hungry again! Jesus tries to point them (and us) to spiritual nourishment that satisfies our hearts forever... 

 
[Read John 6:25-51] 

 

Do you think the crowd is favourable to Jesus or hostile to him? 
Explain your answer based on statements from the passage. 
 

 

In verses 26-27, Jesus contrasts two appetites – one for physical nourishment and one for spiritual sustenance. How is each appetite satisfied? 
 

 

When the crowd asks how they can please God and do God’s will, Jesus says, “Believe in the one He has sent” (v29). But their response is to ask for a miracle (v30). How is their response similar to the response of our culture to the claims of Christ? 
 

 

How would you explain what Jesus means when he says, “I am the bread of life” (v35, see also v27 & 33)? 

 

Do you think the crowd understands what Jesus is saying? 
Why or why not? 
 

 

How would you describe your daily spiritual diet: healthy and nourishing, junk food, starvation level, same old reheated food?  
Explain the results of this diet in your spiritual life as a whole. 
 

 

In verses 37-40, what does Jesus promise to those who come to him, in faith, for spiritual nourishment? 
 

 

How does the crowd’s understanding of where Jesus came from parallel what they thought about Jesus’ offer of bread (verses 41-42)? 
 

 

Jesus makes some startling claims in this passage: to satisfy our deepest needs and desires, to come from God the Father, to preserve us as his children, to raise our bodies from the dead on the last day, to be the source of eternal life.  
How do these claims compare with what most people, in our society, believe about Jesus? 
 

 

What does Jesus want the people in the crowd that day (and the people in this bible study today) to conclude about who he is? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

{SEVEN CHURCHES} #1

  The Lord Who Speaks_   Revelation 1:9-20   We  don’t  tend to get many letters these days. We get emails, text messages,  WhatsApp  and other electronic messages, but rarely  a handwritten, pen-and-paper letter.    I tend to save any good ones I get... notes from when Leah was little. Letters that encourage or bless me.   I’ll keep them in my  bedside  drawer or  tucked  into books on our shelves. Then I get to read them again and feel loved and blessed by their words. ..     [Discussion starter]    Tell the group about a significant letter you have received and why it meant so much to you.     Revelation 2-3 records seven letters written by Jesus to seven churches.   It must have been a thrill for an early church congregation to receive a letter from the apostles Paul, Peter, or James... but here were letters from Jesus himself . And we all get to read everyone else’s ma...
Post a Comment
Read more

{SEVEN CHURCHES} #3

  {SEVEN LETTERS}    The Attractiveness of Suffering_   Revelation 2:8-11     In the year AD 177 persecution broke out against the Christians living in what is today the French city of Lyon. Christianity had raised the suspicions and hatred of the Roman  bureaucrats who governed the city. The vicious persecution that raged, touched Christians at every level of society. After the persecuti on subsided, church father Irenaeus, arranged for a letter to be written to Christians in other parts of the Roman Empire describing the faithfulness of the  martyrs...   We  can’t  even begin to put into words, much less describe in detail, the  magnitude  of the persecution here: how the pagans raged so terribly against the saints, and how the ble ssed martyrs endured so patiently... To begin with, they nobly endured all the abuse the whole mob collectively piled on: screaming  at them, punching them, dragging them through the stre...
Post a Comment
Read more

PARABLE: the rich man and Lazarus

  {PARABLE} the rich man and Lazarus_   Luke 16:19-31   Have you ever heard someone say that religion is just  a ‘crutch’ or just a source of comfort for the weak?   Have you ever heard someone say that religious people pay no attention to those who are hungry or suffering?   Christianity doesn’t teach passive suffering in the face of injustice and oppression. Jesus calls us to serve those who are in need.     [Discussion starter] Have you ever been asked for money by someone homeless?   How did you react?     The final parable in this study reminds us that suffering in this life can be replaced by bliss in the next ...     [Read Luke 16:19-31]     In verses 19-21, how does the parable reveal the rich man’s lack of concern for Lazarus?       How would you account for the rich man’s indifference towards Lazarus?       What are some of the ways that you have heard people explain why ...
Post a Comment
Read more