Group Bible Study

To the Jewish people, the center of the world was Israel. The center of Israel was Jerusalem, and the center of Jerusalem was the Temple of God. During the  Water Libation Ceremony   at the Feast of Tabernacles, at that very moment of the high priest’s pitcher of water being poured out, Jesus stood and raised His voice so that all could hear His words:  “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.  38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them”  39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given since Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:37-39).  What Jesus was saying was out of the temple of His life would flow the refreshing, life-giving, healing power of the Spirit about which the water and the prophecy spoke (Ezekiel 47:1-9). When Christ lives in us and given full ownership to rule and reign over us, this ...

God told Moses that when the time was right, He would send a powerful prophet with a ministry similar to Moses. They were to listen very carefully to the One God would send: 15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him…  18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.  19 I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name (Deuteronomy 18:15, 18-19). The people of Israel understood that the Prophet, the Messiah when He came, would do similar miracles as Moses did. They expected bread from heaven just as in the time of Moses, but Christ said that the true bread from Heaven was Himself (John 6:32-33). John's Gospel gives Israel and us Gentiles another proof that Jesus is the prophet spoken of by Moses. Just as Mose...

We are continuing from yesterday’s meditation on what Jesus taught about Himself being the true manna that came down from heaven. What Christ said next shocked them to the core: 47 I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.   48 I am the bread of life.   49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died.   50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die.   51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. "  52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"  53 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you .  54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day (John 6:47...

When Jesus told them that He had come down from heaven (John 6:38) to do God’s will, they started reasoning and whispering to one another about His childhood in Nazareth around forty miles from Capernaum. Some of them, perhaps, knew His father and mother. How can He say that He came down from heaven? Jesus’ response was to talk about the drawing power of the Spirit of God.  41 At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven."   42 They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?"  43 "Stop grumbling among yourselves," Jesus answered.   44 " No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him , and I will raise him up at the last day.   45 It is written in the Prophets: 'They will all be taught by God.'   Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me .   46 No on...

In yesterday's meditation, we talked about the inner emptiness we experience in our lives when we live apart from the presence of God. Jesus had just multiplied bread and fish for more than five thousand people. After this miracle, the Jewish people who ate of the miraculous food asked Christ for a miraculous sign, similar to Moses giving them manna in their wilderness wanderings. Jesus responded with the following words: 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."  34 "Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread."  35 Then 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 .   36 But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.   37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.   38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do th...

After Jesus fed the five thousand, they said to Him,  “What must we do to do the works God requires?”  29 Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." (John 6:28-29).  The Lord’s heart went out to them for their pursuing Him for daily food like He had multiplied the day before. He said, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life” (v. 27). In this sentence, the Lord is contrasting natural food, i.e., that for which we work, with spiritual food, which is given to us by the grace of God, not by our works. Spiritual food will benefit us for eternity. Eternal things require from us no work but to trust in the Son of God. Just as eating a large meal gives one a satisfying feeling within and results in our feeling full, in the same way, we are to spend energy and labor pursuing the things that truly satisfy the soul, i.e., Christ Himself and His Word. Without this food that endures to eternal life, we ...

We are continuing from yesterday to talk about the testing of the disciples by Jesus before He fed the five thousand with fish and bread. The One Who had created all things (Colossians 1:16), God in the flesh, was standing before Phillip, and the only faith that Phillip could muster was to believe God for a mouthful. God thinks in terms of filling our stomachs. Here’s the text again: 5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?"   6 He asked this only to test him , for he already had in mind what he was going to do.  7 Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages   would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"  8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up,   9 "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" (John 6:5-9 Emphasis mine). You would think that these m...