Scripture Reading: John 6:1-21, 26-69
It may seem that the record in chapter 6 of John is easy to understand. Actually, this is the most difficult chapter in the Gospel of John from which to obtain the extract. In contrast, it was easy for us to have the extract in chapter 1, for we could easily see the six main signs: the Word, the tabernacle, the Lamb, the dove, the stone, and the house of God. However, as I was considering chapter 6, it seemed to me that there were hardly any signs in this chapter, and if there are no signs, there is no extract, since the signs are the basis for the extract.
Under the inspiration of the Spirit, John used the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand as a basis for saying certain things that are different from what is recorded in the synoptic Gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, but none of them says anything concerning the bread of life, the bread that came down from heaven to give life to the world. John is unique in taking the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand as a basis for speaking concerning Christ as the bread of life. Therefore, there can be no doubt that the feeding of the five thousand was an event of great significance.
In order to have the extract of John 6 we need a basic understanding of certain matters. First, John told us that in writing his Gospel he selected certain things done by the Lord Jesus and used them in composing this book. “Many other signs also Jesus did before His disciples, which are not written in this book. But these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name” (20:30-31). It is quite meaningful, then, that John inserted chapter 6 after the five preceding chapters.
We have seen that chapter 1 has six signs. This chapter is a sketch of the entire Gospel of John and reaches from eternity past (v. 1) to eternity future (v. 51). Between eternity past and eternity future there is the bridge of time. On this bridge a number of things are happening for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.
The two signs in chapter 2 — the changing of water into wine and the raising up of the destroyed temple — give us the principle of life and show us the goal, or purpose, of life. The principle of life is to change death into life, and the goal of life is to produce the dwelling place of God in resurrection.
In chapters 3 and 4 John presents two very interesting cases. The first, in chapter 3, is that of a learned Jewish gentleman. The second, in chapter 4, is that of an immoral Samaritan woman. With the case of Nicodemus we see that even a good man has the serpentine nature and needs to be regenerated to have a new life by a new birth in order to become a new man as part of the increase of Christ. This thought is deep. With the case of the Samaritan woman we see someone who needed Christ to be the source of her life and the means for her to worship God. Both for her living and for her worship of God, the Samaritan woman needed Christ. Christ is the fountain of living water, and He is also the truth, the divine reality, for the worship of God. In these two chapters with the cases of Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman, we can see what people need today. People need a new birth with a new life in order to be a new man so that they may become part of Christ’s increase. Even such a new person, a regenerated person, still needs Christ as the source of life, as the fountain of living water, and also as the means, the reality, for the worship of God.
Chapter 5 of John reveals that everything, even things that are good and holy, are empty apart from Christ. Only Christ can meet man’s need, for no one and nothing other than Christ can enliven us. The holy feast is empty without Christ, and the Sabbath is not a true rest apart from Christ. Furthermore, without Christ the holy city, Jerusalem, is nothing. What, then, about the pool of Bethesda? We have seen that the word Bethesda means “house of mercy” and that Christ Himself is the real house of mercy. Apart from Christ, there is no house of mercy. Apart from Christ, the sick, blind, lame, and withered ones (v. 3) would not be able to receive mercy. Furthermore, without Christ even John the Baptist and Moses are nothing. Even the Holy Scriptures, though inspired by God, are empty apart from Christ, for without Christ there is no eternal life in the Scriptures. It is very important for us to see that without Christ everything is empty, vain.
In the Gospel of John there are certain basic thoughts. First, we need a new birth in order to have a new life so that we may become a new man. We also need Christ as the source of life and as the means for us to worship God. Furthermore, if we do not have Christ, everything is empty. This means that if we do not have Christ, we are empty. Christ is the reality, and we need to be filled with Him. Apart from Christ, everything is empty. Only Christ is the divine reality.
John’s Gospel and Epistles emphasize the matter of the truth. Recently, I have been studying this word in John’s writings. The more I study, the more I realize how profound this is. Truth is the divine reality, the reality that came with Jesus Christ. When Jesus came, grace and truth came (John 1:17, KJV). The divine truth revealed in the Gospel of John is actually the Triune God embodied in Jesus Christ and expressed through Him.
Much of what is recorded in chapters 1 through 5 of the Gospel of John took place in Jerusalem. Half of chapter 2 and all of chapter 3 describe matters that took place in Jerusalem. All of chapter 5 records events that happened in Jerusalem. We have seen that chapter 4 is a record of something that occurred in Samaria. The feeding of the multitude in chapter 6 of John took place in Galilee. Judea signifies the religious world, and Galilee signifies the secular world. In Judea there was Jerusalem, the holy city, but in Galilee there was the sea. Between Galilee and Judea was the territory of Samaria, which was partly religious and partly secular.
It is significant that in chapter 5 we have a pool, and in chapter 6 we have the sea. Furthermore, the pool is in the holy city, and the sea is in the secular world. Those gathered around the pool were sick, blind, lame, and withered. But those near the sea were not in such a condition. On the contrary, they were quite active and apparently they did not need mercy. They did not need the pool of Bethesda for their healing. As we will see, the need of the people near the sea in John 6 was related to food, not to healing.
In John 5 we see the sick, blind, lame, and withered lying near a pool in Jerusalem. This is a picture of the fact that those in a pitiful condition are drawn to religion. They come to the traditional “pool” of religion for healing. If you are involved with religion, therefore, that is a strong indication that you are sick, lame, blind, or withered. In other words, you are impotent. All those under the porticoes near the pool of Bethesda were in such a condition. Would you like to be at the pool in Jerusalem with all the impotent ones, or would you rather be with the active ones around the sea in Galilee? Of course, we would prefer not to be at the pool but at the sea.
The crucial point here is that even though we may not be sick, blind, lame, or withered, we still are hungry. All those around the pool were sick, but those around the sea were hungry. The problem of those in Galilee was not impotence — their problem was the lack of food. They did not have anything to fill their hunger.
Humanly speaking, most people are not sick, but everyone needs food. The number of people going to supermarkets to buy food is far greater than the number of those in hospitals. Even though the majority of people are not sick, everyone has the need of food. Spiritually speaking, everyone is hungry. All those around the worldly, satanic sea, represented by the sea in Galilee, are hungry. The reason everyone is hungry is that all of them are short of Christ. If we do not have Christ, we will be hungry. This is the most important sign we need to see in chapter 6 of the Gospel of John.
We do not realize how blind we have been concerning our need. Throughout the generations and the centuries human beings have been blind. Because of their blindness, they turn to religion with its ordinances, regulations, and rituals. People simply do not have any idea of what they really need. They do not know that they are short of Christ as their food. We do not need religion, and we do not need regulations and rituals. We need Christ to be our spiritual food.
In Exodus 34 we have an illustration of our need to feed on the Lord. That chapter is a record of the Lord’s recovery of the covenant that had been broken. In His mercy the Lord had come in to recover the covenant that had been broken by the idolatry of the children of Israel. That was the reason the Lord told Moses to cut two tablets of stone and come up to the mountaintop to meet with Him. No doubt, Moses expected God to repeat the giving of the Ten Commandments and the ordinances. The Ten Commandments are in Exodus 20, and chapters 21 through 23 of Exodus are concerned with the ordinances. When God called Moses to come up to the mountaintop a second time with two tablets of stone, Moses must have thought that God’s intention was to recover the commandments and ordinances. However, God did not speak to Moses regarding the recovery of the covenant that had been broken, and He did not say anything about the Ten Commandments or the ordinances. Instead, God promised Moses that He would perform wonders in order to bring the people into the good land. Then He gave a warning concerning idolatry. Here the Lord seemed to be saying, “If you do not have idols but rather enjoy the riches of the good land, this enjoyment will cause the borders of the land to be enlarged. Furthermore, the enemies will be subdued and will not come to invade the land. The invaders will be kept from the land by your enjoyment of the riches of the land. But if you have idols instead of the enjoyment of the riches of the land, the enemies will come in to defeat you.”
According to the history in the Old Testament, when the children of Israel worshipped idols, the land was invaded by enemies, and the people were defeated. For example, because of their idolatry, the king of Babylon destroyed the temple and led the people away into captivity. But according to Exodus 34, if the people would have nothing to do with idols but rather enjoy the riches of the good land, the enemies would be kept from invading the land. The principle is the same in our spiritual experience today. If we do not enjoy Christ but instead have idols, we will lose ground to the enemy. But if we enjoy Christ, this enjoyment will cause the borders of the good land to be enlarged, and it will keep the enemy away.
Moses went to the mountain to meet the Lord with the intention of having the broken covenant recovered. God, however, spoke to him about the feasts, about the Sabbath, and about five conditions for feasting with the Lord. These five conditions were redeeming the first offspring of a donkey with a lamb, not slaughtering the blood of the Lord’s sacrifice with anything leavened, not allowing the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover to remain until morning, bringing the first of the firstfruits to the house of God, and not boiling a kid in its mother’s milk. In our Life-study of Exodus we have covered in detail the spiritual significance of all these requirements in relation to feasting with the Lord and resting with Him (see Messages 178 through 182). The important point here is that in Exodus 34 God’s concern was that His people would enjoy Him by feeding on Him. This was the reason He regarded these five requirements as important. These requirements are all related to our enjoyment of Christ by feasting and resting. However, both religious and nonreligious people alike fail to realize that their need is for food, for nourishment. God’s intention is that we feed on Christ.
In their reading of the Bible, the majority of Christians do not see anything concerning the enjoyment of the Lord by feeding on Him. Instead, they see laws, regulations, ordinances, ceremonies, rituals, forms, and practices. For example, in his reading of Ephesians 5 a brother may pay attention to Paul’s word about husbands loving their wives. Likewise, a sister may pay attention to the requirement that wives should be subject to their husbands. In both cases, Paul’s word in this chapter is taken as a regulation. The brother and the sister reading the book of Ephesians do not see anything concerning the enjoyment of the Lord.
In John 5 all religious things are annulled. Not only are the things in the secular world annulled, but even all the things in the religious world are annulled. Consider chapter 5 and ask what religious thing has not been annulled. Everything, including the holy city, has been annulled. Moreover, according to this chapter, not even the Holy Scriptures can give life apart from Christ.
Chapter 6 indicates that we need food. Our unique need according to this chapter is Christ as our food. After God created man, He particularly charged him to take care of his eating. Concerning man’s eating, God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb that produces seed that is on the surface of all the earth and every tree which has fruit that produces seed; they shall be for you as food” (Gen. 1:29). The Lord also gave man a strict command concerning his eating: “Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may eat freely, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of it you shall not eat” (2:16-17a). God’s desire was that man would take Him as food, as signified by the tree of life. Genesis 2:9 says, “Out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden.” After creating man, God was concerned for man’s eating. In particular, God’s desire was that man would partake of Him as the tree of life.
In chapter 6 of John we have the fulfillment of the eating of the tree of life. In this chapter the Lord Jesus fed five thousand people with five barley loaves and two fish. In The All-inclusive Christ we point out that the significance of barley is different from that of wheat. Wheat signifies the incarnated Christ, and barley signifies the resurrected Christ. The number five signifies responsibility. Therefore, the five barley loaves here signify the resurrected Christ who is able to bear responsibility.
Barley, of course, is of the plant life. In typology, the plant life is for generating, for producing. The two fish are of the animal life and signify the redeeming aspect of Christ’s life.
The barley loaves of the plant life signify the generating aspect of Christ’s life, and the fish signify the redeeming aspect of His life. As the generating life, Christ grew on the land, on the God-created earth. As the redeeming life, He lived in the sea, the Satan-corrupted world. In order to regenerate us, He grew on the God-created earth for producing life. But in order to redeem us, He lived in the satanic and sinful world. Just as fish can live in salty water but are not salty, so Christ could live in the sinful world without being sinful and without being affected by the world. In His redeeming life, as typified by the two fish, Christ lived a victorious life in the “death water” of the sinful world. It is significant, therefore, that the Lord Jesus fed the people with barley loaves and fish. This indicates that He fed them with the generating life and the redeeming life, the life that overcomes death.
Eventually, the feeding with Christ’s resurrection life and overcoming life results in eternal life. This is the reason that the Lord spoke in this chapter concerning eternal life. In 6:27 He said, “Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” In verse 40 He went on to say, “This is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes into Him should have eternal life.” In verse 47 the Lord said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes has eternal life.” Therefore, eternal life definitely is emphasized in this chapter.
According to John 6:10, the number of men who were fed by the loaves and fish was about five thousand. If the women and children were also counted, the total number could well have been ten thousand. However, the people who were fed failed to realize the significance of the Lord’s feeding. Instead, they were glad to have been fed by the Lord Jesus in such a marvelous way. That was the reason the next day a crowd gathered for the purpose of seeking Him. They wanted to experience the same thing again. But the Lord Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, You seek Me not because you have seen signs, but because you ate of the bread and were filled” (v. 26). This indicates that they did not see the significance of the sign.
The Lord went on to tell them not to work for the food which perishes but to work for the food which abides unto eternal life (v. 27). Here the Lord Jesus seems to be saying, “Do not seek for food that perishes. Instead, you should seek for eternal food, for food that abides forever.” What is this eternal food, or who is this food? The eternal food is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He came from the heavens not only to be our Savior — He also came to be our food. This means that He came to be the tree of life. What we need is Christ as the tree of life.
We do not realize to the fullest extent how much we need the Lord Jesus to be our daily food. Yes, we may talk somewhat about life. Nevertheless, we do not know how much we need Christ as our food.
Chapter 6 of the Gospel of John is unique in giving many details concerning the Lord Jesus as the bread of life. The Lord clearly said, “I am the bread of life” (vv. 35, 48). As the bread of life, He is the bread that came down out of heaven (vv. 41, 50, 51, 58), He is the bread of God (v. 33), He is the living bread (v. 51), and He is the true bread (v. 32). Here we have five characteristics of the Lord as our bread: the heavenly bread, the bread of God, the bread of life, the living bread, and the true bread. As the bread that came down out of heaven, He is the heavenly bread. As the bread of God, He is of God, He was sent by God, and He was with God. As the bread of life, He is the bread with eternal life, with zoe. As the living bread, He is living. The bread of life refers to the nature of the bread, which is life; the living bread refers to the condition of the bread, which is living. As the true bread, Christ is the bread of truth, or reality. Christ is true, real. He is the true food, and all other kinds of food are merely shadows of Him as the real food. The physical food that we take in every day is a shadow of Christ. The reality of the food we eat daily is Jesus Christ. Christ is the true bread of life sent by God to bring us eternal life. We all need Christ to be the bread of life to us.
Even though you may hear many messages on life, you still may not be deeply impressed that you need Christ as your daily life supply. This is the reason we have been studying the Bible together in the way of life and giving messages that are called Life-study messages. The burden in these messages is to point out that the Bible is not merely for teaching — the Bible is for life and life supply. We should not come to the Bible merely to seek teachings concerning commandments and regulations. Because the Bible is for life and life supply, we should come to it for food. The food we enjoy through the Word is the Lord Jesus Himself as the bread of life.
