John 06 Round Two: Jesus Doesn't Bow to Our Feelings

A free meal draws a massive crowd, but a hard truth reveals true followers. We walk through John 6 as Jesus multiplies bread, refuses a political throne, and then makes a claim that can’t be managed: “I am the bread of life.” That divine name echoes through the story, turning a picnic into a crossroads. Are we chasing the show, or do we really want the Savior?

We trace the whole arc: the sign that satisfies hunger, the storm that stirs fear, and the Savior who steps into the boat and brings them to shore. Then comes the challenge. The people ask for more proof; Jesus redirects them from perishable cravings to eternal life, insisting that the “work” of God is to believe in the One He sent. His language of eating His flesh and drinking His blood isn’t shock for its own sake—it’s a call to receive Him fully, not nibble at His benefits. Many walk away. Peter stays with the line that anchors us when our feelings shake: “To whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Along the way, we unpack why the “I am” statements made religious leaders furious, how signs point beyond themselves, and why Jesus won’t bow to our preferences. We bring the conversation home to modern tensions around truth, identity, and desire. If Jesus is Lord, His words define reality even when they disrupt our assumptions. The invitation is not to perfect understanding but to trusting the character of the One who feeds, rescues, and speaks life.

If this journey helped you think, pray, or see differently, tap follow, share it with a friend who loves the Gospel of John, and leave a quick review so others can find the study. What hard saying has grown your faith most?

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Big Idea
• 0:42 Community Updates And Listener Challenge
• 2:20 Why John Writes: Jesus Is God
• 3:40 Feeding The Multitude Explained
• 6:16 Walking On Water And Arrival
• 7:38 Seeking Jesus For Signs Or Truth
• 9:02 I Am The Bread Of Life
• 11:15 Offense, Metaphor, And Misunderstanding
• 13:36 Many Leave, Peter Stays
• 16:20 Hard Truths And Modern Questions
• 18:06 Prayer And Closing Hope

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's word together. Well, hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, John chapter six, and Jesus is going to thin the herd today. I mean, it is going to be amazing. It's going to be powerful. It is going to be convicting. Jesus is going to verbally slap everybody upside the head. And if I were to give today's episode a title, it would be Jesus Doesn't Bow to Our Feelings. Jesus Doesn't Bow to Our Feelings. We're going to jump into that in just a moment. But as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you are, if you're watching on YouTube, you like this video, you share this video, you comment on this video. I want to know. I want to know what's going on and how you are growing in the Lord through this. If you are listening to this as a podcast, you are my friend. You are my just my hero. I love you so much. Make sure you are leaving us a five-star review. And I want to know what is going on in your life? How are you growing through this? What is what value is God adding to your life as we read God's word together? So make sure you're going over to our Facebook group, Bible breakdown discussion, and let me know what is happening. And what my question for you today is Have you ever had someone hurt your feelings and you later thank them for it? What an interesting question, right? Because the Bible says that faithful are the wounds of a friend. So you ever had someone come up to you and say, hey, listen, I know this is, I've been praying about this. God's really giving me a release to do this. I need to tell you something, right? And that's what Jesus is going to do today. I'm going to set the scenario or scene for you, and we're going to jump into this. This overall book, the gospel, was inspired by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle John, the best friend of Jesus. And the whole goal of the Gospel of John is Jesus is God. I want to tell you what he said. And when you hear what he said, you're going to have to make a decision because he didn't claim to be a good teacher. He didn't claim just to be a healer. He claimed to be God. And I love that idea that Jesus is God. And that just means he's telling the church. You know, during his lifetime, he was like, Man, you may have 99 problems, but Jesus ain't one of them. He is God. But here's the thing about Jesus: He's interested in the truth. And he's interested in us getting close. And so I'm going to paint what's going on at the moment, and that is that this is the final year of Jesus' ministry. He's been doing miracles, he's been doing amazing things, and the crowd has grown. At this point, we're going to read the first part of this. The crowd has swelled to about 5,000 men, plus many of them, their families. So once you add uh husbands, then you add wives, then you add their children, there may have been between 13 to 15,000 people who are now following Jesus everywhere. And in that crowd, you're going to have so many different kinds of people. And Jesus is not interested in the crowds, he's interested in followers. And so what he is going to do is he is going to feed these people, which is amazing, but then he is going to challenge them to see, are you following me for the show? Are you following me for the free food? Or are you following me because you believe the message? And here's the thing: he doesn't pull any punches. And it's a challenging word for all of us today. So we're going to jump into this. I'm also going to explain to you why the Pharisees flip out every time he makes an I am statement. Remember, seven different times in the Gospel of John, he says, I am, and then something else. And he is going to say something that, if I'm honest with you, when I first realized what he was really saying, it shocked me. And I hope it does for you as well. So we're going to jump into this. And it's going to be a long one, but it's going to be a good one. Are you ready? Here we go. If you got your NLT Bibles open with me, John chapter 6, verse 1 says this. After this, Jesus crossed over to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias. A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick. Jesus climbed a hill and sat down with his disciples around him. It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration. Jesus saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. Turning to Philip, he said, Where can we buy bread to feed all these people? He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do. Philip replied, Even if we work for months, we wouldn't have enough money to feed them. And then Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up. There's a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd? Tell everyone to sit down, Jesus said. So they sat down on grassy slopes. The men alone numbered about five thousand. Then Jesus took the loaves and gave thanks to God and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish, and they all ate as much as they wanted. After everyone was full, Jesus told the disciples, Now gather the leftovers so that nothing is wasted. So they picked up the pieces, and it filled twelve baskets with scraps left over by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves. When the people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, Surely he is the prophet that we have been expecting. And when Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself. Now pause. He just got through feeding. Like I said, there's 5,000 men. You had women and children, possibly between 10 and 15,000 people with five barley loaves and two fish. You know, always wonder, first of all, how did they get that lunch from that kid? Was that kid willing, or do they have to kind of throw an elbow at him? I don't I don't know, but they got a hold of it. And then after Jesus blessed it and he broke it, they had 12 baskets left over. And once again, what did they do with the 12 baskets? Well, there's no there's no evidence for this, but my my imagination, I wonder if they gave it to that little boy. You imagine that little boy going home that day and saying, Hey, um, anytime we need anything, let's go give it to Jesus. Because he took five loaves and two fish, and now I got 12 baskets worth of food. Wouldn't that have been amazing? I don't the Bible doesn't say either way. But do you notice that it said that when they were ready to force him to become king, he slipped away. Jesus wasn't interested in momentary satisfaction. He's already the king. He's interested in saving everybody from their sins. And so Jesus always had his eye on the prize because he knew what was really going on. All right, verse 16. That evening Jesus went down to the shore to wait. Jesus' disciples went down to the shore to wait for him. But as darkness fell and Jesus still hadn't come back, they got into the boat and headed across the lake toward Capernaum. Soon a gale swept down upon them. The sea grew very rough. They had rowed three or four miles when suddenly they saw Jesus walking toward the boat. They were terrified, but they called out to them. He called out to them, Don't be afraid. Then they were eager to let him in the boat, and immediately they arrived at their destination. Now pause again. The reason why they would have been so terrified is according to first century tradition, there was this old uh maritime um idea, this whole kind of kind of old sailor's tale, that if you ever saw a ghost walk across the water, it was a sign, a bad omen that your ship was gonna sink. And so you imagine there, they know this old phrase, and now they see someone walking on water. They'd never seen that before. So they immediately think, oh no, we're gonna die. That's why the Bible said as soon as they saw what they find out to be Jesus, they were terrified because they thought we're gonna die. Little did they know the giver of life was on his way. And they invited him into the boat, and they immediately they arrived at their destination. That was another miracle you don't always think about is that when he got in the boat, boom, they were there. That's the way I like to travel. Here we go. Now, the rest of this is gonna be Jesus is now, he's got 5,000 people looking for their next healing, looking for their next free meal. And Jesus sees this, and he is gonna tell them a hard truth because he wants to figure out who is really following me and who is here to see the show. So let's get ready for this as we jump in. Verse 22. The next day the crowd that had stayed on the far shore saw that the disciples had taken the only boat, and they realized Jesus had not gone with them. Several boats from Tiberius landed near the place where the Lord had blessed the bread and the people had eaten. So when the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor the disciples were there, they got into the boats and went across to Capernaum to look for him. They found him on the other side of the lake and asked, Rabbi, when did you get here? Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, you want to be with me because I fed you, not because you understood the miraculous signs. But don't be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval. They replied, We want you to perform, uh we want to perform God's works too. What should we do? And Jesus told them, This is the only work God wants from you. Believe in the one that He has sent. They answered, Oh yeah? Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe you. What can you do? After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness. The scriptures say Moses gave them the bread of life from heaven or bread from heaven to eat. So once again, they've already seen miracles. They've already seen what he can do. They're wanting him to constantly prove himself to them, constantly give us another sign, give us another show. Uh please us, is what they're constantly saying. Here's Jesus' reply, verse 32. I tell you the truth. Moses did not give you bread from heaven, my father did. And now he offers you the true bread from heaven. The true bread of God is the one who has come down from heaven and gives life to the world. Sir, they said, give us this bread every day. Here we go. I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But you haven't believed in me even though you have seen me. However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of those that he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. For it is my Father's will that all who see his son and believe in him should have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day. But then listen, then the people began to murmur in a disagreement about when he said, I am the bread that comes down from heaven. They said, Isn't this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. Now, how can he say, I came down from heaven? Now the reason why they were complaining, because he said, I am the bread of life. Now, if you've read the book of Exodus, then you know that when Moses was getting ready to go liberate the nation of Israel, he said, How am I supposed to tell them who sent me? When I say that God sent me, they're like, Well, well, which God? You know, because in uh Egypt they had a polytheistic society. There were many different gods. And he's like, You're not you're not one of the gods, you are the God, but how can I tell them? And he and God, uh Yahweh, God, told them, say this. Tell them, I am, has sent you. And that phrase, I am, is what Jesus is saying right here. He is not just making a statement, you know, I am Brandon Cannon. He is saying, God. I am God, the bread of life. He is using the sacred name of God to say, yo, Yahweh, the bread of life. He's calling himself God. When he says, I am the bread of life, he is saying, I am the God that liberated the nation of Israel. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I am the bread of life. That's why they began to just go crazy because they were like, no, no, no, no, no, no. How can he say that he is Yahweh, the bread that came down from heaven because he's Jesus? And so he is saying so much more than just making a personal statement. He's claiming his divinity when he says this. And so verse 43 says, But Jesus said, Stop complaining about what I said. For no one can come to me unless the Father has sent, uh the Father who sent me draws them to me, and the last day I will raise them up. As it is written in the scriptures, they will be taught by God. Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anyone has ever seen the Father, only I who was sent from God have seen him. I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. Yes, I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they are all dead. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever. And this bread, which I offer to the world, um, and which I offer so the world may live, is my flesh. Now everybody really does go crazy. 52. Then the people began arguing with each other about what he meant. How can this man give us his flesh to eat? He asked. So Jesus doubles down again. Obviously, he's talking about a metaphor. What he's saying is, is he saying, just like there was manna in the wilderness and that sustained the nation of Israel, I am the sustainer that you've been waiting for. He's not talking literally, he's talking figuratively, but they're not listening. Remember? They just want free food and they want the show. They're not trying to understand what Jesus is saying. So, first 53, he says, I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. I live because the living Father who sent me in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did, even though they ate the manna, but will live forever. He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. Now here we go. Many of his disciples said, This is a very this is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it? And Jesus looks at them and he says, He was aware they were complaining, and so he said, Does this offend you? Then what would you think if you see the Son of Man ascending into heaven again? The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But some of you do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning which ones didn't believe, and he knew who would betray him. Then he said, This is why I said that people can't come to me unless my Father gives them to me. At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. Then Jesus turned to his twelve and asked, Are you also going to leave? Simon Peter replied, Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe and we know that you are the holy one of God. Then Jesus said, I have chosen the twelve of you, but one is a devil. He was speaking, of course, of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, one of the twelve who would later betray him. So what Jesus just got through doing is he was saying, Now I want to show you who really is my follower and who is just here to see the show. And that is, he uses this metaphor, and he's saying, in the wilderness, back in yo, uh Numbers, we just got through reading as a as a as a group together, you know, they had manna to eat, free manna every single day. All they had to do was receive it, and they were sustained. Jesus has been saying over and over again, if you will put your trust in me, you can be saved. You cannot earn it. All you can do is receive it. And you receive me freely, but you gotta receive me. And so Jesus is using this as a metaphor. He's not literally saying, eat my flesh and drink my blood. He's saying you have to receive me. And if you receive me and receive all of me, you'll receive life. Well, for people who are trying to understand, they got it. But for everybody that didn't care about knowing God, they just wanted to see the show, they wanted the free food, immediately they're offended. And Jesus, I love this where he's saying, Does this offend you? And he doesn't apologize. He just simply looks at his 12 and says, You guys gonna go too? And I love that Jesus understands that there are hard things that we're sometimes gonna struggle to receive, but he loves us enough to tell us anyway. And there are times when we read God's word where we go, oh, that's hard. But we have to choose. Do we trust God? Do we trust his character? That's what Peter is saying. He's like, hey, look, I don't get it. That seems really difficult, but where are we gonna go? We know that you're God and we trust you. And that's sometimes when life we have to understand. Let's get really, really practical for a moment. We live in a culture where so many things are up for grabs. We have so many things that are so many situations where people are fighting over how to best interpret sexuality. Is sexuality a spectrum, or did God really create a man and a woman? Is it God's divine decree for holy sexuality, a man and a wife for life? Is that easy to believe for some people? What about when it comes to truth? Is truth objective or is truth subjective or is truth a construct? You know, how how should we do with all these other things? There's so many things that are up for grabs that God's word is very clear on. And here's the thing sometimes we don't like it, but we need to be like Peter and say, you know what? Sometimes it's hard, but the truth is you're God. And since you're God, you can say whatever you want to say, and I'm gonna follow it. And when we do that, we realize that we can trust his character. And when God says something we don't like, we usually find out in the end he was right all along. And so that goes into the question of the day. The whole purpose of the Gospel of John was so that we may believe, and by believing, we may have life by the power of his name. How does this chapter give us life? And that is, when I don't know, I trust, because as I trust the Lord, I find out he was right all along. Let me pray for us today, and then we'll be done. Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you, Jesus, that you love us enough to challenge us. Sometimes we allow our feelings to get in the way of your truth. I love, God, that you love us enough to challenge us, but you never turn your back on us. Thank you, God, for giving us the opportunity to know you and giving us the patience to bring us along at a pace that we can stand. We love that you are God, and because of that, you give us hope every day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. God's Word says in John chapter 30, these things were written that you may continue to believe that Jesus is God, and that by believing in Him, you may have life by the power of His name. My prayer for you is life and more life as we dig into God's Word together. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for John chapter seven.