I AM Bible Study
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Part 1: The Bread of Life
Part 1: The Bread of Life
Introduction:
but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John tells the story of Jesus with a purpose. He wants the us to hear Jesus’ words and the accounts of his incredible works. John will tie these words and works back to what God had already revealed throughout the history of Israel. In doing so, the true identity of Jesus is brought to light - it is revealed to us that He is the Messiah, the Son of God. We are left with a decision to make. Do we believe?
There are patterns in John’s gospel that are worth noting. The number 7 in the Bible often represents perfection or completion. We are told in Genesis that God created the world in 6 days and on the 7th day, He rested.
As we move through John’s gospel, we witness 7 miracle signs performed by Jesus:
Water turned into wine (2:1–11)
Healing of the royal official's son (4:46–54)
Healing the paralytic at Bethesda (5:1–15)
Feeding the multitudes (6:5–14)
Walking on water (6:16–24)
Healing the man blind from birth (9:1–7)
Raising Lazarus from the dead (11:1–45)
We also hear Jesus use 7 metaphors to describe himself, the 7 “I am” statements:
I am the bread of life (6:35),
I am the light of the world (8:12),
I am the door (10:7)
I am the good shepherd (10:11, 14),
I am the resurrection and the life (11:25),
I am the way the truth and the life (14:6)
and I am the true vine (15:1).
Over the next 7 sessions, we will look closer at each of these statements and explore their meaning. I believe in doing so, you will be able to truly say “Jesus is all I need.”
I AM
I AM
In the Old Testament, one of the names of the God of Israel is Yahweh - which means “I AM.” This comes from the story of Moses and the burning bush.
Read Exodus 3:1-22
Discussion:
What are the things that follow the statements that God makes about Himself?
Who does He say He is?
What has He done?
What does He know?
What will He do?
Since “I AM” is the name of God for the Jewish people, how would it have been interpreted by the people when Jesus said in John 8:58
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
Read the passage in it’s context and you will see their response:
Read John 8:52-59.
By using metaphors in his “I AM” statements, Jesus somewhat cloaks the “I AM” standalone statement - while at the same time, revealing to those who were truly listening and seeking, his real identity.
I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE
I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE
Chapter 6 of John begins with the miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand. Crowds had followed him because of the signs we was performing and he asked his disciples, “where are we going to get bread to feed all these people?” There was a child who offered up five barley loaves of bread and two fish - Jesus took this gift, gave thanks to His Father, and had his disciples begin to distribute it. When they were done and everyone had their fill - there were 12 baskets left over.
The next day, the crowds tracked Jesus down again on the other side of sea of Galilee. They wanted to see more signs. This is the setting of the first “I AM” statement.
Read John 6:25-34
When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”
Discussion:
Why did Jesus say the crowds were following him? What were they missing?
What two types of food does Jesus mention? How would you describe the difference?
What is the work of God?
What is the bread of God?
Background from GotQuestions.org
During the forty years between the time the Israelites left Egypt and entered the Promised Land, they faced harsh conditions, including a scarcity of food. To alleviate this problem, God miraculously provided the Israelites with “bread from heaven,” called “manna.” The manna appeared each morning, and the Israelites were given specific instructions on gathering it (see Exodus chapter 16). What was manna? Interestingly, the Israelites asked the very same question: “When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat’” (Exodus 16:15). The Hebrew word translated “manna” literally means “what is it?”
Why did God test the Israelites and feed them manna?
See Deut 8:3
And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Read John 6:35-40
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Discussion:
1. What two needs does Jesus fill for every person in v.35? How do you understand each need?
2. What is the will of God in Jesus? What comfort does v.39 bring the believer?
Read John 6:41-51
So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Grumbling. People often grumble when they do not get what they want and what they want is often tied directly to their appetites. How many spiritual blessings do you think you have missed out on because you were distracted by earthly longings?
Read Exodus 16:1-3
They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
Discussion:
What similarity do you find between the Exodus 16 and the John 6 passage?
What does Jesus say about “whoever believes in me?”
What is the meaning of John 6:51?
Read John 6:52-59
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
Discussion:
What does Jesus mean when he says “whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day”?
John for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1–10 Eating and Drinking the Son of Man (John 6.47–59)
John understands Jesus’ language here to refer to the eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, the sacrament in which Jesus’ body and blood are, in a mysterious way, offered to believers to be eaten and drunk.
John for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1–10 (Eating and Drinking the Son of Man (John 6.47–59))
Jesus declares that in order for him to be truly united with his believing followers, it is necessary for them to ‘eat’ his flesh and drink his blood.
Those who do this will be people of the true Exodus. In the original Exodus, the ancestors of the present Israelites had eaten the bread they were given, but they still died. This bread, this bread-of-life which is Jesus himself, is given, and given to be broken in death, so that those who eat of it may not die, but have eternal life in the present and the future and be raised up on the last day.
Next Week: I AM the Light of the World (John 8:12-20)