Tag: John 6

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Devotions

Daily Devotion August 2nd

SUNDAY 2nd

John 6:22-35

NIV (v35) – ‘Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

ESV (v35) – ‘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.’ John 7:37-39

We continue again today with the subject of bread and take todays thought from the prayer our Lord taught his disciples to pray. Todays devotion is a deviation away from John’s gospel and the purpose for it will be at the end.

Luke 11:1-4 ‘Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples. And he said to them, When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread,  and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.’

‘Give us each day our daily bread.’

Last Friday in our devotion we saw that Jesus described himself as ‘the bread of life’, here in this prayer which he taught his disciples to pray, he encourages them to ask the heavenly Father for daily bread. As the bread of life, Jesus satisfies our spiritual need, but our heavenly Father is also the one who satisfies our physical need or our daily requirement for nourishment for the physical.

In what we call his ‘sermon on the mount’ in Matthews gospel, Jesus made it very clear that not only are our spiritual need met through the good news of the gospel, but our God also provides for us in the natural. He has placed the seasons into place, springtime and harvest, the rains that soak into the ground and the sunshine to enable the planted seed to grow, for the earth to produce our daily bread. In the sermon, Jesus tell the listeners and it applies to us as well today ‘Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?’ (Matthew 6:25-26)

There is so such going on in the world today that could cause us to be anxious, as we see the ongoing threat of the Covid-19 virus and the complication arising from it in regard to the worlds economy affecting jobs and in turn peoples financial security. We need to remind ourselves that our security is found in the Lord Jesus Christ and he knows what we need, and as we remain constant in our walk with him, he will provide our daily bread. (As I am typing this devotion I am listening to a pre-recorded service and the song being played is ‘You’re a good, good Father’) and he is our Father, ‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread . . .’ He is faithful. Faithful forever you will be, all your promises are yes and amen.

The purpose of this devotion is twofold, to firstly remind us of the faithfulness of our heavenly father in his provision toward us the children of men and secondly, as we see the combine harvesters beginning to roll out into the fields to harvest the grain, let us give thanks from grateful hearts for the daily provision we have.

Perhaps in the western world we too often take so much for granted, we need to continually come back to the Creator and the Sustainer with thankful hearts. Remember the story in Luke 17:11-19 where Jesus healed ten lepers, yet only one returned to give thanks. As we continually give thanks for our great salvation, so we also need to continually give thanks for his daily provision, give thanks for the ‘bread of life’ and for the ‘daily bread’.

‘Great is thy faithfulness,

great is thy faithfulness;

morning by morning new mercies I see;

all I have needed thy hand hath provided –

great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!

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Devotions

Daily Devotion August 1st

SATURDAY 1st

John 6:22-35

NIV (v35) – ‘Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

ESV (v35) – ‘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.’

As we continue from yesterday’s devotion, where Jesus had said that he was the bread of life, I will continue today and tomorrow with the subject of bread as seen in the Scripture, looking at two separate verses, for today:

Luke 4:1-1-4 ‘And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.  The devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. And Jesus answered him, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone.’

In the first Scripture we are taken to the account where Jesus is in the wilderness and being tempted by the devil. There are three temptations,

  1. To turn a stone to bread
  2. To worship the devil
  3. To throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple

The first was to do with hunger as we are told that Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days, and during that time he had ate nothing. Understandably, he was hungry, and the devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.’ Jesus answered, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’  This was a quote from the OT in Deuteronomy 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.’

A couple of thoughts here, the devil says ‘If you are . . .’ it always makes me smile, for the devil knew without any shadow of doubt who Jesus was and that he really was the Son of God, what he was trying to do was to weasel into what he thought would be a weak point on Jesus behalf (his hunger) and as a result get Jesus to take the devils advice and put it into action, making the stone into bread. If Jesus had done this, it would have been a landmark victory for the devil and would have led to the failure of the plan of salvation. (As would have been the yielding to the other two temptations)

The devil is as we are reminded in Scripture going about like a roaring lion, seeking who he can devour. (1Peter 5:8 ‘Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.’) We could put it this way, he is prowling around or sniffing around to see if he can find our weak points, our vulnerabilities and he would love to try to trick us into conceding to any temptation he would bring our way to try to snare us, trap us and to trip us up.

Jesus responded to the devil with a Scripture, and for us as well, we need to realise that among many other things Scripture is a tool or a weapon we need to take up and use as a defence and protection against the wiles of the devil. In Ephesians 6, the Word of God is pictured as the sword, ‘. . . and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.’ I do not know about you, but I think the devil could do with a few plunges of this amazing sword! May God help each of us, however long we may have been a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, to never give into the wiles of the devil, but to be determined in our hearts to wholeheartedly devote ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Devotions

Daily Devotion July 31st

FRIDAY 31st

John 6:22-35

NIV (v35) – ‘Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’

ESV (v35) – ‘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.’

We come today to the first narrative in John’s gospel to contain one of what we call the ‘I Am’ statements of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are seven of them altogether:

John 6:35 ‘I am the bread of life.’

John 8:12 ‘ I am the light of the world.’

John 10:7-9  ‘I am the door.’

John 10:10 ‘I am the good Shepherd.’

John 11:25 ‘I am the resurrection and the life.’

John 14:6 ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’

John 15:1 ‘I am the true vine.’

In our Scripture for today, Jesus calls himself or refers to himself as the bread of life or living bread seven times. Verses 32, 33, 35, 41, 48, 51 and 58.

The crowds that had enjoyed the meal of loaves and fishes had decided to look for Jesus again the next day, and who could blame them if there was the possibility of another free meal! I would have been there for sure if it had been something else instead of fish! But Jesus discerned that their motives for coming to him again were not genuine, it was only for the free meal and not because of who he really was. V27 ‘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 . . .’  

It is out of the continuing dialogue that Jesus had with the crowd that we learn that he is the bread of life. They challenged Jesus about the time when Moses had fed the children of Israel in the wilderness with the manna which they described as bread from heaven, because it appeared on the ground every morning. (Exodus 16) Jesus replies by saying that it wasn’t Moses that had provided the bread, but rather his (that is Jesus’) Father and he then incorporates the statement to take on a present reality for them by saying ‘ . . .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.’ In the wilderness the bread, manna was a substance they could collect and eat, but here the bread was not a substance that they could collect and eat, but was in fact a person (he), who was the ‘Word who had become flesh’ whom if we believe in will grant eternal life.

The manna or bread in the wilderness only sustained life for a period, they had to collect a fresh supply every day and eat to survive, but the true bread, the living bread gives eternal life! We come by faith and partake of him, and as we eat and drink, we receive the life he offers. It is in the same chapter that Jesus speaks of eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood to have eternal life (John 6:53-58) Jesus isn’t saying that we have to literally eat of his flesh and literally drink of his blood, we know that this is not possible, he is using language that speaks or signifies of us partaking of him by faith, it is our accepting him, or believing that he the bread of life, as being the one who God has sent to grant eternal life, it is a figure of speech to describe that as by faith we believe, we are partaking of the bread of life and are being saved.

I do not eat a lot of bread, I have mentioned in a previous devotion that I like going to ‘Subway’ which uses a bread roll for the sandwich, I could go days without eating bread. I went to Denmark a few years ago for a conference, and in the morning as you woke up there would be this beautiful smell filling the air, and as I made my way the first time for breakfast, the smell was incredible, it was Danish bread and I couldn’t eat enough of it, it is most definitely the best bread I have ever eaten, well, almost! For I am glad that I have come to receive of the ‘bread of life’ he is the best bread ever!

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Devotions

Daily Devotion July 30th

THURSDAY 30th

John 6:16-21

NIV (v20) – ‘But he said to them, It is I; don’t be afraid.’

ESV (v20) – ‘But he said to them, It is I; do not be afraid.’

This is a short story, but it is another evidence of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, this time demonstrated with his power over a storm.

There is another account of Jesus stilling a storm when he was in the boat with the disciples found in Luke 8:22-25 . On this occasion in John 6 the disciples are alone, Jesus had remained behind. The storm brewed up and as they were battling to sail through it, they look up and see Jesus walking on the sea, coming toward the boat and they were frightened.

Who wouldn’t be frightened in the midst of a storm out in a boat in the middle of the sea, we are told that because of the placement of the sea of Galilee, storms can come in an instant and can be pretty ferocious. 

I was once caught in the middle of a ferocious storm, but it was not out at sea, it was in the centre of the city of Manchester, it was one of the most frightening experiences I have ever had, it was near impossible to walk unless you were holding onto something, roofs were blowing off buildings, shop fronts were being destroyed, the glass from the bus shelters were being blown out and the scariest of all was watching the tall cranes the builders use rocking like crazy. But at least I could get into a building to shelter from it. Out in the middle of the sea, there was nowhere to go, battling to row, battling to keep the water out while at the same time trying to conquer their fear and remain hopeful the storm would subside and that you would eventually land safely at the other side.

But Jesus comes, and he speaks out to them ‘It is I do not be afraid’ and they were glad to take him on the boat and immediately the boat arrived to where they were going.

We will have all heard sermons built around this story, we all face storms, we all go through trying times, we all go through periods where our circumstances cause us to be afraid, cause fear to arise in our hearts. But unlike this story Jesus is never somewhere else, he never remains behind when he asks us or sends us somewhere, he comes with us. One song writer has put it this way, ‘Standing somewhere in the shadows you’ll find Jesus’ We know what the song writer is intending to say, but in reality Jesus isn’t in the shadow, unless we have chosen to put him there! He is with us, he is alongside us, even more wonderful the Scripture says he is in us! (‘Christ in you the hope of glory’ Colossians 1:27) This should give us reassurance that whatever storms we face, whatever battles we have to fight through, whatever circumstances we encounter that cause us to fear, he is with us, he is alongside us and he is able to pick us up and to carry us through.

If you are going through a storm at this moment, if you feel that you are being tossed about on the tempestuous waves or battered by the hurricane force winds, look out for Jesus, allow him to step into you ‘boat’ and allow him to dispel the fear and to bring calm and peace.

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Devotions

Daily Devotion July 29th

WEDNESDAY 29th

John 6:1-15

NIV (v12) – ‘When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.’

ESV (v12) – ‘And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.’

Our portion of Scripture today covers the account of what we call the feeding of the 5000, now we know that the number only covered the men so the complete number of all who had been fed including the women and children would have been much more.

In John 2 we saw how Jesus had been able to change water into the best wine, here in John 6 he was able to take a couple of fish and five small barley loaves (what we would call bread rolls today) and after giving thanks, break it into pieces and feed this large crowd, the end result was that they ended up with the fragments at the end amounting to more than what they started with! Twelve baskets full! It makes me think that they must have been messy eaters!

It reminds us that ‘little is much’ when placed in God’s hands, I touched on this earlier in July. Back in 2000, when we moved to Sudbury in Suffolk to pastor a Church there, it had been pioneered about 40 years previously by David and Anita Perry alongside another couple, Jim, and Martha Hayes. The church had known times of great growth over several years, but prior to our arriving there, it had dwindled down to a few families and was just about ticking over. We were asked to go there and to see if it could become a viable Church again. It was not long before we realised that we had a deficiency in help, and in particular worship was difficult with the means of music coming from a small midi file player.

The first sermon I preached at this Church was from John 6 and the headline ‘Little is much if God is in it.’ To be honest I did not realise at the time how little we had to work with, but we soon began to see that God was in it and he proved himself faithful to us. One particular area was in worship, a lady returned to the Church who had not been attending for many years and she eventually told me she had a son who could play the piano, he had made a commitment to the Lord but needed a Church to attend and some fellowship, he arrived one Sunday and eventually he played the piano for us, I say played, without being  disrespectful, it was a good effort but needed a lot of practise. But God was in it and before long we had a Filipino man start attending and together he and the lad on the piano began to do the worship together and before long, the piano was being played like a professional, well, nearly! God had provided and out of the little we had we soon had sufficient to be able to put aside the small midi file player.

We may feel that we have little to offer, we may feel that we are not confident or competent enough, but when God is involved in something he can take what we see as little, lacking or incompetent and he can bless it and use it to bring glory to his name. 

Imagine the young lad, leaving home with his lunch box, yet returning home later that day having seen the glory of God revealed because he was willing to give what little he had. Imagine Andrew, taking the lad to Jesus and thinking to himself, ‘What am I doing, common sense tells me this is peanuts in comparison to what is needed to feed this lot’ but he took the lad, and together they would have stood back with their eyes wide open like golf balls, jaws dropped to the floor,  as they saw what Jesus did with the little they handed over.

Incidentally, the lad who came to play the piano, a timid shy lad at the time in his late teens or early twenties, is now the leader of the Church. As he stepped out in obedience offering what little he thought he had, God has blessed him beyond measure.

Begin to learn to step out in faith, one day you may be picking up the baskets full of fragments (which I will call God’s abundance) as you see God blessing the effort that you are willing to put into serving our wonderful Saviour.