2BC BIBLE STUDY NOTES
Wednesday in the Word
Second Baptist Church
August 27, 2025
John 6:52:7:31
In the first chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus is “the Word,” the One whose origin is not to be traced to a manger in Bethlehem, but One who is Himself the origin, the Creator of this world. Through Him, the world was spoken into existence. In the course of time, “the Word” became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus was born of a woman, fully God as much as He was fully man. If Jesus is the “Creator” in John chapter 1, and in chapter 2 (when He turns the water into wine), He is also the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (1:29, 36), and the greater “temple” (2:13-22). He is foreshadowed by the bronze serpent, lifted up by Moses in the wilderness that healed (3:14-15), and the One who is greater than Jacob, offering men and women “living water” (4:10-14). He is the Messiah (4:21-26), the healer of the sick on the Sabbath, who claims the right to do so because He is God (5:1-18). Jesus is the “true bread” from heaven (6:22-71), who gives eternal life to men (much better than the manna that God gave Israel in the wilderness). He is the One who is greater than Moses (1:17; 5:43-47; 6:30-33 ; 9:27-33). John is telling his Jewish readers that Jesus is the fulfillment of everything in the Old Testament which looks forward to the coming of Messiah.
Verses 52-59. Picking up from two weeks ago, the crowd continues to grumble and question Jesus about this bread which Jesus now declares is his flesh. Now Jesus gets to the hard part of His teaching. He is not talking about physical bread, about manna or even the barley loaves He provided in the wilderness for the multitude. He is talking about something “spiritual,” something from heaven which results in spiritual life. The physical symbol that pointed to the eating of flesh that was done with the meat from the sin offering in Leviticus 6:24-30 where the priest ate the meat of the offering. Eating was a symbol of fully accepting something versus rejecting something. When little children accept something, they put it in their mouth when they reject it they spit it out. Jesus is using a metaphor for accepting his teaching as eating his bread.
Verses 60-71. With Jesus giving his most difficult teaching yet, many who were there were unable to accept this message. Jesus heard their grumbling and told them that if they had trouble with his teaching, they were going to really have trouble with what would happen later when he went back to heaven. Jesus gets to the heart of the problem---His audience simply cannot grasp the spiritual meaning of His words. This crowd wonders how one can obtain eternal life through eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood. In both cases, Jesus refers to the spiritual dimensions of His message, and specifically to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ words are “spirit and life.” Without the Spirit, His words do not “come to life,” and they do not produce eternal life. Those who cannot grasp His words are devoid of the Spirit, and thus Jesus’ words are beyond human comprehension, and certainly beyond acceptance. Included with the unbelieving among our Lord’s disciples is one of the twelve, Judas Iscariot. Jesus does not name him here, though all of us now know immediately to whom He is referring. Even one so close to Jesus as Judas can see and hear all that he does without truly coming to faith in Jesus as the Messiah. This is the breaking point for many. This is teaching that many can not and will not understand, nor are they willing to follow Jesus any longer. Many so-called “disciples” prove only to be “followers” for a time. Having heard these words of Jesus, they leave Him, never again to follow Him as His disciples
Chapter 7:1-13. In one quick phrase, the writer tells us that Jesus was in Galilee before he made his way to Judea. It is known that he waited six months before entering Judea. Jesus did not go right away to Judea because the Jews were looking to kill him. His own brothers tempted him to go to Judea during the feast so he could show off his powers. They were not sincere in their gestures because they did not believe him either. Jesus tells his brothers to go ahead because the time was not right for him. Jesus wanted to arrive later in the feast of tabernacles for a very special purpose.
Feats of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23, Numbers 29). This was a feast that occurred during the first part of our month of October. During this seven day feast, the Jews lived in booths made of tree branches to commemorate their forefather’s pilgrimage through the wilderness. On each of these seven days, the High Priest would go to the Pool of Siloam and draw out water in a golden vessel. This water would then be poured out on the altar where the parts of the sacrifice were arranged. As the water was poured out, the people sang unto the Lord and shouted for joy. It was a time of great celebration and worship for the people. This kind of celebrating continued for 7 days. The eighth day was called the great day of the feast. On this day, sacrifices were again offered, but there was no singing and no shouting, this was known as a solemn day of repentance before the Lord. Another element was missing on this day as well; there was no water poured out on the eighth day.
Verses 14-19. Midway through the feast, Jesus suddenly appears in the temple, teaching publicly. For the past six months, He has kept away from Judea to avoid arrest, or worse. And now, suddenly, Jesus appears in Jerusalem, boldly teaching in the temple. The Jews are amazed, not only at His courage but at His content (verse 15). They must admit that He is good, really good. They unwittingly praise Him by saying, “How does this man know so much when he has never had formal instruction?” (verse 15). They cannot understand how one who has not been educated by them has such a keen understanding of the Scriptures. Jesus answers their question about his formal education by mentioning that Moses had no formal education but rceived the law directly from God. Jesus claims to be greater than Moses. If Moses could get the Law from God surely someone greater than Moses could have a greater understanding of the Word. Jesus continues to tell the crowd that he is not teaching to promote himself, but to bring glory and honor to the one who sent him. If one wanted to honor God and discover him they would see that the teachings of Christ were true. Jesus tells the crowd that they are witnesses against themselves when it comes to truth. They say that Moses received the truth straight from God, but they routinely break the law even though they claim it is the truth. They break the Law of Moses and think nothing of it, Jesus breaks the Sabbath to heal a person, and they want to kill him. They break the law for evil and could care less. Jesus heals someone, and he is treated like a criminal.
Verse 20. The people respond to the remarks of Jesus by saying he is demon possessed, and they ask him who is trying to kill him. Now many in the crowd were visitors that did not know of the things that happened six months earlier, but those who were there previously knew exactly what he was talking about. Jesus will bring the crowd up to speed by referring to the man he healed.
Verses 21-24. Jesus responds by stating that when he did the miracle six months prior all were astonished and in awe. Some were happy and some were mad. Jesus argues that what he did was a good thing as opposed to an evil thing that the Jewish leaders were trying to argue. Jesus uses the example of circumcision. The law requires that every Jewish male child should be circumcised on the eighth day (Genesis 17:12; see Luke 1:59; 2:21-24). If the eighth day happens to fall on a Sabbath, the Jews would circumcise the male child, even though “work” is forbidden on that day. Doing so, they break one law (the law of the Sabbath) to avoid breaking another (the law of circumcision). If they can justify themselves for making one member of the child’s body “right” before God on the Sabbath, why do the Jewish leaders condemn Jesus for making a man’s entire body well on the Sabbath? The Jewish leaders were applying a double standard with regards to the miracle that Jesus performed.
Verses 25-29. As Jesus was responding, the crowd realized he was the man that the Jews were trying to kill. Some had seen him before, but all knew about the situation, and they began to think that maybe the reason he is still alive is because the Jewish leaders must think he is the Christ. The people talk amongst themselves and conclude that Jesus cannot be the Christ because they assume he is from Galilee, and the origins of the Christ are not supposed to be a mystery. The crowd claims to not know that he was born in Bethlehem as the prophecy spoke of in Micah 5:2. Jesus responds to their murmuring and tells the crowd that they know him and know where he is from. They know he is of the family of David, and many know that he was born in Bethlehem. Jesus tells the crowd that the reason they can’t know him is because they don’t know God. If they knew God, they would recognize Jesus.
Verses 30-31. At this statement many believed and many rejected him. Some could easily see who he was, but others who never know God could not see who he was. Those that believed recognized the miracles that he did and question if someone else would do more than he has done. Surely the miracles that he did are evidence enough that he is the Christ.
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