101. Beginner Bible Course: "I am the Bread of LIfe" (Feeding of the 5000)

EPISODE3 101.  The simple Bible overview of… I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE (JESUS HAS THE DTR TALK IN CAPERNAUM)

At one time or other…

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00:00:04

…most all of us adults have had it. The DTR, the talk, the critical point in a relationship where you need clear answers about where this thing is going in this episode, Jesus has the DTR with the citizens of Galilee. He'd been hanging out with them for almost two full years, preaching the kingdom healing, the sick setting free of the captives preaching. The kingdom of God had come, let me give you a little background to Jesus DTR with the people in Galilee, John has just been murdered and Jesus is in crisis. He wants to get away, but the multitude stir his remaining levels of energy. They move him with compassion. So Jesus spends a whole day doing ministry to them late in the afternoon.

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00:00:48

On this day, he says to his disciples, we need to feed these people. Phillip asked him. So just how are we going to do that? There are 5,000 men here, plus women and children. Andrew apparently pokes around and finds a little kid with a lunch pail, with five loaves and two fish. He tells Jesus, that's what they have for starters. Jesus has the people sit down, blesses that little kid's lunch. And before it's over all 5,000 men with their wives and kids are fed. And just to make sure we know they didn't all just get a tiny little nibble. The gospel writers record that each disciple went out and collected leftovers, 12 baskets in all and fill them up.

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00:01:30

The reaction to the people was quite extraordinary. This is the profit. They likely meant the profit that was coming before the coming promise King, that would have been John Jesus' cousin. John said Jesus was the coming King. Jesus slipped out of sight with his disciples. He then sends his disciples in the evening, across the Lake in a boat. And Jesus sneaks off to some private place to pray and to regroup. We're told in the fourth watch of the night, that's 3:00 AM to 6:00 AM. The winds on Galilee were contrary to the disciples. They were making no progress in the middle of the Lake.

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And this thing isn't all that big at its longest point. It's only about 14 miles across this time. It doesn't sound like a nasty thunderstorm, just the nasty wind we're told by the gospel writers that Jesus began to walk across the sea on the surface of the water on the surface. This seems like a strange miracle of Jesus. But when you consider what God did in the old Testament, dividing the red sea, he also damned the Jordan river upstream. So the people of Israel could cross. And there's an incident in the life of Elisha where the power of God makes an ax head float to the surface. This isn't an unprecedented thing for God to do.

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00:02:51

We're not told Jesus motive other than perhaps to help his disciples or to get across to the other side of the Lake, where they were heading. As he gets near the boat, they catch a glimpse of him walking on the water. They began to cry out loud. I mean, what would you think in the middle of the night in the storm, seeing someone traipsing on the water in the shadows, don't be afraid. It's me. It's here. Peter from the boat says, if that's really you, Lord tell me to come out to you on the water. Jesus says, come on out, Pete, the way Matthew reports it, Peter actually made it a ways. But then he looked down at the waves and he panicked and stepped into a manhole.

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00:03:33

Whether it was on his way down or coming up for a breath of air, he praised the shortest prayer in the Bible. Lord save me. Maybe that prayer was the reason Jesus came out there on the water to begin with Jesus grabs Peter's hand and pulls him up. I picture him looking Peter in the eye and the darkness going, Pete, where is your faith? Apparently they walked back to the boat together. I love that. And in the boat, Jesus asked his father to shut the fans off the wind vanished there in the boat. They worshiped him Mark ads. They were immediately at their destination, the shores of Capernum. And that apparently was a miracle too.

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00:04:13

They'd been up all night and they don't get much sleep either because when Dawn comes the crowd on the other side of the sea of Galilee began looking for Jesus and the disciples. Again, they likely saw the disciples leaving a boat without Jesus. So they're looking all around for him. And when they can find him, they figure somehow Jesus must've gone. Whereas disciples had gone toward Capernum. They pack every boat. They can get their hands on. They probably got to Capernum around noon, maybe a little earlier and there they found Jesus. And their first question to him was how do you get here? Jesus replies. You want food again? Don't you? This reminds me of what seagulls do at the beach.

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00:04:54

When you pull out the sandwiches, can you picture that? Jesus knows they've come across the Lake and assembled on the shoreline around him because they want to be fed again. Jesus says, if only you would be hungry for the kingdom. As much as for food, Jesus had been hanging around these people for two years and it had been casual. Now they wanted to make him King and they wanted him to provide for their needs. This brings Jesus to the DTR moment. It's a critical point where they need to understand where this relationship needs to go. He decides to provide some clarity on this relationship. The day before he'd provided food for his crowd out of his compassion for their need.

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00:05:36

Now he decides to turn this miracle of feeding the 5,000 into a signpost to point to something much more significant. The gospel writer, John lets us eavesdrop on his conversation on the shoreline of Galilee at Capernaum, the people trying to talk them into a meal, say, Jesus, what work should we do to honor God and to do his works. In other words, tell us about the chores that please, God, that sounds like the Pharisees had had an influence. Doesn't it? Jesus replies. Believe in the one whom God has sent there's John's believe word coming up again. The crowd responds. What sign will you do that we might believe in you?

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00:06:18

I can almost hear the sound of seagulls. They don't wait for an answer. They have a shameless suggestion. They said, God fed our forefathers manna in the wilderness hand, tint. That was a sign that God gave. Give that sign to us to Jesus replied, God gave that generation bread. You're right. And God is given you better bread bread. That gives life. The crowd gets excited. Jesus, give us this bread. I imagine a pause. Jesus looks into the crowd and says, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will not hunger thirst again, but my father will give to everyone who beholds me and believes in me eternal life.

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00:07:04

Now stop a minute and think be holes and believes gets life. Does that ring a bell? That sounds like what Jesus told Nicodemus. In episode 92, Nicodemus wanted to know how he could be a part of God's kingdom and Jesus didn't talk about chores. He talked about that snake on a pole and numbers that anyone who'd been bitten could look at that snake. That Moses was to put on a pole and believe what God had said about it. And if they turned and looked at the snake, they would live. Now Jesus says whoever beholds and believes in me will have eternal life. Now the gospel writers don't tell us if this entire conversation happened on the beach or on a procession to the synagogue because Jesus continues.

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00:07:51

This define the relationship conversation from the synagogue in Capernaum, perhaps as they're traveling, people are grousing. How can he say he's bread that came down out of heaven. We know his kin folks. Jesus is listening into these discussions and that sounds like Nazareth. Doesn't it. Once at the synagogue, Jesus doubles down on the DTR talk. He repeats. I am the bread of life. I'm better than manna. Your forefathers ate manna and they all died, but you eat this bread and you won't die. You'll live forever. My flesh is true bread and I'm going to offer it up that all might live.

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00:08:32

Did you catch that? And then Jesus triples down on the DTR, the talk, he says this, those who eat the flesh of the son of man and drink, his blood will be raised up to life. On the last day, he answers their question. What works must we do to do the work of God and have eternal life. You need to eat the flesh of the son of and drink his blood to be right with God and raised up on the last day. Many in the crowd took Jesus' words, literally, and many people after Jesus' death and resurrection took them literally as well. Many of their enemies, both Romans and Jews accused them of cannibalism, of eating their own children in their love.

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00:09:16

Feasts later in history, seeking to honor Jesus words, to eat his flesh and drink his blood. The Roman Catholic church declared the doctrine of transubstantiation that when a priest under the authority of God bless the wine and the bread, it changes substance into the literal body and blood of Christ. That's why the priest finishes every last drop of the wine. You don't pour the blood of Christ down a sink, but Jesus gives a clue in this passage, through it suggests he's giving a metaphor here. Jesus says the one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me.

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00:09:57

You could just as easily interpret that eating my flesh and drinking my blood is equal to abiding in me on the night before Jesus died. He makes another strong statement about branches abiding in a vine. Many theologians agree. Jesus is speaking with a metaphor. This is a define the relationship moment. What Jesus is saying is that God wants an intimate union between Jesus and those who are listening. Not some casual thing. Being a child of God is not having dinner together and chatting with Jesus. It's going all in, in the relationship almost as if you are eating and drinking him.

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00:10:38

It's being sustained on a relationship with Jesus like water and bread. Sustain the people of Israel in the wilderness, both here in Capernum and later on in Jesus' ministry, Jesus will say at some point in time, you have to go all in or decide to walk away. I grew up on the Andy Griffith show. You can still find it on me, TV and other places like most viewers. My favorite character was Bernard Fife Barney. He appeared on the show for five years from 1961 to 1965. Barney had a running girlfriend, Thelma Lou, and a few side interests. He bragged about like Juanita, the waitress.

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But Thelma Lou was his main girl through the five seasons. That relationship just didn't go anywhere on several occasions fell. Maloo tried to have the DTR, but Barney just wouldn't make a commitment. Jesus, won't be film Maloo here. The gospel writers tell us what happened. Most of the people walked away from Jesus. They wanted a King to push out the Romans and to meet their needs. And for such a King, they were ready to do his chores, but Jesus wouldn't have that all along. He'd been preaching. It's not about chores, believing in and beholding the one who gives up his flesh and blood that they might have life eternal life we're told even some of Jesus' disciples began to flake off, not the 12, but certainly some of those 70 in the next ring, as these people are bailing out of the synagogue, Jesus turns to the 12 disciples and said, how about you guys?

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00:12:15

You want to walk away too. Peter replies to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We've come to believe and know that you are the Holy one of God. You want to know where this relationship is going. We're in Jesus. Jesus simply replies. Not all of you are in one of you is a devil in many ways. This DTR moment, the talk is a pivotal point in the ministry of Jesus. He'd been rejected in Jerusalem by the leaders. Then he was rejected in his hometown. Now he's being rejected by a majority of the people in Galilee, where he spent the bulk of his first two years of ministry here in Copernum.

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00:12:55

Some of his closest followers take a walk, but Jesus is not a quitter. God wants his lost kids back. And before Jesus leaves this region to head to Jerusalem, to give his flesh and blood. He wants to offer that relationship to as many as he can in the area of Galilee of the Gentiles and beyond we're going to see whether or not he was successful in that mission. As he begins the third year of his ministry in our next wordpicture.