Week 17 Day 1

The Daily Take 10

The Gospel of John

Week 17 Day 1

Introduction…God does not have to prove His existence or defend His acts to us, but He does choose to love us and offer forgiveness to us so that by His grace (unmerited favor toward us), we are able to come to God. The role of our faith is the key that opens the doorway to God. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Hebrews 11:6

Read John 6:30-40 “They said to him: ‘What sign are you going to perform that we may see it and believe in you? What is your work? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. As it stands written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ Jesus said to them: ‘This is the truth I tell you, Moses did not give you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the real bread from heaven. The bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’ They said to him: ‘Sir, always give us that bread.’ Jesus said: ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never  hunger and he who believes in me will never thirst anymore. But I tell you, though you have seen me, yet you do not believe in me. I came down from heaven not to do my will, but to do the will of him who sent me. This is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose none of those he gave to me, but that I should raise them all up on the last day. This is the will of my Father that everyone who believes on the Son, when he sees him, should have everlasting life. And I will raise him up on the last day.’”

Bible Study

• God wants and is all about love and a relationship with us, the people He created. Since Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we see that fact and truth about God.
• God wants us to believe, have faith and trust Him as our Father.
• Man is looking for some other way to God…let’s build a tower to heaven, let’s create a religion, or demand that God gives us a daily indisputable sign so we will not need faith. Something where God meets our demands.
  • Miracles of God get us to look but not commit
  • Following as a true disciple is all about believing and committing to Christ
• Here Jesus is God come in the form of man and the people are so blind toward God, that they miss God with them and want more…a sign. He is the sign! They want…bread. Instead of giving bread, He gave Himself, the Bread of Life.
• Jesus says it right. As our Creator, He knows what we need.
  • The heavenly manna given to God’s people years before was from God.
  • God now was sending a heavenly person, Jesus Christ, to give us life. It is Him the bread of life that we need!
• Jesus, The Bread of Heaven and Bread of Life
  • Bread is known to be the staff, the basic food sustaining life
  • Life is more than mere existence, it is relationship with God and a vital connection to God our Creator through His Son, Jesus Christ.
  • Without Jesus there is no forgiveness, salvation or relationship eternal

Application

• Why are we here?
  • We were created for God to live with God, both now and for eternity.
• Bread of Heaven…meaning God sent God the Son as His essential provision for life.
• Bread of Life…meaning with Jesus, God the Son, there is no life as it is intended and no life eternal with God

Tags: Take 10

Week 17 Day 2

The Daily Take 10

The Gospel of John

Week 17 Day 2

Introduction…Murmuring…is a soft, indistinct subdued grumble, or half suppressed complaint or objection. It sounds like a simple, insignificant word, but what destructive power it contains!  Murmuring was THE reason God would not let allow the 1 million Jews, that He miraculously freed from slavery, to enter the Promised Land. The murmuring consisted of complaining about the direction, stopping their trust in God for victory and lost faith in His promises. What should have been a 10 day journey from Egypt to Israel took 40 years and God would not allow any of the murmurers to enter.

Read John 6:41-51 “So the Jews kept murmuring about him because he said: ‘I am the bread which came down from heaven.’ They kept saying: ‘Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say: ‘I have come down from heaven?’ Jesus answered: ‘Stop murmuring to each other. No one can come to me except the Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. It stands written in the prophets: ‘And all will be taught by God.’ Everyone who has listened and learned from my Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God, he has seen the Father. This is the truth I tell you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and died. This is the bread of life which comes down from heaven that a man may eat of him and not die. I am the bread of life which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever.”

Bible Study

• There is a spirit of negativity that some people have that causes them to miss God, complain about their situation in life, refuse to trust God, and lose faith in God.
  • There is great value in a positive outlook, attitude and encouraging word
  • Be careful of what and who you listen to. There are more negative reports and messengers than positive ones. A negative report breeds fear and wears us out, negativity robs faith, complaining replaces trust in God, murmuring stops the blessing of God. See Daniel 7:25
  • What we say matters to God, others and to ourselves. We can lose out on blessings and miracles by how we think and speak. See Mark 5:39-40.
• The Jews rationalized and argued with each other, dissected every word of Jesus, his background and murmured between themselves, looking for some reason to not believe, discounting Jesus’ claims and missed God, His love and salvation.
• There is a significant difference between listening and learning.
  • We can listen with a readiness to criticize, resent, and sense superiority.
  • We can listen with a readiness to learn and receive the drawing of God
  • See Matthew 13:13, Romans 10:17, Hebrews 5:11
• Did you ever ask yourself, “if Jesus were to have come to earth during your lifetime, would you have heard and received Him as God the Son, or like so many of that time, would you have missed God?”
• If we make our judgments about God based upon human values or standards we will certainly miss God.
• God has used many and various messengers, none greater than Jesus. Are you looking and listening for God? He sees your searching heart and He is speaking.

Application

• Someone said, you cannot judge a book by its cover. Based upon the Scripture and what we studied today, it is evident that we must be careful not to discard or resist a message from God because we do not like the messenger.
• Hear God speak to you through unusual messengers by using your spirit of discernment. Pray for the spirit of discernment, that spiritual ability to know right from wrong, truth from error, if a message is from God and not be deceived.

Tags: Take 10

Week 17 Day 3

The Daily Take 10

The Gospel of John

Week 17 Day 3

Introduction…In the times and culture while Jesus was on earth, with society as it existed, the people understood the reality and norm of animal sacrifices. We may think of these practices and the entire subject as gross, but it was common in that day.  It was a part of their culture. Jesus speaking to the people of His day used terms they understood and were accustomed to for centuries. The symbolism and lessons learned from the discussion apply to us even today.

Read John 6:51-59 “The bread which I will give him is my flesh which is given that the world may have life.’  So the Jews argued with each other saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ Jesus said to them: ‘this is the truth I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot possess eternal life within yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. My flesh is the real food and my blood is the real drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. As the living Father has sent me, so I live through him and he he who eats me will live through me. This is the bread which came down from heaven. It is not a case of eating as your fathers ate and died. He who eats this bread lives forever.’ He said these things when he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.”

Bible Study

• The flesh of Jesus is full indication of his humanity. Immanuel, God in the flesh who came to dwell among us, live and die for us that we too might live with Him.
• Hebrews 4:15-16 tells us about that Jesus, our High Priest and life example took upon Himself humanity to identify with us,  “For we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us, therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
• 1 John 4:2-3 says, “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. In fact, the spirit which denies that Jesus is come in the flesh is not of God and this is that spirit of antichrist.”
• The blood is indication and stands for life and Jesus says we must take His life into ours, into our core being to be alive in Him.
• Jesus is not a topic, an ideal or theological discussion…He was a person, Son of Man and as Son of God was God who came in the flesh who shed His blood for the cleansing/forgiveness of our sin.
  • When we come to Christ and ask for forgiveness and confess our sins, because of the blood of Jesus, our sins are taken away and separated from us, to be remembered no more by God.
  • Matthew 26:28, Jesus said regarding communion, “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”
  • Hebrews 9:22 and 28 “…without the shedding of blood is no remission…so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many…”
• To complete the picture and teaching at a later time, Jesus explained the importance of embracing His broken body symbolized by eating the bread and taking into ourselves the cleansing blood of Jesus and the new testament symbolized by drinking the wine, as He instituted Holy Communion.

Application

• Revelation 12:10-11 pictures the scene in heaven saying, “now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren (Satan) is cast down, who accused them before our God day and night. And they (believers) overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb…”

“The Blood Shall Never Lose Its Power”

The blood that Jesus shed for me

Way back on Calvary

Oh the blood that gives me strength from day to day

It will never lose its power

And it reaches to the highest mountain

And it flows to the lowest valley

Oh the blood that gives me strength from day to day

It will never lose its power.

Tags: Take 10

Week 17 Day 4

The Daily Take 10

The Gospel of John

Week 17 Day 4

Introduction…Jesus often gave a ‘hard to understand or accept messages’ that caused true believers to press on and in closer to grasp the meaning, knowing by faith that it is true, but only with persistence and passion will my faith be rewarded. That same tough message, was just enough to cause the casual believer to exit, give up and find that intellectually they just couldn’t go further with Christ, when in actuality they never truly submitted their lives to Christ in a saving faith.

Read John 6:59-65 “When they had heard this discourse many of his disciples said: ‘This word is hard! Who is able to listen to it?’ Jesus well knew within himself that his disciples were murmuring about this, so he said to them, ‘does this cause you to stumble? What then if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he formerly was? The life giving power is the Spirit; the flesh is of no help. The words, which I have spoken to you, are spirit and life. But there are some who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who it was who was going to betray him. So that was why he often said, ‘no man can come to me except it has been given to him by the Father to do so.”

Bible Study

• The disciples wanted Jesus to be well received, but when Jesus made these difficult statements that offended some and discouraged others, Jesus’ comments sifted out those without saving faith.
• The nature of man will never fully understand God until we are in heaven and ‘we shall be like Him.’ Until then God has chosen our faith in Him to be the key prerequisite to serving Him. He is not purposed to prove Himself to us.
  • Proverbs 25:2 “It is the glory (prerogative) of God to conceal a thing and the honor of kings to search out a matter.”
  • 1 Corinthians 1:23-25, 27 “but we preach Christ crucified…unto the Gentiles it is foolishness, but unto them who are called…Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men…but God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise…”
  • Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “for my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are my ways your ways…for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
• We are saved by grace through faith…there will always need to be a final leap of faith between us and our understanding and God.
• When Jesus speaks of His words causing some to stumble, He speaks of tripping up those with weak faith. Not trusting God in some area or due to something.
• Jesus prophesies of his ascension back into heaven after His death and resurrection. See Luke 24:49-53 for the details of Jesus’ ascension.
• It is the Holy Spirit that works in us, taking the words of Jesus, reminding and teaching us with them. “…the letter kills but the Spirit gives life.” 2 Cor 3:6
  • Remember we studied John 4:23-4, “True worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.”
  • 1 Corinthians 2:12-3 says, “Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God…which things we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches.”

Application

• Understand that God is not about giving us a problem free life here on earth, that environment is for heaven.
• While on earth, there are times when God, by His mercy delivers us, but there are other times when He says His grace is sufficient and we have to go through the tough time with Him.
• Our energy is to be spent on seeking and finding Him through our circumstances and journey of life

Tags: Take 10

Week 17 Day 5

The Daily Take 10

The Gospel of John

Week 17 Day 5

Introduction…Jesus was aware of people’s attitudes and thoughts toward Him. Some would reject His message and some would become angry and hostile over it. Understand that no one can receive Christ unless moved upon by the work of the Holy Spirit of God. It is the Spirit’s work to bring life to an individual from Christ’s message. God wants none to perish, but remember, at the same time, God will not force anyone to believe or serve Him. It is up to us to decide about Christ in our life. We can resist the Holy Spirit and refuse God’s love.

Read John 6:66-71 “After this many of his disciples turned back and would not walk with him any more. Jesus said to the twelve: ‘surely you too do not want to go away?’ Simon Peter answered him: ‘Lord, to whom are we to go? You have the words of eternal life and we have believed and we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.’ Jesus answered them: ‘did I not choose you twelve and one of you is a devil?’ He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he was going to betray him and he was one of the twelve.”

Bible Study

• There were various attitudes toward Christ in His day and these same attitudes remain to today in people.
  • There were those that were offended by some strong statement that caused them to abandon their faith, stop following Christ and drift away. See 2 Timothy 4:10. The Apostle Paul said that Demas had forsaken him and the ministry having loved this present world.
  • There are some who rebelled or refused to make the commitment required and challenge of Christ to “follow Him” and make Him Lord. See Mark 10:17-22. The rich young ruler came to Jesus seeking eternal life, but left Jesus without commitment when Jesus gave him a challenge that he was unwilling to do.
  • There are others who follow from a far off. Casual in their belief and desire to know Christ. Lukewarm in their faith. See Revelation 3:14-19. Here God is saying clearly that He would prefer people hot or cold towards Him, but because some are lukewarm, God will ‘spit them out of His mouth.’
  • There are those who ‘sell out’ to Christ and follow hard after Him. Not perfect people, but committed individuals that no matter the consequences and no matter the cost, they have decided to follow Jesus. See Matthew 16:13-20. Peter, the disciple, declared Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus responded that only the Father could reveal this to him.

Application

• Like Peter, be willing to trust God no matter what. Why? Who else can we go to? There is no one or nothing else out there.
• Do you know the song “Empty Me”.

Holy fire burn away

My desire of anything

That is not of you and is of me

I want more of you and less of me.

Tags: Take 10