Theme

Jesus is the nourishment for our spiritual life

Questions

• What are some of things which feed you in life – things which give you energy and keep you going?
• The crowd that looked for Jesus (v.22-25) were part of the group which has been miraculously fed by him (John 6:1-15). Jesus knows the motivation that the crowd has for looking for him (v.26).
  • What do you think they wanted from Jesus? Why did they look for him?
  • Do you think some people seek after Jesus only for what they can get from him, rather than knowing him? How can you avoid being one of these people?
• What does v.28 show about people’s ideas of how to do things which please God?
• Compare verse 29 with John 4:34.
  • What do these verses tell us about what God wants his people to do?
  • Does Jesus’ answer to the crowd in v.29 change or challenge your views about what God requires us to do in life?
  • How can you find a balance between activities for God, and focusing on faith in God? Do both matter?
• The crowd want Jesus to ‘prove’ himself (v.30), but they have already seen Jesus’ healing miracles (John 6:2), and been fed miraculously by him (John 6:10-14).
  • Why do you think that experiencing these two miracles was not enough for the crowd?
  • Do you ever struggle to accept who Jesus is, and what he does, and so ask him to ‘prove’ himself more?
• Look at what Jesus says about himself in v.32-33 & v.49-51. What do these verses tell us about who Jesus is?
• Jesus calls himself the bread of life saying that those who come to him will never be hungry or thirsty (v.35)
  • What do think this means?
  • If Jesus is enough for life, why do people fill their lives with other things, trying to find spiritual/life satisfaction in other places?
• The right kind of food offers nourishment, but we are often tempted to ‘snack’ on all kinds of wrong food (this is true for spiritual food as well as physical food).
  • What does v.35 & 48-51 tell us about the importance of spiritual nourishment?
  • What do you do to properly nourish yourself spiritually?
• Bread is a relatively cheap food, available to everyone.
  • Do you think there is a danger that we forget the price Jesus paid for us when we think about him as bread?
  • How does v. 51 help us to think about the value or cost of this ‘bread’?
• Throughout the passage the ideas of bread and life are closely linked (eg. v.33, 35, 47-48). How does this passage help us to think about our priorities for living life?