31 "The person who comes from above is superior to everyone. I, a person from the earth, know nothing but what is on earth, and that's all I can talk about. The person who comes from heaven is superior to everyone 32 and tells what he has seen and heard. Yet, no one accepts what he says. 33 I have accepted what that person said, and I have affirmed that God is truthful. 34 The man whom God has sent speaks God's message. After all, God gives him the Spirit without limit. 35 The Father loves his Son and has put everything in his power. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life. Instead, he will see God's constant anger."

A Samaritan Woman Meets Jesus at a Well 4 1 Yeshua knew that the Pharisees had heard that he was making and baptizing more disciples than John. 2 (Actually, Yeshua was not baptizing people. His disciples were.) 3 So he left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee.

4 Yeshua had to go through Samaria. 5 He arrived at a city in Samaria called Sychar. Sychar was near the piece of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's Well was there. Yeshua sat down by the well because he was tired from traveling. The time was about six o'clock in the evening.

7 A Samaritan woman went to get some water. Yeshua said to her, "Give me a drink of water." 8 (His disciples had gone into the city to buy some food.) 9 The Samaritan woman asked him, "How can a Jewish man like you ask a Samaritan woman like me for a drink of water?" (Jews, of course, don't associate with Samaritans.) 10 Yeshua replied to her, "If you only knew what God's gift is and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him for a drink. He would have given you living water."

11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you don't have anything to use to get water, and the well is deep. So where are you going to get this living water? 12 You're not more important than our ancestor Jacob, are you? He gave us this well. He and his sons and his animals drank water from it."

13 Yeshua answered her, "Everyone who drinks this water will become thirsty again. 14 But those who drink the water that I will give them will never become thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give them will become in them a spring that gushes up to eternal life."

15 The woman told Yeshua, "Sir, give me this water! Then I won't get thirsty or have to come here to get water."

16 Yeshua told her, "Go to your husband, and bring him here."

17 The woman replied, "I don't have a husband."

Yeshua told her, "You're right when you say that you don't have a husband. 18 You've had five husbands, and the man you have now isn't your husband. You've told the truth."

19 The woman said to Yeshua, "I see that you're a prophet! 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain. But you Jews say that people must worship in Jerusalem."

21 Yeshua told her, "Believe me. A time is coming when you Samaritans won't be worshiping the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You don't know what you're worshiping. We Jews know what we're worshiping, because salvation comes from the Jews. 23 Indeed, the time is coming, and it is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. The Father is looking for people like that to worship him. 24 God is a spirit. Those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

25 The woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will tell us everything." (Messiah is the one called Christ.) 26 Yeshua told her, "I am he, and I am speaking to you now."

27 At that time his disciples returned. They were surprised that he was talking to a woman. But none of them asked him, "What do you want from her?" or "Why are you talking to her?"

28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back into the city. She told the people, 29 "Come with me, and meet a man who told me everything I've ever done. Could he be the Messiah?" 30 The people left the city and went to meet Yeshua.

31 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, have something to eat."

32 Yeshua told them, "I have food to eat that you don't know about."

33 The disciples asked each other, "Did someone bring him something to eat?"

34 Yeshua told them, "My food is to do what the one who sent me wants me to do and to finish the work he has given me.

35 "Don't you say, 'In four more months the harvest will be here'? I'm telling you to look and see that the fields are ready to be harvested. 36 The person who harvests the crop is already getting paid. He is gathering grain for eternal life. So the person who plants the grain and the person who harvests it are happy together. 37 In this respect the saying is true: 'One person plants, and another person harvests.' 38 I have sent you to harvest a crop you have not worked for. Other people have done the hard work, and you have followed them in their work."

39 Many Samaritans in that city believed in Yeshua because of the woman who said, "He told me everything I've ever done." 40 So when the Samaritans went to Yeshua, they asked him to stay with them. He stayed in Samaria for two days. 41 Many more Samaritans believed because of what Yeshua said. 42 They told the woman, "Our faith is no longer based on what you've said. We have heard him ourselves, and we know that he really is the savior of the world."

A Believing Official-Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10 43 After spending two days in Samaria, Yeshua left for Galilee. 44 Yeshua had said that a prophet is not honored in his own country. 45 But when Yeshua arrived in Galilee, the people of Galilee welcomed him. They had seen everything he had done at the festival in Jerusalem, since they, too, had attended the festival.

46 Yeshua returned to the city of Cana in Galilee, where he had changed water into wine. A government official was in Cana. His son was sick in Capernaum. 47 The official heard that Yeshua had returned from Judea to Galilee. So he went to Yeshua and asked him to go to Capernaum with him to heal his son who was about to die.

48 Yeshua told the official, "If people don't see miracles and amazing things, they won't believe."

49 The official said to him, "Sir, come with me before my little boy dies."

50 Yeshua told him, "Go home. Your son will live." The man believed what Yeshua told him and left.

51 While the official was on his way to Capernaum, his servants met him and told him that his boy was alive. 52 The official asked them at what time his son got better. His servants told him, "The fever left him yesterday evening at seven o'clock." 53 Then the boy's father realized that it was the same time that Yeshua had told him, "Your son will live." So the official and his entire family became believers.

54 This was the second miracle that Yeshua performed after he had come back from Judea to Galilee.

Jesus Cures a Man at the Bethesda Pool 5 1 Later, Yeshua went to Jerusalem for a Jewish festival.

2 Near Sheep Gate in Jerusalem was a pool called Bethesda in Hebrew. It had five porches. 3 Under these porches a large number of sick people-people who were blind, lame, or paralyzed-used to lie.a 5 One man, who had been sick for 38 years, was lying there. 6 Yeshua saw the man lying there and knew that he had been sick for a long time. So Yeshua asked the man, "Would you like to get well?"

7 The sick man answered Yeshua, "Sir, I don't have anyone to put me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I'm trying to get there, someone else steps into the pool ahead of me."

8 Yeshua told the man, "Get up, pick up your cot, and walk." 9 The man immediately became well, picked up his cot, and walked.

That happened on a day of worship. 10 So the Jews told the man who had been healed, "This is a day of worship. You're not allowed to carry your cot today."

11 The man replied, "The man who made me well told me to pick up my cot and walk."

12 The Jews asked him, "Who is the man who told you to pick it up and walk?" 13 But the man who had been healed didn't know who Yeshua was. (Yeshua had withdrawn from the crowd.) 14 Later, Yeshua met the man in the temple courtyard and told him, "You're well now. Stop sinning so that something worse doesn't happen to you."

15 The man went back to the Jews and told them that Yeshua was the man who had made him well.

The Son Is Equal to the Father 16 The Jews began to persecute Yeshua because he kept healing people on the day of worship. 17 Yeshua replied to them, "My Father is working right now, and so am I."

18 His reply made the Jews more intent on killing him. Not only did he break the laws about the day of worship, but also he made himself equal to God when he said repeatedly that God was his Father.

19 Yeshua said to the Jews, "I can guarantee this truth: The Son cannot do anything on his own. He can do only what he sees the Father doing. Indeed, the Son does exactly what the Father does. 20 The Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. The Father will show him even greater things to do than these things so that you will be amazed. 21 In the same way that the Father brings back the dead and gives them life, the Son gives life to anyone he chooses.

22 "The Father doesn't judge anyone. He has entrusted judgment entirely to the Son 23 so that everyone will honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever doesn't honor the Son doesn't honor the Father who sent him. 24 I can guarantee this truth: Those who listen to what I say and believe in the one who sent me will have eternal life. They won't be judged because they have already passed from death to life.

25 "I can guarantee this truth: A time is coming (and is now here) when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who respond to it will live. 26 The Father is the source of life, and he has enabled the Son to be the source of life too.

27 "He has also given the Son authority to pass judgment because he is the Son of Man.a 28 Don't be surprised at what I've just said. A time is coming when all the dead will hear his voice, 29 and they will come out of their tombs. Those who have done good will come back to life and live. But those who have done evil will come back to life and will be judged. 30 I can't do anything on my own. As I listen to the Father, I make my judgments. My judgments are right because I don't try to do what I want but what the one who sent me wants.

31 "If I testify on my own behalf, what I say isn't true. 32 Someone else testifies on my behalf, and I know that what he says about me is true. 33 You sent people to John the Baptizer, and he testified to the truth. 34 But I don't depend on human testimony. I'm telling you this to save you. 35 John was a lamp that gave off brilliant light. For a time you enjoyed the pleasure of his light. 36 But I have something that testifies more favorably on my behalf than John's testimony. The tasks that the Father gave me to carry out, these tasks which I perform, testify on my behalf. They prove that the Father has sent me. 37 The Father who sent me testifies on my behalf. You have never heard his voice, and you have never seen his form. 38 So you don't have the Father's message within you, because you don't believe in the person he has sent. 39 You study the Scriptures in detail because you think you have the source of eternal life in them. These Scriptures testify on my behalf. 40 Yet, you don't want to come to me to get eternal life.

41 "I don't accept praise from humans. 42 But I know what kind of people you are. You don't have any love for God. 43 I have come with the authority my Father has given me, but you don't accept me. If someone else comes with his own authority, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe when you accept each other's praise and don't look for the praise that comes from the only God?

45 "Don't think that I will accuse you in the presence of the Father. Moses, the one you trust, is already accusing you. 46 If you really believed Moses, you would believe me. Moses wrote about me. 47 If you don't believe what Moses wrote, how will you ever believe what I say?"

Jesus Feeds More Than Five Thousand-Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17 6 1 Yeshua later crossed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or the Sea of Tiberias). 2 A large crowd followed him because they saw the miracles that he performed for the sick. 3 Yeshua went up a mountain and sat with his disciples. 4 The time for the Jewish Passover festival was near.

5 As Yeshua saw a large crowd coming to him, he said to Philip, "Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?" 6 Yeshua asked this question to test him. He already knew what he was going to do.

7 Philip answered, "We would need about a year's wages to buy enough bread for each of them to have a piece."

8 One of Yeshua's disciples, Andrew, who was Simon Peter's brother, told him, 9 "A boy who has five loaves of barley bread and two small fish is here. But they won't go very far for so many people."

10 Yeshua said, "Have the people sit down."

The people had plenty of grass to sit on. (There were about 5,000 men in the crowd.) 11 Yeshua took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to the people who were sitting there. He did the same thing with the fish. All the people ate as much as they wanted.

12 When the people were full, Yeshua told his disciples, "Gather the leftover pieces so that nothing will be wasted." 13 The disciples gathered the leftover pieces of bread and filled twelve baskets.

14 When the people saw the miracle Yeshua performed, they said, "This man is certainly the prophet who is to come into the world." 15 Yeshua realized that the people intended to take him by force and make him king. So he returned to the mountain by himself.

Jesus Walks on the Sea-Matthew 14:22-33; Mark 6:45-52 16 When evening came, his disciples went to the sea. 17 They got into a boat and started to cross the sea to the city of Capernaum. By this time it was dark, and Yeshua had not yet come to them. 18 A strong wind started to blow and stir up the sea.

19 After they had rowed three or four miles, they saw Yeshua walking on the sea. He was coming near the boat, and they became terrified.

20 Yeshua told them, "It's me. Don't be afraid!"

21 So they were willing to help Yeshua into the boat. Immediately, the boat reached the shore where they were going.

Jesus Is the Bread of Life 22 On the next day the people were still on the other side of the sea. They noticed that only one boat was there and that Yeshua had not stepped into that boat with his disciples. The disciples had gone away without him. 23 Other boats from Tiberias arrived near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord gave thanks. 24 When the people saw that neither Yeshua nor his disciples were there, they got into these boats and went to the city of Capernaum to look for Yeshua. 25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you get here?"

26 Yeshua replied to them, "I can guarantee this truth: You're not looking for me because you saw miracles. You are looking for me because you ate as much of those loaves as you wanted. 27 Don't work for food that spoils. Instead, work for the food that lasts into eternal life. This is the food the Son of Man will give you. After all, the Father has placed his seal of approval on him."

28 The people asked Yeshua, "What does God want us to do?"

29 Yeshua replied to them, "God wants to do something for you so that you believe in the one whom he has sent."

30 The people asked him, "What miracle are you going to perform so that we can see it and believe in you? What are you going to do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the desert. Scripture says, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"

32 Yeshua said to them, "I can guarantee this truth: Moses didn't give you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 God's bread is the man who comes from heaven and gives life to the world."

34 They said to him, "Sir, give us this bread all the time."

35 Yeshua told them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never become hungry, and whoever believes in me will never become thirsty. 36 I've told you that you have seen me. However, you don't believe in me. 37 Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me. I will never turn away anyone who comes to me. 38 I haven't come from heaven to do what I want to do. I've come to do what the one who sent me wants me to do. 39 The one who sent me doesn't want me to lose any of those he gave me. He wants me to bring them back to life on the last day. 40 My Father wants all those who see the Son and believe in him to have eternal life. He wants me to bring them back to life on the last day."

41 The Jews began to criticize Yeshua for saying, "I am the bread that came from heaven." 42 They asked, "Isn't this man Yeshua, Joseph's son? Don't we know his father and mother? How can he say now, 'I came from heaven'?"

43 Yeshua responded, "Stop criticizing me! 44 People cannot come to me unless the Father who sent me brings them to me. I will bring these people back to life on the last day. 45 The prophets wrote, 'God will teach everyone.' Those who do what they have learned from the Father come to me. 46 I'm saying that no one has seen the Father. Only the one who is from God has seen the Father. 47 I can guarantee this truth: Every believer has eternal life.

48 "I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert and died. 50 This is the bread that comes from heaven so that whoever eats it won't die. 51 I am the living bread that came from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. The bread I will give to bring life to the world is my flesh."

52 The Jews began to quarrel with each other. They said, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

53 Yeshua told them, "I can guarantee this truth: If you don't eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don't have the source of life in you. 54 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will bring them back to life on the last day. 55 My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them. 57 The Father who has life sent me, and I live because of the Father. So those who feed on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came from heaven. It is not like the bread your ancestors ate. They eventually died. Those who eat this bread will live forever."

59 Yeshua said this while he was teaching in a synagogue in Capernaum. 60 When many of Yeshua's disciples heard him, they said, "What he says is hard to accept. Who wants to listen to him anymore?"

61 Yeshua was aware that his disciples were criticizing his message. So Yeshua asked them, "Did what I say make you lose faith? 62 What if you see the Son of Man go where he was before? 63 Life is spiritual. Your physical existence doesn't contribute to that life. The words that I have spoken to you are spiritual. They are life. 64 But some of you don't believe." Yeshua knew from the beginning those who wouldn't believe and the one who would betray him. 65 So he added, "That is why I told you that people cannot come to me unless the Father provides the way."

66 Yeshua's speech made many of his disciples go back to the lives they had led before they followed Yeshua. 67 So Yeshua asked the twelve apostles, "Do you want to leave me too?"

68 Simon Peter answered Yeshua, "Lord, to what person could we go? Your words give eternal life. 69 Besides, we believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."

70 Yeshua replied, "I chose all twelve of you. Yet, one of you is a devil." 71 Yeshua meant Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. Judas, who was one of the twelve apostles, would later betray Yeshua .

BREAD OF LIFE.

Bread was baked daily in the ancient world. Made from a variety of grains, it was usually shaped into small round loaves that looked more like rolls or buns than the large loaves of bread we eat today.

Because bread was a primary staple, it was also used in various aspects of worship. Cereal offerings took the form of loaves or cakes, and bread was also used as a firstfruits offering or a peace offering. The bread of the Presence, consisting of twelve loaves of unleavened bread, symbolized the covenant between God and his people. Displayed in the temple sanctuary next to the Most Holy Place, it served as a constant reminder to the priests and the people that it was God who sustained his people. Psalm 78:24-25 speaks of how he fed them in the wilderness: He rained manna down on them to eat and gave them grain from heaven.

Humans ate the bread of the mighty ones, and God sent them plenty of food.

It seems clear that without bread no one in ancient Palestine would have survived for long. In what has become known as the Lord's Prayer, Jesus instructed his disciples to pray for their daily bread. Yet he challenged his followers not to work for food that spoils, announcing himself as the only food that would enable them to live forever.

Certainly, it was no accident that the one who called himself Artos Zoes, the Bread of Life, was born in the town of Bethlehem, which means "house of bread."

Praying to the Bread of Life It's Christmas, and I've been celebrating with a barrage of sugar-carmels, fudge, chocolate, assorted cookies, and whatever else crosses my path. Fortunately, the candy dish will soon be empty, and I will be forced to return to a healthier diet. I'll have to watch what I eat more carefully. That brings me to the subject of bread-a subject that comes up over and over in the Bible.

Take the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, instructing them to pray for their "daily bread." In this case, the word bread is what's called a synecdoche. It is a part that describes a whole. Just as one might refer to a farmworker as a hired hand, Jesus was using bread to refer to God's provision for all our needs-physical, spiritual, and emotional.

What's more, the phrase "daily bread" calls to mind the way God sustained the Israelites in the desert. Instead of providing them with a huge warehouse of food, he supplied them with manna daily. Doesn't that sound great-no need to work for your food. You just have to wait for it to fall from heaven. But imagine the anxiety you would feel, especially at first. Sure, God provided manna today, but what about tomorrow? What about next week or next month? For my part, I would much rather see a huge grocery store drop down from heaven than a little bit of manna every day. That would really ease my fear about the future. But would it? Wouldn't the next difficult circumstance set my anxiety in gear all over again?

By giving his people bread in the desert, God was not only feeding their stomachs but nourishing their faith, because through it they learned to depend on his provision day after day.

What is it that you need right now-healing, wisdom, forgiveness, a sense of purpose, confidence, hope, money to pay the rent? Jesus called himself the "bread of life," "the living bread that came down from heaven." He said that "whoever eats this bread will live forever" (John 6:48-51). Ask God today to teach you what it means to feed on Jesus, to look to him for what will truly nourish and sustain your life.

Jesus, I believe you are the Bread of Life. Sustain me today with your lifegiving presence.

Promises Associated with the Name BREAD OF LIFE.

Yeshua told them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never become hungry, and whoever believes in me will never become thirsty." (John 6:35) I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert and died. This is the bread that comes from heaven so that whoever eats it won't die. I am the living bread that came from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. The bread I will give to bring life to the world is my flesh. (John 6:48-51)

Jesus Goes to the Festival of Booths 7 1 Yeshua later traveled throughout Galilee. He didn't want to travel in Judea because Jews there wanted to kill him.