Jesus Teaches the People (6:22–71)

Jesus Teaches the People (6:22–71)

The sign's purpose was so that He could give the sermon. Once more, it was a ministry of "grace and truth" (John 1:17). In grace, our Lord fed the hungry, but in truth, He gave them the Word of God. They wanted the food but not the truth, and in the end, most of them left Jesus and refused to follow Him. He lost His audience after one sermon!

The next day started with a question: how did Jesus get to Capernaum? The people saw the disciples get on a boat to go across the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, but then the storm hit and the men were lost. The crowd also saw Jesus leave and go to a mountain by Himself. But the next morning, Jesus and His disciples were in Capernaum! There was no proof that He had taken another boat, and He definitely hadn't walked around the lake. There were other boats that had come in, probably because of the storm, but Jesus wasn't on any of them.
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Some of the fed individuals likely returned home, while others remained to observe Jesus's next move. It is likely that our Lord's sermon started outside and then moved inside the synagogue (John 6:59). It would be impossible for a large group of people to attend the synagogue service, but those who couldn't fit inside could stay outside and listen.

This sermon on "the bread of life" is essentially a dialogue between Christ and the people, particularly the religious leaders (the Jews). In John 6, we see four ways that the crowd reacted to the Lord Jesus: they looked for Him (vv. 22–40), murmured (vv. 41–51), tried to get to Him (vv. 52–59), and left (vv. 60–71).