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Jesus fed a big mob of people
1 Jesus and his special workers left Jerusalem city, and they went north to Galilee country. They got into a boat and went across the lake that some people call Lake Galilee. Other people call it Lake Tiberias.
2-4 (It was nearly time for the big Jewish ceremony called Passover.) Jesus and his special workers got to the other side of the lake, then Jesus climbed up a hill and his special workers went with him, and they sat down. Before that time, a lot of people saw Jesus make sick people better, so they followed him up that hill.
5-6 Jesus looked around and saw the big mob of people walking towards him. He knew what he was going to do, but he wanted to test Philip, one of his special workers. So he said, “Philip, where can we get food for all these people?”
7 Philip said, “We haven’t got much money. If we want to buy enough bread to give all these people just a little bit each, we need thousands of dollars.”
8 One of Jesus’s followers was Andrew. He was Peter’s brother. He said to Jesus,
9 “There is a young boy here with 5 little loaves of bread and 2 fish. But we need a lot more than that to feed all these people.”
10 There was a lot of grass there, so Jesus said, “Tell the people to sit down.” So they all sat down on the grass. There were about 5,000 men in that big mob of people.
11 Jesus picked up the bread. He prayed and said, “Thank you God for this food.” Then he gave the bread to his followers, and they gave it out to all the people. Jesus did the same thing with the fish too. And everyone ate as much as they wanted.
12 They ate so much that they were all full. But there was still food left over. So Jesus said to his followers, “Pick up all the left-over food. Don’t waste any of it.”
13 So his followers walked around and picked up the left-over bits of food. There was lots of bread left over from those 5 little loaves. Jesus’s followers filled up 12 big baskets with left-over bits of food.
14 You see, Jesus fed thousands of people with just a little bit of food. And the people saw Jesus do that really powerful thing, and they said, “He has to be the messenger that God promised to send. A long time ago, God promised to send a special man like Moses, and now he has come.”
15 Jesus knew that they wanted to force him to be their big boss, and the big boss for the whole Israel nation. He didn’t want them to do that, so he left them, and he went up the hill by himself.
Jesus walked on top of water
16-17 After that, the sun went down and it got dark, but Jesus didn’t come back down the hill, so his followers said to each other, “Let’s go across to the other side of the lake, to the town called Capernium.” So they went down to the water, and they got into their boat. Then they started to go across that big lake.
18 As they rowed their boat, the wind got very strong, and the waves got really big.
19 They rowed their boat in the dark for about 5 kilometres, then they saw Jesus walking on top of the water. He was walking towards them, and they were really frightened.
20 But he called out to them, “Don’t be frightened. It’s me, I’m Jesus.”
21 As soon as they heard Jesus say that, they stopped being frightened, and they helped him get into the boat. Then straight away, the boat got to the place that they wanted to go to.
22 Earlier on that day, the people saw Jesus’s followers get into a boat and go away without him. They knew that there were no other boats for Jesus to go in, so they thought that Jesus was still there.
23-24 The next day, some of those people were still there. They looked around for Jesus, but they couldn’t find him or any of his followers. Some other boats from a town called Tiberias came to the place where Jesus thanked God for the food and fed all the people, so the people got into those boats and went over to Capernium, to look for Jesus there.
Jesus is like bread that gets people to live for ever
25 They found Jesus on the other side of the lake, and they asked him, “Teacher, when did you get here?”
26 Jesus said to them, “Listen carefully. I know why you mob are looking for me. You mob saw me do powerful things, but you didn’t understand them. You don’t want to know who I am. You just want more food, like you had yesterday.
27 Listen, that food, like you ate yesterday, it doesn’t last long. So don’t work for food like that. You have to work for food that gets you to live with God for ever. I am God’s special man from heaven, and I can give you that special food. And God, my father, told me to do that.”
28 The people asked Jesus, “What is the work that God wants us to do, so that we can live for ever?”
29 Jesus said, “This is the work that God wants you to do, he wants you to believe in the man he sent to the world.”
30-31 So the people said to him, “Then do something powerful, so that we can see it and believe what you say. A long time ago, Moses gave food from heaven to our grand-fathers. Remember that story. When they walked through the desert country, Moses gave them food called manna. We can read these words in God’s book,
‘He gave people bread that came from heaven.’
So what will you do for us?”
32 Then Jesus said, “Listen, this is the true story about that bread from heaven. Moses didn’t give your people that bread from heaven. God gave it to them. And now God gives you the proper bread from heaven.
33 The proper bread from heaven is the man that God has sent to the world. He gives life to people, so that they will live with God for ever.”
34 The people said, “Sir, give us that bread all the time.”
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread that gives life to people, so that they will live with God for ever. If anyone comes to me and believes in me, they will get everything they have been looking for. It’s like their spirit will never be hungry and never be thirsty again.
36 But you mob don’t believe in me. Like I already said, you saw the things I did, but you still don’t believe in me.
37 You see, my father gives me some people. They will all come to me, and I will look after them. I will never send them away.
38 I didn’t come down from heaven just to do my own ideas. I came here to do everything my father sent me to do.
39 Listen, this is what my father really wants me to do, he wants me to look after all the people that he gives me. I can’t lose any of them. You know, the world will finish up one day, and on that day my father wants me to make all those people alive again.
40 Everyone that takes notice of me and believes in me will live with God for ever. That’s what God, my father, wants. On the day when the world will finish up, I will make them alive again.”
41 The Jewish leaders heard Jesus say, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” And they got angry, and they complained about him.
42 They said to each other, “We know this man Jesus. He is Joseph’s son. We know his mother and father. Why does he say, ‘I came down from heaven?’ That can’t be right.”
43 Jesus said to them, “Stop complaining to each other about me.
44 Listen. God is my father, and he is the one that sent me here. He brings people to me, and they are the only people that can come to me. They are the people that I will make alive again on the day when the world will finish up.
45 A long time ago, God told one of his men to write about this, and it is in God’s book. He wrote,
‘God is the one that will teach all of them.’
And that’s how it happens. The people that listen to God and learn from him, those people will come to me.
46 I am the only one that has seen my father. Nobody else has ever seen him. But I saw him there in heaven, and after that, I came here.”
47 Jesus kept on talking to them. He said, “Listen, I am telling you straight, if anyone believes in me, they will live with God for ever.
48 I am like bread that makes people live for ever.
49 A long time ago, your grand-fathers were in the desert, and they ate the bread called manna, that came down from heaven. That bread kept them alive for years, but in the end they all died, like everyone dies.
50 But now there is a special bread that came down from heaven, and if anyone eats it, they will live with God for ever.
51 Yes, I am the bread from heaven that gives life. Anyone that believes in me will live for ever, it’s like they are eating special bread that makes people live with God for ever. My body will be that special bread. I will give my body so that people can eat it and live for ever.”
52 The Jewish leaders heard what he said, and they started to argue with each other about what Jesus meant. They said, “He reckons he will give people his body to eat. What does he mean? We can’t eat his body.”
53 Jesus talked to them in picture language. He said, “Listen, this message is true. I am the special man from heaven. You have to come to me and believe in me. It’s like I am special bread, and you have to eat my body, and you have to drink my blood. If you don’t do that, you can’t live with God for ever.
54 But if anybody eats my body, and drinks my blood, I will make them alive again on that day when the world will finish up, and they will live with God for ever.
55 You see, my body is like the best food, and my blood is like the best drink.
56 If anybody believes in me, they will join up with me, and I will join up with them. It’s like they eat my body and drink my blood. I will live in them, and we will stay joined together.
57 You see, my father sent me here. He is the one that gives life, and he gives me life. Well, just like that, I give life to people that believe in me. It is like I am special bread, and they are eating me.
58 Yes, I am the bread that came down from heaven. Anyone that eats this bread will live with God for ever. I am not like the bread that your grand-fathers ate a long time ago in the desert. They ate that bread, but later they died. But anyone that eats this bread will live with God for ever.”
59 Jesus said all those things while he taught in the Jewish meeting house in Capernium.
Some of Jesus’s followers didn’t like what he said
60 Jesus’s followers heard him teaching those things and a lot of them said, “This message is too hard. We can’t believe it.”
61 Jesus knew they were not happy with his message, so he said, “Are you angry with me? Do my words shock you?
62 Then what will you think if you see me going up, back to the place I came from? I am the special man that came down from heaven.
63 It is God’s spirit that makes people alive. People can’t do that by themselves. And those words that I said to you now, they are from God’s spirit, and if people believe those words, they will live with God for ever.
64 But I know that some of you don’t believe the words I said.”
Jesus always knew that there were some people that didn’t believe in him, and he knew who they were. He also knew about the man that was going to turn against him and help his enemies catch him.
65 So Jesus said to them, “Some of you don’t believe me. That is the reason why I told you before that my father gets some people to come and believe in me. And they are the only people that can come to me.”
66 After Jesus’s followers heard him say that, a lot of them turned away and stopped following him.
67 Then Jesus asked his 12 special workers, “Do you want to stop following me too?”
68 Peter said, “No, sir. Who would we go to? Your words will make us live with God for ever. Nobody else has a message like that.
69 We believe your message, and we know that you are God’s special man.”
70 Jesus said, “Yes, but listen, I picked all of you 12 men, but one of you is working against me, like a bad spirit.”
71 Jesus was talking about Judas Iscariot. He was one of Jesus’s 12 special workers. But Jesus knew that later on Judas was going to turn against him. Jesus knew that Judas was going to help Jesus’s enemies catch him.