Study Desk

Jesus said, "I can assure you that Moses was not the one who gave your people bread from heaven. But my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

I must not lose anyone God has given me. But I must raise them up on the last day. This is what the one who sent me wants me to do.

But Jesus said, "Stop complaining to each other.

Your ancestors ate the manna God gave them in the desert, but it didn't keep them from dying.

I am not like the bread that your ancestors ate. They ate that bread, but they still died. I am the bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever."

It is the Spirit that gives life. The body is of no value for that. But the things I have told you are from the Spirit, so they give life.

But some of you don't believe." (Jesus knew the people who did not believe. He knew this from the beginning. And he knew the one who would hand him over to his enemies.)

Then Jesus answered, "I chose all twelve of you. But one of you is a devil."

He was talking about Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Judas was one of the twelve apostles, but later he would hand Jesus over to his enemies.

Jesus said to them, "The right time for me has not yet come, but any time is right for you to go.

The world cannot hate you. But the world hates me, because I tell the people in the world that they do evil things.

So his brothers left to go to the festival. After they left, Jesus went too, but he did not let people see him.

There was a large group of people there. Many of them were talking secretly to each other about Jesus. Some people said, "He is a good man." But others said, "No, he fools the people."

But no one was brave enough to talk about him openly. They were afraid of the Jewish leaders.

If I taught my own ideas, I would just be trying to get honor for myself. But if I am trying to bring honor to the one who sent me, I can be trusted. Anyone doing that is not going to lie.

Moses gave you the law, right? But you don't obey that law. If you do, then why are you trying to kill me?"

But you obey the law Moses gave you about circumcision—and sometimes you do it on a Sabbath day. (Really, Moses is not the one who gave you circumcision. It came from our ancestors who lived before Moses.) Yes, you often circumcise baby boys on a Sabbath day.

But he is teaching where everyone can see and hear him. And no one is trying to stop him from teaching. Maybe the leaders have decided that he really is the Messiah.

But when the real Messiah comes, no one will know where he comes from. And we know where this man's home is."

Jesus was still teaching in the Temple area when he said loudly, "Do you really know me and where I am from? I am here, but not by my own decision. I was sent by one who is very real. But you don't know him.