John 6 - Plain English Version(PEV)

Jesus fed a big mob of people

1Jesus 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.

5-6Jesus 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?”

7Philip 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.”

8One 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.”

10There 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.

11Jesus 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.

12They 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.”

13So 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.

14You 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.”

15Jesus 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

16-17After 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.

18As they rowed their boat, the wind got very strong, and the waves got really big.

19They 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.

20But he called out to them, “Don’t be frightened. It’s me, I’m Jesus.”

21As 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.

22Earlier 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.

23-24The 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

25They found Jesus on the other side of the lake, and they asked him, “Teacher, when did you get here?”

26Jesus 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.

27Listen, 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.”

28The people asked Jesus, “What is the work that God wants us to do, so that we can live for ever?”

29Jesus said, “This is the work that God wants you to do, he wants you to believe in the man he sent to the world.”

30-31So 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?”

32Then 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.

33The 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.”

34The people said, “Sir, give us that bread all the time.”

35Jesus 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.

36But 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.

37You 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.

38I didn’t come down from heaven just to do my own ideas. I came here to do everything my father sent me to do.

39Listen, 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.

40Everyone 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.”

41The Jewish leaders heard Jesus say, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” And they got angry, and they complained about him.

42They 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.”

43Jesus said to them, “Stop complaining to each other about me.

44Listen. 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.

45A 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.

70Jesus said, “Yes, but listen, I picked all of you 12 men, but one of you is working against me, like a bad spirit.”

71Jesus 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.