John 7

John 6:60-71 (ESV)

Can I get a Witness?

A Hard Saying

John 6:60-71 (ESV)

60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this?

The Hard Saying (you cant handle the truth)

Transubstantiation Pic

verse 47

He who believes

has eternal life

verse 51a

If anyone eats of this (living) bread

he will live forever

verse 40

Everyone who looks on the son and believes

has eternal life

verse 54

Feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood

Has eternal life

True, Jesus said (Matt. 26:26), “This is My body.” But He also said (John 10:9), “I am the door.” John 15:1, “I am the true vine.” Nobody takes those statements literally. Jesus clearly meant them symbolically. Last week we talked about living water..

John starts it off in

John 1:29  (ESV)

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Human inability vs Divine ability

Hebrews 9:22 (ESV)

22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Eating because we are hungry ..drink because we are thirsty ..if we don’t..we die…

Favorite foods pics Thrashers, pit peef, steak potatoe, little Debbie, mt dew, Arnold palmer, chik fila sweet tea.

We are hungry and thirsty for other things.. the illusion that money and power will feed us and fill us.. the idea that sex, parties and drugs will satisfy us… yet we are left empty.. to return to those again..

This is our human ability.. we are starving to death in our sin. (these Jewish people are starving to death in the law)

So we have to eat.. we have to drink.. what then? Jesus is teach that he is the savior his death, ..his paying the penalty on the cross for our sins.. his resurrection is what we should live on. Feeding on jesus by faith is necessary for eternal life.

Jesus is teaching that he is the only provision they will ever need.

What will it take for you to believe?

John 6:62 (ESV)

62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

Nicodeamus in John 3.. figuratively being reborn

Jesus knows that no one can believe without the Father.

Think about what it would take for you to trust Jesus.. what rabbit does he have to pull out of his hat for you.. the truth is.. it will enver be good enough until you submit that you are incapable without God That divine power is greater than your physical power. That only God the Father can cure your unbelief.

Ephesians 2:8 (ESV)

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Life Giver

John 6:63-65

63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

John 14:26 (ESV)

26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

There is nothing physical to it.. but what about…

The act of partaking of the Lord's Supper certainly is one of feeding on Jesus -- a physical symbolic act that speaks of a much deeper communion indeed:

To feed on the Bread of Life is to believe Jesus' words and trust in him as the source of our life.  To eat Jesus' flesh and blood means to utterly depend upon him and the truths he teaches for sustenance and life itself.

Side note: Jesus knowingly disciples someone who was going to betray him and who would not believe.

1 Corinthians 11: 23-26 (ESV)

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for[f] you. Do this in remembrance of me.”[g] 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes

When we partake of the Lord's Supper we are commanded to remember Jesus' death for our sins. Our mind also turns to the Spirit of God that raised him from the dead, the same Spirit that gives us spiritual life to us and will ultimately raise our bodies from the dead on the Last Day. The Lord's Supper as an act of remembering, reflecting, believing, trusting -- this indeed reenergizes us as food to our souls and life to our faith.

Objection to the Truth

John 6:66 (ESV)

66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

Turned back.. original language ..from this time forward…they stopped listening…

Isaiah 8:14 (ESV)

14 And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Some of us just cant handle the truth.. it destroys us..

2 Corinthians 11:3-4 ESV

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

The defense rests…

John 6:67 (ESV)

So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Two replies

Where else? Your words speak life

John 6:63

He call us to eat this words

Later he calls us to remember these words.

Belief led us to know you.

Romans 1:16  (ESV)

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes

Obedience

1 Peter 1:22  (ESV)

22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

2 Corinthians 5:19 (ESV)

19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Chosen to do His work

John 6:70-71 (ESV)

70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

Colossians 2:13-17 (ESV)

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities[a]and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him

Love has a name.. Jesus