John 6:52-59
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Last week we covered John 6:48-51 and today we are going to be covering verses 52-59. I want to start our reading this morning with verse 51 though...
Let me give you a little background on this text before we read it.
This is like John 3 in a way. We went through John 3:1-10 back in November.
John 3 is about the conversation Nicodemus had with Jesus.
this is where Jesus tells Nicodemus that “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (ON SCREEN)
He goes on to tell Nicodemus this in John 3:5
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
A lot of people believe this to be talking about
baptism
and/or getting the Holy Ghost…speaking in tongues.
But it isn’t.
Now on a quick read…it may seem to be. But when we think through the text you realize that it isn’t talking about baptism.
For one: baptism into the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ had not yet been instituted.
And then there is this text:
Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?
So: Nicodemus would have no understanding nor should he have any understanding of Christian baptism.
As important baptism is…John 3 is talking about something far greater than baptism. John 3 is talking about the regenerating work of the Spirit of God found in Ezekiel 36.
I say all that to say this:
This is another passage many people take it to mean something it doesn’t.
The Roman Catholic Church use this section of Scripture to apply it to their belief/doctrine of The Eucharist (the Lord’s Supper).
The Roman Catholic doctrine of TRANSUBSTANTIATION (ON THE SCREEN)
Roman Catholics believe that the bread at communion really and truly turn into the flesh of Jesus Christ and the wine really and truly turns into His blood once the priest blesses it.
This is their teaching:
When the priest at Mass, obeying Christ, speaks the words of consecration, a change takes place. The substance of bread and the substance of wine are changed by God’s power into the substance of Christ’s body and the substance of his blood. The change is entire. Nothing of the substance of bread remains, nothing of the substance of wine. Neither is annihilated; both are simply changed.
The appearances of bread and wine remain. We know that by our senses. We can see, touch, and taste them. We digest them when we receive Communion. After the consecration they exist by God’s power. Nothing in the natural order supports them because their own proper substance is gone. It has been changed into Christ’s substance.
Let’s read our text this morning and see what Jesus is talking about:
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
Prayer:
Again, just like John 3, a quick read of John 6:52-59 you might be able to see why someone may believe that Jesus is saying you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood. And this has got to be talking about the Lords Supper, the Eucharist.
But again, as important as the Lord’s Supper is…this is talking about something far greater than the Lord’s Supper.
There are many points to be made as to why this section is not talking about Communion but I just want to hit the two obvious ones and then spend our time on what this text is ACTUALLY telling us.
ONE: the people Jesus is talking with would have NO CLUE that Jesus is talking about Communion at this point. The Lord’s Supper will not be instituted for another year.
SECOND and the most obvious is:
Jesus was not teaching that if you eat his flesh (take communion) that you will have eternal life. (verse 51)
does that mean people who aren’t able to take communion won’t have eternal life
wouldn’t that mean that babies who die wouldn’t be able to have eternal life because they didn’t take communion?
His point is NOT that if you eat his flesh and drink his blood (communion) you will have eternal life (verse 54).
Jesus is not contradicting everything he said in this chapter
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
What JESUS is talking about in this section is his death on the cross.
we are not saved by taking the Lord’s Supper but through faith in Him and his atoning sacrifice on the cross for our sins.
THAT WAS YOUR INTRODUCTION. Now, lets look at verses 51-52
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
FIRST OFF: These people aren’t idiots. They know he is talking about something deeper than truly eating his flesh.
They know there is SOME connection between the mana that their fathers ate in the wilderness and what he is talking about.
They also are thinking it has something to do with the Passover (Exodus 12).
In verse 51: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh”
That gives a picture of gore. Eating flesh? Eating bread?
They’re minds are thinking, “mana, wilderness, the Passover?”
they aren’t connecting the dots.
They aren’t seeing Him as THE LAMB OF GOD…they’re missing it.
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Its like a riddle to them. Riddles are fun, until you can’t figure it out…and then, you get frustrated. It starts making you mad…it’s not funny anymore:
Look at verse 52:
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
Who does he think he is, right? I mean, this is Mary and Joseph’s son (verse 42). “How does he say ‘I have come down from Heaven”? “How can this man give us his flesh to eat”?
Self Righteous people, right? ‘So you’re the bread from heaven? You can make us live forever? Who do you think you are?
Self Righteous people never think they need a savior.
Now, a self righteous person will admit he/she needs
a reset button though.
he will admit to messing up before
I mean, I’m not perfect…she’ll admit that
You know why the self righteous don’t think they need a Savior…really…because they are their own savior.
They just need to know what to do, and they’ll do it (they think anyway).
just tell me what I need “to do” to be saved and “I’ll do it...” (verse 28)
They don’t see their depravity and their sin before a Holy God...
They don’t see their desperate need of a Savior.
And again, like I said a few weeks ago, what do you do when you have someone and their just not getting it?
What do you do when you are talking to someone and you know they just aren’t seeing it?
Don’t walk away. Stand there and tell them how bad the bad news is. Because the worse the bad news the better the good news.
when you feel like they just aren’t getting it do what Jesus did...keep telling them!
Look at verse 53:
So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
let’s be contextually honest here:
Im not seeing this as a calm conversation between Jesus and these Jews.
I see Jesus being calm but the people He is talking to were disputing among themselves.
disputing: fighting, quarreling, arguing
In our Politically Correct World we live in today we would be called “mean” if we kept on telling them things they didn’t want to hear.
We would be called a trouble maker if “we” made people start arguing amongst themselves wouldn’t we?
Jesus keeps telling them…as long as they are going to stand there and listen, he keeps telling them.
Listen to me, listen to what Christ is telling you right now:
You may think that the things of this world can give you life…a good life. But it will not.
You may have thought that the job you dreamed of would satisfy you but it didn’t did it?
you may think that the money you have would make you happy and give you such a good life…but it will not
you may think that if you just had that one thing, your life would be great…but it wont.
UNLESS you EAT the flesh of the Son of Man and DRINK his blood, you have NO LIFE in you
I talked to a man this week who made 100’s of thousands of dollars a month for a long time and has lost all of that. His life is falling apart, his marriage is falling apart. He said he wished he could go back and never chase it…I talked to him for about an hour and basically told him:
UNLESS you EAT the flesh of the Son of Man and DRINK his blood, you have NO LIFE in you
Justification before God is a one time event…the moment you come to the Lamb of God who was slain and you eat His flesh and drink His blood you will have life.
not by communion…BUT BY FAITH!
Because you know what happens when you truly take a bite of that and drink the blood of Christ?
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
when you finally come and eat and drink from Him…you keep coming.
The one who truly came…FEEDS and DRINKS…continually. You know why? Because when you came the first time you WERE saved…so the one who FEEDS AND DRINKS HAS eternal life.
At the Passover they killed the lamb…walked outside and put the lambs blood on the doorposts. Then, they went back inside their home and feasted on the lamb.
The one who came to Christ in faith the first time keeps coming back. Because when you came the first time, you felt the weight of your sin, your guilt and your shame of the things that you had done. You heard the good news that Christ was put to death in your place…taking your sin, your guilt and shame to the cross and paying the price for your sins.
And when the Christian feels the weight of his sin again, he comes back to feed on the death of Christ and he drinks the blood of the Son of Man again and again. The Christian knows that there is NOWHERE else to go but to Christ.
Listen to this beautiful quote by Richard Phillips on this verse:
“Just as we eat when we sense our hunger, we trust in Christ as we recognize that our sins threaten us with damnation, of which the cross is our only escape.” - Richard Phillips
The Christian FEEDS/DRINKS....continually TRUSTS in the atoning sacrifice of the LAMB OF GOD who takes away our sin.
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
It is not the amount of faith that you come with that saves you. It is not the amount of faith that you bring to the table when you come to feed and drink.
So many people feel that they don’t have “enough” faith but it is not your “faith” that saves us…it is the object of our faith that saves us.
This is what Jesus is telling them…and us.
Don’t think and don’t believe that you earned anything by coming to the table to eat and drink.
Eating and drinking poison, a false Jesus, a false gospel, will kill you
You better come to the right table because it is only Christs flesh that is true food and it is only Christs blood that is true drink.
(D.A. Carson’s explanation of this during the Passover)
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
Many people claim to be a Christian. I talked to someone this week who claimed to be a Christian and when I asked him to tell me about him, about Christ, it was evident he had no idea who Christ was.
The true believer feeds and drinks in faith continually through faith in Jesus Christ.
Again, its not a one time thing…the true believer continually comes to Christ.
You have to continually come to the table to eat to live life. And what you eat, the substance of food keeps you living. You can’t live without eating and drinking.
Food gives us nutrients and strength
But the question is WHAT are you eating?
Remember:
Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”
He just told us that his flesh is true food and his blood is true drink (verse 55) and if you’re eating and drinking anything else you have no life in you (verse 53)
Look at verse 56 again:
Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
Those who continue to trust in Christ’s sacrifice, his atoning sacrifice, are those who ‘feeds and drinks’ on Christ…and those are the ones that abide (continues) in Christ and Christ in you.
How is that? Because He is what sustains you, He is were you get your nutrients. It is what you eat and drink continually.
Look at verse 57:
John 6:57 (ESV)
As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.
God the Father sent His one and only Son, the Second Person of the Trinity here. While Christ was here He lived in submission and dependence to the Father who sent Him.
As He lived in dependence on the Father to sustain Him we, Christians live dependent on Christ to sustain us.
And if you are here this morning here me: If you do not come to Christ, confess your sins, repent of them and trust in the sacrifice of Christs perfect life for you…if you feed on anything other than him you will die in your sins and face His judgement. You will not live and right now you have no life in you.
You many “believe” that Jesus is the Christ…but the demons believe that. Do you realize your need for a savior? Do you believe that Christ’s atoning is sufficient to save you and forgive you of all that you have done? Do you want to continually look to Him for your salvation and continually feed on His Word?
You better because He is the only Savior for you and whoever else out there in this world...
Look at verse 58:
This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
the bread you eat today may sustain you until your next meal.
The bread that Moses gave to their anscestors, the ones who Jesus is talking to, was enough to sustain them until the next day...
But Jesus, the bread from heaven…is NOTHING like any bread you have ever tasted.
If you eat any other bread you will eventually die and face the judgement and wrath of God...
but WHOEVER feeds on this bread will live forever.
Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
So far, Jesus has said some really hard things hasn’t he.
All that the Father gives me WILL come to me
NO one can come to me unless the Father draws them...
I am the bread from Heaven…you people don’t understand what the Scriptures are pointing to...
I and I alone am the only one who can save you and give you eternal life...
He said all this in the synagogue…He said these hard truths at Church. And this is what we want to do as well here…teach all that Christ taught.
Christian, IF you are struggling with sin, guilt or shame run back to Christ and feed on Him. Run to the cross and drink the blood of Christ by faith in His atoning sacrifice again...
If you do not know Christ…come taste and see that HE is good!
He lived a life that you or I could not live. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was sent by the Father. Born of a virgin…lived perfectly for you and I…was put to death on a cross and died the death you and I deserved.
But three days later, he rose from the dead and showed himself to many eyewitnesses.
He ascended into Heaven and is our High Priest, our mediator to the Father on our behalf.
One day he is coming back to judge the living and the dead.
Repent of your sin, come to Christ and bow your knee to the King of Kings and trust in him to save you.