Body and Blood of Jesus
John 6 • Sermon • Submitted
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56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.
57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.
58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”
59 He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”
61 But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you?
62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
63 It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
64 But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him.
65 And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”
66 Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.
67 So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?”
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.
69 We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Eat my flesh and drink my blood.
These words must have seemed as strange to this multitude that followed Jesus as they do to us.
How strange this must have seemed to them.
Some of them may have compared these words to the eating of meat offered to idols.
Some of them no doubt may have had thoughts of cannibalism.
Some of them.....
All of them had to wrestle with his claim that he was the bread brought down from heaven.
Just the day before, they experience him feeding five thousand men plus women and children.
So excited were they, that were about to force him to be their king.
Jesus alluded them and escaped across the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, where they eventually tracked him down, and confronted him.
They were seeking more bread from heaven and a sign, a miracle.
30 So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?
A sign, a miracle, something Jesus so that we can believe you.
Never mind that fact that just yesterday we were so convinced that were going to force you to be our king.
They asked Jesus
28 Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?”
29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
30 So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you performing?
31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”
33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
They said give us this bread.
35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
It is human nature to seek the tangible things of this world.
The things that we can put our hands on.
The things that we can taste, smell, feel, and see.
It is our nature to seek fulfillment in the experiential things of this world.
It is human nature to find our peace in the peaceful things around us.
It is hard for us to find peace when there is so much strife around us.
We look for joy in happy things around us.
It is hard to be happy when there is so much sorrow in this world.
We seek happiness, joy, peace, rest, love, in the things of this world.
We look for it in success, money, security, recreation, entertainment.
We work our whole lives, save, and plan for retirement, so that we can kick back, rest and enjoy life.
Only to find out that there is no rest for the weary.
Jesus is telling us and them that the things of this world may fulfill you for a season but they will not last.
John 6:27 (NRSV)
27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”
Jesus is telling them and us, that the only way to have life is to believe and partake of the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.
56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.
57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.
Even if they had not heard Jesus when he said he was going to be crucified.
They would have known that there was no way that Jesus could continue to preach and teach these things without getting himself killed.
Jesus was going to die.
The handwriting was on the wall.
They may not have known for sure. But surely they would have had a hunch.
Jesus had told them on more than one occasion what they would do to him.
He reminded them of what they had done to former prophets.
Matthew 23:37 (NRSV)
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
Oh how strange these words must have seemed.
56 Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.
57 Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.
Oh how strange they must have seen in light of what they already knew about Jesus.
Jesus the one who makes the blind to see.
The one who heals the sick, raises the dead, and causes the deaf to hear.
Jesus the one feeds thousands with just a basket of bread and fish.
Jesus the one who is going to preach and teach his way to a bloody death, just like the prophets before him, and just like the others who claimed to be the messiah.
He says to us drink my blood and eat my flesh and you will live and not die.
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?”
61 But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you?
62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
63 It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
These are spiritual things that Jesus is talking about.
Apparently they were too hard for most of Jesus followers.
66 Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.
67 So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?”
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.
Jesus invites us to a spiritual participation in the cross of Calvary.
Where we can have life here, now, and forever by simply believing in the work of Jesus Christ through his death on the cross.
In the third chapter of John, Jesus has a conversation with a man named Nicodemus.
3 Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”
4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.
6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
Summarize the Snakes from Numbers
Numbers 21:1–9 (NRSV)
1 When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negeb, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.
2 Then Israel made a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will indeed give this people into our hands, then we will utterly destroy their towns.”
3 The Lord listened to the voice of Israel, and handed over the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their towns; so the place was called Hormah.
4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way.
5 The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”
6 Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.
7 The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”
9 So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
Jesus is saying to Nicodemus, I am just like that serpent. I am going to be hung on a pole and die.
Who ever looks to me and believes will have eternal life.
The body, and flesh, and blood of Jesus Christ is a sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the world.
And all who will experience and partake of the cross, the body and blood of Jesus, through believing will have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
In the name of the Father
In the name of the Son
In the name of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.