Eat My Flesh, Drink My Blood 9-12-21

Well, good morning everyone. I have come once again in the Gospel of John to chapter 6, and I think we've come to maybe the hardest part of the chapter may be. One of the hardest parts of the Gospel of John. There's a lot to take in here and lots of confusing and a lot that the people were listening to Jesus. Don't like about what Jesus is saying. I've been building up to this for the last couple weeks as I've been working through, Jesus teaching about being the bread of life. And if there's a most important idea, here it is. It Jesus Is God, and believing in Jesus leads to eternal life, because he has got a Jesus, says, it's over and over throughout the passage last week. I talked about what belief in Jesus means. Jesus uses several different words and phrases to explain what believing in him means beside the word, belief. Jesus talks about coming to Jesus, looking on Jesus. He talks about hearing Jesus. He talks about learning from Jesus, belief or trust in Jesus entails. All of those things. Jesus is the god-man. He is our teacher. He is the word of life. The life is in Jesus. As the song says, In Christ Alone, My Hope Is found is not found in the government or in money, or my job or my friends are my family. My hope alone is down and cries because Jesus is the way the truth and the life. That's what he told us. Our response is to believe in him. Or another way to say it is to point our trust, completely at him to go all in on Jesus. So to believe in Jesus means to bring all that he is into yourself. Is Jesus is not life. Then I'm dead at it's over. There's nothing that I have. My trust is in him alone for my life. Colossians 3 says Christ is your life. So my life is his Christ is my life. And if that's not true, then we don't have anything to hold on into this world. And so if that's true of Christ isn't our life and all the people in the world who say eat drink and be merry for tomorrow, we die while they're right. And I talked about before how important this is talked about before, how the New Testament teaches that what happens to Jesus. And his story is what happens to the believer. Jesus died. He rose again, and he ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of God. Now, in baptism you dye your resurrected and you're seated with Jesus in the head. The only place is now that's in a spiritual sense for now. But this is also a promise you have for a physical bodily, Resurrection by my count. There's about nine times in this passage where Jesus talks about living forever, eternal life or being raised up on the last day, the galileans thought they had received the miracle bread that they thought they'd seen the miracle, right? Like the father's received the man in the wilderness. But Jesus is the bread of life. He is the miracle bread. He is eternal life. He he is the one who enables us to live forever. So don't just work. Jesus says to find temporary food, believe, and trust, in Jesus. Who is the life bread bread? That is life. So Jesus says, truly truly I say to you. Whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. So this believing and trusting Jesus means counting on him fully for the Forgiveness of sins and eternal life. There's no other way. In the next verses. Jesus is going to use another phrase or another word picture to explain what belief means and he's really going to freak them all out here believing or trusting. Jesus means yes to eat the bread of life to eat him. And yes, this is freaky. This is hard to understand but Jesus is putting belief on Parallel terms with eating or devouring we're taking Jesus and we're receiving all that. Jesus is into my life as my life by Jesus will say this in different ways. In each of the following verses from verse 50, all the way to verse 58. First 50, this is the bread that comes down from heaven. So that one may eat of it and not die 451. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of the spread, he will live forever in the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my Flash versus 50 and 51, year of the warm-ups. Jesus makes his imagery. Even harder to take starting in verse 53, as they talked about last week. Jesus is confronting their unbelief. They don't believe Jesus words. So they asked for more signs. And Jesus, doesn't soften his confrontation know of anything. He makes his own words, even harder to believe, and I think he's doing this because Jesus wants us to understand that internalizing him, receiving him as your life is. What belief is all about. Tell Jesus knows that our biggest problem is that we don't fear love and trust God. If we don't fear love and trust God then we don't have any solutions, all we have are more problems. And the only way to fear love and trust God is to go all-in. It's all or nothing. Right. Either. He is completely true and real and faithful or he is a big lie. I that's all there is. And even if I waver in that fear love and Trust, I'm still going to hold on to what he says. I'm going to listen to his promises and hang on to them. That's the word that Jesus gives me. That's why Jesus gives his promises. His promises are the anchor. Because Jesus is life. Jesus has the words of eternal life. Peter will say later in the chapter. Now, up to this point. Jesus has said some crazy stuff, but the people are still listening and they're still in the conversation. But verse 51, turns a bit of a corner here, hear. Jesus points ahead to his death on the cross. And he starts talking about how we really received the bread of life. His body will pay the death price of sin and so become the life of the world. So he says, the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flash. His body is the bread of life. Now. Does that sound familiar? Well sure it does. This is what we talk about when we celebrate and protect in the Lord's, Supper every single Sunday. I started this study of John chapter 6 because I was studying the Lord's supper and what it means while Jesus is not specifically instituting, the Lord's Supper here. I think that is words, do connect with the Lord's. Supper in the Lord's Supper. We believe and trust the Lord's words where Jesus says, this is my body. This is my blood, this he holds the bready. He broke it and gave it to them. And said, this is my body which is given to you and then he took the cup and said, this is my blood of the Covenant given for many for the Forgiveness of sins. This is something that we eat and drink and we trust that Jesus word of Truth. This is my body. This is my blood. And we can stay most in phatic Lee in the Lord's, Supper to believe in Jesus is to eat and drink Jesus, to completely receive him to completely take him into yourself as your life. So, in verse 52, the crowd gets really upset with this statement. That Jesus says that he that to that this, but that, that the bread that I give you will, then I bread that I will give you for the life of the world is my flash. They get really upset with that. So the Jews dispute among themselves saying, how can this man? Give us his flesh to eat. That's a great question. They don't believe Jesus word. They don't believe that Jesus is God and they're really bothered by this appearance. Cannibalism Jesus a talking about. So they're working it out. How can this man? Give us his flesh to eat. Now. Jesus doesn't answer this question directly, but he does explain how he can give us his flesh date. He's really been doing that throughout the whole passage and the key is to trust him to believe in him. Remember that eating Jesus In, this passage is 1 the same as believing in him or trusting him, right? He's not saying anything different here than what he said before. But he is using a different word picture. Now. Let's look into this a little bit more. Let's talk about how you can eat Jesus, or another words, how you can trust him, how you can feel love and Trust. Jesus will, first of all, you can eat Jesus, the man because Jesus is the god man, and Jesus uses his favorite designation for himself twice, in this passage. Jesus uses an Old Testament phrased in the Book of Daniel, the Messiah, or the anointed one. That Christ is the son of man. Now, wait, just a few exceptions in the Bible. In the New Testament. Only Jesus uses that phrase, son of man. Most other people don't use that phrase to talk about Jesus. But Jesus does know, we use the word, the Son of God, and lots of other people, in the Bible, call Jesus, the son of God, that Jesus. Most often called himself the son of man. You see this in verse 27, where Jesus said, when we read this last week, do not work for the food that perishes before 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. In the Gospel of John, the son of man, descends from Heaven, does his Earthly work and then a sends back to heaven. So the idea is that the son of man is the god, man. Jesus is not just another man. He is the capital S. Son of man, perhaps the best way to say it is that the son of man is the biblical title for that man. Who is God In the Flesh? He is 100% God and 100% man. He is the Son of God and the son of man. Now people get tripped up by this phrase, Son of God because we think of a son as a different person than the parent. But when Jesus called himself, the Son of God in that culture in that language, he was claiming to be one and the same as God himself because in that culture. And that language to be the son of meant to be the same as earlier, in chapter 6, The galileans said to Jesus, you can't be from God. You're not from Heaven. You are the son of Joseph. May they say that very specifically to him and John 6:40 to hear the son of Joseph. In other words. You are Joseph. You are the same man as your father Joseph and we know who he is. He's not from heaven. The Jesus saying that he is the Son of God is completely outrageous in that culture in that language. Because a mere man is claiming to be one in the same as God. And yes, Jesus did call himself the Son of God. When Jesus was crucified. The Jewish leaders said, the reason why he was crucified is because Jesus made himself the Son of God, he called himself the Son of God. That was his claim. The Jewish leaders heard that, and that is why they brought him to the Romans to be crucified for blasphemy, making himself equal one in the same as God. Now, the crazy thing about this. Is that even though Jesus does call himself the Son of God many, many many more times. He calls himself. The son of man. And when Jesus says he is the son of, man. He is claiming to be one and the same as a man. Now, this is amazing and Powerful because any man could say that any person could say that any woman, could say that any child. Any human being could say that, right? I'm a child of man. I'm a son of a human being but Jesus is not just any man. She is one thing for a man to claim to be God. But it is quite another thing and perhaps, even more impossible to believe that God would claim to be a man. Why would God be the son of man will because that's how God said he was going to fix the Brokenness in the world because God made a promise when the world was broken in Genesis chapter 3, that it would be a human being born of a woman that would kill Satan and fix the broken assassin. It would be a human being born in the family of Abraham that will bring blessing to the entire world. That will be a human and profits. A prophet, like me, Moses said, from among you, from among your brothers that I would have. The very words of God, Moses told the Israelites. It would be a human being born in the line of King David. Who would sit on David's Throne forever? Daniel saw in his vision with the Clouds Of Heaven. There came one like a son of man from Heaven. There came a son of man and he came to the Ancient of Days as God himself and was presented before him. He came from Heaven. He did his work and then you send it back to Heaven. See the son of man is not just a man. He is the god, man. This praise the son of man is a very Jewish and very Messianic thing to say we have to look at it in that context. Jesus. The man says he is the Son of God Jesus. The God says that he is the son of man. Jesus uses this phrase again in verse 53. 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. And other words, you can fear love and trust this man. Or you can eat his flash because he alone of all men in the entire world and all the history of the world. He is a man is worthy of fear and love and Trust. A Jesus statement is so shocking to the crowd. They don't believe his words. If Jesus is a mere man, if they think he is in his words or nonsense. This guy is insane. A mere man cannot offer us his flesh to eat. But the one and only God man. Well, that's a different story because he is trustworthy. He is one that you can fear and love and trust and that you can completely put your belief in and trust him to be your very life. See the different story with this god-man, involves the suffering and sacrifice on behalf of the mankind that he is one and the same with Jesus adds another shocking phrase in verse 53 and he'll repeat it three more times throughout the next few verses. And this is what he's telling us, what it means. You can eat Jesus. The man because he is the sacrifice for sin. If it isn't crazy enough to talk about eating, Jesus flash. He adds to it. Drinking Jesus's blood. What's it going to be clear, Jesus, talking about believing in him and all that entails to eat, Jesus Flash and to drink. His blood means to trust and the sacrifice on the cross that he makes for you. He will say this four times, eat the Flash. Drink the blood. Jesus shed this verse 53 again. 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 first, 54, 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. No, I think he or the connection to the Lord's Supper becomes even more. Clear. Jesus is using the word picture of eating and drinking to challenge us and to call us to fear love and trust him because of what he has done for us on the cross. We trust him for our daily bread, but even more so we trust him to be a sufficient sacrifice for our sins when Jesus said this to the galley and they just couldn't take it. It was a too crazy too bizarre to nutso. At the end of chapter 6, read that many, who were, Jesus disciples, didn't follow Jesus Anymore, do, they could get behind. Repent for the kingdom of God, is at hand. Whenever Jesus said, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood. They were absolutely disgusted. This is obscene. This is nasty. This is filthy talk, Jewish people did not eat people's flash. They did not drink blood. So, says Leviticus, Leviticus 17-10. If any one of the House of Israel to strangers, who sojourn among them, eats any blood, I will set my face against that person. God says, I was set my face against that person who eats blood, I will cut him off from among his people. And here's the reason for the life of the flesh is in the blood and I've given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls. For it, is the blood That makes at element by the wife. Will? There it is. The galileans were good, Jewish people. They knew their Old Testament. Jesus obviously cannot be from God because Jesus contradicts God. They do you. You don't eat fleshy, don't drink blood but why they couldn't understand his Jesus is talking about this very thing from Leviticus. His blood would be the atonement for their souls. His blood will be spilled and literally poured out on the ground like a drink-offering. The only question is, will you receive it? Will you trust it? Will you believe it? So, you can fear love and Trust Jesus, because he is the one and only sacrifice for you and your place on the cross. Now this is why it's really important to know that Jesus is 100% God and 100% man. Jesus has all the Holiness of God to be a sufficient sacrifice and all the flesh-and-blood needed to give for the life of the world. Jesus. The son of God is Holy and blameless and without sin Jesus. The son of man is just like you and me with flesh bone and blood when Jesus adds drink my blood to eat my flash. He's carrying us forward to the Cross, to the sacrifice to the substitutionary death in your place. It's become faddish for Christians. Do not believe that Jesus died as a substitute for the center. I believe that to our detriment as the Christian Church, the whole concept of sacrifice in the Old Testament. Is that of blood paying the sin debt? It is the blood that makes a ton by the life, is the blood. That pays the debtor covers, the cost of sin against the holy God, when Jesus adds drink my blood to eat my flash. He's calling you to fear love and Trust his death. His sacrifice in your place as your substitute. So going back to the question. How can this man? Give us his flesh to eat. It's answered partly by the fact that Jesus gives us his blood. He spills, his blood and gives us his blood to drink or to receive or to trust. Because Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice and then rose from the dead to prove his victory over sin and to prove the father's approval of his sacrifice. You can eat and drink Jesus, you can fear love and trust him. There's even more of the mystery of this man. Jesus here. You can eat Jesus the man because Jesus flesh-and-blood is true food and drinks. The first 54 again. Whoever feeds in My Flesh and drinks. My blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. And here's the reason for my flash is True Food. And my blood is true drink. Seems like verse 55 there is maybe just repeating what he says, read the passage. I think there's a little bit more to it than that, less positive. Jesus is emphasized throughout the teaching here in John. Stick that he is the living you Turtle bread and the galileans had eaten to Pro bread. That fed them for the moment. Jesus says, the same thing again in versus 57 or 58 as we talked about last week at 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 their bread, The Father's Day and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. Jesus emphasis is on what is life-giving and turtle versus what is temporal. You work for the food that perishes you sought me out, you ran around here on the north side of the Sea of Galilee to find me because I fed you yesterday, but my flesh is True Food. My blood is true life to have eternal life to have true life. Fear love and Trust Jesus. I think the ESV does a better job translating verse 55 for us. Then the NIV, the NIV says, my flesh is real food. And my blood is real drink. Uses were real set of true. Like the ESV does, it almost makes Jesus sound like he's inviting them to cannibalism but the emphasis is not on real versus pretend the emphasis is on Eternal versus temporal or true versus what seems to be true to us to eat and drink Jesus to receive him, to trust him to fear, and love, and trust him. As your life, giving sacrifice is what leads to eternal life. That is true, Eternal food. That is true, Eternal drink. A Jesus said, nearly the same thing and John chapter 4 to the woman at the well, Jesus said, if you would have asked me, I would give you living water and Jesus said to her, everyone who drinks of, this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty. Again, the water that I will give him will become in him, a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. And this all sounds. So mystical and beep. It's actually rather simple. If you will receive it, if you will, trust it, if you will listen to his word and believe what Jesus said, Jesus doesn't just give you daily bread to keep you alive to keep Body and Soul together. He does that, he's the Creator. He's the provider. He does more. He lays himself down for you on the table, like a sacrificial lamb and he puts the fork and knife in your hand. In the Passover Lamb and the Passover meal. The lamb was eaten completely consumed so that nothing remained and the blood of that lamb was poured out and collected and marked on the door that God's judgment would pass over the house. Would you eat and drink? Jesus, would you trust him as he lays himself down on the table for you? Would you receive his gift? Of this is what we do when we receive the Lord's Supper, we receive his gift and trust that he hit that his words are true to eat and drink. Jesus means to trust that his word is true. And this is what he said. 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 and when he given, thanks, he broke it. And said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. 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 for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim, the Lord's death until he comes.