Communion: the Miracle of believing

John 6:25–59

Place yourself in the time of the Jew.

So often we have cast historical stones at the Jews in their rejection of Jesus, the Son of a Carpenter. Jesus of Nazareth. How could they not see that this Jesus was who he said he was?

Were they bad Jews for rejecting Jesus?

Were they bad Jews for picking up stones to stone Him for blasphemy?

Maybe the bad Jews were the one’s who weren’t holding stones in their hands?

Maybe there was also another reason for the Jews rejecting this one other than political. Maybe there is another reason for walking away.

Put yourself in the moment. Place yourself there as Jesus said the things that he said.

You are a devout Jew. You are a husband, a wife, Parents to children that you are raising in a Godly home. You are teaching them the Torah faithfully. You observe all the feasts. Three times a year you make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts.

You Love God. You love His precepts. You love his commandments. You have believed that this one was certainly sent by God, maybe not the Messiah, but surely a profit.

Now you stand before one that is causing the blind to see, the deaf to hear, he just performed a great miracle of feeding the multitudes.

And now he gives a sermon that you are eager to hear.

And what do you hear him say?

First, he speaks of God being his Father. This would be blasphemous to any Jew living in that time.

And then Jesus says,

“Eat my Flesh, drink my Blood!”

Eat my what? Drink my what?

You mean I have to become a cannibal and a vampire to follow you Jesus?

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity says this.

“I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher ... You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool ... or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.”

― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

John does not say that Jesus then gave an explanation.

What is Jesus doing?

Why is Jesus’ casting stumbling blocks in front of the people? Should he not be trying to convince the people that he is the savior straight out and breaking it down that they might understand what it is, and what he was telling them.

Where is the spiritual reasoning?

In fact, where was the reason that many of us had when we were converted? Was there any rational sense to what we were told?

A man dying on a cross some two thousand years ago has everything to do with my going to heaven and by rejecting this message I’m going to Hell?

A lot of good people walk away from this message.

And they did with Jesus. Thousands of them. Sure, they appreciated the food so would we. But Sorry to say I would have left with the crowd because I could not accept the words of Jesus.

John 6:59–60 (NASB95) — 59 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. 60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?”

And I’d have no problem with calling anyone who followed Jesus as a fool.

I would have walked away with the many who turned away myself lest the Father in heaven was working on my heart. as He was with the Disciples.

One thing that the Disciple had going for them was that Jesus Chose them.

After the crowd’s dispersed, Jesus is left with his nearest disciples. And why did they? What made them believe if they were indeed believing. We might also ask why Judas remained, but I think we can figure that one out.

John 6:59–63 (NASB95) — 59 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. 60 Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? 62 “What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? 63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

None of us had come to the Lord on an intellectual basis. It was not that we on our own cognoscente put two and two together and came up with the fact that Jesus is the Lord God our Savior the Messiah.

Even general revelation is given by God and discerned by the spirit even to the heart of the unbeliever.

What Caused Nathaniel to believe when he scoffed at the very possibility that the Messiah would come out of Nazareth, but none the less when Nathaniel meets Jesus

John 1:47–51 (NASB95) — 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.” 50 Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And He said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

What made Nathaniel change his mind in an instance.

Jesus was speaking with Peter on the subject

Matthew 16:13–17 (NASB95) — 13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.

Jesus had placed a stumbling block before the people making it impossible to believe. It is not by intellectual reasoning that we come to the Lord and are saved. It is by faith.

Faith is a non-meritorious system of perception and is based upon an authority outside of ourselves. It is a trust that we place in another that what that one says is true and then lifting up responding positively to it and making a decision upon it.

It was no surprise to Jesus that so many walked away.

As Jesus Claimed to be the Bread of life sent down from heaven and for the people to reject the bread, did not the children in the wilderness also reject the bread that came down from heaven and was it not just two who remained loyal to God and his provision? And did not those two enter into the promised land when all the others died out in the wilderness?

Now maybe there would be some hold outs other than Jesus’ close disciples. Maybe one or two that thought

“Well, I don’t really understand but my heart is still in question.”

Would you come out openly to even suggest that this Jesus may be the Messiah?

No! are you kidding? Because if you do, you are as a crackpot as he is! you are going to subject yourself to ridicule.

Later after his resurrection and ascension some will Declare this Jesus and to declare this Jesus would be also to declare His words. Some would not. some would continue to consider this new movement, the following of this Jesus who died upon the cross as that which was against their own religion and for their understanding, blasphemous against God Himself. Such blasphemy would certainly bring the curse of God down upon the people.

Another Pharisee, a devout Jew, took up the sword to put a stop to this movement. His name was Saul of Tarsus.

Was this man evil in His heart. Did he enjoy the blood of the saints being spilt? Or did you actually think that he was serving God?

Everything changed for him when Saul saw the light on the Damascus Road.

That is when Jesus blinded Saul and asked for the reason that Saul was persecuting Him.

It is the same Saul, who is Paul that writes in Romans

Romans 1:16–17 (NASB95) — 16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”

What is the question about being ashamed?

Because when Paul stands up and gives the Gospel and is proclaiming that he himself is believing the gospel, he is assenting to every word spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul is assenting to the fact that God in Heaven is the Father of Jesus and all who call upon the name of the Lord.

Paul is assenting to eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking His blood.

Paul even says

1 Corinthians 4:9–10 (NASB95) — 9 For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men. 10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor.

Acts 17:18 (NASB95) — 18 And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

Acts 26:24–25 (NASB95) — 24 While Paul was saying this in his defense, Festus said in a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind! Your great learning is driving you mad.” 25 But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I utter words of sober truth.

1 Corinthians 1:18–21 (NASB95) — 18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.” 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

What is the basis of yours and my Salvation?

Was it because we believed the unbelievable?

Are we so gullible that we are willing to just accept any old thing that might cope with the reality of death? Something that gives us something to hold on to?

But why do so many believe that message? Why the same message? Why are there no demographics? That there is no educational differences, men and woman, young and old, idiots and generous’ moral and immoral.

Here in the pagan world, there is even considered a certain gene that will cause one to believe or not.

Maybe when the time came to believe I still could not understand what eating the flesh meant nor did I understand what drinking his blood meant.

But I know this, that the one who said this also said

John 6:61–62 (NASB95) — 61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? 62 “What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?

OK so I can’t make sense of the words prior to receiving the spirit at salvation and it is certainly foolish to others who are perishing.

But I know this, that Christ died. there is all the evidence that He did so just as He said that He said he would. The proofs of His death

1. The beatings

2. No one ever survived a crucifixion

3. A spear ran up into his chest cavity and out came serum and water the blood beginning to separate.

4. The guards did not need to break his legs for he was already dead.

5. And if it is in question there are many historical evidences that this truly happened.

And when it is that Jesus did what no one in history had ever accomplished and that is the defeat over death I can truly believe the other things as well.

That the is the bread of life and that when taken that will provide life eternal

And that his blood is the blood poured out on my behalf for the forgiveness of sins.

When I take the bread, I proclaim the truth that he is the bread of life

When I take the cup, I proclaim his sacrificial work in giving his life for us all.

Some will say that I am a fool

But for me it is a miracle of belief as it is that God has opened my eyes to the truth of God’s Work on my Behalf.