Feeding On Jesus
That You May Believe • Sermon • Submitted
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Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Let me tell you about the week I had...
Driving
Rude people
Cafe Mexicali
People at work...
Current administration.
Have you ever found yourself doing that.
If so, you know what it’s like to grumble.
I know what it’s like to grumble...
This was a fictitious week.
I actually had a really good week. And Cafe Mexicali got my order perfect!
But I’ve had weeks where there’s been a lot of grumbling.
That’s not new with me…or with you....
This is a struggle that’s common to our sinful natures.
And it’s talked about in our passage for this morning.
Transition to Passage
Transition to Passage
2 ways to live are laid out for us in this passage
These will be our two points for the message this morning.
Title & Outline
Title & Outline
Text: John 6:41-59
Title: Feeding On Jesus
Outline: 2 distinct ways of living our lives:
Point 1: Grumbling Lives(vv.41-46)
4 reasons for grumbling
Point 2: Feasting Lives (vv.47-59)
Better bread (v.47-51)—believe
old bread = still die
new bread = eternal life (describe eternal life)
How do we feed on Jesus?(vv.52-59)
what does it look like to eat flesh and drink blood
when we do it we abide in Jesus & He abides in us
Context
Context
Synagogue in Capernaum (John 6:59)
59 Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
Jewish religious leaders & Crowds
Those opposed to Jesus
Point 1: Grumbling Lives
Point 1: Grumbling Lives
(vv41-46)
41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.
41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
Grumble Defined
Explosive Sins & Quiet sins can be equally dangerous
poisonous to our own heart and to others.
murmuring., complaining, indignation, Fault finding, Slander
Grumbling In OT
Continue Parallels between Moses and the Exodus
Three stories (Exodus 15:22-17:7)
Miraculously saved out of Egypt…people grumble
they are thirsty…people grumble
They are hungry…people grumble.Water…Food…God provides
The Jews’ Response: Grumbling (v.41-46)
Jews:
Jewish religious leaders (and others) who were openly opposed to Jesus.
They grumble
complain, fault finding
Doesn’t stay with the individual it spills over to others, and others get involved.
Reasons they are mad:
Jesus’ claims
I am the bread
I came down from heaven.
Why?: 4 Reasons for grumbling
Why?: 4 Reasons for grumbling
Why are they really grumbling? Where are their hearts at?
Here’s what I want to try and discern as we look at the remaining verses.
I want us to see some of the factors at work that played into this groups grumbling against Jesus.
Because I think if we can see those…it will help us to fight grumbling in our own lives.
Reason 1: They are blind to Jesus’ work & provision (v.41)
Reason 1: They are blind to Jesus’ work & provision (v.41)
41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
They should be ecstatic!
But they miss Jesus work and provision for them.
Relation to Passage
Jesus is providing for them the very thing they need!
Yet they grumble and complain about it.
Application: Open your eyes.
God is working…be grateful!
God is working in your life…do you see it? Do you rejoice? Or do you grumble?
God is working in our church…do you see it? What’s your response?
God is working in the world…do you see it? What’s your response?
Reason 2: They are stuck in the temporal (v.42)
Reason 2: They are stuck in the temporal (v.42)
42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
How in the world could this be someone sent from God. He’s Joseph and Mary’s kid.
grumble against Jesus because they couldn’t accept that this carpenter’s Son from Nazareth was the one to whom they should bow down.
Application: Look at the temporal in light of the eternal
If you find yourself grumbling…
If you find certain things in your life just bugging you.
People are getting under your skin....
You’re pulling out your hair.
Challenge you to view those things in light of eternity
job…Jesus came down from heaven and he will raise me up on the last day.
bad day…Jesus came down from heaven and he will raise me up on the last day.
Reason 3: They haven’t been born again (v.43-44)
Reason 3: They haven’t been born again (v.43-44)
43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
They are dead.
Their wills are bound to sin.
There is no hope of overcoming their own desires without God’s power at work in them.
ESV Study Bible: “This implies that no human being in the world, on his own, has the moral and spiritual ability to come to Christ unless God the Father draws him, that is, gives him the desire and inclination to come and the ability to place trust in Christ.”
They need their desires and natures changed by God.
Reason 4: They haven’t understood the Scriptures correctly (v.45-46)
Reason 4: They haven’t understood the Scriptures correctly (v.45-46)
45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father.
New Covenant
This helps us to understand what kind of teaching and learning Jesus talks about.
Not merely academic knowledge or mental assent of facts.
If you have heard God’s word and understood it correctly…you will come to God!
Because they open our eyes to our own sinfulness
But to the fact that a Savior has come for us.
Your eyes will be opened…and you will say, “Where else would I want to go but to the Savior!”
Application: Right understanding leads to praise not grumbling
Right understanding…
See in the Scriptures: grace, mercy, forgiveness, God’s glorious character.
It leads to doxology: praise
the opposite of praise is : grumbling
Application: Where Am I Grumbling?
Application: Where Am I Grumbling?
Examine your life.
14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
An identifying mark of the church.
And a way that we shine as lights in the world
Distinct community
Shine as lights in the world.
Receive Jesus’ words in v.43.
43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.
Transition to Point 2:
Transition to Point 2:
Outline: 2 distinct ways of living our lives:
Point 1: Grumbling Lives: against Jesus & others. (vv.41-46)
4 reasons for grumbling
Point 2: Feasting Lives: on Jesus (vv.47-59)
Point 2: Feasting Lives
Point 2: Feasting Lives
(v.47-59)
Better bread (v.47-51)—believe
Better bread (v.47-51)—believe
47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 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.”
Comparison between breads
Manna & Jesus…one is far superior to the other
What is the key difference that Jesus points out?
Those who at the old bread still died.
John 6:49 “49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.”
Those who eat Jesus: will not die.
John 6:50 “50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.”
John 6:51 “51 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.”” v.47 & 51
Transition to next section
Transition to next section
This feeding metaphor is continued throughout the rest of the passage.
How do we feed on Jesus?(vv.52-58)
How do we feed on Jesus?(vv.52-58)
How do they (Jewish Leaders) respond?
Mistake a spiritual statement with earthly minds.
How can he give us flesh to eat? (v.52)
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
Others made the same mistake
Nicodemus: how can I be born again?
Samaritan woman at the well: where is this water?
Crowds: how can we get this food?
Now: How can he give us his flesh to eat?
Jesus responds (v.53)
Unless you feast on me, there is No life in you! (v.53)
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.
This shows us that we are: Dead…spiritually.
How do we gain life?
54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 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. 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.”
Eating the new bread
Clear how to eat the manna.
Like eating a cheeseburger…open your mouth bite down…chew…swallow.
How do we eat this new bread?
Believe
John 6:47 “47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.”
If you believe you have eternal life( v.47)
If you eat this bread, you will live forever (v.51)
What is eternal life?
Describe the glories of heaven.
Describe the life to come.
Already possess the seed of it!
present possession.Eating Flesh
Illustration:
Cannibalistic tribes
Massai Tribe in Kenya that drinks cow blood on special occasions
This was not the Jews.
Cannibalism is obviously sinful in the Scriptures
Not only was cannibalism sinful
eating any meat that still had blood in it was repulsive.
Not like many of us who look at a steak and want it nice and bloody.
Different mentality.
Drinking blood
detestable B/C of OT law.
10 “If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people. 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. 12 Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood.
Jesus statements would have been repulsive to them...
If taken at face value.
Even in the Leviticus passage…we see a core truth.
It is the blood that makes atonement.
Jesus blood had to be poured out for the forgiveness of sins.
Because the life is in the blood.
Abiding
when we eat and drink of Jesus
we abide in Jesus & He abides in us
56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
Life
Dead apart from Christ.
Alive in Christ
Is abiding passive?
No!
Some have mistakenly said this is a passive endeavor.
It takes work to abide…to remain…to stay put and connected to.
Illustration: King of the Hill Game
Is it a passive endeavor to remain on top of the hill?
As long as no one is trying to get you off, yes.
But that’s not how the game works…It takes a ton of effort to abide (remain) to keep yourself on the top of the hill.
Because everyone is trying to take you off
Spiritual Life
Abiding in Christ takes effort, because there are forces trying to pull us away from him.
The world, the flesh, and the devil
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
It takes battling on our part!
How do we abide in Christ?
Link between abiding in Christ and feeding on his flesh and drinking his blood.
Abiding in Christ and consuming his flesh and blood are linked...
And what does v.47 say is the way we do that?
47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
We believe!!!
Believe What? What should we focus on?
our passage tells us.
His body broken for us...
And his blood shed for us.
The Gospel!
Both the abiding and the body and blood are exhortations for us to center our lives and our church upon the gospel.
How do we abide in Jesus?
Put your hope in the gospel!
Application: Focus on The Gospel!
How does filling ourselves with the gospel help?
It keeps us from being grumblers and having an empty life
It keeps us centered on the main thing.
What we look at, we’re going to hit!
Application: Israelites Wrong Focus:
focussed on the wrong things.
Illustration: where you look is where you’re going to go
walking on a tight rope…and you look down…you’re going to fall.
Snowboarding through the trees…if you look at the trees…that’s what you’re going to hit.
looking at everything that’s wrong…that’s the path your life is going to be on.
grumbler and complainer…grumbling against God and against others.
You’ll miss him walking on water because you want Him to swim.
Focussed on God’s provisions and his incredible work…that’s the path your life will be devoted to.
Not on the miraculous work of God.
How Can We Feast On The Gospel?
Know yourself to be a sinner.
Know that Jesus came to save sinners.
Read God’s Word
We find the truths and promises of the gospel upon which we are to feast in God’s Word.
Be in God’s Word
discuss them with others.
meditate on it; hide it in your heart.
have it point you to Jesus.
This is where you will find the gospel promises
And your new identity as a child of God
And your new purpose to Glorify God by displaying and proclaiming Jesus.
Come ready to hear the gospel on Sundays
preaching.
songs we sing.
Our music team does an excellent job of selecting gospel rich songs every week.
Be part of a gospel rich community
Not a community that heaps more burdens on you.
Not a community that gives you a super long check list in order to be a Christian.
But a community that points you to Jesus.
A community that models the grace and love and forgiveness that God has shown to us.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Two Ways to Live
Empty vs. Full
One way of living will leave you empty
The other way will leave you full.
Grumbling
will leave you empty…in this life and ultimately in the life to come if you continue in unbelief.
Feasting on Jesus
will leave you full.
Abide in Jesus
Full of the gospel
Extras
Extras
Jude 16 “16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.”
John MacArthur: “While ‘whomsoever will’ may come to the Father, only those whom the Father gives the ability to will toward Him will actually come to Him. The drawing here is selective and efficacious (producing the desired effect) upon those whom God has sovereignly chosen for salvation, i.e., those whom God has chosen will believe because God has sovereignly determined that result from eternity past (Eph 1:9-11).”
Don’g grumble against others
they way you grumble against others…or the way you bless them,
Is directly linked to your focus on eternity.
If you know the Lord is coming…and that he is the judge…you have no need to grumble.
7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.
7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:
This is another one where our view of eternity (the end of all things is at hand)...
Should work itself out in the way that we live together.
Not teaching transubstantiation…
Roman Catholic view of communion.
The belief that in communion the substance of the bread and blood physically and miraculously changes to become the very substance of Jesus’ body and blood.
Looks forward to what communion will symbolize.
Parallel to the Lord’s Supper
Jesus isn’t pointing forward to the Lord’s Supper
The Lord’s Supper points back to what Jesus has said.
You must eat
ESV Study: “Although Jesus is not speaking specifically about the Lord’s Supper here, there is a parallel theme, because the receiving of eternal life through being united with ‘the Son of Man’ is represented in the Lord’s Supper (where Jesus’ followers symbolically eat his flesh and drink his blood; cf. 1 Cor 11:23-32). This is anticipated in OT feasts (see 1 Cor 5:7) and consummated in the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9).what does it look like to eat flesh and drink blood