Services | Living Bread

Bulletin

Hymn # 481 “Just a Closer Walk”

SCRIPTURE READING – Psalm 145:1 - 7

Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate
Praise and Worship

“Echo Holy”
“Great Are You Lord”
“Way Maker”

Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Living Bread”

PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection

“Living Hope”
Benediction “There Is Freedom”

Sermon Notes
John 6:41 & 42 Crowd complains about Jesus’ statements
John 6:43 47 Only those who the Father sends to Jesus will believe and have eternal life
John 6:48 Jesus says He is the Bread of Life
John 6:49 Their fathers ate manna and died
John 6:50 & 51 Whoever eats of the Living Bread will live forever
John 6:52 They argue among themselves how can Jesus give them their flesh to eat
John 6:53 – 58 Jesus reiterates that in in order to live forever you must eat His flesh and drink His blood

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Scritpures

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Transcript of Service

Most people, whether it's a ministry or business, think that success is expanding your reach.

Jesus doesn't think that way. Rather than expanding his reach, although he's at this point in his ministry very popular, instead of expanding his reach, he's making sure he's making true disciples. So he's going to make some statements that is going to be very difficult for those disciples to understand. Unfortunately, they don't ask the right questions. Today we'll take a look at the questions perhaps that they should have asked, and I think what Jesus would have answered.

During this period of time, Jesus' popularity with the crowd has been increasing, and he's been gaining disciples, or at least those who think they're disciples.

The crowds have fallen in because they see signs and wonders like him healing the sick and providing bread, and they've followed him across the Sea of Galilee, and he told them that they should not be working for food that is temporary, but for food that is eternal. And they ask them how they could do such, and he told them.

Because unlike most people who want to be successful in ministry and in business, instead of increasing the brand and making himself more and more popular, he drills down on his teachings, which makes it even more difficult for those to understand what he's trying to say and follow.

And so he's going to do that again, and so he's going to move in essence from this high point in his ministry as far as popularity to the waning of it, and we'll take a look at that next week. But he's going to say some really difficult or hard things for people to understand.

And so after talking about various things, he says, "Therefore the Jews were grumbling about him because he said, I am the bread that came down out of heaven." So it's interesting how the crowds will frequently, when Jesus says something, will grumble amongst themselves about what he said.

I'm going to deal with this a little later, but they consistently do this. But it's kind of not unlike people. The pastor will say something either intelligent or stupid, and then the congregation will have roast pastor for lunch because that's kind of what we do, rather than saying, "Hey pastor, what did you mean by that?" And so he said that he came down out of heaven, that he is the bread of life, and they're common to us. They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I have come down out of heaven?"

This is interesting.

Now, the way this is translated, it is present tense. So it says, "This is Joseph's son, whose father and mother we know." A lot of times you'll hear people say, "Well, Joseph must have died because you don't hear about him and moves on, and therefore maybe he was older, maybe he's this." They come up with all these things.

Maybe the story is not about Joseph.

Maybe the story is about Jesus.

And John and the other disciples are trying to spend the amount of time that they have for us to come to faith in Jesus and his chronology about who Joseph was and how he ran his carpenter shop and how he made great money or little money or whatever. But apparently they know Joseph. They didn't knew Joseph. They know him. They know Mary the Mother. They say, "Wait a minute.

We know his parents, except they don't know his parents because Jesus came to be born of a virgin, so they've already mistaken.

And Jesus answered and said to them, "Do not grumble among yourselves." So he warns them. Look at it. Why are you debating amongst yourselves? You've got a problem.

Talk to the source. "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last." Jesus is going to re-emphasize that he is not saying, "Oh, my net is wide open to who everybody might show up." Jesus says, "I understand the people who are going to come to me are the ones that the Father has determined.

And I will, as a part of what the Father is sending them to me, I will then raise them up on the last day. I will guarantee that they will be with me in the final days."

It is written in the prophets, "And they shall all be taught of God, and everyone who heard and learned from the Father comes to me."

Now, Jesus is going to really seek them because he's told them previously that they search the Scriptures hoping to find life, but in the Scriptures they speak of him.

And he's saying, "If you would have learned from the Father through the Scriptures, you would have understood that the Scriptures talk about me.

You would have learned from me, because you would have learned from him, and you would have heard and learned. But because you've determined to shut your spiritual minds and ears to the Word of God and instead listen to what others have said about his Word, you haven't been learned and taught by God. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father." So Jesus is saying, "I'm not expecting you to have seen God to have learned from him, because there's only one person who has done that, and that's Jesus. For Jesus, I have sent you my Word, and my Word is from the Father, and the Father teaches you."

And then he's going to continue to follow up. Truly, truly. So when Jesus says that, he's saying something important, as I like to say, "It's on the test."

When I was a kid in school, I generally listened to what the teacher said, and if the teacher went on the blackboard and wrote something down, then I would write it down, because I figured that might be on the test. And so when Jesus says, "Truly, truly," and he's saying, "Listen to me. What I have to say is important, and what he has to say is important, is he who believes has eternal life."

Now, this is important for what they're going to argue amongst themselves in just a bit.

It keeps referring to the fact that faith is what causes eternal life, not following

the law, but the law of grace.

And then he's going to, "I am the bread of life."

So Jesus doesn't back away. They're grumbling, "You're saying you're coming down," and whatever. And Jesus says, "I am the bread of life. I'm not backing down. This is who I am."

And then he's going to further have them cause to understand. "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died."

Now it is true that they died in the wilderness, because the manna did not give life-sustaining life.

It fed them and caused them to go from one place to another. But because of their unbelief, they never entered the promised land.

They died.

Jesus is saying, "I am the bread of life, which will cause you to live, and to not only live but to enter into the true promised land, heaven, the kingdom of God."

So he says, "They ate manna, but you've all been talking about how wonderful the manna was and how Moses gave it to your fathers." And Jesus corrects him and says, "Moses didn't give it. It was the God who gave it." But I love revisionist history, because they're all talking about how wonderful manna was.

Except if you read the passages in Exodus and the others, they've right and complained about the manna.

"All we ever get is manna today, man. It's Monday, it's manna. It's Tuesday, it's manna. It's Wednesday, it's manna. It's Thursday, it's manna. It's Friday, it's manna." Except we've got to gather up Friday, two days of manna, because we can't work on Saturday. But it's manna, manna, manna. They're always bribing about the manna. They didn't have to plant, they didn't have to water, they didn't have to pick it up. They just had to go and pick it up off the ground.

So they griped so much, they said, "Okay, I'm going to give you meat to eat." And they gave them so much that it came out of their nose.

But they're not wonderful people. They ate the manna and died, but complained about it, which means we identified them with them fully. We're always griping about stuff.

He goes, "This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die." He says, "They ate manna and died because there was no faith accompanying to the manna. I am the bread of life. If you eat of this bread, you will live and not die."

And he goes, "I am the living bread that came down out of heaven again." He's not backing off. "I am the bread of the life and the bread that came out of them. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread also which I give for the life of the world is my flesh."

So he's going to eliminate any ambiguity. He's saying, "I am the bread of life. I am and my flesh is life."

Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

Now I'm going to take a little, what you may think is a side trip, but it's not.

49 years ago last month, I started law school.

And fortunately for me and my wife, I finished it in three years.

And it was a unique experience.

In my three years of law school, if a professor said something that I didn't like or understand,

I didn't ask any of my other fellow students because I assumed that they were as dumb as me.

But what I did was I got what was called a Hornbook. Now those of you who didn't go to law school, you probably don't know what a Hornbook is. And those of you who didn't study early American history about how our forefathers taught their children about reading, writing, arithmetic, it was a Hornbook. And I'll use an example.

One of my favorite subjects was criminal law, my first year.

And I got a Hornbook by Perkins. Perkins was, because I'm sure he's dead now, the leading expert on criminal law. So I bought his book on criminal law.

And I read it.

And then after reading it, if I didn't understand what the professor had to say, I didn't ask my fellow students. I asked the professor.

Because he's the one, or she was the one, who said it.

But these idiots talk to one another not knowing what's going on. Well, how can he give us his flesh to eat? How can he do these things? We don't understand. And they're grumbling and griping because they don't understand.

So I'm going to say what they should have done.

But I'm going to do it in such a way because I'm not going to speak for Jesus. So I'm going to do what lawyers are not supposed to do. I'm going to ask leading questions that will show the answer and the question.

But what they should have done. And so they should have said, Jesus, clear this up for us.

Because you said we're supposed to eat your flesh.

But the scriptures tell us that we're not supposed to murder.

So the only way I can see that we're going to be able to eat your flesh is if we kill you or cause you great, great discomfort as we bite off your flesh.

The scriptures also tell us because there's life in the blood and there's blood in the flesh, that if I eat your flesh, I'm going to violate the scriptures because I'm not supposed to eat or drink blood.

So can you explain to me what you mean? Because after having read the scriptures, the scripture says I'm not supposed to do these.

So what is it that you mean?

They should have been asking Jesus what he meant.

Not each other.

Because they're the blind leading the blind.

And if I was smart enough, 49 years ago, to know not to ask other dumb students, but to go to the source, Perkins, or the source, the scriptures, to figure out what might be going on.

Or then if I can't figure it out after that, asking the source, that's what you ought to do. And that's not what they do.

They would rather gripe and complain, not understanding.

So they should have been saying, so Jesus, maybe what you're saying is not literal.

Because if I consume your flesh, and John consumed your flesh, and Peter consumed your flesh, and James consumed your flesh, and Philip consumed your flesh, and all these others and all these other yo-yos who don't know what's happening, consume your flesh, there's not going to be enough of left of you for our generation to consume his flesh.

So maybe, just maybe, he's not speaking literally, but he's giving us another teaching spiritually.

He's also not telling us that when we come and have communion, that we transubstantiate his body and his blood into his flesh, into his blood into his flesh. Because again, he's not talking the physical, and he's not saying these things because again, we're not supposed to drink blood, and we're not supposed to. And the church in the early centuries was, people were scared of us, because they heard that we kidnapped the babies and ate their flesh and blood as part of our ritual.

Jesus is giving spiritual teaching, and they can't get off of the physical.

And 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 yourself."

So he's doubling down, he's not backing off, he's not, "No, no, I said this, and I'm going to say it again."

Which is another key.

The Word of God tells you something once, it's important.

The Word of God tells you something twice or more times, it's really important and on the tip. So what we should be doing is saying, "Okay, what's he meaning?" And so I'm going to follow up with one more scripture. "He who eats 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 food drink.

He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I am him."

Jesus again doubles down and says, "We must do this."

So if Jesus was talking about communion, then he would be discarding what he talked about, faith in him is what leads us to eternal life. Because it would be faith in him, plus doing communion.

And communion is not a sacrament, despite what a number of denominations would tell you.

Communion is an ordinance that we follow, teaching each other and remembering his death, burial and resurrection.

It causes us to understand that his flesh, as he talked about in that ceremony and hung on the cross, that his flesh was broken for us. That his flesh was unleavened bread, now sinned, given for us. And that his blood was shed as an atonement for our sins, so that we would be righteous.

Just as we eat bread and drink drink to sustain life, Jesus is saying to have eternal life, to be born again, then you must be so enthilled with this life of bread and drink, that it not only sustains you, it causes you to be born again, to have eternal life. And that we look to his sacrifice as the only merit that we have in righteousness.

It is his death, it's his shedding of his blood that causes us to be born again. And when we identify, that is why, again, when we are baptized, we are baptized not to be saved, but to demonstrate what is happening to us on the inside, that his death is our death, that his burial is our burial, and that his resurrection will be our resurrection. And that we no longer live this life according to us, but we live it according to him because we are his disciple, that we are his follower. And yes, there are times when he says things that I don't like. Many may say things that I don't understand.

But instead of arguing amongst ourselves, let's go to the Scripture. What do the Scriptures say? What is it that the authority says? Meditate, think, rather than, "Hmm, this is a really tough statement.

What do you want for lunch?

This is a really tough statement."

What does he mean?

Is it possible?

Is it possible to eat his flesh and drink his blood? Because if it is, none of us have eternal life.

Because he ain't here physically.

And I'm sorry, changing some grape juice and some unleavened bread to his body and his blood.

Imagine. But our faith in who he is and what he's done is what sustains him. As the living Father sent me, and as I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, he also who lives because of me.

We live because of him, not in spite of him.

That's what's so awesome about our God. We so want to do one or two things. The other one is, "I'm so special that God just got to have me." Or "I'm so unspecial that there's no way that he wants me."

And the reality is, God is so awesome because of me. Not a matter of how wonderful you are or how miserable you are, how awesome he is.

We will live not in spite, but because of him.

This is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the Fathers ate and died.

He who eats this bread will live for heaven.

That's an awesome problem.

We are not unlike those traveling in the wilderness.

As we're traveling in the wilderness, we're waiting to get to the Promised Land. So we're just spending time.

And there are times we gripe and complain. And sometimes if the Attaboy got it, I got to see that experience. And then we gripe and complain. And then we hang around people, gripe and complain. So we want to change locations because we're tired of the people griping and complaining. So very much of what we see is happening.

But we should be doing differently than they.

He gave them manna.

He blessed.

He gave us his son.

What an awesome blessing.

What an awesome God that we have.

That he loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him did not perish but have eternal life. Not a long life, but eternal life. Not life, death, life, but eternal life.

All we have to do is consume this flesh and blood by faith.

Jesus, I believe that the Father sent you.

I believe that you're the Messiah.

I believe that you died on a cross for my sins.

And I believe that God raised you from the dead.

And I confess that and I call you Lord.

Jesus is starting to take those who say they're following him and saying, "You really follow me. Are you still following the bread, the signs and the wonders? Are you following me because you want me to be your king to do what you want me to do? Or do you want me to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords? And I do what I want to do and I just follow you."

Now I must admit, I want both.

I want a large group of people in the sanctuary. I want a large following on all of our social ministries and whatever.

I also want all the people in the sanctuary and all the people following to be future Paul.

Now my job, Martin, my job is to be faithful to him.

My job is to try to explain the scripture and to try to point you and to tell you, "When you don't think my explanation is good, instead of trying to figure out for me, do the Word of God."

Because that's where the answers are. Because as he said, you search for the scriptures hoping to find life and in them you find Jesus. How about you consider it?