God, open our ears to hear your truth, and open our eyes to see you, I pray for the edification of your church today, Amen.
If you have your Bibles with you today open them to John chapter six. If you do not have your Bible with you there should be some under your chairs. I am thankful that someone donated those Bibles to the church; it only makes sense to have Bibles in a church that preaches the Bible. I am thankful for the biblical preaching that happens at this church because I have been to many church services where we say that we believe in sola Sriptura and yet we hardly even take the time to open our Bibles. Oh how much we need to read the Bible in the church; and not only in the church; I believe it should be read in the quietness of our own homes; I believe that it should be shouted on the streets; I believe that it should be read on the roof-tops and proclaimed on the mountaintops!; this word will change your life, if only you believe in it. So by now you should have your Bibles open to John chapter six; and remember, this is God’s word; this is God speaking to you. So as I read and as you follow along, just let it speak to you. So I will begin at John chapter six…
After these things Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). A large crowd followed Him, because they saw the signs which He was performing on those who were sick. Then Jesus went up on the mountain, and there He sat down with His disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. Therefore Jesus, lifting up His eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming to Him, said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these may eat?” This He was saying to test him, for He Himself knew what He was intending to do. Philip answered Him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not sufficient for them, for everyone to receive a little.” One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted. When they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost.” So they gathered them up, and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.” So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone. Now when evening came, His disciples went down to the sea, and after getting into a boat, they started to cross the sea to Capernaum. It had already become dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat; and they were frightened. But He said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.” So they were willing to receive Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going. The next day the crowd that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other small boat there, except one, and that Jesus had not entered with His disciples into the boat, but that His disciples had gone away alone. There came other small boats from Tiberias near to the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they themselves got into the small boats, and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” So they said to Him, “What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘HE GAVE THEM BREAD OUT OF HEAVEN TO EAT.'” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” Then they said to Him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.” 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’?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?” 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 yourselves. 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 true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.” These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not believe ” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. So Jesus said to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” Jesus answered them, “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?” Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.” (John 6)
The message of this discourse is simple, but it is vital. It means that Christ is to be our spiritual nourishment and our eternal life; and “there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
I heard a story once, about a girl who was driving home drunk from a party one night, and it so happened that on her way home the tank in her car ran out of gas. and it so happened that the place where her car ran out of gas was right in front of a revival meeting. She decided to wait in her car for a while, hoping that someone would see that she had a problem, finally, out of impatience, she walked out of her car and yelled out, “hasn’t anybody noticed that my tank is empty?!” The preacher said to her “sister is your tank empty?” she said “yes!” Then the preacher said, “sister do you want Jesus to fill your tank?” she said, “Yes”….. And that night she was saved; that night she was born again, don’t we all need Jesus to full our tanks? Should he not be our spiritual hunger and thirst?
Lets Pray…
God, we often try to fill our emptiness with things that will never satisfy the thirst of a longing heart, whether it be alcohol, drugs or other worldly lusts. We have gone to empty wells and found no water. Yet God, you know us so well; you know the wounds and sorrows caused by disappointments; and you have spoken in your word so that we may know that Christ will be each man’s life; so that our foundations would be grounded in the solid rock of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
What did Jesus mean when he said that we must eat his flesh, and drink his blood? What was he trying to say when he was speaking to the Jews who rejected his message? This passage is so often used to prove doctrines such as transubstantiation and consubstantiation that we so often miss the very vital message of the text. Friends, we do not eat and drink the body and the blood of Christ only once a week, but every single day and at every single moment of our lives! When he instructed us to eat his flesh and drink his blood he was speaking in metaphors symbolysing that we must be nourished on him spiritually. This takes place through a relationship with him. That is why it is important to read the Scriptures and spend time in prayer. But then someone might say to me, ‘if Jesus meant this as a metaphor which is not to be taken physically then how can he say, “unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you.”’(John 6:53). It is because Jesus really wants us to eat his flesh and drink his blood; but he wants us to do so spiritually. But how do we know that this is the proper interpretation of the text? Because after he had finished saying these things Jesus clarified himself to his disciples saying, “Does this offend you? What if you were to see the son of man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” (John 6:62-63). I thought it was interesting to read what some of the fathers of the early church had to say about this passage. The great defender of the faith, Athanasius, rightly understood that Jesus was drawing his disciples away from the material notion so that they might understand what he said spiritually. St. Augustine likewise understood that Jesus was speaking in metaphors symbolising that we must eat and drink spiritually. Augustine argued that the one who ascended whole could not be consumed physically here on earth. He accused those who would interpret the words of Jesus physically, like the Jews did, to still be carnal in their thinking.
But if we say that Jesus did not mean that we must eat physically, then we must be sure not to neglect to eat him spiritually. It means that God does not want idols in your life. It means that he does not want you going to empty wells that will not give you spiritual nourishment. If you are a child of God it means that God so loves you that he will not allow you to enjoy the sin of idolatry. God will not allow you to enjoy something that is mundane, instead of Christ himself.
Let me tell you how I came to learn this in my own life. All of my life I have been running from God. Before I was a Christian I was such a wretch that you do not want to know what kind of a person I was. But even after my conversion I think that at times I have been running from God’s will for my life; All of this time, running from God! But God outran me, and eventually I had to come to that place of total surrender; and it is as if in that place God was saying to me, “Eat… Drink…” “Taste and see that the Lord is Good” (Psalm 34:8). I remember it was one night when I came back home and went back to my room, and I was all alone, and I started to look back to a series of disappointments; broken dreams, failures and a long series of disappointments; I had nothing left. And I wondered, “Where do I go now? God what happens now? God I thirst for you! God be with me.” Then I noticed the Bible that I had left by the window; and only then did I realise that all along the wind had been blowing over the pages of my Bible. I went to pick up my Bible, and realised that it was open to the book of John where Jesus describes himself as the bread of life; and I thought ‘Perhaps… Perhaps this is all I truly ever wanted! All other things are nothing! Only Christ matters!’
Do you want Christ? Do you spend more time reading those cheap magazines than you do reading the Bible? Do you spend more time watching those useless television shows than you do before the Lord in prayer? Does your life walk and talk like Jesus does? But if you have no desire to read the Bible; and if you have no desire to spend time in prayer or be conformed to the image of Christ it may very well be that you do not know Christ and if you were to die this very moment you would be in hell.
Now some of you might be thinking, ‘Now that is a very sobering thing to say.’ I know! But you need to hear it because our Lord himself said “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. For many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘Away from me you workers of iniquity, I never knew you.’” (Matthew 7:21-24)
But then, how do we do the will of God? As the Jews said, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, to believe in the one he sent.” (John 6:28-29) In one of his sermons John Piper rightly pointed out that when the Jews wanted to know how to do the works of God Jesus pointed out that to do the works of God begins with no work at all; but “to believe in the one he has sent.”
This demonstrates that not only is Jesus to be our spiritual nourishment, he is our eternal life. In verse 51 Jesus says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world”; what was he talking about? He was pointing forward to his crucifixion. Why was he crucified? Because you have committed sins that deserve eternal punishment. The just punishment that you deserve is eternity in hell. But “God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). He died on the cross in your place, to take upon himself the punishment that you deserve; do you believe that? As the apostle Peter says, “He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that free from sin, we might live for righteousness, by his wounds you have been healed. For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of you souls” (1 peter 2:24-25).Believe in Jesus, cry out to the Lord so that you may be saved.
What is the problem with our evangelism these days? We often ask people, “Do you want to go to heaven?” but you know what the problem with that is? Everyone wants to go to Heaven. I’ve hardly ever had anyone tell me they think they would rather go to hell. Everyone wants to go to heaven; but our vision of heaven is so twisted and dull; we imagine heaven as a bunch of clouds in the sky, and the angels are there, but where the presence of God is not! Let me tell you what heaven will be like. You will see the beauty of God, and it will be so awesome and so beautiful that if you where to see him in your present condition or if God did not give you the strength you will be so breathless; it would so take your breath away that it would cause you to faint; And your flesh would be so frail at the sight of his glory that you would disintegrate into ashes; and even if you where to survive all that you would still go crazy (This thought comes from one of Paul Washer’s sermons). You will see him in his glory and majesty… And it will be so indescribable, and you will worship him forever! You will be overcome by such a divine ecstasy…. Why? Because you will see God! You will see Jesus Christ the very son of God face to face! That is what heaven will be like. And so the question is, do you want him? Do you desire a relationship with Jesus? Has God done such a work in your life that you desire him? If you do, come to Jesus and he will give you life. You do not have to earn it, or attain a certain level of holiness to achieve it. Pastor Adrian Rogers rightly said that, “Holiness is not the way to Christ, Christ is the way to holiness. Holiness is not the way to Christ, Christ is the way to holiness.” Eternal life is a free gift. ‘You mean it’s free? I don’t have to earn it; I don’t have to achieve it?’ That’s right. Just come to Jesus.
But then someone might ask, ‘If salvation is free then should we not go on sinning and living ungodly lives? As the apostle Paul said, “What then shall we say? Shall we persist in sin that grace may abound? May it never be! For how can we who died to sin yet continue to live in it?” (Romans 6: 1-2). If you are a Christian, if you are a believer today it is because you have died, Christ is living in you. As the apostle Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.” (galatians2:20). Yes Salvation is a free gift from God, Yes it is through faith alone, yes it is by grace alone, but you need to understand that this Gospel will change who you are; and conform you to the image of Christ.
You will be nourished on Christ, you will live on the bread of life. Saint Augustine described this with the following words:
“Let them then who eat eat on, and them that drink, drink; let them hunger and thirst; eat life, drink life, that eating is to be refreshed; but thou art in such wise refreshed, as that whereby thou art refreshed faileth not. That drinking, what is it but to live? Eat life, drink life; and thou shalt have life, and the life is entire. But then this shall be, that is the body and the blood of Christ shall be each man’s life; if what is taken in the sacrament visibly is in the truth itself eaten spiritually, drunk spiritually. For we have heard the Lord himself saying, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth, but the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I have spoken unto you are spirit and life.” (St. Augustine, sermon 131).
Therefore let us eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ so that we may have life.
But not only is Jesus our eternal life, he is the only salvation there is; he is the only way to the father, it is a message that is altogether offensive, because it means that all other religions are useless to your salvation. Jesus made this clear where he says “Amen, Amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). Apart from Jesus there is no hope, this is made clear in the first epistle of John where it says, “whoever has the son has life; whoever does not have the son of God does not have life.” (1 John 5:12).What it says is clear. There is only one way and there are no alternatives. Anything else would be a contradiction to the Scriptures.
But then immediately the question comes up, ‘but what about those who have never heard? After-all doesn’t everyone deserve an equal opportunity to be saved?’ First of all you must come to the realization that God owes us nothing! We have all rebelled against God. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever broken one of the Ten Commandments? If you have, you have not rebelled against the Ten Commandments, but against God. And if you think that you have not been such a bad rebel then let me tell you that you are guilty of the sin of the pride, and it is like the sin of idolatry and God hates it! We have all rebelled against God and therefore God owes us nothing! He doesn’t even owe us an opportunity to be saved. He doesn’t even owe us the fresh air that we breathe; he doesn’t owe us and equal opportunity. God owes us nothing!
‘Oh , but what about those who have never heard, what about those who have never heard, after-all if they had been given an opportunity to know Christ would they not turn to him?’ No they won’t! The Bible says that “There is not one who seeks God”; and that “there is not one who does good, there is not even one”. (Roman 3:11-12). I was listening to a sermon by a pastor named Paul Washer, and he basically put it this way: Let’s say that we had Jesus right here before us physically. Actually let’s say that we had a revival meeting out there on the grass, and Jesus was there physically. And we invited the whole town of Surrey to come; and we invited people from every tribe tongue and nation; and we said, ‘all we need to do is show them Jesus.’ And I hear people say this a-lot. ‘All we need to do is show them who is who Jesus is. All we need to do is show them Jesus and people will come to Jesus!’ No they won’t! They’ll try to kill him. But then someone might say, ‘Well how do you know that?’ Because that is exactly what they did to him almost 2000 years ago when they crucified him! If you are a Christian today, if you are a believer today it is because God has done something in your life and it is because God has done something in your heart. Salvation does not work from man to God but from God to man! That is why in the Old Testament God said, “I will give them and undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19).
But then someone might say to me, ‘But you’re being cruel! You’re saying that all the Muslims, and all the Buddhists, and all the Hindus, and all the Sick’s that they’re not going to heaven!’ You don’t understand! Eternal life is not a place it is a person and his name is Jesus; and we come to him by faith. Saint Augustine described this with the following words:
“Is not a sheep drawn, when fresh grass is shown to it in its hunger? Yet I imagine that it is not bodily driven on, but fast bound by desire. In such wise do thou come too to Christ, do not conceive of long journeyings’ where thou believest, there thou comest, for unto him who is everywhere we come by love, not by sailing but forasmuch as even in this kind of voyage, waves and tempests of divers temptations abound; believe on the crucified; that thy faith may be able to ascend the wood. Thou shalt not sink, but shalt be borne upon the wood. Thus, even thus, amid the waves of this world did he sail, who said, “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (St. Augustine, Sermon 13)
Oh how beautiful is the memory of his cross…..
So far I have told you that Jesus Christ ought to be our desire above all else, and that he should be our hearts one desire. But then someone with a searching heart might ask, “But how do we do it? How do I come to love Jesus more? Friend you must come to know him. How do you think that the apostle Peter, who denied Christ three times was later able to die for what he believed? That is what a relationship with Christ does! How do you think that the Apostle Paul, who once persecuted the church was so changed that he later died for the faith that he once tried to destroy? How do you think that the rest of the Apostles where able to die for this faith? And how do you think that for the next few centuries people where able to give up their lives for what they believe? If the apostles where able to give up their lives for their faith it is because they had a relationship with the living Jesus. If the early Christians where able to give up their lives for this faith it is because in their hearts they had a relationship with the living Jesus. If the Apostles, and the early church where able to face the teeth of lions; If they were able to face the fires and the blood of persecution it is because they were living on the bread of life; the word of God; the king of kings and Lord of Lords; our God, and our Savior Jesus Christ.
Let’s Pray….
God, we repent because we have not lived as if we know you. You have blessed us so much, and yet we walk away as if you were not there. When was the last time we drank a cold glass of water in thanksgiving to you? When was the last time we took a breath of fresh air in thanksgiving to you? When was the last time we enjoyed the hot sun in thanksgiving to you? How can we even begin to count our blessings when you have given us all things in your Son Jesus Christ? Oh God, we have not lived as your glory deserves; and we fail at this at every single moment of our lives. We are so sinful! And so we ask you to forgive us, and give us a passion for you, so that when people come here they would see people who are caught up in a divine rapture. Not the kind of chaotic hyperactivity that comes from pagan entertainment, but with a divine passion that truly comes from you. Oh God, hear our prayer today, Amen.
ChristCrucifiedForTheNations 