SPEAKER_00: Think for a minute about uh where your food comes from.
SPEAKER_00: You ask, uh you ask one of the kids that's over in screen six where their food comes from.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's they probably say, well, it comes from the shop, it comes from Tesco or for from Lidl.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we're beginning to have that conversation uh because it's being brought up around our dinner table about what uh what certain meats are, you know, what's uh what's the what's the mints in your spaghetti bolognese?
SPEAKER_00: You know, well it's it's it's cow.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and my children are uh sorry, what?
SPEAKER_00: Because in their mind it just arrives out of a packet and it's different to the animal that they see uh uh uh on the farm or in the in the children's book.
SPEAKER_00: What's the uh the staple diet where you come from?
SPEAKER_00: What's the staple diet of your uh of your home country?
SPEAKER_00: Now for for lots of people in the West, that's kind of a nonsensical uh question.
SPEAKER_00: Certainly in Ireland, what was the what was the staple diet for the Irish people?
SPEAKER_00: We've now begun certainly some of us now begin to look like that vegetable.
SPEAKER_00: Well it's the potato, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh that was the the staple for us.
SPEAKER_00: What's the staple diet for people in the world?
SPEAKER_00: Anyone know what do what do most people eat on a daily basis?
SPEAKER_00: Rice.
SPEAKER_00: Rice, not bread, rice.
SPEAKER_00: Rice would be the most common staple, life-giving piece of food in the world today.
SPEAKER_00: What happens then uh to our food if there is a catastrophic flood or drought or maybe even a global pandemic?
SPEAKER_00: Well, in the West, not an awful lot.
SPEAKER_00: You might see some things being cleared out of the shelves, but what tends to happen is that the prices go up, right?
SPEAKER_00: We still get the stuff, it's just more expensive.
SPEAKER_00: We get our floor, we get our oranges from Florida instead of Italy or Spain.
SPEAKER_00: That's a privilege of the West.
SPEAKER_00: It's a privilege of our modern life, because for many people, uh, something catastrophic like a flood or a drought or a global pandemic would would mean food shortages, and that would mean death.
SPEAKER_00: Food is life.
SPEAKER_00: Think also about why you work.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you work and earn a salary?
SPEAKER_00: Well, again, for most people in the West, uh we we work and most of our money goes towards paying our rent.
SPEAKER_00: Or certainly if you're in Dublin, most of your money goes towards paying your rent.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, maybe all of your money goes towards paying your rent.
SPEAKER_00: Or your mortgage.
SPEAKER_00: Food is a relatively small fraction of that payment.
SPEAKER_00: You work in order to pay your rent rather than working for food.
SPEAKER_00: But in the ancient world, and indeed in other parts of the world, the thing that you primarily spend money on or spend money on was food.
SPEAKER_00: In the ancient world, 85% of your wage went on food and making sure that you lived the next day.
SPEAKER_00: So food was synonymous with life.
SPEAKER_00: It was absolutely essential.
SPEAKER_00: We might we might blow off a meal or two because uh because we're not hungry or whatever, but we don't the ancient people didn't have that luxury.
SPEAKER_00: What's your favorite snack food?
SPEAKER_00: Are you a chocolate person?
SPEAKER_00: Are you a crisp person?
SPEAKER_00: I'm a crisp person.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, and amen.
SPEAKER_00: As you might be able to tell.
SPEAKER_00: But to ask the question of what's your favorite snack food is meaningless to lots of people.
SPEAKER_00: It's meaningless to most of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's a luxury of our time, it's a luxury of our geography.
SPEAKER_00: And certainly it was meaningless in the first century.
SPEAKER_00: So food had completely different associations.
SPEAKER_00: This is why I'm asking all these questions, because we think about food differently.
SPEAKER_00: It's not where all of our money goes.
SPEAKER_00: We don't normally suffer the loss of it.
SPEAKER_00: And if we do, there's something else that we can get that will sustain our life.
SPEAKER_00: But in the first century, food sustained your life.
SPEAKER_00: If you didn't have any food, you starved and you died.
SPEAKER_00: And very often there was starvation and death.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Jesus then says to the crowd here, I am the bread of life, we need to think about it not so much in terms of luxury items or you know, one option from the uh from the bread aisle in Tesco.
SPEAKER_00: You have the Jesus bread or you get Hova's granary.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: In the first century, when Jesus said, I am the bread of life, it meant very, it had very different connotations.
SPEAKER_00: I am essential for your being, for sustaining your life eternally.
SPEAKER_00: The other association that's floating around in the background to this discussion that's uh worth just bringing up is the uh is the miracle of the manna in the desert in the book of Exodus.
SPEAKER_00: We mentioned this last week.
SPEAKER_00: If you were here, that the Israelites were rescued from slavery in Egypt, brought out into the desert, and they began to grumble about the fact that they had no food.
SPEAKER_00: And so God miraculously provides for them, supplies them with the manna, this bread from heaven that sustains their life for the 40 years of their wilderness wanderings.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is going to interpret that miracle in terms of himself.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does it mean for Jesus to be the bread of life?
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for him to say, I am the bread of life?
SPEAKER_00: We're going to see a number of things.
SPEAKER_00: First, we're going to see that Jesus is the one who satisfies eternally.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the one who satisfies eternally.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pick up this uh this conversation down in verse 25.
SPEAKER_00: When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, uh, when did you come here?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate the fill of the loaves.
SPEAKER_00: So remember what had just happened the day before, what we looked at last week.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had just fed the 5,000 up on this mountain, a very Old Testament declaration of his divinity, and he feeds this crowd miraculously.
SPEAKER_00: And so they're delighted by that, their bellies are full, but the next day comes and they're like, oh, I'm a bit hungry again.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, where's that?
SPEAKER_00: Where's that Jesus guy?
SPEAKER_00: And so they go down and say, Oh, he's not here.
SPEAKER_00: So they cross over this massive flotilla goes across the sea in search of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus rebukes the crowd and he says, You're only looking for me because you're filled with loaves.
SPEAKER_00: You're only looking for me because you want another meal out of me.
SPEAKER_00: They fail to see what the miracle pointed to, what the sign, that's the word for miracles in John's gospel, what the sign pointed to, what the sign signified, signified.
SPEAKER_00: And so read on in uh verse 27.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus then teaches them and says, Do not labor for food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.
SPEAKER_00: For on him God the Father has set his seal.
SPEAKER_00: That last phrase, God the Father says here, God the Father approves, loves the Son of Man, who's the Son of Man, that's Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's his favorite title for himself.
SPEAKER_00: It comes from the uh uh from the book of Daniel.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus in verse 27 is saying, look, guys, don't work for temporary things.
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to focus their attention on the goal of work.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, don't work for the things that are going to perish.
SPEAKER_00: Don't work for the things that are going to fade.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, he's trying to focus their attention on the goal of work.
SPEAKER_00: What are you pointing your life at?
SPEAKER_00: What are you orientating your life towards?
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, have as your goal something that will satisfy you eternally.
SPEAKER_00: Food that perishes or food that endures to eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: But the crowd latch on to this idea of work.
SPEAKER_00: And so they ask in verse 28, they say, Then they said to him, What must we do to be doing the works of God?
SPEAKER_00: They essentially turn to Jesus and say, Right, give us the list, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You promise us uh bread that's gonna uh satisfy us eternally.
SPEAKER_00: What's the to-do list?
SPEAKER_00: What must we do to earn that?
SPEAKER_00: Give us the list, show us the ritual, whatever it is, we can perform it.
SPEAKER_00: Humanity always overestimates its ability to earn God's favor.
SPEAKER_00: Come to Jesus and give us the list.
SPEAKER_00: You want us to do some work?
SPEAKER_00: We'll do it.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus answers them in verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: He turns it on his head.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to them, This is the work of God.
SPEAKER_00: That you believe in him whom he has sent, that you believe in him whom God has sent.
SPEAKER_00: The work of God is belief, faith.
SPEAKER_00: But in this dialogue they respond to Jesus in verse 30 and 31.
SPEAKER_00: They say to well, so uh then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you?
SPEAKER_00: What work do you perform?
SPEAKER_00: Uh our fathers uh eat the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, um so you want us to believe in you?
SPEAKER_00: Uh could you can like could you perform another trick?
SPEAKER_00: Um uh we're hungry again.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I noticed that you fed us miraculously.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you see, like they Jesus had already performed the sign, he'd already done the thing that points to who he is, but they're trying to think we could get another meal out of this guy, we could get another uh another another satisfying uh breakfast for him.
SPEAKER_00: So, what sign do you perform, Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Is that the kind of God that you interact with?
SPEAKER_00: The God that you uh trust and place your faith in when he fills your belly?
SPEAKER_00: Do you expect him to come through for you?
SPEAKER_00: I know you want me to trust you, but uh could you help me out with this a little bit first?
SPEAKER_00: That's the way the crowd is interacting with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus corrects them in verse 32, because they are remembering that it was Moses who gave them bread from heaven, but he corrects their thinking and said, No, no, no, it wasn't Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Moses was just a tool, Moses was just an instrument.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 32.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father who gives you the true bread from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't Moses, it was God.
SPEAKER_00: God gave the manna in the wilderness, and God is giving you the true bread.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this word true is going to come up again when he talks about how my my flesh is uh true food and my blood is true drink.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does the word what's the word true doing there?
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: Essentially, what Jesus is saying is the manna was it was a shadow.
SPEAKER_00: It was a shadow, it was a pointer, it was a sign to a true reality.
SPEAKER_00: That is Jesus Himself, that is who God is giving into the world.
SPEAKER_00: And so he goes on, verse 33, for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
SPEAKER_00: And so they respond to Jesus and he says, and says, Sir, give us this bread.
SPEAKER_00: This bread sounds great.
SPEAKER_00: This bread that comes down from heaven that satisfies us eternally, that's better than the man in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: We'd love that.
SPEAKER_00: We we place our order for that.
SPEAKER_00: Give us that bread always.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus responds in verse 35.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: I am the bread of life.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
SPEAKER_00: The desert manna that was given in the wilderness pointed beyond itself.
SPEAKER_00: Pointed beyond a mere earthly daily sustenance that God would provide to something much greater, to an eternal provision.
SPEAKER_00: The people might no longer hunger, might no longer thirst, but have their deepest longings satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Christianity offers you.
SPEAKER_00: The deepest longings of your heart satisfied eternally by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Human beings so often struggle to see beyond the material.
SPEAKER_00: And so we work for those material things.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't condemn the idea of work, but he is lifting our eyes to see that there is more to life than the material.
SPEAKER_00: If you're spending your entire week, if you're expending your entire existence fixated on earthly bread, better lifestyle, more money, more comfort, more stuff, Jesus is saying, you're working for that that perishes.
SPEAKER_00: You're missing that which will internally satisfy.
SPEAKER_00: You're missing the things that won't perish, spoil, or fade.
SPEAKER_00: If you're just looking for the earthly manna of a nicer, comfortable life, you're missing the point of your existence.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to look for the true bread that's coming down from heaven that will eternally satisfy you, which means that you could lose the earthly manna and still have the longings of your heart satisfied and taken care of.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, you're laboring for that which is going to perish.
SPEAKER_00: You're focusing on the wrong goal.
SPEAKER_00: Not because they're bad, but because they won't ultimately satisfy.
SPEAKER_00: Human beings, you and I, were made for something more than just the material world.
SPEAKER_00: That's part of the reason why you're here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's this draw within you that says there's got to be something more than just our material existence.
SPEAKER_00: There's got to be a meaning and a value and a significance that goes beyond just my week to week, my daily schedule, and that grind that's grinding me down.
SPEAKER_00: There's got to be more than that.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is saying, yes.
SPEAKER_00: Stop looking at the earthly manna and stop looking, start looking to me, the one that the manna was pointing to.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see?
SPEAKER_00: You see, Jesus doesn't just give the barley loaves that satisfy for a while.
SPEAKER_00: He is the bread who comes from heaven that will satisfy us eternally.
SPEAKER_00: This is why Jesus elsewhere would say, What good is it for a man to gain the whole world and to forfeit his soul?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the bread that satisfies eternally.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, Jesus won't just satisfy Jesus won't just satisfy, he will preserve us to the end.
SPEAKER_00: He will keep us to the end.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 35, Jesus begins to interpret this metaphor of bread and the way that you receive this bread.
SPEAKER_00: Note these two parallel ways.
SPEAKER_00: So whoever comes shall not hunger, whoever believes shall not thirst.
SPEAKER_00: How do we receive the bread?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we do it by coming to Jesus, by believing in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's going to be important when we get into the possibility of cannibalism of eating flesh and drinking blood.
SPEAKER_00: So 35 is a really important interpretive key.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to come back to that.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus said, This is the way you receive it.
SPEAKER_00: You believe you come.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus goes on in verse 36, and he says, I realize that actually the response of most of you is going to be rejection.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what we said last week?
SPEAKER_00: That by the end of John chapter 6, everybody's going to be gone.
SPEAKER_00: You know, this isn't some great mega church ministry that Jesus is engaged in.
SPEAKER_00: It starts with 20,000 people at the start of John chapter 6 and ends with the 12.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's gone.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus predicts it here in verse 36.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I know that you're going to reject me.
SPEAKER_00: And we, as the readers of John's gospel, know that they're going to reject him because of, well, how the how the gospel starts.
SPEAKER_00: You don't even need to know how that ends.
SPEAKER_00: You say, you know, the light came into the world.
SPEAKER_00: He came to his own people, his own people didn't receive him.
SPEAKER_00: They rejected him.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because they ultimately hate the light and love the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: This is the problem that humanity has.
SPEAKER_00: We will all naturally do verse 36.
SPEAKER_00: We'll all naturally choose to reject Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We'll refuse to believe to believe in him.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because deep down in some part of us, maybe not even all that deep, we actually prefer life on our own terms, in our own way.
SPEAKER_00: We prefer uh self-rule than his good satisfying rule.
SPEAKER_00: We prefer to uh to have the instant gratification of the of the mana bread.
SPEAKER_00: We prefer to orientate our lives towards those short-term goals because we get the you get the dopamine hit, and then it's okay, we move on to the next one.
SPEAKER_00: Even though you know that actually ultimately it leaves you empty and you're you're constantly kind of trying to uh to big up that that bank balance or you know form a better marriage or have better relationships.
SPEAKER_00: We do that because we prefer that instant gratification, because we prefer to run our own lives.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll all naturally do verse 36.
SPEAKER_00: We'll all naturally turn aside and reject the one who's offering us eternal bread.
SPEAKER_00: That's the thing, like that's the thing about what the Bible calls sin.
SPEAKER_00: It's irrational, it's irrational.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus then needs to help us to see how it is that anybody comes to him in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: How is it that anybody becomes a Christian?
SPEAKER_00: If we're all naturally going to do verse 36 of not believing in him, how does anybody come to have faith in Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he begins to answer that in verse 37.
SPEAKER_00: What a wonderful verse it is.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me.
SPEAKER_00: And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out.
SPEAKER_00: All that the Father gives me will come to me.
SPEAKER_00: You're becoming a Christian, you're becoming a your salvation is not begun in your own heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's begun actually in the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: All that the Father gives me will come to me.
SPEAKER_00: He goes on, verse 38 to 40.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at the the logic and the beauty of this.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 38, for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that has been given me, but raise it up on the last day.
SPEAKER_00: For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son, another metaphor for believing, whoever looks on the Son and believes in him, should have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And I will raise him up or her up on the last day.
SPEAKER_00: So what is the logic of this?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has come to do the will of his father.
SPEAKER_00: What is the will of his father?
SPEAKER_00: The will of his father is that none should be lost, and that they should rise from the dead on the last day, that day of judgment.
SPEAKER_00: So, what is God's will for your life?
SPEAKER_00: Well, ultimately, it's verse 40.
SPEAKER_00: It's that you should look at the Son and believe in him, and that in believing receive eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: That would.
SPEAKER_00: Mean that you are gifted to Jesus and that he will raise you up on the last day.
SPEAKER_00: What is the father's will for his son?
SPEAKER_00: That he would lose not one believer in him.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that remarkable?
SPEAKER_00: So the father gives you, Christian, to the Son.
SPEAKER_00: You look with faith on the Son and have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: And the Son welcomes you, holds you, preserves you to the end.
SPEAKER_00: That, friends, if you want to know why all of this, if this is sounding complicated, here's where this cash is out.
SPEAKER_00: This is the basis of your assurance as a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I know that in any given week there are people here thinking, am I a believer in Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Will I keep on going till the to the end?
SPEAKER_00: I feel that my faith is very weak.
SPEAKER_00: I feel that I have lots of questions.
SPEAKER_00: I feel that my faith is very unclear.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if God will uh will love me in the end.
SPEAKER_00: Will I keep going until that day when I see him face to face?
SPEAKER_00: Your assurance is undermined.
SPEAKER_00: This passage goes to Christian assurance.
SPEAKER_00: And what it says to you, Christian, who is doubting, who is faltering, who is failing, is that it is God who holds you, not you holding him.
SPEAKER_00: It is not the strength of your grip on the Lord Jesus, but the strength of his eternal grip on you.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one who preserves the believers to the end.
SPEAKER_00: He will keep your life, he will hold me fast.
SPEAKER_00: When I fear my faith will fail, he will hold me fast.
SPEAKER_00: When the tempter would prevail, he will hold me fast.
SPEAKER_00: I could never keep my hold through life's fearful path, for my love is often cold.
SPEAKER_00: He must hold me fast.
SPEAKER_00: We are half-hearted creatures, aren't we?
SPEAKER_00: We blow hot and cold on God.
SPEAKER_00: Our faith is unclear, our faith is feeble, and it feels like we cling with feeble fingers to the ledge of his great grace.
SPEAKER_00: But if we are looking at the Son, trusting in him, yes, with our questions, yes, with our diets, yes, with our weaknesses, the promise here is that all those who look on the sun and who are trusting him, he will hold them fast and preserve them to the end.
SPEAKER_00: Third, Jesus satisfies and preserves all those who are drawn by the Father.
SPEAKER_00: What's God's role in salvation and what's ours?
SPEAKER_00: Well, this passage helps us to understand it.
SPEAKER_00: We've already noted that salvation is begun and carried out in the grace of God, that it is Jesus taking the initiative in feeding these people, that it's the Father taking the initiative in sending his son into the world.
SPEAKER_00: Your salvation is begun not in you, but in the heart of God.
SPEAKER_00: You may think, but how can this be?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's making some of you busy.
SPEAKER_00: How can this be?
SPEAKER_00: Because it was, it was, I was me that responded to God.
SPEAKER_00: It was me that turned to him in faith and repentance.
SPEAKER_00: Think of it this way: think of your salvation like a doorway, right?
SPEAKER_00: Your salvation is a doorway.
SPEAKER_00: And on top of the door, as you look at it, are the words, Come to me, all who are weary, and I will give you rest.
SPEAKER_00: And you say, Yes.
SPEAKER_00: And so you step in through the door.
SPEAKER_00: And then you look behind you.
SPEAKER_00: And there's another inscription on the back side of the doorway.
SPEAKER_00: And that other inscription says, It says, Loved before the worlds began.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see?
SPEAKER_00: From from your perspective, before you become a Christian, it's come to me all who are weary.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus says, you need to believe in the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: There is an obligation on you to turn in faith and repentance to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so that doorway is there.
SPEAKER_00: And so you step through, come to me all who are wary, and you turn around and you say, I loved you before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: In love, he predestined you for adoption of sons and daughters of the living God.
SPEAKER_00: You blessed in the beloved.
SPEAKER_00: That's how the Christian dynamics of the sovereignty of God and human responsibility and salvation work.
SPEAKER_00: In brief, the father draws people.
SPEAKER_00: See that?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 44.
SPEAKER_00: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him or her, and I will raise him up on the last day.
SPEAKER_00: God is not passive in waiting for you to reach out to him.
SPEAKER_00: The shepherd goes in search for the lost sheep.
SPEAKER_00: The father runs to meet the prodigal.
SPEAKER_00: You think of Paul, Paul the apostle, great Saul, that persecutor of the church, on his way to Damascus, on his way to arrest and to lock up and imprison and maybe even kill more Christians.
SPEAKER_00: He was there at the stoning of Stephen.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't at a Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't decide for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it feels like you have you opening the door and stepping in.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes Jesus comes along and kicks the door in and says, You're mine.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he did with Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
SPEAKER_00: Who are you, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: God is active and he draws people to himself.
SPEAKER_00: This idea of drawing is the it's the wooing of a lover.
SPEAKER_00: The Father in sending Jesus is saying, Let me show you how beautiful the kingdom is.
SPEAKER_00: Let me see, let me show you how good it is to live under the rule of good King Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Come, come to me.
SPEAKER_00: Come and have life.
SPEAKER_00: Come and be eternally satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: And so he invites you, he invites you, verse 45, to be taught by God.
SPEAKER_00: He invites you with the promise, verse 46, of eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus also gives a warning.
SPEAKER_00: He starts in verse 41.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews are grumbling because they're again they're only looking at the material.
SPEAKER_00: They're like, who does this guy think he is?
SPEAKER_00: We knew his dad.
SPEAKER_00: We knew his mother.
SPEAKER_00: He's from Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
SPEAKER_00: We've already read that in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And so they begin to grumble, and Jesus offers this warning.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Be very careful about grumbling.
SPEAKER_00: Because grumbling is what the guys did in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: And they all died.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't see the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't realize the promises.
SPEAKER_00: Be very careful about grumbling because what your grumbling might reveal about you is that actually you're not being drawn by the Father at all.
SPEAKER_00: Rather than grumbling, you should pray that the Lord would change your heart and that you would see the goodness of the Son of Man and look on him and believe.
SPEAKER_00: Be very careful about a grumbling spirit, friends.
SPEAKER_00: Be very careful about that grumbling that turns into bitterness and resentment.
SPEAKER_00: Be very careful about it.
SPEAKER_00: It is quite insidious.
SPEAKER_00: Finally.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the one who gives life.
SPEAKER_00: Because he gives his life on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: Now we get into verses 51 to 56.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just read it again just to get a sense of what Jesus is saying here.
SPEAKER_00: I am the living bread that has come down from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever.
SPEAKER_00: And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews disputed among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
SPEAKER_00: For my flesh is true food.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_00: True food, and my blood is true drink.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, on a pure material level, which is the level that most of the crowd are operating on, this is bizarre.
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't realized that Jesus is talking in terms of metaphors, then you're absolutely sunk when it comes to understanding these five verses.
SPEAKER_00: This is why some people uh and some church traditions, particularly the Roman Catholic Church tradition, think that that uh funky magical things are going on in the Eucharist, in the Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion, however you do describe it, that actually the the elements of bread and wine become the body, the flesh, and the wine becomes the blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus has said, you need to eat my flesh and drink my blood.
SPEAKER_00: They've missed that he's working in metaphors.
SPEAKER_00: They're like the crowd, they've taken him far too literally.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is not talking about the Holy Communion, Jesus is not talking about the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_00: Earlier, eating is receiving the bread of life is linked in verse 35 to coming and believing.
SPEAKER_00: And it's there again in verse 47.
SPEAKER_00: Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Eating, therefore, is a metaphor for receiving Jesus as that which spiritually nourishes, feeds your body and soul, that nourishes you to eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see that actually the this idea of eating, taking Jesus into your into your heart, taking him into your soul, this abiding in him, and him in us is synonymous with faith.
SPEAKER_00: Remember an old clergyman saying, You want to understand uh John 6, 53?
SPEAKER_00: Switch the numbers around.
SPEAKER_00: 35 interprets 53.
SPEAKER_00: To eat Jesus and to drink his blood is to come to him in faith, to receive him, to trust him, to look to him, to have him nourish and satisfy your soul.
SPEAKER_00: This cannot be about the Holy Communion.
SPEAKER_00: This cannot be about the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the crowd eat it and leave.
SPEAKER_00: They at the miracle bread.
SPEAKER_00: You think, or you think, okay, well, maybe it wasn't that.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the the Last Supper.
SPEAKER_00: Well we'll get to towards the end of John's Gospel sometime next year.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the Last Supper.
SPEAKER_00: That was the moment, the very first Eucharist.
SPEAKER_00: And who's there?
SPEAKER_00: Judas.
SPEAKER_00: And Judas goes out and betrays him.
SPEAKER_00: It can't be that just by eating the meal, it makes you holy with God.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we say, don't eat this bread if you're not trusting in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because it won't do you any good.
SPEAKER_00: It will give you a false sense of security.
SPEAKER_00: It will make you think, well, I've come and I've taken this.
SPEAKER_00: God must love me.
SPEAKER_00: That's not how it works.
SPEAKER_00: It's only by faith.
SPEAKER_00: That's the metaphor.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot be talking about the Lord's Supper here.
SPEAKER_00: However, these verses do help us understand what the Lord's Supper is about.
SPEAKER_00: That it is not that the bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But it is as we eat bread and drink wine, they remind us that Jesus nourishes our body and soul.
SPEAKER_00: That's why, in the Anglican form of the Lord's Supper, what the minister, and I'll do it in a few minutes, says, he says, the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was broken for you, preserve your body and soul to everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ's blood, Christ's body was broken for you, and feed on him.
SPEAKER_00: Where?
SPEAKER_00: In your hearts, by faith with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: We don't feed on Jesus with our mouths.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Catholic understanding.
SPEAKER_00: We feed on Jesus with our hearts, by faith.
SPEAKER_00: That as it hits our tongue, we think, Jesus is my King.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus satisfies me eternally.
SPEAKER_00: I trust him.
SPEAKER_00: I look to him today.
SPEAKER_00: I look to him for forgiveness for all of the things that I have done this week and all of the ways that I have been faithless and all of the things that I have said and done and all the good things that I should have done.
SPEAKER_00: I trust in him.
SPEAKER_00: I turn to him again.
SPEAKER_00: I feed on him in my heart by faith with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: So what is going on here in these verses?
SPEAKER_00: What is Jesus getting at with this whole eating flesh and drinking blood?
SPEAKER_00: And with this we will finish.
SPEAKER_00: Think about your lunch later.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're already thinking about maybe it's in the oven.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's in the slow cooker.
SPEAKER_00: What are you going to have?
SPEAKER_00: Am I the only one that anticipates future meals?
SPEAKER_00: You know, oh, I wonder what I'm going to have later.
SPEAKER_00: You think about your lunch later on.
SPEAKER_00: What are you going to eat?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you're going to have uh if you're going to have uh a roast, maybe uh you're gonna have something like a like a roast chicken.
SPEAKER_00: Well, to go back to my conversation with my kids, that's a dead chicken.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You're eating dead chicken.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry to put you off your lunch.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have a salad with it?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you're gonna eat dead tomatoes.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna eat some dead cucumber.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna have some bread, or you're gonna eat some dead wheat.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe for dessert you might have a crumble, but you're gonna eat dead apples.
SPEAKER_00: You're all like, where on earth is this going?
SPEAKER_00: Here's the point, folks.
SPEAKER_00: Unless the things die, you can't live.
SPEAKER_00: Unless the things die, you'll die.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta eat dead chicken, or else you'll die.
SPEAKER_00: Going back to the significance of food in the ancient world, that's what Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_00: He said, If the if the wheat doesn't die, you don't get any bread.
SPEAKER_00: If the tomatoes don't die, you don't get any salad.
SPEAKER_00: You either either you die or the thing dies in order to help you to live.
SPEAKER_00: In the first century, the staple was bread.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: The wheat died.
SPEAKER_00: The fish from the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, how did it sustain the crowd?
SPEAKER_00: It sustained the crowd because it died.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I can't be that eternal, life-giving bread to you unless I die, until unless my flesh is torn and my blood is poured out.
SPEAKER_00: I can't make you live unless I die.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see?
SPEAKER_00: The only way that I can sustain you to eternal life is if my body is broken and my blood flows.
SPEAKER_00: You live because I die.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the bread, I'm the grain of wheat.
SPEAKER_00: Remember what Jesus told us about?
SPEAKER_00: Unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it cannot yield a harvest 60, a hundredfold.
SPEAKER_00: You receive your life from a crucified Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is how his flesh is true food and his blood true drink.
SPEAKER_00: All the food that you enjoy is a shadow.
SPEAKER_00: All of the drink is a symbol of a higher reality.
SPEAKER_00: But just as your lunch sustains you for a day, Jesus sustains you eternally.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we thank God for our food.
SPEAKER_00: Not just because he provides us with it, but because it points beyond itself to something more.
SPEAKER_00: And you receive this crucified Messiah by faith, by coming to him, believing him, trusting him, finding your sustenance in him.
SPEAKER_00: And if that's you, it is because the Father has drawn you, and the Son will preserve you to the end and raise you up on the last day.
SPEAKER_00: What a glorious thing to think upon this morning.