The Bread of Life

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. John, chapter 6, verses 22 through 35.

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The next day, the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there and that Jesus had not entered it with His disciples.

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But they had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the

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Lord had given thanks. Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor His disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

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When they had found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, Rabbi, when did you get here?

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Jesus answered, I tell you the truth. You are looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.

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Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, for which the

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Son of Man will give you. On Him the Father has placed His seal of approval. They then asked

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Him, what must we do to do the works that God requires? Jesus answered, the work of God is this, to believe in the one

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He has sent. So they asked Him, what miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you?

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What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert. As it is written,

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He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth.

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It is not Moses who has given you bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

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For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

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Sir, they said, from now on give us this bread. Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life.

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He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

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In the name of Jesus. So we're going to take a little bit of an excursion, if you would.

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You'll notice we've been working our way through the Gospel of Mark, and now we have landed in the Gospel of John, figuratively speaking, so to speak.

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Pun intended, if you would. And the idea here is that last week we saw Jesus in the miracle of the feeding of the 5 ,000.

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And we used the Gospel of John last week to fill in some of the missing data that's in the Gospel of Mark, and found out that, well, when

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Jesus multiplied those loaves and fishes, that little boy's lunch, that the crowd wanted to make

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Jesus king by force. And oh, what a king he would have been. World hunger would have been solved with the snap of a finger.

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All you have to do is have Jesus pray, give thanks, multiply loaves and fishes, and there ain't a hungry person on the planet.

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Well, that's not what Jesus came to be. He did not come to be a bread king. He came to be a suffering king.

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A king who bled and died for our sins. And so, if you remember, Jesus sent his disciples away, gave them a very difficult, toilsome task of rowing against the wind on the

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Sea of Galilee in the middle of the night, which I'm sure they were very thrilled to do. And, of course, the text says he forced them to do it.

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And then Jesus, you know, after they had been long gone, he starts walking on the water, and he walks across the

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Sea of Galilee. It was about to stroll by, except for the disciples freaked out. Thought they had seen a ghost.

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And he says those important words, Fear not, I am. Take courage, boys. And so we pick up then the next day.

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The next day from that day, when Jesus walked on the water, it says this, On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone.

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Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.

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So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum seeking

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Jesus. So they're all kind of scratching their heads going, There were no other boats here. Where's Jesus?

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So they go seeking for him. And when they get to Capernaum, they find him on the other side of the sea.

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And they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? You can almost reread that phrase as,

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How on earth did you get here, Jesus? There was only one boat. Your disciples were in it.

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And now you're here with them. What gives? Well, Jesus, you'll notice, doesn't exactly answer the question.

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He doesn't say, Well, listen, I was walking across the Sea of Galilee. And, you know, and I strolled on over here.

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You know, he doesn't say that, which I think would have been quite an interesting answer for him to give.

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That is not what he says. Instead, he kind of changes the subject, deflects a little bit, if you would, and addresses the problem of the day before, that they wanted to make him king by force.

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And he says, Amen, Amen. I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

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In other words, you're still stuck on this bread king thing. Do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the

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Son of Man will give to you. For on him, the Son of Man, God the

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Father has set his seal. So Jesus changes the subject, doesn't answer the question about how he got there, and then goes right back to kind of the core problem.

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They're looking for temporal food. Food that, well, you need more of it every day.

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The daily food kind of thing. And they want Jesus to solve all of their earthly problems. But Jesus has not come to solve our earthly problems by making this world bearable, tolerable, or meeting all of our needs in that sense.

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Instead, his solution is death and resurrection. And so we learn from here that Jesus is the bread of life.

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The bread he's talking about is himself, which then creates a problem. John 6, the chapter that we're in, is probably one of the most controversial passages in all of the scripture.

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And so Jesus begins talking in ways that, well, makes a lot of people uncomfortable.

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So I'm preparing you for that now. So they hear Jesus say that work for the food that endures to eternal life.

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And they're basically saying, sure, no problem. So what are the works that God requires us to do?

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It's the question that they ask Jesus. And Jesus responds, this is the work, singular.

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Notice they said, what must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus says, the singular work is to believe in the one whom he has sent.

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To believe in Jesus. So here Jesus makes it clear, the bread that endures to eternal life, to believe is to do the work, to receive that bread.

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To believe in Jesus, that is the gift, that is the work that God requires, to believe.

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It doesn't say go and do these ten things, clean up your act, make yourself worthy.

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He says, no, the work of God is to believe in the one whom he has sent.

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So they decide they're going to challenge Jesus a little bit here. Now remember, the day before, he had done this amazing miracle and they realized that he was the one who was prophesied by Moses.

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So they said to him, well then, what sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?

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Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

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So Jesus says to them, amen, amen, I say to you, it was not

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Moses who gave you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.

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For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

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And they said to him, sir, give us this bread always. You'll notice their answer is similar to the answer given from the woman in Samaria.

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Remember when Jesus was passing through Samaria, and he's at the well, and out comes this woman in the heat of the day to draw water out of the well?

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And the reason for that is simple, because normally the whole town's women, they come out in the evening when it's cooler to draw water.

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She went out in the heat of the day to avoid eye contact, words with the other women in town.

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And we find out the reason for this is quite simple. Well, she's had five husbands, and the guy she's shacking up with isn't her husband.

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So it's just easier if you just not make eye contact and talk with the women of town. So Jesus, he talks to her about that living water, right, that she'll never be thirsty again.

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And she says, give me this water always, you know, because she's thinking, if I could get this living water stuff, that'd be like having indoor plumbing.

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I never have to come out here, right? This is what she's thinking. And so you'll notice that they're thinking kind of similarly.

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They said, give us this bread always, and they're thinking this is physical bread.

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And then Jesus says these words, I am the bread of life.

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Now that's not the answer they expected, by the way. They did not expect this.

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And you'll notice at the end of the chapter, a little bit of a peak, if you would, in the weeks ahead, at the end of the chapter, this results in not church growth, but church shrinkage.

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Because after Jesus has these little discourses with these people, saying that I am the bread, come down to heaven, and he says things like, my flesh is true food, my blood is true drink, and they're just going, ooh?

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And what ends up happening is that lots of people at this point leave Jesus.

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To the point where Jesus asks the question of his disciples, are you two going to leave? And then we get that famous response from Peter.

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He says, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. So this is part of Jesus' big church shrinkage sermon.

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And this is the one that basically says to people, if you're here for health, wealth, food, prosperity, and think that the kingdom of God is all about having your earthly needs met and you being fat and satisfied, well, then

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I've got news for you. You don't understand what it is that God is offering. God is truly offering bread, but the bread is

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Jesus. You sit there and go, does that mean what

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I think it means? And the answer is, yeah, it does. And then you sit there and go, but how?

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And my answer is, I don't know. Jesus said it. I don't know better than him, so we just trust him.

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Remember, the work of God is to believe, right? So Jesus says, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger.

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Whoever believes in me shall never thirst. And with these words, we begin to see something.

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And what we begin to see is that in the Old Testament, that whole manna from heaven thing, you know, the manna from heaven, that was all type and shadow pointing us to none other than Jesus himself.

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And this is what it teaches us from Exodus 16. Let me read again from Exodus. The whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses.

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And you'll notice in our text, the people here are kind of grumbling against Jesus. There's a little bit of that going on here.

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And so they grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, now

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I'm going to say this the way this probably sounded. This next portion of the text,

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I believe if we were to have recorded it, it would have sounded like your children in like a family vacation in a car going, when are we going to get there?

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You know, that kind of thing. So here's how it should have sounded. Would that we had died by the hand of the

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Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by meat pots and ate bread to the full, and you brought us out of this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

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That's exactly how this probably sounded, right? And you're just thinking, what on earth are you thinking? Really? Meat pots?

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Ate to the full in Egypt? Do you remember the whole brick thing? It's like, you know.

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But this is how our sinful nature is. And so the Lord comes up with a solution which is going to point us to none other than Jesus Himself.

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So Yahweh said to Moses, Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day that I might test them whether they will walk in My law or not.

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On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.

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So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, At evening you shall know that it was Yahweh who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

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And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because He has heard your grumbling against the

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Lord. For what are we that you grumble against us? And Moses said,

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When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat, and in the morning bread to the full, because the

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Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against Him. What are we? Your grumbling is not against us, but it is against the

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Lord. So then Moses said to Aaron, Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, Come near before the

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Lord, for He has heard your grumbling. And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the

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Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord said to Moses, I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them,

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At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then they all shall know that I am the

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Lord your God. So in the evening quail came up, covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp.

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And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine flake -like thing, fine as frost on the ground.

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And when the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, What is it? And that's the word manna.

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Manna means what is it? For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them,

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It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. So you'll notice, children of Israel, after the

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Exodus, after being set free from slavery to the false god King Pharaoh, having his armies drowned in the

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Red Seas as they were baptized, walking through the Red Sea by faith, they're now in the wilderness, and God feeds them bread from heaven as they're on their way to the

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Promised Land. In the same way, we too, baptized believers in Christ, set free from bondage to sin, death, and the devil, in our wilderness wanderings as we wait to go into the

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Promised Land, which is the new heaven and the new earth, God again feeds us bread from heaven.

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But the bread from heaven that God feeds us is none other than Jesus' flesh and blood.

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Let me read a little bit forward in this text. The tail end of the Gospel of John chapter 6, starting in verse 54, it says this,

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Jesus proclaims, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

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And everyone goes, that's disgusting, that's gross. Well, Jesus isn't talking about here, have a finger, would you like a toenail?

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That's not the kind of eating he's talking about. But in a very real way, this morning when we come to this altar for the

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Lord's Supper, Christ is truly bodily present. We are truly eating the flesh of Christ, and we are drinking his blood.

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How? Again, I don't know. But I do know this, it says here,

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Jesus says, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.

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So when you come to the altar this morning, remember these promises. You have eternal life. You will be raised up on the last day.

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For he says, my flesh is true food, my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me.

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You want to know what it means to abide in Christ? It means to come to the Lord's table, to receive his body and blood.

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This is what he said, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me. In 2 Peter, there's this kind of enigmatic statement that Peter says.

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He says that we are partakers of the divine nature. People have wondered, what does that mean?

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Well, the church has always understood that to mean that we are partakers of the divine nature when we have the

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Lord's Supper. And so all these promises are attached to it. And Jesus says, as the living

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Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he will also live because of me.

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This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died.

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Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. And there's a lot of debate going on and has been for a long time about this passage.

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And yet it's so clear. So let me read again the warning from Ephesians 4 that we heard this morning.

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Here's what it says. And he, Jesus, gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the

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Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature and the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

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Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the Head. So the idea is this.

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Beware of people who would deny what Jesus says. I know it's a tough saying.

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I know it's difficult. It resulted in a lot of people no longer following Jesus when

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He spoke this way. But remember, the singular work of God is to believe in the

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One whom the Father has sent. Jesus speaks the truth. He's told us what it is that we receive in the

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Lord's Supper, and the gospel promise is attached to what it is that we're eating.

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Our reason sits there and says, it can't be that. That's not possible.

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That's disgusting. That's gross. That's fill in the blank, right? To which we say, reason, be silent, and bend the knee.

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There's no way you're going to figure out how this works, because God's ways are not our ways. Our reason must bend the knee to what

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Christ has revealed. And when our reason bends the knee, and we, like children, trust the words of Christ, we receive the benefits and the promises that are there for us when we take the

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Lord's Supper. It's a tough saying. It's a hard one. It's very divisive. Lots of people don't want to say that that's what it is, and so their reason comes up with all kinds of excuses, all kinds of explanations.

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Well, Jesus can't possibly be bodily present in the Lord's Supper, so what happens is when we come to the

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Lord's Supper, we spiritually ascend into heaven. That's one explanation.

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Another explanation is that, well, it's just a symbol. It's not really that at all.

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Jesus didn't mean what he said. He should have used the word symbol to make it clear, but that's clearly what he was saying.

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That's not what he says at all. He says, my flesh is true food.

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My blood is true drink. And there it is.

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And Jesus, when he institutes the Lord's Supper, he says, take, eat, this is my body.

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Take, drink, this is my blood, broken and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.

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And faith says, I believe. I don't know how it works.

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I don't need to figure it out. Philosophy won't figure it out. Science won't figure it out. But truly, we receive in the

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Lord's Supper a sustaining food, a bread from heaven, the body and blood of Christ.

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And through his body and blood, our faith is strengthened, we are preserved, it's a salutary gift, and a sign to us.

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And so that's the thing. Is that when you come to the altar this morning, and you hear these words, take, eat, this is the true body of Christ broken for you.

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The sign is the bread. But the words are what is real about it.

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Does that make sense? And when you hear the words, your faith then grasps onto them and say, yes,

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Lord, amen, amen. This is most certainly true and it's for me.

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Do you want to know what Christ, his disposition is towards you? You'll hear it this morning.

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You've heard it this morning already in the absolution. But you're going to hear it again at the rail. You're going to hear that Christ's disposition for you is forgiven, loved, bled for, died for.

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You are his sheep, and he's feeding you and caring for you. Giving you miraculous bread from heaven to sustain you in your wilderness journey as you head towards the real promised land, the new heavens and new earth.

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These are powerful gifts with gospel promises. And it's all about what

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Jesus is giving you. And you sit there and go, well, I'm not exactly worthy to receive such an amazing gift.

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And to which I would say, good, you're thinking correctly. Because you're not worthy to receive these gifts.

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I'm not worthy. But see, the thing is, they're gifts. They're promises.

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And they're there to sustain you. And they're for the forgiveness of sins. So the way you make yourself worthy to receive these is to believe they are what they are and that the promises attached to them are true and they're for you.

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So have you sinned this week? Last time you had the Lord's Supper, has there been any sin in your life over the last month?

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Which, by the way, is a long time to go between the Lord's Supper. Is there any sin in your life?

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Well, I have news for you. Christ is going to be present for you in body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins.

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Come to the table and receive the forgiveness of sins in your mouth.

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Forgiveness of sins has a taste. A little chewy piece of bread and some sweet wine.

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Maybe a Robert Mondavi would be better, but yeah, I'm joking. And that's what

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Jesus is talking about here. And it's so difficult to believe.

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So difficult for our reason to say, is it really that? And I would just say, has there ever been a time that Jesus has lied and told you something that isn't true?

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I would say absolutely not. It is what Jesus says it is and he delivers to you as an individual what he promises in this great gift.

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So let us then do the work of God and believe the one whom the Father has sent,

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Jesus Christ, our crucified and risen Savior, who is the bread of life and the bread of heaven, who sustains us through his body and blood as we journey towards the eternal kingdom of God.

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In Jesus' name, amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 And again that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 We thank you for your support.

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