John 6:48-59 (Drawn to Feast)

The Shepherd's Church

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You know a sermon is one of the most unique and longest lasting communication traditions in the history of humanity

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Goes back before in Jesus back into the Old Testament pages and the sermons were even preached in the synagogue era

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And I'll explain a little bit about that around 500 BC 560 something to be more precise the temple of Solomon was thriving

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People are coming to the temple of Solomon in order to know God and to be in relationship with God and to meet with God, but the

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Israelites at that time were a rebellious people and a people who angered the superpower of the world at that time, which was

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Babylon and the Babylonians came in and 586

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BC and they burned the temple in Jerusalem to the ground Now this resulted in massive deportations people were not held in cages on the border

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Not that that's relevant at all to where we're at right now, but they were entirely displaced

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They were carried off to Babylon to perform various tasks in order to a rich Enrich the

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Babylonian economy. They were permanently some of them scattered to the ends of the Empire and Really what the point of it is is that they could not worship

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God without a temple Judaism was a temple centric religion because he didn't have a temple then you couldn't have a priest and if you didn't have a priest

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And you couldn't have a sacrifice and if you didn't have a sacrifice and you didn't have redemption in the

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Old Testament system So the Babylonians were not Maniacal mob arsonist who were rebelling and causing panic in downtown

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Jerusalem Like in a bunch of Antifa soldiers There probably was a physical component to what they were doing, but there was a spiritual component

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Babylon understood that if they burned down the temple they were isolating Israel from their

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God They were keeping them out of relationship with him And there was not a lot of faithful Jews at that time to stand up and to defend the holiness of God So the temple was burned to the ground intentionally

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They were carried off by these Babylonians and the faithful remnant of faithful Jews who wanted to be in relationship with God Couldn't stand for it

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So what happened? over the course of time is they began meeting in houses in Babylon and Some of the most skillful teachers in the city would teach them in their homes it would be like kind of like the

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Chinese house church movement today and That eventually when safety came and when other you know physical factors allowed them to meet physically that kind of morphed into the

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Synagogue movement where the synagogue was was built and the believers would meet on a weekly basis on the

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Sabbath they would learn the Word of God and A synagogue actually looked and felt a lot like a church service does today

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You would have someone get up and read the word you would have someone explain the word and teach the word there would be singing

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And there would be food and there would be fellowship all of the elements that we have today

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Would be there except in a synagogue. They would send their kids to school there So it was like a church with a Christian school attached to it.

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It very much felt like a church now the reason that I bring this up is

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That Jesus is preaching a sermon in the synagogue in Capernaum in chapter 6 of John Jesus is standing up in church and he's preaching a three -point sermon

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That you and I have already examined two points from that sermon after Jesus Feeds the 5 ,000 after he walks on water after he faces the grumbling mob

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He stands up in the sanctuary in Capernaum and he preaches a sermon And you know, they say a good sermon usually has three points.

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Jesus's sermon had three points Jesus said that those who are the first sermon that we looked at the first point of the sermon was those who are dragged by God to Christ Are saved the second point of the sermon that we looked at is those who are dragged by God Bear fruit today.

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We're going to look at the third part of that sermon, which is the application section of that sermon Where those who bear fruit feast on Christ?

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So what I want us to do for a moment is I want us to read the entire sermon verses 43 through 58 now this is not the entire manuscript of the sermon

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John just gave us the parts that we really ought to know and After we read that we're gonna make some brief remarks about Jesus's sermon and then we're gonna get into the message today

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So if you will turn with me to John 6 43 through 58 we're gonna read it together If you don't have your

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Bible or if you want to read it up front on the screen, it will be there as well So Jesus begins this way

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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

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It is written in the prophets that they shall all be taught by God everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me

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Not that anyone has seen the father except the one who is from God. He has seen the father Truly truly

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I say to you he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life

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Your father's ate the man 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.

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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

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I 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?

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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.

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You have no life in yourself He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day

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For my flesh is true food. 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

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He also will live because of me This is the bread which came down out of heaven not as the father's ate and died

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He who eats of this bread will live forever and then verse 59 says these things

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He said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. Let's pray father

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I pray that as we examine your son's sermon The first sermon that we come to that Jesus preaches in the gospel of John.

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I Pray that we would understand it Pray that we would see the truth that he was trying to get across and Lord I pray that we would by the end of it rest in that truth

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And then Lord, I pray that that truth would not propel us to To laxity or sleepiness, but that truth would propel us to feast

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Lord we ask these things in your son's name. Amen now in seminary

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My friend Scott will attest to this a good sermon is one that explains proves and applies the text of the

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Bible Three things that you really need to accomplish in a sermon is you need to explain the truth of the Bible you need to prove

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The truth of the Bible and you need to apply the truth of the Bible so that everyone there Can hear and understand the word you explain it because you've studied it all week and you've dipped into Commentaries and you've wrestled with the

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Greek and the Hebrew and you come to the people Teaching them what God has said for all people at all times so that we can know

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God and you prove it Not just so that we can understand it, but you prove it by sharing examples and metaphors and similes and and different Different arguments you prove it to us so that we will not only understand it

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But we will believe it and then at the end you apply that truth Because if you can't walk away from here knowing how to live out what you've just heard

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Then you've only heard half of a sermon So a good sermon will explain the truth

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Prove the truth and apply the truth and that's exactly what Jesus does in Verses 43 through 44 he explains to them the theological truth about salvation that is central to it all

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You cannot come to God in your flesh But you have to be dragged by God to Jesus Christ if you're going to be saved.

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That's what he explains to them He proves it by dipping into the Old Testament scriptures and by showing them

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Reason and asserting spiritual authority and showcasing to them the evidence of it If you are drawn to God, then you will bear fruit.

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It's evidentiary If you're not dragged to God drawn to God, you will not bear fruit

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But if you abide in Jesus Christ, you will bear much fruit. It's proof and then today

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We're gonna look at how Jesus applies that truth and that Jesus wants his people to feast

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Jesus wants his people to never go hungry never go thirsty But to be satisfied with him

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So today we're gonna look at that final section verses 48 through 58 and we're gonna see three things

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We're gonna see how is Jesus the true feast of God? we're gonna see why or how

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God has offered Jesus up as the true feast of God and We're gonna see finally how do you and I appropriate

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Jesus as the true feast of God? What I want this sermon to be in a metaphorical sense is I want us to come to the table

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And I want us to see all of the things that God has done for us all of the treasures that God has put on The table for us like Thanksgiving dinner in the

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South I know it's the same up here, but you have you have mashed potatoes and gravy. You have turkey You have dressing you have cranberry sauce

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You have this feast to where it hurts you to live by the time that you're finished eating it

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That's what I want for us today I want us to feast at the table of Jesus's grace and I want us to see who

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Jesus is and we're gonna see that Together, so let's begin. How is Jesus the true feast and he uses two

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Old Testament images? Very quickly right at the beginning of this passage He says I am

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The bread of life That's two Old Testament metaphors that he's using. He said I am the

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God who calls himself. I am I Am the personal or I have the personal and covenantal name of God.

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This is called in Hebrew Yahweh doesn't have any vows Scholars call it the tetragrammaton.

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You are welcome for trivia night Tetragrammaton just means the four -letter word for God.

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It's the only good four -letter word In English, we pronounce that as Yahweh, but it's an unusual name

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Because all of our names are not verbs. They're nouns Person place thing or idea

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God's name is not a noun God's name is a verb which shows us that God Intends on not being a static concept

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But God is an active being and his name is verbal because he says I am that I am

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What God is saying is that the way you were gonna know me is by what I say about me I am who that I said

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I am am So if you want to know God, then you have to go into the Bible and see what God says that he is

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He says I am who I am also that could be translated. I will be who I will be So if we want to know

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God Rightly, we need to go to the Bible This is not exhaustive Just gonna share a snapshot we could be here all day the hour or so would be true

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God says he's everlasting with no beginning He says he's all powerful with no rival

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He says he's all -knowing with infinite wisdom. He's all present in every time every space in every dimension

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He's unchanging in all of his ways. That means if he loves you today, he's gonna love you tomorrow He's immutable beyond compare.

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He's infinite all of his character and power He's furiously holy in Heaven the angels cry out in perfect pitch for all of eternity never ceasing.

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Holy Holy holy is the Lord God Almighty, which means that he is infinitely holy That's a snapshot of who

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God is and that's who he is because that's who he says that he is because he says I am Who I am and we know that we can trust

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God Because if he is who he says he is then he's trustworthy and true Our opinions about God really don't matter in light of who is who he's revealed to be in Scripture Many people come to many conclusions about who

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God is All of them must bow the knee to what Scripture reveals God is who he says he is and he said it in Scripture now

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Jesus takes that I am That God revealed to Moses at the burning bush where he told him his name

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Jesus takes that and he says I am I am This is the first time that Jesus does this

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He does it in Greek instead of Hebrew. Jesus says ego and me instead of Yahweh But Jesus is doing the same thing.

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He's saying I am God Jesus does this seven times in the

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Bible white or in John? Why do you think he does it seven times? Why does John reveal seven times that Jesus says that he's

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God because sevens the number of perfection and Completion and Jesus is perfectly and completely

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God and Jesus says I am plus the metaphor the metaphor is to help us understand.

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I Am in John 6 the bread of life. Why because God through Christ is going to feed his people. I Am in John 8 the light of the world because Jesus alone is

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God and he's gonna lead his people out of darkness In John 10, I am the door because the only way to the

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Father is through Jesus Christ. It's an exclusive faith Again in John 10.

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I am the Good Shepherd because Jesus Christ alone is gonna lead his sheep And he's gonna feed his sheep and he's gonna pasture his sheep

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John 11 I am the resurrection in the life foreshadowing his death Yes He's the first fruit of all people who's been raised from the dead

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But he is the resurrection and the fact that he has resurrected all of us who are in Christ For 2 ,000 years.

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He's been a resurrecting God they think the greatest miracle that's ever been accomplished is when a dead soul burst out of death and into life because what

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Jesus Christ did on The cross I am the resurrection in the life In John 14, he says

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I am the way I am the truth and I am the life and no one comes to the father Except through me Showcasing that there is no way to know

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God except through Jesus Christ and in John 15 He says I am the true vine because if you want to have life in him

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You have to be connected to him. And if you're connected to him, you will bear much fruit he is saying I am truly and perfectly

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God and I am comprehensively God in every circumstance of your life

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Now when Jesus said I am in John 6 in the context of all the

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Exodus themes that you and I've been looking at I think Jesus is saying I'm the God who delivered you out of Egypt.

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I'm the God who led you through the waters I'm the God who led you to Mount Sinai. I'm the God who revealed to you the truth

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I'm the one who walked in front of Moses when he had to be covered by the holiness of God I'm the one who rained down bread from heaven and that this is all over the context of John 6.

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I Am the same God Which leads us of course to the second image that Jesus gives which is bread

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He says your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died So when Jesus says that I'm the bread he's juxtaposing two different kinds of breads

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He's talking about the Old Testament bread and he's talking about himself as the New Testament bread and he's saying we're gonna compare and contrast the two kinds of bread

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He says your father's ate the man in the wilderness and they died Let's remember what happened here when they had nothing

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No, man, no inheritance. No money. No friends. No job. No dog. No nothing God Miraculously and graciously rained down bread from heaven to feed his people

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They didn't have any land to plant their wheat on they were sojourners walking to the promised land They didn't have any time to wait because they were starving right then and there they didn't have time to wait on the harvest

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They didn't have a stone to grind the kernels if there was a harvest they didn't have oil to mix into it to make

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Dough they didn't have leaven to leaven it. They didn't have an oven to bake it. They didn't have anything They were totally dependent upon God and they didn't even have the right attitude to deserve the bread that God was giving them

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Exodus 16 1 through 4 tells us How they were posturing themselves towards God it says

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All the congregation of Israel came to the wilderness of sin Which is between Elam and Sinai on the 15th day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt But the whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness the sons of Israel said to them if we had only died by the

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Lord's hand in the land of Egypt when we sat by pots of meat When we ate bread until we were full for you have brought us out of this wilderness to kill this entire assembly with hunger

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Then the Lord said to Moses behold I will rain bread from heaven for you and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion

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Every day so that I may test them whether or not they will walk in my instruction You see what

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God's doing God is feeding people who don't deserve to be fed God is being gracious to people who don't deserve his grace

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Amen for that Because that's certainly true for us But these people are doing what

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Satan himself would never do they are defying the Living God They are speaking out against the

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Holy God and God doesn't give them wrath he actually gives them grace He feeds them in their tortured state and he does this by raining bread down from heaven

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Now I want you to notice there's still a consequence for their sin This bread fed them in that moment and it fed them the next day and it fed them the next day

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But they all still died in the wilderness Every single one of them were dead and buried on the border of the wilderness in Israel None of them made it into the promised land because that bread was a limited bread

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Jesus says your father's ate the man in the wilderness and they died. It wasn't a full sufficient bread

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It might meet their physical needs, but it wasn't going to meet their eternal needs He addressed their normal surface level physical hunger that all of us faced

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But that bread wasn't enough to save them that bread wasn't enough to redeem them that bread wasn't enough to bring them in a right

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Relationship with God. So therefore we needed a better bread And what I love about almost everything in the

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Old Testament as you read it It points to something bigger and something greater and something more majestic than itself flakes of bread fell from heaven

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But that is not all that it points to it points to the Savior Jesus Christ Who's going to come down from heaven as the true bread that bread laid on the ground?

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And if you didn't pick it up, then it would disappear if you gather too much It would turn to maggots and worms not

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Jesus Jesus never corrupts Jesus comes down and he lives with us and he walks with us and he stays with us by the power of his

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Holy Spirit This Jesus is heaven's true bread and it looks past the Old Testament To us to the spiritual hunger that we need

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Jesus Christ to fill all of us We need a feast that's going to end spiritual hunger we need a feast that's going to satisfy our broken rebellious hearts

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And that is what Jesus Christ Does you know what's funny?

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Bethlehem in Greek means the house of bread Jesus was born in the house of bread

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Jesus in John 6 says that he is the true bread and on the cross

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Jesus was broken like bread there's something bread like about the gospel and The reason is because bread is probably one of the most common substances in our life like oxygen and water

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Jesus redeems us down in the most basic parts of our life so that we will know and love God so Jesus is true bread.

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That's the first thing. I wanted us to see he's God and he's man and in that he brought a feast

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Of the people of God now what I want us to do is I want us to see what kind of feast that is I want us to look at the table and I want us to explore about eight things

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I think that I want us to see about Jesus in this passage. The first is that it's a That it's a intimate feast that Jesus is bringing

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It says in verse 51 a I am the living bread that has come down from heaven I want you to notice he came down from heaven in the

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Old Testament He stayed up in heaven and he rain bread down and he stayed distant from his people, but in Jesus Christ He didn't stay distant any longer

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He came down to know his people and to walk with his people and to be an intimate fellowship with his people that tells us

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Something about who Jesus is Jesus is an intimate Savior bringing an intimate gospel in an intimate feast because he wants us to know him intimately

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He didn't stay at a distance. He came down to us

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He's an intimate Savior bringing an intimate feast and I think that is indicative of the fact that he wants us to know him and be in relationship with him and be satisfied by him

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Now when I talk about an intimate feast I'm talking about that. Jesus came to mean our most basic needs.

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I'm not talking about physical needs That's the Old Testament the physical need of hunger was met

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I'm not talking about Jesus has come to give you a car or to give you a house or to give you a

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Um big bank account or a nice job or any of those things I'm talking about the spiritual needs that you have that are better You can have all the yachts in the world all the mansions in the world

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You can have all the bank account in the world You can have all the jobs But when you die, you're still going to be outside of the kingdom of God if you don't have

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Jesus Christ So the spiritual need is more important You can be broke hungry destitute broken and You can be greatest in the kingdom of heaven because of what

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Jesus Christ has done The spiritual need is better and it's more important. Jesus is addressing that he's come to nourish us out of loneliness

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He's come to meet the needs that we have for acceptance because in Jesus Christ, we are accepted There's no one here who can ever say that they're rejected never

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He came to meet our need for relationship There can be no one here who legitimately claims that you are lonely because you're in relationship with Jesus Christ What I'm trying to say is that Jesus came down to meet our needs our most intimate needs and He did so perfectly on the cross.

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He's an intimate Savior who cares about every single part of our life It's an intimate feast

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The second thing that I want us to see is that it's a preservational feast Jesus says in verse 50 this is the bread which comes down out of heaven so that one may eat of it and Not die

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This bread preserves us if we were simply feast on him, then we will never die. That's what

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Jesus is saying Not like the people of the Old Testament who ate the bread and died if we will feast on Jesus Christ We will never die and this is not something that the world can possibly understand

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The world lives every single moment as if this is their heaven and they have to make the most of everything

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So if you don't do what they tell you to do, then they're gonna be angry with you because you're ruining their heaven But apart from Christ their life will not last we don't have to have all the things of the world because we're living for eternity and God says through Christ that we will live forever if we just feast on Jesus We don't have to have any fear of death or fear of life or fear at all because of what

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Jesus Christ has done That's what's so beautiful and amazing about the gospel is well

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How can a Christian have any fear if we're hated who cares? Jesus loves us if we're misunderstand or misunderstood who cares we are understood and loved by and known by God If we're rejected, why does it matter?

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We're already been accepted by Jesus if they kill us. It doesn't matter because we live forever They can't kill what

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God has already purchased Which leads us to the third aspect of it

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It's that it's not only an intimate faith and it not only preserves us in our faith It's also a living feast

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Because Jesus doesn't just promise that he's going to keep us from dying He promises that he will make us truly live and there's a difference

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There's lots of people today who are not dying, but they're not truly living either There's lots of people who are as in Monty Python.

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I'm not dead yet But they're not living either There's a difference between not dead and truly alive

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Jesus promises both that if we will feast on him, we will never die. And if we will feast on him

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We will always live and you don't have to wait until eternity

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For that life to open up for you You don't have to wait until you stand before King Jesus for you to live

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The moment you taste Christ that new life is opened up for you the moment that you savor

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Jesus You're new new creation new life is opened up inside of you a living water spring

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Jesus is living water and living bread Which means that if we're committed to feast on him deliberate to feast on him

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Then we will be the most joyful people on planet Earth We will live like no one has ever lived because we have taken what

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God has done and we have feasted on the benefits of Christ We will live today and like we are fully awake, you don't have to be woke to do that We will live today like we are fully awake and we will live for all of eternity in the knowledge of God feasting on Christ Jesus says in verse 51

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C This is the fourth aspect of his feast that it's not only an intimate feast

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It's not only a preserving feast that keeps us from death It's not only a living feast that wakes us up and makes us live all those benefits are mine and yours

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Because it's a crucified feast None of this stuff matters if Jesus Christ didn't raise from the dead

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Paul says if Jesus didn't raise from the dead We're the most pitiful people on planet Earth, but because the tomb was empty these things are true for us

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He says in verse 51 and the bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh

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Although Jesus is speaking metaphorically here. He could not be more clear in what he's attempting to say.

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He's saying my body is the bread and my body is going to be nailed to a cross like platter and the people who kill me are gonna think that when they cut me and when they bruise me and When they break me that they've ended my life and that they've killed me what they have done is they have set the table for the

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Feast where God is going to bring the nations to feast on Jesus Christ They've not cut Jesus they've prepared him for the feast that God has gonna give to his people

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And when Jesus Christ rose from the dead He became that true and living bread that he was talking about which has for 2 ,000 years fed the people of God He's saying

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I will give which means that in John 6. It's not yet happened but very soon it's going to happen when

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Jesus Christ is going to be nailed to a cross and His body is gonna feed the people of God Jesus saying all the benefits of heaven

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Have now been opened up because of my death a burial and my resurrection You and I doesn't matter if you have a mom or dad or not.

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You and I are no longer orphaned. We're children of God We're children of God because the true bread of heaven was broken on the cross for us

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Our sins are forgiven and the threat of death no longer hangs over us when you wake up in the morning

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Don't feel guilty Don't feel abiding shame if you are in Jesus Then the bread of heaven has taken your guilt and taken your shame and all that's left for you is to feast on Jesus Christ If you feel dead don't your new life if you're in Jesus Christ you've been given new life because of heaven's bread that was broken for you and Again, the world is not going to understand this when the world reads this they say what are you talking about feasting on Christ?

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That sounds like cannibalism. That's what the world is gonna say. They don't realize that Jesus is being metaphorical It's not much better in the halls of religion.

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The Catholic Church every week sacrifices Jesus they say because his sacrifice last week wasn't enough and Make sure you don't drop the bread or drop the wine because it's

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Jesus's body and his blood you have to be reverent To those things because they've misunderstood this and they're treating it like cannibalism

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It's a disgusting perversion and last week I called it a demonic religion because look at what they've done They've taken the glory of Christ and they've reduced it down to a cracker

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We know Jesus is speaking metaphorically here, but he's speaking truthfully here his body

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That he was that was broken on the cross opens up a relationship between God and us

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So that we will never die So that we will always live and all of that is made true for us because the cross of Christ but again, the world doesn't understand that because this is also an exclusive feast

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That's the fifth aspect the Jews began to argue in verse 52 with one another saying how can this man give us his flesh to eat and You see they could not understand it because they have not been drawn to God or drawn to Christ through God Let's not forget the sermon.

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Jesus has preached here They don't understand because only those who have been dragged to God will understand what

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God is doing No one comes to God in their own flesh No one So when

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Jesus is talking about feasting on him, they can't understand that because they haven't been dragged by God to him only

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Christians Can do that only Christians can understand that not because of us But because God grabbed us drug us opened up our minds to be able to understand it and see the truth of the scripture

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We can't skip the steps in the sermon in order to run to the application and say

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Everyone just feast on Jesus you can't if you haven't been ransomed and bought by Jesus.

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You can't feast on Jesus That's right here in the text No one comes to God unless they're drawn.

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No one bears fruit unless they're drawn and no one feast on Christ unless they are drawn to God The Jews don't understand this metaphor because they've not been given the wisdom to understand it

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And because of that I say it's an exclusive feast and the world today hates the exclusivity of Jesus Christ They say what do you mean that there's only one way to God?

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There's one way only one What do you mean that there is no other path to enlightenment?

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What do you mean? There's nothing that I can do in order to save myself. That's offensive To the world so it's not only an exclusive feast.

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It's also a confounding and condemning feast as well These Jews or Jesus tells these

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Jews in verse 53. So Jesus said to them truly truly I say to you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood that you will have no life in yourself

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What Jesus is saying is the reason you can't come the reason you can't know the reason you can't feast is not because you don't have the

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The right power or the ability none of us do the reason you can't it's because you haven't been drawn to God Because you're too busy feasting on the wrong flesh

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Humanity lives in the flesh. We know that We live in the world. We live in our flesh we worship the things of the world and these

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Jews like people today are so Consumed with the flesh that they've never they're not able to go to the flesh of Jesus Christ This is a tale of two flesh in a sense

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One flesh will condemn you one flesh will save you and only Jesus's flesh is powerful enough to save and only those who are drawn to God will feast

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Instead of feasting on him. They're feasting on their religion. They're feasting on the world They're feasting on everything else. And here's the thing.

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Our flesh is corruptible We can live 70 80 90 years if we're lucky, but if you never turn to the table of Christ And you've never tasted his true bread

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Then Jesus says you will have no life in you You will spend an eternity in hell

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This feast confounds the world because it's exclusive and it condemns them, but for the

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Christian saves them It saves them now

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You know right now right now if you're in Jesus Christ, you have the life of Christ in you right now and Eventually when

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Jesus Christ returns You're gonna be ushered into the eternal state with King Jesus and you're gonna feast on Jesus for the rest of eternity but this time without sin this time without Without anything that's going to keep you from Christ It will be an eternal feast and that's why

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I say the one of the next statements is that it's an end time feast as well Jesus says he eats my flesh and drinks.

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My blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day Now as I was thinking about this this week

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I was thinking about how glorious that's gonna be When Jesus says the last day he's talking about the last

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Christian who comes to know Christ You see God if Ephesians 1 is true that he foreknew us before the foundations of the world

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And he knows who the very last Christian is who's going to come to faith in Jesus Christ He knows the day when that last

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Christian is going to cry out dear Jesus. Save me So when Jesus says the last day he's talking about the day that he began 2 ,000 years ago

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That's continued on until today and it could be that that person is alive today

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That last Christian it could be that they're from Indiana or Switzerland They could be any age they could be either gender they could be any race of people but if that person were to come to faith right now if That person were in this congregation right now and they were to come to faith.

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They'd be like the thief on the cross The thief on the cross today you will be with me in paradise if that last

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Christian were to come to faith today today We will be in paradise because Jesus Christ will return it could be tomorrow.

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It could be 10 ,000 years We have no idea You could be used by God to preach the gospel to the last

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Christian who wakes up and who Jesus Comes and rescues his church home and brings him into eternity.

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You never know It's not astounding to think about that. God might use you to preach the gospel to the last saint that's gonna wake up and Then he'll come back and raise us all to life

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Jesus is an intimate feast brings us into intimate relationship with him. He's a preserving feast.

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He keeps us from death He's a living feast. He keeps us alive forever and all of eternity. It's an exclusive thing because it's all about Jesus It's a confounding thing because the world won't understand but it's a thing that we get to share

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It's a gospel. We get to proclaim. We don't know who the elect of God are we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to everybody praying that God will wake them all up and We rejoice as God wakes any of them up Jesus says that he is the true feast as well

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Verse 55 says my for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink I think all

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I want us to see here is that everything that we've already said we can trust if Jesus is the I am I am that I am he is who he says that he is if he says his feast is true

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Then it is true all the things that you and I could feast on in the world prominence power prestige jobs

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Relationships kids how many of us have found our identity in our relationships? How many of us have found our identity and how well our kids do and you'll know that when your kids aren't doing well and They're running up and down the aisles of the church and you're thinking yourself.

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What have I done wrong? Why am I such an awful parent you found your identity in your kids behavior and not in what Christ has done

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When your husband or your wife doesn't do what you're thinking that they should do and you get angry that anger shows you that you found

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Your identity in something other than Jesus Christ When the world says everything is about race and right now

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It says everything is about race If you find your identity and what your skin color looks like and how much melanin is coursing through your veins

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Then you found your identity in something other than Jesus Christ that cannot satisfy you If you find your identity in your waistline, trust me gravity will happen and you will not be satisfied

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Some of us it's happening to apparently This is a true feast

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This is a feast that will always satisfy Nothing on earth will satisfy you but Jesus Christ.

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It's a true feast That's what Jesus is saying Now again, the total point of the sermon is that this is what we can do.

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God has done everything in our salvation And when I say that God has done everything what I mean is that he has chosen you in eternity

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He didn't call a conference call or a zoom call with you in eternity to tell you.

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Hey, I'm thinking about choosing you What do you think? He didn't invite you to that He made promises to Adam and Eve in Eden you weren't there

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He came down to earth as heaven's true bread. He was broken on the cross He declared that the gospel would be preached 2 ,000 years ago and it's been preached

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Consistently ever since then and at some point in your life you heard the gospel and you came to faith all of that God did without your help and Then what

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God did is he adopted you into his family. You didn't force him in anything and Then what he did is he justified you and he made you righteous before him

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We didn't do that work and Then God is sanctifying us, which means he's making us holy

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We don't have that power and then one day he's going to glorify us so that we'll live forever with him

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We're not doing that work. God has done everything in our salvation and he's only asking you and I to do one thing to feast

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Let me give you an example My wife Is an awesome cook it is part of the reason that I look like I do

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No excuses. I'm just saying Imagine my wife goes to the grocery store and she chooses ingredients

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She's promised me a certain meal that avocado toast that she makes

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Sriracha Egg over easy. I Mean, it's it's it's not heavenly, but it's close

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She Goes into the kitchen. She preps the ingredients. She scrambles or cuts the ingredients. She cooks them.

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She mixes them She bakes them. She plates them and my wife also she's watched a little bit too much

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Food Network She plates that plate like it's a work of art and she takes pictures of it, but we don't post it

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If you post it, that's where the problem starts. You just take the picture and you enjoy it privately, right? She brings it to the table she brings the fork she brings the the water

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Because she doesn't want anything to affect my taste buds in that moment. No coke for me. It's water

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She's done all that work The only thing that I'm required to do is to sit down and eat it

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That's what God has done for you Everything in your salvation he's done for you.

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The only thing you're required to do is eat to feast Which is the final thing that I want us to talk about.

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It's a commanded feast Commands are not always bad, you know We're commanded to do things that are good for us

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The child's running towards an open oven you command them to stop That command is because you love them and because you know what's best for them and you don't want them to be ever hurt or Broken or in pain

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God commands us to do things which are for our good and we're commanded by God to feast on Jesus Christ Let's read verses 56 through 58

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Jesus says he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him and He goes on to say this is the end of his sermon verse 57 through 58 as the living

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Father sent me and I live because Of the Father so he who eats me. He also lives because of me

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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.

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Do you see the point that Jesus is making? That we are required to appropriate Christ That we are required to feast on Jesus Christ He has done everything for us and our life

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Now is not about our problems and our life is not about our struggles and our life is not about our Pains and our backaches and our knees and our everything else

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Our life is not about our politics. Our life is not about our government Our life is not about what's going on in the world

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Our life is not a being preoccupied with money and sex and power and everything that we can get

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Our life is not great with the things that this world has to offer. Our life is about Jesus Christ Our life was not just designed to bring in oxygen as much as we feast on that every day

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That will not leave us living that will at the end of our life leave us dead There will be a moment where you take your last breath and you open your eyes and what will you see?

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It depends entirely on what you feasted on in your life If you feasted on the world, then you will wake up to a sore disappointment

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But if you have feasted on Jesus Christ You will wake up and you will never ever ever be disappointed.

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You will always be satisfied. God has presented you and I with a bounty of heaven and He has prepared an eternal feast for you and I to feast on and and I'm talking metaphorically what

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I mean By that is I mean that we are required to adore Jesus to actively work in our life to be satisfied by him to seek

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Him to know him to find him to fight for love for him to strive to worship him to give more and more of our time

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To him more of ourselves to him more of our effort to him pray for help by him Surrender more of ourselves to him

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We are required because of what he has done to give more of ourself to him and that is for our joy

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We're not required to give all of ourself to Jesus so that he'll save us because we're saved we give all of ourself to Jesus And Jesus gives us everything we could ever ask or imagine.

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I am convinced that There's so many unhappy Christians in this world because we've forgotten what it means to feast

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I'm convinced that there's so many Christians who are depressed in their faith or upset in their walk because they've forgotten what it means to Sit at the table of grace

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God has done everything for you, and I if your life is hard feast on Christ If your life is filled with worries and wounds feast on Christ if your marriage isn't where you want it to be feast on Christ When you sleep feast on Christ when you wake feast on Christ when you go to work feast on Christ And you and I will be the most joyful people in all of the world and they will ask what is wrong with these people

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Because we have decided to feast on Christ Heaven's table is there for you.

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All you have to do is eat. Let's pray Lord. Thank you

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Thank you that you have not only done everything in our salvation, but you've given us everything for our joy

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We can have real joy. We can have real Satisfaction we don't have to be grumbling people.

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We don't have to be depressed and disgusted people We don't have to be angry people. We don't have to be fearful people

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We don't have to be people who watch the news and wonder why is this world so bad we can be people who are overjoyed

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Overwhelmed and sent out into the world as happy gospel missionaries because of what Jesus has done

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Lord would you give us that kind of peace? Would you give us that kind of happiness and Lord would you compel us in our relationship with you?

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not to leave the fork on the table not to leave the plate full but to just Stop looking at the world.

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Stop looking at all those things to satisfy us and feast on you and You are treasures forevermore and you is that pearl of great price?