Do You Believe IN Jesus? - [John 6:45-59]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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July 6, 2014

00:00: You know, there's a... seems to be a gap between people's knowledge and what they say they believe.
00:09: In other words, they say something and then you press them a little bit on it and they just don't... they don't actually know. I was doing some research this week.
00:17: I found this fascinating. Did you know 75 % of Americans, 75%, that's pretty high, believe that the
00:27: Earth orbits around the Sun. 75%. That's pretty...
00:34: Wait a minute, it's not that good. Because that means 25 % don't know that.
00:41: That strikes me as pretty big. Especially since it's something that was, you know, pretty much settled 600 years ago.
00:50: But, you know, there you go. Copernicus's theory,
00:56: I found this in my research too, that, you know, that the Earth does rotate around the Sun.
01:01: It was 600 years ago and it was... he actually had somebody else present his theories in a series of lectures.
01:09: And it's interesting to me that the Pope himself, Clement VII, I'm sure you're all familiar with his rule and reign over the church.
01:16: Clement VII was present when these lectures were done and not a peep, nothing.
01:22: And Copernicus dies and 80 years later, Galileo is convicted of heresy by the
01:30: Roman Catholic Church and sentenced to... I think he was the first guy to be on house arrest.
01:36: But he got house arrest for the rest of his life because he dared to believe what Copernicus taught, what he believed.
01:43: Previously, it hadn't been a problem, but now it was. You know, they went through this whole Inquisition thing and now they were after people for that.
01:54: But I just thought, here we are 600 years later and there's still people, 25 % of Americans who don't know this.
02:00: And I just found that interesting. But here's the sad truth. I mean, it's funny in a way.
02:05: But here's the sad truth. The sad truth is many Christians profess a lot of things. They profess that they believe
02:14: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. They profess to follow Him. But if you actually get into the details, maybe not so much.
02:25: Maybe they don't know as much as they think they know. Maybe they don't do what they say they believe. I would invite you to open up your
02:33: Bibles this morning because I think this morning's passage is really challenging. It's challenging to me.
02:39: I think it should be challenging to all of us. John 6, verses 45 to 59.
02:48: As we continue looking at this passage, really the bread of life kind of conversation that Jesus is having with these people who followed
02:55: Him. And it's interesting because it speaks a great deal about the sovereignty of God and salvation.
03:04: But I think a lot of people just don't believe that. They don't want to believe it. Let's look at the text this morning.
03:10: John 6, verses 45 to 59. The Lord says,
03:21: It is written in the prophets, and they will all be taught by God.
03:26: Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the
03:33: Father, except he who is from God. He has seen the Father. Truly, truly,
03:39: I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life.
03:46: Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
03:58: I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.
04:05: And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh. The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying,
04:15: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? So Jesus said to them,
04:22: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the
04:27: Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
04:33: Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
04:41: For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks
04:48: My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
04:55: As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on Me, he also will live because of Me.
05:04: This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died.
05:10: Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. Jesus said these things in the synagogue as He taught at Capernaum.
05:20: Now the Gospel of John is the good news. That's what gospel means. It's good news about Jesus, what
05:27: He accomplished, His life, His death, and His resurrection. Written by John, the beloved apostle, maybe,
05:36: I think arguably, Jesus' best earthly friend. And he writes a very theologically precise gospel.
05:43: I love the Gospel of John because he gets into the nitty -gritty. He teaches us things that we don't see in a lot of other places, and really kind of sometimes just pulls the curtain back so we get to look at the workings of the
05:58: Trinity. And he wants his readers to understand Jesus as He Himself came to understand
06:06: Jesus as nothing less than eternally God come to earth, veiled in flesh, ministering and performing miracles among men, and for one singular purpose, that the readers, that we, hundreds of years later, might come to understand that Jesus is the
06:24: Messiah, the Son of God, because it is only by investing ourselves entirely in that truth that we may inherit eternal life.
06:34: And that's going to be the focus this morning. Last week I asked one simple question,
06:39: Do you believe Jesus? Why did I ask that? Because the teaching in verses 37 to 44 is hard.
06:46: It's difficult. But again and again, Jesus stresses the sovereignty of God and salvation.
06:54: When he says that no one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws him, that's hard.
07:01: It's hard to hear that. But we need to understand that it takes a supernatural work of God to enable men and women to come to knowledge of the truth.
07:14: Those truths cut against our nature. We want to think that, at least in some part, in some measure, we either contribute or participate actively in our salvation, that we pursued
07:24: God. Sure, he was chasing us, but we pursued him too. But that's just not the case.
07:35: As we saw last week, this cuts against any kind of notion of human cooperation, that somehow
07:41: God stretches out his hand and we stretch out ours and he pulls us up, that he takes 99 steps towards us and then we take one towards him.
07:50: We can't do it. We don't have that capacity. That's why I asked, do you believe
07:56: Jesus? Because it's what he taught. From our text this morning,
08:02: I want you to see or really kind of test yourself to see if these three evidences that I'm going to present to you are present in your life.
08:14: Has Christ redeemed you? And if he has, these three things will be true about you.
08:20: I want you to see and experience and know the depth of the love of God who sent his son
08:28: Jesus Christ to die for sinners. But this passage here this morning presents really, and we're going to see this, a high cost of following Jesus, a high cost for being his disciple.
08:44: Salvation is free, but the paradox is it costs you everything. Three evidences of salvation, and they really are wrought by God, a sovereign
08:56: God in your life. Evidence number one, you must believe in Jesus by the power and the word of God.
09:04: You must believe in Jesus by the power and the word of God. We know from Romans that no one seeks after God, Romans 3.
09:12: And we know from Jesus' earlier statement in verse 44 that no one has the ability to go after God, to follow
09:20: God, to go to Jesus. But look at verse 45, no one learns about God, about Christ on their own either.
09:29: Look at verse 45. It is written in the prophets, in other words, in the Old Testament. And actually it's
09:36: Isaiah, but we don't need to go there. And they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the
09:44: Father comes to me. As I just mentioned, we saw last week that no one independently has the power, the ability, the capacity to come to Christ.
09:54: Anyone who claims that they sought Jesus or they chose Jesus or they accepted
10:00: Jesus on their own has to deal with those very simple words of the Savior himself. No one can.
10:08: Because if they mean what they mean, if they mean what they say, if Jesus meant what he said, then no one has the natural ability to believe.
10:17: It's a supernatural ability. It's something that must occur to you, must be done to you.
10:24: Jesus in John 3 said what? You must be born again. In 1 Peter, he caused you to be born again.
10:32: It's this constant idea, and we see it here too, that God must go first.
10:38: So when it says here that they must be taught by God, is that some kind of, should we just wait to hear the voice of God?
10:46: Should we wait, you know, maybe like Saul slash Paul on the road to Damascus to be visited by the risen
10:53: Savior? Should we wait for the beatific vision, you know, and then we'll be taught by God?
10:58: No. This is not a call to subjectivity or mysticism or waiting for some gigantic experience.
11:06: Jesus does not here contradict other scripture. Other places in the Bible, Romans 10, how does faith come?
11:13: By hearing the word of God. And in Psalm 119, the psalmist writes this,
11:20: The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love. Listen to how he pleads with God.
11:26: Teach me your statutes. You have dealt well with your servant, O Lord, according to your word.
11:32: Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments.
11:38: Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. You are good and do good.
11:45: Teach me your statutes. He pleads with God to teach him, to show him greater insight into what?
11:52: Experience? Voices that, you know, pop into his head? No, the word of God. That is how we learn about Christ.
12:02: That is how we learn about God. That is how we learn about ourselves. But the passage here says that we must be taught by God.
12:09: Well, what does that mean? Our minds must be illumined by God in order to understand scripture properly.
12:15: 1 Corinthians 2 .14 says what? That the natural man cannot understand the things of God.
12:21: Again, he doesn't have the capacity. He can look at scripture all he wants. He can write books about scripture, but he doesn't understand because he's not been illumined by God.
12:33: Now, note also what he says here at the end of verse 45. Everyone who has heard and learned from the
12:40: Father comes to me without fail. Every single one. The idea is if you've actually been illumined, if you've actually been taught, if you've actually had the scriptures open to you so that you can understand them, then you will come to Jesus.
12:58: And again, this is consistent with this entire passage. John 6 .37. All that the
13:04: Father gives me will come to me. No options. Not up to the man who runs or the man who wills, but on God who has mercy.
13:14: John 6 .44. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.
13:22: Certainty. Jesus teaches again and again the sovereignty of God, the certainty of these promises of God.
13:30: And putting all these descriptions together, we get a very clear picture of those who will come to Jesus.
13:36: Those who are given by the Father, those who are drawn by the Father, and those who are taught by the
13:43: Father. They hear, they understand, and they believe the Word of God. They come to know
13:49: Jesus Christ by the work of the Father. Now, we'll see a contrasting truth a little bit later that those who do not come to Christ do not and cannot understand the
14:02: Word of God. We'll see that in just a little bit. But keep this in mind. God always goes first in salvation.
14:09: Always. Men respond, yes. But it's because of the divine initiative. He chooses,
14:15: He draws, and He teaches. Now, in verse 46, we see really kind of an idea of who
14:24: Jesus is and why He's so important. He really is the greatest teacher in history. Why? Well, look at verse 46.
14:31: Not that anyone has seen the Father except He who is from God. He has seen the Father. He's talking about Himself.
14:38: Who knows more about the Father than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who from all eternity was with the
14:44: Father in perfect harmony, perfect fellowship? And now He's descended to the earth to do what?
14:51: To explain the Father, to show the Father, to represent the Father. If this crowd who was following Him, if anyone truly wanted to learn about the nature of the
15:02: Father or study His Word, they could hope for no better source than whom? The one who had come from God.
15:11: Repeatedly in this conversation and in this discourse between the Jews who were following Him.
15:17: And if you recall, why were they following Him? Well, He'd fed the multitude. And then they wound up figuring out that He was gone, that He'd gone across the
15:27: Sea of Galilee. His disciples were gone in the only boat. They took some other boats and they followed Him. They wanted a couple of things from Him.
15:34: They wanted free food. They wanted Him to be their king because they thought, hey, if He can do this,
15:39: He can feed us and we won't have to work and life will be good. But they also challenged
15:44: Him to show them more signs. What they didn't do was they didn't say, teach us, give us more insights into the
15:53: Father. Teach us more about the Word of God. They challenged His veracity.
15:58: They challenged His truthfulness. They made plain that they didn't think that Jesus was as good as Moses.
16:05: They didn't view Him as the Son of God. They thought, well, He can do some things, but this isn't the
16:11: Messiah, this isn't the Christ. They weren't willing to do that. They weren't willing to go that far. And this verse here is a none too subtle reminder that Jesus, a reminder that Jesus has greater insight into the things of God than any mere mortal ever could.
16:27: Jesus alone knew about the Father intimately. Now let me just frame it a different way.
16:35: Have you been taught by God? Have you been taught by God through His Word?
16:43: If you're not studying Scripture, how can He teach you? Our first evidence of salvation, you must believe in Jesus by the power and the
16:54: Word of God. Our second evidence of salvation, you must believe in the deity, that is, that Jesus Christ is fully
17:04: God. And you must believe in the vicarious death of Jesus. You must believe in the deity and the vicarious death of Jesus.
17:12: And you say, vicarious. Well, let me just explain that real quickly. Vicarious. If I want to live vicariously through my children, then what do
17:22: I do? People are always talking about that kind of thing where they live vicariously through their kids, they watch their games.
17:28: I go to my son's hockey game. I go to my daughter's swim meet. I do whatever, and I exult in their victories.
17:36: That's what it means. I experience the thrill of them winning. It's vicarious. It's through another.
17:43: So when we talk about vicarious death, it means in the place of. He's dying in the place of sinners, and we'll see that.
17:51: First, you must believe in the deity of Christ. Jesus left his throne, his rightful place with the
17:58: Father, so that you might one day see his throne. Look at verse 51.
18:03: We're going to skip just a little ahead, and we'll back up here. I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
18:10: If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. Now, what an amazing claim to say that he's come down from heaven.
18:17: But that's exactly what he did. If we backed up to John 1, we would read that, right? He was sent by the
18:22: Father, and he came to earth. He came down from heaven. And notice the result of the.
18:31: . . Well, let me back up here. He's ever -existing, always God. He left his perfect fellowship, and he came to earth that he might redeem those who follow him.
18:40: And he phrases it this way. If anyone eats of this bread. . . That's what it means to follow him, and we'll discuss that more.
18:47: But he keeps going back to this bread motif. And it really is a reminder of this whole bread versus manna debate that's been going on with the
18:57: Jews. They responded to his challenge that they not work for earthly food, because they came and found him at Capernaum after they crossed the
19:06: Sea of Galilee. They came and found him. And they spent a lot of time looking for him the night before, and then that day.
19:15: And he says, you know, basically don't work for the things of earth, but instead focus on the things of heaven.
19:23: And so what do they say? They said, well, you know, what must we do? And he said, you know, believe.
19:29: They didn't get it. Over and over again, they wanted to do something. And what they do is they challenge him, you know, because they're caught up in this whole.
19:39: . . You did this, Jesus. You took the two fish and the five loaves, and you fed all these people.
19:44: That was great, but Moses did something greater. Out of nothing, he fed multitudes for 40 years.
19:53: You only fed 5 ,000 and ultimately 20 ,000 people. But you had a starter, and that was just one meal.
20:01: You had something to work with. But Moses had nothing. So they asked him to do a greater sign, if you recall that.
20:09: So it's in this line that he says, look, I'm the living bread that comes down from heaven.
20:16: And he returned to that theme. Let's back up just a little bit to verse 47. And he says, truly, truly,
20:22: I say to you. He used that multiple occasions during this section of Scripture.
20:28: In 626, he says, truly, truly, I say to you. You are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
20:36: That's where he chides them for just wanting the free food. In verse 32, he says, truly, truly,
20:43: I say to you. It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
20:49: Look, you guys have it all wrong. Moses didn't create that stuff out of nothing. He prayed, he interceded for the people, but it was
20:56: God who provided it. And the goal of Jesus, again and again, when he says that truly, truly, was to point these people to truth and away from their own natural thinking.
21:09: They wanted to know what they had to do to earn the favor of God, and he set them straight. God is sovereign, yet they must believe.
21:16: Look at verse 47 again. Whoever believes has eternal life. There's a condition there. You must believe to have eternal life.
21:24: But he's also told us who will believe. But here's the question this morning. How can it be so simple, just believe?
21:32: You know, that's one of the stumbling blocks of Christianity. If you tell somebody all they have to do is believe, what do they think?
21:37: They think to themselves, well, that's easy. I'll just assent to the facts.
21:44: I'll bow the knee to the facts, and then that's that. That's belief. Well, that's not it. But belief, true faith, is the evidence of the triune
21:54: God, Father, Son, and Spirit at work in the life of a person. If you truly believe, it's because God has begun to transform you.
22:04: He has begun a good work that he will continue to perform in you the rest of your earthly life.
22:11: Now, that's not to say that life will be easy, or that sanctification itself will be easy, or that life will be without sin, because we all sin and fall short of the glory of God.
22:23: But it's not the direction of your life or the perfection of your life. It's the direction.
22:29: And God does not leave us on our own to sanctify ourselves. He is at work in us to change us.
22:39: Now, again, the Jews were concerned with the struggle of daily life, getting bread, working hard.
22:46: Life was difficult. It was difficult to even survive. They lived in the deserts.
22:54: But he wanted them to understand that there was more to life than just daily bread, that there was something to really look forward to.
23:03: Eternal life, a life that begins at salvation, at the moment of salvation, and does not end, but consists ultimately in eternity, in the presence of the throne of the
23:14: Lamb. Now, look ahead at verse 48. He says,
23:21: I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the man in the wilderness, and they died. In other words, they sustained them for a while, but ultimately they physically died.
23:30: And verse 50, This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. The contrast between what
23:37: Jesus is offering and what Moses provided is clear. Every single person who ate during those 40 years in the wilderness, who ate the manna, ultimately physically died.
23:49: But Jesus said, This is the bread that comes down from heaven. And it produces, this bread produces a different end.
23:57: When you partake of this bread, you do not die. What do you mean? You don't physically die?
24:02: Well, yes, they'll still physically die. But they're guaranteed eternal life, spiritual life.
24:09: He's speaking metaphorically, symbolically. He is not literally bread.
24:16: He's not inviting anyone to come and consume his flesh. He's not inviting them to participate in cannibalism.
24:23: What he's offering is escape from the second death, which is eternal hell.
24:31: Eternity apart from the love and the grace and the peace of God. And when we evangelize today, it's really hard when you watch so many people who call themselves evangelists or who say they're preaching the gospel, you listen to them and you go,
24:47: Okay, but where's the bad news? Where's the bad news that every one of us sins and one sin is enough to cast you into eternal punishments?
24:58: Eternity apart from the love of God, apart from the love of Christ. They'll promise you some things, these evangelists will.
25:08: They may say that Jesus will physically heal you. They may say that he wants you to be rich.
25:14: They may say that he will pay your bills. He'll save your marriage. He'll make you happy.
25:23: But they don't say that the primary reason that it's good news is because first of all, you can't do anything to earn it.
25:30: And secondly, what you gain is immeasurable. Being saved from what you deserve and being given what you could never earn.
25:40: You deserve hell. But because of Christ's finished work, if you believe in him, you'll have eternity in heaven.
25:51: Moses delivered from temporal death. If you ate the manna, you were preserved. Jesus delivers from eternal death.
26:00: If you partake of him, if you eat of him, if you eat of him as the bread come down from heaven, you will have eternal life.
26:12: And Jesus did leave his throne to die in the place of sinners. That is that vicarious death
26:17: I was talking about. Look at verse 51, second part of it. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
26:27: It's a substitutionary vicarious atonement taught in half a verse. This is what he did.
26:34: He gave his life. Nobody took it from him. He gave it. Elsewhere we would read what?
26:40: In John 10, that he laid down his life for the sheep. He gave up his life.
26:46: He laid down his life and he will take it up again, we would read in the Gospel of John. That's substitution.
26:56: Dying in the place of others. Now why did he have to do that? Why Jesus? Because only
27:04: Jesus came down from heaven fully God. And he's fully man. He lived a perfect life.
27:11: Only a spotless, perfect sacrifice could appease the wrath of God.
27:18: And only a man could die for other men. The sacrifices of bulls and goats and rams could never take away sin.
27:32: But the sacrifice of Christ, being fully God and fully man, living a perfect life, thus being spotless.
27:40: And dying in the place of sinners. Now that, that can deliver sinners.
27:51: Now how will he give his flesh? Flesh, by the way, that word is used here kind of almost uniquely in the
27:59: New Testament. And it means his physical body. It has to do with his physical life.
28:06: He's saying he's going to give his physical life at Calvary.
28:12: He's looking forward to that cross. Not anticipating it, not eagerly looking forward to it, but projecting forward and saying this is what's going to happen.
28:20: And he didn't just experience physical death, but also spiritual death. That is to say separation from the
28:27: Father for the first time ever. That's why it was so painful. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why?
28:34: Because for the first time, I was going to say ever, but it doesn't even go far enough.
28:39: Because before there was time, they'd never experienced that separation. So it's beyond our capacity to imagine the pain of that break in fellowship.
28:54: So he experienced spiritual death, physical death in our place. And again, it points to a future time.
29:03: He's looking toward Calvary. And for whom the life or the text says that he is giving his life for the life of the world.
29:10: Well, what does that mean? Does that mean for every single person? All we have to do is look at the context. All we have to do is look at the context.
29:18: He talks consistently about all that the Father gives me. And I will raise them, you know,
29:24: I will keep them, I will raise them up. It's always all, all that, all that, all that.
29:31: And these conditions are given. So all that are given, all that are drawn, all that are taught will be raised up on the last day.
29:40: That's who he's giving up his life for. Let's put it another way. If he's giving his life for all, then we have a real problem because he says he's going to raise them all up.
29:50: That means every single person is going to heaven. We know that's not true. If it were true that every single person was going to heaven, if we were a universalist, then
29:59: Jesus was wasting his time talking about hell. And he spoke about hell more than he did about heaven.
30:06: Jesus says he will die in a future time to enable those who believe to have eternal life, a life that is both now and forever.
30:18: So evidence number one, you must believe in Jesus by the power and the word of God. Evidence number two, you must believe in the vicarious death of Jesus.
30:27: And evidence number three, you must believe in the biblical Jesus. That is to say, you must believe in Jesus as he's presented in scripture, not as someone you'd like him to be or as some would project him to be, maybe a wise teacher, maybe something else, some profound man, some sage or whatever.
30:50: No, Jesus said over and over again, he was the equivalent of God. I mean, why did the
30:56: Jews want to stone him? Because he said, I and the father are one. You make yourself out to be equal with God.
31:01: And that's why they wanted to stone him for blasphemy, they said. You must believe
31:08: Jesus is who the Bible says he is. And note well that unbelievers can't figure this out.
31:14: They can't sort it out on their own. They can't reason their way to the truth. One of the fallacies of Rome or any other semi -Pelagian religion is that they say, you know what, there's some ability within man to reason for himself and to come to the truth.
31:32: But we have an example, an illustration right here in verse 52. Then the Jews disputed among themselves.
31:37: Now, they're listening to the Lord in the flesh. They disputed among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?
31:47: What's he talking about? He wants us to be cannibals or something. This is crazy.
31:55: And as they had before, they begin a discussion. It really isn't a discussion, that word, by the way, where it says that they disputed among themselves.
32:03: If we said, if we could put a physical connotation to this, it would mean a brawl broke out.
32:10: So it really is kind of a verbal debate. It's more of a fight.
32:20: Now, it's probable that maybe some of the disciples were there. So there are differing sides in this.
32:26: It's not all against Jesus. I think some of them probably stick up for him. But they're most likely outnumbered.
32:33: Flesh, both here and in verse 51, puts an emphasis again on the physical body of Jesus Christ.
32:39: How can he give us his physical body to eat? What's he going to do, cut off his arm? Here you go.
32:46: They're just confused. They can't reason it out. I once had a little discussion with a...
32:55: I mean, it seems like all my really cool discussions always happen in the gym at my former job.
33:02: But a devout Catholic apologist who was telling me that he said, John 6 should be understood literally.
33:09: And I said, so you mean that he was literally saying, you know, here, have a nibble? And he said, yes.
33:16: And I'm like, you know, must hold head to keep it from exploding.
33:22: That doesn't make any sense to me. But this is consistent with the church at Rome, with what they teach about the wafer and the wine.
33:33: They say, this, after the priest has done his hocus pocus on it, he has transformed it into the actual body of Christ.
33:44: So when he holds up the wafer, what are you supposed to do? Kneel. Why? Because this is the actual body of Christ.
33:51: That's blasphemous. Drink this cup. It's the actual blood of Christ. They can't even dump it down the sink.
33:57: Why? Because how can you do that to the blood of the Savior? So, you know, the priest says, look, they use this text to substantiate, to base their whole theology of transubstantiation.
34:18: But that's not what this whole section is symbolic. It's clearly symbolic. And by the way, it has nothing to do with the
34:25: Lord's table. It hasn't even been instituted yet. He's going to do that later at the
34:30: Last Supper. But, you know, just because this has some similar themes and it foreshadows something, that doesn't mean that's what it's about.
34:40: But this, it's not what it's about. I mean, think about this. Look at verse 53. If that's what this section was teaching, look at verse 53.
34:47: So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
34:54: By the way, when it says you have no life in you, what does that mean? It means you have no spiritual life. It wouldn't mean physical life, because they weren't going to die if they didn't eat and drink his blood and his body.
35:07: But the Roman Catholic understanding is this, that if you don't take this, well, if that was even, if we could stretch it that far, then you don't have any spiritual life in you, then no
35:21: Protestant, no non -Catholic could ever go to heaven. But if you talk to them, that's not what they believe.
35:29: They would say, you know what, you can get to heaven, but you're going to have to go through purgatory, pal. It's going to be a long time for you.
35:39: What that means, you have no spiritual life, it means you're hellbound. If you don't eat the flesh of the
35:44: Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no spiritual life, you are going to hell. Salvation isn't by sacrament alone.
35:54: That would negate everything that Jesus has taught up to this point. J .C.
35:59: Ryle said this about taking this salvific view. To take that view is to, that somehow that saves you, taking the
36:07: Lord's table. It's to interpose a bodily act, in other words, a physical act, between the soul of man and salvation.
36:14: It's to suggest that you can do something, in other words, to be saved. This is the thing for which there is no precedent in Scripture.
36:22: The only things without which we can be saved are repentance and faith.
36:27: And we know from Scripture that both are gifts of God. These Jews who are wrestling, these
36:35: Roman Catholics who distort things, are really like deaf people arguing about the merits of a symphony.
36:42: They have no idea what they're talking about. I think it's clear to see that the
36:49: Lord's table is not in view in this passage. I think that's very clear and we'll talk more about this.
36:54: This is a metaphor and we'll see more of that. You must believe in the life and the death of Jesus.
37:03: Again, look at how he invokes the words of solemnity. Truly, truly, I say to you.
37:09: What is the truth that he's trying to impart to them? Since it's not so obvious, it's confusing to them.
37:16: What does he mean when he says, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
37:23: What does that mean? One man says this, he goes, eating and drinking Christ's flesh and blood appears to be a very graphic, we would agree with that, way of saying that people must take
37:34: Christ into their innermost being. What could be more graphic than saying you have to eat?
37:43: It has to get into you. It has to be inside of you. He goes on to equate taking these things into you with believing, and that's what they are.
37:53: Why? Because all who believe will have eternal life. Conversely, if you fail to consume the
38:01: Son of Man, if you fail to believe, you do not have eternal life. So belief or faith is far more than a mere intellectual assent to the facts.
38:12: It's more than just walking an aisle or uttering a phrase. Christ must be all to you.
38:17: You must consume him. He must be inside of you. He must be your all in all.
38:23: He is the bread from heaven, descended at the direction of the Father to this world in order to obey the
38:30: Father perfectly, die sacrificially, and rise triumphantly, having redeemed all whom the
38:37: Father gave him, all whom the Father drew, all whom the Father taught.
38:43: Now let's look at the results of this. Verse 54, Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has, present tense, has eternal life.
38:55: At the moment you believe and you take him as your Lord and Savior, the moment that you feast on him as it were results in salvation from the wrath of God, and it results in peace with God.
39:12: It is something when you are saved, you're not perfect again, but you understand that you one day will be.
39:19: You understand that you're no longer condemned. You have that peace with God. And in fact, you have the promise of heaven.
39:26: Look at verse 54. And I will raise him up on the last day. Again, what does that mean?
39:34: Judgment day. You get raised up. You don't get left behind. When he separates the sheeps and the goats, you'll be among the sheep.
39:46: All believers are in Christ. All of them are in Christ.
39:55: Those who are drawn and those who now feed on him are consumed with him. Now notice also there's a mutual abiding.
40:03: That is, you are in Christ and he is in you. Look at verses 55 and 56.
40:10: For my flesh is true food, true spiritual food. My blood is true spiritual drink.
40:17: Again, this image of the satisfaction that one gains from being in Christ, wanting no other truth.
40:26: 56. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.
40:32: All believers are in Christ. We will continue in saving faith and transforming grace, not by our choice but by his power.
40:41: He indwells us. He intercedes for us. And he claims us as his own. We are his and he is ours.
40:49: There's a mutual abiding. We also have a life eternally powered by Christ.
40:59: That is, generated by Christ, given to us by Christ. Look at verse 57.
41:06: As the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father. There's a theological proposition by which the
41:14: Father eternally sends the Son. And that's the picture here. So whoever feeds on me, he will also live because of me.
41:23: Because the Father has given him life and then he gives us life. We are dependent on Jesus for our lives.
41:30: Look at verse 58. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not like the bread the fathers ate and died.
41:36: Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. The Father sent the
41:44: Son and has granted him life in himself. The Son now grants us that life. And all who feed on this bread have entered eternal life.
41:51: And will never leave it. It'll just get better and better. Now this morning
41:58: I just want to ask you. Have you fed upon the flesh and drank the blood of Jesus Christ?
42:03: What does that mean? Let me put it this way.
42:09: If you have done that, the Bible says that Christ will take you to heaven. And you'll dwell with him forever.
42:16: What does it mean? It means to believe in Jesus Christ. But not just to assent to the facts.
42:21: It means that he must be everything to you. He must be all important to you. If he's not your great joy when you wake up in the morning.
42:29: And your peace when you go to bed in the evening. And your sweetest joy in the hours in between.
42:35: Then maybe you don't know him. Maybe today is the day when the
42:41: Father is drawing you. Maybe today is the day where he will cause you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
42:47: Cause you to be born again. I often ask people if they're questioning their salvation.
42:54: If the people who knew them best. Their family. Their co -workers. You know, it's the old, is there enough evidence to convict you of being a
43:02: Christian? But if I went to them and I said, did you know that so and so is a Christian? You know, sometimes
43:09: I wonder if I'd hear laughter. But sometimes, you know, maybe
43:14: I would hear, yep, no doubt about it. There's a difference between us and them. He's not like us. He really loves the
43:20: Lord Jesus. That's evident in everything that he says and does. Now here's a tougher one.
43:27: What if somehow we could go before Jesus? And I said, you know, Lord, I would like you to meet brother or sister so and so.
43:37: Jesus would say, really? This guy's a Christian? He's following me? I had no idea. It's going to be the harshness of Matthew 7, right?
43:49: Depart from me, I never knew you. This is a call to discipleship, a call to consider the cost to forsake yourself, to take up the cross, to hate your mother and father.
44:06: Jesus never lowers the bar. He raises it. He says, listen, if you don't consume me, if I'm not everything to you,
44:17: I'm not in you and you're not in me. That's the test.
44:25: Let's pray. Father in heaven,
44:31: Lord, we know that no one can come to you by their own power, by their own will, by their own desire.
44:38: But that if we do will, if we do desire, if we are learning about you, if we are being drawn, that it is only by your power, by your desire, by your activity.
44:52: Father, I pray that you would be active in and around us, that you would use us as it were to draw people to your son, that we would be so full of the testimonies of the goodness of Christ, of his blessings and mercy, of his love for us, that we would so be filled with Christ and his words and his truths, that we would readily and happily testify of Jesus to those who surround us, our family, our friends, that we ought not to just pray for a missionary to be sent to our loved ones, but that we might be that missionary.
45:42: Father, for any who are here who don't know you this morning, who have not fed on the flesh and blood of the
45:50: Lord Jesus Christ, of his life and his death, who are not convinced, who are not convicted of their own sinfulness, of their need for the perfect life, the sacrificial death, the resurrection of the
46:05: Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, would even today, would even this hour be the time of salvation for them.