Blessed are those who hunger and thirst :: Matthew 5:6

The Apologetic Dog

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

So if you would please turn in your copy of God's Word to Matthew chapter 5

00:06

We're doing a sermon series called upside down and I'm loving this because Jesus is totally

00:12

Changing the game the way that the world pursues happiness. Jesus is saying that is not how you find true

00:19

Blessedness you must start with having a restored right relationship with God and then from that you will be blessed

00:27

And it's totally countered from the rest of the world the rest of the world says you need wealth you need power

00:33

That'll gain you friends, and that'll ultimately bring you happiness And we are learning that it doesn't work like that We must first be restored with God and trust him in all things so as we're going through the sermon series

00:47

We're analyzing each of the beatitude and so I'd like for us to approach the beatitudes

00:52

Holistically again this morning because I want us to see that each beatitude is a part of an unbroken chain

00:59

Each beatitude is building on the previous one So what that's being said let's look at verses 3 through 12 in Matthew chapter 5

01:09

We read blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted

01:17

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied

01:25

Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see

01:31

God blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven

01:41

Blessed are you and others revile and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account

01:49

Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so that persecuted the prophets who are before you

01:56

Let's go to the Lord again in prayer this morning. Holy Father We thank you so much for your grace upon grace

02:05

Lord for magnifying your holiness Before us God recognizing who we are in light of who you are

02:12

Lord we pray for your hand of blessing this morning. Please give us wisdom Please give us ears to hear and a heart that is willing to learn from the preaching of your word

02:23

We pray these things Jesus in your name. Amen So if you want to go back with me to verse 6

02:29

We are at our fourth beatitude that once again says Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

02:38

For they shall be satisfied. I want you to notice that what's being sought after here by the children of God is not happiness

02:46

But it's righteousness. I think one of the great tragedies that goes on in this world

02:52

Is that people are continually searching after happiness and they can never seem to be able to find it

02:59

And I think this worldly mindset has actually caused a lot of Misunderstanding and confusion with what our

03:06

Lord is saying here In my time of study and preparation I've been reading a lot of Martin Lloyd -Jones

03:13

I strongly encourage you to go pick up his book on the Sermon on the Mount. I love what he says here

03:18

We are not to hunger and thirst after blessedness. We are not to hunger and thirst after happiness

03:25

But what is that is what most people are doing but happiness and blessedness as the one thing that we desire and thus we

03:33

Always miss it. It seems to elude us According to the scriptures happiness is never something that should be sought after Directly, it is always something that results from seeking something else in quote

03:48

And so that's why I want to spend some time unpacking together is I want us to discover the meaning of Righteousness, and so I want to start by giving a definition of righteousness

03:59

We always need to define our terms Then I want to talk about two practical ways of how we can see how this actually plays out

04:06

So righteousness in the most broadest sense means being in a condition

04:12

Acceptable to God. Okay, that is righteousness. So think about the word righteousness

04:18

There is a word embedded there. The first five letters is the word right?

04:23

So that's going to help understand the two ways that righteousness typically is applied but context is always

04:30

King Right. So the first way of understanding righteousness is having a right

04:35

Standing before God and number two it is doing what is right?

04:42

Okay, so I want us to think about these two terms Righteousness in the most broadest sense.

04:48

I believe introduces a problem to mankind That is because the natural state of man

04:54

That's not saved the unregenerate does not submit to God's law. Indeed.

05:00

He cannot This means that mankind does not have a right standing before God because of our sin nature that resulted from the fall

05:10

Now the Apostle Paul he tells us the predicament that we're all in in Romans chapter 3

05:15

He says all people both Jews and Greeks are under sin as it is written. None is righteous

05:21

No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God all have turned aside together they have become worthless no one does good not even one and So that's not how it all started in the beginning of creation

05:39

God made everything good in Genesis so many times as says as God was speaking things into existence

05:46

It was good. It was good and God saw everything that he made and behold

05:51

It was very good and in that creation God made mankind both male and female in his image

06:00

God made man upright and without sin and then everything changed when

06:06

Adam and Eve Willingly disobeyed God broke his law and were charged with sin

06:12

Now you may say Jeremiah, what does two people a long time ago have to do with me?

06:19

Well, I'm glad you asked The Apostle Paul continues to build his case talking about the depravity of man in the book of Romans in Romans chapter 5 he says

06:30

Therefore just as sin came into the world through one man Adam and death through sin

06:36

And so death spread to all men because all sinned And he goes on to say for as by the ones one man's disobedience the many the all men were made sinners so Adam was our federal head.

06:53

He represented all of humanity So when he sinned it changed his entire

06:59

Disposition it changed his entire nature and this was inherited to all of his posterity all of his future

07:06

Descendants he represented us in the Garden of Eden And so his very nature of being upright now is being corrupted in a fallen state that is marred by sin and once again the rest of us inherit that sin nature from our federal head and Before we start thinking that we would have done better than Adam think about this.

07:27

He was made upright. He was made without sin So we need to understand that we are not righteous people

07:37

We are not even born in a condition acceptable to God And I believe this is crucial for us to understand in order to receive the gospel

07:48

The person that is broken over their sinful condition only then can understand their need for the

07:55

Savior The problem is we need our sin Forgiven and the moment a person repents and places their faith in Jesus Christ alone

08:05

All of their sin past present future totally forgiven

08:10

I'm a very visual person and I think about the moment somebody puts their faith in Christ all of your sins

08:17

It's like it goes back in time and gets put on the cross and then in exchange you get the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ Accredited to your account covering you and you are declared right no longer guilty and so I'm articulating a very very important doctrine called

08:38

Justification if you would please make note of that Justification is by faith alone

08:45

And so when we say we are justified God is declaring us

08:50

Righteous no longer guilty of our sin and there is therefore now no condemnation

08:56

This is beautiful and we understand this is nothing that we do Jesus accomplished everything on our behalf by living that perfect sinless life and dying on the cross

09:07

We do not try to do good works in order to gain favor with God and add to the finished work of Christ We stand positionally right with God.

09:18

We are declared righteous So I hope you hear that that helps us understand that first definition of what we're talking about for righteousness

09:26

The first one is standing right before God. That is our justification the second definition is

09:33

Doing what is right, but it's within this context of sanctification Sanctification is the continual process by which

09:42

God is actually making a person a person righteous and this is through a process of Setting us apart from the world and conforming us more and more to the image of Jesus But I think it's good to think about justification and sanctification comparing and contrasting these two teachings

10:02

Think about justification. This is a one -time act positionally before God Sanctification is continuing in a process of relationship with God Justification releases us from the penalty of sin

10:16

Sanctification releases us from the power of sin And so as we begin to break down and understand this word

10:24

Righteousness in the context of what is doing right? This must be understood to be a person who is already justified and now in Sanctification they desire to do what is right and pleasing to honor

10:39

God and this is important to bring him glory Okay any other context of a man or woman trying to do right is like a

10:49

Person trying to offer his good works as filthy rags before God, which is detestable

10:55

And so the reason why I wanted to spend some time separating justification and sanctification being made right before God and doing what is right with God in that sanctification is

11:06

Because our Lord in his beatitude is talking about sanctification He says blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

11:16

He is talking about those who long to do right and to glorify God now as we begin to Continue our study throughout the

11:26

Sermon on the Mount there is going we're going to see another type of people that also want to do

11:31

Right, but for very different Reasons and these are none other than the scribes and the

11:37

Pharisees if you would look down in the passage at verse 20 with me Jesus says for I say to you unless your righteousness

11:45

Far surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees. You will not enter the kingdom of heaven

11:53

The scribes and Pharisees they tried to do right right, but they possessed what we might call

11:58

Self -righteousness, they merely wanted to show off their righteous deeds before others.

12:04

They were only interested in externals Conforming to the law and showing that off to other peoples.

12:11

They really cared about their outer Appearance and when they did so -called good deeds, they wanted to get praise from other people

12:19

And this is important the scribes and Pharisees did not have an inner heart that truly loves

12:27

God And so in Matthew chapter 6 if you want to turn a page over the very first verse

12:33

Jesus warns the Pharisees by saying beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in And other people in order to be seen by them for then you will have no reward from your father who is in heaven

12:49

Once again the Pharisees they wanted other people to see them give money to the poor

12:55

To pray loudly on the street corners and to show off how they would fast multiple times in a week

13:03

And as we've been saying this a lot of times we go to Luke's account of the beatitudes and he adds a list of woes

13:10

I also want to share what you what he says to the Pharisees who are being self -righteous Luke says woe to you who are full now for you shall be hungry

13:21

And so he's rebuking the Pharisees here They did not see themselves as being poor in spirit as sinners as spiritual beggars before God Rather they saw themselves as spiritually rich because of their outward obedience to the law

13:37

The Pharisees in their hearts that did not hunger and thirst for the perfect righteousness of God Rather they were content with being spiritually fat well fed on their works and so that's

13:53

Obviously not who Jesus has in mind as he's going through the beatitudes those who are born again those who are true

14:00

Citizens of the kingdom of heaven we possess a different kind of righteousness than the scribes and the

14:06

Pharisees We understand once someone is positionally declared right justified. We now possess a new heart righteousness within sanctification

14:17

We possess a new heart righteousness that longs to be with our

14:22

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Amen, so if you would look with me back in Matthew chapter 5 verses 16

14:30

Jesus says in the same way Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father

14:40

Who is in heaven? We only want to do good works as it pertains to glorifying

14:47

God so I had a conversation with an individual earlier this week and We were talking about how much we should tip our servers at restaurants

14:58

And it was a really good conversation at first. I thought he made a really good point

15:03

He said we should encourage other people especially the younger generation To tip our servers two or three times more than we usually do and I thought how can argue with that?

15:14

That is a good and commendable thing. So I responded that would be really nice.

15:20

I guess it's just a matter of the heart Okay, then he said this he said

15:25

I believe to whom much is given much is required And if you know me my mind was racing.

15:31

I was like, I think that's a Bible verse somewhere Yeah, it just alluded me but I was like man, that's that's really good.

15:37

We are definitely on the same page here So I love how God works in his providence because I'm preparing this sermon and this week and I was having this conversation

15:46

So when he said this I just said yes, we should always seek to glorify God through blessing others and I said not helping others for the sake of being a good person because that would be vain and empty and Then I thought we were on the same page up to this point and then he said something that caught me off guard

16:06

He said well if trying to be a good person and helping other people's is vain

16:12

Then I guess I'm a vain person and I thought something is fundamentally wrong

16:19

With this type of thinking that is a philosophy Someone that says

16:24

I want to help others in order to be a better person. That is a philosophy of atheism

16:30

It is humanism That's mankind's goal to do self remediation without reference to God or help from God Maybe you've heard this cliche just do good for goodness sake

16:45

No, that is not what God's Word teaches us Paul says in Romans 14 23, whatever does not proceed from faith in Christ is sin

16:56

Christians we have an underlying reason for why we ought to do good works like tipping our servers more

17:02

It's a great thing or helping other people in need But it's always pointing back to God the scripture declares

17:09

So whether you eat or you drink or whatever you do do all to the glory of God And so in this conversation that was having with this individual

17:20

He is a professing Christian and I'll save you all the details and I really wanted to reason with him that I think we're really

17:26

On the same page, but we need to think through these these matters and I told him we want to help other people as It pertains to praising and honoring

17:34

God and then he said well, I just don't think about it as deeply as you Know friend it's not about just thinking deeply on these matters someone who is filled with the

17:45

Spirit and is walking with Christ is Actively praying for opportunities to bless other people and then we always give thanks in our heart when he opens up those opportunity

17:57

Christians hearts are to desire to give God glory in whatever we do to worship him

18:05

So with that being said let's go back to our beatitude this morning look back with me at Matthew chapter 5 verse 6

18:11

Jesus here being the best teacher to ever live He uses terms like hunger and thirst and I believe he's trying to get us to think about Physical things like earthly food and water and we understand that these things are necessary for us to live here on earth

18:29

So the imagery that he's using is very Important because pursuing righteousness is not just an option for a

18:38

Christian. This is a Necessity. This is a vital for our spiritual life

18:44

And so I want to key in on these two verbs that Jesus is using Hunger and thirst those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

18:54

Now we really care about understanding things in context Nathan and I we care deeply about what the original authors intent was to the original audience

19:04

And so as I was looking into the Greek construction of hunger and thirst

19:09

I realized that it is a present active participle now What that means is that this individual individual person possesses an ongoing

19:19

Continuous longing for the kingdom of God Jesus is not referring to some past tense feeling that you may have had years ago in the past He is talking about those who truly come to Christ come hungering and Thirsting for righteousness and those who are in him continue to long to grow in holiness

19:44

Since Jesus is talking about this ever -present idea of hungering and thirsting

19:50

He's not talking about when you're hungry and it's time to eat lunch. He's talking about something so much more

19:56

Intense you could almost say it's like starving Okay It's closer to starving and so think about it if you're a starving and you've not ate anything or drank anything for a long time

20:10

There becomes a moment where you are willing to break down Whatever barriers are thrown your way in order to feed yourself or to feed your children

20:19

It's intense. There's a difference of waiting for your next meal and Starving and needing food to save your life

20:29

And so I'm reminded of a famous parable that Jesus gave when we read about the prodigal son

20:35

Remember this individual he got all of his inheritance money and then he went and squandered it all and he spent everything and Something even worse happened.

20:46

It said a severe famine arose in the country and he began to be in need

20:53

Now many of us are familiar. He got a job feeding the pigs, right? And you might say

21:00

How bad is that actually? Well, this was a very detestable job To the

21:05

Jews so you got to think about the Jewish audience that was listening to Jesus teaching They would have been like man.

21:10

This is literally the worst kind of thing and so this tells us exactly how bad the situation was for the prodigal son and then the text goes on to say and he

21:21

Was a longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate and no one gave him anything

21:27

Now that is starvation when pig food starts looking good to eat When you are starving you must re -evaluate your circumstances

21:37

And that's exactly what the prodigal son did he was faced with the reality where his sin left him how he was left utterly bankrupt

21:47

He was starving and so the text goes on to say but when he came to him himself

21:53

He said how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger

22:01

Right. He's starving. I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him father

22:07

I have sinned against heaven and before you I Believe this is the mindset that Jesus has in this beatitude

22:16

He is talking about those who are hungering and thirsting and have a deep craving and panting

22:23

Within their souls that will tear down barriers and stop at nothing to be with Christ Christ is our righteousness

22:31

Righteousness So do I like how I strategically brought in that word panting there?

22:38

That was on purpose it in this context. It made me think about an Old Testament Psalm that a lot of us are familiar with Psalm 42

22:48

And as I was looking at this a lot of my study I kept going back to this and I really like what the psalmist is saying here in 42 verses 1 & 2

22:57

Psalmist says as a deer pants for flowing streams So pants my soul for you.

23:03

Oh God my soul thirsts for God for the living God Now if you've ever seen this verse on paintings or on t -shirts

23:14

You get a lot of really nice imagery Typically, we'll see a magnificent stag

23:20

Yeah, I even googled this picture and you see this this big elk this or a big deer that usually has big

23:28

Antlers and is just kind of chilling in the water, right? Problem is it doesn't look like he's panting a whole lot and that's because this does not match the context of Psalm 42 and so what is the picture really being painted for us here?

23:46

The context actually points not to a beautiful forest, but it's more like a desert

23:52

Wasteland and there is no water in the desert to be found. That is why the deer is panting.

23:58

He is crying out pain The deer is not like this big healthy buck

24:05

It is more like a skinny malnourished animal laying on its side with its tongue out.

24:10

It's panting craving water So the psalmist once again, he says with that And as a deer pants for the flowing streams of water so my

24:29

Soul pants my soul for you. Oh God my soul thirsts for God for the living

24:36

God I believe the psalmist is contrasting a person feels dead in their own spirit because there is no life there

24:44

We must desperately seek for the living God and what's beautiful about the psalm is just a few verses later

24:51

The psalmist says I remember these things and pour out my soul within me For I used to go over with the multitude of people and walk with them into the household of God with a voice of joy and thanksgiving a multitude celebrating a festival

25:10

So hopefully this paints a different picture in your mind the psalmist is destitute away from the people of God and he is longing to be restored with God and the people of God And I don't know if you've ever experienced a time of loneliness

25:27

But I have not too long ago. I was in kovat lockdown. It was just terrible.

25:33

I was by myself I miss being with my lovely wife I missed my friends and family and I really missed my church family

25:42

It just broke my spirit and to read these words. I Identify with the psalmist here when

25:49

I look to myself. It is empty. It is a dark place I need to be with the

25:54

Lord. And so I want you to examine your heart at this point Could you say that you long for?

26:02

Righteousness, could you say that you have a deep longing desire to be with Christ?

26:08

Could it be described as painting or starvation something that we need to examine our hearts and I think oftentimes when we do examine things like that We see just how fall we short or we fall short.

26:26

There we go of the standard, right? But somebody once told me is the desire for the desire there is that where you ultimately want to be

26:36

Pursuing after Christ and his righteousness and his kingdom So if you would turn back with me to Matthew chapter 5 verse 6

26:45

Well, Lord says blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied

26:52

If there is anything that I would love for you to take away as we read and study through our

27:01

Beatitude this morning. It is that Jesus Christ is the perfect righteousness of God He is our righteousness and we hunger and thirst for Jesus For he alone can completely save and satisfy our souls

27:17

So I want you to take note of the result of hungering and thirsting for righteousness

27:22

The result is we will be Satisfied now if you read the good King James Version, it says filled, right?

27:30

so you got words like satisfied and being filled these words really point to a

27:38

Supply of abundance more than enough the imagery kind of has to do with food this imagery

27:45

Could also be pertaining to animals that are being fed herbs grass and hay in order to be

27:52

Fattened right? It's not just enough to have all that you want, but then even more in abundance and I love that Jesus is using these earthly terms to point back to a spiritual reality

28:06

Jesus is saying that if we seek Christ, he will satisfy us with abundance more than we could imagine

28:15

Another psalm psalm 23 begins. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want now who is the

28:21

Good Shepherd there That's none other than Jesus Christ and psalm 23 ends with you prepare a table before me my cup overflows

28:31

That's the type of satisfaction that we find in Christ more than enough And that is a concept that the disciples

28:40

Oftentimes struggled with just like we all do so with that in mind if you would please turn in your

28:46

Bibles to John chapter 6 John chapter 6

28:51

This is an account where Jesus feeds the 5 ,000 and this is probably a reference to the males that were present but if we were look at the total number of women and children that are there's more like 20 ,000 people were present and Aside from the resurrection.

29:10

This story is the only miracle that is recorded in all four Gospels So I'd like to briefly look at the first 11 verses

29:20

Together verse 1 says after this Jesus went away to the other side of the

29:26

Sea of Galilee Which is the Sea of Tiberias and a large crowd was following him because they saw signs that he was doing on the sick

29:34

Jesus went up on a mountain and there he sat down with his disciples Now the Passover the feast of the

29:41

Jews was at hand Lifting up his eyes there and seeing the large crowd was coming toward him.

29:48

Jesus said to Philip Where are we to buy bread so that these people may eat?

29:54

Pay careful attention to verse 6. He said this to test him for he himself knew what he would do

30:01

Philip answered him 200 denarii worth of bread would not be enough for each of them to get a little one of his disciples

30:09

Andrew Simon Peter's brother said there is a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?

30:19

Jesus said have the people sit down now. There was much grass in the place So the men sat down about five thousand a number

30:27

Jesus then took the loaves and when he had given thanks He distributed them to those who were seated.

30:33

So also the fish as much as they wanted So I'd like to just make a few notes here about this passage number one

30:42

We noticed that Philip and Andrew were struggling to see how the multitudes of people were going to be fed

30:50

Philip wait, there's probably some Phillips out there We had that that analytical mind of trying to figure out the whole cost of the operation and what did

30:59

Philip conclude? This is an impossible task It would take so many hours of manual labor and it's still not even come close to what we need but he concluded impossible and Andrew he saw the limited resources the five barley loaves and two fish and he also

31:17

Concluded this is an impossible task to feed all these thousands and thousands of people

31:24

And so back in verse six number three here Jesus was testing them for he himself knew what he would do.

31:32

I love this so much This is the omniscient all -knowing God in the flesh and he had a purpose for everything that was about to take place

31:41

And so he took this time to specifically Test the disciples now the way that I see this is that Jesus is taking this time to mold them

31:51

Gradually into his image he is challenging them to think God's thoughts after him

31:58

And what is Jesus doing? He is bringing to completion the good work that he started in the disciples and we see that Jesus will shatter our small

32:09

Expectations of what we think man can accomplish in our own effort Beloved we must never think that our resources are too little to serve

32:19

God he delights in taking the seemingly small and insignificant and transforming them for his glory

32:26

God is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or think

32:32

That is what pastor Nathan preached on last week And so lastly number four that is exactly what we see

32:41

Jesus doing in verse 11 Jesus then took the loaves and when he had given thanks

32:46

Distributed them to those who were seated also the fish as much as they wanted

32:52

Now the parallel verse to verse 11 there and mark 8 8 says and they ate and were

32:59

Satisfied which we know from studying our B attitude means that they were completely full

33:05

Jesus had provided more than enough And this is a really wonderful Miracle and I see so many points that we can learn and we see the the multiple purposes that Jesus did here

33:20

One was to demonstrate that he is God and we looked that he was testing the disciples But also it was to show the disciples and the crowds of people that Jesus not only can satisfy our physical needs

33:33

But more importantly he can satisfy our spiritual needs

33:39

So you're in John 6 look down to verse 32 with me Jesus said to them truly truly

33:46

I say to you it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven But my father gives you the true bread from heaven for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life

33:58

To the world they said to him sir. Give us this bread always I love this one

34:04

My favorite verses here Jesus said to them I am the bread of life whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst

34:14

What an extraordinary? Statement that Jesus is making he is once again being the best teacher is equating himself with bread

34:24

Pointing out that he is essential for life not just physical life, but eternal life

34:31

He uses rich Old Testament terms like come and believe

34:37

Saying come and believe in me meaning place your faith in me the Messiah the

34:43

Son of God Coming to Jesus involves repentant faith forsaking the world and denying self and follow after him at all costs and The promise here is that you will never hunger you will never

35:01

Thirst and just a few chapters earlier this sounds so similar to what he said to the

35:07

Samaritan woman at the well He said everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again

35:12

But whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be thirsty Now if you're if you had in mind to be attitude this morning with what

35:23

Jesus is saying in John 6 35 You may say how does this fit together? Jesus and the beatitude says blessed are those who were hungering and thirsting for righteousness

35:33

Right and here. He's saying you'll never hunger and never thirst. I Am pleased to tell you that this is a beautiful paradox

35:41

And so I was thinking through this this means that the Saints Continually seek after God's righteousness always wanting more and more and never getting all

35:52

But we are I was gonna say a hundred percent, but more than a hundred percent satisfied

35:58

One way of thinking about this is we all have our favorite desserts, right? Sometimes you eat your favorite dessert, and then you are full right, but your taste

36:08

Continues to go on wanting it another time and perhaps your taste for it even grows

36:14

And so when we look at the things of this world We understand that they will ultimately leave us thirsty and hungry

36:22

Empty because they cannot satisfy But as we seek for Jesus Christ We know that he brings true peace and blessedness and we long to know him more and more

36:37

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied so now

36:49

Like we do every Lord's Day. I want us to begin to think about preparing our hearts to come to the

36:56

Lord's Supper and Pastor Nathan now we typically will put the passage from what

37:02

Paul says in first First Corinthians 11 on the screen or sometimes we put the passage the night before the crucifixion where Jesus was instituting

37:11

Communion and Lord's Supper and since I spent so much time in John 6 I thought man.

37:17

There's a lot of good imagery here. I want to understand the context and the meaning here and Throughout my study.

37:24

I've noticed that there is a passage in John 6 that is heavily abused and is

37:30

Misapplied to the Lord's Supper, so I wanted to talk about this passage briefly with you if you would look in John 6 verse 53

37:40

Jesus here says Truly truly I say to you Unless you eat the flesh of the

37:46

Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life

37:54

And I will raise him up on the last day for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink whoever feeds on 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

38:11

Father so whoever feeds on me He also will live because of me This is the bread that came down from heaven not like the bread of the fathers ate and died

38:20

Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever So like I said there is

38:28

Unmistakable imagery going on here. We see the bread and we see the wine what

38:34

Jesus did use to implement at Communion but the

38:39

Roman Catholic Church Misapplies and abuses this text they teach that at Communion.

38:45

We literally Consume the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ that is wrong and in fact it is blasphemous

38:54

Jesus is not teaching here that bread and wine at Communion are literally his flesh and blood

39:00

Jesus is not even he's not even instituted communion yet So this doesn't even match the context and for a moment if we did say let's take a literal understanding of The communion here that Jesus teaching then that would mean everybody that partakes of the

39:17

Lord's supper automatically receives eternal life That is an absurdity Rather the whole context of John 6 has been

39:27

Jesus teaching about Spiritual truths and taking earthly terms to point to that so we can understand

39:34

So the verse that I really want to key on is when Jesus says whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood

39:41

Has eternal life This is echoing the statement that he said earlier

39:46

I am the bread of life Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me will never thirst do you see the spiritual imagery the the physical terms pointing to the physical truth and What is wonderful that is the principle that we take to the

40:07

Lord's Supper we celebrate the fact that Jesus has accomplished and a perfect sinless life on our behalf by dying on the cross for the punishment of our sins and Resurrecting to new life.

40:21

That is what we Gathered together in unity to celebrate in unity not with one just one another only but in unity with the triune

40:31

God we look back to what Jesus has accomplished and we look forward to the

40:37

Marriage supper of the Lamb that we will step into in glory, and we don't forget about the present reality

40:44

Right of us celebrating all of what God has done for us and that he is preparing for us

40:51

And so I believe that this is such an important time of fellowship for believers That's why scripture warns of partaking in an unworthy manner

41:01

Now firstly that means that if you are not even a Christian by faith alone in Christ Then please refrain from coming because the scripture says that there is judgment

41:12

Some have partaken in an unworthy manner and have left sick left weak and some have died also, if you're a person that is not baptized and Seeking to be held accountable in church membership

41:26

Then please refrain go to the Lord and seek his will for what you ought to do according to his prescribed means

41:34

Maybe you're somebody that approaches this time as being cold and ritualistic Maybe you have a spirit of bitterness towards a brother or sister please

41:45

Examine your heart if there's any unrepentant sin sin that you're hanging on to and are not letting go then please refrain from coming to the table

41:54

But I do not want you to be discouraged and hearing me only say that Because we care about you pastor

42:01

Nathan and I in fact if there is something going on in your life Please reach out to us and we would love to come alongside you and go through these things together and make it right

42:13

So if you are a baptized believer resting in Jesus Christ then here in a moment