Let’s open our Bibles to John chapter 6. One time there was a rich young man that came to Jesus and asked “What good thing must I do to get eternal life?” In other words, “what must I do to live forever?”
And I hope you agree that this is the most important question we could ever ask, too. I had a friend in Iowa whose niece died last week, she was hit by a drunk driver, who just happened to be a fellow classmate of hers. How do we live forever? Is it keeping God’s law? It is measuring up to a certain standard? Is it being good, or believing in God, or being a member of a certain church, or what is it?
Well it just may surprise us to discover that Jesus Christ teaches that our eternal life is dependent upon what we eat. You can see that in John 6:53-55: 53 Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. John 6:53-55 (NIV)
So eternal life is dependent upon eating the flesh of Jesus and drinking the blood of Jesus. My sermon title today is “Eternal life is Feeding on the Cross.”
Now really, anybody who hears this today has to think, “this is just really weird.” What, are Christians a bunch of cannibals? I mean this is a hard teaching any way you look at it. And that’s what the Jews said, notice verse 60: On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?" John 6:60 (NIV)
In other words, who can digest such teaching? And we agree, if we are honest, this is a hard teaching. It makes eternal life dependent upon our eating Christ’s flesh and drinking His blood. To the modern day man or woman this is a very weird and creepy teaching. And to those back in that day it was hard teaching and verse 61 tells us they were grumbling about it and were offended over it. We can understand that can’t we.
But they were offended about it only for one reason, and that is because they were interpreting it literally. As if Jesus were teaching cannibalism here. Their error is in interpreting what Jesus said in a literal or a carnal manner. It’s the exact same error that certain religions make when they teach Transubstantiation, or the turning of the bread and wine into the physical body and blood of Jesus. Jesus is not teaching cannibalism here. And He is not teaching Transubstantiation here.
And Jesus knew our propensity to interpret His words carnally, so He gives 3 proofs that He is not speaking literally. 3 arguments confirming that He does not mean the physical eating of His body and drinking His blood. Let’s notice them:
First, notice verse 62: “ What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before!” In context He is saying, “don’t grumble at my teaching about eating my flesh and drinking my blood. I’m not speaking literally for you will not even be able to see My body anymore, much less feed on it.” They would not be able to eat His physical body and drink His blood because His body would die on the cross, then rise from the dead and ascend into heaven, where they would see Him no more.
Secondly, look at verse 63: “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.” The flesh counts for nothing. “Even if you could eat my flesh, this would do nothing for your salvation, it would not benefit you in any way.” The flesh counts for nothing.
And thirdly, he concludes verse 63 by saying, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” These are spirit-words, to be interpreted spiritually, not physically.
So what does it mean to understand His words spiritually? What is the plain meaning of His words? Just this: by Jesus’ death—that is, his body and his blood offered in sacrifice for sin--he would secure our pardon and our forgiveness; and that those people who feed on this good news would be united with Christ and live forever. He means that His own body and blood, offered on the cross, are the very means of our eternal life.
See, He uses this word picture of eating and drinking because that was the subject of discussion; in verse 31 the Jews prided themselves that their fathers had eaten manna; and so it was easy for Jesus to say that food must be eaten in order to be of any use in sustaining life. Just so, we must feed on His death, His body and blood offered on the cross, in order to live forever.
See food in a rich man’s store does not give life to a poor man who needs it. Someone must give it to the poor man, and he must receive it into his stomach. Even so the death of Christ does not save or give eternal life to anyone, except those who receive it and partake of it, who feed on it, and are therefore united with Jesus Christ and will live forever. See the metaphor of feeding on Christ is really about remaining in Him and Him remaining in us; that’s what eating means. You can see that in verse 56:
“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.” There is union and intimacy here. Through our feeding on Him we remain united with Him, we remain in Him and He remains in us. Now think of this for a minute: of all the connections and unions there are (husband/wife, vine/branches, body/head, etc.) of all these unions, none is so intimate and complete as eating food, because think about it, our bodies absorb this substance and we become one with it. And this is the example of our union with Christ. He lives in us, and we in him. Or as 2 Peter 1:4 says, “we are made partakers of the Divine nature” and because we are connected with Jesus like this we are nourished in Him and have life, eternal life. Eternal life is a forever feast.
You see, the gospel basically says, “come and get it.” Come and get grace that imparts life to the spiritually dead. Come and get grace that imputes righteousness to the guilty. Come and get grace that instills the Spirit’s power to those who are totally powerless. And who wouldn’t want that kind of food and live forever?
Well the answer is you and me. Nobody wants it. The problem is that we’re all born with spiritual Pica’s disease. Pica is the craving to eat what is not edible. When my wife was a nurse she had a patient who had Pica. It is diagnosed when a person craves to eat things that are not considered food; they crave things such as wood toothpicks, or dirt, or chalk, or coal, or foam rubber. One woman, who was a nonsmoker, would burn cigarettes to get the ashes so she could eat them. And when her husband smoked she would follow him around with a cupped hand to catch the ashes as they fell. How would you like to sit down to a nice bowl of ashes? Well you might if you had Pica’s Disease.
Well why do I say that we have spiritual Pica’s disease? I invite you to turn with me to Isaiah 44. God is speaking here about the nation of Israel in their idolatry; their worship of idols. But it applies to every human being ever born, because we are born into idolatry. It applies to all who turn away from God, and turn to their idols, to their habits and sins. It applies to us as it speaks about idolaters, and says in verse 20:
20 He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, "Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?"
You know why we don’t want the feast of eternal life? Because we’re born with spiritual taste buds that prefer ashes instead of Christ. Oh I know it’s insane to feed on ashes, but that’s exactly what we do when we trade Christ, the bread of life, for whatever else we feed on. The very fact that we do not desire Christ evidences spiritual sickness; I mean what person who is healthy doesn’t want to eat food?
And this was the very condition of the Jews in John chapter 6. They had spiritual Pica’s disease because in verse 66 it says: “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him” (John 6:66). This is John 666, it’s a sad verse. It describes people who have been presented with the way to live forever, by feeding on the benefits of Jesus’ death, they’re presented with a feast of grace, and they push away from the table and turn back to their ashes of legalism.
In reality there are 3 responses to Jesus’ invitation to a forever feast. The first is in verse 64: Yet there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. John 6:64 (NIV)
The first response is simply a lack of faith which led to betrayal. Jesus is speaking of Judas here. Judas did not believe and he forsook Christ and betrayed Him for 30 pieces of silver. When a person forsakes the living God, Satan can use him any way he wants. Look at verse 70: Then Jesus replied, "Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!" And verse 71 tells us he meant Judas.
Warning! Big red flag here! Flashing red lights: Beware of the love of money! This love of money induced a disciple of Christ to betray his God. Do not let your hearts be hardened by desiring what you do not have. “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
There is a secret to being content with what we have, I want to share that with you right now. Remember the man who found treasure in a field (Matthew 13:44)? The Bible says “for joy over it” he sold everything else to buy that field. When we find our joy in Jesus we already have our Treasure. Look with me at Hebrews chapter 13: 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
First response would be lack of faith and betrayal. Second response is in verse 66:
“From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” They were offended at the teaching, they couldn’t take the requirements and they stopped following. Now, I promise you, if you are a Christian here today, at some point in your life you will be tempted to stop following Christ. Maybe some other Christian will offend you, and you won’t be able to look past the offense to Christ, and so you’ll be tempted to just stop going to church, stop reading or praying or dying to yourself. The voice in your ear will say, “It’s too hard to follow Christ. The cross is too heavy.” And you may become like Lot’s wife, having left the world yet longing to return to it. Or you may be like Orpah, having started out on the road to life, yet returning to her gods. Ministers likewise are tempted to leave the gospel ministry and get out of the fray, start putting family first, start enjoying life rather than always ministering to others.
And in closing this morning, Jesus asks the 12 disciples a question, and He asks you and me this question in verse 67: "You do not want to leave too, do you?" Jesus asked the Twelve.
In other words, will you also go away? Will YOU abandon me? It’s as if He says, you whom I have shown my love to-you, whom I have chosen out of the world to be my companions, and witnesses of all my miracles-you, whom I intend to seat with me on my throne in glory; will YOU go away?
And I believe Jesus would ask us this morning: You don’t want to leave too do you? You, whom he has redeemed by his blood-you, whom he has upheld by his power, you whom he has adopted into His family-you, whom He has comforted in so many problems and trials-you, who have sinned against Him so much and yet He has freely and fully pardoned you; you don’t want to go away do you?
How about you ministers here today? You who feed others with the gospel, are you about to push back from the table yourself? Is ministry too hard? Does it take too much commitment? Are you going to prove to be a Demas, who for love of the world deserted Christ? You ministers don’t want to drop the cross do you? Eternal life is a forever feast.
Simon Peter answered. Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of life. Where shall we find a more gracious master-a more powerful Redeemer-a more suitable Saviour? You have the words of eternal life. Nobody can save us but You.
What is your response to the fact that Jesus gave his body and His blood for you? Do you refuse to believe and will then become a tool in Satan’s hand? Are you going to stop following Jesus, or are you one who realizes that only Jesus has eternal life and you will remain in Him and He in you.
Application #1: How is your health? Are you getting proper spiritual nutrition? You know Christians can work hard, they can live right, they can train up their kids properly, they can have right doctrine, and they can even minister the gospel, and yet be starving themselves because they are not eating and drinking. How is your health?
Application #2: What are you feeding your kids? Are you merely teaching them the right things, or are you feeding their souls with the gospel? Listen, parents are responsible to feed and clothe their children.
And I will close with this story: A woman in West Palm Beach, Florida, died alone at the age of 71. The coroner’s report was tragic. “Cause of death: Malnutrition.” The old lady wasted away to 50 pounds. Investigators who found her said the place where she lived was a pigpen, the biggest mess you could imagine. One inspector said he’d never seen a residence in a worse mess. The woman had begged food at her neighbors’ back doors and gotten what clothes she had from the Salvation Army. But amid the jumble of all her mess, two keys were found which led the officials to safe-deposit boxes at two different local banks. The first box contained over 700 AT&T stock certificates, plus hundreds of other valuable certificates, bonds, and solid financial securities, not to mention a stack of cash amounting to nearly $200,000. The second box had no certificates, only more money—lots of it—$600,000 to be exact. Adding the net worth of both boxes, they found that the woman had in her possession well over a million dollars. She was a millionaire who died a victim of starvation in a tiny shack.
Are we like her? This woman was starving, begging from her neighbors, wasting away to nothing; all the while she had abundant resources that she neglected. And because she neglected her resources, she became a burden on others until she eventually died of malnutrition. Christians today have the greatest gospel feast set before them, rich delicacies of the forgiveness and acceptance and reconciliation, and yet many refuse to humble themselves and eat. God has given His church what Puritans used to call “the means of grace” (Scripture, prayer, public gathering) and yet many Christians neglect these and become malnourished and can starve to death while possessing God’s riches.
God invites us who used to be His enemies, to sit at His table of grace. Let’s give thanks and eat.
