This sermon was delivered to St Oswald’s, Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 16th August 2012; St Oswald’s is a Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries.
The readings for today are: 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 Ephesians 5:15-20 John 6:51-58
Prayer: "In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit let these words speak for you and meditate them in our hearts, Amen."
Our text for today’s sermon is John Chapter 6 verses 51 to 58:
Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”
Introduction
Those are very very familiar words, … we are so used to hearing them at Holy Communion that we need to look closely at this passage to see what is really being said.
The first and most important fact is that Jesus is very much alive, and there is no mention of his coming death. Did you notice that?
Yes it is the same instructions Jesus gave at the last supper, but in the bible, that event is still to take place in John 17. This is only John 6, and much is still to happen before then.
Yet we hear today that Jesus said to the crowd, "Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” No wonder they were confused. I would have been confused; a 30 year healthy old man telling people to eat his flesh. What did this all mean?
To start, we have to look at Exodus 16:11 “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying. I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, that evening, ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God”.
In Hebrew, the term “Lord your God” used here is translated Jehovah, which to many scholars literally means Jesus.
Exodus 16:14 goes on to say, “behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, it is manna: for they know not what it was. And Moses said unto them, this is the bread which the Lord hath commanded you to eat.
This was a direct command to the Israelites to eat the Manna; and so in a likewise fashion, we hear today Jesus telling the Jewish crowd in front of him, to eat to eat his body.
I am sure most of these Jews would not have related these two events, and the ones that did, must have been asked, “How exactly can we eat his flesh”?
There is no mention of Jesus dying at this stage, but Jesus was foreshadowing events to come, events that will lead to our redemption and eternal life; events which would results our sins being atoned for; events which could only happen at the cross.
There is so much in this short passage that I will just talk briefly about the significance of the flesh and ask, why did Jesus talk about his flesh as being blood and bread; because the Jews who were listening to him were absolutely disgusted by the thought of it?
They failed to recognize Jesus as the great Jehovah who gave a similar instruction in the wilderness; to eat the manna, symbolizing the bread; and the same Jehovah who also gave instructions in the Passover to paint the lintel of their doors with the sacrificial lamb’s blood to prevent the Angel of Death from killing the firstborn.
Jesus knew that all men, and all women, could not live that perfect life under the Law of Moses; and so something else was needed, and that something was his blood; blood to cover all our sins, every single sin, so that we could approach God without blemish.
We cannot clean our own lives ourselves; we try; we need the blood of Jesus to do that for us; we need the blood of Jesus to approach God.
All our good deeds, and attempts at making good mean absolutely nothing to God: because whatever we do, we sin somewhere along the line; nothing we do will ever be perfect with him, unless we do it behind the blood of Jesus.
God hates sin, in fact the bible tells us that we have no idea just how much God hates sin, and not just big sins, God hates small sins just as much.
Imagine for a second there was a huge pane of glass right across this church here; and that glass represented us.
Now we could drive a bulldozer break through that glass and it would be completely broken. Or we could also fire a very small BB bullet through it and it would make a very small hole. It does not matter, in either instance, the glass would be broken.
And that is what we are like before God. We are broken somewhere; which mean we are damaged; and we are unrighteous. Do you understand? Without Jesus we are nothing; and with Jesus, we are everything. That is the gospel of the New Testament.
We are blameless in God’s sight, because of Jesus, and our faith in him.
The Pharisees and Sadducees were the self righteous of the day; the really religious people of the Old Testament, yet according to Jesus they, certainly were not getting into heaven.
Yet these Pharisees were so serious about trying to please God. They really wanted to be “good persons”, but according to Jesus they were falling well short of the mark: because they were relying on their own effort and their own will power to approach God.
To them, it was what they were doing, and had done that God should be so impressed and grateful to them, that he would honour them.
No, no, no, this is so wrong, then, and many people try that today; but according to the New Testament, it is all about what Jesus had done; through his efforts, that makes us righteous before God.
Jesus spilt his “own blood” on this earth as the ultimate, and final, blood sacrifice to cover all of our past, present and future sins. I will say that again in a different way, through the blood of Jesus, we have been washed clean before God. To God all our past, present and future sins have been completely forgiven. We are therefore free from Sin, but not free to sin.
Is that not the gospel? Is that not good news? All our works are nothing without Him, we are nothing without Him, and we are not getting into heaven without his name.
My own Father said many years ago that many ministers hide things in the bible from us; and that there a things in the bible that are not being taught. This is one of them, the true gospel, and I love being able to teach it.
I get so angry when I get out of bed on a Sunday morning to listen to a lot of drivel, normally politically correct stuff that we somehow we should be involved with, nice we moral stories, stories that other religions use, … when the actual gospel itself is not properly understood.
Last year I spoke to someone, who had just came back from a church service, where all the minister could talk about was the riots in London, and that somebody should do something about it.
I will tell you, that congregation, (it was not ours by the way) left the church full of anger and resentment at those riots. I do not know what they did about it, if anything, but what kind of sermon is that.
When you get to heaven, you are going to be asked one question to get in and that is, “Is Jesus your Lord? That is the password, and I can assure you that the riots in London last year are not going to be mentioned.
I would hate to think I wasted time going to a church to hear somebody else’s political view. Yes it can be important, but it is now where near as important as your salvation: and if you cannot grasp that, then you are useless to yourself, everybody about you, and to even God himself.
As you know, I like a rant now and again, but this has got to be said.
To move on: for us wine is the chosen symbol of the blood of Jesus, which we can drink, and which Jesus told his disciples, and us, to do at the last supper; the wine being symbolic of the spilled blood of Jesus.
And bread of course is the symbol of Christ's flesh which was sacrificed on the cross, that we should have eternal life through him.
Jesus sacrificed his body as the perfect sacrifice once and for all. There will be no more animals killed for a sacrifice as in the Passover, because Jesus did it once and for all. The flesh of Jesus was and is, the perfect sacrificial flesh; once and for all. Jesus to the crowd in front of him was going to replace the Passover sacrifices and they failed to grasp it.
For us who take communion, we only need to know one thing, and that is Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the life; the only way to heaven itself. He died on the cross instead of us who really deserve it.
I personally feel therefore that communion should not be refused to anyone who seriously wants it. We all are growing in faith and so we all need it. To take communion is to acknowledge that Jesus is our Lord and saviour; and through him we are saved.
The act of communion is between you (single) and God. If you want to take communion, take it. It is personal and worthy act of faith; and as we heard, and also a direct command from Jesus himself.
Some people cannot take communion for one reason or another; but according to the bible we are all instructed to take it, that is, if we believe Jesus to be our Lord, and son of God.
And notice the qualification, “if you believe” Jesus is your Lord and saviour, because if you don’t believe Jesus is Lord, do not take communion; because you are messing about with something dangerous, and dare I say deadly. Satan knows how to interfere with these acts of faith, and communion is one where he will interfere.
Jesus said: "This is my body”;” This is my blood"; "Do this in remembrance of Me"
Our focus is to be on Jesus, because if we acknowledge him, then he will acknowledge us; then we can ask whatever we want because we are in him; and we want, what he wants.
Is that not good news? Is that not the Gospel?
Amen.
Let us pray.
Father we thank you again morning for Jesus; we thank you that he died on the cross instead of us.
We thank Jesus for suffering a horrific death for us, a sacrifice once and for all, that all our Sins and unworthiness are cover by his blood. We thank you that he is our lord.
We also thank you for the right of communion; that can share a personal fellowship with you; you who are worthy.
Father many things in our lives need attention; we have all done our best, and we have all come short. Father come to us this morning and mend those areas in our lives that are causing us so grief.
We bring to you our health…, our finances…, and our relationships in this world with our fellow human beings...
Father we need you, and therefore ask you to intervene, and help us out.
We ask in Jesus name, as in his name, we want what he wants.
Amen.
