THE TEST OF THE BREAD OF LIFE
John 6:56-69
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. A new chaplain was hired for a prison unit. He was excited to preach his first Sunday service in the prison, but he was also very nervous. He didn’t want to say the wrong thing.
2. On Sunday morning he arrived at the prison. A large group of prisoners had gathered to hear him. As he walked up and stood behind the pulpit, he said, “Good morning! I’m so glad that all of you are here!”
B. TEXT
56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. 60 On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” 61 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. 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. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.” 66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. 67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:56-69
C. THESIS
1. Today we’re looking at one of the “hard sayings of Jesus,” something Jesus taught that people, even today, find difficult to understand. But Jesus meant this as a test of loyalty: do we really love Him and trust Him?
2. We also look at seven things about the Manna that parallel our consumption of Jesus, the Bread of Life. The title of this message is “The Test of the Bread of Life.”
I. MISUNDERSTANDING JESUS’ WORDS vss. 56-63
The words of Jesus about ‘eating His flesh and drinking His blood’ have caused a lot of misunderstandings and divisions. In Jesus’ own day these words caused many of His followers to be offended and leave. In the intervening centuries different interpretations have spawned different denominations. Most of these differences revolve around the Lord’s Supper. So I list three of the main views:
A. TRANSUBSTANTIATION
1. This is the view of the Roman Catholic Church, that during the ceremony called the Mass, the bread and wine are miraculously changed into the literal flesh and blood of Christ, even though the elements appear to remain the same. This is their interpretation of John 6:24, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life....”
2. Of course, to eat human flesh or blood is forbidden in the Bible (Gen. 9:4-6). In addition, Jesus was still in His physical body when He instituted the Lord’s Supper (His body was on the chair, not on the plate). Also, Jesus referred to the contents of the cup as “the fruit of the vine” AFTER they all drank of it (Mt. 26:26-29), not as “My blood.”
3. Jesus told us plainly in verse 63, “The words that I have spoken to you are spiritual. They are life.” God’s Word Trans. So Jesus was speaking in a spiritual sense, about our need to spiritually absorb His words and His presence.
4. [Lutherans believe the elements don’t change, but the PHYSICAL presence of Christ is in or under the elements – “consubstantial.”]
B. MEMORIALISM
This is a wholly natural view of the Lord’s Supper, that there is NO real presence of Christ at the Lord's Table (spiritual or material) but the Meal is only a memorial, remembering Christ’s atonement (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:23-26).
C. REFORMED VIEW
1. The view favored by most Protestants is that the Lord's Supper is both a remembrance (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 11:23-26) meal and that the spiritual presence of Christ (1 Cor. 10:16-17) is partaken of (or special grace received) during the Lord's Supper.
2. Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” Mt. 18:20. So Christ’s spiritual presence would surely be there. God also rewards those who OBEY Him (Acts 5:32) and HONOR (1 Sam. 2:30) Him with His special presence. How much more at the remembrance service recounting Christ’s sufferings?
3. SO GETTING BACK TO JESUS BEING “THE BREAD OF LIFE,” I want to list seven things about the Manna that is true of Jesus Christ:
II. SEVEN ASPECTS OF THE BREAD OF LIFE
A. The Heavenly Manna WAS A GIFT. Long before Israel cried for food, the Father saw the coming need. There’s a famine in the soul without Christ. There’s something higher in man -- the pneuma or "spirit" for which provision must be made. We need the Bread of God!
B. THE FULLNESS OF THE SUPPLY. All that you need, spiritually, is supplied in Christ; and you can have all of Him that you want. Owen Carr calculated that it would take 100 train cars of 66 tons each of manna to feed all those people! Paul said, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” Col. 2:9. There’s enough of Jesus to satisfy every soul in the world!
C. IT WAS FREE. As the manna was a free gift of heaven, so Jesus is the free gift from the Father. He is obtained "without money and without price" Isaiah 55:1. We can ALL AFFORD to eat of this Bread!
D. IT WAS A MYSTERY. The Israelites named this substance "manna," which was really a question, "What is it?" They didn’t solve the mystery until they ate it. Jesus too is a mystery. You can’t know Him unless you try Him; "Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him" Ps. 34:8.
E. IT’S NEARNESS. Both the manna and Christ are on every man's doorstep. Jesus is as close as the mention of His Name! “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message of faith that we preach: If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” Rom. 10:8-9. He’s THAT close!
F. IT HAD TO BE EATEN DAILY. No person can live on yesterday’s experience of Christ; we need new sustenance every day.
G. ITS NECESSITY. The manna which God gave them literally stood between them and death. It’s the same with Jesus and eternal life; He’s the only source. We must have Him!
III. HOW THE MANNA WAS A TEST vss. 64-69
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I WILL TEST THEM and see whether they will follow my instructions’” Exodus 16:4.
A. WAYS THE ISRAELITES FAILED WITH THE MANNA
1. SOME TRIED TO KEEP IT OVER NIGHT. “Moses said to them, ‘No one is to keep any of it until morning.’ However, some of them paid no attention...kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them” EX. 16:19-20.
2. SOME TRIED TO GATHER IT ON THE SABBATH, though told not to. “Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions?’” Ex. 16:27-28.
3. THEY CRAVED SOMETHING BESIDES MANNA. Numbers 11:4-6 says, “The rabble...began to crave other food...the Israelites started wailing... ‘If only we had meat to eat! ....But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!’”
B. PARALLEL? JESUS MADE HIS TEACHING A TEST
1. I believe Jesus was testing the loyalty of His disciples. Do we think we have everything figured out and dissected? Can we accept that some things about God are unfathomable?
2. In other words, can we take God’s words by faith? Don’t we routinely hire specialists? WHY? Because we DON’T UNDERSTAND everything in every area of life. So we hire specialists – accountants, medical personnel, financial consultants, mechanics, lawyers, opticians, etc. We don’t have a problem accepting their word without question, so why do we have a problem accepting Jesus’ word without question? He’s the specialist about your soul!
3. I think Jesus intentionally advanced a teaching He knew would be hard for them to accept. Why? He was winnowing His disciples. Winnowing, is when you throw the grain up in the air on a windy day. You do this to separate the wheat kernels from the husk/chaff of the wheat. The husk is so light-weight that the wind blows it away, and only the wheat kernels come back down.
4. In John 6:64, it states that Jesus already knew that some of His followers DIDN’T BELIEVE, but evidently they just kept hanging around. It was time for pruning unproductive branches (John 15:2). Jesus was going to separate the wheat from the chaff. So how does He do it? By talking in spiritual terms they can’t understand. The result was that those who weren’t really committed to Him felt He was being unreasonable, got offended, and left following Him.
5. This was actually a necessary step. Do WE trust Jesus when He asks us to do things which go against rational thinking? Do we trust Him when things happen that seem to contradict His promises to us? Or when what He asks seems to contradict logic or common sense? Can we trust him?
6. I seem to hear God saying, “Abraham! Offer your son Isaac as a burnt offering!” “Esther, walk into the death zone before the King.” “Rich young ruler, sell all you have and give it to the poor.” “Daniel, walk into the lion’s den out of loyalty to Me!” They heard and trusted Him! God will have a tried and tested people! We may be being tested.
C. QUESTION FOR THE TWELVE
1. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” John 6:67-68.
2. Peter, as the spokesman for the apostles, stated their unshakable faith in Him, and lastly, their knowledge that God’s life is found only in Him! Peter stuck with what he knew; we should too!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: Will You Trust Him?
1. A man was once being conducted by a guide over a dangerous Alpine trail. At length they came to a place where a great rock jutted out over the precipice, leaving only the fragment of a pathway.
2. The guide laid hold on the rock with one hand and put his other hand down on what was left of the trail, the hand extending out over the abyss. He told the other man to step on his hand and forearm and thus pass around the rock in safety.
3. The man hesitated and was afraid; but the guide said, "Do not fear to stand on my hand. That hand has never yet lost a man!" The nail-pierced hand of Jesus has never yet lost a man or woman either. Will you take that hand and put your trust in Him?
B. THE CALL
1. Have you put your trust in Christ, entrusting your soul and future to Him?
2. Have you had events happen in your life that made you doubt whether God was watching over you or providing for you? Can you trust Him that He knows what’s best for you even if it seems bad at the moment?
3. How many of you need peace in your life? Let’s go to God and cast all our cares on Him. PRAYER.
