FOOD WITH AN ATTITUDE
John 6:41-59
S: Jesus
Th: Relationship with Jesus
Pr: JESUS IS A REALITY TO BE KNOWN AND LIVED.
?: How? How do we get to this reality?
Inductive
KW: Phases
TS: As we continue our study in John 6, we will find five phases as Jesus explains the importance of being the bread of life.
The _____ phase is…
I. COMPLAINT (41-42)
II. COMEBACK (43-47)
III. CONTENTMENT (48-51)
IV. CONTENTION (52)
V. COMPANIONSHIP (53-59)
Version: ESV
RMBC 30 June 02 AM
INTRODUCTION:
ILL Notebook: Misunderstand (Upjohn)
At their busy stock brokerage, John Hunt knows that it is hard to find time for small talk. So he was caught off guard when a co--worker leaned over to him and asked, “What’s up, John?”
Welcoming a brief break, John told him about his hectic weekend and the trou-ble he was having with his car. The co-worker seemed a little distracted, however. After their con-versation ended, John saw him lean over to another colleague. “Hey, Robert,” he said. “What’s the ticker symbol for ’Upjohn’ pharmaceuticals?”
Have you ever had trouble understanding what was going on?
We have all have had times when we didn’t quite understand what was said…right?
TRANSITION:
Well, in the same way…
1. People were having a difficult time understanding Jesus.
As we have already noted in our study of John 6, that the miracles Jesus was doing were great.
They were exciting!
In fact, the people were so excited about Him that it was their thought to take Him by force and make Him the king.
Such an attempt, of course, would be futile.
For Jesus knew the best way to put off such endeavors.
He would just say things that were hard.
And He did, for…
2. Jesus made unusual and extraordinary claims.
In the gospel of John, seven times we hear Him say “I I am.”
We noted last week that this was a claim to deity.
So when Jesus said, “I am the bread of life,” it held huge significance.
Jesus would go on to say, “I am the light of the world.”
“I am the door.”
“I am the good shepherd.”
“I am the resurrection and the life.”
“I am the way, the truth and the life.”
“I am the vine.”
Today, though we go back to the first claim, “I am the bread of life.”
And…
3. As we continue our study in John 6, we will find five phases as Jesus explains the importance of being the bread of life.
OUR STUDY:
I. The first phase is COMPLAINT (41-42).
[41] So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” [42] They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
The text here describes murmuring.
It is a confused sound running through the crowd.
And it is occurring in response to Jesus’ claim “I am the bread of heaven that came down from heaven.”
For…
1. Jesus draws criticism because He set Himself higher than the rest.
He says that He is the real thing.
He is the real bread.
ILL Notebook: Criticism (real apple)
There is an old story of a woman who made artificial fruits so perfectly that people could not tell them from the real fruit. But she had some critics who would find fault with the shape of the fruit, the color, and other things. One day as the critics stood before a table on which she had placed several pieces of fruit, they criticized particularly one apple. "It looked too artificial," they said. When they had finished, the woman picked up the apple, cut it in half, and began to eat it. It was a real apple.
Some of the people may not have liked what Jesus said, or how He said it, but that didn’t matter.
What did matter is the truth.
But still people did not believe Him.
2. His critics base their disagreement on their knowledge of Him.
They felt His claims were outrageous.
After all, Jesus was well known to them.
He grew up in Nazareth.
He was the ordinary, natural son of Joseph and Mary.
Yet, these complainers were a bit stuck.
Jesus was performing signs and wonders.
Nevertheless, they would not cross over a barrier of their own making, and embrace Jesus.
This brings us now to…
II. The second phase is COMEBACK (43-47).
[43] Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. [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. [45] It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me [46] not that anyone has seen the Father except him who is from God; he has seen the Father. [47] Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.”
Jesus tells them to stop their grumbling, for they were never going to learn the truth that way.
But Jesus does point out why they are unable to get it.
1. The grumblers don’t understand because they are not connected.
We all like to feel independent.
We like to think that when it comes to our relationship with God that it is all us.
But it is the testimony of Jesus that we are drawn.
We are compelled, even dragged along.
ILL Notebook: Salvation (Stedman’s message re: B. Graham)
Ray Stedman tells this story:
A woman was raised in a non-religious family and had never gone to church. When she was in high school, Billy Graham held his first crusade in Sacramento. She was invited by some of her friends to go hear him. She listened to the choir, to the testimonies and the special music, and she said to herself, “I know this man is using this to manipulate these people. He is psychologically preparing them to respond to an invitation.” She felt very confident that she could withstand what she considered to be manipulation because she knew exactly what he was doing. But then Billy Graham gave the invitations, and she said, “I was the first one to respond! I jumped out of my seat and went down immediately. I was embarrassed because, as I walked down, I saw that I was the very first person to respond.”
Do you know why?
She was drawn by the Father and she believed.
You know…
2. The essential ingredient is always belief.
We have a tendency, in our human thinking, to make it something more.
But belief is not being baptized.
It is not joining a church.
Neither is it some form of confirmation or some religious ceremony.
Belief is simply belief.
We believe Jesus for who He is and what He has done for us.
And when we do, salvation is ours.
We don’t have to work at it because the work has been finished.
The bill is paid and heaven is ours.
Which leads us to…
III. The third phase is CONTENTMENT (48-51).
[48] “I am the bread of life. [49] Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. [50] This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. [51] I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
1. The bread of Jesus is superior.
Last week, we saw that Jesus’ critics wanted him to reproduce more food like Moses had.
But Jesus points out that manna had limitations.
You eat it and you still die.
Which goes to show that you really can’t prevent death, even in today’s day and age.
You can sure take a lot of vitamins, or herbs like wild oregano, but it makes no ultimate difference.
What Jesus is offering is eternal.
He is the true Giver of life.
But to be this Giver of life was truly humiliating.
2. The bread Jesus gives is an act of humiliation.
Jesus is beginning to unfold a graphic description.
This bread that He is giving is found in His humanity.
With a crude forcefulness, He announces that it is His flesh!
This announcement brings us to…
IV. The fourth phase is CONTENTION (52).
[52] The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
In this verse, we find an angry debate.
We are told that they are arguing among themselves.
For…
The grumblers had difficulty with the mechanics of this concept.
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
They don’t see how it is possible.
Not only that, at first appearance, the statement seems to be downright offensive to their sensibilities.
Now, if I had been the Lord, I might have backed off a little at this point.
But not Jesus.
He does not back off one bit.
Instead, His statements get more deliberate, stronger and more important.
He becomes “food with an attitude.”
V. The fifth phase is COMPANIONSHIP (53-59).
[53] 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. [54] Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. [55] For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. [56] Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. [57] 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. [58] This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” [59] Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
Jesus has purposefully said this in a way that would be abhorrent to the Jewish mind.
This was not kosher.
You do not eat flesh and drink blood.
Jesus, though, was looking for something bigger, more profound.
But even today, what is meant is missed.
Because…
1. We are tempted to see this passage as related to “communion.”
This passage though does not support the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation that says when you take the sacraments, you are actually eating the flesh and the blood of Jesus.
Neither does this passage support some kind of vulgar cannibalism.
Again, Jesus’ meaning is more profound than these literal understandings.
ILL Notebook: Blood (Brand)
Some of you might know the name Paul Brand, the famous missionary doctor. His career in medicine traces back to one dreary night at a hospital in East London as an aide. Hospital orderlies wheeled a beautiful young woman into his ward. She had lost much blood in an accident. It had drained from her skin, leaving her an unearthly pale color, and her oxygen-starved brain had shut down into an unconscious mode. A nurse dashed down a corridor for a blood transfusion bottle while a doctor fumbled with the apparatus to get the transfusion going. They could not detect even the faintest pulse on her cold, limp wrist. She looked like a wax museum exhibit or a marble statue in a cathedral. She did not seem to be breathing and Paul was certain she was dead. The nurse arrived with a bottle of blood. The doctor punctured the woman’s vein with a large needle. They set the bottle high to gain more pressure so that the blood would empty into her body faster. The staff told Paul to keep watch as they hurried off for more blood. As he nervously held her wrist, suddenly he could feel the faintest press of a pulse. The next bottle arrived and was quickly connected. A spot of pink appeared on her cheek, and spread into a beautiful flush. Her lips darkened pink, then red, and her eyelids fluttered lightly and at last parted. She squinted at first, and then looked directly at Paul and asked for some water.
You know it is a beautiful thing to receive life when you are dying.
But this is the very thing that Jesus is doing for us.
For what He is describing is a spiritual partaking.
It is cryptic allusion to His upcoming death.
He was going to die, so that we might live.
This is why we sing songs like, “I Will Glory in the Cross.”
“Through His blood I stand forgiven, cleansed from sin and justified.”
You may find this “hard to swallow” (pardon the pun), but when Jesus asks us to eat His flesh and drink His blood, it is to recognize all that Jesus was giving up on our behalf.
So, in response…
2. We are to fully incorporate Jesus into our life.
We must take Christ into our innermost being.
We are to eat His flesh and drink His blood so that He abides in us.
You have seen the commercials for Gatorade on TV.
They ask, “Is it in you?”
We might ask the same thing today of those that claim to follow Jesus.
Is He in you?
APPLICATION:
You see…
1. JESUS IS A REALITY TO BE KNOWN AND LIVED.
ILL Notebook: Christlikeness (James Boice)
James Boice puts it this way:
“Is he as real to you spiritually as something you can taste or handle? Is he as much a part of you as that which you can eat? Do not think me blasphemous when I say that he must be real and as useful to you as a hamburger and French fries. I say this because, although he is obviously far more real and useful than these, the unfortunate thing is that for many people he is much less.”
2. Does Jesus live in you?
We remember the first command of the Ten Commandments.
It is: “You shall have no other gods before me.”
If we were to say it the opposite way, it would come out: “You shall have me.”
I think it is healthy for us to consider it this way, because it points to the intimacy Jesus says we must have with Him.
We must know Him so well, it is like eating Him.
He becomes a part of us.
And as a result, eternal life is ours.
But not only that…
3. Do you continue to “feed” on Jesus?
ILL Notebook: Food (what’s cookin?)
Andrew Kelley came across a health-food restaurant in Cambridge, Mass., with a billboard proclaiming, "Eat here and live a long life!" The barbecue pit next door posted its response: "Eat here and die happy!"
I am happy to announce that when it comes to Jesus, both are right.
You are going to die happy and live a long life.
So keep feeding.
Be hungry for Jesus.
Don’t be superficial or going through the motions.
Let’s be in our Bibles daily, receiving the nourishment and strength that we need so that Jesus will be a reality that is both known and lived!
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Have God in your life…for you shall have no other gods before the Lord Almighty; have Him; know Him; love Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
Let Jesus be in you…take Him into your innermost being so that there will be no doubt who you follow and who you desire to be like.
And continue to feed…be hungry and keep feeding so that you will know His words, his instruction and His love for each one of us.
Now to him who is able to establish you by the gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
