The Gospel of John Chapter Six
Eat, Drink, Love
Before I we get to today’s message I want to clear up a possible confusion from
last weeks message on “Want to Get Well.”
During that message I wanted to illustrate to you what subtle sin sickness can be.
We can be so enmeshed in our culture and in our lifestyle that we don’t
realize that something that we are doing,
or something that we are failing to do,
is actually messing up our right relationship
with God, Self, others or the Earth.
I used my recent readings concerning stewardship to illustrate that you might have
a subtle sin problem and not know it.
It was not my intent to have you walk out of here last Sunday thinking that you had
a stewardship problem.
That is something that the Lord is showing me.
What I wanted you to take home was that God
is merciful and compassionate and gracious and
sometimes we may not even know that we are suffering from a subtle
sin sickness that is keeping us from living our life to the full,
but God is so caring that all we have to do is Want to Get Well,
and that attitude, that desire, will be enough for God to bring about the
circumstances that ultimately lead to becoming well.
Today we are going to consider Chapter 6 in the Good News about God according
to the Apostle John.
In your Bible you have four Gospels,
four accounts of what we sometimes call Jesus’ earthly ministry.
There are many similarities as one would expect in the four accounts,
There are also many differences.
This makes sense since each writer had a different vantage point,
audience and purpose for arranging the material the way he did.
John tells us this in the last sentence of his account of Christ:
John 21:25 (NIV)
Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
In the earlier chapters we learned that John wants us to believe that
Jesus is the Son of God, savior of the world and
once believing that live our lives as Jesus’ disciples.
One of the events of Jesus life that is recorded in all four Gospels is the one that we
are going to consider today, the feeding on the hillside.
You’ve heard the old adage: “Can’t see the forest for the trees.”
IT basically means you can’t see the whole because you are focusing on just
the parts.
Kind of like you can’t see the painting for concentrating on the brush
strokes.
You miss the big picture,
Because you are engaged in the small picture.
There is a whole bunch of great details in Chapter 6 that make for great messages,
and great things to bring into our lives.
But instead of giving you take-a-ways like
Seek the giver not the gift.(6:2)
Your Little is Enough (6:9)
Ordinary is Sufficient (6:9)
Your little will be more than enough (6:13)
Needs Abundantly Meet (6:13)
Don’t be Afraid (6:20)
And on and on we could go.
What I want us to see today is Chapter 6 as a whole and learn
that we need to Eat, Drink and Love
There are three major events in Chapter 6, all three are vitally related to each other.
The first is the feeding on the hillside.
The second is Jesus walking on Water
The third is Jesus discourse on being the bread of heaven.
All these events weave together to tell us Eat Drink Love.
Let’s watch
Jesus feeding the crowd is a sign that he can meet every human need.
The crowd totally missed the point.
This miraculous sign sets the stage for seeking Jesus for the right reasons.
That right reason is that Jesus can meet greatest of human needs.
Jesus walking on the water and calming the storm is a sign for his disciples who
may have been caught up with the enthusiasm of the crowd.
The disciples learned that Jesus watches
The disciples learned that Jesus comes in times of trouble
The disciples learned that Jesus helps
The disciples learned that Jesus empowers us to do his will.
But most importantly the disciples learned that there was no need for the people to
make Jesus the Messiah King, he already was.
The whole point of these events are revealed in Jesus discourse to the people.
John 6:27 (MSG)
Don't waste your energy striving for perishable food like that. Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. He and what he does are guaranteed by God the Father to last."
Earlier in Chapter 4 when Jesus spoke to the woman at the well
he told his disciples when they asked if he wanted something to eat said,
that His food was to do the will of His Father
John 4:34 (MSG)
Jesus said, "The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started.
Here in Chapter 6 the people ask how they can get this food that brings eternal life.
Jesus response is believe in me, what I am telling you, what I am revealing
to you. This is how you get in on the works of the Father.
John 6: 29 (MSG)
Jesus said, "Throw your lot in with the One that God has sent. That kind of a commitment gets you in on God's works."
One of the Messianic expectations,
One of the things that people expected the Messiah to do was reinstate
manna from heaven.
Recall our study of the OT Moses prayed and for 40 years there
was bread from heaven, fresh 6 days a week,
and enough on the 6th day to cover the 7th.
The people point this out to Jesus and
Jesus tells them that He is the bread of heaven.
John 6:35 (NIV)
Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
Jesus makes the transition from physical things to spiritual things.
The crowds are looking for a way to fill their bellies.
Jesus is telling them how they can fill their souls.
How they can live their lives to the full.
How they can be possessed by eternal life.
John 6:53-57 (NIV)
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. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. 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.
Can I kick the cat a second?
Have you heard somebody say “ I take the Bible literally?”
Ever wonder what they make of this passage?
Eating Jesus flesh and drinking Jesus blood is to be understood symbolically.
There are various Christians who have a different take on this but in our
faith community we understand flesh and blood to be a metaphor,
a figure of speech,
what the words read isn’t what they mean.
The words paint a picture for us
To eat Jesus body and to drink Jesus blood means that
You’re sold, hook line and sinker.
You bought it lock, stock and barrel.
You ate the whole enchilada.
No one is pulling the wool over your eyes
His flesh and his blood are real food.
If you feast on his flesh and drink his blood you will never hunger or thirst
again.
There is nothing more you will ever need spiritually
Your thirst for righteousness will be quenched
Your hunger for holiness will be filled
Your spiritual needs will continue to be met as you continue daily to eat and drink.
As you eat and drink you will live your life to the full.
A life lived to the full in this world
continues into life eternal in the next.
There is no eternal life apart from a right relationship with God and
the only way you can have a right relationship with God
is believing the message of Jesus.
John 6:56 (NIV)
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.
I have come to understand that eating this real food is
to be in step and in tune with Jesus,
to be in harmony with one’s Lord,
to be walking with and following hard after Jesus.
One eats and drinks this real food when one is about doing what Jesus is doing.
Jesus told us that his food was to do the will of the Father
That metaphor eating His flesh and drinking His blood means we are so intimately connected to Jesus,
He in us, we in Him
So connected that we do what He does.
That dear friends is what discipleship, holiness and Christ likeness is
all about.
To eat Jesus flesh and to drink his blood means that you are doing his will,
and by extension doing the will of the Father.
To obey is to spiritually feast,
To refuse to obey is to spiritually starve.
Jesus told the people
John 6:29 (NIV)
"The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."
The message of the one God has sent is this
Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)
"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
Eating Jesus flesh and drinking his blood is a call to love,
Not cannibalism.
Eating Jesus flesh and drinking his blood is a call to love,
Not communion, not the Lord’s supper—the sacrament is a symbol.
Eating Jesus flesh and drinking his blood is a call to love,
You know that your life consists of four key relationships
Your relationship with God
Your relationship with self
Your relations with others
Your relationship with the earth
Love for God is expressed by doing His will
Love for self is expressed by becoming the person God created you to be
Love for others is seeking to meet their needs
Love for earth is being a good steward of God’s material blessings,
The proof that you are eating and drinking is your loving.
To eat and drink is the privilege of a follower of Christ
To eat and drink is the blessing of a disciple of Jesus
To eat and drink is to be like Jesus
To eat and drink is to be holy
To eat and drink is what Christians are expected to do.
Any thing that keeps you from this feast is sin for you.
To eat and drink is to be intimately related to Jesus.
He in you, you in him.
Inseparable.
Continually Connected
Becoming like Him on the inside
Becoming like Him in the things you do.
How do you eat and drink—Love,
And how is this kind of love possible,
You eat His flesh, you drink His blood.
Determine in your heart right now,
Make a vow before God
Tell someone of your commitment
That you are going to eat, drink, love.