If you would, we will be going into, again, John chapter six this morning. Past couple of weeks, we read some of the verses prior to what we will be looking at today, particularly we looked from verses 41 to 51. And this morning, we will be continuing in this Bread of Life sermon that Jesus gives, reading from verses 52 to 59. And we read, starting in verse 52, the Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? 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. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. 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. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. And Jesus said these things in the synagogue as he taught at Capernaum. Let us pray once more. Lord, we thank you for this time of coming to your word. Please give us clarity of mind. Give us wisdom and understanding concerning what you have spoken. Help us to actually believe these things and to live our lives accordingly, knowing that it is through you alone that we can have eternal life. And so be with me as I preach and be with all of us in working in our hearts as we look to you. And in your name we pray, amen. And so here we have Christ emphasizing that redemption is through his flesh and blood, and that is how we have life. And I would like to begin with an illustration with a question, and that is that have you yourself felt as if you were dying, that you were at risk of losing your life? And even if it hasn't been an extreme circumstance, perhaps, I'm assuming you probably have felt sick. Feeling weak and needing restoration of your body from this sickness. And in this you take medicine to actually feel better. You might have issues at first because you might not like the bad taste of it. You might not like it. It's being swallowed down, having trouble getting it into your system. You might have problems with the potential side effects and risks of taking this medicine. But eventually, whether it's you yourself researching into things or someone telling you to just take it and explaining that it's good for you, you take the medicine and you yourself become healthy, become better. and you find yourself being invigorated through having taken this medicine. You have life through this medicine. And I would like to compare this with what Christ is saying here. He says that He gives life to those who come to Him. and that we are dying, that we have no life in ourselves apart from Him. We must come to Him even if we might not be hungry for righteousness. All of us, whether we recognize it or not, are starving to death spiritually and need spiritual life for salvation. And He says you must feed upon Him and have Him abide in you to have life. And He is far better than any medicine. There is no bad taste with coming to him and believing in him. There is no trouble swallowing it down even though in your own experience you might progressively come to accept him and find strength in him, to find comfort in him. And through him, there is no possibility of any potential bad side effects or harmful risks. He actually provides life through himself, through his power. And he emphasizes that you have no life apart from the life that Christ gives. But yet, if you believe in him, he will assuredly give life to you. And so that is what's being expressed here in the text. And as it was to the Jews then, so it should be shocking to us now that he says the only way to have life, the only way to live is actually to feed upon his flesh and his blood. And that he must abide in us in some sense. He is saying he himself is the cure for our spiritual sickness. And apart from him, apart from feeding upon him, we have no life. There is no other way to have life, it is only through him. And we are to understand that this is the gospel, even if it might seem closed-minded, even if it might seem offensive. We must believe in Him because only through Him we can have life unto salvation. And so, it is through Christ that we have redemption, specifically through His flesh and blood. It is on the basis of Christ having His body broken for us, His blood poured out for us, and presently abiding in us that we can be saved. This must be understood, must be trusted in if you are to have life. And in this, There is certain language that we are to see, first, that it is a spiritual feeding, second, that it is a sacrificial redeeming, and third, that it is a special abiding. In the first sense, the spiritual feeding, that we're to be spiritually nourished by him without becoming Catholics or cannibals, that it is a spiritual benefit through his spiritual presence rather than feeding upon his actual physical body and blood. It is a sacrificial redeeming in that something has been given up so that we might live, specifically His flesh and blood. And third, it is a special abiding because we must personally eat and believe in Him, have an intimate relationship with Him, if we're to be saved to have life. It's not enough to just know about him. It's not enough to understand things about him, to even have a witnessing personal relationship with others who might believe in him. You must come to him and personally believe in him yourself if you are to be saved. And in the context, with verse 51, he says that he is the living bread that has come down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, That one will live forever. And the bread that he gives for the life of the world is his own flesh. And he explains this in our text. So first, it is a spiritual feeding upon his flesh and blood. And I want to focus specifically that the Jews misunderstood what he was saying. Throughout this whole chapter, I would say there are two extremes that have been in play. The first is the crowds wanting to make Jesus their king, to have Christ conform to their desires, to have him actually bring about an eternal kingdom of righteousness and to give them physical bread forever. And they will do whatever they can to be with him so long as they do what they want. And the second extreme that's in here is that the Jews, upon Christ saying that he himself is the bread of life, that it is not some bread coming down from heaven, but himself, they question and doubt him and challenge him to the point that they have a desire to have nothing to do with him, refusing to accept him as God, as their Lord, as their spiritual teacher. And yet, Throughout all this, Christ, in a sense, has put forth a third extreme because he does not conform to sinful desires and he himself is who he is despite people not believing in him. He already is king and he already is God. He is in himself the bread of life and we don't make him these things and we ought not to deny these things because this is the truth, this is who he is, and we must eat his flesh and drink his blood if we're to be saved. And from the outset, it is important that with him saying that you must feed upon his flesh, must drink his blood, it is not a literal transformation that he's talking about. It's not as if bread and wine miraculously transform in their substance into his physical body and blood. We're to notice that he's not instituting the Lord's Supper here. He'll do that on the night of his betrayal. And even more importantly, we don't gain eternal life through just eating or drinking something, even if it is the elements of the Lord's table. And we're to even more understand that in the Lord's Supper, there's not a re-presentation of his flesh and blood day in and day out. We're to understand that it is in feeding upon him, that it is a spiritual reception in faith, that in feeding upon him, there is a life changing, transforming union with him, with Christ strengthening us by his spiritual blessing and presence. And knowing that in the Lord's Supper we remember these things and are strengthened spiritually by these things, not that we somehow gain some miraculous, meritorious life through eating his flesh and blood, but himself strengthening us in light of what he has done in his flesh and blood, what he continues to do in light of his death and resurrection. And to highlight this, We see in the text that the Jews consistently misunderstood the spiritual significance with Christ saying that he is the living bread that comes down from heaven and that one must eat of his flesh to live. If you look in verse 52, they say, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? In their minds it is this, how absurd is this that he says we must feed upon his flesh. He has refused to give us bread. He now claims to be this bread we desire and now he offers his own flesh as if it is the blood we want. How absurd is it that this man says we are to eat of him, that he offers his own flesh. And throughout, even before this, we keep on seeing again and again that they focused upon the physical, they focused upon physical bread, they focused upon Christ's physical parents, his physical upbringing, and now they focus upon his physical flesh. And they are disputing among themselves, verbally fighting among themselves in astonishment, failing to recognize his spiritual claims. And it might seem awkward. We might think that he should explain himself to them, but yet he doubles down on what he's saying, emphasizing, you must feed upon me to live. There is an intolerance of abuse and harm in life, and yet how much intolerance Christ has for the perversion of his truth, of his gospel. He's not to be doubted and denied because he actually is the one who provides life and we're to feed upon him. He adds, not only are we to feed upon his flesh, but drink upon his blood. And if you'll look with me throughout this whole seven verses, we see that he again and again and again is emphasizing, you must feed upon me. Starting in verse 53, he says, truly, truly, I just say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Verse 54, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. Verse 55, my flesh is true food and my blood true drink. Verse 56, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. Verse 57, whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. And verse 58, this is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever, again and again and again. He's saying, I am this bread and you must consume it, devour me to have life, not only my flesh, but also my blood. Otherwise, you have no life in you. But continually it is, feed upon me, feed upon me, feed upon me, feed upon me. Whoever feeds upon me, you will have life. And there is no life apart from this. It is only through feeding upon him that you have life. Because he is the Son of Man, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who is God incarnate. If I myself were to say to you, believe in me, come to me, feed upon my flesh and my blood so that you might have eternal life because of what I do, I hope that you would give me disgusted looks, that you would run me out of this building and have nothing to do with me at all. I would hope you wouldn't associate with me at all because it is foolish for me to claim such things I have no power to give this life, to raise someone up on the last day. I can do nothing. We can do nothing in ourselves because apart from Him, we have no life in ourselves. And it is through Him that we have life. is more than just a morally upright man. He is more than just a prophet criticizing hypocritical religious leaders and religious members. He is God and you must come to him. It is exclusively through him that you have life, that you can abide and continue, you must feed upon his flesh and blood. And we keep, again, emphasizing through his flesh and blood, through feeding, eating, drinking upon it, we have life. And so what is it? to actually feed upon Christ. And in recognizing that it is a spiritual feeding upon Him, we must see that it is believing in Him that we have life, believing in what He does. We're to accept and trust in Him, in His person and work. Otherwise, we will perish. We receive these things by the faith God grants to us, by the Father drawing us to His Son. We recognize that we're to trust in his accomplishments that he has done in his flesh and blood rather than our own accomplishments that we do in our own flesh and blood. We're to trust in him and we're to taste in him and see that he is good, that he is faithful to his promises and actually, truly, truly grant eternal life through himself. We must spiritually feed upon him and we can have joy and hope and comfort in that, in himself through his flesh and blood giving us life. And we're to see that it is not only just a spiritual trust in himself coming in flesh and blood to save us, but that he offers up his flesh and blood sacrificially to redeem us. The word redemption itself meaning to purchase at a cost, to pay a price as if someone is a slave or a captive demanding a ransom, someone pays that cost so that they might live and have their freedom. And in Christ offering up his own flesh and blood, we're able to live through him. And what a salvation is this, that we can have eternal life because of him dying for us, even though we ourselves deserve to die. He delivers us from death and the bondage of sin through his death and resurrection that has been done in his flesh and blood. If you'll look with me real quick at Hebrews chapter two, The author draws upon this language of flesh and blood, saying that Christ has taken upon himself a human nature to save sinful men. And in just reading verses 14 to 15, we read, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. He conquers death through his flesh and blood. There is no victory for death for ourselves if we trust in him. And moreover, we're delivered from this lifelong slavery to sin through him alone because he has died for us and has risen on behalf of us. we are transitioned from a bondage of sin to freedom in him, to live for God. And returning back to John chapter six, in this we're to see that they were not only misunderstanding what Jesus was saying, but also found it offensive. They found it scandalous and foolish what he was saying, him saying that one must actually feed upon his flesh and drink upon his blood so that they might be raised up on the last day. They say, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? They're to understand that the Israelites died through physical bread, but that they can live themselves through what he does through his flesh and blood. consuming his flesh and blood in a spiritual way. And it might help to see that it is not only a sense of maybe perhaps cannibalism, of some sense of not trusting, not thinking that that is right, that they find it offensive, but it is seen as morally defiling this idea of physically feeding upon his flesh and blood. In Leviticus 17, God himself condemns, prohibits the eating of flesh and blood as he gives instructions about sacrifices and offerings. In Leviticus 17, he emphasizes that you are not to consume the flesh and blood of a sacrifice. Verses 10 to 11, If anyone of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats his blood and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. If you consume flesh with blood, Based on this, you are cut off from God, cut off from God's people because we have life in our flesh and blood. God has created flesh and blood so that we might live, that animals might live as well. And he has ordained such a thing for the forgiveness of sins that by the flesh being sacrificed upon the altar, by the blood being sprinkled upon the altar, one can have their sins atoned for, that they might be covered over in forgiveness, that they might be pardoned. And through that, one being able to be at one with God, that it is through flesh and blood that one can actually have life with God. And yet Christ in John 18 is saying, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood to live, to have an atonement of sins. The Jews in their minds thought that if they were to do such a thing, they would desecrate what God had created for life in creation, as well as desecrate what he has ordained for religious purposes, for the actual forgiveness of sin through flesh and blood of animals, of lambs and calves. And yet he says, you must come to me through my flesh and blood. That is the only way. And today we still find this offensive, maybe not in the same way that the Jews did since we no longer sacrifice lambs and calves. But it is offensive to us and it is more than just it being difficult to understand or hard to understand. It is because he says that only through him you can be saved. We might think we ourselves are pure in our morals, and we might think it foolish. We might think it a cause of stumbling to think that we have salvation through a man who died upon a cross, who offers up his flesh and blood. How silly it is to trust in such a man. How can we have life through this man, through this one who says, I am the bread? Both then and now, there is the sense of self-righteousness that we don't want to trust in a savior. We think ourselves upright and moral, but yet Christ emphasizes that we are sinners in need of a savior. We have no life in ourselves. It is only by the grace of God, through Christ's flesh and blood, that we can be saved. Throughout all of scripture, it is continually put forth that we are dead in trespasses and sin, that we walk in sinful ways, that we transgress against his law, against God's law. And with the Old Testament, foretelling the coming of the Messiah and the salvation through the Messiah and the New Testament, laying out the salvation through Christ, Jesus Christ. We see that you can only be truly alive in Christ, that you can only be saved by Christ and be forgiven through Christ. It is only through him, through his blood that purifies what other blood cannot purify, and through his flesh which redeems what other flesh cannot redeem. And we know that by our own flesh and blood we cannot be right with God. In 1 Corinthians 15 it says that by our own flesh and blood we cannot inherit the kingdom of God. That it is only by the grace of God through Christ's resurrection that we too can be resurrected. And in the text of Hebrews, he emphasized that through our fresh flesh and blood, we cannot become uncorruptible. We ourselves are already corrupt, and we must come to Christ in order to not become corrupt anymore. Not because he himself changes our lives, so that we can live perfectly uncorruptly, but through what he has done through his flesh and blood. He allows us to go on to be raised up on the last day entrusting in him. Again, in the Old Testament, they offered up lambs and calves again and again and again. And why is that? Why did they have to do it continuously? And it is because this blood of the lambs and calves, this flesh of the lambs and calves cannot transform what was inside, cannot actually save them. They were still left dead in their sins through the flesh and blood of animal sacrifices. Indeed, they did emphasize the substitutionary aspect that something must be given up, something must die for us to live. And there is a sense that these sacrifices did appeased the wrath of God. They would have been condemned if they had not done according to what God had said in giving up these sacrifices in the temples. But yet they were not to trust in these things themselves. This did not actually cleanse the soul. It did not purify their spirit. They were still in sin and would continue in sin even though they sacrificed lambs and calves. And in the gospel, we see that Christ took on flesh and blood, offering himself as a perfect once-for-all sacrifice for us, that he has bought an eternal redemption for us to glorify himself, but to save us who are sinners. This one sacrifice in his flesh and blood is greater than all other sacrifices. and we can live because he has sinlessly died for us. He himself was tempted in every way in which we are yet without sin and it is because of this that we can be saved through his flesh and blood. This is the only way that we cannot perish is because of what he has accomplished upon the cross and what he has done as one risen from the tomb. And it is important to ask at this point, what do you think about Christ and what are you persuaded of about Christ and about salvation? Whatever your answer might be, it is important to know that it is only through Christ alone that we can be redeemed. We will die in our sins if we do not believe, if we do not come to him. Yet because he has died, because he lives, we can fully and sufficiently and all-encompassingly live in him if we indeed believe that he is God incarnate who has come to save sinners. We're not to think of ourselves as righteous because we are unrighteous, but he himself, being perfectly righteous, took on flesh and blood so that we who live in flesh and blood might live. He is true food and true drink because he actually does what he says that he will do. He is actually who he says he is. It'd be different if he was just teaching these things without actually being able to do it, just kind of fumbling around, not knowing exactly how to do these things, how to teach others about these things. But he himself is God, does what the Father teaches him, does what the Father tells him to do, and he actually, powerfully, truly grants life through himself. through one, not only through his work, but through his power, through his identity. It is because he is sinless. And because he has sinlessly done something for us that we can live. And it is important that That is the only way. And so we see that in John 6, returning back there, that because we spiritually feed upon Him, because He has offered up His flesh and blood for us, through that we can abide in Him and Him in us. Abiding itself being personal and intimate, that Him dying and resurrecting, He now abides with His people, with God's people. And the word itself meaning to stay somewhere, to remain somewhere, to dwell somewhere. to actually abide somewhere as if you're traveling somewhere and you stay, remain, dwell, abide in a hotel or in a friend's house or in a stranger's house. You abide. And so Christ is saying, He abides with you so that you might abide with Him and that you might live for the glory of God, that you might live with God through Him abiding in you and you in Him. It is in Christ that we can live to God and live with God. If you look again at John 6, verse 58, as he says, verse 56, as he says that his flesh is true food and his blood true drink, he says, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. It is Him spiritually indwelling in us, dwelling with us, giving His Spirit to us to abide in us, that we can live, that we can live in Him, that we can find our life in Him, that we can actually dwell with Him both presently and in the future. If we believe we have life now, no matter how sinless you are, If you genuinely believe, if you genuinely trust in what He does rather than in what you do, you have life in yourself. And Him being the author and finisher of our faith, He will cause you to live forever with Him, to abide with Him forever. Looking at a couple passages in John, we see that in abiding with Christ and him abiding in us, that we can actually bear fruit. If you'll turn to John 15 for a moment, just to read a couple of verses there. In verses four through five in John 15, as he explains that he is the true vine, he says, there, abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. And he says that I am the true vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me, you can do nothing. It is actually abiding in him that you are able to live as he did, to walk as he walked, even though we don't sinlessly do these things, even though we don't perfectly do these things. If he works in our life, we will in our lives seek his will. And more than that, not only are we able to live according to God's will, but we are actually able to have communion with the Father and the Son as the Father and the Son have communion with themselves. If you'll turn a couple chapters to chapter 17 in John, it's gospel. Looking at verses 21 to 23, as he prays to the Father that he might sanctify God's people in truth that he might cause those who are given to Christ to be holy, he says, he asks that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us. so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me. With Christ abiding in us and us in him, we see that we have union amongst ourselves seeking to follow after Christ. And not only that, there is union with Christ, and in that also union with the Father. The Jews themselves thought that they knew God, that they were living as God's people, but because they disregarded Christ, they were not in fellowship with him ultimately. It is through Christ that one abides with God, And he says that as the father abides with the son and the son with the father, he says that we too can abide with him because of his grace. He dwells in our hearts through faith and he strengthens us through his love and he fills us up through his power, through his mercy. And it might seem a paradox to passively depend upon God's grace as you actively seek to obey him. But it's important that in Christ abiding in us, with us abiding with Christ, it is not us who do the things of God. It is not us who lives to God. It is Christ living in us that we can live for God. Turn with me to Galatians 2. I think it's very significant to see that even in being saved, we don't trust in ourselves. We're to put our hopes and Christ actually living in us, spiritually living in us, even though he might be presently, physically in heaven, he abides with us so that we might live to God in his glory. In Galatians chapter two, as he talks about justification, the declaration of one being righteous, that it is by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, we read in verse 19, Through the law, I, Paul, died to the law, so that I might live to God. And yet I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. We see, because of his love, he gave himself for us, and he loves us first, that we might love him. In us loving him, though, it is not us actively doing this love, even though we do willfully, actively love him. It is Christ causing this love in us. It is his spirit causing this desire to actually form and change our lives. Christ living in us is how we might live to God. Yes, we actively seek to pursue his will, seek to be with Christ forever. But it is only because Christ abides with us that we can live. Again, he is the author and finisher of our faith. It is only because of Him being with us, causing us to believe, causing us to trust in Him, that we can run with endurance in this race of faith, that we can abide with Him, that we can lay aside sin and every heavy weight that burdens us. It is through Him living in us that we can live in Him, live for Him. live because of him. He must abide with us in a personal and spiritual and intimate way. Remain with us, dwell in us, causing us to sin less and less and seek to be faithful more and more, him accomplishing his will through our efforts, him guiding our efforts so that we might be considered his people. He must live in us, must live through us if we are to live and not perish. And so, to conclude. We see that the Jews misunderstood that this is a spiritual nourishing. They misunderstood. They found it offensive to trust in him, in his flesh and blood. And they did not want to abide with him. Because of all the claims he has made, they will eventually depart from him. But despite all this, what Christ says is true and we're to follow him in light of what he says. Because it is through Christ alone that we can have eternal life. It is through Christ alone that we cannot be cast out from the presence of God. And it is through Christ alone that we can be raised up on the last day. It is because of him coming down from heaven as God incarnate that we can have life. It is because he is true food and true drink. that we can spiritually feed upon him to live is not only knowing about him, not only affirming what he says to be true, but trusting in him that must be there for us to have eternal life, to have life with God. And to draw back on the illustration from the beginning, we know that with medicine, it is a remedy, it cures, it actually invigorates life and it is costly to make. Materials must be put up to make this medicine, to purchase it and have it come in our lives. And we see with Christ, he himself is the only remedy. for eternal condemnation. If we don't believe in him, we're condemned already. But if we believe in him, we will truly be saved. We can be invigorated with life, us having no life in ourself apart from his work in us. He causes us to move from spiritual death to spiritual life. And this is a costly salvation, a gracious salvation that is costly. He himself has paid the cost for us to have life, for you and I, you and I to have life. It is not us through our efforts causing sacrifices to be made to him that we can come to him, but him sacrificing himself, him coming in flesh and blood and offering up his flesh and blood that we might actually have life in him. And we emphasize he has died for our sins upon the cross, but we're to see that he is now high and lifted up. He is truly abiding spiritually with us now, with his people now, until his second coming when he will abide physically with his people. Even though those who have died before us abide with him in heaven, there will be a time in the future when he comes and his people will abide with him in a new heaven and new earth as he raises up his people on the last day. And he is deserving of all honor and power and dominion and praise because he has given his flesh and blood for us and we're to trust in that alone. And so he urges us, and I urge you that we must believe and come to him to receive life from him, otherwise we will perish. We will decay and be corrupt unless he works in us, unless we seek him. And so we must feed upon him and have him abide in us. Seek that fervently. knowing that only through this can we live. And with that, let us pray. God, we thank you for the love you show to us for what you have done for us for sending your son into the world to take upon himself flesh and blood so that we might be saved if we do not already Feed upon this, help us to spiritually be nourished by believing in you, by putting our hope and trust in you, knowing that it is you alone who does what can save us. It is by the grace of God that we are saved as sinners. And if we already believe, help us to be strengthened in that belief. Help us, even though we might weep, to have joy in you, in you abiding in us and conforming us to the image of Christ. We ask that you forgive us of our sins, that you pardon us of our guilt and shame, Be with us, help us, cleanse us, so that we might live to your glory with Christ living in us. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.