[Audio of this message may be heard here. The manuscript is below. Note that the sermon was not preached from the manuscript, so there may be slight differences between the two.]
Just Once Before I Die
Authentic Community, IIC: The Sustaining Ordinance – The Lord’s Supper
John 6:51-59
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." 52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 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 like the bread 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.
I must be honest and tell all of you that sometimes I find the words of Jesus offensive. Not always, of course. In fact, it’s often the case that when the listening crowd in the New Testament is offended, I am not. When Jesus says that Abraham rejoiced to see His day, for instance, I do not share in the offense of the crowd. I do not find those words offensive in the least. When Jesus reads from the Isaiah scroll in the synagogue in Nazareth and says in Luke 4:21, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing," I do not share in the offense of the crowd.
But there are times when I find His words offensive.
When Jesus tells me to bless those that curse me, I find the idea offensive. It offends my sensibilities and my sense of justice! The same with Jesus’ words that I must turn the other cheek to the one who has struck me. My mind boggles at that. And, frankly, I find His words in John 6 offensive. Not only that, I find them shocking and jarring. “Eat my flesh. Drink my blood.”
I love the Lord Jesus. I trust in Him. I believe when I die I will stand before Him and be received into the Kingdom on the basis of His shed blood and victorious resurrection. But I don’t know what to do with, “Eat my flesh and drink my blood.”
In fact, Jesus’ own disciples apparently did not know what to do with these words. If you look at the verse immediately following our text, v.60, you’ll see the disciples saying, “This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it?” Who indeed?! I understand their struggle!
But here’s the thing: I have determined that when I find the words of Jesus offensive or jarring or shocking, the problem is with me and my own sensibilities, not with Jesus. And so with this verse, I have come to believe that my natural and instinctive revulsion at these words is a mistake. I believe if we will wrestle with these words – “Eat my flesh. Drink my blood.” – we will find beauty and truth here that will strengthen and encourage us.
I want to acknowledge this morning that these particular words of Jesus are difficult and they are also very controversial. They are controversial specifically as they relate to the Lord’s Supper. On one extreme are traditional Roman Catholics who find in these words a defense of their doctrine of transubstantiation: the idea that the bread becomes flesh and the wine becomes blood in the mass. On the other extreme are Christians who say that John 6 has nothing to say about the Lord’s Supper because these words obviously precede the formal institution of the Lord’s Supper in the upper room.
I am of the opinion that both extremes are mistaken. These words cannot be used to buttress the Roman Catholic philosophy of the mass. Neither can it be asserted that they do not refer to the Lord’s Supper. Regardless of the fact that they were uttered before the institution of the Lord’s Supper, they clearly anticipate the Supper and they clearly were remembered by the early church for the profound implications they offer for our understanding of communion.
We have been talking about becoming a New Testament church, about becoming “an authentic community around the whole gospel for the glory of God.” Last week we talked about the initiatory ordinance of baptism. Today we are talking about the sustaining ordinance of the Lord’s Supper.
The ordinances of baptism and communion play a crucial role in our becoming an authentic community around the whole gospel for the glory of God. I believe we might view the ordinances as concrete anchors and tie us in to the good news of the gospel. They are not the gospel in the sense that we are not saved through observing the ordinances, but they anchor us in the gospel, proclaim the gospel, and aid us in our growth in the gospel.
The Lord’s Supper particularly does this as we gather time and time again and proclaim the death of the Lord. These words of Jesus in John 6 present us with profound communion truths. What, then, do these words of Christ mean for us as we gather today around the table?
I. The Lord’s Supper Signifies That A Person Is Really Alive (51-53)
Listen to the words of Jesus here:
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." 52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 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.
“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”
The Bible consistently affirms that not everybody who has breath in them has life. Adam and Eve are told that the day they eat of the forbidden fruit, they will die. We are told in Romans that all men die in Adam and also that the wages of sin is death. Jesus likewise condemns the Pharisees as being like “whitewashed tombs”: beautiful looking on the outside, but, inside, full of dead men’s bones.
The good news of the gospel of Christ is that Jesus comes “so that you may have life.” In Christ, dead men are made alive, and men stillborn in sin are “born again” in Christ.
This is what Jesus means when He speaks of Himself in v.11 as “the living bread that came down from heaven.” Jesus was born in Beth (“the house”) lehem (“of bread”), and truly He is the bread of life. We feed on Christ when we trust in Him and when He becomes our life. Jesus is not saying that the Lord’s Supper gives life in and of itself. He is saying that the supper is for those who have been made alive in Christ. “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."
No sooner are the words uttered than the debate concerning their meaning begins in v.52: “The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’”
Is that not what you first thought when you initially heard these words? “What can this mean?!” “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.’” (v.53)
The question, “Do you have Jesus?” is a question of life. “Are you truly alive?”
II. The Lord’s Supper Signifies That A Person Will Never Die (54-55)
Furthermore, the supper is a statement of eternal life.
Some foods kill. Did you know that?
I remember the first time I traveled to Honduras. We were in the village of San Vicente and the region of Santa Barbara. I was walking around the back part of that village and was invited into the home of this wonderful family. The little house consisted of 2 or 3 little rooms. There were 5 people in the family. In the corner of the main room there was a pile of corn stored up for later consumption. As I tried to speak with this family they did something unbelievably generous: they offered for me to share a tomato with them.
This put me in a quandary. I did not want to offend, but that tomato, to me – an American who could not eat the food of that area – that tomato meant severe sickness and maybe even death to me! I did not know how to communicate this fact since I spoke and speak no Spanish, so I just pointed to that tomato then rubbed my stomach then grimaced then made a sound like this: “Bwaaah!”
On hindsight, that was horribly rude of me, but it was the best I could do!
Some food means death, but the person who is nourished by Christ – who comes to Christ in faith – will never die.
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.
The supper is an anticipatory meal of eternal life. It means not only that we have life. It means that we have life eternal. All other food soon loses its ability to fill once it’s been consumed, but not the food that is Christ! In Him we live and are alive forevermore!
It is difficult not to think here of the Lord’s words in John 4 to the Samaritan woman at the well:
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." 11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." 13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 15The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."
Jesus has a penchant for speaking of eternal life in culinary terms! Eternal life is food and drink that satisfies forever and ever!
Have you come to Christ in faith, eaten His flesh, drunk His blood? Has He become life for you? Have you been nourished by Him and are you being nourished on Him now? Christ gives us eternal life!
III. The Lord’s Supper Signifies A Relationship (56-59)
Yet the Lord’s Supper is not merely an historic pronouncement, is it? It does not merely say of Christ, “He died and rose again!” It does not merely say of us, “I have been saved!” Is it not true that the Lord’s Supper, biblically understood, speaks of a present tense, ongoing, living, dynamic relationship with Jesus?
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 like the bread 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.
To eat and drink at this table is to acknowledge an ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ. It says that we “abide” in Christ and Christ “abides” in me.
This is why Paul offers the Corinthians church those dire and chilling words concerning the Lord’s Supper that we find in 1 Corinthians 11:
27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31 But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
To come to the Lord’s table outside of a loving relationship with Jesus is to commit and amazing and egregious act of hypocrisy. When you eat the bread you say, “I am walking with Christ. He lives in me!” When you drink the juice you say, “Jesus is alive to me and through His shed blood I now live in Christ!”
B.H. Carroll proclaimed before the Lord’s table: “Scourged from our hearts be every image but the marred face of Jesus when we partake of his supper. Let that face fill our vision.”1 Indeed! May Christ be exalted in the Lord’s Supper.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, our sincere desire is that all of you come to the table of the Lord this day, but understand that only those that are in Christ may come. Have you bowed heart and knee and mind and soul to Jesus? You need not have achieved moral perfection to come, for we all will battle with sin until we stand before the Lord. But we must be covered by the righteousness of Christ that we receive through faith.
Only those who have taken the body and blood of Christ into themselves may come to the table of the Lord and signify through bread and juice that they have done so.
To those of you who have not come to Christ, may I plead with you to do so today? Will you not call out to Jesus in this very moment and ask Him to save you? And will you not come to this table and proclaim before God, His church, and the walking world that you stand with Christ Jesus?
And to the body of Christ I say: consider the price that was paid for you once again. May we all be convicted and encouraged and strengthened as we gather at this table today.
1. B.H. Carroll, Ecclesia. The Baptist Distinctives Series, Number 38 (Paris, Arkansas: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 2006), p.102.