How to Come to Jesus Part 3: From Those Who Would Not Come - John 6:41-51

1:31Well, we're wanting to know how to come to Jesus. Specifically, we want to learn three lessons from those who wouldn't come. You remember that those are obviously in a context of those who would not come to Jesus. And the reason that the Jews did not come to Jesus, starting out, number one, is they were not humble. And so we can learn from them that in order to come to Jesus in the way that the Father wants us to come to Him, we must, first of all, be humble. Second, we must be teachable. We must be teachable.

2:13The Father Himself is the one who draws us. He's the one who creates the need. He's the one who gives us Christ and brings us to the point where we need Christ. Scriptures point to Christ. And so, so far, we've witnessed these two failures of the Jews. They were not humble, therefore, they were not teachable. Because they were not teachable, they were not about to receive what Jesus was about to say. And that brings us to the third characteristic of how we are to come to Jesus. We are to be humble, we are to be teachable, and we are to be receptive. We are to be receptive.

3:00And so, what I want to do this morning is, I want us to jump right in to beginning in verse 47. And as we work our way through, I want to answer two questions. If we are to be receptive to what Jesus has to offer, we first of all need to know what exactly it is that Jesus offers. And second, we need to know how to receive it. So, first of all, what does Jesus offer us? I mean, we have to be hungry for what Jesus gives, or we're not going to come to him. It's what it boils down to. And he is using this analogy of the bread of life. We're in that famous bread of life discourse, and it's going to be the image, the metaphor that he uses. But it's a very important question.

3:49What does Jesus give to those who come to him? Well, in one word, the answer is life. Life. That's what he gives. To those who are dead, they need life. To those who are separated from God, they need union with God. You know, the whole picture of death in Scripture is one of separation. Those who are dead to God are separated from God. They need life. That is, they need union with God. And this really is what Jesus offers, boiled down to this one concept. It's life. But it's in. How many ways he goes about saying it? He will, in the next few verses, he will communicate that what he has to give is life, and he will do it by direct statement. He will do it by metaphor, he will do it by comparison, and he will do it by summary.

4:46He will take all this metaphor and statement and comparison and put it all together in one final summary statement. But it all comes out of this idea: life. What he has to offer is life. So let's look at each way the Lord communicates what he has to offer so that we will be a people who will come to him. First of all, direct statement. Look at verse 47. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. That's truly, truly words. That's that solemn statement. Solemnly, I am telling you for sure, know this, bank on it, it's true. Let this sink deep in. Truly, truly, I am saying to you, the one believing is the one who is having, currently having, eternal life. Stated very plainly: eternal life is for those who believe. Those who believe, those who believe the teaching of the Father, those who believe the words of Christ, those who believe the scriptures, they all lead to this. The one who believes. Has eternal life. And make sure you understand the tense of the verbs here. The one who is believing is the one who is currently possessing eternal life. Eternal life isn't something that happens later. For the believer, the eternal life has begun now, and it will be growing in its newness. It will be growing in its freshness until one day the culminating expression of we will know God, we will be with him, we will be regenerated, we will be fit in habitation with him for eternity. But eternal life, the one who is believing is currently possessing eternal life. And eternal life is not just about duration, though it certainly includes that, it's about quality, the quality and character of that which is in eternal bloom, eternal freshness, eternal goodness, not in a state of decay, but in a state of eternal newness, bloom, goodness. Certainly includes duration, eternity.

7:15Look, it wouldn't be all that good if we would just go on the way we are right now forever, right? There's some deficiencies in this life. So it's not just about duration, it's about the quality and characteristic of eternity. Eternal bloom. And listen, no one, no one can give this on earth, right? All earthly paradises, no matter how great you can imagine, utopia, no matter how many resources you have, no matter what kind of paradise you can create, and many have done so through the centuries.

8:00But all these earthly paradises have one thing in common, don't they? They have one problem. They come to an end, right? Uninterrupted paradise cannot be given from anyone in our realm, and yet this is exactly what Jesus boldly offers: eternal life, quality and duration. It's a good offer, right? He offers life, eternal life. But second, he communicates this truth by metaphor. He says it plainly: eternal life. And now he's looking back at verse 48, and he makes this declaration: I am the bread of life. I am the bread of life. And this is the first of those seven I am statements in John that are usually pointed to, called out. You remember, Moses is about to go deliver, God is about to use. Send Moses back into Egypt to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt. Moses says, Okay, Lord, but as I go back and tell them, tell me your name.

9:16What is your name? Chapter 3 and verse 13, Moses said to God, Behold, I'm going to the sons of Israel and will say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you. Now they may say to me, What is his name? What shall I say to them? God said to Moses, I am who I am. He said, Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Now that's kind of a maybe left Moses maybe scratching his head. Now that's kind of an odd way to say you are, you are. You be. You're the verb to be, right? You are.

9:56And the title, if you think about it, it certainly encapsulates life. I am, my very nature, I am. But the answer seems a little complete, right? Incomplete, right? I am what? I am who? Well, John colors in some of that, completes the sentence for us several times throughout his gospel. He says, I am the bread of life. Our passage this morning. In chapter 8 and verse 12, he says, I am the light of the world. Chapter 10 and verse 9, I am the door.

10:42Chapter 10, verse 11, I am the good shepherd. Chapter 11, verse 35, I am the resurrection and the life. Chapter 14 and 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Chapter 15, verse 1, I am the true vine. All of these images and statements involve life, don't they? Or access to life, or the sustaining power of life. But here in chapter 6 and verse 48, he refers to himself as the bread of life. You know, physical bread. It's a source of physical nourishment, right? It's not a hard metaphor to understand. In fact, it's the staff of life sometimes referred to, that which is essential for life, as it's been expressed, especially in that culture. It was the primary source of physical life and nourishment. And so, what Jesus is doing is he's using the metaphor of bread to express the concept that he is the source.

12:00And vital source of spiritual vitality, the source of spiritual life and nourishment for humanity. That's the metaphor. But then he goes on and he communicates what he offers by comparison. Look at what he does next. He makes a comparison between the bread that he offers and the manna in the wilderness. Look at verse 49. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. That was quite a miracle, right? Back then. The miracle of the manna. It sustained the physical well-being of over two plus million people for over 40 years. Now that's a miracle. And that's what they're looking at. Could this be the prophet? Oh, by the way, Moses gave us some bread. Why don't you do something along that line? Give us some more of that wonderful bread that we just had yesterday.

12:58And by the way, you cannot be a follower of Christ if you deny the Exodus account because Jesus clearly believed in the Exodus. So if you go on Wikipedia and you read that the Exodus is a myth, didn't happen, well, you're going to have to choose. Are you going to follow that line of thinking or are you going to follow Christ? Christ believed in the Exodus. He believed that they were literally fed by manna. And to deny the Exodus is to deny that you are even. A follower of Christ. You need to learn. We need to believe what he believed.

13:36Certainly did. But as great as the miracle of the manna was, it was unable to impart eternal life. This is what Jesus is pointing out. He's saying, Look, you're working for that bread which perishes. But they ate the bread and they died. Remember, they also died because of their unbelief in the wilderness because they didn't believe and go. But there's the cold reality: they died. And Jesus is saying, What I have to offer is something greater and more important than what was offered to them because they died.

14:20You know, man needs something greater than physical food, don't we? Some of the most miserable people are some of the ones that are most well-fed. And that's why mission efforts that do not focus or that focus only on ministering to the body and not the soul are of no eternal value must communicate the gospel as Christ does here. But look at what he's saying about what he gives. Look at the superiority of what he gives. Gives. Look back at verse 50. This, maybe he pointed to himself. He's certainly talking about himself. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.

15:16Here is the bread that comes down, that you may eat of it and not die. I mean, this language is reminiscent of eating from the tree of life, isn't it? Reach forth, take, eat. I have come. This is the bread that has come, that you may eat of it and not die. And so he is clearly speaking of himself. He is boldly declaring that what he has to offer is far superior to what God gave to Israel in the wilderness. And that is why he exhorted them at the very beginning of this discussion: do not work for the bread which perishes. Don't go to all that effort. Work for the bread which endures. And that's what I'm going to give you. Come, be teachable, be receptive.

16:02I will give you this. The greatest gift was standing right before their eyes. Likewise, the greatest gift is the one that we are that I am proclaiming to you today. All other gifts are subordinate to this. If you do not have this, you do not have God's gift, everything will pass. Otherwise, so what does Jesus offer us? Well, he offers us life. He said this by direct statement, he said this by metaphor, he makes a comparison, and then he puts it all together in one summary fashion. Look at verse 51, the first sentence of that, our first part of the sentence: I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. So, he's already said that he is the true bread, the bread of life, the living bread, and he's one having come down from heaven. So, he's bread, right? Can't miss the metaphor. In fact, in verse 47, look back and note that the one who is believing is the one who is possessing eternal life, right? The one who is believing is the one who has eternal life. In verse 51, the one who should eat the bread is the one who will live forever. What Jesus is doing is he's making a parallel between believing and eating.

17:48Eating is taking physical substance into your body so that your body can assimilate it and gain the nourishment from it. Believing is the body. Is taking something into your spiritual being so that you can derive sustenance from it and nourishment from it. But he's making a parallel between the intake, believing, and eating. Close parallel. One deals with the physical, one deals with the spiritual, but he brings the truths alongside so that we can get our minds around it.

18:24And we need to take some time and make sure we understand this metaphor. Understand, otherwise, we will not receive the very truth that Jesus is wanting them to learn and wanting us to learn. So let's be humble, let's be teachable, and let's take a little time and understand this metaphor of eating. Eating bread is a very simple analogy of faith in Christ. Okay? And I want to take some time to develop this. I'm going to make four observations about eating bread. In fact, I'm going to tell you a little bit about my breakfast. Okay? Breakfast, this is some bread. This is some fierce bread. Okay? This is sprouted grain bread, good for life.

19:21It's the live grain difference. I mean, there's living grains in this bread. Okay? I mean, I could read, this is. Just some incredible. I mean, it's, let me just read to you a little bit about this bread. It's for the ultimate in a tasty, nutrient-rich loaf. We developed the original 100% flourless seven-sprouted grains bread. Wow. And it goes on to talk about the nutrients and the quality. I mean, this is some fierce bread. I mean, it's got vitamins, it's got phosphorus, it's got magnesium, it's got zinc, it's got niacin, it's got iron, it's got all kinds of stuff. It will make you strong.

20:08In fact, I know it's fierce because it takes like three trips through the toaster to get it to turn any kind of brown. I mean, it's that stout, and it takes about three sticks of butter to soften it up to where you can eat it. But I mean, it, you know, this is a, I remember being in the Hartford airport one time, and I saw this bulletin that said the power breakfast. Cup of coffee, two pieces of toast, and a Wall Street Journal. Okay. Well, I want to say there's a greater power. Two cups of coffee, or one cup of coffee, two pieces of this sprouted grain bread, and the Bible, and that's your power breakfast, right? But anyway, this will make you fierce. It is fierce. But I want to make some fun. Observations. By the way, if anybody wants a piece afterwards, kids, you can, I'll be happy to give you some of my. But I want to make four observations about eating this bread, okay?

21:12As long, the first observation is: eating bread is necessary to derive benefit from the bread. Would you all agree? For me to derive any benefit, get all these nutrients, all these things, I have to eat it, right? As long as the bread remains outside of the body, it provides none of its benefits, right? I can look at it, we can look at it, we can read about it, we can touch it, we can talk about its incredible qualities, its tremendous value. We can imagine just how healthy we will be once we eat it.

21:52We can even promote it. I can even sell this far and wide and communicate to you, you need to get some of this bread. But guess what? If I do not eat it myself, I derive absolutely no benefit from it. The nourishment can only come from eating it. Same is true with Christ. He is the spiritual bread for the soul of man. Knowing what Scripture says about Jesus, philosophizing about Jesus, talking about his incredible qualities, talk about the Only hope that's in him, promoting him far and wide will not benefit us at all unless we first take him into our inmost being by believing in him.

22:48Just like physical bread that has to be taken in physically, so spiritual bread must be taken in by receiving believing in him. So second observation about eating this bread: eating is in response to a felt need. Eating is in response to a felt need. Hunger is something we all feel, right? Acutely feel at some points. And when we know about it, when we get hungry, we know. We know we need food, and what do we do? We naturally set ourselves on a course to eat, right? And it's not hard to do so, right? We naturally eat. And the same is true with the spiritual bread. None of us will eat what Christ offers unless we feel our deep internal need for Him. So what is our need? What is our need? Well, the answer is very simple. We need reconciliation with God, right? We need life.

23:56Death is departing from God, running from God. And we have a condition of guilt before a holy God. And the reason that our society wants to get rid of the Ten Commandments is, you know, why? They embarrass us because we know we don't measure up. And when you're embarrassed, let me tell you what you do: you run and hide. It's one thing I've observed. And I've learned in life that when people get ashamed or when they get embarrassed, they run for cover, they leave.

24:34Same is true with us. And every honest soul knows that we do not meet God's perfection. So who in the world wants to stand before a holy God? When deep down we know we do not meet up with his perfection and his standards. And every honest soul also knows that without God's favor, we are lost. As long as the frown of God is upon us, we want to run and hide, right? So how do we get the smile of God upon us? Well, that's what Jesus offers us. You see, and when the Father draws someone, when the Father draws someone to Christ, and no one can come unless the Father draws him, Jesus has already made that very clear. Verse 44. But when the Father draws someone to Christ, there is this awakened sense to a person's lost condition, right?

25:41We become conscious of our sin and our guilt, become aware of our intense hunger to be justified in the eyes of a holy God. We become aware of the fact that without Christ, we will perish eternally because there is no favor upon us in our own right. And so when we begin to be drawn by the Father, we are awakened to this need, this hunger, and this hunger compels us to go to Christ and it compels us to gladly receive what Christ offers.

26:30Third thing about eating the bread, and this is going to be profound, I warn you in advance. Eating is eating. It's an act of internalizing the bread, right? Eating involves taking something external, bread in this case, and ingesting it so that it becomes part of you. I mean, after church today, many of you are going to go. Sit down at a table. Maybe it'll be spread with a lot of different kinds of food. And you can look at that food all day long. Try this. Just try this. Look at that food all day long and see if it provides any benefit to you. No, it won't. It won't truly become your food until you eat it and it becomes assimilated in your body.

27:28As long as that which remains outside of you stays outside of you, it provides no benefit. But once that which was previously outside of you comes inside of you, it begins to be assimilated and becomes part of you and it supplies health and strength to you. That's what bread does. Same is true in a spiritual sense. Just as we ingest bread by eating it, we ingest truth by believing it. You know, I may admire Christ's sinless life.

28:08I may be moved by his compassion for people. I may really admire and appreciate his genuineness before God and man. I mean, he is honest. I may marvel at his incredible power. I may be brought to tears. Because of the death upon the cross. But until I believe, that is, until I receive these realities into my soul, I cannot be saved. He who is previously outside of me must come inside of me and become part of me, ministering daily to my spiritual health and strength. And that's what Christ does, and that's what he offers.

29:07Fourth thing, fourth observation about eating. Eating is a personal act. Nobody can eat for you. I know that may sound profound, but it's true. No one can eat for you. I mean, if you are to be nourished by this bread here, you're going to have to eat it yourself. Sitting around the table and watching other people eat is not going to supply your needs. Hearing how this bread strengthened me or how food strengthened me is not going to do you any good.

29:52Likewise, no one can believe in Christ for you. I cannot believe for you. Your loved ones cannot believe. For you. You may have witnessed many other people coming to Christ, and I'm sure you have. You may be moved by a person's incredible and stirring testimony. You may even marvel at the unmistakable change that has been brought in a person's life by receiving Christ. You may even envy the peace or comfort that a person who is in Christ has.

30:31But unless you have eaten the bread of life, unless you have personally received Christ as your Lord and Savior, His offer of life has accomplished nothing for you. So, how should you respond to Jesus' bread of life teaching? Let me give you a five-step process. He's offering it. Be humble, be teachable. He knows everything about the universe, so be humble, be teachable. Make sure you let him influence your mind. Don't sit in judgment and come up with a God of your own creation, but let him teach you. Third, be receptive. Be receptive. Let me give you a five. How do you be receptive? You believe. You believe. That's how you believe. Bring it in. You believe. Step one: believe. Two, choose to believe. Okay? Settle it. You know, boy, I'm struggling. Choose to believe. I believe. I will simply take this word and I will believe it unless there's clear reason not to. And I can remember the biggest settlement in my life came the day when I say, you know, I can't quite figure out everything, but you know what? I am going to trust your word.

32:04And one day I'll stand in eternity. And if I get it wrong, I'll be, Lord, at least I stood on believing your word. If your word was wrong, shame on you. If your word is true and I believe it and I don't believe it, shame on me. But I will choose to believe. So believe. Step one. Step two, choose to believe. Step three, determine to believe. Number four, ask for forgiveness for your unbelief. Step five, ask for help in believing.

32:40And then go back to step one: believe, choose to believe, determine to believe. Ask for forgiveness for your unbelief. And then ask for help in believing. And then believe. And then choose to believe. Starting to see a pattern here. Determine to believe. Believe. Settle it. Believe. So, what does Jesus offer us? Life. Life that's worth living. He is the very one from heaven whose existence is eternal. He knows what life is about. He offers union with God.

33:24He offers to take away the frown of God and put the smile of God upon you. He gives himself to minister to our every need, to nourish us, to strengthen us, and to perfect us into the image of God. That's what he gives: life. So be receptive. Be receptive. Be hungry for what he offers. And what does Jesus offer us? Life. Now the question becomes: how? How do we receive it? How do we receive it? And the answer to that question: look back, verse 51, the last half of verse 51.

34:19And the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. My flesh. So, how do we receive it? We go to the place of his death. We need to go to the place of his death. Interesting, it's a future tense. I will give. He's speaking about the cross. The bread also which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. I will give. I will give later. The future tense speaks of something that's going to take place later from this moment. His flesh. Notice he does not say my body here. We'll get into that a little bit later in a couple of weeks. He's certainly not talking about the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation here. He's using metaphor: my flesh he gives on behalf of the life of the world.

35:24It's the place of the great exchange. We go to the place of his death because it is the place of the great exchange. And listen, Jesus is the true bread. He's already said that or communicated that. He is the bread of life. He is the living bread. And he is the bread giver. So think about what he's saying here. Not only is he the bread, but he's the one who gives the bread. One and the same.

35:55He gives it for the life of this world. But if You've been reading through John, and you're reading this gospel in the light of John's words, then you will be reminded very quickly of his words in 1 in John 1, in his opening statement. He says in verse 14, let me just read it in 12. But as many as received him, this is the word, as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in his name, this connection between reception and believing, one and the same, who were born not of the blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. And verse 14, the word became flesh. Here it is. The incarnation of God tabernacled among us, and we saw his glory.

36:58Flesh, the tabernacle, place of his tabernacle. He became flesh. And what Jesus is, what we must understand here is that we must internalize the implications of the death of Christ. How do we receive it? How do we receive this bread of life offering? Well, we go to the cross. We go to the place of his death because that's where the great exchange. Taking place, and we must internalize the implications of the death of Christ. He didn't have to give his flesh, he had all power, he didn't have to go there, but he did. Why? Be teachable.

37:50And look at the end of verse 51 again. It's the bread that is given in exchange for the life of the world. His flesh on the cross in sacrifice is that which is given for in exchange for the life of this world. Now, how does this work? A substitution is being made here. How does this work? Well, I want to remind you of the analogy of the scapegoat in Leviticus 16. Read to you a portion of it. There were two goats to be taken. Verse 7: Aaron was to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the doorway of the tent of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, and one lot for the Lord, and one lot for the scapegoat. So one of these two goats is going to be offered up in sacrifice, one's going to be, well, both are going to be, one's going to be the scapegoat. Then Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot of the Lord Fell and make it a sin offering. So one gets put up as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat. And this is how the transaction took place. It goes on in verse 20 of Leviticus 16. When he finishes atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall offer the live goat. Now the live goat comes in. Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins. And he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of the man who stands in readiness.

40:02The goat shall bear on itself all of their iniquities to a solitary land, and he shall release the goat in the wilderness. This is a picture, all the sins being put upon this one goat and being sent out into this place where it will never come back into the camp. The sins are being removed. There's a graphic picture of the sins being taken away. Oh, likewise, Jesus, by publicly subjecting his flesh to the public display of God's wrath, that incarnate God demonstrated publicly forever that he was taking away the sin of the world. And for those who believe, those who confess their sins and place them on Christ, he takes them into the realm where they can never come back.

41:07He doesn't just take them into a desert. We needed someplace farther than that. He takes them, takes our sins into the realm of the wrath of God, to the separation of God, to the realm of the dead, and there is where he takes them. And then he himself comes back through his glorious resurrection to be our Lord, to be our life-giving source. He took our sins into a solitary place where they can never come back. So, how do we receive what Christ offers? Well, we must go to the place of his death. It is the place of the great exchange, and there we must identify with him. It is there that we are to identify. With Christ. Listen, this is the heart of the gospel. The cross is the only place where sinful man can identify with Christ. It's the only place you can identify with Christ.

42:19And let me explain this to you. As I read through the gospels, every line about Christ condemns me. Let me explain why this is true. You know, we often think of the righteousness of God as revealed in the law of Moses, right? Precepts upon precepts that reveal his holiness and his goodness. And I can look into the law of Moses and I can see, I don't measure up. But then I look into the perfect incarnation and I see something even more condemning. I see more than just words on a page. I see the incarnate word, the perfect God in perfect humanity.

43:12His life is so incredible, so beautiful, so perfect. And as I look, I am aware of my own failure in a more vivid way than I could ever be with Moses' law. I know that I am not like him at all. I look in there and I say, where can I meet with such a one as this? I mean, think about it for a moment. If I had to try to identify with Christ on the grounds of authority, I'd say, yeah, I'm a man of great influence. You know, let me tell you about my influence.

43:52I'm the one in my household who can say yes or no to letting the cat spend the night in the house. And I did last night, right? Cat came in, right, under my authority. I mean, I even worked on a project one time that the governor had to get involved in personally. Yeah. Christ is over there. I created that governor. And I determined when he'd live and where he'd live. And I gave him everything that he needs. I put him in power. In fact, I have authority over the wind and the waves. I have the authority over the spiritual realm. I have authority. Oh, yeah. So we're not going to see. Oh, yeah. So I'm embarrassed. I can't deal with him there. Well, maybe I can try to identify with him on the grounds of his goodness. I'm like, okay, well, let me tell you how good I am. And then I start looking on the pages of scripture and I see this one who is perfectly compassionate, perfectly honest, one who perfectly used. All his powers for the good of others. And I say, that ain't me. That's not me.

45:09If I had the power that he had, I wouldn't use it like he had. No, I'm not like him at all. And think about if I tried to identify with him on the basis of God's favor. He says, let me tell you about God's favor. You and I are a lot alike in this sense. I've got a lot of favor. One time when I was little, I guessed the number of MMs in the jar, and I got to take the whole jar home. I cheated a little bit, but there was some favor. I mean, that's something that you have to have favor to do. But how can that compete when heaven opens up and words like that that are recorded in Matthew 3:17 say, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. What if Christ had just come to be transfigured before us in all of his glory, in all of his power, in all of his beauty, and then he left? He would just show me how unlike him I am.

46:11So where can I meet him? No, every word of the gospel shows me just how different I am from him. Where is the common ground? It's the cross. The cross. The place of his death is also the place of my just deserves. We have an intersecting point. Finally, I have a place that I can meet him. We're there for two different reasons. But we're there. But we're there. You see, it wasn't just enough for him to come from heaven, glorious as that is, he must condescend even further to death on the cross because it is there we have a common ground.

47:14And only there does sinful man have common ground. And it is there that he raises us up. As we die with him, we are raised with him. And he does that. Why does he do that? Why did he come all the way from heaven for that? Because he enjoys the favor of the Father so much. He had the favor of the Father upon him in eternity past. And he knew how wonderful having that close, intimate relationship with the Father was.

47:56And he wanted me to have that. And as Look and as I understand myself more and more, the one thing I want more than anything is the favor of God upon my life. I want the smile of God upon my life. But where can I get it? That is what Christ gives. He had enjoyed the favor with the Father for eternity past, and so he gives himself as the bread of life so that you and I would have the favor, the smile, the union, the relationship, forever, eternal life.

48:48Much more to say. But eating in this metaphor is the way of entry. In John chapter 3, Moses being lifted up as a serpent. There, the metaphor was by beholding. That was the entry into the soul of man. Here, the metaphor is eating. But both speak to the reality of believing. That is how truth comes in and becomes part of us. Well, there were those who didn't come to him that day. We've witnessed three folks. Failures of the Jews. They were not humble. Therefore, they were not teachable. Because they were not teachable, they were totally unprepared to receive what Christ offered.

49:41Let us come to Christ. Remember the Vietnam vet named Albert Rambo, who came to Emmanuel, about to die of cancer, and he said these words to me: He said, I came to Emmanuel to die as a thief on a cross. I thought it was better to die near to him than far away from him. And Albert Rambo received what Christ offered. And that's where we are to meet him and receive. Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for the message of the cross, the meeting place of the cross, that therein you give eternal life and you meet us there and invite us to come to you. Father, help us be aware of our need. Father, create in us by your spirit a growing dissatisfaction with all that life has offered us so far. Help us, give us the vision to see the shallowness of it all, the temporalness of it all. Help us long for that which truly.

51:01Your son loved so intensely that he would come. Father, give us this life in Jesus' name.