How to Feed on Jesus - Eating His Flesh and Drinking His Blood - John 6:52-59

2:18Second, very important question that you need to understand is: how do we eat his flesh and drink his blood? How does that happen? How do we do that? How can a person feed on Jesus? Well, this is the question that's being disputed in our text this morning by the Jews who heard all of these words that Jesus spoke. Remember, look back at verse 51. Jesus had just finished saying these words: I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. Now, these words caused quite a stir, quite a controversy in the synagogue. Remember, verse 41, they're grumbling about what he said. How does this guy come down, right? He grew up with us. You know, how does he now say he came down from heaven? We watched him grow up. How does he come down? Well, now they've gone from just grumbling to open debate and argument. How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

3:43Very good question, right? In fact, it's a very important question. In fact, I would say this: if we at Emmanuel cannot answer this question in the spirit and the intention that Christ expects, we need to stop calling ourselves Emmanuel Baptist Church and we need to shut down the doors because this is so basic to spiritual life. Well, look at verse 53 and look at Jesus' response. This debate, this argument is going on. 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 yourselves.

4:30So, you might have expected Jesus to maybe have softened his words a little bit. Okay, well, no, guys, you're kind of going down the road, wrong road, just like Nicodemus. You know, how can a man go and be born again? How does that happen? No, no, no, no. Jesus doesn't back down, he doubles down. He reinforces everything he said, and in even more strong and even more graphic terms. And his words are arresting. Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves.

5:12And so he's basically saying, you better pay attention. You better get this. Your very life, the internal well-being of your soul, hangs on you getting it. So pay attention. It's what he's telling them. And it's what he's saying to us today by virtue of his spirit as we read these. Look, drinking blood was absolutely forbidden in the Levitical law. Eating human flesh was out of the question. It was most absolutely, most horridly offensive to the Jewish mind, and even to the pagan mind.

5:58Even to us today, cannibalism. Is absolutely offensive to the mind. But we know that what he is saying is very, very important. Look at the end of verse 53. Because unless you eat the flesh and drink his blood, you have no life in yourself. You do not have the source of life in you. You will continue in the state of condemnation, in the state of moral disintegration, in the state of sin, with no hope of union with God here now or here ever after. If you do not eat my blood, I mean, eat my flesh and drink my blood.

6:46Pretty stout, right? You see, just as man entered into a state of death by eating the wrong thing, so man must enter into life by eating the right thing. And Jesus makes it expressly clear that he is the right thing. He is what we must consume in order to have life in ourselves. So we need to understand what this means, don't we? In fact, you need to be able to articulate what this means to others. This is the very nature of what we are as a church. This is the very nature, the very message that we have to proclaim.

7:29Plain and simple. Simple. We must feed on Jesus, or else we remain dead. And so I want us to be a people who feed on Jesus so that we will continually be strengthened by Him. So how do we feed on Jesus? How do we feed on Jesus? Well, there are three principles. Three principles. We want to look at these. How do we feed on Jesus? First of all, you need to know what feeding on Jesus involves. You need to know what feeding on Jesus involves. And there are three truths involved in feeding on Jesus, at least as we go through this text. First of all, feeding on Jesus involves believing.

8:22It involves believing, taking into the soul by means of hearing and believing. That's how it comes in, just like food comes into the body. It is by faith, realities that are there, that are true, realities that exist in our universe that you cannot perceive with the naked eye, but are there and are just as sure and more so. So faith is necessary for feeding on Jesus. Believing, faith, synonymous terms. If you go with Without food and water very long, what's going to happen? You're going to die pretty quickly. Your body cannot withstand the absence of food and water for very long. Spiritual life operates on very similar principles. You must take in spiritual nourishment or you remain dead.

9:22And in the, we don't need to go back through this, but in the preceding verses, Jesus has already communicated what feeding on him involves. It involves believing. In verse 47, you can look back. Notice it's the one who believes who has eternal life. In verse 51, it's the one who eats has eternal life. So eating and believing are parallel. One is a physical reality, one is a spiritual reality. Just as you take in food by eating, so you take in spiritual truth by believing.

9:54One and the same. They have eternal life. And this isn't too hard for us to understand. We often say, I drank in the whole speech, right? Or I gobbled up truth at that conference. Or that sunset just was a feast for my eyes. We use that kind of language all the time. And same is true. Feeding on Jesus involves believing. However, you can't just eat anything, can you? Right? You are what you eat. Heard that expression, right?

10:32I'm surprised my daughters aren't just sugar cubes. They eat so much, you know, but you can't just eat anything, right? If you eat poison, you die, right? So it's not the act of eating, it's what you eat that is important. It's the object that is eaten that gives health. Same is true spiritually. It's not the action of having faith, but having faith in the right object. You are what you believe in. So what is the right object? Well, Jesus makes it very clear that he is the right object. So, how do you feed on Jesus? You know what feeding on Jesus involves. First, feeding on Jesus involves believing.

11:26But second, feeding on Jesus involves believing him to be the son of man. Feeding on Jesus involves believing him to be the son of man. Look back at verse 53 and notice how Jesus referred to himself. He referred to himself as the son of man. Interesting. He understands himself. Without a question, Jesus understands himself to be the fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy of the coming rain. Of this Son of Man. Remember from Babylon, Daniel chapter 7? Daniel gets these visions of these empires that are to come on the earth. And then he says this in chapter 7 and verse 13: I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man was coming. And he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him, and to him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. Then he goes on in verse 27. Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the highest one. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey him. And ever since these words were given, two questions have been asked. Who is this Son of Man, and who are his people?

13:20Well, our passage answers both of these questions this morning. The Son of Man is emphatically, unquestionably, Jesus Christ. The one with all authority, the one who can make matter out of nothing and create and feed a multitude. He's the one with that authority, the one who can walk on the water, the one who can calm the storm, transport his people across the sea. This one, he is the Son of Man. Now, who are his people? Well, his people are those who eat his flesh and drink in his blood.

13:57You see, the one with dominion has a cross to carry. He refers to himself as the Son of Man, and he does so in this context and in other contexts where he's talking about the cross. You remember in John 3, 14, what's the answer to how is one born again? Jesus gives it in verse 14, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be lifted up, and whoever believes in him will have eternal life. The Son of Man lifted up on a cross. Whoever takes in this reality and beholds and takes in this reality, has the sentence of death removed, has a new life infused in them. So you see this expression, Son of Man, used quite commonly in the context where he's talking about his death.

14:54Verse 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 yourselves. Tense, one time, unless you should eat, take this flesh in, unless you drink in this blood, you have no life. Those are shocking statements, but they are metaphors that speak about and point to his sacrifice and his death, shed blood, his incarnation, flesh, his sacrifice, his blood. You see, the Jews didn't have much of a hard time understanding the concept of the Son of Man. What they were having a trouble with was getting their minds around the Passover lamb. You see, they saw no need for his sacrifice. They wanted a Passover deliverer like Moses, but they didn't want a Passover lamb.

16:02They saw no need for the Passover lamb. Look back at verse 4. You want to see John 6. You want to see one of the key elements in understanding what's going on in this whole bread of life discourse. John gives us a cue in verse 4. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was near. Jesus is going to die a year later. Power. Passover, the crowds thinking about Passover, thinking about going up to Jerusalem, celebrating. And so Jesus directs their minds to understand the sacrifice of the Passover. Yes, he is Son of Man coming to rule and reign, but you have to know who he's going to rule and reign over. He's going to rule and reign over those who eat his flesh and drink his blood. Oh, he rules over all, some in hell, but those of his good, those who come with him, those who receive the kingdom, those people of the highest one, are the ones who understand and feed upon his sacrifice for them.

17:23So, how do you feed on Jesus? Well, you need to know what feeding on Jesus involves. It involves believing, it involves believing him to be the son of man, but feeding on Jesus also involves believing him to be the Passover Lamb, the Passover Lamb. Feed upon him as the Son of Man. Believe him to be the Son of Man, but also believe him to be the Passover Lamb. You know, these words about drinking the blood and eating the flesh should not have been that shocking to this Jewish.

18:00Audience. It really shouldn't have shocked them really any more than when Jesus said to Nicodemus, You must be born again. And Nicodemus is shocked. Jesus is like, You're the teacher of Israel and you don't understand this. Well, listen, these words about eating the flesh and drinking the blood should not be all that shocking. You know, every year of their lives on Passover, a lamb's blood was shed, and they ate the flesh of the lamb. Passover was a memorial to redemption. In fact, if you remember the very first Passover, Exodus 12, verse 5 speaks about this and following: you shall take an unblemished male. You shall kill it at twilight. Verse 7: You should put the blood on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses.

19:07They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. And you shall not, verse 10, leave any of it until morning. But whatever is left until morning, you shall burn with fire. You see, the lamb was to be totally consumed in this one event. Passover. And in verse 13, the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you. Verse 23: For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians, and when he sees the blood on the lentil of the doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you. And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever. Such was Passover. Kill a lamb. Put the blood on your door. The destroyer will not come in while you consume the lamb. You see, the lamb gives himself completely in this event. He not only redeems and protects from the destroyer, but he feeds those he redeemed.

20:35You see, the whole Passover was instituted in a land where the whole land was put under a death curse by the death, and the death angel was to come. And any house that was not marked by blood experienced death. Likewise, all mankind is under the curse of death. We're under physical death, curse, but Also, more importantly, the looming eternal death. And everyone who is not marked by the blood will experience the second death, eternal separation from God.

21:16And so, what Passover did is it memorialized this great deliverance in Egypt, but it also pointed to the reality of a future deliverance, a greater deliverance, a deliverance from spiritual death. And so, the question comes down: how does one get the blood on the doorposts of their own lives? And the answer is by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the perfect Lamb. I'm breaking this down. Eating the flesh involves believing in the incarnation of the Son of God, drinking the blood, believing in the sacrifice of the Son of God for you. That's how you get it in. This is a reality. Yes, Christ died, but it's only those who believe it's applied to. It's only those who believe and take in that reality. This is a reality that whoever would believe in him will not perish, but have eternal life. But it is by believing that. You get that blood on your own doorpost, and it is highly personalized, right? It's not enough just to know that he died for the world. You must come to grips with the fact that he died for you, that this sacrifice was for you.

22:47No one can eat for you, no one can believe for you. So, how to feed on Jesus? Number one, you need to know what feeding on Jesus involves. Second, you need to value the benefits of feeding on Jesus. You need to value the benefits of feeding on Jesus. Look back at verse 54, and I want you to notice something, although you can't really see it so much in the English. Verse 54, he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood.

23:24He shifts gears. He uses a different word for eating. He uses the word the one who is eating, the one who is chewing, the one who is crunching. It's the word that is often used of an animal gnawing on something. It's also used as a reference to those who eat in celebration of an event, where there's just genuinely an event that's characterized by eating, chewing on. He who is chewing on, who Is eating my flesh and who is drinking my blood. The stress is upon the action, not the consumption, but the actual action of eating.

24:16And what Jesus is stressing is that feeding on him is an ongoing action all day, every day. He's not talking about an ordinance that we would observe every week or every few weeks or a month. He's talking about something that characterized the very essence of who we are. He's talking about an ongoing feeding that is an ongoing strengthening of his people. Now, think back to the first Passover. The lamb had a purpose. It was to deliver, and then it was to feed those who were delivered. The blood protected the Israelite while the Israelite was feeding upon the lamb.

25:03And none of it was to remain for any other purpose. And you also read in the context, you were to eat it in haste. Listen, today, if you hear the news about Christ and his sacrifice for you, you come and eat in haste. Do not put it off. But what it did is it affected. Accomplished redemption and then it strengthened the redeemed. And there are four benefits. Jesus goes on, there are four benefits in verses 54 to 56 that show the benefits. Jesus goes on to show these benefits. So just look at verse 54, the first benefit of feeding on Jesus. Number one, he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. Current possession, a life right now that has begun, a new life, one that will not end.

26:04Second benefit, verse 54, and I will raise him up on the last day, a future possession, a future possession of a resurrected body that is glorified humanity, one that cannot sin, one that is raised in his likeness. You see, the whole purpose, if we really get down to it, of Jesus' incarnation is really summed up right here. I will raise him up the last day. Right? Man died, and he really did die in the garden that day when he took and ate that which he was not supposed to. When he took in and believed that which he was not supposed to, he died. He left. He's banished. And yet you see the loving hand of a merciful God coming after. And you see, in time, You see, the prophecies speak about him. He's talked about, he's pointed to, and then in time he shows up on the scene. He's unmistakable. You can't miss him. And his whole purpose to go and to be that sacrifice for him, so that on the last day they will come forth. So we sing it: born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. His incarnation is here, born to raise.

27:31Third benefit of feeding on Jesus is you gain true sustenance, true sustenance. Look back at verse 55: for my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. It's true. And for a person who eats poison, they die. The soul who feeds on Jesus will live. A spiritual infusion of vitality of the highest sort is given to those who take him in, both now and forever. It's true. True food, true drink. Not what Satan offered in the garden, that lie that brought not at all, but he said it would bring.

28:18True. Not like the bread that's here today and gone tomorrow, like the manna in the wilderness, but something true, something that is. A source of eternal feeding, eternal nourishment. Listen, we do not feed upon the carcass of a dead lamb. We feed upon the one who is alive, the one who didn't have to die, yet did die, and death could not contain him. That's who we feed upon: a living spirit. And he gives life and vitality. This is true food, true drink.

29:06But you must take it in. You must assimilate it by eating, by ongoing action, of taking it in, believing contemplation, believing memory, believing. Fourth benefit of feeding on Jesus is union with Christ. Look at verse 56, and look at how this is expressed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. This is an expression of the closest kind of communion. And think about it: as food comes into the body, what happens? It's assimilated into every cell of the body, it's taken in, it's taken up, the food becomes one. One with the body and the body, one with the food. It's that tight.

30:07Same is true spiritually. When one believes upon Jesus' sacrifice and death, when one's in a state of continual meditation and believing meditation and thought upon this sacrifice, Jesus comes in and Jesus is assimilated into every aspect of the believer's life. And what Jesus is saying is true, the believer is in Christ. Christ is in the believer, a union. And I love the word here. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me. This is a key thought in John. This whole who is going to remain? In fact, in verse 66 here, 666, they don't remain. They depart. This huge crowd that followed him all of a sudden is winnowed down to very few because they did not eat the flesh. They were not willing to drink in his blood.

31:14And so they would not remain. But those who did, those who do remain. And the whole thought here, and I'd love to spend a lot of time here, but I will not. But it's the whole concept of a home, an abiding place. You see, the cross is more than a daily pilgrimage. The cross is the soul's home in this world. Our mental, our spiritual resting place is the sacrifice of our King for us. And no matter where we go or what we do in life, our mind is to always come back to that place. That is our home. You know the concept of home. Homes where you are free, where you are there, where you are loved and taken care of.

32:12That is the cross. And in this world, we dwell with Christ at the point of his humiliation. The cross is our home. It is our resting place. And in the world to come, we will dwell with him in his glory. But here, oh, beloved cross, beloved cross, my soul's resting point, my soul's feeding ground, my place where I am strengthened and enlivened and nourished from the sacrifice of my king who lives. Well, how to feed on Jesus? Well, you need to know what feeding on Jesus involves. You need to value the benefits of feeding on Jesus. Jesus. And third, you need to then practice feeding on Jesus.

33:05And this really speaks of daily communion. This takes that concept of communion and union even further. Jesus heightens, look at verse 57. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, he also will live because of me. I mean, he heightens, Jesus heightens the union between himself and those who feed upon him by comparing it to the union that he enjoyed with the Father on the earth while he was on the earth. Think about Jesus in his incarnation enjoyed a fellowship with the Father that was of the closest kind.

33:52And so the one who daily feeds upon Jesus will enjoy the closest communion with Jesus. These are incredible words. It's an incredible promise. You think that believing in Jesus can do all this? Yes. You see, believing in Jesus, his life poured out for the world is the only foundation for our lives as Christians. It is the only foundation. And when you come to grips with and you internalize that your Creator took upon flesh and he is mindful. Of you, where you live and when you'd live, and that he loves you to the degree of giving you absolute holiness and making such a sacrifice on his part to give it to you. When you really internalize this truth, then you're ready to believe. I mean, then you're ready to live. No, you've already begun to live. And that's what he's saying.

34:55It infuses you with a whole nother perspective, a whole nother vitality for life. Look at verse 58. This is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. He who eats this bread will live forever. This is basically the summary statement of the whole discourse. Look back at verse 26. Remember, after he came across the sea, the crowd followed him. Hey, give us some more of that food. That was really good. And then he says in verse 26, Jesus answered them and said, Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him the Father God has set his seal. And so he comes, where he begins the discourse, he ends it, bringing back to this thought, listen. I am the bread which came down. And I'm also the one who gives you this bread. The gift and the giver, the same.

36:12He is the giver who gives himself. You know, giving gifts make a connection with the giver, don't they? I have a lot of gifts that have been given to me through the years. Some art projects from my kids, and something that my wife would give me. And as I look at those gifts, they catapult me, they transport me into the moment in which that was given. And it says a lot, right? We understand that concept very well. Gifts associate us with the giver, and we commune, right? And I have some gifts where some of my kids poured their heart out as an expression of love for me. And when I see that, even if it's just a brief moment, my mind is taken back there, and I commune with that individual and that gift and that gift giver.

37:08Feeding upon the gift that Christ gives brings us into the closest communion with Him. He poured everything into the gift. He poured Himself. And we are to daily remember, we are to daily call to mind the gift that our Redeemer gave to us. He gave himself. He is the gift. He is the gift giver. And those who take in the gift and focus in on it have a close communion. A communion that Christ describes likened to the communion that he had with the Father while he was here. You see, eating flesh and drinking his blood, what he is inviting you to, is to the closest kind of relationship that you can have. That's what life is about.

38:15Look at verse 59. These things he said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. And he brings the discourse to the conclusion. We'll look at how people react to it later. But what does life of feeding on Jesus look like? Feeding on Jesus' sacrifice, if I boiled it down, I could express it like this. Feeding on Jesus is believing participation. Feeding on Jesus is believing contemplation. That's what it is. Of all that his sacrifice says, all that it says about him, all that it says. It says about us, all it says about the Father, all it says about our relationship with His, and all the implications that come out of that. Feeding on Jesus is believing participation.

39:13Let me give you an example. Let me just show you how this shapes the life of those who feed on Jesus. In times of grief, times of failure, in times of guilt over sin, those who feed upon Jesus, those who remember the cross, remember the goal of his sacrifice. And they can cry out like David in Psalm 51, Be gracious to me, O God. Be gracious according to your loving kindness. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For my transgressions and my sin is ever before you.

40:01Create in me a clean heart, O God. And all of a sudden, wow, life comes into them. Let me tell you about those who feed on Jesus in times when they feel like God has just abandoned them. You ever felt that way? You just fell out of God's favor? Maybe some circumstances go on in your life right now, and you're saying, you know, God has just left his favor. Listen to what. The psalmist says in 77, will the Lord reject forever? And will he never be favorable again? Has his loving kindness ceased forever? Has his promise come to an end forever? Has God forgotten to be gracious, or has he in anger withdrawn his compassion?

40:54Then, says the psalmist, I said, it is my grief that the right hand of the Most High has changed. It is not his favor, it is my grief. I shall remember the deeds of the Lord. Surely I will remember your wonders of old. I will meditate on all your work and muse on your deeds. You see, those who feed on the sacrifice see that as the ultimate expression of God's favor. And it doesn't matter if your car doesn't start this morning, right? It doesn't matter what else has gone on in your life. The ultimate expression of God's favor is permanently displayed, and your soul knows it.

41:37And now your soul can live. You know, there may be times we could go through times of being overwhelmed by the injustice in the world, or maybe even personally being misunderstood, maybe personally being wrong, maybe personally being slandered, maybe personally being rejected. Let me tell you, let your mind go to those spirits. Of the one on the cross. Oh, he understood being misunderstood. He understood being wronged. He understood being slandered, and yet he remained, trusting himself. He understood rejection.

42:17Maybe some of you are lonely. Converse. Remember. Think upon the one who walked the lonesome valley by himself, who died alone. Times of temptation, think about this. The one who thinks about and meditates upon the sacrifice of Christ on the cross has a whole new dimension of strength in times of temptation. Think for a moment of what his hands felt like doing. You talk about a hand that wanted, had every sense of desire to come right off that cross and level the whole playing field.

43:08Listen, if you will commune with him, men, let me talk to you. If he could keep his hand upon the cross, you can keep your hand from clicking at the wrong sight. Let me tell you something. There is a power in identifying and understanding. His flesh wanted to give in. And yet, by thinking, by believing, all of a sudden you have the power to say, Look, I can stay. If he could do that, I can do that and more.

43:52Because we share the Spirit. Go on. Talk about longing for loved ones. He identifies with Him on the cross who died of a broken heart. Before we close, I want to also come around. There are some of you who think you feed upon him, but you don't. How do you know who you are? I can tell you this. If you deny your sin, you do not feed upon the one there. If you blame others for your sin, you have no part in the spirit of the one who went to the cross. If you excuse your sin, if you continue to live in your sin, you do not know this guy at all. You have not eaten his flesh. You have not taken his blood. This has not registered in your mind or in your soul, no matter what you have done on the exterior.

44:57Listen, if you're able to go on your social Media page, and you are able to parade your sin around, you have no part in the Son of Man. And when he comes, you will find you have no part in the kingdom that he offers. Listen, flee from sin. Don't go around thinking that you belong to him. If you continue in sin, you don't know him. If you live another day and flee now, the haste, do you hear it?

45:39So many of you think, so many think they're fine, and they partake, and they have no part with him. Take your sin seriously. He went to the cross. That's how serious he was about sin. You see, those who feed upon Christ will begin to show the life that he gives. Continuing in patterns of sin is a very ominous sign. In conclusion, you can never conclude something like this. The whole bread of life discourse really boils down to two exhortations.

46:28Come to Jesus. Believe in Jesus. That's the paradigm. Be coming to him. Be feeding upon him by believing in him. Be coming to him. Be receiving what he gives by believing in who he is and what he did. Listen, no one comes for you. Yes, the father draws, but there is a human responsibility. You must come. He's not going to come for you. Yes, the father draws. And he changes our will. But you must believe. No one's going to believe for you. So let us be coming and let us be believing. Heavenly Father, thank you for the truth of your word. Thank you for this incredible gift. Father, thank you. Help us to come. Draw us, will you please? Help us hate sin. Help us be united to the one who hated sin to such a degree that he would absolutely shred his body, allow his body to be shred and publicly humiliated to do away with it. And thank you. Help us always to be taking this truth in in Christ's name.