John 6

57 I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. 

Now, we can begin to see the picture of what it means to be connected to Jesus. Jesus is connected to God the Father and the Holy Spirit who are three in one. The Holy Trinity. Jesus invites us into as intimate a relation and communion with him as we can imagine. We are not eating human flesh when we eat the bread of communion or drinking blood when we taste the wine, but Jesus is present there is a unique way. And as the bread and wine of communion are consumed, because the nutrients of the bread and wine are broken down and used, he becomes part of us.Part of our body itself.

So, in a sense, after receiving Holy Communion, we are bringing Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to the world through us.

ME

What are some of the symbols of Holy Communion that are meaningful for you?

John 6

53 So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. 54 But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. 

When you are a kid at worship, you don’t always appreciate the majesty of worshiping the living Lord. In fact, you might get a little restless. You might even get distracted. You might be bored.

That was me when I was at worship with family. I would usually sit next to my mom. She was always a great stooge for my humor and so even in worship I would try to get her to react.

I remember singing songs and changing the lyrics a bit. We would sing, O God Our Help In Ages Past, for instance, and this verse would come up:

A thousand ages in Thy sight

Are like an evening gone;

Only I would sing,

A thousand ages in Thy sight

Are like an evening gown;

And then we would snicker, and mom would poke me.

There were other songs as well, but, my favorite was when we sang, Sons of God. It was a popular Bible camp song we would sing in church. It starts like this.

Sons of God: Hear His Holy word, 

Gather around the table of the Lord 

Eat His Body, drink His Blood 

And we’ll sing a song of love 

Allelu, Allelu, Alleu, Alleluia!

Only I would change it to this.

Sons of God: Hear His Holy word, 

Gather around the table of the Lord 

Eat His Body, drink His Blood 

We are vampires full of love…

Well, you had to be there. But, when you think about it, we do have a very strange way of speaking, based on what Jesus says.

This has caused Christians to be considered strange and perhaps evil since the beginning of the church. During the early church when non-Christians would eavesdrop on a worship service and hear “Take and eat this is my body, Take and drink, this is my blood…” they thought something diabolical was happening.   

With the popularity of vampires and zombies now a days, these words of Jesus must be pretty interesting if you don’t know the Bible and you don’t know about Holy Communion. We can see that this metaphor Jesus is using to describe what is going to happen on the cross, he will give his body and blood for that we may live forever, can cause confusion for those who don’t know him. But, we do know him.

ME

Do you have memories of worship with your family growing up? What are they? If not, ask a friend.

John 6

47 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. 48 Yes, I am the bread of life! 49 Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. 50 Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.”

Jesus is getting deep here. He is having a debate with the Jewish leaders at Passover time. He uses passover themed teaching to show that he is the Messiah come from God. Jesus is using symbolism to speak of his place as God coming to earth and fulfilling God’s plan of using Israel to save the world.

“Anyone who believes has eternal life.” That is anyone who is believing what Jesus is saying about himself. He is using the phrase “I Am” to describe himself. This is the name God reveals is his own name. So, Jesus is saying, “I am God,” when he uses phrases that begin with “I am.”

48 Yes, I am the bread of life! 49 Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. 50 Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.”

The bread of Passover is a theme of God’s presence with his people as they are escaping from Egypt in the Exodus. This is the pivotal event of the whole Old Testament. Then a form of bread, Manna, miraculously rains from the skies to feed the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings after they have left Egypt. But, the manna only lasts day to day and is a temporary solution to their hunger. Jesus is saying he is the real bread who comes from God and if anyone eats him they will live forever. And then he uses the word, “flesh.”

The word for “eat” here is literally our word, “Gnaw” or “Munch on.” If you gnaw on this flesh you will love forever. Better than manna.

ME

How many “I am” sayings do you remember? Which has the most meaning to you?

As it is written in the Scriptures, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.

There we have it. God has decided all along to make all things new. God has chosen to reveal himself. You can’t use the old human ways of thinking to come to God.

Let’s look at some human ways of understanding God.

1. God is like a secret treasure to be discovered by only a few wise and special people.
2. God is a mysterious vindictive force who demands our worship and waits for us to do something wrong so he can punish us.
3. God is at our beck and call and will do whatever we want him to do for us because we deserve it.
4. God is like an extremely doting and permissive parent who approves of everything we do no matter how it affects us or other people.
5. God is a mystery we can’t understand at all; we just somehow know he exists.

Here are responses to these.

1. God is not some secret treasure that only a few special people will discover. It is God himself who is teaching us to follow his ways. It is Jesus whom God sends to make the new things clear. And as we have seen throughout history, people from all cultures and all walks of life know Jesus as Lord.

2. God is open to all to freely receive his love.

3. God loves us because of who he is, not because of who we are.

4. God designs life to be lived his way. When we identify as his children we obey him and ultimately we flourish. Our rebellion doesn’t bring blessing for us and for others. To go against his design and seek our identity from any other means leads us to destruction.

5. God reveals himself repeatedly through those who love Jesus and follow him.

You see when you follow the teachings of God, you end up with Jesus.

ME

When you disagree with Jesus, look for ways you are wrong.

Then the people began to murmur in disagreement because he had said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

But Jesus replied, “Stop complaining about what I said. For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up.

Here is dilemma for the Judaeans. The Messiah who is sent by God is once and for all. Not like anyone else. If Jesus is the true Messiah, there will not be another Messiah sent later. This is not like some kind of pro sports deal. You will receive one Messiah now, and one to be named later. Either believe in Jesus or don’t. But you can’t use human standards to judge God’s work.

It is like the Judaeans are saying Jesus doesn’t have the credentials to be Messiah. Either he can’t be human, or he can’t come from humble origins.

‘We know his parents Joseph and Mary.’

This sounds like they are questioning how Jesus can be from God if he is born of human parents. Or they are questioning the worthiness of having human parents like Joseph and Mary.

Yet, their own Scripture, the Old Testament, is filled with warnings that God’s people will doubt the Messiah. Like this passage from Isaiah 53.

Who has believed our message?

    To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?

My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot,

    like a root in dry ground.

There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,

    nothing to attract us to him.There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,

    nothing to attract us to him.

So, by doubting, the Judaeans are actually themselves fulfilling prophesies from their own Scripture!

Another way of thinking about this is their own doubts should lead them to realize Jesus is the one.

ME

We don’t follow blind faith. When you don’t have faith in the God of Jesus Christ you have blind non-faith.

For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will.

Jesus will draw all people to himself. It is not what we have done or have not done that joins us to Jesus. God’s people are those who realize they are connected and don’t reject what Jesus has to offer.

This is how a God-made man or a God-made woman functions.

We don’t follow our dreams. We follow God’s dream for us. That we know and trust in his Son Jesus. We don’t live our lives with passion. Not unless what we are passionate about is to do the will of God. Jesus is our model.

Even Jesus in not a self-made man, he is man of God who comes to earth to do God’s will, not his own.

And God’s will has to do with us.

ME

How is Jesus a good model for you?

But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them.

I have always been fascinated by the stories of those who have achieved great wealth or influence coming from humble beginnings. Do you remember this picture? The son of a candle maker who goes to the big city to make something out of himself? Does this picture help? Sure enough it is Ben Franklin. One of the key architects of this great experiment we call America.

Thinking about Ben Franklin a phrase comes to mind. The self-made man. Someone who follows his dreams and lives life with passion and hard work. I think of Sam Walton, who would be the richest man in the world by far today if he were still alive. Walton returned from serving in the army in WWII and took money he had saved to buy a Ben Franklin 5 and Dime store. Interesting. Well, he built a few other stores, as well, didn’t he?

Or take Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, the sixth richest man in the world, who was born of an unwed mother and shipped off to his aunt and uncle to be raised in a tiny apartment in Chicago. When his adoptive mother died he dropped out of college and started an database company, Oracle, with $2000. Now if you go to Maui and look out over to the island of Lanai, realize Larry Ellison owns that whole island!

So what exactly is a self-made man? I don’t know because I have never met one. Actually it’s all a myth. It doesn’t make any difference what your background or upbringing is, how hard you work, how persistent you are, the fortune you make, you are not self-made.

You are God-made.

You have never met anyone who made themselves. We are God-made men and women.  God-made. You and the person sitting next to you. We are all special in this way. The only way that really counts. God-made. We are sons and daughters of God, and we are special like any other person who realizes they are not special in the traditional way of looking at it. We are not self-made. We didn’t do anything to deserve our existence except we do exist. We thank God for our existence and we thank him for deciding we are his children.

If only it was this easy.

Since wandering in the wilderness, God’s people, and I include us here, have acted like we are special and God owes us something. We act as if we instinctively know God should do what we want him to do. Now, add to this another layer, God comes to earth specifically in Jesus.

ME

Name five people who have had a strong influence in your life.