SERMON: True Bread & True Drink (John 6:47–59)
True
Bread & True Drink (John 6:47–59)
Series: “John:
Life in Christ’s Name” Text:
John
6:47–59
By: Shaun
Marksbury Date:
June
4, 2023
Venue: Living
Water Baptist Church Occasion:
AM Service
I.
Introduction
One
of the sad realities related to extreme poverty and desperate situations is
cannibalism. History is replete with
examples, from China to the Azteks, from some infamous European politically-
and religiously-motivated retaliatory attacks to tribal practices in Africa and
elsewhere. Many instances have also occurred
here after the formation of the United States.
For example, our family recently noticed in Grand Junction’s Museum of
the West a section devoted to Alfred Packer, and there’s ongoing interest in
Jeffery Dahmer which have spawned a series of movies and documentaries. Such infamous incidents capture the interest
of people everywhere because of the shared disgust we all have at such horrific
murders and desecrations of bodies.
Scripture,
of course, isn’t silent on this issue.
God warned the Israelites before they entered the promised land to keep
the Covenant of Moses, lest curses befall them — such as enemy sieges and
famines which would drive people to unthinkable acts such as cannibalism (Lev.
26:29; Deut. 28:52–57). In 2 Kings
6:28–29, God allowed the Aram’s siege of Samaria because of the people’s apostasy,
and the king heard that two women commited to consuming their own flesh and
blood (but that did not lead him to repentance). Even pagans see the horror in this, and
Scripture condemns both murder and such heinous acts, highlighting cannibalism
as an example of how far people fall away from God.
When we get to this passage, Jesus appears to be saying
something unthinkable: He calls the people to eat His flesh and drink His
blood. The Jews in the synagogue therefore
ask, “How can this man give us His
flesh to eat?” (v. 52). Even His
disciples react; they ask in v. 60, “This is a difficult statement; who can
listen to it?” It’s not clear whether they
were thinking He was suggesting cannibalism, or if they assumed He wasn’t speaking
literally but couldn’t figure out what He meant; either way, they don’t like
where this is going.
Now, I hope you understand that v. 47 provides us
understanding this morning: this is about receiving Jesus by faith! Yet, many remain confused by our Lord’s words
here, even today. So, let’s study His
words together and, while we do, note truths this morning: we receive eternal
life from the true Bread only through faith, and we can only receive life from
the true Bread.
II.
First, we receive eternal life from the true Bread
through faith (vv. 47–51).
Truly, truly, I
say to you, he who believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life. Your
fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of
heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
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.
Some of this is obviously review of what He already
said. Remember that His words to the
people at the synagogue started back in v. 26.
He continues to drive the point home about His identity as the bread of
life.
Jesus gives, once again, an “amen, amen” or “truly, truly”
statement, calling them again to an assured truth. In fact, as one commentator notes, vv. 47–48 summarize
Jesus’s teaching in the debate.[1] The construction of the verb for believe
indicates a continuing, ongoing belief, and Jesus immediately follows that
statement with a reaffirmation that He is the bread of life. Every faith has an object, and He’s calling
them to belief in Him.
Only He can grant lasting life. Consider what He’s already said. In v. 27, He said to work “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.” In v.
29, He said, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has
sent.” Again, in v. 35, He said, “I am
the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in
Me will never thirst.” Nothing that we
noted last week about the sovereignty of God changes Christ’s call here for
people to believe in Him to receive life in God, and such faith should not be a
fleeting curiosity but an abiding trust.
In v. 48, He again contrasts true bread, life-giving bread,
to the manna in the wilderness. Sure,
the manna was real, able to sustain the people.
However, even though God supernaturally provided it, it wasn’t true in
the sense of granting eternal life. The
fathers or ancestors of those gathered ate manna and died, some even in
unbelief. Note that unbelievers can
enjoy real blessings from God, especially spectacular ones within the
congregation of the saints, but their experiences do not grant them eternal
life. Bread, even manna, cannot keep a
person from eventually dying, but Jesus offers a kind of bread which goes on to
eternal life.
However, this is a bread of a different quality, as Jesus
notes in v. 58. Jesus is spending time
on this to patiently confront their objection back in v. 31 — “Our fathers ate
the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of
heaven to eat.’ ” They ate a kind
of bread which itself perished after a day, and could not keep them alive
indefinitely, but Jesus Christ is a different sort of miracle altogether!
So, in v. 50, Jesus shifts their focus from a physical to a
spiritual death. He says, “This is the
bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.” Now, obviously His apostles faced martyrdom
and believers in Christ still die of various causes. He’s talking about spiritual death here, a
concept the religious Jews there would have understood. They also would have believed that their own
deaths were temporary, that their mortal bodies would rise again in the
resurrection of the dead. Jesus is
saying here that only He provides that, an audacious claim!
You might ask, “But why is He now talking about
eating?” He’s simply following the
metaphor about Him being the bread of life.
To understand the metaphor, we might think about this by way of analogy
(older people may remember doing these in school, but I don’t think children
today do them). The analogy on our Bible
exam would read, “Jesus is to bread as to blank is to eating.” The answer is in v. 47, “believing.” Jesus is saying that people need to receive
Him, take Him in, believing in Him for eternal life.
He continues this analogy in v. 51: “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.” This is where it can get confusing,
as we see with the reaction in v. 52.
The only solution is to understand ahead of time that He is speaking
generally about belief in His work.
How do we know this is the case? Outside of simple common sense (our Lord is
not inviting the crowd to become zombies and attack Him), Jesus also
consistently upheld the written law of Moses.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Whoever then annuls one of the
least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but
whoever keeps and teaches them, he
shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:19). Well, as we noted, the Law forbade murder and
would disallow the consumption of any blood with flesh (Gen. 9:4; Lev. 7:26–27;
17:10–14; Deut. 12:23–24). Contextually
and logically, it makes sense to understand this as a metaphor for faith in
Him.
If that’s the case, then what does He mean by, “the bread
also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh”? This is a reference to His substitutionary
work on the cross. He gives it to the
world, which doesn’t mean the physical world which will be destroyed, nor the
present age, nor even every person who ever lived. Rather, it is given for the world of
believers, Jewish believers and those of the Gentile nations.
III.
Second, we can only receive life from the true
Bread (vv. 52–59).
Let’s just read v. 52: “Then the Jews began to argue with
one another, saying, ‘How can this man give us His flesh to eat?’ ” Just as they interrupted Him back in vv.
41–42, they do so again, this time by fighting among each other. They again misunderstand His intended
meaning, which is the problem with so many who study Jesus’s words. They simply do not understand what He means
here.
As I said earlier, people have continued to misunderstand
Jesus’s words here, so we need to note a popular historical interpretation at
this point. Christians have tried to
apply this directly to communion. You
might see why: Jesus talks about consuming His flesh and blood, something He
connects to the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper later.
There are several problems with this view. First, Jesus says clearly here this is
about belief. As one study notes, “Based on these verses, critics of the early
church thought Christians condoned a form of cannibalism. This is not the case.”[2] Unfortunately, there were some within the
church that developed the view that the bread and wine transform into the
literal body and blood of Jesus through a process called transubstantiation, a
theological view with no biblical substantiation. It misses the point that Jesus is talking
about; in v. 63, Jesus says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh
profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”
Second, Jesus isn’t hiding His meaning from them. This view would have us to believe that Jesus
is giving them something they couldn’t understand. They don’t know about the Lord’s Supper, yet
He condemns their walking away from Him.
He implies that they should be able to understand His meaning.
Third, and related, Jesus hasn’t implemented the Lord’s
Supper yet. While it’s possible that
He’s talking about something that is yet to come, there’s no evidence of that
anywhere outside of parallels. We have to
assume that’s what’s happening, something not confirmed in Scripture. At most, we may be able to say that this
foreshadows the Lord’s Supper, but Jesus’s clear point is about faith,
not a ritual.
Fourth, Jesus never says the Lord’s Supper provides eternal
life. One has to assume this passage
refers to the Lord’s Supper to even get a hint of such a teaching, but it would
contradict the context here about faith and spirit over flesh. It also contradicts the rest of Scripture on
salvation by grace alone. Moreover,
Judas partook of the Lord’s supper and faced condemnation (John 13:18), and
some were partaking in condemnation in Corinth.
Moreover, when Jesus does implement the Lord’s Supper, He didn’t say “Do
this for eternal life,” but instead, “in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19).
Viewing Jesus’s
words here as justification for false views on the Lord’s Supper is to partake
in the same misunderstanding as the crowd.
Given these reasons, we must get back to the faith Jesus speaks
of here. Only the true bread of God has
the ability to raise someone up from the grave.
The communion crackers can’t do that.
The communion cup can’t, either, even if we get rid of the Welch’s and use
real wine! No ritual can save us,
and the Lord’s Supper is only to remind us of the Lord’s work on our behalf and
His presence with us.
We need to look to the true bread and to the true
drink. In the remaining verses, we see
just what the Lord provides to us through faith. First, the true Bread raises us up (vv.
53–55). Second, the true Bread abides
with us (v. 56). Third, the true Bread
causes us to live (vv. 57–59).
A.
The true Bread raises us up (vv. 53–55).
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. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has
eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is
true drink.”
Jesus gives, yet once again, an “amen, amen” or “truly,
truly” statement. It is vital that they
leave their doubts about Him behind. It’s
essential that we also get this right and not look to rituals or to anyone else.
Again, don’t think about communion — only Christ. Now, we already noted that eating is
analogous to faith in Jesus, and the same logically applies to drinking. The body and blood bespeak the acceptable
sacrifice of Christ on the cross, so our faith must be in His person and
work. Those who don’t have faith in
Christ have no life in themselves.
On the other hand, in v. 54, Jesus says the one who eats and
drinks has eternal life. In the original
language, the “My” pronouns are emphatic; it’s not the flesh of another deity
which provides this, nor is it the Lord’s Supper. Jesus promises that the one who takes in
Christ receives His life will be raised on the last day. This matches what He said in v. 40 — “For
this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes
in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
It is the person who exercises faith in
Christ who receives eternal life and the promise for the future resurrection of
the body.
As Jesus explains in v. 55, “For My flesh is true food, and
My blood is true drink.” His blood perfectly
satisfies the requirements of the Law and therefore can sustain the soul. He says later in John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who
believes in Me will live even if he dies.”
He will sustain not only the soul, but the body also, which He proved
with the raising of Lazarus. And again,
He’s promising to keep your soul secure; you’ll never lose your salvation
because He promises to keep it.
B.
The true Bread abides with us (v. 56).
“He who eats My
flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”
We see another promise in this verse we want to note before
moving into the next one. Just as food
comes in and becomes a part of you, the Lord comes in and abides with those who
receive Him. Of course, this is an
eternal comingling, even described here as you abiding in the
true bread and drink. As one commentary
notes, this
is one of the most important theological terms in John’s Gospel (cf.
comments on 1:38). The Father “remains” in the Son (14:10), the Spirit
“remains” on Jesus (1:32), and believers “remain” in Jesus and He in them
(6:56; 15:4). The implications of this “remaining” are many. A believer enjoys
intimacy with and security in Jesus. Just as He has His life from the
Father, so believers have life because of Jesus.[3]
With this point, we see abiding in Christ is part of faith,
and it wouldn’t be possible without His sacrifice upon the cross. Remember, though, that He didn’t stay in the
ground. He’s alive forever more,
bringing us to the last point:
C.
The true Bread causes us to live (vv. 57–59)
“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. 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.”
These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.
Jesus claims that He came from Heaven to bring life and
substance (pictured in the bread). This
is an indirect claim of preexistence. He
came into the world to provide this life, and He’s making a direct claim to His
transforming and quickening power.
He’s the bread of life.
This means that He can convey life to those who come to Him in
faith. Nothing else, not even the
supernatural manna, could provide the kind of life that the living Father has
given to the Son.
IV.
Conclusion
Again, it’s essential that we see this as metaphorical. Jesus goes back to saying “he who eats Me”
and “he who eats this bread,” dropping the drinking. If this was a reference to the Lord’s Supper,
the drinking is no less important than the eating. However, that Jesus is giving summary
statements that hearken back to faith, He communicates that this is not literal
consumption.
The Jews of the synagogue really should have understood
this. However, they were too caught up
with their own wants and desires, like the food Jesus provided with the feeding
of the 5,000 the previous day. Jesus is
telling them that they need to seek true bread and true drink, telling them of
spiritual realities. Sadly, though some may
have understood that He was refocusing them from physical to spiritual
realities, they just do not receive it.
The question is whether you do. We’re going to have communion in a few
minutes, so let me ask you this. Do you
put faith in it to save you? Do you
believe it will bestow some special grace that will add up to salvation
eventually? Or, do you trust in the true
bread and drink to provide you sustenance, and you just use the Lord’s Supper
as a means of remembering the Lord’s sacrifice on your behalf? Place your trust in Him completely and alone
for salvation!
[1] Edwin A. Blum, The
Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, 1985, 2, 296.
[2] Ted Cabal, Chad Owen Brand, E. Ray Clendenen, Paul
Copan, J. P. Moreland, and Doug Powell, The
Apologetics Study Bible: Real Questions, Straight Answers, Stronger Faith, (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2007), 1584.
[3] Edwin A. Blum, The
Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, 1985, 2, 297.
