The Message of the Loaves Week Two: The Bread is my Flesh

Unedited Transcript Follows:

In the name of God, the Father, the Son and the Holy spirit. Amen. In the last couple weeks Eileena has actually shown me two different movies with Ryan Reynolds in them. And it had been a while. Since I'd seen him in movies, I don't watch a ton of movies, I'm more like a show guy.

Uh, but it got me thinking about the first time I saw Ryan Reynolds in a movie. Uh, it it was a movie that came out in 2002. That was the year, I graduated high school. So, uh, we're we're multi-generational. So, some of you are thinking, wow, James is old and some of you are thinking.

Wow, I'm old, you know? So, but that was the, I graduated high school. It was called, uh, Van Wilder. So the movie was called Van Wilder, Uh, I'm not endorsing the movie. It's dumb. Seriously. Don't it was a dumb movie. But I had, uh, I just graduated from high school, and as, as a young man, freshly graduated out of high school, I found it hilarious.

Ryan Reynolds plays a wildly popular frat boy. Who's really actually a frat grown, man, because he's been in college for 10 years. So he's been in college for 10 years, he's cocky, he's confident, he's very popular. And while he's talking in the movie, he'll randomly say, Write that down.

Uh, like in the middle of a conversation with his friends, he'll say write that down, like that was really good. You're gonna want to hold on to that. So, write that down. He's just had this arrogant cocky. Uh, popular guy. And, We might know people like that. I mean maybe not that extreme where they're saying, write that down in the middle of when they're talking but so maybe not quite that extreme.

But people that come off like really arrogant or cocky or like know-it-alls, they like the sound of their own voice. They love it and it's precisely the accusation that Jesus receives In this passage that we have today. Yeah. Is that who's this guy think he is talking this way about himself, right?

One thing that is inescapable when you're reading the Book of John, Is that Jesus talks about himself a lot? In the Book of John, he talks about himself a lot. He's talking about himself like the whole time. So not only does John have him talking more than any of the other gospel writers.

If you have, like one of those red letter editions of the Bible, A lot of the Gospel of John is red. Because Jesus is talking a lot, but not so not only does he have a lot to say, but he's talking about himself a lot. Listen to the statements Jesus makes about himself in the Book of John.

I am the bread of life, I came down from heaven, I am the Good Shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth and the life. I am the light of the world before Abraham was I am I am one with the father. I am the True Vine.

Pause for a second. See, these things are really familiar to us. So they might not strike us the same way. But put yourself in the place of hearing Jesus teaching for the first time. Imagine a teacher. Teaching these things to you saying these things about him or herself. To you if someone's T like The self-centered teaching of Jesus is part of the reason, the church has always confessed the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

Jesus was like, not only. The Giver of the sermon. He was the sermon. He was what the sermon was about. He he's with the whole story was about. So if if Jesus is like other teachers, just another man he is a fraud and he's not worth listening to Other teachers, don't talk about themselves.

The way that Jesus talked about himself. Right. Jesus didn't Point people toward the way. He said he is the way. Right, he said I am the way. So what, what? So, so, what's going on with these claims of Jesus, these audacious claims of Jesus, in the Book of John last week, we began four weeks talking through Jesus bread of life discourse.

My favorite ceremony game sermon of the Mount's awesome. Some of you like like that. One more, that's fine. My favorite is Bread of Life. This, this bread of life sermon this, this sermon. He gave we learned yet. Last time we were together to stop laboring after food. That perishes, but seek food, that lasts forever.

We we learned that although God has made us for immortality. This was an immortality that was always conditional and based on our Fidelity to him. And we learned that we chose perishing instead of immortality, when we chose to rebel against him, we are a perishing people because we are a sinful people and we rebel against God.

This week, the discourse moves. And it makes a really cool turn, because Jesus means to give us immortality. That he always intended for us, right? He ends up telling us that he does give us that immortality. But he gives it to us by giving us his very flesh. He gives us immortality by giving his himself his very body to us.

We can only have immortality if we get it from the only one who is Immortal, in other words. And Jesus is showing us, he intends to give it to us. All of it is ground in that reality that led to these people grumbling though because it's based on the claim of Jesus, that he has access to immortality and that he can actually start giving immortality away.

It's surprising. When someone starts saying I have access to immortality and I can give it away. And so, it raised some eyebrows. So today, we'll look at this occasion for grumbling why people are grumbling That was present here and then we'll look at how Jesus responds to that grumbling.

And we'll look at his call to us in light of who he is, right? So first, let's look at the occasion for grumbling. Why are they grumbling They're they're saying, who does Jesus think he is. Who does this guy think he is? Jesus is actually saying, I came down from heaven.

Have you ever heard anyone say that? Hey, hi. I, I came down from Heaven, just now, like I I came out of heaven. Right. And so they're like, wait what? You know you came out of heaven. So he said he comes and says I came out of heaven. I came down from heaven from my father and everyone who looks at me will live forever.

That's what he says. So they start asking Who does this guy think he is? We know he isn't from Heaven. We know his parents. We know this guy's parents isn't this guy? Mary and Joseph's son? Like we know this guy's parents. What do you mean? You came down from heaven.

I know your mom and dad. Right. Now their reaction should make it abundantly. Clear that the scriptural view denies pre-existence of people Right. If if in other words, if everyone came down from heaven, They wouldn't be surprising for someone to say, I came down from heaven. But the reason they're grumbling is because people don't come down from heaven, that's not where we come from, what we don't exist until God makes us right.

And so, when he At that, at that moment says I came down from heaven. They're freaking out and they're wondering And they think Jesus must be either out of his mind or just like, pulling a fast one. If he's saying that he's the bread that came down from heaven.

And look how he responds to them. Um, his response might be surprising to us, he doesn't explain. Well, I'm the second person of the Trinity. I've always existed. Right, he doesn't like walk them through that. Instead, he, he teaches that God's people are the ones who respond rightly to the father's initiation.

Verse 44. Is no one can come to me. Unless the father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. So what Jesus does, when these people don't respond rightly to his message, or they start grumbling.

Because his message is hard to hear, frankly, he that he came down from heaven and he's the bread that you can look at and get eternal life, right? But Jesus responses to relieve himself from all responsibility. For people's response to his message. He relieves himself from all responsibility. For people's response to his message.

Ezekiel 3 is one of my favorite passages in scripture to talk about that, verses 18 through 19. We get the the son of man being told that he's a Watchman and that he's not like. And that what he's going to be accountable for is announcing the judgment that is coming from God and he's not accountable for people's response.

So he says, if you announce Ezekiel, if you'll announce To my people that I'm going to bring judgment and they don't repent. That's on them. But if you don't announce to them and then they don't repent. That's on you. I'm gonna hold you accountable for that but he's saying your job is to announce that God's bringing judgment.

Your job isn't to concern yourself with people's response to that judgment And in the same way, the son of man here when he says no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him. He's showing us. This son of man. Ezekiel was the son of man.

This is the the Fulfillment of the son of man and he's showing us that he isn't responsible. For how people respond to God's message. That's not what he's responsible for. I think as we extend God's kingdom in Utah. A place where very few people know the Lord. One of the most freeing sayings that you can say to yourself.

Is no one can come to God apart from God's revelation to them. And I'm not responsible for how people respond to the message. Like, I'm not responsible for that. Now, sometimes we misunderstand this word, this isn't about an in-grouping and an out grouping, a lot of people, Um, Like want to make their theological systems make really good sense.

And so the, the what they read here, when they say no one can come to me except except if the father who sent me draws him, is they're saying, okay, the reason some people come to God and some people don't, is that God draws some and he doesn't draw others, okay?

The Greek word here is Tran the Greek word. That's translated. Draws is El Cusse? El Cousce. It's only used eight times in the New Testament, and five of those times are in the Gospel of John, but it's only used one other time to talk about people. Um, so only one other time, is he talking about people?

A lot of times inanimate objects, things like that. So the only time it's used to talk about people is in John 12 32 where Jesus says, when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself. I will. So whatever drawing is happening. It's happening to everybody.

Every like the the father drawing is happening to everybody, at least here in John. So the thing that distinguishes, godspeed over those who aren't God's people is not whether God draws them or whether he reveals himself to him but it's whether They respond rightly to God's revelation. Jesus tells us that in the next sentence.

He says, the people who learn and hear will come to me, the Learners and the hearers will come to me, the ones who win the father is drawing. When the father is initially initiating, our learning and hearing will come to me.

But, So, what we're really learning here is that God initiates And that people respond. Uh, us being saved or being drawn to God, is all a work of God. God does the initiating? We do the responding and that's because we can't initiate a thing. Why we're dead in our sins.

We can't take a single step to our God. We can't initiate anything to our God. He has to take. God, has to come to us, and all of it is a gift of God, when God draws us, So, It doesn't mean that hey, God's like picking some to draw and he's leaving others and deciding not to draw them, but make no mistake.

It is telling us that it is quite natural to people to respond, wrongly to God's revelation. Like when they do this, they are doing what comes naturally to them. So we shouldn't be surprised as the gospel goes forth. When people don't respond rightly to the gospel. When people don't respond rightly to the message of God.

They're doing what comes naturally to them. What comes naturally to us. In our fallen state is to rebel against God and turn away from God. So, if you were to present the gospel to someone and you, you thought you like killed it like, man, like I I did a great job presenting the gospel and then they just laughed in your face and said that was dumb.

That would sting, right? What Jesus is saying is That happens like a lot. Okay. That happens a lot because it it's people doing what's natural to them. Two weeks from now we're going to actually see people walking away from Jesus. Because of this very sermon. So like, people are going to be walking away from Jesus at the end of this sermon.

And and he's going to turn to his disciples and say, are you going to walk away too? He's not gonna try to fix it and say maybe if I would have said it differently maybe like he's gonna say, are you gonna walk away too? So, we recognize That as as the good news is proclaimed.

We're proclaiming it to people who can never take a step toward God, apart from his initiation. And, And that we should expect that we'll reface rejection. Jesus did like you're not going to give a better gospel presentation than Jesus. Right. So then Jesus gives a call to us in Of all this, in light of what he's saying, he is that he's the one that can meet these needs, right?

His call is to receive the bread from Heaven. To receive the bread from Heaven, which is his body. He says. I am the bread from heaven and the, the one, the bread that is given for the life of the world, which is my flesh. It's a similar message. To the gospel reading that we had last week where he said I am the bread of life he except that was focusing more on food that's perishing or that goes away versus food that endures to eternal life.

This is focus. This this does something a little bit different where it's focusing Us in on Jesus body. Because the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. He says, it's my body. He links the bread with his flesh. So what's it mean to eat the bread which Jesus gives for the life of the world, which is his flesh?

Well, obviously, we think of the Eucharist we, we do that, we think of that eating, Jesus body, and drinking his blood, but we're going to save that sermon for next week because he's going to get real and like real in depth about that, so that that's next week's sermon.

So obviously you think about the Eucharist, But the people who come to Christ, Are the ones who respond rightly. To God's revelation. When he tells them who he is, they respond rightly when he reveals himself to them, they respond rightly so think of your posture before God this morning.

That's what we when we think of how do I receive the bread, which is Jesus flesh. We come before God and we think about our posture, you know, one of the things that is always striking to me and John does, this is a, John 6 is the only place where John explicitly teaches on the Eucharist, um, the other gospels have it have the institution of the Lord's table, right before.

Jesus goes into the garden, John has the washing of the disciples feet, right? Instead but he does have them receiving the bread. And one of the things that always stands out in the Gospel of John is Judas receiving the bread. And then the devil entering into him. So he's receiving Grace from God.

God's handing our Grace. He's handing out the he's handing out his body. He said this is my body. He's handing it out. Judas is receiving it, he's receiving the grace, but he has a heart that is turned away from God. He has a posture. That is not receiving Grace, and fall, and falling after Jesus.

He has a heart that is turned against God, and so what happens, it says, when he ate the bread, the devil entered into him, When we receive God's revelation with a heart that's not turned to him, it's not a blessing to us. It's a curse to us. And so, what we ask ourselves when we see this is how's my posture before God today.

That doesn't mean, did I behave myself? Good enough this week. Okay. Like am I am I like Do I feel good about myself right now? That it's not that it's do? I have like am I am I repentant of known sin and do I have a heart that is faithful to the Lord?

Who wants to follow after the Lord Jesus. So how's our posture today before God? Because the people who come to Christ are the people who respond rightly when God's revealing himself to them? Also the flesh language should lead us to the Cross. Jesus gave us his flesh on the cross before he gave it to us in the Eucharist, right?

So he gave it to us on the cross first, how are we responding to the just the simple truth that Jesus died for us? That when Jesus gave his body for the life of the world, he's talking about giving his life for us. See. So Jesus teaching was entirely centered on himself.

For good reason. He's our only hope as the only one who came down from Heaven, who can give away immortality, which he always intended for us. He is the only way to overcome death and perishing. We receive this life when we receive Jesus. With right, with hearts turned toward him, Who is the bread of life.

So I invite you today at the table and as we walk and just in our hearts to receive the bread from Heaven, which is Jesus flesh. Amen.