Classic Christianity – Book of John Part 33 (06-12-19)
Bob George explains from John 6 what Jesus meant when he said to eat his flesh and drink his blood (John 6:53-59). In the natural mind, it sounds like he is teaching cannibalism. The natural man understands nothing but the spiritual man understands everything. Jesus is not teaching cannibalism at all nor is he saying that we are to ingest a wafer offered by a priest in order to have the life of Christ. You do not mix the natural with the spiritual. Flesh and blood do not inherit the kingdom of God. The Spirit gives life and the flesh counts for nothing. Jesus is speaking about spiritual food. He is explaining that he is the bread of life, not a physical piece of bread, but that he is the Holy one of God who has the words of eternal life, spiritual food man desperately needs to live forever. Whoever believes that he came from heaven and has a message from heaven will follow him to the cross and to the empty tomb. The lost man comes to understand he is spiritually dead and in need of life, and the only life available to him is the resurrected life of Jesus Christ.
How does man come to know the truth? Should he blindly follow the teachings of men? There are many Jews who would listen to the Pharisees and Sadducee’s, the religious leaders, and fail to come to Christ for life. Would it not be wise to trust the words of God over the words of men? The scriptures recorded down for us did not come from the will of man but from the very heart of God (2 Peter 1:21). The word of God was recorded down and preserved for us as men were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Look to the scriptures to test and affirm if what any man says is true (Acts 17:11). Study the scriptures to get to know the author, a person, Jesus Christ. Find out who he is and what he came to do for you.
1 Corinthians 2:10-14
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
John 6:53-59
53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Bob George shares about what the life of Jesus is all about. In John 6, Jesus was talking about “eating my flesh and drinking my blood”. He is using a physical illustration of eating and drinking to explain spiritual truth. The natural man eats and drinks. The spiritual man also eats and drinks. There is a natural man and a spiritual man. The natural man understands nothing and the spiritual man understands everything.
You have natural desires and you have spiritual desires. You have natural laws and you have spiritual laws. You have natural consequences of sin and you have spiritual consequences of sin, which is eternal death. You have natural brothers and you have spiritual brothers. You have natural food and you have spiritual food. This was the area Jesus was addressing in these passages in John 6.
There is natural food and there is spiritual food and you cannot mix the two. If you become a spiritual man, you need spiritual food. Jesus said, “the spiritual food I give you comes from me”.
John 6:35
35 Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
Jesus is saying, “I am the bread of life so unless you come and eat of me just as you eat of physical bread and drink physical water, then you have to take of me spiritually if you are going to get fed”.
In this world, we have people who are underfed and overfed. There are people who get into anorexia, not eating enough, and bolemia, eating too much and then vomiting it up, in order to look better, a mental habitual addiction that damages the body. Spiritually we are the same way. You can see people gorge on the word of God, not knowing what it means and vomiting out any truth they could have received. Why? Because they diligently study the word yet fail to come to Jesus for life. You have others that dab with it. This word of God is practical but I just like hanging around and impressing people by my church going and Christian deeds or lingo. Still others starve themselves and never take part of it. You can starve to death spiritually just as you can starve yourself to death physically. We would rather read books, the Davinci code or a novel, rather than read the word of God, so as to become a spiritual anorexic.
That is what Jesus was explaining to the people he was speaking to. You are coming to me to get natural food but not to get spiritual food. You give natural food to someone and you accomplish something until they get hungry a few hours later. But you give people spiritual food then you give them food that launches them to eternal life. Many times people think more about feeding people physical food rather than spiritual food. So whether it be to a lost doctor or a lost person living under a bridge, they are both lost and dead. Which body stinks the most, a dead doctor or dead person living under a bridge? The stench is the same. They are both dead and in need of life. Until you give them spiritual food, we have starved them to death.
John 6:53-59
53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.
When Jesus said, “eat my flesh and drink my blood”, he is speaking about participating in his life and humanity, in his spiritual and his physical reality.
Jesus continued explaining spiritual truth to the disciples.
John 6:61-65
Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! 63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you — they are full of the Spirit and life. 64 Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. 65 He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”
After hearing all this, many disciples turned away and no longer followed him.
John 6:66
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
Did they follow them up to this point? Where have they not followed him to? The cross. Until we follow Jesus to the cross and to the empty tomb, we have not followed him to where he was going. They cut short the trip. They never got to where he was going. So he asked the other disciples, the twelve, “Do you want to leave too?”
John 6:67
67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
Peter, a strong lug of a fisherman, often putting his foot in his mouth, yet he responded in trust. He may not have understood all that Jesus was saying but he knew Jesus is God and had words of eternal life.
John 6:68-69
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Peter knew something, or rather someone. Peter knew Jesus as the Holy one of God. Peter responded in faith, “Where shall we go? You have the words of eternal life?” It is as if Peter’s thoughts were expressing, “I can go to the waters and fish for food, but you are the only one who gave me spiritual food. Where am I going to go to find spiritual truth, the message of God? Who am I to go to who has words of eternal life? The one has come down from heaven and who has been there.”
If someone asked you, “Do you know Him?” The Jews in Jesus day claimed they believed in Abraham yet they have believed a lie.
John 8:33-38
33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word.
38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”
Jesus said to them, “you do not know me”. But to Peter, Jesus said, “You know me”.
Peter had said on behalf of the other disciples with him, “We know you have words of eternal life because you are the Holy one of God”. This is what Peter is saying. “You are who you claimed to be. We know that to be true and that is why we believe what you are saying”. If Jesus claims himself to be God then he is God. If he is God and proclaims something is true then we can believe it because he is God.
How do I know Jonah was in a big fish, or a whale? How do we know that is true? Were we there? Obviously not! We heard about but it but never saw it. We know it is true because Jesus said it is true. If Jesus said Jonah was in whale then he is in whale because Jesus is God. If Jesus is not God who cares where he was. I believe and know. The reason I believe is because I know something, that Jesus is God, and God said it is, so I believe what God said.
Yet schools teach evolution. Did you get your understanding of the origin of life from a scientist? Did you believe what he said, that by a process of evolution you came from an ape? I hope not! I believe God because he said he created man in his own image.
Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:27
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
God did not create an ape and turn him into a man. Evolution goes out the window when you know somebody, Jesus, who is God. I know Jesus is God and therefore I believe God when he says you and I were created. He did not say we have all these things we studied in our schools. Have you ever seen a dinosaur? How do we know? We do not know anything except what is written in the scriptures. If you had a dinosaur so big then we should find it recorded in the scriptures.
Job 40:15-24 speaks of a “behemoth” and in Job 41:1-2,7,12-32 is recorded the dfescription of a “Leviathan”, which has no modern equivalent.
We are so anxious to believe anything the world tells us, but do we check out the scriptures to determine if it true. The definition of science is dealing with observable data. Science is not meant to deal in origins. It deals in observable data. When dealing with a lack of observable data, then whether Christian or not you have to say, “it must be God or something”. Who made the ground? Who made the molecules? When we come to the point to believe anything we hear, then you are subject to deception.
Where are you going to go to find the answers to life? To whom can you go? Have you agreed with Peter and can say to Jesus, “You alone have the words of eternal life? You alone are capable of telling me what happened eternally, what happened in the past”. Where did you get your information? Where did you find out about all this stuff that you are so anxious to tell others? Did you get it from Jesus or someone else? Did you get it from God or man? Do you get your understanding of how man thinks from Freud? I hope not! If you want to find out about something, you go to the manufacturer. Who created man? God created man, and Jesus is God. Talk to Jesus to find out about how man thinks? He is the manufacturer of mankind.
I believe this, that God created life by his spoken word, because I know someone, that Jesus is God. So when Jesus tells me something, then I can trust what he says and rely on it. Today, God speaks to us through his word, the scriptures written down for us.
2 Peter 1:21
For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
I do not care what man says, what Freud says, or some scientist says, or a pope says, or a baptist preacher says. I trust in what God says over anything man says. If a man happens to say something that is true, then I have God’s word to confirm the truth of what he said. Recall even what the apostle Paul said in regards to the Berean Jews who studied the scriptures to see if what he said was true.
Acts 17:11
Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
Jesus then replied and, knowing the hearts of all men, addressed that one among the twelve is a devil. So Peter was corrected when he said that we all know you are the Holy one of God.
John 6:70-71
70 Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!”
71 (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)
Turn now to John 7. In John 7, it is the time period for the Jews to celebrate the feast of tabernacles. The feast of tabernacles occurred in the month of September or October. The feast of tabernacles is a celebration where people lived in shelters made of leaves and branches, palm and olive branches, in remembrance of 40 years lived in the desert. You live in tabernacle for 6 to 7 days. It came at the end of the fruit harvest.
John 7:1-2
7 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. 2 But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near,
Jesus knew the leadership of the Jews, not the common people, but the Pharisees and Sadducee’s, were waiting for him to show up at the feast in order to kill him. How amazing it is to be blind. Mankind is blind to their own sins. It is easy to spot sin in others but not in our own lives. These people would see nothing about killing someone but yet say that working on the Sabbath is a sin. That is how men rationalize their own sinful thoughts and behavior.
John 7:3-5
3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do.
How would you like to have Jesus as your brother? Here is your brother, always doing what is right, never saying a bad word, always obedient to parents. Jesus’ brothers were not fond of him. Some of you out there have brothers. They did not like their older brother, Jesus.
John 7:4
4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.”
His brothers said to him, “Jesus, you ought to leave here so the disciples may see your miracles”. Could it be the brother’s were speaking sarcastically? “No one like you who wants to be known publicly acts secretly. Since you are doing these things, you keep insisting on turning water into wine and walking on water and all this stuff, then go on into the city”. Would you hear the sarcasm of Jesus’ own brothers?
John 7:5
5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
Bob George then shared from Matthew 13:35. The Catholic religion teaches that Mary was always a virgin. Recall what was shared earlier, about believing something to be true because you know Jesus is God. So you trust God’s word over what any man or religious institution teaches.
Matthew 13:55
55 “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?
Do we base our belief system on the word of God or what Bob George tells you? You base your belief system on the word of God, even affirming what any man says i true or not by your own study of the word of God as the Bereans were commended for by the apostle Paul. Do you base your belief system based on the Methodist, the Baptists the Southern Day Adventists, or whoever it might be? I hope not! Do we sit around and determine what the word of God is true or not based on what scriptures teach or what someone else is telling you? Which is it? If you have not read the bible, then how would you know?
Until Bob George was saved, he never read the bible. Did Bob have intellectual knowledge that Jesus is the son of God? Yes. Did he know what that meant? Not a clue. God had a baby, that is about it. Did Bob believe that Jesus died on a cross? Yes, for he heard about it every Christmas or at church from a hymn. Did he know why Jesus died on the cross? Not a clue. Did Bob believe Jesus was raised from the dead? Yes, he did. You hear something about it at Easter. But it was just a historical fact and not much thought given on what it all means. Bob had no clue what all that meant for him personally. He had no clue about the message of salvation. If Bob was asked then why he believes what he believes? He would say, “I don’t know”. Somebody said it, in church or singing of a song. But did Bob ever know that by studying the word of God? No. He never studied the word of God then. Before he was born again, Bob never opened the bible. Bob heard someone ask what Presbyterians believe. Bob did not know. Bob’s answer would have been something vague like this, “everything will work out in the end”. So how would you know if the church or someone else is teaching you something contrary to the word of God?
When dealing with Jesus, whether Mary remained virgin all her life, which a prominent denomination teaches, then you better take a look if that is the truth or a lie. And I will not go to the pope to find the answer. If I am wise then I will go to the scriptures to find the answer. Yet, there are people who would rather just believe what a pope says and remain blind to the truth. I could go to the Baptists and they would tell me one thing and I could go to the Catholics and they would tell me another thing. That is what man is telling me. One could be telling me the truth and one could be telling me a lie. How do I know whether it is true or not, that Jesus had brothers or sisters? I look into what Jesus, who is God, said, by looking in the scriptures.
Matthew 13:55
55 “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?
Who were his brothers? James, Joseph, Simon and Judas
Matthew 13:56
56 Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”
Jesus also had sisters but their names were not recorded. His sisters lived right among them in the time of Jesus.
Matthew 13:57
57 And they took offense at him.
His brothers would ask, “Who made him so great?” And they were greatly offended and refused to believe in him.
