The Paschal Discourse, Part 3- Will you eat?

We enter today into God’s Word, into the middle of this paschal discourse of Jesus Christ, where Jesus is teaching a large group of people the truth about the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, and the miracle of walking on water. Indeed, these miracles, these signs point to Jesus Christ as the one true Son of God. But the people did not believe, indeed the people grumbled against Jesus because they could only see and understand earthly things.
41 So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
Jesus made the claim that he is the bread of life, the true bread from heaven, and that he came down from heaven. He made the radical claim that if they would only look to him and believe on Him (verse 40) they would be saved. But these men who were following Jesus at this time could not and would not believe. They believed on a limited view of who Jesus was. Yes, he was a miracle worker, a prophet, one approved by God. But that was it; he was only a man, a son of Joseph and Mary, born like the rest of us. Like many today who question scripture, these folks wished to tear down and argue rather than just believe. I think of Rob Bell, a modern emergent author who, in his book Velvet Elvis, questioned the importance of the virgin birth. Well, in this instance, we see that it is VERY important, for these men could only see the physical parents of Jesus and it blinded them to his teaching about himself. He could indeed say he came down from heaven, because he was the only begotten of the Father, sent directly through Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit; not by the will of man but by God. But they could not see that as possible, for even in searching the scriptures about Messiah they were blind to who He was.
43 Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— 46 not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
You see, they were focused on the temporal. They wanted their bellies to be filled, and they were not happy with the way that Jesus answered them, nor were they satisfied with the fact that He was not the prophet that they were expecting. So, like their fathers in the wilderness did before them, they grumbled and they complained against Him. They only recognized him as the Son of Joseph and Mary, a common man. But, he was not the prophet, nor was He a common man; He was God Himself and recognized their grumbling towards Him. The Father did not draw them, so they could not possibly recognize Him for who He was in truth. One-way of knowing that was the way that they responded to Him. They did not recognize Him from the signs he did, or the words He spoke. The reason? They had not been taught by God, nor had they recognized the teaching that God had given them through His Word. They had not seen God, as Christ had, for if they had seen God in His Word, they would have believed on the One He sent.
They all related to the manna in the wilderness, for this was one of the great stories of their faith. This is part of the exodus from Egypt, the salvation of the people of Israel by God through Moses. They thought that Jesus was the Prophet like Moses that would lead them out from under the rule of the Romans and restore their land to them. But it was not Moses who gave the Manna, nor was it Moses who rescued them; it was God. However, they were focused on Moses, and so Jesus had to reprove their thinking, to correct their misconceptions. Yes, the manna came from heaven, but it was just physical bread that satisfied for a day. It had to be gathered daily, just enough for that day, or it would rot. Everybody that ate that bread eventually died, like any other human being. Jesus Christ is superior to that bread, for in consuming Him (so to speak) you will live for eternity.
Here is the proposition for you today; who is Jesus to you? Is he merely the son of Mary and Joseph, a prophet, a great teacher? Are you satisfied with the bread of this world, and even the bread that we find in so many different churches and ministries today that teach an incomplete Jesus? Or are you in pursuit of the Bread of Life, the only bread that truly satisfies? Do you believe what He says about Himself? If you do, stay with me and dig deeper into his Word with me this morning.
(6) The watchword of the Kingdom is not self-satisfaction, but self-sacrifice.
51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
As usual, we see Jesus here use the natural (bread/flesh and eating) to illustrate a spiritual truth. And people without eyes to see and ears to hear, in other words, those not taught (verse 45) by God will not be able to receive or understand this teaching. It is a difficult one, to be sure, for it is repulsive to our sensibilities. But in it lies ultimate truth; that Jesus Christ gave Himself first by coming from heaven, condescending to us, becoming flesh and making His dwelling among us. Then, he gave Himself by striving with men to show Himself for who He was while He walked on this earth. Finally, he gave Himself willingly as a sacrifice for sin for all mankind. This is the meaning of the loaves: Jesus Christ, the One from God came to this earth and was broken once for all for the sin of all mankind. All who will believe (eat) and look to Him, as the One sent from God will have their hunger for God satisfied in Christ. The Bread of Life gave himself for the life of the world. Jesus did not come to fill our bellies; He came to save our very soul. We must look to Him alone in order to be saved.
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 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 you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” 59 Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
Jesus Christ had life in him, and He had the authority to give up his life and the authority to take it up again. The Jewish leaders did not understand this; they were focused on the natural and not the spiritual meaning of Jesus’ words. They were also blinded to who Jesus was in truth; the one and the only Son of the living God. So, in verse 53, Jesus re teaches the shocking words. The key word is life- for Jesus is life. His life is the light of men. We can obtain this life, but, as Jesus has made it very clear in this passage, this life comes only from God. This does not mean that these folks must physically eat his flesh, nor does it teach that somehow the communion meal later instituted would mystically or otherwise become actual flesh and blood. The spiritual meaning of eat is to believe in Him, especially in who he is and in his atoning death for mankind. The verses go on to teach that we should feed on this; that is, our trust in this sacrifice should be constant, we should not try and feed on anything else for salvation such as works of self righteousness. To drink his blood is to trust fully in the shed blood of Christ for our atonement. For those who will believe and trust, pisteuo, Jesus Christ will grant them eternal life in Him.
If we go on believing and trusting in our own good works, this is like those who ate of the manna, which was but a shadow of the true Bread from heaven. This food was temporary, having to be gathered daily, and any left over would spoil. Our works, no matter how frequent and admired by the world, have a temporary nature like the manna from heaven. This bread can only satisfy temporarily. Like the sacrificial system that was in place in the Old Testament, the blood of animals shed was simply a temporary cover-up for sin. It was a shadow, which pointed to Christ, but was not sufficient to pay the penalty for sin. Under the old system, the works of the law could only produce death. Grace is to be had by faith, faith alone in Christ the true bread from heaven. That faith is demonstrated by belief in who Jesus says he is, changing our minds to agree with what God says about us, and obedience to His Word and His will for our lives. This is ‘eating his flesh and drinking his blood’. And the result of feeding on Jesus in this way is eternal life in Him, granted by the Father.
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” 61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
There are obviously two possible responses to the truth being proclaimed here, the first by a larger group of disciples who were following Jesus. They could not even listen to it. Was it that they were so disappointed that he was not the prophet that they were looking for? Was it because they interpreted what He was saying literally? We do not know, but what we do know is that there was an offense that they took, for Jesus perceived it. He even perceived part of the reason; for they could not believe that he was from above. His answer- what if I ascended to where I was before, and you were witnesses? He reproves their understanding again. The flesh- their will, their mind, their intellect, indeed, their very human nature could not produce spiritual life. The only way to produce spiritual life is to get it from God. There is nothing in ourselves that can or even desires to produce spiritual life! This life is one which is described by the Greek word Zoopoieo (dzo-op-oy-eh'-o) which means that the words Jesus spoke, upon believing in them can impart spiritual life. This is a quickening, like the dry bones spoken to by Ezekiel. We are dead in trespasses and sins, but when Jesus speaks to us, if we hear his voice and respond, we will be quickened unto eternal life. Jesus spoke these words of truth; within his very words were spirit and life, and what they had to do was to believe. There were some who simply refused to believe, for the Father did not grant them that ability. Jesus demonstrates that He is God once again, for He and only He has the ability to discern their thoughts. He also knows the future, for He knows the one that will betray Him.

67 So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the Twelve, was going to betray him.

The other response, demonstrated here by the twelve, is to believe. Peter, taking his role as a leader among equals, responds on their behalf. Lord (Kurios) to whom shall we go? The Greek for Lord is Kurios, and it has a meaning of ‘he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord the possessor and disposer of a thing
the owner; one who has control of the person, the master in the state: the sovereign, prince, chief. Lord is a title of honor expressive of respect and reverence, with which servants greet their master. This title is given to: God, the Messiah. What Peter was saying to Jesus was really expressed in this one word, but Peter goes on. Jesus was the One who had the words of eternal life. Peter recognized that Jesus’ very words brought life. There is no other place we can go, Peter says, to hear these words of life; there is no way that we can have this life in ourselves! And it appears that the disciples have received this life, for they, through Peter, confirm his testimony. They believe on Him, and in him, as Peter goes on and testifies that Jesus is God Himself by calling him the Holy One of God. God, for throughout the Old Testament is called the Holy One of Israel. Peter again was testifying that Jesus Christ was who He said He was; God Himself, in the flesh.
Jesus acknowledged their testimony by saying that he had chosen them. The question is, has he chosen you? One sure way of finding this out is do you believe? For, as those who departed when the teaching got hard, they could not understand the things of God because God had not drawn them. If God is drawing you, He will give you illumination to know what His Word says concerning Jesus. There is also the problem of Judas, who had heard all the words of Jesus and walked with Him, yet betrayed Him at the end. We can have all the knowledge, yet if we do not respond in belief- pisteuo- we will ultimately betray our faith, as did Judas. So the question is, have you received this life? If God is drawing you to Himself, do not fail to respond to Him in repentance and faith.