John 6:22-71 - Part C

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Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. the son of joseph whose father and mother we know how is it then that he says i have come down from heaven jesus therefore answered and said to them don't murmur do not murmur among yourselves don't complain about this no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and i will raise him up at the last day they are operating under the assumption that they are speaking to a human being only even though their own prophet the major prophet isaiah said that the coming one is going to be both human and divine isaiah chapter 9 for unto us a child is born human and unto us a son is given divine the government will be upon his shoulders his kingdom will be everlasting that can't be said of any human unless they are fully divine and fully human virgin birth was predicted by isaiah the prophet behold a virgin shall conceive and be with child their own prophet said that but they are making the assumption that this one is not that one this is just the son of joseph which he wasn't the son of joseph joseph had nothing to do with the birth of jesus whatsoever as we know from scripture jesus pre-existed jesus lived before bethlehem before the manger in eternity past but notice verse 44 i just want to make a quick comment on it i do want to finish the chapter i think i can i think i can i think i can he keeps using this phrase and i will raise him up on the last day we've talked about resurrection before but do you know that you will have a physical resurrection i hope you're looking forward to it your body even if you die before the lord comes back will be buried in the ground it will decay it will not look good it will turn to dust if you are complaining about yourself looking how you look now like i do i remind myself just wait it's going to get worse but the moment that happens my spirit will be with the lord i'll be in his presence to be absent from the body is to be present with the lord i'll be with the lord while i'm with the lord in spirit but not in body i'll be waiting for the day when the resurrection happens the dead in christ will rise first that's resurrection then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up to meet the lord in the air so resurrection day is rapture day and it is called the last day because that is the last day of the church on the earth resurrection day for all those who die in christ before that day that is the last day of church history god will still move but there will be a tribulation period on the earth the church last day will be the rapture who will be taken up into heaven i will raise him up at the last day now verse 45 it is written in the prophets and he's quoting now isaiah chapter 54 verse 13 it is written in the prophets and they shall all be taught by god that's what isaiah says in isaiah 54 and they shall all be taught by god therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me why did jesus say this simply because he's explaining to them how it is that the father draws people to jesus draws them how does he do that well and it is written they shall all be taught by god so god chooses people in advance predestination election right he gives them to jesus his own words and once he chooses them then he teaches them he speaks to them through the teaching of his word through the teaching of his word anybody who responds to the teaching of his word will come to jesus see the revelation that we tell people when we tell people to come to jesus we're not making this story up nobody would make up a story that condemns everybody as a sinner going to hell nobody's gonna that didn't sound like a popular religion nobody would make that stuff up to say that you are doomed apart from christ but if you trust in him you'll be saved so we only proclaim what has been taught by god in the revelation of scripture and anyone who is willing to receive god's teaching will come to jesus god will unlock their hearts so he chooses them he speaks to them everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me not that anyone has seen the father except he who is from god he has seen the father he's speaking of himself himself we haven't seen god yet ah but we will one day we will first corinthians 13 we see through a glass darkly but then we shall see face to face first john chapter three behold what manner of love the father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of god therefore the world does not know us because it did not know him beloved now we are the children of god and it does not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he appears we will be like him for we will see him just as he is aren't you looking forward to the day when you will actually see the lord and be able to enjoy the experience moses wanted to see the lord he would he would not have enjoyed the experience god said no man has seen me no no one can see me and live mo mo if you see me you'll see me no mo you'll be gone but one day we will see the lord will behold him most assuredly or amen amen verily verily that very strong greek construction most assuredly i say to you he who believes in me has everlasting life okay again indulge me i have to camp on this here's another one of these single verses packed with theological truth this is perhaps the most significant salvation scripture what i mean by that is it's the briefest and the clearest way that a person is saved he who believes in me not will have someday hopefully will have that's a guarantee will have present tense everlasting life how do you get everlasting life you believe you believe it's not by good works it's not by church going it's not by law keeping it's not by keeping the golden rule where i live by the sermon on the mountains by believing if you believe in him you have everlasting life i am the bread of life your fathers ate the man in the wilderness and they're dead this is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die can you imagine eating bread that tastes incredible not only tastes incredible makes you feel wonderful saves you satisfies you and is non-fattening that is wonder bread he is wonder bread i am the bread of life your father's eight they're dead your father's eight they're dead this is the bread which comes down from heaven you eat of it you won't die i am the living bread which came down from heaven if anyone eats of this bread he will live forever and the bread that i give is my flesh which i give for the life of the world the jews therefore quarreled among themselves saying how can this man give us his flesh to eat jesus said to them most assuredly i say to you unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and i will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is food indeed my blood is drink indeed he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and i in him as the living father sent me and i live because of the father so he who feeds on me will live because of me this is the bread which came down from heaven not as your father's eight the manna and are dead he reminds them of that twice he who eats this bread will live forever these things he taught in the synagogue as he taught in copernia you're listening to connect with Skip heitzig before we get back to skip's teaching nate heitzig has written a children's book just in time for christmas and this month we're offering it to you as thanks for your support of connect with Skip heitzig christmas under the tree follows the timeless story of jesus christ from the cradle to the cross through the eyes of an unlikely character a humble tree this beautifully illustrates the world this beautifully illustrated book which includes a companion audio experience is a wonderful way to tell the christmas story and the story of christ to the children in your life this resource is our thanks for your gift of just 25 dollars or more today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through connect with Skip heitzig go to connectwithskip.com offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give 25 dollars or more today to reach people all around the world through connect with Skip heitzig let's continue with today's teaching with pastor Skip now jesus in these statements gives them raw shocking verbiage about his sacrificial death when they heard what he just said they were shocked they were shocked because it says in leviticus 23 the life of the flesh is in the blood and jews were forbidden to take blood of any kind to drink blood or to have bloody meat had to be drained a kosher way they were forbidden to take blood so jesus said this very raw and shocking to shock them to get their attention eat my flesh and drink my blood okay i was raised in a system and i know some of you were it's the roman catholic church that taught the doctrine of transubstantiation you might say never they never taught me that i never heard that word it doesn't matter if you heard the word or not that's just a theological term for the belief that when you take communion the wafer and the juice or the wine you are taking the actual body and the actual blood of jesus there is a transformation where those elements become his flesh and become literally his blood that's what i was taught not a symbol it's literal it's called transubstantiation if you were raised roman catholic that's what you were taught you are actually eating the body and blood now that is not what jesus means here how do i know that how do i know that i know that number one because he has not yet instituted the last supper communion at all yet and he won't for another couple years so for him to say this at this point would be a nonsensical statement to anyone listening even his disciples so that's reason number one reason number two if jesus meant that you are taking communion taking communion then he says if you take my body and my blood you will have everlasting life right that's what he says so if he says if you take communion and you'll have everlasting life now just jesus just taught against what he just taught because he said salvation is a gift you receive it you believe in him now he's teaching if that's what he means salvation by works you you have to do that if you do this if you do this work this activity you'll be saved you'll have everlasting life right so that would be a contradiction of salvation by grace number three the tense in the greek language is the aorist tense the aorist tense is an action that is done once and for all never to be doesn't have to be repeated again it's done it's over it's punctiliar in time that is it's done it's over it's the aorist tense communion is done how how often often right you do it over and over and over and over again so when he says whoever takes my body eats my body all that is in a tense that is it's done the third or the fourth reason is context jesus in the context of this teaching plainly says when he speaks about his body and blood that he's speaking in spiritual terms not literal terms that's what he says go to verse um 63 it is the spirit who gives life the flesh profits nothing the words that i speak to you they are spirit and they are life i'm speaking spiritually about these life-giving truths so he's not speaking about communion what is he speaking he's using the metaphor of the intake of of bread now to the intake of body and blood but the context is believing i want you to compare two verses with me compare verse 54 whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and i will raise him up at the last day compare that with verse 40 this is the will of him who sent me that everyone who sees the sun that is recognizes the sun and believes in him may have everlasting life and i will raise him up at the last day so to eat his flesh and drink his blood is the oppositional truth or the equivalent of believing in him he's just making it raw and real to get their attention to this group of people who can't take blood under any circumstances but he is speaking metaphorically it's figurative he even says so his main point is this true life comes through death true life comes through death and it's my death i'm going to give sacrificially my death i'm going to break my body i'm going to spill my blood and you have to see recognize and believe in the one who was sent therefore verse 60 let's finish this up therefore many of his disciples when they heard this said this is a hard saying i'm glad that's there i'm glad jesus i'm glad i'm not the only one that gets stuff like this that was hard this is a hard thing who can understand it when jesus knew in himself that his disciples complained about this he said does this offend you what then if you should see the son of man ascend where he was before it is the spirit who gives life the flesh profits nothing the words that i speak to you are spirit and they are life this is a hard saying the word hard is the greek word scleros scleros it means stiff rough rough some of you have heard of arteriosclerosis hear the word scleros in there it's hardening of the arteries if your doctor says you have arteriosclerosis it means you've lost elasticity in your arteries they're getting clogged up and they're getting hard when it's used here it doesn't mean it's hard to understand it means it's hard to tolerate i don't like jesus preaching that's a hard difficult to tolerate teaching you know there are some truths in the bible that are just easy to tolerate wonderful truths when you when you speak about heaven i love preaching about heaven i got to do with this last sunday it's a wonderful thing to teach about or god's comfort to the suffering love to teach on that god's grace love to teach in that but then there are other things there are hard truths to hear hell is one of them false teachings false prophet false doctrines all of those are difficult subjects to speak about jesus was saying some pretty difficult stuff to this group by the way jesus often said hard things jesus didn't always smile at people and pat little children on the head and people walked away always feeling that they're exploring their best self he said hard things to the woman at the well he said you're right you're not you're not married you've been living with a guy and you've had four husbands before him now you're living with a guy who wasn't your husband jesus said in matthew 23 you scribes you pharisees you hypocrites every time you convert somebody to your way of life you're making them a twofold child of hell more than yourself that's a tough sermon nobody's taking notes on that and this is another one it's hard to understand or not hard to understand tolerate but there are some among you some of you who do not believe verse 64 for jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe you and i don't know that you don't know who's sitting in here who sitting in here who really does not believe or who does believe he does the bible says he knows those who are his jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who would betray him and he said therefore i have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my father from that time on many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more a startling statement his disciples just because it says disciple mathaetes is the word used in the original language means a learner a follower in the most generic sense it doesn't tell you anything or doesn't imply motive doesn't imply level of devotion or commitment it's just a word that's not meant it's just follower could be any kind of a follower could be a food follower like these guys so these the pharisees had mathaetes followers disciples john the baptist had disciples jesus had disciples some of them were authentic many of them were not and jesus knew the difference boy you imagine just sort of looking us over knowing everything about us and loving us anyway trying to draw us to himself in the fullest possible like judas he knew judas would betray him but he seated judas next to him the last supper that's love reaching out loving us anyway jesus said to the 12th do you also want to go away simon peter answered him lord to whom shall we go you have the words of eternal life i am so glad that peter answered this question you know why i'm glad because peter always gets the bad rap from preachers especially i think there's going to be a long line of preachers in heaven waiting to tell peter how sorry they are for all the bad things they said about him in their sermons and i'm going to be in that line peter's the guy who got the answer right it says aria philipi who do you say that i am you're the christ the son of the living god bingo my god my father revealed this to you and peter said i love it it's the heart of a true disciple where else are we gonna go like in the song that we sing nothing and no one can ever compare you alone have the words of eternal life also we have come to believe and we know that you are the christ the son of the living god jesus answered them did i not choose you the 12 and one of you is a devil he spoke of judas iscariot the son of simon for it is he who would betray him being one of the 12 as we close tonight here's something to consider what is it what experience could happen in your life what bad event could turn up for you could turn up for you that would cause you to turn away from him i think it's a fair question i've seen a lot of people that i once used to see in fellowship serving the lord walking with the lord in fellowship here hands raised reading the bible but something happened and their expectations that they had weren't met they're bitter at god and they they take their ball and they go away what is it that whatever caused you to say i'm done i hope your answer is like peters where else are you gonna go thanks for listening to connect with Skip heitzig we hope you've been strengthened in your walk with jesus by today's program before we let you go we want to remind you about this month's resource that will help you and the children in your life see the timeless story of christ with fresh eyes nate heitzig's book christmas under the tree with forward by levi lusko is our thanks for your support of connect with Skip heitzig today request your copy when you give 25 or more call 800-922-1888 that's 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com donate and did you know that you can find full message series and libraries of content from Skip heitzig on youtube simply visit the connect with Skip heitzig channel on youtube and be sure to subscribe to the channel so you never miss any new content come back next time for more verse by verse teaching of god's word here on connect with Skip heitzig is a presentation of connection communications connecting you to god's never changing truth in ever-changing times