My Weekly Devotional for August 8, 2021 can be seen on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/o7-MKV-rpc4
Following is the message in Print.
John 6 47-51 “I’m telling you the most solemn and
sober truth now: Whoever
believes in me has real life, eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your
ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died. But now here is Bread
that truly comes down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread will not die,
ever. I am the Bread—living Bread! —who came down out of heaven. Anyone who
eats this Bread will live—and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so
that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self.”
52 At this, the Jews started fighting
among themselves: “How can this man serve up his flesh for a meal?”
53-58 But Jesus didn’t give an inch.
“Only insofar as you eat and drink flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of the
Son of Man, do you have life within you. The one who brings a hearty appetite
to this eating and drinking has eternal life and will be fit and ready for the
Final Day. My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. By eating my flesh and drinking
my blood you enter into me and I into you. In the same way that the
fully alive Father sent me here and I live because of him, so the one who makes
a meal of me lives because of me. This is the Bread from heaven. Your ancestors
ate bread and later died. Whoever eats this Bread will live always.”
59 He said these things while teaching
in the meeting place in Capernaum.
1
Corinthians 11 23–26 Let me go over
with you again exactly what goes on in the
Lord’s Supper and why it is so centrally important. I received my instructions
from the Master himself and passed them on to you.
The Master, Jesus,
on the night of his betrayal, took bread. Having given thanks, he broke it and said; This is my body,
broken for you.
Do this to remember me.
After supper, he did the same thing with the cup:
This cup is my blood, my new covenant with you.
Each time you
drink this cup, remember me.
What you must
solemnly realize is that every time you eat this bread and every time you drink
this cup, you reenact in your words and actions the death of the Master.
You will be drawn back to this meal again and again until the Master returns. You
must never let familiarity breed contempt.
Background: The
lesson continues with John’s account of the dialogue between Jesus and the Jews
about bread. The Jews want Jesus to
become the King of Jews and restore a kingdom similar to that of David which
would include the overthrow of the Roman occupation. If Jesus does not prove to be their Messiah
then they hope to catch him in an act of treason and justifiably kill him. The problem is they are in a public place (The
synagogue in Capernaum) and Jesus is smarter than them. Another issue, Jesus is speaking in metaphors
and they are responding literally. For
instance, Jesus said “I am the bread of life” or believe in me and receive
eternal life. They view bread as literal
loaves of food to be consumed and the statement makes no sense to them. Jesus is telling them and us in the
twenty-first century to believe and follow him and he will lead us to life
everlasting. Verse 52 is almost comical
to current day believers, “52 At this, the Jews started fighting among
themselves: “How can this man serve up his flesh for a meal?” Jesus meant for his words to be taken
neither in a literal nor in a sacramental sense. The Hebrew idiom “flesh and
blood” refers to the total person. Nowhere is Jesus’s teaching more shocking
than here. Eternal life comes from eating his flesh and drinking his blood—that
is, from believing in him. The Greek word pisteuĊ means to
believe, trust, rely upon, and its related noun is pistis (faith). In
his Gospel, John never uses the words repent, repentance, or faith to describe
the way people are saved. Instead, he used believe since this term included all
these ideas. John preferred the verb form to emphasize the act that is
necessary for someone to be saved—total dependence on the work of another. John
does indicate, however, that believing can be superficial; that is, it can be
merely intellectual without resulting in true salvation (Jn 2:23–24; 12:42–43;
see Jms 2:19 (19-20 Do
I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you
complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just
great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them?). But John’s main point is that
complete reliance upon Jesus, the Christ and Son of God (20:31), for salvation
gives eternal life to the person who believes (3:16; 6:47). Jesus used a
wordplay when he said that people must do “the work of God” for salvation, for
his point was that we must not try to work for it at all. We must simply
“believe in the one he has sent” (6:29).
Some interpreters believe He is talking about the Holy
Eucharist. This is not so, for the
following reasons: 1. He has not shared anything about the
Eucharist with his disciples. He surely
would not be discussing this holy and intimate event with non-believers. 2. He
was not speaking in literal terms, but metaphorically. 3. He
said this is absolutely necessary for eternal life. If it was the eucharist, all who had not participated
in the Holy Eucharist would be lost!
4. Another factor is the tense of
the Greek verbs in John 6:50–51, and 53. It is the aorist tense which signifies
a once-for-all action. The Communion service is a repeated thing; in fact, it
is likely that the early church observed the Lord’s Supper daily.
The Holy Eucharist is a recreation of the meal Jesus had
with his disciples known as the “Last Supper” and is recorded for by Matthew: 26-29 During the meal,
Jesus took and blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples: Take,
eat. This is my body. Taking the cup and thanking God, he gave it to them: Drink
this, all of you. This is my blood, God’s new covenant poured out for many
people for the forgiveness of sins. The
first century Christians incorporated this event into every meeting as
worship. The apostle Paul reminds the
people of Corinth to continue this at every worship. This tradition continues in Christian worship
to this day.
Lessons: First
and foremost, we must learn to recognize allegories and metaphors in the study
of the Bible. The prophets and Jesus
used this method of teaching and we must recognize that truth is often veiled
in applying these methods. Do not take
every sentence of the Bible literally.
Dig for the truth in applying scientific study methods (Hermeneutics).
Second: When
looking at an event recorded in the Old and New Testament scriptures always
consider cultural practice of the time when searching for a biblical
truth. A classic example is when Paul
tells in 1 Corinthians 14:34-36 to keep silent in worship. This is not a biblical truth to be applied in
any situation in the 21st century.
Third: Regarding
the Holy Eucharist, what you must solemnly realize is that every time you eat
this bread and every time you drink this cup, you reenact in your words and
actions the death of the Master. You will be drawn back to this meal again and
again until the Master returns. This is
a moment of grace between you and Jesus in which you participate, with Jesus,
in His life, death, and resurrection. Do
this each time you meet.
Fourth: The
substitutionary death of Jesus Christ is a key doctrine in John’s Gospel. Jesus
would die for the world (John 3:16; 6:51), for His sheep (John 10:11, 15), for
the nation (John 11:50–52), and for His friends (John 15:12). Paul made it
personal, and so should we: “Who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal.
2:20). We must not limit the work of Christ on the cross. He is the sacrifice
not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2).
Conclusion:
The Eucharist is the central act of worship. What Jesus said was, “Just as you take food
and drink within your body and it becomes a part of you, so you must receive Me
within your innermost being so that I can give you life.” Make every opportunity to participate in this
Holy moment.
