January 9, 2005
Morning Sermon Outline
“Eating Christ’s Flesh, Drinking His Blood”
John 6:51-59
How can we increase our hunger and thirst for Christ’s flesh and blood?
In the most important sense, we cannot, only God’s Spirit can (John 6:63) yet assuming the Spirit’s work, we can better our appetite:
I. By Realizing, Christ is True Bread, His Body is Food INDEED, and His Blood is Drink INDEED!
1. Jesus and His hearers were arguing about this issue, it was confusing, some may have thought it ridiculous
2. Jesus doesn’t say His Body was like food (Bread) or His Blood like drink, but emphatically it is FOOD indeed – John 6:35; 6:48
3. It would be more correct to say “food”, “drink”, or “bread” is like Christ than to say Christ is like food, etc.
4. This is not referring to the Lord’s Supper, though it is not an unrelated topic, it is referring to spiritually feeding on Christ
5. Those who know Christ, know God, know from experience that He is food INDEED in the BEST sense – Psalm 34:8
II. By Realizing, YOU MUST Eat Christ’s Flesh, YOU MUST Drink His Blood!
1. Your salvation, your life is dependent upon this – John 6:53
2. This puts Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs upside down
3. What is first in mind here is dependence upon Christ’s work on the cross – John 6:28-29; John 6:32-33
4. Yet, that is not at all the limit of what is being said, we must: A. Believe – John 6:29, 35, 47
B. Come to Him – John 6:35; 44
C. See, Hear and Learn of Him – John 6:40 & 45
D. Ultimately we must abide in Him – John 15:5, eat Him, meaning make Him our LIFE – Psalm 34:8; Matthew 4:4
E. Anything less than this leaves you spiritually malnourished – John 6:53
III. By Realizing How Satisfying and Nourishing Christ Really Is!
1. Some of you, like me, have a healthy appreciation for a good meal, you can cook it, you like to eat it
2. The people seeking Christ seem to have had a similar appreciation
3. Christ here is not against eating
4. Rather He is for Himself!
5. He is better than the BEST MEAL
A. True Bread in contrast to manna – John 6:32
B. Bread from Heaven – John 6:33: 38
C. Life Giving Bread – John 6:33
D. With this Bread of Life, you will NEVER HUNGER, NEVER THIRST – John 6:35; 48
E. Living Bread, eat Him and live forever – John 6:51; 54; 58
6. Peter had this proper understanding and appreciation for Christ – John 6:66-69
The Lord’s Supper is not the Bread of Life but its purpose, the same as Scripture, the same as my sermon, is to point you toward “THE BREAD of LIFE!”
