Good Weekend to you my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
How do you respond when you hear or read something that just doesn’t sound right, especially if it is said or written by someone you trust and respect? What if that confusing something is in the Bible??
The past few days we’ve been looking very carefully at some things Jesus was saying to a crowd of people as recorded by John, one of the disciples who was there that day. The statements Jesus made that day are HUGELY significant for every person, of all time!
Now today let’s look carefully as Jesus continued speaking to the crowd but now some of what He said was very controversial, confusing and some people were so frustrated they actually walked AWAY from Jesus that day, writing Him off as insane, and they never came back!! We find the story ONLY in John 6. Let’s listen closely as Jesus is speaking…
John 6:45 records that Jesus said: “It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God’. Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from Him comes to Me…” Jesus was speaking to a Jewish crowd and quoting one of their most revered Old Testament prophets Isaiah, who in Is. 54:13 wrote in his day, about the future of Jerusalem and God’s people who would live there: “All your children will be taught by the LORD, and great will be their peace.”
700 years before Jesus was speaking to a crowd on the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee, God had moved Isaiah the Jewish prophet to write about a time AFTER the destruction of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar in 586bc, that God would miraculously provide for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the teaching of God’s Word to those Jews who rebuilt the city. It happened when Ezra the priest led a time of great spiritual renewal in recently rebuilt Jerusalem, as recorded in the books of Ezra & Nehemiah.
But Isaiah’s prophecy was being fulfilled also with Jesus who was now teaching the Jews as God’s messenger sent directly from heaven as God incarnate living among them and proclaiming God’s truth to all who would listen! Isaiah’s prophecy was being fulfilled right before their eyes, if they were willing to see it! So, Jesus continued: “No one has seen the Father except the One who is from God; only He has seen the Father.” (John 6:46) Do you understand what Jesus was saying here? Jesus was declaring that HE alone has SEEN God the Father since HE lived in heaven before God sent Him to earth!
He was again declaring that Almighty God is HIS Father, that He, Jesus, is God the Son! Jesus kept challenging the people, over and over, with every miracle, every teaching, to decide… WHO is Jesus? Jesus claimed, over and over, that He is God the Son, sent from heaven to earth by God the Father, with God’s message of truth, for our human race. Jesus challenges you and me today, 2000 years later, to answer the same question… WHO is Jesus and HOW do you and I respond to the truth He proclaims?
Jesus continued and His words now become very challenging: “Very truly I tell you, the person who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they eventually died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and NOT die! I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is My flesh, which I will give so the world may live.” (John 6:47-51)
Oh my! We need to pause right here and make sure we don’t rush past these words. Why? Because they are a line of demarcation between life and death for all humanity! I urge you to read those few sentences two or three times. Do you understand what Jesus is saying, my friends?
No, obviously Jesus is not promoting cannibalism. Nor at any time did Jesus cut pieces of His flesh and give it to people to eat! But sinless Jesus, God the Son, did give His body as a sacrifice on the cross, to pay for the sins of all humanity! As Jesus went to the cross God the Father heaped upon Jesus all the sin guilt of all humanity and then God poured out His justice judgment wrath upon all that sin and Jesus died on that cross bearing our sin guilt. (Isaiah 53:4-7;10-12; Romans 5:8; 1 John 4:9,10) Why?
So that ANY person, who fully trusts the truth of this, will be ransomed by God from their sin as God the Father places Jesus’ death payment upon their sin guilt and declares them forgiven, justified! (Romans 8:1; 1 Peter 1:18,19) And then God replaces our sin guilt with the cleansing holiness of Jesus! (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 1:9) God then grants to those forgiven people the assurance of eternal life in heaven with Jesus!! (John 3:16,17; 5:24)
Now don’t rush past that without owning it my friends. It is God’s ONLY provision for any person to gain eternal life with God in heaven… there is NO other way!
John tells us the people in the crowd that day were thrown into a frenzy of confusion and argument for they simply could not grasp the powerful, lifesaving truth Jesus was speaking! While Jesus said more, and we need to understand and wrestle with it, we’ll do that on Monday.
This is so important we don’t want to rush. The rest of your life and mine, AND our eternal destiny hinges on our proper understanding of what Jesus was saying that day. So, I urge you to go back and read John 6:33-51 over and over asking God to open your mind to understand HIS life saving truth.
Some really important ‘lessons learned’ notes in the link below will be very helpful to you and a wonderful worship song will draw your heart into God’s presence as you contemplate the blood that Jesus shed. And I’ll be here ready to dig more deeply with you into these important God truths, on Monday.
Today’s Scripture: John 6:45-52.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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