Rev. David Holwick E
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
February 5, 1995
John 6:48-58
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I. Transferred life.
Paul Brand's career in medicine traces back to one dreary
night at Connaught Hospital in East London.
Hospital orderlies wheeled a beautiful young women into his ward.
She had lost much blood in an accident.
It had drained from her skin, leaving her an unearthly pale
color, and her oxygen-starved brain had shut down into an
unconscious mode.
The hospital staff lurched into their controlled-panic
response to any patient near death.
A nurse dashed down a corridor for a blood transfusion
bottle while a doctor fumbled with the apparatus to get
the transfusion going.
They could not detect even the faintest pulse on her cold,
limp wrist.
She looked like a wax museum exhibit or a marble statue
in a cathedral.
Her lips were pale and only a few freckles stood out against
her pallor.
She did not seem to be breathing, having long before passed
through the desperate phase of heaving breathing.
Paul Brand was certain she was dead.
The nurse arrived with a bottle of blood, which she buckled
into a high metal stand as the doctor punctured the
woman's vein with a large needle.
They had mounted the bottle high and were using an extra-long
tube so that the increase in pressure would push the
blood into her body faster.
The staff told Paul to keep watch over the emptying bottle
as they hurried off for more blood.
Nothing in his memory could compare to the excitement of what
happened next.
As he nervously held her wrist while the others were gone,
suddenly he could feel the faintest press of a pulse.
He thought it might be his own pulse.
Paul searched again, and it was there, barely perceptible.
The next bottle of blood arrived and was quickly connected.
A spot of pink appeared on her cheek, and spread into a
beautiful flush.
Her lips darkened pink, then red, and her eyelids fluttered
lightly and at last parted.
She squinted at first, and then looked directly at Paul.
To his enormous surprise, she asked for some water.
Paul Brand was so amazed he became a missionary doctor and
served for years in India and Louisiana.
#2805
A. It is a beautiful thing to receive life from another person.
B. Transfusion is a close image of what Jesus does for us.
II. Fast food, versus real food.
A. Materialistic outlook.
1) When Jesus referred to the Bread of God, the people said,
"Give it to us." 6:33-34
a) Similar to woman at well and "living water."
b) All they wanted was to fill their bellies. 6:26
c) "What can I get out of this?" describes much modern
religion.
2) Manna has limitations.
a) There was a past example of food from God, called Manna.
b) It was food for the body, no more. 6:35
c) Those who ate it eventually died. 6:49,58
B. Jesus points to a more substantial food - his own body.
1) Passage is one of Jesus' more shocking sermons.
a) In bald language, Jesus says he is food. We can eat him.
b) Jesus isn't into "sanitized" religion.
2) Is Jesus advocating cannibalism? 6:60f
a) His hearers thought so.
b) Many were turned off, turned away from following him.
c) Jews were especially forbidden to eat blood. Gen 9:4
3) Real drink and real flesh. 6:55
a) (Meat Industry ad with James Garner:
"Beef - Real food for real people."
Then Garner went and had a heart attack.)
b) Why is Jesus putting so much stress on this?
III. Applications to communion.
A. Many churches teach that this passages focuses on communion.
1) The eating and drinking must be taken literally.
2) Communion becomes tied with salvation, and is called a
"sacrament." It imparts holiness to people.
3) Several variations exist.
B. Transubstantiationism. Roman Catholic
1) Jesus is literally present in the food.
2) The food is transformed into the flesh of Jesus himself.
a) Reason it is treated with such respect.
b) To drop a wafer is to desecrate Jesus.
3) Communion becomes a real sacrifice, repeated around world.
C. Consubstantiationism. Lutheran
1) The food is both food AND Jesus.
2) (Tries to be best of both worlds.)
D. Spiritual presence/memorial meal. Presbyterian/Baptist
1) Jesus is present in a spiritual way at communion.
a) The food stays food, period.
2) Jesus is speaking symbolically in this passage.
a) Any application to communion is secondary.
IV. Salvation is what is really in View.
A. No salvation apart from closest relationship with Jesus.
1) Jesus said these words before he had died, yet speaks
of it as something they can do right now.
2) "Flesh" is unusual in relation to communion. Every
other communion passage refers to "body."
3) The language of eating points to a past, completed
event (accepting Jesus).
B. Eating and drinking appear to be a very graphic way of saying
that people must take Christ into their innermost being.
V. Feeding on Jesus.
A. Faith must be personal. 6:58
1) It is not enough to be a member of a group.
a) The forefathers ate, but died. 6:58
2) Throughout the passage, the singular is regularly used to
describe him who is in right relationship with Jesus.
B. Faith is not a hobby, but full-time devotion.
1) We have access to God only through Jesus, not directly. 6:57
a) Jesus' food was to do God's will. 4:34
2) Keep your priorities focused.
When Charles Swindoll lived in Atlanta a while back, he
noticed a restaurant in the Yellow Pages.
It was a place called the "Church of God Grill."
The peculiar name aroused his curiosity and he dialed the
number.
A man answered with a cheery, "Hello! Church of God Grill!"
Swindoll asked how his restaurant had been given such an
unusual name, and he told him.
"Well, we had a little mission down here, and we started
selling chicken dinners after church on Sunday to help
pay the bills.
People liked the chicken, and we did such a good business,
that eventually we cut back on the church service.
After a while we just closed down the church altogether and
kept on serving chicken dinners.
We kept the name we started with, and that's Church of God
Grill." #1574
C. Those who eat Jesus "remain" in him. 6:56
1) Emphasis is on living the Christian life.
2) Eating Jesus is not just enjoying the benefits of Jesus'
death, but also to follow him and to share his
mission and destiny.
3) Perhaps his death as well?
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