Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20051009.htm

JOHN: TRUSTING JESUS AS MESSIAH AND GOD
Part XXI: Discerning Jesus' Words On Eating His Body' For Blessing
(John 6:26-64)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Earlier this year, a Church member asked me in our Sunday School Class about one of the hard sayings of Jesus: he wanted to know how to respond to associates who hold the Roman Catholic Church's view on that particular saying. That saying happens to be a verse we view today in our study of John 6 where Jesus said the following in John 6:53 NIV: "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.'"

The challenge of this verse is complicated by the fact that Jesus REPEATED this idea in the verses that follow: In John 6:54-56 NIV, He said: "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 real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.'"

In part due to such verses in the Bible, the Roman Catholic Church has adopted the view of the Lord's Table known as Transubstantiation. According to The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1987 ed. a book that " . . . is considered to be free from doctrinal or moral error" by Roman Catholics through the declared Nihil obstat and Imprimatur in the front of the book, this view reasserts the claim by the Council of Trent that at the communion service called the Mass, a change occurs in the bread and the wine. This work affirms on p. 583 that "a singular and wondrous conversion of the total substance of bread into the body and of the total substance of wine into the blood of Christ, the external appearances only remaining unchanged.'"

Indeed, the Roman Catholic Church asserts that as the bread and cup mystically become the real body and blood of Christ, partaking of the wafer in the Mass is necessary for salvation as one thus ingests Christ's body, Loraine Boettner, Roman Catholicism, p. 189.

However, at Nepaug Bible Church, you hear that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone, that partaking of the elements of the communion table will NOT save the soul accord with verses like Ephesians 2:8-9 that tell us salvation is by faith without works.

However, what do we do with Jesus' "hard saying" in His John 6:53-56 words? How can those words NOT assert the teaching of the need for man to observe the Roman Catholic Church's Mass in order to gain eternal life and enter heaven?

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "Though at Nepaug Bible Church we are taught salvation is by faith alone, the Roman Catholic Church claims Jesus' call to eat and drink' of His flesh and blood' in John 6:53-58 means one must observe the weekly Roman Catholic Mass to gain eternal life! I don't know how to answer such a view, but I DO want eternal life, so HOW may I KNOW the TRUTH so I can be SURE to be SAVED?!"
  1. To assume Jesus' John 6:53-58 words teach we must LITERALLY and mystically ingest His body in the form of the wafer of the Roman Catholic Mass would make Christianity a FALSE religion!
    1. If John 6:53-58 was meant in the literal sense, the time of Jesus' declaration on thus ingesting His actual body and blood would make His salvation depend on mortal longevity, a Biblically false gospel:
      1. Jesus spoke His John 6:53-58 words near Passover, Jn. 6:4-11, 26.
      2. However, it was a later year that He instituted His Lord's Table at a LATER Passover, cf. John 7:1-2 with John 13:1 and Bible Knowledge Commentary, New Testament , p. 297.
      3. So, if ingesting Christ's real body was essential for salvation, all 5,000 whom Jesus had recently miraculously fed the loaves and fishes, and whom He now addressed (John 6:26ff) would need to stay alive one more year to be saved; their salvation would depend on their longevity, a work opposite what Ephesians 2:8-9 teaches!
    2. The act of ingesting Jesus' body and blood', if taken in a literal way, would present a Biblically false gospel; the act itself would then make salvation a human work opposite what Ephesians 2:8-9 teaches!
    3. To obey Jesus' words to ingest His body and blood' in a literal way would make Jesus exalt sin, and thus leave him unqualified to save us:
      1. The Mosaic Law forbade the eating of actual blood, Leviticus 7:27.
      2. As Jesus lived under the Law (Gal. 4:4), taking His words in John 6:53-58 in a literal way makes Him teach sin, leaving Him evil and not qualified to save opposite what Hebrews 9:6-7, 13-14 reveals!
    4. To treat Jesus' words to ingest His body and blood' in a literal sense to be applied in a weekly observance of a Roman Catholic Mass would counter Hebrews 9:24-28 that teaches Jesus died " once for all".
    5. To treat Jesus' words to ingest His body and blood' in a literal sense to be applied in a weekly observed Roman Catholic Mass re-sacrifices Jesus, openly disgracing Him opposite what Hebrews 6:5-6 condones.
    6. To treat Jesus' words to ingest His body and blood' in a literal sense to be applied in a weekly observance of a Roman Catholic Mass fails to save all laymen, for only the priest may drink of the "blood" in the Roman Catholic Mass opposite what Jesus commanded in John 6:53! (cf. Loraine Boettner, Roman Catholicism, 1978, p. 180)
  2. However, JESUS' OWN EXPLANATION of His John 6:53-58 words shows He spoke these in a FIGURATIVE way, leaving Him teaching TRUTH that is UPHELD by the REST of SCRIPTURE:
    1. In John 6:63a, Jesus explained to His disciples that the "spirit" (KJV, NIV, ESV) makes alive where the "flesh" (KJV, NIV, ESV) benefits [the verb ophelei] NOTHING, cf. U. B. S. Greek N. T., 1966 ed., p. 348; Arndt & Ging., A Greek-Engl. Lex. of the N. T., p. 908-909.
    2. Now, the last part of John 6:63 shows this "spirit" in John 6:63a refers to the spiritual effect of the Jesus' words of salvation by faith that He repeatedly gave in John 6, cf. John 6:29, 35, 40 and 47, words that led to eternal life when people believed in them. (cf. Romans 1:16-17)
    3. Then, in John 6:51-62 where Jesus called on men to partake of His "flesh" for salvation, that word for "flesh", sarx in the Greek New Testament, throughout that WHOLE section is used ONLY for Christ's physical body, cf. Ibid., U. B. S. Greek N. T., p. 347-348.
    4. Thus, in John 6:63, Jesus taught that to ingest His physical body would profit nothing where the words He was teaching conveyed spiritual life when the hearer believed IN Him upon hearing them, cf. John 6:64 in light of Romans 1:16!
    5. The rest of Scripture asserts this same view, the view that salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone versus all other means, Eph. 2:8-9 et al.
  3. Thus, in John 6:53-58, Jesus taught in FIGURATIVE imagery that for us to receive God's eternal life, we must exercise a TRUE FAITH IN Him versus a false faith ABOUT Him for VAIN reasons (like being physically fed the loaves and fishes, cf. John 6:26)!
Application: (1) If we have not trusted IN Christ for salvation of the soul, may we DO so that we might SURELY receive eternal life, John 6:29, 35, 40 and 47. (2) May we settle our hearts that the FIGURATIVE treatment of John 6:53-58 is the correct one!

Lesson: (1) Since viewing Jesus' John 6:53-58 words as literal sabotages the Christian faith, but (2) taking them as figurative (a) leaves Christ asserting truth supported by the rest of the Bible, (b) and since Jesus Himself clarified in John 6:63 that he spoke figuratively in John 6:53-58, (3) John 6:53-58 was His figurative way of showing our need to trust IN Him to be saved versus exercising a false, fruitless faith ABOUT Him.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 Each time the question is raised as to whether something besides faith is needed for salvation, it is helpful to recall the words of our Lord Jesus Christ to the repentant thief on the cross. We apply His words to the issue of partaking of the bread and cup in a communion service (as follows):

In Luke 23:39-43 KJV, while Jesus was nailed to the cross with the two other men on either side of Him, one of the sinners said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." (Luke 23:42 KJV) Jesus' response in view of what this man had NOT done and COULD NOT do to be saved is as priceless as it is instructive: Jesus responded in Luke 23:43 (KJV): "Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise."

This short verbal exchange reveals the thief on the cross went to heaven without observing the Roman Catholic Mass. Being a vile sinner, he was absent when Jesus the night before had instituted the Lord's Table. He had thus not partaken of Christian communion before being crucified. Then, nailed to a cross at the same time Jesus was, and being thus unable under force of the watching, armed Roman guard to leave his cross and approach the body of Jesus in some way literally or mystically to ingest some of His body or blood, or even to move his hands to his mouth to partake of a wafer or a cup of wine that somehow mystically became the actual body of Christ, or to have anyone else such as a priest of the Church thus serve him communion on the cross, this man went to heaven that day by authority of the Son of God Himself!

If Jesus HIMSELF told the thief on the cross that he would be with Jesus that day in heaven, and that apart from his ever being ABLE to partake of the literal or mystical body and blood of the Lord, we can be sure that salvation is by faith alone in Jesus alone apart from partaking of the elements of the Roman Catholic Mass!



May we REST in the TRUTH that salvation is by faith ALONE in Jesus ALONE, and Christ's words in John 6:53-56 are to be understood as FIGURATIVE; they teach the need for all people to believe IN Him to have eternal life!