Ocean View Women’s Bible Study

May 18, 2011

Body and Blood

• Last time we studied the miracle of Jesus and the loaves and fishes.  We talked about how the greatest part of the miracle was possibly that people began to share and open themselves up.
• Now we see that passage continue to be opened up as Jesus speaks of himself being the bread of life

READ John 6:51-59

• This is the third time that Jesus refers to Himself as the bread of life, and he is finally going to reveal the true meaning
• It is important to note that John’s gospel does not include the story of the Last Supper with Jesus, but this chapter is soaked with the imagery of the Eucharist.
• It seems there was some dispute among them about the meaning of what Christ is saying.  He keeps talking about being the ‘bread’ and then he just takes it to another level and starts talking about eating his ‘flesh.’  Eww
• It could have been like Nicodemus or the woman at the well who really didn’t understand at first, and were taking it to be a literal meaning.  They would have been thinking, ‘we literally should gnaw on his arm?’
• Most likely though, they did have an understanding of what he was saying, because they lived in a culture where sacrifices and offerings were very common.  
• For Old Testament people they were use to bringing sacrifices to their God.  For people of ancient religions, the way that is worked was that a part of the animal was actually blessed and then given back to the family so they could have a feast with it.  They believed that once the flesh was offered to a god that the god actually entered the flesh, so when eating it, they actually became god-filled.
• There would have been an inner understanding of for the religious people, as all people have a longing to unite with God and holy things
• But there was a deeper purpose about this teaching that Jesus was trying to share.

• First, there was a part of it in which Jesus wanted to connect us to the earthly part of Jesus, the human part of Jesus
• Jesus was the awaited Messiah, but He was also a man, in the flesh, who came down and lived a life just as we did.
• He lived on this earth and had joys and pains, test and trials just as we do, but Jesus came out perfect.
• Hebrews 5:7-10 says,  7-10While he lived on earth, anticipating death, Jesus cried out in pain and wept in sorrow as he offered up priestly prayers to God. Because he honored God, God answered him. Though he was God's Son, he learned trusting-obedience by what he suffered, just as we do. Then, having arrived at the full stature of his maturity and having been announced by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who believingly obey him.
• There is a part of this passage that is a reminder that Jesus is the mind of God here on earth and He understands everything of the flesh, but is the ultimate source of the life of that flesh.  This life is possible when we come to him and He is our source.
• Actually, this life can be made holy and a beautiful offering to God, when we follow in the footsteps of Jesus in his power and life
• Bill White says, "Because we now fully participate in Christ's word, i.e. Jesus abides in us and we in him, we have both the promise of eternal life AND a meaningful life with God now."
• Taking part in Jesus’ flesh brings us into a new world, a part of heaven here on earth.  We participate in that life.   That is what is means that we eat of his flesh.  We take on this world in OUR FLESH in a completely new way; in His way.

• But then Jesus takes it further than Him being the bread of life and eating his flesh, he also says we must drink His blood.
• This takes the gross factor to a whole ‘nother vampire level – but there is  a deep meaning here
• In Jewish thought, blood means life.  Take the blood from a person and you take their life, and for the Jew, blood belonged to God.
• So, get this, Jesus is saying to us when he says we should drink his blood, that we need to drink of His life, and take the life of Jesus into every part of us.  
• When Jesus said we must drink his blood he meant that we must take his life into the center of our hearts and life.
• Jesus is taking their relationship with Him and with God to another level.  We can’t have Jesus just as a character in our lives, just a religious figure.  
• But when Jesus enters into our hearts then we have His life and strength pulsing through every single thing.  
• We don’t take our food from this world, from the things this world gives us and the ways our world defines us.  We get our nourishment, fulfillment, and identity from Jesus when we allow him to come into our hearts.

• This was also a teaching about the Lord’s Supper and what happens when we ‘remember Jesus’ and all He did for us.  
• But it’s more than just remembering what Jesus did, it’s a realization that the Lord’s Supper is life-giving because it’s Jesus himself who is given
• It’s not just remembering a great man like Martin Luther King, Jr. or Nelson Mandela.
• We could have a ceremony that remembered and paid tribute to all that Nelson Mandela did for this country.  Think about it; through Nelson Mandela, through this man, you all were brought freedom in this country to live, as you want to live and be who you want to be.
• But that is a man whose acts are great, but they are separate from us.  They take on no real meaning for us except to remember.
• When we remember Jesus it is wholly different because the Eucharist brought us freedom and identity because Jesus is given for us.  He sacrificed and gave himself so that God could literally enter us and become a part of us.
• And he wants us to partake of this not just in church, but to be something that we are always doing.  Jesus says that He is the living bread come down from heaven – and he is speaking of the manna that came form heaven to sustain the Israelites as they wandered the desert.
• This manna did not sustain you permanently, you had to eat of it flesh each day.  It came down every day.  Jesus wants us to always be fasting on Him.
• Jesus wants us to remember Him and allow Him to flow through our veins at all time, be a part of us at all times, filling us to the brim.
• Colossians 1:27, “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
• This separates the remembrance of Jesus Christ from all other remembrances.  When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, it’s not just that we are paying tribute, but we are actually ‘suppering’ or eating of the Lord
• It may seem crude, but Jesus wants us to fully understand that He doesn’t just want us to think of Him, or idolize Him, or talk about Him, but true worship of Jesus allowing Him to change us from the inside out, making us different on the inside.
• In this act we are praying that we would be emptied out, and Jesus blood and life would fill our veins and heart.
• He wants our insides to be changed, He wants our attitudes to be changed, He wants less of us and more of Him.
• We have to get our hearts right and lay down anything that is keeping us from full communion with Jesus and keeping Him from filling us fully

• Lastly, communion is something that we do together because is means ‘a shared or mutual participation.’  It actually comes from the word community and it means that we enter into a shared community, a shared blessing, a shared covenant when we take communion.
• We come and take it together, and Paul spoke to the Corinthians about making sure not only that they were whole before, but that they were right with one another before they came to this meal.
• God does the Holy parts, but we have to help with the emptying of what we have filled ourselves with.  
• But we also do it together.  These promises, this covenant, isn’t to be received all alone, it’s something we do together.
• In the first church, they actually took Communion together during a meal.  They had one cup and one loaf of bread and they shared it among one another.  They sat at a table and looked at one another.  
• Usually we are at a church, and we come to the pastor and it’s between us and God.  But that is not how it was created.  It was to be in fellowship – not just healing our own souls but all of us together as a church.

So tonight we are going to partake in communion, but first we are going to have a time of confession, emptying ourselves of what is not of Him so that when we take Him in, we can allow Him to every part of us.

We confess together because we are together bringing one another to God.  So I want us to go around and confess something that is in their spirit that is not of God, something they want to give up, something that keeps them from God or others.

Then we are going to pray for each other before we partake in this celebration.

"'I Am the Living Bread,'" Jerry Goebel, One Family Outreach. "Focus on scripture from a justice perspective." Exegesis, study, and teen study and activities.

"There has never been a greater promise in all of history.  Sadly, those who questioned Jesus on that day missed it entirely.  They did not want eternal bread; they wanted everyday bread.  They desire to grab a free meal disabled them from hearing Jesus? invitation to the eternal."