As We Walk With Him We Become More Like Him
Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rev. Michael J. Moffitt August 18, 2024
SCRIPTURE: John 6:51–59
As many of you may remember Teresa and I first met and began dating while in High School. In and of itself that’s not unusual but many of our friends couldn’t imagine how that would work. We were so totally different that our relationship could never last. From the beginning her family just couldn’t understand why she was going out with me, surely she could do better. She was and still is beautiful, smart, and witty, I couldn’t get enough of looking into her eyes, that’s true today. We were very, very different, and shared almost nothing in common, except we both loved to laugh, and I made her laugh.
Our first date was September 25, 1970, I remember because it was my mother’s birthday, and I was borrowing her car. I bring this up because after being together for almost 54 years, and 51 as husband and wife neither of us is the same person that we were back then. The irony is that she is the one who tends to be funny, and I tend to be the more serious.
Now we have lots in common and there is only one explanation- it’s Jesus. When we began to embrace Jesus as Savior and Lord everything changed because Jesus changes people. You can’t be in relationship with Jesus Christ and not be changed from the inside out. It’s a metamorphosis, a process of being transformed from being blind to God and his glory, to the revelation of God found in everything he has made. Babies change in countless ways as they grow in maturity resulting in adulthood. There really is no choice. If life in our bodies is sustained we will grow and develop into a man or woman. The same thing is true of our lives in the Spirit. If we have indeed come to God in repentance of sins bowing down before the King of Kings and Lord of Lord’s trusting in his mercy and grace, everything will begin to change. If there is no change, then it would indicate that there had been no repentance and no understanding of what it means to be a Christ follower. Paul was very clear in our epistle reading this morning from Ephesians 5:3-14. He speaks of those things that are done by those who dwell in darkness but should not be true of those who claim to walk in the light of Christ. The two are diametrically opposed because they are the exact opposite, completely different. When the light is turned on the darkness goes away. In verses 8-11,
“for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true) and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.”
The past few months our focus has been on what it means for us to follow in the way of Jesus Christ. We have focused on the truth that everything that the Father made available to the incarnate Son, so that He could accomplish all that the Father sent him to do, is also available to those who follow Christ as Savior and Lord. We walk in the authority of the name of Jesus and in the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Over a period of weeks Bart and I considered Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 3:14-21. Essentially we concluded that Paul was talking about a relationship with God in Jesus Christ that was far more wonderful and far beyond anything that we could imagine. Paul’s prayer was that the Ephesian Church might actually experience the fullness of God, not merely the fullness of his grace, but of all that he is in Himself. As overwhelming as this may sound, Paul seems to be praying that we (and all other Christians) may be filled up to all the fullness that is in God Himself, and not merely in the future but beginning in the here and now. He knows the impossibility that we could ever fully experience all there is of God’s fullness, but what if we pursued that? What would it be like if all those who testify to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ would earnestly seek to encounter God in their prayers, study of God’s word, and in their worship? What if Christians pursued God more earnestly than anything else in their lives? How would that impact the world around them? How would that change our country? I think Paul is praying that Christians would long for a far deeper relationship than they had come to expect, or even thought possible. We shouldn’t be surprised by that if we, with the help of the Holy Spirit are willing go step out in faith, hungry for more of God’s glory and presence in our lives. I’m convinced that our prayers would revolve around asking God for more.
Today I want to return to considering the impact on our world if those who have truly surrendered their lives to the glory of God lived as if this was more important than anything else in our lives.
Let me share what I long for in my relationship with Jesus. Every part of my life as a man, husband, father, grandfather, pastor, neighbor, citizen, brother, or friend is affected by who I am in Christ. If I find areas in my life that I have not submitted to Jesus, it needs to change. This should affect how I appear to those I come in contact with at the grocery store, the bank, restaurant’s…any place where I am, it is imperative that I remember that Jesus goes with me. That changes a lot of things, doesn’t it?
Our primary passage this morning is our gospel from John 6:53-59 but first I want to begin by considering this passage through the lens of Proverbs 9:1–6:
“Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her young women to call from the highest places in the town, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”
Proverbs 9 shows a contrast between Wisdom and Folly. In our passage Wisdom is depicted as a gracious and noble patroness who invites the young and gullible to come to her feast and receive life. Her invitation is seen in contrast to verses 13–18, where Folly coaxes the gullible enticed by erotic lust, where they find the path to death. Listen to Folly’s coaxing in verses 16–18,
“Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” And to him who lacks sense she says, “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.”
Both invite the gullible to a feast, but Wisdom’s invitation is from love and a desire for their well-being, whereas Folly seeks to deceive and destroy. Wisdom’s house is well built and has seven pillars suggesting that it is very large and has room for all who will come in. “Seven” in this literary fiction also symbolizes perfection, so Wisdom’s perfect house is suitable for everyone. She has sacrificed an animal, baked fresh bread and prepared her mixed wine, usually with honey and herbs to make it spicy, potent and more enjoyable (Song of Solomon 8:2). Wisdom has prepared a feast that will satisfy their every need and was a reminder to Israel of how God had prepared a table for them in the wilderness. He had given them manna, the bread of angels to feed them and living water from the rock to quench their thirst. They had been in a situation where only God could satisfy their need and without him, they would die. This proverb was a reminder to Israel of God’s faithfulness and provision for them and that wisdom called them to turn away from their folly and return to covenant faithfulness to the God who loved them.
We can see that this passage also anticipated the banquet that Divine Wisdom, the Holy Spirit invites his guests to, which would be furnished with the costliest of provisions that God had to give.
In our gospel passage this morning Jesus declares himself to be that feast, the meat, and the drink that God was providing through the sacrifice of the Son, the Lamb of God. Proverbs 9:5–6 exhorts those who are simple to “Come…leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.” We will see the same invitation from Jesus to those who would choose the way of life and wisdom.
Let’s turn now to John 6:51–59. In order to get the full context of what Jesus was saying and the reason for such a strong reaction from the crowd. John 6:51–55,
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.”
I’ve looked at this passage in numerous translations and there just isn’t any way around it, this was a tough word to hear. The Jews had come to him as a rabbi and were considering that perhaps this man could be the Messianic king they had been waiting for. They had seen and experienced his power through healings and the feeding of 5,000 men plus women and children with only five barley loaves and two fish. They had marveled at his teaching with authority, but they still were skeptical as to who he really was. Like Nicodemus in John 3 when Jesus told him that he must be born again, the question is “how could this be.” Jesus doesn’t make it easy on them because he wants them to understand that real eating and drinking are involved here. He furthers the offense by stating that without eating his flesh and drinking his blood they would not have life. He is letting them know that what he is offering is not something that is optional and could be ignored.
Jesus was telling them that his flesh and blood were what food and drink should be, as they perfectly fulfill the function of food and drink, they sustain and give life. What Jesus was referring to would not be fully understood until after his death, resurrection, ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit. His death was the ultimate laying down of life, his resurrection, ascension and the sending of the Spirit brought on to the human scene the new possibility of actually sharing in the life of God. Jesus reveals this in his high priestly prayer of John 17:20–21,
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”
The ultimate source of our life is the Father, as Jesus explains in verse 57,
“As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.”
We see here that Jesus is inviting us into the life that he shares with the Father. Our lives are completely dependent on partaking of Jesus in the same way that his life in the flesh was totally dependent on the Father. He is inviting those who come to him by faith to participate in the shared life that his death would make possible. By using the language of “eating and drinking” Jesus chooses a very graphic way of revealing that we must take him into our innermost being as we become one with Jesus and the Father. When we come to Jesus by faith and repentance for sin there is an immediate change of status but also a spiritual inward reality as the Holy Spirit takes up residence. When this happens, change is unavoidable.
There is no room in this teaching for what is known as “the carnal Christian doctrine”, our innermost being changes when Jesus takes up residence. In this metamorphosis, Jesus is teaching that those who feed on him will live forever as he lives forever but they also will become more and more like him. This is why he said in Luke 9:23, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” There would be no participation in the life with God without also participating in the self-surrender of Jesus.
There is some controversy about whether or not Jesus is speaking about the Lord’s Table, the Eucharist. Some mistakenly think that this text teaches that receiving the bread and cup of the Lord’s Table is essential for salvation, and that all who do are guaranteed salvation. Actually, very little is absolutely essential for salvation as the thief on the cross demonstrates. All he had was faith in Jesus as King and the desire to be with him. I believe that they are missing the essential point, that Jesus is inviting us to come to him by faith embracing the perfect sacrifice of his body and the shedding of his blood. The physical act of eating the bread and drinking from the cup at the Eucharist must also be done by faith and that is why Jesus institutes the “Lord’s Supper” the night of his betrayal. He was inviting them to see his sacrifice as the perfect solution to their separation from God due to their sins, but he was also instructing them to feed on his body and blood through the elements of bread and wine.
Both of these acts would come through faith in Jesus and would be the only way to receive life. Faith is the key both in repentance and partaking of the elements in the Eucharist. At the table we have a point of contact with Divine reality, it is a means of grace that is imparted to the believer by faith. There is no magic in the elements and the Apostle Paul even warns in 1 Corinthians 11:27–30 that those who come to the table without faith are actually in danger of God’s judgment. The body and blood of Jesus are life giving to those who partake in faith but not to those who don’t.
The focus of this teaching is on personal sacrifice and shared life. Jesus was showing that these are inseparable since there would be no sharing of life without the laying down of life. The once-for-all sacrifice of Christ is the pouring out of his life for the life of the world, bringing forgiveness and a new power of life. That sacrifice also shows us the deepest reality about God—his love—and about life: all true life is sacrificial. Life is a matter of exchange: my life for yours, yours for mine. In this sacrificial web of exchange, we find the communion, the community, of the Godhead. At Eucharist we receive into ourselves, into our bodies and souls, the life-giving power of God, and precisely by eating and drinking we proclaim the Lord's once-for-all death until he comes (1 Corinthians 11:26).
The insistence on the Eucharist, this physical activity for eternal life, is theologically and spiritually very important. It protects us from an overly cerebral or falsely spiritual form of Christianity. Salvation itself is something that encompasses all of life. It is a transformation of life and a renewal of life, including physical life. Salvation is not simply a matter of having the right opinions or even right actions. Indeed, it is something much larger than just us as humans, since all of creation is involved and will one day be restored (Romans 8). John teaches us not to simply embrace the spiritual, but that Jesus wants to restore the physical as well. Jesus, God in the flesh, in his very incarnation has shown the physical to be "spiritual," that is, to share in divine life. Our bodies themselves are to be transformed into vessels for service in God’s kingdom. So, the imagery involved in eating and drinking, in notions of laying down life and internal renewal, is present in this passage and in the Eucharist itself.
But our present life with the Trinity is more than mere imagery because within our union with Christ eternity is present. The divine and human realms meet in the flesh of Jesus, and that is what a sacrament is: a material point of contact between physical and spiritual reality. Jesus' own body is the convergence of these realms, and he provides points of contact for the nourishment of his body, the church. This passage is referring to Christ's death and our life in him, as is the Eucharist. So, it is fitting that the Eucharist is alluded to here, though the primary reference is to Jesus' death and the life he offers.
As I pointed out earlier, for the past few months we have considered the walk of Jesus on this earth as our model. We defined what the Gospel message should be, as opposed to what it has become in our culture. We considered the power of the resurrection and how it encouraged us that this is God’s world and therefore nothing is impossible. We were reminded that Jesus ascended back to the Father as reigning King of all creation. Jesus won - Satan lost. This should give us amazing encouragement and hope.
Of course, for every series our hope will not only change the way we think and live, but that it will bring us the joy and peace that is found in a deeper walk with Christ. However, a fuller understanding without that change is like someone giving you a brand new 10,000,000 candlepower flashlight but no battery. It looks good and new but doesn’t seem to provide any light.
In today’s passage from John 6:53–59, Jesus is still teaching us that we must be transformed from within and when that happens, his priorities become ours because his heart becomes ours too. I am constantly reminded that I cannot do the things that God commands in my own strength. Often, I don’t have the energy, the knowledge, and sometimes I don’t even have the desire, and I just want to let well enough alone. It’s easy to feel guilty about not doing this or that, but that’s not what Jesus is offering us this morning. He is offering us life with him NOW - and because he indwells us through the power of the Holy Spirit, “we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us” (Philippians 4:13.)
I want more than anything to have God raise us up to levels and places that are totally impossible in our own strength. It can happen if we pursue him by faith inviting him to transform us into his likeness through his flesh and blood that is our true food and drink. We should feed upon the Lord through his word, through praise and worship. We must daily seek His presence, and the nourishment received through Word and Spirit.
Have you ever considered Exodus 33, the story of Moses standing before the tabernacle in the wilderness and God would speak with him.. It’s so amazing but also instructive. In verse 11, “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” It would terrify the people of Israel because they feared getting to close to God. Moses was interceding on behalf of the children of Israel. God’s agrees to go with them through their wilderness wandering because Moses had found favor in his sight. It’s in verse 18 Moses does the unthinkable and asks the Lord, “Please show me your glory.” God’s response tells us a lot about the heart of God. “Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said,
“I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”
Israel was so afraid of God that they wouldn’t come close when Moses was talking with God and his face shone so brightly that they were terrified, and Moses had to put a veil over his face. My question is why it wasn’t enough for Moses to spoke to the Lord as a friend? Why did he ask such an audacious request from the Lord whose presence was seen in thunder, lightning, and fire on Sinai? The children of Israel would hide their faces out of fear, and rightly so. They had seen his mighty works and yet their hearts were still hardened. Though Moses had seen God manifest himself in power, and heard his voice, and saw the terrible move of God against the Egyptians, it only made him want more. I think that to experience God will only make us want more of him.
I often think about all the discouraging and depressing news that we are daily bombarded with by the media. Our enemy wants us to receive a steady diet of discouragement because that leads to anger, frustration and hopelessness. Jesus invites us to feed on Him and benefit from his life-giving word and indwelling presence. That makes us dangerous to the kingdom of darkness as we shine the Light of Christ all around. This should be the outcome of pursuing a deeper walk with Christ. This must be our daily pursuit of Christ through feeding on his word and bowing before him in prayer and praise. The world needs the people of God, the church, to stand up proclaiming the Lordship of Christ and exposing the deeds of darkness that are celebrated by many today. It’s imperative that we do so, or we will have no right to complain when all is lost.
Let’s pray.
