PRESENTER'S NOTES

Many people, today, hear about a Savior for their eternal life and they accept that gift. But, maybe they have not effectively listened to what that Savior taught, nor have they believed or obeyed Him as a result.

As a result of today’s message, my hope is to express clearly a three step process, not a revelation to most or all of us, but an ever important process, and those steps are:

We must 1. Listen/ Observe, 2. Believe, 3. Obey.

John 6: 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
48 I am the bread of life.
49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. (They ate every day and still died)
50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
51 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.

52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
53 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.
54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.
55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.
56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
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.
58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.
59 Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.

The blood is the source of life and the flesh is the composition of that life. Both together represent a complete package.

Jesus’ disciples never actually ate Jesus’ flesh or drank his blood. Instead, His blood was spilled and ceased to flow and His flesh was laid in the tomb. Nobody touched Him for 3 days and 3 nights, and, then, all that was physical was transformed into Spirit.

Yet, in verse 53, Jesus clearly declares that, unless you and I eat His flesh and drink His blood, no life is in us. Or as Mr. Hopper clarified for us last week, no “true” or “real” life is in us.

You’ve heard of the saying, “You are what you eat”? Jesus Christ called us to eat His flesh (listen and observe), and to drink His blood (believe), so that we would then choose to mimic Him in the spirit of obedience (Live a new life in Him).

Reiterating the three-step process…

We must 1. Listen/ Observe (food), 2. Believe (drink), (now, having eaten and drank) 3. Obey (feel & do).

This obedience is clearly stated several chapters over in the book of John…

John 14: 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?
23 Jesus answered him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.
25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

So, though we do literally observe the symbols of eating Christ’s flesh, drinking His blood, and becoming a servant at Passover, we find in Christ’s own words that eating His flesh, drinking His blood, and acting like Him are an ongoing, daily behavior, and because of our willingness to eat His flesh (listen) and drink His blood (believe), we find in verse 26 the elixir as it were that makes it possible for us to thrive on the body and blood of Christ (obey) --- The Holy Spirit

HOLY SPIRIT

• Allows for true obedience (feeling & action)
• Is a transforming power, conceiving us into a new creation under construction (like an unborn child)
• Essence, nature, power of God (flesh & blood – source & composition of God’s life)

1 Corinthians 11: 23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,
24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

So, is all of this worth it? The way is so narrow having first had to be even called to listen. Then we, of our own accord, had to choose to believe. Then, to top it all off, we had to desire that life (flesh & blood) so much that we would be willing to give up our own flesh and blood lives.

Romans 8: 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

IT IS WORTH IT! And it will help us overcome every pain, every anxiety, and every dependency. God’s Holy Spirit in us to conform to what we heard (ate) and believed (drank) will build in us the very love of God, so let us take great joy in “being what we eat”, for we, in this case, “are what we eat” if we listen/observe, believe, and obey.