For our scripture reading this morning, I invite you to turn with me to John 6. John 6, as we read, beginning at verse 25 through verse 59, considering in a particular way verses 53 to 56. In the first part of this chapter, we have the episode of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with the loaves and the fish, And then Jesus walks on the water, and then they come looking for him, where we pick up in verse 25. Also, if you would turn with me in the back of the Psalter hymnal to page 87. Page 87, back to the Belgic Confession, article 35. We did not consider together articles 34 and 35 of the Belgic Confession. I had considered, as this morning, considering them on separate occasions. And we do so this morning, the Article 35, dealing with the Holy Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ. Before we turn to the Word of God, let's bow together in prayer. Father, we thank You again for bringing us together for this most important activity of opening Your Word, of reading Your Word together, hearing it proclaimed. Father, we pray that You would bless us. We pray that You would pour out Your blessing upon us that we might hear and understand that our faith might be strengthened, that You, O Lord, would be praised. Hear our prayer for Jesus' sake and in His name alone. Amen. John 6, beginning at verse 25. Hear now the word of the Lord. When they found Him on the other side of the lake, they asked Him, Rabbi, when did you get here? Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, you are looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On Him God the Father has placed His seal of approval. Then they asked Him, What must we do to do the works God requires? Jesus answered, The work of God is this, to believe in the one He has sent. So they asked Him, What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert. As it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Sir, they said, from now on, give us this bread. Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me, and still you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away, for I have come down from heaven not to do my will, but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. At this the Jews began to grumble about him, because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. They said, Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can He now say, I came down from heaven? Stop grumbling among yourselves, Jesus answered. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, they will all be taught by God. Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes to Me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God. Only He has seen the Father. I tell you the truth. He who believes has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Jesus said to them, 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. 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. Just as the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever. He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. And also article 35. It's a bit of a lengthy article, but I believe it's good for us to read it together. Article 35, page 87 of our Belgic Confession of Faith. The Holy Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ. We believe and confess that our Savior Jesus Christ did ordain and institute the sacrament of the Holy Supper to nourish and support those whom he has already regenerated and incorporated into his family, which is his church. Now those who are regenerated have in them a twofold life, the one corporal and temporal, which they have from the first birth and is common to all men, the other spiritual and heavenly, which is given to them in their second birth, which is effected by the word of the gospel, in the communion of the body of Christ. And this life is not common, but is peculiar to God's elect. In like manner God has given us for the support of the bodily and earthly life, earthly and common bread, which is subservient thereto and is common to all men, even as life itself. But for the support of the spiritual and heavenly life, which believers have, he has sent a living bread, which descended from heaven, namely Jesus Christ, who nourishes and strengthens the spiritual life of believers when they eat him, that is to say, when they appropriate and receive him by faith in the Spirit. In order that he might represent unto us this spiritual and heavenly bread, Christ has instituted an earthly and visible bread as a sacrament of his body and wine as a sacrament of his blood to testify by them unto us that as certainly as we receive and hold this sacrament in our hands and eat and drink the same with our mouths, by which our life is afterwards nourished, we also do as certainly receive by faith, which is the hand and mouth of our soul, the true body and blood of Christ, our only Savior in our souls for the support of our spiritual life. Now, as it is certain and beyond all doubt that Jesus Christ has not enjoined to us the use of His sacraments in vain, so He works in us all that He represents to us by these holy signs, though the manner surpasses our understanding and cannot be comprehended by us as the operations of the Holy Spirit are hidden and incomprehensible. In the meantime, we err not when we say that what is eaten and drunk by us is the proper and natural body and the proper blood of Christ. But the manner of our partaking of the same is not by the mouth, but by the Spirit through faith. Thus then, though Christ always sits at the right hand of His Father in the heavens, yet does He not therefore cease to make us partakers of Himself by faith. This feast is a spiritual table at which Christ communicates Himself with all His benefits to us and gives us there to enjoy both Himself and the merits of His sufferings and death, nourishing, strengthening, and comforting our poor, comfortless souls by the eating of His flesh, quickening and refreshing them by the drinking of His blood. Further, though the sacraments are connected with the things signified, nevertheless, both are not received by all men. The ungodly indeed receives the sacrament to his condemnation, but he does not receive the truth of the sacrament, even as Judas and Simon the sorcerer both indeed receive the sacrament, but not Christ, who was signified by it, of whom believers only are made partakers. Lastly, we receive this holy sacrament in the assembly of the people of God with humility and reverence, keeping up among us a holy remembrance of the death of Christ our Savior with thanksgiving, making there confession of our faith and of the Christian religion. Therefore, no one ought to come to this table without having previously rightly examined himself, lest by eating of this bread and drinking of this cup he eat and drink judgment to himself. In a word, we are moved by the use of this holy sacrament to a fervent love towards God and our neighbor. Therefore, we reject all mixtures and damnable inventions which men have added unto and blended with the sacraments as profanations of them, and affirm that we ought to rest satisfied with the ordinance which Christ and his apostles have taught us, and that we must speak of them in the same manner as they have spoken. Well, beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, as you can clearly see before you stands this morning a prepared Lord's table. It's physically ready for you to come and partake. Are you ready to come? Do you want to come? Do you truly understand what this table and participating at this table means? You see, beloved, the truth is, if you truly understand what takes place in this sacrament, then you would never want to miss it. Now, boys and girls, what do we as believers do when we celebrate Holy Communion? You know that underneath the white napkins there, there is bread. Bread such as you might find in your house. You know that in those trays all stacked up, there is both grape juice and there is wine. What do we as believers do when we celebrate Holy Communion? Well, when I was a boy, I would have said, well, the old people, they eat the little piece of bread and they drink that little bit of wine out of that tiny cup. Yes, that's true. That is what takes place. But is that all? Because if that's all that takes place, then we could just as well do that at home, right? Because no doubt most of our homes have a loaf of bread and maybe a container of juice or a bottle of wine. But you see, it's so much more than just that. The bread and the wine represent something wonderful. We know that the bread represents and is to make us think of the body of Christ. And the juice or the wine represents and is to make us think of His blood. And as Article 35 says, As certainly as we receive and hold this sacrament, the bread and the wine, in our hands and eat and drink the same with our mouths, by which our life, talking about our physical life, is afterwards nourished, we also do, as certainly received by faith, which is the hand and the mouth of our soul, the true body and blood of Christ, our only Savior, in our souls for the support of our spiritual life. Now, did you hear that? As believers, we eat the true body and we drink the true blood of Christ. Now, boys and girls, let me quickly add, though, that this is a mystery, isn't it? This is something that we cannot fully understand. Even the most godly saint among us cannot fully comprehend how this is possible. But by faith, we believe that this is true. Now, when Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper in Matthew 26 with His disciples, we read, While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, Take and eat, this is My body. Then He took the cup, gave thanks, and offered it to them, saying, Drink from it, all of you. This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Beloved, the Lord's Supper and what takes place here for true believers points to the reality and is a confirmation of Jesus' sermon in John chapter 6. Now understand, in John 6, Jesus is not talking specifically about the Lord's Supper. He hadn't even given it yet. But when Jesus gave the Lord's Supper, He was clearly pointing back to what He taught in John 6. And our Lord teaches that believers are to be and can only be nourished with Christ. I say that very specifically, not simply nourished by Christ, which is true. We are nourished by Christ through the power of His Holy Spirit, but we are nourished by Christ through His Spirit with Christ. And since believers are to be and can only be nourished with Christ, it goes without saying then that we have a need to be nourished with Him. And that need, beloved, is a matter of life or death. Verse 53, Jesus said to them, 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. It's no wonder that John goes on to say in verse 60, on hearing it many of his disciples said this is a hard teaching who can accept it and then verse 66 from this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him and that's not talking about the 12 we know that because the very next verse jesus says you do not want to leave too do you jesus asked the 12 but many of the broader group of disciples who had been following him left because of this hard thing. Too hard to understand. Well, what does it mean to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ? Well, I think first we need to notice what I believe is our Lord's emphasis on His humanity here and the reason He came. He's been talking in this chapter, even the first part, of course, He's been talking, well, in this portion we read, He's been talking in terms that people could understand. Bread. They knew what bread was. They knew what bread was for. They knew how important bread was. After all, they had just recently been physically satisfied with the loaves and the fish. And they understood the bread-like manna that God provided for their ancestors in the wilderness. They understood all about this bread. Yet it's no secret that physical bread does not keep one from physical death. Just look again at their ancestors. They're gone. They all died. But now Jesus talks about this living bread which man may eat and not die. What is this bread? The end of verse 51, Jesus says, This bread is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. When Jesus says, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, He is emphasizing the truth that God Himself stood right before their very eyes in human flesh. You see, we know that the humanity of Christ, the fact that God actually became physical man, this has been rejected by many from the very beginning even some in our Lord's audience have a hard time here we read in verses 41 and 42 at this time the Jews began to grumble about him because he said I am the bread that came down from heaven they said is this not Jesus the son of Joseph whose father and mother we know how can he now say I came down from heaven he doesn't look any different than us How can He be one that came down from heaven? And Jesus, in essence, says indeed, yes, I look just as weak as you. But there's something about my flesh and my blood that you need. But because so many have rejected the humanity of Christ, beloved, that's why our celebration of Christmas is so very important. The world around us, we know, has taken Christ out of Christmas. And even now, as we hear on our news every day. They want to take Christmas out of the holiday season, apart from which there would be no holiday season, would there? But we must continue to sound forth the truth that the Son of God emptied Himself as He set aside His glory and took on the very nature of a servant and was made in human likeness. We must continue to bring the good news to a lost world that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Why did He become flesh? In order to give His life, in order to give His flesh and blood as a sacrifice of atonement, as a ransom for many. And man's only hope is to eat the flesh and to drink the blood of Jesus Christ. How? By believing in Him. That's what Jesus says here. It's so fitting as He talks about in John 6 about the physical bread bringing their minds back to being fed with the loaves and the fish and about the manna in the wilderness. That physical bread, now He says, you must eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ. And throughout this passage that we read, He intermixes belief in the One sent by the Father. Believe in Him. By believing His body was crucified and His blood was poured out on the cross as He endured God's punishment against the sin of the world. By faith, we feast upon the flesh and blood of the perfect God-man. Beloved, in John 6, Jesus is calling for belief in Him, believing that the Messiah had come physically. And for those who put their trust only in Him and in His sacrifice, They are nourished with none other than Him. And that nourishment, beloved, is life. Which is exactly what we need. He says, unless you eat and drink Christ, you have no life in you. Now, verse 53 begins, I tell you the truth. In the Greek it says, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen. Translated, verily, verily. Or truly, truly. Here in the NIV, I tell you the truth. There's emphasis you see here. Christ is emphasizing the truth that He is speaking. Jesus tells no lie when He says, Apart from Me, you have no hope. Apart from Me, you remain dead in your trespasses and sins. Boys and girls, did you catch that, young people, as well? Did you hear that? Apart from Jesus Christ, one is dead right now. This very moment. Unbelievers are really dead men walking. And Paul makes that truth clear in Ephesians 2. You were, speaking to believers now, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. And he goes on, because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. But those who eat Christ's flesh and drink His blood, which means to participate in His saving sacrifice by believing that He gave His life to pay for our sins by His death, they have life. And that's the benefit of being nourished with Christ. The need is that we are dead apart from Christ. The benefit is life. Jesus said in verse 55, For my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. He alone gives new life by His Holy Spirit through the giving of His flesh and blood. That's the only true food for eternal life. Beloved, His sacrifice really, truly saves. Every other proposed way of salvation is just junk food which has no nourishing value and it only leads to death. We constantly hear about certain physical foods that contain properties that, for example, fight cancer or fight Parkinson's or fight heart disease or any number of other diseases, but only the flesh and blood of Jesus received by faith conquers eternal death. Sometimes doctors will warn a patient that if they don't take a certain medication, they will die. Beloved, how much more should wicked men be warned that unless they feast on the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, they will remain in spiritual death leading to eternal death. That's our Lord's warning in verse 53. But the benefit, the benefit of being nourished with Christ is life. And this abundantly, as Jesus says, in another place. Now notice the contrast in these verses. The one who has not feasted on the flesh and blood of Christ by faith is and remains dead. But as verse 54 says, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. And I will raise him up at the last day. Has, not will have. Has it already today? And beloved, the new life we have already today by faith will never end. The nourishment from physical bread again is only temporary. Jesus said in verse 58, This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever. Physical bread doesn't even satisfy for very long, does it? Think back to their forefathers. Every time their stomachs were filled, they were satisfied. But what happened when that wore off? They grumbled. They complain. And Jesus also points here to the truth that He redeems us, beloved, completely. Soul and body through the sacrifice of His flesh and blood. I will raise Him up at the last day. On that day when our bodies are raised from the ground and joined once again with our souls and made like unto Christ's glorified body, on that day that will be unmistakable proof of what is yet unseen to the naked eye in this life, and that is the truth of eternal life. Yes, beloved, we believe today. We have this living hope today. But on that day, the wicked who rejected Jesus Christ and His people, they will also see the truth of our eternal life. But for them, it will be too late. The benefit of being nourished with Christ also includes the comfort, as Jesus says in verse 56, of remaining in Him and He in us. Talking about that glorious union. Christ, by becoming man, joined Himself with our flesh and as those who believe on Him and embrace the sacrifice of His body, we are joined to Him and to His salvation accomplished in His body. And we remain joined, united with Him. In John chapter 15, he gave that familiar sermon about the vine and the branches. He is the vine. We are the branches. And just as the branches depend completely upon the vine, it's not the other way around. It's not the vine or the tree trunk that depends upon the branches. But the branches depend upon the tree trunk or the vine. And just as the branches remain in or dwell in the vine and have life in and receive continual nourishment only from the vine. And just as the vine continues to maintain the life it gives to the branches, in the very same way God's people who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ not only have life in Him initially, but continually find their nourishment, their strength, their hope, and their refuge in Him. Believers dwell in Christ as their stronghold or tower of refuge. And Christ dwells in them as the master of the house to rule it, to provide for it. You see, beloved, the benefit of being nourished with Christ is, again, that this nourishment is never-ending. The Lord's Supper is a visible reminder of that and is a part of that continual nourishment. Christ alone nourishes His people unto new life, gives new life. And as Article 35 says, He provides continual nourishment and support to those whom He has already regenerated and incorporated into His family, which is His church. And one of the means He uses to nourish and support His believers is the Lord's Supper. When we think of the way to be nourished with Christ, one of those ways is by participating in the Lord's Supper with true faith. True faith is the key to receiving this nourishment. It's the key. As Calvin and our confession both say, faith is the hand and mouth of our soul. We know that God the Holy Spirit works or begins faith in the heart through the means of the word preached. Paul says, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Again, as Jesus says, those who eat His flesh and drink His blood. That's how the Holy Spirit works faith, through hearing the Gospel preached. How will they believe unless they hear? And the Holy Spirit continues to nourish us with Christ each and every time we hear, by faith, the Gospel message preached. Every time. That means every time the preaching of the Word of God is available to you, that nourishment is there. Think about that, beloved, when you're tempted to skip tonight. When you think about, I'm too tired, the kids need to go to bed. We'll just skip. It's nourishment from God. But in order to confirm the truth of the gospel that is preached and that which we feast on, our Lord instituted this sacrament. And as we see with our eyes and taste with our mouths and believe in our hearts, the Holy Spirit feeds and nourishes our souls and strengthens our faith. Again, isn't it wonderful how our Lord accommodated Himself to us in an everyday way that we can understand? Boys and girls, you can understand this. Again, bread, juice, wine. As Article 35 makes clear, just as food such as ordinary bread and ordinary juice or wine provides nourishment and strength for our physical body, and without physical food, our bodies would become weak and die. In the very same way, the bread and the cup of this sacrament represents the truth of the body and the blood of Christ which He gives to nourish and strengthen our spiritual lives. Beloved, the Lord's Supper is a means of grace by which God pours out upon us and blesses us with His grace as we partake in faith. Apart from the sacrament, this is just ordinary bread. Just ordinary juice and wine. But in the sacrament, this ordinary bread and drink are set apart for a holy use. Now we must also say and understand that even in the sacrament though, those who eat the bread and drink the cup without true faith, for them these things are meaningless. They do not partake of Christ. These things are meaningless except to testify against them, in a sense. As Paul says, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. Whoever eats the bread and drinks the cup without true faith shows contempt for that which the bread and wine point to, which is Christ and His sacrifice of Himself. They mock the Lord Jesus Christ and His saving work. Indeed, in the sacrament, the bread and the juice or the wine are set apart for a holy purpose. But there's nothing magical. There's nothing magical about these things themselves. The bread does not actually become the flesh of Christ, even though it still looks and feels and smells and tastes like bread. It doesn't actually transform into the body of Christ so that one is physically munching on the flesh of Christ. And the wine does not actually become the blood of Christ. That's called transubstantiation, which the Roman Catholic Church teaches. Nor does Christ's body and blood come down to earth in some magical way and connect itself with the bread and the wine. That's consubstantiation. Our Lutheran friends teach that. The bread is and remains bread. The wine or the juice is and remains wine or juice. But, just as certainly as we feast on this physical food by faith, food which Christ Himself said represents His body and blood, just as certainly we receive by faith as the Holy Spirit lifts our souls to heaven where Christ is, we receive the true body and blood of Christ. Again, on the top of page 88, in the meantime, we err not when we say that what is eaten and drunk by us is the proper and natural body and the proper blood of Christ, but the manner of our partaking of the same is not by the mouth, but by the Spirit through faith. Thus then, though Christ always sits at the right hand of His Father in the heavens, yet does He not therefore cease to make us partakers of Himself by faith. This feast is a spiritual table at which Christ communicates Himself with all His benefits to us and gives us there to enjoy both himself and the merits of his sufferings and death, nourishing, strengthening, and comforting our poor, comfortless souls by the eating of his flesh, quickening and refreshing them by the drinking of his blood. The truth of the bread and the wine, beloved, points to the truth of Christ's body and blood sacrificed for you and me. Just as this table is real, and our eating and drinking is real, So is Christ's work of salvation real for you who believe. What happens when you participate in the Lord's Supper by true faith? Our Lord Himself, by His Spirit, is nourishing you with Himself. It's the nourishment of the gospel message preached. It's not a different gospel, it's not a different grace than we receive as we hear by faith the word preached. He strengthens through our eyes the truth we see, even as He strengthens through our ears the truth we hear. And our strength in faith is demonstrated as we grow in faith, hope, and love. It's demonstrated as we recognize more and more our inability to obey God perfectly and instead rest more and more on the forgiving grace of God and the righteousness of Christ. It's demonstrated as more and more we are patient in adversity and thankful in prosperity. It's demonstrated as more and more the feast of the preached Word and the sacrament of the Lord's Supper are a treat to us that we simply cannot do without. At the beginning we said this table has been physically prepared, but it has also been spiritually prepared by the host of the table, Jesus Himself. He has prepared it for you who believe. It is because He is worthy that this sacrament is effective and this table represents the truth of our salvation only in Him. Beloved, this is a table of nourishment with Christ unto eternal life. Do you want to come?