I Am the Bread of Life

God’s Word has many layers of meaning

Fred R. Coulter—April 16, 2016

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Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services. This is the Sabbath before Passover, but I'm not giving the same message that I gave and recorded and sent out.

This is going to be more like a Bible study. What we're going to learn today is how God's Word just multiplies itself over and over again, having many layers of meaning.

John 6:63: "It is the Spirit that gives life…" That's why every human being has a spirit of man, which God gives at conception.

"…The words that I speak to you, they are Spirit and they are Life" (v 63). That's quite a statement. The Word of God is so powerful.

Sidebar: Now with so many Bibles in the world and so many digital versions to download on handheld devices—that's what Jonathan uses here in services and he always beats me to the Scriptures because it's faster—remember the Scripture that says: 'And this Gospel shall be preached in all the world to all nations; then the end shall come.'

Who in their wildest imaginations, going clear back to the time when Christ said that, coming all the way down through history to our day, could imagine that it would be possible for everyone who had a handheld device to receive the Bible in their hands? That has got to be the absolute zenith of fulfillment. That is an amazing thing to think about that God is so great and so powerful, and the Word of God is so great and so powerful, that He is making it available to everyone.

The question was asked: What's going to inspire a Muslim to pick it up and read it? We don't know. God has many different ways of getting their attention. We don't know how it's going to be.

When all of that fails, remember Rev. 14, the first angel's message is preaching the everlasting Gospel: Repent! I think that takes place just before the tribulation kicks off. Who knows? God is going to have to take care of it! Nevertheless, it is there.

Let's look at something else. What does it tell us in Matthew 4:4? "…'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'"

What does it say about Jesus in John1:1? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The words that He speaks 'they are Spirit and they are Life.'

Let's see what else is very important with this. Here's what Jesus tells us about what He's doing:

John 10:11: "I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. But the one who is a hireling, and who is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep, and flees. And the wolf seizes the sheep and scatters them" (vs 11-12). We've seen that happen in our lifetime.

Verse 13: "'Now, the hireling flees because he is a hireling and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good Shepherd, and I know those who are Mine…" (vs 13-14). God knows every single one of us wherever His Spirit is—and that's with the Spirit of God the Father, as well.

"…and am known of those who are Mine" (v 14). How do we know Jesus?

• through prayer
• through study
• through His Spirit

He also says that the sheep will not hear the voice of a stranger. How are you going to hear the voice of Christ? Through His Word! "…The words that I speak to you, they are Spirit and they are Life." That's why when God says, 'obey My voice,' what He's done is had it recorded, had it written, now translated in thousands of languages. An amazing thing!

How do people in the Church get led astray? They don't follow the words of God! You can study Rev. 2 and 3 and you'll see how that happens.

Verse 15: "Just as the Father knows Me, I also know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring those also, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd" (vs 15-16).

When will the one flock and one Shepherd take place? At the resurrection, because we're all spread out through time and history.

Verse 17: "On account of this, the Father loves Me: because I lay down My life, that I may receive it back again."

The message that I gave for this day was how Jesus did that. That was quite a feat, because—"the Father loves Me: because I lay down My life, that I may receive it back again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself …" (vs 17-18). When Jesus says, 'I love you as the Father has loved Me, and you love one another, as I have loved you,' think about what He went through.

What does God ask us to give up, compared to what Christ gave up to become a human being and then lay down His life? That's quite a thing!

"…I have authority to lay it down and authority to receive it back again. This commandment I received from My Father" (v 18).

We're going to learn some very interesting things about some of the teachings of Jesus in John 5 and 6. This becomes tremendously important in understanding how much God the Father loves us, Jesus loves us, and how He has done all of this to be the perfect sacrifice for all sins of all mankind.

Stop and think: If there were just a perfect man—which it couldn't be—and he died, his death would only cover the life of someone who is still alive. That's it. So, to save mankind, you need a sacrifice that is superior to all human beings combined. That could only come through Christ coming in the flesh and taking upon Him human nature and willingly giving Himself as that sacrifice. That's what we commemorate with the Passover.

Remember what we talked about with the sacrifice where God walked through the parts (Gen. 15). That was God's part of the covenant. Thirty years later was Abraham to go offer Isaac. That was Abraham and Isaac's part of the covenant. The two parties have to pledge their lives.

When we're baptized—Christ is crucified—then we are conjoined to the death of Christ. That is our part; that is our pledge of death:

• can't be any other way
• can't be sprinkling
• can't just be the nodding of the head

No, none of that!

He healed the man who had an infirmity for 38 years. Jesus told him to take up his bedroll and walk. Now here's a perfect example of how religionists completely miss the point.

Remember when Jesus healed the man with the withered hand in the synagogue (Mark 3). The Pharisees and the leaders of the synagogue were angry that Jesus healed him. He healed this man after 38 years. Instead of rejoicing and saying, 'What a wonderful thing. How did this happen?'

John 5:15: "The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus Who had made him whole. And for this cause, the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on a Sabbath" (vs 15-16). Something greater than the Sabbath was there. That was Christ! Carrying the bedroll was not a burden.

Verse 17: "Jesus answered them, 'My Father is working until now, and I work.'" God works on the Sabbath Day, spiritual work. That's the most important, the spiritual work with us. Also He has the Sabbath going.

It's not like the Jews. They won't get in an elevator and push the button so they can go up to the tenth floor of the Hotel David in Jerusalem. They stand there and wait for some dirty Gentile to come in and push the button for them. 'What floor would you like to go on, ma'am?' Six, please!

God doesn't stop the universe on the Sabbath. It's continuously working all the time. On the Sabbath God sent an angel to stir the water. 'Oh, oh, the angel was working.' Also another thing, no one offered to put him in. You can draw many, many lessons from this whole thing.

Verse 19: "Therefore, Jesus answered and said to them, 'Truly, truly I say to you, the Son has no power to do anything of Himself…'" That is profoundly important when it comes to loving and obeying God. Look at all the religions, professing to be Christian.

I was shown a little cartoon here. On a park bench there was Santa Claus and the Easter bunny. The Easter bunny asked Santa Claus, 'Who is Jesus?' That is a great satire against their blindness. They are so involved in their traditions that they leave off the Word of God. They're so involved in their law-keeping that they don't have any love left and they don't even believe what God wrote in the Old Testament: 'You shall not add to or take away from…'

The words of God come from God. Can any man do anything to improve on the Word of God? No! Neither will the inferior tell the superior what to do. Doesn't work that way.

Jesus in the flesh said, "…the Son has no power to do anything of Himself…" (v 19). That means out from within. Remember what Jesus said concerning the flesh: the flesh profits nothing. The only flesh that ever profited anything was the flesh of Christ as the sacrifice for the sins of the world. Everything else that human beings do is all going to come to nothing.

"…but only what He sees the Father do.…" (v 19). This brings up: What kind of communication did Jesus and the Father have between themselves that nobody else could have? Today we have Skype, you can talk to each other.

Remember. Jesus was taught every morning (Isa. 50). He saw the Father. When He prayed, did Jesus see the Father? Yes! Let's focus in on the words that Jesus said, "The words that I speak to you, they are Spirit and they are Life."

John 12:42: "But even so, many among the rulers believed in Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, so that they wouldnot be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God" (vs 42-43).

• You see what happened?
• Isn't that what happens with 'religion'?
• What did God do to Jerusalem twice?
• Destroy it!
• Why?
• Because men thought they were better than God and changed, added and took away!

Like I covered about Manasseh adding in all of the idols right into the area of the temple.

Verse 44: "Then Jesus called out and said, 'The one who believes in Me does not believe in Me, but in Him Who sent Me. And the one who sees Me sees Him Who sent Me. I have come as a light into the world so that everyone who believes in Me may not remain in darkness'" (vs 44-46).

That's spiritual light/spiritual darkness. You go back and what did Jesus say in Matt. 6? 'If the light in you be light, great is that light. But if the light in you be darkness, how great is the darkness.'

Verse 47: "But if anyone hears My words…" We have to hear and believe. In hearing and believing that means we act upon it God's way. This is what God wants us to do.

"…and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects Me and does not receive My words… [which are Spirit and Life; He is spiritually the Word of God personified] …has one who judges him; the word which I have spoken… [the very words that they reject are going to judge them] …that shall judge him in the last day" (vs 47-48). Last day applies two ways:

• For us, we'll be raised the last day

What last day is that? When you count from Trumpets to Pentecost, Pentecost is the last day for us.

• When you count concerning the judgment of God, that begins with Passover and ends the Last Great Day

Those at the end of the Last Great Day who reject God are going to the Lake of Fire. Our final judgment will be the resurrection. Their final judgment will be either the second resurrection or the Lake of Fire.

Verse 49: "For I have not spoken from Myself… [same word. 'I'm not giving you My words. I'm not doing what I want to do.'] …but the Father, Who sent Me, gave Me commandment Himself, what I should say and what I should speak." Jesus saw the Father and He received commandments from the Father. He loved the Father and obeyed the Father and preached the Gospel.

Verse 50: "And I know that His commandment is eternal life. Therefore, whatever I speak, I speak exactly as the Father has told Me." This tells us an awful lot about Jesus.

John 5:20: "For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him everything that He Himself is doing. And He will show Him greater works than these, so that you may be filled with wonder. For even as the Father raises the dead and gives life, in the same way also, the Son gives life to whom He will. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son" (vs 20-22). That judgment is after He has given His life for the sins of the world.

Verse 23: "So that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father Who sent Him."

Second time He said, v 30: "I have no power to do anything of Myself; but as I hear…"—because the Father gives Him commandment. As He sees, as the Father does.

"…I judge; and My judgment is just because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father Who sent Me" (v 30).

What's one of the first things we pray? 'Our Father Who is in heaven, Holy is Your name. Your will be done on earth—in our lives and carrying out His Word—as it is in heaven.' So, we are praying that we don't do our will but God's will. So you see how that works when it comes to adding and taking away?

Look at all of the 'religions.' I got an e-mail from a man in England and he says, 'You're right, we have to follow the words of Christ. We have to keep the commandments of God. But Paul, he didn't see Jesus. He was not commissioned by anyone other than Ananias.' So, he doesn't follow any of the Epistles of Paul. What did he do? Exactly what Jesus said not to do, in the name of Jesus. That's why this is so very important here.

Verse 31: "If I bear witness of Myself, My testimony is not true. There is another who bears witness of Me, and I know that the testimony that he witnesses concerning Me is true" (vs 31-32). It's John, and so forth and so on.

When I answered the man back I told him he better consider the British stubbornness and self-righteousness. I got an e-mail back, 'I thought I was writing to someone who loved Jesus.' I wrote him back and said, 'I do. What you need to do is read what Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees and how He condemned them because those weren't very nice words at all.'

This is quite stinging, v 42: "But I have known you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves…. [the whole very purpose and reason for conversion] …I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; but if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How are you able to believe, you who receive glory from one another, and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?" (vs 42-44).

If you have Trinity Broadcasting System, you go on that channel and you watch these ministers sit there and glorify each other, how great they are and all of this sort of thing. They know nothing about God, not a thing.

Verse 45: "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you… [present tense] …even Moses…" The words of Moses are the words of God and those words are living.

"…in whom you have hope. But if you believed Moses, you would have believed Me; for he wrote about Me. And if you do not believe his writings, how shall you believe My words?" (vs 45-47)—which are Spirit and Life. Very powerful!

The whole lesson of John 6 is very important because this was before the Passover. Here's where Jesus fed the 5,000. Everything was left over and all the people saw all the food that was left over from the few fish and the few loaves. They said, 'This is something. Just think about this. If we can corral this guy for us, we won't have to work and we'll be fed, and they'll be food left over.' I'm reading a little bit in here, but that was pretty much their sentiment.

What did they say? John 6:14: "Now, when the men saw the miracle that Jesus had done, they said, 'Of a truth, this is the Prophet Who was to come into the world.' Because Jesus perceived that they were about to come and seize Him, so that they might make Him king, He withdrew again to a mountain by Himself alone" (vs 14-15). They were all alone and couldn't find him.

The disciples got into a ship, went on back over. In the morning the people were looking for Jesus, but that night He walked across the top of the Sea of Galilee and got into the boat with the disciples, just before they got to the other side. So He wasn't there, and they were looking for Him. 'We're hungry this morning, where are you, Lord? Can we have some more fish and bread? Would you do that again?'

Then they finally figured out He wasn't there. Can you imagine the mass of little boats all going to the other side looking for Jesus? They got to the other side and they said, 'Master, how did You get here?' He didn't say anything as to how He got there.

Verse 26: "Jesus answered them and said, 'Truly, truly I say to you, you do not seek Me because you saw the miracles, but because you ate the bread and were satisfied. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures unto eternal life… [the Word of God that comes by the Spirit of God] …which the Son of man shall give to you; for Him has God the Father sealed" (vs 26-27).

(go to the next track)

What happens if a minister gets up in the pulpit and says something that is absolutely contrary to the Word of God? Do you just sit there and let them say it? No, you challenge him! Either at that time—it may be disruptive, but who is disrupting what? Especially the Passover!

That's why in doing The Christian Passover book, there is a reason for everything that is in there. The Passover is so important that Satan has many different thoughts and ideas and avenues—and so do men—to try and discredit the Truth.

Yes, there are some things that are hard to understand. That doesn't mean you express your opinion and make it as though it's Truth. What you do is say, 'This is hard to understand. Let's study on it in the Word of God so we can understand it.' That's how to do it.

That's what we're doing here today as we're going to continue on right here in John 6, which is a very powerful thing.

Verse 27: "Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures unto eternal life, which the Son of man shall give to you; for Him has God the Father sealed."

What happens when we receive the Spirit of God? We are sealed! We have to make sure that we stay sealed by our relationship with Christ. This is what we're going to cover in the rest of John 6.

Verse 28: "Therefore, they said to Him, 'What shall we do, in order that we ourselves may do the works of God?'"

Everyone wants to do something that will impress God. God did the greatest thing to impress all human beings, if they would believe.

Verse 29: "Jesus answered and said to them, 'This is the work of God: that you believe in Him Whom He has sent.'" Belief and faith are works of faith!.

He didn't say, 'Everybody, it's around Easter time. I want some of you to go down here and get some chocolate Easter bunnies. Some of you go over here and get some eggs and let's have a party. Then we'll call all the kiddies out here and have fun.' Telling people today, 'That is pleasing to God,' they'll run out and do it. But when you tell them, 'You have to repent of your sins and believe God and live by every word of God,' Oh, no, they can't do that. They have a million excuses.

I just was reading in a book; I always read the enemy's books. He was talking about grace. He was talking about commandment-keeping. So, he had a column with the Ten Commandments. Then he had another column with the Ten Commandments minus the Sabbath, because it's not mentioned in the New Testament. He didn't look!

What are you going to do when Jesus said He is Lord of the Sabbath? And that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath? Meaning: man has no authority over the Sabbath at all—period! God does! Christ does!

I'm going to make that up in one of my letters here pretty soon. Have the Ten Commandments and then list them in the New Testament. People read the book, and if you read a book and you don't check it and prove it, and you don't know Truth from error, you're going to say, 'Oh, well, that's nice.'

"'…you believe in Him Whom He has sent.'…. [God in this case is the Father] … Therefore, they said to Him, 'What sign will You perform, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness, as it is written: "He gave them bread to eat that came down from heaven"'" (vs 29-31). What a challenge! They just saw what Jesus did the day before in blessing the fish and the loaves. What are you going to do?

Someone probably had a couple of loaves ready to hand to Jesus and a little basket of fish. Who knows? Now then, Jesus never answered that question:

Verse 32: "Then Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven; but My Father 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'" (vs 32-33).

He's talking about Himself, because He said you have to believe on Him Whom He has sent. This is the true Bread. What did He say it was? 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God!.' So the Word of God feeds the mind and the spirit. Also, He's talking about Himself concerning being the Passover sacrifice to come.

Verse 34: "Therefore, they said to Him, 'Lord, give this bread to us always.' Jesus said to them, 'I AM the Bread of Life… [Greek: 'ego emi'; as strong as you can say it] …the one who comes to Me shall never hunger; and the one who believes in Me shall never thirst at any time'" (vs 34-35).

You have to put the rest of the Bible together to see how that works. You go to the Old Testament and it says, 'O taste and see that the Lord is good' (Psa. 34:8) What does that mean? That means you love God, believe God, do what God has said. You are tasting of God's way and of His laws and of His commandments in your life. It's true, every human being lives as he or she believes in their mind.

Verse 36: "But as I said to you, you also have seen Me, yet, you do not believe." Remember what Jesus said to Thomas: 'Blessed are you because you have seen and believed, but blessed are those who believe and have not seen.' So, there's an extra blessing that comes with that.

Verse 37: "All whom the Father gives Me shall come to Me…"

• God is One Who is working it out
• God is the One Who is calling
• God is the One Who is making it possible
• God is One Who opens the mind
• God is the One Who gives you understanding when you read the Scriptures

You give it to an atheist and he's says it's full of lies. Jesus said it's Truth and it's Spirit and it gives Life.

Verse 37: "All whom the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." When you're burdened down with problems and troubles, God knows about it.

• He is there to help you
• He is there to intervene for you
• He wants us to come to Him and:
• pray
• yield to Him
• change our thoughts
• grow
• overcome

Some of the problems are very, very difficult to work on, but we have to work on them with the Spirit of God with us. Some of our problems and things that we have they didn't get there overnight. They are not going to leave overnight, because we have to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. That takes God's Spirit working with us.

Remember what He said: 'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, I will put My laws into their minds and inscribe them on their hearts.'

Old Testament was that you were to put them on your heart and in your mind by memory. New Testament it's put in your heart and your mind by the Spirit of God and becomes the very way that we act and think and behave. That's all part of conversion.

Verse 38: "For I did not come down from heaven to do My own will…" How many times did He tell them that He came down from heaven? 'Where did You come from?' I came down from heaven! 'Who are You?' I'm from above, you're beneath!

"…but the will of Him Who sent Me" (v 38). Notice all the way through here it concentrates on the will of God. The will of the Father and Christ doing His will. When we pray, 'Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,' we're praying that for ourselves that God's will in our lives will be done.

Sometimes that will be blessings and sweet, nice and lovely. Other times it'll be difficult and hard because there are problems to overcome. Nevertheless, God's will is being worked out.

Verse 39: "And this is the will of the Father Who sent Me: that of all whom He has given Me, I should not lose any, but should raise them up in the last day. And this is the will of Him Who sent Me: that everyone who sees the Son, and believes in Him, may have eternal life…" (vs 39-40).

Notice the may; in the Greek is subjunctive. That means there are conditions involved. It's not you just look at Jesus and say, 'I have eternal life.' No way. Today, how are you going to see Him? That means if you didn't see Him you won't have eternal life. No, it's spiritual! Through the Word of God we hear His voice. I'm reading you what He said.

Verse 41: "Then the Jews were complaining against Him, because He said, 'I AM the Bread that came down from heaven.' And they were saying, 'Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?....'" (vs 41-42). Down there in Nazareth, 'they helped build our house. How does He say that?' They didn't believe He was born in Bethlehem, they believed He was born in Galilee.

"'…Why then does He say, "I came down from heaven"?' For this reason, Jesus answered them and said, 'Do not be complaining among one another'" (vs 42-43).

Here are the two profound Scriptures. Remember what that says? 'In that day many will say to Me, Lord, Lord, didn't we perform many wonderful works? Didn't we do this, do that, in Your name?' (Matt. 7:22[transcriber's correction]).

And Jesus will say, 'I never knew you. Depart from Me you who work iniquity.' Why? Because 'no one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him and I will raise him up at the last day.'

The profound truth is that all who belong to a hierarchical church where even one minister claimed that everybody during the Millennium is going to have to come through him because he is so important.

Here's why God hates hierarchy. You need to understand this: God the Father is the One Who is dealing with us through His Spirit! As long as we yield to God and search out and find out and come to repentance and then are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit and grow in grace and knowledge, we will be in the first resurrection. Jesus said He's going to raise them and He won't lose one. But the Father draws.

How important is everyone to God? He is personally involved! Think of that. How does He do that? With His Spirit! How does that work? If you can tell me how the law of gravity works, I can tell you that then! The law of gravity, you can't see it, you can't feel it, you can't contain it, you can't put it in a jar. You can't spread it like butter on a piece of toast. But if you don't have gravity, if you're in space and don't have it, how long do you last? They find out they shrink. If they stayed up there any length of time, because of lack of gravity, what would happen to them? I don't know. Oh, they grow in space. I thought they didn't grow. They grow taller and weaker.

How do you know anything about the Bible? There are people who read it and say, 'I can't understand it.' The reason is because what they read that's simple and they won't obey, they won't understand anything else.

Verse 45: "It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.'…" When you study the Bible, who is teaching you? God is! When you think on the Word of God and put Scriptures together, it's the Holy Spirit that's helping you do that. God is teaching you so that you can be His sons and daughters in His Kingdom.

How's that for being important? We may not be anything in the world, but God loves us, Christ loves us, the Father has drawn us, He's teaching us. We have His Word. Woe to Laodiceans! Look at all we have here so we have to use it every day, all the time.

"…Therefore, everyone who has heard from the Father…" (v 45). How do you hear? When you read the words of God, you're hearing God. When you read them, don't you talk to yourself? Yes, indeed!.

Remember when they had ObamaCare and they had the big stack of papers. They had this fellow on there to speed-read them. That's not how you study the Bible. Did he really know anything about it? He only told us a couple of things because when you go that fast, that's all you can pick up.

But God gives us His Spirit to be with us, and when we're baptized in us. Then His Spirit helps open the Word of God to us. This is why every elder and minister has to teach, teach, teach all the time.

• not exalt in authority
• not rule over the brethren
• not live their lives for them

How are you going to build the character of God if it's not between you and God? You may need some help and advice, fine. But every one of us have to do the work:

• the work of believing
• the work of using God's Spirit
• the work of eating the Word of God spiritually as embodied in Christ

That's what the Passover is all about. That our lives are dedicated to God, because He has called us. We have our part and God has His part. Really when you get down to it, it all comes from God. The only thing we have is choice.

Verse 46: "No one has seen the Father except He Who is from God; He has seen the Father. Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in Me has eternal life" (vs 46-47).

You have to take that Scripture and add many other Scriptures to it to understand it. This is just a statement showing the beginning of it.

Verse 48: "I AM the Bread of Life. Your fathers ate manna in the desert, but they died. This is the Bread, which comes down from heaven so that anyone may eat of it and not die" (vs 48-50).

Where it says eat, let me tell you what this is from the Greek: it is a present-tense participle, which means eating, drinking. That means continuously. This doesn't mean taking the Passover all the time. This means through the Word of God, through the Spirit of God, that we are eating for our minds and hearts the Word of God.

Verse 51: "I AM the living Bread, which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this Bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is even My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world"—all human beings past and present. That's going to be quite a thing when all of that unfolds.

Verse 52: "Because of this, the Jews were arguing with one another, saying, 'How is He able to give us His flesh to eat?' Therefore, Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood…'" (vs 52-53). That is symbolic in the Passover of the bread and the wine. This is carried out daily through study, prayer and repentance. What does repentance require? The shed blood of Christ! That is applied every time to us individually by God the Father.

"…you do not have life in yourselves. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up in the last day; for My flesh is truly food, and My blood is truly drink" (vs 53-55). This is why He is called the Word of God.

Verse 56: "The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood is dwelling in Me, and I in him." This was just driving those Jews crazy. They didn't know what to say about this. Here's the whole reason for it: They couldn't understand that. How is that done? With the Spirit of God, 'Christ in me the hope of glory!'The Father and the Son dwelling in us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Here's the whole thing, v 57: "As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father; so also the one who eats Me shall live by Me."

'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.' Christ is the Word of God. These are His spoken words. We are to live by every word of God. We are to live in Him. All of this together and this is how we live. "…live by Me." That's a tremendous thing.

All individually! To top it off, the world doesn't know us. We go out here and walk up and down, they don't say, 'There goes a Christian. I can tell by the halo around his head.' No! They don't know us. God is doing something special in our lives. That's what's the important thing. This is our opportunity for salvation. When we have so much that has been given to us, think of what we can do and we need to do.

Remember, 'the one who is eating My flesh; the one who is drinking My blood'—present-tense participle, meaning that this symbolically is done every day through prayer and study and living! Everything we do is based upon that.

We're not to go around and be hyper-religious, stick our nose up in the air and walk around as if we're 'hoity-toity' and everybody else is nothing. That's not so! The best way to always keep that in mind—that's why in the book, From a Speck of Dust to a Son of God: Why Were You Born?, on the first page of photographs there, there's a little box with a dot in it, right next to one of the photos. I wrote in there the comment that is in the book: When you first were conceived, you were smaller than this dot. That's how we can all never get lifted up in vanity.

Remember that everything we have has come from God! Yes, through our parents, but how did they get here? Through their parents! How did they get here? Through their parents, all the way back to Adam and Eve! That's an absolutely incredible thing. Think about it. Adam and Eve had in them all the genes for all the different people, all the different races, and here we are. We're 7-billion people in the world. I don't know what it's like, if it's like from God's point of view, looking down here on the earth, like looking at an ant hill and everybody's going about doing their own business. Some ants come out of the cocoon and other ants die, whatever. But God is doing a great work on this earth!

Donald Trump says he's going to make America great again. God the Father is going to make this world great again through Christ and through us, His children.

Verse 57: "'As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father; so also the one who eats Me shall live by Me. This is the Bread, which came down from heaven; not as your fathers ate manna, and died. The one who eats this bread shall live forever.' These things He said in the synagogue as He was teaching in Capernaum. Therefore, after hearing these words, many of His disciples said, 'This is a hard saying. Who is able to hear it?'" (vs 57-60). That is understand it.

Verse 61: "But Jesus, knowing that His disciples were complaining about this, said to them, 'Does this offend you? What if you shall see the Son of man ascending up where He was before?'" (vs 61-62).

You get all the Scriptures where Jesus said, 'I am from above,' where Jesus prayed to the Father, 'I have finished the work You've given Me to do and now glorify Me with the glory that I had with You before the world existed.' How that some people can say that Jesus was just a man, just born of the virgin Mary, and not God from heaven. It's incredible! But that's what people do. How powerful then is independent free moral agency. How powerful are lies that people believe. It's amazing, isn't it?

Verse 63: "It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you, they are Spirit and they are Life."

That all comes out of the Word of God. Jesus knew who was going to betray Him. Jesus knew who didn't believe. Everything that is done with us, in relationship to being a true Christian, is spiritually based and comes from God the Father and Jesus Christ. This is why every single one who has the begettal from God is important to God. This is why the Passover is so important, because we renew that covenant with Christ.

• He did His part by dying
• We did our part by being baptized
• He does His part by helping us and blessing us and the Father, to help us to grow and overcome
• We do our part by repenting and yielding to God, changing and overcoming
• We all work together

Eph. 5 tells us, because of it, how we are to live our lives. Remember that when the resurrection takes place, that is going to be such a fantastic thing.

As we're all getting older—and we are—and we all have more rust than we had last year—and we do—it's harder as we get older, but God knows that and loves us and He will not leave us in old age.

He even told Peter, 'When you're old, someone is going to lead you around,' because He's telling him, 'You're going to be so incapacitated, you're not going to be able to do it yourself.' Some of us arrive at those places in life. That's okay. God still loves us. That's part of His plan. He looks down here and says, 'Well, one day closer, one day closer.'

Here's how we are to live our lives: Ephesians 5:1: "Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children." We are loved by the Father, loved by Jesus.

Verse 2: "And walk in love… [with each other] …even as Christ also loved us, and gave Himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor."

Verse 24: "For even as the Church is subject to Christ, in the same way also let wives be subject to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your own wives, in the same way that Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; so that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it with the washing of the water by the Word" (vs 24-26).

So, for the purpose at the resurrection, v 27: "That He might present it to Himself as the glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it might be Holy and without blame."

That's the whole purpose of what it means to eat His flesh and drink His blood!

Scriptural References:

• John 6:63
• Matthew 4:4
• John 1:1
• John 10:11-18
• John 5:15-17, 19
• John 12:42-50
• John 5:20-23, 30-32, 42-47
• John 6:14-15, 26-63
• Ephesians 5:1-2, 24-27

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Revelation 14
• Revelation 2; 3
• Genesis 15
• Mark 3
• Isaiah 50
• Matthew 6
• Psalm 34:8
• Matthew 7:22

Also referenced: Books:

• The Christian Passover by Fred R. Coulter
• From a Speck of Dust to a Son of God: Why Were You Born? by Fred R. Coulter

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 5-4-16
Formatted: bo—5-6-16

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