Passage

[John 6:53- 55]
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 yourselves. "He who eats 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."

Introduction

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

When you have to preach the gospel in a short time, what kinds of expressions are used the most?
They are probably, "God loves you. Believe in the Lord Jesus and receive salvation."
God truly loves you and me, and He loves even the sinners who do not believe in Him.
He even gave the life of His one and only Son.
It was to give salvation and eternal life to everyone who believes in His name.
And the blessing that I would like to think about now with you is the blessing of salvation.
Through this message, I hope you will keep in mind once again how precious the blessing of salvation is.
In doing so, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will live a life to pay back the grace you received with thanks and love.
[Main] Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, it is great blessing to have our souls prosper, to have all things go well with us and to be healthy.
But the foundation to receive all those blessings is the blessing of salvation.
We can enjoy spiritual and material blessings because we are children of God who are saved.
What is the meaning of enjoying so many blessings if we are not saved?
On the other hand, even though we may be living a wretched life, if we have received the grace of salvation, it means we possess the most precious treasure in the world.
It is so horrible to talk about, but long time ago, some criminals were burned to death.
Suppose you committed a great sin and you are sentenced to be burned to death after a month.
But until the execution date is due, you can enjoy everything you want.
You can enjoy a splendid house, clothes, and food, and everything else.
Then, can you say you are blessed and happy only because you are able to enjoy everything for a month?
If you think about your execution that will take place in a month's time, you won't have the freedom to enjoy anything.
But rather each passing day would be terrifying.
The big house or silk clothes won't feel good; even delicious food would taste like you are chewing on sand.
But suddenly, the king granted a special amnesty to you and the execution is cancelled.
How would you feel then? You would probably feel like floating in the sky with joy and happiness, as if you are born again!
You wouldn't really care even if everything you had is taken away.
But you who are attending this service have actually received such grace.
You and I were supposed to suffer in the fire of Hell forever.
There was no way to be forgiven. Nobody in the world could save us.
But by the grace of God who gives it to us without a price, we were forgiven and saved.
It was done because the sinless Jesus received the punishment of death in our place.
As the Son of God, Jesus even redeemed us from poverty by living life of poverty on this earth.
He took away all our diseases by being flogged and shedding blood.
He forgave us of all sins that we commit with thoughts by wearing the thorns on His head.
He forgave us of all sins that we commit in action by being nailed through His hands and feet.
And now, He is preparing the houses in Heaven into which we will go after our earthly life is over.
What can be a greater blessing than this? How could we enjoy this blessing except by the grace of God?
Especially, for those of you who listen to the holiness gospel in this church, there must be even more things for you to give thanks.
You didn't just learn that you are saved when you believe in Jesus.
You learned in detail how great the love is in the cross of Jesus and why only Jesus is our Savior.
You also know the heart and will of God the Father towards His saved children.
Ephesians 4:13 says, "...until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ."
As written, you learned how to reach the full measure of the stature of Christ.
Being in the fullness of the Spirit, you learned how to be guided by the Holy Spirit through His voice.
You experienced signs and wonders continually that you can surely believe all the words preached are true.
And, as a person who has received this grace there is something that you must do.
As in today's reading passage, you have to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man.
Today's reading passage 6:54 says, "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."
The Holy Communion is the ceremony to eat the bread and drink the wine that represent the flesh and blood of the Son of Man.
It is to commemorate the love of Jesus who died for us on the cross and gave all His flesh and blood for us.
Furthermore, the Holy Communion is a ritual that lets us realize what kind of a Christian life we have to lead to gain eternal life.
We don't get eternal life just by physically eating and drinking the bread and wine of the Holy Communion.
We can gain eternal life only when we understand the spiritual meaning in it and practicing it.

Namely, we have to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man in a spiritual manner.
Now, how can we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man?
First, to eat the flesh of the Son of Man is to take in the Word of God.
John 1:1 says that the Word is God.
John 1:14 says this God, who is the Word, came to this earth in flesh and He is Jesus.
Therefore, to eat the flesh of the Son of Man is to learn and take in the Word of God.
To learn and take in the Word of God is not just to learn the Bible as knowledge.
It is to change our heart with the Word. It is to fill ourselves with goodness and love.
While we take in the Word of God this way at the same time we must drink the blood of the Son of Man.
This means as we learn the Word of God, at the same time we also have to practice the Word.
It is the same as when we eat solid food we also drink liquids.
We can eliminate the body waste and absorb nutrients only when we are supplied with some fluid.
In the same way, when we learn the truth we have to try our best to practice it.
Only then can the Word we learned be our life and strength.
The untruth in our heart will go out and the truth will replace it.
Hatred will go out and it will be filled by love.
Arrogance will go out and it will be filled by humility.
1 John 1:7 tells us that we have life only when we drink the blood of the Son of Man.
It says, "...but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin."
To walk in the light here is to obey the word of God and practice it.
Jesus died and shed His precious blood to redeem us.
But to be forgiven of our sins through His blood, we have to walk in the truth.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we participate in the Holy Communion three times a year.
You always hear that you have eternal life only when you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man.
Now, to what extent are you eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man?
When you find the untruths in you, you shouldn't just cover it thinking, "I am trying my best."
Some people try to practice the truth and pray, but they stop trying after some time, and this shouldn't happen.
For example, suppose you are jealous of somebody, and you wanted to slander that person, but you controlled it. It doesn't mean you are perfect now.
You cannot say you are perfect just because you prayed fervently for a couple of days saying, "Father, let me cast off jealousy! Burn it with the fire!"
It does not mean you ate some food if you just chew it for a while and then spit it out. You cannot absorb the nutrients either.
Just like the food, when we take in the truth we have to endeavor with it until the end to finally achieve it.
In this way, our heart has to be the truth itself.
Through this Holy Communion, I urge you to remember the love of the Father God and the Lord and the blessings given through this church and the shepherd.

In doing so, I hope you will overcome this world with the power of that love and live by the word of God only.

Conclusion

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, you probably know about Charles Spurgeon, a British Reformed Baptist preacher.
He turned numerous people to the Christ with his preaching and even showed healing works.
One day he was crying alone and by himself, and his wife asked him why he was crying.
Then he answered, "I don't have any emotion when I meditate on the cross. I am so sad because I don't have tears even when I think about Jesus Christ who died for me on the cross."
How is it with you? How much emotion and what impression do you have when you think about the cross of Jesus and the grace of His salvation?
I often told you that I can't really go on when I read the Four Gospels.
Not long after I begin to read about Jesus' sufferings, I begin to weep, and I cannot go on reading.
It is so heartbreaking that my beloved Lord, the precious Jesus underwent the cruel sufferings.
And since His sufferings were caused by my sins, how can I not weep?
Also, through His wretched sufferings, we can enjoy only glory and blessings, and how can we not shed tears thinking of His grace?
Everyday is filled with emotions of increasing thanks and joy when we think of the salvation of the cross.
The Lord has bought you with His blood, and I hope your heart will be filled with the grace of salvation all the time.
Do not ever forsake that grace, and I hope that grace will only be renewed and more abundant everyday.
Eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man with that thanks and love.
In doing so, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will possess eternal life completely!

[Amen!]