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

Towards the end of the World War 2, the Allies pushed their way into a German concentration camp holding Jews.
They looked for survivors, but all the people there were dead in the gas chambers.
One of the soldiers who were checking the camp found some writing on the wall in a corner and became solemn.
The writing said: The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell. We cannot record God's love even if the oceans were ink, and the skies were parchment.
We don't know who wrote it.
Probably it was one of the inmates who were suffering from forced labor and hunger.
While his friends were dying and he was spending hopeless, brutal days, he did not write any complaints or resentment, but only thanks for God's love.
Can you make such a confession of love, too?
Can you be certain of God's love at any moment and any case?
If you truly understand the great love of God, you are more than able to do that.
I hope you will realize His love and engrave it on your heart once again through this message.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will be able to sing with your whole heart that you cannot record all the love of God even if you have oceans of ink and the parchments are the skies.


Main

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
To engrave God's love on your heart, first, you always have to remember the love of God for giving you His one and only Son.
John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."
Have you meditated on the meaning of this verse deeply?
God the Creator, the most glorious God, loved this world so much.
He had mercy on those souls who were falling into sins and lawlessness, and finally He gave up His one and only Son.
The parents who have raised children might have felt that kind of pain to some extent.
There is a Korean saying that goes "even if you were to put your child in your eye, it would not hurt".
Then, if your child is that precious, how could you allow such a child to be put to death?
Imagine somebody says he will give you wealth and honor or anything you wish if you crucify your son. Then, would you do that?
If you love your son, you would never be able to do that.
You'd say, "I cannot give you my son even if I have to die!"
Now, if you were supposed to give up your son on behalf of a convict sentenced to death who committed robberies and murders, what would you say?
Most of you would probably say, "It is nonsense!"
But God did what seems to be this level nonsense.
He gave His only begotten Son for the sinners who were worshiping idols, murdering, stealing and standing against God.
He gave His son to be brutally executed in the place of us who were stained with such sins as hatred, anger, adultery, envy, judging, condemnation, and greed.
At the moment of crucifixion, the pain that God the Father had was so great that even the sun lost its strength.
There were earthquakes and the rocks were split.
He gave His son bearing with such pain to give life to us who were sinners.
Because of this love, we can now call God the Creator our Father.
We must never forget this love.
I hope you will engrave it in your heart again and again and give Him praises of thanks forever.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Second, we have to remember the love of the Lord who sacrificed His life for us.
Even though God wanted to save the world, we couldn't have been saved unless the Lord obeyed God.
You watched the biblical play of the crucifixion in the Friday all-night service.
Jesus took such ruthless pain that cannot be described with words.
The glorious Son of God the Creator forsook all the heavenly glory and came down to this earth in a lowly human body. This in itself is such a great sacrifice.
And His creatures spat on Him, mocked Him, scourged Him, and finally stripped Him naked and crucified Him.
If the Lord did not love the souls who were stained with sins, He could have destroyed them any time.
He could have brought fire down from heaven or destroyed them with the heavenly army.
But Jesus did not do that.
He became the atoning sacrifice, taking all the sins of the world, because He knew the heart of God who loved the souls.
He willingly took all the sufferings.
Jesus made us rich by living a poor life.
We were set free from diseases through His scourging.
We can receive a heavenly crown because Jesus wore the crown of thorns. He was nailed through His hands and feet, He shed His blood and we received forgiveness.
I hope you will always remember this love of the Lord.
I urge you to put in your heart His face covered with blood and His eyes filled with love seeing the souls from the cross.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Third, we have to remember the love of the Father who has prepared a place for us in Heaven.
We are to be so thankful that He saved us from Hell, and furthermore, God is preparing a glorious dwelling place in Heaven for us.
When we believe in the love of God and the Lord and walk in the truth, our heavenly dwelling place will be built according to our deeds.
Now, what is it to believe in this love and to walk in the truth?
It is to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man as in today's reading passage.
Today's reading passage John 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."
Unless we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, we do not have life or hope of resurrection.
Spiritually, to eat the flesh of the Son of Man is to take in the word of God as spiritual bread.
John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John 1:14 says that God, who is the word came down to this earth, and He is Jesus.
So, to eat the flesh of the Son of Man is, in other words, to take in the word of God.
To take in the word of God is not just to put the words in the Bible as knowledge.
It is to change our heart with that word.
It is to cast off evil from our heart and replace it with goodness and love.
In order to eat the flesh of the Son of Man this way, we have to drink His blood at the same time.
This means when we learn the word of God, it has to be accompanied by the deeds to obey the word.
Figuratively speaking, when people eat food, they have to consume liquid as well.
If they just keep on taking dry food without any liquid, they cannot digest the food even if it is very nutritious.
Our body can absorb the nutrients and give out the body waste only when liquid is supplied.
In the same way, once we learn the word of God as the truth, we have to try to practice what we learned.
We have to obey the commands that tell us to do, not do, keep, or cast away certain things.
Only then the word of God we learned will really become our life and strength in us.
The untruths that were in our heart will go away and the truth will replace them.
Hatred will go out and it will be filled with love.
Arrogance will go away and it will be filled with humbleness, and the anger goes away, and meekness replaces it.
In 1 John 1:7, we can understand we have life in us not just when we eat the flesh but when we also drink the blood of the Son of Man.
The scripture 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."
Here, to walk in the Light means to obey and practice the word of God.
Jesus forgave us of our sins by shedding His precious blood. But in order for us to be forgiven through His blood, we have to walk in the light.


Conclusion

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Some people face disasters because it is their fault, but they resent God for it happening.
They say, "If God is love, why does He let such a thing happen?"
When they do not receive the answer they want, or if they are persecuted for their faith, they complain saying, "God does not love me."
But I hope none of you here will speak in such foolish words.
God sacrificed His only begotten Son to make us His children.
When His children, whom He bought with the price of the blood of His Son, walk in the truth, then anything they ask of Him in the name of the Lord, He answers.
As their souls prosper, God makes all things go well with them and makes them healthy.
The Lord sacrificed His life understanding the love of the Father, and He is building a dwelling place in Heaven for us.
Everyday, He is looking forward to the day when He will share eternal love with His true children in Heaven.
Are you also looking forward to that day?
1 John 3:3 says, "And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."
Those who truly realize the love of the Father do not look at the world.
Jesus was crucified because of our sins, and how can we commit sins again?
If we believe in the glory of Heaven, how can we crave the worldly things and have lingering attachment to flesh?
Remembering this great love of God, I hope you will love God back with all your heart, mind, soul, and life.
I pray in the name of the Lord that, in doing so, you will dwell in the most glorious New Jerusalem in Heaven and share that love with God forever.