Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Book: John

  • Separated from the Crowd

    Separated from the Crowd

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Lord’s Supper” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 3, 1995.

    About this sermon

    As the crowd departs, Jesus separates his true disciples from it, forming them into the church gathered around him as the source and substance of their eternal provision. Before the church ever ministers to anyone, Christ has already ministered to it perfectly.

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    Sermon transcript

    Give your attention to God’s holy word. Jesus is speaking here. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread your ancestors ate and then died. Whoever eats this bread will live forever.

    He said these things in the synagogue while teaching in Capernaum. Many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it?” When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples were murmuring about it, he said to them, “Does this offend you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.”

    For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe and who would betray him. He said, “Therefore I told you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my Father.” From that time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Will you also go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you twelve? And one of you is a devil.” He was speaking about Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for he it was who would betray him, being one of the twelve. The range of John 6 is marvelous to behold.

    We move with Jesus through the following of the multitudes, who catch up with him on the east side of the Sea, on the side of the Sea of Galilee, and there he ministers to them, feeding five thousand men at once, plus women and children. We also, in this chapter, see Christ coming to his disciples who have set off from the shore by boat. They, in the night, are caught in the darkness and in the midst of the storm, when Jesus walks upon the water, coming unto them, and then stills the storm, bringing them safely to their desired haven. We see Jesus also coming to Capernaum, where in the synagogue he engages the multitudes who have tracked him down.

    And there he speaks with them about the meaning of the meal that he provided in the wilderness. He gives them instruction about the truth concerning himself and his kingdom, indeed for those who can hear, only to witness the murmuring of the multitude, a murmuring that echoes the complaint of the children of Israel many centuries earlier, and then to witness the departure of many disciples who had been gathered to him, who had followed him adoringly up to this point, to the conclusion of the chapter and the exchange between himself and Peter, for a marvelous conclusion indeed.

    Now, John 6 has as its goal, make no mistake about it, the proclamation of Jesus Christ. That is the intention. Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, who is the source of eternal provision and satisfaction for God’s elect. In fact, as John 6 so powerfully proclaims, Jesus Christ is not only the source, but the very substance of our eternal provision and enjoyment.

    Truly, we who come to him feast upon him. In this declaration, Jesus Christ, in the course of this chapter, is declaring himself the one true, final, covenantal head—the one to whom his people are bound in the deepest and most intimate union as they receive him into themselves. Mark this: as they receive him into themselves, this is represented by their eating the bread and drinking the wine, the sacrament itself rising from the words spoken by Jesus in this context. Indeed, the bread and the wine are symbols of Christ’s body and blood.

    Jesus is therefore utterly unique, and he is uniquely so as the covenantal head of his people, far surpassing all previous covenantal heads. Most particularly, in John 6 and throughout the entire Gospel of John, Jesus is presented as the covenantal head who far surpasses the figure of Moses. Moses did not and could not provide eternal provision or lasting satisfaction, nor was he in his person the substance of such things. Therefore, Moses is not, and could not be, the one to whom God’s people are bound in the deepest, most intimate covenantal union for their eternal well-being.

    As John makes plain earlier in his gospel, the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. John 1:17. And as Jesus himself makes clear in this very context, in John chapter 6, he says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven. I am the living bread that came down from heaven.”

    But it is very important for you to understand this: the consideration of your Savior as he is presented in the Gospels, and even in John 6, is never meant to stand alone. It must also include those who are joined to Christ.

    He gives Himself to them. So yes, the divine interest in John 6 is to proclaim the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, to be sure. But it is also to declare to you your own distinctiveness. The uniqueness of the Church, the uniqueness of the people of God, the objects of His choice. He is electing grace, and His determined sovereignty.

    Presented to you then throughout the course of this chapter will also be a message about the uniqueness of the Church, the uniqueness of her ministry and her life. This is very much in keeping with what I have said to you here regarding the overall intention of John’s Gospel. Earlier in this series of messages on John 6, I pointed out the remarkable and numerous parallels between this sixth chapter and the last chapter in this Gospel, chapter 21. Now, I am not going to repeat for you this morning the list of the parallels that we observed between these two chapters, but let me remind you of something that is central to that twenty-first chapter, namely, Jesus’ interrogation of Peter.

    You remember it. This is after the crucifixion. Christ has been raised. He has met Peter and some other disciples on the shore. And now, three times, Christ asks Peter if he loves Him. And three times, Peter responds that he does, with increasing distress, as you may recall. But you will also remember that Jesus responds three times to Peter’s answers by telling Peter that he must tend His sheep.

    The tending of the sheep is very much in view as the Gospel comes to a conclusion. I am suggesting to you that the tending of the sheep is very much in view throughout the Gospel in its entirety. The utter supreme distinctiveness of Jesus, but also, and this in keeping with the Savior’s love, the uniqueness of the people to whom He gives Himself.

    He would not consider himself apart from those he loves. But how will Peter tend Jesus’ lambs? In order to answer that question, Peter himself, and all who would stand in office after him as shepherds over the people of God, must pay closest attention to the ministry of the great Shepherd and Bishop of their souls. Living in Him, they must minister from Him. But just how does Peter, and the rest after Peter, pay closest attention to Christ, live in Him, and minister from Him?

    Are they left to their own devices? Are they left to make things up as they go, inventing the rules of the game as they progress? Are they left to their own religious interests, or to some newly discovered religious zeal that Jesus has awakened in them, by which they might hope to do good and even to improve humanity, because they have been impressed by His personality? Or are they left to mystical and supernatural experiences? To their own dreams? To their own religious experiences? To voices in the dark of night?

    And what about collective wisdom, preserved and expressed in traditions that have arisen around them, in which they themselves have been raised? Neither Peter nor any who would stand with him can turn in these directions if they are genuinely to pay closest attention to their Master and live from Him in their ministry. Rather, they must turn to that record and to the true memory now deposited for ministry. They must turn to His words. Peter, with all who would stand with him, must return to the account of Christ’s ministry in order to understand and then to progress in the performance of their own ministry.

    And with such ministry, the Church herself is better able to comprehend her own service and her own life. Now, as I said earlier, the Church and her ministry, as well as her life, are just as much to the point in John 6 as Jesus Christ’s unique personage.

    So where do we find the Church in John 6? We find the Church in the disciples themselves, do we not? Note the early verses of the chapter, how Jesus effectively separates the disciples from the multitudes. The multitudes themselves will serve as a figure in which we can see the Church, to be sure. Yet at the same time, you recognize that Jesus makes a distinction between the multitudes and the disciples, and it is specifically in the disciples that we are to see the Church.

    We see the Church in ministry, for example, in verse 13 of this sixth chapter, where the twelve baskets are gathered from the leftover fragments after the feeding of the five thousand. These twelve baskets, one for each of the twelve disciples, and corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel, represent the provision for the Church, the new Israel of God, which is served by the apostolic ministry. The Church is also in view, even in her ministry and in her life, in verses 16 through 18 of this sixth chapter, in the passage that describes the storm-tossed disciples.

    Understand the meaning of what is taking place. Grasp the significance of all that is occurring. The Church in the boat has set out upon the sea, which is as turbulent as the world, hostile to the Church and to her mission. As the Church has set out in this way, she has not yet reached her destination, for Jesus had not yet come to them. Verse 17. That is, his second coming had not yet taken place.

    But surely Jesus Christ is coming to His Church, as surely as He came to those disciples. And when He does, the raging nations will be calmed, opposition will cease, and the Church will immediately reach the destination she seeks. The Church is likewise seen in the closing verses of this chapter, the verses we read this morning.

    Peter makes his great statement in verses 68 and 69, and in this statement we are given a capstone confession that must now distinguish every true assembly of Jesus Christ from the many religious detractors and deniers of the faith. But even as the Church makes her confession over against unbelief, she must know that as certain as there was a Judas among the Twelve, there are false members within her walls. And so it shall be until the consummation.

    So the Church is very much in view as you read through John 6. Do you want help in understanding how you are to read your Bible? Read it first of all and foremostly to find Christ, and read it to find the Church and yourself within the Church. But there is more to the Church’s ministry and life in John chapter 6 than these passages we have already noted in which the disciples are prominent.

    You see, and here is the glory of it, the Church is also present in Jesus himself and in all his actions. The Church is also present in Jesus himself and in all his actions. What I mean by this is that Jesus’ ministry in this sixth chapter of John is the pattern and even the substance of the Church’s ministry. Before the Church ministers, Jesus ministers. Before the Church, in its imperfection, takes up service to Jesus Christ, Jesus himself has performed perfect service. Do you know what John tells us in verse 11 of the sixth chapter?

    He tells us: “And he took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted.” This differs from what you might find in other Gospels, that Jesus himself distributes the loaves and fishes. Before there is any distribution by the Church, Jesus distributes himself, the provision in view. The disciples then, and the Church subsequently, whatever distribution they make, is only an entering into Christ’s sovereign and gracious action, which is complete, full, and perfect, and thus the magnification of grace.

    Verse 19, Jesus walks on the sea. The disciples and after-disciples, the Church, whatever survival and victory they have in the midst of the dark, raging hostility they must endure from the world, is only an entering into the tranquil fearlessness and supernatural power found in Christ. Our Christ not only comes to us upon the raging waters to take us home, he crosses the sea for us so that we might cross it in him. And verse 59, Jesus teaches in the synagogue, facing the opposition of religious power and dissent. The disciples and the Church—whatever integrity and faithfulness they demonstrate in their teaching and preaching in the face of fierce rejection and manifest obtuseness from religious authorities—is only an entering into the exalted, heavenly, spiritual, living words of instruction and preaching already found in Christ himself.

    We are then boasting. Why is it so out of place for me to boast about preaching ability or ministerial skill? Why is it so out of place for the Church, in all of her ministries, to congratulate herself for a job well done? Why is it so out of place to spend time and money calling attention to herself and her efforts? Where is your boasting? Christ is all, and in all. Your boast must be of him alone.

    Truly, for Peter and for the Church to feed Christ’s lambs, they must abide in Christ, who has the words of eternal life. But even more, Christ is that very word which is spirit and life to us. And He communicates nothing less in the word of the Holy Scriptures, our faithful standard and rule. In the Scriptures, including John 6, Jesus Christ is pleased to make Himself known, and to reveal to us the true nature of the faith into which we have been called. The very nature, even, of the bread we eat and the wine we drink, making clear to us at the same time the depth of our union with Him. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is both the source and the substance of everlasting provision and satisfaction. He includes in Himself the life of all His people.

    Will you feast on Him in the Spirit and through the Word? Our Father, we ask that we may be drawn to Your Word, to the Scriptures, with greater devotion. Father, we pray that in this we may hear and understand how it is that we are taken beyond mere externals—those things, O God, that are of this creation—into those things which are eternal in glory. Lord, there is bread in this world. There is also bread from heaven. And Father, above all else, we would feed on the bread from heaven. We pray this now, asking Your help by Your Spirit.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Grumbling of the Disciples

    The Grumbling of the Disciples

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Lord’s Supper” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, November 19, 1995.

    About this sermon

    The grumbling spreads even to Christ’s own disciples, many of whom likewise conclude that Jesus is a madman and turn back from following him. What in Christ’s hard teaching provokes such offense, even among those closest to him, is the question at the center.

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    Sermon transcript

    We are in John 6, at verse 48. Give your attention to God’s infallible word. Jesus is speaking here. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven.

    If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews therefore began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus therefore 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. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, he also shall live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven. Not as the fathers ate and died, he who eats this bread shall live forever.”

    These things he said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. Many, therefore, of his disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a difficult statement. Who can listen to it?” But Jesus, conscious that his disciples grumbled at this, said to them, “Does this cause you to stumble? What then, if you should behold the Son of Man ascending where he was before?

    It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life. There are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. And he was saying, “For this reason I said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the Father.”

    As a result of this, many of his disciples turned away, and we are no longer walking with him. Our God, we are aware that there are those who have long ago departed, long ago withdrawn, yet still identify themselves as disciples. Even to this day and hour, they remain in your church, seeking to transform the message of that church into something other than what Jesus proclaimed. Father, in our time, this matter has become desperate, and the faith of some appears to be overthrown. We ask, O God, for strength to persevere, even against this threat. And Father, may it be proved, by way of this trial, that we who gather here are disciples indeed. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    Perhaps he read our faces before we turned away. Perhaps when we huddled together, some of us with our backs to him, he perceived our thoughts and what we were saying to one another. Anyway, he knew. He knew what we were thinking, and he knew what we were saying.

    I suppose we were all somewhat self-conscious about the matter, embarrassed at how to present it in the best possible way, embarrassed for him, if not deeply disappointed, since we had had such hopes. But now those hopes were clearly dashed. Part of our huddle had been to discuss, yes, I openly say it, the ridiculous things we had just heard from his mouth. For the rest, we had to decide how we would leave, how we would disengage, how we would withdraw now.

    We had been with him much longer than the vast multitude that had assembled, the multitude that had followed him these past two days. But we must admit that we, along with that vast multitude, now seem to share the same mind. Jesus was not in his right mind. Jesus was out of his mind.

    We have been closer to him than most, with, of course, the exception of that small group that was intimate with him, and we have been loyal since those days of his obscurity, when he was the lowly preacher from Nazareth, then through this present period of popularity. Not that we did not have our difficulties along the way. Jesus, after all, was not easy to understand, and I admit it. We did become confused by many of his arguments and explanations regarding his actions.

    At the same time, I say it again: we were loyal, and we were deeply impressed. We were impressed by the things he did. We were greatly moved by the people he attracted, the crowds that gathered around him, and we concluded: here is a man of great messianic promise. Our hopes, naturally, had been stirred, but as I said to you, we had our difficulties. Most recently, a number of us have made the journey from Capernaum to the eastern regions of Bethsaida, along the eastern shores of the Sea of Galilee. We, with a vast multitude, witnessed the feeding he provided from the loaves. And we were moved. We were moved by the growing support among the people. And we were moved more than the vast multitude, because we were far more aware of the potential in this man than of the cross. We could say that we knew him better. That we had been closer to him.

    But even with that, difficulty arises. Our difficulty in this circumstance, in this setting, was with his sudden withdrawal after the miracle. He disappeared into the mountains. But not only was there difficulty with his sudden withdrawal, but also with his subsequent sudden reappearance.

    These actions seem to us more than incomprehensible. Rather, they appear to us to suggest some sort of mental imbalance. Now, some of us did not make the trip to the eastern part of Bethsaida. We waited here in Capernaum. We interpret our actions, our decisions, as no evidence of disinterest in him or of betrayal, but as patient loyalty to him. Those of us who stayed behind and waited were troubled by what appeared to us to be Jesus’ discourteous behavior.

    Many of our friends had made that trip, many who would be described by us as disciples of this man. But not only had they been left behind when he mysteriously disappeared, but now he so openly appeared in the synagogue here in Capernaum without them.

    Our friends arrived in time, and they arrived with the vast multitude, as if there were now no difference between them and the crowd. Then, from what Jesus said, it was as if he were urging all of us—yes, we who had been disciples—and this vast multitude in the same direction, so that there would be no difference among any of us. He spoke to us all without distinction. He spoke as if there were no difference between us, those who had followed him, those who had been his disciples, and this large group of people.

    He charged us all with seeking only to satisfy our hunger, as if we had no interest in what he offered, truly and sincerely. But regardless of the message, we judged, we who have followed him, we who have been described as his disciples, that his method was entirely wrong. This man seemed to have a serious problem with the normal patterns of human relationships. He lacked understanding of personal interactions and public engagement.

    What we all needed at this time—certainly anyone could see it, certainly he should have been able to see it—was a new affirmation of his love and his acceptance of us. The crowd, as well as us, greatly needed a positive, personal ministry addressing our needs. But at this point, Jesus deliberately distances himself from the multitude that followed him, that had stayed out all night waiting for him, and then searched him out in the synagogue here at Capernaum. And for all of that, what do they receive? A rebuke. A lecture. A sermon.

    Not to mention how we, his disciples, see him. We are the ones who have been pointing him out, speaking to everyone about him. And this is the way he treats us? The only conclusion we can draw, the only judgment we can make, is that he has become irrational. There is clearly something about the dynamics of the entire situation that escapes him. We all can see it. Why cannot he? And now he is full of accusation. He is full of accusation that we do not believe.

    He surrounds himself with the claim that all whom his Father gives him will come to him, as if it is part of a divine plan that we, we mind you, understand. In the midst of this setting and this message, which would certainly cause anyone to be upset, distressed, or perplexed, they raised their voices. Yet he seems to be utterly serene and unflappable.

    He seems to be so certain about who he is. He calls himself the bread of life. He suggests that he is greater and higher than Moses. He implies that the bread he is able to give is better than the bread our fathers ate in the wilderness. And he is just as serene and unflappable in his certainty about his eternal significance. He says that on the last day, he will be the agent for the resurrection of the elect.

    At this point, the grumbling and murmuring of the authorities in the synagogue and the multitude around them began. But we remained silent, mind you. The noise from the assembly and the synagogue seemed to become overwhelming. Yet, as angry as these people already were, Jesus appeared to press them further. He seemed to provoke them deliberately. Yesterday he had withdrawn from these people; today he intentionally provoked them. We could not believe what was happening. Everything had seemed so perfect. It was almost as if we were on the verge of witnessing the realization of the messianic kingdom right there, and now it was all crumbling around us. We could not believe our ears.

    We are astonished by his words about being the bread come down from heaven. But now he moves directly into mockery and jeers, making his position even more difficult to accept. He tells the multitudes—those of us standing there, those of us hearing it—that eternal life is found only by eating his flesh and drinking his blood. He is mad.

    It was at this point that we who are identified as his disciples huddled together. We were stunned. What investment we had made in him. What a bright light he had been for us and to us. And now we had become witnesses to his madness. Right before everyone, right in front of all these people. Many of whom were our acquaintances, many of whom we had spoken to about him. But now it appeared that we were not to escape his scrutiny. He had offended the majority of those gathered, but now he looked at us.

    We must understand. We were content to let the matter rest. We were content to withdraw quietly, without comment, without disturbance. But he looked at us, and as if he were some sort of dangerous person, he came after us. We already knew, we had already concluded, that no one could possibly accept this. I do not mean to be disrespectful here.

    No one can accept this foolishness about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. But he continues speaking to us. He continues. He says to us, “What if? What if you must eat my flesh and drink my blood when I am not present? What if I were to ascend to the place from which I came? How will you eat my flesh and drink my blood, which I have commanded?” Oh, great.

    First, he appears to have lost his mind over a notion of primitive cannibalism—eating his flesh, drinking his blood—and now he seems to be engaging in occult practices or spiritual mysticism. It would seem almost laughable, if we had not been so thoroughly embarrassed.

    His mind had turned to another realm, which he claims mediates its power through the Spirit. But by such teaching, you see, he tears apart the reality and existence that we know, and undermines the integrity of that reality and existence. Yes, we believe in God’s Spirit, but we believe that God’s Spirit confirms and affirms life, its integrity, and its wholeness. We are enemies of the fracturing of life and existence, and we are friends of the integrity and wholeness of life and existence. But he assumes a separation here, suggesting that the Spirit gives life belonging to another order of things.

    What then becomes of our tried and true beliefs—those things that we hold most dear? What becomes of our Jewishness and our Jewish faith, of our position by God’s choice? He speaks about life as if it were something he can grant, as if it were something we do not already possess. I tell you, at the foundation of our faith, we live. We live. We are already God’s elect.

    He, on the other hand, makes it sound as if true faith, and thus real life and election, belong only to those who share his views. And he charges us, staring at us, with unbelief. Some of you, he says, do not believe. Of course we do not believe! How is it possible to believe this idea? So we withdraw. Certain that he, in his supposed religious superiority, is content with thoughts about divine sovereignty that work infallibly for the sake of those who remain and accept his words without question. Now, you must not misunderstand. I am not narrow-minded about any of this, and neither are my friends.

    In fact, it is our openness to different perspectives that led us to Jesus in the first place. For we were already prepared to see Judaism in a new and positive light. We were ready to recognize that Judaism could progress. And I suppose that is why I and my friends continue to speak positively, to a degree, about our experience with Jesus.

    Now later, of course, as you know, he is crucified. But even in this pitiful and tragic figure, we continue to see value. There was, after all, a very attractive vitality in his person, a very admirable and resolute disposition, a freedom from human judgment, which attracted us—a sense of moral strength. And in these qualities, all of these qualities, Jesus stands out. He excels, even exceeds the admirable qualities of many others, perhaps all others. And because of this, we are pleased to hold him out as an object of human interest, and in some ways, human aspiration. You see how open-minded we are, how broad and inclusive we are, how generous, how magnanimous in our spirits we are.

    The wonders that we beheld, the works he performed—we do not know what to make of them. Perhaps it was, as some suggested, that the little boy with the lunch on the hillside shamed everyone else into bringing their lunch and sharing it. Perhaps that is what truly happened. His claims of preexistence, of eternity in heaven with his Father, his prophecies about his ascension, his statements regarding his vicarious sacrifice, his future role in the day of resurrection and judgment, and his assertion that he is the center of God’s consummate election—these are obviously the fantasies of an overwrought and imbalanced religious imagination. What a man! Aside from his madness, what a man! Truly, a man who can be appreciated only by denying him. Only by denying him—specifically by refusing to accept him as he presented himself. That is suicide. Intellectually, religiously, that is suicide.

    But you see, in our hands, we who were his disciples, we who in some sense can still be described as continuing to be his disciples, Jesus becomes a much better figure. We had looked for a new and improved Judaism; now we have a new and improved Jesus. And I tell you, a much more useful figure than he was in real life.

    And with that, I am sure you will agree. You can tell, cannot you, that I still have him on my mind? I will be honest with you. All right, I will confess it. I even dream about it. In my dream, I see rivers of blood. I hear the sound of marching legions. My dream becomes very dark. It is a nightmare. A nightmare of horror. And in it I see our holy city and our treasured temple burned. But then the strangest thing happens. It is almost as if there has been an interruption of time.

    And I see white-skinned men, strangely dressed, carrying weapons that make loud noises and cause death to those at whom they are pointed. These men are supported by flying vehicles without horses. They are also supported by large metal machines moving across the earth, emitting fire and destruction ahead of them. I see emaciated figures. I perceive in the dream that I am related to these emaciated figures. They stand behind wire fences. I see smoke. I smell burning flesh.

    And when it seems that I can no longer bear it, I remember Jesus in my dreams. Despite his madness and despite his teachings, which are contrary to what I now believe, when I remember Jesus, I gain confidence because of what he means to me. Admittedly, this is the opposite of what he taught. But I gain confidence because of what he means to me—namely, the inevitable triumph of humanity and the victory of the indomitable human spirit. In this way, the figure of Jesus is useful to me in facing the nightmares of life. Indeed, because of him, I can ignore them, at least I believe I can.

    Let’s pray. Our Father, we pray that from this episode in Christ’s life, we would press on with those who are true disciples. And beyond those who would accuse your Son of madness, we would see in him your wisdom. O God, may we confess that we have nowhere else to turn, because Christ is your Son, the Holy One of God, and he has the words of life. Through him, we are brought into contact with another world, and this through the Spirit that he supplies and the word that he offers. We grieve, O God, for the state of the Jews, even as your servant Paul grieved, and as Christ himself grieved while looking over the city. But we are also grieved by those in whom the spirit of these departed disciples prevails and persists, even to the point of intruding upon the Church of Jesus Christ in our time. We ask, Lord, that we might stand firm in our Savior against modernism, against the disease and malignancy of liberalism, and that we, our God, would fully accept the word of our Savior and his message about himself and the truth concerning his kingdom.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Grumbling of the Jews

    The Grumbling of the Jews

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Lord’s Supper” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, November 5, 1995.

    About this sermon

    The grumbling Jews of John 6 hear Christ’s hard sayings about eating his flesh and conclude that Jesus must be a madman. Christ claims that he came down from heaven as living bread, and that claim provokes deep offense.

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    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we are reading from John’s Gospel. We are in the sixth chapter. We are at verse 41. Give your attention to the reading of God’s holy word. We are reading from the forty-first verse through verse fifty-nine.

    The Jews were grumbling about Jesus because he said, “I am the bread that came down out of heaven.” They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down out of heaven’?”

    Jesus answered and said to them, “Do not grumble among yourselves.”

    No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that any man has seen the Father except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.

    I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

    The Jews therefore began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

    Jesus therefore 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. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.”

    As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will also live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Just as the fathers ate and died, whoever eats this bread will live forever. He said these things while teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

    For a moment, the thought crossed my mind. Our opposition to this man had a familiar quality. Our murmuring and grumbling reminded me of something from our ancient past, rising from our ancient history. But it was the difference in setting that struck me and caused me to dismiss the thought. This was a synagogue, after all—a synagogue in Capernaum, a settled place in the land of settlement, the land of our permanent inheritance, not the desert where we had lived in tents, moving from place to place. The temporary nature of that desert existence had given way to the settled, abiding life that we now know in this land of inheritance, which we believed was permanent. So yes, for a moment, my murmuring and grumbling about Jesus, who was present in the synagogue with us, brought to mind the murmuring of our forefathers in the desert. But I dismissed the thought immediately.

    Certainly, I was justified. Or so it seems to me. For one thing, there was no disagreement among us who were there that day. We were all of one mind. Well, most of us, anyway. For most of us had followed Jesus the day before. From the shore, we had kept his boat in view as he crossed the Sea of Galilee from Capernaum to the territory east of the sea. He had ascended a mountain there, but when he saw us approaching, he descended to us. He came to us to minister. I suppose, to us. We had been following him because of the many wonders he had been doing. We had seen them. We were witnesses to them. Then, in this uncivilized terrain, we witnessed another wonder.

    From a boy’s lunch, he fed us all. In this setting, though not at Capernaum at that moment, in this setting, though not in the synagogue at that moment, we had been struck by that note of familiarity. And we thought immediately about Moses and about the marvelous provisions given through him to Israel in the wilderness. And we thought, could this Jesus be the prophet like unto Moses promised to us in the Book of the Law? Could this Jesus be our leader, our Messiah, our King?

    But before we could act upon our impulse, Jesus disappeared. He removed himself from us. His close associates, mostly a group of fishermen, had left. We knew that Jesus was not with them. So we stayed through the night, out there in the wilderness, despite the storm that came up and crossed over the Sea of Galilee. We stayed out there in the wilderness, waiting for our King, but he never came. And the next morning, when we could not find him, there, in that uncivilized terrain, we set out for Capernaum ourselves, hoping to find him in this place. And so we did, at the synagogue. But here, despite our readiness to believe, despite the form of faith we already possessed, here in the synagogue our real troubles began.

    For after performing these wonders that piqued our interest, Jesus seems to distance himself from those wonders. He makes stinging criticism about our motivations, charging us with craving only food for our stomachs. We tell Him that we wish to please God, to work for God, and we ask Him in good faith, “What shall we do to please God, to work for God?” But after He gives us a cryptic answer about believing in the one that God has sent, we ask Him what He will do to validate Himself and to confirm our trust. And we judge this to be fair. We had already asked Him what we should do. He could have responded to us civilly when we asked Him to do something for us.

    What work do You do, Jesus? We thought at the very least He should show us that He has the ability to give us a continual supply of bread, something comparable to what Moses supplied us in the wilderness—a continual supply of bread for our sustenance in this world. Moses, at least, was the one through whom the bread was provided day by day. We had a provision, did we not?

    At the very least, Jesus should prove Himself now by providing us with evidence that He can supply us continually with bread for our existence in this life. But it is at this point that Jesus’ remarks become very strange. He began to talk as if there were limitations to Moses and his administration. He began to talk as if Moses’ administration was being superseded and displaced by something that centered in Himself, and as if a superior bread to the manna in the desert was now being made available.

    We ask for something of the same kind. He claims He is going to give us something superior. We do not see it. Of course, some of us there leaped at the prospect of such bread. “Evermore, give us this bread.” But He then told us, and here things are stranger still, that He Himself is the bread of life come down out of heaven.

    Who can understand such things? He went on to say that in coming down from heaven, He has appeared to do the will of His Father, which is to preserve those whom the Father has given Him and to raise them up on the last day. His language here also seems strange to me, for it appears to be strangely and inappropriately otherworldly and even universal in its implications.

    If things are as Jesus seems to indicate, then what becomes of the promise to us and our special place in the economy of God? What becomes of the guarantees to us, through the patriarchs, through Moses himself, about the promise of this land to us? And our distinctiveness as the Jewish people? What becomes of that? It is at this juncture that I grumbled and murmured.

    This man, Jesus, takes too much upon Himself, I am convinced of that. How can He be the one who comes down from heaven? We know His parents, His lineage. But at this objection from me and others, His response is that only the work of God the Father enables anyone to understand His truth. It is this one, then, whom God has gifted, He says, whom He will raise up on the last day.

    Only this one, or those like this one, He says, know God truly. At this point, He cites Old Testament text as if appealing to Isaiah and particularly to Jeremiah and Jeremiah’s great prophecy about the coming new covenant of God. It would seem that Jesus is saying only those who are prepared to accept His transcendent, heavenly origin truly believe in Him, despite how they might be drawn by signs and wonders, or how intrigued they might be by these things. Only these truly believe in Him. Only these have true faith. Only these have been affectionately drawn by the Heavenly Father. Only these have eternal life.

    It is as if he were saying, even if Jesus were to give us bread like that which came through Moses in the wilderness, it would not be enough. Such bread can preserve life only in this world, and only temporarily. Your fathers ate that bread and they died. On the other hand, Jesus said, I am the bread of life, the true bread—that is, the bread of the true, permanent, eternal, and satisfying realm above. To eat this bread, of which I am the person, means you will not die. As if to deliberately provoke me and those with me, we of Jewish lineage and heritage, we who have inherited the practice of avoiding the eating of flesh in our sacrifices—practices associated with pagans and Gentiles—Jesus says, seemingly in our audacity, that the bread he gives for the life of the world is his own flesh.

    Now we know that this man is not only wrong and dismissible, he is insane. He is out of his mind. And further, he does not know when to stop. He goes on to add insult upon insult by telling us that we must drink his blood, as well as eat his flesh, if we are to have life in ourselves.

    We are astounded. This is in the synagogue, the place for the proper preservation of the law and the commandments of God—the enduring authority of the commandments given through the Old Testament. He has the audacity to say such things. It is as if he sees himself as the culmination of the entire sacrificial system, yet also as one in whom that system is being transcended by requirements and definitions that take us beyond, even contrary to, the law’s prescriptions, such as the eating of flesh and the drinking of blood. These things are prohibited in the law. And there seems to be something else in his words.

    It seems, if I am understanding the words of this man, that he is calling us beyond the physical provisions of the offerings themselves—beyond the physical food and drink—to something of a different order altogether. As if, for one moment, my mind sees something there, faintly, as if his use of the terms flesh and blood is in the context of this different order of thought and religious reality. But upon further reflection, I am convinced that the different order in the mind of Jesus—the different order to which the flesh and blood point—is not a postulation of madness.

    What about you? Does the different order to which Jesus’ words beckon—this world of supposed madness, as seen by a Jewish audience—appear to you as utterly sane and spiritual, in the highest sense? Do you believe that Jesus had a pre-world existence with his Father in heaven? That he came from heaven to fulfill and to displace the old Jewish covenant, that his flesh and blood point us to a higher world beyond any sacramental element, and to a higher order in which we participate in the spiritual significance of the flesh and blood of this individual?

    If that is what you believe, then you are as mad as he. Of course, it could be that neither he nor you are mad, but right. And that my murmuring, my grumbling, is just one more instance in which an Israelite has grumbled at God’s provision, and at the One whom God has sent to supply that provision. And if that is the case, then things are indeed desperate for me. Because I sense, if these things are true, then what I am observing in Christ and hearing from him is God’s final call. But again, this is but a fleeting thought, and I dismiss it.

    Our great God, we acknowledge that our hearts go out to your ancient people. We would confess with the Apostle Paul that our heart’s desire is for their salvation. If we ask our Father, even at this late hour, that through the ministry of your Spirit, by the word of the gospel, and even by the testimony of the sacraments, you would be pleased to open their eyes and hearts to the message of truth.

    We know, our God, that physical Israel is in anguish today. There is distress in the streets and in the cities of Israel, the nation. We know, our God, that these people are also scattered throughout the earth. But we ask you, Father, that it would please you to save many, that the darkness would end for them, that their confidence in the old system would fade, that the veil would be removed, and that the light of Jesus Christ would shine upon them. Convict them of a better inheritance, of a better mediator, of a better entrance into glory, in which their boast is in you and in you alone, through Jesus Christ, the King. And benefit us, our God, yes, as we profit from the scriptures of the Old Testament. But also, Lord, as we are instructed by your word through Christ, teach us how to pray and how to speak, so that the nations of the earth might see. We pray this, yes, in the interests of physical Israel, but also, Lord, in the interests of all the nations of the earth, that there would appear for your church and by your Spirit the one new man in Christ, in whom there is neither Greek nor Jew. Prepare us now for our participation in the sacrament, that the spiritual meaning of it all would make sense to us, and we would affirm your wisdom. We would affirm your glory.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Worship in Spirit and in Truth

    Worship in Spirit and in Truth

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Holy Spirit” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 29, 1995.

    About this sermon

    The consummate, final state Christ describes to the Samaritan woman is nothing other than the Spirit himself, the same new birth John has already introduced in chapter 3. John 4:23-24’s ‘spirit and truth’ gets careful exegesis alongside John 1:17, resisting a popular but misapplied use of the regulative principle. Two kinds of faith, real and merely apparent, run underneath the whole conversation.

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    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we are reading from John 4, beginning at verse 1. Let’s give our attention to God’s word. When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself was not baptizing, but his disciples were, he left Judea and departed again into Galilee, and he had to pass through Samaria.

    So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water.

    Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink, since I am a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.’

    Jesus answered and said to her, “‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’ She said to him, “‘Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water?’ You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you, who gave us the well and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?’ ‘Jesus answered and said to her,’Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw.

    He said to her, Go, call your husband and come here. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said to her, You have well said, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly. The woman said to him, Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

    Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father. You worship that which you do not know.

    We worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth. For such people the Father seeks to be his worshippers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming. He was called Christ. When that one comes, he will declare all things to us. Jesus said to her, I who speak to you am he.”

    Father, your son speaks of living water to a Samaritan woman. Your church speaks about living water to the world. Father, we ask that this congregation and others like it may be effective in declaring the source of living water and that it would please you before our eyes to transform many. who formerly have been content with the water of this world, but now cannot live without the water that comes forth from your throne. Lord, if we are refreshed by that water, we ask that we might be zealous for the refreshment of others. that they also, with us, might live. We pray this, O God, for your church nearby, in this country, this nation, and throughout the world.

    Through Jesus Christ, Amen. we are dealing with Jesus’ proclamation of the Spirit in John’s Gospel. Thus far, Jesus has proclaimed to Nicodemus that the Spirit is the Spirit of power, specifically contrasting the spirit and his power with human inability. The spirit, also in keeping with that declaration in chapter 3, is the spirit of holiness. This again accentuating human inability, this time because of corruption, and innate wickedness. Truly, truly, Jesus says, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. But the Spirit further, and this also in keeping with the declaration from Jesus to Nicodemus The Spirit, further, is the Spirit of the Consolate Order.

    He is proclaimed and revealed as that reality of God. And here, please understand, I do not intend to deny or qualify the full personage of the third person of the Trinity. He is proclaimed and revealed as that reality of God uniquely identified with the consummate state. That consummate state is heavenly, according to Jesus.

    It is that which is above. It is transcendent. It is eternal. It is permanent. It is final. It is also full and satisfying, and at its center is uninterrupted communion with God. The consummate state is the realm of the Spirit, or even more emphatically, It is spirit.

    Jesus says the consummate state, which he terms in John 3, the kingdom of God and eternal life, is not accessible by natural birth. You must be born again. You must be born from above. You must be born of water and the Spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Now, at this point, I would like to break for a practical question.

    How can I know if I am born again? How can I know if I am born from above, if I am born of water and the Spirit? Notice, first of all, how I phrase the question. I did not ask the question How can I be born again? For that is an Arminian question. It assumes the power of regeneration, in part at least, resides with me. So the question that I have posed is, how do I know I am born again? Well, to respond in the terms of John 3. The answer is, if I believe that Jesus Christ is sent by the Father to be the answer for my sin, and that he is the root of entrance into eternal life, then yes, I am born again. My faith is not the cause of my rebirth. Rather, my faith proves my rebirth. But having said that, we haven’t said all that we need to say.

    Parenthetically here, I will introduce the matter of the Church. I think that some of you are already aware of how the matter of the Church comes to bear upon the comments that are made in John chapter 3 by Jesus. For instance, in that fifth verse, Jesus says that you must be born of water in the Spirit. There have been many efforts made to separate the water that Jesus speaks of here from the water of baptism.

    You can’t do that. The expression of our faith is an evidence of our rebirth. Our rebirth at the same time, according to Christ, cannot be disassociated from the Church. Water brings it into view. But there’s another text here in John 3 that also makes the same point. I have in mind verse 11 of that third chapter. Do you notice what Jesus does there? There is the deliberate The explicit use of the plural pronoun, the first-person plural pronoun. Truly, truly, I say to you, Jesus goes on in his comments to Nicodemus, we speak that which we know.

    Why does Jesus lapse into the plural pronoun? It’s just him there. Speaking to Nicodemus, why doesn’t he say, us? Instead he says, we. Because you see, at this point, Jesus becomes the spokesman for those who are in him. He becomes the spokesman for the Church. He is the standard of the Church’s proclamation. And in this text, he is proclaiming to Nicodemus that he and his Church know what they’re talking about, while Nicodemus and the synagogue do not.

    So we cannot remove the Church from view, even as we speak about this matter of faith, our faith, as it gives evidence to us that we are reborn, that we are born from above. But there’s something more that we have to say at this point. Just to invoke faith per se proves nothing. Just to invoke faith, my faith, is not enough to prove that I have the proper faith.

    For you see, in John’s gospel, there is faith, and there is faith. In fact, what Jesus has to say to Nicodemus in John 3 about faith is in the interest of making this distinction between faith and faith. To prove this point to you, I want you to notice how the story of Nicodemus is introduced, the end of chapter 2 in John, verses 23 through 25.

    Here we read about the many. at Passover who behold Jesus’ signs and believe in his name. We are told that they believe. They have a faith. But the next thing we read in verses 24 and is how Jesus refuses to entrust himself to these people, because despite their faith, these people are indistinguishable from the common lot of humanity. What then, we ask, might be the quality of that faith that gives evidence that we are born again?

    Precisely that faith, in terms now of what Jesus lays out in John 3, that faith that is able to look, for instance, at the bronze serpent that was lifted up by Moses in the wilderness, spoken of by Jesus in this context, and to see in that bronze serpent the eternal Son of God crucified for sinners. Can you see Him there?

    The kind of faith that literally now has the ability to see past the Son of God on the cross to the Son of God in glory, the Son of God in the realms of glory, because this faith, which Jesus commends, belongs to that realm. the realm of glory. In other words, the faith that tells you that you are reborn, that you are born from above, looks for eternity the heavenly world, the world of the Spirit, and recognizes it when it sees it, because it is of that world, it is from that world. Such faith, according to the story of John 4, the story which we have read tonight, looks past water from a well to water from eternity. It sees the water. the reality of that water, and it has been benefited by that water.

    Now, obviously there are many other things we can say about the evidence of our rebirth, but let me say, if you, in your faith, see the higher other worlds And in your faith, grasp the things of that world, and the things about which the word of God speaks along these lines. And you are living by such faith. It is my obligation to declare to you that you are regenerated.

    So much for our digression. Let’s move now on to John 4. Of interest here, with respect to the Spirit, is John 4, 23 and 24. Building up to it, the woman at the well has tried to put Jesus off the path. He has confronted her about her life, and now the woman is endeavoring to put him off the path by posing to him a theological question.

    Is it right to worship at Gerizim, where we Samaritans worship, or at Jerusalem where you Jews worship. Jesus responds, a new day is dawning, an hour is arriving. When the Father will not be worshipped in Gerizim or Jerusalem, but in an entirely different environmental setting altogether. He goes on, while Jews worship what they know and Samaritans worship what they do not know, salvation being of the Jews still, the hour is overtaking the world for the true worshipers to be manifest. true worshippers worship God in spirit and in truth, and such people God seeks to be his worshippers.” Verse 23. God himself is uniquely bound to the spirit. He is spirit, and those who worship him must approach him in terms of who he is in spirit and in truth. Verse 24.

    Now admittedly, Jesus’ language here is not the most translucent for us. Some commentators have been content to make remarks about God’s essential spiritual identity, in which then reference is not to the Holy Spirit in any sense, but to God’s non-material, non-physical nature. something along the lines of the children’s catechism response, God is a spirit and has not a body like man. The corollary worship, therefore, is away from materialistic and physical restriction and identification, such as in Jerusalem or on Gerazim, and toward a spiritual definition without ornament and outward show. as such true worship is austere, functional, and spiritual in that it does not dote upon externals.” More recently, there has been a reaction to this interpretation. A number of commentators now have concluded that Jesus intends to say nothing about God’s essence, spirit or otherwise, but rather about his actions.

    God is spirit in that God is life, that is, he gives life. Along the same lines that God is light and God is love, in that, according to their interpretation, God illumines and also initiates and sustains genuine fellowship. Thus, for God to be spirit means that he imparts life, he is the source of life.

    It is my contention that both of these approaches fail to grasp Jesus’ intention. For Jesus means to call attention to what God is by virtue of what he shall be revealed to be. And what he shall be revealed to be belongs to the highest reach and extension of his purpose and the highest reach of our religious attainment. When Jesus says, God is spirit, it is not irrespective of spiritual nature or his life-giving activity, but it has specifically to do with the history of revelation.

    Christ makes his statement as if it were news. God is spirit. Now, on the surface of it, we would expect everyone to understand that. Why, Jesus, why do you even bother saying it? Everybody knows that. God is Spirit. Why mention it at all? Because it is specifically related to the revelation. God is making of Himself. Now that the awaited hour God is Spirit in that he is particularly identified with the womb of the Spirit that is now opening up through the conclusive and climactic work of Jesus Christ himself.

    An entirely new environment for worship is now being declared. The administration of God, whose spirit is consistent with the fullness of his revelation of himself, and thus worship acceptable and pleasing to him—in fact, the worship that he seeks, the worship that pleases him, is of this order. It is worship that, full faith, glories in the transcendent, the heavenly, the eternal, the permanent, the final setting into which it has been introduced. Worship in the Spirit belongs to the realm of the Spirit as the eschatological environment of the people of God.

    We have been brought into the environment of the Spirit. Such worship belongs to the realm of the truth, as that realm which leaves behind the partial, the incomplete, the transitory, and the preparatory. In fact, that’s the meaning of the word truth in John’s Gospel. Truth in John’s Gospel is not contrasted with falsehood. It is contrasted with that which is incomplete, partial, temporary. Do you need proof of this?

    I ask you to turn to John 1.17. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” In this text, the law is being contrasted with grace and truth. What does John mean in his use of truth in the seventeenth verse of the first chapter? Does he mean to say that the law of Moses was false? that it was somehow alive?

    No, he means to tell you it was incomplete, it was partial, it was temporary, it was preparatory. Why? Because it was appropriate for the environment of this world, what has come because of Christ. Entrance into the world above, a new environment altogether. true, in that it is complete, final, full, and eternal.

    Even the Jews who had the privilege of being on the right track. Salvation is of the Jews, Jesus says. Even the Jews fall short if they fail to progress in keeping with the hour that has now arrived, the hour of the full revelation of God, the Spirit in truth. Even Presbyterians fall short. As they wrap themselves in the regulative principle, and fail to understand what hour it is, and where they must be in keeping with that hour that has arrived. They must be in spirit. They must be in truth. In that which is final, complete, eternal, and permanent. They must be in full communion with God, who is spirit.

    Let’s pray. Father, we might boast of what we call our spiritual worship. We might pride ourselves in our austerity. the plainness of our style. We may glory, Lord, in what we consider our proper use of the regulative principle. But Father, if we fail to understand the nature of the faith which characterizes those born If we fail, O God, to acknowledge the arrival of the hour spoken of by Jesus, then Lord, we will fall short of worshiping you in spirit and in truth. And Father, we will fail to appropriate you in the fullness of your revelation as Spirit. Help us, O God, that we would understand our Savior, whom you have sent to speak the words of life to us. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Born From Heaven

    Born From Heaven

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Holy Spirit” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 22, 1995.

    About this sermon

    In John 3 Christ proclaims the Spirit publicly, and readers have misread the text in two opposite directions, one Arminian and one evidentialist. Against both, the claim stands plain: believers are born from heaven and live only in and from the Spirit. Nicodemus’s confusion is the natural first reaction to that claim.

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    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we will be reading from John Chapter 3, John’s Gospel Chapter 3. We begin at verse 1 and we are reading through verse 17. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to him by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

    Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

    That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

    Nicodemus answered and said to him, “‘How can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him, Are you a teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak that which we know, and bear witness of that which we have seen, and you do not receive our witness. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

    No one has ascended into the heavens but he who descended from heaven, even the Son of And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world. that the world should be saved through him.

    Our Father, we are grateful to you because the Spirit comes for the ordering and for the life of the new creation. We rejoice, Lord, then, in that ordering, and would not set the Spirit over against that order. We plead with you, Lord, that we might be submissive ourselves to that order, and that, Father, it would be apparent to us that just that order breathes out the vitality of the Spirit. Father, we know that this which you have brought about means for us liberty. And Father, we pray that we might then be expressive of our joy in that spiritual freedom by the Spirit that is ours. Even so, Lord, for your church here and throughout the world, may it please you to give us good in keeping with the ministration of the Spirit, that things might be done decently and in order, even as the affairs of this church and all true churches are overseen by Christ through his appointed officers. Lord, we who are officers May we live in keeping with the rule of your word and may we live responsibly as those who are examples to the ones that you have placed under us. Always giving our lives that those who are called to you might be served.

    We pray this even through Christ who gave himself for us in that. our study of the person and work of the Holy Spirit now focuses on John’s Gospel. And last week we listed and grouped the references in John’s Gospel to the Holy Spirit, noting that John’s Gospel, because of the number of references and because of that Gospel’s particular slant, is especially, then, the gospel of the Holy Spirit. Our comments last week also dealt with the first grouping of citations, those that were concerned with John the Baptist’s witness concerning the relationship between Christ and the Spirit. Tonight we are moving on to the second grouping, which deals with Jesus’ public proclamations about the Spirit. In view are these texts. John 3, verses 5, 6, and 8, which we have read. verses 23 and 24, John 6 verse 63, and finally John 7 verses 38 and 39. We are turning this evening to the first of these citations within this second group. The citations that we find in John chapter 3, verses 5, 6, and 8.

    This, of course, places us right in the center of one of the most familiar of biblical texts, as that text builds to the best-known verse in all Scripture, John 3.16.

    Familiarity, however, doesn’t mean comprehension, and it certainly doesn’t preclude misinterpretation. In our effort then to understand this classic passage, Let us work this evening to dismiss two misunderstandings that have arisen with regard to this passage. First of all, as many of you know well, this passage has been employed in the interests of Arminianism. In fact, Arminianism has ridden on the back of this text, by and large. The argument goes something like this.

    Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again. He also makes mention or reference to this once more in verse 7. But if I were to ask Jesus now, if I were to ask him how I might be born again, he would invariably answer me with John 3.16, would he not? And its statement, whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life.

    For the Arminian then, the equation is quite simple. Faith precedes Faith leads to, faith causes rebirth. Translate that word, rebirth, regeneration. This means then, in the Arminian estimation, that faith comes before regeneration. That is, before I can be regenerated, before I can be reborn, I must believe. I must exercise faith. I must do something.

    This perspective led a world-famous Arminian evangelist, whose name I won’t mention, but his initials are BG, a few years ago to write the ultimate how-to book. That book was entitled, How to be Born Again. In that book, this evangelist presented to his readers what I have just presented to you. The issue in John 3, and in Jesus’ exchange with Nicodemus, is how we might be reborn.

    A question answered by John 3.16, and the faith specifically mentioned in it. We are reborn, we are regenerated as a result of our faith. Our faith causes our rebirth.

    But as strange as it may seem to this evangelist and those who agree with him, Such an interpretation of John 3 flies in the face of this passage’s clear teaching. The Arminian position posits power and possibility, potential with the individual. And that, too, believes. You see, it lies within the sinner’s ability to believe, and that ability is located in a world that is free and, in some measure, uncorrupted. Isn’t that what the Arminian is bound to say when forced to the wall with regard to his that there is an aspect of the human personality that is uncorrupted by the fall, by sin. It lies within the sinner’s ability to believe. That ability, located in a world that is free and in some measure uncorrupted, which can of itself then move towards God.

    But I ask you, how except by extreme prejudice can anyone glean such teaching from John 3? Jesus begins by presenting his message not in the language of possibility, but in the language of impossibility. Jesus’ language here in John 3 doesn’t as much as leave room for the Arminian position.

    And you know what? Nicodemus, as Act 2 says he is, gets the point. in that he concludes in verse 4 that Jesus must be speaking absurdities. He understands what Jesus is talking about, even though the Arminian can’t seem to get it. Jesus is speaking absurdities. Jesus repeats himself, once isn’t enough, I’ll tell you again, this time mentioning the fact that those who are to see the kingdom of God, who are to enter it, must be born of water and the Spirit.

    In this, Jesus thus separates natural birth, even an absurd second natural birth such as Nicodemus proposes, from the supernatural birth that he has in mind. We are speaking here, then, about two orders of existence. One of the flesh, says Jesus, and the other of the spirit, verse 6. The effort of the flesh does not, cannot yield birth in the spirit. In fact, Jesus goes on to say, rebirth, birth in the spirit, belong completely to the sovereign disposition and operation of the Spirit.”

    All that Jesus then has to say tells us about human and natural inability. but at the same time about a heavenly and supernatural power in and through the Holy Spirit. And this then being the case, the faith of which Jesus speaks later, that is, the faith spoken of in verse 16, must be the fruit of regeneration. the consequence of rebirth, not its cause. John, early on in his gospel, established this tone and direction for his message. In chapter 1, verses 12 and 13, John wrote these words, but as many as received him, then he gave the right to become children of God, even those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the wool of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. I told you that John’s gospel was the manifestly anti-charismatic gospel. I also told you that it was the manifestly anti-sacramentalist gospel. Tonight, I am telling you that this gospel is the manifestly anti-Arminian gospel.

    You see, all of the struggles that we are compelled to endure presently in the Church have already been addressed in the Scriptures. Thus, the sufficiency of the Scriptures. Thus, the permanent relevance of the Scriptures. We don’t make the Bible relevant. The Bible is, of itself, relevant. And it behooves us all to understand the nature of the Bible’s relevance.

    Well, the second misunderstanding of this text rises off the first. I’m still wielding the sword. The second misunderstanding has to do with a romanticized and corollary intellectualized reading of this passage. Let me say it another way that may catch the interest of those of you who have experience with Reformed theology. This second misunderstanding has to do with the evidentialist reading of this text.

    According to this approach, Nicodemus is a sincere inquirer, an honest intellectual, who, for fear of the Jewish authorities, of whose number he is one, seeks out Jesus under the cover of night. Nicodemus, therefore, at this point, is good, is essentially good, but like others, hesitant and fearful. His statement in verse 2 is meant in good faith, and must be interpreted as genuine and honest as far as it goes. That’s the opening statement by Nicodemus, verse 2, “…Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with you.”

    Verse 2, therefore, is cited as evidence of an essentially good theology from a Jewish leader who is himself on the right road. making progress, moving in the right direction. This theology, which this Jewish leader has, can be twisted in as far as it goes.

    It says that the signs, the evidences, prove the man, prove the case for the man. No man can do these signs, the signs which you do, Jesus, unless God is with him. Therefore, we know God is with you because of the signs you do. The evidences that we see prove the case, evidentially.

    Nicodemus, therefore, has what we call a good apologetic. And this apologetic, though it needs a little maturing here and a little massaging by Jesus, provides the basis upon which Jesus then can build his own place. Moving from the signs to the fact that God is with Jesus, then leads Nicodemus to the place of even greater confidence in Jesus. who will then identify himself as the Son of God. That’s neat, compact, and very clean.

    So that by the time we get to verse 16, it is the most logical, the most natural thing for Nicodemus to believe in the full message of Jesus’ divine identity. And John, in this chapter, has then provided us, the Church, with the classic textbook case for the evidentialist apologetic, as it has been brought to maturity by Jesus building on the base which Nicodemus has brought to him.

    But this approach gets it all wrong. Nicodemus is not the sincere seeker. In John’s gospel, he is not the honest intellectual. He is an agent of the Sanhedrin. He is sent by them in the night, not to cover his tracks in order to avoid possible persecution, but because the night fits his character. He is an agent of darkness. And in the end, if in fact Nicodemus is transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, he will be the proof of the very things that John is saying in this chapter. A man for whom it is utterly impossible for him to change himself. Lost. Utterly.

    Nicodemus’ statement to Christ in verse 2 is not an invitation to Jesus to sincere dialogue. It is not an invitation to Jesus to instruct him, Nicodemus, upon a commonly agreed upon base in the consideration of evidences within the boundaries of the dictates of neutral logic.

    Nicodemus’s words, we know, are framed out of an assured superiority. They are framed out of a contrived flattery. They are words that are an intended trap for Jesus. If Jesus acquiesces to Nicodemus’s first thrust, this means that Jesus then will be brought onto a common turf with Nicodemus. And on that talk, on that turf, Nicodemus is king. He rules. And the walls of argumentation are established by him. You will note that Jesus does not directly respond to Nicodemus’ statement. Why would that be? He doesn’t accept the flattery, he doesn’t walk into the trap.

    He redirects the discussion altogether. for he knows that these words are intended to place him at the mercy of Nicodemus. But even more than that, they are meant to place him at the mercy of those things that are observed and seen, at the mercy and beneath the authority of that which is natural and necessary. according to the dictates of human logic, unavoidable. Even faith on this scheme becomes natural and necessary. And it forfeits that character that makes it truly faith in the estimations of Jesus and this apostle who writes this gospel.

    Jesus’ response, then, is not to build on the common ground with Nicodemus, but to challenge that common ground. Placed over against Nicodemus and his natural order is Jesus himself the Spirit and the supernatural heavenly order. Jesus’ interest, therefore, is not to build on a view of the world that conveniently makes room for science. That’s the world of Nicodemus. Rather, his purpose is to declare the reality of, and the priority of, an entirely different sphere, realm, order altogether. Faith, according to Jesus, is not of the natural, necessary order.

    It is not the necessary and natural conclusion of the natural process. arrived at by logical sequence that moves from the observation of signs to further conclusions. Rather, it is a divine gift. It is an intrusion upon that order from another world altogether, the world of the Spirit.

    A gift that enables you to see and to properly grasp the significance of the signs that are performed. John’s gospel is not only, then, the manifestly anti-Charismatic gospel, the manifestly anti-Sacramentalist gospel, the manifestly anti-Arminian gospel, it is the manifestly anti-Evidentialist gospel. And that, you see, building once more upon the irony of the case, that this gospel spends more time dealing with the signs that Jesus performs than anyone. that don’t just then leave with the antics. Rather, leave this evening with the grand and eloquent message of this gospel in the positive.

    It is the magnificent gospel of birth from heaven. What are we talking about here? Birth from heaven. That’s what Jesus’ words mean in John 3. It’s not just being born again, it’s born from above, it’s born from heaven. This is the magnificent gospel of birth from heaven, by which We grasp well and live well in the light of the full meaning of the Spirit and the order over which he presides, the right and proper meaning of the sacraments, the true character of our faith, and the right appropriation of the signs which Jesus has performed.

    The Holy Spirit’s ministry through the Apostle is wonderful in the sublime. And while we are moving away from these things that this gospel invades against, may we be sure to live in the fullness of what this gospel declares. Again, our Father, we bow before you, realizing, Father, that we are your humble servants, there is a grand and wonderful heritage that is ours in the Reformed faith, but it would be with meekness and with the humility of our Savior that we would hold to that faith. We preach strong here, but help us all as we have opportunity to be kind and helpful to those who are much in need of the full blessing from your word. And may our lives, the way in which we conduct ourselves, not refute, or at least appear to refute, our message. We pray this with the request that your Spirit might bless us wonderfully in our service of you. We pray through Christ, Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • A Spirit Who Abides

    A Spirit Who Abides

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Holy Spirit” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 15, 1995.

    About this sermon

    John’s Gospel describes the Spirit as one who abides, permanently present with Christ and with those united to him. That emphasis resists both a charismatic reading and an over-sacramental one. John consistently pushes his readers past earthly categories toward heaven.

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    Sermon transcript

    Tonight we are turning to John’s Gospel, chapter 1. We are beginning there, with verse 29, before we turn to chapter 3, for some verses in that chapter. This is John, chapter 1, verse 29. Give your attention to God’s holy word. The next day John saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

    This is he on behalf of whom I said, After me comes a man who has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me. And I did not recognize him, but in order that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water. And John bore witness, saying, I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and he remained upon him. And I did not recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

    Then chapter 3, beginning at verse 22. After these things, Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea, and there he was spending time with them and baptizing. And John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salem, because there was much water there. And they were coming and were being baptized.

    For John had not yet been thrown into prison. There arose therefore a discussion on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purification. And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have borne witness, behold, he is baptizing, and all are coming to him.’ John answered and said, A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.

    He who has the bride is the bridegroom. but the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. And so this joy of mine has been made full. He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from heaven is above all. He who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. What he has seen and heard of that he bears witness, and no man receives his witness. He who has received his witness has set his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. He who believes in the Son has eternal life. that he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” useless or vain exercises.

    So Lord, we would strain even within our spirits as we give ourselves to prayer. Lord, you hear us for the sake of your Son, and yes, in keeping with his mediation and intercession, you fill us full of good things. Lord, as we come to your word, we would be filled. We would be delighted in what you say, even as that word proves to be a corrective to us, even a reproach. For Lord, we would walk away from our sins. Lord, we would run from them, that we might run unto you. and be embraced in your righteousness. Father, help us as we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

    The Gospel of John contains nearly twice as many references to the Holy Spirit as the Gospel of Matthew, more than three times as many references as you will find in Mark, and a third, again, as many as you would find in Luke. John’s Gospel, therefore, offers us a concentration upon the person of the Holy Spirit that the other Gospels do not.

    But John’s interest in the Spirit is hardly a matter of bare statistics. For in the doctrine of the Spirit, John will bring to light aspects of the person and work of the Spirit that are latent in the other Gospels. And in the full light of day, these aspects will minister profoundly in and to Christ’s Church. Just to remind you about John’s unique angle of vision when it comes to the person of the Holy Spirit, I point out for you his inclusion of Jesus’ identification of the Spirit as the paraplete, as the comforter, as the helper. So having worked through the presentation formally of the Holy Spirit in the Synoptic Gospels, we are not now wasting our time by reviewing the treatment that the third person of the Trinity receives in John’s Gospels. At the outset, it would be well for us to identify the passages in John where the Holy Spirit is mentioned, and even to group them.

    First we have John the Baptist’s witness about the Spirit’s relationship to Jesus. John the Baptist’s witness about the Spirit’s relationship to Jesus. in chapter 1, verses 32 and 33, and also chapter 3, verse 34. These texts we have read this evening. Next we have Jesus’ public proclamation concerning the Spirit, and the verses that are pertinent here are John 3, verses 5, 6 and 8, from the story about Nicodemus. John 4, verses 23 and 24, and the story of Jesus’ interview with the woman at the well. John 6, Jesus’ contention with those at the synagogue in Capernaum, and John 7, verses 38 and 39, Jesus at the feast. So first, John the Baptist’s witness about the Spirit and his relationship to Jesus, Secondly, Jesus’ public proclamation concerning the Spirit. And then third, we have Jesus’ promise of the Spirit to the disciples.

    This occurring in chapter 14, verses 17 and 26, chapter 15, verse 26, and chapter 16, verse 13. And in this context, we also find the references to the Holy Spirit as the comforter, as the paraclete. In John 14, verse 16 and 26, again John 15, verse 26, and finally John 16, verse 7. Concluding things in John’s Gospel with regard to the person of the Holy Spirit, we have at the conclusion of the Gospel Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit, seemingly in Johannine form. As Jesus, you recall, having been raised up, breathes upon his disciples in the upper room and says to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. Chapter 20, verse 22.

    So that’s the survey and the groupings. Tonight we are taking up the first grouping, John the Baptist’s witness about the Spirit’s relationship to Jesus. This witness from John the Baptist introduces us to the presentation of the Holy Spirit that we find in John’s Gospel as a whole. So it proves to be introduction indeed.

    First of all, there is that sense in which the Holy Spirit is bound especially and particularly to the person of Jesus. That sense in which the Holy Spirit is bound to the person of Jesus as to nowhere else and nowhere else. In John’s Gospel, you see, there is no explicit or definitive reference to the Holy Spirit except in connection to the person of Jesus. Interesting in itself. since this is not the case in the synoptic Gospels. In Matthew 22, verse 43, and in Mark 12, verse 36, Jesus speaks about how David spoke by the Holy Spirit, thus connecting the Holy Spirit to the service that David rendered.

    In Luke’s Gospel, you may recall in the early chapters, Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit as she speaks to her cousin Mary. Chapter 1, verse 41. And then Zacharias, Elizabeth’s husband also, we are told, was filled with the Holy Spirit. Chapter 1, verse 67. Simeon In chapter 2 is a man upon whom the Holy Spirit rested, so Luke tells us. Chapter 2, verse 25, to whom the Holy Spirit made revelation. Chapter 2, verse 26, who was led by the Holy Spirit to the temple the day Jesus’ parents brought him there. The following verse in that chapter.

    But in John’s gospel, no specific reference to the Holy Spirit is made, which does not have in view the person of Jesus Christ and his significance. It is by this route, then, that John will underscore the unique position that Jesus occupies, certainly a position that none of the other gospel writers do not. But now, particularly and especially, in John, we find this message.

    With Jesus and by Jesus, the Spirit comes in final, climactic fashion. So great, so remarkable, is the Spirit’s presence in connection with Jesus. that all previous activities of the Spirit are exposed for their weakness and their inadequacy. This weakness and inadequacy are alluded to in the passages in which John the Baptist speaks about the Holy Spirit in connection with Jesus. In chapter 1 in John, verses 32 and 33, the Baptist says that he saw the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven and remaining upon Jesus. Then he goes on to state that he, by revelation, recognized Jesus as the one who was baptized with the Holy Spirit. because the Spirit descended and remained upon him.

    The operative thought here, and the operative reality, is that the Spirit would not only descend, but abide. Not only descend, but remain. The implied contrast is that the Spirit had formerly visited others. He had descended previously, but then departed. The Holy Spirit had been occasional in the past. Now he is constant with the before he came and went, now he stays.”

    At this point, an added dimension to what John the Baptist is saying is set before us in this reality. the permanence of the Spirit, the Spirit abiding, remaining with the Christ, the permanence of the Spirit in relationship to Jesus. And this permanence of the abiding of the Spirit with Jesus reflects, now, as never the world out of which the Spirit has come, from which he has descended. As if in descending and remaining upon Jesus, the Spirit himself has arrived at a destination, formerly unrealized. For the Spirit to descend out of heaven, to abide permanently upon the Christ, is to set the seal of eternity upon the Christ in his relationship to the Spirit. The permanent presence of the Spirit with the Christ speaks about the entrance of the permanent of the eternal into this world. Not that this world becomes eternal, but in the Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ, the eternal has intruded by grace into this world in a way that testifies to the superlative character of the higher world which belongs to the Spirit. and we would not do justice to the Baptist’s witness if we failed to point out that this eternity, this permanence attached to Jesus in the Spirit, becomes the property of all savingly baptized into him. The Spirit permanently abides on the Christ. But think of it now. The Spirit permanently abides upon the Christ. But if this is true, then to have the Christ is to have the Spirit that permanently abides on him.

    John’s gospel is manifestly anti-charismatic. We are not playing here with mere aberrations and options within the Christian circumference. we are dealing with heresy. For you to have the Christ means that you have the Spirit. And you have the Spirit in the way in which the Christ has received the Spirit, and that is impermanence. The charismatic movement has built an entire church order denying that.

    And we can carry this line of argument into John 3.34. And I might add, parenthetically here, you begin to realize just how relevant your Bible is, don’t you? Your God has not left you to wonder as to how you should respond to the various heresies that pop up in the course of the history of the Church, your God has already addressed those heresies in his Word. So, as I said, we carry this line of argument into chapter 3, verse 34. the second text in which John the Baptist bears witness to the Spirit’s relationship to Christ.

    Here, John the Baptist says that Jesus gives the Spirit measurelessly. He gives the Spirit without measure, above and beyond what we can imagine. What is happening in Jesus Christ, then, carries us beyond others who in the past, in the history of salvation, have been used of God in relationship to the Holy Spirit. There have been those who have been brought proximate to the Holy Spirit. Moses, in chapter 11, in Numbers, When the Spirit is given to the Seventy, you might recall that occasion. Elisha, you may recall, received the double portion of the Spirit of Elijah after his request of the same in 2 Kings 2 verse 9.

    But whatever measure was mediated by these individuals, or even whatever measure came upon them, it was limited. in Christ, the unlimited provision reflecting the inexhaustible character of the provisions of heaven. And once more, according to John the Baptist, to have the Christ is to partake of the measureless, inexhaustible provisions of the Spirit. John’s gospel is manifestly anti-charismatic.

    To have Christ means that you have the One who gives you the Spirit without measure. Having Him, you have the Spirit without measure. This is something that He ministers to you by virtue of your relationship to Him. Having him, you have what he has to give. It’s not a matter of you working for some second blessing, waiting for it, laboring for it, exercising for it, pleading to God for it. It is a matter of having Christ, then having the Spirit measurelessly. This is what has been given to you. Isn’t it ironic that the very gospel that majors in the presentation of the Spirit is manifestly anti-Charismatic? that we can go further. We’re not through wielding the sword tonight.

    You will notice in the witness of John the Baptist, as recorded here in John’s Gospel, that we find only the Baptist’s testimony to what transpired when Jesus was baptized. Only his testimony, but no narrative account of the baptism itself doesn’t appear. Did you ever notice that about John’s gospel? He doesn’t tell you about the actual baptism. I mean, he doesn’t narrate it for you. He only communicates it to you. through the testimony of John the Baptist.

    Now, you might not think anything of this if it weren’t for the fact that later in John’s Gospel we find no mention of the Last Supper. Check it out. John 13. You hear about him washing the disciples’ feet, you hear about conversations that he has with the disciples, but there’s no Last Supper. Well, what’s going on?

    Is John, the gospel writer, anti-sacrament? No. John doesn’t deny the importance and efficacy of the sacraments, but what he does decry is sacramentalism. That approach that attaches life to the outward form and to the ceremony observed. John the Baptist’s comments then, coupled with the absence of any reference to the actual sacraments in John’s gospel, pushes us beyond the form to the significance. That’s what John is intending to do. The sacraments themselves then are downplay. that are important, but they are downplayed in the interest of the meaning of the sacraments, which is the spiritual life, or life in the spirit, in its permanent and inexhaustible glory, given to us in which and from which we live.

    You see, sacramentalism, as John knows, as he, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, puts together his gospel, sacramentalism never gets to the hidden things, never quite arrives at the significance, the true significance, that to which the sacrament itself points, accessible to faith only. For in the end, sacramentalism is of the earth. It never touches heaven. In fact, sacramentalism robs the sacraments of the heaven that they intend to preach and proclaim. is manifestly anti-sacramentalist. And isn’t that interesting?

    Because it is particularly the sacramentalist churches throughout history that have claimed John’s gospel as their own. There are incredible ironies to God’s Word. Parenthetically here, I think that it is one of the great ironies that Paul wrote his great letter on justification by faith to the Church at Rome. There is a profundity here, isn’t there? Well then, the presentation of the person of the Holy Spirit in John’s Gospel.

    The Holy Spirit operating in us in earnest. forcing us past so-called mystical and ecstatic experiences, pushing us past magic water. That’s what it is, isn’t it? The sacramentalist church’s view of the water of Baptist, and it’s magic water, isn’t it?

    Pushing us past magic bread and wine. It’s what it is. It’s magic, bread and wine. It is bread and wine of this world. Pushing us past these things to true and living water. to the Word of God itself, which with the Holy Spirit gives us the permanent and inexhaustible life. You who know the outward water and the outward bread and wine, do you know the life? of which that water and that bread and wine speak. That is the all important issue. And that is the concern of the spirit.

    Our God, we would not be out of tune with you. We would be in accord with the witness that you have given us. And tonight, Lord, bless us that we might be in accord with the witness that your servant John gives. And Father, we pray that we would see in our Savior the occasion for the arrival of the Spirit in final, climactic fashion. And Lord, may we also revel in the permanence that the Spirit now has in relationship to our Savior, this Savior that we claim. And further, the inexhaustible treasure and fullness that is found in Him and by Him. Lord, may we not be led astray even though there are great crowds of people that rush in the wrong direction. At the same time, we plead with you for a humility born of your spirit, that we with proper entreaty would appeal to those who are mistaken, that they might find, yes, behind those things in which they have imagined they found life, life itself. And Father, may they with us then joyously celebrate you and your greatness in the Spirit, even as we are taught to do by your word. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Evermore Give Us This Bread

    Evermore Give Us This Bread

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Lord’s Supper” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 1, 1995.

    About this sermon

    The crowd’s request, ‘Lord, evermore give us this bread,’ sounds pious enough, yet Christ rebukes them for it. Seeking Jesus for bread alone, rather than for himself as the bread of life, draws his rebuke rather than his blessing.

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    Sermon transcript

    Reading from John’s Gospel, we are in the sixth chapter, the twenty-second verse. Give your attention here to the reading of God’s Word, John 6:22.

    The day following, when the people who stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there except the one in which his disciples had entered, and that Jesus did not go with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples had gone away alone, although other boats came from Tiberias near to the place where they had eaten bread after the Lord had given thanks, the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor were his disciples. They also took shipping and came to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. And when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? Jesus answered them and said, Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

    For him has God the Father sealed. Then they said to him, What must we do to perform the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. They said therefore to him, What sign do you show then, that we may see and believe you? What do you work?

    Our fathers ate manna in the desert, as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. 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. Then they said to him, Lord, always give us this bread. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

    He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I say unto you that ye also have seen me, and believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but shall raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. You have to admit your bewilderment.

    But at the same time, you are drawn to this Jesus. You have to admit your bewilderment. But at the same time, you are drawn to this Jesus. He most definitely excites your curiosity, but more, he engages you at the level of the deepest religious inquiry. He compels you in the interests of a common discussion, one in which you see him and yourself absorbed with the same religious preoccupations. So you, with literally thousands of others, five thousand men besides women and children on this occasion, had followed him. You saw the signs and wondered if he might not be the Messiah you had longed for. The Christ come for his kingdom.

    You caught up with him east of Bethsaida, on the grassy slopes along the Sea of Galilee, and there he once more astounded you by feeding you, by blessing, multiplying, and distributing a young lad’s lunch so that everyone had enough. You with the others conferred and began to develop your plan to seize him and make him your king.

    But how strange! Before you can reach him, he withdraws from you into the mountains. Leaving you, your enthusiasm still quite high, you are left with a faint impression that he might not approve of you or your ideas. His disciples departed that evening by boat. You watched them go. But you, with the multitude, kept vigil, waiting for him to appear. In the morning, however, you could not find him. And you wondered again, yes, faintly, your enthusiasm still quite high, could he have bypassed you?

    Had he somehow joined his disciples? Had he somehow come to them without your knowing? There will be a day when the multitudes in Judea and Jerusalem will be unaware that Jesus has rejoined his disciples. But now you, on those grassy slopes on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, the question does cross your mind: How could he ignore us? How could he ignore such a loyal, adoring crowd?

    At any rate, you finally decide to make for Capernaum in search of him, making use of the boats from Tiberius—those which bear the Caesar’s name and had washed ashore from the storm the night before. Despite your questions, which are mounting in your mind, you are obsessed with finding him, which you finally do at the synagogue in Capernaum. There you confess that his movements are a mystery to you. You ask him when he came to Capernaum, but he seems more interested in why you have come. He tells you that you seek him because he filled your stomach. And he intimates that you have no idea what that means.

    You work, he says, for food that perishes, when it is eternal food that you need. Work for the food, he goes on, such as the Son of Man can give you. But the irony now of Jesus’ words escapes you, as he mingles language about your effort, your work, and the Son of Man’s gift. You cannot hear him. And you respond by asking what work you might perform that gains for you the approval of God.

    There is an edge to your words at this point, because things are beginning to heat up. You are the one who tracked after him the day before. You are the one who spent the night outside on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. You are the one who has been questioning him all along. What is wrong with him anyway? Things indeed are beginning to heat up as he challenges you.

    Approval from God is gained by believing in the One He has sent. Now you are angry. You are angry because Jesus keeps bringing this discussion back to Himself, focusing it on His own person, and keeps pressing you in directions that, for reasons that do not seem quite clear to you, you religiously resist. But now, in your anger, you lash out, and by your lashing out, you unknowingly disclose the very core of your religious posture. Having seen signs, you had followed Jesus, as it is written in chapter 6, verse 2. You had seen the signs, and you had followed Him. And now, having seen a further sign in the feeding of the 5,000, you still desire more. You are not satisfied.

    And it is almost as if the religion that is at the very heart of you is a religion of profound dissatisfaction. And that, even though the previous day you had been filled with bread and fish, despite that filling from Christ and all that it signified, you remain empty and crave more. And such a condition defines the religious works that you espouse, the religious works that gain your attention, the religious works that you pursue. It defines the entirety of your religion.

    Emptiness is a universal condition, answered only by effort—your effort. If not God’s, He works as well, you know. If not Christ’s, He must work. What work do you do? But you must understand this in your mind, in your thoughts. These efforts, these works, must always be measurable. They must always be visible, perceived by the senses, to satisfy you. The work, the effort, must operate at the level of what is obvious, at the level of this world, and at the level of provision in this world. This is, in fact, how you interpret the Old Testament, your own past history. That is the significance of verse 31 in that sixth chapter.

    Bread from heaven, given to the fathers in the wilderness, was a supernatural provision, to be sure. But from your perspective, that miraculous bread was intended to provide you with a continuous supply of earthly provision so that you might endure in this world. Jesus, you are telling him, must give you bread like this if you are to believe in Him.

    But Jesus now tears, yes, subtly but directly, into the foundations of your entire religious framework. The true bread, the heavenly bread, is not what the fathers ate in the wilderness, but what the Father gives now through the Son. And the bread of God is not meant to fill the belly for perpetual life in this world, but to give eternal life to the whole world by saving it into an environment of a completely different order. Yet still, you are not listening, as if you cannot hear. When Jesus speaks of bread for the life of the whole world, you continue to hear Him through your own categories, so that you say, “Lord, give us this bread always,” verse 34.

    But your request betrayed you to him, even though you do not know it. Yes, you want this bread, because it must provide you with a continuous supply for provision in this world, and also because, in receiving it, you believe that you will have control over it, and thus over the whole world. Why, you will be the new Joseph, presiding over the storehouses of Egypt, and all the world will come to you in order to be fed. Here is the weapon you have always sought, and the domination that you have craved.

    Indeed, more, ever more, give us this bread. Bread is power. Such bread, as you described, seems to be infinite power. But now Jesus drives home his point. He is the bread of life. We have a problem of feeding on him, but we also have a problem with such bread as far as the world is concerned. How do you distribute it? So now, Jesus, you are beginning to speak nonsense. He says, I am the bread of life, the bread from heaven.

    According to him, anyone—wait a minute, there goes the control factor—anyone who genuinely comes to him and believes in him will be perfectly satisfied. And if they are perfectly satisfied in coming to him, they will not need you, the kind of bread you crave, nor will they be interested in distributing it. Jesus is very pointed now. He tells them that they have seen him, they have come to him in a sense, but they do not believe. Verse 36. You might have thought that Jesus lived at your level and was thus easily manipulated by the things that you are manipulated by. After all, you are part of a fairly impressive entourage that has been tracking after him. Certainly he will capitulate to you, will he not? Certainly if he knows what is good for him, he will capitulate to you. He would not dare alienate you.

    That would be an act of foolishness. How can he expect to succeed if he alienates those who have a vested interest in what he has to say? And surely he does himself no favor if he goes about alienating Jews or Israelites. But now he says to you that everyone given to him by his Father will come to him, and he seems utterly unperturbed by the pressure you have brought to bear upon him. He is unimpressed. These, he says, he will give not perpetual life in this world, for that was never the goal, but eternal life. He says he will preserve them, and that he will raise them up on the last day for life elsewhere.

    Those with whom Jesus is presently engaged have no real interest in life elsewhere. In the subsequent debates between the Church and the Synagogue, the Church would be face-to-face with an enemy that had no real interest in life elsewhere. Those who stand opposite Christ, who stand opposite his church, cannot see that far.

    What about you? How far can you see? Is your real and true interest eternal life in the courts of the Lord? Do you believe in Jesus? Particularly now, that Jesus has been presented to you from this passage this morning, do you believe in that Jesus? Here is the word of encouragement to you if you do. You have been given to him by his Father. You will most certainly never be cast out of his grasp and his embrace. You will not be lost to him, but on the last day you will be raised up in your body, and that for the purpose of dwelling with him bodily forever, in perfect and complete satisfaction.

    But marvel of marvels: The word from Jesus is, if you believe that the eternal life to which you aspire has already begun for you, and the satisfaction that so many seek, that so many see, is already found in him. Jesus is the fullness of the inquiring heart and the searching soul. He is perfect satisfaction.

    We who believe know that this is true, and because we do, we come and partake in the sacrament, feasting upon Him so that we may be refreshed by the satisfaction that has been granted to us. Praise His name. Amen. Our God, we would not be those who continue to praise even beyond what You have given. For if this is true, it reveals in us a soul that will not be satisfied with the Savior and the salvation that He offers. We rejoice, O God, that You have granted us satisfaction in Him. Truly, we who believe do not hunger and do not thirst, but are satisfied with the provision that is mediated to us through our faith, the provision that comes from heaven. We rejoice in Your grace and love, Lord, and ask that we might not be led astray so as to chase things that promise satisfaction when in fact they can deliver none.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The King Who Withdraws

    The King Who Withdraws

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Lord’s Supper” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, August 13, 1995.

    About this sermon

    When the crowd tries to make Jesus king by force, he withdraws from them entirely. Why Christ refuses the kingship offered on human terms, and what that withdrawal means for those who would seek him only for what he can give, is the question probed here.

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    Sermon transcript

    Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth, that prophet that should come into the world. When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.

    And when even was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea and entered into a ship. and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them. And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew. So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea and drawing nigh unto the ship, and they were afraid. But he saith unto them, It is I, be not afraid. Then they willingly received him into the ship, and immediately the ship was at the land with which they went.

    The day following, when the people, which stood on the other side of the sea, saw that there was none other boat there, saved that one whereinto his disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples were gone away alone, howbeit There came other boats from Tiberias near unto the place where they did eat bread after the Lord had given thanks. When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping and came to Capernaum seeking for Jesus. And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.

    Labor not for that meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For him hath God the Father sealed. Then said they unto him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

    That night, the wind blew fiercely across the sea. That night, following a most remarkable day, as glorious a day as you in your life have known. The wild night gales carried away nothing from your memory of what had transpired on that most remarkable day.

    You, with so many others, followed the movements of Jesus, this most recent and most striking of preachers, who worked wonders on the sick, some of those wonders you had seen But then Jesus had crossed the sea to a secluded spot south of Bethsaida, and you and the multitude followed him on land, keeping in view his boat, as if you were keeping in view the very hope of your soul.

    You saw from a distance his ascent of a mountain. with his close associates. But as you came closer, he graciously came down to you, and as if he had never left those heights of glory, he ministered to you by taking a young boy’s lunch, blessing it, and then distributing it to the vast multitude of which you were a part. You all were like an immense flock, flock of sheep pastured in the wide expanse of green grass, as if you were God’s own flock, just a bit of Israel to be sure, but those in whom all Israel was to be found. Jesus said you, and you were still Provision abounded, your portion overflowed. His close associates, after the meal, gathered up the leftovers, and amazingly there was a basket full left for each. At first, you sat contented and satisfied. with a sense that not only had you seen that you had experienced the kingdom of God, but then you were amazed and excited as thoughts filled your brain.

    The fact that it was Passover season undoubtedly helped you turn your mind to Moses and to the provision of miracle bread through him to Israel in the wilderness. But further, you cannot help but think about Moses’ great promise that a prophet like him would appear in Israel, a prophet who would do great and mighty things.

    A new Moses, but more, for this one would be one who is actually the object of Moses’ expectation, the object of Moses’ promise. Was this Jesus then the fulfillment of Moses’ promise? Was this Jesus the royal figure expected by Israel for so long? Was this Jesus the Messiah? This thought struck your brain. It struck your brain like a thunderbolt, not just striking you, but all those who were gathered with you. And you think in your mind now, all he awaits is our acceptance. All he awaits is our confirmation.

    What he lacks presently is evidence of our confidence in him, of our willingness to pay him homage. Therefore, you say in your mind, we must show him our allegiance. We will take him, we will make him our king. We will declare then that the royal figure for so many centuries denied unto us is now and that the promise has been fulfilled, and that we have a sovereign leader who, in his sovereignty, is like the sovereigns of this world, but greater. Here, then, is our Prophet. Here is our King. Here is our Messiah. Here is our Caesar. Here is our Tiberius. and by him and with him we shall rule the world to the glory of the God of Israel.”

    But as you move towards Jesus, he inexplicably withdraws from you, for you are unaware of what is going on in his mind. You are unaware that your approach to him reminds him of a scene earlier in his life, a desert scene, and in that scene Satan appeared for the purpose of offering him a crown, a crown by which he might be able to avoid the sufferings and the pains of the cross. Jesus sees nothing less. in your approach to him presently. Your interest in him is for the immediate domination of the world.

    Neither are you aware that Jesus spies the fatal flaw of Israel as he scrutinizes the intentions of your hearts. A fatal flaw that expressed itself a thousand years earlier when Israel accosted Samuel the prophet and demanded that he give them a king like the kings of all the other nations. You have forgotten the Lord’s commentary on that occasion. For he had said to the prophet Samuel that the people’s request for a king was actually a rejection of him. Jesus knows that your taking him and making him your king is actually a rejection of him. For it is not him and his kingdom that you seek, rather you seek your own ideas about him, your own ideas about what the kingdom should be.

    So he withdraws from you. and now you are bewildered. You have moved through a full range of feelings during the course of this day. First you have been moved by intense curiosity, then by rich and full satisfaction, and then by the excitement of your mind at the prospect that Jesus might be the Messiah. But now you are overcome by bewilderment.

    How can this Jesus, if he be the Messiah, the King of Israel, withdraw from such a formidable and willing assembly? Why, the numbers alone, the statistics alone, are enough to confirm him in his quest for recognition and acceptance. we here together make up an impressive entourage, do we not? If not the beginning of a great army. At the very least, the report about the numbers assembled here will impress everyone who hears about them and press upon them Jesus’ popularity. and the unmistakable stamp of his success.

    But if Jesus’ withdrawal into the mountain yesterday left you bewildered, what about his subsequent withdrawal that leaves you with the rest of the multitude on the seashore presently, and Jesus completely gone from the scene. But still, in the midst of this, despite your deludiment and confusion, you drive for those things you see in Jesus. You drive for those things which you imagine Jesus has come to supply you. Specifically, and yes, In a pronounced fashion, your specific needs and wants. The night has passed. The wind has died down. The waters are calm, like a sheet of glass in front of you. It is safe for you now to cross the sea.

    And how opportune that the storm of the previous night has brought to shore the boats from Tiberias. Like some great joke, some supreme irony, you, a Jew, enter the boats that bear the name of the Emperor of Rome. And you enter those boats that bear his name, and you cross that sea that also bears his name, for you will notice in the first verse of chapter 6, the Sea of Galilee is called the Sea of Tiberias. So you enter the boats that bear the Emperor’s name, and you cross the sea that bears his name as well, thinking yourself on a mission, that upon finding your Messiah will mean that you with him bring down Gentile world power for the sake of establishing your own, in which all of your needs as you have imagined them, will be carried. But the joke is on you, for these are Tiberius’s boats, and this is Tiberius’s Entering them as you have with the attitude of mind and soul that you have doesn’t bring Tiberius to your feet, it brings you to his.

    For after all, both you and Tiberius seek the same thing, though he a Roman and you a Jew. And the thing that you seek is not Jesus, as revealed. through his own sovereign self-disclosure. Instead, you with Tiberius, the emperor of Rome, seek the world. And you seek the bread of the world. You seek one who would satisfy your own conception of your needs in the world. But Jesus is from a completely different world, a world in which you have very little interest.

    He offers you other bread, he himself being bread, even being living bread that comes down from heaven. He has a mission, he has come He hasn’t come in order to grant you all of these special needs which you have imagined you have. He hasn’t even come to grant you the better life, or the comfortable life, or even the safe and sane moral life by which you might forge an impeccable culture and civilization.

    Instead, he came to grant to his own even those to whom he comes in his sovereignty, even as he comes to them across the waves of the storm-cast sea. Instead, he comes to grant to his own eternal life in the kingdom above. Here are those, then, to whom he draws nigh. coming to them amidst the chaos of Tiberius’s sea and world. To whom he says as he draws near to them, it is I. Don’t be afraid. These are those, then, that recognize him even as he draws near to them. and in their recognition of him give evidence of the fact that they have been drawn by him, by his sovereignty. They by faith receive him, knowing then the supernatural peace, the peace of heaven that he has come to give, and also the fullness of that accomplishment of everything that is required before God. that full accomplishment found only in Him.

    These, then, to whom Jesus comes, with whom He sails, are those who see past earthly bread to the true bread, and in the true kingdom. partake to their eternal satisfaction. If you seek the true bread, the true kingdom, the Christ of truth, you are among those for whom Jesus Christ himself has come. You are among those whom he has drawn to himself, and you are the true Israel of God, in whom the glory of God, even the glory of eternal life, now resides. Are you among those who love the true who have an interest in true life, life in the true kingdom, who know Christ according to truth. If so, you will live forever in the presence of your God.

    Father, if we are fools and we seek Christ’s kingdom by the means of Tiberius, we ask you, Lord, that we will deal with our hearts. For if, in coming to you and in coming to your kingdom, we expose the fact that all we have desired is just one more earthly domain. Forgive us, Lord, and shower your mercy upon us. Father, we would be your children, not in haughtiness or in self-righteousness, but with all humility, knowing that if we have come to you, you came to us first. that we might be moved away from our infatuation with the things of this life and this world, to love you, your ways, your kingdom, your truth. As we approach the table, O God, we ask that we may have faith that we may partake of the true bread and benefit from our partaking. We pray this in Jesus’ name.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Feed My Sheep

    Feed My Sheep

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Lord’s Supper” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 2, 1995.

    About this sermon

    Similarities between John 6, John 21, and even John 2 show that when Christ tells Peter to ‘feed my sheep,’ he means something far beyond bread. What Peter is to give, like Christ himself, is his very life for the sheep.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning, for our scripture reading, we are turning to John chapter 21. First of all, John chapter 21. We are beginning at verse 15. Give your attention to the reading of God’s Holy Word. So when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me more than these?

    He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said to him, Feed my lambs. He said to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said to him, Feed my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me? Peter was grieved because Jesus said to him the third time, Do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you. Jesus said to him, Feed my sheep.

    Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and walked wherever you wished. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish. He said this, indicating by what kind of death Peter would glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him, Follow me. Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, the same who had leaned on his breast at supper and had said, Lord, which one of us will betray you? Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, Lord, and what will this man do?

    Jesus said to him, If I will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. Then this saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him, He will not die, but, If I will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? This is the disciple who testifies of these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.

    And there are also many other things which Jesus did, and if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Then, turning back to John chapter 6, verse 11: And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples. And likewise the fish, as many as they would. When they were filled, he said to his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.

    Therefore, they gathered them together and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above those who had eaten. There is a sense in which John chapter 6 is crucial to our appreciation and our appropriation of this gospel from John in its entirety.

    This chapter is what we might call a decisive chapter in John’s gospel. Just as this chapter presents in its closing verses the parting of the ways between those who would follow Jesus and those who truly follow him, you can note verse 66 in that regard. So this chapter as a whole serves as a dividing line for all in the Church when it comes to understanding the entirety of this gospel and its message.

    Now, the importance of the sixth chapter of John along these lines is similar to the importance of the parable of the sower in another context. You might recall what Jesus says in Mark chapter 4, verse 13, as commentary on that parable. He tells his disciples that if they cannot understand the parable of the sower, then they will not understand any of his parables. Well, by the same token, if we do not understand the sixth chapter of John, how will we then understand anything that is communicated to us in this grand gospel? That this is, in fact, the case with respect to the sixth chapter of John seems clear from what we read throughout the gospel.

    I say this, not simply because of the division that occurs within this chapter between the two groups of disciples—the would-be disciples and the true disciples—but because of the clear parallels between this chapter, the sixth chapter of John, and the final chapter of this gospel. We will not spend much time this morning making all the precise connections between these two chapters, but enough to support my claim that there is a meaningful link between them.

    Note, for instance, that chapters 6 and 21 in John both take place at the Sea of Tiberias, also known as the Sea of Galilee. In fact, the Sea of Galilee is referred to as the Sea of Tiberias only in chapters 6 and 21 of John, and nowhere else in Scripture. You may notice that the opening verses of each of these chapters specifically mention the Sea of Tiberias.

    Both chapters describe miracles that occur on the sea and on land. These events are connected. In both chapters, Jesus performs miracles involving the distribution of bread and fish to others. Both chapters use images related to shepherding. In John chapter 6, the people gathered for the feeding by Christ are described as being led to lie down in green pastures. This is a shepherd image. In John 21, there are also references to shepherding, as Jesus repeatedly tells Peter to tend or feed his sheep. Both passages speak about the disciples’ future ministries, and both chapters include direct interaction between Jesus and Peter.

    It would seem, therefore, that with these obvious links between the two chapters, John chapter 6 serves as a doorway, a passage of entry into the final chapter of John, the concluding and conclusive chapter of the Gospel. It is as if John chapter 6 serves as a doorway for standing completely within the house of John’s Gospel. John chapter 21 is the point to which the Gospel as a whole is directed, with the sixth chapter being an indispensable part of that Gospel, so that the Gospel’s intention might be impressed upon its audience. What we have said is important for a number of reasons.

    For one thing, it makes clear that John chapter 21 is not extraneous to the Gospel. John chapter 21 is not an appendage, nor an afterthought, as it has often been treated by interpreters and preachers. But neither is John chapter 21 a contrivance, an invention, or something tacked on to the end of John by someone other than the Gospel’s author.

    This has been claimed by many liberal authors. John chapter 21 is as much a part of John’s Gospel as the sixth chapter. They are of a piece, they belong together, they work toward the same end, and they lead us to the same conclusions. Now, of course, it could be argued that the twenty-first chapter of John is the work of a very clever follower of the Gospel’s original author, who had read and studied the previous twenty chapters so well that he was able to imitate their style and mimic their content, all in the interest of adding his own interpretation to the Gospel in a concluding remark, for his own benefit within the community in which he lived.

    But there is no evidence—absolutely no evidence whatsoever, as far as the manuscript history of John’s Gospel is concerned—that John 21 was ever separated from the text of this Gospel. It belongs to the Gospel. John chapter 21 is an integral part of the Gospel of John.

    In fact, it serves as the mark at which John has been aiming all along in the writing of this Gospel. I take time to say this to you this morning, because every once in a while it is good for us to be strengthened in our confidence regarding the Scriptures as we have them. You may not be aware of all the arguments that have taken place over the years—arguments that seem to aim at tearing apart the Bible, removing entire chapters from the Scriptures, casting doubt on certain portions of Scripture, and causing the faithful to question whether they truly have God’s word before them. John chapter 21 is one of those chapters that has caused a great deal of controversy.

    It is my contention this morning that John 21 is an integral part of the gospel as a whole, that it belongs, and that the gospel stands as a complete record from the servant whom Jesus chose to write it down. And it is deserving of your full confidence.

    But the second reason that this observation about the link between John 21 and John 6 is important is because it suggests not just a door for entrance to the Gospel’s conclusion, but a key with which to unlock other passages in the Gospel. Since we are now holding to the importance of John 6 for understanding John’s Gospel as it leads us to the conclusion of the Gospel, it would not be surprising for us to find other passages in this Gospel that are particularly close to this chapter in direction, if not in content. Of note in this regard is John chapter 2 and the story of the wedding at Cana. This is interesting in itself, because as there is a link between John 6 and John 21, there also seems to be a link between John 6 and John 2. On the one hand, John 6 looks forward to the Gospel’s conclusion. On the other hand, it looks back to what has preceded. It seems to be set right in the middle of the narrative, bringing things together, as if it were a divinely placed center for the Gospel with respect to its message. Now, the relationship between John 2 and John 6 is quite interesting.

    First of all, both passages are about feasts. The wedding at Cana and the feeding of the 5,000 are both about feasts. Secondly, both passages are placed near the Passover celebration. Shortly after the wedding at Cana, the Passover is mentioned. Chapter 2, verse 13. But note chapter 6, verse 4. Passover is also in view here. The events are happening at the same time, or shortly before, the feeding of the 5,000. But notice as well, both passages focus upon the inadequacy of provision for the feast. At Cana, the wine runs out. At the sea, for the feeding of the 5,000, there is hardly enough food.

    Jesus steps into this situation as the resolution. If the wine running out means that the joy of the wedding feast has ended, Jesus has come to restore that joy. And if there is no provision for the people who have gathered to Jesus, Jesus will supply that provision from himself, through himself, and by himself, regardless of how many there are.

    There is always sufficient provision found in him. But notice also, in this parallel between John 2 and John 6, there is no judgment passed upon the desire or the need of the people involved. The wine has run out at Cana, and Jesus does not judge the people for having drunk too much. Otherwise it would not have run out. There is no judgment rendered regarding the desires of the people as they have gathered to Christ, even when the crowd numbers five thousand.

    Their needs and their desires are presented in the most favorable light, and Jesus responds to them as if their needs and desires are genuine. Later, Jesus will work upon their desires and their needs in order to reveal what true desire and true need truly are. But at this moment, their wants and desires, their needs, are not judged. They are presented in the most favorable light.

    Furthermore, in both chapters 2 and 6, and in keeping with what we have said about Passover, both passages are connected to specific Jewish experiences. John 2 presents the Jewish custom of purification. Thus, in the sixth verse of that chapter, there is specific mention of the six stone water pots set there for the purpose of Jewish purification. But in John 6, the context is much broader. Here, the entire testimony of the Jewish people’s wanderings in the wilderness is brought before us—the very foundations of Jewish history—and the miraculous provision by God when he gave them manna from heaven.

    You may recall how John 6 progresses as Jesus makes a specific reference to the true bread that comes down from heaven to feed his people. Finally, and this is of great importance, both passages—John 2 and John 6—focus on Jesus, who alone is able to supply not only what is needed and desired, but more than what is needed and desired.

    It is better than you think. It is greater than you have imagined. Truly, it is more than you can comprehend. These are the things which God has prepared for those who love him. Consider John 2 in this regard. Do you remember how it goes? Jesus, as we have already noted, restores joy to the feast by turning water into wine. But note that he does so in abundance—approximately 220 to 280 gallons of wine. The feast is already nearing its end, and he provides a superabundance of wine. Not merely what is needed, but more than what is needed. Is the reserve of Christ ever exhausted? Does the supply of heaven ever run dry? In John 6, Jesus provides enough food that everyone has as much as they want.

    They are satisfied. This captures the essence of what is happening in the feeding of the 5,000. They are satisfied. Can you imagine it? They are satisfied. Reflect on this fully. They are content. Yet in verse 13 of that same chapter, it is clear that there is even more than they needed, for twelve basketfuls of food are gathered after the feast is concluded. This connection between John 2 and John 6 helps to establish the general pattern of meaning throughout the entire Gospel of John.

    Jesus is the perfect host. There is none better. He is the perfect host who has come to this world to fulfill and even to replace Israel’s feasts, even if it be Passover. Israel’s feasts and customs and history, which were only temporary and preparatory, were meant so that in him the true desires of humanity and humanity’s real needs might be satisfied—beginning now in our present circumstances and leading to a new feast, new customs, and a new history for the people of God. They are supplied by him and through him with eternal and inexhaustible provision from heaven. Such provision is found nowhere else but with him and in him, our living and reigning Lord.

    This brings us to the third reason the link between John 6 and John 21 is so important. The relationship of these two chapters provides a way by which we can understand the true meaning of John 6 itself. We have something with which we can compare it. We can examine John 6 in light of John 21 and be even more confident about what is being stated. John 6 leads us toward John 21. It draws us toward the conclusion of the gospel. That conclusion is clearly laid out from verse 15 onward in chapter 21. That is why we read that section.

    Here we have Jesus’ powerful questioning of Peter, in which our risen Lord asks Peter three times whether Peter loves him. Peter, with growing distress, responds each time that he does love Christ. Jesus then tells Peter three times, “Feed my sheep.” But how will Peter feed Christ’s sheep? The remainder of Jesus’ conversation with Peter makes this clear.

    It will not be by giving the sheep bread and fish. Let me tell you, it will not be by giving the sheep bread and wine. Consider this: it will not be by giving the sheep bread of any kind. Now hear me out. I am not dismissing the sacraments, but you see what Jesus is doing at the end of John’s Gospel. He is calling you beyond the sacrament. The sacrament is important; the bread here is important; but you are being called to go beyond it.

    Therefore, it will not be by giving the sheep bread. Rather, it will be by giving the sheep what the bread represents. Indeed, we are moving along significant lines, are we not? We are affirming and emphasizing the representative nature of the sacrament. The elements are symbols; they point to something else; they point to a greater reality. The sacrament in itself cannot satisfy. Peter will be compelled to feed Christ’s sheep by providing them with what that bread in the feast represents. That bread represents the life of Christ given. The life of Christ given.

    But now you see, as John’s concluding chapter unfolds, Jesus tells Peter that Peter will have to give his own life. He prophesies to him about the kind of life, the kind of death he will have to endure because of his relationship to Christ. These are the words in verses 18 and 19 of chapter 21. In other words, Peter will feed the sheep with Christ, but in a way that mirrors Christ’s own feeding of the sheep—by laying down his own life for the sheep.

    You will notice, then, that we move from the meal to ministry. We move from the meal to service. We move from the bread to obedience. This is what the meal itself proclaims. This means that the meal cannot stand alone. It certainly has symbolic power, as it leads us to reflect on Christ’s sacrifice; but it also calls us to embrace such sacrifice in our own lives. This very truth lies at the heart of the meal in John 6.

    That meal, the feeding of the five thousand, symbolizes Christ’s death, but it also sets before us the subsequent and derived service that we are to render in Christ’s name. This subsequent service is represented in the twelve basketfuls of food collected by the disciples after the meal is concluded.

    One for each of the disciples, yes? They are ordained, and there is here something to be said about the ordained servant of God and his responsibility, and the unique service that he is to render in feeding Christ’s flock. But the twelve baskets also represent the people of God. How many tribes of Israel were there? There were twelve. It is not just the disciples; it is the entirety of the people of God that are in view.

    So now, with those twelve baskets, there is represented to us not just the apostolate, not just the disciples, not just the ordained, but the whole of the people of God as the new Israel, the Church of Christ. Those who have been fed by those who are called to feed them now offer themselves in giving their lives one for another.

    A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another. The sacrament must go on to that. Otherwise, it is a silly meal, a foolish exercise, a mere ritual. We have here in the sacrament no bare meal for the self-centered satisfaction of our own desires. We have no bare meal that is an end in itself. Instead, we have a meal that preaches a message beyond itself, which actually and only reaches its goal not in that we are served, as we shall be shortly, but that we serve, even as Christ served and gave his life a ransom for men. Oh, that we would have the churches filled with ordained servants who are not just serving sacraments, but serving themselves as sacrifices for the sake of their people. And oh, that the churches were filled with sheep who, having been fed, are devoted to one another. Amen. As we come to the table this morning, we do so singing.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Servants Stand, the Guests Sit

    The Servants Stand, the Guests Sit

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Lord’s Supper” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 5, 1995.

    About this sermon

    ‘Sitting down’ in John 6:3 and 11 signals a formal meal, against Catholic communion practice, with Christ, pastor, and elders as servants who stand to honor their seated guests. The mountain of verse 3 and the grass of verse 10 add more meaning.

    More sermons from John · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    This morning we are reading from the Gospel of John, chapter six. We are beginning with verse one. This is the Gospel of John, chapter six. Let us give our attention to the reading of God’s holy word. After these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. A great multitude followed him, because they had seen the miracles he performed on those who were sick. Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. The Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. When Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread so that these people may eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread is not enough for each of them to have a small portion.” One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, “There is a young boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was much grass in the place, so the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those who were seated. He did the same with the fish, giving as much as they wanted. When they were full, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” Therefore they gathered them together and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained after those who had eaten had been satisfied. Then the people, when they had seen the miracle Jesus had done, said, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, therefore, perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him king, and he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.

    I am not going to take time this morning to prove to you that the story of the feeding of the five thousand has much to say to us about the Lord’s Supper. We are going to assume that connection in this message this morning. If you want the proof of this connection, I encourage you to get hold of the tape of my January 30, 1994 message, a sermon I preached at the beginning of this series of Communion messages on John 6.

    But assuming that connection, at the same time, it is obvious that there are dissimilarities between the Lord’s Supper and the feeding of the five thousand, and that these dissimilarities are important. Nevertheless, our interest remains with the similarities that exist between the accounts of the Lord’s Supper and the feeding of the multitude. So, as we consider the meal in John chapter 6, and here Jesus tells his disciples to have the multitudes recline, or sit down, verse 10, we are not surprised by the echo in this instruction from Jesus of what we hear later in the accounts of the Lord’s Supper. You may want to take note of the accounts of the Lord’s Supper in the various Gospels and how those accounts speak about the disciples who are present reclining in Jesus’ presence. The reclining or sitting down of the multitudes in John 6, then, finds connection to the reclining disciples in the upper room on that evening before Christ’s crucifixion.

    In the common bond between the Last Supper and John 6, the fact is established, then, beyond controversy, that what we are dealing with in these accounts is a meal. It is a meal. And I might state in this connection, then, that we have in our observations at this point a confirmation of our Reformed and our Presbyterian understanding of the sacrament. The sacrament is a meal. It takes shape against the background of a supper. It is in a meal setting that the sacrament and the meaning of the sacrament take shape. The reclining of the people, then, in John 6, conveys to us a sitting down to a meal, or to a table.

    The people do not gather in front of an altar. I hope you understand my point. The people do not stand in front of an altar to wonder at a sacrificial process or to gaze upon an elevated host. The people sit down as for a meal, and they do not kneel in worship of something or someone in front of them. Actions such as kneeling or gathering before an altar to wonder at a sacrificial process completely undo and obscure the true meaning of the sacramental action taking place in the meal.

    But notice also, as you move from the tenth to the eleventh verse in John 6, that not only have the people been seated, but they remain seated and are served in their places. This means that the people do not come forward to receive the loaves and fish from Christ. Instead, the food is brought to them.

    This is becoming clearer and clearer, is it not? You see, my dear Presbyterian and Reformed friends, there is good reason for you to conduct your communion practice as you do. Your practice is well grounded in the Bible. But now it is of greatest importance that you understand the genuine spiritual intention behind our communion practice.

    In order that we might gain this deeper understanding, it is necessary for us momentarily to leave John’s Gospel and turn to the Gospel of Luke, particularly chapter twenty-two, and the account found there of Jesus’ Last Supper. You will recall, at the conclusion of the Supper, in Luke’s Gospel, that a controversy arises among the disciples about who is greatest. Verse 24 of Luke 22. Jesus enters their discussion and asks them, who is greater?

    The one who reclines at table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? Then Jesus provides the capstone to his comments by saying, “But I am among you as one who serves,” verse 27. Jesus is making a comment here about the respective postures at that meal on the eve before his crucifixion. The honored guests at this meal are the ones who are seated.

    The honored guests are the disciples. While Jesus, although the Lord, stands as their servant to wait upon them. Now, the same point is made in a slightly different way by Jesus in John’s account of our Lord’s last night before his death in John 13. In this account, Jesus provides a clear example of his genuine service to his disciples by dressing himself as a lowly, common household slave, bowing before his disciples, and washing their feet. Returning now to John 6, when Jesus has the multitudes seated, he is actually giving the multitudes the place of honor, and he stands in his place as their servant. Thus the people are exalted, and Jesus is humbled. Jesus moves among them as their servant, then supplying them with the loaves and the fish. This action speaks about his ultimate true service, in that he would give his life for them upon the cross.

    Now, John emphasizes in his account in John chapter 6—something you would not know from the King James Version, because the King James Version has altered the text. John highlights the exclusivity of Jesus’ service in this context when, in verse 11, he states that it is Jesus himself who distributes the food. I know that, as it reads in the King James Version, the disciples are described as distributing the food after Jesus gives the loaves and fish to them. However, the King James translators made this change because they felt compelled to align this passage in John 6 with the accounts of the feeding of the five thousand found in the other Gospels. John’s record differs, and if you consult a New American Standard Bible or a New International Version, you will see the distinction. In these translations, it is clearly stated that Jesus himself is portrayed as distributing the food. As I said, if you compare this with the other Gospels, you will find that in their accounts of the feeding of the five thousand, it is the disciples, not Jesus, who distribute the food.

    But John, according to the more accurate text, reports that Jesus himself distributed the food. Now we are asked to account for the difference between John’s account and the synoptic Gospels, and the apparent discrepancy. Why is there this difference? Because John, by the Holy Spirit, intends for us always to recognize Christ’s unique identity and the exclusive nature of his service on our behalf, as he gave his life for us on the cross. At the same time, John also intends for our understanding to be firmly grounded in the truth that Christ truly and genuinely serves us in this meal.

    When the other gospel writers tell us that the disciples distribute the loaves and the fish, the point must be, in light of what John has to say, that the disciples are an extension of Christ, conformed to Him in their service to those who are truly served. By way of extension, then, when your pastor distributes the sacramental food, he does so by grace and by the call of the Lord related to Christ in his office, but his purpose must always be to communicate Christ, never himself.

    By the same token, your pastor may give the elements to the elders to be distributed, just as Christ gave the loaves and fish to the disciples. Thus your elders stand by grace and by the call of the Lord related to the disciples in their office. But their purpose in distributing the elements must be to communicate Christ, never themselves. Nor can your pastor or your elders stand over you in a spirit of self-importance, much less in a spirit of belligerence or intimidation, as if they were higher and you, by definition and position, were lower. In fact, the actions that take place in the sacrament, the actions performed by your pastor and by the elders, are meant to communicate just the opposite. You are being made the higher, they are the lower. Just as a servant stands to wait on honored guests seated at a fine meal, so your minister and your elders stand to wait upon you, the honored guests seated for this extraordinary meal.

    We are your servants. But it is clear, is it not, that our service must never be restricted to such ministry as we perform to you in this meal. Rather, the meal becomes the occasion in which we express the very center of our lives, which are, after the image of Jesus Christ, expended for you. No man, then, should take to himself these offices of minister and elder who has not sworn in his soul to lay down his life for the sheep, to be a servant for the sake of the sheep, just as Jesus laid down his life for us all, and is our servant still. But of course, neither the service, nor Christ’s service to the 5,000, nor his service to you through your pastor and elders, is meant to leave you seated comfortably, weighted upon hand and foot. The goal of Christ’s service to you is your like service to others.

    Yes, you have been exalted. Even as you are seated, the heights to which you have been brought are suggested by what verse 10 in John 6 says further. For John has left us with the impression in his telling of the story that Jesus and the disciples are still upon the mountain when the multitudes reach them. Compare verse 3. We have said before that the mountain in the Gospels is the scene of glory. In this context, the mountain does not only answer and fulfill the scene of that great Old Testament mountain, Sinai, in which the Old Testament people were in fact brought together, constituted, and in effect created. But this mountain here in John 6 forecasts the heavenly Zion in which Christ will be seated with his disciples to whom he has promised twelve thrones. Thus, the seating of Christ and the disciples in verse 3 of this sixth chapter. The multitudes arrive and are cast in this mountain setting, so as to have glory conferred upon them, as they now are understood as a new people of God, who by their exaltation in Christ have come to participate in the blessings of Christ’s heavenly reign.

    But you will notice here the mention of much grass, an abundance of grass in this tenth verse. With the mention of the abundance of grass, the much grass, the mountain itself is being transformed before your eyes. Ordinarily, the mountain is uninhabitable. But now it is described in terms of much grass, and transformed into a lush and verdant pasture where the flock of God may graze securely.

    Indeed, here is a picture of the new people of God, who are the summing up of all that has been said about the people of God of old. Here are the new people of God who know that the Lord, He is God, that it is He who has made us and not we ourselves, that we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. See Psalm 100. When Jesus has the multitudes recline upon the grass, it is difficult not to see them as His sheep, whom He makes to lie down in green pastures. Psalm 23. The multitudes, therefore, are portrayed as the new people of God, exalted, who have not only come to the mountain, but have had made for them there an abundantly rich and safe habitation.

    But note further that verse 10 goes on to speak about the 5,000 men. Specifically, the 5,000 men. Why mention the males specifically? Why mention the males and not the women and the children, as some of the other Gospels do, when they give us the story of the feeding of the five thousand?

    It is precisely here that it becomes clear that although the multitudes are portrayed gloriously and exalted, and even served and ministered unto, they are also called upon to render service themselves. For I am persuaded that the specific mention of the males, five thousand males, is meant not to exclude the women and children per se, but to draw the whole multitude, man, woman, and child, under the heading of an army. In the Old Testament, the numbering of the men of the tribes was specifically for military purposes.

    This means, then, that in this text we have the new people of God presented to us both as a flock of the Lord and as the army of the Lord of hosts. Interestingly, later, as the multitudes play out their role and even their distorted theology, they see themselves as an army and wish to take Jesus by force and make him their king, verse 15. But presently, in this context, verse 10, they are cast in the role of a different sort of army altogether. When it rises from its seat at the table of blessing, it moves out to carry on its campaign with the same spirit with which it has been served by Christ himself. Friends, you are seated at the Lord’s table, not only as the Lord’s flock, but as the Lord’s army. Your commander-in-chief moves among you as a lowly servant, and it is in his meekness and lowliness that you rise from this table to go out and to do battle, not with the weapons of this world, but with the arsenal of Christ—his love and his word.

    Let us pray. Our Father, as much as we are confirmed in our understanding of the sacrament and the propriety of our practice, we are challenged so that we, yes, your flock and exalted people even served by you, might rise in service to you with the very spirit with which Christ is present among us to serve us. Our God, may this not be a useless ritual in which we engage, but a confirmation and a challenge to us that we might live fully as your new people, blessed by you, but also extending ourselves in service for the Savior who has loved us and whom we love. As we pray.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.