Sermons by Rev. Charles G. Dennison (Page 4)
‘Sitting down’ in John 6:3 and 11 signals a formal meal, set against Catholic communion practice, with Christ, pastor, and elders pictured as servants standing to honor their seated guests. Further meaning turns up in the mountain of verse 3 and the grass of verse 10.
A proper biblical view of the Lord’s Supper unfolds here, showing that Christ himself examines those who officiate at his table. Drawing a line from Numbers 11:13 to John 6, Jesus is revealed as none other than Jehovah, feeding his people from a place of glory.
John the Baptist expected Christ to bring immediate judgment along with blessing. Leaning on J. Gresham Machen’s defense of the true gospel, Christ’s blessings are shown to exceed even Isaiah’s prophecy, and, crucially, to come before judgment rather than after it.
Christ’s ‘leaving’ in John 6:1 connects to his post-resurrection appearance by the Sea of Tiberias in John 21, where he crosses the abyss and lives. The fish the disciples catch become the lambs Peter is told to feed, one continuous picture drawn from John 6’s rich imagery.
The series opens with a warning against emphasizing the sacraments over the Word, tracing four striking similarities between John 6:11’s feeding of the five thousand and the Last Supper of Mark 14:22. In both, the church truly partakes of Christ himself.
Closing the series, God’s power is on full display in creation out of nothing, the same impossible act by which he saves us. Even here, God subjects himself to his own creation, a theocracy that begins with the Creator’s own submission.
The church has largely failed to see history’s priority over space in the creation account, a gap corrected here through biblical and covenant theology drawn from Exodus 13:8 and Colossians 3. Preaching itself must apply that same eschatological priority.
The consequences of the fall play out fully across Genesis 4, with God’s deliberate absence from man’s evil ways establishing faith as our only real access to him. Seth’s calling on the name of the Lord marks a real turn, one Joel later echoes for the whole world.
Genesis 3:23-24 and 4:16 together identify the Tree of Life with God’s own perpetual presence. God, righteous men, and Christ himself are each pictured as a tree, and it is Christ who finally takes us to that tree.
Earthly institutions are fundamentally separate from heavenly ones, and the family is no exception to that rule. Because none of them are eternal, none of them may be allowed to become idols, however good they are in their place.