Taken from the book The Hidden Mysteries of The Lord’s Table by Mark. G. Nolan
Many denominations have totally dismissed what John chapter six says as mere figurative and have taught in their colleges that these passages are not to be taken in anyway literally. In so doing have completely dismissed what Jesus said as recorded by John the Revelator.
“Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
(John 6:27)
We are told in this verse not to work for the food which will perish, i.e., carnal perishables, but to work for the unperishable food which Jesus gives which will last for eternity, the true bread (v 32-33) which came from Heaven which He will give us, which is His body. This is the only food that will last for eternity. Therefore, the food which Jesus gives must be everlasting spiritual supernatural food because natural food will deteriorate and rot. The food that the Lord gives us is the everlasting spiritual body of Christ that endures to everlasting life.
So, what did Jesus mean by his reference to labour? What work must we do to be able to partake of the food that He gives us?
To some, this passage might be misinterpreted in a way that implies that we must work harder to somehow gain the eternal food that the Lord gives.
“Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”
(John 6:28)
The Jewish mindset here is incorporated in the word Mitzvot which implies the works one must do to be considered righteous, i.e., keeping the commandments of God, which no man can keep, only Christ.
“Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill Me?”
(John 7:19)
Jesus said unto them,
“This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
(John 6:29)
This passage is just as relevant today as it ever was because people are still trying to establish their own righteousness by what they do, Church attendance, etc. and not by what Christ has done. If we cannot except the bread on the Communion Table as His flesh, then I believe we have a very big problem in not discerning the Lord’s body.
To be able to discern the Lord’s body we need to be taught of God through the Holy Spirit. The Master always taught in the most simplistic of way’s possible that even the uneducated fishermen and the un-learned could understand. So many Christians have accepted what they have been taught by man and have never questioned it because their teacher has held a master’s degree or PHD.
We can eat ordinary bread food and still die spiritually. When the Lord gives us His body to eat, this endures unto everlasting life. Ordinary bread will go mouldy and perish. The bread from Heaven is in- perishable. This is the true spiritual food.
“While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
(2 Corinthians 4:18)
The Lord gives us food that lasts forever, which is His flesh, which we are to eat, and unless we eat of the bread as His flesh by faith, we have no life in us.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.”
(John 6:53)
Eating man’s flesh and drinking man’s blood is a strange concept indeed, but Jesus wasn’t speaking carnally but spiritually, for those who have been given supernatural ears to hear what the Spirit says.
“The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”
(John 6:63)
Only those born of the Holy Spirit can understand and interpret the scriptures correctly.
“Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
(John 6:31)
“Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, 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.”
(John 6:32-33)
The Father gave His son, the true bread who came from Heaven. Jesus is the true bread from Heaven, His body being the bread.
“For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
(John 6:33)
Here we see Jesus referring to Himself as the bread of God from Heaven. No suggestion of symbolism in this text whatsoever.
“Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.”
(John 6:34)
LIFE IN THE BREAD
“And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”
(John 6:35)
In this statement, Jesus is declaring His divinity as I AM and the fact that I AM is the bread of life that is present. The bread of God. I understand this verse as following. God being a Spirit created Himself a body like the first Adam which He fashioned in His likeness, but this time He was to impregnate Himself so to speak by His Spirit into Mary’s womb.
“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.”
(Hebrews 10:5)
Jesus is talking in the psalm to the Father. God Himself prepared a body for Christ Jesus to be put to death for the sins of the world.
THE BREAD IS GOD
“I am the bread of life.”
(John 6:48)
Another I AM statement; I am the bread. The bread contains life.
“This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.”
(John 6:50)
“I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”
(John 6:51)
During the last supper, Jesus held up the bread and said, “this is my body.” How can any man deny what Jesus clearly stated about the blessed bread, when most are saying it’s just a symbol? I hear so many in Churches today denying what Jesus said. “You can’t take it literally” they say, “It’s just figurative or symbolic.”
Adding to the words of Jesus is very dangerous. Jesus never said, “This is a symbol of my body.” Are they not denying Jesus by denying His presence in the bread?
“Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.”
(John 6:32)
Are you partaking of the true bread, the body of Christ or have you dismissed it as symbolic?
“For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
(John 6:33)
We often read scripture without allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal the deeper meaning to us. In order to fully understand the hidden manna of scripture we need to rely only on the Holy Spirit’s revealed interpretation, not mans.
A GRAVE WARNING
We cannot take some of the statements of the Lord literally and dismiss others. If we cannot take the Lord’s word for what He said, then we cannot believe anything that the Master said to be true or God breathed. We cannot accept some of the teachings of Jesus and then dismiss others. Why would the Lord declare the sanctified blessed bread He gave at the Passover to be His body, if it wasn’t?
Would the Lord deceive His own disciples into believing an untruth? Absolutely not. Only the Devil comes to deceive and pervert the word of God, to discredit, change, remove and confuse clear teachings.
Adolph Hitler wrote: “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”
Paul wrote:
“Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.”
(Acts 20:28)
How many Christians believe that God’s blood was spilled for our sins on the cross? Jesus was and is fully God, and God’s blood ran through Emanuel’s veins. God became a man, in order to put the sinful flesh to death. Having taken on the sins of the world, His physical carnal blood being defiled by sin was emptied from His carnal body in order that He could take on His immortality.
THE IMMORTAL BLOOD OF GOD
The blood that flowed through Emanuel’s veins was and is immortal and eternal. The blood of the child is not the same as the mother’s blood. The mother and child may have totally different blood types. This was the case with Jesus. Jesus had divine holy and untainted sinless blood flowing through His veins. The life in His blood was eternal, both spiritual and carnal, given to Him by the Spirit of God.
“And answering the angel said to her the Holy Spirit will come upon you and power of the Most High will overshadow you. You therefore also the being born the Holy one will be called the son of God.
(Greek Interlinear Luke 1:35)
The blood of Jesus was infused with the Spirit and power of God. Mary’s blood was purely human and therefore she carried the sinful nature of Adam through blood of the fallen man, Adam.
“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”
(1 Corinthians 15:22)
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—”
(Romans 5:12)
This includes Mary. Yes, she wasn’t divine, she was born of the sinful nature of Adam. The same sinful nature was passed down that we all share. Jesus emptied his physical blood at the cross, but He also sprinkled his spiritual onto the mercy seat in Heaven.
SPIRITUAL FOOD
“….man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”
(Deuteronomy 8:3)
The sobering thing I noticed whilst pondering on this passage was that even though the Lord had fed His people (the Hebrews in the wilderness) with supernatural food, they still fell and died in the desert. They ate angel’s food and still perished.
“Yet He had commanded the clouds above, and opened the doors of heaven, had rained down manna on them to eat, and given them of the bread of heaven. Men ate angels’ food; He sent them food to the full.”
(Psalm 78:23-25)
“And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.”
(Exodus 16:14-15)
Many died in the wilderness even after eating miraculous food from Heaven. Is it not the same today, that many eat the spiritual true bread from Heaven, the body of Christ, but because they come in an unworthy manner, they become sick and die?
Some approach the Lord’s sanctified Table without the fear and trembling that the it should produce. They fail to realise the presence of Almighty God at His Table, and with a lack of true reverence they receive the bread and wine as just a Church ritual ceremony, and therefore become sick and perish because they have not discerned the Lord’s body for what it is, the body of Christ, meat indeed, Spiritual food that we may eat, and live forever. Jesus said,
“He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”
(John 6:56)
Some undiscerning souls are eating and drinking damnation unto themselves while not discerning the Lord’s body and blood. If anyone eats the body of Jesus as a mere symbol, are they not dishonouring their own body in not accepting the sanctified hallowed bread as the literal spiritual body of Jesus?
Taken from the book The Hidden Mysteries of The Lord’s Table by Mark. G. Nolan
LIFE ON THE ALTAR 