Joni Mannell - The Breaking Of Bread - Class 2 - Until it be Fulfilled

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1. 0:00

   48 to 58, we’ll call upon our brother Johnny Mannell to give us his second study under the general theme at the breaking of bread. And the topic of this class is until it be fulfilled. Johnny, please.

2. 0:21

   Thanks, Paul. Good morning brothers and sisters. Just to kind of get us back into context, yesterday I made the mistake of trying to ram a little bit too much into our session, I think. And I probably towards the end there I started rushing to the point that you probably lost the flavour of what I was trying to convey. But I hope you managed to get the, the essence of what I was trying to do, which was to get into the mindset and into the demeanour and the feelings of the Lord Jesus Christ as he approached the breaking of bread with his disciples. How he wanted to share with them his joy, his peace, his, his sense of composure, his understanding of what he was going to achieve and how wonderful that was that he might share that with, with his brothers and sisters. To the point that there in the garden, he was still determined that Peter, James and John specifically would would have grasped all of those feelings, that they might continue to be able to share those with the rest of the disciples after he’d gone.

3. 1:17

   So I hope you managed to catch that flavour, even though I like gabbled away for over an hour and and rushed like crazy. I’m going to try not to do that so much this morning, but it is a bad habit. So what I want us to think about this morning is this phrase that Luke particularly uses in his account of the the Last Supper. Until it be fulfilled, I will no longer eat. This bread I will no longer drink. I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.

4. 1:48

   What does that mean? What did the Lord Jesus Christ mean by that idea that some essence of the symbols that He was sharing in the bread and in the wine would have some future fulfillment for Him and for us? What did he mean by that? And to do that, I wanted to look at each of the symbols in turn, first the bread and then the wine and see what, what essence of the, the symbols that the Lord Jesus was trying to share.

5. 2:11

   We’ll have some future fulfilment for each one of us. And the reason I want to do that is so that when we sit down week by week and we, we eat the bread and we, we drink the wine just as quickly as that happens, it just kind of comes and goes in a moment, doesn’t it, that we might be able to sit down or I certainly wanted to be able to sit down and think.

6. 2:29

   What, what future significance does this have for me is I just take this simple piece of bread and I just sip this wine and share it in fellowship with my brothers and sisters. What is the future significance? That the Lord wanted me to attach to that I will not drink until I drink it new with you until it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God so that’s what I what I want to explore with you this morning and the very words that Jesus uses there demand that in some way this.

7. 2:57

   This meal that he shared with his disciples was prophetic. It was going to have some future fulfilment. And I want you to come with me, first of all to Exodus 13, just really quickly, because the Passover for the children of Israel had the same essence about it.

8. 3:20

   Exodus Chapter 13 of. Course, Moses is giving here from God the instructions for sharing the Passover. To the men and women of Israel, and these were the words that he gave them. Verse 3 of Exodus 13, Remember this day, said Moses. Verse 3, Exodus 13, in which you came out from Egypt out of the House of bondage for by strength. Of hand the Lord brought you out from this place. There will no leavened bread be eaten this day. You came out in the month, Abib.

9. 3:51

   And it will be when the Lord will bring you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites, which He swear to your Father’s to give you a land flowing with milk and honey. You will keep this service in this month. Do you sense the essence of of prophecy there that that Moses was giving?

10. 4:11

    There is something about this Passover meal that you’re going to share that is going to reach its fulfilment when you arrive in the Promised Land, when finally you get there, He says. And you, when the Lord has given you the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which he’s been promising to your father’s for generations, when you finally arrive there, you’re going to eat this meal again.

11. 4:34

    And this time it will be in celebration of everything that God has done for you. It will be in order to help you remember not just the cost that was paid, not just all the experiences you went through in Egypt, but now that you might be able to share it in, in a new and in an awesome way that you’re now sitting there in the promised land that has been promised to your, your father’s and your grandfather’s and your great grandfather’s. Now it’s yours and you’re there and it’s been fulfilled. All the things that God has been promising to you have now reached their conclusion and their completion. And when you sit down to eat that meal, finally one day when it happens, you will.

12. 5:09

    Realise that God has completed all the things that He promised to do for you. Isn’t that lovely? And may it be, brother and sisters, when we come and sit week by week, and we share the bread and the wine. May it be we remember that principle. I will eat one day when it’s fulfilled, when it’s new, when it’s been completed in the Kingdom of God, that one day we will sit and share a meal with the Lord Jesus Christ when everything that today, these things are only just a a tiny foretaste of one day, they’ll be real.

13. 5:40

    And we will sit down at a great feast with the Lord Jesus Christ. And all the things that in our lives we’ve only dreamed about, we’ve only imagined, we’ve only strived for one day they’ll be real. And may each week as we come and share it Bren sisters, we remember that that this is not just a looking back.

14. 5:59

    It’s a great looking forward to the day when we will share it new with the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Well, as we come back to our our New Testament, come with me to John chapter. 6. One of the. Staggering things about the record we have of the Last Supper in the Gospels is how brief it is.

15. 6:26

    I think in Matthew and Mark it takes 4 verses. Jesus took the bread and blessed and break and gave it to them and said take, eat. This is my body. You can almost recite it word for word. Luke takes an extra verse, 5 verses. Alright, isn’t it extraordinary that this absolutely momentous moment that we remember? Every week by the grace of God is just captured in four or five verses It in certainly in Matthew, Mark and Luke. When you come to John, John is rather unusual as you know, John, rather than just having a few verses in the upper room in his gospel, has John 131415164.

16. 7:06

    Chapters in the upper room, right? And yet the the amazing thing about John’s gospel is even though he spends 4 chapters of his gospel. In the upper room with the Lord Jesus Christ, he never once mentions the actual giving of the bread and the wine. He never says Jesus said this is this bread is my body which is given for you this do in remembrance of me.

17. 7:27

    He never mentions it. So in those four chapters there in the upper room, John never says and Jesus took the cup and passed it around and said this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Never mentions it. So that’s absolutely extraordinary, isn’t it really? You would think that the disciple who spent the most time of his gospel there in the upper room would have would have captured those moments when Jesus shared the bread in the wine specifically. But I want to suggest you a reason why he didn’t run sisters, and that’s because he devotes two other chapters of his Gospel elsewhere to those principles. And the first one is here in John chapter 6 at the feeding of the 5000.

18. 8:05

    Now John only records a handful of miracles, as you know, and his his choice of miracles is very different to the other gospel writers. And this is the one that he chooses to recount along with all the others, which makes the feeding of the 5000 the only miracle that’s recorded in all four gospels. And John has the longest account of it by a long way, virtually all of John chapter. 6 which as you just cast your eye down it, it’s one of it’s a big chapter 71 verses is virtually all given to the feeding of the 5000.

19. 8:36

    And I want to suggest to you, Brent, sisters, we’re just going to look at one or two of the details really quickly that the reason is because John deals with the principle of the bread and what it was to signify. And what he wanted you and I to think about when we shared it together was dealt with right here a year, I believe, at least before the Lord’s own death.

20. 8:56

    John dealt with the the the principle of the sharing of the bread. And we’ll come in a moment to the wedding at Cana, where I believe he dealt with the wine. So that we might understand the symbology and the principles of these symbols. So let’s have a look, John, John chapter 6. Let’s just come in at the beginning here. Jesus went up into a mountain in verse 3, and there he sat with his disciples and the Passover, a feast of the Jews. Was at hand and I want to notice carefully what John said about that everybody knows the the Passover is a feast of the Jews, right?

21. 9:30

    There’s no other nation on earth that has the Passover as one of their feasts, one of their cultural times of the year, one of their festivals. So why does John the the words aren’t used, you know, just for padding. I was trying to tell the teenagers this last night, you know, you never come to a chapter in the Bible where, where God decides just to fill out a bit of space so it doesn’t look like it. It, you know, that chapter was a bit too short. Why does John say it was a feast of the Jews? And I want.

22. 10:00

    To suggest to you Brent sisters, it’s because. It was no longer the the feast of God’s people. The Jews had made it their feast. It wasn’t the Lord’s Passover as it was described back there in Exodus. It had now become a. Feast of the Jews. They’d lost the essence. The great things that we were thinking about yesterday, that it should should have signified to them, had now been all strained away. And now the the Passover, the great feast that should have been to them a great reminder of their deliverance and their redemption, had now just become a feast of the Jews. It was something that the Jews did as part of their tradition, as part of their ritual, and all of the grandeur and the majesty of the divine symbology have been lost. From it.

23. 10:46

    And one of the things that we’re challenged by week by week, one of the great problems of human nature is whenever you do something habitually by ritual, there becomes a danger in it of it losing its grandeur and its majesty, doesn’t it? And let’s make sure, Bren sisters, that our Passover feast never becomes, well, a feast of the Christadelphians.

24. 11:10

    That it always remains the Lord’s meal, the Lord’s memorial, not ours, not something that we’ve turned it into, that we just turn it week by week to that it becomes and remains his feast, his memory. His meal.

25. 11:30

    And Jesus lifted up his eyes, verse 5, and saw a great company coming to him. And the other gospel writers tell us that the disciples actually come to Jesus at this point and suggest that Jesus dismisses the crowd. Why don’t you send them away? You know that it’s well late in the day. Send them away.

26. 11:46

    Why don’t you tell them to go and find some food? But here in John, John’s focuses on something else that happens. When Jesus saw verse 5, a great company come to him, he said to Philip, where are we going to buy bread, Philip, that all these people may eat? And this he said, verse 6, to prove him for Jesus himself knew what he would do.

27. 12:07

    I think that’s beautiful. There was never a moment in the Lord’s life where Jesus didn’t know what he was going to do. I wish my life was like that. You know you’re arriving in a foreign country, meeting a whole load of people that you you know, you’ve never met. And, you know, I’ve no idea what’s going on. I don’t know what it’s going to look like, feel like, how I’m going to cope, what I’m going to do, whether they’re going to like me.

28. 12:29

    And and there was never a moment in the Lord’s life where the Lord didn’t know what he was going to do next. His life was that planned, that in control. And he says to Philip. What? Where? Where? Shall we buy bread, Philip, for all these people? And he was teasing him in a way, wasn’t it?

29. 12:47

    Sometimes it feels a little cruel that Jesus was doing that. But he was testing Philip. He was proving him. Where are we going to buy bread, Philip, that all these people will be able to eat? And the note about you, Brent says, I sometimes feel like the Lord does this to us in our lives. Johnny, there’s a problem.

30. 13:02

    How are you going to fix it? And he makes me look at it and assess it and evaluate it to the point where I go, do you know what I don’t know? I don’t know. I can’t see a solution. Where, Where, says Philip, where on earth could we ever go here in a wilderness to buy enough bread, not just so that everybody can take a piece like we do on a Sunday morning, but that everybody can eat a meal and be filled? Where is there a place in the wilderness? And even if there was, would we have enough money to go and buy it?

31. 13:29

    I I can’t see a. Solution for this problem. And Jesus already knew what the solution was going to be. And sometimes in our life, bread and sisters, our problems are just like that. The Lord wants us to take a good hard look, walk all around it, measure it, weigh it up until we reach the conclusion that we don’t know the answer, so that we can allow the Lord to to supply it for.

32. 13:53

    Us where will we find enough bread, Philip? Why don’t you give them to eat? And Philip answered him, verse 7200. Pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them that everyone may take a little. And I guess Philip was speaking for all of them. I guess they were all standing there going. I’ve no idea. He’s now telling us.

33. 14:15

    Can you believe it? Can you imagine Peter standing there going? You’ll never guess what he’s now told us to do. He’s suggesting that we go and find some bread to feed. 5010 thousand, 12,000 people, 5000 men besides the women and the children. Where? Where? On Earth, does he expect us to do that?

34. 14:31

    How will we do that? And unwittingly, perhaps, Philip is quoting from the words of Moses. Just keep a finger in John and come back to Numbers 11 because Philip is actually picking. Up on the very words of Moses when they, when the children of Israel came to him in the wilderness saying, well, we’re hungry.

35. 14:48

    God has brought us here to kill us, to give us, no, you know, leave us without. Food. And unwittingly, Philip starts quoting from the very words of Moses in a very similar circumstance.

36. 15:04

    Numbers Chapter 11 just coming in verse 11. Moses said to the Lord, the people of come and started complaining. Moses said to the Lord. Why, why, why have you afflicted your servants? And wherefore have I not found favour in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people upon me? Have I conceived all this people?

37. 15:25

    Have I begotten them that you should say unto me? Carry them in your bosom as a nursing father bears the sucking child to the land which you swear to their fathers. And you can I, I don’t know about you, Bren sisters, how it depends how long ago it is since you you had your children.

38. 15:39

    I can totally understand how Moses feeling here. He says, you’ve given me this child that’s hungry and it’s crying out for food, and you’ve not given it a mother. And I’m the one who’s carrying all this people. And do you think I can give these people food? And I tell you, when Esther’s left, left me on my own with Elias, and he’s suddenly decided he’s hungry and he wants his food, particularly in his very early days.

39. 16:00

    Well, what can a father do to give a child food when he’s crying out and he’s hungry? And that’s how Moses felt. You’ve left me and abandoned me with all these people and you expect me to give them food? Can a nursing father do that for a nursing? Child verse 13 Hear the words Philip. Philip locks onto When should I have flesh to give unto all this people, for they weep unto me give. Give us flesh that we may eat.

40. 16:27

    I am not able to bear all this people alone. It’s too heavy for me. Where can. You find enough. Food, says Philip, in a wilderness to to supply food for all these people and look what the answer of the Lord was here. In Numbers 11, verse 21, Moses said, The people among whom I am are 600,000 footmen, and you have said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month. Shall the flocks and herds be slain for them to suffice for them?

41. 16:56

    Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them to suffice for them? And the Lord said to Moses, Is the Lord’s hand waxed short? You will see now whether my word. Will come to pass to you or not. And in a way, God was doing with Moses what the Lord was doing with Philip here, wasn’t he? There were 600,000 men.

42. 17:17

    Besides women and children, they’re in the wilderness when God fed them with manna. And you can almost hear the Lord Jesus saying to Philip, well, do you think God can’t feed 5000 with bread here in the wilderness and back in John 6, Andrew now comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s a lovely moment. John chapter 6 and verse eight.

43. 17:39

    One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fishes. But what are they? Among so many. Isn’t that a lovely question? I’d love to know the tone in Andrew’s voice as he asked the Lord Jesus that question. Here I there’s a lad here, he says he has five. Loaves and two fish, but what are they among so many? I don’t know whether he was saying it in like despair. You know.

44. 18:06

    Well, the best we’ve done, Lord, is 5 loaves and two fishes. But what use is that? Or was he saying with a note of enquiry? To the Lord. Well, we’ve got 5 loaves and two fish here. But what are they? Among so many, as if to say to the Lord, I have a feeling you might be able to do something with this. This is the best we can do.

45. 18:29

    Now it’s over to you. Wouldn’t that be lovely? You know, sometimes, brothers and sisters, we feel we have very little to offer the Lord Jesus Christ in service in our lives. And yet all this young lad who is unnamed to this day in the record of Scripture had to offer was 5 loaves and two fish, and yet he was willing to give it into the hands of the Lord to see what He would do with it.

46. 18:52

    Never underestimate Brent sisters, what the Lord can do with your 5 loaves and two fishes. Whatever your 5 loaves and two fish might be, never underestimate when you give it into the hands of the Lord and into His service what He can do with it and with this small basket of food. The Lord Jesus was now going to feed a great multitude with plenty to spare.

47. 19:17

    And here in verse 11, we get the words that John doesn’t use again. Later in the upper room, Jesus took the loaves, and when he’d given thanks, he distributed to the disciples and the disciples to them that were set down. And you know those words, don’t you? There’s just no mistaking where those words will be used again by the other Gospel writers in the upper room.

48. 19:42

    And yet here they are in John 6 at the feeding of the 5000 for John for his gospel. Now what did they mean? What? What was the symbology behind this bread now that the Lord Jesus wanted to focus on? Jesus took the bread and when he had given thanks, he gave it to the disciples and the disciples to those who were set down.

49. 20:02

    Well, the answers actually came the next day. Come down later in the chapter down to verse 25. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you get here? And of course, what we need to remember, Brensys, is there was another miracle taking place at the same time as the feeding of the 5000, and that was Peter walking on the water that night after the feeding of the 5000, they crossed the lake.

50. 20:26

    Jesus had gone out to them on the on the lake. Peter had walked on the water in that storm tossed sea and they’d arrived at the other side. And so when you just read here, when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you get here?

51. 20:40

    It was because they couldn’t believe that during the night that had just passed in that great storm. How on earth? The Lord had managed to cross that lake. Isn’t that lovely? And another lovely miracle for the disciples very personally. It happened during that night, and Jesus answered them, verse 26 and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me, not because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled labour, not for the meat which perishes, but for the meat which endures, and to everlasting life, which the Son of man will give to you, for him has God the Father sealed. And that’s a really sad statement from the Lord Jesus Christ, isn’t it?

52. 21:21

    He says, I know you’re not following me because you you saw and you understood the miracle that I did yesterday. You came because, well, you had a good meal and you’re you’re coming so that you can have another one. You’re coming because you you ate the loaves and were filled. All they could see was bread. And you know, Brian says I have a personal confession to make to you.

53. 21:44

    For a long time in my early life, in the truth, I came week by week to the Sunday meeting and all I could see on the plate was bread. That’s all I could see, nothing more. And this was the challenge that the Lord was giving to these Jews. That’s all you can see. Bread and it has no greater significance to you, no, no greater impact on your lives than that it’s just bread and you need to be really careful, says the Lord Jesus Christ. And and he made a really critical quote from Isaiah verse 27.

54. 22:16

    Labour not for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which endures, and to everlasting life which the Son of man shall give to you. Will you keep your finger in John again, and come back with me to to Isaiah 55, where the Lord is quoting there, because we begin to get the first hint of what Jesus really wanted to us to see and understand in this symbol of the bread, Isaiah 55. This is where he quotes from Labour, not for the meat which perishes, but for that bread which will endure to everlasting life.

55. 22:49

    Isaiah 55 Lovely words, well known words. Oh everyone that thirsts verse one, come to the waters, and he that has no money come buy, buy and eat. Buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which doesn’t satisfy?

56. 23:10

    Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good. Let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto me here, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you. Even the sure mercies of David. They’re lovely words, aren’t they, Bren Sisters, why was it that the Lord quoted from those words at this moment there in John 6 at the feeding of the 5000, All you can see is bread. He said you’re coming to me not because you understand and you you appreciate the miracle, but because all you can see is bread.

57. 23:41

    And he’s challenging us, bread and sisters, to be able to differentiate in our lives between tangible, transient things and spiritual everlasting things. This one again. Come ye. Everyone who thirsts to the waters come and buy and eat, but come and buy without money and without price. The bread that we eat, bread and sisters week by week on a Sunday morning, you cannot put a price on it.

58. 24:09

    There is there is nothing else in this world that can come close to that which we share week by week. It’s beyond price. You can’t put a label on it. You can’t buy it in sobis. Not this kind of bread. Why do you spend money? He says verse 2 for that which is not bread and your labour for that which doesn’t satisfy.

59. 24:30

    I ask myself that every payday back home, right? Because it comes in and it goes out so quick. In fact, more goes out than comes in, right? That’s how it works, isn’t it? Month by month. And you sit down at the end of it and you think, well, what did I achieve with that? I put bread on the table, God willing, for my family and I put clothes on my body.

60. 24:51

    And in the long run, Bren Sisters, you know as well as I do the aching, gaping hole that leaves in a man’s life when all of his focus is on providing things which don’t ultimately, truly, deeply, spiritually and emotionally satisfy men and women made in the image of God. There is nothing lasting or satisfying, Bren Sisters, in this world that can be bought with money. Why are you running around to the Lord Jesus Christ all of your lives chasing bread, chasing things that are transient and passing and still leave you hungry at the end of the day?

61. 25:24

    All of your lives you’re focusing on all of those transient, passing things that give you no lasting value or benefit. Now listen to the antidote. Then end of verse 2. Hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good. Let your soul delight itself in fatness. I want you to eat something different, says Isaiah. And this is what it is.

62. 25:47

    Verse 3 Incline your ear and come unto me. Hear and your soul shall live. And I will make with you an everlasting covenant, even the sure mercy of David. That’s what I want you to be, the bread I want you to be buying, says Isaiah. That’s what I want you to be eating day by day here. And your soul shall live.

63. 26:04

    Incline your ears and come to me. Eat that which is good. Let your soul delight itself in fatness. That’s the food, Bren sisters, that if we really believe it, if we spend our time eating it, we’ll never leave us. Hungry.

64. 26:19

    Do you know Bren sisters sometimes when we come to share meals? And I’ve noticed it happens particularly at Christadelphian Bible schools, and this one is no different. The abundance of food is always present, right? It’s a Christadelphian tray anywhere in the world. And the nicest things are always the worst things for you, aren’t they?

65. 26:36

    Those big gigantic cakes that I notice are still, still still need to be eaten up. All the things that we like the most and that we enjoy the most are the things that are the worst things for you, right? And so it is in the world, the things that taste the best initially, the things that we like the most are the things that we know if we were to eat them 24/7, would kill us pretty quickly.

66. 26:59

    And yet here says, says the Lord Jesus Christ, if you incline your ear and come to me, if you listen to my words, if, if, if my words, as the psalmist describes, are like honey to your taste, and sweet in your mouth. If we can see them in that context and in that perspective, then they will satisfy you in a way that nothing else can.

67. 27:19

    Nothing else can and all the best bits will not make you big and fat and kill you. If we see the Lord the word of God being like one of those cakes that’s there in the cooler at the back that you just want to eat 24 hours a day, I guarantee you it will never kill you.

68. 27:37

    And if we can see the word of God in that way, brain system, be attracted to it and and feel it’s appeal in that way, it will satisfy us in a way that nothing else can. Just come down to verse 10 of this chapter in Isaiah. For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not thither, but waters, the earth makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give sea to the sower, and bread to the eater, so will my word be that goes forth out of my mouth.

69. 28:03

    It will not return unto me void. But it shall accomplish that which I please, and it will prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. It’s my word. I want you to be eating. That’s the very first hint we’re going to get from John Six, that that’s what the bread represents. It’s the.

70. 28:18

    Word of God, as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and we doesn’t return thither, but what is the earth? So that it might bring forth and bird, and give sea to the sower, and bread to the eater. So shall my word be incline your ear. And come to me eat, and your soul shall live. Come back on me to to John 6,

71. 28:39

    John 6, and verse 35. All you see is. Bread, he says, but the miracle was about more than that. The bread that the Lord supplied had much greater significance. Verse 35 of John 6. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never hunger and he that believes on me will never thirst.

72. 29:03

    That’s lovely isn’t it? And I wonder if that’s how we feel, Bren sisters. Week by week, I wonder if we come. Feeling hungry and how full we feel when we leave. Having had our meal week by week of fellowship around the Word of God. Verse 41. This was a difficult concept. It’s difficult even for us, isn’t it?

73. 29:22

    Jesus is saying I’m the bread you need to eat me if anyone eats my flesh. And the Jews naturally had a problem with that. Verse 41 the Jews murmured at him, because he said I am the bread which came down from heaven. They said, is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

74. 29:38

    How is it then that he says I came down from heaven? Verse 48 Jesus carries on, I am the bread of life. Your father’s did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. They think they were eating bread from heaven, but they weren’t because it didn’t give them any long lasting satisfaction. They didn’t understand what it really represented. Your Father’s 8 manner in the wilderness, verse 49 and are dead.

75. 30:04

    But this is the bread which came down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life.

76. 30:19

    Of the world. And that is a difficult concept, isn’t it, Brent sisters? What was the Lord really asking him to do? You know Norway? On his arms and his legs eat my flesh. What was it that the Lord was challenging them to do? Verse 55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood. Dwells in me, and I in Him, and as the living Father has sent. Me and I live by the Father.

77. 30:45

    Even so, he who eats me, he will live by me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not as your Father’s did eat Manna and her dead. He who eats of this bread will live forever. And you couldn’t have had a finer breaking of bread discourse than that, could you? None of the disciples the the gospel writers go into that. Level of detail about the meaning of the bread in their discourse in the upper room.

78. 31:09

    And John does it for us right here. I am the bread which came down from heaven. If any man eats my flesh, he will never hunger, and he will live forever. What does he mean, Brent sisters? What did he mean? I want you to eat my flesh. And what I want to. Suggest to you, Brent sisters, that John was picking up on one of the key themes of his entire gospel that began right at the beginning. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was made flesh, and we beheld His glory, that of the only begotten of the Father. And John is taking us right back to one of the foundation principles, Brent sisters, of the very world that we live in. Do you remember the most common recurring phrase in Genesis chapter 1?

79. 31:54

    Anybody remember it? I was doing this with the teens last night as well. There’s lots of common recurring phrases in Genesis chapter one, but the most common is and God said. Anybody know how many times that phrase is used in Genesis? 110 times. You just go through Genesis chapter 1 and note them if you haven’t already. 10 times. And God said it’s the very first thing that ever happened. The very first creative moment that ever took place there in Genesis one, verse 3 after the introduction of those two verses was and God said let there be light and there was. So and if you notice as you go through the creation account, we don’t have time to look at it now. The thing that sparked off the creative power every day of creation was the power of God speaking. So every day is marked there in Genesis 1, isn’t it? And God said starts the day and then you get to the end of the day and it says and the evening and the morning were the first day and day 2 begins.

80. 32:48

    And God said and the evening in the morning were the second day and day three begins. And God said every single day began with the power of God’s word. And it’s a great lesson, Brent says, in our lives, how much of our days are formed and shaped by the power and the influence and the motivation and the challenge of the word of God.

81. 33:07

    And God said, because when God speaks, for instances, for those who are listening with an attentive ear, powerful things can happen. And what God wants, Princess, is that same. Creative power that brought this world into being, to have its effect in the lives of men and women like you and me. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God, and the Word became flesh, and we beheld his glory, that of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

82. 33:39

    And what you’re seeing in me, says the Lord Jesus Christ. Is the creative power of God’s Word living a living embodiment? There is nothing about my life, my character, my personality that hasn’t been influenced and motivated and driven and shaped and moulded by the power of the Word of God. How much of your lives, brother and sisters, are Word made flesh? How much of your flesh has been challenged and shaped and driven and empowered by the word of God in our daily living? And when you come week by week, says the Lord Jesus Christ, and eat this bread, you’re eating my flesh. You’re eating the thing that made my life what it is, the word of God.

83. 34:23

    You need to be empowered by the word of God, says the Lord Jesus. As much as I have been, this bread is my body. If any man eat my flesh, he will never hunger. And if you know what constitutes my flesh, it’s not blood, it’s not muscles and and skin, tissue and sinew and bone. My flesh is it, it’s structure, it’s material. It’s just been infused with the Word of God. And when we eat this bread, brother and sisters, week by week, that’s what we need to be thinking. About back to John 6.

84. 34:59

    Just finally, John 6 and verse 60. Many of his disciples, when they heard this explanation of the symbology of the bread, said, Well, this is a hard saying. Who can, who can hear it? We. Jesus. You’re speaking almost in a way which is beyond our ability to grasp and understand. And Jesus knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said to them, does this offend you?

85. 35:33

    And he’s now going to give you the the magic key to this whole miracle and to the symbol of it, verse 62. What? And if you see the Son of Man ascend where he was before, it is the spirit that makes you alive. The flesh profits nothing. And the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit.

86. 35:53

    And they are life. It’s not the bread, it’s not my flesh in itself. I’m not asking you to eat my body. I’m not asking you to just eat the bread. And there is some magical component to the bread that will that will give you eternal life. It’s the the spirit will make you alive, the power of the word of God. And it’s that word that is symbolised in the in this bread, the flesh profits nothing.

87. 36:15

    The bread is useless to you if all you see is bread. It’s the power that it symbolises that will give you life and the. Words that I speak. Unto you they are Spirit and they are life. That’s the power bread and sisters in this miracle. And I want you to notice what happened as a result of this day in the wilderness, having fed this multitude with bread.

88. 36:40

    It’s a sad moment really for the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet at the same time a great heart warming moment for him. Verse 66. From that time, many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. It was a defining point for some of the disciples. Many of them at this very moment in time, felt they could no longer pursue their journey with the Lord Jesus Christ.

89. 37:04

    They weren’t persuaded that the words that He were giving them gave them, would give them the key to eternal life. And they walked no more with Him. But notice what happens next, Jesus said to the 12 Will ye also go away? Are you going to leave me as well? Is this too challenging for you?

90. 37:25

    And one disciple in particular, brother and sisters, said something that I believe melted the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ and brought tears to his eyes. He was the only other man that day. Regardless of what you think of Simon Peter, he was the only other man on that wilderness that day who understood what the Lord had been teaching. Noticed what he said.

91. 37:44

    Will ye also go away and Simon Peter answered him. Verse 68 Lord, to whom shall we go you have the words of eternal life. Isn’t that lovely? For all of Peter’s failings, Bren sisters Peter had latched on to the very. Thing that the Lord had been teaching that that last 24 hours that this bread represents His word. Which has the ability to give eternal life? And are you also going to leave me, you? 12 says the Lord Jesus Christ and Peter instantly. Lord, to who?

92. 38:17

    Where else can we go? Where else can we go and find bread that will satisfy us like this? Who else can tell us and teach us things that will, that will fill the holes in our lives like you can? Lord, to whom shall we? Go, You have the words of eternal life and I’m going to eat them all day long, says Peter. I’m going to stay with you and eat them until I’m so full I can’t eat anymore.

93. 38:40

    And may it be, Brent says, we can come to the breaking of bread week by week with the attitude of the apostle Peter. Lord, you have the words of eternal life and I want to come and eat them and feast on them and share them with you. Well, come with me to John Chapter 2 really quickly.

94. 38:56

    Because, Sir, that was the symbol of the bread, I will not eat anymore thereof until it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God. And brethren, sisters, one day when we eat that bread anew with the Lord Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of God, it will be because we have become Word made flesh.

95. 39:16

    The Word of God will have had such an effect on our lives that we will share a body like the Lord Jesus Christ. When we finally sit with Him and share that meal, we will have his body. It will be a a meal with with the fulfilment of all of these things. It won’t be just a sitting down sharing a breaking of bread.

96. 39:31

    That bread, which represents the power of His Word to give eternal life, won’t be just something we eat with Him at a meal. It will have become a reality we will have been given. Eternal life by the power of that word. That’s what it seems to me the Lord Jesus meant when he said I will not eat any more thereof until it be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.

97. 39:52

    When that word has had its full effect inside the hearts and minds of each and every one of us, that’s when he will share it with us new in his Kingdom. Let’s never underestimate Bren sisters. The power of the Word of God week by week when we come to share it together well.

98. 40:09

    Finally, then, this miracle at Cana, John’s the only one who records this miracle of water into wine, and this was going to be John’s way of telling us what the wine symbolises. And John stretched his gospel very carefully, and both the first week and the last week of the Lord’s ministry are noted day by day. So here in John chapter 1 and 2:00, every single day of the first week of the Lord’s ministry is carefully catalogued.

99. 40:41

    And of course, when you get to the end of John’s gospel, every day of the last week of his ministry is very carefully catalogued. The first week ends in the first of John signs a wedding feast with new wine. And the last? Week will end with it too, with its symbols completed new life. In the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and in John 2 and verse 11, I’m not going to go through the details of the story.

100. 41:09

     You know it well enough. The water pots, the six water pots of stone that are now going to be turned into wine for this wedding feast that’s run out of wine. And in verse 11 we get the explanation by John of what the purpose of the miracle was. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee. And manifested forth his glory, and his disciples believed on him.

101. 41:30

     That was the purpose of this miracle. It wasn’t a big national affair like the the feeding of the 5000 to feed a multitude. Although everybody at that feast tasted that new wine. It was only the disciples who knew where it had come from, who knew of its. Origin and how it had come about.

102. 41:46

     And the purpose of this miracle was very specifically for the disciples that they may believe on Him. And we only know Bran sisters at this point in time in John’s gospel of 6 disciples, not all 12 have been chosen yet in John’s gospel and the ones we know about. Are Andrew and Peter, of course James and John, Philip and Nathaniel who’ve already been mentioned there in chapter 1-6, disciples that we know about? So the only 6, the only disciples who would have known about the the glory of Jesus that was going to be manifested at this wedding were those six.

103. 42:25

     And there were 6 stone water pots filled to the brim with water that we’re now going to be turned into wine. And that’s really important, Brent and sisters, because each of the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, you and me included, need to be filled to the brim with this new wine.

104. 42:47

     And these 6 stone water pots were there, we’re told verse 6 there were 6 water pots of stone there after the manner of the purifying of the. Jews containing 2 or 3 firkins apiece. And this is a similar statement to John’s statement in John 6 about the feast of the Passover, a feast of the Jews, right? The Jews were obsessed with purifying. You can scour your law of Moses and I can find no evidence where two or three firkins apiece would of water would have been needed for, for Jewish purifying. There was purifying required that required water, absolutely right.

105. 43:25

     But this quantity I, I struggle to find an occasion where in the Law of Moses where that much water would have been needed for purifying. And again, we get this statement of John that this was after the manner of the purifying of the Jews. This wasn’t of the Lord, it was of the Jews. They’d so emasculated the power of the Law of Moses that they’d now added all of these things and made it so, so complicated and added so much to it that they needed this much water for purifying and for their rituals and for their habits. That this was now about the Jews. It wasn’t about God, it wasn’t about the things of the Lord Jesus Christ.

106. 44:01

     It was about the Jews and their tradition. And they had these six big stone water pots there after the manner of their purifying. And the purifying that the Lord was now going to provide was just incomparably better with anything the Jews could provide, and traditionally. It was the bridegroom’s job at a wedding to supply the wine, and not only is this a disaster for the bridegroom that now it is wedding feast, they’ve run out of wine.

107. 44:33

     It’s symbolic, Brent sisters, that there is no other bridegroom you will ever find that can give you the life that Jesus can. Isn’t that lovely? Even in our human marriages, brethren, I you. Know in your own life the challenge of trying to live up to the example of the Lord Jesus Christ in your marriage.

108. 44:52

     But even for you and I, there is no husband that this world has ever known that can provide the kind of life and the consistency and the unfailing. Characteristics that the Lord Jesus Christ can supply for each and every one of us as His bride. And that’s what this wedding is going to teach us, that when everything fails, humanly speaking, it’s only the Lord that can provide that which is eternal and that which is consistent.

109. 45:21

     Can we just keep a finger in John Tuber and citizen, come with me to Matthew Chapter 9. Because these symbols of Jewish purifying and the bride and the bridegroom are going to become the key issues of this this miracle and it’s explanation.

110. 45:38

     Matthew Chapter 9 and verse 14, the disciples of John came to Jesus. Saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast OFT, but your disciples don’t fast? And Jesus said to them, Can the children of the bride chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and then will they fast? So John’s disciples are coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. Still not convinced, brother and sisters, that Jesus is who he claims to be and in fact who John himself had claimed he was. And when they come to to when the disciples of John come to Jesus challenging him over these Jewish traditions, Jesus says to them, now listen, can the children of the bride chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? And what the Lord Jesus is doing, Bruns is he’s saying now listen, you need to go and listen to what your own master said.

111. 46:34

     You go back to John and listen to what he said about me because he said that I was the bridegroom, right? That’s what he said. And in fact, if you come back to John chapter 3, keep a finger in Matthew 9 if you can.

112. 46:49

     It was John himself who regarded the Lord Jesus as the bridegroom. John chapter 3 and verse 25. And notice how this came about. There arose a question between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purifying. Alright, so you see at this wedding the six pots of water for purifying, and the disciples of John and the Jews are debating about purifying. And they came to John verse 26, and said to him, Rabbi, he that was with you beyond Jordan, to whom you bear witness, behold the same baptizer, and all men come to him. And you can imagine John’s disciples coming to him going, listen, we’ve got this dispute about purifying and we have a problem because all of these men and women are going to the Lord Jesus Christ and they’re not coming to you, they’re leaving you and they’re going to him, and they’re being baptized by him.

113. 47:42

     And John answered verse 27 and said. A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am 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.

114. 48:05

     This my joy, therefore, is fulfilled. He must increase. But I must decrease. So they came with this original dispute over purifying and, and who really people ought to be following. Should it be John or should it be the Lord Jesus Christ And John had told them explicitly to follow Jesus. He is the bridegroom and, and, and the one who has the bride is the bridegroom. That’s what he said.

115. 48:29

     And who was the bride? Just notice again what they said to him end of verse 26. All men are coming to him. All men come to him, they said. And John now says, well, he who has the bride, all men are coming to him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom. And he now must increase and I must decrease.

116. 48:51

     And it was John’s way of saying, listen, you are the bride. All men who will go to him are the bride of Christ and he is the bridegroom. I’m just the best man, as we would call him in the UK. I’m just the bridegroom’s friend. Go to him. If you want to be the bride of Christ, you must go to him.

117. 49:09

     I must decrease and he must increase and so there in in Matthew Chapter 9 when if you just come back there if you kept a finger there when they came to to to Jesus going listen, why do our why do we fast regularly and you your disciples don’t Jesus refers them right back to what John himself had said verse 15 there in in Matthew 9. Can the children of the Bride Chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?

118. 49:37

     Do you want to be my bride? Do you want to come to me and get rid of these disputes about the Jews and their purifying and fasting? That cannot give you the fulfilment you’re looking for. I am the bridegroom and if you want to be my bride, I can give you the fulfilment and the satisfaction that you’re looking for.

119. 49:59

     And then in Matthew Chapter 9, Brent says in verse 16 the Lord explains. The meaning of the wine at Cana. At the wedding feast. No man puts, he says, a piece of new cloth on an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up takes from the garment, and the rent is made worse.

120. 50:18

     Neither do men put new wine into old bottles. Or the bottles break and the wine runs out and the bottles perish, but they put new wine into new bottles. And both are preserved. Now I don’t know a lot about wine brains sisters, but I know a little bit and I know in the 1st century here in the Middle East, their their wine bottles were not glass like ours. They were wineskins.

121. 50:43

     And if an old wineskin which has dried out a bit and has become brittle, if you try putting new wine into it which is still fermenting, still got lots of energy and power. You know, it’s sometimes when we do that in our country, you make the wine and if it’s still fermenting a little bit and it’s still got energy, it will pop the cork out of the bottle.

122. 50:59

     And the energy? Will be too much for the bottle to bear and the the cork will pop out and the wine will be spilled. Well here in the Middle East juice is saying if you try and put new wine into an old bottle, the whole skin won’t. Be able to contain the energy and the power of the wine and it will break and both will be lost. The wineskin will tear and the new wine that went into it will break.

123. 51:20

     And bro and sisters, can we see what the Lord Jesus is telling us? If you want the new wine, which represents the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, the new life, then it’s going to need to go into a new bottle, not an old one. And that’s a great challenge for all of us.

124. 51:36

     How much of A new bottle are you? Because if you try pouring the new wine of the Lord Jesus Christ into an old bottle that’s not flexible, not able to change and adapt and be moulded and shaped and contain the energy of the power of the. Life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then it will break it and burst it, and the wine will be lost.

125. 51:55

     If we want to contain Bren Sisters, the new life of the Lord Jesus Christ, if we want to capture it in our lives, if we want to be shaped by it, challenged by it, moulded by it, If we want to be pliable and flexible and able to be challenged by the power of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.

126. 52:09

     Then we need to be a new bottle willing to be to feel the power and the the the the elasticity when it comes of the of the energy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know that in your life, and I know it in mine. You know when the challenge of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ pushes you outside your comfort zone, asks you to think things that naturally you wouldn’t think asks. You to do.

127. 52:31

     Things that are beyond what you would normally naturally have done ask you to be the kind of person that naturally normally you wouldn’t have been. And if you want to preserve the new wine, Bren Sisters that the Lord Jesus gives you, then you need to be a new bottle, able to contain it, not an old one that’s too brittle, too dried out.

128. 52:52

     And unable to change just as we draw thoughts to a close. Just have a look here in at this word that’s used of what happens when the bottle breaks. Neither do men. Verse 17 Put new wine into all bottles, else the bottles break and the wine runs out. And if you. Follow that Greek expression. There runs out.

129. 53:15

     It’s the description the Lord used of His own life when He instituted the Last Supper. This cup is my blood of the covenant which has been poured out shed for you. The I’ve broken the bottle of humanity, says the Lord Jesus Christ. My life has broken the bottle of humanity and has been poured out for your sake and unless you allow my life to fill up yours, you will be broken as.

130. 53:44

     Well, and you will lose the life that the Lord Jesus is willing to give you. And you know, we have a good example in Scripture. The word is used in Acts chapter 1 and verse 18 of Judas. Do you remember the words used to describe what happened to him? This man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. It’s horrible, isn’t it?

131. 54:09

     And yet that’s the very phrase that Luke used there in Acts chapter 1 to describe what happened to Judas. The bottle was broken. There was a man who was too impliable, too inflexible to contain the power and the energy of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he was broken. And not only was the wine that the Lord had poured out.

132. 54:27

     For him, wasted. So was the bottle into which it was given. Both were lost, not just the wine, but Judas himself. And may it be Brent says that that doesn’t happen to you and to me. Well, I’ve overshot the mark again. There we go, thank you for your patience. May it be bruh. And sisters, as you take the bread of heaven and share in the royal cup of the King, may we reflect on the power of the Word of God in our life.

133. 54:56

     A man. Who was witness to be the living embodiment of the Word of God. And may as we drink from His cup, we remember that this new wine has extraordinary potential. It is the new life, his life. And although in each we we know we are really earthen vessels, aren’t we? 6 stone water pots there brittle earthen vessels. May it be, Brent says, that we are changed into new wineskins. Because the miracle of Cana wasn’t that God, through the Lord Jesus Christ, turned water into wine. It was that six men, earthen vessels, were made into new men, wineskins full of the new life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And may each and everyone of us friend sisters feel that transition in our own lives, week by week, as we come to share the royal bread and wine on the table.