John 6:51-71
ICE BREAKER
If you were to describe your relationship with Christ to someone what would you say? Share your thoughts with the group.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
- This week read through the story in John 6 and allow it to disturb you and then ask this question: Who is Jesus to you? Who do you really think Jesus is?
- There is a type of atheism that excludes God from big chunks of our daily life.
We claim to know God yet walk through each day without ever thinking about God.
How long are the gaps in your day when God is absent?
When He is absent we consume what we want.
How do the gaps in your day impact your choices?
- Jesus says, “Whoever drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”.
The key word is “abide”.
To walk with Christ is to abide, to live with, to dwell with.
Please hear a deep invitation from Christ to abide with Him!
This is not pressure from Him, rather, it is the most beautiful invitation you will ever receive.
A.W. Tozer said what Christ will do for one of His children He will do for all. He does not have favorites.
Do you just believe in Jesus or do you abide in Him?
What would it look like to abide in Christ and not just believe in Him?
Share your thoughts with the group.
After the group shares their thoughts, take some time to try to learn from one another by asking each one to share what helps them to be aware of Christ throughout the day.
Prayerfully consider taking a clear “next step” and let your group know how they can support you in this next step.
Many believers have had tremendous help in this area of abiding in Christ by establishing a few times during the day to pause and to be with Him briefly.
- We must examine what we are consuming.
Christ’s body is to be the satisfaction of the deepest hunger of our souls.
What consumes our time, our passion, our money? The answer tells us what we are consuming. Share your thoughts with the group.
NOTES AND QUOTES
John 6 is one of the most important and powerful chapters in all of Scripture.
In this chapter Jesus makes the deepest of declarations when He declares that He is the bread of life and that we are to eat His flesh and drink His blood.
The purpose of this teaching is to see what each of us decides to resolve.
When we think about Jesus we tend to think far too small.
Even as we think about coming to church we think too small!
John shows that the people keep missing who Jesus is.
John shows us this to help us see that we do the exact same thing.
Jesus says unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man you have no life in you.
As the crowds stumble on this teaching Christ doubles down and says that you must drink My blood.
This teaching blows their minds.
In Lev 17:10-12 God commands the nation not to drink the blood of any living thing.
Jewish law is clear: do not drink blood. The crowd knows this.
You are not to eat the blood because blood is for atonement.
But now, atonement through His blood is precisely what Jesus is declaring.
Christ’s body is to be the satisfaction of the deepest hunger of our souls.
Jesus says, “Whoever drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”.
The key word is “abide”.
To walk with Christ is to abide, to live with, to dwell with.
This takes much heart grappling. We must examine what we are consuming.
Are we consuming the flesh and blood of Jesus daily?
Stop mindlessly consuming whatever it is that keeps you away from Me!
One type of atheism is to have big chunks of our day going by without ever thinking about God.
The pleasure I want can become the deepest part of my consumption.
We know this is the case when it seems what we consume is never enough.
At times our family can be the deepest desire of our consumption. We can put our kids at the center.
The message of John 6 is that Jesus is not after a faith of abstract, man-made, relativistic goodness.
Jesus is seeking disciples who daily drink the blood of His atoning sacrifice and are nourished by the flesh of His divine perfection–disciples who find Him as the source of the goodness they long to have.
