The Daily Fountain Devotional of the Church Of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) 26 August 2021 – Jesus, The Hope Of Every Believer
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TOPIC: Jesus, The Hope Of Every Believer
READ: John 6:41-59 (NKJV)
- The Jews then complained about Him, because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven.”
- And they said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
- Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves.
- “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
- “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.
- “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father.
- “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.
- “I am the bread of life.
- “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
- “This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die.
- “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.”
- The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this [Man] give us [His] flesh to eat?”
- Then Jesus said to them, “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.
- “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
- “For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
- “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 feeds on Me will live because of Me.
- “This is the bread which came down from heaven — not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
- These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.
THE MESSAGE:
In our text today, the Jews began to murmur because the whole of Jesus discourse went to prove that He is infinitely greater than Moses; and that He alone could give present peace and eternal glory to men. The people were hostile to Jesus’ teaching. The congregation was actually composed of a great number of Jewish religious leaders who could not accept the claims of Jesus that He was sent directly from God. How could somebody whose parents were in their midst and whose birth story they knew, claim to have come from God? All their argument was because they had set their hearts on that which could neither give nor sustain spiritual life.
Because Jesus was rejected by people who were supposed to be His own people; does not negate the fact that He is the Messiah. He says “your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead” (verse 49). It means that the bread they ate neither preserved their bodies alive nor entitled them to life eternal. Those who receive Jesus’ salvation, shall not only be raised again on the last day, but shall inherit eternal life. It is only the hope in Jesus that gives eternal peace. Eternity is waiting for those who have eaten from the bread that comes from heaven – this bread is Jesus! If you are going to make heaven, you must accept Him as your Lord and personal Saviour.
PRAYER: Father, feed me with the bread of life that I may hunger no more. Amen!