Union With Christ

Order of Service

• Hymn — God, All Nature Sings Thy Glory
• Call to Worship — Psalm 104
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Sin — Isaiah 53
• Assurance of Pardon — Romans 8:1-2
• Scripture Reading — Malachi 1:6-14
• Hymn — Arise, My Soul, Arise
• Prayer
• Offering
• Prayer
• Hymn — In Christ Alone
• Sermon
• Hymn — There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood
• Benediction — Hebrews 13:20-21

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Sermon Title: Union With Christ

Scripture: John 6:49-59

I. A Heavenly Union

A. Jesus is the bread that comes down from heaven; the life he brings is grounded in his heavenly origin (John 6:49-50)

B. Heaven is not a spatial location reachable by travel, but the invisible spiritual realm where God's throne is

1. Psalm 11:4 — the Lord's throne is in heaven
2. Matthew 23:22 — to swear by heaven is to swear by the throne of God

C. Adam was an earthly man given heavenly life by the breath of God (the ruach), but forfeited that life through sin; Christ is the Son of God whose origin is heaven itself

1. Adam is called "son of God" in Luke's genealogy, but his origin is the dust
2. The condemning words — "from dust you came, to dust you shall return" — mark the loss of heavenly life

D. Union with Christ is union with heaven and with eternal life; it is spoken of in terms of eternity past

1. Ephesians 1:3-4 — chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world
2. To be in Christ by faith today means the Father has always seen the believer through the Son

II. A Sacrificial Union

A. The language of "flesh" and "blood" in this passage evokes the violent death of the sacrificial animal offered as a substitute for sinners (John 6:51)

B. The Passover context is decisive: Jesus speaks these things at Passover time, in a synagogue where Passover texts were being read

1. Exodus 12:8 — the Passover lamb's flesh was to be eaten
2. Exodus 12:46 — not one of the lamb's bones were to be broken
3. John 19:36 — fulfilled in Christ on the cross

C. Union with Christ is union with his sacrificial death

1. Romans 6:5-6 — united with him in a death like his; old self crucified with him
2. Romans 6:10-11 — consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus

D. The concept of sacramental union: God binds the signs of his covenant so tightly to the promise that the sign is spoken of as though it is the thing itself

1. Genesis 17 — circumcision is called the covenant, though it is the sign of the covenant
2. Exodus 12:27 — parents are to say "it is the Passover sacrifice," though they are recalling, not re-enacting the original
3. Jesus says "this is my body, this is my blood" — carrying on this covenant-sign tradition
4. 1 Corinthians 10:16 — the cup and bread are a participation in the blood and body of Christ

E. The Lord's Supper is a solemn, Spirit-wrought engagement with Christ and his once-for-all sacrifice; the Protestant church must not lose this gravity in reaction to transubstantiation

III. An Internal Union

A. Jesus escalates the provocative language when challenged, intensifying rather than retreating: "unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you" (John 6:53)

B. Drinking blood was deeply offensive to Jewish hearers; Genesis 9 and Leviticus 17 commanded Israel not to consume blood because the life was in the blood — the blood belonged to God

1. Yet here Christ, the sin-sacrifice, invites his people to drink in his life-blood
2. Romans 8:32 — God did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all

C. Ancient rabbis spoke of "eating and drinking" the Torah — soaking the law of God into the soul; Jesus appropriates this language to himself: internalize me by faith

1. To drink in the law apart from Christ is to drink in death — Romans 8:2
2. To drink in Christ is to drink in the law fully satisfied, the law of the Spirit of life flowing from him into the believer's heart

D. This internalized presence is an abiding presence (John 6:56) — "whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him"

1. The Lord's Supper is a perpetual ordinance, a continual reminder that Christ's presence is with and in his people until he comes again
2. As close as food and drink are to the stomach when consumed, so close is Christ to the soul when we feed on him by faith