The Divinity Code -- The Holy Grail -- John 6:52-58

Ahhh the search for the Holy Grail, the very cup or chalice that Jesus Himself drank from at the last supper, is the stuff that legends are made of.
The Grail was the object searched for by King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table.
Most recently, the great epic search for the grail was the third installment of the Indiana Jones series of movies, “The Last Crusade.”
When Indiana’s dad drank from the grail, he was healed for a mortal gunshot wound.

Describing the Biblical Text
This text is a very unusual text.
As a matter of fact I am very surprised that critics of the Bible and Christianity don’t point to this text claiming that Jesus was leading His followers into cannibalism.
The context though is that Jesus has compared himself to the manna that God sent down from heaven and He is calling himself the bread of life.
The idea of eating his flesh is a hyperbole.
It is metaphorical in that it compares to the eating of the manna sent down from heaven.
Another idea behind the idea of eating and drinking as we will see in this text is the idea of partaking.

Narrate the Contextual application
Jesus was saying to them that you don’t really understand who I am.
Isn’t it strange that they did not recognize who he was even though prophecies had been fulfilled in him and miracles had been done by Him?
But, that misunderstanding was a part of the will of God as Jesus ministered.
How do I know that?
When we think about some of Jesus teaching, we can see this truth played out.
Easter Sunday was great here. We had a great attendance, a great program and one our newer ministries served the church.
What I want us to think about is the crowd.
Matthew 13 gives us some insight into Jesus’ crowd mentality. We see there that a large crown gathered to Him so He got in a boat and taught them while they were on the beach. But, all he did was share with them one parable. He had a huge crowd and chose to share the parable of the sower. A man went out to plant and threw some seeds on the path and the birds ate them. He threw some in the rocks and they sprouted but they died without a root. He threw some in the weeds but they were choked out. He threw some in good soil and they grew and bore fruit. He, who has ears, let him hear.

Think about that you get up and you fight the crowds to get a good spot on the beach to hear the message and you get a parable that took lees than two minutes to communicate.
What is really telling is when the disciples question him about it.
He tells them to you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. To them it has not been granted.

If we can sit here and comprehend the message of Jesus and the gospel of salvation, there is something blessed about that.
That shows you that God has chosen to make his word and will known to you.
What follows in 59-65 bears testimony to the same truth.
It shows how truly special you are.
But, it is also humbling.
For, God would not allow us or cause us the comprehension if it was not in His purpose for us to do something with the information.

Life Application (thesis)
What we see Jesus saying in this text in John 6 is even more radical.
Eat my flesh; drink my blood.
Those with ears and 2000 years of hindsight can see the meaning that Jesus had.
His body and His blood were going to be offered as a sacrifice for our sins.
That would result in eternal life for us.
That is the Holy Grail.
We have Eternal life because of a supernatural cup.
It is not magical though it is mysterious in that the mysteries hidden from generations are revealed in that cup.

SO WHAT!! (Outline)
This text has two signs that would point us to an abundant, abiding faith in Jesus Christ.
The death of Jesus is the basis of Eternal life.
One of the things that I have found amazing over the last 20 or so years in church is music.
Church music is an ever growing ever changing experience.
While evangelicals have been arguing over irrelevant points like style, liberal denominations have been diluting their substance.
The blood of Jesus has been virtually removed from many mainline hymnals.
But, the blood of Jesus is essential in the understanding of our salvation.

As you know, this series is an attempt to demystify and to debunk the Da Vinci Code.
One of the stories told in the novel is about the how the knights templar were sworn to protect this great secret and that their exploits to find the grail were actually missions to protect it. As the story goes, grail seekers have been going about it all wrong.
Let me illustrate it this way.
I saw a license plate last week promoting a subdivision or vacation resort or something. The plate had two words on it: Sea Trail. Something about the way it was written caught my eye I realized that by moving the space between the words one letter over you would have seat rail.
I read this in Erwin Lutzer’s book, The Da Vinci Deception. It is like the guy whose wife was in London back in the day when an oversees call would break the bank. She sent a telegram asking a question. Saw necklace $75,000. Can I buy?
The mans reply was, “No, price too high.” The telegraph operator left out the comma. When she got the message, it read, “No price too high.” So she bought the necklace and he sued western union and won.

According to the fictitious plot of the book, the words Holy Grail are from the French word sangrael but if you were to divide the word differently as in sang real you change the meaning blood which was then used to build the big blood line cover up conspiracy that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married.
But, what is the real Sang Real?

It is the blood of Jesus that was shed for our sins.
Colossians 1 tells us that Jesus made peace by the blood of the cross.
2 Corinthians tells us that He who knew no sin became sin that we might be made into the righteousness of God.
With that in mind, let’s take a quick look at the institution of the Lord’s Supper.
Jesus broke bread representing His body and drank wine representing his blood.
As he instituted this ordinance, He said this, “As often as you take this, do it in remembrance of Me.”
The Lord’s Supper is a reminder and it is a symbol of what Jesus did for us.
Jesus was point to it as a representation of our lives belonging to Him.
We take the Lord’s Supper as a reminder of Jesus and as an ordinance to remember our connection to Him.
The Lord’s Supper points to this very passage.
Where else do we take the body and the blood and consume it?
We consume it because it represents what He did for us to connect us to Him.

Are you connected to Jesus today?
You can be. He died; He shed his blood and and gave his body to a cruel death on the cross for you.
Are you ready to partake of the precious gift that He left for you in eternal life with Him?
If that is your desire this morning and you want to have the sin that keeps you separated from God removed from you as far as the east is from the west, call on Christ this morning.
Every head bowed and eye closed.
Lord Jesus, I know you died for me and that your body was broken and your blood was shed. I want to be a partaker in your life, in your death and in your church. My sins have kept me from knowing you so now I turn from them and turn to you. Thank you for loving me and dying for me. Thank you for my salvation. Amen

Now, we see another sign here.
Partaking in the life and death of Jesus is to abide in Christ.
I remember a camp song from my days as a NAMB summer missionary.
In a cabin in the woods a little man by the window stood
Saw a rabbit hopping by. Help me Help me Help me he said lest the hunter shoot me dead. Little rabbit come inside safely to abide.
Safely to abide: We abide with Christ when we are connected to Him Listen to John 15 for just a minute
Now listen to 1 Peter 1We are being kept or guarded for our future with Christ.

We are not kept by some dopey legend about a cup or goblet that was probably washed and put away as soon as it was used.
We are kept by the very power of the one who drank from that cup.