On
a recent visit to the Utah desert, these words screamed at me: “he who feeds on
Me will live because of Me”. It’s not that the words were actually yelling, but
everything is so quiet in the desert that it’s actually loud. I know that sounds like a contradiction so
let me clarify. There is barely any
noise in the desert; therefore you can hear the Holy Spirit very clearly. I spend a lot of time in the mountains, in
the wilderness, but the mountains are not quiet, they are noisy. The desert is quiet. What does it mean to feed on Jesus? I truly hate how we try to reduce the point
of salvation into some magic words, John 3:16 or Romans 10:9, 10. There is much
more to everlasting life then repeating those words. To acquire everlasting life we are to feed on
Jesus. Some may immediately think of
Communion or the Eucharist, but that does not give us eternal life either.
Jesus
was in northern Israel, in the area of Galilee, when he fed the crowds who came
out to see him. He had just come back from Judah to Galilee and now people
followed him because of the miracles he did.
He was going to the Sea of Galilee just before the Passover. He fed the
people there, and then went up a mountain because the people wanted to make him
King. The disciples headed north in a boat to Capernaum, and at night Jesus
came (walking on the water) to the boat heading to Capernaum. The people then searched for him and found
him on the other side of the sea, in the synagogue, in Capernaum.
John
6:25-69 And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said
unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither?26 Jesus answered them and said,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles,
but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.27 Labour not for the
meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life,
which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
In
Galilee the people searched for him, and found him in Capernaum. Because of the
miracles he did they wanted to force him to be a King. Jesus says you only are following me because I
fed you and you were filled. Jesus was
like a meal ticket. Think about how hard it was to work for food; there were no
grocery stores. Jesus tells them to work for everlasting life, which he will
give them.
John
6:28 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of
God? 29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye
believe on him whom he hath sent.
It
is a logical question to ask, and the answer is the work of God is to believe
on the one (Jesus) who was sent. But now
the people want a sign.
John
6:30 They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may
see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?31 Our fathers did eat manna in the
desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
They
asked but didn’t like the answer as it stood, which was to believe on Jesus. So they challenged Jesus. Do an instant
miracle, or bring about an instant sign so we know you have the magic
touch. They suggested food by bringing
up that their fathers ate manna in the wilderness, but they say Moses gave it
to them. Really, I remember reading that
the manna came from heaven over night and they gathered what they needed, as
well as the quail that came after they complained. Jesus took the bread and fish, blessed it, in
their sight, and it multiplied. That is
different than what happened with Moses.
So Jesus corrects them.
John
6:32 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you
not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from
heaven.
Technically
Moses did not give them bread, God did.
But then Jesus compares that bread to himself.
John
6:33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life
unto the world.34 Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.35
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall
never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
As
simple as that answer is, it truly is quite complicated. Jesus then speaks to them, those who have
seen him but don’t believe on him.
John
6:36 But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.37 All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in
no wise cast out.38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but
the will of him that sent me.39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent
me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day.
Jesus
says that he is here to do the Father’s will which is to not lose anyone but to
raise people up in the last day. Let’s read verse 39 in the Amplified.
John 6:39 And this is the will of Him Who
sent Me, that I should not lose any of all that He has given Me, but that I
should give new life and raise [them all] up at the last day. AMP
John
6:40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the
Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up
at the last day.41 The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the
bread which came down from heaven.
Jesus
is testifying of his mission on earth which is to save people from eternal
death to eternal life. But it was hard to fathom as they knew the family he
grew up in. Every family is a mixed bag
of nuts, and Jesus’ earthly family wasn’t any different.
John
6:42 And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and
mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?43 Jesus
therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.44 No man
can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise
him up at the last day.45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all
taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the
Father, cometh unto me. 46 Not that any
man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.
This
is an interesting point, and Jesus makes it several other times as noted in the
gospels. No one has seen the
Father. This is why Jesus was able to
stump the religious leaders pointing out Moses and Abraham. Moses and Abraham did not see the Father,
they saw the Son. This is what
thoroughly messes up the Jews; they could not understand how Jesus could be the
same one Moses and Abraham spoke with.
It is the same today, many people haven’t researched this and reject
Jesus as the one who walked with Abraham as a friend, or gave Moses the
commands, and showed him the backside of his glory. Yahweh testified of himself being the first
and the last, the beginning and the end, which ties the old and new testaments
together. No man, or men, or women, or
human, has seen the Father, ever, at any time except for Jesus. Understanding the plurality of Elohim brings
the entire study into perspective. The
bigger point Jesus is making here is that for anyone who has heard about the
Father, those people also accept Jesus and come to him. In other words you cannot go to the Father,
directly, you have to go through Jesus.
If you say you are “of” the Father, then you have to come to the Father
through the Son, Jesus. If you reject
Jesus, you are not “of” the Father. Now
Jesus gets more specific.
John
6:47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting
life.48 I am that bread of life.
It
is simple when we take the religion out of this. If you believe on Jesus you have everlasting
life, he is the nourishment of everlasting life. Jesus is not a piece of bread; he is the
element that saves our bodies from death.
An example would be starving to death compared to eating to live. That is how big a point this is. If we never feed on Jesus we die,
forever. Jesus then explains the manna
again to the people.
John
6:49 Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.50 This is the
bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.51
I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this
bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which
I will give for the life of the world.52 The Jews therefore strove among
themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?53 Then Jesus
said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the
Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.54 Whoso eateth my
flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the
last day.55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.56 He
that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
Well
this seems a little odd as Jesus’ body rose from the dead and there is no body left
on earth to eat. This is a figure of
speech which is very well known in the culture of that day. This is not about
communion which most people try to associate this to. The comparison is daily eating manna. Therefore, daily eating of Jesus is what we
are speaking about. E W Bullinger in his
Companion Bible notes this as
follows:
“The Hebrews used this expression with
reference to knowledge by the fig.
Metonymy (of the Subject), as in Ex
24:11. where it is put for being alive; so eating and drinking denoted the
operation of the mind in receiving and “inwardly digesting” truth or the words
of God. See Deut 8:3, and cp. Jer 15:16, Ezek 2:8. No idiom was more common in
the days of our Lord. With them as with us, eating
included the meaning of enjoyment, as
in Ecc 5:19; 6:2; for “riches” cannot be eaten; and the Talmud actually speaks
of eating (i.e. enjoying) “the years of Messiah”, and instead of finding any
difficulty in the figure they said that the days of Hezekiah were so good that
“Messiah will come no more to Israel; for they have already devoured Him in the
days of Hezekiah” (Lightfoot, vol xii, pp 296, 297). Even where eating is used of the devouring of
enemies, it is the enjoyment of victory that is included. The Lord’s words
could be understood thus by hearers, for they knew the idiom; but of “the
eucharist” they know nothing, and could not have thus understood them. By comparing vv.47 and 48 with vv. 53
and 54, we see that believing on Christ was exactly the same thing as eating
and drinking Him.” (E W Bullinger Companion Bible, Zondervan Bible Publishers,
p. 1532)
This
is why they kept referring to manna, Jesus gave them food in Galilee but they
thought it was like Moses in the wilderness. Yet understanding that Jesus
himself was bread for eternal life was hard to believe because they knew his
family. They may have let the thoughts
of his human family obscure the reality of who he was. While he seemed smart and could multiply
food, he had an earthly upbringing, or so they thought. This next verse is truly the summation of all
of what Jesus wants us to know today.
John
6:57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that
eateth me, even he shall live by me.
Let’s
look at a couple of different translations.
John
6:57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who
feeds on Me will live because of Me. NKJV
John
6:57 Just as the living Father sent Me and I live by (through, because of) the
Father, even so whoever continues to feed on Me [whoever takes Me for his food
and is nourished by Me] shall [in his turn] live through and because of Me. AMP
John
6:57 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in
him. Douay-Rheims
John
6:57 In the same way that the fully alive Father sent me here and I live
because of him, so the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me.(from THE
MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All
rights reserved.)
The
idea is to feed on, or abide in, or make a meal of, Jesus. Not in communion, communion is something
different, it is the purging of leaven from your life and one should not eat or
drink unworthily. Instead this is our
daily manna from heaven to put the knowledge of Jesus in our hearts and
minds. One does not do this in danger of
damnation as in communion; See I Corinthians 11:29. As daily manna was given to sustain the
wandering children of Israel, daily knowledge of Jesus fills us on the inside
which leads us to eternal life. Let’s go
on.
John
6:58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did
eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. 59
These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.60 Many
therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard
saying; who can hear it?
Remember
our location, Jesus grew up in the area, the people knew his family. It would
be like your next door neighbor’s kid speaking some very wise things and people
starting to following him. You go out to
the sea and see him bless some bread and everyone gets plenty to eat, so you
become intrigued. Then your neighbor’s
son says that no one can come to the Father, God, unless they go through
him. Oy, you watched him play baseball with
the other children, and now he says that he is the only way to God the Father?
That is a tough thing to believe. Then
he says that if you feed on the things he tells you that you will have
everlasting life. Wow. How could the messiah come out of my
neighbor’s family you wonder? That is
what those people were thinking.
John
6:61 When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto
them, Doth this offend you? 62 What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend
up where he was before?
Now
Jesus gives them something for the future.
What if you see him go back up to heaven where he came from? Will you believe then? That is a very strong
testimony of who he is. We cannot say be
believe in him and not believe the words he spoke. If they saw him go up to heaven, would they
then believe? After he was crucified in Jerusalem, many people saw him in his
resurrected body, and then later many saw him ascend into heaven.
John
6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words
that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.64 But there are some
of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not, and who should betray him.65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you,
that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
This
idea of “given” is in the sense of a gift or a blessing; the Father gave a free
gift, Jesus, to redeem us from death. No
one could come to Jesus unless the Father gave the gift of His Son to the
world.
John
6:66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with
him.67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?68 Then Simon
Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal
life.69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the
living God.KJV
Peter
heard enough of Jesus’ words to feed on him. That is what we want to do, abide
in, feed on, make a meal of Jesus and his words. One might think it would be better if he were
here today; giving us these words that lead to everlasting life, but instead
Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to abide with us, to help us and remind us of the
words of life.
John
14:15-17 If ye love me, keep my commandments.16 And I will pray the Father, and
he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;17
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him
not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall
be in you.KJV
Another
way of understanding feeding on Jesus
is by the idea of a grape vine. Think of
what a grape vine looks like, it has one trunk with many branches. The trunk goes to the roots. If the branch stays attached to the trunk it
will be nourished by the roots, via the trunk.
John
15:1-12 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.2 Every branch in
me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit,
he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.3 Now ye are clean through
the word which I have spoken unto you.4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the
branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can
ye, except ye abide in me.5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth
in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can
do nothing.6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is
withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are
burned.7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye
will, and it shall be done unto you.8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye
bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.9 As the Father hath loved me, so
have I loved you: continue ye in my love.10 If ye keep my commandments, ye
shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide
in his love.11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in
you, and that your joy might be full.12 This is my commandment, That ye love one
another, as I have loved you.KJV
In
this is a great key to prayer, if you are abiding in him and He is in you, you
can ask in prayer and it will be given.
Many times we ask apart from His will, we ask for things as we are
separated from Him and “think” we know what is best. If we are abiding, we are yielded to His
will, and if something is His will, it becomes our will too. Remember Jesus
gave us a new commandment, to love God and to love one another. Abiding in Him includes obeying his
commandment. John brings us back to the
idea that if we reject the Son we do not have the Father.
1
John 2:23-28 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he
that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.24 Let that therefore abide in
you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from
the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in
the Father.25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal
life.26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.27
But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not
that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things,
and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in
him.28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we
may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.KJV
The
anointing, the Holy Spirit, abides in us.
Again the Holy Spirit teaches us about the knowledge of Jesus. Paul prays this very thing in Ephesians.
Eph
1:16-18 I do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my
prayers. 17 [For I always pray to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, that He may grant you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight
into mysteries and secrets] in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him, 18 By
having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and
understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious
inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones), AMP
Peter
gives us some good ideas on how to abide or feed on Jesus.
2
Peter 1:5-8 For this very reason, adding your diligence [to the divine
promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue
(excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue
[develop] knowledge (intelligence), 6 And in [exercising] knowledge [develop]
self-control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness
(patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop] godliness
(piety), 7 And in [exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in
[exercising] brotherly affection [develop] Christian love. 8 For as these
qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep [you] from
being idle or unfruitful unto the [full personal] knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).AMP
These
things help give us a full personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. Therefore, feeding on Jesus is increasing our
knowledge of Jesus. This becomes an entire lifestyle for us, obtaining more of
the knowledge of Jesus. Every day we can gain more knowledge of who he is and
what he said. Then we can keep his commands, because we understand them,
thereby becoming disciples and friends of Jesus Christ. Feeding on Jesus gives
us eternal life.
