Filled With Christ (John 6:47-58)

I love to make some buttermilk biscuits in the morning, but as much as I can fill up on two big ones, I always get hungry again. Eventually, they have given me all the nutrition they can. I need more. But it's not just that I need more. I crave more. I want to eat every six hours. My body needs that physical nourishment.

Today, we will talk about something we need more than physical nourishment. Our goal for the past few weeks has been to understand what we are here for as the church of Christ. We don't go to church. We are the church. So, we have been focusing on how to be the church, the body of Christ, and the family of God. We love, stand for the truth, worship, and abide in Christ. Today, we will look at another way we should be the body of Christ, eating and drinking Christ. Next week, we will close this mini-series with a final way we must be the body of Christ.

The Invitation

To be the body of Christ, we must eat and drink Jesus. What do I mean by that? God's plan has always been to give the church spiritual nourishment through his teachings.

Isaiah 55:1--3 (ESV) --- 1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

In the first verse, God calls for everyone who thirsts to come to the waters and drink. What waters is he talking about? Then, he says we don't need any money to come, buy, and eat, and he adds wine, milk, and bread to the invitation. It's all poetic, but it means something. He says that his water, milk, wine, and bread can satisfy in a different way than the water, wine, milk, and bread of others. Look at the second half of verse 2. He says, "Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food." God isn't offering physical food. He's offering his teachings as spiritual food.

God wants to nourish our souls. Verse 3 says, "Incline your ear, and come to me: hear, that your soul may live. He offers us food that is rich for our souls. How hard is it to find this food? How much do we have to work for it, and how much will it cost? This food is completely free and offered to everyone. All that is required is listening diligently, inclining your ear, coming to God, and hearing. God simply wants us to accept the spiritual truths that he is offering.

The Word Became Flesh (John 1)

When we come to the New Testament, we find that the spiritual food has changed form. It started as the law of God and the words from the prophets, but those means weren't appealing to us. We needed more because mankind refused to listen diligently. So, listen to what God did.

John 1:1--4 (ESV) --- 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

John 1:14 (ESV) --- 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

God took his word, intended to nourish our souls, and he brought the word before us in human form. He made it to where we could more easily listen to and understand it. This human form is Jesus. John says, "In him was life, and the life was the light of men." We needed more than words, written or spoken. We needed to see and experience the will of God on a first-hand basis. That's what we have in Jesus. He embodies God's glory, full of grace and truth. When we behold Jesus, we are given light and life that satisfies our souls.

This is what God is trying to give us. He wants to nourish our souls so severely that he sent us his Son. Jesus came that we might listen diligently, incline our ears, and come to God to hear him. He offers us the same thing God was offering us in the Old Testament, but Jesus clarifies how God can offer this through him. All who seek God can find him.

Never Thirst (John 4)

In John's gospel, we have Jesus offering the same illustration God offered in Isaiah.

John 4:7--15 (ESV) --- 7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”‌

Jesus tells this Samaritan woman that he offers living water to satisfy her so she will never thirst again. Like God in Isaiah 55, he uses the physical need for water to illustrate our spiritual need for His truth. He tells her, "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again." His water is so rich that it will forever satisfy our thirst.

Did you know that your soul gets thirsty? I know a thing or two about being thirsty. Every night we hear from our children that they are thirsty. On one occasion, I told them to get something to drink, and they didn't. So I told them they wouldn't get water because they didn't listen. You would think that I killed them. During the day, they can go for hours without drinking a thing. Joseph can almost go all day if we don't remind him. But for ten minutes in bed and they develop an uncontrollable cough. They are on the verge of thirsting to death! Can you imagine drinking one sip and never having to drink again?

This meant something to people who had to walk a long way to the community well and carry gallons of water back home. They didn't have indoor plumbing. If they wanted to drink, they had to work for it. Jesus says, "Come to me and drink, and you will never thirst again."

I'm Not Hungry

Moving ahead in the text, we learn that his disciples have gone to get him bread, but he doesn't want any.

John 4:31--34 (ESV) --- 31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

Let's talk about spiritual food a little bit. Jesus tells his disciples that he has food that satisfies him and makes him forget about his stomach rumbling. The spiritual food he found is to do God's will. There is a sense in which our satisfaction with understanding God and doing his will surpasses the need for physical nourishment.

Men don't usually understand this. We are often blinded by physical nourishment. We want physical satisfaction so much that we don't take the time to enjoy the spiritual satisfaction from God. This is seen in John 6. ‌

Eating God's Will

Jesus has just fed 5,000 people with very few loaves and fish. Then, he escapes to the other side of the sea because the people want to make him king. They don't care about listening to his teaching. They just want their bellies to be filled without working. So Jesus gets away from them, but they follow him.

John 6:25--27 (ESV) --- 25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

In verse 26, Jesus tells them, "You just want food." Jesus takes this as an opportunity to discuss the Isaiah 55 promise. He offers them "food that endures to eternal life." He's not in the business of filling bellies. As the church of Christ, we aren't either. We are here for spiritual nourishment. If you want your belly filled, there's a club for that. Jesus doesn't offer steaks or hamburgers. There's no menu to choose from. This is the spiritual food you eat and instantly feel a sense of satisfaction beyond physical feelings of fullness. That satisfaction is in our soul, and it endures. It doesn't ever go away. When we eat the food that Jesus gives us, we know the will of God, and we learn our purpose in life.

Nothing will satisfy us more than learning the will of God, but, like these Jews, we think material things will satisfy us. We must break out of that.

So, Jesus tries to snap these people out of it. He says something radical starting in verse 47.

John 6:47--58 (ESV) --- 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” 52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. 56 Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

‌"The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." What does Jesus mean here? Why did he change the image? Is he talking about the Lord's Supper? No. I don't think so. You might disagree, but hear me out. To understand this image, consider that John has told us that the word became flesh in Chapter 1. Like Ezekiel was told to eat the scroll in Ezekiel 3, we are told to eat the word of God. Jesus isn't talking about cannibalism. He's talking about listening diligently and digesting the word of God. Whoever feeds on his flesh and drinks his blood abides in him. They find satisfaction and live forever.

What is he offering?

Just like in Isaiah 55, he is offering teachings and truths. The truth he offers provides nourishment for our souls that never goes away. As the church, we must not be blinded by our bellies. Our cravings for the things in this world can quickly close our eyes to the teachings of Christ. Instead of devoting ourselves to studying God's word, we binge Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, and ESPN. We listen to philosophers or comedians. We care about the will of men instead of the will of God. Meanwhile, our souls die of thirst and hunger. Instead of learning the will of God and doing it, as we were created for this purpose, we fill our lives with meaningless activities.

Jesus is calling out to us, offering us spiritual nourishment worthy of our time and effort. We can become what we were created to be through the teachings of Christ and his apostles. God's word is good for your soul.

John 7:37--39 (ESV) --- 37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

Jesus wants everyone to accept his teachings to align themselves with God. He's not here to satisfy himself with glory and popularity. Jesus seeks to exalt God and bring God glory, but he also wants us to experience the same satisfaction he has in fulfilling his purpose. Drinking living water and eating spiritual food is always about listening to him and making his teachings about God's will a part of who we are.

Will We Eat & Drink?

Jesus says that we can study and hear the message of Jesus and find that it sustains us spiritually forever. When we hear the truth Jesus offers, we will find satisfaction for our souls that lasts for an eternity. You might ask, "How?" These truths put everything in perspective. They make our lives make sense. Once we hear the grace and truth of God's glory, we know our purpose and have satisfaction in our souls. We know that God is love, and we can have a relationship with God in Christ.

This means that we can stop searching to find satisfaction elsewhere. The new products we buy won't give our souls satisfaction. Some new version of the truth won't satisfy. We can't find a person who will satisfy our souls. These things might give some level of temporary satisfaction in our bodies, but our souls will remain empty and rumbling. Our souls will wither and die if we try to feed them.

Think for a moment about digestion. We eat biscuits, and what happens? They go down into our bodies and are digested. Like gas in a car, the body converts that food into energy so we can move and do what we need to do. But that's not all. That food becomes a part of us. It goes with us because it feeds the cells in our body and becomes a part of them. Our body absorbs food.

As the body of Christ, we must take this spiritual nourishment in. Our souls must live on the word of Christ. We must listen diligently to what God wants us to know and what God has revealed to us through Christ. But we struggle with that, don't we? How many of us devoted ourselves to Bible study throughout the last week? Did you have an excellent hour-long study of the book of Psalms? Why not? Is there something wrong with the food or something wrong with us? Isn't the problem us? We aren't drawn to the spiritual food that satisfies us. We want junk food. We want the pleasures of this world. But that won't give our souls life. What can we do about that? First, let's see what God has done.

Will you eat this rich food and drink this spiritual drink? Will you digest and make the teachings of Christ a part of who you are? As the church of Christ, our goal is to be nourished by these teachings and share them with others so that they can be nourished. We must break free from our cravings for material things and focus on Christ's teachings, which nourish our souls that never fade away. May we always hunger and thirst for God's truth and continually seek to be the body of Christ, nourished and satisfied by his teachings.