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Sunday 04/07/24
Title: To Hunger and Thirst
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To Hunger and Thirst
Today and for the following 6 weeks we will be observing what is referred to in many Christian circles as Eastertide. It is a continuation of the teachings surrounding the death and resurrection of Jesus as it affects and intersects with our lives in Him.
It continues for the full 7 weeks between the Resurrection of Jesus and the giving of the Holy Spirit in power upon all believers at Pentecost.
Our focus today is on spiritual hunger and thirst for God – for rightstanding with Him. So we will begin with two passages and then dive in!
Matthew 5:6,
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they will be filled.”
…and…
John 6:51,
“(51) I am the living bread that came down from heaven.
If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
Nehemiah 9
“(13) You came down also on Mount Sinai, And spoke with them from heaven, And gave them just ordinances and true laws, Good statutes and commandments.
(14) You made known to them Your holy Sabbath, And commanded them precepts, statutes and laws, By the hand of Moses Your servant. (15) You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, And brought them water out of the rock for their thirst, And told them to go in to possess the land Which You had sworn to give them.”
Now we are about to read a somewhat lengthy portion of scripture regarding the bread from heaven but I want to first quickly address the water they drank and we are to drink as well.
1 Corinthians 10:1-4,
“(1) Now I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, (2) and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
(3) They all ate the same spiritual food, (4) and all drank the same spiritual drink.
For they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.”
So the symbolism is to partake of Christ HIMSELF.
As a side note, this is why Moses’ striking of the rock cost him SO MUCH. He was forbidden to enter the Promised Land due to this act of disobedience. God had told Moses the first time to strike the rock, but from that day forward he should only speak to the rock and it would gush out rivers of water.
By striking the rock a second time it symbolized Christ being crucified twice which we know will never happen. Romans tells us that Jesus, having tasted death, will never die again. Death has no more dominion over Him.
Furthermore the writer of Hebrews completes this pictographic teaching by saying that if after someone has drank from the Rock of Christ and therefore entered into union with Him – if they were then to turn their back on Him, walk away in denial of Him – they could never be restored since in order to make that happen Christ would have to die again and that WILL NEVER HAPPEN!
So you see why Moses, having struck the Rock which represented Christ a second time in order to get living water from it, was symbolically denied eternal life by not entering the Promised Land. of course Moses IS of God and IS with God now. All of that was symbolic of what is spiritual and real.
God, in His faithful love for His servant, enabled him to see the whole of the land Promised to Israel before causing him to fall into the sleep of death and bury him with His Own hand. God loved Moses and both was and IS in eternal fellowship with him. Again Rock, the striking of it and the water that gushed out were all types and foreshadowings of what is spiritual and real.
Now turn with me to the gospel of John.
It is no wonder that this passage regarding Jesus being the ‘BREAD OF LIFE’ ONLY appears in this Gospel account. It is deeply intimate and relational which is something John perhaps had better eyes to see than did others.
John 6:22-59,
“(22) The next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side of the sea knew there had been only one boat. They also knew that Jesus had not boarded the boat with His disciples, but that His disciples had gone off alone.
(23) Some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they ate the bread after the Lord gave thanks.
(24) When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor His disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
(25) When they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?”
(26) Jesus answered, “I assure you: You are looking for Me, not because you SAW the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.”
Natural versus spiritual discernment
They saw what God did through Jesus, but they did not understand.
They saw and desired what Jesus could do, but not Him.
I like the Wuest translation of those words because I think they somewhat clarify the meaning. It says, “not because you saw attesting miracles,”
The sight they did not possess was spiritual. They saw, but did not see!
John 6…
“(27) DON’T WORK FOR THE FOOD THAT PERISHES BUT FOR THE FOOD THAT LASTS FOR ETERNAL LIFE, which the Son of Manwill give you, because God the Father has set His seal of approval on Him.”
This was an invitation to intimacy and oneness but they did not have eyes to see.
True intimacy desires the person and true love desires their greatest good!
When you are united with someone. It is because you see what they see and value what they value and that common ground between you eliminates any honest distance between you and makes you one.
- If one suffers then both suffer.
- If one is exalted both are.
That is one reason why Jesus is about to explain that to partake of Him as the true bread from heaven, is to enter His death WITH Him as well as His resurrection.
John 6…
(28) “What can we do to perform the works of God?” they asked.
(29) Jesus replied, “This is the work of God: that you believe in the One He has sent.”
That when the Bible, especially the New Testament, uses the word belief or faith it means more than an acknowledgment that you agree with certain truths is made obvious by passages like this.
Here Jesus said if you will believe you will have the bread of eternal life.
As we move forward Jesus says other things which yield eternal life.
This is not Jesus adding to the list of requirements for eternal life, but rather it is Jesus offering clarification of what belief really means.
Religion has replaced the intimacy of relationship for academic assent to a set of historical facts. It is clean, methodical, mechanical and very very Western in thought – but it is NOT of God!
As we keep reading we’ll understand more clearly what belief really involves.
It is not simply the still confession or the academic acknowledgment of Jesus as Lord but is deeply rooted in identifying with Him, loving Him and making an eternal commitment to Him.
Part of this is hinted at in the Wuest translation of the verse we just read. As I’ve told you many times, Kenneth Wuest has offered a great contribution to the Church by simply including in his translation the tenses of the words. In this case, the belief and actions are revealed to be continuous in nature.
The crowd asked Jesus…
John 6:28-29,
“What are we to do as a habit of life in order that we may continually be working the works of God?
Answered Jesus and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you continually BE believing on Him Whom that One sent off on a mission.”
The words “be believing” is an odd and somewhat clumsy word choice, but I love it! It clearly shows what must taken place in the human heart. Our trust and commitment to Christ is not a once and done proposition, but an ongoing and eternal commitment to Him in trust!
By saying “BE” believing, keeps faith in the continuous present. Faith is a required ongoing reality in the believer which is ALWAYS realized in our every NOW!
Again I am in debt to Michael Card for capturing my early faith dilemma and this passage in song. I’ve referenced it for you before. It is called, “Know You in the now”
Echo of history, a light so many strain to see
The One we talk so much about but rarely ever live it out
Could you tell me why, was it for this You came and died?
A once a week observance when we coldly mouth Your words
Lord, I long to see Your presence in reality
But I don’t know how
Let me know You in the now
We should confess, we lose You in our busyness
We’ve made You in our image, so our faith’s idolatry
Lord, deliver me, break my heart, so I can see
All the ways You dwell in us, that You’re alive in me
Lord, I long to see Your presence in reality
But I don’t know how
Let me know You in the now
Now THAT is the cry of a hungry heart. A heart which has been and will continue to be filled even as Jesus promised. It is not a selfish cry of, “God let me go to heaven with as little commitment on my part as I can get away with.” It is a longing to Know God in every moment and a willingness to guard the soul against heartless rituals and empty religion.
John 6…
(30) “What sign then are You going to do so we may see and believe You?” they asked.
“What are You going to perform?
(31) Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, just as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
(32) Jesus said to them, “I assure you: Moses didn’t give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the REAL bread from heaven.
(33) For the bread of God is the One Who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
At this point what would have been of invaluable aid to me in my youth would have been to have really understood the passage in John 17 with which we have all become very familiar.
That eternal life is to come to know God intimately and relationally, even as our brother Michael Card made so clear in his lyrics.
If I had known that in my youth it would certainly not have eliminated all my questions, in fact it probably would have deepened them, but at least I would have been on the right track!
John 6…
“(34) Then they said, ‘Sir, give us this bread always!’”
(35) “I am the bread of life,”Jesus told them. “No one who comes to Me will ever be hungry, and no one who believes in Me will ever be thirsty again. (36) But as I told you, you’ve seen Me, and yet you do not believe.”
This is one of the greatest promises in all of scripture. Spiritual hunger is the single most crippling thing in this life and yet it is one of the most easy to forever satisfy!
The Wuest says it this way,
“I alone, in contradistinction to all others, am the bread of the life. He who comes to Me shall positively not become hungry, and he who places his trust in Me shall positively never thirst!”
So why do so many Christians spiritually appear as gaunt and depleted as the physically hungry from third world nations?
Because like these people Jesus was addressing, they substitute spiritual hunger for natural fulfillment.
The passage we opened with today spoke of a hunger for right standing with God.
Right standing requires right thinking!
Isaiah tells us this in the 55th chapter which also addresses other parts of this teaching from Jesus.
It says,
“(6) Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. (7) Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
(8) “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. (9) “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” – Isaiah 55:6-9
It is a hunger for knowing God which leads to a knowing and embracing of His thoughts and ways. THAT is the hunger which will be satisfied!
“(37) Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out. (38) For I have come down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of Him Who sent Me.
(39) This is the will of Him Who sent Me: that I should lose none of those He has given Me but should raise them up on the last day.
(40) For this is the will of My Father: that everyone who SEES the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Let’s read this portion from the Wuest, “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who DISCERNINGLY sees the Son and believes on Him may BE HAVING life eternal, and as for Myself, I will raise him up at the last day.”
“(41) Therefore the Jews started complaining about Him, because He said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
(42) They were saying, “Isn’t this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can He now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”
(43) Jesus answered them, “Stop complaining among yourselves.
(44) No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.
(45) It is written in the Prophets: And they will all be taught by God.”
Everyone who has listened to and learned from the Father comes to Me– (46) not that anyone has seen the Father except the One Who is from God. He has seen the Father.”
Wuest, “Everyone who has HEARD IN THE PRESENCE OF AND DIRECTLY FROM the Father and has learned, comes to Me.”
That is precisely what happened to Peter when Jesus asked the disciples who they thought He truly was. “You are the Anointed One, the Son of the Living God.” To which Jesus said, “Blessed are you Simeon Bar Jonah for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but this was given you BY MY FATHER.”
This is a more straight-forward teaching of the heart soil’s parable only it is connected to spiritual hunger and eternal life. All of the hearts heard the words, but only a few possessed a spiritual hunger for them. It was those who never fully allowed themselves to believe that natural things could really satisfy their inner longing and need.
You see, once a person believes they have found what they were looking for, they stop searching.
This is what happens when we allow our hearts to be satisfied with less than God Who they were made for union with!
Isaiah also addresses this in the 55th chapter. He said to Israel by prophecy,
“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price.
(2) Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
(3) Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you— The sure mercies of David.” – Isaiah 55:1-3
Before any soul makes that monstrous substitution, they have an inner knowing that what they are allowing themselves to settle for is NOT the true answer they seek. It is NOT what they were made for.
This substitution is a willingness to settle for less – it is the sin of Esau rather than the tenacity of Jacob!
Why fight for more, when I can get by with what I already have?
So Jesus says…
“(47) “I assure you: Anyone who 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 anyone 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. The bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.”
Now we’re getting somewhere. This is an expression of faith.
John 6…
“ (52) At that, the Jews argued among themselves, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”
(53) So Jesus said to them, “I assure you: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you do not have life in yourselves.
(54) Anyone who EATS MY FLESH and DRINKS MY BLOOD has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, (55) because My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink.
(56) The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood lives in Me, and I in him.
(57) Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me.
(58) This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the manna your fathers ate–and they died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”
(59) He said these things while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.”
Now let’s take this on to the water or the wine in 1 Corinthians 10 which we began to read earlier, before switching to John 6.
1 Corinthians 10:1-22,
“(1) Now I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, (2) and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
(3) They all ate the same spiritual food, (4) and all drank the same spiritual drink.
For they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.
(5) But God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert.”
Now the difficulty with this passage is that the One Who struck them down was God Himself. So the question we need to answer is Why!
We are told this in Hebrews 3:12-19,
“(12) Watch out, brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that departs from the living God. (13) But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception.
(14) For we have become companions of the Messiah IF we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start.
(15) As it is said: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.
(16) For who heard and rebelled? Wasn’t it really all who came out of Egypt under Moses?
(17) And with whom was He “provoked for 40 years”?
Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert?
(18) And to whom did He “swear that they would not enter His rest,” if not those who disobeyed?
(19) So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”
So the reverse is therefore true – we enter in by faith which is demonstrated by obedience!
1 Corinthians 10…
“(6) Now these things became examples for us, so that we will not desire evil as they did.
(7) Don’t become idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to play.
(8) Let us not commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in a single day 23,000 people fell dead.
(9) Let us not tempt Christ as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes.
(10) Nor should we complain as some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer.
(11) Now these things happened to them AS EXAMPLES, and they were written as A WARNING TO US, on whom the ends of the ages have come.
(12) Therefore, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall!
(13) No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape, so that you are able to bear it.
(14) Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.
(15) I am speaking as to wise people. Judge for yourselves what I say.
(16) The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ?
The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?
(17) Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for all of us share that one bread.
(18) Look at the people of Israel.
Are not those who eat the sacrifices partners in the altar?
(19) What am I saying then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? (20) No, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God.
I do not want you to be partners with demons!
(21) You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.
You cannot share in the Lord’s table and the table of demons.
(22) Or are we provoking the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?”
Takeaways:
- We need to cultivate a hunger for righteousness.
- Even though by faith we have been MADE right with God, our ongoing faith in Him cultivates a hunger for righteousness in our communion with Him which includes how we live!
- How do we do this? We have to be DETERMINED to not settle for substitutions for intimacy with God!
Blessings!
Tri
