Abide: The Word Feeds our Spirit
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Focus: Jesus is the true bread of heaven. Whoever feeds on him will live.
To feed on the word of God, we must start with reading it more and more.
To understand the word of God, you can ask these four questions:
What is the writer saying in context to his listeners? (this exercises proper hermeneutical practice)
What is the text saying about God? (this helps develop healthy theology)
What is the text saying about humanity? (this helps me understand what God thinks about me)
What is the text saying about the world around me? (this helps develop a Biblical worldview)
In John 6, believing in Jesus is equated with feeding on him; eating is not a passive exercise and neither is the work of believing.
John 6:57–59
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.” Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
Jesus invites the listener to feed on him but, “How can someone feed on Jesus?”
To best understand “whoever feeds on me,” it is helpful to know that Jesus is answering the crowd’s specific request for a sign related to the manna sign Moses gave.
What would you ask for?
What do you want from Jesus?
What does Jesus offer in response?
First, he calls out false hopes, shows their insecurity, and invites those listening to believe in him.
This is the gospel.
Jesus sees past our initial felt-needs to the true need we have—to be reconciled to the Father—and he is willing to give himself to us to make that happen.
Jesus offers an invitation to an active participation in believing and receiving him.
He equated it with “feeding on him.”
This brings us back to our question, “How can we feed on Jesus?”
Feeding on him is a holistic exercise.
It involves our belief in him, receiving his life, and letting him take an active role in our lives.
This is not a prayer that we pray and then go on living without him.
Who Jesus is becomes part of who we are.
How can we know who Jesus is apart from knowing him in Scripture?
We can not.
How can we feed on Jesus without taking his word into our lives?
We will not.
Taking Jesus’ words into our lives involves praying it, trusting it, and obeying it.
How can we feed on him?
We believe his word, we take it in, and let it transform us.
We don’t do this just once, we continue to do so.
Believing is submitting our lives to obey Jesus and be transformed; doing what we believe completes the meal.
We all understand what it means to eat something, take it into our body, and absorb it.
In this text, Jesus takes that common understanding and invites us to do the same with him.
Where do we start?
We start by believing his words—he is the Son of God and wants to offer us eternal life.
We take his words in and we absorb them.
We absorb Christ’s character, his ways, his Spirit indwells us and all of who Jesus is becomes part of us.
We lay all of our other hopes down since they are not secure anyway.
Then we live in him and continue as we started—we feed on Jesus, we take in more of his words, absorb those and let them become part of us.
Feeding on Jesus is an active-obedient faith that continues to impact our whole person.
Feeding on his word is part of this process.
Isaiah 55:1–3
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.
For those who want to come and say yes to Jesus, you can repent of being passive.
You can choose to have an active belief that feeds on Jesus and his words - receiving him and living the full eternal life that he offers!
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher