Feeding 5000 and Walking on Water -- Part 10: John 6:1-35

Feeding 5000 and Walking on Water – Part 10: John 6:1–35

—What on earth does it mean to ‘feed on Jesus’? and why this is one of the most important things you can ever learn

Andrew Fountain – Nov 24, 2019

Click on this slide and then press the spacebar to advance slides: ➜ (or swipe on a touch screen)

John 6 – Feeding the 5000

Goal:

To grasp what Jesus really means when he says “Feed on me!”
and why this is one of the most important things you can ever learn

Overview

Very brief recap of the story so far
The story of Feeding 5000 and walking on Water
What Jesus really means when he says “Feed on me!”
A Challenge to Feed on Jesus

John 6

Jesus said that people had to eat his flesh and drink his blood!

What on earth is he talking about?
—to some extent, but wine is not mentioned

v.57: “Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who consumes me will live because of me.”

Key: John 4:32–34

But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
So the disciples began to say to one another, “No one brought him anything to eat, did they?”
Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete his work.”

How does this help us?

Jesus Depends on his Father for everything

Tempted to turn stones into bread
- how did he reply?
- “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

Jesus’ Relationship with his Father

Jesus Relates to his Father

Summary:
Jesus lived every moment and breathed every breath to obey the will of the Father.
To do the Father’s will was his drink, his meat. It was everything to him.
He did not do anything in his own strength but did everything by the power that flowed from the Father.

He says “Follow Me”

Christ even gave up his personal desires.
This is a point where obedience and faith meet together
Sometimes it does not seem like the natural thing to do
We can only obey him if we believe him.

When Christ came to earth his self-will was put aside.
- His own agenda was put aside.
- That is something we are called to do.
  - We have dreams, ambitions, desires, good things that we want to do, but Christ calls us to make our dreams his dreams
  - to have only one ambition and that is to please him, we instictively react against this. NO!
  - only one dream and that is to serve him.
    - But as we give it to him, we get everything back and more.
- Jesus did do things that were pleasurable, things that relaxed him, but not on his own agenda.
- Everyday he woke up and his mind was concentrated on how to serve the Father that day.
  - (I am not saying we should not have relaxation because in order to be efficient with our bodies, to serve him better, we need relaxation.
  - But the whole focus of his life was not in any way to please himself, but in every moment, every breath, to please the Father.)
- This is tough! (no wonder people stopped following him)
Here is a picture of every breath breathed being breathed for God.
It is a picture of us looking at Christ and loving him and copying him.
- A teenager might have posters on the wall of someone they admire—they try to find out everything they can about them and copy as closely as possible.
We are following hard after Christ when we try to copy everything he does and try to imitate him in every way.
- We try to breathe every breath for his sake.
- We are not motivated by law, but motivated by love and surrender to his will.
This is a point where obedience and faith meet together.
- You’re not be able to really follow him unless you can trust him.
- It is very difficult sometimes to distinguish between obedience and faith.
- Many years ago my young daughter used to play a game with me.
- We would be walking along the street and she would say,
  “I want you to pretend that you are blind. Close your eyes and I’ll hold your hand and lead you. You must just trust me.”
- That is very hard to do because you keep imagining you are about to walk into a lamppost.
- It is quite a struggle to keep your eyes closed and you really have to have confidence in the person leading you.
Sometimes it does not seem like the natural thing to do
- This is what it is like if you are really going to follow Christ because sometimes the way seems wrong.
  - It seems like death to my own good
- Obedience and faith are intertwined because to believe him is to obey him.
We can only obey him if we believe him.
- It is the walk of faith and obedience is the expression of faith.

Impossible

It is impossible to do this!
Gal 2:20 “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.”
Surrender our life, not in a passive but in an active way
What if you are not a Christian right now?

You may say “It is impossible to do this!”
- How can I possibly live a life like this?”
- You are right. It is not possible!
- It is not possible for a human being to live this kind of life.
- But if we are Christians, Jesus Christ is living in us through the Spirit, and his power is able to give us the victory.
- Paul says in Gal 2:20...
We are called to surrender our life to him, not in a passive but in an active way.
What if you are not a Christian right now?
- then the message is exactly the same. Complete surrender
- We cannot serve him, we cannot live a Christian life, we cannot even believe in him without his power.
- Most of those listening to Jesus in John 6 were not truly his followers.
Before I was a Christian, I used to try to work up in myself enough strength to believe in him.
- It didn’t work!
- We have to cast ourselves on him in utter surrender and say,
- “Lord, I am powerless. I cannot do anything. I surrender my life to you and my only hope is that you will be gracious to me and save me.”
Before you pray for Christ to come and live in you, you have to understand the implications.
- If Christ lives in us then we are going to live a life like he lived.
- It was a life of sacrifice, poured out moment by moment for the Father.
- Do you want to live that kind of life?
This is the challenge, and it applies both to believers and to unbelievers.
- Jesus says, “Feed on me! Follow me! Believe on me! Abide in me!
- I will come and live in you so that you are able to do this.
- He who feeds in me will live because of me.”

Death leads to Life

This life is one of death to self
- but the irony is that eventually it leads to eternal life
“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:24).
“Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul shall live” (Isaiah 55:2–3)

When we try to live a life that seeks our own satisfaction, it will result in death.
- It will result in a hunger that is never satisfied.
- The woman of Samaria in John 4 was thirsting after satisfaction.
- She had had four husbands and the man she was living with was not her husband.
- Attempting to satisfy this thirst outside of Christ will result in eternal pain, eternal hunger, and eternal suffering.
“He who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me” (Matt 10:38).
- It can seem foolish to turn away from what will apparently bring us happiness and satisfaction,
  - to what will bring us suffering and difficulty,
  - but the reality is that bearing the cross of Christ is the road to life.
Jesus said, “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:25).
But at the same time it is not a hard life.
- His burden is easy if we cast ourselves on him and we will find life in him.
- “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul shall live” (Isaiah 55:2–3).

To summarize:
- these things all go together: coming to him, feeding on him, trusting him, following and obeying him.
  - We have to rest on him in obedience.
  - We have to abandon ourselves in an active way to him, just as when I played that game with my daughter.
- When we walk this life, it sometimes feels as if obeying Christ is the way to pain, not to happiness.
  - We walk it only because we believe Christ’s words.
  - Everything else in our nature is telling us it is the wrong way.
  - The flesh is screaming to us and saying, “No! That is not the way you should live.”
- We live that way only because we are following Christ and trusting in him.
Christ is calling out to us and saying,
- “Come to Me. Come and eat. Come and drink.
- Come and have the choicest things in abundance.
- Come and surrender your life, abandon your life, and have real life in me.”
- It seems like the pathway of death, but in the end it is eternal life.
example: shy, pray, visitor in church
example: ...
What kind of Christian life are you living?
- Where are you looking for satisfaction?
- You have two choices:
  - feed on the things that your human nature tells you will satisfy
  - or feed on Christ by surrendering utterly to him and depending entirely on him, in the same way as he did with his Father.