Sunday,
October 27, 2013
MAN SHALL NOT
LIVE BY BREAD ALONE
Matt. 4:4; John
6
Have you ever been in a difficult
situation, a situation that seemed almost impossible to face? And what made it worse was the fact that it
seemed to go on forever and ever. This
morning I want to remind you of a biblical situation which fits that
description. God brought His people
Israel out of slavery in Egypt and set them on the way to the Promised
Land. There were difficulties on the
way, but they could look forward to entering into Canaan, the land that flowed
with milk and honey. But there was a
major problem. When they came to the
land of Canaan, they refused to go in.
With the exception of Joshua and Caleb, along with Moses and Aaron, all
the people complained, saying that if they went in, they would be devoured by
the giants in the land. Though Joshua
and Caleb assured them that God would give them the victory, the people
stubbornly refused. God was angry with
them and pronounced His punishment upon them -- 40 years of wandering in the
desert, a year for each day the spies had spent in the land. During that time, all of the adults would die
off and would not enter the Promised Land, with the exception of Joshua and
Caleb, who trusted the Lord.
Can you imagine how difficult that
40-year period was for those people?
That generation had no future.
Their destiny was to die, knowing that it was because of their
disobedience to the Lord. Not only was
it hard on that genera-tion, but how difficult it must have been for their
children. Because of their parents'
disobedience, they too had to wander in the desert all those years.
That is the background for what
Moses said to the new generation in Deuteronomy 8. Let me remind you of the setting for the book
of Deuteronomy. The wandering in the
desert is over; those who disobeyed the Lord at Kadesh-Barnea have died. Now their children are on the banks of the
Jordan River, ready to enter the Promised Land.
But before they went in, Moses gave them one last review. That review is the book of Deuteronomy. The word itself means "second
law." Moses would go back over the
law of God with those people before they entered Canaan. Now I want you to listen to what Moses said
to them in Deut. 8:1-7a...
Every
commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you
may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the LORD swore
to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all
the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to
know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 So
He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not
know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not
live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth
of the LORD. 4 Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell
these forty years. 5 You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his
son, so the LORD your God chastens you. 6 Therefore you shall keep the
commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. 7 For
the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land...
Notice especially verse
3, "So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with
manna which you did not know not did your fathers know, that He might make you
know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of the Lord."
Young people, do you recognize some of those words? Where do we find them besides here? That's right... When Jesus was tempted by Satan, He quoted
these words from Deut. 8. Let's read Matt.
4:1-4...
Then
Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.
3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God,
command that these stones become bread." 4 But He answered and said,
"It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God.'"
In conjunction with our emphasis
upon God's Word this morning, this is our theme: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."
Jesus also faced a very difficult
situation. While He was on this earth,
He was attacked by Satan as no other man had ever been. Try to put yourself in His place. You haven't eaten for 40 days, when the
suggestion comes: "Since you are
the Son of God and can do whatever you want to do, why don't you just turn
these stones into bread and have a bite?"
Would you be tempted to do so? Of
course, and so was Jesus. What could be
wrong with getting something to eat? Had
He not just spent 40 uninterrupted days with His Father? It was a powerful temptation. Rather than taking Satan's suggestion, Jesus
responded with those words, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'" When He said, "It is written,"
Jesus was making it known that He was about to quote from the scripture, and
that is exactly what He did.
I think most of us have a good grasp
of what Jesus was saying. The term
"bread" was a word that often referred to food in general (as did
also the word "meat"). We
realize that food is required to sustain physical life. If you don't eat, you will eventually
die. But Jesus is saying that physical
life isn't all there is. When Jesus was
tempted to turn the stones into bread, He reminded Satan that His primary goal
was not to stay alive physically. It was
far more important that He obey the Word that came from God. Though a man may have plenty of physical food
to eat, what is it that will sustain Him spiritually? Every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Whether or not we take it seriously,
we understand it, don't we? As important
as physical food is, it isn't so critical as the spiritual food that comes from
the mouth of God. Later Jesus would say,
"For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his
own soul?" (Matt. 16:26). What kind
of life are we nourishing? This physical
body is going to perish, even if we feed it in a healthy manner. But what we feed the inner self will matter
for all eternity. Paul put it like this
in II
Cor. 4:16-18...
Therefore
we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward
man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for
a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,
18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which
are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which
are not seen are eternal.
So we learn from Jesus that physical
food cannot nourish the soul. As the
physical body needs the physical food, the real self needs spiritual food, and
that food consists of every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Though physical food is important, spiritual
food is far more critical. Never let the
physical things you can see blind you to your need for the Word of God.
But I see a problem. Do you?
We get it so far -- don't focus on the physical and temporary things
such as food, but focus on the Word of God.
How true it is. Here's the
problem. In Jesus' day who had the
greatest reputation for focusing on and emphasizing the Word of God? It was the Pharisees, right? And what's the problem with that? They knew the Word (at least outwardly), but
they didn't live it. Jesus reserved His
harshest words for the Pharisees.
Now let's come back to Matt.
4:4, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.." Jesus did not emphasize knowing the Word of
God, but what did He emphasize? The key
word is "live." Did Jesus get
that from Deut. 8? Let's read again Deut.
8:3, "So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with
manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you
know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of the LORD."
Jesus quoted it right, because the key word here in Deut. 8:3 is
"live."
The Gideons have a great ministry
and they invite us to come alongside them.
We want to get the Word into the hands of as many people as
possible. How can people live the Word,
if they don't know what it says?
Exposure to the truth of God's Word can lead to conversion, to a person
being justified in God's sight. We read
it earlier in II Tim. 3:15, "and that from childhood you have known the
Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith
which is in Christ Jesus." Praise
God for the testimonies of those who came to know the scriptures and were made
wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus!
That salvation (more specifically,
that justification) is the beginning, but then we are to live by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God. Knowing
every word that proceeds from the mouth of God is not enough; we must live it.
To put it another way, let's quote
another scripture from Hab. 2:4, "...the just shall
live by faith." Paul quoted that
verse on two occasions. There is a sense
in which it has a double meaning. The
person who is righteous in Christ has come to life through faith. That is, he is now alive because he put his
faith in Christ. That is the message of
Eph. 2:1-10. But once a person is
justified, declared righteous in God's sight, how shall he then live? By faith.
Those who are righteous before God continue to live by faith. Ours is a life of faith. Col. 2:6, "As you have
therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." As Paul puts it in II Cor. 5:7, "For we
walk by faith, not by sight." To
live by faith is parallel by living by every word that comes from God. So let's grasp it -- Man shall not live by
bread alone, but man shall live by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God. The goal is not
just to know every word from God, but to live by every word from God.
So where do we go from here? Recall that manna was mentioned in Deut.
8:3. What was manna? The word itself means "What is
it?" The Israelites woke up one
morning to this white substance which covered the ground, and they wondered,
"What is it?" The manna was
the food upon which they would rely for almost 40 years, until they crossed
over Jordan into the Promised Land. The
day they entered Canaan the manna ceased.
Deut. 8:3 indicates that manna was a kind of bread. That is confirmed in Neh. 9:15, "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." It is even
clearer in Ps. 78:24, "Had rained down manna on them to eat, And
given them of the bread of heaven."
As I mentioned, "bread" is a term that can refer to food in
general. And that is exactly what the
manna was for them. Regardless of
whatever else they might have to eat from time to time, they always had the
manna.
So here is my question: "Did Jesus say anything else in relation
to the manna which God gave them in the desert?" As a matter of fact, He did. Please turn to John 6. Let's read John 6:26-36,49,58...
Jesus
answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not
because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to
everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father
has set His seal on Him." 28 Then they said to Him, "What shall we
do, that we may work the works of God?" 29 Jesus answered and said to
them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He
sent." 30 Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will You perform
then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? 31 Our fathers
ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven
to eat.'" 32 Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you,
Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true
bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and
gives life to the world." 34 Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us
this bread always." 35 And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of
life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall
never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not
believe..... 49 "Your fathers ate
the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.....
58 "This is the bread which came down from heaven--not as
your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live
forever."
Three times Jesus mentions the
manna. That is fitting, since Jesus had
just fed the 5,000 with two fish and five loaves of bread. Notice verse 32, "Then Jesus said to
them, Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from
heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.'" He says emphatically that Moses did not give
them the bread from heaven. What do we make
out of that? Jesus is responding to what
the Jews had said in verse 31, "Our fathers ate
manna in the desert, as it is written [that means they are getting ready to
quote scripture], 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Who gave them bread from heaven? Both Neh. 9:15 and Ps. 78:24 confirm that it
was the Lord Himself. Nowhere does the
scripture say that Moses gave them bread from heaven.
Then why does Jesus say, "Moses
did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread
from heaven." I believe Jesus was
correcting two false concepts. First of
all, He is making it clear that God and God alone supplies the food and all the
rest of the physical things we need. I
believe the Jews had come to see Moses as the source of the manna. Moses was the primary agent in the
story. He was the one who announced that
the manna would be coming. They had
forgotten that Moses was only the messenger, but God was the source. So Jesus corrects them by saying, "Moses
did not give you the bread from heaven."
But that wasn't all that Jesus
said. We expect Him to continue,
"But My Father gave you the bread from heaven." But Jesus changes to the present tense and He
adds one key word, the word "true."
Jesus told them that the true bread from heaven comes from the
Father. The manna sustained them for a
time, but it wasn't the real thing. The
manna was only a temporary physical provision, but the Father would give the
true and genuine bread from heaven.
At this point the wheels in their
minds must have been turning: "So
what is the true bread from heaven?"
Jesus didn't leave them to wonder.
In the verses that follow, Jesus gives a clear answer...
33
-- "For
the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the
world."
35
-- "I
am the bread of life. He who comes to Me
shall never hunger, and He who believes in Me shall never thirst."
38
-- "I
have come down from heaven..."
The Jews understood Jesus' claim
perfectly. We know this because of their
response in verse 41-42, "The Jews then complained about Him, because
He said, 'I am the bread which came down from heaven.' And they said, 'Is not this Jesus, the son of
Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, 'I have
come down from heaven'?" Jesus
responded, but He did not forsake His theme...
50
-- "This
is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not
died."
51
-- "I
am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread,
he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I
shall give for the life of the world."
58
-- "This
is the bread which came down from heaven-- "
Jesus said, "Man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of
God." Remember that He is quoting
from Deut. 8, which spoke about the manna.
Jesus contrasted the manna with the written Word of God. Right?
That was the force of His introduction to those words: "As it is written." But here in John 6 with what does Jesus
contrast the manna? Here He doesn't
contrast the manna with the written Word of God, but with Himself, the One who
is the true bread sent from heaven.
So is there a conflict here? Are we supposed to live by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God or by Jesus, who also proceeds from God? Do you see it? There is no conflict. What is the ultimate Word from God? Is it not Jesus Himself? "In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God... And the Word became flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of
the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:1-2,14). Yes, the written Word of God is vitally
important, but it must always be seen in the light of the living Word, Jesus
Christ, to whom all the written Word points.
Now let's read John 6:48-58...
I am
the bread of life. 49 "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and
are dead. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat
of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If
anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall
give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." 52 The
Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give
us His flesh to eat?" 53 Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, 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 eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal
life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For My flesh is food indeed,
and My blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats 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 he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. 58 This is the bread
which came down from heaven--not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead.
He who eats this bread will live forever.
Brothers and sisters, we who are
children of God, our great need is to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Jesus was speaking to people who had grown up
on the written Word of God, and Jesus was well aware of the fact. To those who were steeped in the written
Word, He told them they must eat His flesh and drink His blood.
Come back to the manna. It sustained their physical bodies, but
surely it was designed to do more. When
they were hungry and about to starve to death, God provided food for them. What should have been their response the rest
of their lives? "Thank you,
Lord. We owe our very lives to You. You did what no man could do." And with an attitude of deep thanksgiving
they should have told their children how the Lord had graciously provided for
them in their time of need. Instead, we
read these words in Num. 11:4-6...
Now the
mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children
of Israel also wept again and said: "Who will give us meat to eat? 5 We
remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the
leeks, the onions, and the garlic; 6 but now our whole being is dried up; there
is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!"
Yes,
they needed the manna, but the manna was designed to point them to the grace
and mercy of the living God. That is
what Moses was getting at in Deut. 8:3, when he talked about the Lord testing
them and proving them. The manna was
designed to do more than fill their stomachs.
And it did, it exposed their ingratitude and disobedience.
Do you see the picture? Yes, we desperately need the written Word of
God, but that Word points to the living Word, to the Lord Jesus Christ. As great as the written Word is, apart from
the living Word there is no life. We must
live by the true bread from heaven, Jesus, the living Word. So in Matt. 4:4 we see Jesus moving us from
the physical to the spiritual, from the physical bread to the written Word. But that isn't the end. Here in John 6 we see Jesus taking us from the
written Word to the living Word.
I remind you again that those people
knew the written Word. They quoted it in
John 6:31. Yet their lives were empty
and divorced from the life-giving power of the Word. But Jesus pointed them to the core message of
the written Word, which is none other than the bread sent down from heaven to
give life to the world.
Conclusion
Manna represented the normal way of
living for the Israelites. It sustained
their physical life. Man tends to live
by bread alone, doesn't he? We all know
that we need physical food to live, so we eat it and we live. But somehow people get the idea that there is
nothing more.
But what about a man who goes
without food for 40 days and then refuses to eat food that is readily available
to Him? Jesus looked beyond the physical
food to that spiritual food that sustained Him.
He explained it, when He said to His disciples, "I have food to eat
of which you do not know... My food is
to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work" (John
4:32,34). The will of the Father
was for Jesus to go to the cross. Satan
tried to trip Him up, tempting Him to take a shortcut and not go to the
cross. Jesus was hungry, why should He
not do the natural thing and whip up some bread out of those rocks? Why shouldn't He jump off the temple to prove
He was the Son of God? Why shouldn't He
bow down to Satan and receive the kingdoms that were due Him anyway? Because none of it was the will of God. Jesus refused to go around the cross, because
it was the Father who sent Him there to die, to take our sins upon
Himself.
This is the life to which God has
called us. If you are a child of God,
meeting the physical needs can never sustain you. You must live by the bread that came from
heaven, by Jesus Himself. Eat His flesh
and drink His blood. Yes, you have done
that initially by trusting Him with your life.
That is what Jesus is talking about in John 6 up through verse 53. But in verse 54, Jesus chooses a new word for
"eat" and pushes it into the present tense, which speaks of a
continual eating. The idea is captured
by the ESV, "Whoever feeds on my flesh..." Literally, "Whoever keeps on feeding on
my flesh..." We take the words of
Jesus and the life of Jesus and we just keep on chewing on it, much as a cow
chews its cud. This is basically the
meditating on the Word, of which we read in the New Testament, but now we
understand that the subject of our meditation is Jesus. Every word that proceeds from the mouth of
God is seen in light of the living Word, Jesus Christ. So we keep on feeding on Jesus.
Remember this: Our fellowship is not with the book, as
important as the book is. As we read in I
John 1:3, "And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with
His Son Jesus Christ." The Bible is
given to us to point us to Jesus. We
praise God for this written Word, but we worship the Father and the Son.
No comments:
Post a Comment