What Other Meat Did Jesus Have to Eat?

Tom:

We are in the gospel of John and we’ll pick up with John:4:28The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
See All....We would encourage those who have never read the Bible before, if you’re looking for a place to start, it’s the gospel of John.That would be my encouragement.How about you Dave?

Dave:

That’s a good place, yes.

Tom:

Verse 28: “The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, 29) Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?30) Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.”She’s got a group, she’s an evangelist.

Dave:

Yes, well she has certainly piqued their interest.I mean here’s some man out here by this well and he just knows everything about me.He must be the Messiah; you better come and check him out.And they went out of the city and came unto him.But (verse 31) “In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.”Remember, he was weary at the beginning of this chapter?He sat weary on the well, he was thirsty, and he was hungry.The disciples went into the city to buy some food and now they are saying master eat.“But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him [ought] to eat?Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

Tom:

Dave, one of the problems that we find is that many people have a difficult time distinguishing something that’s a metaphor or something that’s to be taken figuratively with taking things literally.Fundamentalists are accused—oh well they take everything literally.I don’t think so.You know there are many verses that you’d have to be crazy to—

Dave:

Well we take it literally as a metaphor.And Jesus is saying—

Tom:

Well we know the difference.And my encouragement to people out there is that they have to learn to distinguish between something that is figurative and something that ought to be, needs to be taken literally.This is a verse—Jesus saying, “I have meat to eat that you know not of.”Well what is he talking about?A steak, a t-bone, a…

Dave:

Yes, they are saying somebody must have given him something to eat.

Tom:

Yes, so they had this problem.

Dave:

He said my meat is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.Now it shouldn’t be difficult to understand that.Communists have said my food, my sleep, I eat and I drink and I sleep and this is it, this is my life.Jesus is saying there is something more important.Wait a minute guys, this woman has gone into the city, she’s going to be coming out with some men who are going to want to hear more, and I don’t have time right now to take a break and have lunch with you.This is all Jesus is saying.But earlier in the chapter he said, “You drink of this water, you will thirst again.The water that I give will be a living well springing up into everlasting life.You will never thirst again of the water that I give.”Of course, he wasn’t talking about physical water, he wasn’t talking about H2O, some holy water that had been blessed and that’s an important lesson to understand.Because as we move on and we come to chapter six Jesus says, “You must eat my flesh and drink my blood.”That is not to be taken literally either.It would be cannibalism if it were number one, and number two…

Tom:

Well the Bible condemns it.

Dave:

The Bible condemns taking blood.You are not supposed to drink blood.He’s obviously speaking figuratively.Now, that is the one place—every other place—He says I am the true vine—he’s not a vine or branches.I am the light of the world; I am the door; you are the shepherd; you are the sheep; over and over Jesus uses these figures of speech because it’s the only way to somehow explain to us what he means.We are not just physical bodies, we are spirit beings.Spirit beings have life and that life needs to be sustained.It needs to grow and the Word of God is our food.So yes, Jesus is using a metaphor, I guess you could call it—an analogy.“I’ve got something else here to eat, I don’t need that physical food at the moment.The disciples don’t understand.Jesus goes on, now he’s talking about this work, “I’ve got to finish this work.”Jesus says unto them in verse 35: “Say not ye there are yet four months and then cometh harvest…?”Now he’s going to do this again, we’ll he’s not talking about harvesting wheat or grain, you say there’s four months and then comes harvest.“…behold I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”These are those for whom he was going to die and he would say the same to us today.“Look all around you, where ever the Lord brings you and leads us.The fields are white to harvest.There are people that the Spirit of God has been working on and God will bring them across our path so that we can give the gospel to them.Look on the fields, they are white already to harvest.There are a lot of people out there that are hungering and thirsting and you remember Jesus said, “If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink.” That’s chapter seven of this book.He’s not talking about water, holy H2O.He says, “And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together” (John:3:36He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
See All...). You remember that Paul said, “I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase” (I Corinthians 3:6).This is what Jesus is talking about.There is fruit in our own lives that needs to grow.“The fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, temperance, meekness” (Galatians:5:22-23 [22] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, [23] Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
See All...).What joy it will be to be in heaven and for someone to come up to you in heaven and say I’m here because you gave me the gospel.You went out of your way, or you did this or you did that which brought me to Christ, that opened my heart, opened my eyes.I saw your example and I saw the reality of Christ living in you and that caused me to be interested because of that.You didn’t give me the gospel, but it was your life that sparked it, your testimony and then someone else gave me the gospel, or you gave me the gospel but I didn’t believe it at that time, but it was a seed that was planted and later someone explained it further.This is what Jesus was talking about, “The fields are white to harvest…,” and to my own heart and to those out there that are listening who are Christians, we need to remember that every person we come across is an eternal being.When their bodies are laid in the grave, they will either be with Christ in unimaginable joy forever, or the will be in unimaginable horror and torment forever separated from Him.It’s not that I grab everybody like the barber, you remember, wanted somehow to witness and in the old days when he stropped up the guy and lathered up and stropped up his razor and he stands there with the razor poised in front of the guy and he says, “Are you prepared to die?”The guy took off with a shriek right out of the [shop].We have to have some wisdom as to how we present the gospel to people.We don’t push it on people, but the Lord opens the door.

Tom:

Dave, is there anything more exciting in life—think of any occupation—is there anything more exciting than sharing God’s love with another person, with pointing them to eternal salvation, or to see, to know, to experience God using us in the life of someone else.I can’t think of anything.Because isn’t that our purpose?The French—you’re going to love this as I butcher this French word—la raison pour l’être?

Dave:

la raison pour l’être—

Tom:

Yes, I figured you would—you’d do that to me.But anyway that’s our whole purpose for being.And….

Dave:

La raison pour l’être means “the reason for being.”

Tom:

Right.And the purpose is to be used of God and to know that you are being used of God.What else is there?

Dave:

Ah, it’s wonderful Tom.Nothing can compare with it.It’s like the—you remember the lepers that are outside the city that’s under siege and then God destroys this army and there’s nothing but spoil.I mean they are all starving inside the city wall and here’s all this food and they had just taken off and left it in terror, and they are gorging themselves and then they say we don’t do well.I mean think of all the people that are starving!We need to go tell them of the good news.We’ve got something that is so wonderful and the Lord has given it to us and filled our hearts with joy.We need to tell others about this and if we go with that motivation it might help us as well in winning others to Christ.