Eating Well for Eternity: Food That Never Spoils, Never Goes Bad
- Summary: Ever smell rotting broccoli? spoiled fish? You’re not likely to forget it. But there is spiritual food and drink that never spoils and nourishes you in ways beyond anything natural food can provide.
Psalm 34:8
- • There is a natural eating. In moderation it is good and enjoyable, a gift from God. But if you’re like me, you’re hungry all over again the next day, if not earlier.
- • There is a spiritual eating (and drinking), which nourishes you for time and eternity. We are exhorted in the Psalm to “taste” the Lord’s goodness. Let’s take a look at how this theme of lasting, life-imparting spiritual food is revealed in Scripture.
- • In the wilderness God provided supernaturally for His people Israel. They ate manna from heaven. And God miraculously caused water to gush from a rock for them to drink. These were called “spiritual food [and] spiritual drink.” And the Source of that spiritual drink “was Christ.”
- • To this very day the Source of spiritual nourishment is still Jesus Christ.
- • Words with eternal significance! — Jesus is the “bread of life.” Jesus, our "bread," never runs out. And “whoever eats this bread will live forever.”
- • All who partake (“eat”) of Jesus and the salvation He provides by His death, burial, and resurrection will “live forever”! As the Psalmist said, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” Receive Jesus and everything that He provides you by His love and grace.
- • Jesus stands “at the door” and knocks. Think of Him as knocking on your door. Respond to Jesus. He will “come in” and you’ll have close fellowship with Him. As He promises, you and He will “eat” together.
- • Visualize the joy of sitting down with our Lord Jesus for a time of eating and fellowship together. You can have just such a time spiritually with Him even now — in times of prayer, worship, and reading His Word. Open the door to Him. Invite Him to “sup” with you (King James). Communicate with Him in prayer. Enjoy His presence in times of worship. Experience Him in the Word of God — remember, Jesus said about the Scriptures that they “testify of me” (John 5:39).
- • An infant’s earliest nourishment is milk. The apostle Peter exhorts all believers initially “like newborn babies [to] crave pure spiritual milk” (1 Peter 2:2). That would be the elementary truths of God’s word mentioned above. All of us need to be nourished by a solid, basic foundation of the Bible’s main truths.
- • Then the Epistle to the Hebrews exhorts believers to grow and mature from “milk” to the “solid food,” the “strong meat” [KJV] of God’s word. My wife and I, along with many millions of other believers, commit time daily to reading and learning God’s Word, the Bible. Even at my current age (72), I realize that God wants me to “eat” His Word daily and by that to continue to grow spiritually.
- •
Matthew 4:4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” This speaks of true, lasting nourishment. We “live on” the words of God. Just as we need natural food regularly and consistently, we need the living bread of God’s word. Jesus said we cannot live on natural food alone; we need the word of God to nourish and enliven us in the perspective of eternity. - •
Jeremiah 3:15, KJV And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. In the 22 years that I served as lead pastor of two churches, I felt that this was an absolutely central part of my pastoral calling — that is, to “feed” God’s people with the knowledge and understanding that are found in His Word. Are counseling, encouraging, and leading church services important? Absolutely. But I recall how my first pastor Dick Benjamin would sometimes say to us as he entered the pulpit to preach the Word: “I solicit your undivided attention. This is the single most important thing I do in the work of the Lord.” I agree.
- • Just as we need solid food, we also need health-giving drink. Not the natural kind, such as “wine, which leads to debauchery,” but the presence and infilling of the Holy Spirit.
- • Here again, Jesus is the Source of this “living water” of the Spirit. How do we get more and more of God’s Spirit? Jesus tells us: “Come to me and drink.”
- • In one of His early post-resurrection appearances to His disciples, Jesus breathed on them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). I am convinced that at this point they were born again by the Spirit. Prior to His death and resurrection, Jesus had promised that they would yet receive the Spirit in a special way: “He [at that time] dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:17, NKJV). Every one of us has the same opportunity and holy privilege of being born again by the Holy Spirit through repentance and faith in the resurrected Jesus Christ.
- • Then some days later, to the same now-born-again disciples Jesus said (Acts 1:4-8), “…[5] in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit…. [8] You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you…” The baptism with the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in tongues, is an additional work of the Holy Spirit that Jesus confers upon His followers who seek it.
- • Again, how do we receive the living water of the Holy Spirit? Jesus told us: “[Be] thirsty … Come to me and drink … believe in me … [and] rivers of living water will flow from within [us].”
- • Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the 5,000 from a few loaves and fish teaches us an enormously important principle — that is, nourishment from Jesus increases and expands!
- • There is no limit to the good things God can do in you and through you, if you regularly “feed” upon Jesus the Bread of Life and drink deeply of the Holy Spirit.
- • Eat and drink daily of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit, and you will find that God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).
- • Jesus’ “food” was to do the will of God to completion.
- • That is lasting food — that is, seek God’s will daily (“thy will be done”) and do it!
- • One day you’ll hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:21)
- • Here is an ultimate fulfillment of the spiritual food and drink God offers to His people. Those who have found salvation and victory in Jesus Christ in this life will “eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”
- • Eternal life! The paradise of God! Get ready now. Eat and drink all of God’s graciously offered nutrition — Jesus the Bread of Life … “supping” time with Him in His Word, in worship, in prayer, in the gathered church … the living water of God’s Holy Spirit … and each and every blessing that God offers you each day of your life in His service
- • Eat well for eternity. Feast on the “spiritual food and drink” that never goes bad!
-------------------------
Shortcuts to Major Topics:
Christian Living
Doctrine & Theology
Evangelism
Faith
Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Healing
Hearing from God
Holy Spirit | Pentecostal Topics
Jesus Christ
Ministry
Power of God
Prayer
Salvation
The Church
Various Topics Not Listed Elsewhere
Victory over the Devil
Word of God
Sharing is great!
If you've been blessed by our sermon on
Eating God's Word & Other Spiritual Food,
please share it with your friends.
Email them the browser link. Or
you can post the link on your social
media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
Thank you for sharing God's Word!
©2015, James H. Feeney.
Copyright statement.
Pentecostal Sermons and Bible Studies
by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.