Opening illustration: Suppose you are rushed to the hospital, where a physician examines you and informs you that you are critically ill. He says you’ll die unless you have proper treatment. He then prescribes medicine and says, “If you will take this, I can assure you with absolute certainty that you will get well.”
Now, what should you do? Should you just lie there on your sickbed and believe that the doctor has diagnosed your illness correctly, and that the prescription will surely make you well? No, that’s not enough. To live, you must take the medicine.
It’s the same with salvation. You may believe everything the Bible says about Christ - that He died for your sins and rose from the dead. But if you refuse to “take Him” - that is, to trust Him and His work on the cross in your behalf - you will be just as lost as if you had openly and blatantly denied Jesus.
Saving faith, you see, is not simply acknowledging that certain facts about Christ are true. It is reaching out to personally accept God’s remedy for sin. It is entrusting the destiny of your soul to Him for eternity. It is saying, “Save me, Lord Jesus. I believe that You can and will.” That’s “taking the medicine” - that’s receiving Jesus Christ! Have you done that? If not, do it right now. (Richard De Haan, Our Daily Bread)
Introduction: When we read Jesus’ narrative of the banquet invitation in Matthew 22 we wonder where did He really pick it up from? After reading Isaiah 55 we get Jesus’ point. It was God’s intent for us to feast at His banquet table. In fact He had invited everyone but only the poor and needy showed up at His banquet. He willingly desired us to drink the living water so that we would thirst no more, eat the living bread so that we would hunger no more, we would heed to His Word and grow in Him thus seeking His profound presence in our lives so that we develop and grow in an intimacy with our creator.
The invitation shows us the grace of God that He invites us to a feast and celebration that He has prepared not because we deserve it but because God wants us to celebrate with Him. God’s will for us is to enter into His amazing plan and purpose to have great joy in His presence and in His grace. Now how do we respond to this invitation? Refusal of such an invitation is a great insult, to the honor and person of both God and His Son, Jesus. All of the refusals mentioned in Matthew 22 are trifling when compared to the importance of the celebration. Do we let possessions, business, ambition, earthly relationships or other excuses get in the way of our relationship with God?
How could we live Jesus every day of our life?
1. Drinking the WATER OF LIFE (v. 1)
He Offers Water – Water is one of the most important substances to us humans. Our bodies are comprised of 60-70% water and it takes a lot of it to keep us alive. The average human can live three days without water. We have to have water to live.
Water in the Bible is often a picture of the new birth. When Jesus talked with Nicodemus in John 3:5, Jesus said, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” It is a picture of the Gospel message; the very message that must be received by faith in order for a person to be saved.
Jesus promises complete contentment to everyone who will drink of the water that He offers. Unlike physical water, which one must drink again and again, the spiritual water that Jesus offers will forever satisfy the soul who will take just one drink of it. Jesus makes this offer throughout the Bible, John 7:37; Revelation 22:17. His offer of soul-satisfying water still stands today.
Bonus Offer: (a) He Offers Wine – In biblical times, wine was just as important as water. Most of the water was not fit to drink, so wine was added to the water. The wine killed the bacteria and made the water drinkable. In the Bible, wine is often used as a picture of joy, Psalm 104:15. It was used at times of feasting and happy celebrations. Wine is also a picture of the Holy Spirit, Who enters a child of God at the moment of salvation and allows the redeemed one to experience “joy unspeakable and full of glory”, 1 Peter 1:8. God doesn’t just save us; He also fills us with His joy. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit that gives us peace and comfort as we travel toward glory, John 14:16-18.
(b) He Offers Milk – Milk is essential for healthy growth. Milk is the first substance newborn babies receive for their nourishment. Milk is the provision of the mother for the hungry baby. Milk contains all the essential nutrients needed to transform a baby into a healthy child. Milk in the Bible is a picture of the Word of God. Not only does God give us the water of life that saves us and the Spirit of God that gives us joy; He also gives us the Word of God that helps us grow up strong in the things of God. The Bible is referred to as milk, 1 Peter 2:2; 1 Corinthians 3:2; Hebrews 5:12-13.
Water … wine … milk: It’s all free. It isn’t that the entrance into the Christian life is free, and then we must be charged to advance in the Christian life. It’s all free; our growth is just as much a gift of grace as our salvation.
Result: Your THIRST is QUENCHED.
2. Eating the BREAD OF LIFE (v. 2)
In the Old Testament God provided the Israelites with manna from heaven. They were told only to take what was required for a one day supply and they had to trust that God would send more the next day. The manna served as salvation for the Israelites physical needs on a daily basis. God however knew of a greater need for the salvation of man's soul and he also had a plan to meet that need -- His Son, the Bread of Life. The Israelites needed to eat daily, but once one has tasted the bread of life he does not need to ask for it again, because his soul has been saved.
The contrast between the heavy price at which men buy hunger, and the easy rate at which they may have full satisfaction, is further set forth by the call to ‘incline the ear,’ which is all that is needed in order that life and nourishment which delights the soul may be ours. ‘Hearken, and eat’ is equivalent to ‘Hearken, and ye shall eat.’ The real ‘good’ for man is only to be found in listening to and obeying the divine voice, whether it sound in invitation, promise, or command. The true life of the soul lies in that listening receptiveness which takes for one’s own God’s great gift of Christ, and yield glad obedience to His every word.
Jesus Christ is the Bread of Life. It is he whom I need to consume in order that I might have eternal life. He is the manna for my soul that God promised. Though I don't need to wait each day to take part of the bread of life, I do need to be sure that my life is lived like Jesus. He was the example of how I am to live and part of what it means for me to eat the bread of life is to live my life the way Jesus, the Bread of Life, lived his. Since Jesus is the Bread of Life, I will treat Him with as great importance as actual food.
Result: Your HUNGER is SATISFIED.
3. Hearing the LIVING WORD (v. 3)
The Word of God can benefit us in more ways than we can possibly imagine. The writer of Hebrews says, “The Word of God is alive and powerful” (Hebrews 4:12). What’s so great about the Bible is it’s not just some ordinary book, but the living Word — inspired by God almighty. It is literally “God breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16). It will do for you what no other book or anything else can. As the Bible developed over time and eventually transitioned from oral tradition to the written word, I have to wonder if something was lost. Is it possible that we now consider reading the Bible (silently) more important than experiencing the Bible as a spoken narrative, a living word? If so, what might we be missing?
Our interaction with Scripture can be expressed in many ways, and one of those ways is reading the Bible aloud. Scripture itself is full of instances that illustrate the power of what is spoken aloud, whether the words come from the mouth of God or the mouths of human beings. In Genesis 1, God speaks the world into existence. When Jesus announced his ministry and the reason he had come, he chose to do it while reading the Bible aloud (Luke 4). The gospel of John explains beautifully that the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us in the person of Jesus (John 1:1 – 14). Hebrews 12 describes how the sound of God’s voice shakes the earth and the heavens.
We could go on and on; the Bible demonstrates a clear precedent for interacting with the Word of God using our living voices (Proverbs 10:11; 18:21; Romans 10:9; 1 Thessalonians 4:18). So why do we generally choose to interact with the Bible only in silence? I do not mean to diminish the power of the written word; in no way do I feel that quiet contemplation of the Word of God is a secondary approach to Scripture. But I do feel we are missing out if we limit our interaction with the Bible to silent reading. And I am convinced that the benefits of reading the Bible out loud and hearing it read aloud are more substantial than we realize.
I am utterly convinced that giving the Word of God a living voice is giving God a voice. These are his living words, the ones that tell the great story of God among us. As we speak them, we give them power in our lives. As your view of the Bible begins to transition from seeing it as a sacred object to embracing it as a beloved friend, give it voice. Read it aloud. Listen to it being read. Read it together with others …
If we give ear to the words of life, in the listening we will hear the voice of our heavenly Father as he speaks directly to our hearts. “Blessed is he that reads and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand” (Revelation 1:3). In order to have the Word of God be of full benefit in our lives we have to put it into practice. When we put the Word into practice we are promised we will be blessed in all we do (James 1:25 and Joshua 1:8). Otherwise, we are just deceiving ourselves (James 1:22).
Result: Your SOUL shall LIVE.
4. Seeking THE LORD (vs. 4-6)
Seeking the Lord means seeking His presence. “Presence” is a common translation of the Hebrew word “face.” Literally, we are to seek his “face.” But this is the Hebraic way of having access to God. To be before his face is to be in his presence.
But aren't his children always in his presence? Yes and no. Yes in two senses: First, in the sense that God is omnipresent and therefore always near everything and everyone. He holds everything in being. His power is ever-present in sustaining and governing all things. And second, yes, he is always present with his children in the sense of his covenant commitment to always stand by us and work for us and turn everything for our good. “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
But there is a sense in which God’s presence is not with us always. For this reason, the Bible repeatedly calls us to “seek the Lord ... seek his presence continually.” God’s manifest, conscious, trusted presence is not our constant experience. There are seasons when we become neglectful of the Lord and give him no thought and do not put trust in him and we find him “unmanifested”—that is, unperceived as great and beautiful and valuable by the eyes of our hearts.
His face - the brightness of his personal character - is hidden behind the curtain of our carnal desires. This condition is always ready to overtake us. That is why we are told to “seek his presence continually.” God calls us to enjoy continual consciousness of his supreme greatness and beauty and worth.
This happens through “seeking.” Continual seeking! But what does that mean practically? Both the Old and New Testaments say it is a “setting of the mind and heart” on God. It is the conscious fixing or focusing of our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection on God. Seeking involves calling and pleading. O Lord, open my eyes. O Lord, pull back the curtain of my own blindness. Lord, have mercy and reveal yourself … I long to see your face. The great obstacle to seeking the Lord is pride. “In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him” (Psalm 10:4). Therefore, humility is essential to seeking the Lord.
The great promise to those who seek the Lord is that he will be found. “If you seek him, he will be found by you” (1 Chronicles 28:9). And when he is found, there is great reward. “Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). God himself is our greatest reward. And when we have him, we have everything. Therefore, “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!”
Illustration: I heard a story the other day of a man who encountered trouble while flying his little airplane. He called the control tower and said, "Pilot to tower, I'm 300 miles from the airport, six hundred feet above the ground, and I'm out of fuel. I am descending rapidly. Please advise? Over!" "Tower to pilot," the dispatcher began, "Repeat after me: "Our Father Who art in heaven ...'"
Result: You + Nations shall be SAVED.
Application: Faith is not just believing that Jesus can save; it's asking Him to do it.
