Christmas Guidance from the Bible: Eating & Drinking

I. Introduction
A. The last two weeks we’ve talked about worshiping and gift-giving. Next week we’ll talk about time with relatives and then on Christmas Eve we’ll end by talking about gift-receiving. But today our topic is food and drink.
B. Eating is a big part of the Christmas season. We all spend a lot of time thinking about, shopping, preparing, serving, eating, and then cleaning up food.
C. Some of us will give gifts, some of us will decorate the house, some of us will send Christmas cards. But all of us will eat. No one can say today: “This sermon isn’t relevant to me.”
D. Today we will look into the Bible to find Christmas guidance about eating and drinking.
E. People often say, “Think before you act.” But I would challenge us to think before we eat — and the Bible gives us plenty to think about.
II. The Bible talks about food from the first chapter of Genesis, when God gives them all the plants to eat, to the last chapter of Revelation, where He gives them to eat of the tree of life.
A. Creation
1. God made food before He made man and placed him in the garden of Eden.
2. Food was the third thing God talked to man about after the creation: multiply, rule, food.
3. Just as God filled the whole creation with His beauty, so He also invested it with His deliciousness, so that we might taste and see the goodness of the Lord by eating the wide variety of foods He made for us.
4. God didn't have to make eating and drinking pleasurable. But He did.
5. He made an almost endless number of foods for us:
a. plants: roots, stems, flowers, berries, fruits
b. animals (Gen.9:2-4): birds, fish, wild beasts, farm animals, shell fish
6. And think of all the combinations, seasonings and styles of cooking! Ingredients which are undesirable by themselves, and yet when put together in certain combinations, with certain spices and seasonings, and prepared in certain ways are stupendously delicious!
B. Fall
1. The first sin committed was a sin of eating, wasn’t it? Adam & Eve ate the fruit of the forbidden tree.
2. Gen.3:6 says, “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate.”
3. She wanted what she wanted, no matter whether it came from God or not. This is idolatry. The way they ate revealed what was in their heart: pride, independence, lust and idolatry.
C. The next great eating story in the Bible is the story of Jacob and Esau, in which Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew (Gen. 25:30, 34).
1. In this story we see Esau’s attitude toward food. He placed more value on filling his tummy than he did on protecting the spiritual treasures God had given him. Fleshly cravings dictated his life, not wisdom. He wanted food now, and he was willing to compromise and even abandon the really valuable things in his life in order to get it.
2. “I’m hungry and I’m gonna eat!” That’s the spirit of Esau.
3. We are prone to the same trap, aren’t we?
4. The author of Hebrews warns us, “Let there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.” (Hebrews 12:16)
D. Next up is the Israelites in the wilderness.
1. The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The sons of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full.” (Ex.16:2-3)
2. And then later, after God sent manna: “Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic, but now...there is nothing at all to look at except this manna... there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.” (Numbers 11:4-6; 21:5)
3. They had just been delivered from Egypt by the miracle of God at the Red Sea. Now they wanted to go back to slavery because of the food! They wanted to forsake their precious inheritance for better rations. They were ready to throw away all of God’s blessings and promises in order to get some more of that good Egyptian food.
4. But it was also a matter of trust. They didn’t see where their next meal was going to come from. And they couldn’t trust God to take care of them. (Psalm 78:19-25)
5. Do you see how the human heart does not trust in God?
6. Do you see here the demanding nature of the human heart? We want more! We want better food! We want something new! We want something different! And we want it now!
7. The spirit of Adam and Eve is passed down to Esau and the Israelites in the wilderness, isn’t it?
8. You see, eating is a matter of the heart. How we relate to food shows what we’re like inside. (Deuteronomy 8:2)
9. When dinner isn’t ready on time, when the waiter takes a long time to bring our food, it really reveals what’s in our hearts, doesn’t it?
10. Do we have demanding, self-centered hearts which are preoccupied with our own needs?
11. Paul says of some that “their god is their stomach” (Phil.3:19).
E. Then we come to Jesus. And what a contrast He is to the other examples!
1. He begins His ministry by spending 40 days in the wilderness without food. (Luke 4:1-4)
a. After the forty days, our Lord was famished. Do you have any idea how your body cries out when you have gone this long without food? Even missing one meal, we can lose all perspective. But after 120 meals?
b. And then Satan showed up to tempt Him: “If you are the Son of God, then tell this stone to become bread.”
c. Unlike the others, He was not controlled by His hunger, but waited on the Lord to provide for His needs. He quotes Deut.8:3“Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,” echoing Job 23:12 “I have treasured the words of His [God’s] mouth more than my necessary food.”
2. Later, He fed the 5000 (Mark 6:32-44), where we see that He is the feeder, who knows when and what we need and supplies in abundance, but also allows us to hunger at times in order to teach us (Deut.8:3).
3. Then there’s the story of Jesus with the woman at the well in John 4.
a. Asking for a drink (John 4:1-15)
(1) We see from elsewhere that Jesus enjoyed the food that God created, so much so that some called Him a glutton (Luke 7:34). And yet, here we see that He was not preoccupied with His hunger: He takes note of a needy person. In fact, He uses His own thirst as a means to open up an opportunity to preach the good news. He asks the woman for a drink of water.
(2) You can tell what’s really important to Him: not getting water from this woman, but giving the water of life to this woman.
b. Getting lunch (John 4:27-38)
(1) When the disciples return with food, He refuses to eat, in order to teach them a valuable lesson: “The disciples urged Him, “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.” (John 4:34)
c. And this was His pattern. He did not come to eat but rather to feed. And over and over He used His own earthly hunger as a way to feed others with spiritual food (e.g. Mt.21:18-19).
d. This is the opposite of Adam and Eve, the opposite of Esau, the opposite of the Israelites, the opposite of us.
(1) Resisting the temptation of Satan to give in to His fleshly cravings.
(2) Trusting His Father to meet His every need.
(3) Resisting the temptation to throw aside His inheritance for a bowl of stew.
(4) Refusing to declare His independence from God, but rather yielding to God in everything including food, always saying, “Not my will but Thy will be done.”
(5) Always sacrificing His own life in order to feed others.
e. He succeeded where all others failed.
4. But that’s not all. In a final deed relating to food & drink, Jesus drank down the cup of God’s wrath upon the cross. He drank down the punishment we deserved to drink.
a. And now He has passed the reward on to all those who come to Him in faith, who recognize their sin and corruption, to all those who wake up to Him and realize who He is and surrender.
III. Conclusion
A. And now listen to Him! He’s calling you: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” (Isaiah 55:1–2)
B. This is the important kind of eating to be done at Christmas time.
C. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” (John 6:32–33)
D. He is the true food — and the richest of foods! And He is more delicious than any food on the table or in the fridge!
E. This is what godly, Biblical feasting is all about.
1. In the OT God commands His people to celebrate His goodness by feasting.
2. Feasting is acting out our blessedness before the Lord.
3. This is why we feast. Feast unto the Lord.
4. “Delight yourselves in rich food.” (Isaiah 55:2)
F. God wants us to feast — to celebrate the true food we’ve been given in Christ!
G. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1Corinthians 10:31)
H. Sadly, this is not what Christmas is to most people. Most people feast on God’s blessings without ever feasting on Him! They celebrate Christmas without ever celebrating Christ. Their tummies are full but their hearts are empty.
IV. Communion
A. Isn’t it fitting that the end of the whole story is a great feast that God sets before His people: the marriage supper of the Lamb.
B. This is “the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man gives to you.” (John 6:27)