“The Case For Christ: Following On (Part 2): The World/The Feast of Jesus” 

We are going to celebrate a national feast day this week -  Thanksgiving! 

And we will give thanks with a very grateful heart for the feast of ‘good things’ that have been spread before us all these many years.

I have an idea that many, many of us will be especially grateful for our land and the bounties of it - those things that can easily be lost through our carelessness and indifference.

One newspaper columnist wrote recently in discussing the war on terrorism [And I quote]: ‘We’re actually in the final, most important and dangerous lap of the centuries-old struggle to civilize and humanize the entire world. We are so close to achieving this triumph, to fundamentally transform the entirety of mankind, and lead it to a better place, a place it has never been before - a single world that finally shares a common set of values that embraces individual liberty, human rights, democracy, and civilization.’ [Unquote]  

His idea is that the ‘feast of good things’ is to continue, not just for our land, but for the entire world to come to a place where humanity has reached a transformed level of life.

And - that day is yet ahead of us. However, the world is not, right now, aware that it is Christ Who has opened the door to such a grandiose feast of life, but - I promise you, on the validity and the authority of the Scriptures, that it will one day recognize it!

It was back in Isaiah’s day that the Lord promised for the end time, this kind of world condition, when He said through the prophet: ‘And Jehovah of hosts prepares for all nations upon this mountain, a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things in marrow, of wines on the lees thoroughly strained.’ (Isa 25:6)      

We have to look at this, not in a literal sense, but in a spiritual one since the feast spoken of there is a spiritual feast. 

It is on Mt. Zion where the feast takes place. And Mt. Zion is designated in the Scripture as the seat of God’s presence. 

The meal is the enjoyment of God’s blessings by His people in His perfected kingdom.

And the nations will enjoy it, too. The Lord’s promise was to spread a wondrous feast for everyone around the world - a ‘feast of rich things (symbolical of His coronation festival inaugurating the reign of the Lord on the earth, after the background of gloom, judgment, and terror),...’.(Amp version)                

All the nations will drink: they will ‘...desire to shelter within Your protecting power... and You will give them drink from the rivers of Your delights...’. (Ps 36:7-8) 

Those of us who are Christians look forward to that day when the entire world is transformed to a new humanity. The previously-quoted columnist envisioned this in a worldly way. But - we see it as a ‘new earth’ and a ‘new heaven’ that has been created by the Lord Himself. The whole earth will be filled with His glory and the heavens will be so opened to mankind that it will appear in a ‘newness’, too. 

What occasions the feast day?

First, it certainly does not come by looking for some great secular gain of life nor by acting on impure, immoral, or dishonest standards.

It never has - and it never will!

Jesus laid out the starting point very clearly: ‘Blessed, or happy are those, who hunger and thirst, or whose heart’s desire is for righteousness, for they shall be completely satisfied.’

Later, in John 6:26, He told a group of people who were looking for Him after the miracle feeding of the multitude: ‘...you are looking for Me, not because you saw miracles, but because you ate the meal - it filled your bellies and that is what you care about. It is not Me that interests you!’

In other words, they responded to Him in terms of their full stomachs - not in terms of Who He was!

And, then, He told the inquisitive crowd that God had sent them bread from heaven. It was He Who was this great Gift of God, the true Bread, the Feast, the One Who nourishes and supports the spiritual life, the ‘seat’ of God’s presence.

You see, the world must yet come to the place where it will see Jesus for Who He is - the Son of God, God’s final Word to the world, the One Who has achieved the impossible feat of the redemption of the world.

In this final stage of His salvation history, God is speaking to the world through Him: it is He Who upholds all things by the word of His power. He gives life to the world; He puts life into the minds and hearts of men and He brings about those acceptable standards. It is He Who spreads His way of righteousness throughout the world.  

But it is the hungering and thirsting after it that yields its produce in us and upon the earth.

And just as a person must come to Him, so must the world come - with a hunger and a thirst after His righteousness!  

What is the Lord’s challenge to the world’s hunger and thirst for righteousness?

Turn with me to Isaiah 55:1-2 - Isa 55:1-2: listen to what it says:

‘Alas, all ye thirsty ones, come to the waters; and you, who have no money, come - buy and eat! Yes - come - buy wine and milk without money and without having to pay a thing! Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which does not satisfy? hearken diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.’ (Isa 55:1-2)

Did you catch the challenge? Why keep on with a thirst that you can never seem to satisfy, looking here, looking there?
Why keep on working so fruitlessly for your spiritual satisfaction?

‘Listen to me’, He said. ‘Listen carefully! I am calling all to a rich feast! Everyone is invited and nothing is needed except to ‘come’! There is water, wine, and milk ready for all - there is spiritual regeneration; there is spiritual refreshment; there is spiritual nourishment at this feast.’

There are blessings and gifts of divine grace and the eating of them is dependent on nothing at all except a sense of really needing it and a readiness to accept all the blessings offered!

When we go to a feast, as we will on Thanksgiving, Lord willing, we go prepared - do we not? We dress up a bit, we take along our goodies, and are ready to put on our best behavior. In other words, we have made ourselves ready.

How are we to make ourselves ready for this spiritual feast?

There comes a time in life when the need we have to really feast is desperate enough that we will go looking for Christ.

We become conscious of all our limitations, of how empty we really are, of how little we really know.

And, if we are really in earnest about this, we finally give up our tendencies to fly into a thousand different directions where we were always hoping to find what we were looking for.

We go through some long stretches of desolation and hollowness. We try every avenue for satisfaction: new philosophies, exciting pleasures that look for the ‘kicks of life’, or we busy ourselves with endless service - any means to satisfy our spiritual hunger and thirst.

And - yes - all kinds of excuses crop up - anything to avoid getting to the bottom crust of our stagnation.

Does that sound like a familiar path to some of us? You will find examples of that road all through the Scripture.

Jesus told of the story of a certain man who prepared a great banquet. The oxen and the fattened cattle had been killed and everything was made ready.

He sent out his servant to summon the invited guests. But - they were involved with various personal interests - they all had excuses for not coming.

Yes - they were all weak excuses. The problem was that they were not realizing the seriousness of the host’s invitation and all that went into the preparation of his great feast!

The host dismissed those people altogether and he, instead, sent his servant out to invite ‘whosoever will’. They were the ones who hungered - they thirsted - they came and ate - and they were the blessed ones! The others lost out - but it was of their own choosing!

This story emphasizes the seriousness of rejecting God’s invitation to come and to participate - to come and buy, without money and price.

What a deadly thing excuses are! The most dangerous excuses are those with which we fool ourselves! In the end, they will not do! They only poison the life of a Christian - they block his path to ‘following on to know the Lord!’  

Those who thought they were included were the excluded ones - and all because one excuse sounded better than the last one. It just shows where the heart really is - where the true priority really is - that is all! 

Excuses for not knowing Jesus as the Son of God, excuses for not moving on in and with Him, excuses for ignoring the ‘feast of good things’ in Him - not a one of them will open the door to the feast!

So - forget excuses - they only show the activities and the commitments we hold to be more important than feasting at the feet of Jesus! Only those who dare to put their excuses aside can ever know the joy of moving on to know Him better!

Back in John 6, Jesus had gone on to say to the multitudes: ‘...Moses did not give you bread from heaven: but My Father is giving you the real heavenly bread from heaven. For the bread of God is what comes down from heaven and gives life to the world - gives life to the world - ...I am the Bread of life...I am the living Bread...I will give My flesh for the life of the world.’

God gave them what they needed for their physical well-being through their leader, Moses. But, although they were still not realizing it, they needed more than just physical supplies!  They needed the supply that came from heaven alone.    

Jesus was at a wedding feast early in His ministry. It was a feast where He showed how this ‘spiritual food’ was going to be furnished for them - and for the whole world. 

Mary, His earthly mother, was at the wedding feast, too. The party had been going strong for a few days when, suddenly, someone realized they had run out of wine.

Mary, in her proud, earthly zeal, thought this would be a good time to show the world that this ‘son’ of hers was more than a ‘son’, in an earthly sense.

She knew Who He really was, so she engaged Him in performing a ‘miracle’ by changing water into wine. Everyone would know, then, that He was God’s promised Messiah. 

And, although Jesus saw through her attempt to push Him along in the world’s eyes, He went along with the request.

But that was not done to satisfy Mary’s earthly whim - for - when He did change the water in to wine, He was giving us a symbolic picture of this one, eternal truth, that neither you nor I, and certainly - not the world - can usher in: no man, in his natural, human effort, can possibly bring about God’s final thought in His Son.

Jesus showed that God’s purpose and plan will only be brought about by the work of His Spirit! 

His mother was looking at this from a human relationship. Jesus was far above that level - He was ministering in the Spirit. He had a spiritual mission to fulfill. It was a Spirit-led destiny toward feeding the hungry and thirsty with His very life.  

Man may be an instrument in His hands, but God is the Master Craftsman and the Master Builder! 

And the hour of triumph and the time of the feast of all nations will be brought about in God’s appointed time and in His way only.

True, the world struggles for a transformed level of human life. It is anxious to feast on the meat of human dignity and liberty.

Well - the good news is that Jesus, the ‘seat’ of God’s presence with us here on earth, is, even now, beckoning the world to come to His feast of life, which, ultimately, will lead to the feast He is preparing for all nations!

His desire is to allure us, and the world, away from our darkness - away from our unrighteousness - away from our chains - and take us into that bright and glorious world where He has prepared that place of a transformed life for us at His table. 

We can just thank God for His call to that place!

We need only to hunger and thirst after that, and to accept His invitation and move on - forget about the excuses not to go on. They are worthless!

‘I will feed them in a good pasture...’, the Lord said, ‘...[they] shall lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed...’. (Ezek 34:14) 

To John, in Rev 19:9, the angel of the Lord said: ‘Write: Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ After having told John what to write, the angel said: ‘These are the true words of God.’

My prayer is that these truths will find lodging within our hearts and bring much fruit to His glory!

Ella and I would like to wish you all a very blessed Thanksgiving. May the day be the Lord’s day, feasting upon Him by pleasing Him in every way as you celebrate in the love of your families! 

Amen! So be it! Let us Pray!