Eighteenth Meeting
(February 14, 1964 P.M.)
Well, it
is very good to be here tonight, and we want to thank our
dear friends for inviting us. And what we have just
listened to forms a very good background to what I have
to say to you.
In
thinking about this feast today, and about a little word
that I might say to you, there came to my mind three
feasts in the New Testament; and every one of them had an
unnaturally impossible background. It was an impossible
situation naturally in every case. BUT THE CENTRAL FIGURE
OF EACH OF THOSE THREE FEASTS WAS THE LORD JESUS. And
because He was at the center, what was impossible was
made possible. The situation was changed from one of
absolute impossibility to one of actuality. I think you
are wondering what feasts I am referring to.
Well,
one was the marriage at Cana in Galilee. All of you
remember that story. There was a marriage feast in Cana
of Galilee. Jesus and His disciples were invited. When
they got to about the middle of the feast, all the wine
failed. I do not know which of all these many dishes is
the most important. I do not know which one, if it were
to fail would let the whole feast die, and make our
friends who provided it feel very embarrassed. But
in that marriage feast at Cana, the wine was the most
important thing, and the wine failed. The most important
thing of the feast failed. And the mother of Jesus, full
of consternation, turned to Him and said, "They have
no wine." Well, you remember the rest of the story.
That was a naturally impossible situation. Nothing could
be done. No one could do anything about it. There it was;
all the wine had gone, and the feast was not halfway
over.
But
Jesus was at the center. That made all the difference. He
commanded that they fill the big waterpots with water.
Now, those waterpots were not filled with water to drink;
they were not there for that purpose. The water had been
used up, but not by drinking. It had all been used up in
washing the feet of the guests. They were empty. They
were quite big vessels. Jesus said, "Fill the
waterpots with water." The servants would have been
very surprised at this. They would have said, 'We used
all the water for washing the feet. Why wash their feet
again?' But the mother of Jesus said to the servants,
"Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it." So, they
filled the waterpots with water, wondering what this
meant and what was going to happen; perhaps wondering if
they had to wash all the people's feet a second time.
Well, they filled all the pots with water, and you know
what happened. Jesus, with His heart lifted to His
Father, probably lifted His hand over those waterpots,
and the water immediately turned to wine. An impossible
situation was turned into a glorious possibility by the
Presence of the Lord Jesus. It was so remarkable that the
master of the feast said, "The best wine has been
kept to the last." It is usually like that when
Jesus does anything. We have to say, 'Well, this is
better than anything before.'
We leave
that one and go to the next feast. It is a feast of a
different kind. There was a little man, a little man in
every way. Not only in physical stature, but in every
other way he was a little man. He was a little man
morally and spiritually. Of course, you all know his
name. The story is this: When the Romans came and took
possession of Palestine, they imposed taxes upon the
people. All the people had to pay taxes to Caesar. But
there was one difficulty. It is the same difficulty as we
have here tonight. It was the language difficulty. The
Romans could not speak the Jew's language. What were they
to do? The only thing to do was to get some Jews to work
for them; some Jews to go and collect these taxes. Now
that was something that was a very very low-down sort of
thing to do. Everybody despises people who do that sort
of thing. People who not only work for an enemy in
occupation, but those who take advantage of the
opportunity to get a lot for themselves as well. And
these men who lent themselves to that kind of thing not
only exacted the tax for the Romans, but they put
something extra on for themselves, and they made
themselves very rich in that way. Therefore, they were
the most despised people. They were regarded as the
low-down moral people.
Now the
little man of whom we are speaking was one of them. He
was a little man in every way. You remember the story of
Zacchaeus. Great crowds of people were coming and Jesus
was with them. Everybody had heard of the wonderful
things that Jesus was doing. So the little man thought he
would like to see this Jesus. Here was a big crowd, and
he, a little man, even by stretching his neck, he could
not see Jesus. So he climbed up a tree, and to his
surprise, Jesus came out of the crowd and looked up into
the tree. And He said, "Zacchaeus, make haste and
come down, for I must abide at your house today."
Jesus went into his home, and Zacchaeus made a great
feast, and called all his friends together. I expect that
most of the people were like himself.
Zacchaeus
was wonderfully saved that day. If you had asked the
people before then, if Zacchaeus could ever become a true
Christian, they would say: 'Impossible.' Why? 'Because
that little man worships money. That little man thinks
everything is a personal advantage. He will do any unkind
thing to get something for himself.' You tell me that
that man could be saved; that man could be so changed;
that he will say, 'What I have got, I give; everything
that I have taken, I will restore.' That was a wonderful
feast. When Zacchaeus gave his testimony before all his
old friends, it was another impossible situation
naturally. But because Jesus was there, the impossible
became real.
Now we
pass on to our third feast. And if the other two were
impossible, this was very much more impossible. We are
going to Bethany, the little town of Bethany. There was a
lovely home in Bethany with two sisters and a brother,
and they loved one another very deeply, and Jesus used to
love to go to that home. If ever He could get away from
the crowd and from the city, you would find Him at
Bethany. But now Jesus is a long way up country, and
something quite serious is happening in that little home.
The dear brother, Lazarus, is very sick; so sick that it
is quite clear he is going to die. I think they were
people who were not poor. What we read of that home and
those sisters and that brother would say that they did
have some means. Therefore, I think that we can conclude
that they got the doctor. They paid for all the help that
they could get to get that brother well. But nothing made
any difference. The brother was sinking to death. And
they thought of Jesus, and they sent a messenger swiftly
to Jesus. The message he carried was: "He whom
Thou lovest is sick."
Jesus
received the message. And then the writer of the story
says, Now Jesus loved Mary, and Martha, and their brother
Lazarus, and yet He did not then respond to their appeal.
It says, He stayed where He was for two days, and then He
said, 'Let us go, our friend Lazarus sleepeth, our friend
Lazarus is dead, but I go that I may awake him out of his
sleep.' I think you know the rest of the story. Yes,
Lazarus died. Lazarus was put in his grave clothes and
put in the tomb. And four days in that country was quite
serious. Jesus came. Well, to make the story short, Jesus
went out to that tomb. He said, 'Take away the stone from
the mouth of the tomb.' They said, 'Lord, Lord, by this
time he is decomposed.' Jesus said, 'Did not I say to
you, that if you would believe, you should see the glory
of God?' Then they took away the stone. And Jesus cried
out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come
forth." And he that was dead, and had been dead
for four days, came forth. Then the next chapter tells us
they made Jesus a feast. Lazarus sat at the table and
Mary sat at the table and Martha, as always, served, BUT
THE FEAST WAS FOR JESUS. The feast was made in
thanksgiving for the One Who had changed an impossible
situation into something so glorious.
Now two
things are related to all three of the feasts: One thing
was that in every case the situation was naturally
impossible. The other thing was that Jesus took hold of
the impossibility and turned it upside-down. I think that
this feast tonight contains all of those three feasts.
Most of us here know something about the disappointments
of this life and this world. We tried to find our
satisfaction in the wine of this world, and that wine
failed us; it let us down. We tried to find our
satisfaction in these broken systems, and they failed us.
Like the wine in Cana, we were disappointed with this
world, and we said, 'This life is impossible.' Then Jesus
came in and changed the whole situation for us. We are
all enjoying the new wine of the Kingdom tonight. That is
the eternal life which Jesus gives. And we all know
something about the impossibility of this natural life.
We may
think badly of little Zacchaeus, but we are a poor lot
ourselves. We are no better than he. We would do just as
mean a thing as he. Naturally we are quite impossible
people. And if it had been said that we would be entirely
changed into a new creation, people would have said, 'No,
I do not think so.' But Jesus has done it. He has changed
these Zacchaeuses. And we were all dead in trespasses and
sins. We were all dead to God. We were as dead as
Lazarus. BUT THE LORD JESUS HAS COME INTO OUR LIVES, AND
WONDERFULLY RAISED US FROM THE DEAD, AND MADE US TO WALK
IN NEWNESS OF LIFE. All these things are in this feast
here. Therefore, this feast is a wonderful testimony to
the glory of the Lord Jesus in our history. Our brother
John has told us a little of the impossibility of the
situation which the Lord changed. And we all have, I hope
I can say all of us here have, a testimony to the
wonder-working power of our Lord Jesus. So it is good to
have a feast when it is like that. It is not just a
social occasion, it is a testimony to the glory of our
Lord Jesus.