Let's turn to John's Gospel, Chapter 2.
The Gospel of John, Chapter 2.
Verse 23 of John, Chapter 2.
Now when he was in Jerusalem at the
Passover, in the feast day, many believed in
his name when they saw the miracles which
he did.
But Jesus did not commit himself unto them,
because he knew all men.
And he did not that any should testify
of man, for he knew what was in
man.
There was a man of the Pharisees, named
Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
Look with me in John, Chapter 6.
Chapter 6, verse 1.
After these things, Jesus went over the Sea
of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias.
And a great multitude followed him, because they
saw his miracles which he did on them
that were diseased.
And Jesus went up into a mountain, and
there he sat with his disciples.
In the Passover, a feast of the Jews
was nigh.
When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and
saw a great company come unto him, he
saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread,
that these may eat?
Look in Chapter 11.
Chapter 11, verse 55.
In the Jews' Passover was nigh at hand.
And many went out of the country up
to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves.
And sought they for Jesus, and spake among
themselves, as they stood in the temple, What
think ye, that he will not come to
the feast?
Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees
had given a commandment, that if any man
knew where he were, he should show it,
that they might take him.
Then Jesus six days before the Passover came
to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been
dead, whom he raised from the dead.
And there they made him a supper, and
Martha served.
But Lazarus was one of them that sat
at the table with him, and then took
Mary, a pound of ointment of spikenard.
That's all I'd like to read.
I'll try to fill in the gaps as
the time allows.
I think that if you look at the
Gospel of John, you'll find, of course, we've
all noticed this, that it's very different from
the synoptic Gospels.
I take it the Spirit of God has
so directed this epistle in this particular way,
that it might pertain to specific teaching that
would be applicable to the presentation of the
person of Christ.
I appreciate what one has said, and that
is that the Gospel of John is the
Gospel of fulfillment.
And that is that you find in the
Old Testament different pictures presented, such as Jacob's
well in chapter four, which is answered by
the one who said, I am the living
water, and who satisfied the soul of an
individual.
Again, in chapter seven, we have the one
who, at the end of the Feast of
Tabernacles, when the water was poured out, they
could say that if any man thirsts, let
him come unto me and drink.
Then again, you find the living bread here
in chapter six, where he refers back to
an Old Testament picture, but he could say
that I am the living bread that came
down from heaven.
And then going over to chapter 10 and
other places, we notice the good shepherd and
how the Lord Jesus fulfilled that picture that
is presented in the Old Testament.
And then, of course, the one who is
indeed the life and the one who is
the light in chapter nine, and chapter 11,
the life, and then, of course, the true
vine in chapter 15.
So what we notice is that this is
the gospel that fulfills, in the person of
Christ, every one of these Old Testament typical
presentations of him, and the way they so
simply and wonderfully point out the manifestation of
the great way of our Lord Jesus.
I've noticed as well that when you look
at the Gospel of John, that you find
at least three Passover's that are specifically mentioned,
and we've read those three mentions.
Now, I know very well, because some might
come to say something to me about it,
that in chapter five and verse one, we
have another feast.
And very possibly that's another Passover, depending on
how you look at it.
But it's not specifically mentioned, so I will
confine myself to these remarks in relation to
these three.
I would say that each of these Passover
events in the life of the Lord Jesus
seems to form the basis for and to
provide a background for some specific teaching or
some event that is applicable to the lives
of each one of us as the Lord's
people today.
I want to just say that what we
have pictured here in the first Passover is
the inception of the beginning of life, which
is connected with the new birth.
In chapter six, we have the sustaining of
that life, which is pictured to us in
the bread upon which we feed.
He said, eat of this bread shall live
forever.
In chapter 11 and 12, we have the
purpose of that life, and that is worship.
The occupation of the heart and devotion poured
out to the feet of the Lord Jesus
that is expressed, of course, by the person
of Mary and her activity.
So that I would take it that these
Passovers in the Gospel of John indicate to
us a kind of progress that should be
seen in each one of our lives individually.
And God desires progress.
Certainly, we can't begin to progress in a
Christian life without the new birth.
But the result of the new birth will
be a life that is begun that is
going to be manifested and can only be
sustained by the bread that came down from
heaven.
It's only by feeding upon Christ that you
and I, brethren and sisters, can be sustained,
nourished, strengthened, and help to go on in
the wilderness scene in which we're found.
And if we're not feeding upon Christ, if
we're not feeding upon Christ, possibly there's no
life there.
And certainly the life will never be manifested
without feeding upon him.
And if we're feeding upon Christ in the
right way, then the result will be the
outpouring of worship and the expression of deepest
appreciation for the person of Christ.
That should be manifested in every one of
us.
And I trust it is so for the
glory and the honor of the Lord Jesus.
So we should be making progress.
It's certainly a good exercise.
I trust we all engage in it, not
in a wrong way perhaps, but to ask
ourselves, am I making progress in the things
of God?
Am I growing in likeness to Christ?
Am I knowing more of yieldedness to the
Spirit of God?
Am I experiencing more of his power in
my life to change me and make me
more of what I ought to be?
Sometimes sadly we'd have to acknowledge, if we're
honest, that there's been very little progress made
spiritually.
I take it that that's God's desire and
that's one of the reasons for the indwelling
Spirit of God, that we might be strengthened
in the spiritual life and go on from
here.
So if we look at John chapter 2,
just notice in each case something to the
background that occurs before each one of these
Passovers is mentioned.
And obviously if we look at chapter 2
of the immediate past, we find that the
Lord is engaged in the cleansing of the
temple.
That is, he went in that place that
had been so corrupted by the desire of
men to gain money from the necessities of
the people.
And he could say, make not my father's
house a house of merchandise.
It had become corrupted.
It had become ruined.
The attitude and the aspect of genuine worship
was no longer being expressed.
And so we find in the background before
the Lord deals with this man Nicodemus, he's
dealing with a house.
And he's doing something to bring about restoration.
I think I can link with that, perhaps
in a vague way, not specifically, but I
can look back into the experience of Israel
in the land of Egypt.
You remember, it's very clear that they were
occupied to some extent with idolatry.
They carried with them out of Egypt the
idols of Molech.
And even the Lord had to challenge them
at the end of the wilderness journey that
they still had remnants of Egypt with them.
They were surrounded in an environment that was
corrupting and certainly contrary to the mind of
God for them to continue in that environment.
And then we find the Lord not only
dealing with that environment and the corruption of
the house of God, but he predicts his
death.
He said, destroy this temple and in three
days I will raise it up again.
Certainly anticipating what the Passover looked forward to
when the lamb was taken and selected out
of the flock and slain on that 14th
day of the month.
The blood applied and is only by the
reality of that which it pointed forward to
that there would be salvation and deliverance.
But the Lord not only speaks about that
death, but also the raising up again of
it.
And then of course we find in the
end of chapter 2 the mixed multitude that
is pictured.
A mixed multitude you know came out of
Egypt.
And here we have a multitude of people
that profess to believe in his name.
And yet evidently they had no reality because
the Lord did not believe in them.
He did not commit himself to them because
he recognized and knew what was in man.
And he could not accept them as being
genuine believers in Christ.
But here we have the Passover.
And the Passover of course indicates what is
so necessary for one to begin a life
and a relationship with God.
The Passover was the beginning of a national
relationship, a national existence.
It was the beginning of them being called
out of the bondage and the slavery of
Egypt.
And deliver from that kind of condition which
of course indicates where we were before God
saved us.
How wonderful it was that God intervened on
their behalf.
How precious to each one of us that
God ever intervened in our lives.
And did a work that was beyond our
capacity.
A work that brought us out of the
darkness and the danger in which we were
found.
And brought us into the liberty of the
sons of God.
There are some limits, there are some relationships
I believe between the Passover and the event
of Israel being delivered out of Egypt and
what we read in chapter 3.
And of course we know very clearly what
the Lord is doing is dealing with a
man that represented the highest possible attainment of
an individual under the Jewish law.
A man yet had all of these things
and yet he had no spiritual life.
And had never known the reality of a
relationship with God.
Sad to know how a person can rise
so high in their knowledge of truth.
And even adherence to it in an outward
way and even a legalistic following of that
law that had been given to him.
And yet do it without any essence of
reality spiritually in his life.
We think of the Passover as in some
way we relate to what we have in
chapter 3.
Because you know that in Israel's deliverance out
of Egypt that deliverance was a work that
was essential for them to become one of
the kingdom.
For them to be entered into a relationship
that God was establishing.
And the Lord says to this man Nicodemus
that except a man be born again he
cannot see the kingdom of God.
No part in that great kingdom of which
Christ is the Lord and the ruler.
Under which we have entered in to enjoy
a place today.
Israel entered into that relationship with God by
way of deliverance that was accomplished by the
work of God alone.
Also in chapter 3 in verse 4 we
notice that that was a deliverance that was
not according to man's comprehension.
You notice that Nicodemus had to say how
can these things be?
How can a man enter into his second
time in his mother's womb be born?
When you look back to the Passover the
way of God's deliverance of his people remember
that it was not the way that man
would normally have chosen.
It was certainly not by way of man's
force of arms and by means of the
normal methods by which men would be delivered
from slavery.
By God intervening in a way that went
beyond their capacity.
How would anyone have ever thought that God
would deliver them by bringing in ten plagues
upon the nation of Israel?
The broad judgment not only upon the nation
of the land but also upon their God.
So God's means of deliverance in the new
birth is not by man's own wisdom.
We find that in 1 Corinthians chapter 1
don't we?
Where we find very clearly that God's manner
of salvation is by means of the preaching
of the cross.
And not according to man's wisdom whatsoever.
And then in the third place we notice
that this was a deliverance that was accomplished
by God's power.
They were brought out by the power of
God and I was reading this morning in
my daily reading in fact in chapter 12
of Exodus how God delivered them.
How they were urged by even the people
of Egypt to leave and to depart from
them.
They were thrust out hastily.
It was a matter of God working.
And when we think of the new birth
he reminds Nicodemus that it's not a natural
birth.
He says it's a birth from above.
It's a birth that is accomplished by the
spirit of God.
And that's what you and I have experienced
and began our life in a spiritual realm.
As we were born from above brought into
the relationship and knowledge of Christ by a
work of divine power that was accomplished by
the Holy Spirit.
In the fourth place we remember that this
is a work that was linked with heavenly
things.
You can remind Nicodemus that if I have
told you of earthly things and you believe
not how shall I tell you of heavenly
things?
Because he had no capacity to understand them.
And God could speak of delivering the Israel
coming down from above and reaching into that
dark furnace of affliction.
And bring them out by his own power
working on their behalf.
A heavenly deliverance that was accomplished for them.
One more thing about this relationship and that
is in verse 14.
When he takes him to the serpent of
the wilderness he reminds him that even as
that serpent was lifted up into wilderness to
provide life in the midst of death for
the people.
It required the individual to look and to
look to that serpent that they might receive
healing from the bite of the serpent.
That reminds us of course that the application
of the blood on the night of the
Passover was the responsibility of the individual.
They had to apply the blood.
They had to take the lamb.
They had to catch the blood in the
basin.
They had to apply the blood of the
doorpost and over the lintel.
So we have the responsibility of taking what
God has provided and personally entering into the
good of it.
And experiencing the blessing of deliverance that had
been brought in our case by way of
the new birth.
Brethren and sisters you and I have life
because of a divine work in our souls.
We have a relationship and a knowledge of
fellowship with God.
We have something we could never have possessed
otherwise.
It has been brought to us by the
infinite expression of the grace of God.
And that began our life.
That began our experience of knowing what it
is to walk in communion and fellowship with
the Lord.
I trust we know something about that.
Perhaps there are those here this morning among
those that are saved and you don't know
the Savior.
And you never had a time in your
life when you trusted Christ.
You never had a time when you're born
again.
That's God's desire for you, friend.
Without the new birth you'll never see the
kingdom of God.
Never be in God's heaven.
Never know Christ as your Savior.
Never know God as your Father.
Never know some of the things you have
already been hearing about.
And the consoling strength that you had of
God in your life.
Wonderful thing if even today there are those
who are born again from above.
And taking the work of Christ for your
own personally.
But coming over to chapter 6 we have
another Passover.
And this Passover was the second or the
third one in the life of Christ.
We find it interesting that you look at
the background and you look at chapter 5
when he's speaking about those evidences and the
witnesses that God had given to them and
yet sadly despite five clear sufficient witnesses to
the truth they failed to believe what God
had given them.
The Father was a witness.
John the Baptist was a witness.
The word that he had spoken was a
witness.
The works that he had done were witnesses.
And of course even Moses himself was a
witness.
And all those witnesses had spoken to them
the truth that would cause them to turn
to him and receive the truth from him
entirely and explicitly.
But they refused.
He said, you search the scriptures.
That's what their activity was.
But he says they failed to perceive the
fact that they spoke of him.
Sad thing when a person reads the word
of God and they don't recognize that Christ
is the purpose of it all.
He is the one that God wants to
draw the attention to and direct the individual
so they receive of him and feed of
him and enjoy the blessing that he has
provided for them.
But notice that this Passover is followed by
teaching that has to do with the elements
that are essential for the sustaining of life
that we receive by way of the new
birth.
That life has to be maintained.
I hope and I believe we're all assured
of this that you'll never maintain it by
reading the material the world has to offer
you.
You'll never grow spiritually by watching what the
world wants you to be occupied with.
You'll never grow in this spiritual life by
taking up your time into things that are
absolutely worthless so far as eternity is concerned.
And many things could be enumerated.
Sadly, more and more, perhaps we are being
occupied and inundated with these influences that are
contrary to the development of the life that
we have had and received in Christ.
But you notice that, first of all, he
brings before them, actually there are events in
chapter 6 that relate to the early experience
of the children of Israel in that we
find the Lord passing over the Sea of
Galilee.
The children of Israel passed through the sea
when God delivered them.
But he's come over to the other side.
And here on the other side, they're in
the wilderness.
And there's nothing in the wilderness that would
sustain them.
But he was sufficient for them even in
the wilderness circumstance.
And even as he provided for them in
the Old Testament by means of the manna,
so we could say that in that wilderness
scene, I am the bread of life.
I am the bread that came down from
heaven.
If a man eat of me, he shall
live forever.
And so as the children of Israel passed
over that sea, and, of course, in this
chapter as well, we see the power of
Christ over the sea.
Even as he divided the sea to bring
the children of Israel through, we find that
in the wilderness scene in which you and
I are found like Israel of old, there's
more than enough in the person of Christ
to sustain us and enable us to go
on in a pilgrim pathway.
I think that when you look at the
Lord looking upon the multitude in verse 5,
we saw the multitude coming to him.
A multitude that was in a wilderness and
they had nothing to eat.
And the Lord knew that need before it
was ever expressed to him.
There are other times when the disciples came
to the Lord and said, what should we
do?
We can't send the people away hungry because
they're famished and they need something to eat.
But here the Lord saw the people coming
to him.
Before they ever expressed the need, he discerned
it.
And he tested the disciples to ask them,
how shall we satisfy the hunger of the
people?
When shall we buy bread that these may
eat?
Of course, oftentimes they were doing the only
thought upon a natural, physical level.
But the Lord wanted to bring them into
something far deeper.
I think about the fact that the Lord
here in this wilderness scene, he has an
ability to provide for the needs.
He knew the need and he provided it
by a miraculous way.
Notice we see that he said as he
took what they had available to them, not
200 penny worth of bread in verse 7,
but just a lad with five barley loaves
and two small fishes.
What are they among so many?
They were more than enough in the hands
of the Lord Jesus.
Five barley loaves would be the food of
the poor, the lowly ones, the ones that
were the simple ones in Christ that would
feed upon the barley.
Of course, that is enough for any person
if it's in the hands of Christ.
The two small fishes taken out of the
depth of the sea.
There they are brought out to be the
source of nourishment for the people.
Notice the Lord just simply took them.
Had the people sit down in ranks and
in order.
And then he provided in the hands of
the disciples, that which they distributed unto the
people to eat.
I love to think about the fact that
the Lord could take even so little, such
a little bit to feed such a great
multitude of people.
And he ministered to the needs of the
people through the hands of the disciples.
They had a responsibility in participating in the
work of God.
And all that we can give to others
to feed their souls, and all that we
can give for nourishment to the saints of
God is what we receive from him.
If it's not from him, of course, it
will have no value whatsoever.
May God help us to always seek to
be in the presence of God to get
something.
Some little portion from the word of God
to feed the people of God with.
And to nourish them in a way that
will strengthen them and enable them to go
on for God.
Many words can be spoken.
Sometimes when you boil them all down, maybe
there's only a thimble of thoughts.
But God help us to have something of
material that would be a blessing in hell.
And so we find that this is a
supply that more than met their need, and
I'm sure that you and I have found
the same thing as well.
Not only did the disciples have a responsibility
to take what the Lord gave to them,
but it's wonderful to realize that there's not
one of these people that was feeding of
what the Lord provided them that ever had
to go away saying, I just wish I
would have had one more piece of bread.
There was more than enough.
And God's supply is so infinite, brethren.
We hardly appreciate the greatness of what he
has provided for us.
We limit ourselves.
It's not he that limits us.
He wants to pour out upon us infinite
unveiling of the truth that concerns the Lord
Jesus.
I hope we know something of just getting
along with God.
And feasting upon the person of Christ.
Receiving something that he wants to minister to
us.
Maybe not in a public way, but perhaps
it's more precious of what lasts the longest.
It's what we've gotten, as we've already heard,
a word from the Lord directly for our
needs.
And so we find that here he's going
to move from that.
Sufficiently meeting the needs of the people, and
he's going to move from that to remind
them that there was a bread that they
received from heaven in the Old Testament.
And yet that bread that came down from
heaven was only a picture of himself.
Remember the manna?
They passed through the sea in chapter 14.
They praised God in chapter 15, and then
they murmured.
But in the wilderness, after they murmured and
cried unto God for the hunger that they
had, we find the Lord provided the manna.
What was the manna?
What was the food from God?
It was the food that God provided them.
The psalmist calls it angel's food.
And we know that it was round.
It was white.
It was precious.
It was like bdellium stone.
It was fragile because it melted when the
sun arose.
It was that which was pure.
And every aspect of it points to the
person of our Lord Jesus.
We consider him who came down in humility.
Came down in relation to the work of
the Spirit of God, the dew.
Came down in the expression of his purity
and his holiness.
Came down in the preciousness of that manhood.
And that one who came in humility and
lowliness, brethren and sisters, came that it might
be the food of his people in the
wilderness.
And it reminds us as well of the
purity and the sufficiency of the word of
God.
You know, brethren and sisters, only as we're
feeding upon God's word will we be sustained
and help to go on for God.
A portion for the word of God, perhaps
even a small portion.
A little bit every morning will feed our
souls and sometimes it will meet a need
that we do not even perceive and are
not even aware of prior to the moment
at which we encounter it.
They had to go out and they had
to gather the manna every morning.
But he could say that your fathers ate
manna in the wilderness and they're dead.
That was not a food that could give
life, but it could only sustain a physical
life.
But he uses it to point forward to
something far greater.
And ultimately he brings them to this hard
statement, he says, that one had to eat
the flesh, verse 53, of the Son of
Man and drink his blood, he hath no
life in you.
Verse 54, whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life.
Interesting to notice the difference in the words
the Lord Jesus uses.
In verse 53, it's a word that has
to do with the initial act of eating.
And that is, of course, what took place
when we first tasted of Him.
We'll taste and see that the Lord is
good.
Very precious.
We began to feed upon Him the moment
we trusted Christ.
But he uses another word when he comes
to verse 54, and it has to do
with a continual aspect of feeding, assimilating, of
taking into ourselves that which pertains to all
that the flesh and the blood speak of.
It's not the Lord's supper, necessarily.
It's not that at all.
It's a personal partaking of all that He
is representing, and all that we receive through
Him in relation to the perfection of His
life, His humanity, His sacrifice, His sufficiency.
Whatever we eat, you know, becomes a part
of us.
And God's desire is that we might feed
upon Christ.
You know, brethren, you'll never find a more
precious food than Christ Himself to meet your
need, to sustain your soul and to give
you strength in a wilderness world in which
we live.
And the more we feed upon Him, the
more we become like Him.
You know, we become at least shaped by
what we eat.
What we're feeding upon, spiritually speaking, sometimes can
dwarf our spiritual life, can ruin our appetite
for the things of God.
You know, I feel it's sorry.
It's very sad, rather.
When you think of the course of the
history of the children of Israel, they began
and they could say it was so sweet.
It was like honey.
It was sweet to their taste and they
appreciated it.
Later on, it became something very distasteful.
Something about it because the manner had never
changed.
They had changed and they lost their appetite.
And, brethren and sisters, we need to guard
ourselves that we do not lose our appetite
for the Word of God itself and for
the person of Christ that is so beautifully
portrayed in it.
I wonder if Christ means the same to
us today as He did at one time.
We've become like those in Ephesus that have
lost our first love.
Somehow, we've gotten our eyes off on something
else and other things have filled our souls
in a way that crowds out that sincere,
deep affection for Him.
May God stimulate us during these two days
of conference here in Waukesha where we might
get a fresh look at Christ and get
occupied with Him again.
But quickly, looking at chapter 11 and 12,
I just want you to notice that the
result of that in this last Passover recorded,
which, of course, leads on to the suffering
and the passion and the death of the
Lord Jesus, we have, first of all, following
in chapter 12, the genuine worship of a
believer.
I like to think that Mary's activity along
with that of Martha and Lazarus would depict
the experience of God's people in this present
day.
That house of Bethany was a very precious
place.
It was a place of fellowship.
It was a place where the Lord was
at home.
It was a place where you find Martha
in this time serving without any complaint.
And so we find service for Christ linked
with Lazarus in His communion with the Lord.
Service linked with communion.
Service linked with fellowship.
Coming out from the relationship with Christ and
enjoying fellowship with Him with glad service that
would honor His name.
Well, that service and that fellowship was in
the atmosphere of worship.
We look at Mary and we find her
here again as she always was at the
feet of the Lord Jesus.
She was at the feet of Christ to
learn.
She was at the feet of Christ, of
course, as she was worshiping.
And she was there at the feet of
Christ, there in other places as well.
So we find her as a worshiper.
And I would take it that that's the
purpose of why you and I have received
a new birth, why we've been born again
by the Spirit.
The Father seeketh worshipers.
And God's desire for you and me is
that we might be genuine worshipers.
You notice that that worship of Mary Coster
was a very costly thing.
You notice that Judas knew how to evaluate
the monetary value of an object.
He knew very little of how to evaluate
properly the Lord Jesus when He sold Him
for 30 pieces of silver.
It's sad to say there were so few
in that environment that knew what it was
to worship as Mary did.
And being at His feet, pouring out that
flask of ointment that was very, very precious,
costing so much, we find that she was
one who had greater discernment as to the
purpose of His death and what was going
to be the result of it.
I would take it from these three incidences
of the Passover in John's Gospel that God
has saved us so that we might feed
upon Christ.
And in feeding upon Christ, we might be
genuine worshipers.
You know, worship really is a daily activity.
And if we don't worship every day, we
have a hard time worshiping on the Lord's
Day.
If we're not worshiping every day in our
privacy of our homes and our hearts, we're
not perhaps able to do more than express
words on the Lord's Day.
Worship is that which pervades the entire atmosphere
of believer's life.
We serve out of worship.
We seek to learn more of Christ because
of our worship of Him.
We do have a desire to manifest the
honor of His name and to speak to
God of the worth of His beloved Son.
Mary, above all others, was a worshiper.
I think that more than anyone else, perhaps
I've wondered if there are any of the
disciples during the lifetime of the Lord Jesus,
and I could be corrected on this.
I'd be glad to be so.
I wonder if any of them really knew
what it was to worship Him.
They knew what it was to hear Him.
They followed Him.
They obeyed Him.
But I don't find any of them acting
like Mary did.
Perhaps when you come to the resurrection scene
after His resurrection, Thomas, seeing the wounds in
his hands and his feet, to decide, my
Lord and my God, is one who came
very near.
So we should seek to be worshipers, genuine
worship as a result of feeding upon Him
and seeking to give honor to His blessed
name.
But notice as well that following that in
verses 12 through 19, we have the adoration
of the multitude.
And we think that perhaps that would point
forward to the coming day when He will
be received by the nation.
And what we've been hearing about already will
be brought to pass.
And the Lord will return in triumph into
the city.
And they'll see Him, the one whom they
pierced.
For I shall mourn for Him as one
mourneth for an only son.
And that's when Psalm 24 will be fulfilled.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and
be ye lifted up.
And the King of glory shall come in.
He's going to come back in His power
and glory.
And they will adore Him then and that
day.
Sad to say, in this case, of course,
it was a temporary thing.
It was possibly the same ones that were
expressing hosanna to God of the highest as
He came into Jerusalem were the ones that
later were saying, crucify Him, crucify Him.
But notice as well in chapter 12 and
verse 20 that there we have a universal
seeking, the Gentiles coming to seek Him.
So first of all, we have the worship
of believers in this present day.
We have the adoration of Israel in the
coming day.
And along with that, of course, we have
the universal acknowledgment as the Greeks sought Him
in that day.
We look forward to that day.
But we thank God that until then we
have nourishment for a wilderness scene.
May God nourish our hearts and our souls
not only today at this conference, but may
He also nourish us day by day in
our experience as we feed upon Christ.
I remember a brother once saying to me
that whenever he opened his Bible to read
it as a daily activity, he sort of
just simply lifted his heart to prayer, Oh
God, show me Thy glory.
Show me something to thyself.
And I believe that if we read God's
word and come to it in that attitude,
we'll feed upon Christ and we'll get something
that will cause worship to rise in our
hearts.
May it be so.