Gooding, David: 1 - Two Feasts

Let us hear now the word of God as we find it in the gospel by Matthew, beginning in chapter thirteen. The gospel of Matthew, beginning in chapter thirteen, And we shall commence to read at verse fifty three. Matthew thirteen fifty three: And it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed thence, and coming into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary, and his brethren James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then has this man all these things? And they were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country and in his own house. And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. At that season, Herod the Tetrarch heard the report concerning Jesus, and he said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist. He is risen from the dead, and therefore do these powers work in him. For Herod had laid hold on John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her. And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude because they counted him as a prophet. But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced in the midst and pleased Herod, whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she should ask. And she, being put forward by her mother, saith, Give me here in a charger the head of John the Baptist. And the king was grieved, but for the sake of his oaths and of them which sat at meat with him, he commanded it to be given. And he sent and beheaded John in the prison. And his head was brought in a charger and given to the damsel, and she brought it to her mother. And his disciples came and took up the corpse and buried him, and they went and told Jesus. Now when Jesus heard it, he withdrew from thence in a boat to a desert place apart. And when the multitudes heard thereof, they followed him on foot from the city. And he came forth and saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. And when even was come, the disciples came to him saying, the place is desert, and the time is already past. Send the multitudes away that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food. But Jesus said unto them, they have no need to go away. Give you them to eat. They say unto him, we have here but five loaves and two fishes. And he said, bring them hither to me. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and he took the five loaves and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed and brake the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes. And they did all eat and were filled, and they took up that which remained over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And they that did eat were about five thousand men, besides women and children. May God grant that through the reading of his word, we too find him who thus proved himself the bread of life. In these evening sessions together in these coming weeks, I propose, God willing, to consider with you the testimony of the early church to Christ. I suspect it is common knowledge with us all, is it not, that from the very beginning, Christian people have declared their faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. It is impossible to exaggerate the stupendous importance of this their confession. The idea is big enough almost to shatter the mind. It is their claim that the Jesus who walked this earth is none less than God incarnate, son of the transcendent Lord creator of all time and space. This testimony that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, is of course the very foundation upon which the church is built. So much so that if it is proved untrue, there is nothing, I repeat, nothing left in Christianity. I don't care what experiences you have had, however elevated and exciting your personal subjective experience that you have had in the name of Jesus. If Jesus is not the incarnate Son of God, then all your experience is worthless, and there is nothing in Christianity worth having. It is absolutely fundamental, then, this confession of the early church that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Since that claim is so stupendous, next we might very well interest ourselves to ask, how ever did anybody ever at all come to think that it were true? And in particular, as we read these passages from Matthew thirteen onwards in these coming weeks, we shall be interested to listen to the story of the early Christians. For what we have now before us is the early Christians telling us how they discovered this stupendous thing, that the man that they walked along the road with was the Messiah. The man who traveled in their boat was more than human, and they came to know him as God incarnate. Whatever I ask, whatever were those experiences that made men thus come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. I suspect I talk to a congregation, many of whom are already convinced that Jesus is the Son of God. How dearly I would love to come and sit by you and ask you why you believe it. Did I hear you say you believe it because your mother told you so? That, sir, is an excellent reason for believing it. Did I hear you, madam, say, well, you believe it because your Sunday school teacher said it? That is also an excellent reason for believing it. It isn't enough, though, is it? For we live nowadays in a world that's hostile to this very thing. A world in which even members of the so-called Christian church are prepared to deny this very foundation upon which the church is built, and tell the world publicly it is impossible to believe that Jesus is the incarnate Son of God. And they write books about it and entitle them as such things as the myth of God incarnate. So even tonight, should we be already believers in the Lord Jesus and in his deity, we shall surely be helped as we trace from evening to evening the reasons why these men came to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. And of course, as we read their story, it is evident what Matthew, the gospel writer, will be trying to do, for he's not interested in passing an odd half hour of our Sunday time, regaling us with a few interesting stories merely. Matthew is telling us these stories that we too may come into these experience and discover Jesus as God's incarnate Son and our personal. Tonight we begin with two stories that will tell us how men discovered his deity, as they found Jesus Christ to be the living bread of God, the satisfier of the spiritual hunger of the human heart. Only forthwith, I notice a very interesting thing. You might have expected these early Christians, when they were telling us their story and wishing to advertise and to commend to us their Savior Jesus Christ. You might have expected them, mightn't you? To have painted a story full of glowing colors of a Jesus Christ merciful and compassionate and kindly and meek and mild that never would have upset anybody or offended any person. But they don't. They get full marks in my book for sheer honesty. They tell us that whereas indeed this Jesus Christ proved the bread of life and the satisfier of the human soul, there were many people who, when they first met Jesus Christ, found him anything but satisfying. They found him uncomfortably disturbing, disconcertingly unpleasant, and they were offended in him. We all know what it's like, don't we, to be out on an afternoon stroll across the spitting mountains, maybe, or down a country lane, according to our taste. And all is going well until presently our toe catches in a half-hidden root in the pathway, and we go sprawling over onto our noses. And then, if we're not careful, we say some things to that hidden root that tripped us up, while we regain our composure. Such a word is it that Matthew uses here of the experience of many people when first they met Jesus Christ? He was an offense to them. He was a something that tripped them up, against which they stubbed their toes, and they found it distinctly unpleasant and uncomfortably disconcerting. And do you know that warns me that I mustn't try and tell you this evening, for all my evangelist zeal, I mustn't try and tell you that Jesus Christ is nothing other but meek and mild, and that he would never offend you. If I did, you would know I was being untrue. Who amongst us is there that hasn't on times found Jesus Christ likewise, positively disconcerting. It was so, says Matthew, with the members of his own family. It was even more so with Herod, King Herod Antipas. And it is on his story and his banquet that first of all we shall concentrate. When we have, I hope not regaled ourselves on his banquet, but had enough of it, we shall then turn to another banquet and the feeding of the five thousand by our Lord. Two banquets, two offers of satisfaction, the one by Herod and the one by Jesus Christ. And in the end, we shall take our pick. But more of that anon. I was saying that Herod Antipas, when he heard of Jesus Christ, found Christ profoundly disturbing. So I must tell you a little about Herod. There were many Herods, were there not, in New Testament days? This is Herod Antipas, descendant of Herod the Great. And like Herod the Great, Herod Antipas was a king, and he was used to luxury. He had a marvelous taste in buildings. Like all Herod the Great, nothing but the best of buildings, the very latest of architecture, the most sumptuous designs could possibly satisfy Herod Antipas. He built some superb palaces. I don't blame him, do you? I like lovely buildings. I hope you do too. I can't stick these old utility affairs. The only trouble with me is that I'm not a king. If I have a king and endless wealth, why I should do like Herod and enjoy myself? What's the sense of going through this world with grubby meanness, when man's heart was made for things glorious and wonderful and enjoyable? The very creative instinct that we have in our heart, witness to the glory of the majesty of God who made us, made us not to grovel in the dust like a lot of worms, made us to enjoy the thrill of developing all our human. Herod was a king. I hope he got his money the right way round. I suppose he did. I'm not quite so sure, but I suppose he did. I can't find it in my heart to blame him for wanting to make life as beautiful and enjoyable as he could. Ah, but in the course of his pursuit of pleasure. Then he did something else. We learned that being on a journey at place at a s- a certain time and staying with a brother of his, he fell in life with hi- love with his brother's wife, and she, being a very worldly wise woman, seeing opportunity to become a king's wife, a queen. She ditched her husband and went off with Herod Antipas. And he ditched his wife too. Daughter of a king though his first wife was, for the sake of this mad bit of so-called love. And if it had been Hollywood, nobody would have said anything. And if it would have been BBC television, some programs, they wouldn't have said anything either. We live in a world where this kind of thing is painted as stardom. And the people that behave like it are the people that make the fabulous salaries, aren't they? Well, this is supposed to be pleasure. This is held up to our generation as being the thing to do if you've got the money to do it. But in Herod's day, there was a preacher of the old school, and his name was John the Baptist, and putting his fist in Herod's face, he said, it's not lawful for you, O king, to have her. And that was embarrassing, because not only was the truth unpalatable, but the people knew the press took it up, so to speak. And the people knew that the prophet had challenged the king. Now, what would the king do now? Poor thing. It set his majesty a problem. Did he give in? And climb down? And repent. He said to himself, how could he? And what would his, what would his fashionable friends say about that? And anyway, hadn't he a right to enjoy himself? These old-fashioned rules, why should he live by them? So he wasn't prepared to repent. He thought pleasure and satisfaction laid it away. His new wife urged that he should execute John Baptist, the horrible prig, and who does he think he is, the little street corner preacher? Standing there on his muddy banks of Jordan with an excitable cry of rabble. We don't want preachers like that around this palace. Then said Herod to himself, we couldn't execute the man. For the people held him to be a prophet. It wouldn't be politically wise to execute, uh, the prophet because religion has its uses if you're in politics, you know. It helps you get you votes if you play your cards the right way round. Execute the prophet. Suppose he were a genuine prophet. Suppose this were the voice of God. Finally and forever. No, said Herod, I can't do that. I can't do that. He might be a prophet. So Herod did what thousands of men and women of lower station have done since. He attempted a compromise. He wouldn't say no to God outright. He wouldn't throw the Bible in the dustbin. But then, it wasn't for repenting now, not just now. He would for a while suppress the voice of God, sit on it, so that he could go on unimpeded with his pleasure. Then, when he got older, perhaps he'd let the prophet up and get himself ready for God's heaven. How many men and women have done it since? Some of us here may have done it. Some of us may be trying to do it. You want pleasure, don't you? Well, you say, I do, of course I do. What? I have a right to it. Of course you'll have a right to it. Not sin. Ah, but you say, I don't intend to banish God altogether. For the moment, that word of God, that voice of God, is inconvenient and uncomfortable. It goes against your fashionable friends. It goes against your gay life. Propose not to ditch it completely, but for the moment to suppress it. Then later on, when you're older, and life's spark is dying down, then perhaps you'll listen to it. So you say. Dangerous. Dangerous illusion. Let us all take notice from this word of God. We may play with sin as though it were a toy. There'll come a point when it becomes a tyrant and our master. So the days went on, and then presently Herod had a birthday, and of course Herod was a king. When kings have birthdays, and the king was head of Antipas in his superb palace. The cooking was delightful. For the royalty were there, and the blue blooded. Money was no object. There should be such satisfaction, such marvelous food and fare as the region had scarce seen before. It was Herod's birthday. There would be food for their stomachs, cordon bleu and all that. There would be food for their minds and hearts. Oh, how dazzlingly brilliant it would be. Just that little bit risque, you know. Herodias' daughter came in and danced. It was very risque stuff. And the men were half drunk. And oh, how the guests loved it, and they clapped, and they said, encore! And Herod was taken away with it. This was what life was about. Presently he ordered the music stopped and brought the girl to him. Tell me, he said, ask anything you like. Your dancing has been tremendous. Anything you like, give it to you for the half of my kingdom. In that moment he felt a big man, bathing in the awe wonder of his guest. The girl came back, instructed by her mother, she said, I'll have, please, the head of John the Baptist on a dish. And the king was sorry. And he didn't want to. He never thought it would come to that. Kill the prophet in cold blood. Ah, ghastly thing, howled the woman behind the scenes was turning the screw, wasn't she? And not having the man beheaded in some obscure prison so that nobody, not even the press, ever heard about it, but the head brought in and triumphantly put as the main dish on the table. Get rid of that prophet, said Herodias. I'll show you the way to pleasure. And we can behave as we like, with none to trouble our conscience. And Herod knew he oughtn't to do it, and he didn't want to do it. But how could he lose face? How could he, in this kind of an atmosphere, stand up for the Bible and the prophet without looking the biggest fool on earth. And he found that sin begins as a toy and ends as a tyrant. For when lust hath conceived, bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is finished. Bringeth forth death. And they brought the head on a dish. And the dish was beautiful. And they laid it on the table. And the tongue was silent now. And how long the party went on after that, I cannot tell you. Now there was no troubling voice of profit to disturb them at all. And then... Jesus came. Herod, Herod hadn't yet met him, but he heard concerning Jesus, and he heard of the miracles of Jesus, and he found even the mere report of it a profoundly disconcerting thing. I'll ponder it now for a moment. I told you before that not everybody found Jesus Christ present. Herod didn't. What was that about Jesus Christ that so upset him, or even without meeting him. The report of Jesus Christ made heaven think of eternity. He'd done his best to shut that prophet's voice, to keep out the word of God from his life. And he thought he'd done it. And there came Jesus. And all against Herod's efforts to try and hold it back, like the irresistible ocean in flood coming, seeping in through every door of his life, Jesus Christ proclaimed to Herod that there was a world beyond. And you couldn't keep the door shut on that eternal world forever. It was disturbing. And maybe you have known similar experience, and you know what he felt like. We don't live in a self-contained flat. How many men and women there are that wish we did? Some of them labor to prove it, that somehow this world we live on is a self-contained flat. We can get inside, close the door, and do as we care. And there's nothing outside, they say, to disturb us. Then comes Jesus, the eternal disturber of men. Isn't that why we don't like to hear about him sometimes? As you see, he is God's son incarnate, come from that other world, into our world. Reminding us that for all our attempt to shut the door, one day that great world will break in upon us, and we be summoned to face God. How would Herod face God? The thought of it curled him up inside. Herod, I'm not punning, had a skeleton in his cupboard, hadn't he? Jesus Christ started rattling the bones. What should Herod do? How keep that world outside? Saint Luke tells us that he sent a message via the Pharisees warning Jesus Christ to get out, otherwise Herod would kill him. At length they met. Did Jesus Christ and Herod. And Herod would have liked to have seen a miracle or two before this Jesus Christ was executed. Had given him a little entertainment, and he wasn't loath to having exciting entertainment, was Herod. And he asked him many a question. Jesus answered. Nothing. All that terrible silence. Nothing. Ah, once upon a time, God had spoken to Herod, and spoken through John. Herod had cut the prophet's head off and silenced the voice. God had sent Jesus Christ in his mercy. Herod's only response is to threaten to kill him. At last he met Christ, and Herod had what he chose. There came no voice, only silence. Oh friend, friend, I fear that Herod tonight is where there is an awful silence. His story makes me think of the story of King Saul, another king who had disobeyed God and disobeyed him flagrantly and deliberately. God had sent King Saul a savior in the person of David, and Saul, in spite of many an opportunity to be saved and to receive him, had rejected David to go his own way. And at length David had departed, gone. And for a while, Saul felt relieved. Let him, the nuisance, out of my way. Ah, but the storm clouds gathered politically, and the Philistines came on with their great armies, and Saul one day found himself against impossible odds. And now, with death staring him in the face, he cried to God. God wouldn't answer him. And Saul got himself to his yoke and his witches. Like many do today who have lost faith and go to superstition. And in this witch's hovel, he got her to bring up Samuel, and when Samuel came up, said, Samuel, why have you disturbed me? Oh, Samuel, he said, the Philistines gather themselves together against me. And I cried to God, and God won't answer me. Oh, Oh friend. friend. We've all of us run away from God on times, haven't we? All of us shut the door against the voice of God, thinking to gain pleasure thereby. And God in his mercy has sent the Savior. Careful what you do with the Savior, won't you? Or if you reject him. One day that voice will be silent forever. And all the awful, the awful silence of a soul to whom God never speaks for all eternity. What do we do then? Oh friend, let our early Christian friends tear away from us this illusion of ours that Jesus Christ has come to make life liv- miserable. That the only satisfaction to be had is by keeping him at arm's length and shutting the door against the voice of God. That's a lie. Let's leave that palace. It was fun to start with, wasn't it? Look at now. All that ghastly mess. That awful disfigurement. That bleeding skull. Is that where the world's pleasure ends? I can't leave that banquet. There is a batter. Matthew tells us that thereafter our Lord took his disciples in the crowd, and he took them out into a desert. And there he fed them. Five loaves and two fishes, yet they satisfied five uh thousand and more. Say, how did they do that? You say to me, do you believe that story, Preeta? How ever could five rose and two small fishes satisfy five thousand people? I'll tell you two reasons. It was the hand behind the bread. Some people discovered that day that the hand behind that bread and fish was the hand of God incarnate. And as Jesus took it, we're told he looked up into heaven and he blessed it. All that lovely Christ who joins earth and heaven and gives to earth's simplest things an eternal significance. Friend, what is your life? Bread and fish, a little Kellogg's cornflakes thrown in, and of course some entertainment for your mind, of course. What is it? How long is it going to last? Suppose the fish is nice and the bread is sweet. I pray you, how long are they going to last? For bread and fish don't last many years, and soon they'll be done. Have you met yet the God that's behind them. In Jesus Christ, you may meet him. And the God who gave us breath, the God who daily gives us food, has come down to our planet that he personally might meet us, and we be introduced to him, who is the eternal God. He comes to forge with us a personal relationship so that when the bread and fish are long since gone, we might know him and enjoy him forever. This is eternal life. To know God. Not just to enjoy one or two of his passing gifts, but to know him, to be linked with him. To have a relationship with him that shall outlast life and live through all eternity. Ah, come, this is the banquet. The only banquet at the end can satisfy our souls. Hear Jesus Christ himself say, I am the bread of life. I came down from heaven, from that eternal imperishable world, into your passing temporary world. I came down from heaven, the very bread of life. He that comes to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst. He offers us physical resurrection when these bodies are done. Those who trust him, he guarantees that he will raise our very bodies and make them eternal and eternally glorious. He gives us eternal life now. His own life shared with us, his blood to cleanse our sins, his own person by his spirit to dwell inside us and to satisfy our longs. Presently, those who trust him, he will take to the eternal banquet in his father's home. Hong Hai. So, this is how the early Christians began to discover Jesus. The bread of life and eternal satisfaction. You who seek satisfaction now, and who doesn't? You have your choice. There's Herod's banquets and all the ones that are like it all down the ages, and they on the one side, the world and its godless fare. And on the other side, the bread of life, Jesus Christ, God's son. Say, what will you do with Jesus, which is called For the Christ. Christ?