Well, please turn in your Bibles this evening to John's Gospel in chapter 11. John chapter 11, well-known chapter, which begins with Lazarus' sickness and the concern of his sisters so that they send to the Lord Jesus. By the time Jesus arrives, Lazarus has died. And we get those wonderful words off the Savior in verse 25. And 26, Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? It would to God that we did believe this in our souls this evening, because the dead walk in our midst. They walk in our families. They walk in our church every week. and we need to lay hold of God that he would raise the dead. We need to get a vision of Christ that he is the resurrection and the life, otherwise we will be hopeless when it comes to parenting or preaching the gospel within this congregation. On the back of Jesus miraculously raising Lazarus from the dead, the plot thickens among the religious leaders to kill him. You see that in verse 47. Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council and said, what do we for this man do with many miracles? Shows you the irrationality of sin. They've just seen a witness to the power of God and their immediate response is how can we kill the resurrection and the life? Sin works like that in your life and mine. It tells us all kinds of stupid lies and we're confronted with the gospel and yet to hold on to our pleasures we continue in a course of madness. They determined to kill Jesus, verse 53. So the Lord Jesus goes into the wilderness away from the threat. And it comes that time of the year for the Feast of Passover and the pilgrims from their tribal regions make their way onto the city of Jerusalem. And as they gather they have a question that is dominating their thoughts. And it's recorded for us at the end of verse 56. Then sought they for Jesus and speak among themselves as they stood in the temple. What think ye that he will not come to the feast. The talk among the Jews is will Jesus come to the city of Jerusalem to observe the feast of the Passover? He'd come to other feasts. We know that from his youth it was his custom to attend the feast of the Passover and we discover in chapter 7 of John's Gospel, that he is there present at the Feast of Tabernacles, where he stands up on that last day of the Feast and throws this wonderful invitation forth to the people. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water. But at this feast, they don't see him. And they're left with a question. The question's relevant to us as we come to our New Testament feast tomorrow and gather at the table of the Lord. A question that ought to be upon your minds, will Christ come to the feast? A question of concern that we would even answer with Moses in the Old Testament. If thy presence go not with us, carry us not up hence. Don't leave us to ourselves. So I want with God's help this evening to attempt to answer this question for your encouragement as we anticipate coming to the table of the Lord tomorrow. What think ye that he will not come to the feast. Consider first of all the appointed feast. There were different kinds of feasts in the Old Testament. There were feasts for the body and they were typically celebratory feasts. You might find them after a great victory is won on the battlefield. You'll find them around the occasion of a wedding and these Feasts were more than a meal. It wasn't just your Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday evening dinner. You would receive notice of it. There would be excitement building and you would go there with an appetite to enjoy the food and everything else that was on offer at the feast. And we find the Lord Jesus in the days of his flesh participating in feasts like this. John chapter 2 would be an example, where he is found at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. And this marks him off from John the Baptist. You remember the criticisms of them both. There's John, he's austere, he lives out on his own in the wilderness, he's a kind of oddball, and he doesn't eat, he doesn't drink. And so if you were to invite John to a feast, it's very likely that he's not going to turn up. But Jesus, on the other hand, He comes eating and drinking, enjoying the festivities with all of these other people. But of course that's weaponized against him. John doesn't eat, doesn't drink. He's a sour patch, but here's Jesus. Well, he's overly indulgent. He's enjoying himself with the people. But then there were religious feasts in the Old Testament. And these take what the people would have known in their civil joy into the religious realm. And God appointed those feasts to celebrate himself and his works and to teach the people spiritual truths concerning the reality of our salvation and how sinners can enjoy fellowship and communion with God. And indeed, if you take it from the old right to the end, of time, the Old Testament to the end of time. Heaven is presented to us as a picture of a glorious feast where the church of the Lord Jesus Christ will sit down in celebration and gladness and joy at the marriage supper off the land in a festivity that will never ever end. But of course, in between the Old Testament and the end of time, We have the New Testament. And Christ has appointed the Lord's Supper in the New Testament to replace all of the Old Testament religious feasts that we find there. Now Jesus has come. Those former feasts and their sacrifices pointed to him. We don't need the elaborate ritual. We don't need the temple. We don't need to kill animals. We don't need the great high priest. All of that is fulfilled in Christ. And he gives us a feast that is characterized by simplicity. You take bread, you take wine, you sit at a table, and you remember me and what I have done for the salvation of sinners. But more than that, as you participate, you fellowship with me. and you receive the benefits of my person and work and everything that is purchased for you in the new covenant. You must not look back on the old and say well those feasts they were seven days long they were elaborate there were thousands of people thronging the streets of Jerusalem and somehow think that would have been better than what Jesus has appointed for you. because the simplicity of our feast, brethren, must never take away from the glory of it. The Lord Jesus Christ has appointed a soul feast for you at his table. And he invites you to the most intimate communion and fellowship with himself as you sit there. And that's the joy of the feast. So we come to the table of the Lord as that which Jesus himself has appointed. And we also come to the table in the way that he is appointed, taking due recognition of the call to prepare for the feast. Now, if you were to make your journey to Jerusalem to keep the feast of the Passover, preparation would be required. If someone's getting married and you receive the invitation many months in advance and maybe you get them a gift and you go out and buy yourself a new dress and you make sure your husband's tidy, the suit's not falling apart and off you go to the wedding and you sit down there knowing what's coming with an intention to enjoy it. Preparation for the Lord's table serves the same function. You know it's coming, you anticipate it, you prepare for it, you stir up an appetite so that you might feast upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you examine yourselves as he has commanded you to do in his word. 1 Corinthians 11, verse 28, let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup with the warning that if we fail to do it and deal with sin in our lives, then we will partake unworthily and eat and drink judgment to ourselves. So we have an appointed feast and an appointed way of preparing for that feast. And it's there at the feast that we find food for our souls. So the first thing is the appointed feast. The second thing is Christ is the feast. Christ is the feast. The Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread. He gave thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat, this is my body that is broken for you. Likewise, after this manner, he took the cup after he had supped and he said, drink ye all of it. This is the new covenant in my blood. Jesus takes bread and wine. But I want to tell you something that you already know, but you need to hear it again. The elements of the Lord's supper are not the feast. The elements are not the feast. If they were, we would all leave this place as hungry as we came. The elements are but emblems of Christ and his finished work. They are likewise instruments that we used in order to receive the Lord Jesus Christ himself and all of the spiritual benefits that he has purchased for us. But brethren, we have to approach the table with this understanding that he himself is the feast. Therefore, we come tomorrow, not merely to eat bread and to take a sip of wine. We come with the determination to commune and fellowship with Jesus Christ, and to feed our souls by faith on the infinite, eternal son of the living God. Without him, you will find absolutely nothing for your soul. Children, you can think of it this way. You've seen the Lord's table. How much bread do we eat? Just a pinch of bread, really. And how much wine do we drink? Maybe a bottle or a bottle and a half between 70 people who will sit at the table of the Lord. That's not enough to even feed your body, is it? That's why we all go and have lunch after we sit at the table of the Lord. But how much more do we have to recognize that that's true concerning the soul? Because a little piece of bread and a little piece of wine cannot in any way feed your soul. Your soul is immaterial. It's spiritual. In the Old Testament, they took the Passover lamb and when they sacrificed it, they ate the lamb. And that points to Christ, and the New Testament tells us Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. But just like the Old Testament worshiper who fed upon the lamb, the New Testament worshiper comes to the table of the Lord, not to feed upon the elements, but upon the lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Jesus gives himself to his people in the ordinance. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and you'll see this. You must not think that the Lord's table is merely a memory. The evangelical church has slipped into that misunderstanding. High churches and the Roman Catholic church have slipped into another misunderstanding that the bread and wine actually become literally the bread the body and blood of the Lord Jesus not so. But there is a mystery here. That there is a union between the sign and the thing that is signified. First Corinthians chapter 10 verse 16 the cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ. That word communion means fellowship, participation. Is this cup not the participation and fellowship in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? So what is happening tomorrow? The Lord Jesus Christ, the infinite eternal son of God is coming into the midst of his people to feed their souls. The feast is necessarily an infinite feast. You cannot by faith eat or drink too much of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he comes to us in his word and he says, Eat, O Beloved. Yea, drink, drink abundantly. Drink your fill. Eat until you're full and you can't eat any more. Drink until you're absolutely satiated. Because the efficacy of the person and work of Christ will not run out. So we need more than a table tomorrow. We need more than bread and more than wine and more than congregants. Christ is the feast and therefore we must have Christ because if we don't, there's no feast. Do you see why this question in our text is so important? Will he not come to the feast? Oh my friends when we understand what is going on we need to say he must come to the feast. Without him there is no feast at all. So we have an appointed feast. Christ is ultimately the feast himself. Well, we need to ask another question at this point. So in the third place, what keeps Christ from the feast? We want him to come, but what would keep him from coming? Well, we have promises in the Bible, don't we? That when the church is gathered, the Lord is with her. He says to his disciples, go you into all the world, preach the gospel. Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. It tells us in Matthew chapter 18 that where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst. So on the one hand, we have these promises of Christ's presence, but yet on the other hand, we've also got warnings in scripture. Sometimes he withdraws from the church. You see it in the Song of Solomon, don't you? The Shulamite wakes up, her beloved is gone, and out she goes, searching in the streets. Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? You see it in the Old Testament, in the book of Ezekiel, where the Shekinah glory is there upon the temple, but Ezekiel sees a vision, the Shekinah glory goes out the Eastern gate and departs from the sanctuary of the Lord, telling the people of God that he is leaving them because of their sins. Lo, I am with you always. Yet sometimes he withdraws. What makes Christ withdraw? What gets in the way in terms of our question of him coming to the feast? Well two things. First of all unbelief. Bible tells us that without faith we cannot please God. Furthermore you understand that without faith there is no union with Jesus Christ. And if that be true, brethren, how can there ever be communion with Christ? Communion and fellowship flows out of union with Jesus. So for anyone to come to the table of the Lord and they do not have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is to make a complete mockery of the Lord's Supper. That's why if you seek to come to the table in our congregation, you meet with the elders and the elders ask you questions. They want a profession of faith from you. Tell us how the Lord has worked in your life. What gives you reason to think that you have a right to the table? Have you been brought to faith in the Redeemer? Now we can only evaluate outwardly what you tell us. We can't say, well, upon the basis of what you said, we know you have faith. And because we know you have faith, you can come to the table. We can't read your heart. But the questions are designed for you to face up to the issue that a Christian must be believing in Christ and to partake at the table requires faith. Otherwise, you can only eat and drink judgment to yourself. The Lord's Supper is a wonderful gospel picture in that sense, isn't it? There are those who come, they're professing an interest in Christ. Sinners saved by grace through faith. There are others who may not come. They don't have the right to come. Maybe the reason for that is the absence of faith. Why could I press this upon your heart this evening? If you do not have the faith that is required for you to come to the Lord's table, not only will you be shut out from the table, You will be shut out of heaven forever. You say, well, I'm a good person. Well, you might be in the eyes of men. And we thank God for your civil goodness, that you're a polite person, you're a helpful person. But in the eyes of God, you're a sinner, just like every single other person in this world. And if you do not have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter how good you think your works are. You're going to hell. The redeemed church will be received at last onto that glorious marriage feast, and forever they will commune with Christ in heaven. But there's another feast in Revelation chapter 19, and you, unbeliever, are that feast. The Lord Jesus calls for the birds of the air to come and feed upon the destroyed carcasses of his enemies. Total destruction is the picture. So what will it be for you? If you know you're not a Christian here and you're going to be present tomorrow morning and you watch the believers go up to profess their interest in Christ and feed upon him and you sit on your seat, understand this, that if Jesus Christ returned Right then and there, a great gulf would be fixed between you and us and him forever. But then the Christian also struggles with unbelief, doesn't he? And unbelief in the Christian life is a provocation for the Lord to withdraw. Remember what happened in Nazareth, Mark chapter six, where he marveled at the people. He'd grown up in their midst, he performed many miracles before them, and yet they tried to kill him. And his astonishment with Nazareth was their unbelief, so that he could not do any mighty works there. because of their unbelief. Now, of course, Jesus is God. He could have raised them from their spiritual death and give them faith. No one disputes that. But because of the existence of their hard-hearted unbelief, Jesus withdrew. Well, let's apply that principle to the unbelieving church. Can the unbelieving church expect that the Lord Jesus Christ, whom they profess in words, is really going to be present at their feast? The answer is no. He departs from that people the same way as he departed from the inhabitants of Nazareth. Or if we could individualize it, what can we say of the Christian who will dare come to the Lord's table not actively engaging in it by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Can he expect that Christ will meet him at the table? The answer's no. And this is the kind of unseen thing that goes on at the table of the Lord. We look at one another, and we're happy to see one another, and we're doing the same thing, and we think we're all rejoicing together, but if we had the eye of God, I wonder what we would see. That as the elements pass around the table, this one and the next one and the next one is exercising faith and there's the other one. And they're just sitting carelessly abusing the table of the Lord. There's no feast for your soul. There's no communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. If we come to the table in our unbelief. Secondly, What prevents Christ coming to the feast? Well, the obvious answer would be sin, wouldn't it? Sin. I mentioned earlier, every single one of us has this in common. We are all sinners. So when you see God's people come to the table of the Lord tomorrow, please don't think that they're saying, we're not sinners. Every single person who will be at that table really communing with Christ. Every single one of them is nothing but a sinner who has been forgiven their sins because of Christ. But will that be true? Again there are still warnings that come to us in scripture aren't there? Warnings to the church, warnings to the individual believer that sin undealt with in our life separates us from our God. Turn if you will to Isaiah chapter 59. Isaiah chapter 59. And what in essence the Lord is saying here is the problem is not with me, it's you. The problem is not with me, it's you. Isaiah 59 verse 1. God can do all this for you. God's ear is open to your cry, but here's the problem. Verse 2. But your inequities have separated between you and your God. And your sins have hit his face from you that he will not hear. Doesn't say that he cannot hear. Of course he can. But he will not answer your cry. Why? Because your sin has erected barriers to your fellowship with God. Will Christ come to the feast and meet my soul? No, if I'm holding on tenaciously and unrepentantly to my sin. Will Christ come to the feast and feed my soul? No, not if my sin and my carelessness and my hardness of heart is of no concern to me. Will Christ come to the feast and feed my soul? No. If I choose my sin perpetually over Jesus Christ, what do you expect if that's the case? The Bible is very clear. The problem is not with me, says God. The problem is with you. Your sins, undealt with, are like mountains between your soul and me. Now the mountains can be made low, but you need to deal with them. So picture the professing believer living in sin. Perhaps no one else knows about it, but God does. And he gets up from his seat and he comes to the table and he's surrounded by these invisible mountains. And he sits on his seat at the table of the Lord. And there he is, the elements pass by, even dares to take them. But the mountains, and the walls of sin are around his soul as barriers to his communion with Christ. Congregational sin, particularly if we are to look at 1 Corinthians divisions in the churches. We build mountains of sin around this church building in a sense. And then we come to the table of the Lord and we wonder why we get nothing for our souls. The Lord says to us, like he said to Israel in the days of Achan, sin, there's sin in the camp. You need to go and put it away and then you will be restored to happy fellowship with me. So unbelief and sin, they prevent in a sense the Lord Jesus coming to the feast. But then fourthly, Christ will come to his feast. Christ will come to his feast. Not if you're dealing with sin the way that we've described in the previous point. But yet he comes to meet with sinners, doesn't he? We've said that. They're not perfect people. Who are they? They're sinners who struggle with sin, Sinners who may be laboring and heavy laden in their souls because their sins grieve them and they're crying out to God that they might be holy and cleansed and washed from all of their sins. Now if we come to the table of the Lord as that kind of poor, needy, believing sinner, then the answer to our question is a positive one and it fills our hearts with hope. Yes, Christ will come to the feast. Christ will come to the feast. Five things for your encouragement, brethren. First of all, Jesus will come to the feast because it is his feast. Because it is his feast. Do you find yourself even listening to this sermon? And when you're asking this question, will Christ come to the feast? You're doing it in a sense of you must be the one to invite him. It's not wrong to get down and pray, Lord, come and fellowship with us. Come to the table, come to the feast. That's right in one sense, but you need to understand brethren, that it's not our invitation to Christ to come to our table. It's his invitation, yea, more than that. It's his command to us to come to his table. He is the host who invites poor and needy sinners into fellowship with himself. When we think of our feast and who we would invite to them, the great men of the world, they don't want the lowlifes to come. to their table. They want the prestigious. They're thinking, who can I advise so as to further my own reputation and advantage in the world? But the Lord Jesus doesn't do that, does he? Now he says to his servant, I have a feast. What I want you to do is go out into the highways and the hedges and the byways and call the poor and the maimed and the halt and the lame and the blind and tell them to come to my feast and to sit at my table. Or like David, he sends for Mephibosheth, this poor, lame person who can do nothing for himself. And he says, Mephibosheth, you come, tuck your invalid legs under my table and feast with me, the King of Israel. Will Jesus come to the feast? My friends, it's his table. And you might sit here this evening and say, well, this is me spiritually. I'm poor and maimed and lame and halt and blind. And Jesus says, I'll meet you tomorrow. You come to my table and I'll feed your soul. Secondly, not only is it his feast, but he feasts with sinners. The same people that he invites spiritually speaking, the lame and the maimed and the halt and the blind. He comes to his church in the book of Revelation and he knocks on the door and he says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. You receive me and I will come in and I will sup with you. and you will sup with me. It's his feast and he eats with sinners. Wasn't this the criticism of the proud self-righteous religious leaders in his day? They couldn't wrap their head around it. They were good living. They thought they were worthy of the blessing of God and they were ignorant of their true spiritual condition and they looked at Jesus and where was he? This man receiveth sinners, and he eats and he drinks with them. Oh, he cleanses them from their sins as they come casting their burdens upon the Lord. What confidence for us this evening. We look into our hearts and we see all of our sins and our imperfections, but confessing the same, Jesus says, and I will feed you. And know that I desire communion and fellowship with you far more than you desire communion and fellowship with me. Matthew chapter 26, he sits at a table with his disciples and he breaks bread and he gives it to them and he passes the cup and they drink his wine. And who was there? Simon Peter. A few chapters before, he said to this reckless man, get thee behind me, Satan. You don't savour the things of God, but the things of men. After they rise from the same table, he'll come to Simon and he'll warn him, Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you that he might sift you as wheat. This very night, Simon, you're gonna forsake me and deny me. No, I'll never do it, Lord. Well, just wait and see. And there's Simon sitting at the table with Christ at the head and Christ is feeding this poor, struggling believer in his kindness. If you think you're worthy of the table, you'd better stay away. This table is for unworthy people. And that's part of our worthy participation, brethren, understanding that we are unworthy. And the whole of our hope and confidence as sinners is upon Christ who is represented in the very emblems before us. Christ is the, it's Christ's feast. And Christ feasts with sinners. Thirdly, Christ dwells with the broken. Christ dwells with the broken. Still maybe you say in your heart, he's so holy and high, such a glorious host. And yet here am I, wretched and poor miserable and blind and naked. And the sense of your sin, sometimes this happens, the sense of your sin can sort of put you off your spiritual appetite so that you want to withdraw rather than come. You're not, we might say, in the feasting mood. What you're really saying is, will Christ really come to the feast and fellowship with me? That's your question, isn't it? Well, can I answer it for you by directing your attention to Isaiah chapter 57? Isaiah chapter 57. And I want you to notice the contrast between the two parties. and yet it's not fatal to their communion and fellowship. Isaiah chapter 57 and verse 15. For thus says the high and lofty one that inhabits the eternity whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place. That's our God. But that's not the only place he dwells, brethren. with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit. Contrite means broken up, the way something would be pounded in a mortar and pestle. I dwell with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Or as David puts it, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do you see the picture here? He is high and holy, yet it's no obstacle to his condescending and grace to dwell with broken hearted and contrite sinners. In fact, the contrition and brokenness of our hearts actually prepares a room for Christ to dwell in. Broken believer here this evening, Christ says of you as God said of Jerusalem, this is my rest. Here still I'll stay for I do like it well. Will Christ come to the feast and dwell among broken sinners? It's exactly the kind of people he dwells among. Fourthly, Christ feeds the hungry. In a sense, the only thing you need to bring to this table is your need, your hunger, your thirst for the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you have it in your soul? Even listening to the word tonight as it's stirring up, I desire so that you come with the psalmist and say, Lord thee, my God, I'll early seek my soul to thirst for thee, my flesh longs in a dry parched land wherein the waters be. Your loving kindness to me, O God, is better than life. I will be filled with marrow and with fatness when I sit down at your table. and by faith feed upon you. Are you hungry? You ought to be. My friends, whoever goes to a feast full, what would you go to a feast for? You think of all the lovely food you're going to have at a feast and you sit down and think, well, I'm going to stuff my face before I go because I don't really want to eat at the feast. Now you probably don't eat breakfast and skip lunch because you think, I'm gonna really go at it when I get to this feast. I'm going to enjoy all the good things that are provided there. Who goes to a feast full? So you look into your soul and you say, well, I'm not full, I'm hungry. Christ says very well, bring your hunger to me. I dwell with the broken. I feed the hungry. I satisfy the longing soul with goodness. You find hunger in your soul this evening. It really is a good evidence that Christ has already prepared the table for you tomorrow and that he will come to the feast. and he will feed your hungry soul. Finally, will he come to the feast? The Bible tells us he draws near to those who draw near to him. Ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened unto you. You will seek me and you will find me when you will search for me with all of your heart. James chapter four, verse seven and following likewise gives us direction and encouragement. James chapter four, verse seven and following. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn and weep and let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall raise you up. Turn your vain joys into spiritual mourning so that I turn your spiritual mourning into joy which is unspeakable and full of glory. And to this end, draw near to me and I promise you, I will draw near to you. So what's the question then of our text? What think ye? that he will not come to the feast. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Purify your hearts. Come with all of your brokenness honestly before the Lord to his table with nothing but your hunger and your need. And Jesus says, I will meet with you there. May God bless his word to our hearts that stand for prayer. O Lord our God, we give thanks for the ordinances that you have appointed. And we trust not in ordinances, but we look through them as windows to behold Christ and his glory. We need the Spirit to bring Christ to our souls. We need faith wrought by the Spirit to lay hold of our Redeemer. If we're not hungry, O God, give us hunger. If we're not needy, Show us our need. If we're not suitably broken, give us the sacrifices of God, a broken spirit and a contrite heart, because Lord, we are too intact. We pray, Lord, that in this due preparation, Christ would be preparing His way to come and feed and strengthen and comfort and heal our needy souls. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.