And the Jews’ Passover was nigh at hand: and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves. Then 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?
especially that question at the end of verse 56, what think ye that he will not come to the feast, the question that they were asking each other as they were seeking for Jesus.
Introduction
That should perhaps immediately make us think this is a very encouraging sign that there were people who were asking about Christ. It would appear that some were sincere and others were not sincere. They had wrong motives asking this question. Perhaps that’s where we ought to begin, whether we have this question at all in relation to the presence of Christ. We do not celebrate the feasts of the Old Testament any longer. The Passover feast has ceased, like all the other feasts of the Old Testament ceremonies. We are not to think that the communion season is a feast in that Old Testament sense. The communion season, the days of preparation for supper, are really there for the help of God’s people in their private duty, preparing, examining themselves. The New Testament only requires the Sabbath day as a holy day for the Church of God and it is a holy day according to the commandment. It is the Lord’s day. It is a feast day, a spiritual feast day, not a physical outward earthly feasting as they had in the Old Testament, but a spiritual feast. And indeed every occasion when the word of God is preached, whether on the Lord’s day or any other time, is a feast right now. Think of it that way, that we ought to really start with my my version on my way over this today and the text, the the lamb in the midst of the throne shall feed them and lead them into living fountains of water. What was very precious about the sermon was that he applied that to the church on earth to do of course with the church in heaven, that the lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them into living fountains of water and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. But Raph Erskine was applying it has its application to this world, that’s what’s true of New Testament worship. The Lamb is in the midst of the throne tonight, he is there all the time, he is there continually. That is where the worship of the New Testament takes place and with the book of Revelation, they gather around the throne. We are come to that Mount Sinai in the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem? Do we realize what we’re about tonight? Do we realize really what we’re doing when we gather in the worship of God, in the place where prayer is made, in the presence of God, in the presence of one another? In that act of worship we are approaching the Lamb in the midst of the cold. The inalienable company of angels, the general assembly and church of the firstborn, written in heaven, God the judge of all. The spirits of just men made perfect. They’re all around the throne. Jesus the mediator is there. The blood of sprinkling is there. The lamb, the blood of the lamb is there. But it’s a feast. He feeds them. Whenever Christ is, there is a feast. That’s how we ought to look at the worship of God tonight and on every other occasion, not as we see it outwardly with our eyes. We might come to the church and think it may be a very lean fair tonight, very lean, very poor attendance, poor preaching, poor, weak people, poor. Gathering with God’s worship where the word of God is, where the worship of God is, it’s a spiritual feast, whether we make that of it or not.
So we ought to ask this question. This question needs to be asked every time, because that’s what we ought to be seeking, that He would come. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself would not only present in that way of his promised presence in ordinances, but consciously present to our souls, present to faith and present to the experience and the enjoyment of God’s people. That’s really what the question ought to be in our minds, in our hearts tonight, what think ye then? Are ye thinking about this children? Are you asking this question, what does it mean to worship God, what does it mean to have Christ’s presence, what does it mean to have communion and a communion season, a season of communion? What does that mean? This is what it means, that he will come to the feast. I’m not thinking that he will not come to the feast. The question suggests, suggests an expectation. That’s the first thing. We’ll say a little on that first thing.
Sermon Outline
The Expectation of His Coming
Enmity to His Coming
The Encouragement That He Had to Come, and That We Have Also
The Enjoyment of His Presence
The Expectation of His Coming
Then secondly, there’s enmity to His coming. In the whole circumstance we were reading in the previous verses, and the verses that follow, enmity to His coming for the feast is detected. We need to detect that, that it’s, you know, all parents do. But then thirdly, there’s the encouragement that he had to come, and that we have also. And then fourthly, there’s the enjoyment of his presence. What is it? To have his presence at the feast, a little also of the evidence that he has been present. What effect would it have on you, on me tonight? Over these days as we gather, what would be the evidence that he was present? Do you ever think of that? You come and you go, you attend the worship of God, who it is, but does it have any effect? Is there any evidence that you met with Christ, then to acknowledge of the disciples that they had been with Jesus? How did they know that? It had been that Jesus had told that we could tell, we could see it in their lives. The way they went from the worship of God was different to the way they came into it. What a wonderful thing that would be tonight that an arrow of conviction entered into the hearts of anyone here tonight and they left the building different the way they came. They met with Christ. Just a little time to touch on these things one more bit.
The expectation then, the expectation is surely based on this, his own example and his own practice was well known, that he would always be there, his whole conduct in life. They suggested it. This is why they expected him. It’s his father’s house. It’s the ordinance of God’s worship. It’s the habitation of God’s house which he loved. No one could sing that psalm if they were just singing in the way that he did. You should think about that when you sing the psalms, that the Lord Jesus Christ sang them himself. If we could enter into the psalms, in any degree like as to what he did, then is there not something of communion with Christ in that very act? Does that not make the psalms very precious to God’s people? The Lord Jesus sang about the habitation of thy house. Lord, I have loved thy house. There are reasons why you should love it, because he did. But it this example and it a good example to be expected in the House of God. Be expected that your seat, whoever else’s seat is empty, that your seat would not be on every occasion. Unless it’s something very, very serious preventing you from being there, you should be there. There’s some serious and solemn danger that we have a different and a more relaxed attitude to attending God’s house than that. In spiritual decay at best, more likely something more serious. We don’t really care whether we’re present or not or if it’s easy for us to be absent. So they sought him because they expected him. There was an expectation that he would be there. What a wonderful thing it is to think in that way, in that way of Christ, that he would be coming, that he would be expected, that he would be anticipated. We would go up to the house of God ourselves expecting Christ to be present, looking for him. Then sought they for Jesus. What a wonderful thing you might think, but as you said, there were some who were sincere, but others not so. That’s a sad fact, a sad reality. We might say, we’re seeking Jesus, but are we? What a precious thing to be truly seeking him among, speaking among ourselves as they stood in the temple, what think you? Here is the subject for conversation. Whatever you talk about outside, this ought to be the primary matter. What think you? What do you think about Christ’s presence at the feast, in the worship? What does it mean? Did we meet him or not? Is it apparent, is it a concern to us, is it something we want to talk about? Whether we had Christ’s presence, whether we met with him at the feast. Did the lamb in the midst of the throne feed us and lead us into any living fountains of water? Did the word of God feed our souls? If not, why not? If so, what did we get from it? What good did we receive? Are we Belabling for the meat which perishes and forgetting about the meat which endures to everlasting life. Our priorities are all wrong if that’s so. The habitation of God’s house is more important than all the days of the week and every other engagement and crime. It’s the most serious, the most important, the most solemn business to be attending to in life. There were people who died in order to be there. We were singing Psalm 25 earlier. Margaret Wilson, the young girl who was drowned in the Saw-wave earth, Sanghlatas, the water shows up to choke her to death. Why did she die in the soul rebirth? Because she loved the habitation of God’s house, and we had His honour as well. She wasn’t prepared to give up the duty of attending those meetings for worship. We were commissioned and appointed by Christ. We don’t have to die for what we do tonight. For the days ahead, we trust we can gather in freedom, liberty. Would you? Would you come if you were in danger of death? Would you insult? That’s the kind of degree of expectation we ought to have. I’ll be there no matter who else is there or not there. But it was a time of expectation that he would be there. What think ye? That he will not come to the feast? Surely he will.
Enmity to His Coming
And all the more remarkable because of the enmity, not secondly, the enmity that was all around against him. The enmity of his enemies, the persecution that led to him hiding himself, withdrawing himself from them. He walked no more openly among the Jews but went thence into a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with his disciples. There are times when public worship of God has to move into a degree of secrecy, in open hostile persecution. That’s a very solemn thing and a very serious matter, but when the Savior is here coming up to the temple, he’s doing so in the midst of that persecution, knowing that that persecution is all around him, around him expecting indeed that they would eventually lay the hands of God. That is the hour that had been appointed. His hour was not yet come, so therefore they couldn’t take him before this, but now his hour had come. He was going up to the feast. It was that knowledge, it was that certainty, it was that purpose that He would deliver Himself into their hands, that He would be betrayed into the hands of wicked men to be crucified and slain. That’s what He told His disciples. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, for the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of wicked men. It’s going to happen. This is the very feast that is going to happen at. This Passover. This is the hour that has come, this is my hour. So he approached it, he went up to this feast with this very purpose, and that of course is the whole business around which we are gathered. Death for Lord Jesus Christ, his love to his people, giving himself, making his soul an offering. He would be taken by the hands of wicked men. He would be led as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before a shearer to his dam. So he opened up not his mouth. That’s when it cost the lamb to be in the midst of the throng, to feed and to nourish the people of God with his own living bread. My bread which I will give for the life of the world.
It was the enmity of the heart of man against him, the enmity of the devil, the enmity of the wicked one, the enmity of all the designs of wickedness to destroy him. He is here treading the winepress alone of the people that are done with him. That’s the saviour that is to be sought at the feast, the one who is willing to suffer the enmity of his enemies. Ah, we must pray close to whom or think he that he will not come to the feast. Is there anything that would prevent him from coming? Spiritually, is there that in your own heart that you, as it were, be saying freely, away with him, away with him? We will not have this man to reign over us. Is an enmity in your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ? The carnal mind is enmity against God, it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. And that’s true of every single sinner by nature. And the people of God are discovering there’s an enmity in their own hearts, a law in their members that wars against the law in their minds. There’s a world of iniquity that’s hindering them in the worship of God. The devil would draw their hearts away. The world would steal their affections. The things of time, the things, even lawful things, would come in between them of Christ. Enmity in the heart by nature. The flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. You cannot do the things that you would. Come into the worship of God and you’re deciding to worship, you desire to meet with Christ, you say what think ye that he will not come and before you’re hardly sitting in your seat, it’s your own heart that’s keeping him awake, it’s your own spiritual darkness and spiritual enmity in your own wicked heart, it’s drawing your heart away to other things in Christ’s presence, it’s not being sought at all. It a real grievous burden to God people. They would be in the worship of God. Their thoughts elsewhere. Their hearts not far away. These people on the rhythm with their mouths. Their heart is far from them. In vain do they worship. So, the people of God mourn that. You’re here tonight and the reality is that what’s keeping you from the presence of Christ and Christ coming to meet with you is your own unbelief, you will not come to heaven that you might have life. You’ve not yielded to him, you’ve not submitted to his authority, you’ve not come under power of his truth, you’re resisting truth, you’re neglecting the great salvation, whether it’s formality or unbelief or being at ease inside or presumption or any other thing or whether it’s some temptation in the very worship of God or the enmity that is in the heart. It’s really just like what the Pharisees and the Jews were at, they would give a commandment if any knew anywhere he should show it that they might take it. The devil says busy doing that tonight, he says busy doing that at the communion season, busy doing that on the Sabbath day spiritually in your heart, the hearts of men and women, boys and girls as he was here there’s a there’s a devil that would stir up the heart to betray himself as Judas did, to deny him as Peter did, to forsake him as all the disciples did, you would do it as quick as you think. You would lift yourself for a moment. Most people know that. So this great matter of him coming to the feast is a really wonderful thing in spite of all that.
The Encouragement That He Had to Come, and That We Have Also
Though all that be true yet, he is on after this feast. Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany where Lazarus was, which had been dead. And what encouragements then he had to come? May that be not an encouragement to us to think but there are encouragements to hope and to expect and to look for them at the feast, worship of God and the house of God and now attending to the are looking for. You might look at it in the chapter as follows. There were those who were looking for him. There were those who were expecting him. Martha and Mary and Lazarus were looking for him. The house of Simon the leper they were looking for. They were preparing a meal for him. They were preparing food for him. And because they were expecting him to be there and his disciples. And what a wonderful event, what a wonderful occasion it was when they met in that house. Mary took her ironed-off ointment, and despite in her very costly, anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with a veil. The house was filled with the order of the Lord. Judas Iscariot notwithstanding, in spite of him she was going to do this because she believed what he said about his very against the day of my very and she kept this until I know that this worth is coming just for that just to have that token of his disciples, his dear disciples now and to have that enjoyment of their presence and their company and Christ will come for the likes of Mary again and again and again in spite of all the enmity in spite of all the expectation of the Jews that he would be caught and then trapped and then snared in their devices against him the Savior will make his way to find his true sincere and honest disciples who are expecting and looking for him and desiring his presence. And what an encouragement that ought to be to be more like Mary, to be more like Martha and Lazarus and Simon the leper. And to look for Christ and to ask for him and to send messages to him. When in kindness unto me wilt thou be pleased to come, do not do not believe me of thy blessings. Even so, come Lord Jesus, come quickly. Whom have I in heaven but thee? That’s what Mary’s language in her heart was. There is none upon earth that I desire besides thee. One thing is needful. Did he not say it himself? Had Martha not learned her lesson? Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. Ah, Is that not a good lesson to learn in view of communion ceasing approaching in the times of worship, the feast, the feast? That Christ’s bread is broken, however poorly, however weakly, however feebly, however dark than the vessel, the excellence in the power, the treasure, the glorious riches of Christ’s grace, like into food, feast, and that thing that’s full of battle. It’s worth seeking to sit at the feet of Jesus, to be in this world. That’s the one thing you need to do. Therefore the one thing to be desired all days of your life you may within God’s house remain in the beauty of the Lord, people. It’s an ivory palace. It makes him glad. It brought him to Jerusalem, the cross of the Bethany. It’s desired of his people towards his name and the remembrance of it will bring Christ’s presence into the assembly. You have it as you desire it.
And they were going to conduct him up into Jerusalem and the next day much people that were coming to the feast and they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem to branches of pantries and went forth to meet him. He knew that that was going to happen as well. He was preparing for it. He said, ahead, if the ass is cold, that he would be taken and conducted up to this city because he was going to fulfill that scripture. As it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion, for all thy king cometh unto thee. Ah, is that not an encouragement tonight that the daughters of Zion in their fears can look for Christ to come again. You have fears about yourself. You have fears about your family. You have fears about your congregation. You have fears about the devil. You have fears about the world. You have fears that you wouldn’t share with anyone. Well, fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold, thy King cometh. He’s going to answer all your fears. He’s going to banish all reasons for fear. He’s going to fear not for every fear. If you have his presence, then the hills amidst the seas be cast. The waters rolling make and troubled be. Yea, though the hills by swelling cease to shake, nevertheless a river is to sleep to land. The city of our God, the holy place wherein the Lord most high. As is the bold. God in the midst of her does not. Nothing shall her remove. That’s what he meant. Fear not, God will decide. He’s pleasant. It doesn’t matter what troubles come, what fears have come. He’s able to still this door. To say, peace be still. So they were saying, Hosanna. Children, do you know what Hosanna means? It’s a very precious word to bear in its meaning. We hope that you’ll remember it all through the communion. And every time you come to the worship, when you come to the house of God, come with Hosanna in your heart. Because Hosanna means, Save me now. Save now, I pray. Save me now. That every occasion would be with that desire the Lord would save your soul now, not tomorrow, not some other time, but now. Today is the day of salvation. Young men, young women, now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. Say Hosanna to the son of David, you come to worship and feast what then he not come. You would ask that you save your now. Do you mean it? Do you really need it? Do you really feel you need it? Have you ever asked for it? Did you ask for it before you came tonight that Christ would save your soul from hell and death and ruin and eternal misery. Did you? I ask you before God and your own conscience, did you ask God to save your soul? Well, be asking. And what think you? Do you think? Do you think? The one who said, ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you, who deny that prayer cannot be, what think ye that he will not come.
The Greeks came up to the feast. What an encouragement that must have been. And it was to Christ. He answered, the hour has come when the Son of Man shall be born. You have seen the Greeks and you have seen the travel of his soul stretching out before them and all the Gentile nations be gathered. Corn and wheat would fall into the ground and die and it dies and it brings forth much fruit. He’s saying it. He shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days in the pleasure of the Lord, from prospering his hand. What an encouragement it was to him to see the Greeks. What were they saying? We would see Jesus. Whatever others think of him we desire to meet him, we desire his presence, we must have his presence. We’ve heard so much about him, like the Queen of Sheba who came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. I’m greater than Solomon is here, so we’ve come and we’re going to meet him, we must meet him, we would see him. The Queen of the South and the Greeks with him or rise in the judgment, as the men of this generation, 21st century, are so condemned because they had Christ eating and drinking in their presence, teaching in their synagogues. They never asked as she did. They never sought as diligently as the Greeks did. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew, and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus, this is wonderful. There will be anyone asking to see Jesus. These are encouragements to Christ, we might say, but they ought to be encouragements to all his disciples. But this is indeed good. It is for him to come to the feast.
The Enjoyment of His Presence
Of fellowship and communion with his disciples, to meet with them, to make himself known to them, to reveal his grace to them, completeness of his love, to unfold his name, to all his garments man, ale of smyr and cassid, Out of the eyes of the palaces to a diary making cloud. His garments speak about something, tell us something about him. He came into the world and took our nature. He was wrapped, he found the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, buying in a manger. We find Christ in his suffix, in the garments of his humiliation, we find him in the grave clothes, they all speak of his love to his church, his people and it’s there that you see something of his grace which was the same his precious appointment, his name is appointment for therefore do the virgins love him and all we will run after thee, the king has brought me into his chambers, we will be glad and rejoice in thee. That’s the language of love, the language of enjoyment, the language of fellowship, that’s why they say the habitation of thy house Lord I have loved well in that place I do delight where doth thine honor dwell sinners gather not thy soul. He draws his people, he comes, he draws them. I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men up. The death of Christ is a great drawing power, a great winning power over the heart. The doctrine of Christ’s death. We’re not talking about mere emotion. We’re not talking about sentimental pictures and idolatrous, blasphemous representations of Christ. We’re talking about the Word of Christ, the doctrine of Christ’s death, his atoning death, his sacrifice for sin. Ah, that’s a feast for my soul. That’s what my soul needs. He who gave his life, I’ll answer. He makes the beast. He knocks on the door. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him. Do you really believe in that? It’s true. It’s as real tonight as anything in this building that you’re seeing with your eyes. Christ draws a deep commandment, and some of his people spiritually feed them with himself. Myself, my flesh is meat to me, my blood is drink to me, and except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man your life, it eateth me, shall live by me. That’s the enjoyment that Christ’s people have. That’s why they are asking, what’s the key? He will not come to the feast. There will be no feast without him. There’s no Passover without him. There’s no passing over my sin without him. It’s when I see the blood I will pass over you. I need Christ. I need the blood of Christ. I need the blood of Christ applied to my conscience. I need the blood of the sprinkling that speaks in heaven peace for my soul. I need that to be applied again and again and again to my conscience. The blood of Jesus Christ God’s son cleanses us from all sin, the sins I committed today, the sins I committed yesterday, my sins and faults of youth, how is it all going to be put away through this glorious sacrifice, this day that he died. It is that for the presence of Christ that they seek, what’s the key that he will not come to the priest.
Evidence of His Presence
And he comes, and he makes changes. The evidence of his being present in Bethlehem is the odour of the offering of the Ligachat. An enlarged heart, an enlarged desire, graces the spike in our sending forth the smell. Grace towards him and grace towards each other, larger hearts for each other. Kindness, gentleness, humbleness, meekness, loving one another, forbearing one another, forgiving one another. Any of a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. That’s the evidence that Christ is being blessed. Well that’s absent. It’s clearly Christ has been absent. Because they’re not like him. Men took knowledge often that they had been with Jesus because they became like Jesus. They lived like him, they thought like him, they spoke like him, they acted like him. They bore his lineage. They became Christians. They became anointed, Christ-like. That’s the evidence that Christ has been present. What’s that key? A lot to think about. There’s a lot to think about. There’s a lot to think about. As if people come. You ask that you would. You really desire them to come. Is it a change in your own soul that you’re really desiring, reviving, and cringing to, stirring up, and wanting to come? And cricketing, stirring up the warming of that cold heart, the joy of these wayward affections, the sharpening of that mind, turning away from sight and eyes, from viewing vanity, with thy good and holy name.
This sermon is auto-transcribed and may contain inaccuracies.
Speaker: Rev David Campbell
Congregation Santa Fe
Text: John 11:55
Date: 10 June 2026
Series: Texas Communion June 2026