The Source of Consolation

That last hymn really sets the tone for the very simple word I want to share with you this morning. May Jesus Christ be praised. Why should he be praised? Because it's Jesus Christ and him only who meets human need.

Later on we're going to be singing what a friend we have in Jesus and we will emphasize afresh the unique ministry of the Lord to meet with you and to meet with me at a point where none other can come into our lives and bring what is required. If you were to read the whole of the 14th chapter, to which your attention has already been directed, of Matthew's gospel, you would discover that there are four situations in particular, the first of which we shall look at in some detail in which Jesus Christ is needed and he alone can minister to the individual or the group of people who have specific requirements. In the first 12 verses we have a band of friends who have lost their master.

He has died and they are sorrowful and we're told in the last verse of the opening passage, they went and told Jesus. From the 13th verse and down to the 21st, the story is of a large crowd of people who have no food. They have spent some hours listening to the Savior and there is not sufficient means at the, there are not sufficient resources given to the disciples to meet the needs of these thousands of folk.

And when the Lord hears that there's just a handful of loaves and two fishes available, he says to his disciples, bring them to me. If that represents your problem, bring it to me and let's see what I can do. Later on, it's not a crowd or a group of people, it's one man who's in trouble and his name is Peter and you read that the incident from the 22nd verse right through to the 32nd.

He's walking on the water of the Sea of Galilee and suddenly he starts to get a fear, he becomes afraid and he cries out to the Lord, save me. Only Jesus can minister to him and he does just that as he catches him by the hand and brings him by the side of the boat. And then later on in the 34th verse and the last verse of the chapter, it's a group of people who hear of Jesus coming to their region, the area of Gennesaret and they allow that news to be proclaimed throughout the whole of that district and to the Lord Jesus Christ come all those who are physically in need, all those who are desirous of a touch from his hand and he meets them.

And there you have it. If you like, you could almost go home now, because I don't really want to say any more than that. But emphasize the fact that Jesus is the unique person who can console the individual and the group whatever the needs are that are represented and there's no one in this world who can in any way take the place or come within miles of the position that Jesus Christ occupies.

So if you want a source of consolation, if you want a friend who sticks closer than a brother and who will understand you although the rest of us might be bemused in being able to comprehend your personality, then I direct you to the Lord Jesus Christ. Go and speak to him. Go and talk to him.

And the amazing thing, and I speak not sentimentally, not emotionally, but theologically I speak biblically, the amazing thing is that he's prepared to meet you just at the point of your need. Well then let's look at that first incident. We confine ourselves just to this rather horrific event.

Here are the disciples of John. They've been with the Baptist perhaps for twelve months, certainly not for much longer. And they have watched him in his ministry.

They have followed him. They have been faithful to him. They have known some of their companions defect, so to speak, and go and serve Jesus.

And instead of any rivalry, any sense of jealousy, the Baptist has been glad that they've gone to one who is greater than he is. But we're speaking of those who remained by the side of John assisting him. And I say a great grief has covered their heart.

Why? Well you see John has been arrested. The man of the open spaces, the man of the wilds, the man of the wilderness has fallen foul of the suspicions of Herod. And there he languishes, as you will discover in a chapter earlier in Matthew's Gospel, in the dungeons of Herod.

No wonder, as you will find in that earlier reference, he had just a little struggle with his faith. A man who's used to the wide open spaces does not take kindly to being incarcerated in a smelly dungeon. But that was John's lot, and he sends a message to Jesus.

And Jesus replies, and John is reaffirmed in his faith. But I digress. John falls foul, not to the justice of Herod, but to the whim of Herodias's daughter.

You remember the story. I don't want to go through it in detail, it disgusts me. There's a drunken man, and his lust is inflamed by a girl.

He shoots off his mouth without any control, and utters an oath that anything she wants, she can have. And she requires the head of a Baptist, the man who's in the prison. And such is allowed by permission of Herod.

And the voice that once broke the silence of the wilderness of Judea cries out no more. The man who was a strange solitary figure, with his rather quaint mode of dress, the man who for his fare demanded only locusts and wild hundy, is no longer with us. He's being decapitated.

It's disgusting. Justice has gone to the wall, and the whim of a girl and her blood-hungry mother is satisfied. News reaches the heartbroken companions of the Baptist, and they ask and receive permission to take his body, and they give the decapitated John a decent funeral.

And then what? Well the word says, they went and told Jesus. They went and told Jesus. Men with a grief so heavy it seemed their hearts would not contain the weight, try to find someone who will give them understanding, solace and comfort.

And so the Bible simply says, they went and told Jesus. Let me observe this, and really what I have to share that follows are just simple little reflections that hit me as I meditate upon that comment, they went and told Jesus. Let me suggest this, it was the obvious thing to do, the obvious thing to do.

Obvious on many levels. The first one, obvious on a legal level. After all Jesus was the next of kin of John.

You remember he was the cousin of Jesus. Born from old parents, therefore we can at least conclude that they were dead. And somebody has to be told of the passing of the Baptist, and who legally better to inform than his cousin Jesus.

And so they go, and they let him in on the vile happening in Herod's court, in Herod's palace. And maybe they found stimulus in going to Jesus, because as I remarked earlier, at the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus, some of John's disciples had gone over to Jesus, and far from being jealous like most people would be if they lost their congregation, to the man around the corner, John was elated. And so they did what was the obvious thing.

These people who have a grief that's unexpressible. And I want to say to you my dear friend, this morning, whatever circumstance compelled you to come into the tabernacle, whatever weight there may be, whatever problem there may be, that presses in upon you. The obvious thing to do is, go and tell the Lord Jesus.

Tell Him all about it. Confide in Him. And if you haven't got words, remember this, that Jesus doesn't stumble over vocabulary, because He looks into your heart, and He can register the emotions, and sense what you're feeling.

They went and told Jesus. It was the obvious thing to do. But let me advance upon that almost naive point, and add to it an equally simple one.

It was the only thing to do. Not was it just the obvious thing to do, it was the only thing to do. That's not exactly the same thing that I'm repeating twice.

I'm narrowing the point. I'm making it more pertinent. Do you remember on one occasion, our Lord has been putting down some pretty hard teaching.

Because Jesus did not preach a gospel, come to me despite the cost. He said, come to me and measure the cost. And He spelled it out so graphically on occasions, that a great part of the congregation turned from Him.

And we're told in John's gospel, they had no more to do with Him. They melted away, just like snow melts under the heat of a weak sun. And Jesus turns to the disciples, and He says to them, well alright fellas, you heard what I had to say.

Will you also go away? Full marks to Peter. He takes up the challenge. Peter who often muffs things, gets it wrong with with his immediate response.

He says to whom shall we go? If we lose contact with you, there's nobody else. No one who can speak to our hearts, as you have spoken to us down these months. No one who can minister to human need, as you minister to human need.

Lord Jesus, if we absented ourselves from you, what option is there? There's only one thing for these followers of John to do. And that is to go to the Lord Jesus. After all, it's the Savior who's going to let fall from His lips, the words come unto me.

All you who are weary, all you who are heavy laden, those of you who've taken a battering, those who find that the yoke that's been placed upon you is too heavy, and you can't raise your neck. Those of you who are like an underprivileged ox, come to me, exchange your yoke, and I can minister to you in a way that no one else ever could. Do you remember that fantastic statement that the unknown writer of the Hebrew epistle spells out concerning the Lord Jesus? He uses a Hebraism in which he smuggles in a double negative in Hebrew grammatical style that sometimes is used just to emphasize the point.

Two negatives emphasizing the positive. We have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Get rid of your negatives, put it through as a positive, it means that we've got someone who understands us.

The writer of the Hebrew epistle was bugged by a particular criticism that was often leveled at the Christians. You see they got no temple, in those days they got no church buildings, they got no altar, and seemingly they got no priests. And the Greeks were saying, and the Romans were saying, and even the Jews were saying, how can you be an authentic religion, you haven't got a priest.

Ha, says the writer to the Hebrews, that's not true. We have THE high priest, the priest par excellence, the priest who can minister to the needs of ordinary people like no man-made priest ever can or could. We have a high priest who is touched with the feelings of our infirmities, who can minister to a band of broken-hearted men because their leader has been taken from them, because the lamp that burned in the wilderness has been blown out, and the light seems to be, have gone forever, and with the extinguishing of the light, their hope appears to have been eclipsed.

Now when you're in circumstances like that, then you've got to go to the Lord Jesus. Not because it's the, it's the obvious thing to do, but there are no options, there are no alternatives. I remember on one occasion, occasion reading Richard Crossman's diaries, not recommending them, just confessing that I happened to read them.

And Crossman, who came incidentally from a Brethren assembly, at least from a Brethren background, but gave up the faith of his parents, describes a funeral in which Michael Foot brings the so-called message, Foot not being a Christian, a humanist, has to handle the delicacy of a funeral, and Crossman says how badly he fared, how inadequate were his words to meet the needs on that particular occasion. Of course they were, Foot is just a man as any other politician, and he was just spilling over his own thoughts and his own sentiments. He wasn't taking anyone to the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's only the Savior, who at times of bereavement, at times when your life is so problematical, it's like getting through a maze, and there's no way that you can see any exit at all.

It's then, that you have to follow the advice of these disciples. At least you have to follow their practice, and offer them full marks. They went and told Jesus, was the obvious thing to do, and there were no other options around anyway.

Can I say more? And again, apologies for the simplicity of the thought. They were only doing what others would have done. Do you remember, Jesus got an invitation to a wedding, Cana of Galilee, of course you recall the incident, it's almost as famous as the incident of the prodigal son, and how the, how the person who had estimated the amount of food and drink had not got his sums right.

And eventually, news of the embarrassment reaches the mother of Jesus, who in turn tells the servants to go to Jesus, and she says, whatever He tells you to do, you do it. You see, Mary had learned this lesson as the mother of the Christ, that there are certain circumstances, and many more than most of us are prepared to concede these days, in which the only person to whom you can really go, and find any help and guidance and consolation, is Jesus. Do you remember Bartimaeus, blind beggar, with his little bow, asking for bakshish, as the pilgrims went down his, the main street of his village.

But he knew that Jesus was going, that Jesus would pass through. Oh yes, there were the, there were the synagogue leaders, he could have gone to one of them. There were the priests in the temple, if he'd have joined the pilgrimage, and the procession, and gone to Jerusalem.

But Bartimaeus had one objective in mind, he was going to bring his need to Jesus. And again full marks to Bartimaeus, he may never have graduated in the school of theology, but he graduated in the school of heaven, in placing his faith in Jesus Christ, as able to meet his need. What about Mary and Martha, their, their hearts too are eclipsed with grief.

Brother Lazarus is dead, and they'd already sent a telegram to Jesus, and he hadn't come. But at least they sent the telegram, they represented again. You see the same idea, as you discover amongst John's disciples, here is a problem that's so gigantic, so horrific, only Jesus can help.

And so they sent to him. These disciples went and told Jesus, the obvious thing to do, the only thing to do, doing exactly what others would have done. And what's more, they were doing what John would have had them do.

John is one of the most remarkable men that ever lived, did you know that? That's not an exaggeration. Listen to this comment, if worth of praise is to be measured by the lips from which it falls, no mortal man was ever praised so greatly as he whom Jesus described as a burning and shining light, much more than a prophet. Among them that are born of women, there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist.

And what was one of the strongest points that constituted the greatness of John? He acknowledged and worked towards the fact that Jesus was even greater than he. John had got no pretensions of the following. He said of the Lord Jesus Christ, here is a man who, the buckle of whose sandals I'm not worthy to unloose.

When John is asked by the Roman mercenaries from the fortress of Antonia in Jerusalem to baptize them as they prepare for the advent of the Messiah, he does so gladly. When any of the ordinary people listen to his ministry and submit to baptism, John has got no reservations at all. But one day a man with shining bright eyes comes, a man with a long flowing white garment, a man who stands out in the crowd and he asks John to baptize him.

And that for the first time ever John argues against it. No, rather you baptize me, than I baptize you. Why? Because John recognized who Jesus is.

John is the lesser, Jesus is the greater. And if John could look down from heaven on the scene of his disciples and the way that they reacted having heard of his awful death, he'd have been so pleased. Because John's ministry was to direct men and women to Jesus.

I like to think that if anything happened to me, if my life was suddenly lifted by God from this plane to the heavenly plane, any under whose grace, under God's grace I'd been able to influence, would go on and study and sit and pray at the feet of the Lord Jesus. Not every preacher has known his congregation continue when he has gone. But John's congregation, they went from him to the Savior after he died.

And that was the greatest bouquet, the greatest tribute that could ever have been paid to John. There were no flowers at his funeral service. There was just the gathering of a handful of men who were his followers.

But the best bouquet, the superlative tribute is this, that when John is away from this scene of life, his disciples go and they seek out Jesus. And the context presupposes that they stay with him. If you ever wondered how on the day of Pentecost there are 120 odd people in the upper room, when Jesus only had 11 quote faithful unquote disciples.

Where did the others come from? Well you see Jesus is following has been made that much greater as he has absorbed the disciples of John. As he takes over ministry and directs his abilities towards them and comforts them at a time of need. I come to the conclusion of my little address this morning.

You want a source of comfort, of consolation? Then I direct you to the Lord Jesus Christ. John's men were in need because John had been bereaved and Jesus met the need. There are those who will be hungry and the disciples are utterly lacking in qualification to meet the requirements of such.

But Jesus says bring the handful of loaves and fishes to me and I'll do something unique. Peter is about to sink into the fathomless depths of the Sea of Galilee. But he cries out in his last anguish, Savior will you help me? And Jesus responds and the men and women from Gennesaret, when they hear that Jesus is around they come.

All those with needs and Jesus meets those needs. You see the point it's in every incident in that 14th chapter of Matthew. A high priest touched with a feeling of our infirmities, a Savior and the reason why he died and was raised again was simply so that he could meet your need as a sinner.

There's no one else can do that. Margaret Thatcher cannot do that. Michael Foote can't do that.

They can't do it at the sixth form college. They can't do it at any of the old age clubs. They can't do it anywhere.

There's only one person who can meet the need of men and women in the tabernacle this morning and that is the Lord Jesus. And I ask you have you come to Him? He's available. He is qualified.

He opens his ear to the sinner's prayer. He ministers to the confused soul. He takes the guilt of the person who feels low because of their misdoings.

I turn you to Him and ask you in the name of God follow the example of these disciples. John's voice was silenced in the wilderness but they were turned to the voice of one who would speak with even a greater permanence and authority than John, even the Savior. Come to Him for He will meet your need, whatever it might be.

Amen. And Father for the diverse ways in which our Savior relates to the inadequacies of people like ourselves we thank you. The heartbroken person whose loved one has been taken, Jesus comes alongside and ministers as a husband, as a wife and brings consolation and hope.

To those who are hungry, to those to whom this world has not done right, the Lord Jesus Christ comes along and balances the scales and grants an insight into all that lies in store for those who trust Him in the world that is yet to be. For those who are quaking on the seas of life feeling that they must go under with business pressures that are unbearable, with family circumstances which do not seem capable of resolution, we thank you that there's a one who opens his heart and his hands to those on the seas of life so in need and ministers. And to those who are sick and to those who are sad, to the representatives of a needy humanity, the Lord Jesus comes and those who touch the hem of his garment find the benefits of the gospel to be theirs through his mercy.

Father we thank you for the uniqueness of the Christ. Help us to retain that thought as our comfort and as our consolation and as our point of reference during the days of this week. Amen.