Water to Wine

Transcript

Turn with me to the Gospel According to John, Chapter two. The Gospel According to John, Chapter two. And when you found John two, go ahead and stand with me for our gospel reading this morning. And you may be thinking maybe. Well, I thought we were in year C with Luke, right?

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Right. Yes. But the church, as the lectionary goes, has us bouncing around in the Gospel of John. Because if you remember, you know your A, B and C. Right.

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Are Matthew, Mark and Luke. So you have to put John in there, and he's interspersed throughout the year. And, man, I'm telling you, today is A. Is a very powerful reading. Hear this word.

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This is the word of God to us. On the third day, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. And the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine.

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And Jesus said to her, woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus said to them, fill the jars with water.

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And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, now draw some out. Take it to the chief steward. So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine and did not know where it came from, although the servants who had drawn the water knew, the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, everyone serves the good wine first and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk.

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But you have kept the good wine until now. Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory. And his disciples believed him. Jesus, thank you for your holy word. And we pray now that as we consider your word today through the preaching of your word, we pray that you, Holy Spirit, would come among us to teach us and to transform us and to carry us up, up, up to you.

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We pray in your name. Amen. And you can be seated.

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Well, isn't this interesting? The first miracle, the first sign of Jesus to inaugurate his ministry is turning water to wine at a wedding. I don't know if you've ever considered this story before, but that's an interesting consideration, isn't it? If he's in charge of his ministry, which, of course, he is, he knows all things. He knows when he's going to begin.

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He then chooses this to be the first of his signs. Why would that Be. Well, I'd like to spend a little bit of time just considering that this morning with you. And maybe where we could begin is to say that actually marriage is the first thing you bump into in the Bible, and it's the final thing we have in the Bible. And all throughout the Bible, it's littered not only with marriages, but also perhaps the most important marriage of them all.

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God and man in one person, the nature of God and the nature of man. Married one in Christ Jesus, of course. And so we have the beginning, the middle, and the end all to do with marriage. That's maybe striking to some people that are not familiar with the Bible, perhaps, or maybe for those who are familiar with the Bible, it should be striking. Why?

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Why is it marriage. What about marriage would engender such real estate in the Bible, right? Would take up so much of the Bible's emphasis and motifs. Maybe it's because. And I'm pulling here from the likes of Bishop Barron and also Thomas Merton, who wrote about what he calls the Promethean theology that we've all fallen into, especially in sort of the American evangelical understanding of God.

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And that is, you remember, Prometheus is the one who goes up to Mount Olympus and steals fire from the gods, and then they're angry for the rest of existence to punish him and what have you. Because you shouldn't take anything from the gods, right? Especially something as important as fire. Right? Which is kind of interesting since our.

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A couple weeks ago. Remember John 1, right. Holy Spirit. And he baptized with the Holy Spirit in what? Fire, okay?

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And this image of fire is super important because it often symbolically has to do with desire. So when I desire something, it's like a fire. You ever notice that if you have a burning. We even talk about it like this, don't we? You have a burning desire to succeed.

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Right? Like these football players, maybe today, they have a burning desire. Okay? Desire burns within us. And, you know, we really ought to consider as persons, as humans, as Christians, what really do we desire?

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You know, Jesus oftentimes asked this one, he said, what do you want me to do? And the guy's paralyzed. You're thinking, Jesus. It's pretty obvious, right? It's not necessarily because we too are broken up in many ways, but what we would desire would be a new car, a new.

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This something material, rather than our character, rather than the kind of person we'll be. And so we often get it wrong. And so what he says with this Promethean theology is this, we end up having a concept of God, that number one God is angry all the time. You know, God is just angry with us. We're just stupid to him.

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We've messed up his plan and you know what? He's going to get us back. Fact, he's just sending everybody to hell and he enjoys it. And you know, that's some people's mentality, isn't it? They really think like that.

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But that is not what we find in the Bible, is it? Great place to say amen, right? Can I get an Amen here? No, that is not what we find in the Bible is that God enjoy. In fact the scripture will point us to the fact that he desires no one to go to hell.

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And in fact what we learn in the Bible interestingly enough is hell was never created for humans. In fact for Satan and the devil, the scripture says hell was created not for humans. But when the Father of lies, who is Satan? The accuser of the brethren. When he becomes our Father, well then we go where our Father goes.

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Jesus says this is why in John, what is it? First John, John says, listen, don't let Satan be your father. Either Satan's your father or God, the Father is your father. So we get this, we get this mindset wrongly that God is angry and mad at us all the time and we are just trying to do whatever we can to gain his favor. But you know, the scripture is the exact opposite of that, his favor.

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The term for favor really in the scripture is grace. His favor. His grace always comes first. Not when we make a move toward him, but he always makes the move toward us first.

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Exactly. Praise be to God. Otherwise we would still be dead in our trespasses. Paul says but he made a move. He came down from heaven after us, not us, up to him.

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This is not something where we're striving to get into the heavens. But heaven has come to earth, married earth, you see. Now the Divine has become human. And this is what we celebrate in the incarnation, isn't it? So we just got finished celebrating in Advent and Christmas.

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No, it's wrong headed to have this sort of Promethean theology, if you will, about God where there's a presumption that we have to fight for our freedom, it must be won. And when we take it from God, it's no longer his. You see, you misunderstand God. That's the difference in mythical gods. And the God of the universe is the God of the universe.

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What he gives us, he doesn't lose anything. And when he becomes man, when he takes on, when he assumes Human nature. In the Son of God, he doesn't lose anything. Instead, we gain. It's our gain when he joins himself to mankind forever, that is our gain, not his loss.

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And so the shocking revelation all throughout the Bible is this the marriage of God and man, the marriage of heaven and earth, the marriage of dust and divinity.

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Well, this we, you know, before we. We had this reading of John. And for those listening online, you won't know this, but Isaiah 62 was our reading. And I don't know if you caught it or not, and so I would just love to, if you will allow me to read this portion again, of Isaiah 62, says this. You shall be a crown.

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Think about this. This is God talking to us. And hear it as if God is talking to you, as if he's talking to me today. Notice these words. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of Yahweh and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

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This is beautiful, right here. You shall no more be termed forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed desolate, but you shall be called My. Delight is in her and your land married. For the Lord delights in you. And your land shall be married.

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For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you. Translation, your Creator marry you. And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. Wow. We.

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Yes. Amen. Turn to your neighbor, because I don't know that you're really getting this. And say, God delights in me.

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That's kind of uncomfortable to say, isn't it? Isn't it? I mean, it's a little. Because you're thinking me, I don't know. He knows.

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Like, because, you know, we might take delight in each other in friendship or in marriage, in the father, son relationship, all these. We may take delight in that. But, like, we don't know everything about each other either, do we? Because sometimes when things come to light, there's not a whole lot of delight, is it? Right.

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You know, because delight's a neat word, isn't it? Like, there's this place in Athens and things called, like Dairy Delight, Cream Delight. There you go. It just sounds nice, doesn't it? Sounds like exactly what it's supposed to be.

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Like, right. I'm assuming just filled with calories, but tastes so good, you know, delight. You know what I mean? Like ice cream kind of delight, if that's your thing. Okay.

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And God delights in us. And we think about this. This is what we're going over with the youth. We are to delight in the law of the lord. That's Psalm 1.

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The righteous person delights in the law of the Lord. Now notice marries us, the builder will marry us, our Creator will marry us. And this sets up for us really why marriage is sacramental in a way, not. Not maybe to the way, at least for us Protestants, baptism and the Lord's Supper is. But it nevertheless is sacramental theologically.

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Or we could say it this way, symbolic, right? Because our marriages are to point to the marriage of God and man, you see, where Christ is our bridegroom and we are the bride. So that means all of us, whether male or female, according to God, in this relationship are female. That is to say, we receive from him life. We are not the givers of life.

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We are, but we receive. And this is exactly the way we speak of grace, isn't it? Grace comes from the outside in and bears forth fruit. Yes, and amen. Yes, it does.

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And this is why even marriage itself ought to lead again, naturally speaking, without some obstruction to new life again. And this is why. This is why this principle is set up. And in fact, the way that the Bible would have it is life only comes in marriage. Now you say, well, that's not the way it works out in real life, buddy, I get it.

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I understand. You know, there's all kind of ways that people come about, but it's always through the sexual union up to. And the scripture condones sex only for marriage is really simple. It's really. So it's like that's where it's supposed to be.

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And so this is why the early church fathers saw even kind of a metaphor of the Holy Trinity to be Father, Son, and then another is produced from that, again, not sexually for God, because he's not sexual in that way, but it's reflected down to us. So in other words, we always got to keep this, right? God is not like us, but we like God, right? So we're always lifting these things up. That's why the scripture here, even, even in our text today, with marriage here and this marriage, this particular marriage, is lifting our gaze up, not back down.

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So God is not like us, but we like God. He's the prototype. And we are the echtype, the copy, or as the scripture would have it in Genesis, we are the imago dei, right? The image of God.

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So that's why marriage is such an important feature within the Bible. Now you might say, well, Pastor, listen, I've messed up my marriage or I've done this or that or marriage in general is kind of lost. But it's not to the Bible, okay? And we've got to preserve marriage. Even if there's been divorce, there's forgiveness, thanks be to God.

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You notice here this thing again. You were called Forsaken, Desolate. Think about that. Forsaken. Nobody wants to be with you.

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Desolate, you're barren. No fruit. But instead, what does he. What does he. Turn around.

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No. Now you are my delight. You are my delight. And the land married.

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So this is why, you know, somebody will be like, man, why do Christians make such a big deal about marriage? It's not that. Not that big of a deal. Well, it's because of the Bible. We didn't make it up.

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And we're not trying to be, you know, obstinate about something just like, yeah, we'll just randomly choose marriage and kids, and that'll be where we stake a claim for no reason. No, no. It's tied together in the scriptures as not only a human institution. Think about it. Listen to this.

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Not only a human institute, but something ordained by God. And now, because of the wedding at Cana and Galilee, sanctified by Jesus Christ, marriage is sanctified by his presence at this couple's union wedding. And every. Every wedding I do every single one of them. And the traditional way to do this from, you know, the beginning of Christianity on is to actually remember this wedding at every Christian wedding.

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And if you've ever been to a traditional Christian wedding, this part is mentioned, isn't it, that Jesus was at the wedding of Cana in Galilee. So he sanctifies marriage. And. And ultimately we're heading to the full thing about this thing about the language, even the full consummation of Christ and his church. Do you remember how the Bible ends the last couple chapters?

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The Spirit and who? Anybody remember the Spirit and blank. Say, come, Lord Jesus. Yes, the bride. The Spirit and the bride say, come, Lord.

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Who's the bride? The church. Exactly. The church. Those who have the spirit of God.

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And so the Spirit ought to say, come, come, Lord Jesus, come and get us. We're ready. We're ready. And then is the consummation, the final. When we are in a glorified body and can see God face to face.

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Can't do that now. The waiting is over. That is the final cut. And guess what we have at the end? The marriage Supper of the Lamb.

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Think about that language again. You see, this is not all, just, again, disparate little things. Oh, yeah, it's Confusing? No, no. Marriage is a central, central institution that points us always to God and man being married.

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And yeah, as humans, we've messed it up, but there is forgiveness and there is transformation and restoration and reconciliation. There's no excuse just to give up on the institution of marriage. It means something to this day because it's connected to God and he instituted it like that.

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Is everybody okay?

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Because trust me, today, are we not more confused than ever about what marriage is? 100%. We are. He brings clarity. Look at Christ and his church and what he does for her.

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Us. We are the her here. We are the bride. And he dies for us and rises again to come and get us. I mean, he literally is the reason.

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Those stories where the knight in shining armor makes sense and he comes to rescue the damsel in distress, you know, think about Mario Brothers even, right? You got to go get Peach. Peach, yeah, Right. You gotta go get Peach from that devilish dude, you know? Yeah.

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I mean, all the stories, they. They coalesce. They coalesce in this story where he comes after us to rescue the likes of somebody like me. Like you, who again, desolate, abandoned, forsaken. But no more.

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But no more. So now, and another piece here is Canaan of Galilee. By the way, Galilee is mixed with Jews and Gentiles. So again, we already have the gospel going to all the world, even in this story here, because of where he does this. Now, there's two numbers here.

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The first is the first sign, right? So we get at the end, first of his signs. This is the first one. Because it really is fundamental reality. Like you might say, what is the purpose of life?

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You know, and that's a huge question, isn't it? And I hope. Well, everybody's asked it in some form or another. It's crossed everybody's mind. It always does.

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As humans. What is the purpose of life? What is the purpose of my life? Boil it all down. It's the marriage of God and man.

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That's it. And so the way the church has talked about the purpose of life is very simple. To know and to love God. That's it. That's what all of life is geared toward, is our true burning desire.

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That restless heart will only be satiated in him, only satisfied in him, and in no other. And so even our earthly marriages here, right, they only can go so far. That is not the end. All you have a great marriage, you have a great family. That's not the end.

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All you're successful in everything you touch and do. That's not the End all. We know plenty of people that will blow up their marriage or blow up their businesses or move on to something else. Because once you get to the top, apparently that's not the top, is it? No, no, no.

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That's why, again, John's always lifting our sight. No, no, no, keep looking higher. We get caught in all these little things down here, and we're tinkering around with making sure that's just perfect. When there's a higher thing to pursue, who is not a thing at all. It's God, our bridegroom, the lover of our soul, our builder, our maker, the creator, the king of the universe.

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Well, and in the second number here is on the third day, Right? So you got the first of the signs, and then on the third day, one. What's. It's a resurrectional note, obviously. Right.

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And there are. We don't have time to go into this, but there are so many similarities between John 2 here and the end of John. You remember where he's in the garden. Who is Jesus in the garden with? After his resurrection, you guys are either slow or you're apprehensive.

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Like, ooh, I might get it wrong. I don't want to do that. It's okay. We're kind of, you know. Mary, you remember this in the.

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What garden? Can we get any more symbolic of Adam and Eve in the garden in the beginning, this marriage? And who is here in our story today but Jesus the new Adam and Mary, the new Eve. Yes. It's unbelievable what this.

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What all is coming together in this story. It just seems like some. Oh, yeah, it's just some random wedding and Jesus happens to be there, and his mother just kind of persuades him a little bit like mamas do. You know, there is so much more going on in this text that we could spend the rest of our life in this one chapter here, this one pericope. We won't, okay?

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So I promise we're going to get out of here, all right? But it is worth noting here that there's a resurrection on the third day, because what does he come to do? He hasn't come just to forgive us of our sins, but to transform us all. All of us. Not just part of us.

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Not just a dismissal of our past. That's wonderful. And it's necessary. We got to have that. But also to transform our heart and then eventually to transform even our body.

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Now, won't that be a good day? Yes. Amen. Thank you. We need to work on amens today.

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I'm thinking, what do you think? Yeah, there you go. This guy. Amen. Just means, like, I agree with that.

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Right now. You can shake your head. And I get it. A lot of times we're. But, man, I'm telling you, this is at the foundation of reality, like this marriage of God and man, okay?

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Christ and his church. That is what everything is about.

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It's at the ground floor, and it reaches into the heavens, okay? So resurrection tone. We've got first of his signs. Notice it's a sign and not just a miracle. He actually used this term sign instead of miracle because he's wanting to emphasize that it's pointing to something else.

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There's something else at play here. Jesus sanctifies marriage. And now notice this exchange between Mary and Jesus. Mary acts as an intercessor here, all right? And she says.

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She says, look, they have no wine. This is what she says to Jesus. She comes up. Hey, they have no wine, right? Now, Weddings in the 1st century for Jews lasted at least a week, okay?

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So it's not just a day. You know, ours last, like a day, maybe. Maybe two, if you count, like, the. Thank you. The rehearsal.

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I knew y'all knew I was struggling. The rehearsal, right? So maybe two days. And it's like, all right, now be on with your life, right? But in it with Jews, they would do a whole week, celebrate.

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Just think about that. A whole week to celebrate, right? So, I mean, you kind of got to have quite a bit of wine and food to extend over a week, especially if you got friends and family coming, right? And not only that, there's a whole lot more with the Jewish way. And that's very different.

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You know, the consummation was almost a public thing. It's very remarkable. They waited, you know, kind of thing. And so it's very unlike the way we do it. But nevertheless, they run out of wine.

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And it would have been a very embarrassing thing for this couple. For the first thing this couple came to do was to celebrate their union was then to dry up and be desolate. Think about that. To be barren, to have nothing to offer the guests. And so Mary, she says, hey, they have no wine.

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Because she's able to identify the problem. Do we know what the problem is? If. If the solution, right? Because in all religion, there's a problem and solution, right?

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There's always something wrong. Here's the solution. The solution is marriage to God. Okay, what is the problem then, right? It's, again, polarization, what we said last week, right?

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It's the divide. It's us being disconnected from God. Us not having a love for God, us running after other lovers. In fact, that's exactly the way Ezekiel and other prophets will foresee. They see sin as cheating on God or whoring ourself out to other lovers in place of God.

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You remember Hosea? Yes. The minor prophet who is told to go marry a promiscuous woman. And God says, that's exactly what you've done to me. You've chosen other lovers over me.

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But what does he do? He comes and redeems us, doesn't he? He comes to buy us back, thanks be to God. Because we're all cheaters. We.

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We're all adulterers because of our sin. And we can all be forgiven and transformed to where we don't run after other lovers, where we don't love, where we can learn to hate sin. Do you believe that's possible? Because one thing to believe in God's forgiveness, but it's another to believe in his transformation. But that's exactly what the Holy Spirit comes to do in our hearts, is to transform us, forgive and to heal us.

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And so she says, look, there's no wine. Because she identifies the problem. Right? And this is kind of lost in translation a little bit. But he says, woman, what concern is that to you and me?

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And it sounds like, whoa, Jesus, calm down a little bit. Right? No, I mean, nobody ever gets that impression out of this text. Yeah. If you've ever read it before, you're kind of shocked, like, hey, that It's.

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That's your. At least you could have said, hey, mama, you know. You know. No, woman, you know, what is going on here? What is.

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Well, first of all, woman here in the translation is actually an honorific title. Okay, so it's like esteemed lady, basically, like calling her Layla lady, you know, not like lady, you know, with an attitude, but rather like, she's an esteemed lady. And in fact, it also has another purpose, though not only is it an honorific title, but it also carries us right back where. To Genesis. To Genesis, where Adam, right.

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Mankind sees woman or sees Eve. Sorry. And says, what? Woman. So again, Jesus is rising up here in this text as the new Adam.

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And Mary, in her obedience and in her intercession, is doing the exact opposite of Eve. You remember, Eve takes the fruit and gives to the husband sinfully. Now we have the problem identified, and she's asking the new Adam, Jesus, which happens to be her son, by the way, to do something about it. They have no wine now. Wine.

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Also, let's. Again, there's you know, and trust me, we're not just going to keep commentating on this. We're bringing this down to a point. But wine in the Bible. So notice water and wine are here, right?

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And again, if you're reading John and you find water and wine, it's not just some accident, right? It's not just these properties, okay? Instead, it's pointing up to something. It's joining something, something theological. What, though?

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Water. Obviously, baptism. And baptism is necessary, isn't it? Yes, we need cleansing, but also water. Just physically, you know, just as a human, we have to have it.

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It is a natural, necessary thing. But not wine. Wine is not natural. It's instead made, isn't it? Cultivated?

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And it's not necessary. Wine is not. You could go your entire life and not have to drink wine. You don't have to drink wine. You have to drink water.

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You don't have to drink. Wine is what then? It's for celebration. And all throughout the Bible, wine is for celebration. Anytime you see a table set in the Old Testament or in the New Testament and even in the world to come, it is always celebrated.

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Food and wine. Why? Because it's about celebration. That's why. And you can even note that in the text, right?

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Because the guy says, look, he goes. He goes, hey, man, you know, I don't know where you got this from, but most people, they bring out the good stuff first, and then when everybody gets toasted, if I could use that word, when everybody gets toasted, little inebriated, then you bring out the cheap stuff and they don't even know the difference, right? But he says you've done the exact opposite. You've waited to bring the best out second. Now think about that.

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What's significant about that? Well, don't we have in our Bible the Old Testament, which is wine, but then new wine, that is better in the New Testament. Why? Because of Jesus. Because of Jesus.

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And of course, wine then gets coupled with not only celebration, but his suffering and death, doesn't it? This is my body, this is my blood poured out for you.

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Yes, wine is for celebrating. And just a word about alcohol. We don't often tiptoe into this much. And so it's appropriate to do so here very briefly, is to say the Bible does not have a prohibition on alcohol altogether. However, it has many warnings throughout the text and anywhere you get warnings or fences, then that means it's something important or it means it's something dangerous.

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Let me explain. When there's all kinds of laws against sexual behavior, that means there's something important there to guard. Well, shoot, let's use the inauguration tomorrow. Do you think they're just going to have a rent a cop there? No, they're going to have all kind of perimeters, aren't they?

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Around something that we deem is important. Our national leader, we don't want him just to get killed for no reason. Right. Like we want him protected because it shows strength and so on and so forth. And so we want.

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So you would protect that right? In a museum? The Mona Lisa? You think they're just going to have it over here at the local library? No, of course not.

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Right. The U.S. constitution. No, again, things that are important get protected. And the Bible protects things with laws, with regulations, instructions.

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There's a lot of warnings with alcohol. Not a prohibition across the board, just like with sex. There's not a prohibition, however, a lot of warnings. And so we ought to be careful with this. The scripture will call us to not be drunk with wine, but to be what, filled with the Holy Spirit.

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So is there a place for alcohol perhaps? Yes, for some. Some not. The Nazarite vow, no alcohol, remember? So there's a place for both.

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And we ought not to then, you know, snub our nose at people who do one or the other. And for those in the church, Paul would say it this way, especially those in leader should not be known for their drinking. And in general, we shouldn't be known for our drinking. That's something we should have left long ago if ever we toyed with it. Okay?

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As Christians, there's something better. Forgive me. There's no humidity in the air. Let's be real, okay? Can we just be real for a certain.

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There's no humidity in the air anywhere I go in the winter. So not only is my mouth cotton, but my lips are parched. So. All right, now notice what else Mary says. She identifies the problem, but then she gives us the solution.

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Here's the solution. You ready? I didn't build any funny moments in today's sermon, by the way. I really didn't. So you're just laughing at me at this point?

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Here's what she says. Well, first Jesus says this. Well, what concern does that have to do with me, right? And it's almost a little play here, okay? There's a bit of play between him and his mom, to be honest with you, because he knows exactly what he's about to do, and he's gonna do it on purpose, but he wanted to be prompted.

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And you know what prayer is like. That isn't it. We've got some intercessors in this room, some people that actually hold your name up to God and say, would you be with them? And you know what? God responds to that kind of thing.

00:36:48

He really does. He hears the prayers of his people. So I want to encourage you, those intercessors, and if you're not, listen, all of us are called to intercession. All of us. Let's lift up these names and these loved ones, the loss to God, and put it before him and say they have no wine, they have no life in them.

00:37:07

They have no celebration, and they have no joy. Wine is associated with joy. Okay, now here's what he says. My hours are not come. But then she says, look, do whatever he tells you.

00:37:20

Just say that with me, because that is a prayer. And it's a prayer that we need to just immediately learn right now and pray the rest of this week. You ready? Do whatever he tells you. Now, isn't that a great way to approach praying to Jesus?

00:37:35

Yeah, I've got one, love. Thank you. Thank you. Bob's an angel. Do whatever he tells you.

00:37:42

Are you willing to do that? Do whatever he does. Now, it's kind of bizarre what he does, right? These purific. We don't even.

00:37:47

Can't even get into what exactly these jars are. But notice he ends up making 120 gallons of wine. You think that's enough? Yeah. That's a lot right now.

00:38:00

What does this show? It just shows this. It shows that he has overflowing grace, overflowing joy to us. We need to be inebriated in the Holy Spirit. You know, they even call alcohol spirits, right?

00:38:18

Because oftentimes it gives people a different spirit. And that's not a good thing. That's not a good thing. Likewise, there's another spirit. Think about it.

00:38:30

There's. There's another spirit that can make us not like ourself. Thanks be to God.

00:38:39

He can transform us by his holy Spirit. So do whatever he says. All right, so let's land the plane by saying this. The marriage of God and man happens in the person of Jesus Christ. It's in his person that salvation occurs.

00:38:56

Because he is God. Man isn't he. All God and all man. Not one deficient of the other. Not schizophrenic, but one person, two natures.

00:39:09

This is what we believe. This is what was hammered out throughout church history early on and has been believed and is consistent with the scriptures. There is first, a marriage of God and man, of the heavens and the Earth in the person of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. That's huge. That's.

00:39:28

That's massive. And then there is a marriage of Christ and his church.

00:39:39

So we need to leave the Promethean theology to the past, to the myths, because it is a myth. God is not mad. He. He's in hot pursuit of his bride, of you. And he wants to become one with us and we with Him.

00:40:00

That's why the scriptures littered with that preposition in Christ, we are to be in Christ. And that is where our fruit comes from. The fruit of the Spirit. Right, the gifts of the Spirit. Just as we heard read today.

00:40:15

First Corinthians 12.

00:40:19

We need to leave behind the idea that he's mad and that we're taking something from him by gaining his favor. We already have his eye. Can you imagine that? You see kids sometimes trying to get the, you know, attention of their parents by being bad or doing something like that, right? We already have his attention.

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Look at the symbol that he left us. The cross. Arms wide open. No matter what you've done, no matter who you are, at this point, he welcomes you in. He's not just some distant king.

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He's not an angry father. He's our husband. And he's a good father. And he's the king of the universe. Do you know him?

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Do you love him? Is your desire to know and love him? If not, he can even change the desires of our heart by giving us a new spirit.

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So be filled with the Holy Spirit today by faith. We pray this for you. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Total Duration 00:41:30