I Have Good News: Jesus can give you new joy thru a new life! 1/26/14. John 2 The Sign of turning water into wine

Transcription

1 I Have Good News: Jesus can give you new joy thru a new life! 1/26/14 John 2 The Sign of turning water into wine I. Cultivate Relationship not Rituals 1. Jesus death through the blood of Christ (symbolic of wine) nullifies the ritualistic practice of religion and brings joy through a relationship. 2. We see this when He says His hour has not come. What is His hour? 3. God wants to relate to us differently as He used the ceremonial water jugs differently. 4. Jesus blood purifies us (1 John 1:7) verses the water purification ritual. 5. Maybe you have the living Water but not living Joy? Perhaps you have said your prayer and confessed your sins, but you have not cultivated that relationship with Christ. Galatians 5:22 says the fruit of the Spirit is Joy. Fruit is something that must be cultivated, like any good relationship. II. Go to God with your need 1. Mary did not fret or worry she went to the one who could do something about it! 2. Who are you turning to fill your emptiness? 3. Trust in God s ways and timing. God timing and response is not always the way you think it should be. III. Recognize the Greater your Obedience the Greater your Joy 1. Do whatever Jesus tells you to fix the problem 2. Obey God s word to the fullest and be filled with joy to the brim! 3. Even when you do not know why. IV. Trust in Him to provide the Best 1. The Best begins now! 2. An All providing Bridegroom 3. Christ did not just give watered down wine but the best 1

2 Manuscript: I have Good news (John 2) Good morning. I have good news! Jesus wants to fill you up with His joy through a new life. Christ died for you that you could live a joyous life. One of my favorite promises of God is found in John 10:10, and that is Christ promise to give us life and not just life but an abundant life. That abundant life is meant to be a life full of joy. This is good news! This is especially good news if you are here today and you feel as though you have no joy in your life. Maybe you are here in hopes to find out if Jesus can really bring joy and peace into your life. Well, praise God I have good news for you. Today s message is for you! Or maybe you have Christ in your life as your Lord and Savior but you have long forgotten what that joy taste like. Sometimes it seems like the longer I have been a Christian the more I am constantly fighting for my relationship with Christ from becoming just a religion, a religious to-do and not to-do list and routine. Sometimes I feel as though I am running on fumes, just empty. I am going through the motions of life but not really enjoying life. I am empty, apathetic and my joy is missing. I go to church, I sing songs, I read my bible, but my joy seems to be running low. Do you ever feel that way? Maybe you are struggling in a relationship and the joy seems to be gone. Or maybe you are drained from all of the burdens of your work and being a parent on top of that. Or perhaps everything is just going fine, but you still find yourself running low on joy. You may not even know where your joy went. You just woke up one morning, and the supply had been drained down to the bottom. Some things have come along that you didn t anticipate that have stolen your joy. Maybe some people have come into your life, and they, by their attitudes or actions, have drained you dry. Well, if that is you or you have ever felt that way then I have good news! Today s message is especially for you. Today I want to share how Christ came to bring us new, joyous life and how we can grab ahold of that life that is abundant and full of joy. To do this I want to look at the first miracle called sign that is recorded in the gospel of John. It is the account of Jesus miraculously turning water into wine. Read with me John 2:1-11. First, understand that culturally wedding feast were much more important in the 1 st century Jewish culture than today in our culture. Jewish weddings were celebrated for 7 days. The whole community was invited and celebrated with the bride and groom. It was very important that the wedding party provide a grand celebration, and to not run out of one of the most important and basic staple of any large celebration wine! To run out of wine would be a serious embarrassment for the newlyweds and the parents. It was more than a simple faux-paux, it was serious cultural no-no and would have major social consequences! And it was this context that Jesus decided to reveal His glory. Now if you think about it, Jesus turning water into wine is an interesting way of starting off your public ministry, with what may seem like a very minor miracle. After all, no one was healed, no blind person was made to see and no one was raised from the dead. I mean with all of the problems in the world turning water into wine for a wedding seemed like the least important miracle. And yet, Jesus performed this miracle as His first miracle introducing His public ministry! I imagine if we were writing the gospel we would first record a much more miraculous sign. But praise God His will is perfect and He knew exactly what He was doing by performing the miracle and recording the miracle in the gospel of John. It is important to remember that the miracles/signs recorded in the gospel of John were done to illustrate a deeper spiritual truth than just the miracle itself. 2

3 For example, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, the spiritual truth is that Christ is the resurrection and the life of all who have died. Another example is that Christ feeds the 5000, and Christ is the bread of life. Each of the signs and miracles given are meant to illustrate a deeper truth. This first miracle that we read here of turning water into wine is not simply about being a good party guest. The purpose of the miracle is not to make a statement about alcohol. That is missing the point. There are several elements going on in this passage, but the heart of this passage is about Jesus revealing His glory, that all who believe in Him may have an abundant life full of joy. It is this same joy that is not confined or based on circumstances but is based in Christ. The Apostle Paul, while sitting in prison states, I rejoice, not because he is in jail but because of the relationship he has with Christ and what Christ has done for him is greater than any circumstance he can face, even death. This promise of an abundant life that we see in John 10:10, full of joy, is what this miracle in Cana is all about. Water, the basic necessity of life, is changed into wine--the symbol not just of life, but of abundant, joyous, and celebrative life. If you go into this thinking wine is evil, you miss the boat completely. Wine in scripture is a symbol of joy and warmth and celebration and abundance. In changing the water into wine and allowing the wedding celebration to continue, Jesus is clueing people in on His mission. Jesus has come to transform the world and dead religion and bring an abundant life to all who come to Him. The key and heart of this passage is found in John 2:6-7 when Jesus tells the servants to fill up the ceremonial washing jars with water to which He turned into wine. Here we see Jesus chooses six jugs that each held gallons, and each of these jugs was used for ceremonial cleansing. This is the key part of the entire passage the jugs purposes, which Jesus miraculous transforms. Imagine Jesus sitting at the party watching all of the people enjoy themselves. Some were most certainly drunk, loud, and annoying, but some were the life of the party, and the whole town was there celebrating this joyous occasion. And there sat Jesus with His disciples. I imagine Him sitting and leaning against a wall watching all the guest. And each guest that arrives at the groom s house comes in goes these jars of water and performs this religious ritual so that they can be right before God. I imagine Jesus was thinking, I have come to do away with this and soon my hour will be here where these rituals will be replaced. Then at that moment Mary comes to Him and presents this opportunity/problem. And Jesus tells her that His hour has not come yet, meaning the true solution to the true problem has not come yet, but I will do something to symbolize the solution that is coming soon. He then changes the jugs that are used for dead ritualistic practices and transforms them into the greatest wine ever, symbolic of both Christ blood and joy. Jesus first miracle in the city of Cana was symbolic of His bringing new life and new joy. Jesus was symbolically taking those Jars and transforming them from a dead religious practice into a symbolism of new life, an abundant life full of joy. Which is what wine symbolized joy. This miracle of changing the ceremonial water jugs into wine was actual the first sign to demonstrate the following spiritual truths that John recorded in chapter 2 and 3. For right after Jesus turns water into wine He clears the temple courts illustrating that the old religious ways and religion is dead. The Jews had missed God s heart and purpose. And then in Chapter 3 Jesus meets with Nicodemus and says unless you are born again you can not have eternal life, meaning that being born a Jew is not what it is about. It is about a new relationship, out with the old (ritualistic 3

4 religion) and in with the new (a relationship), the better, the new wine, which is better than anything could ever imagine. That is why the Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old is GONE and the new is HERE! Christ has come to give us a new life full of joy. The Jews would have also tied in the fact that it was Moses who introduced the law whose first miracle was to turn water into blood and now here is Jesus, and His first miracle is turning water into wine, symbolizing God s grace and joy! As John wrote in John 1:17, For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. For the law is good but it has no power to save or bring joy, but Christ brings both grace and salvation. How awesome is that! Are you getting this? What Christ is teaching us through this is not about alcohol but about a relationship with Christ. He has purified us and given us the opportunity to have an abundant life full of joy through faith in Him. Remember this is why He was doing these miracles that He would reveal His glory and we would place our faith in Him. The cleansing rituals and tools were outward signs and reminders of what needed to take place within our hearts. And now Jesus is transforming the tool itself to become an instrument of joy. It is key that we understand that an outward show, then or now, has never been able to produce joy. In other words, if we want to fill up with joy of Christ in our hearts we need to turn from practicing rituals to developing a relationship with Christ. For instance, simply coming to church, saying prayers or even reading your Bible will not produce joy in you. They will put you in the place where you can find joy and put you around the people who will help to enhance your joy. But if you come to church and never put into practice the things that you hear, you will become even more miserable than you were to begin with. If you say the prayers but refuse to listen to and obey God s Spirit as He speaks to you, then your prayers will only produce emotional and spiritual conflict in your life. And if you read the Bible with no intention of getting rid of the sin that is exposed by the commands that you read there, then you will only provoke guilt within yourself and send yourself into depression. Applying God s word, humbling yourself before God, developing and cultivating a relationship not a ritual that is what renews your spirit and joy and that is what will keep you from running on empty. That is Good news! God is looking to relate to us differently. He is looking to do away with the ritual of religion and develop a relationship with you as His Child filling you with His joy. He no longer wants to relate to us on a ritualistic basis but in a relationship with His overflowing joy. This is why Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30 to come to Him and find rest. So, now we understand that the point of this miracle is to symbolically usher in a new abundant life of joy through Christ, a life that is rooted in a relationship with Christ not a ritual, how do we best grab a hold of this joy that surpasses understanding? Well, the good news is that we learn those truths from this passage of scripture as well. Read again the first part of John 2:1-5. Once we realize that true joy is found in Christ and Christ alone, the first step we need to do to cultivate that joy is to go to Him with our need. We see that Mary goes to Jesus when they have a need. Now remember, running out of wine in this context is a much greater need and worry that it would be in our social context. Yet, we do not read that Mary was fretting or upset, she simply went to Jesus and told Him about the need. This simple and basic step is often one of the missed steps when we are running on empty and joyless. Often many Christians know that Christ is the key to joy but fail to go to Him. Too many times Christ becomes the 4

5 last option instead of the first option. When Mary realized that there was a problem, she correctly took the problem to Jesus. The fact that Mary came to Jesus indicates she believed He could resolve the problem. She did not hide the problem, nor did she refuse to admit there was a problem. She believed Jesus could solve the problem and she went to Him with it! The very presence of Jesus at this wedding opened the possibility to a miracle. In case you weren t aware of it, Jesus is present with us in this place today. The very fact that Jesus is here means that there is enough power to resolve whatever problem you may be facing. And there is a big enough supply of joy to keep you going even through the midst of a problem. AMEN!! If you don t know, let me tell you how awesome it is that no matter the problems I face I know that God is bigger and more importantly He is with me and loves me! I am so blessed and you too can be that blessed. For God is longing to be there for each and every one of you. Now when Mary came to Jesus with her problem and need His responses seems weird and even cold. At first it seems as though Jesus is being rude to His mom. He calls her woman and not mom or mother. Actually it not a cold harsh term at all. That word is also the same word used in John 19:26 where Jesus said, Woman, behold your son! It is actually a term of endearment and respect, probably the equivalent of Ma am. What is interesting is that Jesus makes a specific note of acknowledge that His time has not yet come. But then He turns around to do the miracle. Would it not have been easier to say, sure go ahead and fill the jars up and I will take care of it? It would have, but that is not what Jesus did. He asks her, Dear Woman, why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come, referring to His hour of the cross where He would truly reveal His glory through His death and resurrection. Yet, what Jesus was doing was reminding/teaching her and all of those around her that His hour had not yet arrived and He had the big picture in mind and that He was not always going to do what she wanted or when she wanted. It is the same today. God longs to bless us but He is also aware of the big picture and when we go to Him with our requests we must trust that He knows and sees all things. There are times when we bring our requests to God for what we think would bring joy into our lives that God s response seems cold and hard. It seems like the windows of heaven are shut up. But the response that Jesus gave to Mary was to let her know that she was no longer in control and that she had to trust in Him. God knows better than we ever could what will bring us the most joy and when is the most beneficial time for Him to answer our requests. God does miracles and He answers prayers, but He does it in His time and in His way. He understands when the right hour is and when it is not! Not only in this passage are we taught to go to Jesus with our needs but we also can learn to do what ever He says! Read again with me in John 2:5-7. If we want to have joy that does not run out, then we need to obey to the fullest extent. Inviting Jesus to the party made it possible for the supply of joy to be renewed and refreshed. But the simple fact that Jesus was there did not bring the joy. Some of you and many other Christians believe that all it takes to have joy is to go to church. I m here, Jesus, in your presence. Now, give me joy! Just being in Jesus presence will not give you joy. When Jesus was here on earth, there were many who had the opportunity to be in Jesus presence. And many experienced anger, rebellion and hatred all while in the presence of Jesus. In order to experience joy in Jesus presence, He has to be Lord and Master of 5

6 your life. You have to listen for what He tells you, and then, you must obediently do it. The servants had to be willing to be obedient. Obedience made the possibility of joy a reality. To those servants on that day, Mary said, Do whatever He tells you to do. At that moment, Jesus ceased to be a guest and became the one who was in control of the whole wedding celebration. And at that moment, a miracle began to happen. People are perfectly willing to have Jesus as a guest in their lives. But they are not willing to turn over control and do whatever He tells them, and so they never have their lives changed by a miracle. Imagine what it would have been like if the servants only filled the jars half full. After all, the amount of new wine (symbolic of joy) was contingent upon the servants filling the jars with water. It is important to recognize that back in the day, meaning the 1 st century, people shared wells located at the center of the town. It was not like everyone had their own Britta in their fridge or can just turn on a garden hose or the faucet. To fill 6 stone jars with 30 gallons each, thus 180 gallons of water, would have taken a lot of time and energy to accomplish this task. Trip after trip to the well to draw water and pour it into the jars. And we don t know how far it was to the well. It would have been tempting to do a half-hearted and half-completed job. After all, Jesus only said to fill the jars with water. He didn t say how far to fill them. And fill is a word that can be interpreted in many ways depending on how hot it is and how late in the workday it is. Anything over half way is full, isn t it? That s what potato chip companies seem to think, lolj. But these men didn t think so. When Jesus told them to fill the jars, they took Jesus words quite literally, and they filled them all the way to the brim, just shy of overflowing. In the same vein, I would say that most everyone here would admit to wanting joy. And in order to receive that joy you might even be willing to be obedient to God to a certain extent. But are you willing for your obedience to reach all the way to the brim even when the obedience that Jesus asks for doesn t make sense to you? Or when it requires more work than you had originally intended on giving? Or when it forces you to rearrange your priorities and your schedule like these servants had to do? You see the amount of joy that you experience is in direct proportion to the amount of obedience that you give. The greater your obedience, the greater your supply of joy will be. When Jesus tells you to do something, never do it halfway because Jesus wants to give you joy to the full. Let me give you an example, you are here at Church and that is good because God wants us to fellowship and worship together. But, that is not obedience to the brim. Christ calls us to live life out together, loving one another and bear with one another, encouraging each other, strengthening one another, and sharpening one another. Newsflash or reality check: You cannot do that all in 1 hour on Sunday. That is why we help organize life groups, so that you can be blessed to the brim, to the fullest and not just partially. Or another example, God wants you to be sexually pure for your benefit and joyous blessing. But too many believers are only being pure half way and thus their joy in their relationships are limited and often running out. Or when are seeking out God with peace in our finances, yet when it comes to obedience to God with His money we tend do what is comfortable and not the full extent. Does that make sense? I don t know where the brim is for you, but I know that in order to get there, you have to do whatever He tells you to do. It will require work. It will not be easy. I guess the question that you have to ask yourself is how badly you want the joy that God has to offer. 6

7 I want to close with one last thought and that is trust that God will provide for you the best. Continue reading with me in John 2:8-10. Here we see that the master of the banquet taste the wine and says this is the best. When in truth the wine had run out. The truth is that the wine of religion and the world always runs out. You can have religion and it may feel good to have checked off a box, and feel in control but eventually that feeling will run dry and leave you empty. You can look to the world to bring you joy and that too may feel good for a while but that also will run dry. The beauty of what Christ brings is that it will never run out and will always be the best! It is a personal relationship with God, one where Christ wants to renew you and transform you into a new creation. If you have been a Christian for a long time and have fallen into the rut of religion then I encourage you to taste the good wine of relationship with Christ once again. The Good news is that Christ wants you to live an abundant life full of joy. That doesn t mean that you wont face problems because you will but you wont have to face them alone. Go to Him with your needs and don t let Him simply be your guest but allow Him to be in control and obey all that He has told you. This is the good news! 7

8 Scripture for John 2 (I have Good news) John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! John 1:17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. 8

9 Scripture for 1/26/14 John 10:10 John 2:1-11 John 2:6-7 2 Corinthians 5:17 John 1:17 John 2:1-5 John 2:5-7 John 2:8-10 9