- Good morning.
I'm gonna bring theme park energy right now.
Told the 9 a.m. service to say,
"Guys, I'm gonna give you about a four," okay?
Which for anybody else is about a nine,
but my four was good enough for them.
They were strapped in.
It was a rollercoaster ride for sure.
Hey, good morning, how we doing?
Everybody, we're good, we're good.
I'm glad to be here in the house of the Lord.
Just let me get situated.
I got a lot of things.
Shouldn't have creased my papers, but that's fine.
We have been in a series this entire year
talking about the greatest stories ever told.
And we are at a transition now in these stories
where we have closed out the stories
from the Old Testament and we are moving
into some of the life and teachings of Jesus.
And what a fitting way to close out that section summary
was Pastor Barbies' message last week.
I just wanna commend you for your study
and for the anointing and for the word that you brought.
It's such an on-time word.
And what I love about this is you might've heard
a few weeks ago, Pastor Allen be like,
"Well, I didn't get to pick what I wanted,
"so I got this one."
Well, none of us got to pick as Pastor Barbies
so kindly mentioned, but when Pastor Kevin
is praying about the messages and the direction
of the church, it is months and months and months
before that word is scheduled to be released.
And you have no idea what's gonna happen in the earth
between then and that point.
And God is always on time.
He may not come when you want him to come,
but he's always on time.
And it was a very timely word.
I'm grateful to be in a house where the leadership,
we don't get it right all the time,
but we are seeking the Lord on behalf of his people.
And so I'm honored to be a part of that.
Before I begin this morning, I do wanna make a note
since we're talking about the life of Jesus.
John says this, "Nope, that's not it.
"I'll read this first."
Don't worry about it, you got a Bible,
you can fact check anything I say.
You got it in paper form.
Let me see all my paper Bible bringers.
So eight, nine of you, I see that hand
by like a old revival right here, right?
Some of you got iPhone.
Rhonda Frazier likes to call this an iScroll.
I believe I attributed to her anyways.
If not, then Rhonda's attributed to something
she didn't say.
That's the iScroll.
If you have an Android version, you know,
nooms and the rest of the peasants in the house
can get that out, right?
Either way, there's no excuse for you not having
the opportunity to follow along with me.
So if it doesn't say, guess what?
We got a backup plan right here, okay?
'Cause I'm liable to send them something that's not right
and they'll be up there scrambling.
"He didn't have Exodus 22 on the thing today."
They already did that at 930, that's why I'm saying that.
John 21, 25, John 21, 25.
John closes out the gospel with this sentence.
"Now there are also many other things that Jesus did.
Were every one of them to be written,
I suppose that the world itself could not contain
the books that would be written."
There was so much encompassed in the 33 year life
of Jesus Christ that the world itself could not contain
the books of wisdom and understanding and literature
that came out of one man.
Of course, it was the Son of God.
So hear me when I say this, these next few weeks
are not an exhaustive, comprehensive look
at the life and teachings of Jesus.
So if at the end of these six, eight, 10, 12 weeks,
you feel like, well, I just, that was how you just,
you know, be like, relax, go back and read, okay?
Today, we're gonna look at one of my favorite sections
and stories, which is the wedding at Cana.
And some of you don't know what that is,
and it's more commonly known or referred to as the place
where Jesus turned water into wine.
This is considered to be the first of the miracles
of Christ we see recorded, and this is the first story
in this series today.
So if you're able, please stand with me.
We're gonna read out of John's Gospel, chapter two.
Okay, we're gonna read verses one through 12.
Are we ready?
Okay, thank you, Kurt.
Me and Kurt are ready.
Here we go, ready or not.
"On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee,
"and the mother of Jesus was there.
"Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.
"When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him,
"they have no wine.
"And Jesus said to her, 'Woman, what does this have
"'to do with me?
"'My hour has not yet come.'
"His mother said to the servants, 'Do whatever he tells you.'
"Now there were six stone water jars there
"for the Jewish rites of purification,
"each holding 20 or 30 gallons.
"Jesus said to the servants, 'Fill the jars with water,'
"and they filled them up to the brim.
"And he said to them, 'Now draw some out
"'and take it to the master of the feast.'
"So they took it.
"When the master of the feast tasted the water,
"now become wine, and did not know where it came from,
"though the servants who had drawn the water knew.
"The master of the feast called the bridegroom
"and said to him, 'Everyone serves the good wine first,
"'and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine,
"'but you have kept the good wine until now.'
"This is the first of his signs Jesus did at Cana in Galilee
"and manifested his glory,
"and his disciples believed in him.
"After this, he went down to Capernaum
"with his mother and his brothers and his disciples,
"and they stayed there for a few days."
This is God's word.
Father, we thank you for your word.
I thank you for the life that it brings.
I thank you for the opportunity to share with your people.
I ask that our hearts would be opened
to an encounter with you
and that you would be glorified through today.
Father, we love you and we thank you.
It's in Christ's name I pray, amen and amen.
You can be seated.
So there are many teachings done.
I'm not the first one to teach on this topic or subject,
but I do wanna talk about one specific aspect
of this miracle today.
And hopefully by the end, you'll pick up on it.
So I'm also real big on context, okay?
I'm a real big context guy.
So I wanna start back at the beginning of the chapter.
You guys might recall if you were here in the house
a few months ago when I shared a teaching
on the book of Job about context
and how I went to a friend's house
and he had a bathroom calendar with Bible verses on it.
And one of the Bible verses said,
"If you bow down and worship me,
"everything you see will be yours."
And that was Satan talking to Jesus
during the temptation in the wilderness, right?
But the people who developed the calendar
just thought that was a great thing for us to worship God.
And I wadded that thing up and threw it in the trashcan
one day off for the rest of the year, promise you.
Because it was out of context, right?
And that's a problem we get into as a church,
especially now, there's a lot of people
just grabbing passages and throwing them
anywhere they want to, to fit whatever they want
to fit right now in whatever season I'm in.
And then we make permanent decisions
based on a temporary emotion
and a minuscule understanding of God's word.
We as pastors do your disservice and say,
"Hey, you need to read your Bible,
"but then we don't help you with context and translation.
"We just leave it up to you."
And I know when things are left up to me,
stop laughing, Connie.
(congregation laughing)
Give you a little insight, a little behind the scenes
since she said that.
At an elders meeting, this has been last year,
there was some things that had come up
and sometimes there's a situation arises
where a pastor or someone in the church
will have to address the media.
And so we were kicking around the idea of,
we need a representative from Springhouse
that will be our media spokesperson.
I immediately shot my hand up
and the vote was 10 no's and one yes.
(congregation laughing)
And I was like, "How dare you?"
Right?
Barbie would have voted,
but she wasn't in on the vote that night.
She would have probably voted no, but in her heart,
I'd love for Justin to be that guy.
(congregation laughing)
Right?
They was like, "We're not putting him out in front."
No, absolutely not.
Why are you still laughing about that?
Like that doesn't warm my heart, man.
So context is important.
John's gospel begins by declaring
the preeminence and glory of Jesus.
The gospel of John begins like this,
"In the beginning was the word
and the word was with God and the word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him
and without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life and the life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness
and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
He came as a witness to bear witness about the light
that all might believe through him.
He was not the light,
but came to bear witness about the light.
The true light, which gives light to everyone
was coming into the world."
And this poetic description of Jesus's glory
is how the gospel begins.
So then you see John the Baptist
and he's declaring the coming of the Messiah.
And he's saying,
"I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
make straight the way of the Lord, prepare for the Lord."
And then all of a sudden Jesus shows up on the scene.
You ever been talking about somebody
and they just show up?
Huh?
Good or bad, right?
I catch my kids talking about me all the time.
Usually 'cause they tell on each other,
"Someone's over down there talking about you."
Really?
I'll listen in.
Right, can you imagine?
Listen, what?
Pastor Kevin is, I don't want to, notorious,
neither of those are good word, infamous and notorious.
He's well known for his object lessons.
Can you imagine preaching a sermon about Jesus
and then Jesus walks out?
That's literally what happens.
He's like, "Guys, let me tell you about the coming Messiah,
the savior of the world.
As a matter of fact, come on out."
And Jesus shows up.
That's not how it happened.
But in my mind, he's talking about the guy and he shows up.
And then he ends up baptizing Jesus.
He baptized Jesus in the river.
And Jesus's baptism is one instance in scripture
where we see all three persons of the Trinity
in the same passage.
Luke's gospel describes it like this.
Now when all the people were baptized
and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying,
the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him
in bodily form like a dove.
And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved son.
With you, I am well pleased."
So John baptizes Jesus and you have the son of God
in the water, the Holy Spirit descends like a dove
and the voice of the father says from heaven,
"This is my son in whom I'm well pleased."
And I also wanna take note,
Jesus hadn't even done any ministry.
God was well pleased with him because he was his son,
not because he was going around doing magnificent things.
We are human beings, not human doings.
So therefore, when Jesus said,
"When the Holy Spirit has come upon you,
you will receive power to be my witnesses."
Not go around doing witnessing,
you will become something different
when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
And the Holy Spirit had come upon Jesus in that moment
and his father was pleased with him.
And you see all three persons of the Trinity
in that passage.
Just make a little highlight or underline
and if you don't feel like that, just say,
"Please God, help me remember where this is at.
I don't know what that is."
(congregation laughing)
I don't know.
So you got the scene.
John says, "Hey, this is the guy."
John says, "This is the guy, he shows up, he gets baptized."
Then the next day he shows up again
and John is able to go a little bit further in detail
with his disciples and he says,
"Hey, remember what happened yesterday at the baptism?
Let me explain it a little bit further to you."
And he describes what happened at that baptism
to his disciples.
Then the following day, Jesus shows up again.
So you've got a three-day period
where he keeps just showing up, showing up, showing up.
How many of you have found yourself
at Springhouse this morning
because Jesus just keeps showing up in your life?
Somebody mentioned it, you overheard a conversation,
someone invited you to come,
someone prayed you in the house,
but either way, Jesus just keeps showing up
and showing up and showing up.
He just keeps hanging around in chapter one.
And John's disciples are super intrigued
and they approach Jesus and I love Jesus's response.
Jesus turned and saw them following.
So picture this, this is not biblical.
This is what I think, okay?
Have you ever seen those cartoons
where somebody is hiding in like a bush or a box
and the box moves and then they turn around
and look at it and it's a box or a bush?
That's not what happened.
See, y'all thought I saw.
That's when I imagined they're following Jesus
and Jesus turned to them and said, "What are you seeking?"
And isn't that a fitting question for us today?
What are you looking for?
What exactly are you seeking?
You've heard a testimony of me, you've saw me baptized,
you heard John declaring that everything you heard about
in the Old Testament was in regards to me,
but what are you looking for?
What are you seeking?
And they said to him, "Rabbi," which means teacher,
"where are you staying?"
And look at Jesus's response, "Come and you'll see."
So they came and saw where he was staying
and they stayed with him that day
for it was about the 10th hour.
Jesus did not demand belief.
He didn't say, "Didn't you hear everything
John said about me?
What are you looking for?"
And they didn't even answer what they were looking for.
They said, "Where are you staying?
Why did they ask where he was staying?"
So they could come and spend time with him.
And Jesus said, "If you'll come and see,
then you'll be convinced."
You don't have to believe 'cause John said it.
You don't have to believe 'cause the scriptures
testify of me.
You believe when you come and see for yourself.
So Andrew goes, and I've often wondered,
this was the first time that we see in scripture
of somebody going and spending time with Jesus.
What did they talk about?
What do you think they talked about that night
when they were hanging out?
Whatever it was, it was enough to convince Andrew
because Andrew then goes to get his brother Peter.
He goes and gets Peter, or actually gets Simon.
Let me back up, his name is not Peter.
His name is Simon.
And so that he can come and see.
And here's one thing I want us to take note of.
When you are convinced, you will go get others.
When you are convinced, when you've come
and you've seen for yourself, you will go get others.
If you've not gone and got others,
then have you been convinced?
And if the answer is yes, I've been convinced,
then why aren't you going to get others?
Like, I'm sorry, I didn't write this.
So then Jesus goes to Galilee,
and the next day he finds Philip and he calls Philip,
and Philip goes to Nathaniel,
and Nathaniel makes one of the most honest statements
in all of scripture.
He says, "Nathaniel, we have found the Messiah."
And Nathaniel says, "Where's he at?"
And Philip goes, "Ah, he's in Nazareth."
He says, "Nazareth?
Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
Might as well have said,
can anything good come out of Antioch?"
All right, before you get all upset,
I used to hang out in Antioch, don't be mad.
Football team rolled on Friday.
We can talk about it outside if you'd like, okay?
But we all know, eh, I don't wanna go to Antioch.
Like, we had a choice.
If that's where we wanna go,
can anything good come out of Nazareth?
And you know what Philip said?
Guess, come and see.
Philip said, that's a great question.
Come and see.
Come and see for yourself.
You don't have to believe me.
I know that we found him,
but if you'll come, you'll see for yourself.
Come and examine yourself.
That's why it's important.
Just invite somebody to church.
You don't have to convince them
in that 30-second checkout line.
Just invite them and say, come and see.
And the Holy Spirit will do his work.
It's not your job to convince people of the gospel.
It is your job to introduce them to Jesus,
and they will either be convinced or need more evidence.
This is a no-go lifestyle.
Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
I used to say this is a character defect of mine,
where I would say things that other people think
but don't say.
Turns out it's biblical, okay?
Because...
(audience laughing)
No-go lifestyle.
What did Jesus say when he meets Nathaniel?
He says, finally, an Israelite in whom there is no go.
Finally, somebody's being authentic about the situation.
Somebody's being real about the situation.
And then Jesus says, hey, before Philip called you,
I saw you under the fig tree,
and Nathaniel's mind is blown.
And he says, hey, you think that I'm the guy
because I told you that?
You're gonna see greater things than this.
You will see the heavens opened up
and the angels of God ascending and descending
on the Son of Man.
And then it goes right there to...
And then three days later, they're at a wedding,
and you're like, whoa, pump the brakes a little bit.
That's a big span.
What we need to understand contextually is this.
When Jesus goes to the wedding
and brings his disciples with him,
they have already been convinced
that he is who he says he is,
that he is who John testifies about.
So they didn't need to see a miracle.
And this was before the miracle.
They were ready.
Jesus continually invited his disciples to come and see,
to come and think, to come and examine the evidence.
And then the narrative shifts to the wedding.
It moves from Nathaniel's call right into the wedding.
Ancient Hebrew weddings are not like most weddings
that I have been to, okay?
I'm from the South, so all the weddings I know
are either in a church or at a farm somewhere.
'Cause we live in Tennessee.
And apparently those are your two options,
church or the farm.
And you're gonna take pictures in front of the old truck
that nobody in your family knows how to drive
with mums around it and your train flowing, right?
And it's gonna be ridiculously overpriced, right?
But it's the farm.
I don't know any of the weddings.
This is where I'm from, okay?
But if you're not from the United States,
or maybe you were born in a different country,
or you were born on a different continent,
or you've lived in a different culture or ethnicity,
all cultures have different type of wedding traditions
and wedding customs, okay?
So when you hear the wedding at Cana,
get out of your mind anything that you have thought of
as far as a wedding goes.
Are we there?
Can you get that?
Can you just disconnect from the farm for a minute?
Okay?
Ancient Hebrew weddings
are not like modern Western celebrations.
Hebrew weddings would begin with a betrothal period
followed by a legal covenant binding
and then the consummation of the marriage.
You understand?
Betrothal binding consummation.
There's an order to things.
This is why Joseph was so upset when Mary said,
"Hey, I'm pregnant during the betrothal."
And then she had in his mind the audacity to say,
"It's God's baby."
Y'all can laugh about it.
It's in there.
Think of this from a human perspective.
Joseph was so out of his mind, God had to send an angel.
He had to send Gabriel to calm him down
'cause he's pacing.
I'm just gonna, I don't know what to do.
I don't know what to do.
I guess I'm just gonna have to like end the betrothal.
I mean, God, I loved her.
This is gonna be great.
This conjecture, obviously.
But there was an order and it was out of order.
Betrothal, covenant, consummation.
I had a situation of something being out of order yesterday.
I have three sons.
One of them has grown.
So you'll have to figure out who the other son was.
I like to tell stories about my kids and not name them
so that you try to figure out who it is.
It's one of my favorite parts about being a dad,
telling stories from the stage.
(congregation laughing)
So we had a birthday party for my son
and I was pretty disappointed in these teenagers.
There was 20 preteens and teenagers, 20.
And I bought 12 pizzas and 24 cupcakes.
And these losers, not look, they only ate six pizzas.
What a disgrace.
(congregation laughing)
We'd had, my parents would have had to go get more.
Landon got six pizzas, six.
Me and Landon can eat six pizzas.
(congregation laughing)
And then we'll send memes back and forth,
I hate my life, why did I do this?
I was embarrassed as a dad that you only ate six,
but this is what you think of me, to only eat six pizzas?
So we had a lot of cupcakes left over.
So as any good father would do,
I was gonna save them for breakfast the next day, right?
(congregation laughing)
Yeah, real Cosby would have been proud, man.
So I go to Bojangles,
listen to this nutritious breakfast, right?
I go to Bojangles and I got 20 sausage biscuits.
I had some white grapes, I had purple grapes,
I had the little plates and then I had all the cupcakes.
And so I put them in order.
Here's your biscuits, here's the grapes,
here's the cupcakes, right?
Any rational person would assume, start with the biscuit,
you get your grapes and then after you've eaten that,
you get the cupcake, right?
I turned my back for two seconds.
I turned back around and one of my sons
has chocolate all over his face
as he's unwrapping the biscuit.
I was born in the morning, but it wasn't this one, okay?
And so I'm looking at him, I said,
what's all over your face?
And then that rush, all that chocolate fudge at 9 a.m.
drained right out of his body
and was replaced with the fear of God
because he knew the gig is up, it's all over my face.
So I'm talking to him and I'm like,
what's all over your face?
I said, is that chocolate?
Yeah.
I said, did you eat a cupcake?
He said, yeah.
And he took a bite of his back, he's still eating food.
I said, man, I said, man,
when have in the history of me being your dad,
have cupcakes ever been the first thing
we eat for breakfast?
He said, never.
We started today.
So I said, look, and I'm trying, look,
see the cartoons where the steam comes out of the ears?
He's a habitual offender.
This guy's a repeat offender, okay?
So I said, he said, it's never been the policy
of our family that we eat cupcakes first
and yet you've obviously eaten the cupcake before.
And I said, son, why did you eat the cupcake first?
He said, because I wanted to.
(congregation laughing)
Because I wanted to, right?
Because I want, oh, okay, you just hang on,
I'm just over there.
I'll be right back, right?
If you're a parent, you know.
But I'm not gonna miss an opportunity to speak
into my kid's life, okay, you hear me?
So after I walked away, unclenched my fists,
I said, son, here's what you don't understand.
You were going to get a blessing anyways.
You were gonna get a cupcake.
Like I was going to allow you guys to have cupcakes.
You wanted the blessing when you wanted it
and so you did things out of order.
And there are some of us that are so worried
about missing the blessing that we'll go take it
for ourselves instead of waiting on our Father
to give it to us.
You hear what I'm saying?
We're so worried about instant gratification
over delayed satisfaction that we'll take matters
into our own hands regardless of the consequences
because I want to.
And didn't allow his Father to bless him in the right order.
There are an order to things, Springhouse family.
Don't get out of order.
That's why Joseph was messed up because it was out of order.
That's why my kid was messed up when he realized
'cause he was out of order.
There is an order to things when it comes
to ancient Hebrew marriages and weddings.
The betrothal, the covenant, the consummation,
then the celebration.
So when we see Jesus and his disciples show up
to the wedding, they are at the celebration portion
of the wedding.
We're all on the same page?
Okay.
So after that, there'd be a multi-day feast,
the celebration, that's where we find Jesus
and his disciples and the wine runs out.
Houston, we have a problem.
There is no wine.
Now, might not seem like a big deal to you
'cause you can just run down here to R&J Liquor Store
like I called it in the first gathering
and then said that's actually the name
of my dad's lawn care business.
It's not a liquor store.
All the blood ran out of his face too when I said that.
But you guys, if there was a hey, we're out of wine,
you'd be like, that's cool, we'll just send so and so
and they'll run and grab it.
That's not how it worked back then.
Okay, you don't just run to the liquor store.
That even just sounds bad.
Like, can you imagine like one of the disciples
goes to the liquor store?
The tweets that would come out,
I just saw Simon Peter walking out of the liquor store.
Don't act like you don't get judges.
Somebody ever been caught pushing a cart
coming out of Publix with 12 yinglings
looking around like this?
And I'm like, I see you.
I see you.
Y'all know me, I don't lie.
Somebody gonna come to me after the service
and be like, thanks for not ratting on me.
They're out of wine.
In their culture, this is a big deal.
You'd be the laughing stock of the community
and they would never stop telling
about how you couldn't provide for your guests.
So Mary comes to Jesus and says, they're out of wine.
That's something my mom would say to me.
Hey, they're out of wine, do something, figure it out.
What do you want me to do?
And Jesus' response is something.
Look at Jesus' response.
When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him,
they have no wine.
And Jesus said to her, woman,
what does it have to do with me?
Now, before you get all,
it's not the same culture.
You call your mom a woman in Tennessee,
below the Mason-Dixon, if you say woman.
Some of y'all ain't ever been hit with a flip-flop.
It shows me you learn not to say woman to your mom.
It's not the same culture.
Remember, we're talking about culture.
Jesus says, woman, what does this have to do with me?
My hour, my hour has not yet come.
Gosh, I shouldn't have done that.
His mother, she didn't even acknowledge his response.
She says, hey, they don't have any wine.
He's like, woman, what's that got to do with me?
It's not my time yet.
And she says, do whatever he tells you to do.
That's how you know this is a real interaction
between a mother and a son.
She, I don't care what you've got to say right now.
Think about it.
Any mom that's got a son, you'd be like, listen,
hey, they don't have any wine.
Hey, do whatever he tells you to do.
This is, these are part of the things
that if you've ever had a mom, which is everybody here,
you know that this is a real interaction.
But why did he say it like that?
What is he even talking about?
Why did he say my hour has not yet come?
It's not my time yet.
What Jesus does next is what reveals the answer to me.
And this is what I wanted to talk about to you this morning.
The transition.
This is a transitional moment, okay?
And this is the reason why I believe
this is the first miracle recorded in the gospels.
He tells the servants to fill six stone water jars
with water.
These were jars that were used for ceremonial cleansing.
Then he tells them to draw the water out
and it become wine.
Do you know that nobody has ever been able
to replicate that?
The way that he did it.
Some people say, well, that's how you make wine.
You add water.
No, silly.
He, they filled it up.
He said, draw it out and it had become wine.
Like this is not a parlor trick.
He's not going, and for my next act,
I'll turn six jars of water into wine.
He's in a back room.
His mom came to him.
Nobody knows it's happening except for the servants.
How many that was, we don't know.
But the servants knew because the scripture says
nobody knew what he did except for the servants.
In the old Testament, water was used by the priests
to cleanse themselves and represented the covenant.
Jesus' blood would provide the ultimate cleansing
for his people and not just the priests
and is symbolically represented by the wine.
I believe that Jesus know good and well
what he was doing in this moment.
And this was a foreshadow
when he would ultimately make the switch.
His first miracle points to the last miracle.
The first miracle is taking the water,
which represented the covenant with the priests
and he transformed it into the wine
that would cover and cleanse all humanity.
And the only thing, the catalyst was Jesus.
In him, the old covenant would be transformed
into a new covenant that would tear the veil,
the spirit would move out,
and all of humanity would be able to come
as priests and kings.
It's not just they're out of wine,
let's turn this water into wine
so we can keep the party going and the celebration going.
No, he said it's not my hour yet because I'll do this,
but this represents what I'm ultimately gonna do.
This first miracle represents the last miracle.
It's incredible.
It's a transition of the covenant
veiled on the pages of scripture.
Let's talk about the wine for a minute.
Has anybody ever made wine?
Don't answer.
Oh God.
I see that hand right here.
Mario in the back called him out first gathering,
he's the only one who raised his hand.
They're a little bit more pious than you rebels,
late sleepers, right?
Better question, has anybody ever drank wine?
Put your hands, don't answer these questions.
These are rhetorical questions.
Those are, I bet that's who had the Yinglings, right?
Do you know the process of making wine?
Do you know the process of, we know you know Mario.
You answered yes to the first question, first two.
Mario's all of the above.
First step in the process of making wine,
the grapes are selected by hand.
The grapes are chosen.
They don't just use any old grape.
Then they are pressed and crushed
in order to extract the juice from them.
From there, they're placed in a large stone or earthen jar
where the fermentation process begins.
This process can take days or months
for the best wines to finish this process.
Finally, they're stored below ground
or in cool places until use.
The longer they sit, the better the wine is, allegedly.
The most important element when making wine is time.
You cannot, we can't go out here after service
and make six gallons, six stone jars
with 20 to 30 gallons of wine in an afternoon.
It doesn't work like that.
It's a process.
Did you hear, did you pick up on it?
The grapes were chosen, selected,
then they were pressed and crushed
and placed on an earthen vessel,
then put below ground for the transformation into new wines.
That sound like anything else
you've heard of in scripture before?
The wine of the new covenant,
which was represented here this morning
to be the blood of Jesus.
Here's what I want us to understand.
By turning the water into wine,
Jesus gave the water a past that it never had.
Are you hearing me?
Jesus gave the water a past that it never had
and it allowed it to avoid the process
to become something beautiful.
When you come and see, when you come and examine,
when you come and you really experience Jesus,
he will give you a past that you never had
and allow him to be the one that transforms you
without having to go through that process
'cause he went through it for you.
And we sitting here talking about,
oh man, that was pretty cool.
Turn water into wine, it's great.
Kept the party going.
It's so much bigger, guys.
And I love the response in 2 10.
And he said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first.
And when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine.
But you have kept the good wine till now."
Worship team, you can come out.
Jesus saved the best wine for last.
He saved the best for last.
I've often thought about this.
The Lord has scattered fragments of the messianic profile
to veil the plan from the enemy.
Part of the reason why we read some stories,
and we're like, man, I don't quite understand that.
And he's like, keep reading, there's something deeper.
It's because he has scattered fragments
of the messianic profile all throughout scripture.
And it simultaneously conceals and reveals.
And only the one who knows what the puzzle looks like
can make sense of the pieces.
And part of the reason why we read these things,
we go, what is happening?
What is he talking about?
Because like Paul said in Corinthians 1, 2, 6-8,
among the mature we impart wisdom.
Although it's not wisdom of this age
or the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away,
we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God,
which God decreed before the ages of our glory.
None of the rulers of this age understood this,
for if they had, they would not have crucified
the Lord of glory.
Basically what Paul says is,
if they knew that by killing him,
it would have meant their destruction and our redemption,
they would have never killed him.
But they didn't know that by killing the son of God,
they signed their own death sentence, which liberated us.
And Jesus has scattered these pieces
of the messianic profile all throughout the New Testament
so that they don't necessarily pick up on all the pieces.
But we see in hindsight,
'cause we've got the lid to know what the puzzle looks like.
(gentle music)
Jesus is revealing pieces as needed to his disciples.
He's slowly conveying what the Old Testament
simultaneously conceals and reveals.
And it begins here at this miracle moment
and it moves out through his ministry and life.
And to quote Tim Pippus from Hope for Life in Calgary,
"Jesus Christ is the one man who has been angry without sin.
"If you slap him in the face,
"he'll turn the other cheek.
"But if you keep outsiders from praying in the temple,
"he'll flip tables.
"He keeps the wedding celebration going
"and hangs out with disreputable and religious alike.
"He's the perfect man.
"He knew how to work to exhaustion when the father asked,
"yet he was interruptible.
"He trusted God completely and yet courageously
"and constantly fulfilled his responsibilities.
"He treated women with unparalleled dignity and care.
"He alone practiced what he preached.
"Prayer was no mere duty or ritual for him.
"It was the garden yielding intimacy, clarity and power.
"And he rose from prayer to a life of disciple making
"and spiritual warfare.
"Demons pleaded for mercy.
"Elements obeyed his commands.
"He wielded power without corruption
"and transcended the coming and going of fame without fault.
"Jesus navigated explosive political
"and religious topics with ease.
"He turned funerals into celebrations.
"At his direction, they took off Lazarus' grave clothes
"and set him free,
"the first instance of a reverse embalming.
"The author of creation was silent before Pilate
"and refused to come down from the cross.
"Imagine his flayed body nailed to his cruciform throne,
"his stomach churning as a sickness and shame
"of every unfaithful husband and more assaulted his heart.
"In those moments, the words that arose from his heart
"were of forgiveness for those crucifying him
"as well as care for his mother.
"He was obedient unto death and he is risen."
So when he says, "My hour is not yet come,
"you want me to go ahead and tell everybody who I am.
"You want me to go ahead and make the switch now.
"I'm gonna show you what the switch is gonna look like.
"It's gonna go from the water
"that can only cleanse the priest
"to my blood that can cleanse all mankind.
"And all you've gotta do is come and see for yourself.
"Come and think, come and believe.
"We sing these songs so arbitrarily sometimes,
"I believe, do we?
"Have you come?
"Have you seen?
"Have you examined?
"He will be the one to establish an everlasting covenant."
We're in such a weird place right now
where every pastor is being assaulted
and told this is how you need to preach
and this is what you're supposed to say
and although I'm not gonna get up there and say it,
you need to get up there and say it for me
'cause how can someone look like this and believe?
How can someone act like this and believe?
You need less podcasts, you need less TikTok,
you need less CNN, you need less Fox News,
you need less Facebook and you need more Word of God.
You need less preachers preaching to you.
And I understand shepherding people through hard times.
The Scriptures are full of it.
None of the prophets shied away from current events
but at the same time, they put 'em in their proper context
and it is my job to bring you into the presence of the Lord
and allow Him to transform you,
not so you can all look like, act like, think like me.
We'll be shut down in 30 minutes at that,
a house full of Justins.
Won't make it to the parking lot.
(gentle music)
All you need to do is come and allow Jesus
to give you a pass that you never had.
Allow Him to transform you the same way
He transformed that water through the power of His blood.
If you need prayer, we're gonna be down here to pray for you.
If you just need to come and meet with Jesus,
if you need to repent, if you need to call out sin
in your life, then let's call it out.
Let's stop playing around, let's stop playing church games.
People are hurting right now.
My sister lost her husband.
There's people that have lost children.
There's people that have lost their mind
in the last two weeks.
And we just gonna sit here and play church games
like we're in some kind of dystopian society
where we can argue about football
and then be on our face 20 minutes later.
It's time to wake up and get real church.
And the God of the universe,
that same one that invited those disciples,
come and see for yourself is inviting you this morning.
Just come and see for yourself.
Come and be transformed by the power of His blood.
Let's worship.
(music fades)