May 24th, 2026

Pastor Michael Crocker

Transcript

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Uh good morning, everybody. I want to take a second to look into the lens. Say good morning to everyone watching online, wherever you're dialed in from. We know this is an extra credit Sunday, and you know, people like me. How many of you liked extra credit in school? Like you were depending on that. Yeah, come on, somebody. That's free credit right there. And uh you don't get it. Um we love you, but wish you were here. Those of you in church, though, it is extra credit Sunday. Hello, church! Man, it is Memorial Day weekend. It is the beginning of summer for everybody except Northside, I think independent school district still has to go back. Um, but uh it is it is great to see you all today. There's a lot going on. Today is the day of Pentecost. It's a day, and Pentecost means count 50. It's 50 days after the Passover celebration when God delivered the law to Moses, and then as we understand it, then Jesus delivered the Holy Spirit upon the church. And Peter delivered the first sermon, and three people, 3,000 people were saved that day. Just amazing stuff that went on. It's the day that we celebrate that, and and I'm not going to talk about it today in my sermon because I'm in a sermon series, but I wanted to draw your attention to last Wednesday, Wednesday night, we had our uh worship and praise night in Fellowship, Paul, Lisa, and the team that were all here uh leading it. And and I did talk about Pentecost and the importance of it and the coolness of it and how God wraps things up and together and everything. And I just want to encourage you next when next month, Wednesday, when we have that to come. It was a really cool, special night. Uh it's very casual, very um kind of it's it's not super long, and it's just a really special time to come for worship and prayer uh and to hear a little short teaching. So um love for you to join us on those Wednesdays. Uh today is also Memorial Day. Um, it's a day, well, tomorrow is Memorial Day, and we celebrate the folks. We want to celebrate all the time those who serve our country and the armed forces, and we have many of you in the room who have done so. Um, but Memorial Day is that day that we set aside to say, hey, we want to thank those who gave their lives and really remember them and praise God for them who gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we could have the freedom to stand here and to come here week after week and praise Jesus to rest on his water. Come on, somebody. See what I did there? Um yeah. Uh and so I just want to say a prayer right now for those folks. Heavenly Father, I thank you and praise you so much. I don't, I can't understand it. But you do that you were willing to lay down your life so that people may have freedom. We have people who have come through our country in the 250 years of our country who have said yes to the calling to serve our country, to serve us, to give us the freedom to worship you. And they gave their lives so that we could have that freedom. Father, I pray your blessing upon them. I thank you and praise you for them. May we live in honor of their memory and never take our freedom for granted. And the right to come and worship you. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. So there's one other thing before I get into uh my sermon on the creed today. And and they're not here because it's Memorial Day weekend and they don't get the extra credit because they're not here, but there's a family that comes to our church, usually to the 11 o'clock service. And uh a while ago, when we were given out third grade Bibles, there they have a third grader, had a third grader, I guess she's no longer third grader, but um, and her name's Jocelyn. And Jocelyn got her third grade Bible, and that evening there was a community event that we were um that we were all a part of or whatever at the pig pen. And the pig pen is a little barbecue joint uh down Broadway, and and um, and so we were all we all went to the pig pen, a whole bunch of people went to the pig pen, and I look over and I see little Jocelyn Lawler sitting on a bar at a bar, one of the bar tables at the pig pen with her brand new third grade Bible. And she was reading it, and there's like all these people around her who didn't who weren't part of our group, who didn't know who she was, and here's this little third grader reading and taking notes from her Bible. Like it was just awesome. I was like, that is the greatest thing, and I brought and I brought it up on Sunday. I was like, and she was here that day. I was like, Jocelyn, I'm so proud of you for doing that, going into the world and taking God with you. That's who we're called to be. It was amazing as a third grader. That didn't that didn't sit well with her older sister, um, the fifth grader. And so Evelyn, not to be outdone in the Lawler family, decided, you know what, challenge accepted. Uh, and she just completed the other day reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, cover to cover, in 139 days. Yeah. Like, how many of you have started on a reading cover-to-cover Bible plan for 365 days and quit about day 82? Right? Because like you get into, yes, you thank you for the only honest one in here. All of us have, because you get into the chronicles and you're like, this is horrible. The begat section, and you're like, you gotta be kidding me, right? And you just like, and I'm so proud of her and Evelyn, and and I wish she was Evelyn, I hope you're watching um online and uh so proud of you, little fifth grader, rocking through the Bible. Um, so that's a great example for all of us to be engaged in the word of God. Because quite honestly, if people had been engaged in the word of God, I wouldn't have to do this series that I'm doing today. But it's because some people apparently didn't read the word of God, and yet even though they were church leaders, that we had this big controversy. We are in this series called The Creed. Um, that was a good segue, by the way, thank you. Um in this series called The Creed, and we started a couple of weeks ago, if you remember, that in the year 325 A.D., so the year 325 after Jesus, Constantine becomes the emperor of Rome. So essentially the world. He's the ruler of the world at the time. And he makes Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Um, and and so that's a really, really big deal. But there was a controversy going on because there was a leader out of Alexandria, his name was Arius, and Arius had this really big following because he created this incredible jingle that was just really catchy, and I'm sure you all remember it from last week. There was a time when he was not. Remember that? Yeah. There was a time when he was not. I don't know if that was the actual tune that went to it, but it was a jingle and it stuck. And what it implied, or actually what it said, was there was a time when Jesus was not. There was a time when Jesus was not. Because, according to Arius, he was just a man. Great man, prophet, great teacher, but he was just a man. Now, that's a problem for Christianity, because the foundational truth of Christianity stands on the cross and the empty tomb, that Jesus was both fully man and fully God, able to stand for the forgiveness of sins for the entirety of humanity. And only God could do that, and only man could give himself up in place of us. The fact that I don't understand how that works doesn't change the fact that it is. I don't understand a lot of things that happened in this world, but they still are. Doesn't change that foundational and fundamental truth. But Arius had this huge following, and there was this big controversy around it, and so Constantine called this Council of Nicaea in 325, and they met in modern-day Izbet outside of this lake in Turkey. And the bishops from all over the area, and some of the presbyters and some deacons gathered together to really hash this stuff out. And I mean hash it out because they had 20 different rules that they came up with about clerical orders, about ordination, about self-castration, you know, all the great things they hit. But really it came down to this. And if you were here last week, you you you might have heard that it even got violent. So much so that Saint Nick punched Arius in the face. Yeah, that Saint Nick punched Arius in the face because he was so vehemently opposed to what Arius was saying. And so as the council met, they came up with this creed upon which the church moved forward in these truths. Let's recite this creed together. We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen. This is the foundational truth that they came from this council with, that really was the basis for the growing of the church, these truths upon which we build everything. And you notice that they focus heavily on the Son, very little to the Father, not as much to the Spirit, because this was all about the divinity of Jesus, the divinity and the humanity of Jesus. And they want to focus on this. And they want to get it through everyone's head. No, no, no. How many times can we say this? He was God and he was man. He was God and he was man. And the reason I my segue into this was if people had just read the Bible, there wouldn't have been this controversy. It's because if you read the Bible, that should be very clear to you who Jesus is. Even if you go Old Testament, that points to who the Messiah will be. If you certainly go New Testament, Paul's letters, absolutely, but if you read the Gospel stories, it should be very clear to you. In fact, the very beginning of one of the Gospels is kind of in here. Right? The Gospel of John. And the Gospel of John, like last week we talked about Colossians, it's all in the letters, Paul's letters. But really, John is the one who hits this over and over and over again. Right? The Gospel writers are writing to different audiences. They're trying to focus on a different aspect of who Jesus as the Messiah is. And John's whole point, which is why he begins, as I always say, like a wrestler, Worldwide Wrestling Federation, he takes a chair and he beats you over the head with it and he doesn't let up. Is because he wants you to know that Jesus is God. The mighty, powerful, wonderful God. He is God and man. And he opens like this. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. If you're not clear about it from that very first statement, I don't know what you're reading. I don't know what Arius was reading into that. Well, define was God. What exactly does that mean? And if you don't believe that he became fully man, then John explains it a little bit further. This is chapter one. He says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Like in the very first few verses of the Gospel of John, he answers the question of who Jesus was. Was he God? Was he man? Yes. How? Don't know, but this is who he is. The Gospel of John is this really interesting gospel. It's different than the other three, right? The other three are really tied together. They have a lot of the same stories. John kind of goes his own path in his own way. And it's broken into two halves, really. You have chapters 12 through the end, which really speak to the final nights, the garden, the Last Supper, the arrest, the crucifixion, the resurrection, all that, by the way, really big stuff. But you can't get to the second part of John's gospel without going through the first part. Chapter 1 is an introduction. But then you have chapters 2 through 11. In chapters 2 through 11, John is going to weave this story and drop these clues or these signposts, if you will, to point you to who Jesus is. Over and over again, he's going to tell you these stories of these miraculous events that Jesus does, this miraculous thing that Jesus does. These things are like, did you see that? And then he's like, so what are you going to do with that? Like, I'm going to tell you something magnificent that Jesus did, this miracle that he did, and I'm just trying, I'm trying to tell you, but I can't just like, and this is what a good rabbi would do. A good rabbi wouldn't just give you the answer. The good rabbi would show you what's going on and then let you come to the understanding for yourself. And this is what John does, with the exception of the first two signs. The first two clues, John tells you the clue, he tells you what's going on, and then he goes, This is what it means. This is why it happened. But after these first two, which come really short, verse chapter two and three, he then lets us figure it out for ourselves. Culminating with chapter 11, one of the greatest signs of when he walks in and he says, Lazarus, come out of that tomb. And he brings his buddy back from the dead. And then it's like, okay, and now this. Chapter is 12 to the resurrection. But see, we know why John wrote his gospel. Like, I can explain that all to you in intellectually. Oh, you went to seminary teaching, all that stuff. No, you should know why. If you've ever read John's gospel and got to chapter 20, you should know why he writes his gospel, because he tells us. He says, I write these things so that you may come to believe that Jesus is Messiah, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Like, why am I telling you this story? So that you know that Jesus is both fully God and fully man, that he is the Messiah, the Son of God and the Son of Man, who came to take away the sins of the world. Jesus, that's who he is. This is why I've written this, so that you would believe that. And in believing that, have life. So, what are the signs? How did Arius miss this? And chapter two is the first one. Um, and and one of the kids at the first service knew this miracle quite quickly, which caused a giggle in the congregation and a little maybe a little bit of blushing from their parents. I don't know. The first miracle, and everybody, what's the first miracle? Water to wine, right? And this miracle gets a little bit of a, it's got an asterisk by it for some people. Because some people intellectualize it away and say, well, it's water to grape juice or something, because alcohol can sometimes be heavy in some people's families. And I don't disagkledge that. I understand that for for some, alcohol is something that causes you to trip up and it causes someone in your family. It's a demon, it's not something that is beneficial or good. But I think we have a relationship with alcohol today that is way different than what they had there. Um and we we operate and we function with it differently than they did here. And really, this miracle points to a few things. One, it points back to an Isaiah verse in a chapter when it talks about when the coming of the Messiah would come, there would be great wine and great feasts and things of that, but it also points forward, which is why I believe Jesus started here, and John wants to really highlight this. Chapter 2, verse 1. The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana at Galilee. Jesus' mother was there. Jesus and the disciples were also invited to the celebration. The wine supply ran out during the festivity, so Jesus' mother told him, They have no more wine. Dear woman, that's not our problem, Jesus replied. But his mother told the servants, do whatever he tells you. Standing nearby were six stone jars used for Jewish ceremonial washing. Each could hold 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus told the servants, fill the jars with water. When the jars had been filled, he said, Now dip some out and take it to the master of ceremonies. So the servants followed his instructions. When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from, though the servants, of course, knew, he called the bridegroom over. Then when everyone has a lot to drink, he brings out the less less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now. This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. Now, you have this uh this story. Hold off on that one. Sully. Um you have this story right here, when that this thing. And there's there's a lot to this. Like I preached on this actually this past summer when I was doing the um the Renaissance. Uh there uh I don't even remember what that series is called, but you know, when I throw up paintings up there, my wife tunes out for a month. Um and uh and there because there's one that's the feast of Canaan and Galilee and Craig, and um uh and so I taught it because there's there's like six or seven sermons in this chapter two, verses one to eleven. There's so much in here. Um and there's a reason why I think Jesus started here, but let me just hit the surface of it before we get into a little deep stuff. So, the surface of it, a wedding celebration was a huge deal. It was a massive thing in the life, not just of the husband and the wife who come together acknowledging under covenantal law that they are now one under the eyes of God. It was a huge thing for the family, for the fathers and mothers of both bride and groom, but also for the entire community. Like the wedding would happen, and it would happen over the course of a couple of days, and then once they were married, there would be a celebration for at least a week. The reception would go on for a week. Fathers of the bride, like Jake Carr, you couldn't handle it, you have three daughters. Could you imagine wedding receptions that long? You know, like it aren't you happy you live in this day and age? Like it was that that long of a celebration. And towards the end, it was it was a big deal. Like if things went sour at your wedding celebration, it was seen to go sour in your life together. Like the bride and groom running out of wine at this celebration would have been devastating to them. It would have cast a shadow over their entire life together, and everyone would have said, they're not gonna make it. It's gonna be a horrible marriage together. This is a sign they never should have come together. So Jesus steps in in this tender moment for this couple and offers help. But I love how it happens, right? So we know that it says Jesus is there, the disciples are there, Mary is there because this wedding is happening in a village that's close to their hometown. And it's just everybody's invited because it is everyone is welcome to the celebration. And so Mary, Jesus, the disciples, some of the disciples are all there present in this moment. And we also can see that Mary has a place of importance still. Like this is the last time we're gonna hear from Mary in John's gospel until the cross. But we know at this moment that there's a place of importance for her, so much so that the stewards and the and the servants listen to her. Like, hey, come here. And they come over, and I love what Mary does. She's like, Jesus. They've run out of wine. Like Anne, which is Jesus' response, right? He's like, Well, that's not my problem. Like, I'm here celebrating. And I love her response to him. So Jewish mothery. She ignores him. Do whatever he says. She's like, she probably shushed him and then looked at the servant and said, Do whatever he says. And like a good son, he's like, okay. There's six ton jars over there, fill them up. We'll have some wine. Tells them what to do, they dip it out. All of a sudden, the stuff that came before was like Boone's Farm, right? We've moved on from the old stuff, we got the good stuff. Just blown away. It's like when Jesus provides, he doesn't give you the dregs, he gives you the best. And it's glorious and wonderful in a celebration. The master of ceremony is like, man, this is amazing. He calls the groom over, and the groom's probably freaked out because he knows there's no wine, and all of a sudden it's the best. He likes, dude, my life, and he looks at his wife, I'm sure he's like, We're gonna make it. It's gonna be amazing, it's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay. And I love the beauty of that moment where Jesus steps in and something that we would maybe see as trivial and says, It matters. This marriage matters. And so I'm gonna step in and bring the best. But there's other stuff going on here too. One, I love the fact. That Jesus performs his first wedding, his first miracle at a wedding, and that John wants to point that out to us. Because the first miracle that he does, the first time he does something like this, is at a wedding. And then if you fast forward to John's revelation when God is revealing all things to him in chapter 21, the moment that earth and heaven unite is what? A wedding feast. The end of everything, or if you look at it, the beginning of everything culminates in a wedding. In fact, if you look at scripture, the way that God, the number one way God uses some sort of example to describe our relationship with Him throughout Old and New Testament is through marriage. That's the way. That's the way he uses the he kind of paints it. Look at the Song of Solomon. That's an incredibly beautiful book about God's relationship with us and that of a husband and a wife. You see time and time again this imagery that God uses. And so at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry, when he just opens the door as to who he is, this is where God chooses to start, which makes so much sense to me. The second thing is what Jesus uses to perform this miracle. Right? He uses these six stone big jars held 20 to 30 gallons. Like that's a lot of wine all of a sudden on the party. And you have these 20 to 30, and those stone jars, it says, are used for ceremonial cleansing. Right? It's part of the Jewish system. Anytime you would come in, remember, they're walking on dirt roads for the most part, they're wearing sandals, and you have dirty feet. And so part of the responsibility of the host was to ceremonially clean them from the roads, to wash their feet, but also then to wash hands. There was this process of pouring water over one hand and the other hand to prepare yourself, to cleanse yourself, to engage with the banquet that was to come. It was the Jewish system of laws and orders and regulations. And remember what Jesus came to overturn and to fulfill? That system. And so he uses those things. He goes, those tools that you use for purification were great for a moment, but they're no longer valid. Because there's a new purifier in town. That's a new name of Jesus, the purifier in town, right? There is someone new who will cleanse you. There is a new system, a new relationship with God is beginning now. Heaven has invaded earth because that's what these moments are. Those moments when heaven and earth collide and they intersect, and God's extreme, powerfully love bursts forth. It's those moments where God interacts with the world. And for the Jew, that was always the temple. The temple is where God interacted and where those two things came together. But what John is pointing out here is Jesus is changing everything. The temple doesn't contain God any longer. God has left the building, if you will. And now we get to interact with God face to face. And he breaks down that system, the system that used to do everything. No, no, no, no. There's a new system. There's a new relationship. And then the third thing, and this is a little, it's a short one, but in my translation, what I said is the next day, but the Greek translation says on the third day. And what does that make you think of? The resurrection. Right? On the third day. And there's no accident why John is using that imagery, that language. Well, one, it was, if you count, it's the third day. But two, it's because John is pointing, like, hey, look at this. Look at this sign. Look at this clue. Look at this miracle thing that's going to happen. Now, what are you going to do with it? I've laid all of this stuff out with you. What are you going to do with it? Well, as I told you, John gives us the answer to the first two. In this one, he's like, okay, I'm going to give you this answer. It's verse 11, is where the answer comes. It says, This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And the disciples believed. Right? This sign was to point to the glory of Jesus, that he is the Son of God, and He is the Son of Man. And it was so that the disciples would see it and go, oh. I get it. It was the sign to point to who Jesus is and then who the disciples were, who we are. Because of it. Why did he do this sign? To go, hey, here I am. So as I said, there's all these signs throughout. Throughout the next chapters, chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, all the way up to Elazarus and 11. And time and time again, John is pointing out that Jesus is both Son of God and Son of Man. Now, what are you going to do with it? Because with so many of these signposts pointing to being the Son of God and the Son of Man, the incarnate God. And that's a word that was picked up by the Nicene Creed, right? Incarnate, incarnation. The incarnation is never, it's not found in Scripture. That word is not in Scripture. It's the supernatural, it's the human embodiment of a supernatural being. It's that God took on the form of a human body. He became incarnate. Because what needed to happen couldn't happen without that. And time and time again, John keeps pointing to these things. It's this moment where heaven is interacting with earth. This moment that God's extreme love bursts forth on humanity. And we always sense that it would happen in the temple, but it's coming through Jesus Christ right now. He is the fullness of that promise from God. Now, what are you going to do with it? John actually gives us the answer to that also in this first one. And it's found in verse 6. In Mary's response. Do whatever he tells you. That's the response. Like she didn't know what he was going to do. She didn't know that he would go, oh, I see water over there. She didn't put two and two together, like, hey, there's water, we can make it happen, Jesus, let's go. She's like, I don't know what he's gonna do. But he's God. And he's also my baby boy. Do whatever he tells you to do. I think that's John's whole point to his gospel. He wants you to know who Jesus is as the Son of God and the Son of Man, and then do whatever he tells you to do. Do whatever he tells you. The question is, what are you going to do with all of these signs that John's laying out of who Jesus is? Do you see, as the disciples did and believe? Do you believe that Jesus was both fully God and fully man? That he came, he lived, he died, he conquered death so that you might have life. If so, then do whatever he tells you. Let's pray. Gracious and heavenly Father, we we thank you and praise you for your Son Jesus Christ, who gave his life so that we might have ours. He was both fully part of you and fully one of us. And how that works, we don't understand. The good news is we don't have to. We just have to do whatever you tell us. So, Father, I pray that someone, if anyone has ever never heard those words, that you've called them your son or your daughter, because they've just they've seen, but they just haven't believed, or they've heard, but they haven't really heard. Let today be that day. That they see those moments where you intersect with earth and burst forth in your extreme love because those moments haven't stopped. You still continue to move in mighty and unexplainable ways. You still continue to point to who Jesus is and who we are because of it. Father, help today, let today be the day that someone says yes to you. They get to experience the same life that the disciples grabbed hold of, the same life that we have. Father, help us to be a church who continues to do whatever you tell us. We thank you and praise you. In Jesus' name. Amen.