SPEAKER_00: Alright, you can take a seat.
SPEAKER_00: So we've been going through the book of John the last five or six weeks since we've launched to the beginning of September.
SPEAKER_00: And so we'll just be continuing on.
SPEAKER_00: I think we s we start, I know we start John chapter 2 this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So uh this week, well, maybe a couple weeks ago, a few weeks ago, I I bought a new suit.
SPEAKER_00: And so I have one suit for weddings and funerals.
SPEAKER_00: You won't see me wear it unless we're at a wedding or funeral.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I have one suit, and the suit I had was maybe 12 years old or something, you know, quite ridiculous, and it was quite baggy because I think I bought it back when really, really baggy clothes were really cool.
SPEAKER_00: And so when I'd wear this suit, my wife would make fun of me, and finally I decided I needed a new suit.
SPEAKER_00: Um it was sort of falling apart, the stitching.
SPEAKER_00: It really was falling apart.
SPEAKER_00: And so I went to Macy's on Labor Day weekend, I got a suit, I got a fantastic deal, and so I get the suit and I get home and I try it on, you know, walk out, I try it on with my dress shoes, and then quickly we realized, well, now I need new dress shoes, right?
SPEAKER_00: I got the new suit.
SPEAKER_00: The dress shoes are also like 12 years old, and so now I need new dress shoes.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm a I'm an obsessive sort of researcher.
SPEAKER_00: I don't I think we all do this somewhat.
SPEAKER_00: We get on the internet and whatever it is we're interested in, we sort of research, we read about so I'm I'm researching shoes, is what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00: And so I I know I narrow it down to what I want.
SPEAKER_00: I want the Cole Han winterized leather wingtip Oxfords.
SPEAKER_00: That's what I want.
SPEAKER_00: Don't look down, I don't have them on today.
SPEAKER_00: They're too nice just to wear around.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you I mean these are these are special shoes.
SPEAKER_00: When I'm wearing them, you're gonna know I'm wearing them.
SPEAKER_00: I might let you look at them, maybe, maybe touch them.
SPEAKER_00: So I go to Macy's to buy my shoes, and so I I I walk in and I'm, you know, big shoe department, and I walk straight, I can see them from a distance.
SPEAKER_00: I see the Colhan, Colton, Winterized Leather wingtip, Oxford's from a distance.
SPEAKER_00: I see them.
SPEAKER_00: I walk straight in, straight to the shoe, and the salesman's kind of there.
SPEAKER_00: I walk straight in, straight to the shoe, and I just say, I need a 10 and a half medium.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, it's got to be harder, right?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, no, ten and a half medium, I'll try them on.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even need to try them on.
SPEAKER_00: I already know.
SPEAKER_00: And there's another guy there who's a little bit older, and you can tell he was retired because he was sort of taking his time shopping, and and he was looking at the lunar grands.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not interested in the lunar grands, but he's interested in the lunar grands, and he's looking at them.
SPEAKER_00: He talks to me about the lunar grands and how he's been looking at them.
SPEAKER_00: And um, I'm sticking with the the Coltons.
SPEAKER_00: And so we try on our shoes, and I get my shoes, and so I so I buy my shoes, and I'm on the way home.
SPEAKER_00: I get back in the car, I put the shoes in the passenger seat, but I kind of want to look at them.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if y'all do that.
SPEAKER_00: So I took one out and I just put it on top so that on the ride home I could look down every once in a while and just see the shoe that I purchased.
SPEAKER_00: I would never do anything so absurd.
SPEAKER_00: And so um I would look here's the thing that they actually did make me a lot happier.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I would love to be able to kind of say, I'd come up here and say, oh, it's so worldly, and you know, they didn't make no, they absolutely made me happier.
SPEAKER_00: I was feeling much happier on the way home than on the way there.
SPEAKER_00: And so we got home and I I put the shoebox on the counter, and they stayed on the counter for a little while, and and then at some point I decided I was just gonna take a shoe out and put it on top.
SPEAKER_00: That way, when I walked by, I could just kind of just catch a glance at the shoe.
SPEAKER_00: And so for a couple days that's what happened, and then finally I decided they had to make their way to the closet, and so they got in the closet.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the thing about the shoes.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I haven't really thought about them the last couple days.
SPEAKER_00: They've been in the closet.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't made special trips to the closet to look at the shoes.
SPEAKER_00: I kind of know they're there, eventually I'm gonna wear them with my suit, and that's just kind of the end of it.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the other thing about it.
SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I've I saw a pair of boots that I really have my eye on now.
SPEAKER_00: Here's my point.
SPEAKER_00: What's my point?
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you another story to make my point.
SPEAKER_00: There's a boy who lives in a prairie.
SPEAKER_00: So he lives in this prairie and he's surrounded by this huge mountain.
SPEAKER_00: And on top of this huge mountain is this village, right on top.
SPEAKER_00: It's in this from from this village you can see over the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: And he grows up and he's always wondered what would it be like to live in that village and to see over this mountain.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what are those people, what do they feel like every day?
SPEAKER_00: What do they see, and what is it like?
SPEAKER_00: And so he he he devotes himself.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna he's gonna make the journey, he's gonna climb the mountain, he's gonna get to the top of the mountain so he can see over the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: And so he devotes himself and he saves up his money and he trains some and he climbs the mountain, and he gets to the village and he gets to the top, and then he realizes what they see from there.
SPEAKER_00: They see another mountain.
SPEAKER_00: And and all those people in that village are looking at another mountain, and they're looking at a village on top of that mountain.
SPEAKER_00: So, my point, I won't tell another story to make my point.
SPEAKER_00: Uh my point is we all have mountains we run to when we're anxious or we're stressed.
SPEAKER_00: Something that makes us feel validated, something that helps us, gives us relief, something that when we feel we feel like we're lacking value, something we we run to.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and maybe you you run to an ideal of family, an ideal of intimacy in a relationship, maybe sexual escapades, maybe relief of alcohol, relief of drugs, uh maybe moralism, maybe just like religiosity, like I'll just get some more religion in me, I'll just do more good things.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe control.
SPEAKER_00: If I can control more, I'll feel better, I'll feel more at ease, I'll feel relieved.
SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe if you just feel like, you know what, I'm feeling inadequate, but if I just had a longer Bible study, I mean, you know, I've been I've been clocking it, it's right at about 15 minutes, or it's right at 12 minutes, but boy, if it was 20, you know, I've been I've been looking around, and the really godly people are doing 20-minute Bible study.
SPEAKER_00: If I had a 20-minute Bible study, all of a sudden every everything would be fine.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're sort of scoring and kind of gauging and kind of comparing.
SPEAKER_00: And what this is, is it's living in the prairie, looking up at the mountain, um, in that village on the mountain.
SPEAKER_00: And this could be a good thing, or this could be a bad thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: I'd I had a list there of good things and bad things.
SPEAKER_00: And we wonder, boy, if I just got there.
SPEAKER_00: Boy, if it just had that, if this just worked out.
SPEAKER_00: Here's my not that these things don't bring happiness, because they do.
SPEAKER_00: They do bring happiness.
SPEAKER_00: And some of them are good and some of them are bad.
SPEAKER_00: They always run out.
SPEAKER_00: They run out.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason why they run out is because they don't run deep enough.
SPEAKER_00: The wine of this world, this is what we're gonna see in John chapter 2, the wine of this world always runs out.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: We'll read verses 1 through 6.
SPEAKER_00: On the third day, a wedding took place in Cana in Galilee.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
SPEAKER_00: When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, They have no more wine.
SPEAKER_00: Woman, why do you involve me?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus replied, My hour has not come.
SPEAKER_00: His mother said to Sir to the servants, Do whatever he tells you.
SPEAKER_00: So let me set the scene here because this is an ancient, you know, ancient Near East wedding, it's not an American wedding.
SPEAKER_00: Uh first century Jews, what we know is that we don't know if there's actually a religious ceremony or not.
SPEAKER_00: What we do know is that the groom, him and his crew, his family, his friends, they they would make a procession through the village, and it's probably at night, usually at night, with torches, and they would make this procession from his house over to the bride's house.
SPEAKER_00: It's usually on a Wednesday, and they would make the procession over to the bride's house, they'd get to the bride's house, and there'd be all the goodwill speeches and you know, you know, cheers and toasts and all of this, and a very meaningful time, and then and then the the couple, then everybody else, they would make a procession back to the groom's house.
SPEAKER_00: At the groom's house, this is where there was going to be a feast.
SPEAKER_00: So we don't know if there's religious ceremony or not, probably something, but what we do know is there was a procession and there was a feast, and the feast was very important.
SPEAKER_00: And this was not lemonade and sweet tea in the fellowship hall after we were all kind of checking our watches to see if we could make it home for the game, or if we can make it home for, you know, to kind of bed down and watch our you know episode of Felicity or Seinfeld or the news or whatever before we go to bed.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is this is a feast, it could last up to a week.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is huge.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is game day times seven, is what this is.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is the whole community's been waiting for this wedding, this feast, and wine is the center of the feast.
SPEAKER_00: It's the fuel of the feast.
SPEAKER_00: And to the point that the groom's family, I mean, not only would it be socially humiliating to want to run out of wine at the at the wedding, but he could even be liable, like legally, for running out of wine.
SPEAKER_00: And this is why this is such a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just like we're running out of wine, oh, party's over.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is a huge deal culturally.
SPEAKER_00: And so Mary sees this happening.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 3, she is feeling for the host, she knows the party should keep going.
SPEAKER_00: She says, She's feeling for it, and she says, they have no more wine.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, they have no more wine.
SPEAKER_00: She knows something of her son's resourcefulness at this point, that there's he can do something about this, and says, they have no more wine.
SPEAKER_00: So she has some awareness here, and then he has this very odd kind of reply in verse 4 woman, which is which is not, you know, in our culture, this is kind of a derogatory turn to say woman.
SPEAKER_00: You know, but this is like lady, lady that I love, why do you involve me?
SPEAKER_00: My hour has not come.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so this is strange, strange sort of uh dialogue here.
SPEAKER_00: What we see here is Jesus is and is not at the party.
SPEAKER_00: So, first Jesus is at the party, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's not at the synagogue, he's not at the synagogue praying, he's not in the wilderness praying, like he's at the celebration.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: I love that that we don't see, and when God becomes human, it's not that it's all this pious activity.
SPEAKER_00: He's at the celebration, he's at the party, he is there.
SPEAKER_00: But then at the same time, he's not at the party.
SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by this is he's sort of in his own world.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Mary says, they're running out of wine.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Woman, why do you my hour's not come?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is this is like they're running out of wine, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Uh lady, it's not time for me to die.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever Jesus talks about his hour, he's talking about his death.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is like his mother coming to him, Jesus, they're about to run out of wine.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not ready to die.
SPEAKER_00: This is a bizarre sort of dialogue here.
SPEAKER_00: What's he talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Here's what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: He's seeing the story unfold in front of him.
SPEAKER_00: The wine is running out, the host is gonna be humiliated.
SPEAKER_00: All the guests, they're gonna have to, they're gonna have to leave the feast, they're gonna have to leave the freedom of the party.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna have to return to their lives, they're gonna have to return to like their mediocre income and that house that's just not quite what they wanted it to be, and the marriage that they thought was gonna be a little bit better and it's not, and the children who don't really do what you want them to do, and the job that's not the dream that you wanted it to be, and the dream that's just not unfolding like you wanted it to be.
SPEAKER_00: He's seeing all of this.
SPEAKER_00: He's seeing all that.
SPEAKER_00: He sees the fear of the people, he sees the fear of the host.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the wine's running out.
SPEAKER_00: And despair is waiting.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's always despair waiting when we realize, when we come to the conclusion that the new pair of shoes is not really gonna make me happy, the marriage is not really gonna make me happy, the the amount of money I thought was gonna make me happy, I get to that village on top of the mountain, whatever that village is, I get there and I realize the wine has run out.
SPEAKER_00: And where's the relief?
SPEAKER_00: Where's where's the rescue from this?
SPEAKER_00: And so he's thinking about his death.
SPEAKER_00: That's where there's rescue from it.
SPEAKER_00: Like God's love being so exemplified and shown in humanity and history that I will die for you.
SPEAKER_00: And everything that you're not, I will be that.
SPEAKER_00: So I'll take upon me all of your sin and adequacy and all the self-justifying we do with shoes and jobs and marriages and people and relationships and status and performance.
SPEAKER_00: I'll take all of that, and what you can have from me is I will give you my righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it means to believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It means to hand over all of that, and then he puts over you his righteousness and justification as loved and valued.
SPEAKER_00: So Mary turns to the servants.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what she's thinking at this point.
SPEAKER_00: Her son just had this weird reply.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if she's picked up on when he talks about his hour, he's talking about his death.
SPEAKER_00: I think she's probably just being a mom and just decides, well, I'm gonna kind of push him into the situation.
SPEAKER_00: And so she just turns to the servant and says, Well, do whatever Jesus says to do.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, she has the confidence that he has the resourcefulness.
SPEAKER_00: If he says do something, just do it.
SPEAKER_00: Like the problem will be solved.
SPEAKER_00: So we pick up in verse six.
SPEAKER_00: Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to the servants, Fill the jars with water.
SPEAKER_00: So they filled them to the brim.
SPEAKER_00: Then he told them, Now, draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.
SPEAKER_00: They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine.
SPEAKER_00: He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.
SPEAKER_00: Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, Everyone brings out the choice wine first, and then the cheaper wine, after the guests have had too much to drink, but you have saved the best till now.
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
SPEAKER_00: So my first point was that Jesus is and is not at the party.
SPEAKER_00: My second point is that maybe a little less insightful, but Jesus keeps the party going.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just keep the party going, he keeps it going with better wine.
SPEAKER_00: Better than the old wine, better than the former wine.
SPEAKER_00: And he does it in these six huge stone jars, each around 27 gallons or so, maybe around 160 gallons, about 900 glasses of wine.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just produce a little bit of wine.
SPEAKER_00: This is a lot of wine, a lot of really good wine.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we can hear this so many times we sort of miss the point.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's clear that this is really actually- I grew up hearing that this wasn't fermented, and that's so, you know, it was grape juice.
SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, the only problem with this is that there's so many warnings throughout the Bible not to drink too much of it, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've never been warned not to drink too much grape juice.
SPEAKER_00: You warn people not to drink too much wine because you can get drunk.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Bible says, don't drink too much.
SPEAKER_00: See, here's the thing about alcohol: everybody has their own personal decisions and convictions, right?
SPEAKER_00: And we respect that.
SPEAKER_00: When we look at the Bible, the Bible talks about alcohol in terms of celebration.
SPEAKER_00: Not in terms of escape, not in terms of abuse, but celebration.
SPEAKER_00: I would be thinking, if I'm here at this situation and some people have had too much to drink, I'm starting to get uncomfortable, I would be thinking it's time to kind of shut the party down.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just slow this thing down, things are gonna get out of hand, I'm not sure what's gonna play out.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just shut it down.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody go home, bed down, watch their reruns of whatever, the news, read their book, and go to bed.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I would be thinking.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus makes more.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just make more, he keeps the party going, and it's with new wine, it's with better wine.
SPEAKER_00: So what happens when we realize, when we come to this point that Jesus is seeing, right?
SPEAKER_00: When he says, Woman, don't why are you involving me?
SPEAKER_00: Well, what happens when we realize all of our ambitions or dreams or hopes, all the things we really hope for they're not playing out like we thought they would?
SPEAKER_00: What happens?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, do we have to sort of like belligerently kind of mope into Christianity?
SPEAKER_00: Like into rules and control and like a God hovering over us, you know, making sure we don't drink too much wine, or you know, we're cast out of the family of God.
SPEAKER_00: What we see here is we see a God who's concerned about freedom and celebration and joy.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is the point where I'm Jesus and I give a lecture on alcohol.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, even in this sermon, I felt the obligation to put the two lines in there about alcohol celebration, not abuse, then not relief.
SPEAKER_00: I felt that obligation.
SPEAKER_00: He gives no lecture.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even understand it.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to make sure everybody gets it that he is for celebration, he's for joy, he is for freedom.
SPEAKER_00: And he knows if they understand my death, all the morality, all the righteousness, that takes care of itself as he works in us.
SPEAKER_00: I think he's totally revolutionizing what we call sacred and what we call is secular.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, a lot of times when I go to a wedding, I kind of have this view.
SPEAKER_00: I have this view that the ceremony is sacred, and now we're gonna go to a party.
SPEAKER_00: And what we see here is Jesus comes along and says, No, there's no difference.
SPEAKER_00: And I've had these moments where I'm at a party, around a great table with good friends, drinking a good glass of wine, and you're like, this is really good.
SPEAKER_00: This is sacred.
SPEAKER_00: This is spiritual.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus is doing.
SPEAKER_00: He's helping us to see the wall between sacred and secular, the wall has come down.
SPEAKER_00: And everything we do do it for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of this, you have to you have to ask, why did he choose this to be his first miracle?
SPEAKER_00: Why his first public display of divinity?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, why not feed the 5,000?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Solve hunger.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, why not that?
SPEAKER_00: Why not heal somebody or somebody who's blind?
SPEAKER_00: Make them let them see.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, he create for his first miracle, he creates 160 gallons of wine.
SPEAKER_00: This is his first miracle.
SPEAKER_00: It's freeing to realize that the most precious things in your life cannot deliver what you want them to.
SPEAKER_00: At first you would think that would be depressing, but it's actually freeing.
SPEAKER_00: That the most precious things in your life cannot deliver.
SPEAKER_00: Because what it means is you can quit putting the burden on them and you can begin to enjoy them.
SPEAKER_00: As I was writing this, I work in the, there's a we have a room above our garage, our garage is on the back of our lot, and so I'm up working in my office, and I look out over our backyard, and then our house is out there, and our driveway comes out the side, and so as I'm working on this actual little section right here, Christy pulls in and unloads these three wonderful little girls.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking out at them, I mean, the most precious things in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Even they cannot deliver certain things that my heart desires.
SPEAKER_00: They don't run deep enough.
SPEAKER_00: The things of this world, the wine of this world does not run deep enough.
SPEAKER_00: We can quit asking them to be more than what they could ever be.
SPEAKER_00: You can begin to enjoy them.
SPEAKER_00: Because we are drinking a new wine.
SPEAKER_00: His death and his resurrection, which means this.
SPEAKER_00: God loves me no matter what.
SPEAKER_00: God loves me based on what he did, not based on what I do.
SPEAKER_00: About three years later, Jesus was at a dinner.
SPEAKER_00: A small group around a table, his closest friends.
SPEAKER_00: He spoke again about wine, he spoke again about death.
SPEAKER_00: And he talks about the wine, he holds up a cup, and he talks about the new covenant.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about this old covenant of law, this way that we are made right by God by what we do.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, that old covenant, it was there to help you see that you can't do it.
SPEAKER_00: There's a new covenant, a new wine, and this is about that I will do what you cannot do, and it will be a gift.
SPEAKER_00: A new way.
SPEAKER_00: One not of rules or being good enough, but one of trust and belief.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus and Jesus alone.
SPEAKER_00: This is about old wine and new wine.
SPEAKER_00: The old wine never runs deep enough.
SPEAKER_00: All the vineyards and Bordeaux and Napa and Chiante and Tuscany and Chile and Argentina and Italy, California, all of them cannot produce enough wine to run as deep as the human heart needs.
SPEAKER_00: That's because wine is dependent upon us producing it.
SPEAKER_00: And the new covenant is dependent upon God giving it.
SPEAKER_00: So we place our hearts and our minds and our souls in relationship with Him.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it means to have a grace-filled life.
SPEAKER_00: We're not relying upon our own activities and behaviors, what we manufacture.
SPEAKER_00: We're trusting in what He did.
SPEAKER_00: We drink deeply of God's love for us and what He did for us.
SPEAKER_00: That's how we understand His love toward us so that we might enjoy all other drinks in His life.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: God, we confess that we often run to other drinks, other wines.
SPEAKER_00: And we know they don't run deep enough.
SPEAKER_00: We always need more.
SPEAKER_00: And God, we thank you that you came and provided a new wine that is dependent upon you and your unconditionality of your love for us so that we know it'll never run dry and it always runs deep enough.
SPEAKER_00: And that we can find such security and peace in it because it's not dependent upon what we do, but it's dependent upon what you've done for us.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to get a bigger view of you.
SPEAKER_00: That you are more than rules, you're more than hovering over us, waiting to burden us, but that you are for us.
SPEAKER_00: You are for our joy, you're for our freedom.
SPEAKER_00: You're for our purity, you're for our righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And that you do this by coming and giving us your righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And so we hold our lives before you, we open our hearts and our minds, and just ask for you to come.
SPEAKER_00: And all those dark places where we've been holding on to idols and been climbing mountains to places that we we even know when we get there there's not gonna be anything.
SPEAKER_00: Would you increase our faith in you?
SPEAKER_00: We repent of those things.
SPEAKER_00: And we turn to you and thank you that you love us.
SPEAKER_00: And all of these feeble attempts, you love us.
SPEAKER_00: And we're so grateful for that.
SPEAKER_00: We pray in Jesus' name.