SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning, church.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to be with you today.
SPEAKER_00: Good to be able to worship together.
SPEAKER_00: Special welcome to our online campus, our Ontario campus, and our Waterford campus.
SPEAKER_00: Glad you guys are joining us as well.
SPEAKER_00: You know, from time to time here, we intentionally schedule guest speakers to come in just so that you can be blessed.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens is from time to time is that these guest speakers stop being guest speakers and start becoming more like family.
SPEAKER_00: And so the last time that Icky Soma was here, there's been a lot of requests hey, when's Icky coming back?
SPEAKER_00: When's Icky gonna be here?
SPEAKER_00: When's Icky gonna preach again?
SPEAKER_00: Today's the day.
SPEAKER_00: Ladies and gentlemen, would you help me welcome Icky Soma?
SPEAKER_00: Icky's the lead pastor of Cottage Grove Baptist Church in Iowa.
SPEAKER_00: So Icky, I would love to pray for you, and I'm gonna get out of your way so you can do your thing.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we are so grateful that we can worship together.
SPEAKER_00: We are grateful for Icky and that he is able to be here today.
SPEAKER_00: We're grateful for your word.
SPEAKER_00: We just pray this morning that we will just be able to hear your word, but more than that, we'll meditate, and Lord, that'll be life-changing.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for Icky.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for his ministry and his family.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we in your name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Jess.
SPEAKER_01: Appreciate it.
SPEAKER_01: Well, good morning, Crossroads.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a little bit uh evangelically ticked off at Pastor Andrew this morning, and I'll tell you why.
SPEAKER_01: When he was looking for um guest speakers, preachers for this series, he let me know what he was looking to do.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, if you know the Gospel of John, there are seven I am statements, there are seven messages or discourses, and there's also seven miraculous signs that are in there.
SPEAKER_01: It's a triad.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Yeah, I've studied the Gospel of John before.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's a triad.
SPEAKER_01: So why do you want me to come and speak during this seven series?
SPEAKER_01: And he says, because what are the Asian gangs known as?
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, a triad.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's why you're coming.
SPEAKER_01: You're Asian, right?
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Andrew uh started this series last week uh talking about the prologue and the presentation leads to purpose.
SPEAKER_01: He did a great job last week looking at the prologue of what the Gospel of John is about and about Jesus, highlighting him in his introduction.
SPEAKER_01: But today we're going to look at the presentation of Jesus, one of the aspects of the presentation.
SPEAKER_01: Now, uh probably about two or three decades ago, there was an evangelist, televangelist by the name of Peter Popoff.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter Popoff would regularly have crusades.
SPEAKER_01: He would go to various cities and have crusades, and at these crusades, he would get a word from the Lord, a word of knowledge, and he would say, There's someone here this morning who is wrestling with gout, and they're from Ontario, Ohio.
SPEAKER_01: And if you just come up now, we'll pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: And often someone would come up front and they'd get prayed for, and they would be amazed at how he would sense from the Lord that there's someone with gout from Ontario, Ohio.
SPEAKER_01: But there is a skeptic by the name of James Randy.
SPEAKER_01: He was a contributor to Skeptic Magazine.
SPEAKER_01: He was a magician by trade, but frequently what he would do is he would try to expose these televangelists, and he called them charlatans and hucksters and con men.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what he discovered.
SPEAKER_01: At Peter Popoff's events, before you came to the event, you would fill out a card, and on the card you put your name, your address, maybe your phone number, and on there you put prayer requests, and typically there'd be prayer requests for maybe financial challenges or health issues or marital struggles or prodigal children.
SPEAKER_01: You put that and you'd submit that card before you came in the doors.
SPEAKER_01: What would Peter Popoff would do is he would have an earpiece in his ear that would get a radio transmission from his wife, who's in the back office, reading off those cards.
SPEAKER_01: And so she would say, There's a man named Ned from Lexington, who's here this morning and he has gout and rheumatoid arthritis.
SPEAKER_01: And he would say, I have a word.
SPEAKER_01: There's a man here today.
SPEAKER_01: And they would be amazed.
SPEAKER_01: But this is what James Randy, the magician and the skeptic, did.
SPEAKER_01: He was able to tap into that radio frequency and hear all the messages that Peter Popoff's wife was sending to Peter and expose him for being a con man and a huckster.
SPEAKER_01: And so, for many of you all in this room, perhaps you're a skeptic as well when it comes to the supernatural, to the miraculous things that God does.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I want to argue for: that there are going to be times in your life, in my life, where you're going to face situations where you are in desperate need for a miracle from God.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: No amount of money can fix it, no amount of doctors can fix it.
SPEAKER_01: There's nothing that you can do.
SPEAKER_01: You will find yourself in a situation where you will cry out to God.
SPEAKER_01: And so today, this morning, we're going to be in John chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: So turn with me to John 2.
SPEAKER_01: If you need a Bible, just raise your hand and we'll get you one of those as a gift.
SPEAKER_01: John chapter 2, we're going to look at verses 1 through 11.
SPEAKER_01: And the message is called, All signs point to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: All signs point to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And like Pastor Andrew mentioned, that miracles always validate the message, the message of the gospel, the message of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So turn with me to John chapter 2, the Gospel of John chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: I will read verses 1 through 11 in our hearing.
SPEAKER_01: On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to her, Woman, what does this have to do with me?
SPEAKER_01: My hour has not yet come.
SPEAKER_01: His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you.
SPEAKER_01: Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said to the servants, Fill the jars with water.
SPEAKER_01: And they filled them up to the brim.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.
SPEAKER_01: So he took it, uh they took it.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: But you have kept the good wine until now.
SPEAKER_01: This is the first of his signs Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go back to that first verse in verse one.
SPEAKER_01: On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your finger there.
SPEAKER_01: Recorded in John chapter 1 and John chapter 2 are the first six days, the first week of Jesus' ministry.
SPEAKER_01: So on day one, not recorded here in the Gospel of John, we see the baptism of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: John the Baptist baptizes Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: On the second day, he declares, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_01: He says, like Pastor Andrew said last week, whose you are determines who you are.
SPEAKER_01: He says, This is whose you are.
SPEAKER_01: He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Your sin and my sin, that's who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: On day three, he calls Andrew and Peter to be his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: On day four, he calls Philip and Nathaniel to be his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Day five is a silent traveling day.
SPEAKER_01: They're heading to Nathaniel's hometown of Cana, most likely because they were invited to a wedding.
SPEAKER_01: So on day six, they're at this wedding in Cana.
SPEAKER_01: Now, fix this in your minds.
SPEAKER_01: In American weddings, two things happen typically.
SPEAKER_01: There's usually a rehearsal and then a wedding day.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: So they can happen usually on the same day or back-to-back days.
SPEAKER_01: But in a Jewish wedding, typically, these Jewish weddings lasted seven days.
SPEAKER_01: And so they were a lengthy week-long affair in which the groom's family provided all the food and all the drinks for every guest that was coming.
SPEAKER_01: So again, don't think the American wedding of just Friday, Saturday, and don't just think in American weddings where the bride's family pays for all the wedding festivities.
SPEAKER_01: But here in Jewish culture, it's the groom's family that pays for all the wedding festivities, for the wedding itself, and the wedding lasts seven days.
SPEAKER_01: Now, as the father of two daughters, I wish I was Jewish.
SPEAKER_01: I know Pastor Andrew wishes the same thing too.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Several years ago, I got the opportunity to officiate the wedding for one of my mentees, a guy who was discipling, and he was from Cameroon, West Africa.
SPEAKER_01: And that's exactly what happened.
SPEAKER_01: His wedding was super long over days and days, and the rehearsal lasted all night and all day.
SPEAKER_01: And the same thing for his wedding.
SPEAKER_01: It was not just a one-hour occasion, it was something that lasted all day.
SPEAKER_01: And here we see again on the sixth day of Jesus' ministry, Jesus at a wedding.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what's the significance of that?
SPEAKER_01: The message of the Gospel of John is Jesus is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: John 1.14, that famous verse we quoted at Christmas, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is not only the Son of God, Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: He's God.
SPEAKER_01: He is the Word who became flesh.
SPEAKER_01: He is God who has become flesh.
SPEAKER_01: If you can remember from Genesis 1.1, parallel with John 1.1, in the beginning, we see this a creation account.
SPEAKER_01: So what's going on here is this Jesus is God, but he's also creator.
SPEAKER_01: Do you remember what God ordained in Genesis chapter 2 on the sixth day?
SPEAKER_01: He's at a wedding, y'all.
SPEAKER_01: Not a trick question.
SPEAKER_01: Marriage.
SPEAKER_01: God instituted, ordained marriage on the sixth day.
SPEAKER_01: Here on the sixth day of Jesus' ministry, where is he at?
SPEAKER_01: He's at a wedding.
SPEAKER_01: And he's about to perform his first miracle.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what's the miracle?
SPEAKER_01: He says in verse 2, Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: This town, Cana, is a very small town.
SPEAKER_01: They estimate maybe only a few hundred people live there.
SPEAKER_01: He says, verse 3, when the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the occasion.
SPEAKER_01: Week-long festivities.
SPEAKER_01: The groom's family is required to pay for all the food and drinks.
SPEAKER_01: And now they're out of wine.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know the exact relationship between the groom and Mary, the groom and Nathaniel, but there's some kind of relationship there where Mary feels obligated to let Jesus know it's up to us to meet the needs of this whole family.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the reason why.
SPEAKER_01: You got engaged or betrothed.
SPEAKER_01: During that one-year betrothal period, what the husband to be would do was he would build or provide a house.
SPEAKER_01: He'd also pay for the wedding.
SPEAKER_01: And what he was doing by doing that was to show the bride's parents, I can take care of your daughter.
SPEAKER_01: And as the father of two adult daughters, and I've got one daughter who's in a pretty serious relationship, I would hope that my son-in-law to be, the husband of my daughter, would be able to take care of her.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: We'd want that.
SPEAKER_01: And so this is what's going on.
SPEAKER_01: It would be embarrassing, downright embarrassing, for the groom to say, We ain't got no more anything to drink.
SPEAKER_01: We're all out of wine.
SPEAKER_01: And so Mary comes with a need.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says this, Jesus' response.
SPEAKER_01: Now you need to use, put this in Jewish biblical culture.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said to her, now for those in the room, can you imagine if you answer your mama like this?
SPEAKER_01: Woman?
SPEAKER_01: What does this have to do with me?
SPEAKER_01: My hour has not yet come.
SPEAKER_01: I think the translation there in the ESV in most English translations is a little bit harsh.
SPEAKER_01: It can be translated much better.
SPEAKER_01: The word is typically used, can be translated like ma'am.
SPEAKER_01: It's a respectful term.
SPEAKER_01: But he is correcting his mom in a respectful way.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's saying, what does this have to do?
SPEAKER_01: And really a translation would be like, how does this really concern us?
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, Because my hour has not yet come.
SPEAKER_01: What is the hour that Jesus is talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Over and over again, when Jesus mentions his hour, he's talking about his crucifixion.
SPEAKER_01: And so he says, My moment, my presentation as a crucified Messiah has not yet come.
SPEAKER_01: It's too early.
SPEAKER_01: But this is what his mother says.
SPEAKER_01: His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you.
SPEAKER_01: Alright.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what we're looking at in verses 1 through 5.
SPEAKER_01: We're looking at a setup for a sign.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't like that word sign, you can translate it and put down a miracle, a setup for a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: What are the three ingredients that you need based on this text if you are being set up for a sign or set up for a miracle?
SPEAKER_01: What are the three things you need?
SPEAKER_01: The first thing, write this down, is a need.
SPEAKER_01: You have a need.
SPEAKER_01: Here, the need is for wine, for drink.
SPEAKER_01: In those days, you could not drink regular water, it is often infected with bacteria, and so you would dilute water with wine, and the alcohol would kill the bacteria, so you were able to drink.
SPEAKER_01: So this was not the typical wine that we would imagine today.
SPEAKER_01: This is something that, again, is used throughout Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, is you need Jesus, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the highlight of the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is God.
SPEAKER_01: Because God is a creator, God is a transformer.
SPEAKER_01: You need God in the equation.
SPEAKER_01: You need Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you are here today, I would beg you, I would implore you and ask of you, if you've not put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, to place your faith in Christ today, to trust Him alone for your salvation, to know that you can be forgiven for all your sins, past, present, and future, and to know that heaven is your home and now to have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ indwelling you.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you are going to experience a miracle, you need Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Can I get an Amen?
SPEAKER_01: You need Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the third thing that many of us don't want to say amen to.
SPEAKER_01: Because it requires something on our part.
SPEAKER_01: We need faith in Jesus demonstrated by obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Faith in Jesus demonstrated by obedience.
SPEAKER_01: James, the half-brother of Jesus, says it this way.
SPEAKER_01: He says in James chapter 2, faith without works is dead.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you have a need that no amount of credit card, no amount of income, no doctor can fix, no counselor can fix your marriage.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a need, you have Jesus as your king and your savior and friend.
SPEAKER_01: He's in there.
SPEAKER_01: You also need to have faith demonstrated by obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I say that?
SPEAKER_01: Because the very last words of Mary here says, do whatever he tells you.
SPEAKER_01: To demonstrate that you believe that Jesus can do it.
SPEAKER_01: Do whatever he tells you to do.
SPEAKER_01: And let me give you this definition of a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: A miracle is a work of God that transcends human understanding.
SPEAKER_01: It's mind-blowing.
SPEAKER_01: You can't understand it.
SPEAKER_01: No scientist can do the calculations to figure it out.
SPEAKER_01: So it transcends human understanding and the laws of nature and glorifies God.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't like that word glorifies, you can translate it fame.
SPEAKER_01: It makes God famous.
SPEAKER_01: It lets his reputation spread and shows that God is at work in our world.
SPEAKER_01: That's what a miracle or a sign is.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you why we're using that word sign, because it appears in verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: But this is a setup for a sign.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe this that there are some of you here this morning who have come in desperate need of a sign or miracle.
SPEAKER_01: Not just so you can have a better life and have less pain and have that reconciled relationship, pay those bills.
SPEAKER_01: Not because of that, but ultimately to validate the message of the gospel and that Jesus is real.
SPEAKER_01: He's at work in our world.
SPEAKER_01: So we all may have come wanting that.
SPEAKER_01: Let me explain to you this whole uh faith demonstrated by your works or by your obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Let's say that you live in a two-story home.
SPEAKER_01: And tragically, there's a storm that goes through.
SPEAKER_01: And tonight a lightning bolt hits your house.
SPEAKER_01: Your whole house catches on fire.
SPEAKER_01: You're able to escape out the front door, and there you are with your wife or your spouse.
SPEAKER_01: On the second story is one of your children.
SPEAKER_01: They're scared.
SPEAKER_01: The house is on fire.
SPEAKER_01: They can smell the smoke.
SPEAKER_01: The flames are getting closer.
SPEAKER_01: And you tell your son or daughter, as you're there with your arms extended right below them, jump, honey, I'll catch you.
SPEAKER_01: Jump, honey, I'll catch you.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my question.
SPEAKER_01: When do they truly believe that you're gonna catch them?
SPEAKER_01: When they're up there crying and scared?
SPEAKER_01: Nope.
SPEAKER_01: It's the moment they demonstrate that they believe that you're gonna catch them.
SPEAKER_01: They trust that you're gonna catch them when they leap off the edge of the roof and jump into your arms.
SPEAKER_01: So faith is always demonstrated by obedience.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just head knowledge, it's not just something that you say, yeah, this is something I know I should believe in.
SPEAKER_01: But genuine faith in God has action or obedience tied to it.
SPEAKER_01: And here's a great tragedy in the church today is we want God to move, but we don't want to move.
SPEAKER_01: We want to see God at work in blessing our work, of being good stewards of our finances, but we don't want to give, and we don't want to serve.
SPEAKER_01: I was hit with an example of this recently at our church.
SPEAKER_01: We did a series, we're going through Acts right now, and Pastor Andrew preached uh two weeks ago, did a great job.
SPEAKER_01: I'm still a little bit mad too, Stacy, because right after he preached, there was a secret meeting held by some of our members, and they wanted to call him to be their pastor and get rid of me.
SPEAKER_01: But in Acts chapter 12, there is a story about Peter being imprisoned.
SPEAKER_01: And so the church at Jerusalem prays, and not just prays like cute little prayers, they pray all through the night.
SPEAKER_01: And as they're praying for Peter, in the middle of the night, Peter has a guard chain to his right, a guard chain to his left, he's chained, and he has two guards right outside his door.
SPEAKER_01: They rotate every six hours.
SPEAKER_01: There is no way that Peter's gonna get out of jail.
SPEAKER_01: In the middle of the night, as he's sleeping, an angel punches him in the side, wakes him up, and he says, It's time for us to leave.
SPEAKER_01: And the chains miraculously fall off.
SPEAKER_01: The guards don't notice and they escape.
SPEAKER_01: Peter goes to the very house that is praying for him.
SPEAKER_01: He knocks on the door.
SPEAKER_01: And the rota, Rhoda, the servant girl, comes to the door and says, Who is it?
SPEAKER_01: And Peter's like, It's me, Peter.
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, Hold on a second.
SPEAKER_01: She runs back to this room where everyone is praying and says, You're not gonna believe who's at the door.
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, Who's at the door?
SPEAKER_01: And she says, It's Peter.
SPEAKER_01: And this is their response.
SPEAKER_01: This is the vernacular I'll use.
SPEAKER_01: Girl, you're out of your mind.
SPEAKER_01: You're crazy.
SPEAKER_01: She says, No, it's really him.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter's patiently waiting right outside the door.
SPEAKER_01: And so this is what I said.
SPEAKER_01: Is there a prayer that you need to pray that if God were to answer it, people will look at you and say, You are out of your mind?
SPEAKER_01: There's no way God can answer that.
SPEAKER_01: And so this couple in our church, she works for this corporation, a very like uh against Christians kind of group.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't know if any of you in this room, maybe you work at a company like that where when you tell people that you're a Christian, everyone's against you.
SPEAKER_01: She works in an environment like that.
SPEAKER_01: One of her co-workers had a son who tragically was tested for HIV and came back HIV positive.
SPEAKER_01: And this is not a test that you take lightly, and so he went to another health clinic to get tested again to make sure that he was HIV positive.
SPEAKER_01: And this is how the call came.
SPEAKER_01: Uh the father was with the son, and when the test came back, he said, You need to call your mother.
SPEAKER_01: And in tears, he calls his mom and says, Mom, I'm HIV positive.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know how it is here in Ohio, but in Iowa, if you are HIV positive, you have to register with the county to let them know that I am an HIV positive person.
SPEAKER_01: So he was going in for tests later that week to again verify that he was HIV positive.
SPEAKER_01: So this couple of our church says, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna pray.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna pray that God would deliver him and heal him.
SPEAKER_01: Talk about an out-of-your-mind prayer.
SPEAKER_01: But that's what they were called to do.
SPEAKER_01: And so perhaps you're here today and you are in a similar predicament where there is no solution.
SPEAKER_01: You have a need, just like this wedding feast that's gone on for days.
SPEAKER_01: These are the days before having a Walmart or a liquor store or even a credit card where you just couldn't ring up and go get some more.
SPEAKER_01: What would you do as an embarrassed groom, knowing that you are out of food, out of drink, and don't want to be seen as someone that cannot provide for your bride by the bride's family?
SPEAKER_01: This is what happens in verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is so poignant, and this is an illustration, an analogy, a picture of what Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: That in Jewish culture you'd have these water jars full of water to purify yourself, symbolizing the cleansing from sin.
SPEAKER_01: But now what Jesus is going to do, he's going to turn that water, as you know, into wine, symbolizing his blood.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we take communion as a church, because the wine of the Jews symbolizes his blood.
SPEAKER_01: And what Jesus is doing here is showing not just that he's creator, but he's also showing that he's Messiah, he's savior, that soon you will no longer have to cleanse yourself with water to symbolize the purification from sin.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ will cleanse you from all sin.
SPEAKER_01: He will wash you and make you new.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's about to do in this as well.
SPEAKER_01: So they bring 20 or 30 gallon jars full of water.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Fill the jars with water.
SPEAKER_01: So they're about to have 120 to 160 or 180 gallons of water.
SPEAKER_01: And they fill them up to the brim.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.
SPEAKER_01: So they took it out, and when the master of the feast tasted the water, now become wine.
SPEAKER_01: So this is the head waiter, the person in charge of serving all the food and drink, and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.
SPEAKER_01: The master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, What's up with this?
SPEAKER_01: Everyone serves the good wine first.
SPEAKER_01: And then when they've drunk freely, then they bring out the box wine.
SPEAKER_01: But you have kept the good wine until now.
SPEAKER_01: This is the first of the signs.
SPEAKER_01: The semion is the Greek word there.
SPEAKER_01: The first of the signs or miracles Jesus did at Cana in Galilee.
SPEAKER_01: And why?
SPEAKER_01: And manifested his glory.
SPEAKER_01: That word glory, we use that word a lot in church, but you can translate fame or presence or ability.
SPEAKER_01: He was saying, I'm doing this to show you my ability, my presence in your life to spread my fame so that people will come to know and trust and believe in me.
SPEAKER_01: And what's the response of the disciples?
SPEAKER_01: And his disciples believed in him.
SPEAKER_01: So, like Pastor Andrew mentioned last week, the miracles always validate the message.
SPEAKER_01: And they point to the message of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: They point to him.
SPEAKER_01: So miracles and signs aren't just so that you would have less disease or less hunger or have your finances taken care of or have a better relationship with your spouse or your kids.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about that alone.
SPEAKER_01: It's about his glory and his fame.
SPEAKER_01: So that when people say, What happened?
SPEAKER_01: you can say, This is what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_01: And so the title of the sermon is called All Signs Point to Jesus, and that's what's going on here.
SPEAKER_01: That the seven miracles that you see in the Gospel of John, they all point to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He turns water into wine in chapter two.
SPEAKER_01: He heals a dying man in chapter four.
SPEAKER_01: He cures a paralyzed man in chapter five.
SPEAKER_01: He creates food for thousands of people in chapter six.
SPEAKER_01: He walks on water at the end of chapter six.
SPEAKER_01: He gives sight to the blind in chapter nine, and he raises a dead man who's been dead for days in chapter 11.
SPEAKER_01: And truly, honestly, there are eight miracles or signs in the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_01: I've just given you seven.
SPEAKER_01: Does anyone here know what the eighth sign is?
SPEAKER_01: Is this the Christian church, y'all?
SPEAKER_01: Do y'all worship the resurrected king like I do?
SPEAKER_01: The resurrection! A man who'd been dead for three days came back to life.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see these seven miracles.
SPEAKER_01: And John says it this way in verse uh 21-25.
SPEAKER_01: He says, There are also many other things that Jesus did.
SPEAKER_01: Were every one of them to be written, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that could be written.
SPEAKER_01: He says again in verse 20, verse 2030, he did many other signs.
SPEAKER_01: So beyond these seven signs, Jesus did many other signs that transcended human understanding and the laws of nature that blew people's minds.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe this.
SPEAKER_01: Even though we live in a very skeptical world, a very even skeptical church, Jesus is still doing miracles today.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is still doing miracles to this day.
SPEAKER_01: This also points to Jesus in many ways of presentation.
SPEAKER_01: Whose you are determines who you are.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: In Amos chapter 9 and in Joel chapter 3, we see that a descendant of David will provide abundant wine for his people.
SPEAKER_01: And here we see this prophecy fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: In Exodus 24, I'm sorry, in Isaiah 24, in Isaiah 24, we see that the wine runs out for the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: But what happens in Isaiah 25?
SPEAKER_01: We see this picture of an abundant feast, a party in which there's more than enough wine provided by the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: So again, these signs, these miracles point to Jesus as being the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Even if you go back to the Old Testament, so day one, Genesis 1-1, John 1-1, the parallels.
SPEAKER_01: Day six, marriage.
SPEAKER_01: Day six, marriage feast.
SPEAKER_01: We also find in the life of Moses Exodus 7.20.
SPEAKER_01: Does anyone know what Moses' first miracle was?
SPEAKER_01: He turned water into blood.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus turned water into wine because Jesus is the greater Moses.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the greater deliverer.
SPEAKER_01: Again, pointing to him being the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: So all signs point to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If you've ever seen this before, I'm an avid runner.
SPEAKER_01: I was running the other day in Lexington on the trails, but I really love running through neighborhoods of new cities I go to preach at.
SPEAKER_01: And the other day I was running in Des Moines and on a Saturday, and there were these signs, and they were all pointing to a home for sale.
SPEAKER_01: So they would have a sign going to the left and they'd say the address.
SPEAKER_01: And all these signs pointed eventually to this house that was for sale.
SPEAKER_01: And beloved, all the miracles, all the signs, both recorded in the Bible, the ones that he's still doing today, all signs point to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's the thing we prayed for that young man who was HIV positive.
SPEAKER_01: And I still remember it vividly.
SPEAKER_01: It was one of those surreal moments.
SPEAKER_01: We prayed for him on Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: On Monday, this young man, HIV positive, gets tested by a local health clinic.
SPEAKER_01: If it came back positive, he would register with that health clinic with the county as being an HIV positive male there in the county, a pole county.
SPEAKER_01: The test came back negative.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, six of y'all are excited about that.
SPEAKER_01: Just to make sure he may get a false negative.
SPEAKER_01: He went to a local hospital, got tested again.
SPEAKER_01: That test also came back negative.
SPEAKER_01: Negative.
SPEAKER_01: So here was a young adult male who had tested HIV positive.
SPEAKER_01: God's people prayed to demonstrate our trust in Jesus Christ, to do the incredible, to do the impossible.
SPEAKER_01: And this man came back HIV negative.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: And so what happened?
SPEAKER_01: Look at the response.
SPEAKER_01: He says in John chapter 2.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: This is the first of the signs Jesus that came in Galilee and manifested his glory, his presence, his work, his fame.
SPEAKER_01: And notice, and his disciples believed in him.
SPEAKER_01: Whenever you experience, hear about, witness Jesus' glory, his fame, his power, his presence, there's only two responses, y'all.
SPEAKER_01: Rejection or belief.
SPEAKER_01: There's only two responses.
SPEAKER_01: And here are the disciples, they believed in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They already believed in him.
SPEAKER_01: This further deepened or increased their dedication or commitment of belief in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so for those of you in the room, as you hear testimonies about young men who are HIV positive, who are now HIV negative, I hope it deepens and strengthens your faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But for those of you in the room who are yet to be Christians, who are not yet Christians, I hope this is an example, a sign that Jesus Christ is the Savior, the promised one, who's come to deliver you and I from our sins simply by putting our faith in him.
SPEAKER_01: And my begging of you, my adjuring of you is for you to believe in him, to trust in him.
SPEAKER_01: So this woman and this other woman, this member of our church, it was so surreal as they're telling me about this, they're telling me the tests both came back HIV negative.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like pinching myself.
SPEAKER_01: Am I dreaming?
SPEAKER_01: Am I hearing this correctly?
SPEAKER_01: They went back to their uh corporation where everyone's negative towards Christianity, and they testified saying, a few days ago, HIV positive, Monday, HIV negative.
SPEAKER_01: There's only two responses disbelief, unbelief, rejection, or belief.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what happened.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, there can be false positives and negatives, and they could have made a mistake on the test.
SPEAKER_01: And the wife is like, or the woman's like, he was tested by a clinic and the hospital.
SPEAKER_01: Both tests positives, both tests negative.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: This is the glory of Jesus Christ manifested.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what goes on here.
SPEAKER_01: We see this first miracle because all signs point to Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: This is his presentation that he is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: So again, you only have two responses.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the big idea for today.
SPEAKER_01: It's simply the words of Mary.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a need, if you believe in Jesus and you have Jesus, do whatever he tells you.
SPEAKER_01: Do whatever he tells you as a demonstration that you believe that he can work a sign or miracle in your life because he's creator God, he's sovereign God, he's omnipotent, he's all powerful, he's all-knowing.
SPEAKER_01: That God would step out of time and space and enter into human history and work a miracle in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Do whatever he tells you.
SPEAKER_01: And for each of us, it may vary from person to person.
SPEAKER_01: If you are here today with a need, you believe in Jesus, what he tells you to demonstrate your faith in him can vary from person to person.
SPEAKER_01: Here in this account, it is simply filling the water pots up with water.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine being one of the servants there that day saying that we are out of wine?
SPEAKER_01: And you would think the command would be, well, then go and get some more wine.
SPEAKER_01: No, what happens is rather fill it up with water.
SPEAKER_01: Wait, wait, wait.
SPEAKER_01: You're out of wine, but you're saying water.
SPEAKER_01: Do whatever he tells you.
SPEAKER_01: Fill them with water.
SPEAKER_01: What happens?
SPEAKER_01: Without a lot of hoop on hype, Jesus transforms instantly.
SPEAKER_01: Wine takes months and months of ferment.
SPEAKER_01: Instantly creates wine.
SPEAKER_01: So what is it that Jesus Christ is asking you to do to demonstrate your faith in him?
SPEAKER_01: For those of you in the room, perhaps battling an illness.
SPEAKER_01: The doctor has said no cure, or there may be limited cures.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps the thing, even if you're embarrassed, is to say, James chapter 5, I'm gonna call for the elders of the church, of Crossroads Church, and ask them to anoint my head with oil and to pray for me.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: As a demonstration, I believe that Jesus Christ can heal me.
SPEAKER_01: For those in the room who are wrestling with financial issues, having more bills than income, and perhaps you recognize that I don't give at all.
SPEAKER_01: I know Psalm 24, one says, every single dollar and dime I have belongs to God, and God has given it to me to be a manager, a steward, and I don't give.
SPEAKER_01: And perhaps the thing that God is saying, Jesus is saying to you, to demonstrate your faith in Him so that all your needs can be met is start giving regularly.
SPEAKER_01: Can I get an amen on that?
SPEAKER_01: Anyone?
SPEAKER_01: For those in the room who are wrestling with relationship issues in marriage or parenting.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps you're going through a really difficult season in marriage right now and you cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel.
SPEAKER_01: That Christian counselor has not helped you at all or very little.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps what Jesus asking you to do is go to your spouse, confess some sins, and ask for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: Humble yourself and ask for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a broken relationship with an adult child and you've been waiting for that call, perhaps what Jesus is asking you to do to demonstrate that he can reconcile any relationship is for you to call that son or daughter and ask for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: To humble yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And perhaps for you today, who are looking for a job.
SPEAKER_01: You've been unemployed.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps what Christ is asking you to do in the midst of looking for a job.
SPEAKER_01: While you've got the time to start serving in an extra capacity across your own church.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what Jesus is asking you to do.
SPEAKER_01: But if you have a need, you got Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Demonstrate your trust in Him through your obedience.
SPEAKER_01: What is Jesus asking you to do?
SPEAKER_01: The greatest need that Jesus Christ met was our need for salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he says, My hour is not yet come.
SPEAKER_01: When I die in the cross, I will meet humanity's greatest need.
SPEAKER_01: Greater than wine, greater than illness, greater than food, for salvation.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a first generation Christian kid.
SPEAKER_01: I got saved in high school.
SPEAKER_01: My parents, my brother, not believers, so I shared the gospel with them.
SPEAKER_01: Both my parents rejected the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: My brother, some of you know, is openly gay, he rejected the gospel as well.
SPEAKER_01: But I began to pray every single day.
SPEAKER_01: And my mom, especially, I faced impossible circumstances.
SPEAKER_01: She left my dad, moved in with her boyfriend.
SPEAKER_01: Her boyfriend was a caustic agnostic, hated Christianity, negative towards Christianity, thought the Bible was a book of myths.
SPEAKER_01: And that was her boyfriend, live-in boyfriend.
SPEAKER_01: Also, my brother is openly gay.
SPEAKER_01: And I knew that if my mom put her faith in Jesus Christ, my brother would feel like she was turning her back on him.
SPEAKER_01: But all I could do was pray.
SPEAKER_01: What Jesus was asking me to do was pray for my mom.
SPEAKER_01: So even with these impossible circumstances, I knew my mom's greatest need was for salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Well, my mom, towards the end of her life, she contracted, she got cancer, multiple myeloma.
SPEAKER_01: She lived with us for a while, but then she got her own senior living apartment.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember one day I was at work and I got a call from her around two o'clock in the afternoon.
SPEAKER_01: And my mom said, Hey, Icky, I've got a cold.
SPEAKER_01: Can you come over and maybe fix me some chicken soup and get me some medicine for my cold?
SPEAKER_01: I said, Mom, um, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Super busy season right now.
SPEAKER_01: I'm about to head into like a very critical meeting.
SPEAKER_01: I can come after that.
SPEAKER_01: But Tara gets off work like in five minutes.
SPEAKER_01: Do you mind if Tara comes over?
SPEAKER_01: And she's like, that'd be great.
SPEAKER_01: Now get this.
SPEAKER_01: My wife is African American.
SPEAKER_01: When I was dating my wife, I brought my wife, then girlfriend, to my visit my mom and meet my mom.
SPEAKER_01: And my mom told me I don't like her.
SPEAKER_01: Because in Japanese culture, if I'm a Japanese male, if I married a blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman, that's the trophy.
SPEAKER_01: Next to that is a Japanese woman.
SPEAKER_01: At the very bottom is an African or African-American woman.
SPEAKER_01: At the very bottom.
SPEAKER_01: So my mom and my wife did not get along.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, here was my wife who said, Yep, I'll go and I'll go serve and help your mom.
SPEAKER_01: So my wife is there taking care of my mom, making some soup, getting her some food, getting her some medicine.
SPEAKER_01: She comes home and says, Yeah, your mom's got a little cold and she's really weak.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go back tomorrow, right after work, and I'll care for your mom as well.
SPEAKER_01: So she gets off work and she goes to care for my mom.
SPEAKER_01: And then she calls me and says, Hey, your mom is really, really weak.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm just gonna stay the night with her, make sure she's alright through the night.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Honey, bless you for that.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for doing that.
SPEAKER_01: And so she calls me around 10 o'clock.
SPEAKER_01: We pray for my mom.
SPEAKER_01: We pray and go to bed.
SPEAKER_01: I go to bed, she goes to bed.
SPEAKER_01: The next morning I wake up and my cell phone is exploded with text messages from my wife and my kids.
SPEAKER_01: And I read the top thing, and the top note says, Your mom got saved last night.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm scrolling through, and so I am like, This is crazy.
SPEAKER_01: So I call my wife and I'm like, tell me what happened.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Icky, you're not gonna believe this.
SPEAKER_01: This is gonna blow your mind.
SPEAKER_01: It's a miracle, it's a sign.
SPEAKER_01: She said, Last night your mom was so weak.
SPEAKER_01: After I fed her some dinner, gave her some medicine.
SPEAKER_01: I literally had to carry her into bed.
SPEAKER_01: She was so weak.
SPEAKER_01: I laid her down and she couldn't even pull up the covers.
SPEAKER_01: So I pulled the covers up on her.
SPEAKER_01: I lay her down, I pray with her, I go in the living room, I get my the couch ready to sleep on, I turn on some TV, I'm watching the TV.
SPEAKER_01: All of a sudden I hear my name Tara, Tara, Tara.
SPEAKER_01: So I go back in the bedroom.
SPEAKER_01: It's been around two hours.
SPEAKER_01: I go back in the bedroom.
SPEAKER_01: Your mom is sitting straight up, and this is the same woman who's like laying down, she was so weak she couldn't sit up.
SPEAKER_01: She's sitting straight up as a board, and she's like, Are you okay?
SPEAKER_01: What's going on?
SPEAKER_01: And she said, I just had a dream.
SPEAKER_01: And so Tara's like, Well, what did you dream?
SPEAKER_01: What happened?
SPEAKER_01: And so my mom was Shinto Buddhist and she's holding on to ancestor worship.
SPEAKER_01: And my mom tells Tara, I had a dream, and Jesus Christ appeared in my dream.
SPEAKER_01: Tara's like, tell me more, what did Jesus say?
SPEAKER_01: She said, Jesus Christ told me to let go, to let go.
SPEAKER_01: And so the Tara said, Are you ready to let go today?
SPEAKER_01: And my mom said, Yes, I'm ready to let go.
SPEAKER_01: And so my wife then shares the gospel with her.
SPEAKER_01: The same woman that my mom said, I don't like her, I don't want her to be your wife.
SPEAKER_01: That same woman shared the gospel with my mom and led my mom to the Lord Jesus Christ that night.
SPEAKER_01: That was a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: So then, excited, my wife called our daughters and called me and texted everyone to let them know what happened.
SPEAKER_01: So the next day I go to visit my mom.
SPEAKER_01: I got there as soon as I could.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know if you've ever seen this before, but literally my mom's countenance was changed.
SPEAKER_01: If you remember the story about Stephen, like his face lit up.
SPEAKER_01: My mom's face was lit up with a glory that can only be explainable to God.
SPEAKER_01: She was a new creature in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so I said, Mom, this is incredible.
SPEAKER_01: And then as I was leaving, typically when I leave my mom, I'd always say, Mom, can I pray for you?
SPEAKER_01: But this time when I was leaving, she said, Icky, will you pray for me?
SPEAKER_01: And so we were planning several days later to have her baptized and share her testimony of what happened.
SPEAKER_01: And so that was uh, I think a Saturday, that Tuesday, three days later, I go to teach a class with a group of young preachers who were working on their preaching.
SPEAKER_01: So as I was teaching the class, I put my phone aside, taught the class for about four hours, heard some sermons, finished the class, I got my phone, and there was a voicemail from the sheriff's department right where my mom lives.
SPEAKER_01: I listened to it and they said, Would you give us a call back?
SPEAKER_01: And you probably know the call.
SPEAKER_01: I called the deputy and I said, Hey, this is Icky Soma, you just called me.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, Well, your mom's apartment, the pest uh sprayer guy came into her apartment this morning and they found her unresponsive.
SPEAKER_01: Responsive, and it appears that she died peacefully in her sleep.
SPEAKER_01: And so, four days after she put her faith in Christ, my mom went home to be with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's someone here today, I believe.
SPEAKER_01: You came in with a need.
SPEAKER_01: A need that your credit card couldn't fix, a need that your doctor couldn't fix, a need that no matter how often you share the gospel, even you could not fix.
SPEAKER_01: A need that only Jesus Christ could fix.
SPEAKER_01: And again, I don't know what God is asking you to do, for Jesus is asking you to do to demonstrate your faith in Him.
SPEAKER_01: But what I want to do now as we go to prayer is I'm praying that God would show you what you need to do to demonstrate your faith, what you need to obey to demonstrate your faith and trust in Him.
SPEAKER_01: So let's go to God in prayer.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to do this, all heads bowed, eyes closed.
SPEAKER_01: It's just you and the Lord now.
SPEAKER_01: If you're here today and you are in need of a miracle, a sign, you have a need that you cannot fix, that human reasoning cannot fix, that no amount of money can fix, that no amount of Christian counseling can fix.
SPEAKER_01: Right where you are, don't look around.
SPEAKER_01: Would you just stand right where you are?
SPEAKER_01: I just want to pray for you specifically.
SPEAKER_01: If you're here today and you recognize I'm at that wedding feast, I'm out of wine, I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_01: Just stand right where you are.
SPEAKER_01: Don't don't be embarrassed at all.
SPEAKER_01: Just stand right where you are.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for standing.
SPEAKER_01: Stay remaining standing.
SPEAKER_01: I want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to look at you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for standing.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a prodigal child, health challenges, stand right where you are.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Father, thank you that Jesus Christ has given us access to you through his shed blood.
SPEAKER_01: What a picture of turning water into wine.
SPEAKER_01: We no longer have to cleanse ourselves externally on the outside, but the blood of Jesus Christ washes us from every sin.
SPEAKER_01: And because of that, we can now have a relationship with a holy God.
SPEAKER_01: So, God, I pray for each person standing here right now.
SPEAKER_01: Would you speak to their hearts through your word?
SPEAKER_01: What is it that they are to do?
SPEAKER_01: How are they to obey your word to demonstrate their trust, their faith in you?
SPEAKER_01: A God who works miracles, who can turn water into wine, who can make blind men see, who can take HIV positive young men and have them become HIV negative, who can appear to people in dreams so they come to faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So I pray for them now.
SPEAKER_01: Would you reveal to them, show them?
SPEAKER_01: Do whatever he tells you.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, Master, we pray for all those here today who've yet to put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that today they may not have been at Cana of Galilee witnessing water being turned into wine.
SPEAKER_01: But they've heard the good news.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ has been exalted.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ has been magnified.
SPEAKER_01: And the only response is either rejection or acceptance by faith.
SPEAKER_01: And we pray that today they place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
SPEAKER_01: For the forgiveness of all their sins, past, present, and future.
SPEAKER_01: And God, we pray all of this in the matchless name of Christ, for His fame, His glory.