Christ's First Miracle

I'm going to ask that as you turn in your scriptures this morning, and for some of you who do this electronically, this is going to be cumbersome.

But I would like you to be in two places at once. Now, I don't mean two places at once, but I want you to double finger this.

I want you to look, first of all, at John chapter 2 and put one finger there and then go to John chapter 20, verse 31.

John 2 · chapter mention John 20:31

Kind of, remember I said for electronic people it's a little difficult this morning.

You're going to have to wait between the page refresh and all that.

But I want us to begin this morning by, first of all, hearing the word read in John chapter 2.

John 2 · chapter mention

On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.

When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine.

And Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me?

My hour has not yet come.

His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you.

Now, there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons.

Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water, and they filled them up to the brim.

And he said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.

So they took it.

When the master of the feast tasted the water, now become wine, and did not know where it came from,

though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast called the bridegroom

and said to him, everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine.

But you have kept the good wine until now.

Let's pray.

Our precious Father, this morning, as we who are your people, delight in the Lord Jesus Christ

and the incredible blessing we have of holding your word in our hands

and following along with our heart and with our ear.

We do ask this morning that you would enable me, as the one you have appointed to preach the word today,

to do so in the power of the Spirit and to do so in such a fashion that the Lord Jesus Christ

is the one that is held up and exalted and that we glory in him and we are satisfied with him

and we love every opportunity of speaking of his worth.

I pray also, Father, this morning for those that are here today that need the Lord Jesus Christ,

that even as we study the Scriptures together, that your Spirit would be at work convicting them

of the darkness and the absolute despair of their soul,

and that you, by your kindness, would lead them to the cross and to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I pray, Father, also for the heart with which your word is received,

that it would be prepared by the Spirit to be good soil,

and that the seed of your word falling on hearts that have been prepared by your Spirit,

it would produce a blessing not only in the life of the individual who hears the word,

but in the lives of those that are touched accordingly.

And so this morning as we open your word, we're glad to confess our need,

and we also confess our confidence that you will work to your glory.

We ask this in your precious name. Amen.

I had you look with me, first of all, at John chapter 2,

John 2 · chapter mention

and we opened up with just the reading of that passage that is going to become

the frame in which we study together this morning.

But let me ask you this, if I may.

How many of you can tell me what John said was the reason that he wrote the book?

Wave your hand. Don't tell me out loud, but just wave your hand.

I want you to get it up high so I can kind of take, kind of track.

How many of you know why John said he wrote the book?

Raise your hand high because I'm counting.

Jack, Greg, Connie, Pastor Andrew, good job.

And Ethan, you know? Excellent.

Is there anybody younger than Ethan that knows why John wrote the book?

I know they're in the nursery.

Okay.

Ethan, good job.

Is that something you learned at home when your mommy and daddy kind of reviewed this?

Okay.

Okay.

I was on this side.

How many of you over on this side know why John wrote the book?

I'm looking for hands.

Okay.

Okay.

We're doing great.

Okay.

Here, how many of you know the verse?

I mean, it's like, bang, you got it.

John chapter 20, verse 31.

John 20:31

What?

What's he say?

Help me out?

I don't remember.

You know, what is it?

A lot of muttering.

Okay.

Turn in your Bibles.

Remember I said two fingers.

Back we go.

Keep your finger in John 2 because we are coming back there.

But here.

But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

And that by believing, you may have life in his name.

So, I bring that to your attention because as we start out this morning, we're going to be looking at what on the surface may seem to be a rather insignificant little event in the life of Jesus.

I mean, if you were going to start your public ministry and you wanted to make a world of difference, would you pull off a minor miracle seemingly at some little insignificant wedding and only really have about six or seven people know about it to start with?

Or I should put it this way.

And I remind you that in the Old Testament, it speaks about the fact that Christ would be marked by this profound humility and tenderness.

And it tells us that he would not break a bruised reed or he would not crush out a flickering flame.

He was going to be marked by this gentleness and this carefulness in coming into people's lives and affecting them for the glory of Christ.

And so, as we look here, we look at the story and we find, first of all, that it tells us there on the third day, this is after Jesus' baptism and calling of the first disciples.

After that, there was a wedding in Cana.

And Jesus' mother evidently was invited.

We can't tell for certain.

And by the way, when you can't tell for certain, what that's telling you is the text doesn't give you adequate detail for you to fill in.

There is some speculation, being that she ends up in this position of knowing about the wine running out.

If you are outside the favored circle and there's problems in the kitchen, you aren't usually going to find out about it.

I'll never forget when we were actually doing a funeral dinner.

And here's what happens for funerals.

We ask the family, would you like to have a dinner here at the church?

And yes, we have a chance to meet with people that are coming from, you know, Prescott, Arizona or whatever else.

And we only see them at funerals and weddings.

And so, we're going to have a dinner.

And I remember one of the things we always do is, how many people are coming?

Oh, nobody will be here.

We'll have five.

You know, whatever.

And so, we ended up having a funeral dinner.

And how many of you remember when we ran out of ham?

Anybody here?

I remember that.

It was kind of as the dinner was devolving.

You know what devolving mean?

It was going downhill.

People in the kitchen were having these anxiety attacks about, I think we have too many people.

And so, I remember we sent someone buzzing up to, I think it was Meyer.

Yes, it had to be Meyer.

It did have to be Meyer.

Okay.

We sent someone running to a store and said, we need ham.

No.

You know, cut, sliced.

And then you're in the microwave.

You know, ding, out.

Ding, out.

Ding.

And so, here is Mary's mother.

Mary's mother.

We find Jesus' mother aware that there's a problem at the party.

I do want you to think with me just a little bit about what a wedding was like.

It was a party.

And ancient weddings were big-time social events.

Will you keep that in your mind?

When we do weddings today, most of the time, you may have a rehearsal.

In fact, it's a good idea to have a rehearsal on Friday.

Okay.

But then the wedding is what?

I mean, the people who are doing the decoration, they work hard.

And the people who are working, catering it work hard.

But, you know, we're going to have the wedding at 2.30, and it's going to be off.

And they're going to be on their way to wherever they're going for a honeymoon in a couple, three, four hours at best.

And someone has, on more than one occasion, said to me, Pastor, how long will the ceremony take?

I said, well, that's up to you.

My part is pretty simple.

Will you take this woman to be married to this man?

And it comes down to I do, I do, we will, you know.

And then from there on to having to hold and all those details.

I can be done if I'm pressed in under 25 minutes.

I mean the whole thing.

Now, I wouldn't recommend that.

Ancient weddings were long-running parties.

In fact, don't need to turn back, but if you were to look in Judges chapter 14, you would find that Samson's wedding went on for,

Judges 14 · chapter mention

does anybody have an idea?

What was the perfect number in Israel?

Seven.

Seven days.

Seven days.

Now, you might think to yourself, how could they run out of wine in a couple hours?

Well, we'll get to that a little later.

But if you stop and think about this, this is a seven days event, and you can understand how things would get a little dicey.

Something else that you need to understand.

In ancient culture, there was this attitude of reciprocity.

In other words, I invited you to my wedding party, and I fed you for seven days.

Guess what?

Don't tell me.

I'm going to show up at your wedding party, and I'm going to be fed for seven days.

In fact, there's indication that lawsuits played out over inadequate care at a wedding or an inadequate wedding gift.

Now, isn't that neat?

I mean, you know, you invite someone to the wedding, and if they don't bring the gift proportionate to what you gave them.

Now, we don't do anything like that around Christmas, I understand.

But in the ancient culture, there was a lot of pressure on the wedding party people at making a hit.

And so here is Mary.

She's at the party.

Jesus is at the party.

And we find out in verse 3, it says,

When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him,

They have no wine.

Now, given that I spent a fair amount of time preaching on Ephesians 5, verse 18,

Ephesians 5:18

And in that context, I spoke about the matter of alcohol and the lives of believers.

I really am not under obligation this morning, I trust, to really go into the detail.

But I will say this.

I have no question from the text that what this involved was alcoholic content wine.

And I'll explain to you just a little bit of detail.

In the normal process of stomping on grapes in a vat, there are several different things that are released.

One is the juice of the grape itself.

But also, as the skins are bruised, those skins produce a chemical that aids in the, what is the word?

Fermentation of the product.

And it balances out without any distillation between 12 and 14 percent.

And as you look there in verse 10, just kind of skip ahead a little bit.

We're going to see here that the master of the feast, the one who's responsible for seeing that everything came off,

He says, Hey, everyone serves the good wine first.

And when people have drunk freely, let me help you there.

I'm going to come back to that again later.

But he says, When everybody has drunk freely, then the poor wine.

Now stop and think with me just for a moment.

Three or four glasses of water does not dull your taste buds.

Everybody agrees with me?

Three or four glasses of wine does dull your sensibilities and dulls your ability to taste.

And so the normal thing to do was kind of jazz it up at the beginning and give them the better stuff.

And then towards the end, you were kind of buying that big K cola and stuff like that and handing it off to them.

Okay?

You got that?

Now, I do think that since we live in a day and age where the issue of lifestyle is so very important,

I don't think the question is whether a Christian can drink.

I think the question is this.

Should a Christian drink?

And how does my choice reflect on the testimony of Christ and the impact that I'm going to have for the gospel in the brief life that I'm going to live?

Well, let's come now to digging in a little deeper to verse 3.

When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him,

They have no wine.

So let's break this down and say,

What's the problem?

And why the tone?

We don't know the exact order of events,

but it's safe to assume that Mary found out about this,

and she was aware of who her son was.

She had heard the shepherds.

She had seen the wise men.

She had been advised by the Holy Spirit of who this baby was going to be,

and she was fully persuaded that this indeed was the son of the living God and the one who could pull this off.

And she knew that Jesus had power to solve this problem.

I think you need to understand that.

So when she came to Jesus there in verse 3,

and she says they have no wine,

she had complete confidence that he could solve the problem at the moment.

Her expectation was that he, hearing her express a concern,

would respond immediately and do what Jesus could do.

So why did Jesus answer her the way he did?

Look at the verse 4.

Jesus said to her,

Woman, now how many of you kind of, that puts you off a little bit.

I mean, how many of you would like to be in a public situation

where, I mean, I cannot imagine my mom is sitting over there.

Hi, Mom.

Okay.

I honestly cannot think of speaking to my mother and saying,

Woman, I'd be in big trouble.

But here is Jesus.

And by the way, did Jesus ever say anything that was wrong or off color or inappropriate for the moment?

And the answer we know was never.

And Jesus says, Woman.

Woman.

Woman.

In the ESV, and it depends on which translation you have,

but you look there in verse 4, it says,

What does this have to do with me?

Probably a more literal rendition would be,

What is this to me and to you?

His term was not discourteous, first of all,

when he spoke to her as woman.

We find that he used that term in John chapter 19, verse 26,

John 19:26

when he spoke to, remember, to his mother, who was there at the foot of the cross.

He said, Woman, behold your son.

And he poured into John the Baptist.

And he said, And, you know, you take care of her.

Okay.

But he also used the same phrase after his resurrection.

Remember, I think it was Mary was the one who was at the tomb,

and comes and, you know, just so excited when she finally figures out that it is Jesus.

And he says, Woman, don't mess with me right now.

Free rendition here.

But, you know, hey, go tell the rest of them.

Woman.

Woman.

Woman.

Woman.

I do want you to mark what really is behind this.

So what is this to you or to me?

In one sense, I want you to know that when Mary came to Jesus,

she was persuaded that her problem should be his problem.

Do you follow that?

And sometimes mothers try to do that obliquely.

How many of you have done that?

Particularly with older children.

Everybody smile.

Someday you will have older children.

But when you speak to older children, you have to use a little more nuance.

You know, you have to put a little bit of English on the ball.

So it's not like, hey, do this now.

It's like, we're having a problem with, you know, maybe you could do something about that.

You know, how that plays out.

How many of you ever heard that tone?

You know, it's like, I got it.

I'll take care of it.

It's all right.

I'm on it.

And actually what Jesus says to her is, what's this for me?

You're having a problem.

But it's not mine.

And I want you to stop and think with me just for a moment of what actually was happening.

As we think about that, it's fair, and this is one of the things that a Bible student always does,

is that when you find a passage that's a little confusing and a little unsettling,

what's the first thing you should do?

I know, trick question.

What would you do?

Just try that.

What would you do, Tom?

I'm calling on a deacon, so we're going to risk.

But Tom, what would you do if there was a passage that you were having some difficulty with?

First thing is pray, if you haven't already done it, right?

I need the Holy Spirit's help into understanding this.

Secondly is kind of check out the context and look at the immediate passage around that.

But there's something else that you should do.

How many of you have a study Bible that have cross-references in it?

Raise your hand.

Cross-references are not a bad idea.

And I'm going to cross-reference for you whether or not you have these cross-references in your Bible.

But let me remind you, first of all, if you were to turn back to Luke chapter 2,

Luke 2 · chapter mention

you remember that when Jesus was 12, they went up to Jerusalem,

and the family is hiking back home, and they discover that Jesus is not with the crowd.

I always wondered about, it must have been a fairly relaxed...

How many of you would not miss your child for two or three days?

You know, whatever.

It's like, yeah.

I mean, I see some of you walking around the lobby with what I call the Klingon grip.

You know, you've got them hooked here.

It's not a bad idea because these kids buzz around sometimes.

But Jesus was gone.

Finally, they go back to Jerusalem, and they find him there in the temple,

and he is conversing with the scribes and the leaders of Israel.

And when his mom scolds him...

How many of you remember what he said?

Don't you get it?

I should be about my, what?

Father's business.

Another illustration would be over in Matthew chapter 12.

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

Remember, Jesus is teaching in a house, and up comes somebody into the room and says,

Oh, I want you to know your mother and brothers and sisters are outside.

Now, in the ancient culture, parents had a lot of lifting power.

Do you follow that?

Hmm?

I think it's important for us to understand.

The contemporary culture we live in with this incredible lack of respect is nothing but a devolution and a breakdown of Bible truth.

However, Jesus, in this case, when he hears that his mother and his brother's family, you know, that's points,

and his sisters, they're outside.

You know what he says?

He looks around and he says, Let me tell you who my brother and sister and mother are.

It's those who obey the word.

Those are my disciples.

And so I do want you to understand that here when Jesus says to his mother,

What's the deal?

What's this have to do with me?

I want you to understand that while he was not discourteous,

he was clear as to his office and his work.

Who was Mary actually addressing?

The Son of the living God, the Savior of the world,

who had come to be the Redeemer.

And Christ's mother really did not have authority over his life.

The decision to do the miracle was not one that flowed from his mother's perception of the problem.

How many of you on occasion have thought that something you were having difficulty with was a problem that really God should solve now?

Been there?

And you know what?

In my life, more often than not, he didn't do it the way I thought he should do it.

Nevertheless, in retrospect, I look back and say, You know what?

You knew what you were doing, and I'm thankful that you took care of it according to your wisdom rather than mine.

I want you to understand something else.

Remember I said that while Jesus was not discourteous, he was clear in his office and his work.

Look, all and everything that Jesus did was directly related to his Father's will.

The point is important to grasp because here is Jesus, when his mother asks him to do something,

the first thing he says is, So, what's this have to do with me?

What's my responsibility here?

I want you to look at a couple different passages to firm this up in your mind,

that all Jesus ever did was directly related to his Father's will.

John chapter 6, we're going to stay in John here.

John 6 · chapter mention

John chapter 6, verse 38.

John 6:38

For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will.

How many of you many times do your own will?

Well, I'd like to do this.

I mean, I deal on a regular basis as a shepherd and a pastor.

I deal regularly with people that have done their own will and then would like to undo what the consequences were.

Well, I think Jesus says, I didn't come down from heaven to do my own will.

I came down here to do exactly what my Father wants.

Okay?

He said, but the will of him who sent me.

John chapter 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

I could look at a passage in John chapter 8, but we're going to skip ahead to John chapter 12, verse 49.

John 8 · chapter mention John 12:49

John chapter 12, verse 49.

John 12:49

For I have not spoken of my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a command, what to say and what to speak.

In other words, the words that I've said, I didn't say because I wanted to say them.

I said them expressly and explicitly because these are the words that the Father chose for me to say.

How many times have you, have I, said things that had no divine value and certainly were not prompted by the word of God or the will of God?

John chapter 14, verse 31.

John 14:31

But I do as the Father has commanded me so that the world may know that I love the Father.

What am I doing?

I'm doing exactly what the Father has commanded me.

In another passage, Jesus says, I only do what the Father commands.

I only do what the Father has commanded me.

Look, if you will, at verse 9 or not, verse 4.

Woman, what does this have to do with me?

My hour has not yet come.

Now, let's put this together a little bit.

Number one, Mary knew he could do a slam dunk miracle.

There's no question.

And I think she was hoping this would be the moment.

It's reasonable.

I mean, everybody's sitting there with an empty glass,

and they're beginning to wonder what the deal is with the waiter.

And suddenly, you know, right there, out of the kitchen come 300 different streams of beautiful wine,

and it just flows directly into the glass.

You don't have to have anybody carry it.

Could he have done that?

What's the answer?

Come on, help me.

Yes.

He could have done all kinds of things.

Mary probably was hoping something would happen, and he says,

Hey, listen, my time is not yet.

What he was saying at that point in speaking about his time,

Jesus was looking at the cross.

Mary was saying, Hey, listen, I'd like to have a miracle.

In fact, I want you to get some credit for it.

It's time for you to show your stuff.

And Jesus says, It's not time yet.

Jesus made it clear over and over again that actually the cross and the empty tomb

were going to be the significant event and miracle of his ministry.

Over in John chapter 2, we're going to get to that, I think, next week,

John 2 · chapter mention

when we look at the cleansing of the temple.

But remember when people kind of stomped up to Jesus and said,

All right, why are you doing this, and what right do you have to do this,

and, you know, what authority, blah, blah, blah.

And he says, Hey, listen, destroy this temple and, what, three days.

That was the miracle that would prove undeniably his deity

and his ministry as the Savior of the world.

So that leaves us a question.

If Jesus respectfully reminded his mother of the chain of command that he was under,

why did he turn the water into wine for a starter miracle?

I mean, that's a fair question, isn't it?

And I have to tell you that I chewed on this for about two weeks.

Now, part of my chewing had to do with just my own nature.

How many of you understand what I'm saying?

Let it go, it's all right, blah, blah, blah, you know, just teach it.

But why? Why this one?

Why?

So let's think about the sign and why the miracle.

For one, we know from what the Scripture tells us

that everything that is recorded in the book of John

is directing attention directly to Christ,

in essence to say, this is the Son of God.

And so the things that are recorded are for the glory of Christ.

So let me run through several things in relationship to this.

First, while Mary was the one who did ask for help,

it had to be the Father who commanded that it be done.

How do we know that?

Because Jesus has told us over and over again

as we read our way through the book of John

that the only things he did, he did because the Father commanded him to do it.

Mary asked.

She saw the need, but she wasn't the one who leveraged relationship to pull it off.

Now, Mark, in the passage,

that Mary does have the confidence to tell the servants,

hey, go do what he says.

And evidently, Jesus gave indication of his willingness to handle the situation,

and so she gives instruction.

But while Mary did ask the question,

what Jesus did was only at the bidding of the Father.

And I want you to have that fixed in your mind.

At the bidding of the Father.

He did not comply so as to obey his earthly mother,

but to obey his heavenly Father.

And by the way, I think that's important for us to think about.

The idea that anybody can appeal to Mary

and have Mary leverage her relationship with Christ

to pull off anything spectacular for you

has no Bible basis.

Having said that, I think it is appropriate for us to understand

that Mary deserves credit for her humility and being the mother of Christ.

I don't think we should be dismissive of her,

but understand we can't leverage the relationship.

Second, this first sign,

and that's what John calls it in verse 11.

If you kind of skip ahead, it says,

this, the first of his signs,

was all about manifesting his glory.

That's what we read.

Okay?

This first of his sign was all about manifesting his glory.

And stop and think with me just for a moment.

This is interesting.

How many of you know how many miracles are recorded in John?

Guess.

Only seven.

Only seven.

That's not many.

We just used one up.

You follow that?

So it must be good enough.

Third,

this first sign

was a potent demonstration

of his deity

in the small circle

that he chose to reveal himself to.

Let's go back for a minute.

You're in John chapter 2,

John 2 · chapter mention

but go back for a second

to John chapter 1,

John 1:1–3

verse 1 through 3.

Let me read it to you

and just have it resonate in your heart

as you think about

who we're talking about.

In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made

through him.

And without him

was not anything made

that was made.

As I was sitting over here in the front

and singing one of the songs,

and heaven help me,

I forget the words,

but we were singing a song

about the power of God,

and my heart began to think

about Genesis 1.

In the beginning,

God created the heavens

and the earth.

And how did he do that?

He did that out of nothing.

And here at the beginning

of Christ's ministry,

we find that the one

who it tells us in Scripture

is the creator of this universe,

chose to respond

to the small need

of those that he was around

by instructing the servants

to go ahead and fill up

these stone jugs

that held between 20 and 30 gallons.

That's a fair amount.

Now, without getting into

all the details of it,

there was a difference

between drinking water

and water for washing your hands.

Regardless of that little nuance difference,

I want you to know

that they filled those jars

right to the very top.

What does water to the very top imply?

There's not room for anything else.

Some liberal scholars suggest

that really there was quite a bit

of wine left over,

and so they kind of added

a little bit of water

and watered it down.

That is not the case.

We read there in verse 7,

Jesus said to the servants,

fill the jars with water

and they did that

and then in verse 8,

now draw out some

and take it to the master

of the feast.

So they took it.

Now, can you imagine

you're the one

who's been serving people

and Judith and I

were eating

at a Mexican restaurant,

something a diabetic

probably shouldn't do,

but I was

and if there's anything I like,

it's chips and salsa.

How many of you

are in the chips and salsa crowd?

And, you know,

I like salsa.

They don't give me a spoon.

That's the one thing

that I regret.

A spoon.

And I had finished off

the first thing of salsa.

It was exceptional.

Fresh onions,

fresh cilantro,

tomatoes were canned,

but it was really good.

It was really outstanding.

And I'm just eating this.

I'm using a halfway design chip

as kind of a dip.

I mean, you know,

it's a spoon of sorts

and I'm going through this

and pretty soon

we're out of the salsa

that I'm enjoying.

And guess what I'm doing?

What do you think?

I'm holding up the little salsa,

the teeny little thing.

I mean, I think this would be

about that big for me,

but I'm holding this thing up.

I'm going,

oh, coming.

You know,

it's like,

bring it on.

And so here are the servants

who had been dealing

with this tension

in the wedding party

and they fill up

these pots with water

and Jesus says,

all right,

you take it

to the master

of the feast.

I mean,

and I would imagine

they had a little bit

of anxiety

as they were taking it.

Now maybe

when they kind of

came around the corner

they sniffed it.

Oh, okay.

We don't know that.

Stop there.

But anyway,

they bring it

to the master

of the feast

and he tastes it

and he's just,

whoa,

this is good.

This is really good.

I mean,

what kind of wine

do you think

Jesus would make?

You know,

something like

fly high with Thunderbird?

No,

I mean,

it was real stuff.

It was good.

Now,

the master

of the feast

verifies

that this is good wine.

And I want you

to understand

that when the servants

put the water

in the jars

they had no idea

what was going to happen.

So,

another detail

that I want you

to recognize

is that

Jesus chose

his first sign

to have very

limited impact.

Could he have done

something else?

I mean,

something spectacular

by,

I mean,

just let's say

walk out in the middle

of where everybody else

is thirsty

and grab a stick

or something

and whack the ground

and suddenly,

you know,

I mean,

it's like,

you know how you have

the chocolate fountain

at the wedding

where you get to dip

strawberries in?

It's like,

hey,

everybody's running up there

to fill their cup.

No.

He does it

very,

very quietly.

And if you kind of

skip ahead

in verse 7,

it says,

this,

the first of his signs,

Jesus did at Cana

in Galilee,

manifesting his glory,

and his disciples

believed in him.

Count them.

By this point,

there's five.

I must confess

that I'm speculating

a little bit

at this moment,

but follow the logic.

Early spiritual lessons

in most of our lives

are usually little steps.

Wouldn't you agree

with that?

And if you go back

to John chapter 1,

John 1:47

verse 47 and 48,

and I do want you

to look there,

if you will,

for a moment.

John chapter 1,

John 1:47

verse 47 and 48,

we find that

Jesus saw Nathanael

coming toward him

and said to him,

or of him,

behold,

an Israelite

indeed,

in whom is no deceit.

Jesus,

seeing the guy coming,

says,

now that's a guy

who is not deceitful.

Verse 48,

Nathanael said to him,

how do you know me?

Jesus answered him,

before Philip called you

when you were under

the fig tree,

I saw you.

Now what does that prove?

First of all,

omniscience.

Jesus knew everything.

He knew the person's heart.

He knew the person's

position or place.

It also indicates

his omnipresence.

I could see

where you were.

And we find

that Nathanael

is kind of struck

by this.

Verse 49,

Nathanael answered him,

Rabbi,

you are the son of God.

You are the king

of Israel.

And Jesus

says,

relax,

you're going to see

bigger things than this.

I like that,

right?

Look,

I'm sorry,

that was a little

too fresh for you,

but it will try.

Verse 50,

Jesus answered him,

because I said to you,

I saw you under

the fig tree,

do you believe?

You will see

greater things than these.

And he said to him,

truly,

truly,

I say to you,

you will see heaven open

and the angels of God

ascending and descending

upon the son of man.

That's how good

it's going to get.

God starts small,

but he works in our life

to help us know

who he is.

And then day by day,

he demonstrates

his grace

and his power

and brings us

to appreciate

who he is

and what he's come to do.

And so I want you

to think with me

just for a moment

this morning

as we kind of

push this together

as we close.

Remember,

one of the things

I said last week

is that

the book of John

is really about

worship and witnessing.

That's,

you could summarize

in two words,

worship witness,

or you could put it

this way,

you could say

that it's about

edification

and it's about evangelism.

And we find both pieces here.

We come face to face

with the Lord Jesus

who is the only one

who has the power

to radically transform

water into wine.

And if he can do that

in a situation like that,

can he do something

for the heart

that is broken

and confused

and utterly affected

by sin?

And the answer is what?

You bet.

You bet.

You bet.

And so I got to tell you,

if you're sitting here

this morning

and your life

is just absolutely

bound by sin,

there is only one

Savior in the world

who can make any difference.

Years ago,

I heard the story

of Donald Barnhouse.

You don't know him.

But he was preaching

on a street corner

with the Salvation Army.

And he was waxing eloquent

and there was a band

with him.

In the good old days,

the Salvation Army

always used instruments

to draw people together

to listen.

And there was a crowd

of about 30 of these

Salvation Army band members

and Donald Barnhouse

was just preaching

his heart out.

And on the periphery,

there happened to be a guy

who was a noted skeptic

and atheist walked by.

He was known nationally

for his ability

to debate Christians

and in many cases

humble them.

And so he said

to Donald Barnhouse,

he says,

I'll tell you what,

this Thursday,

we're going to have

a debate about religion

in the National Academy

of Science

wherever it was

in the city.

I think it was Los Angeles

or something.

And Donald Barnhouse

says,

you're on.

here's what I want you to do.

I want you to bring with you

three people

whose lives have been changed

by what you believe.

And Donald Barnhouse

looked around

to those just average

Salvation Army people

and he says,

I wonder,

do I have any volunteers

here in the crowd

that could come

and be my witnesses

of how Jesus changed

his lives

and they all

were ready to go.

By the way,

that famous skeptic

when put on the spot

laughed and walked away

and had nothing else to say.

Why?

Only Jesus can change a life

and if you're sitting here

and your life

is messed up by sin,

there is no remedy

for the brokenness

of your heart

but Jesus Christ.

And my question to you

is this,

do you need

any more evidence

of how hard

a disobedient life is?

I'll tell you this,

a fool

is someone

who makes a career choice

of it.

One who is broken

and humbled

comes to Christ

and pleads.

let me say also

that if you are here

this morning

and you are one

of those believers

whose heart

has drifted away

from Christ,

he's ready to help you.

You know Christ

as your Savior

but you've lost

your first love.

Your life's not

what it should be.

The one who saved you

is bound

and determined

to change you

and I would plead

with you

that you humble yourself

and let him do that.

Let's close in prayer.