Look What Love Does

This is the manuscript of the sixth sermon in the series "Responding to the Living Word".  

Look what love does. It gives and gives and gives and gives even more. God’s love gives his creation a second chance. God’s compassion reaches out to all the world and gives us an invitation. And then God gives attention to our faithful response. He gives us cause for celebration, because he has removed our fear and given us life with him now and forever!

John 3:16 NIV For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

A link for an audio recording of the sermon is at the end of the manuscript.

You can watch a video recording of the entire service on the Christ Church YouTube Channel 

Scripture Reading: 

John 3:16‭-‬21 NIV For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Text: 

John 3:16 NIV For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Introduction 

There is a story about a man who was very angry after a church service.  He muttered to the deacon on his way out of church, “Give, give, give. That’s all that the preacher knows to talk about!” The deacon called him back and said, “John, I want to thank you, that’s one of the best definitions of Christian love I have ever heard.” Give, give, give.

Right at the heart of our text today is the word “gave.” It is the word that expresses what love does. “For God so loved the world that he gave. . . .”  Today let's look at what love does. 

I. Love gives another chance to the creation and of course mankind is the  culmination of God's creation. 

Like the Bible itself, John 3:16 begins with God. 

Genesis 1:1 NIV In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

The story of God’s love is that he was not content to create a world without beings who could respond to him. So from a love that reached out to bring into being those who could be loved and love in return, God created man and woman. 

Genesis 1:26‭-‬28 NIV Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

But all too soon it was clear that human love was flawed. 

Mankind would not love back with the same devotion and trust God had given to them. Mistrust, disobedience, and pride entered the human family, and suddenly life was out of joint. The humans went into hiding. But, God did not give up on his creation. He came searching for the man and the woman. 

Genesis 3:8‭-‬9 NIV Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

The story of Jesus is that God never really found us as he wanted to until he “so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” And then Jesus came and found us. God has found us in Jesus not to cast us out of the garden but to bring us in; not to condemn but to save.

John 3:17 NIV For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

II. Love gives compassion to all the world. 

At unbelievable cost, God’s love comes fully to us. He poured all his love out upon us. The warmth of his devotion came cascading down to us in Jesus Christ, God’s Son. 

Every religion that talks about sacrifice speaks of the sacrifice that people bring to their god, seeking to appease him and to justify themselves. But not the Christian faith. The Christian gospel states that there is nothing people can offer to God in exchange for their souls.

Ephesians 2:8‭-‬9 NIV For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

God has himself provided the sacrifice. 

Jesus is not man’s best gift offered to God; he is God’s best gift offered to man. God himself has become the sacrifice of atonement. He died in our place, holding nothing back. He emptied his heart, and the love drained out. 

As I said and proved in the second sermon of this series, God took on human flesh and revealed himself to us; he was incarnated among us.  Incarnation is the word we use to communicate the truth that God became flesh and dwelt among us. 

Who did the love cover? 

It covers “Whoever believes in him.” 

John 3:16 NIV For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

God loves the world, not just a certain part of it. His love for the whole world is forever a judgment on our petty prejudices. God’s love reaches everyone. It reaches down to include the humblest and most forgotten person anywhere on the earth. 

When the church prays for its missionaries at home and scattered around the world, it is praying with the certainty that God intends for all people to be reached and wants every person to be saved. 

2 Peter 3:8‭-‬9 NIV But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

And in our hands, which have been richly blessed, he has placed the responsibility to go to all people everywhere. 

Matthew 28:18‭-‬20 NIV Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

2 Corinthians 5:16‭-‬21 NIV So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Our love will cause us to give our lives as he has given his. 

III. Love gives attention to our response. 

One of the evidences of God’s love is that he pays attention to us and seriously considers our response to the love He gave freely, but painfully, to us in Jesus Christ. 

John 3:16 NIV For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

“Believe” in our text means trusting with the whole heart, holding nothing back, casting all that we are on Jesus Christ in faith.

We believe he will save us from death, deliver us from hell, rescue us from the punishment that is due us because of our sin.

Romans 6:23 NIV For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

He who believes in Jesus realizes that He is our only hope. If he drops us, we are lost; if he forgets us, we are alone; if he fails us, we are helpless. Believing in Jesus is trusting that he will hold nothing back. He will be faithful to us and bring us home. 

Believing is our greatest act of response to God’s love.

John 3:16‭, NIV For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

‬18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

God requires us to believe.  Nothing substitutes for believing. 

John 3:‬18 NIV Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

 Believing comes before any work of worship or service. We can do good all our lives and fail to please God if we turn our backs on his Son. Love for others and ministry to the world is the healthy and necessary response that believers make to the needs around them.

IV. Love gives us cause for celebration. 

As God’s love touches us and we are delivered from death, we are released from fear. We are brought from the darkness to the light.

We have cause for celebration. 

The promise that we have eternal life is the antidote to the fear people feel when they face eternity without the assurance that they will be with God when they die. This terrifying fear comes upon unbelievers when they are suddenly confronted with their doubts and uncertainties about the meaning of their lives and the eternal destinies of their souls. And well it might. For without Christ people are dying without hope, perishing without God. 

Christ’s love compels us to tell others about the hope we have in him. The Bible says, "Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that [he] died for all" (2 Corinthians 5:14 NIV). 

God’s promise of eternal life is not only the antidote to our fear, it is the medicine of joy. It is the cup of celebration. The lively and joyful hope of the Christian believer is that eternal life has been given to us now and we can live rejoicing in it today. Eternal life is a new kind of life—Jesus calls it abundant life which God intends to bring about in us now. 

Jesus said;

John 10:10 NIV The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Eternal life is not just living forever with God; it is living God’s kind of life forever, beginning now. 

John 14:6 NIV Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

One Christian said it this way, “All the way to heaven is heaven because Jesus said, ‘I am the way’ ”

That kind of life is worth living forever.   

Conclusion 

Just look at what love does. It gives and gives and gives and gives even more. God’s love gives his creation a second chance. God’s compassion reaches out to all the world and gives us an invitation. And then God gives attention to our faithful response. He gives us cause for celebration, because he has removed our fear and given us life with him now and forever! 

Sermon Audio

Why did Christ get Angry

 

This is the manuscript of the fifth sermon in the series "Responding to the Living Word".  

When Jesus came to the Jerusalem temple, he was moved by excitement for the house of the Lord and in anger He drove out the exploiters of God’s people using a cord he had made with his own hands. We want to be careful that we don’t become guilty of committing the same sin that caused His anger, so we want to know what made our Lord so angry?

A link for an audio recording of the sermon is at the end of the manuscript.

You can watch a video recording of the entire service on the Christ Church YouTube Channel https://youtu.be/hTpU_XaTBCQ

Scripture Reading: 

John 2:13‭-‬22 NIV When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

Introduction 

Last Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.  

Lent is the 40 days (not including Sundays) from Ash Wednesday to the Saturday before Easter. Lent is often described as a time of preparation and an opportunity to go deeper with God. This means that it’s a time for personal reflection that prepares people’s hearts and minds for Good Friday and Easter, Resurrection Day.

The three main things people focus on during Lent are prayer, fasting (abstaining from something to reduce distractions and focus more on God) and giving, or charity.

Prayer during Lent focuses on our need for God’s forgiveness. It’s also about repenting (turning away from our sins) and receiving God’s mercy and love.

Fasting, or giving something up, is a very common practice during Lent. The idea is that giving up something that’s a regular part of life, like eating dessert or social media, can be a reminder of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. That time can also be replaced with more time connecting with God.

Giving money or doing something good for others is a way to respond to God’s grace, generosity and love. For example, some people spend time volunteering or donate money they would normally use to buy something, like their morning coffee.

It’s important to note that doing these things can never make us earn or deserve Jesus’ sacrifice or a relationship with God. People are flawed and will never be good enough for a perfect God. Only Jesus has the power to rescue us from ourselves.

Jesus sacrificed Himself on Good Friday to bear the punishment for all our wrongdoings and offer us forgiveness. He was raised from the dead on Easter Sunday to give us an opportunity to have a relationship with God for eternity.

Spending time during Lent praying, fasting and giving can make Jesus’ sacrifice on Good Friday and His resurrection on Easter even more meaningful.

Now I want to get back to the series that I started three weeks ago “Responding to the Living Word”.  In this series of sermons, I have said that Jesus is God, He is the giver of abundant life, and that we are helpless without the help of the Holy Spirit which we receive when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and we are saved.  

Today I want to talk about a sensitive issue, Jesus’ anger. 

Text:

John 2:15‭-‬16 NIV So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”

The question that is often asked is if anger is a sin?  After all, don’t the Scriptures admonish us to be “slow to anger” 

James 1:19‭-‬21 NIV My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

The writer of Ecclesiastes warns us.

Ecclesiastes 7:9 NIV Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.

The Apostle Paul suggests that we can be angry, but with a caveat.

Ephesians 4:26‭-‬27 NIV “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.

Anger in itself is not an inappropriate emotion. 

Jerome, an early church father, said, “The greatest anger of all is when God is no longer angry with us when we sin.” 

We can be grateful for that as it says in.

Psalms 145:8 NIV The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

The Bible also says.

Numbers 14:18 NIV ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’

And 

Nehemiah 9:16‭-‬18 NIV “But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands. They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies.

God does get angry and anger is one evidence of a healthy personality. But anger must be a disciplined emotion, harnessed and carefully directed against evil wherever it is found. 

Aristotle, was no Christian but what he said about anger is insightful.  He observed that it is easy to become angry, but to be angry with the right person to the right degree at the right time for the right purpose in the right way—that is not easy. 

Let’s reflect on the Scripture that Jean read this morning and on our text.  Let’s look at 

John 2:13‭-‬16 NIV When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”

When Jesus came to the Jerusalem temple, he was moved by excitement for the house of the Lord and in anger He drove out the exploiters of God’s people using a cord he had made with his own hands.

We want to be careful that we don’t become guilty of committing the same sin that caused His anger so we figure out what made our Lord so angry?

I. Jesus was angry with those who were content for evil things to remain as they were. 

The people Jesus drove from the temple were a part of the religious establishment, the scribes and the Pharisees. They should have known better. But they had fallen first into compromise and then into eager cooperation with the exploitation of the pilgrim worshipers who came by the thousands each day to the temple. Jesus was angry with the people who were content for evil things to continue. 

Let me explain; Two groups felt his wrath that day: the money changers and the priests who were the sacrifice inspectors. They had turned the house of the Lord into “a tourist trap,” “a hideout for thieves,” a merchandise mart, a house for barter and trade. 

The money changers were actually at the temple to perform a useful function: to change the coins of the provinces that bore the graven image of an animal or man into coins suitable to pay the taxes to support the temple worship. The money changers had the pilgrims at their mercy. A man’s temple tax amounted to two day’s wages. The money changers would charge another day’s wages just for the changing of the money, a 50 percent profit.  That would be like charging an exorbitant fee for exchanging Canadian dollars for U. S. dollars. 

The priests who were required to inspect the sacrifices to make sure that they were perfect and had no defects, also took advantage of the worshipers. People would bring their own turtledoves or lambs for the sacrifice. But if the offerings did not pass the careful examination as to their suitability for sacrifice, the owners had to buy a costly replacement from the temple stock. In our study of Leviticus we have talked a lot about the no defect requirement of all sacrifices in order for them to be accepted by God and that the priests were responsible for making sure that the sacrifice was perfect. The solution was for the Levites. who worked with the priests,  to raise animals the people could buy for their sacrifice offerings.  The problem was that the animals kept in the temple corral were not examined with the same care. In the trading back and forth, the priests were making fat profits from their dishonest double standard of inspection.

Jesus’ anger was directed at these temple thieves, for they not only exploited the people but were also content to allow things to stay as they were. This corruption of worship did not trouble them. Injustice was rampant. The money changers treated sacred things and feelings with contempt in their rush to line their money pouches with unfair gain. 

The lesson for us today is that when God’s people see injustice flourish and indecent gain made from the things of God yet do not speak out, then watchout for the anger of God. His wrath is kindled against those who are willing to look the other way.

II. Jesus was also angry with those who would not pray when they came to God’s house. 

The three other gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke place the cleansing of the temple at the last of Jesus’ ministry rather than at the first as John does.

Matthew’s account is Matthew 21:12-17,  in Mark it is at 11:15-19, and in Luke it is at 19:45-48.

It is not clear whether there were two cleansings of the temple or one cleansing placed by the gospel writers in different chronological order. It is entirely possible that there were two. A temple cleansing is not a once- and-for-all job. Like the need for revival in the church, it must happen again and again. It is even likely that before the day was over, the people were back in business. If so, it is not unlikely that Jesus met them again at the close of his ministry with the same anger and hurt in his heart. 

Each one of the Gospel writers records that Jesus’ anger was in part a reaction to their callous willingness to turn the “house of prayer” into a “den of robbers”.

Luke 19:46 NIV “It is written,” he said to them, “ ‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

Anyone who comes often to the house of worship needs to be careful not to handle sacred moments with disdain, indifference, or preoccupation with stuff other than prayer and worship. 

III. Jesus was angry with those who tied all their religion to a building and to religious rituals. 

It is not buildings or rituals that finally bring us to God. They may help; but they can often intrude. 

Jesus had come to offer his body as the temple of God.

John 2:19‭-‬21 NIV Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body.

That’s why He would say to the woman at the well,

John 4:21‭-‬24 NIV “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

In Jesus, a new day has dawned, the kingdom of God has arrived, and the people of God are to be watching and open to what is about to happen all around them.

A building must never be a substitute for the worship of God. It is only the wrapping that surrounds us as we worship the God who is above all buildings made with hands. We also have tradition and rituals which in themselves are good and good reminders but we sometimes let our rituals substitute themselves for God. Anytime a person relies on baptism or church membership for security in God, he or she has worshiped at the wrong altar.

 Conclusion 

God chastens us not because he doesn’t love us but precisely because he does love us. He is unwilling to leave us to counterfeit worship or second-rate religion. Of all the things we have to be thankful to God for, don’t forget to thank him that he cares enough to become angry with us.

Hebrews 12:4‭-‬11 NIV In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Sermon Audio

Responding to the Living Word

This is the manuscript of the fourth sermon in the series "Responding to the Living Word".  

When things run out, whether it’s wine, justice, or health or hope or bread or life itself, Jesus is the true source of abundance for life. In a world where there is never enough, Jesus is all-sufficient, He is more than enough.  In Jesus there is the abundance of life, a new way, a new hope, a new gospel, a new freedom for all of life. You, too, may now believe and be invited to join in the joy of the party of life.

A link for an audio recording of the sermon is at the end of the manuscript.

You can watch a video recording of the entire service on the Christ Church YouTube Channel  https://youtu.be/Ld5o9s2SMTc

Scripture:

John 2:1‭-‬11 NIV On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. 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.” 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.

Text: 

John 2:10 NLT “A host always serves the best wine first,” he said. “Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now!”

The key theme in the gospel of John is found at; 

John 10:10 NIV  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

So what does this verse have to do with our text?  Stick with me this morning and you will get it.

Throughout this gospel, written by John we are presented with signs that vividly illustrate the abundance Jesus brings to life. 

The miracle that Jean read this morning is the first of those signs recorded for us by John.

Jesus, his mother, and his disciples were invited to a wedding feast. It could very well have been the wedding of a relative, since Mary seemed to have some influence on the servants, and took a personal interest in the embarrassment to the family when the wine ran out. 

Everybody who works with nervous families at wedding celebrations knows how uneasy they can become if everything does not go well. 

This wedding celebration was about to be a disaster. It appeared that the groom’s family had not made adequate preparation; they may have tried to skimp on the expenses. Their social embarrassment would be remembered in the community. It would be a long time before they would be able to live this down.

I. What Jesus did to solve their problem shows that in a  world where things run out, Jesus is the abundance of life (John 2:3). 

In his gospel John recorded the great signs Jesus did to demonstrate his power over the world. 

He brought joy to this wedding party. Jean read about that joy in our Scripture this morning in John 2:1–11.

In John 2:13-16 John recorded the judgment Jesus brought to the temple officials.  

John 2:13‭-‬16 NIV  When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 

He brought healing to a nobleman’s son;

John 4:46‭-‬52 NIV Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”

He gave a man sick for thirty-eight years a new chance at life 

One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

John 5:5‭-‬10 NIV

He fed more than  five thousand people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. 

John 6:8‭-‬13 NIV Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

he walked on the water

John 6:16‭-‬21 NIV When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

he gave sight to blind eyes (9:1–17); 

John 9:1‭-‬7 NIV As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

and he showed his power to give life by raising Lazarus from the dead

John 11:38‭-‬44 NIV Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

What's the point of reading all these Scriptures?  The connecting theme of these signs is that when things run out, whether it’s wine or justice or health or hope or bread or life itself, Jesus is the true source of abundance for life. In a world where there is never enough, Jesus is all-sufficient, He is more than enough. 

II. In a world where people are just satisfied with just getting by, Jesus goes beyond just providing; he improves on life (John 2:10). 

The steward of the wedding feast was obviously surprised because he called to the bridegroom and said 

John 2:10 NIV… “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.”

When the most important celebration in the lives of these two families was about to disintegrate because there was not enough wine, Jesus not only rescued the party, but he also improved upon it! 

If this is not an accurate picture of how Jesus deals with life, there isn’t one in all the Gospels. Jesus comes to us when everything appears to be lost and turns what could have been disaster into a miracle of abundance. 

Has this ever happened in your life? Perhaps it was the loss of a job, a failed test, a broken promise, a divorce, a financial disaster, or a death that left you feeling that life had caved in on you. I have personally experienced all of those.  At these kinds of moments, Jesus brings to our lives not just rescue but grace sufficient to bring us finally to victory and joy again.

Romans 8:35‭-‬39 NIV Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 He does not simply “help us get through the night”; he improves on our situation. 

Hebrews 13:5‭-‬6 MSG Don’t be obsessed with getting more material things. Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, “I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you,” we can boldly quote, God is there, ready to help; I’m fearless no matter what. Who or what can get to me?

III. In a world living by ritual, or ceremony, or a prescribed order Jesus becomes the source of true life and joy (John 2:6). 

John 2:6 NIV Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

The six stone jars were there because of the Jewish ceremonial laws. They were there for the cleansing rites. The water from them was used to wash the feet and cleanse the hands of the guests. The number six is an incomplete number, being one less than the sacred and complete number seven. So you could say that Jesus is the One who completes what is lacking in the Jewish ritualistic ceremonies. 

John 2:7‭-‬8 NIV Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so,

B. F. Westcott, who was a British bishop, biblical scholar and theologian perhaps most known for co-editing The New Testament in the Original Greek in 1881, suggests that the water used to make wine did not come from the stone jars, but from the well. The Greek word for draw out, in verse 8, Westcott insists, is the word for taking water from a well, not dipping from a jar. 

The symbolism according to Westcott is that after the ceremonial activities had been completed, what was needed was “a spring of water welling up to eternal life”

You remember the encounter and conversation that Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at a well when he asked her to give Him a drink. The full story is in John chapter 4 but I want to read just a few verses about what Jesus said about water welling up to eternal life.

John 4:11‭-‬14 NIV “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

So, Westcott says that from the well they drew the water that Jesus then transformed into the new wine, the best wine.

The gospel is new wine that requires new wineskins 

Matthew 9:16‭-‬17 NIV “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Mark 2:21‭-‬22 NIV “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”

Luke 5:36‭-‬37 NIV He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.

The old Jewish legal system for righteousness was not able to hold the new wine of grace

Hebrews 10:1‭-‬7 NIV The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, my God.’ ”

God’s grace is exemplified in Jesus Christ, the giver of abundant life. 

John 15:1 NIV “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

The implication is that He was the vine from which the true wine would come. 

Jesus does away with all substitutes for the abundant life. He is the true vine giving the new wine that frees people from the wine that runs out. He is the water of life in the ceremonial jars that can cleanse but never satisfy by itself. 

IV. In a world where there is little real joy, Jesus brings true joy to the party of life. 

Jesus is no killjoy. He enjoys the celebration of life. Wine is a symbol of joy and of the blessings of God.

Psalms 104:13‭-‬15 NIV He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work. He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to cultivate— bringing forth food from the earth: wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts.

Ecclesiastes 9:7 NIV Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do.

The Bible also points out the dangers of alcoholic beverages.

Proverbs 23:29‭-‬32 NIV Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine, who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly! In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper.

Ephesians 5:18‭-‬20 NIV Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is in favor of joy, but he is opposed to everything that works against the people he loves. God is for everything that is good, but he is against everything that harms life and tears people apart. When God is against something, it is because he is for us. 

Christians instinctively know that the greatest joy at the party is the presence of Christ who is the new wine that satisfies our every craving for joy and laughter. The disciples saw the glory of God in Jesus as he changed the water into wine. They knew that in Jesus, God was acting to provide abundance for their scarcity, joy for their ordinary lives.

John 2:11 NIV 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.

Conclusion 

In Jesus there is the abundance of life, a new way, a new hope, a new gospel, a new freedom for all of life. You, too, may now believe and be invited to join in the joy of the party of life.

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