John 2:1-12 (The Dawning of the Kingdom of God)

The Shepherd's Church

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There we go, okay All right the Bible Has a lot to say about the kingdom of God and about the kingdom of man

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The kingdom of God is where God rules. It's where his reign is present That's where his peace and his love and that's where our joy

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Comes in when we are living in the kingdom of God in never -ending fellowship with the king of kings

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Now the kingdom of man, we see it unfolding all around us It's built by war and violence and hatred and power dominion and jealousy strife and Yet in this era that we currently live in The kingdom of God and the kingdom of man exist as a simultaneous reality for instance you and I Gain our citizenship as American citizens

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But there's a greater reality for you and I that we are citizens of the kingdom of heaven if we are in Christ Even right now as we gather together as the bride of Christ we gather as a visible expression of the kingdom of God here on planet

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Earth We're members as I said of Jesus's kingdom that Jesus is building and that is growing and that the gates of hell are not going to Stand against until Jesus returns and calls us home to be his bride

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But now let's not minimize the kingdom of man. The kingdom of man is real We live in the geopolitical boundaries of a country that seems more and more every single day like it is eroding around us

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We live in a world of social unrest and political polarization. We live in a world of virtue signaling and riots and Gaslighting we live in a world where cities have been burned to the ground just in the past few weeks and this year alone

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We've had pandemics Economic depression media induced hysteria city blocks torched in multiple cities and the kind of anarchy

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That you and I would have never imagined just several years ago The new normal is waking up in the morning and our phones flooding us with Negativity faster than we can possibly even get adjusted to the brightness of the screen

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It's plastered all over the news It's everywhere that we turn and it reminds me again and again and again that this world is not our home

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And have you felt that way lately? Have you felt totally out of place in this world that we're living in?

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You just watch the news you look at your timeline and you think gosh I just don't feel like I belong in this place anymore

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Well, the reason you feel that way is because you don't the reason you fell out of place is because you are if you're a

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Christian 2 ,000 years ago Jesus Christ came and he inaugurated a better kingdom that you're a part of and We live in this sort of awkward phase right now where we are trying to navigate as sojourners

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Living in a world that is not our own now today I Want us to look at John chapter 2 verses 1 through 12.

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That's right. We're gonna do 12 verses today and we're gonna look at what the kingdom of God is and We're gonna look at why the kingdom of God is and we're gonna look at how the kingdom of God can bring you and I joy

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If we are citizens of that great kingdom So let's read the text.

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We'll pray and then we'll examine six Fundamental truths about the kingdom of God.

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How does that sound? Let's read on the third day There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there both

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Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding And when the wine ran out the mother of Jesus said to him they have no wine and Jesus said to her woman

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What does this have to do with us? My hour has not yet come and his mother said to the servants

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Whatever he says to you do it Now there were six stone water pots set there for the

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Jewish custom of purification containing 20 or 30 gallons each Jesus said to them fill the water pots with water

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So they filled them up to the brim and he said Draw some out now and take it to the head waiter

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So they took it to him and when the head waiter tasted the water which had become wine

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He did not know where it had come from But the servants who had drawn the water knew and the head waiter called the bridegroom and he said to him every man serves the good wine first and when the people have drunk freely then he serves the poor wine, but you

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Have kept the good wine until now this beginning of Jesus's signs he did in Cana of Galilee and he manifested his glory and the disciples believed in him

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And they went down to Capernaum. He and his mother and his brothers and his disciples and they stayed there a few days now

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Recap from John chapter 1 Jesus has come to set up his kingdom here on earth He came to in John 1 14 pitch his tent

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Among us and he came here to rescue us because we were lost and we were broken and we were dead without him

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He came first to the nation of Israel who should have welcomed their covenant God with open arms

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But yet in John chapter 1 we see that they are the ones who are already Antagonistic towards him and already ready to reject him

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He says that he came to the world that he created in his world rejected him Now the seeds are already here in John 1 in chapter 2 that the

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Jews are gonna be the one to kill Jesus and yet When you talk about a kingdom

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Normally when you kill the leader you kill the kingdom not with Jesus See they killed

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Jesus 2 ,000 years ago, but his kingdom continues on it's stronger today. It's bigger today it's still growing today because Jesus came and inaugurated an entirely different kind of kingdom and The curious part about it is is that he started it at a wedding in Cana of Galilee in a backwoods e -town

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You would think that if you're gonna start a kingdom you would go to The political center of the country like you would go to Berlin or you would go to Washington DC Jesus goes to Cana and it's in that That we see six wonderful truths about the kingdom of God right here in this passage

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So let's pray. So that's the Lord to bless this message and for him to write it on our hearts

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Lord God, thank you so much 2 ,000 years ago That you came and you stepped foot on this planet to rescue and redeem it you brought

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You brought war to the kingdom of Satan you came and you crushed the serpents head you bound the strong man

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And Lord you set up a kingdom that the gates of hell cannot stand against you set up a kingdom that will continue till every tribe

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Tongue and nation has heard the gospel and Lord you set it up Beginning as such humble and beautiful means you're the

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Savior who was born in a manger and not on a throne And you're the Savior who came to Cana to inaugurate your kingdom

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So Lord, I pray by the power of your Holy Spirit that you would Open up our minds today to be able to understand the beautiful things that are going on in your word

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Lord, I pray that you would show us the dimensions of the kind of kingdom that you were setting up Lord I pray that we would see the fundamental difference today between the power of the kingdom of God and the

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Sterility and the weakness of the kingdom of man Lord, it's in your name. We pray. Amen Now the first feature of Jesus's kingdom is that he come to set up a kingdom of resurrection

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This might not be apparent at first but look at how the passage begins. It says on the third day

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There was a wedding in Cana and Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there. Isn't that interesting that Jesus begins?

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This is his very first recorded miracle. He begins his miracles with a miracle on the third day Surrounded by his mother surrounded by his disciples

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That's not happenstance or coincidence that John would describe it that way John is a very deliberate writer

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If you remember the purpose of the book in John chapter 20 these things have been written so that you will believe that Jesus is the

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Christ the Son of the Living God and that by Believing in him you will have life in his name. That means that John is

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Gonna take every possible moment that he can to squeeze out the richness of Christ and every detail is fascinatingly important He's intentionally giving us this detail that Jesus's kingdom began on the third day

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John chapter 2 verse 11 We'll get to that in a moment says that this was the beginning of Jesus's signs

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This sign the wedding at Cana meaning every detail of this scene is utterly important utterly important So This miracle and what we will see today is a microcosm

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Microcosm comes from two Greek word my cross and cosmos little world. It's like a figurine

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When you go to the store I've said this example a couple times and you look at the Eiffel Tower statue or you look at the Statue of Liberty Figurine and you say oh,

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I know what the Statue of Liberty is like Yes, you do in part because it's meant to show us what the whole thing looks like It's like looking at a map you look at the map of the

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United States. Yeah, I know what America's like but then look at how much more beautiful and how much more wonderful it is when you get out on the road and You start exploring the

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Sierra Nevada region and you start exploring the Washington Olympic Mountains And you start

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I'm getting Getting jealous of the trip that I took three years ago. Even right now as I speak

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This passage is meant to be a small picture of the big and vast thing that Jesus is doing at his cross

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Every element of it is meant to point us to that moment So what

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I want us to do is I want us to hold Cana and Calvary in juxtaposition just for a moment Jesus begins his very first miracle on the third day

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Isn't it interesting? He begins his first miracle surrounded by the same people.

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He'd be surrounded in his last miracle, which also occurred on the third day This is the first third day miracle in John's gospel and it points forward to the final third day miracle the resurrection of Jesus Christ At this wedding

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Jesus is foreshadowing that his kingdom is going to be a kingdom filled with resurrection

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Which means it's gonna be a kingdom that's filled with people who were formerly dead in their sin formerly dead in their trespasses

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But they've been made alive by Jesus Christ. That's what it means that this is a third day miracle

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Jesus is looking past Cana to Calvary on what he is going to do

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Jesus came into a world That was totally dead Jesus stepped into a scene of the walking dead except there was no people who are alive on that one

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Since it all had fallen short of the glory of God. Everyone had fallen into sin. There was no one righteous not even one

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So Jesus stepped into a world where everyone had committed spiritual suicide and there was no one living.

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No, not one and the only way That Jesus is going to have a kingdom filled with people is to start with a resurrection

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The only way Jesus is gonna bring us into his kingdom is if he goes down into the grave and brings us back out with him

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This passage teaches us three things. It teaches us that as early as Cana Calvary is looming over the narrative it teaches us that This is the kind of kingdom that Jesus is bringing and as we know now 2 ,000 years later it began with a resurrection and Each and every single one of us if we are members of this kingdom had to be born again had to be resurrected

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That's the kind of kingdom that Jesus entered us into you can be born to a physical kingdom But in order to be in Jesus's kingdom, you have to be resurrected

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You have to have new breath new life new heart new mind You have to be a new creation and that leads us to the second

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Feature of Jesus's kingdom is that Jesus is bringing new creation Now the first one

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I said was not quite so obvious This one is even a little bit less obvious, but when we pull it together,

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I think you're gonna see Honestly, I think you're gonna see how beautiful this text is. I marveled at this text this week

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At just how many connections it has all throughout the Bible. It is beautiful Just As we saw a second ago that this miracle happened on the third day it also happens on the seventh day

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That counts that possible It's a third day miracle that also happens on the seventh day It doesn't make any sense.

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That's like saying 70 % of the time it works every time No, that makes absolutely no sense, but it's true

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John has been meticulously Detailing the days in his gospel just like Moses did in Genesis First day second day third day.

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In fact, John is writing the story of a new creation He starts his book in the beginning which means he's writing the story of a new creation

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He lists out his days the first seven of them in fact because he's telling the story of a new creation

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John's gospel begins this in verse 19 When John the Baptist begins preaching and he preaches the kingdom of God and the

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Jews persecute him and that's the end of the first day the second day happens in verse 29 and John simply says you have to pay attention.

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He says the next day. That's day two That's the day that Jesus made his first public appearance and then that's the end of the second day, right?

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The third day happens on day 30 or on verse 35 Where Jesus appears a second time and then four of John's disciples start following Jesus And then that's the end of the third day

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Now the fourth day is in John 1 43. It says the next day the group of five left and they went to Galilee So now if we're paying attention and we're looking at the clues that John is sprinkling through the forest

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We're at day four What does John 2 begin with on the third day?

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So on day four chapter 1 comes to a close then three days later Jesus comes in John 2

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Now, I'm no mathematician I'm a homeschool dad, but I don't teach my wife does that But four plus three equals seven.

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We all agree on that, right? Why does that matter though? Why is that important?

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Why does John? Go to such elaborate links to tell us that Jesus did his first miracle on the third day and also the seventh day

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Why is that important? Now we can't go into depth here in total

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But the number seven is critically important in the Bible We'll give three points as to why

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I think John is mentioning this now. Remember we've already said that John's writing the story of a new creation

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Seven is very important to creation Remember I said that Genesis begins

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Within the beginning it lists out the days John 20 makes this even more clear something new that I learned this week

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Jesus rose from the dead on the third day and the seventh It's interesting

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John 20 actually it says he rose on the first day of the week So three days after he died he rose from the dead.

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We all agree with that. He rose on the third day But it says it was the first day of the week Which means it was sorry the eighth day

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Now you're wondering why all of this this sounds very confusing. This is like a numerology type. No, it's not

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Listen to what John is doing Jesus does his first miracle on the third day and on the seventh day the seventh day is when

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God rested If Jesus rose from the dead on the eighth day the first day of the week, what day was he resting in the tomb?

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on the seventh on the seventh So God in the first creation took six days to create the world out of nothing and on the seventh day

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He rested Jesus after his ministry lays in the tomb after every work had been done and he rested from his work on the seventh day and then he rises in power on the eighth day to showcase that he is

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Bringing into the world a brand new creation Unbelievable All these details are there and if we don't stop and stare long enough so easy to miss them the second point

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About this seventh day and why this is important is that God not only rested on the seventh day

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He ruled on the seventh day now Over the last 13 weeks or so.

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I will confess to you that I have spent most of my life in my pajamas Almost entirely all of it.

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I Didn't have to go anywhere. I was quarantined. I had shorts on and a t -shirt. That was it people came over to my house

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I didn't even get dressed. I was still in my pajamas. They loved me. They're gonna accept me if they don't well, it's okay, too

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I'll weep later But God doesn't take a lazy day on day seven

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God doesn't sit in his pajamas in heaven God finished creating new material on the seventh day

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But from the seventh day onward he's ruling over the things that he made Have you ever thought about the fact that Genesis never mentions an eighth day?

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Well, the world doesn't stop turning It is true that the Sun rose and set again on the eighth day and the ninth day in the 10th and the 11th

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Bible doesn't record an eighth day because every day thereafter is the seventh day Every day thereafter is the day that God is ruling over his world every day thereafter is a day that God is no longer

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Creating new material. He's ruling over the material that he created now

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Isn't it fascinating that? Jesus shows up on the seventh day in Cana and He creates new material out of nothing

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He takes six empty stone water pots with nothing in them and he creates something brand new out of nothing water into wine

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For all of history God has been in his seventh day not creating new material

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But yet on this day God in the flesh steps down and he creates something new Signaling that the old creation is done.

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The new creation has come Now just as a third point I Thought about not putting this in because it's a little nerdy, but I thought maybe you would indulge me for a second

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It's my favorite part is to be a nerd The third day and the original creation was when the plants broke out of the ground

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It's when vegetation sprouted. That's when the third day. That's what happened on the third day grass grew plants grew trees grew

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Isn't interesting That Jesus shows up here on the third day and He doesn't use the ground to make his grapes and he doesn't use the ground to plant his seeds

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He takes ordinary water and without touching it He fast forward

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Almost through time. I don't know obviously we don't know how he did it But he turned water without grapes without seeds without people pressing them into juice without bottling them without Storing them for the time period that it would have taken for them to ferment

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He bypasses everything that was required in the first third day and he makes wine out of nothing.

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I Found that absolutely fascinating That Jesus is playing off of the original third day, but he's doing it in a way that showcases his new creations better His new creations bigger and more powerful.

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And if you remember the first creation did not stop with plants God Created humans on the sixth day.

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What's the final thing that Jesus does when he resurrects from the dead? He creates a new race of human beings who will love him and called according to his purpose and made in his own image before Jesus Christ you and I were made in the image of Adam and We were in the image of sin.

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And when Jesus came he recreated you and I to be lovers of God and not haters of God to be conformed to the image of Christ and not conformed to the image of Our flesh

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Jesus is bringing a new creation It's kind of all in this passage,

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I know it's obscure I know we have to dig deep and peel back the layers, but it's there and I wanted you to see it

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The third facet of Jesus's kingdom is that it's an intimate kingdom

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Now Just as the theme of the third day is prevalent in the New Testament Just as the theme of the seventh day is prevalent in the

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New Testament There's also a theme of wedding language in the New Testament I don't believe it's an accident that Jesus unveiled his kingdom at a wedding

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In fact, I'll make the claim that the entire New Testament is a story of a wedding

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From Matthew all the way to Revelation. It's the story of a man Jesus the God -man who comes to earth to claim for himself a bride a

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Bride that he loves and a bride that he is going to transform into the kind of bride that loves him truly back

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The language of the Old Testament is Israel is the unfaithful bride Jesus is coming searching a bride who is going to love him because he loved her first And he claimed her for himself and he transformed her into a perfect and spotless bride the picture of faithfulness and This is all throughout the

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New Testament and I'll give you just a few examples John chapter 3 at the end of it Jesus compares

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John the Baptist to his best man Because John's gonna help him prepare the bride That's an interesting metaphor

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Mark chapter 2 19 through 20. He compares his earthly ministry to his engagement period

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Why because he came to marry a bride? John 14, he says I'm leaving this world and I'm going to prepare a place for you

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If it were not so I wouldn't have told you that's wedding language We'll get there when we get to John 14.

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Just trust me until that point. That's it. It's a different sermon Matthew 22 he compares his kingdom that he's bringing to a wedding feast

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Many are called few are chosen, but they are chosen to come into the feast to feast with the bridegroom

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Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit calls the church Jesus is bride He uses the explicit terms in Ephesians 5 and 2nd

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Corinthians 11 and at the climax of the story This is why I say that the whole New Testament is the story of a marriage

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Because Jesus comes looking for a bride and at the end of the New Testament. He gets her

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Revelation 19. I want to read it to you. The language is so beautiful. It's the purpose for which

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Jesus came John says the same writer of the gospel that we're examining right now

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Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude Like the roar of many waters and the sound of mighty peals of thunder crying out.

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Hallelujah For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns Let us rejoice and exalt and give him glory for the marriage of the lamb has come

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And his bride has made herself ready and it was granted to her to clothe herself with fine

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Linen bright and pure for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the Saints Jesus began his ministry at Cana at a wedding

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But he was looking forward to Revelation 19 when all of human history is consummated and Jesus finally has his bride

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So accident the kingdom of God begins at a wedding Now to the

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Jews This would have been pretty scandalous Why wouldn't you go to Jerusalem Why when you start with the religious elite if you're gonna build a kingdom a spiritual kingdom a religious kingdom

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Jesus is removing any doubt on who his bride actually is See Jesus didn't come to the impressive religious folk

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He didn't come to the clean or to the elite He came to the bride that's gonna be made up of all the nations

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He came to the bride who Jerusalem would consider to be scandalous, but he finds absolutely

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Beautiful. It's the accumulation of blue -collar working people from Nazareth and Galilee It's the racial outcast from Samaria It's the impure

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Gentiles in the Roman world scattered in all of the different cities It's the weak the meek the mild the downtrodden the broken

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It's the men and women of all shapes and sizes from all over the globe That's gonna experience the intimate love of Jesus Christ So by attending this wedding in Galilee, what

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Jesus is doing is he is foreshadowing the decidedly beautiful and peculiar Kingdom that he was enacting and it was the kingdom for his bride

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He's showcasing that there's no outcast in the kingdom of God if you're in then you're not forsaken if you're in Then you are loved like a newlywed bride on her honeymoon

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Except better than that because you're the perfect newlywed bride married to the perfect husband on a perfect honeymoon wherever that is

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To me, it's Wyoming, but most people wouldn't agree with me If you're in Christ, then you are loved like that If you're in Christ, then you are beautiful to him

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How often is it that we get stuck on our sin our failure our brokenness?

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And we start thinking how ugly we are and how wretched we are. And yes, it's true without Christ.

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We are utterly wretched We cannot save ourselves, but in Christ, we are deeply loved and we are beautiful to him

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We are spotless to him and his white hot affections are being cultivated for you

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That's the third element of Jesus's kingdom that is a kingdom for his bride at least to our fourth

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Aspect of his kingdom that we see here in this miracle and you're like we've only went through two verses

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How are we gonna get through the rest of it? Trust me We will one way or another

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The fourth aspect of Jesus's kingdom is that shame erasing. It's a kingdom that erases our shame

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John tells us in verses 3 through 5 When the wine ran out The mother of Jesus said to him they have no wine and Jesus said to her woman

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What does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come And his mother said to the servants whatever he says to you do it

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Now we got to unpack this verse a little bit we got to peel back the layers even more so because I Believe that there's some things going on in the background that we have to understand before we understand what

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Jesus Christ is doing So let's for a moment. Let's just dive into 1st century

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Israel Let's imagine that we were there and that their customs are our customs and that their behaviors are our behaviors

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So in the 1st century weddings were a joyous joyous occasion Much like they are today except back then they lasted seven days

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Now if you're an introvert and you get an invitation to a wedding That can be hard.

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You're like I have to spend an entire evening with someone that I barely know Imagine seven days

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Joyous singing dancing. I don't dance At our wedding is the only to my

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Shannon and I's weddings the only time I've ever danced I've not even danced at friends wedding because I'm that awkward to look at and I care about what people think

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But imagine being there for seven days Now It's also true that wine was a staple feature in a

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Jewish wedding And I just want to unpack this for a second because we've got a it seems to be a touchy topic

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Wine and alcohol in the New Testament. I just want to speak really frankly to my Presbyterian brothers for a second

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This is not 25 year old Tawny port 25 % alcohol by volume wine and this is not your

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Christian Liberty to go and get lit Okay This is watered -down wine that was not very strong and it would be almost impossible to get drunk off of But it was wine

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So I just want to clear the air with my Presbyterian friends But to my Baptist friends

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This is wine The word is wine. The word is alcohol. I grew up in a church that said this was grape juice.

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No, it's not You can't manipulate the Greek language to mean that this is wine

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And Not only is it wine Jesus was the one who made it and not only did he make it

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He probably drank it at that wedding. So it's okay I just want you if you feel that way if you grew up in that culture, just take a breath and say it's okay

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It's okay Wine and weddings was important It was a part of the culture and it was part of deep communal celebration that the community

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Would actually come together and that's also a very important point because they lived in a different kind of culture than we live in today

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Sociologists say that we live in a culture that is more akin to law and guilt We have laws

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When we break those laws, we're guilty not so in the Middle East The Middle East it's more of an honor and shame dynamic

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So when you think about it this way you would be tremendously honored if You had enough wine for your seven -day wedding feast and you would be tremendously dishonored if you ran out

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Great shame would come upon you if you did not provide for your guests in an appropriate way

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Now this is especially true in the region of Galilee Galilee was like the

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Napa Valley of ancient Israel. It's where the best wineries were It's where the best grapes were

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So if you run out of wine in Napa Valley, that's to your shame if you run out of wine in Galilee at a

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Jewish wedding It's almost socially inescapable It would have been especially shameful and we know from history that family members took other family members to court

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For running out of wine Because their negligence brought shame upon the entire community.

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That's the way that they felt It's almost like in a modern example when a

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Islamic person converts to Christianity the father feels shamed the mother feels ashamed the family feels ashamed the city feels ashamed and the only way to break the cycle of shame and dishonor is

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Often they kill the person who converted to Christ This type of culture still exists today honor and shame and if you ran out of wine, it's a big deal and you're liable for uncle

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Fred to take you to court and sue you for all that you're worth because you were the person who Was so negligent that you forgot the wine now

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Again running out of wine is a massive social issue It was up to the family the close family to be on the sort of party planning committee to make sure this doesn't happen

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So when we see that Mary is the one who's coming to Jesus that gives us a little clue as to who this wedding is for Mary would have been closely related to the bride and groom which means

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That Jesus would have been closely related to the bride and groom which means if they run out of wine

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Mary would have been ashamed Shame would have come upon Jesus shame would have come upon his ministry even before it even got started

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So What we see Here is that Mary is not coming to Jesus to ask him to get involved in a trivial matter

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She's not asking him to get involved for an acquaintance that he barely knows she's asking him

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Not to perform magic tricks as if he's the entertainment at the end of the evening

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He's asking her to rescue the people that he loves from deep abiding shame

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That's what she's telling him. That's what she's asking him to do Now I find this feature somewhat fascinating the bride and the groom would have not been told the women would have known first because they were in charge and then only particular men would have been

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Involved so Jesus his father had died. Now. He's the head of his household. He's told about it

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The bride and groom would have never been told about it. They would have lived in their ignorance Sipping the last bottle of wine to their own shame and destruction

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What an apropos metaphor for salvation That while we were yet sinners

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While we had no clue of the shame and the and the guilt that was upon us

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Jesus came without us even knowing what was happening and rescued us Again I see

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That this is not just Jesus being involved in a social issue. This is Jesus acting out the gospel in front of his people

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So I'm making the connection here that when Jesus is restoring this couple

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He's looking past this couple to his family his covenant people who he's going to rescue at the cross.

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I know many liberals Would say that this is just Jesus being nice and generous and we're supposed to be nice and generous too because Jesus is our great

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Moral example and many Pentecostals will say to us No, this is Jesus giving us license to do parlor tricks and to do miracles because he did miracles.

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We should do miracles He had faith. We should have faith. That's not what's going on here. Jesus is showcasing the glory of God Jesus is showcasing the gospel to his people and we know that for two reasons

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Some of them we've already said maybe this is a little bit of a repeat but it bookends So perfectly third day miracle third day resurrection seventh day rest seventh day rest

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Wedding wedding and then here we go. Jesus erases one couple shame and at Calvary He erases his people's shame the bookends of these particular things are so striking that you cannot ignore them

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Maybe one point Would fall away, but when you see the totality of what

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Jesus is doing here, it's unmistakable He's showcasing us the gospel The second reason that I think that this is true

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It's because the way that he responds to Mary you can't preach this passage and not deal with the way that he responds to Mary So let's dive into that for a moment.

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Let's see what Jesus is doing Because on the surface kind of looks like he's being sassy

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Let's just be honest Jesus says one What does that have to do with us?

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Now I don't recommend my brothers in this room Employing that tactic. I don't recommend if you have small children and your wife says will you go make me a bottle?

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I don't recommend you say woman. What's that have to do with me? My hour has not come That's probably not the right strategy.

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If your wife says hey, can you mow the yard woman? My hours now you come Again in our society that shame inducing but in Jesus's society that was actually respectful

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And that was that wasn't disrespectful at all wasn't dishonoring at all It was very respectful.

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In fact, but it wasn't the way you would talk to your mother Let me break it down this way. I Would not go up to my mama because that's what we call her in North Carolina.

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I Would not go up to my mama and say hello mrs. Lankford That's respectful That's just not the way

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I would speak to her Jesus here is speaking to Mary in a respectful way

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It's not typical the way sons would speak to their mothers. It's not disrespectful. It's just not typical So what's he doing?

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I? think that he's moving his mother out of the mother -son dynamic and into the servant

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Lord dynamic this is his first miracle and From here on out his mother is no longer just his mother.

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His mother is his Servant his mother is the one who loves him as Savior And now let's think about it this way

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The joy of motherhood is unmistakable and it's beautiful But for her the greater blessing was not to remain

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Jesus as biological mother Because what joy that would be for 50 60 70 years and then you die and go to hell the better joy was for her to Be moved out of that relationship and into he's my

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Savior and he's my Lord So when he talks to her and he speaks to her it would be strange if he's talking to her like she's his mother

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Mother my hours not yet come. Well, what does that mean? That'd be strange But it's not strange if he's her

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Savior. It's not strange if he's her Lord. He says the hour Has not yet come he's looking at Mary and he's saying this

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Event that I'm getting ready to do will signal my death I will be on an inevitable collision course from Cana to Calvary if I do this and I'm willing to do this

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But I want you to know what it's gonna cost That's why his mother says whatever he says to do you do it

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Cuz she knew He says my hours not yet. Come. What does that mean?

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Does that mean he didn't want to do it because it was eight o 'clock instead of nine o 'clock. Absolutely not The hour is

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Jesus's final hour his hour of crucifixion his hour of his death All throughout the

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New Testament, especially in the Gospel of John Jesus uses this language to describe his death

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That's why I say that Cana can be interpreted in light of Calvary because Jesus does

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Look at what he says in John 4 to the woman at the well He says an hour is coming when true worshipers will worship the

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Father in spirit and in truth that hour came when Jesus died on the cross and Indwelled his people by the

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Holy Spirit so that finally they could worship him not in a dusty empty temple in Jerusalem anymore

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But by the power of the Holy Spirit The hour had come at his death when the Holy Spirit came in and dwelled his people.

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That's what his hour means John chapter 5 Jesus says to the Jews in Jerusalem an hour is coming when the dead will hear the voice of God That didn't happen until Jesus resurrected from the dead.

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That was his hour At the end of John chapter 17 when he's praying to the

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Lord just days and if not hours before he is murdered He says father the hour has come

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He's not thanking God that it's five o 'clock somewhere and that he can go to the Jerusalem drink shop

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I just made that up on the spot. I didn't write that down He's not saying God. Thank you that it's nine o 'clock and I'm done with my work

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He's saying the hour has come and then look at what he says glorify your son so that the Son may glorify you

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The hour of Jesus's death had arrived and in his death He was gonna give glory and honor to God.

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Jesus is interpreting Cana through Calvary and we must as well He's not saying he's unwilling.

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He's not folding his arms as an impetuous child He's saying this event is gonna end my life mother

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And she says whatever he says do do it We can interpret this passage this way because Jesus does

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That's the fourth aspect of his kingdom is that he came to erase our shame if you're a follower of Christ There's no dishonor left for you.

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There's no shame left for you If you're a follower of Christ You will stand clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ one day because of what

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Jesus Christ did here in Cana and on Calvary The reason why brides wear white is because it's so pure and spotless that not even a stain can penetrate it

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That's you Christian Because what Christ has done that sin you did today that sin you'll do tomorrow that sin that you will continue to struggle with for The rest of your life has been utterly cleansed by Jesus Christ and you have no more dishonor

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And you have no more shame You're guiltless That's the fourth aspect of his kingdom.

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The fifth aspect of his kingdom is that he is bringing a purified kingdom It's first six through eight.

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Let's look at it together Now there were six stone water pots set there for the

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Jewish custom of purification Containing 20 or 30 gallons each

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Jesus said to them fill the water pots with water so that they are filled up to the brim and He said them said to them draw some out and take it to the head waiter.

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So they took it to him now There's no mention in the Old Testament of stone water pots.

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You can search Genesis all the way to Malachi. There's none So why do the Jews have these water pots?

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Why do the Jews say that they're necessary and what is Jesus doing? We have to understand that The Jews are saying that this is a part of their custom for religious washing, but the

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Old Testament gives no commandment What is going on here? Well, we have ample record in the

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New Testament time that the Jews took the 613 laws that Moses gave and they turned them into thousands and thousands and Thousands of traditions that they raised up to the same level as the

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Bible There's examples all in the

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New Testament. I'll give you two Jesus is judged by the Pharisees for not properly washing his hands.

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This was kovat ad 30 Jesus says to them now when he had spoken a

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Pharisee asked him to have lunch with him and he went in and reclined at The table and when the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that he had not first ceremonially washed before the meal

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But the Lord said to him now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the platter but inside you're full of robbery and wickedness

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Jesus is saying that you've elevated your hand -washing tradition to the level of Scripture and you are not even clean on your heart

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The Pharisees did the same thing to Jesus's disciples in Matthew 15 They it says then the

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Pharisees and the scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said why do your disciples? Break the tradition of the elders as if the tradition of the elders was somehow in par with Scripture What do you just why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders for they do not wash their hands when they eat bread?

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And Jesus answered and said why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?

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Jesus is rebuking their religion Jesus is rebuking their

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Tradition of washing hands and bathing before they eat food because it's not in the

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Bible. It's a made -up human rule and Listen, I can't think of a better metaphor that Jesus could have enacted here

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Than six empty water pots Six the number of man six the number of the

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Jewish institution empty Empty their washings did nothing their cleansings were pointless

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Jesus is saying here and he's demonstrating the utter uselessness of their man -made religion

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Think about this Jesus could have made it rain wine out of heaven

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Jesus could have gotten any pot or any pitcher or any Jug that he wanted to fill these full of wine to solve the problem

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He chose six stone water pots for a very specific reason because he wanted to show the utter emptiness of the

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Jewish religion Because it's not religion that's gonna make us clean and it's not soap and water that's gonna make us clean and it's not the tradition of the elders that is gonna make us clean because the stain goes too deep if You and I want to be truly purified

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Then we got to be purified by the blood of Christ alone It says that though your skins your sins being like scarlet

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They will be washed white as snow and the oxymoronic beautiful part of that is that it's not through water.

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It's through blood That Is the fifth aspect of Jesus's kingdom that he is creating a purified kingdom

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He is creating a resurrection kingdom where you and I will be resurrected to new life He's creating a new creation kingdom will be given new life new creation

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He's creating a wedding kingdom where you and I get to be a part of his bride He's creating a shame free kingdom where he wipes away our shame and he's creating a purified

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Kingdom where there is no more stain of sin as far as the east is to the west there has how that's how far your

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Sin has been cast away from the presence of God Jesus is saying that you cannot be purified but by him and him alone and you need to leave the damning and empty vials of religion now

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I Hope I've proven that you can interpret this passage Cana through Calvary, but just in case

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You're still wondering how I'm coming to these conclusions. I want you to look at what the head waiter says

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Because I think what he has to say is actually incredibly important When the head waiter tasted the water

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Remember, it was empty before that Jesus had to tell him to put water in at first When the head waiter tasted the water which had become wine

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And he did not know where it came from But the servants who've drawn the water knew the head waiter called the bridegroom and he said every man serves the good wine first And when the people have drunk freely then he serves the poor wine

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But you've kept the good wine until now what a perfect metaphor for the

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Bible and for the kingdom of God as This wedding was drawing close in 40 years

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The Jewish nation would would be closed to an end their temple would be burned to the ground

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These same pots that were totally empty So to the stony dusty temple would be left in ruins totally empty the presence of God never to fill that old building again

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Soon the world would no longer go through Moses in order to know God go through Jesus Christ in Christ alone the system of the

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Old Testament was being replaced and it was being drawn to an end and Yet look at what

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God has done. God has done what this waiter would never do in that fascinating the waiter says

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No one saves the best wine until last but look at what God has done in Jesus Christ He didn't he didn't bring

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Jesus Christ in Genesis 3 When human beings sinned and rebelled against God, he didn't bring

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Jesus Christ in the days of Noah He didn't bring Jesus Christ to Abraham when the family of God was was was promised

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He didn't bring Jesus when Moses brought them out of slavery. He didn't bring Jesus when the temple was erected He didn't bring

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Jesus when the law was codified He didn't bring Jesus when the priest were there to heal the people or when the the judges were there to lead the people or when?

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The Kings were there to build the kingdoms or when the or when the prophets were there to speak the truth He waited until the end to bring his

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Christ That old wine of the Old Testament was good But to the sinful people of old the law may as well have been an empty water pot that would have never ever

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Satisfied they needed something better than their religion They needed something better than the old system of the Old Testament.

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God brought out the best in Christ at the end Just like he did in this wedding

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When the Jewish system was totally run dry and it looked as if the people of God were gonna live forever in their shame

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God did what the waiter could not bring himself to do and he gave us Christ To replace and supersede the superficial gruel of religion, it's a middle medieval word that just means really nasty oatmeal

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Jesus is the new wine of God's grace that replaces the old cup of religion He's the new Lord that indwells his people instead of the temple

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He's the one who brings new birth and resuscitates his dead People and gives them new life that they could never have under the pulverizing weight of the law

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He's the one who ushers in new worship instead of a temple on the top of a dusty hill in Jerusalem He is the one who brings the new and he is the one who came at the end to do it.

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What a Savior What a God Jesus Christ here is reenacting the entire gospel for us

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To me it's absolutely beautiful That's the fifth aspect and the final aspect as we close out today

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Is that Jesus brings a glorious kingdom John concludes this narrative with his five signs

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By giving us the theological point John gives us the point right here.

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He says this Was the beginning of his signs that Jesus did in Cana of Galilee that manifested his glory

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That's the point Jesus came to Calvary to manifest the glory of God Jesus came to Calvary to bring you into a kingdom that would give glory and honor to God He's not doing flippant miracles so that you and I can do miracles and he's not just being a good person as our moral example he is magnifying and demonstrating the power of a better kingdom a kingdom for the glory of God and what that means is

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That you and I have been resurrected not because we're special. We've been resurrected for the glory of God We've been made in a new creations not because we are righteous we've been made in new creations for the glory of God We've been claimed as his bride for the glory of God.

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We've been we've had our shame erased for the glory of God We've been purified for the glory of God All for the glory of Christ our

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King. That is what the kingdom of God is It's the rule and reign of Christ for the glory of God Let's pray

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Lord Jesus we began today talking about the kingdom of man and Lord the kingdom of man is powerful

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Lord the kingdom of man is strong The kingdom of man is pervasive

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Lord we look out and we see the riots and we see the evil and we see the wicked and we see

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All of these things and we think the kingdom of God is somehow bigger and more powerful than it is But Lord, I pray that by your

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Holy Spirit. You will have aligned our hearts today to see that the wedding Miracle you did at Cana though.

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It started small in a small little town has continued to grow and spread and Strengthen and it will continue to do so Lord Jesus to the ends of the earth when moth and rust

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Destroy this world. Your kingdom shall reign forever and Lord God Let us right now be amazed and be filled with praise