Marriage is What Brings Us Together Today

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. John, the second chapter.

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

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Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples and when the wine ran out the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine.

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Jesus said to her, woman what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, you do whatever he tells you.

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

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Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water and they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.

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So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, everyone serves the good wine first and when people have drunk freely then the poor wine, but you have kept the good wine until now.

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This the first of his signs that Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him.

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This is the gospel of the Lord in the name of Jesus. Amen. So got a little confession for you guys and that is is that you know

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I've been a pastor now for almost 10 years and when I first was a pastor and anytime a text would come up a gospel text from the of John, I kind of whinged a little bit.

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The reason being is because John's not an easy gospel to work with.

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It's got layers upon layers of meaning. In fact, it's kind of like the blooming onion of Gospels.

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It's just multifaceted. It just comes out in all kinds of different directions and when you don't make those connections it kind of stays silent.

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In fact, you sit there and go, I don't understand why this is so important, but when you take the time to make the connections that are there in the gospel of John, you are rewarded with depth of meaning that is just absolutely profound and wonderful.

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So our gospel text being from the gospel of John, you'll note at the end of it it says that this was the first of Jesus's signs that he did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him.

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So right off the bat, we're gonna know this is Jesus's first miracle and one has to wonder why.

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Why is this his first miracle and why is it that after doing this miracle it says his disciples believed in him?

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And by the way, those of you who've come out of like really bad NAR churches and the charismatic stuff or you've been influenced by Bethel, note here that it says that Jesus did this sign, he did it by his own steam and his own power.

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The claim that Jesus did all of his miracles only as a man fully yielded to the

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Holy Spirit, it's baloney. That's just not true. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna work our way through this text and try to answer this question.

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How is it that this sign caused his disciples to really believe in him? I just like, why this one?

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Because you know, the whole thing seems kind of, well, kind of mundane.

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But again, John is one of these Gospels where you're gonna have to do some digging and after you do the digging and you make the connections, mmm, it's fantastic.

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So our Gospel text begins with, on the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there.

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Now a little bit of a note here, I've said it so many times, gotta pay attention to that third day stuff.

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It's preparing us for something because Christ was crucified for our sins and then raised again on the third day.

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That third day stuff, it's all throughout the text. So pay attention, important things are happening.

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So you'll note that we don't meet the bride and the groom. The groom shows up a little bit later, we don't know who the bride is, and Mary, she's there.

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But we can see that she is not lounging around, sitting at the reception table, eating hors d 'oeuvres and drinking wine.

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She seems to be quite busy and very much involved and aware of what's going on behind the scenes.

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This tells us something a little bit about Mary. She's a hard -working woman and one who legitimately has the good of her neighbor in mind.

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So it also says that Jesus was invited to the wedding with his disciples. Important to note here that this is chapter 2 of the

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Gospel of John. So Jesus' disciples just started their discipleship training.

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I mean, these guys have only been in it for a couple of days, maybe a week, but not that long.

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And so, you know, first order of business after Jesus calls his disciples is this wedding feast.

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And so when the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine.

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And Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. Interesting reference, by the way.

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Christ's hour will come eventually. And I like to think of this as a reference to the fact that Jesus' hour is when he goes to the cross to bleed and die for your sins and mine.

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But you're going to note in this particular moment here, Mary is coming to Jesus in faith and in good works for her neighbor.

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She's concerned for her neighbor and she knows Jesus being the Son of God in human flesh is able to assist.

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And so think of her request properly as it should be thought of as what?

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A prayer. So Mary here is praying to Christ, requesting, petitioning him, asking for help.

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And Jesus at first kind of pushes back, but you're going to note here, there are many other examples throughout the

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Gospels of people who, persisting in their faith, got their petition answered.

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Just keep that in mind. So I think maybe that may be what's going on here. So he pushes back and says, what does this have to do to me?

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My hour has not yet come. And then his mother said to the servants, you do whatever he tells you.

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That's a good, that'll preach. You do whatever Jesus tells you.

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Listen to Jesus' mother, by the way. You do whatever Jesus tells you. Jesus tells you to repent of your sins.

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Repent of your sins. Jesus tells you to believe in him and trust him and that he forgives your sins by his death for you on the cross.

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You do whatever Jesus tells you. You believe that. You hang on to that. Jesus said, whoever believes in me, even though he dies, yet shall he live.

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So you trust in Christ. You do whatever he tells you. Jesus says to you, abide in my word.

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That's an important thing. You'll note that there's a lot of churches out there nowadays that Jesus' words barely make an appearance at all in their church services.

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I remember having a conversation with a seeker -driven vision casting leader and talking about the importance of preaching

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Christ and him crucified for our sins and preaching Jesus every single Sunday. And he looked at me like I'd fallen off the turnip truck.

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What do you mean talk about Jesus and read his words every Sunday and preach his words?

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Don't you understand that the Bible, you know, there's only four books in the Bible that contain the words of Jesus.

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At least this was his thinking. There's more than that, by the way. His words also show up in Acts and in the book of Revelation.

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But I digress. And he basically said, we've got a whole lot of Bible that we need to cover and, you know, and we'll cover

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Jesus accordingly, you know. And it's like, no, that's just not how this works.

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Jesus says, abide in his words. And so you do whatever Jesus tells you.

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Jesus says, take, eat, this is my body. Take, drink, this is my blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins.

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You do exactly what Jesus tells you. Mary's a recommendation here to the servants, her admonition to them.

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Yeah, that works for all of us as well. Now here's where you'll note, so far, so good.

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It seems pretty straightforward. This is just a historical narrative. But then it stops being merely that.

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By the way, God's Word is never merely a historical narrative. Now we have details that begin to hint at a deeper understanding of what this miracle signifies.

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And it goes on to say, there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification.

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All right. Hmm. I seem to remember that the law of God was written on stone tablets.

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And the number six, not that I'm into numerology, but I remember that God did not create the world in seven days.

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He created the world in six days, and then he rested on the seventh. And Jewish rites of purification, those aren't really fun, but, you know, kind of a necessary part of that culture and that religion.

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So, all right. So six stone water jars. When I read the writings of the Church Fathers, they seem to think that this hints at a spiritual significance related to the current creation that we find ourselves in, as well as the law of God.

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Yeah, the current creation. Have you noticed that we need purification? Oh boy, do we.

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We need purification from all of our sin and our muck and our filth. We need that.

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And you'll note that the reference to the law in the stone reminds us that the law rightly condemns all of us.

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But you're going to note here, bath water, baptismal water, washing water for purification rites, that doesn't sound like a lot of fun.

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I mean, it's a necessary thing. But how many of you just really enjoy some good hand -washing water, some good bath water?

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You know, you just enjoy that good bath water. None of us do. Maybe it's just me because I'm a guy.

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I mean, I hated having to take a shower and a bath when I was a kid. You know, I would prefer just to keep the dirt from my adventures on my body so that I can put more of it on the next day.

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But my mother wouldn't allow me to do that. I had to take a bath. So baths are not that fun. But you're going to note here, there's something going on.

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And again, it's happening at a wedding. And this is where we might need to start doing a little bit of cross -reference work.

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And let me explain why we have to do that. You remember our epistle text.

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Our epistle text is a marriage text. It talks about the roles of husband and wife, and it references a text from Genesis.

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Those opening three chapters of Genesis are kind of in view here. And so listen again to our epistle text.

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We'll see if we can sort this all out. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its savior.

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Now as the church submits to Christ, so wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Right on.

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Okay. But you've got to note then, the bulk of this now falls to husbands. And listen to what it says.

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Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, so that she might be holy and without blemish.

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Ooh, beautiful words. And what this reveals here is that every single marriage on planet earth, every single one of them, doesn't matter if it's a

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Christian marriage or not, every single marriage is a type and shadow, and the substance belongs to the real thing, and that's

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Christ's relationship, his love for his bride, the church.

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And so you'll note then that husbands are to emulate Christ's love for his bride in their love for their brides.

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Right? Okay. Good. Sacrificial love. And so you'll note Christ loved the church, gave himself up for her, laid down his life, bore her sins in his body on the cross, he, the righteous one, became the unrighteous one, so that we can have the righteousness of God and be the righteousness of God.

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In fact, it says here, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, so that she might be holy and without blemish.

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And so when Christ finds his bride, she is covered in the filth and muck of sin, and he washes away that sin and that muck and that iniquity, and washes her, cleanses her, clothes her, gloriously clothes her, makes her holy.

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It's beautiful when you think about it. But then Paul goes on to say that husbands are to love their wives also as they love their own bodies.

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And this is where it gets really weird, but let me work through this. So now, no one ever hated his own flesh, but he nourishes it and he cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.

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Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

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Yeah, I'm familiar with that. I mean, isn't that read at like every single wedding?

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Yeah. But note what Paul says next. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it, the passage he just quoted from Genesis, that it refers to Christ and to the church.

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Wait, what? What? Yeah, sort this out with me, would you?

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I mean, so this text is legitimately saying that that passage from Genesis, for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two will become one flesh, that that text always, has always pointed to Christ's love for his bride, the church, and that's the reality of that text.

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Hmm. In fact, now this is starting to make sense. Maybe, just maybe, the reason why

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Jesus' first miracle is the changing of water to wine at a marriage feast is a big telegraph that he's, the reason why he's here is in order to save, to rescue, to bleed and die for, lay his life down for the love of his life, the church.

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Ah, this marriage is starting to make a little bit more sense. You see, the marriage feast at Cana in Galilee, there's hints of a different marriage feast that is being referenced, not just that marriage at Cana in Galilee, but the one that is coming.

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In fact, we could rightly say that in this text, in John chapter 2, from that famous line from the prince's bride, marriage is what brings us together today, right?

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That's right, that dweem within a dweem, marriage is what brought us together here today to consider the great, great love and sacrifice of our groom,

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Jesus Christ, we being the bride. And so you'll note, that starts to preach.

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And then, listen to this, consider man's fall into sin and then the consequences that came as a result of it.

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In Genesis chapter 3, when God is doling out punishments for the transgression of eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he said to the woman,

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I will surely multiply your pain and childbearing and in pain you shall bring forth children and every woman who's given birth knows that's still in play.

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And then he says this, your desire will be contrary to your husband and he shall rule over you.

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Now, what's funny is, is that until really recently, like yesterday, I've always read this as only relating to the conflict that exists in every single marriage.

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By the way, those of you who've never been married, I got to warn you, is that marriage is a difficult institution.

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And the reason being is because God has made it that two people become one flesh, but they have opposing wills.

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Yeah, the wife has her will, the husband has his will, and they constantly are doing this.

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It's a thing. But note here, that also describes the church.

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It describes the bride of Christ now. Our desires are obviously at times quite contrary to our husband

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Jesus Christ, but still he rules over us. But rules over us in mercy, grace, and kindness.

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Good stuff to consider here. So we've kind of worked that part of it out, but there's more.

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You know, I always got to think this through a little bit here. And this is where the writings of the Church Father also helped me a little bit in my sermon prep for this

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Sunday. And that is, is that why, why is it that this sign, this miracle, really gets the disciples' juices going and they end up believing in him?

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And one of the Church Fathers suggested that the reason why that's the case has to do with a particular pattern of miracles in the

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Old Testament. Let me explain. So if I were to quiz you, you guys ever play like Bible trivia or something like this?

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So if I were to quiz you and say, all right, so after the crossing of the

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Red Sea, okay? So after the children of Israel, they've been, you know, they got the ten plagues, you got them marching out of Egypt, you got them crossing the

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Red Sea, and then them finally once and for all experiencing freedom and knowing that no one would be able to have the power to enslave them again after the the armies of Pharaoh were drowned in the

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Red Sea? What was, putting you on the spot here, what was the first miracle that followed that?

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Just kind of think that out for a second here. What was the first miracle that followed that? And you're sitting there going,

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I don't know! Luckily, I've done the prep work for you. I know exactly what the first miracle is after they've been finally set free from slavery and there's no going back.

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It's found in Exodus chapter 15. It says, Then Moses made Israel set out from the

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Red Sea, this is verse 22, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water.

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When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter.

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Therefore it was named Marah, because Marah means bitter. And the people grumbled against Moses saying, what shall we drink?

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And he cried to Yahweh and Yahweh showed him a log and he threw it into the water and the water became sweet.

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Wait, what? It's not a high -profile miracle.

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I've not heard a lot of preaching on this particular miracle. But you're gonna note here, the first miracle after Israel finally is definitively set free from slavery with no going back, it's this miracle.

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The changing of bitter water into sweet water by throwing a log into it. What's the significance of the log?

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Well, when you read the Church Fathers, the Church Fathers say the log is a foreshadowing of the cross of Christ.

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Okay, I'm gonna go with the Church Fathers on this. I think they're onto something here. So this is a foreshadowing of how

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God takes the bitter waters of this life of ours, because of sin we've brought this upon ourselves, and by the cross he turns the bitterness of this life, the bitter waters of this life, to sweetness.

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That's a pretty good way of looking at it. But wait, there's more. I feel like I'm doing an infomercial here.

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Let me ask you this question. Alright, so you remember Elijah, the guy who had the showdown with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel?

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Well, after he was taken up to heaven and Elisha succeeded him, what was the first miracle that Elisha performed after Elisha became the prophet that succeeded

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Elijah? What was his first miracle? Well, it's recorded for us in 2nd

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Kings 2, and here's what it says. Now the men of the city said to Elisha, Behold, the situation of the city is pleasant, as my

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Lord sees, but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful.

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And he said, Bring me now a new bowl and put salt in it. So they brought it to him.

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And then he went to the spring of water, and he threw salt in it, and said,

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Thus says Yahweh, I have healed this water. From now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it.

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So the water has been healed to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.

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Okay, so what are we supposed to make of that? So you've got the first miracle of Elisha being the healing of these deadly waters, and what does he heal it with?

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He heals it with salt. Hmm, obscure reference from the book of Leviticus, but Leviticus chapter 13, sorry, chapter 2 verse 13 says this,

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You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your

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God be missing from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.

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So I would note here, salt has a very interesting significance in the Mosaic Covenant, and that is that every single offering, every single one of them, must be offered with salt.

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So when you sacrifice a lamb, you have to offer salt with it. When you sacrifice a goat, you have to offer salt with it.

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You sacrifice a bull, you gotta offer salt, you gotta offer salt with it. Why all the salt?

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Well, I would note then, that being the function of it, is that that's also a reference to the gospel of Jesus Christ, because to be, to lose your saltiness is to lose the gospel, and that's kind of the point.

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And so coming back now to our old, our gospel text, we're beginning to see how this is starting to play out.

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Jesus's first miracle at a wedding feast, telegraphing his love for his bride, because it's all about that marriage, he changes water into wine, that being the first of his miracles, just like Elisha's first miracle was the healing of those waters, just like the first miracle that happened after they crossed the

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Red Sea was taking the bitter waters of Mara and making them sweet. Ah, now we're starting to see some stuff going on here.

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We're starting to see the connection. And so you'll note, Christ now is taking washing water, ceremonial washing water, and what is he turning it into?

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Sweet wine. It's just the best of the best of the best. And by the way, if you've ever been in a church where they said, well, he turned, he turned it into grape juice.

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No, he didn't. Okay, no, this was the best of the best wine. So the text goes on and says,

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Jesus, so he got the six waters, stone jars for Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons.

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And Jesus said to the servants, you fill the jars with water. They filled them up to the brim. And he said, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.

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So they took it. And when the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water, they knew the master of the feast called the bride groom.

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So he sits the groom down. He says, listen, everyone serves the good wine first. And then when the people have drunk freely, then the poor wine, but you have kept the good wine until now.

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Let me paraphrase that a little differently. You've saved the best until last, but it wasn't the groom of that wedding that did it.

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It was the groom of the church that did it. So that means that Christ saved the best to last.

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Think of it this way. Oh man, just the misery of sin that we live under, right? The toil that we all experience, the consequences of our sin, the suffering, the sickness, the death.

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This is the total destruction of our lives. We languish here. And when we read the

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Bible, you'll note that there's notable miracles, things that God is doing. He's visiting his people.

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He's delivering his people, but God has saved the best to last.

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And it's in the new Testament that God himself takes on human flesh and he comes into our misery, into this world of sin and death and suffering.

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And he takes our sin upon himself and he goes to the cross to bleed and die for us so that we can take, he takes our bitterness of soul and suffering and difficulty and death and he turns that and he heals it.

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And instead of death and bitterness, we get forgiveness of our sins.

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We get eternal life. We get to enter into his rest and the joy that comes from the feast of the lamb.

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It's going to be a beautiful blowout party and we're all invited. In fact, I kind of like to think that when we get to the wedding feast of the lamb, that the folks who are there from the original wedding feast at Cana in Galilee, once they taste the wine,

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I'm positive they're going to say, oh, this is the wine that we had when Jesus turned the water in the wine.

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It's the same vintage. It's the same stuff. The best wine is waiting for us. And so you'll note then that when you start to make all of these other connections, you take the time to open up the gospel of John like a blooming onion and you see the different layers of meaning and make all those connections.

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Then all of a sudden this simple miracle of turning water into wine is no longer so simple.

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In fact, what seems so kind of, you know, kind of rudimentary, not a big deal, all of a sudden becomes the biggest deal of all, because you can see the real meaning behind it.

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And the real meaning is all about that marriage, all about that marriage of the real bridegroom,

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Jesus Christ, who saved the best to last in order to lay down his life and to sanctify and make holy his bride, you and me.

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What a great text. What a great miracle. And listening to Mary doing whatever

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Christ tells us to do, we believe along with his disciples, and we have great hope and confidence in this

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Jesus, who will someday return in order to take the hand of his bride and leader into the new earth and give her the inheritance that he promised as a result of his sacrificial death on the cross for us.

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What a great Jesus we have. What a wonderful marriage feast this is. And then we look forward to the feast to come in the name of Jesus.

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Amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota 56744. And again, that address is

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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th

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Avenue Northwest, Oslo, Minnesota 56744. We thank you for your support.

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