Latest / Finding Jesus Again / Episode 3; Fill the Pots
Transcript
- John Smithson: Hey guys, welcome to episode three of Finding Jesus. ⁓ you are witnessing my personal journey to find the truth about who God is and what God has taught us to do. And I I invited you along because I think that probably a lot of you may be where I'm at, or maybe you're new, maybe you're new believers, or maybe you're not a believer. And you just you're just looking for truth. There's just a lot of stuff out there about the Bible and a lot of stuff out there about a faith and religion. And ⁓ you're just trying to weed through it and understand it and it's tough. I get it. And so that's the reason why I started this journey. I just wanted to shut out the noise and and ⁓ just find out for myself who God is. So we're gonna pick up today at John chapter two, and we're going to read verses one to twelve, and we're gonna talk a few minutes about those. And then I'm gonna wish you on your merry way. So let's look at chapter two, verse one, starting with verse one to twelve. So on the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there, and both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine. You know the party's over when the wine's gone, right? They have no wine. And Jesus said to her, What business do you have with me, woman? My hour has not yet come. You know, I think about that verse right there. It just it just almost sounds sounds rude to us. Like, woman, why you why you coming to me with this? Go ask somebody else. I don't believe he meant it like that. I think that culturally maybe, you know, translation comes over a little harsh, but I definitely don't think that Jesus meant it like that. But he basically was saying, you know, it's not my time to start doing miracles yet. But ⁓ his mother ignored his response and said in verse five, he said, she said to the servants, Whatever he tells you to do, do it. So now there are six stone water pots. Listen to this part, verse six. I think this is a part that a lot of us miss. Now there were six stone water pots standing there for the Jewish custom of purification. We talked about that earlier, about the Jewish custom of purification ⁓ yesterday. We talked about that how ⁓ you know baptism and purification before baptism, purification is ceremonial laws of cleansing themselves. Well, they had pots, stone water pots that were set aside specifically for The custom of purification. They weren't used for anything else. They wasn't used for drinking or or especially not serving wine in. But there were six stone water pots standing there for the Jewish custom of purification containing two or three measures each of water. Jesus said to them, Fill the water parts water parts water pots with water, excuse me. Go ahead and fill them up with water. So they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, Draw some of out now and take it to the head waiter. And they took it to him. Now when the head waiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it come from, but the servants who had drawn the water out knew, the head waiter said, called waiter head waiter called the groom and said to him, Every man serves the good wine first, and when the guests are drunk, then he serves the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. Now this beginning of his signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. So this is Jesus' first recorded miracle. Interestingly interestingly enough, Jesus said it's not my time, but yet he honored his mother and he did it anyway. It's also interesting interesting that to me that his mother knew that there was something that he could do about it. Like she must have seen hints that he could perform miracles. Because if not, she wouldn't have said, Hey, Jesus, you know, let let's get this party started. So she knew something. She had some hints of something, other than, you know, the things that happened, you know, that we read that he was born and And ⁓ there was obviously a hint of some power that rested on him. Now if you notice in verse six, Jesus pointed these six water pots that were set aside for the ceremonial cleansing. This is an important detail. The Jewish people they did these these cleansing rituals because they represented the washing away of sin. But Jesus took these six pots which were not used for anything else, and he turned that water into wine. And this represented it represented like his first miracle. This represented That he was establishing a new covenant. That the old covenant, which consisted of taking water and and washing yourself, hoping that that'll wash away sin, that that was old news. And the new news is that the water is now becoming wine. Water can't wash away sin, but wine, which represents blood, does. And his wine represented what Jesus came to do. This wine represented the fact that Jesus was going to give his life on a cross and that his blood would wash away our sins. So his first miracle pointed to his finished work. And notice what the the head waiter said. He said, Everyone gives the good wine first, but you saved it for last. This also represents how much sweeter the new covenant is versus the old covenant. Remember what John said in this previous chapter, Moses brought the law, but Jesus brought grace upon grace. And so it's almost like the law was to to give us an example of what sin cost. And then Jesus came with the check and paid it with his blood. So that's a very important thing to to remember is that that Jesus' first miracle points to the fact that he was going to give his life for our sins. So let's read on. We're going to go ahead and read verses thirteen to twenty-five. The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and within the temple grounds he found those who were selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And he made a whip of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and the oxen, and he poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And to those who were selling the doves, he said, Take these things away from here, and stop making my father's house a place of business. His disciples remembered that it was written, Zeal for his house will consume me. The Jews then said to him, What sign do you show us as your authority for doing these things? And Jesus answered them. Destroy this temple in three days I will raise it up. Jews then said, It took forty six years to build this temple, and yet you're going to raise it in three days. But he was speaking about the temple of his body. So when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this, and they believed the scriptures and the word which Jesus had spoken. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name, and they observed his signs which he was doing, but Jesus on his part was not entrusting himself to do them. Because he knew all people and because he did not need anyone to testify about mankind, for he himself knew what was in mankind. So really wanna wanna kind of jump on here is Jesus said stop making my father's house a place of business. Stop making my father's house a place of business. I don't want to go off on a tangent on this, however, I do believe that we have made the father's house a place of business. It seems that, you know We're focused on marketing or focused on music and of course we're focused on money because money makes the world go around and you have to have money to do ministry, sadly. That's one big reason why I'm not in ministry anymore is because I got tired of having to raise money and it feels dirty. It feels dirty to have to always be looking and asking for money to try to do the Lord's work. Quit making my house a house of business. Quit trying to to to grow your church because that's the most important thing. Or or having numbers, you know, having more people than the church down the street. Church has become such big business that I've got a sour taste in my mouth about it. However, what I'm doing right now is I'm trying to find Jesus. And I want to know him, even if that means apart from the business of the church. Jesus here prophesies of his resurrection as a sign of his authority. They said Well, what are you gonna do to prove that we should believe you? He said, Well, I'm gonna raise again in three days, and which is exactly what he did. And so do you wanna know why we can believe Jesus' words or why we can put so much stock in it? Because he's the only one that died and lives again and lives on. And Jesus also knew verse twenty-three and twenty-five that there was a lot of excitement and acceptance of him, but he also knew that was superficial. He knew the difference between emotion. And an actual transformation of faith. Those last few verses there it says, want to read that again, that he when he is when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name as they obser observed his signs, which he was doing. So they were they were watching him do these miracles, and they believed in his name. But Jesus on his part was not entrusting himself to them because he knew people and because he did not need anyone to testify about mankind, for he knew what was in mankind. And so, you know, through, you know, our lives, especially in our church lives, when things are exciting, when things are going well, it's easy to to follow God. It's easy to have faith. But then when those things are gone, when all the ⁓ the miracles and and and the amazing things are kind of away, swept away, and you're there in those hard times just trying to believe, that's when faith really that's when when the rubber meets to road. That's when faith really exposes itself. And so Jesus was saying here that that He knows he knows the difference between superficial faith and real faith. So I hope today that your faith isn't superficial and that if you're going through some things, you know, real faith means that you have faith even during the hard times. And I want to encourage you that Jesus is there with you in those hard times, just like he is with you in the great times. I thank you for joining me today for this lesson in finding Jesus and we will see you again tomorrow. Have a great day.