Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You're listening to a live recording from Westside Church in Bend, Oregon. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:06] Morning, everybody. I'm Ben Fleming, the other senior pastor. We're in the Gospel of John.
[00:00:11] We've done this the last four years. As Evan introduced this last week. We've gone into a gospel immediately following Advent that leads us all the way through Easter. And John is a disciple of Jesus who is writing this gospel in his old age. So he's been released from exile on the island of Patmos, and he's been released into Ephesus, where he spends most of his final years. And he writes this, historians say, from a hill located just outside the city of Ephesus. It was really cool. I got to go to Turkey a couple years ago and actually go to St. John's Basilica, which is where this hill is. They built a basilica in his honor following his death. So they buried him into the hill, and then they built this structure around it. It's absolutely gorgeous. But even more importantly, you can kind of feel the texture of someone who has been and walked with Jesus, who is now overlooking this city nearby, full of young believers, and not. Not young in age necessarily, but young in faith, who are trying to understand exactly who Jesus was as they begin to follow after this new way. And he writes very pastorally.
[00:01:16] So what you have to understand with John is he's not trying to get everything in chronological order so that you can follow along. Matthew does a lot of that. The Synoptic Gospels do a lot of that. He is trying in every single word to teach this deep theological trut truth. And so we encounter, really, the first time that he's getting really dramatically out of whack chronologically. And it happens in this story in John, in chapter two. So I'm going to actually take a page from Evan's book. I'm going to ask you to stand while we read this first section of Scripture. So if you want to stand with me, that'd be great, and I will read this over us as. On the third day, there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. And Jesus mother was there. And Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. The wine supply ran out during the festivities. And so Jesus mother told him, they have no more wine.
[00:02:07] Dear woman, that's not our problem. Jesus replied, yeah, my time has not yet come. But his mother told the servants, do whatever he tells you. And standing nearby were six stone water jars used for Jewish ceremonial washing, and each could hold 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus told the servants, Fill the jars with water. And when the jars have been filled, he said, now dip some out, take it to the master of ceremonies. And when the servants followed his instructions, when the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from, though of course the servants knew, he called the bridegroom over. A host always serves the best wine first, he said. And when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best till now.
[00:02:52] This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him. And after the wedding, he went to Capernaum for a few days with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples.
[00:03:04] This is the word of the Lord, Father God, we give you praise and glory for this. Pray that we would see you in these scriptures, that we would learn, just as John is trying to instruct who you are, what you have come to accomplish, and how we are loved and filled with grace because of your ministry and time here on this earth. In Jesus name, amen. You can have your seats.
[00:03:28] I told you guys a lot of different stories, and then maybe the farther away I get from it, the more stories I'll tell.
[00:03:34] But my family and I lived in a trailer in front of our house for most of the last year and a half, and, boy, are there a lot of stories.
[00:03:42] Some of them might lose me my job, I guess, potentially. So I won't be completely honest about every single one of them, but there was a particular instance where my wife and my son, I think they went to a hockey tournament. And that left my daughter and I, Jovi, behind. And whenever this happens, whenever it's just kind of me and one of the kids, I try to eventize it. I try to make it really, really fun. And so I bet Jovi's gonna have some really great memories of growing up and being like, dad really did his best to make that trailer fun, and he failed. You know, there's. There's probably, like, a mean girls parallel, you know, dad, stop trying to make fun happen.
[00:04:19] We're not gonna. It's just not gonna happen here. But we had a great day. I. I took her to the store, so we can get whatever you want for dinner.
[00:04:28] We got the new Mario party for Nintendo Switch, and we played Mario Party together, and we kind of had this great day, and Jovi and I, we kind of vibe when it comes to hanging out. My wife and my son have this kind of, like, energy that's like, oh, great. We sat down for five minutes. Amazing. Let's be really productive. And Jovi and I can kind of look at each other across the room and be like, you. Good, Good.
[00:04:51] So I'm going to stay right here.
[00:04:53] And. And so we had this great day, and then it got to the evening. I said, we can have a sleepover. You can sleep in Dad's bed. And at 2am I woke up, and I was freezing cold inside of this trailer.
[00:05:06] I go out in a little bit of a panic, and I check the propane tanks that are connected to the trailer. Of course, there's nothing in them, but I have three spares that are made for such a time as this. And I go to grab those three propane tanks. It's probably like 20 degrees outside, and all of them are empty.
[00:05:24] And I go inside and I get back in bed, and I just scooch a little closer to my daughter, you know?
[00:05:33] And, you know, cold is one thing, like. And Jovi never woke up, you know, Never woke up. Whew. It wasn't that cold.
[00:05:46] She wasn't roused from her sleep because, you know, there wasn't. You know, the cold doesn't bother me. I like sleeping in the cold, all that. So the feeling of the cold hasn't stuck with me. Even though it was very cold, I felt such a deep sense of shame having run out of propane.
[00:06:04] And there was, like, all the big existential questions, right? Of, like, how could I do this? And what was I thinking? And when did I use the spares and what did I use them for? And how, as a father, how did I allow this to happen?
[00:06:16] The irresponsibility? And I just can't believe. And I got to make sure Jovi doesn't tell her mom, because this is big trouble.
[00:06:25] But there was, like, this really terrible.
[00:06:28] And it was because she was with me all by myself. I can wake up at 2:00am and go, well, I'm kind of cold. And that was stupid, but I can go ahead and fill the tanks in the morning. But there was this responsibility and this connection, this shame that's connected to running out of resources.
[00:06:41] And this is actually kind of the context of which it happens at this wedding. Running out of wine at a wedding was not a small deal in this context.
[00:06:52] And because we're learning that God has not withdrawn, instead, he's simply located himself into our neighborhood. We see an interesting expression of who God is through this story of Jesus in his first miraculous moment.
[00:07:06] The first sign he performs doesn't happen in this synagogue. And it's not in a sermon, but it actually happens at a party, right? It's at a wedding. And that's not on accident. John's trying to tell us something specific. And even by starting off this story by saying on the third day, right? So John, we're learning, is a bit of an artist. He starts the whole gospel with this poem. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. I love the idea of Matthew hanging out with John and Matthew, who starts his gospel by giving you the genealogy of Jesus. Matthew's like, I'm gonna write a gospel. Let's start by doing math. This is amazing. And John shows up. And John goes, I'm gonna tell you about Jesus.
[00:07:42] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, you know, on the little drums. You know, he's a. He's a poet. He's an artist. He's trying to communicate something that's deeper than just the words that he uses. And so on the third day doesn't mean. It. Doesn't mean it was. Remember when it was Sunday and now it's Wednesday? He just throws the phrase on the third day in there. And it's important because it's not a random miracle. It means that this is a creation moment, that something dead, or in this case, at least empty, is about to be made alive.
[00:08:13] That's what John's trying to tell you. He's trying to connect this to the death and the resurrection of Jesus that happens later on in his gospel. But he wants you to know that this sign is an expression of the nature of Jesus. And it's not just the crucifixion and the resurrection story, but instead, you see it all throughout his ministry. And he's trying to tell us this through the wine being made by Jesus.
[00:08:35] And so in scripture, weddings aren't just celebrations, right? They're promises and covenants and then images of God's relationship with his people. And so Jesus doesn't kind of hover outside of this ordinary joyful occasion, but he steps into it. And he's not suspicious of celebration, but he's present within it.
[00:08:54] And from the very beginning, John is simply trying to hint that this story is going to begin and end with a wedding.
[00:09:04] And so the wine runs out early.
[00:09:06] And in this ancient world, this failure, especially on the part of the bridegroom, would have created an incredible and immense sense of shame.
[00:09:14] It's his role to provide hospitality and joy. But the bridegroom is actually still silent in this story.
[00:09:21] And it's Mary who notices the Lack and brings it to Jesus.
[00:09:26] And she says they have no.
[00:09:30] Now, I think this is an incredible understanding of how prayer actually works.
[00:09:36] Maybe you are unfamiliar with Christian circles or maybe even religion and faith. And sometimes I've noticed that a lot of people who come new to faith have the issue of, I don't really understand or know how to pray. I don't know how to start that. And I listen to and I watch people pray, and I don't have the ability to do that. And a lot of times what they're referencing is like an uncle's prayer at Thanksgiving, which, let's be honest, can go on a little long. Sometimes uncles at Thanksgiving wanted to be preachers, and they just didn't quite make it all the way. You know, it's only us who get to talk quite this long before we actually go out and have lunch afterward.
[00:10:14] But there's this idea of, like, I gotta have the fathers and the lords and everything all in the right place in order for me to speak appropriately when it comes to prayer. In order to talk to God, I have to present myself in this very specific way, and then I have to use the right words, and then that kind of unlocks the key. And then, then I understand how to pray, and then I can pray from there. And I think this is a prayer that Mary provides with Jesus. And the prayer is simply, they have no wine.
[00:10:39] We're missing something. There is a need that is present here. And the phrasing isn't all dressed up and all perfect and religious and proper. Instead, it's really simple. It expresses a need and it expresses a hope that God can then go ahead and fill that need. And Jesus response is fantastic.
[00:10:58] Dear woman, this is not our problem.
[00:11:00] Now, I would highly recommend that you adopt this phrase as often as you can use it in your marriage. Dear husband, this is not my problem.
[00:11:10] Those of you who are in school, you have teachers, use this with your teachers. Dear teacher, this is not my problem.
[00:11:16] Don't do that one. Don't do that one.
[00:11:20] Oh, my friend Jeff, who is in the second row, did not think that was funny. He's a teacher.
[00:11:26] This is not my math problem.
[00:11:28] And so his response is interesting to this prayer that has without polish and it's naming emptiness without this shame. And Jesus says, my hour hasn't yet come. And that word hour is important. And it reverberates all throughout scripture. We won't go into it right now, but you should watch for that as we continue on in this series.
[00:11:46] But the fact is that Jesus isn't indifferent, but he's aligned. He moves not from panic, but from this rooted love in wanting the Father's timing.
[00:11:56] He has faith that God will lead him into the right timing. And so then Mary responds after this request and prayer with a really quiet, trusting phrase as she communicates to the servants nearby. Do whatever he tells you.
[00:12:12] And then Jesus steps into this role that no one has quite understood or named yet.
[00:12:19] And so this miracle happens. Then, through ordinary obedience. Stone jars are meant for purification, and water is filled to the brim. And these jars represent this old system, this cleansing and preparation and ritual readiness. And then Jesus transforms them into something miraculous.
[00:12:37] And somewhere between the filling and the pouring, the water becomes wine.
[00:12:43] Not just survival wine, not the low shelf wine, but a celebration wine, the best wine.
[00:12:54] I wonder if there's some clue into this of how we should bring the gospel into the world around us. Maybe the church isn't called to kind of bring the leftovers of our energy and our resource, but instead we're called to provide something miraculous into our community and into our families, into our lives that isn't just the secondary wine, but it's the best kind of thing that we can be a people that can transcend the expectations of the world around us and allow the gospel to be something that has been so needed and wanted and desired.
[00:13:27] It's the best version of the Gospel of Jesus.
[00:13:31] And so, without announcing it, Jesus does what the bridegroom was supposed to do. He provides abundance and preserves joy. And he shields this couple from what would have been certain shame.
[00:13:42] And this is Jesus acting as what we know as the true bridegroom before the title is ever spoken. And in doing so, he restores this dignity. Now, dignity is the weight of being made and loved by God.
[00:13:56] Worth that exists before achievement, beneath failure, and beyond circumstances. And at Cana, dignity is restored without the exposure of the couple.
[00:14:08] And so the master of the banquet says, everyone brings out the best wine first, but you saved the best till now. This isn't a comment on what's happening. It's not why John's using this phrasing. Instead, he's talking about this prophetically. The kingdom of God doesn't peak early and fade. Instead, it deepens and ripens and it endures. It sharpens. And what Jesus begins quietly here will one day be revealed completely and fully. And Cana is not the whole story. It's the first sign of where history is headed.
[00:14:38] And then John chapter two goes on. Now, John pairs this story of the wedding at Cana with a Story that actually happens all the way at the end of the scripture narrative. So this is where John gets really, really chronologically wacky. He jumps all the way into Jesus walking into the temple and cleansing it. And so John, chapter two, it says in verse 13, it was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration. So Jesus went to Jerusalem. In the temple area, he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices. And he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. And Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the temple. And he drove out the sheep and cattle. He scattered the money, changers, coins over the floor and turned over their tables. And then going over to the people who sold doves, he told them, get these things out of here. Stop turning my father's house into a marketplace place. And then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the scriptures. Passion for God's house will consume me. But the Jewish leaders demanded, what are you doing?
[00:15:35] If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it. All right. Jesus replied, destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up. What? They exclaim, it's taken 46 years to build this temple, and you can rebuild it in three days. But when Jesus said this temple, he meant his own body. And after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this. And they believed both the scriptures and what Jesus had said.
[00:16:01] And so immediately, John moves from this wedding to the temple.
[00:16:07] So we're kind of thrust into, like, the noise and the commerce. And then what is exploitation and religion that's turned transactional?
[00:16:14] Jesus overturns tables not to destroy worship, but to confront what blocks access to God and. And strips dignity away. And same Jesus, same chapter. Let's be reminded, at Cana, Jesus fills emptiness. And at the temple, Jesus is now removing obstruction. And then he says something shocking. Destroy this temple, and I'll raise it in three days.
[00:16:34] John tells us plainly that he's speaking of his body.
[00:16:40] And so we have to know through both of these stories, it's important that Jesus is the bringer of peace.
[00:16:46] But it's important to note that he's not the preserver of false peace.
[00:16:52] Now, Pastor Lindsay talked about this a couple weeks ago where she talked about the difference between peacekeeping and peacemaking. Right. And a lot of times, I think about peace as calm and quiet, everyone getting along, nothing being disturbed. I like that kind of peace. The older I get, the more I like quiet rooms. Anybody else?
[00:17:09] My son's in fifth grade. He's been playing basketball and he's part of that, like where you go to Redmond and you just spend all your time driving around Redmond.
[00:17:17] That's how basketball works in fifth grade in north, south, east, and west. And you just go all around all day long. Last night, he started a game at 8:30. My word, bedtime.
[00:17:32] And what happens at these games, and this happened a lot in hockey, too, and my son played hockey, is that there's always these groups of. Of athletes who are waiting to play or they just got done playing, and they have their equipment with them, and they insist on making as much noise as humanly possible around the adults who are nearby.
[00:17:49] Look, I'm just trying to find a spot in this chair that is completely uncomfortable and probably broken. And I'm just standing in the middle of ten fifth graders going, pa, pa, pa, pa, Pa, pa, pa, pa, PA, pa, pa, pa,pa, pa, pa, pa.
[00:18:02] They shut it. Stop it.
[00:18:07] You know, hockey, it was.
[00:18:11] Go anywhere else.
[00:18:14] You're touching my feet, and I just. I can't.
[00:18:20] I can't anymore.
[00:18:24] I think my kids have learned also that, like, dad's a really fun guy until you, like, touch his face. You know, sometimes this just happens where things will be going by my face and my daughter will just take her finger and she's just doing this. And I used to think it was like, oh, cute. She's like, trying to. Now I think she's trying to irritate me.
[00:18:44] And I do. I like calm, and I like quiet. This is peaceful to me. It's just silent. Just be silent.
[00:18:51] My kids want to listen to music so loud in the car. And praise God for those built into the steering wheel volume controls.
[00:18:57] They go, oh, I'll turn it up to 19. Oh, cool. That's great.
[00:19:01] But of course, that's not peace, right? Scripture tells us that peace, meaning shalom, is not about keeping things smooth. It's about things being made whole.
[00:19:11] So shalom means right relationship, restored dignity, justice in place, and access to God.
[00:19:17] That's real peace.
[00:19:20] And sometimes the things that look peaceful are actually blocking the things that are actually peaceful.
[00:19:26] And so this temple was peaceful for some, like, make no mistake, it seemed peaceful. The temple was orderly and functional. It was predictable. There was no riots, no chaos, and business as usual. People were making money and the wheels were turning.
[00:19:40] But that peace for those who were participating in temple came at a deep cost.
[00:19:47] The poor being exploited, access to God being taken away and mediated by money and worship had become transactional. So what's happening in this case is that this temple is this place of worship for people to go and make ritual sacrifices so they can come and worship God. And what had happened for a lot of pilgrims who are coming, who are poor, they would make their way to the temple and to make their sacrifices. And then all of a sudden, these prices and these rates for these animals that they needed in order to perform the rituals had skyrocketed. And now all of a sudden, you have basically only wealthy people who are able to perform the rituals and poor people who are unable to do so.
[00:20:23] And so when Jesus disrupts the temple, he's not breaking peace, he's exposing the lie that peace actually exists in this room in the first place.
[00:20:33] Quiet doesn't mean peace in this temple.
[00:20:36] And so Jesus doesn't disrupt peace. He disrupts whatever's pretending to be peace while it's actually denying life.
[00:20:43] It must be understood and thought of and wondered about and challenged constantly. Especially what we do here at Westside Our Are we deeply interested in peace in the form of calm and quiet and predictability, or are we interested in the peace that brings wholeness to the world around us?
[00:21:00] One of the things that we must consider, and we've talked about this a little bit, and I really want to stop talking about it over the next little while, is that this church is growing, our community is growing. And I got news for some of you, maybe have never been a part of a growing church before, is that often as a church grows, the people that you are uncomfortable with begin to show up in the middle of that growth process.
[00:21:21] Now, you've got a couple of options.
[00:21:24] You can understand that God is bringing them into this place, in this community, in this position, just like you, because there's a gospel being preached and understood and taught here that is important and must continue to go out and make space for everybody in this community. Or you can freak out because all of a sudden the volume level or the sounds or the understanding of how they're approaching scripture exactly like you are. That can completely throw you off and out and make you decide that you want to be a part of a different community. Growth will create this breadth of gospel going into all the world, and it will only remain quiet if we are doing something that is actually hindering the real peace of wholeness that God is trying to bring into our city and our community.
[00:22:03] I want you to know that my decision, our decision as leadership, is to not make this a quiet and curated place, but instead to make it a place that offers real peace and wholeness to our city.
[00:22:15] And so this is where John chapter Two helps us immensely at the wedding, right? People are vulnerable, joy is fragile, and failure would bring shame. And I want to be clear that this isn't about poor people and rich people, okay?
[00:22:26] The odds are really high that this couple that is referenced at the wedding of Cana is a wealthy couple.
[00:22:34] So it's not about that. It's not about separating out the rich from the poor. And then this is just about. This is about abundance and accessibility for every single soul on the human planet.
[00:22:45] And so Jesus acts quietly, proactively, in the case of the wedding, without exposure. And then at the temple, when power is entrenched and dignity is being stripped systematically and harm is normalized, Jesus acts publicly, forcefully, and without apology.
[00:23:00] Same Jesus, a different posture, but it accomplishes the same purpose.
[00:23:06] Peace for vulnerable people looks like gentleness, and peace for the oppressed sometimes looks like disruption.
[00:23:13] And so Jesus anger is not some kind of loss of control, but it's moral clarity.
[00:23:21] Now, we got to be careful here, because I believe that John is careful here.
[00:23:25] Jesus doesn't explode, and he doesn't lash out randomly, and he doesn't harm people. This is not the one story that we see from Jesus where all of a sudden we have an excuse to participate in all the violence that we've always wanted to participate in because it's. It's some kind of act of holiness. But he targets table systems and structures. It's not a reactive kind of anger. It's focused and intentional resistance to dehumanization.
[00:23:52] Jesus anger in the temple is not the opposite of love. It's refusing to cooperate with harm.
[00:23:58] Because what we understand from the people at the temple and how they begin to function is that they are truly, in the most pure sense of its form, taking the Lord's name in vain.
[00:24:08] Now, when I was growing up, my understanding of taking the Lord's name in vain was don't say oh, my God.
[00:24:14] And if you say it, it better be in a prayer context.
[00:24:17] Okay, Anyone, any of you ever did this as a kid? Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
[00:24:23] I was looking up when I said it, you know? And by the way, welcome to teach your kid not to say that. We teach our kids not to say that, all that kind of stuff. That's great. You want to know the real version? The real thing? When Scripture is talking about taking the Lord's name in vain, it's talking about using some kind of a theology or an understanding of God to actually harm and manipulate and to dehumanize people. But give yourself justification to do it along the way.
[00:24:50] But the Lord told me, right? This is what slave owners use. The time of slavery in the United States. They use scripture, they use God. They use this phrasing all the time. But God has made you subservient to me. This is taking the Lord's name in vain, using the name of God for your own destructive and selfish purposes. And that's what the temple has become. In this case, God is allowing us to do this. We're selling this, we're making money, because this is the way that God is calling us to do it. And now these people who are simply coming, trying to worship are now excluded from the process and the opportunity from being able to do so. This is taking the Lord's name in vain. This is the bastardization of the gospel. This is where followers of Jesus should not be participating in these activities, but instead experiencing the deepest grief because Jesus looks different than that.
[00:25:41] Now, if you only have the temple scene, you might misunderstand Jesus.
[00:25:46] But John wants us to read this forward, right? The same Jesus who overturns tables and finds himself full of this righteous anger is the same Jesus that absorbs violence without returning. It's the same one who refuses to call down angels when he's having a conversation with Pontius Pilate near his death.
[00:26:02] Pilate says, why don't you do something about this? And Jesus, in the most baller conversation with a Roman ruler, says, if I wanted to, I would.
[00:26:16] But that's not how this is going to go.
[00:26:20] Because simply responding with this incredible amount and overwhelming violence is not the thing that actually saves humanity. And, and you guys, we've fallen for it ever since Cain and Abel. We've fallen for this narrative of we can just be violent here. If we can just kill right here. If we can just do this thing right here, then finally it'll all be saved and we'll finally have this peace. And so Jesus refuses to give into that understanding and that narrative. Instead, he refuses to call down angels. He makes peace instead by giving himself for all of humanity.
[00:26:54] And that tells us something crucial, that Jesus disrupts systems. But he's not here to dehumanize people.
[00:27:01] He's not here to dehumanize the woman in John chapter 8 who is caught in adultery and thrown in front of a group of people who are ready to kill her and stone her. And their argument is, she's breaking the law.
[00:27:15] And you know what? They're right. She is.
[00:27:18] And according to the law, she should have been stoned to death.
[00:27:21] And Jesus steps in and he says, not today.
[00:27:27] And then late in the story, Peter, a zealous disciple, takes a sword and he cuts off the ear of a Roman centurion, their oppressor. And Jesus says, no, stop.
[00:27:40] That's not it.
[00:27:44] And he heals the earth.
[00:27:46] He's not dehumanizing, and he's not dehumanizing the poor. He's not dehumanizing the rich. He's not dehumanizing the Romans, he's not dehumanizing the Jews. That's a line that he never chooses to cross. But Jesus doesn't flip tables because he's angry. He flips tables because people matter. And the religious people with power have forgotten that.
[00:28:05] May we be a people with resource and opportunity that would never forget. The people matter.
[00:28:17] And so some of us, right here in this moment, some of you in the room today, you are feeling this need for that Jesus of Cana, that, that story of Cana, who quietly feels, fills what has run dry. Some of you walk into the room today feeling completely worn out, like there's no resource left. And now shame is entered into the picture because you don't know how you're going to go into the next day, how you're going to find the money for the next thing. You have run out of prop and you feel like you are the irresponsible parent or friend. You've run out and now shame has entered into the picture. And some of us need this Jesus of the temple where we can be a people that disrupt what looks like peaceful places and actually bring peace into those places. Or we need to be disrupted people where Jesus walks into the room that we sit in and teaches us something new and disrupts what simply can't stay.
[00:29:10] Both of these things, the wedding at Cana and the cleansing of the temple are acts of peace and acts of love. And both of them restore dignity to humanity.
[00:29:22] I need you to understand that Jesus brings peace not by keeping everything calm, but by refusing to let anything that continues to rob people of life and dignity and access to God.
[00:29:32] John is showing us where God now dwells and where this story ends.
[00:29:37] And John places a wedding in a temple back to back because he's lived long enough to know that temples fall and systems fail and empires exile prophets.
[00:29:49] And he writes to this church centered around Ephesus, asking this burning question, where do we meet God now? And John's answer is in Jesus.
[00:30:01] Now. It's so interesting because Jesus is called a lot of things, right? He's called a king, King Jesus.
[00:30:08] And this king goes to this wedding.
[00:30:12] And he makes wine.
[00:30:15] Not his job, but he's a new king.
[00:30:23] Jesus is a rabbi, he's a teacher, and yet he's disrupting this temple. And he doesn't sit at this wedding teaching and philosophizing from the corner. Instead, he's an active participant in this ordinary joy and creating an abundance for people.
[00:30:41] Jesus is the high priest, and yet he goes into the high priests are profiting and making money off of this way of going about the temple, and he overturns the whole system.
[00:30:52] Because Jesus is a new kind of king, a new rabbi, a new teacher, a new high priest, and he's the new temple.
[00:31:01] Jesus is the faithful bridegroom, the one who hasn't forgotten and the one who will bring abundance.
[00:31:07] Jesus is the one who begins his work by saving a wedding and finally ends history by hosting a wedding that we all belong in.
[00:31:17] And John will later see this vision recorded in Revelation. The wedding of the lamb and the bride made ready, and a joy that never runs out. And he will wipe every tear from our eye.
[00:31:28] And what begins quietly in John 2 ends cosmically in Revelation.
[00:31:34] The bridegroom who once provided wine in secret will one day welcome his people in glory.
[00:31:42] So what I want you to take away from this today, more than anything, is that this is an abundant life that Jesus walks us into.
[00:31:53] At the wedding, there's more resource than you could possibly imagine. He keeps it coming. And at the temple, he broadens the spectrum of who is welcome into the temple to go ahead and to worship. He creates abundance. There's more. There's more room. There's more space. There's more wine. There's more celebration. There's more room for pain and for grief and for suffering and for victory than any of us could possibly imagine. There's room in this place for it, and that room will never run out.
[00:32:24] And so I want to ask you today, has your joy quietly run out or the place. Are you at a place where something needs to be overturned? I want to encourage you to bring these things to Jesus, who is the author and the perfecter of our faith, creating abundance for all of us.
