In this part of the sermon, I was focused on the third aspect of what happened when Jesus’ glory was revealed. There was
…. A POWER
With the command of Jesus going forth there comes a power.
As they obeyed the wine came. Power from God
To some of us as we hear “stop sinning” the power of the gospel is here and you will find within yourself the power to stop. Paul says it “Let him who steals, steal no more” STOP IT. Do what he says. Some of you say but I cant stop. I would ask you, are you doing it now? No? You aren’t committing that sin in this room? Then you CAN stop, and in Jesus name I say, receive the power of God, receive the liberating glory of God and just STOP! Go on stopping! Just don’t do it for the rest of today. Then don’t do it for the rest of tomorrow!
What can we learn?
We must do what we can do and Trust in Jesus to do the rest. You can fill the pot with water but you cant make wine. You can tell the gospel to someone but you cant make them a christian. You can lay hands on the sick and pray but you cant heal them.
And if you are not a Christian today, dare I say it you can’t actually make yourself one. But you can keep coming back to hear God’s word. You can pray “God show yourself real to me” You can even pray “show me if this is true” and then suddenly within your heart, and for some of you it is happening right now you will find yourself thinking “ITs real”
I remember guy who came to a debate on the resurrection I ran at school, I was talking about why Christians believe JEsus raised from the dead. It felt like I was getting nowhere as the non christians there had all kinds of arguments, which I answered as best I could but the christians just sat there silently watching! This guy at the back was not a christian but found himself thinking “thats strange, I find myself agreeing with him, but surely I should be agreeing with the others” he only had a couple of months before God got him!
The truth is many people today are wondering why they churches are not growing, why their friends are not becoming Christians. We can go on all kinds of courses to learn how to be good at putting water into pots. It has it’s place. But we need the WINE!
2 Corinthians 4:7 Paul describes himself as a jar of clay with glory inside: “We have this treasure [ Which he earlier says is the gospel of the glory of Christ] in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”
THE WONDERFUIL TRUTH IS THAT Glory is both hidden and revealed in us!
We see in this miracle what kind of glory Jesus has: not terribly religious! What would organised religion have made of a man of God who’s first miracle was making wine? What would they think today?
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