Here is the first part of the notes I preached from, lightly edited:
This story ends with the idea “Jesus showing his glory” It’s the goal of the story and the goal of this message!
I want us today to catch just a glimpse of the glory of Jesus. If we can lift our eyes from the mundane lives we live and see his glory, just for a moment, this morning, our lives will never be the same again. This could be a life-transforming moment for each of us.
When Bible talks of it comes in different forms… essentially only GOD has glory (tho the word is used of the glory of the kingdoms of earth and the glory of Solomon and the plants, and also includes the response to that glory ie praise.)
Ultimately, glory is the manifestation of God’s person. When glory is there, something happens whether you perceive it or not.
Not always the high dramatics, can be calm but powerful. But God’s glory can also be absent though his omnipresence never is. So for example when the ark was captured a child was named “icabod” which meant “the glory has departed”
GLORY is most seen in person of Jesus. Wherever he went they said “we beheld his glory full of grace ” (From John 1) “No one has seen God but Jesus makes him known” could have said manifests his glory! The word here is “exegetes” him (ie explains and demonstrates or paints a picture as you do in a sermon)
Jesus was always the one to show God’s glory. Who was it that appeared to God’s people in the OT was it God the Father? NO it was God the son because you cannot see the father as a fallen human and live, as John tells us. Talking about Jesus, John 12:41 tells us “Isaiah said these things because the saw his glory and uspoke of him.” The most dramatic manifestation of God in the OT is actually a description of Jesus. Isaish was talking about HIM!
Jesus “showed his glory” and his disciples believed, and towards the end of his gospel John tells us the reason why he wrote a series of signs culminating in Jesus death and resurrection, the greatest sign of all: John: written “so that you may believe. and have life.” (20:30) John 10:10 tells us that thus is meant to be “life to the full” we can experience that right now!
When you see the glory you WILL believe! And your LIFE will be transformed. SHOW US THE GLORY LORD
“Nothing in the universe is more valuable than the glory of God.” Piper, What Jesus Demands From the World p 351
- Nature shows God’s glory
- But Jesus shows it better.
- And his glory is shown today through the church!
Johns Gospel tells us the GLORY IS HERE and it is STILL HERE TODAY.
We want the glory. Why don’t christians talk much these days about the GLORY? We want to feel the glory. We want to see the effects of the glory. We want to SMELL the glory.
Man got on a train to go visit a revival “you will know all right”
The truth is that Jesus glory is right here. If you come here each week, maybe you feel like this is like an island of glory in a difficult week. If Jesus is in our lives there will be glory what does it look like? Is it always that glorious? Perhaps not, well not in my life anyway. But this story tells us 3 things about glory that I want us to focus on:
1. Glory hidden
– mild he laid his glory by
– maker of the universe at that most human of events a wedding and no one knew who he was there except Mary and perhaps his disciples just beginning to.
– often used to make the point that God invented marriage and honors and values it, but to me this shows the very humaness of Jesus. Quietly enjoying a party at which he is not the center of attention!
As he says to Mary my time has not yet come. God OFTEN hides his glory.
There is alway the hidden glory when it is hidden it is still working. Do not despise the fact that you are not seeing the dramatics. He is there the very present help in time of need
NB even this miracle is not done on a public stage as we would expect but in a private event…a wedding. Thus it is hidden. Every display of God’s glory on earth has this element to it. Even the most powerful manifestation of Jesus glory has this hidden nature to it.
Every person who is ever miraculously healed will also one day die. We live in that tension as Christians today. Times when we long for more of his glory to be revealed.
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