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John chapter 2 from verse 1 through verse 10. We're going to look at a very well-known story about Jesus as we go into the post-Easter season.

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And in the future we're going to look at the works of Jesus Christ, but also later his words.

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And here we have one of the first miracles, in fact the first miracle that Jesus did.

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You'll find it in John chapter 2 verses 1 through 10.

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On the third day a wedding took place at Canaan in Galilee. Jesus's mother was there and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.

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And when the wine was gone Jesus's mother said to him, they have no more wine.

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Woman, why do you involve me? Jesus replied, my hour has not yet come.

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His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. And nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing.

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Each holding from 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water so they filled them to the brim.

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And then he told them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.

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They did so. And the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine.

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And he did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.

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And he called the bridegroom aside and said, everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink.

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But you have saved the best till now.

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What Jesus did here in Canaan of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him.

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Let's pray and ask God to bless the reading of his word.

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Our Heavenly Father, we ask now that you will send the Spirit into our hearts to clarify what Scripture is saying to us.

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To help us to glorify Jesus as we see his glory displayed.

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I make this prayer in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Now, the first part of this year we have focused in on the prophets.

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There is a lot of good information in the prophets we learned about how God judges sin, but also how he holds forth grace to those who repent and turn to him.

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We've also seen some things that have shocked us about how God uses foreign powers to humble his people.

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And we have also seen ultimately how the redemption that the prophets promised all look to Jesus Christ.

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But now as we go to the post-Easter season, I think we need to focus in more on Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Redeemer, our King, our friend.

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And the Gospel accounts show us what a wonderful Savior we have, not like any other human being who ever walked the earth.

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And we look at those Gospel accounts, we see what Jesus faced.

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As we look at those Gospel accounts, we see what he had to endure, and we also find out what Jesus's ministry was like as he walked this world.

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He healed people. He helped people. He reversed the fall so that human beings could live in a way which pleased God but also was good for human beings.

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Now today's passage is a bit unusual. It only appears here in John's Gospel.

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And we see Jesus helping out in a situation which would cause a lot of social embarrassment back then.

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And what we see is that his glory was revealed, or you could put it another way, his greatness was revealed.

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Now today, people like to glorify themselves, or we like to glorify other people.

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Now ladies, this is a good time for you because if you look at the top news stories of people getting glory, let me tell you.

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You got Caitlin Clark. She can play basketball.

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Taylor Swift, she's making some big time bucks.

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And of course, Beyonce, who has now turned country.

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Oh, the media is glorifying these people.

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But we're here to glorify Jesus. And here this morning, what we're going to see is the end of it.

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Christ is glorified in his turning water into wine.

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And there are various ways we can look at this passage.

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But I think the main point that the Holy Spirit is showing us is that Christ shows his glory, his greatness, his grandeur.

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To people. People just like you and I.

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Now, if we look at this passage, I want you to notice first of all that Jesus attends a very, very human event.

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A wedding.

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Now if you look at some of the places where Christ ministered, we may think it's always in a synagogue or the temple.

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But it's not always in the temple, the synagogue, or a worship service.

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Now sometimes Jesus does do his miracles and his mighty works in places like the temple when he cleaned it out.

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But not always do we see Jesus working in what we would consider a religious background.

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We think that that's where ministry should take place, don't it?

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In a church. In a Bible study. In a prayer meeting.

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We might think that's the place where God really, really works.

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Well, it is true. He can work mightily in a worship service, in a Bible study, in a youth group meeting.

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But too often what happens is we start thinking in the terms of these secular, sacred distinctions.

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That you can't have any type of religious experience or understanding outside of a church.

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Well, I want you to look at where this event happens and where Jesus Christ often does his work.

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After the resurrection, how does he minister to Peter who had betrayed him?

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Breakfast. Breakfast on the beach.

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Many times Jesus is going through a roadway and he talks to people.

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He's in a city, a crowded street. He calls people to him.

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He teaches on the side of a hill.

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Or even he ministers to people at a dinner party.

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See, if you look at the Bible, it's not always in a churchy setting that Jesus works.

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Now he can work in these settings. And there, once again, I'm going to tell you,

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there is no doubt that when we look at religious gatherings, they can be very moving.

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I remember in Chicago, going in to the cathedrals, they were quite impressive and quite moving.

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You go to the European cathedrals. There's a reason those buildings are big.

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And they are designed the way they are.

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It is to draw you to the greatness of God. But it doesn't always have to be in a building.

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It can simply be a meal.

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You only need the presence of Jesus.

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And look at what Jesus is doing here. He's at a wedding.

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Throughout history, people have been having weddings.

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You have gone to weddings. You have participated in weddings.

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And here it could be a friend of Mary, a friend of Joseph, but Mary was invited.

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And so was Jesus. Now we don't know why the disciples showed up, but they're there too.

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Think of it this way. This is something that you and I would attend.

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And back then, now this wedding ceremony that we're talking about, this was a one-week event.

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Not like our weddings where you got the supper the night before, the big wedding day, and that's it.

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This went on for a week. And there has got to be a lot of wine and a lot of food to keep people going for a week.

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This is expensive. But where is Jesus?

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He doesn't say, no, no, no, sorry. Can't go to it. Too much fun going on there. No, no, sorry.

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It's too human for me. Jesus is right there.

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Think about it. Jesus Christ is involved in something that is very human.

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He did not abstain from human contact or even human joy.

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Now, he does not reject it. He's in the middle of it.

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In the Bible, it doesn't tell us how to conduct a wedding.

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It says there are weddings, God approves of weddings, but the whole wedding ceremony of the Jews, they came up with.

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Now, why do I tell you this? Why do I hammer this home?

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It's because sometimes we think we have to abstain from everything in the world to be really, really close to God.

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Now, once again, there are certain things you should stay away from, but not everything.

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And there are parts of life that can give us great joy, and joy is not sin.

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Happiness is not sin.

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And to be truly holy does not mean you stay away from everything.

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Think of it this way. If Jesus Christ walked amongst us today,

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would you ever find him in a movie theater?

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Well, I'd say, yeah, you'd find him there. Now, it might depend on the movie.

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I think the Downton Abbey movies, he would be there.

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So yeah, Jesus would be there. Do you think Jesus Christ would ever go to a baseball game or a football game?

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Yeah, I think he would. Do you think Jesus would ever go to a birthday party?

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Yes, he would.

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You often, we come up with this distinction between the secular and the sacred,

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and we have forgotten that all of this world is the Lord's.

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Even what creates joy.

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And this is where we see the glory of Jesus in a wedding.

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When I use that word glory, you may be saying to yourself, what is it?

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It's His greatness. It is His divinity that is shining through.

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It is showing how worthy He is to be worshipped.

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And I want you to think about sports, because that's the way we show glory the most today.

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What did Muhammad Ali say?

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I am what? The greatest.

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Now that only lasted for a few years there, until I think Michael Spinks knocked him out.

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But he thought he was the greatest, and everybody was supposed to sit down and praise Muhammad Ali.

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He's not the greatest. Jesus is the greatest.

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And here we see Jesus showing His greatness.

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We praise our sports stars. We go and look at the Oscars.

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We lift up our local sports heroes, don't we? We say such things, and I wish I was like them.

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You'll buy the jerseys. You'll pay the astronomical amounts to go to those basketball games and to the Super Bowl.

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But Jesus is far greater.

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And we get a glimpse of that here.

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And just as in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ was there, and we see the glory of God at work by bringing down the Egyptians.

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We see the glory of God at work by dividing the Red Sea.

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We see the glory of God at work with the pillar of cloud by day leading His people, and the pillar of fire by night.

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Those are evidences of the glory of God, aren't they?

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But look here at what's taking place and how this passage ends.

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It's a wedding feast, and there is a problem.

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I want you to notice where the tension lies, which is going to bring out the glory of Christ.

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They've run out of wine.

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And Jesus' mother says to him, Jesus, can you do something about this?

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Now, I don't know why Mary asked Jesus to do something about it.

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Maybe she is starting to know that Jesus Christ is not your average son, but she wants him to do something, to save the situation,

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to save the host from having a social faux pas that would affect the family for years to come in their social standing.

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And Jesus says to her, literally, I may add in verse 4, what to me into you?

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Woman, what to me into you?

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Now, we may first think by saying, woman, he's talking down to his mother.

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No, in the Bible, that was a very normal way to talk to your mom on the cross.

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Jesus said, woman, behold your son.

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And what Jesus is telling her essentially is this.

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Mary, it's not my time.

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It is not the hour to show the fullness of my glory, which will occur when I die and when I rise up again.

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Mary, I don't run on your timetable.

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I run on God's timetable.

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I have to do what is pleasing to God.

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Now, after this, Mary, who is slightly rebuked, shows some faith.

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Because what does she tell the servants?

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Do whatever he tells you.

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And Jesus, at that point, says, I'm going to give you a glimpse of my greatness.

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He tells the people there who are waiting on the others, the guests, go and fill up those jars of water which were used for ceremonial cleansing.

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Because the Jews always washed their hands before they attended in a type of banquet.

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And those jars were pretty big.

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Six stone jars, 20 to 30 gallons.

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And what does Jesus do?

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He turns the water into wine.

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Now, some may say it's grape juice.

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It's not grape juice.

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The word there is wine.

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There's a Greek word for grape juice.

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It's not the word that is used here.

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It's wine.

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And I want you to notice it's a lot of wine.

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It's very, very good.

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Because, as the chief of the banquet says, man, you guys usually use the good wine at first.

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And when everybody's drunk, you bring out the lousy stuff.

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But whoa, we're into this wedding feast and this is the good stuff.

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God creates the wine and as verse 11 says, the glory of Christ is shown.

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Because he turned the water into wine.

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He does what God the Father does.

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He can change our creation.

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He can create.

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He reveals his glory by producing a lot of the best wine.

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And what this passage shows us is the glory of God was found in his power and his grace.

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The very glory of God that spoke and the world was created is the same one who has now worked through his only begotten Son,

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who is both divine and human.

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And he makes some wine.

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It is no wonder in the Old Testament when it talks about the coming messianic era,

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it says that wine will flow.

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For example, in the book of Joel, chapter 3, verse 18,

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in that day the mountains will drip with new wine and the hills will flow with milk and all the ravines of Judah will run with water.

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Because God is blessing and here, God blesses his people with good wine.

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Not great juice, not well juice, good wine.

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Now the reason I want to emphasis is of course the power and the glory that Jesus has as the divine Son of God.

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But what I cannot get over with is the place that he does it because it shows us his grace.

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Let's say that Jesus did nothing here.

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What would be the worst that could have happened?

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Alright, the host is embarrassed for a few years.

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But that's it.

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No one's dying.

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No one is starving.

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No one is going without food or water.

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None of that.

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Jesus could have very easily done nothing.

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He could have easily have said, well, you just need to get over it.

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Well, you should have thought ahead and bought more wine.

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But in this situation, which is one of social embarrassment, he shows his glory.

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To help someone from social embarrassment, this should show us sometimes how God shows his glory.

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Yes, sometimes it is the mountaintop experience.

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Sometimes it is when the seas part.

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Sometimes it is when mountains quake.

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But it is also when God's people are embarrassed, when they're weak, and when they're frail.

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That the glory of Jesus breaks through.

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That's how God shows his glory.

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He takes away our embarrassment.

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So this morning as we go into our post Easter season, we need to think about the glory of Jesus.

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But I also want you to connect it with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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And if there's anything that should drive us to worship him and to be thankful to Jesus,

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it's the fact that that glory is shown every time he takes care of our needs.

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We say that we are to glorify God.

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And certainly we should because he is powerful.

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And we can see his rule here and in our lives.

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But what is the next part of our catechism?

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We are to enjoy him forever.

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Is the chief end of man to glorify God and enjoy him forever?

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Does it ever get into our hearts that when Christ does show his glory and will show his glory,

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it will be dealing also with our joy by creating a world in which there is no more social embarrassment.

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And the land will flow with new wine and a creation that will be unmistakably glorious.

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Let's pray.

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Our Heavenly Father as we look into the future, on Sunday morning, help us to see the glory of Jesus Christ

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and help us to see how Jesus shows us that glory so that we will believe but also that we will have joy,

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knowing that we have a Savior who takes care of his people, body and soul, thought, word, and deed.

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Help us, O Lord, to look to you for glory, for grace, for joy.

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I make this prayer in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.