Morning, brothers and sisters.
Just to read a couple of verses to begin with. Our theme for the Gospel of John is found in John 20:30-31:
And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book;
but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that believing you may have life in His name.
Then I want to turn to the Gospel of Luke for just a couple of verses, Luke 2, starting with verse 42:
And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast.
And when they had finished the days, as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem.
And then, skipping down to verse 46:
Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.
And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.
So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.”
And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”
Let’s pray.
Lord, we do thank You. As we have been rejoicing and praising You this morning, You have restored us to Yourself. Because You have restored us, we come before You, and we would sit before You and ask that You would open up Your Word to us in such a way that we could see You and believe in You.
Lord, only You can open our eyes; only You can give revelation. So I just lift up any feeble attempts we have to do this or that, to make You known, and ask that You would take Your Word by Your Spirit and enlighten us. Show us the Lord Jesus Christ in His glory. Manifest Him to us this morning, that we might put our faith in Him. We ask this in Christ’s name. Amen.
I’ve been going through the Gospel of John, and we’ve taken three times to get through chapter 1. I thank you for your patience and grace toward me in doing that. I figured that by the time of the next presidential election, I’ll finish the Gospel of John, and we’ll all have been better for it. Okay?
This morning, we’re beginning, actually, Jesus’ ministry—our Lord’s ministry. We have seen Him from the heavenlies. We have seen that He is the One who is God and became man. We have also seen that He had a witness, and the witness to Him was John the Baptist. We looked at those before.
Then we also looked at the calling of His disciples, or the introducing of Himself to these disciples who are now following Him. From this point on, we see Jesus marching toward His purpose. Everything else is to show us that the point is Him—who He is and what that means for us.
So from this point on, we will be taken up with the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let’s go ahead and read this first part of John 2, and then we’ll talk about it. We will read the first twelve verses.
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.
And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”
Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”
Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.
Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.
And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it.
When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from—but the servants who had drawn the water knew—the master of the feast called the bridegroom.
And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now.”
This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.
After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples; and they did not stay there many days.
Now, in looking at this, I do not know how you go about studying your Bible, but when I study my Bible, I read it first and I have questions. I think that is a good way to go about reading your Bible. Look at it and say, “Well, why are these things written here?”
There are a few questions that I have, but there is one big point I do want to make. It says in verse 11, “This is the beginning of signs.” This is the beginning of signs, and we need to understand what a sign is.
Now, to us, signs can mean different things. A stop sign tells you what to do: you are supposed to stop. This is not that type of sign. This is not a sign that tells you what to do; this is a sign that tells you what something is, or who someone is.
If you went to Carytown, you know they have really interesting shops in Carytown. Sometimes you can see these things and have no idea what they are, but there will be a sign that says, “This is what it is.” We are talking about a sign that draws attention to something beyond just the act here.
We are not just looking at the sign that water was turned to wine. What does it mean that water was turned to wine? What is this about? What are they trying to really draw our attention to? What is this sign really trying to get us to see?
We will look at this sign, and hopefully at other things in this Scripture that we have read here. I ask, “What is going on here? Where is this? Who is there? What is going on in this whole place?”
We find that Jesus is in a city called Cana, and He is there for a wedding. We find out that His mother is there, and we find out that His disciples are there. We also find out that He has been invited to the wedding.
Why is He there? Because He was invited. He was not a wedding crasher, all right? He came because He was invited.
You may think, “Well, what does that mean?” To me, it means this: when you invite the Lord somewhere, He comes. He does not put you off. He does not say, “Well, you know, I’m a spiritual man. I can’t be at a wedding. I’ve got to go to the synagogue.”
It says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. I think this is a wonderful picture of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us. He does not only dwell in the synagogue; He dwells in the everyday happenings of life.
He is invited, and we should invite Him into the everyday happenings of life. We should not be saying that the only time we are interested in the Lord is when we go to a meeting. We should invite Him into every part of our life.
Here, these people invited Him to the wedding. I do not know if He knew these people or not, but I do know His mother was there. His mother must have been there in some kind of capacity where she knew that something was wrong. She knew the wine had run out, so maybe she was there because she was helping them out. Maybe the family knew her.
That is all we know. His mother was there in a way that she knew what was going on behind the scenes. There was probably a lot of franticness going on behind the scenes: “We are out of wine. What are we going to do?”
Then His disciples were there. We know that Nathanael was from Cana, so maybe he knew the couple there, or maybe they just invited Him and said, “Jesus, come and bring Your friends with You.”
We know this was a wedding feast, and a wedding feast was not like a wedding today. We go to the wedding, then we go to the reception, which lasts a couple of hours, and then we go home.
A wedding feast in those days could last two, three, or five days, depending on how rich the family was. It was a time of feasting. It was a time of great joy. It could also be a time of great embarrassment if things did not work out right. You can imagine the consternation of Mary.
I have always wondered about the way Jesus talked with His mother during this time. I want you to notice that Mary did not really ask Him to do anything. She might have been suggesting something in what she said, but all she said was, “There is no wine.”
After He spoke to her, she did not talk to Him again and say, “Well, are You going to do something?” She went out and talked to the servants. It seems that, knowing her son—mother’s intuition—she knew He would do something.
But if we look at Jesus’ answer to her, it was not because of what she said. I think these are important things to think about. What He said back to her is not so much to show us what He thinks of Mary as to show us what the Lord sees about Himself during this time.
He says, “Woman, what have I to do with you?” I think that is what some versions say. Mine says, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?” But that term woman is not a term of scorn, like, “I am not even going to use your name or call you Mom—woman.” It is still a term of endearment. It is still a term of gentleness.
He is not rebuking her in some way, but I think He is drawing her attention and saying, “You know something? We have to understand from this point on that it is no longer that I am your son; I must be about My Father’s business.”
Now, remember, this is something that Mary kept in her heart from the time He was twelve years old: “I must be about My Father’s business.” I do not know if she really understood what it meant for Him to be about His Father’s business. I do not think we will ever know until we meet her in glory.
But the thing is, Jesus did know. Jesus also knew that His Father’s business was not predicated on human need, so to speak. These people were running out of wine, but that was not necessarily the Father’s business.
We might hurt for that person. We might sympathize with that person. But that does not mean automatically that it has anything to do with me, or that it has anything to do with the Father’s business.
Here, I think the Lord Jesus is drawing a line, saying, “Mother, you need to understand that from this time forward, I must be about My Father’s business.”
From this time forth, if you read the other Gospels, there are times when Mary comes and they say, “Your mother and Your brothers and Your sisters are waiting outside.” Remember, He does not say, “Oh, bring them forward. Make some room for them.” He says, “Who are My mother and brother and sisters? These that do the will of God.”
He was not dissing them, but He was saying, “I must be about My Father’s business.” Even when they were saying, “He is beside Himself. He has got to stop,” did it stop Him? No, because He had to be about His Father’s business.
This is one of the swords that pierced Mary’s heart. Remember when it was prophesied that a sword would pierce her heart? This is one of them. There is a separation there—not to say that He had no affection for His mother anymore—but He was true to what He preached.
If you love father and mother, children, or wife more than Me, you are not worthy of Me. It is the same way: “I must be about My Father’s business.” That is the priority. That is what I am all about. That is the purpose of My life.
That does not mean you do not have affection for others, but it means that the priority, the number one driving force, is My Father’s business. Jesus made this clear during this time because, from this point in the Gospel of John, the next time we see Mary, basically, is at the cross.
Isn’t it interesting that He uses the same word: “Woman, behold your son”? Same type of word. So it is not some derogatory thing.
Now, let’s look at the sign. When we look at the sign that Jesus is doing here—the first sign—it took place at a wedding. A lot of people will say, “Well, that shows He sanctions weddings and the joining of people together.” But let’s look at the sign itself.
It says He manifested His glory. If we go back to John 1, we see the manifestation of the glory. It says that through Moses we get the law, but grace and truth come through Jesus Christ. That is the manifestation of His glory.
This is not a new glory. We need to look at it in juxtaposition with Moses bringing the law and grace and truth coming through Jesus Christ, in order to get the full meaning of the sign.
It is not a new glory, but it is a glory that had been hidden. It is a fuller glory that is going to be manifested—a fuller glory than that which had already been manifested.
What had been manifested is shown in the sign. When I look at the miracle, I ask, “Why does He make a big deal about these jars being jars of purification? Why can’t He just say they are pitchers?” Because they are pictures for a purpose. They are pictures expressly for purification.
I think that ties us in with the idea that Moses brought the law. Here we had good Jews. They were ritually clean. At the wedding, they were making sure that everybody would be ritually clean, and so they had these jars.
Before the water turns to wine, we need to understand this: when we think of Jesus Christ and say His glory is grace and truth, we need to understand that grace does not negate the law, and grace does not negate judgment.
Grace does not just say, “Oh, okay, I’ll just let it slide.” That is not grace. That is some man-made idea of saying, “Yeah, you know, God forgives without cost.” No, that is not the way it is.
Grace does not negate the law and judgment; it fulfills them. Do you remember when Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7? After He gave the Beatitudes, all the blessings, He said this in verse 17:
I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets.
I have not come to do away with them.
I came to fulfill them.
What is He really saying? He is saying there has to be judgment. There has to be law, because without that you cannot see the grace that is going to be bestowed on you.
How did He fulfill the law? We know that He fulfilled the law by dying on the cross. The judgment of the law is death, and He suffered that death for all humanity.
Therefore, grace comes to us in a severe way. We need to understand that. Even as we were at the table this morning, we were talking about this restoring. In 1 Peter, that restoring was not done without cost. It was severe.
It is a severe way that grace comes to us, and we need to be aware of that because God is holy and God is just. He must judge, and that He did. He poured out everything on His Son.
Now, I usually do not get water here, and I got it because I asked for it this time. I am probably not going to drink it, but I wanted to make a point.
Michael, where is Berman? Did you fill this up? How come you did not fill it all the way up?
You notice this is not filled all the way up. There is still something left at the top. You did a good job, Michael. No ice, though, huh?
When He said, “Fill the pots with water,” how full did they fill them? They filled them to the brim. What does that mean? To the top. In other words, there was no room left.
This would be filled all the way to the top here. Michael, you are right: if you had walked with it, you would have spilled it all over the place. I will have a drink.
When we think about this purification, these jars were filled to the brim. What does that mean to us? This is what it means: it speaks not only of the completeness of the judgment, but it also speaks of the completeness of the purification that comes through that judgment.
In other words, there was nothing left out. The whole purification was complete.
I think it is funny—I like watching cartoons. When I was a kid, I used to watch cartoons of them dipping things in paint or something like that. Anytime you dip something and you are holding it by the heel—remember the story of Achilles? They dipped him everywhere but where? His heel.
Because they held his heel, his heel was vulnerable. In other words, he was not covered all the way. That is not the case with us. The purification is complete.
This is something we have to grab onto by faith: that purification that was done, that judgment on our behalf, is complete, and it completely purges.
Not only was the judgment complete—the wrath, the total wrath—but you are fully purged. You are fully taken care of. It is not like, “Oh Lord, I know what You did is good for everything, but I do not think it counts for this.” No. Everything has been purged. Everything. The jars were filled to the brim.
That is why it says in Hebrews 1:3, “When He had purged our sins, He sat down.” Why did He sit down? Because it was complete. Everything was done.
Out of this act of judgment and out of this act of purification comes a transformation. They put that ladle into the water, and they took it to the chief guy. What had happened? It had transformed. It had transformed into wine.
The sign that manifested His glory was not that these jars had been filled. That was not the sign. Anybody could have filled those jars. The sign was that, once they had been filled to the brim, drawing out of what had been done came transformation.
The Lord did not just die; He also rose from the dead. He came out in a new life—a life for us that is no longer bound by sin. That is the sign.
We now have a transformed life given to us, so that we no longer have to be bound to sin. The water was changed in its very constitution. It was no longer water; it was wine. Its very makeup, its very nature, was changed.
If you remember, not so long ago we talked about the idea, or the doctrine, of Christ in us. That is what we are talking about. We have this new nature, this nature of Christ in us, that is totally different from our own nature.
Our old nature cannot abide by anything that God would want. The new nature does the will of God.
Was the water changed by judgment? No. The water was not changed by judgment. Judgment happened, but the water was changed by the power of God.
That is what we need to understand. It was the power of God. It is the same thing for us. We seek to change our lives, and we seek by our might and main to do these things. It is not changed that way. It is changed by the power of God.
I think this is illustrated in this way. There were three different wines at this wedding feast. The man says, “Every man at the beginning sets out good wine, and then when the guests have well drunk, the inferior.”
I think they had already had two wines, because that is why they had run out. The good wine had already been there. They had just gone through the inferior, and now it had run out.
What do these things all mean? I think the good wine that was set out first is the law. I think that is implicit in this sign. Does not Romans 7 say that the law is good? “I agree with the law; the law is good.” That is the good wine.
Now, I am not saying I am a connoisseur of wine. I do not go around swishing it in my mouth and spitting it out. But I have tasted some wines. There are some wines I like and some wines I do not like. I do not like dry wine.
Those of you who do must have some weird type of palate. Dry wine just disappears when it touches your tongue. That is why it is called dry, I guess. It just does not taste like I would think. You smell it and it smells really good, but you taste it and all of a sudden, oh.
I think that is kind of like the law. You look at the wine and say, “It is good,” just like Paul in Romans 7: it is good. Then you taste it—ooh. You just trust other people saying that is good wine.
Then there is the bad wine, or the inferior wine. The inferior wine is any form of legalism—any form of legalism that replaces union with Christ or replaces relationship with Christ as a way to please God. That is the inferior wine.
The interesting thing about the inferior wine is that it ran out. Yes, the good wine ran out too, because the good wine looks to something else; it is supposed to. But the inferior wine just cannot do anything.
It does not even taste as good. Not only that, it just shows us how short we are. Anytime we try to say, “I can do it. I can be what God wants me to be,” we are going to come up short.
But the third one is the best one. It is the best. What do we mean by the best? It is Him. It is the life of Christ. It is Him who is in us. That is the best wine. That is the wine we have been waiting for. That is the wine that satisfies.
It is like that old hymn that says:
All my life long I had panted
For a draught from some cool spring,
That I hoped would quench the burning
Of the thirst I felt within.
That is how you feel when the second wine runs out. You could look at that and say, “Well, that is a worldly person.” But no, I want to put it this way: that is a person who is trying to please God. He is trying to find a way to please God, and he says, “I cannot do it. I still have this thirst. I am not quenched.”
Then the chorus goes, “Hallelujah, I have found Him.” Not, “I have found a way to do it. I have found something that pleases Him.” No: “I have found Him.”
Then it goes on to say, “Whom my soul so long has craved.” The craving in our spirits, what we really want, is Him.
That is why I think this miracle took place at a wedding. A wedding is a place of union. It is a place of one being joined to the other, of saying, “This is what makes me complete. I am incomplete without this one.”
Without finding that, I am doomed to walk the earth incomplete. But here the hymn writer says, “I have found Him whom my soul so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longing; by His blood, my soul is saved.”
Do you understand what I am saying? This whole sign is not saying, “Hey, Jesus turned water into wine.” No, it is a picture of something else, saying, “I am the One who can satisfy and change and make you into what you desire.”
The wedding had run out, and it had slipped into almost a place where it would have been very unsuccessful. Can you imagine if it were today’s wedding and the video people came around and said, “Say something to the happy couple”? Do you not hate them?
You could say, “I hope your love never runs out like the wine did at the wedding.” Can you imagine what that would have been like on anniversaries? “Let’s play the wedding feast again.” Always reminded. Always reminded.
Brothers and sisters, when we try to do things on our own, we are always reminded that the wine runs out.
We have to come to the point where we see the Lord coming in and saying, “Fill up the waterpots.” We have to see the waterpots filled. We have to have the water drawn from those pots and find that it transforms us.
It is the transforming work of Jesus Christ in us, not the transforming work of our trying harder. It is the transforming work of Jesus Christ living in us, bringing us back into union with God.
Why was it a wedding? Because God desires union with us. What better place to show that desire to satisfy than in a place where two people are being joined together? It is a picture.
I have often thought, “Well, why? It sounds like His mom was pushing Him to do this, and maybe He is just acting as Mom.” No, I think His Father said, “You know, Son, there will be no lack at Your wedding feast. Everything will be perfect, and everything will be supplied.”
I think that was behind His doing this miracle. Of course, that is just me.
Now, there is a second thing that happens. Let’s read the next section, and then we will be closing with this. I think these two go hand in hand. Starting with verse 13, we will read to verse 22:
Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business.
When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables.
And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!”
Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”
So the Jews answered and said to Him, “What sign do You show to us, since You do these things?”
Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”
But He was speaking of the temple of His body.
Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.
Again, we have the disciples here. One thing about the disciples: what are disciples? They are learners. I do not want to say they are students, because I think some of us look at ourselves as students; we do not look at ourselves as learners. We look at ourselves as seeking a degree, seeking a way out.
A disciple is a learner. These are those who had gathered toward Him to learn of Him.
Remember, in the miracle at Cana, those who were oblivious to the need there had no idea. The sign would mean nothing to them. As a matter of fact, they probably did not even know there was a sign. They were oblivious to it.
But those who were gathered to Him knew it because they saw what had gone on. They were with Him.
Now, He has gone back to the temple again. We read something of Him being in the temple, saying, “I must be about My Father’s business.” When He went there, He saw that there was business going on in the temple, but the business was not His Father’s business.
It had become a tradition. Some people say, “Well, this is done for convenience,” and I am sure it was, because people traveled for miles and miles to get there. They did not have their own flocks and things of that nature.
This was not inside the temple itself, but it was on the court of the Gentiles. What had happened was that they had actually made a big bazaar. You guys know what a bazaar is? That is very bizarre that you do not know what a bazaar is.
A bazaar is a big marketplace, an open marketplace, kind of like a flea market. This bazaar was actually run by some of the priestly families. They had animals there for sacrifice. They had people who would check the animals for you, for a price, to see if they were okay.
They had money changers because you might come from Europe and have a euro, but that is not a temple shekel. “I will change it for you.” Or you have a dollar, and they will change it for you. All these things were going on there.
When Jesus came in, He saw these things going on, and He said, “This is not My Father’s business,” and He drove them out.
Some people say this is cleansing the temple. Some people say this is the second sign. I do not think this is the second sign, but I think the second sign is implied when He says, “Tear down this temple, and I will build it up in three days.”
That was the sign. When He rose from the dead, that was a sign. As a matter of fact, that is one of the only signs He would say He would give when they asked Him, “Give us a sign.”
“An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah.” Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a whale. This is the same sign talked about.
That was the implied sign. But the whole thing is, we have Him cleaning out a temple because what was happening there was not right. It was not what God’s purpose was. This was not God’s business, the way this was being run.
In looking at these things, we can say religion had become business—or, “My business is religion.” Which way do you want to look at it?
Now, if we try to apply this, I did not see any sheep or goats out there. There has been no money changing, although we do have a box for an offering back there. I did not see anybody changing money before they put something in back there.
So how does this relate to me? What does this have to do with me? Let me make this application: this all has to do with worship.
It is interesting to think that the first sign really has to do with relationship—my relationship to Jesus—and the second sign has to do with worship.
But let me say this: without relationship, how deep or how real is worship? Without relationship, sometimes worship just becomes form.
I grew up in a church where everything was form. You said certain prayers. You did certain rituals. Once you did those things, you were free for the week, so to speak. Then you would come back the next week and do the same thing, and you were free for another week. Well, is that worship?
We need to think about this. They were about their own business. “You made My house a house of merchandise.” You can say they were doing this for the convenience of the worshipers. What a noble thought.
But my question, when I read this, was: am I making things convenient so I can be about my own business? Do you understand what I am saying?
In other words, I want to be about my own life. Is there any way I can cut the corners and still be accepted, or still have done my duty, so I can go on with my own business?
I think that is one of the things the Lord has been speaking to me about. I cannot say, “Has He been speaking to you about this?” But to me, I look at it like this: when they had all those animals there, do you know what the real ritual for Passover was?
If you look in Exodus 12:3-5, you were supposed to take the lamb on the tenth day, and you were supposed to have it until the fourteenth day. On the fourteenth day, you were to slay it.
What were you going to do the other three days? That was when you were supposed to observe it and see if it had any defect. Watch it. How do you know if something has a defect or not? You have to watch it.
But am I willing to trust someone else to say, “This is the good thing. Here it is for you,” and let that happen? God did not plan it for that. He said, “You take the lamb. You look at it. You observe it. You take the time. You observe it for faults and defects.”
How do I look at this Lamb? We do not do sacrifices anymore. Well, the Lamb of God is Jesus Christ, right? How do I observe Him?
First of all, I can look for Him in the Word. If I read the Gospel of Matthew, I can look at Him and say, “I find no fault in His character as King.” The Gospel of Matthew looks at Him as King, right?
Reading it, do I find fault in Him as King? Is He unfair? Is He unjust? Does He show mercy without judgment? Is He perfect as King?
Or when I look at the Gospel of Mark, which portrays Him as a servant, is He the good servant? Is He the perfect servant? Is there any fault with Him as a servant?
Or when I look at the Gospel of Luke, do I see any fault in Him as a man—as a man who would become the offering, as the perfect man who would lay down His life? Do I find any fault in Him?
A lot of people who read the Scriptures who are not believers find all sorts of faults in everything. But what about you? Have you looked? Are you looking closely? Are you seeking to see whether there is some fault in Him?
Or what about His being God? Do you see a fault in Him as God?
I am not saying you should read this book, but there was a book called The Shack. I read it before because someone asked me to read it. I did not particularly enjoy it. I thought there were some good things in it.
But one thing that was really interesting was that they brought the man in there, and he was to judge God—to see if there was a fault—because some wrongs had happened in his life, and he was going to judge God for those things.
But the same thing here: can we look through the Gospel of John and see that God is unjust, that God is unrighteous, that God is unholy?
We are asked to look, because it is only by looking and examination for ourselves that we can come to the place of trusting completely in Him. Why would we trust Him if there is fault?
You have to look, because when you look and find no fault, then you find that you can rest. You can rest in who He is as well as in what He has done.
Worship is our testimony of His worth to us. Not His worth to the world, not His worth to the church, but His worth to us individually. That is what worship is. We are saying, “You are worth something to me.”
When we examine Him and find His character perfect, worthy of worship and worthy of trust, then we can express that. We have avenues of expressing that.
Here at the table, many of us were expressing what we found in Him. We are not expressing theology when we come to the table. We are expressing what we found because we have examined the offering and found it to be good.
In our witnessing, when other people ask, “What about this hope in you?” we are expressing the One we have found to be our all—the One we have found who has delivered us, the One we have found worthy to put our trust in.
We are not trying to argue with them theologically about something. We are saying, “I found Someone whom I can trust. I found Someone who was able to deliver me, who was able to strengthen me, who was able to transform me.”
When we gather together, we testify of His worth to us. Even in our own closets, do we express to Him, intimately, where no one else hears: “Oh Lord, this is what I see in You. This is what I have found in You”?
Brothers and sisters, it was so nice to hear new voices. I heard a couple of new voices today. But so much of it, you have worship all wrong.
Worship is not a public sermon. It is just an expression of what you found.
“Hallelujah, I have found Him, whom my soul has craved.” Or it is like that other hymn, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” What is the next line? “Tune my heart to sing Thy grace.”
How does your heart get tuned to sing His grace? It is by seeing that grace for yourself—not only seeing it in the Scriptures, but seeing the Lord play that out in your life.
That is being about His business. Being about His business is examining Him. It is not having someone else say, “Hey, these are the things you need to know about the Lord. These are the things He has done for you,” and you go, “Okay, yeah, okay.”
No, find it for yourself. There is no osmosis here. There is no passing down of a teaching. It is your own experience of the living God, based on what the Scripture has said about Him and based on what He has done in history.
But because He is alive today, He is living to us today.
So when He says, “You have made My house a house of merchandise,” are you about your own business? Do you want to cut the corners and say, “Oh gee whiz, instead of reading my Bible, I will just go to the meeting today and hear what they preach. That will suffice”?
You know what I am saying? “That will suffice. That is enough.”
When you were in love—and some of you still are because you are married—you remember when you first got the love bug, and you first really knew you were in love. Was there ever enough time? Was there ever enough time to be with your beloved?
No. Did you not make time? Did you not cut out stuff in your own life so you could be with that person?
Even now, those of you who have been married for twenty or thirty years, do you not still make time for each other?
Well, it is the same thing. This is what God is saying: “Do you want to be about your business, or would you be about My business?”
My business is the worship I want—the worship that I am due. That is really what Jesus is doing by cleansing the temple. He is coming in and saying, “My Father wants the worship that is due Him, the worship that belongs to Him.”
That is what this sign is about. God is jealous—not for worship in the sense of, “Oh, let’s sing some songs”—but He is jealous for that which comes out of the heart because it has been blessed by Him. That is what He is seeking for. That is what He is after.
Brothers and sisters, our Lord in these signs is just saying, “I want you. I want union with you, and I have provided everything for that union if you would come.”
“I want the worship that is due Me. I want the worship that is Mine. I do not want you to be holding back.”
Maybe the reason you are holding back is because you think you do not have much, and maybe you do not. But if you would start examining and looking at the offering that I presented to you, maybe you would be different.
Maybe you are too caught up with your own business instead of being about Mine.
So, brothers and sisters, let’s consider these things. What is the Lord speaking to us? How does this apply to us?
The Lord is to transform in us this life that says, “I am about myself. I am about myself. That is all I want.”
I had a wonderful little experience this week, in closing. I got a call from one of my daughters, and I will not tell you who it is because I do not want them to find out.
She had come to a place—they are studying a book, and it is kind of social gospel—but whether it be this or that, she came saying, “I want my life to be more than just me having a good time.”
That is a wonderful thing. “I want my life to count for some purpose.” There has to be something.
Her thing was serving others, but you serve others through your relationship with God. That is where you get real service from. But the whole idea of coming to the realization, “I want my life to have purpose”—we were made for a purpose. We were made for God.
Do not think about how we need to serve Him. Just think this: we were made for God. Remember, was it the Westminster Confession? We were made for God—to serve Him and to enjoy Him for eternity.
Let that grace our thoughts this week. Let those be the things that lead us into this week, to think about: this is what we are made for. This is what the Lord wants us for. He wants us.
Let’s pray.
Our Heavenly Father, how we thank You that You are not about rules and regulations or anything, but You are all about us knowing You. This is eternal life: that they would know God and Jesus Christ, whom He sent.
He even prayed, “Oh, that My joy may be in them.” Lord, I can only think that Your joy—the joy You had—was being with Your Father. You wanted us to have that joy too.
Lord, we want to have that joy. We want these very things that You came to give us. Oh Lord, we pray You would open our eyes to them.
As we think about things, instead of thinking about how we have to deal with this and that, Lord, I pray just this: if we have some time this week, show us Yourself.
Help us examine and look for You, and help us to find You. Lord, let that be the thing that takes us to where You want us to go.
Lord, we give ourselves to You in this way. Help us to seek, Lord, we pray. We have so many other things that we seek. Lord, we are missing—we are missing the One that is most important. Help us, we pray, in Christ’s name.