The Dying Party

Welcome to Twin Lakes. My name is René, I'm one of the pastors here and I just got to say if you are visiting this weekend you chose a great weekend to visit here at Twin Lakes Church because this is a history making day in the life of this congregation. You guys stoked about this? I'm so excited. As Mark said after this service we are having the groundbreaking for our new Children's Ministry building and let me just kind of put this into context for you.

Maybe you're just joining us or maybe you need kind of a reminder about a year and a half ago we first started talking about what we call the 2020 vision at our annual meeting. Since then we've been in dozens and dozens of homes for dessert info meetings. Last November commitment weekend men and women and little kids and teenagers all brought in their pledges and now we are having our groundbreaking and what's interesting is we're in the exact middle of this timeline. We started talking about this 18 months ago at the annual meeting 2013 and Lord willing 18 months from now we will be opening the doors on our new Children's Ministry building. Isn't that exciting? I'm so excited about that.

18 months from now and here's what we're doing to celebrate that and listen to emphasize that this is not really about a building this is about people this is about people souls. Here's what we have for you we have like white flags like this available at tables. This is not for you to say I surrender that's not what this is all about. This is for you to write down with the sharpies that are available at the tables to write down the names of people whose lives you hope will be impacted by the ministries in that building.

For example, you might write down the names of your own kids or the names of your own grandkids. To be honest with you, honestly I am writing down just on just words that say future schlep for grandchildren just in faith and in hope that's what I'm writing down. But you might write down the names of some friends and then what we're gonna do if you can't make it to the groundbreaking just leave it at the table. If all of the white flags are filled then use the other side or just write in the margin of one of the white flags that already has a name on it and then we're gonna go over to the groundbreaking and inside the footprint of the building we are going to plant these white flags as a reminder that when we pray for the dedication of this place we are praying for people we're praying for future souls for the chokes me up honestly for future souls and future ministries there.

So please meet us at about 1215 down by the gym that direction and we're gonna pray for that project and we're gonna have a little party. Are you guys ready to party about this? Let me hear you. Are you excited about this? I'm stoked so excited and one more thing this is kind of a news flash literally this just came in. Show of hands how many of you are Giants fans here today? Can I see a show of hands Giants fans? We're not gonna talk about the game last night first of all but that's not even gonna escape my lips I won't even refer to it obliquely.

But here's what can lift your spirits a little bit just got this confirmed our speaker for next Father's Day will be Giants legend Dave Dravecki. I'm so excited about this Dave Dravecki next weekend right here live at Twin Lakes Church and there is so much cool stuff coming up so read your bulletins and get to know all of this exciting thing that's happening. But right now why don't you grab your message notes that look like this. Conversations with Christ is the name of our four week September series we're looking at different stories in the Gospel of John and this morning we're looking at Jesus and the dying party.

I want to tell you one of my favorite stories about Jesus from the Bible today yet it's a story that really you don't hear talked about much in church. I mean people in church might refer to this like really quickly but they don't really go into the details exegetically like people do in a lot of other Bible passages. I kind of have a personal theory about this. I think that's because in the story I'm about to tell you if you really study it there's some details about Jesus and what he did that are kind of almost embarrassing to some church people honestly they're almost sort of some when I tell you some of these details some of you are gonna get a little bit uncomfortable you're gonna think I've gone a little bit too far but it's not me who's gone too far it is Jesus Christ who has gone too far.

I really want to investigate this because in the details in these verses I think you discover the answer to a really important question which is this: what did Jesus come to do? Why was Jesus even really here? To be a teacher or to start a religion or to overthrow Roman oppression or even to be a great moral example? I don't think that's how I would have answered that question and you'll discover the surprising answer in these verses honestly this just might blow your mind.

So let's look at the Gospel of John chapter 2 verses 1 through 11. We're gonna walk through this verse by verse and then I'm gonna make three quick points. It says on the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Now press pause because that one sentence has a lot of really important info. So just to help you picture this story really help you understand what happened here first it says the third day. The third day after what? The third day after what just happened in the Gospel of John which is what we looked at last weekend when the very first disciples started to follow Jesus.

Now all 12 haven't even gotten to him yet there's about five guys now following him and it's just the third day since they started. So it's like they started following him on Wednesday that's day one and then came Thursday and now it's Friday this is the third day. So these five guys who are following him don't really know that much about Jesus yet they don't really know why he's here they don't really know anything about his power and it says there was a wedding. Now in those days a wedding was a way way bigger deal than it is even today. A wedding feast was like a public holiday for the whole town.

A wedding feast was like the Capitola Art and Wine Festival spread out over a week. It was like the Gilroy Garlic Festival without garlic but great wine. It was like the biggest day in the lives of the bride and groom. A wedding feast was the event for which a whole family would be remembered forever in that village. Ancient wedding feasts consequently went on for days for at least a week so this is huge and so what happens in this story is a major disaster and let's see what Jesus does about this.

Now the next thing this verse tells you is that the wedding was in Cana and just so you can kind of picture this story a little bit better there's two places in Galilee where this is likely to have happened. They're about five miles from each other they're both named Cana. One of them is this place called Caffer Cana today and it kind of looks like a California town right here's a postcard of it from about 1925 isn't that interesting you can see that it was basically still unchanged from biblical times back then.

Now the other possible site is about five miles from here it's called Kerbet Cana and it's interesting archaeologists have found the foundations of very nice houses here from Jesus Day big ranch style homes with central courtyards and above these big ranch style homes are what you see here these are terraced vineyards that they're the ruins of vineyard terraces that were just above these homes of actually very wealthy people back in the day of Christ. You see this was wine country and it looks basically exactly like central Californian wine country along the coast like think Paso Robles or think San Luis Obispo that is exactly what this part of the world looks like.

And in fact it was wine country back in Jesus Day and it says Jesus mother was there and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone now again this was a social catastrophe. In fact you know what I discovered that I never knew before when I was researching this this week in those days you could be legally sued for running out of wine at your wedding feast. I'm not making that up because it was like disturbing the peace because a riot might ensue people might destroy the village so this was like you don't want to run out of wine.

So the major deal Jesus mother said to him they have no more wine not asking just saying. Don't you love this detail? I love how Mary doesn't come right now to say make some wine for the party she just goes hey um so they ran out of wine. She's such a mom right? I love this is such a true to life conversational detail and Christ's response is so classic I see kind of a twinkle in his eye. Verse 4 woman why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come.

And I love how Mary doesn't even answer him directly. Verse 5 what's his what's her response to Christ? She doesn't even say anything to him. His mother said to the servants do whatever he tells you. Don't you love that? Doesn't this sound just so true to life? Apparently she had seen him in the past like privately at their house she knew he could do something about this right apparently so apparently the only thing I conclude is he kind of took care of it one night when they were running low on some groceries and Costco was closed you know and he's like you want some Costco sized milk you know somehow she saw him refilling the empty beverage cups or something. Do whatever he says do whatever he says which by the way is always good advice when it comes to Jesus.

Do whatever he tells you she just walks away classic mom move. It's not great mom's just know how to do this they don't have to apply the pressure without saying a thing. Do whatever he tells you she leaves and then next verse verse 6 nearby stood six don't forget that number six stone water jars the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing each holding from 20 to 30 gallons.

Now again to help you picture this these were not the kind of jars that were normally used for storing wine. Let me show you for storing wine they would have used ceramic jars like these ceramic wine jugs that archaeologists actually found in the ruins of a wine shop from Jesus time in this same area. This is what they kept their wine in and apparently there were plenty of empties lying around at this party but it's intriguing that Jesus does not fill those empty wine jugs. Why doesn't he do that? Well it says he looked around and he noticed stone water jars and this is a stone water jar from around that time.

Now there was only one reason to have a stone water jar this isn't ceramic it's not pottery it's literally carved out of like a big giant rock okay one complete stone water jar only one reason to have one of these in a house in the first century. Jars carved out of stone were used only for religious ritual purposes because clay was seen as corruptible you know unclean porous but stone was seen as pure and so to keep the stone jars pure you kept them holy and only used them for one thing you never drank out of them or anything it was only used for ceremonial ablutions ceremonial ritual cleansing for religious purposes more on that in just a second.

And these were huge it says each one held between 20 and 30 gallons of water and hold on to that detail in your memory to verse 7 Jesus said to the servants fill those jars with water and so they filled them to the brim and then he said now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet and I love how Christ is being playful here right he doesn't say tada I made wine from water he says hang on a second takes him to the MC the master of the banquet he was like a combination of the caterer and the cook and the wedding DJ you know he was a pro here it was his it was the whole thing was his job.

Verse 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine he didn't realize where it had come from though the servants who had drawn the water knew and then he called the bridegroom aside and he said hey everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink that's kind of funny isn't it but you have saved the best until now.

Now you might think well you know we're living in wine country here these people were rubes they were primitives they were cavemen they were easily impressed by why whatever you know was in these jars let me just show you something wine was a major industry in this area. Here's an ancient wine cellar from the same area I've been in one of these every village had its own wine shop they actually imported wine from around the world in fact when they find shipwrecks from the time of Christ off the coast of Israel often they find in the ruins of the freight hundreds of jars of wine that they were importing.

What I'm saying here is that this was a culture that knew their wine and the writers telling us this wasn't just wine this was great wine lots of great wine. How much? Now you really need to picture this because in my children's picture Bible it you know they had like a servant pouring out red liquid from just a little jar but I want you to I want to ask you this so that each jar do you remember he held how much water do you remember 20 to 30 gallons and how many water jars were there? There were six.

Now do the math that means the amount of wine Jesus made was between 120 and 180 gallons. Now to help you conceptualize this most of you cannot relate to drinking wine by the gallon I hope not at least but so how many bottles are in a gallon? Six. So that equals 720 to 1080 bottles of wine that Jesus made and it was great wine. The expert says you have saved the best until now so this is about a thousand bottles of wine spectator reviewed 98 point cab this is not just adequate this is extravagant.

And see that's the whole miracle you know to get wine that good it's got an age it's got a bot be bottle just perfectly it has to be vintage and Jesus is instantly producing vintage wine. I mean that's really impossible and just the fact that he made this comment is an interesting detail to me. I mean what if he had turned the water into mediocre wine? What if he had produced like a thousand bottles of two buckchuck that still would have been a miracle but Jesus does it this way.

Now obviously the last thing I want to be implying here is that to be like Jesus you must drink wine I just want to make that clear because some of you are going best sermon I've ever heard. Listen I realize that in a church gathering a lot of us have gone through a lot of time and a lot of struggle to get sober and stay sober so I'm obviously not implying that you should all go out and drink. The point I'm making with these details is these people knew what wine was supposed to taste like they would not have been fooled by grape Kool-Aid they would not have been impressed by grape juice and this was an extravagantly great quantity of the perfect vintage. Jesus is being just lavish.

And then finally verse 11 says what Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him. You know what look at this verse this verse is the key to understanding the whole story this last verse because this was not called merely a miracle this was called a what a what a sign. So if it's a sign the obvious question to ask is where's the sign pointing? If this is a sign then what's the sign mean and notice it was the first of the signs through which Jesus showed his glory.

In other words this is the very beginning of Jesus career. This is the very start of his public ministry. I mean imagine you're a political candidate this fall or imagine that you're launching a brand you're some kind of an entrepreneur or imagine that you're a musician releasing your first single and it's your launch party kind of like Apple had a big launch party on Tuesday of this last week right with their new products or the Niners are having a big launch party tonight for Levi Stadium very graciously as Mark said they've put it off for our Beach baptism they're gonna have it later but still it's it's an awesome launch party.

And at a launch party you're gonna want to make sure your event in every detail conveys what you stand for right conveys your brand. Well look at this as Jesus Christ's launch party. Why would Jesus as his first sign uses supernatural power to make a lot of wine to keep a party going? I mean why choose this? Nobody's dying nobody's starving nobody's sick nobody's being possessed by demons it's just a party.

Well I see three things in the details of this story that tell me some surprising things about Jesus but things I love about Jesus and I'm gonna spend by far the most time on this first point pardon me and then just mention the last two but jot this down in your notes number one Jesus is here to throw a party. Jesus is here to throw a party and this is in contrast to all the ideas that people normally have about God being a killjoy and mean and sour and dry.

In fact lots of times Jesus describes the kingdom of heaven the kingdom of God as a party of feast a banquet. I could show you tons of verses but here's one Matthew 8:11 he says I say to you many will come from the east and the west and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of heaven it's a feast. In fact it's not just a feast it's a wedding feast he says the kingdom of heaven is like a rich man a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.

Best party I've gone to in the last 12 months my daughter's wedding party man the reception after her wedding love and joy and contentment just overflowed absolute exultation and fulfillment and a sense of both at last and a sense of promise oh boy and Jesus says yeah that is kind of my brand that's my trademark when you think of me and what I came to bring that's what I want you to think about because I came to bring a party.

Now some of you are uncomfortable with this you're saying I don't know about this I mean didn't Jesus come to suffer and to die? Absolutely he did but of course that is the means to an end and the end is the party the banquet at the end of all time. In fact Jesus is really fulfilling what the Bible says all through the Old Testament about the last day how it calls it a party. Look at these fascinating verses have you ever seen these verses before Isaiah 25:6–8 on this mountain the New Jerusalem the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples a banquet of aged wine the best of meats and the finest of wines.

On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples the sheet that covers all nations he will swallow up death forever isn't that awesome? There's gonna be a banquet with no obesity there's gonna be vintage wine with no alcoholism there's going to be a family reunion with no pending departure through death. Man I love how in the book Lord of the Rings the return of the king when Sam wakes up and he finds out he's been rescued from the fires of Mount Doom and then he sees Gandalf is still alive too he has a great line he says Gandalf I thought you were dead but then I thought I was dead is everything sad going to come untrue?

Well the answer is yes the answer of the Bible is yes if you believe Jesus the answer is yes everything sad is going to come untrue because heaven is gonna come down to earth and renew the whole planet and everything sad comes untrue and what that does is it puts into perspective everything we go through on this earth. I love what mother Teresa said great quote she said in the light of heaven even a life full of sufferings will feel like one night in a bad hotel.

Now why is that true? Because you believe this the best is yet to come the party's not over this really makes a difference to believe this. Now Tim Donnelly is a Marine who's become very well known for singing the song hallelujah at stadium events that are called stand up for heroes. Let me tell you his story in Afghanistan Tim's unit was hit by a roadside bomb and Tim lost both legs and the use of one arm and yet he still can sing hallelujah praise you Jehovah on of all places CBS recently they interviewed Tim about what that word hallelujah means to him.

Look at what he said it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah. I thought I understood it but next thing you know my my whole life's coming down around my ears every dream every hope I've ever had for the future is broken around me and and I don't know where to turn it was in that place that God said do you still trust me do you still believe that I have what's best for you and it was that moment that I understood hallelujah I may be more whole now than I've ever been in my life I believe I'm more whole now after the bomb than I've ever been in my whole life.

Why? Because he believes this. Do you remember what the MC said in the story? What a great line he said you've saved the best for last. You know what that's what God always does that's the promise of the future wedding banquet. God is saying see this is how I work I save the best for last. I mean I know what some of you are going through and I think of what some of my own family and friends are going through some real tough times but this this phrase is true for you and it's true for them and it means that one day at the wedding banquet of the lamb that you are going to be able to look at God and and your friends and loved ones who know the Lord are going to look at him and they're gonna say wow God you saved the best for last that is true that is true and when you believe that it changes everything.

Now if this is true what does it mean for your emotional life not just in the future but right now today? I want to show you one of the most famous verses of the Bible Psalm 118:24 and I want us to read this out loud together help me out here ready here we go this is the day the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it. It's not yesterday sure was good wasn't it and not even just the future is gonna be awesome but this is the day let us rejoice.

Let's rejoice. Problem is followers of Jesus are not exactly known these days as people who rejoice frankly. I mean the Bible says in Christ day he was called to use King James language a drunkard and a wine bibber. Now that doesn't mean Jesus was a drunkard it means he was so joyful that people wondered if he was on something but these days Christians are known as being mean and petty and judgmental and anti this and anti all kinds of things.

I mean honestly sometimes I want to say this some Christians I know if you believe in joy tell your face you know what I'm talking about please alert your mouth because Jesus did come to throw us a party and we can rejoice in it. But here's the thing you know if you're going to a wedding party when you go into a wedding party you want to be looking good right? You want to be a little cleaned up you want to wear the tuxedo or the nice gown or whatever well guess what Jesus does that for us too.

Second thing I see in this story points two and three very quick Jesus is here to wash us clean to wash us clean because he makes wine by filling up what jars used for ceremonial washing. Don't you love that detail? The religion the Judaism of Jesus Day contained a huge number of rituals and those rituals required ritual cleansing because the idea was God's holy and I'm definitely not holy so to connect with God I need to be somehow cleansed of my sin and of course they knew that water from jars wasn't really gonna cleanse of sin and they longed for some sacrifice to truly do what the water in these jars simply symbolized.

And we still long for this just last weekend I was talking to a woman after church who wanted to be baptized today and I asked her well can you tell me why you want to be baptized and she said I just want to know I'm washed clean I've made so many mistakes in the last year I want to have a fresh start and it was great because I had a chance to share with her that it's not the water of baptism that cleanses us from our sin it's God's grace through faith in Christ.

But I gotta tell you that's why today at the Beach baptisms you're gonna see a lot of this people just rejoicing. You know the Beach baptisms are kind of like a party that we're throwing today for these people who are just gonna be stoked. Now why are they so happy? Not because the ocean water cleanses them that is for sure especially down by the cement ship I just want to say that and not because the baptism even ritually cleanses them but because the water of baptism is a symbol of the fact that God cleanses them through Christ that in God's sight they're now a hundred percent clean and sometimes it's more dramatic than others but they're white as snow.

You see by using the jars normally reserved for ceremonial washing Jesus is saying what those jars just symbolizes what I'm actually gonna do I'm gonna wash you clean. Now how's he gonna do that point three Jesus is here to die for me. Jesus is here to die for me. Where do I get that out of this story? Do you notice the weird detail when Mary says to Jesus so they've run out of wine Jesus says my hour has not yet come. What does he mean by my hour? Well he says this other times in the gospel of John and each time it refers to the hour of his death.

It's like he's looking into the future three years later and he's thinking yeah I'm here to bring a party yeah I'm here to wash you clean but I am going to have to drink a cup I do not want to drink to enable you to have that aged wine at the party. I'm gonna give you life but I'm gonna have to die to do it. How does Jesus bring us all that joy? By losing all of his by going to the cross. This is a great picture of the cross by Rembrandt do you see how he painted himself into the picture though in that blue painters beret he's wearing clothes from his era this is 15 centuries out of style.

Why did he put himself you know chronologically inaccurately into that painting? Because he was saying it's my sins that nailed Jesus to the cross and at the foot of the cross I receive forgiveness for those same sins. Rembrandt is saying I believe Jesus came to die for me. The point is this Jesus did not come to teach us how to save ourselves if he did that he'd just be like the founder of every other religion. Jesus came to save us himself he said I am God come to find you I have planned a wedding feast I'm getting it ready and I'm gonna wash you clean so you can enter in and I did that by sacrificing myself.

Don't you love this story? I look at it this way our world is kind of a dying party and the wine is running out and Jesus doesn't come to deliver a lecture he's here to invite you to the real party the ultimate party. In fact the Bible has this invitation look at this these are words for all of us from God come all you who are thirsty come to the waters and you have no money come by and eat by wine and milk without money without cost.

Why spent money on what's not bread and your labor on what doesn't satisfy? What a great imbed there's never been a better invitation because it's all about grace it doesn't cost and why spend your money on something that doesn't satisfy anyway that's a dying party come to the one to Jesus invites you to. You know there's a fascinating parable Jesus tells that shows you the party from God's perspective. Do you remember that verse that we looked at from Matthew 22 the kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son but the story goes on he said his servants to those who've been invited to the banquet to tell them to come but they refused to come.

And then he sent some more servants and said tell those who've been invited I prepared my dinner everything's ready come to the wedding banquet but they paid no attention it's enough to make you feel sorry for God it's not even like they said no they didn't even pay attention. So what will you do with the invitation because God longs to host you to dance with you to dine with you at that wedding feast.

I'll close with this NBC News had a story recently about a doctor who's dying of pancreatic cancer he only has a few weeks to live and his daughter knew that one thing he'd always wanted to do was dance with her at her wedding. Problem she's not even engaged she's not even dating so it looked like he'd never be able to do that and then she had an idea watch this.

My dad is like the ultimate dad like the ultimate hero the ultimate be there support you this is the day she's always dreamed of the gown the makeup the flowers I know she's gonna be stunning and her hair is gonna be beautiful I'm just gonna stand there in awe but there's one thing missing a groom. Instead this day is about the other man in her life I just want to tell him that I love him and how to miss him. Dr. Wolf is dying pancreatic cancer he likely has less than three months to live things that I would have liked the girls to experience with me being there and I'm not gonna be there.

So to make sure that he would be there Rachel came up with an unusual idea create her own father-daughter dance and record it. I just was flabbergasted James drained by chemo finding strength for his family just hours before the big moment he's in the hospital later so exhausted and he can barely get dressed without help from his wife. I don't know what to expect I'm hoping that he's feeling well enough to be able to get that dance in the crowd seems to wonder that too until the limo pulls up hi honey you look gorgeous.

It may not be exactly like Rachel always dreamt but it's one last dance she'll never forget. It's the relationships that you build over the years that is the most important thing in life a dance proving that when it comes to making memories why wait for today? Gave you tear his NBC News isn't that a beautiful story? It's a beautiful beautiful story but do you see how that is what Jesus promises you only he doesn't promise a dance before the suffering a wedding dance before the death he promises it afterwards.

He says after the death after the pain after all the suffering that we we have to go through in this life then there's going to be a wedding banquet and you know he's going to look at you with an infinite multiplied times love than that father had for his daughter as great as that was he's he's going to look at you with the love of every groom for every bride throughout human history times infinity.

So really the bottom line is this RSV to that party turn away from the things that don't satisfy any way and run to the celebration that Jesus came to start and I want to give you a chance to do that right now. Would you bow your heads with me heavenly father I pray that all over this room people are saying to you just settling the issue if they're if they're unsure whether or not they've done that they're saying God I turn away from what does not satisfy to the wine that just runs dry and I turn to you to the wedding feast of the lamb.

And now with everybody's head still not let me just address everybody in this room individually I want to give you a moment to just quietly pray and respond to Christ's invitation and while we do that Trent is going to softly play just a couple verses of a great old hymn but this is a chance for you just just settle the issue and tell Christ I accept the invitation.

Maybe you want to pray Lord I don't understand a lot about the Bible about Jesus I don't get all of this but what I do know is the things of this world run dry and I want to follow this Jesus who came to start a party and cleanse me and die for me so I come to you and maybe this is a chance for you if you've made that decision to again focus on the cross and just say thank you thank you so much.

So as Trent sings you're welcome to sing the song with him or to just sit and listen and make this your continued prayer right now. Oh just I with me. Oh we rejoice in Jesus' name. Amen.