The Sign of the Wine

Robby Gallaty

February 15, 2015

 

Message, Robby Gallaty, Senior Pastor

 

Let’s give the Lord a hand one more time for our musical worship this morning.

 

The title of the message today is “The Sign of the Wine.” The Sign of the Wine. John Wesley was one of the leaders of the first great awakening. God used him mightily during that time. He is the Father of Modern Methodism today. And he had a passion and a zeal to share the gospel with lost people.

 

John Wesley was so fervent in sharing the gospel that it is recorded that he preached 44,000 sermons in his lifetime. He traveled by horseback 200,000 miles for an average of 5,000 miles a year. And he preached 54 years, on average, three sermons a day. It is hard to wrap our minds around that. He was a frequent rider. If they had a program back then, not a flyer but a rider, if you can imagine, because he was traveling by horseback or carriage.

 

In the midst of one of his three or four hour open-air sermons, as he was accustomed to give, the power of God had so descended upon the congregation one day that it was reliably reported that when the people dispersed from hearing the sermon, 1800 people were lying on the ground utterly unconscious because the power of God had descended upon the place.

 

John Wesley, when he preached, exalted the holiness of God and the righteousness of God and the justice of God. And people realized the enormity of their sins and their open rebellion against God and they publicly repented.

 

I have often wondered what it would have been like to hear John Wesley preach in person. The next best thing to hearing a man preach in person is to hear him tell about the wondrous works of God through his life. And what we have today is a treat. In fact, over the next 21 weeks, we have a treat. We get to hear from a man who was an eye-witness to Jesus Christ, John, the Apostle.

 

John is going to share with us a number of events in the life of Jesus and we have broken it up into seven sermons in three series. So we are going to begin this sermon series, Knowing Jesus, looking at the seven miracles that Jesus performed.

 

Then in the next set of seven, we are going to talk about the seven sayings Jesus said, I am, I am. And then finally we will wrap up the series with something different. Maybe you are not used to hearing this through the gospel of John and that is the seven witnesses who spoke about Jesus. Who affirmed who Jesus was. We will talk about messages about Nicodemus and others in the gospel.

 

What is interesting about the gospel of John is, he was the last one to write his gospel toward the end of the First Century. And he thought about what he would write about.

 

Now John has a particular reason for writing his gospel. He tells us in John Chapter 20. If you have your Bibles, turn quickly to John Chapter 20 and lets hear from John himself as to why he wrote the gospel. John 20 Verse 30. When you are there, say “word.”

 

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”

 

And so the sermon series is really two-fold. For those who are already believers, my prayer for you is that your faith would increase, that you would excel in good works because of this sermon series. But for those who are joining us who are lost, my prayer for you is that you would put faith and trust in Christ for the first time as you hear about the life of Jesus and the words of Jesus and the accounts of the Lord Jesus.

 

Today’s message, we are going to focus on how Jesus is the source and sufficiency for all of our needs, so that we will rely upon Him completely. So I want to show you in this text how Jesus is the source and sufficiency for all of our needs so that we will depend upon Him. We will rely upon Him.

 

Turn with me to John Chapter 2. We will start there. We will consider verses 1-12. When you are there, say “Word.” The Word of the Lord.

 

“On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with His disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what does this have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever He tells you.’ Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.’ So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have freely drunk, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifest His glory. And His disciples believed in Him. After this, He went down to Capernaum, with His mother and His brothers and His disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.”

 

Father, we pray that You will bless the reading and the preaching of Your Word, that we may believe and have assurance of our salvation. We ask this in the only name we know how and that is the strong and powerful name of Jesus Christ. And everyone said, Amen.

 

I have broken the text down into three areas that we can unpack. And the first one is this if you are taking notes. I want to talk about the situation at the ceremony. I want to talk about the situation at the ceremony.

 

Now, where does this miracle take place? Not the town, the situation. Where does it take place? A wedding. Now that is interesting because this is Jesus’ first miracle that He ever performed. And it is interesting that Jesus begins His earthly ministry at a wedding. And John will tell us later in the book of Revelation that Jesus will culminate His ministry with His followers at a wedding, as we have a front row seat at this wedding ceremony.

 

It is interesting that Jesus’ ministry is book ended with a wedding. Now Jesus is always referred to in the Bible as the Bridegroom and the Church, His followers, referred to as the Bride. And on that wedding ceremony, we will be gathered together with the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

So Jesus is at this wedding and something happens. It is a catastrophe. The wine runs out. And Mary, His mother, goes over to Jesus and inquires about Him doing something. Now this would have been social humiliation, if you can imagine, in a culture of shame. You should never run out of the wine. It would be equivalent to you throwing a huge wedding ceremony and then everyone standing in line for food and beverages and then all of a sudden, the host comes out and says, Sorry, folks, to half the people in line who haven’t eaten yet, Sorry, folks, we have run out of food. Have a seat. Enjoy the celebration. It would have been amplified exponentially in this culture. In fact, I found a case that in the ancient culture, it was appropriate for a groom to sue his relatives if they ran out of wine at the wedding. This doesn’t happen, if you can imagine. This was never supposed to happen.

 

Now, some people have tried to say that this was grape juice at the wedding. It is actually not. It is actually fruit of the vine. Now I don’t have time to get into all the implications of wine consumption and alcoholic beverages. I have already done that in a sermon through our True North series entitled, “Is It Wise For a Christian to Drink?” And I would encourage you to go view that sermon if you haven’t viewed that already.

 

One of the things I will say about this text is that it should not be used as a proof text for alcoholic consumption. That is not what Jesus is doing here. In fact, the symbolism here in the miracle has nothing to do with the physical body. It has everything to do with something spiritual.

 

And so, what is happening here? Well, Mary goes to her Son and she says to Him, “Jesus, we have run out of wine.” And before I tell you what is happening, let me tell you what wine was symbolic of in the Old Testament and New. Wine is a symbol of joy. Where wine was present, joy was present.

 

Let me give you a couple of proof texts. Write them down. Psalm 104:15, “Wine gladdens the heart of man.” Isaiah 55:1, “Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”

 

One Rabbi even commented that without wine, there is no joy. And so in essence what we could be saying is, the Bridegroom and the Bride are miserable at their own wedding.

 

Now Mary, we don’t know how, but Mary has a prominent role in the celebration. Maybe because she is related to the bride or the groom. We don’t know why Mary is so worried about this issue that is at the wedding, but she inquires to Jesus or she asks Jesus to do something about it. It is interesting because Jesus’ response to her kind of catches us off-guard. Jesus responds and says, “Woman, what do you want us to do about it?” In essence, Jesus is saying, what do you mean WE have a problem?

 

Remember the old joke about the Lone Ranger and Tonto. The Lone Ranger of the wild west, the wild west man who is out by himself who has a partner named Tonto who was an Indian and they get encamped by a couple of Indians at a time and they are overwhelmed by the amount of Indians. And the Lone Ranger looks to Tonto and he says, “Hey, Tonto, I think we have a problem.” And Tonto looks back at him and says, “What do you mean WE, pale face.”

 

That is what Jesus is saying. He is saying, What do you mean WE have a problem? Why are you involving Me in this situation? I don’t have anything to do with this.

 

Now the reason Mary questions Jesus, I think, could be two-fold. The first reason Mary probably goes to Jesus is one, she understands who Jesus is and why Jesus came. And possibly Mary could be saying, it is time for you, Jesus, to reveal to the world who you are. She is ready for the kingdom to come on. She is ready for the kingdom to break into the world, possibly because she just heard about what happened at Jesus’ baptism when the Lord spoke through the heavens and the Spirit descended upon Him as a dove. Maybe she thought that was the beginning, the unfolding of it all. Maybe Mary saw the five disciples that Jesus brought to the wedding with Him. She thought, this is it. It is going to happen here.

 

Regardless, Mary is ready for the kingdom of heaven to break in, possibly. A second observation could be the reason Mary goes to Jesus is because she believes Jesus is resourceful. This is another indication that Joseph has already passed away.

 

Now the last instance we have of Joseph in the Bible is where? Do you remember? Not everybody at once. When Jesus was 12 years old in Luke Chapter 2, you remember the story, Jesus, they lose Him. They come back to the Temple. He is in the Temple. Are you looking for Me? I am about My Father’s business. That is the last recorded instance we have of Joseph.

 

The fact that Mary goes to Jesus to handle this situation and not her husband is proof that she could be widowed and the fact that Jesus has now become the head of the household, if you will.

 

Now some people have wrongly used this text to prove that is the reason we pray to Mary in order to answer our prayers in the religion I was raised in. You know, Mary has clot, and so we pray to Mary…this is the proof text…we pray to Mary because Mary can then go to Jesus and get Him to do whatever she wants Him to do. Upon careful observation, you realize that is just the opposite of what is happening here. Mary is not encouraging Jesus or commanding Jesus to do anything. In fact, Mary submits to Jesus, as we will see in just a second.

 

Notice how Jesus responds to her. “Woman,…” Now, before you think Jesus is being disrespectful, let me remind you that He is not. In fact, that was no uncommon to talk to your Mother that way. It was a formal term to talk to one’s Mother. It would be similar to saying, Ma’am. This is what He says to His Mom. Now, He could have used Mama. He could have used Mom. He could have used Mother, but He says, “Woman.” And we will get to why He does that in a minute. He says, “Woman, why do you ask Me about this?” What He is saying is, why do you involve Me in this? In other words, why do you…what do I have to do with this problem?

 

Come in real close. This is what Jesus is doing here. From the moment of Jesus’ baptism to His death, resurrection and ascension into heaven, Jesus is beginning to distance Himself from His earthly family. That is what is happening here. And the term, unpacking the term “Woman,” shows us that Jesus is beginning to distance Himself from His family. That is what is going to happen throughout His entire ministry. See, Jesus is no longer Mary’s little boy. He doesn’t have to listen to His Mom anymore. In fact, Mary and His brothers and His sisters have to start listening to Him, right? What we are going to see in the text is, Jesus is not just Mary’s son any longer, He is her Savior. He is her Savior.

 

Jesus redefines what the family is when He called His disciples. Remember the story in Matthew Chapter 12 when Jesus is out preaching and someone comes to Him in Matthew Chapter 12 Verse 46. I want to show you this text. Turn with me back a few books to Matthew Chapter 12 Verse 46. When you are there, say “Word.”

 

“While Jesus was still speaking to the people, behold, His mother and His brothers stood outside, asking to speak to Him. But He replied to the man who told Him, ‘Who is My mother, and who are My brothers?’ And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, ‘Here are My Mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and My sister and My mother.’”

 

What Jesus is beginning to do is distance Himself from His family. And when He responds to Mary is, He says, “Woman, My time has not come yet.” What He is saying is, there is coming a day when I will be exalted, when I will be raised from the dead, I will ascend into heaven, but today is not that day.”

 

Now what Mary shows us is something interesting because this is actually what is going to happen throughout the course of Jesus’ ministry. People are going to continue throughout the book of John to force Jesus’ plans to fit into their agenda. They are going to want Jesus to rubber stamp their plans, their goals and their future ideas. Now I want to show you, Jesus never bends to our will, we always bend to His redemptive plan.

 

It happens with Peter. Remember at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus takes His disciples to New Orleans, Louisiana in the middle of Madre Gras would be the equivalent of it. Paganism all around and Jesus says to the men, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter stands up and says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” He gets it right. And then Jesus goes on to talk about His death, burial and resurrection. And Peter realizes that the disciples are getting uneasy about it. And so he puts his arm around Jesus and says, “Jesus, all this talk about death. You are really disturbing the guys. Can You tone it down a little bit?” And what does Jesus say to Peter? “Get behind Me, Satan.” What Peter is trying to do is get Jesus to fit in his ministerial idea of what the Messiah was supposed to be. And Jesus is not going to bend to our will. We will bend to His.

 

Remember James and John, the same situation. They are trying to conform Jesus to their idea. Hey, Jesus, you are getting ready to go into the kingdom. Just remember us. Can I have the right seat? John can have the left seat? We want ribbons to pin on our shirt. We want placards in front of our name. We want name tags. We want letters behind our names. Can you remember us? Jesus said, you guys don’t even know what you are asking. You can’t drink the cup that I am about to drink. After the failed attempt of James and John, guess who picks the ball up and tries it again? Their Mom! Remember that? Mom pulls Jesus aside and says, hey, listen, I don’t think you heard what the guys said. Can they sit on the platform with you, Jesus? You have got some extra seats. Can they be there?

 

The same thing happens with Judas Iscariot. Mary Magdalene comes and breaks that expensive bottle of perfume and anoints Jesus right before His death. And what does Judas say? Hey, we should have spent this on the poor. Now, it seems like he is being spiritual, but he is actually being selfish. You see, he doesn’t want anybody to worship Jesus. He would rather give it to someone else than to have someone worship Jesus. What are they trying to do? They are trying to make their plans fit into Jesus’ plan. Friends, I want to show you something, we never get Jesus to bless our plans if it doesn’t submit to His redemptive plan.

 

And so what we see here is we have this situation at the ceremony. Social humiliation. And all of a sudden, Jesus does something pretty profound, unexpected, if you will. Jesus gives us a demonstration of His sufficiency. A demonstration of His sufficiency. Look at Verse 5.

 

“His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever He tells you.’ Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.’ And so they took it.”

 

Now Mary moves beyond the gentle rebuke from her Son and she commands the servants to listen to Him. And it is an indication that Mary was not put off by Jesus’ comments to her.

 

So what does Jesus do? He orders six jars that were used for religious purification. These were water jars that they would fill up during times of festivals and feasts. They would fill them up with water. Use them to cleanse their hands ceremonially or their head or their feet. They would do this according to tradition. It was a ritual cleansing or a ceremonial washing.

 

Now what the water is symbolic of…don’t miss this as we go on….the water is symbolic of the Old Covenant of doing things. You see, the question I asked myself this week as I was studying, why didn’t Jesus just take the vats that were already being used to disperse the wine and fill them back up? Why does He take these ceremonial jars that are only used for purification which are bigger than what you would ever use to give out wine, and call those over and fill them up with water and then change the water into wine? Why in the world would Jesus do that?

 

Well, I think He is doing something pretty amazing here. Now, before we get into why He does that, let me tell you something interesting. In the Jewish culture, numbers always have meaning. Numbers always have symbolism with them. They always have connections. Think about it. Twelve tribes of Israel. How many tribes…how many people did they send into the land to spy out the land before they were going in? Twelve. How many disciples did Jesus choose? Twelve. That is no accident.

 

The number 40 is symbolic. Noah was in the boat for how many days when it rained? 40 days and 40 nights. He was actually in the boat almost a year. 40 days and 40 nights it rained. When Moses came out of Egypt, they went to Mt. Sinai, how many days did he stay on the mountain fasting? 40 days and 40 nights. How many years did they spend wandering through the wilderness? 40 years. Jesus Christ goes up in the dessert to be tempted by Satan. How many days is He on the mountain or in the wilderness? 40 days. It is not accident.

 

The number seven is also meaningful. It is interesting because seven is the number of wholeness, it is the number of completeness. There are seven days of the week. Seven year cycle of harvesting. You harvest the ground six and you rest on the seventh. There is actually a 70th year of Jubilation. Number seven is important. How many times did they walk around the wall of Jericho before it fell down? Seven. How many festivals did they have in the Jewish calendar? Seven. How many candles are on the Menorah? Seven. You get the point here. Seven for the Jew was symbolic of completeness, wholeness. How many jars does Jesus ask to be filled? Six. Is that an accident? I don’t think so.

 

What I think Jesus is doing here and I don’t want to spend a lot of time here, but I think it is an interesting side note. I think what Jesus is doing here is showing us that the water of six jars is a picture of the Old Covenant which was incapable of removing sin once and for all. It was a picture of the Old traditions. It was a picture of the old ways of doing things and what Jesus is about to do is revive it, if you will, to regenerate it, to renew it and He is going to show you that I now am the embodiment of the Law and I am going to do for you for the rest of My ministry what the Law could never do and that is, eliminate the penalty of sin once and for all.

 

The commentator, Leon Morris, gives more insight. He says, “This particular miracle signifies that there is transforming power associated with Jesus.” He changes the water of Judaism into the wine of Christianity. He changes the water of Christlessness into the wine of the richness and the fullness of eternal life in Him. He changes the water of the Law into the wine of the gospel.

 

Now you have to admit, the quantity of the wine is mind blowing. He doesn’t ask for one jar. He asks for six jars to be brought to Him. And remember, this is toward the end of the ceremony. Normally what they would do is, they would wait until the end to bring out the cheap boxed wine, not the good wine. People have already drunk what they came to drink. And yet Jesus brings out the good wine at the end.

 

Now why in the world would Jesus do that? I think it is a picture of how lavish Jesus provides provision upon His followers. Jesus always is extravagant in overabundance for the people who would follow Him. It is a picture of the joy that comes through Christ. And I think we have a clue in John Chapter 3. So drop down two chapters to John Chapter 3 or one chapter.

 

Why would Jesus turn the water into wine abundantly? Here is why I think. John the Baptist is talking about Jesus when he said, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hear him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now (what?) complete. I must decrease so that He must increase.”

 

What John is saying is this, I am not the Messianic bridegroom. Jesus is. The role of the bridegroom was to provide the wine for the guests at the wedding. That was his job. And I think what Jesus is saying here is this, this is a foreshadowing of the over-supplying and overflowing sufficiency and satisfaction that would come for everyone who would come after Me and follow Me. I think it puts in perspective the saying when Jesus said, “I have come to give you life and give it to you abundantly.”

 

So we have this demonstration in the text of Jesus’ sufficiency. We have the situation at the ceremony. And Jesus goes on to give us a revelation of His identity. Verse 9, “When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory.” And here is the key, “And His disciples believed in Him.”

 

Now why in the world would Jesus send a cup of the wine to the master of the feast because the master of the feast was responsible for the food and beverages being dispersed at the wedding? And so he is blown away. He said, why in the world are we serving good wine now. This is good stuff. Not an alcoholic quantity but quality. This is the choice one. This is premier wine here. This is really good stuff.

 

And I think what it is showing us is that as we walk with Jesus, our joy is increased over time, right? Can anybody amen to that? Progressively as you spend time with Christ and walk with Christ and hear from Christ, it shows us that the quality of one’s life progresses, the closer we come to Jesus.

 

But not only do I want you to see the quality of wine, secondly, I want you to see the quantity of wine. 20 to 30 gallons in each jar. That equates to 120 to 180 gallons of wine. I want you to wrap your mind around that. Do you know how much wine that is? If you were to go home today and fill your bathtub with water, guess how many gallons you can fit into your tub…60. This is three times the amount of wine that would fit in your bathtub. And why in the world would Jesus perform this miracle?

 

One commentator said no wedding party on earth could drink 180 gallons of wine. I think the symbolism in the text is this, for Christians, don’t ever think that your joy will be depleted when you give your life to Christ. There is always an overabundance of joy from Christ. He satisfies our needs. He does it here with the water and wine. He will do it with the feeding of the 5,000 with the bread and the fish. Jesus always gives an overabundance for our needs. I think that is how he can say in John Chapter 6, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me shall never be hungry. Whoever believes in Me shall never be thirsty.”

 

Paul said something similar in Philippians Chapter 4 Verse 19, “And my God will supply every one of your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

 

Now unfortunately, those in attendance, most of them, missed the miracle. In fact, I would say most of the party at the wedding would have missed the miracle. And I think Jesus purposely did it this way. If you notice in the text, you will realize that Jesus never comes in contact with the jars. In fact, He directs the servants to gather them. Jesus never touches the water. You will notice from the text, Jesus never drinks the wine Himself. Why? I think Jesus is distancing Himself from the miracle. If you would have polled any of the wedding party as they were leaving and interview them and say, “What just happened at the wedding?” They would have said it was a joyous time. Actually at one point, we thought it was a disaster, but then all of a sudden out of nowhere someone came back with new wine and it had a heavenly taste to it. It was pretty amazing. I have never tasted anything like it. But no one would have said, “Oh, yeah, that was Jesus. He performed a miracle.”

 

Now the only three categories of people who knew who performed the miracle were the servants, Mary, and His disciples. And I would submit to you that the servants may have known Jesus did something but they didn’t know what He did and how He did it.

 

Friends, the miracle that day was for Mary and the disciples. Why? So that they would believe. What is a tragedy in this world and even back then in their world, is that so many people came so close to believing in Jesus and they didn’t. Does that baffle you? They saw the miracles. They heard the teaching. They experienced His presence and yet they missed it.

 

The Bible says even the devil and the demons know who Jesus is and they still don’t believe.

 

A lot of people tell me, well, Pastor, if I would just see a miracle today, if God would just do a miracle in my life, I would believe. No, you won’t. You know how I know that? Because these people saw a miracle and you will see miracles all through John and they still didn’t believe.

 

Remember what Jesus told His apostles? “Blessed are those who haven’t seen and believe.” I think it is a tragedy when you get so close to the Lord Jesus Christ and yet you miss who He is and what He did.

 

Now their lose is actually our gain. Because if you had interviewed the same people as they were leaving the wedding ceremony and asked them, how do you feel right now? Guess what they would have said. We feel overjoyed, right? Would any of the people be subdued? I don’t think so. Would any of the people leave subtley? I don’t think so. In typical Jewish fashion, I think all of them would have yelled and hooted and hollered and raved because of the premier wine, the choice wine. They would have been excited, right? They would have been raving and ranting, look what happened here at this wedding ceremony.

 

And I think as we picture those people leaving that ceremony, it is a great picture of us arriving at the future wedding ceremony. You see, one day the Bible says, all believers, every nation, every tribe, every tongue will gather together at a marriage ceremony where Jesus Christ will be the center piece of worship. I want you to picture this.

 

John tells us about it in Revelation Chapter 19. “The angel said to me, write this down, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” I don’t want you to miss this. How does it make you feel today to know that Jesus Christ has given you an invitation to attend that wedding ceremony?

 

At the moment of salvation, friends, I want you to realize this, your name was added to the guest book of heaven. There was a placard with your name placed on the table. You have a choice seat in heaven waiting for you. You got an invitation at the moment of your salvation. And I don’t know about you, but that makes me joyful. That makes me excited. It is not because of anything we have done to earn our way there. It is because of the finished work of Christ on the cross. And that is why when we get there, we will worship Him without ceasing.

 

In Christianity Today, there was a story written by John Stott about an English drummer boy who had gotten radically saved. He started serving with the Salvation Army and traveling with their band. The problem was, when he would beat his drum, he would beat it so loud that he would drown out the other instruments. And so the conductor had to walk over to him one time and said to him, “Hey, listen, son. I understand that you are getting into it, but you really have to tone it down. You are drowning out the other guys.” And the young boy responded to him and said, “God bless you, sir, but since I have gotten saved, I have been so happy, I can bust this blooming drum right now.” Friends, that is the kind of joy we should have for the Lord, amen? Have you lost that joy? Have you lost the joy of your salvation? If you have, then look to Jesus.

 

I love Jesus. It is a picture of what He is going to do. He begins to change the water of a dead religion into life-giving flowing wine. Has He done that for you? If He hasn’t, I pray that you would come to Him, all who are heavy laden and weary so that He may give you rest for your soul.