TURNS WATER INTO WINE ......JESUS THE SOURCE OF LIFE!
Christ's 1st Miracle. .................. John 2:1 - 12
We read here of how Jesus and His Mother and His disciples were invited to a
wedding.
Now the Master of the wedding feast who was also probably the best man ran out of wine
........ that was not really hard to do when most Hebrew marriage feasts ran
about 2 days.
When Mary ...... Jesus' Mother heard about this she went and told her Son
............ we read about Jesus turning to her and saying " Woman, what
does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come."
To put it in modern day lingo ........ Hey mom what do you care ..........
it's not me that ran out of wine ........ he(the convener of the feast)
should have realized that he had to plan for more wine just incase he ran
into some heavy partiers.
Being as Mother's are she realized that He probably was not wanting to be
disturbed .......... But she told the servants to do whatever He told them to
do ........... now I do not believe she really knew what He could do but she
knew that she knew that what ever He commanded to be ............ would be!
Standing near where Jesus was were 6 water pots used for cleansing according
to Jewish custom and they usually held anywhere from twenty to thirty gallons
of water.Jesus commands them to be filled with water and so they filled them
to the brim .......... do you think they were planning on not running out or
that they were planning to do some serious drinking.
Once this is done we do not read of Jesus waving a magic wand or doing some
flowery invocation of words ............ HE JUST TOLD THEM WHAT TO DO AND
BECAUSE THEY DID AS THEY WERE TOLD ......... IT WAS DONE !
They were still probably standing there waiting for Him to cast some spell or
conjure up some trick ......... BUT HE JUST SAID DRAW SOME OUT NOW AND TAKE
IT TO THE MASTER ....... the master calls the Bridegroom over and says
"every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests
have well drunk or got in their cups, then they bring out the inferior
or the wine next to being vinegar but .... you .... have kept the good
wine or the new wine till now."
How many believe that Jesus had a lesson to teach here?
To the Jews ....... wine represents life and abundance. No proper wedding
would be without it. Wine symbolizes the life of the party and the
expectation of a good life to come for the newly weds.
To run out of wine before the party was supposed to be over is a great
embarrassment to the host.
But we see Jesus seizing the moment by producing wine from the water and
something to teach and reveal ............. Himself to first His Disciples
and to those around Him:
1.) He astounded His disciples and encouraged their Faith
(verse 11)
2.) He made wine ......... but not just any old wine .....
but new wine the best wine ........ the same way Jesus is
the new wine bringing new life to them who obey Him.
It is not just that you have to obey Him but that you must trust Him just
like the servants at that wedding did ........... Yes they were probably
skeptical asking themselves what Jesus this son of a carpenter thought He
could do.
When the wine ceased to flow ..... the life of the party began to die and the
guests began to leave ......... it is the same SPIRITUALLY ......
IF YOU DO NOT KEEP GOING TO THE NEW WINE ....... THE WORD THAT BECAME FLESH
AND DWELLS IN US ....... IF YOU DO NOT DAILY DIG INTO GOD'S WORD AND GET A
FRESH ANOINTING THE LIFE OF THE PARTY ........ THE NEW WINE ......
JESUS WILL NOT SEEM PRESENT TO YOU.
JESUS IS THE SOURCE OF LIFE !
HEALS A NOBLEMAN'S SON ...... JESUS IS MASTER OVER DISTANCE!
Christ's 2ND Miracle John 4: 46 - 54
The nobleman who sought Jesus help in Verse 46 became a true child of God
because he believed the Word of Jesus. His status and his favor received
from Christ was not received because of his wealth ....... but ......
because He believed and because of his faith.
If you want to be rich in worldly goods more than to have a richness of
Faith .......... Then you are traveling down the road to Eternal Spiritual
Poverty.
Christ and the Holy Spirit ......... through God know no boundaries
..........The Bible God's Word says "the Earth is the Lord's and All that is
in it"
As Pastor James Leblanc says: WHAT PART OF ALL DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?
In verse 48 Then Jesus said to Him: "Unless you people see signs and wonders,
you will by no means believe."
It is true ....... how many times does Christ do things for us and yet as
soon as some attack comes against us ........ we cry out WHERE ARE YOU GOD?
WHY ME LORD? O THERE CANNOT BE A GOD IF I HAVE TO GO THROUGH ALL THIS!
We act like Elijah in the Old Testament we conquer our 400 Trials and
Tribulations and run from one puny little problem .................
after 400 priests of Baal don't you think Elijah would know how to stand up
against one conniving, controlling old Queen ..........
Elijah had the God of creation on his side ........... the God who created
her in the first place ........ do you think God is intimidated by something
He created?
Christ is the Master over distance ...... He is still today a far reaching
Healer.
Verse 54 "This is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea
into Galilee."
HEALS LAME AT POOL OF BETHESDA ..... JESUS IS MASTER OVER TIME
3RD Miracle John 5: 1 - 8
Here we have to picture all these people who are laying around this pool for
the Angel of the Lord to come down and trouble the waters.
This pool must have been huge first it was near the temple gate the sheep
gate pool is the literal meaning of the pool of Bethesda ............
the Sheep Gate being the gate where the Sheep were brought in to be
slaughtered for the sacrifices of the people ........ it had 5 porches one
on each side and one in the middle.
This man Jesus talks to has been there 38 years and Jesus who knows this
has compassion on the man and asks him " do you want to be made well?"
after 38 years you can bet I'd say yes ...... wouldn't you?
But not this man answers Jesus: "Sir, I have no man to put me in the pool
when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down
before me."
I have a teaching which I call Excuses! Excuses! Excuses!
By him saying "but while I am coming" I am led to believe that he is at least
a little bit mobile ...... secondly after 38 years I would be lying next to
the pool so all I had to do would be roll in ....... 3rd if you asked me
...... well maybe not you ...... but ...... if Christ asked me, if I wanted
to be made whole ...... I think I would feel a difference, I would discern a
certain Holy presence and I most certainly would say YES!
See Jesus could see the want past the excuses of why you do not get healed
and He commands you even today to be whole "By His stripes we are healed"
............ not MIGHT be healed .......... we were healed 2,000 years ago
....... God's Word says " before you were I knew you" He predestined you in
other words He, God had your destiny planned before time ........ before the
Earth ......... before the first star was hung in space ........... He is
"the Author and Finisher of our Faith ....... He is our "Alpha and Omega,
the Beginning and the End"
One line in the chorus to what I call my signature song says:
He Knew me, Yet He loved me! Another line in another song says:
He looked beyond my faults and saw my need!
He is the Christ of time ....... He has all the time in the world ..........
Do you?
Feeds the 5,000 ......... Jesus is The Bread of Life
Christ's 4th Miracle ....................... John 1:14
Verse 2 says: "Then a great multitude followed Him, because they saw His
signs He performed on those who were diseased.
Here we see a multitude of people 5,000 at least. One book says 5,000 plus
women and children. It doesn't matter ....... what does matter is that Jesus
is in the business of multiplication .......... He and God the Father took
nothing and made the universe ........ He and the Father took dust and made
man and with a bone from Adam's rib and thenThey made man's helpmates.
God could have taken a bone from our foot and made us the authority over our
wife .......... He could have taken a sliver of bone out of our head and
made women the head over us ........ but no.......... He took it out of our
side out of the body and created us equal in His site.
That is as far as I will go with that one.
Getting back to Christ Living Bread we must realize that without Him ......
without His Word the Bible we will surely Spiritually .... we are supposed
to meditate on it day and night ............... I like to think that meditate
is actually made up of three words Me - Did - Ate and only then will we be
able to say "thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against
Thee."
Even after feeding the 5,000 we see that when they went around to collect
the scraps they collected 12 baskets of crumbs ......we don't know if this
was a representation one for each of the disciples or one for each of the
tribes of Israel it is of no consequence what does matter is that there was
enough left over out of 5 small loaves and 2 fishes.
Can you imagine if Christ sent the young boy home with 12 men carrying
12 baskets ........ I can just see this boy running into the house and
saying MOM do you remember sending me out to see Jesus and packing me a
lunch ........ well Jesus took that and fed at least 5,000 people ........
and the typical parent getting mad and saying why do you lie to me go to
your room you get no supper ......... just then the men knock on the door
and ask her where she wants these baskets of blessed food. The Mother says
where did these baskets of food come from? and they in turn say your son's
lunch ....... the next scene sees her passed out on the floor in amazement
and total disbelief.
Would we find you on the floor also ...... because you found out He is a
Christ who multiplies.
In John 6:35 it says: "And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life.
He who comes to me shall never hunger and He who believes in me shall
never thirst."
Christ is the Bread of Life and He is the Living Water ...... in Him we
shall never hunger or thirst!
Jesus Walks on Water ...... Jesus is Master over Nature.
Christ's 5th Miracle ..................... John 6:15 - 21
This is and was a private demonstration of the majesty of Christ to the
disciples of Him having the creation power over everything He and the
Father had made even to nature itself.
We read that after feeding the 5,000 How the people were ready to take Him
by force and make Him King and so He sent His disciples away in a boat and
He went up into the mountains alone.
Night is falling and there is no sign of Jesus and so the disciples get into
the boat and head for the other side to Capernaum and a great storm comes up
and tosses the boat and them all around .......... do you know that if you
run ahead of God you will face the storms of life.
After they have rowed about 3 or 4 miles they see Jesus walking on the water
towards them and they become scared. But He says: " It is I do not be afraid.
"
Then the next verse (21) says: "Then they willingly received Him into the
boat, and immediately the boat was at land where they were going."
Jesus Heals the Blind Man ........Jesus the Light of the World
Christ's 6th Miracle ..................... John 9:1 - 41
Jesus is walking with His disciples and sees a man blind from birth and
His disciples right away get the impression that disease and sickness is
caused by a persons sin .........
But Jesus answers and says: "Neither this man or His parents sinned, but that
the works of God should be revealed in him."
He is saying that the sick are sick so that we like Jesus can use the POWER
that was given to Him and through Him to us and perform the works of God.
Christ was and still is God's Son, He is part of the trinity or triune
Godhead and so had and has authority but He still maintained that he could
not have done the works He did unless it was from God.
Christ said "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world "
He spits on the ground and makes a little bit of clay and anoints the man's
eyes and then tells him to go and wash them in the pool of Siloam .......
translated Siloam means sent.
The blind man goes and comes back seeing.
And everyone wondered if this was the same man which was blind.
Did you ever play blind man's bluff or pin the tail on the donkey where you
were truly blindfolded and could see no light well and then they take the
blindfold off and the first thing your mind realizes is the light and that
you can see.
Have you come out of the darkness of your sin ........ is Christ the light
of your world ...... if not He can be all you have to do is confess your sin
to Him, believe that He is raised from the dead and that He sits on the right
hand of the Father and make Him the King of your life.
When you do this then you can sing :
This one thing I know.
This one thing I know.
God in His mercy Pardoned me.
Snapped, sins fetters and set me free.
Once I was blind , but now I see.
This one thing I know.
Jesus Raises Lazarus ...........Jesus Has POWER Over Death
Christ's 7th Miracle ....................John 11: 17 - 45
The 7th sign miracle which is also the final one in John is the climax to
Jesus' signs. When Jesus finally arrived at Bethany Lazarus had already been
dead four days and Mary and Martha both said the same thing to Him not as a
rebuke but as a fact of their belief in His ability to Heal.
They said: "Lord, if You had been here ... my brother would not have died"
Later we hear Jesus say: "Take away the stone" and Martha saying " Lord by
this time there is a stench, for He has been dead four days."
When Jesus offered up His prayer He says God or Father I know You sent Me
and I know You know You sent Me, but they do not know You sent Me Then He
cries out with a loud voice, "Lazarus , come forth."
And he who was dead came out bound hand and foot in grave clothes.
Jesus' final command was "Loose him and let him go.
Yes Jesus has the POWER over sin and death!
Acts 1: 8
" But you shall receive POWER when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,
and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the end of the Earth."
WHAT IS THIS POWER !
Luke 10;19
" Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and on
scorpions, and over ALL power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means
hurt you."
