NEW WINE!!

What comes to your mind whenever you think of a Christian? Maybe that is something we should be asking those who are outside the church population! On a line with a Pharisee at one end and a publican at the other where would you place the Christian? On a scale where the Pharisee is 1 and the publican is 10 where would you place the Christian? Jesus was very often found in the company of the publicans and here he is at a family wedding responsible for the wine. We don’t know if he drank any of it Himself but he did make the stuff. Do you think it possible for a brewer to be a Christian? What is this all about? Is it just about parties? Or is it about the Christian attitude to alcohol? Or is it about prayer? I have no doubt that there are indications about each of these but what is at the very heart? John is not just telling the story, even though he is the only Gospel writer who tells this story- no he wants people like you and me to understand why he does what He does. To John and the early Christians this passage along with the cleansing of the temple and the woman at the well are the key to understanding the rest of the story and the very message of the church. Yes he is understanding towards His mother and he does not want the family to be embarrassed by running out of wine- he says to Mary- “Woman dear why are you asking me to interfere? My time has not yet come- nevertheless I will do something but I will do it quietly for I am not yet ready to launch my ministry in a very public way. So he does a quiet miracle. But this is not about signs and wonders- its not like changing stones into bread- its not about showing his power it’s about revealing His glory. In v11 he adds his editorial note saying “ This, the first of his miraculous signs Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed His glory, and his disciples put their faith in Him.” As a preacher you are constantly on the look out for illustrations from events and from the things around you and here John has found an illustration for the abundant grace of God in Christ. Paul tells the Ephesian believers that “every spiritual blessing” has been given to them-there are no blessings that have been withheld. God has been generous to a fault. Just as there was in excess of 1,400 bottles of wine- more than enough so his grace, freely given is overwhelming them. This man Jesus is more than what he seems- he is more than the carpenter More than a Rabbi, more than another spiritual person- John says he is the Son of God INCARNATE- earlier on he said “He BECAME flesh and make His home among us”…we have seen His glory…” At this stage- Peter, Andrew, Philip, Nathanael and John were there and later James Matthew Thomas James son of Althaeas Simon the Zealot Judas son of James And Judas Iscariot All would also be witnesses to His life and work. Here we see Him producing some 80 gallons of wine- more than enough for the party and so God “lavishes His grace” on His people. This is the kind of thing that Paul had in mind when he wrote that letter we call Ephesians- it was addressed to Ephesus but it is applicable to all believers. They are, we are: ELECTED We know all about elections. In our democratic system we elect MPs, MEPs. MLAs, Councillors, Ministers and Elders. Pretty soon we will be electing a new government and with that members to the Assembly [whatever that is?] and then we will be voting on the European constitution While we will choose those we wish to represent us God has chosen us, from before the foundation of the world. [V4,5 4] ADOPTED V5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— John says the same thing when he says in Jn 1:12 “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—“ God chose us, we did not choose Him. He is the one who took the initiative and did all the work-he died on the cross and suffered the pain and disgrace and all we can do is to respond and accept all this work. Being His children is not a natural result, not the offspring of a man and a woman but He had adopted us-made us His children. When you adopt a child you take a definite decision to make this child your own and to give them all the family privileges. He is our perfect father and mother. 3. SECURED by God Made safe by the Holy Spirit. We need not fear loosing our salvation-if it was true at the start it will remain so-God will not let go of us. All the more so is it important to live lives which bring glory to His name. Its because of the great work of Jesus that we are safe-not one hair of our head will be touched without the permission of God Himself. Its because eof this great work that we are no longer our own , we have been bought with a price-the blood of Jesus-for that reason we live for Him every day of our lives. This Holy Spirit is a down payment-whenever you buy a house the chances are you need a mortgage form the bank-the house doesn't really and completely belong to you and will not until the final repayment of the capital has been made. So it is with us-we belong to Jesus -–e have all these blessings which have already been given to us but there is more to come. We have God’s seal of ownership upon us and his seal of protection. With all of this its no wonder the hymn writer says-“All that thrills my soul is Jesus, he is more than life to me.” The point of all this? The church of Jesus Christ should live every day in the knowledge that she has every spiritual blessing IN CHRIST. Does that not encourage you? Does that not help you to withstand all the trials and troubles which have come and will come your way? The Holy Spirit is here for you and me-to guide us and to protect us. There can be no threats No danger No problems that will crush us. J.B Philips says “Every time we say, ‘I believe’ we mean that we believe that there is a living God able and willing to enter human personality and change it.” In Jesus Christ we have OUR IDENTITY WE ARE ELECTED ADOPTEDAND SECURED These are the blessings that Paul spoke of and they are examples of God’s grace in our lives- this is what John wanted us to know and understand- this is what this man Christ has done for us- his love is overflowing and that is the underlining meaning of the gallons of wine and that is the meaning of the marriage relationship. So then this is the key to what we believe and how we are to operate. Too often we settle for water Too often we change the wine into water so that those we call publicans and sinners only see: The institution Only see the rules Only see the criticism and the denunciation but miss Christ!

With all the pictures and stories about the Asian Tsunami you are left in no doubt as to the power behind that earthquake which led to the tidal wave. We are told that the earth was actually moved on its axis. In Insurance terminology this was “AN ACT OF GOD”. Today we look at another ACT OF GOD as described by the Apostle John. New Year is a time for resolutions- give up smoking, or drinking or be a nicer person or start working at school etc. The start of a new year gives everyone an opportunity to try again- even though its only a date on the calendar and the numbers become increasingly irrelevant once you are over 30- yet so many people make some attempt at , at least , making resolutions- I have made none apart from a general desire to be better at- a host of things!!! DH Lawrence longed for a second chance for everyone- as happened at the flood. How good would it be to start life again or build the church from the ground up but I know that the fault of my human nature is that I would make the same mistakes all over again. John takes us back to basics- to the very beginning- here we have another Genesis. In the first Genesis we are told that God is the only one who existed before man measured time “In the beginning GOD created the earth” . It was “formless and empty” and shrouded in darkness. Here we have an ACT OF GOD when He took it and gave it both shape and light and He said it was “very good”. We know that before too long all this good work of God was damaged so badly that it looked irreparable. His prized possession was lying in shattered little pieces. But John knows all about the divine initiative which has led to the very thing which looked impossible- the repair of the whole earth to such an extent that when God is finished you will not see the join- but since God is not ALTOGETHER finished with us you can still see the join. Paul says that the whole of creation is groaning in expectancy for its redemption. So John wants to tell the world, his world all about this Good News Let’s give some thought to the world that John was living in- his world was very like our world: He was living In Ephesus-a city of about the size of Belfast It was a centre of commerce and trade- the most important city in the area It was also a very religious city: ** Emperor cult- with Temples to Claudius, and Hadrian ** fertility cult was also prominent as seen in the temple of Diana was one of the wonders of the world There was also a fairly large colony of Jews It was a place where religious tolerance and plurality had led to religious syncretism [all the religions becoming like each other And this led to problems for the Christians who rejected this – led to persecution One of our difficulties today is that with the growing pluralism there is the danger of syncretism – the nearest we have come to this, so far, is what we call ecumenism but with the arrival of immigrants from Asia and parts of Europe and Africa it is changing- on Wednesday in Derry they held a prayer service in which they all prayed together including the Sheik leader!!???? For many years the President of the Irish Republic has invited all the religious leaders, including Jews and Muslims to her inauguration and all take part- so what do we think of that? What do we think of that- I heard no one even question it! Not even a hint of a question from those who are wont to picket the General Assembly on the opening night every year! We need to think that one through because it impinges on the whole idea of tolerance. How far do we take that? How can you pray together if you are praying to a different God? In Revelation John has some good things to say about this church in Ephesus – it has resisted evil and remained doctrinally true BUT their problem is the loss of their first love- in remaining doctrinally true and staying pure they have lost sight of something just as important- the reason for this pure doctrine- love of God- so they have become legalistic and cold and lost the power of their witness. I think we share that problem also. One of the dangers of the all embracing response to the Asian Tsunami is that we embrace the doctrine as well as the humanity of all the people and so some say- see there is no difference or we stand apart and they say- see they are more concerned with their system of belief than with basic humanity. Now the problem for John and for the contemporary Christian is the same- how do you share the good news in a time of darkness when people feel no need? His conclusion was that it is only possible by AN ACT OF GOD- it is the Spirit of God who draws men to himself. In the history of the church we can see periods of greater and lesser darkness but God has never left himself without a witness. Paul says “When the time had fully come God sent His son…” In the dark days when most needed, God sent His prophets and poets and evangelists to proclaim the word and in the first century he even sent his own son. Ever since there have been times of great darkness- like the Dark Ages so called and this was followed by the witness of people like Martin Luther, John Calvin, then Jonathan Edwards, John Whitefield, John and Charles Wesley etc. The societies that they lived in were not perfect but they represent moments in the history of the world when many people responded to the preaching of the world. This witness and the response it received was AN ACT OF GOD In this New Year we need to remind ourselves that GOD MOVES MEN AND WOMEN AND HE CHOSE HIS MOMENTS – in the beginning was the WORD, was GOD. This was AN ACT OF GOD- God sent His son in this new beginning In this mixture of good and bad, light and darkness we see that it is an unfair battle- in John’s day there was the idea that there was a constant battle between good and evil and this was a battle of equals but John makes the point that this is not the case- God gives life-by his word of command and that life is the LIGHT and the darkness has NEITHER UNDERSTOOD IT NOR OVERCOME IT. I think this came out very clearly in the debates on the radio after the Tsunami- -for some what happened on Boxing Day was proof that God did not exist but if God did not exist then you can’t blame him either and then the next day the goalposts were changed- now it was a case of saying that this God was some kind of sadist who didn’t care. The real problem is that there is a spiritual darkness which will have to be penetrated before any real answer can be given- unless you accept the idea of man’s fall from grace you will have no answer at all. Our problem is that if we just rely on our human thinking then our logic will fail us, since none of us are logical in our actions all the time- Paul describes the problem well in Romans 7- I know what I want to do and just can’t do it- so that instead of doing the good I want to do I do the very evil things I do not want to do. Now in the midst of all this John says that it is possible to have a new start- to start again with the clean sheet that Lawrence asked for- because this God who is accused of being a sadist has given men another chance- just as at the flood days- Jesus has come and died that we might live. In this dark world we have hope- I know this is not the complete answer but it is a starting off place and we will have all the answers when God is finished His work- without him there is no answer at all- apart from the athiest's answer which is that you are either lucky or unlucky in the world because its all a matter of time and chance and then there is no value to human life at all- no more than for any other kind of life. When Jesus lifted the bread and said this is my body and the wine and said this is my blood he was indicating the answer to all life’s questions and the possibility of new life and life in all its possible fullness. If we want to have this life the way to have it is to walk in God’s way- CS Lewis- Happiness is a bye-product. John’s point is that the story he has to tell is God’s story but men can only understand it, it will only make sense when they have the eyes to see. This is truly an ACT OF GOD. Through the “earthquake, wind and fire” there was the “still small voice of God” This is my body, this is my word, this is the Lamb of God, this is my Son. John asks the question, the same question down through the generations- Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in His name?