Winfred Neely - But When the Wine Runs Out, What Then? - John 2: 1-11

today we have a preacher his name is dr. Winfred Neely dr. Neely is professor of biblical exposition at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago he's also the program head of that program in preaching and also in addition to serving as professor of biblical exposition he is the senior pastor of Judson Baptist Church in Oak Park Illinois he's a busy man we are grateful to have him here because he's a longtime friend who has engaged in this task of understanding preaching and we've been together in the evangelical homiletic Society and other venues where we've been able to continue to promote this task of preaching we're grateful today to have someone like dr. Neely who is committed to good clear biblical exposition and so today he's going to be speaking on a text from John chapter 2 verses 1 through 11 and the title of the sermon is but when the wine runs out what then would you please welcome dr. Neely as he comes and shares the word with us dr. Winfred Neely well thank you dr. Gibson for that warm introduction and I am honored to be a part of the heroin gay lecture series at gordon-conwell Theological Seminary and thank you for the warm warm reception you're home last night dr. Arthur's Elizabeth Matt Kim another colleague preaching ministry good to see you so I am on it to be here I don't see Dennis Hollinger would you please greet him for me as well so I'm honored to be here now I have one request of you I'm going to ask that you pray with me and for me as I preach I am 63 in case you're wondering you're thinking he doesn't look 63 that's because I have a shaved head I would like to commend that to some of the gentlemen here who are interested in preserving at least appearance of youthfulness but I have been preaching ever since I was 19 so I spent the entirety of my adult life and the preaching ministry and the longer the longer I walk with Jesus the more I am convinced that nothing of substance will happen here today apart from the work and ministry of the Spirit of God and so I'm gonna ask that you listen carefully attentively and thoughtfully but I would also ask that you would pray with me and for me and for all of us as I preach and I would like to draw your attention to the Gospel according to John chapter 2 the Gospel according John the second chapter and the first verse John chapter 2 second chapter and the first verse on the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding when the wine ran out the mother of Jesus said to him they have no wine and I want to take as my subject this morning as dr. Gibson has already noted but when the wine runs out what then now I'm going to need you to move outside of your comfort zone and look at your neighbor and say but when the wine runs out what then when the wine of health runs out what then when the wine of youth runs out what then when the wine of satisfaction from academic accomplishments runs out what there when the wine of the determination to live what's there in the Gospel according to John chapter two the Evangelist sits us down right in the midst of a wedding feast the wedding proper is over and a week-long wedding reception is taking place marriage between a man and a woman was saw honoring to God so meaningful to the couple and the people involved in it that they would celebrate with them for an entire week and so we are in the middle of a week-long wedding reception merrimette fills the air can you hear it laughing talking dancing reminiscing singing friends are here relatives are here the mother of Jesus is here and Jesus God incarnate is here sanctifying blessing sanctioning the union of this unnamed man an unnamed woman with his incarnate presence and then we read when the wine ran out of course in Jesus's time people didn't have a lot of options dr. Scott for dr. Gibson for beverages at celebrity events like this they didn't have this Fanta caffeine free 170 Catholics they didn't have this and they didn't have this Coca Cola original taste although I must admit I do wonder how the world managed without this beverage for the last two thousand years they didn't have this all they had was this water it wasn't Nestle's pure life rock on what wasn't worth this kind of water but this long have water which was primarily for ritual cleansing and this wine and this is actually 100% pure grape juice I'm always a bit ill at ease when it comes to use and why and as a prop among evangelicals furthermore I didn't want to spend any additional money Jeffery on all the frogs that's got the grape juice but this is all they had why not so much that people could just consume the beverage what becomes of its symbolic purposes there was a symbol of joy celebration and God symbols matter and before the festivities have run their course the unnamed bridegroom an unnamed bride have run out of wine now of course this is a debacle and this misstep would linger long and the minds of the men and women of the small town of Galilee in my years of life I have concluded that there are two places where social debacles are particularly stressful funerals and weddings and it seems as if we can feel the force of the strong currents of stress raging beneath the calm surface of civility the glances the glass the tricks and questions what do you mean you ran out of wine well maybe some people did RSVP you know that happens and people just show up well maybe they thought they could make it work however this we construe this this is a very tense situation in and around and under the words when the wine ran out is an ocean of stress and across the centuries and through the cavernous quarters of time it seems as if we can hear the concern and Aries voice as she says to Jesus they have no wine wine they do not have then as now some women are masters of indirect communication Mary is just not merely making an observation here this is like my wife of over 41 years who says to me Winfred your dinner is getting cold now mrs. Nealey is not merely concerned with the heat dissipating from the green beans she knows that I'm a man she knows that I don't multitask she wants me to stop what I'm doing and come down at dinner and I say respectfully I say respectfully if I don't pay any attention to my wife's indirect communication I'm in big trouble now I want every man in here to repeat after me it's married or single pay close attention come on pay close attention to your wife's indirect communication so now let me ask you a question brother what would you say to your mother under similar circumstances whether her communication was direct or indirect what would you say to your mother listen to what Jesus says woman what does that have to do with us Meyer has not yet come now of course the 21st century cultural leaders our Lord's words seem economic they seem mood as Xin sharp they seem cutting I could live to be nine hundred billion years old and I would never ever address my mother as woman and I don't suggest brother that you under the pretense of trying to be like Jesus mother his woman there may be some unintended repercussions but actually our Lord's word woman is endearing the culture of his day this was a term of respect it was a term of endearment the Bible is not sexist what Jesus never disrespected women he's affirming his woman says his mother's womanhood but there is a mout rebuke here there is amount of abuse when he says to her my hour has not yet come he's talking about his death on the cross his literal bodily resurrection from among the dead his ascension men to go where he transcends in an instant all the limits of time and space my hour has not yet come and I will not perform miracles merely at the behest of my mother whom I respect but according to God's calendar God's timetable matters now they were beautify Jesus Mary has faith to leave this matter in the hands of Jesus and from her lips fall some of the wisest words that you can utter to a person in any and in all circumstances of law at the end of verse five she says whatever he says to you do it I need you to repeat after me whatever Jesus says to you do it now you may not have not noticed a sixth stormwater punch right here now I'm not having a psychotic episode this is what we call with the use of imagination and breaching water pots right here yeah for the Jewess proof occasion and typically and a wedding ceremony with lots of guests large quantities of water are required so the Jewish people wash their hands and feet and keep themselves from ritual impurity Jesus tells the servants the feel the water pots with water now does not that strike you as strange we are so familiar with the story that the unrelated Ness indeed the tension of our Lord's commandment is lost on us why is Jesus telling the servants to fill the waterpots with water when the pressing problem is wide so humanly speaking the commandment doesn't even make sense in context not from a human point of view and then my imagination I see those servants walking over there to that well over there coming back over here and filling up these water pots and the back and forth and perhaps thinking to themselves that this act of obedience to Jesus doesn't even make sense but perhaps echoey reverberating across the rolling hills of their minds are the words of Mary whatever he says to you do it and then he says to him in verse eight draw some out now and take it to the head waiter not a head Raider is an important guest at these kinds of events he's the emcee master of ceremonies he also had a responsibility to taste the food to make sure that you know the meat had seasoning in it in it so forth and so on ah just needs a little bit of salt this needs a little bit of pepper ah this needs a little bit of oregano so forth and so on just like my father my dad it was a cook in the United States Army and when daddy came out of the army he could taste food he could taste food and literally tell me would it need it even when we went to someone's home even went to someone's home daddy did that and I'm thinking to myself dad if this was not a time to be doing that so why is Jesus commanding the servants to take water to the head waiter with train case parts in the first place humanly speaking that doesn't even make sense but they obey they do what Jesus tells him to do and I see them in my imagination drawing up h2o water this is what they have and they carry the water in obedience to Jesus but by the time the water gets over here to where the head waiter is something has transpired a miracle has taken place without fuss or fanfare or noise Jesus transforms the water into this and the head waiter tastes the miracle beverage no doubt his taste buds become alive with the quality of this beverage now if I could go back in time I would step foot on the void and I would watch God speak the entire universe into existence with his world I would stand by him and observe him taking dirt and fastening it into a man and breathing into his nostrils the breath of life yes I would have been there when God performed the first wedding and brought Eve Adam and he shouts out in wonder flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone as I would have gone why the Exodus and watch Loza sparked the Red Sea I would have stopped by Jericho watch those walls fall down and I would have and I would have leaned it long as I saw Jesus God incarnate crowded in darkness pairing shame and scoffing rude in my place for dimly stood selling my pardon with his blood hallelujah what a savior and I would have gone by and took a good long look at that empty tomb and I would have gone across the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives and watch him ascend into glory and I would have stopped by this wedding feast and I hope you don't think anything less of me for singing this but I would have had a responsible nip of this wine operative were a man operative word is responsible so moved Somu by this so moved by this the head waiter comes over here to dr. Gibson the the bridegroom the bridegroom he comes over here to him this is to him you know every man serves the good wine first and you know after people have drunk freely not that people are drunk and intoxicated but the taste buds have been damned you see into people then they bring out the poor quality but you that's how the story ends that's the end of the story the truth sorry I kept the good wine until now verse 11 is the theological comment an assessment of what's happened this beginning of his signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee this was his first miracle find it interesting that our Lord's first miracle was at a party this beginning of signs three words used in the New Testament for the miracles of Jesus signs wonders and miracles miracles miracles and ideas power of the the power of God in operation a miracle in the ideas that God in addition to his Extra Ordinary probably intro sustaining of life does something on top of the extraordinary I say extra on top of the extraordinary because there's anything ordinary about this life there's anything ordinary about any of this you realize that God is sustaining and preserving the entire universe with his word you realize the fact that we are here that we do not disintegrate into nothingness is due to the ongoing preserving glorious power of God there's anything ordinary about this life the whole thing is extraordinary and sometimes God steps outside of his Extra Ordinary stuff and does something on top of that on our behalf what we call a miracle wonders assistance of all in our hearts when we see the wonder-working power of God and signs they point beyond themselves they they there they are they are move point to some aspect of our lost person character work in this particular instance is powerful quality the beginning of the signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee I think of that all in the vast configuration of our cities and places on earth at the time I will know its first miracle takes place in an obscure place with an unnamed man and let me say as an aside that if the Lord in his wisdom places you to serve Him in obscurity in an unnamed place of obscure obscure people I need you to remember something that matters manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him it's a whole lot more I can say about this gee whiz we could write four or five academic papers just on verse 11 alone so what's the point it's the big take away seems to me that is this here it is missional responsibilities belong to us miracles of life transformation belong to Jesus to jesus belong miracles of life transformation to us belong national responsibilities so do what Jesus tells you to do based on his word we cannot transform anyone's life but we can carry the water we can carry the water all the Word of God wherever he tells us to continue to carry the water and in the process of carrying the water of the word the Lord Jesus performs miracles of life changes the lives of people and sometimes missional responsibilities doesn't mean that we are doing a carrying out ministry with a whole lot of noise and fanfare it's in the so-called regular the so-called ordinary relational stuff of taking somebody out to coffee inviting someone over to dinner building a relationship with a neighbor and over time sharing the gospel and in the process of the seemingly unimportant acts of missional endeavor the Lord Jesus transforms the lives of people and remember the wine of any human endeavor will eventually run out I remember when I was completing my one of my dreams to become dr. Haley I finally got there and my Hema all defense was several hours long and at the end of it my examiner's took a bow and called me dr. Winfred Neely and I was on my way back home to Chicago from Deerfield and before I got halfway home it was anti-climatic it was an anti climatic and I thought to myself Lord Jesus I thank you that this is a pole that there is you see one of the big lessons that Billy Graham teaches us it's meant a lot of emphasis on his evangelistic outreach amen his faithful proclamation of the gospel a man the integrity of his character a man but what about the way that his life ended his wife dies in 2007 Parkinson's disease no longer the ability to preach no longer the strength to preach confined to a wheelchair ministry to the crowds is over Billy Graham said he learned that Jesus is enough only Jesus consents for even the wine of a great ministry run out we need to remember there's only one person who can satisfy in that person's interestingly enough the best is yet to come it would seem to me that it would be appropriate for you to say I would think that that would be appropriate even for my homological point of view that would be appropriate my friend Charlotte said you just missed a shout and the best is yet to come for the child of God reminds me closing chapter of The Chronicles of Narnia Richard foster his foot celebration of discipline talks about why he went to see his friend Bess Bess is dying life is ending as far as this side of things with the end he knew that this will be the last Samba they would even talk to one another she wrote a poem woman's shared it with him and then he says with trembling voice I read the closing paragraph from the final book of The Chronicles of Narnia but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them and for us this is the end of all the stories and we can most truly say that they all lived heavily happily ever after but for them it was only the beginning of the real story all their life in this world all the adventures in Narnia all of your adventures here at gordon-conwell Theological Seminary and all of you adventures in life and ministry all of the inventions in Narnia had only been the cover and a title page now at last they were beginning chapter one of the great story which no one on earth has read which goes on forever in which every chapter is better than the one before we will have been in heaven forbid ease of eternities that will be still saying to God you've saved the best wine until now you say the best wine until now your glory cannot be scale the depth of your love cannot be sounded the width of your mercy cannot be traversed your ways of pets finding out hmm that great so child of God in the meantime carried the water additional responsibilities belong to us miracles of life transformation

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Length: 35min 53sec (2153 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 25 2018