Saving the Best for Last
By Pastor Jim May
John 2:1-10, "And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there: And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, and saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now."
We believe in miracles and it is my desire to the gifts of healing and miracles taking place in the lives of our people and our church. But if we are going to see the miracles then there must be a time of preparation before the miracle can some.
Paul and Silas, locked away in a dark, damp prison cell, with guards standing outside their door and chains locked to their feet and hands, desired a miracle. But that miracle never came until they learned to cry out to God and sing praises in the darkest hour of the night. Can you get that picture? Paul and Silas had just been beaten severely for their testimony in the Lord. Then they were cast into prison and locked in chains.
Now that’s no way to treat a preacher – right? They should have brought them a chicken dinner, or a happy meal, but no, they might have had a little bread and water. These men were outlaws who were causing insurrection in the streets. Troublemakers! That’s what they were – so they were passed through a kangaroo court and locked away, then they jailors threw away the key.
Paul and Silas were having a bad day on the mission field. Perhaps Silas looked over at Paul and said, “So, you are content in whatever state you are in, Huh? Well, how do you feel about that right now?”
They were hurting, hungry, tired and beaten, but they couldn’t rest. Most likely they were chained to a wall standing up so sleep would have been hard. The night was long, and I’m sure that at times it seemed like a hopeless situation. But then Paul looks over at Silas and says, “Sing!”
Sing, are you losing it Paul? You want me to sing. I don’t feel like singing. My feet hurt; my head hurts; my back hurts; my arms hurt; in fact Paul, there’s no place in my body that doesn’t hurt. And now you say, “Sing”.
Paul looks back over at Silas and says, “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to the beatings and jails after a while. It’s only hard the first 5 or 6 times and then you learn to trust God, so let’s sing and praise the Lord.
I wonder what the last thing was that went through the guards minds as Paul and Silas began to sing?
Acts 16:25-27, "And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed. And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled."
They must have had some strong voices to bring down the jail. I’ve heard of breaking glass but never crumbling a house. God sent and earthquake. He was moved by the praises of his children from the jail cell and he moved Heaven and earth literally to set them free.
The miracle came because Paul and Silas prepared their hearts through praising the Lord. They heard the Holy Ghost say, “Sing” and they sang!
And what about Daniel down in that Lion’s den? I could think of a lot better places to rent a room than in the lion’s den, although I think that you might stand a better chance of survival through the long night in a lion’s den than in some apartment complexes I know.
Daniel was a man of God; sold out to his Lord. Satan can’t tolerate a sold-out, born again, Holy Ghost filled, anointed Christian that’s on fire for God. It just gets under his skin and irritates him like a cocklebur under a saddle. He had to put a stop to Daniel’s constant praying at all costs; and so the plotting began.
It wasn’t long before Daniel had to stand before the king of Babylon and give his testimony for the Lord.
Understand something, “When you say, here am I send me; you had better be ready to go, because you never know where God is going to take you.” It might be to Macedonia, like our missionaries last week. Or it might be to the jail cell like Paul and Silas. Or it might be to the lion’s den like Daniel. Or it might be to the worst apartment complex in town. Or it might be to church to attend a wedding. I sometimes wonder which would be the worst place to be.
So there was Daniel, a man of God, about to become lunch for a pride of hungry lions. The pride of people around you will often make them devour you. Their pride can’t stand your humility before God, because it makes them look bad. Their pride can’t take your prayer and praise to God because it makes their sin glare before the whole world.
Daniel went down into the lions den but God had already filled the lion’s bellies. They looked at Daniel and just couldn’t stand to take another bite. Instead of having Daniel for lunch, they had him stay overnight and they all had a slumber party. Daniel and the lions slept like a baby while the rest of the kingdom was up all night, worrying about what was happening next.
The next morning, Daniel walked out of the lion’s den with sleep still in his eyes. Suddenly the lions remembered that they had slept through breakfast and they were starving again. It wasn’t long until they had a feast on Daniel’s enemies.
Daniel was delivered because he had prepared ahead of time. He had spent time in daily prayer and devotions to God. Nothing, not even the threat of death in a lion’s den, could make Daniel forget his God and forget his commitment to prayer and service to his Lord.
Because he was prepared, and because he was obedient and faithful, Daniel saw the miracle come.
Now let’s get back to our wedding in Cana. Jesus was just now stepping out into his earthly ministry when he received a very special RSVP to attend the wedding of a friend of the family in the little town of Cana. I often wonder if Jesus would not have rather been somewhere else, but since he had established the union of a man and woman in the Garden of Eden, I believe he was there to put his stamp of approval upon the ceremony of the marriage of two people in love.
Just for the record here, let me say that God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. He created Eve and Adam, not Eve and Ava. I don’t believe Jesus would have blessed the union of two men or two women, and I don’t believe that God honors such unions today; no matter what the law of the land says.
I know that someday we will have a homosexual in our church, but they will not be comfortable here. I believe we need to preach the word without compromise. How will the sinner know to repent if he doesn’t know that he is a sinner? I know that some will not like this kind of preaching, but I’m about pleasing God and preaching the truth, not tickling the ears of the hearer to keep them in the pews and get their money.
God loves the homosexuals; and so do we, but we hate that sin and God does too. No matter what the cost, we must preach the truth to give every soul that enters our doors the chance to make things right with God and make Heaven their home. If they don’t want to hear the truth, then there’s other churches in the area where the gospel message is so compromised that the preaching won’t make them uncomfortable.
Jesus and his disciples, along with Mary his mother, answered the RSVP and went to the wedding. The ceremony went fine. The young couple was very happy. The feast was on and everybody was having a good time until the wine ran out.
Oh, horror of horrors, there’s nothing for the guests to drink. That’s just totally unacceptable, especially with the high society crowd standing around looking at the host and saying, “Are you an idiot or what? You mean you’re going to make us eat and not have something to drink? This is going to be on the front page of the society news tomorrow. HOST OF WEDDING HAS NOT WINE! The guest were all whining about the wine and something had to be done.
Then the thought struck Mary, “Hey, Jesus can do anything. Let’s get him to make some wine for us.” I wonder if she thought of Jesus the way that Superman’s parents thought of him in the old DC Comic books? Hey, we have a super son, let him move the barn, lift the tractor, plow the field and then save the world from disasters all at the same time. He can do anything.
I have a feeling that Mary thought a little like that. After all, she knew that Jesus was very God in the flesh. If anyone knew that Jesus was the Almighty God, omnipotent walking in the body of a man, Mary did. No one knew, but she did.
Mary walked up quietly to Jesus and said, “Jesus, we’re out of wine; make some more.” Jesus looked back at her and said, “What! It’s not time for me to show off my power as God. Making wine is not what I had in mind. I had better things in mind for my first miracle. But then, it’s no harder for me to raise the dead, give sight to blind, open the ears of the deaf or heal the crippled man and the leper, than it is to make water into wine, so there it is, enjoy the blessing.”
But Mary had paid her dues and she was prepared to receive the miracle. She had spent many long nights feeding and caring for Jesus, raising him from a baby to the man that he was today. I believe Jesus felt love for her, as most all sons do for their mother. He respected her position in his life and felt obligated to fulfill her wishes. Mary didn’t take Jesus by the ear like other mothers do their children; she grabbed him by the heart and made a simple request. She knew that this was nothing for Jesus to do. I wonder if Jesus had ever done any miracles as a child? The Bible doesn’t say, but somehow Mary knew that this was going to happen.
“Do whatever Jesus tells you”, was all she said to the servers. Jesus said, “Well, if I’m going to make wine, let’s make sure there will be more than enough. Fill up those six giant water pots, boys.” After they were filled, Jesus didn’t pray over them, anointing them with oil in his own name. He just said, “Take some to the governor.”
Jesus had prepared himself for the miracle too. He had come to this earth and taken on the form of a man, humbling himself to the path that lay before him to the Cross of Calvary. He had spent 40 days in the wilderness facing down the devil and overcoming temptation. He had been baptized of John in the River Jordan. He had set out on his journey and hand-picked his own disciples. The price for the miracle had been paid and the miracle came. It was the best wine that this governor had ever tasted and the front page of the society section held a very different headline on the next day! I can’t help but believe that those wedding guests could drink in all of the wine they wanted and not be drunk with excess when they left to take the camel ride back home.
The point of this sermon is this: Are you prepared for the miracles to come? There is a price in preparation for God’s blessings that must be paid in full before those blessings can be enjoyed in their fullest.
God has done some great things for Victory Temple. He has blessed our church and our families beyond anything we deserve. But God has so much more in store if we will prepare ourselves to receive it.
I believe that God wants to open the windows of Heaven and pour out blessings that we can’t even contain. That means that the blessings poured out on us will bring collateral blessings upon other people around us in our community, our state, our nation and around the world. What kind of blessing could we be if we had the finances, the resources and the people to reach out to needs of many more people?
But we have to prepare ourselves to receive the miracles. God wants to bring miracles of deliverance from sin, but it’s going to take preparation of prayer and fasting; because some powers of darkness will leave no other way.
God wants to bring miracles of healing, but we have to prepare ourselves with the building up of our faith through the hearing and obedience to the Word of God, for it takes faith to see a miracle of healing take place. God wants to do great things in us, but we must prepare ourselves to receive them before he can send them.
The best was saved for the last at the wedding of Cana. The best was saved for last with Daniel in the Lion’s Den. The best was saved for last with Paul and Silas in prison. There’s no doubt in my soul that the best is saved for last with you and I here at Victory Temple. Just get prepared to receive the miracles. AMEN
