Refresh (1) Loved Series

The Bible is the story of God really. The Bible is a book, written by at least 40 known authors spanning the time of about 1500 years. It includes creation (where we came from), the fall of man, the aftermath of our sinning against God, famines, wars, tragedy, humor, peace, deliverance, romance and hope. the Bible isn’t really about us though-it’s really about God. It’s God coming into our world and inviting us into His story. The bible wasn’t written to us but for us.

Over the next several weeks we’re going to look at some Scriptures and try to unveil the mystery of who God is. This is going to be a time of us getting to know Him better and we will have the opportunity to get to know one another better. We all have questions about God, the Bible, Jesus, etc. You can ask a question at any time. So, with that being said, I’d like to thank you for coming and welcome you to The Invitation-the story of God.

John 2:1-11

In this story, Jesus is at a wedding. His public ministry was still pretty new and he was gaining some popularity. This is where we find the 1st miracle of Jesus. This is where people first begin to understand his power. So there’s a few important items to look at. First of all, Jesus was invited to the wedding-he wasn’t there because he had to be or out of obligation. He wasn’t related to the newlyweds or anything like that. He was there because people wanted him to be there. A final important matter is that Jesus is participating in the wedding. He’s actually a part of it-celebrating with other people as they dance and they drink and have a good time. I think a lot of times we think of God as a judgemental and he won’t associate with us because of the things we do-but here in this story, Jesus is participating in the events.

For some of us, what happens is that we learn the rules of Christianity. They’re taught to us at an early age and so we try to obey those rules out of obligation and the hope that God doesn’t condemn us or something but Jesus’ life emphasized relationship over religion. Yes, there are rules in Christianity-there are do’s and don’ts but relationship is what is to come first. If we obey the rules out of obligation, then we miss the point.

I’m not here to tell you that because now that you’re a believer, you’re a chrisitan, you can live life any way you see fit. I’m not here to tell you that you have Jesus and your cake too because that’s not how it works. What I do want to say is that, Jesus loves you. As one who loves you-he wants what is best for you which is why he gives us commands to follow. Those commands are actually for our benefit and we’ll talk about that in a few weeks.

Here’s how God loves us in this story. Imagine you’re an angel in heaven sitting at this huge table and you’re assigned with the task of determing jesus’ first miracle. Remember how important first impressions are so it’s got to be big. So, what are you going to choose? Healing a blind person? Walking on water? Perhaps raising the dead? What would you think about changing water into wine? What’s so important about that? It was a miracle of compassion. You see, the host holding the party would have been shamed that the wine ran out. It would have reflected lack of palnning on his or her part. It would have welcomed unwanted criticism and they would have been made fun of. Do you think they would ever be asked to hold another party at their place-probably not. Jesus had compassion though and even though this wasn’t a scheduled miracle for he said My hour isn’t come-which meant this wasn’t part of the plan-he revealed his compassion and his love by performing this miracle.

Here is my question and this question will drive every other question.

- Do you believe there is a God and does he loves you?