[0:00] Well, this morning we are continuing our study in John's Gospel and for those of you who are visiting with us, about a month ago we started studying John's Gospel and we will be working through it over the next few months together. We come to chapter 2 today and we are going to look at this section that we read between verses 1 and 11. Let me just read though verses 9 to 11 again.
[0:26] When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast called the bride room and said to him, Everyone serves the good wine first and when people have drunk freely then the poor wine, but you have kept the good wine until now. This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed.
[0:56] in him. This is one of Jesus's most famous miracles and it's also his first. But despite that I think it's also fair to say that it's possibly one of the harder ones to understand. When we read on in the Gospels and you discover that Jesus heals people who are sick and he calms the storm when the boat's in danger and even when he raises people from the dead it's it's easy to understand because it's like well Jesus is clearly meeting an urgent and obvious need in all those situations. But here turning water into wine you think well it's a nice thing to do but you know why why exactly did Jesus do it and especially why would Jesus want this to be the first miracle that people see? Well what I hope we'll see today is that this miracle is crucial for us for helping us to understand who Jesus is and why Jesus has come. It's not just a little nice thing to do it's actually an incredibly important event for understanding Jesus.
[2:10] Our title today is what kind of Jesus do you believe in? But I'm not going to ask that question until the very end. To help us find an answer we're going to look at three crucial things that this passage reveals about Jesus. Number one Jesus will not humiliate you. Number two Jesus will not submit to you. And number three Jesus will not disappoint you. So let's look at these three together one by one. First of all Jesus will not humiliate you. In these verses Jesus is at a wedding, his mother Mary is also there and so are some of the disciples who have begun following Jesus. Now in those days a wedding could last for several days and it was a time of great joy and celebration. It was also a very important social event for a family and it's still the same for us in our culture today. A wedding day still involves a lot of planning even though it doesn't last several days. It still involves a lot of planning and it's a day when you want everything to go just right. At this wedding something was about to go very wrong. As we see in verse three we're told that the wine ran out. Now it's important for us to understand that in this context in New
[3:41] Testament times running out of wine would have been a huge embarrassment. Especially because in those days their society was very much shaped by what we call an honour, shame culture. Now we don't have that so much in the UK today. You still have it in many other parts of the world where there's certain things that you do that bring honour to your family among the community and there's certain things that you never do because they would bring shame onto your family. And so in this context running out of wine would have brought huge shame on that family. Now again it's a little bit different because today usually it's the bride who does all the planning and organising for a wedding day. The groom's main responsibility nowadays is to do what he's told. In the New Testament times the responsibility for organisation and for provision lay with the bridegroom and that meant that if they ran out of anything it was his fault. So although that wee statement there looks innocent enough, you know the wine ran out, you think oh well if the wine ran out that's just what happens. We need to recognise that it would have brought public humiliation on the groom and on his family and that explains why Mary would come and say to Jesus they've run out of wine. Aware that something disastrous has happened. And although we don't have the same honour, shame culture today, we could still relate to what this would be like. I want you to imagine that you were the bridegroom, even the ladies here, imagine that you were the bridegroom and you were given one job, just one job for the wedding. Your job was to confirm the date with the caber fee. That's the only thing you have to do. Confirm the date, let's say it was going to be the 10th of June, that was your job. So you got everything planned, you've been chosen the menu, everything is set. The wedding days come, everyone comes to Carloway, have the service, go to Dalhawah for the photos, all is going well. You turn up the caber fee and they say we weren't expecting you. You booked the 10th of July. That would be incredibly embarrassing for the bridegroom. It would be plastered all over Facebook, heavy news, everything. It would be very humiliating and it's just as well that if it did happen it would be after the service and the wife is already stuck with him. The important point is that the risk of humiliation here is huge and we've got to recognise that as we look at this miracle. In the midst of this potential embarrassment, Jesus steps in and he prevents the bridegroom from being humiliated. And in doing so, we are learning a crucial lesson about Jesus. We are learning that he will not humiliate you. Now humiliation can happen in two senses. One is our embarrassment at our failures and inadequacies being exposed.
[6:47] The other is the fear of being associated with someone else if their weaknesses or failures or features are potentially embarrassing. So sometimes humiliation can involve us being the one exposed. Other times humiliation is when we are just associated with somebody.
[7:03] It's the first one that this passage is talking about and that's definitely the more serious one for us as individuals because in many ways the second one is more to do with the other person's feelings than it is to do with our own. Here in John 2 you've got a young man whose mistake is about to cause huge embarrassment to himself, his wife, his family and the whole community and Jesus stops it from happening. It's an amazing reminder that Jesus will not humiliate you. Now this is especially important for us to see when we realise that Jesus knows everything about you. That's one of the themes that's revealed in these early chapters of John. If you were to go home and read through John 1, 2, 3 and 4 on a one-er, you'll see that this theme comes up again and again back in chapter 1, Jesus knew Peter, Jesus knew Nathaniel, he even knew where Nathaniel had been sitting and you go forward to chapter 4, you discover that Jesus knew a woman who he met at a well in the middle of nowhere.
[8:10] And at the end of this chapter it's made abundantly clear in the words of verse 24 to 25, Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man for he himself knew what was in man. If John's correct, if Jesus knows everything that's in us, think of everything he could expose. I look at my life and I see so many stupid mistakes. I see so many things that would mean total humiliation for me if they were ever exposed. Now if we might keep to ourselves, well Thomas that's not going to happen, you know Jesus isn't going to do that and it's true he's not going to do that which is wonderful and we think that kind of exposure is never going to happen.
[9:02] Well I'm not so sure, especially today because I think that today this is probably more relevant and more likely than in any other time in history. Why? It's because social media is effectively keeping a permanent record of everyone's stupidity. When I was young you could do something stupid and nobody would know except your friends who were just as stupid as you. But now you post something online, you do something when you've been filmed by your mates, you send a message that you really shouldn't have, you write something in an email that's offensive, all of it can be exposed. And you've seen it loads of times, you see reporters, they've obviously scoured through a famous person's Twitter account trying to find something immature that they said that they were when they were 13 and then they pull it up and they expose it to everybody and you get these people having to apologise because national shame has been brought upon them. And in many ways I think our society today actually takes pleasure in that kind of exposure. When we find something about something that's shocking about somebody there's this kind of twisted delight in exposing that to the world and in causing as much humiliation as possible. It happens now more than ever.
[10:33] Jesus doesn't do that. In fact he does the complete opposite. He knows everything about you, every stupid statement, every embarrassing mistake, every childish regret. He knows it all but the amazing thing is that he's not come to expose any of it. He's come to cover it. And here in this passage instead of being humiliated the bridegroom was actually honoured in verses 9 and 10 because of what Jesus did. That's an amazing glimpse for us into what Jesus has come to do. He's not going to humiliate you. Second thing I want us to see is that Jesus will not submit to you. Here's where we have to have a look at the interesting conversation between Jesus and Mary. Mary comes in verses 3 to 5 to tell Jesus that they've run into wine. Now that might imply that Mary was quite close to the bridegroom, possibly even a relative, maybe she had been helping him. We don't know for sure but that's definitely a possibility. She comes and tells Jesus they've got no more wine and Jesus gives her a fascinating and a slightly surprising reply. That phrase that we have there, a woman, what does this have to do with me? Literally in Greek it says Jesus said what to me and to you, woman.
[12:10] It also appeared in Mark 5 and in Luke 8 when the man possessed with demons came to Jesus and said what have you to do with me? It's exactly the same phrase. Now that's a little bit of a confrontational sounding phrase. If you want to prove that just wait till after dinner and when your wife asks you to do the dishes say what to me to you, woman. It's not going to go down very well. We look at that phrase and we think that seems a little bit abrupt and because it seems a little bit abrupt some translations have tried to soften the tone of what Jesus said. So you might have in your Bibles, it might say dear woman, what would you like me to do about this? Dear woman, why do you involve me or that kind of thing? And that's an attempt to soften the tone of Jesus' statements and maybe that's appropriate. It might be the case. Some people say that that's appropriate, that Jesus was just a bit distracted, he was disengaged and he wondered why his mother was asking him about the wine. Some people have suggested that we should take this on a kind of softer tone. But others have suggested that Jesus was just being quite blunt and quite firm and that that's how we should interpret it. And so you've got the kind of softer tone this side, harsher tone this side. This is a really fascinating question in terms of how to translate and interpret the Bible because when it's just written down you don't need it, you don't always know the tone in which it was said. Soft option, harsher option.
[13:47] You guys can chat over lunch as to whether you think it should be, I'm on this side. I think Jesus is being quite firm here and I don't think that we should soften what's been said. And the reason I think that is because of what he says next. He says my hour has not yet come and that's definitely implying that there was something amiss in Mary's mindset. I think Jesus is making it clear that it's not really up to her to dictate to him what happens. And that means the result of that is that there's an interesting contrast between verses three and five. If you look at verse three, it looks as though Mary wants Jesus to listen to her. But then when you get to verse five, you can see that she's realised that everybody at her needs to listen to him. And one commentator I read said that in verse three, Mary approaches Jesus as his mother and is reproached. In verse five, she responds as a believer and her faith is honoured. And I think that's a helpful summary of what happened. But however we're to understand this phrase, what to me and to you woman, it is clear from what Jesus says about his hour not yet coming. This bit here, it is definitely clear that his mission is going to be undertaken on his terms. In fact, even more accurately, his mission is going to be undertaken on God the Father's terms. That theme is going to come up again and again as we go through John. In the first half of the book, we're told several times that Jesus's hour has not yet come. And it's only as he approaches the cross near the end that we're told his hour has finally arrived. Now, all of this is teaching us that Jesus will not submit to you. Now, that could instantly sound a bit off-putting.
[15:41] You think, oh, charming. But I'm not saying that he won't listen to you. He did listen to Mary, but he made it clear that he was the one who was in charge of what was happening.
[15:55] Jesus will always listen to you, but he will not submit to you. And he's not going to do everything on your terms. And what I want us to see is that that's not off-putting.
[16:12] It's absolutely amazing. Now, all of you who know me will know that I'm not a very good cook, but I am excellent at interfering. So over the years, I have waltzed into the kitchen while Yuna, my wife, has been cooking and I've said, oh, what about this? What about doing that? What about putting this in or that? And Yuna will very politely listen to me and then completely ignore what I've said. Why? It's because she's the one who knows what she's doing. She's the one who knows how to produce something amazing. And my terms are only going to make things work. It's exactly the same for us with Jesus. So often we can come to him and we want things our way. We want things according to our timings and we want things according to our terms. That can happen when we're not yet a Christian or when we're really not sure if we're a Christian yet and I'm sure that applies to some people in here. So we might say, well, I'll wait till I'm a bit older. I'll wait till I've got myself in a better place in my life. I'll come to church, but I'm not going to profess faith.
[17:22] I'm not going to make that kind of big commitment. I'm going to believe some parts of the Bible, but I'm not prepared to accept it all. Very easy to have those kind of thoughts. But it can also happen to those of us who are Christians. And so, you know, we might be very ready to say, yes, I'm following Jesus, but I'm not going to do anything that upsets my routine.
[17:43] And I'm not going to get involved too much. I'm not going to give a tenth of what I earn. I'm not going to pray out loud and I'm not going to get involved with stuff. I'm not going to come to church if they change things and make it something that I don't like. I'm not going to do anything that's going to result in people talking about it. We all do that.
[18:06] We all want Jesus to conform to our expectations. We all want him to submit to our terms. And here we are being reminded that Jesus is not going to do it. And no wonder he's not going to do it. He's the one who made us. He's the one who has authority. You go back one chapter to the start of John, John's Gospel. He tells us in his very first sentences, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God. The word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him without him was not anything that was made. All of that, all of that word, word, word. He who was in the beginning, the one through whom everything was made, all of that is referring to Jesus. And we want to tell him what to do. It's crazy. But there's an even more wonderful reason why Jesus will not submit to you. The reason Jesus will not submit to you is because he wants to give you more than you have ever dreamt of. Jesus will not submit to you because he wants to give you more than you have ever dreamt of. Now think about that. The minute we impose our terms on Jesus, that means that the best he can give us is the most that we can come up with. If we're saying to Jesus,
[19:45] I want it on my terms, that means that the best that Jesus can give you is the most that you can think of. Jesus wants to give you way more than that. And that brings us to our third point. Jesus will not disappoint you. In verses 6 to 11, we have this wonderful account of what happened next. Jesus instructs the servants to fill the purification jarge when the water's thrown out. They discover that it's become wine. And not just wine, but amazing wine. Now here Jesus isn't just making sure that the bride room avoids humiliation.
[20:26] He's also revealing something crucial about who he is. As verse 11 tells us, this miracle is manifesting his glory. It's revealing Jesus' glory. So what is Jesus telling us in this miracle? He's telling us, he's pointing us to the joy of the messianic age. Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. It's the same word, Messiah is Hebrew, Christ is Greek.
[20:56] Same word. Jesus is the anointed prophet, priest and king. When you hear the word Messiah or Christ, think prophet, priest, king. The one who's been anointed by God, the one that the Jews have been waiting for for centuries. We were saying this last week that the Jews had been waiting and waiting and waiting for this figure, this Messiah that the Old Testament had promised. And at the end of chapter one, the disciples are starting to realize just who Jesus is. He's the Messiah. And this miracle in chapter two of John's Gospel is telling us that the fact that the Messiah has now come, that the messianic age has begun, the fact that he's come is a massive reason to celebrate. Wine is the drink of joy and celebration and thanksgiving. Now we might find it harder to think of it in those terms, especially because today wine is a lot stronger than it was in Jesus' time.
[21:56] And along with other strong drinks, that's caused a lot of problems in a lot of people's lives and we're aware of that. And although scripture recognizes those negative risks and connotations that come with alcohol, those negative things are not prominent. The prominent emphasis in scripture is that wine means celebration. And no wonder, Jesus, the Messiah, has come.
[22:26] The news that the Jews had waited and longed for has finally come. Now there's hope of salvation. Now God's kingdom is going to be established. Now God's covenant promises are going to be fulfilled. Now is the time to rejoice. And not only that, this is a sign that means it's pointing to something else. It's pointing forward to the great day, the day in the future when God's kingdom will be consummated, when we will enjoy the amazing new creation that he's preparing for all his people. And at the heart of it all, at the heart of that great plan of salvation that God has, at the heart of it is joy and celebration.
[23:04] Joy that Jesus has come. Joy that God has not abandoned us. Joy that Jesus is going to put everything right. Joy that in him we can be saved and restored forever. And that joy is symbolized in this wine and it happens in two ways. One is quantity. Jesus makes tons of wine. 20 to 30 gallons, that's for 150 odd litres, that's 150 bottles, that's a lot of wine. So there's great quantity, there's also incredible quality. This wine is good. It is amazing wine. And all of that is pointing to the lavish, abundant joy that we can all experience if we follow Jesus. And that is teaching you that Jesus is not going to disappoint you. And that's absolutely crucial because it's so easy to think that
[24:04] Jesus is important but a bit dull. It's so easy to think that if you're going to follow him then yes, you're going to avoid hell, that's going to be important but it's probably going to stifle your joy and spoil your life. And that's the thinking that nearly always lies behind the mindset that says I'll become a Christian later because it's probably going to be a bit rubbish but no one will have to do it sometime before I die. And all of it is utter nonsense because Jesus is the giver of abundant, lavish, indescribable joy. We get glimpses of that now and we are so excited about the future where we will know it in all of its abundance. And if you think that following Jesus is dull and depressing then you need to study this passage until you change the way you think. And if any of us as Christians have made it look dull and depressing we need to study this passage until we repent. The first thing that John wants you to see Jesus do in this Gospel is the moment when he brought amazing joy and celebration to this wedding and to the lives of the people who are there.
[25:17] You might remember that last Sunday night, those of you who are here, we were looking at the passage at the end of chapter one and we discovered there that the first thing that Jesus says in John's Gospel is a question, what are you seeking? Here we see that the first thing Jesus gives in this Gospel is amazing wine. And it's telling us that we're all seeking that thing in life that's going to give us joy, that we delight in, that makes us feel special, that gives us reason to celebrate. Jesus is telling us and telling every other seeker in the world that that's exactly what he's going to give you. But maybe you don't worry that Jesus is going to disappoint you, maybe your bigger worry is that you are going to disappoint him. Well if that's the case, if that's you then you need to think about these jars. And you might say what do you want to tell us? Well these jars were for purification as it tells us there in verse six. And that was a part of the huge emphasis in Jewish religion and culture on cleanliness. There was such an awareness that our sin made us unclean before God and that had a massive effect on the way society functioned. There was this enormous emphasis on cleanliness. That meant that these jars for purification were a reminder to everyone that they are dirty. And maybe you wouldn't use those words but maybe that's exactly how you feel before Jesus. You feel like you're not good enough, not pure enough, stained by all your mistakes and failings. Purification, jars say to you
[27:03] I'm dirty. But in this miracle from those jars comes wine. And wine says I am happy.
[27:18] And that's exactly what Jesus does. He takes away a dirtiness and He replaces it with eternal happiness. It's all teaching us that Jesus will never disappoint you. And all of that brings us back to your question. What kind of Jesus do you believe in? Do you believe in our farsh intimidating Jesus that you need to impress that would humiliate you? Do you think that you have to sort out all your weaknesses before you can be any use to Him? Do you think that you're always one step away from being a massive failure to Him? Do you think that on the whole He is pretty disappointed with you and He's ready to expose your failures just like the world around us? That is not Jesus. Jesus will never humiliate you. Do you believe in a Jesus who will submit to you? Do you want everything in your terms?
[28:23] Do you want to tell Him how your life should work out? Do you want to give Him certain parts of your life but not others? Do you want a Jesus that you can control? That is not Jesus. He's not going to submit to you. Do you believe in a Jesus that will disappoint you? Do you think He'll stifle your joy, spoil your fun and restrict your life? That is not Jesus. He's never going to disappoint you. But you might say, well how do you know?
[29:02] How can I be sure? Well we know all of this is confirmed because of everything that John's Gospel is leading us towards. We know because of what Jesus did on the cross. And what I want us to see is that on the cross Jesus covers our shame by exposing Himself to total humiliation. Jesus gains His authority to rule over us by becoming a servant, submitting Himself to the Father's will all the way to the point of death. Jesus pours out joy in abundance all because He was engulfed with grief when He died in our place. And He did it because He's the ultimate bridegroom. He's the ultimate provider. He is the ultimate giver of joy. He is utterly amazing. What kind of Jesus do you believe in? Amen. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank You so much that You will not humiliate us. We also thank You so much that You will not submit to us. And we thank You so much that You'll never disappoint us. You're the perfect saviour. And we're so thankful for everything that You've done, for everything that You continue to do, and for everything that You've promised to do for us. Help us all to come to You. In Your name we pray. Amen. We're going to sing together.
[31:09] It says 12 o'clock. Fantastic. It's the first time I've ever been on time. We are going to sing in Psalm 23, the Scottish Seldom version of the Psalm. We're going to sing the Psalm while we bring the children back over from Sunday school. This is a very famous Psalm that uses the image of a shepherd, but also later on in the Psalm, it uses the image of feasting. And towards the end of the Psalm, there's that great description of feasting in terms of God's wonderful provision for us. So it's a great Psalm for us to sing at the end of what we've been looking at today. Alas, there will lead us. We'll stand to sing, the Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want.
[31:59] He makes me down to life. In pastures tree, He leadeth me.
[32:22] The quiet water spies. So He doth restore it again.
[32:41] And me to walk doth make within the thoughts of righteousness.
[33:01] Be in thought, his own name sick. Ye though I walk in test are failed.
[33:21] Yet will I fear none ill, for they were with me and I wrought.
[33:42] And staff me comfort still. My table that has furnished in presence of my foes.
[34:11] My head I dust with oil anoint. And my cup overflows.
[34:32] Goodness and mercy all my life shall surely follow me.
[34:52] And in God's house forevermore my dwelling place shall be.
[35:14] Please be seated. Boys and girls, it's really nice to have you back after Sunday school. I found pleasure.
[35:26] I hope it will all work out very, very well. We have a few minutes and we're going to ask a little camb appetite and so God has given us this wonderful offering of sacraments to help us to see physically what God has promised us spiritually and the reason that God does Sometimes you can make a promise and you can then, you know, you don't always keep it, or you don't keep it as well as you want it.
[36:08] Sometimes you might even forget about it. God's promises are never like that. They are so special. He will always, always keep his promises. And we use a special word to describe him.
[36:19] We call him covenant promises. And that word covenant is speaking about the most important promises that can ever be made.
[36:30] And the reason they are made is because of the relationship that you have with God. So God's covenant promises, he gives us a physical sign so we can see the, see and understand more of the one of the promises that he gives.
[36:45] And as he said, the water's here because it symbolizes the fact that Jesus has washed us from our sins. So that's only part of what happens with baptism.
[36:58] It's a sign which helps us to see. And you know, for that, it's just ordinary water. It's not fancy water. It's just ordinary water. And it's just a very simple sign.
[37:09] And a lot of people go, it's very simple. But it's not just a sign. It's also God giving a seal that he's going to keep his promises.
[37:23] Okay? So it's not just telling you, you know, oh, there you can see that the promises are there. You can see what they're like. It's also a seal which basically means that you can know that that promises too.
[37:39] That God is going to keep his promises. And that's a wonderful thing that happens in baptism. When we got to Tysio, we are showing that great sign that Jesus washes away our sins and we are sealing Leo with that promise that as he grows up, it is trust in the Lord, all the sins will be washed away.
[38:05] Now, the most common, if you look back over history, all the history of the church, the most common example of baptism is when grownups are baptized. And that happens when the gospel is coming to places who haven't heard it before.
[38:20] So if you read the Bible, you will read about grownups being baptized. And so as the gospel message spread to new places and people write about Jesus for the first time, they believed in him and then he were baptized.
[38:34] And that baptism was a sign that their sins were washed away and a seal that God was keeping his promises to save them and cleanse them. So when you look back on history, that's the most common thing.
[38:46] And that's a really good thing. We long to see lots of grownups being baptized because there's loads of people out there who have never been baptized. There's loads of people out there who don't believe in Jesus.
[38:57] I wonder if you want them to come to believe in Jesus and come and be baptized. But the Bible, we would say the Bible also teaches that for those of us who love Jesus, our children should also be baptized.
[39:13] Now, I'll just say one thing, this is the question I was wondering, some people don't agree with that, some people do agree with that. It's pretty simple choice that if we're talking about the covenant sign, in the Old Testament, the covenant sign was circumcision and the first circumcision was an adult Abraham.
[39:36] But after that, he was told to put the sign in his shoulder and so he circumcised Isaac as a baby and so continued. But if somebody joined the Israelites as an adult, and they had to circumcise, then their children, they would be circumcised as immigrants.
[39:51] Now, some people would say that that covenant doesn't continue into the New Testament because God doesn't explicitly say, carry on putting the sign in your shoulder.
[40:02] We would say, he hasn't told us to stop and so that covenant should continue. And that's where you get the decision between some people who are born into adult baptism and other writers who would say, we've ordered adult baptism and baptism of children.
[40:15] I want to just mention that anyone has questions about that. Don't hesitate to ask me and I'll be happy to explain more. One of the reasons that we put our children is because of what I'm going to read in the Bible in just a moment.
[40:28] The key point I want to remember is that this water, this ordinary water, that is pointing us to God's amazing promise to wash away the sins and it's sealing us so we know that God's gonna keep those promises that we face.
[40:46] So let me read a bit of the Bible that talks about this and then we will baptize Neil. I'm gonna read from Acts chapter two. And this is picking up in the middle of a great sermon that Peter gave on what's called the Day of Pentecost.
[41:02] This was a very special day when all the people who'd been following Jesus and many, many Jews from other nations gathered in Jerusalem. Peter preaches to them.
[41:12] He proclaims the gospel and many of them come to faith. Let me pick up the reading at Acts 22. I apologize that it's not on the screen because I forgot to tell the tech booth to put it on the screen.
[41:25] So it may appear if they're able to work fast but if not, you can just look at it on your phone or you can just listen or you can turn to it in the Bible. Peter, I'm picking up midway through Peter's sermon. Men of Israel hear these words.
[41:35] Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst. As you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.
[41:49] You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
[41:59] For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope.
[42:11] For you will not abandon my soul to Hades nor let your holy ones seek corruption. You've made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.
[42:23] Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tumors with us to this day. Being there for a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ that he was not abandoned to Hades nor did his flesh seek corruption.
[42:43] This Jesus, God raised up and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he's poured out upon this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
[42:58] For David did not ascend into the heavens but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your foots too. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
[43:14] So there Peter was just giving a wonderful summary of the death and resurrection of Jesus and the fact that all of this was God's plan right through the Old Testament. Reading on at verse 37, now when they heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do?
[43:31] Peter said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.
[43:56] Amen. Let me just pray for a moment and then I'll ask you guys to come up. Father, we thank you for your amazing covenant promises and we thank you that in this water and in this act of baptism, we are seeing a physical sign and seal of these wonderful spiritual realities.
[44:17] We thank you that that promise is for us and for our children and we thank you so much for the way in which it has been passed from generation to generation from the day of Pentecost that we just read about all the way through to today.
[44:34] We thank you so much that we are also passing it on to a new generation. And we pray for everyone here that we would all put our faith in you and especially for all the children here that their faith in you would grow and that you would be preparing them to grow up to be the ones who will share the good news of Jesus with a generation yet to be born.
[44:59] We thank you so much that in Jesus, all of our guilt and all of our mistakes and all of our brokenness can be washed away. We thank you for that great promise and that great hope that baptism is pointing us towards.
[45:14] So bless us just now and bless Lee, when Lewis and Gus and Yvonne as they come forward just now, may you draw near to everyone of us in Jesus' name.
[45:25] Amen. Okay guys, I've been asked you to come up here just now. Ladies and gentlemen, we have here Yvonne Sagan.
[45:39] Yvonne's taking the better. I don't know if you know. I don't know. I don't know. I just want to say to you, is this the way it is? So you guys have followed me so smartly and it does us well.
[45:53] Thank you. Thank you. I want to say that yet because Gus and Yvonne want us to be here today. I think that's a really important thing to emphasize that baptism is not initiated by me, it's initiated by Gus and Yvonne.
[46:10] They come as they do with this again with the other. They come to say we want to attract and baptize because we love the Lord, we want to bring our children as part of the church family and we want them to learn all the of Jesus and everything that He's done for us.
[46:27] And we've seen that. They've done that wonderfully with us and maybe we know that they're going to do the same with Leo as they did with the promises before us today.
[46:38] I can see it on the screen. How cool is that? That's awesome isn't it? We can't go in there. We can't see my hand or we can't see that great. We're doing another way.
[46:49] Let's keep it so anyone can see and I can come very clear. So what we're going to do is I'm going to ask 100,000 questions, we're going to ask four questions and then after that I'm going to ask the community to understand and then I'll baptize Leo and then we'll all pray together and then we can sit back and pray together.
[47:08] So first of all let me ask these questions. Cussing more. Do you acknowledge the Bible to be the word of God and your only guide in all manners of faith and conduct?
[47:22] Do you profess God the thunder, the sun and the voice that is at your ear and the scripture to be your God? Do you profess faith in Jesus Christ as the only Savior of sinners and as your Savior of all?
[47:38] Do you promise independence on God's promise to help by your prayers, teaching and example to bring up your child in the instruction and discipline of the Lord?
[47:52] Okay, I'll reach out for you this, okay? I want you to hold that for me, okay? I'm going to take a minute. Okay, okay.
[48:06] Leo John McEver, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The Lord bless you and keep you.
[48:19] The Lord make a space for you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up the light that can be upon you and give you peace. Okay, I'm all right.
[48:33] Okay, thank you very much. Okay, now we're going to pray together, okay? So let's pray.
[48:44] Father, we thank you so, so much for the amazing years you give to us, and we thank you so much for Gass and Yvonne, for Lewis, for Leo. We thank you for them, for the fact that they're such a special part of our church family.
[49:00] We thank you for every way that you've lived after them. We thank you that you've all Gass and Yvonne together in marriage. We thank that you've blessed them with Lewis and now Leo. And we pray that they will know your peace and presence and joy as they look ahead to raising Leo, and to all that you have for them together as a family.
[49:22] We pray for me, Leo, that you would bless them. We thank you for his smile. We thank you for him so much. And we pray that he would go to know your smile, your love and commitment towards him.
[49:34] And that you would know the fullness of all your wonderful current promises that in Jesus' horizons can be washed away, that in him we have hope and peace and security for him.
[49:46] Please bless them as a family. We thank you for them so much. And may they know your joy and peace and strength in the days ahead. Let's go by your family as well. And we thank you for everyone who's here today.
[49:58] And we pray that you will be very, very near to the world. And all of this, it just makes us rejoice in you, you've got Jesus for what you've done for us. And just the fact that you've blessed us so abundantly and been so good to us.
[50:12] And so as we share this special moment together, we give you all a thanks and acknowledging that you are a loaner, say, you're a loaner for the sort of everything that's given you. You are just so, so wonderful.
[50:25] So bless us, bless, constantly on, and lead us all in the ways we pray in Jesus' name. Before you sit down for one more thing.
[50:39] So, for Leo, I agree that he's going to be very, very excited that he wants to give you a gift, a great baptism, so you can hold it for him.
[50:50] And we bless him for Leo, and we bless him for being quite happy and close because we've done this excellent. You guys can see I need a bigger hand.
[51:02] APPLAUSE Just before we close, a moment like this is a moment to enjoy a great celebration together, a great reminder of God's wonderful promises.
[51:27] But it's also a good opportunity to just to remind ourselves of some really important lessons that we're being taught by God. And I think that definitely applies to us as a family.
[51:39] I want to just think for just a couple of minutes about two, I think, really important lessons that we learn from a moment like this. I think that we are being reminded that the way children approach God and even the way children approach their parents is such a wonderful lesson for us all in terms of how we're to approach the Lord.
[52:08] Sometimes, us grown-ups make things so unnecessarily complicated. And children are so simple. And you look at Lewis and Leo, who just love their mum and dad, and they know that their mum and dad are going to look after them, and they have so much fun and joy together with them.
[52:27] And if they need something, they just call mum or dad. And if Leo needs something, he calls, even if it's a three in the morning, which I think happens quite often. And mum and dad are there, but always going to be there, and they're never going to mind.
[52:45] And I really want you all to recognise that that's what God is like. That if you think that mums and dads like Gus and Yvonne have got patience and kindness and gentleness, and they do, that is just a fraction.
[53:05] That's just a glimpse of the extraordinary patience and gentleness and kindness of God. And it really is that simple.
[53:16] It really is that simple for us all to trust in Him. But I think there's another important lesson for us to remember as well, and that's the lesson that we learn as parents.
[53:28] One thing that maybe I'll tell you, maybe I'll tell all the children that we seek that I should probably tell, but you'll discover it when you're a grown-up, parents don't always know what they're doing.
[53:43] You don't always know what we're doing, especially when their baby's born and you get handed this baby and you're like, oh heck, what do I do?
[53:54] And it's going to be quite hard, and sometimes you're not totally sure what to do, and you think, oh man, I am not an expert, I don't know everything that I need to know, but I know that I love this baby, and I want to just go through my life, looking after this baby, learning as I go, and giving it my all.
[54:21] That's a really, really important lesson about what it's like to be a Christian. It's so easy to think that you know you've got to know it all.
[54:32] You've got to be ready, you've got to have it all sussed. It's not through. The path of discipleship, the path of following Jesus, is one where we really are learning as we go.
[54:46] Nobody starts off an expert, nobody ever becomes an expert. God just helps us every step of the way, and one of the amazing things over the past couple of months is just being hearing from Justin and Yvonne how God has helped them through these early years as parents with two beautiful little boys.
[55:04] It's just been wonderful to hear them speak of that. That's exactly how it works in our lives as disciples. We're not sorted from day one, God just helps us every step of the way, and all we need to know is that we love Him, and that we want to go through the rest of our lives following Him.
[55:23] So little children like Leo and Leo are reminding us about how simple the gospel is, how simple our faith should be, and parents like us and Yvonne are reminding us that none of us are experts, but we're still going to go for it.
[55:44] We're still going to go for it because knowing Jesus and following Him is the most amazing thing that any of us can ever have in our lives.
[55:55] So, Gassie, Yvonne, Lewis and Leo, we love you guys so much, and we are so excited just to share this moment with you, and our prayer is that you just know more and more of God's amazing love, mercy and grace today and in all the days ahead.
[56:12] We are going to conclude by singing together from the SingSans version of Psalm 36, singing from verse 5. This is a beautiful description of the magnitude of God's love and faithfulness.
[56:27] Let's stand together. Alastair will lead. Let's sing. Here's the fast love is changed, O Lord.
[56:46] Youth pictures set high, youth pictures full makes this wonderful, extended to the sky. Your righteousness is very great, like mountain science sea. Your justice is like ocean depth, O man and me, sir, be our precious, sir, steadfast love, what confidence it brings. O high and low, find shelter in the shadow of your wings.
[58:16] They feast with anger, hearts and pain, from streams of your delight.
[58:32] Our prayer here is a source of life. In your light we see light.
[58:49] So at the start of the service, God called us to worship Him and our call to worship. Now He is sending you out to serve Him in the week ahead in the words of the benediction. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
[59:06] Be with you all. Amen.