Heart Church Escondido

Unknown Speaker 0:00
In the beginning, Jesus created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning he was with God and was God. In the beginning, Jesus was the word. Jesus says, I am. All throughout John's accounts. He says, I am the bread of life that fed God's people in the wilderness. He says, I am the shepherd that led you through your brokenness. He says, I am the light that first shone into darkness. He says, all of this, I am the resurrection, I am the vine, I am the Way the Truth, the life. And he does this to show that he is God, the Word who was before the beginning of time, which is a lot to believe. And it's why Jesus said, If you don't believe me, at least believe the signs for the signs, not only pointed back to prove who Jesus is, they also pointed forward to prepare us for what he ultimately did. Whatever the sign may be, the message it would tell is that this Jesus who is God, the I Am, was going to accomplish his plans through death, and burial. That is what the signs pointed to. On the cross is where their meaning was unfurled, that the I am would be the Lamb who dies, to take away the sin of the world. But Jesus will perform a final sign that would prove he is the I Am the Word who in the beginning spoke and the universe was made. And that sign is that Jesus rose from the grave. That is why John wrote his book, to give us the signs that point to who Jesus was what Jesus did, how Jesus died and rose to life. And now, John's Gospel comes to each of us and asks the same thing to please look at these pages, see the signs of Jesus, and Bowie.

Shane Rogers 2:27
Well, good morning again. Man, we're really glad you came to join us. And like I said, my name is Shane Rogers, if you're just tuning in, though, my wife and I, Heather, our lead pastors of Heart Church, and we're starting a new sermon series, and the book of John. And before we get there, though, I just wanted to give a shout out because what you don't see here is a few people that have been faithful since we started the sort of quarantine version of church that had been behind the scenes. So first of all, Eric and Amber just want to shout out to them, because they are absolutely incredible. They actually have a business that does similar things as streaming, and they do videos. They're really incredible. They do commercials for big businesses and things like that. And their business is called different mix. If you do need a video created for you or live stream, I want to give a shout out to them because it's what they do. They're incredible. But they've just been donating their time here at our church. So, man, give him a shout out in the comments. Tag Eric and Amber Beals. And then secondly, I want to thank Derek because Derek Parker has been also behind the scenes, really just doing about everything keeping us rolling, but he also mixes our sound. And so that's why it sounds so good online. And the guy just works tirelessly to make stuff happen for us all volunteer. So thank you guys. I would look over at them, but I'm looking at you. So

Shane Rogers 3:49
Hey, John, chapter one. Sorry, John series, we're going to start in chapter two. But I want to kind of highlight where we're going. With John. And with everything going on, I just felt like there's there's no better place to anchor ourselves in during a storm during a quarantine during what the heck's going on in our world than in Jesus. And the reason why we're going through John, we're going to take the whole summer, starting now we're going to take it all the way through August to just walk through the book of John. It's, first of all, it's an incredible read. It's one of my favorite books in the Bible. If you're new to faith, or just wanting to explore it, it's a great place to start as well. It's not it's not like the other three Synoptic Gospels. It's its own standalone. And though the author wrote John as well as Revelation, as well as first and second, John, and third, John, but it really is an incredible book that highlights anchoring ourselves in Jesus. And so I kind of want to start with the idea that the word life comes up 50 Times in, in the book of John, and there's three different words for life. One is zone A, which means abundant life. That's sort of the spiritual life that God wants to give us. It's called zone a life. The next one is Suquet, which is like psychology, its existence, its breathing its life. And then the other one is bios, which we're where we get our word biology. Every time in the Gospel of John, that the word Sucrose is referenced, though, it's referenced in the sense of giving up something like give up your sucrose, to receive zone a zone, a life, the abundant life that Jesus said, I came to come and give you life and life to the fullest this zone a life it's frankly, what we're all chasing. And, and John wraps up his whole gospel, not just in a collection of stories about Jesus, but it's really in highlighting where this Zowie life comes from, and his sort of thesis. To really sum up the entire Gospel is found in John chapter 20, and verse 30, and 31. And we're gonna read that really quickly. And it's going to be the theme throughout the entire series of John and it says this. Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. So Jesus did lots of signs and wonders, and he said things and made statements and had meetings, but John selects specific ones. It's not a chronological order of the three years of Jesus. But it really is the selection of specific things. And then he goes on to say, but these are written so that you might believe and that, that in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name, that these things are written that you might believe in, in in believing, you might have Zoho a life and this verse, verse, John uses the word belief. And that's not believe, like I believe something exists, because Jesus said, even the demons believe in tremble that there is a God. But this word believe, actually is a different word. And it means to put one's trust, or faith in. So in other words, John is saying, we've written these things. I've written these things by the power of the Holy Spirit and unction of the Holy Spirit, to highlight certain things about Jesus, that you might put your trust in Him. And in doing so you might find this zone a life. And so essentially, it's putting your trust or your faith in Jesus and who he really is, is what produces what we all Chase, the Zowie life. And so that's kind of kind of be where we go for this. This series, it's not going to be so much line by line, what is the book say? But it's really going to be going after what John was going after? What are the stories that John included? And what are the statements that John included, that Jesus made that all point to trust in Him put your faith in Him and in doing so it will produce life in you that you can find no other place?

Shane Rogers 8:09
John gives us a specific pathway to belief and it's seven signs Jesus performs in seven statements that Jesus makes. And these are very famous in the book of John, seven signs, and seven statements. And that's why when you're reading the book of John, you'll stumble upon something that John says where he'll say, this is the first sign or this is the second sign. This is the third sign that Jesus made. And it's because John's pointing to seven signs. And then seven statements and these statements are I am statements that Jesus would make, he said, I am the bread of life, I am the Way the Truth and the Life these I am steams I am the vine, I am the door or the way and these are connected to the book of Exodus, where God came to Moses and said, I am. I am everything that you need. And so Jesus shows up and he has seven I am statements connecting the readers of this book all the way back to their heritage in Moses, and when God first showed up, so we're gonna pick up in John chapter two, and the reason for that is because this is the first sign. And so we're going to pick up in verse one, I'm going to be reading from the ESV translation, it'll be up on your screen, it says this. On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. And the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding. Well, that's kind of nice. The mother of Jesus invited them Yeah, might as well invite Jesus to when the end that says this, Jesus was also invited wedding verse three, when the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine and Jesus said to her woman, what does this have to do? With me sounds super derogatory, but it actually wasn't. My hour has not come. That's Very interesting. And we'll come back to that verse five, his mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you. Now, there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water, and they filled them to the brim. And he said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. So they took it and when the master of the feasts, tasted the water, now becoming wine and did not know where to come from the master of the feast called the bridegroom, and said to him, I want you to know that he called the master he called the bridegroom, not the bride, the bride groom, and said to him, everyone serves good wine first, like everyone knows this. And when people have drunk freely, quotations, then then bring out the poor light wine. But you have kept the good wine and tell now, this, the first of his signs Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And his disciples believed I put their trust in faith in this person. At this point, Jesus, the only had five disciples along with him, and these disciples saw what had happened. And they began to put their trust in Jesus, Father, God, I pray for Your Word today, and the few minutes that we have together as we really explore what it looks like to find XO, a life in you, Jesus, what it looks like to understand who you are, through what you did, through what you said, that we might believe. Or in each and every one of us there are places of unbelief, places of doubt, places of fear, and God, you welcome those doubts and those fears and those unbelief areas in our life. And you just simply ask us to come to you with those and say, God, will you help me, because I want to put my faith, my full trust in you. And I pray that through these moments, by Your Holy Spirit that you draw our heart to understand more, and put our trust more in you, Jesus, a man and a man, you know,

Shane Rogers 12:21
after reading this story, I've read it a lot. And there's a lot that we can take from it. I love weddings, and it's just a fun story. I've actually been to Cana and this is cool little town. But I kind of walk away from that story. And I think like why, why was this one of the seven signs? Why was this story included, if so many others were not. And obviously, the Holy Spirit through John is speaking to something about Jesus. And we're going to explore that in order to do that, we need to understand a little bit more about a Jewish wedding because a Jewish wedding is very different than a normal wedding that you and I would go to a normal wedding for us is a day or an afternoon. And then there's maybe a reception afterwards. But in those days, this is a party and a party went from seven to 10 days was a Jewish wedding. And I mean, it was full on just like no holds barred party, they had an incredible time. They know how to have a great time. It wasn't inappropriate, it was just a wonderful celebration, and a culmination of some things that we're going to talk about to begin this journey of this couple. And then it specifically says on the third day of the wedding, and I want to highlight that just because it's an interesting fact, and that is that Jew and is still today, anytime there's a Jewish wedding, it's always on a Tuesday. And that's because Tuesday is the third day. And the reason for that is because on the third day, if you look at the account in Genesis, when God is creating the world, it's the only day where God says it's good twice. And so the Jewish people believe that there's an there's a double blessing on Tuesday. Now we have Taco Tuesday on blessing on. And I believe those tacos are blessed, in fact, double blessing on the Taco Tuesday. But in Jewish culture, they believe there's a double blessing on a marriage. And so that's why anytime there's a Jewish wedding, it's always on a Tuesday for the double blessing. And so that's the third day, and then it says, And then the second the third thing that's interesting about a wedding is that it was the groom's job to go away for a year before the wedding and to save, to work hard to prepare to receive His Bride so so they would get engaged and then the groom would literally leave for an entire year and not talk to the bride. And he would he would give himself right to this work. He would save and he would prepare and one of the things he was preparing for was this week long celebration of a wedding to make sure everything was taken care of and you just you have to understand the symbolism Here, first of all, it all points to Jesus. And so we see that on the third day, they get married and how many know Jesus rose from the grave on the third day, and he did all of this for his bride. And so so there's symbolism there. But the second thing is that just like the husband, the groom, would go away for a year to prepare. Jesus in John 14 says, I go away to prepare a place for you, that you might be with me where I am, I love this. And so this is what we see steeped into this, this marriage, this wedding ceremony is the covenant love of God constantly going after sinned. So we find ourselves in the story, and everyone knew that it was the groom's job to prepare for this celebration. So this was his moment. This was his moment to, to prove to himself to prove to his friends that that he's capable, that, that he's trustworthy, that he's going to be a good provider for his family. And, and he would prove all of that by going away by doing his due diligence. And then on this platform when everyone's watching this full week, or this 10 days, when, when all eyes are on him and the preparation that he has done, he has found himself self despite his best efforts, he has fallen short, because by the third day, they've already ran out of wine. And so when you and I read this, it's kind of like, okay, you're on wine. It's like, it's not that big of a deal. There's lots of ways you don't even have wine. But in those days, this literally represented this man's hard work, and yet falling short, it was actually bringing shame upon him and his whole family. And so Jesus mom kind of steps in and she asks Jesus, like, hello, they ran out of wine, I need you to step in. And in John chapter two, verse four, it says this, And Jesus said to her woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not

Shane Rogers 17:19
come such an interesting. And I get it, like lots of things that Jesus says is kind of like, why would you say that, but this is very significant, because we see in not only John 12, but also John 17. Jesus using this same terminology, again, and we know what he's referring to. And I'm just gonna read in John chapter 12, verse 23, he's talking to his disciples. He's getting he's he's a week away at this point from being crucified. And he says to them, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. And so Gee, when Jesus would refer to the hour, the time, the moment he was referring to his moment, to take our place, and climb up on that cross where and take the punishment that we deserve, for the remission of sins. And so when his mom came in and said, Hey, I need you to do something. He's saying, no, it's actually not my time to step in for humanity. And so you have to understand what's happening and the symbol or the sign that's taking place in the first idea, and I just have two ideas. The first one is this, Jesus was rescuing the groom, from shame. And obviously, he does the same for us. Jesus was rescuing the groom from shame. It's almost like his mom was looking at Jesus and saying, I know who you are. I know what you're going to do. And I'm asking you to do it. Now, see, this groom, he has done everything he can to make a way for he and his bride to sail off into the sunset, and he has found himself at his lowest point, incidentally, the number six represents humanity, or man's best effort. This is such a cool symbol. So Jesus says, Hey, why don't you go get six stone waterpark jars, he's stepping into accomplish what man could never do. On his own his best day he falls short. So Jesus steps in and he says, Hey, go grab six. The number that represents man's best effort, grab six of those. The husband worked as hard as he could to prepare and be honorable and provide and he came up short. So can you only imagine this husband or this husband to be and he's, he's like, the lowest of low and all of a sudden the gap Call him over. And they say to him, how do you do it? Like, you are remarkable. I can't believe you literally, like if this party only gets better and better. The groom was thinking, My life is over. And now he's finding out it's just gotten better. It's not like Jesus said, You know what, we're gonna take care of the wine, go grab, go buy some wine, I'm gonna multiply it, let's make it happen. Jesus literally gave him way better wine than he had before. So now the guests aren't just saying, Hey, I'm so glad we didn't run a wine. The guests are saying, Oh, my gosh, you are you are better than I thought you were. Because now you're bringing out even better wine. This reminds me of, of another story, that Jesus told him, the prodigal son when, when a young man came to the end of himself. And he thought, oh my gosh, like, I've taken all this money, and to the very best of my ability, I have lived, the abundant life is so a life what I thought it was. And now I've come to the end of myself, and I am going to decide that you know what, I'm no longer worthy. I'm just gonna step into the shoes of this, this groom. And think to myself, he was probably thinking the same thing. I'm, I don't even know if I'm worthy. Like, I can't even I can't even provide wine for the guests. How can I possibly provide for this bride that God's given me? This is such a responsibility, like, go there with me? Have you ever been in a place where you just work so hard on your own effort? And it falls short? And you question everything? Like, how could I be this much of a failure? How can I keep going back to that sin, I've worked as hard as I can, every day when I wake up, and I say, I'm gonna be better. I'm gonna work harder. I'm gonna, I'm gonna measure up. And at the end of the day, we put our heads down her pillow, and we realize what's enough. And so we come to the conclusion, I'm no longer worthy. And you know why I'm worthy, because I've done very my very best, and it's still short.

Shane Rogers 22:18
And so in the protocols, then we see the father and the father ran for the prodigal son, because the father didn't want the son to have the walk of shame. And instead, the father had the run of shame, because he pulled up his skirt. And he ran after that son, and he said, No, not today, son. Because it's not about your efforts. I welcome you in as a son, not because of you. Because of me, it's my choice to step in for you. And I call you, son. And so Jesus is stepping in for the groomsmen and he's in the background. It isn't the no one knows that Jesus did this. This is the the guest had no idea where the good wine came from. He just looks at the groom and goes, Wow, you are amazing. I guess our question is, how are you doing it proving to yourself and to others, that you're enough? How are you doing it proving and working hard at being enough? So this was a sign that pointed to what Jesus would do. And that's that he would take our place that he would rescue us from a life that was not enough. In in Jesus, he is enough. So now, the second part of this amazing signs, amazing miracle is how he would do this. Now we know that Jesus, he steps in to our place, he has access to great exchange, he has replaced our brokenness, with his wholeness on the cross. And so the next part is, okay, so how, so we know that our best efforts, don't get us there. And so do you know what we turn to next, we turn to religion, we turn to right and wrong, we turn and turn to we need to jump through all of these religious hoops. So that way, we can now be right with God because we know we're not right based on our effort. We've tried that road and failed. So now we turn to religion and Jesus is stepping into a culture that's steeped in religion. And so let's pick up in verse six and it says Now there were six stone water jars, the number for humanity or the best effort. six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification now, I had never really picked up on this and I don't even know exactly what that is. So I did do some research but Jewish these were this was the for Jewish ceremonial, Washington. Hand Washing represents clean and right with God. And you'll probably remember the verse that says, who may ascend to the hill of the Lord, but he who has clean hands, and a pure heart, see back in this day water, the washing of water was a very significant thing for people to be right with God. And so these pots, that's what it was for, that's what they were for is that they would be filled with water. And they would specifically use these, these jars, these clay jars, because they believed that it wouldn't contaminate the water, there was other kinds of jars that they would never use for this. They were specifically designed to not contaminate the water, because the water represented right with God. And so these jars weren't just random, heavy jars, they were literally the symbol of something that connected you to your relationship with God. So here we are realizing our best effort doesn't get us there. So let's move over to religion. If I just do everything that the priest says, then maybe my relationship will be right with God. And so that's what these jars are presented in Jesus looks over at these six pots. And he goes, Yeah, once you fill those with water, and everybody around is going, Whoa, like, those are kind of special Jesus. I mean, like, I'll do it, because because it's for there for water. So maybe you're going to do some religious ritual with these pots, because that's what they were for the mindset regarding what makes you right with God was these jars. So and what's interesting is that water was essential to be right with God. But wine was a forbidden in the temple.

Shane Rogers 26:49
You weren't allowed to have wine in the temple. Now you can have it in a synagogue. And oftentimes a wedding was done in synagogue was more like a community center, and they would party and things like that. But you were not allowed to have wine inside the temple. And yet water was essential for your walk with God. And so because of that, you have to understand, they would never put wine in these jars. They just wouldn't do it. These jars are meant to go into the temple, and they would represent being right with God and washing and cleaning yourself. And so Jesus says, Go grab these pots and put water in them, which is fine, but they would never put wine. In these jars. See, Jesus was replacing religion with himself. That's my second idea. The first is that Jesus was rescues us from shame. The second one is Jesus was replacing religion with himself. So Jesus looks over these jars, which symbolizes religion, religiosity, and says in the text, fill them to the brim. So they bring it to the guests of the wedding. And once they were filled, the water has now been replaced by the wine. And Jesus says, I am going to be the one that makes you right with God, this wine represents the blood of Jesus that Jesus literally says, I'm doing away with something old, and I'm bringing in something new and a little bit later on. Jesus tells the disciples, listen, I'm bringing new wine but it needs new wineskin there needs to be a new system for my new wine, I'm doing something new, can see good works can't save you but neither can religion. Neither can can ritual or routine. None of that saves you it's Jesus. And he's showing up on the scene. And he's taking something that's a symbol for religion, and he's saying fill it to the brim with myself. This represents the blood of Jesus. What you once relied on has been replaced. And I guess we have two questions to ask this morning. The first is how are we doing at working hard to be enough. But the second one has to do with our walk with God and our relationship with God. And have we have we come to grips with the fact that religion has been replaced? And I talked to people all the time who asked me like you're a pastor, so like What religion are you and what what kind of versions do you follow in terms of the the 10 commandments and all the rights and wrongs and do's and don'ts and like tell me your theology? And I just I just need to say this. It's been replaced religion at a time. Religion was the the old covenant and it was a meme to a glorious end. So Jesus said, I didn't come to abolish but fulfill the law, Jesus fulfilled the religion. I had a buddy told me that he heard a sermon recently on dress code for religious gatherings. And I just thought, gosh, we have to understand that religion has been replaced, and it hasn't been replaced with like, do whatever you want. It hasn't been replaced with let's party and go drink wine. It's been replaced with the person of Jesus Christ, him a relationship with him. There's no do's and don'ts. There's no Old Testament, listen, read the Old Testament because we understand who God is. But the but the covenant that was made, and all of the rules have been accomplished through Jesus. And so now Jesus is on the scene. And he's saying, Listen, I've replaced that with who I am, my goodness, my blood that was shed for you, I rose on the third day. And now I'm inviting you to belief, belief. Put your faith and your trust in me, not in your good works, not in your best efforts, and not in your religion. But put your trust in your faith in me see, I am the way I am the truth. I am the door I am divine, I am the bread of life. I am the living water. And so Jesus is saying to the people, listen, that was done away with because I am here, and I am the pathway to life.

Shane Rogers 31:44
Life. I'm going to end with this. And I love the fact that John starts out this gospel with first sign the first sign is a wedding, Jesus and John ends his writings in Revelation at a wedding. And it's the the wedding feast of the Lamb. And he says blessing are you if you're invited to this amazing feast with Jesus, the wedding where we are His Bride, and He is the groom, and he's coming back for us. And there's there is incredible prophecies in the Old Testament that speak of the day when our Savior will come and save us and create a new way. And one of the things that they point to is wine. So this is a sign because Jesus is showing up and he is filling these jars with his wine, his new wine and I want to read to you Amos chapter nine, verse 13. And we're gonna close on this, the days are coming declares the Lord, when the Reaper will overtake will be overtaken by the ploughman and the planter by the one treading grapes, new wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, and I will bring my people Israel back from exile. So Jesus was showing up on the scene and he wasn't just doing a miracle. And he wasn't just solving a problem at a wedding. But he was literally announcing the new kingdom as the wine is filled to the brim and overflowing. And it's not just any wine. It's amazing wine stepping in for what this groom could never do. And he was doing it not through ritual routine, but he was doing it with himself. I'm going to ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes this morning. And I want to recognize that today. Many of us online that are viewing might be asking ourselves, or realizing for the first time that I've put my trust, my belief, my faith in something other than the person of Jesus Christ. And I want to invite you on this day, to put your faith in Jesus right here right where you are. No one besides you and God has to know where you simply come to this moment where you realize, I I want the life that Jesus promised. And I realized now that the only way is Jesus. So we pray this prayer after we say Lord Jesus, I am a sinner in need of a Savior. Come into my heart. Fill me like you did those jars to overflowing. I believe you're the Son of God, who rose on the third day make me knew that I might be born again. In Jesus name. A man If you prayed that prayer, we believe you became born again. Jesus filled your heart and this is your Spiritual birthday congratulations God bless you thanks for joining us on week two next week will be week week two of John this was week one and have an awesome rest of the Sunday and we'll see soon

Transcribed by https://otter.ai