Water turned into wine

Posted on May 22, 2013 by kenjohnson

Life-spark: Don’t just look at a miracle, look into a miracle.  – John 2:9-11

The Apostle John built the first half of his gospel around seven miraculous signs that Jesus performed.  Each of these signs points beyond the meeting of a temporal human need to something even deeper, richer, and more permanent.  Each of these signs points to the unstoppable aliveness of God, available in His eternal Son, Jesus Christ.

When Jesus turned water to wine, it was a sign, a miraculous sign that pointed to what His life on earth would accomplish.  First, I believe the six water jugs, used for ritual washing in the Jewish religion, represented our religious attempts to clean up our outer, visible lives (Six is the number of man in the Bible). Second, the slave’s obedience to Jesus command represented what happens when any person trusts God for her or his salvation.  Third, the water made wine represented the blood of Jesus that would be shed on the cross.  Fourth, the manager of the Feast represents Father God, who will officiate at the wedding of Jesus and His bride, the church.  Fifth, the master’s approval of the wine represents God’s approval of Christ’s work of atonement. “… and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. (John 2:9, NIV)  This Galilean wedding miracle was a sign, pointing to God’s plan of salvation and the wedding feast of the Lamb.

What can we learn from this first miracle, this sign?  One thing is this.  Don’t give God a glass of water at the final wedding feast on that final day.  Don’t just say, “I really tried to clean up my life.  I hope I lived a good enough life to please you.”  The Father will expect good wine.  Better to say “I know that I didn’t live up to your standards God.  I’m not here on the basis of my righteousness or religious works.  I believe in Jesus and His death for me on the cross.  I believe in the blood represented by the wine I drink when I participate in holy communion.  I saw the sign, and I get it.

One minute life-question: Think on this for 60 seconds, or until you can formulate an answer: Why would Jesus start His ministry with a miracle that previewed His whole plan for saving people?

 

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Do whatever he tells you

Posted on May 13, 2013 by kenjohnson

Life-spark: Obedience is miracle fuel.

Jesus did His first recorded miracle at a wedding.  Wedding were very important in the Jewish culture.  They were actually a week-long celebration, filled with joy and laughter and wine.  The groom’s family was usually responsible for providing the wine.  Scholars say that running out of wine before the week was over was legal grounds for a lawsuit.

Jesus’ mother might have been a close friend of the bridegroom’s family.  Maybe that is why she got involved and tried to get Him involved as it became obvious they were running out of wine.  She went to the servants and gave them five words of advice that are still great advise for you and me today:  “Do whatever he tells you.” (John 2:5, NIV)

They did.  He told them to fill six stone jars with water, and “they filled them to the brim.”  (John 2:7, NIV)  He told them to dip some water out and take it to the master of the banquet, and they did exactly as He said.  An amazing thing happened.  When the master of the banquet sipped from the cup, he tasted top quality wine.  This was the best wine, which was usually served first at a wedding.

The meaning of the miracle is two-fold.  On the surface, Jesus saved someone’s reputation and made for a merrier wedding.  Below the surface, Jesus demonstrated the fact that most miracles are primed with acts of obedience.  The servants filled the jars to the brim and took the liquid to the master of the wedding.  Two acts of obedience preceded the Lord’s first miracle.

So it was with most of the miracles Jesus presided over.  “Look at me.”  “Come here.”  “Seat the people.”  “Go dip in the pool.”  “Take up your mat.”  God’s power is 99% of a miracle, but my obedience is usually the other 1%.  Without Him, I can’t.  Without me, He won’t.

 One minute life-action:  Write this on a piece of paper and put it on your bedside stand or bathroom mirror:  “Do whatever he tells you.”  Tonight, before you go to bed, try to think of one time when you heard His voice and obeyed “to the brim.”

 

 

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“not yet”

Posted on April 29, 2013 by kenjohnson

I was born almost two months premature.  My dad, who has a good sense of humor, saw me, skin and bones, and said to the nurse, “Put him back in.  He’s not done yet!”

The Apostle John chose seven different miracles, seven signs of life, as the framework for his book about abundant aliveness.  The first sign was the miracle of turning water to wine.  This miracle was within whiskers of being a divine “not yet.”

Jesus had chosen four or five disciples.  He was in the blocks waiting for the starting gun of His public ministry to sound.  His mother asked Him to do something special to resupply a wine-less wedding.  That was a totally taboo situation in Jewish social life.  A wedding without wine was legal grounds for suing the groom’s parents.  “Dear woman, why do you involve me?”  Jesus replied, “My time has not yet come.” (John 2:4, NIV)

Jesus didn’t just snap His finger and make a miracle whenever He wanted to.  Later in His ministry He said, “I do only what I see the Father doing.”  And He acted only when He saw the Father acting.  Jesus mentioned the  importance of correct timing over and over in three years of public ministry.  Too many miracles too soon would mean He would die on the wrong day.

Timing is important in life.  It’s important in pregnancy.  In birth.   In poetry.  In sports. In cooking.  In sky diving.  In partnering with God.

Jesus must have got the green light because He went ahead and made some miracle wine.  Timing is important in making wine.

“Not yet” is not easy for me.  I tend to run ahead rather than stay abreast or fall behind.  How about you?  If you missed the mark would it tend to be too late or too early?  One important thing about being a student/follower of Jesus is getting synchronized with God’s schedule.

One minute life-challenge: Write down on thing you’re looking forward to for which it might be hard to hear God say, “Not yet.”  Determine to do your best to obey yellow lights and red lights.

 

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How do you know me?

Posted on April 16, 2013 by kenjohnson

Life-spark: God knows you completely. 

When my son Jeremy was eleven, I took him archery hunting.  I called in a monster bull elk and it stopped only twenty yards from him.  “Dad, I was scared!  I was hiding in that Christmas tree.  I could see him, but I’m so glad he couldn’t see me!”

A man named Nathanael was snuggled under a fig tree when his friend Phillip came to take him to meet Jesus.  Meeting Nathaniel, Jesus promptly declared things about this stranger that sounded like He had known him all his life.

“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.  Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” John 1:48, NIV

Long before Google Earth could have helped Him zoom in on a fig tree in Israel, the Spirit revealed to Jesus not only Nathanael’s location, but his inner condition, his very character.

Jesus Christ knows us because He made us.  The scripture says all things, including people, including you and I, were made for Him and through Him.  (Romans 11:36)  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  John 1:3, NIV

God made us so that, like Him, we want to be known.  The desire to be known by others is a big part of our relational nature.

And God knows us.  He knows who we really are.  Jesus gave Peter new news about himself (verse 42), and then He told Nathanael supposedly unknown things about himself. (verse 48)  Over and over, Jesus told people unknown things about their character and potential, things about who they were meant to be and could be.

Since God knows me even better than I know myself, perhaps I should ask Him what He knows.

One minute life-challenge:  Look at the second hand on your watch.  Ask God if there is anything He knows about you that He wants you to know too.  Still your mind and listen for His voice for a minute.

 

 

 

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Bi-focal God

Posted on April 11, 2013 by kenjohnson

 

Life-spark: God is looking at you through the lens of your potential in Christ.

There is a certain gesture where a person points to himself, then points two fingers at his own eyes, and then points to another person.  “I’m watching you!” Jesus may have made that gesture when Andrew brought his brother, Simon, to him.

And he brought him to Jesus.  Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter.)  John 1:42, NIV 

Jesus told Peter, “I’m watching you.”  When Jesus looks at you, he doesn’t just look at you, He looks into you.  Jesus knows Peter, and He knows the potential that is in Peter more than anyone else does.  He gives Peter a new name.  It was more than a quick nickname.  In that culture your name represented your lineage and your character.  Jesus called Simon ‘Rocky.’ (Peter means rock).   He saw something foundational in Peter that others hadn’t seen in him.

When Jesus looks into us, He sees it all.  He sees the potential and the flaws.  A few years after He first met Peter, Jesus told His disciples they would all abandon Him and Peter said, “I won’t ever abandon you.  I will stay with you through thick and thin, dead or alive.”  Jesus then informed Peter that Peter would deny knowing Him repeatedly that very night.  Jesus isn’t blind to the negative things in us.  He’s bifocal.  He sees as both as we are and as we could be.

Like Peter, you and I were designed with our potential aliveness in mind.  The best thing we can do to increase our aliveness is to get close to the one who sees who we are and who we are meant to be.  “My frame was not hidden from you when I was made … when I was woven together … your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:15-16, NIV

One minute life-action: Ask God to tell you one thing He sees in you today.  Listen all day for His answer.

 

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Come and see

Posted on March 30, 2013 by kenjohnson

Cone and see

  Life spark: Live a “come and see” life.

Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist.  When John pointed out Jesus as “the Lamb of God,” Andrew and a friend began to tail Jesus like two detectives.  Jesus’ divine radar picked up the two tailing subjects and He turned around and asked them point blank what they wanted.  They said they wanted to know where He lived.  “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”  (John 1:39, NIV)

In my grade school years my dad showed me how to line up dominoes and then push the first one over.  I began to understand the idea of a chain reaction.  When Jesus said “come and see,” He initiated a chain reaction of contagious aliveness.  The two disciples spent the day with Him and evidently liked what they saw because Andrew went and got his brother Peter and told Him, “We’ve found the one we’ve been looking for, the Messiah.”  Peter came and saw for himself.

The next day Jesus found another potential disciple named Phillip from the same town as Andrew and asked him to tag along too.  The dominoes were falling.  Phillip called on his friend Nathanael and told Him about Jesus of Nazareth. “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.  “Come and see,” said Philip  (John 1:46, NIV)

A friend of mine from high school was a very gifted athlete.  His life was wrapped up in sports.  Then he got bone cancer and lost a leg.  His life took a nosedive.  He was bitter, angry, hopeless and dangerous.  One day he was reading the local newspaper and he saw a picture of a girl who had a light in her eyes that totally caught his attention.  “I’m going to find out what makes a person’s eyes shine like that.”  He found out that she was a Christ-follower, and after some research, he decided to become a Christ-disciple as well.  Her eyes just said, “Come and see.”

You can live a “come and see” life.  You don’t have to be a theologian to point people to Jesus.  You don’t have to be an arm-wrestler.  Just say, “Come and see.”

One minute Life-challenge: Ask God to let His aliveness shine in your eyes today.  Ask the Holy Spirit to remind you three times today to ‘lighten up.’

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Look

Posted on March 24, 2013 by kenjohnson

 Life-spark: Being humble is being more alive.

 Ten years ago God was teaching me how to get free from myself.  He revealed to me that I was living a self-centered and self-absorbed life.  For two years, I said these four words at least once every day: “It’s not about me.”  At first glance, that statement appears to be self-restricting, but it wasn’t such for me.  This new viewpoint progressively freed me to focus on God and on others, knowing that God loved me and would take care of me.  It changed me from being a person who came up to a person and thought “Here I am” to a person who came up to a person and thought “Here you are.”  I still need periodic re-sets, but my whole view of life has pretty much changed, and it’s made me more alive.

John the Baptist turned the spotlight off of himself and onto Jesus:  The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”  John 1:29, NIV   And it wasn’t just a one-time thing for John: The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”  John 1:35-36, NIV

John the Baptist called Jesus “the Lamb of God” knowing that He was the innocent one who would die for the guilty.  He would give His life to absorb our death penalty.

JTB is a great model for me.  He understood it wasn’t about him.  He reminds me of the little girl who had a birthday party and invited twelve friends.  One of her friend gave her a box of chocolate candy.  She opened the box and gave a chocolate to every friend.  Then she closed the box and put it away.  When her mom pointed out to her that she hadn’t take one for herself, she blushed and whispered, “Oh, I forgot I was here.”

The greatest life I can live is a life that puts others first and points others to Christ.   An others-oriented life is not a sad life, it’s a joyful life.  That’s how you spell joy – Jesus … Others … You.

One minute life-challenge:  Do this two times today: Enter a room with people in it, smile and think (or even say),  “Here you are.”

 

 

 

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In the dark?

Posted on March 20, 2013 by kenjohnson

In the dark?  – March 20, 2013

John the Baptist was causing quite a stir in Israel.  Throngs were going to hear him speak and be baptized by him.  It’s nice when people think highly of you.  Don’t you agree?  We like to be liked.

But John wasn’t hyping himself.  He was pointing to someone eternal who was about to show up on the scene: “’He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”  (John 1:15, NIV)

 The priests and Levites sent messengers to ask John who he was.  He responded by saying who he was not.  “I am not the Christ.”  (John 1:20b, NIV)”   I guess part of knowing who you are is knowing who you aren’t.  Like the guy who said, “There are two things I know.  The first thing is I know there is a God.  The second thing is I know that I am not Him.”

John, who was a hot item in his culture at this time, said he wasn’t the Messiah, he wasn’t Elijah, he wasn’t the prophet, he wasn’t the main attraction.  He was, he said, a harbinger, a herald, a messenger announcing the upcoming arrival of someone greater.  “I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’”  John 1:23, NIV  Here is one great thing about discovering God in Christ: The more I discover about who He is, the more I discover about who I am.

So John the Baptist understood that his mission was to point to another person, “the Christ.”  And Jesus Christ came to show us who God is:

 No one has ever seen God, not so much as a glimpse. This one-of-a-kind God-Expression, who exists at the very heart of the Father,has made him plain as day.  John 1:18, MSG

I love that!  No one has to been in the dark about God.  Jesus Christ makes Him as plain as day.  God is ultimate aliveness.  Jesus has DNA of unstoppable aliveness.  He is visible (“the light”) and audible (“the word”) aliveness. Plain as day.

One minute Life-assignment:  What is one thing about God that Jesus makes as plain as day to you?  Write it down on a piece of paper think about it three times today.

 

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Mulligan

Posted on March 16, 2013 by kenjohnson

 

I admit it.  I’ve been known to “take a mulligan” in golf.  A mulligan is a gracious second chance – a new shot at doing things right.  And although a mulligan represents ‘cheap grace’ to scratch golfers, there is a mulligan mentioned in the Bible that wasn’t cheap at all.

Jesus came into time and space from the only eternally alive family:  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14, NIV

John the messenger says that he and his fellow Christ-followers saw the glory of God is Jesus.  I believe God’s glory to be His brilliant, available aliveness.  Ireneus, the early church father, said an amazing thing: “The glory of God is a man fully alive.”  Jesus became one of us so that we could become fully alive in Him.

Jesus came to give His life so He could offer you and me a mulligan – a fresh shot at life.  Anyone who believes He is who He says He is (HE called Himself “the Life”) and receives His gift of deep, unending aliveness, is born into His eternally alive family.

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God … John 1:12, NIV  I like the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases this in the Message version: “He made to be their true selves, their child-of-God selves.”

‘Reborn’ people has been born back toward who God had in mind when He wired them together in their mother’s wombs. Being alive is being the true me, the child-of-God me.  Being alive is a process of becoming more and more genuine.  And I get another shot at it when my prior attempt goes out of bounds.  It’s undeserved favor.  It’s grace.  But it’s not cheap grace.  Truth is, us getting a new life cost Him His life.

From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.   John 1:16, NIV

Life question: Can you think of one time God gave you a mulligan?  Why not thank Him again?

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Blindfold

Posted on March 13, 2013 by kenjohnson

John the Baptist understood that his primary mission in life was to reflect the radiant Life-light of Jesus Christ. He is five times called a “witness” in the book. He wanted people to recognize who Jesus was and believe in Him as God’s flesh and blood invitation to aliveness.

John the author had the same purpose. The words “witness,” “judge” and “truth” occur over and over in John’s gospel. John writes to provide evidence that Jesus Himself is life. He knew that light can be reflected or rejected. He wasn’t naïve about Christ’s reception:

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. John 1:10-11, NIV

Closing my eyes or wearing a blindfold doesn’t convert light to darkness, but it does stop me from seeing the light. Many of Christ’s own creation will close their eyes to the brilliant aliveness of the one who “gave life to everything.” (John 1:4, NLT) “The world did not recognize him,” and “his own did not receive him.”

Sad words. John 1:10-11. Unaccepted light. Revelation rejected. Thank God for the next verse:

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – John 1:12, NIV

When we see the light and believe, we believe ‘into’ new life. We are born into the beginning of our true selves. God’s grace and our faith carry us into God’s forever family and His unstoppable life.

Life-question: If I were taken to court for being a Christ-follower, would a video of my day today contain enough evidence to convict me?

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