​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday, September 22, 2019)
Rev. Dr. Mouris A. Yousef, Pastor ​

Hosea 10:12-15; John 2:1-11
 
A preacher was finishing up his sermon on a Sunday morning and with great expression he said, “If I had all the beer in the world, I’d take it and throw it into the river.”  With even greater emphasis, he said, “And if I had all the wine in the world, I’d take it and throw it into the river.”  And then finally, he said, “And if I had all the whisky in the world, I’d take it and throw it into the river.”  He sat down after he finished his sermon, the worship leader then stood very cautiously and announced with a smile, “For our closing song, let us sing hymn #365: “Shall We Gather at the River.”
 
We have been looking at the “Seven Signs” recoded to us in the gospel of John.  You may remember from last week that the four gospels recorded thirty-six miracles that Jesus performed. John’s gospel mentioned only seven.  Obviously, Jesus did more miracles than what is recoded in the gospels.  Listen to these words from John 20:30-31 “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.  But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
 
Miracles or Signs?
As I mentioned last week, John never calls the mighty acts Jesus did “miracles” but “signs.”  The thing about “a sign” is that it points to something beyond itself.  John is more than a story-teller—John had a theological motive behind everything he said!  Signs in John’s gospel are pointers.  They point from themselves to a deeper, more spiritual meaning.    Therefore, through these signs, John is showing us that what Jesus did in the physical realm is also able to do in the spiritual realm.  For example, when Jesus heals a blind, it is a reminder that He can heal our spiritual blindness.  When He fed the five thousand with very little, this is a reminder that He is the Manna that came down from heaven to fill our lives.
 
The seven signs recorded to us in John are: 1. Changing water to wine (2:1-11); 2. Healing the nobleman’s son (4:46-54); 3. Healing the lame man at Bethesda (5:1-18); 4. Feeding 5,000 (6:5-14); 5. Walking on water (6:16-21); 6. Healing the blind man (9:1-7); and 7. Raising Lazarus (11:1-45).
 
The Wedding at Cana
So, we are still with Jesus and His disciples at Cana in Galilee; just about 4 miles north of Nazareth where Jesus grew up.  Jesus was invited along with His disciples and Mary, His Mom, to a wedding.  May be the bride or the groom was a relative to Mary or one of the disciples.  At a certain point, Mary finds out that they have run out of wine.  This is a big embarrassment to the family.  Mary goes to her son, Jesus, and asks Him if He can do anything about this.  Jesus addresses the situation of the need for more wine at the party, and–poof! – there, He makes some!  So Jesus turns water into wine, and, there you go, no more wine shortage.  What we see is that Jesus clearly has power from heaven to do this mighty miracle.  No one else could do this.  
 
This first sign is loaded with lessons.  So, how is this sign relevant for us today?  Last week I highlighted one short thought.  It had to do with the fact that God meets us where we have run out.  God meets us in the place of our need.  A couple more thoughts for this morning.
 
First: We All Need Jesus
Jesus is not a crutch for the weak.  The beauty of this sign, however, comes from the fact that it tells us in a very direct way that we all need Jesus.  In our best we need Jesus!  In our worst, we need Jesus.  In our ups and downs we need Jesus.  The “sign” took place at a wedding!  We all know how long and how hard it takes to plan for a wedding.  We spend countless hours planning hoping that everything will be just right!  In the same manner we plan for weddings, we also plan for our future, for the future of our families, and for the future of our children.  But you know what? You never know what is going to happen.  Right? 
 
Surprises come all the time.  The bridegroom never expected that he would run out of wine. One of the most embarrassing situations that could ever happen on that particular day!  It is great to plan for a great wedding, a secure future, but do not forget to invite Jesus into the center of all of that.  When Jesus is invited, miracles take place.  It is important to make room for Jesus in our lives.  The Prophet Hosea chapter 10:12 reminds us that “It is time to seek the Lord until He comes and showers righteousness on us.”  I believe that our homes, our culture today need Jesus more than ever.
 
Second:  An Invitation Leads to Transformation
This first sign in John’s gospel tells that in the face of such need, Jesus turns six empty stone water jars into wine.  What a difference Jesus makes in the house He dwells.  What a difference Jesus makes in a heart that seeks His will.   What a difference He makes in a ministry of a congregation that abides to His Word!  What a difference Jesus makes when we make a room for Him in the busyness of our lives.
 
 Jesus came to transform the world.  We often think of transformation in terms of opposites.  We think of the ugly turned beautiful, the weak turned strong.  Sometimes we think of transformation as a change to something unrecognizable like the caterpillar transformed into a winged butterfly or the transformer toys where a boat becomes a robot.  And it is true that God can and does transform people in those ways.  In fact, the gospel writers recorded the transformation of Zacchaeus, a despised tax collector; of Nicodemus, a respected Pharisee; of the woman who caught in adultery, a ruined woman.  Jesus transformed the destiny of the thief on the cross, and so many others.
 
But there is another type of transformation that is modeled at Cana.  At Cana, the object of transformation is something that is already good and pure and necessary.  There is nothing that needs fixing in the water.  Water is good.  The message of transformation at Cana is not about making the bad good, but about making the good even better. Transformation happens when we trust and obey. In John 2:5, Mary urged the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 
 
Friends, I believe that God’s intention is to fill the emptiness of our lives.  When we perceive our emptiness, we should turn to Jesus.  God wants to bring us the top quality as we submit to the Lordship of Christ.  Friends, God still has so much in store for us.  Let’s take hold of it.  So, come to the party!  You are invited.  It’s the wedding feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom, which will have no end.  Not just for a week, but for an eternity, this party will go on.  Jesus saves the best for last.  He gives it free of charge.  And always more than we can measure.  In the Name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit!  Amen!  

1 Kings 17:8-16; John 2:1-11
 
As I was working on this passage from John chapter 2, I couldn’t help but think of the old story about the Irish priest who was driving down the interstate and got stopped for speeding.  The state trooper smelled alcohol on the priest’s breath and then saw an empty wine bottle on the floor of the car.  He asked, “Father, have you been drinking?”  “Just water,” says the priest.  The trooper said, “Then why do I smell wine?”  The priest looks at the bottle and says, “Well there you are!  He’s done it again!”  I don’t believe Jesus did it again, but I do believe the Lord performed a miracle in John chapter 2 when He turned the water into wine. 
 
There are approximately thirty-six recorded miracles of Jesus given in the four gospels. Jesus performed obviously more miracles than this but in those four gospels there are thirty-six of them recorded. When you come to the gospel of John you will find that there are seven miracles Jesus performed given to us in his book.
 
While omitting many of the miracles reported in the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), John chose seven, apparently to help show that Jesus is the Messiah.  Please look at John 20:30-31 to know why John carefully chose these seven miracles. The seven miracles in John are: 1. Changing water to wine (2:1-11); 2. Healing the nobleman’s son (4:46-54); 3. Healing the lame man at Bethesda (5:1-18); 4. Feeding 5,000 (6:5-14); 5. Walking on water (6:16-21); 6. Healing the blind man (9:1-7); and 7. Raising Lazarus (11:1-45).
 
These miracles, as I mentioned, were selected for a specific purpose. You remember John said, “These have I written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through His name.” And so John had a spiritual purpose in mind when he included the particular miracles that Jesus did.  That’s why in the eleventh verse, at the climax of this miracle, John adds, “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.”  You see, the signs accomplished exactly what John said the signs were intended to do.
 
Miracles or Signs?
John never calls those miracles “miracles” but “signs.”  The thing about “a sign” is that you need to be able to read it … you need to be able to understand what it means or what it’s pointing to.  The thing about “a sign” is that it points to something beyond itself.  When Jesus does a miracle, there’s something more going on than just a power display.  It’s not just to show that Jesus is a real powerful guy, even a real powerful guy sent from God -- although it does tell us at least that much.  The “signs” tell us even more about who Jesus is, His identity, His mission, the purpose of His life, death, and resurrection.
 
They’re kind of like pointers, they point from themselves to a deeper, more spiritual meaning.  Through these signs, John is showing us that what Jesus did in the physical realm He is also able to do in the spiritual realm.  Far more important than miracles in the realm of nature are miracles in the realm of the spiritual. It is a miracle indeed when God created the world; it is a far greater miracle when God creates a new life in a human heart.  John is more than a story-teller—John had a theological motive behind everything he said! 
 
The Wedding at Cana
So, what happened in our story “sign”?  Jesus is going to a wedding. It’s at Cana in Galilee, not that far from Nazareth, where Jesus grew up “about 4 miles away”, or from Capernaum, where now Jesus was making His headquarters. How He got invited to the wedding is not directly stated, but it may have been because his mother was a friend of the family.  So, Mary is there, Jesus is there, and Jesus brings along his disciples.
 
Mary finds out that the big wedding celebration, which, by the way, would last for days–she finds out that they have run out of wine.  That’s not good.  That would be a disaster, an embarrassment, and would really put a damper on things.  So she goes to her son, Jesus, and asks Him if he can do anything about this.  Apparently, she realizes that her son has the authority and the power, from God, to do some pretty amazing things. And she trusts her son to do the right thing in this situation.  So she tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” That is faith speaking. “Do whatever he tells you”–that’s pretty good.  So Jesus addresses the situation of the need for more wine at the party, and–poof! – there, He makes some! So Jesus turns water into wine, and, there you go, no more wine shortage.  What we see is that Jesus clearly has power from heaven to do this mighty miracle.  No one else could do this.
 
This first sign is loaded with lessons that are so relevant to our lives today and speak powerfully to our circumstances.  Let me very briefly highlight just one lesson today and I will say more next Sunday.
 
First: When Your Supplies Run Out, Invite Jesus
We often turn to God, when our supplies run out.  We turn to God when we run out of strength, when we run out of money, when we run out of options.  We turn to God when we run out of passion, when we run out of patience, when we run out of perseverance.  We turn to God when we run out of hope or run out of joy. We turn to God when we’re feeling beat-up and burned out. We turn to God when the game is up, when our sin has found us out, when we realize that we need help.  We turn to God when the gauge of our emotional or psychological tank is way past the red line marked “E” for “empty.”  We turn to God when we hit rock bottom. We turn to God when we run out of something.  The good news of the gospel is that God meets us where we have run out, that God meets us in the place of our need.
 
In the sign of Jesus’ changing water into wine we see that God meets us in that place where we have run out.  I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had over the years with people outside of church who, when they find out that I’m a Minister (which sometimes immediately kills the conversation J), make a comments like, “Yeah, I really should get back to church, but there are things in my life I need to fix first” or “I haven’t been to church in so long... I’m sure God’s not very impressed with me” or “I’m not exactly the kind of person you want at church.”  At times I would guess you and I may share these same sentiments.  And yet it is exactly people like us who should feel welcomed to church because Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, to restore the broken, to give His life in order to bring us back to God. Christ meets us in that place where we have run out.  I will stop here today and see more on the same sign next Sunday.  To God be the glory.  Amen!

​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday, September 15, 2019)
Rev. Dr. Mouris A. Yousef, Pastor

Isaiah 5:1-7; John 15:1-8

I cannot believe we’ve already come to the end of our summer sermon series, “The Seven I am Statements of Jesus.”  Last Sunday, we looked briefly at the last statement found in the gospel of John chapter 15 “I am the True Vine … You’re the branches.”  We talked about the setting of the last “I am” statement and I said that the setting of John chapter 15 goes back to John chapter 13.  Jesus is in Jerusalem with His disciples; it’s Thursday night, the day before Jesus will be crucified; and Jesus and His disciples are having the last dinner together — so everything we read from John chapter 13, verse 4 all the way through John chapter 17 is a long conversation that took at the dinner table, after dinner, on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, and at Gethsemane.
 
I can imagine Jesus and the disciples going through the darkened streets of the city and then passing beyond the walls into the surrounding countryside.  During this time of year, mid-April, the grape vines would be beginning to blossom with the promise of a fresh harvest.  As Jesus walked with His disciples, perhaps He reached out and took a vine in His hands and used it to teach as an object lesson to His followers.  He wanted to teach them about the most important and vital relationship they will have in their lives ~ their relationship with Him.  Three observations as we wrap up our study of John 15.
 
First: Abide in Jesus and Stay Connected
John chapter 15 is an amazingly Christo-centric chapter.  Jesus uses the pronouns “I”, “me” and “my” ...71 times in this chapter.  What you and I need to know is that we are nothing without Christ.  He is our Alpha and Omega, our beginning and our end.  Therefore, what we need the most today is to abide in Christ.  “Abide in me as I abide in you”, says Jesus in John 15:4.  In the following verse, John 15:5, Jesus also says “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”
 
Abiding in Christ, remaining in Him, and staying connected to our source of power is crucial.  It also implies some sort of response from our part.  The vine is always there for the branches.  Our responsibility is to abide in Christ, to sojourn with Him, to follow where He leads.  In The Message, a simple and modern translation of the Bible, Theologian Eugene Peterson translates John 15:4 this way “Live in me.  Make your home in me, just as I do in you.” 
 
In the past, God visited with His people.  He visited Abraham, Moses, and Elijah, but in Christ, God dwelt among us.  John 1:14 states, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  Psalm 84:4 “Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.”  Lots of people today do not mind “visiting” but they do not “dwell.”
 
At this point, you may ask yourself, how can we abide in the Lord?  In responding to a question from Judas, not Judas Iscariot, Jesus said in John 15:23, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.  My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”  When our Lord says, “Abide in me”, He is talking about the will, about the choices, and the decisions we make.  We must decide to do things which expose ourselves to Him and keep ourselves in contact with Him.  Let me ask you, what choices do you make that enable you to remain in Him?  What decisions do we make to abide in Christ, to stay connected to the vine?  As any other relationship, our walk with the Lord requires attention and maintenance.
 
The message of John 15 is simple.  Abiding in Christ is not an option.  Spiritual vitality does not come from us.  It comes from Christ.  C. S. Lewis illustrated what this means: “A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else.  Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself.  He is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, the food our spirits were designed to feed on.  There is no other.  God cannot give us joy and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.  There is no such thing.”  Stay connected! 
 
Second: Be Ready for Pruning
John 15:2 states that God will remove every branch from the vine that bears no fruit, but every branch that bears fruit God prunes to make it bear more fruit.  God got a pruning shears in His hand.  He is in the business of cutting off any branch that bears no fruit and pruning any fruit-bearing branch so that it bears more fruit.  While this image may be scary to some of us, I want you to remember that gardeners prune their vines with extreme care.  There is no threat here in the picture of God as the gardener who prunes His vines.  There is no warning of “produce or else!”  Instead we are assured that God, the gardener, actively tending His vineyard, is fully committed to bring us to maximum fruitfulness.  God’s pruning work benefits us; it doesn’t threaten us.
 
At a certain time of the year, gardeners cut off certain “sucker shoots” from vines.  Those shoots will never bear fruit.  They will grow leaves abundantly, but they will never produce fruit.  If allowed to remain, these shoots will actually sap the life of the vine and greatly reduce the quantity of fruit it will bear.  God does the same thing with us.
 
Third: Those Who Receive Must Give
Those who’ve received the life of God must live it.  We have to let it flow through us or the God-life in us dies.  If you’ve ever been to Israel, you know there’s a real contrast between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.  The Sea of Galilee is full of water and full of life.  There are trees and vegetation.  There is commercial fishing in there.  But the Dead Sea is just dead.  There are no fish in it and no life around it.  The Sea of Galilee is at the top of Israel and receives waters from the mountains of Lebanon.  They all come into the top of it and then it gives out at the bottom.  That water flows down through the Jordan River and enters into the Dead Sea.  The Dead Sea takes in, but it never gives out.  That’s why it’s stagnant.  The point is, there must be a balance in our lives.  We receive and we give.  There must be a balance between the input and output.  There must be a balance between the inflow and the outflow.  The problem is: some believers are like the Dead Sea, always taking in but never giving out.  Let’s not be another dead sea. 
 
Friends, in this series, I wanted us to know that all we need is found in the GREAT I AM.  Jesus is the Bread of Life (John 6:35, 48); He is the Light of the World (8:12, 9:5); He is the Gate for the Sheep (10:7); He is the Good Shepherd (10:11); He is the Resurrection and the Life (11:25); He is the Way, the Truth and the Life (14:6); and He is the True Vine (15:1).  He is the Great I am.  He is our need today and every day.  Amen!

​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday, September 8, 2019)
Rev. Dr. Mouris A. Yousef, Pastor 

Psalm 80:8-11; John 15:1-8
 
The Greatest After-Dinner ConversationThe setting of John chapter 15 goes back to John 13 where Jesus is in Jerusalem with His disciples; it’s Thursday night, the day before Jesus will be crucified; and Jesus and His disciples are having dinner together — so everything we read from John chapter 13, verse 4 all the way through John chapter 17 is the conversation that happens after that dinner.  Judas Iscariot leaves the dinner in chapter 13, verse 30, so by the end of chapter 13 what we are reading is a conversation that is happening just between Jesus and His 11 closest friends. 
 
In John chapter 14, there are different disciples who are part of this conversation with Jesus — different disciples were taking turns asking Jesus questions. First, it’s Peter, then Thomas, then Philip, then in verse 22, it’s the other Judas (not Iscariot).  And just to get the image right in your minds, the disciples are all going around asking Jesus questions because they’re all sitting around the dinner table together — and John, the disciple who wrote this, was sitting there with them (actually sitting beside Jesus, we read in chapter 13:23–25). 
 
The last verse in John chapter 14 tells us that Jesus and the His disciples are getting ready to leave the upper room in Jerusalem where they had dinner and celebrated the Passover.  They are headed to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus will pray His great High Priestly prayer and will later be arrested by the mob led by Judas.  Apparently, Jesus speaks the words which make up John chapters 15 and 16 in route to the garden.
 
So as I mentioned, John 15 and 16 are after dinner discourse.  Sharing meals with others is a good thing, and what’s best about it really isn’t the food, but it’s the conversation that happens around the food.  Think about the times you’ve had dinner with friends, either recently or just in general — think about after-dinner conversations.  That’s where friendship happens. After-dinner conversations are important, and that is absolutely the case here in John 15. 
 
Jesus the True Vine
It is in this context that the Lord Jesus Christ concluded His seven “I am” Statements.  The seventh “I am” statement is found in John 15:1, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.”  The last “I am” statement pictures Jesus as the “True Vine.”  I can imagine Jesus and the disciples going through the darkened streets of the city and then passing beyond the walls into the surrounding countryside.  During this time of year, mid April, the grape vines would be beginning to blossom with the promise of a fresh harvest.  As Jesus walked with His disciples, perhaps He reached out and took a vine in His hands and used it to teach as an object lesson to His followers.  He wanted to teach them about the most important and vital relationship they have in their lives ~ their relationship with Him.
 
 The Image of a Vineyard in the Bible
When Christ called Himself the “True Vine,” He used an image that was very common and very familiar to His disciples.  Nothing was more obvious to first century Jews than a vineyard.  They lived, walked, slept and ate in the very shadow of the vine.  The Israelites calendar was governed by growing season: In the winter was pruning of the vines; spring welcomed the first buds which were followed by vigorous growth of vines in summer; heavy clusters of grapes came in fall harvest.
 
For that reason, the vineyard became a preeminent symbol of God’s care for His people.  Frequently in the Scripture, especially the books Psalms, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, Israel is described as “a choice vine”, brought out of Egypt to serve the Lord.  In Psalm 80:8 we read, “You transplanted a vine from Egypt.”  The prophet Isaiah writes these words in Isaiah 5:1-2 “I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard:  My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.  He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines.  He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well.  Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.”  Isaiah 27:2-3 also says, “In that day, sing about a fruitful vineyard: I, the Lord, watch over it; I water it continually.  I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it.”
 
And although God is the wise gardener, diligently caring for His vineyard, preparing the ground, planting the grapevines, Israel failed to be fruitful.  The good vine planted by God was to bear the fruit of an obedient life, but it produced only sour grapes.  The gardener’s disappointment is clear.  Jeremiah wrote in 2:21: “I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock.  How then did you turn against into a corrupt, wild vine?”  Israel had been an unproductive vineyard, unfaithful to her covenant with the Lord.   But thank God that Jesus is the True Vine.  He is “true” because He is perfect, complete, and enduring.  He is the genuine in contrast to that which is fictitious, counterfeit, imaginary, simulated or pretentious.  Having covered the context, the importance of the vineyard image in the Bible, let me conclude with one short introductory observation for us this morning as we look together at the last “I am”, and, Lord willing, we shall say more next week.
 
The Father Has Done It All
The image of Jesus being the “True Vine” and we, the believers, are the branches, is an image that is so rich in meaning and full of practical implications.  “I am the true vine, and my Father is the Gardner.”  Our God is an amazing God.  He’s the one who is tending to the vine.  He’s doing the pruning.  He’s cleaning it up.  He feeds the vine.  He protects and watches over His vineyard.  In other words, the whole thing is His doing.  All of this. The whole thing.  He has done it all.  We’re just branches, man.  We’re just branches on a vine that is truer and better than anything we could ever dream of.  We’re just glad to be here.  We are part of this thing that is so much bigger than us and beyond us and not up to us.  The gardener is the one who is handling all this — and He’s the one who gets the glory.  And that gives us joy.  And it’s in that joy that we are invited to this Table this morning.  Amen! 

​First Presbyterian Church of Blackwood                          
21 E. Church Street
Blackwood, NJ 08012                                                                              
Sermon Notes (Sunday, September 1st, 2019)
Rev. Dr. Mouris A. Yousef, Pastor