Praise the Lord
for this new day. We will gather at 6 PM for our Mid-week services of
fellowship and study. We will gather for a meal at 6 PM and for Bible Study at
6:30 PM. We will be starting a study on the minor prophets. As many of you
know, my mom died on the 1st of September. A service of mourning and
celebration was held on Wednesday (earlier today - India time). It is almost
over by now. The service will start around 11 AM and conclude around 7 PM.
People will come as they come for a wedding celebration. They will share a
special meal. The family was preparing for over 2000 people. My mom was loved
by so many because she loved Jesus first and loved so many. Her life was an
amazing life of witness and service.
Jesus
turns our mourning into dancing. We read in the Gospel of John that Jesus
attended a wedding celebration in Cana of Galilee and performed His first
miracle there. He also went to a funeral service in Bethany where He performed
a great miracle. I believe that, in a deeper sense, in a fallen world, God's
business is joy. Ultimately, He is in the wedding business. It is not just the
grace business, not just the joy business. Jesus is in the wedding business. I
am participating in a Jewish wedding in a few days. I know our Lord
Jesus always provides very fine wine. He makes our drab and boring lives
colorful. He ferments our lives that are often boring and
tasteless.
In
Isaiah 25
the prophet was talking about a great hardship coming upon the people of God due
to their rebellion against Him. But then he said, "God will rescue you. There
will be a Messiah. What will mark him?" Isaiah 25:6, "On this mountain the Lord of
hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well aged
wine. Of rich food full of marrow and of aged wine well refined." What was the
kind of wine that Jesus made at the feast? The very best.
But
that's not all that Isaiah said. He didn't just talk about one who would come
and provide wine. Verse seven of Isaiah
25:
"And he will swallow up this mountain, the covering that is cast over all
peoples." He's not just coming to bring a rich feast with a lot of good wine;
he is coming to remove the covering—that's the death shroud—that is upon the
people. He is going to swallow up death for all people. But when John
described Cana he was not talking about Jesus taking away death. John
4:46: "So
Jesus came again to Cana in Galilee." He went back there again. "He came again
to Cana in Galilee where he had made the water wine. At Capernaum there was an
official whose son was ill." Verse 50, "Jesus said to this official, 'Go, your
son will live.'" The official went back to his own town, met his servants as
they were coming to get him, and the servants said: "Your son has been healed."
The official asked when this happened. They gave the hour and it was exactly
the hour that Jesus told him that his son would be healed. He was given life
again.
That's not all that Isaiah spoke
about. He did not merely say that this one who comes will give much good wine
and life. The Book of Isaiah says He will give life to all people. The
official was a Roman centurion, showing that the gospel was extended to all
peoples. But that's not all that Isaiah says. "He will swallow up death forever
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from their faces."
The
greatest wedding story and the Love story comes to a great culmination in the
book of Revelation, in which it is written at the great consummation as all the
peoples who have trusted in Jesus come together, there will be a great what kind
of feast before the Lamb. At the great wedding feast what will happen? The
people of God, the new Jerusalem, will come down from heaven adorned as a bride
and at that point God will wipe away "All tears from their
eyes."
In Jesus
our great Comforter,
Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment