John 2:1-11 1/16/2022 (As built, Amite #480)
A. Intercession… as in to intercede on somebody behalf… to stand up for someone…
B. It is well before the revolutionary war and I can tell you… it’s stunning… if there is a post card that God could have created it’s the island of Tobago… y’all… if they would have said the garden of paradise is the garden of Tobago I would have to agree… the water is turquoise -esque … the beaches are… sands are as white as you can imagine… the foliage is green… there’s palm trees… it’s absolutely… stunning … it is a postcard of postcards… anybody that goes to Tobago… the hard part is leaving… except for… well captain Paul… this one day in Tobago… it’s well let’s be honest it’s horrific… it’s a shipwreck… here’s how it works… captain Paul runs what they call… pressure cookers… those are ships that go from Britain… to Tobago… they drop off goods… they pick up a lot of goods… and they go from Tobago back to Britain…they don’t get their money… until they get back to Britain… my brothers in Christ when I tell you they call them pressure cookers you got all these men on a ship… you bring all these goods… you get to Tobago… you’re basically trading goods… so that you can go back and sell for a greater margin when you get back to Britain… the problem is man… things get a little heated… things get out of control… this is captain Paul… you’ve got to remember now… from the age of ten… salt water ran in this guy’s veins… by the age of twenty two he already had his own ship… he’s now about twenty-five… and man… he’s leading it into Tobago… he gets the goods. He gets them off… he gets his goods back on… sure enough… one of the guys has decided… I want my money now captain Paul… he said it doesn’t work that way… you and I both know I can’t pay you… but he says well I’m not going back… and Paul said well I can’t help you because I don’t have the money for that… that was the deal… he said well I want my money… they literally throw captain Paul off the ship… he’s got a decision… as soon as he gets out of the water he’s up on the bank… he doesn’t even know what he needs to do… the guy literally intimidated him almost off his ship… he said I can either go back and fight for what’s mine… or I’ll just live with the horror of doing what I’ve done … as a result of it he goes back on the ship… he tells him… this is how it’s going to be… you can stay here… I’m not mailing your money back I’m not sending it with the next ship… you can either follow me back or you can just live here and do without… the guy begins to attack him… captain Paul runs a sword through him and kills him… here’s the law on the island go Tobago… your fault… my fault… nobody’s fault… we’re going to find a tall tree and a short rope… that’s how were solving this problem… from jaywalking to whatever… they have no crime there… nobody’s around to tell about it… my brothers in Christ… what happens man he decides to become a stowaway… he gets on another ship… that is now bound for the colonies… he lands in all places… Virginia… now he’s a stowaway so he can’t be out in public… so he’s trying to decide when to get off the ship… and there’s this older guy who likes to come out… he just loves to watch the ships come in… he loves to see the different flags… likes to watch the different cargo… he likes to see people barter back and forth… everybody knows this guy… he’s an icon… I mean he’s got the intellectual capacity…he speaks different languages…I mean he’s an inventor he does it all… he sees captain Paul sneaking off… he finally just kind of makes his way over… and next thing you know Paul is just stuck… he said man look I just need your help… he said stop… I’m going to help you… he said I’m in the colonies for a reason too… he said tell me your story… so he gives him the whole story… he said look… don’t you ever tell that story to anybody… and from now… your name is John Paul… don’t you ever go back to your other name… and he said this is how it’s going to work… I’m going to help you… I’m going to intercede for you…and someday I’m going to ask you to come back and help me or help your country… sure enough… man it couldn’t have been a year or two… he goes to him and says I need your help… you know who he is… because the fact of the matter is he had great quotes… like one time they asked him when the war is about to break… the revolutionary war… they ask him… so do you want peace… he said look let’s make sure my name is Captain John Paul and here’s my feeling… if you want peace I do too… I don’t want bloodshed… no bloodshed… I’m good with peace… but if you want war I’m going to be an active participant… he said I’m going to tell you… you better give me a ship that’s fast because I plan on going in harm’s way… okay so there are no history majors here okay I got it… he said I have yet to begun to fight… John Paul Jones okay for the six people here who passed history God bless you… my brothers and sisters in Christ the guy who interceded for him was none other than Benjamin Franklin…
C. My brothers and sisters in Christ that is exactly that gospel… the good Lord is at a wedding it’s going to last for seven days… my brothers in Christ the Blessed mother comes to him and make sure you understand… they are out of wine… now stop you’ve got to understand how this works… you and I lived two thousand years ago… you and I get an invitation in the mail.. okay they don’t have the mail but anyway… you get an invitation to come… as a result you and I travel all the way to Canaan… you and I may or may not have sandals… ninety percent of people in their day do not… only the very wealthy… have sandals… as a result of it there is a rite… there is a tradition… that when you come to somebody house they give you a bowl and they have a vase out front and they actually put it in and you wash your hands and your feet. otherwise you got to go out of the way to the river… was your hands and feet and track it all the way back into their house…this is how they used to do it in the temple… so they brought the temple rite to the home…so when you and I get there… just so you understand this too… Christ probably didn’t have sandals either… why do you and I believe this to be true… because at the crucifixion if he would have had sandals that would have been the first thing they would have gone for not his garment… come on his garments already got enough blood and everything else on it… they would have gone for his sandals… I digress… my brothers in Christ so when he gets there you and I would have washer our feet… they are there for seven days.. it’s so important Christ be there… we don’t even know the names of the couple that got married… it’s been two thousand years later… this is why we get married in the church… so that we can be physically in front of him and not on a beach… not in an antebellum home… and not in somebody’s back yard… yes God is everywhere but he’s only physically present in the tabernacle… hence why he shows up at the wedding of Cana… wherever Christ shows up… the Jordan to get baptized… the wedding of Cana to get married… he goes to people’s home to anoint of the sick… he goes to the synagogue and breaks bread… he shows up… you and I have to show up… my brothers in Christ you can’t mail it in… before I lose track… my brothers and sisters in Christ they are there for seven days this is how it works… three hundred and sixty… fifty nine days… three hundred and eighty five days…you want to get married to a young lady… you’ve got one year to get your game together… you got one year to go get a job… build a house… y’all are engaged… the wedding has already been set… as a result… the last seven days is this wedding… you go to the wedding… after it has been proclaimed that your married… then you go to a house… and it’s usually being lit up by people carrying lamps… you remember the story about some of them didn’t have their lamps ready… some of them were out of oil…that’s where he’s going with it… you got to be prepared for however long the journey is from that house to where they’re going… my brothers in Christ think about what’s happened… his mother comes to him and says they are out of wine… he says woman… there’s only one other person been called woman… that’s Eve… in the garden of Eden remember her name is woman… she doesn’t get the name Eve until after they’re kicked out of the garden… that’s why you and I have names… my brothers and sister in Christ if we all still lived in the garden there would be no sin… there would be no reason for names… now we have names… because we’re accountable for our actions… my brothers and sisters in Christ… as a result of it he calls her woman… do you know what she says when he says my hour has not yet come… he’s saying at the crucifixion I will be the seventh jar… for you will stab me… even after I’m dead and I will bleed… that’s why there is six candles…next to that tabernacle… because he’s the seventh candle… he is the light of the world… he is the seventh jar… my brothers and sisters in Christ you know what’s her last words in scripture it’s the wedding of Cana …it’s his first miracle… do whatever he tells you… we never hear her speak again… so when people say we adore her… we just venerate her as the mother of God… my brothers and sisters in Christ go one step further… those six ceremonial jars are the foot washing and hand washing jars… Christ is making sure that you can’t accuse me of hiding six jars somewhere else… he tells them to fill them all the way up to the brim so nobody could say that he added a little bit on the top and that’s what you gave me… my brothers in Christ that’s the miracle behind the miracle that’s when I talk about wisdom and knowledge … you’re starting to learn the truth… that the good Lord is going to do other miracles that you don’t see until you actually grow in maturity… my brother’s in Christ… when she tells him that… he’s saying I’m going to do this miracle for you… but you do understand that the very second this happens… I’m no longer your son… and I’m no longer quote mom and son… you’re now woman and I’m the new Adam… you’re the new Eve… it’s the marriage… foretold by Isaiah… my brothers and sisters in Christ… that’s how powerful… ask yourself… wait a minute you’re God… all of a sudden you come back in the world what’s going to be your first miracle… well maybe… if you want to tell people man I’ll tell you what cure a leper.. if you do a leopard then everybody would say man what powers… maybe it would be the one on the boats when you rebuke the wind… to let everybody know that nature is under your control… better yet… maybe your first miracle would be the blind see… I’ll tell you what get a dead person to rise… man all of a sudden that’s a great miracle… why does he chose this one… to be his dominant miracle… he does it because he’s telling you that this is where salvation will come… it will come from my side… as the seventh jar.. it will be the mass… and that will be the miracle of miracles… that I will feed you long after I’m gone… and for all eternity… for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink… that’s why he chooses that as his first miracle… my brothers and sister sin Christ go back in scripture… all of our best players are people who intercede… he intercedes because the blessed mother intercedes… my bothers in Christ if I were to ask you… don’t raise your hands you don’t have to answer it’s rhetorical…if I were to ask you… outside of the wedding of Cana when was the first intercessory prayer… not the old testament… in the new… when was the first intercessory prayer… go back and think… Mary goes all the way form Nazareth to the town of Judah… she goes there because Elizabeth is pregnant… when she walks into Elizabeth’s house… at Mary’s greeting the baby leaps in her womb… in other words John the Baptist gets baptize when Mary walks in and greets them… Elizabeth gets baptized and recognizes her as the mother of God when she intercedes for them… when she greets them… that’s the first intercessory prayer…all of our best players are always speaking up for other people…
D. Go back my brothers and sisters in Christ think about… go back in Job… here’s Job who’s had an absolutely horrific day… he’s lost all his camels… all his sheep… and all his cattle… and I’m not talking a few head here and there…it’s hundreds of animals… he hadn’t even sat down and had breakfast yet… then the bad news comes… seven sons and three daughters… all gone… the only thing out of Jobs mouth is naked I came in to the world and naked Willi return… you know what’s amazing… three of his friends… Eliphaz… I think Bildad… it doesn’t matter who the other guy is… has decided… that man you need to curse God… they rail on Job to get him to turn because look how can a loving God allow this to happen… where’s your God now… well all of a sudden the world does turn… and Job gets blessed even more so… as a result when those three guys go to pray to God… do you know what he says to them… oh no… don’t you pray to me… you get Job to intercede… I will hear his prayers… my brothers and sisters in Christ… it happens through all of scripture… people are always stepping up… my brothers in Christ did Mary not step up for Elizabeth… and John the Baptist… did saint Paul not step up and go from Saul to Paul… to intercede for people… gentiles… you and I…if we don’t have Paul I’m not sure where we stand in the church…
E. Well now here you and I sit two thousand years later my brothers and sisters in Christ… how good are you and I at interceding for other people… oh… oh…I see it… I see it in your face… no father you don’t understand I have been praying for my sister… I’ve been praying for my child… I’ve been praying for my grandchildren… my boy can’t get out the woods if you pulled him by a hand… every time I pray for him something else happens… we’re in alcohol… we’ve got drugs… we’re about to go to prison… we’re pregnant… we got this problem… we can’t pay our bills… we’re spending money like a bunch of drunken banshees… let me tell you what…stop… no prayers for nobody… nobody gets nothing… now… we’re good… because now we’re going to find out where the bottom really is… and you thought your child or your grandchild… or your spouse… or your family… your friend… is falling… you stop praying for them… now you and I are going to find out now where bottom is… your prayers have kept them from falling all the way… what you don’t understand… is that if you stop praying… nobody is praying behind you… you are it… so when you get mad… and you say father if I pray one more prayer I’m going to spit… spit… now get back in the game because we’re getting killed out here… oh no father…. no… father I’m not… I’m going to go home I’m going to have a few drinks I’m going to kick my neighbor’s dog… I’m going pout… drink… kick your neighbor’s dog…any order you want… and go pout… get back in the game… because the day you decide to stop praying… nobody’s praying… my brothers and sisters in Christ think about it… you and I are of a generation where sometimes prayer starts to fall off the back of the truck… it’s the first thing we jettison…but the truth of the matter is… we need to maintain that… it should be the last thing we jettison…instead of trying to put our hands around things we need to start putting our hands together… my brothers in Christ you need to start praying for your children… your grandchildren…and for your spouse… I’ll tell you what.. this week… okay that’s why too much… today… today… you cannot pray for yourself… at all… you can only pray for others… and let me tell you something… don’t say father I just can’t pray for Francis… you think he’s going to get better without it… my brothers and sisters in Christ you honestly believe the person that you hate the most… the one that could drive you to drinking… by the mention of their name… they could rob your peace as your sitting out on a beach enjoying the beautiful sunset…nobody’s out there… you got that big old glass of holy water you’re just enjoying they… somebody comes out and mentions that one name… you want to pick up your umbrella… wrap it around their neck… drag them into the gulf… plant it in the bottom and walk away smiling… when somebody has that much control over you… may I suggest if you ever want them to change to pray for them… because that’s the only way they’re getting out of it… when you learn to pray for them… they no longer have an attachment… pretty soon you start feeling sorry for them… my brothers and sisters in Christ I’m telling you… you’ve got to pray for other people…
F. And I leave you with the words of Mark Twain… he said… and I’m paraphrasing because I don’t remember the exact quote… he said kindness… intercessory for somebody… prayer… kindness… is something that the deaf can hear… and the blind can see…
G. Amen…
