“Leave it to Jesus” 

 Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason -  March 30, 2003

A young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer's showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted. As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car. Finally, on the morning of his graduation, his father called him into his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautifully wrapped gift box. 

Curious, and somewhat disappointed, the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible, with the young man's name embossed in gold. Angry, he raised his voice to his father and said, "With all your money, you give me a Bible?" and stormed out of the house. Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father was very old, and thought perhaps he should go to him. He had not seen him since that graduation day.

Before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care of things. When he arrived at his father's house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart. He began to search through his father's important papers and saw the still gift-wrapped Bible, just as he had left it years ago. With tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages. His father had carefully underlined a verse, Matthew.7:11, "And if ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father which is in Heaven, give to those who ask Him?" As he read those words, a car key dropped from the back of the Bible. It had a tag with the dealer's name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words PAID IN FULL.

How many times do we miss God's blessings because we can't see past our own desires [and “Leave it to Jesus”?

Our text today is found in John 2:1-12  with verse 11 as the focus of our attention: 

 “This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory and His disciples believed in Him.”  (NASB)

Of the 35 miracles recorded in the Gospels, eight are found in the Gospel of John and there are six which are found only in John’s Gospel:  The turning of the water into wine; the healing of the nobleman’s son; the healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda; the healing of the blind man; the raising of Lazarus and the miraculous draught of fishes are all peculiar to John’s Gospel. The other two signs:  the feeding of the 5000 and Jesus walking on the sea are found in other Gospels as well.

Miracles are designated in the Gospels by several words:

The first of these is the term:  mighty works which literally means powers. Examples of its use are found in Matthew 9:20,21,23.  This term for the “putting forth of divine power” is not used in the Gospel of John at all.

The term “wonders” or “wonderful acts” is used for miracles in John 4:48; Matthew 24:24; Mark 13:22.

The term “works” is used for miracles 18 times in John’s Gospel and examples of its usage are found in John 5:20; 36; 7:3; 9:3, 4.

“Signs” is used for miracles 17 times in John’s Gospel in places like John 2:18; 4:48; 6:30; 20:23. The singular form “sign” is found in 2:11, 13; 3:2 and 4:54. A sign is a miraculous act that points to deeds which symbolize spiritual truths.

Why did Jesus do miracles?  Miracles were designed to do several things:  arrest attention, to create wonder and to promote faith. 

Miracles as signs were intended to make men feel the mysteries which underlie the visible order. There was always behind them a spiritual motive and meaning.  As signs, they always pointed to something of spiritual significance.

Let’s look at the occasion of this miraculous sign.

John tells us that it was on the third day that there was a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee.  Following what event did this incident in Jesus’ life occur?  The third day after Jesus began collecting disciples. 

When he went to Cana he had collected six disciples after John the Baptist’s proclamation regarding Jesus of “Behold the Lamb of God”. The members of the group following Jesus at this point are John, his brother James (John was probably the other disciple following John the Baptist with Andrew and we know that his brother James began following Jesus about this time too), Andrew, Simon (Peter), Philip, Nathanael.

The mother of Jesus was there at the wedding.  It would appear that she was there as a friend of the bride or groom’s family and was involved in assisting with the arrangements for the wedding feast.  Jesus on the other hand was an invited guest to the wedding. His disciples were invited by virtue of his invitation. 

A crisis developed that had potentially embarrassing consequences for the newly married couple:  the wine began running out.  A wedding feast would last 7 days if the family could afford it. To fail to have sufficient food for the feast would have been extremely embarrassing.  For whatever reason there was not going to be enough wine for the wedding guests.

Jesus’ mother, Mary, comes to him and says, “They have no wine.”  

What do you suppose she meant by this?  

What do you think she wants Jesus to do?  

Although the obvious answer here is that she expected him to provide more wine; He is a guest in a village not his own. It would not be a normal thing for her to ask him to go out and find wine to purchase or find someone to provide for the lack of enough wine for the feast. Therefore, we must look for something deeper here in this statement of Mary to Jesus. 

We would never have a clue to this had not Jesus answered her with these words:  “Woman, what do I have to do with you? My hour is not yet come.”  We must not get the wrong impression from the usage of the term “woman” here by Jesus.  It sounds a little harsh to us as we read it in English. However, he is speaking with intense tenderness here. How do we know this?  Go to the cross up there on Golgotha’s hill and you find that he uses it again (John 19:26) when he says:  “Woman behold your son.” And then to the disciple, he loved (John) he says, “Behold your mother”.  This is a very loving, caring exchange as Jesus arranges the care of his mother by John.

Now lets go back to the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee:  It is as if Jesus is saying to his mother here at the wedding feast:  “Mother, mine I know what you want but you don’t understand. There are limitations to your understanding of me.  You have been watching over me all these years and now I am moving out into public work; and you are anxious that I shall do something that will reveal the meaning of my personality and mission."

Mary is the one to whom the angel came to announce that she would be the mother of the Messiah.  She realized that she would be recognized by future generations who would call her blessed.  Mary knew who He was.  She knew the secret of His personality as the Son of God and the Son of Man and it was a secret she could never share. She had lived her life under a cloud of suspicion, gossip and misunderstanding. Human nature simply could not understand certain things. And now certainly the desire of her heart was…if only he would show something and prove who He is….

Jesus’ answer to that was “My hour has not yet come.”

Did he mean by that statement that he was not going to do anything about her request?  No!  He goes on to turn the water into wine. This was his first miracle and John calls it the first of his signs. And it is as if he says to Mary, “This sign cannot satisfy the hunger of your heart. It will not produce the effect you desire.

He is saying to her that she must leave it all to Him.  He would take care of it.

It is interesting to think of it like this:  “God seems to do nothing of Himself which he can possibly delegate to His creatures.  He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what he could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye.”  -- C.S. Lewis Studies in Theology.

And yet there are things which we must leave up to Him.  And we need to remember that He is loving, kind and gracious.  He loves us and will care for us.  He has the very best in mind for us and we must be willing to trust him and to allow Him to take care of things in his own way and in his own time.

In this connection, he tells her that his time has not yet come.  

·        In John chapter 7 John says:  “No man laid a hand on him because his time had not yet come.”  

·        Chapter 8 contains this as he teaches in the Temple:  “No man took him because his time had not yet come.”  

·        When the Greeks come to him in John 12, as the end of his ministry is approaching, Jesus says:  “The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified.”  And he goes on to say that the process for the accomplishing of this goes through the cross, the resurrection and the ascension to heaven. 

·         And then in John 17 he says “Father, the hour is come.”  His first statement referring to his hour was made to his mother and his last one was to his father.

What do we note as significant about this hour:  it is the thought of His glory being manifested through his cross.  You will just have to let me take care of it. He says. 

 And then he performed the miracle of turning the water into wine.  And John describes the miracle as a sign. 

John tells us that he manifested his glory.  

·        What that means is that he allowed or caused his glory to shine through, to shine forth so that someone could see it.  

·        In John 21 we are told that he “manifested himself again” to his disciples. This is the same verb as used here in our passage with the same idea of something done of his own will and intention.  He specifically manifested his glory. 

John gives us a summary: “We beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son of a Father full of grace and truth.”  The glory as of the only begotten of the Father shone through that wonder he performed.  The value of this to his disciples who came to the wedding feast with him was that they believed in Him. His disciples made a surrender to Him in complete confidence. What they saw caused them to be led further, deeper in faith in Jesus than they had been before. In a special way they had not realized that depth of faith before. They saw His Glory and they believed in him more deeply.

What does this first sign say to us? 

The manifestation of his glory should produce faith.

 1. It reminds us that we have to leave things to Jesus.  He will have to take care of them for we cannot. We do not have the means to do what needs to be done.  Therefore, we must look to Jesus as our source.  He is the one who will provide for us. He understands the timing of heaven.  There are times when we are ready to go or to do and it is not right yet Heaven’s time.  

Leave it to Jesus.  He will find the way for you. He will take care of you and your needs because he loves you. You may not understand all the things involved but you have enough understanding of things, as they are to be of help to others.  But you and I have to leave it to Jesus.  He and He alone can provide what needs to be done.

2. The second thing it says to us is that faith is essential.  Even the miracles of Jesus were designed to produce faith.  Without faith a man cannot please God.

Let me close our consideration of the first sign of Jesus with these thoughts:  

In the 1850s, the tribes of the Sumatra interior were fierce enemies of the first missionaries. Von Asselt, of the Rhineland mission, pioneered the way among the Battaks. (I abbreviate the story printed in a religious paper in Germany.) There was a darkness that could be sensed round about. More than once the missionary and his wife rose in the night to pray God to send His angels to be with them; so keenly they felt the presence of peril. Then they moved inland, where a tribe was more kindly. One day a chief came to see the missionary from the place where he had first settled. At last the chief said to Von Asselt:
"I have yet one request."
"And what is that?"
"I want to see your watchmen."
"But I have no watchmen."
"I mean the watchmen that you station round your house at night."
"But I have none. I have only a herdboy and a little cook."
The man looked unbelievingly at the missionary. "May I look through your house?" he asked.
"Yes, certainly," said the missionary laughing.
The chief searched everywhere in vain, then he finally explained: "When you first came to us, we resolved to kill you and your wife. Night after night, we went to your house to do it. But when we came, there always stood round about watchmen with glittering weapons. Then we hired an assassin, and he laughed at us. 'I fear no God and no devil,' he said. 'I will get through those watchmen easily.' So we all came together in the evening, and the assassin, swinging his weapon about his head, went on before us. As we neared your house, we remained behind. The assassin went on alone. But in a short time he came running back hastily, and said, 'No, I dare not risk it to go through alone; two rows of big strong men stand there, and their weapons shine like fire.' So we gave it up to kill you. Now, tell me, teacher, who are those watchmen?"

There are many times when we simply have to believe God and leave it up to Jesus to take care of things.  

What is it that you need to place at Jesus’ feet for him to care for today?

What is it that you have to believe him for today?

Whatever it is…you will have to leave it to Jesus.

The assumption here is that we have to be willing to ask Jesus to do it.

We have recently seen a flood of armbands, bracelets, necklaces and so on with the letters W.W. J. D? on them.  The question is -- what would Jesus do? 

He would do a lot more than He is doing now if we would let him and simply ask Him.

He needs the opportunity and the freedom to do it.

In John 4, we find the nobleman whose son is sick and dying. He goes to Jesus and asks him to heal his son. He got what he wanted, but he had to ask for it.  He had to believe Jesus in order to have what he wanted.  There are times when we must believe to receive from God. We have to leave it to Jesus.

 Apply this to your life today…what is happening in your family right now?  What is taking place with your children and your marriage?  What about your job or lack of one and your own personal spiritual life? 

Think about the crises of life that we all can face at any time.  A person who is sick must let Jesus have the opportunity to heal. A person out of work must go to Jesus for help with getting the new job.  When children are out of control or struggling with spiritual issues we have to ask Jesus to do something about it.  And then leave it to Him.  When we have lost a loved one or when there are crises in our marriage relationships or we have lost that all-important job…we have to leave it with Jesus.  And give him the opportunity to provide what we need in that situation. 

 What ever is happening or whatever the pressures are that are affecting these areas of our lives, we have to leave it with Jesus.  We have to let Jesus do it. And he will provide for us.  That is his promise to us and he always keeps his promises.

 As always the choice is ours…Will we leave it to Jesus?

--Dennis Gleason