Episode Transcript
Jesus said in Matthew 28, verse 19, go therefore and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost when welcome to go teach all nations, bringing you Christ's teachings through australian and international speakers. And here is today's presenter, Pastor Anton van Wick. So today I wanted to tell you a story from scripture, or just drawn a story from scripture, but I want to talk a little bit about the role of faith and the role of obedience and how they interact, interchange and why it's important and how that dynamic works.
Because we need faith, right? The just shall live by faith. Faith is taking hold of that big spoon. That's faith that digs into the pot of his grace and his provisions.
We need that spoon. We need faith, right? We need it. In fact, I was reading my favourite author in the week.
She says, practise, practise faith. It's like going. The Greek uses the word gymnat.
So when Paul writes to Timothy, go to the gym and practise faith, faith, faith. Very important. And it's when we know the beauty of God and what God's heart is like, that it's easy to grow in faith, right, for all of us to know God better and deeper.
And then the role of obedience. And some people say it's 50 50 or 100. A hundred.
I need to do this and God needs to do that. So I just thought, because many ask about it and many struggle with it, I thought we could look at that today and study. Here's a beautiful scripture.
And this is the mystery that Paul writes about. If anyone is in Christ, he or she is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come.
Many people think of the caterpillar and the butterfly, and they think that the butterfly say the monarch is just more caterpillar. Big mistake. There's people around us, around the block who have them under a netted area, and within a week the monarchs will come out.
But the butterfly is totally new. It's a new life form and it says the old has gone. So in other words, we're not going to hold on to old stuff when we leave church today, right? It's the mystery, how does it work? What do I have to do? What does God do? So, important day for us to understand this.
The new will come. Does it say that the new has come? Oh, it's beautiful. I love it.
The new has come. It's at your door, it's beckoning you. Zechariah ten whistling at you, signalling at you.
The new has come. It's there. Let go the old, it's gone.
How does it work? How is it all put together? So let's journey a little bit together today. A new creation. Isn't that beautiful? We are a new creation.
That's the heart of our message. He makes new. He rejuvenates the complete makeover of grace.
I love it. So scripture admonishes us to follow Jesus, to follow God, follow the written word, which leads to the living word, and we pick up what we've got and we follow him. We follow him through the valleys.
We follow him up those daunting, dark mountain peaks. We follow him. He called his disciples in Matthew four and they followed him.
That's what it means to be a disciple. And what do we do then? Someone said, it takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. We need courage today, right? Don't give up.
So in scripture, in John, chapter two, if you want to open your bibles, it might be good for you, for your reference, very easy to find Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. All right, so the first three are what we call synoptic gospels. Sin is eye or vision they seen together.
John is a little bit different, but part of the gospels nonetheless. The Bible has 66 books, and they are like stories telling us about God's dealings with man, both description and prescription. The books are divided into chapters to make it easier for us to read and study.
So chapter two of John starts with the first sign that Jesus did in his ministry. Why do I use the word sign and not miracle? Because the Bible says it was the first sign. And a sign is something that shows us what is coming.
Right? If you see a road sign that says 40 k's to Palmer north, you know what is coming in 40 k's, right? So it's like, wow. I'm giving you the beginning here of what you can expect from the ministry and the presence of Christ Jesus in our world. I'm giving you the sign.
The first sign. So there was a wedding. Our brides excited about wedding days.
Those weddings lasted for a week, five days. They were very excited, right? And probably a bit different because I guess there was a lot of arrangement happening from the parents for this wedding to happen. And think of all the preparations.
Wow. Some people go to weddings and they think food. Other people think of seeing friends, whatever.
They had this massive wedding going. Suddenly something happened at that wedding. Who can tell me what happened? They ran out of joy, because wine is a symbol of joy.
The seven miracles or signs of John, each one addresses one of the basic human needs of humanity, the very first one, is the need for joy. And they were running out of joy. And the little bride is full of tears, and she is shy, embarrassed and humiliated because at her wedding, they have run out of celebration.
Grape juice. How would you like it at your daughter's wedding, your family wedding? We've run out of food. How would you feel? No more cassava.
The rott is all finished. The banana juice is gone. People start looking around, but there's a lady there.
Who is the little lady that's at that wedding? Mary. And who's Mary? The mother of. You know, you've got to watch out for these little ladies with their wrinkles and their thin lizzy.
They are powerful. I'm discovering that. And I call them the trust makers or the faith catalysts, the faith builders in this transformation to the new life.
And you sitting here today and you say, pastor Anton, I'm riddled with temptations and I'm riddled with stuff that has kept me in chains for years. I can't get rid of it. I work in prison.
They tell me all the time, I can't get rid of this addiction. I can't throw it off. It's probably come generational, what we heard today, eh? You can even overcome those.
You sitting here and you say, here is a key player in the process of transformation that we need in our churches is a little lady, wrinkled and maybe poor, and a simple life. She sits shyly in the back somewhere. She's a mother and a grandmother.
She is the trust maker. They run to her and they say, we run out of wine. We run out of wine.
She walks over to who? She goes over to Jesus and she says, we've run out of wine. Jesus says, woman, he should have said, mom. He said, that's not my business.
I'm only here as a guest. You know how shy I am. It's not my thing.
She tells the stewards or the waiters, do what he says. Why are mothers like that? They override the circumstantial evidence, right? They override the no's and the can'ts. She's the trust maker.
You need them in the church. You need testimonies in a church. You need people who can stand up and say, in this past week, not last year or 20 years ago yesterday, I experienced the presence of God in a mighty way.
In the classroom, in the workplace, in the factory, in my car, where I put in petrol, where I do shopping at New World. No one reads a newspaper. That's two weeks old.
Do you? Then you're crazy, man. Come, let's pray with you. Afterwards, everyone reads a fresh newspaper, right? You need those little people, the little children who will say, mommy and Daddy, the car's broken on the road.
We scared. Just pray to Jesus. We've run out of money, mommy.
Let's just trust Jesus. Daddy's lost his job. We're just going to trust Jesus.
Here it is. I'm going to go the three steps with you. Stay awake.
You don't want to miss them. All right, so the first player in the transformation is the trust maker, the mother. Then Jesus turns to these stewards and he says to them, fill the six jars with water.
There were six jars standing there, each one holding 75 to 100 litres of water. What were the jars there for? Who knows? The Jews used to use them to wash their. For cleansing.
What kind of cleansing? Inward or outward cleansing? Outward cleansing. Jesus has a great work to do here. There was no joy in those jars.
For outward cleansing, he wants to clean more than toes and fingers. He wants to cleanse the heart, right? He has to do something. There's no joy there.
It's ritual, it's habit, it's custom. It's dead. To get the transformation, we also need men and women, stewards of the word, to take the word of Christ and to do what he said.
And you know what they did? They filled the jars with 75, all six of them to 100 litres. He fills it up. Did the mother do the miracle? No.
Did the stewards or servants do the miracle? No. But did they have a vital part in it? Yes. Could the miracle happen if the mother wasn't there to say, trust him.
Trust him. Put your faith in him. He can do it.
I know him. If there wasn't someone like that, it wouldn't happen. And if it wasn't that, there was a church who took the word as it was given and took the word unadulterated as it was given.
And they live and they take that word to those around them. The miracle cannot happen. That's your part, what? He says do it.
Right. But did you do the miracle? When the mother gave her testimony and the servants ran with the word and they implemented the word, Jesus did the miracle. What is your part? What is his part? Very important.
Right. So Jesus changes the water of ceremony and custom and tradition into the waters of life and joy. Transfer.
You know how many times I've walked into places thinking, Pastor Anton's going to do the miracle today? There's someone with cancer. We're going to anoint and we're going to lay hands on. You know what? I cannot do that.
I can only testify like Mary did and I can only do what the word says and live it. And Jesus will follow up with the miracle. Incredible dynamic in the story.
Don't disregard the testimony of the little ones and the humble ones that sit here today. They are all preparatory to the miracle that's going to follow. They all part of the grand process, the great controversy of the ages.
It's part of this great story, the plot that you say, trust the Lord and others come and they say, the word of the Lord says, and you don't worry about the outcome. You leave it to the one who said, cast your word on the bread on the water. And after many days, who did the miracle.
Don't give up. If you don't see the miracle after you've proclaimed him and you've been faithful to carry the word, he will do it in his time. Amen.
Don't be bent on the miracle. There are people going around Benihin. I don't want to mention too many and others.
People get on a bus and go to Auckland because they're going to Benihan. He's doing. No, no.
We only have the trust and the faith stories and we do what the word says and the miracle. He will do amazing three things. Then we finished.
So what happens to the jars is radical transformation from old, stale habits and customs. Now the wedding feast is alive again because it's filled with wine again. Grape juice unfermented.
Beautiful. Why did he fill six with 75 to 100 litres each? They didn't need that much. But when he does his miracle, he pours out extravagant grace.
He gives you more than you expected. Oh, I think of a lady in Palmer north church, her and her husband. Some of you know them.
They came to me at a camp up in the middle of the island one year, and she had a big burden in her life. Pastor Antoine, I'm dying to have children. The doctors tell me I cannot have children.
I cannot be pregnant ever. Young couple. All I could say is, make it all known to God.
Could I do that? No. Could I lay the hands on them and wash them in oil? And we went home. We prayed with our church for them because they've got family connections.
I remember the day when she phoned Pastor Anton, I'm pregnant. Guess what she added? It's a miracle. The Edwards family, some of you know them.
Great workers for God, carriers of. Not the virus, but the word infectious, contagious that little bride, her shame and her humility is covered by six containers, 75 to 100 litres of juice, much more than they could ever use. God pours out extravagantly.
In fact, you're going to start begging him to close the gates. Hezekiah prayed. God gave him 18 years.
We know so many stories. I wish I could just stop today, tell you some of the stories in prison. You know, some of the most intelligent people I know, I've met in prison under tattoos and heavy sentences.
And I'll tell you when they find faith. And then the miracle. There's one sitting in Palmer north church called Peter drives a big Harley Davidson.
I met another one, a big leader, one of the big gangsters. John Neil Levin. There.
Beautiful home. Pastor Anton. My life has turned around.
What happened? Don't know. It's a miracle. Someone gave me something to read.
Someone shared the word with me. But we can't explain the miracle. And the last one, the master of ceremony says, you people are weird.
You sort of keep the best wine for last. Don't you normally give the best wine first? The wine Jesus gives is the best ever. Ever.
He kept the best for. So on your journey, if you think you've seen some blessings, the best is still to come. Listen.
Looking for a job? What we do is we say, do what Jesus says. Follow the word, be faithful. What will happen? The miracle will happen.
Came all the way from PNG after working here, going back, coming all the way. Teachers died 2012 Lawrence Anthony lives on a farm in South Africa. There, up north, once they founded an injured elephant.
They found an injured elephant on the farm and he loves nature, so they brought healing for the elephant. Someone tried to poach it, wounded it, and they fed it and nurtured it. Then they let it go into the wild.
And every year at a certain season, a herd of 1518 elephants would come to the gate of the farm. Crazy. No one could understand it.
They would stand around for a few hours, maybe a day, then they'll walk back into the bush again. When he died, his wife says he died at the farm that evening at sunset. Would you believe it? Out of the bush came walking this herd of elephants.
They didn't stay for one day, stayed for three days. They just stood there. Then they turned around and they walked back into the bush.
Her words, miracle. How did they know? God knows. He's already cared for your wounds of sin, right? He's often at your gate.
Regularly he's there. If you keep sharing your little testimony and you keep telling people, do what he says, that's the way. And you keep filling the buckets and mowing the lawn and cleaning and you keep sharing the word to neighbours in love and kindness and you keep stretching and extending yourself to give out this word of life.
What's going to happen is the miracle will happen. May God bless you as we help each other to understand this dynamic. And if we don't see again here, may we see each other when all the elephants gather to praise his name.
This message was made available by the Masterton 7th day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit MastertonSda.NZ. This programme has been brought to you by 3ABN Australia radio.
