Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Greetings friends and new listeners. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today on the Sound of Faith, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Today's message, "My Father's House," takes us from an eager 12-year-old Jesus who told his parents, "I must be about my Father's business," to the 30-year-old man who performed his first miracle at a wedding and shortly thereafter shocked everyone when he cleansed the temple of the moneychangers in his righteous indignation. And it's time for us, God's sons and daughters, to rise up in righteous jealousy for true worship to be restored and declare, "This is my Father's house."

R. G. Hardy: So now we are in John, the second chapter, and we're going to come to Jesus' beginning of his miracles and his ministry. And the third day, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. And both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage. And when they had wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, "They have no wine." And Jesus said unto her, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" There he goes with a question. "What have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come."

His mother said unto the servants, "Whatever he says unto you, do it." And there were set there six waterpots of stone in the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. Jesus said unto them, "Fill the waterpots with water." And they filled them up to the brim. And he said unto them, "Draw out now and bear it unto the governor of the feast." And they bear it.

And when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made into wine and knew not whence it was, but the servants which drew the water knew, the governor of the feast called the bridegroom and said unto him, "Everyone at the beginning does set forth good wine. And when men have well drunk, then that which is worse. But you've kept the good wine until now."

This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory and his disciples believed on him. So, Jesus performed his first miracle at a wedding. Let me tell you something: a Jewish wedding is a festive thing. I know all weddings are, but the Jewish wedding, there's a lot of dancing. And I don't mean that slow dance type of thing. I mean they're kicking their legs up, they're going around in circles. They lift the groom up on a chair, they lift the bride up on a chair, and they're dancing all around with them up on the chair and everybody's it's a happy thing. It's a very happy, joyful thing, a Jewish wedding.

And the thing about it is a Jewish wedding reception in those days lasted seven days. Seven days they celebrated. Amen. Remember when Laban tricked Jacob and he didn't get Rachel the first time, he got Leah? And when he found out he was so upset, what did his father-in-law say? He said, "Give Leah her week and then I'll give you Rachel." In other words, don't say nothing. Come on, let her have her week of celebration. Don't ruin it for her. I'm going to give you Rachel at the end of the week. I'll give you Rachel, but let Leah have her own bridal reception.

So they lasted a week. And so there's nothing more embarrassing than to run out of food at a reception or to run out of drink at a reception, to run out of wine. And so this is what happened. Now, Jesus was there and his disciples were there. And if Mary was there, you can kind of count on the fact that all his brothers were there and his sisters were there because, obviously, this is someone they knew very well. It may have even been a cousin or someone they got married. And so the whole family would have been there at this reception.

And so when they ran out of wine, she came to him. Now, all the wedding guests, they would have just assumed as they had done for 30 years, that Jesus was Joseph's son, the carpenter's son. That's all they saw him as. But Mary knew better. And so when she saw they had run out of wine, and not wanting the bridegroom and the governor to be like, you know, people we hire today, what do they call them? Wedding planners? Not wanting the wedding planner to be embarrassed because he's miscalculated how many guests for seven days, mind you.

Maybe somebody got greedy, but not wanting them to be embarrassed, she went to Jesus and said, "They've run out of wine." And he looked at her like, "And you're telling me this why?" What do you mean? Why are you telling me? "Mine hour is not yet come. It's not time for me to start my ministry yet." Now, here's the thing: at age 12, he was ready to start his ministry. At age 12, he's ready. "Don't you know why I'm here? I must be about my Father's business."

We don't get to hear the answer that they had. I'm sure that Joseph and Mary, if not both, probably said, "Now, son, you're right. You need to be about your Father's business. But right now, you're coming home with us. You're 12 years old and you're coming home. And you've got 18 more years to work in that carpenter shop. So get home and put your apron on." Now he's age 30. He's matured in favor with God and man. He's had to have muscles because he grew physically. He would have been the perfect specimen, plus he was a carpenter.

Which means he looked at carpenters, real carpenters have muscles because back then, they didn't have all those electric saws and all that. They had the kind they had to make by hand and use your muscle. Amen. And so here he was. And now he's 30, been baptized, been tempted, passed all the tests, qualified. "It's not my time yet." See, there's something about maturity that makes you a realist. Maturity makes you a realist. That's why you don't put someone young in a position.

I don't care how saved they are, but if they're young, just like and you couldn't get anymore righteous than Jesus. You couldn't get anymore godly than him. You couldn't get anybody more called than Jesus, but he wasn't ready. But when he was 30, when he really was ready, he wasn't sure he was ready because then he understood the great, great responsibility that was put upon him. And he did not want to fail because he realized to whom much is given, much is required.

And when you put too much on someone who's young, they're not able to pull it off. And what happens is a lot of people can get scattered and the person, that person, can maybe get crushed and could even stop their ministry because they get so discouraged about failure. Amen. It's one thing to fail in private, but it's a whole another ballgame to fail in public. Doesn't mean you're through, I'm just saying it's harder.

And so his mother knew who his father was. She knew Jesus had supernatural power, and she said to the servants, "Whatever he tells you to do, do it." And so that was the end of that conversation. The next thing we hear is Jesus saying to the servants, "Fill the waterpots with water." And we know they had these six pots. It says after the custom of the Jews. Remember the Pharisees were always talking about washing your hands, washing your hands, washing your hands.

And so they always had these big pots of water on hand so they always had water to wash their hands. Now, a firkin is nine gallons. So we have six pots and they each held three firkins, so they would have each held 27 gallons. And if we multiply that times how many pots, six, we come up with 162 gallons. Now, that's a lot of wine. Amen. But here's the thing: if Jesus is going to perform his first miracle, he's going to prove that he is the creator.

He's going to prove that he can do what no man can do. Whatever God does, he does always exceeding and abundantly above all that you can ask or think. My God wants you to know that there's no shortage in him, no limit in him. Whatever he does, he can do above your need. They did not need 162 gallons. I'm telling you, but he was going to show them if you want to see whether or not I'm called of God and God is my Father, I'm going to show you that he's a miracle-working God.

And so when they I don't know at what point it turned into wine. I don't know if he prayed over it, we don't know. We can only speculate. But between the time they poured the water in the pots and they poured it in the pitcher and he said, "Go give it to the governor of the feast," and he got there and poured it in the glass, somewhere along the way, we don't know when or how, it was no longer water. And it was the best wine he had ever had.

And he said to the bridegroom, "I don't understand you. Everyone usually starts out with the best wine. And then that which is worse, the cheaper stuff they give in the end. But you've kept the good wine until now." So Jesus has just performed his first miracle and his disciples believed on him. And as I said, I have to believe that his brothers were there and his sisters were there. I have to believe the whole family would have been there at this wedding. And they all would have seen, "Hey, Jesus truly is different."

Now, it wasn't long after that that Jesus went up to Jerusalem because we're back to that Passover season. Not long after the miracle at Cana, he went back to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. And now let's take up the story. We're still in the second chapter of John in verse 12. And after this, he went to Capernaum, he and his mother and his brethren. Now, his brethren there means his brothers, Mary's other sons. The word that's used here means to be out of the same womb.

Someone born a brother born out of the same womb. He's not talking about brothers and sisters in Christ or spiritually. Amen. His brothers and his disciples. And they continued there for not many days. They weren't there in Capernaum very long. And now they're going at verse 13. The Jews' Passover was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And he found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and the changers of money sitting.

And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen, poured out the changers' money and overthrew their tables. And said unto them that sold the doves, "Take these things hence. Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise." I want you to try to imagine this. Now, remember, the timing is very important. This is the first time that Jesus has done this, gone into the temple. They got there and when he got there, remember, it's going to be packed and jammed again in Jerusalem. It's Passover time.

He saw all of this commotion going on. He saw the moneychangers. He saw the people selling the doves and the oxen. Now, people had to make a sacrifice to God and they could not bring an animal from their house. It had to be a holy animal that the priest had sanctioned. Therefore, they had to buy them. And people that had enough money were expected to buy a bull or a sheep. Poor people could buy a dove or a pigeon because God never puts too much on someone if they can't do it.

And the moneychangers, remember, I think it was last year I taught on a message about "Render Unto Caesar," and we talked about why Jesus said, "Give unto Caesar what is his." Because it had that coin that he asked for had Caesar's inscription and picture on it. And there's no way in this world that a Jew would have taken a coin with a pagan god on it inside the Holy Temple. Wasn't going to happen. The Jewish people had their own coins that were used in the temple, the Jewish shekel.

So what they had to do was they had to take their Roman coins, go up to the moneychanger, and exchange them for the Hebrew temple coins so they could take them into the temple. But what they were doing was ripping the people off. They weren't giving them the right exchange. They were taking their Roman coins that were worth so much more money and giving them less in return in the Hebrew coins. This infuriated Jesus. They were taking advantage of people that knew they had to make a sacrifice and overcharging them for the sheep and the bullocks and the doves.

They were fleecing the sheep of God. And this infuriated Jesus. And when he saw it, he went in there and can you get this picture? There would not have been any weapons anywhere near the temple. So he must have picked up some straw or some rushes or something and grabbed them and he made them into a whip. That word scourge means whip. He made them into a whip and there he is flinging that whip, flinging that whip, turning over the tables. Money's clink, clink, clink on the stone floor.

And he's opening up the doors and the pigeons are running out, flying out, squawking and flying everywhere crazy because when a bird doesn't know where to go, they just fly around crazy. Opening up the doors, letting the sheep go out and they're running everywhere. And the bulls are running everywhere. And he's taking the whip and he's actually whipping the merchandisers, the sellers, the moneychangers. I mean, this was a sight to see and hear.

He literally exploded. He went ballistic. And he said, "Take these things hence." And he's picking them up and helping them, he's throwing them out. "Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise." Can you imagine the shock on everyone's faces? How they must have been looking? I mean from the peddlers to the priest to the people to his own disciples, they had never seen Jesus like this. Never. What happened to that nice guy at the wedding? You know, that guy at the wedding that was smiling and congratulating the bride and the groom and catching up on old times with family and friends? And that nice guy who came to their rescue and turned the water into wine? What happened to him? Who's this guy?

Why was he so ticked off? Now, let's read the next verse where we left off, verse 17. And his disciples remembered that it was written, "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. They remembered, it's in Psalm 69:9. The Holy Spirit had brought this to the disciples' remembrance because that's one of his jobs. And they remembered that verse in Psalm 69:9 that says, "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up."

The word zeal is a very intense word in the Greek. It can be meant to the positive or to the negative because it means to have strong, intense, overflowing passion. And you can have that for something good in a good way. But here, it means anger, anger, jealousy. What do you mean? He was jealous for his Father. He was jealous for his Father's house, a holy place. He said, "It's a holy place, don't treat it like a marketplace." He knew they were cheating the people.

He knew the moneychangers were ripping the people off. He knew what they were doing, especially taking advantage of the poor who couldn't afford more than they had, and he was furious. And saints, I say to you, it's time, if God is your Father, I said if God is your Father, it's time for you and I to get furious. It's time for us to become righteously indignant over the phony, ambitious, carnal, competitive, self-glorifying church-playing junk that's going on in churches today.

It's time that the zeal of God's house made us boil over. Because it's time that we say it: where's the true worship? Amen. It's time for us to be sick and tired of all these false prophets and phony preachers and bishops and apostles and motivational speakers calling themselves preachers. I listened to someone today for about 10 minutes and I couldn't take no more. There was nothing biblical in what he said. Nothing. He was talking about trying to have an even temperament and trying to go easy.

And he took five minutes to talk about like when you go driving in your car and usually you hurry up and speed up and then you get the red light and you get all mad. And he went on and on about how he decided not to drive that way anymore. He's just going to drive nice and easy now. And he got to the red light and this other guy who was driving the way he used to drive was already there. And he didn't get there till a little while after, but hey, they were both at the light together.

Then that guy took off. But he just drove real nice and easy. I kid you not, he went on about five minutes. And I thought, "What has this got to do with anything?" I mean, I could see if you were talking about temperance you might throw that in a little here, but this man has read no scriptures. This man has not mentioned a person in the Bible, much less God or Jesus. It's time for us to be fed up with motivational speakers. That's all they are, are motivational speakers.

And call themselves preachers. They don't even break out in a sweat. Any preacher worth his salt will be sweating, I tell you, you'll be sweating. I don't care if you are a lady preacher. Yes, lady preachers sweat. Amen. Because when it's fire shut up in your bones! All of these people and all these motivational speakers. And the fact is, they're no different than these that Jesus threw out. They are in it for the money. They are trying to get money and they use the premise trying to get you to get rich.

"I want to teach you how to get rich." But the fact is, they want you to buy all their stuff so they can get rich. The only people getting rich is them when you buy their whole CD album and DVD album. Please. It's time for us to be jealous over our Father's house. And I don't just mean this church, I mean our Father's house. It's time that we stood up to these people and said, "Get right or get out!" And that goes for phony saints in the pews. Because if you don't get right, you will get left.

I said Jesus is coming for a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or blemish or any such thing. And if you're not right, you will be left. We've got to be furious with sin in the church. I'm not talking about sin in the world. I'm not talking about sin in the clubs. I'm not talking about sin in the devils' houses. I'm talking about sin in my Father's house. The disciples said, "Whoa, what's got into him? What's up with him?" Amen. And then they remembered.

It's time for us to remember that God's house is a holy place. They remembered he wasn't just some angry, intolerant, right-wing, holier-than-thou fanatic. That's what the world calls us. And that's what some church people are calling us. I said that's what some church people are calling us. I can understand the world calling us that. But people that call themselves Christian are calling us that. This is biblical, holy outrage. The zeal, the overflowing passion, the righteous indignation of God's house is eating me up.

And it's time for us to say and do like Jesus did. "I won't take it anymore. I'm not going to take it anymore." The Bible says in 1 Peter 4:17, "For the time is come when judgment must begin, begin at the house of the Lord. And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where is the sinner and the ungodly going to appear?" He said judgment begins at the house of God. Jesus talked about people, the Pharisees, "You call people to follow after you and you make them seven times more the child of the hell than they were before they hooked up with you."

That's pretty strong to say to religious leaders. Your association with them has made them seven times more a sinner than they were before they ever got in your camp. Because it's worse, because at least a sinner knows he's a sinner. He's a sinner, he knows he's a sinner. A backslider knows he's a backslider. He knows he's a backslider. And when he gets ready to come back to God, he wants to come to a church that's real. If he's going to be a phony, then why come back? Why come back?

Why come back, backslider? If you can come back and still go to the clubs and still hang out there and still dance with the devil's tune? And then you can lay around with whoever you want? You can be a homosexual or a lesbian? Why bother to come back? That's how you get deceived. That's how you get deceived. You're better to stay in the world I mean, I don't want you to stay there too long, you might croak and it may be too late but at least you won't get deceived.

Because when a person is deceived, the Bible says because they would not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved, God gave them over to a strong delusion that they may believe a lie and be damned who would not believe the truth. It ain't the devil, it's God. You say God would do that? He said he would. I guess so.

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Amen, what a powerful housecleaning message, "My Father's House." Do you know who your Father is? Jesus did at age 12, when he stayed behind at the temple in Jerusalem to discuss scriptures with the learned doctors of the law. When his frantic parents found him three days later, he calmly replied, "Knew you not that I must be about my Father's business?" 18 years later, a 30-year-old Jesus performed his first miracle at a wedding, a joyful, celebratory occasion, but shortly after he marched into the temple and in righteous indignation threw out the moneychangers and their merchandise, declaring, "This is my Father's house."

The disciples were in shock until they remembered the scripture, "The zeal of thine house has eaten me up." But do you know that just three years later, he had to do it again? And that time he blasted them, "You have made my Father's house a den of thieves." Saints, it's time for the true sons and daughters of God to rise up in righteous indignation against the false worship and made-for-money messages being preached today under the pretense of prosperity.

If you know who your Father is, it's time to be about his business, and that includes holy housecleaning in the body of Christ, throwing out the false and establishing the true. "My Father's House" is available on CD for a love gift of $10 for the radio ministry. Order SK163 and mail to Sound of Faith, PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203, or go online to soundoffaith.org where you can also order on MP3. That's soundoffaith.org.

But to order by mail, send a minimum love gift of $10 to PO Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland 21203. And if you enjoy the radio messages you're hearing, why not consider sending a larger gift to help us support the time on this station? Request SK163. Until next time, this is Sharon Knotts saying Maranatha.