Jesus Is the Focal Point
Patrick Edwards
John 3:22-36
Introduction
One of the great blessings of being a pastor is often getting to participate in weddings. I love walking through pre-marital counseling with folks, getting to really know a couple, and then getting to celebrate their wedding together. Now, it's funny though how much of a show weddings have become it seems. In my ten years of pastoring, until today I've actually only ever performed one wedding inside a church sanctuary. Instead, it seems the very popular thing to do, at least back out east, is to have the wedding outside. Moreover, every couple always has some 'special' thing that they want to do at their wedding to make it different from everyone else's. I mean I've yet to ever do the same marriage ceremony and structure more than once. Everyone wants to be unique.
Call me a cultural cynic, but my point is that American weddings have become more of a show than anything else. Whether it be special intros for the wedding party, or creative speeches by the best man and maid of honor, or even just the location and dress, it's a big show many times. And I think it's a shame because when we allow wedding ceremonies to become entertainment for the guests, we end up losing focus on the actual meaning of the marriage ceremony itself. We take our attention away from the joining of the bride to the groom and turn it to something far less meaningful.
In John 3 we see John the Baptist employ the metaphor of the wedding to highlight the need we have to not lose focus on who Jesus is. John the Baptist warns us that if we don't keep Jesus as our focal point then we will miss who He is, what He is doing, and what our part in it all really is. This morning's passage calls us to stop settling for all sorts of other things in this world and get our focus in the right place. You see beginning back in chapter 2 we started to see how Jesus makes all things new. He makes the old vessels into new wine; He ma ...
Patrick Edwards
John 3:22-36
Introduction
One of the great blessings of being a pastor is often getting to participate in weddings. I love walking through pre-marital counseling with folks, getting to really know a couple, and then getting to celebrate their wedding together. Now, it's funny though how much of a show weddings have become it seems. In my ten years of pastoring, until today I've actually only ever performed one wedding inside a church sanctuary. Instead, it seems the very popular thing to do, at least back out east, is to have the wedding outside. Moreover, every couple always has some 'special' thing that they want to do at their wedding to make it different from everyone else's. I mean I've yet to ever do the same marriage ceremony and structure more than once. Everyone wants to be unique.
Call me a cultural cynic, but my point is that American weddings have become more of a show than anything else. Whether it be special intros for the wedding party, or creative speeches by the best man and maid of honor, or even just the location and dress, it's a big show many times. And I think it's a shame because when we allow wedding ceremonies to become entertainment for the guests, we end up losing focus on the actual meaning of the marriage ceremony itself. We take our attention away from the joining of the bride to the groom and turn it to something far less meaningful.
In John 3 we see John the Baptist employ the metaphor of the wedding to highlight the need we have to not lose focus on who Jesus is. John the Baptist warns us that if we don't keep Jesus as our focal point then we will miss who He is, what He is doing, and what our part in it all really is. This morning's passage calls us to stop settling for all sorts of other things in this world and get our focus in the right place. You see beginning back in chapter 2 we started to see how Jesus makes all things new. He makes the old vessels into new wine; He ma ...
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