Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
092320
Why A Believer Is The Biggest Loser And One A Big Winner? Meaning Of An Empty Vessel In The Bible!
This passage and the ones in John 4 means that the six disciples were believers because who were disciples of John the Baptist whose ministry was to prepare the Jews for the coming of the Messiah.
Remember our Lord’s statement concerning the ministry of John the Baptist in MAT 11:11 "Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen {anyone} greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
As we are told in MAR 1:3-4, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make ready the way of the Lord, Make His paths straight.
MAR 1:4 John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
The word vindicated is Aorist passive indicative of the Greek verb dikaioo which means to be justified, vindicated, revealed spiritually, shown by its fruit of her children.
Dikaioo means to show, to exhibit, to be considered, to declare, or pronounce, one to be just, righteous, or he or she ought to be, to prove oneself to be just or justified by one’s actions, literally wisdom is justified by her deeds.
In LUK 16:15 And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God."
They said in MAT 9:34 that our Lord was of the devil, "He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons."
In MAT 11:19, people said that our Lord was a glutton, a drunk and hung out with prostitutes, "The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax‑gatherers and sinners!'
In MAT 26:65, they said that He blasphemed and had cursed God and the Jews and the nation of Israel, "Then the high priest tore his robes, saying, "He has blasphemed!"
They said in MAT 26:66 that He deserved to be dead, "They answered and said," He is deserving of death!"
In MAR 3:21, our Lord was accused of being nuts and insane, "And when His own people heard {of this,} they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, "He has lost His senses."
In MAR 3:22, they said He was demon possessed, "And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, "He is possessed by Beelzebul"
In MAR 3:30, they said our Lord has an unclean spirit, "He has an unclean spirit."
In LUK 15:2, He had a reputation for hanging around with prostitutes and sinners, "This man receives sinners and eats with them."
In LUK 23:2, they accused of being unpatriotic, And they began to accuse Him, saying, "We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar,"
In LUK 23:5, they accused of always stirring up trouble, But they kept on insisting, saying, "He stirs up the people,
In LUK 23:14, they said that He causes people to rebel, "This man is one who incites the people to rebellion,
In JOH 7:12, they said He was a cult leader and "He leads the multitude astray."
In JOH 8:48, the Jews said, "Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?"
In JOH 10:20 And many of them were saying, "He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to Him?"
And so, the six waterpots represented some new followers who had been following John the Baptist along with a few new men who decided to follow our Lord.
These jars could not be ceremonially clean unless they were made out of stone and cleansed by clean water.
Now, you will notice that there are six waterpots or vessels and our Lord is going to use them as a point of typology representing believers who have an empty vessel that our Lord can fill with the water of the word into the finest wine represented by the power of the Spirit.
As ISA 55:1 says, Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost.
No longer were the Jews to be cleansed by the water in the pots, but now they could be cleansed by believing upon the Messiah and the life that the Lord gives.
Then our Lord told them to put water in the waterpots first and then draw it out so that they would know that there was nothing in the pots except the water that they were beginning to use beforehand.
Now, in spite of the fact that God begins the work and completes it, we do have a part in the work that He began.
Some will receive rewards; the majority will lose their rewards.
The word large is the adjective megale which means great which Paul is referring to as a large home used for the early church meetings in Ephesus.
In fact, in 1Pe 2:5, the church is called a spiritual house.
Therefore, in context, the large house refers to the church or the body of Christ.
2TI 2:20 Now in a large house or a spiritual house used as a church meeting hall, there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor.
And the vessels in the house refer to born again believers.
In fact, the Bible describes the human body of the born-again believer in the Church-age as a vessel in 1Th 4:4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,
Some believers are being prepared through progressive sanctification through the word and through the Spirit to have a great impact in history.
Other believers through negative volition toward doctrine are becoming vessels unto dishonor by their own free will.
And these are the believers who react against the word of God and adopt the cosmic agenda or their own personal self-agenda rather than the divine agenda.
They are the salt that has lost its' savor and is good for nothing in MAT 5:13 "You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty {again}? It is good for nothing anymore, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men."
One that is being fitted out for honorable purposes called good work which in 2Ti 2:21 means having a positive historical impact with divinely good production.
The other type of believers are loser believers, usually very moral and very self-righteous, works oriented and phony.
The gold and silver vessels represent believers in the pivot who have let their light shine.
Believers in the gold are those who have reached the place where maximum glorification of God is one of their major desires.
Believers in the silver are those who have reached spiritual adulthood and are plugging on.
Wood represents humanity or the works of the flesh and those of wood and earthenware are born again believers either in carnality, reversionism, or they are religious zealots who are in bondage to Cosmic 2.
Many vessels of dishonor are moral people but they assume that morality is spirituality.