Wow. Water to Wine.

Miracles. They are brief lapses in the order of nature that only God can bring about.

The creation of the universe by speech;

The parting of the Red Sea;

the sun standing still in the sky;

The raising of the dead;

the healing of the blind,

the recovery of the leper.

These are all miracles.

Robert South, a 17th century English preacher and theologian stated: “A miracle is a work exceeding the power of any created agent, consequently being an effect of the divine omnipotence.”

And miracles to the hardened heart are difficult, if not impossible to believe. That is why liberalism touted an anti-supernatural bias at the turn of the 20th century.

To go along with this is one of the seven characteristics of liberal Christianity as Kevin DeYoung describes this as:

The historical accuracies of biblical facts and events are not crucial, so long as we meet Jesus in the pages of Scripture. (See Seven Character-istics of Liberal Theology (thegospelcoalition.org))

But, ironically, they are the difference in a heaven sent faith, rather than a man-made religion.

Someone once said: “I should not be Christian but for the miracles.” In other words, miracles set the Christian faith apart from others.

Today, we begin a new series on the “Miracles of Jesus.” We will take a look at various outstanding feats of the Lord in all four gospels. But hopefully you’ll come away with an appreciation of why these extraordinary things took place; and that we serve a God of the impossible. First..

Miracles pointed to something and Someone more significant.

Miracles in the Gospel of John were called signs. The Greek word is σημεῖον, which means a sign or distinguishing mark whereby someth. is known, sign, token, indication. (William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 920.

John 2:11 “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.”

The event of Jesus turning the water into wine at the wedding of Cana was the first of seven signs listed in the gospel of John. Jesus did many miracles. John 20:31 tells us that he did so many that all the books of the earth could not contain them.

Charles Ryrie states:

“The miracles of Jesus are called signs by John in order to emphasize the significance of the miracles rather than the miracles themselves. They revealed various aspects of the person or work of Christ and their purpose was to encourage faith in His followers.” (Ryrie Study Bible, 1603).

The seven that are categorized in John’s gospel were unique. They fulfilled a purpose that the author had. Which we receive in verse 11:

To invoke belief.

And to manifest the Son’s glory.

It is also important to state that miracles are not normative. The time of Christ’s advent was special in the scope of history. So we should not expect things of this nature to occur today.

Jesus was called to do such extraordinary things. They served as confirmations of who He was. Remember what Nicodemus said in his late night conversation with the Lord. John 3:2

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

Where did they get this idea? Maybe Isaiah 61, where in Luke 4’s quote also mentions: “…recovery of sight to the blind.” As having “eyes to see,” can imply understanding. But Jesus healed many who were blind and it was proof that He was the Messiah, the Promised One, God’s gift to the human race.

John often divides his sections with the words: “Another day.” This particular section has subdivisions which are the following:

presentation of the problem in verses 1-5;

solution to the problem in verses 6-10;

summary statement in verse 11.

We first observe that Jesus attended...

A reception about to go bad.

In verses one through five, Jesus is attending a wedding reception in the region of his hometown. Cana is north of Nazareth less then ten miles. And Cana is southwest of the communities that surround the sea of Galilee a bit more than ten miles. And with Mary and Jesus attending the wedding, it may be safe to say that this was a family member or a friend of the family’s. There was obviously a crowd there.

Now this takes place, at least chronologically, right after Jesus recruits his first disciples. So it is safe to say that this wedding is early in his ministry.

Wine was a common drink in those days. I have understood that it was much lighter than today’s version. And to run out would be tantamount to running out of food. Mary is made aware of the dilemma, so she goes to Jesus with some level of expectation that He can do something about it.

At first glance, it might be difficult to understand Jesus’ answer. Was he uncaring? Not in the least. First, he uses the title: “Woman.” this was actually a title of respect and Jesus used it elsewhere (John 4:21 and 8:10).

Jesus is also aware that his time of formal ministry has begun and Mary could not intervene in this. And so He answers in John 2:4 “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”

But she tells the servants: “Do whatever he says.” You see Mary did know that Jesus was the Messiah and could do anything!

Jesus saves the day (and then some)!

Nevertheless, Jesus tells the servants to fill the six stone waterpots with water. These were used for ritual purification and good size, containing about 30 gallons. A whiskey barrel is about double the size of one of these pots. So this is a significant amount of water!

Jesus then told the servants to take them to the master of the feast. And he, obviously knowing that the supply of wine had been depleted, must have been shocked for one, that they were drawing wine from these water pots and two- that it tasted so good! John 2:10

“...and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.””

Astonishing, to say the least! And his actions saved the wedding reception!

You may wonder why Jesus picked a wedding feast for his first miracle. Gary Burge points out that the wedding banquet was an Old Testament symbol of the Messiah’s arrival. Isaiah 62:4-5

Isaiah 62:4–5 ESV

4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. 5 For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

Jesus also used a wedding feast to describe His arrival in Matthew 22:1-14 and Mark 2:19-22.

In addition, Dr. Burge continues: “The Old Testament also described this messianic era with the image of an abundance of wine.” (Gary Burge, “John,” in Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, 850).

Jeremiah 31:12, Hosea 14:7: “They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow; they shall flourish like the grain; they shall blossom like the vine; their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.”

So these two events: a wedding and the serving of wine, function as the perfect opportunity to announce Jesus’ arrival as the Messiah.

What’s more is that this is a picture of the passing of one school of thought to another. The stone pots were used for the followers of Judaism to wash in- a symbol of ritual cleansing. But here Jesus transforms them into vats of wine. There is a changing of the guard and an arriving of a new order, along with the passing of an old.

I think there are at least a couple of personal applications of this story.

One, you live in a blessed time in history, where the gospel is being freely preached, calling men, women, boys and girls to place their trust in Jesus Christ. Through Him, your sins can be forgiven, you can receive a new identity and live a transformed life of meaning and purpose. You can be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Secondly, You serve a God of the impossible. Nothing is too difficult for Him. He can do anything! If He can turn water into wine, He can certainly change your life.

Can you make the elements obey you?

Jesus turning the water into wine illustrates the obvious difference betwen us and God.

We cannot do anything against the elements; Jesus did.

We cannot change the weather; Jesus did.

We cannot heal the sick; Jesus did.

We cannot raise the dead; Jesus did.

But God has been managing them for as long as the universe has been around.

It was Fifth century Christian poet Sedulius that said:

“The water owns a power Divine

And conscious blushes into wine;

Its very nature changed displays

The power Divine that it obeys.”