The Good Wine
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Big Idea
Big Idea
Tension: What does the miracle of the water to wine signify?
Resolution: That Jesus will bring about the abundance of the new covenant through his purifying death.
Exegetical Idea: The sign of water to wine signifies that Jesus will bring about the abundance of the new covenant through his purifying death.
Theological Idea: Jesus gives the believe true abundance through his purifying death.
Homiletical Idea: Only because of his death can we have the life which is truly abundant, life in Christ.
Big Idea: Jesus’ death gives us the joy of the life in Jesus.
Outline
Outline
Intro: What will your life be like when you finally get the thing you’ve been working so hard to gain?
Taliban coming to power - ““I sometimes miss the jihad life for all the good things it had,” said 25-year-old Abdul Nafi. “In our ministry, there’s little work for me to do. Therefore, I spend most of my time on Twitter. We’re connected to speedy Wi-Fi and internet. Many mujahedin, including me, are addicted to the internet, especially Twitter.”
What makes the good life “good”?
The Miracle
A wedding was a weeklong affair
We should not lose sight of the fact that Jesus dignifies weddings and marriage with his first gospel
We should not lose sight of the fact that Jesus’ first miracle was at a party. Jesus is not about the dour and sour, but about joy
Running out of wine would have been a big embarassment (vs. 3) - because a groom spent a whole year saving up for the wedding and preparing for the marriage, this could ruin their standing in the community, their relationships which their livelihood would have depended on, their place in the Synagogue, even their future kids’ could have been damaged by this
Jesus has a tense conversation with his mother
‘woman’ was a cold address rather than “mother”
The picture the gospels give us of Jesus is someone who had a relationship that, at times, was tense with his family. So, if you have an at times complex relationship with your family, you can take heart, so did Jesus.
Jesus makes this right through the cross (John 19:25-27) and I believe that he can do this for your family too.
but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
Jesus tells the servants - draw water out of the jars for ceremonial washing, and serve them to the master of the feast. At some point, either in the drawing, or while they were transporting the water, the water becomes wine.
The master of the feast - he unknowingly heralds Jesus’ first miracle as a succes. He says “everybody serves the really good stuff from a great vintage first, and, once everyone is a bit drunk, then after that they break out the box wine. But you, you did the reverse order.” The feast is saved.
This is a limited miracle - Jesus doesn’t fully reveal his glory here, but rather only his disicples and the servants at the feast see Jesus’ miracle, and they “believe”.
Sign - This miracle is a sign, it signifies a truth. It tells us not only that Jesus is the Savior, but it tells us something about the nature of savlation. It tells us something about what Jesus would accomplish.
The Good Life
The symbolism of taking something that is ordinary and mundane -aka water- and transforming it into something that is rich and full -aka wine. Not only that, but he is making it good wine, the best wine that the master of hte feast could ever give.
Why this empahsis on the transfomration into good wine at a wedding? Well, it turns out that hte imagery of a wedding is a sign of hte new covenant (Is 54:4-8, 62:4-5)
“Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. For the Lord has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord, your Redeemer.
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. 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.
The restoration of new wine is also used as imagery for the new covenant (Hos 14:7; Joel 3:18; Amos 9:13-15; Jer 31:12; Ps 104:14-15; Is 25:6) and of the abundant, joyful life.
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.
“And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Shittim.
“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,” says the Lord your God.
They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more.
You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart.
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
This is exactly what John tells us that Jesus has come to do (John 10:10, 15:11, 17:13).
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
By the way, making sure there is enough wine and that people are taken care of, thats the master of the feast’s job. The fact that Jesus does it, means Jesus is telling us, you know who the true master of the feast is? The one who gives true joy, true life, the one who will usher in true abundance? That’s me.
Now, you may be thinking, is this prosperity gospelish? Not all. Because you have to understand not only that Jesus brings about the joyful, abundant life, but that he is joyful abundant life. (John 15:1-5) Jesus says, if you’re in me, if you abide in me, if your life is in me, you will have life, and joy and abundance.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
This is a life and joy and abundance which is stronger even than sorrow (John 16:20-22). <Diane Langberg: Beauty in Dumpster City?>
Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
How Jesus Gets It for us
It is a big deal that Jesus takes the water from purification jars. - Jesus is signalling, that this abundance of life, this true joy, this can only be had if it is purified. These were jars that pious Jewish religious people had, that would contain water that they coudl wash themselves so they were not unclean.
In a similar way, we can only enjoy the good life Christ brings if we’ve been purified or cleansed.
Notice the connection this miracle makes to the death of Christ. What is happening? John is signalling that Jesus does this by his death. Jesus purifies us by his death. He says this very explicitly in John 13:10-11, 1 John 1:7, 9. We can only be cleansed by his death.
Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
How does it do this? On the one hand, Christ “propitiates God.” All that that means is that he bears my penalty, he turns aside God’s wrath by taking it on himself
On the other, we also say Christ expiates, that means that he cleanses us. How does he do that? Because he died, he has put sin to death (Rom 6:6).
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
It is only by these twin realities, that I am forgiven by the cross, and that I am set free by the cross, I am pardoned at the cross, and I am purified at teh cross, I am pleasing to God because of the cross, and I can please God because of teh cross, I am justified because of teh cross and I am sanctified because of the cross, that I can experience the true abundance of life
How can we receive it?
I think we see how we don’t receive it, and how we do receive it. We don’t receive it by being like the crowd at the wedding. They are so drunk on the cheap wine, that they cannot enjoy the good stuff. You will never receive the true life, the true Jesus, if you spend your life chasing after hte vanity and pleasures of this world.
On teh other hand, to see and to believe. We might say, to “taste and know that he is good.” (Ps 34:8)
Application
Are you too drunk on the pleasures of this world to enjoy all that Christ has to offer?
Taste and know that he is good
Are you washed in the blood?
Cultivate a taste for Christ
Follow the signs, but don’t make them your destination. All the good things in our lives are meant to be pointers to Christ.
There is beauty in garbage ciyt.