A wedding and a miracle

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We made it to chapter 2!

Scripture Reading

John 2:1–12 “On the third day a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’s mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding as well. When the wine ran out, Jesus’s mother told him, “They don’t have any wine.” “What has this concern of yours to do with me, woman?” Jesus asked. “My hour has not yet come.” “Do whatever he tells you,” his mother told the servants. Now six stone water jars had been set there for Jewish purification. Each contained twenty or thirty gallons. “Fill the jars with water,” Jesus told them. So they filled them to the brim. Then he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the headwaiter.” And they did. When the headwaiter tasted the water (after it had become wine), he did not know where it came from—though the servants who had drawn the water knew. He called the groom and told him, “Everyone sets out the fine wine first, then, after people are drunk, the inferior. But you have kept the fine wine until now.” Jesus did this, the first of his s…

Let us pray

Illustration / Story

The Bible is full of imagry

And one great image within the Bible is the Bridegroom and its bride

This image is one that represents Christ as the bridegroom

and us, those that believe in him and his eternal saving grace, the church

are his bride,

Along that same line is the image of the wedding feast (similar to the one we will discuss this morning) where there will be a great time of joy and celebration

We see both of these images combined in the book of revelation

Where we will see THe lamb and the bridegroom (Christ) united forever with his bride (us)

This is what we have to look forward to, and I believe it will be great!

Because weddings are great aren’t they

The wedding day is always a special day

And I like to think myself and my wife Lindsay have a pretty cool wedding story

See, Lindsay and I actually walked down the isle together only 2 days after meeting...

And now that I have your attention… the reason we walked down the isle together after only 2 days, is because she was the maid of honor and I was the best man that day

Then, in order to keep dating her, it was in my best interest to attend church with her

Shortly after that, thanks to her witness and the grace of God, I came into a saving relationship with My Lord Jesus Christ

And ever since that first day we walked down the isle, almost 20 years later, we have been together.

So I would say that wedding have a special place in my heart

I say that because a wedding is joyous time, it is a time for new beginning

A wedding is time when we take a covenant before God to enter into a new life together

And this week, we will see that Jesus used a wedding, to display the glory sufficient enough to enter us into a new covenant with God.

A covenant that would bring out from under the OT Law and into a New Testament or a new Covenant of Grace

Introduction to the Text

This morning we are concluding our opening week of Jesus’ public ministry

This 7 days that started in Chapter 1 V 19 has found us transitioning from the Ministry of John the Baptist

To that of Jesus Christ, The Lamb of God

On day 1 we saw John the Baptist interrogated by the Pharisees

On the second day we saw him bear witness to the spirit descending on Jesus during his baptism and thus titiling him the Lamb of God, that takes away the Sin of the World

Then on the 3rd day we saw 2 of Johns disciples seek and follow Jesus, bringing Peter along for the ride as well

On day 4 we saw Jesus seek call 2 more and describe himself as the Son of God, in which is he ladder and bridge between earth and the Father

Also on this 4th day we learned Jesus departed for Galilee, because he had an invitation to a wedding

This morning we will culminate our 7 day introduction to Jesus’ public ministry with a beautiful manifestation of His Glory

Our 4 points this morning as we work through the text are

1 - The Wedding

2- The Want

3 - The Works

4 - The Wonder

The Wedding

John 2:1–2 “On the third day a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’s mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding as well.”

So we start this morning on day 7, while it says on the 3rd day, this was the 3rd day from the 4th day we discussed last week. When Jesus departed for Galilee, it was a 3 day journey to get here

One thing I find amazing is Johns intentional rendering of the narrative to ensure that we know this introduction is 7 days long

much like the 7 days of creation were used to create the world

Here, we see Jesus Christ begin his public ministry in 7 days

What we could call the 7 days of New Creation, that is,

the beginning of the New Covenant

we will soon see

The 7 I am’s of Jesus

There are 7 personal testimonies of Jesus

The 7 signs

There are even 7 references to His Hour

That we will get into later

See the number 7 is a special number, and it is a number of perfection

So here we are, on day 7, in Cana, at a wedding

How Jesus was invited to this wedding we do not know

Perhaps it was a family connection through his ties in construction

Perhaps it was a good friend of his mothers

Perhaps they were distant relatives

The reason for the invite is unknown

But we do know his mother played a role in the wedding

And we also know that perhaps Jesus brought more guests then what may have been expected

because we know he picked up at least 5 disciples

Now remember weddings are a wonderful thing

We know that God approves of marriage, and that it is sacred

And as we discussed they represent a new covenant or a new vow that we take before God

Weddings are a time of rejoicing

In fact they would sometimes last upwards of an entire week

They were a big deal to the 1st century Hebrew or Jew

So we can only imagine the amount of procurement that must have gone into a wedding feast in order to keep the guests happy for that long

Which leads us to our second point

The Want

John 2:3–5 “When the wine ran out, Jesus’s mother told him, “They don’t have any wine.” “What has this concern of yours to do with me, woman?” Jesus asked. “My hour has not yet come.” “Do whatever he tells you,” his mother told the servants.”

See something very unfortunate occured during this wedding, something that made Jesus mother want something from him

Verse 2 tells us that “When the wine ran out, Jesus’s mother told him, “They don’t have any wine.”

Now this must have been a great wedding, I mean for them to run out of wine.

But, as weird as foreign as it sounds

This sort of thing could get the bridegroom sued

Im serious, folks took these wedding feasts seriously

But Jesus was just one of the attendees, who may or may not have brought more people than were expected. Seeing how he just picked up these 5 disciples on the way…

Now, men and children, we all know that sometimes when mama mentions something indirectly in the form of a statement or question

that most of the time that indirect statement is more like an order

kinda like, wow, your room sure is dirty… followed by a stare

Or, hmm, that trash sure is getting full… followed by a stare

well remember that Mary was Jesus’ mama also

and he was defintly picking up what she was putting down

see by Mary telling him, they don’t have any wine,

she was meaning, I need you to do something about this

Now, the question is, did she know that Jesus could turn the water into wine

I don’t know, but I also don’t think so

we know, according to scripture that this was his first miracle

We see in Mark 6:2–3 … “Where did this man get these things?” they said. “What is this wisdom that has been given to him, and how are these miracles performed by his hands? Isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren’t his sisters here with us?” So they were offended by him.”

These people grew up with Jesus and had never seen a miracle at his hands

She also may have turned to Jesus for a solution due to the fact that he was a handy man

He worked in construction

and we can only assume that his father passed away sometime after his 12th birthday

which would have made him the go to man in the house for his mother

We also know they were poor

And well we know the saying

“how do you know how to do so much stuff… well, I grew up poor”

But, she also knew that there was something extremely special about her son,

maybe she even thought it was time for him to publically reveal himself

So, any way you look at it, she came Jesus with her problem

knowing he will provide a solution

much like we can come to him, seeking a solution

Back to the text,

Jesus responded “What has this concern of yours to do with me, woman?” Jesus asked.

Now in our modern day culture, this may come of a brash

I would never call my mother Woman,

But, we must also think in the language of a 1st century Hebrew

See in this culture, in this time, this was not mean at all

In fact this word Woman is the same word he uses in John 19:26 when Jesus in on the cross, and he asks John to take care of his mother.. it says “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.”” In this context and in the language this word mother is actually a caring noun

or a respectful way of addressing her

So Jesus is essentially saying “why are you involving me”

Essentially saying, that it was not her place to direct his ministry

that his will is of the fathers,

for “My hour has not yet come.”

Now what does Jesus mean by this

As mentioned earlier Jesus’ hour is mentioned 7 times in this gospel

We see it here in 2:4

then again in 7:30 / 8:20 / 12:23 / 12:27 / 13:1 / and 17:1

See this hour points to his ultimate glory

This hour that is the most important hour in human history

The hour in which He came to the earth

The hour that he was born for

The hour of his suffering and death

The hour in which he crawled upon that cross, and died for our sin

So that we may be purchased with blood, in order to be washed clean

That, is what he means by hour

And John looking back as he writes this knows, that Jesus came for a far greater purpose than they ever could have imagined

So his mother, fully knowing that her son would provide turns and tells the servants “Do whatever he tells you”

See she demonstrated faith in this situation. Faith, and a willingness to leave it in her sons, The Sons hands

knowing that his will, no matter the outcome, was the best

And she was right, which leads us to our 3rd point

The Working

John 2:6–8 “Now six stone water jars had been set there for Jewish purification. Each contained twenty or thirty gallons. “Fill the jars with water,” Jesus told them. So they filled them to the brim. Then he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the headwaiter.” And they did.”

Verse 6 says “Now six stone water jars had been set there for Jewish purification. Each contained twenty or thirty gallons.

6 jars times 20-30 gallons each equate to between 120 and 130 gallons

Those are rather large jars, so we aren’t talking some small wine bottle or even a milk jug here

The fact that they were purification jars is symbolic as well

These jars most likely would have been made from a soft limestone, and the fact that they were stone is because that is the way the jewish law would allow for “living water” or purification water to be stored or transported.

However, these jars were constantly exposed to impurity

as this was is what the Jews used to wash their hands and feet to become ceremonially clean

“Fill the jars with water,” Jesus told them. So they filled them to the brim. Then he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the headwaiter.” And they did.”

The work is don’e, Jesus did his thing. He commanded, and the people listened

Now our final point of the morning

The Wonder

John 2:9–10 “When the headwaiter tasted the water (after it had become wine), he did not know where it came from—though the servants who had drawn the water knew. He called the groom and told him, “Everyone sets out the fine wine first, then, after people are drunk, the inferior. But you have kept the fine wine until now.””

Problem Solved!

As we well know Jesus turned the water, into wine.

Now considering the people of this day drank wine like us Texans drink our sweet tea.

They knew good wine when they tasted it

And this wine was so good, that deep in the wine country of Israel, the nappa valley if you will of Israel, the wine produced there had nothing on the wine that Jesus produced

This miracle ends with John giving us a comment if you will on what just occured

John 2:11 “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.”

Three things to pull from this are

Signs, Glory, and Believed

Signs

Signs are miracles that attest that Jesus is the messiah and the Son of God, these signs lead unbelievers to faith and deapens the faith of those that already believe (as we see here with the disciples)

Glory

The Glory of Jesus is made visible in this sign, in the fact that Jesus possess a power that we cannot comprehend

Believed

This sign and his revealed Glory only deepended the already budding faith of the disciples

See the point of this narrative is not the fact that Jesus can perform miracles or meet our every need

The point of this narrative is to prove that Jesus is truly the son of God and here to do God’s work!

and we need to believe in him, and in that

See while the power to transform water into wine is amazing

The fact that he can transform a rebellious sinner like me, like you, into a new creation is real miracle

But in order for us to transform into this new creation, we must submit, and follow Christ,

We must enter into a relationship where we understand that it is only by his grace that we are made alive

And I assure you, Jesus will enter that relationship with us

John 2:12 “After this, he went down to Capernaum, together with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples, and they stayed there only a few days.”

See after this event, he went and lived life with these men, his mother, and his brothers

He entered into a daily relationship with them

Where there was communication, interaction, not only in the walls of the synagogue or church

not only on the sabbath days or Sunday's

But everyday

See these empty water jars represented an old covenant,

they represented impurity

they could even represent us without Christ

But now! That Jesus here, things have changed

See the empty water jars and unclean water are replaced with something else

They are replaced with new wine

New life, new joy

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!”

So brothers and sisters I must ask you this one questions

Have you allowed Jesus to transform your life?

Or are you still trying to do it all yourself?

If you have entered into this relationship, into this covenant of Grace, through Christ,

then live it and share as the discipled did

And if you havent, if you are still on the fence, if you only have one hand in the jar and afraid to commit I must tell you

The hour is near, repent, and believe in Jesus Christ as your savior

And I can promise you, this new life will not be perfect, but it will be worth it

Let us pray