The Miracle at Cana

Call to worship

Welcome everyone!

LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS

Lord,

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS

Lord,

SERMON

Introduction

This is one of my favorite stories in the gospel of John because it has always intrigued me. It is the story of the first miracle Jesus performed turning water into wine.

It was such a joyous occasion: a wedding. Festivities, happiness, celebration, and Jesus revealing the very heart of God to us.

In this passage we find a woman of mature faith, a miracle over the laws of nature, and the eyes of new followers opened.

Mature faith is often the link to new faith

John 2:1–5 NASB95

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

Explanation

The mother of Jesus

We are not told why this is a concern of Mary’s, but it seems likely that she had some kind of connection to the host of the wedding because she was aware of the problem before the wedding party

She comes to Jesus and tells Him, “they have no wine”

This was a pretty serious problem because wine was a very important part of Jewish weddings. So if the wine ran out, then this would bring shame and embarrassment upon the groom’s family who was financially responsible for the wedding. There is even evidence that the groom could be open to a lawsuit by the family of the bride if something like this were to happen.

SIDE NOTE ON WINE:

Some have used this story as a form of justification for drinking alcohol today. But that is not the point of this story at all. By turning water into wine Jesus is not condoning drunkenness.

There is a big difference in first century wine and 21st century wine.

First century wine was diluted with water to the degree of one-third to one-tenth of its fermented strength…that would make it less strong than beer.

Undiluted wine, which was about the strength of wine today, was viewed as ‘strong drink’, and it was often used as a pain killer in those days.

Alcohol has changed much over the past 2,000 years, we must be aware of this.

Jesus’ response: “Woman, what does that have to do with us?”

Now I would not recommend you going and saying this to your mother, or your wife. You might get the stink eye or something worse.

But what Jesus was saying was a common cultural saying that literally means, “What [is it] to me and to you, woman?” In other words, “what is the need for us to get involved?”

This was a slight rebuke to His mother. I can only see this as something Jesus was not interested in getting involved in!

Then He says, “My hour has not yet come”.In other words, I did not come to earth to make sure wedding parties went smoothly, I came to die for the sin of thew world.

Look at the faith of a mature believer: “Whatever He says to You, do it”

I love her response. Jesus says this has nothing to do with me or you. This is not why I came. Yet her confidence in the person and Jesus is unmistakable.

She demonstrates two things for us in this response:

1) The willingness of Jesus

What was important to Mary became important to Jesus

Jesus did not have to intervene. He said Himself, its not My time.

But Jesus shows us the very heart of God here that He is caring and compassionate when it comes to human affairs. And what is important to you, is important to God.

Remember what John said,

John 1:18 “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”

What is the heart of God like? It is that of a loving Father who truly cares about the little things in your life that may seem or be insignificant.

We do not have to afraid to take “less important” things to God.

God is whom we should turn to in times of need!

We should not think God is going to ignore us when we do.

From the time I was a little child I remember my Mom always encouraging us to pray about little things.

Every time we would lose something, shed tell us to pray.

Every time something unexpected would come she would tell us to pray.

Every time we had a worry she would tell us to pray

This is what it means to know the willingness of Jesus

He wants to be involved in your life

2) She understood His Power

Mary Knew Jesus’ capabilities were unlimited

She tells the servant, “whatever He says to you, do it”

To my understanding wine was not readily available on every corner, so she was not expecting Jesus to send the servants to the 711 to pick up a box of fermented grape juice!

And there definitely was not enough time to send them to go and press out grapes, allow them to ferment.

So what did Mary expect here?

Some scholars claim that Mary was simply asking Jesus to help her in some kind of natural way, but I think her statement implies she knew Jesus was capable of doing something beyond human capabilities!

She knew He was divine in nature, she knew of his power and her faith demonstrates that!

What an example for us to never forget the unlimited power of Jesus

THERE IS NOTHING THAT JESUS IS NOT CAPABLE OF DOING

This is not merely Jesus of Nazareth, this is Jesus the Christ! This is the Creator and the Creator has power over His creation or He cannot be the Creator!

Nothing is beyond His capabilities

Nothing is outside the scope of His power

Is anything too hard for the Lord??

This is one reason why we can press forward in impossible situations

This conviction is what separates the people of shaky faith from strong faith!

It is knowing that there is nothing that God cannot do and we are willing to stand on that until God brings it to pass!

There is no situation that God cannot change in the blink of an eye!

There is no natural boundary set that God cannot cross over and do what we cannot do

And keeping that truth in front of us always will be an everlasting well of hope

Obedience is often the essential ingredient to experience the power of God

John 2:6–10 NASB95

Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it to him. When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom, and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.”

Explanation

“Fill the water pots with water”

Now these water pots were large stone containers that held well over 100 gallons of water. And the servants did not have a garden hose to fill them, they used pitchers or buckets to carry the water.

Now we can only imagine what was going through their minds as they are carrying that water. Why are we doing this? Are we going to make up some kool-aid wine? Nevertheless they filled them to the brim (perfect obedience to Jesus).

The Jesus tells them to draw some out and take it to the headwaiter

Now when does the water turn into wine?

Well it does not happen inside the waterpots! Look at verse 9 “but the servants who had drawn the water knew”.

What did they draw? Water or wine?

They drew water. So the water must have turned into wine on the way to pour it into the headwaters cup

Here is what that means:

When those servants drew that water out, they knew it was water. And they also knew that if they poured water into the cup of that headwaiter, this whole wedding would come crashing down. He was not drinking water but wine

But what did they do? They did exactly what Jesus told them to do, and in conjunction with their obedience, Jesus overruled the laws of nature and changed water into wine.

Principle

God most often uses ordinary obedience to do supernatural things

It is wrong to say God cannot or will not act apart from our obedience. That would be to put God in a box. But what we do see over and over in Scripture is Jesus doing supernatural things in conjunction with obedience to His commands.

Examples

The ten lepers:

Luke 17:14 (NASB95)

When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they were going, they were cleansed.

Peter catching the huge amount of fish

John 21:5–6 (NASB95)

So Jesus said to them, “Children, you do not have any fish, do you?” They answered Him, “No.” And He said to them, “Cast the net on the right-hand side of the boat and you will find a catch.” So they cast, and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish.

The blind man who was given sight

John 9:7 (NASB95)

and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing.

Jesus heals the royal official’s son

John 4:49–51 (NASB95)

The royal official said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off. As he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living.

What do all these instances have in common?

Jesus worked supernaturally in their lives because of their obedience! And in every instance the miracle did not happen until their faith became action.

The water did not become wine until the servants had drawn out the water it out and taken it to the headwaiter. It was not wine in the waterpots

The lepers were not healed until they headed to the priests

Peter did not catch the fish until he listened to Jesus and throw the net out the other side of the boat

Could it be the reason we do not experience the supernatural power of God more in our lives is because our actions do not match our faith?

Is it possible that God has presented situations in your life that call for radical faith AND YOU HAVE YET TO TAKE THAT STEP AND YOUR SITUATION HAS NOT CHANGED?

I think God is saying to us, that we need the kind of radical obedience like these servants had

I think God is saying to us today that if we put away all of our human reasoning and doubts that we would see God’s hand more clearly

How do we know when God is telling us to trust Him and we have an opportunity like this?

By taking the same advice that Mary gave these servants: “Whatever He says to you, do it”

We must become well acquainted with the Word of God and understand how Jesus wants us to live our lives.

Be prepared for opportunities to truly obey the words of Jesus

(v 10) “You have kept the good wine until now”

Principle: Anything that Jesus gives us will far surpass anything this world or another person can give us

I can look back over my life and think of the things God has given me: They are perfect. They fit my life, my needs, my finances, my taste, everything about them is absolutely perfect.

And I can compare with things I have obtained on my own, or without consulting God, and they are never what I expected them to be. They may not be bad, but there is nothing like the good that Jesus gives.

Matthew 7:11 NASB95

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

If we who are evil know how to give good things, how much more can God who is perfect?

Learn to trust Him like these servants did

The purpose of God’s manifest power is to pull back the curtain so others can have a glimpse of His glory

John 2:11–12 NASB95

This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days.

Explanation

This is the beginning of His signs

What we often call miracles, John calls signs.

Signs are supernatural miracles, but they are not just for the sake of displaying God’s power. Signs to point to something deeper, they tell us something beyond the act itself.

They say something to us that we could not see otherwise on our own.

Here in the gospel of John, John calls these miracles signs because they say to us that Jesus truly is the Son of God, the Creator of the earth, who “became flesh and dwelt among us”, and who has power over nature.

These signs tell us that Jesus is exactly who He says He is, and He possesses supernatural power that cuts through the laws of nature and John is saying to us: LOOK WHO HE IS!!

This is not an imaginary person who was dreamed up by these men 2,000 years ago!

The church is called to look at Him the same way these disciples did 2,000 years ago and see that that same Jesus works in our world today!

“And manifested His glory (splendor, greatness, power)

The word manifested means “to make clear” or “to reveal”

So John sums up this section by saying:

1) This is the very first miracle Jesus did

2) When Jesus did this, He revealed His true nature

Who did Jesus reveal His nature to?

The answer is in verse 11:

(v 11) “and His disciples believed in Him”

Isn’t it amazing that the only people who are recorded believing after this miracle are those five men who began to follow Jesus and were invited to the wedding with Him?

These 12 verses say nothing about anyone else recognizing the person of Jesus!

It says nothing about the servants who were directly involved in this miracle coming to faith and following Jesus, even though they knew they drew out water and they poured out wine.

It says nothing about the bridegroom who would have known the wine was gone and now miraculously there is an endless supply of better wine than they had before! Where did it come from! It says nothing about Him believing in Jesus.

Who was affected by the manifest glory of God?

The disciples who were simply sitting at the table and watching the entire thing unfold.

Application

Have you ever considered that your obedience to Jesus will directly impact the faith of another person?

That is exactly what we see here. Servants who hear a command from Jesus, obey Him and something that goes beyond the laws of nature takes place.

These disciples who were nothing but bystanders in the entire thing, saw it all unfold and became believers.

And then the question to us is: Who is watching you? Who is standing on the sidelines of your life watching to see if you really believe what you claim to believe.

Lets look at the sequence:

Mary who has known Jesus for 30 years has this confidence in Him, even despite His desire, she appeals to Him for help. She is a mature believer

The servants hear the command of Jesus and trust Him enough to do what he says even if it does not make sense, they do it anyways.

God uses the obedience of ordinary people to reveal Himself to others

Application

Does God still work miracles today?

I believe He does. To say that God no longer works miracles would impose limitations on God.

You and I will likely never see water turned to wine, nor a person raised from the dead, nor feeding 5,000 with five loaves of bread

But God will do supernatural things in your life that are designed specifically for your eyes so that you may get a glimpse of His glory

It may be something small, and unexplainable

It may be a specific answer to your prayer

It may be something you witness in another person’s life

But God uses the obedience of others to open people’s eyes

Conclusion

How does this relate to the gospel?

This whole thing is a picture of the wedding celebration that awaits us.

Revelation 19:7–9 NASB95

“Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ ” And he said to me, “These are true words of God.”

There is coming a day when the saints sit down with the lamb of God and have a wedding celebration unlike anything this world has ever seen.

A picture of joy, happiness, and bliss unattainable in this world will be ours one day.

And the goodness, kindness, and love we saw in the person of Jesus Christ, will be in our manifest presence.

Blessed are those who are invited…

If you don’t know if thats you, take this as your invitation today. Come to Jesus. Come and see for yourself who Jesus is and that He truly is the Son of God

~PRAYER~

RESPONSE

PUBLIC INVITATION

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

OFFERING

We will now worship the Lord through our tithes and offering.

BENEDICTION

Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord cause His face to shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His face to you, And give you peace.’”

Business Meeting

Opening Prayer

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Unfinished Business

New Business

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Meeting adjourned