The Maricles And Parbales Of Jesus

Goodmonring everyone, I hope you have had a good week and that you have been focusing on your prayer life the past week as I challenged you last sunday. This morning we are going to begin our summer series and the reasson I say summer series is because it has been rediculasly hot out so it feels like summer and this will take us until september to it kinda is a summer sereis. For the next fourteen or so sundays we will be looking at some of the Maricles and parables of Jesus. So with that in mind let’s bow in prayer and then we will get into the context work needed for this seres. (1 min) amen.

So first thing’s first, we should define both what a maricle is and what a parable is. First I want us to define maricle because that is one of the things that is actually hardest to define, you can search up mircile definiton and believe it or not there is alot of them out there, the most fomause defitions or popular defininton of maricle would be “a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency” And this is propebly the defininton that most of us would attest to, it is something that can not be explained by the laws of science, yet is has happened and therefore it must be from the work of the divine. Some other definitnons would say that a miricle is “an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment” it’s just an unusal event or thing, right, it’s like when you park your car on the bad side of town and you come back and nothing has happened to it, it’s a maricle! it’s is a pleasent yet unexpected event. And Then you have the definiton that I would feel most comforatble with, “Event whichmay seem contrary to nature and which signifies an act in which God reveals himself to man.” - Baker Encycopedia of the Bible, And the reasson I prefer this defininton is because with the most common definition it basically says that maricles are unatural when in reality the maricles that we will see do not bypass nature, they use nature, thinking about the wind’s parting the red see, it’s the wind it’s not just a parting, or when Jesus turns the water into wine, it’s water being tunred into wine, it is not wine out of nowhere.

So for our sake we will define a maricle as “Event which may seem contrary to nature and which signifies an act in which God reveals himself to man.” - The New Bible Dictionary, Third edition.

So what is a parable, well this is actually much eaiser to define, “A parable is a short and simple story that is used to teach either a spitrual or moral lesson” The defininton is simple yet the proces of actually interpeting a parable is alot more complicated then one might think, for instance when reading a parable we must be able to know if it is just an illustration or if it is being more literal, we must know who is taking part in the parable and we must know the context of the cultural of which a parble is being told. And just so we all know Jesus was not the first person to use parables, infact the Jewish teachers used parables quiet a bit, so it is not like a parble was something knew, the audience that Jesus was talking to understood how he was teaching, the issue was that sometimes it wasn’t always clear as to what his message was annd this is why when interpeting a parable we wil be using these seven points to figure out what it is talking about. For each parable we will look at the Introduction, Which is the context leading up to the parable, The cast of the parable, The Plot of the parable. The conflict, the resolution, and the oppurtinity to change. And in everysingle parable we will look at each of these and apply them to our lives.

Miracle 1

So now that we have that large introduction out of the way let us look at the first maricle Jesus preformed. Turn to John 2:1–12 I will be reading out of the Christian standered bible and it says this, “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 signs, in Cana of Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his diciples believed in him. After this, he went down to Capernaum, together with his mother, his brother, and his diciples, and they stayed there only a few days.”

Jesus preformce a maricle here at this wedding, here turns over 120-180 Gallons gallons of water into wine, that’s alot of wine. Now I just want to say right off the bat, that this is not saying that we should get drunk, nor is it saying that you should drink alchohol, I have heard and I actually used to be one of the people who used this miracle to say that not only is it ok for Christians to drink but that it’s bibical to drink alchohol, and maybe in a non sinfull world where no one has any issues with it perhaps, infact I know that the feast in heaven will most likely have wine. But this section of scripture is not to be used as an excuse to drink. So just getting that out of the way, drunkness is a sin and Jesus says it is a sin, and with our sin nature alchohol is very dangerous, I am not saying to drink is sinfull, but to get drunk, or not of a sober mind so tipsy is a problem. And this should cause us to wonder then why does Jesus after knowing that these wedding guest have drunk to there full make even more wine?! that seems rediculoase doesn’t it? So why does Jesus do this? well for startes let’s look at the context, Jesus having just come to this wedding that has been taken place he and we are not sure why this wedding was of importance, but he goes there, and we do not know when this three days after is taken place, but we do know that this event happens less then a week bewtween Jesus’ apperance in the dessert and the maricale at Cana. Also just to add more to this, Jesus was not actually invited to the wedding, it was his mother hence why John says that Jesus mother was there. And from what we read the wedding party has run out of wine, now some of us may be thinking well to bad that sucks, but it’s no big deal, however understanding the culture of the time it actually was a huge deal! you see during the first century if you ran out of wine during a social gathering it was considred a disgrace, humilitaing, and an insult to your guest, infact your family would be under discrimination and slander because it was considered careless to run out of drink. And remeber wedding celebrations during this time lasted for a few days possible even a week, so your wine supple was a major consideration. On top of this we know that during this time people often made watered down wine due to the fact that the drinking water was not the best, so often times you had water and wine mixed together, then ontop of all of this we know that the wine during this time was not like our wine, it was not in the 17-20 percent, it was more like beer ranging from around 4-7 percent, but that is not inculding how it woudl have been watered down. But wine was important to have and running out was a disgrace. So we have a problem, wine is out, we can assume that this is only the first day of the wedding because it satys a wedding happened on the third day, which means these people greatly undersetimated how many people where attending to run out of wine on the first day of your pssibly week long celebration. But they are out and Jesus mother comes and tells her son Jesus that they are out of wine, to which he responds, “What has this concern of yours to do with me, women”. Mary clearly wanted Jesus to do something, infact she knew that he could which is why later she tells the servents to do whatever he says, but Jesus’s response to his mother here has puzzeld commentators for a long time, perhaps it is showing a change in there relationship, perhaps Jesus is rebuking his mother for asking him to do something that was not neccesarily needed, it is hard to really know, but what we do know is that saying women is not a form of disrespect during this time, it is odd, but not a rebuke. Jesus then says “My hour has not yet come” In the Gospel John Jesus uses this phrase four times, John 7:6 “Jesus told them, “My time has not yet arrived, but your time is always at hand.”, John 7:8 “Go up to the festival yourselves. I’m not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.”, and then lastly John 17:1 “Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you,”. Typically when saying these things it is a postponing of an event or when his enemies have tried to seize him but fail, Jesus always operated on the divine timeline not peoples. Perhaps Mary just really wanted to see here son prefomrea maricle, maybe she wanted him to reveal himsefl as the true messiah at this time, pr perhaps she had just had to much wine. there is alot that we can speculate from this, but that can lead us to dangerous waters, so instead of specualating let’s focuse on what is said and what matters. Mary tells the servents to do as he says, clearly showing that Mary believes her son will do something, and that she believes her son can do somehting. Jesus then tell’s the servents to fill the jars with water, now these jars where not ordinary jars but rather used for ceremonily washing, but now where abnout to be used for a different reasson, Jesus then says to bring it to the headwaiter, or toastmaster, someone who we would call today the Master of ceremonies, expect this person in Jesus time would be front and centre the action would be around him as he leads the celebration. Now with compleete faith in what Jesus says and in what mary told the servents to do they bring these jars of what they still bvelieve to be water to the toastmaster, and remeber this is a big deal, to bring unclean water to the toastmaster to try woudl be devistatig to the family, it woud be horrible to be one of these servents, yet they do it and when the toast master taste the contents of the jar he calls the groom and says “everyone sets out the fine wine first, then after people are drunik, the inferior. nbut you have kept the fine wine until now”. basically saying usually you start with the expensive stuff so that they can’t tell the differencfe whne you bring the cheap out. And what’s interesting in this is that the servents once seeeing that it was wine knew who had done this thing, can you imagine the faith they would have had after this, it’s outstanding. After this maricle we read that the diciples believed and then went to capernaum. On top of that we read that John says he “revealed his glory” this would be the first time Jesus has done something like this, and I find it very intereging that he does it during a wedding ceremony. Considering what we know about the church being the bride of Christ. So what was the point of this maricle? why did Jesus preform it, and what does it mean for us as we read it? well we have already looked at some of the reassons and insights, we saw that Jesus showed his glory, and that it streanghted the diciples belief in him as it morst likely did aswell to his mother and brothers. But what else? Well I think that we actually see something very beautifal here, we see Jesus restoring the celebration when it was about to die out. the people had run out of wine and the celebration was about to end, until jesus interviened. I can’t help but to think about creation at this time, Adam and Eve had the wine they where celebrating but then when they sined, and sin entered the world through one man the celebration was no more, infact in stopped until Jesus came back and restored the celebration by dying on the cross for our sins restoriing the amazing Joy we can have in Christ. And i use joy and wine here almost as the same thing because we know that in verses like Psalm 104:15 “wine that makes human hearts glad— making his face shine with oil— and bread that sustains human hearts.” Wine here is being used as a picture of Joy. Think about it this way church,

Just as the banquet master said that most people brought out the best wine first and the cheap wine once senses were dulled, in the same way the world throws its best pictures of sin at us to trick us, then the cheap stuff comes along. Eventually the joy and pleasure the world offers through sin runs out. But God’s joy lasts forever and he saves his best blessings for last. As Christians we always have more to look forward to because heaven reminds us that God saves the best wine for the end of the party.

And lastly what this maricle really shows is that Jesus is God, and he has the power over all things, Jesus takes water and transforms it into wine, showing his power on a moloculer scale. So what can we gain from this, well I think it obvious, Jesus is God, and he has power over all things, but also that we are waiting to go to the final celebration, to be with Christ after all of this is over and to celebrate with him praising him through worship for all of our remaining days. Jesus takes these ceremonial washing jars that are used to wash onces hands and make them clean and uses them for a complelty different reasson, just like how Jesus takes the law and fufills it in echange for the higher law, the, grace. Jesus does not abolish the law but upholds it and makes it so we now do not have to do all those things, we just have to believe. and this perfectly ties us in with our parable aswell.

Turn to Luke 5:36–39 “He also told them a parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. Otherwise, not only will he tear the new, but also the piece from the new garment will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, it will spill, and the skins will be ruined. No, new wine is put into fresh wineskins. And no one, after drinking old wine, wants new, because he says, ‘The old is better.” Now this parable is found in Matthew 9:14–17, obiously luke and also in Mark 2:21-22. The reasson I am using the Luke reference is because this is the one that specifiacly says Jesus told them a parable, the others simply just say, Jesus said or told them and then it has the parable. So first things first, we need to understand the context or the introduction. What’s going on before our passage? well if we go back a few verses we see that the Pharasees have been opserving Jesus diciples and they believe that they have broken a rule of the sabbath. Luke 5:17–34 “On one of those days while he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea, and also from Jerusalem. And the Lord’s power to heal was in him. Just then some men came, carrying on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed. They tried to bring him in and set him down before him. Since they could not find a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the roof tiles into the middle of the crowd before Jesus. Seeing their faith he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” Then the scribes and the Pharisees began to think to themselves, “Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” But perceiving their thoughts, Jesus replied to them, “Why are you thinking this in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgice sins he told the paralyzed man, “I tell you: Get up, take your stretcher, and go home.” 25 Immediately he got up before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home glorifying God. 26 Then everyone was astounded, and they were giving glory to God. And they were filled with awe and said, “We have seen incredible things today.” 27 After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 So, leaving everything behind, he got up and began to follow him. 29 Then Levi hosted a grand banquet for him at his house. Now there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others who were reclining at the table with them. 30 But the Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 Jesus replied to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”  Then they said to him, “John’s disciples fast often and say prayers, and those of the Pharisees do the same, but yours eat and drink.” 34 Jesus said to them, “You can’t make the wedding guests fast while the groom is with them, can you? 35 But the time will come when the groom will be taken away from them—then they will fast in those days.” Jesus has been teaching and healing prefomring maricles to those before him but also he has forgiven someones sin, which was the issue to the Pharasees who where there watching what was going on, after this Jesus goes and calls Levi to follow him and he does this and after having a banguet with many people including Pharisees and there scrips Jesus tells the people that the sick or the ones in need of a doctor not the healthy, meaning sinners need God, buyt after this the those who are sitting there most likely the Pharisees and the scribs ask him why his diciples eat and drink rather then fast. So we know that Jesus is very popular right now, wheather that is good or not you can debate, but he is also in hot water, he has just forgivn someones sin and that is somehting only God cando, yet he has the adacity to say it! So now eating with Jesus he is challenged once again. That’s really our introduction Jesus is talking to sinners and those who are of the law. but then after being challenged onto why his diciples are not currently fasting, he tells them a parable about garments and wineskins. So who is the cast in this parable? Well it’s clearly a person, whom I would argue is safe to suggest is us, but is clearly for them. the wineskins and the garments. and what is the plot? well people are taking old garments and old winsekins and using them improberly, and the conflict is that when we do this things are destoryed. So what’s the resolution of the parable?well it’s actually found in the last verse, the old is not better then the new. What does this mean then? what is this calling the peopole of the day and us to cahnge? Well it’s actually quiet simple church. Jesus came to fufill the law and usser in a new age, one where the law is fufilled and we are not held to it anymore and are free when we believe in Jesus and are transformed through that faith. but much deeper then just that surface level is understandign who he is taliing to, the pharasees who have taken other things and added it to the law, to grace. This is touching on sincritims you can not mix the old and new, our beliefs or believes from other religions with the truth, nbor can you add saved by works to the turth of the gospel. Jesus is saying he you do not need to fast anymore, because the old has passed you are saved, should you still fast of course but it is not a nessesity anymorem, it does not clense you ponly Jesus who died pn the cross can do that amen? Jesus here in his parable is calling all of us to change how we view salvation and his glory, do you view the grace of God as something that it is not, somethign that need’s to be earned rather then a free gift? do you see the grace of christ and say that’s good but we still need to make sacrifices and fast and hold to the law! if you do that thne Jesus death is pointlesss. which is what he is getting at here in this parable. Both the mircle of truning the water into wine at the weedding and the parable of the garments and wineskin foucse on the truth of the new covenent that we have with Jesus, we are going to be celebrating one day with him in heaven as we praise his name in glory forever, but that is only possible through faith in him and only him nothing else, we can not add to the gospel, we are save by his free gift and that is all. Music team come up and lead us in closing through worhsip though song.