The abundant blessing of the Kingdom of God is available to all who have eyes to see.

Main Preaching Intention

I believe the congregation will grasp the abundance of God's concern for them and will enthusiastically share this with their family & neighbours

1/ There is a lot more going on behind the scenes than we often realize

When you see a major event on TV, such as the Olympics or Commonwealth Games there is a whole army of people behind the scenes making it all work.

You may have seen or read about the recent opportunity for people to volunteer to help out at the commonwealth games.

1000s of people are needed.

I remember in Melbourne a few years ago at the last games that the volunteers were just a small part of the story.

There were police and emergency services, sporting officials, volunteers, government agencies and behind the scenes members of the ADF. I know because i visited some of the people I was responsible for at the time. They were camped at the RAAF base so I flew in, visited them for a few days and flew out again.

The only way I knew that the games were actually on was because they were there to support it, teams would go out each day to conduct vehicle searches at the entrances to the venues and then they would return each night. I and many of the people in the Headquarters at the RAAF base never saw an athlete.

It is the same with many events. There are so many things going on behind the scenes which we just don’t see, unless we are looking.

One of those things is the cultural understandings at play. If you go to the State of Origin then there is a whole culture and appreciation of the sport which is simply known by the fans.

But if you take someone from another country to the game you have to explain what is going on.

It is the same with cricket or the AFL and a number of other games.

In a similar way there are many things going on behind a social event. There might be relationships at play, financial concerns and a driving factor in many cases is the cultural expectations.

One of the accounts in the Bible where we can see these cultural expectations at play is the Wedding at Cana.

If we are looking we will see that there was a lot going on behind the scenes at this wedding.

John 2:1-12

John 2:1–12 NLT

1 The next day there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration. 3 The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother told him, “They have no more wine.” 4 “Dear woman, that’s not our problem,” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.” 5 But his mother told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Standing nearby were six stone water jars, used for Jewish ceremonial washing. Each could hold twenty to thirty gallons. 7 Jesus told the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” When the jars had been filled, 8 he said, “Now dip some out, and take it to the master of ceremonies.” So the servants followed his instructions. 9 When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over. 10 “A host always serves the best wine first,” he said. “Then, when everyone has had a lot to drink, he brings out the less expensive wine. But you have kept the best until now!” 11 This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him. 12 After the wedding he went to Capernaum for a few days with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples.

2/ There was a lot going on behind the scenes at the Wedding at Cana

Jesus and his disciples had been invited so they were known to the hosts and Cana was close enough to Nazareth that even if the families weren’t related they could have easily been part of the same extended community.

So we shouldn’t be surprised that Jesus is there.

And because wedding celebrations lasted for seven days you can see how the supply of wine might run out.

Now we shouldn't think of this as some wild drunken week long party like schoolies week where some twenty something sleaze bag hopes to “hook up” with a 17 year old with no expectation of life long commitment.

Weddings and the betrothal of the bride in ancient Israel were carefully managed.

Often but not always the marriage was arranged and while we might find that idea horrifying in contemporary society we need to remember that everyone had an expectation that marriages were arranged or at least carefully approved by both families.

This was an agricultural society with numerous small villages, Parents would watch everyone's children closely with a view to selecting a potentially suitable spouse.

Match making was part of the culture and while the religious teachers of the day didn’t see women as equals in many respects the common people were a lot more sensible and took the Scriptures teaching about respecting and valuing women very seriously.

Everyone knew each other, if a man did not treat his wife well the other women in the town knew about it and that meant their husbands knew about it and that meant the man would find himself loosing respect.

Expectations in the villages of Israel meant that women were valued and treated with a respect that was often not found in other cultures. A husband not only needed a wife, he needed a partner in the business of carrying out his trade .

Parents would carefully choose a spouse for their child, and while the bride was typically 14 to 16 years old and the groom typically 6 to 8 years older, everyone understood that the relationship was to be one of commitment.

You committed to one another and from this commitment romantic love almost always followed.

Today people confuse infatuation and romance with love.

Everyone knew how things worked and in general for the common people it worked well.

One of the things that worked well was the actual wedding ceremony.

The master of ceremonies was responsible to ration the wine so that it lasted for the whole seven days and people didn’t get drunk.

For the people at the wedding in Cana getting drunk was not acceptable, excess was seen as shameful and having your guests get roaring drunk would ruin the event.

The wine then wasn’t distilled as it is today, it wasn’t as strong and while it was possible to get drunk in a Jewish context this was unlikely, especially as the wine was normally watered down.

But you would still serve the best wine first, after a while people don’t notice if the quality drops off.

Everyone drunk wine, there wasn’t a supermarket with a whole aisle of different drinks.

Fruitful vineyards were a sign of God’s blessing.

3/ Jesus used these cultural understandings to demonstrate that the abundant blessings of the Kingdom of God had arrived

When Jesus turned the water into wine he wasn’t just saving the host severe embarrassment, the sort of social failure that his friends would happily remind him of for the the rest of his life.

Jesus was actually picking up on the words of passages such as Jeremiah 31:12

Jeremiah 31:12 NLT

12 They will come home and sing songs of joy on the heights of Jerusalem. They will be radiant because of the Lord’s good gifts— the abundant crops of grain, new wine, and olive oil, and the healthy flocks and herds. Their life will be like a watered garden, and all their sorrows will be gone.

And Joel 3:18

Joel 3:18 NLT

18 In that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk. Water will fill the streambeds of Judah, and a fountain will burst forth from the Lord’s Temple, watering the arid valley of acacias.

And Amos 9:13-14

Amos 9:13–14 NLT

13 “The time will come,” says the Lord, “when the grain and grapes will grow faster than they can be harvested. Then the terraced vineyards on the hills of Israel will drip with sweet wine! 14 I will bring my exiled people of Israel back from distant lands, and they will rebuild their ruined cities and live in them again. They will plant vineyards and gardens; they will eat their crops and drink their wine.

There are at least three layers of meaning in this miracle.

Firstly there is the quality of the wine, it is the best

Then there is the quantity, six stone water jars each holding 20 to 30 gallons each. That’s at least 450 litres maybe even 680 litres.

This miracle presents a picture.

The Kingdom of God contains the very best in abundance.

And this miracle makes a point.

The stone water jars contained water for ceremonial purification because stone didn’t absorb impurities then the ceremonial washing was going to be acceptable.

When Jesus turned the water into wine he was in effect saying that the purpose of those stone jars no longer mattered.

The ceremonial washings of the Old Testament are now replaced with the new wine of the New Covenant of the Kingdom

4/ The disciples & Mary had eyes to see what Jesus' miracle was proclaiming

The Kingdom of God has arrived in the person of Jesus.

In this act of miraculously providing the best quality wine in extravagant abundance Jesus is declaring to his disciples and Mary that the Kingdom of God has arrived.

But there is an issue here, it appears that Jesus didn’t want to make too big a deal of this.

Have a look again at verses 3 & 4.

We don’t know why but Mary seems to have had an insiders understanding of the catering situation.

Perhaps she was close to the hosts, perhaps a few key people were aware of the situation behind the scenes and were searching for a solution.

Perhaps Mary felt compelled by a family linkage to ask her son to provide some assistance.

Maybe she expected a miracle, maybe she expected Jesus and his small group of followers to pitch in, run down the road to a mates house and raid his beer fridge.

Or maybe the kitchen & store room area was next to the women's accommodation and Mary was very observant of what was going on.

We don’t know.

But Jesus makes a point in verse 4.

“Dear woman, that’s not our problem, my time has not yet come”

The Greek sentence behind this translation is actually quite harsh. But we shouldn’t see this as a mark of disrespect from Jesus towards his mother.

After all he also referred to Mary as Woman when he entrusted her to the care of his disciple John as he hung on the cross.

Rather Jesus is making the point that everything now revolves around the timetable of his heavenly Father.

Nine times Jesus refers to “his time” The first three times he says my time has not yet come.

The last six he says his time has come.

In every case he is talking about his death on the cross, the resurrection and his exaltation as Lord.

Jesus is pointing out to Mary that she shouldn’t try to force his hand, she shouldn’t try to rush things she doesn’t understand.

Jesus isn’t going to follow her timetable or anyone else’s.

He is only on about his Father’s assigned tasks.

Nether the less Jesus provides for Mary’s request.

Jesus has fixed the problem that Mary has identified.

But more importantly for those who knew there is this powerful message.

5/ The abundant blessing of the Kingdom of God is to know who Jesus truly is

The disciples obviously didn't fully get it till after the resurrection.

But we have the benefit of their accounts & our own encounter with Christ.

The Kingdom of God has arrived in the person of Jesus.

His claims, his example, his miracles all point to one thing.

If we know him, we know the Kingdom of God, if we know the Kingdom of God then we know life to the full.

The disciples, Mary and the servants had eyes to see what was going on.

We to need to see the abundance of Jesus’ blessing to us.

He laid down his life so that we can live.

He took our place to pay for our sins so that we can have life.

He has opened the door to heaven so that we may enter in.

Have eyes to see have hearts to share so that others may also see.