The Power of the Creator
Notes
Transcript
Well I am excited about tonight’s message as we are now moving out of and into .
But we need to remember where we have come out of . In the first 18 verses we saw the Deity of Christ and the Word becoming flesh to dwell among us. The second section we see Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And in the final section of the first chapter we saw Jesus calling as the savior to His first five disciples. In that first chapter we see the bold testimony of John the Apostle and John the Baptist that Jesus is the Christ. He is the Lamb of God. And they call upon us to be ready for what is to come. They call us to be ready to look for the savior as we move on from these opening statements into chapter two of John’s Gospel.
The second chapter is particularly exciting because we see the first of eight miracles called the sign miracles of Christ in John. These sign miracles were meant to show various aspects of Jesus’ Deity, the power that he has over everything, and to further proclaim the reality of who He was. He was the Messiah. He was all powerful. He had all authority and He was not bound by the constraints of this world. He was God in the flesh.
These eight signs that are found in the book of John they are the water turned into wine, the healing of an official’s son, the healing of a lame man, the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus walking on water, the healing of the blind man, raising Lazarus from the dead, and the miraculous catch of fish. In these signs we see His power over everything. This is the mark of the start of Jesus public ministry.
We have seen him build His team. He has gone out and gotten His disciples. And now we see Him take his message to the people. This ministry will include not only the signs, but the “I Am” sayings of Christ. It will include sermons or discourses. And it will all be majestic. John records the power, beauty, and majesty of Christ and His ministry throughout the entire Gospel.
And the first of those signs we see tonight at the wedding at Cana here in .
Let’s begin reading.
1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
12 After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
Now I mentioned that this is the first of eight signs we will see in John’s Gospel. The other signs follow and they also coincide with the eight “I am” statements of Christ. Those statements will begin when we get to chapter six.
But the sign miracles are to put the power of Christ on full display and we see the first one here with turning the water into wine.
Now in verse one it says on the third day. This is a continuation of what we have seen in the first chapter. What is interesting to note, when we left off Jesus and his disciples they were in Galilee near Bethsaida and they would have had about a three-day journey to arrive at Cana. It is also likely that the wedding had already been going on for several days. Weddings were not short affairs in first century Jewish culture. They lasted for a full week or more.
We see also in this first verse that Mary, Jesus mother, was already at the wedding celebration when Jesus and His disciples arrived. We do not know who this marriage involved, but the fact that Jesus was invited and so was Mary indicates this must have been some relationship with the family whether relative or friend.
I want to point out that John does not use the name Mary. He simple says the mother of Jesus. John never mentions Mary’s name in the entire Gospel just as he does not mention his own name in the Gospel. It is interesting to note that he is the one that is asked to take care of Mary at the cross.
25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
John 19:25-
John is consistent with not mentioning Mary’s name in not bringing undue attention to himself or things or people that would bring undue attention to himself as well as setting her apart from the other Mary’s listed in John. He wants the focus to be on the work of Christ.
But now we have a problem arise. We are in the midst of this great wedding celebration, everyone is having a good time and the unthinkable happens.
Verse 3
3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”
John 1:
3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Now wine was common in the ancient Near East where this was taking place. There were many vineyards and fruit juices would easily ferment because of the hot arid climate of the land. So I want to point out that this was not just grape juice, this was an actual alcoholic beverage. However, they diluted it with water to reduce its potency which would lessen the chance to be drunk with the wine.
But running out of wine was a big problem. This would have been a great embarrassment, culturally, to the bridegroom. You were expected to be prepared for the week of festivities and clearly they had fallen short. This had both social and legal consequences in that culture. So we see this crisis.
So Mary says to Jesus that they have no wine. Now, we do not know what Mary was doing at this point. It could be she was telling him to do something about it or it could be that she was just informing him of the crisis. We do not know for sure, but we can assume, based on the following verses, that she knew He could do something about it.
After all, Mary would have known exactly who her son was. She knew from before He was even born. But what does Jesus say to her?
4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”
At first, when we see this response from Christ, “Woman,” we are inclined to think about it being disrespectful and rude. But we cannot look at this from our cultural standpoint, we must look at it from the culture of the time and place. This would not have been a word of disrespect to His mother. On the contrary, this was an appropriate address of the time. We actually see Christ address his mother as “woman” at the crucifixion as we read earlier.
25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
John
The crucifixion would have been a most tender final moments between mother and son. There would obviously been no reason for Jesus to disrespect His mother at the cross. Yet, he still refers to her as woman because this was cultural. And after that address we see one of the most precious, and human moments of Christ in all the Gospels. He wants to make sure that His mother is looked after and cared for. So we should not see this as a sign of disrespect in any manner whatsoever.
So back in , Mary has said to Jesus that there is no more wine left, we are at a crisis. And how does Jesus respond? “What does this have to do with me?” And then he continues, “My hour has not yet come.”
This phrase is used throughout John to signal his death and glorification. It is used in quite a few places. First, here in .
6 Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here.
4 For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For not even his brothers believed in him. 6 Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. 8 You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.”
1 After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. 2 Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. 3 So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. 4 For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For not even his brothers believed in him. 6 Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. 8 You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.”
25 Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? 26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? 27 But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” 28 So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. 29 I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” 30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. 31 Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”
30 So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
8 You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.”
18 I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.” 19 They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 20 These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.
23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”
jn12.23-2
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
And finally in one of the most majestic passages in all of Scripture, in the high priestly prayer of Jesus says,
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
John 17
The hour has not yet come is a way here in for Christ to say that it is not yet His time to be fully revealed. He is not ready to be put to death, resurrect, and return to the Father. He would, however, continue, as we will see in just a moment, that He does perform a miracle. That miracle will show, without question, His divine power. But it is only a glimpse of His full glory for His hour had not yet come.
The fact that Jesus says this just before performing the first sign of His power and authority should show us that everything in John is leading up to the events of the passion week. All of the miracles, all of the confrontations with the Jewish leaders, all of the preaching and teaching of Christ all serve to setup the events that happen at the cross. His identity, and power, and Deity, must be fully realized to show that He truly is that perfect spotless Lamb of God that is the only one fit to become the sacrifice that takes away the sin of the world. But that hour, that moment when all is fulfilled, had not yet come.
But we must also note that this response of Jesus is not saying no. He only pointed out that the fullness of his purposes had not yet arrived. He did not say that He would not do anything about the current situation. So Mary continues in verse 5.
5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
It is obvious that Mary has some sort of position at this wedding celebration. She is concerned about the supply and is making sure something is done about it, and the servants at the feast take instruction from her when she tells them to do whatever Jesus tells them to do. This gives more weight to the viewpoint that this must have been a wedding of someone close to Jesus’ earthly family. We see at the end of this section that it is not just Jesus and Mary at this event, but his brothers as well.
So Mary says to do whatever Jesus says. What a statement! It is a simple statement but not an easy statement. For we will see in a moment that the request that Jesus makes of the servants is a little strange. But we see a principle here. Do whatever Jesus tells you to do. We have the instruction of Jesus contained within the 66 books of Scripture. The commandments are simple, but they are not easy. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, love your neighbor as yourself. Follow the commands. It is a simple formula, but it is a hard road to walk in our sinful nature. But we should do whatever He tells us to do.
The ways of Christ seem foreign and strange to the natural man. It is not the way we would do things. I am sure these servants, knowing they needed more wine and not water, would not have thought “hey, let’s go fill these jars with water and hope they don’t notice it isn’t wine!” They would have wanted to figure out where the nearest source of wine was. That is the way man would think. But not Jesus, that’s not how He thought. He knew that He had a perfect and divine plan that He was about to demonstrate using his great power.
So what was the instruction that Christ gave to the servants?
6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it.
So we have six very large jars, twenty to thirty gallons each. That means we are talking anywhere between 120 and 180 gallons of capacity for water. That is a LOT of water. These jars were for the Jewish rites of purification. Now what is that? Let’s look at Mark chapter 7.
1 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.)
Mark 7:1-
The Jews operated under a strict adherence to cleansing and purification. The would wash for everything. If you read the old Levitical Law you see that the laws for the Jews were very strict about what was clean and what was not clean and the Pharisees had taken this to extreme levels. So, since there was so much to be going on at this wedding feast, they had these six massive stone jars for these rites of purification.
Jesus tells the servants to fill these jars with water. Now remember, we are talking about at least 120 gallons of water. And it says that they filled this jars to the brim. The fact that these jars are so large points to the magnitude of what Jesus is about to accomplish here turning this water into wine. But the servants do not hesitate, they do as they are told. They get the water, fill the jars to the brim and Jesus says now draw some of the water out and take it to the master of the feast.
Now, at this point they must be asking themselves questions. Draw this water out and take it to the master of the feast? We will be fired! We will be a laughing stock! We will be a further embarrassment to this situation! But if any doubt was in the minds of these servants, they did not voice it or show it. They did as they were told to do.
Again, how often do we hesitate? How often do we question and have doubts about what we are told to do? Do we not trust the Savior? Do we not trust God enough to know what He is doing and how He will accomplish His will? At this point those servants probably did not yet know He was the Messiah because He had not been publically revealed on a large level yet. Yet they obeyed. Even if there are doubts in our minds about what Christ is asking us to do in His word, we should obey and do as we are told to do.
So the servants are now taking this water, now turned to wine, to the master of the feast and they serve it to him for testing.
9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
So we have the master of the feast drinking this wine now that Jesus has created, and I will talk more about that in a moment, but notice what he said about the wine. He didn’t ask where they got the wine, he didn’t say anything other than this is the best wine!
Now I want to look here for a minute because this verse causes hangups for a lot of people and they try to explain things away because of cultural stigmas that are associated with drinking. I want to make this clear. This was not grape juice. This was wine. Actual alcohol. The Greek word here is defined literally as fermented juice. So I want to say that there is nothing wrong with personal convictions about not drinking, and we definitely know that we are not to be drunk. The Bible is explicitly clear on that. But we should not try to twist the biblical text by trying to make things mean something other than what they really do to fit our cultural positions of today.
But they have this wine now. It is the best wine. The normal practice would be to give out the best wine at the beginning of the celebration and as the week went on to use cheaper, not as high quality wine. There would have been a lot of wine on hand for these celebrations and you couldn’t have the finest wine for the entire event, it would bankrupt you. So they give the good stuff out first, and then move to cheaper quality. But the master of the feast is amazed because this is the best wine he has ever tasted. It’s perfect.
And should we expect anything less? The signs in John’s Gospel are to show Christ’s power over certain things. This first sign at the wedding at Cana shows Jesus’ power over creation. His power over creation.
We already know that He created everything, let’s look at two passages here.
We already saw
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Everything was made through him. And Paul writes about this in Colossians.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
col1.15-
All things. Not just here on earth but things in heaven, things visible, invisible, rulers, authorities, all of these things. They were all made by him, through him, and for him. Paul drives this point home in Romans.
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
So here back in we see now water turned to wine. Now to make wine you need grapes or some other fruit that has juice that will ferment. But Christ did not have anything here that would supply that requirement. He literally made something out of nothing. He just made it appear. So we see his power over creation.
Again, we go back to the purpose of this book.
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
So we are going to be looking at eight signs specifically but John writes that Jesus did many more signs than these. This was a constant with Christ. It was a staple of His ministry. It was a constant reminder and proving of who He was and why He was here. It gave him authority. And John writes these things so that you may believe Jesus is the Christ. Just here in the first chapter and a half of John we have seen more than enough evidence of this fact. We have seen His power, we have seen His purpose, we have seen prophecies fulfilled and we are just getting started. So that you may believe and that by that belief, you may have life in His name.
What a wonderful truth this evening. As I said last week, Christ made no secrets about who He was. If you were paying attention, if you cared to know, you knew exactly who He was and today as we read we know exactly who He was and is. He is the Christ. He is the savior.
And this brings us to our last two verses tonight here in the first section of chapter two.
11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
12 After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
This manifested His glory. It caused His glory to become known to those who knew that He is the one who provided the wine that day, out of six massive jars of water. When we see glory referring to an attribute of Christ, it is always describing His divine being. His power. His radiance. His beauty as the second person of the Trinity. His authority. And in each one of the signs that we see in John’s Gospel, the first one here in chapter two, he shows His divine power. What a mighty and awesome God we serve!
And it says in the second part of verse 11, His disciples believed in Him. John knew as he was writing this that he could write these things so that we may believe because these things caused the disciples to believe first. He is speaking from personal testimony. He is giving an account for the hope that lies within him. He got to see these things first-hand. And he knew the power that it held over him and that it would surely hold over anyone who read it and truly had ears to hear it.
The power that Christ has, the power that He holds and displays to us should grip us with fear and trembling. We should be in awe of the savior. When we read about who He is and what He has done and what He can and will do, it should cause us to fall to our knees and worship Him. Everything around us, ever person, every plant, every animal, every star, Christ made that. And He came to live on this earth to die for a sinful people. A people who rebelled against Him. He died so that they might have life. We are not worthy of that. He does not love us because of who we are, He only loves us because of who He is.
The last verse in this section says that they went down to Capernaum. This is where Peter made his home. He went there with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples and stayed there for a few days.
I can only imagine the conversations that they would have had on that 25 mile journey to Capernaum. Unfortunately those are not recorded for us. Perhaps nothing was said. Perhaps the disciples were so awestruck they did not know what to say. We don’t know. But it must have been special to see the handiwork of God Himself right before their very eyes.
There are a few things that I want to take away tonight as we draw to a close.
First, we need to be ready. When Jesus calls for us to do something we need to stand at the ready to take orders. The servants did what they were told to do and something great happened as a result. What is Christ telling you to do tonight? Earlier today we talked about doing something for God. What is God calling you to do today? Something great is waiting on the other side. And that doesn’t mean it will be something spectacular like 120 gallons of wine appearing. But it is great for the work of Christ’s kingdom. So first, we need to be ready.
Second, we need to be obedient. It’s not just enough to be ready. If the servants had been ready but then scoffed at the task given because it didn’t make any sense we would not have had this example tonight. But because they were obedient they got to be a part of that great work. We need to obey what God is asking us to do. No matter how strange it may seem, no matter how crazy it might feel. We need to obey that call of God.
Finally, we need to be awestruck. We need to be in awe of our creator, the one who made everything and has revealed Himself to us and called us his own.
This is just the beginning. It is just the start. Christ’s public ministry will continue and we will see the clashes with the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders start to begin as we continue on in chapter two. But for tonight, let us just be amazed with the power of Christ and His authority and power over creation and in our lives, and let’s stand ready to do His work, whatever that may be.
Let’s pray.