The Wedding at Cana (John 2:1-12)

Announcements

November 21st at 2pm, ladies’ Cookie Baking Bonanza—time for fellowship as you bake cookies to be bagged up and given to your neighbors during the week of Thanksgiving along with information about the church. If you’d like to help, please talk to Natalie about it.

For those of you wanting to join us as official charter members, please talk with me after this morning’s service, I’d love to answer any questions you might have and help you as you make the decision to join or not.

Business meeting right after this morning’s service to vote in a few things that need voted in officially. Open to anyone who wants to stay, but only those who have become members prior to the meeting can vote during the meeting.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Pray for forgiveness for sin

Give thanks for the goodness of God and his willingness to send Jesus to be our substitutionary atonement on the cross

Give thanks for God and his mercy, grace, and love

Give thanks for God and his greatness and holiness.

Call to Worship / Scripture Reading

This morning’s Scripture reading comes from Hebrews 1:1-4, which is a bit shorter than our normal Scripture reading, but since the message portion is a little longer, I decided a shorter reading would be wiser. This passage, the beginning of the book of Hebrews starts by explaining God’s methodology for speaking to people and how it has changed throughout history to where he currently speaks primarily through his Son.

Hebrews 1:1–4 ESV

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

I chose this passage intentionally, because part of this morning’s message concerns the purpose of miracles and so these two ideas—miracles and messages from God go hand and hand, but hopefully you’ll connect that later in the message.

Introduction

This morning, we’re continuing in our series through John and we’ve come across a passage of Scripture that speaks of a miracle. Now, we’ve already studied through a few miracles, though I didn’t necessarily term them as miracles because John also didn’t call them miracles. When we studied through John 1:1-18, we read about the miracle of creation (though John never called it a miracle), when we studied through John 1:19-34, we read about the miracle of the Holy Spirit descending on the Son of Man and resting on him (though John never called it a miracle); even last week as we studied through Jesus calling the first disciples in John 1:35-51, I mentioned the omniscience of Jesus Christ. Jesus knew Nathanael prior to meeting him, could tell Nathanael what was in his heart, and assured him that Nathanael would see greater things in the future—all of these events are miraculous. They normally wouldn’t have occured and yet they did without the author acknowledging that they were miracles.

No, he brings them up in a way to record history and essentially moves on—John 2:1-12, the passage that we’re studying through today is the first miracle that John records in which he intentionally says that this is a miracle (though he calls it a sign) This miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee is only recorded in the book of John, which means that we ought to pay special attention to this miracle in order to determine how it fits with the theological themes of John, but instead of speculating on what the purpose of this miracle might be, we can rest assured because John tells us the purpose of this miracle in Vs. 11, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” Since John is writing with the express purpose that people would believe in Jesus and in turn, have everlasting life, it shouldn’t surprise us that John records this miracle in order to show why the disciples became believers.

Because this is Jesus’ first recorded miracle, we will spend some time talking about miracles in particular—(1) what is a miracle, (2) what is the purpose of a miracle, and (3) why we don’t see miracles the same way that they’re utilized in the Bible in our current time period.

But first, let’s read this morning’s passage:

John 2:1–12 ESV

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.

As we study this passage, we’re going to look at it in three parts: (1) 1-5, will show us the Predicament (what went wrong) and how Jesus initially responds to the predicament, (2) 6-10, will show us the sign (miracle) that Jesus performs as well as the reaction from the people, and (3) 11-12, will show us the purpose for the miracle. All of which will show us that the miracles in the Bible have specific purposes. And then of course, we’ll determine how to apply this passage to our lives after studying through the passage.

Let’s pray for the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

Give thanks for the Word of God and the ability that we have to read and study his word

Give thanks that we have the Word of God in our own language and readily available for our use

Pray that the Holy Spirit guides us in our understanding of Scripture

That we learn, internalize, and apply Scripture to our lives.

The Predicament and Jesus’ Initial Response (2:1-5)

The Bible tells us that:

John 2:1–5 ESV

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.”

These five verses tell us a number of preliminary details that help set the stage for what is occuring in the passage.

For instance, On the third day, tells us that this event happens subsequently from the past two events—as in Day 1, John makes the proclamation of Jesus being the Lamb of God and then baptizes Jesus; Day 2, Jesus calls his first disciples; and now, Day 3, is this wedding.

It all happened rapidly and by John emphasizing the order of these details, he shows us that this event is connected with the previous two events over the three days.

Or in other words, the event that he’s about to record in Cana of Galilee is connected to the events mentioned in John 1:19-34 and John 1:35-51. Remember this detail because we’ll come back to it later.

John tells us that this happens at a wedding in Cana of Galilee--that Jesus, his mother, and the disciples were all invited, but beyond that, we don’t know much about the fine details (and might I suggest that the lack of detail is intentional).

While we know the wedding was in Cana of Galilee, but as of yet, archeologists haven’t found it—so we actually have no clue where Cana was; though, let me assure you, not knowing where a place was located in the Bible doesn’t stop it from being true—it just means we haven’t found it yet.

The only other biblical mentions of Cana, come from the Gospel according to John.

John 4:46 46 So [Jesus] came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill.”

John 21:2, in a list of the disciples who were together after the resurrection, the Bible records: 2 “Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together.” and under Peter’s prompting they decide to go fishing right before they see the resurrected Jesus on the shore.

Not much is known about Cana, we have no clue who the wedding is for—the Bible doesn’t record the name of the bride nor the groom, and because we don’t know the bride and groom, we have no clue how Mary and Jesus are related to them—they could be family or they could just be friends, but like I said,

I think the lack of detail is intentional because John isn’t trying to give us a comprehensive, detailed look at the wedding

No, he’s trying to give us a look at this sign that Jesus performs and the purpose behind the sign.

So, we don’t know where Cana is, we don’t know who the bridge and groom are, or why Mary, Jesus, and the disciples were invited to come—nevertheless, they’re at this wedding, when in Vs. 3, “The wine ran out, [and] 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.’”

First off, there is a little bit of a cultural difference that I have to explain. In a Jewish wedding, particularly in the intertestimental period and the 1st century, it was common for Jewish weddings along with all of their festivities to last over a week—which means that the bride and groom along with their families would have to provide enough food and drink to cover the entirety of the wedding festivities.

Obviously, if they ran out of anything, it would be considered an embarrassment for the family. Just like if you went to a wedding today and at the reception, they only had enough food for half of the people.

Knowing that they were running out of wine, someone would have to do something to fix that issue. And it is evident that Mary had something to do with supplying the needs for the wedding—otherwise, why would she care so much if the bride and groom ran out of supplies?

Mary recognizes the predicament they’re facing and goes to Jesus for the solution.

Why did Mary inform Jesus of the wine situation, Some have argued that when Mary states, “They have no wine,” she is merely just passing on information (albeit sad information), but that argument really doesn’t make sense when in Vs. 5, Mary tells the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them to do. Thus, it is clear that Mary goes to Jesus because she wants Jesus to fix the problem, which he does, but not before making a statement to Mary,

Vs. 4, “And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.’” Now, historically there has been some trepidation with this response from Jesus, primarily due to the the way people assume this sounds. Put differently, it sounds like Jesus is being disrespectful or harsh with Mary.

And since the Bible does command the honoring of your mother and father, some have had a difficult time at getting through this statement. In fact, the NIV translates this verse slightly different to soften the misunderstanding, the NIV says, “Dear woman, why do you involve me?”

Let’s remember that it is a different culture and a different language; and in fact, later during the crucifixion in John 19:26, “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother. ‘Woman, behold, your son!’” And in this situation during the crucifixion, it isn’t an abrupt, harsh rebuke against Mary. It’s actually Jesus lovingly providing arrangements for her care after his death.

So, don’t get tripped up on what he says in John 2:4 and whether or not it sounds abrupt in our culture, because their culture is different. He isn’t rebuking her, he’s asking what their lack of supply has to do with him. If we were to compare the idea of the word usage here, it might be similar to the southern use of the word ma’am. A term of respectful or polite address used for a woman.

And in conjunction with this question, he makes an interesting statement, “My hour has not yet come.”

This phrase is interesting in two ways (1) it doesn’t seem to fit in with what is happening in John 2. It seems out of place in that it doesn’t seem like that would be a response of Jesus to Mary about the wine at a wedding. And that’s because it is a little out of place. Especially since Vs. 6-12, show Jesus providing for the wedding.

So, let me explain that it is a little out of place, Jesus isn’t talking about turning water into wine when he says, “my hour has not yet come,” in fact he’s referencing something that doesn’t occur for almost the entirety of the book and this is evident in the fact that the phrase is continuously repeated:

Of course, here in John 2:4

In John 7:25-31, the people of Jerusalem were wondering if Jesus was the Christ, and Jesus responds with, “‘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.’” And the people responded by Vs. 30, “Seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.”

The next six times the phrase is utilized, no longer says that the hour hasn’t come. In John 12:20-23, we’re told of some Greeks who came to the disciples in order to see Jesus and the disciples went to tell Jesus, and Jesus responds with, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

In the same chapter, John 12:27, Jesus says, “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.

In John 13:1, before the Passover feast, Jesus knew that his hour had come.

John 16:29-32, Jesus is preparing his disciples for the tribulation that is coming against them and he tells them to fear not because he had overcome the world and they say, Vs. 29 “Now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech!” Vs 30” This is why we believe that you come from God.” And Jesus says this, “Do you now believe? 32 Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come.”

And a few verses later in John 17:1, in Jesus’ prayer in the garden, he says, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.”

So when Jesus references that the hour has not come, he’s referring to his glorification that occurs through his crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection.

In this instance, when he says, “what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come” he’s referring to the fact that it isn’t time for his glorification; or put another way, he realized that his role on earth was not to handle material issues or earthly matters (and the lack of wine is an earthly matter)

He was stating that his role on earth had a much more spiritual meaning and this isn’t the first time Jesus speaks like this—just over 20 years prior to John 2, in Matthew 2:41-52, we’re told about twelve-year-old Jesus and his parents going to Jerusalem every year for the Passover. And when the Passover feast ended and as the people were all returning to their homes and after Mary and Joseph had traveled a day’s journey, his parents had realized that Jesus wasn’t with them. They returned to Jerusalem and found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking tim questions.

And Mary asks him, “Son why have you treated us so?” Vs. 49, “And he said to them, ‘Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’”

Or put another way, he was in the temple being about the business of his Father.

And in John 2, he’s essentially making the statement that it isn’t my time to being the business that I came to earth to accomplish.

Nevertheless, Mary tells the servants to “Do whatever he tells you.”

Despite Jesus’ initial response of, “it isn’t my time” and “what does this have to do with me?” Mary is still sure that Jesus will handle the issue

Which he does, and Vs. 6-8, reflect what occurs next.

The Sign (Miracle) of Jesus and the People’s Response (2:6-10)

John 2:6–10 ESV

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.”

Vs. 6, refers to these six stone water jars that were meant for the Jewish rites of purification and these quite simply would’ve been utilized for the Jewish people at the wedding to essentially cleanse themselves prior to the feast.

Each jar held between twenty or thirty gallons of water and Jesus tells the servants to fill them with water.

And then he has them draw some out and take it to the master of the feast

While we don’t have specific records of what exactly the master of the feast did, the general understanding is that the master of the feast was a servant who acted as the general manager for all the servants during the feast.

We could liken them to the head steward or maybe to keep the wedding theme going, it could be that their role was similar to a wedding planner who organized everything and kept everything going logistically. Its hard to know for sure because the Bible doesn’t exactly tell us what the master of the feast did.

All we know is that the servants who brought the ritual water jars to Jesus, took the water to the master of the feast and somewhere along the way Jesus turned that water into wine.

And the master of the feast tasted the wine without knowing from where it came and determined that this wine was better than the wine that they had prior to that moment

“Vs. 9b, “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.”

In other words, the master of the feast is saying, normally people bring the good wine out first because at the beginning, people could still tell the different and then later on they bring out cheaper wine because the people aren’t as discerning in their palate.

But in this scenario, the wine that Jesus made far surpassed the wine that was first utilized.

And the most interesting part about this entire account (at least to me), is that it doesn’t tell us at all what happened. It doesn’t tell us what Jesus did to turn the water into wine, it doesn’t tell us when the water turned into wine. All the Bible tells us, is that water was brought to Jesus, Jesus did something, and then the water turned into a completely different substance.

Now, we do have to take a moment to talk about one issue—and the issue is that concerning the wine itself and the use of alcohol. There are many people who take issue with this passage because of the use of alcohol and they go way out of their way to try and explain this passage:

For instance, I grew up in a church that taught that the alcohol in the wine utilized in the Bible was a more watered-down version of the alcohol that is commonly drank today and thus, since the alcohol is weaker they can drink the alcohol without the affects that our stronger alcohol has on people today.—The issue with this idea, is that even in the Bible, there were people who had gotten drunk (e.g., Noah planted a vineyard and made wine and got drunk off of his wine). Now, the Bible is very clear that the misuse or abuse of alcohol is sinful and the Bible never condones or make light of drunkenness, but clearly, if there are people in the Bible who were able to get drunk off of the wine, then this whole argument is moot. Even if the alcohol itself was of lesser strength than the alcohol drank today, they’re still getting drunk, which just means they’re drinking a much larger quantity of the weaker alcohol.

Or they go the opposite direction and claim that this passage is not just okaying the use of alcohol, but its supporting and encouraging the use of alcohol—the issue with this, is that this just isn’t logical. Just because something is in the Bible doesn’t mean that the Bible condones it—so for instance, murder, rape, lying, cheating, and theft are all recorded in the Bible, that doesn’t mean the Bible approves of those things, in fact, we know that they are sinful. The pushback would be yes, but since Jesus is supplying the wine, it must mean that we should drink wine. Again, that’s illogical. Jesus utilizes a mustard seed as a picture of the minute amount of faith necessary to move a mountain, does that mean that we should eat mustard seeds? Those two ideas don’t go together.

This passage isn’t condemning or encouraging the drinking of alcohol and to utilize it to try to condemn or encourage alcohol is contrary to the purpose of the passage. Nonetheless, to clarify what the Bible says about alcohol—the Bible never once says not to drink alcohol, in fact, Paul encourages Timothy to drink a glass of wine to help sooth some medical issue that he had with his stomach in 1 Timothy 5:23. To say that the Bible condemns the drinking of alcohol is a lie; however, Ephesians 5:18 teaches to “not get drunk with wine, for that is a debauchery” and the Bible is very clear that drunkenness is sinful. Thus, a biblical teaching of alcohol would be that alcohol isn’t sinful to consume, but being drunk is sinful. And a pastoral recommendation would be to be cautious with the substance because it influences the way that you think.

What we see in this account is that Jesus performed a miracle without the acknowledgment of the majority of the people at the wedding.

The wedding guests didn’t see it, the master of the feast didn’t see it; but Vs. 9 “the servants who had drawn the water knew,” and his disciples knew.

Which brings us to the final section of the passage, which really answers this one fundamental question—what is the purpose of the miracle? Why does it happen? Why did Jesus do it? Thankfully, this is answered for us in the Bible itself.

The Purpose for the Miracles (2:11-12)

John 2:11–12 ESV

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.

Vs. 11, tells us that this miracle at Cana in Galilee was the first sign or miracle that he performed.

And often times, when we read passages like this, we get caught up on details aren’t actually the point of the passage—so we’ll make the side point that I mentioned about alcohol earlier as the main idea of the passage. Or we’ll focus in on how Mary showed faith that Jesus could solve this problem, which again, is not the main idea of the passage.

In reality, the main idea of this passage is the fact that Jesus performed a miracle, which means for us to actually understand the point of the passage, we need to understand the miracle itself and the purpose of the miracle.

So, let’s take a moment and define what a miracle actually is—because miracle is a term that we use frequently in which the meaning has been somewhat distorted

We call just about anything a miracle—we talk about how it was a miracle that our favorite sports team won or a miracle that we didn’t run out of gas coming to church this morning, or it was a miracle that I didn’t get into an argument with someone this morning; but while those things may or may not be good or great things, they don’t actually constitute a miracle.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary states that a miracle is “an event in the external world brought about by the immediate agency or the simple volition of God, operating without the use of means capable of being discerned by the senses, and designed to authenticate the divine commission of a religious teacher and the truth of his message. It is an occurence at once above nature and above man. It shows the intervention of a power that is not limited by the laws either of matter or of mind, a power interrupting the fixed laws which govern their movements, a supernatural power.”

A miracle is something that is done in the physical world.

Whatever that event is, it is brought about by the work of God—God is the one who performs the miracle

Miracles are designed to authenticate a message or to validate the truth of the message

And it is not limited by laws of physics or matter, it is utterly supernatural in nature.

So a miracle is something that cannot be explained by natural means, done by God to confirm a message: let’s look at some examples:

One of the first miracles that come to my mind when thinking about the Bible as a whole, is actually a series of miracles in Exodus 4-12. I’m sure it’s somewhat familiar to you.

Moses is in the desert and he comes across a bush that is on fire, but the bush itself does not burn. And while talking with the bush it is revealed that he is really talking to Yahweh and that Yahweh intends on Moses to talk to Pharaoh about letting the Israelites go. (1) the burning bush is something that is done in the physical world, (2) completely performed by God, Moses did not light the fire, (3) why was a burning bush utilized? Have you ever considered that God didn’t need to use a burning bush to speak to Moses, but by utilizing the bush he confirms that the message comes from God, not by natural means, and (4) clearly the fact that the bush doesn’t burn is something not limited by laws of physics or matter. It is utterly supernatural and thus it is a miracle.

Moses goes to speak to Pharaoh and while speaking to Pharaoh, he is asked for confirmation that the message comes from God; and Moses throws down his staff and it becomes a serpent. (1) the staff becoming a serpent is something that occurs in the physical world, (2) even though Moses held the staff and later picked up the serpent, Moses himself, did not turn the staff into a serpent, God did the work, (3) I’ve already mentioned that the serpent was utilized by God to confirm the message to Pharaoh, and (4) normally staffs don’t become snakes, thus this is a miracle.

After each confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh there is a plague. In each of the plagues (1) they are each events that are done in the physical world, (2) each plague is done by God—turning the river into blood, sending swarms of frogs, pestilence, boils, hail were all performed by God, Moses didn’t do these things. (3) Why were the plagues performed? To show the authenticity of the message that Moses was proclaiming on behalf of Yahweh. (4) Normally these events would not occur naturally, thus they were all miracles.

Now, you might ask, but what about the New Testament? Let’s start with Jesus because arguably Jesus performs the most miracles out of every person mentioned in the Bible. So let’s think, these are just a few examples: Jesus turned water into wine, he also healed the blind and sick, he exorcised demons, he raised the dead, and he calmed the seas, and fed the multitude.

And while it is easy to think that in these situations Jesus was just being compassionate towards people in their need, we really have to take a look at what the passages say:

(1) John 2:11, turning water into wine, “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.”

(2) when Jesus heals the blind man in John 9, the Pharisees come to the formerly blind man to ask how this happened and to accuse Jesus, and the man responds by saying that Jesus is a prophet, and when they ask him again how he sees, he states, “I have told you already and you did not listen,” and it eventually comes to Vs. 32, in which the man declares, “Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” (NIV) After this statement from the man the Pharisees threw him out and in Vs. 35-41, during a conversation between the formerly blind man and Jesus, Jesus says, “‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ He answered, ‘Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in him?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You have both seen Him and He is the one who is talking with you.’ And he said, ‘Lord, I believe.’ And he worshiped him.” (NASB)

In Mark 5, we’re told that Jesus got to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes and after getting off the boat he met a man with an unclean spirit who lived among the tombs. Vs. 6, “And when [this demon-possessed man] saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.’ And Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘My name is Legion, for we are many.’ And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying, ‘Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.’ So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs.” And the n in Vs. 18, “as [Jesus] was getting into the boat, the [formerly demon-possessed man] begged him that he might be with him. And he did not permit him but said to him, ‘Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.’ And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.”

In the calming of the sea, in the feeding of the multitude, in every miracle that Jesus performs, the result is that people believe in him because it is confirmed that Jesus is truly from God. In each of the miracles, (1) they happen in the physical world, (2) they are performed by God, (3) they all authenticate that Jesus is truly God, and (4) they’re all supernatural.

The same pattern fits for Zechariah who lost his voice because he didn’t believe the message from God and couldn’t speak until he named John the Baptist John, which then confirmed that the message Zechariah received was from Yahweh; the same pattern fits for Paul, who after seeing the resurrected Jesus on his way to Damascus and losing his sight after after following the command of Jesus Christ, was later healed as a confirmation of the message he heard. The same pattern fits for every miracle in the Old and New Testaments.

A miracle is something done in the physical world by God that is completely supernatural and unable to perform by human means that is meant to confirm a message from God.

And that’s exactly what happens in John 2. Jesus turned water into wine not to show the faithfulness of Mary, not to show his abilities, not to make more wine, but to confirm and manifest his glory to show that he is the Son of God and to confirm the message that he’s revealing to all of the people around him. This is confirmation that Jesus is God and that everything that Jesus says is true revelation from God.

Now here’s the question that always comes up when talking about any of this—the miracles, the speaking in tongues, the healings—does God continue to utilize miracles, tongues, and healing today? And let me clarify this, we’re going to view this in two ways, (1) concerning God performing miracles and (2) whether or not people today can perform miracles in conjunction with God—typically referred to as the sign gifts.

Concerning God performing miracles himself—because God is omnipotent (all-powerful), God can do whatever he wants. If he wants to perform a miracle, we would be foolish to think that he wouldn’t be able to. If God wants to heal someone, he can do it; if God wants to cause a tree to grow in the middle of this room, he could do it. So, does God continue to perform miracles and miraculous healing, absolutely, he’s more than capable of doing whatever he likes to do.

Now concerning whether or not God still utilizes the sign gifts through people, there’s really two views and then a moderate view that sits in the middle: (1) there is the view that God still utilizes people to perform miracles, speak in tongues, and heal others. This is called the continuationist view and it is most commonly held by pentecostal and charismatic churches. This would be churches like the Assemblies of God, Hillsong, and Bethel. (2) the second view, which is the view that I take is that God only utilized sign gifts as confirmation for new revelation. Because we no longer receive new revelation and because we have the Word of God readily available, the sign gifts are no longer necessary, thus, God performing miracles through people, people speaking in tongues, and miraculous healings through other people are no longer applicable to us. This is the view that most churches take, in particular, the Baptist churches, Presbyterian churches, Methodist, and really just about any church that isn’t pentecostal or charismatic. It is called the cessationist view.

Thus, my encouragement for you would be to remember that miracles in the Bible are utilized to confirm new revelation from God. Since we live in an era of the church which doesn’t rely on new revelation because we all have the Word of God available to us, we should be weary of people who claim that God is doing miracles through them or that God is giving them new revelation. But that is a discussion for another time that I would be more than willing to talk with any of you who are interested about later.

Back to the text, Jesus performs this miracle of turning water into wine, and the Bible tells us in Vs. 11, that this miracle “manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.”

In other words, this miracle revealed the glory of God it revealed who Jesus truly was.

And the point again, was for his disciples to believe.

Application

Let’s take a few minutes for application as we wrap everything up:

The Predicament and Jesus’ Response (1-5)

In Vs. 1-5, we’re told that there was a wedding in which Mary, Jesus, and his disciples attended. And during this wedding, they ran out of wine and Mary goes to Jesus to ask him a solution for the problem. Jesus asks, “what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come,” but nevertheless, Mary tells the servants to listen to him.

I mentioned that there aren’t a lot of details here and that the lack of details is intentional by John because the point really isn’t the fact that they went to a wedding in Cana or that it isn’t Jesus’ time yet, but that Jesus still performed the miracle.

And really, I think the primary application point that we can learn from in this section comes from Mary’s response.

In their culture, the family running out of provisions during a large event such as a wedding would have brought shame and dishonor for the family. We don’t have many situations in life today in which shame and dishonor could be brought down on a person, but we have plenty of times during our lives in which our provisions run short, our plans are soured, or we find ourselves in some area of our physical lives lacking in provision.

While this isn’t the point of the passage, we can learn from Mary’s response in that when the provisions ran low, their plans were soured, and they lacked she immediately turned to Jesus Christ—with no hesitation and with no concern that he couldn’t accomplish what needed to be accomplished. Philippians 4:19 states that “my God will supply every need . . . according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” He will supply for every need that we have.

And when he does supply, we should be grateful and we should praise him and give him honor.

Now, I did mention briefly during this section the issue of alcohol and I explained that typically people will utilize this passage to either preach against alcohol or preach for alcohol consumption. And I mentioned when I mentioned this earlier that alcohol isn’t the point of the passage, but I did lay out a biblical view of alcohol.

That alcohol consumption itself is not sinful, however, the Bible does warn against the dangers of alcohol and the Bible itself prohibits the excessive use of alcohol and drunkenness.

My application for this brief rabbit trail is this, if you do drink, do it carefully. Remember the dangers of drinking and remember that we’re specifically commanded not to be filled with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.

So, the better application would actually be to constantly make sure that you’re being filled with the Holy Spirit.

And if you find yourself drinking more than being filled with the Holy Spirit, repent, slow down on the drinking, and turn back to Jesus.

And if you need help with slowing down on alcohol, find someone with spiritual maturity, preferably someone with experience in addictions-related ministry and get some help.

The Sign (Miracle) of Jesus and the People’s Response (6-10)

In Vs. 6-10, we see Jesus telling the servants to fill these jars with water, draw some of the water out, and take it to the master of the feast. After the master of the feast tastes the newly-made wine, he comments that they saved the best wine for last. And again, while this isn’t the actual point of the passage, some application that we can draw from this is:

That when Jesus tells us to do something, we ought to do it—the servants did not hesitate to do what Jesus told them to do. These stone water jars each help twenty or thirty gallons of water. A gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds, so twenty gallons of water would weigh 240 pounds in addition to whatever the jar itself weighed.

The request that Jesus had, for them to go get these jars and fill them to the brim with water would have required them to do back-breaking manual labor and yet they still do it.

Jesus assures us that through this life there will be trials and tribulations, there will be times when we feel physically, emotionally, and psychologically drained and yet, we need to continue to obey Jesus Christ.

In addition to this, Jesus can turn water into wine and he does it in such large quantities with a quality that surprises the people. If Jesus can do this to water, imagine what he can do to you.

CS Lewis in his book Mere Christianity, makes use of this illustration: “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace.”

God may be doing painful things in your life, but remember that he has amazing things planned and by renovating you he accomplishes his goal.

The Purpose of Miracles (11-12)

Now, in this final section, which is actually the whole point of the passage, we’re told that Jesus performed this miracle in order for his glory to be revealed and for the belief of his disciples.

And in this section, we spoke at length about how miracles and sign gifts are no longer utilized the way that they were utilized in the Bible because in the Bible, those sorts of miraculous events occured in order to validate or confirm the new revelation coming from God and in our day and age, since we have the completed Scriptures, we no longer need new revelation from God and thus, no longer need the sign gifts.

Well, in the Old and New Testaments, they depended on seeing the miracles in order to have evidence that what they were being taught was truly from God and thus, God performed the plagues on Egypt to validate his message, and Moses had the staff turned serpent as validation, and Jesus performed multiple miracles to validate his message, and so on.

If we don’t have the miracles today, then how can we be sure that we’re hearing the true Word of God?

We’ve spoken about it a handful of times already, but let’s talk about it again—as Christians, we believe that the Bible is breathed-out by God and is thus profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. Thus, whatever we hear, regardless of if it comes from a pastor, preacher, evangelist, someone on TV, someone on Youtube, someone who has written a book, or any numbers of different people—whatever we hear, read, and see needs to be filtered through the Bible.

And it doesn’t really matter how famous the person is, whether you like his teaching or like what you’ve heard from him, it doesn’t matter if he’s a best-selling author with a smile and personality that can light up the stage, if what he says doesn’t preach the whole council of God or goes contrary to Scripture, you aren’t hearing the true Word of God.

If you want to hear from God, read the Bible. And again, we’ve talked about it before, when the Bible gets complicated, seek help from people that are actually trying to teach what the Bible says, not what they think it says.

The purpose of the miracles in the Bible was to confirm the Words of God.

Well, we have the Word of God, now we just need to read it, internalize it, and live it.

So rather then continuing to look around for miracles in the form of miraculous events, speaking in tongues, and spontaneous healing, look at the Word of God, which is readily available in our own language for our teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.

Put simply, in times of difficulty and in times of lack, automatically turn to Jesus; in all situations, we need to obey Jesus Christ, whether we want to or not; and finally, don’t look around for miracles, look at the complete Word of God in your hand—read it, internalize it, and live it.

Pastoral Prayer

Pray that we always turn to Jesus in every situation in our life—in difficulty, in times of lacking, and in times that are good.

Pray that believers will obey the Word of God and obey the teachings of Jesus Christ

Pray that all believers learn to love the Word of God and that through active study of God’s Word that they read it, internalize it, and live it.