From Water to Wine

I remember my wedding like it was yesterday I got married on a beautiful beach in Florida, I got to marry the love of my life, and it was great day and it was all about us. Or mainly my wife, either way I didn't care because it was a day just for us. My wife and I got to go back a few months ago and took our little girl there to see where it started and it was great time.

I say this because if you have ever been to a wedding who its usually about. Who’s the one who it’s all about? Who’s getting all the focus? The guest right, not usually, but most weddings don’t have the son of God there doing one of his miraculous signs either. This wedding was different, and to start his ministry off in the book of John we are going to see something incredible today. A Sign of Water to Wine.

Lets read this full event today, and dig into the wonderful truths the word of God has for us today. John 2:1-12 “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.”

If you are taking notes or following along in your bulletin this morning take note of this. Jesus transforming water into wine is a sign that he is the Christ, and as a result his disciples believed in him.

John starts today text saying it was the third day. It was 7 days ago if we go back when John originally confronted the Pharisees. And we have seen a lot happen since that event.

And the setting is a wedding at Cana in Galilee. Cana is about 9 miles north of Nazareth.

And in the beginning of the text we are introduced to a few people. The mother of Jesus, who is not named. the disciples not sure of how many at this moment. and the main character Jesus. They were at a wedding of a friend, or a family member or someone someone knew well enough to get an invite to this wedding. John doesn’t name the couple for us, because the couple is not the focus. Jesus and his sign is. The wedding I am sure was a great time. People laughing, getting to know each other, having fun until something happens.

We see something happen that at the time would be pretty bad. And that was they ran out of wine. Now it was the grooms responsibility that the wine wouldn’t run out. Often weddings during that time lasted for a week at a time and a-lot of wine would be needed for such an event. If the groom did not fulfill his obligation he could be sued by the brides family so it was a big deal to not run out of wine.

Last week we had a party for Isabella’s second birthday and I bought what I thought was a ton of Pizza for the party and it ended up barely being enough and I thought crossed my mind as I was thinking about this message today I am glad I can’t get sued for not having enough of something like pizza or wine.. Like could have happened in Jesus day.

There is no evidence in the text that people were drinking too much wine, most scholars believe this wine was weak wine compared to todays standard, being less strong than your american beer, but never the less they ran out of wine no matter what the case was.

the mother of Jesus told him about this happening. Maybe she doesn’t want the grooms party to be embarrassed. or possibly sued.

and Jesus response is quite comical to us in our modern day because of our own language, but it was a quite normal response in his day to say something like this.

He tells his mom, Women What does this have to do with me? Remember Jesus was on mission to do his father’s business in heaven not his mothers.

Jesus in this wedding is not the groom he is not responsible for the wine. Yet Jesus mother makes a request to Jesus not expecting what he is about to do, but thinking maybe Jesus could do something for this wedding so they could have more wine.

Jesus as scripture says in other places is a carpenter a man who was resourceful in his own rite, its possible that Jesus at this time even had some responsibility taking care of the family. so maybe he could get some wine somehow.

But ultimately his response is some what of a rebuke. Jesus did not have to make sure this party needed had the proper amount of wine.

rather than seeing if he could get some wine, he tell’s his mother My hour has not yet come. Interesting response from Christ here. This language of Jesus and the hour is going to be something we see over and over again in this gospel. This is the first time we see it in this gospel.

Why would he say this, well in other parts of this gospel the hour that he is ultimately referring to is his suffering, and death on the cross, his resurrection, and his exhalation. This event was not happening yet.

But even though the hour had not yet come, he was about to show the disciples something incredible and begin to usher in the new covenant before there very own eyes.

And his mother tells his servants Do whatever he tells you. Because she trusts whatever Jesus is about to do.

which brings me to my first point today.

Jesus can transform physical things

Jesus is about to preform something incredible. The first of his 7 signs in this book.

John tells us in the text that there are 6 stone water jars. These jars were there for the Jewish rites of purification, and these jars are massive it would seem. Holding around 20 to 30 gallons a piece. These water jars were stone because they did not contract uncleaness according to the law as we can learn about in the book of Leviticus.

The number 6 is an interesting number because many biblical scholars see this number as representing something that is incomplete. Also why use the Jars that were used for this purification used? Which in this particular situation draws some questions. One of which could be why 6 jars? Was it because it was all they had, or is John trying to tell us something here, and why use these jars… and without reading into the text or the number we can draw out a conclusion that John is trying to teach us something here that we cant miss.

One man said, this, “their purpose provides a clue to one of the meanings of the story: the water represents the old order of Jewish law and custom, which Jesus was to replace with something better.”

Jesus Christ coming was better than the law. Remember John 1:16-17“16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

another man put it like this, “the inclusion of this detail shows us that the rituals associated with the old covenant are giving way to something far greater. The shadow found in the law has been replaced by the substance. Now that Jesus is here, things have changed, the water of ceremony has been replaced with something far better. External purification has given way to internal cleansing.”

The coming of Jesus was going to bring an internal cleansing the people have never quite had.

And the physical sign that Jesus was giving was a reality of the change coming. x2

Jesus was up to something incredible here, and notice what he told his servants, and what happened.

He said fill the jars with water, and they filled them up to the brim. Now filling them to the brim would bring about two things, one it would be obvious if Jesus added a little wine into each of them if they were not full just to get them through the wedding.

secondly filling them to the brim represents the completion of God’s intentions for such covenant regulations. When God asked you to do something you dont do it lightly or half way you do it the way he wants you to. And we know Christ always does things in proper order.

So these huge jars are full of water, no way to add to them, and we dont see the sign happen in this event recorded only the result of the sign when he tells them to draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. ( I am sure God just spoke or thought it in his mind and it was )

One scholar believes this event signified something, and says this, “ Up to this time the servants had drawn water to fill the vessels used for ceremonial washing; now they are to draw for the feast that symbolizes the messianic banquet. Filling jars with such large capacity to the brim then indicates that the time for ceremonial purification is completely fulfilled; the new order, symbolized by the wine, could not be drawn from jars so intimately connected with merely ceremonial purification”

He gave a great amount of wine to symbolize how much grace he gives. An abundance of it.

When they take it to the master of the feast the sign happens, and the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and he did not know where it had came from, though the servants knew. They knew exactly what Christ had just done.

The master of the feast was something like a head waiter or someone who is in charge of the catering, and he himself is blown away about this wine.

Its top shelve stuff. It would be the kind of wine you keep in the back or bring it own if you are really trying to impress somebody, and this wine was being served at the end of a wedding.

Not only did Jesus turn water into wine, he turned it into the best wine. Something the people didn’t need after a week full of wine. After there palates where full.

Notice the words out of the waiters mouth, 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.

Listen carefully to what a biblical scholar said, and then I want to break it down. He says this, “Out of the old is drawn something new and better: the best wine. John does not call these supernatural things Jesus does “mighty works” as the other Gospel writers do. Calling them signs. John has carefully selected and framed his presentation to bring out the ways in which Jesus is effecting the shift of the ages, the movement from the new from water to wine.”

At a wedding on the third day Jesus made the best wine, and through these details John illustrates the way that Jesus came “at the right time” as Romans 5:6 says “6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” “when the fullness had come” as Gal:4:4 says“4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,” when the old covenant had run its course Jesus called for water jars to be filled to the brim, as though he wanted to fulfill all righteousness as Matt 3:15 says“15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.” and he provided new wine. as it says in Matthew 9:14-17 “14 Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 15 And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. 16 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. 17 Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”” pointing to the new covenant. “

Jesus was bringing the people in the wedding this wine they have never tasted before, wine that he transformed from water to symbolize a new convenant is here. A better wine. The guests did not know this but his disciples did. And it began to change there hearts forever. We have probably heard this story a million times, you have heard it on tv shows, you have heard it in jokes possibly. But what Jesus did here is so incredible that what resulted here was the greatest of all things. They believed in him. John 2:11 says “11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” They believed in him.

Jesus can transform physical things.

Jesus can transform spiritual things.

this sign not only showed the disciples who Jesus is, but it caused them to believe in him.

This first sign was more than just an incredible event it became an agent of belief for the disciples. The sign may have really been something to hold but the result was so much better. It was was just one of many times they got to experience his glory. The glory as we learned in John 1:14 was manifested to us. I want to read John 1:14 again for us, “14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The glory was on full display during this sign, he didn’t make a giant spectacle, he didn’t say watch this all he did was tell them what to do, and he made it happen. And it was glorious.

Listen to one of my Favorite pastors, D.A. Carson writes about his signs, “ John prefers the simple word, “signs”: Jesus’s miracles are never simply naked displays of power, still less neat conjuring tricks to impress the masses, but signs, significant displays of power that point beyond themselves to the deeper realities that could be perceived with the eyes of faith.”

The disciples very own eyes got to see this sign, and starting with there eyes their faith grew. The faith went from seeing to believing, from head to heart. Jesus didn’t waste anything, and John writes this down seeing it first hand himself.

This event changed the disciples lives forever and strengthen there faith, and in turn should strengthen ours. Jesus didn’t come as just some great teacher, other gospels show us some of the wondrous things he did here on earth.

The hour had not yet came for Jesus but it would and that’s why we are here today because in that hour Jesus died on the cross for sinners, establishing a new covenant, a better covenant one that doesn’t need the constant washing over and over again one that once and for all frees sinners at the foot of the cross, and if you trust in him you are forever clean, free from the bondage of sin forever. With grace that is in abundance like the wine, and because he rose on the third day you can have life in him forever free.

Jesus not only preforms amazing signs, but he saves. Jesus transforms spiritual things. The disciples had only began to follow him, and through this event there faith was transformed. For us today hearing the word of God means we can have trust in the God who supplies.

I want to end with a quote I found.. “When you run out of “wine” today, when you fail in wisdom, power, or resources, or fail to meet the righteous requirement of God’s law, or fail to love the Lord with all your heart, you need not fear. Jesus, your Lord, your Groom, the Master of the Great Wedding feast, has infinite power and infinite love and is “able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times you may abound in every good work” 2 Corinthians 9:8 “8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”

No matter how dry you may feel the Lord of all can give you all you need. Jesus transforming water into wine is a sign that he is the Christ, and as a result his disciples believed in him.

If you want to know more about what it means to know Christ by faith let me know, don’t be ashamed come talk to me, if you want to be baptized I would love to be apart of that, if want to join this church join us incredible things are happening in our church. If you need prayer come pray with us. Whatever response you have today respond.