Sermon Tone Analysis

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.