THE PURPOSE OF TURNING WATER INTO WINE

Introduction

Sometimes, when you choose to preach through a book of the Bible, you run into passages that are a little bit more difficult to formulate into messages because things are not sitting there right out in the open.

-This can be especially true of historical narratives where it is describing events that obviously are actual, factual things that happened, and the descriptions given in Scripture are Holy Spirit inspired, but the importance or the meaning is not straight forward.

-The passage we are looking at today is such a passage. It is Jesus’ first recorded miracle. We know it as His turning water into wine. We know that Jesus came to a wedding, they ran out of wine, He turned water into wine, and everybody’s happy.

-We have to question if that is all there is to it, however? Let’s first take a look at the 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.

-Maybe because of its lack of straight-forwardness, many teachers have not done this passage justice.

-Some will scratch the surface and see that Jesus saw a need, so Jesus fulfilled the need, and then they will tie the teaching up in a bow and say that Jesus can fulfill your needs as well. And no doubt, if you have a legitimate need (as opposed to a want) Jesus teaches in Matthew 6 that God will add those things to you when you put His kingdom first. But that is not the main thrust of why this is recorded for us. The issue here is not Jesus fulfilling needs.

-At other times I have actually heard and read sermons where preachers will take this passage and turn it into some moralizing teaching against alcohol. And no doubt, as Baptists, we are not overly comfortable that Jesus turned water into wine. We probably would be more comfortable if Jesus would have turned water into SWEET TEA or something.

~The problem is that you cannot use this passage to speak against alcohol, because Jesus turned the water into actual wine (not grape juice or anything else). If Jesus wanted this to be a polemic against alcohol, He would have turned wine into water.

~Now, I believe that there are other biblical reasons to abstain from alcohol, but those reasons are not here in this passage.

-You get to these kinds of teachings by not asking the questions about why Jesus did what He did, where He did it and when He did it. It is so important to dig deep into the meaning of Jesus’ actions. Jesus did what He did for a reason that is much more than giving a special gift to a bride and groom.

-And I think that knowing why Jesus does these things is especially needed in light of recent events, especially the school shooting in Florida. People need a biblical Jesus placed in front of them to understand why such events occur and how Jesus is ultimately the answer to the problem.

-So first we might ask why miracles like this one are recorded for us? And John actually gives us the answer toward the end of the gospel.

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. (Jn. 20:30-31 ESV)

-So these miracles are signs that demonstrate who Jesus is, what His mission is, what He accomplished, all so that people will believe in Him and receive eternal life.

-The turning water into wine points to Jesus being the Messiah, and what this means for mankind is that God’s kingdom has come. So the miracles point to Kingdom truths, and this miracle points to the fact that God, through Jesus, was doing something new in His work amongst mankind.

-Wine in Scriptures was often a symbol for abundance and prosperity—so it is speaking to God doing through Jesus a work of bringing about spiritually abundant life through this new work. I believe different pieces of the narrative talk about this new work and the implications that it has for mankind.

First, it demonstrates that:

I) Through Christ is a change in relationship

-God created mankind for relationship. When Adam and Eve were initially created, they had perfect relationship with God. However, when they willfully chose to rebel against God in sin, that relationship was severed. Not only did they lose fellowship, but the relationship with God turned hostile.

-In Habakkuk 1:13, God is described as being one of pure eyes who cannot look upon evil and cannot look at wrong. That means sin and sinners cannot abide in the presence of God. And He is described in Exodus 34:7 as one who will by no means allow the guilty to go unpunished.

-Yet we know that God did not completely give up on mankind, but put into motion a plan to buy man back to Himself, and yet His holy justice be satisfied. But in the meantime the relationship between man and God was gone.

-So God began to rebuild the relationship through covenants—agreements that He made with mankind. He made a covenant with Abraham that through Abraham the whole world would be blessed. He then made covenant with the nation of Israel that they would be a special people on the earth through whom God would reveal Himself.

-Yet, even with these covenants, the problem of sin still lingered. So now comes Jesus Christ, who we saw in the prologue of the gospel of John is the eternal Word of God who took on human flesh so as to rebuild the relationship.

-And the place in which Jesus decided to perform this first miracle is a sign and symbol of the type of relationship that He came to create between Himself and mankind. This first miracle occurs at a wedding, and I believe this was very purposeful on Jesus’ part, because the relationship between bride and groom is symbolic between Jesus and the people who He will save and bring back to God.

-The apostle Paul first says:

23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. (Eph. 5:23 ESV)

-Then later in that same chapter Paul describes this relationship:

31 "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."

32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

(Eph. 5:31-32 ESV)

-Elsewhere Paul says that Christ so loved the people that are His own that He sacrificed Himself in order to present to Himself a pure bride==holy and undefiled.

-So, through Jesus Christ a new love-relationship with a closer intimacy than man has had since the beginning of creation was made possible through His death on the cross.

-It is because of this new relationship that when tragedy strikes, when people ask where God was, we can say He was there weeping with those who weep, and for all who placed their trust in Him, He was welcoming them into their eternal home.

-It was sin and broken relationship with God that brought tragedy amongst us. But it was God through Jesus Christ that allows people to have close relationship with God even in the midst of tragedy.

-So for all of us, Jesus brought God close to us so He is near in all the circumstances of our lives.

-But not only is there a new relationship:

II) Through Christ is a change in religion

-In our passage, the problem of the wedding running out of wine is brought to Jesus’ attention. This is a huge embarrassment for all those involved. Although seemingly hesitant, Jesus is able to solve the problem.

-There are large jars there that hold about 20-30 gallons of water. Normally these jars are used for ritual cleansings that people of the Jewish religion perform before meals and other times. These were regarded as sacred.

-But Jesus tells the servants to refill the jars with water, and without even saying a word, that water is changed and Jesus tells them to present it to the master of ceremonies.

-So jars that were sacred to the Jews are refitted to hold wine, which is symbolic of the abundant spiritual life that Jesus brings with Him.

-This action is symbolic that the Jewish religion, the religion of the Old Testament (the Old Covenant) had its place in leading people to the New Testament (that is, the New Covenant) that was ushered in through Jesus Christ. And now that it has served its purpose, it is set aside for the new work that has been brought.

-Christ did not come to destroy the law of the Jews, but to fulfill it—that is, the Old Covenant had the place of preparing people for what was to come in Jesus Christ.

-Jesus, through His death and resurrection, created a new covenant/agreement between God and mankind such that He died for the sins of humanity and rose again to defeat death, and anyone who by grace through faith comes to Him will be given eternal life that can never be lost.

-The Old Covenant represented by the jars represented the sacrificial system and laws that was not able to clear the conscience nor release anyone from their sins. The Old Covenant could not bring someone closer to God. It showed that sin is real, but did nothing to help with sin.

-Christ fulfilled the Old Covenant. Just as the wine filled the jars, Jesus fulfilled everything that the Old Covenant demanded and promised. But then the old use of the jars was set aside and something new was made of it. So Jesus brought about something new—the Old Testament sacrifices pointed to Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice; the law pointed people to the fact that they were lawbreakers and stood condemned.

-The Old Covenant brought wrath, but the New Covenant in Jesus Christ brought life.

-That the New Covenant is superior I believe is symbolized within the narrative by the fact that when the master of ceremonies tastes the wine brought to him by the servants, it’s better than anything they had served prior to that during the almost week-long wedding celebration that the Jews partook in.

-The New Covenant, the New Testament, is superior to anything that came before, for it alone is able to bestow life and peace and hope upon all who are a part of it. This is the one true religion that leads to the one true God. As John later says in his gospel, about this new religion:

3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (Jn. 17:3 ESV)

-Finally:

III) Through Christ is a call to recognition

-v. 11 gives us where this narrative is leading us. It tells us that Jesus performed this miracle so that His glory would be manifested and that His disciples would believe in Him.

-As I mentioned earlier, Jesus did miracles not just to do miracles, but they were a testimony of who He really is and what He came to do. The miracles are to lead people to recognize Him.

-Jesus, being God in the flesh, manifested Himself through this miracle. He made it known to those who witnessed this miracle, and then for those to whom the miracle is revealed, that through Him alone God gives a new relationship and gives a new religion, and the proper response is faith and trust and repentance.

-This is where everything with Jesus usually leads. Jesus presents Himself in some way: through a miracle, through a teaching, through an action, and in our day it is through the preaching of His Word, and whoever is a witness to these testimonies is left to have to make a decision.

-Jesus is making a demand on your life. You are either going to believe in Him, or you are not. You are either going to submit to Him, or you are not. He is either going to be your Lord, or He is not.

-Jesus does not leave people room to just sit on the fence. You have to choose this day whom you are going to serve. You serve Christ or you serve self. You are ruled by Christ or you are ruled by self.

-Not that believing in Jesus will make everything alright in this life. But you can definitely tell where in life and the world Jesus is not Lord.

-This tragedy we had this week: Jesus was not Lord in the life of the shooter, for if He was, the guy wouldn’t have done what he did. And now you have a government where Jesus is not Lord trying to solve the problem that only Jesus can fix. And you are being bombarded by a media where Jesus is not Lord and an entertainment industry where Jesus is definitely not Lord trying to push their morals that does not have Jesus as central, so it will never solve the problem.

-And those who do all these things without the Lordship of Jesus do so, turning their backs on the signs and proofs and evidences and witnesses that Jesus is who He says He is, and did what Scripture says He did. Jesus has displayed His glory and now calls all people to believe in Him. All people everywhere are called to recognize that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD.

Conclusion

-And so that leaves it in front of you. What are you going to do about Jesus?

-Sure, maybe you call yourself Christian and you come to church and stuff, but in day to day living, you’re the one in charge. Jesus asks you: WHY DO YOU CALL ME LORD, LORD, AND NOT DO THE THINGS THAT I SAY? Maybe you need to come to the altar and get that straightened out.

-Maybe you came here seeking answers and the truth. The truth is that it is a world broken by sin, and Jesus is the only one who did something about it by dying for the sins of mankind and rising again to defeat death. You need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.

-Maybe you’re sick and tired of the politics that don’t have answers for tragedies like what this nation has gone through. Come to the altar and pray that people would open their eyes to the glory of Jesus Christ and believe. Jesus alone offers the healing that this nation needs. Pray that His glory shines to awaken those who are spiritually sleeping.