What God Does

Introduction

Breaking things.

Fixing brakes, plumbing, etc...

It’s just what people do.

When we consider the things of God, church, marriages, even religion, we break things.

In spite of the work that the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives, we are still sinful and imperfect.

John gives both a call of warning and of hope in this passage.

John is intentional with these two stories.

From the beginning of the ministry of Jesus and the end.

John puts these two stories together to demonstrate the difference of how God affects life.

Common To Divine

2:1-12

John recorded Jesus had just begun with His ministry, had just a four named disciples.

And they are all invited to a wedding. Week long event.

Then this major faux pas, running out of wine. Embarrassment - emphasis on hospitality.

So, Jesus is approached by His mother, also in attendance.

Response, “My hour has not yet come.”

Yet, she trusts Jesus to do the right thing.

Stone jars, twenty gallons. 120 gallons of wine. 2,000 4 oz glasses.

They take a sample of this to the Headwaiter or Toastmaster - job to oversee these social occasions.

Typically, the wine was watered down for a 3:1 water to wine ratio.

After all the watered down wine, they experienced what was pure and superior.

This is especially notable that it had just been water a few minutes prior.

This is what Jesus did here, the first of His signs.

John’s use of this term rather than “miracle.”

A sign provides direction and information.

John lays out these miraculous events as indicators that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah!

This work of water-to-wine became tangible evidence of the divinity of Jesus, “manifested his glory” (v. 11).

This evidence of the divine nature of Jesus awakened something within His disciples that they recognized who He is.

When Jesus gets involved, that which is common is transformed.

Divine To Common

2:13-22

Now, John takes this event that occured at the close of the ministry of Jesus, when He was in Jerusalem leading up to His arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection. He places it here to contrast what Jesus does when He gets involved to what happens when people make things about themselves.

He enters the Temple complex and what Jesus finds there is highly disturbing to Him.

The sacrifices required by all the families would be difficult to travel with (pilgrimage for the Passover). Convenience for pilgrims to bring money and purchase an animal for sacrifice. So, what’s the problem?

First, a tradition often taught and preached that the animals for sale were often inferior and unworthy to be used in sacrifice. No Scriptural evidence of this.

Second, the more important thing is where this happened - in the Temple. The exterior court, AKA the court of the Gentiles.

Concentric spaces, the furthest out was reserved for non-Jews to come and worship God.

Can you imagine coming to church and as you are attempting to spend time in prayer and meditation there are money changers and animals just all around you, people trying to get others to buy from them.

These people had entered this space that was to be considered divine - the Temple, the Holy place, the Holy of Holies which represented the very throne room of God!

And they had turned this divine space into the Walmart of the Ancient Near East.

People turned the divine into the common.

Too often I have conversations with people who have rejected Christ because of “religion.”

People have sought to make the church in their own image rather than the image of Jesus.

The church is to be a place of equal grace and truth.

Jesus came in to clear out the ways that people had distorted what worship was to be about.

The people had messed the whole thing up, but what did Jesus do?

Jesus restores the common to divine.

And what’s the greatest way that He does this?

vv. 18-22 - It’s all about the resurrection.

Jesus, when He saves you, restores your life.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

It happens through faith, “they believed” (v. 22).

Conclusion

Have you ever thought of the ways we mess things up?

We mentioned how we impose ourselves into religion or the church.

Imagine if we were successful in getting our influence out of the church and were doing what God intended.

Or about our marriages? If we stopped seeking what we wanted and were Christlike to our spouse.

As parents? Showing patience to our children. Being intentional to help them to discover who God has created them to be.

Or as neighbors? How can we love those in our community? A question we ask often.

One opportunity that we have is a partnership with Leah’s Hope.

Brittany Hussain.

What areas in your life do you need to let Jesus in to restore?