Changing water into wine

[0:00] On the third day, a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee.! Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.

[0:15] ! When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, They have no more wine. Dear woman, why do you involve me? Jesus replied. My time has not yet come.

[0:27] His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you. Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.

[0:43] Jesus said to the servants, Fill the jars with water. So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.

[0:54] They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realise where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.

[1:08] Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, Everyone brings out the choice wine first, and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink. But you have saved the best till now.

[1:21] This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

[1:34] After this, he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days. When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

[1:50] In the temple courts, he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle.

[2:05] He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves, he said, Get these out of here. How dare you turn my father's house into a market?

[2:19] His disciples remembered that it is written, Zeal for your house will consume me. Then the Jews demanded of him, What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?

[2:33] Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days. The Jews replied, It's taken 46 years to build this temple, and you're going to raise it in three days.

[2:49] But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

[3:04] Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men.

[3:18] He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man. Thank you. Thank you very much indeed, Rosemary.

[3:32] We're going to sing again, thinking of to John's Gospel, Chapter 2.

[3:43] And I had meant to ask Zach to say a bit about, tell us where you are now and what you're doing. I was looking over there and I thought he's not there, but you were here, they were there all the time.

[3:56] Yes. Just to tell us, so where are you based? How are things going? Yeah, do. Yes. Hello.

[4:09] Hi everyone. Yeah, so we're based in Swindon at the moment. Sorry to everybody who doesn't know who we are, by the way. Dahlia and I were part of this church about 18 months ago.

[4:22] Well, prior to that as well. We moved to Swindon about 18 months ago. I went there for work. I'm an engineer in the water industry. Yeah, and basically just to give everybody an update of where we are, Abby is four months old now.

[4:38] And we have joined a church there. We've become members of Swindon Evangelical Church, which is very similar sort of doctrinally to Calvary.

[4:49] And it's sort of going quite well, really. So, yeah, I don't have any sort of other particular news, but we're quite content where we are. Not planning to leave Swindon any time soon. It's good, really.

[5:00] Have you got somewhere to live? Are you in a house? We are in a house. A two-bed, end-of-terrace house. You need to know that sort of detail. That's about it, really. Because in Brighton, if you're living in a house, it's sort of world news, really.

[5:15] Yeah, that's one thing, actually. Swindon house prices are probably half what they are here. So, yeah, it's much better, actually. We're basically getting a two-bed house for the same price we've got our studio flat in Brighton.

[5:26] So, yeah, with a garden and all that sort of stuff. So, yeah. And work? Is work going well? Yeah, work's going very well, actually. I was promoted a few months ago, which is really good, because I was a bit sort of concerned about my job, because I'd been very quiet over the summer, and I was a bit worried about whether I'd be able to continue doing it.

[5:45] But I'd take that as a sign that they want me to stay there, really. And, yeah, so I'm sort of learning things. Still have the ultimate goal that I'd like to go to Africa. And I'm not exactly sure how it will work, but I'd like to work in the water industry there, because they do need skilled people who can help with those problems they've got.

[6:06] But that's a number of years down the line, really. Still got lots to learn before then. And is Darlene enjoying being a mum? Yeah, definitely, yeah. And I'm enjoying being a father as well.

[6:18] It's great. Abby's mainly sleeping quite well at night, which is good. But, yeah, we're both really enjoying it, actually. So, yeah, it's really good. Excellent. Excellent.

[6:28] Thank you very much, Zach. We thank God for you and the way he's blessed you. Many people are thinking enviously, you have a child that sleeps at night.

[6:39] So, let's turn to John's Gospel, Chapter 2, which is the story of Jesus turning water into wine.

[6:53] John's Gospel, Chapter 2, we're going to look at the first 12 verses, and we've already prayed, so let me ask you this question. Do you believe in miracles? Some people don't believe in miracles, so they would have a problem with this story straight away.

[7:11] You'd be sitting there thinking, well, I don't believe this. So, if you were thinking, I'm going to have a problem with this story, it's about a miracle, let me just ask you, why would you have a problem about it?

[7:23] It's written down here in a book of history, and I think with history, the thing we do is just listen to what the historian says, rather than deciding we're jolly well not going to believe it.

[7:36] Anyway, I think if you are definitely saying, I'm not going to believe anything that is a story of a miracle, I think that is an act of faith on your part.

[7:47] You're saying, I don't believe there are such things, or I believe there are not such things. Anyway, I would like you to at least to be open to what it says in this story, because the Jesus of the Bible is full of miracles.

[8:02] And let me just stop. I keep on thinking of things I should have said before. We're experimenting with music, and also I was experimenting with backgrounds. Is that background distracting?

[8:13] I tried to water it down a bit, you know. Can you see what it is? I'm trying to work it out. It's Preston Circus. It's Preston Circus, and we're here.

[8:26] And that's London Road. So it adds a little bit of decoration, but I hope it's not distracting, and I chose that because it is now, yes, okay.

[8:39] Right, good. That's really helpful. So if you're distracted, you can say, this is where God has put us, and all the things that we think about the Bible and about faith are meant to be lived out here in the pollution of Preston Circus, with the people who live in the open market, with the people who walk up and down London Road.

[9:01] This is where spirituality has to, where the rubber hits the road. If the pictures are distracting, then I won't use them another time, but I just thought we'd give that a try.

[9:13] Anyway, Jesus does miracles. He does particular sorts of miracles. They're not actually showing off miracles.

[9:25] It's a little bit different from like a genie doing things. You get the genie to perform stuff for you. The miracles that Jesus does, there's some sorts of miracles he never does.

[9:38] I mean, you hear about, I don't know whether you do these days. I remember when I used to read Boy's Own Paper, which is, I had some copies that my uncle had had in 1902, and they were all bound in this sort of rather damp volume, and they had all sorts of stories about Indian mystics who would do levitation as a miracle, and the Indian rope trick, things like that.

[10:01] Jesus doesn't do that sort of miracle. He does particular style of miracles, particular purposeful miracles. He doesn't do a 20-foot-high Easter bunny.

[10:11] I mean, that would have created a tension, wouldn't it, if he'd done that? But he doesn't do random things like that. He does do things like this. He provides wine at a wedding feast.

[10:25] And you say, well, why did he do that? What is the significance of that? And particularly, it's a good question in John's Gospel, because John tells us that he hasn't remotely tried just to write down everything that Jesus did.

[10:40] He's been very, very selective, and brought to our attention the things that are really significant about Jesus, and really help us to understand who he is. So why is he doing this in this story?

[10:55] In John's Gospel, what we would call miracles, he calls signs. And if you look in verse 11, the New International Version, which is probably the Bible that you have in front of you, says this, the first of his miraculous signs Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee.

[11:15] If you wanted to be more true to the original, just strike through the miraculous. It just says signs. That's a sign.

[11:25] That says, that's a sign which says to Burgess Hill. And I really need to make sure I don't make Burgess Hill jokes. But if you wanted to go to Burgess Hill, you would need a sign that shows you how to go to Burgess Hill.

[11:40] And you would need to distinguish between that's the sign. So if you're looking for Burgess Hill, you don't go to sit on the sign, say, here we are. This is Burgess Hill.

[11:51] It says so here on the sign. Wonderful place. Not much going on. You want to go to Burgess Hill. And so the houses of Burgess Hill, the Burgess Hill skyscrapers, the Burgess Hill gherkin, and the Burgess Hill I, all of those landmarks of Burgess Hill, that's the real place.

[12:13] So you want to follow the sign to what it's pointing to. Do you see what I mean? That's the basic thing about signs. You follow them. You don't just look at that.

[12:24] You go where it's pointing. And in John's Gospel, the signs that Jesus does are not meant for us to... It was a joke about Burgess Hill, actually.

[12:36] The signs that Jesus does are not meant to draw our attention to wine, but to point to something else, as we shall see. And you could almost say that the signs have two aspects.

[12:51] There's the sort of there and there, what it's pointing to, the thing itself, and what it's pointing to, which is perhaps, we might say, at a deeper level. So hold on to that thought of two aspects and two levels.

[13:05] And let's... It's... Oh, I'm just saying here that there's two stories, and Rosemary kindly read both of them. The second one is what's called the cleansing of the temple. We're going to look at that together this evening, God willing.

[13:19] It says in verse 11 that this is the first of Jesus' signs. The word for first, it could mean the beginning of signs, it could mean the number one sign.

[13:30] And the three things that we'll look at this morning, I'll just quickly run through the story and point out to you, as you probably thought when it was read to you, this is rather odd. Then I'd like to go and fill in the blanks, which hopefully will make sense of the oddness, and then thirdly, to look at what lessons we can draw from it.

[13:49] So that's what I'd like us to do. So let's look at the text. So chapter 2, verse 1, on the third day, a wedding took place at Cana of Galilee. And you're immediately picking up and you think, third day, okay, third day.

[14:03] And it's a wedding. Jesus' mother was there. And Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. What's Jesus' mother's name? From John?

[14:13] We don't know. It doesn't tell us. It just says Jesus' mother. You notice that? It's the same. It says Jesus' mother. And she was the one who'd been in, she was there, and Jesus and the disciples sort of tag along with her, as it would appear to be.

[14:30] When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, they have, she doesn't actually say they have no more wine, she just says they have no wine. They have no wine. And then Jesus says, dear woman, the dear is inserted by the translators.

[14:48] It actually just says woman, which sounds a bit more abrupt. Woman, why do you involve me? What's this got to do with me? And then Jesus says, my time has not yet come.

[15:01] And then Mary, the mother, I shouldn't have said that, Jesus' mother, says to the servants, do whatever he tells you. And then we have these six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding between 20 to 30 gallons, or 75 to 115 liters.

[15:24] I did a little calculation, and I reckon that they were about, if they were this shape, they would be about that tall and about that wide.

[15:37] That would be about 100 liters. That's what I calculated anyway. Six of them, quite big, a lot of water. Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water.

[15:54] So they fill them to the top. And then he says, draw some water out and take it to the master of the banquet. In the commentary I looked in, it says the master of the banquet, the literal Greek is the master of three cushions.

[16:13] It's a funny thing to say. He's the master of three cushions. So he probably looks after all the people reclining there on their cushions. He's the master of the banquet.

[16:27] So they take this stuff that was water, that had been water, they did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine.

[16:39] Now he doesn't know what's been happening. He doesn't know where it's come from. The servants who had drawn the water knew, and the master is amazed at this.

[16:51] And he calls the bridegroom and says to them, says to him, everyone brings out the choice wine, the good wine first, and then the cheaper after the guests have had too much to drink.

[17:10] But you have saved the best till now. That's what he says. He's surprised. Remarks on it. And he goes home thinking, the caterer's there.

[17:24] Didn't do it the usual way. Remarkable. So that's what he gets from this. And John, the gospel writer, tells us that this was the first of Jesus' signs.

[17:38] He performed this in Cana of Galilee. It's, if you like, the beginning of all signs. Perhaps you might even say the fountain of all signs. The number one of all signs.

[17:52] And he says that Jesus revealed his glory and that his disciples put their faith in him. So that's the text.

[18:03] Let's just go through pointing out the things that you might have stopped on. You might have thought, why does it say third day?

[18:16] Did you think that? Or did you think it's like in the Bible that it always says odd things at the beginning of a sentence? And lo, there appeared unto me. Why does it say lo?

[18:26] Well it just says and lo in the Bible. Thou hast thou shaped unto me. What does that mean? Did you just think the Bible always says funny things? It does it on the third day. That's a question.

[18:38] Why does it say that? The wine is gone. This matter of the wedding. How important is that? Why does Jesus say to his mother woman?

[18:50] Because he doesn't say dear woman. He does say woman. Why does he put it like that? Why does he say what have I got to do with this? Why does Mary ask him in the first place? Why on earth does Jesus answer my time has not yet come?

[19:08] Now gentlemen you might say if your wife says to you you notice that this was the prime example of the oblique request wasn't it?

[19:20] They have no wine. wine. It's like saying the rubbish bin in the kitchen is full. Yeah.

[19:32] It is. It carries with it this implication and could you empty it? That's what it is. So they have no more they have no wine carries with it and can you do something about it?

[19:45] And then Jesus says what's it got to do with me? And then he says my time has not yet come. So you might if you were in the kitchen there you say well I understand about emptying the rubbish bin but I've just got to watch something on the telly because it's the end of a football match.

[20:03] When that's finished the time will have come for me to empty the rubbish bin. You might say that. But why does Jesus say my time has not yet come? Does Jesus have a time for turning war?

[20:14] You know what's going on with that? And so Jesus seems to have refused doesn't he?

[20:26] What's this got to do with me? And my time has not yet come. That seems to be a refusal. I would take that as a refusal. Jesus saying well I'm sorry I'm not up for this.

[20:38] And so why then does Mary say do whatever he tells you? because she's presuming that he's going to do something isn't she? So that seems strange.

[20:51] And then Jesus does this with the water filling up the the water or gets the servants to fill the jars with water and they fill them to the brim.

[21:03] And these are jars used by the Jews for ceremonial washing. Now why does John tell us that? So the Jews had a lot of traditions about washing.

[21:19] So one of the traditions would be that if they'd been out in the marketplace they'd been down the road to buy a few things they would come back and they would wash the arm up to the elbow as a cleansing thing just in case any non-Jews had polluted any of the items that they'd touched and they needed to be cleansed from this pollution by washing in this water.

[21:45] That's why they did this purification. And so they fill up these jars with water and then Jesus says take some to the master of the feast.

[22:03] feast. And okay that seems to make sense and the fact that the master doesn't know where it's come from that makes sense that doesn't puzzle us at all.

[22:15] The fact that it's turned into wine is pretty remarkable and the fact that the master says to the bridegroom the bridegroom would have been in charge of the catering he calls the bridegroom aside and he says everyone brings out the choice wine first and the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink but you've saved the best till now.

[22:35] I mean that makes perfect sense. There's nothing illogical about that. That's his take on this situation. Why is it said to be the number one sign?

[22:47] I mean you would have said isn't feeding the 5,000 the number one sign? Why is this said to be the number one sign? And how does Jesus reveal his glory through doing this?

[22:59] So there are lots of questions that I think come to mind as we look at this text and what I'd like to do is try and put a background to this which might help us to see why it does actually make sense.

[23:16] It's just not simply a load of puzzles. So let's do the third day first. So you've read your Bible you know some interesting things happen on the third day.

[23:29] one thing in particular. Jesus rose from the dead. So John is using the exact same rather unusual phraseology on the third day.

[23:42] So he's maybe linking up with the fantastic new thing that Jesus did on his resurrection on the third day. day. And you might remember that this is actually the third day in a sequence.

[24:02] So he's said in chapter one something happened and then he says in verse 29 the next day and then verse 35 the next day and verse 43 the next day and then chapter 2 verse 1 the third day.

[24:18] And if you add them all up it comes to seven and it's a week it's a seven day week of remarkable things. Is there anywhere else in the Bible that there's a seven day sequence of remarkable things?

[24:34] Creation. Yes. So I think John is just ringing a little bell in our heads to say God made the world in Genesis and here is something new happening a new creation.

[24:48] is taking place and the climax of this is on the third day. Let's see what happens on the third day. Now let's also notice that this is a wedding and weddings have a particular resonance in the Bible.

[25:05] Now let's put it on two levels. Let's put it on the level of Jesus' mother. So Jesus is something sort of 30, 30 years of age that sort of thing and what is any Jewish mother thinking with her unmarried son has reached the age of 30?

[25:26] She's thinking who's he going to marry? Isn't she? Who's he going to marry? She's thinking that. And Jesus also I would suggest has in his mind at a wedding wedding this whole matter of weddings.

[25:49] And it would so you're thinking Jesus' mother is way off course thinking who's he going to marry because Jesus remained a single man throughout his life.

[26:01] And then you might like to rethink that and to think actually Jesus' whole mission was to find a bride and to win her.

[26:14] But the bride is not a particular favoured young lady but the church of Jesus Christ. That's right isn't it? That's this whole mission. And I suspect if we put that into our thinking there's a wedding Mary's thinking about one level you know he's a nice young man why don't he get married and Jesus is thinking you know this is what I'm here for a wedding this is what I'm here for.

[26:42] So when Jesus says sorry when Mary says look at this wedding feast they've got no wine I think there's all sorts of things that that observation prompts in the mind of Jesus so he could be thinking wedding let's just look at a couple of texts so there's I can never find Hosea when people are watching me Hosea chapter three verse one I'm going to have to look it up in the beginning would you like you look it up as well and then I won't feel so embarrassed people saying nine hundred and something Hosea three verse one is Old Testament and it is the Lord who says to Hosea go show your love to your wife again though she is loved by another and is an adulteress love her as the

[27:50] Lord loves the Israelites so there's I won't go into all the story of Hosea but it's a story of remarkable love for a woman who doesn't deserve it and God says go and love her she doesn't deserve it you love her because that's the way I love the Israelites the Lord is a lover and he seeks his bride let's turn to Mark chapter 2 verse 19 Mark chapter 2 verse 19 which is about fasting it comes in on the subject of fasting fasting means not eating food that sort of fasting and it's usually a sign of sorrow and Jesus is criticized because the

[28:50] Pharisees followers do fasting and John the Baptist followers do fasting but Jesus followers don't do fasting and Jesus answered how can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them that's the answer to the criticism and Jesus is do you see what Jesus is saying he's saying my disciples don't fast because they've got the bridegroom with them and bridegroom wedding happiness celebration eating and drinking that's what it's all about and it's really comes out of nowhere that idea of bridegroom Jesus at the beginning of the Matthew Mark Luke gospels says I'm the bridegroom at the beginning of John's gospel we get this wedding and Jesus comes onto our scene as the bridegroom the one who has come for his bride and in

[29:53] Ephesians 5 we get as you know the whole thing about human marriage and it's compared with or it comes from the relationship between Christ and the church for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh this is a profound mystery but I'm talking about Christ and the church so let's put all that into our thinking as we go to the wedding in Cana so the mother of Jesus is there she's thinking one thing Jesus is there and he's thinking about this whole huge business of the bride of Christ and him being the Christ and him being the bridegroom and she says they have no wine and of course wine is an important part of a wedding celebration wine in the story of salvation although the master of the feast talks about getting sottled because that is the word that he uses people have had too much wine in the

[31:13] Bible wine is usually there to flag up something like abundance fruitfulness and it's put into context like this so Deuteronomy 713 if I can quickly look that up says this is a picture of richness and goodness he will love you and bless you and increase your numbers he will bless the fruit of your womb the crop of your land your grain new wine and oil the calves of your herds the lambs of your flocks so that the idea of wine is to do with abundance and fruitfulness and almost like the golden age of things and in the book of Amos it says chapter 9 verse 13 the days are coming declares the Lord when the reaper will be overtaken by the plow men and the planter by the one treading grapes new wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills the golden age is coming the age of fruitfulness and new oil and new wine and everything like that and

[32:27] Jesus is here at the wedding! and his mum's there and she says they've got no wine and Jesus says absolutely right absolutely right here we are with the promise of this golden age ahead of us when the new wine will flow and the oil will flow and here we are in Cana of Galilee at this point in salvation history and there's no wine no they haven't got wine no golden age they haven't got wine he says that's what he's thinking and he says why do you involve me my hour has not yet come so think about hour hour is to do with a timetable a countdown my hour has not yet come if you set an alarm on your mobile phone do you set an alarm on your mobile phone let's suppose you set it for something really ambitious like quarter to eight in the morning and you wake up at five o'clock and you say oh my hour has not yet come it's not time yet go back to sleep now

[33:52] Jesus has got a timetable and this flags this up my hour has not yet come Jesus does have an hour would you like to look with me at chapter seven verse six where he says at a certain point in his ministry says my time has not yet come and then he says in chapter seven verse eight because for me the right time has not yet come!

[34:20] the alarm hasn't gone off yet the time has not yet come and in chapter seven verse thirty it says at this they tried to seize him but no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come and so it's not time for the alarm to go off however when you get to chapter twelve verse twenty three Jesus says you know whatever noise your alarm clock makes probably makes some more bizarre noise than that chapter twelve verse twenty three something clicks as Jesus is there and he says the hour has come now's the time the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified and he's talking about his death because he goes on to say unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains only a single seed but if it dies it produces many seeds and this clock has been counting down and the alarm goes off at the time of

[35:39] Jesus' death this is the time this is Easter time coming up that's what we're coming up to that time now but in chapter three sorry chapter two he's saying wedding wine preparing the feast getting everything ready no the hour hasn't come no the hour hasn't come for that oh ordinary wine yeah no problem I can sort that out which is of course what he does isn't he ordinary wine yes and that's the bit his mother picks up on he's going to sort that bit out he's got something going on in his mind about something else but the ordinary wine he'll sort that out which is what he does and he turns ordinary water so let's just say in John's gospel water is often very special because

[36:41] Jesus gives living water water and the water of the spirit so often in John's gospel water is very special but for the purposes of this story it's compared with wine and water is very ordinary so Jesus takes something which is ordinary and turns it into wine and the wine we're to understand by comparison is tasty and rich and it's to do with celebration it's what you drink at a wedding and it's anticipation as well it's thinking this is to do with the golden age that's coming one day the day is coming when there will be this great wedding as the Lord brings his people to himself there'll be a wedding there'll be a feast that's the great day that's coming and this wine is anticipating that and the interesting thing is that everybody sees so they all have a glass of the wine yeah okay strange that he's brought that out towards the end

[37:55] I was just thinking that too cheers so they will see that bit but some of them are saying what just happened what just happened what did Jesus just do he did that he just he didn't make a big fuss about it but he told us to put the water in there we took the water out it's turned he turned water into wine who is he what does that say about him and in verse 11 it says this if you like the beginning of all signs Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee and he revealed his glory he showed who he was he showed what his mission was he showed his glory and most people didn't notice a thing but his disciples saw it and believed so that's the

[39:06] I'll try to take us through the text and just fill in the blanks it makes more sense now doesn't it if you think of what's going on behind the scenes and how it I hope it makes more sense anyway so finally what do we learn well we learn that God and Jesus are working to a timetable with a point of fulfillment the Bible isn't just full of timeless truths it's a story moving to a fulfillment and Jesus could say my time has not yet come and the the master of the feast could say you saved the best till last and this is the way the Bible is the Old Testament points us forward and then we have what we might say the inauguration of things beginning to snap into action in the time of Jesus when he dies on the cross and rises again from the dead and then in the time that we live in there's a gradual fulfillment and one day it will all be fulfilled one day it will all be fulfilled and Jesus had his eye on the future even when he was at a wedding he couldn't help but be thinking about this time that was coming at the time when he'd be preparing the feast treading out the wine providing the food getting it set up for his bride he was thinking about that and my question is do we it's a good thing to think about makes all the difference

[40:40] I don't think we can live the Christian life just on how things are now or how things might be in the next few months and years I think we've got to have our eyes on the distant future on the wedding that's coming on the feast that's coming do you agree with me secondly Jesus is able to transform the ordinary into the special he just shows that doesn't he water into wine he's been doing that with people a little while earlier in chapter 2 verse 42 this guy Simon had come along and Jesus had said to him you are Simon son of John you will be called Cephas which being translated is Peter so your name's Simon you're going to be Peter if you think that that's a normal thing to do just try saying that to the next people that you meet your name's

[41:40] Rachel but you're now going to be Gertrude I wasn't really expecting that I think that's a little bit inappropriate but Jesus does this he takes people and changes them into something else that's what he does that's what he's doing now he's able to take water and turn it into wine that's what he does with people we should have faith like the disciples did we should have faith that he's able to do this that's what he's doing with us that's what he's doing with the people around us it's a slow process but it is a process and it goes on and my third question is how do you see Jesus how have you seen him up to now because in the story most people just saw the surface they were like the people who look at the Burgess

[42:41] Hill sign and just see the sign they didn't see what it was pointing to they just drank the wine and thought it was rather nice but they didn't see the Jesus who turned water into wine and this happens all the way through John's gospel Jesus feeds 5,000 people and rather than thinking who is this who can do this people come up to him and say this is going to save me a lot of money on my Sainsbury's bill can you do it again they look on the surface but they don't look underneath and I'm asking about us do we see just on the surface or do we see as the disciples did his glory do we see him in his glory so as to believe and if you're thinking actually I don't see him in his glory then what I suggest is certainly pray and ask but keep looking like one of these puzzles have you seen these puzzles where it looks like a tree and a cat and it's actually supposed to be a woman's face

[43:49] I can't see that at all it's a tree and a cat and you keep looking at it and then oh I can see yes do that with the bible find somebody that will help you to read through the bible and point out the bits and keep asking until you can see who Jesus really is and put your trust in him we're going to sing we're going to sing