John: The Word Became Flesh - John 2:1-11

[0:00] I'm so affirmed here, hun. Well, it is good to be here this morning.

[0:12] Just looking around to see everyone that is here. A couple things I want to make mentioned. This week, Wednesday evening, we're going to start our Biblical theology class.

[0:27] That will be at 6pm down in room LL2. Dinner will be provided and if you're interested, shoot me an email this week. I'll send another reminder out Tuesday. I've got about a dozen of you thus far that have said you're interested.

[0:43] Whoever is there, we will love to study the word together and come to an understanding of how this book fits together. So that's happening Wednesday.

[0:55] Another thing I want to make mention of at the next Sunday, October 8th, we have our final church plant information meeting.

[1:06] That will be at 6pm in Uden Chapel. I know that Eric has already had one of those. I just want to encourage our body that even if you don't plan to go with the church plant, both Scott and myself have been a part of church plants to have others be interested, to be present, to know how to pray and just to say, hey, I'm with you, whether I'm called to go or stay, it's ministry you can have.

[1:36] So I would encourage, even if you've decided the Lord wants me to stay here, but you want to bless and encourage the team that's going, show up. You're not committing to anything by being there, but you will minister to those that have committed.

[1:51] So I want to encourage you with that. And then just final, I want to make mention, have a good friend here, Pastor Al Vallette and his wife, Danielle. Could you just put up your hand, Al, so we could see you over there.

[2:04] And Al and Danielle are from Antioch Bible Church. Al is actually a spiritual father to Rob Fassette. And just an incredible pastor, shepherd.

[2:17] If you want to meet a pastor with a heart for people, that's Al. And I've just, I loved serving with him for the four years I was there at Antioch. And they're over here for a wedding and some other things. And so they, they're here to worship with us.

[2:29] So if you get a chance, they hide it them after the service. We'll go ahead and turn it open to John chapter two. We're actually going to look at the first 11 verses. Terry just read, he went a little bit further verse 12, but we'll save that for next week.

[2:44] Let me pray and then we'll look at the, at the text together this morning. Father, we are thankful to be here this morning.

[2:55] Lord, it's so good to be forgiven, to be clean. Thank you for your sacrifice.

[3:07] Thank you for the blood that you shed. Lord, we're here not on our own merits. We're here because of all that you accomplish, Lord Jesus. And we have just simply play simple faith, trust that that is enough for us to be right with our heavenly father and for our forever.

[3:28] And so Lord, this morning, if there's things that we need to hear from you, ask that by the power of your spirit, your word that you'd communicate those things. Pray Lord that you would encourage folks this morning.

[3:42] Thankful for those that are here, those that are watching online. Lord, if folks are in need of just being reminded that you're present with them today, would you do that? And Lord, we'll give you thanks for whatever you accomplish.

[3:55] Just good to be part of your body today. For that we say thank you. It's in Jesus' name and all God's people said. Amen.

[4:06] Well, if you've been with us, last few Sundays you've noticed we've begun a new series. We're doing an exposition through the Gospel of John. It'll take us an entire year. As you can see from the slide, we have a bit of artwork associated with the study.

[4:22] We have the manger that's at the bottom, the base of the image, and then we have the cross above it. And it just reminds us of Christ that His purpose was always to come and to give His life as a ransom for many.

[4:34] And that's the image we've chosen for this particular series. We could have chosen other symbols. It's interesting from church history, actually medieval scribes, after they would finish copying the text of the Gospel of John, they would often put an image of an eagle with it.

[4:52] And if you've looked at any artwork, early Christian artwork, you'll notice that often in that artwork the apostle John is often associated with an eagle.

[5:06] Something you might still find today if you look at frescoes or stained glass and many cathedrals. Where does this image of the eagle come from? Well, back in Ezekiel chapter 1 verse 10, we have another description in Revelation 4 of these angelic creatures, these cherubim.

[5:28] And Ezekiel writes in Ezekiel 1-10, he says, As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The forehead, the face of a lion on the right side. The forehead, the face of an ox on the left side, and the forehead, the face of an eagle.

[5:45] Theologians over the centuries have identified these angelic creatures with the fourfold picture of Jesus that we receive from the Gospels.

[5:56] Even the appearance of these cherubim testify to the hero of this book. Matthew shows us Jesus as Messiah King, the lion.

[6:09] He is the lion of Judah. Mark shows us Jesus as the suffering servant indicative of the ox, that beast of burden. Luke shows us Jesus as authentically human, the Son of Man.

[6:23] We have the image, the face of a man. And then John shows us Jesus as truly divine, this image of the eagle, the creature of the heavens.

[6:34] And so the four Gospels give us this complete picture of Jesus. And as we consider the Gospel of John in particular, the emphasis is on Jesus being very God, totally God.

[6:49] And in fact Athanasius, the Bishop of Alexandria in the fourth century, used the Gospel of John as his key text to defend the deity of Jesus against the Arian heresy of the day, suggesting that Jesus was something less than God.

[7:08] No, in fact, as John records at the beginning of this Gospel, that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God.

[7:19] And in fact, the purpose of John's Gospel is to convince us that Jesus, his true identity, is God. And you can recall a few weeks ago when Scott gave us the introduction to the books.

[7:31] He gave us the purpose of the book, which is found in John 20, verses 30 and 31, where John writes, Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.

[7:45] 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.

[7:57] It's interesting that John actually loves to use a word to describe Jesus' supernatural activity. He doesn't use the word miracle or mighty work, as you'll see in the other Gospels.

[8:10] He loves this word sign, a supernatural act of Jesus. The miracle it talks about, and I think it demonstrates the power of that work, while the sign points to its significance.

[8:28] That's why when we meet someone who is interested in things of the Lord, we're encouraging them to figure out who Jesus is. We tell them to do what? Read the Gospel of John, because John gives us some very specific signs to tell us who Jesus is.

[8:46] Interestingly enough, John's Gospel actually contains the fewest miracles of the Gospels.

[8:59] In the first 12 chapters, actually 11, theologians have broken this book down into two parts. They call it the Book of Signs and the Book of Glory. The first 12 chapters, the Book of Signs, then chapters 13 to 21, the Book of Glory.

[9:12] The Book of Signs, within that section, there are seven miracles that are recorded. Then you have the Book of Glory that is really the longest passion week narrative that we have in the Gospels.

[9:25] It's called the Book of Glory because it's where the Father glorifies the Son through His death and resurrection. We're now in the section, the Book of Signs, and we're going to get to look at our first miracle this morning.

[9:38] I want us to think of the Gospel of John maybe like a treasure map, if you will. Consider the clues. Consider the signs to determine the identity of Jesus.

[9:52] What we're talking about here is what theologians call functional Christology. Determining who Jesus is by what He does.

[10:05] Kids play a game called Who Am I? Who Am I based upon what I do? I like to ride in a red truck. I put out fires. I rescue kittens from trees on occasion. Who am I?

[10:24] I'm a fireman. That's how this game works, guys. I love to wear crimson, mediocre education.

[10:38] You guys know how the game works, right? My team's headed to the PAC-2. You know exactly who we're talking about here.

[10:54] I know it's not job security. I'm well aware. Today we have the first clue as to Jesus' true identity as we examine this first miracle that John loves to call the sign.

[11:09] So we'll just work through this narrative together. At the end I have a couple questions that I'd like to answer for us to kind of tie things all together. But let's begin here and look at the setting. Look at the first couple verses in John chapter 2 verses 1 and 2.

[11:23] John writes, on the third day there was a wedding at Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.

[11:36] So it says it's the third day. We know we're actually on day four into Jesus' first week of public ministry, and we know that as we look through chapter 1 and there's a phrase that the next day, the next day, the next day, in verses 29, 35, and 43 in chapter 1.

[11:53] And so you add those together and then it says on the third day, and so we know that we are now on day seven. So this miracle completes Jesus' first week of ministry.

[12:05] And the location of this miracle, it says it's in Cana of Galilee. Now Cana, just a few miles north of Nazareth, Jesus' earthly home, says three days on the third day, so they were traveling up from Bethany across the Jordan, so a bit south and took some days to get there.

[12:26] They're finally there. This town Cana, actually the word translates reads. And so it must have been that in Cana there must have been some of it at least being marshlands.

[12:41] This is not a metropolis. It's not a bustling city by any means, which is sort of interesting because who's from Cana that we already were introduced to?

[12:52] Nathaniel. Nathaniel is actually from Cana. It says that in John 21, verse 2. And I find it ironic because he's the one that was shocked that the Messiah would come out of Nazareth, the sister city of Cana.

[13:09] Like who is he to talk? It's just another cow town just a few miles south. And yet he's like, oh, you know, throwing shade on Jesus for being from a very similar town.

[13:24] Well, who is with Jesus? We find here that there's a handful of his first disciples. We met them last week. We're also introduced, says that his mother's with him. So Mary is there. She's not named Mary, but it says the mother of Jesus.

[13:39] But we also find something curious that there's someone missing. Who's missing from this scene? His father, Joseph.

[13:50] Jesus's earthly father is not there. In fact, the last time that we hear of Joseph is when Jesus is 12 in Luke 242. It says his parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover. He was 12 years old.

[14:03] We also know that Joseph is dead by the time that Jesus is on the cross because he entrusts his mother to the care of John from the cross in John 19.

[14:14] And so Bible scholars believe that Jesus most likely lost his dad sometime during his adolescent or young adult years.

[14:25] But I think there's something noteworthy here. And that is that Jesus, he experienced loss during his earthly life. He experienced the loss of a parent. And so Jesus, he actually does understand human grief.

[14:45] He knows what it's like to lose a parent. And maybe if you're here this morning and maybe that minister somehow to you as you think about Jesus being acquainted with our grief, not unable to sympathize, he can sympathize with our weakness, with our grief, as Hebrews 4.15 says, because he experienced it.

[15:12] And maybe for some of you it's more thrilling to know who your savior is to go, wow. Like as I have walked through loss, and I know some, there are many in here that have lost parents.

[15:24] Some are the other or both, some even that are rather young. Well, your savior understands that because that's what he experienced as well.

[15:36] I love in the Psalm 56.8 it says that God keeps track of our tossing. He keeps track of our tears. In fact, he puts them in a bottle or wine skins. He keeps track of them.

[15:49] He knows. Jesus is God for ordinary people in the everyday. Well, why is Jesus in Cana? Well, he's invited to a wedding.

[16:05] Cana is close. It's a neighboring town to Nazareth. So we would assume that these are friends, maybe even relatives of his family. And weddings in ancient Israel had a number of different events that occurred in the course of that wedding process.

[16:28] First would be that there would be a bride price that was paid from the groom or parents, and it would be paid to the bride and her family.

[16:39] And once that bride price was agreed upon and paid, that would initiate then this betrothal period, which could last for a year. It could be lengthy.

[16:50] Remember Mary and Joseph, they were in this betrothal period that lasted for a duration. During that time, the couple was legally married. Although they did not live together, they didn't consummate the marriage.

[17:04] This is very counter to America in the 21st century. It's very foreign. But then the evening of the ceremony, the groom with his family would show up at the father of the bride's house, take her, her friends, the family back to his house for the ceremony celebration.

[17:26] And so it was a huge event, and then the town would come out. Maybe it was the evening and there's got torchlights, and they would go to the bride's home, and then they would retrieve her and just the crowd.

[17:39] Everybody's there to celebrate. In fact, weddings were a big, big deal in this culture. These were the social events for an entire community.

[17:50] It was a time of celebration. It was a time of joy. Wedding celebrations then could have lasted all of a week long. It wasn't just a one-day affair and maybe the best part.

[18:05] The groom's family actually paid for it all. Just, I'm just saying, that sounds pretty great from up here.

[18:17] Daughter is her father of six girls, right? Sounds good. Curtis has given me amen. I think Dan's given me amen back there. I mean, you know, it's like better than winning the lot actually.

[18:33] What I love about this scene, we see Jesus at a social event. He's at a gathering with people. He's not locked away in some ivory tower.

[18:44] He's probably there and joined himself. He's being with other people. Again, Jesus is God for the ordinary person in the everyday. And this image of Jesus at a wedding, I think it's important for us as we consider, how do you do life as a follower of Christ?

[19:05] In some centuries past, they proposed an approach of what it meant to be a spiritual person that you would go away, you would retreat away from society.

[19:16] The monastic movement gained traction in the 4th century. In fact, Athanasius in the 4th century writes this work, Life of Antony. And Antony was this young man, this Egyptian wealthy parents.

[19:28] They died early and then at 20 years old he inherited the family fortune. And then he heard the sermon on the rich young ruler, sold everything and decided, oh, God wants me to move to an abandoned fort out in the desert.

[19:40] And he lived in that fort actually for 20 years by himself in seclusion. He didn't bathe, he didn't wash. Maybe that's part of why he was by himself.

[19:52] But what you have in that era was this sort of this new approach with a new mark of what it meant to be spiritually mature that you withdraw and contemplate.

[20:03] And yet what we have from this story this morning is Jesus didn't do that, he didn't withdraw. He was with people.

[20:14] He went to weddings, he went to social gatherings. He dined with folks that others often would want to avoid.

[20:25] Which is actually what he prayed for us in John 17, right? Verse 15, Lord protect him from the evil one, but I want him in the world.

[20:36] I don't want to take him out. I love that we had this last Wednesday night at our prayer and praise. We had testimonies of our people being with others.

[20:47] And man, if you're not at those gatherings, you're missing out. Everyone left, blessed. We heard stories of the barons, John and Pat. They're cooking meals for a neighbor every week, just blessing them.

[21:01] We heard Josh has spent time with some immigrants that have moved here from Afghanistan. He goes over and there's not a lot of English, but there's a lot of tea that's being sipped.

[21:12] And just being present, but it's like, oh, that's what you do. That's what you do. And I think we have this image of Jesus at this wedding and it should convict us. It should remind us that our God was with people and we need to not huddle.

[21:28] We need to also be with others as salt and light. And maybe you're here this morning thinking, man, Jay, but what if it gets awkward?

[21:39] Like, what if they talk about things that I'm uncomfortable with? It's going to happen. Thursday night, I'm driving and my first passenger I pick up in the evening, gets in my car and she says, oh, I'm sorry, you got the goth girl tonight.

[21:57] She's makeup everywhere, black everywhere. And then we just had a conversation. I was driving her to the knitting factory to concert venue in town and some death metal concert.

[22:12] It's a genre I'm completely unaware of and I learned much, most of which I can't share.

[22:25] I think the Lord has set us an example. Well, let's move on.

[22:36] At a wedding. And there's a crisis verse three. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine.

[22:49] Ladies, what is your worst fear when you're hosting people for a meal? Yeah, I mean, either the meal is just bombs, right?

[23:01] And it's just awful. Or you run out of food, right? You don't want to host people and not have food. Like, that's bad. That's bad. It's really bad in this culture.

[23:14] But I want us to consider how bad this is a wedding celebration, right? Are those in charge of wedding celebrations, are they a little hyped up?

[23:25] Remember those days, some of you men, you had no responsibilities. And you don't understand why the Gallier-Marion is freaking out like multiple times every day until the wedding. Because there's things that need to get done that aren't getting done and you're just like, what's the big deal?

[23:39] Yeah, because all you got to do is show up and not fall down, right? That's your job. But there's stress here. This is a big deal, especially in this particular culture.

[23:52] In fact, the Gruz family was actually open to a lawsuit if they were upset at how things went.

[24:04] That's this culture. So we don't recognize the magnitude of the shame that might have come upon those that were hosting this thing. And it may be that Mary actually had some role in pulling off this event because she turns to Jesus and says, hey, they have no wine.

[24:21] And I would just say, Mary is not simply making a factual statement here. She's implying something, right? If you're a child and your mom comes and says, hey, your room is a mess, that's not just like an observation.

[24:38] Like the weather is bad. It's raining outside. No, what is she implying? Clean the room. Husband, same deal.

[24:49] If your wife says, hey, there's a stack of shirts on your dresser. I mean, you're just like, sweet, great. Right? That's code.

[25:00] Like put them away. Moms are brilliant. They have a skill perfected over many years and Mary is no different.

[25:12] Hey, Jesus, the wine has run out. What I appreciate about Mary's request here, we actually see her heart.

[25:29] This is sort of a, this is something I hadn't seen in this, in this passage until I studied this week, but I was like, you know what, man, I just see Mary's heart here. She considers this young couple and the possible shame that would then perhaps follow them if their celebration ceased to be a celebration.

[25:49] And just think about Mary and what she had already experienced in life. She had endured her own shame and difficult beginning of married life. Right?

[26:00] She understood something here. And I love that she has this heart. And I believe that, that, that it's actually shaped her heart, her own shame or own experience in life towards others and how she would then minister to them.

[26:17] I think it's very much in the spirit of 2 Corinthians 1, 4, right? That God comforts us so that we can comfort others in their affliction. And I would just say church, our brokenness is often our strength as we give our lives away for others.

[26:34] And it's really how God often will redeem some of the broken pieces of our lives. And I just love that we, we see that in Mary here. And so don't just know that the Lord wants to use people to minister to people.

[26:52] And the things that maybe are broken are things that God can then use to, he can redeem them in a way. And I love that. I had a chance to pick up a gentleman younger, middle aged, but younger.

[27:07] I guess everybody's getting younger at this point, but we picked him up interacting and found out his wife had passed away like four years ago.

[27:19] He was young and I was like, oh, so sorry. He's like, it's okay. It's okay. And then he's sharing about some health problems. He has Ulcerative Colitis and just things are not going well.

[27:30] He's involved in intercollegiate athletics and that whole world and not able to participate in the role that he plays there because of his health and concerned and really struggling, losing massive amount of weight near death and possibly having to have surgery.

[27:52] And I went through Ulcerative Colitis as a kid and I was able to share some of that and some of the things that I experienced in that journey and I was actually able to encourage him. And it was really just a sweet time.

[28:05] And then I ran into him later. He was actually refing a game. One of my kids plays volleyball and he was there and I was like, I think that's the guy. I think that's the guy. He has a cane and so I go up to him afterwards and he's like, Jason, my Uber driver.

[28:21] I was like, yes. And we had another conversation. I was able to share with him that I was a Christian and then I'm going to see him again tomorrow night at another game and he's looking forward to it.

[28:33] I just like, man, I just feel like Lord has given me somebody that maybe he wants me to minister to this, to this man. And some of it grows out of some of the things I've experienced and the Lord has things like that in all of our lives.

[28:44] He wants to use us. He wants to use people. That's how God moves through ordinary people. And I love that we see that here in Mary. Let's continue and see how Jesus responds to this request. Look at verses four and five and Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me?

[28:59] My hour has not yet come. His mother said to his servants, do whatever he tells you. First, this is a really odd way, I think, to speak to one's mom in our culture.

[29:13] So let's not read our culture into the text. I think it's very disrespectful in our culture, right? Depending on the tone. I mean, it's not like Jesus said, we're reading a woman.

[29:24] Like it's like woman, right? Like, and that's not what Jesus is doing here. It's a term of respect. It's a little bit of a distancing from something that's more affectionate.

[29:36] But actually Jesus uses this term on the cross in John 1926 where he says, woman, behold your son. And maybe it's akin to like in the south where you'd say, ma'am.

[29:47] But there's a distancing that's happening here with this use of this term. I believe what Jesus is doing here is he's demonstrating to his mother, right?

[29:59] That any activity that he engages upon, that he does, it's going to be directed by his father, his heavenly father. And not by some earthly relationship.

[30:10] In fact, he says, my hour has not yet come. So obviously he's thinking like she's asking for something miraculous. The text doesn't say, but we can infer that.

[30:22] Hour for what? To be glorified through his death and resurrection. And so Jesus say, you know what? Our purposes are different. Any miracle I do that begins the process of revealing my ultimate purpose.

[30:37] That needs to be on my heavenly father's timetable, not yours. But I want us to notice that Jesus responds to Mary not with a no, but just simply that my actions are going to be dictated by my heavenly father.

[30:54] And as we'll see, actually, it appears that this must have been on God's timetable because he acts upon this request. And again, I love Mary here. She just, she responds to Jesus in humility and obedience.

[31:12] Do you notice that? To the servants, she says, do whatever he tells you. She's leaving the decision with Jesus in his hands, but I love that she's being humble and responding in obedience.

[31:29] These are actually the final words we have of Mary in the Gospels. This is not a lesson on prayer, but I think there's a wonderful example here. As we think about prayer, make your request of the Lord, then respond in humility and obedience.

[31:45] And I think Mary does this wonderfully here. She models it wonderfully for us. So it's on her, Mary, by following her example, not praying to her, as the Catholics would want you to do, and they love this text for this particular section.

[31:59] Let's follow her example to go directly to Jesus and then responding humility and obedience. Well, Jesus does take action. Let's see verse six to 10 says, Now there were six stone jars there for the Jewish rights of purification, each holding 20 to 30 gallons.

[32:17] Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water, and they filled them up to the brim. They said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. So they took it and when the master of the feast tasted the water, now become wine.

[32:29] And did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. The master of the feast called to the bridegroom and said to him, Everyone serves the good wine first and when the people have drunk freely, then the poor wine, but you have kept the good wine until now.

[32:44] So what we see here is Jesus takes these six stone jars used for holding water for ritual purification before the meals for the guests to clean utensils.

[32:58] We have an example of that in Matthew seven, where the Pharisees love to add things to the mosaic law.

[33:09] All sorts of additions, ritual cleansings and Jesus rebukes them there for holding to the tradition of the elders, to making these traditions on par with God's commands.

[33:22] And so this is just part of that culture in the day. And these stone vessels that were filled with water, he then turns it into 120, 180 gallons of exquisite wine.

[33:37] And if you embrace a plain literal hermeneutic and we do, the word for wine means wine. That said, back in biblical times, typically wine was cut with two to three parts of water, which is actually brilliant because it prevented drunkenness and had a cleansing effect on impure water.

[34:02] And there's much I could say in terms of one's approach and relationship with alcohol. That's not really the point of this passage. So we're not going to really go there this morning.

[34:13] Simply the biblical command is not drink, but it's not to get drunk. Ephesians five, 18. And when we get to that text or others more appropriate to talk on that, we will.

[34:28] But in terms of this narrative, what we find here that Jesus turns this water into this exquisite wine in the head waiter, the master of the feast, tastes it, and he's just in shock.

[34:39] It's like, what in the world? Where have you been hiding this? And I think this head waiter is sort of revealing a trade secret, right? That when you're in a social gathering, you serve the best stuff first, food, drink.

[34:55] Everybody's palates tired by the end and they're not even going to notice a difference. They just serve the lesser quality stuff at the end. But what I love about this scene is that we see Jesus, Jesus choosing to act.

[35:08] He didn't have to. This is such an obscure miracle. Like you ever thought about how odd this is? Nobody gets healed. Right?

[35:19] No one gets saved. It's just he's doing this miracle simply to bless. And it seems like just insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

[35:35] And I love the fact that this narrative for us tells us. It reminds us that our God cares, yes, even about those things. Jesus did this miracle to bless his friends, his guests, and in particular this young couple.

[35:52] It reminds me of what Jesus said on the Sermon of the Mount in Matthew 6,26 where he says, Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

[36:04] Are you not of more value than they? God, Jesus is God for ordinary people in the everyday.

[36:15] And you see that here. I just love that. God, we're praying for a sunny day. We're praying for rain. I think the Lord at times just gives us things that we don't even recognize are from His hand in terms of just, Hey, that's for you.

[36:36] It's so interesting there's a section in Job 37,13 talking about sun, rain, the weather. Says whatever, or weather for creation or for His land or for love, He causes it to happen.

[36:51] So there's multiple reasons why the weather is the way it is. Sometimes it's for the land because the crops need to grow and so you need that and it's just for the land. Sometimes it's for correction.

[37:03] That Lord might use weather for some in some measure to correct to confront an individual, a person, a nation. And yet it says there's times when the Lord sends particular weather for love.

[37:17] He causes it to happen. And maybe that sunset was actually just for you. God cares about the big things, but he also cares about those insignificant details.

[37:31] And I think this narrative, the fact that he would make this, have this miracle for this young couple, is just a bless, just a bless them.

[37:42] Jesus blessed them and this first sign, it also accomplished a higher purpose because if you read verse 11, it says this, the first of His signs Jesus did at Cana Galilee and manifested His glory and His disciples believed in Him.

[37:59] So yes, ah ha, Jesus, you're not just some mere man. Like ordinary regular humans can't do what you just did.

[38:11] We think you're the Messiah. We think that we have got you pegged. We're playing the who are you game and we're getting it. And so you see that that higher purpose is accomplished.

[38:24] Here's a couple questions that I ponder this week as I consider this first miracle. And what's wild about this section is there's not a lot of commentary. This is what happened.

[38:39] A lot of it is unspoken. It's a little bit of a puzzle. But they helped me understand the text and so the first question is this, why did Jesus use the jars for ritual cleansing?

[38:53] And not just repurpose the empty wineskins. Like there were vessels that were used that He could have just filled up, but He chose something different to do this miracle in.

[39:08] It's very odd. I think it's very purposeful, however. See, as we observe this miracle of transformation of water to wine, what does wine symbolize in the New Testament?

[39:22] I'm going to say we're going to do communion this morning in that spirit. What does wine represent?

[39:33] Blood. Also throughout Old Testament, it's joy, but here specifically it's blood.

[39:44] What is it that makes man or woman spiritually clean? Is it ritual cleansing? Is it this external act?

[39:55] No. No, it's not about the external. It's rather about the blood of Christ that's about to be spilled on Calvary. I believe this first miracle points directly to the cross and to the power of Christ's blood to transform a life.

[40:14] In fact, this miracle, it declares that new life, joy, possible, found solely in Christ. I think as Jesus putting wine in these ritual jars, Jesus just retired them.

[40:32] They were no longer useful for that purpose. They are obsolete. I think this first miracle, it just demonstrates the truth of 2 Corinthians 5.17, if anyone's in Christ.

[40:45] They are transformed like water to wine, new creations. And guess what else? When applied to an individual's life at conversion, when we trust in Christ's death-barrel resurrection, guess what?

[41:02] That is the bride price as we think about ancient weddings in this day. The bride price has been paid and in fact we now become betrothed to Christ.

[41:17] You guys see where I'm going with this? Some of you guys are smarter than me and you're like, I saw this coming from the moment you started talking, Jay. Yeah, the church is now in the betrothal period, which then leads to my second question.

[41:33] Why do your first miracle at a wedding? It actually shouldn't surprise us as I believe this is a preview of what has to come for those that are now betrothed to Christ.

[41:46] The bride price has been paid. This wedding scene I believe is a preview of the ultimate wedding celebration upon Christ's retreat for his bride.

[41:58] In fact, we have allusion to this in Revelation 19 verses 6 and 7. Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder crying out hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the almighty reigns.

[42:17] Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has been made, has made herself ready.

[42:30] And then if you go on, John records in verse nine, blessed are those invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. It's remarkable because this story tells us Jesus is not simply God for the ordinary person in the everyday, but Jesus has promised to be our God in our forever.

[42:53] This life is not as good as it gets. In fact, it's only the very short beginning. The best is yet to come.

[43:04] I love how C.S. Lewis puts it in the last battle in the Chronicles of Narnia, where he writes, all their life in this world and all their adventures had only been the cover and the title page.

[43:20] This life is like a title page. Now at last they were beginning chapter one of the great story which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever in which every chapter is better than the one before.

[43:38] Church, the promise of the wedding feast. Our future wedding feast means there's joy, yes, even today despite whatever sufferings, whatever unknown occupies today.

[43:55] Amen? Amen. We encourage church. Good days are ahead. They're promised. And Jesus on this first week of his ministry previewed that.

[44:09] Father, thank you for time together. Thank you for the promises that we can hold on to that this life, that right now we're simply in the betrothal period, that our sins have been paid for, that you have said that if anyone's in Christ they're new, so we rest in that.

[44:28] Lord, even if yesterday we sinned, we have a great high priest that we can go to and confess. And Lord at the cross, you made it possible for us to know you, to walk with you, to be forgiven.

[44:43] And Lord at our conversion when we've simply put simple faith in what you accomplished, our sins were forgiven past, present, future.

[44:54] Lord, you said that you promised that you were going to prepare a place for us. Lord, we rest in the fact that this life is not as good as it gets.

[45:05] Lord, I want to pray that you administer this picture, this image, that you gave us on your first week of ministry. Lord, you just tuck that image into our heart. And for those maybe this morning that need this, that they're in a state of just, of maybe not knowing.

[45:23] Maybe they're in profound heartache. That you remind them that there is a day ahead, that there is a feast ahead, that there is a celebration ahead, and that things will just continue to get better.

[45:39] Lord, you always tell the truth. And you said that you'd return for your people. You return for your bride. Thank you for this story, for the reminder that it is so.

[45:51] In your name we pray, Jesus. All God's people said, Amen.