WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.320 This morning, we're going to look at how Jesus helps these people in this passage that we've read. 00:00:07.100 --> 00:00:14.019 And in doing so, we're going to think about what it reveals about who he is, what he came to do, and how he changes lives. 00:00:15.720 --> 00:00:17.379 Weddings are fantastic occasions. 00:00:17.519 --> 00:00:26.240 We love to get together with family and friends and celebrate the new beginning of a relationship or a new stage in that relationship as a new family is created. 00:00:26.239 --> 00:00:37.019 And could there be a more appropriate backdrop for Jesus' revealing of himself to the world as he comes to reveal a new stage of God's dealing with us? 00:00:37.420 --> 00:00:43.179 As he comes to show that God has a different way of dealing with people and a better way in him? 00:00:44.039 --> 00:00:46.599 In John 1 verse 14, we read, 00:00:46.599 --> 00:00:50.259 The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. 00:00:50.780 --> 00:00:56.099 We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 00:00:57.240 --> 00:00:59.079 God became man in Jesus Christ. 00:00:59.620 --> 00:01:05.079 And then in this passage, he comes and brings that glory into the ordinary events of life. 00:01:05.460 --> 00:01:10.439 He shows us that God is concerned about the ordinary events, about our lives and the things that are going on. 00:01:11.180 --> 00:01:15.700 He goes to a simple wedding and he reveals through his actions who he is. 00:01:15.879 --> 00:01:19.640 And there is a new beginning for those who will believe in him. 00:01:19.640 --> 00:01:28.819 Now, the Jews, even more than us today, attached a huge amount of importance and significance to weddings and high moments of life like that. 00:01:29.219 --> 00:01:37.740 This was a community experience when everyone would gather together and celebrate, probably for as long as a week, the new marriage that had taken place. 00:01:37.739 --> 00:01:42.919 But as we know, weddings don't always go entirely to plan. 00:01:42.919 --> 00:01:53.179 Some of you will remember my own wedding where my wife arrived 30 minutes late because of a problem with the cars and people were sitting waiting to see what would happen. 00:01:53.699 --> 00:01:55.919 Weddings do not always go according to plan. 00:01:55.920 --> 00:01:59.859 And in this wedding, something doesn't quite work. 00:02:00.180 --> 00:02:01.519 They run out of wine. 00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:07.879 But that's more than just a social embarrassment or a kind of a small matter. 00:02:07.879 --> 00:02:13.740 For a culture like this, a shame culture, that was a hugely important thing. 00:02:14.659 --> 00:02:18.000 And it has quite a lot of symbolic meaning as well for the people at the time. 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:25.180 To run out of wine, the people would have considered a kind of bad omen that maybe this marriage wasn't meant to reach its full potential. 00:02:25.659 --> 00:02:28.019 Maybe joy wasn't meant for this couple. 00:02:28.020 --> 00:02:34.219 And the lack of wine in this passage also has a symbolic meaning for all of us. 00:02:34.460 --> 00:02:38.160 Because it points to the fact that we all lack something as well. 00:02:38.379 --> 00:02:39.379 That we all have a problem. 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:45.120 Now thankfully, there's someone at this wedding that can make a real difference. 00:02:45.320 --> 00:02:46.939 That can actually change the situation. 00:02:47.219 --> 00:02:48.700 Because we see that Jesus is there. 00:02:49.300 --> 00:02:52.920 And he provides a solution to the immediate problem in this passage. 00:02:53.420 --> 00:02:57.820 And he also provides a solution to the problem that all of us have as well, as we'll see. 00:02:58.680 --> 00:03:02.219 So I want to just look at this passage briefly under two headings. 00:03:02.659 --> 00:03:04.280 First of all, what is the problem? 00:03:04.920 --> 00:03:06.760 And second of all, what is the solution? 00:03:07.760 --> 00:03:09.020 So let's start with the problem. 00:03:09.480 --> 00:03:13.460 As we said, a wedding can last as long as a week's celebration in this time. 00:03:13.960 --> 00:03:18.480 And the financial responsibility for the wedding lay entirely with the groom. 00:03:18.480 --> 00:03:24.000 He was meant to be able to show that he could provide for his wife by putting on this wedding celebration. 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:31.060 Now today, the average cost of a wedding is £24,000 for a single day. 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:35.219 Imagine if you had to pay something of that kind of region for a week. 00:03:35.560 --> 00:03:37.699 There was a huge commitment on the part of the groom. 00:03:37.979 --> 00:03:41.520 He was meant to have overflowing wine and overflowing food for people. 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:48.860 So you can imagine how people would start to talk about him if he wasn't able to provide the wine. 00:03:49.439 --> 00:03:58.680 You can imagine being the groom at a wedding today and you are being just anyone involved in the wedding today and trying to provide for your guests. 00:03:58.680 --> 00:04:04.540 And if you didn't have the money, if you didn't have the resources, all you can provide for them is an empty plate. 00:04:05.300 --> 00:04:10.480 You can see the image that people would start to talk about and start to say, oh, they didn't have much to give us. 00:04:10.520 --> 00:04:12.000 They didn't have much generosity there. 00:04:12.860 --> 00:04:16.980 And that's even worse in this shame culture in Jesus's time. 00:04:17.980 --> 00:04:25.759 People would start to say, if the groom cannot even provide wine for the wedding, how can he possibly provide for his future with his wife? 00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:30.120 And to the Jewish mind, wine symbolized joy. 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:36.219 There was a rabbi at the time of Jesus who would say, without wine, there is no joy. 00:04:37.199 --> 00:04:38.980 It's a precious time this wedding. 00:04:39.139 --> 00:04:40.300 They should have all the joy. 00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:45.060 And yet to run out of wine suggests that the joy has run out. 00:04:47.079 --> 00:04:51.199 And you could actually take Mary's words in this passage. 00:04:51.199 --> 00:04:55.180 She says to Jesus in verse 3, they have no more wine. 00:04:55.759 --> 00:04:58.480 And translate them as, you have no more joy. 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:01.480 So this is a serious issue for this couple. 00:05:01.819 --> 00:05:03.480 It's creating a lot of social embarrassment. 00:05:03.740 --> 00:05:05.240 People are starting to gossip about them. 00:05:05.439 --> 00:05:07.039 You can see where the problems are coming. 00:05:08.819 --> 00:05:16.779 But like this couple, this lack of joy or this way in which joy can run out is a universal experience of all of us. 00:05:16.779 --> 00:05:24.559 There always comes a time for each of us when we think we have endless joy and then something happens. 00:05:25.059 --> 00:05:26.879 And that just destroys our joy. 00:05:27.539 --> 00:05:34.099 We have all experienced going through life where things are going well for a period and then suddenly something changes. 00:05:34.939 --> 00:05:37.979 Maybe you get a piece of bad news and it just changes everything. 00:05:37.980 --> 00:05:46.540 No matter who you are, no matter what you go through, no matter how much you have, you will not always experience joy in this life. 00:05:47.360 --> 00:05:50.360 For some people that will come sooner and for other people that will come later. 00:05:50.920 --> 00:05:56.040 Often it seems that when life is at its very best, suddenly the wine or the joy runs out. 00:05:56.520 --> 00:05:57.560 We can be full of health. 00:05:57.700 --> 00:05:58.800 We can have money increases. 00:05:58.960 --> 00:06:00.759 We can have the career going the way we want it to. 00:06:01.100 --> 00:06:02.420 We can have friends around us. 00:06:02.460 --> 00:06:05.080 We can have lots to eat, lots to drink, a warm place to sleep. 00:06:05.079 --> 00:06:08.379 Everything can be going really well and then the unexpected happens. 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:15.599 Perhaps health troubles or the loss of a job or the betrayal of a friend or the death of a loved one. 00:06:16.259 --> 00:06:19.560 And suddenly we find ourselves questioning what was it all about. 00:06:20.139 --> 00:06:26.219 What was the point of having all this stuff that we had before, all this good stuff happening, if this is where we are now? 00:06:27.319 --> 00:06:31.279 Sometimes we can even find ourselves questioning why God would ever allow this to happen. 00:06:31.779 --> 00:06:33.979 Why he would allow us to be in this situation we're in now. 00:06:35.079 --> 00:06:40.199 Sometimes, of course, there can be no discernible reason for the lack of joy. 00:06:40.899 --> 00:06:45.319 Sometimes we can simply find that things don't seem to be as good as they were. 00:06:45.859 --> 00:06:49.279 Perhaps we suffer from depression or we suffer from something else that happens, 00:06:49.479 --> 00:06:52.539 but there's no reason in our lives for why this happens. 00:06:52.879 --> 00:06:57.579 But we just suddenly find that life loses its sparkle and the joy doesn't seem to be there anymore. 00:06:57.579 --> 00:07:05.519 If we focus on the joys and the exhilarations of life, eventually failure is inevitable. 00:07:06.019 --> 00:07:09.979 Because we know we cannot always have things the way we want them to be. 00:07:11.079 --> 00:07:15.819 Young people have a motto at the moment, which you may have heard of, YOLO. 00:07:16.319 --> 00:07:17.680 You only live once. 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:23.519 But what happens when that one life you've got doesn't work out the way you expect? 00:07:24.480 --> 00:07:31.920 I recently, through the wonders of Facebook, read an article that a friend of mine from school had written. 00:07:32.300 --> 00:07:33.680 Someone that I hadn't seen in years. 00:07:34.379 --> 00:07:37.660 And she'd written what is essentially a letter to her younger self, 00:07:38.040 --> 00:07:41.220 where she'd basically set out what's happened in her life up to this point 00:07:41.220 --> 00:07:43.400 and given advice to her younger self. 00:07:44.800 --> 00:07:47.800 Now, she tried to follow the same kind of path as I did. 00:07:47.880 --> 00:07:53.980 She went to university to study law, having worked very hard at school and she got very good grades. 00:07:54.420 --> 00:07:59.820 But at university, she found that she wasn't doing as well as everyone else. 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:04.100 That suddenly she was surrounded with people who, and she just couldn't compete. 00:08:04.560 --> 00:08:06.440 So she didn't get as good a degree as she wanted. 00:08:06.940 --> 00:08:09.040 And then the recession happened. 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:12.900 So she went out into the workplace, or tried to go out into the workplace, 00:08:13.180 --> 00:08:17.080 having got her law degree, and she couldn't get a job, because the jobs just weren't there. 00:08:17.800 --> 00:08:26.060 Now, following on from that, she felt the upset of not being able to practice what she'd trained for five years to do. 00:08:26.220 --> 00:08:28.520 She felt that kind of deep pressure on her. 00:08:28.759 --> 00:08:34.460 And that led to her suffering from depression and ultimately going through quite a dark time in her life. 00:08:34.460 --> 00:08:39.120 But she ends the letter by saying that now things are on the way up. 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:40.220 Now things have got better. 00:08:40.540 --> 00:08:43.700 She recently got married, and she's got a job, and things are going well. 00:08:44.320 --> 00:08:47.940 And so she ends with this great hope that everything's going to be okay now. 00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:52.960 But the saddest thing is, she actually has no basis for saying that. 00:08:53.460 --> 00:08:56.960 There's no basis for saying that there won't be something else that comes along in her life 00:08:56.960 --> 00:08:58.360 and brings her right back down. 00:09:00.519 --> 00:09:03.900 We even know that success doesn't always satisfy as well. 00:09:04.940 --> 00:09:10.759 Madonna, the pop star that most people would agree has had success in her life, said this. 00:09:11.019 --> 00:09:16.879 There were many years when I thought fame, fortune, and public approval would bring me happiness. 00:09:17.740 --> 00:09:20.040 But one day you wake up and realize they don't. 00:09:20.820 --> 00:09:22.420 I still felt that something was missing. 00:09:22.419 --> 00:09:28.719 I wanted to know the meaning of true and lasting happiness and how I could go about finding it. 00:09:30.059 --> 00:09:34.219 And we know from reading newspapers, from seeing BBC News, 00:09:34.519 --> 00:09:41.479 the number of times that the successful, the rich, and the famous have ended their lives in emptiness and despair. 00:09:42.039 --> 00:09:45.559 Whether through suicide or drug overdose, it just goes on and on. 00:09:46.299 --> 00:09:49.740 People reach the top only to realize there's nothing there. 00:09:50.299 --> 00:09:51.759 That they're still not satisfied. 00:09:51.759 --> 00:09:54.100 They still have something that they are lacking. 00:09:55.759 --> 00:09:59.179 Now you might be thinking that I'm only speaking today to non-Christians, 00:09:59.399 --> 00:10:03.259 to people who don't know Jesus, because of course things are always better for us who are Christians. 00:10:04.319 --> 00:10:05.840 But that's nonsense, isn't it? 00:10:06.120 --> 00:10:10.259 We know that Christians are also affected by these things happening in our lives. 00:10:10.620 --> 00:10:15.500 We know that bad things do happen to Christians, and we have to deal with that as well. 00:10:16.460 --> 00:10:20.980 And we also know that Christians, often, we can place our confidence in the wrong things. 00:10:20.980 --> 00:10:26.980 We can take our joy and our satisfaction from the comforts of life just as much as anyone else. 00:10:27.360 --> 00:10:30.200 We can often ignore Jesus in our day-to-day lives. 00:10:30.300 --> 00:10:33.500 We can come along to church on a Sunday and sing about it and talk about it. 00:10:33.500 --> 00:10:39.159 But when it comes to the day-to-day, there can be times when we know our true confidence is in something else. 00:10:39.159 --> 00:10:45.620 This was my own experience as I started my career as a lawyer. 00:10:45.819 --> 00:10:47.000 I spent five years working. 00:10:47.459 --> 00:10:48.259 Things were going well. 00:10:48.319 --> 00:10:51.019 I had my own plans, my own ideas of what I was going to do, 00:10:51.319 --> 00:10:56.379 how I was going to increase in money and get a better house and get all these plans that I had made. 00:10:56.379 --> 00:11:01.500 But they weren't God's plan because he had a different idea. 00:11:01.840 --> 00:11:05.000 And I started to realize that I needed more than an easy life. 00:11:05.299 --> 00:11:07.080 I couldn't just rely on my own comfort. 00:11:07.500 --> 00:11:10.159 I had to actually live for my God. 00:11:10.620 --> 00:11:16.360 And that made a difference in what I did and how I then left that in order to start to look about ministry. 00:11:18.100 --> 00:11:21.500 So you might be in one of these positions today. 00:11:21.500 --> 00:11:27.000 You might find that things have started to go wrong in your life, that you don't have the joy that you had. 00:11:27.379 --> 00:11:30.320 Or maybe at the moment you find that your life is actually going great. 00:11:31.179 --> 00:11:34.019 But maybe you know that that won't last forever. 00:11:34.879 --> 00:11:38.580 You could be climbing the ladder of success or you could be at the lowest of the low today. 00:11:39.779 --> 00:11:44.940 But the amazing thing about the gospel, the amazing thing about the passage that we're reading, 00:11:45.159 --> 00:11:47.399 is that it has something to say to all of us. 00:11:47.820 --> 00:11:50.480 No matter what situation you're in today, no matter what you're going through, 00:11:50.480 --> 00:11:58.840 and what this passage actually reveals to us is that there is someone who can make a difference. 00:11:59.460 --> 00:12:02.420 Someone who made a difference in this passage at this wedding, 00:12:02.940 --> 00:12:05.620 but someone who also can make a difference in our lives. 00:12:06.560 --> 00:12:10.320 That's what Mary thought when she comes to Jesus with the problem. 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:14.340 Verse 3, she comes to Jesus and says, 00:12:14.340 --> 00:12:17.060 When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, 00:12:17.159 --> 00:12:18.360 They have no more wine. 00:12:18.360 --> 00:12:23.680 And Jesus is able to deal with this problem, of course. 00:12:24.379 --> 00:12:25.740 Mary knows that somehow. 00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:29.279 She carries within her the mystery of his birth. 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:31.600 She knows that there is something unique about Jesus. 00:12:32.279 --> 00:12:34.720 Now, she doesn't fully understand it, as we know, 00:12:34.940 --> 00:12:38.300 but she does know that Jesus is somehow able to help. 00:12:39.460 --> 00:12:43.060 In verse 4, though, Jesus seems to rebuke his mother. 00:12:43.059 --> 00:12:45.959 He says, Dear woman, why do you involve me? 00:12:46.179 --> 00:12:47.659 My time has not yet come. 00:12:48.979 --> 00:12:54.099 Now, in actual fact, that word dear there is just inserted by this translation that we're reading, 00:12:54.199 --> 00:12:59.939 because they're trying to kind of make it not sound so shocking, actually, to modern ears, 00:12:59.939 --> 00:13:02.439 when he says, Woman, why do you involve me? 00:13:02.699 --> 00:13:07.279 Because it can sound a bit kind of callous, or not like he doesn't really care for his mother. 00:13:07.279 --> 00:13:16.360 But that's completely not the point, because the same word, woman, is used by Jesus in John 19, verse 26. 00:13:17.079 --> 00:13:25.019 When he's dying on the cross, and when he makes provision for his mother to be looked after by one of his friends after he has gone. 00:13:25.519 --> 00:13:27.379 So Jesus cares deeply about his mother. 00:13:27.379 --> 00:13:33.559 But there is an important point of principle, really, that Jesus is getting at here by saying, Woman. 00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:38.740 Jesus is moving out from the authority of his mother. 00:13:39.259 --> 00:13:44.200 He's about to start his public ministry, a new stage of his life, and that means things will be different. 00:13:44.939 --> 00:13:48.399 That means she can no longer relate to him as other mothers do to their sons. 00:13:49.080 --> 00:13:54.799 That means that he must move out from her authority, under the authority and submission to his heavenly father's will. 00:13:54.799 --> 00:13:58.359 Now, that must have been extremely difficult for Mary. 00:13:59.139 --> 00:14:03.319 She'd born him, she'd nursed him, she'd looked after him, she'd taught him, she'd watched him grow up. 00:14:03.919 --> 00:14:09.539 And probably she'd even come to rely on Jesus as a family provider, since Joseph seems to be gone now. 00:14:11.240 --> 00:14:15.139 But now that the purpose of Jesus coming into the world is starting to happen, 00:14:15.259 --> 00:14:17.159 now that he's starting to reveal who he is, 00:14:17.939 --> 00:14:22.779 everything, even his family ties, have to go below that divine mission. 00:14:22.779 --> 00:14:30.360 Now, it's not callousness, because we know that Jesus does make provision for his mother, he does look after her. 00:14:31.899 --> 00:14:40.559 But it's a recognition, actually, that Mary, just like everyone else, has to approach Jesus and God in the same way. 00:14:41.500 --> 00:14:46.919 She has to come to Jesus, not as her son, but as the promised Messiah who will take away the sins of the world. 00:14:46.919 --> 00:14:51.000 She has to come to Jesus, recognizing that he is the one who can deal with her problem, 00:14:51.319 --> 00:14:54.399 rather than her looking after him as her son. 00:14:55.319 --> 00:15:00.839 And there is a really important point of principle here, because some of us were brought up in the church. 00:15:01.139 --> 00:15:04.360 We had all the privileges and all the great things that that meant in our lives, 00:15:04.379 --> 00:15:09.339 as we grew up learning about Christianity, learning about who God is, and learning about Jesus. 00:15:09.340 --> 00:15:13.240 But we still have to come to God ourselves. 00:15:13.820 --> 00:15:16.720 We still have to come and put our faith and trust in God. 00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:21.040 Just because we were brought up in the church, just because we had all of that, doesn't make you a Christian. 00:15:21.540 --> 00:15:24.399 You need to come and place your faith in God yourself. 00:15:25.560 --> 00:15:28.740 And some of us had no upbringing in the Christian church at all. 00:15:29.080 --> 00:15:32.920 Some of us didn't know anything about Christianity until maybe you were invited to church, 00:15:32.940 --> 00:15:36.639 or you came along to church for some reason, and you started to learn about Christianity. 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:43.039 You might think that you have no claim or no right to be a Christian, because that wasn't your upbringing. 00:15:43.639 --> 00:15:47.960 But actually, in Luke 8, verse 21, we learn something quite important. 00:15:48.460 --> 00:15:52.539 Jesus' mother and brothers come to Jesus and try to see him, and he says, 00:15:52.679 --> 00:15:56.299 My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice. 00:15:57.620 --> 00:16:04.700 So whether you were raised in the church or not, you and I all have to approach God and approach Jesus in the same way. 00:16:04.700 --> 00:16:08.320 We all have to come and make that personal commitment to Jesus. 00:16:09.640 --> 00:16:12.340 Don Carson, the Bible teacher, puts it this way. 00:16:12.440 --> 00:16:16.080 He says that Mary approached Jesus as his mother and was rebuked. 00:16:16.620 --> 00:16:20.080 However, she responds as a believer, and her faith is honored. 00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:23.100 And that's what happens in verse 5. 00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:25.340 She doesn't know what Jesus is going to do. 00:16:25.640 --> 00:16:29.040 She doesn't know how he can solve the problem, but she trusts that he can. 00:16:29.039 --> 00:16:33.179 And so she says to the servants, Do whatever he tells you. 00:16:34.120 --> 00:16:37.899 That statement of humble faith and trust in Jesus. 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:40.419 She tells the servants, Do whatever he tells you. 00:16:41.159 --> 00:16:46.899 And I think sometimes, actually, this is the example that we need to follow in our own lives as we come to God in prayer. 00:16:47.419 --> 00:16:53.480 Sometimes we have this tendency, I think, to come to God with our own solutions to our problems already worked out. 00:16:53.639 --> 00:16:57.839 That we know what we want God to do, and we hope that he'll just grant our wishes like some kind of genie. 00:16:57.840 --> 00:17:00.100 But that's not who God is. 00:17:00.500 --> 00:17:02.660 He knows much better than we do. 00:17:03.040 --> 00:17:05.140 He has a much better plan than we do. 00:17:05.860 --> 00:17:08.720 And so we need to come to God sometimes and humbly just say, 00:17:09.259 --> 00:17:11.360 Lord, I don't know what your plan is in this. 00:17:11.440 --> 00:17:15.940 I don't know how you can help with this problem, but I trust that you can, just like Mary does. 00:17:16.900 --> 00:17:20.860 So we've seen the problem, and we've seen that Mary thinks that Jesus is the solution. 00:17:21.980 --> 00:17:27.039 And we can be so used to reading what happens next that we forget just how significant this is. 00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:35.939 Jesus instructs the servants to fill up the jars of water, and when they pour it out, it has transformed miraculously into wine. 00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:41.019 But not just any wine, the very best of wine. 00:17:41.799 --> 00:17:47.099 And not just a small amount of wine, but a huge quantity of wine. 00:17:47.099 --> 00:17:53.399 In fact, some have suggested that the amount of wine here is well over a thousand bottles of wine. 00:17:54.419 --> 00:17:56.919 Way more than would be needed for this feast. 00:17:57.959 --> 00:18:02.059 So Jesus provides the finest of wine and a huge quantity of wine. 00:18:03.059 --> 00:18:03.419 Why? 00:18:03.639 --> 00:18:04.480 Why so much? 00:18:04.879 --> 00:18:06.099 Why such great wine? 00:18:06.099 --> 00:18:13.139 Well, in John's gospel, the miracles of Jesus are often called, as we see in verse 11, signs. 00:18:14.039 --> 00:18:19.699 They're called signs because they're meant to not just be naked displays of power or some kind of magic trick, 00:18:19.919 --> 00:18:25.539 but they're meant to actually point people to a deeper reality of who Jesus is and what he does. 00:18:25.539 --> 00:18:32.119 Because the best wine and a huge quantity of wine teach us something very important about Jesus. 00:18:33.139 --> 00:18:37.879 They teach us that he is the God of abundant, overflowing grace. 00:18:38.279 --> 00:18:39.539 That he doesn't just give a little. 00:18:39.940 --> 00:18:43.240 He gives way more than we can ever expect or imagine or ask for. 00:18:43.240 --> 00:18:48.660 But there's also an important detail in the middle of all this that's easy to miss. 00:18:49.259 --> 00:18:51.539 Because what was used to get the wine? 00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:54.880 If you read in verse 6, 00:18:54.960 --> 00:19:01.519 nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, 00:19:01.940 --> 00:19:03.940 each holding from 20 to 30 gallons. 00:19:05.259 --> 00:19:09.259 Now these water jars are used by the Jews for ceremonial washing. 00:19:09.259 --> 00:19:13.299 Essentially, they would be used when people came to the wedding to wash their hands, 00:19:13.379 --> 00:19:16.420 to show that they were being made clean in some sense, 00:19:16.740 --> 00:19:19.559 in order to ritually clean come to this wedding. 00:19:20.299 --> 00:19:25.879 Now, much as these water jars could wash their hands and could take away the outward appearance of mess, 00:19:26.779 --> 00:19:29.879 they could never deal with the inner problem that people had. 00:19:30.119 --> 00:19:32.900 The inner mess, the inner heart problem that people had. 00:19:33.180 --> 00:19:35.539 But these jars were ceremonial. 00:19:35.720 --> 00:19:36.359 They were symbolic. 00:19:36.359 --> 00:19:42.979 They were used as part of the Old Testament law and rituals to represent being made clean. 00:19:43.579 --> 00:19:46.519 Now, the ritual itself in the Old Testament could never make you clean. 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:50.539 But what it could do is point to your needs to be made clean 00:19:50.539 --> 00:19:53.219 and point to your need for God to make you clean. 00:19:53.919 --> 00:19:59.519 So these jars, in some way, actually represent the whole of the Old Testament rituals and laws 00:19:59.519 --> 00:20:04.559 that were meant to somehow make you clean, or at least symbolize being made clean, 00:20:04.740 --> 00:20:07.259 but could never completely make you clean. 00:20:08.700 --> 00:20:11.500 Now that hints at something quite important. 00:20:12.139 --> 00:20:16.379 That that problem we thought about with the lack of joy, the lack of satisfaction in life, 00:20:16.879 --> 00:20:20.539 is actually part of a much bigger problem that we all have. 00:20:20.539 --> 00:20:22.599 What the Bible calls sin. 00:20:23.159 --> 00:20:26.819 The fact that we disobey and rebel against God constantly. 00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:32.319 Every time we go our own way, rather than doing what God has desired us to do, 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:34.839 we place ourselves in rebellion against our King. 00:20:35.559 --> 00:20:39.460 And the Bible's clear that one day God will judge that sin problem in our lives. 00:20:39.460 --> 00:20:43.220 And actually, I also think the Bible's clear that the lack of joy, 00:20:43.340 --> 00:20:47.340 the lack of satisfaction in our lives, is an effect of sin in the world. 00:20:47.740 --> 00:20:50.240 That this world is not the way it's meant to be. 00:20:50.920 --> 00:20:56.120 Jesus, when his friend dies, weeps, because the world is not the way it's meant to be. 00:20:56.779 --> 00:21:00.360 So this lack of joy, lack of satisfaction, has an ultimate cause, 00:21:00.500 --> 00:21:01.940 and it's sin in our lives. 00:21:02.319 --> 00:21:04.980 It's our rebellion against God, and that's our biggest problem. 00:21:04.980 --> 00:21:10.680 Now, the Old Testament rituals were meant to symbolize this washing away of that problem. 00:21:11.539 --> 00:21:15.400 But they also exposed the fact that they could never change the person's heart. 00:21:15.599 --> 00:21:17.519 They could never make the person right with God. 00:21:18.400 --> 00:21:23.000 But they were meant to point forward to the ultimate way in which God was going to deal 00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:24.680 with this sin problem in their lives. 00:21:25.460 --> 00:21:29.740 And that solution wasn't to be found in more religious practices, more rituals. 00:21:30.700 --> 00:21:32.920 It was to be found in a person. 00:21:32.920 --> 00:21:37.220 The Messiah, the promised one of God, Jesus. 00:21:38.100 --> 00:21:42.460 He was coming himself to deal with the problem, because we couldn't. 00:21:43.360 --> 00:21:47.860 So the person who actually deals with the immediate problem in this passage of the lack of wine 00:21:47.860 --> 00:21:52.560 is the same person who comes to deal with our biggest problem. 00:21:53.539 --> 00:21:57.640 And in fact, we start to see that in this passage, even hinted at. 00:21:57.640 --> 00:22:01.420 In verse 4, Jesus says to his mother, 00:22:01.980 --> 00:22:04.380 My time has not yet come. 00:22:05.020 --> 00:22:06.920 What's the time that he's talking about? 00:22:07.300 --> 00:22:10.960 Well, throughout John's gospel, the time or the hour that he is moving to 00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:16.320 is the hour of his death, and then his resurrection and glorification. 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:22.320 Everything that Jesus did in his life is moving towards that moment. 00:22:22.319 --> 00:22:27.200 And that's where the ultimate problem is dealt with. 00:22:28.299 --> 00:22:33.419 Because the Bible is also clear that the punishment we deserve ultimately for our sin is death. 00:22:33.859 --> 00:22:37.359 We have disobeyed God, we have went against his ways, and we will be judged for that. 00:22:38.539 --> 00:22:42.500 But Jesus knew we couldn't bear that punishment ourselves. 00:22:42.500 --> 00:22:44.460 So what did he do? 00:22:44.759 --> 00:22:46.059 He took it on himself. 00:22:46.759 --> 00:22:52.680 He went to the cross on our behalf and was raised from the dead to show us that God had accepted that sacrifice, 00:22:53.039 --> 00:22:55.980 that death is not the end of the story, and that we too can be raised. 00:22:57.059 --> 00:23:02.779 John 1, verse 12, actually starts to show us the significance of all of this, 00:23:02.940 --> 00:23:04.380 which isn't on the screen, but that's fine. 00:23:04.380 --> 00:23:12.440 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. 00:23:14.140 --> 00:23:19.520 So what's amazing about Jesus, just like we thought about with the wine and the overflowing abundance 00:23:19.520 --> 00:23:21.880 and the gifts that Jesus gives abundantly, 00:23:23.180 --> 00:23:28.220 Jesus doesn't just deal with the punishment and the penalty for our sin. 00:23:28.720 --> 00:23:29.900 He doesn't just forgive us. 00:23:29.900 --> 00:23:35.100 What this verse reveals is that he actually gives abundantly to us. 00:23:35.560 --> 00:23:37.720 He shares his inheritance with us. 00:23:38.200 --> 00:23:39.900 So God doesn't just want to forgive us. 00:23:40.220 --> 00:23:42.980 He wants to have a completely new relationship with us, 00:23:43.240 --> 00:23:47.360 where we become children of God and share in the very inheritance of Jesus. 00:23:48.560 --> 00:23:52.340 He invites us to freely come and to eat and to drink. 00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:55.280 He wants us to have this new relationship with him, 00:23:55.279 --> 00:24:02.000 an ongoing relationship where the relationship and Jesus becomes the true source of joy in our lives. 00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:06.019 So that even when things are going bad, even when things aren't going the way we want them to, 00:24:06.299 --> 00:24:08.720 we can turn to him as the source of joy. 00:24:09.839 --> 00:24:16.279 The Bible teacher Leon Morris says that Jesus changes the water of Judaism into the wine of Christianity. 00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:20.879 What was difficult, what was hard, what couldn't fully deal with the problem in the Old Testament 00:24:20.879 --> 00:24:24.559 suddenly comes to fruition as we see Jesus coming onto the scene. 00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:29.420 And so the wonderful message of John's gospel, the message of the whole Bible, in fact, 00:24:29.579 --> 00:24:32.839 is that while our condition is awful, while we are far from God, 00:24:34.180 --> 00:24:35.920 Jesus himself offers us hope. 00:24:36.519 --> 00:24:38.980 He offers us joy and he came for us. 00:24:39.720 --> 00:24:44.899 The Bible invites thirsty sinners to come to Jesus for salvation and satisfaction. 00:24:46.119 --> 00:24:48.740 John 4, verse 13 and 14, Jesus says, 00:24:48.740 --> 00:24:51.220 Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 00:24:51.539 --> 00:24:54.319 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. 00:24:54.319 --> 00:25:00.500 Indeed, the water I give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. 00:25:01.859 --> 00:25:06.200 This is the work of Jesus in our lives that he gives beyond what we could imagine. 00:25:07.579 --> 00:25:13.139 And also, another interesting thing in this passage is that the master of the banquet takes the wine 00:25:13.140 --> 00:25:20.480 and he says, you've saved the best wine to last, which goes against what people normally do at a banquet. 00:25:21.240 --> 00:25:24.259 Now, with us, the best normally comes first. 00:25:24.820 --> 00:25:27.500 We try to make the best first impression we can with people. 00:25:27.580 --> 00:25:31.740 We try to hide the kind of problems in our lives when we meet people. 00:25:32.100 --> 00:25:36.800 Or we invite someone over to the house and we put all the mess into the cupboard or into the back room 00:25:36.799 --> 00:25:39.779 so that the room that they're going to be in looks really tidy and really nice. 00:25:40.440 --> 00:25:43.500 With us, we try to put the best stuff first. 00:25:44.460 --> 00:25:45.919 Not so with Jesus. 00:25:46.759 --> 00:25:52.940 In fact, if we move to the end of the Bible, in Revelation 19, verse 6 to 9, 00:25:52.940 --> 00:25:59.680 we see that Jesus is actually going to invite us to a much greater wedding than this wedding in Cana. 00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:07.140 We learn that the bridegroom of this wedding will be Jesus, the Lamb who is Jesus himself. 00:26:07.960 --> 00:26:11.180 And the bride will be the church, God's people, throughout the ages. 00:26:12.039 --> 00:26:15.200 Revelation 19, 6 to 9, 00:26:15.200 --> 00:26:19.740 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like a roar of rushing waters, 00:26:20.140 --> 00:26:22.160 like loud peals of thunder, shouting, 00:26:22.560 --> 00:26:25.460 Hallelujah, for our Lord God Almighty reigns. 00:26:25.740 --> 00:26:28.120 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory, 00:26:28.119 --> 00:26:32.439 for the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. 00:26:32.959 --> 00:26:35.719 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. 00:26:36.099 --> 00:26:38.559 Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. 00:26:38.879 --> 00:26:40.059 Then the angel said to me, 00:26:40.279 --> 00:26:44.299 Right, blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. 00:26:44.779 --> 00:26:46.919 And he added, these are the true words of God. 00:26:47.739 --> 00:26:51.239 So there's a far greater wedding than the wedding in Cana in the future. 00:26:51.719 --> 00:26:54.559 So as I say, Jesus, the best comes at the end. 00:26:54.559 --> 00:26:58.679 But there's a challenge in this passage. 00:26:59.599 --> 00:27:00.899 Because at the end it says, 00:27:01.339 --> 00:27:03.179 Blessed are those who are, 00:27:03.179 --> 00:27:08.519 Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. 00:27:09.159 --> 00:27:11.059 At the end of time, when this happens, 00:27:11.659 --> 00:27:12.720 not all will be invited. 00:27:13.480 --> 00:27:16.240 Now Jesus does have an invitation now for all of us, 00:27:16.240 --> 00:27:19.299 but at the end of time, when all is done and dusted, 00:27:19.799 --> 00:27:20.940 not all will be invited. 00:27:21.539 --> 00:27:24.900 Because some people will have rejected Jesus' invitation in life. 00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:26.660 Some people will not have trusted him in life. 00:27:27.940 --> 00:27:30.920 In fact, some people just completely misunderstand Jesus. 00:27:31.960 --> 00:27:36.900 In our own passage, the Master misunderstood the source of the joy, 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:37.819 the source of the wine. 00:27:38.259 --> 00:27:42.079 He thought it must be the bridegroom himself that's provided this great wine. 00:27:42.079 --> 00:27:44.919 But the servants knew. 00:27:45.879 --> 00:27:46.740 The service knew. 00:27:46.819 --> 00:27:49.439 But the servants knew where the wine had come from. 00:27:49.859 --> 00:27:52.279 They knew where they had got it from. 00:27:52.379 --> 00:27:53.859 They knew that Jesus was behind it. 00:27:54.699 --> 00:27:58.480 And more importantly, the disciples believed because of this miracle. 00:27:59.939 --> 00:28:03.240 This is the first of the miraculous signs Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. 00:28:03.619 --> 00:28:04.899 He thus revealed his glory, 00:28:05.379 --> 00:28:08.559 and his disciples put their faith in him. 00:28:08.559 --> 00:28:12.720 So the challenge for all of us is, 00:28:12.799 --> 00:28:13.919 are we going to be like the Master 00:28:13.919 --> 00:28:17.480 and ignore the real source of joy in this world? 00:28:17.919 --> 00:28:19.679 Or are we going to be like the disciples 00:28:19.679 --> 00:28:21.559 and place our trust in Jesus? 00:28:22.519 --> 00:28:23.879 If you're not yet a Christian, 00:28:24.039 --> 00:28:26.079 are you going to ignore the source of true joy? 00:28:26.819 --> 00:28:28.579 Are you going to keep trying on your own strength 00:28:28.579 --> 00:28:31.720 to sort out your life and to make joy in your life? 00:28:32.579 --> 00:28:34.519 Joy that you know cannot last forever 00:28:34.519 --> 00:28:36.379 because we all grow old and die. 00:28:36.380 --> 00:28:39.880 And if you're a Christian here this morning, 00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:41.200 there's a challenge for us as well. 00:28:42.340 --> 00:28:44.580 Are we in danger of sometimes being like the Master, 00:28:44.980 --> 00:28:47.360 where we don't attribute the good things in our lives to God, 00:28:47.440 --> 00:28:50.080 where we forget that he is the one who provides these things for us? 00:28:51.600 --> 00:28:53.100 We have to be more like Mary, 00:28:53.320 --> 00:28:55.740 who comes to Jesus with that humble submission, 00:28:56.240 --> 00:28:58.160 asking that he would just help. 00:28:58.640 --> 00:28:59.920 It's only he knows how to. 00:29:00.680 --> 00:29:02.160 We need to be more like the servants 00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:04.580 who simply do the work that Jesus asks them to do. 00:29:04.579 --> 00:29:06.379 And more like the disciples, 00:29:06.579 --> 00:29:08.639 trusting and having our faith in him constantly. 00:29:10.460 --> 00:29:13.679 Now, life will not always be easy for us, 00:29:13.759 --> 00:29:15.099 whether we're Christians or not Christians. 00:29:15.579 --> 00:29:17.059 But if you're a Christian here today, 00:29:17.240 --> 00:29:18.859 when things go tough, 00:29:18.960 --> 00:29:20.799 when things are not the way you want them to be, 00:29:20.859 --> 00:29:22.500 when that joy seems to have run out, 00:29:23.419 --> 00:29:27.839 you have the future hope of that marriage feast of the Lamb. 00:29:28.220 --> 00:29:29.419 You have the future promise 00:29:29.419 --> 00:29:31.279 that you will be with God for all eternity, 00:29:31.279 --> 00:29:34.039 that he will give you every good thing 00:29:34.039 --> 00:29:36.759 and that you will be with him for all eternity. 00:29:37.480 --> 00:29:39.940 So when things are tough this coming week 00:29:39.940 --> 00:29:41.500 or this coming month or year, 00:29:41.700 --> 00:29:44.039 when things don't go the way you would want them to go, 00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:45.859 come to your God, 00:29:46.039 --> 00:29:46.740 come to Jesus 00:29:46.740 --> 00:29:49.500 and ask him to be the solution 00:29:49.500 --> 00:29:52.000 and the help and the source of joy in your life. 00:29:52.740 --> 00:29:54.599 He promised at the Great Commission 00:29:54.599 --> 00:29:56.119 that he would be with you always 00:29:56.119 --> 00:29:57.420 to the end of the age. 00:29:57.660 --> 00:29:58.599 No matter what you face, 00:29:58.599 --> 00:29:59.439 no matter what you go through, 00:29:59.500 --> 00:30:00.619 he promised to be there. 00:30:01.419 --> 00:30:02.959 So put your trust in him. 00:30:03.939 --> 00:30:04.459 Let's pray. 00:30:04.459 --> 00:30:07.779 Father God,