I don't have a catchy beginning to my sermon today. I apologize.
You know, in sermon prep, I'm supposed to tell you some story or some joke at the beginning,
and I couldn't think of one.
And so I apologize for that, that I haven't been able to grab your attention right off,
excuse me, with some telling story, but I can't.
So turn in your Bibles instead to John 2, verse 1, on page 919.
And I want to show you a little simple clue as to how to become a better reader of the Bible.
So if you're using your pew Bibles, it's page 919, and it's John 2, and it's in verse 11.
Verse 11 is sort of a...
I mean, I'm not saying this because I believe the Bible is God's word written.
I really do.
I believe that every word is ultimately there because that's the word that God wanted to be there.
And I think God can do that type of thing, and he did do that thing,
and we hold the result of his work in our hands.
But at the same time, the way that God chose to have his words written,
in this case, is he chose to have a book written, like it's a book.
And so those of us who are used to reading books and are good at reading books,
we have the potential to be good at reading the Bible as well.
We have the potential to be good at reading some of the books in the Bible.
And John has obviously given lots and lots of thought to how he wanted to write his gospel.
Tradition, early church tradition, is that John's was the last of the gospels which was written.
And, you know, so it's as if John spent years and years and years, you know,
making notes and thinking about it, and he thought, you know,
how can I write a book that will really try to communicate what I want to say about Jesus?
And so, well, here, let's just read verse 11 of chapter 2.
This is the verse after he's told the story of the water being turned into wine,
and he says this,
The beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee,
and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
Now, I'm going to explain in a moment,
but notice, after he's told this very, very first significant miracle,
this is what he says,
This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee,
and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
Now, turn to the back of John,
not the back of your Bibles, but the back of John,
and that's on page, if you're using the Pew Bibles,
it's page 941.
941.
And John chapter 20 is the story of the three significant,
several significant resurrection appearances,
where Jesus, to prove to his disciples that he really had conquered death
and had been resurrected, he appears to them in significant ways.
And after this summary of them,
and chapter 21 is sort of going to finish up some final bits of the story
to launch us into ministry,
this is what John says in verse 30 and 31.
And truly,
and listen how similar it is to verse 11 of chapter 2.
So John 2, 11 is like right at the beginning of the book,
and this is almost at the end of the book,
and the same type of idea is communicated by John,
sort of like an editorial aside.
And truly, Jesus did many other signs
in the presence of his disciples,
which are not written in this book.
But these are written,
that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God,
and that believing,
you may have life in his name.
And so what we see is this,
that what John decided to do was,
and if you actually go and read the very last few verses of John,
you'll see that John says,
you know what,
my three years with Jesus,
Jesus performed so many miracles,
and did so many unbelievable things,
that it would just take book after book after book after book to try to record it.
So what, in a sense, he's saying is,
you know, so I spent years thinking,
how can I tell people about Jesus?
And what he decided to do is,
he decided that he would spend the first half of his book,
picking,
he picked a series of significant miracles,
that all told something very important about who Jesus is,
what he's doing,
and what it means for us as human beings.
And so he decided that he'd organize his book
by telling these series of significant signs.
And then at the very end of the gospel,
he would tell of the most significant sign of all,
which was the death and resurrection of Jesus.
And the purpose of all of these is,
he says,
I'm going to tell of a series of signs or miracles,
and every one of them is a matter of,
it shows forth how Jesus reveals his glory.
And the ultimate revealing of his glory
is when he hangs upon the cross and dies,
and when he rises triumphant from death and sin and hell
and the evil one on the third day.
That is the most significant of the signs.
I'm going to leave that at the end,
but I'm going to lead up to it
by a series of significant miracles.
And these things reveal the glory of who Jesus is.
Who is he?
He is the Messiah,
and he is God's son.
And the purpose of all of these things
is so that we might believe in him
and have faith in him.
And that's how he wrote his gospel.
And so turn back then to chapter 2, verse 11,
and listen again.
So this in a sense,
John isn't going to repeat this,
but on the coming weeks,
you're going to see a series of significant miracles.
And every time you see one of these significant miracles,
keep in mind chapter 2, verse 11.
This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee
and manifested his glory,
and his disciples believed in him.
Now, note the first part of this sentence,
this beginning of signs that Jesus did in Cana of Galilee.
You know, it's funny that even as he records this,
he specifically tells us where the story happened.
See, one of the things about John's gospel
is he wants to communicate to us
that these miracles are real,
that they're true,
that they actually happened.
In fact, if we don't understand that,
we won't really understand the significance of the,
you know, the whole significance.
If John wants to communicate to us
that these miracles are real
and that they are signs that point to something,
that they are, in a sense, a clue about something,
two Saturdays ago in the Ask the Religion experts,
the question was about miracles.
And I read the four Christian,
or people who are part of Christian churches,
their response to this.
And two of the responders,
the Anglican and the Orthodox responder,
got the matter completely and utterly wrong.
The Catholic guy got it pretty good.
You have to give him like an A.
And the United Church guy sort of said
some really good things
and some really odd, you know,
some things that sort of undermined it.
And so I don't know what mark I'd give him
because I wouldn't know which side of it
to sort of take.
But interestingly enough,
it's almost as if the Anglican and the Orthodox guy
got together
because between the two of them,
they gave the two common misunderstandings
of what miracles are,
the two most common understandings.
And in a sense today,
this is really the heart of my sermon,
is for us to understand something around this.
Because you see,
both the Anglican and the Orthodox guy,
without acknowledging it,
they've basically accepted
what the modern and the postmodern world
tells us about reality,
and they've tried to reinterpret
the Christian faith appropriately or accordingly.
And you see,
at the very, very heart of the modern project
and even the postmodern project,
this is like a little bit philosophical,
but it's not that complicated, really.
It's as if we are to live as if there is no God.
Whether or not God exists,
if he does exist,
he's completely and utterly shut out
of the created order,
and the created order sort of runs itself,
has its own integrity,
runs according to its own laws,
and none of these things need God.
God doesn't have to come into any of the explanations,
and in fact,
God is completely and utterly irrelevant to it.
If you want to have some religious beliefs,
well, good on you, mate.
But those religious beliefs
are something that just affects your perception
or your emotions.
It's something private and internal to you.
And by the way,
your religion should be private and internal as well,
and shouldn't have any type of an impact
on other people or on the public square.
Your religion should be private,
your spirituality should be private,
and ultimately,
the heart of your private religion
should be about things that affect your emotions
or things that just affect
how you sort of view things,
your internal perceptions of your own brain.
And that has to be the case.
Why?
Because we know that dead people don't rise.
We know that water doesn't get turned into wine.
And we know that people don't walk on water.
We know that all these things don't happen,
can't possibly happen,
because nature has its laws,
its systems,
its own integrity,
and it runs on its own.
And that's just the world we live in, folks.
So if you want to have sort of,
you know,
some people collect stamps,
you know,
and some people collect plates,
and some people like going to church,
and some people like to meditate,
and listen,
it's all cool,
just, you know,
leave it to yourself,
and it's just something private and internal.
And this understanding of reality
then leads,
the Anglican guy said that a miracle
is really,
well,
it's just like being able to see beauty.
That's all it is.
Like some people can see beauty,
and, you know,
they just look at things,
and they just have that ability within themselves
to see beauty,
where they see things.
And it's the same type of thing with miracles.
It's just that some people have this ability
just to see,
you know,
the miracle of a sunset,
or the miracle of an old person's smile,
or the miracle of the gurgling of a baby.
And the Anglican guy,
by saying that,
is falling right into one of the fundamental traps
of the modern world and postmodern world.
And the Orthodox guy takes the other sense side.
He said it's like the experience of wonder.
Some people are freed up,
and they can experience wonder.
And if you can experience wonder,
if you can allow yourself to experience wonder,
then you'll start to experience the miraculous
all around you,
and you'll just have like this type of experience
that can carry you through life.
And to the Orthodox guy,
and to the Anglican guy,
John would say,
you are seriously wrong.
The guy who wrote John would say,
you are seriously wrong.
I disagree with you to the utmost.
You and I aren't talking about the same thing at all.
John would say,
your account for how the world is,
is not what the Bible teaches.
The Bible teaches
that God creates all things,
that he sustains all things,
and that the reason that all things
have their integrity,
and have their purpose,
and have their order,
is because it was created by a purposeful,
mindful, powerful God,
who really does exist.
And God has created things,
he sustains things,
and this shouldn't terrify us,
because, you know,
if there were many gods,
and many gods created many different things,
you might never know what,
like reality would be unbelievably chaotic,
but there is only one God
who's made all things,
and he sustains all things,
and he invites us to,
in Genesis chapter,
you know,
chapter one and two,
to examine the world,
and understand the world,
and think about the world,
and he has placed
a beautiful,
and a wonderful,
and a marvelous order
in this world.
And the same God
who creates all things,
and sustains all things,
when he feels like doing a new thing,
in his creation,
he can do it,
and that's a miracle.
I'll give you an example.
To a Christian,
it would be like this.
Some of you folks
are young student types.
Imagine that you have
the most remarkable granny,
like,
just the most remarkable grandmother
in the world.
And this grandmother
comes up to you
and puts her arm around you
one time and says,
you know, dear,
I know how hard it is
getting started,
and I've decided
that at the last day
of the month,
I'm going to put $500
in your bank account.
And I'm going to do that
every month,
and I'll take into account
inflation,
and every month,
I'm going to put $500
in just to sort of round off
some of the edges
of your life.
And I'm going to not only
do that while you're in school,
but, you know,
I know how hard it is.
I remember how hard it is
to get started in a career,
and it's even harder nowadays,
and I'm going to keep on doing that
until you've sort of
got well established.
Don't worry about it.
There's always going to be
that $500
at the end of the month.
And it's always going to,
and you know,
so year,
month and month,
and year and year goes by,
and it's always there.
You know,
in a sense,
we Christians would say,
that's exactly what
the created order is like.
Just as that grandmother
is unbelievably dependable,
and that $500
shows up
every month
without fail,
and that person can do,
the young person
can do with it
whatever they want.
In a sense,
that's just what, like,
nature is like.
The sun always rises,
things that you drop
always fall,
and it's rock solid.
It is completely
and utterly dependable.
But here's the difference.
You see,
we Christians know
that ultimately
it's because the grandmother
is putting that $500
in the bank.
It doesn't sort of
come out of nowhere.
And so one day,
the young person,
you know,
they've,
their dad
and mom
have given them
this car,
and they've really
come to depend upon it.
They've got a part-time job.
They really need
that car to drive there.
And one day,
the transmission goes,
the rad goes,
like,
just about everything
on that car
that could possibly
go wrong
all goes.
And the young person
is just,
you're completely
and utterly,
you don't know
what to do.
You need the job
because it's,
you know,
it's opening up doors
for your future.
You can't possibly
pay to fix this.
You're at your wit's end.
And so,
so you finally
screw up the courage
after worrying about this
for three or four days
and you get on the phone
and you call up your granny
and you say,
granny,
I am completely
and utterly,
I am,
I've just had
the worst thing happen.
My car's broken down,
the transmission's gone,
the rad's gone,
who knows what else
is gone.
I either need a new car
or I need a lot of repairs.
Could you give me
$5,000?
This young person
has the most
remarkable granny.
In the world.
And so,
the granny says,
I'll see what I can do.
And three days later,
you go to your bank machine
and lo and behold,
there's five grand
in the bank.
You see,
we Christians believe
that's what prayer is like
and that's what miracles
are like.
You see,
the grandmother
is the one
who sustains
the $500
every month.
God is the one
who sustains
this entire created order.
And just,
and the money,
just as in the story,
the money didn't just
sort of pop out of the air
instantly or
it wasn't just
somehow existing
by itself.
It was sustained
by the goodness
of the grandmother
and the young person
was able to depend
upon it
and plan upon it
and study how
they were going
to use that money,
whether they were
going to invest it
or whether they were
going to blow it
on a new pair
of sunglasses
and all of that
type of stuff.
And one day
they get into trouble
and they call up
their grandmother
and they say,
Granny,
I am in trouble,
could you please
intervene?
And the grandmother
is able to intervene.
And in the same way,
God can act
in the order
which he creates
and in which he sustains.
And so John
wants to communicate
to us that a miracle
is not just
a matter of perception,
a miracle is not
just a matter
of experience,
that it's not
something subjective
to us.
what happened
in Cana of Galilee
was true.
It's real.
John would go
to his grave
maintaining
that it really
happened.
And by saying
that it really
happened,
he said,
not only did it
happen,
but it's a sign.
It's a pointer.
It's not just
a display of power.
It's not God
showing off.
This is,
in a sense,
an answer
to the longing
and the yearning
of the human race.
And in the face
of a longing
and a yearning
of the human race,
because we human beings,
on one hand,
we long for something more
and we fear
that something more
and we are complicated
and cannot help ourselves,
God intervenes
in a powerful way
in a series of events
through the person
of Jesus Christ
and every single one
of these are signs
that if we watch
the sign
and look at the sign,
it's like a clue
and follow
where they point,
it will lead us
to see the glory
of the Son of God
who is the Messiah
for the human race
whom we can believe in
and have life.
I just read
the most remarkable quote
from Simone de Beauvoir,
an atheist,
and she said,
I wish I'd written it down,
you know,
she said,
by my writings
and other things
I can abolish,
it's as if,
okay,
I'm going to get this,
she's speaking about God,
okay,
and she said,
you know what,
my writings have abolished God,
but I can't abolish
the thirst for God.
It's as if
you could go
to a particular area
and you could take away
all the water,
but you can't get rid
of thirst.
And so that even
in the midst
of our naturalistic age
where we've tried
to abolish God,
the fact of the matter
is that we human beings
still have a thirst
for God
and if that thirst
for the living God
isn't satisfied
by God,
we will take pale
substitutes
and illusions
which ultimately
do not satisfy.
And John is saying,
God has come
and there are signs.
Listen to the second part
of verse 11.
The first part said,
this beginning of signs
Jesus did in Cana of Galilee
and manifested his glory.
In other words,
John is saying
that there is truth here,
that the truth
is in a sense
that there is an image
that we can keep
before our mind.
It means that we can
fill our imagination,
that we can heal our minds,
that we can meditate
upon this image.
Like I was thinking
about this all this week.
You know,
the characteristic,
if you want to have
an image,
if you want to have
an image of an
Eastern religion,
it's something
like the Buddha
sitting there large
and overweight
with inward-looking eyes
where it is the image
of the individual person
in a room
with their legs crossed
in a way that would
break my legs
with their hands like this,
their eyes closed,
looking inward.
And that, in a sense,
is a sign or an image
of all that those
Eastern faiths pursue.
We Christians,
the preeminent sign
for us as Christians
is Jesus upon the cross.
And what John is saying here,
to lead us to the cross,
the first thing we have to think
is have another image
in our head.
What is that image?
Jesus having wine
with his friends
at a wedding banquet
and then making
70 to 100 bottles of wine.
And that's the image
which is to be in our head.
I'm thinking about that.
Like, what does this show us
about God?
Just very briefly.
In a sense,
it's a picture
of the glory
of a generous giver.
It is the picture
of the glory
of a generous giver.
Jesus sitting there
with his friends
having wine
and the wine
is running out
and they just maybe
need a little bit more wine
to get through
for the, you know,
maybe there's 30 or 40 people there.
Who knows?
It's a small number of people
and Jesus goes
and makes the best wine
and he makes somewhere
between 70 to 100 bottles of wine.
Just picture it in your room.
All these bottles of wine.
It is the picture
of the glory
of one
who is a generous giver.
It is a revelation
in this miracle.
It is an image
of the glorious future.
In the Old Testament,
one of the signs
that the Messiah
had come
and the Messianic age
had begun
was that there would be
lots and lots of wine.
This image
that somehow or another
that the future
when the Messiah
would come
would be characterized
as if we are having
the greatest time
with our friends.
We are completely
and utterly at peace.
We have no longer
any fears.
We don't have any worries.
We don't have any anxieties.
And we can just,
and we are completely
and utterly
finally surrounded
with abundance
and joy.
And that is one
of the constant pictures
in the Old Testament
of when the Messiah comes.
And the first sign
that Jesus gives
is that he makes
lots of wine
at a wedding
when he's sitting around
with his friends.
And people have just
become his friends.
What is revealed
is the glory
of the generous giver.
The glory
of the future.
What is revealed
is in a sense
the glorious
of the creator.
Actually,
sorry,
it is the glory
of the creator
creating
even in the midst
of the disciples.
You know,
it's,
you think about it
for a second,
folks.
Some of us
on Thursday night,
I thought that
the leadership video
that we watched
on Thursday night
was really,
really remarkable.
And this,
by this guy,
Aaron McManus,
I think his name is.
And he talked about
the importance
of gratitude.
And ever since that
on Thursday night,
like I've just been thinking,
you know,
the trees,
there's just so many leaves
and they just look
so fantastic
and the grass
is looking so green
and the sky
looks so blue.
When you can see the sky,
I haven't done that
in a few days.
You know,
but everything
just looks so lush
and so plentiful
and so plenteous.
And the creator
is just so generous
and he's so great.
And it's really appropriate
that I try to learn
what it means
to live a life
of gratitude.
And this creation
is just so plentiful
and ongoing.
And that is,
in a sense,
what is exactly revealed,
what this sign is
that Jesus
just,
with the merest
of his power,
is unbelievably generous,
far more wine
than they need,
that he's,
he's in a sense,
pointing to what
the future is like
and he's just pointing
to the wonderful
fact of creation
by the fact
that he can create wine.
Through which
his glory is revealed,
he's also,
in a sense,
trying to reveal to us
the glory of a life
that is lived,
reconciled to God.
And one of the wonderful
things about this story
is the water was there.
Why was the water there?
The water was there
for religious purposes.
The water was there
so that religious ceremonies
of purification
could be performed.
And what does Jesus take
to turn into wine?
He could have said,
listen,
there's a well there,
you know,
go get a few bottles,
go get a few pots,
fill it up,
and that'll be it.
But what does Jesus do?
That which is there
merely for religion
and merely for religious rites
and religious ceremonies
and attempts
to symbolize purification,
in place of that,
70 to 100 bottles of wine.
Have a good time, folks.
Celebrate.
Live.
Muzzle top.
I don't know if that's
what they would have said,
but, you know,
have a few more dances.
Something greater than religion
is revealed.
Verse 11 again.
The beginning of signs
Jesus did in Cana of Galilee
and manifested his glory
and his disciples believed in him.
That's the third thing.
His disciples believed in him.
And in the story,
we see two things.
You see, one of the things,
you know,
you want to learn what it means
about believing in faith,
part of it is,
is just let's start to read
the Bible more and more attentively
because even in this story,
John starts to reveal a truth
about what it means
to be a follower of Jesus
and to have faith in him
and believe in him.
And he does it
through recounting the dialogue
between Mary and Jesus.
You see, Mary comes to Jesus
and in a sense,
at the beginning of this,
I think it's in verse 4,
Mary, in a sense,
represents us human beings
who are prone to presumption,
to thinking in tribal terms
when it comes to God,
to thinking in terms
of some type of false claim
that we have upon God.
And so Mary comes to Jesus
and said,
listen, they have no wine.
And the implication is,
Jesus, you've got to do
something about this.
She's talking to him
as Jesus' mother,
as one who can tell Jesus
what to do,
who can make certain claims
upon him.
And we as human beings,
at the heart of superstition
and at the heart
of all religion,
is our implicit belief
that we are somehow
or another of God's tribe,
where we have some claim
upon God,
that he has some type
of relationship to us
that naturally occurs
upon which we can make
certain demands.
And Jesus speaks
abruptly to her
and says,
woman,
what does that have to do
with me?
It's not rude,
but it's very abrupt
and it creates distance.
Jesus is saying,
you know what,
the way to God
has nothing to do
with tribalism,
with presumption,
with thinking that
somehow or another
naturally because of
who you are
and all of your
wonderfulness
or all of your pain
or all of your
Anglicanism
or all of your
spirituality
or all of your emotions,
that because of these things
you have some
implicit claim
upon God,
some inner track,
some inner course
by which he has to do
something for you.
And in the face
of those natural disasters,
Jesus says,
woman,
what is that to me?
He's very abrupt.
Any of these ways
are not the way to go.
And Mary
is given
the faithful response
in the sense
she takes
the rebuke
of Jesus
and says
in verse 5,
whatever he says
to you,
do it.
And in this
we see two of the
key aspects
of faith.
Whatever he says
to you,
do it.
Doesn't that show
unbelievable trust?
It shows trust.
And it shows
the very,
very heart
of faith
that we should
be willing
to obey.
What Jesus
did here
in Canaan
of Galilee
was the first
of the signs
through which
he revealed
his glory
and his disciples
put their faith
in him.
Let's bow
our heads
in prayer.
Jesus,
we want to
see your glory.
Jesus,
loving Savior,
Holy Messiah,
God's Son,
our Savior,
thank you
for the mighty
acts that you
performed.
Thank you
that you did
not do them
just to show
off,
but you came
and did things
of huge significance.
You did miracles
that can be
clues
that if we
follow them
we will see
you for who
you are
and understand
what you
can do
in our lives
and that you
do these
wonderful things
that we might
know you
and be yours.
Lord Jesus,
you are so
wonderful
and so gentle
and so patient
to woo us
rather than
to overcome us,
to call us
and to beckon us
to yourself,
to invite us
to be yours.
Loving Jesus,
please touch us
even now
at this time
and this place.
Touch us
with your loving
hands,
touch us
upon our
foreheads,
touch us
in the very
center of who
we are.
May your
Holy Spirit
fall upon us
that we might
read your word
and see the signs
and be drawn
ever closer to you
and grow in faith.
In Jesus' name
we pray.
Amen.