Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / August 14, 2022 | RETOLD - The Wedding at Cana

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August 14, 2022 | RETOLD - The Wedding at Cana · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, this morning we are going to party like it's 23 AD.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of people, a lot of food, a lot of wine, and Jesus is at the party.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Problem is, the wine's running out.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: People are getting feisty.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: And we have Mary, mother of Jesus, who is very concerned that this wine is running out.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: What are people going to do?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so she enlists the help of Jesus to fix the problem.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's under those circumstances that we have the first miracle of Christ, the first sign of Christ, where he revealed his power and his glory to his disciples.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's under sort of these conditions, which we're going to be looking this morning because the wedding at Cana, being the first miracle of Christ, turning water into wine, is something that, well, that's probably the extent of what we know about it, right?
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: That he turned water into wine.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a lot, as we've been looking at with these retold stories, there's some really interesting details, context, when we look at it, we can get a much better understanding of the relationship between Jesus and his mother.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: We can understand something about the divine timeline that Jesus saw himself on, carrying out the will of the Father.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And most of all, and this is the fun part at the end, we think that Jesus was also telling us about something that was coming in the future that we haven't experienced yet, where there would also be a wedding with a lot of really good wine.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, um, there is something I kind of want to address here because I'm going to say the word wine a lot this morning.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about Jesus turning water into wine.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I know there are some of you here at the church who choose not to drink.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: I know that there are some of you here at the church who think that nobody should drink.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I know there are some of you who have a history or know somebody with a history of alcohol addiction, like people in my family.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so because of that, you're using wisdom and choosing not to engage.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: I get all those things.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a sort of attitude that we need to address just really quickly, because, well, when I was in middle school, my favorite movie was Waterboy.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, Bobby Boucher, and I had two copies of the DVD.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And if any of you haven't seen that movie, um, I don't know, you should.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's not my favorite movie anymore.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: But Bobby Boucher's mom says that everything is of the devil, right?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, some of us think that alcohol is of the devil.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And all I can say is that unequivocally, Jesus does not share that opinion.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: As we see in Matthew 11, 19, we're going to get to the wedding in Canaan in a moment, but here is an accusation that was thrown against Jesus during his ministry.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees and the scribes, they were comparing Jesus against John the Baptist.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: We've talked about Jay the Bee, our boy, right, the herald of Christ.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he took a Nazarite vow, which meant that he should not be drinking alcohol.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: There's only two reasons why people shouldn't be drinking alcohol in the Bible, and that would be because they're a high priest under the Old Testament, or they are a Nazirite.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And outside of those bounds, Jesus says, you know what?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to have some really good meals with my disciples.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: This was one of the ways that he chose to engage in ministry, was eating and drinking with them.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now Jesus was sinless.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: He did not become drunk, as we are told not to do in the Bible, but to say that he did not enjoy a good glass of wine is incorrect.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And as we're going to find out later on in the message, we're going to see that God himself uses wine both as a word and an act of blessing for his people.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: So as we get to the story in Cana here, where Jesus makes over like a hundred and thirty gallons of wine, just know that it's okay.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's all right.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And if you hold a conviction where you don't want to drink, that's fine, but know that Jesus did, and it's okay.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get to the wedding at Cana, right?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: John 2, verses 1 through 2.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is where the story's at, and it's only in the book of John.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: We see on the third day a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding as well.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: So let's let's do the obvious, right?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is at a wedding.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to party like it's AD 20 23 because ancient weddings were a whole thing, right?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: They were normally a week long.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of depended, you know, on the wealth of the individuals getting married, but normally they were about a week long, and they're going to be filled with feasting and drinking, and they're normally a community event.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is invited.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: We find out later in the story, besides his mother Mary, his brothers are there also.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is kind of a family thing.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is there with all of them.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in an ancient wedding, there are a couple details that are actually pretty relevant to the story here.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's basically three phases.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you were getting married a long time ago, there would be roughly three things that would happen.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: The first is that the parents of the couple getting married would sort of make an agreement, a dowry might be exchanged, and their kids they would send off to get married.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: At this point, they would be betrothed, right?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Betrothal is this state that Mary and Joseph were in when she became pregnant with Jesus.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's like our engagement, but it's more serious.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you were betrothed, you're basically seen as already being married.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the betrothal phase, you would wait, kind of depended, but roughly about a year, and then at that point, phase two would happen.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: All of the groom they had a wedding party back then.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: The groom and his groomsmen would get together and they would sort of they would have a little bit of a party.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And at midnight, they would go through the town and they would go to the bride's house.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: The bride is there with all of her bridesmaids, and everybody knows this is happening.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, it's not a secret.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so they're going through town because it's kind of a community thing under torchlight, and people are cheering, and it's a bit of a parade.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And they go and get the bride and her bridesmaids, and then they all go back to the groom's house, and then they have a party.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of fun.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Then the third phase happens, and well, sorry, take a step back.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that second phase, this is where we get in, um, I believe it's Matthew 25, the parable of the ten virgins.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Something that would be kind of hard to understand if we weren't aware of some of the marriage customs.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Anyhow, we get to the third part, and this is the big party.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is the big feast.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is where the bride and the groom are in charge of feeding everybody wine and food for a whole long time.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the situation that we find ourselves in with Cana of Galilee.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is at a wedding with his brothers and probably his sisters and his mother is there, and something happens.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get to that in a moment.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: But he's also there with his disciples.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: This is pretty early on in the book of John.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: But John already in his gospel has been keeping track of the ministry of Jesus, and we found out in John chapter 1 that Jesus already has a couple of his disciples.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not all of them, he doesn't have the full contingent there, but he has some.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: See, there were John is keeping track of the days.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: And by the time we get to John chapter 2, we're in the seventh day, the full week of Jesus' ministry, that began on the first day with John the Baptist referencing Jesus.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: He refers to him as the Messiah, the Messiah has come.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Day number two, John the Baptist testifies about Jesus.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of goes one step further.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, the Son of Man is here.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Day number three, though, remember John the Baptist had his own disciples.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Disciples weren't necessarily indicative of anything other than somebody was a teacher and a rabbi.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so John had his own disciples, and two of these disciples kind of go off and they start following Jesus.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what's interesting here is we're only given the name of one of them.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: The one of the disciples is Andrew, who then goes to bring his brother Simon, who we know as Peter, to come and follow Jesus.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know who the second disciple was.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: It could be John, the guy who wrote the gospel, because elsewhere in the gospel he sort of refers to himself, he refers to himself as the one whom Jesus loved, but he doesn't refer to himself by name.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe he's there, maybe he's not.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, halfway through day three, Andrew brings Simon Peter.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Day four, we get two more.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Philip and Nathaniel meet Jesus.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Nathaniel is the same name as Bartholomew and the other three Gospels.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: They're one and the same.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: All these guys that we've named so far end up becoming disciples of Jesus, following him for his whole ministry.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Bartholomew is in what we would call basically his last name.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was his surname.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Bartholomew means son of Tolmai, so his name was probably Nathaniel Bartolmai.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so, anyhow, he's referred to here by Nathaniel.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Anyhow, then we get to the wedding.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Day seven.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's the third day, as uh John said in verse one on the third day, but he's counting it from where he finished off previously in chapter one.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we get to the seventh day.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Different people attach different meanings to this.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's something specific about the fact that it's seven, number of completion, and Jesus does his first miracle.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: At the very least, John is concerned that we understand the days of the week that it's happening on, that we can see the progression.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the disciples are there with him.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it's four, whether it's five, if you include John, they are also invited to the party.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: Which also says a little bit about how generous the party is, that the day before they started following him, and then they're at the wedding, and, or I should say it was four days earlier, that they started following him, and the wedding guests are like, You should come too, right?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're following Jesus, his whole family's here, everybody who knows him, come on.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: So they're at the wedding, and then a problem happens.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: The wine runs out, and Jesus' mother told him they don't have any wine.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: I talked about this passage, this verse, with more people this week than I talked about anything else in this story.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: There is so much speculation that you can get into regarding this line.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because what is happening, let's just say facts, is that they're at this feast, right?
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: It is a social travesty if they run out of food or wine for the group that they are providing for.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And Mary somehow is, or for some reason rather, is concerned about this wedding party.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, she's invited, she probably knows them, that sort of thing.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: But as we're gonna find out later, it's odd that Mary takes this problem upon herself and goes to Jesus with it.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's not her thing, unless she was maybe catering, maybe she was, you know, sort of had a side gig where she was doing this kind of thing.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: But there's probably something deeper going on here where Mary felt that either because of who Jesus was and is, that he would care so much about those who are about to be deeply embarrassed, or this sheds some really interesting light into the relationship that Jesus and Mary had up to this point, that she would come to him with such a request.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: What do I mean by that?
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, think about this.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: It would be it's a foregone conclusion that she was not asking Jesus to financially provide for this.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: It would be insane for her to ask Jesus, to, who was a tradesman and who was not even responsible for this, to provide all of the money to create uh to purchase more wine for the entire party.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: That that wouldn't make any sense.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so she has to be coming to him with some kind of supernatural expectation.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: You can stop short of saying that she wanted him to do a miracle, but there was something about who she knew Jesus to be that when she came to him and said, they're out of wine, that she had an expectation that he could solve the problem without just buying a whole lot of wine.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: You can get down a lot of rabbit trails when you think about this, but it sheds some really wonderful light into the kind of relationship that they might have had.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: But most of all, I mean, keep in mind, we don't have a lot of stories about Jesus in his childhood.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: We get a baby, we get a little bit when he's 12 years old at the temple, and then we catch up with him in his adult ministry.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yet all that time, for 30 years, Mary has known that her son is the Messiah.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: What are the implications of that?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: What has he done in their relationship where she has this kind of expectation?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'll digress because we we can't really make a point out of this.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: It is just interesting that she comes to him with the expectation.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: So what is his response?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: What has this concern of yours to do with me, woman?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus asked.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: My hour has not yet come.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if I called my mom mother in conversation, it wouldn't be a very long conversation.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: It wouldn't go very well.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: This passage has hung a lot of people up.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds like Jesus is being rude.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: I grant you that.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: But what's actually going on here is frankly just we are taking uh the way we have conversation, 2,000 years after, and we are applying it to this conversation.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Jesus is not being rude to his mother, but I will explain because each one of these three things is relevant that he mentions.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, first, what has this concern of yours to do with me?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, what he's saying is, mom, or as he calls her here, he says woman, but he says, that problem is not my problem.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that the wedding party has run out of wine, like, that's not my problem.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: You're bringing me a problem, it's not mine.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, our interests are not aligned here.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's why he's saying, This concern of yours, Mary, the the fact that you are so concerned about what's going on there, what does it have to do with me?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Which feeds into this whole thing about like, why was she coming to him and what was the background here?
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I digress.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: What has this concern of yours to do with me?
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: But then he calls her woman.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now, sounds rude.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's not though.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Later on, when Jesus is being crucified and he is at the cross, standing by the cross of Jesus were Mary his mother, Mary's aunt, or Mary's sister, excuse me, Mary the wife of Clopus, and Mary Magdalene, many Marys.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved, that's John, standing there, he said to his mother, Woman, here is your son.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Then he said to the disciple, here is your mother, and from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: So at the cross, Jesus is referring to his mother as woman.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: The closest convention that we have is like calling somebody ma'am.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: It is a proper title, right?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: It is showing some manner of distance.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: It is more formal, but it's not rude by any means.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus here is distancing himself from his mother.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: He says, John is now going to be your son, significant culturally, because he would be taking care of Mary, and church history tells us that he did so.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: But beyond that, we see that if we can take this lesson here, Jesus is distancing himself from their normal mother-son relationship.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: He's showing himself to be greater, right?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because he is Mary's Savior also, that when he goes to her and says, Woman, that he is not being rude, but he is acknowledging that there is a separation here.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Mary, what you're asking of me is something that the Messiah is going to do, not your son, your little boy.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: But then, third and finally, Jesus uh stated, My hour has not yet come.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Once more, and the last time I'll mention it, what was she asking him?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because his response implies that he knows that Mary was asking him to do something supernatural.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: And he knows because, and this is what's interesting here too, Jesus is on this sort of divine timeline.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like he's just sort of taking things as they come, and he decides one day, you know what?
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now is a great time to start getting disciples.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: He is on a timeline.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: He is being given instruction from God the Father.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: As God the Son, he is obedient, ultimately obedient to the cross.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, he keeps this thing in mind, and we see it throughout the Gospel of John, my hour has not yet come.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Then they tried to seize him, yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: He spoke these words by the treasury while teaching in the temple, but no one seized him because his hour had not yet come.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus spoke these things, looked up to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Glorify your son, so that the Son may glorify you.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: All of these things in John.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: John picks up this theme and tracks it through the rest of his gospel.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus has in mind sort of this divine timeline that he is on, where he is preventing, this is also why he, you know, will do a miracle out of compassion for somebody and say, like, don't go tell people about this.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is just sort of a you and me kind of thing, because I don't want basically my fame to grow so fast that I am unable to complete the mission that I've been sent here to do.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so Mary is asking him in some way to do something that he feels would infringe upon that mission.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: He says, My hour has not yet come, but he is going to assent to Mary's request.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to do it, but he's going to do it in his own way, so that he can both keep his goal of not revealing himself to the whole world just yet, but to a close group of people, and also to helping out the wedding party.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Mary hears this, my hour has not yet come, and just defers.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: She says, Do whatever he tells you to do, speaking to the servants.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, six stone water jars had been set there for Jewish purification.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Each contained 20 or 30 gallons.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: So what's going on is they're probably somewhere a little bit distant from the main party that's going on.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: And outside the residence, or barely inside, there would be these large stone jars.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: These stone jars, not earth and ware, were used for purification rituals.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Things that were uh outlined in the Mosaic covenant and things that had been tacked on throughout that time.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: And they held the water that people would bathe themselves in for purification rites.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so these are very large, right, holding 20 or 30 gallons, and we get six of them.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can do the math with me, we got 120 to 180 gallons here that these servants bring in.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: These wouldn't have been used for drinking, like I said, they were just available.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus instructs them to go get these stone jars and bring them back.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Fill the jars with water, Jesus told them.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: So they filled them to the brim.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Then he said to them, Now draw some out and take it to the head waiter.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: And they did.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: When the head waiter tasted the water, after it had become wine, he did not know where it came from.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Though the servants who had drawn the water knew.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: He called the groom and told to him, Everyone sets out the fine wine first, then after people are drunk, the inferior.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: But you have kept the fine wine until now.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to make sure I'm making a very clear line between magic and illusions and the miracles of Christ.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: But with that being said, there is an element of performance here that is intentional by Jesus.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: He instructs the he basically doesn't touch anything.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: He instructs the servants to go get these water jars, right?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: He tells them to fill them to the brim.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: So there's there's no way any other type of liquid could be filling in or being added to these jars.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: They are to the very top, filled with water.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then he's telling them to draw this water and go take it to the head of the party, the guy who's probably the most concerned about the wine running out, besides the family, and to have him judge what kind it is.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: See, basically have him be the proof in the pudding, and did this miracle happen or not?
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so these servants take out this ladle from the jar, carry it over to the head waiter, have him drink it, and the head waiter's like, This is amazing.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: We were running out, and you were saving the best for last.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the servants all the time are like, that was water 20 seconds ago.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so they go and they take it to him.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so we see here that Jesus carefully sort of crafted this in such a way that his glory was not revealed to all.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Really, the outcome is that for the select few who were watching, they saw how excited everybody got when the great wine came out.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, some people have had a problem with this, that Jesus made good wine.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have a problem with it.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think we have to be able to understand that God makes good things that people sometimes abuse.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever seen or heard about like Yellowstone and the thermal pools and the people who try and go like skinny dipping in them so they can get, you know, a hot tub experience and then die.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think we need to take away the thermal pools at Yellowstone because some people are foolish.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: So that didn't land with everybody.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's fine.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: My point is God made a really good thing, and we don't have to take that good thing away from him because some people abused it at the party.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: God made fine wine.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't something that was watered down, it was something that was good and strong.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus made this, and everybody saw it, or those he wanted to see it.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: The first of his signs in Cana of Galilee.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where the story ends.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Once more, we have a retold story that ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, because we're not exactly told other than this what the outcome was of the wedding.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus made this fine wine.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: The party flourished because of it, and the disciples and the servants and his family, or at least Mary, were able to see this miracle.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, from a foundational level, here's what we can draw from it, and then we're going to build.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: From a basic level, we can say that obviously this was the first of Jesus' miracles, right?
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus did this to prove to his disciples who had just started following him a couple days prior that he was who he said he was, that he is the creator, he is the one who is going to change the world.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: And those who have heard that he is the Messiah have now seen him do something supernatural and amazing and miraculous, and they begin to trust in him.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the first time in the story in the Gospels where we see, or even in the Gospel of John, where it says that the disciples begin to trust in him, but nevertheless, they're following one who they hear is going to change the world, and they see him do a miracle.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: At a foundational level, this proves that Jesus is God, that he is the one who is able to create.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: This proves that he is on a mission, he has come to reveal his glory, and then he is doing it for the sake of his disciples on this divine timeline where he makes sure that he is going to make it to the cross.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: But we have to look a little deeper than that.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because we have to hold these two things in concert, right?
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: On the one hand, the first miracle was at a wedding and involved fine wine.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of odd.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: Compared to the other miracles that Jesus does, raising people from the dead, healing the blind and the lame, right?
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: Casting out demons, doing all of these kinds of things.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the first one is making an alcoholic beverage.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: So why?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's one question.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the other one is we have to understand, as we do in all things, that God has a purpose behind what's happening here.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that Jesus was just passively receiving Mary and she said, Hey, we're out of wine.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, you know what?
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now would be a really good time.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is on a mission, and so it has to be intentional.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: What was he trying to communicate by the fact that he intentionally chose a wedding and wine to show his power and his glory?
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: A couple things.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: The first is simply that it is a blessing.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Wine throughout the Bible is a sign of God's blessing.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: You can say that in the Old Testament, when they were sacrificing and giving a drink offering at the temple, it was always wine.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: When they had a fine meal in the Old and New Testament, there was wine.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: When God, as part of his covenant, promised to bless the Israelites for their faith in that relationship, he said that he would give them vineyards so that they could have wine.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: When they failed to uphold their end of the covenant and rebuked God and followed false idols, he took away the vineyards.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: God, throughout the Bible, is promising his people that a sign of his goodness and his blessing to come will be grain, oil, and wine.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Wine is always a sign of blessing.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so this has to be a part of it that Jesus chose to show to the utmost degree that the finest wine was available, this greatest blessing through his work.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Second, that there was transformation.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: You might have thought about this before, maybe not, but all of Jesus' miracles obviously were supernatural, but they were things that could not be done by any other means.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: There was a transformation happening here.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're reminded, or at least I am, of 2 Corinthians 5, 17 that says, for those who are in Christ, the old has passed away and the new has come.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: There was a change that was happening.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: John picked up on this narrative throughout his gospel as well.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the greater thing, the transforming thing.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: He is not the bread at the feast of the 5,000.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: He is the bread of life.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: He is not the well water for the woman with many husbands.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: He is the water of life.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, we see that Jesus is the one who provides all of this transformation.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: He has the power to do it.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: He is God Himself.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the disciples would have to recognize that.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Third, is that it's a sign of the new covenant.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: You read through the Bible, and especially the Gospels there, you're going to see Jesus compared his ministry, his initiating of this new covenant, right?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: Not abolishing, but fulfilling the old covenant, that it was achen to or like an ancient wedding.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: He would use that illustration as a part of a parable.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Or elsewhere, he said that his ministry was like new wine being put into old wineskins.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: He compared it to wine.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: But most of all, think about communion.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: We celebrate it, we say that the blood of Christ is represented by wine.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we drink grape juice, but it's by wine.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: This was a sign of the new covenant, a greater sign of the new covenant and of his blood than any other miracle that he performed until the cross itself.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: This wine and this wedding represented this initiating of a new age that Jesus was bringing about where wine and the fulfillment of blessing and transformation would be there.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: But the fourth and final thing is the one that's the most exciting to me.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the one that I think we should really latch on to.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: We talk a lot as Christians about finding hope in things.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of those exciting things that we can find hope in.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: The fourth and final reason I think Jesus intentionally used a wedding and wine to perform his first miracle is because it shows us a glimpse of heaven.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: We see this in Isaiah 25.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: On this mountain, the Lord of armies will prepare for all the peoples a feast of choice meat, a feast with aged wine.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: Again, louder, with more feeling, prime cuts of choice meat, fine vintage wine.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: On this mountain, he will swallow up the burial shroud, the shroud over all the peoples, the sheet covering all the nations.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: When he has swallowed up death once and for all, the Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face and remove his people's disgrace from the whole earth, for the Lord has spoken.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah is a prophet in the Old Testament speaking to people who are in exile.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're away from Israel.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so much of his prophecy is hey, when you go back, hey, this is what it's going to be like.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: There is a time coming, O dejected and sad people, where you will be reunited with God.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: But sort of in the midst of all of that, we get this prophecy, which very much does not apply to Israel at that moment.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's talking about removing death, the burial shroud, the cloth that would have covered those who had passed away.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I've taken that off.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: And not only for, you might think, Israel, but for all the nations.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: When is death going to be defeated?
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: But after Christ returns and we are in heaven with him, where there will be no more crying and no more tears.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: There is still crying and tears, as far as I'm aware, in the world that we live in.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so Isaiah here is speaking about an amazing feast that is coming with meat and wine, where we will be celebrating with the Lord in his victory.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so we connect this.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's not spoken of many other times in the Bible, but we connect this all the way to the end in Revelation.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 19, verses 6 through 9.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: John is speaking, John has been featured mightily.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to get top billing in our message this morning.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: Revelation 19, verses 6 through 9.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: Then I heard something like the voice of a vast multitude.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: John is hearing a chorus of angels, like the sound of cascading waters and like the rumbling of loud thunder, saying, Hallelujah! Because our Lord God, the Almighty, reigns.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: Let us be glad, rejoice, and give him glory.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because what?
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: The marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has prepared herself.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: She was given fine linen to wear, bright and pure, for the fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Then he said to me, Right, an angel speaking.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those invited to the marriage feast of the Lamb.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: He also said to me, Those words of God are true.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: So we pull these things together here, and we see that what Jesus was doing in the inaugurating event of his ministry was previewing the culminating event of his ministry, that the marriage feast with great wine was foreshadowing the divine and heavenly feast, where there would also be great wine and great meat.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a, we hear that the language of marriage is used because Jesus is like the groom who has been waiting for his bride, the church that's you and me, those who have trusted in Christ, that he has paid the cost for her, and now he is going to bring her back into his home that he has prepared for her, and they will live together forever as one.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: Though it's figurative, God is previewing a time where we will be with him.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's no more crying, there's no more tears, there is no more death, where we will have great wine and great food, and we get to be with Jesus forever.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think you have to draw these lines.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: I really do.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because we have to say that God made this decision intentionally.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: And when he does something with intention, it means something.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it means that he wants us to look forward with hope towards what is coming, as well as back at his ministry and what he did.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: At least this is for the last 2,000 years how Christians have viewed and found hope in the future feast and banquet, the marriage with the Messiah.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is how people experiencing persecution and death and destruction and being cast out and being tortured for their faith.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: Those who have seen their families not go the way that they would like them to go, that they have seen the promises that they were hoping to find, not being given, because they live in a fallen world.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: Those who found that this life is not the life that they anticipated found hope in what was coming because they heard that Jesus turned water into wine.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think we need to find this same kind of hope.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think you need to find the same kind of hope.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I also think that we have to consider what it means for our life right now.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: Not just that we hope for a future and we sort of hunker down like a turtle and endure everything until glory comes.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: But that we also take a step back and look at Jesus, who said, My time is not yet come.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: My hour is not yet here.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: He had a purpose and a mission because he was not here yet.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: We're not at the marriage feast.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's coming and it's something to hope in.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: But until that time, we also must be driven by purpose.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because our hour hasn't come yet.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: God still has you here working for his kingdom.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: And until he calls you home, or until Jesus returns, that's still your purpose and that's still your mission.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so we can hold these things together.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: We can say, Lord Jesus, I am thankful that you're a fan of good meat and good wine.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: You're a God who enjoys partying responsibly.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, Lord, you have a plan for my life.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: And that plan is one filled with blessing and transformation and the promises of the new covenant, helping other people to see those things so that they can also look forward to the hope that they might have in Christ at the end of time.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we thank you for today.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you that you are a God who gives good wine.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, you pour out blessings upon us.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we know that you have been so faithful to us.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, I am thankful of the miracle at Cana that showed us, Lord, that you are who you say you are.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: You are the Messiah.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: You are the Christ.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, you are our God.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, you also gave us hope and purpose for something that was coming in the future.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Father, I'm so thankful that you speak in such ways to us.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: And God, I pray that by the power of your spirit, you would help us to rest deeply in this hope if we need something to really be looking forward to right now.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: The promises that you have given to us.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: Father, our hour has not yet come.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: God, we thank you for Jesus.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you that his blood, shown as wine, was given for us on the cross so that we might be able to have an eternal relationship with you in heaven.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we look forward to that eternal feast.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: And until that day comes, give us strength to carry out your will to the best of our abilities.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, everybody.