Latest / Bayside Davis Podcast / The Gospel of John | John 2:1-11

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The Gospel of John | John 2:1-11 · Bayside Davis Podcast

0:04
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Bayside Davis podcast.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: You are now listening to our current teaching series in the Gospel of John.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1, on the third day, a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: A wedding.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: In the first century in ancient Israel, there were similarities and differences between weddings now versus then.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: People would get married much younger in the ancient world.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: A male would get married between 18 and 24 years old, and a female would be married between 13 and 20 years old.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: And this was normal in their culture, not normal in our culture.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: And a bride would get all dressed up, all decked out in white, and she would wear like a garland on her head, and she would put on her best jewelry, her diamonds, her gold, her bling, whatever you say today, I don't know what you use.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: And then there would be a procession from her family's house at night with torches lit and her entire bridal party, and they would make their way through the streets of their city all the way to the groom's family's house, where he would be waiting in anticipation.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: He would also be decked out in his best clothes.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: What do you guys say for a good outfit today?
1:43
SPEAKER_00: Drip.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: He would be in his best drip.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, is that how you say it?
1:49
SPEAKER_00: Drip back in the day just meant a drip.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: Today it means nice clothes.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: He would be dressed in his finest drip.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: And as the bride made her way to the groom's parents' house, and she arrived at the house, everybody, you would invite all your family and all your friends and the entire community and your neighbors, everybody would converge on this place, and then the ceremony would start.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: And the couple, each of them would be crowned with a garland.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: And then there would be a community blessing.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: There would be a blessing spoken over the couple, and then they would sign an important spiritual and legal document.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: It was a marriage contract, but a little different than our time and our day.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: And there would be just this spiritual nature to a wedding in the first century Israel.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: And post the ceremony, they began a feast and party for up to one week.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: Everybody would stay, and every day there would be music and singing and dancing and eating and drinking for up to a week.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a one-day celebration, it wasn't a two-hour celebration, it wasn't a four-hour celebration, it was a seven days every day of the week celebration until it ended and everybody's tired and then they go home.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: And this is the type of ceremony Jesus is at.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: On the third day, a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously, the third day has significance in the life of Jesus.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: It's the day that Jesus rose again from the grave.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: But in this context, the third day isn't referring to anything special in nature.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: It was just three days after Jesus' encounter with Nathaniel in John chapter 1, verses 43 on.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: So three days after that event in chapter 1 took place, Jesus arrives on the scene to a wedding.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, you hear the kids today, which is kind of a thing that you're gonna hear because the city is fixing the doors in the back, and they said we've got to leave them open the whole time you're here.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: So if we hear kids, that's awesome.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: We love that the kids are having fun.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: So he's in Cana of Galilee.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: Now, Cana, if you know where Jesus grew up, Jesus grew up in Nazareth.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: Cana is about eight miles from Nazareth.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is on the scene, it's near his hometown of Nazareth.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: It's three days after the events, the last events in chapter one took place.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: And notice what it says.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: So Jewish weddings typically involve the entire family, the community, your neighbors, all your extended family joining together in the celebration.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: But what's interesting about this wedding is at this time, Jesus was not well known.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: His ministry had just begun, and so it wasn't like Jesus a year later or a couple months later, where people knew him.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: He had notoriety, he was doing miracles, he was teaching like nobody had ever taught before.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was still pretty much unknown around Israel at this time because his ministry was still in the early stages.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: Which seems to indicate and suggest that Jesus and Mary being invited to this wedding likely meant that the bride or the groom was either a family member or a close friend of Jesus' family.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: So there was some relational connection here.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: But what's interesting about this wedding is that Jesus was unknown.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: He arrives at this wedding, his mom's there, he's there, and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: So there's some sort of connection there.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: What's the best wedding you've ever been to?
6:25
SPEAKER_00: Not that you were getting married out, but that you went to.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: This was an epic wedding.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: I think this goes down in the history books as one of the greatest weddings of all time.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: I've done some pretty eventful weddings in my time.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: 19 years as a lead pastor.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: One wedding was outside in the summer, and I was standing up there and I was teaching and sharing, and all of a sudden everybody starts looking to the left.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: One of the bridesmaids passed out at the wedding.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that was a knock on me because I was teaching too long.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: But she literally passed out.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
7:03
SPEAKER_00: I just I just kept going.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: They brought her to her feet, resuscitated her, and I just kept going.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: The wedding must go on.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: I was at a couple weddings recently that were quite eventful.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: Bernice got married recently.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: We were down in San Diego, a bunch of people from all over the place, all over California, all over Africa were there, and it was an eventful wedding.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: I've never experienced anything like it.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: I get up there and I'm I start talking, and everybody's leaned in, and people are shouting you down.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: It's like if I said the, they were like, amen.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: And we had about an hour and 15, hour and 20-minute ceremony, longest I've ever done.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: But the people were so leaned into this ceremony.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've never felt so encouraged at a wedding before.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: And then another recent wedding, Kelly and Deep's wedding, they had this beautiful setting.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: It was like on a mountain in the Bay Area, overlooking the entire Bay Area.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: And so we get there for the wedding.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: I get there like two hours early.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm never that early to a wedding.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: I always ask for about 30 minutes.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I get there two hours early, and the weather's okay.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: It's sprinkling, it's an outdoor wedding, it's beautiful, overlooking the Bay Area on this mountain.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: And about 15 minutes before the wedding, it was like a hurricane arrived.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: 50 mile an hour winds pouring rain, this beautiful setting with flowers and chairs.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: Everything's being blown over, the uh, you know, the chairs are being blown over, this background is being blown over, and I'm like, oh no, this I've never experienced this is an emergency situation at a wedding.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: I've never experienced anything like it before.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: But what was so cool about that wedding was they literally, in 30 minutes, they transformed, they transitioned to indoors, they transformed the entire indoor place.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: Everybody participated in making it beautiful and kind of getting the hammer out, reconstructing this background that literally broke down in the wind.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: And we had an amazing wedding.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: But this wedding was even better.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: I mean, your wedding was awesome, Bernice, and so was Kellyan Deepes, and so was the person that passed out in the wedding, their wedding too.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: But there's never been a wedding like this wedding in John chapter 2.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: And notice in verse 2 something really important that most people pass over.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was linked to his disciples at the very beginning of his ministry.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: John notes this.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: This is a detail you cannot miss.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: This is significant because it begins a foundational element in the life and ministry of Jesus, where he begins being known to disciple a small group of people who would change the world.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: You want to know what Jesus' ministry philosophy was?
10:12
SPEAKER_00: You should say yes.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: You want to know what Jesus' ministry philosophy was?
10:16
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' ministry philosophy was to invest into people to reach people.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: That's how he changed the world.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' ministry philosophy was to develop leaders who would reach the world.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: He poured into people.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: Every person matters.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: Every person matters.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: Every person that attends a church matters.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: Every person that's a part of Bayside matters.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: Every person that's a part of Bayside Davis matters.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: Jesus invests in people to reach people.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: I remember when I was 17, I started a Bible study in my high school, and I was a well-known basketball player in this city.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: And so there was this, I didn't know him at the time, but there was this spiritual leader in our city that had two daughters who were going to my Bible study at my high school.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: And every Wednesday I'd be teaching the Bible and just sharing the word.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: And he was like, I want to get to know this guy who's leading a Bible study, and my daughters are going to every week in my high school, which made sense.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: He's the dad.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: So he starts coming to my basketball games.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: And then at the end of every game, he's like, Hey, uh, do you want to come over to my house?
11:36
SPEAKER_00: My daughters will cook for you.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: So I'd go over to his house, his name was Phil Comer, and his wife was Diane Comer.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't know it at the time, but he was trying to get me to date one of his daughters.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: I thought he was just wanting to mentor me, but he was a very well-known spiritual leader in the state of Oregon.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: And his son, John Mark Comer, was an intern at the church that I was going to.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: And he went through their school of ministry.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: He was interning.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: Now he's a famous author, but he was just a dude I knew with hippie hair, driving a Volkswagen bus like from the 60s, and worked at a coffee shop.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: And so I would go over there after every game, and he he began just to mentor me, disciple me, invest in my life.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a beautiful picture of what Jesus' people should be doing.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: We should be investing in people, and those people reach other people for Jesus.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: This is how the world has changed.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: Phil Comer invested in my life at 17 years old, and now I'm no longer 17, and he's still investing in my life today.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: He texted me this morning.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: I texted him and he texted me, and it was amazing.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: He was in Tennessee and he met somebody that knew me in Tennessee, and it was like, how cool is that?
13:00
SPEAKER_00: And this is just how God works.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's a famous story.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: And anybody, raise your hand if you know who Billy Graham is.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: Probably the most famous evangelist in church history.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: Billy Graham came to Christ.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: But there's this incredible backstory of all of these people that God used to lead Billy Graham to Christ.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: It's like multiplied influence.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: It began with Edward Kimball.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: He was a Boston Sunday school teacher who personally led a young shoe salesman named Dwight L.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: Moody to Christ in the 1850s.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: Now, Dwight went to a shoe shop and he sold him a pair of shoes and he led Dwight to the Lord.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that cool?
13:45
SPEAKER_00: You could be working at Nike or Reebok or what's a popular Adidas or, you know, you could be working at the shoe store and you could lead somebody to Christ and that person could become Dwight L.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: Moody.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: Who's Dwight L.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: Moody?
13:58
SPEAKER_00: A famous evangelist.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: Moody became a world-famous evangelist who inspired another guy, Jay Wilbur Chapman, who in turned, this guy came to Christ, and he in turn mentored a former baseball star named Billy Sunday to follow Jesus.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: Now Billy Sunday went from playing baseball to be an evangelist.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: You can be like Billy Sunday, a sports star to a leader for Jesus.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: And Sunday, Billy Sunday began to start these revivals and share the gospel with these revivals, and he influenced a guy named Mordecai Ham.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: Mordecai Ham became an evangelist too.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: Are you catching this?
14:44
SPEAKER_00: All these people came to Christ through evangelists and became evangelists.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: Now, in 1934, Mordecai Ham held a tent revival in Charlotte, North Carolina, where 16-year-old Billy Graham showed up.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: And at that tent revival, Billy Graham came to Christ and he became the most influential evangelist of all time in Christian history.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: One person influencing another person, another person, another person, and another person, and next thing you know, you have Billy Graham.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: Don't underestimate the influence you can have on one person's life.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: You never know how that one person can change history.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: And this is what Jesus did, and this is what Jesus told us to do in Matthew 28, 19 through 20, where he said, Go and make disciples of all nations.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: So the wedding, verses 1 and 2.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: And then the wine, verses 3 through 10.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says about wine at the wedding.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: This is germane and important to the story.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: When the wine was gone, big deal.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' mother said to him, They have no more wine.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: Why was this a big deal?
16:09
SPEAKER_00: Because in the ancient world and in a Jewish wedding, wine held a special importance.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: It was a symbol of joy, it was a symbol of blessing, it was a symbol of celebration, and it had to do with the groom's family and the groom's hosting of the wedding.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: So the wine was gone, big deal.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus' mother said to Jesus, they have no more wine.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4 Woman, why do you involve me?
16:43
SPEAKER_00: Jesus replied, My hour has not yet come.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: Now, just reading that, uh, we would think Jesus saying woman to his mom sounds like a disrespectful reply or disrespectful language toward his mother.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: However, this is why we cannot read the biblical text through modern times.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: You can't interpret through 2026 what's happening in the first century in ancient Israel.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: On the surface, this seems like Jesus is disrespecting his mom, but we know Jesus would not disrespect his mother.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: This was actually a term of affection in the first century that Jesus uses multiple times in the Gospel of John, including when he's dying on the cross in John 19, 25 through 27.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: This was a term of affection.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: It was not like woman.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: It's like if I said to Bernice today, woman, like that's disrespectful.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: It was more of an endearment.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: Gune, woman.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: It was a term of endearment in the ancient world.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is making something known here.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: He says to his mom, my hour has not yet come.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: The wine is gone.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: She notices, she comes to Jesus, he says, My hour has not yet come.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a bit a little bit of background of wine in the ancient world.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: I think it's important to understand this.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: One writer, one scholar who uh is an expert on this says in the Greco-Roman world and presumably in Palestine in Jesus' day, there were different kinds of wine in use.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: Number one, there was fermented wine, which usually was mixed in the proportion of two or three parts of water to one part of wine.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: Number two, there was new wine, made of grape juice and similar to cider, not fermented.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: And number three, there were wines in which by boiling the unfermented grape juice, the process of fermentation had stopped and the formation of alcohol was prevented.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: So there were three different types of wine in the ancient world.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: All of them were diluted with water.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: Another scholar wrote, an additional detail that I think is germane, it was customary in Greek, Roman, Jewish, and early Christian cultures to mix wine, usually with water.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: The ratio of water to wine varied anywhere from 20 to 1, averaging three to one as noted in ancient references.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: Wine, mixed with water, acted as a purifier and made water safe to drink.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like today that you're just like, by the way, I do not drink tap water in the state of California.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: But I have a filter system.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: Anybody just like put your cup in like the water, the sink, whatever you call that, the spout, and just drink it.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: Anybody do that in California?
19:46
SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's amazing.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: I would never I have all the filtration possible.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: So in the ancient world, the water wasn't as clean as it is today.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: So they would go through this process, and this would be your main drink often.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't necessarily alcoholic, although uh full of alcohol, although in this context, it seems to be definitely a diluted wine, but there is an alcohol base to it.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: I do think that is important.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: And I also want to add that I've studied this, I wrote a paper on this, I've studied every verse in the Bible on alcohol.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, there are positive connotations to wine.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: In the Old Testament, there's also negative connotations to wine.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament, there's positive connotations to wine.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament, there's also negative connotations to wine.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: Which means what?
20:45
SPEAKER_00: That there is a proper use of consuming alcohol, and there is an improper use of consuming alcohol.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: And the alcohol content in the ancient world was much different than the alcohol content today.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: And I can say that definitively after reading years and years ago, I did a whole research project on this, and I read all the ancient scholars on this, both biblical and non-biblical.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, it was different, but it still had alcohol in it.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: And so in the ancient world they could get drunk, and in the first century they could get drunk, and that's something that God prohibits for our own well-being because He does not want us to be controlled by any substance.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to be controlled by the Holy Spirit.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
21:34
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're out getting drunk still, the Lord wants to redeem that in your life.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: The Lord wants to, God loves you, God wants to redeem that part of your life.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: It's not good for you, it's not healthy for your biological, you know, being, it's not healthy for your spiritual nature.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: Uh, God wants to redeem that in your life, it's not good for you, but don't feel like you can't be loved by God.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: God, because you're still struggling with going to parties.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: But also, don't think that God's grace is a license for you to continue to go to those parties.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: Both is true.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: God loves you, God wants to redeem that.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: You're welcome in our church.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: If you're at a party on Saturday night, you're welcome in our church.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: But God also wants to change you.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: And I'm the poster child of I once went to parties and then God changed that in my life.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: So just be like me.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: Don't go to parties anymore and get drunk.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: And maybe become a preacher and let the Holy Spirit control your life.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: But I just don't want you to be here this morning and think we're talking about alcohol and all this stuff.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to think, oh, I'm not welcome here.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: No, you're definitely welcome here.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: This is the best place for you to be because God can transform that part of your life.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: So back to the story.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, My hour has not yet come.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: Now this is really important.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is using hour, not as like we're at 1058 and you're watching your clock thinking, when is Wesley going to be done with this sermon this Sunday?
23:19
SPEAKER_00: No, hour here is a point of time as an occasion or a major event in your life.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: I counted this this week.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: I went through every use of this term term, hour or aura, uh, in Greek.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: 11 times this Greek term is used in the Gospel of John.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: I counted it.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: This week, just for you.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: So you could know eleven times.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: Eleven times this term becomes a major theme in the Gospel of John.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: You say, why is this a major theme?
23:55
SPEAKER_00: Because every time John uses this, or every time Jesus uses his term, it's referring to Jesus' death.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: The most important event in the entire history of humanity.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying to his mom, my hour to be glorified, my hour to ultimately be revealed for the purpose that I came to this earth is not yet come.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: Now, when Jesus and his mom are having this interaction, it's not disrespectful.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: But maybe, maybe take note.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was making clear that his actions were divine actions.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: He was doing his father's will.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: He was fulfilling his calling, his God in the flesh.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: Maybe write this down.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: He was acting out of divine authority, not maternal direction.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: He was making that distinction in a respectful way, but his hour, his death, his time of glorification, his time to be, you know, to come on the scene and do what he was going to do as the ultimate fulfillment of his purpose on earth had not yet come.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: Now, possibly, think with me here, possibly all the social shame that Mary had experienced because she was unmarried and she birthed the child.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: We know this was a miraculous birth.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Mary was like, this is the time for people to realize that the kid who came from my body that was birthed from me is actually divine.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: Maybe she was thinking, this is the moment for all the social dispersion and negativity around me would be redeemed, and Jesus would show himself to be who he truly was, because she had pondered.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: Remember, according to the Gospel of Luke, she had pondered for a long time, at this point, multiple decades, the nature of Jesus, the the uh the person of Jesus, not being a normal human because this was a virgin birth.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus still notes for those who struggle with timing, it's not my time.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we're ready for Jesus to just show up and like, it's time, Lord, show everybody, do this thing in my life, like, prove them wrong, and it's not time yet.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: God's timing is not our timing.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: So Mary does something that we should all learn from.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: His mother, verse 5, said to the servants, do whatever he tells you to do.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: What a great piece of advice.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: Mary had pondered Jesus' identity and calling from his birth.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: She knew that he was God's chosen one, and now she transitions from mom to allowing him to lead the situation.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: There's a great parenting tip there.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: That as your kids enter into adulthood, that you can no longer control their life.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: Phil and Diane Comer talk about this in their book.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: You should grab that book, how to make that transition from the kids being under my household authority to the kids having their own house and family and how difficult that transition is, but letting them take lead and have volition and make decisions, but being available anytime for them to provide advice or encouragement or help, or you know, they basically said, uh, now you give your kid a key to your house, and it's up to them when they want to come over.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: It's up to them when they want advice, so on and so forth.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's a beautiful transition that Mary makes here, and also a great piece of advice for followers of Jesus.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: Do whatever he tells you to do.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
28:05
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washings to cleanse their hands and their feet, and you know, they didn't have sinks and soap, they just used these big jars, each holding from 20 to 30 gallons.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: So here's these six jars, and they held up to 120 to 180 gallons of water.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: Notice what happens next.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to his servants, fill the jars with water.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: Lots of water.
28:42
SPEAKER_00: I don't know where they're going to the well, but that's a lot of water, 120 to 180 gallons.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: So they filled them to the brim.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: They're like, you know, when you fill up your glass of water to the very top before it spills over, that's like these jars.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus told them, listen to what he says.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: Now, draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants had drawn the water, knew that they knew, but the master didn't know.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, Everyone brings out the choice wine first, and then the cheaper wine after the guests have drunk too much.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: But you have saved the best till now.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: Jesus turned water into wine.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: And the wine at the end of the wedding was better than the wine that the guests had at the beginning of the wedding, which totally thwarted the custom of the day where the best wine was first and the worst wine was last.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: You didn't go to Trader Joe's to get the first wine.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: You went to Trader Joe's to get the last wine.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: You didn't go to Costco to get the first wine, you went to Costco to get the last wine.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: I once met a guy who was Christian, he was worth like a billion dollars from Microsoft, and I was at a church, and he's like, Oh, Wesley, you know, I'm uh come over to my wine.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: I have a my house, I have a mansion, and at the you know, some people when they're rich, they let you know, I got a mansion and I've got an entire wine cellar in the basement of my house with thousands and thousands of famous wines, like millions of dollars worth of wine.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I just I don't drink wine, but that's amazing.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: I'll come over and just see your mansion.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: Well, you don't go to that guy's cellar and take out the best wine at the end of the wedding in the ancient world.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus does here is a miracle.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: It's a miracle at a wedding.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: I want to make an important connection for you, and you can take notes.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: There's a slide on this.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: In Genesis 2, God officiates the first wedding ceremony at the beginning of creation.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: In John chapter 2, Jesus performs a miracle at a wedding ceremony, picturing new creation.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: Together, these two events beautifully echo the language of creator and creation, the original creation in Genesis and the launch of new creation in the Gospel of John.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: Every miracle has a spiritual significance.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to notice the most important thing.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't been paying attention up until this point, pay attention now.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: What Jesus did here in Canaan of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: This is the end goal of the sign.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want you to note as we're traveling through the Gospel of John, this is the first of seven signs in the Gospel of John.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: All of these signs have a significant purpose.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the term sign here, uh, it means an event that gives confirmation.
32:19
SPEAKER_00: An event that gives confirmation.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: Signs in the Gospel of John were miraculous events that affirmed Jesus' identity as God in the flesh.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't like a road sign, you know, you're driving down the road and you see a stop sign and hopefully you stop.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: You don't, California stop, you know, a California stop, you ease into the break and then you keep going.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: You stop at the stop sign.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: It's like, it's not that type of sign.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: This is not like a sign on the building.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're walking downtown, you're like, temple coffee, that's a cool sign, I'm gonna go in there.
32:54
SPEAKER_00: This is not a road sign, this is not a sign on a building.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: This is a miracle with a meaning.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: And every sign in the Gospel of John revealed the glory of Jesus.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: The same glory that John set us up with in John chapter 1, verse 18.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: That John basically says everything that Jesus did, taught, every miracle, every teaching, every part of his life was a revelation of the glory of God in John 1, 1 through 1.18.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, that means this sign confirmed that the very person and presence of God was in the midst of the people at this wedding.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: This was no mere human being.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't a Wesley.
33:53
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't a Tristan, this wasn't a Taylor, this wasn't an Anne, this was God in the flesh.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to notice, this is where it gets really important.
34:07
SPEAKER_00: I want you to notice a few aspects of Jesus' glory being revealed in this miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: Number one, if you're a note-taker, write this down.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' glory is revealed in his creation power.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: He had the ability to turn water into wine.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: Can anybody do that today?
34:31
SPEAKER_00: Let's get six jars.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: 120 to 180 gallons.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: I want to watch you turn water into wine.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: Nobody could do that.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: Now, maybe if you got your science experiment out and you know, all your lab stuff, I don't know if you could do that today.
34:45
SPEAKER_00: Maybe, but this is not that.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: Jesus can create something out of nothing and he can create something out of something.
34:57
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, as John has told us in chapter one, he was a part of creating creation.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: In other words, he spoke something into existence when nothing was in existence.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: There was no raw materials.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: He spoke the raw materials into existence.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: He can create something out of nothing, and he can create something out of something.
35:20
SPEAKER_00: Back in Genesis, once the raw materials of creation were made, the Bible says in chapter 2 that he created the first human from the dust of the ground.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: The same raw materials and the dust of the ground are in human beings.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: And then at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, he turns water into wine.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: He has creative power.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: He can make something out of nothing, and he can make something out of something.
35:50
SPEAKER_00: He can make something out of nothing in your life, and he can make something out of something in your life.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: When Moses was there in the desert and he had a staff because he was a shepherd for 40 years, probably discouraged, depressed, feel like his calling was never going to come to pass.
36:04
SPEAKER_00: And he goes into Egypt, he says, I'm going to do something out of something in your life.
36:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to use that same staff that you have been using for 40 years to do miracles and deliver the people out of bondage in Egypt.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: He can take something that seems so normal in your life, and he can create something out of something that is so unnormal in your life.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: Let God do His creative power.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: Number two, Jesus' glory is revealed in his redemptive power.
36:39
SPEAKER_00: The ability to redeem a situation of shame into a situation of celebration and joy.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: I have not mentioned this yet, but running out of wine, running out of wine had sit very serious implications in the ancient world.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: Number one, it was a social disgrace.
37:00
SPEAKER_00: It reflected that the newly married couple failed to provide for their guests.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: It was in an honor-shame culture like the ancient world.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: This would have resulted in public humiliation.
37:14
SPEAKER_00: This was a major social cost situation.
37:19
SPEAKER_00: Second, not only was there a social disgrace, but there was a potential legal disgrace.
37:25
SPEAKER_00: There could be a potential lawsuit against the groom by the relatives of the bride.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: That would be a way to start the marriage.
37:32
SPEAKER_00: The relatives of the bride could sue the relatives of the groom because they had a legal responsibility.
37:41
SPEAKER_00: There was a contract signed with the bride's family and the groom's family before the wedding that the groom's family would provide everything.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: It was a contractual obligation.
37:52
SPEAKER_00: Everything in the wedding was signed, contracted in ink, and in the ancient world, you could sue somebody in a situation where they failed to provide.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is not only saving the celebration, he's saving the wedding party from major social and potential legal disgrace.
38:17
SPEAKER_00: So he redeems a situation of shame into a situation of celebration and joy.
38:23
SPEAKER_00: Listen, Jesus redeems the worst parts of our lives and turns them into stories of redemption.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: We can look back at our life, the worst parts of our life, and we can tell stories with celebration and joy of the redemptive work of God at those moments of life.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: God loved you even in your worst moments.
38:51
SPEAKER_00: And he redeems all of those things in your life so that you can become your best redeemed self as a follower of Jesus.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: Where there was once shame, there can now be celebration and joy.
39:08
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to live being imprisoned in shame with Jesus.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: You can live being free with celebration and joy and honest redemptive storytelling because of what God has done in your life.
39:26
SPEAKER_00: And then third and last, Jesus' glory is revealed in his humble miracle.
39:33
SPEAKER_00: Jesus' glory is revealed in his humble miracle.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: This is quite a behind-the-scenes miracle that was unnoticed by most.
39:43
SPEAKER_00: Did you miss it in the story?
39:45
SPEAKER_00: Where only the people, the few people who saw the miracle knew, and everybody else did not knew, and that was on purpose.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: What does this teach us?
39:58
SPEAKER_00: Jesus shows us that some ministry is best done in obscurity.
40:06
SPEAKER_00: Some of your servant service of God, some of your giving, some of your evangelizing, some of your teaching, some of your discipling.
40:16
SPEAKER_00: Some ministry is best done in obscurity.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: Not everything needs to be shared on social media.
40:25
SPEAKER_00: Not everything needs to be known by others.
40:27
SPEAKER_00: Not everything needs to be told on a stage.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the quiet moments of ministry that few people know about are often the most beautiful and powerful moments of ministry.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: In a day and age where we want everybody to know everything about our lives.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: That's exhausting.
40:47
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why we do that.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: It just like there's this social contract where it's like, I want you to know everything I do all the time.
40:55
SPEAKER_00: It's like, can't we just have something that is unnoticed in our life?
41:00
SPEAKER_00: Can't we just be normal humans and not on the public sphere of media?
41:06
SPEAKER_00: Like, there should be able to be parts of our life that are not noticed.
41:11
SPEAKER_00: And there should be parts of ministry that are not noticed because we don't do this for public applause.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: We do this as a calling for Jesus, from Jesus, for Jesus.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: It's not about you getting applause, it's not about me getting applause, it's about being faithful to our calling from Jesus for Jesus.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to notice that this miracle in Cana of Galilee, notice what it says about the disciples, and his disciples believed in him.
41:46
SPEAKER_00: After that, he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples.
41:50
SPEAKER_00: There they stayed for a few days.
41:52
SPEAKER_00: His disciples signs lead to affirmation of Jesus' identity, and signs sometimes lead to faith in Jesus.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: Not always, but sometimes.
42:24
SPEAKER_00: But you need to put your faith in Jesus Christ.