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The First Miracle of
Jesus- John 2:1-12
Recap of Bible Study: We talked about the balance of
salvation, how God’s sovereignty balanced with our responsibility. We looked at
the story of how Phillip and Nathaniel became disciple of Christ. Even though
Phillip says, “We found Christ”, we realize that it was actually Christ who
found him first. And with Nathaniel, how he made a choice to investigate
Christ, but in reality Christ saw him under a tree before they met. We talked
about how even though God is sovereign, that things aren’t automatic. We need
to breathe and run the race, and we talked about how reading the Bible and
praying were equivalent to breathing and running. I left you guys with the
encouragement of doing it, knowing the Christ is the one doing it.
This week we are going to be looking at the first miracle of
Christ. Can anyone tell me what the first miracle of Christ was? Very good.
Changing water into wine. Before we start, can anyone give any reason why Jesus
would turn water into wine? The answer can be found in verse 11, let me read
that for us:
This beginning of
signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and
manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.
This was the point of this miracle. For his glory to be
manifested, and for his disciples to believe in him. I want you guys to keep
that in mind as we are going through Jesus’ First Miracle.
Let’s read John 2:1-11
Verses 1-3: We see that the Jesus, his mother and disciples
were all invited to the wedding. We don’t know for certain, but perhaps this
was a relative or close friend of the family. Mary comes to Jesus and says,
“They have no wine.” Why do you think Mary went to Jesus and said that they
don’t have wine? Before I go on, let me say that running out of wine at a
wedding was a big deal. First of all, it was embarrassing to the groom, who was
in charge of paying for the wedding. Interestingly, a bride’s family could
actually sue the groom’s family for not providing enough at the wedding. Imagine
you were at a party and your mom comes up to you and says, “They are out of
chicken.” It’s like, “What do you want me to do mom, go down to Publix and go
get some chicken?” What’s the point?
I think she was telling him so that he could do something
about the situation. Mary was aware that he son was special, and I don’t think
that she has forgotten what happened before he was born. I’m going to read from
Luke 1:29-33
But when she saw him, she was troubled at
his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said
to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold,
you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name
JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the
Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over
the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
So maybe Mary was like, “Well the angel said he would be
great and all this stuff, so maybe he can hook us up with some wine.” Was this
a reasonable request from her? Was she asking too much? I don’t think so. She
saw a need, was probably good friends with the people getting married, and it
would have been embarrassing for them to run out of wine. So, if you think
there’s a chance your special son can help, why not ask, right? What was Jesus’
response?
Read Verse 4: Why does Jesus respond this way? The literal
translation of what Jesus is saying is, “What (is that) to Me and to you,
woman? My hour has not come yet.” Now, just to clear things up, Jesus was not
being rude when he called his mom “woman”. However, I don’t suggest you go home
and start calling your mom “woman”, probably not a good idea.
The reason why Jesus called his mother “woman”: Jesus was on
a mission on earth. He had things that he needed to do on earth. When he calls
his mother “woman”, he is distancing himself from her. He wanted to establish
himself not as her son, but as the Messiah and Son of God. Jesus wanted to show
that he was not doing this miracle for her sake, but rather for his sake, for
God’s sake. God did it for His Glory. Remember verse 11, the one we read
before.
This beginning of
signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and
manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.
Christ is performing this miracle not because his mom asked
him to, and not to help out the groom, ultimately, his mother’s request would
be granted and the groom would be helped, but the main purpose for doing this
miracle was to show his glory. When God does things in our lives, good things,
even though we benefit from them, even though we think, “Wow, God did this for
me”, ULTIMATELY, it is for God to show his glory. I’ll talk about this some
more later.
Read Verse 6: Mary responds in a surprising way. This is how
Charles Spurgeon put it: “You can easily picture how Mary took it. She knew
Christ's gentleness, his infinite love, how for thirty years there had never
come anything from him that had grieved her spirit. So she drank in the
reproof, and gently shrank back, thinking much more than she said”. Mary’s
attitude is one we should all have. “Whatever He says to you, do it.” Wouldn’t
it be great if we could have that attitude with Christ? Not questioning it.
Just doing whatever Christ told us. Of course, now Christ speaks differently to
us now. He speaks to us through the word of God. Whatever it says, do it.
Let’s take a look at what Christ tells the servants to do
Read Verse 7-8: He tells them to fill the waterpots with
water. This is an interesting command. Imagine if you were a servant and you
overheard some of what was going on. You know that there is no more wine at the
wedding and you overheard Mary telling Christ there was no more wine, and now
Mary tells you to do whatever Christ says. So, Christ tells you to fill water
into waterpots. “Huh? Christ did I miss something here? We are out of wine and
you’re telling me to fill waterpots with water? This makes absolutely no sense
at all. We are out of wine, not out of water. And do you know what those
waterpots are for? They are for ceremonial cleansing. This is definitely not
helping the situation. This is definitely not helping us get more wine. I don’t
know what you are doing, Christ.” But, they followed Christ’s commands. They
obeyed even though they may have felt like it was pointless, or that they
weren’t accomplishing anything. And what happened?
Read Verse 9-10: The water turned to wine. There will be
times when we don’t think what Christ commands is what we need to do. We can’t
see the point of it. It’s like the servants. We need wine, why are we filling
this jug with water? But, Christ knows what we need and we just need to obey
him, and in his timing and in his way, things will work out for our good. Let’s
talk about the master of the feast for a second. According to some of the
commentaries I have read, this guy could be the head waiter, or a guest chosen
to preside over the banquet. Anyways, this guy gets wine from the servants and
tastes it, and he is like , “Wow, this is really good wine!” Since the groom is
in charge of paying for everything, he is like,”Wow, this is great wine. I
gotta get the guy who is in charge out here, and congratulate him on some
awesome wine.” He calls the groom and in front of everyone declares, “Every man
at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well
drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”
But, who really supplied the wine? It wasn’t the groom. It
was Christ. What the master of the feast is saying is this is how the world
works. They bring you the best stuff first, and then, once that got you in,
they sucked you dry and gave you the worst stuff at the end. This is how our
world works. Instant gratification now, then you pay the consequences. Isn’t
that how sin works? So pleasing to the eye and so good looking and you want it.
It reminds me of the Turkish Delights in Chronicles of Narnia. Edmond,
he sees these treats. And they are so good. But afterwards what happened? There
were no more treats. Sin takes you in with promises of pleasure and leaves you
with nothing but remorse. But how is God different? God saves the best for
last. While all the other wedding hosts bring the best win first, then after
everyone is drunk the cheap wine, Christ brings the best last. This is true in
our lives as Chrsitians. We don’t have everything now. But if we follow Christ,
he promises to give us the best in the end, which is God, in heaven. How
awesome is that?
Read Hebrews 11:13-16.
Look past sin, to the joy of your life later.
And all this was done for what? Verse 11 again.
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