This morning, we are going to look at John chapter 2 from verse 1 to 11. And this is one of the miracles that John recorded about Jesus Christ that is going to help us to understand who Jesus is. But maybe before we read, let me pray for us. Father God, we thank you so much for your grace. Thank you for what you have done in Christ Jesus, that you consider us to be your sons and daughters. You died and rose, defeated hell and Satan and sin, so that we can be set free. And thank you, almighty God, as your word says in John chapter 10, that there's no one who can snatch us from your hands. And that's what this song that we have just sung. That no one can pluck us out of your hands. Thank you for the security that we have in you because of your faithfulness. And this morning, Lord, as we are going to look into the book of John, I just pray, almighty God, that may you help us to appreciate Jesus And that our eyes may be opened that we can love him more and that we can proclaim about him to others who do not know about Jesus. So thank you so much for this opportunity. Once again, we just pray that your spirit help us, Father, that we can take this weight and keep it in our hearts so that we can bear fruit and we can be people that you have called us to be. In the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. So I'm reading from ESV. John chapter 2, verses 1 through 11. On the third day, there was a wedding at Kenna in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. And Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. Now there were six stones, water jars that Let me read it again. Now there were 16 water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted, the water now became wine, and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. The master of the feast caught the bridegroom and said to him, everyone serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk through the poor wine, but you have kept the good wine until now. The first of his signs Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him. I remember when I was in primary school to have read about this religious hero in Malawi who is called Mbona. So Mbona is one of my tribe's religious hero who is worshipped as a god. I don't know if you Google, on Google just say Mbona, you find who he is. And reading his story, his stories, I was fascinated and also I believe that you are going to be fascinated with the magic that this man Mbona performed, which are recorded in our books in Malawi. For example, he could plant a forest in a day. These are the things that we read about him, that through his magic he could plant a forest in a day. And sometimes people would try to snap him with dagger, but the dagger couldn't pierce in his body. And also Mwona could bring rains. When people, they don't have rains, they would go to him, And all of a sudden, he would do whatever he could do and grace would come. I'm not sure whether these stories are true. I don't know the authenticity of these stories, but they are recorded in the books. But what we cannot deny is the extraordinary The extraordinary wake or feats of Mbona, this thing that I have recorded, that Mbona was somebody else, we cannot deny. Even in Malawi today, there are some cults that are still worshipping Mbona. So we cannot deny that he was somebody else. Now, reading these books, I've asked myself some serious questions. because of the miracles that we read in the Bible about Jesus Christ. And I've asked myself that, okay, if these stories about Mbona were true, let's assume that, yes, those things happened, how could they be different from the miracles that we find the Bible records about Jesus Christ? How could they be different? Well, John tells us in this gospel, the gospel of John, he tells us in chapter 20 from verse 30 to 31 that Jesus, the way how we can differentiate between whatever Mona did and Jesus, John tells us that Jesus did many other things before His disciples, which are not recorded in the Bible, but the signs that we find that are recorded in the Gospel, especially the Gospel of John, they were recorded so that we may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and by believing in Him, we may have life in His name. This is what differentiates what Mbona miracles were and of Jesus. Because whatever Mbona was doing, it was just to make himself famous. to be somebody like he was great and whatever but whatever jesus was doing it was not just about that but it was it was pointing to us to to be to believe to come to a place where we are going to believe that jesus christ is the son of the living god and by believing in him we are going to have life so whatever is recorded here is pointing to jesus and that we can trust I've never come across anywhere in the stories of Bona, where Bona challenged his people, even though he was a hero, but he didn't challenge himself. Believe in me, you are going to have life. There's nothing like that. And we see Jesus Christ challenging us to say, come to me because he is the life, he is the way and he is the truth. So let's look at the stories, the story that we have this morning and try to find some lessons that we can learn from this story and put into practice. So the first thing that we find here in this story is about the third day. We hear he said that on the third day there was a wedding at Kena in Garibi. So this day probably might be the day after Jesus met with Nathanael because in chapter 1 from verses 43 to the end we find Jesus encounter with Nathanael. And I think the third day here is coming from there, where after that, and then the third day, there was a wedding in Kena. Kena was a small village in Gari. And as it was a small village, probably everyone knew everyone. Okay, I also came from a small village in Mala where I come from. And I remember before it was crowded. We knew each other in our village. We could know whatever is happening in the village, whatever is transpiring. And I believe that this was the same with this, that everyone knew everyone. That's why we find that the invitation was extended to Mary and to Jesus and his disciples. Because for today, where I'm coming from, there's now a lot of people. If there's a wedding, sometimes we don't know that there was a wedding. But during this time, I think it was just a small population, and that's why they extended this invitation to Jesus. Because remember, Jesus was also living in what? In Ghandi and his mother made. And after, we can see, we are learning some things here, two things that we can see about Jesus Christ. The first thing we see that Jesus Christ is the man who loves social life. Okay, because imagine that Jesus Christ was also invited to this wedding. It tells us something about his life. He was not a man who just, you know, like lonely, just went to the mountains and prayed the whole day and the whole night without interacting with people. Because that's why we see that Jesus could say, okay, I'm going to go to the what? To the wedding. Because I found, I don't know with you, but I found a lot of people who are very serious with social life. They don't go to watch soccer. They don't want to associate with other people. They just pray and all other things. But we find here something that we can learn about Jesus Christ, that he was a man who was, you know, like loving social life. He was loving social life. And we also need to take something from that. We should be open. We should be people who, when we are invited, we can go to these events and try to make friends. And another thing that we are learning here is that we see how Jesus honors marriage. For him to say, OK, I'm going to come to this marriage, It's something that tells us that he, as his God's son, he really honors the what? Marriage. Marriage, remember, is the institution that God himself instituted. So marriage and weddings and all these kind of things, they're special in God's sight. So we should not despise these kind of institutions. especially married, to say, oh, I don't care, whatever. No, Jesus Christ could attend the wedding, which tells us that really he honors marriage. And one thing that we can also learn here is that we are not taught whether these, you know, the people who got married, maybe they were believers or unbelievers, but we We don't see any way in this text that they were believers, but still Jesus went to this wedding, which tells us that we should not despise this institution of marriage. And we see as the wedding party is continuing, is going on, Mary, Jesus' mother, came to him. Okay, basically he said, when the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. Okay, they had no wine. The wine was finished. This was a very disgraceful thing for the bride. For the groom, I mean, not the, because the groom was the one who was preparing everything concerning wedding celebration. So for today we are eating, so there was no wine and there's nothing that is, you know, is tickling us like, what's happening here? But during that time, having no wine during the, like, wedding party, it was something disgraceful for the groom because you know it was showing that like kind of like the people that maybe he was the person who was not cared for because whenever the wedding parties were made during that time you were supposed to prepare you were supposed to prepare so that you should not be embarrassed in your what in your in your village so for example this is something that maybe we can relate to last year yeah last year or maybe 2020 my brother 2020, yeah, I think it's 2020. My brother had a wedding. I did not manage to go to attend the wedding. But he got married, and what happened was that at the hall, what you call it, where people eat and whatever, at the reception, the food finished. The food finished, and I got a phone call from my sister. Imagine, from Malawi, calling me, what should we do here? There's no food. I said there's nothing that I could do. Until my sister, it forced my sister to get a loan. At the same evening, while the things are happening, she managed to go to her room and ordered some food that people could come and could eat. Because it was going to be embarrassing for us. Oh, how could they invite us to the wedding? And then the food was finished. So for myself, I understand what the scenario here, how it was. Because it was something embarrassing. And then that's why we see him. Mary comes to Jesus that they don't have any wine and we see now how Jesus responded to this. He says, Jesus said to her, woman, what did this have to do with me? Okay, so Mary petitioned Jesus that they didn't have wine, the wine finished, but we can look at the response. Okay, how Jesus responded to say woman. Okay, maybe some of us we may think. Why would Jesus say to his mother like this? Your mother coming and answering like from my mother. If it was my mother and then I answer her like that, you say, woman, I don't know what she would say. All these years that I've carried you and in my womb, nine months, are you answering me like that? But what we need to understand that this was not a sinful rebuke. It was not a sin. How do we come to this conclusion? Because we know that Jesus Christ did not what? Did not sin. The Bible clearly tells us that Jesus Christ, in all his lifetime, did not sin. Okay? However, it was a rebuke to Mary. I believe that it was a rebuke to Mary to let her understand that she cannot presume the relationship that she had with Jesus Christ to come on her own terms. Okay, that's the way how I look at it. I believe that Jesus is kind of like saying, woman, my hour has not yet come. Like, to make her to realize that even though she's, Jesus Christ was his was her son, but she could not just presume, you know, like, I can just come to him. She was supposed to come with, you know, like, honor. Because Jesus Christ was a man, but also he was what? He was God. He was both God and man. I think this was kind of like letting Mary to come to that, you know, awakening. So, okay, awareness to say, okay, yes, I need to come, you know, to him with honor and respect. And look at how Mary responded. She did not take an offense. She did not take an offense when this happened, but she's kind of encouraging the disciples to say, do whatever he tells you to do. So in this context, we find that this was like a key for the disciples so that they could they could receive the answer that Jesus is giving to them. And obedience, we find that obedience is a very key for us to get our answers when we are petitioning God. That's why Mary says, do whatever He asks you to do. We should not get offended with God, with the way how God is dealing with us whenever we are asking him to do for us something. Because sometimes we do, you know, like we are easily getting offended, we are discouraged because we want God to treat us the way how we want. But here we are learning that we should not get, you know, we should not be offended or try to begin to find solutions for ourselves. We need to wait upon Jesus Christ. We need to wait upon God and trust in Him and also obey Him. That's one of my favorite songs. Trust and what? And obey. And we find here in verse number 6, it says, Now there were six stones that were just there. for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. So 20 or 30 gallons would be like today, 105 liters each. Okay, 20 gallons, it's like 105 liters each. And Jesus, we see the command here, Jesus in verse seven says, fill the jars with water. And we find that they filled the jars with water to the brim. Now, why would Jesus say, fill the jars with water? Fill the jars with water. I think, I think, So that there should be no doubts, okay? There should be no doubts, okay? It was not filled with water, maybe he put something, isn't it? Like today, we see the prophets and whatever, the miracle workers that we see on the TV, somebody walking in the air, but you see, what kind of air is he walking in here? Are we together? But here we find that Jesus said, fill it to the what? So that there should be no doubt at all. The other half was something else. He kind of like sneaked and put something. But it's like to show the authenticity of this miracle. And we see here now Jesus is using this pot because look at the What was this pot for? In verse 6, it was for the light's purification. It was meant for the light's purification. But we see here that it was for the ceremonial laws, but Jesus is filling them with wine to bring joy. Because wine in the Bible is a symbol of joy, isn't it? So instead of ceremonial rose that brings sadness, that brings wealth, that brings all this, Jesus is filling this with wine in order to show the contrast between what Jesus brought Jesus has brought joy, has brought freedom, whereby the ceremonial rose brought some wake, brought some sadness, and we see here that there is a contrast that the gospel has, contrasting with the law. The law brought us death. The law brought us, the Bible in Romans says, it brought us, you know, We couldn't manage to come to God through the walls, but Jesus is coming and said, fill it with water and the water is turned into wine so that you can see the contrast that the gospel brings to us. It brings us peace and also it brings us joy. Romans 14 verse 17 says, for the kingdom of God is not about food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So that's the joy that the gospel has presented, has brought to our lives. So now let's look at the response of the wedding master. So when the master of the feast, Vesnai, tasted, the water now became white and did not know where it came from. Though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast caught the bridegroom and said to him, everyone saves good wine first, and when people have drank freely, then the poor wine, but you have kept the good wine until now. Okay, so we see that he kind of like said, what is happening here? So the custom was that people were supposed to start with what? Good wine. And when it's kind of like finishing, and then some wine that was not good. Because these people, they are now seeing things not the way how they are supposed to see. So I said, OK, they should kind of give them now wine that they cannot go over. and we see that but with this what is happening that the good one was what kept him all coming and it was it was a surprise for the master of the wedding what what what does that teach us you know in the gospel the gospel brings us everything that we need the bible tells us Okay, and it tells us that in Ephesians, to say that we don't lack anything good. God has given us everything that we need in the spiritual realm. We don't need anything, we don't lack anything that we need. Because God in his grace, he has given us these gifts. And there's no way that God to others. He has gifted us equally. He has gifted us everything that we need for this life and for godliness so that we do not lack anything. There's no Christian, there's no beautiful guy who starts saying, Why did he give me this? He said he has given us everything that we need for this life. For us to live Godly life, for us to live in this life, God has gifted us. He has given us everything that we need. So surely Jesus will meet our needs even beyond our expectation. Okay, in Ephesians chapter three, verse 20. Beyond even offering our physical needs, Yes, we need some things in our physical life, but God has given us even beyond that. He has offered us the most important need of our souls, salvation. He has given us salvation. And does this story that we have looked at push us or push you to put faith in Christ Jesus? Because that's the aim of why John brought this story here it was for he said already that there were a lot of things that jesus meant i mean jesus performed or jesus did but he chose this so that we should what put our faith in christ jesus there are three responses that we can respond to this story the first one we can be like the disciples in chapter in verse number where it said, and his disciples believed in him. Okay, this story can move us and push us to put more trust in Jesus Christ to say, oh, if Jesus could do this, could turn water into wine. That means he is the one that I can believe. There is no one that I can believe. We can put our faith in Christ Jesus Christ. And second, we can respond by ignoring this sign and still don't believe in Jesus as in chapter 12, verse 37. Because there are some people who saw what Jesus did, but still they do not what? Believe in him. Even today, we can have this story and we can laugh at how we have laughed and say, oh, Jesus Christ is a very great person. Yes, he could turn water into wine, but still just be a theoretical kind of thing. But while our hearts have not been surrendered to him, we have not yet surrendered our hearts to him to be our Lord and Savior. And lastly, we can believe in him, but we can fear people by not publicly confess Jesus Christ. Remember Nicodemus, he believed in Jesus Christ, he knew that Jesus Christ was someone who was the Lord, was God, but he could not publicly confess. Why? Because of what? The fear of people. What are people going to say about me? So I believe, this is my What I believe about us this morning, that we all are Christians, okay? I'm assuming, maybe I can say that, I'm assuming that we are all Christians because we are here to study the Word of God, to study theology. But what I can challenge us is to say that how do we see Jesus Christ? Okay, is it just something that we can talk about? You know, like, oh, he was very great, and all this kind of stuff. Why don't we have a relationship with him? Oh, are we people who are going to bow down to him? To say, Lord, be my Lord and my Savior. Where are we now? Our lives are going to be You know, to be given to him to say, Lord, lead me, guide me. I cannot make my own decisions. I cannot just live by myself. But I need your guidance. I need your help. And repent of our sins and trust in him. If you have not done that yet, I encourage us. I encourage us. to come to that place, because that's the only reason why John is writing all these things that he's writing. It's not just to look at the miracles and clap hands and all this, but to come to a place where we are going to believe, to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and by believing in Him, by trusting in Him, we may have eternal life. So it is useless to have read the book of John, while we have not yet come to a place where we have completely surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ. Let's pray this morning. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for your Word, where you are showing us your Son, Jesus Christ, that he's not just a miracle worker. As John has presented it, he's saying to us that He wrote these things so that it should help us to believe that Jesus Christ, your son, is your son and that in trusting in him, we may have eternal life. So Lord, I just pray this morning, thank you for this opportunity that we could share this word. I pray, almighty God, that some of us We have come to a place where we have trusted in your son, Jesus Christ, but we pray that may you help us, may you strengthen our faith that we can each and every day believe in Jesus Christ and not trusting in our own strength. But I also pray, Father, because you are the one who knows about our hearts. So I pray for those who have not yet made that confession of your son that through reading this book of John especially this miracle they can come to that place where they can Give their lives to you. They can trust in your son Jesus Christ, but also Lord I pray that May you help us To be the testimony to be the witnesses Lord in our communities because yes we have believed in Jesus Christ but sometimes we we come to a place where we we are kind of like ashy or we are afraid to make your son Jesus Christ known to the people in our community so may you help us Lord so that we cannot be afraid that we can publicly confess your son Jesus Christ knowing that is the only way the life and the truth So we pray, almighty God, that you are going to help us this morning individually. In the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.