I'd like to turn to John chapter 2 in our study of this great book, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In John chapter 2, and we're reading verses 1 through 11. On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana 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 stone 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 become wine, and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine, but you have kept the good wine until now. This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him. Let's pray. Our healer Father, O God, we thank you. Lord, you are wonderful. You are the sweetest name, Lord, that was ever known. Thank you lord that we can call upon you today and father as we look into your word we pray father that you will give us instruction and lord encourage us and lord may we be drawn closer to you. Holy spirit we pray that you'll take me and use me as you will. Lord we just pray this in the wonderful name of Jesus. Amen. Jesus makes wine out of nothing. From nothing, he creates the highest quality of one possible. And this is his first miracle. It's the beginning of his public ministry. In verse 11, we read, the beginning of miracles the beginning of miracles, the first of his signs. Every miracle that Jesus performed gave evidence that he is the Son of God. He is God who come in the flesh. There's no other way to explain what he did. He had to be, and John gives evidence here for us to see he is the son of God. Now, in verse 11, we see this also in verse 11, that this miracle of changing the water into wine had a powerful impact on those first disciples. It says there in verse 11, his disciples believed in him. Jesus did a lot of miracles. Now there are eight miracles in the Gospel of John that we will consider in our study. Someone had noted that in all the Gospels there are 35 recorded miracles that Jesus performed. Now, there are other miracles that Jesus performed that are not recorded. And John lets us know about that at the end of his gospel here. He says in John 21 verse 25, that there are also many other things that Jesus did were every one of them to be written. I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. And John 20 and verse 30 tells us Jesus did many signs, many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written, what we have here, these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name. So John the apostle writes this gospel according to Jesus and he's building a case. He is giving evidence. that this is, that Christ is God, and he's building the case for the deity of Christ here. So we've already looked at chapter one, where he says that he's the word, in the beginning was the word, the word is with God, and the word was God, the word became flesh. We have the testimony of John the Baptist. We have the testimony of the first disciples. And so that's our introduction in chapter one. Now in chapter two, all the way through chapter 12, is Jesus' public ministry. And then when we get to chapter 13 through chapter 17, it's Jesus' private ministry with his disciples in the upper room. And then when we get to chapter 18, until the end, what we have here is the betrayal of Christ, his arrest, his crucifixion, his burial, his resurrection, and also the post-resurrection appearance of Jesus. So we begin here in chapter 2, his public ministry, and I want you to notice first of all, there is the setting that we want to look at. That is what, when, where, I mean, who, what it's all about. And you say, well, why should we know this? Why should we know that it's a place in Cana of Galilee? Oh, we need to know this. And I tell you, I believe what John wants us to know here is this. This is not a made up story. What we're reading here, we're talking about real places, real people, a real miracle. This is for real. And so notice where it takes place in verse one, it says on the third day, there was a wedding. So first of all, we have a wedding. Now the King James uses the word marriage and that's okay, but probably more appropriate would be the wedding. So what's the difference between a wedding and a marriage? Well, well, you know what that is. I mean, a wedding is the event that celebrates the marriage. Now the marriage is for life. But the wedding, thankfully, is that one day, right? Or that one when you get together. Now their weddings, they had lasted days. And I remember it lasted even a week. How would you like that? A week-long wedding ceremony. Oh, we wouldn't survive that, would we? I don't want the marriage to survive. So the wedding is the event and the marriage is the lifetime commitment of the couple. So we have, what we have here, we have a wedding. When? The third day. John wants us to know the third day, actually it's the third day after Jesus meets with Nathanael. We see that back in chapter one. Now there's a sequence here and he's keeping up with some days here and for example if you go back to chapter 1 verse 19 it says there's this progression that gets started in verse 29 it says the next day verse 35 says the next day verse 43 says the next day and here it says on the third day. So what we have here from the time of verse 19 chapter 1 to right now we have a whole week I mean, from where they were now, they're in Galilee, it's a week. They're up there and they're at a wedding. So where is this? Well, Cana is a small place, nine miles north of Nazareth. Jesus grew up in Nazareth, but it was a little place. And we see there who all was invited. Well, it was the mother of Jesus. Now John never uses her name, her name's Mary. I just kind of figured out why he didn't do that. Because if he said, Mary, come here, there'd be a bunch of women that come forward because a bunch, a bunch of people were named Mary. So we just have mother of Jesus. Oh, we know who that is. So that's, he always uses mother of Jesus. So it says she was there, but also it says Jesus was also invited. and his disciples. Now his disciples at this time were five. There's Andrew, there's Peter, and then there's John, of course, John the Apostle who writes this gospel, and also there's Philip and Nathaniel. So you have five disciples and they're all there. They no doubt knew these people. Growing up in the area, Mary seems to be involved in the organization and probably getting things together in preparation for this ceremony. And we don't know the name of the couple, but nice to know the name, but that was not John's intent for us to know who the couple was, but it could have been family, extended family, some relatives or friends that they knew. So here they are. Here's the main point I want you to see in this part of the setting. Did you see it? In verse two, Jesus also was invited. Now, I don't know if he might say you're going to plan a wedding, but listen, if you may not be able to invite everyone, you may not want to invite everyone to a wedding, but you need at least to invite Jesus to your wedding. Let him be a part at the very beginning, as well as the marriage itself. Wise thing, Warren Wiersbe made this comment, he says, wise is that couple who invite Jesus to their wedding. And that's very important, invite Jesus to your wedding. Now, the sad reality is today that so many today do not, and couples do not invite Jesus to their wedding. They don't even invite Jesus into their marriage. That's a sad thing today, isn't it? That's awful. And not only do people exclude the Lord from the ceremony and have it to be Christ-centered. Some, many today, just take the ceremony and throw it out the window and don't even have a ceremony. They don't even get married. They just live together. That's kind of where our direction is going. That's where we are today in our society. They just live outside of the covenant of marriage. And the Bible says in Hebrews 13 verse 4, let marriage be held in honor among all. and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. But our society today has stooped so low, and I know it's not popular to say this, but what our country has allowed to happen, we are allowing because of what they've done to marriage, we are inviting the judgment of God upon our nation with what's going on. When you got two of the same sex saying they're married, that is an abomination to God. It needs to be said. It needs to be said in churches because we've gotten where we're intimidated because of the culture that we're living in. But it needs to be said because that's what God says. And we say it, we speak the truth in what? Speak the truth in love, but be sure you speak the truth. Now, I know you heard this before, but I'll repeat it again. You've heard it, I know you heard it. When God put the first couple together, it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. And if the women think they're left out, it was Eve and Adam, not Eve and Madam. Well, inviting Jesus to your wedding and to your marriage, that's the best thing that you can do. What does that mean when you invite Jesus into your home and everything's going to be perfect? No, it's not perfect. There are no perfect marriages. You ever heard of a marriage made in heaven? You know, there's no perfect marriages. By the way, I've performed a few weddings in my lifetime. There are no perfect weddings. Something is always forgotten. Something's left out. Here in the situation that we're going to look at here in this passage, the wine ran out. Uh-oh. I might tell you about a situation where the preacher ran out, and it was me. Well, I didn't totally run out. I was going to marry a couple here. A lady used to be our piano teacher years ago. Piano teacher? Piano player. She could teach piano. I was going to marry her. Not me, I'm married to Patty, but I mean I'm married. You don't understand Mary, the man she's gonna marry. And it was in Columbia. And I got there, Patty and I got there. And it was embarrassing. I was blushing like I am right now, I was blushing. Red all over. I got there! One hour late! That was embarrassing. Bless her heart. What's her name? Betty, Betty, sweet Betty, okay. Every time I see Betty and Phil, hey, how you doing? Before we leave, they're gonna bring it up. We remember what you did. Well, we're gonna look now at the situation because the wine ran out. Look at verse three. When the wine ran out, now wine was the common drink in those days. Kind of like at our house, not wine, sweet tea. You don't want to run out of wine, especially at a wedding. If you run out of wine, I mean, the party is over. Actually, according to what they're saying, I read this, to run out of wine at a wedding was a social embarrassment. I mean, the bride, she's supposed to prepare, she's supposed to have all this thing together, but really the groom is supposed to prepare for the ceremony. And if they run out of wine, it's going to be such an embarrassment on him, they're going to be thinking, wait a minute, how is he going to take care of this girl if he can't even take care of the wedding? So it was a social embarrassment that would hang on him for the rest of his life. And so the wine, but let me say something about the wine. I know you're itching to know this. Some people read this passage and they go out and buy them a bunch of bottles of wine. The wine here in Bible days is not the same wine that you go down to the liquor store or wherever you go get it at. I don't know. Every store now, I guess. Not the same. Wine was mixed with water. Now I know wine has a large composition of water. But in those days, wine was a mixture of one part wine and three parts water. Even up to as much as one part wine and 10 parts water. It was that kind of a solution. Why is that? No refrigeration, no refrigerators, In the warm climate, tin to ferment, and so water was added to avoid drunkenness. Also, the alcoholic content served as an antiseptic to kill bacteria because the water in that day, believe it or not, you think, well, their water must have been good way back in those days. No, they had problems with water that was contaminated. Timothy, young Timothy must have made a commitment to stay away from wine because he must have drunk water all the time, and he had stomach problems. All that bacteria. And Paul said, Timothy, you need to drink some of that wine for your stomach and your frequent ailments. Man, you're getting sick. And so, I'm not a doctor here this morning, but I want you to know this. In the Bible, wine is associated with joy. Well, let me give you a few verses. There's a bunch of them, let me give you a couple of them. Ecclesiastes 9 and 7, go eat your bread with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart. Psalms 104 verse 15, wine served to gladden the heart of men. So when the wine ran out, there goes the party. So here's the mother of Jesus. They had no wine. Joseph, the husband of Mary, is not here. Many think that he's already passed away. We know at the cross, where Jesus was hanging on the cross, and his mother, Joseph, was not there. He must have died. So Jesus, being the oldest son, probably took the leadership like the father would. And so she had this, probably grew up with going to Jesus, the oldest son, to solve problems. And you know what? If you have a problem at home, It'd been nice to have Jesus there because he could fix every problem. He could figure everything out. And so here comes the mother of Jesus. They have no one. And how does Jesus respond? Verse four. Woman, Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. What have I to do with thee? What is this? Now, will you see that? Now, if I was to tell Patty one day, now woman, I'd probably get slapped across the face, wouldn't I? Now, that sounds like a disrespect, but really, that is not a disrespectful what they were saying. It would be the equivalent of saying today, ma'am, especially down here in the South, ma'am, ma'am. That's what he was saying. Why didn't he say, mother, now mother dear, why didn't Jesus just say mother? But well, listen, because here's what he said. I to do with thee." What Jesus is saying right here, the connection between you and me is over. It's not mother-son. You say, you need to look at me now not as your boy, but as the Son of God. I'm your Lord. The connection is changing. And they got a little bit of taste of that when Jesus was 12 years old. You remember they went to Jerusalem, you know, at the Passover and they left over, I think Luke chapter two, you can read about it. And, and, you know, of course Jesus had other, uh, had other brothers and sisters, but listen, they, they left and Jesus was missing. They were looking for Jesus, 12 years old. Where is he? Three days he was missing. Well, they found them in the temple. And Mary, Joseph, you've worried us. Where were you? Were you worried us? And Jesus said, listen, I must be about my what? My father's business. And the Bible says Mary treasured all this in her heart. She thought of this. And so what Jesus was saying to her here, listen, it's no more about mother's business. It's about my father's business. So here's the solution when he says, my hour has not yet come. He says, this is my hour. Now you'll see that quite often in John's gospel. You see it in John chapter seven several times. In John chapter eight, you'll see it in John chapter 13, John chapter 17. My time has not yet come. My hour has not yet come. He's talking about the cross, the purpose for which he came to die on the cross. And so here's what she says in verse five. Look at it again. His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. Do whatever he tells you. That's the solution. I mean, the solution to any problem, just do whatever he tells you. Mary knows from experience. Whatever he says, it's going to work. I found that out. You don't live in the same house and not figure that out. Just whatever he tells you to do, Do it. The solution. So let's look at the solution. Verse six. It says here that they had six stone water jars or pots. They were huge vessels and they were for Jewish rites of purification. Now they used it for cleaning. They cleaned their utensils. They cleaned the pots and all the things they were cooking with. I mean, they used it for cleaning. And a lot of it, it hailed 120 somewhere to 120 to 180 gallons. How would you like to take a bucket and tote that much water? Thank the Lord for modern day plumbing. I faintly remember the granny's house. We had to go down the spring and get a bucket of water out of the spring, but it wasn't long. Dad got her plumbed up. They got some plumbing, but that's what they did. There he is, and here's Jesus said to him, in verse seven, fill the jars with water and they fill them up to the brim. So they filled up to the brim, that is, you know, to the brims, all the way to the top. Now, I'm careful not to put my coffee all the way to the top of the brim of the cup, because there's other stuff I don't put in there, like sugar and cream, you know, because if you put it all the way to the top, you can't put anything else in it. They filled the thing all the way up with water, all the way to the brim, so you cannot add anything else. No one can slip in there and pour a bunch of wine in there and say, no, it's totally, 100%, it's water. All the way to the brim. Nothing else was added. And then that's what happened. Verse eight, he said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. Now the master of the feast was the one who was the head charge of the celebration. He wanted to make sure, he probably tasted the food and said if it was prepared right, and he was in charge, so let him check it out. He said, take it to the master of the feast, the head waiter. So they took it. In verse nine, when the master of the feast tasted the water, now become wine, he did not know, he did not know about this conversation of Jesus talking to Mary and telling the servants what to do there. He did not know where this wine came from. Now, the servants did. The servants, the ones that were carrying that water, they heard Jesus say that. They knew about the water, the servants, draw the water, they knew. The master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, wait a minute, everyone serves the good wine first. And when people have had their fill, they're drunk fully, freely, then the poor wine comes out. Now you do that at home, don't you? Say you had a bunch of people at your house, you know, you got a lot of food there, you're feeding, and then the food runs out. Well, what do you do? You go in the refrigerator and get all the leftovers out, right? So that's all we got left. I'm hungry, anything else? Oh, we do have a jar of peanut butter and some jelly. We'll put that on some bread, you know, whatever. So usually what you do, you have the best wine first, and then you run out, then you pull out the poor quality wine. That's why he said, but no, you've kept the good wine until now. Where you been hiding this stuff? You've got it out now. Well, in the remainder part of our message, I want us to look at several things about the signs or the message behind these miracle here, the sign and what it points to, the message that it gives us. Verse 11 says, here, Jesus manifested his glory. The main thing is it demonstrated the glory of our Lord. And number one, we see here, the message is trust in Christ. Do what he says. Fill those jars with water. I don't know why we're doing it, but I'm just gonna trust the Lord. Do what he says, Mary says. Trust him. Don't understand it all. Don't know how it's all gonna work out in the end. But I'm just gonna do what he says. I'm just gonna trust him, trust him. Now here's the thing about this miracle. Jesus does not perform a big show. He don't put on a big magician's hat, whatever that hat looks like, you know, and a magician's cape, you know. Abracadabra. Hey, everybody. Come around, everybody. I'm fixing to change water into wine. Everybody get a load of it. No. All that under the radar. Nobody knows now. None of that. But it was a miracle. Now, here's the thing about it. Agent Rogers made this comment, and I like it. Don't put your faith in signs or miracles. Put your faith and your trust in God. He puts it this way, he said, Agent Rogers said, I believe in miracles, but I trust in Jesus. The purpose for a miracle is to deepen our trust in him, not in the miracles. They serve as signposts, pointing us to Jesus, showing that He was who He said He is. He is God's answer to your deepest need, to your disappointments in life, and to your doubts, and to all your disabilities, and your despair, and your darkness, even to death. He's the answer. We trust in him. But the second thing, we obey him. Do what he says. Do whatever he tells you. Just do what he says. Christ will manifest his glory in a life that is obedient to the Lord. He does that. Isaiah 119 says, if you are willing and you're obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. You'll be blessed. Deuteronomy 28 talks about the blessings that you'll receive. Blessings will come upon you if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Well, everyone serves the good wine first. And when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you've kept a good wine until now. That's the third thing I want you to think about. The best comes last. Now, the world says, listen, no, no, no, no. You need to have your best life right now. Forget about the future. I mean, you need to get everything you get right now. Forget about sacrifices. Forget about putting things behind. No, no, no. You need to look out for yourself. Even the devil did this to Jesus when he's tempted. He said, listen, I'll give you the whole kingdoms of the world. Just forget about that cross. You don't need to die on a cross. Forget that. Have your best life now. No way, man. The best is yet to come. I think of Proverbs 4.18 where it says, The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until the full day. Timothy, Paul told Timothy, he said, listen, I'm fixing to leave here. I'm fixing to go. But I fought a good fight, and I've kept the faith. And there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to those who love his appearing. Heaven is coming later. The best is last. Well, draw out some of this water. Give it to the master of the feast. Let him take a sample of it. So here's the next thing I want you to think about. Enjoy Christ today. Drink it. Take a taste of it. He took a taste of it. Wow. Well, where you been keeping this stuff? This is great. And so I think what we could learn from here is enjoy the Lord Jesus right now. Enjoy him, what he provides. He provides forgiveness of sins. He gives us eternal life. John 10 verse 10 says, I have come to give them life and life more abundantly. And that may not be material way. It may not be material blessings. It could be, but it may not be that. But listen, there's something about having the Lord in your heart, and you're enjoying His presence, and you're feasting upon His Word, and there is joy. Later on in John, John chapter 7, Jesus will invite people and say, come unto me and drink. Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. You know, some people just say, well, I just want enough religion to keep out of hell. That's sad, isn't it? I just want to trust the Lord so I won't go to hell. Why not go ahead and enjoy the Lord while we're here? So many people who call themselves Christians, they act like they've been drinking persimmons and chewing on persimmons, pickle juice. I'm just endearing my salvation. I know there's suffering, I know there's things we go through in troubles and trials and we get tired and all that, but there ought to be a deep, deep, damn joy, unspeakable and full of glory. Enjoy Christ today. Enjoy Him. He's the bread of life. He's the water of life. Come and eat of Him, drink of Him, quench your thirst. I remind you of John 1 16, we pointed out when it was in that chapter. For from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. I mean, it gets better and better. Grace and grace and grace and grace. It keeps coming. And then number five, I want you to think about this. Jesus Christ changes lives. Just as sure as He changed the water into wine, He'll change an old heart and give them a new heart. I mean, He'll change a sinner into a saint. He'll change the hard heart to a soft heart. He'll change the stubborn will to a submissive will. He'll change a thief where he's no longer a thief. He'll change a drunkard where he's no longer a drunkard. He will change a liar who's no longer a liar. He changes lives. 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart, says the song. I have light in my soul for which long I had sought since Jesus came into my heart. I have ceased from my wandering and going astray since Jesus came into my heart. And my sins, which were many, are all washed away since Jesus came into my heart. Jesus will change your life. And if you're not changed, you're not saved. Now, I'm not saying you're perfect. We still have remnants of sin. But one thing about it, when you're saved by the grace of God, He takes care of that sin nature. but we keep coming back to Christ. We keep coming, get another cup full of his word. We keep coming, get another taste of his presence. We keep coming to Christ so we might grow and grow more into his likeness, more into his love and more into his holiness. And so we enjoy him. And then verse nine, the master of the feast, Man, he took a taste of that in verse nine. He tasted the water. I can just imagine him tasting that water. It's now become wine. His eyes got big. He had somebody right there, hey, try that. You try that. Hey, come here and try that. So here's the next thing. Good news is to be shared with someone else. When you have come to find Jesus so precious, so satisfying, so wonderful, it's to be shared with others. And so I believe before that day was over with, everybody knew what happened. The news got out. Verse 11 says, the glory of the Lord was manifested and his disciples. Believe on him. You see, you don't keep the most treasure, most precious treasure to yourself. You don't keep the sweetest news, the most glorious truth to yourself. You've got to tell somebody else about it. His disciples believed on him. The most important thing is to close this. This miracle, this sign points to the Lord Jesus, not to the miracle itself, but to Christ. And Jesus did not make a big display. He did that in honor of the couple getting married. If he stole the show, all the attention would bend to Jesus and the miracle, and the couple would be standing there, whoa, wait a minute, where's the crowd at? They're all over here. Jesus honored them by not doing that. But we see it here, and they saw it, and what a blessing it is. Just as sure as Jesus changed the water and the wine, he'll change your heart. And if you don't know Christ, I urge you to trust him. He will change you. He will save you. Let's pray. Hello, this is Pastor Chris Gown. Thank you for listening to the broadcast. We hope the message was helpful and edifying. If you're not a follower of Christ and you want to learn more about the Christian life, Please contact us through this website. We would love to respond to your questions. For now, may our Lord bless you and yours with his amazing love and abounding grace. Goodbye.