Do as He Says
This past week was our first week back in school and it is a week that many teachers dread because you have to get back into the groove of teaching and the harder part is getting kids back into the groove of learning.
I am never amazed when you cover something in class for three days straight and you get to a review day with your students and they act like they never have heard the stuff before.
The same could be said even of Sunday school sometimes. Sometimes we think kids may really understand Bible stories and we may be shocked to learn that kids really don’t understand the fine details of a story.
One such story illustrates this point.
A Sunday school teacher was speaking to a group of four-year-olds about Jesus, Joseph and Mary. After the lesson the kids were to draw a picture depicting their favorite part of the story. The teacher shared the pictures the children drew with the entire class. She got pictures of the Baby Jesus in the manger with animals, she got pictures of the three wise men and the like. Then she got to a picture from little Jimmy, a picture of an airplane with four people on it. She called Jimmy up to explain his picture. She told Jimmy that she could see Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus, obviously in their 'flight' to Egypt. She didn't understand why there was another man on the plane. Jimmy quickly explained, 'That's Pontius, the pilot.'
I hope today this sermon makes more sense to you than the story did to that kid Sunday school.
Intro:
Last week we saw that John starts his gospel with “In the Beginning” – It tells us that he is tying his gospel to the Creation account.
John 1 and Genesis 1- John is making a connection with the Creation story and Genesis.
Let us take our minds back to the Creation story and think of the images:
God Spoke – The WORD
In Genesis God separated the darkness from the Light
In Beginning , Light, Darkness, God, the Word, Life – All words that are shared between John 1 and Genesis 1
In Genesis 1 we see the Spirit of God hovering over the watery chaos and in John’s Gospel we see the Spirit of God hovering over the waters of Jesus baptism in the form of a dove.
We will see something interesting in John’s gospel –
John only records Seven Miracles in his account. The number seven is significant in that there were seven days of Creation. John also shows Jesus celebrate 7 feasts of the Jews. We see the number seven repeated in John’s Gospel because he is tying his gospel back to the Creation story.
John refers to the miracles that Jesus performs as SIGNS-
What the other three gospels called as miracles, John calls Signs
You can divide John into two halves – the first half chapter 1-12 and it is the book of Signs
Chapter 13-21 is called the Book of Glory – where Jesus manifests His Glory
John’s miracle stories were to show that fixating with the supernatural is a wrong approach. Signs point beyond themselves to something else.
For example, you can drive south on 431 to Huntsville. The first time you see a sign that says Huntsville it would be foolish to stop at the sign and say, Well I am here! No, the sign tells us to go further. John is doing the same with Jesus miracles. Go beyond the miracles to the greater truth which is Jesus Himself.
John wants us to see the signs and miracles in this book as something pointing to the THE TRUTH – Jesus – Don’t get caught up in the miracle itself but the power and truth behind the miracle.
SETTING THE STAGE
This morning we are going to look at a miracle that Jesus performs in Cana of Galilee in John 2
AS JOHN LEADS TO THIS MIRACLE – we see a ticking off of days just like Genesis
John 1 - Verse 29, 35, 43 – The Next Day – Just like Genesis 1
On day one we see the testimony of John the Baptist
Verse 29 Day two – Jesus is baptized
Verse 35 day three
Verse 43 day four – Day three and four the disciples are called culminating with Nathaniel’s calling
John 2:1 on the third day – three days later – when you add up the days you have seven days.
John is telling by his chronology that Jesus will perform His first miracle on day SEVEN
This goes right with the theme that he has stuck with so far in His Gospel – Remember that God created the world in SEVEN days. Something new is starting in Jesus on day SEVEN – Jesus will work this miracle after seven days into His ministry
Weddings were, and are, a big deal in the Jewish culture. There is a certain protocol that was to be followed. If the bride were a virgin, the wedding occurred on Wednesday. If the was bride a widow, the wedding came on Thursday.
The wedding ceremony would take place late in the evening after a time of feasting. The father of the bride would take his daughter on his arm, and with the wedding party in tow, would parade through the streets of the village so that everyone could come out and congratulate the bride. Finally the wedding party would arrive at the home of the groom. The wedding actually took place in the front door of the grooms house. It was no short ceremony….no the festivities lasted for days. It was a time of great celebration.
After the wedding ceremony the bride and groom walked through the streets accompanied by flaming torches. Their attendants walked with them keeping a canopy over their heads. The wedding party always took the longest route through the village so that as many people as possible could wish them well.
There was no such thing as a honeymoon! No, the couple kept open house for a week. They were treated like royalty. They dressed in fancy clothes and many times actually wore crowns on their heads. Whatever desire they spoke for…they received. Their word was law!
The grooms family was expected to provide all the refreshments for this week of festivities.
The wedding feast at Cana is only recorded in John’s Gospel
Jesus goes to a wedding – something is being told to us. Something will change.
Water to Wine -
John 2: 1-11
1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there ; 2 and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine." 4 And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come." 5 His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it." 6 Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. 7 Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water." So they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, "Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter." So they took it to him. 9 When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew ), the headwaiter called the bridegroom, 10 and said to him, "Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now." 11 This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.
1) MARRIAGE IMAGE - It is important that Jesus picked a marriage supper to work His first miracle – we see this idea of marriage run all through the Bible
In the OT we see that Israel was God’s bride and in the NT we see that the Church is the bride of Christ.
This feast is an in-between time where we are getting a glimpse of what is to come. A feast of plenty is what God has in store.
Isaiah the prophet foretold a time when the Messiah would come and put things right.
Isaiah 25:6-9
6 On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. for the LORD has spoken. 9 It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
This time IN Cana is a now but not yet period of human history. Much like how we live.
We live in the time after the resurrection of Christ but still awaiting his coming Glory to be revealed.
In this story we see a wedding feast and a glorious miracle as a type of foretaste to what is to come.
This same author, John, will write about a marriage supper later in the bible in the Book of Revelation:
The idea of Jesus performing His first miracle at a wedding also looks forward to another time when He will return and we will dine with Christ at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Revelation 19: 7-9
7 "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." 8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean ; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. 9 Then he said to me, "Write, 'Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' " And he said to me, "These are true words of God."
Our ultimate hope is the marriage supper of the Lamb when we will dine with Christ in the New Heavens, the New Jerusalem, in our new resurrected bodies.
Jesus picks a wedding to work His first miracle as an Advanced sign of when great feasting and drinking will come in His Kingdom – In the Now he has Given us His Lord’s Supper to anticipate that time to come.
When we partake of the Cup and Bread, and Commune with the risen Christ let us remember that and look forward to that consummation.
2) Wine is an important metaphor for messianic times.
Joel and Amos the prophets foretold of a time when the mountains would drip with wine and the hills would flow with wine. The people living in the time of Jesus saw the time of the Messiah as a time that would be a time of feasting.
This image would not be lost on Jesus disciples when He turns water to wine. This image would burn deep into their minds.
The story tells us that there were six water pots that Jesus instructed them to fill to the brim. These each held 20 gallons each for a total of 120 gallons.
This is not just a miracle of Quality – Normally water would fall as rain and grapes would grow and then those grapes would be converted to wine – now it happens at an instant.
This is also a miracle of Quantity – God gives generously – 120 gallons worth – much more than enough.
This was a lot of water to be changed to wine. This was a Bigger miracle than we may imagine.
The water pots were made of stone because they were used for ritual purity. Stone was a clean container for ritual purity in Judaism.
In Rabbinic tradition 6 water pots of this size were adequate to make a large multitude of people ritually pure.
They ran out of wine and this would not have been proper.
Suddenly the host discovers that they are running out of wine. They had more guest than they anticipated. It would have been improper for the culture of this time to not have wine. Jews did not get drunk at these celebrations—drunkenness was considered a disgrace. But the host could have actually been sued for a breach of hospitality to his guest.
The Jewish rabbis had a saying, ‘Without wine there is no joy.”
Jesus miracle by turning water to wine signifies many things.
The wine would harken back to the Messianic expectations but more importantly what John told us in the preamble – GRACE UPON GRACE – the Law of Moses dealt with limited resources in trying to make people ritually clean but Jesus brought more than we could ever need. Superabundance of GRACE UPON GRACE –
Not only did Jesus turn water to wine but He turned water to good wine to very good wine. To wine that was either of very low alcohol content or no alcohol content. This was the good tasting stuff and in super abundant amounts.
Jesus left no doubt that he brought superabundance.
3) The idea of Mary Jesus mother being at this feast is important.
Jesus calls Mary in this story WOMAN – this is important – woman is a strange thing to call someone.
We see the term woman become very important in the Genesis account.
The Term Woman is very important in this passage and Jesus was not at all being disrespectful to His Mother.
Genesis 2: 21-24
21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept ; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh ; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." 24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife ; and they shall become one flesh.
This passage shows setting of the story of the creation of the Woman in the Creation account.
Eve would come from the side of Adam, it would be from the side of Adam that would come the Woman.
Later in John’s Gospel we will see the Christ’s side is pierced on the Cross, when Jesus side is pierced we witness blood and water pour forth.
From the side of Jesus will come forth the birth of His bride the Church – the church will be washed in water and covered in His blood.
Just as the bride Eve came from Adam’s side, we are to draw close to the side of Jesus and remember the blood that was spilled for us.
There is only one other place in John’s Gospel where we find Mary the Mother of Jesus and that is at his cross. We see here with John the Disciple, John the one that Jesus loved.
Jesus once again calls Mary WOMAN in John 19:26 when He was on the cross.
John 19: 26-27
26 When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, "Woman, behold, your son !" 27 Then He said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother !" From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.
Why would John continue to hammer home the point of calling Mary – WOMAN – if you take your mind back to the creation you will realize that Eve, as the first born was disobedient, she did not fight against the Serpent in the Garden but gave in and was mislead.
The first woman was deceived and sinned.
Genesis 3:15
15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed ; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."
In the prophecy made to Eve by God shows that God will put back together the disobedience of Eve through the seed of a woman. This seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent would be Christ.
We see that Jesus was born of a virgin. He was literally the seed of a woman since he had no earthly father and was conceived in the womb of Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now Mary would be that woman that would be a part of God’s great plan to put things right.
In Mary we can learn several lessons:
1) By saying Yes To God, she accepted her own salvation – She did the opposite of the first woman, this woman was obedient to God and in here obedience, made salvation possible to herself but also to us.
When the Angel Gabriel appeared to her she was ready to do God’s work and was willing.
A model of the attitude that we should have to God’s work on us. – Saying Yes and allowing God to do in our live what He wants to do
We need to be willing to put our whole heart into our faith and allow for the possibility of hurt and jubilation
In Luke 1: 38 we see Mary’s attitude on display as an example for all of us.
Luke 1:38
And Mary said, "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord ; may it be done to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.
How many of us would do right by saying to God –I am your slave Lord- do unto me as you like!
2) She understood the power of Christ and what He could do
One of my favorite parts of this story in John 2 is the fact that even after Jesus responds to Mary by basically saying that they have nothing to do with the problem at hand, she still turns to the servants at the feast and says - DO AS HE SAYS
THAT IS A GREAT FAITH THAT SEEMS SIMPLE BUT IS EXTRAORDINARY- DO AS HE SAYS
How many of us have that type of attitude that says that we should do as Christ says.
That really sums up the work of the Church in that we are teach one another and others – Do as Christ says
Conclusion:
As you can tell this morning this story of the wedding feast in Cana is a multilayered story.
There is so much to sink your teeth into in this story that you can get lost in the details and distracted. This morning the key for us is to understand that this same Christ Jesus that changed this water to wine, who took empty water containers and filled them with the finest wine of all wants to fill us up with His Grace.
WHO ARE WE IN THIS STORY?
1) Are we the ones concerned about not having enough wine, are we worried about little things that don’t really matter.
Imagine here is the person that created water, that created the grape itself, here is the Creator of the Universe – Here He is at the table and feasting with these people and they have no idea.
So many people live today in a haze. They live life like nothing really matters but the task at hand – day to day life and nothing else really matters.
They don’t live called and as God’s children – a different type of person, these people are oblivious and look not different than the world around them.
2) We could be the apostles, they see the signs and have faith. They are hot right now but we will see later in the Gospel that they will have weak faith.
They will abandon Jesus at the very time that he needs them, when He is going to the cross.
They will have a faith that is up and down and hot and cold. I can see myself in their lives. I see my inconsistencies, I see how that at times I am hot and then I get cold when life starts to happen and distract.
This faith is a faith that needs to mature and the good news is that the disciples matured in their faith and were able to carry the gospel to the world.
3) The final person that we see thrust into this story that is the epitome of the faith that we need is Mary.
The Mother of Jesus has the strongest faith of all – Do AS HE SAYS-
She will be with Him all the way – She will go with him all the way to the cross and as Simeon had prophesied, she will have a sword pierce her heart.
Will we be willing to do AS HE SAYS!
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