Brethren, if you will, be turning
to John chapter 2. Gospel of John chapter 2. While
you're turning there, look at this last year Matthew. John the Baptist has sent his
disciples to Jesus. And they said, are you Him? And
Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again
those things which you do here and see. The blind receive their
sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up, and the
poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he whosoever
shall not be offended in Me." That was a miracle we looked
at before. poor have the gospel preached to them. So tonight
we're going to look at a miracle. John chapter 2, begin in verse
1. In the third day there was a
marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
And both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage.
And when they waited, they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus said
unto him, they have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, woman,
what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. His mother saith unto the servants,
whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. And there were set there
six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of
the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. Jesus saith unto
them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up
to the brim. And he saith unto them, Draw
out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it.
When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made
wine, and knew not whence it was, but the servants which drew
the water knew, the governor of the feast called to the bridegroom,
and saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth
good wine, and when men have well drunk, then that which is
worse, but thou hast kept the good wine until now. This beginning
of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth
His glory. And His disciples believed on
Him. I pray today that we can see
Christ's glory manifested to us, revealed to us. And I pray
that His people believe on Him. Wouldn't that be something? So
when we look at this, miracle that the Lord performed. We've
got to remember what water means in the Scripture. Water can mean
a lot of different things in the Scripture, but primarily
it's the Holy Ghost and it's the Word, that Living Word, that
Living Water. It's life put in us. And then
what does wine represent? It's the blood of Christ. It's
the required payment for sin to satisfy the Father. That's
what justice demands. That's what the wine represents.
Now in verse 11 there it says, this is the beginning of miracles. Turning the water into wine was
not only the first public miracle Christ performed, but it was
a tremendously important miracle. The word beginning there also
means chief. So this was the first miracle,
and it was the head miracle, the chief miracle. And there's
so much in this text here. I've done all I could to at least
get the highlights of it. But if this was the only recorded
miracle of our Lord, we would have enough to preach on for
several thousand years. There's a lot here. But it hurts
my heart to see so many people walk through this world and they
misunderstand and they misinterpret this passage, this text. This is not a party trick. I've
heard blasphemous things when people refer to this miracle.
This miracle here in John 2, it announces the salvation given
freely to chosen sinners through the blood sacrifice of Christ
the God-man. That's not something to take
lightly, is it? But we have a great advantage in this small church
out here in the county. We have a tremendous blessing.
And just like its location of the wedding, we're in a less
desired place. We're not in a big metropolitan
city with all the people of power, all the people of respect. Everyone
knows this Cana, there were two of them in the scriptures, but
this Cana was about nine miles from Nazareth. It was out in
the corner of the county and it was just a remnant of people
there. It wasn't a large gathering,
it wasn't a busy place. And it was needful that this
miracle took place here. Joshua tells us that this Cana
was where the tribe of Asher lived. And then in Genesis 49,
we're told, out of Asher, his bread shall be fat and he shall
yield royal dainties. That word dainties means delicious
things to eat. Wonderful things are going to
come out of Canaan. This miracle we see today is according to
the scriptures. Now in verse 1 it says, And the
third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the mother
of Jesus was there. And both Jesus was called and
His disciples to the marriage. Our wedding ceremony was secured
on the third day. From eternity we were espoused
to one husband. But on that third day when Christ
rose out of the tomb, That was official. That solidified the
marriage. Our master attending this wedding
and performing his first miracle there, that chief of miracles,
was no accident. The fact that he attended a wedding
shows us his approval of marriage and he shows us something to
do with the sanctity of marriage. Now this first institution of
marriage was established by God in the garden. Eve was made for
Adam. Marriage is a picture of Christ
and His church. And the church, as the bride
of Christ, was made for Him. We were given to one husband.
We were adorned by Him. We were provided for by Him. We're given His name. We're made
one with Him, joint heirs with Him. And in His perfect love,
He laid down His life for His bride, as we're instructed to. But He fulfilled it. He did it.
Now, in an earthly marriage, it's a wonderful thing to have
Christ there at your marriage and in your marriage. If a married
couple is focused on our Master, if they're focused on loving
Him, on serving Him, on obeying Him, everything else falls into place. But all the scriptures concerning
marriage tells us how we are to treat the other person. Scripture doesn't tell me how
I'm supposed to be treated. It tells me how I'm supposed
to treat her. But often we read those texts and I see what my
portion is, how I'm supposed to treat my bride. And then I
see the instructions to the other spouse. And I think, well, I
wish they'd hear that. You all don't do that. I know
you don't. I do. The person that's always at fault
is the other one. You ever talk to somebody? Ever? Who's wrong? The other person?
It ain't me. That's a terrible way to be in
this world. We should not be that way in our earthly marriage,
and saints will not be that way in our heavenly marriage. We
won't be. We see how we are to honor, how
we're to love, how we're to serve and respect Christ, but we do
not come to our Holy Husband with demands. We don't come and
say, you need to do this. I expect that to be done. We
don't approach Him that way. We come like that leper saying,
Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. And we will see His
will enacted here in a little bit. But at this wedding in Cana,
they were not a wealthy family. This was a poor family in a poor
part of the country. Mary, the mother of Christ, was
there, and it seems like she's looking after the events, kind
of like what we call a wedding planner nowadays. She just makes
sure everything's in order. We see there in verse 3, and
when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus said unto him, they
have no wine. Now this is a story about a wedding
that does not have wine, and the people want to have a drink
to celebrate. That is what physically happened. But spiritually, this
is an allegory of our gospel. This is a beautiful picture of
our gospel. These poor people, they had no wine. The Greek wording
there is the wine failed. They did have some, but it was
either not enough or it went bad. There are poor people out
in the country that have no wine. What could that be a picture
of? There's no redemptive blood for them. The sacrificial blood
that they have has failed. It's failed them. It ain't going
to do the job, and they know it. We have no blood. We have no wine. Now verse 4,
Jesus says unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? My hour
is not yet come." The master here is gently rebuking Mary. This is in love. He's being kind
to her, but he tells her, my hour is not yet come. Why would
he say that? There's so many people in religious
circles that see this and think that Christ wasn't supposed to
perform a miracle yet. But his mom asked him, and he
bent to her will. He gave in to her wishes. against
His Father's will and His Father's timing, but He gave in to her
timing. That's not the case here. Our Lord submitted to His earthly
mother and His Father while He was on this earth, while He was
under them. But here our Master tells Mary, what have I to do
with Thee? My hour has not yet come. What
hour is He speaking of? We turn to John chapter 12. Every
commentator I read on this verse In John 2.4, they had a different
angle. They approached this in a different
way. John Gill had four different angles. He's more thorough. But if you're preaching a gospel
message that gives Christ all the glory, any of those approaches
are fine. And it shows a good point. It
shows a good message. It's clear. But I could not settle
on any of those points. Any of those angles they had.
And so I thought, why am I looking in the wrong place? I'm going
to look in the Scriptures and see what the Scriptures have
to say about it. It might shed some light on them commentators,
right? John 12, verse 23, And Jesus answered them, saying,
The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. Look down at verse 27. Now was
my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this
hour? But for this cause came I unto
this hour. Christ came in the form of a
man, and he became something he was not. And He came to die. He came to shed His blood on
the cross for His elect people. And that was what was always
on His heart. Accomplishing the will of His
Father. Our Master said in John 6, For
I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will
of Him that sent me. Now there in our text, Christ
is reminding Mary of His true purpose. the meaningful purpose
and he had been reminding her and teaching her his whole life.
This isn't a new event between our master and his earthly mother. Turn over to Luke chapter 2.
We'll remember that Joseph of Mary went to a Passover
feast every year And whenever that was completed, they thought
Christ was with them. They thought He was in the company.
And they started heading back home. And they got about a day's
journey away, and they realized that He was not with them. That
12-year-old boy was still back there in Jerusalem. And so they
drove back, and they looked for three days, and finally they
found Him in the temple. There in Luke 2, verse 49, it
says, And He said unto them, How is it that ye sought me?
Wist not that I must be about my father's business?" Why are
you looking for me? Don't you know I'm supposed to
be about my father's business? I'm here to perform a task. I'm
here to accomplish something. In verse 50, "...and they understood
not the saying which he spake unto them. And he went down with
them, came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them. But his mother
kept all these sayings in her heart." Believers know that Christ
came to accomplish the will of His Father fully and totally. And that was on the forefront
of His mind, as it should be on the forefront of our weak
minds. But we keep these things in our hearts. We may not understand
them like Mary did. She didn't understand, but we
keep them. We're reminded of these things.
And it's revealed in our hearts that what God does is always
right. He doesn't do what's right. What
He does is right. He's holy. We submit to Christ's
wisdom. We submit to His will. And we
tell others to do the same. That's what I hope I'm doing.
Submit to Him. That's what we tell our friends
and family and whoever asks us why we're coming here. Smith
to Christ. Here in our text in verse 5 is
a great picture of that. Can you imagine what went through
the mind and heart of Mary? She knew from conception that
God in human flesh was with her. Throughout Christ's entire childhood
it was made evident he had a holy nature. There was no sin in him
from birth. I'd say he stood out from the
other children. He did things a little different than those
other children did, didn't he? She saw him astonishing those
doctors and lawyers and Pharisees there in the temple at such a
young age. The wisdom that he had. He was
asking them questions and correcting them and teaching them. But Mary
approached Almighty God and brought a care she had concerning this
world. And He immediately brought her
into remembrance of the true purpose of this earth and Him
being in it. She was reminded of the heavenly
kingdom that Christ was preparing, not this present world. She saw
the work that Christ must provide for the souls of His saints,
not just temporal provisions. Look there at verse 5. And His
mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever He saith unto you,
do it. I pray that when I have a trial,
a hard trial in this life, or if I have a mild concern, that
I'm always brought to see the cross of Christ. That's what
true prayer results in, submission. Submission to the Lord. If we're
His, our pure minds are going to be stirred up and we will
be able to submit. And just as Mary did here, we'll
say whatever He says, do it. We'll give, won't we? Remember
Eli? He didn't restrain his sons.
And the Lord came to Samuel that night. Came to him in a vision
and spoke to him. And He said, here's what I'm
going to do to Eli. I told Eli and I'm going to tell you. I'm
going to destroy his house. He told all the things he was
going to do to Eli. And Samuel, the next morning, he's up all
night. Eli came to him and said, what did the Lord say? And Samuel
told him word for word what the Lord said. And Eli responded,
it is the Lord. Let Him do what seemeth Him good. That's where we're brought. That's
a good place to be. When the Lord rebukes and chastens
one of His elect, we are made humble and we bow to our Savior. Now Christ must have given some
instruction here. It's not recorded, but there's
some action taken. The servants that obeyed the
Master were used, and our Lord uses means in this world to accomplish
His will and the saving of His people. Look here in John 2,
verse 6. And there were set there six
waterpots of stone, after the manner of purifying of the Jews,
containing two or three firkins apiece." Now there are three
statements in this verse, and I want to look at all three of
them separately, and I'll be brief about it. But first it
says there are six stone waterpots. Six is the number of incompletion.
It's not complete. Seven's perfection, completion.
Six isn't. That's the number of man. Adam
was made on the sixth day on this earth, out of this earth,
and a stone is dead. There's no warmth in it, and
there's no life in it, in and of itself. And these pots represent
me, represent you. I was thinking yesterday, me
and Kimberly was coming down here this morning, And my car
was rolling over 66,666 miles. I missed it by a mile in the
parking lot. And I got tickled. People get
afraid of those things. They get superstitious. That
word in the scriptures means overly religious. When I was
in Germany, that was my mailbox number they assigned me. And
it was box 6, CMR box 666. And Henry asked me, he said,
I'm going to send you a letter. What's your address? I said,
I really don't want to tell you. I don't mean nothing, but it's just weird.
I don't want to send anything about that. That's me. I ain't
scared of some beast with a tattoo or something. That beast is in
me. That's what I am. That's this
old nature I walk around with every day. I'm incomplete. I'm
a stone vessel, dead. Next it says, after the manner
of purifying the Jews, these vessels, they were used in the
washing of hands from their creation. Since the potter made them, they
were only used to clean the outside of stuff. That was their purpose. They were earthly, they represented
men, and they were only good for rituals that profited nothing. That's me. Whole lot. But it says they could hold two
or three firkings. Now this is a heavily debated
topic. I didn't realize how many opinions
there would be on how much these pots held. But that's a stumbling
stone for a lot of people. They can get tied up on the ins
and outs of how much this actually was. Well, how much was it? They
hold a lot. Those six of them hold a bunch.
Somewhere between 60 and 120 gallons. That's a whole bunch
of wine. When I used to make wine, I'd make about five gallons
at a time and I didn't know what to do with it. It's a whole bunch
of wine. It's a whole bunch. But how much
wine is that? It's more than enough for the
entire wedding feast. In those days, a wedding celebration
took seven days. That's on purpose. Seven is completion. That's perfection. Our wedding
to our heavenly husband is perfect. Perfectly completed. But the
number of perfection is completion. And the wine that will be provided
by Christ, that blood redemption, is enough for the entire feast
and He will not run out and He will not fail. it'll do its job. Verse 7, Jesus saith unto them,
fill the water pots with water and they filled them to the brim. Now the word of the Lord through
the Holy Spirit empties a dead stony human and we're not filled
halfway and we need to fill the rest of ourselves the other half.
We're not filled in part. we're filled to the brim. A sinner
that has a work done in his heart is overflowing with joy, we're
overflowing with mercies, we're overflowing with His forgiveness,
and we're cleansed. There's no space of emptiness.
If a man or woman has listened to preaching concerning a God
that has left something for them to do, or has left them partly
empty, they are not receiving that living water. It hasn't
been applied to them. They're not being filled by the
Christ of the Bible. Period. Verse 8. Here's the result of the Almighty
God filling an earthen vessel to the brim with the Word of
God, with that living water. John 2, 8. And He saith unto
them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor the feast.
And they bear it. What comes out is won, and it
is completely and fully satisfying to that governor of the feast.
The cross is put in us, and whenever it's drawn out of us after His
redemptive work to our Father, the heavenly governor of our
wedding feast, He's fully satisfied. Christ gives us a new nature,
a new heart, and the people He saved, everything that comes
out of these stone vessels is perfect and pleasing to God the
Father. He made us that way. Do you hear
what Christ said when He turned that water into wine? Nope. He didn't say abracadabra. He didn't speak anything. He
didn't mumble anything. He said, draw it out. And it
was wine when they brought it out. Nothing was heard or done. How come? He willed it to be
so. He wanted that water to wine
and it was wine. He didn't need to say anything.
Physically speaking, he turned a thing into something that it
was not. That wine was not as, the water
was not as if it was wine. It was not going to be wine down
the road after some more work. And it was not still water, but
we're going to just act like it's wine. It was wine. That
seems simple. That's strong. What was that like? What does
that remind me of? We quote so many times 2 Corinthians 5. For
he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. with the wine. And that miracle of the wine
happened. I didn't see it happen. I didn't hear any fancy words
being said. I cannot chemically explain how
that water is wine. But I know it's so. There was
water there, and it's wine now. With my salvation, I know that
it's not as if I'm made righteous. I know I am made righteous. How much righteousness was made?
How many gallons of righteousness did we get? The perfect and complete
amount. The lasting amount. We got more
than enough. I don't need to bring anything.
I have no empty spots and it's complete and it satisfies the
governor of the feast. It's full. Isn't that good news? It has a wonderful savor to it.
But that's not the end of it. That's good news. What was put
in me satisfies God Almighty. But there's better news coming.
That's hard to imagine for us. We can't enter into those things.
There in verse 9, When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water
that was made wine, and knew not whence it was, but the servants
which drew the water knew. The Lord's servants know what
they are telling you. You may not know, but they do.
Your friends and family that you tell of Christ's redemptive
work, they don't know what you're saying, but you know. The governor
of the feast called the bridegroom, and he saith unto him, Every
man at the beginning doth set forth good wine, and when the
men have well drunk, then that which is worse. But thou hast
kept the good wine until now. If anybody was ever a teenager
or young, You get the good wine first, something good that's
tasty to drink. Then once you had a couple, then
you can have the cheap stuff and you can't tell the difference.
You save a lot of money that way. This ain't a cheap party
trick and this ain't cutting corners. The good wine first
and then the cheap wine is our kingdom. That's of this earth,
not in Christ's kingdom. Not in His kingdom. Our amazement
and glorying in Christ will continue to get better. His majesty will
wax greater and greater, as the scriptures say. It's going to
keep getting sweeter. On this earth will grow in grace
and love for the Master. But after this race is run, after
this walk on this earth is over, the best is yet to come. We will
be with the fine wine on the lees, as Isaiah said. What's lees? I told you earlier,
I used to make a little bit of wine. So the chemical process,
everything in biology is based off of yeast. Yeast is leaven,
makes bread rise, and we know that leaven represents sin, doesn't
it? But that yeast in wine, it eats
those sugars, and it makes, through anaerobic respiration, makes
alcohol, produces alcohol. After it produces alcohol, it
dies, and it sinks to the bottom. And on the bottom of that wine,
The big old jug of wine on the canner, the whole bottom of it's
real gray and fuzzy, hazy. That's dead yeast. It's over. It's dead. And then you rack
the wine. It's well refined. And you take
all the good wine off the top and you leave all that leaves
in the bottom and you get rid of it. You just dump it out.
Go throw it in your garden. It's fertilizer. It's all it's
good for. We're that wine well refined. He said, your sins I
will remember no more. They are removed as far as the
east is from the west. They're gone. Isaiah 25 says, and in this mountain
shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat
things, a feast of wine on the leaves. All that sugar has been
consumed. All that leaves, all that yeast
is dead, gone. and the fat things of marrow,
of wine and leaves well refined." We will only be the perfectly
preserved fruit of the vine with nothing corruptible in it. Pure. Pure wine. No sin in us and we'll
be worshipping our Savior for eternity without sin. That's better, isn't it? I don't know what that's going
to be like. I daydream about it, and I'm jealous of my brothers
and sisters that know right now. Oh, it's going to be something.
Verse 11, John 2.11, this beginning, this chief, first of miracles
did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth His glory. People look at that and say,
He just turns water into wine. He manifested forth His glory.
I'm going to take you empty pots. I'm going to fill you with the
Word and my redemption will be effectual for you more than enough
forever. For eternity. And I'll keep refining
it. And what happened to the people
that are His? He just called out Andrew and
Simon right before they got to that wedding. Three days prior.
What happened? And His disciples believed on
Him. Believe on Him. I don't know
who's His. believe on Him, and they will.
Those that are His, He'll call out, He'll make it effectual
in their hearts, and He'll fill them to the brim with His Word,
with His life, and they'll believe Him. Heavenly Father, thank You for
preserving Your Word so we can see this chief of miracles. What
a thought, Lord. us earthen vessels. We were used
for nothing but blasphemous rituals. Lord, you emptied us, filled
us with Christ. We can't understand that, Lord.
Thank you. Thank you for your forgiveness of sins. Thank you
for his substitutionary work. Lord, forgive us this day. our
sins ever before us and what a battle it is on this earth,
but like Mary, Lord, when we come to you, remind us of the
work you've already accomplished. Stir up our pure minds and point
us towards Christ. Let us see that this world's
not our home. We're only passing through, Lord. Keep us until
that day we can see you face to face Worship without sin. Be perfect. Be kept forever.
Thank You, Lord. Be with our brethren everywhere.
Be with those that couldn't meet with us and those that are suffering. Give them the comfort that only
You can give. It's a cross thing that we ask it. Amen.