that he is divine. And the second
chapter we have the evidence that he's divine. Whereas in
the first chapter we have set forth the very person of Christ
Jesus, in the second chapter we have set forth the very power
of Christ Jesus. Chapter one, the person of Christ. Chapter two, the power of Christ. Or we could say it this way,
in chapter 1 we have words of testimony as to the identity
of Jesus of Nazareth. In chapter 2, we see the works
of Jesus Christ. You see, the works of Jesus of
Nazareth, we know that they are valid. They establish who He
is. But all that he did is fully
dependent upon who he is. And so, in the Gospel of John,
and we know this from the end of the book, when John tells
us that his reason for writing is to set forth the deity of
Christ Jesus, to show us that he's the very Son of God, in
chapter 1, before he gets into the rest of the book, the Spirit
of God has the Apostle John lay down for us exactly who Jesus
of Nazareth is. Now listen, if He's not God,
He can't help us. If He's not divine, He can't
put away anybody's sins. If He's not God over all, if
He's not the Lamb of God, then His death on the cross was meaningless. You see, everything is dependent
upon who He is, and that's why John is led by the Spirit of
God, and indeed the Spirit of God gave him every word to write
in chapter 1 to lay out before us who Jesus of Nazareth is. Now it's interesting, in chapter
1 he does this, and it's the introduction to the entire book.
We know that from the second chapter through chapter number
12, we have our Lord's public ministry. And so we can fully
expect now from chapter 2 till we get to the end of chapter
12, we're going to be studying about our Lord's ministry. That
is, His ministry to the public. When we get to chapter number
13, through chapter 16, He's going to minister only to His
disciples. After all, He's going to be leaving.
In fact, He said in John chapter 14, I go away. He had said that
in chapter 13 and that troubled them. That's why Thomas said,
we don't know where you're going and we don't know the way. And
that's when the Lord Jesus said, I am the way, I am the truth,
I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. So in the first chapter, we're
introduced to Christ Jesus. Chapters 2-12, we have His public
ministry. Chapters 13-16, we have His private
ministry. that He speaks to His disciples. Now let me tell you something,
our Lord Jesus says things to His people, to His chosen ones,
to His elect, that He doesn't say to the world. He has special
things to share with those who love Him and those who believe
Him. The secret of the Lord is with
those that fear Him. God shares His secrets with His
people. The secrets of redeeming grace. The secret of how sinners can
be justified with God. God shares the secret of the
gospel with His elect. So, from chapters 13 through
16, He speaks only to His elect. Remember, we read there, He says,
having loved them, having loved His own, He loved them to the
end. Well, then we get to chapter
17, that's His high priestly prayer. Chapters 18 and 19, there's
His death and His resurrection. Chapter number 20, At the end
of the book, we're confronted with the Savior pursuing His
disciples that have fled from Him, who have quit the ministry.
So all of the book of John is setting forth our Savior, but
chapter 1 really establishes who He is. And then throughout
the rest of the book, we have declared His public ministry,
His private ministry, His intercessory prayer for His people, and then
His death and His resurrection, and His final words to His people.
But it's all dependent upon, everything is dependent upon
who He is. He's the Son of God. He's divine. He's God. He's God our Savior. Now this is what John is establishing
in his gospel, in this gospel narrative, the deity of our Lord
Jesus. So throughout the book he sets
forth eight of our Lord's miracles. Now he had a bunch of miracles,
the Spirit of God had many, many miracles. which he could have
chosen to record in the book of John. And you remember toward
the end of the book, in fact, it's right in the last chapter
of the book, that our Lord did so many things that John said
if everything that he did were written, he said, I suppose all
the books in the world couldn't hold them. Our Lord performed
many, many, many miracles. But in the Gospel of John, the
Spirit of God is very selective. as to the miracles that he would
have John to record. These miracles were all very
different. They were all very different.
And you know this about our Lord's miracles, they were always for
the benefit of the objects of the miracle. In other words,
our Lord was not a showman, right? He wasn't a showman. He wasn't
somebody who just performed a miracle just to show people that he had
the power to do it. You think about the... I mean,
our Lord had the power to do anything that He wanted to do.
Correct? Right? He had the power. He's
God. That's what's established in chapter 1. I mean, He could
have... Well, let me just throw something
out. He could have made the animals to talk. Right? He could have had people suspended
up in the air and said, I'm going to hold you there until you finally
admit I'm the Messiah. But he never did anything like
that. Every miracle that he performed was for the good of the recipients. And he performed eight. In chapter
2, he turned the water to wine. In chapter number 4, he healed
the nobleman's son who was at the very point of death. And
you'll remember that story and we'll get to it in a few weeks.
In chapter 4, this nobleman went to the Lord and he said, my son
is at the point of death. And our Lord sent him back. He
sent him back home. He said, go your way for your
son liveth. And so the nobleman, and it was
evidently a long distance that he had traveled, because he started
back and on the way he met his servants. And his servants said,
your son is alive! He's alive! And the nobleman
said, when was he healed? They said, yesterday about one
o'clock. And then he knew that was exactly
the time that he went to Jesus of Nazareth and told him what
the issue was. You see, John is showing us,
John is setting before us the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. So He healed the son of the nobleman. Then in chapter 5, He cured the
paralyzed man. Remember a man, he had been lame
for 38 years. And he dwelt there at the pool
waiting for the water to be troubled. And our Lord went through. He
didn't heal everybody. He didn't heal a dozen. He didn't
heal two. He healed one. That's His sovereign
mercy. Because He'll show mercy on whom
He'll show mercy and whom He will He hardens. So He passed
by that way all these sick people. They'd all like to be healed.
But our Lord healed one man. Then in chapter 6, he fed 6,000
people who were hungry. Also in chapter 6, he walked
on the Sea of Galilee. His disciples were crossing the
sea in a boat and a severe storm came up and they were so afraid,
they were so troubled, they thought the waves were going to wash
them away and He walked on water. And then He said to His disciples,
it is I, be not afraid. You who are on the troubled waters
of life, and you fear for the storms that blow and the wind
that you feel like is just going to toss you this way and that
way, and the waves are just going to come crashing over and wash
you away, listen to the Lord's words. It is I. Be not afraid. Don't be afraid of the storms
of life. I have a dear friend, one of
the ladies in the group in Hawaii, This past Sunday evening, she
received a kidney transplant in San Francisco. A lady had
died on the East Coast, 24 years old. And right after the service,
they had service in Honolulu Sunday, watching one of my messages
and singing together. And right after that, she got
a phone call, there's a kidney for you. And so she flew to San
Francisco. They flew the kidney to San Francisco. Late Sunday evening, she had
the transplant surgery. And I want you to remember her
in prayer. Her name is Stacy. But I've been texting her. In
fact, I spoke to her Monday. And I told her, I said, don't
be afraid. The Lord's with you. She said,
Brother Jim, the Lord's will be done. The Lord's will be done. I know He's with me. He's always
with His people. No matter what you're going through,
no matter what the trouble, no matter what the trial, no matter
what the heartache, no matter how many tears you've shed, He
is there. He said, I'll never leave you
and I'll never forsake you. And He said to His disciples,
it is I. It is I. Who are you? I'm the Son of God. I'm the Lamb
of God. I'm the Son of Man. It is I. Be not afraid. Be not afraid. And then in chapter 9, He gave
sight to a man who had been born blind. In chapter 11, He raised
Lazarus from the dead. And in chapter 21, He gave fish
to His disciples. Remember, after they had quit
the ministry and they had gone fishing and caught nothing, He
said, children, have you any meat? He didn't say rebels, though
they were rebels. He didn't say you who quit. You know, Peter said, I go fishing,
and the rest of them said, we're going too. That's like one sheep
jumps the fence and leaves, and the rest of them say, well, we're
going to follow this one. And what Peter was saying is,
I'm done with the ministry. But our Lord followed them. They
went fishing. He said, have you caught anything? Have you any meat? And they said,
no, we've toiled all night. He said, well, you need to throw
your nets on the right side of the ship. And they did. It was so many fish in the nets,
they couldn't hardly get them in the boat. Another miracle. What have all these miracles
established? What's the purpose of setting
forth all of these miracles? to show us who Jesus of Nazareth
is. He's the Lord of Glory. Now why
did He do all these miracles? Why did He perform all these
miracles? Well the answer is found actually
in our text this evening. Look at chapter 2 and verse 11.
And this can be said of all of them. Chapter 2 verse 11. This beginning of miracles did
Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth His glory. It's all about manifesting His
glory and watch the result of this. When He manifested forth
His glory, His disciples believed on Him. When is it that people
will believe on Him? When is it that people will embrace
the Son of God as needy sinners who need righteousness and forgiveness
and life and salvation? When will we come to Him? When
will we believe on Him when He manifests to us His glory? That's when. That's when. So
the question is, have you seen His glory? Have you seen the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? So all of these miracles
were to manifest His glory and to lead His people to believe
Him. Now these in verse 11, and His
disciples believed on Him, these are the five disciples that were
converted back in chapter 1. So this is not their initial
belief, but this is a deeper belief. This is believing in
more. And don't you find as a believer, as a child of God, in your own
experience, don't you find that though you believe Him, yet you
are filled with much unbelief? And isn't your cry unto God the
same cry as mine is? Lord, I believe, but help thou
mine unbelief. I want to believe You more. Well,
how will I believe Him more? Well, you just got to believe.
No, here's faith. Faith is always tied to this,
seeing His glory. That's what faith is tied to.
I've had people tell me, my faith is so weak and they don't come
and hear the Word like they should. They don't come and hear the
Gospel like they should. And they find whatever excuse
keeps them out. It's when we behold His glory. That's when faith is deepened. And when is it, as a child of
God, when is it that we seem to most behold the glory of Jesus
Christ? Is it not in the preaching of
the Gospel? When the people of God come together
and the servant of the Lord is proclaiming Christ and Him crucified,
Christ the substitute, Christ the satisfaction of divine justice,
and we behold His glory and we find ourselves believing Him
a little bit more. A little bit more. So here's
the reason for these miracles. That we see His glory and believe
Him. And you see, this evening, this
will be beneficial to you. This service will be beneficial
to me if, as we study this passage, if we can behold a little more
the glory of Jesus Christ, then we'll walk out of here focused
on Him, believing Him. You know, you know as well as
I do, the times that we get in trouble, we take our eyes off
Christ Jesus. That's just a fact. And we do
it far more than we even want to admit. Oh, keep your eyes
on Christ Jesus. Lord, show me your glory. Isn't
that what Moses prayed? He said, Lord, show me your glory. So that's why our Lord did these
miracles. Now let me give you this miracle. I'll give you three
things here. First of all, the situation.
Here are three points to the message. The situation, verses
1 through 5. The third day, chapter 2, verse
1. The third day there was a marriage
in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now, our
Lord Jesus grew up in Nazareth, which was about 8 or nine miles
from Cana. He lived in Nazareth most of
his first 30 years. Now Nazareth was quite a bit
bigger than Cana was and we could maybe say that Cana was like
a suburb of Nazareth. That's where Mary and Joseph
had lived and And that's where the brothers and sisters of our
Lord live. And you'll notice that there
is no mention of Joseph, by the way. Most believe that he's already
died. He's not even in the picture.
We read of Joseph in Luke, the second chapter, when our Lord
Jesus was 12 years old. That's the last time we read
anything about Joseph. And you remember when our Lord
was dying on the cross for sinners, and He looked at John and said,
Behold your mother. And to her, Behold your son.
He wouldn't have done that if Joseph was still alive. So Joseph
is not in the picture here. But our Lord's mother, the mother
of His earthly nature, she was there. She was there. And our Lord would go to this. Of course, the marriage back
then, as it is often today, was a very extravagant thing. It
lasted, like I told you last week, a week. And there was lots
of food, lots of drinking of wine. Well, look at the second
verse. And both Jesus was called and his disciples, those five
disciples now, that were newly converted back in chapter one.
They were with him. So somewhere, our Lord, it took
him a couple of days walking from being in Bethabara to go
to Cana. That's about 22 miles or so.
That's a couple of days of walking and evidently somewhere along
the way, messengers were sent to him and said, we won't invite
you to a wedding. And your disciples are also invited. And most likely, and most of
the commentators mentioned this, that the reason Mary was there,
either she's a relative of whoever got married or she knew them
real well because she's the one who speaks up when they didn't
have any wine left. So it's like she was an assistant.
She's kind of an assistant in charge. And most likely our Lord
Jesus knew whoever it was that was getting married because this
is so close to Nazareth. And so they sent word to him,
well you're invited and you can bring your disciples with you.
Now our Lord, this is his first miracle now, we're told that.
And he puts his stamp of approval on marriage. And verse three,
when they wanted wine, when they lacked wine, the wine ran out.
And back in those days, you've got to understand, wine was the
main beverage. It was the main drink. And you
say, well, was it fermented wine? Absolutely it was fermented wine.
That's why the Apostle Paul said some were getting drunk at the
Lord's table. You can't get drunk on grape juice. You get sick
on grape juice, but you can't get drunk on grape juice. And
they didn't have refrigeration, that sort of thing, back then,
so you couldn't have grape juice just for a few days. It turned
to wine. It fermented. And this was the main beverage.
Oftentimes, the water, the animals were drinking the water, and
so the preferred beverage was wine. Wine. Now, you know, too much wine
will make a fool out of you. And the scripture says very,
very clearly, be not drunk with wine. Be not drunk with wine. It's a mockery. It will mock
you. Be very careful. Be very careful. But at this wedding, wine was
very important and at some point they ran out. So Mary went to
the Lord Jesus in verse 3, when they wanted wine, the mother
of Jesus saith unto him, they have no wine. Now, I think back behind the statement,
based upon the way our Lord answered her, I think back behind her
statement was this, now is the time you can show your power. Now is the time you can manifest
to all these people who you are and what you can do. Right now. Right now. Then, in verse 4, Jesus saith
unto her, Woman, and He wasn't being rude to her. The word is
literally, Lady. Just like He would address any
other woman. What have I to do with thee?
Mine hour is not yet come." He did not address her as mother. Our Lord Jesus knew the era that
would be in the future regarding the mother of our Lord and the
worship of Mary. And if He had said mother, Why,
the Roman Catholic Church and others as well, they would have
gone absolutely crazy over that. They would use that as a proof
text. He didn't say mother, he said
woman. Woman. You see, it's as though
he's breaking that earthly relationship right now. It's the beginning
of his public ministry. And he's saying to her, listen,
your position as my mother, as my parent, has now come to an
end. I'm out from under your roof.
I'm beginning my public ministry now. Woman, woman, lady, what
is in common, literally, what do we have in common on this?
What is this to you? In other words, I will do what
I will do. And you can't tell me what to
do. He said, my hour is not yet come. That is the hour of the real
revelation of who He is, which is at the cross. as the substitute
and as the sacrifice. That hour. He often wrote about
that hour. The hour hasn't come. Then in
John chapter 12 and also in John chapter 17, in his high priestly
prayer, he said, now the hour has come. What hour? What hour? The hour of His death. The hour
when He had put away our sins by the sacrifice of Himself.
The hour when He would satisfy God's law that had been offended
and stirred to anger because of our sins. That's when the
hour arrived. Well, His mother got the message.
Mary got the message. Verse 5, His mother saith unto
the servants, Whatsoever He saith to you, do it. She got the message
loud and clear. Whatever he says, that's what
you do. Now here's the second thing.
Here's the supply. Verses 6 through 10. And there
were set there six water pots of stone, after the manner of
the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.
By the way, the Word of God often uses wine as a symbol of joy
and happiness. Psalm 104 verse 15, wine that
maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine.
Judges chapter 9 verse 13, the vine said to them, should I leave
my wine which cheers the heart of God and man? Wine which cheers
the heart of God and man? Proverbs chapter 31, give strong
drink to him that is ready to perish and wine to those that
be of a heavy heart. Let him drink and forget his
poverty and remember his misery no more. What's it talking about
there? That's the gospel. The wine of the gospel. Drink
in the wine of the gospel. It makes merry the heart of God
and the heart of man. Did you get that from judges?
It makes glad the heart of God Almighty and the heart of man
who is needy. How does it make God's heart
glad? It gives Him the glory. How does it make our hearts glad?
Our sins are forgiven and washed away and we are righteous before
God. Drink the wine of the gospel. Don't get drunk on the wine of
the world. Drink in the wine of the gospel
and you're free to drink all you want. It'll make your heart
merry. It'll make your heart glad. In
fact, there's nothing else in the world that will make you
glad except the gospel of God's free grace. That's where the
joy comes from. So, here's these six stone water
pots. What were they used for? For
purifying. This is where they washed their
hands ceremonially. Remember how in Mark, Mark chapter
7 verse 3, for the Pharisees and all the Jews say, except
they wash their hands oft and eat not, holding the tradition
of the elders. It was a ceremonial washing,
not for sanitation. But for religious purposes. And
that's what these six stone water pots were for. You come in and
wash your hands. There's six of them. They're
going to the marriage. They're going to have a religious ceremony. And everybody's coming in and
washing their hands. It's a ceremonial thing. Notice this. They had run out
of wine. And I think there's some symbolism
in this. Judaism brought no joy, brought no happiness,
brought no peace to the heart. Let me tell you something, you
get into false religion, you get into regulations and keeping
laws and rules and all that kind of stuff, it won't bring you
any joy. It puts you in bondage. Religion
today puts people in bondage. There's no freedom, there's no
joy, there's no happiness. Only the gospel brings real happiness. This is the way Judaism was.
Empty. No wine. There's no wine in Judaism. There's no wine in false religion. It won't make your heart merry.
Oh, there's silliness in it. There's laughter in it. There's
commotion in it. But there's no real joy and peace
in the heart that all is well between you and a holy God. Only
the gospel brings that. No wine, no joy, no comfort,
nothing to soothe the soul of man. It's six water pots. Six, that's the number of man,
which is the number of failure. The number of failure. It's like
the number of the of false religion. 666. What? 3-6. What's 3? That's a perfect
number. 3-6. Man is perfect failure.
That's what man is. Failure, failure, failure. That's
man. Here's six water pots. The failure
of Judaism to provide any joy and peace and salvation for the
people. Our Lord said, you fill those
water pots. A firkin, I know you use that
word every day, don't you? A firkin. A firkin was about
eight and a half gallons. Do the math. Eight and a half
gallons. So in verse seven, Jesus saith
unto them, fill the water pots with water. And they filled them
to the brim. And they didn't have a faucet
they could turn on. They had to go to the river or
go to a spring or go to a well or somewhere. That's a lot of
water. And then He said to these servants,
He said, draw out now and bear unto the governor of the feast.
And they bared. Now who's the governor of the
feast? He's like the head waiter. This is a man whose job, he worked
weddings. And he was the one in charge
of making sure everybody was seated right. The one who was
in charge of all the food is in charge of tasting the wine
and tasting the food. Make sure everything is just
right. So the Lord Jesus said, dip down in the water. He didn't
say water. He said, dip down and take it
to the governor. Take this to the head waiter. And the servants did that. Look at verse 9, when the ruler
of the feast had tasted the water that was made, and he didn't
know whence it, he didn't know it come out of those six stone
pots. But the servants knew, verse
9, the servants knew which drew the water they knew. The governor
of the feast, he said, where's the bridegroom? I want to see
him. Remember, I told you last week, these wedding feasts were
held at the house of the bridegroom. The bridegroom. Revelation chapter 19, the marriage
supper of the Lamb. We go home with the bridegroom.
We go to his house. He is going to come get us and
take us to his house. Oh, blessed day when we go to
his house. We spend forever with him. Marriage
supper of the Lamb. That is not going to last just
a week. That'll last for eternity. All the celebration, the joy,
and the worship. Look at verse 10. He saith to
them, every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine. And
when men have well drunk, their taste buds get dull, then that
which is worse. In other words, bring out the
good wine first, and then when people are well drunk, say, well,
we'll give you the cheap stuff. But he said, you've kept the
good wine until now. You've saved the best to last. You know what our Lord does?
He gives us the best. The best wine. The best wine. Our brother read to us there
from the book of Isaiah about wine on the leaves. That's the
very best wine of all. This gospel of God's grace, it's
the best wine there is. The Apostle Paul said, he told
Timothy, he said, take a little wine for your stomach's sake.
And I'll tell you this, take a little wine for your heart's
sake, would you? Take some wine for your soul's
sake. Drink in the wine of the gospel. And then get another glass, drink
another glass. It does your heart good, does
your heart good. And then here's the last thing.
The significance. The significance. Verse 11. This
beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested
forth His glory and His disciples believed on. This strengthened
the faith of His five newly called disciples. And this miracle was
to set forth the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll give
you this and I'll quit. Moses' first miracle. He changed water to blood. Death. That's all the law can do. Kill. The law kills. Our Lord Jesus,
He changed water to wine. Makes the heart Alright, let's
sing the closing song.