"Transformed!" Series

“Transformed!”

John 2:1-11

Please open your Bibles to the gospel of John, chapter 2. Today we are beginning a new sermon series I have titled, Jesus the miracle worker. Read John 2:1-11.

It’s good when you start, to start at the beginning. Before Jesus made his official entrance into public ministry, Jesus performed one miracle. He would then go on to perform nearly 40. Most seem to agree on about 38 that we have record of. It is important to stop and remember what John said: “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” I’m sure there were many other signs and miracles we are simply not aware of.

But this was the first and it is interesting that he chose to perform this miracle at a wedding. Less than a week has now gone by since Jesus had appeared in the desert. John had prophesied that Jesus was coming and when he arrived, John said, “Behold the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sins of the world. “There was a system taught in the OT for hundreds of years that on particular days man should bring a sacrifice-often a lamb. The lamb was to be without blemish. The lamb would then be sacrificed on the altar, blood would be shed and man would receive forgiveness. This completed the Scripture that says without shedding of blood there is no remission/forgiveness of sins. Now this lamb has arrived and that system from the OT is about to change completely.

Then in just a few days a wedding takes place in Cana. We don’t know how many guests there were but the Scripture does tell us that Jesus and his mother were there and also his disciples. The Scripture gets right to the point-there was a problem-they had run out of wine and so Mary took the need to Jesus. She made him aware. I suppose that it is difficult to know exactly why she told Jesus--after all we have no record of any previous miracle Jesus had performed and later in verse 11 we learn in fact that this was his first. But certainly by this time Mary was fully aware that her son, Jesus was the very Son of God himself. So she says, ”hey, Jesus, they don’t have any wine.” His response captures our attention because it sounds so abrupt. Look at it. “What has this concern of yours to do with me, woman?”

Things are now beginning to change. Their relationship is beginning to change. This is likely the first time Mary had asked Jesus for help in a public setting. And what Jesus has to say here in the 2nd part….when He says what does this have to do with me? Seems to be explained in the last part. My hour has not yet come.

So Mary who is apparently expecting this need to be taken care of then speaks to the servants and said, “Do whatever he tells you.” There’s a principle found here that God’s people have attempted to live by for 2000 years and here it is:

• Do whatever he tells you.

Mary knew that Jesus could do whatever was necessary as long as the servants obeyed. And the same is true today.

• Jesus is more than able to do whatever was necessary/needed in your family

• Jesus is more than able to do whatever is necessary in your personal life.

• Jesus is more than able to do whatever is necessary to heal relationships, to heal people, to heal circumstances.

You see for the very first time the public is about to see that in any situation, Jesus the miracle worker can take something that is broken and fix it. He can take something that is old and make it new. Look at what he does. Verse six. There are six of the stone jars and each one will hold about 20 gallons. Possibly 30. So we have over 120 gallons of water available here. They are told to take them and fill them to the brim. These pots were used for washing. The Jews had practiced for years that they should not eat until they had washed their hands carefully. We still practice this. “Hey kids wash up it’s time to eat.” These large pots were used because they had to wash cooking utensils as well; pots and pans.

So Mary tells them to fill them and John reports that they filled them up to the brim. Now not sure why we have that particular detail except that it does point out that nothing else was added. No wine was added. No Kool-Aid was added. No food coloring was added. Just water-filled to the top. So now Jesus chooses some of the servants to help again and he tells them to draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. Not to the waiters, not to the maître d’... Take it to the master. The main guy. Now these would be very heavy. A gallon of water weighs just over 8 pounds so each container could’ve weighed in excess of 200 pounds and there are six of them. So there were more than just a few men carrying these. Because this is over 1000 pounds.