Let’s open our Bibles to John chapter 2. And as you’re turning I want to tell you the story of Blaise Pascal who was a French mathematician and philosopher. In his writings, which were entitled Pensees, he traces the logical progression of his thoughts on many subjects. And then something happened to Pascal which was beyond logic and rational thought. To give you an idea of what happened, after his death, his servant found a piece of paper sewn into the lining of his coat and I want to read to you what that piece of paper said. Here is what Blaise Pascal wrote:
“The year of grace 1654. Monday, 23 November, . . From about 10:30 PM until about 12:30 AM. FIRE. The God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob. Not of the philosophers and intellectuals. Complete submission to Jesus Christ. Certainty, assurance, feeling of joy, peace . . .joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.”
Blaise Pascal had an encounter with the Living God, Who is a consuming Fire, which resulted in this logical, intellectual man completely submitting to Jesus Christ. The result of which was tears of joy, pure joy, unspeakable joy. The title of the message today is Jesus: the Great Joy-Giver. Let’s read John 2:1-11:
1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, "They have no more wine." 4 "Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come." 5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." 6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now." 11 This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him. John 2:1-11 (NIV)
The title of the message this morning, as I told you, is Jesus: the Great Joy-Giver. I was going to call it Jesus: the Great Miracle-Working, Need-Meeting, People-Loving, Heart-Satisfying, Glory-Revealing, Faith-Instilling, Gospel-bringing Joy-Giver but it seemed a bit long, so I shortened it willy-nilly to Jesus: the Great Joy-Giver.
Now just as a reminder of where we have come from, John chapter 1 tells us that Jesus Christ is God. Verse 1 calls Jesus “the Word” and says “the Word was God.” And now, in chapter 2 we are seeing proofs of the Deity of Jesus Christ. In this story we see that Jesus is sovereign over nature, He is God over creation. He can make water or wine at His discretion. He is God. The words about the Deity of Jesus Christ in chapter 1 are confirmed by His works in chapter 2 so that the words and works of Jesus Christ all give the same message. This is God in human form here.
Last week we saw Jesus calling 2 more disciples to follow Him, for a total of 6 now. We recall one of the things that Jesus said to Nathaniel was that Nathaniel would see “greater things than these”, meaning that he would see even greater proofs that Jesus really was the Messiah. Nathaniel would see greater things, and would have even more reasons to believe. And this miracle Jesus does, of converting water into wine, is further proof that He is God and gives the disciples even more reason to believe.
So this morning I just want to talk about 3 things relating to this miracle we have in John chapter 2:
The setting of the miracle
The miracle itself
The results of the miracle
The occasion or the setting of the miracle:
We see Jesus going with his disciples to Cana in Galilee where there is a wedding celebration that they’ve been invited to. Cana was a small town about 6 miles north-east of Nazareth. Today this town is now called Kefr Kenna, is under the government of a Turkish officer, and about three hundred people live there, mainly all Catholics. The natives of this town still show the place where the water was turned into wine, and they even have one of the large stone water-pots that Jesus used in the miracle.
Now I want to show you something wonderful. This place, Cana, is in the tribe of Asher. Remember when the 12 tribes got their inheritance, each one received a parcel of land, well Cana is part of the inheritance that Asher was given. And you know what is prophesied of Asher? Genesis 49:20 says: "Asher’s food will be rich; he will provide delicacies for a king.” Genesis 49:20 (NIV)
And so the prophecy is that Asher would provide food for a king. And it’s not just any food, it’s rich food, food that would be served at a feast. Ah here comes King Jesus to Asher, to this marriage supper, the wedding banquet, and Asher is fulfilling prophecy now as He provides King Jesus with the rich food of this wedding feast. Listen: not one word of this Book will ever fail. Every word is flawless. If it says Asher is going to supply the king with a feast of delicacies then he will.
Now Jesus’ mother is at this feast, we are assuming that by now Joseph was probably dead, and verse 2 says, “Jesus and His disciples were at the wedding.” And you know what is so wonderful? His disciples got to go with Him to this wedding feast. And so I’ll just mention this to you that those who follow Jesus will feast with Jesus. He says, “where I am there my servant will be also” and part of our following of Jesus Christ is to be able to fellowship and feast with Him. In fact, to His followers, that’s really what the Bible is, it is a Feast of fellowship with Jesus, and if you haven’t discovered this about the Bible yet then I am sending you an invitation to this feast. Come and dine, turn the pages, eat, drink and be merry!
So they’re at the wedding feast but they encounter a problem, they run out of wine. The Jewish rabbis had a saying, ‘Without wine there is no joy.” At the wedding in Cana their joy had run out! Their wine had run out. And in verse 3 Jesus’ mother says to Him, “they have no more wine.” Now several things are clear here: the first is that there is a need, and the second is Jesus’ mother goes to Jesus with the problem. Here is the occasion of the miracle, they are at a wedding feast, there is a need, they have run out of wine. But Mary knows where to go with any need.
But before we discuss the miracle itself, I just want to take a moment and make application to us right now. Think for just a moment about any needs that you might have in your life, and it is those very needs that you too can take to Jesus and leave with Him. He has a million and one ways that He can meet your need, go to Him. But let me caution us this morning, don’t go to man with your needs, go to God with them. He can fix the problem. Mary didn’t go to the bridegroom or to the master of the banquet, she went to Jesus. It breaks my heart today to see millions of Christians going to man for their needs today. Only Jesus Christ can really meet our needs, whether they are spiritual, financial, or whatever they are; Jesus Christ is well able to meet needs. Mary knew Jesus could do something about the problem, so she went to Him.
But Jesus issues somewhat of a rebuke to his mother in verse 4 asking her "Dear woman, why do you involve me?" "My time has not yet come." Now this seems very strange for Jesus to be rebuking his mother like this, but not if we understand what is happening here. There is a change in relationship now. Up to this time Jesus has been with His family, privately, but now Jesus is entering into His public ministry as Messiah. No longer is the primary relationship mother and son, but now it has to become Messiah and disciple.
"Well why does Jesus not call her mother? Why does He call her woman?" Let me give you a couple reasons. First, had Jesus called her mother, He would have been emphasizing His human relationship to her. When He called her lady or woman, He is speaking to her as God. In effect saying, "Mary, it’s no more the human relationship that’s important. I’m leaving the private life, you’re now talking not as much to your son but to the Son of God. It’s no longer mother, and it’s always woman or lady from here on out."
But also, by Jesus calling Mary “woman” he is providing a standing testimony against that Mariolatry which he foresaw coming into the church that would exalt Mary and give her the title “the queen of heaven, the salvation of the world, their mediatrix. No, no no, this is a woman. Mary is blessed among women, but never blessed above women.
Verse 6 tells us there are 6 stone water jars that the Jews use in their ceremonial cleansing. Mark 7:3 says, "For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands observing the traditions of the elders”. So all this washing the Jews did was not a hygiene thing it was a ceremonial thing, it was religious tradition. In fact you could say that those empty, stone jars represent the religion of the Jews quite well, as their religion at this point is empty, it’s just tradition and empty ceremonies, it has no power.
Now in chapter 1 of John it tells us that the Law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Well by bringing up the Jewish religion, John is still making that comparison between Moses and Jesus. At the beginning of his ministry Moses did a miracle too, he turned water into blood. And in so doing God’s wrath was revealed and fear was instilled. Jesus turned water into wine--His glory is revealed and faith is instilled. The Law brings a curse, the gospel brings a blessing. The old dead, empty, religion of the Jews is going to give way to the gospel and be transformed by the Spirit of God and bring gladness and joy to many people.
Now comes the second point—the miracle itself. In verse 7 Jesus tells the servants to fill the jars, and they fill them to the brim. Well why do they fill them to the brim? So that nothing could be added. It’s not like they filled them halfway with water, then somebody filled up the rest with Chardonnay in, no those pots were filled with water all the way up, clear to the brim, so people could not miss the miracle.
And in verse 8 Jesus tells the servants to draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet and in verse 9 this guy is like a judge at a wine tasting contest. You can picture him swirling it around, smelling it, taking just a sip, and then saying, “Wow, Paul Masson, 1972, this is good stuff!” You better believe if Jesus made it it was good. And this is the miracle itself, the actual changing of water into wine. It is the miracle of transformation.
Now there are 2 objections that we get about this point. The first is, that some people claim that Jesus did not change water into real wine, that all he did was change it into very good grape juice! This is simply not true. You can see that it was actually alcohol from verse 10 as it speaks of people having “too much to drink.” People had to watch it then, just as they must watch it today. The Bible condemns overdrinking as sin. But our Lord certainly did change water into real, true, genuine wine. This is the miracle itself.
The second objection is that some people can’t accept miracles, don’t believe in miracles and so they try to explain it away as what’s called “natural process”. And what they do is they add some days in here, between when the water pots were filled, and through natural process the residue of the grapes in the pots combined with the water and after a period of time out came wine. Kind of like creation: ok there was this big lake alright? Then there was this single cell like thing. And then there was this explosion, and out came this thing that looked like my grandpa but walked on four feet instead of two.
You see what Jesus really did here was create something out of nothing. There were no grapes, no seeds, no vines, nothing. This was a little creation in Cana. Surely the God Who made a whole world of everything out of nothing can create wine out of water. And for those of us who are being transformed by God’s power it is easy to believe in this miracle. If anyone is in Christ he is a new---what—creation. So we’re miracles too.
Now in verse 9 the servants were smiling to themselves. They knew what had happened. They had gone traipsing off to the lake or wherever they got their water and they had just hauled 150 gallons of water back, and they knew it was water, but the master is drinking wine. The servants knew that Jesus had done a miracle. But you know what is so sad to me? At the end of this story you don’t see these servants following Jesus. Wait a minute, you just witnessed a miracle, in front of your very eyes, don’t you want to believe and follow? But I compare this to preaching; every week we preach, displaying the glory of the Son of God, and some people may not have put their faith in Jesus yet. We hold Him out, we put Him on display, yet some don’t believe. Please don’t let that be you.
And the master of the banquet says in verse 10: "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now." John 2:10 (NIV)
See it was customary in those days to serve the best wine first when everybody had their senses about them and they could taste it, and then when everybody was snockered you brought out the Mogen David; it was cheap and they didn’t care. But not Jesus, He saved the best until last. The Bible says “Wine makes the heart glad”, and here was Jesus, the Great Joy-Giver. And if you are believer, you will see that it gets better and better with Jesus, until we come to the end of our lives, and discover that we have just begun to live. Because Jesus saves the best until last. Opposite devil.
I want us to apply this just now. What Jesus did for these people brought joy. Wine, in the Bible is a symbol of the good news that Jesus brings to all people. William Tyndale said that euangelion (the Gospel) signifies a “good, merry, glad and joyful tiding, that makes a man’s heart glad, and makes him sing, dance and leap for joy.” The angel said to the Shepherd, “I bring you glad tidings of great joy which shall be for all people.”
And so, when we read that all who believe are forgiven of all their sins, it should bring us joy. When we read that Jesus died in our place, and thereby entirely removed our guilt, it should delight our hearts. And when we read that He opened heaven for us, literally buying our eternal life through His death on the cross, it should cause us to rejoice. Make us thankful. Bring us joy! “we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” Romans 5:11 (KJV)
See the atonement, that is, what Jesus did on the cross to remove our sin, is the grounds and basis of rejoicing in God. Billy Sunday said, “if you have no joy, there’s a leak in your Christianity.” Jesus is the Great Joy-Giver, not only by providing wine at a marriage banquet, but by providing His own blood to give us life.
And now let’s conclude with the results of the miracle, which we can see in verse 10:
This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him. John 2:11 (NIV)
Three truths are presented here:
First, John says that the miracle was a sign, that is, it pointed to something. What was this miracle of sign of? It was a sign of His Deity. It pointed to the fact that He was God. It was a sign of His power over nature. It was a sign that He is the Messiah, that even nature submits to Him and obeys Him.
According to John, the second truth is, "it displayed his glory." The glory of Jesus is that He is God and that He has power over heaven and earth, power over all nature. But you know what I love about Jesus, is that He uses His power to bless people and to do them good. He used His miraculous powers to bring joy to a marriage feast. I mean, here is Absolute Power combined with Absolute Love. Might mixed with Mercy! That’s the glory of Jesus. All His power is put forth to bring joy to a wedding feast.
The third factor John brings out is: "his disciples put their faith in him." When the disciples saw it they believed more deeply in him than before. Here was One who could take a commonplace thing, nothing out of the ordinary, simple water, and make of it wine, make it a source of joy, of glory and of warmth.
Have you put your faith in Him? You just saw Him working right in those 11 verses. He’s the miracle worker. If you are not a believer, the One who turned water into wine can turn your death into life. He can turn your sorrow into joy, He can turn your pain into peace. He can turn your sin into righteousness. He can turn your judgment into glorification. He can create in you a clean heart. He can make you new. He’s the Creator Christ, the miracle worker. It starts with putting your faith in Him. “The opposite of joy is not sorrow. It is unbelief “
You see before we believe in Jesus, we are like those water jars: empty, stony hard hearts, sitting off to the side doing nothing. But Jesus is able to fill us, fill us to the brim, and transform us and then use us to bring joy to others. Believe it. Don’t think that this is for someone else this morning, no this miracle is to bring you to faith, so that Jesus can bring joy to you. Listen to how Peter connects faith with joy in 1 Peter 1: 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8-9 (NIV)
Blaise Pascal was an intellectual philosopher, a worldly wise man, but in his submission to Jesus Christ, in his newfound faith, he found joy, unspeakable joy, tears of Joy, because he met and submitted to the great miracle-working, life-transforming Joy-Giver. Have you? Let’s pray.
