We know that Jesus has thoughtful care for us. John 2:2-12
The Bible is very good at dates for we read here that three days after Nathaniel was brought to Jesus they went to a wedding. We are not told why Jesus was invited to this wedding. This I know He will go where He is needed and that is good for us because we can depend on him in all of our life. I have read this wedding might have been John’s. We know that Jesus was there with the 4 disciples from His encounter with them in chapter one. The need was more wine for it had been exhausted. Jesus always has more for us even when we feel drained. What He has is much better than any thing man can give to us.
1. Jesus cares about our celebrations. This event seems to have taken place in a home and Jesus knows that the home is a sacred place and we need Him there. I have not always done this but we have started to have family devotions on regular basis in just the last few years. I do not know why I neglected it? We did have them when our children were young. Every morning for breakfast we read a devotion book and prayed together. We had a missionary book with pictures and we went through that book more than once. When I children went to college they met many of those missionary children they had prayed for. As head of the house my wife had to remind me that it was my duty for us to have devotions together. I am glad that we pray together every day.
A. This story that we read about Jesus going to a wedding shows us that He approves of marriage and that His blessings begin in the home. We find refuge in the home because we are safe with people we know. There is no other place that is like that. I know that many go to social places after work to meet with friends but there is no place like home where love is. Jesus blessed the home from the very beginning when He created Adam and Eve. The Bible says they became as one and enjoyed one another’s presence.
1. The care of Jesus is Personal, He cares for you.
B. Jesus came to bring happiness to this couple being married. Those who seek a wearisome, strict, demanding, and sad life will not find it in Jesus. Jesus loved life and lived it to the full. John Wesley said that we should enjoy life and to be as serious as possible.
Although you may be going through a difficult time you need to remember that the end has not yet come, and that our Heavenly Father may have all manner of wonderful things in store just around the bend in the road. USA TODAY once reported a story which demonstrates this fact very well. Milwaukee Hamilton High School had a 22-15 lead against Milwaukee Marshall with just a few seconds left in a football game one Friday night in September of 1983. It appeared to be a sure victory. With only four seconds remaining, Hamilton, which was on its 40-yard line, snapped the ball to Jose Alba. Alba ran back toward his end zone to run out the clock, then tossed the ball into the air as time expired, thinking the game was over, and the victory belonged to him and his teammates. But, remember-in football, the play is not finished until the ball is downed while in the possession of a player. So when the ball came down, one of Marshall’s players, Floyd Heard picked it up on the five and ran it in for a touchdown. Then with time expired, Marshall attempted the two-point conversion-and made it. They won the game 23-22. There are many times in our lives when we’re on the losing side of the scoreboard, and time is running out. If Floyd Heard had believed what the circumstances told him, he would have walked to the sideline, accepting defeat. Yet that is what we do so many times in our lives. No the game or life is over until it’s over. Be encouraged! Don’t give up! Stay the course! "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Gal 6:9
2. Jesus care about our service plans.
A. We see here our responsibility is to Him. I ask what your responsibility is. No one else can be the husband or wife to your mate that you can be. No one else can be the parent to your children like you can be. For you who not married no one can what your role is to your family like you can be. No one else can be committed to Christ for you. No one else can take the place of the role you play in this church like you can. No one else can have a daily time with God alone for you. We must not give into the thought today that someone else can do a better job or it is not my fault for the way I am.
B. Mary did not take Jesus for granted nor His blessings. She knew that He has chosen to work through people. If you do not do it, it will probably not get done. The Bible gives us story after story of people who chose to do what they should do and God worked through them. Just think if Noah had not built the ark, Abraham had not left Ur, Moses had decided to remain a son of Pharaoh, Ruth had decided to stay in Moab or the disciples decided to remain as fishermen.
C. Mary simply said “Whatever He says do it.” How much better the world would be if everyone would just say yes to Jesus. This is the way of a blessed life and our responsibility to the one who loves us so much.
2. The care of Jesus is powerful; He is able to do something about your problem.
D. A man was knocked off his donkey and became blind. His words were ones we should be seeking in our lives all the time, “Lord, what would you have me to do?”
E. We need to remove the stumbling blocks that make us slip back in our spiritual lives. Jesus said our faith can move mountains. “Six stone water pots were standing there; they were used for Jewish ceremonial purposes and held twenty to thirty gallons each. Jesus told the servants "Fill the jars with water." When the jars had been filled to the brim.” These servants only had to do what Jesus told them to do. That is what life is all about for you. You only need to do what He says. That is simple. It is our obedience that clears the way for His blessing. We give our self to Him and He does the rest. He said, "Dip some out and take it to the master of ceremonies." So they followed his instructions. When the master of ceremonies tasted the water that was now wine, not knowing where it had come from (though, of course, the servants knew), he called the bridegroom over. "Usually a host serves the best wine first," he said. "Then, when everyone is full and doesn’t care, he brings out the less expensive wines. But you have kept the best until now!" When we are set apart to God life has much joy. If you would rate your joy on a scale from one to ten with ten as high, what would it be right now?
3. The care of Jesus is practical; He does the best things, things that are above reason, beyond our desires and always for our best.
F. 1 SAM 15:22 ‘Obedience is far better than sacrifice. Listening to him is much better than offering the fat of rams.” Saul wanted to do things his way and it cost him being the king. It was simple command that he had been given and yet seven days into his being a king he made the choice to not do the right thing. Our choice matters all the time. Dr. Piper quotes. “Look around at the consequences of our public funded/government in the last 50-60 years. Many students can’t read or write or perform the most elementary of mathematical tasks and they graduate anyway. Many teachers can’t teach and they receive their tenure anyway. Standardized tests have been recalibrated because of decades of declining scores. Grade inflation makes a student’s GPA essentially meaningless in assessing their potential for collegiate success. Because ACLU threats, the good teachers that do try to minister within this mess are requires to perpetuate a morally neutral curriculum that essential leaves these same teachers watching helplessly on the sidelines as our kids go about the grizzly business of raping and killing each other. We have taught teenagers that the concept of sin is stupid and ten we wonder why our 16 girls show up for their sophomore year pregnant and proud. We’ve handed out condoms at college from coast to coast and told our next generation of leaders to be healthy while it never seemed to dawn on us that we should share with these young people the data that warns of an epidemic of STD’s running rampant in the dorms in which these same kids will live.
3. Jesus cares about our spiritual problems.
A. We only find hopelessness in sin. We find this in the embarrassment of the host and of the sinner who find out what they really are. IS 6:5 Then said I, Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. JER 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” I want us to know that Jesus can transform the heart of any one who sees sin in their life and cry out to Him for Help and deliverance.
4. The care of Jesus is prolonged; “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” “I am with you always.”
B. there is wickedness in SIN. Sin is the ruin of life. What is the first thing that we read that Adam and Eve did when they ate the fruit? They hid themselves from God and even tried to cover up their nakedness. We see here that the wine had run out that shows us that we are empty and in need of Christ to fill us. Jesus says on another occasion that you cannot put new wine in old wine skins. This means that you need a new container and a new product. The new container comes when one is born again and the new product is the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
C. The desire of our souls. The wine supply ran out during the festivities, so Jesus’ mother spoke to him about the problem. "They have no more wine," she told him. This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee was Jesus’ first display of his glory. And his disciples believed in him. All of life holds true to what is seen here. Life gives its best at first and then things never get better. I have heard this is very true with those who get involved in smoking, alcohol and drugs. The first time it is tried is the best and it can never be better. That is why we have many who when addicted never find the thrill of the first time even through they try to put more in their system.
That they lacked shows that man’s ways will never do. They had no wine shows the inadequate supply in man’s way. It shows how limited man’s ways are to God’s abundant supply. JN 1:16 And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. JN 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
JN 16:24 up till now have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
We also see in having no wine it was less than God’s best for man.
JN 2:10 "Usually a host serves the best wine first," he said. "Then, when everyone is full and doesn’t care, he brings out the less expensive wines. But you have kept the best until now!" Jesus is the perfect answer to our sin problem and gives the best. They had to only do what He said. The Bible is very clear on what the will of God is for your life. Salvation: JN 1:12, 13 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Be filled with the Spirit: Eph. 5:18 “but be filled with the Spirit. Be sanctified: ‘For this is the will of God, your sanctification: 1Th 4:3 Are we doing His will?
