How do you restore your joy?
John 2:1-11
Story: Some years ago when Johnny Carson was the host of the The Tonight Show he interviewed an eight year old boy. The boy was asked to appear because he had rescued two friends in a coalmine outside his hometown in West Virginia.
As Carson questioned the boy, it became apparent to him and the audience that the young man was a Christian. So Carson asked him if he attended Sunday school.
When the boy said he did Johnny inquired, "What are you learning in Sunday school?"
"Last week," the boy replied, "our lesson was about when Jesus went to a wedding and turned water into wine." The audience roared with laughter but Carson tried to keep a straight face. Then he said, "And what did you learn from that story?"
The boy squirmed in his chair. It was apparent he hadn’t thought about this. But then he broke into a smile and said, "If you’re going to have a wedding, make sure you invite Jesus!"
Back Ground:Perhaps he was on to something because weddings are time of Joy.
A. The first miracle of our Lord took place in a town called,
Cana of Galilee.
1. The event was a wedding.
2. Cana was a inconspicuous little town that lay outside of Nazareth.
3.Cana had no social prominence in its day! In fact, biblical scholars took 1800 years before they could figure out just where this town was.
B. Mary the mother of Jesus, and Jesus and his disciples
had all been invited to the wedding.
1.It’s interesting to note: Jesus ministry, like his birth,
began in a small, unimportant town, to common every
day folks.
C. Weddings were, and are, a big deal in the Jewish
culture.
1.There is a certain protocol that was to be followed.
2.If the bride were a virgin, the wedding occurred on Wednesday.
3. If the bride a widow, the wedding came on Thursday.
C. The wedding ceremony would take place late in the
evening after a time of feasting.
1.The father of the bride would take his daughter on his arm, and with the wedding party in tow, would parade through the streets of the village so that
2.Everyone could come out and congratulate the bride.
3. Finally the wedding party would arrive at the home of the groom. The wedding actually took place in the front door of the grooms house.
a. It was no short ceremony….no the festivities usually lasted for days.
b. It was a time of great celebration.
c. After the wedding ceremony the bride and groom walked through the streets accompanied by flaming torches.
1.The wedding party always took the longest route through the village so that as many people as possible could wish them well.
F. The grooms family was expected to provide all the
refreshments for this week of festivities.
That’s where we pick up our scripture: Read John 2:1-11
A. The host discovers that they are running out of wine.
And you couldn’t just pop down to Wal-Mart’s or Brookshiress and get a few bottles more
1.They had more guest than they anticipated.
2. In the first century, running out of wine at a wedding was a social disgrace.
3.Jews did not get drunk at these celebrations—drunkenness was considered a disgrace.
4.But the host could have actually been sued for a breach of hospitality to his guest.
5.And in those days a wedding went on for a good week with the couple keeping open house rather than going off on honeymoon
B. Mary comes to Jesus and says, “Son, we’ve got a
problem. The groom’s family is running out of wine.”
I.FIND THE SOURCE
1. Mary knew where to go.. knew what she had to
do....
2..She didn’t waste time fooling with everything
else...
3..She knew how to find the source...!
II. Likewise, we have to know how to find the source...!
1. We need to know how to go to God in our time of need...
2.How to go to Him when our wine runs out....
3. For indeed He is The Source... Just look at Gen 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth....” The fact that Mary came to Jesus with such a problem is a reminder that Jesus is concerned with the everyday things in life that we face.
1. Jesus answers his mother in what seems like a harsh way.
2.He was not being harsh,
Question: Those stone pots represented lots of wine
We are told that there are 16 glasses to a gallon
6 x 20 gallon pots = 1920 glasses
6 x 30 gallon pots = 2880 glasses
Answer= 2,400 glasses – 150 gallons of wine
A. John calls this first miracle a sign.
1.Signs give us information-- point us in the direction.
2.The miracles of Christ were always meant to reveal to us the glory of God, and point us to who He truly is.
THIS 1ST SIGN TELLS US…:
I. ….The wine can run out.
A. Mary realizes the seriousness of the issue. You can hear it
in her words… “They have no wine.”
1. To the Jewish people wine symbolized joy.
The Jewish rabbis had a saying, ‘Without wine there is no joy.”
At the wedding in Cana their joy had run out!
3.It is a reminder of the emptiness of our life without Christ
4.This statement by the mother of Jesus goes beyond liquid refreshment at a wedding. It is symbolic of our lives. It is a scary thing when the “wine runs out.”
EMPTINESS Tennis star Boris Becker was at the very top of the tennis world -- yet he was on the brink of suicide. He said, "I had won Wimbledon twice before, once as the youngest player.
I was rich. I had all the material possessions I needed ... It's the old song of movie stars and pop stars who commit suicide. They have everything, and yet they are so unhappy. I had no inner peace. I was a puppet on a string."
Becker is not the only one to feel that sense of emptiness. The echoes of a hollow life pervade our culture. One doesn't have to read many contemporary biographies to find the same frustration and disappointment. Jack Higgens, author of such successful novels as The Eagle Has Landed, was asked what he would like to have known as a boy. His answer: "That when you get to the top, there's nothing there."
B. There are times when the wine runs out. The joy is dry!
HOWARD HUGHES All he ever really wanted in life was more.
He wanted more money, so he parlayed inherited wealth into a billion-dollar pile of assets.
He wanted more fame, so he broke into the Hollywood scene and soon became a filmmaker and star.
He wanted more sensual pleasures, so he paid handsome sums to indulge his every sexual urge.
He wanted more thrills, so he designed, built, and piloted the fastest aircraft in the world.
He wanted more power, so he secretly dealt political favors so skillfully that two U.S. presidents became his pawns.
All he ever wanted was more. He was absolutely convinced that more would bring him true satisfaction.
Unfortunately, history shows otherwise. He concluded his life emaciated; colorless; sunken chest; fingernails in grotesque, inches-long corkscrews; rotting, black teeth; tumors; innumerable needle marks from his drug addiction.
Howard Hughes died believing the myth of more. He died a billionaire junkie, insane by all reasonable standards.
A1. After the feast begins, a tragic thing happens…
1. After only three days into the weeklong celebration, the wine runs out…!
2.And that’s what happens in many of our lives today…
3.Soon after you start serving the Lord…
4.Doing His Will…
5.Walking in His Way…
6.Turning away from sin…
7.Leaving ungodly folk behind…
8. Changing your lifestyle…
9.Changing your mindset…
1.Your wine begins to run out…! Wine in this context represents our JOY!!
2. A man just this past week had lost everything—In desperation he goes home and murders his family and himself
3.Families that were once began with exuberant joy are now ending in the pain of divorce—why? There is no more joy in the relationship.
4. There are those who have not went to that extreme but they are not living life. ………….they are just enduring life.
………..They drift from one day to the next.
You and I have no resources available within ourselves to replace the joy. Only new wine can come from Jesus Christ.
This sign teaches us that…
II. …When the wine runs out, Jesus can turn the water
into wine.
A. Mary came to Jesus and told him of the problem that
they were facing.
I can just imagine her telling the groom’s mother, “You hold on just a minute! I know just what to do with this situation.” She came to Jesus to the servants. “Whatever he says to you, do it” Just Do It!
1.Jesus took the waterpots that were filled with water for
handwashing.
When the guest arrived someone would pour some of this water over their hands in a symbolic purification. To eat with unwashed hands would have been a defilement.
2.Jesus took this water and made approx. 180 gallons of wine. What a wedding gift.
3. If we look at the first miracle we see this truth…Jesus is not just the giver of joy…
4.He is the giver of “abundant” joy.
5. He not only met their immediate need, but he gave an abundance.
B.Jesus did not just make some ordinary wine. The produced was better than that which they had started the celebration with.
1. Jesus didn’t just doctor the water so that it tasted like
wine. No, the water in those pots was transformed into
the finest wine the people had ever tasted.
2. Jesus is not going to just Band-aid up our lives a little
bit.—no he wants to transform your life, just like he changed
that water. Our lives will take on a new nature.
C. “Don’t focus on the stone water pots—and miss the whole
point—Jesus is about transformation.
1. He turned…
2..---• water into wine
3. ---• he turns frowns into smiles
4. ---• he turns whimpers of fear into songs of hope
5.-----• he turns deserts into gardens
6. -----• he turns sorrow into joy
7. -----• he turns sin into grace
8. -----• death into life.
D. Jesus is all about transforming power. Changing lives—
Setting the captive free-----that’s what its all about.
This Sign teaches us that…
III. Jesus offers an abundance of new wine at the end.
A. Sometimes its hard for us to understand God not only
Meeting our need but providing for us an abundance.
1. That’s the story of grace. There is no measure to grace.
2. That’s God’s love. There is nothing that you can do that
will cause God to diminish his love for you.
Tell the story of when you were in High School and tied the boy up. My dad said this, “I will spend every dime that I have to help you out of jail!”
3. Understand this principle …God is not just a God of
the required—he is a God of the abundance.
a. Malachi 3:10, “Bring all the tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and prove me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, If I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it”
B. Not “just enough”—an abundance
1. Look at the Rocky Mts? There is an overabundance.
a. Have you ever seen a field of wildflowers? Not just enough to fill a vase in your living room, but more than enough.
This is the picture of grace……………………………………
……………God always gives more than you will ever need!
C. So the wine is poured out and all the people who are
present rejoice at the richness of this “new wine”.
1. This was completely against custom.
2..The best wine was always offered first.
b. Isn’t that just like our Lord? The best always comes at the
end Jesus has poured out in us the richness of his love and
forgiveness.!
What do you do when the wine runs out?
Jesus commanded a miracle that not only met their immediate need...but a miracle of abundance.
Has your joy ran out today? Jesus wants to restore your JOY
u see every time I get a hold of the Good Wine, I understand more what Peter meant in (Acts 2:14-21...)
“Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning!
No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: "`In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
38Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
