Experience the New Wine
John 2:1-11
November 13, 2011
Morning Service
Illustration: Kim Kardashian and the 72 day marriage
We live in a society of disposable relationships
In the past week, I have heard of strained relationships with married couples, strained relationships between siblings, strained relationships between friends and strained relationships with the church family.
Strain in relationships is nothing new
• Cain killed Abel
• Abraham parted company with Lot
• David was mocked by his brother Eliab before he killed Goliath
• Peter openly disagreed with Jesus
• Paul and Barnabas went separate ways after a disagreement
It’s been said that Cain had a problem with God and took it out on his brother
What causes all of this strain?
James gives us an answer that I want to look at for just a moment before we get into the main text.
1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. James 4:1-2
James makes it clear that the cause of quarrels and fights is the desires that battle within us. What is James talking about? James is driving at the problem behind the problem. The real cause of stress, strain and division is our human nature. Our human nature is marred and mangled by the power of sin. The nature that is at war within us is simply nothing more than carnality. Our carnal nature is of the flesh and it is constantly battling the spiritual nature within us that is empowered by the Holy Spirit.
What is the answer to these issues in relationships? Where can we look to find some answers? It might surprise you but the answer is revealed in the first miracle of Jesus. If you have your Bibles, please open them to the second chapter of John.
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
Wedding – relationship
Wonder – redemption
Wine - restoration
Experience the Wedding: We were created for a relationship with Christ
The relationship was created at the beginning of time
The Garden of Eden was the place of intimate relationship between God and humanity.
We were created to enjoy this intimacy with God but the fall of Adam and the introduction of sin has destroyed the intimacy.
Jesus is the groom and the church is the bride
The theme of a wedding flows through the whole of scripture
• Adam and Eve were the first marriage – The bible begins with a marriage. Marriage is a union between a husband and wife that is bound together by the relationship with God. Is it any wonder that we see so many failed marriages in a society that refuses to embrace Christ?
• Jesus chooses the first miracle to be at a wedding to redeem the metaphor of weddings
• Revelation describes the final victory celebration of Jesus as the wedding feast of the Lamb.
The metaphor is one of enjoying a relationship with God. The wedding is not the end of the relationship but the beginning of the relationship. Jesus is using this opportunity to engage the people and us today in an intimate relationship with God.
The experience of the wedding is one of relationships. No one goes to a wedding for someone they do not know. Weddings are a place for relationships. Weddings are the place of beginning a new relationship – bride and the groom start a new life together.
Experience the Wonder: We need the miracle of transformation
There is a need for a miracle
The wedding was about to be a disaster and the water was turned into wine. The story is not truly about wine but about the transformation that Jesus alone can bring. The power is not the wine but the power to change the water. The miracle is in the moving of one thing to another.
Holiness is about life change and transformation. We are meant to regain the relationship that Adam and Eve enjoyed with God in the Garden. The only way to accomplish this is to remove the penalty and power of sin.
The miracle of Jesus was creating wine from water. The water was transformed into the best possible wine of the day. Not only does Jesus give us a new life, He sends the Spirit to empower us to live the new life.
There is the reality of a miracle
Jesus not only gives the promise of transformation but moves from an old life to a new life. The promise is not just a new life but a new lifestyle. The power that Jesus brings is to transform life. Stop and think about that for just a moment. Jesus has the power to take a life that is ordinary and make extraordinary. Jesus has the power to take something dead and give it life. Jesus has the power to take something empty and give it fullness.
The wedding was a symbol of the relationship that we are meant to enjoy with God. We are joined in a relationship with Him through Jesus. The power of Jesus brings transformation into the picture and allows the promise of new wine and new blessing to flow to those with Jesus.
Experience the wine: We need to embrace of the full life
The text does not give license to go and drink or to indulge in alcohol. The wine is not the point or the purpose of the story. The wine was the point of illustration and application of spiritual truth. Many look at this passage and make the wine the key issue. Making the wine the center of attention completely misses the point. The transformation was the miracle and the center of the message. The question we should be asking is: why was the wine important?
The Old Testament associates wine with the good life, the blessing of God and experiencing the fullness of God’s provision. The moment that the wine runs out, it sends a message that could e seen as the end of God’s blessing. Hebrew understanding saw the end of wine as symbolic of the conclusion of God’s blessing.
Jesus gives instruction for the men to fill the jars used for ceremonial washing to the brim. These jars were the source of ritual cleansing or purification. The focus was on an outward cleanliness and an outward understanding. Jesus radically changes that understanding by using them to create wine.
The promise of God was to rebuild the fallen Kingdom of David. The promise finds it’s fulfillment in the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of an eternal kingdom. Look at Amos 9:13 for a moment with me.
11 "In that day I will restore David's fallen tent. I will repair its broken places, restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be, 12 so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear my name," declares the LORD, who will do these things. 13 "The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills. 14 I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. 15 I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them," says the LORD your God. Amos 9:11-15
Part of the promise of a restored people and a renewed Kingdom is the giving of new wine. Wine was seen as part of God’s promise to the people. The blessing of God flows in new wine and a new work. The promise that God makes is fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. It is not by accident that Jesus generates new wine at this wedding, it is part of God’s promise.
Let’s make a few important connections that ties things together here.
The wine is the fullness of the blessed life that Jesus came to bring to us. I have come that they might have life and have it to the full. The wine is symbolic of the full life that Jesus means for us to experience. The jars are for the purification of the people before God. The implication that is made here is clear, the only way to experience a full life is through the power of God’s purification provide by Christ.
The problem is that ritual purification is temporary and was focused on externals. The new wine that Jesus offers is not focused on the external but the internal. Wine would be drank as part of the wedding ceremony. The means for experiencing the fullness of relationship that Jesus wants for us is to take the cleansing power of the resurrection.
The wedding is focused on a relationship with God. The need is for inner change that we cannot provide for ourselves. Jesus provides the power of this inner change with a new life. The new life allows us to return to the experience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with a restored relationship with God.
Implications
1. You were made for a new relationship
2. You need empowerment for the new relationship
3. Jesus provides all that is needed through His purifying power
