May 19, 2002 John 2:1-11
“Running on empty”
INTRODUCTION
In every marriage ceremony, there is always at least one mistake. A young couple, very much in love, were getting married. Sue, the wife to be, was very nervous about the big occasion and so the pastor chose one verse that he felt would be a great encouragement to them. The verse was 1 Jn 4:18 which says: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”
Rather unwisely, the pastor asked the best man to read it out and to say that the pastor had felt that this was a very apt verse for Sue and that he would be preaching on it later in the service. The best man was not a regular churchgoer. And so he did not know the difference between the Gospel of John and the first letter of John. As instructed, he introduced his reading by saying that the pastor felt this was a very apt verse for Sue. Instead of reading 1 Jn. 4:18, he read John 4:18, which says, “You have five husbands and the one that you now have is not your husband.” – contributed by Martin Dale
There is no such thing as a perfect wedding. There are always going to be problems – some of them small and some of them large.
This morning, we come to look in on a wedding that had a big problem. They were quickly running out of refreshments for all the guests that they had invited to the party. In particular, they were running out of wine. And once they ran out of wine, the celebration would be over. The joy would be gone. They were running on empty.
Among you that are gathered here, I would imagine that there are some people who are running on empty. You thought that you had enough resources to carry you to the end of your journey, but your reserves have just about been depleted. Your joy is just about gone. It’s going to take a miracle in order to renew the supply of joy in your life. This morning, Jesus wants to work a miracle in your life. He wants to fill you with new wine – He wants to restore your joy so that you will have more than enough joy to make it the rest of the way.
Let’s take a look at the miracle that Jesus did at a wedding in Cana. As we do, you will discover 4 steps that must happen in your life before Jesus can fill your life with overflowing joy.
1. Admit that there is a problem. (vs. 1-3a)
Weddings in Israel at that time were long celebrations usually lasting a week. Instead of getting married and going off by themselves, they were surrounded by their friends and family for the first week of their married life. How would you like to have your mother-in-law watching your every move after having just gotten married? During that week, they had a huge celebration. It was a week-long feast. The parents of the groom were responsible for providing all the food and drink that would be needed for the celebration.
Though we don’t know the names of the bride and groom at this particular wedding, we are familiar with some of the people that were present there. Mary, Jesus’ mother was there, and it is very possible that she was the hostess for the event. Jesus and His first disciples, having been invited to the celebration, arrived on the 3rd day – almost at the halfway point of the feast.
From a human perspective, it would look like Jesus had bad timing. For He arrived just as the supplies for the feasting were about to run out. Friends, Jesus always arrives just as the supplies for the feast are about to run out. That’s when people recognize that they have a need for Him. In this case, the particular supply that was running short was the wine. To the Jewish people, wine symbolized joy. A joyous celebration without wine was not a possibility.
When the wine runs out, the party stops. You may have seen the TV ads where the celebration ends when a particular item is missing. In one ad the dancing stops when they run out of “Pringles”. In another, the necessary ingredient for joy is cheese. In still another, all hope is lost when the frosted mini-chex run out. Every society has its own idea of what symbolizes joy. I don’t know what it says about our society to think that our joy is symbolized by potato chips, cheese and cereal. For them, wine symbolized joy, and they were running out.
I can imagine that that bride, if she even knew about the shortage, might have been getting pretty anxious. I can hear her saying to her mother, “My wedding day is not supposed to be like this! I’m supposed to be filled with joy. But instead, I’m worrying about what everyone is going to say about us when they discover that we have run out of wine.”
Maybe you have had similar thoughts. Marriage is not supposed to be the horror that you are experiencing. Parenting isn’t supposed to be filled with so much sorrow. Christianity is not supposed to be like this. I’m supposed to be overflowing with joy – or so I’ve heard – but nothing seems to be happening. My joy is gone.
For some of you, your joy is running low. You thought that you had enough to make it through whatever period of your life you’re going through, but you were wrong. You are running on empty.
You may not even know where your joy went. You just woke up one morning, and the supply had been drained down to the dregs. Some things have come along that you didn’t anticipate that have stolen your joy. Maybe some people have come into your life, and they, by their attitudes or actions, have drained you dry.
An even more common reason that people lose their joy is because of sin in their lives. David, the great king of Israel, in one of the moments that he was not so great, committed adultery and tried to cover it up by having the husband murdered. David hid his sin for as long as he could. After David could withstand God’s conviction in his heart no longer, he admitted his sin and asked God to restore him. Psalm 51 is a record of David’s plea for forgiveness to God. In vs. 8 of that Psalm, David says, “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.” And then, in vs. 12, he says, “Restore to me the joy of my salvation.” David knew that his sin had cost him something. It had cost him his joy. And the first step to seeing that joy restored was to admit his problem to God.
As I said earlier, Mary may very well have been the one responsible for planning and coordinating the feast. It would have been embarrassing for her to admit that she had messed up and not planned on enough wine. Embarrassing or not, she was willing to admit that there was a need.
That’s what we have to do too. We have to admit that there is a need – that we are running dry in our joy. When you come to church on Sunday morning, I know that you feel like everyone is expecting you to have a smile on your face and act like the world is a friendly place, and that all is okay in your life. When someone asks how you are doing, the expected response is “Fine”. But that may not be the case. And you’ve got to be willing to admit that to God. And you’ve also got to be willing to admit that the reason that you are missing that joy in your life quite possibly could be that there is unconfessed sin in your life. It may be embarrassing, but your joy cannot be restored until you deal with the leak that is draining it dry.
Once you admit that there is a problem, then you can do something about it. You can search for someone to meet your need.
2. Bring the problem to Jesus. (vs. 3b-4)
When Mary realized that there was a problem, she correctly took the problem to Jesus. “The fact that Mary came to Jesus indicates she believed He could resolve the problem.” – Life Answers curriculum, Winter 2000-01 p. 100. This family may not have exhibited a great deal of wisdom in how they planned for the wedding celebration, but the wisest thing that they could have ever done was to invite Jesus. The very presence of Jesus at this wedding opened the possibility to a miracle.
In case you weren’t aware of it, Jesus is present with us in this place today. The very fact that Jesus is here means that there is enough power to resolve whatever problem you may be facing. And there is a big enough supply of joy to keep you going even through the middle of the problem.
When Mary came to Jesus and communicated the problem to Him, His response toward her seems a little cold and hard to us. And there are times when we bring our requests to God for what we think would bring joy into our lives that God’s response seems cold and hard. It seems like the windows of heaven are shut up. But the response that Jesus gave to Mary was to let her know that she was no longer in control. He was no longer under obligation to do what she wanted when she wanted it. He was under obligation to fully obey His heavenly Father not His earthly mother.
When it comes to asking God to do certain things in our lives, God is under no obligation to do things our way or in our time. He commands us; we do not command Him. God knows better than we ever could what will bring us the most joy and when is the most beneficial time for Him to answer our requests. God does miracles and He answers prayers, but He does it in His time and in His way.
There is one prayer that Jesus will always answer with a “yes” as soon as that prayer is offered up to Him. That is the prayer for forgiveness. If your joy is gone, or if you’ve never found joy because you’re living a life that is contrary to what God says, then bring that sin to Jesus. He will work the miracle of forgiveness. He will fill you with His joy.
3. Do whatever Jesus tells you to do to fix the problem. (vs. 5-10)
Inviting Jesus to the party made it possible for the supply of joy to be renewed and refreshed. But the simple fact that Jesus was there did not bring the joy. Some of you and many other Christians believe that all it takes to have joy is to become a Christian. “I’m here, Jesus, in your presence. Now, give me joy!” Just being in Jesus’ presence will not give you joy. When Jesus was here on earth, there were many who had the opportunity to be in Jesus’ presence. They experienced anger, rebellion and hatred while in the presence of Jesus. One day, there will be millions who stand in Jesus’ presence, and they will experience fear because of the impending judgment that they are facing. In order to experience joy in Jesus’ presence, He has to be Lord and Master of your life. You have to listen for what He tells you, and then, you must obediently do it. The servants had to be willing to be obedient. Obedience made the possibility of joy a reality.
To those servants on that day, Mary said, “Do whatever He tells you to do.” At that moment, Jesus ceased to be a guest and became the one who was in control of the whole wedding celebration. And at that moment, a miracle began to happen. People are perfectly willing to have Jesus as a guest in their lives. But they are not willing to turn over control and “do whatever He tells” them, and so they never have their lives changed by a miracle.
The Bible records that there were 6 stone pots there. Their purpose was to hold water that the Jews could use for purification. They would come to the pots and let water run over their hands. It wasn’t a matter of sanitation but of ceremony. It was required by the Jewish law. It did nothing to clean them physically or to wash them spiritually. It was simply an outward show. An outward show, then or now, has never been able to produce joy. Simply coming to church, saying the prayers or even reading your Bible will not produce joy in you. They will put you in the place where you can find joy and put you around the people who will help to enhance your joy. But if you come to church and never put into practice the things that you hear there, you will become even more miserable than you were to begin with. If you say the prayers but refuse to listen to and obey God’s Spirit as He speaks to you, then your prayers will only produce emotional and spiritual conflict in your life. And if you read the Bible with no intention of getting rid of the sin that is exposed by the commands that you read there, then you will only provoke guilt within yourself and send yourself into depression.
The servants heard Jesus speak, and they responded in obedience. They began the process of filling the stone jars with water. Each of these jars held between 20 and 30 gallons of water, and there were 6 jars. That’s 180 gallons of water. It would have taken a lot of time and energy to accomplish this task. Trip after trip to the well to draw water and pour it into the jars. And we don’t know how far it was to the well. It would have been tempting to do a half-hearted and half-completed job. After all, Jesus only said to “fill” the jars with water. He didn’t say how far to fill them. And “fill” is a word that can be interpreted in many ways depending on how hot it is and how late in the workday it is. Anything over half way is full, isn’t it? That’s what potato chip companies seem to think. But these men didn’t think so. When Jesus told them to fill the jars, they took Jesus’ words quite literally, and they filled them all the way to the brim, just shy of overflowing.
I would say that most everyone here would admit to wanting joy. And in order to receive that joy you might even be willing to be obedient to God – to a certain extent. But are you willing for your obedience to reach all the way to the brim even when the obedience that Jesus asks for doesn’t make sense to you? Or when it requires more work than you had originally intended on giving? Or when it forces you to rearrange your priorities and your schedule like these servants had to do? You see, the amount of joy that you experience is in direct proportion to the amount of obedience that you give. The greater your obedience, the greater your supply of joy will be. When Jesus tells you to do something, never do it halfway because Jesus wants to give you joy to the full.
Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about. You are here present at the 10:45 worship service. That’s great. I commend you for that. That is obedience, but it is not obedience to the brim. Prior to this hour, we had another hour of teaching and relationship building called Sunday school. Tonight, we will meet together again at Shirley Finley’s house, and we will spend time praying and singing and allowing God to speak to us through His Word. On Wednesday night, we will meet at the Swanson’s house, and again, we will pray and we will discuss what God is doing in our lives as we become more obedient to Him. Being a part of those things will get you closer to the brim, but you’re still not there. In order to get to the brim, you need to spend time every day meditating on God’s Word and spending serious time in communication with God through prayer. Each of these will get you closer to the brim. I don’t know where the brim is for you, but I know that in order to get there, you have to do whatever He tells you to do. It will require work. It will not be easy. I guess the question that you have to ask yourself is how badly you want the joy that God has to offer.
After the servants had filled the jars with water to the brim, Jesus then commanded them to draw and take what they drew to the master of the banquet for him to taste it. Reading this verse in English would give us the impression that when they did this, they drew water out of the stone jars. But the word translated “draw out” here means to take the water from “the place where the water settles”. In other words, when the water was drawn out to take to the MC, it was probably drawn from the well, not from the stone pots. The servants could have gotten upset. Why did Jesus have them do all the work of filling the pots? It would seem that all of their efforts were now wasted. He could’ve just had them draw water from the well to begin with and saved them all that work. But that wouldn’t have accomplished His purpose. Jesus was interested in more than just seeing the water miraculously changed. He wanted to miraculously change the servants too. In order for that to happen, He had to get them to the point that they were willing to totally submit to His authority without question and without reservation. Jesus didn’t need their work to do a miracle. He needed their obedience.
That servant took the water that had been drawn out from the well and presented it to the MC. As far as we know, Jesus had not told the servants about the miracle that He was going to perform. To them, they were carrying a cup full of water not wine. But when the MC tasted what was brought to him, he got a mouthful of wine that was better than anything he had ever tasted before.
A miracle happened on that day. Jesus brought joy to a situation where there was great apprehension and impending embarrassment. The miracle couldn’t have happened without the request of Mary as she admitted the problem. It couldn’t have happened without the presence of Jesus for them to bring the problem to Him. And it couldn’t have happened without the willingness of the servants to work hard to do whatever Jesus commanded them to do. But the miracle didn’t happen because of any of these things. The miracle happened because they all were willing to totally submit themselves to the authority of Jesus over their lives.
And that brings us to the last that you must take in order to have overflowing joy.
4. Commit yourself to Jesus, the Problem-solver. (vs. 11)
Mary’s initial request was fulfilled – not in her timing or in her way – but the result was far more than quenching thirst or saving from embarrassment. The result was faith. The Bible records that Jesus’ disciples that were present there at the wedding put their faith in Him as a result of what they saw.
Two miracles happened on that day. The first was the changing of water into wine so that a celebration could continue for the rest of the week. But the second was much more significant. In the second miracle, the hearts of Jesus’ disciples were changed from condemned sinners to forgiven children of God so that a celebration could continue for the rest of eternity. You tell me. Which was the greater miracle?
Why choose a wedding to do the 1st miracle? I think that there are a couple reasons. First, in God’s plan for things, a wedding is a one time event that is supposed to begin a marriage that will last until one or both partners dies. It has permanent ramifications. Jesus wants to do a work in your life that doesn’t just provide joy for today but is a continual spring of joy flowing up inside of you every day until the day that you stand in His presence. That miracle in you requires that you commit your life into His hands.
The second reason that I think that Jesus did His first miracle at a wedding is that a wedding is probably the time in a person’s life when their joy reaches the greatest level that it has ever reached. The only other time that might rival it as the most joyful time in a person’s life is the birth of a child. But even when human joy is at its peak, when times are as good as they can get, our joy will run out if there is no supernatural supply. On the other side, when times are at their worst, if we are obediently dwelling in the presence of Jesus, then even when times are as bad as they can get, we can rejoice. Paul, the apostle was in prison, waiting to die, when he wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice!”
CONCLUSION
“I have everything I need for joy!” Robert Reed said.
His hands are twisted and his feet are useless. He can’t bathe himself. He can’t feed himself. He can’t brush his teeth, comb his hair, or put on his underwear. Strips of Velcro hold his shirts together. His speech drags like a worn out audiocassette. Robert has cerebral palsy.
The disease keeps him from driving a car, riding a bike, and going for a walk. But it didn’t keep him from graduating from high school or attending Abilene Christian University, from which he graduated with a degree in Latin. Having cerebral palsy didn’t keep him from teaching at St. Louis junior college or from venturing overseas on five mission trips.
And Robert’s disease didn’t prevent him from becoming a missionary in Portugal. He moved to Lisbon, alone, in 1972. There he rented a hotel room and began studying Portuguese. He found a restaurant owner who would feed him after the rush hour and a tutor who would instruct him in the language. Then he stationed himself daily in a park, where he distributed brochures about Christ. Within six years he led seventy people to the Lord, one of whom became his wife, Rosa.
Robert speaks in different churches around the country. Other men carry him in his wheelchair onto the platform. They lay a Bible in his lap. His stiff fingers force open the pages. Robert could ask for sympathy or pity, but he does just the opposite. He holds his bent hand up in the air and boasts, “I have everything I need for joy.”
His shirts are held together by Velcro, but his life is held together by joy. – contributed by David Yarbrough
INVITATION
There is no such thing as a perfect wedding. There is no such thing as a perfect life. How are you going to respond when things don’t go the way that they are “supposed to”, and they threaten to steal your joy? Are you going to obey God’s command to rejoice in the Lord always, or are you going to wallow in self-pity?
Do you want God’s kind of joy today? Then you’ve got to…
1. Admit that you don’t have it right now
2. Bring your need to Jesus
3. Do whatever He tells you to do
4. Commit yourself completely to Him
