Water 2 Wine

Water2Wine

John 2:1-11

http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/water2wine.html

vv. 1-2

A wedding is one of the most joyous occasions of the human experience. I’ve performed scores of weddings...including for many of you sitting here today!

When I asked Kimberly’s dad for her hand in marriage he threatened that if I went through with it he’d find a way to have me locked up in prison for 20 years. I was just thinking on Thanksgiving day this week that, if he had followed through on his threat, in just a few months...I’d be a free man!

In Bible days a wedding was a 7 day feast with plenty of food and drink. But on this day the host ran out of wine, and was about to be publicly embarrassed.

The total number of miracles recorded in all 4 gospels: 36. Only 7 of them are in John’s gospel. The reason? John selected these 7 for a specific purpose, in order to prove something to the readers.

John 20:30-31

30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:

31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

The goal of these miracles is to prove that Jesus is who He claimed to be. Does this miracle accomplish that?

v. 11 There is a message behind these miracles. Jesus didn’t change water to wine just to help out the host. [heal cripple solely to relieve his suffering / raise Lazarus to ease his sibling’s grief]

John is showing us that what Jesus can do in the physical realm of nature, He can accomplish in a greater way in the spiritual realm of the soul. It was a truly great miracle when He created the universe...but a far greater one when He created a new heart in you and me! It’s the greatest of all miracles.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Compare this first miracle of Jesus to the first miracle of Moses in Exodus, as he demanded that Pharaoh let his people go. He smote the Nile with his rod and it turned to blood. It was a miracle of judgment...Jesus’ miracle was a miracle of joy. [misery/mercy]

1:17 The law brought condemnation, and grace brings salvation.

Compare this first miracle of Jesus with His last. This first was a wedding...His last, a funeral. So in the gladdest hour of your life [wedding] you need Jesus, and in the saddest hour of your life [funeral] you need Jesus. From the beginning of life to the end we need Jesus. When we’re hatched, when we’re matched, and when we’re dispatched!

The miracle itself.

1. The Place of the Miracle.

a. A Humble Place.

v. 1 Cana is 9 miles NE of Nazareth, where Christ was from. It was a small humble place where Christ chose to work His first miracle. [like Argenta]

ill.--in NYC this week we saw lots of people, lots of concrete, buildings, and traffic. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Who would want to live there? People who want to make their mark!

ill.--when candidates announce they are running for office, they do it in a special place. 6 years ago Obama announced over in Springfield in front of the capitol building.

You’d think Jesus would work His first miracle, proving He is God, in imperial Rome, or intellectual Alexandria, or religious Jerusalem. But He chose Cana [Argenta!] And things don’t have to be BIG to be important.

Zechariah 4:10

10 For who hath despised the day of small things?

Little is much when God is in it!

Our church is considered small compared to today’s mega churches. And in NYC it would be considered large. Point is, a church is LARGE in the eyes of God if it preaches the gospel. And your service in the church doesn’t have to be big in man’s eyes to be big in the eyes of God. You may clean tables on Wed. Nite or pull weeds out front. If you do it for God’s glory He smiles on that more than a singer who tries to glorify them self.

b. A Happy Place.

v. 1 A wedding is a happy time. Jesus went to support the happy couple, and to work a miracle, not for someone who was hurting, but someone who was already happy. No one needed healing, and this water didn’t need walked on.

c. A Holy Place.

Jesus being invited to the wedding turned a humble place into a holy place! I hope Jesus has been invited to your marriage! [wedding policy here]