Water Into Wine
Download MP3If you would open your bibles to John chapter 2, as we continue our study in the book of John. John chapter 2. We'll begin reading in verse 1. On the 3rd day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.
Jeffrey Heine:When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. And Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to his servants, to the servants, do whatever he tells you. And now there were 6 stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water, now become wine, and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, everyone serves the good wine first.
Jeffrey Heine:And when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him. Pray with me. Our father, we ask that you would manifest your glory through your word in this moment, that you would open up our hearts and minds that we might not just understand, but that we might believe.
Jeffrey Heine:Father, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus, amen. About 10 years ago during the Advent season, my wife and I, we had been thinking of ways that we could reach out into our community. And so we decided to do something called Advent gatherings. It was just something we made up.
Jeffrey Heine:Basically we we thought let's go invite all of our non christian neighbors, friends, everybody we could think of to come to our house Sunday evenings, for 3 or 4 Sundays in a row during the Advent season for a time of wine and wassail, for some hors d'oeuvres, for a time of caroling and for a Christmas devotion. We were very upfront about the devotional. This wasn't going to be any kind of bait and switch, you know, kind of like when you went to the church Super Bowl party and it really ended up, you know, just being the evangelism hour. We were very upfront. This is what it was gonna be.
Jeffrey Heine:And to our surprise, we had about 40 people come. It was fantastic. Most of these people were not believers. And they came, they enjoyed the food, they enjoyed getting to meet their neighbors. They actually liked the singing.
Jeffrey Heine:Those who no longer a part of a church or maybe didn't grow up in a church, they didn't really have a place to sing carols and they really enjoyed singing the Christmas carols. So when it came time to give the devotion, this was what I had been really nervous about at this point. Because what do you say to people like this? Not only were a lot of these people unchurched, some of them were anti church, openly hostile to Christians. And here I was about to give a devotional to them.
Jeffrey Heine:And so I began thinking, well, where and where can I go to in the word? What what verses can I go to? And and after a lot of thought and prayer, I decided to teach from John chapter 2 about this story here. If Jesus launched his ministry by performing the miracle of water into wine, and this is what he did in order to set the stage for everything to come and to introduce himself to people, I thought this would be a great place to start as well. Turning water into wine is Jesus' first miracle.
Jeffrey Heine:And it is a strange one. One that, just kind of as a side note, one that points us to the trustworthiness of the gonna start it by him fixing a catering mistake or trying to help out somebody who is going through a social embarrassment. That's not how you begin a story about a great biography about a man who changed the world. But yet this is what we have here. And so you can trust this account.
Jeffrey Heine:Now why did Jesus decide to start this miracle? Why did he decide to do this here? I can remember reading through this story and asking people the question in our and gathered around in our living room at this advent gathering. I said, does this surprise you about Jesus? You know, I'm not sure if you're familiar with Christianity or if you're familiar with Jesus at all, but does this surprise you?
Jeffrey Heine:Do you think of Jesus as the kind of guy that you would like to invite to a party? Or is Jesus the kind of guy at all cost you don't invite Him to the party because you see Him as maybe gloomy and a killjoy? But yet here in this story we see Jesus coming to a party that's about to fizzle out, and he actually takes it up a notch. He keeps the party going. He doesn't kill it.
Jeffrey Heine:Does this surprise you? And I can remember when I asked that question, a number of people laughed because it wasn't at all the picture they had of Jesus. When they pictured Jesus, they would picture Christians who were more likely to throw stones at parties and then to bring bottles of wine to parties. Christians were killjoys, not ones who enjoyed a time like this. Yet here we find Jesus as he launches his ministry, keeping the party going.
Jeffrey Heine:Now he could have launched his ministry any way he wanted. He could have started it by feeding the 5,000. That would have been a pretty good way to start a ministry. Or perhaps making a blind person see or a lame person walk or he could have gone to a funeral procession and raised somebody from the casket And then I mean the buzz about him would just spread. That would be a great way to launch a ministry, but instead this is how he decides to come upon the scene.
Jeffrey Heine:Fixing a catering mistake. Helping somebody who was being kind of embarrassed socially. Many years ago, like Lauren talked about, I started a college ministry called University Christian Fellowship, UCF, and I can remember putting a whole lot of thought into how we wanted our first service. Because you can only make a first impression once and I knew people were gonna come in and this first service was gonna set the tone for who we were as a ministry. And so I wanted to make sure, we we read the right scripture, we sang the right songs, I preached the right things because I know it will set the stage for who we are.
Jeffrey Heine:And it's no different here. Jesus is presenting exactly who he wants who he wants people to know him as. He's presenting exactly what he wants people to think of when they think of his ministry. And this is why John doesn't say Jesus did a miracle here. John says this is the first sign that Jesus does.
Jeffrey Heine:It's the first sign. And this is a sign pointing to who Jesus is and what his ministry is about. And the sign is pointing to Jesus as the one who brings joy. He brings joy. Joy is what will define both him and his ministry.
Jeffrey Heine:Jesus is the one who will love a good feast. He's the one who's gonna keep the party going. The main thrust of his ministry is joy. It's not rules. It's not moralisms.
Jeffrey Heine:It's not judgment, but joy. Now let me ask you the question, the same question asked to people gathered in my living room, does this surprise you about Jesus? Does it? Has this been your experience with Jesus, that he's the one who brings joy? When you think of what it means to follow Jesus, do you do you think of gloom and doom?
Jeffrey Heine:Do you do you think of, all right, I just gotta suck it up, just gotta follow him as hard as I can, and I'll enjoy life when I get to heaven. That's me. Those are the thoughts that I have. Often I think that way, that I just need to suck it up and keep moving forward, and I'll just enjoy God in heaven. And I need passages like this to remind me that Christ came to bring joy in this life, in all circumstances.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's walk through the story and let's see exactly what Jesus teaches about himself. The story takes place at a wedding. Jesus and his disciples are invited to a wedding in the small town of Cana. And now a wedding in this time lasted 7 days. There'd be long feasts, There'd be lots of food, lots of wine.
Jeffrey Heine:After the initial wedding ceremony, there would be a long processional back to the couple's new home. They wouldn't go off on a honeymoon. They would actually go back to their house, and then they would entertain at their house for 7 days inviting people in, a little different than what we would like for our weddings to be like now. They would be treated as royalty. Often they would even put crowns on the heads of the bride and the groom.
Jeffrey Heine:And so for people who grew up poor, I mean this was a incredible time of celebration. It was the shining moment in their lives. Now I've performed a lot of weddings over the years. I've probably performed over easily over a 100 weddings and I have been to a whole lot of weddings. And something I have noticed about every wedding I have been to, 2 things.
Jeffrey Heine:One, something will always go wrong at a wedding. Something will always go wrong. 2, it will always be seen as a crisis at that moment. It doesn't matter what it is, but it will be a crisis. So, so if the the groomsmen walk in in the wrong order, it's it's a crisis.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, if the air conditioning isn't quite working that well, well, you know, that's a disaster. If if, you know, a boutonniere has been forgotten and you have 4 of the groomsmen with a boutonniere and one that doesn't have any, that is a catastrophe. You know, it's just everything really gets heightened. But the wedding still goes on and people get married. But in that moment, you just think of it as a crisis when it's really not.
Jeffrey Heine:With the exception of my wedding, which there was a definite catastrophe, crisis, worst case scenario. After Lauren and I got married, right after we got married and we're being pelted with all the bird seed as we're running to the car. And we just had to drive a few miles away to our hotel. We were staying that night. I'd rented the, made reservations for the bridal or honeymoon suite, this nice hotel.
Jeffrey Heine:And we arrived there, and they had given our hotel room away. I was like, I had called. You know, we had made reservations. I had confirmed these reservations and they're like, I'm sorry a group came in and rented the entire hotel. I'm like, I am just obviously birdseed in the hair.
Jeffrey Heine:We are just in for the wedding. I dated this girl for six and a half years and this is our wedding night. And you just see his eyes get really big, and he's just typing furiously. He goes, I I might be able to get you a junior room. I'm like, done.
Jeffrey Heine:That's great. So so so that was a borderline catastrophe. This wedding at Cana, it had something go wrong. And in its time, it was probably seen as a disaster, because you were supposed to keep your host entertained and lots of food and lots of wine, and you could actually be sued if you ran out of wine. That's how serious of a deal that this was back then.
Jeffrey Heine:And so this wasn't just something that was just, you know, a little catering mistake. This was a pretty big thing that was going on. The wine ran out. Notice in verse 3 when it says the wine ran out, it doesn't say, but the wine ran out. And it doesn't say, however the wine ran out.
Jeffrey Heine:It simply says, when the wine ran out, like this was an inevitable thing. That's what John wants you to know is that the wine will always run out. You shouldn't be shocked at this. Whatever whatever joys you pursue, whatever things you you pleasures you pursue, know that that time will come to an end. The wine will always run out and you should not be surprised at that.
Jeffrey Heine:Well Mary, she feels like she needs to do something. Perhaps she was a close relative or a friend who may be in charge some of the catering, but she certainly feels responsible. And so when she hears the news, she immediately goes to Jesus. Joseph has likely been dead for a number of years, so Jesus has been the provider for the family. This is probably one of the reasons Jesus waited till his thirties to launch his ministry.
Jeffrey Heine:His, well he was at home, the one taking care of his mother and taking care of his siblings until they were old enough to do so. And sure, during this time, Mary had learned just to trust in her son Jesus. And so she turns to him. And so she comes to Jesus, but Jesus responds in this really unusual way. Look at verse 4.
Jeffrey Heine:And Jesus said to her, Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. Now for those of you who still use a NIV, you'll notice it tries to soften it a little bit by saying dear woman. There is no dear in Greek. All right, it's just woman and there is no parallel in Jewish literature or Greco Roman literature for ever calling one's mother woman.
Jeffrey Heine:It's not an affectionate way to to call your mother. It's not completely rude, but it's not really kind. The best way I like to describe it is if there is someone, a lady who's doing something really annoying to you, maybe your mom is doing something annoying and you just say, lady, you need to stop that. Woman, you might you might just need to calm down. Definitely, you could say some worse things, but it's not the most affectionate thing.
Jeffrey Heine:We might in the south say, ma'am, ma'am, you need to stop doing that. It's very very similar here. Jesus is putting a distance between himself and his mother. And then he gets even more harsh. Woman, what does this have to do with me?
Jeffrey Heine:Or you could translate this as, what do you want with me? Why are you involving me in this? And you can once again try to soften this if you want and some translations have, but know that if you go through your New Testament, this is the exact same phrase that demons would say to Jesus right before he would cast them out. What do you have to do with me? It's not a pleasant interaction here.
Jeffrey Heine:And actually it's probably implying that there is something really big going on that we are not quite aware of. Why are you involving me in this? What are you gonna do with me? So Jesus has this unusual reaction. But we're gonna look a little bit more at why I think Jesus has this reaction.
Jeffrey Heine:But first, I want us to look at Mary's faith, Mary's response to Jesus's rebuff. Look at verse 5. In verse 5, his mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. Now Mary is just rebuffed, she's just pushed off to the side and she probably doesn't even know why, And yet she responds in faith. She goes to the servants and she says, do whatever He tells you to do.
Jeffrey Heine:Mothers, this is a great lesson for you to learn on Mother's Day. You put something in Jesus's hands and you walk away. It's what she does. It's, I can't control the situation. Jesus, it's in your hands.
Jeffrey Heine:Do with it whatever you want and you walk away. She has no idea what Jesus is going to do in this moment. But she knows who Jesus is. And he's good, he is in control, he is gracious and he is kind. And so she puts the problem in his hands and then she walks away.
Jeffrey Heine:And what John is doing here is he's writing this for us as a model for how we are supposed to respond to Jesus. So when the wine runs out and the wine will run out, our response is to go to Jesus and recognize he is good, he is kind, he is gracious, he is in control. And just, Lord, whatever you ask me to do, I will do. Not knowing what he will ask. Mary puts no restrictions on obedience.
Jeffrey Heine:She doesn't say, hey, servants, if Jesus gets his attitude together, I want you to listen to him. This is what he says. You know, or if Jesus decides to be helpful, will you do what He says? No, there's no restrictions. She doesn't understand what's going on.
Jeffrey Heine:She's just been pushed off. But she says, you know what, whatever. I don't understand what's going on, but whatever he says to do, do it. Faith in Jesus always leads to obedience in Jesus. This is huge for us.
Jeffrey Heine:It's a huge lesson for us to learn because there are gonna be times that Jesus is going to ask us to do things that we are convinced will not bring us joy. We look at the situation, we look what Jesus is asking us to do and we're like, if we do that, we will not reap joy from it. And yet Jesus asks us to do it. You know, God in his word, he clearly tells us to do things that from a worldly point of view shouldn't bring joy. Filling water pots up is a lot of work.
Jeffrey Heine:150 gallons of water right there shouldn't bring joy, but it does. Let's just look at the big two issues today, money and sex, and what the Bible has to say about how we should use these things. The Bible says concerning money, we should be radically generous. Yet does it seem like giving money away to the poor should result in our joy? Does it make sense that denying yourself material things, that that would give you pleasure?
Jeffrey Heine:If anything, it seems like the wine flows when you've got money and you're spending it on yourself. The wine doesn't flow when you quit spending it on yourself. But Jesus says the opposite. He says give. Give to the poor.
Jeffrey Heine:Trust me. Look at what Jesus commands concerning sex. We might think that in order to be happy, then one needs to yield to whatever sexual desires they have. Let me just say, and our culture doesn't just look the other way towards various forms of sexual immorality. It actually tells you to embrace them, encourages those forms of sexual immorality, saying you cannot be satisfied or fulfilled apart from it.
Jeffrey Heine:Yet Jesus clearly says the opposite. He tells us that sex is a gift from God to be opened in the confines of marriage between a man and a woman. And although for many this command might not be understood, It might even seem from Jesus to be harsh. It is ultimately for our joy. Anytime Jesus calls us to repentance, He's not calling us to gloom, He's calling us to joy.
Jeffrey Heine:Remember, He is the one who takes the party up a notch, Keeps the party going. If you want wine to flow freely in your life, then you need to trust Jesus to do whatever he says, even when it doesn't make sense to you. After Mary told her servants to obey Jesus, Jesus then tells them to fill up 6 large ceremonial jars full of water and they do it. Simple obedience. Doesn't ask them to do anything huge.
Jeffrey Heine:No big task. No, you know, find me the witch's broom. Bring it to me. There's nothing like that. It's just fill up these jars with water.
Jeffrey Heine:Simple trust, simple obedience, joy. And Jesus could have done this miracle a number of ways, but he chooses these stone jars that were used for ceremonial washing. I mean the easiest thing Jesus could have done was, hey, go get the old wine skins that are now empty and bring them here and I'll fill them up again. That would have made sense. But instead Jesus chooses to use these jars for purification.
Jeffrey Heine:Now the Jewish people were always washing themselves. If you were gonna go to the temple and you were to worship, you had to do a ceremonial washing. Actually at a wedding, in between meals, you were to do a ceremonial washing. And what it was doing is it was always reminding you of your sinfulness and your need to be cleansed of this. And I don't think it's any coincidence here that Jesus takes something that is a reminder of sin and he turns it into something beautiful and joyful.
Jeffrey Heine:And I think this is also why he had the reaction that he had to Mary when she first approached him. Because he knew what it would cost him to turn something sinful into something beautiful. Look again at verse 4. Verse 4. And Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me?
Jeffrey Heine:My hour has not yet come. My hour has not yet come. What in the world does that mean? Well, all all throughout the New Testament, this hour refers to Jesus's death. It's when He's gonna be crucified.
Jeffrey Heine:So just, you know, set the scene once again. Mary goes to Jesus to fix a catering problem. Jesus says, woman, why are you involving me in this? It's not my time to die. It's just kind of an odd conversation.
Jeffrey Heine:It's a strange thing that is happening here. But this is what I think is going on. And I say this because I have been to a whole lot of weddings. And I know what I think about when I'm at weddings. I think about my own wedding.
Jeffrey Heine:I bet you do too. When you go to a wedding, if you're married, you think about your own wedding. If you're not married, you're thinking about the day you will be married. I know this because I'm seeing the guys look around at the girls and the girls look around at the guys. There's a reason to get dressed up for all these weddings.
Jeffrey Heine:You're hoping maybe the mate is out here, but we're thinking about the wedding to come. And I think what Jesus is doing here is no different. You know, from the youngest age we've been programmed. At least I see this now. I have 3 girls and I cannot tell you how many wedding ceremonies they have had, in their little years.
Jeffrey Heine:I've tried to set up their little people or Barbies or whatever to have fights. They have weddings. They completely change it. I think Georgia, she is my 7 year old. I think she's actually married to Gavin, because several times we've looked out there and you know, we have seen Georgia and Gavin next to her and Noah is performing the ceremony.
Jeffrey Heine:So they might be legally married. But it's just something that that that you're thinking of from from early childhood. Jesus is 30 years old. He's single. I can guarantee you that His mom has said, Jesus, when are you gonna get married?
Jeffrey Heine:When are you gonna finally settle down? You know, I was talking to so and so, and then, you know, he has a kiss little daughter, and I could set y'all up. Jesus, what's wrong with you? I mean, he is hearing this. Alright?
Jeffrey Heine:And the thing is Jesus does desire to be married. He does. He desires to have that wedding feast. But Jesus knows who his bride is, and his bride is the church. The church is the bride of Christ and that imagery should shock us.
Jeffrey Heine:I know that we have grown up in church, many of us our whole lives, and it doesn't astonish us like it should, but we are the bride of Christ. In Revelation 19 you find the description of our marriage when we will be united with him forever. So why is it though that if Jesus is here at this wedding and possibly he's thinking of his own wedding, why does it make him so sad and he's talking about his death? Jesus, we need more wine. Woman, it's not my time to die.
Jeffrey Heine:I think he had this reaction because he knows in order for us to have that wedding feast and for us to drink from the cup of joy, he is gonna have to drink from the cup of wrath. He knows that in order for us to be dressed up in beautiful white linen, he is gonna have to be stripped down and hang naked from the cross. He knows that if we're gonna have have the ability to drink from that cup of joy, he's gonna have to scream from the cross, I thirst. He knows what it will cost him in order for us to be married. You know, one of the scriptures that is often used in funerals really should be used in weddings.
Jeffrey Heine:It's John 14. Familiar passage made so by audio adrenaline and others. But in my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself and that where I am you may be also.
Jeffrey Heine:And it's fine to read that during a funeral, but this is actually wedding day language here. Before the wedding, the groom would go to his father's house and he would make an additional room that attaches to it where he and his bride could go live. And after he had finished preparing this home, then he would go and he'd get his bride and they would come back to this house. That's what Jesus is talking about. Jesus is off preparing for us at home and he's going to come back to us.
Jeffrey Heine:The way John even writes this gospel, he alludes to this because right after this happens, Jesus goes to his house on earth. He goes to the temple, God's house, and he cleans it up. He prepares it. He's getting ready for the wedding day. Jesus died to bring us joy.
Jeffrey Heine:And I want you to know that Jesus is gonna press this into you. He's gonna force this issue onto you. Just think of it in the terms of this wedding feast. Alright. You're supposed to wash your hands in between the meals, ceremonially clean your hands because of your sinfulness.
Jeffrey Heine:What are they gonna do before their next meal? Remember, Jesus didn't put the wine in their wine skins. He put it in the jars where they wash their hands. And so now they're gonna go out there and all these jars are gonna be filled with wine. And they could do one of 2 things.
Jeffrey Heine:They could either just pour out all the wine or they could drink it. But they can't just wash their hands with the water. It's not there. They either accept the grace of God, accept the joy that He has to offer or they waste it. And this is how God often performs in the bible.
Jeffrey Heine:Remember when we went through Exodus and he did the manna? And so you would wake up and you would either trample on his grace or you would gather it, but you can't be neutral. So you either spill out his wine or you drink it, but the decision is forced on you. You cannot ignore it. And so I ask you the question, do you accept the joy and the grace that the Lord offers or do you waste it?
Jeffrey Heine:Do you want to go back to your old life? Which will it be? You can trust Jesus as the real master with You can trust him on that. Pray with me. Father, I pray that through your spirit, you would press that issue into us.
Jeffrey Heine:Every day we decide. It's not just a one time decision, but every day we decide if we are going to drink from your joy and your goodness and your grace. If we're gonna go back to our old life. And father, I pray that we would drink deeply from you. We would not just enjoy a sip of salvation, but we would enjoy the fountain.
Jeffrey Heine:So spirit of God, move in our midst. May we see Jesus clearly and hear Him calling us. We love you, Jesus, and we pray this in your name. Amen.
