 Our Scripture passage this morning that we're looking at is John chapter 2 and we come to the second chapter of John's gospel here We're going to be looking at this first paragraph that runs from verses 1 through verse 11 And the title of our sermon is to manifest his glory to manifest his glory Now as we get into this passage of Scripture in John chapter 2 we come to the beginning if you will of Jesus's public ministry and the first of his public Miracles that he performs here at a wedding in Cana And I gave you a little bit of an indication of what the purpose of this miracle is Through the sermon title the cat's out of the bag so to speak to manifest his glory to manifest the glory of Jesus Christ We're gonna look at why that is as we work through the passage, but we have to look at these passages and now as we come to this this Wedding at Cana and what Jesus does there we have to look at these accounts within the context or within the framework of John's overall purpose for writing his gospel and we need to remind ourselves continuously of that and Keep that purpose in our minds as we study the gospel together And namely that person is so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing in him We might have eternal life in his name. It's the purpose that John writes now as the author of the gospel again John is amassing evidence through the gospel That Jesus is who we've come to know him as here in these verses the Christ the Son of God He's amassing evidence to prove that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and that we're to respond to that information By believing on him Believing that he is the Christ believing that he is God in the flesh so that we might have eternal life in his name And so far now and in that as he's amassed evidence We've heard the testimony of John the Baptist John the Baptist preaching about Christ We've heard the testimony of John our evangelist here our author and his testimony about the Lord The disciple whom Jesus loved right as it calls himself We've heard the testimony now of the disciples who have begun to follow the Lord from Andrew and from Peter from Presumably James from an ethanol and from Philip here and as we come to chapter 2 now We enter a transition of sorts. We've heard verbal testimony and much of it So far from John chapter 1 as we get into chapter 2 We hear now testimony from the works that Jesus does and we'll go back and forth now as we work through the next 10 or 12 chapters of John's gospel between his works and between words that testify of Christ Get this back and forth between his words and his works And I want to give you an example of why that is take a couple of pages of the right and turn to John chapter 5 John chapter 5 We have many witnesses here throughout John's gospel that will testify to Christ Testify to who Christ is why it's important that we see him as the Christ the Messiah the Son of God and in John chapter 5 We see one of the reasons for that look down at verse 31 verse 31 And this is Jesus speaking and he says in verse 31 if I bear witness of myself My witness is not true. They may look at that at first blush and think well everything that Jesus says is true Why wouldn't his witness of himself be true? He's saying this to Jewish Opposers his Jewish opponents the Pharisees those that would stand in opposition to him and he's saying basically listen if I give you Testimony of myself. It's not sufficient for you. You don't believe me. You say my testimony is untrue So here's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna give you more Witnesses if you don't believe my testimony of myself if you don't believe the words and the works that I do Here are more evidences more witnesses that you should listen to verse 32 There is another who bears witness of me and I know that the witness which he witnesses of me is true You have sent John and he is born witness to the truth and that's John the Baptist And we've heard now in chapter 1 John the Baptist witness of Christ all that he said now look at the verse 34 Yet, I do not receive testimony from man, but I say these things that you may be saved I think about it for a moment that lines up doesn't it with the purpose for John's writing the gospel in the first place Jesus Christ came into the world to seek and to save that which is lost John's purpose in writing the gospel is to give witness to bear witness to Christ so that believing in him We might have life in his name the Lord Jesus Christ God the Father God the Holy Spirit God the Son God Almighty your Creator the God of the universe desires that you would be saved if You're here today, and you know Christ if you've turned from your sin You've put your faith in him the Lord of glory had mercy on you poured out his grace abundantly on you and saved your wretched soul from your sin and from the wrath of God Amazing mercy amazing grace amen But now some people might go around thinking to themselves, you know, I don't know that I'm a Christian How do I know that God wants to save me? How do I know that I will be saved? It is the desire of God the desire of the Lord Jesus Christ coming into the world To seek and to save that which is lost you have the Bible in your hands right now You will see witnesses testify to the glory of the Lord as he manifests his glory in the miracle today at Cana for the purpose That the Lord would save you that you would believe on him and have a life in his name the Lord Jesus Christ Desires that you would be saved will you turn from your sin at the response of this? miraculous Testimony to Christ will you turn from living for yourself and follow him? Will you repent of your sin put your faith in Christ and be saved today? You can be saved right now behold now is the time today is the day amen This is for this purpose that he's writing and he gives these witnesses to that effect verse 35 He was John was the burning and the shining lamp and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light But I have a greater Witness than John's for the works which the father has given me to finish the very works that I do Bear witness of me that the father has sent me these are awesome works And there are many who look at the wedding at Cana the miracle of turning water into wine and they think to themselves well Sort of mundane when compared to all the other miracles of Christ. He's not reaching out and healing someone He's not giving a blind man his sight right he turns water into wine Jesus Christ the Lord of glory Your creator the creator of the universe the creator of the rolling spheres inevitably sublime right if the him says Created wine out of nothing He got a bunch of pots full of water and he does this miracle where he creates wine out of nothing That is a miraculous event and it's the first of his miracles that we're gonna hear about he performs many miracles This of which is his first in Acts 22 didn't Peter say it the Sermon at Pentecost right men of Israel hear these words Jesus of Nazareth a man attested to you by God by miracles think about it for a moment Jesus Christ is attested by God through the miracles that Jesus Christ performs We're not to simply look at a passage like this and think to ourselves. Oh, yeah, yeah, Jesus did a miracle This is God in the flesh. This is God Omnipotent God who performed this miracle and he said Peter did that he did all these signs all these wonders that God did through Him in your midst as you yourselves also know and being delivered by the term and purpose and foreknowledge of God They took by lawless hands and crucified him and put him to death. This is the Lord of glory and Lord of glory today a Tested to here to by eyewitnesses performs a miracle at Cana Jesus Christ as we work through God John's gospel will do things like this that no other man can do He will do things that only God can do I would submit to you that turning water into wine creating wine basically out of nothing Something only God can do Only God can do it when we were in chapter one and we looked at verse 14 John our author said the word became flesh and Dwelled among us and we beheld his glory now for those that were following Christ at the time They walked with Christ and followed him and everywhere they went they beheld his glory Can you imagine what it would have been like to be a disciple of Jesus Christ during these days? Miracles were like a commonplace thing a miracle here a miracle there miracles everywhere It's just performing miracles So much so that John at the very end of the gospel the very last verse of the gospel says that if all the things that he had Done were written all the books in the world couldn't have contained all the things that were done and said by Christ It's an amazing thought and he did this to manifest His glory so the first of these public signs these public miracles will examine today They're turning of water into wine at the wedding feast at a little town called Cana and remember what he said to Nathaniel listen Nathaniel this is just the beginning you ain't seen nothing yet Right, there's a lot more that's gonna be coming and this is the first of those greater things that he mentions to Nathaniel We're gonna look as we set through this account one The setting of the stage the stage will be set in verses one and two Point two on your notes the plot will be unfolded the plot unfolds in verses three through five We see the miraculous scene point three in verses six through ten and We get the whole point of the story in verse 11 the stage is set verses one and two the plot unfolds in verses three through five The miraculous scene will look at in verses six through ten and we get the point of the story in verse 11 So let's set the stage. Let's look at point one from verse one where the Bible says on the third day There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there and now both Jesus and his disciples were invited To the wedding and we begin verse one with another time stamp so to speak the third day This is connecting this event with the events that came before and if you remember from his conversation with Nathaniel You go forward now to the third day This brings us to the very end of the first week day seven in the first week of the Public earthly minister ministry of Jesus Christ. This is the end of this very busy week They've had a busy week We're told that there was a wedding and that this wedding was going to be held in Cana And we just finished up with Jesus and Nathaniel in Philip in Bethsaida If you went six miles west of Bethsaida, you're gonna find the city very small town You can't call it a city very small town of Cana maybe a maximum of about a hundred people very small town nine miles to the north of Cana was the town of Nazareth who grew up there Jesus right and his mother So all the growing up in this area around town together And so it's very likely that they were invited to the wedding because they were in close proximity to Cana Nathaniel New people in Cana Mary comes to Cana to help She's actually behind the scenes at the wedding a concerned about the wine running out And so Mary was also intimately involved probably because these towns were so small They were towns where everybody knew everybody right and so everybody knew everybody and they're coming to the wedding Jesus now is with some of his disciples. We know from Scripture that includes at least Andrew Andrew Witten got Peter they went and talked to Nathaniel They've got Philip and so now you've got Jesus and Mary and all going to this wedding Very likely that they all knew each other and very likely they knew the family that was hosting the wedding that they were going to so Jesus and his disciples go to this wedding at Cana now think about it for a moment a Wedding at that point in time a wedding during this day was a momentous occasion. It was a huge deal very joyful Joyous event somebody in this little town is getting married and they're going to roll out the red carpets have a big party This is going to be a major undertaking. It's just a thrilling event many Commentators have called this the joy at Cana Christ performs his first miracle But they call it the joy at Cana because of a couple of factors one The wedding would have been a tremendously joyous event something They would have planned for and thought about and worked toward for a very long time The wedding itself would have taken a very long time Most of those weddings would have started on Wednesday Wednesday at night and it would have lasted several days They would have paraded the young couple through town Torches lit people coming out of their houses to give them well wishes and rejoice with them They would have taken a long path through town so more people could come out so very joyous event There was also wine there Now not the kind of wine that you and I Know today little different than that kind of wine The rabbis at the time had a statement they used to say had a saying that used to say that without wine there is no joy They associated wine with gladness of heart or wine with joy So you have this wedding that's associated with a joyous event You have wine there that's associated with a joyous event the wine at that time was heavily diluted About two to three parts wine ten parts water a reason for that was two-fold one The water was dangerous to your health. You took your life into your own hands to drink it It could cause you Sickness and so they diluted the water with wine to kill off bacteria to make the wet the water safer to drink But also because it was a clear commandment in Scripture that it was sin to be drunk It still is the case today. The Bible is the same yesterday today and forever It's a sin to be drunk and they would have avoided Drunkenness but doesn't God say in Psalm 104 15 that God makes the wine that makes glad the heart of man think of several statements throughout Scripture of joy with respect to this Tasty water so to speak remember Boaz and Ruth sitting at Boaz's feet after his heart had been made glad by wine This is a joyous event and there was this wine there Interesting that sometimes we can fall into the trap of Not thinking about Jesus Christ number one being joyful Or we can fall into the trap of not thinking that the Christian life is to be joyful Here our Lord Experienced joy This is a joyful event the disciples were joyful We as Christians listen are to be joyful We have much to rejoice over don't we we're gonna see several examples of that in Scripture You know in Philippians chapter 3 Paul says rejoice in the Lord Okay, and if you didn't quite get that in chapter 4 he says rejoice in the Lord always and again I say Rejoice Reminding us we're to be joyful in the Lord. You know I'm story. I heard a story about a little girl who was raised under a very harsh Religious mother mother claimed to be a Christian raised her in a really harsh environment really legalistic household Hard with this little girl, you know joyless and the story goes the little girl is standing out next to her fence Talking to her donkey on the other side of the fence and she looks over the donkey and says your face is so long and sour You must have the religion of my mother To her donkey, that's not the Christian life. We're not to be dour in long-faced We should be joyful in the Lord now with Christianity right live in the Christian life is a bitter sweet Experience we are Grieved over our sin and we should be so the Lord says the sacrifices of God are a broken and Contrary spirit, but listen if you're in Christ you have cause to Rejoice you have been forgiven your sins have been washed away You've been declared guilt-free innocent in Christ and you have an inheritance in heaven It's gonna make this wedding event look Very pale by comparison. We have great cause to be great greatly rejoicing in the Lord. So don't Worship like a donkey Be joyful in the Lord Don't walk around with a donkey face all the time. You've been redeemed by the blood of the lamb Rejoice in the lamb were to turn from our sin, but you've been forgiven and reconciled if you're in Christ So now this wedding This wedding in this town in small town would have been a major event a joyful event major planning major major Preparations would have been made and at this time It would have been very customary for the father To arrange the wedding. I mean arrange the marriage. I like that a lot I've got two girls that seems like a good idea to me. I see the wisdom in it Arranging that so if they'll let me ask about exactly what I'm gonna do I'm gonna arrange the wedding the father would have done that and it would have been done from very early on in age Most most of the time and so they would have been looking forward to this event for all of their daughter's lives depending on how good a choice the dad was who knows whether the girls were looking forward to it or not, but looking forward to this event for a long time and it would have been a just a Major major event, but have you noticed something strange in looking at this account? I wonder if you've picked up on it as we look at chapter 2 verses 1 through 11 Let me ask you Who is the wedding all about? The mother-in-law no, no, it's the bride right the bride the wedding is all about the bride when you go to a wedding We tend to focus a lot on the bride when Dorian and Angelica get married We could care less about Dorian right all the eyes are gonna be on Angelica We love Dorian. No, it's all about the bride all about the bride Who is the bride in this wedding? We have no idea do we the scripture doesn't say who the bride is you know who the groom is say who the groom is Nope doesn't say who the groom is either You know who the family is what family was putting on the putting on the wedding Doesn't tell us who the the family is either. We don't know the bride certainly don't know the groom Who is the main character in our account here of the wedding at Cana? Jesus Christ the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory Jesus Christ is the main care. This is the Lord Jesus Christ Creator God The eternal word who was with God and who is God who upholds all things by the word of his power The Holy Spirit has determined that this wedding account is not about the bride is not about the broom It's about us broom. It's not about the groom. It's about us Jesus Christ is the main character. This wedding was determined so that we might see Jesus Christ manifest his glory. This is about the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ The Holy Spirit just has foreseen all those other points aren't important to us right now And so we're not gonna spend much time Dwelling on them Now this does not mean That because Jesus Christ was at this wedding Performing a miracle here that somehow God grants Justifying grace Through the sacrament of marriage That is what the Roman Catholic Church teaches their theology has arisen almost entirely from this passage on that point And it is ridiculous theology This is no marriage is not a sacrament, but now here Jesus Christ honors marriage by performing his first miracle at a wedding ceremony So marriage is not insignificant, but it's not sacramental and don't get swept away by that absurd theology You don't get grace for justification by getting married You may get really sanctified from being married, but you're not gonna get grace for justification through marriage. Okay? But it's interesting here that the Lord of glory performed his first public miracle at a wedding He honors the institution that he himself God created all right So we've got the setting now the setting is set the stage is set the scene is there So point two on your notes now the plot unfolds and this is high drama point to the plot unfolds look unfolds Look at verse three Verse three says and when they ran out of wine the mother of Jesus said to him they have no wine Jesus said to her woman. What does your concern have to do with me? My hour is not yet come His mother said to the servants. Whatever he says, do you do it? So here comes in our account now in the history in the scene here comes the catering crisis We've got this wedding. It's an important event and now we have this catering crisis has come along Everyone's having a great time and the wine is running out. We're passing it out They're like six or seven tables left and we're nearing the bottom of the pot and we got a lot of people left and we have no wine This was an occasion if you will for embarrassment an occasion for humiliation. They really valued Hospitality and they had a duty to hospitality and so here was an occasion for possible humiliation because they've failed in their duties of Hospitality, so did they did they fail to plan maybe they didn't plan well enough Maybe because six or seven more people came with Jesus now. They're running out of wine Because you got more people that are coming to the wedding Maybe the young man. This is a bit of important to the young lady's father Maybe the young man didn't take care of his responsibilities to properly care even the wedding He's not taking good care of her and they're running out of wine We don't know and why is it that we don't know because it's not important you wouldn't base your interpretation or wouldn't base your point on some Tangent speculative aspect of scripture if you're gonna do good Bible study You're gonna get the meaning of the text from the text itself in many of the miracles that Christ does in scripture If we look throughout scripture Those miracles come with a point the word is often used for sign is say mea in the Greek and that word Intends to communicate something to us. We might use the word Signify or a symbol or an action or in this case a miracle might signify something else This was Johnson said a maybe a better way to think about that would be that these signify things to us through the miracle We are taught a Spiritual truth now here soon. We're gonna see a man who was born blind Receive his sight Lord is gonna heal him give him his sight and in that miracle the Lord is depicting to us Or should depict to you and I? our Spiritual blindness apart from Christ it is as if you were spiritually Born blind from your birth and you can't see a thing and you need Jesus Christ to come along and give you spiritual eyes to see Okay, we'll see soon the miracle where Jesus feeds 5,000 and then immediately after he feeds the 5,000 he begins to dialogue about the bread of life and the bread that comes down from heaven There's a spiritual truth that is associated with the miracle and that's what we're to get from this now here We don't get a lot of that background We don't have a dialogue that comes after the point of the miracle is contained within the text and we're gonna Get there in just a moment, but this is a sign For us that is gonna unfold a reason for this that's important all these other things not the point Okay, so when you read commentators on these passages They come up with all kinds of different reasons for how to interpret this passage Comes to us right here from within the text and we're gonna get there so Mary then Got no wine wine is running out. This is a cause for embarrassment And so Mary jumps in with an implied request, you know, she doesn't ask Jesus She comes to make us makes a statement to Jesus, which is an implied request. They have no wine in other words Jesus, what are you gonna do about it? That's interesting here to think about Mary raised Jesus from birth And Jesus for most of his life was dependent Physically speaking on Mary his mother now Mary the tables are turned a little bit Mary has become dependent upon her son It's interesting as we as we look at this account you notice someone that is Curiously missing from all of this It's Joseph Joseph. Where's Joseph? It's very likely that already by this point that Joseph is dead If that's the case then Mary has been extremely dependent upon Jesus very dependent upon his care for her This would be the case at that time and so here she's demonstrating that again. She's very dependent upon Jesus She would have gone to him when there was a problem Who would you like to go to you know, Jesus can fix these problems and she basically turns to him They have no wine. What are you gonna do about it in an essence saying only you can She trusts in Jesus. She's dependent upon Jesus. I think about it for a moment. She's gone her entire life carrying a secret so to speak a secret that only she and Joseph and Jesus would have known Think about the circumstances around the birth of Jesus Christ Angels spoke to her She knew who Jesus was She had gotten a heightened awareness of who he was over the course of his life as he grew in stature in favor among God and men She gave birth to him though. She was a virgin And she said as Luke said she kept all these things in her heart pondered them in her heart while Jesus grew She raised the young man in her household think about it for a moment who was the most obedient The most reasonable the most fair-minded the most resourceful Person on the planet and raised him in her household up until this point So would you imagine that Mary had a pretty good idea that Jesus could fix just about anything, you know, I have a If I ever have a drippy faucet, I go to fix it it drips three times more I have a broken drain in my shower. I don't know how to fix I have a washing machine's got some coat on it doesn't wash. I don't know how to fix it I've got an ice maker in my refrigerator doesn't make ice. I've got a rack and pinion problem in my car I don't know how to fix that But Jesus Christ was resourceful. I mean he could fix the problem He could fix just about anything very resourceful and so Mary's depending upon him He would have known how to fix stuff And so after years now of depending upon Jesus she Goes to him for this problem with the wine in Cana After years of keeping the secret so to speak Maybe possible also that Mary wanted a little vindication here She would have been frowned upon By society when Jesus was born she was thought of as a whore a harlot He was thought of as illegitimate Mary saw when Jesus left the wagon train so to speak went back into Jerusalem they went searching for him remember that account And Jesus said why were you looking for me? I had to be about my father's business Mary seeing the last several days what's going on You know possibly seeing Jesus baptized led off into the wilderness where he was tempted by satan Now he's come back. He's being pointed to as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world Something that Mary knew and kept in her heart He's begun to gather disciples to himself and so in Mary's own thinking she's thinking to herself This it begins Here's where it starts Jesus christ My son the son of god Is about to take his place so to speak in history and so it's possible here also that Mary wanted to prime the pump of that a little bit. Let's get things started. You know There's no wine Only you can perform a miracle here Go ahead, you know, let them see your glory. Let them see who you really are And so she responds to Jesus in that way comes to him Maybe with those things on her mind But then Jesus responds to her in verse four woman What does your concern have to do with me? My hour has not yet come Jesus was on his own timetable at this point if you think about it That phrase at the end of that my hour has not yet come. It's a look forward My hour has not yet come Is a way of jesus saying listen I have a purpose here and my purpose is to head the calvary That hour Is the suffering of christ that hour Is the crucifixion of christ the death of christ the eventual Glorification of christ and already here in chapter two of john's gospel at the beginning of his public earthly ministry Jesus has his head Just four head of flint set toward jerusalem And at this point in time that hour has not yet come and mary Frankly just has no part in that you look at her Response or his response here to mary he starts out with a word woman Now the word woman in and of itself Wasn't necessarily imp light or rude Just really impersonal and not something that a son would ordinarily call his mother Use the word mother. He uses the word woman When combined with the rejection that follows Carries a bit of a feel of a rebuke here or a correction What does your concern have to do with me carries the sense here of Listen, this is not your business if mary was thinking to herself The time has come Manifest your glory and she's going to intrude on that between the lord jesus christ and his doing of the will of the father Jesus basically turns and says this doesn't involve you And the submission that jesus once gave as son now reserved exclusively for the father and the Plan the purpose the The premeditated determined foreknowledge of god was what drove him toward jerusalem In other words, it was a way of reminding mary of a very important boundary That she was crossing in one sense you could tie in a little bit in a little way you could tie What jesus was saying here to peter in matthew chapter 16 When peter says you are the christ the son of the living god jesus responds Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my father who is in heaven revealed this to you a few moments later Jesus is saying listen. I'm going to be delivered into the hands of the Pharisees I'm going to be killed and peter responds by saying lord that'll never happen And how does jesus respond and get behind me satan Right peter intruding himself inserting himself Into if you will the plan of god the father For god the son and the way that god the son would enact that And it's just not a place where Mary could insert herself and so jesus Answers her in the way that he does It's almost as if you could say here right if in looking at the way that jesus responds You could almost hear in his words here to mary his Down the ages future rebuke for the mary idolatry that takes place around the world predominantly in catholicism, right A way of him distancing himself somewhat this is between jesus christ and god the father Matthew chapter 12 same thing happens right when the crowd is pressing against christ The crowd is pressing against him and the crowd comes to him people from the crowd come to him and say jesus Your mother and your brothers are outside. They want to see you want to talk to you and jesus responds Who are my mother who are my brothers? But these who do the will of my father in heaven Just a distancing and almost a a future rebuke if you will for all the mary idolatry that takes place in false religion But he says in the same connection now That mindset you know my hour has not yet come Let's take a look at that quickly if you will flip the page to john chapter 7 my hour has not yet come Here at the beginning of his public ministry. He's always already focusing on the cross Setting his face toward jerusalem and his suffering his eventual crucifixion His death his eventual glorification in john chapter 7 We see that beginning at verse 6 look down at john chapter 7 verse 6 And this was In response to his brothers not believing him verse 6 it says jesus said to them My time has not yet come But your time is always ready the world cannot hate you but it hates me because i testify that its works are evil You go up to this feast. I am not yet going up to this feast for my time has not yet fully come Well flip over to chapter 8 and drop down to verse 20 chapter 8 verse 20 And again jesus is defending himself so to speak to the Pharisees And verse 19 they asked him they said to him. Where's your father? Jesus answered you know neither me nor my father if you'd known me you would have known my father also These words verse 20 jesus spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple And no one laid hands on him for his hour had not yet come Flip over to john chapter 12 john chapter 12 And if you look at the gospel of john one of the major divisions in the gospel of john Is a division of his public ministry from chapters 2 to chapter 12. We have the prologue The introduction so to speak in chapter one We have jesus's public earthly ministry in chapters 2 to chapter 12 Beginning in chapter 13 We begin to see his private ministry if you will toward the disciples and the upper room discourse and then beyond that We see his death his burial his resurrection. So here in john chapter 12 We're all the way at the end now the end of his public earthly ministry and look what he says beginning in verse 23 jesus answered them saying The hour has come The hour has come that the son of man should be glorified Most assuredly i say to you unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies It remains alone, but if it dies it produces much grain He who loves his life will lose it. He who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life If anyone serves me Let him follow me and where i am there my servant will be also If anyone serves me him my father will honor so his time has come flip the page to john chapter 13 john chapter 13 And look at verse one Now before the feasts of the Passover when jesus knew that his hour had come That he should depart from this world to the father having loved his own who were in the world He loved them to the end and look finally at chapter 17 chapter 17 Look there at the beginning of chapter 17 at verse one and again This is the end of his earthly ministry. His time has now come and we see this transitioning Chapter two Cells it says to marry my time is not yet come. We see that time come We see him responding in various ways throughout the the gospel john chapter 17 verse one jesus spoke these words Lifted up his eyes to heaven and said father the hour has come Glorify your son that your son also may glorify you this hour is again a consummation a supreme fulfillment a supreme Manifestation of the glory of the lord jesus christ. He begins to manifest his glory In witnesses of himself He begins to manifest his glory in the miracle here in chapter two performed at cana And he manifests his glory and then at the end Fully manifesting his glory at calvary's cross where the lord would ultimately glorify him That his hour then Had come so jesus now in verse two back in john chapter two Is on a mission And he's on a mission that leads to this hour the hour that has been given him by the father And mary isn't going to be allowed to get in the way of that So look at the faith though next exhibited by mary verse five mary didn't respond defensively or Correctingly or rebukingly in verse five She exhibited great faith and humility his mother said to the servants. Whatever he says to you do it Basically The lord is going to do right Whatever he says to you do that So she trusted what he would do point three on your notes. We come then to the miraculous scene the miraculous scene in verse six Now there were set there six water pots of stone according to the manner of purification of the jews containing 20 or 30 gallons of peace Jesus said to them fill the water pots with water. They filled them to the brim And he said to them draw out some now and take it to the master of the feast and they took it When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine He did not know where it came from but the servants who had drawn the water knew The master of the feast called the bridegroom and he said to him Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine and when the guests have well drunk then the inferior You have kept the good wine until now From the very beginning the point Here from john is that we have encountered the lord of the universe the creator of all things god in the flesh Your thoughts about the miracles that you encounter in scripture Will be directly related to your understanding of who jesus christ is If you're a theological liberal You don't think you believe all this baloney hodgepodge about jesus christ Then you're gonna come up with other explanations for the miracles. You're gonna start looking for rational ways that these things took place If you believe on the lord jesus christ, you believe that he is christ the son of god You believe the miracle that he did This is the god who created this world perfectly This is the lord who perfectly positioned us in the universe Perfectly positioning us in our distance from the sun perfectly positioning the moon from the earth and from the sun so that we don't get swamped with water Or plunged into some ice age. This is the lord of glory who governs the world perfectly sustains all things perfectly by his power Why do we need a natural explanation for a miracle that jesus christ performs? he is god creator who Perfectly performed this miracle. So in verse six, we see the water Water jars here verse seven how they fill them Verse eight the use of their contents verse nine We see the the fact of the transformation from water to wine and verse ten Compliments for the bridegroom. So As we come to verse six There's a lot of water here. These jars were very large probably 120 to 180 gallons total and in this The lord here is emphasizing quantity. This was a huge amount You can't help but think that as jesus stood there looking at those pots these massive pots now filled to the brim with water that jesus thought to himself wow the the futility and foolishness of ritualistic ceremonial worship They do all this to keep themselves clean on the outside and listen They would have cleansed everything they would have cleansed their hands their face themselves They would have washed their pots washed their plates washed their utensils They were washed everything and everything ceremonially and the outside of the cup would be clean And they would do nothing about their heart just hypocritical ritualistic ceremonial worship and here the lord jesus christ was looking at these water pots just like that They were clinging To those things that they thought made them clean Now many of us do the same thing today. There are many professing christians who Are clinging to a bunch of water pots because they think they make them clean. What about you? Maybe you were baptized as a child Listen, that's just a water pot that you cling to that you think makes you clean Maybe you said a prayer and you said to yourself i said that sincerely in my heart I believe the lord jesus christ come into my heart make me the person you want me to be I invite you into my heart jesus. I really mean it And you're clinging to that little ritualistic prayer As a water pot because you think it makes you clean Maybe you had some religious experience You know, you remember weeping over your sin. You remember feeling All warm and tingly inside It's just a water pot that you're clinging to because you think it makes you clean When it is the righteousness of jesus christ alone That can make you clean The sacrifice of christ alone The only way to justification right standing with god is by faith alone in christ alone Don't cling to the worldly water pots That this world has to offer that false religion has to offer clean to christ You need the blood of christ. You don't need ceremonial water. You need the blood of christ So jesus said in verse seven Fill the water pots with water fill them up to the brim fill them up to the brim because they didn't want anyone thinking that He may have slipped in wine with the water right fill them up to the brim make them completely full of water And i'm going to turn the whole thing into wine. Okay, fill them up to the brim. He said to them verse eight Draw some out now. Wait a minute Where the miracle to in between verse seven and eight in the lines there between the verses Is this staggeringly awesome miracle written right there between the lines in the white space Turned and you notice he didn't touch the pot. He didn't There was no, you know putting mud on the eyes There was none. It wasn't any of that just with a word This is just with his word just spoke the word. He thought it in his head and between verse seven and eight The water turns the wine miracle Draw some out now. He said take it to the master of the feast and they took it We go from emphasizing quantity now to emphasizing quality in the response of the master of the feast This was good wine. They took it to the head waiter. So to speak. That's what that word means in greek To test it and it was high quality wine verse nine The master of the feast tasted the water that was made wine He didn't know where it came from but the servants who had drawn the water knew they saw the miracle The master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior Every man every man does this we know this to be true. Don't we we people do the same thing today Every man he says as if to distinguish But not jesus christ Jesus christ is lord of glory. He does something different here But we know this statement to be true every man at the beginning sets out the good wine when the guests have Well drunk then the inferior and you've kept the good wine until now I don't know this myself. I just know by observation. This is what I've heard that you drink the good stuff for a while first Once you've had enough of the good stuff. You really don't care what the bad stuff tastes like you bring that out next Uh, I just again by observation. I don't know that for myself. Um, I had family family that actually at one point in time made moonshine The good stuff came in a bottle So as the axiom goes You drank the stuff that was in the bottle because that was a good stuff And then you went out in the backyard Under the stump and you dug up the pint jar of the Engine degreaser and you drink that next because it didn't matter what that tasted like Here is same thing kind of thing is axiomatic that um, you give them the good stuff first here jesus Gives the eden wine the perfect wine that he's created gives it to them second It's just an observation here That christ is different in this sense. He saved the best until last Isn't that true, you know by way of application for us in christ that the best For us is not yet. It's not now Our best is coming. It's not your best life now. This is your best life now. It's all downhill from here We have the best is yet to come the best is still yet to be We have glory to look forward to the wedding feast of all wedding feast is coming And if you're in christ, you're gonna be there It's an awesome awesome thought the best is still yet to come But these miracles are used to signify spiritual truth And we have here a spiritual truth that the lord is communicating point four on your notes Look at verse 11. We get the point Of the story what's being communicated to us here in this miracle verse 11 This beginning of signs Jesus did in cana of galilee and he manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him So the significance of the scene, what's the importance of the scene here? This is not a purposeless Exhibition of miraculous power Because jesus could do it Just wasn't a display of his power. Look what i can do. There's a purpose here. There's a significance here The significance in verse 11 is to manifest His glory So that his disciples would believe in him Now doesn't that line up with john's purpose for writing so that we may believe that jesus is the christ the son of god And that believing him we might have life in his name Here he performs the miracle performs the sign turns water into wine so that he would manifest his glory This is the christ the son of god So that those who witness the miracle today. We witness this miracle from the pages of scripture from eyewitness testimony We witness this miracle We are to believe that he is the christ the son of god and we are to believe and have eternal life in his name Lines up with john's purpose Miracles the miracles that we're going to encounter as we walk through the gospel of john Are to be seen Within the framework Of who jesus christ is We are to see the miracles And believe the miracles within the self revelation of jesus christ himself Manifesting his glory as the son of god If you don't see that connection If you view the miracle, but you don't see that connection if you see the miracle But you don't see it within the framework of who jesus christ And the response that demands from you if you don't make that connection then you don't see The miracle so to speak If you look at that very quickly look at john chapter two just the page over and look at verse 23 Again, we looked at this last week briefly Bears repeating here for the connection verse 23 now when he was in jerusalem at the Passover during the feast Many believed that his name when they saw the signs which he did But jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all men and they had no need that anyone should testify of man For he knew what was in man They saw They believed the miracle But they didn't believe that within the framework of who jesus christ was as the lord of glory the christ the son of god And they didn't believe Savingly in him as a result. They didn't commit themselves to him. He didn't commit themselves himself to them Flip the page to john chapter 12 john chapter 12 And dropped down in john chapter 12 to verse 37 Listen to this from chapter 12 verse 37 But although he had done so many signs before them so many works so many signs before them They did not believe in him that the word of isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled Which he spoke lord who has believed our report and to whom has the arm of the lord been revealed Therefore they could not believe because isiah said again He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts less. They should see with their eyes less They should understand with their hearts and turn so that i should heal them these things isiah said when he saw His glory and spoke of him Look at the sovereignty of god in both of those passages. It's both them that see the the miracle and yet do not believe And yet the lord working sovereignly in that But here back in john chapter 2 You have a couple of different groups on display You have the master of the feast that commended the bride bridegroom has no idea what's going on He doesn't know that a miracle is taking place But you have the servants You have the servants that saw the miracle take place They saw jesus christ the lord of glory with a word Changed that 120 to 180 gallons of water into wine the best of wines And yet the scripture doesn't say that they believed who believed here It's the disciples They saw the miracle they saw what christ did They believed the miracle within the context of all that christ is all that christ is done they believed him And they Savingly believed here. This is saving belief. This is not a first point of belief either. They've already believed Now this is ongoing belief. They've continued to believe they believe in the lord jesus christ And this is trusting belief saving belief following belief repenting belief committed belief Which of those groups would describe you here this morning? Where are you at? Are you those who are with christ? The feast in jesuslam saw the miracle but didn't believe where are you? Do you identify with the servants who stood by and were no doubt awed by what just took place? But they didn't believe Or are you like the disciples? who Witnessing the miracles of christ Manifesting his glory. Listen his glory is manifested around here in the salvation of souls The transformation the the radical life change that takes place in a wretched center that christ saves That god redeems to himself who gets a new heart and a new nature That's a miraculous manifestation of the glory of the lord jesus christ But do you see those miracles and do you believe on him within the context of who he is Within the context of him being the messiah the savior the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world Or do you just Wow, that was something and go about your own life living your own life living your sin listen You can get yourself into the right group today Why would you sit back and? Ignore if you will the miracles The attestation Given here of christ The only appropriate response the only Right response to what you witnessed here in john chapter 2 verses 1 through 11 Is that you would turn from your sin and put your faith in christ? Stop living life for yourself commit yourself to him trust all that you are to all that he is rely upon him in all things Put saving faith in christ repentant faith in christ and follow him There's no other reasonable explanation is there When the lord of glory performs a miracle like this and Like jesus said in the annual this is just the beginning You'll see greater things in these amen. Amen. Let's pray Father in heaven lord, we love you. We praise you and worship you lord It is right in response to these glorious miracles here attested to by eyewitnesses that we should worship you Commit our lives to you trust you in all things Turn from our sin believe upon you We praise you and thank you lord that you've promised that when we believe upon you when we put our faith in you That you save us that you forgive us of all our sin that you Justify us that you impute your righteousness to us that you take our sin upon yourself You make us Accepted in the beloved We praise you and worship you and thank you for these glorious truths where I pray that they again would find Deep root in the fertile soil of our hearts You might be glorified honored and praised and worshiped and magnified for all eternity We love you lord in jesus name amen