01.06. Creating Wine from Water
Creating Wine from Water
John 2:1-11 I- The Background: Our story begins in John in the beginning before creation. John 1:1-3 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."
Jesus as we know was born in Bethlehem, but we have to get this from another gospel, John did not tell us about his birth. He does not tell us about the instance of Jesus staying behind in the temple but goes directly to the ministry of John the Baptist. John does not record the actual event of the baptism and skips past the forty days in the wilderness for the temptation. John instead begins his telling of the events of Christ life with the calling of the first disciples and in a matter of a few days the first miracle. This is the period of introduction of Jesus to the world as Messiah. Merrill Tenney called it, "The period of consideration." Jesus is presented for the world to consider who He is. John 1:19 The first day we find the Jewish priest sending to John and asking if he is the Messiah. John says he is not. John 1:29 The next day as John sees Jesus and testifies that Jesus was the one who God revealed to him was the Lamb by the descent of the Spirit. John 1:34 The next day again they looked upon Jesus and tow of Johns disciples hear John’s testimony and follow Jesus. One of these was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. Andrew goes and gets his brother and they both become followers of Jesus. John 1:43 Jesus heads toward Galilee and finds Phillip who was from Bethsaida the same city as Andrew and Peter. Phillip finds Nathanael and they both become followers of Christ. John 1:45
Now we get to the connection of all this to the wedding that Jesus is at in our text. Jesus travels north into Galilee to the north side of the Sea of Galilee to a city of Cana for a wedding. The reason He was even in the area may have been Nathanael. John 21:2 says, "There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, …" Nathanael was from Cana.
II- The Wedding:
John 2:1-2 Jesus has an occasion to be at a wedding some 3 days later. This is about a week after the testimony of John the Baptist and the first men who followed Jesus. By this time there were five men, not twelve that would come later, who were following Jesus. These five were Andrew, Simeon, Phillip, Nathanael and another unnamed disciple of John the Baptist.
Jesus mother was at the wedding. Some think she may have even been one of the hostesses for it due to the way the servants responded to her request concerning the water pots. Most think Jesus is probably invited due to Mary and his disciples come because of Jesus. This may have even had a connection to Nathanael. The ironic thing is that the bride and groom is not the central character at this wedding. There is no mention of the bride’s dress or the bridesmaids. The center figure for eternity is Jesus the Messiah.
John 2:3 "They had no wine." The host of the wedding had not made adequate plans for the wedding guest. This might have been due to them not having the resources. Historians say the people living north of the Sea of Galilee were the poorest. It could also have been due to the fact that Jesus and his five friends showed up, invited but only after preparations were made. Never the less the reason they were out of wine. This was a potential major embarrassment to the family.
John 2:4 Jesus addresses his mother as, "Woman." Before we read into this that Jesus was being disrespectful we must remember that He addressed her this same way from the cross where He certainly was looking after His mother with love. Luke 2:51 tells us that Jesus was respectful of His parents. This scene however is the breaking away from parental control so that He could do the will of God and not man. Jesus said mine hour is not yet come. Does this mean that Jesus should not have performed this miracle? No, certainly not. Jesus was saying that the hour was not yet come that He would be subject to the will of men again when He would submit to the cross.
John 2:5-6 Mary says to them, "follow His instruction." There were some water pots sitting nearby. Water pots of clay. The combined capacity of these would have been about 150 gallons which would have yielded 2400 ½ pint servings. This was not only one pitcher of water into wine.
John 2:7 Jesus commands them to, "fill the waterpots with water." The instructions were complied with and all was ready. John 2:8 He tells the now to draw and take to the governor of the feast. Notice Jesus did not say, "look at me I’m going to do a miracle." He did not draw attention to what was happening at all. He simply turned the water into wine and then told them to take it to the governor of the feast. John 2:9-10 This new wine was better than anything that they had drank before. The good was usually served first and then the poorer quality was served later.
John 2:11 John records that this was the first miracle Jesus performed. The purposes of the miracle was for manifesting " forth his glory" and so that the disciples, "believed on him."
III- Application of the Miracle:
There are several application that we need to draw from this miracle.
This does not teach that social drinking is OK.
This teaches us that marriage is a sacred thing to God. In this live together era, same sex marriages uproar, isn’t it refreshing to again see that Jesus counted marriage sacred by His presence.
This shows us that Jesus was creator. John had stated this in John 1:3 "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." Someone has said that it is not hard to believe this miracle of water being made into wine, it happens all the time in nature. Jesus simply sped up the process. He, as Creator could do this.
Notice something else also if you would in the fact that Jesus created the wine already aged. It was good wine. Wine must age to be good. When God created the universe He created it with age. This miracles in some ways mirrors creation of the universe.
Notice the governor says you have kept the best for last. Might I say that this first miracle also looks ahead to the best that is coming?
The story is told of a time when Teddy Roosevelt was returning from Africa from a hunting trip by ship. On the same ship was an old couple who had retired as missionaries and was returning home. When the ship docked they rolled out the red carpet for the president while the arrival of the missionaries went unnoticed. No one was there to greet them, no band to play. They went to a cheap hotel to get a good nights rest before starting west to home. This discouraged them and as they prayed to God they said, "we have given our lives to tell the people of Africa about Jesus and lead them to you. Yet when we return home there is no one to greet us while when the president returns home there is a crowd." The old couple said that God then gently reminded them, "You are not home yet."
Beloved I am reminded that the best is yet to come. The last will be better than the first. There is coming a wedding feast for the bride of Christ. We will be home someday.