2. Jesus has power for the events of our lives…ch. 2.3-9(a)
You know, this wedding is a picture of a wedding yet to come. Jesus began His earthly ministry at a wedding, and He will end it with the marriage supper of the Lamb, when the church will be presented to Him as His bride, as described for us in the Book of the Revelation of this same gospel witness, John the Apostle. But in this case, instead of Jesus doing the inviting, it is He and His disciples who are the guests.
Now we see from v. 3 that, once the wedding festivities got underway a problem developed…the host ran out of wine! And although that may not seem to be much of a problem to us, for the Jews, in that time, it could have spelled disaster! First of all, it was a matter of honour. If you ran out of wine before the wedding was over, the groom would be a laughingstock, and on top of that, it would heap shame on the family of the bride, heaven forbid.
Now let’s face it, life doesn’t always go according to plan. We try to save for retirement and the bottom drops out of the stock market; we spend all that money training our sons as engineers and they end up raising goats and marijuana in British Columbia; we’ve planned a big wedding for our daughter and we run out of wine! It just doesn’t seem fair! But do you know what the real problem is? It’s us! Worrying that we can’t solve our own problems, instead of confessing that we can’t, and then calling on Jesus, the “God-can”.
Now we have to remember that, to the bystander, our problems may seem pretty trivial, but Jesus sees our hearts, and He doesn’t brush us off like others do, because He can feel our pain and understand our grief. So Mary, His mother, took the wine problem to Jesus…and then we read that things began to get done! Not with the cooperation of, or the wealth of, or the high society position of the wedding party, but because of obedience, pure and simple! When Jesus speaks to us, you can be sure it’s about something important, and we need to pay attention, and obey. When trouble threatens to bring us down, the best thing, and the only thing we can do is to simply do what Jesus tells us to do. We read in Matthew 11.28 that we can go to Him because He does care; and in 1 Peter 5.7, that we can cast our cares on Him; and in Romans 8.28, that we can commit to Him because He has committed to us; and in Acts 16.31, that when we believe, we receive!
Now when Jesus set about to solve the problem of the missing wine, notice that He went to the servants rather than to the host. He obviously knew who would carry out His commands without questioning. If He had said to the host, “Fill these six jars with water”, the situation could have taken an altogether different turn. Jesus knows the heart of man, and He has a “servant spirit” Himself. That’s why a man has to humble himself before he can be saved. Belonging to Jesus is all about Him and nothing of self. Jesus doesn’t always run on our tracks, and He certainly doesn’t receive His power from our generator! He wants to work in our lives, but He may not do it our way.
Remember the example of the three young Hebrews in the fiery furnace, and in the den of lions? Jesus didn’t remove them from the fire, or from the lion’s den, either one. Rather, He kept them from being scorched and He shut the lions’ mouths. God’s ways are simply not our ways! And we need to learn that hard lesson first as last. When we get over to ch. 9 we’re going to read of a blind man, that Jesus rubbed clay into His eyes. Well that beggar man knew that was going to hurt, but he wanted what Jesus had, so he obeyed! Jesus sometimes uses the least obvious means to solve a problem…like fill six jars with water. And we servants need to obey. Without question!
Now when you go to the well with your empty pail, the well that you have always gone-to, and you see the water that has always been there, and you drink the water you have always drank, you would expect that this trip would be no different than the last…but in this instance, it was, because Jesus was involved. And I know that many a believer can testify of the difference that Jesus has made in the circumstances of their lives! When we call on Him and allow Him to demonstrate His power, and to take over the problem-solving for us, more often than not we find ourselves in a brand new situation.
Do you realize that Jesus sees us as waterpots for His own purposes? We’re just like those old waterpots, and He wants to use us. He wants to fill us with the water of the Word of Life. He wants us to be filled with living water, “springing-up unto everlasting life”, as He told the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well (ch. 4); and to experience “water of joy drawn from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12.3). Water in, but wine out! How great is that?! The first miracle that Jesus performs in our poor lost lives…the miracle of a changed life. My-oh-my!
Just think for a minute about the impact that this first-recorded miracle would have on Jesus’ earthly walk, from that time on. When He told His mother, as recorded there in v. 3, that His “hour had not yet come”, He was looking forward in time, to the cross, which He will refer-to on six other occasions in this gospel of John. And from the time of this miracle till the end of His teaching career, He would have little time for fleshly comforts. He would only have time to do the Father’s bidding. He would be under everyone’s watchful eye, and His Name would be on the tip of every tongue. He would be ridiculed, as a menace to national security as well as to established religion. He would be arrested and tried and convicted as a common criminal and sentenced to be crucified. And all of that came to His mind as He was asked to perform the first of His many miracles, but He didn’t stand down. He had come to do the will of God, and in that sense, His hour had come.
And so we see for sure that…
3. Jesus makes provision for the ordinary events of our lives…vss. 9(b)-11
When those servants had filled those pots with water and taken them to the host, he experienced first-hand, without even knowing it, the power of Jesus in one of the ordinary events of life. But the servants knew!
Just think of what Jesus provides in the course of a lifetime! Just like in this story, He provides for our flesh-needs, He provides for our faith-needs and He provides for our future needs. In fact, Philippians 4.19 tells us that…”God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus”. And when He enters into that need, whatever it may be, the first thing He does is to put your faith to work. And I can tell you with all certainty, He will never fail His obedient children! In fact, His plan is to save the best for last, just like the wedding host had presumed had been done, there in v. 10…unlike the world, and Satan, which gives its best first, and saves the worst for last… first, the so-called pleasures of sin, perhaps for a season, but then, the wages of sin (Romans 6.23) for the rest of eternity! But God leads His people through their wilderness before He grants them their promised inheritance. First the cross, then the crown!
Verse 11 states…”He manifested forth His glory…”, His coming glory, and ours as well. In fact, when Jesus does for us what He has promised, we can expect the very best result, and so…”His disciples believed on Him”!
2. Jesus has power for the events of our lives…ch. 2.3-9(a)
You know, this wedding is a picture of a wedding yet to come. Jesus began His earthly ministry at a wedding, and He will end it with the marriage supper of the Lamb, when the church will be presented to Him as His bride, as described for us in the Book of the Revelation of this same gospel witness, John the Apostle. But in this case, instead of Jesus doing the inviting, it is He and His disciples who are the guests.
Now we see from v. 3 that, once the wedding festivities got underway a problem developed…the host ran out of wine! And although that may not seem to be much of a problem to us, for the Jews, in that time, it could have spelled disaster! First of all, it was a matter of honour. If you ran out of wine before the wedding was over, the groom would be a laughingstock, and on top of that, it would heap shame on the family of the bride, heaven forbid.
Now let’s face it, life doesn’t always go according to plan. We try to save for retirement and the bottom drops out of the stock market; we spend all that money training our sons as engineers and they end up raising goats and marijuana in British Columbia; we’ve planned a big wedding for our daughter and we run out of wine! It just doesn’t seem fair! But do you know what the real problem is? It’s us! Worrying that we can’t solve our own problems, instead of confessing that we can’t, and then calling on Jesus, the “God-can”.
Now we have to remember that, to the bystander, our problems may seem pretty trivial, but Jesus sees our hearts, and He doesn’t brush us off like others do, because He can feel our pain and understand our grief. So Mary, His mother, took the wine problem to Jesus…and then we read that things began to get done! Not with the cooperation of, or the wealth of, or the high society position of the wedding party, but because of obedience, pure and simple! When Jesus speaks to us, you can be sure it’s about something important, and we need to pay attention, and obey. When trouble threatens to bring us down, the best thing, and the only thing we can do is to simply do what Jesus tells us to do. We read in Matthew 11.28 that we can go to Him because He does care; and in 1 Peter 5.7, that we can cast our cares on Him; and in Romans 8.28, that we can commit to Him because He has committed to us; and in Acts 16.31, that when we believe, we receive!
Now when Jesus set about to solve the problem of the missing wine, notice that He went to the servants rather than to the host. He obviously knew who would carry out His commands without questioning. If He had said to the host, “Fill these six jars with water”, the situation could have taken an altogether different turn. Jesus knows the heart of man, and He has a “servant spirit” Himself. That’s why a man has to humble himself before he can be saved. Belonging to Jesus is all about Him and nothing of self. Jesus doesn’t always run on our tracks, and He certainly doesn’t receive His power from our generator! He wants to work in our lives, but He may not do it our way.
Remember the example of the three young Hebrews in the fiery furnace, and in the den of lions? Jesus didn’t remove them from the fire, or from the lion’s den, either one. Rather, He kept them from being scorched and He shut the lions’ mouths. God’s ways are simply not our ways! And we need to learn that hard lesson first as last. When we get over to ch. 9 we’re going to read of a blind man, that Jesus rubbed clay into His eyes. Well that beggar man knew that was going to hurt, but he wanted what Jesus had, so he obeyed! Jesus sometimes uses the least obvious means to solve a problem…like fill six jars with water. And we servants need to obey. Without question!
Now when you go to the well with your empty pail, the well that you have always gone-to, and you see the water that has always been there, and you drink the water you have always drank, you would expect that this trip would be no different than the last…but in this instance, it was, because Jesus was involved. And I know that many a believer can testify of the difference that Jesus has made in the circumstances of their lives! When we call on Him and allow Him to demonstrate His power, and to take over the problem-solving for us, more often than not we find ourselves in a brand new situation.
Do you realize that Jesus sees us as waterpots for His own purposes? We’re just like those old waterpots, and He wants to use us. He wants to fill us with the water of the Word of Life. He wants us to be filled with living water, “springing-up unto everlasting life”, as He told the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well (ch. 4); and to experience “water of joy drawn from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12.3). Water in, but wine out! How great is that?! The first miracle that Jesus performs in our poor lost lives…the miracle of a changed life. My-oh-my!
Just think for a minute about the impact that this first-recorded miracle would have on Jesus’ earthly walk, from that time on. When He told His mother, as recorded there in v. 3, that His “hour had not yet come”, He was looking forward in time, to the cross, which He will refer-to on six other occasions in this gospel of John. And from the time of this miracle till the end of His teaching career, He would have little time for fleshly comforts. He would only have time to do the Father’s bidding. He would be under everyone’s watchful eye, and His Name would be on the tip of every tongue. He would be ridiculed, as a menace to national security as well as to established religion. He would be arrested and tried and convicted as a common criminal and sentenced to be crucified. And all of that came to His mind as He was asked to perform the first of His many miracles, but He didn’t stand down. He had come to do the will of God, and in that sense, His hour had come.
And so we see for sure that…
3. Jesus makes provision for the ordinary events of our lives…vss. 9(b)-11
When those servants had filled those pots with water and taken them to the host, he experienced first-hand, without even knowing it, the power of Jesus in one of the ordinary events of life. But the servants knew!
Just think of what Jesus provides in the course of a lifetime! Just like in this story, He provides for our flesh-needs, He provides for our faith-needs and He provides for our future needs. In fact, Philippians 4.19 tells us that…”God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus”. And when He enters into that need, whatever it may be, the first thing He does is to put your faith to work. And I can tell you with all certainty, He will never fail His obedient children! In fact, His plan is to save the best for last, just like the wedding host had presumed had been done, there in v. 10…unlike the world, and Satan, which gives its best first, and saves the worst for last… first, the so-called pleasures of sin, perhaps for a season, but then, the wages of sin (Romans 6.23) for the rest of eternity! But God leads His people through their wilderness before He grants them their promised inheritance. First the cross, then the crown!
Verse 11 states…”He manifested forth His glory…”, His coming glory, and ours as well. In fact, when Jesus does for us what He has promised, we can expect the very best result, and so…”His disciples believed on Him”!
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