A Sign to His Glory part 2

Well take your Bible and turn with me to the book of John. Turn to John chapter 2, and we are picking back up on our study, Christ the Son of God, Believe and Live. It was a nice break from John last week to look into the book of Ephesians on Father's Day. It was a challenge to us fathers, to us husbands, to us men. There are times when we need to do that, but I miss it when we break away from our series. I like to kind of stay in rhythm as we are taking verse by verse, word by word, and we are learning what John wants us to see, what the living Lord Jesus wants us to see.

We know that the title of the series is Christ the Son of God, Believe and Live. We're already seeing that so far. We finished chapter 1, we're in chapter 2, and John is elevating the deity of Christ and he's also being evangelistic. That was John's heart. Now you know in our study of John so far, we've already begun to see John's public ministry, excuse me, Jesus' public ministry unfold. Now if you notice the end of chapter 1, Jesus starts calling his disciples.

Something that you might not have ever seen before was that John gives us five of the disciples that are called, whereas the other gospels give us the remaining disciples that are called. Surely by memory you should know that he called Andrew, he called Simon Peter, he called Philip, he called Nathaniel, and he called Bartholomew. And he worked differently in all of their lives. We see some seeking him and then we see Jesus really seeking the others in a different way. But now in chapter 2, we see Jesus at the wedding feast. We see Jesus attending a large wedding feast. And what we see here is the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus.

This is where it starts to really get interesting because he will begin to interact with different people, the Jews, the Jewish customs, and the Jewish religious festivals. And we're going to see a lot as we really move on into chapter 3 in the remaining part of the book. Last week I made the comment that what we see here is Jesus in a semi-public ministry, a semi-public role. I like that. I came across a Bible commentator that pointed that out as he called the disciples. That wasn't in the public view, the full public view. As he was at this wedding feast, this wasn't really in the full public view.

But if you continue ahead, if you study ahead in chapter 2, you will see that Jesus clears the temple at the Passover feast and that is definitely a public event. Jesus really burst on the scene after this situation, this crisis with the wedding. Now you remember in our previous message, we dealt with verses 1 through 5 and the title of the message was a sign to his glory and that was a part 1. It was a sign to his glory and that was a part 1. And out of verses 1 through 5, we saw three things. We saw the setting, we saw the crisis, and we saw the interaction of Jesus with this situation. It was a lot of educational material.

What I mean is, you had to understand that this was a wedding feast, a wedding celebration, and Jesus, his mother, the disciples were there. We don't know what connection they had with those who were getting married, but Jesus found himself at this week long or even maybe longer because that was the custom of the day, wedding, feast, and celebration. But there was a crisis. It was a social and possible legal crisis because they ran out of wine and the bridegroom and their family could have been held liable. They could have been sued. Why? Because they were not fulfilling their end of the bargain. And they ran out of wine.

So this was a terrible crisis. But we did see the interaction. We see that Mary simply comes to Jesus, tells the servants of the wedding feast to do whatever he says. And there is this interaction of Mary, of the servants, Jesus, the disciples are there watching and we know the rest of the story. That is, he turns the water into wine. Now, why do I take a little time for review? I take a little time for review because part one and part two really go together. Part one and part two are really one message, but because of time we needed to break it up.

And it's important for you to go back and refresh your memory, to go back and see the setting, the crisis, and the interaction as we pick back up in these verses. And let's go to the verses together. I'm going to read starting in verse one for our memory, but this morning we're going to be in verses six through 11. Chapter two, verse one, notice what John gives us. It says, "And on the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there and Jesus was also invited and his disciples to the wedding.

And when the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, 'They have no wine.' And Jesus said to her, 'Woman, what do I have to do with you? My hour has not yet come.' His mother said to the service, 'Whatever he says to you, do it.' Now there were six stone water pots set there for a Jewish custom of purification containing 20 to 30 gallons each. Jesus said to them, 'Fill the water pots with water.' And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, 'Draw some out now and take it to the head waiter.' And they took it to him.

And when the head waiter tasted the water which had become wine and did not know where it had come from, but the servants who had drawn the water they knew, the head waiter called the bridegroom and he said to him, 'Every man serves the good wine first. And when men have drunk freely, then that which is poorer, you have kept the good wine until now.'" And then verse 11, "This beginning of his signs, Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and he manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him." Now I've already told you the title of the message because it is a part one and a part two.

And we see a sign to his glory, part two, and we're going to look at two main truths. We're going to look at two main truths. We're going to look at the miracle and then we are going to look at the result of the miracle. Now you remember this comes right on the heels of what is taking place in verses one through five. There's the setting. They're at the wedding. There's the crisis. They've run out of wine.

Now there's this interaction and now after the interaction, after Jesus seems to have been drawn into the set of circumstances, into this problem, now we see the miracle unfold and we're going to learn some truth and I think the Lord is going to speak to us especially where we are in the life of our church. So notice truth number one, the miracle or the sign. We see that in verses six through ten.

Now there were six stone water pots set there for the Jewish custom of purification containing 20 or 30 gallons each and Jesus said to them, "Fill the water pots with water." And they filled him up to the brim and he said to them, "Draw some out now and take it to the head waiter." And they took it to him and when the head waiter tasted the water which had become wine and did not know where it had come from.

But see the servants knew the head waiter called the bridegroom and he said to him, "Every man serves the good wine first and when the men have drunk freely then that which is poor you have kept the good wine until now." This is the miracle. This is the sign. Jesus turns the water into wine. Now I think I've already told you that John gives us eight miracles that Jesus performs. This is the first of the miracles. This is the first of the miracles that Jesus performed. Verse 11 tells us that. This beginning of his signs, of his miracles. Now I want to ask you a question. Why does Jesus perform miracles?

This miracles and the miracles that we will study and the miracles that the synoptic gospels give us. Why does he perform miracles? You need to ponder that question and you need to hold on to that question because we're going to answer that question at the end of the message and I want you to hold on to that for your curiosity because it is very important for us to see the miracle and why he performed the miracle. But let's break these verses down. There's a lot of truth here that I want you to see. First I want you to notice this was a pure miracle. This was a pure miracle. Look at verse 6. Now there were six stone water pots.

What is the significance of the wording there of the fact that there were stone water pots? I want you to notice that there is a tremendous amount of significance here and that is the scripture tells us that the stone water pots would have been used for ritual purification. Go back there. It was from the Jewish custom of purification. These were used in the purification. These were used in part of their obedience to Leviticus chapter 11 verse 33. These were used for them to prepare themselves for the wedding feast. Now this was a pure miracle. Why?

Because if he would have used the clay pots that were used in the day, clay pots or earthenware were used in everyday use. Therefore ritually, ceremonially they would have been unclean. The Jews would have understood this but John gives a little explanation for the Gentile readers. And what do we see? If Jesus would have used earthenware, if he would have used clay pots, the Jews would have automatically seen that they were unclean. So what we see is this is a pure miracle. The Jews automatically noticed that he used those stone water pots that were set aside for that specific purpose.

The second thing I want you to see, this was a generous miracle. Go back to verse 6 again. These water pots would have contained some 20 or 30 gallons of water. That was the volume that they could take. And what do we see? We see that this would have been, if we do the math, 100 to 180 gallons of water that would have been turned into wine. Now all of the modern translations read a gallons. They do the translation work for us. The King James uses the word "ferkens." But what do we need to notice? We need to see the amount of wine. We need to see the amount that would have been given. This would have been 20 to 30 gallons per pot.

So therefore we would have had over 100 gallons of wine. And all of the Bible commentators that I read say that this was an overabundance of wine. This was a generous amount. This would have been more than the wedding feast could have used. So this was a pure miracle. This was a generous miracle. Third I want you to see, this was an uncontested miracle. Look at verse 7. Jesus said to them, "Fill the water pots with water." And they filled them, notice to the brim, verse 7 says. All of the translations that we look at say they filled them to the brim.

Now this filling to the brim shows that there was nothing added to the water that was turned into wine. There was no room. It was filled to the very top. And what this tells us, this was an uncontested miracle. This was uncontested proof that 100% of the wine had come from full pots full of water. No one could accuse them of adding anything to those pots. Jesus said, "Fill them." They filled them to the brim. And this was obvious to those who were involved. It was an uncontested miracle. Fourth, I want you to see, this was a demonstrated miracle for many. This was a demonstrated miracle for many. Look at verses 8 through 9.

And he said to them, "Draw some out now and take it to the head waiter." And they took it to him. And when the head waiter tasted the water which had become wine, it did not know where it came from. But the servants who had drawn out the water, they knew. The head waiter, what did he do? He called up bridegroom. And what did he say? He says, "You're giving the best for the last, which is not the normal thing." So what do we see? This miracle was demonstrated for many. Look at those who participated in this portion of the story. There's Jesus. There are the servants who were from the wedding banquet.

Remember they are the ones that Mary said do exactly what Jesus said to do. There's the head waiter. And then there is the bridegroom himself. Now you might not have thought about this, but who would have the head waiter been? He could have possibly been one of the head servants. Or he could have been a friend of the family, an individual who would have been appointed as the head waiter, as the head job over the wedding feast. I thought about it like this. In our day, a lot of times when we have a wedding, we will ask someone who's gifted. We will ask a friend or someone we know. Maybe we will hire someone to be the wedding director.

And they will oversee what? The wedding ceremony. And that is exactly what we have here. There is someone who has the job of being the head waiter. And by the language here, most Bible commentators believe because he could talk to the bridegroom freely. It would have been more than a servant. It would have been a friend. It would have been a person that they would have known. So what am I showing you? There were many people who saw this miracle. This miracle was demonstrated for quite a few people. Now did all of them understand fully what was going on? Maybe not. But the miracle, it was demonstrated for many.

The fifth thing I want you to see is this was a luxurious miracle. Look at verse 10. "And he," the head waiter, "and he said to him, 'Every man serves the good wine first, and when men have drunk freely, then that which is poor," in other words, they bring the poor out last. But what does he say? You've done the opposite. You brought the best out for last. What do we see? This was a luxurious miracle. This was the better wine than the first wine, which was uncommon. This was different than the normal. This was different than what was expected in culture. And notice the head waiter, he states it emphatically. You have not done the norm.

This wine was much better than the wine that had run out. I like what John MacArthur says about this wine. He says, "Surely it was the sweetest, finest wine ever tasted. This wine did not come from the normal process of fermentation, from grapes and vines, the earth and the sun. The Lord brought it into existence from nothing. Truly, this was evidence that he is the Creator." So what do we see? This was a luxurious wine because it was the best that they had tasted in the wedding ceremony. So what do we see? There's a lot of information right here about this miracle. It was pure. It was generous. It was uncontested.

It was demonstrated for quite a few there in the wedding feast, in the wedding celebration. And it was luxurious. Now what can we learn from this? I mean, how can this be applied to us? We must see that when God works, now listen, He works fully and totally. When God works, He works fully and totally. Notice it was a crisis that went to a celebration. There was a time of need that went to a time of overflowing. They had good, but yet Jesus brought the best. I've got an old friend back home and he always says it like this, "You know what ruins best? That is good." They had good, but Jesus gave them the best.

When God works, listen, He truly leaves His mark. That's what Jesus did right here. The wedding feast was totally interrupted by this miracle because no doubt it would have been the chatter around the whole wedding celebration of what Jesus had done. Now how can this be applied to you? How can this be applied to us? I know that individually many of us are praying for miracles. We have lost loved ones. We have deep struggles and pains that we're praying through. That's one of the things that I think is so important in our prayer meeting is that when God allows us to and we can't, we can be transparent.

We can unload the wagon that we are carrying around and then there we can bear one another's burdens. So we are all praying for many miracles that are around us. Many of us are praying for loss, loved ones and friends. But I think about it in the life of this church. We have been praying for and desiring a miracle and that God would take a seeming dead set of circumstances, a seeming dead church, tucked off in the corner and yet bring it back to life, breathe new life in it.

But yet I'm not satisfied that yet there are more people in the pew and money comes in the offering plate and we have a person or two come to know Christ every now and then. I want a miracle just like the living Lord Jesus did. I want him to pour out his spirit. I want him to do greater and larger things than we ever could imagine. I want God to do through us what people never could think could happen. I want to see an abundance. I want to see an overflowing. I want to see a luxurious miracle and I am not satisfied. I think there are far more people just like you and me, listen, that need a place just like no about this church.

And I think that the Lord will grow us to the point where we can reach others. We can reach those who don't look like us, talk like us and act like us. We can reach those who are just like us. We can reach those from here to India and all points in between as the Lord opens up the door. See, that's a miracle and that's the miracle that I desire. You know, some of us are students somewhat of church history. You know, we read stories of missionaries. We read stories of famous preachers and revivals of the past. And what do we see when we look at these missionaries? What do we see when we look at revivals of the past?

Our famous Christians that God used. What we see is a miracle of pouring out of God through those people and through those ministries, through those individuals. That's what we see a very similar set of circumstances. They're in a place of crisis. They're in a place of spiritual need and they are just like Mary. They come to the Lord and they are emptied of themselves. They're in right relationship with God. They are in complete dependence on the living Lord Jesus. They are obedient and they are expecting nothing more than a miracle. I don't know if you caught that. Isn't that what Mary was? Emptied of self and right relationship with Christ.

Completely dependent and totally obedient. And she was expecting more than the norm. We don't know what she had in her mind and her heart, but clearly she demonstrated faith because what does she say? You do whatever he says do. See that's what we need to be. We need to be emptied of self. We need to be right with the Lord. We need to be completely dependent, totally obedient and expect nothing more. But see the problem is many times we can't receive the work that God wants to do is because there's a little too much self in the way. See many times we fail to realize the object isn't necessarily the answered prayer.

The object should be what God wants to do in us in answering and asking for that need to be met. You get that? Sometimes we focus on the answered prayer and we say Lord if you will answer this prayer, if you'll say this lost loved one, if you will make this marriage made right, if you will just meet this need, I will see you and I will know you and I will worship you in that and we miss the point that God wants to reveal himself all along the way down that road. And see what did Mary do? She was emptied of self and right relationship with him, completely dependent, totally obedient and she expected something greater than her.

So that was the miracle. Second I want you to see the result of the miracle. The result of that miracle. Now we're covering just one verse whereas we covered verses 6 through 10 just now but let's look at verse 11. This is the beginning of his signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him. I want you to see the result of the miracle. Now with every miracle that Jesus performed there was a purpose, there was a work. I've already said there are eight miracles recorded by John and every miracle had a purpose, there was a work that he wanted to do with each miracle.

Jesus, now listen, he never randomly performed miracles just to wow people and just to draw a crowd. There was a point with every miracle. So I want you to notice in verse 11 first his glory was revealed. This is the beginning of the signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and he manifested his glory. His glory was revealed. This simply means that he displayed his glory. Jesus performed this miracle to display the mighty power of God. This is a small manifestation of his power. This is a glimpse. This is an eye opening experience for those who could see. It's almost like he just opened the door, they saw his glory and he closed it.

This is a glimpse. This is a revelation that New American that I'm reading from says this is a manifestation of his glory. But the second thing I want you to see is that the disciples, they believed in him. This beginning of the signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, he manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him. Now we've already seen that the disciples had come to faith and trust in Christ. We know that. We know that Simon Peter was converted later in Luke chapter 5. But we know the other disciples had trusted, they had professed, they had begun to follow him, they had begun to live with him, they had begun to be taught by him.

That was evidence that they were disciples. But now notice what it says. It says that they believed in him. Now what does this mean? As the disciples process this miracle, as he opened up the door and they got a glimpse of his glory and power, I want you to see. They saw, now listen close, behind the miracle, they saw behind the sign. They saw the glory of that miracle, but the glory of that miracle pointed to Christ, their eyes were not fixed on the miracle, their eyes were fixed on him. That's why it says that they believed in him. You get that? They were not caught up in the miracle, they were caught up on him.

They were not in all of the miracle, they were in all of him. And I want you to see, all miracles, they have a twofold purpose. First to reveal this glory to mankind and second to draw mankind to himself for the sole purpose of what? Belief. Belief. Remember our theme verse, chapter, remember our theme verse? Our theme verse tells us that he is to, John is to reveal Christ's deity and also draw men to evangelize them and that is exactly what we see here. This miracle, it is an unveiling of who he is and look, they just believe a little more, a little more and a little more. We need to see that.

And let me tell you something church, listen close. Jesus will not work his miracle until we are at a place where we will believe, now listen close, in him. A lot of times, a lot of times people will be praying for that lost loved one, they will be praying for a set of circumstances that are bigger than they are, but what they are not, they are not mature enough to see, they are not mature enough to get to the place where if God gives them that answered prayer, they will believe on him, they will see him, they will trust him because they are too enamored with their need, with their problem and the miracle they need.

They are far more selfish than they know. You might say, "Chris, pastor, how do you see that?" As I close, begin to close, I want to show you something extremely important in verse 11. I skipped it on purpose and I wanted to bring this out in the conclusion. What does verse 11 say? "This beginning of his signs, Jesus did in Cana of Galilee." The new American that I am reading from uses the word sign. The King James translates this word miracles. All of the modern translations use the word sign. Now which one is correct? Does it really matter? Do they mean the same thing?

I think it's important that we see this and I think you'll see what I mean. The New Testament in the original Greek language uses several words that refer to miracles. One of the most common from the original Greek means mighty works and it is only used in connection with the word sign. This is when it, you'll notice this when it's translated signs and wonders. That's what's going on. Signs and wonders means that there are mighty works connected with the sign. This is only found in chapter 4 verse 48. John's favorite word in describing what we would call a miracle is the word sign. And look, these works, these miracles were works.

These miracles were works, they were signs and this is important. A miracle can wow us but a sign directs us. A miracle can cause the hair on our neck to stand on in but a sign points us. It directs us and the sign points to something. These were not just displays of power and strength and dominion. These were signs that were meant to point to Christ. You get the difference? One of the Bible commentators that I read, his name is D.A. Carson, I like him, I've used him for years. He says Jesus' miracles were never simply naked displays of power. You get that? Jesus did not go around and haphazardly performed miracles just a while to crowds.

He performed signs to point to himself and that's what's taking place here. That's why the logical deduction for the disciples was to believe in Him. They weren't caught up in the miracle, they were caught up in Him. They were at a place of maturity where they would not get caught up on the wine, they would get caught up on the one who changed the water into wine. That is extremely important. And again, I go back to where we are.

We want God to do a work, we want God to save our lost loved one, we want God to fix what is bigger than we are but what we don't realize is there is a work that God wants to do in us, there is a purging, there is a correcting, there is a maturing, there is a changing, a sanctifying work that He wants to do in us to get us to a place where when God does, when only God can do, we won't be caught up on the miracle, we won't be caught up on the answer of prayer, we will be caught up on Him.

See a lot of times people don't realize that takes great maturity, that takes great sanctification, that takes a great inward work and see we don't like an inward work because we don't want to be changed, we don't want to be corrected, we want to have our life the way we want our life but yet Christ has to change us to get us to the place where we can even receive it without robbing Him of the glory that is due and that is our attention and our love and our adoration on Him. Those disciples did not walk away saying, "Wow man, did you see all that wine? Did you taste that wine?

That was the sweetest wine." No, they believed in Him because they saw Him. Going back to our application in the life of the church, I believe God wants to pour out His Spirit in the life of the church today. I believe God wants to use the church to impact the world and impact the culture and impact lost people but the problem is the churches today, many churches are so immature that if God were to pour out His Spirit, most churches would rob God of that and God will never be cheated of His glory. You get that?

If God were to pour out His Spirit in a lot of churches, they would be caught up in what God would do and what God had done and what God had done for them rather than God Himself. You see? You see the difference? It's too subtle but it is so great and that's what we desperately need today. Now what was the setting? The wedding feast. It was a crisis. It was a problem. There was no wine. It was a social dilemma, a legal dilemma and Jesus stepped in, the prompting of Mary, picture of intercession and faith, Jesus stepped in and did what only He could do and that's exactly what we need to go on in the life of the church today.

You know, we're walking around today, we're upset today, we're bothered today by the changes in our culture, by the direction of lost humanity, by the decisions our government officials are making and rightfully so. But what we should be broken about today is that we are sitting in a wedding feast and it's called the church and we do not have wine. We are sitting in crisis today and we do not have the power, we do not have the ability to engage the culture and reach the lost and it is a miracle that only God can give and that is what should break our hearts more.

Why should we be surprised when lost humanity does what the Bible says lost humanity will do? And so we need, now listen, a sign to His glory because listen, we need God to pour out His Spirit to save our lost loved ones, our lost neighbors, our sons or daughters to put marriages back together but more than us to reach the people down this street, on towards Monticello, back towards Brookhaven to reach the multitudes, to impact other churches and other congregations much like we were, to take the gospel all the way to India, to do things bigger than we are.

We need God to pour out His Spirit so that we could accomplish those things for Him but greater than that we need to be mature enough to when God does do that we step back and believe in Him all the more and it's not about what He has done, it's about who He is. See? A sign to His glory, these weren't miracles, they were signs. And verse 11 tells us that. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I thank You for showing me personally about this sign. Lord I knew that the disciples believed on You. I knew that they trusted You in a fresh way, in a new way. I knew that they knew You like they did not know You before. But Lord I never saw the sign.

Lord we understand signs in our culture, we understand that a road sign tells us when to stop, it tells us when to yield. We understand that a sign in town would tell us where a restaurant is, service station, convenient store, we understand signs.