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Christians are those who exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who died on the cross for them. That is probably the most common answer you would get from people who call themselves Christians, if you were to ask one what a Christian is.
But I wonder if here this morning you have really thought much about this one in whom you place so much confidence, that you are prepared to, and indeed have, cast off every other proposed way of salvation in order to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Have you thought all that much about this One in whom your confidence rests?
Have you really thought about who He is? Have you thought about what He means for your way of living?
The way you think about something determines the way that you will act in regards to it. For instance, what if you think that Jesus was just a man, how would you live in the light of that understanding? Would you pray to Him, assuming your not a Roman Catholic of course - because they pray to just about anything? Would you be confident that He would get you to heaven in the end?
What about if you believed in Jesus as being God? Would you pray to Him? Would you be able to place confidence in Him as being able to get you to heaven in the end?
What do you really think about Jesus? Not only does the way you think about Him determine the way you will act in regards to Him, but also the way you live reveals what you really think about Jesus?
If you don’t pray much, it’s probably a reflection on how little you really regard the Divinity of Christ - because you don’t have much confidence in His ability to actually do something about your prayers, or indeed to even hear them. If you don’t have any real confidence that you will be in heaven in the end, assuming that you are indeed a Christian, then this probably reveals your thoughts on Christ’s divinity, that He lacks the ability to get you there.
Think for a moment about that. What do you really think about Jesus?
Often people professing Christianity own Jesus as God, yet when it all boils down, in practical reality what they profess is far from what they actually believe.
This Gospel of John strikes at the very heart of this situation, for it was written with this in mind, ‘And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name (John 20:30,31)’.
The purpose of John includes that of establishing Christians in their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and this is something that we wish to emphasis as we move through John. Lord willing you will see week by week the clear evidence of the Divinity of Jesus, and that you will be ‘transformed by the renewing of your mind’, growing in faith and in understanding as to just who the Lord Jesus Christ is; that you will begin to apply these truths to your life by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, and thereby change the way you live in response to what you will know.
And this morning we continue this journey of discovery, a discovery of learning just who Jesus is, a transforming journey of discovery. My prayer is that as a result of being in this Gospel, we will never be the same again.
#1. Mary’s Error:
At this point in the Gospel according to John we still have a fairly closely recorded chronology. Note that this wedding occurred on the third day after Jesus had gained two more disciples in Philip and Nathanael. So it would seem fair to say that Jesus and the disciples had been travelling to the scene of this wedding since what was recorded at the end of chapter one.
This town of Cana was just a small place, and was the home of Nathanael, as recorded in John 21:2, ‘There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples.'
At this wedding was Mary the mother of Jesus, Jesus Himself, and the disciples. There have been various conjectures as to just who received the invite, and what role each played at the wedding. Some have thought that Jesus’ disciples gatecrashed the party, and therefore there wasn’t enough wine to go around; that Nathanael actually got the invite; and still others that the woman being married was a sibling of Jesus.
It could be that Mary had some role to play in the running of the wedding, for she does seem to exercise some form of authority there, ‘His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."’ She certainly seems to have had inside information as to the state of affairs at the wedding.
These Jewish weddings could last up to a week, and of course was a great expense to those paying for it, with all the cost of food and wine, etc. That this was in fact alcoholic wine is hinted at in verse 10, ‘And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.'
It would seem that the common practice was to serve good wine at the beginning, and when the guests had become a little sloshed, you could get away with giving them the cheaper, nastier brands.
Is it a surprise then that Jesus should be at such a party? That He should even provide wine at such a party?
The answer of course is no - the tee totalling position is not a Biblical one (Gen 14:18; Num 6:20; Deut 14:26; Ecc 10:19; Neh 5:8; Mt 11:19). However the position of drinking wine or alcoholic drinks in moderation is (Lev 10:9;Prov 31:4,5; Ecc 10:17; Is 28:7; 1 Cor 8:9; 9:12; 10:23,23,32,33; 1 Tim 3:8).
As the party went on, for some reason the wine provided and set apart for the wedding had run out. So Mary, who of course knew something of the real Jesus (Lk 1:26-38; 2:51), tells Jesus of the situation regarding the wine running out. And although the remark seems harmless enough, there appears to be more to it then that; it would seem she expected Jesus to do something about the lack, and she tries to use her position to influence Jesus to act. He is her son, and therefore she wishes Him to follow her desires and wishes.
Perhaps you think, fair enough - but is this an ordinary son, does Mary really have any authority over Jesus?
What follows to Mary is a gentle rebuke, a rebuke to one who has overstepped the mark. Do you see that?
‘Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.' Upon first reading this we may think that this is an inappropriate way to speak to one’s mother, especially for Jesus. But the translation of this reply is a difficult task, and what appears a little short is in fact nothing of the sort. This is a pleasant, respectful reply in the language of the day, and means something like ‘woman dear’, and is in fact the same reply Jesus gave to Mary while He was on the cross, ‘"Woman, behold your son!"’
Notice He did not call her mother. Why? Probably because His ministry was now in full swing, He was now ‘about His Father’s business.’ What this means for Mary, is that she too is to approach Christ on the same grounds as any other sinner, as the sinful creature to the Holy Creator. He wasn’t there to please Mary you see; she had presumed too much. What right had Mary to expect God to bow down to her wishes - now that is exactly what this all boils down to.
One does not assume a place in the Kingdom of God by fleshly relations. This goes for all those who are children of Christians too. Simply being born into a Christian home gives you no title to Heaven - children must come as every other sinner must come, through Christ. Outside of Christ there is no salvation.
There is no place for any age of accountability either - a person is born into this world a sinner, condemned and bound for Hell, whether you die at age 1 or 101. Salvation has nothing to do with the flesh, ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23).’
Simply being a member of earthly Israel gives you no right of entrance into the kingdom of God, whether that be now, or at the end of the world - salvation is by Christ and no other way.
And simply coming to Church, to the place were the true Israel of God gathers gives you no right of entrance into the Kingdom - Fleshly relations of any sort are of no value when it comes to claiming a place in the Kingdom.
Jesus also says to His mother that His ‘hour had not yet come’. He is very aware of just what His mission here is, and that is the redemption of man on the cross as the rest of John makes very clear, using the same language to describe it. For it is at the cross that His full glory will be revealed, while in the very act of redeeming man - not at some wedding, as Mary seems to be asking. For example, John 17:1, ‘These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.'
The time for the revealing of His glory is not yet. That time of revealing was not to be decided by Mary. It was His decision as to when this would take place.
Mary seems to take the gentle rebuke well, having been put in her place so to speak, and her faith you notice is not dented. She tells the servants, ‘"Whatever He says to you, do it."’ She still expected something, but now she is happy to leave that response to Jesus, knowing that He will do whatever He wishes. This is the rightful response of the believer. She didn’t know what He would do, but trusted Him none-the-less.
And we would do well to follow in Mary’s footsteps here. When Jesus says He will do something, we can trust Him, and we can rest confidently in Him to do it. There is no need for anxiety, for sleepless nights, for tears ... just do what He says, and watch the Lord do what He will.
Sure, we might not know what the future will hold, how difficult it might be - but He does, leave it to Him. Yes it might not be what we thought would be best, but doesn’t He know better than us anyway. Leave it with Him, He will do what He wills, when He wills.
#2. The Sign at Cana
So what does Jesus do?
‘And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now (John 2:6-10).'
This passage has been subject to all manner of interpretation over the years. The plain meaning is clear, but many have looked for a hidden meaning in a passage which clearly states its own purpose in verse 11, 'This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.'
There has been much said about the honour that Jesus paid to marriage by being present at a wedding, and by performing His first miracle at a wedding. But is there really much in this?
There has been much said as to the significance of the water pots being stone, and there being six of them, etc. But is all this the point of the narrative? I think not.
But what is the plain focus set upon in this passage? Is it Mary? Her name is not even mentioned. Is it the bride and groom? We don’t even know who they are. Is it the wine? The answer is no.
The clear focus of this narrative is Christ Himself - it is not even the miracle! Can you see that?
Imagine the scene if you will. There are the six water pots that were used earlier by the Jews for hand washing, in order to fulfil the tradition of the Jews as spoken of in Mark 7. So the Lord tells the servants to fill these with water - each holding about 100 litres of water.
So off they go and fill them to the brim. They are then to go and take some of this to the MC, and they take it. Now somewhere in that process the water is turned into wine.
Do you see what does not happen? For a start Jesus does not touch the water, neither do his disciples - they don’t add anything to the water, there are no tricks involved here.
There are no special prayers to a higher power, no special formulas or chants used to magically transform the water into wine, there are no theatrical performances carried out as part of the ritual.
There is none of that - just the will of the Lord Jesus Christ, carried out by the servants, and then the will of the Lord that is enough to change the water into wine. What process was used - wouldn’t know. But I do know is that the Lord Jesus Christ through the power of His own will transformed that water into wine in a wonderful way a way that no one understands - but it leaves only one conclusion to the whole matter...
This must be God! Is this something that other human beings can do? No, only God can do something like this - this must be God.
This miracle as we call it is actually called a sign in the Gospel of John ... to call something a miracle is to focus on the event, to draw our minds after the supernatural and to wow our selves with the event.
But here in John the work is called a sign, and the difference is that a sign draws the observer away from the event unto that which it points. Let me illustrate if I may.
For what purpose do we have road signs? Is it so that the motorist will pull over at each one and be all caught up on the sign, being all caught up on the wonderful pole, on the amazing skills involve in painting the number 60 onto the metal ... of course not. The point of road signs is to point you to specific laws and rules that apply to that stretch of road.
The point of this sign at Cana was to serve a similar purpose, it was to point away from the supernatural event itself, from all the mundane things that were going on, away from the wedding itself, to the one who actually performed the miracle ... even to Christ Himself.
It was a pointer that screamed out to the Jews at this wedding, there is something different about this man, He is able to do that which only God can do ... they are to draw attention to Him.
The focus here is not on marriage, it is not on the passing relevance of Old Testament Israel, it is not on the abundance and superiority of the water turned to wine - the focus is on Christ Himself. All who witnessed this event should now have been focussing on Christ.
You see, that’s the point.
This one who so many at this wedding may have grown up with, may have known closely as He was growing up in Nazareth - remember, he was invited to this wedding, they knew Him was previous times and experience - He does that which only God can do.
For thirty years He had lived in relative obscurity, a boy who had learnt the ropes of being a carpenter, but now all is different. This one who appeared perhaps as no different to those all around Him, suddenly there is a transcending difference - He does the works of God!
What did this sign do? It ‘manifested His glory’. This beginning of signs pointed to the real glory of His Person, to that of being God Himself, manifest in the flesh.
‘and his disciples believed on him.’
The disciples had already begun to exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have seen that in recent weeks - but here it is said that they believed in Him. What does this mean? It means that their faith, their confidence in Jesus as the Messiah grew as a result of observing this sign.
The sign had an arrow on it pointing to Christ, this is God, and they believed. They had already seen Jesus as the Lamb of God, but this increased their faith.
The text in the original speaks of them as, ‘believed into Him.’ And this really captures what the result of this miracle was for the disciples. What this means is that they cast themselves wholly into Him, trusted totally in Him, gave themselves totally up to Him.
All else they had trusted in was being cast aside, and now they forsook all else and rested confidently in Jesus. We have found Him of whom the prophets spoke, the Messiah, He is our everything. And this sign just strengthened their resolved, increased their confidence, and spurred them on.
#3. Applications
So what can we glean from this passage for ourselves, what can we gain from this passage in our own walk before the Lord. Well there are really quite a lot of things really.
One thing we should mention is this, that today we still have many who claim to be able to perform miracles, and that is exactly what they are doing - performing.
In this passage we see that the miracle drew no attention to itself, but to Christ, and this is the true nature of miracles in the New Testament - they throw attention onto Christ, as pointing to Him as God. Never do you find them as mere performances, as mere healings, as mere social relief. They always have a point, and that is to point to Jesus in some way, and to what He is al about.
Today we find the wonder workers drawing attention to many other things, generally the miracle workers desire for more money, fame, prestige, membership, following, etc. Others seem to focus on human miseries and perceived needs, and not pointing to Christ and His mission on earth. Still others seem to be obsessed with providing a measure of excitement and entertainment to people, so that Church or Religion is not as boring as they may have been used to.
We have also seen in this passage that Jesus is clearly more than just a man, for He does things that only God can do, and this ought to fill us with much confidence. We have already clearly seen in this Gospel that He is the Eternal God, and so all that He was in Cana He still is ... in other words, as He was able to change water into wine, so He is still able to change things into other things.
What do I mean? Is He still able to perform these sorts of miracles, of course He is - if He so wills. But what I’m driving at is this, that as we find ourselves in situations that we are struggling with, with circumstances that are eroding our faith, it is in these straits that we should remember such passages, for He is our God. It is the Lord to whom we should turn, ‘Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you (1 Peter 5:7),' knowing full well that 'with God all things are possible (Mt 19:26).’
If we truly understand Jesus to be God, then we ought to always be fully confident in Him as such, believing ‘into Him.’ We ought always to live in a manner that reflects this very same conviction in our daily lives. He is God, and He is able to bring real change to the circumstances in which I find myself, either to change the situation, or to enable me to cope and live through the situation as unto Him. Never are we left to struggle through of ourselves.
And of course this brings us to a very valid conclusion - what then can separate us from the Lord Jesus Christ if we are one of His? ‘For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:38,39).’
‘For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day (2 Tim 1:12).’
This confidence rests in the Divinity of Jesus, for He has all the required ability to keep me firm and sure in Him until that last day, when He will lead me home, and I will enter the gates of Jerusalem with thanksgiving in my heart, for that which is impossible with man, is not impossible with God. How soon would I have given up and turned off the road, if it was not for a Divine Christ.
We have only scrapped the surface, Oh but how an assurance of Christ’s Divinity changes one’s profession ... 'But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name (Jn 20:31).’
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10/10/2006
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