01.05.2014 The Sneaky Miracle of Jesus

2014.01.05 The Sneaky Miracle of Jesus from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

SermonAudio

2014.01.05 Worship from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

Thank You Lord for this time to worship You - May our hearts be encouraged – may we grow more in love with You – make us thankful and appreciative – thank You for the opportunity to express all of that in our singing and worship. Through Your Word You reveal Yourself to us – and there are many practical things we can learn – but most important is to see God – so as we look at the Gospel of John – give us a deeper understanding of WHO You are and what You have done for us.
We are learning about the wedding at Cana today…
John 2 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
4 “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
This I call the sneaky miracle of Jesus. You look at it – and ask – why is this here? None of the others includes this! It is early in the ministry – the disciples haven’t even really been called as such – and even in the miracle, most don’t even know it happened – Only Mary and the disciples understood what took place – so in a sense, it is a secret miracle – and this is typical of the way John writes his gospel. Many things that John writes only make sense at the end of the story. A great example of that is next week – the Pharisees say Show us a sign – and Jesus responds – destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it again. – And they respond – this temple took 40 years to build… - but the disciples understood after the resurrection what He meant.
In chapter 6 – unless you eat and drink his flesh and blood, there is no life in you – and they might have thought – he is a cannibal! But we know that is not what He was talking about.
A wedding banquet was really significant – could often last a week or even more! We think our weddings are elaborate. There are certain cultural expectations at a wedding. The old American tradition is that the bride’s family pays for the reception. In their day, the groom’s family would provide the wine. The wine was probably different from our wine in that it may have been diluted – primarily because they didn’t have a lot and it is what they drank – so they needed to make it last longer – like adding a little extra water to the soup to make it go around.
That is kind of what they would do.
Mary and Jesus were invited – they don’t know exactly where Cana was – maybe 5-8 miles away – and so it is expected that they were family – because Mary took some responsibility.
Last week I talked about the lower and higher level meanings of the story – The lower level is not less important or more irrelevant. The morals/lessons of the story. This is a story about avoiding embarrassment and maintaining reputation. Their culture was built on honor and shame. In this culture, you would work hard to never bring shame to your family. And the most important thing is to bring honor by the way you conduct yourself. When a wedding was thrown – the purpose – a large portion of it – was to gain honor for the family by meeting and exceeding cultural expectations. Sometimes the purpose today is to flaunt someone’s wealth – but for them, it was to gain honor.
In the story, the groom’s family reputation is at stake. If we move that into our day – this has happened – we had certain conditions how the food was to be served – but the caterers never told the servers – and they didn’t know that – and the reality – because of that – the bride and groom came up to the parents’ table – and there was this panic – the end result was that one of the dishes would probably run out before everyone would be served!
It was like, THEY HAVE NO WINE! IT IS A CRISIS! We think – let them drink water or Coke or something – okay, they probably didn’t have that in Jesus’ day – so this is a disaster, and Mary is concerned for the family’s reputation – so she comes to Jesus – she remembers the angels’ words – God with us! And 30 years later, and the kid has barely done anything! Like today, when you are told you have the smartest kid – and parents’ expectations grow – they even put on bumper stickers – I have the smartest kid! And then this smartest kid is 45 and still living at home.
We could title this – when Jesus said No to His Mom. But Jesus often does this – where his initial response seems to be No – Woman, what does this have to do with Me?
Our view of God is shaped by how God takes care of the material aspects of our lives – health and well-being and prosperity – when it is going well, our view of God is that He is loving and blessing – and that is what Mary is doing – that is her view of God – if you live in fortunate circumstances, God loves you – That is an American understanding of God – but it is not a Biblical understanding of God. Our expectations of God are more dependent on our culture than they are on the Bible.
Romance and Marriage – if we live a good, Christian life – devoting ourselves to serving God – THEN we will meet a good Christian person – who is trying to serve God – and then those two good Christian people will get married and as long as they go to church and do good Christian things, they will live happily ever after – and then a year down the road disaster strikes! Where did this come from! This isn’t working anymore!
Marriage is a bunch of work – hard work – and that is what marriage is – and it will pay off, but it will be hard, hard work.
We believe that God provides for our needs – Honor the Lord with your wealth… so that your barns will be overflowing – so we tithe and follow principles – and all of a sudden – God takes it all away. Where are the full vats and barns?! And we have so many expectations of how God should treat us – but at times, God has different expectations for how He is to treat us.
Mary is focused primarily on the material of what is going on – Jesus is focusing on the spiritual – yes, He meets the material need – but for a different reason. God is concerned about things in our lives –
Yes, there are times people live in poverty and God blesses them.
Sometimes people are called to live in challenging relationships – that is their lot – and God does unbelievable things for people who do that. They often show Christ more because of it.
One real simple practical lesson – in light of this – New Year’s Resolution – Make your relationship with Jesus a priority this year. Focus on the spiritual – the heavenly – your relationship with Him. Figure out a plan to do this. He who fails to plan is planning to fail. It should relate to Bible reading, worship, and community.
Some people love to read the Bible cover to cover. That may be your thing or not – but have a plan! Exercise that plan. That would be a good thing for all of us to consider.
Six stone water pots – each with 20-30 gallons.
120-180 gallons to fill up – and He turns them to wine. They take it to the headwaiter and he drinks it – and says – Wow! This wine is better – it is the best wine – and when Jesus intervenes, he saves the reputation and honor – actually – he elevates their honor.
Jesus goes above cultural expectations – He removes the shame and replaces it with honor.
We all have issues of shame. We may not call it that – shames of addiction and dysfunction. If you suffer in any area of addiction – alcohol, food, drug abuse – there is a shame there. We all have addictions – some are just more palpable than others. And Jesus is in the business of removing that shame. Sometimes, the church needs to be in the business about removing that shame – but sometimes the church puts it on – it adds shame. Take the issue of divorce – sometimes it happens. That is not the goal when you go into marriage – and there is great shame when people go through that – and at times, the church can just pile it on.
We see Jesus removing shame from some really shameful people –and He removes their shame and gives them honor – replacing shame with honor.
Now the higher level – by doing this – here is what Jesus is doing – He is announcing His coming kingdom – when He turns the water into wine – He is saying, the Messiah as come – the kingdom of God is at hand. The old Testament confirms this – Amos 9:13 Behold days are coming
13 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman
and the planter by the one treading grapes.
New wine will drip from the mountains
and flow from all the hills,
14 and I will bring my people Israel back from exile.[f]
“They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them.
They will plant vineyards and drink their wine;
they will make gardens and eat their fruit.
15 I will plant Israel in their own land,
never again to be uprooted
from the land I have given them,”
When the Messiah comes, the wine will flow! It is a secret opportunity – and He is announcing the secret.
6 On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
Second thing that happens – My time is not yet come – referring to His time to be glorified – His time to suffer and die on the cross. He is saying – there is a time for me to receive honor and glory – and that is at the cross.
So Jesus directs all attention to the cross –and the answer is that all the honor and glory is focused on the cross – Jesus takes shame and replaces it with honor – the cross was a place of shame – but it was a symbol of honor – and Jesus is doing that for others – taking the shame of suffering and replacing it with honor.
These jars – are for ceremonial cleansing – what Jesus does – He takes those – which are empty – they don’t have ceremonial water to cleanse them – but Jesus is ushering a new way into receiving the covenant – there is a new way of having your sins forgiven. There are all these hints – they are not getting it.
11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

What happens here – there is a transformation – this changes peoples’ lives. And that is what God is all about. He transforms the circumstance of a banquet – but that wasn’t the ultimate goal – ultimately - God understands how to transform us the best; We don’t. We have certain expectations of that will transform us.
Sometimes NOT getting into the school you want – or the job you want – is how God transforms you the best – like Mary – Whatever He says, Do – He knows how to handle the situation – and our situation.