A Sign of Glory John 2:1-11 (Oct 23 2016) Karl Whittingstall

If you have your Bible, you can go ahead and open it up to the book of John.

John chapter 2 is where we're going to be today.

John 2 · chapter mention

It's a joy and a privilege to be with you and to open up God's Word.

I firmly believe I really have nothing to say to you at all this morning, but God's Word has something for all of us.

And so you need God's word in front of you.

And as you're flipping there, just as you're getting to John 2, I'm sure you know this already, but it's good for us to remind ourselves of this over and over again.

And that is that we need help.

We need help.

I need help.

Even right now, like knowing what to say to you and how to be part of this worship service.

I need help.

You needed help getting here this morning.

You need help in every moment of every night.

Now I know some of you are like, well, that's the pastory thing to do, to say, you know, we need help.

You don't know what kind of help I really need.

You know, that's true.

I don't know you.

I don't know you personally.

I don't know what your week was like.

I don't know the situation of your marriage.

I don't know that financial or health crisis in your family.

I don't know how your kids were this week.

But I do know that you need help and that God has help to give us.

And so it's a joy for me to get to open God's word and for us to look at this passage that's hopefully going to be hugely encouraging to you.

Now, I know I told you to turn to John 2, but I want you to just imagine yourself going back to Exodus 4 right now.

Don't actually go there.

But what's happening in Exodus 4 is um God has called his servant Moses to do something.

He's called Moses and uh and he's he's showed up in a burning bush.

Remember this story?

Some of you remember this story?

So he shows up in this burning bush and he says, Hey, Moses, here's what I want you to do.

I want you to go back and tell Pharaoh to let my people go.

That's a massive thing.

That's a huge challenge for Moses.

Now, God knows that he's gonna need help.

And so what God wants to do right in that moment is he wants to encourage him and strengthen his faith that he can take on these challenges, not in his own strength, but trusting God who can carry him through it.

And so God gives him these signs, and specifically it says he gives them signs of glory in Exodus chapter 4 that are to encourage him.

Exodus 4 · chapter mention

And so maybe you you know these, and one of them is like he throws a staff on the ground that turns into a snake, and then you can pick it up.

Like, how cool is that to have a snake stick, all right?

And then the other one is he like puts his hand in his jacket and pulls it out, and it's leprosy.

Ha ha, not leprosy, leprosy, not like so these pretty amazing signs, right?

So God gives him these signs to fuel his faith up, and I'm praying that this passage this morning will be that for you, as it has been for me.

This will be one of those things that you can look at to be all filled up with faith, to get a better glimpse of the glory of God and be in awe of him, so that in all these different moments in life when we need help drastically, our faith is strengthened and we can trust God.

Um John 20, verse 31.

John 20:31

Um John here is, I know I haven't got to John 2 yet.

Just a second, we're almost there, okay?

John is summing up the entire book and why he is writing it, and this is what he says in John 20, verse 31.

John 20:31

But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing them you may have life in his name.

God, over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, throughout his word, he wants us to show, wants to show us things that would cause belief to stir in us.

He wants to show us his glory in such a way that our faith is filling, that our our trust in him is growing.

And so that's the whole point of why John writes this book, and you're gonna see in our passage in just a second that that's the exact point of this passage.

And so, so I don't know what you need help with.

I don't know.

It might be really huge on earthly scale, it might be kind of small on earthly scale right now, but at different points in our life, we need to, no, check that.

Every point in our life, we need to be trusting God more and more because we need help.

Amen?

Amen.

All right, well, let me pray, and then we're gonna get into John 2.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we come before you right now, a God, humbly, Lord, recognizing that you who created and sustains all things, Lord, are watching over us, that you care for us and that you love us and that you want us to know you.

And so thank you, God, for giving us your word, Lord, that we may read about you and understand a bit of who you are, God, and what you have done.

And I pray, Lord, that the truth of your Son Jesus and your love showed to us through him, God, would stir greater faith and affection and passion for you in our lives.

Lord, that in these moments of difficulty and trial, God, we would trust you.

Lord, that we would depend on you as we see your glory.

Would it result in greater faith and a belief in you, Lord, that would carry us through these moments.

So, God, we need you.

I pray all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, well, let's look at John chapter 2.

John 2 · chapter mention

We're gonna look at verses 1 through 11 this morning.

Here we're gonna see Jesus is about to perform his very uh first miracle, and he's at a wedding.

He's at a wedding, which is pretty cool that Jesus is at this wedding.

It um scholars believe that Jesus' very presence at the wedding continues to uh affirm God's um design for uh marriage as designed by God.

Just his his being there is affirming that.

And so let me read verses um one through eleven, then we'll kind of begin to dig it a dig it apart, all right?

Um on the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

Jesus uh also was invited to the wedding with his disciples, and when the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine.

And Jesus said to her, Woman, what does this have to do with me?

My hour has not yet come.

But his mother said to the servant, Do whatever he tells you.

Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.

Jesus said to the servant, Fill the jars with water, and they filled them up to the brim.

And he said to them, Now draw some, uh draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.

So they took it, and when the master of the feast tasted, the water now became wine and did not know where it had came from.

Though the servant who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, Everyone who serves everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine.

But you have kept the good wine until now.

Now look at this, verse eleven.

This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifest his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

We're gonna go back to verse one in a second, but I want you just to look at verse eleven for a minute, because this is the entire point of Jesus doing this first miracle, to manifest his glory, to display his power and his might, that his disciples might see that, might see his power and his authority and what he can do, and have their faith just stirring and building up in them.

And so it's my prayer that God would be doing that with us this morning.

That we would see the glory of God.

His manifest glory would be on display for us, and it would grow in us a greater belief and trust in him.

So we pray things like this often, right?

We pray things like Show us your glory.

We just sang a song a couple minutes ago, show us your glory.

Why is it so important for us to see the glory of God?

Because when we see the glory of God, it changes us.

We see that right here with these disciples.

We see that they're seeing the glory of God and their hearts are being changed.

Um I read this quote: if you have a high view of God, your problems will seem small.

And if you've got a low view of God, your problems will overwhelm you.

Your problems will overwhelm you if you have a low view of God.

Now listen, again, I don't know what your problems are this morning.

And maybe on an earthly standpoint, your problems are massive.

Maybe you have the biggest earthly problem in the room.

Maybe in all of the new market aurora area, you have the biggest earthly problem.

Listen, you need to hear this, and I need to hear this too.

There is no problem we have that is a problem to God.

There isn't one.

There is no problem that you or I will ever have that is a problem to God.

And so, God, He wants to show you His glory, His power, His majesty, His might, His ability in this text this morning, and not just in this text, but all the time as you seek Him, as you go after Him, that it would stir you and grow you in faith and trust in Him.

And so this morning we're gonna look at uh signs of the glory of God, a sign of the glory of God.

And what I want to do is kind of unpack, we're gonna go back to verse one now, all right?

And so these are kind of like four steps.

So you can walk over and over throughout your life to seek signs of the glory of God in your life that you would be changed.

As you're exposed to the glory of God, it would just change you, all right?

So let's go back to verse one together, all right?

Here's what it says on the third day, there was a wedding at Canaan.

Now the third day is referring back to some events that started in John chapter 1, verse 19.

John 1:19

And so the reason why John is pointing this out is because he really wants us to know listen, this is like the very, this is the beginning of Jesus' ministry.

So they're at this wedding, and the mother of Jesus was there.

Jesus was also invited to the wedding, and he's there with his disciples.

Now, just pause for a second.

How cool is it that you're like your friends with Jesus?

Like, that's pretty cool.

And now, not only are you friends with Jesus, but you're close enough friends with Jesus that you feel like, you know, I'm gonna invite him to my wedding.

I want him to be there on this very exciting day as I, you know, tie the knot with my.

And then not only that, then you invite him, because we have people that we invite to weddings, and then they're just like, oh, sorry, I can't come.

You know, but Jesus shows up to the wedding.

He shows up to the wedding.

How cool is that?

And it says that he's there with some of his disciples.

Now, in case you're thinking that he showed up, you know, and just brought like 12 people with him, that's probably not what happened, okay?

At this point, he's probably only called about three or four, maybe five of his disciples.

And so they're all there at this wedding.

And again, this is the very beginning of his ministry.

Now look at verse 3.

It says this when the wine ran out.

Now just stop there for a second.

A wedding, not unlike today, was the greatest and most monumental celebration that anyone in this time could have.

They didn't have Sweet 16 parties, they didn't graduate high school, they didn't graduate college or university, they didn't have, this was it.

If you wanted a celebration that revolved around you, this was it.

You get married.

So I know in our kind of culture right now, weddings are huge, especially for the brides.

They're thinking about it for so long.

Back then, bride and groom, everyone would have been thinking about it.

This is a massive deal.

And so what would happen is they would have this wedding ceremony, usually early afternoon, followed by this kind of feast in the evening, and then they would hold an open house for up to a week.

Now, just by a show of hands, how many of you would just rather go on a honeymoon than hold an open house after your wedding?

Yeah, yeah, that's that's me, right?

I don't want no open house.

Let's so but that's what they're doing, and they're having this party, and now the wine has run out.

And so for this couple, this is the biggest problem.

This is massively devastating to them.

All of their hopes and joys for this wonderful day and celebration, or or maybe the next, it's all just falling apart in front of them, not going at all how they had planned, massively embarrassing, awkward, upsetting, not how they planned.

Have you ever been to a wedding where you're kind of sitting there and you're like, I don't think this is how they planned it?

Ever been to one of those weddings?

Usually it's like an outdoor wedding or there's children involved, right?

Those are two factors that often occur.

Okay.

Um, how many of you have ever been in one of those weddings?

How many of you have ever been the groom in one of those weddings?

Yeah, so on the night before that my wife Lindsay and I got married, uh, we got a call from the reception hall, and this rainstorm had blown through really quickly, and it had dumped down so much rain so quickly on the flat roof of the reception hall that the downspouts couldn't uh take it, and so the roof filled up, and then the entire building collapsed.

The whole roof collapsed.

So there's no reception, no one was hurt, no reception hall, no kitchen, no fridge, no cake, everything.

Just all.

So let me tell you, we did not, they were they were gracious, they found us a place.

We did not plan, though, to have our beautiful reception in this kind of like 1950s smoke stain ceiling legion-esque type basement.

But the Lord provided that, and in the end of the day, none of those things that we were so concerned about at the beginning mattered because God was in control of the whole thing.

God was in control of all of it.

Life has problems, things don't always work out how we plan, but God is bigger than our problems.

God is bigger than our problems, and no problem that we have is a problem to God.

And so let's look then.

Here we go.

Uh, we've got the problem.

Now we get to see what we do.

Here are the practical things that we do.

If we're gonna see the signs of God's glory in our lives, in our problems that fill us with faith.

Here's the first one.

It comes from the response of Mary.

Look in verse 3 again.

It says, When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, to Jesus, they have no wine.

She cared about this couple enough that the problem, their problem became her problem really quick.

And so she turns to Jesus immediately in her problem.

I want you to write this down if you like to take sermon notes.

On the path, or they're in they're in there, right?

All right, on the path to God's glory, I must turn to his provision.

I must turn to his provision.

Immediately, in disaster, in any moment, we must turn to the providing help of God.

Have you ever said to somebody, hey, look at that, and then it's it's too late, and then they look and they're like, What?

And you're like, This happened to my son and I.

We were down on this pier on Lake Ontario and we were trying to catch salmon this summer, which the salmon are huge, like it would have pulled my son right off the dock.

We're there, we're on this pier, and this salmon jumps, and I think it was as big as my son.

And I'm like, Did you see that?

And he's like, See what?

I'm like, weren't you looking at the water?

He was like, No, a tractor was driving by.

I'm like, oh, you missed it.

You missed it, right?

Okay.

You and I will not see the providing glorious, wonderful help of God if we don't gaze in his direction.

We have to look to God.

We have to look to him for help.

So a question that I've always had then is Mary here, this is Jesus' first miracle.

Why does she do this?

Why does she turn to Jesus?

Now, scholars have a couple of reasons why they think.

One of them they think is that this is the first time Jesus has been kind of out in public with some disciples.

And so he's kind of out and about with his disciples, and so maybe she's thinking, you know, he's I know he's special.

Maybe he's about to do something amazing.

Because again, this is his first miracle.

It's not like he'd been having like Mac a miracle Monday meals ever since he was like a toddler, and Mary would just come home and he just like dinner, like wasn't that that has not happened.

She's the only one who's really closely experienced any sort of miracle, and that's through his birth, right?

And so she's there and she immediately turns to Jesus.

Why does she do this?

She turns to Jesus, I believe, for two reasons.

One is that this, she believes that he's God.

She believes that he is God.

She knows that Jesus is special, she knows that she can trust him, she knows that she needs to turn to him because he is God.

And then I also wrote this down because she knows what's true for us too.

If there's something that we want that only God can give, we have to ask him for it.

If there's something that you want that you know only God can provide, you have to ask him for it.

How often do we think about things and say, oh, you know, if only the Lord would do this?

Are we asking him for those things?

I want a miracle in my life.

Have you asked for a miracle?

Have you called out to God?

Have you turned to him and asked for him to do great things?

If you're gonna see signs of the glory of God in your life on display for you, then you've got to be looking in the right direction.

You've got to turn to Jesus.

I wrote down two categories in which we need to turn to Jesus over and over again.

And the first, you can write these down, it's in the matter of sin.

We need to turn to Jesus with help in the matter of sin.

1 John 1 9 says, if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Why?

Because God so loved the world that he gave his only son that if you believe in him, you can be forgiven of that sin.

Listen, your problems might be massive on an earthly scale, but eternally we all have the same massive, huge problem.

And that is the problem of sin.

But God loves you and loves me enough that he sends his son Jesus to die on a cross that that problem can be taken care of.

And if he can take care of our biggest problem, you gotta know he can take care of all life's other problems.

And that should encourage you, that should strengthen you, that should bring joy.

So we need to turn to him with the help with the problem of sin, and then here's another way that we can turn to him.

Hopefully, this will be really specific and help for you, helpful for you.

It's we can turn to God for every other issue of life.

Some of you picked up my joke there.

Every other issue of life we need to turn to God for.

Listen, the wisdom of man is foolishness.

The power, the might, the possessions, the authority, all that you have that you think you can do, you only can do by the grace of God.

You need to turn to God.

You need to turn to his provision.

So, how do you do that?

One word, and that's pray.

Pray.

We need to pray.

We have to pray.

As followers of Jesus, we have to pray.

Actually, verbally articulate thoughts of dependence and humility and worship and coming before God and making our request known to him and lifting him up in worship.

We have to pray.

We have to talk to God.

I heard someone say this summer that I love this.

Prayer is the language of heaven that all God's children can speak.

Prayer is the language of heaven that all God's children can speak.

You have this very special way of communicating with God that the rest of the world doesn't.

If you are a child of God.

The problem is that some of us were not very good at speaking the language.

In fact, some of us aren't very good at it at all.

If you grew up in southern Ontario, you probably took French at some point while you were in school, or you took some sort of second language, but you probably took French.

Um I took French, I had to take it right from grade one all the way through to the end of grade nine, and then at grade nine it becomes an option, and I opted not to take it anymore because I am horrible at French, all right?

Um and I've been in Quebec a few times.

I remember being there with Mike one time, and and our French is horrible.

It's horrible and it's very limited.

And we were exclaiming things.

Do you remember this?

We were exclaiming things in French that they didn't make sense at all.

So, you know, we were encouraging each other by saying things like, Kahuratil, which means what time is it?

So we're saying the wrong thing, because we haven't practiced the language.

We don't actually know how to speak it.

Listen, some of you you're sitting there right now and you're like, yeah, prayer is really hard.

It's really difficult.

Listen, God wants you to practice the language.

Maybe you only know a few things to say, you only know a little bit about how to talk to God.

He wants you to come and practice.

It's totally okay if you're not very good at it.

He's not gonna laugh at you.

In fact, he wants you to come and make your requests known to him.

Come to him and call out to him.

Be dependent on God.

Pray.

And pray more than just like at mealtimes or when you're going to bed or just when disaster strikes.

We need to pray all the time.

If we're gonna see the glory of God, if we're gonna see his provisions in our life, we need to be turning to him over and over again all the time.

Let's go back to our passage here.

So the wine has run out at this point.

Um I read this quote uh by Kent Hughes, a great scholar.

He said, like these newlyweds, the universal experience of all of humanity, apart from Christ, apart from Christ, is that there comes a time when the wine runs out and when the joys and exhilarations of life are gone.

For this couple, this is what's happened now.

Everything has just fallen apart.

It's total disaster.

Listen, there is complete, everlasting, unending joy and provision and peace and wonder with God.

Psalm 16, 11 says, You make known to me the paths of life, and your presence is fullness of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Now maybe you're thinking, okay, well, can God really take care of me and provide for me in every way that I need forever?

Uh yes.

Romans 11, 33 says, Oh, the depths of the riches and the wisdom of knowledge, for from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be glory forever and ever.

Amen.

Listen, God's resources are inexhaustible.

You're never gonna ask too much of God.

He's never gonna be like, Oh, I just can't provide for you anymore.

It's not gonna happen.

It never will happen because he has inexhaustible resources.

And so, even hearing that, hopefully you're kind of thinking, Well, I should go talk to him more then.

Yeah.

Because he cares and he wants you to come to him.

So let's go back to our text, verse 3.

When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine.

And Jesus said to her, Woman, what does this have to do with me?

My hour has not yet come.

And his mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you.

Now, we gotta pause just on Jesus' response here for a second.

When he calls her woman, the English does not convey great tone there at all.

All right?

Now, if I were to call my mom woman, you know, she asked me something, and I was like, woman, or my mother-in-law, or my wife, or any woman in this room, and I would just be like, woman, like that would be very disrespectful.

That is not, you just need to know that is not at all the tone of what Jesus is saying here.

In fact, you can go in John 19, um, Jesus is on the cross and he's entrusting the care of his mother to the disciple whom he loves, which is John, and he refers to her as woman there again.

And so this is not a uh a negative way of speaking to her in any way.

It's it's there's a lot of respect there.

And so he says to her, uh, woman, what does this have to do with me?

He's kind of saying, Okay, why are you telling me this?

And he's he's saying that because he of look what he says next.

My hour has not yet come.

That hour specifically is referring to the full revelation of his Messiahship.

That's not actually a word, but the full revealing that he is the Messiah that some people would choose to believe, but many wouldn't.

In fact, he would be put to death on the cross because of that claim.

Because of the hour where he was fully declaring that he was the Messiah, and some would not believe him.

Now, he was the Messiah, and he is the Messiah, and he hadn't proved it yet to show it yet.

He hadn't, uh the blind hadn't seen yet, the the lame.

Hadn't walked, the deaf hadn't heard, the dead had not been raised, and so he was gonna do all those things, but they haven't happened yet.

Remember, this is his first miracle.

And so, sure, Jesus is gonna do a lot of amazing things.

He's gonna walk on water, he's gonna calm the storm, he's gonna feed thousands of people, and to get the ball rolling, he's about to, but they don't know it yet.

Turn a whole lot of water into a whole lot of wine.

This is what we see Jesus here.

He says, My hour has not yet come.

But his mother, look what she says in verse 5.

His mother said to the servant, Do whatever he tells you.

On the path to God's glory, point number two, I must surrender to his will.

I must surrender to his will.

Self-aside.

Mary gives up her wisdom, her ability, her thoughts of how I can fix this problem, you know, like I can quickly run out to Walmart and get some more wine or wherever they got wine back then.

Like she knows she can't do anything at this point.

And so the reason why I think the word surrender is so important.

It's not a submission.

A submission has a bit of a negative tone to it.

That, okay, fine, God, I'll go along with whatever you want me to do.

No, no.

She is full up, just like hands up.

Listen, do whatever he tells you.

If he tells you to go milk a goat, then go milk the goat.

Like anything Jesus says here, just do that.

I'm just leaving it in his hands.

Surrendering to God's will for Mary and us, listen, it means being content with God's plan, even if it isn't our plan, because we know that it's God's plan.

Surrendering to God's will means being content with God's plan, even if it isn't your plan or my plan, but because we know that it's God's plan.

Is that you?

Are you surrendering to the will of God?

Are you doing whatever he tells you?

2,000 years later, this is a word for us this morning.

Do whatever he tells you.

God's word is speaking to us this morning.

Do whatever he tells you.

You want to see the glory of God, you want to see him work in your life, you want to see him answer prayer, you want to call out to him and have him answer.

Listen, do what he tells you.

Do what he tells you.

Now, we know the verse in Matthew 6, you know, seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added on to you.

We want that all these things will be added on to you part, but we so struggle to do the first part.

That's the being obedient, that's the doing whatever he tells you.

Over and over again, we need to submit to God's plan.

The greatest moment in your life is when you give up your plan and you get on God's plan.

When it's no longer about you and your car that's gonna break down, your beautiful house that's gonna get old, your beauty, I'm sorry, that's gonna fade, your wisdom that someone else is gonna be smarter than.

When we begin to get off of our plan and our drive for all these things that don't last and get onto God's plan, listen, He will take care of you.

He will take care of you.

Rabbi Zacharias said this: the loneliest moment in life is when you have just experienced that which you thought would deliver the ultimate, and it has just let you down.

How many pro athletes have you seen?

You know, and it seems like they're at the end of their career and then they're being interviewed after winning some giant championship, and they're like, Are you gonna go for another?

And they're like, just one more.

I've heard Tom Brady say just one more three times.

And I do not like the Patriots, so that's hard on my heart, okay?

There's just it's it's an it's empty.

It's empty.

It's not gonna sustain, it's not going to satisfy.

Matthew 16, 26 says, What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

Or what should a man give in return for his soul?

The way to peace and contentment is the presence of God.

It's surrendering to his will.

It's doing whatever he says.

This reminds me of a phrase that we use in our house all the time with our kids, and that's listen and obey right away.

Sometimes we have to grab them by the face.

Listen and obey right away.

Do they always do that?

No, no, not always.

But listen, God has entrusted them to our care.

We are to watch over them both physically and spiritually, to care for them, to nurture them, to watch over them, and ultimately we're trying to point them to Jesus.

And they need to listen and obey right away.

They might not always understand the reasons and why we're saying to do something or why we're saying to do something, but they need to listen and obey right away.

Listen, you and I, God is caring for us, both physically, both spiritually.

He's watching over us, taking care of us, nurturing us, and he's ultimately pointing us to Jesus.

We need to listen and obey right away.

We need to do whatever he tells you.

Now, I don't mean you speak to you like I do to my four-year-olds or my four-year-old, my seven-year-old, but you need to listen and obey right away.

Like, let's all just say that together.

We do this in our house just so the kids learn it.

All right, let's say it together, okay?

Let's go.

Listen and obey right away.

Let's do it's do it like we do it.

So I'll say listen and obey, and they respond with right away.

Now, sometimes it's like right away, fine.

Stomping, which, all right, we'll work on that, okay?

Listen and obey right away.

All right.

This is what we need to do when it comes to God and his word.

Over and over again, he's told us things that we need to do.

He's calling us out.

Um, in fact, in just a second, I'm going to put a list of things up on the screen that God has, throughout his word, um, commanded that his followers do.

And I believe that for some this morning, for many, for all of us, there's things on this list that we need to just do whatever he tells you.

Do whatever he tells you.

Um Dan Dumas said, the way you live your life will display what you believe about God.

You cannot claim to fear and love God if you refuse to do whatever he says.

I know that's biblical because Jesus said almost the same thing in John 14, 15.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

How have you not listened and obeyed right away to God?

What is it that's preventing you?

It's selfishness, it's sin.

And I have it too, and it's hard.

And we need to be called out, we need to be reminded.

Listen, just do whatever he tells you.

Do whatever he tells you and walk in obedience and worship him in that.

So I want to put this list on the screen, and I'm gonna read these, and and I want you just to, as it's there, just be praying over this and just say, Lord, it's one of these for me right now, and you can write down the scripture and you can look it up later.

Maybe he's calling you to repent, to follow me, to rejoice.

Let your light shine.

Be reconciled.

Do not lust.

Keep your word.

Go the extra mile.

Love your enemies.

Do not be anxious.

Seek first his kingdom.

Judge not.

Ask, seek, knock.

Do unto others as you would have them do to you.

Choose the narrow way.

Now, this is not an exhaustive list, but we're gonna put up another slide.

Be wise.

Fear not.

Honor your parents.

These next two often go together and they're difficult.

Go to your offender and work it out.

Forgive offenders.

Honor marriage.

Be a servant.

Ask in faith.

Care for the least.

Love the Lord.

Anticipate Christ's return.

Do you know what we're called to do that?

Anticipate his return.

Make disciples and baptize.

Beware of covetousness.

Deny self and live for him.

Keep my commandments, Jesus says.

What is Jesus calling you to do?

You need to do whatever he tells you.

What is he calling you this morning and saying, listen, you say you love me.

You need to walk in obedience then.

As we do, the Lord blesses that.

He blesses that.

And as we walk in obedience, as we turn to him, as we surrender to his will, well, you're gonna see in this passage, God's gonna show his glory.

He's gonna show his glory as we do whatever he tells us.

So look back with me at our text, verse six.

Let's keep going.

Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.

Essentially, these are kind of like sinks.

That's what they use them for, these massive pots.

Jesus said to the servant, fill them with water, and they filled them up to the brim.

And he said to them, Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.

So they took it.

Let's just pause here for a second.

So 20 to 30 gallons times six, that's about 180 gallons.

Gallons means nothing to me, so I converted it to liters.

Hopefully that's helpful for you.

That's about 680 liters of water.

Jesus is about to turn into wine.

Based on the average 750 milliliter bottle of wine, Jesus is about to give this young couple 908 bottles of wine.

That's a lie.

If they don't have a wine cellar, they're gonna need to build one.

Alright?

That's a lot of wine that Jesus is about to give them.

Now, I'll look what it says in verse 9.

When the master of the feast tasted, the water now became wine and did not know where it came from, though the servant who had drawn the water knew.

He probably didn't say anything because he was just like this.

The master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, Everyone serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then the poor wine.

But you have kept the good wine until now.

Here's the third point.

On the path to God's glory, I must anticipate his best.

I must anticipate his best.

Everything that God does, everything that Jesus does every time is good.

It's best every time.

That's why he makes this good wine.

In fact, it's so good that the master of the ceremonies, he actually kind of cracks a joke about this.

He kind of makes a joke because he knows, probably from his past experience, that you serve the great wine at the beginning.

And then once people's senses are a little dulled, let's just say, then you give them the not so good stuff because then they won't really notice.

Now, we see no sign of substance abuse in this passage.

I think it's just all important that we all just recognize that, okay?

And Jesus has now showed up and given them this good wine.

He has done best.

It's amazing.

Now, it's not like some people would say, well, you know, he probably just watered it down.

No, no, no.

There was no wine.

There was no wine.

They had completely run out.

In fact, he took something and changed it.

He took water and he changed it.

There was no vine ripening, there was no fermentation, there was no like eight years in a barrel, nothing like that.

He just made it happen.

Jesus just made it happen.

Now you're like, how can he do that?

Look across the page at John 1 3.

All things were made through him, and without him, not anything was made that was made.

Jesus can make something out of nothing.

He can totally do that.

And he just did.

He just took all of this water, these pots of water, and just turned it into wine.

Now, people will often ask the question and try and use this passage of Scripture to discuss whether or not Christians should consume alcohol and drink.

And the Bible has a lot to say about alcohol.

In Ephesians 5, it says this look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of your time because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.

So from Scripture, we can say that drunkenness, we need to abstain from that completely.

You cannot be getting drunk.

God's word commands against that.

Now, throughout the Old and New Testament, there are lots of warnings, though, about just consuming alcohol at all.

Over and over again, there's different warnings.

And if you talk to anyone in our culture who has abused alcohol, who probably didn't intend to, they would uh recommend to you to probably abstain from that, to walk in very careful wisdom.

And I would put before you, in a time where we don't have such limited drink offer um options, they they had, you know, water or wine, and usually the water wasn't so pure.

And so they drank a lot of wine, and it was different than we have now, but it still very much had alcohol in it.

And so we, in a culture that is so highly addictive, but we have thousands of drink options, do we really want to give up freedom of being able to think clearly and possibly not being able to discern our way through things as we would like to, to sacrifice the example that we're living to our children because our senses are dulled in such a way that we can't bring complete honor to God by consuming alcohol and having it put us in that place.

I would just say to you, you need to walk in caution.

God's word is commanding that you not get drunk, but I would say throughout God's word, I believe it's saying that you need to be cautious about consuming alcohol.

Walk forth and have conviction.

For me in my life, I know wisdom has kind of knocked and and and put on my heart to abstain from that.

That might not be you, and that's I'm not saying that I'm the only one who should be like that.

Or that that you're wrong or I no.

Drunkenness, no.

Careful, careful how you walk through this.

Now, for this couple, though, they've just been given 908 bottles of wine.

This is a lot of wine.

And now they probably weren't gonna consume all of that in a week, even if it was a really big party, scholars believe that there was a lot left over.

And per bottle, no, they weren't putting them in bottles, but this was a massive amount of money that Jesus had just given them.

Because they could go and sell this.

All right?

We're not talking like two mortgage payments, we're talking like down payment and first three years worth of payments, kind of.

That's the amount of money that this would have gotten for them.

Because what Jesus has done, he has done amazingly, awesomely, supremely best.

It's not just some mediocre wine.

It's good wine because Jesus does best.

Are you anticipating God when he works in your life to do his best?

And when he does work, do you believe that what he has done is best?

Or are you thinking, come on, Lord, you couldn't have done a little better than that?

Everything that he does, always he does best.

Now, this is part of what surrendering to his will means.

It means that we're okay and we're we're good with whatever God's plan is, no matter what God's plan is, because it's God's plan.

But is that you?

Is that me all the time?

I gotta tell you, it's it's not always easy for me, and so I need to be reminded of them some things.

Um, in Mark 7, verse 37, Jesus heals a deaf man, and it says that they were astonished, and then they said, He does all things well.

Mark 7:37

He does all things well.

In Matthew 14, Jesus feeds 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish.

Now that's pretty amazing, but just to show you how best, how amazing and perfect he can do it, there's 12 baskets of leftovers.

He makes leftovers.

Leftovers are in the Bible.

Some of you are like, well, that's why I'm gonna eat from Thanksgiving still this weekend.

That's you're pushing it, okay?

That's like two weeks, all right?

Those leftovers probably not, all right?

Listen, what he does, he does best all the time.

Here's my favorite one in Hebrews 10, 12.

Um, it says this, that Jesus does this amazingly, exceedingly awesomely, preeminently.

I can't think of any other big words to describe.

He makes a sacrifice, a single sacrifice, once and for all, for those who would believe in him.

That's amazing.

Jesus does this.

He can lay down his life and take it up again and take the punishment for your sin and mine if we believe in him.

That's what he can do.

He does all things best.

Is that what you're expecting from Jesus?

And are you recognizing when he does work that what he has done is best?

Or is there a bit of a discontentment, a bit of a disconnect, and you're not really thrilled about it?

This happens when we surrender to his will, which is hard because so often we maybe don't articulate it, but when we pray and when we think, we're thinking, My will be done on earth as I would have it for my kingdom to come.

That's a problem.

So, how do we do this?

How do we get into a better place so that we can have, you know, God's best in our mind all the time?

Whatever God does, he does best.

I wrote down two things that we can do to kind of be thinking along this line.

Here's the first one you gotta know his track record.

If you're gonna see that what God does in your life is best, you need to know his track record.

And that happens by getting in his word, understanding who he is, what he has done, and how he works.

And then you won't be surprised when he intervenes in your life and you're like, oh, well, that's how it's gonna turn out.

Well, that's that's not how I thought it was gonna turn out, but that's your plan.

This was not how this young couple thought their marriage would start.

But God intervenes and he does this.

So do you know God's track record?

And then, secondly, do you know his love?

Do you know his love?

His love that he has poured out for you, that while you were yet a sinner, he sends his son Jesus to die on a cross so you can be forgiven of your sin.

Do you know the love of God?

This is why hearing and preaching the gospel to ourselves over and over and over and over again has to happen.

Every day you need to be thinking through the gospel.

Now, you have to be careful so that you don't do it where you're just kind of like reciting some verses and then it just becomes this thing that you can say.

But you're doing it consciously thinking about the fact that you don't deserve that kind of love.

You know you and I know me.

And I look at myself sometimes and I'm like, I can't believe that he would do this for me.

Because I'm I'm sinful.

I'm I'm fallen on my own, but he has loved me.

That's awesome.

That's amazing.

And I gotta tell you, it stirs in my heart this like fresh bit of thankfulness and gratitude for God for all that he has done.

But that doesn't happen if I don't know his track record and I'm not consciously thinking about his love.

But when when that's going on, man, I will see that all that he is doing is best.

It's awesome, it's amazing.

Now we got one more verse, verse 11, as we close here.

This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifest his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

They believed in him.

This is again, this is his first miracle.

He does this and they believed.

They see the glory of God and they believe.

Our last point, I must get ready to be strengthened.

As you see the glory of God on display, your faith will be strengthened.

Your faith will be strengthened.

Now, later in Jesus' ministry, he would go around and people would say, you know, do a miracle for us.

And they weren't, he won, they won't wanted him to do a miracle just because they wanted to see something cool happen.

Here we see very specifically that the reason, the purpose of the miracle that Jesus is doing here is to build faith in their lives.

God has given us in his word thousands of accounts of awesome and amazing miracles that he has done to build faith in our lives.

Are you looking at those things and are you recognizing that they are from God?

We need to do this more.

I need to do this more.

2 Corinthians 3.18 says, and we all with unveiled face behold the glory of God and are being transformed.

Are you beholding the glory of God?

Are you looking in his direction?

Because when you are, listen, when you see his manifest glory, it will strengthen your belief in him.

That's why he has put things in his word that you may see, that you may see the power and the might of Jesus.

You may not physically see him walk on water or eat the bread that he breaks for thousands of people.

You may not witness him spit in mud and rub it on a blind man's eyes to restore his sight.

You may not be there outside the tomb when he yells, Lazarus, come out.

But listen, he has recorded all of those things in your word.

They're in his word.

That you may have a copy of it, that you may sit and you may get into it, and you may know these things.

You may see the love of God, the power of God, the might of God on display for you.

And as you see them more and more, that your faith might be encouraged, that you might be strengthened in him.

In him, in Jesus Christ, who Hebrews 1 says, listen to this for a second.

He upholds the universe by the word of his power.

I don't know what your problem is.

I don't know how big it is, I don't know how hard it is, I don't know how difficult it is, and I do not mean to make it sound small or seem light at all.

I only mean to elevate God more.

That by the word of his power, he upholds the universe.

Have you ever thought about that for a second?

That means that he doesn't have to go like this every couple days or months on the earth to keep it spinning.

He doesn't have to do that.

He doesn't have to walk over to the earth and just kind of give it a little tilt to change the seasons every six months.

He's not up in heaven going, they need some more wind.

None of that.

By the word of his power.

That's the kind of might and authority that God has.

Why do I tell you all that?

So that you will be strengthened.

And I would encourage you to go and behold the glory of God, see signs of his glory, and be encouraged, be strengthened.

Practically then speaking, how do we do this?

Three things, three things to close, okay?

Here they are.

The first one, turn to his provision.

These are just the first three points, okay?

Surrender to his will, anticipate his best.

These are the things that we need to be doing often.

We need to be consciously turning to God for help, surrendering to his will, doing whatever he tells us to do.

Even though it might not be our plan, it's his plan.

So it's the best plan.

And then anticipating his best, believing that what he does will be best.

And listen, as that happens, as you walk in that faith, God will show his glory.

He will show his glory because you are looking to him.

And he is so pleased when that happens.

May this be true of you too, as it was for the disciples.

They saw his manifest glory and they believed in him.

May you see signs of glory in your life that encourage you, that strengthen you to trust him more and walk in greater love and obedience of him.

Amen.

Amen.

Let me pray.

Heavenly Father, I thank you, God, for your word, for your display of your love and your affection and your care and your power and your might.

And Lord, we just recognize, God, that we need you.

We can't get through life.

We can't get through this day.

We can't get through any moments without you.

You keep our hearts beating.

Keep our lungs working, God, you are in control of all of it.

And so we just we submit to you.

Lord, you are over it.

And I pray, Lord, that you would help us to see that more.

And we would see what you are doing and how you are working and your glory on display.

And it would cause us to love you.

It would cause our faith and our trust and our belief in you to increase.

But God, we need you to do this.

So please show us your glory, Lord.

Be powerfully moving and working in our lives.

We love you and pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.