John • #1 of 7 signs

John 2:1-12 • The turning of water into wine...

• John's motivation to write? That we might receive eternal life by believing in Jesus.

John 20:30-31 → 30Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

• The signs that John mentions are 7 which he recorded in his gospel. They are...

► Sign 1, Water to Wine, Jesus is the master of the ELEMENTS → John 2:1-12

► Sign 2, Nobleman's Son, Jesus is the master over DISTANCE → John 4:46-54

► Sign 3, Lame Man at Bethesda, Jesus is the master over TIME → John 5:1-18

► Sign 4, Feeding of 5,000+, Jesus is the master over DIMENSION → John 6:1-15

► Sign 5, Jesus walks on water, Jesus is the master over NATURE → John 6:15-21

► Sign 6, The Man Born Blind, Jesus is the master over HISTORY → John 9:1-41

► Sign 7, The Raising of Lazarus, Jesus is the master over DEATH → John 11:1-46

• Sign 1, Water to Wine, Jesus is the master of the ELEMENTS

John 2:1-12 → 1On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; 2and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.

• "On the third day" after the calling of Philip and Nathanael (John 1:43)

• "Cana of Galilee" - supposedly about 8 to 12 miles north of Nazareth and 14 miles west of Capernaum, which is on the north end of the Sea of Galilee.

• "the mother of Jesus was there;" - John never uses her name, which of course, we know to be Mary. This was probably the wedding of a close friend or a relative.

• "and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding." - they may have been invited outright, but my opinion is that they may have been included because of Mary's involvement in the wedding event.

3When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”

• The consumption of wine in that culture was somewhat normal, if for no other reason than to avoid water-borne diseases. Water mixed with wine would help with that, as would drinking newly fermented wine that had not reached it's full alcoholic potency. Drinking alcohol is not banned anywhere in the Scripture. But the abuse and/or excessive use of it is. It would have been a serious breech of Jewish standards of hospitality to only be able to serve water to drink.

4And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.” 5His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

• Jesus obviously perceived that Mary expected Jesus to do something about it. When Jesus says "my hour has not yet come", He obviously understood her to be asking Him to perform a miracle. I don't think she was asking Him to take the family car over to Costco to buy some bottles of wine.

• His expression to Mary is perhaps one of rebuke, basically telling her that it's not her job to dictate when and how He should be performing miracles. I'm sure it must have been a struggle for her to think of Him as the Messiah, and respect Him as such, as opposed to just being a proud mom. Of course she would want everyone to see Him at His full potential.

• When Mary said "whatever He says to you, do it", it's demonstrating that however she knows, she's confident that Jesus can fix the issue.

6Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. 7Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim.

• The water in these pots was for washing, not drinking. The pots weren't full, as Jesus asked them to top them off. Even though Jesus had indicated to Mary that now was not the time, He proceeded to act anyway.

• The weight of the waterpots, just the water alone, would weigh between 167 to 250 pounds. Times 6! 120 to 180 GALLONS of water. Try getting that much getting that much into the back of your car. Upwards of 1,500 pounds, without the weight of the pots themselves.

• The point being that if Jesus is going to do something, it's a really big something He's going to do!

8And He said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it to him. 9When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom, 10and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.”

• After they filled the pots to the top, with what they know to be nothing more than water, and possibly not even the best water, Jesus told them to "draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter", which they did.

• When the headwaiter, who I'm sure would have already been aware that the wine had run out, tasted this "new" wine, he questioned the bridegroom as to why he had "kept the GOOD (emphasis mine) wine until now".

• Jesus doesn't perform His miracles with lots of fanfare, no wand-waving, no shouting (with the exception of raising Lazarus, and we'll deal with that when we get there), no jumping up and down, just a quiet instance where the miracle is already done before anyone realizes it.

• "The good wine" would indicate that what was in those pots was better than what had previously been served, which is backward from what would normally have happened. Sever the really tasty stuff, the stuff with a punch first, and once everyone's senses were a little dulled, then use the wine on tap. When I was a drinker (sober since about 1985), I would do the same thing. Go to the bar, buy a really nice bottle of beer, and when that was finished, spend the rest of the evening drinking pitchers of the cheap stuff. At that point, I couldn't really tell the difference anyway. My guess is that this was probably the best wine that had or ever will be made.

• Keep in mind also, that when I say that this miracle, this sign, demonstrates Jesus mastery over the ELEMENTS, that what Jesus did was not something that can be replicated. You can't just open a packet of some drink flavoring and make water become wine. Jesus, the eternal Creator, literally took one thing He created, and turned it into something else.

11This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.

• This miracle had it's desired effect. The disciples clearly saw everything that had transpired, and if they hadn't already believed, they did most certainly believe now. Jesus is a miracle worker.

12After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days.

• We don't know why specifically that they went to Capernaum. All we know is that Mary went with them, and after a few days Jesus went to Jerusalem. It doesn't say what Mary did.

• So this 1st of 7 signs/miracles, each selected by John from many, many more that Jesus performed to demonstrate some aspect of Jesus' deity, shows us that Jesus, as the Creator, has the ability to transform His creation into anything He wants.

• Jesus is the master of the ELEMENTS