A Miracle of Transformation: Water Into Wine - John 2:2-12

1:03That we will not just be able to sing about his beauty in the abstract, but that each of us will come to such a relationship, such an understanding of Christ, that our hearts will cry out, you are beautiful. That we'll move beyond just the theological, but into the heart experiential, that we will experience Christ. Here in our midst and in our lives. I just want to read to you this passage, and then we'll work our way through it, because truly, there is an incredibly beautiful picture of Jesus in our passage here this morning.

1:51John chapter 2, verse 1. On the third day, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there, and both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine. And Jesus said to her, Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, Whatever he says to you, do it. Now there were six stone water pots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing 20 or 30 gallons each. Jesus said to them, Fill the water pots with water. So they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, Draw some out now and take it to the head waiter. So they took it to him. When the head waiter 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 head waiter called the bridegroom and said to him, Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poor wine. But you have kept The good wine until now. This beginning of his signs, Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him. After this, he went down to Capernaum, and he and his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there a few days. Well, just to give you a sense of where we are in the book of John, if you'll remember in chapter 1, the overarching invitation of John chapter 1 was come and see. First, John and Andrew heard it as they followed Christ. Jesus said, Come and see. And then Nathanael heard it. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Come and see. Come and see. And the invitation that John sets forth in the first chapter is really an invitation for us all to come and see. John has given us his testimony of who Jesus is in the first 18 verses. That is, John's prologue. John sets forth Jesus to us. The Apostle John sets forth Jesus to us as the Word of God, the Creator God, the self-expression of God, who is fully God, fully man, sets him forth as the life of man, the light of man, and all this in just 18 verses. And then he goes on. And John the Apostle gives us John the Baptist testimony of who Jesus is. He is the Lamb of God. He is the true baptizer, the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. He is the Son of God. And then in verses 35 through 50, John the Apostle gives us the testimony of the first five disciples who say this is the rabbi, the teacher, the Messiah, the Christ, the one Moses and the prophets spoke of. He is the Son of God. He is the King of Israel. And then in verse 51 of chapter 1, John the Apostle records for us Jesus' own testimony of himself. I am the Son of man, King of Israel, Son of God, the Lamb, the prophet, the true baptizer, your rabbi, your king.

5:27And I am bone of your bone, flesh of your flesh. I'm the Son of man. And there's this image. How can an individual be all this? And John's invitation is: come and see. Come and see. Go with me into chapter 2 and stay with me to chapter 3, 4, 5, 6, all the way through. And come and see. Come and see. And you will see that he truly is all of these things. And he is the only one worthy to be labeled with these high titles. And that's the invitation to us. And I pray that this, as we walk through John, that this become real to us, that we will come and see, and that we will leave not just theological notions, although we need those, but a true understanding and a heart grasp. Yes, you are Son of God.

6:27You are king. You are my king. And you are my teacher. So, coming into chapter two, John begins a series of seven signs, seven signs. He gives us seven signs, beginning with the water into wine, and they're going to culminate in chapter 11 with the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Seven signs. His book is very organized very nicely, just one sign after another, and then he'll give some elaboration or some discourses that relate to the signs. In other words, we'll see the water into wine, and then later in chapter 3, as he's speaking to Nicodemus, it's going to have an impact. What happens here has an impact on what he teaches about, or he tells us the significance of all of it. And that's how John's gospel goes. But remember, John's goal for all of this is John wants to present Jesus to you in such a way. That you can be certain of who he is. All these titles that have been laid out in chapter one, John says are true. And I want you to come and see, and I want you to read the record so that you yourself will come to see and come to believe that all these are true. And so he goes through these signs. He wants you to be certain of who he is so that you will be irresistibly drawn to him. John feels like if you can just see, if you can just really comprehend who Jesus is, you will be drawn. And so he sets him forth. In fact, he even says that in chapter 20 and verse 30, he says, Many other signs Jesus did, but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing in him, you will have life in his name. That by believing in him, you are connected through a resurrection with Christ, a union with God, a new life, a new birth.

8:40For John, he sees Jesus as beautiful beyond description, as we just sung. He sees him as beautiful and worthy to be crowned with many crowns. And so this morning, I want us to take a look at Jesus' first miracle, this miracle of turning the water. Water into wine, this transformation. And first, I want to just do it in a very straightforward way. I want to walk through the narrative step by step just so that you can bring to mind its contents. Second, I want to comment on some of the misuses or abuses that are common with this passage. And third, I simply just want you to see Jesus. I want you to see Jesus. I do not want you to leave here without seeing the beautiful picture of Jesus that is revealed to us in this first sign. So let's just go through this.

9:36I'm just going to walk through this narrative step by step. First, I want to look at the setting for the sign. Look at verse 1. On the third day, there was a wedding in Cana. On the third day, the third day is to be counted from the last event that was narrated, that was with Nathaniel. It took a couple of days to get from where they were to the wedding. And the third day also concludes this very memorable week. If you'll remember, back in day one, when verse 19 of chapter 1, that was the interrogation day. That was the day that the delegation went out to interrogate John the Baptist. Who are you? And then day two, if you'll remember, that beginning in verse 29 of chapter 1 is John the Baptist public testimony day. This is when John the Baptist Says and declares who Jesus is publicly. And then, if you'll remember, day three begins in verse 35 of chapter 1. We'll call this the Eureka Day for John, Andrew, and Peter. And then in day four, which begins in verse 43 of chapter 1, is Eureka Day for Nathanael. And then three days later, or on the third day after that, is this wedding in Cana, the third day. And the mother of Jesus was there. Now, Cana in Galilee is, there is, the exact location may not, may be a little question about exactly where it is, but most present-day geographers and Bible scholars will put it at a place nine miles north of Nazareth. In fact, Jerome stayed there in Nazareth, and he said he could see Cana from Nazareth. Josephus also says he stayed in Cana of Galilee. So it's a place about nine miles north of Nazareth. And there's a wedding going on. If you were with us last Sunday night, we talked about the phases of a Jewish wedding. If you'll remember, there are three phases: the betrothal period, the celebration, and then the consummation. And the betrothal period happened a year ago, approximately a year ago, from this wedding celebration. And that's where the couple was joined. In marriage. Now, it was their betrothed. It was something like an engagement to us, but in the Jewish culture, they were really married. And so then, and what the for the after getting betrothed, then the groom, the bridegroom, would go and prepare a place, and he'd start working on the house, and he'd start preparing the place. And so, a lot of planning went into this wedding in Cana. It was the big day where they would move in together, that they would begin there happily ever after. And it was a day of celebration. It was a day that a lot of arrangements, a lot of planning had gone in. This was a very big day in this culture. Big day for the bride, big day for the groom, and the extended families. The entire community would get involved. This was a big day.

12:54They didn't have Aggie football games to get together and to have occasion for celebrations, although that wasn't much of a celebration yesterday, right? But they didn't have all these big events like that. But much of the culture centered around getting together at these weddings. These were huge events, special events. People would travel from distances who knew the couple, and they would come. And so the third phase of the Jewish wedding was the consummation. And that would happen at the end of the feast, and they would go into their home, and that's where they would live to the new home, happily ever after. So it was a big day. I want you to see the key people that are involved in this narrative.

13:48Just look back at verse 1. On the third day, there was a wedding in Cana, and the mother of Jesus was there. So Jesus' mother was already there. Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding. So the fact that Jesus' mother is there and appears to already be there when Jesus arrived says something that she may have very well been involved in this wedding, may have had some planning responsibilities, or she certainly seems knowledgeable about what's going on and maybe why she brought the issue about running out of wine to Jesus. But she's there, and she's playing some kind of role. And of course, Jesus and his disciples were invited. So this is probably somebody pretty close in the family, somebody that all of not only Jesus, but his disciples also knew. So it was somebody probably fairly close or related in some way. Then there's the head waiter. And if you look, the head waiter, he doesn't show up until verse 9, but you can look down there and see him. And you can see the bridegroom. He also shows up in verses 9 and 10. 10, but the head waiter plays a very important role in taking care of the guests. He doesn't join the wedding party, but he's kind of like that guy in charge of catering. Okay, so kind of a, and may have even been like the master of ceremonies. But his role was to take care of the guests. You had all these guests come in, and he was to take care of the distribution of food and drink. In fact, I don't spend much time reading apocryphal books, but there is an apocryphal book called Siroch in chapter 32 and verse 1 and 2 provides some historical insight into the custom and the role of what a head waiter would do. I'll just read this to you. It says, If you were made the master of a feast, that is this ark, we hear the word archbishop, but this is like the ark waiter, the head waiter. If you be made master of a feast, do not lift yourself up. You be among them as one of them. Take care of them, and then sit down. And having done all of your office, take your place, that you may be merry for their sake and receive a crown for the fine arrangements. So you get the idea of this head waiter had. Role to see to take care of his joy was their joy and to take care of all the arrangements. And that's how that's that was the role of a head waiter. Well, you have the bridegroom that shows up, he doesn't say anything, and then you have basically everybody else. You have the guests, the bride, her family, and the rest of the waits. That's who's in there. But the major players, you got the head waiter, and Jesus' mother, and his disciples, and Jesus, of course. But look back, there's a problem. Verse 3: when the wine ran out, uh-oh, wine ran out. A problem. There's no more wine. And it's interesting in Jewish thought. I have a Jewish writing that says this, that wine was a symbol of joy. And this saying, there is no rejoicing without wine.

17:27That was one of the writings that there can be no rejoicing without wine. Forget it. If there's no wine, there's no celebration going on. So it's a major, major problem. They run out. Literally, the word means it failed. It just like sputtered out. Kind of like, you know, how when the good lemonade, you know, in our big five-gallon jugs, they just kind of triple out. Well, that's kind of, that's what happened to the wine. Someone, oh, no wine, right? Or no coffee. You see the. Dribble out, right?

18:03Well, I mean, in so this is a social blunder. In fact, the way my kids would describe it, this is epic failure, right? This is epic failure. I mean, to run out of a wine at an event like this, and there's probably there's probably more days left, obviously. Jesus seems to have appeared sometime in the middle of the wine. So it's out, and people have come a long way, and you're responsible to provide. There's not a McDonald's, there's not a convenience store. You are responsible to take care of the families and the guests. And this is a big deal. So you want to throw a great party. You want to throw a great event. I think we can all relate. We want to, even when we put together, when I help people put together weddings around here, one of the big events I see by the mother of the bride, she wants things to be, she wants things to go well. She wants the guests taken care of. We get it. We understand that.

19:02Well, picture the scene. They're out of wine. And when the word gets out, he's going to appear to be either unhospitable or cheap or just simply poor planners. Don't care enough. Maybe they didn't have much money. That's very possible. We're not told why the. Wine had run out. But the bottom line is that for whatever reason it ran out, adequate provisions were not made one way or the other. And this was going to be a poor reflection on the host.

19:47And so the wine was out, and soon their shame was going to be exposed to the whole community. So then Mary comes up. When the wine ran out, pick it up in verse 2. The mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine. They have no wine. Obviously, she had a close connection with those responsible for putting on the event, and so she somehow knew, and she went with the problem to Jesus. It's more of a, not so much a petition as it is a statement with, they're out of wine. Got a problem.

20:27What should we do about it? That type of thing. Look at Jesus' response in verse 4. And Jesus said to her, Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come. Woman, what does that have to do with us? The response is kind of striking, right? And it may seem a little bit rude to us, right? Woman? I mean, if I said that to my wife, woman, what was that? No, she wouldn't. She wouldn't. She wouldn't hit me. Shoot me, maybe. No.

21:09But I don't think that this is a derogatory statement like we would see it. In fact, in John chapter 19 and verse 26, when Jesus is on the cross, what does he say? He sees his mother there standing next to John, and he says to her, Woman, behold your son. So I don't think this is a term that is derogatory like we would see it. I don't think he's being rude. I think he's being polite. It might be equivalent to saying something like, dear lady, or ma'am, ma'am, what does that have to do with us? But it does bring a rebuke. There's a polite rebuke here.

21:53He's not being rude to his mother, but he is saying, mother or ma'am, what do you and I have in common with this matter in hand? What is this that, what is this, how does this involve you and me? It was, I remember years ago on the silver screen, you guys remember the Lone Ranger, right? Remember the Lone Ranger? Some of you probably are too young to remember, but the Lone Ranger was this hero. He rode this horse, and he would take care of all the bad people. Guys, and he would come in whenever it got bad, and he had this trusted sidekick named Tonto, right? And Tonto was his trusted Indian friend. I mean, he was smart, and he was he got this Lone Ranger out of a whole bunch of trouble and was just a good advisor, master tracker. And then one time, the Lone Ranger and Tono were out there, and they got surrounded by this band of Comanche Indians. I mean, they were just ready to take them all down. The Lone Ranger looks at Tonto and says, Tono, what are we going to do?

23:07To which Tono replies, What's this we stuff, white man? What does this have to do with you and me? You know, well, that's kind of the simplest same thing that Jesus is saying. What is this we stuff? What is this involve? How does this involve you and me? He says, My hour has not yet come. And what Jesus is saying here is this, and throughout the entire gospel, this phrase, my hour, refers to the moment at which God is fully, fully glorified in Jesus. And that's going to be the cross. That is where God is going to be most glorified in Christ, and that is his hour. And so here's Jesus saying, My hour has not come. The time for me to glorify myself has not come.

24:00And so, what's happening here in this present situation, Jesus is not going to be forced into a public manifestation of his identity on somebody else's terms. He's not going to be pressured by his mother or anyone else to come in and say, Here, go show yourself. In fact, this is what happens in chapter 7. You remember his brothers, why don't you go up there? Go up to the feast, make yourself known. And Jesus is like, My hour is not here yet. I will glorify myself. I will glorify my Father at the right time.

24:40And it just so happens that, look at verse 5. Look at Mary's response. His mother said to his servants, Whatever he says to you, do it. Now, somehow, Jesus communicated to his mother that he was already going to help. For this reason, he came, I believe. He already had this in his mind. And it was not going to be in response to her prompting, but it was going to be in the manner of his time and his choosing. He was going to do he was going to help.

25:15So that's the setting for the sign. Grand party, grand celebration. Problem, no wine, what's at stake? Public humiliation and shame. And so then, let's look at the sign itself. Look at verse 6. Now there were six stone water pots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing 20 or 30 gallons each. The custom of purification. This is not for bathing. This is not for washing dishes. This is for a ritual purification. It's a process. In fact, Mark chapter 7 and verse 3 and 4 gives us a nice little parenthetical about this custom of purification. I'll just read it to you. For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders. And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they cleanse themselves. And there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing of cups and pitchers and Jewish pots, I mean, and copper pots, and etc. So this is a custom of purification. There are six stone water pots, six jars, probably somewhere around 20 to 30 gallons each. So you're looking at about 120 to 180 gallons of liquid. And you can picture that like picture three 55 gallon drums. You've seen those big barrels, drums that they carry oil and other stuff in. Think of three 55 gallons. Drums, or you can think of 100 gallons of milk or something like that. And that'll kind of give you an idea of the magnitude. There's a large number of guests there, and this is going to be adequate water for the purification, not just the drinking, but for the purification. This is an adequate amount. This is a lot of water. So then look at verse 7. And Jesus said to them, fill the water pots with water. So they filled them up to the brim, right up to the top. There'll be no dumping in. I mean, it's right there at the top. And he said to them, draw some out now and take it to the head waiter. So they took it to him. Just look at the three imperatives there.

27:47Mary told him, whatever he says, you do. And this is what he says. He says, you fill, you draw, you take. You fill these pots, you draw some out, you take it to the head waiter. That was his commands. And look at verse 9. Look at what happens. When the head waiter 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 head waiter called the bridegroom and 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. I mean, the head waiter is stunned at the quality of wine, and he's stunned at the quality of wine. The character of this bridegroom. He says, this is unheard of. Everyone, I mean, without exception, the normal rule, and maybe he had seen some other, maybe it presided over other weddings in the past, but he's saying, this is so uncommon. Because in every other case, what happens is you give the good wine first, let the people drink it up, drunk freely, and when you know they're getting a little bit, maybe their senses are a little dull, then you bring out more. You bring out the poorer stuff. And the word here for drunk freely is used in the New Testament throughout, and in every case, it's talking about intoxication.

29:16The control, being under the influence, or having your judgment impaired. And so he's saying, this is the normal thing. You serve the good stuff first, and then the grape juice that has gotten older and older and fermented more and more and more. Then you start bringing that stuff out. And then people don't care, right? That's the idea. But you're different. You have kept the good wine to now. You are very unique. Very unique. And so what was going to be a social catastrophe has now turned into an honor. Something very memorable has taken place. Uncharacteristic, and when they talk, and I'm sure the head waiter, when he talked about this, and even many of the attendees would remember, that was the one where the good wine was brought out. Wast.

30:12It's probably never forgotten. We'll look at the result of this sign. The result of the sign in verse 11: this beginning of his signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee. This is the beginning. That is the very first. That's the word. Same word in 1:1 that's talked about in the beginning. This is the beginning of his signs that Jesus did. And it was in Cana of Galilee where they began. And he manifested, incidentally, it's interesting that Chrysostom, that great archbishop of Constantinople in the fourth century, very important early church father, he said, referring to this, and on the basis of this statement here in verse 11, this beginning of his signs, he says that all apocryphal books or pseudopigal books that speak about Jesus' early childhood miracles are categorically false. Any book that talks about Jesus's, which are maybe regarded as scripture now in some traditions, Catholicism and Orthodoxies and some others that recognize these pseudopigraphal books.

31:30Chrysostom, the great early church father, said, Look, any of these books that talk about Jesus' childhood miracles are categorically false and certainly not scripture. I mean, there's ones where Jesus made some clay birds and blows on them and they fly off as a little kid and that kind of stuff. But it's interesting. The beginning, you know, this is the first of his signs. The beginning of his signs that he did. This is his first miracle. He's picked out specifically for this event by God himself to reveal something very special about his son and about God, about the father. So look at, this is the beginning of his signs that he did in Cana of Galilee, and he manifested his glory. That is, he put on display. He put himself on display. He put his power and his goodness on display. He manifested his glory. And the result is that his disciples believed in him. Notice it was his disciples. It was close enough for his disciples to see. Everyone else probably didn't get the full scope of what had taken place. But he was doing something very special for his disciples. And they believed. That is, their faith and trust in Jesus as the Son, as the King, as their rabbi, all of that deepened. They believed. They had already said they, the ones had already said they had believed in chapter 1, but here we see it saying they believed in him. That is, their faith deepened in him.

33:10And after this, verse 12, he went down to Capernaum, he and his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there a few days. So that's the text. So now that we've walked through the text, the next step is I want to comment on some of the misuses or abuses, I should say, that are common with this passage. One abuse is to all the attempts to validate praying to Mary. This is a text that is used by those who would try to argue praying to the saints. A couple of comments on that. Number one, nothing in this text tells us that John is trying to teach us about prayer.

33:55Number two, praying to saints, praying to angels or saints or loved ones or anything is expressly forbidden in Scripture. That amounts to Spiritism. There is, as 1 Timothy 2:5 makes it very clear, there is one God and one mediator between God and men, and that's the man Jesus Christ. Why? Because he gave himself up as a ransom for all. He is the only one qualified to serve as that point of intersection between God and man. And so there is one mediator. There is one mediator. And scripture cannot be broken. So the only way Mary or anybody else can know what's going on on planet Earth or know your thoughts is if the one true mediator tells her there is one mediator. There is no other mediator. That's what Scripture is very clear on.

34:52It amounts to spiritism. We are not to consult the dead. They do not know your thoughts. They are not omnipresent. They are not omniscient. They cannot hear your thoughts. And so be done with that. If you pray, pray to God in Jesus' name. There's one mediator. And any attempts to validate praying to Mary on this are very weak. And the third thing I would say is that Mary wasn't very effective in this passage anyway. And this is the only time we see her even approaching Jesus with a request like this. So she wasn't even very effective. She got kind of a mild rebuke. So to try to validate praying to Mary on this text is actually a very pitiful use of scripture. A second is to make some comparisons to transubstantiation, that as Jesus changed the water in the wine, so modern priests change the elements into the The actual blood and flesh of Christ. The problem with this is, well, one thing I'll just say in haste to move on is that the one time we have a miracle of transformation where one substance was changed into another, it tasted like wine because it was wine. Its constitution was changed. By a very severe skeptic, the head waiter. I mean, it was like the billion or millions, hundreds of millions around the world that buy into this transubstantiation will attest that it tastes like grape juice. The one miracle of transformation that we see in Scripture, it really did change. Scientifically, it changed. Not just in the minds of those taking it, it changed.

37:00I can't say more on that, but perhaps another one of the abuses that I see in this passage a lot and probably more common in our circles is attempts to validate or invalidate the use of alcohol. Those who see, those who, and it all is kind of a presuppositional approach, if you already believe that Jesus or that alcohol is fine for use, then you're going to say, well, look, Jesus, turn it. Into wine. I mean, he celebrated. And if you're a teetotaler and you have a predisposition that no alcohol of any kind is allowed in Scripture, you will take the position, no, this is new wine, absolutely no content. So it's kind of driven by your presupposition. And by the way, and those of you who know me, I do not drink as a pastor. I feel like I don't, as in a manner to stay above reproach and to just keep a distance.

38:08But I think it's a misuse of the text because what's happening, and let me just comment on this. There were three types of wines that were customary in this day. That was fermented wines that were sometimes diluted, mixed with water. There was new wine, which is made of grape juice and would be similar to cider. And there were wines in which the boiling by the with which were boiled in order to stop the fermenting process. If you ask my opinion where I think this was, I think this is probably somewhere in the low alcohol content to zero content.

38:51But the issue is not so much the alcoholic content. I mean, I've heard some people say, well, would Jesus actually contribute to people's ability to get drunk? Drunk. Well, one thing's clear in Scripture. He is not a partner to sin. We know that. He is not a partner to sin ever, ever. I mean, just because he makes food does not mean that he supports gluttony. And so, but all this takes the scripture and turns it and takes it in a direction that is to misuse what's happening and to miss what I think is one of the most beautiful pictures of Jesus that we see here. So now I just want to comment on this picture. We've walked through the narrative. We've looked at some of the misuses of this passage. Now I want you to see Jesus. And I want to take some time just looking at the significance of this sign. You know what a sign is, right? A sign is a mark that testifies of something else. I saw a garage sale sign on the way into church this morning. A garage sale. That sign is talking about something else. It's pointing to a greater reality, right? That sign itself isn't the garage sale, right? It's pointing to something. Well, the same true. When Jesus, when a man named Jesus turned water into wine, it was pointing to a greater reality.

40:27A greater reality was involved. This man Changed water into wine. John 1:1 says, And the Word was God. Who can change water into wine? God. His glory, He manifested His glory. The Word became flesh. God became flesh, dwelt among us. And this reality of Him transforming the water into the wine is a testament to that, to a greater reality. But the testimony of the sign, or we could just say the greater reality that this picture of Jesus turning water into wine says this. Number one, that Jesus is creator. He created matter out of nothing. Juice from grapes that had never been planted, never been grown, harvested, made its way into this. So there's some added ingredients into this water. There's some creation. But also, God is a transformer. He turns something common into something wonderful.

41:33So God is the creator. God is the transformer. Jesus is the creator. Jesus is a transformer. But there's more. There's more. That he is the God of glory. We saw his glory. We saw his power, but we also saw how he directed that power. Stay with me. For a few minutes, I plan on just walking through this, and it may take me another six, eight minutes. But the miracle that takes place here is a gift. He gives a gift to this bridegroom.

42:22And there's a testimony that this gift speaks about. I mean, you can tell a lot about a person by the gifts they give, right? Well, I want you to see several characteristics of Jesus revealed in this first miracle so that you will know that Jesus is worthy of all those titles that are given to him. Think about this gift. Think about the quantity of the gift. What does that say about Jesus? He's generous. I mean, there was enough wine that was sufficient for everyone at the feast to have as much as they want, and then some, and there was probably left over for the bride and his groom as a gift. He is generous in what he gives, sufficient for everyone, but also the quality of the gift. Not just the quantity of the gift, but the quality. He gives good gifts. It was good wine, the best.

43:22That was probably worth a lot of money, just in and of itself. That much, high quality. I mean, just think about today. What would a $150? Gallons of choice wine cost. There's also something interesting about, I'm drawn to the secrecy of the gift here. Jesus just slipped in, he imparted the means of joy to keep the celebration going, and then he was happy to just slip away relatively unnoticed. He blessed their celebration, and his joy was seeing that the celebration continue. His joy was seeing other people's joy. And he was moved. This was his first miracle. I mean, from this, we can see a picture of God that God delights to see his people happy and joyful and satisfied. Isn't that a great picture of God?

44:17But then it gets even better. The purpose of the gift, or what I would say, what was the real gift involved? What was the real gift involved? And I'll say that it that he does a couple of things here. He removes shame. I mean, yeah, there was the wine, but what did that wine do? Jesus was moved to protect the bridegroom from open humiliation and public shame. Think about it. This is what moved Jesus. I don't want him exposed. I don't want him publicly humiliated. And so he gave him the. This gift that would protect him and be a covering for the bridegroom's social failure and memory.

45:09Memory of failure. Oh, that's the guy that, yeah, they ran out of wine. Oh, yeah, forget that. Shame. But he also bestows honor. The gift not only removed embarrassment and shame, it also bestowed honor and dignity. Not only did it stop overt humiliation, but it bestowed public honor. Do you see what he's doing? This gift, which had he not given it, the bridegroom would have been open to public humiliation, public shame. Jesus was moved to do something about it, and he gives a gift that saves him from the public humiliation and public shame, and it gives him public honor.

46:06Wow, what a gift. Somebody you want to cheer. Wedding I assure. So he gave this gift to the bridegroom, but it was also a gift for the disciples who needed to see a sign to further deepen their belief in him. It was also a gift for the nation of Israel, who throughout the Old Testament speaks of a day. When the blessing of God is going to be so much upon the land, that in the Messianic age, there's going to be an abundance of new wine. And here's the one, right before their midst, right in their midst. And I could read to you several Old Testament verses that speak of the day when the mountains will drip with sweet wine. It was all in the Messianic, it was all, and here's the one who could give it, but it was also finally a gift for us. Just as the disciples needed to see the signs, so do we, so that we can be awestruck by the beauty of God that Jesus, or the beauty of God that Jesus has revealed. This isn't just about Jesus, it's about Jesus as the Son of God, Jesus revealing God to us. And let me tell you something right here from the very beginning, we learn something about God that has everything to do with your life. He's the God who is moved to cover your shame.

47:38Second, He is the God who bestows honor on you. And third, He is the God whose joy is seeing your joy. The invitation to come and see is for you. This is who you will find God to be. And Jesus has declared him to us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you are worthy to be called great and glorious and kind and good. Father, we are in awe of your power. Father, that you can do the miraculous, the unthinkable, that you blow our minds with your power. And yet, Father, even on a greater level, we are awed by how you use that power. You use it for our good, for our benefit. Father, that it is in your heart that we not stand eternity humiliated for our sins and our wrongdoing. Father, but that you have made a provision, a covering in your Son's blood to cover us, to remove for us your gift to us is the sacrifice of your son, that we do not have to be eternally humiliated and ashamed, but that we can stand before you, having been honored by you. Father, what a privilege. And Father, what a privilege it is to know that you delight in our joy. And you make provision, and you see to it, Father, that we will walk and experience the true. Joy of the Lord. And Father, I just pray for your ongoing sanctification of our lives. Father, that you would draw people here today that do not know you. For you are truly the great God and worthy to be called King and not just King, but our King, my King, my God, my Savior, my Lord, my Teacher. May we come to you in sincerity in Jesus' name. Amen.