The Beginning of Miracles

Sermon Transcript

“On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 3 And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, ‘They have no wine.’ 4 Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.’ 5 His mother said to the servants, ‘Whatever He says to you, do it.’ 6 Now there were set there six waterpots of stone,”—lots of important keys that were given by John here, they’re stone water pots, there’s six of them, notice that, and then he says—“according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. 7 Jesus said”—to the servants—“to them, ‘Fill the waterpots with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, ‘Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.’ And they took it. 9 When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. 10 And he said to him, ‘Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!’ 11 This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory”—to His disciples—“and His disciples believed in Him.”

A few years ago in Tennessee old Lester was running moonshine across state lines, and on one Sunday, he was driving and drinking some when a patrolman pulled him over. He walked up to the window and said, “Son, what’s in the jug?” Lester answered, “Water, sir. I’m going to church to worship Jesus.” The patrolman grabbed the bottle and took a whiff and said, “Whoo, son! That’s not water, that’s white lightening.” Lester shouted, “Well, praise the Lord, He’s done it again!” Obviously, he’s referring to this miracle here, this first public miracle Jesus did recorded by John in John 2, and I want you to notice that.

It’s very important to see that here in John 2, and the reason is is because John, beginning in John 1:1 begins by giving evidence, evidence and eyewitness testimony, about who Jesus is, and John the apostle, the writer, he declares that Jesus is God, that He is distinct from God. In John 1:1 he says, Jesus “ . . . was with God, and . . . was God.” Then, down in John 1:14, John says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” That is John the apostle’s testimony that Jesus is God, that He is the Word made flesh; and John continues in John 1 by giving us another eyewitness testimony, and you know him, it’s John the Baptist. It’s John the Baptist who declares, “ . . . Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Again, John the apostle is compiling eyewitness testimony here in John 1 and declares that Jesus is the Messiah who takes away the sin of the world.

Then, down at the end of John 1:38, John gives us a third group of eyewitnesses. These are the first followers of Jesus. They were committed to God. They were so committed to God, when they heard that there was something happening down at the Jordan River, that there was a man of God down there calling people to repentance and baptism, they left Galilee and went ten or fifteen miles down into the Jordan River Valley where thousands, tens of thousands of people, had come to John. God was calling people to repentance, and these first followers of Jesus were serious about loving God, so they left their nets and went all the way down to the Jordan River where John was, and while they were there, they said, verse 45, their testimony was, “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Philip, Nathanael, Peter, Andrew, who brought his brother Peter, all of these were the first followers of Jesus.

This first chapter of John is filled with testimony and eyewitnesses that Jesus is God in human flesh. That was what they believed. They experienced that and testified of those things. Those confessions were all made by eyewitnesses in John 1.

Now we come to John 2 tonight in our study, and it’s here in John 2 that we get the first recorded miracle. John is taking us from verbal testimony to practical demonstration of the works or miracles that define Him and who He is, that Jesus is God. It’s His miracles that testify to who He is—John 1, eyewitness testimony; John 2 begins a whole series of miracles that Jesus is doing. I have five simple points going through this portion of Scripture. They’re the party, the problem, the procedure, and the performance. We begin with a party, the wedding party, in verse 1. Notice what John writes. He says, “On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee . . . .” John begins with that phrase, “the third day,” and it’s important to note because in John 1 we’re given a series of days.

John is giving us this first week of the life of Jesus Christ. When He is disclosed, when He goes down to John the Baptist and John says, “Follow Him, He’s the Lamb,” and sends the first followers, John the Baptist’s disciples, he sends them to follow Jesus, “Behold the Lamb,” He’s the Lamb, go and follow Him now, and that happens. No, he says here in John 2:1, “On the third day,” so this is the third day after this meeting with Philip and Nathanael. John, again, is giving us this daily account of the first days of Jesus’ public ministry, and they’re going to combine to one full week because when you go back to John the Baptist, John 1:19, it’s when the Pharisees and Sadducees come to John the Baptist and say, “Who gives you the authority to do religious work here? Why are tens of thousands of people coming to you?” and “Why didn’t you tell us?” And John the Baptist, I love his response, you can read that there, but that happened on the first day.

Notice John 1:29, “The next day . . . .” Jesus comes to be baptized the second day, and that’s when John declares Him to be, “ . . . the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Then, notice in verse 35, John gives us—notice—“Again, the next day,” this is day three when John the Baptist tells two of his disciples to follow Jesus. In John 1:43, we get “The following day,” so we get four days in John 1, and then we come to John 2. First we get four days of verbal testimony from John the apostle, John the Baptist, and his first followers, and they all say that Jesus is the Messiah.

Now we come to day seven. This is day seven, John 2:1, where we see, “On the third day,” the third day after He talked to those disciples. It’s important to note that because it would’ve taken him a day to walk from the river all the way back toward Galilee, not three days but a day. It’s about a 15-mile hike. These people did a lot of walking in those days. John is leading us through this day by day disclosure of who Jesus is, these important events that designate this first week of Jesus’ public ministry. So, here we get this wonderful testimony, and now we’re going to move into the demonstration—by works, by acts, that Jesus is doing—that demonstrates that He is God.

It happens on the third day, and He goes to this village called Cana. It’s actually Kanâ. When you go to Israel, you travel around. I don’t know if you’ve been there. You should go with Pastor John. Kanâ is the name, but I’ll say, “Cana,” just so it’s not as confusing. I have a map. I don’t know if the map ever got here, but there’s a little map. You may even have a Bible map, and in your Bible map you’ll see the Jordan River Valley, that’s where John the Baptist would’ve been. You follow that river valley up, you’ll see the Sea of Galilee, and off to the left-hand side, see that little red? That’s Kanâ, or Cana, and then next to Cana there’s Nazareth. There’s a road that goes from Nazareth by Cana, all the way up to Capernaum, that was where Peter lived, and then Bethsaida. “Beth” is house, “saida” is fish. It’s a fishing village—Capernaum and Bethsaida and the Sea of Galilee.

By the way, that’s where all of His original disciples came from. They were fishermen. They were ordinary men just like you and me. They’re people, uneducated. God chose them for their ministry. It’s a beautiful truth that God doesn’t choose the tallest, the greatest, the most handsome, the most articulate, the most educated. No, these were fishermen, just ordinary, hard-working men. God chose the foolishness of the world to confound the wise. I love that. That’s me. That’s what I love. Every time I read that, those words of Paul, I say, “That’s me.” And, just like these disciples, God can use you, God can use me, as ordinary people.

Cana was also Nathanael, who’s better known as Bartholomew throughout the Scriptures, but Nathanael here in John was from Cana, according to John 21. Here’s the point I want to make about Cana, Cana is a very, very small village, two or three dozen people living there according to historians, and next to it is another small village a little bigger, Nazareth. Nazareth had roughly five hundred people living there during the time of Jesus Christ. These are small little towns, little villages, with only a few people living there. Again, I point that out because these people would’ve known each other. They would have worked together. Maybe their families were intermarried, so they had cousins in each village. The people in Cana knew the people in Nazareth. They knew the people in Capernaum. These people were closely related. They knew one another. And, now there’s a wedding.

Imagine when you’re invited to a wedding, it’s a big deal. Well, for these people, the wedding was one of the most important things that would happen in a year. The birth of a child you go by and take them a dreidel or whatever, you know, “Mazel tov,” but a wedding. A wedding for these people was a very serious event, a very wonderful event as well. In fact, it’s the most important event for the people living in Israel at this time; and John, now, is going to give us evidence that Jesus is God because He performs His first miracle at a wedding. There’s a lot of people there—people from Cana, people from Nazareth, people maybe even from Capernaum. There’s a lot of people at this wedding, at this very important event.

Now, let me stop here and say a few things about marriage. I believe Jesus going to a wedding to perform His first miracle is significant, and we as Christians can learn something about marriage here, this first miracle that He performs there. I believe Jesus is acknowledging the high value of marriage. God created marriage between one man and one woman, and that in that divine institution that God has created for the bedrock of society, for the benefit of the family, for the benefit of children. This is God’s wonderful design, the highest of human relationships. No other human relationship is greater than the marriage relationship.

Any society that honors biblical marriage as a lifelong covenant as God has created it—between one man and a woman—will be blessed by God. That means as a Christian husband or as a Christian wife, when you understand that covenant, and you live out that covenant the way God has designed it, and you honor that covenant, God will honor you and He’ll bless your life. Not to say that marriage isn’t easy, there are times that marriage is hard. We all know that. My beautiful bride, Esther, is here this evening. We’ve been married for 48 years. I thank the Lord for her, and I thank the Lord for God for creating marriage and giving us rules so that when we get out of bounds, we fall back in line because God gives us that wonderful, wonderful truth.

But the opposite is true for those that devalue marriage. For those that devalue marriage, and our society certainly is doing that, society follows behind them and society brings forth immorality, infidelity, homosexuality, and all kinds of depravity because people do not value the marriage covenant that God Himself has created. And by the way, people who live together are not married, you’re just avoiding being obedient to God.

Jesus coming to a wedding is very significant. It’s very important. One pastor put it this way, “Marriage between one man and one woman is the highest of all human relationships which is a gift from God.” So, Jesus honors marriage, and He performs His first miracle there at a wedding.

Again, these villages are very small. These people would’ve known one another, and many generations, maybe cousins and Mary’s family could’ve lived in Cana, some of her family, although she lived in Nazareth. So, these people grew up together. We know Mary was humble. Mary was a godly woman, and she was very devout and very gentle and very meek. We know that when we read the gospel of Luke and read her Magnificat as she proclaims the praises of God. So, when she needed something during the ceremony, she does something that we need to pay attention to. She brings the problem that she has to Jesus.

Remember, again, a wedding is a big deal in this culture, and it lasted for at least a week or more, and people would come to this celebration. You and I get a pre-wedding announcement, “In August of 2026, there’s going to be a wedding. Save the date,” you know, and then you get an invitation. Normally the invitation is lacy, and you open it with a ribbon. It’s very fancy, and it describes the place, the location, and the bride is very busy getting this wedding event planned for and make it happen for that one-day event.

I’ve done many weddings. I’ve done a few with Pastor John as I played my guitar and sang, and he preached at the wedding over the years. They last about an hour. Most weddings don’t last much longer than that. Then, you go to the wedding party. These people, the wedding was so significant to them that they would invite their family, their family would come from miles around, and they would stay. The wedding would most often last for a week, for many days during the week. What would they do during that week? They would party with the relatives. They would hang out with their relatives. They would visit. They would talk about their family. They would talk about their jobs. They would come together, and that lasted at least a week or more.

These people had a time of what’s known as “betrothal.” Betrothal was a time, remember Mary and Joseph were betrothed to be married, it was a time of one year where they were committed to one another and everyone in the society knew that these two were going to get married. Probably Samuel and family, and the other Jewish family knew each other, and they planned from the time these two little ones were growing up that they would one day be married together. All these marriages that you’ll see in the Bible, they weren’t marriages of love, they were marriages of family. You were married by your family, but you came together and you were in this time of betrothal. Everyone in the community knew who you were. You couldn’t escape. You were always with somebody.

It was during that one year that you were planning and the groom was planning. He was planning on building a house or building a room on the side of his parent’s home. He was saving up his money. He was trying to do all he could to make sure the parents of the bride knew that he could care for her. The time of betrothal was a very important time. At the end of the week-long wedding, there was a ceremony. The bride and groom would go into the bridal chamber, and the party would continue until mazel tov—I don’t know, that’s what Josephus and others say, that marriage was consummated—and then the wedding party would cease. But this one-week time together was very important for these people.

During that week-long party, Mary runs into a problem—there’s no wine. She knows that that’s a disaster. It’s a disaster mainly for the groom. Remember, the groom has been trying to prove his worth in that first year of betrothal, and now there’s no more wine. So, Mary asks her Son for help on behalf of the family. Now, Jesus is thirty years old. No one knew who Jesus was. He lived in obscurity. He lived in a small village in Nazareth. He hadn’t done any miracles. Nobody knew who He was, except for His family and His cousins.

It’s very interesting when you think about His life and who He was and where He lived. He was the Son of Mary and Joseph, just one of their children. Notice in John 2:12, “After this He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother,”—and notice—“His brothers . . . .” So, Mary and Jesus and His brothers are there at this wedding. I believe His sisters were there as well. You might say, “Sisters, where do you get that?” Well, notice Matthew 13:55, “Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers”—they’re named here—“James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? 56 And His sisters”—notice plural, so we know He had at least two sisters. Jesus had six siblings. I believe they’re probably at this wedding celebration as well. It might’ve been for one of His siblings. We don’t know. There’s not mention of that.

But for thirty years Jesus has lived in Nazareth in obscurity. He hasn’t done any public miracles, and the people around Him don’t see Him as Messiah. They don’t see Him as God. He’s just Jesus, the carpenter’s Son; the guy that kicks a ball, the next-door neighbor. He hasn’t done anything to distinguish Himself at all. He’s lived privately for that whole time, and it’s this miracle, this miracle becomes a bridge between His private life and His public life. Just as John 1 is the testimony, the eyewitness account, and John 2, now, is the demonstration of who Jesus is, so Jesus begins His public ministry right here in a wedding party with His family and His friends.

Now, we don’t know where His father, Joseph, was. It’s presumed by this time that His father had died. We know that His father was dead because Jesus, remember a few years later when He’s hanging on the cross, He’s going to look down at John and say, “Behold, your mother.” He’s going to commit His mother to John in care because she’s a widow. So, we think that possibly Joseph has died before this wedding, and that’s why we don’t see him mentioned at all.

Jesus is thirty years old, His father is dead, and He is the oldest Son. What does that make Him? It makes Him kind of the man of the house. When something goes wrong, dad’s not there, so firstborn Son is going to take care of it. Interesting when you think about that, but here’s the next point—the problem. We have the party, and then the problem, “Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 3 And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, ‘They have no wine.’” Sometime during this weeklong celebration, this wedding party, they run out of wine, and it’s actually a disaster as far as the groom is concerned, as I pointed out. He’s trying to impress everybody, and now he’s out of wine! There’s food, but there’s no drink to go with it, so this is a big deal. This is the biggest celebration. This is the biggest community event, this wedding, and they’ve run out of wine.

Let me say something about wine. We talked about marriage, let me just say a couple things about wine because this is the verse…and I’ve been a pastor since 1986, this is a verse in San Bernardino, I’m sure that your pastors here deal with this verse when they warn you there’s no prohibition about drinking wine, we know that, we understand that as pastors. But, as pastors, we know the damage that alcohol has done to so many people. We’ve watched it happen. In our fellowships we’ve seen it destroy families and ruin marriages—alcohol. Pastors, we’re pretty passionate about, “You’d better stay away from that. You’d be wise to stay away from wine.” We’re always saying that, but we know that there are times that a person in counseling will say, “Well, pastor,” kind of like Lester, “Jesus drank wine. He turned water into wine,” and they normally cross their hands and look at you as a pastor like, “Now, what? What’re you going to do with that, pastor?” I have to really pray and ask God for wisdom so I don’t smack them upside the head.

These people drank wine, there’s no doubt about it. This wine that we see here was a very common drink for these people. It was alcoholic, there’s no doubt that it was. I could say as a pastor, “Well, gee, you’re kind of taking this out of context. I’m going to look at it this way like there was no alcoholic content.” That’s absolutely…this wasn’t Welch’s Grape Juice. It’s obvious that it’s wine. Now, these people drank wine all the time, and here’s the reason why. If you’ve ever been to a third world, I was in Iraq last year. I went to Baghdad and Basra. I preached the gospel there doing an inductive Bible study seminar with Dan Finfrock. Even in that third world country there’s a lot of trash. They have running water, which is really good, and a very modern city—Baghdad.

When you go to countries in Africa, maybe even Mexico, some places, not all, the people would dig a well somewhere, and it would be a community well. Everyone would get water there. They would go to draw water out of the well. When the people aren’t there, the birds fly in the well, raccoons crawl down in the well, foxes and moles and gophers fall into the well. Cattle come to get water, and they poop all around the well. The picture I’m painting here presents a problem—cholera, diphtheria, and all kinds of disease that you can get from drinking that water. These people had this water, and they would use wine as a disinfectant. It’s very common. I think you can understand why they would drink wine. They didn’t have BevMo!. They didn’t have Coke Zero. They’re at a wedding. They’re going to drink what’s provided for them, and they’re living in a very dry climate—a lot like Menifee—where they grew grapes.

Those grapes were grown, the people were agrarian. They had to farm their animals and grow their food. They would grow grapes. They would take those grapes and crush them and put them on a shelf, but there’s no refrigeration. What happens when you put fruit juice on a shelf without refrigeration? It starts to bubble, you know, it ferments. So, we know that the wine that they were drinking was common in that.

The word here used is oînos in the Greek, and it’s the same word that Paul uses in Ephesians 5. Paul says, “And do not be drunk with wine,”—oînos, the same word—“in which is dissipation; but be filed with the Spirit.” So, getting drunk from wine requires the presence of alcohol. We know that what they were drinking was alcoholic, it wasn’t grape juice.

For these people, wine was a staple, and drinking water out of wells was very dangerous because the water was not purified so they would add wine to the water. It’s really what they were doing, they were adding wine to the water. They weren’t cutting the wine down with water, they were putting wine in the water to purify it. So, to quench your thirst, you drank wine. But that was dangerous because you could get drunk, if you drank too much, and that was a sin. These people knew that. They also didn’t want to get sick. You didn’t want to sin, so you would really dilute the wine. Does that make sense? They would dilute the wine. That’s the point here. I think it’s important for us to understand.

This diluted wine is what’s being given out at this wedding party, and they ran out. Again, a huge, huge embarrassment for the family, especially for the groom. Mary is concerned. She hears there’s no more wine, so this is an emergency. We have the party, the problem, and now we have the procedure. The wedding procedure, verse 4, “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman,’ what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.’ 5 His mother said to the servants, ‘Whatever He says to you, do it.’” Mary identifies the problem. She knows the solution, she goes right to Jesus. Why? Because He’s the firstborn. Joseph’s not around. Jesus is thirty years old, and whenever she has a problem, she goes right to Jesus. He’s been solving her problems for many, many years. Again, we don’t know when Joseph died, but we can assume that Jesus was taking care of his mother and his family, being the firstborn there at the house. Whenever Mary had a problem, she would go to Jesus.

Now, think about it. Jesus is perfect. Jesus is God, and whenever she went to Him, He always had a solution for every problem that they had. He knew precisely why things went wrong before they went wrong, He’s God. You thought your teenager knew it all. Jesus knows everything, and Mary knows exactly who to go to to fix her problem. Now, we don’t know if He ever did a little miracle for His mom. I’ve always thought maybe He did. Maybe He did a little miracle, I don’t know. Nobody knew, even His brothers and sisters didn’t know He was God, so He must not have done anything in front of them. The people in the village didn’t know He was God, He must not have done a miracle in front of them as well, but every time Mary had a problem, she would come to Jesus, and He had the perfect answer to every question, so she knew the procedure—when there’s a problem, you go right to Jesus. Take it to Him.

Here’s some application for us today, two lessons about problem solving, things that you and I can do right from the Scriptures, we can do it tonight: take your problem to Jesus. When you have an issue, when you have a trial and there’s a relational struggle, you need to take it to Jesus. You do exactly what Mary did, you take it to Him. Paul says it this way, Philippians 4:6-7, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Isn’t that amazing? What a wonderful promise. When we are challenged, when there is trial, when there’s the thought of cancer or when a diagnosis comes and we’re anxious, we’re to bring our problem—our trial, our struggle—we’re to bring those to Jesus Christ.

By the way, that includes your marriage, probably more than anything else. When your marriage is in trouble, you need to get on your knees and you need to ask Jesus to be the center again. Just get on your knees, say, “God, help me. Help me in my marriage. Help me to be the husband I need to be. Help me to be the woman, the wife, that God wants me to be.” We need to get on our knees and we need to pray. It’s been said that marriage is like a violin, after the music stops the strings are still attached. Isn’t that the truth. We need to get on our knees and come to the Lord, if we have a struggle, because Jesus can do a miracle in your marriage. Don’t give up. He can do a miracle in your marriage.

Verse 4 has always been a question mark for Bible readers. You come to verse 4 and you read what Jesus is saying. You think, Wow, that was a little rude. Notice it with me, “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me?” That word “woman” was a common word like “mom.” It’s not a rude comment. He’s not putting her in a place, but He is reminding her that He has a greater agenda to fulfill, and I believe that Mary knows. Why? The angel told her. She knows. She’s just waiting for it to happen. Not only that, but Jesus has just returned from the Jordan River Valley, the first followers are with Him, they’re running around Him asking questions. They believe He’s the Messiah, and so when they get to this big group of people, they’re not going to keep their mouth shut, they’re going to start talking, “He’s Messiah. That’s the Lamb of God.” Mary has heard the commotion. She knows. “Jesus, they’re out of wine.” “Mom, is it My time? It’s not My time, yet.” That’s really all that’s going on here in that portion of Scripture.

Jesus was always submissive to His parents. We know that’s true because in Luke 2, when Jesus went with His parents, He was in the neighborhood of 12 to 13 years old, and they went down to the Passover. They were very religious. Every year the family would go to Jerusalem to celebrate that week-long Passover celebration, and Jesus had gone with His family and His siblings. He was young. It’s so busy. There’s millions of people. Every Passover the city would swell to the millions of people that came to sacrifice for the sins of their family. Jesus went there, and after the week-long celebration, somehow Jesus got lost. “Mary, where’s Jesus,” Joseph asks. “I don’t know. I thought He was with you.” They get halfway down the road, as you know, and so they go back frantic. Mary’s upset. They go back and find Him. Where did they find Him? In the temple, and He gently says to them, “Did you not know I must be about My Father’s business.”

In Luke 2, “Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was”—look at that word there, hupŏtassō is the Greek word—“subject”—voluntary submission. Jesus voluntarily submitted to His parents—“ . . . but His mother kept all these things in her heart.” In other words, Jesus was only obedient, Jesus was only subordinate, “Mom, My time has not yet come.” That’s all He was saying right there, but Mary knows. Mary knows what’s going on.

The first thing that we learn from Mary is that you’re to take your problem to Jesus. Secondly, you’re to follow His commands. Look at verse 5 again, “His mother said to the servants, ‘Whatever He says to you, do it.’” This is important for us to understand. We’re to follow His commands. But I want you to pay attention to who said that. That was Mary. This is an important point for our Catholic friends, maybe relatives that you have that are Catholic, because rather than praying to Mary, Mary makes a command right here, and her command is to follow Him. I think that’s a significant point to make. Mary never commands anywhere else in Scripture to do anything else, except for right here in John’s gospel, when she says, “Follow His commands.” The lesson is clear for us as Christians. When we have a trial, when there’s a struggle, when there’s something happening in our lives, we need to take our problem right to Jesus. Amen? And, we’re also to follow His commands. We’re to obey what He says.

What are His commands? Let me give you a couple. Matthew 4:17, “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” In Matthew 22, Jesus says, “ . . . You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” He says to the believers around Him to make more disciples. He says to us to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And, in Matthew 11:28, He says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Have you come to Christ? Have you obeyed His commands? Are you following Jesus? That’s the question for us tonight. The two lessons that we learn from Mary: Take your problem to the Lord and follow His commands.

So, we have the party, the problem, the procedure, now we come to the last point here, it’s the performance. This is amazing, verse 6, “Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.” Now, notice there’s six, and notice they’re stone water pots. These are significant details. These water pots are not Sparkletts containers. These water pots are not for drinking water. That’s not what they’re for. It says there very specifically, “ . . . according to the manner of purification of the Jews . . . .” So, there’s six stone water pots that hold twenty to thirty gallons. That’s like a 180 gallons of water, and it’s in these stone water pots. This is all about ceremonial cleansing.

Jews washed everything. They always wash. It’s really interesting when you go to Israel, if you go to the Wailing Wall, there’s a big five foot stainless steel basin with these little spouts that come out. There’s a little Yamaka you’re supposed to cover your head when you approach the wall, and then you’re supposed to wash your hands. There’s Dixie cups on the top. You’re supposed to take the Dixie cup and fill it with water and hold your hand up a prescribed way, like God tells you in the Bible, and then dump the water over your fingers. It’s not about washing with soap. It’s not about cleanliness, it’s about purification. They had to have all this water. Why? There’s a weeklong celebration. They need to purify over and over and over again. They’re going to purify their hands again and again. It’s all about ceremonial cleansing.

Let me give you another Scripture as a proof text, Mark 7, “For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way, holding the tradition of the elders. 4 When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash . . . like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches.” They wash everything, ceremonial, they sprinkle it before they did what they were going to do—eat or whatever.

But these six water pots, it’s interesting, they’re not about drinking, they’re about cleanliness, about ritual purification rites, and there’s six of them. All that water was there so everybody at the wedding could wash ceremonially, and they were stone. Why were they stone? Stone pots were impervious. Clay pots could be infiltrated, and the water would become impure. Remember, it was all about ceremony, so the stone water pot was important for the Jew at this celebration.

Notice in verse 7, “Jesus said to them,”—the servants—“Fill the waterpots with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, ‘Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.’ And they took it.” I think it’s significant that they filled it to the brim. Why is that important? I think that they did exactly what Jesus told them, “Fill it to the brim.” Why? So that someone couldn’t come along and say, “That wasn’t a miracle. They added to that.” Someone couldn’t say, “They added to it, the servants.” No, they filled it right to the very top so nothing else could be added to that. There’s no more room left. They filled it to the brim. Here’s the miracle. Here’s the miracle. It happens between verses 7 and 8. We don’t even know where. There’s no hocus pocus. There’s no words. Jesus didn’t spit and make mud. He didn’t do anything. He just says, “Fill it to the brim,” and then He says, “You need to take it to the head waiter. Take it to the maitre d’ and let him taste it.”

Jesus performed this miracle. He takes common ordinary water and He made it wine. Think about this. Think carefully about this. There’re no grapes involved. There’s no time involved. There’s no fermentation involved. This is a miracle. It’s the first miracle Jesus performed, “Fill it to the brim, now take it to the maitre d’ to taste it.” That’s all that happened here, and I’ll tell you what, when that maitre d’ tasted that, it was the best wine ever. Notice what he says here in verse 9, “When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from”—and the little parenthesis—“(but the servants who had drawn the water knew),”—they’re the next witnesses. They witnessed a miracle. I love that. “ . . . the master of the feast called the bridegroom. 10 And he said to him, ‘Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!’” I love that.

I love what he’s saying there, it’s the maitre d’, the one that sets the food out, the one that makes sure that there’s wine to drink, the people are being cared for. He’s the one that tastes it and he can’t believe it. This is the best wine that he’s ever tasted. Again, he’s saying in this text, “You’re not giving them the leftovers.”

You’re familiar with leftovers. Leftovers…we have Thanksgiving dinner. We have our family over. They stay all day, and maybe they stay later into the evening. Then, you finally go to the frig because you’re going to serve them leftovers because they’re there. They’re hanging around, so you go into the refrig. Maybe somebody’s come over to visit, and you have a long time of fellowship, and it gets late. It’s time to eat so you go into the frig and get the Tupperware out—leftovers.

This wasn’t “leftovers.” This was the best wine ever, the best wine that this man has ever tasted. The quality of it was so good that he couldn’t believe it. He called the bridegroom and said, “What’re you doing? Nobody does this. Nobody keeps this quality of wine until the end, no one.” He’s shocked because, again, it’s the best wine he’s ever tasted.

Here’s another point I want to make. The party’s going on in the background. The party hasn’t stopped, but people probably are moving from their ceremonial cleansing station over to the food and the wine and the beverage station, and they’re drinking this wine. I want to make this point. I don’t believe it’s fermented wine. I believe it was the best tasting wine. I believe it was wine that was miraculously made, and it just made the palate full but didn’t inebriate. It was wine. It was a miracle, and everybody knows, so everyone in that wedding has experienced this first miracle of Jesus—the verbal, chapter 1; the demonstration in chapter 2.

Jesus is now being known publicly as God Almighty, not just a problem solver, but a miracle worker. I can’t imagine the conversation these people would’ve had, “Where did that come from? That’s awesome. I’ve never tasted…what part of the valley did this wine come from?” You know, Temecula is known for its wine. I’m from Crestline. We don’t have a lot of grapes up there. Different parts of California, other parts of Europe, they’re known for this certain kind of wine. “Where did this come from?” “Him, Jesus. He turned water into wine.” “What? Nobody does that.” I can’t imagine what the conversation was, but it was this miracle.

This miracle that Jesus performed, it becomes this sign, and notice verse 11, “This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed”—all the more—“in Him.” They’re locked in. They followed Him. As soon as John the Baptist says, “Behold the Lamb,” they began to follow Him, and now He does this miracle, and they are just over the moon ecstatic about this Guy. They want to get close to Him. They want to know about Him. They believe He’s Messiah. He’s going to begin to do miracles. The outcome was they believed.

That’s the whole purpose of John writing his gospel. Notice at the very end of John 20, John writes these words, “ . . . but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” Do you believe? Have you put your faith in Jesus Christ? Is He your Lord and Savior? He’s done the work for your salvation. He has provided everything for you, but you must believe.

In John 1:12, John writes, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” Do you believe? Have you put your faith in Jesus Christ? He’s the problem solver. He’s the miracle worker, and He died for your sins. Do you believe? Let’s pray.