The Word Pt. 5 - John 2:1-12
Intro: As we continue to examine the Gospel of John remember that we are looking at the nature and work of Jesus Christ. Today’s text contains a story that is fascinating on its face and profound when we dig deeper.
What we have here is Christ stepping into the consciousness of the community in which He lives… (recount up to this point… baptized by John… baptized in water but Christ in the Holy Spirit… Calling of disciples...)
Now after this Jesus moves on to an everyday event.
On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.
I have always loved the exchange between Jesus and His mother Mary… So real, so typical… (what does this have to do with me… raising Jesus must have been interesting… why would Mary press this with Jesus…)
People wrestle with this I think too often… there is a concept of permissible will of God and perfect… clearly our requests and prayers can move God, change things… so mom influenced her son...
6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “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.” 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
The key to this passage is found in v. 8… now understand the description of the jars after being filled… with that being to the top how would you draw it out?... they probably didn’t draw it out of the jars… let me explain what I mean… DA Carson: Westcott and one or two others have rightly insisted that the verb ‘draw’ (antleō) is commonly used for drawing water from a well. In other words, the water turned into wine was freshly drawn from the well after the water jars had been filled.
“Up to this time the servants had drawn water to fill the vessels used for ceremonial washing; now they are to draw for the feast” - D.A. Carson
This is where the story goes from fascinating to profound. Filling jars with such large capacity to the brim indicates that the time for ceremonial purification is completely fulfilled; the new order, symbolized by the wine, could not be drawn from jars so intimately connected with merely ceremonial purification. in other words, Jesus at the outset of His ministry is declaring in no uncertain terms, the old means of cleansing by the Old law is complete, fulfilled, done and I am bringing the new...
Now with this in mind consider these words again: the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “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.”.
So to this point what we receive from this passage is Christ is saying the cleansing by the old covenant is completed, there is something new and the master of the feast says ‘everyone serves the good wine first and then the poor but you have kept the good until NOW, he is declaring ‘the later is better then the former’... Now before I explain, HOW better this new covenant that is being declared as replacing the old, I want to remind you about how already we have seen in the writing of John this declaration, this THEME emerging.
remember what we learned from chapter 1 v. 16:
For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ…
Or what we learned last week…
I baptize with water but there is one coming who will baptize in the Spirit…
And this foreshadows directly the explanation of the better covenant…
Remember specifically Jesus is saying the purity, the cleansing is complete, and what does that mean? Being pure to come to Him, to be in His presence, to be united to Him. So something is NOW VERY DIFFERENT and Hebrews explains how profound this is.
Turning to Hebrews 8 he states in v.
6: Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better… and from there he quotes Jeremiah and the words of God: “Behold, the days are coming… when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
That last line is important as it relates to the story we just read… (ceremonial cleansing water… purified… made clean…) and the author of Hebrews explains reason for this… in chapter 9 he talks about how you needed to work through a process to come into God’s presence...Now… the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. 2 For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. 3 Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, 4 having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant.
Here he is describing the temple and entering into the MOST HOLY PLACE, the holy of holies, the place where the presence of God dwells… and he continues and describes how the High Priest was the only one who could go on behalf of the people… (Explain…)
But then, he says Christ appears… But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation)
12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
We have been purified to serve a living God, we have been purified to enter His presence, we have been purified to worship Him, we have been purified not by a ceremony, not by water, not by continual sacrifices but Jesus Christ has made a way for us.
Conclusion: This is the work of Jesus… The best is last and is here.