The Wedding in Cana

Turn with me to the Gospel of John chapter 2, please. John chapter 2, very familiar passage of the wedding in Cana. And verse 1, And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there, and both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage.

And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, they have no wine, Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.

Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And he saith unto them, Draw out now and bear unto the governor of the feast.

And they bear it. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was, but the servants which drew the water knew, the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, and saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine. And when men have well drunk, then that which is worse.

But thou hast kept the good wine until now. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory, and his disciples believed on him. It's a very familiar passage.

And as we think of this site, this place, this time in which the Lord Jesus did the first of his miracles, there are those that have taught that the Lord Jesus did miracles in his early childhood and as a young boy and so on. But this passage makes it clear. This is the first of the miracles that he did, manifesting forth his glory.

And it's in this place, relatively obscure place, Cana of Galilee. It's an interesting place. There have been many people that have gone to this place, in fact, to either rehearse their vows or carry out weddings.

It has become a very popular place for this very reason, because this was a place where the Lord Jesus was at the wedding this day. But there are lessons that I want to look at as we look at this passage. I want to take that verse, those words of Mary that are so well known to us, it seems, in our hearing, and yet so often unknown to us in our practical experience.

Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. Whatsoever. And as we look at this account, we want to notice a number of things here.

The things I want you to notice, first of all, is that these are signs. This is one of the signs of John's Gospel. Now, John's Gospel brings before us seven particular signs.

Now, there are other miracles, but these signs are particularly given to us to establish the credentials of the Messiah. And more than that, not just his identity as to who he is, but interestingly, these signs are given to us to show that not only is he who he says he was, the Messiah, the Son of God, but as well that this one who does these very things has the power to reverse and bring in a kingdom that will be particularly in opposition to what sin has brought in. That's the point of John's Gospel.

That's the point of these signs. That's why it begins, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It shows Him, the Creator, coming into the world.

And a world that's enveloped and embraced by darkness, He is now the light of the world that comes in, and He has the power to reverse the very power of what sin has brought in. That's why John's Gospel brings before us the truth of the kingdom as well, and the new birth, and the requirement of that kingdom. A kingdom that is in opposition in its power, its presentation, and its very person to the kingdom of darkness.

That which is headed up and empowered by sin. So the Lord Jesus comes, and how fitting the first miracle, the first sign is done at a wedding. Where did the world go astray? Right with the first couple, didn't it? Right with the first couple that God had joined together, Adam and Eve.

And so the Creator has returned. He steps forth. He comes at the wedding in Cana, and it says there they have no wine.

And like one of life's most joyous occasions, it is shown to us to be missing the very ingredient. Why? Wine is a picture, as you well know in our Bibles, of joy. And so here He comes, here He is, able to meet the need by His very presence, by His power.

But what we're going to learn is this. The bringing in, the evidence, the presentation, the reality of His effectiveness is going to be linked in this first miracle, in this first sign, with the truth of obedience. That's essential.

There are things that the Lord Jesus did, and they required, for example, no obedience on the part of others. But it's very, very significant that the first and the last miracles that the Lord Jesus does in the Gospel of John are hinged upon, are linked with the obedience of others. And in other words, if these individuals did not do what He said, then the blessing that He was able to bring would not have happened on a human element.

For example, the first one, here, the marriage of King. Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it. I'll be very simple.

I'm going to look at four aspects, four aspects of this miracle in relation to obedience, and how it relates to our obedience. I want to notice, first of all, as I get to that, the creation aspect. The Lord is going to take the place of Creator.

He is going to change water into wine. It's actually a combination of two miracles. He is not only going to change the actual composition from water to wine as Creator, but then He's going to do something else.

He's going to now accelerate the process of fermentation. And so now that which is normally as the fruit of the vine, He's going to accelerate into wine. And so you have the creation aspect.

The Creator is returned. And one thing we need to make clear, too, is this statement here that the governor makes when he says that the best wine is set forth at the first, and then afterward men have well drunk than that which is worse. This is not an intimation that people were getting tipsy later on, and as they would drink more that it'd be easier to slip the worst wine in them because they wouldn't know what they were getting.

That's not what's being intimated here. What he's simply saying is this. The very first glass that you take, the very first drink, your taste buds, even when you taste something for the first time, whether you go to a restaurant or you take that sip of that soda, the pot, whatever it is, whatever you taste, the first one, your taste buds are the most sensitive.

You get the full bang of that flavor, the full flavor of it. And so he's saying, you've given the best right at the first. You eat your meal as you're eating.

You drink whatever you're drinking, whatever flavor and so on. Afterward, you're not as sensitive, you're not as attuned to that flavor. He's saying, you gave the best right at the first.

And so there is this creation aspect here. There's another aspect, too. There's a contrasting aspect.

Now the word here is signs, and just let me say a little bit about that because sometimes, especially for the sake of younger ones, you might read your Bible, and I still do it, and you read your Bible and you kind of just group words together and you think they all mean the same thing. For example, we have the words signs, wonders, and miracles, and we tend to just read them like they're a run-on sentence, and we group them all together and we think, oh they're all the same thing. But they're three different things, actually.

Signs, wonders, and miracles. For example, Peter uses those same three words. He groups them together on the day of Pentecost.

Paul is going to group those same three words again in relation to the coming of the Antichrist, the man of sin, and his power that he will be empowered satanically. Well, what do they mean? And why is this gospel, in particular the Gospel of John, telling us of these signs? Well, I already intimated that these signs are indicative of his power and his credentials. They are a proof of who he is.

When you come to these other two words, for example, wonders and miracles, well, the word miracles, that's actually, that's the word dunamis, dynamite, and that's really the power behind what is being done. In other words, it's the resource, the resource of what is being done, and that is either Satan or God. Satan does do miracles.

There are things that are going on in the evangelical world, in the charismatic world. They are actual things. They are satanically powered.

Satan has power, and there is a power behind that which is of God, and there is a power behind that which is of Satan. And so the word miracles would really remind us of the resource, the power behind that. Then you have the word wonders, and the word wonders really links with the results of what is being done.

You remember it says that the whole world wondered after the beast, and so when people wonder, the result is that they're awestruck. They're dumbfounded. They see, so it's the results of what happens when individuals see these things, but the word sign, that's in John's Gospel.

That's the reason for them. That's the reason behind them, and the reason for these signs here is so that he will manifest forth his glory, and John's Gospel makes it clear. Now listen, especially younger ones, I'm giving you the basis for the whole gospel here.

The whole feature of this gospel is what? It's written that you might believe. That's the reason, and so as you come to these signs, one after another, and you watch the Son of God move on the landscape of time, whether it's at a wedding in Cana, whether it's feeding the multitude, and there is a progression in these signs as he is showing his ability and power to reverse the effects of sin. Raising the dead, feeding the multitude, worldwide hunger because of sin, lifelessness because of sin, yet the Son of God, the Creator, has returned in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and now the reason for these signs is so that we will believe, and you can have confidence.

Listen, younger one, in a world that's challenging older one, in a world that is challenging the reality of the things of God and the Word of God, you can hold that book in your hand. You can pray to your God with absolute confidence. These are signs, wonders, miracles, and as we look at this, I want you to think about the conditional aspect of what was done here.

We looked at the creational aspect, the conditional aspect. There was a need here. They ran out of wine.

Now, this would be a very, very important thing. Reputations rose and fell at weddings in these days. You would remember the wedding that you were at.

A lot of expense was spent, a lot of time, a lot of planning, and to run out of wine would be very embarrassing. To run out of food, very embarrassing. And so there's a need here.

The conditions have presented themselves. He is able to meet the need, but let me make an important point here that I want to stress. Conditions do not mandate our obedience.

Conditions do not mandate our obedience. We are to be obedient regardless. You see, there's something, and we call it situation ethics, and people will say, well, if I'm in this situation, then I should do this because then it's the right thing to do.

Or if I'm in this situation, maybe I'm with a group of younger people. Maybe I'm with a group of my school friends, and there's pressure on me, and if I don't do this, then I'm going to look this way. So I'll do it partially, I'll obey halfway.

Maybe there's something in the assembly, and decisions need to be made, and maybe because of that, the leadership has decided, well, we don't want to lose people, so because of that, we're going to go this way. Situations do not make the conditions for obedience, but they do highlight them. They do highlight them.

They accentuate them. Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. You know what? I'm not going to add to the Word of God, but we could put a little word in here, and whenever he saith unto you, do it.

Whenever he saith. There were conditions that highlighted obedience in the Old Testament. There were conditions when there was idolatry in the land.

Was it difficult to serve the living and true God? Absolutely. Was it hard for Gideon when the very idol was in his father's house? Absolutely. But the idol should have never been there, and no one should have ever been worshiping it.

So Gideon's obedience in tearing down that was highlighted by the conditions, but it wasn't mandated by the conditions. There are certain things that make what we do when we obey the Word of God more difficult, and I can even give you that in relation to the Nazarite. Let's take the situation of the Nazarite.

There you have consecration now. Here's a man or a woman who has willingly decided to carry out consecration to his or her God. There were three conditions, right? I don't want to get off topic here, but I was just thinking of this.

There are three conditions, right? Three requirements. Couldn't drink of the fruit of the vine. Couldn't touch a dead body.

Couldn't bring a razor to his head. Now there are times in which all of those conditions would have been more difficult than in other times. For example, they're going through the wilderness.

What's happening? A whole generation is dying. It says their carcasses were strewn in the wilderness. God had come in judgment and people were dying.

Plagues, judgment. It would have been more difficult during the days of the wilderness journey to abstain from touching a dead body. Let's take the second part.

Not drink of the fruit of the vine. Now we're going to go from the wilderness into Canaan, where God said he's going to give every man his fig and his vine. Everybody's going to have their own vine.

And here's a man who says, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine. You didn't have a whole lot of vines in the wilderness. Wasn't a whole lot of grapes in the wilderness.

There were stations, but it was desert. It was drab. It was dreary.

It wouldn't have been as hard to obey in that one in the wilderness as it would have been in Canaan. And it wouldn't have been as hard to abstain from touching a dead body in Canaan as it was in the wilderness. But let's go to the third one.

Not bring a razor to his head. And all around, everybody looked differently. And here's a man who says, regardless, I'm going to evidence whose I am.

I vowed a vow. I'm going to obey. You see, conditions.

Yeah, there was no wine. And because of that, Mary said, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. The result of your obeying him will bring in blessing at this time because there's a need.

But listen, conditions do not mandate our obedience. They merely accentuate it or highlight it. We're living in a world of lawlessness.

We're living in a world of disobedience. Success. Listen, look at politics.

Look at everything. I'm not going to go there, but it's how much you can get away with. It's how far we can bend the rules.

How much we can do. Conditions. We should always be obedient.

The conditional aspect of what we're looking at here. I want you to look at something else. I want you to look at the contrastive contrast in obedience here now, too, though.

Something I want to notice. There was the natural realm. We've already noted that.

The natural realm in terms of what the Lord Jesus did in contrasting the physical with the spiritual. There's the religious realm. And it's interesting that there are these water pots here.

And it's told. Right. John's gospel reminds us time and time again of the emptiness of the Jews religion.

Now, we need to remember something. When you read the Gospel of John, while the Jews religion was empty. Remember, John is writing this from 90 A.D. standpoint.

Don't forget that the Jewish religion, Judaism was. The only God given religion that had ever been given to the human race. And so these people were coming out of it.

But you know what had happened? The Pharisees had taken away and it's in John's gospel. They've taken away the key of knowledge. You know what that means? They had removed Christ from.

They left him out. And so all they were left was with a hollow, powerless system. An empty system like the empty stone jars, stone reminding us of the law, empty there.

And so the Lord Jesus contrasts again. He has come. Why don't we have joy in our hearts at times? Because we leave him out.

Why is there sometimes in the assemblies we're doing the right thing, but there seems to be an emptiness, a hollowness. Why is it? Because we left Christ out. We're going along with form.

We're trying to be cleansed from empty water jars. When here he is, we're trying to carry on. And you know what could be said over sometimes over God's assemblies? They have no wine.

They have no wine. What a difference when the wine was flowing freely. What a difference when the joy was there and he manifests forth his glory.

You know what would be a tremendous thing, brethren, in this conference? If in God's assemblies and in our lives he manifested forth his glory. There was an evidence, obvious, overt and clear display of the glories of Christ by both us personally and in our midst as God's people in God's assemblies. I want you to notice something else here.

I want you to notice the commandment aspect, the commandment aspect. It's all going to hinge. That's where I want to end up.

It's all going to hinge on their obedience. I want to talk to you for a few moments at the end of my message about the blessings of obedience. Because we think sometimes we hear messages on, oh, he's going to talk about obedience.

It's what we do. It's what we can do and what we can't do. Listen, this passage tells us John's gospel comes right out.

Do you know, in fact, one of the very meanings and associations behind the word believe, is the thought of obey. It's linked with obedience. Believing is linked with obedience.

To obey the gospel is to believe the gospel. To believe the gospel is to obey the gospel. Belief and obedience are linked together.

And so John's gospel begins right out of the gate as it were, with the importance of obedience. I was mentioning the first and last miracles. First and last miracles, interestingly, not only hinge upon obedience, but they also revolve around water.

First miracle here, water. Fill the jars with water. Last miracle, John 21, disciples fishing on the lake.

Both revolve around water. Both are going to hinge on the importance of obedience or the miracles won't happen. Okay, let me give you an example.

Let's go to the last one first. John 21, the disciples are on the boat. Cast your net on the right side.

No, no, no, no, we're not going to do it. No, we've fished all night. We've toiled.

We've caught nothing. No, we're not going to do it. What would have happened? You would have never read about the 153 fish.

Never. They would have never had the blessing of that miraculous catch. You would have never read about Peter dragging, and the disciples dragging the net to shore.

You would have never read about the abundance. You see, obedience brings abundance. That's the point too.

Obedience brings blessing. That's the point. The last miracle, there's an abundance of fish.

It didn't say that they cast the net and they caught three fish. Imagine if they had bring that whole net. We got three.

Well, it's better than what we did. 153, and for all that, the net was not broken. Let's go to the first one now.

Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. He says, fill the water pots with water. What if they would have said, listen, they don't need water.

We're out of wine. No, we're not going to do that. What would have happened? There would have been some pretty upset people at that wedding.

There would have been some pretty disappointed people, and we never would have read John 2. The results of your obedience, of my obedience to whatsoever he says, do it. Now, to have that happen, you have to hear his word. Because obedience isn't determined by what we want to do or what we would like to do.

Obedience is determined by what he says to do. Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. So, I want to notice, first of all, the backbone of obedience.

The backbone, if I could call it that, of obedience. You notice when Mary said to the Lord Jesus, they have no wine. She didn't tell him what to do.

She didn't tell him what to do. We're good at that, aren't we? We're good at telling God what to do. When it's the other way around, isn't it? It's really the Lord telling us what to do.

Mary never said, you know, they have no wine, and if you did this, you know, there are six jars there, there is this, you could do this, you could do that. She never told him what to do. She left that within his hands of what to do.

But she knew the truth. Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. The second thing of the backbone of obedience is this.

Not only did she not tell him what to do, they didn't question him in what they were doing. The servants. Now, these servants, there are normal servants in the households are called bond servants, right? You're familiar with that term, the bond servants.

These servants are not that type of servant. These are different servants. These are official servants.

These, generally, these servants here in this passage were volunteers. They were those that willingly gave of their service. They're there now at this wedding in the capacity that they are, they're like ushers, they're volunteering, they're official servants.

And now picture, he tells them, fill the water pots with water. Now think about this from a practical standpoint. I don't want to work this passage too much with imagination, but how long has the Lord Jesus been on the scene publicly? He hasn't done a miracle before this, has He? You got that? He hasn't done a miracle yet.

So now someone who has never done a miracle tells you to fill those jars with water. That's a lot of water at a dangerous situational time when there's a great need. And now, you know, these servants could have turned around and said, who are you? Who are you? You know what's sad sometimes? When we as believers say that.

Who are you to tell me? I'm going to do what I want. And when we do that, we miss out on the blessing. We miss out on the bounty.

We miss out on pleasing Him. The backbone of obedience, whatsoever He saith unto you, I will do it. Maybe there's someone here and the Lord is telling you something specific that you need to do.

And you have resisted. You have held back. Something personal, maybe even something pretty costly.

Or maybe it's something just insignificant, but you know you're not going to do what He wants you to do. Maybe it's something in relation to the assembly. Maybe it's something in relation to another believer.

Something that the Spirit of God has been telling you when it comes to the Word of God. Be kind one toward another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Maybe there's a spirit of resentment.

Maybe there's an unforgiving spirit between two believers here. I don't know. It can happen.

And you are resisting because you're afraid if you do that, you're going to make yourself vulnerable. Be kind one toward another, tenderhearted. Maybe it's something that you're taking a course in.

Maybe there's someone here, maybe a young person, maybe an older person, maybe someone in business, maybe someone in a relationship. I don't know. And you're moving away and you know what the Word of God says and you're fighting it.

Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it. Maybe there are leaders here and you are resisting because you know it will be costly to make that stand in that assembly. And you want to be liked, and everybody does.

Far better to be commended by God than liked by men. The backbone of obedience. Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.

And they never questioned Him. I want you to notice the brim of obedience. The brim of obedience.

That's the word right here. We talk about people who are half full kind of guys, you know. Are you half full? Are you half empty? And so on.

The Lord Jesus said to them, fill the water pots. Now what would you have done if the Lord had told you to do that? Well, how would you have filled the water pot? That's good enough. He's going to do something that's in His hands.

No, you know what He's saying? I'm going to do something, but it's linked with you too. And so it says they filled the water pots to the brim. They were careful about what they were doing.

I don't think they did it in a haphazard way. They weren't having fun. You know, sometimes we look at things, obedience is a key to a fun time.

You think they were having water fights? You think they were splashing each other? I think today that's kind of permeated among us, that Christianity should be fun, and then it's just a matter of a good time and so on. And listen, there's a reverence, there's a sacredness, there's a reality that what I'm doing has eternal consequences. These people, I know, never dreamed that what they were doing that day would find their way into the eternal record of God's book.

And yet it does for all of us, just as much. And so it says they filled it to the brim. That's a good word.

You know where it's found? It's the word above. It's found in Colossians chapter 3, set your affection on things above. You know what Paul is saying? Live Christianity to the brim.

You know what it's also found? Philippians chapter 3, where the apostle Paul says, I press on toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. The high calling. He's saying, I'm living my Christian experience to the brim.

Brother or sister, how are you living your Christianity? How are we living our Christianity? In those assemblies, how are we presenting the truth of Christ? Is it to the brim? Or is it a matter of, well, we've got enough water to get by. And we're really not interested in the wine. Obedience is the basic component of what we are, who we are.

Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. Oh, you know one thing I should tell you about those two miracles at the beginning and end of John? They both revolved around water. You know what that tells me? Water is the basic component of life.

And if that's the case, then it is. Then obedience is the basic component of my Christian experience. Lastly, let me tell you about the blessing of obedience.

The blessing. I told you about the backbone of it, the brim of it, and now the blessing of it. Those servants, and I won't get into the terms and all, but it seems, it would seem from the original as we read it, the account that the water actually changed into wine en route.

That these servants, as they scooped out and ladled up or whatever they did, and there was a lot in these jars. In fact, someone has done the calculations and suggested that based on the volume of liquid that was available, it would have yielded 2,400 eight-ounce glasses. That's a lot.

That's abundance. And as those men are bringing it, you could picture, they're, I wonder if they were a little, they're bringing it to the governor. The Lord Jesus didn't say, hey, bring it to that little kid over there, okay? Because he won't know any better.

He's thirsty and he's crying. No, bring it to the governor. You see what, when we do, when we obey God, if it's fit for God, it's fits for the best of men.

If it honors God, it will be fit for the best of men. And so they bring it. And I love this.

It says this, that the governor, it says, he didn't know. He didn't know. He didn't know how this happened.

It says, but the servants knew. You know what I like about that? You obey God, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. Willingly, lovingly, tenaciously, if we obey his word, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.

Do you know what? You will be a blessing to others. And they might not know what you're doing. And they might not even know sometimes how things are done.

But you'll know. And you'll have the joy that God worked through you and with you. What an experience.

What a motivator for future obedience. My God encourage us, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.