Water to Wine

Water to Wine by Tom Rossi

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

On the third day, a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, They have no more wine. Dear woman, why do you involve me? Jesus replied. My time has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you. Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water. So they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. The word of the Lord. The word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_01: 1:13

You know, this scripture has a special place in my heart because it was read at my wedding by none other than our pastor, Antley, in the first wedding he ever did. See, I need to get that in. I was actually the first wedding that Antley performed because, you know, there's going to be more. But this was the scripture in my wedding. And it hadn't, I don't know, just the last couple weeks, I've been... I had a death in the family, and I kept going back to the scripture where Jesus talks about, I am the resurrection and the life. I'm the resurrection and I'm the life. And then he talks about, I have come that they may have life and they may have it to the full. And at some point in my time with him, he connected it to this story,

UNKNOWN: 2:05

right?

SPEAKER_01: 2:06

It's not a parable. It's a living story. It's what Jesus actually did. And until, probably until this time where I could really reflect on it, I hadn't really thought about all of the underlying meanings about the life that Jesus brings us, that he is the resurrection and the life. So let's just quickly just go through this scripture and make sure that we kind of understand what happened, and then we'll kind of talk about some of the meaning of it. So Jesus goes to the wedding feast. He goes to a wedding feast. He's just called his first couple disciples. They go with him. They go to this wedding feast. It's a big deal. Wedding feasts, huge. It's not like we have today. First of all, the bridegroom is the number one person, Jennifer, not the bride. The bridegroom is the one that receives all the honor, not the bride. And it goes on for a long period of time. It's a big celebration. It's a big thing. And then we see this brief exchange with his mother, with Mary. And this is a little bit difficult for us just because it's hard to translate. The terminology, the words, you can translate them literally, but they're kind of phrases that were spoken. And so that's why I chose to use the NIV tonight because the NIV softens it up actually a little bit. But if you look at the actual literal what's going on, it sounds a lot harsher than it is. It's just the way that they talked. It wasn't meant to be rude. So she comes over and says, hey, the party, we're running out of wines. Like there's a problem. And so there's all kinds of different things that people say about, you know, what was Mary thinking? Did Mary think Jesus could solve this problem? Did she have any expectation of a miracle? Or did she maybe just expect, you know, him and the disciples to go get some wine? I don't know, but she definitely knew that he could resolve this problem or he could at least address this problem. And then in his response, he said something like, you know, woman, what is this to do with me? And we kind of translated all these different ways to try and get across. That's why we say, dear woman. Well, that's not really there. We're just trying to soften it up because it was a saying that people said they would address a woman in a respectful way by woman. He actually used the exact same phrase when he was on the cross and he talked to Mary. So don't let that trip you up. He's being respectful to his mom. Because I was thinking, you know, if my son were to say that to Kit, you know, woman, what have you to do with me? Like, that would be an issue. But that's not what's going on here. He's really, I can really see... Jesus is saying, I'm not, this isn't, it's not my time yet. It's not time for me to get involved and to address this and trying maybe to see how this relates to his ministry. Think about it. It's a party basically that has a potential for a real awkward ending. I think that's what's going on. And so Jesus is like, how does this relate to me? How does this relate to my ministry? And then this is my theory. I'll just be honest with you. This is theory. I believe that what Jesus saw was an awesome opportunity. Maybe right after she said that, right after he responded, he said, you know what? I'm going to take this, and this is going to be a living example or a living foreshadow of my ministry, of what I'm about to do. And then he went and he did the miracle. He did this great thing. And it doesn't even seem like that big of a deal. Like when I think about all the things that Jesus did, this isn't one of the miracles that comes to mind. But hopefully by the time we get through this tonight, you'll kind of see just how important it is. So a couple other things. He goes over to these six stone water jars that are 20 to 30 gallons each. It's a lot, right? It's a lot of water. And they're used for ceremonial washing. So they're probably pretty nasty because, you know, they're washing their feet, they're washing things, but it's for ceremonial purposes. The Jews would use this water and it was a religious thing to make themselves clean. And Jesus goes over and he turns that water to wine. You can kind of see where I'm going with this. as we get further into it. So he goes over to this water and he turns it into wine. And then the servants, they go over to the, well, okay, one other thing about this. Do not, please, do not get tripped up on the idea that it's wine. Let me just talk about that for a second because, you know, that really was my hesitation at all in talking about the scriptures. I'm thinking about, you know, there's a whole slew of people that talk about it's not really wine, it's grape juice, and, you know, and they really get They've really been out of shape over this idea of wine. And don't, man, don't get tripped up on that tonight, please. I believe that wine is wine is wine. It was wine. It really was. It was not grape juice. But you know what? If you are dead set against that, fine. You can still get a lot out of this experience of what Jesus did. We would be much more comfortable, wouldn't we, if it had been the other way around? If you turned wine into water, it would be a lot easier. Jesus turned water into wine, and some Christians have been trying to turn it back ever since. Pause for exuberant laughter. I was hoping. See, Antley would have made that work much better. I stole that from him. But the idea is, we as Christians would be much more comfortable if there hadn't been so much wine in the New Testament. I mean, come on. It'd be a lot easier for us to deal with if we could just say, wine is bad, stay away from wine. But we really can't do that. We just can't walk away and we can't dismiss a scripture like this. So one of the things to think about when we think about wine. If you look at the scriptures, there's good characteristics and there's bad characteristics of wine. Wine at one point is described as a mocker. There's all kinds of stuff about the abuse of wine. There's also good things about how it brings gladness to a person's heart. But you wouldn't think food is a bad thing. You wouldn't think sex is a bad thing. But if these things are used outside of the way that they were designed, or if they are abused, they become a bad thing. They become a bad thing. When it's an addiction, it becomes a bad thing. But you can be addicted to anything. That doesn't make the thing bad. The thing itself is amoral. It's not bad. It's not good. But it's the way that we approach that. I was thinking about karaoke. Okay? You might not know it, but I am a gifted karaoke person. And... And you know, some people, they were upset. They were upset with me because they're like, he is drunk. He's, man, he's drunk. Look at him. There's no way anybody would do that in their right mind. And you know what I mean? Now think about this for a second though. It's because we recognize that when somebody drinks wine, a lot of times they get happy. You know what I mean? Their sensations are heightened. You know what I mean? But these are not bad characteristics. They're bad characteristics when they're abused. You see what I mean? I just had to work the karaoke thing in there too. Just in case anybody needs me to work at a wedding or anything like that, I can do that. Yeah. You know, when the apostles received the Spirit for the first time, they were described as being drunk. Why was that? Why was that? Why did people see them and go, man, those guys are drunk?

UNKNOWN: 9:57

Why?

SPEAKER_01: 9:59

because they recognize that when somebody drinks wine, then they are happy. You know what I mean? There's just these expressions that are not necessarily bad. Just like when the Spirit of God came on them, they were so excited. They were so passionate. They were so alive. That everybody's like, they're drunk. See what I mean? So again, I'm not saying, hey, let's go out and get drunk. No, quite the opposite. I'm saying that we can't throw the baby out with the bathwater. We don't want to throw out and say that all wine is bad and any scripture that talks about wine shouldn't be taught on. Wow. I don't know what I said. Hopefully I didn't say anything wrong. Okay. There's another scripture where Paul even talks about it. He says, don't get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. And he tends to be drawing this parallel of, you know what, you can have all the characteristics of being drunk, but it's on the Spirit of God. You can be alive. You can get up in front of a whole bunch of people and sing karaoke. And it's not wine, but it's the Spirit of God because that's what the Spirit of God is like. That's what life is like. If people will look at you and think that you're drunk because you're filled with the Spirit of God. And it seems like that's really the way Paul, why does Paul draw those two together? Why does he bring those into that scripture? Just as a drunk person is controlled by wine, we are called to be controlled by the Spirit of God. And what's interesting is the results. Like, the result of being driven by the Spirit of God is that we are. We're alive. We're more alive than we've ever been. Okay, so all of that to say, please, no matter where you stand on wine, let's go through the Scriptures together and talk about some of the things that we see in there. Okay, so they bring this wine to the master of the ceremony, which is really interesting because you wonder what's going on with the servant's mind. Because they don't really say anything like, no. They take the ceremonial cleaning water over to the master's ceremony. Like, are they thinking, you know, I really didn't like this job anyways. You know, like, it doesn't say that they tasted it. It doesn't say that they really knew it was good wine or anything like that. But they go over to the master's ceremony and they give it to him and he drinks it and he's like, wow. Wow. You know, why did you save the best to last? This is really good stuff. This is awesome. This is better than anything we've had for the rest of the party that we've had. Normally, one would wait until everyone has had their fill. Should I elaborate on that? Again, it could be grape juice. But, okay. So, wait until everybody's had their fill. Why? Because at the end, they're going to be less temperamental about how good the wine is. And I won't give you any theories on why that might be. And then he ends, he says this. When John ends the story, he says this, the first of his miraculous signs. The first of his miraculous signs. And there is some significance to that. The idea that this is a sign. This isn't just a miracle. This is a sign that Jesus did. When he did this, he was pointing to something. When he turned that water into wine, there was a physical thing that happened in history. It's a historical event that happened, but it was more than that. It was more than just a miracle. It was a sign, and it pointed to things. It pointed to different things. It pointed to meaning. There was underlying stuff that was going on, and that's what I think is so important for us. The first thing, I believe, is a transformation. He didn't go over to the water and make it clean. Oh, this water was nasty, but now it's clean. You know, he didn't sprinkle lemonade in it. You know what I mean? He transformed it. He transformed it from nasty ceremonial cleaning water, water that was used in a religious ritual that was dirty, into wine. And not just wine, like, oh, okay, that's not bad wine. Like, I don't know what good wine is, but, you know, it was the best wine. That people that didn't know this miracle had occurred, there was a transformation that took place. It was an utterly different thing. There was a transformation that took place. Again, pointing now to the ministry of Jesus because Jesus was about to bring transformation to people. Jesus was about to come into people's lives and transform them. As different as water is from wine, Jesus was going to step in and bring transformation. And you can't, I mean, you can't see that and not think about the other scriptures that talk about being a new creation. That anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. It's totally different. It's not a renewed creation. It's not a healthy creation. It is a new creation, totally different. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they're totally different, as different as water is from wine. And we think about the scripture of the wine of the new covenant. Wine would be a symbol of the new covenant, right? When Jesus does the communion and he says, this is the wine of the new covenant. This is my blood poured out for you, the new covenant. And he also talks about the wine poured into new wineskins. Talking about the new covenant, talking about the ministry of Jesus, he's like, you wouldn't take wine and pour it into old wineskins. No, you would have to literally transform those old wineskins. You'd have to have new wineskins. Then you can pour the new wine into it. pointing to the transformation in our lives, being transformed, going from where we were before to a new creation. So that why? So we can receive the new wine of the new covenant. So we can receive the new wine that Jesus is talking about. All of this pointed to as a sign in this miracle, this great miracle that he performs at this wedding. God takes the ordinary water of our lives and he transforms it. to give it flavor, fragrance, effect. Behold, a new life has come. Bring God into your situation, and the humdrum, the commonplace activities are touched with a new power that makes them fragrant, flavorful, enjoyable, delightful, giving joy and gladness to the heart. You look at the party, and again, the party's dying down. The party, they might not even know it, but it's going to end. But Jesus renews the party in a way that it wasn't before. Now it was more alive than it had been ever before. Some of us have been drinking wine for so long that we can't recognize when something better comes along. Think about this for a second. Some of us have been drinking wine for so long that we can't recognize when something better comes along. This was exactly... what the Jewish people at the time were dealing with. The Jews were like people who had been drinking wine, performing ritual washings, so long that they couldn't recognize when something better came along. When Mary said, they have no more wine, it symbolized the fact that the Jews had no spiritual meaning left in their ceremonies. Jesus was bringing something new and something better. I never thought about this before, but the water that he chose to use was used for ceremonial cleaning. And it become this dead ritual. It was an outward expression of, oh, look at me, I'm so clean. And Jesus was like, no, you're missing the point. And he brings a new covenant. And how does he begin his ministry? He actually changes that very water that they thought would make them clean, he changes it into wine. Do you see that? They're drinking old wine. They're living off of an old covenant. They're continuing this ritual washing. They don't even realize that it's going nowhere, and Jesus comes and brings new wine. It says, no, there's something so much better. It's so much better than what you had before. Some of us, that's where we are. In our religious expressions, we're so religious. We've got so much religion. We've got plenty of ceremonial washing that we're doing. There's so many things that we can do to impress God, to make us look right on the outward appearance. Yes, I have a thick leather Bible. Yes, you know, I've got plenty of spiritual stuff. And you know what I mean? And it's all this outward ceremonial stuff. And Jesus is like, you know, it's about the new wine. Let me change those things into a new wine. Why? So that you can be more alive than you've ever been before. I can renew your life. You can be transformed, renew this wine, and just, it's totally different. It's renewed. It's lifelike. It's never been lived before. Some of us, our wine's already run out. Some of us, our party, the wine's already gone. You're like, I'm not drinking it. I'm not happy where I am. Jesus steps into that. When we're desperate for that transformation, The new wine of the Holy Spirit, the tangible representation of the new covenant poured into our souls. This is the offer of Jesus' ministry. This is the ministry of Jesus. So we see in this miraculous sign all this underlying meaning of the ministry of Jesus and what it means for us today. God offers to come on the scene of our lives and to bring new life. The difference between a dead party and one that's alive. The difference between washing, between water for washing feet and fragrant, flavorful wine. A difference so great that he tells Nicodemus it's like being reborn. How do we step into this? We step out in faith. We invite Jesus. I want this new wine. I want you to pour out this new wine. I want to receive it. We invite him to come. Right now, I want us to do that. So if you could stand up. We're just going to pray. God, we pray.