Let me say first of all, by way of introduction.
Many religious people in the world, acknowledge the Bible's
denunciation of drunkenness and strong drink.
At the same time, honest questions are raised about what
one should conclude about. Jesus being a Wine Drinker and
is changing water into wine at the marriage feast.
In Cana of Galilee many times today.
People justify social drinking on the basis that Jesus himself
turned water into wine. But what did Jesus actually
make? Interestingly, there were three
kinds of wines in Palestine at the time one was fermented wines
and fermented wine. Started off very minut if it
were as it were of alcohol and then would be mixed with three
parts of water to dilute the the actual beverage itself.
Now, the second was unfermented juice from the grape and that
simply is Fruit of the vine or grape juice and thirdly there
was what was known as new wine? And new wine was an
intoxicating. Drink, do you remember in Acts
chapter 2? Will not go into that very
deeply but it acts chapter 2, and verse 13.
When the people that were there, hearing the gospel sermon and
hearing Peter and the apostles. Speaking, in tongues, as the
spirit gave them, utterance you remember what they said, they
said these men are Are full of new one.
In other words, they're full of intoxicating.
Drink, how do I know? That's what they meant?
Because the very next two verses says, like this as I paraphrase,
these men are not drunk as you suppose it's but the third hour
of the day. In other words, it's an
absurdity to be drunk and 9:00 in the morning.
So, three different wines in Palestine.
Fermented wines contained, a small percentage of alcohol.
All and it was mixed with three parts of water.
Unfermented juice of the grape that simply is grape juice.
And finally, there was the intoxicating, drink called new
wine. Now, The Book of John gives
eight different sign miracles. You know, if you add up all the
Miracles, somebody counted them up one time.
Now, there's wait, what? There was way more.
But the Bible says about Jesus and about the Miracles, he
performed. The Bible says, truly many other
signs did Jesus do in the presence of his disciples that
are not written in this book. But these are written that you
might believe, right? Of that being said, if you look
in the gospels and you don't overlap and count something
twice, you will find 39 specific Miracles that our Lord
performed. Incidentally the very first one
that he performed is the one we're going to talk about today.
Now. What made John different of all
the Miracles that Jesus performed.
John records eight Miracles and eight Miracles were basically
the Lord's power over eight. Of nature.
For example, he turned water into wine, he healed a
nobleman's son. He cured a paralytic.
He fed. 5000 he walked on the sea.
He gave sight to a blind man. He raised Lazarus from the dead
and so on and so forth. And finally he provided in the
Nets of his disciples, all of those fish and John records,
every one of those Miracles. But as Jesus began his public
Ministry. When we arrived at the very
first miracle he ever performed and it would reveal his glory
and that was the miracle of turning water into wine.
As we noticed today, we want to notice four things.
Number one, we want to notice the scene, then we want to
notice the situation, thirdly, the supply.
And number four, we want to notice the significance of all
of this, all right? First of all, let's talk about
the scene. The scene is the marriage feast
in Cana of Galilee. Now, interesting about this
particular place. It's approximately 20 to 22
miles from the banks of Jordan In fact, I read that Cana was a
little island as it were a little village as it were eight
to nine miles from Nazareth. One historian said that on a
clear day, you can be in Nazareth and you can look out.
And you can actually see Kingdom.
It's kind of like this, by the way, to go over to the coast,
you know, I grew up in the Ventura area, you can be on the
coast you can be on the shore. If it's a clear day, you can see
what's over on the other side where things are really clear.
It's kind of like that. It's kind of like that you can
look. And from Nazareth you can see
Cana in the distance on a clear day now.
Now, the situation is this or the scene, is this, it is the
marriage Feast of Cana in Galilee now.
Present at the wedding ceremony was Jesus.
Was Mary. Was his siblings and they were
all present. One scholar said, it's entirely
possible that whoever was getting married was related to
marry. In other words, somebody that
was part of her family. Now the question comes up, and I
often wondered this to, why was this his first miracle?
Why did the Lord choose this particular occasion to perform
his first miracle? But I think that this really
makes sense. I think it's a, I think it
really does make sense. That this would be his First
miracle, and here's why. This occasion marks, a
transition Jesus is going to change in his relationship with
the people around him that he knew, and loved his family, he
was going to go from Carpenter to Christ.
He was going to go from the son of Mary to the Son of God.
He was going to go from a man that lived in Nazareth to the
Messiah. In other words, his relationship
with mankind was going to change and on this occasion.
It surely does. Let's talk about this marriage
Feast, I understand it was a luxurious feast.
It began normally on a Wednesday and it existed 227 days,
depending on how wealthy a person was sometimes people
left. Their crops unattended for two
weeks. You know, why?
It was a very big deal, in the words of Cullen Smith, it was a
big deal. It was a huge deal. and it shows
the importance of not only marriage but on the wedding
ceremony, Very important. People knew that it was very
important to the ceremony itself was also very, very significant
and Jesus is present there, you know, marriage is a sacred
Union, it goes all the way back. You remember when God created,
man, God created Adam and Eve and when he created the woman,
he brought the woman to the man and he looked upon her and said
she is now bone of my bones. She's Flesh of My Flesh.
She shall be called woman for. She was taken out of, man.
Therefore a man shall I'll leave his father and his mother and
shall be joined unto his wife. And the two of them would be one
flesh. That was God, authorized, that
was God ordained, that was God originated.
But Jesus puts his sanction on it, too.
Because he shows up to this event.
It is designed by God, it is blessed by Jesus.
You know, the ceremony is very important, even though society
says it isn't, you know, society says, it shouldn't really matter
a piece of paper you ever heard somebody say that after all in
marriage is kind of a piece of paper.
If we really love each other, isn't that enough You know,
things have changed in terms of changed.
I'm old enough. Now to say back in my day, okay,
back in my day, when I was young two, people living under the
same roof together. Out of wedlock was called
shacking up. And it was looked down upon, it
was a negative thing. People would hide it from
others, or they would embarrassingly say, well, we're
living together. Oh, is this you?
What we're living again? Now, it's accepted.
Now it's a we're just living together.
That's great. Don't you see, don't you see the
easy way? That is, it's easy in and easy
out. And that's not what marriage is
all about. Marriage is for life.
Now, we do believe in the exception of Matthew 19, but
marriage is for Life. Jesus said that Moses because of
the hardness of their heart said, all you got to do is give
a writing of divorcement, but Jesus said in Matthew 19, but in
the beginning, it was not. So I'm going to tell you
something, folks. There's two decisions that you
will make in your life that will greatly altered, the course of
your life, and affect your life, both physically and spiritually
in. Of Time.
And Eternity. And here are those two
decisions. Number one to obey the gospel.
Be baptized into Christ for the remission of your sins.
That's number one, that's first and foremost.
But you know what? Number two is.
Who you going to marry? Who you going to marry?
I knew of a young man one time. That had all the ability still
does has all the ability in the world.
And I remember there was somebody speaking about him
saying, man, this guy's got so much ability that goes in
Oklahoma. When it's said, he has so much
ability, he just has to marry right?
That's a mouthful and that's true.
You got to marry right. Jesus put his sanction on this
because it's very important you got to marry right.
It is a union and that Union is for life.
It's a time when you can stand there publicly and you can
promise to the other in the eyes of all of those that are present
Witnesses but most importantly, in the eyes of God, In the eyes
of God. All right.
So that's the scene. Let's talk about the situation
in verse 3. It says, when they ran out of
wine. The mother of Jesus said to him,
they have no wine. So, that's the problem.
Now remember this Y and that time was a staple food and the
reason for it is you couldn't always get clean water.
I'm going to tell you, you have never been sick.
I mean, you have never been sick unless you get bad water.
Don King, you've heard me say, you know, in the Philippines
years and years ago, all they had to drink.
They didn't have any ice. All had drink was these hot
Cokes. He got so sick of hot cocoa.
You know, he saw you do. I'm a brush my teeth.
Oh, the water tastes a great one swallow.
Lost. 15 pounds. There are places in the world.
Even today, we're tard to get clean water.
Very common that they would fail into the same category.
So wine became a staple food. Now there was no preservatives
for the wine and because there was no freezing or
Refrigeration, there was a problem sometimes at the wind
did ferment and could develop intoxicating power now,
interestingly, drunkenness. And please get this because it's
really going to matter in just a little while.
Drunkenness was considered a disgrace.
I'm going to tell you in my lifetime, you ever.
Have you ever seen the happy drunk?
The guy? That's intoxicated and he's
funny, and everybody's laughing and and the more he drinks, the
funner, he gets and everybody's just really laughing and
everybody's enjoying the performance that the drunkard is
putting on Oh, how times have changed?
I read one historian. That said it was an absolute
disgrace to be drunk. That's the reason that they
diluted the two parts of wine with three parts of water to
eliminate the possibility. In other words, you had to drink
gallons of the stuff to get intoxicated gallons.
In other words, they did everything they possibly could
did not have the problem. You know, that's not like that
today. On some bottles that says we
change this stuff for 35 years to get her like she is now.
Oh, and by the way, by the way, the older, the better, and all
of that, I see you may not remember this.
Maybe you do telling on myself here, but a lot of years ago I
gave you the little illustration show.
How dumb I was, we had a client that was a plastic surgeon and
he bought this house. It was going to remodel the
house in this net and so forth and it was a great, big wine
cabinet, giant wine cabinet. And we had that we were doing
the painting on the job so we had to move, they asked us.
Will you help? Move it.
So we said sure I'll help and there was all the Dust on the
Bottle and I'll never forget. I pulled out a bottle of so I
got an idea. Why don't we wipe these down?
And put them back in there boy. They're gonna really be happy
with this, right? They can see that we really did
a good job. Now, I'm probably the only guy
that dumb But they want the Dust on the Bottle to show the age.
Another words, the longer the better.
The entire idea is this prepare a beverage that has an
intoxicating power and a flavor for that purpose.
That's different. The wives today are different.
This is called vinous fermentation and make no mistake
about it. The wines of today go through
this process and what is vinous fermentation - fermentation?
Is this it Choirs the exact proportions of sugar, yeast and
water. And the temperature has to be
between 50 and 75 degrees that is to make modern wine today.
Totally different than back and Palestine.
We're talking about that real deluded stuff that you have to
drink gallons of that. Might have fermented a little
now, This is not a trivial miracle in the situation.
You know, if you look at the Miracles that Jesus performed,
they were always a practical benefit.
Somebody needed to see. So Jesus made them to see.
Somebody had a demon. So, Jesus cast out the demon.
It was a man. One time that was a paralytic
and he couldn't walk. And Jesus healed the bones in
his leg. The benefits that Jesus did were
always for practical benefit to show the glory of God in the age
of Miracles. So this particular occasion is
not a trivial miracle, in fact, number one, Hospitality in the
East was very important and people were in need and the Lord
knew it. You know, an Eastern.
When we talk about Oriental, we're just talking about Eastern
and Oriental culture at the time.
Hospitality was such, and it was so required, it was part of
their. It was part of everything that
they were about. And what would happen is, if
somebody is coming through town and you never met that person in
your life, you not only brought them into your home, if they
needed it and fed them, but you also gave them a place to stay.
Very important Hospitality in the East.
That's the first reason. Here's the second reason it was
a miracle of love. Jesus is there he somehow
related? And the host was obviously
embarrassed. Now. in verse 4, in verse 4, It
says Jesus said to her. When they came to Jesus and his
mother said to Jesus, we are out of wine.
We have no more wine. Jesus says, to her woman, what
does your concern have to do with me?
My hour has not yet. Come.
All right. First of all, first of all, what
did he mean when he called her woman?
Now, you know what's interesting about this term here about
woman, is the word woman comes from the Greek word goon a now.
What's interesting about that is to say, Same exact word that was
used when Jesus was hanging on the cross and he looked down at
his mother. And he looked down at John, the
Apostle that he loved. You remember what he said?
He said to his mother, he said woman, meaning, lady a term of
respect. He looked down and he said,
woman, Behold, thy son, son, Behold thy mother.
I just make the point because I don't want you to think, as some
people sometimes. Do they use the word or man
would use the word woman talking to a woman almost in a
condescending form or fashion? Have you ever heard the saying
that the Greeks had a word for it?
Greeks had all manner of words to describe every little
specific thing. We are limited in the English
language. The best word that describes,
the Greek word, goon a is the word lady and it's a term of
respect, you know, I think it's very important because Mary did
no longer need a son here. Mary needed a savior.
He doesn't call her mother. Because she needed a savior.
And the relationship between Jesus and Mary was now changed
forever. And make no mistake about it, as
I guess. Contrary to what's found in some
religious affiliations Mary was not co-redeemer with Jesus.
Mary needed Jesus, just like you and I and they could put up all
the statues in the world and bow before her.
And I'm going to tell you, it's all Vain and meaningless.
She needed Jesus, just like you, and I need Jesus.
Jesus says in a very respectful way, he calls her lady.
Now, here's a phrase here. What does your concern have to
do with me? Now, I'm going to tell you some
Scholars will say what this means is what this means is.
That's your problem. Not mine.
But stay with me in the Greek. The actual phrase reads like
this translated, straight from the Greek, what is there for you
and me? In other words, it is this.
What do we have in common? What Jesus was saying is what do
we have in common? He wasn't saying that your
problem. Don't bother me with it.
He was saying it's my problem and I'm going to take care of it
when my hour has Come, or when it's time.
Now, did did Mary get the message?
Yes she did. That's this is why I know this
is exactly what Jesus said because the very next verse She
turns to the servants and she says, whatever he does or
whatever. He says to, you do it.
Whatever he says, do it. That brings us to our third
point So we got this scene, we got the situation, they're out
of wine, and now we're going to look at the supply.
You know, this is really amazing to me because in verse 6, it
says they got six waterpots of stone.
I don't know about you, but in my mind's eye I go back and try
to figure out where they got all the water it had to have come
out of a. Well it had to come out of a
stream and had a cut come out of a spring.
It had to come from something other than hooking the hose up
and running a hose out there, and fill it up these water
pumps. And we're not talking about, Out
little water pots. We're talking about those that
carried. A lot of volume.
In fact, these were six waterpots of stone.
According to the manner of purification of the Jews.
Do you know why that is significant?
It is extremely significant because the Jews thought it very
important to keep them self cleansed before they ate.
Mark 7 + 3. For the Pharisees and all the
Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the
tradition of the elders. In other words, it was very
common, they felt they thought, you know what, we're going to
wash our hands and sometimes they would have these barrels or
these whatever you want to call them.
Lots and they would be full of water and people would wash
their face. They've washed their hands and
they washed their feet. So no doubt there were these six
pots and that's why they were there.
Now notice how big they were each one of these contained 20
or 30 gallons apiece. Now, if there are six of them
and you fill them to the brim that is 120 gallons of water,
that's a lot of water. Again, they didn't have a
faucet. The other side note here,
though, ever wonder why Jesus didn't just perform the miracle.
Why did he tell them to go fill the pots?
I think he told them to go fill the pots for the same reason as
when Jesus was standing there and John chapter 11 and Lazarus
was in the Tomb. And Jesus says, take away the
stone, I think it's for the same reason that he told the man in
John chapter 9, after he put the clay to his eyes, go to the pool
of Siloam and wash in other words.
Jesus never did what man could do for himself.
And if Man, by way of obedience could do it, Jesus required it.
And you know that's exactly the same today.
The Lord in your life. Now there are no Miracles today
but the Lord in your life, requires you to do everything
that you can with whatever's in your power and he will not do
your part. And we can't do his. sometimes
we get under duress, and stress, and worry because we're trying
to do his part And don't think for a minute that he's going to
take the trivial things that we can do off of our plate.
We have to do our part to Jesus says, go fill them. 120 gallons,
you got now. 120 gallons of water.
Now They were filled all the way to the brand according to verse
7. Jesus says, fill the pots with
water and they did so all the way to the brim verse 8, these
next three verses are going to go quickly, he said to them,
draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.
Now the word Master is talking about the from the Greek word
that means head waiter. Now I want to set the tone here.
The head waiter, never knew who performed the miracle of where
it came from, right? He never knew.
Jesus says, did some out to the circus?
Have you ever stopped to consider the very fact that the
servants saw Jesus perform this miracle, and it did not faze
them at all, not a bit. Not a bit.
You would think when you see someone do what Jesus did and
save the day and perform this great miracle, they just brought
water. Jesus turned it into wine.
We'll talk about what that was in a minute.
Jesus says, dip some out and take it to the master the head
waiter and they do. But they're completely unfazed.
That brings us to verse number nine, 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, the master of the feast called the bridegroom.
In other words, the days saved, we're good shape again.
And that brings us to verse number 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.
And by the way, this is not a question.
This is a statement. Let me tell you what it means.
It was very customary when the guests arrived, you get the good
stuff out first and you give the good stuff to all the people and
they, when they had well, drunk talk about that a minute to what
that meant. Then they bring out the inferior
stuff. Jesus, perform, this miracle.
Let me just say if the Lord made it, it was good.
If the Lord made it, it was great.
So here, the head waiter. He looks at this stuff.
He tasted the wait a minute. Wait a minute.
We were supposed to have the good stuff first.
This stuff is so great. You waited, until after the
inferior was brought out. In other words.
It was probably good stuff too, but not like the Lord made and
he do the difference. Now.
What kind of wine was it? This really matters, folks.
The Greek word wine. Is the word boy nose.
And because it's the word. Joy knows many claim it to be
alcoholic because only knows can be connected to an alcoholic
beverage, but it's not limited to that.
It includes that it's not limited to that.
In fact, the word Only Knows is a generic word and it includes
all kinds of wine. Notice this also, it includes
all stages of the juice of the grape.
Sometimes even the clusters of grapes are called only knows,
and even the vying itself is sometimes referred to, as only
knows. You know, what people do though?
People go? Oh yeah.
I read the. It looked in the Lexicon.
There. It is right there.
Oh my nose on a wine alcohol. It's a generic term in at many
things, but stay with me now. I think it's begging the whole
question to assert that. It was intoxicating I really do.
The narrative is silent to the point to the character of the
wine. Can only be determined by the
following. The occasion, the material used,
the person making the wine and the moral influence of the
miracle. The character of the wind
determines, what it was. Now obviously the occasion.
It's a wedding. Material used.
Oh, it's water. The person making the wine, it
was Jesus. And by the way, we're talking
about our creator. Jesus was in the beginning with
God, Jesus was part of all the creation and everything.
He was able to do that, take water and create this miracle.
What's the moral influence? It's determined by the character
of the wine. The moral influence of the
miracle is determined by what kind of wine that it is.
Now, one scholar said this, please notice, he said, is it
not derogatory to the character of Christ and his teachings of
the Bible, to suppose that he exerted his miraculous power to
produce at least 120 gallons of intoxicating, wine.
You know what, today's common vernacular I mean, I don't know
seriously. I mean, you really think that
really think that Jesus who was Flawless and perfect in every
way Would have made 120 gallons of mine.
Altering liquor. When the Bible says this about
it, stay with me now. It's a mocker.
It is biting like a serpent. It stings like an Adder, it's
the poison of Dragons. It's the cruel Venom of asps.
That's what the Bible says about it.
You think Jesus made 120 gallons that stuff.
Well, surely not I heard somebody say one time that if
you have him by the way, this was a very nice man.
And he was actually what you would consider one of those
connoisseurs, a wine connoisseur connoisseur.
He was wrong. He said, if you take grape juice
and you leave it alone and then over time it becomes something,
it turns into something and it's actually very good and he said,
it turns into what is known as sweet wine.
But Science teaches that, when the fur win by fermentation, the
sugar is turned into alcohol. The sweetness of the juice is
gone. The sweet means as the Lexington
State unfermented wine alcoholic wine.
Remember needs exact proportions of sugar, yeast and water.
And with a temperature of that's kept between 50 and 75 degrees.
Let's go further a French chemist wrote this This.
Nature, never form, spiritus Liquors, she rocks the great
upon the branch, but it is art that converts the juice into
alcoholic. Wine dr.
Henry, Henry. Monroe said, alcohol, is nowhere
to be found in any product of nature was never created by God,
but is especially an artificial thing prepared, my man through
the destructive process of fermentation.
All right. What about this right here?
That means you don't get butter from the udder and you don't get
wine from the Vine. Man has to do something to it,
to make it with those beverages, really are Well, let's talk
about this. This phrase right here, when the
guests have well drunk. I've actually heard this
interpreted when they were really intoxicated and feeling
good. You think Jesus would have done
that their bombed out of their mind?
And then here comes the good stuff.
No. The language here folks is very
simple when the guests have well drunk.
It doesn't mean intoxicated. It means they consumed a lot.
When they had consumed, a lot of the stuff that they already had.
Then here came the stuff that Jesus made.
Alright. Very quickly.
What about the moderation argument heard?
This my whole life. Never heard.
Somebody say you know it's okay, it's okay.
Just do it in moderation. Had people say back.
Everything is okay in life, just in moderation, but there are
some things in life that are fine in moderation.
What about this particular argument and one of the passages
that they cite is found in the book of Romans the 12th chapter
in the 13th, verse Where Paul says, let us walk properly as in
the day, not in revelry and drunkenness.
Now please stay with me on this people.
Sometimes interpret this passage to mean that this and what is
being condemned is getting drunk.
And a little bits, okay. Well, folks from the same
passage, please watch. If drunkenness in moderation is
okay. Then revelry those drunken
parties and moderation are okay to lewdness.
It's bad. So just do it in moderation.
Lust Bible says, when lust has conceived, it brings forth, sin
and sin when it is finished break for tests.
Are just do that. Moderation, Strife, terrible
thing. Bible condemns it.
So just do it in moderation. Envy, we're not to n be another.
So just do that in moderation to you.
See folks is the same thing. It's all the same thing, the
best way for a child of God to avoid drunkenness is to have
nothing to do with alcoholic beverages and the alcohol that
produces it. I'll tell you this, every
alcoholic in the world came from a mild participant or mild
Drinker. It all started there.
So the rule is touch not taste, not and handle.
Not now remember. Being drunk was a disgrace.
And what did Jesus make number that country song couple years
ago, I think it was Miranda Lambert.
I heard Jesus, he drank wine and I bet we'd get along just fine.
What actually did Jesus make on that day?
Well, what he made is what he drank.
One scholar and historian said this, the wine that Christ Drank
In, which he made for the wedding was the pure blood of
the grape. His example gave no sanction to
others who used intoxicating wine.
It's so what did he use folks? He used the pure blood of the
grape. Wasn't fermented, it wasn't
spoiled, it was delicious, it tasted so good that the master
the waiter tasted it and said this stuff is the good stuff.
It was not an intoxicant at all. And that brings us to our final
verse, the significance of this whole thing.
Do you remember when I said, That the servants were unfazed.
I'm just about finished. The servants were unfazed.
What happens here? This beginning of signs did
Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested His glory and his
disciples believed in him. Want to make this final little
Point here. You know, that happens today.
We have a gospel meeting, we have a lot of folks come and
preach the gospel and people see what they need to do to be saved
and they see what the Lord wants them to do and what the Lord did
for them and all that and then just walk away.
Jesus perform this miracle and the servant saw the whole thing
and they just walk away. People sometimes hear sermons
about things that they need to do in their life, to correct
their life, so they can go to heaven.
Because they've gone back into the ways of sin.
But then, they just walk away. It's nothing new. but, What
about the people that really want the truth?
What about the people that want to feed on the word of God?
That's kind of gospel. Meetings have become, you know,
we don't baptize a whole lot of folks during gospel meetings
anymore. But I'ma tell you, the church is
strict and that's exactly what happened here.
His disciples believed in him. And that's what it's all about.
When we hear the word of God, when we are members of the body
of Christ, we are strengthened by the word of God to go out
there face the world, me better in the future than we've ever
been in days gone by turning water into wine.
The very first miracle that Jesus performed.
And his disciples believed in him.