MIRACLES
JESUS CHANGES WATER TO WINE
DR. JIM DIXON
JOHN 2:1-11
APRIL 24, 1983
A little over 1,900 years ago, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and at this wedding, our Lord Jesus Christ performed the first of His public miracles. Concerning this miracle, I have three teachings that I want to share with you this morning and the first teaching is this Jesus Christ is the source of our every need. He is concerned with our every need. He has power to perform our every need. Jewish weddings in Biblical times were very different than modern weddings here in the 20th century in America. Jewish weddings and the festivities that were involved in the wedding lasted more than a week. The wedding ceremony for a Jewish bride and groom would begin on a Wednesday because it was Jewish law that a virgin had to be married on a Wednesday, and the wedding ceremony would begin with a great feast, usually at the bride’s parents’ home, sometimes at the groom’s parents, home. This feast would be a time when there would be plenty of food for everyone to eat and plenty of wine for everyone to drink. If there was any shortage, it was a tremendous embarrassment to the host.
Immediately after the wedding feast, there was the wedding ceremony a little later on Wednesday evening, obviously a very special time for the Jewish bride and groom. After the wedding ceremony, very late on Wednesday evening, there was the escort, when the friends and the family and the loved ones of the bride and groom would escort them through the streets of the village to their new home. They would normally take them on as long a route as possible because they wanted everyone in the village to be able to congratulate them. When they arrived at their new home late on Wednesday night, a 7-day honeymoon began, but it was not like honeymoons that we have here in America. In this country when a couple gets married, they want to go away on their honeymoon and they want to be away from people, but in Jewish honeymoons, they spent those 7 days at home and they were 7 days when the people of the village would come and visit them and they, as bride and groom, would be treated as king and queen, and they would wear crowns on their heads and they dressed as king and queen. People would come by the house to perform acts of service. Their every wish was everyone’s command, and in the midst of all the poverty of the land, in the midst of a very hard life, there was no time more joyous, no time more exciting than the festivities of that wedding week. So, there was a marriage at Cana of Galilee, and it began with a wedding feast and our Lord Jesus was there.
You know a lot of people seem to think of Jesus as somber. They think of Jesus as serious, but the Bible tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ has more joy than anyone this world has ever known. The Book of Hebrews tells us that He “has been anointed with the oil of gladness beyond His comrades.” There is no one in this world that has as much gladness. The Greek word is “apolysis” which means exuberant joy. Jesus Christ is filled with joy. He was accused of being a glutton and a winebibber, though of course He was never drunk nor was He a glutton. He was accused of associating with publicans and sinners, though of course He was not a sinner nor was He a publican, but He loved people and He simply loved to spend time with them and so there He was, at this feast in Cana of Galilee, and the wine ran short. The mother of Jesus came to Him, and she said, “They have no more wine.” Now perhaps she expected Christ to perform a miracle. We do not know. Perhaps she had seen the Lord Jesus perform miracles at home as He was growing up in Nazareth. We do not know, but certainly she knew that He was no normal man. She knew that He had not been conceived by man. She knew the words of the angel, Gabriel, proclaimed to her at the moment of her son’s birth. She knew that this One was the Eternal Son of God. She knew that He was the Savior of the World. She knew that the power of God was in Him and so she came to Him, and she said, “They have no more wine.” Jesus said “Oh woman, what to Me and thee? My hour has not yet come.” Some people have seen that as a kind of rebuke, but the Greek does not necessarily convey that at all. The Greek word “gunai,” translated “oh woman” was simply a warm address that a son would give to his mother or even a husband to his wife. In this context, it should simply be translated “mother.” “What to Me and thee” was a Hebraic expression which simply meant “you do not understand me.” It was as though Jesus was saying “Mother, you do not understand me. My hour has not yet come.”
Jesus knew that the moment He manifested His glory—He knew that the moment he unveiled His miracle power — the moment He declared His Messiahship — in that moment, the Jewish leaders, the Roman authorities would take notice of Him, and it would begin His pilgrimage to Calvary. It would begin His Journey to the cross, but Mary had confidence that Her Son would do something and so she said to the servants “Whatever He tells you to do, do it.” The Bible tells us that there were six stone jars standing there, each jar holding 20 to 30 gallons of water. Jesus said to the servants “Fill the jars with water” and they filled them to the brim. Jesus said, “Now draw out some of it and take it to the steward of the feast.” He was like the “head waiter” and so the servants took the water—they drew it out and they took it to the steward of the feast and the water had become wine by the power of Christ. When the steward of the feast tasted the water now become wine, he marveled. He said “Most men serve the good wine first. When men have drunk freely, when they’re a little tipsy, then they serve the poor wine, but you have saved the good wine until now.”
Jesus Christ had sympathy for the embarrassment of the wedding host. He cared concerning the plea of his mother. He cared about the party and the arrangements and the shortage of wine and the embarrassment that that would bring to the wedding host. He cares about everything in life, so there’s this first teaching that God wants to say to us, and that is that Jesus Christ cares about you. He cares about every need in your life, even the little needs. He’s able to supply your need in abundance even as He was able to create 120 to 180 gallons of wine, far beyond their need. He is able to supply your need in abundance.
You know, I look back on my life and I see over and over again that Jesus Christ has been able to meet my need. He has been able to supply my every need and I’ve had a lot of them. remember when I was growing up, when I was in junior high school, I felt like I needed a girlfriend. I think most boys in junior high and high school kind of feel like that, but I didn’t have any confidence. I didn’t have any confidence at all. I was kind of skinny. I was very aware of that. I was kind of pale. My brother, Greg, was just the opposite of me. He was always tan. It was really kind of sickening, you know? He came out of the womb tan. He could go in a closet for a year, and you could bring him out and he would still look like he’d just come from the beach. He was very muscular and very big, and I was very skinny and very scrawny. I gave new meaning to the word anemic. didn’t have much confidence in my relationships with girls. I had two brothers. I had no sisters. I didn’t even understand how girls thought. I was very shy. I can remember when I was in junior high—you see my brother Greg and I shared one bedroom.
My brother Gary had a bedroom all to himself. He was the oldest brother. Greg was a couple of years older than me, and he was in high school, and he was beginning to date. I didn’t begin to date until sometime after college. I remember many times he’d come home from an evening out on a date about 10:30. I’d be there in the bedroom. I remember Greg would kind of get ready for bed. We had a full-length mirror in our bedroom. It went from the ceiling all the way to the floor. Greg would kind of stand in front of the mirror, you know, as he got ready for bed. You could just kind of tell what he was thinking – “looking good”—you know, you could just tell that he felt really good about it. He’d kind of stand in front of the mirror a little while, flex, and whatnot. Every once in a while, he’d say “Jim, why don’t you kind of get up and come over here and stand next to me. So, I’d just kind of come over and stand in front of the mirror with him there, and boy, we would laugh. I mean it looked like a “before” and “after” kind of a deal. I looked like I just came out of a concentration camp. Those were hard times for me. I remember going all the way through junior high school and then through high school.
It was very hard for me to have any confidence in dating or confidence in girls. I really continued all the way through college. Finally in college I went steady with one girl. She was a missionary’s daughter. We dated for a while and then she went on vacation for three months. She came back and she told me she was ready for a new mission field, and that was that. But you know I remember there came a point after college where I was in Santa Barbara, and I was walking on the beach. It was lust kind of a moment of surrender for me. As I walked, I prayed and I said “Lord Jesus, I can live without a girl, but I can’t live without you. I’ll go where you want me to go. I’ll be what you want me to be. I’m yours.” And it was the moment, I think, the Lord was wanting to bring me to—a moment of relinquishment. It was three years, maybe four years later, when I was in seminary that I met Berbera, but you know, it was so different. When I was in junior high and high school and college and I’d go out on a date, it was like my ego was on the line. I just felt like I was being examined and I was always falling short, but I was relinquished to the Lord by the time that I met Barb, and it was just kind of like it was in His hands. It was so natural and it’s something the Lord had set up. Barbara has been a wife to me that only Christ could give. I loved her when I married her and that was 12 or 13 years ago, and I love her even more. I love her even more today and that’s something that only Christ can set up. You see, He’s met my every need.
The same thing was true in every area of my life. He met my need for a job. I remember—you know, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, growing up. I majored in psychology in college and then I went into a Ph.D. program in psychology, thinking maybe I wanted to do that, and then I grew disillusioned with that. I went and got a teaching credential and then I went through an internship at a junior high school, and immediately I knew that I wasn’t going to teach. Then after that moment on the beach when I had that total relinquishment and I felt the presence of the Spirit, I felt called to seminary and so I went three years to seminary and got my Master of Divinity Degree. I still didn’t know what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to serve the Lord, but I didn’t know in what context, so I went on and got a Master of Theology and then I entered a doctoral program, ten years of higher education just because I didn’t have the slightest idea what I wanted to do. But you know, the Lord meets your every need, and I began to interview with pastors of churches as they’d come to Fuller Seminary. The placement office would set up appointments for you and I remember going in and meeting with a lot of ministers and they’d kind of check you out to see whether or not they wanted you on their staff. I. remember this one guy—I didn’t know his name. I’ve shared this story with some of you. He set up an appointment through the placement office. I knew the room I was to go to. I knew the church that this minister was from, but I couldn’t remember his name, but it didn’t matter. I thought I’d just go to the room, knock on the door, greet the guy and we’d have an interview. So, I did that. I went to the room, knocked on the door. He opened it up and gave me his name as we shook hands, but I was kind of nervous and his name just didn’t register with me. I totally spaced it. Then we sat down and began to talk. He told me about all of the opportunities that were at his church, the things he wanted me to do, and we just discussed the job and everything that was involved. He said, “I want you to know that if you come to this church, you can be your own person.” He said, “You don’t have to be a Billy Graham” and I was thankful for that. He said, “You don’t have to be an Oral Roberts,” and I was thankful for that. He said, “You don’t have to be a Bert Smith.” I stopped for second. I thought about that. Bert Smith. And so I said, “Bert Smith? Who in the world is Bert Smith?” And he just reeled back in his chair, and he said, “I’m Bert Smith.” Needless to say, I didn’t get the job. In fact, in the moments that followed, I found myself just laughing over and over again. I couldn’t believe I’d done it!
Finally, I had an interview with Dean Wolf over at Faith Presbyterian Church in Aurora and it was just amazing. Dean came and I met him. It was just something again the Lord had set up to meet the needs of my life, to meet the needs of Barb’s life. Only the Lord could set that up. I sat down. I began to interview with Dean, and he was like nobody I’d ever met and we just kind of became good friends right off. I could tell he was a little off the wall. That meant a lot to me. He had a tape recorder because the committee over at Faith Presbyterian Church wanted him to tape all of his interviews, and you could tell he didn’t like that one bit. He told me that. I didn’t like it either because you don’t feel comfortable being interviewed when you know it’s being taped, but he was supposed to bring that back to Faith Aurora and have the committee hear it.
So he’d ask me a question and then he’d stop the tape recorder and let me think about it awhile. He wasn’t supposed to do that and then I’d give my answer. He’d start the recorder and I’d give my answer. Then when I was done, he’d stop the recorder and say, “Oh, they’re going to like that.” Then he’d laugh a little bit and then he’d say, “You know another thing you might say…” and then held start the tape recorder again. As it turned out, the tape recorder didn’t even work when he got back to the church. Then when I came out here to Aurora and I interviewed with the committee, it was just like the Spirit was present. It was something the Lord had set up. Barb and I served at Faith Church in Aurora for 9 years and it was something that was perfectly in God’s will. It really met our every need, and it was an opportunity to serve the Lord and then the Lord called us down here. Every need of our life, He’s been there, He’s met, He cares about, including our homes and there are stories I could share about that, I don’t have time to share, but He meets the needs of our life—every single need of our life.
I have a second teaching I want to give. I have a second teaching I want to give from this miracle of the water to wine and it is this: this miracle illustrates that obedience is the pathway to blessing. You remember the mother of Jesus said to the servants “Whatever He tells you to do, do it.” The same charge is given to each and every one of us today who believe in the name of Jesus Christ. “Whatever He tells you to do, do it” because, you see, that is the pathway that leads to a miracle. That is the pathway that leads to a blessing: “Whatever Jesus Christ tells you to do, do it.”
Many years ago, there was a steamer in Boston Harbor. The steamer was called The Portland. The Portland took out to sea one day. It was a horrible day, a stormy day. The wind was blowing. The seas were rough. It was a virtual hurricane. The visibility was very low. The authorities at Boston Harbor said to the captain of the Portland, “Don’t go out. This is not good weather for a ship to be leaving the harbor.” But the captain of the Portland was a stubborn man. He said he wanted to do it his way. He would not listen to instructions. He had no obedience to the authorities, and he took that great ship out to sea. He radioed to the light tower, and he said “Keep the light burning. I may have to turn around and come back,” but he never came back, and the Portland went down. The ship was destroyed. Every life was lost. Many of the bodies were never, ever found. There’s a lot of people in the world today who are shipwrecked. They are shipwrecked physically; they are shipwrecked spiritually because they will not obey the instructions of Jesus Christ. The instructions of Christ are given for the sole purpose of keeping us safe. They are given for the sole purpose of blessing our lives. Sometimes we don’t understand His instructions. You know, Jesus said to the servants at the wedding of Cana of Galilee, He said “Fill the jars with water.” Six stone jars, holding 20 to 30 gallons each. I’m sure the servants must have thought ‘what is this all about?’ “Fill the Jars with water”—120 to 180 gallons of water and then Jesus said, “Draw out some of it and take it to the steward of the feast.” Now the servants must have been incredibly embarrassed. How were they going to feel, taking water to the steward of the feast—the head waiter? What an embarrassment, but you see, they obeyed. They followed His instructions, and it resulted in an incredible blessing. It resulted in an incredible miracle, and that’s how it is with the instructions of Jesus Christ.
You may not always understand every purpose that is in His counsel, but you may know that it always leads to blessing.
When I was in college, I threw the javelin and I worked hard at it I lifted weights two hours a day for five years, six days a week. I did wind sprints 45 minutes a day. I actually threw for an hour and 15 minutes a day. Four hours a day I trained myself for the javelin. I ate at the training tables. In the evenings I drank the high protein drinks that the coaches gave us, filled with desiccated liver and Hoffman’s high protein with a little banana mixed in for taste. I did those things because I wanted to be a good javelin thrower, but I wasn’t doing that well, and one day the coach came out and he said to me “Jim, you’re doing it all wrong,” and he gave me a whole new set of instructions, but they didn’t feel right. They just didn’t seem right.
You know there’s something kind of awkward about throwing the javelin. You’re supposed to run full speed down the runway as fast as you can and when you approach the toe board, suddenly you’re supposed to throw your body backwards and you’re supposed to drive your left leg, if you’re a right-handed thrower, your left leg, your plant leg – you’re supposed to drive that into the ground and all the force of your forward momentum is supposed to go over that leg and into the shaft of the javelin to propel it into the sky. It was a very difficult thing to run forward as fast as you can while you throw your body backwards, a very awkward feeling, and then the coach showed me a little movie of a Finnish thrower named Kinnunen. He was the world record holder. He was just a little guy, but he threw the javelin more than 300 feet and he showed how he went down the runway as fast as he could with a blaze of speed, and as he approached the toe board, he threw his body backwards. He drove his left leg into the ground. He threw his body so far backward that his head was only one foot from the ground but his forward momentum, his forward thrust was so great that it propelled him over that plant leg and all that force went into the javelin, and suddenly I could see the beauty of the instructions my coach had given me. I still couldn’t follow them, but I could see the beauty of them and to the extent that I began to be able to follow them, I began to be blessed in my throwing, and that’s how it is with the instructions of Jesus Christ. At first they might seem a little awkward—some of His instructions, His counsel to you. You may not even fully understand, or they may riot seem like they fit, but the more you conform to them, the more you are blessed in your life.
God wants us to know that obedience is the pathway to blessing. It’s the only reason He gives instructions to us. Barb and I have two children, Heather and Drew. Most of you know that. We tell them many things. We don’t give them instructions to burden them. We give them instructions to bless them. Drew is 5 years old, and even now, there are times when he scares us because he doesn’t look well when he crosses the street. We tell him over and over again, “Look both ways.” We’re not telling him that to burden him. We’re telling him that to keep him safe, to bless him, and that’s why God gives us His instructions. “Whatever Jesus tells you to do, do it.” Jesus said “Not everyone who calls me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but only those who do the will of My Father who is in heaven. He who hears My words and does them, I will tell you what He is like. He is like a man who built his house upon the rock. The rains fell, the winds blew, the floods came and beat against that house, but the house stood firm because it was founded on the rock. But he that hears My words and does not do them, I will tell you what he is like. He is like a fool who built his house upon the sand, and the rains fell, the floods came, the wind blew and beat against the house and the house fell down and great was the destruction of it.” The word of God is given for our blessing.
Now there’s a third and final teaching from the miracle of the water to wine and it is this It shows us that Jesus Christ has the power of transformation. Even as He had the power to change water to wine, so He has power to change your life and mine. You know we saw last week that Jesus Christ never performed a miracle simply to demonstrate His power. He never performed a miracle simply to make us wonder. His miracles were called “semeions.” They were called “signs.” They always pointed to a deeper truth. They always pointed to a reality beyond the miracle itself. Now John tells us in the passage of scripture that describes the water to wine — he tells us that the six stone jars that held 20 to 30 gallons each, that those six stone jars were for the Jewish purification rites. They represented the Jewish law. They represented, in some sense, the old covenant in its efforts towards purification, but you see, in the New Testament, wine has become the symbol of the new covenant offered in Christ. Many Biblical scholars see here the changing, the transformation of the water to wine as a promise of a new covenant from the old covenant. A new covenant which is able to bring life. A new covenant which is able to bring joy. The Greeks said, ‘Without wine there is no life.” The Jews said, “Without wine there is no Joy.” Jesus Christ was saying, “Without Me, there is no joy. There is no life.” And by His new covenant, in His blood, He has power to transform you even as He can change water to wine.
You know one of my favorite people in all of history was a man named John Newton. He was born in 1725 in England. At the age of 7, his mother died. He was reared by his father. His father was a sea captain, and his father was a committed Christian. In 1735 when John Newton was 10 years old, he began to serve on his father’s ship. In 1942, when John Newton was 17 years old, he grew tired to the sea, and he grew bored with his father’s religion. He left the sea. He left his father, and he began to wander aimlessly in the world. It was some months later that some English naval officials and naval officers found John Newton laying in the gutter of a street, drunk. They took him aboard their ship. John Newton deserted. They captured him. They brought him back. They bound him in chains, and they whipped him, but he deserted again. He made his way to a remote island somewhere off of the western coast of South Africa, and on that island, he became a slave, and he was a slave for two years. He was sold to an older woman who was very harsh, and she would make him beg for his food. But after two years, John Newton escaped, and he became a slave on a slave ship. Through a miraculous sequence of events, he became the captain of that slave ship, but the men hated him, and they did not accept his authority as they did not accept anyone’s authority, so they cast him overboard and he was put on a remote island. There he remained for months and even years, but you see, all of this time his father was looking for him. His father was praying for him. His father loved him, and finally, his father found him.
His father took John Newton back to England, but he was still a rebellious son. He began to live promiscuously. He began to drink excessively. Once again, he became the captain of a slave ship, but there was a great storm at sea, and the hold on the ship began to fill with water and John Newton commanded that all the cargo be thrown overboard. With the other seamen, he began to try to pump the water out of the hold, but it was a losing cause, and he could not do it. He knew that the ship was going down and he knew his life was done. In desperation, he prayed to Jesus Christ. It was the first time he had prayed to Christ since he was a little child with his father. He said “Lord Jesus, have mercy. Lord Jesus have mercy on me.” He made a promise. He said “Lord, if you somehow spare my life, I will serve you all the days I live.” He said it was almost instantaneously that the winds ceased, the waves stopped, the ship was rightened. The water was gone from the holds, and he was safe. He returned to England, and he fulfilled his vow. He committed his life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. He began to live for Christ, and he was greatly influenced by the preaching of John Wesley and George Whitefield. John Newton began to train for the ministry at a seminary in Liverpool. At the age of 39, he was ordained to the gospel ministry, and he spent the final 43 years of his life serving two churches in England. He died when he was 82 years old. In those final years of his life, he wrote 300 hymns. One of the hymns he wrote was the hymn “Amazing Grace.” I think in the world today, there’s no hymn more loved by men and women.
Friday night when we were at McNichols Arena with James Dobson, 19,000 people sang “Amazing Grace.” “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I’m found. I was blind but now I see.” The power to transform a life, even as He can change water to wine, so He can change a life. He can bring a person from death to life. He can bring a person from sorrow to joy. That is the power that is in Him. That is the power that is in His new covenant. And even for us, as Christians, God wants us to know that through His Son, that power of transformation is available.
You know, I have days sometimes when I’m very tired. I have days when it seems like there’s Just a ton of things going on and I have counseling, or maybe there’s a hospital call, or maybe there’s just other things going on. I come home and I’m tired. I might be a little frustrated and I look at Barb, and suddenly I feel good again. It’s Just l like that with us because I love her so much. I look at her and I forget so many of the concerns that I have in the world. If it’s like that with a special person that the Lord has given you in His grace, how much more is it like that with the Lord Himself? You look into His face; you look into the face of Jesus Christ and life just becomes different.
You know there’s a legend from the first century of the Christian Church. It’s a legend that tells us that in the village of Nazareth where Jesus grew up, men and women Jewish men and women, when they felt kind of depressed, they would say to one another “Let’s go over to Mary’s house and look at Mary’s child.” It’s only a legend but you know it’s true. You look at the face of Christ and your life is changed. Paul told the Corinthians that “we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed from one degree of glory to another.” You see, He is the transformer. He has the power to change our lives from water to wine.
So, we have three teachings from the miracle at Cana of Galilee. The first teaching is this. Jesus Christ cares about your every need and He wants to supply, He has power to supply your every need throughout your life. If you will have faith in His good time and His perfect time, He will meet the needs of your life. The second teaching from this miracle is that obedience is the pathway to blessing. “Whatever He tells you to do, do it.” It will lead to miracles. And the final teaching is this. Jesus Christ has the power of transformation. As He can change water to wine, so He can change your life from death to life. He can bring joy where once there sorrow. He is the source of life. Shall we pray?