The Wedding At Cana: Part 1

The Purpose of John’s Gospel and the Glory of Christ

I'd like to speak to you about the wedding at Canaan. If you love wedding stories, this is one of the finest that you can read in Scripture. Wonderful, wonderful. So please open your Bible with me to the Gospel of John as we continue to go through John's Gospel.

John chapter 2, we come to a section of John's Gospel now that stretches all the way to John chapter 12. It's a long stretch, isn't it? But there's a lot here. And this section is actually called the Book of Signs, the Book of Signs where John focuses on the revelation of Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah.

So the Apostle John wants us to see the glory of Jesus, the glory of Jesus in these chapters and through them to place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. In fact, that's the very purpose of the whole book, isn't it?

We know that Jesus is revealed and the Apostle John is writing this so that we may believe. That's the purpose of the evangelist. Actually in chapter 20 verse 30 and 31 it says this, now Jesus did many other signs, many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book.

Isn't that amazing? Many many other signs and wonders and miracles He did that's not even written. But He says this, but these are written so that you may believe, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in His name.

So really the whole point is to give you and I reasons to believe in Jesus. He gives us the reasons. So what the Apostle John, and as I mentioned earlier he's an evangelist as well, he's not only an apostle but he's an evangelist.

By the inspiration of the Spirit of God and the coming pages is how Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament scriptures and how Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God and who is the answer to God's promises that God, everything that God said throughout the Old Testament revelation.

So John wants us to see how wonderful Jesus is. Every page is all about Christ and His glory. Every page, every line. He wants us to see how capable Jesus is, how worthy Jesus is, how loving and good and kind and patient and precious and mighty and glorious Jesus is and to believe in who Jesus is with.

All of our heart.

The Wedding at Cana and the Event of the Third Day

So in saying that, let's read chapter 2 and I'd like to begin of course with verse 1 and read it to verse 12. Hear the word of the Living God. Hear the word of the Living God. In the third day there was a wedding in Canaan of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there.

And now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, they have no wine. And Jesus said to her, woman, what does your concern have to do with me?

My hour has not yet come. And His mother said to the servants, whatever He says to you, do it. Now there were set there six water pots of stone according to the manner of the purification of the Jews, containing 20 or 30 gallons apiece.

And Jesus said to them, fill the water pots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, draw some out now and take it to the master of the feast. And they took it. And when the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, he did not know where it came from.

But the servants who had drawn the water knew. The master of the feast called the bridegroom. 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.

In this beginning of signs, Jesus did in Canaan of Galilee and manifested His glory. And His disciples believed in Him. And after this, He went down to Capernaum, He, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples.

And they did not stay there many days. Let's please bow with me in prayer as we seek our Lord's face within this hour of worship and ask of His help. Our Father and our great God, how merciful, how holy, how loving You are.

Lord, we pray. And I pray today that as we hear Your Word preached, Lord, that Your blessed Holy Spirit would lead and guide us into all truth, always lifting Christ up, always pointing us to Jesus.

Christ.

Lord, I pray that help us in understanding these great truths. These great truths enable us, Lord, to understand and do whatever Jesus has commanded us in.

The Bible.

And by this, we show our love to You. Lord, I pray that Jesus would change us, continually change us. So transform us, Lord. Make us into a new creation that the change can be compared to the changing of the water.

Into wine.

Lord, we pray this in the name that is above every name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for Your honor and glory.

Amen.

A Two-Part Outline for John 2:1–12

Well, to get the most out of these twelve verses from John chapter 2, these first twelve verses, I decided to break this up, this message into two parts. And I believe that's wise because there's a lot here, a lot more than we think that's really here within this wonderful story.

So I want to break it up into, actually today, by God's help, we're going to look at verse 1 to verse 5. And then the rest, actually to verse 6 and to 11, we will catch next Lord's Day, as He.

Wills.

So, I've got an outline here, a simple outline that we will look at, and the following is.

This.

First, in verse 1, we will look at the event, the event in verse 1. Second, we will look in verse 2, the characters, the characters. Third, in verses 3 to 5, we will look at the problem, the problem. Then Lord willing, next week, we will look at the fourth and fifth, those two points there, which take up a little more portion of Scripture, but in verses 6 to 8, we will look at the resolution, the resolution.

And then final, the fifth, in verses 9 to 11, the response, the response. So you have the event, the characters, the problem, and the resolution, and then the response. The event, the characters, the problem, the resolution, and the response.

Now, we find ourselves actually peeking into a little slice of history in this wonderful chapter 2, in verses 1 to 12. We see a young couple that's getting married, a wonderful act of common grace, isn't it?

A common grace that's gifted to all people. Yet, on another level, our Lord Jesus is invited, along with His disciples, at this point in His ministry. We will behold our Lord Jesus, who is present at this wedding, as He transforms it into a revelation of God's glory.

Jesus makes all the difference in the world, doesn't He? When He shows up. And beloved, that's the difference that our Lord Jesus makes. He turns weddings into four tastes of heaven. He turns bad news into good news.

He turns water into wine, and He turns the law of the Old Testament into grace of the New Testament. He actually turns the ceremonial jars into vats of wine that they have to celebrate with merry, merry hearts.

Why?

Because our Lord is always having a goal and a purpose in everything that He does. His goals and His purpose is all about the glory of God. He does this because He's thinking about something much, much bigger than we see, actually, at the little wedding of Canaan and Galilee, namely, God's glory.

God's glory. And this is actually what is manifested here, because you see in verse 11, this is the beginning of signs Jesus did in Canaan and Galilee, and manifested, what? His glory. His glory. And because of that, His disciples believed in Him.

That's actually, this is what drew them in, when Jesus manifested His glory. So He does this because that is His focus. That is His focus. That is His goal, is the glory of God. So on the third day, we see a wedding.

So this is our first point. The first point is verse 1. We will look at the event. The event. So what is the event? What is the event? Verse 1 says, on the third day, there was a wedding at Canaan of Galilee, in Galilee.

The Apostle John gives us, actually, the time and the place, doesn't he? He did this throughout chapter 1, as well as we just traveled through. Chapter 1, verse 19, the chronology actually began. If we take that chronology and look at it, the Jews came to John the Baptist in verse 19, asking him about his baptism.

Then if you notice, the next day, in chapter 1, verse 29, John proclaimed Jesus as the Lamb of God, John the Baptist. Then it says, actually, on the third day, in chapter 1, verse 39, Jesus took His new disciples home.

Actually, at that time, I believe there was only two. Then on the fourth day, in chapter 1, verse 43, Jesus met Nathanael. Now here, in chapter 2, verse 1, John is speaking of the third day. He means it's the third day after his encounter with Nathanael.

So, actually, it comes to the seventh day. Interesting, isn't it? The seventh day since John started recounting Jesus' acts. So the text says on the third day, there was a wedding in Canaan of Galilee.

So let's look at it. There's a full week here, seven days. Seven days of activity has been completed, and it's interesting, as I was reading this, one commentator says it like this, and I kind of want to put it in my words, but this is actually what one commentator said on this particular event in seven days.

If no information is given regarding the sixth day, which because the sixth day is the Jewish.

Sabbath.

The Canaanite wedding, or at least the day on which Jesus and his friends joined the wedding party, would have fallen on Sunday. So the Sabbath was their day of rest. So here the wedding actually could be right on that Sunday, after the full week.

So this may not have been the first day of the wedding, because weddings in those days lasted for a whole week, and sometimes more. It was a big, big event. You can read this according to Judges chapter 14, verse 12.

The weddings is not like we do here in the West. It's just one day. We're talking about here a full week and even more so. So it is unlikely that the wine ran out immediately. So it kind of gives us a little background here, because weddings were a big, big deal.

So the wedding was in Canaan of Galilee, and that's pretty much the location. I've already mentioned this, but this is the hometown of Nathaniel, Canaan. Jewish weddings were very, very important and joyful occasions, and the lives of the bride and the groom and their extended families and the entire community joined into that celebration.

And like I said, it's a big, big deal. A lot of cost goes into it from the groom. Canaan, again, is the home place of Nathaniel, and it was not far from Jesus' hometown of Nazareth, and actually in location geographically, it's only 10 miles away.

So the location for Mary, Jesus, was not far. So that pretty much tells us in short about the event. Let's look at the second point. The second point speaks of the characters, the characters. Verse 2, now both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding.

It's interesting here to note that the fact that the guest list here included Jesus and his disciples, as well as his mother, his mother may indicate the wedding of a close family friend or a relative.

Now why do I say that? I say that because this may explain to us why Jesus' mother felt responsible to go to Jesus and to help, and especially when the wine ran out. She felt very responsible, didn't she?

So she felt responsible in probably orchestrating and organizing the wedding. So she probably had a lot to do in helping within this wedding, to help when the host had run out of wine, and of course we'll see in a minute her going to the Lord Jesus Christ about this problem.

Now, look at the verses, especially in verse 1, the latter part of verse 1. You might have thought I skipped that, but I didn't. I saved it to this moment. Note the order in which the evangelists list those invited to the wedding.

You know, God's order is always right on, and there's a reason why John the Apostle gives this order of the characters in the way he does. The mother of Jesus is mentioned first, alright? Well there's a reason why she's mentioned first, though he doesn't call her out by name, but we know it's Mary, right?

Then Jesus, then Jesus and his disciples. Again, let's ask the question, why, why? I believe it's significant here, because we believe God ordained this as a moment in time, but do we believe that this is a sacrament for us to, as the Catholics would say, that we are to go to Mary first, since she's here named first, and that Mary can, as we will see later, she's the one that mediates and goes to Jesus, as the Catholics look at, God forbid, God forbid.

That's taking this whole story out of context, of the character of the mother of Jesus, just because she is placed first here. So that would be wrong. Actually, the reason is given and is found in the verses before us, and as we read the story carefully, Mary may have been a friend of the family that's helping behind the scenes in this wedding at Canaan.

And by the way, let me say this, Mary did no miracle here, I wish there were some Catholic friends here among us. There, Mary is really not what this wedding is about. It really comes to the point of Jesus Christ, Christ, and He transforms it.

And Mary did no miracle, and she couldn't do a miracle. It was the Lord Jesus Christ that performed the miracle, and what's even more important is the fact that our Lord Jesus did the first miracle here.

And there's a reason why He chooses, in God's sovereign plan, as Christ walked this earth, to perform His first miracle at a wedding. Because it emphasizes the sanctity of a holy covenant between one man and one woman that God Himself instituted.

So important, isn't it? And after all, it was God, if you look in Genesis, it was God's idea of a wedding, of a marriage, of an institution between one man and one woman. So that is so important, isn't it?

Public covenant matters. Covenant relationship matters. God is a covenant-keeping God. People are not married who just live together. People are married who make public confessions, a public covenant, before God and before people.

Because it was God's idea and not man's idea. Don't you love that? Now, I got a good quote by Pastor John MacArthur, and you know I'm going to insert him here because he says it so wonderful. And stay with me on this.

I got this one quote. This is probably the biggest quote I have, and then we're going to move and make some tracks on this story. But listen to what John MacArthur says about marriage. I love this, and I had to just pass this on to you because he says it really wonderful.

He says this, quote, marriage is a condition of life designed by God, ordained by God. And authenticated in an open public covenant. It is the highest and noblest and best of all human relationships. No other human relationship is as wonderful as marriage.

It is called in the Bible the grace of life. The grace of life. It is the most wonderful and most blessed of all common graces. And we talk about common grace. And what we mean by that is a grace gift from God to all people without regard to whether they believe in Him.

That's a common grace. And of all the common graces, the beauty of the world, a sunset, sleep, health, a good meal, the epitome of common graces is marriage. Marriage. It is the best gift that God can give to humanity in general without regard to whether they know Him at all.

He goes on to say this, any society that elevates marriage, a lifelong commitment openly, a covenant made and kept between a man and a woman who rear children in the bond of that love, any society that honors marriage will be blessed temporarily.

It will prosper, it will be safe, it will be secure, it will know peace, and it will have a minimum of crime. On the other hand, on the other hand, he says, any society that fails to honor marriage as a covenant, open covenant between man and woman and a woman for life in which children are reared and cared for, any society that diminishes marriage, that fails to honor marriage is corrupt, is doomed to chaos, turmoil, evil, and judgment.

That's where we are, folks. Listen to this. Where marriage for life is not honored, where the covenant vows between a man and a woman are not kept, immorality abounds, immorality overruns the culture, the fabric of society is shredded and even escalates.

Our Lord honored marriage by attending and doing His first miracle at a wedding. I thought that was worth passing to you because it's so important because especially where we are as a nation, we see Satan has got the crosshairs right in the home at the fathers and the mothers, the children, and if he could tear that apart, he has tore down the foundation on which God has instituted.

Oh, how we need to hear that and how we need to come back to that holy covenant that God instituted. Well, let me get to the third point. We see the problem, the problem. Look at verse 3 to 5 with me and we'll break this down.

Let's, verse 3, let's tackle that first, a portion of that. Now, we see a problem arises and when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. They have no wine. Now, again, as I've already said, this was really a big, big deal at a wedding.

The groom was charged with providing everything for a wedding in those days, in ancient times in the East, and actually charged with providing enough wine for the wedding party, which lasted about a week.

And it was as if the wedding planner came to you at your reception in our day in the West, and now can you imagine this happening at a wedding? Well, we made it halfway through and provided what we could for most of the guests, but all the food's gone now.

Could you imagine how people would react? There's no more food. Now, you would have some disappointed guests, wouldn't you? As a matter of fact, you would have some very mad guests, upset, invited to a wedding, and then you ran out of food?

You know people get pretty chaotic if they run out of food. Well, it not only brings embarrassment, but this was just more than embarrassment to this young couple here at the wedding of Canaan. As a matter of fact, in those days, this was grounds for a lawsuit.

And actually, they could sue. From the wedding guests, they could sue the groom. And actually, taking it a little step further, it was a big deal in the sense that here they are entering into this coveted relationship, a new life together, and all that was threatened.

It could ruin them. Instead of entering in that coveted relationship together with joy and merriness and happiness, they might now enter into it with a great burden upon them knowing that this disaster.

Happened.

So I'm trying to bring us into this story of what is actually taking place here when the wine ran out. It was serious. There was a catastrophe. It was chaos. So Mary did not come to Jesus with a minor inconvenience here.

As a matter of fact, she came with a serious crisis to the Lord. And she goes to the right person. We're going to say more about that in just a minute. But I do want to make a footnote here about the wine.

Isn't it interesting? I've had so many people in my walk with the Lord, especially among Christian circles, and I don't want to chase a rabbit, but I want to give a footnote. This is where they always go to justify drinking.

I want to say this about the wine here, very kind of nutshell together, just a few comments. You can actually make a whole sermon on this. In those days, in ancient times, in the Eastern world, especially in the hot climate that they lived in, wine that was served was subject to fermentation.

It was subject to fermentation. Actually in the ancient world, however, to quench the thirst without inducing drunkenness, the wine was diluted with the water, with the water to between one-third and one-tenth of its strength.

Why?

I'll tell you why. Due to the climate, again as I said, hot weather, the circumstances, even the new wine fermented.

Very quickly.

So, it's because, and it's still in parts of that world today, there's a problem with the water being very contaminated and polluted, very filthy and very dirty. The water did not have a purification process like we have today to purify the water and to take the contamination out of it.

So, wine mixed with water was safer to drink than water alone. And that's because the water was very unclean. That's the reason why. But, yeah, so many people I know want to go here and say, yeah, Jesus turned the water into wine so they can get drunk and have a merry time and all this.

You know something?

They missed the whole point of what Jesus is talking about about wine. And we're going to see this. Yes, there's wine. Actually, the Bible does condemn drunkenness. It does not necessarily condemn the consumption of wine.

There are verses of scripture in Psalm 104, 15, Proverbs 21, wine makes a merry heart. But I challenge anybody to this point. There's more scriptures that speak against that than for it. Now, to those that are in Christian circles who go to this text to justify drinking alcohol, again, has really missed the whole point of this wonderful miracle.

I do want to say this, one more note about the drinking of wine. I always, in my personal opinion, tell people, yes, even though the scriptures do not condemn drinking wine, those little things can lead to addiction where a person cannot turn it loose.

You got a chapter and verse of that? Absolutely. Just go to Genesis and look at Noah. He was a man, a man of God and a preacher of righteousness and he grew a vineyard. And you know the story. He eventually became drunk, right?

So it can lead to drunkenness. I'll tell you a quick story on this. Again, I don't want to chase a rabbit, I got more to say. But when I worked in Kmart one time, there was this particular man I knew that was head, he was like a bishop over all the pastors in Floyd County.

And I saw him in Super Kmart, I don't even know his name, but I know who he was. He was actually like the superintendent over all these pastors. They called him a bishop, but actually he was supposedly an example.

And I had a guy with me that was a retired pastor from the Southern Baptist Movement. And he was a godly man. He was up in his close to 80 years old still working and he happened to see the same guy as we were talking because he was a cart pusher.

Here comes this superintendent and he's got a big shopping cart and he loads up his shopping cart with Budweiser's alcohol. And I said, Ernie? You see that? I said, you know who that guy is, don't you?

You were a Southern Baptist pastor, I know who he is. He's the head man of the whole Southern Baptist pastors, the whole kit and caboodle. And here he is buying all this alcohol. And he agreed with me.

I said, Ernie, don't you think this man might need to be warned? I said, actually, you're more qualified. We started debating who's going to go up to him and approach this guy and tell him what he's doing is not a very good testimony to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ernie said, oh, no problem, I'll do it. He went right up to the guy and I saw him talking to him and the man just split away.

From Ernie real quick.

Ernie got his point across and we were talking about Noah and many other scriptures that actually can lead to abuse of drinking alcohol. Anyway, to make a long story short, that was one situation that kind of stands out in my mind but there's many, many others that has always gone to this text to try to justify drinking.

Sad, isn't it? We shouldn't be looking to go to the Bible to justify anything that God would be opposed.

To.

It has to be taken in moderation, right? And that's a whole sermon in itself and I don't want to go there and chase that rabbit but let's put the rabbit in the cage. Let's go to the next point. Well, she actually comes, Mary, comes to the Lord Jesus Christ.

They ran out of wine. The mother of Jesus says to them, they have no wine. They have no wine. It's a serious crisis, isn't it? Mary goes to Jesus when the crisis comes. Now we have to commend Mary here.

At least she knew who she knew to go to. She knew that the Lord Jesus Christ would be caring about this. There's nothing to drink. There's no wine. They were out. She goes to the right person. There's an important transition that's going to about to take place in this verse.

Some have suggested that Mary wanted the Lord to do a miracle but actually, let me ask the question here. Why would she all of a sudden want him to do a miracle? He had never done a miracle before but he was about to embark on his public ministry.

He was gathering to himself disciples. We know this. And this was all new. He had left home. Now he's out in the public. This is actually, you see, his public ministry he's embarking on and Jesus has already come through the wilderness.

He had gone through the temptation. He won that victory. John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And now the word at that time, I'm sure, had been circulating in a little town like Canaan.

And we know in Nazareth because they actually ousted him out. And here at a little meeting at this wedding in Canaan, a small town, and I'm sure Jesus was the talk of the town. A lot of gossip was going on about who is this Jesus of Nazareth?

So there's something more obvious than that and I'd like for you to think of this. Whenever Mary had a problem, and I kind of got this from Pastor John MacArthur because his notes on this is really good and he really goes into detail on this but I don't have time for all the details, but to paraphrase it in my words, who do you think she would go to for a solution when she was raising him and rearing him in the home?

Go to him. We know that she must have known that he was a special child from God because she did not know a man, his supernatural birth incarnated, and yet she goes to the perfect man. She goes to the one that never had a wrong solution.

Everything that he says was absolutely right. And Jesus would always direct her in the right location and never with a wrong answer. He always had the perfect answer because he's the perfect man, right?

Beloved, Jesus always has that right solution for us. Every situation, any crisis, every crisis that you and I are in, every dilemma, every problem, Jesus is the answer. Not only has the answer, he is the answer.

So we can go to him. So let's commend Mary here. She at least goes to Jesus. At least she knew who to go to. And you know she knew he cared. He cared deeply. He cared deeply about people in the situation.

Worsby said that he wasn't like John the Baptist, like a recluse. Jesus went to public events and a wedding was one of the very first events that he goes to and he sees it very important. So Mary simply just says to him, they have no wine.

They have no wine. Look at verse 4. Jesus said to her, woman, what does your concern have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. Now folks, this is really very important, a very important verse. There's a transition that's taking place here.

Jesus says to her, woman, woman. Now in our culture we think almost immediately he's being harsh, he's being rude. But he's not being harsh and rude. Actually you would actually put it like this in the southern terms and southern expression.

It's like he's saying ma 'am, ma 'am, or dear woman. But notice he does not say mother. This is very important. Yet he's courteous. He's not disrespectful because actually, how could he be? He honors his mother in every way.

He keeps the law perfectly. He fulfills the law, right? So he honors his mother on earth. And by the way, it's the same word here that's used as Jesus died on the cross. It's interesting that here we see this at the beginning of his ministry.

He uses the word woman at the beginning of his ministry. And as he is dying in John chapter 19, as he's hanging on a cross, a Roman cross, he says woman, behold your son. Behold your son. Think of that.

He actually at that time is handing over to John the care for her. To take care of his mother. Isn't that amazing? Even on the cross, he's not thinking of himself. He's thinking of his mother. And honor.

Talk about honoring your mother. But he doesn't say mother, even on the cross. That's very important folks. He says woman, woman, ma 'am. And here in the beginning of his ministry and at the end of his ministry, from this point to the cross, he's actually telling her, in effect, we do not any longer have that same relationship that we've had up until this point.

The relationship is changing. It's over. And there's a reason for that. We've got to realize who Jesus is. Jesus is the son of the living God. He is God in flesh. She is no longer in a position to act as any authority in his life.

Wow.

She is no longer in a position to tell him something. And yet, the reply Jesus gives to her is in question form. Woman, ma 'am, what does it concern you, or concern, what does your concern have to do with me?

One translation puts it this way, what do you and I have in common as far as the matter at hand is concerned? That's interesting, isn't it? The implication here is nothing. Absolutely nothing. So the expression occurs elsewhere in the Gospels, and by the way, this is interesting, exclusively on the lips of demons who strongly oppose Jesus.

What have I have to do with you, son of the living God? They knew who Jesus was. Also when Jesus was 12 years old, you remember the story. We have a small window, and whatever reason, it only chooses to give us a small window in the life of Jesus, why he was a young man growing up, 12 years old.

He gave her a preview, he gave Mary a preview of this moment, and he was in the temple talking to the officials, and he said, what did he say, I must be about my father's business. I must be about my father's business.

Now on this day, on this very day at this wedding, the father's business has just begun, and I say just begun, his public ministry. It was actually a preview when he was a child, at the age of 12, but here, it's initially.

Just started.

So from here on, from this point on, Jesus is doing what? The father's business. He's doing the father's business. Mother's business has ended. This is the beginning of his public ministry, so there's a change in the relationship, there's a transition that's going on, so there's something very important because right here Jesus is engaging in ministry, he's engaging in his mission, he's engaging on what his purpose here is on this earth, he's in total and perfect submission to the father's will.

He says, everything that I do, I do to please my father, my father, my father. You see this all the way through the rest of this book. Everything in his ministry is to do the father's will because he's in submission to the father's.

Authority.

So Mary had to recognize him not so much as a son that she raised, but as the promised Messiah, the son of God.

Isn't that amazing?

So right here the transition goes almost like, here she is the mother, then she goes as a.

Believer.

Another example that is given to us from scripture is Matthew chapter 12, go with me very quickly to Matthew 12. Look at verse 46 to 50, while he was still talking to the multitudes, behold, his mother and brother stood outside seeking to speak with him.