https://www.bible.com/events/49458757
Church of the Nazarene – East Rockingham Campus
Miracles Part 1
Water into wine…
We are entering our new teaching series Miracles.
Our goal is not only to study them in the scriptures, but to open our hearts and minds to the reality that Jesus is still doing miracles today.
To understand that miracles aren’t just something we read about in the bible, or back then, they are for here and now.
We want to be people who see the power of God at work in our lives and in our world, and see our faith rise up, to give God the glory he deserves.
John 2:1-3
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.”
In chapter one, Jesus’ first disciples join him, and now they are heading to a wedding.
We don’t know who’s wedding it was. That Jesus and his mother were invited suggests that it was the wedding of a family member or close friend.
Running out of wine in this culture was far more serious than the pastor dropping the rings or the wedding party falling into the water. To run out was a major mistake, something that would have brought tremendous shame on this newly wed couple.
Mary comes to Jesus with the news…While we don’t know how Mary said this, or what she was expecting, we do know that she trusted him.
John 2:4
“Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
Scholars aren’t exactly sure what this response meant culturally, but many do agree that Jesus is gently telling his mother that their relationship is different now.
Even though the full hour of his glorification hasn’t come, he will only be guided and directed by the will of his Heavenly Father.
John 2:6-7
Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
The instruction to fill these massive stone jars with water had to seem like a strange solution to running out of wine.
The passage suggests that each container held 20-30 gallons.
If we take the conservative number of 20 and multiply it by 6- that’s 120 gallons of water. That is 24, 5 gallon buckets.
John 2:9-11
and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Jesus uses his creative and transforming power to change the water into wine. We don’t know when exactly in the story it happened, we don’t know how he did it.
But Jesus performed a miracle. He used supernatural power to change the trajectory of this story.
What we are to see is that Jesus is the Son of God, mighty in power and glory, yet compassionate in caring for even the small details in the lives of his people.
When his disciples saw all of this, it says they believed in him, their faith in him grew, and they saw his majesty as the son of God.
Friends, that’s the power of a miracle.
Do you believe in miracles?