Change of Events

Some of you may know, if I've talked to you a little bit, that I am a bit of a cricket fanatic. Not just a fan, I'm a fanatic. And the reason I know I'm a fanatic is that I enjoy test cricket. Where they wear boring white clothes and play for five days straight. You know you are a fanatic if you love that game.

And one of the things I love about test cricket is the very unique thing about the game. And that is, if you know anything about cricket, is that they have two innings. One team will go into bat, they will set a score, and then there will be a second innings of the other team batting to try and beat that score. Now this is, I didn't think very hard about this, but I think it's the only sort of game where this sort of thing happens. A score is made and then the next person tries to beat that.

Maybe darts is the other one. I don't know. What I love seeing in cricket is a good run chase. Where the first team has set a very good score and the second team has to work hard to beat that score. Now I've watched some pretty amazing run chases.

If you're a South African, you'll remember the very best one. Where Australia set a huge world record total of 438 runs in 50 overs. And South Africa chased that down in 49.5 overs. What I love about that sort of run chase is the surprise and the delight of seeing the drama unfold. A good run chase in cricket is like watching a good twist in a plot line of a movie.

The story writers save the best to last. A good run chase is like experiencing that twist in a story and I wonder if you've perhaps ever experienced something like that. A moment where everything just seemed to be plotting along a course that you sort of more or less expected and then suddenly right before the predictable end or the predictable result, something changes. And it changes the whole course. It seems that the best was left to last.

You got that date with a pretty girl and you thought you had messed it up. You had foot and mouth disease and you couldn't pull it off. Or you were at a job interview and you just said all the wrong things to all the wrong questions and you managed to get the job. That sort of twist at the end. Or you got a phone call from someone seeking reconciliation after years of silence and bitterness.

Completely unexpected. This morning we're going to look at a moment right at the start of Jesus' ministry. Right at the start of Jesus' ministry where the unexpected happened. Now, of course, we're used to hearing stories of Jesus and His miracles and that sort of thing where the unexpected was happening all the time. But we're going to see the very first miracle that Jesus performed with no expectations, with no one knowing anything about this man.

Let's have a look at John 2. John 2, and we're going to read from verses 1 to 11. John 2 verse 1: On the third day, a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there and Jesus and His disciples had also been invited to the wedding.

When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to Him, "They have no more wine." "Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever He tells you."

Nearby stood six stone jars, water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water." So they filled them to the brim. Then He told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet." They did so.

And the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He didn't realise 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." This, the first of His miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee.

He thus revealed His glory and His disciples put their faith in Him. So far our reading. So we come to an event in Jesus that was not unusual. It was a wedding feast, and these things happen all the time. But Jesus, with His disciples, is at this wedding reception, and Jesus is told that there is no more wine left.

It was all gone. Now in a culture of hospitality, and I've just been to a few, running out of food and beverage is a huge disgrace. In Australia, we just say the snags are gone. Sorry. Go home.

But in Israel, in Judah, this was a huge disgrace because at a feast, especially at a wedding reception, you would show the overabundance of your joy by sharing an overabundance in food and beverage. And Mary, the mother of Jesus, somehow finds out about this. Now we don't know how she finds out. We don't know if she was part of the bridal party, if she was one of the organisers behind it, if she was related to the family who was getting married. But Mary knew about the problem and she tells Jesus about it.

Jesus seems perplexed by this. And he says to her, "Dear woman, why do you involve me?" But it seems that Mary has some inkling and some thinking that Jesus can actually do something about this. Jesus has some sort of ability to change the situation. He can solve this problem.

And she shows that little bit of faith by telling the servants, "Whatever He tells you to do, do it." And she leaves. Now obviously, Jesus does something about this. And there are six stone jars in the house, which was fairly normal for something like a big party where people used to wash their hands and get ready for eating and so on. But they were empty.

And they contained altogether, the six stone jars, as much as 450 litres. 450 litres. And that's a conservative estimate. He tells them to fill these stone jars up and pour it out for the banquet master to taste. He takes a sip and he is amazed and says, "Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheap boxed stuff.

But you have saved the best till now." And then at the end of our passage, John writes, "Jesus did this, the first of His miraculous signs, and His disciples put their faith in Him." Now, that last statement that John actually writes is probably the most significant of the whole passage. Jesus did this, His first miraculous signs. Why did John write this down?

Why did he want this to be explicitly known? Well, in the Gospel of John, there are a few moments along the story of Jesus and on His way to the crucifixion where John explicitly writes the word, or mentions the word, sign. In Greek, it's semeion. And these events show or point to proofs of Jesus' divinity or His authority. For example, the feeding of the 5,000 is called a sign.

Not just a miracle, but a sign. A wonder. Now, I'm going to blow your minds. I'm going to blow your minds. Get ready for this.

But signs actually point to things. I know. That's why they pay me the big bucks. Signs point to things. And in these instances where Jesus performed signs in the Gospel of John, they almost always pointed to Jesus.

They pointed to Jesus or a truth about Jesus, to be more exact. These works of power in the physical realm display a spiritual truth. A power in the physical realm to display a spiritual truth. So for example, if we look at these instances where John talks about signs explicitly in His gospel, the multiplication of the loaves in the feeding of the 5,000 in John 6 is followed by Jesus teaching the crowd that He was the bread of life. Or the opening of the blind man's eyes who was born blind in John 9, it centres on the phrase that Jesus said, "I am the light of the world."

This man who sees light for the first time. Jesus says, "I am the light of the world." And then amazingly, at the resurrection of His friend Lazarus. Remember that story? In John 11.

The resurrection of Lazarus, which is again called a sign. Jesus says, "I am the resurrection. I am the life. Whoever believes in me will live even though he dies." A sign points to something.

And in Jesus' ministry, these signs were physical illustrations of a spiritual truth. And although these signs were all different, and they all pointed to a different angle of Jesus' ministry, they have one thing in common. And that is that the sign points away from itself to the One who performed it. Now again, this morning we see a striking resemblance to these signs. There's a meaning behind this that we cannot miss.

This is not some sideshow alley pilot trick that Jesus did. We see the sign pointing to Jesus because everything else fades into the background. Who was the bride? No one knows. Who was the bridegroom?

Silence. How is Mary involved in this story? It doesn't say. It's not important. The spotlight is on Jesus.

It hovers on Him. The scene is set for Jesus' power to be displayed. The actors are in place. The crisis has been verbalised. Now, what does the hero of the story do?

It might seem strange that Mary told Jesus about the problem and that His response is, "Dear woman, why are you telling me this? Why are you involving me in this? My time has not yet come." Jesus seemingly knows that doing something spectacular is going to set something in motion. It might get Him killed.

"My time has not yet come." In the original, it's "My hour hasn't arrived." And over and over again in John, in the gospel, Jesus talks about His hour as being the time where He will be crucified. "My hour hasn't yet come." Doing something amazing would draw a lot of attention to Him.

But Mary is insistent, and her faith doesn't waver. In fact, her faith seems to move Jesus into action. "Do whatever He tells you" is Mary's reply to this. "Do whatever He tells you." And she walks off.

Although this miracle didn't bring about the hour of His death, it did start setting the ball into motion. This was within a week of Jesus being baptised and His ministry officially starting. And this was a talking point. People started talking about this, I bet you. What I want us to look at this morning, however, is three things in this passage that John felt is necessary to communicate and is necessary for followers of Jesus to know.

At face value, a miracle of turning water into wine could seem, like I said before, a sideshow alley pilot trick. That's cool. Nice. We have more wine. Awesome.

But John wants to point out some major things here. The first thing is that Jesus offered something extraordinarily new. Jesus offered something extraordinarily new. After everyone had finished drinking the lesser quality wine at the wedding and were satisfied with that, the best quality wine came out. This was a sign, John says, that God wanted people to see.

This was a physical illustration that pointed to a spiritual reality. And what is that? Is that people who thought they knew God, who applied with a religion that seemed passable, that seemed drinkable, was bitter but not too bitter, was heavy on the palate but was swallowable, would receive something completely new. And Jesus had come and what He offered was full bodied, sweet tasting wine that could take your breath away.

You see, Jesus came teaching about grace and love in a context where people followed regulation and self righteousness. Instead of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, it was prayer, Jesus said, that would conquer your enemies. Instead of pointing out the splinter of wood in your neighbour's eye, look first at the massive two by four in your own. Instead of dying to self, you had to be born again. Jesus came with revolutionary teaching, and so He offered something brand new.

And the banquet master was the one that summed it up. "You have saved the best till now." "You have saved the best till now." In Jesus, God had saved the best till now. Jesus came and gave us a new law.

He came to give us life and life to the full. When He preached, He preached a new kingdom, a new world order with new laws, with new ways to treat and love people. He came and taught that how we treated the poor, how we treated the sick, the outcast, the stereotype, the victimised, the marginalised was a reflection on how we treated our Lord Jesus. "Whatever you have done to these, the least of My brothers, you have done to Me." Jesus had come to give us wine, to preach a new way to live, a new way to love.

He brought a revolution that can change our very hearts. This morning, if you're sitting here thinking that a beating heart means you're alive, think again. If you think that a warm body is living, think again. Life is more than just surviving. Life is more than just going through the motions.

In Jesus, the message is we can thrive, not just survive. Jesus came to give new wine. And this leads us to the second point. You see, in other contexts in Matthew, in Mark, in Luke, Jesus said that new wine cannot be put into old wineskins. New wine cannot be put into old wineskins.

New wine needs new wineskins. Now, if you don't know anything about wineskins, don't worry. I don't either. But wineskins were simply patches of leather that were sewn together to form a sack that you could carry water or wine in. They were just our water bottles of two thousand years ago.

And what Jesus was referring to when He talked about wineskins was that His message of grace and revolution of a new kingdom was a different message to the message that people believed at that time. It was a new message. And people's hearts were like old wineskins. They were like old wineskins. They had been filled with that old inferior wine for so long that their hearts had become stretched and inflexible and hard like wineskins become.

They swell with the fermentation process and they become hard. When the new wine of Jesus' teaching entered these old wineskins, the fermentation process inevitably would mean that the skin would need to stretch. It would need to change. It would need to grow. But because their wineskins were old and rigid, they burst.

And that new wine, that fresh, fresh message fell to the ground and was completely wasted. The challenge this morning for us is: how is your wineskin heart? Jesus' new wine needed to be poured into new wineskins. Leather that is supple, that is flexible, that is soft and pliable. New wineskins grow and expand as the wine starts doing its thing.

They adapt and they comply. Jesus' message needs soft hearts. If our hearts remain hard to His teaching, if our hearts remain hard through the guiding of the Holy Spirit, we risk losing it all. This excellent, life giving, new wine will fall to the ground and be wasted. Will you be obedient?

Will you be obedient if God calls you to take in that new wine? Will you be obedient if you are even led to go and do mission overseas? Would you give up your possessions to serve Him in the outback? Would you let go of your bitterness from a loved one who hurt you? And will you pray for their salvation instead, like Jesus said?

Will you stop pursuing comfort and live sacrificially for the good of the kingdom? These are all New Wine teachings of Jesus. Jesus' new wine teaching, the new wine of the kingdom needs hearts that are humble and obedient and pliable. New wine needs new wineskins. And this leads us to our last point.

How do we ensure that our hearts will remain faithful and obedient and soft? Well, by entering into the bittersweet feast of Jesus' sacrifice, our hearts become soft. Because on the last occasion that Jesus had in His ministry, He had wine once again. In fact, just as Jesus had started His earthly ministry with wine, He ended it with wine. At the last supper, which we're going to be celebrating soon, before He would go to the cross, Jesus lifted up His wine glass and He said to His disciples, "See this wine.

This represents a new covenant. This represents a new promise. This is the promise God will make with all humanity. And I won't drink of this wine until I drink it with all My disciples, all of you, on that day when I come back for you." This new promise God made, represented in that cup of wine, was that Jesus' blood would be shed and that His red blood would wash us white.

The covenant was that whosoever, whosoever holds fast to the promise that God is loving enough to forgive our sins, that God is gracious enough to offer up His Son, that God is powerful enough to change our hearts from the inside out, whosoever believes in these promises, they would be sitting with Jesus at that banquet. They would be sipping that wine with Him on that day. As real as that wine that the disciples drank was, that real is the promise of forgiveness and eternal life. Jesus' miracle of that day at the wedding feast casts our eyes forward to that wedding banquet in heaven where Jesus meets His bride, the church, us. Where we will finally be home with the perspective of the wedding banquets before us.

We have a hope that cannot be taken away from us. Whatever our situation is, whatever your situation is right now, today, we have an eternal perspective and that changes how we view everything. Because we look at everything through eternal eyes. We look at our wealth, at our comfort, and we realise its insignificance when compared to an eternity with God, the God of all majesty and all glory. What is that extra car?

Why will we let go of bitterness and self righteousness for a loved one who has hurt us? Because when we compare it to eternity's everlasting peace and joy, is bitterness something really worth holding onto? The short lived pleasures of sin today. A fling here, a bit of fudging here. It's not worth comparing to the riches that are ours when we finally hear those words, "Welcome son.

Welcome daughter, I've been expecting you. Have a seat." Jesus came with a message and a ministry that was like new wine. And God had saved the best to last. But He needs new wineskins as hearts.

He needs new wineskins as hearts. If He's commanding you this morning to do something, if He's been trying to take you down a road and you've been resisting, be obedient and follow His orders. It's going to be for your best. Because the promise is we will one day have a feast with Him in heaven, and we will get to taste a good new wine. And we will get to say, "You have saved the best to last." Let's pray.

Lord Jesus, when we imagine, when we cast our eyes above the muck and the mire we are in today, and we cast our eyes to heaven, we cast our eyes ahead, Lord, to the future. Who are we? And what are our situations that we should be disappointed? That we should be frustrated? That we should be sad for our lot?

When we compare it to the eternal pleasures of spending eternity with You, with our completed and perfected brothers and sisters on that day, Lord, our comfort is nothing. Thank You for the amazing truth, Lord, that You have come for us to offer us new life, full life, a peace that surpasses all understanding. Lord, we want to taste this wine. Thank You that we do not have to content ourselves with cheap wine. Thank You that we do not have to contend with religion that's bitter, but luckily not bitter enough, that's hard to swallow but still swallowable.

And we ask, Lord, that You will soften our hearts to receive this new wine. Lord, forgive us for having hard hearts, for being rigid on so many things that are really non essentials at all. Really, to be honest, are rubbish. Change our hearts, Lord. Grow us.

We want to become more like You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord, for Your sacrifice, for Your blood that ran red and washed us white. Thank You for that truth. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.