According to the Scriptures

Guest (Male): Someone comes up to you with a question or difficult situation and asks for your input. What do you say? Pastor Damian with some of the greatest counsel we can ever give to a person.

Damian Kyle: That statement, "Whatever he tells you—says to you—do it," that's the greatest piece of counsel you can ever give any human being. Just a sentence, it's the encapsulation of books that are 400 pages long. The Christian life is just listening to Jesus and doing whatever he tells us to do.

Guest (Male): Whatever he says, do it. That's not only great counsel to give others but has some personal application as well. You see, each of us are to obey God's commands fully. If we aren't, we're missing out.

Today, on According to the Scriptures, we'll zoom in on this powerful statement of Mary and then have a look at the first miracle of Jesus, turning water into wine. It's recorded for us in John chapter 2, and that is where we catch up with Pastor Damian today.

Damian Kyle: Now, his reference to Mary as "woman" here can appear pretty startling to us. Just try and see how it goes if, after your mother has raised you for 18 years and even longer, you have referred to her as "Mom" even into your adult life, and then just try one day to start referring to her as "woman" instead of "mother." Be prepared to get your ears boxed even if you're 40 years old.

So, it's important to notice here though that Mary was not offended by this, not at all. The term that Jesus used here, it appears very cold, very condescending sometimes in the passage here, but 2,000 years ago in that culture, as he refers to her, he's really referring to her with respect, speaking comparable to our use of the word "lady."

When he adds, "What does your concern have to do with me?" that was just a common conversational phrase. You could say it in anger, "What does your concern have to do with me?" or you could say it gently as Jesus does here, communicating in essence, "What are you asking me to do here?"

Clearly in this conversation, there is a definite pushback on Mary and her role in her place of influence in Jesus' life by Jesus at this point going forward in his life. You notice he declared to her, "My hour is not yet come." That is the hour of him being revealed to the nation of Israel as the promised Messiah and by means of the miracles of God the Father's choosing through his ministry.

Later, his hour not yet come revealed in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the Sunday prior to his death upon the cross, and then ultimately, the hour referring to his death upon the cross followed by his burial and his resurrection.

So, he says to her in essence, "There's a very large thing in play here, Mom. Me being revealed to Israel as their long-awaited Messiah, me being revealed to the world as the Savior of the world, and this plan that God the Father has for this is not to be redirected in any way—not for wine and not even for you."

It's clear at this point in Jesus' life and ministry that Mary had overstepped her bounds innocently, but Jesus reminded her that how and when he did everything, including miracles, was completely under the direction of God the Father as it would serve his purposes.

Someone might wonder, how is it that Jesus refused her request initially and later performed the miracle that she asked for? Was it guilt? Was it a mother's guilt that won the day? Was it manipulation of a mother of a son, as sometimes we're told that if you pray to Jesus and he doesn't give you what you want or he doesn't seem to be paying attention to the need, then pray to Mary because Mary knows how to get around him even when Jesus is resistant to do something, she uses her motherly whatever to get him to do what he wouldn't otherwise do?

What a horrible reflection on Jesus and a horrible reflection on Mary. Mary would never want to do that to anybody else. No, what happens here is really very simple. After having established this boundary with Mary, then Jesus just took her request to God the Father in prayer, who then instructed him, "Yes, this is my will, and go ahead and perform the miracle."

When it happened, Mary herself knew that it came out of that relationship between Father and Son. We never see her trying to direct him in this way again in the Gospel accounts. You notice Mary's response here in verse five. Again, Mary was not offended at Jesus' words at all. She receives them with this spirit of complete submission, and she instructs the servants, "Whatever he says to you, do it."

She doesn't say, "Now, give him a minute, he'll come around to what it is that I've asked him to do. He'll come around to my way of thinking, and when he does, then do what I was requesting him to do." When she says, "Whatever," she's completely content with whatever the decision is going to come forth out of Jesus' relationship with the Father. "Whatever it is that he decides to do or not do, you then be at his disposal."

Clearly, these servants know Mary, and they don't know Jesus. Mary apparently has this position of authority, and so she puts these servants at Jesus' disposal here. By the way, that statement, "Whatever he tells you—says to you—do it," that's the greatest piece of counsel you can ever give any human being. Just a sentence—it's the encapsulation of books that are 400 pages long. The Christian life is just listening to Jesus and then doing whatever he tells us to do.

So, this morning for our application here, God knows our hearts. Look at all the different places we are in life. If God has called you to do something, either in a situation or to do something with your life in its totality, then Mary says in this great counsel, "Do it."

If there's some kind of a situation where you don't know what his instruction is concerning the decisions that you're facing in life this morning, then you look at it and say, "Whatever he says to tell you, do it." You say, "Well, I don't know what he tells me to do here." Then the question becomes, have I asked him what to do in this situation?

I have a great capacity to carry things for quite a long time and try to figure them out on my own, independent of God. Sometimes, I just need the reminder to find out, what does he tell me to do here in this situation from the Bible or as an answer to prayer?

Then notice also in verse seven that we find here fill-to-the-brim obedience on the part of the servants. You notice that when Jesus told them to fill the stone water pots with water, they filled them to the brim. They have no idea he's going to turn it into wine, the water. They have no idea at this point, but they obey Jesus' command fully. What if they had only filled those pots half full or a quarter fill? Well, they would have short-changed the miracle.

I think, in the same way, related to our own lives, I know it to be true: the fullness of the blessings that God desires for our lives depends in very large part upon the fullness of our obedience to his commands and what it is that he tells us to do. That's where the fullness of his blessings become a part of our lives.

So, we ask ourselves this morning, to what degree are you and I obeying his commandments in our lives this morning? You say, "Well, you know, I think obeying him on every command, I think that's just going crazy. I've kind of fashioned a very nice, comfortable relationship with God where I obey the commandments that are easy for me to obey, and then I disobey the commandments that are hard for me to obey."

That is to settle into a Christian life that is very far from the blessings that God desires to bring into an individual life. We can set the ceiling on God's blessing in our lives, and we do, by virtue of the degree of our obedience.

Then sixth, notice in verse six that it wasn't just any water pots that contained the water that Jesus turned into wine. John is very careful to tell us that these water pots contained water for the purpose of purification. So, in ancient times, the Jews, independent of God—God never called them to do this, not found in the law of Moses, not found anywhere—they took this upon themselves as a tradition, as a man-made ritual, and they established this ritual of hand washing.

So, there was this ceremonial rinsing of the hands with water before meals. You would always ceremonially wash your hands upon re-entering your home from outside engagement and interaction with the world. The washing of the hands was not for the purpose of hygiene supremely, but to provide kind of an outward reminder to the person that would do this.

Again, it's a piece of legalism that begins doing a good thing, but then it becomes a legalistic practice. They began it in order so when they would come back into their house, there would be the realization that I have just engaged in a defiled environment, a fallen environment.

Now when I come back into my house, I'm going to leave not the physical dirt of the world behind me, but whatever is attached to me spiritually, mentally, emotionally of the world that engages my mind. I'm going to disengage from that now as I enter into my home, and I'm going to acknowledge it in the washing of my hands. Or I'm going to sit down at a meal now, typically with the larger family, and I don't want to take what it is that I engaged in out in the world and bring it to the family dinner table. It was a way of reminding them in that way, and we could see it has a commendable aspect to it.

So, the water would have been furnished to the guests for their use for ceremonial washing during the week-long wedding celebration. I'm convinced that in turning this water into wine, that Jesus not only provided wine for the wedding celebration, but because wine is often a symbol of joy in the Bible, that he begins here now to communicate to the world that the kingdom he's about to establish, that he's about to bring into existence in human history, is going to be one that's going to be marked by joy, in contrast to even the best efforts of man to accomplish holiness through man-made ritual.

Apart from sin itself, I don't think there's anything that so kills joy in a Christian life than the legalism that man-made rituals and ideas get introduced into Christianity and then have a way over time to now become litmus tests for spirituality, becoming these false tests for spirituality and tests of whether a person is really serious about God or not.

So again, we sit here this morning. I don't know what's going on in your heart; you don't know what's going on in my heart. If somebody approached me with some aspect from some religious background or some something that even claims to represent Christ in an attempt to bring us under some kind of a legalism that is not practiced by Jesus or taught in the word of God, it'll always just simply rob you of a joy, a joy that God wants to mark every Christian that is a part of his kingdom. So, let our time this morning remind you that being joyful in life and enjoying your blessings in life is spiritual too.

And then seventh, in verse ten, the testimony of the master of the feast. He said to him, as he calls the groom to come, the wine's been served to him and it's excellent wine, and he gives the credit to it to the groom. As far as the passage goes, the groom does what I would do, and he's commended for saving the best wine until last. I'd sit there and I'd be all confused about that. "My understanding is we ran out of wine, but if something wonderful has happened here, I'm happy to take credit for it. What else have you noticed about me that you'd like to commend?"

The master of the feast was kind of the person who oversaw the feast, so he managed all the physical aspects of the feast: the food, the drink, the tables, all of that stuff. He had very long experience in this capacity, and he had enough experience to notice that the typical wedding that he attended, they would serve the good wine at the beginning while people's palate was still sensitive, discerning, and then later as it would become dulled, then to introduce inferior wine.

Jesus here has completely reversed things. I think it's a commentary on all of life apart from Christ, really. Jesus, in this providing this best wine to this situation, Jesus has reversed things. I think concerning most things in life, over time, things have a way of being very good at the start, and then they become progressively inferior over time.

The human body, a building—it's certainly true of any sin: the partaking of drugs or drunkenness or sexual immorality or fame or selfishness. It's pleasurable for a season, the Bible says, but it's a very, very short season. Then comes the decline, and then comes the bondage.

In contrast to that progression, a relationship with Jesus in the Christian life, it gets better and better as time goes on. We've even sung of it here this morning; I think of that old song, "Sweeter and Sweeter as the Days Go By." The relationship with him in the Christian life, and this is just to see through a glass darkly at what is to one day come in terms of the good giving way to the best when we enter into heaven.

I do think, for those of you—and we live in an agricultural area, and we've got Gallo in the region and all, and lots of people drink wine and are connoisseurs in this way—but you should know that nobody, not for any amount of money, will ever taste wine that is as good as what was served at that wedding ceremony. Every vintner and every winemaker since is always only fighting for a very distant second in producing the greatest wine that lips have ever tasted.

And then eighth and finally, I want you to notice in verse 11 that the miracle is referred to as a sign. Correctly taken as a sign, it produced faith in the disciples. We're told that it demonstrated Jesus' glory, that is, it revealed him to be the Christ, it revealed him to be the Son of God, it revealed his power, it revealed his love, it revealed his concern for people—his concern to protect this young couple from embarrassment, his power and his authority over nature.

The effect of the miracle upon the disciples that were with him was that they believed in him. They knew enough about Jesus before this miracle to obey his call to follow him, to leave their fishing gear and now begin to follow him, but now at this point in their lives, they put their trust in him as Messiah and as Savior.

This is the result that the Apostle John intends for every single person who will ever read verses one through 11 of John chapter two, who will ever read about the miracle of Jesus changing the water into wine. That is the single great aim of the miracle: it was done to produce saving faith in the disciples who were present with him and saving faith in each of our lives here this morning.

So, this morning, if you don't yet know the Lord, what will you do with this miracle of Jesus this morning? What will you do with the implications of it? What will you do with Jesus himself? Like the disciples 2,000 years ago and every person that has lived since then, you must do something with it, and you will do something with it.

You might ignore it; you might ignore the implications of this miracle. After all, what you do with Jesus—his life, his teaching, his miracles, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his utter and complete uniqueness in human history—what will you do with him?

You look at his life; his teaching has changed the world, always for good. The miracles, the life that he lived, what he did, the demonstrations of power, authority over nature—is there one other person like him in human history? Is there one other person that even remotely approaches that life?

We can get so used to looking at Jesus, even knowing about Jesus, knowing that he is utterly unique in human history, putting him in that category, and never allowing the implications of that to come into my own heart and to realize I cannot deal with him like I deal with everybody else in life. If there were no other miracles than this miracle, what are the implications of this miracle in terms of what they communicate about him?

What am I going to do with this miracle and do with this Jesus who is utterly unique in human history? Everybody will do something, and everyone does do something with him and with this passage. No serious person in life can simply ignore him. Jesus intends that what we have studied this morning in just 11 verses from the Bible, he intends that it will bring you to faith in him as your Savior and as your Lord.

Guest (Male): What will you do with Jesus? We hope and pray that this passage leads you to faith in Jesus if you're not there already. As Pastor Damian Kyle put it, that's what it was intended to do. You're listening to According to the Scriptures, part two of a message called "Water into Wine," part of our series on the seven miracles of Jesus in John's Gospel.

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