Sunday Gathering - John 2 : 1-12 - Karen Dunning - Sermon Only

I am wired up, yep. Morning everybody. That was nice, not. For those of you that don't know,

my name is Karen and I am a semi-retired teacher and there will be relevance to that later on,

okay? So we're going to look at John chapter 2. If we can have the words up on the screen,

that would be marvelous. Okay. So just to recap, because being a teacher, I can't get out of doing

ways in a certain way. And when you're teaching, you always recap on the learning that's gone

before. Okay. So before, in chapter one, we're introduced to Jesus. We're introduced to John

the Baptist who points the way to Jesus. In John chapter 1 verse 33, he said, when God sent me to

baptize with water, he told me, when you see the Holy Spirit descending and resting on someone,

he is the one you are looking for. He is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. I saw this

happened to Jesus. So John is saying, Jesus is the one. And also you get to find out who his first

disciples were, okay? And then we move on to chapter two, and it goes like this. This is the

NIV version, I believe. 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.

Woman, why do you involve me?

Jesus replied, my hour has not yet come.

His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you.

Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing,

each holding from 80 to 120 litres.

Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water so that they filled 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 to wine.

He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.

Then he called the bridegroom his side.

And he 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 him.

after this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples

and they stayed for a few days so if you want a really short sermon what I could say is

Jesus and disciples went to a wedding his mum was attending the wine was running out

Mary informs Jesus Jesus turns the water into a very good wine the first miracle the first display

of his glory. And then his disciples believed in him. And now you can go home. So the reason why

I talked about being a semi-retired teacher is because I only work part-time. And working

part-time means that I can go on holiday in term time. Yay! And this year, Jonathan and I went on

our first and last sea cruise. Things we didn't know. One, you don't go in January. Two, you don't

go to what we went to the Canary Islands, which apparently are called the Windy Islands. Who knew?

One of the islands we went to was a place called Forteventura. Has anybody been?

One or two? Yeah. Okay. So we were there for two days. The first day, we just did a little walk

around the port and I'm sorry for to venture I'm just going to say it was a little bit boring and

there wasn't a lot to see so we were there for two days so the second day we thought well we're

going to have to do something so we paid to go on a seven and a half hour trip everywhere aloe vera

farms goat farms the lot the guy in the minibus uh took you know we literally went all over the

island and what I noticed was the mottled greenness on the mountains the thing I loved about the

Canary Islands were all the mountains. Beautiful. And what I really loved was when the clouds

literally rolled back. It was just gorgeous. And I was looking at these mountains and I said,

you know, they're really beautiful. He said, they are now. He said, if you'd come two weeks ago,

what you would have seen is brown. And if you come in another month, you'll probably see brown.

We've had some rain that we don't normally get. The mountains are the greenest they've been

in 15 years you're very fortunate to come when they're not and actually when we were driving

in through the mountains and you could see the greenness and not just greenness beautiful

beautiful little flowers but two weeks ago they hadn't been there they were brown

and you wouldn't have thought it possible that the water would come and change the vista that

we were looking at. To know that, you'd probably have to have scraped a little bit under the surface

to see those plants that were ready to come up when a little water came down. And that's what

we're going to do now. We're going to scrape under the surface. What I want to say to you is,

as a Christian, if you read the Bible, there is more than one way of reading it.

if you just read it on the surface, like I've just done, you're not going to move on much as

a Christian. If you like, you're still going to be a baby drinking a bit of milk. If you want to

grow as a Christian, you're going to have to think about the word. You're going to have to let it

settle. So Nick texted me earlier on in the week, I think it was Tuesday, and said, have you

remembered your preaching? And I said, well, you're a bit stuffed if I haven't, aren't you? But yes,

I have because I like to sit with the passage for a good while and I've got a friend who's just

become a Christian and she's I said do you want to join the book club she said no I only read one

book she's absolutely overwhelmed with the bible and has bought more bibles or I've given her a few

and then she's bought more and and she likes to journal and she likes to draw pictures next to

And I said, have you read this passage?

She said, no, I'm only on the same verse.

And she might be on that verse for a good few days.

She's letting it settle.

And I can see the growth because of that.

So if you want to move on

and allow the Holy Spirit to work more in your life,

my advice to you is don't surface read.

Let it settle.

Dig a little deeper and see what's underneath.

So that's what we're going to do.

Would you mind ever so much putting the Bible passages back up

and starting from the top of Chapter 2 for me, if you can?

OK.

Now, I'm the kind of person that asks a lot of questions.

I'm really annoying.

So we went to Graham and Steph's a few weeks ago,

and I said, oh, I've got questions.

And I started asking them questions,

and I can't remember which one of you said,

is the interrogation over now?

Was it you, Graham?

or if I'm at a meeting and the meeting says,

has anybody got any questions?

They all look at me, especially if it's an education one,

because I'm going to ask questions, okay?

So I started by thinking, okay,

so why were Jesus and his disciples invited to this wedding?

Because he'd only just gathered some of these disciples.

But I'll talk to you about how weddings worked.

Weddings at that time, and still now,

if you go to Greece whole villagers are invited to a wedding it's not just a few and it's not just

for a day so if it's Jesus it says on the third day so they've been around for three days so

therefore they'd get invited because they were there okay and Jesus' mother was also there okay

next bit please if you wouldn't mind they'd been invited to the wedding okay next one okay so this

is where you need to dig deeper, okay? When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him,

they have no more wine. Now, in the NIV, it says Jesus' mother. If you read other versions,

it will say nothing. Give me the next verse, please. And then it says, woman, why do you

involve me, my hour has not yet come. You can easily sweep over that, but there's an awful lot

in there. First of all, he doesn't say, mother, why have you involved me? Now, woman doesn't cut

it either. There is no word in the English language for the Greek word that Jesus uses at

this point, because I think that sounds quite harsh. Woman, why have you involved me? And it isn't harsh.

Okay? And why have you involved me doesn't cut it either. It's in the Old Testament too,

and the New Testament. It's almost a phrase. And basically it means, what has this situation got

to do with you or me? The wine's run out. Not your problem. Not my problem. So what has that

got to do with you or me? My hour has not yet come. What on earth does that mean?

I'll come to that in a minute.

I think, and I've read every, well, I've read a number of books about John,

because Jonathan's got humongous amounts of books on every book in the Bible,

and there are lots of reasons why you've got that woman,

why do you involve me, and why is that word woman not really a good interpretation?

Why does he not say mother?

Mum, this isn't your problem, and this isn't my problem.

these are my thoughts on why that is if we think about Mary when the angel comes and says to her

you're going to have a baby and you're a virgin what she says is your will be done

I am your servant and you've got this whole thing about her letting God do whatever he wants with

her, okay? And that's what she's doing here. She's not talking to Jesus as her human son.

She's talking to him knowing that he is the son of God, yeah? Because he's the only one in her eyes,

I think, that can actually make a difference in this situation because there is no wine.

so if i think he doesn't say mother because he knows that she knows that he's the son of god

so she's not talking to him as her earthly son she's talking to him as god's son and i think

that's why he doesn't use mother because he knows that she knows that that's what she's doing

yeah and he also knows why he's involving her in a situation that neither of them need to be

involved in we don't know the relationship that jesus had with the bride and groom they you know

were they just invited because the whole village were invited but if she's interested in the fact

that the wine's running out i suspect there was a greater relationship with the bride and groom

Okay, so then we come to my hour has not yet come.

What does that mean?

So that word hour, it can mean hour,

or it can mean a specific time, if you like.

If you read on, further on in the Bible,

when you come to Jesus' death,

it talks about the hour of his suffering.

So then is he talking about the time of my,

if you like ministry building up to my suffering and my death we're not there yet or is he saying

it's not time for me to start my ministry whatever it is she's scuppered it because she knows

and he knows that she knows that he is going to do something because she's asked him well she

hasn't really has she what she said is oh they've run out and running out of wine they've run out of

why? It's not telling him to do anything. It's a statement. But she knows that he knows

that she knows that he will do something about it. Yeah? Next, please. This is the bit I

absolutely love. I blooming love John's gospel from beginning to end. And it's nuggets like

this. His mother said to the servant, do whatever he tells you. Again, she's not telling him

what to do, is she? But she knows that he will do something, not because she's his son, but because

he is the son of God. And then she walks away. Okay, next please. So, the six very large stone

water jars, and I'll explain what that means, ceremonial washing. So, when the Jews came to

the wedding they would have to wash to get rid of anything that had contaminated them before the

wedding it was a matter of law this was what they had to do to follow the law of the old testament

yeah so they had to wash in that water so jesus asks for them to be full to the brim again

and it's a lot of water.

Next verse, please.

Okay, keep going.

And then he said, now draw some out

and take it to the master of the banquet.

He knows what he's doing, doesn't he?

He doesn't say, now draw it out

and just serve it.

He says, and take it to the master of the banquet.

Next verse, please.

The master of the banquet tasted the water

and it had turned into wine.

He didn't realize where it had come from.

nobody told him Jesus had changed the water into wine, just that this wine had been drawn

and he was tasting it. Next verse, please. And again, and then he says, why have you

saved the best till last? Usually people are drunk by that time and it don't really matter

what you serve them. It's a bit silly. Okay, next. Right, now, this was the first of the

signs, okay? John uses this word sign. In some versions, you might see the word miracle, but John

uses sign a lot, and you'll find he uses the word sign much more than Matthew, Mark, and Luke, okay?

He's got this thing about signs for miracles, and it's very important to him. I want to pick that

apart a little bit. First of all, you've got this ceremonial washing, and that's the old way.

When Jesus comes, something new happens.

Life changes.

Life changes from having to wash your hands ceremonially to be clean

to Jesus dying on the cross and shedding his blood.

And in Christianity, the symbol of that shedding of the blood

is the wine that we drink in communion.

So we've gone from ceremonial washing of our hands to make us clean

to the new revelation that jesus makes us clean through his death and we don't have to do any of

that lost stuff anymore it's gone we are under grace and jesus blood has set us free point number

one okay now this sign stuff this miracle stuff i think um i want to look at a little bit more

it talks about these signs being a sign of the miracle that it brings glory glory to God

it is the first display of his glory what do I mean by glory you see when you read it you just

wash over these words glory is the revelation of God's presence in saving action and what you've

got here is God's presence. He saved the wedding, if you like. Yeah? But what he actually, what

this shows, when we talk about God's glory, is how he saves us. Because when we understand

the revelation that he's Jesus, and we accept Jesus, then we're saved. Okay? Then you've

got the bit where it says, and his disciples believed him. Why did they believe him? Because

he'd shown a miracle. He'd shown that he could do miracles. And they believed him because

of that. And when you get to further in the scriptures where you've got doubting Thomas

and Jesus said, you believe me because you've put your finger in the hole in my hand. Greater

is the faith of those that haven't seen me and believe and we are those people yeah okay now

what I want to say is when we think about the wine it talked about the wine being excellent wine

okay and I thought about this so give me some words that you would use to describe somebody

that brings a really good bottle of wine to your house.

What would you think?

Generous?

Rich?

Anything else?

Pardon?

Kind?

Connoisseur?

Pardon?

Friendly?

You're worth it.

Okay, I'll give you the ones that I came up with.

He didn't charge for this wine.

It was free.

It was extravagant.

It was gracious.

He didn't have to do it, okay?

It was generous.

It was an outpouring of generosity.

And that is the God that we have.

If we choose to believe that Jesus is who the Bible says he is,

then we have a decision to make, each and every one of us.

do we choose to follow the son of god who can be and is extravagant generous gracious to us

or do you choose not to and that has to be your choice you choose whether you let god's word sink

in or whether you read it at a superficial level and that's enough for you you choose

And whether you allow God to have the kind of inroads into your life

that can make the kind of difference that Jesus made at this wedding.

Because you don't have to.

Jesus had a choice whether he turned that water into wine.

And he chose to do so.

Because he was extravagant, he was generous.

And we have a choice of how much we let the power and the grace and the forgiveness of Jesus impact in our lives.

Would that be fair?

You know, we've talked about free choice, free will.

The impact that this had on that wedding was that the wine continued to flow and that they had a good time.

the impact that Jesus can have on your life if you choose to let him is immeasurable

immeasurable but we all have choices and we talked about free will and we have that choice to make

Jesus chose to die for us on the cross he didn't have to he chose to do that so let's today think

about where we are. If you haven't become a Christian, think about your choice, because

you have a choice. If you are a Christian, think about what Jesus did, turning water

into wine, and what that wine was like, and what that signified. And think about the fact

that in doing so, he revealed God's glory, which is revealing God's presence in saving

action we are saved and we have god's presence in us so i hope that helped you to understand

reading surface don't give you a lot but when you scratch a bit when you find those little seeds

underneath those emerging plants it can make a difference to your life full free extravagant

grace that only jesus can give us let's pray together father thank you that you chose to give

us free choice that we are not robots that we aren't made to serve you thank you that you sent

jesus who in his free choice chose to die for us lord help us to be open and willing to make those

choices that are good for us help us to understand that you are the bread of life

you are the water of life you are the light of the world you are the good shepherd help us to

have faith and courage enough to open our hearts to you in the places we have kept closed that we

may know your free, full

extravagant

gracious, generous

love and know

all and experience all that

you have for us. Amen.

Thanks Andy.

Can I have the worship band back please? That would be great.

Maybe

just, let's just bow

our heads a minute and

just think about

what we just heard and just try to

tie it together with some of the

other things this morning.

The challenges that we've got going on in our own lives, the things that we're grappling with,

and yet we've just heard, you know, in the same way that Jesus did this extravagant, gracious, generous act at our wedding,

is tiny compared to the extravagant, gracious, generous God who is with us right now.

Whatever those things are, you know, we come before a Father who is extravagant

and gracious and generous beyond our imagination.

And the impact, Karen said, that Jesus can have on your life and on my life

is immeasurable if we choose to let him if we choose to let his extravagance if we choose to

let his graciousness and if we choose to let his generosity impact us what an opportunity we have

and just as we sing these few songs as worship towards the end of our service let's come before

that is the god we come before and i just encourage us to bring ourselves to him and stand in his

presence and worship him uh jump setter if you want to lead us that'd be great all right

we'll do that again say out short prayers maybe in response to what we've heard this morning that'd

be great jesus we thank you lord for your extravagance we thank you lord for your extravagant

grace we thank you lord for your extravagant love we thank you and we praise you in your precious

name of Jesus. Amen.

Father, we thank you that we can come

as we are.

Thank you that you have extravagant

grace for each one of us.

We praise

God for his grace

poured out on us.

He belongs to his dear son.

He's so rich in kindness and grace

that he purchased our freedom

for the love of his son.

And forgave our sins.

He showered his kindness on us.

Let's close, shall we, with the words of the grace

together. May the grace

of our Lord Jesus Christ

and the love of God

and the fellowship of the

Holy Spirit be

with us all, now and

evermore. Amen.

Amen.