Talk
BRO. AUDEE VILLARAZA:
How many of you are familiar with that verse that I just read? This is not the first time that you’re reading it, right?
You know, one thing that I love about the Word of God is that it’s alive and active.
You might ask me: “Bro. Audee, why is it that sometimes when I read the Word, I fall asleep?”
The Bible is not the suspect. There’s nothing wrong with the Word.
The problem is you. Because when you don’t allow the Word to seep into your heart, of course, you’ll feel asleep or dead. But when you chew, and when you digest the Word of God, it’s going to keep you alive, awake, and it will sustain your life.
So, the goal for today is that we would not just look at the surface-level of the story, but look deep within.
I’m so excited to preach this Word to you because there are lessons that I learned for the very first time– even if I’ve read the story countless times.
We’re doing expository preaching and learning.
So, we’re going to look at the verses line by line and we’re going to study them together. If you’ve got your Bible, it’s a good time to bring it out.
Why the Wedding at Cana?
Let me pause there for a moment.
Mary gets a mention in the vlog of John.
Good for her because she’ll gain some subscribersJ
But where was Joseph in all of these?
By this time, experts believe that Joseph was already dead. That explains the reason Jesus had to stay in Nazareth for 18 years. He needed to take care of His first ministry: His family.
That’s amazing because we see that Jesus was responsible not just as a Son of God but also as a Son of Mary.
The common question that people often ask is this:
Why did Jesus choose this wedding as the setting of His first miracle?
Were there famous people, influencers, and vloggers at the wedding?
I mean it would be different if it was the wedding of celebrities Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera (left) or Cong TV and Viy Cortez (right).
Because there would be people to spread the news: #BestWeddingEver.
Two Reasons
If you did your research, you’ll note that there was nobody famous at that wedding.
It was a small, intimate wedding. So, why did Jesus choose this wedding?
I’ll give you two reasons.
First Reason
The first one is very simple and yet so powerful.
Verse 2 gives us the answer>
How can Jesus do the miracle if He’s not invited?
Some of you pray for a miracle from the Lord but you never invite Him to your life. Am I right?
You’ll be shocked by this: God will show up in places that you invite Him to.
It doesn’t even need to be a significant event. You don’t even need to be in church.
Today is Sunday. Tomorrow is Monday and you’ll go to work.
If you’re traveling in your car or you commute, you say, “Lord, this is my chapel.”
You know what God is going to do? He’s going to turn your travel into a tabernacle. God is going to show up because when you invite Him, God will show up.
Some of you want God to show up but then you’re not focusing on God. It’s like you are trying for God to do some miracle in your life but you’re not really inviting Him to do so.
Some of you are waiting for God to show up but you’re not acknowledging His Presence.
For instance, how many here are praying for joy in their life? Did you know that the only thing that God needs you to do is to rejoice so you can experience His joy? You’re waiting for joy, but God is waiting for you to rejoice.
I’ll say it again until you do it. You’re waiting for joy, but God is waiting for you to rejoice. That is all you need to do.
Open your eyes and say, “God is with me. Let me invite Him into my life.” Maybe some of you are not really inviting God. So, invite Jesus.
Second Reason
The second reason Jesus chose this wedding is much deeper. If you love the Bible, you’re going to love this deep spiritual meaning.
The Bible often refers to the image of the renewed Heaven and Earth. They say that at the time that Jesus comes back, it’ll be like a wedding banquet. It’s like a wedding party.
The renewed creation of Heaven and Earth will look like a wedding banquet.
It will look like a feast. Isaiah gives us an idea:
Does this remind you of something?
It’s a hyperlink. It points all the way to Genesis– the creation of Man in the Garden.
Many times in the Garden, food and drink were abundant and there was a union between God and Man.
But here’s the problem: Man did not want the food. Man wanted to go to other party-party poopers. Adam and Eve didn’t want to be at that party, so they rejected God. They sinned against Him. They walked out of the Garden.
But God continued to pursue mankind. He called the Israelites and then He said, “I will create a covenant between you and me.”
He promised an abundance and that He would create a renewed Heaven and Earth.
But what happened?
Running Out of Wine
The people continued to disobey God, but still, that did not stop the passion of God pursuing
His people.
Thus, He sent Jesus — His final messenger.
The Best Messenger.
So, here’s the message: When you reject Jesus, you’re also rejecting the covenant with God, this invite of God.
This explains why sometimes when you don’t have life with Jesus, it feels like you’re running on empty. Like your life has run out of wine. That’s exactly what happens next in the story:
Quick context. During the time of Jesus, it was a social disgrace not to have wine. Nowadays, you can have parties without wine, especially if you’re not an alcoholic like me. I’m allergic to alcohol. I cannot drink alcohol. I’ve never finished a beer in my entire life. I have a respiratory problem. At my wedding, there were no alcoholic beverages.
In the time of Jesus, there was wine at every wedding. Why? The rabbis believed that wine was a symbol of joy. So, no wine means no joy.
Let me give you this analogy. This is like a Jollibee party running out of Chickenjoy. No joy. Nothing.
Married people, you might have started your relationship with God at the center of your marriage. You know that God was there in the ceremony. He blessed you in the Sacrament of Matrimony.
But after a year, you stopped going to church. You stopped reading the Word. Maybe, you have never even started reading the Word. You stopped worshiping God. You stopped loving Him. Now, it feels like your marriage is falling apart. Your marriage is running out of wine.
Perhaps, it’s not that your relationship failed. Maybe your relationship with God failed first. If in your marriage God was in the center, your marriage wouldn’t have fallen apart.
Put God in the center of your relationship. He will keep your marriage under His care. He will keep your family under His wing. That’s who God is.
Jesus’ Response to His Mother
How did Jesus respond to His Mother? Let’s read.
How many of you have the guts and the audacity to say in front of your mother right now, “Woman, give me my Chickenjoy. Woman, give me my allowance.”
Even if you say “Please,” you need to have a backup
plan– where you’re going to sleep for the whole week because you’re not going to be welcomed at home.
I’ll tell you why Jesus used the word woman.
John was not insinuating that Jesus was rude. In Hebrew, the word woman is a formal way of addressing a female person.
In the Book of John, Jesus addressed the lady at the well in Samaria using the word woman. He addressed the woman who committed adultery using that same word— woman. He even used the same word to address Mary Magdalene who found out Jesus rose from His tomb.
These are all in John’s Gospel. But here is the spiritual meaning– you’re going to love this:
In using the word woman when He addressed His mother, Jesus was indicating that His relationship with Mama Mary was about to change. Before that, their relationship was as mother and son.
But at that time, Mary was asking Jesus to perform a miracle.
To paraphrase, Jesus was saying, “Mother, I love you. I respect you. But what you’re asking is no longer in the business of man. It’s in the realm of God.
So, at this moment, I’m not going to be your son. I’m going to be the Son of God.”
Their relationship was about to change. This is the brilliance of what John is trying to say: That there is a distinction now.
Then Jesus said, “My time has not yet come.”
What was He telling us about? Time also means aura. Aura points to when Jesus’ greatest miracle will be done. When is that? In the Crucifixion.
Jesus was already pointing to His death. He was saying that His greatest miracle was not yet going to come. It’s going to come in the end.
But in a sudden twist of events, Jesus obliged.
The Miracle Was for Everybody
We know that He obeyed Mama Mary, right?
This is the power of a mother, but I want you to know that this is not a license for you to tell your child, “If Jesus obeyed, so should you.”
Don’t do that.
Here is my theory– about the reason Jesus obeyed Mama Mary.
Do you remember that story when Jesus was in the wilderness (He fasted for 40 days and 40 nights and then became hungry. Matthew 4:1-2).
The Devil told Jesus: “I want you to turn the stone into bread so that you can fill your hunger.”
But Jesus didn’t do it. In this new situation in John’s story, Mary asked Jesus to turn water into wine. Jesus did it. What is the difference?
In the first situation, the beneficiary of the miracle was Jesus Himself. In the second situation, the beneficiary of the miracle was not Jesus– but everybody else.
Jesus will make a miracle not to benefit Himself but to benefit those He loves. That’s how sacrificial and selfless our God is.
Praise Him for He is good. God is good.
Three Lessons from the Miracle
So, Jesus obeyed His mother, and He did the miracle:
Three lessons that I want to impart to you just with this verse alone
1. Jesus will use what is available.
How many of you have ever experienced a miracle from the Lord that did not come from an external source– but from something that you already possess?
Maybe it’s a skill that you already know. It’s a resource that you already own.
It’s a relationship that has already been formed.
Here’s the key: The verse says that the miracle started with jars that were nearby and they were just stone water jars. They were simple.
So, the miracle that God will produce in your life will not be something that’s complex. It won’t be afar. It will be close. It will be common.
What do you have in your hands right now that God can use to turn into a miracle? It doesn’t have to be big. It doesn’t have to be complicated.
All it needs is to be simple because when you put simple into the hands of a Savior, it can turn into Super.
What is little in the hands of the Savior, can turn into a lot– when Jesus works on your miracle.
What is little can turn into a miracle.
2. Jesus will use who is available.
Who do you think in the story was blessed the most? Some people might think it could be the couple because they got the credit for the best-tasting wine.
How many of you believe that the most blessed were the guests? After all, they got to taste the best wine ever.
But to me, it was neither of them. To me, the ones who were blessed the most were the servants. Why?
Because while everybody else got to taste the best-tasting wine, only the servants got to experience the miracle itself of the water turning into wine.
Feast servants, raise your hand.
The miracle happens not when people start worshipping onstage. The miracle happens when the Feast servants prepare from Monday to Saturday.
As a preacher, I know the blessing is not when I preach the message to you. The miracle happens in the process.
The master of the banquet might have tasted the product– but only the servants got to see the process.
The power is in the process. It’s the people on the inside who get to see the miracle itself.
Do you want to experience a miracle in your life? Serve Jesus. Serve Him. Make yourself available to Him.
See and be part of that process.
3. Jesus will use how much is available.
One thing that Jesus did not say is, “How much am I going to fill this jar?”
That’s up to you. Whatever you put on the Offering plate every Sunday or every time you give to the Lord, that’s up to you.
You can put P20.00 there. You can give five minutes of your time to the Lord every week. That’s on you. But hear me out. your contribution to the Lord will be measured in the context of your capacity.
This is good news. I’m glad that the Lord will not measure my contribution based on the capacity that He gave to somebody else. Because the person sitting next to you might be richer than you in so many ways. You don’t want God to measure your capacity based on their capacity. When you start comparing your giving to somebody else’s giving, you’re either going to give less– or you’re going to think you’re giving way too much. That’s what’s going to happen.
So, praise God that He will always measure your capacity based on the talents and skills that He gave you.
Imagine this: What if one of the servants was a lazy bone and Jesus said, “Fill the jars with water.”
That lazy bone said, “I’ve got to finish my laundry. I’ve got to finish my Korean drama. I’ve got to do all of these things. I’ll just fill the jar half full.”
You know what would happen? He would experience the greatest miracle only half full.
I wonder, could this be the reason some of us are experiencing the grace of God only in its lowest measure? Simply because we’re filling our jars only half full?
Fill it up to the top. There’s no lid on the jar. Whatever you put in the jar, God can put exceedingly more than whatever you can imagine.
Fill it up. We live under an open Heaven. It’s not how big your jar is. It’s how full you fill it. Are you filling it to the top? Or you’re giving just half of your talent, treasure, and time to the Lord? The Lord’s going to measure you based on the capacity He gave you, not on the capacity of other people.
So, Jesus will use how much you put in that jar.
Saving the Best for Last
Back in the day, the strategy for every event organizer was that he would bring out the best wine first so the people could get drunk on that. When people were no longer sober, the host would then bring out the low-quality drinks.
This is like you bring out the Chivas Regal or the Black Label at the start of the party. When people are so buzzed, that’s when you bring out the gin bilog (a round bottle with 250 ml gin, distilled from grain or malt, costs only P7.40) or the lambanog (coconut wine, one bottle with 1liter costs P130.)
But in John’s story, the host brought out the best wine last:
What is the message here? God will always save the best for last.
If it’s not the best yet, maybe because it’s not the last. Maybe God has something better for you in store. That’s why Jesus was the last messenger.
After Jesus, nobody else is going to come. He sent the very best to do His work.
Why Only Six Jars?
But the question now is why only six jars? Everything in the Bible has significance, right? Why not five, four, three, two?
In the Bible, the number six represents the symbol of man. God created man and woman on the sixth day.
Hear me out: Up until this point, man had been limited in the success of bridging the gap between God and man. Remember that in the Creation, there was a union between God and Man. But it broke, and up until this point, Man had been so unsuccessful in bridging that gap.
So, God sent Jesus to bridge that gap. That’s why there are not just six jars– but seven jars. Did you know that?
Seven is the number of God. God completed the world in seven days.
It means completion.
Jesus Reveals His Glory
Let me put it together. Jesus would come and Jesus would be the seventh jar.
Now, what is inside the seventh jar? We read in John 19:34:
Blood and water flowed out in the very beginning.
When God created the world in Genesis, there was abundance. There was grace. There was unity and everything was flowing like a river.
But sin happened. People rejected God and now the love of God could not flow into the lives of people. The love of God was watered down so people could experience it less.
So. what did He do? He sent Jesus so that the wine could freely flow back into the lives of the people. So that wine would never run out and would never run dry.
That’s what Jesus did. Does that make you happy? Jesus is the seventh jar. You know the word ajar?
It means open. Jesus left the doors completely open forever. That’s who Jesus is.
It was the first sign. There will be seven signs that are going to be in the Book of John. Six signs would point to the seventh sign, and it would be the Cross. The purpose of John’s Gospel is for people to come to know Jesus so that they can come, see, hear, and experience Him. But above all, so that they would believe in Him.
The Greatest Miracle
You see all these patterns in the Bible that I just talked to you about.
How brilliant the Lord is! From ground zero, Day One, He was creating patterns and patterns and patterns all the way to Jesus.
So that when you study His Word, you will look back all the way to the beginning and say, “My goodness. If God had the wisdom to start it from Day One, it simply tells me that He has been trying to show Himself in my life.”
I wonder how many of you there sitting down would say today,
“Because of what I have heard, seen, and felt this morning, I believe in Jesus. I believe in God. I have faith in Him, and all it took was just one sign.”
But it shouldn’t end there– that you would just believe in Him.
To me, the greatest miracle was not Jesus just turning water into wine but when you see Jesus do something, it stirs something inside of you. To me, the greatest Miracle is God changing your heart from unbelief to faith. From brokenness to wholeness. From depression into joy. From sorrow into strength. That deep inside you, there would be a shift, transformation, and conversion so that you would believe in Jesus and that you would say, “This is too good not to believe.”
Put your hand over your chest. For a moment, close your eyes. Let me pray for you:
“Lord, if there’s one person here who has never given their life to You, who has never experienced You in the fullest measure of Your love, I pray for this person that there would be an encounter like no other. I pray that You show them Your face so that they would come to know You like I’ve known You.
I pray for somebody who has walked away from Your Church, from Your flock.
They’re living their life by defining good and evil according to their own terms.
I pray that You bring this person back and show them the magnitude and the depth of Your love. I pray for somebody here who’s been broken by life, extinguished and that light has gone away and they’re hopeless.
I pray that You come and show them today. Through all these things that You are doing in our life here, there would be just one instance, one sign, one significant moment in our life and we know that it would be enough for us to believe, come, see, hear, and experience You. Thank You, Jesus.
Even now, I pray for miracles and miracles and miracles and miracles to be opened to the lives of Your children today.
This is our prayer. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
