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About The Episode:
Explore the enduring strength of divine promises as we journey through the spiritual significance of the Wedding at Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine. This episode is a heartwarming exploration of faith’s resilience, even when it feels like our own ‘wine has run out.’ We discuss the importance of covenant and the unshakeable nature of God’s vows to us, delving into the scriptural tale that offers a beacon of hope during life’s unforeseen trials. The historical backdrop of this miracle, coupled with John the Baptist’s role in heralding Jesus, sets a profound scene that strengthens our understanding of divine fulfillment.
Festivity and joy are the cornerstones of many traditions, and here, we celebrate their roles in our lives through the lens of Jewish and Christian customs where wine is a symbol of sanctity. Discover the cultural reverence for wine in ceremonies that consecrate life’s most sacred moments, from weddings to the Lord’s Supper. These rituals remind us that, in observing the sanctity of covenants, we find strength and connection. As we share insights into these age-old practices, we uncover the joyous impact of maintaining faith and the transformative power of obedience in our personal and spiritual growth.
This episode invites you to join a collective prayer, seeking divine intervention with hearts brimming with faith. We discuss the marvelous outcomes of filling our vessels with trust in God’s promise and the potency of persistent prayer. Be inspired by stories that showcase resilience in the face of challenges and the remarkable grace that arises from steadfast faith. Let’s gather in hope, ready to embrace God’s extraordinary gifts in our next installment of spiritual encouragement.
Where to dive in:
(0:00:00) – The Significance of Covenant and Faith
God’s covenant is unfailing, seen in Jesus’ first miracle at the Wedding at Cana, reflecting divine faithfulness and fulfillment of prophetic promises.
(0:16:59) – The Significance of Wine in Ceremonies
Joy, celebration, and wine hold cultural significance in Jewish and Christian traditions, emphasizing the sanctity of covenants.
(0:34:21) – Celebrating With Faith and Obedience
Faith and joy in the face of disappointment, trusting in God’s transformative power, and finding renewal in trials.
(0:46:24) – The Power of Obedience and Miracles
Christian principle of turning the other cheek, demonstrating faith through service and love, finding strength and restoration in Christ, and the transformative power of obedience to God’s will.
(1:00:30) – Fill Your Pot to the Brim
Prayer, persistence, and faith in God’s grace and blessings, with a heart full of gratitude and hope.
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Full Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.
0:00:00 – Jaime Luce
Now, the beautiful thing about understanding how deep and how permanent a covenant is is we know that the God we serve never breaks covenant. He never breaks covenant. He is the keeper of covenants. He is the faithful one, always, always, in his institutions stand. What he does cannot be broken. He never breaks covenant with us, never. He’s such a good God, so faithful to us, so full of his mercy towards us, that he does not break his covenants.
Welcome to the Jamie Luce Podcast. I am so happy that you have tuned in and joined me today. I love spending this time with you and digging into the Word. I want to ask you today has your wine ran out? And I’m sure, by that very question you know where we’re going in scripture today, but I really want to impress upon us that there are times and circumstances. There are. It may be an entire season that you feel that you are in. It could be a surprise of some sort that something has surprised you and not in a way that you expected. You could be someone who is in the middle of something great and while you’re in the middle of something great, you are blindsided by something that has taken you by surprise and that is not great, and you may be finding yourself in a position where you have run out of wine, and we’re going to talk today about what that really means, what the scripture as well as the history and tradition have said about this passage. And we’re talking about John, chapter 2, the wedding of Cana, and this is pertaining to, in the spiritual sense, this is, those who have Jesus. This is for Christians, this is not for the world. These are those where Jesus was invited. He’s a part of this wedding, he is a guest at this wedding. He’s there, he’s present, and yet something is missing, and we’re going to talk a little bit about that today. So, if you’ll get your Bibles out, get something to write, with pen and paper, maybe, or your phone or tablet, whatever you use, I’m old school, I like paper and pencil, even if that means, like this morning, that I do a lot of erasing. I make a big mess with my erasing, but I love to be able to write. I’m going to read you this passage and I want you to put yourself again into this story. I want you to see what’s happening.
We’re reading from the book of John, and John begins his book. His gospel to us comes from a point of view, different than the other gospels and it’s different than the way we see Matthew, mark and Luke. They all have taken the well. Mark is the first book that was written, the first book that was written, and Matthew and Luke take most of the miracle stories that we see and retell those same stories from their perspective, and then they borrow from some and then they add their own and things that were missing in Mark. But they all have a purpose in writing and each of their purposes is a little different.
And when we come to John, his book is different. He is focusing truly on the Son of God, where he’s come from, his power, his divinity. And we look at chapter 1, and we see, as he begins his book, he is telling us who Jesus is, that he is the word. So if you have your word, if you have a Bible, you have, in essence, jesus unfolded to you on these pages. Every word that is spoken, he’s the word, word. Father, god spoke the word. So at the creation he was with the father and everything was made through that spoken word, through jesus christ in the heavenlies. And it is the baptism that we receive in salvation comes by Jesus Christ. The Christ, the Messiah, the Holy One, who left heaven, was born of a virgin through the Holy Spirit into flesh so that he could live this sinless life for us and be our sacrifice.
And if you start in John, he’s explaining Jesus. He’s explaining his origin, who he is, his power, his divinity, and then he begins to tell us about John and John preparing the way. There’s an interesting maybe I’ll read that to you real quick In John 1, no-transcript. And they want to know who he is, because then they want to know by what authority are you saying things? And how can we make judgments about who you are if you don’t tell us who you are?
John’s response is I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. And that word make straight, that phrase make straight, because this is his, john’s purpose. He’s the one crying. His purpose is to cry out and make straight the way for Jesus to come onto the scene, the way of the prophetic to be made manifest, the way of the word and the promise to be made manifest for us. And that word, um, that phrase make straight means to be in a straight, direct line, to keep something on course to guide straight, uh, just as if of a ship to steer it straight. So John is saying there’s been all of these promises and my job is to come and make sure that I line this up straight and easy for you and point you directly to the Messiah. I’m going to make the way straight for the Lord. And so we go through this and then Jesus comes.
And when John sees him and Jesus wants to be baptized by him, john says to his disciples and all those who were there this is the lamb of God. Behold, the lamb of God, the one who takes away the sins of the world. He’s the one that I’ve been crying out about. This is the one you need to pay attention to. And as we go a little further, we see that two of his disciples were standing there when John happened to see Jesus pass by. And again John says this is the lamb, behold, look at him. So those disciples go, one of which is Philip, I believe and they go and they leave John and they go follow Jesus. And we have the beautiful passage of Jesus saying they say where are you lodging? And he says come and see, come and see. And they spend time with him. And this is their part of their journey of beginning to be a disciple to follow after Jesus, their journey of beginning to be a disciple to follow after Jesus.
And so the book of John here John goes on to quickly talk about these disciples, knowing who Jesus is come upon quickly, this wedding at Cana. And so that’s where we’re picking up in chapter two, and it says on the third day there was a wedding at Cana, in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples when the wine ran out, and that’s what I want to talk to you today about when the wine ran out. So here they are, they’re at a wedding, they’re enjoying the celebration and the festivities and the order of things that happen as they happen. And there came a point in the midst of this great celebration and the union of these two people in front of all their family and friends, who have been invited to partake of this feast and to witness this union, and there came a point in the middle of this celebration that the wine ran out. A problem has come up in the middle of what seemed to be the thing. That is the way that God ordained it. They’re doing what they’re called to do and they are celebrating they’re. They’re, um. It is God’s institution. They are coming into covenant with one another, as God established, as God established, and it is in the midst of doing what God has commanded, in following God’s instructions, doing what they’re supposed to be doing, and it’s a joyous occasion, it’s a wonderful occasion and it’s being witnessed by everybody around them who knows them, knows their character, knows the plans that are being made. In front of all these people, the wine runs out.
I’m going to keep reading, but I want to think. I want you to think about your life. I want you to to really think about is there a place in my life where the wine has run out? Do I have Jesus in my life? He’s been invited into my life and, even though I have him, I have run out. Something has run out. Something vital to what we’re doing has run out. Something important has run out. It could be in relationships, it could be in whatever it is that we’re serving and doing, and it no longer feels like there’s a grace and we feel like we have run out of whatever it is that we need to do, what we need to do. We’ve run out of the joy. We’ve run out of celebration. We’ve run out of energy. We’ve run out of provision, of finance. We’ve run out of ideas. We’ve run out of what to do next. We’ve run out. So let’s pick back up here.
In verse three, when the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him they have no wine. And Jesus said to her woman what does this have to do with me? And we can feel that way. We can feel like, well, I’ve asked the Lord, I told the Lord about this already, I’ve prayed about this, jamie, I’ve already gone to the Lord. And it feels to me like Jesus is saying well, what does that have to do with me? We’ll talk about that in a minute. My hour has not yet come.
His mother said to the servants do whatever he tells you. Now. There were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants fill the jars with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted, the water now become wine and did not know where it came from. Though the servants who were I’m sorry, though, the servants who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine, but you have kept the good wine until now. This, the first of his signs Jesus did at Cana, in Galilee, and manifested his glory. Okay, now I know, on the surface we can look at that and say that’s a miracle. Those people needed wine. Jesus made wine, end of story. But there’s a lot here and I want us to dig into this and I want you to find where this matters to you.
There’s a reason that you log on to listening to podcasts. There’s a reason why you will listen to a Bible study. There are reasons why we will go to church on Sunday and want to hear the word preached to us. We are a people who need the word. We need the word. It is the word. We understand that. It is the word that is what gets in our spirits and sets us free. It is the word that is life for us, because the word is Jesus. So we know what we need. We know that we take our problems to the Lord, we know we hunger after him and in hungering he promises that if you hunger and thirst after righteousness, you will be filled. But that does allow for us to understand that in order to be filled, that means first there was a hunger. My granddaughter likes to say she’s only three, just turned three, and she likes to say my tummy is making hungry, my tummy is making hungry again, and you don’t know you’re hungry until there’s some burning and rumbling going on. We don’t recognize our needs sometimes until there’s some pain involved. And the minute we feel that pain, then we start to look for ways to satisfy that hunger, to satisfy and remove that pain we’re feeling. And here Jesus is at this wedding.
So what I wanted to do first is let’s take a look at the significance of wine in traditional weddings, in the Jewish traditional weddings, and to give you an understanding of the severity of what they were dealing with. This was not just a matter of saying we had soda to drink and we ran out of soda. That’s not an equivalent and so I wanted to give us the understanding of what’s behind this. Okay, so in Jewish culture, for the wedding, the wine is a symbol of joy and celebration, and you may even take this for your family, for your marriage and for your family, for your home, and you may feel like you have run out of joy and celebration in your home and and this is you know what that means.
To run out of joy and celebration in your home isn’t simply an inconvenience, that’s not a simple issue. That’s a problem. If you don’t have joy in your home, in your marriage, with your children, in your home, where you reside, if you don’t have in your spirit joy and celebration, where do we get hope from? What does hope do? Hope lends itself to a joy, to an excitement that there is hope for my future when we don’t have joy and celebration. That by itself, just the fact that it represents joy and celebration, takes this much deeper. Okay, but let’s continue.
It plays a part and I hope I say these words and pronounce them correctly but it plays a part in the Kedushin, which is the sanctification of a man and a woman in the moment of being together. So in this I’m going to explain this more, but in a Jewish celebration wedding going to explain this more, but in a Jewish celebration wedding, there are they, they have a minute, the priest or the um, the person conducting that ceremony, speaks blessings of commitment. They say blessings of commitment and so there is a um, a part of this ceremony that establishes certain things that they are speaking over this wedding and things that are being put in place as far as blessing over this wedding having to do with wine. Okay, so I went on and did some research. I’m going to read a little portion that you could go on yourself. If you wanted to read more about this. Uh, just online, you could look up chabadorg. I don’t know if that’s kabod, I believe that’s kabodorg, but I might not be pronouncing that correctly chabadorg and I took some information here, but I wanted to give that to you as a resource.
Wine in Jewish tradition is closely associated with the Sabbath and with festivals. At the onset of the holy day, wine ushers in the spirit of sanctity the Kaddush and at the end wine closes it the Havdalah. This accomplishes a significant task. So before I even continue reading there, you need to understand that in the Jewish culture, in many cultures, regardless of what the culture is, the culture kind of dictates to you how important something is. For instance, these things were very important for a Jewish wedding. Well, we may not have that same culture, so we don’t place the same importance on things, but this was vital to them.
This was not only a wedding, this was a religious ceremony, and there are things that mean very significant things to the Christian church today. It should be very meaningful it should be Now, I don’t know that it is in a lot of churches, but it should be very meaningful when we partake of the Lord’s Supper the bread and the wine or the grape juice that we partake in and to remember the significance. Jesus said you do this in remembrance of me, To hold something in remembrance, and to do it because you are doing it for the purposes of understanding the weight and the power of what was done and what was exampled for them and now how they are going to take that and use that themselves. And this is very important. So I need you to understand that, even though I’m reading to you what this meant, even if it doesn’t mean it to you, you need to understand the weight because we’re going to get to why that’s so important to you later. This is very important. I mean sanctification to be sanctified. We go through this Christian life in a work by the Holy Spirit of a sanctification, a work in us that is making us like Christ, changing our natures.
And this wine represented sanctity and the sanctity of their union, the sanctity of coming together in covenant. This is very, very vital. It ushers in and it finishes. It ushers in and finishes, okay. So it accomplishes the significant task of marking this is great, marking the boundary lines and separates the holiness of the holy day from the secular character of an ordinary day. So this wine helped show, and its purpose was to establish and show boundary lines of this very sanctification of the day Okay, you can laugh with me on that, that’s pretty bad the sanctification of the day and that these boundary lines say this is holy, holy for these people, holy to God, holy to those witnessing. This is not an ordinary day.
The wine at this wedding represented was used as part of the ceremonial purpose of making boundary lines and bringing sanctification to that wedding day, to that couple, to its purpose. It’s not a secular day, it’s not an ordinary day, it’s a very important day, it’s a very meaningful day. It’s a holy day, meaningful day, it’s a holy day. At the wedding, the wine symbolizes both Kaddush sanctity and Havdalah separation, as the blessing itself indicates. So the, the blessing that is spoken. They would speak the blessing and then drink the wine. And it was the, the coupling of those things, that sanctified and said this is what we’re like. We’ll. We’ll say our vows and give rings, or we’ll light unity candles, or or do a sand, a mixture of sand.
People use different ways to say we are, this is our union, we are sanctifying this union. We are doing something today that cannot be undone. It is a covenant. Now we know covenant is by blood and we’ll get there. Jesus, performing a ceremony at the Passover, which this is akin to, says his blood, we’ll get there later. Says his blood, we’ll get there later. Is that new covenant? It is the wine, the wine is the blood, and these are the things that are markers. These are important, these are vital, and they are done together in ceremony to make sure that these lines are set and that these boundaries are understood and that not only are the boundaries understood, they are witnessed by all that we are entering into covenant Coven, witnessed by it. All we are entering into covenant. Covenants cannot be broken. We are never supposed to break a covenant and people break them all the time.
Divorce is the breaking of a covenant before God, if you are a Christian couple, if you have, before God, made a covenant and we divorce. Now this is not meant to bring condemnation on anyone who has gone through divorce. I’m just simply saying culture, and that’s why I’m explaining how important this is. Culture in the Western world has said that marriage means nothing. In fact, it was so under attack in these days when this was written in scripture that Jesus had to counter the Pharisees when they said can a man divorce his wife for any reason? And Jesus had to say from the beginning, it was not so, that this is not what God has wanted. Now, the beautiful thing about understanding how deep and how permanent a covenant is is we know that the God we serve never breaks covenant. He never breaks covenant. He is the keeper of covenants. He is the faithful one, always, always, in his institutions stand. What he does cannot be broken. He never breaks covenant with us, never. He’s such a good God, so faithful to us, so full of his mercy towards us, that he does not break his covenants with us.
But I’ll get back to the meaning of this, okay. As the blessing indicates, wine is used at the threshold of the Sabbath to sanctify it and to separate it and to separate it. So it is used at the threshold of marriage to separate it from the prohibited and to sanctify the bonds of proper marriage. Okay, so that is the significance of sanctity, of separation and holiness, and you have joy and celebration. It represents joy, celebration, the favor of God on something, the blessing, the commitment. It means sanctification and its holiness it is, it is set apart. All of that is wrapped up in the wine and Mary’s at this wedding, and Jesus is at this wedding, His disciples are there witnessing this wedding. Some say that they think that this was a family member of John, possibly a relative of John, and so this is close proximity. Jesus is close to John and Jesus is close to this family.
And an interesting thing happens, folks, in the middle of this very important ceremony, in this making of a covenant, in this setting apart of a holy day and the joy and celebration that should ensue, they run out of wine, the very picture of the joy of this event, the very picture of the celebration, and to say they have run out of wine. Have you run out of wine today? Have you run out of the celebration? Have you run out of the weight and the knowledge of the beauty of the moment that God has called you to in your purpose, in your covenant relationship with him, in your walk with the Lord. Have you run out of wine? Have you run out? They’ve run out of wine. And Mary does what we should all do and I’m sure to some extent you probably have said I’ve done this already but she goes to Jesus, she takes the problem to Jesus.
Now, jesus did not create this problem and Jesus has. He lived every day on mission, every day. Everything he did was I do what I see my father doing, I say what I hear my father saying On mission every day, in communion with the father, every day. And that day there was no plan to do a miracle at this wedding. It was not on God’s agenda that day to do a miracle at this wedding. It was not on God’s agenda that day to do a miracle at this wedding. This is important. This is important because, even though this was not his time yet, even though there was no direct plan that day to do a miracle for those in need that day direct plan that day to do a miracle for those in need that day, he was simply a guest at this wedding.
And when his mother says to him they have run out of wine, jesus says what does this have to do with me? It reminds me of when the woman it’s not the same, but it reminds me of when the woman comes to Jesus wanting a miracle for her daughter. And they are not of the Jewish faith. And he basically says it’s not my job to do a miracle for those outside of the Jewish household. It’s not my job. That’s not why I came. And he compares her and says is it? It’s not good to give the bread for the children to the dogs? Now, he’s not calling her a dog, he’s saying it’s improper to take what belongs to one and give it to another. And she says but yes, and out of faith, she says but even the dogs eat the crumbs from the table.
And it was by that faith and by the understanding that she could still come to Jesus, even at an improper time, even when it wasn’t her time, it wasn’t the Gentiles’ time yet it was out of turn, it wasn’t hers to have. And we might be in a situation, you might be in a situation and you in your not planning or not handling it right, or maybe it had nothing to do with you and others were responsible and they didn’t do what they were supposed to do. And now you’re in a situation and you have run out of wine. That does not negate that Jesus will not still step onto the scene and do a miracle, even out of time, even when it’s not their time. And you might be saying I don’t deserve a miracle today, it’s not my time, I didn’t do all the things that others have done. I don’t do all the things that others have done, I don’t deserve this. And Jesus might even be saying, when we first approach him, there’s a reason.
The scripture says ask and basically the word means keep on asking. It is continuous, it is a present word that is continual. It means that I continue to ask, I ask and I keep on asking. You may have asked. Mary went to Jesus and his first response was this is not my problem, I don’t need to do this. Today Wasn’t on my agenda. And yet her response to Jesus saying that this isn’t my problem, she didn’t turn loose. It’s like Jacob saying I’m not turning loose of you and from the angel. Until I get my blessing, I am not turning loose.
We have got to be people of real faith. We cannot be so easily overcome, so beaten by the enemy, that all he has to do is make the threat. That was the problem that the prophet ran into when Jezebel just simply makes a threat. And here this wonderful man of God, this prophet of God, elijah, has just slain 400 prophets of Baal. He’s just taken the enemy out in such grand fashion. It is a spectacle. It is a spectacle what he has done and it is the miraculous that one man had the power and the strength to do that. Now, of course, he gained that from the Lord, but then, in his zeal for the Lord, his wine runs out. The wine ran out. He’s exhausted and depressed. Now and he gets word that Jezebel has made a threat against him and he goes and runs and hides in the cave. He wants to give up, he wants to die. He’s done. He’s depressed, he thinks he’s the only one left and is this even worth doing anymore? He doesn’t think what he’s doing is making a difference.
Do you see how easy it is to go from the day of celebration and run out of wine, Folks, all of us have been here. But it means that we have to have the faith of that little woman for her daughter who says, even though it’s not my time, like Jesus’s mother, when Mary says I know he said that, but then she looks at the servants and she says do whatever he tells you. She basically says no, by faith, I know you can fix this and you’re going to, you’re going to. I need to stir my faith up, even though I’ve run out of wine, even though I’m tired, I’m depressed. The joy is gone, I have no celebration. What I thought would happen has not happened. I have been working on this so long, I have prepared for this for so long and my joy has run out. In fact, I have a great example.
My precious daughter was planning her daughter’s birthday party and she had put great energy, poured her heart, into wanting to give her daughter a birthday to remember. And my granddaughter, you’d have to know, is so grateful. You can do the. We can pretend to make a cake for her and sing her happy birthday and she will oh, thank you guys, thanks guys for my birthday. I mean, she just she’s so grateful that you would celebrate with her. Her heart is full of joy, always, the pureness of that. No wonder Jesus said do not hinder the children from cuff from coming to me, for such as the kingdom of heaven, that pure joy, that pure um innocence, that that pure faith, that pure celebration in their hearts of a child. And she had.
My daughter had put all this work into it. We were having a jumper, and she had to, and then she got everything planned special cake, special balloon stuff, special you know everything, jumper, special, everything. And then we have to change the date. My granddaughter got a little infection and we had to deal with that, and it was something that you could catch, and so we didn’t want that spreading to other kids, so we had to postpone it. Well then, we had to make all these arrangements all over again, make all these changes to have another birthday and do it another day. And my poor daughter.
The day before, all of a sudden, we see a report it’s supposed to rain and the event is scheduled for outside, and it’s supposed to rain during the duration only of the time that we have this party. And to our dismay, that’s exactly what took place, and the ground got muddy and was wet, the jumper was wet and though we had, you know, tarps and pop-ups to cover the tables, just to walk around there was mud and water, and we had to wait to, you know, the last minute to bring the food out and make sure. And do you know? Everyone was so precious and we wanted to celebrate anyway, but for my daughter the wine had run out. The wine had run out. All that preparation Can you imagine, all the preparation for this wedding and the wine ran out. Even if you had everything you thought you needed, the joy was gone, the celebration was gone, and it’s significant and it’s meaningful and it had great purpose.
Folks, we’ve got to remember that we are people of faith. We walk by faith and not by sight. I want you to look at your situation right now and I want you to open your eyes of faith. I want you to remember that, though you asked Jesus before, we’re going to keep on asking and whatever he says to you, do it, no matter how ridiculous it sounds, no matter what it seems like on the outside, no matter how insignificant it seems. What did Jesus then do at this wedding?
There were sanctified pots sitting there. They weren’t actually sanctified, but they were used for purification. The pots that carried the water were used for purification ceremonies, and there were six of them there. Now, this is important because this is not again insignificant. In John’s gospel, in the way that he wrote his gospel, he only tells of seven miracles that Jesus did. He has chosen the number seven because seven is perfect and he is wanting to display the perfection of Jesus, the perfection of his deity, even though he walked as a human man on this earth, in our place. So these numbers are significant in the book of John and there are six water pots. Now the number six is actually the number of man. You have seven, which is the number of God, but six is the number of man. The water jars were used for another ritual purpose of purification. Each pot held between 20 and 30 gallons. They estimate about 25 gallons. Six being the biblical number of man also represents his imperfection, man’s imperfection. That’s why he must be purified, because man is imperfect and in this number of showing what God’s going to do, he uses the number of man to perform and put his godness, his perfection, on our imperfection.
So, jesus, one commentary said it this way Jesus, turning the water into wine is not only significant on a meaningful traditional level, but it is a gift to the bride and the groom. But it is a gift to the bride and the groom. It is a beautiful picture of a powerful Savior who cares intimately about the details in our lives and, ultimately, of his sacrifice. As Jesus said in the upper room at the Passover, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood, and that’s Luke 22, verse 20, the second half of that verse B. I like the way it grace by Jesus using his blood as a picture. With the wine, then we see God taking what is meaningful, a ritual, something that is done to establish something in our life. Because we have attributed great meaning to it, we understand its value and its worth. Jesus transformed the ritual of the law and he turned it into the gospel of grace.
So what does this have to do with you? What does this have to do with me? Folks, we need to understand that when the wine runs out, there are things we need to do. Has the wine in your life run out? Are there areas in your life where joy and celebration are gone, where you’ve run out of what you think you need to continue? Do you feel like the prophet today? Do you feel like you’ve been doing what God’s asked you to do? Do you feel like you’ve given all your energy and all your strength and yet you have not seen the answer. Yet You’ve run out of wine in your ministry. Have you run out of wine in the ministry to your spouse, to your children? Do you feel overwhelmed by circumstance? Are you scraping by and you feel like you have run out of the finances necessary to deal with what you’ve got to deal with? Necessary to deal with what you’ve got to deal with? Are you feeling as though, in all of your giving and in all of your planning and all of your preparation for right, good things, for things that should bring joy and celebration, do you feel like it’s gone, like the favor’s gone? You’ve run out of wine.
We need to remember that it is Jesus who is the one who gives the wine. It’s Jesus who takes what is our ordinary. I was thinking about this. Because we go to Jesus. The first thing is we go to Jesus and even if you’ve gone to him before, go again, stir your faith. Don’t allow the disappointments of today or yesterday to stop you from asking again. There is a promise that if I ask, I will find, if I ask continually. There’s a promise that says that if I seek for answers, I will find what I’m looking for. If I seek with all my heart, we have to do whatever he asks us to do. What does that mean, folks? That’s obedience. That’s obedience, let me.
This could be hard to hear, but let me give you an illustration. If you have run out of wine in your house, in your marriage, in dealing with children Maybe you have teenage children, maybe they’re in rebellion, maybe they are in addiction, maybe you’re dealing with a loss of a job and everyone is scraping and trying to get by in the house and there’s not enough you think how am I going to feed my family? Somehow in the house, the ability to serve has been stunted. Now, what do I mean by that? I feel this this is me kind of giving a picture of this joy being gone, this wine being gone in the house. When you have joy and celebration, it’s easy to serve. It’s easy to serve your spouse, it’s easy to serve your children. You’re full of joy, you’re full of celebration. Let me get that for you. No, let me do that for you. I was thinking about you today and I just. When we are full of joy and celebration, it’s easy to serve, it’s easy to serve, and when our joy runs out, it’s difficult to serve. It reminds me of when Jesus says that we are to turn the other cheek.
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Now, in the passage that we read that, especially in Matthew, we understand that they were dealing with the Roman government, of course, and they literally could be slapped across the face and have to turn and give the other cheek. And they literally could be slapped across the face and have to turn and give the other cheek. I mean to show that they are living as Christians in a very hostile environment, that you show who you belong to by your behavior, that you’re not a person of just retaliation, you’re not just a person of vengeance. You turn the other cheek. But I want us to bring this home even further, because in your marriage with your family, disappointment can cause us not to want to serve. Disappointment and loss of wine can make us not want to care what the other person is dealing with and only what we’re dealing with.
And yet I just read to you a moment ago what the commentator had said that Jesus being willing to turn their water into wine was a gift not just to his mother who brought the problem to him, was a gift not just to his mother who brought the problem to him, and not just to the family who had made the preparation with this wine most likely the groom’s family. But this was also a gift to the bride and the groom, of blessing and holiness and sanctification for their union and holiness and sanctification for their union. They’re setting apart, they’re separation from the world and to one another. This was a gift, it was a service done for this family, for this new couple, and we have to understand that if we’re missing the joy, it is necessary for us to go seeking to have it restored. It is necessary.
We need the joy. The joy of the Lord is our strength If I am going to serve my family properly, to show forth the glory and the magnificence of the God that I serve, forth the glory and the magnificence of the God that I serve and how having Jesus has changed my life. I need his joy in my life because my strength to walk out what he’s called me to do rests in that joy. I need that joy, I need celebration. It’s right and good for us to want to be happy and joyful and to celebrate the things that deserve celebrating. That’s why we have in Ecclesiastes the book of Ecclesiastes, there’s a time for everything and there are times when we need to have joy and celebration. Now, there are times when we do go through mourning, and there are times for that mourning and there are times for that. But if we are allowing simply the disappointments to rob us and to not have what we are supposed to have to carry us. It is our responsibility to go to Jesus and to get that restored. Here’s what’s amazing. Let’s read the last portion again.
Because Jesus takes your act of obedience to do what he’s called you to do. When you are simply a clay pot, you don’t have in yourself the power of God. It is God in you. That is the power you and your flesh have. None, you and your flesh need sanctification, but Jesus, coming into this earthen vessel, brings his power with him. When I walk in obedience to what he’s called me to do, to what he’s called me to do, I am accessing all of the power of God to do what is impossible. To take what is the mundane, to take the ordinary, to take water, water, plain water, which has no value in itself to do the ritualistic sanctification necessary. It has nothing in itself, the ritualistic sanctification necessary. It has nothing in itself, no substance in it, no chemical reaction in it, no value in it to do any of those things that were necessary that the wine called for at these ceremonies. And he takes those acts of natural obedience and acts of surrender to his will and does what only his saving, miracle working power can do. He can take your act of obedience, which is just the water in an earthen vessel, a water pot, and he can say with that water, what am I to do with it? Let’s read this because this is really important.
When you’re disappointed, you can make an effort in disappointment, but you may not, and most likely not, be, giving your all. You think I don’t have it in me to give my all. Okay, I’ll do this, but I only do it with half heart. God’s asking me to do that. What if God is saying to you I want you to go and serve your spouse, serve your family, serve your church, and you say but I don’t have it to give Me. Showing up is gift enough. You know there are people who attend church. I’ve known these people. They attend church or attend special functions and they expect you to be grateful that they just showed up. They don’t even come expecting God to do anything, they just, they just give a little. They give the least amount that is possible to give to show up, and their heart is only showing. Now, some of you to show up, it took every bit of what you’ve got to show up. I’m not talking about that. In fact, that’s what it calls for. If it’s everything, you’ve got to show up to do it again, to try again. Whatever it is that you’ve got, you do it and you do it to the full. Let’s read this again In verse 7, jesus said to the servants fill the jars with water.
Here’s their response. And they filled them up to the brim. They could have thought that instruction is crazy, that what, what good is filling water pots with water? People are going to drink this and they know it’s water. It’s not wine. It’s going to be obvious. We’re going to look like fools. I’m going to look ridiculous to these people that I come out serving them water when they’re expecting wine in their cup and we could totally do that and think that, jesus, that doesn’t make any sense to do, that. I’m going to be made fun of. This isn’t going to work and we don’t do what we’re supposed to do. We don’t follow his instructions.
But they got a miracle because they did exactly what he told them to do and they did it with all of their heart. They didn’t just fill the pots with water, they filled them to the brim. If you want a miracle today, whatever he says to you, do it and do it with all of your heart. Your until now, because let’s in fact, let’s read that, let’s continue reading. And he said to them now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. So they took it.
When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew, you’ll know new. You’ll know, you’ll know the power of God and his miraculous touch of him doing the impossible for you because of your obedience, when nobody else knows that Jesus came in and did a miracle and caused you to save face. Have you ever been in a situation and you needed God to cover you? Have you ever been in a situation and you needed God to cover you? Jesus’ miracle not only was a gift to the bride and the groom, it was a gift to these servants and they were able to save face when they took and dipped into that water and gave it as wine to the master of the feast. Let’s keep reading.
And the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. Until now he keeps the good wine. Until now. Do you need an? Until now? Do you need an until now? Do you need a? Suddenly moment? Your until now is coming.
You thought you already had it good before and now it’s gone. You thought that it used to be good, that what you used to have was what you need now. That’s what you thought. But when Jesus gets through, turning your situation around, you’ll be amazed and you will say what I had before can’t even compare to what I have now. What I thought was good was only a foretaste.
Jesus has taken the common and gave me in its place the rare and refined. You can’t even put wine and water into the same category. They can’t even be compared. Water is water. Wine does not come from water. Its source is different. You can’t even compare them. I can’t even say that what I gave was even a comparison to what God does. There’s no way to compare them.
Jesus takes the unqualified, the lacking, the ordinary, and he makes the extraordinary from it. We can’t, on our own, sanctify or cleanse what needs sanctifying and cleansing with our rituals and our ordinary water. We need a miracle. We need the pure and holy. We need the powerful, matchless and perfect blood of Jesus that washes away all stains. Isn’t it ironic that the one thing that every commercial of stain removal that is ever put out there uses the spilling of wine Because wine stains uses the spilling of wine because wine stains? That the thing that stains and the thing that is permanent is what Jesus uses to say I cover the stains of your sin with the stain of my blood. It is immovable, it is unchanging. You cannot undo what I have done.
No matter how you have got into the circumstance you are in right now, where you have lost and feel that you have run out of wine. There is no place that the blood of Jesus cannot reach. There is no place that the blood of Jesus cannot reach. There is no miracle that he cannot do. Come to Jesus, ask again. Give him your all. Do what he tells you to do and you can watch and receive the miracle. Do what he tells you to do and you can watch and receive the miracle. He will cover you in his grace. You’ll save face. He loves you. He doesn’t want you embarrassed. He wants his blessing on your life, his favor on your life.
Do you need a miracle out of time, because Jesus is the God who will meet you where you are, even when it isn’t your time. It’s always God’s desire to hear and answer prayer. Let me pray for you, father. I thank you for your blood. I thank you for this miracle at this wedding, that, in our families, with our spouses, with witnesses of friends around us, seeing what is going on in our lives, no matter the circumstance we face today, no matter what joy has gone out, no matter what disappointment remains, no matter what we lack and think we don’t have, you are the answer, o Lord, and we call on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
Today we plead the blood of Jesus over our lives and our circumstances. We say, father, cover us with your precious blood, do the miracles that no one else can do. We ask you, father, to restore what has been stolen in our lives. We’re asking you to replenish what we have run out of. We’re asking you to take our ordinary water and turn it into wine. Father, today we surrender. We give you our lives, we give you our circumstance, we give you our issues, our lack.
We bring our clay pots, but we fill them with water to the brim today and we say Lord, we’re yours. Put your super on our natural and give us, father, what we could never have imagined before. Make our until now moments manifest by your glorious power and your love for your people, and we will be careful to give you all the thanks and all the praise, for you are worthy of it all. In Jesus name, we pray Amen. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Make this your message, make it your desire and your application today to fill your pot to the brim. Ask the Lord for the impossible. Allow him in again. If you’ve asked, keep on asking. We serve a wonderful Savior and it is his pleasure to give good gifts to his children. We’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.
Transcribed by https://podium.page
