Turning Water into Wine
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2012 · 29 January 2012
John’s focus in the beginning of chapter 2 is on the works of Christ because the deeds and the works of Christ also tell us that He is God. It's not just the testimony of other people that is important, but it's the testimony of Christ's life, His words, His personality, His divine knowledge, His actions and the miracles He performed that is the real proof. All of these things prove to us that Christ indeed was God in a human body.
We also looked at the type of miracles that Jesus performed and we saw that in all miracles He always was meeting a basic human need, whether it was thirst, hunger, being blind or being lame. He met humanity at the level of basic needs. Why? The answer is in John 2:11, “What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which He revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.”
And He also sanctified the marriage ceremony by being there and performing this miracle. Marriage is a sacred union and it is, two becoming one in the sight of God. That's why God hates divorce. How fitting was it that the first miracle was at a marriage, because God likens His relationship to the church as that of a bridegroom and a bride.
Just last week we saw how Jesus was told that they ran out of wine at the wedding. And we also saw the response from Jesus towards His mother. Remember that He called her ‘woman’ instead of ‘mother’ so that we can see now that He no longer emphasized his human relationship with her but now as part of His public ministry He emphasized that He was the Son of God, the Messiah.
So let us read what happens next. John 2:6 -11, “Now there were set there six water pots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. 7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the water pots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it.
“9 When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. 10 And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!” 11 This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.”
Now before we look at verse 6, let’s briefly read again what Jesus said in verse 4, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” What would you have done if Jesus said that to you? Did not Jesus refuse to help? Well, Mary got that no-message from Jesus in verse 4 and yet in verse 5 she said to the servants, `Whatever He says to you, do it.'"
She knew He was going to act even though she got a no-message. You know what she did? Listen to this, she read a yes in His no, do you see? He said I'll do it when I'm ready, no, I’ll do it when My time comes. But Mary went ahead anyway and said “when He tells you what to do, do it.” She read a yes in His no.
Martin Luther commented on this as follows, "In our prayers whenever God says no, it could mean ‘not yet’ and so there might be a latent ‘yes’ there." And for every no that God gives there might be a yes somewhere else. Remember David? David said, "God, I'm living in a house of cedar, while You are living in a tent. Let me build You a temple, God, please."
God says, no, I don't want you to, David, you're a man of blood. And David's heart was shattered. That's right. But then God said would you like a yes to go with that no? How would you like an eternal Davidic kingdom? You can't build Me a house but how would You like an everlasting throne? Then God gave David the Davidic Covenant.
You see, whenever God gives a no, do not give up. If you pray to God for one thing and God shuts the door and says no, look around there's a yes somewhere other place. God Himself teaches us in James 5:16 that “the effective and fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” And 1 John 5:14 says, “If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” And Mary read a latent yes in the no.
Now let us look at the supply, we've seen the scene, the situation, now look at the supply and this is very obvious as we look at verses 6 to 10 as we look at the narrative of what happened. "And there were set there six water pots of stone after the manner of the purifying of the Jews."
Now you remember the Jews went through ceremonial cleansing. Before you ate you washed your hands and it wasn't the fact of dirt so much as it was part of a ceremonial cleansing and washing their feet too. Now in order to accommodate all the guests at this big wedding, there had to be a whole lot of water pots. So there were six of them in which the people could purify their hands before they started to eat.
Mark 7:3 says, "For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands observing the traditions of the elders," see. So they were there for that purpose. Now these pots were quite large. It says in the original that they contained two or three ferkins apiece.
Now that strange word "ferkin" is approximately eight and a half gallons which means that each one of those water pots held somewhere between 17 and 25 gallons of water. And if there were six of them, that means there were approximately a hundred to a hundred and fifty gallons of water available when those pots were filled to the brim.
Now in verse 7 Jesus says to them, "Fill the water pots with water, and they filled them to the brim, so there could be nothing added to the water." Now think about that. That's not an easy job, they didn't just take it under the faucet, there was no faucet. There must have been a spring or a well somewhere and a lot of servants had to go traipsing around with whatever they used to carry it and fill up all those water pots.
And they got them all full to the brim, and I don't know what those servants were thinking but I can imagine. In verse 8 Christ said to the servants, "Draw some out now and give it to the master of the feast and they brought it to him." Now the master of the feast is the word architriklinos in Greek and it means head waiter or master waiter.
And he was responsible for all the guests and the seating and all the food and drinks and making sure that everybody was well supplied with everything. And so they took it to him to let him know that they had wine. And so in verse 9, he tastes it and he thinks that's the greatest wine, down in verse 10, that he's ever tasted. Where has it been? You've been serving us the worst first. You can imagine when Christ made that wine, it was good, I mean, it was really really good.
The miracle was the water became wine. Look at verse 9 and 10, "When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine," it just says it was, it doesn't tell how it was, it just says it was. "And he did not know where it was from, the servants knew. He calls the bridegroom in and says...Boy, this is terrific, most people give the good wine first and the bad wine at the end, you've reversed it and this is great."
The miracle was that Christ eliminated all of the natural necessary processes and just changed water into wine. Let's think about this miracle a bit like a modern scientist would. Where does wine come from? Grapes. Where do grapes come from? Vines. Well where do vines come from? Seeds and little vines. Well how do they grow? In the earth. Well what makes them grow? Water and sunlight.
But not this wine, this wine didn't come from any grapes. There never were any grapes. You say, "Wine has to come from grapes." Nope, no grapes here. I'm sure somebody thought, "I wonder where such tasteful grapes were grown." There never were any grapes. No grapes, no vines, no seeds, no dirt, no sun, no water, just wine.
That brothers and sisters, is a true miracle. Christ created wine out of nothing. He eliminated water and created wine. There never were any grapes. There never were any vines. There was no field. Nobody planted them. Nobody cultivated and nobody pressed them down. No. You see, that's a creative miracle, isn't it? Absolutely.
Parallel to this, remember the feeding of the five thousand? Who caught the fish? Nobody. What ocean did they come from? They never swam. Did they have mother and father fish? Nope. What did they eat when they were growing? They never ate. Well who cooked them? Nobody, they were already prepared.
Well what about the loaves of bread, who had the field where the grain grew? Nobody had a field. There was no field. Well who planted the grain? There was no grain. Well who harvests it? Nobody harvests it, there wasn't any grain, there wasn't any field. Well who cooked the loaves? Nobody did, nobody ever rolled the dough or cooked the loaves. That's a creative miracle. Jesus created the fish and created the loaves of bread out of nothing.
Do you know that when you're dealing with Jesus Christ you are dealing with the Creator of the universe? And then some person with a pea brain comes along and says, "Wow, it happened like this, there never was a God, once there was a puddle and lots of electricity and there suddenly was a one-cell thing..."
Don't come to me with any of that nonsense. Evolution cannot explain Christ the Creator. Evolution cannot explain something that comes out of nothing. Christ made wine out of nothing. It's no problem for Him to start with nothing and make a whole world full of everything. The Bible begins with the miracle of God creating the universe before there was anything!
You have just a little creation right there in Cana. No grapes, no vines, no nothing. And you yourself are probably a living illustration that He can make something out of nothing, too. And I mean that in terms of 2 Corinthians 5:17 where it says, "If any man be in Christ he is a new creation." And so am I and so are you if you believe. Jesus Christ is the master creator, He needs nothing.
Well the master waiter was really impressed in verse 9 and he didn't really know where it came from but he was glad that they had kept it till the last. The thing that interests me is what about these servants. You see that little parenthesis? "But the servants who drew the water knew." I wonder why that's included there because when you go down to verse 12 and Jesus leaves this wedding; none of these servants followed Him, just His family and His six disciples.
Now if these servants knew and witnessed this miracle, how come they didn't pick up and follow Jesus Christ? I mean, they saw something unexplainable, they witnessed a creative miracle, right? I’m curious to know what that did to their hearts. But nobody followed Him from that wedding.
How could they miss the Messiah? How could they see a miracle like that and not see who He was? Well, I ask myself that same question every time I preach the gospel. How can people hear who Jesus Christ is and still walk away from Him? This is just the old story of Satan, the god of this world has blinded the minds that do not believe, lest the glorious light of the gospel of Christ should shine on them.
We know the servants did not go with Jesus when He left, they saw the miracle but it didn't matter. Remember a prophet is without honor in His own place. They probably thought to themselves, "Oh, there must be some explanation, this is only Jesus, His mother is Mary and He's been living here for 30 years."
Do you know that his own brothers did not believe that Jesus was the Christ until after the resurrection of Jesus? Even the miracles where He showed total control of all forces in the universe, even bringing back to life Lazarus, and all the teachings did not convince them that Jesus was God.
But look lastly at the significance in verse 11 just briefly. What was the significance of this miracle? Verse 11, "This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested His glory," that's the significance of it. What was the result of such significance? “His disciples believed Him.” No miracle goes without result.
Oh, yes those servants didn't go along with it but those disciples really got their faith confirmed, didn't they? They got rooted. They had heard that He was the Messiah, now they saw proof of that. And Jesus showed them His glory. He let them see a dazzling glimpse of who He really was. That's why He did it, for them. You see, even miracles don't bring people to Jesus Christ unless they're drawn already by God the Father.
In fact, miracles might convince unbelievers to believe in Satan. 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 says, “the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs and lying wonders 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish.” Satan can even do supernatural signs in Revelation 13:13-14, “It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, 14 and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth.”
Are you a disciple already? Do you already love Christ? Then if you already His disciple does this miracle make Him mean more to you than He has before? It did to these disciples. It did to me. I hope that when you've seen the creating Christ here, He means more to you than He did before you heard this.
He supplies every need, doesn't He? You say, "Well I'm not a disciple." Well did you see Him for who He is then? Did you see Him as the Son of God? That's who He is. You just saw His deeds right in those 11 verses. Did you see His glory? Did you catch the dazzle of His brilliance? He's the miracle worker.
He's the one who creates without the aid of anything. And He who turned water into wine can also turn your death into life. He can turn your sorrow into joy; He can turn your pain into peace. He can turn your sin into righteousness. He can turn your judgment into glorification. He can create in you a clean heart. He can make you new.
And if He hasn't brought that miracle of creation in your life, I hope that this evening that you'll meet Him as Savior and let Him recreate you. Let us pray.