In Scott Brown's sermon titled 'He Manifested His Glory,' he explores the first miracle of Jesus as recorded in John 2:1-12, where Jesus turns water into wine at a wedding in Cana. This event marks the beginning of Jesus' public ministry and reveals His glory, prompting His disciples to believe in Him. The sermon contrasts Jesus' approach to ministry with that of John the Baptist, emphasizing Jesus' participation in societal celebrations and His ability to transform ordinary situations into extraordinary revelations of divine power. Brown discusses the significance of Jesus' response to Mary, 'My hour has not yet come,' indicating His focus on divine timing and obedience to God the Father. The sermon also highlights the deeper meanings behind Jesus' miracles, portraying them as signs that point to His identity as the Son of God and His transformative power. Brown encourages believers to continually seek and behold the glory of Jesus, emphasizing that true joy and fulfillment are found in recognizing and embracing His divine nature.

So in Texas John chapter 2 verses 1 through 12 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there Now both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding When they ran out of wine the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine. Jesus said to her, Woman, what does your concern have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, whatever he says to you, do it." Now there were set there six water pots of stone according to the manner of purification of the Jews containing 20 or 30 gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, fill the water pots with water, and they filled them up to the brim.

And he said to them, draw some out now and take it to the master of the feast. And they took it. 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, 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. This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him.

After this he went down to Capernaum, he his mother, his brothers, and his disciples, and they did not say their many days. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we all come here with the same need, Lord. We need more Jesus, Lord. We need to know Him more, or we need to love him more.

Lord, I pray that as we read through this gospel, Lord, that by your grace you would reveal to us more about your character, Lord, that we would just fall more and more in love with Jesus and that it would just change everything about us. Lord I pray that you would just empower and embolden Brother Scott, Lord that you would just give him the words to speak and Lord that as we go through this passage, Lord that we know that your word is a mirror showing us things about our lives. Lord, things that we need to change desperately, Lord, I pray that by your grace you would make us desperate, that we would seek after you, seek after your word, that you might use us mightily. We pray also in your name, amen. Well, in this chapter two of John, we see how Jesus began His public ministry, and He begins it in a really surprising way.

He's really different in terms of the way He's approaching things in terms of John the Baptist, you know, who came neither eating nor drinking. He wore camel's hair. He didn't drink any wine. He was eating locusts and wild honey, and He deprived himself of the comforts of this life, but Jesus is presenting himself in such a sharp contrast. His first miracle here shows him celebrating, and He's at a wedding with his mother and his disciples that he's just collected in the previous chapter, and he's sharing the joys of a wedding with a couple there and his mother.

And while John, you know, spurned wine, Jesus turns water into wine. So the contrast is great. Now, the glory of Jesus Christ is just painted all over every phrase of this passage of Scripture here, speaking of the wedding in Cana. And there are many stopping points that we could make, and we will make, but we don't want to miss the heart of the whole matter. We'll get to that later.

But my whole objective really this morning is that we would somehow behold the beauty of Jesus Christ, that we would open our eyes to see the King in his beauty as Isaiah spoke of in Isaiah 33, and that we would recognize really how tragic it is if someone could say about us, like Mary, the mother of Jesus said, they have no wine, which really is translated, they have no glory from Jesus. They have no joy. They don't have Him. And so I pray that we would have sight of the glory of God and that we would delight in it. Now, the whole gospel of John is written that you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that you might have life in His name.

And I think that John is just continuing to pile up reasons to believe in Jesus Christ. And, you know, One of the questions that I've been asking in this journey through the gospel of John is, what would it take for you to believe? What would you have to know about Jesus? What would you have to see to believe him and love him and want to glorify him and him alone for the rest of your life. Well, John is answering that question.

And you know, would it be enough for you to know that Jesus Christ takes water and turns it into wine. And if you believe that, what would happen? And that's really the heart of the Christian life. Now, there are many things that I think can distract us from the main message that's here. We could talk about the wedding itself.

It is glorious. Jesus performs his first miracle at a wedding. You know what God did at the beginning? The Bible begins with the wedding of Adam and Eve, And then Jesus Christ comes and he becomes the bridegroom of his church. And then the whole Bible ends with a wedding.

The wedding supper of the lamb. Weddings are prominent, but I don't think that's what this passage is really about. We could talk about Mary, the mother of the Messiah, Jesus. You know, we could talk about the Roman doctrine of Mary, that she's the co-mediator, that she mediates between God and man and can forgive sins. We could say that that's not what this is teaching.

Or we could talk about the disciples who came to Jesus, brand new disciples, right off the boat, and they saw his first miracle at a wedding. It must have marveled them. We could think about the servants. I really am taken by the servants. They knew what happened.

They knew. We could talk about the fact of wine and its meaning in the Bible. There's a whole doctrine of wine in the Bible. I recognize some of you have grown up hearing preachers say that when Jesus turned water into wine, he made it into grape juice because he would never turn water into wine. Well, that's not the point of this passage either, although we could have a long discussion about wine.

We could talk about the master of the feast. One of my favorite characters in this story, he was stunned. He saw something so countercultural, He saw something that blew his mind because something happened that he hadn't seen before, right? Because most people serve the good wine first and they wait for everybody to get drunk and then they can't tell. That's the world he grew up in, you know, and that's how people used it.

Well, he saw something totally different. And then we could talk about the bridegroom. He gets all the credit for it. He didn't do anything. The bridegroom gets the credit for it.

So there are remarkable things rolling through this whole passage, but there really is one central message that Jesus is communicating in the midst of all these things about weddings and servants and wine and things like that. He's revealing the glory of Jesus Christ. And he's really expounding. He's making a commentary on what he's already said in the first part of chapter one. We be held as glory.

Glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. That's what this whole story is all about. Now, You know, as we are reading the Gospel of John, as we're going through it together as a congregation, which has been such a delight to me and a help to my heart. But you know, when you read the Gospel of John, here's one question you should ask of every phrase. Are you ready?

One interpretive grid, one question to ask. How do I see his glory? How is the glory of Jesus being demonstrated? Let that be the primary interpretive question that you use to understand this gospel. So John wants everyone to know what Jesus is all about.

Now, also I think there's a flow in John's gospel. He's logical. He's thought this through. He's a very old man now. He's writing it down.

He's the last gospel writer. He's read the other gospel writers, most likely. And now he's framing the last testimony, canonical testimony of Jesus. And so in this section, just so that you understand the flow, it begins with in Cana and ends in Cana in chapter 4 verse 54. So what this disclosure of the glory of Jesus has contours to it that actually begin and end in Cana.

And here we have water being turned into wine, which means Jesus makes things new. He transforms. And then at the end of chapter two, Jesus cleanses the temple, telling us that there's a new temple. He's making a new temple of his body. And then in chapter three, he speaks to Nicodemus and we now we learn that there's a new birth.

You must be born again. You can be born, you will be born, but have you been born again? A new birth. And then in chapter four you have the woman at the well whom Jesus encounters and he tells her of a new way to worship, something she didn't know anything about. She knew the functions of worship, but she didn't know about the new worship of Jesus, worship in spirit and in truth.

So Jesus, in this journey that starts in Cana and ends in Cana he's he's really declaring his glory that he makes all things new. He's making everything new. And so as you can see in your outline, I've divided this into two major sections. The first section is what happened, and then the second section is in the last two verses, 10 and 11, why it happened. So that'll be how I'll try to move through this passage of Scripture.

So let's take up this narrative from the very beginning. Look in verse one and you'll see the setting. Verses one and two set the stage for how Jesus is going to declare His glory. And so we read in verse 1, on the third day there was a wedding of Cana in Canaan of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding.

Now Cana is six miles north of Nazareth. We see Jesus as part of the society in his region. He goes to a wedding. He makes his presence known. He's been invited to a wedding along with his mother, and he's just one of the crowd.

He's just one of the crowd in a celebration, a wedding celebration. And his mother is there, and his disciples were invited. It's probably the first five disciples that we read about just recently in the previous chapter. These weddings were big occasions. They could last for a week and A lot often the the whole town was invited So it was quite an event You know the bride and the groom would recite the song of Solomon as bear as embarrassing as that may seem to you, they would do that in these Jewish weddings.

But you know one commentator said that Jesus is the joy-bringer. He comes to the wedding and he brings the joy. You know when people come to a wedding they're always bringing something. Well what do you bring? Well Jesus brings the joy, he brings the new wine.

And then then this crisis Breaks out we read about in verse 3 and and when they ran out of wine The mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. So this is a big mess. They ran out. This is an embarrassment. An incident like this, you know, would cast shame on the bridegroom, maybe for the rest of his life.

They thought this was a bigger deal in Jewish weddings. I read somewhere that in Jewish law, you could bring a lawsuit against a bridegroom who didn't provide enough for the wedding. That would sound odd, but this wedding culture was different. You know, every, you know, whatever time you live in, there's kind of a wedding culture, right? Yeah, there's a wedding culture.

There's one that we exist in now. Jesus was participating in this wedding culture. Mary, I don't know if Mary has a role in the wedding or not. You know, was she some kind of a wedding coordinator or was she just worried about it? But In this wedding, you have people that are helping to pull off the wedding.

You have these servants. It's kind of like what happens in our church when we have a wedding. There's a lot of people at help. It's really neat. It's a beautiful thing.

But there are things, there are sometimes when things don't work out like they're planned and you get put in a difficult position. So that's what was happening here. This is a crisis. And then Jesus responds to his mother. Jesus said to her, woman, What does your concern have to do with me?

My hour has not yet come." So he calls her a woman. Now, those who are very highly sensitive, maybe over sensitive to various manifestations of sexism and male domination and things like that, this is not what's happening here. That's not what this is. When Jesus uses this term, it's not a denigrating term at all. He uses this term with the woman at the well, you know, speaking tenderly to her.

He uses this term when he's on the cross and he refers to his mother and gives his mother into the care of John the Apostle. This is not this is not like saying, woman stop it! That's not what it was like at all I think it was more a term of just recognition of who she was you know this term was used of the syrophoenician woman as well And so Jesus is addressing her as woman, and Jesus is telling her that His hour has not yet come. You know, in God's timeline, what He seems to be thinking she's asking is not the time for it. But it may be very important that Jesus calls her woman.

You might just consider this. In Genesis 3.15, we read that it's the seed of the woman which would crush the serpent's head and That's why in Genesis 3 we read and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel." It's possible that Jesus is telling his mother that his time has not yet come. And Mary, Mary of course she knows probably more than anyone about the identity of Jesus Christ because angels have appeared to her and told her what was going on with Jesus and You know In Luke chapter 135 the angel Says to her the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore also, that holy one who is to be born will be called the Son of God." When Jesus calls his mother woman, I don't know if we should take it necessarily as a rebuke.

I think It's possible that we ought to take it in the context and flow of Scripture of what was revealed about Mary and the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God. That the seed of the Messiah would pass through the seed of the woman from Eve all the way, all the way to Mary, Jesus would, God would preserve the seed of the woman. He would preserve the faith from one generation to the next and Mary would give birth to the Messiah and the seed of the woman, in this case Jesus Christ himself, would bruise the head of the serpent. In other words, he would destroy the works of the devil in my life and in your life. And he would take action to root out remaining sin.

He would first of all forgive us of our sins. And he would destroy the works of the devil. He would bruise the serpent's head. The serpent's head needs to be destroyed. And in my life and in yours.

And so it's likely that this narrative is revealing that. And then Jesus says, what does your concern have to do with me? And this is a difficult phrase, actually. Literally, it's difficult to interpret, because what it literally means is, what is this to me to you? What is this to me to you?" That's the Greek phraseology.

And the meaning when it's used in the Bible, and by the way, this phrase is used five times in the New Testament. Every time it's spoken by a demon to Jesus, and the demons are basically saying, don't mess with us. This is not, we do not want you to mess with us. We, and so I think The meaning most likely is this, Mary, mother, this is not your domain. You shouldn't be dealing with this.

And Jesus is saying to his mother, you should not come to me for this. This is not your business. Quite likely it's that. Now, there are other ways that people have interpreted this, but check it out and consider that. I think that at least it's the view that I've just presented, you know, can be considered.

But One aspect of Jesus' glory, I believe, is revealed here in this interaction with his mother, and that is that Jesus glorifies his father by being obedient to him. Jesus is the obedient son of his father and he's under the direction of his father and he's not swayed by his family ties. He's demonstrating his glory and his obedience to his Father to fulfill the hour, which is yet to come. His hour is not yet come. So he's being obedient.

And I believe you can see one manifestation of Jesus glory And that he's not pushed and pulled by his family He is he's being Directed by his father to fulfill his hour. So he says my hour has not yet come You know, so what does what does that mean? This phrase occurs in many places in the Gospels, and His hour is during the time of his passion and death and resurrection. And I think Jesus is saying to his mother, I can't be pulled from my father's plan. And Jesus makes the same statement, my hour has not yet come, in chapter seven, verses six through eight.

Jesus' brothers recognize that they're people that want to kill Him, and the brothers want Him to show His glory, and Jesus says to them, my hour has not yet come. He wasn't willing to reveal himself. Another time, John uses the phrase in John 7, verse 30, where Jesus is in the temple, and people want to capture them, they have a plan. They've hatched a plot to capture him, but then they couldn't. They couldn't.

It says they couldn't lay hands on him. Why? Because his hour had not yet come. And then in John 8 verse 20, he was proclaiming that he was God in the flesh and he was saying, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father, he's declaring this and the Jews want to lay hands on him. And we read that same phrase, but they couldn't do it because his hour had not yet come.

And then in John 13 verse 1 in the Last Supper we encounter this phrase again and then we find what Jesus meant by this. Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come, that he would depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. His hour is the time of his death and resurrection and his return to his father. And we see the same thing in John 17, can't wait to get there in our working through the gospel of John where Jesus is praying for his disciples and he lifts up his eyes to heaven, and he says, Father, the hour has come. So when Jesus is saying these words to his mother, my hour has not yet come, He's making it clear to her that there is something in the future where he will glorify himself completely.

Now, And the glory of Jesus is that he came to do the will of his Father. And his life was ordered according to a predetermined plan. And in that sense, Jesus' life was not his own. He came to do his Father's will. You see the glory of Jesus Christ and his obedience to his Father.

And everything, everything rests in the hands of a sovereign God. And this is true not just of Jesus' life, this is also true of your life. Every step of your life is meant to be determined by the sovereign hand of God. David said our times are in his hands and our our days are numbered and you know just the other night I was reading Psalm 139 to Deborah before we went to bed. And It says there that all of your days have been fashioned for you, and they've been written in his book.

All of your days, everything you've ever done, everything you're doing now, They've all been written in a book. Isn't that amazing? I hope that's comforting to you. You know, you look at yourself and you say, oh, I wish I was this way, or I wish I was that way, I wish I was a better mother or a leader, or I wish I was a better pastor, or something like that. But you know, wherever you are right now, it's been written in a book.

It's God's book. And God is bringing many sons to glory in the process of all of the difficulties that we might face. So he's manifesting his glory. Have you seen his glory? Do you know the sight of his glory?

That's what Jesus really is driving at here. Your eyes will see the King and his beauty. That's the heart of this whole text. And then Mary speaks to the servants, and I love this part. And Mary, this is in verse 5, his mother said to the servants, whatever he says to you, do it.

There you go. Now that's a mission statement right there Whatever he says to you do it you can't miss if you You know receive the implanted word with meekness and you seek to do it you can't you can't lose in that Whatever he says to you do it. This is the most life-giving message you can ever say to yourself, your spouse, your children, your friend, your fellow church member, whatever he says, do it. And so we have this responsibility to obey. The heart of the Christian life is really to submit to Jesus Christ.

And then Jesus does a really surprising thing in view of what he's just said to his mother. It seemed like he's saying he would have nothing to do with the problem at the wedding, you know. Quit bothering me. You know, I'm not doing, this is not my time. It seems like that's where he's headed with this, but he surprises us.

And then he, It almost seems like he's contradicting what he just said to his mom and he's and he does it he does something about the wine that's been that's been drunk and it's there's no more of it and It's like It's like he's saying to his mother, I'm not going to do what you're thinking. My hour is not yet come, but I'm going to give you a sign of of what my hour is all about. I'm going to give you a glimpse of it. I'm going to show you some of my glory, mother, dear mother." And so then Jesus requests the filling of the six waterpots. What a shocker!

He's going to do something about the wine that's gone. And in verses 6 through 8 you see this, and so there were six water pots of stone according to the manner of purification, that's important to note, of the Jews containing 20 to 30 gallons a piece. Now these water pots were for purification and so the use of these water pots was described they were stone water pots and not clay. Why were they stone and not clay? Well, clay emits impurities.

Stone doesn't. And these were used for Jewish ritual purification rites. These were not your classic drinking jugs. They were large pots made out of stone. Interestingly enough, I was reading last week that archaeologists recently discovered a quarry in Israel really close to Nazareth, and where stone waterpots were made.

And so they had quarries where they manufactured these stone waterpots. And the waterpots aren't described in the Bible, I don't believe, but when the second temple was built, the ceremonial laws of washings expanded exponentially. And by the time Jesus appears, they are washing for about everything they had expanded the scope of the law that was revealed through Moses but these these pots weren't for drinking they were used for bathing and washing. Now there were two kinds of washings that the people of God were engaging in when Jesus came. And this is, I believe this is critical to interpret the meaning of the type of glory that Jesus is declaring here.

The first were the washings of the Old Covenant, the ones that Moses prescribed. Like for example in Exodus 40 verses 30 through 34, Aaron and his sons washed before they came into the tent of meeting. And in Leviticus chapter 11 verses 24 through 28, after someone touched a carcass they would have they would wash. In Leviticus 13 verse 6 if there was an infection and the priests called for inspection of it They would call for washing of the clothes. So there were these washings that the children of Israel, being obedient to the law of Moses, engaged in.

But there was another kind of washing that was taking place when Jesus came and these were additions You remember if you get to the end of the book of Revelation God says cursed are those who add or subtract from the law well the Jews were adding to the law, and they added all kinds of washings. And Mark 7, please open your Bibles to Mark 7, we see the conflict that Jesus had with these additions to the law. And the whole principle we're working here with is that God, only God can determine His worship. You don't add or subtract to what He's prescribed in worship. So in Mark chapter 7, Jesus is actually, he's really declaring the emptiness of man's traditions.

And So you get more insight on what the Jews were doing with their water pots and with their washings. Verse 1, then the Pharisees and some of the scribes came together to him having come from Jerusalem. Now then they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is, with unwashed hands. They found fault, for the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in a special way." Now get this, holding to the tradition of the elders, in other words not Moses, at added traditions. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash.

And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches. Then the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands? You see, the disciples, They were walking according to the law of Moses, but they weren't walking according to the additional inventions of the Pharisees and Jesus answered and he said to them Did not did Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, the washing of pitchers and cups and many other such things.

And he said to them, all too well you reject the commandment of God that you might keep your tradition. And then Jesus right after that, he gives an illustration of how their traditions actually were contradicting the way that love works in a family where you set aside, you know, resources for your aging parents. You take care of your parents. And the Pharisees created this procedure, this law, where it was more righteous to give the money to the church than care for your family. And Jesus is saying your traditions are messing up your family.

So anyway, you have these two kinds of laws that Jesus is dealing with here. There are the washings of the Old Covenant, and then there are the additions to the law that He's addressing. Now, there are two things I want us to see. First of all, Jesus was showing the inadequacy of the old covenant and the laws that, you know, man's sins aren't atoned for by the blood of bulls and goats. Those are just signs of Jesus.

And Jesus is replacing all the ceremonial washings and He's saying, I will wash away your sins. He's replacing the legitimate ceremonial law of the Old Covenant. And so he's showing the inadequacy of it, but and he's declaring himself that he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, that the washings and the sacrifices of the Old Covenant are now abrogated. So when Jesus is performing this miracle at the wedding of Cana, he's declaring the end of the ceremonial law, but he's going further than that. And he's also exposing the bankruptcy and the unprofitability and the emptiness of the additions to the law.

And so these water pots signify the emptiness of the traditions of man and also the sufficiency of Jesus Christ, who is the Lamb of God, the only Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He's the only one who can take your sin and put it in the bottom of the ocean or separate it as far as the east is from the west or to stomp on it or burn it or throw it behind his back because that's what God does with sins of sinners who repent. Now it's interesting, you know, maybe it's interesting to you there are six water pots. Now in the Bible, the number six is the number of incompleteness. Seven is the number of completeness.

I don't know if that's being communicated here, but it's quite likely that Jesus does what the jars cannot do. And I believe that this is giving us a vision of what Paul would say to the Romans in Romans 8 where he said, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and then he says for what the law could not do weak as it was through the flesh God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin he condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." In other words, Jesus Christ and his work of the Spirit, His new wine is what is being communicated. This is his glory. The inadequacy of all of man's laws to save. And he's describing, He's describing the joy of those who really thirst for true nourishment.

So I think Jesus is saying, your traditions, they're not your provisions. I am. And This regeneration is a regenerating thing. This is this new wine. Now, then Jesus, the master of the feast, tastes the wine in verse 9.

When The master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine. He did not know where it came from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew." Just let that sink in for a minute. The servants knew, but the master of the feast didn't know. You know? You know, how often did Jesus, when he did something remarkable like this, he would say, don't tell anybody.

You know, Jesus' glory will spread in the hearts of true servants. And I believe they did here, but the Master of the Feast didn't know. You see this theme all over the ministry of Jesus. You already know what it is. You know exactly what I'm going to say.

It's the little people that Jesus reveals himself to. It's the servants. It's the shepherds. It's not the powerful. He reveals himself to humble people.

And this is what he did here. And he doesn't reveal his glory to those who are in charge. And only a few know, just the lowly servants. But the master of the feast, he was so impressed by the wine he calls over the bridegroom and so in this next scene of this story amazingly the bridegroom gets praised for something he didn't even do the master of the feast says whoa that was good wine you are amazing and I'm sure you know I don't know what we don't know what the response was, but most likely if he was like you or me, he would say, oh yes, I know. I am amazing.

But the master of the feast thought he was amazing, but it wasn't the bridegroom that was really amazing. It was Jesus Christ who is the true bridegroom of the church. You know, this wasn't a perfect bridegroom either. You know, the wine ran out. He committed the unpardonable wedding sin.

And you don't let the wine run out. He failed to provide. And bridegrooms sometimes fail in their duties as bridegrooms. Have you noticed that? You know, you who were bridegrooms and are still husbands.

But Jesus, Jesus actually atones for the bridegroom's failure. That's amazing. And then the head waiter there, the master of the feast, he shows the meaning of the miracle in verse 10. 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." Now the head waiter knows how weddings work. He knows how social gatherings work.

You know, In the world, you get the people drunk and you give them the good wine and then you can bring out the poor wine because no one will know the difference. That's what you do. That's how it works in this world. But here, this bridegroom, he completely overturns culture. He's not doing it like everybody else.

That's Jesus. He doesn't do it like everybody else. And, you know, Jesus continues to give the best wine. He's not like the devil who gives you a little taste and then things become tasteless over time. That's what the devil does.

You know there are actually some studies you know that have been conducted on this whole matter of this culture of pornography that we have that the more the more The more that it's tasted the less taste for true intimacy there is and actually the less Intimacy there is in a person's life. It actually declines. That's the way the devil is. He serves up a little and then it gets worse, but not Jesus. His wine is ever tasting better and better And that's the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

And then we find the significance of the sign in verse 11. This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him. Now, this is the heart of the text. He manifested his glory. That's what this is all about.

Don't get caught up in marrying wine and weddings. You know, those, it's fascinating that this is the context of it but but his this is the heart of this narrative he manifested his glory and John calls this the beginning of signs he doesn't use the word miracle here There are other words that are used for miracle, wonder, and there is a word specifically for miracle, but this is the word sign. And a sign is something that points to something else. Jesus did not do this miracle to be nice Primarily to the bridegroom. He didn't do it to make the wedding guests happy He didn't just want to you know, pray like your children pray.

Oh, I pray that everybody would be happy." That's not what he was doing. He was declaring his glory and he did save a wedding but he didn't turn the water into wine to save a wedding. He turned the water into wine to declare his glory. And this miracle is a historical fact, but it's also a parable of the glory of God. And also, mark this, Every miracle that Jesus ever does has a double meaning.

Every miracle. This miracle isn't for the purpose of the miracle. He's God. He can do anything He wants. It astonishes us that He would do that, but that's nothing to him.

He created the worlds. I love that phrase in Genesis. And he created the stars. That's it. He created the stars.

He's remarkable. He can do anything. But it's not the remarkable nature of it that I think should really grip us, and that he is declaring his own glory. And you know, if you were with us from the beginning of this study, you know that John has recorded seven signs of his glory, and this is the first sign. And the signs are to help us look away in some ways from the miracle and look to his glory.

The signs point us, don't get too wrapped up in the miracle. That's not the main point. He can do any kind of miracle and this very same thing happens in the feeding the 5, 000 he feeds the 5, 000 why because he's the bread of life He in chapter 9 there's this man born blind and he gains his sight. Why? Because Jesus Christ is the light of the world.

He raises Lazarus from the dead in John 11 Why why is he doing that? It is amazing. His body was stinking And he was raised from the dead, that's not the point. The point is, he says, I'm the resurrection and the life. So the miracles are just pointers, just like doors and skies and rivers and lambs, everything points to something of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So there's lots of glory here. This narrative is packed with glory. The gospel is being communicated at a wedding. It's being displayed through a woman in the seed of the woman. It's being demonstrated in a crisis of supply that Jesus supplies.

So there are many glories of this whole matter. You see his power over nature. You see man's insufficiency and God's insufficiency to do what is good for mankind. And what you find Jesus doing is what man can't do. Jesus does in you what you can't do.

And I think that's really the whole point of his glory. When you see his glory and his goodness, things happen in you that you cannot do, but only he can because he has a supreme ability to transform the ordinary thing, like water, into wine. And this really is fundamentally a declaration that Jesus Christ is both God and man. And he is the omnipotent Son of God is at a wedding just like every other guest. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

And we beheld as glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And as the Son of God and the Son of Man, as the mediator, as the one who's fully God and fully man, which John went to great lengths to describe in the first 18 verses, we see Jesus Christ as the mediator and, you know, with one hand, Jesus has His hand upon God in everything of heaven and all the power and authority of heaven. And then He also has his other hand on sinful man needing a savior. He is the mediator between God and man. He is fully God and he is fully man.

He did not lay aside one ounce of his heavenly glory. He assumed manhood and that's what we find him doing. He takes on human flesh and he goes to weddings and he walks on roads and this was by the way the greatest point of contention that Jesus had with the Pharisees, that Jesus Christ is God. This is what made everyone want to kill Him, that Jesus Christ is God and man. And this is why the miracles were so offensive to them because with every miracle he was declaring himself to be fully God, but he was also fully man.

This was terribly offensive to him, and he walked on their roads and he went in their synagogues and into their homes and he performed his miracles to declare that he was the Son of God. He was truly God and he was truly man. And there's an infinite distance between sinful man and a holy God, but Jesus Christ has condescended and he has come and he's laid his hand in heaven and on earth because he is fully God and he is fully man. And this is why the stripping of Jesus Christ of his deity and have his of his heavenly glory is so disastrous if we if we strip him of his divinity we cannot see his glory and who he really is And this is exactly what Islam has done. This is what Mormonism has done.

This is what Jehovah's Witness has done. They've stripped him of his glory, of his divinity. And they've said, well, that was a nice miracle. Isn't it wonderful? Isn't he good?

But the miracles aren't really all about that. The miracles are nothing for him to do. He does them to declare his glory. And, you know, people are saved by admiring the glory of Jesus Christ, who declared that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, and He came to save sinners. And people are saved by believing and receiving and adoring and obeying Jesus Christ.

And here, Jesus Christ is declaring his glory. And that's what it means to follow Jesus Christ, to behold his glory. Glory is of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. And I pray that as a church, we would have one single mission, and that is to behold the glory of Jesus Christ and then to speak of it as I'm sure those servants did because the world knows now what the servants knew. He declares his glory to the smallest of all.

Now I want to just end with a story about one of the great missionaries. That's the 300 year anniversary of his life. He was a young man, David Brainerd. You know, David Brainerd Died when he was 28 years old, you know, you might just think about that yourself. Some of you are right around 28 and David Brainerd died right at that time He was a missionary to the Indians He spent the last days of his life in the home of Jonathan Edwards And then he died there Jonathan Edwards published his biography later on and It became you know one of the most well most well-read missionary biographies and some say he was part of really launching the modern missionary movement but you know David Brainerd was known as an unusually passionate follower of Jesus Christ very intense in his devotion and 2018 is the 300 year anniversary of his death.

But anyway, when he was 21 years old, he was in college, he was at Yale, and he writes something in his journal that I think gets to the heart of everything that we've just encountered in Jesus, declaring his glory through the turning of water into wine. He goes out into the countryside really to meet with God. He did this quite a bit. He would just go and wander in the wilderness and pray to God. And he writes this, one day I remember in particular, I think it was June 1740, I walked a considerable distance in the fields alone at noon, and in prayer found such unspeakable sweetness and delight in God that I thought, if I must continue still in this evil world, I wanted always to be there to behold God's glory.

My soul dearly loved all mankind and longed exceedingly that they should enjoy what I enjoyed." That's the source of all enjoyment. To enjoy the glory of Jesus Christ is the supreme enjoyment in all of life. Everything else is a dark shadow that fades, but the glory of Jesus Christ never fades. And so Jesus manifests His glory and His disciples believed in Him. Have you beheld His glory?

Do you know it personally in your heart? Do you love to behold His glory? That's really the essence of Christianity. And I just can't help but saying that, but to also ask, what would it take for you to believe in Jesus and love him? Would it help to see the miracle of the turning of water into wine?

Well that's why this miracle is placed here. Would you pray with me? Lord, Lord we thank you for your magnificent mercy towards sinners that you would you would take the inadequate unworthy sinners and turn their water into wine. We praise you for your glory and, oh Lord, I pray that in this church you would do a miracle here And you would make a church where the people only care about beholding your glory and making sure that everyone would enjoy what we've enjoyed. Amen.