John 2:1-11 (Sermon Outline)
Sermon Outline
John 2:1-11
I. Opening illustration:
a. It must be about 20 years now, that I remember going down to Mexico with some of the men from the Fellowship Group that Lyndsey and I were hosting at our apartment as Newly Weds. I will never forget the drive back home across the border, as I was with one of the young believers from our fellowship group, and as we were spending time together he was talking about how he has such a desire to be married to a godly woman and to settle down.
b. And I remember he and I began praying specifically for his future wife that moment. We spent several minutes in prayer as we inched our way back across the boarder that day. I will never forget that day, because it was only a couple of years later that he and his future wife would end up getting married.
c. But what was so significant about that day, is that my friend later found out, on that same day that he and I were praying for his wife as we were coming back from our one day mission trip to Mexico, his future wife was in her wedding dress getting ready to get married. However, that day that she had been waiting her entire life for, that day that she dreamed about, and planned for, for so long, that day that she was going to be the beautiful princess bride, was shattered into a million pieces as she had got word that she had been left at the altar. Her fiancé never showed up, and ended up skipping town on her. She was heart-broken and humiliated. She could have never known at that moment that this was all God’s doing and that He had such a better plan for her life, and that the husband that He had for her had been praying specifically for her that very day, that very day when she needed prayer the most, her future husband was praying for her.
d. Again, it would be a couple of years later before the Lord revealed to her what great things He had planned on doing in her life that day that everything seemingly fell apart.
e. The reason I share this amazing story with you today is because this is the type of life-situation we find ourselves in this morning as we enter into a wedding celebration in the town of Cana.
II. Introduction: This morning we will be looking at one of the most well known miracles in all of God’s Word, which is where Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding in the town of Cana. As we read through this encounter we are going to discover that the big idea of this passage of Scripture is the fact that if Jesus has the ability to transform the very elements of creation, without speaking a word, or lifting a finger, He most certainly has the ability to transform our life and any difficult circumstance we may find ourselves in as we journey through life with Him. And so today the question we will be answering is: How can Jesus transform our life?
III. Message: If you would please stand in honor of reading God’s Word we are going to be looking at John 2:1-11 together.
READ: John 2:1-11
a. How can Jesus transform our life? We’ve got to be willing to do WHATEVER Jesus says (2:1-5)
i. In (v.1) we read that it was the 3rd day, which is indicating the 3rd day since Jesus began His public ministry. And I find it interesting that it was on the 3rd day that Jesus would also perform His first sign or miracle, which is symbolic of the fact that it would be on the 3rd day that Jesus would perform His greatest sign and most important miracle by raising from the dead. And so it is on the 3rd day that Jesus begins demonstrating to the world that He truly is God walking among us.
ii. In this passage we see that Jesus and His disciples have been invited to a wedding. Jesus’s mother, Mary appears to be involved in the wedding, which may indicate that it is the wedding of a family member or at least a family friend. But as Jesus and His disciples arrive, they show up right as something terrible happens; the hosts run out of wine. Running out of wine is a big deal! It’s the groom’s responsibility to provide fitting hospitality to all of the invited guests. To run out of wine is insulting to everyone who’s there. No one can run to the grocery store and pick up some more beverages. They’re stuck – out of luck.
iii. And so Mary walks over and explains to Jesus the situation: “They have no wine.” Mary isn’t sharing the latest gossip with Jesus. She is sincerely seeking His help to find a solution. But He responds in a surprising way by saying, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come yet.” (v.4).
iv. LOOKING ON THE NEXT SLIDE: (2:4) “My Hour” - As we travel through the Gospel of John, the “hour” Jesus refers to is an underlying theme that guides our journey. In chapter 7 John adds this note: “Then they tried to seize Him. Yet no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come” (7:30). We find a similar statement in chapter 8. At the end of chapter 12, after Jesus has made his final, triumphal entry into Jerusalem and he is preparing to lay his life down as the perfect Passover lamb, he says to his disciples, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (12:23). The hour is the time of his suffering and death. The hour is the pinnacle of human history, when the perfect Son of God became sin for us so that we might be made right with God. The hour is the reason Jesus came to earth. He came to offer his life on the cross for our sin. He was born for this hour. He was born to die.
v. Another interesting fact from (v.4) is that Jesus addresses His mother as “woman”. If one of us called our moms “mother” it would be disrespectful, but in that culture this title was not mean, rude, or disrespectful. In fact, It’s the same way Jesus would address Mary when He’s dying on the cross: “When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple He loved standing there, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, here is your son’” (John 19:26). In that context Jesus called Mary “woman” while caring for his mother. He made sure she would be cared for after His death.
vi. This title is not disrespectful, but it does demonstrate less attachment than another title might. Jesus could say, “Mother,” but he doesn’t. I think what is happening here is that Mary has to learn to approach Jesus like everyone else now, someone in need of a Savior. Now that His ministry has begun, their relationship has fundamentally changed. No matter who you are, there’s only one way to come to Jesus, as a desperate sinner in need of help, and with faith that Jesus is the one that can help you.
vii. And so this conversation is setting us up for Jesus’ first sign, or miracle, but before we look at that, I want to remind you that the real purpose behind this story is that if Jesus has the ability to transform water into wine, He most certainly has the ability to transform you and me. But in order to experience that transformation we have got to be willing to obey Jesus. And it is this idea that reveals to us the first answer to this mornings big question.
viii. How can Jesus transform our life? We’ve got to be willing to do WHATEVER Jesus says (2:1-5)
ix. We see in this verse that Mary instructs the servants at the wedding celebration to do “whatever” Jesus instructs them to do. Mary doesn’t really know what Jesus plans on doing at this point, at least the Bible doesn’t tell us this. But whatever Jesus tells these humble servants to do, they must do it.
x. Guys, this is the best advice that we can ever give to one another. Do whatever Jesus tells you to do!
xi. Again, the Big Idea of this Gospel is the importance of believing in Jesus and then demonstrating our belief by following Jesus, and in order to follow Jesus, we have to obey Jesus. In fact, looking on the next slide we will see that later on in John’s Gospel, Jesus will equate our love for Him in our ability to obey Him. In John 14:23, Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep my word; and My Father will love him and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”
xii. And so we see that our obedience to Jesus as we follow Jesus is essential to our faith, as Jesus is not concerned with our verbal affirmation of love, He is more concerned with our outward demonstration of love by obeying Him.
xiii. As we continue on with our next passage we are going to see that Jesus first miracle was making a powerful symbolic statement about the fact that things would never be the same for those who choose to follow God. We are going to see that Jesus came to do a new thing with the human race.
xiv. And it’s this idea that has inspired the 2nd answer to this mornings Big Question.
b. How can Jesus transform our life? We have to allow Jesus to do a NEW work in our life (2:6-10)
i. What we are going to see now, is that if we don’t allow Jesus to do a New thing in our life, it will be impossible for us to follow Jesus and experience the Life Transformation that God desires to do in us.
ii. READ: John 2:6-10
iii. This being the very first sign that Jesus would perform, would speak enormous volumes to the Jews in Jesus’ day. You see, everything Jesus did, He did with a purpose. Jesus is seen transforming the water set aside for the Jewish rites of purification into the wine symbolic of the presence of the messianic age.
1. Isaiah 25:6, Amos 9:13-14, and Hosea 14:7 all speak of this.
2. Jeremiah 31:12 says; “Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, streaming to the goodness of the LORD. For wheat and new wine and oil, for the young of the flock and the herd; their souls shall be like a well-watered garden, and they shall sorrow no more at all.”
i. And so turning water into wine is a powerful symbol that Jesus is giving to Israel at this wedding feast. In (v.6) we read that the wedding party ran out of wine. Not only was John establishing the fact that the Messiah had arrived, the empty water jars used for purification symbolized the spiritual barrenness of first-century Judaism, especially against an OT background that viewed wine (but not drunkenness) as a sign of joy and God’s blessing (cf. Ps. 104:15).
ii. (vv.7-8) Jesus instructs 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." In (vv.9-10) the Bible informs us that when the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, he couldn’t believe that they had saved the very best wine for last.
iii. There are several powerful truths that we can take away from this passage.
1. The servants that Jesus used were nobody's, establishing the fact that Jesus will use anybody (2:5). I find it interesting that Jesus didn't use one of his disciples to be a part of this first miracle (2:5)
2. The servants that Jesus used had no power in and of themselves. The only thing they could do was obey what Jesus said, and Jesus took care of the rest (2:5). This is a good reminder for us not to rely upon our own strength and ability, but upon God’s.
3. By being faithful to what Jesus had called them to do, they were the vessels Jesus used to turn water into wine. There would have been no wine made, if the servants wouldn't have been faithful to pour the water into the six stone water jars (2:6-8).
4. They had to take multiple steps of obedient faith in order to be apart of God's miraculous work. Not only did they have to have obedient faith to "fill the jars with water" (2:7), they had to put their faith to the test, and risk everything at the party by drawing some water out and "taking it to the master of the feast" (2:8). What a risk this was! What public ridicule they could have experienced if it had only been water. What chastening they could have received from their master if Jesus wouldn't have come through.
5. But in this passage we see that when we are faithful servants, God can use us to turn water into wine. Or in other words, when we are out of options, we can invite Jesus in as our option, and allow Him to change our circumstances. Jesus wants to take our ordinary life and turn it into something that blesses others where our influence over them will be as sweet as wine and bring joy into their lives.
6. Lastly, we see that when Jesus is invited into our life-situations and celebrations, He makes good things even better. Everything is better when Jesus is leading things.
7. Let’s move onto our final verse for this morning, where we will that when we follow Jesus and we obey Jesus, it will lead us to greater faith in Jesus. This is the final answer to this mornings’ big question that we will be unpacking right now.
c. How can Jesus transform our life? Our relationship with Jesus should lead to GREATER faith in Jesus (2:11)
i. READ: John 2:11
ii. This story ends with an editorial comment by John in (v.11). There are three key words in v.11: signs, glory, and believe. John chooses to use the word “signs” as opposed to miracles, even though the sign Jesus performed was in fact an unbelievable miracle than only God Himself could have performed. But to use the word signs is significant because it not only points to God’s supernatural power, but it goes beyond the miracle itself to point us a deeper reality which can only be understood through the eyes of faith. And here we read that this sign caused His disciples to believe in Him.
IV. Life Application:
a. The result of the servants being obedient and walking in faith is five-fold.
i. They honored Jesus by obeying Him (2:6-8)
ii. They experienced God working in and through their lives (2:7-8)
iii. They were a blessing to everyone (2:9-10)
iv. They enabled God to be glorified (2:11)
v. They inspired greater faith in Jesus (2:11)
