Changing You From the Inside

Transcript

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[0:00] All right. Well, now it's time for our sermon, and our sermon reading is from John chapter 2, verses 1 through 11. John 2, 1 through 11. Again, an introduction before we begin talking about the season we're in. Liturgically, we're in the season of Epiphany. We're telling the story of the beginning of Jesus's ministry all the way up until Lent and until Easter, and then even beyond Easter, we kind of tell the story again, but this is the beginning of Jesus's ministry. And it's fitting then that now, since last week we saw that Jesus was baptized and that was sort of the official beginning of his ministry, today we see the first miracle of his ministry is recorded in John's gospel. And John's gospel has some larger themes. Three of them I'm going to talk about today. There are other themes, but three really big themes in the gospel of John. One of them is this sense of something being the right time or the right hour for something to happen. Jesus talks about it in our passage, but in other places too. And the week of the passion is full of these things, like the time has come, right? The time has come. So that there's this sense that God is doing something in the world, but he does it in his timing, when the time is right, when the hour has come. So that's one theme in John.

[1:25] Another theme in John is unbelief, which is then followed by Jesus doing some sort of sign or miracle. They're called signs in John. In other places they're called miracles. They're similar ideas. And that unbelief, when it witnesses a sign, then is transformed into belief. And so there's this sense that when Jesus does miracles, especially in the gospel of John, it's for the purpose of creating faith in the people who witness these miracles. And that happens over and over again in John. And finally, for us today, just these three themes. And if you want to take notes, you should remember them. One is the right time. The second is unbelief, signs and miracles, and then beliefs. So this transition from unbelief to belief through the witnessing of miracles. And thirdly is a transition from Judaism into Christianity. And John, of all the gospels, kind of talks a lot about the Jews and the Gentiles. And he talks about Jews and Judaism. And that somehow Jesus is going to figure this all out. How does Judaism basically convert into Christianity? What needs to happen? And so that's a theme that's large in John. And it's another theme that's in our passage today that is kind of hidden in between the lines. I want you to look for it when we read, okay? So I want

[2:49] you to look for these themes. Three themes to look for today. Something being the right time. 1. Unbelief turning into belief. 2. Unbelief through a miracle. 3. Transition or transformation of Judaism into Christianity. 4. People who are followers of God as children of Israel becoming followers of Jesus. Alright. So look for those things as we read. Let's go to our reading now. John chapter 2. It reads like this. On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. And the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 5. When the wine gave out the mother of Jesus said to him they have no wine and Jesus said to her woman what concern is that to you and to me my hour has not yet come his mother said to the servants do whatever he tells you now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification each holding 20 or 30 gallons Jesus said to them fill the jars with water and they filled them up to the brim he said to them now draw some out and take it to the chief steward so they took it when the steward tasted the water that had become wine he did not know where it had come from though the servants who had drawn the water knew the steward called the

[4:23] bridegroom and said to him everyone serves the good wine first and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk but you have kept the good wine until now Jesus did this the first of his signs in Cana of Galilee and revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him let's pray Heavenly Father thank you for your word we ask that you would add your blessing to it in Jesus name Amen so let's look again at our themes in John there's more there are more themes in John than this but these are three big ones in John and they all show up this morning so we're gonna find out where these all show up first was that something had to be the right time Jesus says to his mother my hour has not yet come and so there's this time there's a moment in time when something is the right time and that's when something is the right thing to do in the fullness of time God sent his son into the world right we get this sense that when the time is right God does things and Jesus is the same way he said I have a moment where I wanted to start sort of unveiling the launch party I wanted the launch party or the unboxing video or whatever you want to call it there was this moment that Jesus had in mind where he was going to really publicly start showing the world so that

[5:44] they could come to faith through the signs that he was performing but sort of life intervenes in this moment a wedding is about to go off the rails it's a bad problem actually because I mean we would think yeah food could run out at the wedding it's not the end of the world it was a bigger deal back then it could cause some real reputational harm to the family that was hosting the wedding wedding if if the food ran out because there weren't that many really big feasts in your lifetime that you would invite this many people to and so when one of them happens you really want to get it right because there's not like a another one that it's not like there's another barbecue next weekend for the 4th of July this is like kind of a once-in-a-lifetime set maybe two or three times in a lifetime usually it's a wedding but there could be other reasons for a party as well and so you don't want to get this wrong and this one was going to be gotten wrong and so Mary has this concern whether it's hospitality whether it's concern for the reputation of these people are these relatives of them it could be Cana is not far from Nazareth so these could be relatives of Mary so she's got this need and she comes to Jesus and she says

[6:55] you need to do something about it they've run out of wine and it's interesting that Jesus says I'm not going to do anything because my hour has not yet come and so that mentally you could say that's sort of the end of the story nothing is going to move Jesus from his timeline he's kind of got it figured out and yet Mary kind of in a knowing way you know says okay I'm going to do something about it and so she says okay okay but then she says to the servants whatever he says you should do you should do it and in that moment the timeline changes so you get this sense that Jesus can listen even not just even to his mother but maybe especially to his mother I my mom when she was alive she had a way of getting me to do things by asking it's just that's how moms are maybe not dad so much hopefully dad's hopefully you do things your dad asked you to do but it's hard to say no to your mom I think Jesus had the same issue he's like all right I guess the time schedule is getting moved up I am gonna show my first miracle now and so of course he then he tells the these servants to go fill the water fill fill these jars up with water and it becomes wine right so he does he does what he says he's not gonna do which I love I love that so another theme that we have

[8:17] in this passage but also in John at large again is that there's unbelief in the world people just don't know what to believe they don't believe and then a miracle is displayed to them and Jesus even he says this he says you believe because you've seen which is great but he says how much more blessed are those who believe who have not yet seen and so there is actually I think sort of a a little more praise from Jesus for people like us who haven't witnessed these miracles who haven't seen the miracle that we're talking about in the Bible and we're talking about the miracle of the five thousand who haven't seen the feeding of the five thousand who haven't seen somebody raised from the dead right in front of our eyes but Jesus had to sort of bootstrap this whole thing he had to start off and so he had to do he had to display signs and miracles so that people could transition or transform from unbelief into belief so that faith could be created now John's gospel in particular adds some very interesting narrating details the the John as the narrator and you see it you see it in the middle of our passage why don't you pull up the third the third slide no it'd be the second one probably right there do you see in the slide right here and there's a parentheses in the passage

[9:38] now the parentheses don't exist in the original manuscript they didn't have that kind of punctuation but we do but the people who translate and interpret this go okay this is a parenthetical comment made from the standpoint of what we would call an omniscient narrator sort of literary design here in the Gospel of John so the steward didn't know where the wine came from but it was important for John to say well but but the servants knew I don't know why this is important to him but you get this actually just an example of narrative sort of this omniscient narrative and I would think of it as almost like a wizard whispering in your ear as you're watching a story you're watching a story unfold go to the last scene there verse 11 Caleb can do that let's see yeah number three yeah there we go and this is another one this was not in parentheses but because it set off in its own verse so it's actually another parenthetical omniscient narrating detail Jesus did this the first of his signs in Cana of Galilee and revealed his glory now if you were watching a movie right this would be voice-over there'd be a voice kind of off the screen going Jesus did this the first of his signs or it would be a blank scene with some some words that kind of fade into the the frame you

[11:06] know like I watched a movie about about Winston Churchill last night was really good and at the end of course they kind of have to give the rest of the story about how England eventually was won the war against Germany, et cetera. And that kind of faded in as this white text, and then it faded out again. That's what this would be too. Jesus did, this is, imagine like the end of this story is Jesus did this, the first of his signs in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. And so that's where that theme is coming in. You can make that go away now, Caleb. Thank you. Is the signs were the reason that unbelief or lack of faith turned into faith? So that's another theme that's kind of coming along.

[11:53] So the third theme, and this is the one I asked you to look for, it's a little more, it's a little more in between the lines, is that there's this transition from Judaism to Christianity. And so that's very interesting to read John's gospel just through that prism. We could read the whole gospel just from that point of view, like what is Jesus trying to do with Judaism? And so that's a very interesting thing to look for. And so that's a very interesting how, and you could ask yourself, who was John written to primarily? Was it written to people who were Christians still worshiping in the synagogue? And it's kind of a word of hope or kind of advice to them of how to navigate life while they're still living in a society that's majority in Judaism. And so the clue for finding this one in our paths is today is that Jesus orders these jars to be filled with water. And so Jesus orders these jars to be filled with water. water, what is the vessel, actually the literal and figurative vessel for his first miracle, are these big stone jars that hold 20 to 30 gallons of water. And so these jars are ceremonial jars. They are part of the worship of Judaism. If you read Mark chapter 7, verse 3 and 4, Jesus talks about this there. You read that the practice of Judaism was to have

[13:18] jars like this and to use these jars to wash. You would wash yourself. You might wash behind your ears. You might wash your body. You would wash cups and pots, things that you use to eat and drink, utensils, things that you use to serve food for, things like that. And then these things then, after being ceremonially, done in a ceremonial way, are now clean and presentable for use, right? So there was an observance of the Mosaic law, the law to keep clean, not to be unclean. And by itself, this was a very good thing. It led to just good sanitation, you know? You can imagine somebody who eats off the same plate every day. I mean, we have a dog now. I have to talk about the dog every week. It's great now because the dishes are easier. The dish has a little bit of food on it that the dog loves. Unfortunately, he just barks at us while we're eating. He's like, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. We have to work on that. And I take that dish, but I try not to give it to him at the table. I walk all the way over to where his food is, and I put it down, and he licks it clean. It's so clean that I joked the other day, oh, we can just put it straight back in the cabinet. And that was not met with any kind of laughter at all. I thought it was hilarious. So actually, we do have to put it

[14:27] in the dishwasher. But can you imagine somebody who never washes their dishes, never washes their fork or knife? They just keep piling food on it meal after meal. Well, they're going to get sick. And so a lot of these Mosaic laws, a lot of these laws, about cleanness were about health. But there was a ceremonial aspect to it. We're doing this, you know, it's to keep ourselves healthy. It's to present these things as useful and good for God. But Jesus' warning, and this is the warning both in the other Gospels, but also here, it kind of implicitly, is that you're making a mistake if you only clean the outside of these things. He says, you clean the outside of these things. You clean the outside of these things. You clean the outside of the cup. But inside, there's all sorts of problems. He's talking about really their hearts. He says it's not what's on the outside. It's not what goes in, but what comes out. You can wash the outside, but if the inside is full of evilness, only bad things are going to come out of you. You see? And so really all of that is saying to Judaism, and one of the problems with Judaism, was it had become performative. In the sense that I'm going to wash these things. I'm going to wash these things. I'm not going to

[15:44] do this. I'm not going to do that. On certain days, I'm going to do this, or I'm not going to do that. And it was all external. I'm keeping the law externally, so I have this hope. And Jesus and Paul are always saying, you have to clean the heart first. If you clean the inside first, the outside will be clean. This is the important distinction. And this is the kind of critique of Judaism you find in John and elsewhere in the Gospels. And in the New Testament, is that it's not just checking off the checklist. There has to be something different at the heart of who you are. And so that's that kind of that transition from Judaism to Christianity. Now, why is that a transition here? It's because Jesus uses these jars that were used for ceremonial washing to be the vessels for this transformation for what's on the outside. And so that's the kind of critique that I'm going to have. And so that's the kind of critique that I'm going to have. And so that's the kind of critique that I'm going to have. So you can kind of see the symbolism starting here. And this is the big theme here. This is really the big theme of this reading and the big theme for us today. It makes sense that this is the first miracle of Jesus, because it really sets the stage for all that Jesus does. Now,

[16:59] just another note on literary design. Always pay attention to how things start in the Bible and in great literature, because how things start, a well-crafted story, tells you an immense amount about what's going to happen in the rest of the story. And at the end of the story, it will always call back to the beginning of the story. And so the beginning of the story, if we want to say it this way, isn't necessarily about a wedding that got saved, although it did get saved. The beginning of the story is about transformation. It's about water to wine, literally, but it's about the transformation figuratively of Judaism into the world of God. And so that's the beginning of the story. And so the beginning of the story is about the transformation figuratively of Judaism into Christianity. It's about the transformation from unbelief into belief. It's about the transformation about a whole lot of other things, including people, including people. So we'll look at it just a little deeper one more time. These ceremonial jars, they can represent the practice of Judaism. And Jesus says, fill them up. And that's all well and good. They have water in them. They're ready to do their duty to wash the outside of people and utensils and cups and plates. But now the miracle is he

[18:10] transforms what is in the jars into wine, into something that serves, into something that saves the wedding, into something greater and more valuable. And you could say, how similar are water and wine? I like, Victoria is always so great. And we, all I told her was what the passage was, not much more about that. And she already preached half the sermon for me, which is great because water to wine is not the same as adding food coloring to water. That's not what it is. There's chemically, there's a whole bunch of differences, you know, that, that can't be done just with a snap of a finger. It's not possible. And you can't pour, you can't pour wine into water and make the whole thing wine. You can't do that because this was good wine. This is stronger than the normal wine, right? So wine is, wine is something, and it's not a small miracle. Here's what it is. It's changing the essence. I want you to write this down if you're taking notes. It's changing the essence. Of the thing itself. Water and wine are similar. They're both liquids. Wine has water in it. Yes. So there's some relationship, just like Judaism and Christianity have some relationship. But in essence, wine is qualitatively, quantitatively, whatever you want to call it.

[19:27] In essence, wine is different than water. Chemically, its structure is different. All sorts of things. Its effect on you is quite different as we see, you know, now that people can get drunk and et cetera. So that's why I'm saying, you know, it's not a small miracle. So if you want to get some end end end end end end end end end end end end Related, but actually quite different. That has a different, all sorts of things that are different about it has different effects. Different, all sorts of different attributes.

[20:21] So, Jesus is like, he says, I'm not just another rabbi. I am the thing that all of Judaism is pointing towards. And now that I'm here, it has to be transformed in its essence. It needs to change from water to wine. From the external washing to the internal washing. Among other things, those are some of the things. And if you look at all the miracles, almost all of them, not all of them, but almost all of them actually have a pattern here of transformation, of something being changed into something else. Think about it. He transforms disease into health, right? He transforms wind and storm into calm and peace. You get the idea, right? He transforms blindness into sight. So, it's kind of getting more intense, right? But here are the big two. The big two transformations that Jesus' miracles always perform.

[21:19] He transforms unbelief into belief, which is what we saw, that parenthetical comment at the end. And this is the most important one. He transforms death into life. He transforms death into life. Now, if that's not a complete transformation, I don't know what is. I don't know what two things could be more opposite, right? Those aren't even similar at all. They're mirror images of each other. They're opposites, right? Death is the opposite of life. He transforms death into life. I want to share something from my own life. And some of you know these details. And I'm not going to go into all the details. But there was a time in my life. This is about 35 years ago. So, it feels like forever ago. And sometimes I don't think about it every day. But it's definitely part of who I am. There was a time in my life when I was completely broken as a person. I was. I had lost my father to cancer. That was in 1990. I lost my marriage, my first marriage, to grief that we couldn't overcome. As a couple, we couldn't process that together in a way that was constructive. And so, we split up. So, I had a lot of personal problems. You could call it depression or trauma or brokenness. I was functional. But I was broken. I was in a difficult spot.

[22:41] I was angry at God. I didn't. I stopped going to church. I stopped praying. I stopped reading my Bible. I just was like. And I didn't want to be around Christians. I didn't want to be around Christians. Because they didn't bring me any comfort.

[22:55] They just kind of said things I didn't want to hear. Which is kind of. Sometimes it's always better to listen than to talk. That's another side of it. So, one thing I hope to do. And one thing I hoped that would help me. Was to move. And so, I was still in Arizona. Which is where I grew up. And I was going to school. I actually had enrolled in graduate school.

[23:18] In the engineering graduate school. But I got a call to take a new job in a new state. And so, I moved to California. And I started working for IBM. As you know, I worked for IBM. And I made new friends. And I lived in a new city. And what my hope was. Was that all these changes in my life. Would help me leave my troubles behind me. Almost as if by getting on a plane from Tucson to San Jose. Like a bunch of packages just didn't get on the plane with me. And I could start over in a new city. Now, honestly. In some small ways, moving did help me. Because it kind of just got me out of some of my funk. Right? That can happen. Right? And I needed a new start. But in reality. I was still me. My problems came with me from Arizona. I still am. I still had to work through the stages of grief. Over my father passing. There is no shortcut in grief. It takes time. It could take about five years. To recover from the death of somebody who was very close to you. It just takes that long. It just takes that long. That's how we're made. And praise God that we're made that way. Because it means that that person meant something to us. It means that we had deep relationships.

[24:31] I have friends who have tried all the changes. Right? You can try. They've changed how they look. They've changed their hairstyle. They've changed their clothes. They've changed some modification to their appearance. One friend went through a stage of wearing a fedora. Which is very cringy. Right? It's very cringy. It was briefly. Only briefly was it in fashion. For maybe about two months. In 1993.

[24:59] You know. But they were dutifully wore that fedora on. Probably spent $100 on it. And then when that was over. It was gone. None of these things can help us escape who we are. Or the work that we need to do. There are no shortcuts. It takes a transformation. We don't change by moving to a new city and making new friends. We start on the path perhaps. And it's good to get a new start in some places. But that isn't that thorough thing. The biggest miracle. The biggest transformation.

[25:30] Is when God changes us. And I'll say to kind of fill out my story. I did change. And I'm not done being changed. And I've not arrived. But the reason things change wasn't because I kept changing things. It was because I finally let go and said. God this is in your hands.

[25:49] I'm going to take all this grief. And I'm going to give it to you. Because you know more what to do with it than I do. And I'm going to give you this brokenness. Because I can't mend it. But you can. And so when I let go of a lot of this. God slowly. And it wasn't overnight. God slowly but surely started putting the broken pieces together into something new though. He made something new out of those broken parts. And that transformation is still happening. I have not arrived. I'm not up here telling you that I've got it all figured out. Because I do not. But I can tell you from personal experience. That God's transformation in my life has been more profound and more meaningful than any change that I've tried to make for myself.

[26:36] Here's how I think about it. How I look. Where I live. Who I'm with. These are all important. They're all part of who I am to an extent. But only Jesus can change the essence of who I am. And I can never forget that. So that's the message today. This is for you too. Right? This is more than saving a wedding. Although it is about saving a wedding. And it's beautiful that Jesus chose a moment of joy to show his miracles. It is wonderful that a wedding was saved. It's wonderful that for this brief moment this became the best wedding that anyone's ever been to. Like there's this abundance of what God does. But it's not necessarily about saving a wedding. It's about setting the stage. That he is the God of transformation. It's this epiphany story about the beginning of Jesus' ministry. And like I said. We really need to pay attention to beginnings. Jesus was about transforming Judaism. So that it could hold something far greater. But he's not done. He keeps on transforming. And hear this at home. And you can take notes on this too. The next place he goes to work. He's done with weddings 2,000 years ago. The next place he goes to work is your heart.

[27:56] That's his next stop in the itinerary. He wants to change. He wants to change the essence of who you are. In a deeper way than you're able to do for yourself. Jesus, if you're willing. Jesus says, I will change you. I will take your broken pieces. And I will craft them into something new.

[28:19] That's qualitatively and quantitatively different and better than what you have. And you're going to say goodbye to the old. And the new may look a bit like the old. But the new will be different in essence. And it will be greater. And it will serve you all your life. So I'm going to ask you. Even if you have done this before. To do it again. Open yourself to him today.

[28:43] Embrace the new wine that is going to be poured into you. Open yourself to what God wants to change and make in you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you again for your word. In just this moment. I pray that every person listening could also pray in their hearts.

[29:06] God, take what I have. I'm done trying to fix myself. Take what I have. It's all yours. Change the essence of who I am. And make me like you. And we ask this in Jesus' name.