Sermon Tone Analysis

Exegetical Point: John shows that Jesus is the Christ via his first Sign that draws together images of fullness, abundance, renewal and power.

This revelation of Glory prompted the disciple’s faith.

Homeletic Point: Jesus is the New Wine, fulfilling the Old lack.

Intro

Hey kids, have any of you been to a wedding?

What was it like?

Sometimes things go wrong at weddings.

Not everybody will get married, but alot of people do, and there's usually at least 1 thing that goes wrong.

In fact when Laura and I got married we truned up at the church and it was locked!!

No-one had a key!

We had to wait for ages for someone to come and open the church for us!

It was ok, because even though we were late getting into the church to get married, Laura was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo late that it didn’t matter.

(it wasn’t her fault!)

In John 2 there was a big problem at a wedding that Jesus went to with his disciples.

They ran out of nice drinks for the party!

They didn’t buy enough!

How awful!

It’s like a birthday party where someone forgot the cake!

Even though Jesus didn’t need to help at the wedding party, he wanted to show his disciples that he was Sent by God, so he did something really special.

Do you remember what it is from the Bible reading?

Yes, he took ordinary water and made wine!

And not just a little bit, he made HEAPS of wine.

Lots and lots!

SO the party could keep going!

When he Did that, the disciples knew that Jesus was from God.

They saw the glory of Jesus in that miraculous sign.

But that sign wasn’t just for the disciples that were at the wedding, Jesus did that sign so that even you here today could hear about it and believe.

He did it so that disciples everywhere, young and old, could believe that Jesus came from God!

Now we’re going to spend some more time delving delving into this passage.

I invite you to listen as much as you can!

While you listen you can colour in a picture, or draw your own picture, or, if you can write, you can try to write down the 4 Big things this passage tells us about Jesus.

Recap

So far we have seen that John the Apostle is trying to show people that Jesus is Messiah, King, Prophet & God.

John leaves out the extraneous and puts in detail that proves the point.

This will be the same pattern across the whole book.

JB saw it and testified that Jesus was the Anointed one of God, now some disciples have started to recognize it.

Now begins the Book of Signs - all different signs of Jesus divinity and anointing.

1. Jesus is the New Life & Sabbath (v1-2)

Two symbolic numbers come out of this three days.

John has been counting days across chapter 1, especially counting out the first week of Jesus public ministry.

Using Jewish counting, the “third day” bring us to the 7th day of Jesus ministry!

This clues us in to be thinking about other key weeks in the bible

Primarily the 7 days of creation - this book starts with “In the beginning”, casting our minds to Genesis 1. We’re told that The Word was a conduit of that creation which took place across 7 days.

We’re told that the Spirit descended on Jesus much like the Spirit that hovered over the world in creation.

Then John lays out a story in which he marks off the days: The next day... the next day... the next day… much like Gen 1.

So John 1 has continually drawn us back to the idea of God’s creative work - and now with this three more days we land on 7 days.

What happened in creation on the 7th day?

Kids, do you know what God did on the 7th day?

He Rested!

God introduced the Sabbath - the day of Rest!

A day of reprieve and enjoyment!

A day of fullness and completeness!

Now in John we hear of Jesus at a wedding on the 7th day, where he is going to bring fullness and abundance at a party!

But, if John wanted us to remember the 7 days of creation & rest, why didn’t he just mention it was the 7th day since the start of the ministry?

He also wanted to call our minds to the three days.

What key three days?

The three days of Jesus death.

While we haven’t go there yet, most people, even people reading John for the first time would be familiar with the fact that Jesus died on the cross, was buried and three days later (in Jewish counting) was raised from the dead!

He was resurrected on the third day!

Here the mention of a “Third day” hints at resurrection and new life.

(might make a good name for a band or something…).

Intriguingly, on this third day Jesus will perform a sign of newness, fullness and life - shadows and hints of what is to come!

Am I grasping at straws?

What about historicity?

The symbolism in the numbers comes from real events.

John saw the numbers and communicated it to us in such a way as to help us make the connections while it remained a historically accurate account.

John isn’t obsessed with counting days everywhere in the Gospel of John, it’s only here.

That alone should lead us to pay attention and ask: what is he’s communicating?

So, with tones of Sabbath and Resurrection we dive into this passage, and I promise we’ll move faster than this!

But this is an important stage setting for what follows.

So,

1. Jesus is the New Life & Sabbath (v1-2)

Next we see...

2. Jesus is Approachable & Uncontrollable (v3-5)

So Jesus is at the wedding with his Mum and disciples.

Probably just the 5 or so that he’s collected over the first week.

From what we know about ancient Jewish custom, this wedding is probably a huge affair.

It would be a week-long party with lots of food and drink.

Heaps of people would be invited.

Family, friends, probably most of the village was involved.

Unlike our weddings which are traditionally a formal ceremony and one nights party, this would kick-on for days.

And it was the groom’s job to supply all the necessary supplies!

The wedding would be hosted at his house, and as a good middle-eastern man he would show generous hospitality to all the guests.

Imagine then, horror of horrors if they run out of wine!?!

This is terrible.

In a shame-honour culture, this would be intensely embarrassing!

Not like “I forgot the rings” embarrassing,

Not like “his fly was down” embarrassing,

Not embarrassing like kissing the bride awkwardly,

This was a cultural and social disaster!

So somehow Jesus’ mum had insider information on the lack of wine.

Maybe she was helping out or something.

Mary wasn’t gossiping, she tries to get help to remedy this awful situation.

She turns to Jesus.

Why Jesus?

Jesus at this stage is not known as miricle worker or great prophet.

Why does she ask him for help?

A few reasons seem likely:

Jesus was the eldest child, and probably the provider for the family.

His adoptive earthly father Joseph is not recorded after Jesus childhood.