More Than Just Wine
Notes
Transcript
Title Slide for Message
1. John wrote his Gospel to believers living in perilous times.
A. John’s Gospel publish between 85-90 AD
B. Jerusalem Destroyed 70 AD
C. Rabbi Gamaliel II expels Messiah’s Followers from Synagogues
D. The Death of His Brother, Peter, Paul and other Apostles.
E. The spread of Malaria and eventually the small-pox 50 years later.
2. John wrote his Gospel to encourage believers living in perilous times.
A. John knew people were hijacking faith and belief.
B. John wants his congregations to continue believing based on evidence, not blind faith, not hope; but, rather eyewitness testimony regarding seven of the most important signs Yeshua performed.
C. Faith is not a set of propositions nor a creed but it is deeply personal and transformative. John never uses the noun faith (Gk. pistis) only the verb “believe or believing” a 100 times. Matthew, Mark, and Luke only use this verb 35 times. John wants to underscore the action of believing.
i. Children trust 8x8=64 because confidence in the teacher
ii. What if information is conflicting? This happened at the start of the recent pandemic when it was said the flu is more dangerous than Covid-19. People practiced something called confirmation bias. Confirmation bias is only listening to information that confirms what you already believe.
D. John’s Gospel is not easy believism, or just good ol’ fashioned “Take it by faith brother!” John’s Gospel presents eyewitness testimony, evidence of seven signs – not miracles – performed by the Rabbi from Nazareth.
i. Sign – points past itself to a greater, challenging reality.
ii. Miracle – points to great acts in time and space.
E. John’s Gospel offers a different paradigm.
i. Jonathan Edwards says that the reason so many people don’t endure through trials, walk away from faith is because they only have a rational faith but not the experience of faith. He compared it to knowing about honey and tasting honey.
ii. John knows that faith was never supposed to be mere intellectualism, agreements around propositions. It is so much better than that.
iii. After most of the seven signs we will encounter a statement like, “He revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him” (John 2:11). This is an experience that transforms.
Yeshua did this, the first of the signs, in Cana of the Galilee—He revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.
1. Example: Christy from the CDC I believed in Her and what she said as opposed to what others said.
2. Contra Frank Turik who said, "The reason so many people are easily talked out of Christianity is because they were never talked into it, in the first place."
3. Rabbi Vowell, "The reason so many people easily talk themselves out of being a disciple of Yeshua is because they never experienced it in the first place."
4. Rabbi Paul said it well, But we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed, and therefore I spoke.” So we also believe, and therefore we also speak…”(2 Cor. 4:13).
But we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed, and therefore I spoke.” So we also believe, and therefore we also speak,
F. John would never say “you just gotta believe sista.”
i. John, the lone survivor, the elder, the jewish exile, the son who abandoned his father’s fishing business would tell us, “…because of what I saw, not because of what I was taught, I believe therefore I speak.”
ii. Think about it, the other three Gospels are primarily teaching Gospels. Matthew gives us the most authentic Jewish rabbi from Nazareth possible. Mark tells us about all Peter learned and did with Yeshua. Luke investigated and wrote it out all he heard.
G. John’s Gospel does something different than the other three. He gives us his thesis, his big idea.
i. John 20:30-31 - Yeshua performed many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these things have been written so that you may believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.
Yeshua performed many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these things have been written so that you may believe that Yeshua is Mashiach Ben-Elohim, and that by believing you may have life in His name.
ii. Context: Thomas needing to “see” something to continue believing.
iii. Experience Him as Messiah and Son of God.
iv. Experience results in Life.
v. Signs something that points beyond itself, evidence that Yeshua was who He said He came to be. John never uses the word “miracles” only “signs.”
vi. John does not say, “I put my trust in Jesus and I hoped it would just all work out.” He says I saw and then I believed.
1. Thus there is a difference between having an opinion, that God is holy and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. – Jonathan Edwards
2. So there is a difference between believing that a person is beautiful, and having a sense of his beauty. – Jonathan Edwards
3. When the heart is sensible of the beauty and amiableness of a thing, it necessarily feels pleasure in the apprehension. – Jonathan Edwards
John wrote his Gospel to encourage believers living in perilous times could have a taste, a sense of the beauty of the Messiah and be transformed by it.
4. To the Scriptures
A. Ha-Foke-Bah in Hebrew & English
Title Slide for Today’s Message
B. John 2:1–11 (TLV) -The Water turned to Wine
i. Reynolds Price - The way he puts it is if you were inventing a biography of Jesus Christ, you would never invent for your inaugural sign “… a miraculous solution to a mere social oversight.”
ii. This turning of the water into wine is not really a solution to a social oversight. It is much deeper than that, points to a reality greater than that, points to a well established Jewish future reality.
C. John 2:1-2 On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in the Galilee. Yeshua’s mother was there, and Yeshua and His disciples were also invited to the wedding.
On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in the Galilee. Yeshua’s mother was there, and Yeshua and His disciples were also invited to the wedding.
i. Details are important to eyewitness testimony.
ii. This is a well known family with a big guest list.
iii. Weddings were long, expensive, deeply religious and joyous.
D. John 2:3 When the wine ran out, Yeshua’s mother said to Him, “They don’t have any wine!”
When the wine ran out, Yeshua’s mother said to Him, “They don’t have any wine!”
i. This would dampen this joyous occasion.
ii. At first, this just sounds like a mother venting her frustration but we know from Yeshua’s response it is something more than that.
E. John 2:4 Yeshua said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with you and Me? My hour hasn’t come yet.”
Yeshua said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with you and Me? My hour hasn’t come yet.”
i. The greatest non-sequitur in history.
ii. It is a crisis but just not his crisis, so he thinks.
iii. Woman means “my lady” title of endearment.
iv. His hour is the messianic moment, the groom’s appearance.
F. John 2:5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.”
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.”
i. This is an interesting moment of Yeshua’s own humanity, his limitations and his obedience.
ii. It’s not that his mother pushes him to become Messiah, he recognizes that by obeying his mother according to the Torah he realizes this has always been the moment that His heavenly Father wanted him to reveal himself.
G. John 2:6 Now there were six stone jars, used for the Jewish ritual of purification, each holding two to three measures.
Now there were six stone jars, used for the Jewish ritual of purification, each holding two to three measures.
i. The details are incredible. Clay jars, according to Jewish law, can become unclean but not stone jars.
ii. Each held about 20 Gallons, 120 Gallons in total.
iii. Our ears don’t stand up when we hear this, we don’t get goose bumps but John’s audience did. You see there was a Jewish belief that was very popular around that time that said during the great messianic the grapes would be so large that just one would produce “about 120 gallons of wine” (2 Baruch 29.5).
iv. The reader knew the code, this was the inauguration of the Messianic Age, God’s Kingdom.
H. John 2:7-10 Yeshua said to them, “Fill the jars with water!” So they filled them up to the top. Then He said to them, “Take some water out, and give it to the headwaiter.” And they brought it. Now the headwaiter did not know where it had come from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew. As the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, he calls the bridegroom and says to him, “Everyone brings out the good wine first, and whenever they are drunk, then the worse. But you’ve reserved the good wine until now!”
Yeshua said to them, “Fill the jars with water!” So they filled them up to the top. Then He said to them, “Take some water out, and give it to the headwaiter.” And they brought it. Now the headwaiter did not know where it had come from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew. As the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, he calls the bridegroom and says to him, “Everyone brings out the good wine first, and whenever they are drunk, then the worse. But you’ve reserved the good wine until now!”
i. The Headwaiter is telling a joke.
ii. The eccentric and surprising nature of the host’s behavior, in serving the best wine last, applies also at the level of interpretation, in which it stands for God’s act in the coming of Yeshua.
iii. People in the ancient world commonly thought oldest was best. Ancient wisdom was the truest, the golden age was in the past. From that perspective the surpassing significance here given to God’s most recent activity is surprising. But there was one tradition of thought in which it would not be surprising: the Jewish eschatological tradition of expectation of the messianic age of salvation at the end of history.
iv. Two images, well known in this tradition, for the extravagant joy of the messianic age were the wedding banquet (Isa. 61:10; 62:5; Jer. 33:10–11; Matt. 25:1–13; Rev. 19:6–9) and abundance of wine (Joel 3:18; Amos 9:13; Isa. 25:6; Luke 22:18; for wine producing joy, see Ps. 4:7; Eccles. 9:7). It would naturally be the very best wine that God will serve at the messianic feast (Isa. 25:6).
v. Through the headwaiter we learn that Yeshua is introducing the messianic enhancement of life that tastes better than what came before it. You would think it was old but it was new, you would think it came from an ancient vineyard but it was just newly inaugurated.
I. John 2:11 Yeshua did this, the first of the signs, in Cana of the Galilee—He revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.
Yeshua did this, the first of the signs, in Cana of the Galilee—He revealed His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.
i. John throughout his eyewitness account goes to great pains to show how Yeshua does not replace the Torah but fulfills the Torah. He says “we have received ‘grace upon grace.’” The best wine follows, not water, but inferior wine. God’s provision of salvation for his people before the coming of Yeshua was, in the symbolism implied here, wine, not water. This is consistent with the prologue to the Gospel, where the salvation Yeshua makes available is called “grace in addition to grace” (1:16), meaning that the Mosaic law (1:17) was already divine grace, while the salvation brought by Yeshua was the fullness of grace, the real thing (“truth”; 1:17) to which previous grace was leading (“grace and truth”).
ii. He also goes to great lengths to show the “better now” aspect. Where Moses had to hide “his glory” behind a veil, Yeshua reveals His glory.
iii. He does not do it a showy, tele-evangelist kind of way. Only the Messiah and the servants initially knew what had happened. Yeshua evidently took no unusual action, such as touching the stone jars or commanding the water to turn into wine. Yeshua did not call for a pause in the festivities, and He did not summon everyone’s attention. He also did not tell those present to gather around and see how He had changed water into wine; rather, Yeshua performed His miracle in a quiet and humble manner.
5. Conclusion
A. But John, his audience would say, there are horrible things going on in the world. The temple is gone, Peter is dead, Paul is dead, we are persecuted, chased about the Roman Empire like rodents.
B. He would say, “I know. My heart hungers and thirsts for righteousness.” I know there are no easy answers but I was a fisherman, had a good life, good family, good friends, Peter was a part of my life for as long as I can remember but I saw him, rather, I saw what He did, he let us see behind the veil. We are part of something greater than we could have ever imagined: the messiah’s banquet. And His banner over me is Love.
C. He would say, “I don’t just know it, I’ve experienced it and it has changed me like honey changes you when it enters your mouth.”
D. Soren Kierkegaard scathingly said, “The Messiah turned water into wine, but the church has succeeded in doing something even more difficult: it has turned wine into water.”
i. What he meant: they have turned the magnificent into the mundane.
ii. They have lost the jubilation of the Messianic banquet.
iii. During times like this we have something to offer:
1. Don’t hide, say “hi”
2. Don’t