There are many questions you are faced with every day.
We are all searching for answers that will make a real difference in our lives.
It's hard to imagine that these answers might be right in front of us.
Get ready to discover answers in the Bible with Bayless Conley.
You know, the gospel of John is unique in that John only records a handful of miracles
that Christ did.
And then John makes this statement: He said, "These have been recorded that you might
believe that Jesus is the Son of God."
Every miracle he recorded brings us revelation about who Jesus is.
And we're going to be talking in this show about the very first miracle that Christ did.
I believe it's going to be a blessing to you.
So if you've got a Bible… maybe an iPad with a Bible on it, get it.
Let's sit down together.
We're going to get into the Word of God.
And we're going to learn some things about Jesus that are revealed through this miracle
that He does, turning water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee.
I want to begin, if you wouldn't mind opening your Bible, to John's gospel, the twentieth
chapter.
John, chapter 20.
"Miracles in the Gospel of John".
John, chapter 20 and verse 30.
John makes this statement:
And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written
in this book; but these are written that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His
name.
So John had a specific reason for recording the miracles that he did in his gospel.
And I think it's interesting to know that for a period of over 450 years there were
no recorded miracles.
From the time of Malachi to John there were no prophets.
That's a 400-year period.
And the Scripture says in John that John the Baptist, that he did no miracle.
The last recorded miracle was in the Book of Daniel when God shut the mouths of the
lions and delivered Daniel from the lions' den.
That was 450 years before the first miracle of Christ.
And John only records eight miracles, and he calls them signs.
There are several words that he could have used, words the other gospel writers used,
but John calls them signs.
A sign is a miracle that teaches a lesson.
They are miracles that show Christ's person in glory.
They are written not just to amaze, but to instruct.
And the eight miracles recorded by John, the first one that we are going to be looking
at tonight in John, chapter 2, is turning water into wine.
The second one is the healing of the nobleman's son.
It's recorded in John, chapter 4.
The third is the healing of the man that had been sick 38 years.
That's in John, chapter 5.
And then there was the feeding of the five thousand with five barley loaves and two small
fish, John, chapter 6.
Also in John, chapter 6, is Peter walking on the water…
Christ walking on the water, Himself.
That was miracle, number five.
The sixth miracle is the healing of the man born blind.
You find that in John, chapter 9.
In John, chapter 11, we have the raising of Lazarus from the dead.
And then, finally, in John, chapter 21, there is that supernatural catch of 153 large fish
where the net didn't break.
But, let's look at the first one, John, chapter 2.
Turn there with me, if you would.
The first recorded miracle of Christ is He turned water into wine at a wedding.
John, chapter 2, and verse 1.
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.
And 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 waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification
of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.
Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots 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.
Or we could say their faith was strengthened in Him because they did have a fledging faith
and they were following Him.
But their belief in Him was solidified.
Now this first miracle, this beginning of signs took place in Cana.
Why was this the first sign?
Why did John record it?
Because this first sign symbolizes conversion.
It symbolizes transformation.
This very first sign symbolizes change.
And, my friend, spiritual and moral change is the first thing on the agenda for man when
it comes to God dealing with humanity.
Change, an inward change.
And with that in mind, let me begin by sharing some thoughts from this story about conversion
or about salvation, some truths that I believe that this sign was meant to point to.
All right, first, the master of the feast, he didn't know of the change.
Only the servants knew.
Only those who experience conversion understand it.
A lot of my friends just didn't get it when I got saved.
They said, "Look, something has happened to Bayless.
We don't know what it is.
He doesn't do drugs, anymore.
He still hangs around with us; but, I mean, he's sober.
Have you ever seen him sober before?
This is weird."
And somebody says, "It gets worse.
I saw him in the park the other day, and he was reading a Bible!"
"You're kidding!
A Bible?"
"Yeah, he's reading a Bible.
But that's not the end of it.
He's talking about Jesus all the time.
And I heard he's going to a church!"
"What?
He's going to a church?
I don't believe it!"
"I didn't, either.
But it's true!
It's freaking me out!
Of all people, Bayless!"
Some of you were misunderstood by your family.
You accepted Christ, and they just looked at you and shook their heads.
It's something you can't understand from the outside.
You can only understand it from getting on the inside by being born again.
And I don't know if you noticed, but just the contents were changed, not the pots.
Second Corinthians 4:7 says, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the
excellence and the power may be of God and not of us."
My friend, when you get saved, when a person is converted, the part of them that changes
is their spirit, not their body.
It's not outward; it is inward.
In fact, we're right here at John 2.
Look in in the third chapter with me, if you would.
Jesus is carrying on a conversation with the ruler of the Jews named Nicodemus.
And look in verses 6 and 7.
Jesus said,
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not marvel that I said to you, "You must be born again.'
Jesus is saying is that the part of a person that is born again is not their flesh.
You get your flesh and blood body from your parents, but that which is born of the Holy
Spirit is the human spirit.
It's the person on the inside that gets changed.
Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new."
Now, obviously, that's not outward.
I got saved, and I still had freckles.
My eyes were still green.
Nothing outward had changed, but something inward had definitely, definitely changed.
Now, see, I'm looking at a room full of pots right now.
But there's wine in the pots.
There's more to you than meets the eye.
You know, I have this lovely watch that Harrison and Bethany gave me some time ago.
You can see this movement on the face of the watch.
There's a red second hand; there's a little calendar that turns; there's a minute hand;
you know, there's an hour hand; there's movement that can be recognized outwardly.
But it's only because there's things going on, on the inside that allows the face of
the watch to give expression.
And if you take the insides out, if you take away all of the internal mechanisms and the
battery, the watch is dead.
It has no expression without the internal mechanisms, without the internal battery.
And, my friend, when you take the spirit out of the body, the spirit is dead.
The book of James declares, "The spirit… the body without the spirit is dead.
And it's the inside part of you, it's your spirit that needs to be born again.
Now verse 7,
Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water."
And they filled them up to the brim.
Just a couple thoughts on this.
You know, they didn't fill them halfway.
They filled them to the brim.
They obeyed with zeal.
And I think that's the way it ought to be.
There's a lot of half-hearted work that goes on in God's house in the body of Christ.
But what we do, we ought to do to the brim.
If it's believing, do it with all of your heart.
If it's preaching, preach in season and out of season.
Don't preach like you're half asleep and don't believe what you're saying, yourself,
anyway.
If it's, you know, if it's praying, pray mightily.
Fill it up to the brim.
If it's studying, turn the Scriptures inside out and lay ahold of them like your life depended
on it.
Study to the brim.
If it's giving, do it with liberality.
Fill the vessels to the brim.
We're to serve the Lord with all of our hearts.
What we set our hand to, we're supposed to do it with all of our heart, all of our
strength.
It's a little side note, but I love the fact that they didn't just fill them up
a little bit.
They didn't just put some water in.
They filled them up to the brim.
And then, you know, when they took them to the master of the feast, he calls the bridegroom
and says, "Hey, everybody sets out the good wine at first; and when everybody's had
a little bit to drink, then they put out the inferior wine.
You've kept the good wine until now."
The Christian life is better than our unsaved days.
The best I had unsaved does not compare with the life I have now.
My old life was much inferior in every way, and I wouldn't go back for any price.
Just another thought: Did you notice Jesus didn't charge for the wine?
You can't pay for salvation, my friend.
It is a free gift of God's grace that just must be received.
And then, you know, this miracle of transformation was accomplished by His words and by His servants.
By His word; by His servants.
Men and women experience new life in Christ and they're saved through the foolishness
of preaching.
First Corinthians 1:21 says, "It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save
those who believe."
Romans 10:14 asks the question, "How shall they call on Him on whom they have not believed?
How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?"
Now we're born again through the incorruptible seed of the Word, but someone must plant the
seed.
Yes, it was His word, but it was also, you know, there was the involvement of servants,
as well.
And, you know, these servants, they were just mere men.
It doesn't talk about their life, but I can guarantee you they were men that had faults
and inconsistencies and failings.
Yet no one rejected the wine because of the weakness or the failings of the servants.
Don't reject the Gospel just because of the humanity of the vessel that brings it.
That's why Paul said in Second Corinthians 4:5, "For we do not preach ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake."
I mean, why reject the meal because those who are serving it are disappointing?
Let's take it a step farther.
You are lost out in the desert, hopelessly lost.
It's hot, you haven't had anything to drink in a couple of days; you realize you
are on the verge of perishing.
All of a sudden over the sand dunes you hear a strange noise.
And here comes this old rusty Jeep driving your way.
The guy stops in the Jeep, and he is a sight to see.
He hasn't shaved in who knows how long, he stinks, you can smell him from where you
are.
His lips are chapped; his skin is sunburned.
He says, "Hey, you want a drink of water?
And I'd be glad to drive you out of here."
You say, "No, I'm not taking any water from you.
You look a mess!
And you stink!
You obviously don't know anything about hygiene.
And there hasn't been any proper introductions.
I don't want your water, and I don't want your ride.
Get out of here!"
All right, go ahead and die.
You know what?
You are not going to find a minister of the Gospel or a Christian anywhere that doesn't
have some issues, doesn't have some faults.
You know, they said of John the Baptist, "Ah, you know, he has a demon.
He doesn't eat with us and he doesn't drink with us."
Well, Jesus came eating and drinking, and they said, "Ah, He's a glutton, and He
drinks too much wine."
I mean, you couldn't please the people.
It's easy to find faults in people if you look for them.
And maybe you've been turned off by somebody that tried to share with you.
Listen, don't judge the whole parade by a couple of clowns, okay?
The Gospel is real.
Don't reject the message because the one bringing it is disappointing.
And I think the main lessons in this story actually do deal with conversion, but there's
more to it than that.
And I want to talk about a few of the other lessons we can learn here.
In verse 5, I love it.
To me, these are some of the most powerful words in all the Bible.
Now Mary, you know, when she told Jesus, "You know, they have no wine."
And the indication in the original language may be, "Hey, they've just about run out
of wine."
And Jesus, you know, kindly rebuffed her.
The phrase "woman" is not derogatory in any way.
You find it used throughout the New Testament, even sometimes when an angel would address
a woman.
So it wasn't derogatory.
He wasn't shaming her.
But there was a mild rebuff in that.
He said, "Look, what does your concern have to do with Me?
My time is not yet."
Maybe His time just had to do with when the wine completely ran out and there would be
no human way to solve it.
Maybe it was just that He was going to hear from the Father in the next few moments.
But Mary, I think, though she had observed no miracle of Christ because the Scripture
says this is the first miracle He did, I think, she had grown to know Him well enough, having
raised Him and knowing where He came from and who He was, that she was pretty sure He
was going to do something.
And she said… and here again, here's the powerful words: "Whatever He says to you,
do it."
Not whatever He says to you, write a song about it; whatever He says to you, pray about
it; whatever He says to you, have a panel discussion about it.
Whatever He says to you, do it.
And Jesus then tells the servants to do something ridiculous.
There's these stone vessels there, He said, "Fill them with water."
Now that doesn't make sense; but, you know, when God is about to bless you, He most normally
issues a command.
And if that command is obeyed, many times miracles follow.
I mean, think about this: "Fill them with water."
"Water?
Did You not hear Your mother?
They're not out of water.
They're out of wine!
This makes no sense.
This is ridiculous.
It's idiotic.
And besides that, a hundred and fifty gallons of water?
Jesus, come on!
Do you know how long that's going to take us?
I mean, we've got a two-gallon bucket here.
That's 75 dips down in the well.
We're going to be at this for an hour!
Come on!"
But they do it.
They don't argue.
They just do it.
It makes no sense, it's laborious, but they do it.
And then He says, "All right, now take some out, give it to the master of the feast."
"What?
Look, my job's on the line here.
I take that guy some water, and I'm never going to get a gig working another wedding
ever!
You know, this is a small town, Jesus.
Everybody's going to hear about this.
You really want me to do that?"
But there was, you know, no argument.
They just did it.
And there's no indication that would let us think that somehow the water turned to
wine before they took it.
I think it turned to wine in process or after they handed it to the master of the feast.
It took faith.
Sometimes we have to do the ridiculous before God will do the miraculous.
We must obey even if, at times, it makes no sense.
And you may even feel at times that God is somehow toying with you, having a laugh at
your expense.
Let me assure you, He is not.
Our part is to obey and to do it zealously.
To fill it up to the brim.
And once we've obeyed, the miracle part is up to Him.
We draw the water, He turns it into wine; we lower the nets, He brings the fish; we
circle the city and shout, He causes the walls to fall down.
Now somebody says, "A hundred and fifty gallons of wine!
What, did God want everybody to get drunk?"
Well, no.
A wedding in those days wasn't just a couple hours on a Sunday afternoon.
It actually lasted for an entire week.
And, generally, the whole village was invited.
Jesus met the need of an entire village.
He is Jehovah Jireh, the Lord our Provider, and no matter what kind of a need you have
or how great it might be, He can meet that need.
And, you know, there is no indication that they drank all of it.
This is just what I personally think.
I think all the leftover wine was just a wedding gift to that bridegroom and that bride from
Jesus.
Do you remember, I think it's either in First or Second Kings 4…
Second Kings, it would have to be… with Elisha.
And there was a widow woman, and he says, "All right, go borrow vessels, not a few."
She's ready to die.
She just has a little jar of oil.
And she gets her kids, so she's going to have to sell her kids into, you know, an indenture
service.
And so she gets all these vessels from all the neighbors and starts pouring out that
oil.
It pours out and pours out, and she fills all those vessels, says, "Okay, give me
another."
And the boy said, "There's no more."
She goes and tells the prophet.
He says, "All right, go ahead and sell it.
Pay your debts and live on the rest."
And just knowing how kind and wonderful our Savior is, I think all of that leftover amazing
wine… can you imagine how good wine is that the Son of God made?
Some of you wine connoisseurs in here, you have no idea!
And so there is this beautiful gift given to this little couple… and, again, that's
just my personal theology.
You don't have to agree with that.
But Jesus did make 150 gallons of wine.
And He did the miracle at a simple wedding in a remote town among poor people in Cana.
Whoever heard of Cana?
It was a tiny village in Galilee.
He did not do His first miracle in Herod's palace or in front of the religious elite.
There were no kings, no dignitaries present that day.
Just a young couple in distress and embarrassed because they had run out of wine at their
wedding.
And there was quite a social stigma that would have been attached to that.
Some people would have thought that it was a sign that their marriage would have been
cursed.
It was literally a social disaster for them with a degree of disgrace attached to it that
it would take them years to outlive.
Jesus met their need in that obscure village… away from the famous, out of the sight of
the religious leaders… in Cana.
You know, it's interesting.
Cana belonged to the tribe of Asher of which the dying Jacob prophesied when he got his
son, Asher, before him, and he said, "He will provide delicacies fit for a king."
Well, it certainly happened that day in that remote, unknown town.
And just maybe you are here listening to me, and you feel looked over and passed by in
the grand scheme of things.
You might think, "Nobody even knows who I am."
My friend, God does.
And delicacies fit for a king can happen to you.
But you first need to do what this couple did.
They invited Jesus.
Jesus was not a gate crasher.
He comes into our lives and into our circumstances by invitation only.
Have you invited Him in?
If you want to experience that transformation that takes place on the inside, changes the
contents of the pot, you have to invite Him in.
He won't force Himself on you.
It's this amazing thing called a free will.
I don't know if you've ever contemplated it, but there really is no such thing as genuine
love without a free will.
God didn't make, you know, a race of automatons.
He literally gave us the ability to reject Him if we don't want Him in our lives.
And I'll guarantee you, if you don't want God in your earthly life for 70 or 80 years,
you are not going to want Him throughout eternity, and you won't be bothered with it.
But if He's going to come into your life, you have to invite Him in.
You know, salvation is a gift as we said.
But it's a gift that must be received.
Even in the book of Revelation, Jesus is pictured standing at the door of our heart and knocking.
Well friend, the handle is on the inside.
If you don't open the door He is not coming in.
If you don't invite Him in, if you don't receive Him, you'll never be a partaker
of salvation.
And the truth is, God has no grandchildren.
Your mama and daddy can't piggyback you into God's kingdom.
Your husband, your wife can't bring you into God's kingdom.
You have to make a decision on your own.
And the good news, Jesus said whoever comes to me I will not cast aside, I will not turn
away.
It doesn't matter how bad you've been.
It doesn't matter that you didn't do what you should have done or that you did something
that you shouldn't have done.
You are loved by God, fiercely loved by God.
And Jesus Christ has already shed His blood to redeem you.
So right now wherever you are just open your heart to Him.
Confess Him as the Lord of your life.
Be sincere, talk to God.
Use your own words.
My friend, He will hear you.
He sees you now and He is listening to you right now.
How clear is your vision for your life and the future?
Sometimes we struggle through life and it's merely because we don't have a clear vision.
The Bible says, "Where there is no vision the people parish."
The power of vision is something that you need to find out about.
Jesus wants us absolutely passionate and on fire.
And it's one of the things that vision will do.
It keeps us on target, and it keeps us on fire.
In his CD and DVD message "The Power of Vision" Bayless Conley teaches you to sharpen
your vision by keeping God's priorities central to your focus.
Discover how a strong vision can keep you on target in life, and help you stay passionate!
Just use the information on the screen now to request your copy.
The Power of Vision.
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