Scripture: John 2:1-11

January 11, 2004

Rev. John W. Fowler

I want to share with you about the first miracle that our Lord performed in His ministry. When we think of miracles today we think of people like the man who was pulled from the Iranian earthquake after thirteen days. There actually was a survivor; he had some sort of water source. Think of the Panthers winning in a miraculous fashion. But Jesus Christ certainly was a man of miracles and He didn’t do it just for the sake of the show. He was very much to the point to the Kingdom of God and that the Son of God had come. He certainly had power then, but I want you to know that He still has power today. And I want you to think of — how do I need God’s miraculous power in my life today. In John Chapter 2 it says:

Anne Graham Lotz, in her book, Just Give Me Jesus, talks about a miracle that she experienced in her marriage. She was seventeen years old when she met Danny Lotz. Her farther, Billy Graham, had arranged the date. They went to a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting. Danny Lotz was a former Carolina basketball player and football player. She was impressed but didn’t think much would come of it, but she was mistaken. A lot did come of it; they fell in love. When she was eighteen she was married and when a lot of her friends were going off to college, she was at home cooking and cleaning and starting a new family. Life was wonderful, as far as she was concerned. She had a man — a preacher’s son, a dentist, who loved the Lord. He was very busy starting his practice. And she became very busy with three small children and starting a Bible study, I believe in Raleigh.

One morning she woke up and realized that the love had gone out of her marriage and it panicked her; it frightened her. It scared her because she knew that she had made a commitment for life, but she knew that she didn’t want to just go through the motions for the rest of her life. So she did as so many people do — she cried out to God. She prayed. She asked for a miracle in her marriage. And for the next year, God began to pour love back into that relationship. So many times she would work and try hard to be a better wife and then she realized that really wasn’t what God was after. God was after her to pray more, to seek Him more, and as she would come to the Lord more, the love would be poured into her heart for her husband, and vice versa. She had a miracle in her marriage.

The miracle you need today may not be in your marriage. It may be about finances. It may be in your health. As far as you are concerned, maybe life is pretty good. It may be a smaller one, but God’s power is still available. He still wants to pour out His power upon us. And I believe that it is one of the greatest evidences that Jesus is alive today when we see that He is working in our lives. He is transforming our lives; he is able to use us to touch other people’s lives with his power.

At the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee, water was turned into wine. First of all this morning I want you to think in terms about what is a miracle. When you look at some of what people have said, St. Augustine said it this way: “A miracle is an occurrence which is contrary to what is known of nature.” C. S. Lewis had a great book on miracles. He said, “I use the word miracle to mean an interference with nature by a supernatural power.” William Bartley said it this way: “A miracle is an event in which God’s power has made a special entry into our lives.” I give it a broad definition. A miracle is God’s power at work in our lives.

Scott Peck in the book, The Road Less Traveled, says he had a change of mind about God’s miraculous power. He said, “Fifteen years ago when I graduated from medical school I was certain there were no miracles. Today I am certain that miracles abound. The change in my consciousness has been the result of two factors working hand in hand. One factor is a whole variety of experiences I have had as a psychiatrist which initially seemed quite common place, but when I thought about them more deeply, seemed to indicate that my work with patients toward their growth was being remarkably consistent in ways in which I had no logical explanation, that is, ways that were miraculous.”

When you look at the miracles of Jesus in the New Testament you see three main types:

One, there are the miracles of healing. I think of Jesus, when he was approached by the Centurion. His servant was ill and He said, “Well, I will come and see him.”

He said, “No, Lord. You just say the word and it will be done,” and He was amazed at his great faith. Or I think of the man who was paralyzed and he had good friends. They knew to take him to Jesus and they cleared out a little space in the roof, lowered him down, and this man was leaping and praising God before the day was over. I think of the ten men with leprosy, that horrible disease, that isolating disease. Jesus touched them and made them well. Only one came back to give thanks.

Also the miracles over the power of nature. Jesus, asleep on the boat, a great storm comes up, and He says, “Peace, be still,” and the storm is stilled. Jesus fed the five thousand and they had great teaching, the greatest teacher of all time. As they were gathering they said, “Well, what are we going to do for food?”

One of the disciples said, “Well, it would take a year’s wages to be able to pay for all this.”

What to eat? And so, one suggestion is, “Well, there is a boy here; he has a few fish and a few loaves.”

“Well, bring them here to me.” And we find what happens when we bring what we have to Jesus. Five thousand are fed.

But then we also find this power over raising the dead. Jairus’ daughter, they think is hopeless. Jesus goes and says to the little girl, “I say ‘Arise.’” And she gets up.

We think of the widow’s son at Nain. The funeral possession is going on. Jesus stops it. He rises from the dead. Or we think of Lazarus. “Come forth,” and Lazarus did.

Miracles. Why are they in the ministry of Jesus? Especially to show that He is the Messiah; the Kingdom of God has come; God has all power.

What can we learn from this first miracle as we look at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee? First of all, we find what a difference it makes in our lives when we invite Jesus into our lives. Jesus was invited to this wedding. A wedding in those time was a (well, they are still a big event) but they were especially a big event in that time in an occupied country — very poor. This was their excuse to go ahead and have a good time. There probably were people around at this wedding who said, “Well, they should have saved their money and invested it,” but, you know, there is a time when you need to spend your money and have a good time and celebrate. So, that’s what they did. And Jesus was invited into the wedding. When we invite Jesus into our lives, what a difference it makes. Jesus said,

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” in Revelations. “If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and sup with him, and he with me.”

I think of Zacchaeus who invited Jesus to his house. You know there was a tremendous miracle that happened there if a tax collector pays back four times what he owes when he has been cheating people. You know that Jesus has come into his life in a great way.

What difference would it make if you would truly invite Jesus in to the problem that you have been praying about, and really asked Him for His insight?

Secondly in this, you find that Mary told Jesus her need — that is, “They have no more wine.” We don’t know if Mary was in charge of refreshments, but especially (I mean that would be an embarrassment at a reception, to run out) — “I am sorry; you need to go home; there is nothing here.” But in this case, first of all, it went on for several days. The couple would not go away for the honeymoon. They would have open house. They might actually have little crowns on, the King and the Queen. But still they were entertaining all this time, so in some ways it is no mystery why they were running out. But they had, and it would be a great embarrassment. And you would think the first miracle would be something more profound than wine at a wedding reception. But Mary doesn’t go into a lot of detail.

She just simply tells Him, “They have no wine.” She has watched Him grow up. He is about thirty years old now. A lot of people think that, because Joseph is not mentioned after you see Jesus in the temple at age twelve, that he probably died, early on, and that is one of the reasons that Jesus didn’t start His ministry until He was thirty, to help the family because Mary had other sons and daughters. But she is waiting until the right time, and Jesus is waiting until the right time.

We tell Him our needs. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord’s Prayer said, “Give us this day our daily bread.” It is important to be able to be honest and tell God what our needs are. The children of Israel had a hard time with this lesson. They had been slaves and God was trying to teach them how to live by faith. They had been provided manna from on high. They got tired of it. They would get thirsty and want to know, “Well, did you bring us out here to die of thirst?” So they would get water from a rock. He would bring them quail. They had a hard time learning to trust God about their needs.

It is miraculous when we truly learn by faith to truly trust God for His provision. Paul said it this way,

We invite Jesus into our lives and we tell Him our needs and then — we do whatever He tells us. When Jesus responds to Mary He says, “Woman, my hour has not yet come.” Now, that doesn’t sound like a real nice way to talk back to your mother. In fact, it does sound like He is talking back to His mother. But it is the same term that He uses when He is on the cross and says, “Woman, behold your son.” It is not a term of disrespect, but He is letting her know that the miracles will not come because a mother wants me to; it is because my heavenly father wants me to.

She goes and tells them, “Do whatever He tells you.”

So, Jesus comes and He says, “Fill the jars with water.”

There are these great water pots there for ceremonial cleansing. He tells them to fill the jars with water; fill them to the brim. And then He told them to draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. They did that; they didn’t question Him. The master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.

Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “ Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink. But you have saved the best until now.”

So what happened? They did whatever the Lord told them to do and then they let God answer the need in His way and in His time. Sometimes that’s the hard part for that miraculous power at work. We just simply don’t want to sit back and wait and see what He is going to do.

Danny Morse, one of my favorite spiritual writers, in the book, Discerning God’s Will, talks about what it is like, as many of you know, to wait for a test to come back, wondering what is going to be the prognosis, and he realized that they had told him there was about a fifty percent chance of his having this disease, and he started worrying and worrying. He realized that so much of his life when you get fifty-percent he thinks the fifty-percent bad happening, not the fifty-percent that it might not happen. And then he got to where he began to pray, “Lord, I just pray for any miracle that you want to give.” When we get to the point where we don’t know how it is going to turn out, but we want God more than what we are asking for.

Her name is Katherine Marshall, again one of my favorite spiritual writers. She was a Presbyterian minister’s wife and in her late twenties she had a lung disease and had to go to bed and stay there. Being a very studious person, she began to search the scriptures and line up, especially, all the New Testament passages about healing, and studying and analyzing them, thinking, “Well, if I figure out these laws of healing then I will get my healing.”

She did that for months, and finally just worked up as much faith as she could. (She had plenty of time; there wasn’t much she could do.) So she felt like she had read the scriptures and figured out the laws of healing. She asked God, “Surely, I am going to be well?’ She goes to the doctor and the X-rays are just the same — see you next time. And she got so frustrated, so angry. And finally she discovered what she called the prayer of relinquishment where, again, “God, I want You more than the healing.” And then, that’s when the healing began.

There is always a mystery of healing. There is always a mystery of the miraculous. God brings miracles in different ways. You look in John Chapter 5. There is a healing of attitude as well as a healing of the body. Jesus is at a pool and that is where people would gather around to get well. They thought if they would go into this pool an angel stirred the water, and Jesus was there.

This man had been coming for thirty-eight years and Jesus said, “Do you want to get well?” You would think after thirty-eight years, “Yes, I would. I do want to get well. That’s a silly question.” He says to get up, take up your mat and walk. He does! And then there are people who don’t think He should be doing that on the Sabbath.

Sometimes God’s miracle comes in a way that gives us an attitude change. In John Chapter 9 we see a miracle of boldness where a man has been born blind. Jesus makes a little mud patch and puts it on his eyes and tells him to go wash. He goes and washes and receives his sight. You would think that everyone would be excited, but they aren’t because when people’s lives are changed by Christ, sometimes it just makes people real uncomfortable. His parents are shy about wanting to admit about how this happened because they don’t want to be put out of the temple. The Jewish leaders don’t like it because he has been around Jesus and they don’t like this person who has had an encounter with Jesus.

What is his response? “All I know is that once I was blind and now I see. He touched my eyes.”

God gives us a miracle of boldness at times where, more and more, we don’t really care what people think of us; we just know that Jesus has touched us. In John Chapter 11 we see a miracle of new life when Lazarus, who has died, is called forth from the tomb by Jesus. When they tell Him what does He do? He tells them to remove the stone. “Why?”

“Well, because somebody is coming out. You need to remove that stone.”

“Well, it stinks in there. He has been dead for three days.”

“You need to move the stone back.” And, “Lazarus, come forth.” He comes forth. He is given new life. And oftentimes the miracle we need is new life, new vigor, new enthusiasm for what God has called us to do.

One of the best miracles I like: There was a miracle of love in John, Chapter 21. The risen Christ appears to them on the seashore. They don’t know it is Him. They have been fishing and haven’t caught anything. He says, “Have you caught anything?” Well, He knows they haven’t caught anything, but He says it anyway. “Have you caught anything?”

“No.”

“Well, put it on the other side.” And now they have such an incredible catch they just can’t believe it.

And then Peter realizes, “It’s the Lord,” and he swims to shore and they have breakfast.

Jesus asks him three times, “Do you love me, Peter?” That’s what matters more to Jesus to hear from His disciples. “Do you love me?”

Peter says, “Yes, Lord. You know that I love You.” And Jesus was forgiving him for his denial.

One of the greatest miracles that God gives to us is the miracle of His love. When you see what happens when the water turns into wine, when God’s miraculous power works in our lives, not only does He change us, but He is able to use us to change other people.

Let me close with this story. His name is Michael Lindell. He is very busy — had a very busy week. He is a pastor and he thought back over his week. He had preached a sermon, gone to meetings, done a lot of visiting, but he thought of two little episodes which really had mattered most that week. He went to the barber shop, really not expecting any kind of spiritual encounter. Harry had been cutting his hair for a long time, but for some reason Harry began to talk about his upbringing. The haircut was over, but Harry wasn’t. He talked about how awful it was on Saturday night when Dad came home, and he was still angry in some ways about it, very much so.

And he just looked in the mirror at Harry and said, “Well, you know, Harry, just because you forgive someone doesn’t mean that you approve of what they did.” Harry got teary-eyed and somehow Michael knew that God was in that room, in that barber shop.

Or he thought of the night he came home and, you know, the decisions they made at the Church board meeting, and he just felt like watching TV or reading the newspaper, but there were two little girls, his daughters, waiting for him to read Ramona the Pest, Chapter 6. So he went up there, even though he didn’t feel like it; sat on the bed; read to them. They fell asleep. He said their prayers for them. He thought that, you know, those two episodes were really was most important that week.

Well, that’s the way it is with God’s miraculous power. Sometimes it is at work in ways that we don’t even realize it. But God is using you to touch other peoples’ lives with His miraculous power.

Let us pray.