Francis Ford Coppola, the Academy Award winning director, keeps on top of his fridge an empty $25,000 bottle of wine. Somebody asked him well, how was it? It was one of the best I ever had, he said. There's a signature violet and rose petal aroma that completes this amazingly well-preserved robust wine that finished fermentation or about the time of Pearl Harbor. $25,000. It's like drinking a new car. It gets worse. Let me top that. In eight years ago at the Napa Valley wine auction in California, a single bottle of wine, vintage 1992, but a single bottle of wine sold for $500,000. So let me ask you, how does half a million dollars taste? Let's find out. John 2's where we're going, page 887 in your Pew Bible. Let's hear God's word, beginning at verse 1. On the third day, there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. And Jesus said to her, woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rights of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water, and they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast. So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water, now become wine, and did not know where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew, the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, everyone serves the good wine first. And when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now. This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him. What's pray? Lord God, so long ago you revealed your glory, and they believed. We simply asked that you would do that this morning in your name we pray. Amen. A catering disaster. Are you serious? A catering disaster. Gotta be kidding me. When Apple rolled out the iPhone in 2007, they thought it would revolutionize the industry. It would change the landscape for cell phones. So with literally billions of dollars invested in research and development, the only question left to address, how do we bring this product to market? Steve Jobs had teams of people working on it. I mean, they knew they needed a cogent, concise, clear presentation of exactly why we all needed one. They wanted to show that the primary purpose and all the capabilities of this thing. So they worked on one keynote address that millions of people would watch, because they knew, never get a second chance for a first impression. So if successful organizations know when they bring a product to market, they want to have that kind of planning, that kind of forethought. Do you think that the most influential person in history, who started the largest movement ever on the earth? You think he entered this situation haphazardly? I mean, don't you think he planned his coming out party? Does God come down, come all this way to fix a catering disaster? I mean, this sounds like something Martha Stewart would write. This doesn't make sense. You can't make this kind of stuff up. The only reason why this thing is in the Bible is because this is how it really happened. What's going on here? In verse 11, John tells us, this is the first of his signs. Now, the other gospel writers use the term miracle, but John purposefully uses signs. And a sign points to something deeper than itself. It points to a destination, something more. There's a deeper goal here. So if God comes all that way to announce his presence by fixing a catering disaster, what is his goal? This entire passage hangs on verses 3 through 5 as Jesus has this exchange with his mother. Let's check it out. Number 1, they're out of wine. Mary comes to Jesus and informs him that this wedding is in deep trouble. Let's get some context here. I grew up in the south. It's assumed a lot of you are southerners being that we're in the south. How do we do weddings here? I mean, normally there's a great ceremony. After it's over, sometimes we adjourn downstairs, the fellowship hall. There are dervs. We wait for the pictures to finish. The bride and groom come down. We eat a little. We talk a little. Maybe we don't even sit down. After about an hour goes by, we go outside and throw some rice or some bird seed. The bride and groom get in the car drive off. We all go home. Sometimes we do it like Yankees though. We have a big dinner reception, do some dancing. A couple hours go by. Same thing happens though. We all go out. Throw some stuff. They hop in their cars. We hop in ours. We go home. That's not how they did in the ancient world. This was a seven day event. Some of you brides, look at me, me like Russ, my was a seven day event. I'm not talking about for you. This was a seven day event for everybody. The wedding happened on the first day and everybody celebrated for a week. Parents, you think the bill is high now. Imagine feeding and lodging everyone for an entire week. Those of you with daughters might like to know, it was the groom's responsibility to provide for the wedding. But they were out of wine. What does that tell you? I mean, they had put it away fast. It's what in a Presbyterian wedding. Seriously though, this was a substantial faux pas. This is the kind of thing that in their community would have been discussed for years. I mean, if your family name came up, definitely if the event itself came up. But if your family name came up, they might even bring this up. This is what you would be known for. This is much worse than the groom fainting up front and falling or even the brides dress ripping as you walk down the aisle. People stopped what they were doing. They stopped working and came to celebrate with you for a week. They were trusting that you had planned and you were going to provide for them. As a matter of fact, with the hospitality laws in those days, if people came trusting that and you didn't provide, they could sue you. Nothing says wedding, like friends and family suing one another. This is a serious disaster for the groom. I mean, if he can't plan and provide for the wedding week, what hope is there for the rest of the marriage? I don't know if it's getting kind of warm in here for some of you husbands. Have you ever had that conversation? Didn't you print the directions off before we left? Are you going to take care of me or what? On a much larger scale. But somehow Mary finds out about this problem early. Maybe it's because she's a family friend. Maybe it's because the women's area was closer to the kitchen. We don't really know. But somehow she finds out before the master of the feast. And that's pretty important because the master of the feast's sole responsibility is to keep the party going. This is his thing. This is what he's about. She comes and she reports to Jesus, they're out of wine. She's taking personal ownership of the situation. It's almost like she's coming and saying, Jesus, don't just stand there, do something.
And this is the moment where it really gets interesting. And Jesus answer, his response just doesn't seem to make sense. All right. Number one, they're out of wine. Number two, look at Jesus' response. Woman, why are you bothering me with this? Why are you involving me? Now some of you have different translations. It may soften this a little bit. Let me tell you, it's clear from the original language. Jesus is not saying, ma'am, he's not saying, dear, not, yes, mommy. He's not even saying, lady, he's almost rude to his own mother. What's going on here? Remember, he's a 30-year-old man at this point. So when I first read this, maybe you thought this too, you read it and you think, okay, mom comes in. She pushes a little bit. He pushes back, but then he's like, all right, Jesus doesn't relate to his mom the exact same way we do. This isn't like when my mom comes to town and says, son, you got to clean your room. I say, woman, this is my house. I own it. I like it like that. But son, you're a pastor. People might come over. All right, clean my room. That's not what's going on here. Jesus has agitated. Why would he answer like this? It's almost like he's distracted. What does this have to do with me? It's not my time yet. What is Jesus thinking about? It's maybe personal for some of you this morning, but I mean, what is a single 30-something think about when they go to a wedding? Why am I going to get married? Who am I going to marry? How's it going to happen? Now, some of you may be saying, Russ, you're speculating. You're going too far. No, I'm not. Let me prove it to you. There's two evidences in this text that Jesus is thinking about his wedding. First of all, he says, it's not my hour yet. Now, in John, if you read the entire gospel of John, you'll see every time John talks about his hour, or Jesus says my hour, he's talking about the cross. He's talking about his death. So Mary comes in and says, they're out of wine. And Jesus says, it's not time for me to die yet. What? I mean, what does that have to do with the price of bread in China? Remember, it's the groom's responsibility to provide the wine. And how is Jesus going to provide the wine for his wedding? This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins. Jesus knows that the only way he's going to get his bride's kiss is if he dies for her. That's what he's thinking about. Why does he have to die? Look at the second evidence I'll give you. The stone jars. Why does he point on toward the stone jars? This is a tale that's pretty easy to miss, but they ran out of wine, which means they must have had a lot of containers somewhere that were empty. He doesn't tell them go get the empty wine containers. He says those, the stone jars over there, the ones used for purification, fill those up. What's he up to? These are jars that were used to make people spiritually clean. Now obviously if you take water and you wash yourself on the outside, it doesn't wash you on the inside. This is an outward sign of what God is really doing inside. And devout Jews who trusted God's promises acted in faith knowing that it made them clean in God's eyes. So what's Jesus up to? He's replaced water for cleansing with wine. And if you've ever spilled wine or grape juice on your clothes, this isn't really a good cleansing agent. Let's pull back a little bit. In Egypt, when Moses came in challenge pharaoh, there was another time that God turned water into blood. But that was a plague. That was a curse of death. And now Jesus is turning water into wine, but instead of it being death occurs. It's a blessing. What's he doing? I mean, he's pointing at it. It takes the blood of the lamb on the doors for you to come out from under this plague of death. If you're not a Christian here this morning, let's let me back up for a minute because I'm throwing out a lot of biblical imagery and I don't want you to drown in it. If you're here in this and I'm talking about Jesus providing the wine for his wedding, I want you to know, biblically, there are a lot of images God uses for a relationship with us. And he talks about being a king. It's not like he's our landlord. We're a subjects. He talks about of being a father as though we're children. But this is even more intimate than that. There is a theme woven throughout scripture. God wants to have an intimate relationship with us along the lines of the most intimate one we know on earth as a husband for a wife. And if you've never heard that before, that's probably shocking. I mean whenever I bring that up among students about their dating life, thinking about dating Jesus that really makes them stop and pull back a little bit, it's shocking. And for Christians, the only reason it's not shocking for us is we've forgotten. We've forgotten what this means. God wants an exclusive relationship, an intimate relationship with us. Sometimes I just, I don't know that that's what I want today. I mean we think, you know, I'm going to play the field for a little while. I'm going to see what's out there. I'm going to see what I might be missing. You ever been to a wedding with a bride who's been known to really play the field? I mean I've sat in a pew at a wedding before and heard people whisper as the bride walked down the aisle at her own wedding day. I can't believe she's wearing white as though it's a joke on her big day. The Bible is not even that kind. I mean the prophets come after it consistently. God's people are talked about is unfaithful. I mean God has Hosea married a prostitute. Why? Because God says, that's how my bride treats me. If you don't know this morning, if you don't feel the emblazoned A on your chest, the red A for adultery, either you are in serious denial, deadly denial, or you know full well and are excited about the fact that Jesus pointed at those stone jars. You understand what he's up to. His blood can make the fallest clean. His blood availed from me. We already sang it this morning. Jesus knows his bride's dress. If she comes as she is, is tattered and stained and there's no way in the world he's going to let her walk down the aisle like that. What does he do? He washes her in his blood and he gives her his own clothes to wear. I just want you to think about that image for a minute. The king dresses his bride in his clothes. The bride comes down the aisle, harlot that she's been, like a king.
I've presided over several weddings and it's great when the door's open and the mother stands and everybody turns and looks back at the bride. But while y'all are all looking at the bride, I can't see her. So you know where I look? At the groom's face. You ever look at the groom's face in a wedding? I mean it's almost like the entire day has been set up for that moment where he will look down that aisle and be ravished by the beauty of his bride. That's the taste we're talking about this morning. That's the taste of Jesus' wine. I want you to understand what it is he's serving.
Here's Jesus thinking about his wedding day. You want to know what it looks like? John tells us in Revelation 21, I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. Just a couple verses later Jesus says, behold, I'm making all things new. Do you know what the theme of the first few chapters of John is? Newness, new wine, new birth, new worship. It's like Paul said, the old has gone, the new has come. That's what Jesus' wedding is about. But he's agitated. Why? See they're two cups and it's a little more obvious when you read some of the other gospels because Jesus moves from the Lord's supper from this celebration directly into Gethsemane where he says, Father, if it's at all possible, let this cup pass. He goes from offering us the cup of joy, the four taste of that banquet, to taking our cup of death. Let me push on that a little bit. Some of you here really don't care whether or not we have the Lord's supper. Maybe don't care if it's all that frequent. I think if you get this, you will be pumped to feast at the Lord's supper. Do you understand what it is we're celebrating? It's a rehearsal dinner. The wedding is coming. Do you taste it? Let me put this as bluntly as I can this morning. Jesus is sitting there in the middle of a celebration and he's in sorrow because he sees what's coming. He's drinking in the sorrow. It's going to cost him to one day have that celebration. Think with me. If there's only one thing you get this morning, think with me. Jesus sits, sipping the coming sorrow in the middle of joy so that we can sit and sip the coming joy in the midst of our sorrow. He trades with us. He trades. He knows what he's given. I mean our God is a God who likes to celebrate. He likes to celebrate. I say it at every wedding. The Bible opens with a wedding. It closes with a wedding. You think God knows how to throw a party. He threw the first one. He's going to throw the last one. Our God likes to celebrate. I want you to understand that. This is a foretaste of a much better banquet. I mean if God throws the first wedding party and he's going to throw the last one, is it really that much of a surprise that he chooses a wedding banquet to announce that he's
here. They bring the wine to this master, the feast. People drunk all around him. It's a mediocre wedding. He's seen a million of them and all of a sudden he takes something that doesn't belong here. This is wine from a much better banquet. Isaiah 25 tells us about it. Listen to this. On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats, and the finest of wines. And here it is. You want to know what the wine is? On this mountain, he will destroy the shroud that infolds all peoples, the sheep that covers all nations. He will swallow up death forever. The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces. He will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. Now listen to me. I know some of you here are suffering this morning. This is the text I preached at my own grandmother's funeral. I'm not trying to give you a cheap answer. I'm not telling you to paint a smile on your face. This is not lipstick on a pig. This is a real banquet. He will wipe away the tears. Jeremiah says he's going to turn our mourning into gladness. That means that if you're here this morning and the only thing you have to offer God is your tears. That's all you're bringing. We have a God who turns tears into wine. There's the picture, but some of you may be looking at me thinking, Russ, sounds great. How? How do I taste that wine? How do I get that? Look at Mary. Look at her example. They have no wine. Jesus responds. Number three. Look at Mary's trust. Her wisdom. Do whatever he tells you. I want to be clear here. She's not saying earn this miracle. She's not saying if you do enough good stuff, he'll provide. She's saying he will provide. Now act. I mean, it's almost as if Mary tells these guys, you follow his directions even though he hasn't given them yet and she walks out of the room. Jesus is going to provide and he's going to provide right now.
I mean, I want you to understand what that means. This isn't even Jesus banquet. It's not his wine to provide, but Mary knows the wine is going to start flowing and it's going to start flowing now and she can walk away and know it's taken care of. Jesus says it's not my time yet, but then he acts immediately. Some of you have heard already not yet of the kingdom. This is it. He's already giving us a taste even though it's not fully here. What are you going to do? This is not a time to be reserved. This is not a time to hold back. Ephesians 5 says, don't get drunk on wine. That leads to debauchery. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Do you hear what Paul's saying there? He doesn't say stop drinking. He says you need to change what you're drinking. He doesn't say get a little sip of the kingdom. He says drink deeply. I think that's important for us to hear. Do you understand this picture? Jesus comes and makes 150 gallons of wine people so we'll understand abundance. I mean, if we pull five SUVs out in the street and fill their gas tanks with wine, that's what we're talking about. If we were Baptist, I'd say fill the Baptist street with wine. That's what he does. He's throwing a celebration. I want you to understand the cross is the burning heart of God for a broken world, but it's not the goal. Hear me clearly, I don't want to be called a heretic. The cross is the burning heart of God because he brings us into the feast. That's his goal. It shows his love because he wants to bring us all the way in, all the way in. The only way you're going to taste this wine, the only way you're going to have this is if you know this groom. I mean, otherwise, I mean, if you're single here this morning, maybe you're depressed. You won't stop having that depression until you know there's a more important marriage than whether or not you get married in this life. You have a more important spouse. And if you are married, man, we're going to put unbelievable pressure on our spouses until we realize there's only one perfect spouse. Ruined marriages, unless we drink this wine deeply. I want you to taste this. I want you to know this joy. I mean, this is the litmus test this morning. I'll just put it as bluntly as I can do. You know this joy. Do you have the kind of joy that Mary had, that even though she comes and asks God for something, and he seems to blow her off, and then he has a bunch of random things tasked to be done, can you enjoy watching him work? Can you let it bubble up through all that stuff? Only if you taste and see. Six years ago, today, I watched as a groom almost lost it up front.
The family started coming in. Sisters walked by. I mean, you could see it on his face. Uncontainable joy. Tears just started pouring forth. He couldn't drink it all in. In the past, I had a lean forward and, hey buddy, you all right, give him a little pep talk. Calm down now.
But then the bride came in. I've never been so riveted to a scene in my life because it was my wedding. And it was really happening. Taste and see. Christianity is not a set of beliefs that we sign on to. It is a feast and you are invited by your groom. Let's eat.
Heavenly Father, there are people hurting here this morning. There are people with broken marriages, broken relationships, broken lives. And I pray that your wine would be real and we would drink deeply without reservation. Draw us into your presence now, we pray. Amen. Please stand for the benediction.