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(upbeat music) - Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions, our look together at
John chapter two. This is our day three look at John chapter two. We're going to
focus in on verse 11, but also think about the previous 10 verses as we think
today about the meaning of this miracle that Jesus did at the beginning of his
public ministry.

Verse 11, John chapter two says this, this, the first of his miraculous signs,
Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory and his disciples
put their faith in him. It's interesting that Jesus's first miracle in the
gospel of John was a private event at a wedding.

Not many people even knew that he had done it. Well, his last miracle is going to
be a public event at a funeral, the raising of Lazarus, where everybody sees
that he did it. Here's this miracle of the turning of water into wine.

Here's my question. If you had the power to work miracles, would this be your
first miracle? This is the first of his miraculous signs.

Why is this miracle first? What does it teach us? What's in this miracle?

Well, let's just walk through today. What are the signs? It says the first of
his miraculous signs.

What are the signs in this sign? What are we supposed to see? First of all, you
have to look back to the Old Testament to see how deep this sign really is.

Moses in the Old Testament is a somewhat of a parallel to Jesus in the New
Testament. He was the main religious leader in the Old Testament that began
everything. Began as he led people into freedom from Egypt.

And Moses came to represent the law. Jesus represents grace. And we read in John
chapter one that Jesus has fulfilled the law and now he represents grace and
truth.

It's interesting as you look at Moses and Jesus that the first miracle that
Moses did in the Old Testament by the power of God is he changed water. He
changed water into blood. That's a sign of judgment.

That's a sign of the law. And now here's Jesus in the New Testament and the
miracle that he does at the beginning is to change water into wine. That's a
sign of joy, of celebration.

That's the difference. That's the difference between law and grace between Old
Testament and New Testament. This is the change that God has made.

And so even in this miracle and what he does and looking back to the Old
Testament, you see the significance of this miracle. By the way, this notes that
this is the first of his miraculous signs. That's even important.

The fact that the Bible notes that this is his first sign, his first miracle
means that all those stories you read in other supposed gospels are written
hundreds and hundreds of years after Jesus lived. All those miracles that he was
supposed to perform as a child, those are just fallacies. They're just fakes.

There's a story in one of those books about how all the kids made clay pigeons
and they were comparing their clay pigeons. And one kid said, "Mine is better
than yours," to Jesus. And then Jesus turned his pigeon into a living pigeon and
it flew away.

That's a cool story, isn't it? I mean, that would be really an exciting story,
except it's totally false. It didn't happen.

Because this was the first miracle. It's also the first of seven miraculous
signs that we're going to see as we look together through the book of John. Look
for the signs, seven specific signs.

And he notes here that it's not just a miracle. It's a miraculous sign. What's a
sign?

Signs are miracles with meaning. They're living parables. A sign, very simply,
is put there to tell you something that you need to know.

If you're driving down the highway and you see a sign, it's put there to tell
you something that you need to know. Where the off-ramp is, where the next
highway is, how far to the next town. A miracle points not just to the miracle,
but it points to the sign.

In fact, it points to two things. It points to the miracle worker. Every miracle
that Jesus worked is a big arrow pointing right at Jesus Christ, showing him for
who he really is.

But the miracle also teaches us something about God. That's interesting.
Miracles don't teach us something new about God.

It just teaches us something that we've missed about God. A sign points to
something that's already there. We've just missed it.

I've always liked what C. S. Lewis said about miracles.

He said this, quoting, Each miracle writes for us in small letters, something
that God has already written in letters for us that are almost too large to
notice across the entire canvas of nature. That's C. S.

Lewis. Turning water to wine, that's a great miracle. But putting the stars in
place, every star in its place, that's an even greater miracle.

A miracle is God intervening. And when is the greatest time that God intervened?
It's when he made everything out of nothing.

And so all these miracles that we read in the Bible, every one of them, they're
just moments in time when God is saying, look, don't miss this. Don't miss what
I've already done. He acts in personal ways with individuals to show us things
that he's already done in creation.

But if you feel like, well, I've never personally seen a miracle. You see the
miracle of creation every single day. It's the greatest miracle of all.

And why does God do miracles? God does miracles, not to be showy, but I think
the clearest way to see why God does miracles is what we're told here in verse
11. He does miracles to reveal his glory.

He wants to reveal his glory. God wants to show the world what he is like. Chuck
Swindoll said about this miracle, the world's finest wine was not made in the
vineyards of France, nor was it served in the finest international restaurants.

It was made and served at an unpretentious wedding in Cana of Galilee 2,000
years ago. That wine is valued to this day, not for its rarity, but for what it
reveals about its maker, Jesus Christ. So what did this miracle reveal?

How did this miracle point to the glory of Jesus Christ? Well, two things.
First, it was a miracle of creation.

And second, it was a miracle of transformation. First, this is a miracle of
creation. You read the sign, and the sign here is that Jesus makes things.

He is the creator. The Bible tells us in Colossians that he is the creator of
all things. Jesus showed in this miracle that he is Lord over nature and he is
Lord over time.

Now God changes water to wine all the time. You take the raindrops, they fall,
they go into a plant, they become grapes. Those grapes are picked and those
grapes that are picked ferment after they are crushed and then they become wine.

Jesus sort of skips a few steps here is all that happens. He shows himself to be
Lord over nature and Lord over time. We can learn from how God works within the
laws of creation, but we can also learn from how God works outside of the laws
of creation.

We learn from both of those that he is Lord. He is Lord over all creation. It's
important to remember the simple fact that God is the creator and that nature is
simply the glove in the hand of God.

What if you were working out in your garden, you pulled a lot of weeds, you
planted a lot of beautiful plants and someone came by and they said, "Wow, this
backyard is beautiful. " And they looked at the gloves you were wearing and they
said, "Those are awesome gloves. Those gloves did incredible work today.

" Your answer or your thought would probably be, "Wait a minute, my hand is
inside of those gloves. " It's not the glove that's doing the work, it's the
hand that's doing the work. And it's God's hand.

It is guiding everything in creation that guided every act of creation. When
someone misses that truth and somehow gives credit to nature for what we see,
isn't mother nature kind? Isn't mother nature great?

They have missed the fact that it's Father God who made everything. They're
giving credit to the glove and not to the hand. This was a miracle of creation
and it points us to the fact that Jesus is one we can trust as our creator.

But this was also a miracle of transformation. Jesus changed water into wine.
Read the sign.

Jesus changed things. And he wants to change things in your life. Here's the
personal question.

How can you experience his wedding miracle in your heart? One of the people on
our research team wrote this, "If Jesus could turn water into fine wine, surely
he can make good wine out of the tap water of my life, even if the wine skin is
getting old. " I like that.

Sometimes we miss the joy. We miss the change, the transformation that Jesus
wants to work because we look for that transformation in all the wrong places.
We're most interested sometimes in changing external things 'cause that's where
the change happens fastest.

But God is most interested in changing eternal things because that's where the
change lasts. So he transforms the inside, not the outside. He transforms our
character, not our circumstances.

He transforms, in the word of the Bible, our heart and not our flesh. And
because he changed things, the Bible says the disciples put their faith in him.
I want you to note, as we come to the end of our look at this miracle, how
different people responded to this miracle.

Mary invited this miracle by interceding with Jesus and asking for it. The
servants participated in this miracle by obeying, by doing what they were told
to do. The steward and the guests of the party, they enjoyed the miracle by
simply drinking the water that had been turned to wine.

And the disciples, they did the most important thing of all. They believed in
the miracle worker. They put their faith in him.

It is tempting. It's tempting for all of us to be the kind of person who just
enjoys the miracles of God, just sort of hangs around spiritual things, looks
for miracles, and then enjoys the thrill of it all. I don't want to be like
those guests who enjoyed the wine and yet missed what God was doing.

I don't want to be the kind of person who enjoys what God has made, but doesn't
recognize the God who made it. I want to be like Mary, the kind of person who
intercedes with God to work miracles in people's lives. I want to be like those
servants, the kind of person who participates with God in the miracles that he's
doing, simply by being obedient.

I want to be like those disciples, a person who chooses to believe in Jesus
Christ like I never had before, who believes not just in the miracle, but in the
miracle worker, because that's what miracles are all about. So as we pray today,
let's believe in him again. As we pray, you may need to intercede for a miracle.

Just to say, God, here's a need, and the only way that I can see that this need
is going to be met is by some miracle, your work in that person's heart. And so
I'm bringing it to you. I know that you're going to do what's best, work for
what's best.

I'm not telling you what to do, Jesus. But I am interceding. I am saying, here's
this need.

I'm sharing it with you with all my heart. I ask you to meet this need. That's
interceding.

You may need to be participating in some miracle, some act of obedience that God
is asking in your life. Just say to him now, God, I'm willing to fill it to the
brim. I'm willing to do what you asked me to do.

You may need to enjoy a miracle that God has worked, and give him praise and
thanks. Just to smile about what God is doing in your world. Above all else,
right now, I invite you to believe in Jesus Christ, the miracle worker.

Jesus, I don't understand it all, but I know you do. And so I trust you. I trust
you with my life.

I trust you with my day. In your name, I pray. Amen.