This sermon was preached from the perspective of the Apostle John.
Dear friends in Christ.
If you’ve read the Bible, then you are probably already familiar with much of my life. You know how I was a disciple of the Lord Jesus. You may remember how my brother James and I were labeled as the Sons of Thunder because of our zeal for the Lord and our desire to call down fire from heaven in order to destroy a Samaritan village that did not welcome Jesus as he was heading to Jerusalem. (Luke 9:51-56; Mark 3:17) You may remember how James, Peter and I were chosen to spend some very personal time with Jesus and see him perform miracles that the other disciples did not witness. We were with him when he raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead. (Mark 5:21-43; Luke 8:41-56) We were with him on the Mountain of Transfiguration when Jesus changed in appearance and when Moses and Elijah appeared to speak with him. (Matthew 17:1-13; Mark 9:2-13; Luke 9:28-36) We were there in the Garden of Gethsemane, but a stones through from our Savior, unfortunately sleeping as he endured such agony of soul, without comfort from us or the prayers that he so eagerly desired. (Matthew 26:36-46; Mark 15:32-42) You may even remember how earlier that evening I was the one who was privileged to sit next to Jesus at the Passover. Just a few hours later, I was blessed with the opportunity to care for the Savior’s mother, and years after that, I was even given an all surpassing revelation of the victory of Jesus over the devil in the last days of the earth.
But even though you know all of this, you may not be all that familiar with how it all began. For me personally, it all started roughly 6 weeks after Jesus had been baptized. As you heard last week, the skies opened to reveal the glory of the Lord, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove, and God the Father spoke those beautiful words, “This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22, NIV) Immediately after these miraculous events, Jesus went out into the wilderness to fast, pray, and be tempted by the devil for 40 days. It was after those days were over when everything began for me. You see, originally I had been a disciple of John the Baptist, and I was with him on the day Jesus returned from the wilderness. I can still remember it as if it were yesterday, as John saw Jesus approaching he said to everyone there, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ … “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’” (John 1:29-34, NIV)
I can still remember my amazement and my excitement as John pointed out the Messiah for whom we had waited for so many years. I can still remember how badly I wanted to meet him, get to know him, and learn from him who is my Savior and my God. But the best memory I have of the Savior is how Andrew and I spent the day with him. You see, that first day when Jesus appeared and John introduced us all to the Messiah, I did nothing. I simply looked on with the rest of the people who were there, but the next day, when Jesus came walking by again and John once again introduced the crowds to the Lamb of God, Andrew and I followed him. We talked with him. We accompanied him to the place where he was staying. We sat down and learned from him. I can’t remember exactly when it happened, but I remember Andrew going out to find his brother Peter, bringing him back to meet Jesus, and then there were three of us.
The very next day, Jesus decided to travel to Cana in Galilee for a wedding to which he had been invited. On the way he found Philip and simply said, “Follow me.” Philip ran off to find Nathaniel and invited him to come and see the one whom Moses and the prophets had written about, and when Nathaniel came, he too was introduced to Jesus, the Messiah. Now, the really cool thing about this was that not only did we have an incredible opportunity to follow after and learn from the Messiah, but we were all pretty good friends already. Nathaniel was from Cana in Galilee (John 21:2) Philip, Peter, and Andrew were from the town of Bethsaida, right there on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, (John 1:44) and my brother James and I were fishing partners with Peter and Andrew. (Luke 5:9) So, in three short days, there were six of us following after Jesus as his disciples, traveling with him on the way to a wedding.
When we arrived at the wedding feast, we had the opportunity to meet Jesus’ mother. Now, I don’t remember exactly what Mary was in charge of, but I do remember she was helping out quite a bit, which was why she told Jesus about the wine situation. His answer was simple and polite as he told her that he would act accordingly in the proper time frame, which is exactly what Jesus did. When the time came for him to act, he had the servants fill the six large stone water jars that were standing nearby. Now, these stone jars were huge! Each one held between 20 and 30 gallons, and it took some time for the servants to draw roughly 180 gallons of water from the well, carry it over to the stone jars and fill those jars all the way to the brim. (John 2:1-7) If you think it takes forever to fill up a bathtub, you would be amazed at how long this took. Then, once the jars were filled, Jesus gave instructions that made absolutely no sense to me! “Draw some out,” he said, “and take it to the master of the banquet.”
I hate to say it, but I thought he had lost his mind! The bride and groom had run out of wine and Jesus was sending the servants to the banquet master with a cup of water! But something miraculous happened; the water was changed into wine. When the banquet master tasted the water that had been turned into wine, he was amazed. He had no idea that he was drinking water that had been changed into wine, but the servants who brought the water to him, they knew what had happened. All that the banquet master knew was that this was the best wine he had ever tasted. He called the bridegroom over and expressing his amazement, 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 till now.” (John 2:8-10)
It was because of this miraculous sign, the very first one that Jesus ever performed, that the disciples and I placed our faith in him as our Savior and our God. It was because of this miraculous sign that I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I had found the Messiah for whom I had waited for so many years. It was because of this miraculous sign that I knew I needed to learn everything I could from the Son of God, my Savior. In fact, it is because of this miraculous sign that I have traveled to Le Sueur, Minnesota for the opportunity to introduce you to the Lord, your Savior, and to tell you about all that he has done for you!
For you see, in the same way that Jesus blessed the marriage of this couple in Cana with his very presence, so also the Lord Jesus is the one who continually showers his blessings upon your own marriages, families, and households. He is the one who lives in our hearts and in our homes, as the old saying goes: “Christ is the head of this House, the unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener to every conversation.” He is our Lord and Savior who continually provides all that you have and even more than that. As we learned in the explanation to the first article of the Creed, he is the one who provides us with clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, spouse and children, land, cattle, and all that we own, and all that we need to keep our body and life. He is the one who defends us against all danger and guards us and protects us from all evil.
He is the one who used his miraculous powers to change water into wine not merely so that the other five disciples and I could place our faith in him, but he also did it so that each and every one of you would be strengthened in your faith and assured that he is your Messiah. He is the one who gave such a tremendous gift of wine, somewhere around 180 gallons, something like 960 bottles, to demonstrate that he is the Son of God, the Savior of the world who can do all things by his almighty power. He is the one who performed this miracle so that later on we would have no problem believing that the bread and the wine given to us in communion is at the same time his body and his blood. Though this is something that we cannot comprehend, or understand it, it is something that we accept through faith believing that the bread and wine are at the same time Jesus’ body and blood, simply because he says they are. Jesus changed the water into wine and recorded it for us so that we would have no doubts, whatsoever, that when we were washed in the water of baptism, and that water was applied to us in connection with the Word of God, through that washing the Holy Spirit entered our hearts, created faith in Jesus, our Lord and Savior, bestowed upon us the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for us, and gave us the sure and certain hope that through faith in Jesus Christ, when the Lord finally calls us from this life, we will go to live by his side forever in his heavenly kingdom. Jesus changed the water into wine to assure us that if he could do such a simple thing that no other human being can do, then he could surely serve as our substitute. He could surely carry our sins to the cross and pay the price God demanded by his death there on that altar. He could surely sprinkle his blood upon us and wash us clean from every spot and stain of our sins. He could surely give up his life on one day and then on the third day take it back in all power, strength and glory!
Through this simple miracle of changing water into wine, the Lord Jesus, our Savior calls us to believe that he is the God who cares for us and loves us. He is our God who watches over us and comforts us in all troubles, trials, and temptations. He is the one standing beside each and every one of us, especially as we have all been affected by the economic downturn that has become a great recession and is now threatening to become an even greater depression than the Great Depression of the 30’s. He is the one to whom we can turn in any and every situation and he will help us, because when he was on earth he was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. (Hebrews 4:15) When he was on earth, he endured the most abject poverty, so that even if we might find ourselves in the lowest position of society, we could take comfort in the fact that he faced even worse. He was rejected again and again, in the worst way, by his own people, so that when we are rejected by friends, relatives, even the company that we worked at for so many years, so that by his experience he would be able to comfort us in our sorrow, pointing us ever to himself who loves us and has never turned away from us. He is the one who even now is extending his hand to the men of this nation who have lost their jobs and thus lost their self image, because they feel that they are no longer able to be the bread winner and the provider for their family since much of who they are was tied up in that position. He is the one extending his hand to the women of this nation who have been laid off from their positions and are worried about feeding their family. He is the one who is extending his hand to each and every child and family in this time of need and assuring them that he will continue to provide for all their needs. He is the one who is continuing to extend his hand to each and every one of you, assuring you that just as he has already provided for all of your spiritual needs by giving you the gifts of forgiveness and eternal life through faith in him, so also by this miracle Jesus introduces himself as the Messiah who will also continue to provide for all your physical needs today.
This is Jesus, your Lord and Savior, the Messiah, to whom I have come to introduce you, this morning. So, as we close, I would like to close in the same way that we began; with an introduction. I want to share with you an introduction of Jesus made by comedian Steve Harvey, who as he introduces our Savior echoes and expands on the very things I have told you today.
Steve Harvey’s Introduction can be found on youtube.com or quickly link to it at: http://intro.grace-leusuer.org
This is the Lord, our Savior, your Messiah, whom I have come to introduce today.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
