Jesus’ first miracle

On Tuesday of this past week, we began our Good News Club at one of our local elementary schools. What a great opportunity to share the message of the Gospel in our community! Our children are being bombarded daily with all kinds of ungodliness and as Christ followers, we have a sacred calling to take the life changing message of the Gospel to these kids. I take this calling seriously and I pray that you do as well. Along with a group of volunteers from our church, Southern Calvert Baptist Church, I had the privilege of teaching Christ to over 20 children. I want to share the lesson with you here in this article.

We began with the basics. We introduced the children to the Bible and explained how to use it. Some of the children were familiar with the Old and New Testaments. Many were not familiar at all. What an opportunity! We began to learn how to look up a Bible verse, John 3:16 and then memorize it. These children, some of whom for the first time, interacted with the Living Word of God. I cannot stress how important this is to them. Our Bible study passage was John 2, the wedding in Cana of Galilee where Jesus turned the water into wine.

I. Jesus’ authority

Jesus has already been ministering to others. He has interacted with His disciples and called them to repent, believe the Gospel, and follow Him. They have done so, simply based on His teaching. They have yet to witness a miracle from Him. That is all about to change at this wedding.

1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there;

2 and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.

3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”

4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.”

5 His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” (John 2)

Jesus was invited to a wedding, something that most of us are familiar with today. While at the wedding, whether it was poor planning, or, there were just too many people there, the wine ran out. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was also at the wedding. She knew that Jesus was different from other people. She had been told of His birth and even given His future name by an angel. She also knew that she had experienced a virgin birth. She was amazed by Jesus when He was 12 years old. She had found Him in the temple, listening to the Bible teachers. She witnessed that He had wisdom beyond His years. When the wine ran out at the wedding, she heard about it. The name Jesus means, “God saves” or “God rescues“. The people at the wedding had a problem and they needed to be rescued from the situation. She immediately went to Jesus for a solution. I love the advice that Mary, the mother of Jesus, gives to the servants at the wedding. Her command to them was, “whatever He says to you, do it.” She did not claim to know the answer. She did not answer on His behalf. She did not tell the servants to ask her and then she would convince Jesus to help. She simply pointed the servants to Jesus and in essence said, “follow Him.” There are some denominations in Christianity today that respect Mary so much that they attempt to pray to her to get her to intervene on their behalf with Jesus. That is not the model that we see here. If we really want to show respect to Mary, we need to follow her advice in this passage. We need to follow Jesus and do whatever He tells us to do. Jesus did not derive His authority from Mary. She simply acknowledged His authority because she had watched Him grow up and knew that His authority came from God. Mary points people to Jesus and commands them to follow Jesus. I respect Mary today by following her command. I follow Jesus and do as He says. What about you, do you ask Mary to intervene for you or, do you follow her command by following Jesus and doing whatever He says?

II. Jesus’ miracle

Books have been written on the meaning of this miracle that Jesus performs in John 2. I do not want to plumb the depths of the significance of turning water into wine. You can read those books. I do want to present the facts and then focus on the outcome of WHY Jesus performed this miracle.

6 Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each.

7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim.

8 And He said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it to him.

9 When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew ), the headwaiter called the bridegroom,

10 and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.” (John 2)

The hosts of the wedding knew that the wine had run out. They witnessed the fact that more wine arrived but they did not know where it had come from. The servants knew because they had seen Jesus turn the water into wine. This wine was even better than the previous wine that had been served. This is the first miracle that Jesus performed in the presence of His disciples and in public. Many, many more were to follow. What were the results of this miracle and the many that were to follow? Let’s discover that in the next section of this article.

III. Joyous results

The primary target of this first miracle was the disciples.

This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. (John 2:11)

Jesus manifested the glory of God. He revealed that He is God. This led the disciples to believe in Him. They followed Mary’s command, even though it was not directed primarily at them. They surrendered completely to Jesus, dedicating themselves to following Him fully. They had become convinced that Jesus is exactly who He claimed to be.

The miracles performed by Jesus authenticated His claims that He is God in the flesh. Jesus performed many, many more miracles, some of which are recorded in the Gospel of John. The young disciple John claimed that if he had written every miracle performed by Jesus, there were not enough books in the world to contain them. But, the ones he wrote down were written with a very clear purpose.

30 Therefore many other miracles Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;

31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have eternal life in His name. (John 20)

When we read about the miracles that Jesus performed, this leads us to place our faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, or in other words, the long awaited Savior of the world. We also believe that Jesus is God, the Son. Upon placing our faith in these truths about Jesus, we have eternal life in Him. Out of all of the miracles that Jesus performed, the most important one was when He resurrected from the dead. He died on the cross willingly, to pay the debt owed to God for our sins and on the third day, He resurrected, breaking the power of sin in our lives and opening the door to eternal life in the presence of God. Have you placed your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior? Have you bowed the knee to Him and surrendered your life to His authority? Do you acknowledge the fact that Jesus is God? All of the evidence is available for you in the Bible, John has already told that to us. What are we going to do with that evidence? The disciples believed. We are not sure about the other attendees at the wedding. We have a choice, we can either respond the way that the disciples did or, we can respond the way that many of the attendees did. Which one will you choose?

May the Lord help us learn these truths and live by them daily!