Sunday, 2nd April 2023
Rev Daniel Xi An Poon
We all want to turn our defeat into victory, we all want this blessing. The devil doesn’t want us to receive this blessing, it will disturb us and use every way to stop us receiving this blessing.
John 2:1-11
On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.”His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!” This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.
This is the first miracle Jesus performed, a true story about how Jesus revealed His mighty power in a wedding. Jesus was attending a wedding with His mother and His disciples. Everyone wants to have a memorable wedding, and to present their best to their guests, and from the beginning we will try. After wedding, it will be the honeymoon, and after the honeymoon, it will be the every day marriage life that we must deal with.
It’s not easy to always stay positive in our daily life so how can we turn our negative emotions and feelings to positive? It’s never about who’s right and who’s wrong, but don’t let everything happens in our lives steal our peace. It’s not about us trying to change the people around us, but it’s more about how we continue to have this peace inside of us no matter what.
To Call in Faith
In the wedding, there was a lot of wine, to make the guests happy, and the host will be happy. But what happened during the wedding of Canaan was that the wine was running out, it was a shameful thing for the host and therefore Jesus’ mother called Jesus for help. Where there was no wine, they lost the joy, they lost the peace, and they became frustrated. In our relationship with others, do we also sometimes feel frustrated?
There are problems happening in relationships all the time, we feel dry, we feel ashamed, we lost joy… so when Jesus’ mother saw what happened, she immediately talked to Jesus. Jesus’ respond to His mother seemed quite impolite, but it was because Jesus knew He had the timing. We also have our own timing, we tell people we are not ready and we are stuck in our ‘doing’ mode. Jesus said ‘my hour has not yet come’ and it was the truth, but Mary was not upset, she didn’t try to argue, she only told Jesus about the need, then she left it with Jesus to deal with it.
Next she went to the servants and told them to listen to Jesus’ instructions. Mary had the faith, even though she knew it was not yet the time, but she knew God is a Good Father, her responsibility was to bring out the need and leave it to God. When we come across issues in our relationship do we call for help? Or do we accept where we are and just stay in our status quo? Do we know that God will fight for us? We must call out in faith, don’t think that no one can change things for us.
To Believe
So what did Jesus do? According to the Jewish cultural, they used the waterpots to store water for washing their feet. He asked the servants to fill the waterpots with water, because the water was used up to wash the guests’ feet. The servants might be confused, they needed wine, not water for the waterpots. All the guests had arrived, they didn’t need more water for feet washing and they didn’t need more guests. Jesus’ instructions were unreasonable.
A lot of time we also experience the same, we look down on what water can do for us and we only want wine. We think the water won’t help. We think that the things God wants us to do are not going to improve our life situation, it’s not even closer to what we want to achieve! It’s like calling in sick to a healing conference, do we really know that only God can improve our current situation? Only God can turn our defeat into victory? Or do we still look at our surrounding and try to interpret everything with our own understanding?
We believe in our logical thinking, we believe that we will come to God after we’ve sort out everything in our lives. Do we believe in what Jesus is trying to do for us? Even though what Jesus say might not make sense at all. And that’s why we lost the peace, joy and hope. We still want to hold onto our expectations, and we cannot see Jesus’ perspective. When God gives us instructions, we might follow, but we follow in a ‘doing’ mode, and when we did everything God asked us to do, we expect God to do what we want to see happening.
It’s easy for us to put water inside the waterpots, but it’s not easy to pour out the water in the wine glass. Jesus is asking us to do the impossible, how will people look at us? When we put water from the feet washing waterpots into the wine glasses for the guests. This will be a big challenge for us, we don’t want people to think that we are crazy…
To Obey
Nobody knew the good wine was from the waterpots, everyone thought the hosts kept the best wine until last. It’s just like how we accept our current life, we give up on hoping for the better. We think that we can’t improve our lives, but God said He will give us the best, when we call in faith, when we believe, and when we obey, then God will let miracles happen in our lives.