Sunday 19th January 2025. Epiphany 2.
Pastor Pete Myers explains John 2:1-11.
Where can you see God?
Where can you see God?
Where can you see God?
It’s a question some people have commented on our online videos: “I can’t see God—so where is he?” “I tried listening to God and didn’t hear him—so how can he be there?” “I can’t feel God—so how can he be real?”
It’s one of the most immediate problems many of our friends have. “God’s just made up because there’s no evidence for him.”
What does the Bible say in response to questions like these? What can we say when talking about Jesus with our friends feels embarrassing, because we know they think this?
This is the kind of problem facing people who’ve read the first chapter of John’s Gospel. John has started off with some really serious claims. Verses 1-3: God is one, who is also more than one person: Father and Son; God and his Word.
Verse 18:
No one has ever seen God; [but yet] the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
Verse 14:
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father,
And the question we’re left with by the end of chapter 1 is: How exactly does Jesus reveal the father? What does that mean? What does that look like?
Where can you see God?
Now, right at the beginning of chapter 2, John begins to answer that question. And he has three things to say:
- Jesus works in ordinary life
- Faith rests in God’s goodness, even when His timing isn’t known
- Faith sees God’s blessings that the proud miss
Jesus works in ordinary life
The first of those: Jesus works in ordinary life.
John explicitly says this in v. 11:
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
This is John’s first reference in his Gospel to glory, since saying in the introduction that in Jesus we see the Father’s glory. And already, this tells us a huge amount about the God of the Bible.
Jesus doesn’t start revealing his glory in an amazing concert that advertises success and blessing; or in a gold covered ornate display of wealth; or in a powerful, politically charged rally.
No, Jesus starts revealing his glory at an ordinary life event, a local wedding. And he does so quietly, performed his miracle simply by a Word.
As Augustine, that great Father in God’s early church describes:
Yet the same God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, does all these things by His word;…. The former miracles He did by His Word, God with Himself; the latter miracles He did by the same Word incarnate, and for us made man.
And the fact that Jesus begins to reveal his glory in a simple ordinary life event shows us something about God’s priorities.
Please look again at vv. 1-2:
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.
Jesus begins revealing his glory in this setting, because God cares about marriage—and so we should too.
This affirms marriage: marriage is a good institution that God has created; and so God is concerned about marriage, he has opinions on marriage, he wants us to take those opinions seriously.
Whether we marry and who we marry is part of God’s Wisdom, Proverbs 19:14 tells us:
House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the LORD.
If a wise spouse is from the Lord: then if you want a spouse you should pray for one—and be careful who you choose.
Marriage is a context where children are raised and God commands Christians to raise our children in the Lord. Ephesians 5:4:
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
So, unsurprisingly, God commands Christians to marry in the Lord too—to choose a spouse that shares your faith and communion. 1 Corinthians 7:39 tells us:
A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.
So marriage is a good state of life created by God. But singleness is also a good state of life created by God.
And Paul warns us that, like any good thing made by God, Satan has corrupted and spoiled it in this life. We will experience suffering in marriage, since all marriages are broken.
In fact, the Apostle Paul tells us that, because of this reality, we would actually be happier if we remained single like him. He immediately goes on in 1 Corinthians 7 to say in v. 40:
Yet in my judgment she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.
There are two great lies frequently being told in our culture:
One is that marriage is irrelevant and unimportant. This is false. God made marriage. He cares about it.
But the other lie is that marriage is the path to happiness; that it is a guarantee of blessing; an antidote to loneliness. These are false promises, frequently encouraged within churches.
How can marriage be good and yet not a guarantee of happiness? Well isn’t the Law exactly the same? Romans 7:12:
So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
and yet, v. 10:
The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.
So, Jesus works in ordinary life and in doing so shows us God cares about marriage.
But that challenges other things said about marriage in our culture. So, when Jesus reveals himself in ordinary life: How do we see him and what does this mean?
Faith rests in God’s goodness, even when His timing isn’t known
That leads us to our next point: Faith rests in God’s goodness, even when His timing isn’t known.
Please look again at vv. 3-4:
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.”
Now, what’s implied here is that Mary has a wonderful human role to play at this wedding.
Joseph has apparently died before this point, leaving Mary as a widow to take on social responsibilities, which include some kind of role at this wedding.
Now Jesus response to his is mother is not rude, but it is sharp. And shows that Jesus has a different agenda to Mary’s earthly agenda.
Mary has a crucial role to play in the Gospels as an example of faith and walking by faith: She has faith in God’s Word. And she walks faithfully by living our her vocations and by sharing the Gospel with others.
But, Mary does not have a role in Jesus’ saving work. Mary has no spiritual authority. And so Jesus’ divine timetable is not the same as her temporal timetable.
This is something we all experience —we want God to work to a certain timetable in our lives —but he is God and we are not. He works to his timetable.
So what does faith do when faced with these moments? When faith doesn’t know what is God’s plan or timing?
We all recognise those stressful or painful times in your life, when you have no specific Word from God, you have no idea when, how, or if he will act: What does faith look like at those times?
Mary models in the answer in v. 5:
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Mary trusts in Jesus’ goodness despite not knowing the details. She doesn’t know what he’ll say. She doesn’t know if he’ll do anything. She doesn’t know what the outcome will be.
And yet, she trusts, that whatever Jesus says and does: that it will be good, because he is good and he’s good to her. This is faith beyond feeling.
Many explanations of faith are very unhelpful:
They rationalise faith, as though we could know and work everything out: but Mary here knows nothing.
They emotionalise faith, as though the truly faithful were always living good times and never stressed out: but Mary here is stressed about the wedding plans.
As we noted last week: many churches strive to generate certain feelings or cultures as though these things were faith itself. But faith is trusting, knowing, being assured, believing… that God is good and that he is good to you —and that confidence is not based on what we see or experience. It is based on Christ and his work for us. Because:
No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
And this is why: Faith rests in God’s goodness, even when His timing isn’t known.
Faith sees God’s blessings that the proud miss
Which leads us to John’s final point: Faith sees God’s blessings that the proud miss.
What Jesus does here is not only incredibly miraculous, but also incredibly symbolic. Look again at vv. 6-8:
Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty 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.
Here we have a symbol of the Law: Water jars, made of stone, used to ritually purify, and so a constant reminder that we are continually unclean.
And a symbol of Jesus’ work in the Gospel: Transforming those symbols of the presence of sin, into a channel of abundant overflowing grace.
John—a brilliant writer—foreshadowed this in his introduction, 1:17:
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
This is God’s true work in the world, in ordinary things, by his Word transforming them from things of curse and sin into things of grace and blessing.
This is where we see God: through the Word of Christ transforming things.
This is why we have so many reminders to read God’s Word daily, because, as Paul writes in 1 Timothy 4:4-5:
everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.
Whatever your ordinary circumstances, they will be made holy and transformed by Christ’s Word.
Are you married? Read the Bible with your spouse. Are you a parent? Read the Bible with your kids. Do you have brothers or sisters you struggle with? Read the Bible with them. Are you dating? Read the Bible with your partner. Do you have friends? Read the Bible with them.
Because God is at work, but without his Word we don’t see it. Look at vv. 9-10:
When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came 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.”
God’s work is directly under the nose of the master and the groom and yet they do not see it. But, the servants who had heard the Word of Christ see something they did not.
Only by faith do we see God’s work—faith that comes from the Word. God’s blessings are not seen by the world.
Over this last week, all of us have had ordinary lives: New jobs, boring tasks, daily drudgery. Difficult situations, tough challenges, depressing circumstances.
There are so many false claims that the true Christian life is constantly exciting and winning; that our marriages are always wonderful; our children always perfect; our careers always satisfying.
But that is false. Scripture tells us to expect these things:
Mark 8:34:
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Romans 8:16-17:
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
But hear the true Gospel: Even when we don’t know what God is doing, even when we don’t know what his timing is, even when we don’t know what his purposes are in this situation… …trust that he is good and is good to you.
Because he has proven that in Jesus Christ, the Word of God who became flesh and dwelt among us.
And many did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
Hear his Word every day: Faith sees God’s blessings that the proud miss
Where can you see God?
Where can you see God?
Well, Jesus works in ordinary life. Here, he was at work in a wedding, showing us God cares about marriage and has opinions.
So, listen to God’s priorities and concerns: if you want a spouse, pray for a Christian spouse. Know that marriage is good: but it is not a path to happiness.
And especially follow Mary’s example, knowing that: Faith rests in God’s goodness, even when His timing isn’t known and Faith sees God’s blessings that the proud miss.
So, if you want to see God at work, know you cannot reason, feel or experience your way there. Read God’s Word. Read it with your family. Read it with your friends. And as you do so, His Spirit will place in you faith—a sure and assured confidence of his goodness, and his goodness toward you.
This is how we see God,
[exemplified in] the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.