The Church Discipled

What do you put into a church building when you design it? So, how do you know what to do? How do you construct it? How do you shape it? How do you mold it? And one of the things that the session decided early on was we're going to try to tell stories of the gospel in the way we design the church, and one way we chose to do that is when you go across the street, if you join us for lunch afterwards, you'll see that the trusses of the fellowship hall, the Trinity hall, as we're going to call it, have.

Hammer beam trusses and each of those hammer beam trusses, those are the trusses that stick out, tell a movement of redemptive history from Genesis all the way to Revelation. And in a world where we have become very biblically illiterate, we want at the very least for people to come worship under the authority of God's Word in Trinity Hall and be able to look at those trusses and recount to themselves the story of redemptive history and twelve movements.

And so if you join us after our lunch and you go over there, you'll begin to see a picture of those trusses. There's the drawing, the original drawing of the truss. from the wedding of Cana is there in your notes in the bulletin. And because it takes up the space that you would normally take your notes in, you have the separate note provided for you to to take notes during the sermon.

The story of the wedding of Cana is Jesus's first miracle. A couple of days after John the Baptist publicly announced Jesus's ministry when he said in John 129, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, Jesus calls his first five disciples, Peter, Andrew, John, Philip, Nathanael. And what's interesting about the wedding of Cana is as soon as he calls his first five disciples, he says to these men, men, heads up, he doesn't give them a syllabus.

He doesn't ask them to take notes. He doesn't even take them to the synagogue. Jesus takes his disciples to a party. He takes them to a wedding. And so if you have your Bibles, and I do encourage you to bring your physical Bibles to church, and if you want to grab one in the back, you're welcome to grab one of those.

Let's stand together as we read from John chapter 2, verses 1 through 11.

This is God's Word. As you may know men and women have died to translate it into English and so we don't take it lightly that we have such easy access to God's Word. 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.

And 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. His mother said to the servants, do whatever he tells you. Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons.

And 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. 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 to the bridegroom and said to him, everyone serves the good wine first.

And then when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine, but you have kept the good wine until now. This is the first of the signs Jesus did at Cana in Galilee. And manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but God's word stands forever. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be God. You may be seated. Please, father, would you take the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts, and would you show us the beauty of your son? In Jesus name, amen. In early 2022. Jake Miller, 32, software engineer in the suburbs of Dallas, experienced what he calls the transformation of his life.

One of his buddies invited him to a men's retreat at his friend's church. And there, Jake Miller, after searching for meaning, struggling through the pandemic, believed the gospel. And Jake Miller says that it was like a burden was lifted off of my shoulders. That I can't explain it to you, but there was a clarity in what my purpose for life was.

And it was to live.

Jake Miller began to fall back into the routine of his life, and he began to, with great abandon, try to practice what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus. Jake read his Bible every day. Jake went to Bible studies at his church. He even volunteered to help co lead a new community group at his church, a new small group at his church.

And over the months after he preached, Professed faith in Jesus. He began to feel slowly but surely worn down by all of these new habits and trends that he had taken upon himself. Jake Miller says that after several months of trying to lean in to knowing what it means to be a Christian in his local church, who just pounded program after program after program.

And do, do, do, do do. Jake Miller said that he began to feel burdened by the responsibilities.

It wasn't long before Jake Miller admitted that I actually began to lose the joy that I once had after that retreat. I began to feel hard to go to church week after week because I just felt like the pastor just always told me that there was one more thing I had to do. And Jake Miller admitted when he had many friends who left the church, he goes, I could for the first time in my life relate to those who were beginning to deconstruct.

Now friends, it is easy for all of us to relate to the Jake Millers. In our lives, some of you are Jake Millers yourself. And this might be your last stand to come to church before you throw in the towel. And I want you to know the Holy Spirit has called you to the church for such a time as this. To see the beauty of God's Word and what Jesus has done in John chapter 2.

Because Jake's story reflects a common experience that all of us as believers face today. The daily tasks of discipleship, of praying, of reading the Bible, of serving, can sometimes feel like an overwhelming burden, can't they? And if we're not careful The emptiness of simply doing things for God can replace the joy of encountering Him and knowing Him.

The day after Jesus called His first five disciples, let it land on you that He did not ask them to take notes. He did not take them to the synagogue. He did not give them a syllabus of what they must do to follow Him. He took them to a celebration. A wedding in Cana and in this wedding of Cana in Nathaniel's own hometown of Cana, which was just a couple of hours, walk north, northeast of Nazareth.

Jesus gives his disciples a framework for what Christian discipleship looks like. He shows them. That discipleship is about the transformation that Jesus brings for all who trust in Him. For how it is discipleship by looking again at what Jesus has accomplished for you that you then are able to live out your new identity in Christ Jesus.

And Jesus, in the midst of the emptiness of our lives, gives us more abundantly than we could ever hope or expect. And He shows us what it means to be transformed by grace in His first miracle. Jesus's miracle at the wedding of Cana reveals that He is the true bridegroom who brings joy, abundance, and transformation, the transformation that we long for, and He calls us to follow Him with renewed hearts.

And in John chapter 2, He shows us emptiness, He shows us abundance, and He shows us a transformation. So I hope you'll join me by lowing your eyes to the Bible and looking with me at what this text says. First, There's a crisis of emptiness. There's a crisis of emptiness. The joy of the moment at this wedding turns into a panic and a celebration faces the potential of public humiliation and shame and disappointment for the family because at that moment they realize that they have run out of wine.

Now, some of you may not think this is that big of a deal, but in the ancient Near East, it is like you have a party and there is no food at the reception there is. A great embarrassment to the family that all of a sudden they are completely exposed socially. And this is not how John, by the way, would have started his gospel unless it were true.

John would not have said that Jesus's first miracle of his public ministry was to solve the crisis of a mere social embarrassment unless it were actually true. And so here, as you look at the text, what does it say? It says, on the third day. The third day refers to the third day from when Jesus encountered Nathanael.

It is the wedding day. And the wedding day in John's gospel is actually day five, six, and seven of the first week that he explores in the gospel of John. You see, the gospel of John begins thinking about the week. Week one is, he says, in the beginning was the Word. Day one. Day two, John the Baptist announces, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Days three and four, Jesus calls his first disciples. Days five to seven, he has a party. Isn't it interesting? John begins, in the beginning was the Word, and he constructs the first couple of chapters of his gospel around a week. Sound familiar? He's hearkening us back to Genesis when Moses tells the Israelites in the wilderness in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

He is saying that Jesus Christ, Jesus is the new creation who has come to live among us. Do you know him? Do you believe in him? The wedding was at Cana in Galilee. Cana was not a very well known place. It was four to eight miles north northeast of Nazareth. As I mentioned, it was the hometown of Nathaniel.

Josephus, the great Jewish historian, said that for a time in his life, he lived in Cana. It was a small town, and so a wedding in that small town would be a massive deal. The streets would be blocked off. Everybody would be there. It'd be a joyful celebration. And weddings back then if you were married for the first time, you were married on Wednesday.

If you were a widow, you were married on Thursday. And they typically lasted at least three days after the ceremony. There'd be this great party that lasted multiple days where they would celebrate the giving of this, uh, woman to this man, and they would be great fanfare. The players of the scene are, of course, Jesus and his mother.

Who else is there? The bride and groom, of course, the guests and the master of the feast. In verses eight and nine, it talks about this master of the feast. He was the master of ceremonies. He was, you know, today in today's parlance, it would be like he was the wedding planner. His role was to make sure that there were food and beverage for everyone there, that the party was going well.

And we can't tell directly from the text who the bride and groom were. But most scholars believe that it's very probable that the bride and groom were actually somebody in Jesus's extended family. Because Jesus's mother takes it upon herself to feel great concern that all of a sudden things have gone wrong.

And you know, perhaps from your own weddings, how your aunts or your uncles or other people step in and they help give water to the bride and groom, or they help however behind the scenes. And here's Mary. who's noticing that the master of the feast is wringing his hands trying to figure out what to do now that they've run out of wine.

And Mary, who probably in order to cover for her extended family's social embarrassment, goes to Jesus and says, Jesus, they've run out of wine.

You also might think that it was part of Jesus's extended family, perhaps because he brought his five disciples and it didn't seem to be that big of a deal. Bring more. It's okay. It's part of my family. What's interesting though, isn't it, is how Jesus talks to His mom after His mother comes to Him and says, Hey, Jesus, there's no more wine.

It's like an intimate conversation. And then Jesus says to her, Woman, I don't recommend you call your mother woman.

What does this have to do with me? In other words, it's my concern, but it's not my problem. An insane woman, you might remember later in John 19, 26 or so, when Jesus is on the cross, he says again the same phrase to his mother, doesn't he? He says, woman, behold your son, to John, the one who wrote this gospel, and son, behold, you're a mother.

Jesus, in both Hebrew and Aramaic and in Greek, the way that you would address your mother would be that there would be some kind of adjectival title. You would say dear woman, or you would just simply say mother, when a man would refer to his mother. But here Jesus is separating Himself away from His mother and saying to Him, and using the word woman, He is saying that I am not only, not only am I your son, but I also am the Son of Man and the Son of God.

And Jesus is entering into His public ministry and it's as though He is standing in His position as the Son of Man, saying to Mary, woman, what does this have to do with me?

So there it is. While the master of the feast is wringing his hands, we see the emptiness of the wine. The bride, the groom, the guests, Jesus, his mother, the master of the feast, his disciples. They're all there. The crisis of emptiness. Do you see the scene? Secondly, there's an abundance of grace. There's an abundance of grace.

Central to the party were these large, Stone water jars. They were used for the ritual purification for Jews. Jews had over 30 chapters of the Mishnah, I've been told, where they had to learn what the specific rites were to wash their hands. The Sadducees, in fact, had to memorize much of the instructions for ritual cleansing in order to be a Sadducee.

And so it had been well known back in that context where they would have very large jars, because this is a party over three days. Imagine if we went to the Grow meeting and we didn't have any water in this place. We had had to fill up a lot of igloo containers, a lot of burkeys in order for us to be able to have enough water for us to be able to feed and to satiate all the thirst in the room.

Much less to wash our hands and our feet. So these six large water jars are 20 or 30 gallons each. And they're made out of stone because stone was the best to prevent impurities. Clay pots often would leach impurities into the water. And so they were stone. It was a big deal. So these pots probably were, you know, half full.

And Jesus says to them, fill them all the way up, all the way to the brim. Refill the pots, which was no easy task. And they go to do it. In turning the water used for purification into wine, Jesus is challenging the religious obsession with their ritual purity and their cleansing laws. He is saying, I want you to take the ritual celebration of cleansing and I want you to turn it into the celebration of my presence.

That I am giving you not more laws, O Jake Millers, to do in order to be right with me. I am giving you a reason to celebrate because I am here in your midst. And in Jesus turning the Jewish purity water into wine. He is saying something about Moses's law. He is saying I have come to fulfill the law. I am the Lord of the purity laws.

Because I myself am the infinitely pure one. And I am giving you new wine that is not like the old wine that you've had before. It is the better wine. He brings out the Napa Valley Cab and he pours a glass for everybody there. And they're shocked. Even those who really don't know how to judge wines, probably like me and most of us, they know that that wine's different.

And Jesus's miracle saves the host of the wedding from the social. Shame and embarrassment. The discipleship point that Jake Miller missed is that discipleship is not about doing more things for God, friends. It is not striving to solve our emptiness problem. It is about coming to Jesus to cover our shame.

It is about doing what Mary does when she comes to Jesus to cover the family shame.

And the master of the feast calls the bridegroom and he says, but you, notice the master of the feast, who doesn't know where the wine came from, goes to the bridegroom and says, but you, you have kept the best wine for the end. And it's interesting that the story that John leads us with ends right there, because it seems as though the bridegroom is kind of getting the credit for Jesus's miracle, doesn't it?

And isn't that what our lives are like? Don't we? Get the credit for Jesus's actions. The 50 cent word that we call this in theology is the imputation of Jesus's righteousness. That Jesus accomplished for us on the cross through His death and resurrection, what we could never accomplish. In rising again on the third day, His resurrection was our victory.

And we get that victory in Him. Hallelujah. It's interesting, even at the very beginning of John's Gospel, he, he just gives this nod to the doctrine of imputation. The bridegroom got the credit for what Jesus himself did and accomplished for us. Oh, there is an abundance of grace. Another discipleship point that Jake Miller had to learn is that discipleship is not about seeing that grace, It is something to be merited or earned.

It is not something that you have to keep up with. It is something to be bowled over by and surprised by, utterly shocked, like the master of the feast was shocked. Grace is to be received and it is to be rejoiced in. How do you know that you've received grace? You rejoice in it. Where has your love for your early days of Christianity gone?

It's because you've turned grace into a law and you've forgotten what it means to be saved by grace. You've begun, like Jake Miller, to look out over the sea of suburban life and compare yourself to other people. I've got to do another Bible study, I've got to, I've got to do this, I've got to do that. And slowly but surely, you turn these amazing fruits of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and your new identity in Him into a kind of law by which you begin to judge yourself worthy of.

Haven't you received grace? Just as you received grace. So walk in Him, in your sanctification and in your Christian discipleship. There is an emptiness. There's a crisis of emptiness. There's an abundance of grace and then there is a transformation of life. Look at verse 11. John ends the story with the master of the feast just astonished that the groom brought out the best wine for the end.

And then John throws in his own commentary in verse 11. Do you see it there in your Bibles? Look at verse 11. This is the first of his signs. Jesus did it, Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him. What are the dots that the Apostle John wants us to connect? John says that this is the first of Jesus signs because throughout the rest of his gospel, and I encourage you to read it, Jesus does seven signs, of which this is the first.

Seven signs pointing that He is the Messiah. He is the fulfillment of all that the Jews had anticipated and longed for. He's here! And this is the first of His seven signs. Jesus is the new creation, as I've mentioned. Jesus brings, like Moses told the Israelites of old, of the creation of the world. Jesus says, I am here to undo everything that has fallen about the world.

I am. I am. The firstfruits of the new creation. In The Miracle of Cana, John illustrates that Jesus mission is to transform the world, beginning with His people. His disciples believed in Him, and they are like a tent stake in a desert. They are a sign to the world that His new renewal campaign begins with these five men who later became twelve.

Jesus is God's promise to renew all things. You saw it in what Shanda read earlier in Amos chapter 9. You see it in Isaiah 65. He is the Lord of the purity laws. He is the true wine that comes to us, the best for last. Jesus is the Lord of nature. He changes water into wine, a real miracle. Yes, it was a true miracle.

Not just a metaphor. He really did it. And he is the true bridegroom. He is the ultimate groom for the wedding. What's interesting though, is that when he starts the story, he says, on the third day. Don't miss that. On the third day, because he's connecting this back to the time when he called Nathaniel. And he calls Nathaniel, and he goes to Nathaniel's hometown as though to teach Nathaniel something.

And back in verse 51, stay with me, verse 51 of chapter 1. And Jesus said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, Nathaniel, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man. That is a reference that Jesus is calling all the way back to Genesis, the dream that Jacob had, the latter where God spanned heaven and earth with a ladder upon which the angels ascended and descended.

And Jesus is saying to Nathaniel, and to you and to me, I am the ladder that bridges heaven and earth. Jesus says that I am the one who links heaven and earth and through me God's blessings flow to humanity. Do you want to grow as a disciple? As a disciple then you see Jesus's role as the true Lord over nature.

You see him as the true bridegroom and you see Jesus as the true ladder that spans heaven and earth. And just as the wine flowed from Jesus's miracle, so does the grace of God flow from Christ to his people, all those who place their faith in him. Are you with me?

Here's another discipleship principle that Jake Miller needs to hear, that's, that discipleship is a progress, it's progress of ongoing transformation. Some of you are just, So pumped about your relationship with Jesus tonight, we are so glad we want to fuel you on, we want to help you. But some of you, like a car going over a great downhill part of a hill, there's great momentum and you are just racing down the hill, but you don't know that the engine is off.

And sometimes it can feel like we are really driving with great power when you're going down a hill in a car that's in neutral. But what happens when the hill begins to ascend? The momentum dies very quickly. And in Christian discipleship, the engine that drives the car is the engine. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you place your faith in Him, that you see Jesus as not only crucial to your conversion, but you see Jesus as crucial to the way that you progress in the Christian life, through faith and repentance, again and again and again.

Faith and repentance, this beautiful coming together to worship God's people, confessing our sins in worship, leaning into the liturgy of our corporate life together. It becomes the engine of our corporate renewal and transformation. Imagine feeling spiritually dry, faithfully attending church, and serving in various ministries, and feeling, amidst all of that, disconnected from God, what are we to do?

Oh, Trinity, think back upon the wedding of Cana, and say, Ah, the wedding of Cana. That Jesus repurposed the old ritual, jars for purity and cleansing. And he brought us something far better because Jesus is the true bridegroom. And my relationship with him is not about a list of tasks to do. It is about a relationship to be enjoyed because discipleship is a relationship with your true bridegroom.

It gives you a new perspective of relationship over ritual. The gospel says that your worth is not based upon what you do for God, but what God has done for you. In the Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus invites you to enjoy joyful communion with Him. You don't need more ritual. You need more of Him. And everything we do as a church, we strive to do, is meant to point you to Him.

Every movement of the liturgy, every aspect of our community groups, those things are to disappear so that you feel like you commune with the Lord Jesus in His presence. So would you cultivate practical times with Jesus in the way that you read the Bible throughout the course of the week. Study Ephesians chapter 5, verses 25 to 27.

Look to see how Jesus is the true bridegroom that comes to meet your deepest needs. Do you know Him in that way? Imagine a church leader feeling crushed by their own sense of failure, that you've been working hard for the church, but you feel like you've sinned in a way that never quite makes you good enough.

And you come to church week after week, burdened by shame. You think, oh, the wedding of Cana. Jesus took away the social shame and He turned the water into wine. When you see that truss one day when you worship in that building, not too long from now, you see that water jar at the very end of that truss and you think, oh, the wedding of Cana.

He takes away my shame. Ah, the wedding of Cana. It is about relationship, not ritual. Or imagine someone feeling broken about the brokenness of the world, upset about it, whether it's global crises or sickness or stress about the upcoming election or a local struggle in Tulsa, you're discouraged and you're wondering, how do I live faithfully for Christ?

Will I even make a difference? And you say, Ah, the wedding of Cana. And you remember that the wedding of Cana points you forward to the ultimate wedding. Well, Jesus says justice will be served in the land, and I will bring true justice. And I will invite you to a celebration that will be bigger than you could ever possibly imagine.

The party that you've always wanted to go to, and you will be at the very center of it with the host, the Lord Jesus, who is your bridegroom. And you will celebrate Him. with beauty and grace in gospel because the gospel says that your efforts, no matter how small, to push back the darkness in your community are part of a much bigger redemptive program that God is using you, O church.

To be the foretaste of His new creation out in the world. Do you know that? You are not just called to be a cog in the suburban wheel. You're called to push back the darkness through every client that you have at your work, through every person that you meet in the classroom, to every neighbor that you invite over to your home.

You're pushing back the darkness and you're beginning to give the world a picture of what it's like to live in the New Jerusalem. Ah, when you see that truss in the church, you say the wedding of Cana. Jesus is my true bridegroom. Jesus is the one who asks me to come into an intimate relationship with him, not be bowled over and overwhelmed by ritual.

Jesus is the ladder that spans heaven and earth. Do you see it? Oh, Jake Millers, would you rest from your deadly doings and lay them down at Jesus's feet? And just as you believed in him, rest in him and him alone, gloriously complete. Jesus's miracle at the wedding of Cana reveals that He is the true bridegroom who brings the joy, abundance, and transformation that we all long for, and He calls us to follow Him with renewed hearts.

Jesus's wedding, miracle at the wedding of Cana sets the tone for our discipleship by showing us that amidst our emptiness, there's an abundance of grace. Jesus covers our shame, and He becomes the ultimate bridegroom for whom we long. Jesus brings justice in the end when His return comes. He will make everything new because He is the ladder, as He told Nathanael, that spans heaven and earth.

Do you know Him? Ah, the wedding of Cana. See your Savior calling you to celebrate with Him as you prepare your hearts this morning to come to His table. Let's pray.

Father, thank You that in Your servant John's gospel, He begins by helping us celebrate Your presence as You work against nature and You change water into wine. As You begin to change hard hearts. And open them up to believe the gospel as you give us hope and meaning in a world that is struggling to find a sense of meaning.

Jesus, you are the one who overcame every one of the Old Testament laws because you fulfilled them all. You are the Lord of the purity laws. You are the Lord over nature. You are the true bridegroom and you are the ladder that spans heaven and earth. And would you let us, as you taught Nathanael, and Andrew, and Peter, and John, and Philip, And you also encourage those of us who are like our Jake Millers in the world who feel overwhelmed and burdened by discipleship.

Would you remind us, oh, that your grace is abundant, and you call us to celebrate your goodness and your grace. And we do that now as we give of our tithes and offerings for your glory's sake, and as we prepare our hearts to come to your table. Responding joyfully to the amazing gift that Your grace changes everything about our lives and the world.

And we pray these things in Jesus's name. Amen.