No. 81 - TURNING WATER INTO WINE By: John J. Blanchard Saturday, February 18, 2006 If you want to title your sermon, today’s subject is “Turning Water Into Wine”. We all know that was Christ’s first miracle. Right at the outset we are going to read about that episode by turning to John chapter 2. It is a very interesting miracle and the very first one He did in His ministry. Read John 2:1-12. This was the first sign that Jesus Christ did that actually was a miracle of His divinity and showed that He had supernatural power. But we want to dig a little deeper into this whole story and try to glean what we can out of it. There are many facts imbedded within this story that help us understand the purpose of Christ’s life and the purpose of being a disciple and follower of Jesus Christ. Christ and His disciples were all invited to this wedding and not just Jesus Christ and His mother. You see that in verse 1 and 2. In verse 3 you find that Jesus’ mother says, “They have no wine.” So Mary told Christ they have no wine. The bridegroom’s job was to provide wine, and he had failed to provide enough wine obviously in this particular incident. So Christ tells His mother that is not My problem. My hour has not yet come. He tells us that in verse 4. Like many mothers who tend to be a little bit pushy and want their son to do something, His mother simply says to the servants do whatever He tells you to do. That we find in verse 5. In verses 6 and 7 we find that the servants were told to bring six waterpots over and fill them with water to the brim. Then when they took the water out to get it tasted by the head master, lo and behold it was wine! It was delicious wine! So that is why he went to the bridegroom and said why did you hold this back until this wedding reception is almost over? It is almost over, and here we have this fantastic wine. The scripture concludes in verses 11 and 12 that it was a sign by Jesus Christ of what He was doing. It was a miracle that had a lot of meaning. That is what a sign is. It is a marker. It was an indicator of something. It was not just an interesting story in the Bible. THE HOUR HAD NOT YET COME Before we attempt to explain this incident, we must look at the concept of turning water into wine. How is this done? Christ’s initial response is where we need to start because those are the first words He said. He said that it is not My problem. “My hour has not yet come.” Let’s cross reference this thought that His hour had not yet come. So in His mind it was not time yet to really do anything, but let’s find out other places in the Bible where is that concept of My hour has not yet come and then My hour has come, and see what we are told. In John chapter 7 we see this referred to. Read John 7:1-5. It was a little bit of a taunt. If You are so great, why are You hiding from the world? Go out and do something! Continue reading verses 6-9 of John 7. So Christ says it is not My time to do the works that I must do. It has not yet fully come. If you were to turn a few pages to John chapter 17, Christ has a different sentiment here, that His time was coming. It was there, and it was time to do something. THE HOUR HAD COME TO DIE AND BEAR FRUIT Read John 17:1-5. Christ says here that His time has come to glorify the Father, and we know He was preparing to lay down His life for mankind. That is why He says here My hour has fully come. I have done the work You sent Me to do. The work is done, so now My time has come to go on with the final phase. Continue reading verses 6 through 11. Christ says I conveyed to My disciples the things that you wanted me to (Your words). I have accomplished the work that You have given Me to do, and I am ready to come back to You. I am ready to lay down My life. If you were to continue through John 17 and go into chapter 18, you would see you are going straight into the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This is unlike when He started His ministry with the very first miracle, and He said to His mother My hour has not yet come. Here, as He gets ready to lay down His life and go back to the Father, He says now My hour has come. Turn, if you would, for some more information on the subject by going to John chapter 12. Read John 12:20-26. Christ makes it very plain here if we read between the lines. He says I am like a grain of wheat. Unless I die, I cannot accomplish what I am sent for. A grain of wheat must die, be put in the ground, sprout and bear much fruit in order to accomplish anything. So Christ said now My hour has come because I am ready to die. That is what He says in verse 23. “‘The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.’” It required His death, and it required Him to bear fruit in death by planting that seed into the earth (which we know is mankind) and bearing much fruit. We get the concept that at that beginning of His ministry He said My hour has not yet come to die and bear fruit. But at the end of His ministry (at the end of three and a half years of work), He tells His disciples My hour has come. I am ready like a grain of wheat to die and bear fruit through those of you who will believe and belong to My Father. He says if you are willing to lay down your life for your fellow man, if you are willing to do that, My Father will honor you as He is also going to honor Me. We are getting the concept of laying one’s life down for others as being a type of bearing fruit (of producing something). This is where the kernel of wheat bears fruit when it is planted in the earth once it has already, of itself, died. That wheat stalk must die in order to have a seed. So He had delivered His Father’s message, and He was ready now to lay down His life for His fellow man. He said if you want to be honored like Me, you are going to have to be willing as My disciples to follow Me and do the same. Do not love your life unto the death, in other words. At the Passover He talked about laying down His life for His fellow man. This is where we see the concept of both bread and wine come into play. So let’s turn to Matthew chapter 26. This is just before He is going to lay down His life, and He has just spoken to the apostles within the previous day telling them My hour has come. Beginning in verse 26 read to verse 30 of Matthew 26. BREAD AND WINE Jesus Christ explains here that He is ready now to lay down His life, and His body would become bread. That is what wheat is used for (to grind to make flour to make bread). His blood would become wine. He said this is a type of My body and blood which you must share to be drinking of the vine. He said I am not going to be able to drink of the vine again until I return, but He said I can now give this to you to pass on. Just as that grain of wheat must die in the ground to produce more wheat, He said this is My blood. Now in you it can produce something. We are going to have to produce something with this bread and wine. So the wine became symbolically His blood. What happened? Step by step we are going to look into turning water into wine. First of all, let’s establish that we are part of a vine, and a vine produces what is needed for wine (grapes). Christ is the vine, and we are the branches. Turn, if you would, to John chapter 15. Read John 15:1-8. Now we understand the concept of Christ being the vine, we are branches attached to that vine, and the Father prunes that vine to bear much fruit. We honor the Father and give Him glory when we bear fruit. Of course, fruit of the vine is grapes. Grapes are what leads to wine. When it is fully utilized and it is fully grown, ripened and mature, it can be used to make wine. Jesus Christ was the first to bear fruit. If you would, turn to I Corinthians chapter 15 and we will see that Christ is called the firstfruit. I Corinthians 15:20 tells us: “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Christ is the very first person (the first kernel of wheat) to go through the process of bearing fruit and dying so that more fruit could be given. He is also the first part of the vine to bear fruit for the Father, in essence grapes for wine. He is the first one to do that. That was a type of turning water into wine. That is why He told His mother at that very first miracle My hour has not yet come to turn water into wine. It was after His life’s work when He had produced fruit in His life and He was ready to lay down His life, that now His blood could become wine. Now how did this happen, and where does this thought come from? GOD’S THOUGHTS AS RAIN FOR FRUIT Turn, if you would, back to Isaiah chapter 55, and we will see how this process works. Read Isaiah 55:8-11. Now we understand what the water is. It makes the earth bud and bring forth both seed and fruit, and it is God’s thoughts. God’s thoughts are a form of rain. Rain is water. God’s thoughts are a type of water that lands upon the earth and causes fruit to come out of the spiritual ground when it is the people of God. It is physical ground if you are talking about physical rain. So God’s thoughts are the rain water that helps us as part of the vine to bear grapes (bear fruit) and as part of the field of God (the wheat) to bear more wheat. It is a spiritual concept. We can see in agriculture how it works in a physical world. God says My thoughts (the truth) that I rain down from heaven in the form of doctrine work exactly the same way. Turn, if you would, to Deuteronomy chapter 32. We will see that Moses says the same thing. Deuteronomy 32:1, it is called the Song of Moses: “‘Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching drop as the rain…’” That word “teaching” in the King James Version is doctrine, and that is what it means in the Hebrew. Let My doctrine and My teaching (My thoughts) drop as rain. “‘…my speech distill as the dew, as raindrops on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass. For I proclaim the name of the Lord: ascribe greatness to our God. He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice, a God of truth and without injustice; righteous and upright is He.’” So here we see that Moses understood that God’s teaching (His doctrines and His thoughts) that land upon the earth and distill upon the grass (wheat is grass) and upon the vineyards to bear fruit is a concept that has been with us since Genesis. God is the one who established physical creation and showed us the concept of having agricultural produce be bountiful on the earth. He says that is a type of what I am doing spiritually, with My thoughts being the rain and the people I am working with being the vineyard or the field where the wheat produces a crop for Me. CHRIST, THE FIRST OF THE FIRSTFRUITS We see that God shows us that His thoughts can land on a vineyard and turn that water (if it is utilized by the people who are part of the vine) into wine. The first one to have that done was Jesus Christ. He was the first one to take the truth of the Bible, live it in His life and bear fruit for God. He laid down His life and had that fruit (His very blood which He laid down for His fellow man) be a type of wine for God. He turned water into wine! Jesus Christ was indeed the spiritual waters, and He was the one who brought the water from God. He said I brought the teaching down from you, God, and brought it to mankind. He is the one who brought all that you read in the Bible to the prophets. He is called the Word. So He brings God’s thoughts down to the earth. He did it through angels and through inspired men. He went one step further when He became a man and actually taught us directly out of His mouth. He was bringing the rain (the water) directly to humanity in order to turn water into wine. We see this concept. That is why He told His mother My hour is not yet come to turn water into wine. But He did it for her anyway. But He did it in such a way that it would portray what He was doing with His life, which is why it was the first sign of what He was sent to do upon the earth by the Father. It was the very first sign. If you would, turn to John chapter 4. We will see that He tells us He is the water of life. He is speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well here. Read John 4:11-14. So He said I have water, woman. I have water that will spring up into everlasting life! I have water that can be turned into fruit for God! I have water that can be turned into wine! This is what He is telling the Samaritan woman. Turn to John chapter 7 and read verses 37-39. Once His kernel of wheat had died (once He had shed His blood as wine for mankind), He could then share this water in other people and miraculously turn it to fruit for the Father. It requires help from us as willing agents, allowing the Holy Spirit (Jesus Christ) to work in us to bear more fruit for the Father. Thereby, we continue to turn water into wine. What He does is He gives us the water (the knowledge and the thoughts of God), and He dwells in His followers because of the Holy Spirit dwelling there. He then converts that water in our lives into fruit. That fruit turns water eventually into wine. It is a very wonderful concept, and that is why that first miracle was such a tremendous sign. It was not just a neat little story. It had a lot of meaning behind it. Christ was simply the first human being to turn the thoughts of the Father into fruit and eventually into wine. But there are other people (other firstfruits) to follow. We are told that in I Corinthians 15 and in James. There are other firstfruits to come along (in Hebrews 12), and those firstfruits are God’s people. Turn, if you would now, back to Isaiah 53. This explains what Christ went through in order to turn water into wine. It gives us an idea of what we should be willing to do. As He said, be willing to lay down your lives for your fellow man. Isaiah 53:1 says, “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.” Jesus Christ was a root that grew up out of dry ground. Ancient Israel was no longer fertile ground. It was a dry and barren land. When Jesus Christ came at His first coming, He was a tender shoot. It was the very beginning of the vine to grow to turn water into wine. In Isaiah 53 continue reading verses 3-6. By becoming the firstfruit Jesus Christ was bruised for our iniquity. This term “bruised” is the Hebrew word daka which means bruised to pieces, literally or figuratively crushed, beaten and crushed to powder. What happens when you turn a kernel of wheat into flour? You crush it to make flour for bread. What happens when you turn grapes into wine? You bruise it and crush the grape in order to let the juice come out. This is what Jesus Christ did with His life. He became a perfect living sacrifice in order to turn water into wine and wheat into bread. This is the food of life and the water of life in order that the sins of many should be removed. But the idea is to get that process to continue through conversion in other people (other firstfruits). Christ shed His blood when His skin was broken and let the wine out. That is the same thing you do with grapes. You have to bust that skin to get the juice to flow out in order to have wine. His grapes were the fruit of His life. He had to live a perfect life for 33 and one-half years and work for the Father for three and a half years performing signs and wonders. He had to bear much fruit for God, turning much water into grapes that could then be crushed for His fellow man (turning water into wine). WE TURN WATER INTO WINE There are some interesting things that go along with this because of what Christ has to say in Mark chapter 2. Turn to Mark 2. It is another interesting description of wine by Christ here. Read Mark 2:18-22. What is this talking about? First of all we have to understand wineskins in the King James Version is referred to as bottles. But if you look up the actual Greek definition for these wineskins or bottles, it comes from the Greek word askos which means a leather bag used as a bottle, a skin bag. They often used to make a leather bag and put the wine in it (or water or whatever they were carrying) and use it as a container for water, wine or whatever you had that was liquid. It is from the same origin as the word askeo which means to elaborate, to train or exercise. It is from the same origin as the word skeuos, a vessel or an implement or equipment or apparatus, literally or figuratively, a wife as contributing to the usefulness of her husband. When you take the full literal and figurative definition of a wine bottle (of a leather skin), you find that it is a human being that is used by the husband to accomplish work. In other words it is a vessel, an implement or equipment to accomplish something like a wife does for her husband. What does it do? It carries around the wine. If you look at yourself, the largest organ of your body is your skin bag. It is the skin that surrounds your blood which is the water that could be turned into wine. So each of us is a skin bag in which we receive the truth of God (the water of God). Through the efforts of our life trying to become more righteous (following God, picking up our cross, following Jesus Christ and becoming less selfish), we are turning water into fruit in order to turn it into wine. Christ said here to the Pharisees, you are fasting because you do not know that I am the Bridegroom. At the wedding ceremony at Canaan where Christ turned the water into wine, that bridegroom had not properly provided enough wine. But Christ is providing enough wine for all of us. He is turning the water of the Father (the thoughts of the Father) into wine through us if we allow Him to work in us. What Christ is saying here is the reason why you are fasting and My disciples are not, is they understand I am the Bridegroom bringing the water from God. They understand I am working on turning it into wine. You don’t get that! I cannot put new truth into you (a new way of viewing a sacrificial system, and a new way of viewing the temple, and a new way of understanding those thoughts of God) because you could not handle it! Your leather wineskins would burst, because you are too proud, too self-righteous, and you are not producing fruit. So He said I need to make a new man called the body of Christ. My disciples are the first part of this new man. The rest of the firstfruits will start from them. Then they are the ones who can receive the thoughts of God and turn water into wine, because they are going to have the help of the Holy Spirit. You do not have it. That is essentially what Christ was trying to say to the Pharisees here. FRUIT FOR OUR FELLOW MAN The human body is a skin designed to receive God’s thoughts (His water) to bear fruit, which can be crushed as a sacrifice for others, thereby turning water into wine. You cannot use the old sacrificial system to do this. We must use the body and blood of Jesus Christ, as He told us, at the Passover. That is why we (and the rest of the followers of Christ, the firstfruits) are called a new sacrifice (a living sacrifice) made from stone for Jesus Christ and for our fellow man. Turn, if you would, to I Peter chapter 2. We can now get more information out of the scriptures that we often have read in the past. Read I Peter 2:4-12. We have the opportunity to be leather bags for God’s water to turn it into wine as a spiritual sacrifice (a royal priesthood). Through God’s Holy Spirit (His Son, Jesus Christ) working in people’s lives, He is working a fantastic miracle, for His hour has fully come and is now for us the Passover sacrifice. Therefore we are partakers of a new sacrificial system. As Christ was a sacrifice laying down His life for His fellow man (starting with the firstfruits), we must be willing to lay our lives down for our fellow man. We must be willing to shed our blood for our fellow man. We must be willing to give of ourselves, our time, our efforts, our money, our very life to help the world understand and bear fruit for the Father, thereby glorifying the Father. It is nothing short of a fantastic miracle. Christ says when I return, I will be able to enjoy the new wine (the fruit of the earth) because I will once again be with you. We will be able to talk, share and discuss. That is when I will imbibe of the wine that My father is producing through My work in you. Isn’t that a remarkable thing to understand? Turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter 26. Read verses 28-30. That is where He was betrayed and went on to allow His skin bag to be broken so that His shed blood could become wine for all mankind. It is a sacrificial system in which He led the way. Those who follow Him and want to give honor to the Father must be willing to do the same for their fellow man. Let us turn to Isaiah chapter 25 because we can glean more information now regarding that wonderful Millennium just ahead. We can appreciate more this whole process of how God the Father is a wonderful farmer making the earth bear fruit through His thoughts. Isaiah 25, verse 6, speaking of the Millennium when Jesus Christ’s kingdom is established: “And in this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the lees.” When the Millennium comes, the whole world will be able to enjoy the fruits of God’s vineyard (the wine of the lees during the Millennium). The lees comes from the Hebrew word shemer which means something preserved, something hedged about and guarded, protected from thorns. God the Father and Jesus Christ have been trying to protect the vineyard from wrong doctrines, from thorns, from sin and from corruption in order to have a beautiful vineyard producing wonderful fruit to make this delicious wine. The whole world will be able to share in it when the Millennium comes. Now let’s go back to Deuteronomy chapter 32. We are going to read a little bit more of Moses’ song. Deuteronomy 32, verse 10: “‘He found him…’” God found us. “‘…in a desert land…’” Now we are speaking of spiritual Israel. “‘…and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness; He encircled him, He instructed him…’” He hedged it about and sent His thoughts. “‘…He kept him as the apple of His eye. As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings, so the Lord alone led him, and there was no foreign god with him.’” So God the Father and Jesus Christ had protected the Church, kicked out false doctrines and had started the work of the Church and protected it. It became the apple of His eye. Continuing in verse 13: “‘He made him ride in the heights of the earth, that he might eat the produce of the fields; He made him draw honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty rock; curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs; and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the choicest wheat; and you drank wine, the blood of the grapes.’” What Christ did with ancient Israel physically He is now doing with the Church spiritually. He is turning flinty rock (our hardened hearts) into fertile ground to have a wheat field and to have a vineyard. From it He will have food for others (the truth of life) and the blood of grapes. In other words, we bear fruit and have a willingness to share with others. We do this even if it means losing our own life in the process. But we can even do this by giving ourselves every day to the truth of God. Sometimes it is breaking our heart or hurting ourselves in a way that we know when we help someone else we are putting our neck on the line. We absorb persecutions and insults so that we can be a lamp and a light unto others. That is turning water into wine. It is a miracle of God, and we are doing it every day that we live and follow the truth of God and let Jesus Christ bear fruit in us. I want to go back and conclude by reading that first miracle again. We will see little things in there now that you never saw before to make that story come to life! It will be really useful in your own life and my life and to those that we come in contact with from this point forward. Turn to John chapter 2. We are going to conclude right where we started off with that very first miracle. John 2, verse 1: “On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.” The mother, a type of the Church. “Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.” The disciples were all supposed to be invited to the wedding, including those who would be part of the firstfruits. Verse 3: “And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, ‘They have no wine.’” The Church comes to a point where they are not producing enough wine. The Church realizes it, and the woman says make some more wine. Verse 4: “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.’” But we know His hour has come now, and this miracle can be done in the Church once again. Verse 5: “His mother said to the servants, ‘Whatever He says to you, do it.’” So the Church now tells us whatever Christ says do it in your life. Verse 6: “Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece.” This number six has much to do with the length of time (the six thousand years) before the Millennium comes. God has been working with people for six thousand years. He has also worked with the Church through six Church eras and ran out of wine in the seventh Church era. But a miracle will take place to once again start producing wine. Verse 7: “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!’” Verse 11: “This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. After this He went down to Capernaum…” THE BEST WINE I want to conclude with a little bit of a thought about what Christ is conveying to us here. When the Church has run out of wine and He starts to produce wine again, it is the best wine. So we should not feel too bad about the situation we have all gone through with the failing of the Church. Because up until this era of the Church the news was without repentance the earth is doomed! There is no hope for earth! Now after the Elijah has come and the thoughts of God have fully landed upon the earth as a witness, the Church goes down. When the Church comes back up, it is speaking something new because it has the full understanding of the truth of God! We now have the best wine to share! We can sacrifice by telling the world Jesus Christ (the first of the firstfruits) took it on the chin so that we could be forgiven. We have now taken it and been beaten with many stripes in our lives as the Church of God through six eras of the Church, to come to the point when Elijah could come to this earth. There could be an Elijah work to prevent the destruction of the earth. So we have the full wine, and it has become the richest wine (the best) right at the very end. We have the wine that we can go to the world with and say the Father and Jesus Christ have won a great victory! The earth will be preserved! We are part of the tail end (the remnant) sacrificing ourselves for you so you can learn the truth. We have this wonderful beautiful news. That is why we call it the beautiful thoughts of God. How beautiful are the feet who can bring this wonderful knowledge to the world and to our brethren in the Church. Because of being a willing sacrifice, we have been allowed to take the most beautiful and glorious message you could ever have to this earth! It is an earth that so desperately needs it, and it is a Church that so desperately needs it.