Episode Transcript
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, go therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to go teach all nations, bringing you Christ teachings through australian and international speakers. And here is today's presenter, Pastor Boris Jovinov.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we want to thank you so much that you are faithful, Lord, your word is good. You are true, Father.
It's so impossible for a human to be able to share your message in a way that it deserves. And so, Lord, I need your help. But it's not just me, Lord, all of us do.
And so I pray the same holy spirit that inspired your bible be present here with us now in your name. Amen. Bible passages often get misused.
Yeah, I don't know if you've ever seen someone misuse it. Maybe some of your wives have heard a passage get quoted to you. There's others you can quote back, but all you'd be doing is adding to the misuse of scripture.
Today we're going to be spending our time in John, chapter two. John, chapter two. So if you have your bibles.
Is this mic on? It's not picking me up. All right. If you have your bibles, we're going to be spending it in John, chapter two.
So please turn there. John, chapter two. We're going to start in verse one.
I see some people are still turning there. It's really nice to see you guys have your bibles or devices. We're going to John, what chapter, chapter two.
We're going to read for a fair bit here. And this is a portion of scripture that widely gets misused. And unfortunately, because it gets misused, it rarely gets studied.
John, chapter two. The Bible says this. 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. And 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, pardon me? There were set there. Six water pots of stone according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing 20 to 30 gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, fill the water pots with water and they filled them to the brim and he said to them, draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.
And they took it. And when the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine and did not know where it came from. But the servant who had drawn the water knew the master of the feast called the bridegroom, and said to him, every man at the beginning sets out good wine.
And when the guests who have. Well, pardon me. And when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior.
You have kept the good wine till now. A lot of Christians out there use this passage to justify consuming alcohol moderately. Now, I find that really fascinating.
Okay, why are they saying moderately? Why is this used to say, okay, look, a glass of wine or a beer here and there is fine? Well, one of the reasons, because the story of the Bible, from the very first time alcohol is ever introduced is never seen positively. The very first time it's introduced is with Noah. Right.
And has God looked fondly at that? Absolutely not. There are verses, many verses. You have Ephesians chapter five and verse 18, for example.
He says, do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit. You have proverbs 20, which is familiar to many. It says, wine is a mocker, strong drink of brawl, and whoever is led astray by it is not.
And so the Bible, over and over and over condemns being drunk. What does it condemn? Being drunk. And so people look at this passage and they say, see, if Jesus was okay with drinking a little bit of wine, well, then it must be a sin to be drunk.
But it's not a sin to drink alcohol. Do you get the reasoning? The problem is it just doesn't make sense. There's just no way that this is what this scripture is referring to.
There just isn't. For example, something very simple. Is there a word to describe something that's between sober and drunk? Some of you are thinking tipsy, but look it up.
All it means is slightly drunk. Think about this. Is there a single word, is there a concept that exists that's between being sober and drunk? The reality is there isn't.
Now, the other thing that's important to understand is there's no such things of degrees of soberness. There's only degrees of drunkenness. Are you following what I'm saying? There is no such thing of degrees of soberness.
You're either sober or you're drunk. The only question is how drunk. That's really important because we've created this debate that exists over something that doesn't exist.
There's no such thing as consuming alcohol but not being drunk. It doesn't exist. There's either sober or drunk.
There's only degrees of drunk. Are you following what I'm saying? Tipsy's a word that we use for a little degree of drunk, right? Blind is an Aussie slang for a great degree of drunk. But what are we all talking about here? We're talking about degrees of drunk and cause we focus on the drunk or alcohol or not alcohol, we miss the actual point of what Jesus is doing here.
By the way, let me just share with you why this is a very silly, silly text. To say that a little in moderation is okay. First of all, from what we read, what's happening? Where are they? They're at a wedding.
Yes. And the Bible says after they've already consumed all the wine available, how much wine did Jesus provide? Well, it ends up being roughly an extra thousand equivalent bottles of wine. And people say, well, hold up, wine wasn't as alcoholic back then.
It would be similar to a beer. So the similarity then would be roughly 2700 cans of beer. Now, most likely, we don't know for sure, but most scholars estimate that at this wedding there would have been between 50 to 100 people thereabouts.
So just think about this. If this is alcohol, just think about the story. After people have consumed all the alcohol available, then Jesus comes and provides an equivalent of ten to 20 more bottles of wine per person.
And somehow this is the story to teach. Well, a little in moderation is okay. If this is alcoholic, then there's only one conclusion you can make, and that is that God is absolutely okay with drunken debauchery.
Because I don't know about you, but I actually have consumed close to 30 beers before and it wasn't just a little bit, you know, I'm feeling a little funny. Maybe I should walk. I don't remember the night.
It's true. So either we're put in a situation where Jesus is okay with drunkenness and debauchery, but the problem is, if the Bible is true, right, and it's inspired by the same spirit, it won't contradict itself. Yes.
And so would Jesus empower people to enjoy something he condemns them from doing or prohibits them from doing. Does that make any sense? Yes or no? It can't. The word itself is ionos.
Now there's multiple words in the Greek that describe wine. Two of them are exclusively fermented or alcoholic wine. But IO nos is used interchangeably for alcoholic and non alcoholic.
So the word doesn't help us. It's the context that we have to rely on. Yeah.
Now, from the context with this much wine to that many people after had already consumed all the wine available. Is it fair to suggest that this is saying, well, you know what? Jesus endorses a glass of wine with dinner. Is that what the context is? Yes or no? Absolutely not.
What it is. It's searching scripture so that I can find something that makes me feel okay to do something that I want to do. I actually grew up in a household that was big on wine, but not on alcohol.
This is not uncommon for Serbians. I go to my grandparents place, and when I'm there in their seasons, I'm there barefoot, squishing that thing, too. It's all the kids get in there.
It's awesome. And it's the sweetest, most beautiful wine there is. It really is.
It's very common. I'm not talking about alcohol. I'm talking about fresh squeezed juice.
Right. Most of you, the closest thing that you would have is one of those. What are the ABC grape juice things called petriti.
Right. Now, don't tell me that doesn't have a difference in tasting that than what you get at Coles. I'm just going to say one more thing on this, and then we're going to say, okay, if it's not saying that, what is Jesus actually talking about here? What is the point? Yeah, just think about this.
We've accepted something completely illogical. We accepted that there is something between sober and drunk, but that's just not the case. Anyone who drinks, you know, one makes a difference.
Now, I'm not saying one makes you stumble and lose your focus, but, you know, it makes a difference. There's a reason it's called a social lubricant. Two standardised drinks is where the government says you're no longer safe to drive because you might kill someone.
I just want you to think about that after the two. The government is saying you're not allowed to drive because you might not have full control. Now, God's not just if you're losing control, like, what about for spiritual decisions? What about for discernment? Over and over and over.
The Bible is true. The Bible doesn't condemn drinking, but it does condemn drunk. But guess what's? The only way to get drunk is to drink one drink.
Are you following what I'm saying? We've created a debate where there is no debate. Because the words don't mean what we're saying they mean when we use them. There is no such thing as degrees of sobriety.
There's only degrees of drunkenness. And if you're not sober? What are you drunk? And does God prohibit. Does God warn against being drunk? Yes.
And talk to any police officer and ask them what percentage of domestic violence includes alcohol. Talk to any police officer and ask them what percentage of sexual crimes include alcohol. Ask a police officer what percentage of physical assaults include alcohol and you will be blown away with how much better our world would be.
Should we put this substance down? It's killing lives. And it's a real shame that there is such a powerful piece of scripture here that just gets hijacked to push something that's not there. So let's do this.
Let's get into the text and let's see what is actually happening here in this beautiful piece of scripture. We're in John, chapter two. Start again.
In verse one. The Bible says this. On the third day, there was a wedding in Cana.
Now, what's interesting, I don't know if these guys were following jewish traditions. It seems from the context, as you'll see later, they were. But in the Mishnah it says that if a virgin's getting married, it should be on a Wednesday.
That's fascinating. I don't know why, but possibly this was a Wednesday. And he goes to Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there.
Where's the only other place the mother of Jesus shows up? In the book of John, it's at the cross. And what you'll actually find is that when Jesus begins his ministry, there is a lot of parallels to the first miracle he ever does and the last ministry he ever performs on earth. And so the mother of Jesus was there.
Now, it's assumed, scholars believe, that this most likely was some form of relative of Jesus. And the family's there. And the Bible says this in verse two.
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. It's interesting that Mary cares so much about this, and it's very possible, some scholars speculate that Mary might have been like a matron of honour, so to speak, like she was somehow involved in making sure things are well. But what we do know is that when they ran out of wine, somehow that came to Mary's ear.
Yeah. And did Mary care about it? She did. And so she comes to Jesus.
But Jesus has a very strange interaction with his mom here, doesn't he? Look at verse four. Jesus said to her, woman, what does your concern have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. Now, biblically, throughout the whole gospel, of John.
Quite frequently, Jesus uses this phrase about his hour. My hour's not yet come. My time's not yet come.
The hour's not yet come. The time's not yet come. And then you come to chapter 13 and there's a pivot and Jesus says, my hour has come.
And constantly throughout the gospel of John, when he's talking about his hour coming, it's talking about that time where he would take our place on the cross. But it's a really strange response. Jesus, they don't have any wine.
They've run out. Woman. What concern is that of me? My hour has not yet come.
What does it seem like jesus told his mum? Does it seem like she came with a request? Yes or no? Yeah, she requests, like most women request. They don't actually request. They've run out of wine.
Okay, thanks for that fact. No, no, that's not what they meant, was it? That's their way of saying, hey, can you fix it? Come on, we've all had that. Oh, the garbage is full.
I agree. Gonna do something about it, right? But she comes with this request, and what does it seem is Jesus's answer? Seems like it's no. Wouldn't you feel that way? Wouldn't you feel that way? What if he came to me and you're like, there's a mess in the meeting room, pastor, we got to fix it.
I was like, what's that got to do with me? Would you feel like I'm like, about to help? Or would you feel like you gotta go find some help somewhere else? But look how she responds. His mother said to the servant, whatever he says, do it. Doesn't it seem like she thinks that she got a yes? Doesn't it seem that way? Hey, they've run out of wine.
What's that got to do with me? My time has not yet come. Whatever he says, do it. It's like she knows something that we're missing.
And possibly the thing she's aware of is that Jesus was quoting scripture to her. See, there's a story found in two kings, chapter three. And we're going to turn there very briefly in two kings, chapter three.
And the story starts in verse twelve. But see, this story has to do with the prophet Elisha. Now, he was a very prominent prophet, some would say almost a messianic type at times.
And what happened in second corinthians, pardon me, second kings, chapter three, is that the kings of Israel allied with some other kings and they came to Elisha. And the Bible says this, that in verse twelve, it's that. Sorry.
In verse twelve, it says, and Jehoshaphat said, the word of the Lord is with him. So the king of Israel. And Jehoshaphat and the king of Eden went to him, went down to him, and Elijah, Elisha said to the kings of Israel, what have I to do with you? So they come to him, and they have this request, and what does he say to them? What have I to do with you? In the Septuagint, it's translated the exact same way as what Jesus said to his mother.
What does that have to do with me? But what's interesting is, as the story goes on, he ends up giving them very specific instructions to dig a bunch of holes everywhere. And he says, there will be no wind, there will be no rain, but there'll be water everywhere. And so they obeyed him, and they dug a bunch of ditches all over the place.
And then water came and filled that place. And when the enemies of Moab arrived to take the city, the sun was shining in such a way that this water looked to them like it was blood. And so the army, when they saw this city and just pools and puddles of blood everywhere, they said, man, the kings must have turned on each other.
We're not here for war. Let's go pillage the city. And as they came to the city, guess who's waiting for them? The armies of Israel.
And so there's this story on the Old Testament from Elisha that begins with him saying, this has nothing to do with me. But then it's finished with a miracle that's performed using water and people perceiving it to be something that it's not? You follow? And is it possible that Mary, who taught Jesus from the very beginning, was aware that her son wasn't rude, but maybe he's actually quoting scripture about a miracle that included water. And so she responds to this, saying, whatever he tells you to do, do it.
We're back in John, chapter two. The Bible says this starting in verse six. So there were set there.
How many? Six water pots of stone. According to what manner? What were these big jars water pots for? According to the purification of the Jews. Do you guys remember in Matthew 15 where the Pharisees attacked Jesus disciples because they weren't washing properly before they ate, according to the tradition of the Jews? Do you guys remember that? And so you have these wedding.
And there are these massive jars, possibly somewhere around 30 imperial gallants. Okay, that's different to the american gallon. But what purpose were they there for? It's because the Jews believed that through this ritual, they were somehow being purified.
They were being cleansed to be able to partake in the rest. Yes. See, because throughout the day, they were touching some stuff that gentiles touched.
And although they may have never touched pig, what if they touched a table that someone who had touched pig had touched? And so before I'm about to put something into my body and make my whole body all gentile y. That's not a real word, but you get word, but you get what I mean, there's this tradition, this ritual of the Jews that they would go through to be purified before they put things into their mouth. And Jesus particularly, he could have picked anything.
He could have just said, all right, everyone say, ah, he could have done whatever. Yes, this is the man who spoke. And then a cow.
Right? He spoke in the firmament. He spoke in the stars. He could have spoke anything.
And yet he's being intentional about what he's picking. And it's not so much about how big these things are. It's more time is spent describing what they are for.
Are you following? The thing that he picked were these things that the jewish tradition would subscribe to that helps them be more pure. And so he picks them, the Bible says, containing 20 or 30 gallons apiece. And Jesus said to them, fill the water pots with water.
Now here's the interesting thing. What were they? What were they? Water pots. What were they for? For washing ceremonially.
So you can become clean. Yet what are they empty of? Isn't that weird? You have six massive ceremonial washing points for your purification. And what are they empty of? Water.
What does that tell you? It was the appearance of belief. It was holy by association. It's, I want people to see that we are being purified by this stuff, but they're empty, which means they're not being used for what they're designed to be used for.
Yeah. And so Jesus says, see that stuff that people do to be pure, fill them up with water. And the Bible says this, and they filled them to the brim.
And he said to them, draw some out now and take it to the master of the feast. What is a master of the feast? It's someone that's in control of the feast, who should be the one that's most aware that they've run out of wine. Whose job is it to be aware of that? It's the master of the feast.
Whose job is it to make sure you don't run out of wine? The master of the feast. And yet who seems to be the one that's oblivious to the state of the wine, the very one whose job it was to be a steward of that wine. You follow.
And they take it to the master of the feast. And look what happens in verse nine, when the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine and look at the detail and did not know where it came from. Who was the one person whose job it was to know where it came from? His.
But look what it says in parenthesis. But the servants who had drawn the water knew. And look at what happens.
The master of the feast called the bridegroom. Just think about that. Why on earth do you have a master of the feasts at your wedding? So the bride and groom are not disturbed.
Isn't that it? Why do you have a wedding planner? Come on, you bridezillas. Why do you have a wedding planner? So that you're not bothered on your day. You follow.
His whole job there is to make sure that everything's in order and it's running so that the bridegroom and his bride can just enjoy the moment. And yet here he is, and he's like, oh, my goodness. And he goes to the groom and look at what he does.
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. He's chastising the guy because he's having a good wine.
Now, I don't want to digress back here again, but this verse is again biblical evidence that there's no way it was alcohol. This all happens after they've consumed all the available wine. You follow? Who on earth has a good palate after that much? You know those wine taster people that I swear make stuff up.
You ever seen that oak? Mm hmm. Some old gym socks. Like they're just making up stuff.
You know what I mean? Maybe they're not, but I swear, I swear it's all kind of the same. But I tell you what, you see, all of them do, they're not swallowing, are they? They're spitting it out and cleansing the palate because they know you can't taste the difference after you've had a few. But somehow this was a big drunk fest and these guys were like, oh, hold up, this is the wrong vintage.
Whatever, whatever. It doesn't make sense. But let's get back to this, okay? Jesus is being very intentional.
This is his very first miracle. And what does he choose to do? He says, see those things those jewish ceremonial things that they're trusting in, fill that up with water. And what does he turn the thing that they believed cleansed them into? Sweet wine.
What do we see at the very end of Jesus earthly ministry? He's instituting an ordinance, isn't he? He's instituting something called communion. And what did that wine represent at the very beginning of his ministry? Jesus's first miracle foreshadowed what his ministry would be. Who on earth were the people that were instructed to be the stewards of God's truth, to be the steward of how the world should become pure? Who was entrusted with that? Was the jewish leaders.
Yet who were the ones most oblivious to it? It was the jewish leaders, was it not? And interesting. When the jewish leaders missed the plot, who do they then go and chastise? The bridegroom. When the jewish leaders missed the messiah and the healing for the nations through him, who did they turn against for it? The bridegroom.
Jesus. From the very first miracle he ever did was foretelling. He was foreshadowing, he was teaching, he was instructing why he came.
And there is a new type of cleansing, and it's a cleansing that actually cleanses. And it's done in the completely miraculous, divine way, not through your customs, forms and traditions. And when the disciples saw this in verse eleven, it says this beginning of signs jesus did in cana of Galilee and revealed his glory.
And his disciples believed in him. Jesus didn't announce to anyone. The guy in charge of knowing where the wine came from had no idea where the wine came from.
The only people that knew were those servants. This was for the disciples. He didn't make a public affair of this.
His time had not yet come. But he was in just chapter one, called his new disciples. And now to them, he's trying to teach them what has come.
And they believed. But here's the confusing thing about them saying they believe. What does jesus spend most of the rest of the gospel of John doing? Trying to get them to believe.
Isn't that funny? Did they believe? Yes or no? Yeah, they believe. But what do they believe? They believed he's different from any other person. They believe that he's powerful.
They believe that he can do things. But they did not get. They did not get the mission and the purpose that Jesus came for.
And that was to replace them. He came to replace them. In fact, the Gospel of John is all about replacing.
Here in chapter two. At the beginning, Jesus replaces the waters of Judaism with the wine of his blood. In the very next part of chapter two, jesus replaces the temple of Judaism with his body.
In chapter three, when he meets with Nicodemus, he replaces the birthright of Judaism being born, the first birth as a jew, he replaces it with a spiritual rebirth, a spiritual Holy Spirit, born again birth. He's replacing it over and over. In chapter four, when he has a conversation with the woman at the well, jesus replaces Jacob with himself.
He replaces physical water with spiritual water. He replaces worship at Jerusalem with true worship and spirit and truth. And over and over in the gospel of John, he's replacing things.
He's replacing things. The old has gone, the new is come, and the story finishes not. How do I say this? I need to calm down here, eh? Don't I? The story begins with Jesus foreshadowing, foretelling, teaching, and describing what he will do.
But it ends with him following through with him doing the thing he committed to do. The thing that was replaced was us. We're the ones that deserve to be on the tree.
And because he replaced us, yes, to us, it's sweet, sweet wine. But for him, it was the wine of the wrath of indignation that was poured out upon him without mercy. This wine, everyone at that party, they got to enjoy that sweet aroma.
That patrioti stuff's good, man, isn't it? There's a reason. That's probably the thing that keeps the ABC financially afloat. We all buy it.
There's something really, really nice about him to the party, even to the mismanagers of the party, they're enjoying this. But what was Jesus in that celebration foreshadowing? What he will do for us? It's sweet wine for us. But it was his blood.
It wasn't his time yet, but he took the first step in trying to show what he was there for. And it's great that they believed he's powerful. It's great they believed, yep, we're going to follow that rabbi.
But he really wanted them to see. What he wanted them to believe is that he loves them and that he's there for them. Not in the way we use the word.
I'm here for you. And what that means is, as you're going through this tough time, you can call me whenever you want. No, no.
When Jesus was there for them, he was taking their place. It's a confusing sign. And it's interesting that from the very first words Jesus utters in this whole thing, it points us to Elisha, who did also a sign that was a confusing one.
And what they thought was happening was not what was happening, but something else was happening. And you see this in the first miracle of Jesus, what they think is happening is not really what was happening. He was trying to show something else, but they missed what was happening.
But he's also glad that they enjoyed what was happening. Even these days, it's still a confusing sign. Here it is.
People reading this and coming out of this, yes, I can get drunk a little, but what are they reading? They're reading the very first disclosure of what Jesus showed he would have to go through for our sins. And then we read that very thing, and we're like, oh, I get to still enjoy my sins. It's still a confusing sign, but it shouldn't be confusing at all, because the thing that scripture brings attention to is not the amount of grog and how drunk and jolly they were.
What it brings attention to is that Jesus was replacing those old jewish traditions for something new and true and eternal, and that thing is him. Now, I don't know about you, but when I pause for a moment and consider what he has done, what he is doing, and what he'll continue to do for me, when that is clear in my mind, I don't want to run back to the things that hurt him. And to be honest, when I understood the gospel for the first time and what he's done for me, that was the first time I actually cared about not hurting myself.
And I saw that loving God is loving myself. And removing God and just giving into my desires is hating myself. What wondrous love is this? What wondrous love is this? The very first miracle Jesus did on earth foretold his final ministry that he would do on earth.
While as a man, we know he's still working. But do you guys see this? This isn't about do you or don't you. It's about what has he done now, think about that moment for him.
He was foreshadowing his suffering and death. But what was the response of the party at that wine? It was joy, wasn't it? And I think in that wedding, in that celebration, is the same thing he's trying to foreshadow for today, that what should be our response for what he's done, we should be gratitude and thankfulness and joy and satisfaction in him because of his blood. We have sweet, sweet wine.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father. Lord, you are so good.
And, Lord, from the very beginning, you knew what you had to do, and you probably had many times to opt out, and yet you never did because you loved us. You're there for us. You took our place so that we can get yours.
And so, Lord, today we also want to believe. Not just that you're powerful and that you can do things no other human can do, although that's true. But, Father, I want to choose to believe.
I want to ask your holy spirit to come into my life and help me believe deeper and deeper each and every day. And if there's anyone else that wants to join me in this prayer, Lord, do it for them too. Help us to believe each and every day that you spilled your blood for me so that I can have the sweet blood, the sweet wine, the sweet aroma of salvation.
You died so that I may rise. You received wrath so that I may receive love. And I thank you for that.
I love you. Please come again soon. In Jesus name, amen.
This message was made available by the Murwillumbah Seventh-day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit their facebook page. Murwillumbah Seventh- day Adventist Church it's been a pleasure bringing you this programme here on 3ABN Australia radio.
