He Manifested His Glory John 2:1-11 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

This text concerns a miracle involving wine. It commonly presents problems for the reader because it requires cross referencing of scripture with scripture to find out exactly what it was that Jesus Christ made. It is set up so that sinners who want to justify drinking can find what they are looking for in this particular passage. However, if we will approach the text without bias we can discover exactly what Jesus did at the marriage inCana.

Jesus used this occasion to manifest His glory so that His disciples would believe on Him. There are several things that magnify His glory and remove misconceptions about who He was and what He did.

The first way that Jesus Christ manifested His glory is by turning water into wine. He did this because it matched one of the miracles of Moses (Exodus 4:8-9) in which Moses turned water into blood. This showed that He was a prophet unto the Jews like unto Moses.

Throughout the Bible wine is a picture of blood (Luke 22:20, 1 Cor.11:25). This brings us to the question of whether the wine that Jesus made from water was fermented or what we today call grape juice.

It was merely grape juice because cross referencing the Bible shows us that it was “new wine,” which was the term used for unfermented wine.

4 reasons from the Bible why the wine was simply grape juice & not fermented liquor:

• It was new wine, in that it was just made and did not have time to ferment. Wine ferments in sealed containers and this wine was made in an open container.
• Pharaoh the King of Egypt in all of his glory drank juice pressed directly from the grapes (referred to as coming from clusters) into his cup by the butler (Genesis 40:10-11)
• The juice that comes out of the cluster is referred to as new wine (Isaiah 65:8)
• When Jesus Christ had a cup at what we call the Lord’s Supper and distributed that cup among His disciples, so that they could drink from it, the contents of that cup are never referred to as wine in the Bible (Matt. 26:27-29, Mark 14:23-25, Luke 22:20). The terms used are “cup” and “fruit of the vine.”

The second way that Jesus manifested His glory is that He did not give His glory to His mother (John 2:4). In the Bible Mary is never referred to as the Mother of God. Despite this there are some churches that use this title for Mary in their prayers. While Jesus, who was the earthly incarnation of God, had a mother, God the Father in Heaven did not. When all of the saints gathered together in the upper room, Mary was there among them, but she was given no type of leadership role or exalted position (Acts 1:14, Mark 12:47-48). Jesus Christ manifested His glory by not dividing or diminishing His glory by sharing it with His mother or anyone else.

The third way He manifested His glory is by prophesying of His future (John 2:4, 7:6,7:30,8:20). The Lord’s Supper is a memorial of the Lord’s death, burial, resurrection and a looking forward to the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 12:23). We observe this ordinance to honor the Lord’s prophesy of His promised return. Upon that return those who have been faithful servants will be served by Him at His wedding feast (Luke 12:37).