"Fill up to the Brim"

"Fill up to the Brim"

ByDr. Young Cheol Park

February1, 2009

Text: John 2:1-12

¹	On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there;
²	and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding.
³	When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus ^*said to Him, "They have no wine."
⁴	And Jesus ^*said to her, "Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come."
⁵	His mother ^*said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."
⁶	Now there were six stone water pots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each.
⁷	Jesus ^*said to them, "Fill the water pots with water." So they filled them up to the brim.
⁸	And He ^said to them, "Draw some* out now and take it to the headwaiter." So they took it to him.
⁹	When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter ^*called the bridegroom,
¹⁰	and ^said to him, "Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people* have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now."
¹¹	This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.
¹²	After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days.

Introduction

Fromtime to time we have some feasts or parties as parts of family affairs. Thoseaffairs are birthday party, wedding party, promotion party, and so on. The hostof the party prepares good foods for the participants with wholeheartedness.Guests will be pleasured by the way of the host's treating them. Every partyshould be enjoyable and pleasurable one.

Probablythe most perplexed and embarrassing situation for a party host is when you runout of one of the party attraction foods during the midst of the party. Haveyou ever had that kind of situation in your life? Nobody wants to have such anembarrassing experience. But unfortunately such a moment could happen to anyone of us from time to time in our lives.

TheBible passage this morning shows that embarrassing event was happened to awedding house which was in the midst of the party. And in that wedding partyour Lord Jesus was in there! Wedding house without wine was even unthinkableproblem. For Jews at that time wine was not only for entertaining but also fordrinking. They ran out of such a vital wine!

Atthat time there was no Wal-Mart or Costco. There were no places to purchasewine in that situation. Those wines were prepared in each household bythemselves usually for a year. The text is a story that Jesus solved theproblem through miracle of changing water into wine. I bless all of us thismorning that God will give us grace and lessons while we meditate on themeaning of this miracle in our lives. And I bless God will do another miracleof changing water into wine for each of you.

1. A Wedding Party without Wine

Accordingto Jewish tradition at that time, wedding party was held for a whole week long.In every wedding party, there is wine. This is true in the East and West, inancient time and modern times. We know very well that in Palestine area, winewas main liquor.

Winemakes man pleasure and cheer up his or her mind and heart and fun. Accordingly,wine was a necessary item for a wedding party. Necessity means that without theitem, wedding party cannot be a place of fun.

Nowsuch a vital item, wine, is gone! No other problem can be an embarrassing butwine! The wedding house where Jesus was invited was experiencing theembarrassing moment!

Thewedding house should be full of joy, pleasure and fun, but anxiety, worry,perplexity, and shame were replaced. It was a shame of the wedding house andfor a long time the house could be an object of ridiculousness. I have ansimilar experience when my son was married. I prepared a buffet style weddingparty and invited relatives, friends, and many people whom we knew. The numberof participants to the party was nearly over 600.

Iordered the whole food to a restaurant and had them catered by the restaurantto the party. All the catered food was good and most people enjoyed very much.However, one thing caused a big problem. In all the catered food, sashimi wasone of them. Sashimi is raw fish that Korean people like very much and that isone of the most expensive ones. Everyone knows that you almost have to usewasabi, or horse radish, to bring the real flavor of sashimi, and sashimiwithout this wasabi is terrible. The caterer had forgotten to bring wasabi forsashimi. Needless to say, a lot of sashimi was left unconsumed till the partywas over. That was a very perplexed and embarrassing experience in my life.

Ithink today's' churches are in somewhat like this. Vitality due to havingassurance of salvation has been vanished and the joy of salvation has beencooled out and Christianity seems to be no more attractive to nonbelievers. Onlyrituals and forms are left without dynamic vitality. In many cases, Christiansare blamed by non Christians because of their inappropriate behaviors. In thesedays the Lord has called us to become true and faithful disciples to radiatethe light of the Lord as His church.

2. Mary Brought the Problem to Jesus

Itis a greater problem to leave a recognized problem as it is. But the problem ofthe lack of wine was able to be solved because of the presence of Jesus. Wherethe Lord Jesus is, there is the solution to our problems. Where there is both aproblem and the Lord, this becomes a blessed place where there is the potentialfor solution.

Althoughthe banquet was crowded with swarms of people, it was only Mary who had thoughtof bringing the problem to Jesus. As they say, "a whole sack of pearls isno jewelry unless they are strung together by a string." Despite thepresence of Jesus among us, if we do not bring the problem to Him nothing willever happen. How then was Mary able to bring the problem to Jesus?

Shetook ownership of the banquet problem. Had she thought of herself as only beingone of the guests, she would have simply participated in the eating at thefeast table. However, she took in the embarrassing problem as her own personalproblem. The host of the banquet seems to have been a relative of Jesus.Considering the fact that the villages of Cana and Nazareth were fairly farapart in distance (Cana being 4 miles NE of Nazareth), the entire household ofJesus (including Mary) was invited, and Mary was proactive in trying to solvethe problem, it is assumed that Mary and Jesus were close relatives to the hostfamily.

Inorder to solve the problem of the shortage of spiritual wine in this church,you need people who will take ownership of the church problem as their own.This church also needs such people of God. We need people who will bring churchproblems to Jesus. Jesus will solve the problems brought to him by the membersof the church who are praying night and day in sympathy with the problem.

Howdid Mary think of bringing the problem to Jesus?

Thisbeing the first of Jesus' public miracles, how did Mary know that she was tobring the problem to Jesus? She probably had experienced several times at homeprivately the miracles of Jesus for the 30 years that she had lived with him.She had the conviction that Jesus was able to and also had the love to solvethis problem.

Thisis why although Jesus had coldly refused her request by saying, "Dearwoman, why do you involve me? … My time has not yet come" (v.4), she didnot back off but told the servants to "do whatever He tells you"(v.5).

Wealso need to look back on what the Lord has done in our lives and trust in hislove. Starting from this small trust and faith in his power, we need to seekhis greater power and grace to solve our problems. As we remember his pastgracious deeds in our lives, we will find ourselves experiencing his grace morethan ever.

3. Fill Up to the Brim!

Jesusis the Lord of love who answered Mary's request. Although He seemed to ignoreMary's request, He never disregards the problems of those in suffering. Heignores neither our physical needs nor our spiritual needs.

TheLord commanded the servants to fill up the stone jars with water (v.7):"Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water"; so theyfilled them to the brim." The servants did as they were told.

Let'smeditate on the stone jars.

(v.6)"Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews forceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons." TheJewish people kept stone jars at the entrance of their homes in order tocleanse themselves on the three great festive days (Passover, Pentecost, theFeast of Tabernacles). The stone jars contained water for cleansing theirbodies on these religious festivals. This water was not for drinking. Thesejars were no ordinary water jars. Although they were jars containing holy waterand set apart for the washing of the body on religious days, it was still filledwith non-potable water. And the jars themselves were not sanitized. But Jesuswas able to produce the choicest wine from an unclean jar.

Jesuscan bring sinners to salvation and He can make them righteous. And He can makethe weaks strong. He seeks the sick and can heal them. He can make us whole inspite of our deficiencies.

Jesuscommands us to fill up our stone jars to the brim. He tells us to fill it up tothe full. The Lord who commands us to make disciples, tells us to fill it up tothe brim.

Wemust first be discipled. Every activity of the church is a part ofdiscipleship. Therefore we should actively participate in every chance we havein being trained as a disciple. This is how we can fill our jars to the brim.(personal testimony – PhD prep.)

4. God does miracles in our obedience!

Thereal problem is, "How willing are you to obey His Word?"

Justas miracles happened when the stone jars were filled up to the brim, we must beobedient to fill our stony hearts with the Word of God. I believe that then wewill experience the miracle of water turning into wine.

Wefill our hearts up by listening to God's Word. We fill it up by reading theBible. We fill it up by memorizing and studying Scripture, and by praying. Wefill it up by attending small group meetings, by loving each other, and bysharing Christ with others. Only then do we experience the miracle of ourtasteless watery lives transform into wine.

Doyour best to participate and fill up your hearts.

Hebrews5 writes about spiritual babies who eat only soft milk and not solid food.

(Vss.12-14) "In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you needsomeone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. Youneed milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant,is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food isfor the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish goodfrom evil."

Weexperience the Power of God's Word when we obey. We will know the truthfulnessof His Word by our obedience. Those who experience God's word are those who eatsolid food. Miracles happen when we obey.

Letme ask a question.

Whendid the water turn into wine?

1)	The water was already turned into wine from the well.
2)	When the water was poured into the stone jars.
3)	When the water was served to the banquet master.

Yes,number 3 is correct!

Thewater was changed into water when the servants served the master of banquet.What does it mean?

TheLord did a miracle when they obeyed!

Obedienceis something like a trumpet sound that brings the miracle of the Lord.

Conclusion

Doyou see a shortage of spiritual wine in your life?

Doyou believe that Jesus is able to solve your problem when you take it to him?

Doyou believe that water can be turned into wine by your obedience?

Then,you need to be filling your jar to the brim with water.

Letus trust that Jesus will fill our empty cups and empty lives with wine.

Hewill fill our families with new wine!

Therefore,let us fill our lives up to the brim with spiritual water!

Letus pray to be filled with the Lord's wine just like the woman at the well hadher vain empty life filled up when she met the Lord!