Transformation

By Young Joon Park

June 14, 2009

John (요) 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 waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each.

⁷ Jesus said to them “Fill the waterpots 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.

The story of my grandson, Josiah

We had the excited moment, but sometimes we faced the problem during the excited moment. We had to make a quick decision for the better solution.

John 2:1-12

There was a great feast of wedding in Cana in Galilee.

It was a feast full of excitements; however, there was a big problem in the middle of this joyful event.

Let’s see how they made a decision for the better solution and what happened.

My brother, Pastor Young Chuel Park, preached these verses to us on February this year.

I will share different area than my brother preached with you today.

I. Mary as the picture of an intercessor

There is no way to get out of this situation, but Jesus’ mother, Mary, knew the solution. She knew Jesus very well because she has raised Him and lived together for 30 years since her encounter with the angel Gabriel 30 years ago.

She knew Jesus as:

1.      The Son of God

2.      His Personality

3.      The Divine Nature

Even Jesus answered her that it was not His Time yet.

But Jesus, He stepped in the middle of the trouble to resolve the problem because of her intercession.

The key element of the intercessor

1. We have to know Jesus through the intimate relationship (John 15:7)

2. We have to have faith (John 2:5)

3. We have to have the desire of the Lord (Psalm 37:4)

4. We have to have the right heart to seek the Lord (II Chronicles 16:9)

John 15:7

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

John 2:5

His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

Psalm 37:4

Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.

2 Chronicles 16:9a

For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. …

The example of the interceding (Numbers14:11-25)

Numbers 14:12

I will smite them with pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make you into a nation

greater and mightier than they.”

God did not suggest to Moses that He would reconsider to judge Israel for the future, but He had a plan to destroy them completely. He already planned it and the process was on the way.

Moses’ interceding (Numbers14:13-19)

Numbers 14:19

Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your lovingkindness, just as You also have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.

God answered his interceding (Number 14:20-25)

Numbers 14:20

So the LORD said, “I have pardoned them according to your word;

Now it is time we have to move on to intercede for the transformation.

Acts 1:14

These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

Acts 2:1-4

¹ When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.

² And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

³ And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.

⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

Mary’s interceding was a big part of the transformation for this wedding and she was the caused of bringing the Glory of God in this place.

You are a one of them to bring the Glory of God in One Glory Church.

II. The servants as the picture of obedience

The servants knew what Jesus and Mary were doing something for the wine.

Mary gave the instruction to the servant was, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”

Her instruction was clear saying there is to be no question.

1. “Fill the waterpots with water.”

The waterpots were not for the purpose of wine at all.

This waterpots were not using for any drinks at all.

This waterpots were not sanitary.

Everything was non-sense to them, but it was not hard to obey Him.

Only hard part was to take the water and pour out the water to the waterpots.

Many times we deal with the non-sense matter when we follow the Lord.

We focus the Great Commandments and the Great Commission, because God called us for this purpose clearly.

So we do have a small Home Group meeting every week and other involvements.

Lot of people could not understand this vision; also more over sadly lot of people do not know or understand their purpose of life and their destiny at all.

That’s why many cases people brought their own better idea to change church, but it did not work and problems even the division in church.

Some people said that we need a professional worship team, and then church would grow fast.  So we needed to hire them with some cost. And they demanded it to church.

Some people said that we need to have more programs for certain areas…on and on.

Because everything what they have seen was as a non-sense to their narrow view.

Through my experience.

I saw many times that God uses the people who do not follow to their own non-sense, but faithfully submit themselves to the Lord and serve no matter what cases.

2. “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.”

Now Jesus gave them the radical instruction which will be no doubt to get into embarrassing situation.

Jesus asked them to draw some water from the waterpots that were not meant to be used for drinking water, and give to the headwater.

Most cases like this, people will refuse at this point.

They will say, “It is enough for the non-sense.” “Enough is enough.”

They might confront against the non-sense, or avoid the non-sense.

It is important to have a faith to believe in, but the most important we really have to walk by faith what you believe in.

The faith has to be dealing with risks all the time.

Matthew 17:20

And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

These obedient servants became a vital part of the transformation of this wedding.

Your obedience and faith will bring the Glory of God to our One Glory Church, so I encourage you to obey and walk by faith.

III. The transformation

The six stone waterpots or water jars

Interestingly there were 6 stone jars, and Jesus used this jars for the transformation of the normal water to extra ordinary wine.

Symbolically the number six is signifies the number of man, and the stone waterpots or water stone jars, a symbol of vessels, or ourselves.

2 Timothy 2:21

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.

1. The emptied stone waterpots

These waterpots were empty, because all the guests cleansed their hands and feet from the water of waterpots.

The water that was in the waterpots were used for the Jewish custom of purification,

the custom that is the tradition or the legalism.

Colossians 3:9

^… since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices,

We cannot receive anything if our vessel is filled with something. So it is important to empty the old matter in our life. We cannot accept the new matter when we have so much knowledge, because the old knowledge does not accept the new knowledge in our heart. Some times it will cause debates in our heart and finally bring the confusion.

One example)

I have learned that coffee is not good for our health because of caffeine.

If someone will claim that coffee is good for our health, then automatically there will be some debates my mind with the new claim inside of me.

There will be 2 different responses.

I might go against the new claim and never concern myself with it again.

Or I might accept the new claim and start drinking coffee.

Another example)

My son shared about young people’s concepts of marriage today among the college students. Their concept is totally different from our Christian’s view.

In the spiritual matter it will be more complicated and critical.

We need to humble ourselves all the time.

Luke 5:38

New wine must be put into fresh wineskins.

We have to be ready to receive the new things that God is releasing right now.

What old things do you hold in your vessel continually?

You need to lay it down to the Lord and give it up.

2. Full of new water in the waterpots

The new things will be filled when you are emptied.

The water will not be filled by itself, but the Lord.

The water means the Holy Spirit.

John 7:37-39

³⁷ ... “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.

³⁸ “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ ”

³⁹ But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

We have to ask the Lord fill with the Holy Spirit in everyday because we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty,” it means that we need to be thirsty for the Holy Spirit and hunger for Him. When you thirst or hunger what do you do?

Yes, you look for water to drink or food to eat all over the place no matter what your circumstances are.

How much are you going to look for the water desperately if you are lost in the desert and you do not have any water?

But at the same time we do get distracted by the worldly matter to often.

I constantly hear the sad news from people.

People wanted to follow Jesus, but suddenly they took off from the Lord, because they love the worldly matter that is temporary lust pleasure, reputation or a desire of mammon, or material wealth, and choose to follow them.

We cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit, if we want to follow the world than the Holy Spirit. Someone may be able to teach you how to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

I believe that we need to totally surrender our life to the Lord, and choose the will of God instead of mine.

Galatians 5:17

For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

There is no harmony between the Holy Spirit and the flesh in our life.

Ephesians 5:18

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit

You will be drunk when you drink wine continually, and then the wine will control you.

Same way you need to choose to drink the Holy Spirit, then you will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

You have a choice. You can choose to stay in the flesh with the worldly matter, or you can choose to stay in the Holy Spirit.

Whatever you choose to stay, then who you will be one of kinds.

It is time you need to choose to stay in the Holy Spirit, and to be drunk by the Holy Spirit.

You are not going to stay just temporary, but stay in Him until Jesus’ come.

3. “You have kept the good wine”

Our life will release the best taste to everyone to bring the Glory of God if our life is filled with the Holy Spirit.

We cannot transform our life with our own willingness or strength at all.

Zechariah 4:6b

…, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.

Only the Holy Spirit brings the Power and the Fruit in your life.

God will glorify through our transformation life.

Our transformation life will bring the transformation of the society and impact the world

Matthew 5:13

You are the salt of the earth;

Matthew 5:14

You are the light of the world.

Matthew 5:16

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Isaiah 49:6b

I will also make You a light of the nations

So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

You are the one who can bring the Glory of God to One Glory Church and to the nations.

So we need to walk our life in the Lord in different level, and we have to come out from old mind and old way.

Yesterday is already past and old. We need to continually renew our life and align our heart to His New Anointing.

4. The stone waterpots

These vessels were never designed nor intended for wine at all.

God wants use anyone whoever ready to serve the Lord.

2 Timothy 2:21

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.

God is ready to use you for His Glory if you are ready.

Are you ready? Are you really going to jump in Him?

You might say, “not today, but I will tomorrow or someday.”

Then you might not have any chance of tomorrow in your life.

We do not know what would happen our tomorrow.

Do you want to see the Glory of the Lord?

Do you want to see the Glory of the Lord fall in this room?

Do you want to see the Glory of the Lord fall in your family?

Do you want to see the Glory of the Lord from you to the nations?

Our Father God is still looking for the people to send out for His Glory.

Isaiah 6:8

Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Let’s worship together with “Let Your Glory fall in this room”