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Water supernaturally transformed into wine. This is a miracle. I would define that as a miracle. And I must admit that for a long time I've thought of this passage as one that's just a little bit obscure. This is one of those passages that I, as a Christian, I'm like, yes, it's there. Yes, I believe it's true, but why is it there? And so as we had our teachings calendar kind of formulated for this semester, and we're going through, and I saw that this particular passage fell to a Sunday that I was going to be preaching, I was both simultaneously excited, and I also felt just a little bit attentive, okay? I was a little bit like apprehensive thinking, okay, what is this gonna mean when I delve into this passage? What am I gonna find in here? But I was excited because I was like, I really do want to understand why this particular story about why water into wine is included in God's word. I've got to believe that if it's in God's word, it's important. So today what we're gonna do is we're gonna examine this text together. And what I'd the way I'd really articulate it is that we're gonna explore the text together. And I don't know how much you guys like to explore things in a physical, practical sense. I enjoy exploring things. I like going out on hikes and bike rides and exploring new parts of the country. And one of the things that we got to do uh a couple of months ago, earlier in the year, my wife and I got to go with our children to Australia, and we got to leave our kids with my parents and to go exploring without them, which was kind of fun. We went away for a few days. And we went down to this beautiful part of Australia called uh the Great Ocean Road. So the Great Ocean Road is this part of Australia where there are these really tall cliffs that have been shaped by the pounding Southern Ocean. So they're hundreds of feet high, towering above this really beautiful, rough ocean in front of them, if you can kind of picture that. So we went there and we kind of did the tourist thing. It's a big tourist attraction. There's you know, buses you see everywhere, getting unloaded with people, and and it was good. We saw some really beautiful, amazing things, and we're like, okay, great. But one of the things that my dad told me before we left, he's like, hey, there's some dirt roads that are kind of off the beaten path, and if you go down those, you'll get an even better view away from all the tourist stuff. So we'd gone out and we were kind of on our way back on our journey, and we saw one of these dirt roads, so we're like, okay, let's try it out. So we head down this dirt road, and as we're kind of bumping our way down to kind of where the the clearing was, we pulled up, and there was this view from where we parked the car out to the ocean, and we could kind of see some definition and this beautiful ocean in front of us that we'd been looking at for most of the day, but there was nobody else around. Like we didn't couldn't see anybody in either direction for a long way. It was just us and this beautiful cliff top. So as we got out of the car, we we kind of worked our way through. There wasn't really much of a trail, but we worked our way down to the cliff edge. And as we got to the cliff edge, there we were, you know, I'd say one or two hundred feet above the water, looking down over this beautiful landscape. The view was better there than in the parking lot, okay? But as we got there, my uh explorative, I don't know if that's a word, but my explorative eye saw that there was this pinnacle of land jutting out even further off the cliff. I was like, I want to get out there. So uh I kind of gave Liz the camera and ventured out on this very narrow at points. I mean, really, probably me to that keyboard wide uh bit of bit of rock that, again, hundreds of feet on either side down to the ocean below, but it led out to a bigger platform. And again, as I got out there, I was like, this is incredible. So I came back, got Liz, took her by the hand very carefully, and led her out to this beautiful, beautiful view. You see, the view was good from the parking lot. It got better as we got further down, and as we got out on that cliff, out on that pinnacle, it was the best. And I tell you this story this morning for two primary reasons. Firstly, there were some dangers as we explored that path that day. Definitely some dangers. There was a payoff for the dangers, but there were some dangers. And I would say that there are some dangers for us in this text today of things that we could spiral downward into a conversation about. And I'm gonna point three of those out really quickly to you, okay? Firstly, I see one of the dangers is that we could get caught up talking about what's meant by the very first words in this passage. It says, on the third day, there are pages and pages by theologians in commentaries about what is meant by that. We're not gonna get into that today. It's not helpful for our conversation today. Now, not saying that it's not helpful at all, but just for our conversation today, I feel like that's something that we could slip into a conversation about. Another thing that we could slip into a conversation about is the conversation between uh Jesus and his mother. We are gonna talk about their interaction, but we could spend our whole time there, and that I really think that that's a bit of a rabbit trail. We could get stuck there and not get very far. The third thing that is a danger is the conversation about wine. There are people who have used this text in the past to say that you should drink alcoholic beverages, and there's others who have said, no, this text says you shouldn't. I would argue that this scripture has nothing to do with that. That's a rabbit trail. That's a side conversation that isn't helpful for today. And so the second reason that I tell you that story of Liz and I exploring that day is because our exploration led to an incredible view. And like our view got better as we progressed, my hope is that your view of Jesus would get better as we progress through the text today and through the questions that we're gonna ask. And my hope isn't that that you would just have a more accurate view of him. My hope is that you would see how beautiful he is as we have this exploration of who he is and how he works, and that your love and your heart for him would actually grow as we read the text today. So that's kind of our intent as we start out, and we're gonna ask four major questions as we go through this today. I'll go ahead and give you all four so you're ready to go. The first one is this can Jesus do miracles? Secondly, if he can, why does he do miracles? Thirdly, why does Jesus do this particular miracle? And then the fourth and final question, does Jesus still do miracles today? So can Jesus do miracles? Now, please note that I phrase this question in a present tense. That's because I'm a Christian and I believe Jesus is alive. It's not did Jesus do miracles, it's can he do miracles? We believe that Jesus is alive. Now, you're sitting here in church this morning surrounded by people who would most likely claim they're Jesus followers, and so you're like, isn't this question a little bit trivial? I'm sitting here with a bunch of people who believe in Jesus, wouldn't most people say yes? And I would say, well, I don't think this is an entirely trivial trivial question, because of two groups of people, first group is those exploring faith. There are people in this room here today who don't know what they fully believe about Jesus. And if you're that person and you're here this morning, that's awesome. I'd like to just say congratulate you on being here and exploring your faith. That's a really good thing to do. And I would say it's okay to have questions and to have doubts and to say, you know, do I believe Jesus can do miracles? Maybe you're asking bigger questions like, who is Jesus? Why did he have to exist? Why did he have to die for people's sins? Like, those are all very good questions. So to ask this question, can Jesus do miracles is a very fair one. The second group of people is those of us who identify as Christians but have doubts. And I say us because I would put myself into that basket of people. There are times that I struggle. There are times that I have questions. Primarily, that happens when I come across things in God's word that I wrestle with. I'm like, why is this in God's word? The other time that that happens is when situations in life happen that make me question God's hard things, difficult things that make me have doubts and questions. So let's acknowledge this morning that there are doubts in this room. But I'd also like to acknowledge a beautiful little sub-story today in Mark chapter 9. If you're not familiar with it, in Mark chapter 9, there is this man who brings his son to Jesus and Jesus' disciples, who is both deaf and mute, among other things. And uh as these guys are trying to figure out what's going on, Jesus asks him point blank, do you believe that I can save your heal your son? And what does the man respond? He says, I believe, help my unbelief. I believe, but help my unbelief. And every time I read that story, I'm like, I get that. I understand that, I feel that. I believe and I want to believe, but there are things in me that struggle with unbelief. So let's not trample this question, but rather dig into it. And let's start with just looking at Jesus' nature, his character, who he is himself. Is Jesus himself miraculous? Now, using the Bible as a foundation, I want to answer this and I want to acknowledge too that all beliefs have foundations that we argue. Basically, if I use the Bible today, that is something outside of myself. But sometimes we use uh experiences, sometimes we use our minds and our rationality to explain things. Whatever things we believe or believe, all of them take steps of faith. As a Christian, I believe that God's word is true. I believe that what he says is true. A hundred percent, that I can believe and trust in everything that's in this book. So I'm using the Bible today as my basis, as my foundation. And saying that, I would say that yes, Jesus himself is miraculous. As we go back to John 1, and if we were to have a look there this morning, we would see that he is God incarnate. Remember, the word became flesh and dwelt among us? That means that Jesus is by just his nature, by his being, miraculous. God incarnate means in human form. That is miraculous. That's something beyond what we can understand. So Jesus by his nature is miraculous, but does that mean that Jesus himself can do miracles? By asking this question, we're delving into the theology, what we believe about God, about miracles. Now, I would just make a sub point. I wanted today to go into a theology of healing. Because we like to think about what it, well, how does this stuff apply to me and the people around me? A healing is a type of miracle, but there are multiple types of miracles, okay? So I just want to be clear on that. We're gonna stay up here at miracle level. We will have conversations about healings because there are healings in John, lots of them, okay? So we're gonna get to wrestle with some of those questions of why does Jesus heal people? Um, you know, how does Jesus heal people? When? Why does he not heal people sometime? So those are all things that we'll get to wrestle with in the coming months. But the reason we're talking about miracles at a high level is because this particular story contains the first physical manifestation of Jesus' power. You could argue that the first miracle that we have explained in the text is last week's one where we talked about Nathaniel and how, you know, remember he says to Nathaniel, hey, I saw you this morning when you were under the fig tree, and Nathaniel's like, wow, like that's incredible. That was a miracle. But what we're talking about here specifically is a physical manifestation of God's power. We're talking about something changing its atomic structure, going from water to being wine. It's things that pass our rational thinking. I heard this phrase recently, it's trans rational, meaning it's trans above and beyond our rational, our minds and our thinking. We can't get our heads around it. So back to the question: can Jesus do miracles? This story seems to primarily exist to answer the question with a yes. How do we see it in the text? Let's go back to the story. In the story, we see Jesus is at a wedding with his mother and with his disciples. At this point, we probably could believe that this isn't a huge group of disciples. Later on, he has a pretty big crew of people following behind him. This is probably early on when there's just a few guys following along behind him, including John the Disciple that we've discussed already. So they're at this wedding celebration. Now, when you picture a wedding, don't picture the weddings that we go to today. Don't picture a church. Those didn't exist, okay? This is before you know Jesus died and rose to life again, all of that stuff. Don't picture, you know, a priest in a uniform or flowers or any of that stuff, okay? What we're talking about here is a week-long, typically a week-long silation. Now that's quite an RSVP, right? If you're going to go to a wedding for a week, that's what they'd do. They'd have these week-long celebrations. And one of the things that was important back then was to have adequate provisions for your guests. So to run out of wine was a huge faux pas. Like that wasn't okay to run out of wine. It'd be similar, maybe the modern-day equivalent would be like you or I going to a really fancy wedding. Picture of like a fancy, fancy wedding. You go to the wedding, you go to the reception, and you sit down for your meal together at the reception, and the wait staff come out and they go to present the plates of food to everybody, but they only have enough for two-thirds of the guests. That would be very embarrassing for the family, right? And much in the same way, running out of wine at one of these wedding celebrations was a huge embarrassment for the family. So, Jesus' mother comes to him and explains the situation. Now, this is kind of interesting. Here's Jesus. That means he knows the situation. But she comes and decides to tell him what's going on, and uh he addresses her, he replies to her, and he says to her, Well, let's look at it in the text. I don't want to just repeat it to you, but I want to read this with you. So, John chapter 2, and let's look in verse 4. She tells him previously they don't have any one, and he says, What has this concern of yours to do with me, woman? Now you hear that, I want to clear something up. You hear that, and you're like, Whoa, Jesus, calm down, right? I know why you think that, because we're in our culture, in our language, if we say woman, like typically, let's be honest, it means get back in the kitchen, right? Like, I mean, that's the type of phrase or the way that we hear it used. Really. We see it as negative, we see it as derogatory. And I want to clear up with you this morning that that's not at all what's going on. Jesus is actually being very kind and respectful in the way that he's addressing her. The reason I know this is because if you go to John chapter 19 and read of Jesus dying on the cross there, what the account tells us is this is a beautiful picture, by the way. Jesus is there dying on the cross for the sins of the world. He's there, dying. And he looks down from the cross and he sees who? John the disciple and his mother Mary. And I don't know if you realize this, but when he's on that cross and he looks down and he sees them, he addresses them and he says to his mother, Woman, that phrase woman, is the exact same phrase. There isn't a more loving account of Jesus interacting with his mother because he says, Woman, this is your son, talking about John the Disciple, and he says, John the disciple, hey, you need to look after her like she's your mother. It's this beautiful, beautiful account. And so we can know and believe that when he says woman, he's being very loving, very respectful. Now, the conversation, like I said, between the two of them is a little perplexing. Jesus is kind, but he's firm. He does push back against what she's saying. He corrects her a little in what he's saying. And uh he tells her, hey, my time is not yet come. Now we're gonna come back to what he means in his response. We're gonna discuss this a little bit further. But I do want you to note that Mary is not perfect. She comes to Jesus and he has to give her a little bit of correction. Jesus is perfect, Mary is not perfect, and then she leaves him with the servants. Now we can assume that the disciples are there too. So Jesus is left there with his disciples and with the servants. Then he instructs them to fill these jars, these are ceremonial purification jars, uh, with water. Now, this is no small task because these are quite large jars. Now I want to get something that I hid back here earlier. This is a gallon of water. We can assume pretty safely that there was a hundred and fifty of these inside of these jars by the time these guys were done. It was a lot of water. Okay, so if that helps visually, picture 150 of these stacked up for this miracle before it takes place. So these guys are probably sweating, working away, getting all of this water together. Then Jesus, without any taste testing or explanation, sends the servants off to the head of the entire celebration. The Holman translation that we we read this morning says the chief servant. That doesn't really accurately picture what we're trying to say here. The most important guy at the wedding outside of the family is this guy that he's taking this wine to. But apparently, without protest, they obey, and they the water turns into wine as they're on their way or somewhere in the process, and it's not just wine, it's very good wine. And the party then goes on without further incident. So, can Jesus do miracles? This this story says yes, absolutely. Jesus can do miracles. We see it here, we'll see it again, and we'll see it again, and we'll see it again. Jesus can do miracles. We have to believe that. We have to see that, believe that it's true and it's truth from God's word. But why? Why does Jesus do miracles? Now I could give you a pat answer and just say, well, Jesus does miracles because he's God. That would be true, but it's not very helpful. Jesus does miracles to prove that he is God, to back up the claims that he and others make about himself. John already has made several claims that Jesus is the Son of God. Later on in John, Jesus himself says the same thing. He says, I am the Son of God. There's no way to God except through me. And Jesus then backs these statements up, these truths up, by proving it with his actions, by supernatural acts of power that cannot be explained by any other means than by believing that it's an act of God. That's a good thing because in our world and in our culture, we like proofs. We like things that show us that things are real. For example, we say things like, talk is cheap, put your money where your mouth is, prove it. Like these are all phrases that we use, right? Because we like to see that things are really backed up and in a very secure way. Remember, Jesus is not insecure, but in a very secure way, he is showing us that he is not like us. Even though he may seem ordinary amongst the crowd, like we talked about a few weeks ago, he is extraordinary. He's the Son of God, the most powerful being in the universe. Now, John calls these miracles, these proofs, signs. That's the term that he uses. And we see that in verse 11. He he uses this word signs. And uh God uses these signs to point us to the fact that he is actually divine. D.A. Carson says this about this word signs. John prefers the simple word signs. Jesus' miracles are never simply naked displays of power, still less neat chunk conjuring tricks to impress the masses, but signs, significant displays of power that point beyond themselves to deeper realities that could be perceived with the eyes of faith. Jesus isn't about just going about and being like, hey guys, check this out. I can do this. It's not just these displays of raw power. Could he have done that? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, he I mean, in all sense, think about it. He could have gone, hey, check this out. I'm gonna move this tree over here. Like he could do that. That's not beyond the scope of what he could do. He could move a mountain if he wanted to. And yet what he does is very intentional and purposeful. And as we continue to look into this passage, you're gonna see that come out a little bit more. So back to our our question that we're going along with here. Why does Jesus do this particular why does Jesus do miracles? Sorry. He does miracles as signs to point us to his glory. The reason I say that is because of verse 11. Verse 11 says this. Jesus performed this first sign in Cana of Galilee. He displayed his glory. Another way that we could say that is he manifested his glory. These words remind us, hark back to John chapter 1 14. That again is the scripture that says the word became flesh and took up resonance. Among us, and we observed his glory. We saw his glory in person. We saw it manifested. Now, what is glory? That's a word that we throw around in church a lot, right? I'm saying that the purpose of miracles is Jesus, is God's glory. The miracles of Jesus was for God's glory. But what is glory? Glory is the distinctive feature of the presence of God, often compared to power, weight, or brightness. Scripture affirms that God's glory is made known through his work of creation, his acts of intervention in history, and supremely in the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's the dictionary of Bible themes definition of glory. Glory is about the awe and wonder that we see when we see God for who he really is. When we're exposed to his power, when we see a miracle, when something incredible happens in front of us, that is God's glory, his weight. I like those words. Weight, brightness, power, like those are the glory of God. Hebrews 1.3 says this about God's glory and about Jesus. The Son, Jesus, is the radiance of God's glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word. Jesus is the exact expression of God, and he's a display of God's glory. When we look to Jesus, we see the glory of God. Remember what the angels said when Jesus arrived on the scene at his birth? Glory to God in the highest. Jesus is the exact representation of God's nature, and he shows us God's glory. So if miracles are about God's glory, why does Jesus do this particular miracle? Again, the snarky response may be to say, well, it's for his glory. But specifically, how is God glorified in this particular instance of changing water into wine? Two thoughts on this. Firstly, God is glorified through the symbolism. Jesus does this particular miracle so that he can be glorified in the symbolism of what happens. We're gifted with perspective here where we can look back and see a deeper truth, some deeper truths to what's going on. I'll give you a couple of quick layers to that, and there's way more that we're going to explore in these few minutes. Firstly, I told you that we would come back to Jesus' response to his mother. You remember that part where he says, you know, what is this concern to do with you and me, woman? And we talked about the use of that word. But after that, he says something interesting there in verse 4. He says, My hour has not yet come. My hour. This is some translations say my time. My time, my hour. This is a reference that is the first of these in John, but it's the establishment of a reoccurring theme. We're going to hear this phrase throughout John. And it's interesting to note that up to John chapter 12, it's always his hour or my hour has not yet come. Like that's the way the phrase goes. But after John 12, it becomes my hour has come. And we see Jesus very intently working his way towards Jerusalem and towards the cross. Really interesting to note. So he says, My hour is not yet come. And we can believe because of this and the reoccurring references that what he's talking specifically about is his glorification through his death and resurrection. When he says to his mom, hey, my hour has not yet come, he's talking about, hey, I haven't yet died and been glorified through my resurrection. Now, if you think about that, that may seem like he's not even properly answering Mary, right? She's like, hey, we're out of wine, and he's like, hey, I haven't gone to Jerusalem to die and to be raised to life again. It's not really, you know, on the same level. It's an interesting response. But what I would say to you is there's a deep symbolism to what he's saying. He's saying these people here need more than wine. Yes, they're thirsty, yes, they're needy, but they actually need something more than wine. They need me. I'm the living water. If they come to me, they're never going to thirst again. And so there's this symbolism that's written into this. He's saying, I haven't yet died and been resurrected to life yet, but you've got to see that ultimately they don't need wine, they need me. Second layer of symbolism: the pots that were used for ceremonial cleansing, these large jars that were there. They were there for a primary purpose. That was to keep Jewish people ceremonially clean. They had all these traditions and things where they would wash in certain ways at certain times at certain, you know, gatherings and things to make themselves outwardly pure. To show God that inside they were intentional about being pure. They wanted to be pure before God, so outwardly they would do these things. Now it's interesting to note that Jesus fills these jars with water, which he then turns into wine. Now, think about the next reference to wine that we really see in the New Testament, in the in the narrative of John. It's Jesus at the Last Supper with a cup of wine. And what does he say about that cup of wine? He says, This is my blood poured out for you, for your cleansing, for your sins. And so what I'd point you to today is the symbolism that's here. These ceremonial jars were never going to make these people clean. What they needed was the wine, the blood of Jesus to make them permanently clean. We all need that. And this is the part where I really want to reinforce to you, if you're not clear what I'm talking about, the reality is that we are all separated from God. Every single one of us without Jesus is separated from God. There is sin that keeps us from God. And the only thing that can bring us back into right relationship with God is the cleansing blood of Jesus. Without that, we have no hope. Some of you wonder why did Jesus have to die? He had to die so that his blood could cleanse us from our unrighteousness. Without the shedding of blood, we and God are forever separated. With the shedding and the claiming of Jesus' blood in our life, we can be forever united with him. And that's a reality that I would point you towards today. If you're exploring faith, if you don't know what that means, investigate that. Plug into that area and examine what does it mean that you need Jesus' blood? Because that's what makes us right before God. The third layer of symbolism I point you towards today is this. Think about what we as Christians are called collectively. We are called the church, which is also referred to in the New Testament as the bride of Christ. We are the bride that is presented to the groom, right? And much in the same way, this water was transformed and presented to the groom. Miraculously transformed. We are miraculously transformed into being the church and we are presented to the groom. It's really cool to think about that. And as we think about this miraculous transformation that happens when we ask Jesus to cleanse our lives, I just point you towards the fact that that is the biggest miracle that can ever, ever, ever happen. The miracle of salvation. Some people out there believe that Jesus doesn't do, God doesn't do miraculous healings or miraculous things anymore. And I would say, have you experienced salvation? Because that is the greatest miracle that can ever take place. The miracle of salvation moves us and our eternal destiny. Even if somebody was raised from death to life again, ultimately they're going to die again. Like Lazarus. We're going to talk about him eventually. He's raised to life again by Jesus, but then he dies again. What salvation does is it changes our eternal destiny. So those are just a few quick layers of symbolism. God is glorified in the symbolism. As we think about that, I'm like, wow, how incredible is that? God is glorified in that. But God is also glorified in the belief of the disciple. The second way that we see that God is specifically glorified in this act of changing water into wine is in the belief of the disciples. If we go back to verse 11, I left off the last part of that on purpose. It says this. We're not led to believe that everybody at the wedding was like, whoa, this guy's the Messiah. Nobody really knew what had happened except for the disciples and these servants. And it tells us that the disciples saw it and they believed. And I just encourage you that we too can see this and we can believe. John 20, verse 30, says this. This is way later on in John, by the way. We will eventually get there to John 20. But John 20, verse 30 says this. Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But hear this. But these are written, including the water into wine, so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in his name. God is glorified in our belief in him. He's glorified even today when we read this account and this story, and we're like, yes, that's true. He's the Messiah, He's the miracle worker, and I believe in Him. So do we need to see amazing signs for ourselves to believe? I've definitely met people and heard stories of people who have had crazy things happen that have led them to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. Like you hear stories of crazy things happening, you know, like people experiencing these miraculous things. But it's interesting to note that we don't have to have these crazy signs to believe. We can look to the Word of God. We can look to His working and His Holy Spirit working in our lives. And John 20 talks about this in verse 29. Previous to the verse that we just read, there's Thomas who is doubting whether Jesus has even come back to life. And Jesus says to him, Because you have seen me, you have believed. Those who believe without seeing are blessed. And so I'd encourage you, let's believe today. Even if you don't feel like there's been some crazy moment where you had like a hand writing on the wall or some crazy dream, or you know, some supernatural experience, we can still believe that this is absolutely a hundred percent true. And when that happens, when our heart is transformed, that is the greatest miracle that can happen. So does Jesus still miracle do miracles today? Well, I've kind of answered that already. But I do want to point you, rather than just to my thoughts, to a beautiful little sentence that's found in Hebrews chapter 13, verse 8. Hebrews chapter 13, verse 8 says this Jesus Christ, the guy we're talking about, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Isn't that an awesome promise? Jesus, the miracle worker, the Messiah, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is still alive. He is still doing miracles today. He transcends the natural, he is supernatural, and he created the world. In the Old Testament, we see God doing miracles. Throughout the life of Jesus, we see miraculous things. Throughout the early church, we see miraculous things. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Yes, as Christians, we must believe that Jesus is still at work, and if we do not believe that, our faith is absolutely powerless. The legs are cut out from underneath our faith if we don't believe that Jesus is still alive and still doing miracles. So as we've been talking today, my hope is that your view of Jesus has been increasing. As we've kind of asked these questions, as we've worked our way through this text, just like our view did that day on the clifftop, as we worked our way down from the parking area, not that it was much of a parking area, but our way down from there to the cliff out onto the pinnacle, our view increased. My hope is that your view of Jesus would increase. And as your view of him has been growing, my hope is that your love for him has been expanding also. That you wouldn't just get a better view of him, that your love for him would expand. Now, I'll admit, I'm a sucker for a good love story. Back in high school, I uh I had a required reading. It was, I can't remember if it was 11th or 12th grade, but I had a required reading to read Pride and Prejudice. And uh I remember getting the book and being like, I am not reading this. I'm gonna maybe skim through a few bits of it. I might try and watch a movie if there is one, you know, like this is my thought. And I remember my English teacher coming to me specifically and saying, Hey, I think you actually would really like this story. I was like, okay, I'll I'll read a little bit and see how it goes. I read a little bit and a little bit more until finally I got to the last page. And I read that whole way through that book. And part of the reason that I read through that book is because of the love story that's there. For those of you unfamiliar, Elizabeth or Lizzie Bennett, the main character, has this view of the other main character, Mr. Darcy, that he is pompous, that he is pretentious, and she doesn't like him at all. She's very prejudiced. She has this view of who he is. And he comes to her and he proposes. He says, Hey, I want to marry you, against my better judgment. Not a very good proposal, by the way. And uh anyway, the reason he says against my better judgment is because there's several things in her life that mean that he shouldn't be looking to her as a suitable life partner. And so it's interesting to note this moment because she gets enraged. She's like, you know, who are you? How dare you, you know, like, and she's like, I would never ever marry you. And so they kind of part ways, but that is the beautiful part of that story, because it's the breaking moment. Because every part from that part on, her picture of Mr. Darcy is completely deconstructed. All the things that she believed were true about him are pulled apart, and she starts to recreate an accurate true view of who he is. She sees that he is kind. She sees that he is generous, that he is caring, that he is loving, that he is courageous, and she starts to put this picture together of who he really is, and as that happens, her love for him swells. Her heart is completely changed. And my hope is that today our head isn't just informed about some miracles where we're like, okay, that's how a Jewish wedding was, and wow, that is a lot of gallons of water. Wow. You know, like our minds aren't just filled with knowledge, but rather our hearts would be swelling with love for Jesus. Because as we look to this story today, we're reminded, as we look at him accurately, that he is the Messiah who is able to work miracles both then and now for his glory. We're reminded of the truth that he is the Messiah and the miracle worker. And I want to ask you, do you believe that today? Do you believe that he's the Messiah, the Savior of the world? If not, what would it take for you to take a step of faith today? Could I encourage you in that? Later on, find me. Let's talk about what that means. Talk with the person who drug you along to church today. I'd encourage you, if you're not sure of what that means, figure it out. That Jesus is the Messiah and He's still a miracle worker. I would encourage you, plug into that today. If you do believe this, how are these realities, again, that Jesus is the Messiah and He's a miracle worker impacting your life today? Think practically. How is the fact that he's a miracle worker and a miracle-working messiah affecting your marriage? Your singleness, your parenting, your neighboring, your workplace, your wounding, the things from your past that you can't let go. If he is the Messiah, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, if he is able to change the substance of water into wine, what does that mean for you in a real sense today? Think about that, dwell on that. If he is a miracle worker, are you believing that and acting like you believe that today? I could spend some time here this morning pointing to certain people in the room. I'm not going to do this, by the way. But I could I could spend some time pointing to people in the room and telling you stories where I have seen Jesus as the Messiah and the miracle worker in people's lives. I could tell you stories of marriage, marriages that I've seen restored, work situations, past woundings, things where I've seen miracles of not just salvation, but changed circumstances, changed hearts, changed physical things, answered prayers. We all need Jesus to be our miracle worker and messiah. So please embrace this picture of who he really is today and grow in your love for him. May our belief in him and our love of him increase today. Let me pray for us. God, we just say together today that we need to believe that you are our Messiah, our Savior. But we also need to believe that you are powerful and able to work miracles, both in a physical sense, an emotional sense, and a spiritual sense. That's the God that we believe, and we need to believe that you are. But God, we struggle too sometimes. We're like that man who is in front of you who said, I believe, but help my unbelief. And so, whatever areas of unbelief that we have today, God, I pray that you would, by your Holy Spirit, unearth those. God, just just make those kind of pop up to the top of our hearts this morning so that we would sense what they are. And God, even in these next few moments, would you help us to say, God, may I believe, help me believe, that you are the Messiah, the miracle worker of this area or these areas in my life. God, we thank you that that's who you are. Help us not to sell ourselves short to believing anything less. Thank you. Amen.