A. The gospel of Christ declares that belief in Jesus is absolutely necessary for salvation.
1. Jesus Himself said, "...unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins" (John 8:24).
2. Again, He said, "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned" (Mark 16:16).
3. In Romans 10:8-10, Paul wrote,
8But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" -- that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
B. Therefore, anything that increases our belief in Jesus leads us to salvation, and the miracles of Jesus do just that.
1. The very purpose of the miracles of Jesus was to prove to men that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. To this point, Peter described Him to the Jews as "Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know" (Acts 2:22).
2. We were not present to witness the miracles of Jesus, but we have eyewitness accounts from those who saw Him, and these accounts are just as effective to attest Him to us. Notice John 20:30-31:
30Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.
C. Presently, let us begin a study of some of the miracles of Jesus with the purpose of increasing our faith in the Son of God, our Savior.
II. GRASPING MIRACLES
A. Through the ages and especially now, men have depicted wonderful and supernatural events through fiction.
1. From ancient mythology to modern science fiction, the imaginations of men have created fantasies about magic, sorcery, and other fictional, supernatural events.
2. Modern technology is used to create video effects in movies and television of naturally impossible events that look very realistic and believable.
B. However, the miracles of the Bible are not fictional.
1. The advent of movie and television characters doing seemingly miraculous deeds may have robbed us of our ability to fully grasp the wonder of Bible miracles.
2. When Jesus, His apostles, and other disciples performed miracles, they were doing genuinely supernatural deeds with no trickery. The records of these events are not from the imaginations of men, and we must separate our understanding of the Bible's miracles from the pretend worlds of "Harry Potter," "Star Wars," and other fictions.
3. Truly, Jesus was a real man in flesh in blood who did extraordinary, supernatural deeds in this world. His works were mighty displays of the power of God.
III. THE BEGINNING OF HIS SIGNS
A. The Lord's miracle of turning water into wine at Cana of Galilee is a natural starting point for this study because it is the "beginning of His signs."
1. Concerning this miracle, John 2:11 says,
This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.
2. With this first miracle, we see the two general effects intended by the Lord through His signs.
a. He "manifested His glory," which means that He revealed His true glorious nature (see John 17:5) through His works. Later, He said in John 5:36,
"But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish -- the very works that I do -- testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me."
b. As a result of this miracle, "His disciples believed in Him." They could see that Jesus was endowed with divine power, and this caused them to believe in Him.
B. This is only the beginning of His signs, for He did more in His short time on earth than could ever be written.
1. John wrote, "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written" (John 21:25).
2. Men have different opinions about how many separate miracles of Jesus are recorded in the Bible because there is overlap in the four gospel accounts. Some say thirty-seven, other say forty-five, and still others say something else.
3. Regardless, we know that the Scriptures record only a sample of His miracles, and the purpose of these records is to produce belief in us rather than to give an exhaustive history of Christ's works (John 20:30-31, see above).
IV. TURNING WATER TO WINE AT CANA
A. The "beginning of His signs" happened at a wedding feast in Cana of Galilee (John 2:1-2).
1. Cana was only a few miles directly north of Jesus' hometown of Nazareth. Most of the recorded miracles of Jesus happened in Galilee.
2. Jesus, His mother, and His disciples were all present for this event.
B. Jesus performed this miracle at the prompting of His mother (John 2:3-5).
1. Mary brought the lack of wine at the wedding to Christ's attention. It is evident that she had a miracle in mind because of His response to her in verse 4 and her response in verse 5.
2. Notice Mary's confidence in her Son's power. More than anyone else, she knew who He was.
C. The Lord effortlessly turned water into wine (John 2:6-10).
1. At Christ's command, the servants filled six water pots with each containing twenty to thirty gallons. The volume of water that became wine makes the miracle even more impressive.
2. The headwaiter did not know that Jesus had made the wine. When he tasted it, he chided the bridegroom for serving the "good wine" after the "poorer" wine.
D. Consider a few points from this account.
1. The term "good wine" refers to the taste and not the alcohol content, which is evident from the context.
a. Any effort to turn this event in an implicit endorsement of alcohol use or drunkenness by the Lord is an abuse of this passage.
b. The Scriptures clearly teach against drunkenness (Prov. 20:1; Luke 21:34; Rom. 13:13; 1Cor. 5:11; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:18; 1Pet. 4:3), and Jesus certainly would not have facilitated sinful behavior.
2. Do not allow any debate about wine and alcohol from this passage overshadow its main message.
a. Jesus performed an amazing miracle, which manifested His glory and caused His disciples to believe in Him.
b. This miracle still has the same effects on us today. If we will carefully consider what the Lord did, then our faith in Him will be increased.
c. This miracle demonstrates Christ's power over the physical world. He is the Creator of all things in the world (John 1:1-3), and it was not at all difficult for Him to alter the physical composition of the water so that it became wine.
V. CONCLUSION
A. With this miracle of turning the water into wine, the world began to learn what Mary the mother of Jesus already knew, which is that He is the Christ, the Son of God.
B. As noted before, this was only the beginning of the Lord's signs. Many other signs followed, and these will be the subject of future studies in this series.
