[Machine transcription]
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father,
from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.
Brothers and sisters,
you’re looking at that gospel reading,
the miracle of changing water to wine for our text.
Please be seated.
There was a picture going around the Internet
of a grocery store wine aisle,
but the sign that was advertising
what’s in the aisle said,
water and the caption was well Jesus did it again this miracle of Jesus turning
water into wine is very familiar his first recorded miracle in fact and
Lutherans jokingly loved this miracle because of Jesus’s use of an adult
beverage now the term miracle it gets used in a lot of different ways and
And technically, miracles are God intervening in nature.
But here’s the definition I want to use.
A miracle is God changing things.
That’s what I want to focus on.
Not the water and wine part of the miracle so much, but the change.
Because God changes things in miracles.
Think about Jesus’ miracles, okay?
He changed things in them.
Water to wine, storms to calm,
sickness to healing,
demon-possessed people to freedom,
and even death to life.
Yes, they’re glorious and powerful,
but more so, miracles change things.
They aren’t just for God’s glory,
or power, or for Jesus to show off,
or for entertainment.
They’re not magic.
Miracles change things.
And not change just for the sake of change,
but change for our benefit.
Jesus does miracles to change things
for our benefit.
Even at this wedding, in the Gospel, there was benefit.
Wedding receptions back then lasted for a week to run out of wine.
Early on in that week was a major social blunder, okay?
It was shameful to the couple and to the master of the feast to run out of wine.
but Jesus changed things. He saved them from shame. He saved the celebration.
Back then, wine was a symbol of joy and abundance, so Jesus brought the party,
the master of the feast, and the couple great joy by changing water into wine.
See, Jesus kept the party alive.
You could say Jesus was a party animal.
Again, the definition of miracle that we’re using is God changing things, including you.
God changes you.
Sometimes those changes that God does in your life come over a period of time, like God
revealing to you new biblical truths, or gradually steering you and correcting behaviors of yours
that are against His will and maybe even harmful to you or to somebody else.
Over a period of time, God molds you and forms you to change you, but sometimes, sometimes
there’s instant change, miraculous change. Man, wouldn’t some instant
miraculous change in this world be great? And wouldn’t it be great too for instant
and miraculous change in our life? Because life so often seems full of storms and
sickness and shame and death we we all we all have things that we’d like God to
change in us for UT students and any other students I would suppose it’s true
the thing that they’d like to have changed in them is they they’d like to
have their grades change sometimes they like their tuition change they like
their schedules changed, their roommates changed.
But for non-students, the storms and sickness of things like financial troubles, bad employment
situations, rocky relationships, health difficulties, worry about the future, things we’d like
changed.
and then there’s an even bigger thing that needs to change. I mean those
behaviors, those habits, those things that we say, do, or even think that are not
only wrong and harmful, they’re sinful and you need instant miraculous
change for your sin. Sin that causes storms and sickness in others and and in
you. Sin that causes shame. Sin that causes guilt. Sin that steals your joy
and stops the celebration in your life. You need instant miraculous change
Because, well, you know how bad your sins can be.
The storms that they may cause.
How sick they can make you feel.
How shameful they can be.
Maybe even making you feel dead and there.
There’s the biggest change that we need.
The stormiest, sickest, most shameful thing in humanity.
Death.
We need this death thing changed.
Oh, we humans, we try.
We try to change death.
We try to do miracles through cryogenics
or other things that prolong life
or try to cheat death,
but they don’t work.
And that’s because they don’t change
the root of the problem of death.
And that’s sin.
Sin destroys. Sin kills. Sin brings death. Romans chapter 6, maybe a familiar verse
that you’ve heard before, it says quite simply, the wages of sin is death. That’s
what we earn, for our sin is death. Death is the result of our sin, the consequence
the consequence of it, the wage of it.
Yeah, you and I need a miracle to change that.
To change sin and death.
And Jesus does it.
He does a miracle that brings instant,
miraculous change to our sin and death.
And it’s in a way that’s even more glorious
and powerful than all of His other miracles put together.
that instant miraculous change happened when Jesus died on the cross because it
changes things Jesus’s death on the cross was a miracle to benefit you to
instantly pay for your sin to instantly take away the punishment for your sin to
instantly forgive your sin and change you instantly. When Jesus was on the
cross just before he died one of the last things he said was he said it is
finished. The change was made, was done, it was accomplished and that change was
to take your storms and sickness, your sin, your shame, your guilt and even
Take even your death and change it.
This miracle was to change you.
Change you to a calm, healed, and living person.
A person forgiven of your sins.
A person that’s shameless, guilt-free,
that can have joy and celebration in life.
And talking about miracles,
miracles, they just get better because Christ’s resurrection from the dead.
A miracle for sure.
Also for our benefit to give us eternal life.
When Jesus walked out of His grave, we walked out of ours too.
a complete instant miraculous change in Christ’s death and resurrection. I want
you to hear some verses about this death and resurrection miracle and the changes
it makes. Galatians 2, I have been crucified with Christ it’s not longer I
who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh I live
by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” And also from
Romans 6, we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die
again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin
once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider
yourselves dead to sin and now alive to God in Christ Jesus and from 2nd
Corinthians if anyone is in Christ they are a new creation completely changed a
miracle that’s what the miracle of changing water into wine and really all
of Jesus’s miracles that’s what they pointed to was the sin and death changing
miracle of Jesus’s death and resurrection. It was all kind of like, all
his other miracles were kind of like warm-ups for this. I mean at Cana, when he
changed water into wine, the people were amazed and his disciples
believed in him. But Jesus could have been thinking, just you guys wait, just
you wait. I’m going to die and rise again for you. That’s the benefit of the
is a miracle for us.
Forgiveness and life.
You know, we can look at the cross
and look at the empty grave
and say, well, Jesus did it again.
It’s an ongoing benefit.
This miraculous change happens every day.
Because each time you confess your sin
and admit your need to change,
the miracle of forgiveness is given.
Each time you read or hear God’s Word or see it signed as well,
each time you do that,
and each time you receive the Lord’s Supper,
each time you pray,
each time Jesus shows up in your life,
He makes a miraculous change in you.
And each time, each time this happens,
you can say, well, Jesus did it again.
because that’s what Christianity is Jesus changing things changing storms
to calm sickness to healing guilt to forgiveness shame to joy and even death
to life Christ changing you or at least he wants to Jesus wants to change you
he wants you to know that miraculously instantly his life-changing grace mercy
and forgiveness are for you now if if you’ve got something that that needs
changing sinful thoughts words actions guilt or shame Jesus wants to change
that in you he wants to change it in that miracle of his death and
resurrection. Your life doesn’t have to be that way. It doesn’t have to be full
of shame and guilt. You don’t have to live in that. You don’t have to live in
the fear of death. You can live as a changed person. You can live as one
who’s been miraculously changed by Jesus and then changed by Him. You can then be
loving and forgiving of others and you can tell others about this miraculous
change that Jesus has for them. I’m willing to bet that you know people,
family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, enemies, people that are struggling with
life, struggling with storms, struggling with sickness, struggling with shame or
guilt and you know they need to be changed you know that Jesus can change
them miraculously we get to tell those people about that miracle of Jesus so
that they can know it too and Jesus can change them too again that’s what
Christianity is God changing things changing everything changing you for
your benefit may you always know the changing miracle of God’s love for you
to you in Christ.
Amen.
Now may the peace of God
which goes beyond all understanding
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
