A Time of Opening
We give thanks to the Lord for the time He allows us, in His grace and in His mercy. These are not merely times for preaching or merely times for teaching; in reality, they are times of opening from the throne of God, so that each one of us may expose ourselves to the power of the Word and to the power of the Spirit of God. The purpose is to understand and to know what God wants from each of our lives.
The life of faith does not consist of what we are able to do. It consists of what we do with what God wants us to do for Him. The difference is substantial, because many times we end up doing things we believe are for God, but that He never told us to do. And this does not mean we must hear an audible voice or receive a direct message saying, “Do this or do that.” That is not what this is about. Even without an audible voice and without a direct message, we know exactly what He wants us to do. That is why this is a time of opening from the throne of God: so that, by the power of the Word and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we may understand and know what God wants from each of our lives.
The Gospel of John and the Seven Signs
Beginning with this teaching, we will be studying the Gospel of John. This Gospel is different from the other three, because John the apostle, the brother of James, writes by setting forth seven great lessons that he himself defines as signs. In fact, the apostle uses the word sign seventeen times in his book, which helps us understand how important the teaching of God’s signs is to him.
The first of these is found in chapter 2: the moment when Jesus the Christ turns water into wine at the wedding in Cana. It is an account well known among the people of God. Let us read it:
“On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, ‘They have no wine.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Whatever He says to you, do it.’ Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty to thirty gallons apiece. Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the waterpots with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. And He said to them, ‘Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.’ And they took it. When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, ‘Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!’” (John 2:1-10, NKJV)
These verses correspond to the first sign that the apostle John describes as part of the work of Jesus on the earth. It is important to emphasize that John acknowledges that Jesus did a great many works. Near the end of his Gospel, the apostle himself says that if everything Jesus did were written down, the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. John knows that Jesus worked from the beginning of His ministry to its end, and surely before it began as well, because Mary knows what He is capable of; that is why she tells the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.”
Yet even though John acknowledges that Jesus performed many miracles, much work, many healings, many deliverances, and a great deal of activity in general, he understands that with these seven signs he presents, the message of the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven can be established. And that is how he presents his Gospel. Here lies the notable difference between the Gospel of John and the other three, known as the Synoptic Gospels: John does not present it as a narrative of events, but as seven great signs by which he establishes Jesus’ glory, His ministry, the Kingdom of God, and the Father’s message for all His people. It is what he describes in chapter 1: “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11, NKJV).
That is why we will present them as signs, just as the apostle presents them. And before this first sign, questions arise: What does it mean? What does it represent? What is the message it sets before each of us—men and women of faith, men and women of God, righteous men and women who in this present time are following the teachings of the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven?
The Three Scenes of the Account
In this first sign we find three clearly marked scenes. The first is in verse 3: “And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, ‘They have no wine.’” The second is in verse 6: “Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews.” And the third is in verses 9 and 10: the master of the feast tastes the water that has become wine, not knowing where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew, and he calls the bridegroom to tell him that every man sets out the good wine first and the inferior after, but that he has done the exact opposite.
Of these three scenes, which one stands out as the dominant one? I believe we would all automatically agree that it is the moment when the master of the feast tells the bridegroom that he has kept the good wine until now. Why? Because that is the moment when it is discovered that this wedding is going to go on and on; it is the work itself, the visible work—though not visible to everyone. That is how we have always seen John 2:1-11: what we remember most is the instant when the master of the feast discovers that six waterpots of water have been turned into wine.
But let me tell you, that is not the dominant element. Keep in mind that God does nothing without a reason, without a cause, without a purpose. Although the work is great and visible, it is not the dominant part. Which is, then? Verse 3. It is important that we know how to structure the account this way, because otherwise we will not understand the message this sign presents to us. We will see it only as a miracle, as something impressive, striking, and never done before, just as those who were there saw it. But this is not only about miracles; it is about teaching, about purpose, about fulfillment, about a reason for which this work is being established.
“They Have No Wine”: The Fulfillment of a Prophetic Word
The dominant element is, then, verse 3: “And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, ‘They have no wine.’” Keep in mind that this is a Jewish feast. This is not just another wedding. In this context, a wedding does not represent the beginning of a family as we define it in the West, but the fulfillment of a prophetic work. This is the piece we have been missing in order to understand this passage. The account does, indeed, describe a wedding, but we cannot see it as the beginning of a marriage and a family in the Western sense: it is the fulfillment of a prophetic work. When the apostle Paul writes to the Ephesians about marriage, he identifies it as a prophetic representation of the union of Christ and the Church, and he declares, by the Spirit of God, that he is speaking concerning the Church in her relationship with Christ Jesus.
So what did it mean that the wine had run out at a wedding, practically before the wedding had fully run its course? It meant failure. But not an individual failure—not the failure of the bridegroom and the bride who were beginning their life together—but a collective failure: failure in the sense of a people. Wine could run out at any other event, but never at a wedding. Why? Because it represented the nonfulfillment of a word that God had given precisely for the time when the people were taken into captivity. To understand this, we must go to the Old Testament, to the book of the prophet Jeremiah, beginning in chapter 29:
“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished.” (Jeremiah 29:4-6, NKJV)
This is not a one-time prophetic message. It runs through practically the entire book of Jeremiah and through other books as well, but I have taken Jeremiah because it is the one that emphasizes this most, precisely because it was in that time that the people were carried captive to Babylon. Anyone could have said: this is the end of a people, this is the greatest disaster. Yet God gave them a word. In chapter 30 we read:
“Then out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of those who make merry; I will multiply them, and they shall not diminish; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.” (Jeremiah 30:19, NKJV)
And the text in chapter 33, in the same book, is far more emphatic and forceful than the other two:
“The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: ‘Praise the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good, for His mercy endures forever’—and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first,” says the LORD. (Jeremiah 33:11, NKJV)
Do we understand now? For the wine to run out at a Jewish wedding was the greatest disaster that could occur within the nation of Israel. It did not affect only one family; it affected an entire people. Why? Because God had established, through the prophet Jeremiah, that His blessing rested upon a wedding: at the moment a home was begun, at the moment a family was begun, God was present there, blessing, as part of a prophetic word delivered many years earlier. Therefore, for the wine to be finished represented the miscarriage of a prophetic word.
Jeremiah was not the only one who prophesied about this. Isaiah and Ezekiel did as well, and there are others who prophesied about it. Let us read in Isaiah:
“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; the voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.” (Isaiah 65:17-19, NKJV)
How do you think the guests at the wedding in Cana felt at that moment when they realized the wine was gone? There was sadness and worry. The wedding had not ended; it was still in progress, and yet there was no wine. That voice of weeping and crying of which verse 19 speaks was practically lying in wait—not for one family, but for a people as a whole.
That is why we have so often focused only on the moment of the miracle: six waterpots, each holding, the writer tells us, two or three measures—the NKJV renders this as twenty to thirty gallons. If we multiply three measures by each waterpot, and by six waterpots, that comes to eighteen measures of the best wine that had existed up to that moment. It is a great miracle; we are not denying that. But we cannot concentrate on the work in itself. We have to see the cause for which God did it. And the purpose was not merely to meet, at that moment, the need of a family caught in an embarrassing situation. His Word was at stake. At stake was the word that God had given to an entire people—not to one family—that the voice of weeping and the voice of crying would never again be heard, and along with it the promise that He Himself would rejoice with Jerusalem.
There are other texts that reveal how God operates. In Isaiah 55 we read:
“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11, NKJV)
And in Ezekiel:
“I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bear young; I will make you inhabited as in your former times, and do better for you than at your beginnings. Then you shall know that I am the LORD.” (Ezekiel 36:11, NKJV)
Here, then, is the reason this miraculous work was performed, this wonder, this great sign, as the apostle John defines it: a word that God had given to an entire nation and that He could not let fall to the ground. This is not an isolated miracle or an isolated marvel; Jesus is responding to a word that had been declared and established as a promise—not for one family, but for an entire people.
This is how God operates: by His Word. That is why it is so important for each of us to know the Word of God. Many times, through ignorance of the Word and of the promises God has given, many righteous men and women are not enjoying the promise that has been given to every man and every woman who trusts in the Lord. This is the first reason Jesus the Christ turned the water into wine.
The Waterpots: The Danger of Turning What Worked into Ritual
Let us return to John 2 and look at verse 6: “Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty to thirty gallons apiece.” Why the waterpots? The account tells us that the wine ran out, which means they had containers for wine, and surely of considerable size. It is not that they never had wine: they had it, but it ran out. The question is: why did Jesus have to use waterpots? Why did He not use the same vessels in which the wine had been kept?
The answer is simple, and very important. The end of verse 6 says: “according to the manner of purification of the Jews.” Those waterpots had an exclusive and particular use. They were not ordinary jars: they held water, but not just any water—it was the water used for the rite of purification. In the Old Testament we find the situations in which a man or a woman became defiled: by touching a dead body, by touching a dead animal, by the periods of menstruation in the case of women, and even by the birth of children. There are many examples. The law of Moses established that when these situations occurred, the person had to be purified, and the purification had to be done with water alone; it was the only way. The six waterpots, therefore, were not for storing just any water, but water used exclusively for times of purification from the defilements people had incurred.
What am I saying? That when the servants took the waterpots and began moving about with them, the people did not see ordinary jars: they saw purification waterpots. And they wondered: a purification at a wedding? Who is going to be purified? The waterpots were not just containers for holding water; they were bound to the rite of purification. So when all the guests saw the movement—which was plain to everyone—the only thing they could see was an act of purification.
Where does this lead us? To understand that many times man’s tendency is to assign a particular meaning to a specific element. Let me explain with examples.
The Ark in the Battle
In the first book of Samuel, chapter 4, we find the moment when the Philistines took the ark of God. It is an account I believe we all know. The people of Israel were in battle against the Philistines, the ark had been brought to the battlefield, and the Philistines seized it and carried it off. Why did the Israelites bring it into the battle? Because they remembered that when they conquered Jericho, the ark had gone around the city, and they were impressed by the fall of the walls. They assigned to the ark a value that was, to a certain degree, mystical: the value of an amulet. They wanted, then, to repeat the same effect. But the ark was not supposed to go into a battle; it is not stipulated anywhere in the law of Moses. They wanted to reenact the moment at Jericho, and so they brought the ark into the battle against the Philistines.
The Bronze Serpent
In the book of Numbers, chapter 21, verses 4 through 9, we find the moment when the fiery serpents, as the text calls them, were biting the children of Israel and the people were dying. God told Moses to lift up on a pole the image of a serpent made of metal, and that anyone bitten by this kind of serpent, which were very swift, would be healed if he looked at the metal serpent. But let us see what the second book of Kings says, years later, about a king:
“He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan.” (2 Kings 18:4, NKJV)
Pay attention to this: until those days they burned incense to it. When Moses raised the bronze serpent, he never said they were to burn incense to it. But over time they began to assign it an idolatrous value and started burning incense to it. They made a cult out of the metal serpent.
Gideon’s Ephod
One more example. In the book of Judges, chapter 8, we find the case of Gideon, who defeated the Midianites who for a long time had been robbing them of everything they sowed. Verse 27 says:
“Then Gideon made it into an ephod and set it up in his city, Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and to his house.” (Judges 8:27, NKJV)
The ephod was a kind of breastplate worn only by the priests. Gideon was not a priest, but he assigned to this ephod a value that was, once again, mystical, and the whole people went after it in an idolatrous activity and practice.
The Tendency to Make Rituals of What Worked
What is all this showing us? That the tendency of man and woman is to make rituals of everything that worked well for us. If something turned out well, if something brought us a benefit, if an object, or even an action, meant an achievement for us, we begin to repeat the same example or to reproduce the same objects, believing that the value lies in the object or in the exercise we are carrying out. That is a ritual.
Now we can answer the question: why did Jesus not use other vessels to turn the water into wine? Why did He have to use the six waterpots of the Jews’ rite of purification? Precisely because He was breaking a concept that had until then become a ritual for an entire nation, not for one family. Man of God, woman of God: we cannot attach value to something or someone—because there are cases in which that something represents someone—since then we enter into an idolatrous ritual, and this prevents us from seeing what God is doing in our midst. Jesus used the waterpots precisely to break a conception that had taken such root among the people that the only thing they could see in them was a rite of purification; He used them to break the tendency to think that this works only for this, that this serves only this one action.
God works, and many times we cannot see His work—not because God has blinded us, nor because He does not want us to see His work, but because we are so accustomed to identifying an action or an object with the one meaning that element has that we cannot see that it could be used for some other benefit. This leads us to understand why Jesus used the waterpots of the ritual of purification to turn the water into wine.
The Good Wine Last: Custom and the Master of the Feast’s Astonishment
We come to the third scene, that of the water turned into wine itself. Verses 9 and 10 say that the master of the feast tasted the water that was made wine, not knowing where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew, and he called the bridegroom to say to him: “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!” (John 2:10, NKJV). Other versions, instead of “well drunk,” say “drunk” or “satisfied.”
Why this custom of serving the good wine first and then one of lesser quality? And let us understand that this was not just the practice of this one family: it was the way of an entire people. Everyone acted the same way: at the beginning of the wedding the best wine was served, the one that could be understood to be of the best quality, and later it was exchanged for one of lesser quality. There were two reasons.
The first was cost control, budget control: a first wine was served to impress, and when the palate had grown accustomed, it was switched and the palate no longer detected the difference. The second reason was to signal that the wedding was coming to an end. When the first wine was taken away and a wine of lesser quality was served, everyone understood that the wedding was ending. It was a way of saying that the feast was about to conclude.
Here, then, we have the three scenes: the problem itself, in verse 3, when the wine ran short and gave out before its time; the use of the six waterpots; and the master of the feast’s declaration: every man serves the good wine first, but you have done the exact opposite. Why the master of the feast’s astonishment? Because he understood that the people were no longer going to interpret things as they did when a wine of lesser quality was served. The feast was not ending; what the people were going to understand now was that it was only beginning. This meant the feast was going to go on. We do not know how long, because there were eighteen measures contained in those waterpots. The feast was going to go on, and they would not be able to control it.
The Sign of the Kingdom: Seven Foundations
We have seen the three scenes. What remains is to understand what this first sign is a sign of. John presents his Gospel in seven great signs; this is the first. What message does it set before us? This is the sign of the Kingdom. When we see this sign, it means the Kingdom has been established: the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God. This is quite striking and quite powerful. Let us return to the account to identify how to recognize the sign of the Kingdom.
1. The Kingdom Is Established by the Fulfillment of a Prophetic Word
That is why we began with the first scene, in verse 3: “They have no wine.” This is terrible. It is a failure, but not an individual failure. It is not only this family that is being affected; it is an entire nation. Why? Because God had spoken prophetically through the prophet Jeremiah, through the prophet Isaiah, and through the prophet Ezekiel, saying that He would rejoice together with Jerusalem in the midst of His people, in the midst of their activities.
There is a prophetic word. The establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven includes a prophetic word, and this is the important part we must highlight, because many times, sadly, we do not have a prophetic word by which to move. What is more, many of us do not even have a written word by which to move. The gospel being proclaimed today is a gospel that lacks the Word. We should not even call it the gospel, because the Gospel is not merely speaking about Jesus. The Gospel consists of understanding that there is a Word that God has established: “So shall My word be… it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please” (Isaiah 55:11, NKJV). The Kingdom of Heaven is established through a prophetic word.
That is why it is vital that we understand this sign for the faith experience of every man and woman of faith. We need the fulfillment of a prophetic word that tells us we are doing, fulfilling, and activating the Kingdom of God in the place where He has established us.
2. The Kingdom of Heaven Is Not Founded on Rituals
We come to the case of the waterpots used for the Jews’ rite of purification. The servants took the six waterpots, and surely more than one of them did so with some fear, because they knew these were for exclusive use, and now they were at a feast, a wedding feast, where these items were not supposed to be taken up at that moment. The Kingdom of Heaven is not founded on rituals, and this is a fundamental point if we are to move within the atmosphere of faith. A man or woman of faith who is founded on rituals cannot grow in faith. A man of God or a woman of God who practices and carries out rituals cannot grow in faith.
Jesus deliberately orders the servants to take those six waterpots, precisely because He is establishing a sign. Which one? The sign of the Kingdom. The Kingdom is being established. That is why He tells Mary that His hour has not yet come, yet He begins by establishing the Kingdom of Heaven. In order to establish it, each one of us must break the rituals—the religious rituals, those we have grown accustomed to, those that at one time worked for us. “It’s just that this has worked for me: every time I sing this song, every time I play this music, every time I offer this praise, I have always seen results.” A man or woman of faith cannot live by rituals, nor grow by them; what is strengthened in that person is the rituals he is accustomed to, but not faith.
This is the fundamental point we have to understand: we cannot feed rituals; we have to break them. We have to step out of the routine, out of everything that has worked for us and been effective for us in the past. How many men repeat today the methods they saw work for others? How many men and women are repeating a methodology today simply because it worked for so-and-so? That is not the Kingdom of God; the Kingdom of God is not administered this way. How many of us feel we have to wear a particular garment, a robe or a gown, because if we do not wear it we feel exposed, as if we were naked, as if we were not establishing the message of the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven? How many of us feel the need for a tie or a suit, because if we do not wear it we feel we are not establishing the work of the Kingdom? The life of faith is not cultivated by rituals.
3. In the Kingdom of Heaven There Is a Different Order
Let us move to the moment when the master of the feast says: every man serves the good wine first, but you have done the exact opposite. In the Kingdom of Heaven there is a different order. It is not established by tradition, it is not established by denomination, it is not established by mission, it is not established by any element forged in classrooms or lecture halls. In the Kingdom of Heaven there is a different order.
The master of the feast was surprised because—think how many weddings he must have coordinated, how many he must have attended!—in this case he realized that an order had been broken, a traditional order, a protocol. Man of God, woman of God: you cannot walk in human protocols. We have to understand this, because all human protocols do is limit. They put limits on the work of God and do not allow the Spirit of God to move within our settings. This is a very important point.
4. Cost Is Not a Factor for Making Decisions in the Kingdom of God
Let me repeat it: in the Kingdom of God, cost is not a factor for making decisions. In the order of the world, they would say: let us serve the good wine first and then switch to one of lesser quality to control costs. Within the Kingdom of Heaven, cost control is not a factor in decision-making. When God calls a man, when God calls a woman, God provides so that this man and this woman may fulfill what they were called to do.
Many have entered seasons of scarcity, not so much because it is an attack of the enemy, but above all because they have not understood the Body of Christ. Abraham understood this perfectly when Isaac, his son, said to him: “Father, we have the fire, we have the wood, we have everything, but we lack the lamb.” And Abraham clearly told him that on the mountain of God it would be provided. And Paul, by the Spirit of God, comes to state that the laborer is worthy of his wages. Therefore, cost is not a factor for making decisions within the Kingdom of Heaven. When God calls, when God commissions, when God establishes, God gives the provision so that what we have been commissioned to do can be completed.
5. In the Kingdom of Heaven We Go from Glory to Glory
The master of the feast said: “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!” But it was not the master of the feast who established this, nor was it the bridegroom; the bridegroom, surely, did not know what they were talking about. It was Jesus who established this order. Let us see what the Word says:
“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus the Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:57, NKJV)
“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.” (2 Corinthians 2:14, NKJV)
“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18, NKJV)
Pay attention: from glory to glory. “Every man sets out the good wine first… but you have done the exact opposite.” Who is that “you” who has done the exact opposite? Jesus. In the Kingdom of Heaven we go from glory to glory. We have not reached a maximum point after which there is nothing more in God. In God we will do mighty exploits, and if today we had a mighty exploit, tomorrow the same exploit is not supposed to be repeated; by the Spirit of God it has to be greater and different than the time before. The good wine is saved for later. But many of us have not understood the Kingdom of God; in fact, sadly, many of us are not living within the Kingdom of God. We have developed a consciousness of the church, of the local church, but we have not developed a consciousness of the Kingdom. Within the Kingdom of God we go from glory to glory, and God has saved the best wine for last.
6. In the Kingdom of Heaven We Live by the Impossible
What did it actually mean to turn water into wine? Can water be turned into wine? Can grapes be turned into wine? Yes; that is, in fact, the process: grapes are turned into wine. But water into wine, no. Why did Jesus do it? To establish that in the Kingdom of Heaven we live by the impossible. We do not live by the possible; we live by the impossible.
Has it not caught your attention that in many of the cases set forth in the Old Testament, they involve couples in which the woman was barren? For example, Abraham and Sarah; Rachel, who could not bear children; Hannah, the mother of Samuel; and there are other cases that repeat. Has it not caught your attention that this is repetitive? It repeats because God establishes that within the Kingdom of Heaven we live in the impossible. The impossible is simply the way of operating within the Kingdom. The Gospel of Luke says:
“The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” (Luke 18:27, NKJV)
7. The Sign Is Not for Everyone: It Is for Those Who Obey
Let us go back to John 2:5: “His mother said to the servants, ‘Whatever He says to you, do it.’” This sign is not for everyone. How can that be? Yes, just as you hear it: this sign is not for everyone. Is there a restriction? Yes, there is. The sign is only for those who obey, who do whatever He tells them.
Conclusion
We have seven points on which the Kingdom of Heaven is founded upon the earth. It is not about developing a consciousness of the local church, but about developing a consciousness of the Kingdom of Heaven upon the earth. Many of us have not developed that consciousness; many of us still do not live within the Kingdom of Heaven. That is why John presents this as the beginning of Jesus’ ministry: to establish, for anyone who wants to enter, that he must have these seven considerations. All of it is contained in a single account. If you accept them, you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
This first sign that the apostle John presents teaches us what it is to live within the Kingdom of Heaven. And the invitation stands open: there is no excluding restriction, if we are able to obey and if we are able to believe. Why? Because in chapter 1 John writes that He came to His own and His own did not receive Him; but listen now to verse 12:
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” (John 1:12, NKJV)
The invitation is for everyone, but only those of us who are willing to accept it will be able to live within the Kingdom of Heaven, because it is the terms of the Kingdom that govern anyone who wants to dwell in it.
Review Questions
1. The chapter maintains that the dominant element of the account is not the visible miracle but verse 3: “They have no wine.” Why did running out of wine at a Jewish wedding represent the nonfulfillment of a prophetic word for an entire people, and what does this teach us about the reason God does His works?
2. Jesus used the six waterpots of the rite of purification to break a conception that had taken root among the people. What rituals, methods, objects, or customs that once worked for you might be keeping you from seeing what God is doing in your midst today?3. Of the seven foundations of the Kingdom presented in this first sign, which one confronts you most at this moment in your life, and what does it mean for you to obey “whatever He says to you”?
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