Lessons from the Marriage at Cana
Teaching by Pastor. Olawale Perfect
Shall we pray?
Father we ask that you would speak to us tonight and cause our lives to be transformed by your word.
I pray that the voice of Olawale Perfect would not be heard but the voice of the Spirit would be heard expressly, loud and clear. That we might end up having direction and instructions.
In Jesus mighty name we have prayed. Amen..
I have been assigned to take a study on the wedding in Cana of Galilee.
Permit me to title this as “Let’s go to Cana Intl School”
Now Cana in Galilee is a physical location in the time of Jesus.
If it was our own time, I perceive there would be at least one Secondary school in that place.
And so we want to go to that secondary school to learn.
More than 2000 years ago, a particular incidence happened in Cana of Galilee.
So it entered into the history book of all students there. And so all students in Cana Intl School were mandated to do a subject in History where everyone learnt from it.
Now is our own time to visit the school and learn from the incidence there.
Now I need to start on this background, the central character of this historical fact is our Lord Jesus himself.
And we must never forget that Jesus Christ is our standard to live our life.
The reason why many of us get things wrong and feel worried about a lot of things is because we forget who is our standard.
How many of us read in the news recently that Jeff Bezos is the richest man ever in the world with a net worth of 200 billion dollars?
Now that is cool money.
However, Jeff Bezos is not our standard.
Jesus is our standard.
It might not be a crime to learn one or two money management principles from Jeff but we must never forget that Jesus is our standard.
If we fail to remember this, we would live frustrated lives trying to run after what was never lost. As Christians, we must constantly remind ourselves to learn more about Jesus than about Dangote or even any of our preachers.
Jesus is the standard. Never forget this. And this is why we should feel excited anytime we are learning about Jesus.
What happened in Cana was the first miracle of Jesus.
If we understand this principle, we can reproduce any form of miracle in our life. Whether it is financial, academic, health, spiritual or whatever.
We only need to look at what happened to Jesus and align our lives to his and boom, miracle take place.
Let’s go back in history then.
And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:
John 2:1 KJV
This marriage is one of the most popular marriages in history.
Now the bible says that the mother of Jesus was there.
Now from what we have known about Mary so far, she does not look like those kind of women who would attend a wedding without being invited.
So I perceive that the people getting married must be related to her.
It must be the wedding of a family member. And she had her own invitation card to the wedding.
But that is not enough.
And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.
John 2:2 KJV
Now even though Mary was invited, the hosts of the wedding did not assume automatically that Jesus would be there too.
They sent Jesus’ own special invitation too.
Did you see what I saw? Both Jesus and his disciples were called.
There was no mogbo moya… How do I interprete that now?
Lesson to learn, the fact that you have invited great people to your life is not enough, you must still invite Jesus.
Never assume that Jesus would show up simply because you invited some important people.
It is possible for you to invite your pastor into your life and Jesus has not been invited.
Yes… I know you need a miracle and you have told spiritual people and those who have money into that situation but wait a minute sir. Have you invited Jesus.
There is no wedding without Jesus being involved.
If you are experiencing a challenge in one aspect of your life, I want to ask you a question ma…
Have you invited Jesus into that situation?
Don’t just tell me that Pastor P is praying along while that is good and great you still have to really take it to Jesus specifically.
Never assume that Jesus would be there simply because you invited Jesus’ friends.
Send his own special invitation.
Get Jesus involved.
There is someone reading this right now, reality just dawned on you that you have involved a lot of people in your situation but you are yet to involve Jesus. You can take the next few minutes on your own to pray and extend that invitation to him right now.
And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.
John 2:3 KJV
The wedding was going fine. All was going well, they were serving Jollof rice and the song of Ebenezer Obey was playing.
Do you know that Ebenezer Obey song on marriage.. or maybe it was Timi Dakolo song that was playing.
Then a discover hit them…the wine finished.
It is either there were more crowd than envisaged or the planning was not properly done.
Well we don’t know what caused it but what we know is that the wine finished.
Now in any thing we do in life, there might be times in our lives when the wine might get finished and exhausted.
Perhaps it’s a wedding… Everything is going rosy and then all of a sudden,the wine finishes and you are now stranded.
Maybe there is an assignment God has given to you and now the wine has finished and you don’t have energy to go on again.
It is normal for human wine to finish.
It might even be your spiritual fire that seem to have its wine exhausted.
These people had their wine exhausted and it is either Mary heard about it or maybe she was even assigned to ensure that everyone get served wine.
What we however know is that Mary was a stakeholder at that wedding.
Now let me paint a picture to you.
I remember when I was going to get married, a family meeting was held in my house and the discussion was …
How do we help this our brother who is getting married.
Now imagine that my eldest sister decided that she would handle the drinks.
And then, somewhere in the middle of the wedding, drinks finishes
Now my eldest sister would start thinking of what to do. How do we ensure we are not disgraced o. What can we do?
It is possible that they had to contribute towards drinks and then she can call her matured son to help.
Imagine her telling my Nephew that … Hey, drinks has finished o.. I have exhausted all the money with me.
You have to help out o.
That was the kind of situation Jesus found himself.
So the mother of Jesus came to tell him that there is no wine.
He had the right to say “am I the one getting married?
But this is a family affair so Mary said …you must do something o.
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Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.
John 2:4-5 KJV
Jesus said it is not yet time for me to do anything o.
But there was something that Mary knew.
Everyone of us need people like Mary in our lives.
Mary is a type of person who see the great potential of God in us.
And even when you are not ready to do some things they push you to achieve God’s purpose.
The truth is that many of us might not want to do certain things but thank God for Mary in that place that day
She looked away from Jesus and told the servants “Whatever he ask you to do, do it.
We all need those who would push us into the plan and purpose for our lives.
When we choose to run away from the assignment, we need those who would remind us to get back to work.
Do you have such people around you?
And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.
John 2:6-7 KJV
Let’s now see how the miracle took place.
A lot of time, we assume that miracles require no input of man.
But there is usually something physical God want you to do.
It is the natural that you do that would meet with the super of God to form the supernatural.
Jesus could have simply asked wine to appear but faith is needed.
What is faith?
Faith is taking corresponding action based on God’s word.
For instance, if God has asked you to carry out an assignment and you do not have the physical resources, faith might be you going ahead to design flier for it.
Faith might be you talking to someone about what God has asked you to do.
But there is an action you must take. Now let’s see the action here.
There were six water pots. Each water pots contains two to three firkins each.
Now, we are not conversant with what Firkins mean but let me try to explain.
I checked up online what Firkins means and guess what I found?
1 firkin is about 40 litres
2-3 firkins is at least 100 litres
Six water pots means 600 litres.
At the feast there were six stone water jars that were used by the people for washing themselves in the way that their religion said they must. Each jar held about 100 liters.
John 2:6 CEV
So you see, ther were six water pots each about 100 litres.
Jesus asked them to get about 600 litres of water.
Now that is some serious work o.
There might be something God is telling you which might be foolish.
In fact your mind would tell you that what if it does not work.
But the truth is that the miracle would not occur until you play your own part.
Back then, there were no tap water so they had to fetch the water from a well.
Now imagine having to fetch 600 litres of water from a well.
They would need a fetcher. The one that Yoruba people call ifami.
If you never fetched water from a well like me, you cannot understand this.
The average water fetcher “ifami” can hold 4 litres of water
This means that for water to fill up the water pots, the fetcher would go through about 150 to and fro journey.
I was wondering how deep the well might be but we were not told.
But the closest I saw online was how deep Jacob’s well is.
Jacob’s well is about 135 feet deep which 41 feet.
Imagine doing this motion for about 150 times.
This is serious work. Have you done all that God has asked you to do?
Maybe the reason why the miracle is yet to occur is because you are yet to play your own part.
Average bucket is 10 litres so if there is just one bucket, there would be 60 journeys to and fro the well.
If there were two buckets, there would be thirty journeys.
There might have been two or three servants assigned to this, so they each had to complete 10 to 15 journey to and fro the well.
This talk about diligence and hardwork. Others were sitting down at the party listening to the song of Ebenezer Obey and eating party jollof
but these servants were busy fetching water.
Are you willing to give the hard work it takes when your mates are enjoying and having fun?
And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it.
John 2:8 KJV
Draw to the governor. You must be ready to do the ridiculous if you want to experience miracles.
What instructions have God given you that you felt does not make sense?
You must be ready to do the ridiculous to enjoy the miraculous
When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.
This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.
John 2:9-11 KJV
Did you notice that the miracle did not take place until their obedience was complete?
And then the Governor of the feast said that they have reserved the best for the last. Hallelujah.
You might have been struggling before now but I see the best of you coming up shortly.
Your best days are still ahead.
But your role is to ensure that your obedience is complete.
Even if it is so hard.
I have to stop here.
Let us pray.
Father we thank you for what we have heard tonight, we ask for the miraculous Lord. Help us to play our own part in faith even when it seems ridiculous in Jesus name.
Grant unto us testimonies that would draw men to you in Jesus name.
Amen.
