Why Did Jesus Turn Water into Wine?

Why did Jesus turn water into wine? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi there, and happy Friday. I'm Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. This is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Our phone lines are open. We'll be taking your calls for the next 25 minutes or so, so now is the time to call. Here's our number. That's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Now, you can also feel free to ask us questions about doctrine or theology, or maybe you consider yourself to be an agnostic or an atheist, and you just kind of stumbled on this program, and you've got some challenges for Adriel about his Christian beliefs. Hey, we're open to that as well. Give us a call, 833-THE-CORE. You can also email us anytime at questionsatcorechristianity.com.

Next up today, let's go to Brian in Missouri. Brian, what's your question for Adriel? I mean, everything was non-GMO, and I imagine that, you know, those diets and just the purity and everything, that fresh off of the creation just helped people. The truth is, I'm not entirely...

I don't know if there was... I don't know about any sort of purification system in the atmosphere. My sense has always just been, look, I mean, there you have the initial creation, and ultimately, Brian, one thing I can say is that God didn't intend for humanity to die. We were supposed to live forever. And in God's perfect creation, you have sin entering into the world, and then this process of decay and destruction setting in, and so I think we're coming off of the high of God's perfect creation and humanity there at the very beginning, at the very inception of everything, slowly disintegrating and, of course, disintegrating more and more into sin, which is why you get the great flood, as you said, in the book of Genesis.

And then, of course, you have what God said in Genesis 6, verse 3. The Lord said, And so sometimes people think, well, here, this is kind of a judgment that's being inflicted upon mankind because of their sin, is I'm going to shorten your lifespan. Another way of taking that text is that the 120 years there is not specifically about, you know, shortening human lifespans, but it's a warning. There's 120 years or about that amount of time until the flood, so there's a couple of ways of interpreting that.

But if you do take that as this judgment of God upon humanity because of the increase in sin, then I would say that's another way of approaching and answering that question. Brian, thanks for reaching out to us, and everybody eat healthy and exercise, and maybe we'll work our way back up to those really long lives. So are you saying if I eat vegan, I can go past 120 years? You will probably not. I don't think actually you're going to.

Thank you so much for nothing. Yeah, no, and probably, I mean, I don't know. Well, now they're talking about the carnivore diet, which I don't know if you've heard about that. You just eat beef jerky.

Like a wolf. Yeah, which I kind of like this idea. I just feel like it's got to be so expensive, you know, just bacon and steaks all day long. You'd like that. Be honest. I would like that. Yeah, I just need more money, I guess. All right.

Well, certainly an interesting question, and I'm actually glad I'm not going to live more than 120 years because my bones would be pretty brittle by by then. Well, let's move on. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, give us a call right now. Here's our phone number. Eight three three the core.

That's one eight three three eight four three twenty six seventy three. By the way, we also get voicemails here at the core. You can call us 24 hours a day and leave your voicemail question on our system. Here's one that came in from one of our listeners named Patricia. I want to thank you because you enlighten a lot of people that listen to you. My question is Romans 310, I believe, says there is none righteous.

No, not one. But in the book of James, it says that the prayers of a righteous man availeth much. I am lost in between those two verses. Can you please enlighten me with that? Thank you very much for all the help and all the work that you do. Bye bye.

Thank you so much for for your encouragement. And so digging into the scriptures and wondering, OK, do we have a contradiction of Bible contradiction here? Because in in James Chapter five, it does talk about the prayers of the righteous. And they're specifically referring to Elijah praying.

And we're actually compared in one sense to Elijah. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. And he prayed fervently that it might not rain.

And for three years and six months, it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and heaven gave rain and the earth bore its fruit. And so there were encouraged to pray and we're likened to the nature like us. And then you think about what Paul said in Romans Chapter three, that there is none righteous. Well, how can Paul say that? And yet other places in scripture, it talks about people being righteous. You think of Job, you think of the psalmist at times in the Book of Psalms, and you think also of the way James is referring to people there.

So I think there's no contradiction. Again, a lot of times with these questions, it's really peeling back the layers of the scriptures and considering the context. In Romans chapters one through three, the earlier chapters, Paul is highlighting the universal sinfulness of humanity, that both Jews and Gentiles are condemned under the law of God, that we need the gospel of God's grace in order to have eternal life. And so he's highlighting the fact that everyone sins and falls short of the glory of God. That doesn't mean that we can't speak about people in a relative sense as being righteous, as belonging to the people of God, for example, or doing good things. We believe that as believers in Jesus Christ, we can do truly good works, things that are truly honoring to the Lord.

Now, we can't do perfectly good works. There isn't anyone, wisdom says, there isn't anyone who does righteousness but doesn't also sin. And so that's the reality, and yet we can, in this relative sense, talk about people being righteous. I think of what you see also in the book of 1 Corinthians, for example. I mean, Paul is writing to a church that was really struggling with all sorts of things.

I mean, sin, really, at the heart of it. And yet he can refer to the Corinthian church as holy ones, as those who are sanctified. And you think, boy, the Corinthians, them? But in reality, through their relationship with Jesus Christ, through their union with him, through the fact that they had been called by God, Paul can use that kind of language in speaking about them. And so there is a sense in which we refer to ourselves as the righteous, as those who are called to be holy. And yet at the same time, we realize that we're never totally without sin, that we sin against God in thought, word, and in deed. But that doesn't undermine or erase our identity as the people of God and as those who belong to Jesus Christ. And so I think when you look at the context of both of those passages, you can understand that, okay, in the book of James, we're talking about this relative sort of relationship with God exhibited by faith and prayer and so forth. And in Romans, especially as he's highlighting the doctrine of justification and our need of God's grace, Paul is emphasizing the fact that no one can be justified on the basis of their own righteousness. Thank you for reaching out. Great explanation.

Thank you for that, Adrian. You know, that's something that I think trips up a lot of Christians and even those who don't really understand Christianity. They may think, well, it's all about how good of a person I am, what kind of good works I have done. And of course, the average American, you ask them and they're going to say, well, I'm pretty much better than the other guy, so I think I'll make it to heaven.

Yeah, that's right. And the issue is we have a really low view of God's law and a really high view of ourselves. You can't read the New Testament. You think of the Sermon on the Mount, for example, and walk away thinking, yep, I covered it all.

I'm doing pretty good. No, I mean, the law of God confronts us and we recognize that we fall short of loving God perfectly as we should. And we certainly fall short of loving our neighbors as we should. And so we need to be confronted with that reality and then comforted with the reality of the gospel and God's grace. And that's, again, what Paul is doing there in Romans chapters one through three.

Amen. This is core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. If you've got a question about the Bible or the Christian life, maybe there is a passage of scripture that's always kind of confused you. You can give us a call and Adriel can dig into God's word with you. It's 833-THECORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Kenneth calling in from Missouri. Kenneth, what's your question for Adriel? Hi, Pastor. Doing well. How are you, Kenneth? I'm just prepping for the next five days of negative weather. Oh. It's cold where I'm at. God keep you warm, really. I got a question.

I'm going to give you my background history. I'm a German Jew, grew up in Lutheran Church, and I'm learning different languages, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, all that stuff. And learned about, you know, long ago about the different names of Christ. And I've always argued that with my pastors, Protestant pastors, that why would we choose this name when we know what his name, what Christ's name is, but we won't do it. Then I learned Latin. And I learned the name that they use for Christ. And it's Lasus.

Right? L-E-S-U-S. Am I correct? So, well, go ahead. The reason why is because if I translate it into English, it means he the pig. Is that true? Did I read that right?

I don't think that that's, no, I don't think that that's true. I mean, I'd have to brush up on my Latin. Like in the Greek New Testament, for example, oftentimes what you find is the name of Jesus, Jesus, or a lot of times, you know, if we're thinking about the Hebrew Bible, I mean, the name Jesus taken from Joshua, and so that immediately brings to mind the conquest and the people coming into the promised land and brought into rest. So there are all sorts of things that are supposed to be communicated with that name. I mean, people would have heard that when we read in Matthew chapter 21, the angel saying, She will bear a son, you will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. This is the idea of New Exodus. That the prophets, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, had prophesied about. You have, of course, the story of the Exodus in the book of Exodus.

The people delivered out of slavery, saved from bondage in Egypt, brought into the promised land, the land of rest. And throughout the prophets, what you have is this great and wonderful, amazing promise that there was a new Exodus coming, a new deliverance, salvation, that was going to be greater than anything the people of God had ever seen. In fact, it's going to be so great that it's going to cause us to forget about the original Exodus.

It's going to fade away from our memory. And that's what you have happening in the Gospels. Jesus coming to bring about this new Exodus, not saving us from Pharaoh, saving us from our sins. And that's what the name Jesus is communicating. Now, you know, sometimes people will say, how come we don't say Yahweh, or how come we don't say Yahshua? And I think we get really worked up about the pronunciation.

That's not the focus. It's not like God is upset with how we're pronouncing the name, per se. The question is, what's being communicated here? And specifically, this is what Matthew says in Matthew chapter 1, verse 21. It's that this is the one who is going to save us from our sins. This is the new and greater Joshua. And so we praise God for that.

And I don't think we need to get too wrapped up in the pronunciation or those things. And I appreciate your question, Kenneth. Thanks for reaching out. Hey Kenneth, thanks so much for listening to Core Christianity. We love the fact that you are digging into these biblical languages. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. And you know what? At some point, you are likely to have a conversation with someone in your life who doesn't believe that Christianity is true.

And they might ask you some tough questions about your faith. So we have created a resource that will help you answer some of those questions. Yeah, get ahold of this resource. It's called Tough Questions Answered. And it's a short booklet, probably about 50 pages.

We've been offering it on the broadcast now for a few days. And I just think it will really encourage you and equip you to have conversations about your faith with people of different religions, with people who question whether or not we can trust the Bible because of science and whatnot. So get ahold of this resource.

Again, Tough Questions Answered. You can find it over at corechristianity.com. Even gets into Comparative Religions. Talks about the difference between Christianity and Buddhism and Islam.

And it gets into sexuality. A wide variety of topics in this little booklet we think will help you as you discuss your faith with other people who don't believe. You can find it at corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Again, that's corechristianity.com forward slash offers. Look for Tough Questions Answered.

It's yours free when you contact us. Well, let's go to a voicemail from one of our listeners. This is Butch. Hello, Pastor. I had a question about Jesus's first miracle that he performed when he was at the wedding feast and his mother came up to him and asked him.

He didn't acknowledge her as his mother. He acknowledged her as woman and he acted like he was bothered because it seems like he was focused on his ministry and what God's plan for him was. What's our takeaway?

What are we supposed to learn from this first miracle? God bless you and your ministry and I look forward to your answer. Thank you. I love this text. This is the passage I use. When I'm performing a wedding, usually I'll do a sermon from John chapter 2 and the miracle at Canaan and Galilee. And so there really is so much here beneath the surface. At the wedding, they run out of wine, which is a significant thing.

It was a huge problem there in the ancient world. And so Jesus's mother comes to him and lets him know there's no more wine. And Jesus begins talking about his hour, which in the context of John's Gospel is a reference to his passion, the going to the cross. And so in one sense here you're already given this foreshadowing, this picture of the purpose for the Son of God coming into the world so that he might suffer and die for the forgiveness of our sins.

And so he's focused on, fixed on that hour, that ministry that God had given to him. And in one sense you see a picture of this. In verse 6 it says there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding 20 or 30 gallons. And so you have these stone jars used for purification for this religious rite. And Jesus, you know, they're full of water. Jesus turns the water into wine. Now what is wine a picture of?

A couple of things. One, it's a picture of the Kingdom of God in its fullness, which is ultimately what Jesus came to bring about. And you see this in places like Isaiah 24 and Isaiah 25 as well, where the Kingdom of God is pictured as this place with flowing wine. Wine is the drink of the Kingdom. It's also the symbol or the sign of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which does what? It purifies us.

It cleanses us. So you're getting all of this gospel imagery here. And the other thing that's profound about this story is how much water does Jesus turn into wine? Again, each of these holds 20 or 30 gallons.

And you have several of these water pots. This is more than enough wine for the whole party. I mean, this was after the wine had already run out, which in another sense, I think, is highlighting the sufficiency and abundance of the work of Christ for his people. Wine is this picture of joy. Wine is this picture of forgiveness.

And you're getting all of these themes here already at the very beginning of John's Gospel with this initial miracle that Jesus accomplishes. He is the Lord of the feast. He is the one who brings joy in abundance. He is the one who provides forgiveness, his blood in abundance for his people, for his bride, the Church. And so a lot of really beautiful things that we see there and hope that those things are encouraging for you, encourage all of you to maybe later today stop and read that story again, chapter two and the wedding at Cana. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Just a reminder that if you have a question about the Bible or Christian life, you can call us anytime 24 hours a day and leave us a voicemail.

In fact, maybe you'll think of something this weekend. I really want Adriel to get into that question. Feel free to call us at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 833-843-2673. Let's go to Donna calling in from Missouri. Donna, what's your question for Adriel? Oh, hi.

Thank you for taking my question. A previous caller called in wanting to clarify the word righteousness and the definition of that because James says not one is righteous. And when it comes to righteousness, I've always gone to Genesis 15 6 where Abram believed he had faith showing action and God credited to him as righteousness. So due to that covenant relationship, we can be righteous but only in that relationship with God, with Christ, because when Christ looks or when God looks at us, he doesn't see us.

Technically, he sees his son due to that covenant relationship. Is that correct interpretation? Donna, it sounds to me like you're a Bible study leader. I mean, I like this, getting into the covenant theology, the importance of understanding our relationship with God and that new identity that we have as the children of God having been justified by faith. And certainly we're getting that in places like Genesis 15 verse 6, and he believed the Lord and he, that is God, counted it to him as righteousness. And that word counted, sometimes we refer to, you know, being credited something or imputed. That's the technical theological word that's oftentimes used, but it's got these legal undertones.

It's indicating like a forensic action, a forensic crediting or imputation. You see this word used that way in other instances in the Old Testament, like in the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 18 verse 27, or in Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 17 verse 4, so this legal crediting. And of course, the apostle Paul picks up this whole scene there from Genesis chapter 15 in Romans chapter 4 where he confirms that Abraham was justified in the same way, in the same manner that we are. He says in Romans chapter 4 verse 1, what then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. What does the scripture say?

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. So you have this crediting of righteousness apart from works that's defined by having our sins forgiven, right? He goes on to say in verse 7, quoting David, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sins.

So you have the non-imputation, we might say, or the non-crediting of sins. Our sins are forgiven. And on the flip side, we're given this righteousness. God credits this righteousness to us by virtue of our faith in Jesus Christ.

And so this is the great exchange. This is the doctrine of justification. And because of that, we can refer to ourselves, you're totally right, we can refer to ourselves as the righteous. Now it's interesting because guys like Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer, you know, they would often talk about themselves as at the same time, right, just and yet sinful too, because we still have that indwelling sin.

John says if anyone says that he has no sin, he's a liar. And so we recognize that we're righteous, the righteous, those called to be holy. And yet at the same time, we're never going to be perfect or free of indwelling sin until we're in the presence of the Lord, glorified.

And so those are important things to hold together. But you're totally right and appreciate you bringing out that insight from Genesis chapter 15. You know, there are some theologies, some denominations who would say once a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, they are then incapable of volitional sin. They can err, they can make mistakes, but now that they've had the Holy Spirit in their life, in their heart, they can't sin.

I'm wondering how you would respond to that. Yeah, I mean, I've proven that false. I know that that's just not, and I just can't imagine how, I mean, it goes back, I said earlier on the broadcast, there are people who minimize God's law and exalt themselves. We think God doesn't require very much of us, and we think we can actually meet those righteous requirements in our own strength.

That's just not true. And to you listening, I'm sure you've experienced that in your own life. That doesn't mean that sin is ever okay, and that doesn't mean that we can't grow in grace and in holiness by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Indeed, we do. Those justified are sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit, but we trust in Christ. God bless. Thanks for listening to Core Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, go to corechristianity.com forward slash radio, or you can call us at 1-833-843-2673.

That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, let us know how we can be praying for you, and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.