While travelling through Galilee, Jesus came to Cana, where he had turned the water into wine. 

There was a government official from Capernaum, whose son was very sick. When the official heard that Jesus had come, he begged Jesus to come to Capernaum – about 20 miles away - and heal his son, because he was about to die.

As the people watched Jesus said to them, ‘Unless you see miracles and signs you never believe’. But the official pleaded – 'Please come right now, before it is too late'. But Jesus told him ‘Go back home – your son will live’. And the man believed what Jesus said and started on his 20 mile journey.

When the man was part way home, some of his servants met him with the good news that his son was alive and well. He asked them when this happened, and they said ‘Yesterday at 1 o’clock’ – which was the exact moment Jesus had told him that his son would live.

He and his entire household believed in Jesus. This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did in Galilee after coming from Judea.
 

Jesus had called his very first disciples, and he was not yet well known.

The day after he called his disciples, there was a wedding celebration in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were invited along to join in with the celebration.

During the festivities, while everyone was celebrating, the supply of wine ran out. This would cause great embarrassment so Jesus’ mother came to him and said “They have no more wine”. Jesus replied, “Dear woman, that’s not our problem – my time has not yet come”. But his mother knew something would happen, and told the servants “Do-whatever- he-tells-you”

Just across from where they were, were 6 large stone jars, normally used for ceremonial washing. Each of them could hold 20-30 gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water – right to the top”. So they did. And once they were filled, he told them “Dip in a cup, and take some to the Master of Ceremonies.”

The servants did what he said and the Master of ceremonies tasted it. He didn’t know where it had come from - though the servants knew exactly where it had come from! Once he had tasted it, he called the bridegroom over. He said to the bridegroom, “Normally a host serves the best wine first, and when everyone has had a lot to drink, then brings out the cheap wine. But you – you have saved the best until now!”

This miraculous sign at Cana in Galilee, was the first time Jesus revealed his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

We are in John's Gospel for the next 7 weeks. The first half of John's gospel records a number of signs that Jesus gave, before the second half of the book looks at Jesus' journey the cross and the teaching he gave to his disciples as it approached.

John is like Luke - he is very clear about why he wrote his gospel. He writes this near the end of the book:
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So John records a number of signs - just a few of the many he could have chosen - in order to help us believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah-King.

Most people have identified seven different signs in the first half of John.  We will go through them one by one over coming weeks, and re tell them to one another as true stories, recorded to encourage us in our belief, and so that we might have life.

So Living Confidently as a follower of Jesus... the Bible is key for us in this. So what can we say about it?

Having spent a number of weeks reading through Luke, individually and together, we looked at the final chapter - chapter 24. What an amazing account. Read it here.

After his resurrection, Jesus talked with two of the disciples as they walked along the road to a place called Emmaus, fed up and downcast with all that had gone on.

And on that walk, we see something of how Jesus saw the Bible - or more precisely, what we now call the Old Testament. The amazing thing is, he basically said that the whole bible is about him! Now we might expect that the New Testament is about him (which wasn't written down at that point) but he was talking about the Old Testament!

Here's what we looked at. These can be longer blog posts another time. But here's a summary.

1. Jesus' view - what did he think of the Bible?
He said it was all about him, starting from Moses and all the prophets. All of them! Everything was pointing to him as the culmination of it all. He says it is all telling one big story. We talked a lot about this conversation with the two disciples and the different parts of the Old Testament he would have been referring to. Wouldn't you love to have heard that conversation?

2. The Story - how does it hang together?
So the whole story is about him, as we read about the creation of a wonderful world; the sin and shame that came into the world and is the cause of all the brokenness; the hope of relationship and honour restored through sacrifices - and ultimately fulfilled in Jesus; the new creation of people of all nations gathered in God's kingdom one day. One overarching story, even though it was written over 1500 years by more than 40 authors, in 3 languages!

3. The Manuscripts - where do we get it all from?
There are more manuscripts, and older manuscripts than for any other ancient documents. We have Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic (the original languages) manuscripts which all demonstrate that the Bible has not been changed, and that what we hold in our hands today is reliable, and is what was first written.

4. The History - is it accurate and true?
Old manuscripts don't mean its true though. Does it fit with history? Yes it does. Many many archaeological discoveries confirm the times and events written about in the Bible. Sometimes there are events that people do not know about, and sceptics say it must have been made up - but it is not unusual to then find archaeological support in later times. For example, people were sceptical about the existence of Pontius Pilate (the governor who presided over the trial of Jesus Christ) until they found something with his name on. Likewise, Belshazzar, the king in the book of Daniel. But then stones unearthed referred to him, even explaining how he was co-regent with his father Nabonidus, who was often away, giving light to why Daniel was honoured in the 'third highest' position in the land.

5. The Message - does it have the 'ring of truth' about it?
This sounds subjective, but the question is - is this written as fiction? It is not how people wrote fiction in those days. 'Real life' style fiction is a modern development. It is clear the writers intended what they wrote to be understood as fact. And it's worth asking - would anyone have made this up? The odd details. The counter-intuitive reasoning. The way all its heroes are shown warts and all - only one standing out; Christ. And his path was to suffer and die. Who would make this up? Who could make it up? And who could then make the whole thing hang together as one story?

More on these things another time.

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