All right, destination. It's a miracle. Have you ever said those words before. Maybe you've said them about making it to church in the cold.

It's a miracle that we made it here. This is kind of one of those words, miracle that's thrown a lot around a lot. And we're going to talk about it today in this message series that we call who is Jesus. And if you're just joining us in this series, we are going through the book of John to answer some of life's really big questions. And we're looking at it in a way where you can build up a case for Christ in the courtroom of life.

And so this is apologetics. It's answering these really big questions. And today I want to talk about what is a miracle or do miracles still happen. And this word miracle we kind of throw around a lot.

And maybe you've heard it thrown around a lot in let's see let's go back a couple of years 2018 about this time the Vikings were in the playoffs. I remember this like it was yesterday and it is usually Vikings letdown season around this time of year, right. But this particular year, if you remember, it was 2018 Vikings verse the worst football team in the world, the New York New Orleans Saints. , and they were playing each other and the Vikings were up 17 to nothing at halftime. The momentum shifted and then all of a sudden the Saints are up 24-23 with 25 seconds left on the clock.

Okay, now if you know where I'm going with this, you know the next line of the story. Digs sideline touchdown, right. This big moment in the last couple of seconds of the game and and everybody was celebrating.

They're going wild. Even though we lost the next game and didn't even make it to the Super Bowl, it didn't matter because this was a Minneapolis what. That's what we called it. The Minneapolis miracle.

And I think Minneapolis needs a miracle. So, I think we need to be praying for it like we were praying for that football game. But here is our beloved radio host Paul Allen coined it the Minneapolis miracle. Do you know why he did that. Is because ESPN gave him the data, the statistics in real time and it said that the Vikings had a 2% chance of winning.

And so he said that this by the odds are a miracle and we you and I in our humanness do this all the time. We look at odds. We look at statistics.

We look at facts and studies and then we jump to conclusions on the basis of those. That's how we're wired. So, let me let me give you a couple of examples of this. Who is afraid of swimming in the ocean because they're going to get bit by a shark. Anybody in here.

Anybody have that that fear. Here's what I'm going to tell you. There is a 1 in3 million chance about a one in three million chance that the movie Jaws is going to happen to you. It's not going to happen. And and and so go in the ocean on your spring break.

That's my my ask to you. Now, who in here I don't I don't think I want to ask you to raise your hands because I don't really want to know. But if you're in here and you've boughten your fair share of Powerball tickets, okay, I'm going to I'm going to tell you some statistics. Dad, I'm not pointing you out.

Don't worry. , there is a 300 times more chance that you will get struck by lightning than to win the lottery. There is a 1 in 292 million chance that you will win. But there are still people in this room that will take that chance and hold on to that hope.

Jeremy, I'm not looking at you. I'm just saying. So, those are some of the odds, but then we can look at maybe some more serious things.

We can look at cancer and how in stage 4 breast cancer there's about a 30% chance of survival and in lung cancer there's about a 7% chance. But yet we can hear stories about people walking out of the hospital cancer-free, right. And so there's these odds and these facts and statistics and then there's these one in 292 million chances and we have to live in the tension of that. And so what we do is we choose to believe or not believe these odds on the basis of our core beliefs in the moment.

What I mean by that is if something works out, we call it a miracle. It it worked out. It was a miracle. But if if it doesn't work out, we call it bad luck or that was just the facts or that was just the odds and that's just how it's going to be.

And so what actually is a miracle. Before we even like dive into scripture, we need to like kind of have a definition of this. I love got questions definition of this.

God questions says that a a miracle is an event or a direct and powerful action of God transcending the ordinary laws of nature and defying common expectations of behavior. And so if you got lost on that, just refer to Dumb and Dumber. So you're telling me there's a chance.

That's that's what I'm telling you. In a the case of miracles, it is this God-given chance, but it's going against some of the laws of what we would call factdriven science in nature, right. And so, by the way, Got Questions is a great website to bring your questions. It's not a Google tool. It's not an AI tool.

It's actually questions that are answered by scholars and different Bible teachers. So, I would encourage you to check that out. , also CS Lewis's book called Miracles is a great one as well. But using this definition, here's what we know.

A miracle is not a football player doing a football player's job. At the end of the day, it was a really cool thing what the Minneapolis miracle was. But it was a football player doing his job just with some time left on the clock. Very little time left on the clock.

But what it is is it's something that goes against what should happen. And we even if we are following Jesus or not following Jesus have to live in this tension of accounting for what happens when how what do we what do we attribute to when the miracle happens. Who do we attribute that to. How does that happen.

And so today's big question is do miracles still happen. We're going to look at John chapter 2. It's on page 912. Again, the question is, do miracles still happen.

And the answer is yes. Okay, can we be done. Are we good. We'll see you next Sunday. Yes, they happen.

Okay, I realize the phrasing of this is really funny. Do miracles still happen. Well, I mean, even just in this introduction, we've kind of established they do. There is a chance that miracles happen. We can look at hospital records.

We can look at probably stories in all of your lives. You yourself, your birth is a miracle story. You are a 1 in400 trillion chance of you being here. You are a miracle story. So, we know that miracles happen.

So, maybe the question should be, how do they happen. But then we get into some kind of dangerous territory, too. Because then if I give you, hey, five steps to make your miracle happen. You're gonna go home and you're gonna try these five steps and then your miracle doesn't happen and then you're gonna get mad at me or mad at God, right. And so maybe the question needs to be phrased a little different for us this morning.

Maybe it should be how do we position ourselves for miracles. Okay, so let's look at John chapter 2. It's on page 912.

By the way, if you don't have a Bible, please take this one home with you. It's our gift to you. We also have sermon notebooks at our next step table so you can take notes through this series.

But I'm just going to read these 11 verses of this story and then we're going to kind of break it down and learn more about positioning ourselves for miracles. And so it says this on the third day of the wedding a wedding took place in Canaa of Galilee. Jesus's mother was there and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.

When the wine was gone, Jesus's mother said to him, "They have no more wine. " "Woman, why do you involve me. " Jesus replied, "My hour has not yet come.

" His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you. " Nearby stood six stone water jugs, the kind used by Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus said to his servants, "Fill the jars with water. " So they filled them to the brim.

Then he told them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. " They did so. And the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine.

He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside, and he said, "Everyone brings out the choice of wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink. But you have saved the best until now. What Jesus did here in Canaa of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he would reveal his glories and his disciples believed in him.

So this is known as Jesus's first miracle. And we're going to get into why we know that it's Jesus's first miracle. But within this we see at least four key ways of how to position ourselves in in in the place of where we can experience God's miracles. And the first position you see taking place is that Jesus is first.

Jesus is acknowledged first in these first three verses. Now let me explain what I mean here. So at this time, Jesus's ministry hadn't officially begun. He had fiveish followers at this time, and he was taking time out of his his schedule to, you know, save the world. And he's taking time out of his schedule to go to a wedding.

Now, what you need to know is a wedding is not just a Saturday night for for Jews in Kaa, okay. A wedding is a week-long celebration that has been planned for for way longer than all of us together probably planned our weddings. Because they're planning for this whole town to celebrate this huge wedding for a week long. And so Jesus stops his important work to spend a whole week at the wedding celebration. By the way, this is not one of my points, but I believe that it's going to speak to somebody in this room as much as it spoke to me this week that even when there's important work to do, even when you have things that that you are doing that honor God, it's important to remember that God can also work while we're enjoying life.

And so Jesus goes to a wedding to enjoy, to celebrate, and God still works. God is still working. Now, the wine had ran out.

And here's the significance of this, okay. The wine running out actually symbolizes something. To us, it's just like, well, just send Jesus to the liquor store to get more. Like, what's the problem, right.

, but to them, it was a bigger deal than that. The wine one scholar describes it as the that the wine represented the joy being full. And no, I'm not going in the direction you that our 21st century minds go there. It's not that kind of drunken joy. It is a joy.

It was a representative that when you had the fullness of full jars of wine that it was said to believe that that this is God's provision, that this is God's blessing. And so this was a big deal to see this couple come into marriage and then all of a sudden there's no wine there because that's where we find ourselves a lot of times too when we are in the midst of looking for our miracles. It usually comes from the joy running out and that's where they're finding themselves in this place where the joy has ran out. Now what does what happens. Look at verse three.

It says, "When the wine was gone, Jesus's mother said to the said to him, "They have no more wine. " Now, this was more than just a plea to her oldest son for help. This was a plea to say, "Jesus, we need you. This is a huge oversight, and we need you in this moment.

" And Mary, what she did here is she sought out Jesus and then presented the problem. She didn't present the problem and then expect Jesus to show up. I'll give you an example of this.

My four-year-old, we're teaching manners right now. And maybe you don't parent like I parent, but when she's sitting at the table and she goes, "Melk, milk. " Like like she's willing it into existence or something and she's and then she'll start saying, "I need milk.

" And I'm like, "Good for you. Like what do you want me to do. I'm just I sometimes maybe on a bad day I'm that rude.

But I love when she says, "Dad, can you get me milk, please. " Now, this doesn't mean that we need to ask God the right way to get the right miracle. But what this does mean is that our heart posture when we start to put the person of Jesus before the miracle or before seeking the result, seeking the result or the joy that comes from the miracle and seeking that more than we're seeking Jesus. Let me just say it like this. Mary wasn't asking for a miracle.

She was asking for Jesus. And so Jesus came first in this struggle. But here's the thing.

I'm not I'm not blind to the fact that if everybody in this room is praying for something and they're waiting for a miracle and and and I can't pretend to say that it's not a difficult thing to be in this place where you are seeking Jesus when you just so badly want the bad thing or the uncomfortable thing or the thing that you're afraid of happening to happen. You sit in this struggle and this push and pull of like I know I need to seek Jesus first but I just really I really really want this. I really need this in my life.

And that's brings us to our second thing. In order to position ourselves for miracles, we need to keep seeking in our struggle. Keep seeking Jesus in your struggle. Look at verse four. It says Jesus's response to Mary.

He says,"Woman, why do you involve me. " Jesus replied, "My hour has not yet come. " And his mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you. " Now, in our 21st century mind, we read this like this, "Woman, why do you involve me.

" Like, it's like, "Okay, Jesus, why are you talking to your mom like that. , that is not how we need to read this. Almost every single commentary I read on this said, "Okay, hold on. What this was really saying is this was the way that they that Jesus addressed his mom as a term of endearment.

" And so it's almost the exact opposite. It would be this line verse four would almost be like my translation of it would be like, "Mom, don't put me on the spot right now. " Like that's what I'm picturing for Jesus.

It's like if your mom knew that you were a good singer and like hey come on you got to go up for karaoke. You're like you're next. It's like mom stop.

Like that's that's how I that's how I kind of read this. And so Jesus kind of says my time hasn't come yet. And what is Mary's response. It is submission in the struggle.

She says do whatever he tells you to do. Now here's what Mary didn't do. Mary didn't guilt him or trick him. She didn't say, "Well, Jesus, I brought you into this world. I'll bring you out.

So, you need to help me fill this wine right now. She didn't do that. She didn't gaslight him. She didn't trick him. She didn't bribe him.

She didn't beg him. Jesus, if you fill this this wine, I'll bake some cookies for you. Like, she wasn't doing any of that.

She just did what Mary does best. What does Mary do best. She trusts God with the results.

And that's what she does time and time again. And let me just tell you in your struggles, this will vastly change your prayer life and vastly change the way that you look at your struggles and look at your situations when you just submit them to the will of God. And I know that that sounds difficult, but know that I've been in there in those struggles, too. I know how hard it is to wait on the miracle, to wait on God for some of these things to happen and to just say, "Okay, yeah, God, your plans are better than my plans. " It sounds so good and so easy, but it vastly changes you from the inside out.

And so, let me just illustrate it like this. , there's this this time in scripture where Jesus's disciples asked Jesus, "How should we pray. Teach me how to pray, Jesus. And he leads in this thing called the Lord's Prayer. Maybe you've done the Lord's Prayer as a part of the liturgy in your church growing up.

And there's there's these words, the opening words that Jesus teaches his disciples to pray. He says, "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done.

" That's that's an important line. That's an important bold prayer because in the midst of our struggles, sometimes we pray for our kingdom to come and our will to be done and not his kingdom to come and his will to be done. And what happens is when we stay in the midst of our struggles and our kingdom doesn't come and our will isn't done, it shatters us and we think that prayer and all that time that we spent on our knees is just a waste of time.

But let me tell you and plea to you that even if the miracle doesn't happen in your life, seeking God was never a waste of time. God never wastes time and he will never waste time growing you in the midst of your struggle in the midst of you seeking the miracles. And in those moments, we need to be able to see that God is moving in the most ordinary of places. Look at how Jesus chooses to bring this miracle to to come. Look at verse six.

It says nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by Jews for ceremonial washing. So in other words, this is a kitchen sink. Okay, that's how we could translate it nowadays.

Each holding about 20 to 30 gallons, Jesus said to his servants, fill the jars with water. So they filled them to the brim. So these are just ordinary things.

These are just ordinary things that the disciples that people in that day are passing constantly like you and I pass a kitchen sink. And here's something very important about positioning ourselves for miracles is don't overlook the ordinary that God can use something ordinary in your life, in your situation, a person, a thing to make something extraordinary happen. And what's so cool about this book, the book that we're studying, the book of John, is what it what happens is is Jesus, as he heals through the book, and we're going to talk more about healing and different things like that throughout this book. , what you're going to see is that Jesus is restoring creation. He's going back and restoring the way that it should have been or the way that it should be all the way from the garden or welcoming us home in eternity.

He's restoring it and he's using ordinary things. Let me just illustrate it like this. You might read the story and you think water to wine, that's really awesome.

That's really that's really a cool cultural story that we know and a miracle that we know. But if you were sitting at a wedding right now and you had a glass of water in front of you, you would not expect it to turn to wine. You wouldn't expect it to just like magically turn to wine. So you would say or some would maybe say that miracles like this don't happen right now. They don't happen anymore.

Maybe they happened back then, but I don't know about now. But let me just submit to you a different idea. Water falls from where. Just making sure you're with me.

Water falls from the sky and it drops on the Okay. Sunday school we passed. Water falls from the sky, drops on the ground.

It fertilizes the soil, the roots. The roots grow into branches and vines and bear fruit like grapes. The grapes when put under pressure turn into wine. So through a process, a godmade process, water is turning to wine.

But here's here's the point. Jesus just speeds up the process because he becomes the link between the water and the wine. He becomes the vine between the water and the wine.

Okay, little bit of homework this week because I don't have time to get into it. Go read John 15 because Jesus refers to himself as the vine. He is the connecting point between heaven and earth. And so when we un o just kind of overlook some of the ordinary things that Jesus does in our life and in our situation, we may miss some of these miracles.

And what's so cool about this is now the water is turned into wine. The water is brought to Jesus's or to these guests at the wedding. And I want you to keep in mind something. They didn't see the miracle. They just got to experience the results.

And sometimes in the ordinary situations, in the ordinary life that we live, we miss the miracle because we just see the results. It is a miracle that we can drive on roads that should be covered in ice. It is, you know, it is a miracle.

And and I throw around this word again and contradicting the beginning of my message. Just hear what I'm saying here. That there are ordinary things like the sun rising, like breath in your lungs that really are a miracle. And not to overlook those things. But I want you to see what verse 11 communicates because all of this is this really cool story.

But we still find ourselves in the midst of this kind of struggle about well what about my miracle. So look at verse 11. This whole story concludes by saying this. What Jesus did in Canaa of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory and his disciples believed him.

This is the most important point about all the healings, about all of the miracles, about all the different things we will talk about throughout the book of John is that God's miracles always serve a purpose. And through this purpose of the water turning into wine, his glory is revealed to a small group of people, his disciples who believe in him and then change the world. God's miracles, God's healing throughout the gospels always serve a purpose to point towards his glory and to point towards people towards Jesus.

This is how Psalm says it. It says, "You are God. You are the God who performs miracles. You display your power among the peoples. " And God's all of God's miracles.

All of them, they serve a purpose in pointing towards his glory and his goodness. But let's address it. The question that hangs in the tension for all of us. Why wasn't his purpose to give me my miracle. That's what hangs in our minds and in our hearts as we listen to something like this.

That man, yeah, your kingdom come, your will be done, God's ways better than my ways. All of that. But then when you're thinking about your life and thinking about the times when you really really wanted something or you really really hoped for something that did not happen that would have been a miracle if it did and then it didn't.

The hardest thing for us is then to sit in that tension of why did why did somebody else get their miracle and not me and be jealous of that or to lose hope in in God when when sickness ends badly or death comes or infertility or any kind of hopeless situation. Let me remind you of this that God sees you in your struggle. That no matter what miracle you've been waiting on or hoping on or seeking, that God sees it, he knows it, he weeps with you, and that God's purposes and God's ways, even though it's so hard in those moments, to believe, are better than ours.

Tim Keller says it like this. God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything he knows. The really hard truth about us seeking our miracles is that he's God and we're not. And so often we want our kingdom to come and our will to be done.

But God has a purpose for everything. And everything reveals his glory and brings people closer to him. And I pray that for those of you who are just in here today and you're just kind of suffering in silence, that this morning would be a morning that you would give give something to Jesus.