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8/9/2019 Water Into Wine by Reinhard Bonnke
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/water-into-wine-by-reinhard-bonnke 1/4
wine Water into
... but you have saved
the best till now.
John 2:10
That you may believeIt was John who said (in chapter 21 of his Gospel) that if all Jesus’ exploits had
been recorded, the world would not have enough space for all the books that
would have been written. This is an important observation by the “disciple
whom Jesus loved” because John’s Gospel is not a collection of random stories.
Each account has been carefully selected from a myriad of “candidates”
because it expresses an especially profound and appropriate lesson – all of them
reinforcing John’s central theme, “But these are written that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that by believing you may have life
in his name” (John 20:31).
It is also important to realise when reading the John’s Gospel that there is
often more to John’s stories than meets the eye. John often employs an ancient
rabbinic teaching method called “remez” (which means “hint”), in which the
teacher “hints” at something through a story or allegory but does not state hisdeeper meaning explicitly. Instead, the teacher allows the student to connect the
dots and have a personal “Aha!” moment.
8/9/2019 Water Into Wine by Reinhard Bonnke
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John’s Gospel is full of “Aha!” moments and when the Holy Spirit illuminates
the word in our hearts, revelation begins to pour off every page. I have treated
many of the other stories in this Gospel in other places, but here we are going
to be studying the first of Jesus’ miracles – the turning of water into wine at
the wedding in Cana in Galilee found in John Chapter 2. I am sure that youwill be blessed!
Saving the best till last The turning of water into wine was the first of Jesus’ miracles and it had a
profound effect on those who knew him. John 2:11 says that it was because
of this miracle that his disciples “put their faith in him” . To most people it
would have been seen as a demonstration of power and a revelation of Christ’s
Messianic identity, but those disciples would later see a far profounder prophetic
meaning to the miracle.
In John’s elderly years, I am sure that he thought often about the “good old
days” with The Master. He probably played and replayed every miracle, every
healing and every teaching of Jesus over and over in his mind. Can you imagine
the longing in his soul to touch Jesus again, to lay his head on his chest andgaze into his loving eyes? Even in his sleep the memories would haunt him,
rolling through his heart night after night. And when those sweet dreams began
to evaporate with the light of early dawn, his only consolation was the promise
of his blessed Saviour, “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20).
One day he was reflecting on the miracle at the wedding in Cana. It was the
words of the ruler of the feast that struck him:
“The master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine.
He did not realise where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn
the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, ‘Everyone
brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have
had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.’” (John 2:9-10)
Could it be that the miracle of water turned into “good wine” and saved till lastwas a type and shadow of a greater miracle and a better wine? John’s memory
8/9/2019 Water Into Wine by Reinhard Bonnke
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might have flashed to the Last Supper, where he sat next to Jesus and heard
mysterious words from sacred lips as Jesus held up another goblet of wine and
said, “This cup is the NEW covenant in MY blood” (Luke 22:20).
Biblical covenants were blood covenants. The first one, made with Abraham,demanded the blood of sheep, goats, cattle and birds. Now, as the Old Covenant
was culminating, we see that after the blood of goats and rams had been shed,
God had saved the best till last. In Cana water became wine but in Jesus the
Word became flesh.
In the same way that the bride and groom in Cana had offered all they had to
their guests, so man offered all he had to God and after all man’s offerings to
God had fallen pathetically short, God offered HIS best for us.
Jesus had gone to the wedding in Cana as a guest but it was he who ended up
being the host! We may invite Jesus to come into our lives but we have nothing
to offer him. He enters our bankrupt shanty and spreads a table for us. He
serves us a banquet. He gives us his best – his own body and blood!
His blood was not only best … it was also LAST! His sacrifice was made oncefor all time.
No other sacrificeWhen a soldier is dying on the battlefield, a medic will give him a potent dose
of morphine. The drug will not save him but it will mask the pain and ease the
suffering.
In the same way the blood of animals could never save and could not tackle
the root of the fatal wound: sin. These Old Covenant sacrifices could only mask
the symptoms of sin for a short season but every year new sacrifices had to be
offered and new blood had to be shed.
The blood of Jesus was of a totally different quality than any blood ever shed
before. The blood of Jesus not only dealt with the symptoms of sin, it went tothe very root of the problem. The blood of Jesus was not a superficial remedy for
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a shallow flesh wound. It penetrated the core of the human condition and went
all the way back to Adam, reversing the curse and turning the greatest tragedy
in history into the greatest victory.
The ruler of the feast said, “You have saved the best wine till now.” After allother wines had been served and after they had all run out and fallen short, the
“best” wine was finally being served. The best was saved till last. I see this first
miracle of Jesus as a prophetic foreshadowing of what Jesus had come to do.
The Jews were hoping for a national Messiah who would start a Maccabean-
type revolution. Jesus had come to lay down his life and shed his blood.
When Jesus sat at the Last Supper and held up the cup of Passover wine he
said, “This cup is the NEW Covenant in MY blood.” All the blood of goats,
lambs and birds had run out and fallen short, but then God himself came and
performed a miracle; the Word became flesh.
His body was broken and his blood was shed once for all time. His blood did
what no other sacrifice had been able to do. There is enough power in one drop of
the blood of Jesus to wash away every sin, to heal every sickness, to break every
curse on every human being who has ever lived in all the world and in all history!
God has saved the best till last!
Daniel Kolenda