John 2: Be Part of the Miracle, Fill the Jars

Introduction

"Once upon a time there was a local church." This is how Archie Coates, senior pastor of Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) in London, opens this Vision Sunday. Almost fifty years ago, this parish started a small course for new Christians. Very quickly, they began inviting their non-believing friends, and the course took the name Alpha. Other churches asked for the notes, which were sent by post, and then for a conference to learn how to run it. Today, tens of millions of people have done Alpha in 146 countries.

The same local church then came to understand that, for people to come to faith, they need a living church close to home. In partnership with the bishops of the Church of England, it sent out teams to restart closed churches or revitalize existing parishes. About 150 churches have been born this way. From this came a vision in three parts: evangelize the nations, revitalize the Church and transform society.

To launch a short series called "Be Part of a Miracle," Archie Coates focuses on Jesus' first sign: water turned into wine at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11). He draws three calls from it: come to Jesus, do whatever he tells you, and fill the jars to the brim.

Outline of the Message

1. A Vision Like an Immense Painting

Just a short walk from the church is the Victoria and Albert Museum. In the basement are displayed Raphael's cartoons, huge designs for tapestries commissioned by Pope Leo X for the Sistine Chapel. There were originally ten, on biblical subjects and on the Acts of the Apostles, in particular Peter and Paul. Seven remain.
Archie Coates sees the vision of HTB as a painting of that size, still being painted. Everyone colors in a different part of it.
In one corner, some are asking how to let every person on the planet hear about Jesus through Alpha by 2033, two thousand years after the resurrection. Elsewhere, others are thinking about going from 150 to 300, then 500 churches in the United Kingdom, with the buildings, the permissions, the funding and the training that this requires.
Others are thinking about the 10,000 new students who have arrived at the neighboring university, Imperial College, often without knowing Jesus. Others gather by profession: education, health, business, technology, the charity sector. Others still look at the roughly 5,000 people who sleep on the streets of London every night and wonder why not open the church premises at night to welcome them.
The role of the pastor, he says, is to invite everyone to put their touch on the painting and to find the part they are called to paint. Three things are within everyone's reach: praying, serving and giving. He spoke about prayer the previous month. This message and the next one are about serving and giving, drawing on two miracles of Jesus.

2. The Wedding at Cana, the First Sign

The story is well known. There is a wedding in Cana of Galilee. The mother of Jesus is there, and Jesus and his disciples are invited. The wine runs out, and Mary says to her son: "They have no wine." Jesus replies: "My hour has not yet come."
His mother then says to the servants: "Whatever he says to you, do it." Six stone water pots are there, meant for the Jewish purifying rituals, each holding two or three measures, or 80 to 120 liters according to the preacher.
Jesus says: "Fill the water pots with water." The servants fill them to the brim, then take some to the master of the feast. He tastes the water turned into wine and says to the bridegroom: "You have kept the good wine until now!"
This, in Cana, was the first of Jesus' miracles. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. Archie Coates believes God wants to say three things to his Church through this text.

3. When the Wine Runs Out, Come to Jesus

Something went wrong at this wedding. Perhaps the guests were thirstier than expected, perhaps the supplier did not deliver. For the hosts, running out of wine was a real social humiliation.
Archie Coates, who has conducted many weddings, tells of his own embarrassing moment. During the signing of the registers, written in indelible dark blue ink, his sleeve knocked the open bottle of ink over the bride's dress. Once she had recovered, she told him: "I had something old, something new, something borrowed, but I was missing something blue."
For him, the missing wine is a picture of our time. On the scale of society and the world, what we were counting on seems to be running dry: jobs, capital, fuel, energy. A friend in the building trade pointed out to him that there are far fewer cranes in London, because everyone is waiting to see whether the horizon will clear.
This may be true in your personal life too: some things you were counting on seem to have no wine left.
Mary then comes to Jesus and lays out the problem. This is the heart of prayer: coming to Jesus with our problems and asking him to give us a creative mind to find solutions.

4. Do Whatever He Tells You

Jesus notices the six jars and tells the servants to fill them with water. In other words: bring what you have. "I am going to do something, but I will only do it with your help."
According to Archie Coates, God's work always rests on divine power and human action together. Jesus invites us to play a part in his miracles. He is fully interested in your personal life, but he carries for you more than your own transformation: he wants to transform the world through your life.
That is why Mary does not say to the servants: "Sit down, a miracle is about to happen." She says: "Whatever he says to you, do it." Commit for real. Every time we say we will do whatever he asks of us, we step into the miracle of Jesus working through us for the world.
A woman from the church bears witness to this. A friend's daughter was in intensive care, between life and death. As she was leaving to pray for her at the hospital, she sensed the Lord asking her to take along a pair of new lace sneakers, bought for her son's wedding and never worn. She hesitated at first, checked the size (it was the right one) and left the shoes in the car.
That day, the young woman improved markedly: the breathing tube was removed and she spoke her first words. The physiotherapist asked the mother to bring sports shoes so she could be got out of bed in the following days. She went to fetch the sneakers and gave them as a sign that the young woman would leave the hospital wearing them. Today, she is back home and recovering from her operation.

5. The Best Wine Is Yet to Come

The servants bring the jars, draw out the contents, and the water has become wine, and better wine. The master of the feast notices it: "You have kept the good wine until now!"
Archie Coates sees in this a picture of what God wants to say to HTB right now, as the vision has been under construction for decades. At the moment when everything seems hopeless around us, that is where God works miracles.
He turns water into wine, death into life, darkness into light and despair into hope. And he does it in such a way that the best is still to come. This is always God's promise for our lives.

6. Home Groups, Where the Miracle Multiplies

Archie Coates shares one specific part of the painting, which God has confirmed in him over the last two or three months and which he has submitted to his leaders. Twenty years ago, he led a "connect group" at HTB, a home group that met every two weeks. It grew to about 25 people. They ate together, prayed and praised God, and in the other weeks the members met in Bible studies, prayer triplets or small groups.
He tells what became of some of the members. Four young men scattered around the world by their work still have dinner and pray together each time they pass through London. One of them, who came from his Alpha group, now sits on the board of Alpha in the United States. Another, who joined at 22 when he was starting out in music, is now a pastor in east London: "I still pinch myself to check I am not dreaming."
A couple who went back to South Africa to start a family saw, last May, their 16-year-old son tell 5,000 people at the Royal Albert Hall, at the leadership conference, what God had done through the Alpha course he had started at his school. A 30-year-old man, who came to Alpha after the collapse of his business and the breakdown of his relationship, became a Christian. The previous Wednesday, he led a group on the first night of Alpha at HTB, while his 18-year-old son helped lead another. Each time, the same refrain comes back: "I took part in a miracle."
The world longs for change. We have tried every system of government, technological investment, the great discoveries of psychology. But what truly transforms the world is the Spirit of Jesus living in a human heart, bearing fruit and spreading to friends, families, institutions and business cultures.
He cites William Wilberforce. His heart was transformed in his early twenties, and that change extended to fighting the structural injustice of slavery. But he was also part of a group of friends in London, later called the "Clapham Sect," who met regularly to encourage one another, inspire one another and pray for one another. From that group, a whole world began to change.
Jesus said: "This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you." You cannot live this commandment alone. We will never see the transformation of society by going to church on Sunday and then listening to a podcast and worshiping alone during the week. It is born in a close community, where we practice the fruit of the Spirit (love, patience, kindness) and the gifts of the Spirit (prophecy, healing, building one another up). "That is what we call the Church. It is the most important institution there is for changing the world."

7. Fill the Jars to the Brim

About 31% of the church's members belong to a connect group, out of the 110 existing groups. Many more would like to, but the groups are often small, closed, held in private homes, or hard to reach on weekday evenings.
Yet the church has large, accessible premises on six sites in central London. The pastor does the math: by opening groups of 25 people on Tuesdays and Thursdays, every other week, in those rooms, they could welcome about 600 people at Brompton Road, 300 at Onslow Square and more still at the other sites, close to 1,000 people. That would take the share of the church connected this way from 31% to more than 50%.
He confesses that he stopped leading a group many years ago: another child, a move out of London, a heavier role. "Part of me perhaps thought I had done my bit, that it was someone else's turn." But he does not want his stories to be only about what God did twenty years ago, when more than 400 people are doing Alpha and the spiritual openness of the city is obvious.
So he is restarting a connect group, every two weeks during the year, with the participants of his Alpha group and others. He wants to grow it to 25 people. In the other week, everyone will be able to join a prayer triplet, a video or WhatsApp group, a home group or a Bible study, to keep the intimacy while growing.
He invites those who already lead a group to move it to where it can grow, to open the doors, then to send members out to start new ones. His goal: 50 groups of this kind in the next two years. "If you want to complete this painting, it will be by joining and mobilizing hundreds and hundreds of lives."
One last detail of the story: Jesus only said to fill the jars with water. It was the servants who decided to fill them to the brim. They chose to give everything, to spend their strength, to bring Jesus the biggest and heaviest jars, so that he could do the miracle. This, concludes Archie Coates, is the part of the painting God calls us to paint: to take part in the miracle of evangelizing the nations, revitalizing the Church and transforming society in the name of Jesus.

Key Takeaways

When the wine runs out in the world or in your life, the first response is to come to Jesus and entrust the problem to him.
Jesus could act alone, but he chooses to act with us: "Whatever he says to you, do it." His power and our obedience go together.
God turns water into wine and despair into hope. With him, the best is still to come.
The transformation of society starts with a changed heart and grows in a community where people love, encourage and pray for one another.
The servants filled the jars to the brim without being asked to. God invites everyone to bring everything so that he can do the miracle.

Personal Application

In which area of your life do you feel that "the wine has run out"? Have you really brought it to Jesus in prayer?
What small thing is God asking you to do right now, even if it seems strange or bold to you?
Which part of the painting do you feel called to paint: praying, serving, giving, welcoming, opening your home?
Are you part of a small group where you are known, where people pray for you and where you can serve others? If not, what step can you take this week?
In your service, are you content with the minimum, or do you fill the jars to the brim?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the wedding at Cana teach us about how God works?

For Archie Coates, Jesus could have acted alone, but he chooses to involve the servants: "Fill the water pots with water." God's work always comes through the meeting of divine power and human action. Jesus cares about your personal life, but he also wants to transform the world through you.

Why did the servants fill the jars to the brim?

Jesus had only said to fill the jars with water. It was the servants who decided to fill them to the brim (John 2:7). Archie Coates sees in this a picture of those who choose to give everything and to bring Jesus the biggest and heaviest jars, so that he can do the miracle.

Why does Archie Coates insist on small groups?

In his view, we do not live the commandment "Love one another" alone with a podcast and a Sunday service. The transformation of society starts with a heart changed by the Holy Spirit and spreads in a community where the fruit and gifts of the Spirit are lived out. He cites William Wilberforce and the group of friends who supported him, the "Clapham Sect."