Excerpt
God Is on Your Side Participant's Guide
1Set the GPSWhen You Don’t Know Where You’re GoingWhat do you do when you’re not sure where you’re going? When life’s direction doesn’t seem clear anymore? Jesus invites you to realign your GPS with his. In John 2, he shows us where his ministry is heading. It’s a famous story, where Jesus turns water to wine at a wedding. At face value, we might misunderstand this as simply a display of his power. (Cool party trick, Jesus!) Yet Jesus is doing something much more here.
Jesus is giving us a sign of where his ministry is headed, a glimpse of the destination he’s driving us toward. So buckle up; there’s a journey ahead. Jesus is taking us to a resurrection wedding—where the rivers run with wine, the celebration never ends, and we encounter our destiny in union with God.
Prepare Your HeartDescribe a time when you felt disoriented or without hope. What were the circumstances? What emotions did you experience? How long did it last? What was your perception of God in that season?
Unpack ItResurrection Wedding“On the third day,” John tells us, “a wedding took place at Cana” (John 2:1). John uses time stamps like this to frame the stories that follow.
• What event does “the third day” foreshadow in John’s gospel?
• How does a third-day wedding foreshadow what Jesus has come to accomplish?
• What does this first sign in John’s gospel tell us about the destination Jesus has come to take us to?
When You’ve Run Out• What social significance did running out of wine have for a family hosting a wedding in that day?
• “My hour has not yet come,” Jesus tells his mother (John 2:4). What does “my hour” refer to in John’s gospel?
• When Jesus turns water to wine, how does this foreshadow what he will accomplish at the cross?
Rivers of Wine
• Jesus makes a lot of wine—roughly 750 bottles. Imagine you’re a guest at this wedding, where the party’s already been going on for days, when this abundance of top-quality wine gets unexpectedly rolled out. What are you thinking and feeling? Describe your experience.
• Jesus’s miracle has an Old Testament backdrop. The prophets said the Messiah would bring a wedding feast where the mountains would drip with wine (Isaiah 25:6–9; Joel 3:18; Amos 9:13–14). What might this suggest about why Jesus makes so much wine?
• Why does Jesus make this the first sign of his ministry?
• Beyond wine, what picture do the passages above paint of the future God wants to establish for us as his people?
The Seventh Vessel• The six stone water jars, John tells us, were “for the Jewish rites of purification” (John 2:6, ESV). Jesus is intentional with the details he chooses for this miracle. What did these rites involve, and what was their purpose?
• How does Jesus’s death on the cross fulfill this aspect of the sign?
• Why might John—who loved symbolism—highlight that there were six stone water jars?
Best for Last• The climax of Jesus’s first sign is a powerful picture of the gospel. In this living parable, who does the master of the banquet represent?
• Who is the Bridegroom in the gospel?
• In John’s gospel, how has the best wine been saved for last?
• In the gospel, how is God like the master of the banquet delighting in the best wine poured out by the Bridegroom for his wedding with us as the bride?
Use Your ImaginationA little secret: God turns water into wine all the time. Rain falls to the earth, soaks into the soil, and is absorbed by the vine. It eventually emerges in the grapes, which come bursting off the branches. With this miracle, Jesus is not contradicting nature but rather speeding up the process, through himself as the vine. Yet there’s one more crucial step in the process of making wine: You have to crush the grapes.
Your imagination is powerful. Something happens when you don’t stop at simply reading the details of a story but access your creativity to soak in the message more deeply. Draw a picture of each of the following parts of the process described above. It can be a simple picture, but allow your imagination to envision each stage of the process with all the vitality and color of God’s creation.
• rain falling from the sky and soaking into the ground
• a vine’s roots absorbing the water from the soil
• the water traveling through the vine’s branches into the grapes
• the grapes being plucked off the branches by the gardener
• the grapes being crushed in the winepress and the juice flowing
• the wine being poured into a cup, ready to be savored
God designed creation to point to Jesus, who was crushed to bring forth resurrection wine. Reflect on the significance of Jesus’s sacrifice for you. Write a prayer of gratitude. Try to be specific with aspects of your life that have been transformed by his sacrificial love, his cleansing, and his heart of abundance toward you.
Reflect on It1. Is there a time when you felt disoriented? Perhaps an unexpected event in your life left you feeling hopeless. To the extent you feel comfortable, summarize what happened. (Be brief so there’s time for everyone to share.)
2. Jesus’s miracle at Cana is the first sign of John’s gospel, where Jesus sets the GPS to show us the destination his ministry is headed toward. How can reorienting our GPS toward our future in God’s resurrection wedding bring hope when we feel hopeless?
3. The wedding runs out of wine, an embarrassing disaster for the host family. Have you ever had a time when you felt like you ran out, unable to meet people’s expectations and disheartened with nothing left to give? Describe what the experience was like.
4. Jesus makes a lot of wine (around 750 bottles)! Read Amos 9:13–14. How does the abundant kingdom Jesus has brought confront popular misconceptions people in our culture might have about God?
5. Jesus uses water jars from “the Jewish rites of purification” (John 2:6, ESV). This points to the purifying nature of his death (John 19:34). Describe how you feel when you emerge from a long, hot shower or bath. Focus not just on your external state but on how you feel on the inside. How might this compare to the cleansing Jesus came to bring?
6. Do you ever struggle with feeling dirty, stained, or guilty? Where in your life do these feelings show up? Do they make you feel distant from God or unworthy of his love? Consider expressing this to God, either through writing it out in a prayer or through sharing it with the group. Reflect together on the immensity of Christ’s love for you—that he would shed his blood to cover you and wash you spotlessly clean—and what this does to stir your affections for God.
7. You’re invited not simply to attend God’s resurrection wedding but to be the bride. What kind of depth of union and vitality of celebration does this imply you were created to experience with God? What might it look like to begin preparing for this future and living toward this reality today?
8. Close with prayer, asking God to “set your GPS” and orient your life toward this destination.
