The bringing forth of the crucified ones is the new thing God is doing in the world today. They are the new wine being poured into new wineskins.

When Jesus performed the miracle at Cana (John 2), He changed the water into wine. Water in the Bible is generally a type of the word of God (Eph. 5:26), and wine represents the blood of Jesus as He spoke of Himself regarding the Lord's supper. "Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you'" (Luke 22:20).

It isn't until the water of the word of God becomes the wine of the blood of God that it has any redemptive value. Jesus was the Word made flesh (John 1:1, 14). He was also the Lamb of God (John 1:36; Rev. 5:5-10). He came as the Word and died as the Lamb. The Word became the Blood: the water became wine.

Prophetic Nature of the Event

I believe that John is making a deliberate statement by the Holy Spirit in preserving this miracle at Cana as the "beginning of miracles Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory..." (John 2:11). It serves prophetically of both the crucifixion of Jesus and of the emergence of the crucified ones in these last times.

The fact that this was in the context of a wedding is significant. The whole story of the Bible begins and ends with a wedding. In the beginning He made man, and from him He made a helpmate and declared that "they shall be one flesh" (Gen. 2:24).

Ephesians 5:22-33 draws the correlation between the husband and wife, and Christ and the church. God and Christ are viewed throughout the Bible as the husband or bridegroom while Israel and the church are viewed as His wife or bride. Israel and the church are one and the same from God's point of view. He has always and only had one bride in His eye. He did not divorce one and remarry another. He divorced Himself from the harlot Israel (Jer. 3:8) but promised her restoration in Zion (Jer. 3:14-19).

John the Baptist was quoted as saying in reference to Jesus, "He who has the bride is the bridegroom" (John 3:29).

Jesus Himself compared His coming again to a wedding feast involving five wise and five foolish virgins (Matt. 25:1-13).

Revelation 19:7-9 pictures this end-of-the-age wedding thus, "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife has made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints...Blessed are they who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb..."

It appears significant that the wedding at Cana took place on the third day after Jesus had been baptized by John in the river Jordan which marked the beginning of His ministry. The number three in the Bible speaks of the fullness of testimony. The third day, therefore, possibly alludes to Christ as He was manifested in the glory of His resurrection (Acts 10:40, Luke 13:32).

In this same way, the emergence of these crucified ones in this final hour is the expected manifestation (revealing) of the sons of God spoken of in Romans 8:18-19. "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation (revelation) of the sons of God."

Furthermore, I think it is significant that the mother of Jesus was there both to instruct the son and the servants. The Church universal has always been regarded as a mother figure. In Revelation 12 we are told of the man child who is to be birthed out of great travail from the woman. This man child is first a picture of Christ Himself, but also a picture of this many-membered Christ-man who is to be manifested as many sons (male and female alike) in this last hour.

Radical Obedience

"And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, 'They have no wine.' Jesus said to her, 'Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour is not yet come'" (John 2:3-4).

Jesus clearly was not referring to His hour to do miracles because He promptly performed one. He was instead referring to the hour of His appointed crucifixion. In so doing, He tied this wedding and wine event to the shedding of His precious blood on the cross.

Mary, knowing full well who this Son of hers was and perhaps having a word of knowledge that He was about to perform this miracle, turned to the servants and instructed them to do whatever He said to them (v. 5). The servants not only must have known who Mary was but also respected her authority in this situation.

Now the servants, I believe, symbolically represent ministry; more specifically, of the equipping gift ministries of Ephesians 4:11. (Scripturally speaking, every believer ought to view himself as a servant, even though we are children, sons, priests, etc.)

The Greek word used here in John 2 for servants is diakonoi. This is the word from which we get the English word "deacon" in the English. It has often been translated "minister" in the New Testament. It primarily speaks of one who is doing the work of a servant.

The equipping gift ministries of Ephesians 4:11 have a particular anointing from the Holy Spirit to preach and teach the word of God. They are given charge over the word. In the early days of the church, the apostles charged the congregation to appoint deacons (diakonoi) to look after the temporal affairs of the body in order that they might give themselves continually to prayer and to the ministry (diakonia) of the word (Acts 6:1-7). Both apostles and deacons are servants. They only have different job descriptions.

Paul explained that he and Apollos, and I am sure he would include Peter and all the rest in this, are "but ministers (diakonoi) by whom you believed" (1 Cor. 3:5).

So, mother Mary tells the servants to do whatever Jesus says.

Obedience is the hallmark of the crucified ones. Anyone from this day onward who is not willing to lay down his own self-will in deference to the Head, Jesus Christ, and obey Him radically in every way, will miss out on this last and greatest miracle of God. Do whatever He says at all cost to yourself and your reputation!

Renewal of the Word

"And there were set there six waterpots of stone" (John 2:6). The number "six" in the Bible generally speaks of man.

I personally believe that 666 (Rev. 13:18) speaks of the fullness of man--that time when the carnal mind of man will have exalted itself to the maximum, above the knowledge of God. Although I do not disregard the possibility of an individual person to be the antichrist, the abomination that makes desolate the Holy Place (Matt. 24:15; Dan. 9:27), I am presently more concerned for the abomination of the carnal mind of Christians that is making desolate the Holy Place of their spirits.

The fact that there were six waterpots, I believe, speaks of this fullness of man, and that they were pots of stone speaks of our own lives as vessels. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels..." (2 Cor. 4:7).

It is therefore particularly significant that Jesus, who is Himself the Water of Life, should say to the servants (ministers), "Fill the waterpots with water." So "they filled them up to the brim" (John 2:7).

In the past two decades or so there has been a profound renewal in the word of God to the extent that many churches today rightly or wrongly call themselves "Word churches."

Among evangelicals, the emphasis has been upon correct interpretation of scriptural passages and deriving what is for them correct doctrines of the faith.

Among the charismatics, the emphasis has been upon knowing the word of God for yourself, confessing the word for the benefits it has promised, getting the word into your spirit and, among other things, using the word to defeat the powers of darkness.

This renewal in the word of God has shifted the emphasis away from the preeminence of church doctrines and dogmas to the point that many church-goers have rejected the sanctity of their denominational doctrines altogether. To them it has become more than a matter of simply getting back to the Bible. It is a matter of getting hold of The Word.

But as I said in the beginning of this chapter, until the water of the word of God becomes the wine of the blood of God, it will have no redemptive value.

The servants obeyed! The preachers responded to this move of the Holy Spirit in the renewal of the word. They have filled the earthen vessels of word-hungry believers to the brim.

Now, the call goes out to these servants to draw some of the water out of the pots and take it to the one in charge of the feast. So far as we can tell at this point, the water is still water in the pots. But somewhere between the pot and the governor in charge, that water turned into wine.

Somewhere between the time that the obedient preacher preaches the anointed word of God and the time that it falls upon the ears of its doers, the water of the word must turn into the blood of the crucified life. Until it does, its redemptive power is null and void.

Renewal of the Blood

"When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not where it came from: (but the servants who drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, and said to him, 'Every man at the beginning sets forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but you have kept the good wine until now.'" (John 2:9-10).

There has been a satisfaction of wine until now. Good wine. How can the wine of Jesus ever be anything but good and perfect? Yet, there is the promise of a better wine to come. The best shall come forth last; that is to say, the greatest move of the Holy Spirit is yet to come.

Just as there has been a renewal of the word during the past decades, there must now come a renewal of the blood. Not only will the revelation of the crucified life come forth, but that revelation will itself be coupled with the power of God to change the water into wine, the word into blood.

If the water of the word that anyone has is not allowed to be changed into the wine of His blood, that vessel will go into deception. There is a danger in acquiring knowledge for the sake of having knowledge or for the purposes of acquiring something for self.

You cannot have the word of God without the Lamb of God. "This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one" (1 John 5:6-8).

First comes the water of the word, then the blood of the Lamb, and then the power of the Holy Spirit to transform the water of the word into the wine of the blood in all who take up their cross daily to follow Him. It takes all three to complete the witness of Christ in the earth whether in Christ Himself or in His crucified ones.

Yielding

No man can crucify himself. This is where the grace and power of God enters again and again. If any of us ever hope to be a part of this company, we must be willing to do the only thing possible for us to do: yield to the purging, purifying fire of the Holy Spirit whose desire it is to bring us into perfection. We can only present ourselves as a living sacrifice... (Rom. 12:1).

New Wine in New Wineskins