John 2:1-12
Notes
Transcript
A change starts here in chapter two. A change in how the book shows the identity of Christ.
Chapter one...
Testimony of others
John the disciple, the author testifies in the opening statements...
John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
it carries on into John 1:9-14
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Go back through these verses and breakdown the testimony of who John the disciple through the power of the Holy Spirit says Jesus is.
John the Baptist the great prophet and teacher before Jesus first testifies of who he is NOT.
John 1:19-28
And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”
And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.” (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.)
They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know,
even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Go back of scripture defining who John the baptist isn’t and is.
Now John the Baptist’s testimony of who Jesus is...
John 1:29-35
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’
I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.
I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
Breakdown scripture of John’s testimony of Jesus.
The testimony of the first disciples of Jesus.
and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.
Followed Jesus, heard Jesus, listened to Jesus, ...confesses Jesus.
One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ).
Andrew testifies!
Philip testifies
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”
Followed Jesus, heard Jesus, listened to Jesus, ...confesses Jesus.
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Philip testifies to the old writings written about the Messiah to come!
Nathanael’s testimony,
John 1:46-50
Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”
Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
This is the opening to this book.
The testimonies of forever changed men.
Men that gained nothing worldly except brutal persecution and death in following Christ.
The book now changes over to something a bit different.
Instead of men testifying about Jesus, Jesus testifies of Himself through word, action, and deed in the Truth of God.
Starting in chapter 2 and carrying on through chapter 12, were going to be studying 8 signs or miracles outside of His greatest miracle, His Resurrection.
But just to be clear, this isn’t an end all be all collection of miracles.
These will be just a small sample of miracles.
as John says in this book..
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;
and
Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
And this is the kick off to these verses...
Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Greater things than these!
Because of this you believe...you have no idea!
Boy, isn’t this all of us?
Lets read,
On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.
When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.
Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it.
When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom
and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
Low key revealing, not high key look at me. A slow, thoughtful, introduction to himself.
What do we see here?
We have a wedding.
Weddings were a bit different than the weddings of today.
Great celebration, 3-7 days longs.
Not paid for by the brides parents but the grooms.
How these celebrations were prepared for and hosted had a lot of meaning.
It was a reflection of how well the groom would care for his bride.
Running out of anything would not look good.
We have Jesus’ mother that is at this wedding feast and she seems to be more than just and attendee, but someone that is helping with the celebration.
Concerns of running out of wine and commanding the servants to whatever Jesus asks.
She seems to be more than just an invited guest.
And we have Jesus and his first few disciples.
John, Andrew, Simon, Philip, & Nathaneal attending as guests.
And we read of this problem.
When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”
This isn’t good. As discussed before to run out of anything during a wedding feast isn’t good.
Wine was used to purify and bring taste to stagnate water anywhere from 20 to 1, to 3 to 1.
Wine was a symbol of joy and celebration.
And what are we at, a wedding.
A great celebration of two becoming one in great joy.
This was looked at as a great blunder.
But why go to Jesus? Not the family?
Well as you can imagine. There is no store to just run down to and grab more.
Also, this wedding celebration has been in the making for quite some time. All that was prepared for is here, there is no extra just sitting around.
And you’re just not going to go smash some grapes and hurriedly ferment some wine, it’s just not going to happen.
This is a problem that is not easily remedied.
Biblically it doesn’t say exactly what happened to Joseph, Mary’s husband. But we do know that at Jesus’ death that Joseph wasn’t around as Jesus tells John to watch over her.
We believe that Joseph had passed and Jesus being the eldest was in some ways the man of the house and was a great helper to Mary outside of being, well, you know, the perfect child, Jesus.
We also need to remember, that Mary isn’t oblivious to who Jesus is. Remember this is a women who had her first child while still being a virgin. A act that I think we sometimes forget in the relationship between Mary and Jesus but one that she’d never forget.
So, for her to tell this to Jesus in pursuit of help makes perfect sense.
But what does Jesus say?
And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”
Woofta, I don’t know about you but I didn’t see that coming.
It’s not a term of disrespect as “woman” has the same meaning as what we might say “ma’m” but it’s also not intimate as in the relational word “Mother or Mom” as I would expect from Jesus.
Why? Why this type of response?
What’s changing? Years of being the perfect son, the perfect helper, to “Woman, what does this have to do with me?”
A bigger calling is what’s changed so to speak.
The very reason He’s here in the flesh...
The bigger calling? The will of the Father.
To take upon Him the sin of the World.
The time has come to set the stage so to speak.
He’s not ignoring her but in some ways rebuking her that bigger things have now come.
And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.
The ministry of Jesus The Christ had begun.
We have an announcement here so to speak, a change, my bigger purpose is beginning.
It’s intentional and clear.
Before we move on, I want to touch on some unbiblical teachings that have been taught through these verses.
These verses have been used by some to show great favor towards Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Great favor as in praying to Mary to persuade Jesus to do something.
Although Jesus did help in this situation, the “why” He did this wasn’t because Mary has control over Him.
As I believe this verse clearly shows.
And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”
But for what scripture tells us it’s for
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
Folks, to teach any type of prayer to Mary or anyone else for that matter to persuade of soften Jesus is unbiblical, wrong, and just down right a belittling of who Jesus is.
It kinda makes me angry.
Let me ask you, who has more patience than God?
What about Mercy?
What about Grace?
What about forgiveness?
What about love?
To think Mary, your grandma, or whoever has more compassion, more understanding, more love than Jesus is flat out blashemy!
Was Mary blessed? Absolutely, is she more loving than Jesus, absolutely not!
These verses nor any other verses support this claim of praying to Mary as some do.
What do these verses show?
Jesus’ identity!
The authority over all creation.
The very one that sets laws of creation but one that is outside the laws of creation.
Time, space, and His creation as no control over Him!
Where we can only create from within creation and from what has already been created.
He can create something from nothing by just merely speaking it!
What is a miracle? This very thing! Outside of the laws of creation that we know of things happen.
Cancer here one day, the very next day gone. The body and it’s created order just can’t do that, only One can!
The One outside of creation! The One all powerful Creator, God!
The only One that can turn water into wine in an instant.
Can these verses have more meaning?
Like the many commentaries out there showing many symbolic meanings of wine and it’s symbol of joy.
The discussions of the six clay pots used for ceremonial washing now used for wine.
Discussions of the old testament ceremonial washings being replaced with the washings of Joy in the Messiah, Jesus.
Our lostness and emptiness filled with newness and Joy in Christ.
A foreshadow of whats to come in taking the cup of wine, drinking it in remembrance of Him and the Joy in Christ through it?
Possibly, but one thing for sure!
This is a miracle that the servants, His mom, and the disciples seen and witnessed.
Which in turn, did the exact thing verse 11 says...
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
Made known His glory, in word, action, and deed.
And through this revealing that He poured out to His disciples, brought belief in Him.
Not Mary, not themselves, but Him.
This is the creator of all and so deserves our praise and worship.
The One and only that knows you better than you know yourself, sin and all!
The One that entered His creation to restore it.
How did He restore it?
By His birth, life, death, and resurrection.
And giving that to all who repent and believe!
This is Jesus! This is His identity! The Savior, The Messiah, The Christ!
