John Chapter 2

I believe it's time to continue the exploration of the Gospel of John. In chapter 1, we see that the Word of God had became flesh and has now come into the world. The Lord Jesus Christ calls His first disciples and they follow Him.

Now in chapter 2, we get to begin to see how Jesus' ministry starts out. The setting is a wedding in a town called Cana. Jesus, His mother, His brothers, and His disciples had all been invited to the wedding. To me it's interesting that the names of the couple who was married was not revealed in this chapter. But regardless, whoever they were, they knew who Jesus and His family and friends were.

As chapter 2 starts to move a little bit, we find that the wedding party has run out of wine during the celebration, which leads Mary to inform Jesus about the wine running out (v.3). It is obvious though that Jesus sees this as Mary requesting that Jesus get more wine for the party, and also that Jesus doesn't appreciate Mary trying to get Jesus to do a miracle (v.4).

Yet Jesus takes heed to the request and tells the servants at the party to take six stone jars and fill them with water (v. 7). Once they had done this, He then tells them to scoop the water out and serve it to the head of the party. The head of the party was amazed at the taste of the fluid (being that it was wine), and explained that he usually gets the best wine first, but this wine was the best and it was saved for last (v. 10). Once the party was over, Jesus, His family, and His disciples went to Capernaum.

In Jerusalem, Jesus finds that the temple of the Lord is being used as a market place, and He is discusted that anyone would have done so. Quickly, Jesus began to displace the market by driving people out with a whip that He had made out of some cords, threw all the money that was there on the ground, and flipped over the tables that were there (v.15). The Jews began to wonder under what authority that Jesus had done this, so they asked Him if Jesus could provide to them a miracle to confirm His authority.

Instead though, what Jesus gave them was His first prophecy. Jesus said that if you knock down the temple, in three days He will raise it up again (v.19). What the Jews didn't realize was that Jesus meant that His own body would be killed and then He would be bodily raised later on. Jesus then begins to perform miracles to different people.

I find it interesting that this chapter has two "firsts" of Jesus in it. The first one is Jesus' first miracle (turning water into wine), and the other first is Jesus' prophecy. Jesus would later on go and perform countless miracles and tell many prophecies, while also telling sermons and parables to those who would listen.

What we need to do is be Jesus' servant. Mary tried to push Her son into doing something that He didn't want to do right away, and because of that Jesus basically told Mary that it wasn't time for a miracle, almost like He's not a circus act. Then in the temple Jesus gives a prophecy about the time when He will be crucified. Wouldn't it be interesting if we could see prophecy this clearly today? But then again, prophecy usually doesn't make sense until after the fact.

God the Father...and His Assurance in His Family

Our great God is someone who is personally active in each of our lives everyday. Not only is this true, but He lives in our lives for a very specific reason, and that reason is because God is also our Father because we love His Son Jesus Christ (John 6:27).


God the Father loves us and knows that we need His help. He gave manna in the desert for his children (John 6:31). And He has come to not only give us food, but the very thing that we need the most, salvation from our sins. He took His Son and gave Him to be a sacrifice for the whole world, so that anyone who believes in Him will be saved (John 3:16).


A natural question that can come up from time to time is, who is a part of the family of God? Do I really have to believe in Jesus or can I just accept that God is our Father? What if people do not believe in Jesus, but they do believe in God, can they be a part of the family of God? Let me ask this question first and then I will also provide Scripture as well: Why should we be a part of God's family (His sons and daughters) if we can't even accept His Son and our blameless brother Jesus? In fact, the Scriptures say that the only way we can know the Father is through accepting Jesus as the Son of God (1 John 2:23). Anyone who does deny this fact is denying this for other reasons, not righteous reasons.

So to be a part of the family of God is to accept His Son, Jesus Christ. We are adopted children of God the Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Gal 3:26). Does this mean that we are children of Jesus in a physical way and that we may have a grandmother in Mary or on and on or something? No. It is plain from Scripture that Mary had her own children, and the Lord has received us as His children through faith. He is the Savior of all, whether it be someone who persecuted Christians like Paul, or someone who helped raise Jesus like Joseph and Mary.

By being children of God then, we have a great hope through our faith that the Lord Jesus Christ will never let us go. Do you have your own children? Have they ever done something wrong before? As a parent, you should look at your child with love and compassion and accept that child regardless of the wrong doing that may have been done. Jesus gives us a great example of this by telling the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15. The son never ceased being the son of the father, and when the son returned to his senses and came back to his father, his father brought him back. And so it is with God the Father. We may stray and go our own way, but the Lord has given us the assurance of our Salvation, because He bought us (1 Cor 7:23). Because of that He will never let us go and He will find a way to bring us back to Him, even when there seems to be no way. Why?

Because through our faith in Jesus Christ, we are the children of God and He will NEVER turn His children away, no matter what we have done.