Fully Alive By Faith Series

Who is Jesus?

Who does the world say Jesus is?

who do you believe Jesus is?

Near the end of his Gospel, John clearly delineates the purpose or premise of his account of the life of Jesus.

John 20:30–31 ESV

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

It’s as though here in the penultimate chapter, that he is explaining the why behind the what that he has shared.

In these two brief verses, we are going to make three practical observations which are based on the content of the rest of the book of John.

The first practical observation is that John’s hope is that we will...

Consider the signs

John, like the other gospel writers, assembles a selective collection of miracles, teachings, and experiences of Jesus in order to paint a picture of who Jesus is and why he came.

Matthew seems to show Jesus as the Promised King

Mark shows Jesus as a servant.

Luke demonstrates the humanity of Jesus

John, as he has stated in his purpose, seeks to show that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. He does this by choosing specific signs or miracles.

Just as we might use signs as a means of helping us navigate on a road trip, John chooses seven specific miracles as signs, navigating us to belief in Jesus. Let’s briefly consider these signs and how they point us to Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God. For each of these, we will consider the nature of the sign, the people impacted, and the outcome.

1. Changing water into wine John 2:1–11

In His first recorded miracle, Jesus, his mother, and his disciples find themselves at a wedding. In an unexpected turn of events, the wine runs out. Mary notifies Jesus of the dilemma, and he initially asks her why she pointed this out to him, and then as though expecting that he would do something, she turns to the servants at the feast and encourages them to do what he says. There are 6 stone water jars there (each able to hold 20-30 gallons of water). Jesus calls the servants to fill them up. We don’t know how many servants, but we can likely assume that it would take more than one to lift a jar. It’s also likely that they may have used something to fill the jars rather than dunking the whole jars in the water source. That much water alone would weigh between 166 and 250 (adding to that the weight of the stone jar). They are then instructed to draw some liquid from the jar and take it to the master of the party who, unaware about the origin or the events affirms that the bridegroom has saved the best for last.

Nature of the sign:

Jesus essentially takes one kind of liquid and causes it to be another kid of liquid - same form, different substance. wine normally takes months or even years to prepare. Jesus did all of that in an instant.

People impacted:

While there were a lot of people at the party - a lot of people were blessed by this miracle - after all, that much wine should go a long way, relatively few people really knew what happened: the servants, Mary, and the disciples (maybe 12-25 people in all).

Outcome:

John tells us that the disciples believed in him (John 2:11 “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” )

The next sign we see is a couple of chapters later with Jesus…

2. Healing the official’s son John 4:46–54

Rather than summarizing the event, let’s look at this briefly:

John 4:46–54 ESV

So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.