John’s Gospel #3 Jesus’ Firsts
CHCC: January 20, 2008
John 1-2
INTRODUCTION:
Today we’re going to look at Jesus’ Firsts in the Gospel of John. In chapters 1 and 2 John tells about Jesus’ 1st Apostles, his 1st Miracle, and his 1st Confrontation with the Religious Leaders. MY 1st thought was that this was too much to put in one sermon … at least if we’re still going to “beat the Baptists” to lunch. But then I got to thinking that these 3 Firsts of Jesus represent the First things Jesus does in OUR lives when we follow Him. So I’m hoping you’ll read John 1 and 2 for the details … and for the next few minutes, we’re going to do a “fly-by” over these 3 Firsts.
Let me start with a question: Who is the FIRST person that told you about Jesus? In my case it was my parents. For some of you it may have been a friend or neighbor or Sunday School teacher. But for ALL of us, there was SOMEONE who introduced us to Jesus Christ. That is God’s plan for how the Good News can be spread. It’s plan A. There is no plan B.
Jesus’ first followers were introduced to Jesus through the testimony of John the Baptist. When John and Andrew asked Jesus where he was staying, Jesus said, Come and see. As soon as he could, Andrew ran to get his brother Simon.
The next day, Jesus invited Philip to join them and he immediately went to get Nathaniel. Nathaniel was skeptical. He said, “The Messiah is from Nazareth? Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip gave him the simple answer Jesus gave: Come and see.
That is how the first 5 Apostles started a journey that would transform their lives and … in fact … that would eventually transform the whole world. In John 1, we see that at the very beginning of this journey, they found out that God had a PERSONAL PURPOSE for each of their lives.
1. Personal Purpose John 1:35-51
You might expect the first thing Jesus would do with these first Apostles is tell them all about himself and what his ministry was going to be like. We’d probably expect a clever mission statement along with some specific short-term and long-term goals. But that’s not what Jesus did. When he met Andrew’s brother, here’s the first thing Jesus said: People call you Simon, but as my follower, people will call you Rocky. (Peter means “the Rock”) John 1:42
The same kind of thing happened when Philip brought Nathaniel to Jesus. Jesus told Nathaniel: As my follower, you’re going to see amazing things. In fact, you will actually see the heavens open and Angels surrounding me. John 1:51
What stands out to me is that the first thing Jesus gave these men wasn’t a bunch of details about who HE was. The first thing Jesus gave them was a fuller understanding about who THEY were.
The same thing happens to you and me. When you begin to follow Jesus you don’t immediately understand everything about Him. But from the very beginning, you realize that Jesus already knows who YOU are. In fact, it’s ONLY when you receive Christ that you begin to understand who you really are. It’s ONLY when you follow Jesus that you receive your life’s true purpose.
The fact is, until we know God, we don’t really know ourselves. Without God, life often feels arbitrary and meaningless. We might be successful for a while at achieving some temporary goals. But achieving a goal just reveals how inadequate that success really is. We might be able to entertain ourselves enough that we don’t think about it. But without a relationship to our Father in Heaven, what meaning can there be to the short span of human life?
As a follower of Jesus, we find out that WE matter to God. Just to understand that God takes a personal interest in ME … is a life-changing revelation. It’s enough to give me new confidence and motivation. We start to see that our attitudes and actions can make an eternal difference.
Jesus changed Simon Peter from a loud-mouthed fisherman to a powerful preacher of the Gospel. Jesus gave the skeptical Nathaniel the kind of faith that could open the heavens. And Jesus can give YOU new abilities, new potential, and purpose for your life.
2. Personal Miracles John 2:1-11
The next event in John’s Gospel is often called, “Jesus’ first public miracle.” But this was actually a very personal miracle. About 3 days after John, Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathaniel started following Jesus, they were invited to a Wedding. Now, weddings in the Jewish tradition could last as long as seven days. The host was expected to provide enough food and drink for that entire time. Evidently the turnout was big for this wedding, because Jesus’ mother came to him and told him, “They’ve run out of wine!”
Something goes wrong in just about every wedding. Most of the time it seems funny (…at least later on.) I’ve officiated at a lot of weddings, but there’s one I’ll never forget. It was not anyone associated with our church, but this couple wanted to use our old sanctuary, and I agreed to marry them. Unfortunately, they had a sweet little old aunt who volunteered to play the organ for them …for free… Well, you get what you pay for… The aunt found a setting on our old Hammond Organ that sounded like a circus calliope, not at all a proper setting for a wedding, and repeatedly, she would rest her foot on an organ pedal causing it to bellow at inappropriate times in the ceremony, unfortunately she could not hear it so she didn’t know what she was doing with her feet. And at the end of the ceremony, I had arranged with her to tone down the volume long enough for me to give an announcement to the wedding guests. She forgot to tone down her volume, so I had to shout instructions to the audience while she put her "pedal to the mettle" so to speak.
It only takes one thing (like a hard of hearing organist) to mess up a wedding. In the case of the wedding Jesus attended, the family knew that for years to come people would talk… “Oh, you remember… that was the wedding where we were all got stuck drinking well water because they ran out of wine.”
Jesus understood the social embarrassment his host was facing, so … at his mother’s request … Jesus changed water into wine. The wine was so good, in fact, that the master of the banquet wondered why they had saved the best wine for the end of the banquet. Of course, creating vintage wine for a wedding was no "biggy" for the Creator of the Universe. But to the bride and groom, it was a BIG DEAL. And John 2:11 says, Jesus thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him. This little miracle showed the Disciples WHO Jesus was. “His glory” refers to His personality; His character; His power; His heart. This little miracle was enough to convince them to put full Trust in Him.
I think Jesus still performs personal miracles for His followers so we can learn to put trust Him. These kinds of miracles don’t make the headlines. They may not mean much to anyone else. These are the little things that show us God cares about even the little details of our live … and that He can and will answer our prayers.
Susan and I both came to know Jesus at a very young age. So we were trying to remember a first time when Jesus did some small miracle for us that helped us trust Him. Susan remembered a time when she was a little girl and her family was traveling with their dachshund and 5 newborn puppies. The airconditioner went out and she was worried because the puppies were panting so she prayed. She was amazed that right then the airconditioner started working again so that all was well for the puppies.
That made me remember a similar experience I had as a boy. It made an impression on me … but it wasn’t quite as cute as Susan’s story. While in highschool, someone gave me a rat and a cage. It might not have seemed like much of a pet, but it was my pet, and I cared about it. One day it looked like it was about to die. I did what I could for it, and when I got to school I decided to pray for it to get well. When I arrived home, it had perked up and looked healthy again. God had answered my prayer ... for a Rat! My faith in the power of prayer was strengthened that day.
Don’t underestimate the power of small miracles to build big faith. The Miracles in and of themselves are not the point. God isn’t trying to impress us. He reaches down into the details of our lives to reveal his glory … His personality and His personal care for us is seen even in the small events of our lives.
3. Personal Cleansing John 2:12-25
Now, it’s a good thing the Apostles’ Faith was built up by the water-to-wine miracle, because the next thing Jesus did must have left them wondering “What have we gotten ourselves into?”
After the Wedding, Jesus, his mother, his brothers, and his disciples went to Capernaum for a few days. Then, here’s what happened next: When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.
So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!" John 2:13-16
Passover time was crowded with thousands of out-of-town visitors. The visitors came so they could worship in the Temple --- but the Religious Leaders allowed moneychangers and merchants to set up shop in the Court of the Gentiles. The reason Gentile converts came to the Temple was so they could worship the One True God. But these Foreigners could not go past the Court of the Gentiles.
Obviously the Religious Leaders didn’t care if the Foreigners’ part of the Temple was a place where they could Worship or not. But Jesus DID care. He cared passionately. Because of that, Jesus was willing to cause quite a commotion. Animals would have been bawling and running … with owners chasing after them. Moneychangers would have been grabbing their coins… trying to stuff them in bags as they ran away.
The temple Jesus cleansed was destroyed 2000 years ago. But the real temple … the real place God wants to live … the real home of worship and prayer … is your Heart. 1 Corinthians 6:19, says, "Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who dwells in you…" If Jesus took such aggressive action to clean the Jewish Temple that was going to be torn down a few years later, you KNOW he is going to go on the attack against sin in your heart.
When Jesus drives out sin, it is usually disruptive to the status quo. But He will never be content to just sit back and let sin ruin you.
CONCLUSION:
John is the only Gospel that tells about Jesus cleansing the temple at the beginning of His ministry. The other Gospels tell about him doing a similar thing at the END of His ministry … just a few days before He was crucified. The FIRST things Jesus did are the things he CONTINUED to do all through His earthly ministry.
It’s the same for us when we become Followers of Jesus. Every day He reveals His perfect PLAN for our lives. He continues to answer our prayers with BIG and SMALL miracles. And He will never stop attacking SIN in our lives. That’s what following Jesus means.
