AUTHORITY ACKNOWLEDGED
John 2:1-16
People are curious about many things. Some are trivial and others are quite profound. Many questions we raise do not have clearly defined answers and we often wind up with a multitude of opinions that are likely to be in conflict. Many of life’s profound questions are answered to various degrees in the Bible. For example, one of the more profound questions that we might encounter is
Why did God create the universe? We find great insight to the answer to this question in Psalms 19:1 where we find that creation is a statement of God’s glory.
The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Psalm 19:1 (NASB95)
The list of such questions is practically unending. For example:
Why did God create mankind and establish a relationship with man?
Why did God speak through prophets, through angels, and why did He send Jesus?
The answers to these questions are seen in the familiar passage that begins the book of Hebrews written to the early church. The first four verses give us a good start on the answers. Reading the rest is the chapter is recommended.
1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, 2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. 3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. Hebrews 1:1-4 (NASB95)
Why were the Gospel accounts written?
The simplest answer to that question is this: To reveal Who God is in the person of Jesus Christ. In John Chapter 1 we see Jesus being referred to as the Word of God. Words are used to communicate. Jesus is God’s ultimate communication of Himself to the world. We could go on to say that John showed the deity of Christ, and Matthew showed Him as King. Mark showed Him as a Servant and Luke revealed His humanity. The actions which Jesus took during His earthly ministry were part of that revelation. God’s revelation of Himself to mankind throughout history has been progressive – He reveals more and more of Himself as time goes on. In the same way Jesus was careful during His time on the earth to reveal Who He is in “deliberate and progressive” steps. Let’s see how this revelation unfolded in the second chapter of John where we find that Jesus began to show evidence of His authority. As we see His authority revealed, how do we show evidence that we acknowledge that authority and that He is Lord in our lives?
Obey Jesus – 2:1-5
1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; 2 and both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do it.” John 2:1-5 (NASB95)
As Christians we are to join in the community activities as a means of being where we can minister to others. The family sponsoring the wedding may have been poor and was not able to buy enough wine. Mary was concerned and passed her concern onto Jesus.
The purpose for which Jesus came to live among us was not to provide wine for weddings. He did not come to multiply bread and fish to feed five thousand. He did not come to walk on water. Though He did these things, His main purpose was to die as a sacrifice for sin and in doing so to reveal the glory and truth of God. Jesus was just beginning His ministry and knew the potential power miracles could have in sparking a wave of politically driven fervor to elevate the “miracle worker” to some sort of earthly high office. Many times Jesus told those close to Him “My time is not yet come.” Immediately before His arrest and crucifixion He changed this statement to “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.”
Mary’s faith in Jesus to do something to meet the need of these people was not going to go unanswered. Genuine faith pleases God and He responds to it. Mary’s advice to the servants at the wedding needs to be heeded by all who would follow Jesus. That advice was “whatever He tells you to do, do it!”
We can also see that Mary did not argue with Jesus and did not “plead” with Him to do something to help. She simply pointed out the need and left the results up to Him. She did all that she could do and then simply trusted Jesus to do what was appropriate.
Grow in Faith – 2:6-11
6 Now there were six stone waterpots set there for the Jewish custom of purification, containing twenty or thirty gallons each. 7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” So they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.” So they took it to him. 9 When the headwaiter tasted the water which had become wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom, 10 and said to him, “Every man serves the good wine first, and when the people have drunk freely, then he serves the poorer wine; but you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 This beginning of His signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him. John 2:6-11 (NASB95)
You might call what Jesus did a private miracle. Mary, the servants and the four (or 5) disciples who were with Him were the only ones who knew what had happened. Jesus meant to keep it private in that it was not the right time in the progressive revelation that was unfolding during His earthly ministry. (Examples of a public miracle are the parting of the Red Sea and feeding the five thousand.)
This miracle may also be seen as a parable in that the number six represents imperfection. The stone of which the jars were made is earthly and the water with which they are filled represents our humanity. We are filled to the brim with our humanity. When Jesus enters the picture, then that which we have in earthen vessels becomes transformed into a spiritual nature (represented by the wine).
The wine that ran out could be said to represent the Law which had a spiritual basis but lacked the power to save – it ran out before the job was done. Though it was good, it could not compare with the new wine, the “law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus.”
The actions of the others involved in this miracle may be instructive in understanding various behaviors we encounter with people today. The servants were completely and unquestionably obedient. They did not have a clue as to what was going to happen, but they had an assignment and they were faithful to do their duty. There are certainly times in our lives when we are asked to carry out a task that may not make much sense to us at the time. However, such obedience can be used by God to accomplish the work of the Kingdom. We could agree with Samuel who told Saul “to obey is better than sacrifice.” The other side of that coin is that when we obey, we should be able to trust the person who is giving the instructions. Some people today will find themselves under the influence those who have a charming and charismatic demeanor and may blindly obey error.
The head waiter recognized the goodness of what Jesus had created but he did not know the Creator and, consequently, gave the credit for that goodness to someone else. Many people today enjoy life’s blessings and think that we have such blessings because of a benevolent company for which we work or a benevolent government that provides everything we might need. Such failure to recognize that the origin of every good and perfect gift is God Himself can create a culture that is either egocentric or one in which people are totally reliant on the state for every need.
It could be argued that the purpose for which God does everything He does is to “reveal His glory.” There are many passages in the Scriptures that point to the fact that the reason God saved us was for His glory to be revealed in us. (See Scripture references at the end of these notes related to the glory of God.)
This miracle involved elements that show the continuity of God’s special revelation that we saw in the ministry of John the Baptist. He baptized in water with a baptism unto repentance. John’s message to the people was simply “repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” He first pointed people to the moral requirements that represented purity in the Old Testament and then he pointed people to Jesus. We now see in the miracle at Cana that Jesus used water that was used in purification rites as the starting material for the new wine that He gave to them.
Though Jesus did not come to just do miracles, the miracles He did were for the purposes of revealing His glory and building faith in those who would follow Him. In all these things we can summarize God’s plan of salvation as “repent and believe, trust and obey.”
Make Worship Genuine – 2:12-16
12 After this He went down to Capernaum, He and His mother and His brothers and His disciples; and they stayed there a few days. 13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15 And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; 16 and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” John 2:13-16 (NASB95)
Early in His ministry, Jesus was still closely connected with His family. This visit to Capernaum was apparently immediately after the wedding in Cana. Sometimes it is more difficult to minister to those who are closest to us. We know from other references that Jesus’ family members were initially quite skeptical of what He was doing in teaching and healing.
Verses 13-16 appear to be at a different point in time than immediately following the wedding at Cana. The other gospel accounts placed the cleansing of the temple at the end of Jesus’ ministry. Some commentators think this account is a separate event from the one recorded by the other gospels. However, it seems unlikely that Jesus “cleansed the Temple” twice. John’s purpose was not to present a chronologically correct account of the activities of Jesus but to present convincing evidence that Jesus is the Messiah. (But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:31)
It is helpful to read the accounts by Mark (11:15-18) and Matthew (21:12-13).
Confrontation of the “establishment” and the status quo of life are inevitable if real changes for the better are ever to be made. Situations left to themselves only get worse and more confused. Restoring them to their proper place requires work and sacrifice. The conditions in the Temple at the time Jesus took action were an indication of how far from “God’s ideal” that things had deteriorated. When you are effective, then those who are against what you are doing take action against you. If you are not effective, then the opposition is subdued. (Note: Mark put the timing of this after the Fig Tree was cursed, while Matthew has it before the Fig Tree was cursed.)
There are spiritual lessons to be learned in the accounts by Matthew, Mark and John that would relate to us as the church and as individuals being described as the “Temple of God.”
Jesus entered - He is not there until He comes in. The New Agers teach that everyone has "the Christ" in them, we just need to discover it. The truth of the matter is the Holy Spirit may visit but He does not inhabit the natural man.
He drove out all - Expect Jesus to drive all the profane and vain out of our lives. We must be careful to not put it back when He drives it away.
Money changers and sellers - materialism must be replaced with spiritual values.
It is written - Our lives must be ordered in accordance with the word of God - by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
House of prayer - If we don't pray on our own, God may give us something to pray about.
You have made - We have the capability to mess up what God is doing.
Blind, lame came to Him at the temple - People needing help from the Lord should be coming to us since we are His temple.
He healed them - The church is a place of healing.
The spiritual significance is that now each of us is the temple of God and we must be careful to not let the “mundane and routine” of buying and selling crowd out the “spiritual” in our lives.
Comments on the Rest of Chapter Two
The final verses of this chapter are related to the confrontation of the religious leaders that resulted from the bold action Jesus took to “cleanse the temple.” They wanted to know who gave Him the authority to do what he did. Jesus’ answer seemed to be unrelated to their question when He said “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days.” The meaning is clear to us in that we know that the Resurrection was convincing evidence of Who Jesus is.
Our understanding of the meaning of God’s word is (at best) incomplete and many times it is necessary for us to be able to look back on events to recognize the fulfillment of what He has said.
God is at work and He does miraculous things. Though He may not do miracles to prove He is God, those with eyes to see can recognize His handiwork all around them. Notice that toward the end of His ministry (last week) that many people saw the miraculous signs. The revelation of His glory was now being openly shown. Three years before this (at the wedding in Cana), only a few people were aware of the miracle He did.
Entrusting Himself to them may be in reference to the fact that though He did miracles, He did not plainly state to the general public “I am God.” He did miracles and He accepted praise. He would say things such as “Your sins are forgiven” which He admitted that only God can do, but He did not get up and make a public declaration that He was the Messiah. The reason was that He knew how people would react. Eventually, He did declare the full revelation to the Sanhedrin. The result was predictable. Those leaders chose - in spite of all the evidence – to NOT believe Him. Upon this declaration, they sentenced Jesus to death. Do you recall, back at the wedding feast in Cana, Jesus said “My time has not yet come.” When He stood before the Sanhedrin, His time had come and He openly declare His identity.
Another possible application of “He did not entrust Himself to them” could be related to the fact that God does not make His power available (does not entrust it) to everyone who follows Him. We want to experience the power of God in our lives. However, before we can be trusted with it, we must first experience the holiness of God by being transformed into the likeness of Jesus.
Scripture References Related to the Glory of God
Ro 8:18 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. (It is not our glory but the glory of God that is to be revealed in us.)
Ro 9:23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, (The vessels of mercy – those who have benefitted from His mercy – you and me.)
1Co 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
2Co 1:20 For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.
2Co 4:15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
Eph 3:21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Php 1:11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
Php 2:11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Re 21:23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
