John chapter 2 - Signs of God

You can read the entire passage here.

In this chapter, John narrates 3 incidents to prove that Jesus is indeed the Son of God (out of which one took place near the beginning of his ministry and one near the end).

• The Wedding at Cana

John states that Jesus "revealed his glory" (v11) through this incident. As shared during the study, this miraculous act of turning water into wine showed many aspects of the character of Jesus:-

1. His humility - in not making a big show of it and turning attention to himself (instead, he kept it quiet as his time has not yet come);

2. His high standards - as the wine made was of the finest quality. He did not settle to making normal wine or even good wine. It was the best, the choice wine, as confirmed by the expert master of the banquet (v10).

3. His obedience to his mother.

4. His graciousness - helping out the groom and providing a huge amount of wine (180 gallons = 681.4 litres).

But the main lesson is his power over things of nature - turning mere water into wine. Surely only the creator of the natural order - God himself - can do such things.

• The cleansing of the temple

Here, we saw a different picture of our Lord Jesus. Not the meek lamb led to slaughter, not the soft spoken mild mannered person we see in "Jesus movies".

The key verse in this passage is v16 when Jesus states that the temple is his father's house. We know from the Old Testament that the temple was built for the presence of the Lord to dwell in (see 1 Chronicles 6, in particular, v 2 and 41). Therefore, by claiming that the temple is his father's house, Jesus is claiming that he is the Son of God.

Further, when challenged to give a miraculous sign to prove his authority (v18), Jesus predicted his death and his resurrection, the ultimate prove that Jesus is the Son of God.

• Miraculous signs Jesus did

It may seem strange initially that Jesus did not "entrust" himself (basically, put confidence in the people) who believed after seeing his miracles, but John gives us the answer - he can see their hearts, and we can conclude that their "belief" is not genuine.

Who can see the heart of man except God himself?

There are many practical applications we can pull out from this rich passage. Here are some which i can suggest:-

1. We can follow the example set by Jesus, in his humility, his obedience, giving our best in the things we do, having his attitude to things which brings dishonour to his father.
   
2. We can learn to trust him more as he is the Son of God who has great power.
3. God can see our hearts - do we have anything in our lives which needs to be cleansed, things which is not right to be found in us who are the temple of the Holy Spirit?