John 2

Good Morning Brothers,

This morning I opened the Word, and it hit me that I forgot to mention the prophecy that was fulfilled in Jesus.  One of the fun things about the Gospel is when we see how many prophecies that are fulfilled from the Old Testament.  I think that what brought this to mind was when we were discussing the Word at church last night.  I saw many of you there and I am always rejoicing when I see everyone growing in the Lord.  Some of you can't make it to Wednesday night Bible study, you don't know what you are missing.  It is an open forum Bible study, we all sit in a circle and study the Bible together, it is not a lecture type of study.  I hope that if you haven't been coming that you will start next Wednesday, (by the way, this is only for those at Friendship Community, everyone is invited though). 

vs. 1-12  The wedding at Cana.  This is the beginning of Jesus ministry, before now He was silent, the Gospel is silent in His growing years with a few exceptions.  It is interesting that He started His ministry with a wedding feast.  A couple of things stand out to me here.  First, Jesus did not call together all the people  to demonstrate to them the miracle of changing water to wine.  He did it quietly, and was assisted by the servants of the house.  God expects us to operate in the attitude of faith. 20 to 30 gallons of water had to be filled in six jars, that is between 120 and 180 gallons of water that had to be carried or pumped by hand. That is a lot of work,  then once the water jars were full, the lead servant had to draw a glass and take it to the headwaiter to be approved.  This servant just helped fill the jars with water.  You see the faith that he had to exercise?  Imagine what must have been going through his mind.   Would you have wanted to be in his position?  If the water had turned out to taste like wash-water, what would have happened to that servant?  Jesus also saved the family embarrassment and a monetary fine for running out of wine.  In the Jewish custom a family could be fined if they ran out of food or wine during a week-long wedding feast. 

vs. 13-22  Jesus cleaned house.  He set the record straight in the aspect of the purpose of a place of worship.  Probably the market at the temple had honorable beginnings, these were needs that the Jews had in respect to the temple sacrifices and offerings that the law required.  However, it had turned into a profitable business.  When He cleaned out the temple, do you think that Jesus acted on an impulse, and jumped in out of uncontrolled anger, or do you think that He knew what was going on, then set out to straighten up a wrong?  I think that He went there on purpose, to cure an irritation,  but not only to fix an irritation, but also to fulfill another messianic prophecy,  check this out:  "When they saw His courageous zeal, the disciples remembered Psalm 69:9 , “The zeal of [for] Thine house hath eaten me up.” Psalm 69 is definitely a messianic psalm that is quoted several times in the New Testament: Psalm 69:4 ( John 15:25 ); Psalm 69:8 ( John 7:3–5 ); Psalm 69:9 ( John 2:17 ; Rom. 15:3 ); Psalm 69:21 ( Matt. 27:34 , 48 ); and Psalm 69:22 ( Rom. 11:9–10 ).^[1]  Reference books are great, if you have time, look up the references, they are great.  Also note that Jesus foretold what would happen when He was to be crucified.  That He would be dead and would rebuild the temple, return to life, in three days.

It is also interesting to note that this was not the only temple cleaning that took place, the second one was in Mark 11:15-18.  As a direct result of the second cleaning the Jews started looking at how to get rid of Jesus.

vs. 23-25  Jesus knew the hearts of men, He knows our thoughts.  He knows how deceitful that we are, yet He came to save us.  One thing that we forget often is that Jesus is all-knowing, he knows our thoughts.  A side note here:  The devil is not all knowing, he does not know our thoughts.  Yet often we treat the devil almost as a deity, giving him the attributes of God when he doesn't deserve them.   "For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God."New American Standard Bible Thank God that the devil does not know our thoughts, granted he knows our weaknesses, but our thoughts are not his.  We are protected in this area,  we have enough crap in our hearts that we have to work out to where all the devil has to do is offer the stimulus and we will think the wrong thoughts, that is why we can bring every thought captive, 2 Corinthians 2:5.  Sorry, went off on a tangent.

I would like to draw a parallel here, actually a couple of parallels.  I do not want to divert away from the historical aspect of the Gospel, but have noticed something that is worth thinking about.  In John 1, we are reminded about the deity of Christ, and about His light shining into our lives reminding us for the need of salvation.  We are focused on Jesus Christ became man in order to save the world.  In John 2, we see that the first ministry of Jesus was at a wedding feast.  Wine is a symbol of joy in biblical terms, our joy is made full.   In our Christian lives, isn't our first step to be married into Christ, we become one with Him.  Remember in Corinthians and Romans we studied the analogy of being married to Christ Jesus.  What is the next step in our Christian lives?  Jesus cleans the crap out of our lives, He wants to be boss and to have a clean temple to live in.  The same is true in John 2, Jesus cleans out the temple and takes over the temple, letting the people know that God's house is a place where we worship God. 

Lord, open each of our minds so that we can see things that we need to clean out in our lives.  Thank You for this study, that we are able to learn more about the person of Jesus. 

In Him,

Joe Turner