The Disciple Jesus Loved Tells All!

Studies in the Gospel of John #3

John chapter 2

Happy Mother’s Day!

G. Campbell Morgan was a very famous preacher of the gospel who had four sons that also became preachers. The youngest son, Howard, an excellent preacher in his own right was filling his father’s pulpit while he was away preaching in London. While the rest of the family was together, someone asked Howard, “Who is the best preacher in your family?” He didn’t hesitate in answering, “My Mother”. Can some of you relate? I can.

I know that my children have seen more sermons lived by their mom than they have heard preached by their dad.

There’s an old Spanish Proverb that says, “An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy”. Mothering is in fact a spiritual ministry, a ministry whose value cannot be minimalized. When God raised up people to bring His message to humanity, He almost always first chose a godly mother to bring them up. Such is the case for Moses, Samson, Samuel, John the Baptist, Timothy, and Jesus.

Mom, we honor you this morning! You do a work that is unequaled in its impact on our world. I would like all the moms in the room to stand so that we can pray for you.

[Prayer for moms]

Today we are continuing our study of John’s biography of Jesus life. Last week John gave us the introductory background information. Jesus is God eternal. He is the eternal transcending force of creation, the fulfillment of all Scripture, the ultimate, perfect sacrifice for our sins. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the One and Only Son of God, full of grace and truth. We also saw that for as many as received Him, who believed on His name, He gave the right to be called children of God. At least a half dozen folks indicate last week that they wanted to do just that. They recognized Him as the Son of God, they realized their own inability to please God on their own, and they believed that Jesus could bridge that gap.

That is exactly why John wrote this book, and I believe that as we continue to study it, more and more people are going to make that same decision.

This week we are going to look at two events that John shares with us from the early days of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus as about 30 years old when He left His carpenter’s tools at home and set out to do the work that He had been sent to do. He went to John and was baptized at the Jordan River to show that His old life had ended, and He was taking a new course from that day forward. He began to gather a few people around Himself whom He could begin to teach and train to carry on His message after He was gone. When we pick up the story at the beginning of John chapter 2 (which is found on page 714 in the Bibles we have placed around the room for you), Jesus has 6 disciples with Him. Andrew, John, James, Peter, Philip and Nathanael have decided to follow Jesus, just as 6 decided last week, and right from the start things were not what they expected…

Let’s read this chapter together, then I want to make a couple of points.

Read John chapter 2

A couple of minor points:

1. Verse 4 is not disrespectful like it sounds in English! The word used for “woman” is correctly translated, but it was, in Jesus day, a word of endearment – The NIV translates it correctly, “Dear woman.” Besides, it would seem obvious that something in the tone of His voice, or the look on His face made it clear that Jesus was up to something, because her next words to the servants was, “Do whatever He tells you!”
2. Did Jesus really make wine? Yup. He did. There’s no use arguing the point, it’s just here. Some would say, “Well, it wasn’t alcohol, it was just grape juice!” But verse 10 makes it pretty clear that this wine affected judgment. It was wine. I read of a pastor once who had an alcoholic who tried to justify his habit by saying, “It’s OK, after all, Jesus made water into wine,” and the pastor replied, “If you’re going to use Jesus as your example for drinking, why don’t you use Him for your example of everything else?”

But here’s a major point.

As I read commentaries about this chapter, and looked at what other pastors had said, they all looked at one of these stories or the other and did an application of it. They saw the running out of wine as “running out of joy” in life, or as the “emptiness of Israel