John 2 Devotional Bible Study
On the Third Day, a Wedding
John 2:1-2
On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
Whenever I read about a third day in the Bible, I immediately think of the resurrection of Jesus. And whenever I read about a wedding, I think of the celebration in the Kingdom of Heaven when we will finally and forever be united with Jesus as a bride is to her husband.
When we are resurrected and go to that victory celebration, we will see not only Jesus but also His mother and His disciples from every time and place. Aren’t you glad you’re also invited to that wedding? There will never be anything more joyous than that moment.
Wine
At the Last Supper, Jesus taught us the wine of the Passover represents His blood. His blood washes us from our sin and makes our souls clean in God's sight, just like the water from the ceremonial washing vessels would have made our hands clean according to the Law.
The stone jars, jars that could not be made unclean according to the Law, held the wine and represent the stone grave that held Jesus' body. This grave was a new tomb cut out of the rock (Matthew 27:60). No one else had ever been buried there, and so Jesus' grave was clean.
Jesus tells Mary His time has not yet come, meaning it's not time for Him to die. This reference to His death shows us Jesus is being intentional about the symbolism between His blood that will be shed and the wine He is sharing at the wedding.
It's only Jesus' shed blood that will allow us to take part in that future wedding of the Lamb. Only Jesus' shed blood is enough to cover all our sins. That's why it's represented by the best wine that is brought out last.
From the beginning, God provided humanity with a way to be forgiven for their sins through animal sacrifice. But in Jesus, God brought out the best Sacrifice, the last Sacrifice, the only Sacrifice we'll ever need.
And Jesus knew all this from the very beginning of His ministry. That's a pretty good first sign of His glory, isn't it?
What to Do When You Have a Need
John 2:3-5
When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
“Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Mary, Jesus’ mother, gives us the step-by-step process of what to do when we need something.
- Recognize the need.
- Take the need to Jesus.
- Do whatever He tells you.
What need can
you bring to Jesus today? It could be yours or someone else’s. Will you trust
Him to meet that need? Will you follow His instructions even if they seem out
of the ordinary? Most of the time, Jesus’ instructions will seem out of the
ordinary for you. They’ll stretch you because He wants you to act in faith.
To the Brim
John 2:7
Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
Can you go a little bit with Jesus? I suppose so, but that’s not the Biblical model. The picture the Bible gives us is that we’re supposed to go all in. Jesus wants to give us abundant life, not just a little bit better life. He wants to shower blessings on us, not just sprinkle them on us every once in a while.
At this wedding in Cana, Jesus wanted to supply over and above what the people needed. But to receive that blessing, the servants needed to act in faith, and they needed to fill the jars as full as they possibly could. Are you filling your life jar as much as you can, expecting Jesus to bless you abundantly? Expect Him to do more, and He will do more. He’s a big, generous God. Expect Him to do a little, and He’ll do only a little.
Jesus Gives Us the Best
John 2:10
“Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
I see an analogy here between the way Jesus turned the water into wine and the way Jesus transforms our lives. Let’s see what principles we can pull out:
- Jesus makes our lives much richer than they were before.
- Only Jesus can change us so radically; all our efforts to “improve” ourselves pale in comparison to what He can do.
- Jesus always saves the best for last. If we continue to walk with Him, He will continue to grow us and bless us and bring us closer to Himself until finally, we meet Him face-to-face at our wedding with Him. Our later years in Christ should be better than our first.
"They Have No More Wine"
This is what Mary tells Jesus and prompts Him to act. But what if the wine hadn't run out? What if whoever was in charge of ordering the wine had brought enough?
Then Jesus wouldn't have performed this miracle. There needed to be a lack of something for Jesus to meet the need. Can I tell you that sometimes God causes you to lack something so that the Christ can reveal His glory to you by meeting your need?
What do you lack today? Are you trying to fill it on your own, or are you trusting Jesus to give you a sign of His glory?
What Was Your First Sign?
John 2:11
What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Think back for a moment to the time when you first believed. What was the first sign you saw of Jesus’ glory? How did He first reveal Himself to you? When did You first get a glimpse of and start to understand who He really is?
Two Temples in One!
The stories of Jesus driving the merchants out of the Temple and Him not entrusting Himself to people are really one and the same story. Jesus links the two when He says He is the Temple.
Let’s break it down.
The Temple was supposed to be a place where people worshiped and honored God. Instead, the merchants were using the Temple to get what they wanted – in this case, money. They were in the Temple, outwardly serving the Lord by helping people to make their sacrifices, but they weren’t there for the right reasons. The Temple was the place people met with God, and they were treating it as a market instead of the Holy of Holies.
When Jesus began performing miracles, crowds believed in Him, but after seeing how people treated the Temple, He wasn’t going to entrust Himself to anyone. Just like the merchants were misusing the Temple, those of us who believe in Jesus can be tempted to misuse Him. We get into the mindset of thinking about what we can get out of Jesus vs. how we can serve Him. We come to Christ, our Temple, the means by which we can meet with God, and forget all about His Holiness in the midst of trying to get our needs met.
There’s NOTHING WRONG with asking Jesus to help us, but we first must remember He is the Lord. He is holy, mighty, so far above us that we can’t grasp how awesome He is. He isn’t our tool but our Master.
Okay, I said Two Temples, but we know the Bible refers to a third temple where God dwells, and that’s the Temple of the Holy Spirit, you and me (1 Corinthians 6:19). Because of the forgiveness God the Father gives us through God the Son, we have been made to be a clean and suitable place for God the Holy Spirit to dwell.
With the Apostle Paul, can I tell you not to defile the temple of your body? It’s supposed to be the place where you and God’s Spirit meet together. Don’t use it for anything unholy. Don’t fill it with anything unholy. Don’t watch or listen to something that doesn’t belong in the Temple! Don’t use your bodily existence to get what you want but concentrate on loving and serving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
God’s Temple was holy because He is holy. Jesus is holy. If His Spirit lives in you, you are holy. Let’s not be like the Israelites, who “do not distinguish between the holy and the common and teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean” (Ezekiel 22:26).
Take a minute to let the Holy Spirit speak to you about how you can better treat the things of God as being holy.
How Is Jesus Like the Temple?
1 Kings 8 tells us the story of Solomon dedicating the first Temple in Israel. Here are some excerpts.
Jesus is the Priest of His Temple
1 Kings 8:10-11 - When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.
The Apostle Paul tells us, “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 2:19-20).
Just as the glory of the Lord filled the Temple in cloud, God’s Presence filled Jesus. In the first Temple, the Presence of God was so overwhelming, the priests couldn’t perform their duties. As the God-Man, Jesus became our High Priest, so that we no longer need the priests to perform their duties.
Jesus is the Eternal Temple
1 Kings 8:13 – Solomon said, “I have indeed built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever.”
Solomon intended his Temple to last forever. It didn’t, but Jesus will. As God, He cannot die and so will endure forever as our Temple.
Jesus is God’s Name
1 Kings 8:16 – God said, “Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city in any tribe of Israel to have a temple built so that my Name might be there, but I have chosen David to rule my people Israel.”
Ultimately, God didn’t choose a city or a physical location to place His Temple. He chose Jesus, the earthly descendant of David. Normally, we think of God’s Name as being Yahweh, translated into English as I Am. This is how God introduced Himself to Moses in the burning bush. But God gave Himself another name when He named His Son Jesus, which means “God Saves.” Our Temple bears the personal name of God the Son.
Jesus Builds His Temple as the Son of David
1 Kings 8:19 – God said to David, “You are not the one to build the temple, but your son, your own flesh and blood—he is the one who will build the temple for my Name.”
Solomon was David’s son who built the first Temple. But Jesus is also referred to as the Son of David, being a descendant of David. He is David’s “own flesh and blood.” And as the Creator, God the Son literally built His own Temple when He formed Jesus in Mary’s womb.
God Dwelt on Earth in His Temple
1 Kings 8:27 – Solomon prayed, “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!”
Solomon was amazed that God’s Presence would come and fill the Temple he had built. But in the Temple, God’s Presence rested over the Ark of the Covenant in the back room, the Holy of Holies. God couldn’t be seen except by the high priest once a year. God’s Presence never left the Temple. In Jesus, God dwelt on earth and walked among the people. He was accessible to everyone. He showed God’s grace in that He went to the people instead of requiring the people to come to the Temple.
How Many Temples Will There Be?
Solomon built the 1st Temple. It was destroyed and plundered by the Babylonians at the time of the Exile.
Approximately 70 years later, Persia conquered Babylon, and the Israelites were freed to return to Judah. Nehemiah rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem, and Ezra the priest rebuilt the Temple.
This is the Temple Jesus visited. This 2nd Temple was destroyed about 40 years after Jesus died when Israel rebelled against Rome.
There is no Temple in Jerusalem now. In fact, the place a Temple is supposed to be is occupied by the Muslim's Dome of the Rock.
And yet, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 reads, "Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God."
Paul is referring to prophecies of the Anti-Christ from the Book of Daniel. What we want to note here is that the man of lawlessness "sets himself up in God's temple," showing there will be a 3rd Temple before the end.
2 Thessalonians 2:8 - "And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming."
A Prayer to Jesus as Our Temple
Lord Jesus, You are our Temple. You are the entrance, the door by which we enter into God’s Presence. Help us to never come to You nonchalantly, acting as if, “It’s just another day in the Temple, let’s see what we can get out of it.” But when we come to You on a daily basis, remind us that we are on holy ground. Fill us with awe and the fear of the Lord. Move our spirits to worship every time Your Name is mentioned.
And when we come into Your Presence, into Your Temple, and our spirits commune with Your Holy Spirit, search us and chase out of us anything that defiles. As we dwell in You, we want to be a holy place for You to dwell in us.
And all those who have placed their faith in You say, “Amen.”
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