JOHN - Chapter 2 - JESUS MANIFESTO OF HIS GLORY
JOHN – Chapter 2 –Jesus Manifesto of His Glory
February 14, 2017, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
John 2: 1-4: On the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there; and both Jesus was called, and His disciples, to the marriage. When they lacked wine, the mother of Jesus said unto Him, they have no wine, Jesus said unto her, Woman, what have I to do with you. My hour is not yet come.
On the Third Day throughout scripture is a metaphor of the Glory of God and the revelation of His glory; and so it was on that day:
2:11: This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and His disciples believed in Him.
Jesus’ mother and his disciples were called to the marriage. I believe this is prophetic of the marriage feast of the Lamb. The wine is the Holy Spirit.
When the Lord says, Mine hour is not yet come that is a mystery because throughout Jesus’ ministry, He was on God’s schedule. At the age of twelve, He said, I must be about My Father’s business. The Father’s business demanded discipline and perceptivity. It created a schedule of its own and required diligence.
The Lord was not subject to the constraints of time. How could he be, having created the ages and time itself?
Prophets who heralded things that would take place in the Son’s life were so accurate that for Jesus, it was an ever unfolding pageant. If we consider the accuracy by which Jesus lived His life, we know the Lord has not changed His ways. He who sent the prophets, will commission those in the latter days who are willing to obey.
So I read many commentaries and they offer wonderful words of faith and many I have applied to my own life circumstances when I needed the Lord to provide supernaturally for the weddings of my daughters. I have used this scripture to affirm the Lord’s affirmation of marriage that his first miracles were done at a wedding.
However, I believe the running out of wine has a much deeper meaning having to do with the apostate and lukewarm church which does not have the Baptism of the Holy Spirit as well as those religions who have not received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Jesus said, “Woman what have I to do with you?” If the wedding feast here is a type of the Church and the world who has none of his Holy Spirit, and the Lord’s mother is a type of the Church in faith. She, the woman of faith, understands enough to prepare the servants at the wedding for Jesus’ intervention.
2: 5-8: His mother said to the servants, whatsoever He says unto you, do it. There were set there six water pots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews containing two or three firkins (English term for ½ barrel) a piece. Jesus said to them; fill the water pots with water. They filled them to the brim. He said to them, Draw out now and take it to the ruler of the feast. They took it.
After the manner of the purifying of the Jews---I ask you if the six water pots are not symbolic of the six thousand years of the Old Testament Law for the purifying of the Jews. Ritual purifications were observed by the Jews before and after meals. John makes the reference capable of spiritual interpretation. The inadequacy of the Old Covenant was superseded by the cleansing and superior New Covenant.
Now draw some out. ---Draw from the water of life and the wine of the Holy Spirit. Water was drawn from the well to fill the jars. Jesus Christ is the well of living water.
The master of the banquet was the person to whom the running of such festivities was entrusted. The superior wine to be served at the end of the banquet is a type of the greater glory of Christ for the church of the latter days. The emphasis is upon the Excellency of what the Lord provides.
This then is a sign which point to the superiority of the New Order ---Gospel of the New Testament over the Old Testament.
2: 9-10: When the ruler of the feast tasted the water that made wine, and did not know what it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the ruler of the feast called the bridegroom, and said to him, every man at the beginning does set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse; but you have kept the good wine until now.
This is again stating the glory of the latter house will be greater than the first; the church will have a greater works ministry; the glory of God in the Third Day will be greater than the glory of the Old Covenant.
The Lord gave various laws to man at various times on His perfect time schedule. First to Adam and Even in the Garden; second to Noah; third to Abraham; fourth to Moses; and last to the prophets. All these laws were part of the exact and perfect timing of God until He released the greater exactness and power of the Gospel. If one plumbs the depths of the Holy Spirit, things hidden are understood.
Those who press into the Lord in faith and obedience will drink the best wine, kept until the end for Christ, the Bridegroom; for it is in the last times the Gospel was revealed and is being revealed.
2:11: This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.
2: 17-17: After this He went down to Capernaum, He, and His mother and His brethren, and His disciples. They continued there not many days. And the Passover Feast of the Jews was at hand. Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen, sheep and doves; and the changers of money, When he had made a scourge of small cords, He drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ of money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves, take these things out of here. Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise. His disciples remembered that it was written, the Zeal of Your house has eaten me up.
There is much written about whether Jesus cleansed the temple once or twice – at the beginning and end of His ministry. The event is placed near the end of His ministry in the first three Gospels.
I am of the persuasion that He cleansed it twice. Whatever may be the case, what seems uppermost in the mind of John and that he linked it to the six water pots is the significance that the old order of sacrifice was over. John records that the animals were driven out of the temple. In Christ sacrificing Judaism is brought to an end. John begins to develop the main theme, that in Jesus the eternal purposes of God finds their fulfillment.
This sin is the same as the sin of Jeroboam: 1 Ki. 12: 31-34: He made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not the sons of Levi. And jeroboam ordained a feast…he sacrificed calves…He placed in Bethel the priest of the high places…He offered upon the altar...which he had devised of his own heart…and offered upon the altar, and burned incense. 13: 33-34: Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but again he made priests from every class of people for the high places; whoever wished he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places. AND THIS THING was the sin of the house of Jeroboam, so as to exterminate, and destroy it from the face of the earth.
Treachery and merchandising is blatant in the church today. Israel under Jeroboam and in the time of Jesus followed their own will. They ordained priests from whoever wished to enter the clergy. Jeroboam installed priests loyal to Israel, not to God. They lifted up unacceptable offerings and called them “blessed.” Jeroboam did whatever “he devised in his own heart.” He despised the word of the man of God and polluted the prophets to the point they misdirected one another.
Many have sinned as did those peddlers of oxen in the temple. Instead of appointing clergy called and anointed by God, many have chosen greedy and unscrupulous men/women. They haggled over the sheep---the simple, guileless people---and the doves---the sacraments of the Church and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Zech 14:21b: “…there shall no longer be a Canaanite (trader) in the house of the Lord.”
The pennies and coins represent doctrine and teaching: when a teacher of the Church refuses to preach unless he profits monetarily, the Lord will overthrow his “table,” meaning his Office as Teacher. We cannot take the compassionate Words of the Lord Jesus and our salvation given to us so freely and become a hireling.
Observing Jesus Christ cleansing the temple, the disciples remember that is was written in Psalm 68:12: The zeal of the house has eat me up.
The disciples are progressing quickly as they are able to apply the words in the prophets which apply and testify to Christ and confirm their knowledge of Him.
2: 18-22: Then answered the Jews and said unto Him, what sign will you show us, seeing that you do these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, forty-six years is this temple in building, and will you raise it up in three days? But He spoke of the temple of His body. When, therefore, He was risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus spoke.
This is an example of a wrongful request for a sign. Jesus provides a sign for those who will heed what He says. Even the disciples, however, failed to understand what He meant until after the resurrection.
The Temple was begun in 20 B.C. by Herod the great. This saying might imply the structure was complete in A.D. 27, that is, just within the span of the Lord’s ministry. But we know the Temple was not completed until A. D. 64. John used the Greek Naos for temple which is distinguished from Hieron. Naos means the inner sanctuary.
The true house of God is a house of prayer for all nations so through the Holy Spirit the same will be true in Christ’s Body---the Church.
2: 23-25: Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in His name, when they saw the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man; for He knew what was in man.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of F. F. Bruce Bible Commentary, David J. Ellis and C. R. Oliver, En Punto. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those who I entered into their labors.