John's Gospel Archive

In John 2 Jesus and his disciples attend at wedding in Cana of Galilee. You will know this because it will have been said at every church wedding you have ever attended! At this wedding disaster strikes when the wine runs out. We all know the story of what happens next - Jesus performs his first miracle turning water into wine. Maybe this miracle is one that puzzles us because it was so out of keeping with Jesus' other miracles which involved healings and deliverance from demonic oppression or providing food for those who were really hungry. Here he turns water into wine so that a party could continue. Why did he do it and what does it mean?

Someone has said, 'A leader without followers is not truly leading; they are merely walking alone.' As we come towards the end of Chapter 1 Jesus is about to begin his public ministry but as yet he has no followers. John the Baptist is coming towards the end of his ministry of bearing witness to Jesus whom he has declared to be, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” John has attracted huge crowds through his preaching as well gaining his own disciples but he knows the time has come for him to decrease in order that Jesus will increase.

There are many titles ascribed to Jesus but today we look at one in particular - the title ascribed to him through the witness of John the Baptist in John 1:29-34. J.C. Ryle says, “This passage contains a verse which ought to be printed in great letters in the memory of every reader of the Bible.” That verse is John 1:29, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

Our purpose statement in RSPC is this: 'Following Christ, Serving the Community - In obedience to Christ, we will work together to see people coming to faith in Christ and growing in love for God and others.'

Our primary activity is following Jesus and seeking to make him known. This autumn we as week to keep our eyes focused on Jesus we return to one of the four Gospels for our morning teaching series - the Gospel of John.

So far John has shown how Jesus has power over sickness, power over nature and power to change water into wine and produce food for a multitude. Today we come to the penultimate miracle of Jesus recorded in John's gospel. It looks ahead to, and anticipates, the greatest miracle that all four gospel writers affirm - the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

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Only two of Jesus' miracles are recorded in all 4 four gospels: one is the resurrection of Jesus and the other is the Feeding of the Five Thousand. It is due to the fact that all four gospel writers record it that J.C. Ryle says this, “It is evident that it demands a more than ordinary attention from every reader of God's Word.”

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The wine runs out during a wedding at Cana that Jesus attends. In turning the water into wine Jesus begins the signs that reveal his glory to his disciples and invite them to put their faith in him.

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The miracle of Jesus walking on the water is one of the best known, yet most evocative, of His miracles. The miracle is recorded in 3 of the Gospels (we are going to consider why) and gives a differing perspective in each.

The disciples set out to cross the Sea of Galilee in the way that was familiar to them and found themselves in the middle of a sudden storm. In the middle of that storm Jesus walked out to them on the water meeting their need and bringing them to their destination.

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John Hull started to go blind when he was a teenager. By his forties, he had lost all perception of light. He had, in his words, "taken up residence in another world". At times, the utter darkness caused him to panic, to despair. He found himself facing a terrible dilemma, to "re-create his life in darkness or be destroyed".

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Today we look at the third of Jesus' miracles recorded in John's Gospel - the Healing by the Pool. As we have already seen the main purpose of these miracles are to point people to the reality of who Jesus is. In the previous miracle in chapter 4 we saw the emphasis was not so much on the healing of the official's son as it was on the official's faith in Jesus.

In our passage today the miracle provides the backdrop for the emerging hostility of the Jewish leadership towards Jesus for what they see as his Sabbath law breaking but above all for his claim to be equal with God.

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In our passage today Jesus heals the son of a Jewish nobleman. We will see that John's primary concern in recording this incident is not to focus so much on the miraculous healing itself but to show how this encounter with Jesus provides an illustration of the nature of true faith. John wants his readers to understand that Jesus' miracles were not ends in themselves, rather they are signs designed to reveal his glory and cause people to put their faith in him. It is faith, not fame, that Jesus is ultimately looking for.

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One of the ways John constructed his Gospel is around the seven signs or miracles that Jesus performed. These miracles each tell us something important about Jesus and life in His kingdom.
Towards the end of his Gospel John gives us his reason for writing it, 'These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.' (John 20:31)
Over the course of July & August we are going to look at each of these seven signs recorded in John's Gospel. But these miracles of Jesus during his earthly ministry are bookended by two even greater miracles - the miracle of the incarnation - the Word becoming flesh and the miracle of Jesus' resurrection from the dead.

Today we begin our series looking at the Miracle of the Incarnation.

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