John 1:50-2:11 (Teaching)

[0:00] Morning. Be back in first chapter of John. First chapter of the gospel job. Tried real hard to finish this chapter last week, and we just didn't quite get there.

[0:17] We like to reverse this. We finished that up and getting into John chapter two. Hopefully that's my tent anyway.

[0:27] But last week in the first chapter of the gospel of John, we covered quite a bit of material.

[0:39] And we got to Nathaniel and Phillips calling. And we talked a little bit about that. And talked a little bit about how the, it's a very good possibility because Nathaniel's not really brought up in the synoptic gospel and Bartholomew's not brought up in the gospel of John.

[1:00] How those two are one and the same is called by different names in different gospels, which is very, which is a common place in the Bible that happens quite a bit.

[1:15] But we kind of blew through the last little section there because I was trying real hard to finish it up. But I kind of skipped verse 45, I guess, Philip found Nathaniel and saith unto him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets said, Right, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

[1:38] And verse 46, Nathaniel said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip said unto him, Come and see. There's a lot of people make a big deal over this saying here, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?

[1:57] And it was quite a statement. But as I explained last week, though, in the verses before this, the verses preceding this, we see that the scribes and the priests had a hard time recognizing the Messiah.

[2:18] They had sent representatives of their little sect to John the Baptist, to ask John the Baptist who he was. And of course, John the Baptist, being the forerunner of Christ, told him, He said, I'm not the Christ, I'm not the Messiah, I'm not the lie.

[2:34] I'm come to bear witness of the lie. I'm come to announce the coming of the Messiah. But the religious people who felt like they were getting two shoes, we would call them nowadays, they had a hard time recognizing this.

[2:53] But these fishermen that Jesus simply walked up to and said, Follow me. Simple words, follow me. They're the ones that recognized him as Messiah.

[3:05] So why, in verse 46, it says, and Nathaniel said unto him, Can there be a good thing come out of Nazareth? People will say, well, Nazareth was a ghost town. It was a cesspool. It was a horrible place.

[3:17] And all these things may be so. But these fishermen were pretty well versed in the scriptures as well. I explained last week that Jewish life revolved around the synagogue.

[3:30] Not even so much the temple as it did the synagogue, and they would gather at the synagogue. And this is where the scriptures were read, the Old Testament scriptures. They were read and they were debated and they were talked.

[3:43] But they would have been well versed in the scriptures. So me personally, in verse 46, I think Nathaniel said, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Not because Nazareth was such a horrible place, but because Nathaniel knew that there was nothing that was predicted in the Old Testament that was supposed to come out of Nazareth.

[4:03] He would have been familiar with Micah chapter five, which we read come Christmas time every year, where God says that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Actually, in Micah five, it's Bethlehem Ephrata.

[4:17] But nevertheless, it's the town of Bethlehem. And that's where Jesus was born. Now here comes this disciple to Nathaniel saying, Come see, come see the Messiah.

[4:29] He's here. And he said, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathaniel says, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Now we know that Christ was born in Bethlehem.

[4:42] Everybody in here knows that. And if you don't, then you should. But I'm pretty sure everybody in here knows that. But what made him a Nazarene or a Nazarite?

[4:53] What made him be from Nazareth instead of Bethlehem? Well, if you recall, there was a decree made that all the children two years and older should be killed.

[5:07] And there's a vision that come to Joseph, Mary's husband, that said, Take your family down into Egypt. And they went down to Egypt.

[5:17] And when they came back up, they settled in Galilee. Bethlehem was not part of Galilee, but Nazareth was. And this is where they settled. He was born in Bethlehem.

[5:28] Yes, just as the scriptures predicted, but they settled in Nazareth. So this is why Nathaniel, in my opinion, would have said, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?

[5:39] Not just because it was a horrible place. Like I've heard so many teachers and preachers say, Like I said, maybe it was. If you look back through history, you look back through Christian and Jewish history, it was kind of a run down run downtown.

[5:55] It had a bad reputation, yes, but I don't think that's what Nathaniel was getting at. I think he would have known what the scripture said. And that's why he would have said, Can any good thing come from Nazareth?

[6:05] So all that being said, I wanted to go back and hit that because I didn't feel like I've done it quite in depth enough last week. We'll just keep on reading from verse 46, verse 47.

[6:17] Jesus saw Nathaniel come to him, saith of him, Behold, in Israel, out indeed, in whom is no God. And saith unto him, Whenst thou me?

[6:28] Jesus answered and sent unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree. I saw thee. Now I spoke about this last week very briefly, when Jesus says, When I saw you under the fig tree, and talked about how this was a Jewish term for I saw you studying the scriptures.

[6:47] If someone was under the fig tree, it means that they were studying the scriptures. Because Nathaniel literally under a physical fig tree, when Jesus saw him, he very well could have been.

[6:58] But this was a Jewish terminology that was used to mean you were studying the scriptures if you were under the fig tree. But when Nathaniel first comes to Christ though, in the verses preceding this, he says, In Israel, out indeed, in whom is no God.

[7:19] The Greek word there used as dolos for God, or deceit, or deception, or lying. And he says, There is nothing like that in you. You are an honest man, is what Jesus was saying to Nathaniel.

[7:33] And we've got to keep that in mind as we read through these last few verses to wrap up chapter one. Nathaniel answered him, verse 49, Nathaniel answered, And said unto him, Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel.

[7:48] Now, it didn't take a whole lot more than Jesus saying, I saw you when you were under the fig tree. I saw you when you were studying. And there is no God in you.

[7:59] You're an honest person. You're an honest man. And you're in Israel, like indeed, that's all it took for Nathaniel to say, Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel.

[8:11] He gives him, he gives Jesus Christ two titles here, the Son of God and the King of Israel, causing him as being prophesied in the Old Testament because Messiah was to be both of those things and so much more, but both of those specific things from the Old Testament scripture, which confirms to me that when Jesus said, I saw you under the fig tree, that Nathaniel was studying the scriptures like he did with much of his time.

[8:41] Verse 50, Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, Believe us, believe us thou, thou shalt see greater things than these. And I've heard lessons and I've heard sermons and teachings and all kinds of things of what these greater things are going to be that Nathaniel will see.

[9:03] It's almost as ridiculous as people, Brother Byrne wrote, believe in Wednesday Night Service, about how people will preach and teach about what Jesus wrote in the sand when the woman that was caught in adultery was brought to him.

[9:17] Nobody knows what he wrote in the sand. Nobody knows what he got down there and scribbled in the dirt. He could have wrote the Hebrew alphabet for all we know or the Aramaic alphabet. It doesn't matter, cross said, greater things than these, you will see.

[9:31] And he goes on to explain what those greater things might be. So there's no reason to debate and there's no reason to speculate on what those greater things are because the last verse of chapter one of John tells us, and he saith unto him, verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

[9:54] Now again, he was speaking to Nathaniel and he had already recognized Nathaniel's study of the Scripture.

[10:04] So Nathaniel would have understood this and he says, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open. He says he said unto him, but then it goes on to say ye shall see heaven open.

[10:15] He's speaking unto Nathaniel and therefore to the whole group, everyone who was round about could hear him. He says ye shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

[10:28] Nathaniel would have recognized this if he studied the Scriptures like Christ says that he done. He would have understood this. We all know the story of Jacob's ladder from the book of Genesis and how Jacob, when he slept that night and he had the dream and we saw the, he saw the ladder from heaven and the angels of God descending and ascending upon that ladder.

[10:53] Well, he's saying you're going to see these things descending and ascending upon me, meaning I am going to be the way, I'm going to be the communication between you and God.

[11:08] Not these angels like Jacob had, but remember what he said to Nathaniel. He said, And Israel lie indeed in whom there is no God. But he's using an example of Jacob here.

[11:22] That was Jacob. Jacob was a liar. His very name means Canaver. He was a liar. He was a deceiver. He had deceived his father. He had deceived his father. He had deceived his father. He had deceived his father. He had deceived his brother.

[11:34] And yet God gave him this vision. And when Jacob woke up from that dream, he said, Surely God is in this place.

[11:45] And he gave reverence to God. He built basically an altar to God and he poured out his old upon that altar. He was giving it all to God at that point in his life.

[11:56] Jacob was. And I believe Jesus was saying to Nathaniel here, If God will do that to this lying, conniving, deceiving Jacob, imagine what he will do for an Israel lie in whom is no God, in whom is none of those things.

[12:13] I'm not saying Nathaniel was without sin. I'm not saying that in the least, the Bible tells us all that all of sin and come short of the glory of God. That includes Nathaniel, certainly and included Jacob, certainly includes me and it certainly includes you.

[12:28] All means all in that scripture. All of sin and come short of the glory of God. But I believe what Jesus was saying, if he would do that for someone as wicked and deceiving as Jacob, and he had just reverenced Nathaniel as an Israel lie in whom is no God, imagine what he can do for you, Nathaniel.

[12:48] Imagine what I can do for you. And he says, you'll see that. He says, you'll see the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. So Nathaniel had given Christ two titles before this, the Son of God and the King of Israel.

[13:03] Christ gives himself a title here, the Son of Man, which you find in Daniel chapter seven and relating himself to mankind. Yes, Christ was all God and yes, Christ was all man, but Christ needed to be related or had to be related to mankind for his own purposes and for his own glory.

[13:28] And for the very purpose of coming here and suffering and bleeding and dying for your sins and for my sins, he had to be related to mankind.

[13:38] So we can refer to him as the Son of Man. We can refer to him as the Son of God. It's all the same Christ in those titles, those different positions that Christ took throughout his ministry there.

[13:51] So that brings us to the end of chapter one. Let's get real quick into chapter two and the third day. I want you to know something. This word and that chapter two begins with is very important, possibly the very, the most important word that we find in the first 11 verses of chapter two.

[14:10] Why? Why the word and because it relates back to everything that we've read, read and thought about this one and last week and possibly some of the week before I can't remember where I picked up last week from, but really beginning in verse 19 and chapter one on through the end of chapter one is the and that this is referring to.

[14:30] So it says and the third day there was a marriage in Canaan of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there and both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage. So we have and reverting us back to at least 19 and chapter one.

[14:44] It says the third day, what is the number three in biblical numerology? Now I don't concentrate a whole lot on biblical numerology. You can get in some weird stuff when you're studying numerology, but three does have two very significant meanings consistently through the scripture.

[15:02] One, it's the number of Trinity. It's the number of God, the Father, God, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit. But even more so than that, it's the number of resurrection was not the earth, you know, but it's not the earth come up out of its watery grave on the third day during the creations that not when God brought the earth up and put the vegetation on the earth.

[15:23] It's the number of resurrection did not Jesus arise on the third day. Yes, he did. So we had and the third day there was a marriage in Canaan of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there and both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage and when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus said unto him, they have no wine.

[15:42] They say unto her woman, what have I to do with thee? My hour is not yet come. And I've heard preachers talk about this line where Jesus says, woman, what about to do with thee?

[15:53] Say that Jesus was berating his mother. He was downing his mother, talking bad about his mother and all kinds of things. Folks, I don't read nothing about that when you come across with him, John chapter 19, where he says, woman, behold thy son.

[16:07] You'll make a huge deal over this word woman here saying that Jesus was being disrespectful to his mother and he wasn't. This was actually a very endearing term to use.

[16:19] It was an all inclusive term back in these days. But once again in John 19, when Jesus is hanging there on the cross, he referred to his mother as woman then too and you don't hear anything about that from the crowd that says that he was belittling his mother by calling her woman.

[16:39] Now he was rebuking his mother. I'm not going to deny that one bit. In John chapter two here it says, Jesus saith unto her woman, what am I to do with thee?

[16:50] In the original Greek this simply says, woman, what me with thee? He says, my hour is not yet come. He is rebuking his mother.

[17:02] His mother stepped in her parental role trying to basically boss her son around if you would like to say it like that, trying to direct him.

[17:14] Folks, this was the beginning of the ministry of Jesus Christ and the only person who could direct God the Son was God the Father in his ministry.

[17:26] His mother had no say so in what happened. So yes, Jesus was putting her in her place saying that you cannot direct this.

[17:36] This is up to me but he says, my hour is not yet come. This is the first of seven times throughout the Gospel of John that you read about the hour of Jesus Christ and we all know what that hour was.

[17:49] When his hour came, that was the crucifixion. That's when they came and arrested him in the garden. That's when they brought him before Pilate and they brought him before a very illegal trial or to a very illegal trial and they beat him and they scoffed at him, they make fun of him and they ultimately crucified him.

[18:12] That's the hour that we're talking about here. We're not talking about the beginning of the ministry when he said, my hour is not yet come. We're talking about the hour when Christ will be crucified.

[18:22] He said, woman, what am I to do with you, my hour is not yet come. I said, this is the first of seven times throughout the Gospel of John that that's brought up. It says his mother saith unto the servants, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.

[18:37] Now, if Jesus had truly been belittling his mother, mothers, all you in here who are mothers, if you felt that your child was belittling you, how would you react to it?

[18:53] Not very favorably, would you? I as a father don't act very favorably if I feel like my boys are belittling me. Now, will jokingly and humorously make fun of each other?

[19:06] Yes. If I feel like they're seriously berating me for some reason, then yes, I'll address that as a father toward my children. I'm married to here.

[19:17] She said, his mother saith unto the servants, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. She understood what Jesus was saying and she understood why Jesus was saying what she was or what he was.

[19:30] Jesus, yes, he put her in her place. He had to put her in her place. Otherwise, she might have tried to run his entire ministry while he was here on this earth.

[19:41] And she understood that. So she said to the servants, whatsoever he saith, do it. Anything that he says, don't listen to me in other words. Don't listen to me as his mother.

[19:52] You listen to him and whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. There were six water pots of stone after the manner of the purifying of the Jews contained two or three ferns apiece.

[20:04] This is very significant and if you ain't careful, you'll just read over it and continue on to the next verse. There were six water pots of stone. Once again, biblical numerology six.

[20:15] What's the number six? It's the number of something. Revelation tells us what that number is. It's the number of man. Number six is the number of man.

[20:26] Folks, once again, this entire chapter, it started out with a an. It goes back to verse 19, chapter one, talking about the failure of Judaism, talking about the failure of the Jews, talking about how Judaism and the Jewish religion, the Jewish culture, everything about Judaism have become an empty hole.

[20:51] As I said last week, it's exactly what it was. There was nothing in it. God was not in it. Worship was not in it. They were just depending on the ordinances that God had put forth to keep them in relationship with God.

[21:06] They were depending on the ceremonies that God had put forth to keep them in relationship with God and not depending on God himself. This is why it was so empty.

[21:16] They were depending upon themselves and what they were doing, what the Jews were doing. Yes, we're going to the temple. Yes, we're doing our sacrifices. Yes, we're taking the sin offering.

[21:26] We're taking the burnt offering. We're taking the grain or the meat offering and we're burning incense as we're supposed to. We're doing all these things and we're doing all these chants and it was nothing more than empty religion.

[21:39] And those are church houses that are full of empty religion nowadays. We cannot let ourselves get into that. It's right. It is about a relationship with God and that is all it's about.

[21:54] It's about a relationship with God and the only way we can have that relationship with the Almighty is through God the Son, Jesus Christ. That's the only way that this will happen.

[22:06] We have here six water pots of stone, six being the number of man and they were stone. They were cold and they were empty of anything just like the Jewish religion was.

[22:17] Listen, I ain't down in Jews. I ain't down in Jews one bit. The Messiah was a Jew and he was prophesied and promised to come from the Jewish race and he did.

[22:29] I'm not down in Jews. I'm not down in Judaism but that is exactly what it had become was empty. There was nothing in it and these water pots signified that.

[22:40] There were six of them and they were made of stone. They weren't made of silver. They weren't made of gold. They were made of stone. There were six water pots of stone that were purifying of the Jews.

[22:53] They weren't even used for anything significant. They were used in Jewish ceremonies in a manner of purifying the Jews. They weren't even there to give a fresh drink of water.

[23:05] It was for a ceremonial cleansing that they were using and folks ceremonial cleansings are useless nowadays in our time without the blood of Jesus Christ.

[23:16] We can ceremonially cleanse ourselves till the cows come home as we would say and it will do us no good if we're not cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

[23:27] First, these water pots were used for something that they weren't supposed to be used for to begin with just like the Jewish religion was.国际Bo dolarnish.

[23:41] They were used for a funeral service. Only in our time they were passing by.

[23:53] The road was to be turned over to the place where you are.

[24:05] until now. Back up a few verses. It says Jesus saith unto them, fill the water, cross the water, they filled them up to the ground. Water is symbolic of two different things in the scripture. Sometimes it's symbolic of the Holy Spirit.

[24:21] Sometimes it's symbolic of the Word of God. Me personally, in this in this instance here, I think it's symbolic of the Word of God.

[24:31] They're filling empty vessels, but pay attention though. It's the servants that are doing the filling. All Jesus is doing is telling the servants what to do. And folks, it is like that in the New Testament church age that we are in right now. Jesus doesn't rely on His service. Jesus relies on no one or nothing.

[24:54] But He expects us to do things. Things that this scripture commands us to do. And what are we to do? We are to go forth to the world and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to fill these empty vessels with the Word of God. Fill them up to the brim whether they want it or not. Fill them up to the brim with the Word of God and then let Jesus do the work. Jesus didn't have to touch these water pots. Jesus didn't have to make some magical incantation. Jesus simply willed the water into wine and the water became wine. When we as servants of God and as servants of Jesus Christ fill these empty stone vessels, these cold stone vessels with the Word of God, then the Holy Spirit can do His Word. Jesus Christ can do His Word.

[25:52] That's the only time it can happen. If the Word of God is put forth, if we tell people you're bad and you're on your way to hell, we're probably not telling them anything they don't already know. If we tell people you don't stop your or your your wicked ways, then you're going to wind up in the devil's place. It's what I heard a lot coming up when I was growing up in the devil's place. Folks, it ain't a matter of stopping you sin. It's a matter of repenting and believing the gospel. We can stop sin. We can stop sin in our lives not completely. None of us are capable of doing that but the adulterer can quit committing adultery. The drunkard can quit drinking. The pill popper can quit popping the pills. We can stop all kinds of sin and I've used the example before. You read in Mark chapter five where there was a wild man that come out of the tombs and he he was able to break his own chains. He was able to break his own fetters but that did not make him any better. He still needed a touch from Jesus

[26:59] Christ to make him completely better. We can stop our own sin. We can with enough willpower. We can not completely as I said, we'll we'll sin to the very day we die.

[27:12] Our very flesh is sin but we can stop these what we would classify as big sins with enough willpower. Anyway, Jesus said Jesus told the servants to fill the pot with water. They filled him up to the room. He said, draw out now and bear it to the governor of the feast and they bear it. Nowhere here does it say that the water was magically turned into wine. Nowhere here does it even say that the water was turned into wine. It just simply says that Jesus said now bear bear this water that you've filled in these water pods up to the brand. Bear that to the governor of the feast and the servants simply done it.

[27:48] Folks, we have no right to question exactly how the word of God works. All I can tell you from personal experience is that it does indeed work. The word of God is powerful. When the ruler of the feast and tasted the water was made wine who know which it was but the servants which drew the water knew the governor of the feast called the brother and said then to him every man at the beginning of the set forth good wine and when the man of will drunk then that which is worse then that which is worse but the I always kept the good wine until now and to me every time I read this verse and every time I think about this verse I think about the world.

[28:27] I think about Satan. Now, I think about evil. I think about how sin works in your life. It looks real good at the beginning and the good stuff is set before the bad stuff comes in. That's exactly what I think of when I read this verse. Now, it may not be the the biblical application of it but that's what I think of when I read this verse.

[28:50] But the governor says every man at the beginning does set forth good wine and when when men have well drunk then that which is worse. So, in other words, they're set forth the good stuff and listen folks wine in the Bible is symbolic of joy.

[29:09] But all it is symbolic of joy. It brings joy, brings cheer to men's hearts and according to the book of Psalms to God's heart. Now, you can take that as you want to. I ain't saying that God's a drunkard by any means and I ain't saying that God's ever been drunk. I don't think he has. I'm just telling you what the scripture says and what the and what wine symbolizes within the scriptures and it symbolizes joy.

[29:37] This water as I said symbolizes the word of God. What does the word of God bring to someone's life who has repented and believed the gospel? It brings joy but the servants only did what Jesus said. They filled the water pipes. They served it to the governor and then the joy came. The joy came by Jesus Christ though and that's the only way that joy will come.

[30:00] This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Canaan of Galilee and manifested forth his glory and his disciples believed on him. This miracle, this is the first miracle and as for scripture goes, the first miracle that Jesus ever performed and he performed it in Canaan of Galilee but it says it manifested forth his glory and as I just said, filling those water pots with the water, the servants doing that and the water being turned to wine and being served to the people of the feast and that water being turned made into joy for them or or cheer for them. However, you'd rather phrase that. There was a manifestation of the glory of God and there's no different in the life of a sinner that has come to repentance and belief in the gospel but it takes Jesus Christ and only Jesus Christ to do it. Yes, we, his servants go out and we put the word forth. We put the gospel forth. We do that not because God needs us to but because God expects us to. God commands us to do so. He's going to go into all the earth and preach the gospel to every living creature. It is our job to do that not because God needs us to do anything for him. He is completely and utterly self-sufficient. He needs us to do nothing but he expects us to do it but this miracle manifested the his glory, his glory, cross glory, the glory of Christ that manifested just as salvation, salvation is performed in the life of a lost sinner. It ain't done because you're a good guy or a good girl or a good woman or man. It ain't done because you deserve it. It ain't done because God felt sorry for you.

[31:50] God saves sinners for his own glory. That is why he saves sinners. So, that brings us to the end of the first section of John chapter two and the end of John chapter one. Anybody got any questions or comments on any of that?