Emerging Conservative

Bible Study: John Two

Now to our Bible Study of John 2

verses 1-11

• So here, we have Jesus going to a wedding with mom and his new followers (after having three days with them).
• A wedding at that time probaly would have meant that Jesus was reated somehow to the couple. One of the customs were that the couple would provide for thier guests. By having run out of wine, this would have been a major scandel that would have followed the groom’s reputation for years so Mary wanted to help out.
• By the wording here, Jesus was not being as rude to his mother as it may appear. Using the word woman was a term of respect like in Matthew 19:26 and Matthew 20: 15. “Why do you involve me is like Him saying, “Why is this any of our buisness?”

There are many theories why Jesus said “My time has not come yet.” including …..

• He felt he shouldn’t being doin public miracles yet but under the counsel of his mother he decided it was time.
• He wasn’t comfortable getting involved but then saw from her that the miracle would help the faith of His new followers (which most of His miracles were done to help people in thier faith or because of thier faith)
• Some feel He was speaking of His time of His final sacrifice that He speaks of in Matthew 17: 1
• I tend to think His mom helped Him know when it was time to act. While He never sinned, He learned and a woman of faith can be a great influence.
• With the good wine being that from Jesus, not only did the groom have his reputation saved, people thought even higher of him plus the followers belived so a happy ended.

verses 12 -25

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• Jesus comes into ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Capernaum with his mother, his brothers ( younger brothers born to Mary and Joseph) (Since Joseph is no longer mentioned, many believe he dies before this part in Jesus’ life) and those followers to this point.
• Jewish Passover is a Jewish holiday remembering events that God has led the Jews through back in Exodus.
• It was permitted to sale these animals in the temple court for the convenience of the pilgrims who came from far away. Instead of bringing animals to sacrifice at the temple, they could get the animal there.
• However, as it talks about it here, it has become something the church was doing to make money instead of helping people as their main concern. This is what Jesus was upset about.
• Things would have been pretty wild here with animals running and flying everywhere, men diving for their money as it rolled, and the priests being mad at Jesus wondering by what authority did He do these things. It is “My Father’s house.”
• The disciples remembered Psalms 69: 9 that the Son of God woul have passion for His Father’s house.
• They wanted a sign that He had this authority so He talked about them destrying the temple (His body) and He would rebuild it in three days, they thought He meant the builing.
• The disciples remembered later that Jesus said this. Often times it is hard for us to see what God is doing in our lives but we can always see it when we look back.
• This shows us that from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry that He had his sacrifice in mind. He talks about the destruction of His body here, the elevation of the cross (John 3:14; 12:32-33), giving of His flesh for the world (John 6: 51), to His burial (John 12:7); and the announcement of His betrayal and death (John 13: 19,21). He knew what was to come later.