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            This chapter has a lot of meat in it. This chapter, specifically the first half, also has theological debates on the full meaning behind Jesus’ teaching and what exactly He meant. Rather than tell you what I believe to be true, I really just want to encourage everyone to read John Chapter three this week with time set aside to go deep into it with the Holy Spirit. Allow God to really give you the full depth of what these verses mean.

            Since we won’t be doing John Chapter 3 together, I wanted to share a testimonial from this week. The other day I went to water some plants and almost stepped on a rattlesnake. I was barefoot and when I looked down my foot was about five inches away from a coiled up, full grown rattlesnake. I know, I know, why in the world was I barefoot in Texas in June? When I saw the snake I jumped back, imediately started to praise Jesus for not stepping on the snake then I dropped the hose out of shock and when I dropped the hose it should have fallen and landed on the snake (which would have made it mad).

            However, when I got a few feet away and was able to process what had just happened, I realized something. The snake hadn’t moved, at all. I thought it might be dead. My husband went to check and it was definitely alive. As I sat there I realized all that had just happened. When I had looked down and saw the snake next to my foot, for a moment it felt like everything paused, I got a real look at the snake, I could tell it was asleep, I could see its eyes were closed and I could see the details of his head resting upon his body in a deep sleep. I then realized, that the foot I had almost stepped on it was my left foot which has an old tattoo of a sparrow (I had gotten then years before getting born again).

            I was reminded of Matthew 10:28-31 as I saw the sparrow on my bare foot, inches away from the rattlesnake; “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows”.  I was then reminded of the hose, the hose wasn’t where I dropped it, in fact it landed a good three feet away from where I had dropped it. It was if I had thrown it across the lawn, but I didn’t, I dropped it directly next to the snake which should have hit it.

            I was then reminded of the snake repellent I had boughten three weeks ago that I had never put out, it was sitting in the garage in the unopened bag.

            What I learned was this: We are of more value of the sparrows, the sparrows don’t worry or fear, neither should we. I have a spiritual knowing that this snake was put in a deep sleep, the hosts of heaven were guarding me for the Lord. The hosts of heaven moved that hose so it wouldn’t wake the snake before it landed. I was immediately reminded that to have snake repellent and not use it is as ignorant as having tools and gifts from God and choosing not to use those either. Psalm 91 then came to mind followed by Luke 10:19. What could have been a disastrous moment was an incredible lesson and prophetic message all in one with the addition of being reminded of my value and love in Christ.

            God gives us tools and knowledge and we are silly or even ignorant to not use them. He allows us to operate in His authority and it’s silly of us not to do it. Just like it was silly of me to not put out the snake repellent or wear shoes outside in Texas in July. Worry or fear comes when there is too much space between one and the Father. But when we choose to dwell in Him, fear and worry can’t be present, even in the midst of an enemy.

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            Chapter two discusses the first miracle of Jesus, turning water into wine. I have heard many different teachings on this that really make it come full circle in understanding. Many wander why Jesus went to the wedding, why was His first miracle done here? In this time, if one was invited to a wedding they went, if they didn’t go it was a huge sign of disrespect and would spark “bad blood” between the families. Jesus the carpenter was invited to this wedding, along with His mother. He had just started His ministry and its believed that not many people in town knew of Him as a teacher yet, they knew Him as a carpenter. So, had He declined the invitation it would have showed the town distaste and wouldn’t have helped the ministry start on the right foot, God wanted Jesus to lead a walk of love not rejection. Understanding the culture of the times makes a huge difference on what the scripture fully means.

            When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother told Jesus about it. It was accustomed then that if a friend ran out of needs for a gathering, they would turn to their spouse or son for help to fix the situation. Mary saw her friends run out of wine and knew that could cause them to have a bad reputation amongst the town, back then it wasn’t ok to run out of things for a gathering, it was expected to have enough provisions to entertain your guests. Hospitality was a different thing then to now. Today, if you had a party and ran out of beverages it wouldn’t be a big deal, you wouldn’t get judged or looked down upon because of it. When Mary saw the wine was gone, she went to Jesus for help, which was accustomed in this day and age.

            There were six water pots there that Jesus had turned into wine supernaturally. It is important to note that these jars were used for cleansing, some were for cleaning other dishes and some were for cleansing yourself before eatings (it was accustomed to always wash and cleans the hands before eating). So, these were meant for cleaning purposes. The number six represents man. Jesus first miracle of turning water into wine showed that He was going to make a way to cleanse men of their sins, incredible!

            Also, I would like to add, that even though Jesus turned water into wine, that doesn’t mean He was an advocate for people getting drunk. For starters, we are commanded not to be drunkards. Also, historians have shown that because there wasn’t enough grapes to make wine in the multitudes back then, it was common to dilute the wine. Because of this, there was a common 14:1 part water to wine mix (14 parts water to 1 part wine). Therefore, it wasn’t as normal to see someone being completely “drunk” like you would see people in todays standards. When the disciples were filled in the Spirit in the book of Acts and began praying in tongues, the town accused them of being drunk. To this Peter said that it was impossible to be drunk, it was only 9am. Historians believe that because the wine was so diluted it would take someone a long, full day of drinking to reach the point of being drunk. For one to be drunk at 9am would be incredibly hard unless they didn’t go to sleep the night before and stayed up all night drinking. This would make sense as to why Peter said, ‘how could they be drunk, its only 9am?’

            Also, some believe that the wine He made was a heavenly wine, in heaven there isn’t anything harmful, meaning there wouldn’t be alcohol. A well known prophet/seer shared that there is wine in heaven but it doesn’t contain alcohol in it because there is nothing that damages in heaven. She believes that because of that, the wine Jesus made in this miracle was a heavenly wine that didn’t contain alcohol to get people drunk. However, this isn’t supported nor rebuked in scripture, but I could see how that could have been the case. What we do know though, is that we are told not to be drunkards. We also see, that after Jesus turned water into wine, scripture shows that after He then went to Capernaum. It doesn’t say that He stayed and watched everyone drink the six pots of wine. Its important to see this miracle for what it is and not try to make it as an excuse to be “able to party and get drunk”. Sadly, some believers get confused with his story and see it as a license to party and get drunk. That’s not what this is about, not by a long shot. God of coarse wants us to celebrate when good things happen like weddings or birthdays etc, but there is a secular way to celebrate and then there is a way to celebrate that would make God proud. Common sense and conviction will allow you to discern His form of celebration verses worldly ways. What we are to take out of this is Jesus performed a supernatural sign that showed His power and literally prophesied what was to come, Him washing away mans sins. We should see this testimony and celebrate it for its true purpose, not twist it for sinful desires.

            Now comes Passover, so, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He went to the temple and this is where He found people selling oxen, sheep and doves for sacrifice and money changers inside the temple. Jesus said that this should be a house of prayer but they had made it into a den of thieves. The peoples heart intents in the temple were obvious and shown through what the inside of the temple had looked like. The disciples remembered that it is written, ‘zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.’ Jesus then began to flip the tables over to show everyone that this wasn’t ok.

            Jesus’ response to this was that the temple would be destroyed and in three days Jesus will rise it up. They were floored, they didn’t understand how Jesus would be able to build this temple that took man 46 years to make, they had no idea He was talking about the temple of His body.

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            We see here Jesus’ first converts. John who was with two of his disciples saw Jesus and declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” The two disciples heard this and then went to follow Jesus. They knew that God was speaking through John and had been preaching through John, so when John said this was the Lamb of God they chose to follow Jesus, without any doubts as to who He really was.

            Jesus asked them what they seeked? They responded with a simple rabbi, where are you staying? Rabbi was equivalent to them calling Him their teacher, showing that they were seeking a teacher in Him. He told them to follow and see and they stayed with Him. The scripture shows it was the tenth hour which was my bible notes shows it was 10am. The significance shows that it was still early enough in the day to make other arrangements for travel elsewhere, no one started a new journey in the afternoon because it would make it difficult to set up camp in the dark. The fact that it was morning time and plenty early for them to go else where shows that they wanted to be here, they weren’t doing this out of needing a place to stay, rather wanting to learn from Jesus.

            One of the two disciples was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. Andrew told Simon that this man was the Messiah, the Christ, and brought Simon to Jesus. Jesus declared that Simon would be called Cephas, which means stone.

            From there they went to Galilee and Jesus found Phillip and told Phillip to follow Him. Phillip foundNathanael and said that they have found the Messiah from Nazareth and he needed to follow Him. Nathanael questioned if anything good could come from Nazareth. Jesus walked up to Nathanael and declared that he was in Isrealite home has no deceit. Nathaneel was shocked as to how Jesus knew who he was. Jesus told Nathaniel that He saw him sitting under the fig tree when Philip called him. Nathaniel was floored and declared that he believed that Jesus was the Messiah; Jesus responded with a simple, ‘you believe all because I saw you sit under a fig tree? You will see greater things than this.’

            Jesus says that he would see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Notice none of these guys sat and debated Jesus about who He was, the moment Jesus spoke they saw God through Him and believed. Sadly, to the world today, this is called being radical, dropping everything to follow Jesus. But this shouldn’t be radical and wasn’t meant to be radical, this was meant to be our normal. We need to get to the place where Jesus is first and we drop everything to do as He says, to seek Him, to learn from Him, to know Him more. The obedience these disciples had is something we need to have.