Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites
of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the
servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And
he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So
they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine,
and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the
water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him,
“Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then
the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of
his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his
disciples believed in him. (John 2:6-11)
Today was one of
those “domino” kind of experiences in the word. One thought kept leading to
another until I found myself somewhere that felt both brand new and familiar at
the same time.
When I consider
what a sign meant in John’s writing, I relate it to what signs do today. They
point us somewhere we are intended to go. So, where are we going with this
sign?
When I read about
how the sign “manifested” Jesus’ glory, I want to let myself see this. I want
to be real with it, like I don’t want to miss anything it is showing me.
And that means that
it isn’t first and foremost about what I see, or what I am getting out of my
devotions, or what I have time for today, but what God is manifesting to us
today in what he manifested about his Son back in the day.
It is standing out
that what Jesus manifested in that sign was his glory, and that John’s prologue
has already told us to expect this. Our guide for the journey (the apostle John
in this case) has already told us something about how to think about what we are
seeing.
Which begs the
question, are we the people who won’t be convinced of Jesus’ glory until we
have seen every sign and come to a conclusion about them? Or are we the ones
who already know that the whole gospel account of John will be revealing and
manifesting the glory of the Word who became flesh, the Word who was God, and
was with God, and was the Life that is the Light of men to this day, and we are
ready for it, watching for it, receiving it, delighting in it?
The biggest part of
this seemed to be where I ended up in my journey, that a disciple is someone
who has attached to a specific teacher for the purpose of learning that teacher’s
way of life. At least two of Jesus’ first disciples had already been disciples
of John the Baptist, which meant they had attached to him as a teacher and were
learning from him. But as soon as John pointed them to Jesus as “the Lamb of
God”, they became disciples of Jesus instead, exactly as John had wanted.
The part of
discipleship that really stood out to me was the attaching to a teacher part.
Disciples had purposefully attached to a teacher they believed in as a good
teacher, a good role model, a good example of living as a human being. This was
the common way of educating oneself, to become a disciple of a teacher.
Lately, I have seen
so many cheap grace pop-ups that focus on proving to people that there is
nothing expected of us except to believe. They believe that anything more than
that is a work in progress. But they leave out what the gospel calls us to, and
that believing means fully attaching to what the gospel says. It is all of
faith, but as the two disciples had first attached to John the Baptist as their
teacher, and then they switched to attaching to Jesus as their teacher, when we
are told by Jesus to “go and make disciples,” we are already under obligation
to Jesus as our teacher that we put into practice what he says, which means
making disciples who from the first breath of salvation are eager to attach to Jesus
as their teacher.
You know, like we want to learn from him.
Or more precisely,
that we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit who “will teach you all things
and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).
Why are we to be
taught all things?
So we will be the “wise
man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came,
and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had
been founded on the rock” instead of the “foolish man who built his house on
the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat
against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it” (Matthew
7:24-27).
I keep coming to
the way Paul introduced and concluded Romans with the aim “to bring about the
obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations” (Romans 1:5)
and “according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience
of faith” (Romans 16:26).
Does your personal
discipleship under Jesus Christ your Lord look like you are eagerly learning
whatever Jesus is teaching you through his word and his Spirit every day? Do
you describe your response to God’s word each day as “the obedience of faith”? If
our belief in Jesus is no better than what the demons believe, we can’t even be
sure we are saved!
But if our faith in
Jesus looks like sheep following their Shepherd, like children following their
firstborn brother, like disciples learning from their teacher, with everyone
watching knowing we are disciples by our love for one another, it is likely
that the fruit is proving the tree good.
Where are the
dominos of God’s word leading you today? And are you already to do whatever it
takes to keep in step with the Spirit?
© 2025
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
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