Unshaken: Chapter a Day

John 2 Discussion

• Pastor Plek

Share episode

Send us a text

Scarcity at a wedding and chaos in a temple might sound like separate stories, but John 2 threads them into one clear message: Jesus brings overflowing joy and uncompromising holiness, and both aim at a deeper sign of who he is. We walk through Cana’s wonder and the temple’s confrontation to show how these moments launch the seven-sign rhythm of John’s Gospel and prepare us for the promise of “destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

We start with the jars at Cana—ordinary stone vessels transformed into extraordinary wine. Wine in Scripture means joy, fruitfulness, and harvest, and the party’s shortage mirrors a people who ran out of life. With a quiet command and the servants’ simple obedience, Jesus delivers better wine than the host ever planned. It’s a picture of grace that doesn’t just top off our plans but upends our assumptions: the best doesn’t come first; it comes with Jesus. We also unpack Mary’s role and why Jesus calling her “woman” echoes Genesis, the promise to the first woman, and the launch of a new creation story.

Then we step into the courts of the temple, where convenience has replaced devotion. Jesus crafts a whip, drives out profiteers, and answers challenges with a riddle that makes sense only after Easter. We explore the debate over timing, what “zeal for your house” reveals about God’s heart, and why Jesus doesn’t entrust himself to crowds chasing signs without surrender. Along the way, we press into human nature—our tendency to stage the good up front and settle for less later—and contrast it with Christ’s abundance and purity.

If you’re tired of empty religion or running on fumes, this conversation calls you back to the source. Do whatever he tells you. Return to worship that seeks God rather than gain. Trust the One who reads hearts, restores joy, and replaces dead spaces with living presence. If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find these deep dives into the Gospel of John.

Text us at 737-231-0605 with any questions.

Pastor Plek:

And welcome back to a chapter a day. Keeps the devil awake. I'm Pastor Pleck. This is Pastor Hall. We're talking John chapter two. We're going to outline it. We're going to make some observations, some interpretations, and then apply the word of God so you can take it with you along the way so that your day is filled up with uh serving Jesus today. All right, so we're gonna look at uh John chapter two, verses one through eleven. This is the first public miracle, the wedding at Cana. What a wild time. Jesus knows how to party. Verses 13 through 22, Jesus clears the temple, which is sort of a wild deal where he uh the zeal for the Lord consumes him and he drives out the money changers. And then he also says, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then you've got uh verses 23 through 25, the desire to be honored at the Passover feast. A bunch of people see the miraculous signs about what Jesus is doing and they believe his name, but Jesus does not entrust himself to them, for he knows each person, seeing that their faith is superficial and based on the moment and not on commitment. So we're gonna this is gonna set the stage for Nicodemus in chapter three. All right, let's get into some observations. Why water to wine?

Pastor Holland:

All right. So many reasons. There's so I I'm gonna say this like all every chapter in John. It's so jammed. So much theology packed in here. Okay, so wine. What is wine in the Bible? Symbol of joy. Joy celebration and fruitfulness. Fruitfulness, good things. You can't get wine if you don't have a harvest of grapes. Right. And you can't have a party without wine. Right. And so what you have, a party running out of wine, you could take symbolically as the state of Israel. Oh man. Of your fruitfulness is gone. Gone. You you are no longer a place of abundance, of fruit, of joy. You are dried up. Nice. And what does Jesus do? He comes and he brings a new wine that's even better. Um, saves the best for last. Come on, somebody. Beautiful stat. And so Jesus comes and he shows in his first sign, and that's important too, that it's called a sign, not a miracle. Right. Um, he shows in his first sign that he is the bringer of God's joy and abundance to the world.

Pastor Plek:

Woo! That is good. All right. So I always thought this was Jesus' first public miracle. Yeah. Yeah. Because I think, because I think if um Simon's with him, so he did the miracle of the fish, which I guess you count not really a miracle. I guess it's possible for fish to jump into your boat without but no, it's a miracle. Yeah. Maybe I was like, that's a miracle. That's definitely a miracle.

Pastor Holland:

But public, this is his first kind of public thing that he's really doing. And the idea that it's called a sign more than just a miracle. Yeah.

Pastor Plek:

It's the first public sign, or first, yeah, first public sign of his kingdom. And what does a sign do? It points to points to something.

Pastor Holland:

Um, and and so there are going to be seven signs in the book of John. Right. And so you can see the whole book of John as essentially kind of like a journey, a tour, from one sign to the next, pointing you to the reality of the fullness of who Jesus is, which e with each sign revealing more and more about yeah, who Jesus is, how he fulfills the promises, what he offers to us for those who have faith in him. And so this one being the first is really awesome. Um, it's this sign that shows Jesus brings joy and life and abundance into a barren, um, dry world.

Pastor Plek:

Okay. So with that, the next couple verses are about the temple and how it essentially is dead. And Jesus drives them out of it. I don't think, and this correct me if I'm wrong. This is, I mean, this that the first sign is the first public you know miracle that he does, or first sign. And I think that is more of a or sorry, that when we get to Jesus driving out the um money changers, this is more it's not a chronological revelation, right? It is just sort of pointing to here's the the new wine, here is the fruitfulness is dead, the temple life is gone.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, it could be so there's two routes with this, um, because this place is right here, if you're looking chronologically, this is at the start of Jesus' ministry, whereas in the other gospels it's at the end after his three-year ministry.

Pastor Plek:

It's kind of one of the things that prompts him to be killed.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. And so either A, this is put, this is arranged um theologically rather than chronologically. Right. So meaning I'm putting this event here for a theological purpose to make a point rather than just giving you a straight chronology in order. Right. Um, or it's that he did this twice, one at the beginning of his ministry and one at the end, kind of his ministry was sandwiched in between these two temple cleansings. Um, so that there's uh scholars that kind of go both ways on that. Right. Um, but either way you go on that, the symbolism of it is important. It's that um just like the wedding had run out of wine, Israel had run out of um faithfulness, fruitfulness, they had become they had become barren. Yep. And um Christ is coming in to essentially um expose that and pronounce God's judgment on them and explain how He that if you want to have life in God, it's only possible through faith in Jesus. He's the one who's gonna fulfill that.

Pastor Plek:

I love that because Mark 11 kind of does the same same thing where it's the withering of the fig tree. Right. And it's the the you know, he w he drives out the money changers and essentially says the the season of uh of the temple is over. Okay. What about um in within that destruction or the saying, hey, I will destroy the temple in three days and rebuild it? Uh I love that that's to me, that's a there's a foreshadowing there of the resurrection. Yes, of course. Um and I I love that aspect of like over and over and over again in Jesus' ministry, he's always pointing to the the his death, burial, resurrection, while with using words that nobody's following. Like, you know, with Jonah or you know, just like the you know, yeah, Jonah went into the heart of the whale or whatever, or heart of the sea for three days. So will the Son of Man. Here it is again. G I build destroy this temple in three days, I'll build it up. Yep.

Pastor Holland:

And it's stuff that you know nobody understood right then, but later they're like, oh, that's cool. That was good.

Pastor Plek:

That's good. All right, how about this? Like, I love that Jesus' mom is the impetus of him doing his first miracle, and he's like, I don't think this is my time yet. And turns out God, like, I feel like the one thing God the Father doesn't reveal to Jesus except until it happens, is timing of things. Because he says, Hey, woman, this isn't my time. But then, oh, it turns out it actually is your time. Isn't that an interesting thing? I don't know if that's a am I theologically correct in saying like time might be, I was just speculative a little bit, might be the thing that Jesus is never aware of, and that's where he's constantly in tune with the father for to have to depend on him for when to start operating in some way.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, uh that's a great question. I don't I'm not I've never really thought of it in that broad. There's the clear idea of the father had not revealed to him, you know, certain information about his return and when that would happen. Um, so this could be lumped into the same category of just the general timing of things. Well, it's not my time. And another thing though is that it it wasn't, it truly wasn't his time to be crucified. That's really what the hour, you know, when he talks about my hour and my time in John, it's talking about his crucifixion, right? Which is related to his glorification. So um his enthronement, in a sense, is his crucifixion. That's where he's glorified, is on the cross, um, showing, you know, the amazing grace of God. So it wasn't his time for that, but it was his time to really begin his public ministry. Um, and so he still does it in a way that is semi-veiled, though. Not everyone understands what happened. The the servants, it says um in verse nine. Yeah. The servants who had drawn the water knew, but the master of the feast didn't know. Most of the people there who were just partying, they had no idea and didn't care. They're just like, cool, more wines here. Yeah. And so Jesus didn't really um, you know, go go public fully here, um, but he did honor his mother's request. He honored his mom, and he blessed the people and um uh manifested his glory in a way that his disciples believed in him. I mean, the part that's cool.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, the part that Christ woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, we don't really talk like that today. I'm pretty sure that was still an endearing way to speak in his context, um, using the word woman like that. Um, but it's not how you would say it today. I don't know.

Pastor Plek:

Maybe Jesus would still say it that way today. Right. And I and I love the fact that the Jews, after he's done this public sign, they want to know what sign he will do. Uh uh, you know, what sign do you show us for doing these things? In other words, what what authority? And that's when he goes, destroy this temple, and I'll raise up in three days.

Pastor Holland:

On the woman thing, too, it's like it again, we read it and we just think of like woman, you know, like it just sounds but again. It goes back to the idea that remember, everything is like theologically loaded in John. Yeah. And so even when you read the word woman, when you read something you're like, this seems kind of out of place or interesting, there's something dig in there.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. So what is that? Let's dig in. Let's dig in.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. So going back to um uh the first woman in the garden, um, and the pro this is where like biblical um biblical theology, kind of connecting God's promises throughout each book of the Bible in one meta-narrative. Um, this idea of calling Mary woman here is tying her back to um the promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head. And so it's like she Mary is is the um the woman who carried Jesus into the world who would fulfill that promise to the first woman. Right. Um, so there I I would say that his use of woman there is really a more of a theologically loaded term connecting this to God's promise in Genesis three.

Pastor Plek:

I love that. Okay, then let's get into um and also here's what's kind of neat about it. Remember, the man and the woman, representative of like the sun and the moon in from Genesis 1, they rule over the day and and and the night. And here the woman says to the servants, she's ruling over them, and then she says, Hey, do whatever he tells you. Yeah, uh, ultimately fulfilling like here's the first public sign, here is the beginning of Satan being crushed under foot. That's cool. Okay. Uh let's get into some of the nature of man. Let's get into some human nature here. What do you what do you see in here?

Pastor Holland:

Human nature. Um the the statement from the master of the feast, everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. I think it says something about our human nature to like um uh what try to uh what how would you describe this? It's like you're trying to um you don't want to give the good wine the whole time, right? You want to kind of impress people, you know, up front, but then you know, um get away with what you can afterward. I don't know what you call that, but there's something there.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, yeah. Uh we want to look better than we are, we want to look more generous than we are.

Pastor Holland:

That's it, that's it, that's it.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah, okay. Uh here's one that I don't know if this is really nature of man, but verse 12 says, and in after this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days. So you have Jesus interacting with his own family and the disciples. Um, and I think what we've seen from our Catholic brothers is that they would say, Those brothers are just cousins, and it doesn't give like a plain reading of the word. Uh, they go for a non-reading of the word.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, and that's based on their um commitment to the perpetual virginity virginity of Mary. So saying uh Mary uh remains and and you know was um what what's the phrase, uh assumed into heaven? Assumption of assumption of Mary. The assumption of Mary, yeah. Um that she was perpetually a virgin, um, that uh yeah, she had a special status um in in uh uh just in her state um uh as a human being. Um and that uh so Jesus could not have um blood brothers or you know, half brothers or half-sisters or anything like that. Um so that's the Catholic position is that these were cousins, that Mary and Joseph did not um have sex after um the birth of Jesus, that they did not have any biological children together. Um and yeah, these are just cousins. Yeah. But it's not what you would um yeah, it's not what you would conclude just from reading the scripture in a plain reading, like you said.

Pastor Plek:

How about this about nature of man? We're prophet-oriented. Uh the a sacred space of worship was turned into a prophet. Yeah. Uh you know, privatizing convenience over devotion uh until confronted, which I you know, they didn't I think they stopped. Like they say, hey, what authority, but they didn't just like they didn't just arrest Jesus to throw him out and say, Let's keep the business going. They stopped. And they didn't arrest Jesus. Uh because I think probably the people were like, Yeah, you're right. I think there was a part of that that said we probably should have stopped this earlier, but we didn't, and now we're sort of humiliated. And why are you stopping this? Yeah, right.

Pastor Holland:

Also, just random, but he makes his own whip, verse 15. Uh I don't know what that means or teaches us, but he he didn't buy a whip. He makes his own whip. Um custom whip for this. Custom whips. Just interesting to me. Okay.

Pastor Plek:

How about uh uh character of God? Uh yeah, let's get well. I like hold on the surface level, like people want experiences without genuine change of heart. And that's why Jesus doesn't trust himself over men. Like he's like, nah, I know your guys' hearts. You're not with me yet. You're you want the goodies. Yeah. Okay, character of God. Uh, what do you got?

Pastor Holland:

Uh he he br he offers us joy, you know, just understanding what this first sign means that God is um God himself is full of joy and he shares that joy and offers that joy to us in Christ. How about this? There's no scarcity with God.

Pastor Plek:

Like when you run out of wine, he's like, Oh, I do wine. Uh, I can make wine come out of water, I can make anything come from nothing. And I love that aspect of he's got he's the provider of plenty.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah, I love that.

Pastor Plek:

Um, what else we got?

Pastor Holland:

Um he is zealous uh for the holiness of his house.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. Like we don't not very many people talk about like Jesus is passionate about protecting pure faith. Yeah. Like we don't sit there and go, like, oh, Jesus is really into doctrine. But clearly, he wants like he didn't just go say, hey, you guys can go worship anywhere. Who cares about this whole sacrificial system? He hates corruption, he hated corruption and he wanted it done right. Yeah. Um let's see. How about uh verse 24? Yeah, he can read minds and hearts. Jesus can read your heart and read your mind. Don't try and deceive him. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, knew all people. Yeah. Um, let's get into some application. Application, it's either sin to confess, promise to claim, example to follow, command to obey, or knowledge to believe. Um what you looking for?

Pastor Holland:

Sin to confess. Um I'm just thinking of the do not make my father's house a house of trade. Um, just corrupt religion, corrupt worship, um, you know, going to church or doing religious things for some other reason than um serving and glorifying God.

Pastor Plek:

I love that. Um, how about example follow? Do whatever he tells you. Let's like uh that might also be a command to obey, but like just do whatever Jesus says, which I thought that was kind of great. Like it's kind of like hey, tell others, do what Jesus tells you, and then also for ourselves, do what he says.

Pastor Holland:

Example to follow, honor your mother. Oh, nice. Fifth commandment applies even as an adult. Yes. You're no longer under um the authority like a child is with a parent, as you're, you know, once you grow up and move out of the house and all that, but the command to honor your parents is still there. So honor your mother and father.

Pastor Plek:

I love that. Um how about uh the the promise to claim? Uh the the sign of water to wine is a sign of what Jesus has come to do through the new covenant, and he brings joy. He loves uh he's gonna have one day have a party that we're gonna so enjoy in eternity, and that we need to kind of put our hopes on that party.

Pastor Holland:

Yeah. Knowledge to believe, um, drinking wine is not uh a sin in and of itself. Yeah. If it was, it would be really weird for Jesus to turn water into wine. That's right. So drunkenness, definitely, you know, a clear, a clear sin in the Bible. But um, enjoying wine at a wedding, that's um, Jesus seemed to encourage it and promote it even.

Pastor Plek:

Yeah. In fact, he made sure that everyone had their fill, even at the risk of people getting drunk. Wow. Wow. All right. I don't know. Uh you need to take that with you today at the party you go to. Uh, so excited for you to listen. We'll see you next time on a chapter a day.

Podcasts we love

Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.