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Daily Devotions

John

John 
Day 
Day 37

The prerogative of the Lord to give signs

Text: John 2:13-25

THE PREROGATIVE OF THE LORD TO GIVE SIGNS

It is the prerogative of the Lord to grant signs. He is not bound in any way to perform signs on demand. It is also the prerogative of the Lord to determine the kind of signs that He would grant. It is not for man to demand a sign be given!

When the Jews demanded a sign, Jesus exercised His prerogative as the Son of God to choose the sign He would give as proof of His authority to challenge the Temple authorities in the way they ran the Temple. It was a very puzzling sign that Jesus offered His detractors.

“Destroy this Temple, and in three days
I will raise it up.”
John 2:19

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SIGN JESUS OFFERED

Jesus refused to give in to the demands of the Jews. He did not have to give them any sign. He did not even have to authenticate His authority to do what He did. If they wanted proof of who He was, they were responsible for finding out more about Him. After all, did they not send a delegation to check out the ministry of John the Baptizer (Cf. John 1)?

What then was the significance of the words of Jesus? Let us consider what Jesus meant by His words.

1. A Prediction of His death

Right from the start, Jesus knew that the Jews would plot His death. Why would He even want to give “a sign” to people who were bent on killing Him? Whatever sign He gave to them would not change them at all. Thus He refused to comply with their demand for a sign to be given to them.

2. A Proclamation of Power over death

There was no fear in Jesus concerning death. He was not afraid that the Jews would kill Him. He was confident that His Father would raise Him from the dead.

There were times when Jesus spoke of His power to be raised from the dead. There were also times when He spoke of how His Father would raise Him from the dead. He maintained both concepts because both were equally true!

3. A Peculiar way of teaching His disciples

Jesus was constantly teaching His disciples. Some of the lessons were more direct than others. Some lessons were so deep that they were understood years later. This was one example of the deep lessons Jesus sought to teach His Disciples.

“But He was speaking of the Temple of His body.
Therefore, when He had risen from the dead,
His disciples remembered that He had said this to them;
And they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus said.”
John 2:21-22

THE CONCEPT OF A TEACHING MESSIAH

One of the strongest prophetic teachings concerning the Messiah was that He would be One who would come and teach people about God. A number of passages from the Book of Isaiah would serve to prove this point.

“The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned
That I should know how to speak a word in season
To him who is weary.
He awakens me morning by morning
He awakens My ear to hear as the learned.”
Isaiah 50:4

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord…”
Isaiah 61:1-2

The Jews unfortunately missed out this important feature about the Messiah. Somehow, they failed to recognize His teaching ministry. The Disciples on the other hand drew close to Jesus and called Him, “Rabbi” (John 1:49). One of the most attractive things about Jesus was the fact that He knew the Word of God and taught it as no one else could!

BELIEVING IN THE WORD OF GOD

What does it really mean to believe in Jesus? John took up this theme and explored it deeply in his Gospel. We have a glimpse of one aspect of what it truly means to believe in Jesus.

“And they believed the Scripture
and the Word which Jesus had said.”
John 2:22

It was most important to John to highlight the fact that when one speaks of believing in Jesus, one must also be able to say that he believed in BOTH the Scripture and the Word which Jesus taught. There can be no separation of the Word of Jesus and the Scriptures, simply because He was the very Word of God!

The Jews may have “believed” in the Scriptures, or so they claimed. However, they had little or no regard for the Lord Jesus at all. That approach would not constitute true faith, as far as John was concerned. It took a while before the Disciples had full understanding and faith in Jesus and His Word. But that finally came to pass as well!