Mar 9, 2010
This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him. John 2:11
The beginning of signs that John referred to was Jesus turning the water into wine at the wedding celebration. This is the first miracle recorded in Jesus’ ministry. The first of anything establishes a pattern and lays the foundation for understanding what follows. The most remarkable fact about this sign is that in John’s understanding, and thus in infallible scriptural revelation, it was a manifestation of Jesus’ glory.
It is not incorrect by to interpret, by the understanding established in this event, that all signs, wonders and miracles that followed are manifestations of His glory. While there are many ways in which God has and continues to reveal His glory, the manner chosen to be the first by Jesus was a miraculous sign.
The word “manifested” can also be translated “revealed.” Scripture tells us that the whole earth is filled with His glory. But to the unspiritual eye that glory is hidden. Jesus brought His glory in the realm of tangible expression. When the prophet said that the “earth would be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord” I believe he had just such occurrences in mind.
In Jesus, the earth had exposure to the tangible, “in the now”, glory of the Father. By extension, the earth is now being “filled” with that same knowledge through the continued work of His people operating in the same Spirit that operated in Jesus. Every sign, wonder and miracle is a manifestation of His glory that follows the pattern established by Jesus in Cana.
According to Paul writing in 2 Corinthians 4:6, the ultimate expression of the glory of the Father is revealed in the “face of Jesus Christ.” In that same passage, 3:18, we are told that we now encounter that glory on a personal level through the inward working of the Holy Spirit. The experience is transformational. It transforms us into the same image we are beholding; Jesus. We become, not just receivers, but actual manifestations of His glory just as Jesus is the revelation of His glory. We are not Jesus, but Jesus being the “first-born among many”, we are the sons and daughters that continue the family business on earth. We are now doing the works of Jesus through His enabling and empowering Spirit. The works that He first established as manifestations of His glory.
What were those works? Unusual signs, such as the water into wine, notable miracles, like healing the incurable diseases and raising the dead, authority over Satan, demons and the physical universe, such as casting out unclean spirits, resisting and overcoming Satan, as well as commanding the wind and waves to obey His voice. John completes His writing in 21:25 by saying, “and there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” What we have recorded are only a sample representation of the total ministry of Jesus.
Jesus said that the same works that He did, we would do and even greater works because “He was going to the Father.” It is staggering in its implication to consider that if Jesus’ works could not be contained in an infinite number of books, then the same magnitude of the miraculous is the destiny of The Church.