How do the miracles, the signs, in John’s Gospel help us to believe? And how does comparing them with one another help in the actual preaching of the word of God?

This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘Four Journeys to Jerusalem’ (2009).

Yes, why should we bother to do all this comparing of the series of signs in John's Gospel? And, if you are going to preach the signs, the question to ask certainly is: 'How do they help people to believe?' The first seven are intended to do just that, as we have seen.

These [signs] are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:31)

But how do they help people to believe? Perhaps you have given away the Gospel of John to people on the street and hoped that God will use it to bring them to faith. Someone might open it and say, 'Wow! This Jesus can give us gallons of wine!' Is that what it is teaching, simply that he did a miracle that produced gallons of wine, and that is why people should believe Christ? We want to know a little more about the signs, don't we? We need to know what they meant, and what they mean, and how they lead to faith.

The signs were not only miracles of power; they were parables, as you see from the feeding of the five thousand. Having multiplied the loaves and the fish for people who were physically hungry, he uses that as the basis for teaching them that he is the bread of life to satisfy their spiritual hunger. That is what you are getting at if you are giving the Gospel of John to unconverted people, so that they should come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. If you are preaching it, this is what you should be aiming at: producing faith in the Lord Jesus—belief that he is the Son of God.

We are not playing crossword puzzles or Sudoku with the word of God. We are studying how the signs compare with each other so that we may get a firmer and detailed grasp on what they mean. You don't have to preach 'structure' to unconverted people, nor to believers, unless you want to; but if structure helps you to see the point of each one and how they differ, it will make your preaching all the more exact.

The first sign

Take the first sign: the turning of water into wine. Your worldly-wise chap will say: 'That's only a story, and it's nonsense. You're asking me to believe that, and I don't believe it!'

You say to him, 'It's in the Bible.'

'Well, I don't believe the Bible either. And I wasn't there when this was supposed to have happened. What's the good of you telling me the record of a story written in the Bible two thousand years ago when I don't believe the Bible anyway?'

You might say, 'Well, it's no use preaching him the story then; I'll just give up.'

So what would I say to you now? Well, remember that the story is not only a miracle, but also a parable. You could tell him the story and say, 'It's a very interesting story. It was a wedding, and they had wine there to promote the joy of the party. And the wine? It ran out. Is that true still? Is it true that sometimes, even at weddings, the wine runs out?'

You don't need an inspired book to tell you this. The newspapers will tell you that bit. The wine runs out! And not only out of marriage relationships but all sorts of human relationships: the wine runs out. Teenagers come to loathe their parents, and parents to despair of their children. Can our Lord give better wine?

Well, how did he do it? That's a point to focus on, isn't it?

The specific water he turned into wine

Did he say, 'Abracadabra!' and the wine came floating down from the sky and filled their glasses? No, he didn't. Look at what the text says: 'Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons' (John 2:6).

The Jews had strict regulations about purification as part of their religion; they still do. So does Islam for that matter. Adherents of Islam are required to wash their hands and feet before getting down on the mat to pray five times a day. It is has to do with a sense of cleanliness. In Britain it used to be that weddings were a time when people thought of cleanliness, and the bride wore white to signify that she was a virgin. It doesn't necessarily signify that nowadays. Have we lost that sense of purity at weddings?

It says that these water jars were there 'for the Jewish rites of purification'. So it was cleansing by water, according to Jewish custom. It stood for a good principle, but our Lord himself commented on the practice. The Pharisees were very keen on this kind of cleansing. They wouldn't touch food unless they had first washed carefully. Our Lord made the point that the trouble with water is that it only cleanses the outside, the skin. And that is not what upsets marriages and other relationships. It not because the husband hasn't had a bath for six months, or something like that. It is that 'out of the heart come . . .' all these ugly things, 'these are what defile' (Matthew 15:19–20). Mere religious, external ceremonies can't reach the trouble.

It was that water of the Jews' old system of purification that he turned into wine—into joy! It was 'the best wine' that had been 'kept until now' (see John 2:10).

Witness what the Epistles say. And many a Christian will tell you of the joy that comes with forgiveness, of 'the blessedness of the one whose sins are forgiven, whose sins are covered, to whom the Lord will not impute unrighteousness' (see Romans 4:7–8). And we could think of other such passages. As for God being against pleasure, well, where did you get that idea? One of the metaphors that God uses for the eternal state is the 'marriage supper of the Lamb'!

He said to Mary, 'Woman, what have I to do with you?' (John 2:4 KJV). Up to this point, he had been her obedient son, but he was now about to launch his public ministry. He couldn't do it at Mary's direction. She was his mother on the human side, but she could never direct his mission. He was God's incarnate Son. Now the time had come for him to begin his public ministry and to come forth.

If we are guided by the Epistles, we will see what Christ was at in his public ministry. He was seeking a wife! He loved the church, and gave himself for her, that he might cleanse her by the washing of water by the word, that, ultimately, he might present the church to himself, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing (see Ephesians 5:26–28).

In other words, the miracles are not just works of power. They are that, but they are also simultaneously parables; and the significance of the parable is to be preached. And if that is true of one, it is true of the lot. That is why it is important to see that they differ among themselves. This is not just arbitrary, remote literary study. It is trying to see the point of the word of God.

You will notice that those miracles are all different, and how they are different is important. Then you will see that some of them are 'balanced' by one of the others. Take, for instance, the second one—the son healed at a distance. We have thought what the point was of the healing at a distance and what that raised about questions of faith, and so forth. Then in the second to last sign, Lazarus was neither healed nor raised at a distance. And that is not an arbitrary comment. It is what Martha said: 'Why weren't you here, Lord . . . if only you had come . . . Why did you remain at a distance?' It is vastly important from a practical point of view, as we have seen.

You don't have to see them completely right away, and I am far from seeing everything about them, but preach them as you understand them. They are worth studying in detail, so that we may not just preach a sermon about them but preach them and their detail!

The first and the last signs

You might ask what the first sign has got to do with the last one. In the first one it says that he 'manifested his glory' (John 2:11). At the beginning of the last one he 'manifested himself' (John 21:1) because he was the other side of the grave. He had promised his disciples: 'I will not leave you orphans; I will manifest myself to you' (John 14:18, own trans.). He manifested himself to them in their work for him.

So in the first miracle Mary says, 'They have no wine.' He dealt with that. In the last miracle, standing on the shore, he called across the sea to the fisherman after they had toiled all night and caught nothing. He said, 'Have you anything to eat?' He didn't say, 'Have you caught any fish?' but 'Have you anything to eat?' (John 21:5 RV).

I will tell you straight now, you won't live spiritually on the work that you do for the Lord—that could well exhaust you. Yes, it is food, as we heard earlier from John 4; but we will need more than just work. So when they came to the shore they were very hungry. They had toiled all night and caught nothing (before his intervention). He had breakfast for them, and then they were allowed to bring some of the fish that they had caught and enjoy that as well! We are meant to enjoy the fruits of our work for the Lord, and find in it a food and satisfaction. But above the satisfaction in the work that we do for the Lord, there is that satisfaction that only a personal relationship with him can give. 'Have you anything to eat?' he asked them.

But I needn't go on with that point. All I'm trying to say now is why we should study Scripture in this kind of fashion and how it can help.