John 1:35-3:36

According to John 20:31, this gospel was specifically written so that people might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that He is the Son of God, so all of the accounts included in this gospel were placed there to accomplish this end.  Much of what was recorded in the other 3 gospels was not included in John, as he was not trying to just repeat what the others had written decades earlier.

In this passage we see the beginning of the Lord’s ministry, where He starts gathering disciples, He cleanses the temple of vendors and money changers, and He performs His first miracle in Cana, turning water into wine.  This first miracle is a picture of what He can do with plain earthen vessels (like us), where He miraculously transforms the common into the extraordinary.

In chapter 3 Jesus meets with Nicodemus, a leading Pharisee among the rulers in Israel, telling him of the need for every person to be born again, if they are going to be a part of God’s kingdom.  Then Jesus tells Nicodemus that He must be lifted up (on the cross), just like Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness, so that whoever looks up Him might be saved from the curse of satan’s bite (just like the people were saved from the serpent bites when they looked upon the bronze serpent lifted up on a pole).  He tells Nicodemus that it is for this purpose He came, because it was never God’s desire to judge the world for sin, so He sent Jesus into the world to save all who will believe on Him.