“This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.”
– John 2:11
So John 2:11 is the commentary at the end of the story about Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding feast, and this is the first of his signs. He just did it again in Galilee, and he manifested his Glory. That’s kind of the phrase I want to us think about for just a minute. Let it lead us to pray.
Christ’s first miracle at Cana compels us to ponder the ways in which God has manifested His glory in our lives.
He manifested his glory. What does that mean? Basically, Jesus is beginning here to show his identity, and this progresses throughout the book of John. We’re learning more and more about who Jesus is as he does different miracles and he delivers different teachings, but it’s all under the banner, the umbrella of him manifesting his glory. Showing his attributes.
I was reading this and I started thinking. I want to encourage you to think about all the ways God has manifested his glory to you. Obviously, ultimately in Jesus. We have seen the glory of God in Jesus. That’s John 1. The word has become flesh and dwelt among us. We’ve seen his glory. The glory of the only and only full of grace and truth.
John 2:11 Shows Us God’s Glory In Our Lives
So we see God’s glory in Christ. You think about scripture, he talks about how we see God’s glory in creation. Creation is shouting the glory of God, so that’s another way God manifests his glory. Then think more specifically about your life. How have you seen the glory of God, and when you picture the glory of God just picture all of his attributes wrapped up into beauty and wonder and grandeur.
How have you seen the goodness of God in your life? Or how has he manifested his goodness to you? How have you seen the grace of God? Has he manifested grace? How have you seen his mercy? How have you seen his justice, how have you seen his love, how have you seen his greatness, his power on display?
And this is where … I love the way John describes this. This is the first of his signs where he manifested his glory, and all throughout the rest of the book we’re going to see different ways Jesus manifested his glory, just like in our lives. So maybe just pause as we pray and let’s think together. God, we praise you for all the ways each of us has seen your glory. Some exactly the same for all of us. Ultimately Jesus manifesting your glory.
This Verse Praises God For His Glory
We look around at creation and we see you manifesting your glory and in so many other ways, and then specifically in each of our lives. The way you’ve shown your goodness manifested your grace to us in difficult days, in dark days when we cried out to you for help, and you have faithfully answered our prayers. The way we’ve seen your power on display, your mercy, in little ways and big ways.
God, we just praise you for all the ways you show your glory. We praise you for how day by day progressively we are growing in our understanding of you and our knowledge of you, and in the process growing in our enjoyment of you. God, I pray for that for every person who’s listening to this right now as I pray for my own life. Help us to see your glory more and more and more.
John 2:11 Prays For God’s Glory
We pray with Moses in Exodus 33. Show us your glory. We want to see more and more and more of your glory, and in the process to enjoy you more and more and more. Delight in you. Increasingly wean us off lesser glory. Thinking about things in this world that don’t compare with you that we sometimes find ourselves running after and pursuing.
God help us to pursue your glory. Manifestations of your greatness and your goodness, and God as we pray for this in our own lives, God we pray glorify your name through us. Help other to see your glory through our lives We pray. We pray for the manifestation of your glory in increasing weight in our lives and through our lives. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
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David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
