We covered two days of our study this week – Day 8 and 9. The 8th day deals with Jesus’ call to the disciples. We see two calls given by Jesus early on – one is “Come and see” and one is “Come and follow.” The first is a call to the world – “come check it out” and “see that the Lord is good.” What are you doing in your life to call others to “come and see?” Does the world know that you are a follower of Jesus? How? 

The second call is huge. Following is about more than just checking out or knowing someone. You only follow someone you trust. You follow those that you want to have the lead. You follow those that you want to emulate. In every area of our lives we follow people. First, we follow our parents (even if we don’t want to) and learn their lifestyle, habits and issues. Some of them stick, others do not – but we follow. Then, we follow our teachers and acquire knowledge the way they show us to. Some teachers don’t get that. They are bored, so they bore us and we give up on school. Those who are passionate transcend the classroom for us and help us learn. (Jesus was more than this, by the way). Then, we get jobs and we have to shadow and be trained so that we can be effective at our jobs. You get the picture – this entire life is spent learning to become effective. Yet, we think too often that all we need to do is pray and that makes us a Christian (which the word “Christian” means “little Christ”). Are you becoming a little Christ? Who are you following?

We spent some time looking at multiple passages that show how Jesus was prophesied about. He is for us to follow.  The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was the first – we must follow the pioneer (He 12:2), the one who blazed the path for a healthy relationship with God and others. He was foretold, became what we needed Him to be and now beckons us to follow – will you join Him?

Day 9 revolves around Jesus’ first miracle – turning water to wine at a wedding in Cana. Some interesting things: Mary initiates this miracle, it is a miracle of abundance and not necessity, His disciples are confronted with the reality of His deity and believe in Him, Jesus was all about a wedding party, Mary trusted Jesus’ power and Jesus was walking by God’s timeline. What do you take away from John 2:1-11?

The main point was this: Jesus was a real person – fully God AND fully MAN. He had a family, expectations on Him, etc that allow us to follow Him. He knows what it is like to have His mom asking Him to do the seemingly impossible (grades, cleaning, etc in our context). He knows what it is like to be misunderstood and left feeling weird about it. He was different. He was real and became all we needed Him to be. We needed a Savior we could relate to. Jesus was this. While we cannot turn water to wine, we can understand so many other aspects of His life. How do you relate to Him?