Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. [John 20:30-31 NIV]
John was selective in his choice of 'signs' to prove that Jesus is the Son of God. He did not refer to them as miracles: instead, he called them 'signs' as they pointed clearly to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God. Only one of the Godhead could perform miracles like these. There are many other miracles which John could have chosen to include in his Gospel but he selected 7 deliberately. There are other miracles recorded in the other Gospel which John does not include e.g. healing the leper or casting out demons from Legion in Gadara. But John chooses his seven and calls them signs. They are conclusive proof that Jesus was the Son of God. Here is a table with the seven signs listed and the references in John's Gospel.
Changing water into wine John 2:11
Healing the official's son John 4:46-54
Healing the paralysed man John 5 :1-15
Feeding the multitude John 6:5-13
Walking on the water John 6:16-21
Healing the man born blind John 9:1-7
Raising Lazarus John 11:1-44
Four of these miracles or signs are highlighted in yellow. They are all medical interventions - the last one being the most spectacular. They are all providing a remedy for the effects of sin - the first book in the Bible tells us how sin began in the human race when Adam and Eve disobeyed God.
As we look at the list we see that the first medical sign was the official's son. He was at the point of death. The last medical miracle was the big one. Lazarus had already died and Jesus brought him back to life. The other two miracles highlighted in yellow are when Jesus dealt with two of chronic conditions which affect the quality of life - blindness and paralysis. There are many conditions such as these in our world today. Jesus healed a man who could not walk and a man who could not see.
To look at the list again. All seven demonstrate that Jesus is the creator of the world as John told us in the first chapter of the Gospel.
All things were made by through him, and without him was not anything made that was made [John 1:3 ESV]
Jesus is able to reverse the effects of sin and illness and to bring back to life - all the work of the Creator of the world. The other three signs display the power of the Creator too. He is in control of the situation and acts with supernatural power against all the laws of nature - we can see this from all three miracles not highlighted in yellow When the Son of God as Creator of the universe is involved, a small amount of food (five loaves and two fishes) are sufficient to feed a huge crowd of people. He is also able to overrule the laws of nature which states that human beings cannot walk on water. He demonstrates his power over the sea so that it takes on properties which it does not naturally possess. The same applies to the miracle of changing of ordinary water drawn from a well into wine. The slow fermenting process involving grapes from a vine is no longer required because the Son of God is the Creator of the universe.
John had a clear purpose in writing the fourth Gospel. He does not repeat details which have already been covered by the other three Gospels. He has chosen details which, in his opinion, clearly demonstrate who Jesus is. If you are not fully convinced that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, can I suggest that you read John's Gospel for yourself. If you want to read previous Day Shares on John's Gospel, they will be posted as archives in the website. I would be happy to send them to you by whatever means you choose. Contact me at robertneilly@msn.com or follow this link to the One Drive folders where I store previous Day Shares.
Day Shares 2020
Day Shares 2021
God bless
Robert Neilly
John's pattern of 7 here, also in the 7 'I Am' statements (which can be linked to the 7 items in tabernacle - entrance/curtain, altar of sacrifice, water bowl, bread/table, menorah, altar of incense) and other more subtle patterns of 7 in the gospel are a strong indication of his awareness of priestly and prophetic/apocalyptic traditions and a strong argument (along with other textual similarities) hat he is most definitely the writer of Revelation, which has even more 7 patterns.