JOHN 1:35-51 - Come And See

Introduction

I will never forget the first time I saw a total solar eclipse. We have been extraordinarily fortunate that there have been two total solar eclipses that our family has been able to view—the first one in Kentucky in 2017, and the second one back in 2024 up in Meadville (we got to stand in my brother-in-law’s front yard and see that one!).

The one in Kentucky though was the most memorable one. I remember standing there and watching the Moon slide across the face of the Sun and being overwhelmed by a sense of how tiny and insignificant we all are. Here is this enormous cosmic dance that our Creator God has orchestrated between the two lights that govern the day and night; and all of us stood helplessly watching an event that was so beyond our comprehension or ability to influence in even the slightest manner that it overwhelmed my mind.

Eventually the Moon went its way and the Sun went its way and we all returned to our regular routine of day and night in their proper places. But I remember the rest of that day and in the days that followed I simply could not get the sight of the Sun disappearing from the midday sky out of my head. It was as if I looked up and saw the Sun streaming out light in all its brilliance and thought to myself, “Yeah, God appointed you to rule the day with your brilliance, but I’ve seen your light get quenched in the middle of the day!” It took a long time for me to get over the sight of the Sun going out at two-thirty in the afternoon.

I think that most of us have an experience like that—something that you have seen that you “can’t un-see”; whether good or bad, something so profound or striking or sad or terrifying or glorious that you can never forget it. A sight that you will carry for the rest of your life.

I want to carry this thought into the Scriptures we have been studying through this Advent and Christmas season. John is describing the Light that was made flesh in this world, that we “beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). And in the opening words of our text this morning, John the Baptist calls his disciples’ attention to Jesus by saying “BEHOLD, the Lamb of God!” (John 1:36)

It’s a word we don’t often use in our modern vocabulary—unless we are being deliberately archaic or whimsical, that is. Some modern Bible translations will translate that word as look! or see!, but the original word in Greek, ide, carried more meaning that just to glance at or perceive with your eyeballs. It is often used in the New Testament as an imperative, a command. Like seeing someone about to step off the curb into a big puddle of slush, and you go “Wait!!” “Stop!!” There is something that you want someone to do or stop doing.

That’s the idea here when John tells his disciples, Behold this Man. Look at Him, consider Him. Pay attention to this Man, understand Who He is and what He is doing.

I want to encourage you to do what John called on His disciples to do this morning. I want you to really see Jesus. Look carefully and intently into His presence in the Scriptures, ponder and consider Who He is and what He is calling you to do and be. There are five men who all beheld Jesus in our passage today, and none of them were the same after they really came to terms with Who Jesus is—when they really saw Him.

So the way I want to say it this morning is that

You cannot truly BEHOLD Jesus Christ and remain UNCHANGED

The first of the men to behold Jesus Christ in our passage this morning is of course John the Baptist. Verse 36 of our text says that

John 1:36 LSB

and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”

When John the Baptist really saw Jesus, he could not remain unchanged. When He beheld Jesus,

I. John SURRENDERED his FAME (John 1:35-37) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

If you look earlier in this chapter and in the other Gospel accounts, you will see that John had seen a tremendously popular response to his preaching—Luke 3 tells us that whole crowds were coming out to hear him and be baptized; Mark 1 says that “all the region of Judea was going out to him...” (Mark 1:5). He was popular, he was getting noticed—he was “going viral”. Everyone wanted to say that they had gone out to hear John preach. In John 1:19, the authorities from Jerusalem came out to see for themselves who he was, and he told them straight out: “I am not the Christ!” (v. 20), “I am only a voice crying out in the wilderness to prepare for YHWH’s arrival!” (v. 23).

And one day as Jesus was walking by, John said to two of his disciples—there He is! Look, see Him? That’s the One I have been announcing! And what does verse 37 tell us?

John 1:37 LSB

And the two disciples heard him speak and followed Jesus.

Do you see what happened? John essentially just gave up his disciples to Jesus! “Follow Him, not me. Become His disciples, don’t hang around here anymore, you need to go and be with Him!” A couple chapters later, a few of John’s remaining disciples came to give him distressing news:

John 3:26 LSB

And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have borne witness, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.”

“Teacher, your cousin’s ministry is beating yours! Everyone is leaving you and running to Him! Our numbers are down, our giving is tanking, people are forgetting all about your teaching and preaching, you aren’t baptizing anymore—everything you’ve worked and sacrificed for is falling apart! We have to do something!”

And what was John’s response? John 3:30 ““He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Look here and see—when you really come to understand who Jesus is, who you are and what you do in His Name won’t matter to you, so long as Jesus’ glory increases! You won’t need to have your name in lights, you won’t need recognition, you won’t need to cultivate your image or find ways to “stay relevant” or protect your brand or build a platform or become an influencer. If you can look at what you do in your own life and then look at Jesus and know that His fame is spreading because of what you do and say and how you live with the people around you, you will be content. Even if Jesus’ fame spreads no farther from your efforts than to your children in your home or to your co-worker at your job or to one fellow student or one hurting soul—if you can know that Christ’s glory has been magnified and He has increased in the affections and gained the obedience of those around you, then it doesn’t matter who knows your name!

When John really saw who Jesus was, he was never the same. In the next two verses we follow the disciples that left John for Jesus—Andrew and John (the author of this Gospel). You cannot truly behold Christ and remain unchanged. John surrendered his fame, and

II. Andrew FOUND his DIRECTION (John 1:38-39) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

John 1:38–39 LSB

And when Jesus turned and noticed them following, He said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day. It was about the tenth hour.

It’s interesting that the first thing Andrew asked Jesus was not about His teaching, or what His opinions were on particular issues: “What are you teaching about?” “What do you think of King Herod’s reign?” “Are you going to challenge Rome’s authority?” Andrew wasn’t trying to evaluate Jesus or His teaching before he committed—he was ready to just go wherever Jesus was!

Andrew didn’t care where Jesus was staying—was it a nice place, was it far away, who was He staying with—none of that mattered, as long as Jesus was there.

When you really have come to a realization of Who Jesus is—when you really behold Him— then the only direction you will need for your life is the direction He supplies. Your priorities will center on what He has commanded you to do; your loyalties will be bound to Him and His people, your decisions will always factor in what He is calling you to do; where He will go you will go, where He lodges you will lodge, His people will be your people, His Father will be your Father. When you have come to see Jesus for Who He really is, you will never be the same.

John surrendered his fame; Andrew found his direction, and in Verses 40-42 we see another man who was transformed when he came to know Jesus

III. Peter RECEIVED his IDENTITY (John 1:40-42) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

John 1:40–42 LSB

One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which translated means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. When Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

After Andrew really saw who Jesus was, the first thing he wanted to do was tell someone. And the first person Andrew found to tell about Jesus was his brother Simon: “We have found the Messiah!” Simon comes back with his brother to meet this “Messiah” of his, and as soon as Jesus laid eyes on him, he said, “Your name is Simon, but I am going to name you Cephas.”

Now think about this—why, of all of Jesus’ disciples, was this the only one He gave a new name to? He didn’t meet Andrew and say, “You are Andrew, and you shall be called Aristarchus!” This wasn’t like Saul going by the name of Paul years later—he had grown up in a metropolitan city, and it wasn’t unusual to have both a Hebrew and Greek name to use in different situations.

But here, Jesus isn’t just giving Simon a “nickname”; we can see this when we consider closely the meaning of the names he had. His Hebrew name, “Simon”, comes from the Hebrew word “to listen” (the Shema in the Old Testament, “HEAR, O Israel, the LORD your God the LORD is one...” (Shema=Shimon=Simon). And the name Jesus gave him was Cephas, which is the Aramaic word for stone or rock (in Greek: Petros/Peter, rock).

Jesus wasn’t just giving this man a nickname to go by; Jesus was saying something deeply, fundamentally true about the man He was looking at. His name meant hearing, but he was the most stubborn man Jesus ever met. He was as hard-headed as a rock. But by telling Peter the truth about himself, Christ gave him the freedom to rest in Him and not his own efforts.

When you come to Jesus by faith, seeing Him for Who He really is, He will tell you the truth about yourself, because He sees who you really are. The world around us think that it is the best thing in the world to be really seen. In the world’s definition of being “seen”, it means to be noticed, affirmed, valued and celebrated.

But when Christ reveals to you who you really are, He shows you first of all who you really are apart from Him. All of the wickedness and perversion and hate and self-absorption and lust and sloth that you spend your time ignoring or denying about yourself, He brings right out into the open. “Peter, you are a hard-headed, hard-hearted, stubborn man.” But having said that; having revealed who you really are, Jesus then says to you, “Come to Me! I have healing for you, I have forgiveness for you, the blood that I shed I shed for your cleansing! I will make everything new in you; I will give you a new heart of flesh instead of the old heart of stone; I will give you living water for the old cracked cisterns full of slime; I will make you new and give you a new identity in Me!”

Once you have truly beheld Christ, you cannot remain unchanged! Peter received a new identity in Christ, Andrew found his direction in Christ, John surrendered all his fame for Christ. Each one of them were never the same after they encountered Jesus for Who He is. In Verses 43-45 we see how Philip was changed when he met Christ—

IV. Philip SHARED his SAVIOR (John 1:43-45) _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

John 1:43 LSB

On the next day, He desired to go into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, “Follow Me.”

It’s always instructive to watch for patterns of words when we read a passage of Scripture. And starting back in Verse 41 through Verse 45 we find the word “found” repeated no less than five times: In Verses 41-42 Andrew found Peter and told him that they had found the Messiah. Now, in order to find something, you have to start by doing what? Looking for something, right? Andrew went looking for Peter and said that they had found the Messiah that they had been looking for.

So what does it mean that Jesus found Philip in Galilee? He had been looking for him! Jesus said Himself that He had come “to seek and to save that which is lost” (Luke 19:10). He set off for Galilee that morning looking for Philip, because He aimed to save him that day.

And he did—He called him to follow Him, and Philip followed. Now, don’t miss this—what is the first thing Philip did as a follower of Jesus?

He went out and found someone to tell about Jesus!

When you really encounter Jesus for Who He is, you are going to want everyone to know! The desire will be born in you to find someone to tell—you may not know how to do it, the prospect of telling someone about Jesus may intimidate (or even terrify!) you, but it will be there inside you. An unregenerate heart is indifferent to Christ and sees no reason that anyone else should know about Him—but when your heart has been transformed by the New Birth, you will want everyone to know the Good News of Christ’s offer of salvation!

Philip was found by Jesus on that road to Galilee that day, and the first thing that Philip did was to go and find someone to share His Savior with!

John 1:44–45 LSB

Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

The first person that came to Philip’s mind was his neighbor Nathanael. Both of them were from Bethsaida (v. 44), and from their names we can suggest that they had different upbringings: Philip was a Greek name, and Nathanael was a Hebrew name (meaning, “Gift of God”).

It also seems as though Philip knew that it was going to be an “uphill climb” to convince Nathanael that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. Apparently Nathanael was known by Philip as something of an expert in the Old Testament promises regarding Messiah—see how he breaks the news about Jesus to him: “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” (v. 45).

And sure enough, Nathanael didn’t just jump on board immediately—the way the other four men in this passage did. Instead, we find here the first objection to the appearance of Jesus as the Messiah:

John 1:46 LSB

And Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”

But Philip didn’t try to argue, he didn’t try to debate—he knew Nathanael was a deeply religious Jew who had thoroughly searched the Scriptures for promises concerning the Messiah’s arrival—he knew, for instance, that the Messiah was supposed to be born in Bethlehem, not Nazareth. So right away, Nathanael was dismissing Philip’s claim—if this was Jesus of Bethlehem, he might entertain the possibility that He was Messiah. But Nazareth disqualified Him from being the one.

So Philip simply said, “Come and see!” (v. 46b). )The Greek word there can be translated, “come and behold!”) Come and encounter Him for yourself; come and really see Him and see if He is Who He says He is!

And in the following verses we see the transformation that took place for Nathanael—when He really beheld Jesus, he could not remain unchanged. When he really saw Jesus for Who He is,

V. Nathanael WORSHIPPED his KING (John 1:46-51) ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

John 1:46–49 LSB

And Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said about him, “Behold, truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to Him, “From where do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.”

Once again, see how Jesus immediately sees right into the heart of the man standing before Him. Throughout the next three years of His earthly ministry, Jesus would encounter His fair share of deceitful, malicious Israelites—Pharisees, scribes and teachers of the Law who would stop at nothing to trap Him or discredit Him or have Him taken out.

But here Jesus finds a true Israelite—Nathanael was genuinely seeking the Messiah. In Nathanael’s day, faithful Jews would specifically sit under fig trees to pray as a way of remembering YHWH’s promises to Israel:

Micah 4:4 LSB

And each of them will sit under his vine And under his fig tree, With no one to make them tremble, For the mouth of Yahweh of hosts has spoken.

When Jesus says to Nathanael, “I saw you praying under the fig tree”, He was saying, “Nathanael, you are faithfully trusting the promises of YHWH for Israel—and I am the fulfillment of all of those promises! And before our time together is over, you will see far greater signs that I am Who I say I am!”

Nathanael was never the same after his eyes were opened to Who Jesus is: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” And Nathanael did see far more. Church tradition suggests that he went on after Jesus’ resurrection to preach the Gospel in Armenia (modern day Azerbaijan) where he was scourged to death with whips. Like all of the other apostles, Nathanael was faithful to His King even unto death. His own comfort, his own safety, his own life was not precious to him; all Nathanael wanted was to lay down his life for his King.

You cannot truly behold Jesus Christ and remain unchanged. These men were never the same after they truly saw Jesus for Who He is. This first chapter of John has laid out for us the arrival of the Word of God made flesh. And iso t is important for us to hear the first words that John records of the incarnate Word: The first words Jesus says here in this Gospel are a question that He asks everyone who looks at Him:

“What do you seek?”

This is what the Incarnate Word asks you here in His living and powerful Word: What are you seeking in your life this morning? Are you seeking your own fame or good reputation? John gave all that up when he saw Jesus for Who He is. All John cared about was Christ being made known; that Christ would increase. I heard a well-known Bible teacher being interviewed on a podcast once where he was asked, “How do you want to be remembered?” And he immediately replied: “I don’t. I want to preach the Gospel, die, and be forgotten.” This is the true ambition of anyone who shares the Gospel—forget me, forget my life, forget my work—just remember Jesus Christ!

What are you seeking? Are you looking for some kind of direction for your life? Some kind of meaning or purpose or path for your career, your education, your family? When Andrew truly saw Jesus, his purpose and direction became as simple as could be: Follow Jesus. When you truly encounter Jesus Christ and see Him for Who He is, beloved, your life becomes incredibly simple: To know Christ and to make Him known.

Now of course that doesn’t mean that your life is easy, that it isn’t filled with difficulty, challenges, disappointments, heartbreaks, loss or frustration. But it means that in all of those things (as well as in all of the joys and achievements and delights and loves and happinesses) that there is always that undercurrent of one simple, grand purpose—that in all of those things you seek to know Jesus better, and seek by your walking through all of those joys and sorrows to do so in a way that shows the supremacy of Jesus Christ in all of those things!

What are you seeking? Are you trying to find your identity in this world? Are you trying to build your self-image the way the world tells you to—to “believe in yourself, follow your heart, trust your instincts, love yourself first?” Or are you weighed down by the way you have been defined by others around you—that you are worthless, a loser, too stained by shame, too full of guilt to be worth anything?

When you really encounter Jesus for Who He is, He alone will do something that no one else can ever do. He is the only One Who will tell you the truth about yourself. He will tell you who you really are; He will tell you the real condition of your life. Instead of the world’s lies that tell you you are good enough and smart enough and people should like you, He will show you your need for Him, that your attempts to convince yourself that you are a good person really can’t hold water, that He will give you the cleansing and righteousness that you cannot give yourself.

And the brokenness and shame and guilt that you cannot escape, that voice that constantly whispers in your ear that you are worthless and the world would be better off without you? When Jesus tells you the truth about yourself, His word to you is that He will make you His precious child. When you come to Jesus in faith and ask Him to rescue you out of the condemnation you live under, when you lay down all of your false pride and self-justification, when you simply agree with Him that you are hopelessly lost without Him, then He will reveal Himself to you! He will show Himself to be your Savior; He will take away your guilt, He will make you whole again!

In Revelation 2:17, Jesus makes a promise to those who overcome—those who are faithful to Him and cling to Him for their salvation. He says “to the one who overcomes, I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it”. He has a new name for you—a name that is only between the two of you! Jesus will give you a Name on the Last Day that will be a personal, intimate name that no one else in all the cosmos knows! And He does this because of His intimate love and delight in you!

And beloved, when you see Jesus in this way—His death for you, His resurrection with you, His eternal love and intimate friendship with you for all eternity—how can you not want to tell everyone you know about Him? Even if it means you have to lay down your plans, even if it means you have to give up your comfort, even if it means your life will not go in the direction you thought it would—even if it means that you will someday put your life at risk, you will do it because you have been forever changed after beholding your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Jude 24–25 LSB

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

(Closing Hymn: Joy To the World/O Worship The King)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

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