John 1:35-51
Notes
Transcript
Last week as we looked at John 1:19-34, we considered what John meant when he said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
I posed a question, a question I didn’t answer (mostly because I hadn’t worked out a clear answer, and partly because I wanted us all to think about the it). Here it is, up on the TV:
How can we structure our daily lives around making a priority of pointing people to Jesus?
I don’t know if you thought about that question at all this week. I kind of threw the question out there and then moved on pretty quickly, so if you didn’t give it another thought, I’d understand.
But let’s think about this question today, and maybe even venture an answer.
How can we structure our daily lives around making a priority of pointing people to Jesus?
I think this passage will help us answer this question and consider how we can orient our daily lives around the mission we’ve been given of pointing people to Jesus.
If you have your Bible (and I hope you do), please turn with me to John 1, starting with verse 35.
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”
44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip.
47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
49 Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”
50 Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”
May God add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!
Once again, our boy John the Baptist sees Jesus walking around and says (what I believe is one of the best sentences in the NT): “Look, the Lamb of God.”
Of course, having just read verse 29 last week, we know what John the Baptist thinks about Jesus, the Lamb of God. Jesus is the One who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, the Promised One.
John the Baptist is consistently and constantly pointing people to Jesus, day after day. The next day after the next day. And likely the day after that.
John the Baptist, who by this point in his public ministry, had some disciples (people who followed him and wanted to learn from him)—John the Baptist is pointing his disciples (his own followers) to Jesus.
John knows it’s not him they are ultimately meant to follow; it’s Jesus they are to follow.
John’s purpose was to prepare men and women for the coming of Jesus. So when Jesus pitches His tent and moves into the neighborhood (tabernacling among us), John the Baptist willingly points his own disciples to Jesus.
Gerald Borchert writes this:
“John provides a genuine model of what it means to be a minister or servant of God. The human tendency is to make a name for ourselves and to attach our names to other people, institutions, and things so that people will remember us. To minimize oneself in order for Jesus to become the focus of attention is the designated function of an ideal witness.”
What do we learn here from our friend John the Baptist?
Among other things, we see that Jesus is worthy of all honor and glory and praise. Pointing people to Him and making sure that Jesus is glorified in us and through us—this is our joy and our purpose.
Making Jesus known is worth giving up everything—influence, authority, status, position, even our very lives.
So we ask: How can we structure our daily lives around making a priority of pointing people to Jesus?
Answer: We minimize ourselves daily in order for Jesus to become the focus of our attention and our worship, and we direct others’ attention and worship to Jesus alone.
Notice the impact of John’s witness (v. 37). When John’s disciples heard what John had to say, they left John and they followed Jesus.
That’s a beautiful reaction.
Disciples are simply students. Learners. Followers. Quite literally, disciples followed (that is, walked behind) a teacher and learned from both the words and actions of their teacher/mentor. The goal was to walk in the tracks of the teacher. To put your foot where their foot just stepped. To walk so closely, that the dust from His sandals would cover your clothes.
When these two ask Jesus where He’s staying, they’re making their intention clear: they plan to stay where Jesus is staying. They intend to follow Jesus as His disciples, His students, His apprentices.
“Where are you staying?”
To this, Jesus replies, “Come, and you will see.”
The invitation to “come and see”—used by other rabbis in Jesus’ day—is an offer to go and find out together.
These two have been invited by the Eternal Word of God to join with Him and learn from Him. The same is true for us, and that’s no small thing.
Verse 40 identifies one of the two disciples of John who heard what the Baptizer said and started following Jesus. It’s Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
Verse 41 is worthy of another look:
41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ).
THE FIRST THING! The first thing Andrew did was to go find his brother and tell him the best news: “We have found the Messiah!”
More accurately, they had been pointed to the Messiah by John the Baptist.
More accurately still, the Messiah came down and found them right where they were. The Promised One of God invited them to follow Him: “Come and you will see.”
To say they found Jesus implies that they were diligently searching for something and joyously discovered it.
Matthew 13:44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
The same word is used in the parable of the shepherd who has 100 sheep, but one is missing. So he leaves the 99 and searches diligently for the 1.
Matthew 18:13 “And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.”
With deep joy, I’m sure, Andrew announces to his brother: “We found Him, the One we’ve been searching for! The One we’ve been waiting for!”
As a disciple of John the Baptist, Andrew would have heard John’s preaching about how he was preparing the way for the LORD.
Andrew would have learned from John all about the Messiah. So when Jesus comes on the scene and Andrew hears John say, “Look, the Lamb of God,” that’s all Andrew needed.
They found Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ—the long awaited Savior.
John points Andrew to Jesus. And Andrew invites Simon to Jesus—verse 42: And he [Andrew] brought him [Simon] to Jesus.
In the massive work “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, the historian Gibbon noted this about the extraordinary spread of Christianity in the early centuries:
“It became the most sacred duty of a new convert [Christian] to diffuse among his friends and relatives the inestimable blessings he had received.”
Statistics repeatedly demonstrate that while solid, biblical gospel preaching is vitally important, personal witness and friendship continue to be the primary means by which people are brought to Christ.
That is, the Holy Spirit often works through people like you and me and Andrew to introduce Simon and others to Jesus.
Upon Andrew bringing Simon to Jesus, Jesus looks at him, identifies him, and then gives him a new name.
Cephas and Peter both mean “Rock” (one Aramaic and the other is Greek).
I think, in Simon Peter’s case, Cephas might have been a little ironic.
Peter wasn’t so much rock as he was shifting sand. He denied Jesus more than once. Simon Peter was more Gumby than he was solid.
That is, until Jesus’ resurrection. After that, Peter was the primary preacher of the gospel. Strong and steady thanks to the Holy Spirit.
Maybe it’s that Jesus knew something about Simon that no one else did…you think? I think Jesus knew something about Simon Peter before he was even born.
Andrew is not as well known as Peter, not even close. However, without Andrew going to his brother Simon and telling him “We’ve found the Messiah!” who knows where or when or if Peter would have been the disciple, preacher, and author we know today.
So we ask: How can we structure our daily lives around making a priority of pointing people to Jesus?
Answer: Like Andrew, each of us take the good news that we have found the Messiah—Jesus Christ—and share it with the people closest to us.
We do this one-on-one, as faithful witnesses of what we’ve seen and heard and know to be true.
One-on-one discipleship. A conversation over a cup of coffee. Sharing at work and around town what we’ve been learning about the Lord, sharing what we know about Jesus.
I’ll give you an example. Just this week, a co-worker came into my office and took a seat. I led out with the rather trite and cliched, “Hey, man! What do ya know?”
He thought for a half-second and then said, “Well, I know Jesus loves me.”
(Here’s the thing: I know that’s true and it still struck me. Imagine what an answer like that would do for someone searching, seeking, struggling.)
The day after Andrew and Peter were introduced to Jesus, Jesus decided to leave for Galilee.
It’s at this point that Jesus finds Philip and issues His generous and authoritative invitation: “Follow Me.”
Philip does indeed follow Jesus. He’s listed in the other Gospels as one of the 12. Philip becomes a disciples, a student, an apprentice of Jesus.
Philip learns from Jesus, and will spend the balance of his life in service to Jesus.
Philip is one of the less prominent disciples. We don’t know too much about him outside of John’s Gospel (Philip will also pop up in the book of Acts a few different times).
We know, because John tells us, that Philip was from the town of Bethsaida, but that’s all the biography we have on him at the moment.
“It is encouraging,” says Leon Morris, “to reflect upon the fact that Jesus went out of his way to find this perfectly ordinary fellow Philip and to enlist him in the apostolic band.”
And look at what ordinary Philip does!
Philip goes to Nathanael and tells him, “We have found the One Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph.”
What Philip is saying is that Jesus is the fulfilment of the OT promises and prophesies. Jesus is the One to whom all of the Law and Prophets (another way of waying the entirety of the Hebrew Scriptures) testified.
From Genesis to Malachi, it’s about Jesus!
I wonder if Philip understood just how accurate a statement he had made.
Jesus would later on in John 5 say something very similar to the people who opposed Him:
39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
And after the resurrection, Jesus expanded on this idea:
27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
What Philip tells Nathanael is dead-on. It’s accurate and faithful. He’s confident that Jesus is the One the OT was pointing to. He’s confident that Jesus is the Promised One.
So confident is Philip, he has to share with his friend.
“I’m telling you, man. We found the One who is written about! His name’s Jesus of Nazareth and He’s the son of Joseph.”
Well, Nathanael has a lot of issues with Nazareth. Nazareth doesn’t rate very highly in his estimation; it’s not mentioned at all in the OT (Bethlehem is).
Nathanael isn’t having it: “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”
Good ol’ Philip simply says, “Come and see.” Philip is utterly convinced, and soon Nathanael will be, too.
Jesus’ knowledge of Nathanael’s true nature is supernatural. Jesus is all-knowing; He knows Nathanael just as well as He knows you and me (inside and out).
He knows Nathanael is authentic and true. Jesus looks into Nathanael and his heart is instantly exposed.
Jesus, of course, is right in His estimation of Nathanael. But Nathanael is still not ready to believe, and asks, “How do you know me?”
The omniscient Jesus responds, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
Jesus revealed something to Nathanael that there was no way He could have known.
No way He could have known, unless Jesus is more than meets the eye. No way He could have known, unless Jesus is more than a guy who grew up in Nazareth.
Jesus sees all. Knows all. Jesus has full knowledge of this man; He knows the inside and outside of Nathanael.
Nathanael’s unbelief melts into belief.
Nathanael’s initial opinion is now dwarfed by this interaction with Jesus, and so, Nathanael changes course and here declares, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”
The expectation of the coming king was at the center of Jewish hopes, but Nathanael (and everybody else) had a great amount to learn about Jesus.
Jesus was prepared to open their eyes.
Jesus reminds Nathanael of Jacob’s dream at Bethel (Genesis 28) where Jacob learned that the LORD was really present in the world.
Jesus makes clear to Nathanael and the others that He is here as the personal embodiment of God.
In Genesis 28, Jacob falls asleep and has a dream where he sees a ladder that extends from heaven to earth. Angels are going up and down the ladder, between heaven and earth. When Jacob awoke from his sleep, it dawned on him, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”
For Jacob, Bethel was the place he encountered God; the place God revealed His plans to Jacob.
When Jesus referenced this incident, He’s speaking to more than Nathanael (the yous are plural), He says, “Very truly I tell you all, you all will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Jesus is making clear that the place where people encounter God was now in the person of His Son, Jesus. It’s through Jesus that God is now revealing His Truth.
The greater things people were to see, then, would be the revelation of God in the life, ministry, death, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus.
Philip’s “Come and see” was absolutely correct. The invitation to “see for yourself” worked.
What Philip and Jesus both do is use the OT to point to who Jesus is and what Jesus is all about.
So we ask: How can we structure our daily lives around making a priority of pointing people to Jesus?
Answer: We draw a clear line from the teachings from the Bible to Jesus. We show people how God’s Word points directly to Jesus as the only answer, the only hope, the only Savior.
To do this, we must devote ourselves to the daily study and internalization of God’s Word. Because it’s all about Him, and we can use every page of the Bible to point people to Jesus.
>John the Baptist pointing people to Jesus.
Andrew pointing his brother to Jesus.
Philip pointing Nathanael to Jesus.
The OT Scriptures pointing us to Jesus.
And Jesus issuing the invitation: “Follow Me!”
The relevance of these paragraphs to our present experience is obvious. Christ the risen King continues to issue his summons, ‘Follow me!’ (cf. 21:19, 22).
It echoes around the world today through the witnesses of Jesus among the nations. It reaches to overshadowed folks like Andrew; explosive, potential leaders like Peter; withdrawn, struggling characters like Philip; honest and earnest souls like Nathanael; and to every other conceivable classification.
Jesus is ‘the meeting point between heaven’s fullness and earth’s need, even in the midst of the hustle and bustle and noise of our modern world’.
Put your faith and trust in Jesus alone.
Follow Jesus, walk in His steps so closely that the dust from His feet covers you.
Worship Jesus Christ as LORD and make it your priority to point people to Him!
31 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.
