John 1- Study notes
OPEN: When you get some good news, who is the first person you usually like to share it with?
STUDY: (READ JOHN 1:35-51)
1. How many individuals are mentioned here?
a. John the Baptist
b. Andrew – Rabbi, Messiah
c. John – Rabbi
d. Jesus
e. Simon/Cephas/Peter
f. Philip – (:45 “prophets wrote about”) Jesus, son of Joseph
g. Nathanael – Son of God, King of Israel
2. What titles did they give to Jesus?
a. What do they mean?
3. Were they “open” to the Ministry of Jesus? Why? (John the Baptist)
4. In light of :30-31, how do you think John felt when his disciples left him to follow Jesus?
a. What does this say about John?
5. What motivated the disciples of John to follow Jesus?
a. What motivated Andrew to tell Simon about him?
6. How do you think Simon felt when Jesus changed his name to Cephas? (Rock)
7. What insight about Jesus excites Philip?
8. What type of person is Nathanael?
a. Why might he find it hard to believe Philip’s statement?
b. Why would Jesus call Philip and Nathanael in such different ways?
c. How do you think Nathanael felt when Jesus spoke to him?
APPLY:
1. What ideas about God/Jesus did you have before you became a Christian? How did these ideas later change?
2. What was your motive for following Jesus originally?
3. What were the circumstances that led you to do so?
4. What would you be like today if you refused to change your views when you learned more of God’s truth and of His grace?
5. Who was the John or Andrew in your life?
4 phases of disciple-making: Comes in terms of the invitations of Jesus.
1) John 1:29-39 – “Come and see” – evangelism - tell a disciple “what” and “why” (:38 – what do you want?)
2) “Come and follow me” – establishing disciples – John 21:19
3) “come and be with me” – leadership training - John 17:24
4) “go and make disciples” – deployment – Matthew 28:19-20
What do we learn from these two incidents?
1. First, we note that each of these men had a preconceived idea of what God was like and how He would act. John described the stern judgments the coming Messiah would execute.
2. Second, we note that Jesus did not completely fit the preconceived ideas of either.
3. Third, each received and responded to a small, personal miracle.
It might seem insignificant to us for Jesus to describe the place where Nathanael was when Philip found him (v. 48). But each of these men, John and Nathanael, immediately recognized the hand of God.
God will perform private miracles for you. These probably will not be spectacular, nor will they be public. But, in little ways, God lets us know that He is speaking personally to us.
And, like John and Nathanael, we each have our own ideas about what God is like and how He will act. But it is vital that you and I, like John and Nathanael, be willing to put aside our incomplete understandings of God and His grace when we discover, in Jesus the Son of God, some fresh unveiling of truth or fresh evidence of grace.
Andrew appeared two more times in John (6:4-9; 12:20-22); both times he was bringing someone to Jesus.
John 6:44 - “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
Jeremiah 31:3 - The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.
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