Discovering Jesus Pt 6
John 1:35-51
18/04/2010
The series we are doing in the Gospel of John is entitled “Discovering Jesus”, and as we go through the book I hope you really will discover the amazing picture of who Jesus is that John paints for us through the stories he tells of Jesus’ life.
John starts by introducing us to Jesus and then to John the Baptiser, and once he’s done that he proceeds to tell us about one incredible week that began Jesus’ earthly ministry. This one week sets the tone for everything that will happen afterward. All of the key characters are introduced, and so is the tension that is going to drive the events of the gospel toward a dramatic conclusion.
Let’s do a quick recap of the people and events of the first two days, that Chris went through with us last week.
We have John, who is baptising people with a baptism of repentance, which was also a baptism performed by John instead of a self-administered ceremonial washing as people were used to. John’s baptism required recognition both of our sin and our helplessness – we cannot save ourselves. As John is baptising people in this way Jesus appears, who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the fulfilment of what John is doing.
So you have these partners – John the forerunner, the one who prepares the way, and Jesus, who is the fulfilment, the One who completes the work.
We now have the first two characters in our story, Jesus and John the Baptiser. Next is a group of characters which I’ve simply called the Religious Leaders. The religious leaders are described in a number of different ways in the gospels, depending on who’s doing what at the time. Religious leaders were people such as Priests, Scribes, Levites and Elders – they were the people who held some type of religious office that gave them authority. Many of these people were part of Sanhedrins – ruling councils in towns and cities. The most senior of them were part of the Great Sanhedrin which met in the temple courts in Jerusalem Kingdom of God
And so you have John as Chris described last week as a prophet out of control – out of their control. He was under God’s control. He’s telling the religious leaders that they need to repent just like everyone else. He has the audacity to say that they are not righteous and that they are not in control, they need help! What an arrogant upstart this guy seems to be!
These leaders are the people that you are supposed to go to for help if you want to be righteous. You bring your offering, they sacrifice it for you so you can be cleansed. Every year they present sacrifices for the cleansing of the whole nation. Every year it’s one of them who enters into the holy of holies to make atonement for the nation by sprinkling blood on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant so God would forgive the sins of the nation. Every day they sit and teach people and make decisions about disputes – they are the authority in all religious matters and most of the civil matters and John thinks that they need to be baptised by him? Ridiculous!
Was this John full of himself? No, he was full of the Spirit! When Jesus appeared John acknowledged him, and realised that unlike the religious leaders Jesus had no need of a baptism of repentance. However as we read in the other gospels, Jesus did want to be baptised both as an example for us and identification with us but more significantly as Chris explained last week, it marked the beginning of His priestly ministry on our behalf.
So there we have the primary characters in the story: Jesus, John the Baptiser and the Jewish Religious Leaders. Before I introduce you to the supporting cast I want to point out a few more things about Jesus and John.
The Religious Leaders represented the status quo – they represented what God had done in the past, which had slowly been corrupted and made into primarily a human enterprise. God was not in it anymore, He was doing a new thing that these leaders did not even recognise. They didn’t know who John was supposed to be (vv19-28 tell us about that) and they did not recognise Jesus either despite John clearly informing them of His presence and His status.
To be fair, there were some religious leaders who did respond to John and to Jesus and we’ll meet some of them soon, but for the most part the religious leaders stood against what God was doing through John and through Jesus.
Now John removed himself from mainstream society. He went out into remote places, ate weird food and wore weird clothes. He never allowed any alcohol to touch his lips. He called people out of their normal environment to come and repent and be made right with God.
Contrast that with Jesus. Jesus stayed in towns and hung out with all the worst people. He was called a glutton and a drunkard because that’s what people who he hung out with were often like. He went to where people were in order to make them right with God.
If you were trying to figure out what a righteous person looks like, John and Jesus would just leave you confused.
Jesus says in Luke 7:33-34
33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.”’ 35 But wisdom is proved right by all her children.” [1]
This one incredible week begins with John calling people out of their normal lives and normal environments in order to come and be made right with God. The week finishes with Jesus going into the fairly normal environment of a wedding celebration and being God with them (remember one of His names was Immanuel – God With Us). We’ll explore that story in a few weeks time – it’s a real blockbuster! Most of us don’t realise just what a big deal it was for Jesus do what He did at that wedding, so stay tuned for that one.
But for now, let’s just be clear on what’s happening in chapter one. We have Jesus and John, both doing the Father’s will but doing it in very different ways. John is the forerunner, Jesus is the fulfiller. Then you have the religious leaders who hold all of the official positions and who seem like the people who are in charge of God’s work, but they are for the most part not even involved in it. God has begun a new work and they haven’t joined Him in it. In fact, they are opposing it. They are opposing it because they don’t understand it. They are opposing it because they don’t agree with it. They are opposing it because they are not in control of it.
OK, now it’s time to get to know our supporting cast of characters. Remember, these are not made up characters but real people involved in real events. The more we understand these people the better we will understand the story and what it means for us today.
As we go through our passage today we get to meet some of these people.
John 1:35-36
35 The next day [we’re into day three now!] John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
So here we find John’s Disciples mentioned. I want to fill you in a little bit on what a disciple actually was in this situation. A disciple was a student, someone who was being trained by the rabbi – the teacher. However it was not anything like what we do in our society in terms of students coming into a classroom and then going home again afterward. To be a disciple meant living alongside the rabbi in order to learn from how he lived as well as what he said.
In fact, it wasn’t just rabbi’s who had disciples, it was normal practice in other occupations for this to happen also. If you wanted to be a master carpenter for example you would go live with one, be part of his family and immerse yourself in his whole life in order to become like him. As the master considered you to have a solid grasp the basics he would give you more and more opportunity to join in with the more challenging parts of his craft.
A disciple would see how his master conducted himself and how he applied his knowledge and skill in everyday situations. Wisdom is caught more than taught. Disciples need not only teaching but training. That’s why Christian fathers for example are told to bring up their children “in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Eph 6:4). Not just instruction - not just telling them what to believe and how to behave - but training them by being an example, letting them see how you apply your faith to life, and helping them to do the same thing.
A disciple would also serve his master. In the Old Testament we have an example in Elisha, who was the personal attendant of Elijah, which involved pouring water on his hands for washing (1 Kings 3:11). Later Jewish writings contain the following rule for disciples: “All acts a slave performs for his master, a disciple performs for his rabbi, except untying the sandal”[2].
So John has these disciples who may even have joined him in eating honey and locusts and abstaining from alcohol. They would have stayed with him in remote places rather than enjoying the comforts of normal home life and participation in normal social events. As they did that they had the opportunity to see the genuine work of God in and through John, and they modelled themselves after him.
Remember though that John was a man unlike any other. He was filled with the Holy Spirit from birth (Lk 1:14). Jesus described him as the greatest person who had lived up to that point in history (Matt 11:11). Imagine that! Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Plato, Confucius, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon…. none of the great figures of history are seen by Jesus as being greater than John the Baptiser.
It’s no wonder that he attracted disciples. It’s also little wonder that these disciples held him in the highest regard. They would have tried their hardest to emulate his life and his teaching, yet since they did not have the aid of the indwelling Holy Spirit they would have constantly fallen short. Having the Holy Spirit indwelling us does not make us instantly perfect – you and I know that. John the Baptiser was not perfect. But he was a man of immense spiritual power and character.
Now John points two of them to a greater teacher to follow – Jesus the Lamb of God.
John 1:37-38
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?”
Have you ever been struck by their response to Jesus’ question? They’ve come to check out this Lamb of God, and when asked what they want they say “Where are you staying?”!
Why didn’t they ask “Why did John call you the Lamb of God?”, or “Where did that voice come from that said ‘This is my Son’?”, or “How will you baptize people with the Holy Spirit?”?
“Where are you staying” seems like a pretty lame opening question to me!
But think about what it meant to be a disciple. It meant attaching yourself to your teacher. It meant living with them and serving them. I think that what these two disciples were doing here was politely offering themselves as potential disciples of Jesus. At the very least they are indicating a desire to travel for a while with Him and learn more about Him.
You would never just invite yourself to be the disciple of a rabbi – it was an honour reserved for the most gifted students. In asking where He was staying they opened the door for Jesus to invite them to accompany Him if He wished to do so.
Remember that John the Baptiser considered Jesus to be so great that he was not even worthy to untie the thongs of Jesus’ sandals. In other words, John did not consider himself to be worthy of being a slave of Christ, let alone a disciple. If John isn’t worthy of being a disciple of Jesus, who is?
What hope was there for these two disciples of John, when even their master – the greatest man in history - was not worthy?
John 1:39
39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour.
The two disciple may not be worthy in themselves to be disciples of Jesus, but they are invited anyway! They got to spend the day with Him, and as we learn later on they are invited to be with Jesus for the rest of His ministry.
How do they respond to this gracious invitation from Jesus?
John 1:40-42
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).
Here we find out the name of one of those two disciples of John – it’s Andrew. The other one was probably the John who wrote this gospel, as he has a habit of not naming himself or drawing attention to himself.
He does point out Andrew’s response. When Andrew realises that this great teacher was willing to accept disciples like him, he races off to fetch his brother Simon. Notice Andrew’s faith – he straight away identifies Jesus as the Messiah, the anointed ruler that God promised would deliver His people.
Andrew is so excited to have found the Messiah and to have become a follower of the Messiah that he spontaneously does what Jesus would later command all of us to do – go and make disciples. He goes to get his brother Simon and says, “We have found the Messiah”; and brings Simon to meet Jesus for himself.
The name Simon means “to hear” or “to listen” and he lives up to that by listening to Andrew and coming to meet Jesus. There he receives a new name, “Cephas”, which is an Aramaic name which when translated into Greek is “Peter”. This name means “Rock”, and is a hint of the foundational role that Peter will play in the work that Jesus is doing, the establishing of the Church.
It’s quite likely that John also fetched his brother James to come and meet Jesus around this point of time, but we don’t know from the gospel whether that occurred or not.
We do get to meed two other new disciples of Jesus, Philip and Nathanael.
John 1:43-51
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 Nazareth
46 “Nazareth
“Come and see,” said Philip.
So here we have Philip invited to be a disciple and again his response is to go get someone else, in this case Nathanael. By the way, Nathanael is not mentioned in the other gospels but a man named Bartholomew is. There’s a good chance that Nathanael was known by a couple of different names, which was not unusual.
Anyhow, Philip says that they have found the one written about in the law and in the prophets – Jesus of Nazareth. Nathanael’s response is classic – “Nazareth
This might show that Nathanael has a bit of a prejudice against the flyspeck, peasant village of Nazareth
The Jews expected that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem , not Nazareth Jerusalem village of Nazareth
There’s an interesting mention of Nazareth
This was a time when many Jews yearned for the Messiah to appear and liberate them from Roman oppression. They were studying the Scriptures intently to find clues that pointed to His arrival.
The idea that the Messiah might have come from Nazareth
John 1:47-51
47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.”
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 shall see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.
This is great stuff! Nathanael is a true Israelite who studies the Scriptures diligently and sincerely, yet his understanding is not complete. Jesus shows him that He has authority to correct the misunderstandings of Nathanael and other students of the Scriptures by demonstrating His divine knowledge.
Simply revealing his knowledge of what Nathanael was doing before Philip called him was enough to convince Nathanael, who responds with an incredible statement of faith “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel
Jesus’ response is fascinating. He uses Nathanael’s knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures to say something amazing about Himself, and what Nathanael would come to experience in the future.
He says: “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that.”
Indeed, Nathanael would witness many miracles and ultimately Christ’s resurrection and ascension.
51 He then added, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.
Jesus is making reference to the story of Jacob in Genesis 28. Jesus had already referred to Jacob earlier on when He called Nathanael a “true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false”. The Israelites are named after their ancestor Israel
Before his name change, Jacob had been given a vision of a ladder from Earth to Heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it. God repeated the promises that He had given to Abraham, and promised Jacob that “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.” (Gen 28:14).
We read in Genesis 28:16-17: “16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” [3]
He called that place Bethel
Roughly 2000 years later Jesus says to Nathanael that instead of the angels ascending and descending between Heaven and Earth on a ladder touching down at Bethel; Nathanael will witness them doing so on Him. He is the new ladder between Heaven and Earth. He is the dwelling of God on Earth. He is the gate of Heaven.
That would have blown Nathanael’s mind! The fulfilment of all of God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was standing here right in front of him. The history and the future of his nation - in fact the entire world - was all wrapped up in Jesus Christ.
Nathanael called Him the Son of God; Jesus called Himself the Son of Man – in truth He is both: Son of God, Son of Man, the bridge between Heaven and Earth.
And so we have our new group of characters – disciples of Jesus.
Our last group of characters I have simply called “The Crowd”. There are a whole bunch of people who pop up in various stories in the gospel, and there is usually a group of people listening or watching what is going on. Their reactions as well as their lack of reaction at times is very interesting, and we’ll monitor that as we go through.
So far we have covered the first four days of one incredible week that John begins his gospel with.
q On day one John the Baptiser tells the religious leaders, his disciples and the crowds about a greater one in their midst whose sandals John is not even worth to untie.
q On day 2 he identifies Jesus as this great person – the Lamb of God, the Son of God, the One who would baptise with the Holy Spirit.
q On day 3 he again identifies Jesus as the Lamb of God, and two of his disciples leave him in order to follow Jesus. Jesus now has 3, possibly 4 disciples following Him – Andrew, John, Peter and James.
q On day 4 Jesus gains another 2 disciples, Philip and Nathanael.
Jesus and His disciples then travel up to the town of Cana in Galilee , where on day 7 of this first week Jesus performs His first recorded miracle, turning water into wine. We’re going to be studying that amazing story in a few weeks time.
Conclusion
In closing, I want to ask you to do something that I think will be of great help to you.
Today I’ve given you a fair bit of information about 5 of our characters or groups of characters in the story. This is built on what Chris and I have already shared with you in previous weeks.
I would love for you to take this simple list away, together with whatever notes you might have made, and ask God to speak to you through each of them. Read through chapter one of John’s gospel again in your own time and ask God to speak to you personally.
Are you willing to follow after Jesus like those two disciples of John? Are you bringing others to Jesus like Andrew and Philip? Are you receiving a new identity from Jesus like Simon Peter? Are you devoutly studying the Scriptures like Nathanael, being open to having your own understandings challenged as Jesus speaks to you? Do you consider Jesus as highly as John the Baptiser did?
As the Apostle John tells these stories to help us get to know Jesus, are you growing in your faith in Jesus and your worship of Him as we discover more of His majesty and what He means to each one of us?
[1]Unless otherwise noted, all Scriptures are from The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984. Grand Rapids
[2] The Babylonian Talmud (Ketubot 9a), quoted in Spangler & Tverberg, “Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus”, Zondervan, 2009.
[3]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Ge 28:16). Grand Rapids
