John 1:35-51 - Come And See - The Mysteries of God's Word

Jesus’ first words to new followers are not a sales pitch. They’re a question: “What are you seeking?” We open John 1 and slow down at the moment John the Baptist points to Jesus and says, “Behold the Lamb of God.” Two disciples leave their first teacher and start walking behind Christ, and that simple act becomes a picture of Christian discipleship: shifting allegiance, getting close enough to learn, and choosing to abide.

From there, the story spreads through personal witness. Andrew finds his brother Simon and announces, “We have found the Messiah,” then brings him straight to Jesus. We talk about what “Messiah” means, why John’s Gospel ties it to the Lamb who takes away sin, and why Jesus’ response to Simon is so striking. Jesus knows him, names him, and then renames him Cephas, Peter, pointing to the transforming work Christ does in the heart and the new purpose God gives to his people.

Then we watch the calling keep expanding with Philip and Nathanael. Nathanael’s line, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” puts our own assumptions on the table, and Philip’s answer is refreshingly simple: “Come and see.” When Jesus reveals he saw Nathanael under the fig tree, Nathanael confesses Jesus as Son of God and King of Israel, and Jesus promises “greater things” centered on the Son of Man and heaven opened. If you’re searching for Jesus, wrestling with doubt, or trying to learn how to bring others to Christ, this walk through the Gospel of John is for you.

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Transcript

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Greeting And Scripture Context

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Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is another beautiful spring day here in Wisconsin, USA, and the flowers are shooting up through the ground. Today we're going to be reading about Jesus calling his first disciples. We begin in the Gospel of John chapter one, starting at verse thirty five. The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, Behold the Lamb of God.

John Identifies The Lamb Of God

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The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, What are you seeking? And they said to him, Rabbi, which 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, for it was about the tenth hour. In our first five verses, we're told that it's the next day. That phrase the next day is signifying a third day in a series of a week in the Gospel of John. And again, this week ends at the wedding feast, where Jesus will have his first miracle, changing water into wine. And the narrative begins with John the Baptist and his disciples watching as Jesus walks by. And John the Baptist says, Behold the Lamb of God. And two of John's disciples immediately turned and followed Jesus. So why did these disciples leave John the Baptist? Because that is what John wanted them to do. In Jewish culture, discipleship meant physically following your rabbi around because that's how you received your training. The phrase they follow Jesus means they both physically left John the Baptist and began to follow Christ. Their allegiance left John and turned to Jesus. So Jesus' first two disciples were disciples of John the Baptist. When Jesus sees them coming, he asks them, What are you seeking? And in so doing, Jesus is testing where their loyalty now lies. He was asking them what they were hoping

What Are You Seeking

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to get by following him and what their relationship with him now looked like. Were they somehow hoping to overthrow the Roman government, or were they committed to following him? And their reply shows their commitment to leave John the Baptist and now follow Jesus as their new rabbi. In asking where he was staying, they were committing to stay with him. In fact, the word for staying here in the Greek means to abide, and it carries with it an intimate feeling of dwelling with someone and enduring hardships with them. When Jesus saw their commitment, Jesus said, Come and you will see. The invitation of Christ here to abide with him and remain with him as his disciples reminds us how the invitation to Christ is open. When we come with a heart that desires to abide with Christ, the door is open. The text tells us that they stayed with him for that day, and it is assumed they stayed with him for that night as well, and we're told that it was the tenth hour. Now we start to see very specific information regarding these two disciples. The Apostle John never mentions his own name in his gospel, this gospel of John. Rather, the Apostle John uses firsthand knowledge to show that he was present. One of the important items of note here is that the impact that Jesus had on the Apostle John when John first met him, it was so strong that John remembered the exact hour of the day when he had met the Christ. And from this time forward, John and Andrew would be his disciples. Picking up at verse forty. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and

Andrew Brings Simon To Jesus

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said to him, We have found the Messiah, which means Christ. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon, the son of John, you shall be called Cephas, which means Peter. Verse forty clarifies for us that one of the disciples was, in fact, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. And Andrew is known for bringing people to Christ. He is the evangelist disciple, and he goes and gets his brother Simon. He tells Simon, We have found the Messiah. Andrew's declaration to his brother Simon that Jesus is the Messiah is the first declaration of all of the disciples in the Gospel of John that Jesus is the Christ. Messiah means anointed one. And while that term was initially used to describe kings of Israel, anointed priests and even patriarchs, it eventually came to be known as the title of the coming Davidic king. And when most of the Jews thought of the coming Messiah, they would be thinking of a coming king, come to deliver them from their Roman oppression and set up an eternal kingdom. However, Andrew and John, the first disciples, have been discipled by John the Baptist, and they know that this is the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sin of the world. So Andrew gets his brother, Simon, and brings him to Jesus. It is significant to recognize how Andrew and John trusted in Jesus Christ through the preaching of John the Baptist. Simon Peter and James would trust because of the testimony and the work of their brothers, Andrew and John. When Andrew approaches Jesus with Simon, Jesus looks at Simon. And Jesus has the power to see into your heart. And he has the power to see into Simon's heart.

Jesus Renames Simon Peter

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He knows who Simon is, and he says, You are Simon, the son of John. Jesus calls Simon by his given name and refers to the name of his earthly father, a father born of the flesh. And then he says you shall be called Cephas. Just as God changed the name of Abram to Abraham and Jacob to Israel, now he gives Simon a new name. The word Cephas means rock in Aramaic, and in the Greek it's translated Peter. This name is reflective of who Simon Peter would become, and how Christ would transform his character into that of a rock for the early church. While we don't see Jesus giving all of his disciples new names, this name change represents the new birth for Peter and God's purpose for him. We were once born of the flesh, children of earthly parents, but when we believe in the Messiah, we are born again, born of the Spirit and children of God. Picking up in verse forty three. The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethseda, the city of Andrew and Peter.

Jesus Calls Philip To Follow

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Philip found Nathaniel 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. Nathanael said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. In these four verses we see again that phrase the next day. This now is the fourth day of the week in that series of days. Jesus was intentional about what he was doing with his time, and on this day he chose to make a walk to Galilee, having just been at that place where John the Baptist was baptizing, in Bethany across the Jordan. Here, in Galilee, he finds Philip. Now, if you remember, the first two disciples, Andrew and John, sought out Jesus. The third disciple, Peter, was brought to Jesus by Andrew. Philip, however, was found by Jesus. We're not told what kind of preparation God had for Philip before Jesus came to him and called him. However, his heart was ready to receive the call of Jesus, when Jesus said, Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethseda. Bethsaida is a village on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee. It's the place where the feeding of the five thousand would take place. It's the place where the healing of a blind man would take place. And this is Philip's hometown. It's also a town that Jesus would rebuke for their lack of faith. In addition to being Philip's hometown, it was the hometown and birthplace of Andrew and Peter. It's exciting to consider how Jesus ministers to this group of men that likely knew each other very well growing up in the same small village. After

Come And See Past Prejudice

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Jesus finds Philip, Philip goes and finds Nathaniel. Similar to Andrew, Philip has a heart to bring people to Jesus. An important note is that in the other three Gospels, the Synoptic Gospels, Nathaniel isn't mentioned, but rather Bartholomew is mentioned. And in this gospel, the Gospel of John, we find Nathanael rather than Bartholomew. Therefore, it's very reasonable to conclude that Nathanael is Bartholomew. And Philip tells Nathaniel, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote. Now that phrase the law and the prophets were a common phrase used to describe the entire Old Testament. So Philip recognizes that the entire Old Testament is about the coming Messiah. And then he points to Jesus, being that one of whom the Old Testament points to, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael's response to Philip is, can anything good come from Nazareth? Nathanael himself was from Cana, a town also in the region of Galilee. And many Judeans looked down on people from Galilee. And most Galileans would look down on people from the small village of Nazareth. To be from Nazareth at this time in history was to be the lowest of the low in society. In part this may be because many didn't see Nazareth playing a part in anything prophetically. Later in the book of Acts, people will scornfully call all believers the sect of the Nazarenes. But Philip tells Nathaniel Come and see. Rather than argue with Nathaniel, Philip invites him to look past his prejudice, past his social stigma of who Jesus is as a Nazarene, and come and see that the Lord is good. This is a good lesson for all of us, not to allow our cultural or social stereotypes to get in the way of the kingdom of God. Picking up in verse forty seven, Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. Nathanael said to him,

Under The Fig Tree

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How do you know me? Jesus answered 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. Jesus answered him, Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these. And he said to him, Truly, truly I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Back in verse forty seven, Jesus saw Nathanael coming, and Jesus uses a play on words here as Nathaniel is approaching. Our Lord speaks directly into his character and into Nathaniel's heart before he even meets him. In saying that Nathanael is an Israelite indeed, Jesus was affirming Nathanael as a man of faith, a man who believed in the coming Messiah. Then Jesus said, In whom there is no deceit, and Jesus was speaking to Nathaniel's character as a man, affirming that Nathanael was an honest man, in contrast to his forefather Jacob, and many of Israel's descendants who were men of trickery and deceit. Nathanael said to Jesus, How do you know me? Nathaniel questions how Jesus could possibly know him so intimately without actually knowing him. And Jesus says, I saw you under the fig tree. This small insight into Jesus' supernatural ability to foresee things on this earth, also to see into someone's heart. Perhaps Nathaniel was praying to the Lord under the fig tree or studying his Torah before he met Jesus. In the Old Testament, the fig tree represented peace and safety of the coming messianic kingdom. Also, being under the fig tree was a rabbinic figure of speech for meditating on the scripture. What we know for certain is that Jesus' account of Nathanael being under the fig tree and speaking to his character was so accurate and it resonated so strongly with Nathanael that Nathanael answered him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God, the King of Israel. Nathanael immediately begins to call Jesus his teacher, then declares that Jesus is the Son of God, referring to his deity and the Davidic covenant. Calling Jesus the King of Israel here is also a reference to the Davidic covenant. While Nathaniel certainly didn't understand the incarnation of Jesus at this point, his declaration of Jesus here was a sincere belief that Jesus was the promised Messiah from the line of David. Jesus' reply to Nathaniel is, Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, you believe me? You will see greater things than these. While Jesus affirms Nathanael's faith, he tells him he's gonna see an awfully lot more than this. When Jesus says that Nathaniel will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man, this is both a reference back to Jacob's dream, as Jacob saw the angels ascending and descending on Jacob's ladder in his dream, as well as the second coming of Christ. Jesus is telling Nathaniel that one day he will be witness to the Son of God coming on the clouds, when the heavens open and the angels of God come with him, ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Revelation nineteen eleven reads Then I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, the one sitting on it called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. Thank you so much for joining me this week as we wrapped up John chapter one. Join me next week as we look at the wedding at Cana. God bless

Closing And Cana Preview

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you this week.