John 1:35-42

Hey, everybody.

We are continuing through the first chapter of the Gospel of John.

Today we we take a pretty good step forward.

I think, in the narrative part, the story part of this gospel.

And we look at the calling of the first disciples.

And I think Michael,

I mean, there's a sense in which the prolog stands out as different,

but now we really get our first taste today of

some of the ways in which John provides,

information unknown in the other gospels.

And so let me read this,

read a few verses here, and then we'll come back and talk through them

the next day.

John, this is the Baptist again, was standing with two of his disciples,

and as he watched, Jesus walked by, he exclaimed, look, here's the Lamb of God!

The two disciples heard him say this, and they follow Jesus.

When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them,

what are you looking for?

They said to him,

Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying?

He said, come and see.

They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day.

It was about 4:00 in the afternoon.

One of the two

who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

He first found his brother Simon and said to him,

we found the Messiah, which is translated the Anointed one.

He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him

and said, you are Simon, son of John.

You are to be called Cephas,

which is translated, Peter.

So, all of the Gospels are interested

in that group that surrounds Jesus that we know as his disciples

prominently.

We know them as the 12 disciples, the inner core, at least.

And every gospel has some interest in the stories of how some,

at least of those men, found their way to be following Jesus.

We don't have a biography on all of them.

We don't have origin story on all of them.

What's interesting in John is that we get a story

that other gospels don't tell us.

John indicates that Andrew

and one other disciple were disciples of John the Baptist.

They were following John the Baptist.

John the Baptist, as we've seen, consists already in this first chapter praises

Jesus and these two disciples then become interested.

And the strong implication, certainly for Andrew and his

and for the other unnamed one as well, is that then they become followers.

This isn't, I don't know, Michael.

I don't know if we'd go so

far as to say this is a different story,

but it's a different detail

that isn't highlighted by the other gospels, in which

I think Andrew and Simon are fishing, and he says, come and follow me.

And they do.

But there's no mention that

that either of them had previously followed John the Baptist.

And so this, I think, is a good kind of putting our toe in the water

with the Gospel of John and the way in which John will sometimes provide details

that we really don't see in the other three gospels.

Yeah, absolutely.

There's a way of telling this story

that gives precedence to the importance of John the Baptist.

We've said that before

in the previous study, and I encourage you to go back to the previous study.

Certainly, if you want to learn more about the importance of John

the Baptist in the Book of John.

But here we're seeing how that importance is even lived out,

as now Jesus is making this selection of his disciples.

His disciples are not just coming from anywhere.

They're actually coming from John the Baptist's own inner circle.

And that's fitting. It's right, and it's good.

These disciples have been hearing John talk about the the coming Messiah.

They they've heard this gospel that this person was going to come.

And then when John is there

and when he exclaims, look, the Lamb of God, it's natural.

It makes sense to us.

It just follows that then these disciples of John,

having been taught to look for the Messiah,

are going to then be compelled to follow the Messiah once he arrives.

And so it is in a way, giving deference to the authority

and the insight and the wisdom of John the Baptist, who is a prophet, right.

On the other hand, it's also introducing us to the key characters of the story.

Just very briefly, Clint, I want to make sure that we all sort

of recognize what John, the gospel writer, is doing here,

because we're only at verse 35 in John chapter one.

We're not far into this letter.

And so it's important that we're not only introduced

to the chief witness to who Jesus is, John the Baptist.

It's not just important that we are introduced to the main character,

who is, of course, Jesus himself, but it's also important that we are introduced

to the key people who are going to not only be the core witnesses to who

Jesus's disciples, as we call them, but also the key people

who will lead the church forward on the other side of Jesus's death.

That is Clint.

Important.

Details in good storytelling

that you introduce the the main characters

who are going to have a through line, not just through this story,

but through this story that will continue on beyond it.

And I think this has been done masterfully.

Here we have

Jesus introduced with the the relevant

and requisite amount of authority and

and the clear distinction between Jesus the Messiah and John the Baptist.

Who's that for? Bearer.

And you also have an introduction to some really key and important

characters, not just in the story of Jesus,

but in the story of the church

that Jesus creates and all of this has now happened

in just a few short verses, right in the beginning of this book.

And, and again, we, we

sort of approach another interesting thing about the Gospel of John.

I think all that's well said, Michael, we also have an introduced an introduction

to a character who isn't introduced.

Yeah, we have two disciples here of John,

and we get told who one of them is

leaving us to ask, well, who is the other one?

And a lot of scholars speculate

that we are to

sort of make of that, that that is John, the author,

who will later probably call himself the beloved disciple

and who often narrates the story from a little bit of distance.

So almost a little bit of anonymity

and so it is likely

that we encounter a firsthand account here or something

told as a firsthand account of John,

the author, who is very possibly this second follower

of John the Baptist, who then becomes a follower of Jesus.

And and if we think about what Michael's just described,

the movement here is searching for truth,

seeing the one who is truth,

and now moving a layer deeper in their own search for the Messiah.

They have found here.

And notice again

that the first thing that Simon,

the first thing that Andrew does

right, with no hesitation, is that he goes and tells someone in this case

his brother Simon, and he brings

Simon to Jesus, who sees him and renames him.

And this happens in other ways in the other gospel here, it's

very early, and it's not related to other stories.

Here it's told as its own story.

And he then tells him you will be called Cifas, which is translated Peter.

Both of those cifas is Aramaic Petros or Peter is Greek,

and they both have references to the word rock.

So you are the rock.

And if you remember other

versions of this story in the other gospels,

Jesus says, you're the rock, and I'll build my church upon this rock.

And it's after Peter makes his profession of the Christ here.

It's just a detail John assumes, or people probably know who that is.

He's cifas, which is sometimes Peter and John.

Will is, if I remember correctly, pretty consistently use their make

version, though in English we're almost always just going to translate it.

Peter.

But again,

a slightly different version of a story that we see in other gospels.

Not different enough to be probably troubling,

not different enough to raise questions about how do we reconcile.

Just John has his own way and his own purpose

and his own intention for telling the story.

And he doesn't spend a lot of time on some of those details.

He just gives us the high points.

This is a really tricky practice.

If you have that Christian for some period of time, because the idea

of there being four gospels at that point is probably not a novel idea for you.

You've heard the Christmas story come from

two gospels, and you've heard the parables from one gospel, right?

So we're generally very comfortable as Christians,

sort of allowing these gospels to all speak to who Jesus is.

And sometimes those things get blurred in our minds.

But if you could for a moment just consider being in an older time

where you don't have access to a whole book full of these letters, right?

You receive the Gospel of John.

That's all you have.

Your church, your community in worship.

You've got one codex, you got one book there.

Okay.

And and the telling of Jesus that you have the authoritative

telling of his life, death, resurrection, the meaning of the faith is in John.

Okay.

If that's the case, if these are the only words you've heard, I just

I want you to hear the the titles that Jesus is given

within this first section of John,

this selection alone, Jesus is called the Lamb of God, the Rabbi,

the one foretold by Moses and the prophets, Rabbi, Son of God,

King of Israel, and Son of Man, all of that.

It goes up, actually, some of that goes a little bit beyond.

So that goes to verse 51.

But just within this section that we're in here in the Gospel of John,

Jesus is given all of these names.

And now if you go back to like your Christmas stories,

right where Jesus is the Prince of Peace or the Son of God

right here, John, what he wants to tell us who Jesus is.

John wants us to know at the very front of this story.

This is this is an emphasis of John, that on day one, Jesus's

first words, he deserves every title that could be given him.

He he is not going to be revealed in further level

that John has laid out this story such that the moment

John the Baptist said, he's yours, the Lamb of God.

The disciples who had been following John are at least some of them

compelled immediately by who Jesus is, and without thought or question.

They're not only joining Jesus, but they are already evangelizing.

To your point, Clint and the this is not to your point a,

it's not a sort

of rabbit trail, that this is a diversion from the other gospel stories.

What it is, is a very strong and intentional Johannine emphasis upon

the fact that Jesus Christ is fully God, fully human.

It's a very developed theology of who Jesus is, and it is told in such a way

that whoever had this book would know from the very start of it,

not just the characters in it, but the character of the character

who's at the center of it.

Yeah.

And again, we see this beautiful theme in John.

Once you encounter Jesus, you share that truth.

You share that encounter.

So for each character who's come in contact with Jesus

has then go on, has then gone on to say something

to someone else about who Jesus is and will continue to see that.

In fact, we'll see it right away tomorrow, as Jesus continues

to draw some of these men to himself, these early disciples,

not all of whom are named in this first chapter,

but the ones who are we have their stories, and we have this idea

that there is a compulsion when one encounters Christ

to share him with others and that's no accident.

John.

John loves that idea, and he's going to put it in front of us multiple times.

Clint, you may have more info on this than I have, but I'm not aware

or not read a very convincing or unanimous scholarly

sort of opinion on why John, the gospel writer, seems to be coy

with some of the characterization of where they enter into the story.

Like you said, being the behind the scenes narrator and, you know,

that may have been a thing that was known to the earliest Christian community.

Maybe there's some tradition connected to that.

But if you're curious, you know,

why is that second disciple or not just outright named?

And unless you have read that claim, I, I'm not sure that

I've heard that unanimous kind of voice on that.

I don't know if there's consensus, but I think the idea is late.

In this gospel, we will hear the author,

likely the author.

Well, no, definitely the author referred to himself as the beloved disciple.

And and I think the the guiding assumption is that the community

to whom he writes knows who he is.

And so rather than name himself, he simply leaves

allusions to his being there.

And I think they know.

Or the assumption is at least they know he's

talking about himself as to why he does it that way.

I'm not sure there is a strong case

that everyone agrees upon, but it it is not something we'll see a lot,

I think, in the middle of the gospel, but certainly here in the front

and much more prominently at the end.

Well, I certainly hope that as we really dig down into

not just the set up for Jesus, but his arrival, his ministry,

his calling of disciples to himself, hopefully,

that this is a part of the study that you find compelling to yourself

and your own sense of being called the Jesus, your own testimony to

who he is, learning who he is, and how you can share that in the world.

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Hope you're blessed. Thanks, everybody.