John 1:43,44 - Philip

Jesus went to Galilee. At the time Israel had three main parts, Judea, Samaria and Galilee. Jesus was brought up in Galilee, and spent a lot of His ministry time there.

“Finding Philip, He said to him “Follow me””. Now this may or may not imply that Jesus did not know of Philip before this. If we read all of the gospels we find that they interweave with each other on several occasions, and an individual gospel does not record all of the facts, each one is presenting a particular perspective.  Whatever the case, it is Jesus who took the initiative in finding Philip and issuing the call “Follow me”. All of the gospels, and John in particular, present the situation as God seeking out man. We often talk of man seeking out God, this is putting the emphasis the wrong way round. Now this is not to say that man does not seek out God. Gen 4:26 says that men began to call upon the name of the Lord. If we say it is all of God and man has nothing to do with it, then this is utterly unbiblical. However, we need to be equally clear that the priority, the initiative, lies with God, not with man.

This verse also shows Jesus seeking out a particular individual. Now we might then say that God calls individuals, He does not just make a general call. In saying that God does call individuals we right, God knew me before the creation of the world. However, there are parables and other places that present God as making a general call as well. So we need to be careful here. Again, if you take one perspective to the exclusion of others we run the risk of running into error.

Philip, Andrew and Peter were all from Bethsaida. Bethsaida was a large fishing town.

John 1:40-42 - Andrew

1:40,41

Andrew was one of the two of John's disciples, the other one is not identified. The other one may have been John himself, but there is no conclusive evidence on this.

Having spent time with Jesus Andrew came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Luke 3:15 tells us that people were expecting the Messiah, and Andrew here had clearly been looking for Him.

This raises a question on how we apply these verses to our own time. A typical commentary on these verses goes something like this "isn't it wonderful that Andrew went and told Peter that he had found Jesus. We should do the same", with a hint of guilt thrown at us as well for not being more evangelistic. Now we do need to be more evenagelistic, but if the urge to do this is based on some simplistic notions it will just end in disillusionment. There was a general expectation of the Messiah at the time, now in our society this is not true. The general view is that God is irrelevant. So if we adopt tactics that are appropriate for a time that is expecting the Messiah, the we are likely to be disappointed. However, this does not mean we should give up, but we need to do something different. We need to understand the times. Tim Keller, in New York, seems to be successful at this.

1:42

Andrew brought Peter to Jesus. This is the task of all of us, whether we are talking as evangelists or as looking after existing Christians. We can tell people all sorts of things, give them all sorts of advice, but ultimately they need to come to Jesus.

The first thing that Jesus does it announce that He is going to give Simon a new name, he will be called Peter. Now this does not simply mean he is going to be called something different, but that Jesus is going to  change his character. Peter will become a rock. When we come to a Jesus we come to be changed. If we look over Peter's life we se that he did indeed need to be changed, but eventually he did become a rock. When we come to Jesus we will many times be brought face to face with our old self, but we can be sure that He who has started a good work in us will bring it to completion (Phil 1:6).

John 1:37-39 - Spending time with Jesus

1:37,38

Two of John's disciples decide to follow Jesus. They did this in response to John's teaching, again the message is that if you truly listen to John the Baptist then you will become a disciple of Jesus.

Jesus asked them "what do you want ?" We sometimes think that Jesus takes anyone, but often He asks odd questions.

The two referred to Jesus as rabbi. This term was used of official teachers in Judaism, but was not restricted to them, it could be used as a general term of respect. They had been following John, but were now following Jesus. They had looked on John as their rabbi, now it was to be Jesus.

They asked Jesus where He was staying.  If they were going to follow Jesus they needed to know where He was staying.

1:39

Jesus does not answer their question directly, but instead calls on them to come with Him, then they will see. There is a twofold reason for this. We so often want information, Jesus seeks to give us so much more, and to get this we need to be with Him. Secondly, His true home was with the Father.

So they spent the day with Him. The tenth hour was about 4 o'clock. It is not clear at what point in their time with Him this refers to. The key point is they spent time with Him, and did see where He was staying.

John 1:34-36 - John sees Jesus

1:34

This marks the end of the section on John the Baptist. He came to prepare the way for Jesus, and now hands over to Him. He declares that he knows without doubt that Jesus is the Son of God, or as the NIV says, God's chosen one.

When we look at Jesus we do not just see a man. We see the One sent by God, chosen by God, the Son of God. If we look at Him in any other way we will completely miss who He is, and completely fail to appreciate the significance of what He says and does.

1:35, 36

John is now showing that disciples of John the Baptist went to follow Jesus. There is a dual purpose is describing this. One is that it shows how Jesus got His disciples, the other is that it shows that John's disciples went over to Jesus, so any people who still were "following" John would hopefully take the hint. We might think it pretty silly of folk to be following John, but Acts 19 shows it was happening, we also do not appreciate what the situation was like in those days. Anyway, we are still adept at focusing on the wrong thing, or over focusing on something. When the Charismatic Movement got started there could be an undue emphasis on the gifts, especially tongues. Now the gifts are good, tongues are good, but they are not the prime focus.

John again draws attention to Jesus as the lamb of God (see comments on 1:29).

John 1:32,33 - The Spirit came down

1:32

The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus at His baptism (Matt 3:16), this was also the time when God declared from heaven that Jesus was His Son and that we should listen to Him. John's gospel is the only one that mentions that the Spirit remained on Him. John is alluding to Isaiah 11:2 which speaks of the Spirit resting on the Messiah.

Why the significance of the Holy Spirit? The Messiah had to be working closely with the Holy Spirit. The remaining of the Spirit signifies the relationship between Jesus and the Spirit. There is also direct application to ourselves as well. The New Testament speaks of have promised Holy Spirit, an essential part of becoming a Christian is being born of the Spirit, and being filled with the Spirit. Our relationship with the Holy Spirit is important too.

1:33

We now learn how John knew that Jesus was the Messiah. The Father had told him that the one he saw the Spirit descend upon would be the one who would baptise with the Holy Spirit. Remember that John was reluctant to baptise Jesus, so the descending of the Spirit confirmed to him that he had indeed done the right thing in agreeing to baptise Jesus.

Water baptism cleanses from the past, Holy Spirit baptism prepares for the future. And it is Jesus who baptises us. We should meditate on the fact that we have been baptised by Jesus with the Holy Spirit. We may want to hear a great preacher or teacher, or to be prayed for by some prophet or pastor. All of us have been baptised by Jesus, what a privilege!

John 1:30,31 - that He might be revealed

1:30

This verse was referred to in 1:15. John knew that Jesus was greater than he. Since Jesus came after John one might have expected that John was the greater, being older and the first. Numerous people have worked on relativity since Einstein, but none of them are considered as great as Eisntein because he was the first.

However, although in terms of natural birth John was the older, Jesus was eternal and always was. So Jesus was actually before John. Some ask how could John know this, but the answer is simple. It was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist was filled with the spirit from before birth  (Luke 1:14).

1:31

Now why does John say that he did not know Jesus? Does he mean he did not know Him personally? They were related, but then John had lived in the wilderness, so it is possible that this is what he means. Some say that it was not until he saw Jesus here that he realised who Jesus was. However, this does not seem to fit with John's reluctance to baptise Jesus. John knew a lot more than people seem to give him credit for.

John came baptising with water so that Jesus could be revealed to Israel. So we see again the importance of repentance. I know I keep mentioning this, and I will continue to do so. Repentance opens up the way for us to see who Jesus is.

John 1:28,29 - the Lamb of God

1:28

There is no description of John actually baptising anyone in John's gospel, but plenty of side mentions of it. The reason is that John's prime purpose was for his readers to focus on who Jesus is.

The Bethany in this verse is not the Bethany mentioned elsewhere, which is only about 2 miles from Jerusalem. This Bethany was located on the side of the Jordan. There have been various attempts from earliest items to work out where this Bethany was, and some scribes changed the text. However, other geographical references in John have proved to be very accurate. So I think the most likely explanation is that there was a second place called Bethany. Most countries have several towns with the same name.

1:29

Now at last John gets to focus on what, or rather who, he wants to focus on. v32 implies that this happened sometime after John had baptised Jesus.

John calls Jesus the "lamb of God". Now when be think of lambs we think of fluffy little things frolicking in the field, we think they are sweet. This is not the image John is trying to convey. There are two images associated with the lamb. One is of a warrior, which is used in Revelation 5 ( which I also take to be written by John), and the other is of a sacrificial lamb, a dead lamb dripping with blood. Neither of these images is the one we commonly have!

John the Baptist did speak of Jesus in terms of judgement (Matt 3:12), but the end of the verse which speaks of Him taking away the sin of the world shows that the sacrificial aspect must have been paramount.

In. Jesus we find both the warrior and the atoning sacrifice. Any view of Jesus that focuses only on one is unbalanced and misses the truth. Jesus died on the cross tp pay for our sins, but He will return to judge the living and the dead.

This verse also shows why repenting is necessary preparation for receiving Jesus. If we do not think we have any sinfulness that needs dealing with then we will see no need for the Lamb.