|
About Jesus - Steve Sweetman Previous Section - Chatper 1:29 - 34 Next Section - Chapter 1:43 - 51 Jesus’
First Disciples (ch. 1:35-42) In
verse 35 we see John the Baptist with two of his disciples.
They appear to be John and Andrew.
John had disciples.
Disciples are people who both follow someone's teaching and
puts the teaching into practice in their lives.
John sees Jesus and he says, "Look, the Lamb of God."
It is interesting to note that John doesn’t call Jesus by His
name. He
calls Him the Lamb of God.
By this John is pointing out why Jesus is in fact on earth,
rather than simply calling Him by name. John
the Baptist is thrilled beyond measure seeing the Lamb of God that would
take away his sin and the sin of the world. The
fact that John saw Jesus by the In
verse 37 we note that as soon as these two disciples heard that Jesus
was the Lamb of God they turned immediately and started following Jesus.
That is to say, not following Jesus as a disciple, but literally
walking behind Jesus.
In
verse 38 Jesus turns to the two men and asked them what they wanted.
This might be a strange question, especially in the light of the
fact that Jesus would soon ask these men to be His disciples.
It's my thinking that Jesus often asks us to express ourselves to
Him, not to clue Him in on what we are thinking because He already
knows, but, to give us the opportunity to simply speak to Him and tell
Him our thoughts.
It's a simple matter of communication between two people.
Note
that the two men called Jesus "rabbi", meaning teacher.
Although the Jewish leadership did not fully recognize Jesus as a
true teacher, He was in fact a teacher.
I
suggest that this was too early for these two men to have a clear
understanding of who Jesus really was.
Yes, He was a teacher, but He was much more than a teacher.
I believe John the Baptist understood who Jesus really was, but
these men didn't have as clear of an understanding as John the Baptist,
at least not at this specific moment.
The
two men asked Jesus where He was staying. It
seems to me that they wanted to know where Jesus was staying so they
could visit with Him and learn more about Him.
Obviously John the Baptist was pointing out the importance of
Jesus to these men so they naturally wanted to learn why Jesus was so
important. Some
scholars point out an apparent discrepancy between this passage and
Mark's passage in Mark one where Jesus calls the Twelve to follow Him.
The fact of the matter is that these are probably two separate
events.
In Mark the setting is the Sea of Galilee and here it is the Jordan River. In
Mark's account I believe we see the actual selecting of the Twelve for
ministry.
Here, I believe we simply see Jesus inviting men to follow Him.
This passage most likely precedes what we read about in Mark 1. In
verse 39 Jesus invites these two men to come with Him.
John notes that this was about the tenth hour, which would be
about 4 PM our time.
That being said, depending on whether John was using Jewish or
Roman time, would depend on the exact time.
It is either 10 AM Roman time or 4 PM Jewish time.
In
verse 40 John tells us the name of one of these two men who followed
Jesus to where He was staying.
His name was Andrew.
Andrew was Simon Peter’s brother. In
verse 41 Andrew finds Peter, his brother, and told him that they had
discovered the Messiah.
It appears to me that Andrew found Peter after they visited with
Jesus where He was staying, although that might be debatable.
A
few verses back the two men called Jesus "teacher."
Now Andrew calls Him Messiah.
This is clearly a progression in the thinking of Andrew to who
Jesus really was.
From teacher to Messiah; that's the steps we all need to take
concerning Jesus.
Yes, He is our ultimate teacher, but He is more than a teacher.
He is the Messiah in Hebrew, the Christos in Greek, and Christ in
English.
In
verse 42 we see the first time that Jesus meets Peter.
Andrew brings him and introduces him to Jesus. Right
away there seems to be a special connection between Peter and Jesus that
you will see throughout the gospel account.
Jesus says, "You are Simon son of John."
Did Jesus know Peter's name before he met him, or know of him?
Not likely.
This was probably a word of knowledge.
Jesus just supernaturally knew who Peter was and his name, or so
I think.
On the other hand, Jesus could have known Peter's
name simply because Peter was introduced to Jesus by his brother.
Jesus
then says, "You will be called Cephus."
Both the name Peter and the name Cephus mean "a rock."
Cephus is Aramaic.
This gives us a bit of a clue that Jesus was actually talking in
Aramaic; something most scholars believe was the language Jesus spoke.
When you translate Cephus into Greek it is "Petros",
"Peter in English, meaning a large rock.
We
should understand that for the next three plus years of Jesus' ministry
Peter was not really the rock that Jesus implied here, although, after
Pentecost in Acts
2, he certainly became that rock. It
is interesting to note that in Matthew 16 where Jesus ask Peter who
people thought He was, Peter responded by saying that he believed Jesus
to be the Christ.
Jesus response to Peter was that you are Peter.
Peter there is Petros, a masculine noun a rock.
Then, Jesus continued to say that "upon this rock I will
build my church."
Since the word "rock" in Greek is "petros",
you might think that's the word translated here in the second half of
Jesus' statement, but it isn't.
Jesus told Peter that you are Petros, masculine noun, and upon
this It
would appear by this name change that Jesus wanted Peter to use His
Aramaic name for the most part, although we still see him being called
Peter as well.
Why Jesus wanted this name change is somewhat speculation.
We need to note that as far as we know, Jesus did not change the
name of any of the other disciples that He called to be apostles.
Again, why Jesus changed Peter's name is purely speculative.
We do know though that Peter was significant in the early church
as the book of Acts makes very clear. The first Christian message ever spoken was by Peter.
The gospel that he preached in Acts 2 was part of the birth of
the church since thousands were saved and added to the church.
Next Section - Chapter 1:43 - 51 Previous Section - Chatper 1:29 - 34
|