Sermon Discussion Questions:
1. Read John 1:35-42 together. The three main points of the sermon were: Behold, Seek, and Follow.
2. Why does John identify Jesus as a "lamb"? How can the gospel both comfort and offend?
3. Why does Jesus ask the two disciples (and the reader) "What are you seeking?" What false assumptions about Jesus may we bring in our pursuit of Him?
4. What role does the community of faith play in helping you expose your own blindspots in your understanding of Jesus?
5. What is the signficance of Jesus changing Simon-Peter's name?
6. Take time to pray that we all would grow in our evangelism.
A few weeks ago, my wife and I took a short trip to Phoenix to seek out some sunshine. Our Uber ride to and from the airport was a long one, nearly forty minutes, so we had awhile to speak with our driver.
Rich was our driver; an older man in his sixties, bald, leathery skin, big smile. It was in the early dark, we were tired, but we had a forty minute car ride to the airport, so we made small talk. My wife gets car sick very easily, so she always sits in the front seat and I sit in the back, but Hillary is a great conversationalist, so she started asking him questions. He was extremely polite, self-effacing, very grateful, and talked about how he normally woke up early to drive. Eventually I asked, “What got you into driving for Uber?” I figured he would say something about making extra money in retirement, but he paused, then said: “Do you really want to know?”
That’s weird. “The truth is, two years ago I got out of prison…where I served a 24 year sentence.” Eyebrows are now thoroughly raised. “My first time I went to prison was for two years, the second was for three, and then when they got me the third time, they really threw the book at me.” But you don’t want to go back, right…?
He then told us that he got a taste for alcohol as a teenager, then started using drugs shortly after that, and from then till he was forty, his life was a haze where the only thing that mattered to him was staying high. When he ran out of money for drugs he turned to robbery. His first two prison sentences meant nothing to him and left him unchanged. The 24 year sentence was a hammer heavy enough to wake him up. On the first day of his sentence, as soon as he was walked into his cell, he fell on his knees: he knew that he could not live with himself, that he had made such a ruin, such a colossal mess of his life, that his only hope would be found in Jesus Christ. So, he submitted to Christ there in that prison cell, and spent the rest of his 24 years in prison becoming a student of Scripture, sharing the gospel with other prisoners, and, to this day, remained clean and sober. He spoke of the joy of being united to Christ, of his old self being done away with, and of Christ living within him. And now, he gets to drive people around share the gospel with them. Finally, at this point, I realized that the driver was evangelizing us, sharing his testimony and was now making the turn to invite us to believe in the same good news.
I was struck by how the man had transformed from being, honestly, scary, to suddenly becoming a brother. We ended the ride by giving him a hug and encouraging each other in our faith. And while his testimony was certainly dramatic, it was no different than my own, than the testimonies we will hear later in our baptisms: sinners who deserved judgment who were spared by the love of God, through the death and resurrection of Christ. And Jesus is so good, so lovely, so powerful, that when we are changed by Him, we share Him with others.
In our passage today in John, we will finally see the camera focus on the main character as Jesus walks onto the scene. And when He does, we will see this same pattern: Jesus transforms our lives, forgives our sin, and summons us to go and share this good news with others.
[Page 886]
35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 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?” 39 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. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). 42 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).
- John 1:35-42
Jesus has a remarkable affect on people. Like iron filings drawn to a magnet, Jesus can draw men to Himself after only the briefest of interactions, and when He does so, those people are changed forever.
Behold, Seek, Follow
Behold
The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” - John 1:35-36
The previous day, John initially saw Jesus and used the same title: “he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
The next day, Jesus returns to John the Baptist and John does the same thing: Behold, the Lamb of God! We spoke last week of how popular John was, yet John is happy to point people away from himself and Jesus. This tells us much about the character of John, but even more about the person of Jesus. If John took the world by storm and summoned all of Jerusalem to listen to him—who then is this that causes the celebrity to immediately step aside? Right away, we begin to see disciples of John listen to their teacher, leave their teacher, and follow this new teacher.
The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. - John 1:37
What compels the two to follow Jesus? John, the previous day, identified Jesus not only as “the lamb of God,” but as “the one” he had come to prepare the way for, the anointed, the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit, the Son of God. But it is only when John repeats the title “lamb of God” that the two finally peel away from John and follow Jesus.
So, what does that title mean?
If you have grown up in church, that title may not seem odd at all. If you are new to church, odd it is indeed. Why a lamb? At the end of his life, John the gospel author, received a vision of what heaven is like. And there he sees Jesus, but He looks like a lamb—to be more specific, a lamb who had been slain (Rev 6:6). Peter, in 1 Pet 1:19, compares Jesus to a spotless lamb, but this is because He is slain like a lamb. Paul tells the Corinthians: “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed,” (1 Cor 5:7).
Apparently, being the “lamb” isn’t a glamorous position. Paul clues us in to what John the Baptist meant by this designation: Christ is our Passover Lamb. The final plague that God sends upon Egypt is the death of the firstborn son. But God tells the people: if you want your son to be spared, then take a spotless lamb and kill it, and cover the lintels and doorpost of your home, and the angel of death will pass over your home. The warning doesn’t only go to the Egyptians (as some of the previous plagues did), the warning is given to all. Anyone who failed to put the blood on their doorposts was afflicted, and any who did was spared: Egyptian or Hebrew. This is the climactic event that results in the exodus from Egypt. This is the sacred event remembered every year through the Passover festival kept by faithful Jews to this day.
And the prophet Isaiah tells us that one day, God is going to perform a new exodus—an even better one (Isa 11:15-16). The first exodus delivered God’s people from physical slavery; the new exodus will deliver them from spiritual slavery. But, we need a new passover lamb. Isaiah 53 tells us of God’s promised servant who will “bear the griefs of God’s people” (Isa 53:4), will be “pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our sins” (Isa 53:5), because He will be like a “lamb led to the slaughter.”
And John looks at Jesus and says: Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!
Why did God want the people to put blood on the doorposts? Why did he later instruct them to perform sacrifices in the temple? Because God told Adam and Eve from day one: sin brings death. It is an inherent by-product of sin, or (to use Paul’s language) it is a “wage.” It is what sin earns. The blood of sacrifice was a reminder that the one making the sacrifice had the sentence of death hanging over their head for their law-breaking, but God provided a means of atonement.
The book of Hebrews tells us that these animal sacrifices were a “shadow of the good things to come…For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins,” (Heb 10:1, 4). “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,” (Heb 10:12).
I wonder what you think of Jesus? If we fail to see an essential part of His identity as a sacrifice for sins, we will misunderstand Him. Jesus is a remarkable teacher, a profound philosopher of life. There is good reason that His ethical teaching and meditations have influenced billions throughout history. But Jesus is not merely a teacher or moral model. He has come to atone for sin.
There are two ways we may fail to follow Jesus. (1) We may assume that we are so miserably unqualified, such a mess, that we would never make the team. We think we are too bad for Jesus. (2) We think we are too good. We like the idea of learning life lessons from Jesus, but we don’t think we need to be forgiven, or if we do, it is all fairly minor—certainly nothing of the caliber that would require blood-atonement (goodness, how barbaric).
There is no person so sinful that the gospel can’t comfort; there is no person so good that the gospel can’t offend.
Jesus has come to tell you: You can be forgiven and You must be forgiven.
As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our sins from us. - Ps 103:12
Seek
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? 39 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.- John 1:38-39
John’s gospel is full of people saying something that seems to operate on two-levels of meaning. Jesus’ question, on the surface, is a straight-forward question anyone would ask if you became aware that someone was following you: what do you want? They want to know where is staying (likely to ask him questions), and He invites them “come and you will see.”
But Jesus’ question and invitation, set in the wider context of the whole gospel, is a searching one. When Jesus saw them following he wanted to know why they were doing so. And here, at the very beginning of Jesus’ story in John’s gospel, we the readers are like the two who are just beginning to follow Jesus, and Jesus seems to turn His eyes to us and ask: “What are you seeking?”
What are you looking for?
Before we move forward at all, let Jesus’ question search you. If you are seeking, you are admitting there is something you lack. So, what do you lack? And that question can go a million ways, but if you ask why enough, you’ll get to what Jesus offers you. Maybe you lack the money you’d like to have, but if you ask yourself Why do I want more money? you’ll answer, So I can pay my bills and do what I want. But then ask why and maybe you’ll say: So I can feel secure and safe. Jesus can give you security and safety; in fact, He can work all things together for your good. Or maybe you’d say: I want to be able to buy what I want so I can impress other people. Why? Because I want someone that I think is great to look at me with admiration. Jesus can give you that. If you trust in Jesus, you’ll receive the approbation of the Father: the God of the universe will look at you with affection and love and crown you with glory. I want money to make myself as comfortable as possible. Why? Because I like pleasure. Jesus offers you eternal joy and pleasures forevermore at the right hand of the Father. There is no desire that cannot find its final fulfillment in Christ.
Our problem is that we don’t ask why enough. And maybe we come to Jesus, seeking many things, but we assume that Jesus isn’t the fulfillment of those things, but instead is either a means to an end, or He is a quaint but unsatisfying alternative. So, even as we approach Jesus, we are doing so with the eyes of misunderstanding.
Nearly every person in the gospels seeks Jesus while misunderstanding who He really is. Here, these two will become convinced that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ (John 1:41), but they almost certainly have a warped perspective of what that meant. Nearly all of the Jews of Jesus’ day assumed the Messiah would come like a warrior-king and destroy all of Israel’s national enemies, like the Romans. This is why the Pharisees are so confident that by crucifying Jesus they are proving that He definitively is not the Christ. And the disciples, who initially confess that they believe Jesus is the Messiah—will find their faith pushed to the breaking point when Jesus dies. What do the mournful disciples say on the road to Emmaus after Jesus’ crucifixion? “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel,” (Luke 24:21).
It is possible for you to be drawn to Jesus because you have misunderstood Jesus.
In fact, because we “see through a glass darkly” (1 Cor 13:12), I can confidently say that all of us in here—from the youngest to the oldest—have misunderstood something about Jesus, have more to refine in our faith.
Yet, Jesus invites us just as He invited these two: Come and you will see. Maybe we approach Jesus with misunderstandings or incorrect assumptions about who He is or what He does. But Jesus offers to all of us: come and see. Investigate His claims. Jesus invites these two disciples to spend the day with Him. By the end, they are convinced that Jesus is the Messiah. And though they likely still had flaws in their conception of the Messiah, Jesus still welcomed them in. Jesus will never push away those who seek Him. As Jesus’ popularity grew, the crowds gathered round, and Jesus used His teaching as a means to continue to invite the people to come and see who He was—who He actually was—and it had a great sifting effect. Those who came to Jesus only to get something else from Him eventually walked away.
How do we do that today? Through studying God’s Word with God’s people. We have the teaching of Jesus and His apostles recorded for us in the Bible. Are you seeking Christ? Then study His Word. You will find in it the mind of God, revealed.
But don’t only study the Bible alone, study it within the community of faith.
- Preaching of God’s Word
- Study scripture together
- Small groups
- Quinault Youth
- Family worship
Follow
In the next section, which we will return to next week, we read: “The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” (John 1:43). When the gospel author earlier told us that the two disciples of John the Baptist “followed” Jesus, he didn’t just mean that they begin walking after Jesus, but he also meant like this. When Jesus says “follow me,” He means, “Make me your teacher, do what I do, learn from me.” And that is exactly what Philip does. When Nathanel is shocked to hear that the Christ could come from Nazareth, Philip replies: “Come and see.” Though he was not present the previous day and did not hear Jesus’ words “come and you will see,” when speaking with those seeking Christ, we the readers cannot avoid seeing the connection. Philip sounds like Jesus because he has already begun to be changed by Jesus.
Jesus changes people and makes them like Himself. We see this clearly in the conclusion of our passage:
40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). 42 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). - John 1:40-42
We should be cautious about over-spiritualizing this, but given the significant role that Peter plays, and his winding journey to get there, and the dramatic display here, we should pay attention to what John is trying to communicate.
Jesus immediately and deliberately looks at this man and says two things about him (1) here is who you are (Simon the son of John), and (2) here is who you will be (you shall be called Cephas, which means Peter). Cephas, in Aramaic, and Peter, in Greek, mean “Rock.”
I look upon it as a prediction, not only because Christ foresaw the future steadfastness of faith in Peter, but because he foretold what he would give to him. - Calvin
In other words, Jesus changes Simon’s name because He is going to change his very character. As we read the gospels, we will see that Peter is an ordinary man, with ordinary foibles and flaws—who genuinely believes, but fails at the climactic moment to show courage. Yet, Jesus promises: I will make you Peter. God sees who we are, and calls us what we are not, that we may become it.
As Jesus proclaims this new name over Peter, He demonstrates what He can do for all who come to Him:
All the godly, indeed, may justly be called Peters (stones,) which, having been Sounded on Christ, are fitted for building the temple of God; but he alone is so called on account of his singular excellence. - Calvin
Twice in the book of Revelation, God offers a “new name” to those who remain faithful (Rev 2:17; 3:12). The prophet Isaiah looks forward to the day when God’s people are restored through the new exodus He is working:
(Isa 62:2-5) The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the LORD will give. 3 You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. 4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married. 5 For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
God’s people in their sins are desolate and forsaken, but God transforms them into a crown of beauty that He wears; His abundant love revealed supremely in the giving of HIs Son as a lamb to be slain for our sins transforms us into righteous saints.
And Peter is transformed. After the resurrection and giving of the Spirit, Peter is galvanized into a man of courage and boldness. The book of Acts details Peter’s willingness to publicly oppose the religious authorities who murdered Jesus—the same authorities he previously fled in fear from, the same he lied to when he denied he even knew Jesus. And he continues to make his life focused on the spreading of the good news, on the preaching of the gospel.
Why? Because people who follow Jesus become like Jesus. And what did Jesus do? He shared the gospel. He invited others to repent and believe.
And we see this pattern of invitation already in these few verses we have seen:
- John the Baptist points people to Jesus
- Andrew, after meeting Jesus, goes and finds Peter and brings Peter to Jesus.
- Philip, after following Jesus, goes and finds Nathanael and invites him to come and see for himself that Jesus is the Christ.
- This was what Rich, the driver, was doing to me in the car ride.
- This is what all followers of Jesus Christ do: we go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them, and teaching them everything Jesus has commanded.
It is easy to get discouraged in evangelism. It feels like we see so little fruit that we may eventually tire of it and feel like we just aren’t gifted enough.
The driver told us that the decisive moment he was converted wasn’t by someone preaching to him in the jail cell or reading a pamphlet. It was remembering the impact of a prison minister fifteen years earlier who had shared the gospel with him repeatedly, but was something that Rich just wasn’t ready for. He ignored the man’s words, but they remained in his heart. And fifteen years later, they took root.
Even more impressive, listen to this story shared at the introduction of John Flavel’s book, The Mystery of Providence, about a man converted through the preaching of John Flavel:
Luke Short was a farmer in New England who attained his hundredth year in exceptional vigor though without having sought peace with God. One day as he sat in his fields reflecting upon his long life, he recalled a sermon he had heard in Dartmouth as a boy before he sailed to America. The horror of dying under the curse of God was impressed upon him as he meditated on the words he had heard so long ago and he was converted to Christ—eighty-five years after hearing John Flavel preach. (John Flavel, *The Mystery of Providence,* 11)
You have no idea what extent of impact your evangelism has. Don’t withhold your hand from sowing the seed just because you don’t see an oak tree spring up immediately. Morning and evening sow the seed, God’s grace the effort shall succeed.
The seed may lie under the dirt until we do, and then burst forth. - Mark Dever
We meet people, we ask them: what are you seeking? And then we invite them to “come and see” what Jesus has to offer, and point them specifically to how Jesus, as the Lamb of God, takes away the sins of the world—can take away their sins and give them a new name, make them a new person.
