April 5 - The First Disciples

April 5 – The First Disciples

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

“Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.

Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter). (John 1:35-42)

There are a couple of wonderful things to see in this passage.  The first is the loss of two of John’s disciples to Jesus.  I’m not so sure that John lost them as much as he nudged them toward the Messiah.  All it took was for him to announce that Jesus was the Lamb of God and they turned away from the man who called for repentance, to the man who would take away the sins of the world.

The Greek word used in verse 37, “…they followed Jesus” means more than parading around after a man.  The deeper meaning behind it is that this is the beginning of their training with Him.  John didn’t just point Jesus out at random.  He intended for these two to leave His discipleship and begin a greater time of learning.

Andrew was one of John’s disciples.  He spent the day with Jesus and then went to get Peter, his brother.

While John has announced the coming of the Messiah, Andrew states clearly that Jesus is who they have been waiting for. 

The Jews had been waiting for several thousand years for the coming of the Messiah and all of a sudden … here He was!  Can you imagine?  A day will come when we see Him returning and I can barely imagine the emotions that we will encounter.

So … after several thousand years of anticipation, we should read wonder and excitement in Andrew’s words to his brother.