FRIDAY 11 March 2022 “John identifies Jesus” John 1:29-42

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Good morning “Walking with Jesus” friends,

This year as we journey toward Easter there is a great deal of turmoil in much of our world, isn’t there? Do you remember one of the most famous lines we celebrate at Christmas time? It was spoken by angels as they announced the birth of Jesus. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth PEACE to men on whom His favor rests.” (Luke 2:14) Of course, this did not mean God wanted peace only for men, but rather the message was clear: Jesus was coming from heaven to earth to bring great glory to God, by accomplishing a very specific REDEMPTION mission only HE, Jesus could accomplish. AND that Jesus was coming to earth to make PEACE, with God, and with one another, available to all people, anywhere in the world, at all times. As you look at the turmoil around our world today, I wonder if you notice something? In the places where peace is absent and turmoil or violence or hatred has driven out peace, you’ll notice God seems absent there! Almost always those violent, angry, hate filled people behave the way they do because… they have rejected God and pushed God and His truth out of their lives. Now ponder that for a moment!

These days we are on a 40 day journey toward Easter 2022, and we’re following the story of Jesus as told in the Gospels, the first four books of the New Testament of the Bible. Yesterday we looked at the desert battle between Jesus and the devil, which took place while Jesus was in a 40 day spiritual retreat with God, seeking the spiritual refreshment and direction He needed to launch the Redemption mission for which He had come from heaven to earth. You’ll find that battle recorded for us in Matthew 4:1-11 & Luke 4:1-13. It is a very important battle because Jesus’ victory in this battle paved the way for His earthly mission. Had Jesus lost, by yielding to Satan’s temptations, there would have never been any hope for humanity to experience “peace on earth”, for we would all spend eternity in hell with Satan, with no possible escape from our sin condemnation! Now ponder that for a moment my friends!

With that spiritual battle won, it was time for Jesus to select some men to join Him in His earthly mission, and we know these men as ‘the Disciples’. John, one of those disciples, tells us the story of Jesus calling His first 3 disciples in John 1:33-42. While John names two of them, it is clear he is the unnamed man of these 3. Actually, you’ll notice John first identifies himself as a ‘disciple of John the Baptist’, who evidently often stood in the crowd watching John baptize people. On one of those days Jesus came walking by and John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me. I myself did not know Him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that HE might be revealed to Israel… I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:29-34) Wow!!

I doubt any of us can imagine what that sounded like in the ears of the people standing along the Jordan river that day! I assume they were probably all Jewish people and so when John said ‘the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’ immediately a picture came into their Jewish minds. A powerful, very significant, annual event called the ‘Day of Atonement’. This annual tradition had begun 1400 years earlier in the days of Moses and was clearly defined by God Himself in one of those encounters Moses had with God. This “Day of Atonement” was one day per year when the sins of the nation of Israel were collectively brought before God, repented of, sacrificed for, and symbolically taken away by a ‘goat’ upon whose head the High Priest placed his hands and symbolically all the sins of Israel. Then that goat was taken a long way out into the desert and released. That was a symbol of God taking away the sins from the people. You’ll find that described in detail in Leviticus 16. So for Jews that day standing at the Jordan river I think it’s safe to say they all nearly had a brain aneurysm, because John the Baptist had just said a human being, to whom John was pointing, was to be known as a human Lamb of God. And that HE could take away not just the sins of Jews, but the sins of all people, throughout the world! That was preposterous, outrageous, beyond human comprehension… at least that day!

John the Baptist then declared that the man he was pointing at was a ‘man who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me.” I can see the people putting their hands on their heads, maybe even covering their ears! This was too much, they needed a few minutes to think this through. What in the world could that statement mean? John the Baptist was regarded, at that moment, as the premier, radical, powerful spiritual voice of his day. While he may not have had the pedigree of the scholars in their fancy robes in Jerusalem, this man, with his fiery preaching, had captivated the attention of a nation and people were doing radical things in response… like being baptized in the Jordan river to show their regret for their sin, and their readiness for the Messiah! So when John says the man he’s pointing at will surpass him, that means He’ll become more important, more significant, more powerful in Israel. Now that’s quite a statement!

But then when John says this man Jesus came before Him, what could that mean, for John was actually 6 months older than Jesus? Later, as Jesus began His teaching, and He explained that He had come from heaven and had been there when Abraham walked the earth, then people understood what John the Baptist was inferring. In fact John stated it emphatically: “I myself did not know Him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that HE might be revealed to Israel… I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God!!” Can you imagine anything more shocking that could have been said that day, as John the Baptist pointed to an ordinary looking man in the crowd?

John the Disciple of Jesus, the author of the Gospel of John wrote this as he remembered that shocking event to which he was an eyewitness: “The next day, John the Baptist was there at the Jordan river again with two of his disciples. When He saw Jesus passing by, John said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God!’ When the two disciples heard John say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following Him and asked, ‘What do you want?’ They said, “Rabbi, (which means Teacher) where are you staying?’ ‘Come and you will see’, Jesus replied. So they went and spent the day with Jesus.” (John 1:35-39) As far as we know this was the first time these two men had ever spent any time with Jesus. I presume all they knew about Him was what they’d heard John the Baptist say. But they trusted John, they’d been following him and listening to his preaching, and watching him baptize people for some time. John’s description of Jesus was directly tied to what they’d been hearing radical John say about the soon coming Messiah. Therefore their interest was so peaked, they simply had to get some time with Jesus to find out more about Him.

The Bible doesn’t tell us anything about where they spent that day or what they did or even what they talked about. All we know is this: “Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two men who heard what John the Baptist said and then spent the day with Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him ‘We have found the Messiah‘! And Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Jesus looked at Simon and said ‘You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter).” (John 1:40-42) While he doesn’t say so, I suspect John was an eyewitness to this momentous event when Andrew brought his brother to Jesus and they met for the first time. It seems clear Andrew was convinced Jesus was… the long awaited Jewish Messiah! Did he also believe what John the Baptist had said… that this Jesus was in fact the Son of God?

Let’s pause right here, with these four ordinary looking Jewish men standing together in their first encounter. Jesus, God incarnate, was selecting the first three human beings to spend the next three years ‘walking with Jesus’, learning about God from Jesus. They’d learn about God’s Redemption plan for saving humanity from hell, And while they didn’t know it yet, Jesus would be preparing them to be three of the most important men in all human history, for these three men would be among the first to take the story of Jesus to the world! Look at them my friends. For each of them their life purpose and destiny is being redefined in this encounter. And let me ask you… who is Jesus to you? How have you responded to Him? What influence and impact is Jesus having in your life? Has your life purpose and destiny been refined by Jesus?

Here’s a song to help you ponder those important questions…

Today’s Scripture is John 1:29-42.

Choose below to read or listen.

Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.

Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.

Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)

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