Day 3
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).
The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”
Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip.
When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”
Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.” – John 1:35-51
Devotional:
Jesus asked the disciples, “What do you want?” Jesus wanted to make sure they were following him for the right reasons. If they were following him for their own purposes, they would really be asking him to follow them-to advance their cause, not his. He wanted them to examine their motives for following him.
When Jesus encountered Simon, he could not only see who he was but he would become. He gave him the name Cephas in the Aramaic, which is translated as Peter, in the Greek. The name means, “rock”. And although Peter was not rock-like in many of his encounters with Jesus, he became rock-like as the early church got off the ground.
As the twelve gathered around him, it was clear to this group of men that there was something very different about Jesus. These new disciples spent much time with him. As they got to know him, their appreciation grew and the more they understood his mission. They understood that this just wasn’t about liking his thinking and agreeing with his teachings. They began to see that he was the Son of God.
Questions to ponder:
- What does it mean for you to follow Jesus?
- What were the things that convinced you that Jesus was the Son of God?
- How can Jesus’ identity as the Son of God inspire your confidence in him?
