John 1:35-51
The next day after John the prophet announced Jesus the Lamb of God and the Son of God, Jesus came to the place again, and John again called, “Behold the Lamb of God!”
Two men were standing with John who wanted to know more of One sent by God to take away sin, and they followed after Jesus. He turned and asked them, “What seek ye?” They said,
“Rabbi ... where dwellest Thou?” A rabbi was a man who taught the people of God, and was the most respectful title they knew to address Him.
Jesus invited them to “come and see”. It is not told where He stayed, it may have been an outside shelter, but they were welcomed to stay with Him. It was “about the tenth hour,” or near night, as they counted twelve hours to a day, beginning at sunrise.
When we know a great event, we want to tell someone: those two men had found Him Who was the Holy One sent by God to take away their sins; this was the very greatest event to them, and they wanted others to know Him. One man, Andrew, went to tell his brother and brought him to Jesus.
Jesus knew the brother’s name, Simon, but gave him a second name, Cephas, which means a stone. Later the Greek language was more used, and the word for stone is “petros”, translated into our language, Peter, and the word most often used for him, though Cephas is also used, as 1 Cor. 15:5.
All great buildings were then made of stone, as the temple in Jerusalem, but that was no longer used in honor to God. Peter was to be one of a new “temple”, not of real stones but of people who believed the Lord Jesus. Peter later wrote of others who believed as, “lively (or living) stones.” 1 Pet. 2:3, 4.
Jesus was going to Galilee and told a man named Philip to follow Him and Philip went to a man named Nathanael to tell him they had found the One written of in the Scriptures, and that He was Jesus of Nazareth.
Nathanael knew the writings which gave the One to come from Bethlehem in Judea (Micah 5:2), and Nazareth was not in Judea but in Galilee, at: he thought the good and holy One could not come from there.
But Philip said, “Come and see.
When Nathanael found that Jesus knew him before and knew what. thought in his heart, he also believed Jesus the promised One, and he would learn that Jesus did first come from Judea, as the prophets wrote.
All these men lived in Galilee, and were of the twelve chosen by Jesus to be with Him and learn that they should tell of Him to others, just as they did when they first knew Who Jesus was. It seems Nathanael had another name Bartholomew, as that is given in the other gospels, and Nathanael in this Matt, 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14 also, John 21:2).
The titles of the Lord Jesus in the first. Chapter of John, are: The Word; The Life; The Light: The Lamb; The Son of God: The Messias, Christ; King of Israel; The Son of Man.
ML 05/26/1946