This passage goes back and forth between two simultaneously occurring stories. You have Jesus arrested and taken before the high priest meanwhile Peter tries to follow Jesus, gets cold feet, and denies Jesus three times. It’s a contrast between Jesus standing up to the authorities to the truth of who he is and Peter folding and denying even knowing Jesus. It’s a passage about faith, our fallenness, and the savior who forgives.
Tag: Peter
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We have found the Christ. Studying John 1:41-45
- Jesus is the Christ
I’m doing a study in John 1. In John 1:35-51, we see a series of affirmations about Jesus made by his first disciples.
In this section, Andrew has been pointed to Jesus by John the Baptist and has spent time with Jesus and he tells his brother “we have found the Christ” (John 1:41).
The words Messiah and Christ mean the same thing. Messiah is Hebrew, Christ comes from Greek but they both mean anointed. This anointing referred to Old Testament offices such as the king, the high priest, and some of the prophets. They were anointed with oil at the beginning of their ministries. And the promised one who God would send was also said to be anointed, and so Andrew goes to his brother and says that they have found the anointed one.
That’s not saying that Andrew knew everything that the ministry of Jesus would entail or that he yet understood the sacrificial death which Jesus would die. He just sensed a special anointing in Jesus.
Kings, the high priests, and prophets. People did not understand in the first century that Jesus would come and fulfill all three of those offices. But through his ministry, that’s what we see.
Jesus is a king
Jesus is the king in the line of David.
The kingdom of God that Jesus ushers in is a theme in the gospels.
In the Gospel of Luke, when the angel appears to Mary and tells her that she is going to give birth to Jesus, the angel talks of Jesus in Luke 1:33 and says: he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.
Revelation 21:15 speaks of Jesus and says:
The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.
A king is one who rules, and Jesus is the king of kings who rules and reigns with eternal sovereignty.
Jesus is a priest
Jesus is also the high priest. The priest in the Old Testament was the mediator between God and man who offered sacrifices. Jesus is the ultimate and great high priest. He is the one who is worthy to bring us to God and who is able to offer the true sacrifice. Himself.
Jesus is a prophet
And Jesus is a prophet. A prophet is one who speaks the Word of God, one who foretells the future, and one who speaks with authority. Jesus does all three of those things in his ministry.
He speaks with authority. His ministry shows that he has authority over nature and over life and death.
There’s a passage in Deuteronomy 18 which foretells of the greater prophet.
Deuteronomy 18:15: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—
Jesus fulfills that text and he comes in fulfillment of all three of those offices.
One thing that’s important to understand about these anonited offices in the Old Testament is that hey were fulfilled in separate people.
The king was not a priest or a prophet. The priest was not a king or prophet. The prophet was not a king or a priest. The first king of Israel, a man named Saul, did irreversible damage to his reign by trying to take on a priestly function.
But all three of these offices converge on Jesus.
The anointed one, the messiah, the Christ.
Jesus meets Peter. Verse 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).
Another disciple. The words “cephas” and “Peter” both mean rock. This is a foretelling of the leadership that Peter will have. Right from the outset of of his ministry, Jesus is stating this of Peter, although there’s no further elaboration here.
John 1:43 says: The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
That’s the only person in this passage to whom Jesus says “follow me.” We also find out that Philip is from the same town as Andrew and Peter. Just as Andrew was quick to tell Peter about Jesus, Philip will tell someone else about Jesus.
Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph” (John 1:45).
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Come and you will see. Studying John 1:39-42
In John 1:37, Jesus is early in his ministry and two men (who would become two of his disciples) are following him. Jesus asks “What are you seeking?” (John 1:38).
Considering who’s asking the question (Jesus), that’s a pretty important question that we must all ask ourselves. What are we seeking? What are we looking to Jesus for? What do we do make of Jesus?
But the two men instead answer his question with a question.
And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), where are you staying?” (John 1:39).
They don’t answer the question.
As they try to follow Jesus, perhaps it’s too difficult to spell out exactly what they’re seeking but they ask where he’s staying in the hopes of being with him and being able to talk to him and be in his presence.
He said to them, “Come and you will see” (John 1:39).
The response that Jesus gives is so much more than pointing out his lodgings. He’s answering the question the two men didn’t know how to ask. And in being his disciples, and following Jesus, they would have the answer to what they were seeking in the coming years,.
Jesus invites them in. He invites them into a relationship. He invites everyone into a relationship, into knowing him.
In the immediate context of John 1, Jesus does invite them to stay with him.
So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour (John 1:39).
So they go and spend time with Jesus. The text says that they stayed with him that day for it was about the tenth hour. That’s not saying it was 10 o’clock. In this ancient reckoning of time, it was actually around 4pm. In our timeline, that also brings day 3 to a close.
They stay with Jesus. It’s the ancient world. They don’t have cars or lights. They spend the night wherever Jesus is staying.
John 1:40 says:
One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
We’re given a name of one of these men who follows Jesus. It’s interesting the author only gives us one of their names. We don’t know for sure the identity of the second of the two men. It is a commonly held belief that the other man is none other than the Apostle John who is the author of this gospel. He never mentions his name in the book.
But we’re given the name Andrew and we’re told he’s Simon Peter’s brother.
Simon Peter, best known as Peter, would become one of the best known of the disciples, a leader within this group, a part of Jesus’ inner circle. And so Andrew is actually identified by his relationship to Peter. They’re brothers. Even though Peter has yet to be mentioned in this gospel, the Apostle John assumed that his audience would be familiar with Peter.
Verse 41 we see that Andrew actually evangelizes his brother and tells him about Jesus: He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). -
The biggest mistake liberal Christians make
A few weeks ago, the Episcopal diocese in America voted to remove gender pronouns for God in updated versions of their Book of Common Prayer.
I think many in our world believe in a gospel of “you’re ok.”
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about liberal Christianity.
They place a strong emphasis on love. And love is obviously important. The greatest commandment that Jesus gives is to love God and to love our neighbor. Not just to love our neighbor, but to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
But here’s where liberal Christians get it wrong.
They emphasize love to the exclusion of other aspects of God.
God is love. But he is not only love. God is also holy. God is also wise. God is also just and a judge.
And when we hold up love as the only aspect of God that matters, it will ultimately lead to affirming that which is blasphemous.
The gospel is not there to tell us that we’re all ok. Actually, it’s the opposite of that message. We are not called to love sin. Nowhere in the Bible is sin seen as a good thing. The Bible teaches that all of humanity is sinful. In fact, we are so sinful that the only way that we could be reconciled to God was for God to bear the cost of our sin. Jesus did that on the cross.
God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).
Absolutely, we see the love of God in the gospel. But we also see his justice. Sin has an eternal penalty apart from Christ. And while he went to the cross to show his love, it also shows the cost of sin. Let us not take sin lightly.
When we try to decide what is good apart from God’s moral law, it ends up becoming merely the opinions of men. As the common refrain in the Bible’s book of judges goes: “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25).”
God is love but he is also wise. And just as we can’t pick and choose who to love (we are called to love everyone, to want what’s best for everyone, to have concern for people) we also cannot pick and choose which aspects of God’s wisdom and morality we want to like. It’s all true.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus teaches: blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessedness is not in pursing worldly goals, it’s not in “following your truth,” it’s not in doing what makes you happy. It’s having a desire for the righteousness of the righteous and holy God who created the universe.
And because God loves us, he doesn’t desire for us to be kept the same when we come to him. It’s not a difference of opinion between us and God in regards to sin. It’s truth and falsity.
jrb
