Tuesday: The Two Disciples of John
Daily Lesson for Tuesday 22nd of October 2024
Two disciples of John the Baptist were standing with him when Jesus walked by. John declared, “ ‘Behold the Lamb of God!’ ” (John 1:36, NKJV). The two disciples had listened to John’s message about the Christ, who would fulfill the Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah. The disciples left John to follow Jesus, recognizing that Jesus was greater than John the Baptist and that He was the fulfillment of John’s message.
Read John 1:35-39. What did these two disciples do after hearing John’s witness about Jesus?
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Desiring to be with Jesus, the two spent the day with Him. Who knows what amazing things they had learned and experienced then!
They must have been great things because, before long, their desire was to share their experience with others. Andrew, one of the two disciples, immediately found his brother, Simon, and said, “ ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated, the Christ)” (John 1:41, NKJV). When Andrew brought his brother to Jesus, Jesus immediately showed that He knew him, saying, “ ‘You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas’ ” (John 1:42, NKJV). Jesus knew and understood Peter. That Jesus knows a person is a motif of the Gospel of John. (See, for example, John 2:24-25.)
“If John and Andrew had possessed the unbelieving spirit of the priests and rulers, they would not have been found as learners at the feet of Jesus. They would have come to Him as critics, to judge His words. . . . But not so did these first disciples. They had responded to the Holy Spirit’s call in the preaching of John the Baptist. Now they recognized the voice of the heavenly Teacher. . . . A divine illumination was shed upon the teaching of the Old Testament Scriptures. The many-sided themes of truth stood out in new light.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 139.
The entire emphasis of the Gospel of John is to bring to light who Jesus is so that this good news may be shared with the world.
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In what ways has Christ, and your faith in Christ, changed your life? What other changes would you still like to see happen? |
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Today, I'm wearing red socks. Now, why would a conservative old man who has seen the best part of 8 decades be wearing red socks? Well, I am a New Zealander and Team New Zealand has just won the America's Cup (Yachting) for the third time in a row. There has been a long tradition of associating red socks with Team NZ and I am not going to tell it here because that would be a distraction. I want to tell you about how New Zealand wins the cup. They have a team of 8 that sails the yacht and a bigger shore team that looks after it. Altogether, there are about 300 people in the team. And in the washup when congratulations are being handed around, everyone who spoke talked about how well the team worked together. They had a mishap during the round-robin part of the competition and dropped the yacht from a height of 9 metres. The shore team worked around the clock for 2 days to repair the damage and get the yacht back in the water. This wasn't the time to point fingers. There was a crisis and it had to be solved quickly.
Getting people to work together as a team is the secret of success. Jesus had to assemble a team to become the leaders of the new church. And while we know that it took a while to get that team working together in harmony, we know that is did happen. This is the team description after Jesus ascended to heaven:
Jesus started the team with Galilean fishermen, who were used to working together in boats. (Maybe they would have made a good yachting team too.) It took 3 years for Jesus to knock them into shape, but when Jesus left them to spread the Gospel they were ready to work as a team.
While we often talk about salvation as a personal rather than a church thing, we need to recognise that spreading the Gospel is a team effort. We can learn a lot about working as a team from those who work in boats.
Maurice -Congratulations to team New Zealand! What a victory after experiencing such a setback!
You mentioned that: ‘in the ‘washup’ when congratulations are being handed around, everyone who spoke talked about how well the team worked together.’ I am curious - could this then not also apply to all who were present in the Upper room?
The sentence you highlighted in your comment focused only on the apostles – “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication,” but the full sentence reads “,with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.”
Do you think it appropriate to consider all who live the faith of Jesus participate equally as members of the ‘Team of Jesus Christ’? Does it matter if the individual is a member of an organized ‘church’ or if he/she promotes Jesus Christ as the ‘Way of Truth and Light’ as an ‘unaffiliated’ member of the world-wide Ecclesia?
It is instructive to note that Jesus didnt call the first two disciples (or even the first 3). John the Baptist proclaimed the word about Jesus and the Holy Spirit convicted John and Andrew to follow Jesus.
So it is with us today, we are to share the good news of the gospel with men and women knowing fully well that it is the Holy Spirit who will lead them to Jesus!!!!
The two disciples who left jonh to follow Jesus were sincerely seeking the saviour. At Jesus home , the two disciples were taught. we too need to sit with Jesus and learn of him through his word and our experience with him will grow thereby empowering us to tell others about Him.
I would never be who I am without the Love of God for me. But I hope to be more of "wet clay", so I can be molded easier!
The way I look at the three years of Nathaniel and Philip with Christ, they are examples of born again people. Not as we would think of born again, dunked in water, and coming up changed instaniously into perfect as your father in heaven is(justification), which I believe they already were, since they believed in and were already looking for a Meaisah, rather their born again experience was sanctification of a life time when they met Christ. They grew in Christ. After all they too learned from the wind and the wave in a boat on the sea of Galilee.
The change and growth when one meets Christ.
From what I understand this is a taste of what sanctification is.
Amelo Kinegly put it this way by using a graph. We keep growing under the line that goes towards the top line that represents perfection. Above the line of growth is the covering of Christ righteousness. Even though we keep growing we never reach the perfection line, though so ever close. That means Christ righteousness is always covering us no matter how perfect we become. Remember from college math we can calculate the area above the line and below the line. I really don't think that is necessary in our Christian growth graph.
I remember that graph illustration, John, but I have come to see it differently than I did so many years ago. I don't believe that "perfection" is a quantitative goal to be reached, as the illustration may suggest. (Not saying you see it that way, but I did.) Rather it is an attitude, a set of mind.
Remember that Jesus said to "be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect" in conjunction with the Father treating the just and the unjust exactly the same - showering His blessings on both. (Matt 5:43-48) The "perfection" He wants His followers to have is to be loving like He is and like the Father is. And in His prayer, He asked the Father, "And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are." (John 17:11) He wants us to be "one" with Him.
I believe you and I can be "perfect" today in the here and now - as long as we are consciously surrendered to God as best we know. That means that, while we may all be at different stages of "perfection" as far as man sees, God sees us all as "perfect" in such a state of surrender.
I believe that Christ saw that kind of "perfection" in the thief on the cross.
One problem with seeing "perfection" as a quantitative goal is that it invites comparison - as in "I'm so glad I'm not a sinner like xxx."
Yes, I will leave out the quantification and graph illistration. Thanks for the clarification.
With Jesus I have learnt i can do nothing without him, and nothing is impossible before him.