John 1:35-50 provides a rich account of the first disciples choosing to follow Jesus. The passage begins when John the Baptist is standing with two of his disciples when he sees his cousin, Jesus. At this moment, John the Baptist can no longer contain the Good News. Possibly before he even realizes what he’s said, the words roll off his tongue,
“Behold, the Lamb of God!”
And with those words, BAM, two disciples begin following Jesus. At times we will simply declare the truth of who Jesus is, and those who hear will become followers of Jesus. There’s no argument. No long discussion. No back and forth. God has already been at work and the response is, “Yes, I want that for my life!”
The first way a person becomes a follower of Jesus from this text is through the declaration of who Jesus is.
In verse 38, Jesus turns to these two newbie disciples and asks, “What do you seek?”
Jesus has this way, not only here but also throughout the Gospel of John, to cut to the core of the issue, to get right to the heart. Jesus is asking, “What do you want?”
Rather than answer the question, they deflect. They ask, “Where are you staying?”
Jesus invites them to see where he’s staying, in essence to become followers.
One of the two new disciples, Andrew, can’t keep the good news to himself and goes and tells his brother Simon Peter.
Verse 41 frames this moment. Andrew “found first his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the messiah” (which translated means Christ). He brought him to Jesus.”
I love the way that’s phrased: Andrew brought him to Jesus.
At times we will proclaim who Jesus is and people will choose to follow him, but there are other times when we need to bring people to Jesus. What does that mean? We need to bring people from where they are to the reality of who Christ is! We need to recognize that bringing people to Jesus is a journey in which we share our faith and our lives.
Do you know who the next disciple is? Philip. The Bible says Jesus found Philip and said two words to him, “Follow me.”
That’s all it took. Philip encounters Jesus and becomes a follower.
And there are people who have encounters with God, outside the confines of the Church or a Christian community, and they have profound encounters with Jesus, and choose to follow Jesus. The stories I often hear of this are from those among the Jewish and Islam communities, where no one has told them about Jesus, but Jesus has chosen to make himself real through dreams or miraculous events. They hear the call to follow Jesus and respond.
Sometimes we declare who Jesus is. Other times we bring people to Jesus so they can have their own encounter with Christ. And sometimes we sit in awe of how Jesus has been working in their lives and calling them to “Follow Him.”
But there’s still more.
Like Andrew, Philip can’t keep the good news to himself. He goes and finds Nathanael—who may have been a relative or a friend and announces, “We’ve found Him on whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Now unlike the rest of the disciples, Nathanael doesn’t immediately start following Jesus. If anything, he’s like no way. Uh-uh.
Nathanael is cynical and for good reason! At the time this was written, dozens of people claimed to be the Messiah. Some of them were even attracting followers. Nathanael hears the news and he’s been there, done that, not going there again. Besides, Nazareth was a town on the wrong side of the tracks. Nothing good ever came out of there.
Philip doesn’t engage in Nathanael’s cynicism. He only responds with three words, “Come and see.”
Sometimes when it comes to helping people encounter Jesus, all we can do is invite them to “Come and see.” Come and see who Jesus is through the Scripture. Come and see who Jesus is by making the journey of life with us. Come and see who Jesus is by coming to church with me and seeing what it’s like to get together with a bunch of other followers of Jesus in our brokenness and imperfection. Come and see at a Bible study on the Gospel of John.
Come and see if God is who he says he is.
Nathanael responds to Philip’s invitation. Jesus greets Nathanael with some of the most straight-forward yet mysterious words in the Scripture. Jesus says, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.” In other words, I know things about you that you can’t even put into words yourself.
Nathanael protests, How do you know me? Jesus answers cryptically that before Philip called him, when he was under the fig tree, Jesus saw him.
Why was this response so meaningful to Nathanael? What went on under that fig tree? I don’t know, but I have a hunch that it was so intimate and personal and meaningful that Nathanael could only offer one response:
Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.
And sometimes in bringing people to Jesus, they will have encounters with God that are miraculous, mysterious, beyond human explanation, but essential for their decision to follow Jesus.
Sometimes we encounter who Jesus is through someone’s declaration. Sometimes it’s because someone made the journey with us and brought us to Jesus. Sometimes it’s because we heard the call “Follow me” and sometimes it’s because Jesus did something so personal and miraculous in our lives we couldn’t help but believe. And sometimes it’s a blend of all the above.
How did you come to know Jesus?
*Photo courtesy of here
