On Line Bible Study - For the Week September 19-25, 2011

Lesson 511

John 1: ³⁵ The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. ³⁶ When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” ³⁷ When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. ³⁸ Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

³⁹ “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. ⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. ⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). ⁴² 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).

Who you know ... matters. The decisions you make with regard to whom you choose to listen to are important ones.

There is an interesting Video that chronicles how a "lone nut" becomes a "Leader". It also speaks to the issue how a fad becomes a movement. Derek Sivers says "it takes two..."

Is John the Baptist crazy? or is he a leader? The Gospel of John doesn’t say anything about the Baptist’s appearance or diet. It doesn’t offer up outbursts of offensive religious rhetoric, at least not of the sort we find in the Synoptic Gospels.[1] What we do find in John’s Gospel is a more dramatic and insistent transfer of disciples (and power) from John to Jesus. The Baptist’s followers become Jesus’ first disciples.

You might recall the line: Look, the Lamb of God! – it has already occurred in the Gospel in 1:29. We discussed the implications of this phrase in the previous lesson. When John repeats the line on this occasion (…the next day…) two of his disciples heard him. The two leave John and begin to follow Jesus.

What does it take today to “speak” of Jesus such that others would want to follow him? What do people need to see or hear in order to inspire us to live as Jesus has taught, to love as Jesus loves, to forgive as Jesus forgives?

We have reason to believe that people in John the Baptist’s day and context were looking for a messiah. John’s message is, in a sense, custom tailored to the needs of the Jewish people of his day. We know that ultimately many rejected Jesus as the long hoped-for Messiah; but first John – and then Jesus – didn’t start a fad. The fact that many turned away does not change the reality that a movement had begun. It hasn’t always been faithful to its Master, but the Spirit of it continues to inspire, to convict, and to offer comfort and hope to millions. Do you see the Lamb of God? The movement continues …

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[1] Mark 1:6; Matthew 3:4, 7ff; Luke 3:7ff.