Trinity John 1:35-41
[35] Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples;
[36] And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!
[37] And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
[38] Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou?
[39] He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour.
[40] One of the two, which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
[41] He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.
In the last verses of St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says to us, “make disciples of every nation,” and then he adds, “by baptizing and teaching.” Of course, we know that we can’t make anyone believe. Jesus makes that clear when He says, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” John 15:16 The Holy Spirit makes disciples and He does it, for the most part, one-on-one through the spreading of the word. Preaching on the street corner or sending tracts to the community may or may not do much good, but talking to people is a valuable tool of the Spirit. That’s preaching on the most intimate level, sharing our blessed hope with individuals concerned about their sins, and inviting those, who are starving, to hear the wonderful message of salvation. This morning, we see these principles in action as Jesus gathers His very first disciples around Him.
Perhaps the greatest Gospel preacher of his day was John the Baptist, a fiery personality who attracted crowds with his austere life and with his powerful message of repentance and forgiveness. Eventually, he attracted disciples to himself, men of like spirit, who wanted to share his ministry. Two of these men were humble fishermen, who had come some 70 miles from the fishing coast of the Sea of Galilee just to be his disciples. Like their master, they were looking forward to the time when the holy Lamb of God would come to earth. They were looking forward to that promised Messiah about whom John the Baptist spoke in every sermon.
On the particular day of our text, Jesus happened to be walking by. When the Baptist recognized Him, He immediately directed his disciples to Him out with the words, “Behold the Lamb of God!” It may seem strange that John the Baptist would urge his own disciples to desert him and follow Jesus. The Baptist, however, knew from the beginning of his ministry that he was called to prepare “the way of the Lord,” Isaiah 40:3, and not to be a great preacher in his own right, as he said on another occasion, “He must increase, but I [must] decrease,” John 3:30.
As a result, “two disciples heard him [John] speak, and they followed Jesus.” When Jesus turned and saw them walking behind Him, He asked them one of the most penetrating questions of Scripture, a question that each of us has to ask ourselves every day, “not whom, but “what seek ye?” What is your purpose in life? Why are you alive? We are living in one of the most self-indulgent and materialistic societies of the contemporary world, a world in which men, women, and children live, not to please God or to help others, but to satisfy their own selfish interest. We know from the Scriptures that life has greater values than getting and spending. Life is more than making a reputation for ourselves in the community or gratifying our every desire. Life is living for others. Life is serving our families. Life is growing in the faith through the word of God, “seeking first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness,” Matthew 6:33. Life is passing on to our children the real values of the word of God, values that will sustain them wherever they go and whatever they do.
How did these two men react to Jesus’ question? They were hesitant; they had never met this person before, and so they stammered, “Where do you live?” It seems from the text that they weren’t as much interested in seeing Jesus’ house, as they were in having the chance to sit down and talk to Him. Jesus didn’t disappoint them; He said, “Come and see.” Not come tomorrow, but come right now. You don’t need to make an appointment or spend hours in the waiting room. This gracious invitation from the lips of our Savior, “Come,” took all hesitation from their hearts and moved them at once to go home with Jesus where He, as the Lamb of God, spent the day talking with these lowly followers. Though we do not know what was said that day, there certainly was much Jesus had to tell them. He must have told them that they were sitting face-to-face with the second person of the Godhead. He was the spotless Lamb who had been prefigured by all the sacrifices of the Old Testament, whose purpose in coming to earth was to sacrifice His life on the cross, a sacrifice that would abolish the bloody Passover forever. He may also have wanted them to know that He was the Son of Man, born perhaps in humbler circumstances than they were, born of a lowly mother in a stable. He was as ordinary as any child in Israel, working for His father in a carpenter shop until He was 30 years old. He was a man among men, just as human as they were, subject to temptation and the pains and miseries of life, and yet without sin. Though He was the holy Son of God, He was not untouchable but a fellow human being whom they could follow and find in His words forgiveness of their sins.
No wonder they spent the day talking. These first followers couldn’t hear enough, and what they heard filled their hearts with joy. This was the good news that caused the angels to sing on the fields of Bethlehem, and delighted the hearts of aged Simeon and Anna, who were allowed to see their Savior before they died. What were the names of these first disciples? One of them was the Apostle John, the writer of this Gospel, and the other was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
With hearts bubbling over, they left the house to spread the news that they had found the Savior of the world. The first people they talked to were members of their own family. Andrew acted at once. Now, fully convinced that Jesus was the promised Lamb of God “which taketh away the sins of the world,” he ran home to look for his brother, Simon, and when he found him, he cried, “We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.” Oh, the power of the spoken word! When Simon, later named Peter, heard the invitation of his brother, he willingly followed him back to meet this Christ and later to become His disciple.
Do you see how disciples are made? Not by human effort, nor by committees or programs, but by the spoken Word! ”Preach the Gospel,” says our Savior. Talk about it, encourage, invite. The holy Spirit can use one simple word, one single invitation to change the lives of people, sometimes people we might least expect. Who would have expected our Savior to choose his first disciples from common fishermen rather than from the well-to-do who could support His ministry, or from lowly people of faith rather than from the wise philosophers of His age? Who would have expected our Savior to choose His first disciples from men with such vastly different personalities? There was St. John, whom Jesus loved; there was excited Andrew, who called his brother; there was reticent James and impetuous Peter! Jesus did not try to make them over. He used them as they were, each in his own way, to proclaim the wonderful works of God.
If you look around you this morning, you will see people that are as different as Jesus’ disciples were. We have differing gifts, differing strengths, and differing weaknesses, and yet we are united with a common faith in the Lamb of God. In his letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul used the picture of a body to show how different we are. He asked, “If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?” 1 Corinthians 12:15, 16. Now his point is this that we should use our gifts not to have our own way, or to insist that our way is best. That would only tear the body apart. St. Paul urges us to use our individual gifts to build up the body, “That there should be no schism in the body; but [that] the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. 1 Corinthians 12:26 The devil would use our divergent gifts to destroy us. God’s word, however, brings us together as one family in Christ, to have the same care one for another, to rejoice with those that rejoice, and to weep with those that weep until that day when we shall weep no more.