John 1:35-42
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).
So here we are at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry. John the Baptist has been teaching people about the Messiah, the one who was coming after him, the one who he is not worthy to untie his sandals. John has been preparing the way for Jesus and baptizing a bunch of people. By this point, we can assume, John has quite the following, so much so that the Jewish leaders and Levites have taken notice of him. They sent people to ask him earlier in the chapter if he was the Messiah that they had read and learned about and John of course said no. He was the “voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.'”
On this particular day though, John was talking with a couple of his disciples and Jesus walks by. John makes sure to point out to the disciples that Jesus is the Lamb of God and as soon as the disciples heard him say this, they turned and follow Jesus. Just think about that for a second. John had prepared them so well and taught them so much about Jesus and his role as Messiah that as soon as they encountered him, they left John and followed Jesus. Are we leading people to that people. Are we leading people to experience Jesus in a way that makes them want to follow him as soon as they encounter him? What does that look like in our lives? Do we live our life in such a way that makes others want to follow Jesus or are we just like everyone else around us?
Moving onto the next verse, Jesus wants to know why they are following him and they immediately respond by recognizing Jesus as Rabbi or teacher or leader. They want to know where he is staying, so Jesus tells them to follow him. They spent the whole day with Jesus. We don’t know much about that day, but here is what we do know. At the end of the day, Andrew, who had been with Jesus, goes and gets his brother Simon and lets him know that Jesus is the real deal and he should come and see for himself. You see when we have a true experience with Jesus and recognize who Jesus really is, that is something we can’t keep to ourselves. At that point, you want to tell others about him because you know the power he has to change lives for the better. So I leave you with this, when is the last time you truly experienced Jesus, an experience that made you want to tell others about it? Are you telling others about your experiences with Jesus? Your testimony about accepting Jesus is important, but there’s more to it than that. We should constantly have stories of how we have experienced Jesus today, this week, this month, this year. It’s not a one time experience and then all is well and good and we can go about our business. Its a living, growing relationship with Jesus that constantly changes us and that change should cause us to rejoice and share with others.
