The Gospel of John 1:35-51
John 1:35-51 · Vern Peterman · Feb 3, 2013
Gospel of John (2013), No. 05
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926342462011

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We are in John 1, 35-51. In what Craig covered last week, they're talking about an event there with John the Baptist and Jesus. And then this is the very next day in this passage, John 1.35-51, and verses 35 and 36 read like this, Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked upon Jesus as he walked, and said, Behold the Lamb of God.

So John had many disciples, and in fact, disciples continue to crop up, or John's name is mentioned on into the Book of Acts, and not just in Israel. What we see there in the Book of Acts, it continues on into 18, chapter 18, 25, with John the Baptist's disciples even being in places like Ephesus. So, spread throughout various parts of the Roman Empire. At least one of these two disciples, and not just any disciple of John the Baptist, as we'll soon see. More than just a disciple of John the Baptist.

Rabbis and disciples had formed a strong complementary tradition in Israel in the couple of centuries before the time of the New Testament. There was a whole set of traditions about rabbis and about disciples and what you were supposed to do and not supposed to do and what a rabbi was supposed to claim and how a rabbi traditionally did things and did not do things. And one of the things that's important to point out in this passage here and in this paragraph is Jesus and John the Baptist did some things that were the same as other rabbis And they did some things that were very different. And it was the things that were different that got them in trouble.

Did any of the rabbis claim to be the son of God? No. Even the claim of being the son of man, is that just saying I'm a man? No. You're shaking your head no. Why? God as a man? Yeah, as you look at it, the term Son of Man comes out of the Old Testament, and that's a claim to be the Messiah, the God-Man, right? So you're correct. Even saying the Son of Man is not just claiming to be a man. He's not just another man. So this is something that Jesus did. Jesus said, you know, I am making the claim in such a way that it was a claim to deity.

And when he did so in front of the unbelieving Jews, the stones came out, right? So that was not something any rabbi would dare to do. One of the rules between Rabbis and Disciples is Rabbis were not permitted to ask their Disciples to wash the Rabbis' feet. So what did Jesus do? He turned on its head and did what? He washed the Disciples' feet. So did He break the rules? No, He went way beyond breaking the rules. He went way beyond breaking the rules. There was no rule against washing the Disciples' feet.

But the thought was so upside down from anything in Judaism that that was just one more thing that was outside of being a rabbi, right? Many things, and we will be talking about it more, these various appeals, you know, unless you leave mother and father and, you know, all those kinds of things, and be my disciple, you cannot be my disciple, those kinds of statements, those were typical rabbi statements. Many people do not understand that in its cultural context. Jesus said things that were typical rabbi statements, and then he did and said things that were not at all typical of any rabbi. The same with John the Baptist, and the challenge to John the Baptist was, why are you baptizing? None of the other rabbis baptized. You didn't baptize your disciples. John the Baptist did. That to them was bizarre. What are you doing?

Was there baptism among the Jews? Did the Jews have baptism? They baptized people who came to believe in their faith. Yeah, they baptized converts from the Gentiles. Otherwise you baptized yourself. But for John to baptize Jews, which he did regularly, that was extraordinary, out of the ordinary, and just not acceptable. It was puzzling at very least. Yes. Why did they baptize themselves? The baptizing themselves was the ceremonial washing. Ceremonial washing that they did. And they had various traditions about that.

So as John had said the day before, he proclaimed, Behold the Lamb of God. We talked about the meaning of this proclamation when John said it in John 1.29. Why would John say this more than once? Why didn't he just say, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, and that's enough. I've said it once, I've said it enough. Why did he say it more than once?

Yeah? Possibly because of reputation. Okay, repetition would be emphasis. That would certainly be a very good reason. Repetition, if you think about it, repetition is used throughout the Bible, Old Testament and New, to get a point of emphasis across. So good. Emphasis would be one. Any others? Different audience. In other words, if he had different people there than the day before, he might also, and we don't know for a fact, but you could well be right, even some different audience may warrant, I've got to say this again because we have some different people, some different people is all it would take to justify that different audience. It also shows a relationship that John had to Jesus and why he had it. He was assured of that.

In the end, what was going to matter the most? The baptism that John did or that Jesus was the Lamb of God? In the end, that had to be the lingering message. That had to be the one even more important than, I baptize you now in water. Behold the Lamb of God, a far, far more important message than I'm going to get you wet. Anything else? Yeah? While we're talking about it, what does the baptism of John signify? Let's talk about that. Jesus, when he was baptized, let's ask this, was John's baptism When John baptized his disciples, is that the same as Christian baptism? Did it mean the same thing? No, it did not. It wasn't Christian baptism. So even though on the outside it looked the same, it did not represent the same thing. Why not? Why was it different?

Yeah? Didn't you say last week in the handout, I think it was there, that baptism in John, many times, a confirmation that you agreed with their. point of view or their organization. Right. It is identifying yourself with the message. That's what baptism can represent. And that's what largely was taking place with John's baptism. John would baptize those who identified with his message. And that's when Jesus was baptized. What was that doing? It wasn't because Jesus wasn't saved before and now he was saved. It wasn't because Jesus had to be born again.

It was, in fact, a statement, John, I agree with and embrace your and identify with your message. That's what it must be. Yes. And was that a message of repentance? It was a message of repentance for the Jews and it was a message of declaration. This is the Lamb of God, right? This is the Lamb of God. What other things did John say about Jesus that Jesus would agree with? Can you think of some of those things, Tom?

I'm not here to be the one you really ultimately have your focus on. It's the one who comes after me that he's the one you really need to put your eyes on. He's greater than I. And what statement is that? Is that because Jesus is going to do more, or what? He is God. He is deity. That's one thing.

Here is John making the statement, he was before me when John was six months older. John is six months older. How can he say he is before me? Why? Because he is deity and he pre-existed me. Pre-existed. and he will take away our sins, I won't be the one to do it. He will. Behold the Lamb of God. He takes away the sin of the world, not me. Yeah? Okay.

One of the other points we want to make here before we move on, because we're going to continue to see this idea and the word disciples. This is an important one. That disciple, this word actually came from the pagan priests. in Greece. It's a Greek word that came from the pagan priests who were being trained up in their pagan religion. It was borrowed by the Jews and ultimately by the Christians as a fully devoted follower. That would be one way to summarize it. There's certainly more detail you could give to it. A fully devoted follower was the idea.

The Jews used it. The Christians used it. even though it had its origin in the pagan usage, pagan terminology. One of the points we make in the footnote here, it is important for Christians to realize that the root of something doesn't stand as the basis for whether we ought to use a word or not or carry out a practice or a tradition.

What day are we meeting on today? Are we worshipping the sun? No. That's the basis for the word. But that is not what we mean when we say we're worshipping on Sunday. Yes. What's that? Every day of the week is named after a pagan god. Do we mean anything by that in our culture and time? No. The word disciple had in its origin a pagan use, completely pagan use. It was adapted by the Jews and by the Christians and used regularly by both. but it doesn't mean that the origin contaminates the use, it's what does it mean to us now.

In a wedding, there are lots of wedding traditions and some of those traditions are pagan. The reason you'd have brides and bridesmaids in a wedding is to confuse the evil spirits and they don't know which one to attack, right? Have a wedding band on. This is a probably 5,000-year-old Egyptian custom.

Does that mean that this is a pagan symbol to me? No, it does not. So the question with these is not what did it once mean, but what does it mean to us now? That's key. And be careful of that. The root word fallacy is one that contaminates a lot of Christians' thinking. Let's take even Halloween. Halloween had some crazy origins. That doesn't automatically mean, because of its pagan origins, that we discount it or discard it.

Christmas, the date that we choose, can be pointed back to the Roman Saturnalia festival. That doesn't mean that's what it means to us. Most people are not thinking anything of Saturnalia. And we will sing Christmas carols here, around Christmas time here, and it has nothing to do with Saturnalia and we're not honoring Saturn or anything else. So anyway, just a key point. There are a lot of applications to that. The word disciple is just one of those things that has a pagan root for centuries before the time of Christ. Okay, page two.

John 1.37-39, and the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and beheld them following, said to them, what do you seek? And they said to him, Rabbi, which translated means teacher, where are you staying?

So they're going to find out where he is. He's apparently not in his hometown. So because they're along the River Jordan, it's actually going to be a little while before he gets back to his hometown. So he said to them, come and you will see. So interesting, he doesn't say where this is, but just if you follow me, you'll find out. So why did he do that? If you follow me, you'll find out. Why not just say, hey, I'm in this town, in this city, in this place. Yeah, Tom? The reality is, he is going to have them be following him where they don't understand. Right?

For a long time to come. He's going to be having them do this, go here, say this, do all sorts of things that they're not going to understand, but just follow Him. How were they ever going to understand what Jesus said and did? How were they ever going to understand?

Yeah? Through the power of the Holy Spirit. Any disciple or any student That's right. You're going to be playing catch-up, right? You're going to be playing catch-up for some time to come. And we'll see later in the Gospel of John, chapters 14 through 16, the ministry of the Holy Spirit included in that is the fact that the Holy Spirit is going to bring to memory the things that are said and done. So at any rate, come and you will see. So they came therefore and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the 10th hour. What's the 10th hour? About 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Zero hour is about 6 a.m. Zero hour is about 6 a.m. And I'm sure they had their wrist sundials set and figured out what time it was. So these two disciples, who had been disciples of John the Baptist, heard John say, Behold the Lamb of God. They immediately pursued Jesus, beginning by asking Him where He was staying, addressing Him as Rabbi, Teacher.

And one of the things that John does is to give the translation of things, and that's a pattern we see here and will continue to see in the Gospel of John. Instead of just giving you all these words and you don't know what they mean, John will often, and we'll see that as an example here and continue to see that pattern, John will often translate it and give you the insight as to what that means. Why would John do that, give translations all the time?

Yeah, there's a lot of the people reading it wouldn't automatically understand. What is that? What does that mean? Right. So it's one of the reasons why frequently, it's not the only, frequently someone who is a young believer will be told, hey, read the Gospel of John.

And we've even seen situations in recent months where someone was an unbeliever and we start studying with them the Gospel of John and they became a believer. So that's happened even in recent months here. So they immediately pursued Jesus. Next we find out who these two disciples are, or at least who one of them are, what they believe about Jesus. So here's John 1, 40 through 42.

One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. So this is an insight we get about Andrew. So it isn't just, here's a guy named Andrew, this is Simon Peter's brother. So he found first his own brother Simon, and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which translated means Christ, and actually we could say, which translated means the anointed one. That would even be more clear.

He brought him to Jesus, Jesus looked at him and said, you are Simon, the son of John, you shall be called Cephas, which is translated Peter, which is translated rock. So here what we have in those bullets right below, In the Hebrew, it's Hamashia. The Greek form of that Hebrew word is Messiah, the Messiah. The Greek word used for the Anointed One is Christos, from which we get Christ. So that's the connection there. Ultimately, it's the Anointed One. Hamashia, the Messiah, Christ, the Anointed One.

So when Peter is brought to Jesus, Jesus told him that he was Simon, the son of John. Peter means stone, and the Aramaic word for stone is Kephas. So actually, while it's often represented as Cephas, literally, or most directly, it's Kephas. Kephas in the Aramaic. Most translations carry this over as Cephas. So Peter has three names, sometimes put together as Simon Peter, and sometimes additionally qualified as the son of John. Simon Peter, Cephas, or actually more literally, Kephas, and the son of John. Any other names and titles come up for Peter? Rock. Yeah, ultimately the rock. But what kind of rock? Big one? Little one? Small rock. Small rock. Very important. Why is it important to make a distinction between a large rock and a small rock? Why is that a critical distinction? Yes?

It has to do with that word that's used for where the church is founded on. Yeah, upon this rock, big rock, okay, you're Peter, small rock, and upon this rock, big rock, what is one of the names or titles or pictures of God in the Old Testament? Rock. And even Christ is the rock, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, Christ is the rock. So this large rock is representative of God and even of Christ himself. The small rock is Peter, the stone. Would that be like Moses struck the rock? Yes, exactly that. And 1 Corinthians 10 makes that Very point clear. Moses struck the rock and the rock is Christ, Paul tells us. The rock is Christ. Good point.

Let's look here. John 1, 43-44, the next day he purposed to go forth into Galilee. Galilee is at the northern end. of the Sea of Galilee. Let me get a couple slides ahead. Here's John the Baptist as Craig may have shown you last week. Here's a map of the Sea of Galilee and at the northern end there is Hecapernium which is where Peter ultimately moved his dwelling place and where Jesus actually set up as the center of his ministry. That was the hometown of his ministry. Capernaum has been excavated. Peter's house, what is thought to be Peter's house, is right near where the synagogue was and that's available for viewing.

Bethsaida is just to the east of there and just east of where the Jordan River comes into the Sea of Galilee at the north end. So Jesus heads in that direction. So he went to go forth into Galilee and found Philip, and Jesus said to him, follow me. Now, Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Bethsaida is this city over here, just to the east of where the Jordan River comes into the Sea of Galilee.

How many of you have been to Lake Tahoe? A few of you might have. The Sea of Galilee is about two-thirds the size of Lake Tahoe, very similar in shape. However, there's a huge distinction. Lake Tahoe is about 6,200 feet in elevation. This is about 700 feet below sea level in elevation. So big difference there. Rarified area, Tahoe, compared to Sea of Galilee.

Nonetheless, over in this area here is where they're talking about with Viseda. Now, Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. That's where Andrew and Peter came from as well. So they're likely as the, you know, we grew up together, we spent time together, kind of relationship there. So Peter, Andrew, and Philip are all from Bethsaida. It doesn't mean that's where they stayed long term.

On the northeast part of the Sea of Galilee, Peter pursued Philip and Jesus invited Philip to be his disciple with, follow me. That was an invitation for Philip to be Christ's disciple. Let's take a look at the next page here, John 1.45-51. So, in that passage it says, Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

And Nathanael said to him, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? I went to high school in a little town called Boonville. It is a little town in Mendocino County in Northern California, and I was over in Ukiah once, and I had the question put to me, can anything good come out of Boonville? Anyway, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Basically a little podunk, you know, nothing town.

Philip said to him, come and see. What do you notice about these invitations? What do you notice about the invitations? Come and see, follow me, find out. Find out for yourself. I'm giving you some information, I'm giving you an invitation, but you need to find out for yourself. That's one of the things that Jesus did as he invited the two disciples to come see where I'm staying. And that's what we see here. There is this continual invitation. There's an invitation, but there's also, you need to find out for yourself. You see that? So come and find out for yourself. Don't just take my word for it. You need to come and see. So come and see.

Verse 47, Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him, Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. Nathanael said to him, How do you know me? Hmm. How do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him, Before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathanael answered him, Rabbi, which means what? Teacher.

You are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel. Are those the same statements? What's different between the Son of God statement and the King of Israel statement? What does Son of God mean? He's deity. He's the second person of the... I'm talking to the second person of the Trinity. So this is deity. The King of Israel means what? You are the King. And was that just... I'm going to put a title on you, or was there some reason to think that he would actually be the King of Israel? Pardon? Okay, yeah. To be the King of Israel, what would be the requirement? He would have to be a descendant of David. Absolutely have to be a descendant of David. An absolute requirement.

Notice this, not you are a king, you're one of them. The King. Now why the definite article? Why is that so important? The King of Israel. Yeah, Tom? It is just as important to say The King in return to Nathaniel as I would say you are a King. Okay. Think about this.

What were the Jews anticipating about the Messiah? The Messiah would be the King of Israel, okay? And certainly there were a whole line of kings in Israel over the centuries. But there was one particular one that they're looking for that would be the Messiah, the King of Israel.

Does that make Him King of the Church? No, it's a different statement, isn't it? It's not the same thing. Why? Why is He not the King of the Church? Being the King of Israel is one thing. When you say Israel, what does that mean? One is ethnically Jewish. What else? There's a specific land and people, ethnic people, of Israel that's included in that. How many of you have any Jewish blood at all? Nobody claims that. As far as I know, I don't either. So we're Gentiles, non-Jews, ethnically speaking. So this isn't about us. The church is a different, and as we'll see in the main service, a different creation. So let's take a look here at the last part of it.

So Jesus answered and said to him, because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these. greater things than, okay, I know who you are, just by a glance, right? And he said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you shall see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Tom?

Now, Nathaniel, that was not the same as an apostle. He was a future disciple, but he wasn't an apostle, right? Okay, we'll address that in just a little bit here, okay? And actually, I would say, yes, he was, but we're going to take a look here and see what that says. One of the things that we look here, so the disciples were involved in passing the message. This message went from Andrew to Peter to Philip to Nathaniel.

Now we have this table in the middle of page three and the table lists the four lists of the twelve disciples. In fact, slight modification because of Judas being dropped out and Matthias taking his place in Acts chapter one. But what we have there is the list of the twelve disciples slash apostles In the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John does not list the disciples anywhere as the other three Gospels do. The book of Acts in chapter 1 lists the disciples turned apostles and replaces Matthias for Judas. You see that there is some variation in the order in which they are given, so each of those are shown there in the list. And some of the things to note here, we have some identifications and clarifications regarding the apostles' names.

Peter and Andrew were brothers, as were James and John. So we have two sets of brothers, Peter and Andrew and James and John. What's real interesting is James and John were sons of Zebedee, as we see later on. James was the first apostle to die, and so far as we know, John is the last one to die. John is the only one, so far as we know, that died a natural death. Of Peter and Andrew, Peter was one who had a fairly prominent place as the church moved forward, and Andrew less so.

Okay, now next one, Thaddeus is another man with two names, Judas son of Alpheus, not the same as Judas Iscariot. So you have two Judases. You can imagine somebody, Judas! And then two guys come running, right? So there's some clarification there. It's one of the reasons why you have not just the listing Judas, but Judas son of Alphaeus, in order to make some distinction there.

The next point we have there, Jesus calls Bartholomew and Nathanael. Now, having said that, let me make this point. there is no exact place that says Nathanael is Bartholomew. So it is generally seen or viewed as these are two different names for the same guy. And one reason is because Bartholomew is the name in the other three Gospels and Nathanael is never mentioned. Nathanael is mentioned here but not Bartholomew.

So that's one of the ways that it gets deduced down to Nathanael is Bartholomew. Finally, Simon the Canaanian is the same name as Simon the Zealot, since Canaanian is simply the Aramaic word for zealot. So what we have in the first two Gospels, Matthew and Mark, is Simon the Canaanian, and it doesn't mean he's a Canaanite. He's Jewish. but it simply means that he's of the religious slash political party, the zealots, who were zealous for Israel and zealous against Rome. So anyway, those are some points of clarification about the disciples.

We're not going to see anywhere in the Gospel of John a full listing as we do in the first three Gospels and the Book of Acts of the twelve disciples. We're not going to see that anywhere. We're going to see various names listed in different places instead. John just doesn't go there.

Why do you think John wrote so differently? Why didn't John just say, I've got a list too? Yeah? And he'd write much later. One is, yeah, one is it's generally seen that John wrote later. So would John have been aware of the first three Gospels? He would have been aware of the first three Gospels. He would have known the authors, or at very, very least heard of and been familiar secondhand with the authors of the other Gospels. What would be another reason why John would write differently, not just say, I'm going to write a real similar book. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So John's got a different point of view to get across. What did John say was his purpose?

These are written that you might believe and that believing you may have life through his name. So John's purpose is specifically pointed at believing and we see that from the very first chapter all the way towards the end. Well, again, because he wrote so much later. Yes. And because of all the cultic additions, like the Gnosticism and all these other things that have come out of that period of time. This, in a sense and in essence, was a priority for John. get people to believe again in the real Son of God, which is why that beginning is in that book.

Yeah, you had various directions that people were trying to take the gospel, and John was in a particular time frame writing here in order to make clarification on those various points where people were getting things confused. Is Jesus really God? Well, let's make it real clear, okay? Is Jesus the God-man? Did he really come in a body? Well, yes. He most certainly did.

All those distinctions that needed to have been made, John, in his particular time frame of writing, was aware of where the error was trending, and he knew where exactly to touch on those errors. All right, let's take a look at page four here. Andrew, being under a fig tree, presents a longstanding Old Testament picture of safety, security, and harmony with fellow Jews.

We give there the references 1 Kings 4.25, Micah 4.4, and Zechariah 3.10. Frequently, the terminology is each man his own vineyard and each man his own fig tree. And those are often put together in these passages here. Now, angels ascending and descending comes out in one Old Testament passage, and it's one we studied some time ago in Genesis 28, and we have it quoted here, verses 10-17. I'll read up to the part about the angels ascending and descending. So, when Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran, and he came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set, he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place. That's a hard pillow. Better not have a pillow fight. Okay.

And he had a dream and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven. Behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. Then we look and behold. Notice the behold, behold, behold. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants." Now we could read more, but if Jesus is telling Nathaniel you're going to see the same ascending and descending phenomenon, where does that point?

What's the top of the ladder? Heaven's there. And who's in heaven? Christ Himself, the Son. And so what you have there is a claim to deity. Another claim to deity in this chapter. You're going to see the angels ascending and descending. How is that going to happen? Is that happening now? How is that going to happen? Well, it's certainly descending, yes. Did it happen during his lifetime?

He saw Christ rise, and where did Christ go? In heaven. And who was talking to the disciples after they saw Jesus ascend into heaven? Angels, right? Yes. Now, we've got a couple things here. So what does this reveal about Jesus as the Son of God is the question, and it says deity, right? I've got another question. Is this pointed to Israel or is it pointed to the church? It points to Israel. Why? Why do you say that? Because of Genesis and the promise, this promise here that's given to Jacob in Genesis 28 is a promise relating to Israel and not the church. Right?

Yes. It's also the location. Jacob was in the land and at a specific place in that country at that time. Yes. Yeah, also Israel. And as a matter of fact, the disciples, until after Jesus was resurrected, stayed in Israel, and even when they were sent out two by two, they were told to stay in the land of Israel. Yes? The name Jacob was changed to Israel. The name Jacob was changed to Israel.

There's another connection there. So the focus is definitely on Israel at this point, and not the focus on the church. Now we've got homework. Now, homework here. Get your Bibles out. And what I have here are lines. How many names does Jesus have in the first chapter of the Gospel of John? What are they in sequence? So, what do you see as the first name of Jesus in the Gospel of John? The Word. Okay? Alright? Good. And how many times do you see the Word? Three times, right in the first verse, and then, is that the end of it? You see the word again, and it's even repeated later on in the first chapter.

Okay, what's the next name Jesus is called? What's the next thing He's called? God, right? And what else? What next? Life, right? And then what after that? Light. So life and then light. And then what's next? What do you see next? You see Him called Christ. And what does that mean? Christ, if He's Christ, He is the Anointed One, the Messiah. What do you see next? The begotten Son. And why is that different? What does begotten mean? Yeah, you could substitute the word unique. He is uniquely the One.

How many Jesus's are there? Sure, there were lots of people named, if you go to the original, Yeshua in Israel. But, because that's what we call Joshua. Yeah, and exactly right there, sometimes you'll see, a lot of times you'll see Christ without the article. But there is, you know, you are the Messiah, you are Christ, is there in chapter 1. Okay, what do we see next as the name of Jesus or Christ? I Am. The I Am. And who else gets called I Am?

God in the Old Testament. It's certainly not the only place, but one of those places, Exodus chapter 3, God is talking from the burning bush to Moses. And the Greek Old Testament, called the Septuagint, God speaks from the bush when Moses asks the question, Who should I say has sent me? And God says in the Greek Old Testament, Ego eimi, Jesus repeatedly in the Gospel of John. says egoimi in the Greek and it's translated I am. I am the door, I am the good shepherd, I am the way, the truth and the life. The repeated statement of I am. Good.

What else? What's next? The Son of God. So the Son of God, and it's capital S-O-N, the Son of God is another title given here in the first chapter. Good. And what does that mean? It means He means deity and he's the second person of what we have termed the Trinity. The Trinity is a term you will never find in the Bible, but is clearly taught. Three personal beings, one essence. That's God. What's next now?

The Lamb of God, and he's called that twice. The Lamb of God. John is the one who exclusively calls Christ the Lamb. Peter makes reference to it but he says like a lamb but not the lamb as John does. John exclusively does it here twice in the first chapter and then throughout the book of Revelation all the way to the last chapters.

What's next? Rabbi is another term, which would simply mean teacher. And they would have understood that in line with the traditions of rabbis and disciples as had been established in Israel. There was a whole set of traditions about rabbis and disciples. Yes? He was sort of an illegal rabbi. Yeah, if you look at it, you have a good point. What would it take to be a rabbi who was accepted and legal?

One is you would study under one of the others. Did Jesus study under another rabbi? We have no record of such. You wouldn't have to do that to be a rabbi. You would have to be of the tribe of Levi to be a priest or a Levite. Believe it or not, Levite isn't the same as of the tribe of Levi. It's non-priests who have other roles from the tribe of Levi. But all the priests and all the Levites were of the tribe of Levi. So you didn't have to be of the tribe of Levi, but you could be of the tribe of Levi. You simply had to be one of the tribes of Israel to be a rabbi.

You would have disciples, and some of them had hundreds of disciples. And here's Jesus, and he had official disciples, twelve, and then unofficial ones, some greater number, probably you would say dozens. He did not have the greatest number of disciples. Did you say all Levites are not priests?

Yeah, here's the deal. You had to be a priest or a Levite. You had to be of the tribe of Levi. The priest was a particular role where you're doing sacrifices and handling things there in the temple. The Levites were given other non-sacrificial roles. Some of those would be, you know, one of the Old Testament laws, never let the fire burn out. So you'd be there just pitching wood into this fire to keep it going because you were never, ever to let it out. Yeah, they had to be of the tribe of Levi, the priests and the Levites. I know it's a confusing term, but here's another example.

The Levites would be involved in the music. They had music that went on several times a day there at the temple, and so these Levites would be some of the musicians. The temple was being redone under Herod. And so as it was being redone, the inner temple, you couldn't have just any craftsman work on the inner temple because it was an operating temple, right? So what they did is they had craftsmen train the Levites to work on the inner temple when they were upgrading it. So Levites did non-priestly duties, but the priests and the Levites were all of the Tribal Levi.

They had to be. Required. And they would look in the records which were on the north side of the inner temple building. They'd look in the records and find who is descended from the Tribal Levi and who is not. And if you were not, you were not permitted to be operating there in that inner temple. What's the next name?

Pardon? The King of Israel, the Son of God, the King of Israel. That's another title of Jesus. Did Jesus accept that title? Or did He say, hey, you guys are going a little overboard here. Did Jesus accept it? You are the King of Israel. The promised King. Not just a King. You are the promised King. You are the Messiah who will be King of Israel. And by the way, the title King of Kings and Lord of Lords is for the Millennial Kingdom, that coming Kingdom, and that is over the Gentiles. That's over the Gentiles. King of Kings and Lord of Lords is a Gentile term. A term over the Gentile nations.

Okay. Anything next? Or are we done? Would you include what Philip said? This is Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. There we go. Yes. And so you got Jesus of Nazareth is another title and the son of Joseph is another title or at least an identification. Good. And what else? Are we done? Specifically, the Messiah, not just Christ as sort of an identifier, but specifically the Messiah, the promised one, the anointed one, as promised in the Old Testament by the prophets. Are we done?

Do we get Jesus? Yeah, there's Jesus. You think of it, is Jesus his first name and Christ his last name? They didn't have first and last name patterns like we do. As a matter of fact, you'll even see Christ Jesus sometimes in the epistles, right? It isn't a first name and last name, they mean different things. Okay, as Jesus, what's behind that? What's the meaning of that word Jesus?

Savior, okay? And when did he particularly focus on saving? In his first coming, right? What we're reading about here. How about Christ? What is it, first or second coming, that Christ focuses on? The second coming is actually the focus upon Christ, Christos, the Anointed One, And so he will have essentially the Christ title be implemented and effective in his second coming. So the two names relate to the first and the second coming.

But you're right. So you have Christ and Jesus here. We've got everything. Son of man. Is that in this passage? It's in verse 51. Verse 51. So we've got Son of Man. Is Son of God and Son of Man something different? Yeah? What do you think? He is specifically the Son of Man. His title Son of God refers to His deity as the second person of the Trinity. His title Son of Man, which is a title that indicates He's Messiah, out of the book of Daniel, the title Son of Man relates to His human aspect. He is fully God, fully man in one person. Son of God and Son of Man both.

Was he the Son of Man a century before he was born? He was destined to be. He was destined to be, but why wasn't he the Son of Man before he was born? It was actually at the point of conception that he became man, and how did that conception occur? through the Holy Spirit with the Virgin Mary.

He was eternally, forever and eternity past, the Son of God, and always will be the Son of God. The Son of Man didn't actually occur until He was conceived and then born of Mary. But from then forward, fully God and fully man. Fully God and fully man.

We're seated with Christ in the heavenlies, Ephesians 2.6. We're seated with Christ who is fully God and fully man in heaven now. Is there a man in heaven now? It's Christ himself. Spiritually speaking, we are seated with him now. A man who is also God. Yes? Let's think about this. Where is Jesus now? He is seated in the heavenlies. Where are you now? Positionally, spiritually, you're seated with Him. Is Christ anywhere else? In everyone who believes, Christ indwells you. Christ in you. The hope of glory. Christ in you.

Galatians 2.20. Doing the living as you, by faith, live by Him. Yes, and of course we're getting into other aspects. We have the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Positionally we have the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Back in verse 50 where Jesus said to him, Let's ask that question because I think it's worth asking.

She's asking the question, will he see greater things than these? What are those? What are those greater things than what he's already seen? He's going to see signs and wonders. That's part one. Are we done? What else? Well, they saw Him ascend into heaven. They saw Him ascend. How did He ascend? I thought He was crucified. When He came back to life. Okay, He was resurrected. He was brought to life. And did this guy see that? Yeah. He saw Christ resurrected. He's going to see greater things than this, right? He's going to see phenomenal things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And when they were there, right? Yeah. So, amazing things. He's going to be seen. And it's almost like you haven't seen anything yet, right? You haven't seen anything yet. Phenomenal things.

Anyway, so we've completed the first chapter of the Gospel of John, an astounding masterpiece of a book. a great book and just even as we've been doing this morning looking at here the different names and titles of Jesus, let's ask this question. Why didn't he just say Jesus and just keep going with it? Why go with all these different names and titles? Why do that? That we might believe. That we might believe, good. And certainly that's correct. Why else?

There's a lot of information about Christ that they need to know Yeah, yeah. Does one simple title convey everything you need to know about Christ? Absolutely not. We need all these different names and titles to understand the full sense of who Christ is.

If we just said, hey, He's the Son of Man, we wouldn't want to stop there. If we just said, He's the Son of God, we wouldn't want to stop there. We'd need to know He's the Lamb. As a matter of fact, it's believing He's the Lamb that's essential to salvation.

You know, it is hard to say what's what's interesting is, for example, Paul writes with very great sophistication having three and four part compound words. Some of the words that Paul wrote, we don't have anywhere else in Greek literature. So Paul appears to have written some very complex stuff and made reference to all sorts of things in different cultures.

John writes consistently with simplicity. He doesn't use a compound word unless he has to. John carries on patterns with greater consistency than Paul. If Christ is a lamb, it goes from John chapter 1 to the very end of the book of Revelation. So John writes with simplicity and consistency in a much greater degree than Paul.

It's been speculated that John may have been a priest or of the tribe of Levi, since he has the connections with the high priests and all that. He was able to get Peter into the high priest's courtyard just on his name and recognition. Oh, we know who you are. Okay, if you say Peter's okay, then he gets in. So here's John, whether he's better educated, It may be, but what's interesting is how he writes so simply, unlike Paul who writes with real sophistication and complexity. So anyway, yeah.

Believe in His name. What is that? When we have looked at all these names of Christ here this morning, what it is telling us is not just, here's a bunch of labels, but the names have significance. and including He is the Lamb, including He is the Son of God, including He is the Son of Man. All those aspects of who He is is included in His name. So the name is not just a superficial label, but in fact identifies the full sense of who He is. The full sense of who He is and who He needs to be understood to be.

We've got people just about to press their nose against the window, so we better stop. So let's pray and we'll go on to the next thing here. Lord, thank you for what is an awesome introduction here to the Gospel of John. How marvelously we see in this Gospel, in this first chapter, a broad spectrum of the identity and accomplishments to come of who you are. And Lord, we just give you thanks for this. We thank you for your Holy Spirit's preservation and illumination of your word and inspiration. And we just look forward to the Sundays and chapters and verses ahead as we continue to explore this marvelous, most amazing book. We give you thanks in Jesus' name. Amen.