The First Deciples: Belief and Life

Open your Bibles to John chapter 1, please. John chapter 1. We'll start at verse 29, but we will, Lord willing, cover verses 35 to 42 today. But we'll start, for context's sake, at verse 29 of John chapter 1. So the next day, John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.

I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel. And John bore witness. I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, he on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

And I have seen and I have borne witness that this is the Son of God. The next day, again, John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, Behold, the Lamb of God. The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, What are you seeking? And they said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying?

He said to them, Come and you will see. So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. For it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and follow Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which means Christ. He brought him to Jesus, and Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon, the son of John.

You shall be called Cephas, which means Peter. the next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee he found Philip and he said to him follow me now Philip was from Bethsaida the city of Andrew and Peter Philip found Nathanael and said to him we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph Nathanael said to him can anything good come out of Nazareth Philip said to him come and see Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. And Nathanael said to him, how do you know me? And Jesus answered him, before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.

Nathanael answered him, Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. And Jesus answered him, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these. And he said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

Let us pray. Oh, Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your grace and your mercy, which by your Spirit opens up our hearts and minds and causes us to want to hear what you would have for us. We know, God, that in our sin we had no taste, we had no palate for you, but because you are merciful and gracious, you have sent the Lamb of God to forgive us of our sins and provide the presence of God.

Even now in this room, you are with us. And so we thank you for this reality. Lord in heaven, may we not grow bored or dull of this reality, but may we be refreshed in it that Jesus Christ came to die for sinners and we, Lord, were sinners. Thank you for his work. Thank you for his grace. I thank you for all the benefits that he provides his people.

So may we, Lord, settle our hearts on your word now. Give us focus. Lord, there's many distractions. But Lord, may you, by a divine work, give us focus now. And God, may you cause me to say something of value, something of truth for these people to hold on to and to have hope and a changed life because of it. So we thank you for all these things working together for our good and your glory.

May you be glorified now in Jesus name. Amen. One of the things that my wife and I like to talk about at the table with our children as we're eating dinner or whatever is our conversion stories, our stories that come into salvation. Your children should know that. They should know it well. I don't mean annoy them every day with it, but you should talk about it often.

And one of the differences between Sarah and I coming to the faith, I came to the faith at 18. She came like a copycat at 19 or 20. and she really was different circumstances. I was really satisfied in my sin. I really enjoyed my life. I didn't have any issues. I wasn't interested in anything else really.

I liked the way things were going with my sin. It was just enough to keep me happy and satisfied but not too much that would kill me. Now I was 18, who knows what would have happened after but nevertheless at that time I was pretty satisfied. Sarah on the other hand was not. She was constantly searching and longing and feeling the pinch of something's missing here.

And really, as I look back at that time in my life, I would feel that same kind of feeling too, but I could easily suppress it. And I think honestly, if we're all honest with ourselves, every single one of us and anyone across the whole world, they would all feel there's a pinch, there's something quite not right. Even if you have a garden that's flowing with milk and honey and all the right circumstances, you can take hold of that, but even every single individual, they can still feel that pinch within their heart. there's still something just not right.

And of course the ones with bad circumstances, terrible circumstances, it's easy for them to say something is not right. There's something missing here. There's something missing. And it reminds me really it's a common human feeling. You think about Adam when he was kicked out of the garden and he's looking at the gates now protecting the presence of God with angels saying you are not allowed to pass.

Can you imagine the feeling of there's something missing here. Imagine him walking away from the garden saying something's not right. He would still have the beauties of creation and perhaps much of it, but there would be a settled conviction that something is wrong And it very fascinating as you look through soon after Adam with the genealogies civilization kind of flourishes a little bit Music is introduced husbandry is introduced, you know, different ways of economic prosperity, working with metals is produced, right?

Civilization is in a way kind of thriving despite what happened in the garden, yet the scriptures is very clear that there's an under well overwhelming or or something a subtle feeling of but yet something is wrong and missing and this really gets culminated with the tower babble right that human ingenuity is coming together to create a tower to reach the god but since it is for the glory of god or for man and for uh for man's presence on earth to be glorified, it comes to naught. And there's a certain inability to complete the project because it is not rooted in God's presence in glory, but rather in man's glory. And so there's this feeling in scripture that we get where there's just something missing.

There's something wrong. Even though there can be prosperity all around, or perhaps a lack of it, there is just something missing. And we get this in Israel. Israel goes to a land full of milk and honey. It sounds pretty good. In fact, when you see the story, you see that they get in the land and they have everything that God said that they would give them.

But yet, since they failed to enjoy it through the presence of God, it was like a curse to their fingertips and bitterness in their mouth. It didn't amount to something. There was something missing. And so we're left in scripture with this aching feeling. There's something wrong. There's something missing.

And this is why our hearts should flutter as we feel that within our own hearts and souls and as we read the old testament it's just clearly obvious our hearts should flutter as we hear the goal of john writing this gospel is that you would believe upon jesus and have life in his name ah yes life that's what's missing there's just something not right it is life it's like i can grab hold of all these creation items around me but yet there's a lack of life and and and and beauty in it somehow and then the goal of john he's saying i want you to believe upon Jesus so you can have that life, the thing that your heart is thriving for, this is what Jesus came to give you. And our souls should rejoice when we see the last prophet of Israel, John the Baptist, proclaiming John 1 in front of everyone as Jesus, the promised Messiah, walks towards him. This is the true God, the God-man who is worthy of all things.

He came to be the lamb of God for us. Life, lamb of God, fulfilling our heart's desire, it's all connected in Jesus being the lamb of God. In fact, he says it again today in our text, verse 35 through 36 of John chapter 1. The next day, John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, behold, there's that message again, the lamb of God.

All the, there's something wrongness of the Old Testament in your own heart and everything, it finds its realization and here is the Lamb of God. Now, if you remember what we talked about the Lamb of God, remember what we talked about a few weeks ago. I know it's hard to remember anything from a few weeks ago, but we talked about the Lamb of God would be something that the two Jewish disciples would hear and they would connect some things with.

The Lamb was something in which your sins could be forgiven. But it's more than just simply your sins could be forgiven. It's so that God's presence can replace that sin. You see what I'm saying? That your sins could be taken care of, covered by the blood of the Lamb, and then in its place, something is put down. And that is God's presence is here, and so the longing of every heart is fulfilled.

And so this is what John the Baptist is saying. Behold the completion, the full reality. Here he is, the Lamb of God. that is being near to this figure here that is the word made flesh the one who tabernacled among us he's the presence of god himself and he can be enjoyed to its fullest because he is the lamb he is the forgiver of sins and he will provide you that longing that you have and so your belief upon jesus we are taught here in the first calling of the disciples it's not just something you do mentally and then you move on with your life.

Instead, drawing near to Jesus, as we'll see here in this text, is to quench the aching feeling of the heart that this world leaves you. Despite all it has to offer, it can never give you the greatest need of God's presence in everything. So Jesus gathering his first disciples is a story of the first disciples, his first people to believe upon him. It's their experience as they come to believe.

It is that not only do they come and they believe upon this messiah but they experience the life because of this messiah and so that's the theme that's going to just play out for the rest of this chapter he calls his first believers upon him explicitly and they receive a taste of life as they do and that speaks volumes of what you should be experiencing as his disciples 2 000 years ago you ought to be experiencing life in his presence as well this is what we're going to see here now just to make sure i know what you're thinking i understand it's like okay the presence of god i don't even see that in this text but it's there it's there okay it's there as you understand what the lamb of god is it takes care of sin so that you can receive god's presence uh in revelation remember i think we went over this a couple weeks ago you remember uh the great declaration of john the same writer in the end of revelation he says behold the dwelling place of god is with man it's in the city and what's in the middle of the city the lamb right 21 and 22 revelation behold the dwelling place of god is with man and what's in the middle of that city is the lamb of god he provides the dwelling place or the the the presence of god with us and in fact if you look and it's worth looking at now we're going to look at it more next week but look at the end of this narrative this over the story there is chapter one look what he tells his his third and fourth disciple he tells nathaniel he he says um in verse 51 of chapter 1 he said to him truly truly I say to you you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. I know what you're saying. What does that have to do with the presence of God?

It has everything to do with the presence of God. This is what God is telling Nathanael. You're going to experience by following and believing upon me the very presence of God. Now, how is he saying that? How does that detail that? Well, remember, go to Genesis 28, very quick, as we underline this, because then it's going to make sense as we look at the narrative of the first two disciples.

It's going to bring it out to the color. It's going to come out as we underline this. In Genesis 28, verse 10, you remember, this is the story of Jacob. And he is fleeing because, to say it mildly, he's kind of a dirtbag. And he's trying to get to his uncle because people want to kill him, or at least he's afraid of it. And he sees this, you know, it's unsettling to have to run away from home into a foreign land.

And God is so kind to the patriarchs. A lot of times when that happened, like with Abraham and Jacob, Isaac, God would then reveal to them, I'm doing something in this. I'm doing something in this. I know it's scary. I know you had to leave home. You don't know what's going to happen.

Trust me, this is what I'm doing, despite the fact that you can't see it. And we get that. And again, in this account in Genesis, look at verse 10. Jacob left Bathsheba and went to Haran. And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night. Remember, he's fleeing because the sun had set. taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head, he laid down in that place to sleep, right?

He's going to sleep for the night. And he dreamed. And behold, there was a ladder set up on earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God, remember we just read that Jesus said, the angels of God would go on the Son of Man. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on the ladder. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac, the land in which you lie.

I will give it to you and to your offspring your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south and in you all and in you and your offspring shall be all the families of the earth shall be blessed behold i am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land for i will not leave you until i have done what i promised you then jacob awoke from his sleep now notice what he says surely the Lord is in this place and I didn't I didn't know it he was afraid and said how awesome is this place this is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven so early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on top of it and he called the name Bethel which is house of God so do you see the connection and Jesus then remember what he says truly truly I say to you you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the ladder? No, the Son of Man. So Jesus is saying, I am that ladder.

I am the gateway between earth and heaven. Whenever Jacob saw this and he saw, man, God is here. The angels are ascending and descending here in this place. I didn't even realize it. Jesus is saying, I am present. I am God present with you.

Jesus is telling Nathaniel and Philip, I am the ladder. I am the Lord in this place. I am the house of God. I am the very gate of heaven. In our story today of the first two disciples, we see their belief in the Lamb goes hand in hand with their enjoying the very presence of God. And so when they hear, in verse 35 and 36 of John chapter 1, behold from John the Baptist, the Lamb of God, they are hearing forgiveness of sins, and they're hearing the presence of God.

They're hearing these two things. Could they articulate it perfectly well with all the full revelation of Scripture that we have now? Probably not. But in some degree, they had some kind of taste that yes, the Lamb of God provided a forgiveness of sins and something better. And so they were enticed. And so we see in verse 37, the two disciples heard John the Baptist say this, and they follow Jesus.

And we've got to understand, what will stop you from hearing that message that Jesus is the Lamb of God, the one who can take care of your sins and give you the presence of God, something better, what will stop you from following Jesus instead to go the other way is whenever you are deceived enough to think that your sin is better than the life that God provides in his presence. And that is the greatest deceit that the devil lays upon people that, beloved, I'm sure there's people in this room that are convinced that it is better to have death in my sin than life with God through Jesus. And so what we see with these first two disciples, which is Aaron and probably John, is that they hear these things and they say, yes, it is better for my sins to be taken care of and have the presence of God, and so they follow.

They follow Jesus. So with that established, we need to marvel at what Jesus says to them as they begin to follow Jesus. They hear John the Baptist say this, Jesus is walking by, so then they start to follow him because they're enticed, they want to know more. And we really need to marvel at what Jesus says to them in light of the presence of God or the life he provides through his sacrificial work.

Look at verse 38. Jesus, in John chapter 1, turned and saw them following and said to them, what are you doing here? Don't you touch me. Don't you come near me. This is holy ground. No, we don't see any of that, do we?

What does he say? You got to hear the loving, docile Lamb of God when he says, what are you seeking? What are you seeking? The reason why I point that out and the reason why I spent so much time reading for the reading of the law is that you remember the last time that God really made his presence known on earth before Jesus came You remember the last time that really that happened in a great way that created a covenant?

It was with Israel. And it was when he came down to Mount Sinai, and he said, you better not let anyone touch this mountain or they're a dead man. And that's because I am holy and you are not. You better not let anyone even spit on the mountain. It doesn't really say that, but it's that feeling. Don't even let an animal touch that mountain because I'm on that mountain.

Remember when he tells Moses, get your sandals off. This is holy ground. So you've got to see the contrast here. God came down and visited Israel on the Mount Sinai, and he said, you better not touch the mountain for I am there. And here Jesus, true God, true man, the Lamb of God, docile and providing the things that we need. And what does he say to his first followers coming now?

He says, what do you seek? Well, but that ought to make you rejoice that Jesus came down to ask them, what are you seeking? What do you need? What do you want? And this is what he asks these disciples. And that's why I think it's important to see Hebrews 12, 18 through 24.

I'll read it one more time, but get this contrast between what happened before and what Jesus is going to provide now. Hebrews 12, 18 through 24. For you have not come to what may be touched, A blazing fire and darkness and gloom, a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.

Can you imagine that? That you're so separated from God that you're saying, I don't even want to hear what God has to say. I'm terrified. Well, this is how the Israelites were feeling. Moses, you go up and do it, please. I don't want anything to do with this.

For they could not endure the order that was given. If even a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stone. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses even said, I tremble with fear. Can you imagine? You see Moses? I imagine he was always pretty stout and he knew what he was doing.

And looking over at him as he's looking at the mountain and saying, I tremble with fear. But you have come to Mount Zion, the writer of the Hebrews say, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels and vessel gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and you've come to Jesus, the Lamb of God, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. That's why when Andrew and John came up to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, Jesus turns around and he does not say, you better get away from me, you sinner.

He says, what do you seek? What do you want? And you know what? Jesus still stands before you now asking the same question, doesn't he? He doesn't change. And his covenant doesn't change.

He's asking you right now, what do you seek? What do you seek, beloved? What do you seek? Take hold of your own heart right now and ask yourself, what is my response to this question? If I were to be enticed by the Lamb of God and I began to follow him and I see him and he asks, what do you seek? What would you respond to Jesus?

How would you respond to Jesus? You know, because there's a false kind of belief. and this is John the Baptist or John the writer in this in this gospel he's trying to give you a flavor of what true belief is what true life is and what false belief is and what false life is and there is a false kind of a belief in which you are seeking Jesus for very false reasons and we think it will get there eventually but in John 6 whenever the people were were flocking to Jesus because he fed them physical food and the question is are you seeking for Jesus if he's asking, what do you desire? What do you want?

Would you say to him, if you're being honest with him, I want more of the things of this world. I want more of the nice and fun things of this world. That's what I want, Jesus. And I think somehow you could get me those things. That's a false belief. That is a belief that does not lead to the greater things that Jesus has provided for you, the very presence and beauty of God himself. here the disciples we get pure motivations we get good motivation so what we should be after when we are enticed by jesus and we begin to follow him he asked what are you seeking in verse 38 you got to note this they said to him rabbi which means teacher and then they asked with that where are you staying i know you might look at that you might think okay big deal right but we gotta understand these things aren't here for a purpose they ask teacher where are you staying what do you think they were looking after what they were looking for they were looking for him to teach them and they were looking for him to teach them not just for a moment not just for a few minutes so they can kind of see and sample and maybe just split but they want to know where he was staying so they could spend hours with jesus and be taught by the teacher these p these and two first disciples, Andrew and John, they reveal that they want to be near the truth of God.

They want to be near the presence of Jesus. They want to spend time with him. You know, it reminds me, someone who's not very interested in spending time with another person, but they feel like they should, they might make plans, but they're always looking for the exit, right? And if you're honest with yourself, you've been in that situation. I don't really want to spend time with this person, but I know I probably should.

But you know your eye is always going to be on that exit, any way that you can. But for someone to ask, where are you staying? They're asking, where are you staying the night? We want to come and we want to spend much time with you, Jesus. They want to spend time in the presence of Jesus and be taught by the prophet. And then notice what he says in verse 39.

He says, come and you will see. Now again, it's not just, of course it does involve Jesus saying, come and you'll see where I'm going to stay. That's obviously involved. But a common theme we have in these verses up to the end of this chapter is to come and see, is to come and behold God. If you notice, look in your text at This is 45 and 46 in John chapter 1.

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, right? The Messiah, we found him. And Nathanael said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? And what does Philip say? Come and see. Come and behold the Messiah.

Come and behold the Son of God. Come and behold the God-man. And we already read in verses 50 and 51, remember Jesus answered him, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, Do you believe you will see greater things than these? And he said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

So Jesus here in our text is not simply saying, Come and see where I'm staying for the night. Although, of course, he is saying that. But he's saying, Come and behold God in flesh. Come and behold the presence of God. The word came and tabernacled among us. And he's saying, Come and behold God. and enjoy the very presence of God, the Lamb tonight.

Psalm 34.8, we read it earlier. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. These two disciples decided to take refuge with Jesus for the night, and they were taught by the Lamb of God. And so in verse 39, they came and they saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day for about the 10th hour. So again, it was a prolonged stay.

They had a desire to immerse themselves in the teaching of the God-man, of Jesus, of the presence of God. Now, I don't want to spend too much time on this, but there's controversy what he means by the 10th hour. It's going to come into play later on with the crucifixion of Jesus. But there's controversy with whether or not John is referring to the Roman time system or the Jewish time system.

The Jewish time system began at 6 a.m. And the Roman time system began at 12 a.m. That sounds familiar, doesn't it? That's our system. And so the question is, which system does John use? And most people would say he uses the Jewish system.

So that would mean this would be 4 p.m. Nevertheless, whether it's 4 p.m. or 10 a.m., if you're using the Roman system, nevertheless, they spent the day, the afternoon at the very least, and the evening with Jesus. They spent that time with Jesus. They spent a long spell, a long time with Christ. Now, wouldn't it be interesting to be a fly on the wall and hear what they talked about?

Because really we don't get what they talk about here in this text. We don't get that. We are not told. But one thing that we do read in verse 40 and 41 is they are very excited to be in the presence of God, aren't they? Look at verses 40 and 41. They are very excited.

One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. That was one of the disciples. The other one was probably John. And he first found his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which means Christ. Now you've got to see the excitement in that sentence. You've got to see the excitement.

He didn't just say all boring like, We found Messiah. Let's go and see him. He was excited. He spent the day, the night with this true God, true man, the presence of God. and the first thing he does is he finds his closest relative and he says, we found the Messiah. Notice he goes from saying, Rabbi, where he's saying to, we found the Messiah. Notice he went from the beginning of the afternoon, this is a teacher, to the end, we found Messiah.

So whatever happened that day and night he experienced the very presence of God the truth spoken the word preached and taught and it excited him So what Andrew and the other disciple experienced that day and night was significant. It wasn't just simple belief, and that's it, but it was a belief that led to an experience of the very presence of God. They were told, this is the Lamb of God who forgives sins and brings God's presence and they go to him and call him teacher and ask where he is staying so they can stay with him and they hear him teach to experience the very presence of God.

And so we can surmise that Jesus taught them what it meant that he is the lamb. I got to imagine that that would have to be a topic of discussion. They did not talk about whether or not the Lions will win the Super Bowl next year, but they probably will. I can't wait. They did not talk about all these little minor things that we can get into conversations, which are fine, but we know that they talked about significant things that excited them unto sharing that they have found the Messiah.

We know that they must have talked about the Lamb of God. They must have talked about what it means to be forgiven of sins. They must have talked about the presence that Jesus was actually bringing. It wasn't something of which Israel gets to enjoy the land of Canaan. It was a greater presence that we can carry God's presence with us wherever we go of what Jesus is doing.

We can imagine Jesus talked about the need to be born again to enter into this kingdom like he talks about in John 3. We can imagine that he talked about like what he talked about with the woman at the well in which he is the drink of life. And we can imagine what he tells the crowds in John 6 that he is the bread of life. We can imagine that he told all these two disciples that he is the very longing of every heart.

He is the bread. He is the water. You must be born again in order to understand and see these things. I am everything you're longing for. we can assume that Jesus was telling them about their sin right if he's the lamb of God who takes away sin you can imagine he talked to them about their sin I can imagine they talked about some particulars some issues right mother-in-law issues, father-in-law issues, wife issues you can imagine that Jesus did a little bit of diagnosing into their life and seeing that you have some serious sin problems and I am the lamb of God who came to take care of that and give you something better we can imagine that he brought up the gospel that he is the life and this teaching of Jesus this time with the God man himself stirred their hearts to action and it reminds us really of what happened to the two disciples on their way to Emmaus remember that Jesus had died and these two disciples of him They hear reports that he rose again from women, but who's going to believe women?

And then they are walking, and they're kind of depressed, and they see Jesus there. We can believe women, by the way. That was a joke. And they're walking, and they're going to Emmaus, and there's like, yep, these women have said that they rose again, but it seemed to us like idle talk. And then all of a sudden, Jesus opens the scripture and reveals himself there. and their hearts were stirred and fired up in which whenever they realize this is Jesus and he goes away, they are stirred to action to go to the disciples and say, we have seen the Messiah.

And this is exactly what's happening here in John 1. We see that they spent time in the presence of God and they are stirred up to action. So that's something that we need to consider for ourselves, right? That you are approaching the Lamb of God yourself. that when the word is preached that when the word of God is proclaimed you are approaching the Lamb of God And you need to ask yourself as you looking at Scripture as you are confronted with it you need to ask yourself what do I seek What do I want What can Jesus provide me And it's important that we do not desire the lesser things of this world, but rather we desire the greater things of this world, that in all things I can walk this world, to walk this life in communion and fellowship with my God because he takes care of sins.

That foundational truth needs to transform everything about your life. That this Lamb of God can provide the very presence of God for me. We also see that true belief here is to immerse yourself in the teaching of Christ. do not approach the means Jesus has opened for you to fellowship with him with an eye on the exit door immerse yourself in the means immerse yourself in the teaching of Christ and his word immerse yourself in the word of God in your own study tell yourself I can experience the very presence of God as I hear the teaching of the Lamb of God now and so we see since they experienced this their belief led them to follow this Jesus and they experienced his presence and the good things he has to offer, we can see there's an excitement in which they go out and Andrew tells his brother, as we already alluded to.

Look at verse 40. One of the two who heard John speak, followed Jesus, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which means Christ. So he brought him to Jesus and Jesus looked at Simon, looked at future Peter here, and he looked at him and said, you are Simon, the son of John, you shall be called Cephas, which means Peter.

Now here we have a very interesting thing that happens between the meeting of Peter, or the future Peter, of Simon and Jesus. Usually when you meet someone for the first time, you tell them your name, but here since he's talking to the son of God, the lamb of God, Jesus tells him his name. That'd be kind of odd, wouldn't it? Imagine meeting a stranger, and the first thing he says is, you are Andrew, or you are so-and-so.

It'd be strange. And then the next odd thing is he says, and I'm going to change your identity, and you will be Peter instead. So you're going to go from this unknown identity, this identity that you're born with, and I'm going to change it to this new identity. And that is, you will be Peter, you'll be the rock. And we see that Peter's identity shifts dramatically, don't we?

He goes from being scared of a slave girl when Jesus is on trial, afraid to confess the name of Christ, to then a few weeks later professing the name of Jesus Christ to those who murder him with hatred in their eyes. And so we see that truly Peter does become a new identity in Jesus. Being near Christ draws him, causes him to have a whole new identity of being a rock that is a stronghold of the truth that Jesus is Messiah.

And I think the point that we're getting at here is that whenever we spend time in the presence of Jesus, whenever we spend time near the Lord, when our belief propels us to be near to Jesus, he changes our very identity. He changes our very identity and he causes us to be a whole new creature. He causes us to have new desires. He causes us to have new hopes, new identity, new focus of which we desire the things of God.

We desire the very presence of the Lord We desire new and better things Isaiah 62 1 through 5 for Zion sake I will not keep silent For Jerusalem sake I will not be quiet until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a burning torch The nation shall see your righteousness and all the kings your glory and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give you. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed forsaken and your land shall no more be termed desolate, but you shall be called my delight is in her and your land married.

For the Lord delights in you and your land shall be merry. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you. And as a bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. And so what we see here is that Jesus changes the identity of his disciples. He changes the identity of you whenever you believe upon him and say, I want you, God.

I want the presence of the Lord. He changes who you are from the inside out. Now, of course, we see this with Peter being the rock, But of course, not everyone has a new name when they come to Christ. And so here we have the first disciples being called. And we must understand that John is teaching us what it means to have true belief upon this Christ and what true life looks like.

And so true belief is to go to Jesus because he can provide you a new identity and he can provide you the very presence of God wherever you shall go. To be near to him, to be near his teaching, to be near his word, to be near the Jesus Christ himself is to be near God. And this changes everything about your life. So this is what we have with the disciples.

And we'll see a similar thing playing out for the rest of the chapter with two other disciples, that this Jesus and what he provides is much better than anything that we could anticipate, much better than anything in the Old Testament. He truly is the longing of everyone's heart and the presence that we all long for. Let us pray. Oh God, thank you for Christ Jesus our Lord.

I thank you God that he does provide everything that we need we know Lord that this life is filled with longing and we feel it every day even now even being followers of Christ we could still feel that longing deep within our hearts but I pray Lord as those who have been taught by Jesus Christ we would see that that longing is meant to cause us to lean into Jesus more the disappointments the feeling that there's something missing or wrong it's supposed to cause us to go to Jesus who provides the very presence of God he's the one that provides things to be right that even in our suffering we can do it in the presence of God because of Christ Jesus and his accomplished work Lord he has done great things for us and so I pray that we would even look at the disciples and see what they did to see how they were enticed by the Lamb of God They did not close their ears to it, but instead they followed Jesus and see the very love of the Lamb to say, what are you seeking? And to see that he gives us everything that we truly need. So I pray that we would sit at the feet of Jesus and learn from him.

Whether it be preaching, teaching, whether it be reading the scriptures ourselves, we would see the teachings of Christ by his spirit, and we would see what we truly do need. We would see that our new identity is that we need the very words of God, we need the very presence of God we need him to be near to us and so that all that we go through we would say may we go through it close to the Lord and so may we Father look to what he did to die for sinners to rise again to new life and grab hold of that life indeed and know that this is the very end the very desires of all our hearts and may we find our comfort there we thank you and praise you for Jesus Christ our Lord it's in his name we pray Amen