The First Disciples
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2020 · 12 July 2020
This is on the surface a narrative portion of Scripture, as John tells the story of Jesus from His own perspective. This is a simple account of Jesus collecting His first followers. He starts out with the testimony of John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets. And John points to Jesus and says, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
True believing Jews knew they were sinners. John’s was a ministry of repentance. His baptism was a baptism of repentance. Now, he is confronting a nation of self-righteous people who don’t think they need to repent and don’t think they need a Savior. That was the view of the religious establishment. They were not looking for a lamb, or a sacrifice, or a savior, they were looking for a king.
They felt they had already achieved status and acceptance with God by their religiosity and their morality. But John’s message was, you are no better than Gentiles. You need to repent and you need to be baptized as an outward expression of the desire for an inward cleansing. In other words, you’re also outsiders, you need to repent or the wrath of God is going to fall on you.
So here in verses 38 to 51, we meet a small group of Jews who were believers in the Old Testament and had a true interpretation of the Old Testament that had truly changed their lives, represented by the words of our Lord, verse 47, “Behold, a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” A real believer. So here is a little group: Andrew, Peter, Philip, Nathanael and John.
We can add James and Thomas. Here are seven Galilean fishermen who give testimony. They start out to be the core of the disciples of Jesus, who then become the apostles of Christ. It’s amazing how the Lord chooses these insignificant people. Jesus can take five guys who know each other, that make their living catching fish, and He can transform them into world changers.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:26 said, “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.” The Lord has called the lowly and the nobodies and the insignificant. The seed that’s planted is John the Baptist; he’s like the first witness to Jesus. And then there is this group that is alien to the religious establishment.
The truth of the gospel spreads in every generation since that first belief, through humble weak and meek people. That’s how Christianity always grew, person to person to person; the kingdom advances one soul at a time. Sure there are preachers who preach to groups, but the primary way the kingdom moves is from one person to another, to another, and that’s how it all started.
Now the challenge for them was immense. They were nobodies when they give testimony to the fact that they were declaring Jesus to be the Messiah. Jesus who Himself also appeared like a nobody, the son of Joseph from Nazareth. And all the Jews in Judea looked down on Galilee and the people in Galilee looked down on Nazareth. So God starts this with humble beginnings.
As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1, the advance of the gospel cannot be attributed to the power of the people. It can only be attributed to the power of God. And so, if you’re going to boast, boast in the Lord because it’s by His doing that you’re in Christ. The Lord refused to acknowledge the Jewish religious establishment. All of them resented Jesus, rebelled against His message, which led to His execution.
Jesus begins now to gather His followers, and John the Baptist fades out of the picture and makes one small appearance in John 3. But now the story turns to Christ and He takes center stage. As we look at verses 38 to 51, we’ll split this into two groups. The first focuses on Andrew and Peter; the second focuses on Philip and Nathanael. We’re still in Bethany, beyond the Jordan.
On day one he said, “The Messiah is present. He has come.” On day two he said, “There He is, behold the Lamb of God!” On day three he says, “Follow Him,” and he turns his disciples from him to follow Christ. So in verse 37, the two disciples, namely Andrew and John, heard him speak and at the urging of John the Baptist, they followed Jesus. And that’s where we pick up the story.
So this is the third day in John’s chronology and he also makes the declaration in the end of verse 39 that it was the tenth hour. Verse 38, “Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, ‘What do you seek?’ Now keep in mind that there are two of them here, and in verse 41, one of them was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. The other one is unnamed, but that’s a good indication that it was John.
So Jesus says, “What do you seek?” What’s your motivation? What are you looking for? They knew John the Baptist had identified Jesus as the Messiah. He had identified Jesus as the Lamb of God rather than the reigning King. He was a king but initially He comes as a lamb; He comes as a sacrifice for sin. So they believed John’s message of judgment and need for salvation.
Now John has been preaching for months. He didn’t just say “Behold the Lamb of God.” He gave a full explanation of the identity of Jesus Christ as the Lamb, connected with the Old Testament sacrificial system, so that they knew exactly what His coming as a Lamb meant. These are men who believed that message and had come to repent and to receive the One who would be the sacrifice.
They answered the question, “What do you seek?” with, “Rabbi.” Rabbi was a common expression where students gave honor and respect to their teacher. “Where are You staying?” We need to go where you are and we need to sit down with you, we want to have a conversation with you. And so now they have transitioned from John as their teacher to Jesus as their teacher.
Now they’re not made permanent disciples on this day. They’re just beginning to learn who Jesus is. Later on they will become permanent followers and later after that they will become apostles and be sent to preach the gospel. The Lord’s invitation is immediate. Verse 39, “He said to them, ‘Come, and see.” This shows the accessibility, the availability of our Lord Jesus.
So they came and saw where He was staying. We don’t know where, verse 39 continues, “And they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.” By Jewish time that would be four o’clock in the afternoon when they finally go to where Jesus is. So they’re in a conversation with the Son of God. This must have gone on through the night. This would have been in January, when the days are short.
That’s a conversation that I would have loved to have been a part of. Verse 40 simply notes that the two of them who had heard John the Baptist speak and followed him, one of them was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. And by the time John writes his gospel, it would have been at the end of the first century. Peter would have been well-known but there wasn’t a lot written about Andrew.
However, Andrew is the first disciple called. Andrew is called to conviction that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. Verse 41, “So he finds, his own brother Simon.” which meant that they may have been followers of John the Baptist as well, because, they’re not in Galilee where they live, they’re down in the south, across the Jordan River. Verse 41 continues, “He finds Simon and says to him, “We have found the Messiah.”
Now the word Messiah in Hebrew matters a lot to John, which translated into the Greek is “Christ.” It means “the Anointed One.” Here is a reliable first-person testimony. “We have found the Messiah.” No hesitation, no doubt, with absolute certainty: “We have found the Messiah.” Verse 42, “And he brought Simon Peter to Jesus.” That’s how God’s kingdom advances, by one bringing another.
So here comes Andrew dragging Peter to Jesus. Jesus looked at Peter and continues in verse 42, “You are Simon son of Jonah.” That must have shocked Peter. More than that, Jesus knows who he will become. He continues in verse 42, “you shall be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).” “Cephas” is the Aramaic word, “Peter” is the Greek form of the word rock.
Our Lord is predicting what Peter will become. And the rock is Peter’s confession in Matthew 16:16, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” on that rock I will build My church.” The Lord says, “I not only know you, but prophetically I know that you will become a rock. And he was from the day that the Holy Spirit came, on the Day of Pentecost, he preached Jesus Christ.
Verses 43 to 51 describes the second group. Verse 43, “The next day.” This will be day four, “Jesus wanted to go to Galilee.” You could walk that in a good portion of the day, approximately less than twenty miles. “And He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” Verse 44, “Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.” Bethsaida is a small fishing village on the Sea of Galilee.
They were all from the same village. Later on, we know that Peter moved to Capernaum because that’s what we’re told in Mark 1:21 to 29. So we meet two men who know Peter and Andrew. So Jesus comes to Philip and says, “Follow Me.” That’s a statement that Jesus makes again and again. And whatever happened between the time Philip followed and verse 45 must have been amazing.
Because in verse 45 Philip found Nathanael and said, “We found Him of whom Moses and the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” It doesn’t even tell us the conversation, but the conclusion is enough. First Andrew says we found the Messiah. Now Philip says, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Jesus was explaining to them how He was the Messiah, the fulfillment of everything the Old Testament said. So here is the second testimony of Andrew, “We have found the Messiah,” based on his eyewitness time with the Lord Jesus. You have the testimony of Philip, who has spent time with Jesus and compared Him with the Law and the Prophets. And amazingly, it is “Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Nazareth was an ignored town, and Joseph was an absolutely nobody. He is the son of Joseph by family identity, although He is the Son of God by birth, right? Virgin born, Matthew 1; the Son of the Most High, Luke 1:32. And He comes from Nazareth. That doesn’t seem to work. We’re not surprised then when Nathanael says in verse 46, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Philip said to him, “Come and see.” John gives us the testimony of eyewitnesses who met with Jesus, and asked all their questions based on the Old Testament promises, and came to the conclusion that He is the Messiah, He is the Son of God, He is the One prophesied. Verse 47 continued, “Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him and said to him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit.”
Paul says in Romans 2:29, a true Jew is one who is a Jew inwardly, a true believer in the true God, a saved man in Old Testament terms, a penitent believer in the true God in whom there is no deceit, no hypocrisy, and no phoniness. Does that mean he was perfect? No, but he had been made acceptable to God by his faith. And he was the real thing. Here is Jesus is reading his spiritual condition supernaturally.
Nathanael’s response is obvious in verse 48, “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.” I not only know you on the inside, I know you on the outside. I not only know who you are, I know where you are. I can see your heart and I can see your body. Wow! Jesus saw him there without seeing him physically. That’s omniscience.
And in the time that they head toward Jesus, further explanation comes, which is confirmed by the omniscience of Christ who knows who he is and knows where he is. Verse 49, “Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.” Son of God means the same nature as God. That’s a Hebraism. What he’s saying is You are God the Son.
Verse 50 says, “Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” So what did the Lord mean by that? The rest of the time that you follow Me, I will show you miracle upon miracle. Verse 51, “And He said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
They would have known Genesis 28:12 where Jacob dreamed that a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. Jesus lived His life according to the will of the Father by the Holy Spirit, mediated by angels. It was angels that announced to Zacharias that the forerunner would be born. It was angels that spoke to Mary and Joseph.
It was a chorus of angels that announced the birth of Christ to the shepherds. It was angels who in Matthew 4:11 ministered to Jesus at the end of His temptation. It is angels that are at the tomb. It is angels that surround Him in His ascension. Jesus does what He does by the will of the Father through the power of the Spirit by the means of angels. And that is still happening today. Let us pray.