John 1:35-51 “Looking to Jesus”

[0:00] You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama. Our passion is to experience and express grace. Join us.

[0:12] My name is Bill Herrett. I'm an associate pastor here at Southwood. I'm grateful to be with you this morning, looking at God's Word together. But this morning, before we get started, I want us to all take a walk down memory lane for a moment.

[0:28] And take just a second to think about the old fixer-upper type shows that we used to—maybe we still are.

[0:39] I'm currently not obsessed with many shows in general in my life stage. But the shows that often had the big reveal at the end where people were going to this house that they've chosen, and Chip and Joanna have changed it into their dream home.

[0:58] Whether—there was one in the 90s about cars that was kind of funny that I will not mention its name. There are tattoo shows where people reveal bad or good tattoos.

[1:12] There are wedding dress shows. The ones that always bothered me were the kids' room shows where they, like, would reveal this eight-year-old would have, like, hey, you know how you're super obsessed with the Red Power Ranger?

[1:23] Well, we've done this giant mosaic in your room. And all I could think was that eight-year-old will hate this in five years. He will hate the Red Power Ranger in five years because it's right there.

[1:34] But the idea of all these shows was that something at the end, after all this work was being done, after all this energy was expelled, that there'd be a big reveal at the end.

[1:45] And, you know, you have the people kind of going, you know, like they moved the two— I don't know what those things were in front of the house in Fixer Upper, where they'd move the two things in the family's face and be like, oh my! You know, like they would just freak out at the reveal.

[1:58] And I think what we see in our Scripture today is a big reveal about who Jesus is. A big reveal that ought to evoke some emotion from us, that ought to remind us of who our God is, who Jesus is, right?

[2:16] He's already been revealed, like, in a way through Will's sermon last week from John the Baptist, that the spotlight needs to shine on Jesus because that's the Lamb of God.

[2:26] And so we see a small picture of who Jesus is, not small in the fact that being the Lamb of God isn't a big deal. It's small in the fact that that doesn't encompass everything that Jesus is because he is so much more than just the Lamb of God.

[2:41] He is so many things to us as his people. And ultimately, this calling of the disciples in John chapter 1, it's about the theme verse that we are thinking about as we look through the entire book of John, however long that may take.

[3:01] It says this in John chapter 20, verse 31, it says, These things are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, that by believing you may have life in his name.

[3:18] And that's deeply important for us to remember that what is being revealed to us about Jesus in this passage is that it is a picture of who he is to us and how we are called to respond.

[3:36] And when Jesus calls this verse of our disciples, we're going to look at four distinct things that help us see Jesus for who he is. So let's read for a moment.

[3:46] If you want to turn into your Bibles to John chapter 1, we'll be reading from John chapter 1, verses 35 through 51. And if you'd love to follow along, it's page, thank you, 886 in the Pew Bibles.

[4:00] But I'm going to read for us God's word. Jesus calling the first disciples. The next day, again, John, John the Baptist, was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, Behold, the Lamb of God.

[4:16] 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?

[4:30] 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 heard John speak and follow Jesus.

[4:42] 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.

[4:55] He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which means Peter. Jesus calls Philip and Nathaniel.

[5:06] The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Philip.

[5:17] Philip found Nathaniel 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. Nathaniel said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

[5:31] Philip said to him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. Nathaniel said to him, How do you know me?

[5:41] Jesus answered him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathaniel answered him, Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel.

[5:52] 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.

[6:09] Let's pray. Father, would you reveal the truth of your word to us? May it not just be information for us today. May we see this scripture as a part of your whole story, the whole story of the scriptures.

[6:26] You are an errant and infallible word that speaks to us. And Lord, we pray that the Holy Spirit would do a work in us. Not so that we might be able to boast in ourselves, but so that we might see Jesus more clearly as we look at this passage.

[6:39] That we might love him more deeply and we might respond with the kind of passion and excitement and action that reminds us that this Jesus who saved us is the one who has the message of the gospel for all.

[6:55] And so Lord, we pray that you would use your word today, that we might be changed and made more like Jesus. That we might grow in our holiness and we might love you more deeply.

[7:05] We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So this morning, when Jesus in this story, when he calls his first disciples, our first point is to remind us about this word seeing or something like looking or seeing.

[7:21] And so when Jesus calls the first disciples, they see Jesus, right? So this is the reality of what this passage is trying to tell us is that there is a lot of language about seeing or looking.

[7:38] And usually when we have this kind of thing happening in our narratives or our stories, it means that we need to look for why this is so important. There's emphasis here.

[7:49] I don't know how many of you as parents know, not meant to aim this at children. How many of us have had to repeat ourselves in general anytime in your life? Like, right?

[7:59] We repeat ourselves. So you're trying and then you get to the point where they get more emphatic. And you're like, I said go clean up your room. You know, you get to the point and you've repeated yourself and over.

[8:11] And so John in this portion of his gospel, he is repeating over and over this idea of seeing or looking. And we've already seen it earlier in the chapter when John the Baptist says, behold the Lamb of God.

[8:26] And then the next day, same thing, right? He says, behold the Lamb of God. And over 10 times throughout this passage, we see emphasis on seeing.

[8:37] Whether it's behold, in verse 36. The two disciples heard him say this and they followed him. Jesus turned and saw them.

[8:48] And he said to them, what are you seeking? They said, Rabbi. And then he goes on and says, come. And he said to them, come and you will see. This is Jesus talking to the disciples. They came and they saw where he was staying. And so in this passage, we need to take serious this idea of seeing Jesus.

[9:03] And because we don't want to take the writer for just kind of casually making these remarks. But so that we might see Jesus truly. I'm thinking, I think of a biology teacher in high school who used to say things like, let me say that again.

[9:21] And like at the beginning of the year, he said, if I say, let me say that again. That means this will be on the test, right? Let me say that again so you hear me. And so this repetition of seeing is calling us to see Jesus for who he is.

[9:38] And so how did the disciples see Jesus? How did these first disciples see Jesus in this passage? Well, the first word we see is the word rabbi. And we see that they are calling Jesus rabbi.

[9:50] He's a teacher. But he's more than that because the word rabbi in this sense has carried some emphasis of meaning, meaning respect. And so Jesus is going to teach the disciples something.

[10:05] But if we just left it there, right? If we just left it at teacher, we would have just information from Jesus. If we just thought about my school teacher and I thought, oh, he's just a teacher like any teacher I've ever had.

[10:18] He would be just kind of a casual Israelite that we just like his sayings. He says good things and they might be something that help us along in our lives. But Jesus was more than a rabbi.

[10:30] He was a rabbi. But they saw something else. They saw Jesus as the Messiah. Right? Because we have them actually confessing this to be true.

[10:43] Right? It was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, we have found the Messiah. Messiah, which means Christ. They saw him as the promised anointed one.

[10:57] The one sent by God who was more than a prophet, more than a priest, more than the Israelites king. He was something sent by God himself, the anointed holy one of Israel.

[11:10] And so he wasn't just a teacher. He was something even more. He is unique. Right? He was sent by God himself. And so they see Jesus as this teacher, but they see him as the Christ when they have found him.

[11:26] Right? But they also, as they move on, they keep going. Then what do they see? So they see that he was the one that Moses in the law and the prophets spoke about. That Jesus isn't just someone with no credentials.

[11:40] Jesus isn't someone with no affirmation outside of him just saying it. But he is the one that all of scripture points us to. That the scriptures affirm, attest, point us so that all of us see, oh, this whole book is about him.

[12:00] This Messiah, he fulfills all the things that this book points us to. That he's the promised one that Moses talked about. He's the promised one that the prophets wrote about.

[12:13] They saw Jesus as something incredible in that he was the fulfillment of all these scriptures. And if you're a child and you've read the Jesus Storybook Bible, or if you're an adult who just likes it devotionally alongside some of your other readings, there's a line in that book that says, every story whispers his name.

[12:37] And so when we see this picture of what John is telling us in this story, we see that saying kind of coming to life in a different way. That all of the law, all of the prophets point us to Jesus.

[12:52] And that ought to change us a little bit. It ought to make us look to the scriptures in a different way. It ought to encourage us in a really beautiful way. That when we read these stories, when we read the scriptures, when we read the Old Testament narratives and the Psalms and the wisdom literature and the stories of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, all of the Old Testament, it's pointing us to Jesus.

[13:16] What an encouragement for us as Christians that we don't read a Bible that is dead, but a Bible that is living. It is the living word of God that points us to a living Savior in Jesus, the living Messiah, the one who rose from the dead.

[13:33] And again, this story isn't, you know, we can't, we're jumping all over the place in the storyline of Jesus, obviously. At this point, they haven't thought about his death or his resurrection yet. But we, from where we sit, we can see that when Jesus is interacting with these first disciples and they're saying, this is who Moses and the prophets talked about.

[13:54] We see this big picture of him, the one who would truly save us from our sin. And so we see Jesus as this teacher.

[14:04] We see Jesus as the one whom the scriptures affirm and the law and prophets point us to. But then, but then they saw something else, right? Something other, right?

[14:15] And you see this interaction in verses 43 through 51 from Nathanael, right? So the next day they go to Galilee, they found Philip and Philip is following him, right?

[14:26] And then Philip, right? He goes and he says to Nathanael, can any, and says, we found, we found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

[14:41] And Nathanael said to him this, which, you know, I'm, I'm trying not to say it with sarcasm because that's how it feels. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? And, and, and look what happens.

[14:54] Look what happens. They see him and Jesus saw Nathanael and he tells him, I saw you under the fig tree. And, and Nathanael is dumbfounded by this. And he says to him, what? He says, you rabbi, you are the son of God, the king of Israel.

[15:09] Right? He, he knew me. Philip affirms that Jesus knew me and saw me before I ever saw him. And so Jesus seeing Philip in this place long before they interact, he sees, he cries out, you are the king of Israel.

[15:30] Right? You are the one whom God has sent. You are the son of God. He, he reminds us that what he is seeing is not just a good teacher.

[15:42] And, and this is important because there are realities that we try and impose on Jesus. I, I know I do as a sinner. I know it may shock some of you for, for me to come up here and admit my sin before you, but it's reality.

[15:56] I am not a perfect person. I am a daily putting to death the sins that God has called me to put to death, that I am not yet made perfect and holy and right perfectly until I see Jesus in glory.

[16:11] And so I struggle against making Jesus in my own image. I, I struggle with making Jesus the Jesus I want to believe in. And I think that's why it's so important for us to see the emphasis on the words seeing, because we often will turn, you know, the old saying, turn a blind eye to certain things.

[16:32] We don't want to see Jesus for all of who he is. We want to see Jesus for what's comfortable for us, for how it feels good to me, how it makes my life convenient.

[16:43] Right? The, the classic one that we talk about a lot of times in our youth group setting is this idea of Jesus as a savior, but not Lord. Right?

[16:53] Jesus can be my savior and that's great. And I'm not, he's paid for my sins, but the rest of my life, you know what? I kind of pick and choose what I do. It doesn't really matter. But, but Jesus is calling us to all of ourselves, all of our lives to submit it unto him.

[17:08] And so we're not just able to pick and choose what Jesus is to us. We look to the scriptures that affirm who he is.

[17:19] And we, we turn to the Jesus who actually is the King, who actually is the Messiah, who actually is the rabbi, who actually is the one who teaches us.

[17:30] And so we look to that Jesus. We don't look to the Jesus that we form in our own minds. We look to the Jesus that we need, that the scriptures reveal to us.

[17:42] We need to stop looking through smudged or selective lenses. We need to look through the lens of scripture and see Jesus for who he is.

[17:58] And so the question that we, we have put at the end of this, at the end of this point is, what's the, where is it that the question after point one? Nope. Is it up there?

[18:08] We'll get it there in a second. This idea of how do you see Jesus, right? The disciples saw Jesus one way. How do you see Jesus? Are you someone like me who struggles with this idea of making Jesus in your own image?

[18:24] Or do you look to the scriptures, look to how he is revealed and trust in that Jesus? Because if we trust in the Jesus that we create, he will be a failure.

[18:37] The real Jesus will never be a failure. The Jesus of the scriptures, the perfect, holy, son of God, son of man, lamb of God, the one who is the Christ, the one who came, he will not fail us.

[18:51] The Jesus that we imagine and make ourselves, he will not be enough. The disciples go on and they don't just see Jesus, but they find Jesus.

[19:04] There's also this language of being found and finding in this passage that's really important for us. And so the disciples, when Jesus calls these first disciples, they find Jesus.

[19:15] They are found in Jesus. And so it's not just this idea of finding something like a treasure, but it's also this idea of being found in Jesus, right?

[19:28] And so think about this. We've all looked for something. We've all lost something. Whether it's, think about like maybe even the Where's Waldo books. Does anyone know about the Where's Waldo books?

[19:38] Everybody's kind of, this is a culturally normal thing to nod our heads about. That like there's a random dude in a picture that's very confusing and his name's Waldo and you find this one character. Okay. If you, kids, if you're under 10 and you do not know Where's Waldo, bother your parents till they get you to the library to look at some Where's Waldo books.

[19:57] This idea of finding something. So, so what, what we see in this is that the disciples were actually looking for something. They were actually looking for something.

[20:07] And what they found was, what was this Jesus who was this rabbi, but he was more. He was the Christ. He was the King of Israel. He was the one who would come and he's the anointed one from God.

[20:20] He's totally separate. He's the one promised through the scriptures. And what they found was their salvation in this one man. But he was more than just a man.

[20:31] He was God's anointed one. And so if we, we think on this, the reality is that we need to find ourselves in this Jesus.

[20:44] We, we, we are seeking something in our lives. All of us are to fill our, our voids, to fill ourselves. Right. We, if the first point was about, Hey, we make Jesus in our own image.

[20:56] Second, second might be that we, we saw our first struggle from the first point might be that we, you know, we make Jesus in our image. But our struggle with this one might be that like, we want to find something that will satisfy us.

[21:08] We're looking for something that will satisfy us. I think we all struggle with this longing, whether it's financial success, power, respect at work.

[21:19] There's something that we're looking for. A happy family, the white picket fence, the 2.5 children. I don't understand fractions. I don't know how that works. The puppy, whatever, whatever it may be, the thing that we're looking for, those will not satisfy.

[21:36] And the disciples here are showing us in who they have found that he will be our satisfaction. He will be enough. His yoke is light.

[21:50] He who the son sets free will be free indeed. There is life. And think again, look back to the verse from John 20. It's this, but this is written so you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, that by believing you may have life in his name.

[22:08] And I think that's so crucial for us to connect the dots here because the Jesus that they found was not just a good person. He was the one who gives life.

[22:18] And that he would achieve that eternal life for us through his death and his resurrection. We want our lives to be wrapped up in and found in Jesus more than anything else.

[22:35] Oftentimes, if you're familiar with our youth ministry, we call our youth ministry High Life for the high school kids and junior high life for the, and we can discuss the name later if you'd like.

[22:48] But the reality of it is that we want to make sure we're emphasizing that our life is found in Jesus. And it's rooted out of the passage in Ephesians chapter 2 that we might be found in him, that we've been saved by grace through faith.

[23:06] And somehow in this picture in Ephesians 2, this salvation that we have in Christ, that we have life in Christ, and we are wrapped up in him, and we have life eternal.

[23:18] And this life that we live in this world is not one that we live just, hey, I did this middle school and high school thing, and that was my youth group and my church experience. It's that we would be wrapped up in Jesus both now and through our 20s and our 30s and our 40s and our 50s until we meet Jesus.

[23:37] And so our aspirations for your children when we teach them the scriptures is not that they be surprising, well-behaved, nice little children. That's a good thing. God bless you if that's your life.

[23:48] But the reality is, is that we want the students of our youth ministry to know Jesus and to know life eternally in him. And so these disciples had found life.

[24:03] And they wanted to share it, right? They wanted to share it with others. And so this is our, do you find your identity in Jesus? That's why the question is this. Do you find yourself in Jesus?

[24:14] Do you find yourself distracted by the things of the world, the sins that you struggle against, the things that would lead you away from the beauty and the majesty and the glory of Jesus, the Son of God, the one who was sent for you so that you might have life and life abundant?

[24:30] Do you find your identity in other things? And the disciples found their identity in this and it was so compelling to them. It was so strong that they couldn't help but talk about it to other people.

[24:43] So these disciples, when they were called by Jesus, they actually ended up sharing what they found, right? They showed others Jesus. It wasn't like, hey, like think about where's Waldo?

[24:55] So how awful is it when you find Waldo and you point it out to someone else and you're like, dang, it's over. What? Why would you do that? Right? But this is different. This is the reverse. You want to show Waldo, right?

[25:06] You know, you want everybody, look, no, he's right here. And we want to make sure we are pointing people as God's people. We are to where we have found life. That's why our meditation was we're simply beggars showing other beggars where we found bread.

[25:21] I'm not claiming to have it all together. But I know that where I found life was in Jesus. And this is, I didn't learn that from anywhere but God's word showing me here, these disciples.

[25:35] They were experiencing God's grace in a way. And again, to kind of use our churches, the way we talk about grace here is to talk about how we experience grace and express grace.

[25:46] And what they're doing here in this particular instance involves evangelism and expressing grace and showing grace to others by what they're doing. And so they decide there's one who finds Jesus and he comes and he gets his brother and he says, come on, look, this is where we found life.

[26:02] And then another brings Nathaniel and he's like, look, this is where we found life. This is the one we found. Right? And what's even cooler is that, and again, I don't know if there's like a huge connection.

[26:13] I couldn't find much as I studied it this week. But think about what John the Baptist and think about what, if you were here last week, what Will preached about, about how John says, be the spotlight person.

[26:24] Right? You know, you're not the center of the stage, but be the spotlight person. And then you get these disciples of John the Baptist who are like, no, this is where we found him. Look, John showed me and I'm showing you.

[26:35] And there's this reality of what's happening in this narrative to show us that, hey, this, oh, the Lamb of God. Okay, let me go check that out. Oh, what? He's true.

[26:45] It's true. Look right here. This is where it is. This is where we found life. It's over here. Don't look the other way. Look here. Let me shine my light this way.

[26:56] And so the disciples, Andrew goes and gets Peter. Philip goes and gets Nathaniel. And these disciples point others to Jesus.

[27:07] And so in this calling of the first disciples, they showed other people Jesus. And ultimately, we're called to show other people Jesus. And I heard a pastor talk about this.

[27:18] Here's the reality. This is not meant to be a sermon to beat you up and tell you to just be better at evangelizing. And tell people about Jesus. This is a sermon that points to the greatness of Jesus, I hope, more than anything else.

[27:33] About how he is the one. About how he is the Christ. About how he is the Savior. About how he will restore our relationship with the living God.

[27:45] Give you an example of something that I don't. It's. There was a time a few years ago that I went on vacation with my family down to the coast of South Carolina.

[27:59] I'm from South Carolina. I've never been more glad to not make my sermon football themed as I am right now. If you're familiar with what happened last night with my team.

[28:12] But I grew up on South Carolina. And we went together as a family to the beach. And if you're not familiar with certain beaches in South Carolina, you can find shark's teeth.

[28:22] I don't know if that's true everywhere on the East Coast. But you can find shark's teeth kind of just in the sand and in the, on, you know, right there in the water. And it's a very cool thing. And grew up doing it in small little beaches across on the coast.

[28:34] And I cannot tell you, like, years. Like, I have, like, jars of shark's teeth, right? It's fine. It's very cool. Whatever. But that particular one, something changed.

[28:48] Because I turned around and my sister reached down and picked up something I had never seen. And she picked up what is either a Native American spearhead or an arrowhead.

[29:01] Just right there. It just had washed up and been uncovered. And to tell y'all I lost my mind for a moment. And started telling every random person on the beach that walked by.

[29:12] Like, my sister just found an arrowhead. And I just became this crazy person that couldn't stop talking about this random thing that my sister had found. Like, everybody finds shark's teeth.

[29:23] But my sister just found, look what she found. And I got to be this weird, and my sister was like, kind of, you know, she's like one of those people whose eyes got big and said, please don't make me say my name. You know, she was embarrassed that I was doing this, I'm sure.

[29:39] But this reality of how compelling this moment was for me. How compelling this find on the beach was.

[29:50] And I couldn't help but tell people about it. And so our question for all of us is this Jesus that they showed to others, is he compelling to you?

[30:02] The one whom you have found life. And if that's not true of you, that's okay. If you're here and you're trying to figure out who Jesus is, and this is the first time. Or maybe one of many times you tried to figure out a church.

[30:14] And, you know, you come with a friend or something. That's okay. But I would ask you to investigate that Jesus. I would ask you to ask your friends about that Jesus.

[30:25] Because he is compelling. He is worth every moment of conversation that we can have about him. And so my question is, have you found your life in him?

[30:41] And then finally, to kind of wrap up here, the disciples in this last point is that when they were called, Jesus kind of gives Nathaniel this picture of his glory.

[30:52] Right? The glory of God. And how Jesus is not just a good teacher or a nice guy or a revolutionary or whatever you've created him to be. He is sent by God for his people.

[31:07] And it affirms, it's a confirmation of who Jesus is to these disciples. He said to them, truly, truly, I say to you here in the last verse 51, it says, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

[31:24] And they were given this picture of something even more than what they've experienced in this moment with Jesus, in this day with Jesus. The first, literally, couple of days with Jesus.

[31:35] The first disciples, the first members of Jesus' church. They're saying there's something more. There's something more.

[31:45] This is a reminder of a picture of who Jesus is. He is not just some sort of, this means the church is not just some sort of club or, you know, meeting place, but it's something where God is at work.

[32:00] It's a confirmation, a reminder that through this Jesus, we will be connected to the very holy and very perfect God of the universe. Because Jesus will bring us to him.

[32:11] Because we've been clothed and connected and made whole by Jesus. It's a reminder that there's something bigger that God is going to reveal in his kingdom that we get to see.

[32:25] It's the glory of God in his presence. It's a restored relationship with God in all its perfection. It's the way we were meant to be in relationship with God. And so Jesus, in this moment, pulls us in to this picture and said, there is something yet more.

[32:47] And so this glory reminds us that there is something more. So when Jesus talks about his kingdom in the gospels, when Jesus talks about who he is, it's not just here that we're seeing it, but it's even more and it's all the earth.

[33:02] And it's how this God who's king over all the universe, the king of Israel is more than just the king of Israel. He's the God who rules over everything. And so you and I get this small picture in just this one verse about how God is revealing a greater kingdom than we'll ever understand.

[33:23] And that includes his love and care and intimate fellowship with his people here in this place and churches that are meeting right now across the country and in the world. And that's a reminder that we are not the only church, that we belong to something bigger.

[33:41] We belong to God's people who will all, the big C church, be a part of this. If you, as we close today, I want us to look to Acts chapter four.

[33:53] If you have your Bible, you can, I didn't tell them to, tell them to have this up here or, but I want to, I want to close with this picture right here.

[34:05] And it's my, it's my prayer for myself. And we talked about it last year, a lot with our summer interns and our, our staff, not sorry, our youth staff.

[34:17] And just this idea that we might be compelled by Jesus, that we, that we might be moved. So in Acts chapter four, strangely enough, who are these characters that are brought before the council?

[34:33] Peter and John, right? Here we go, Peter and John. And in this chapter of John that we're reading, and when it says in verse 35, it says next day John was standing with two of his disciples.

[34:49] And he looked and Jesus, as he walked by, he said, behold, the two disciples heard this. One of these two disciples can be presumed to be John. There's not, there's no one's never named, but we can presume perhaps it would be John.

[35:02] And these two first disciples that follow Jesus, here's what they end up saying when they're brought before the council in Jerusalem for being people that are causing disruption and being people that are pointing people to Jesus.

[35:18] They're saying things like, this Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders who have become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else. There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

[35:33] And when they're brought to trial and they called them in and they said, basically the council decides, hey, listen, in verse 18, chapter four, verse 18, it says, so they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

[35:47] And here was their response. This is how compelling they think Jesus is. They believe him to be the Messiah. They say, but Peter and John answered them, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.

[36:07] We cannot help but speak about this Jesus who we have seen and we have heard. And my prayer is that we would be so compelled by who Jesus is that we would be people, whether it's in our neighborhoods, whether it's in our lives at school, whether it's in our classrooms, if you're a student, whether it's at your job, wherever God has called you, that we might be people so compelled with who this Jesus that we see, that we found, that we cannot help but speak about him and the glory that he has revealed to us.

[36:43] Let's pray. Father, we're grateful for your word. Lord, we pray that you would help us, help us to see just the overwhelming beauty of Jesus, the goodness of Jesus, the power of Jesus, how he is at work in our lives.

[37:02] Lord, we pray that we catch a fresh vision. If we were struggling with this, Lord, help me personally to catch a fresh vision of Jesus who is more than enough.

[37:13] Lord, who is more than what the world might make him to be, but Lord, how your scriptures reveal him to be. Help me to cling to that. May we all cling to that, Jesus, the one who is our savior, the one who is our Lord, the one who is the Christ, the son of God, our great king.

[37:34] Lord, we pray that you be with us today as we continue to worship. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. For more information, visit us online at southwood.org.