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heaven and hands

Bible Study, John Chapter 1 Verses 34-39

John 1:34 – And I saw, and bare (testified) record that this is the Son of God. 

John tells them, I saw the Spirit descend upon Him, and heard God say this is My beloved Son, I bare record of what I saw and heard.

For the confirming of his testimony concerning Jesus, he vouches for the extraordinary appearance at His baptism, in which God Himself bore witness to Him. John the Baptist attested it,  he made an affidavit of it. “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven”. John couldn’t see the Spirit, but he saw the dove which was a sign and representation of the Spirit. The conclusion of John’s  testimony  was that he bore record of what he saw. John’s job was to point people to Jesus, the Messiah for whom they were looking for His coming, and he could confirm the truth of Jesus being the Son of God by the sign the Father had given him.

praise God

John 1:35 – Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples. 

He repeated the same testimony which he had given  the day before. One of the two disciples of John the Baptist was Andrew.  Andrew was a native of Bethsaida on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, but during the ministry of Jesus he, like his brother Simon Peter, worked as a fisherman out of Capernaum. The other disciple is not mentioned but was probably John, the author of this Gospel.

John 1:36 – And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! 

John introducing his disciples to the Son of God by the name “Lamb of God’. The lamb was used for sacrifice in the Passover (And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt – Exodus 12:13). A lamb was also used for the sin offering (If the priest that is anointed do sin, according to the sin of the people then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the Lord for a sin offering – Leviticus 4:3). Not all sins were equally, the sin offerings were of different kinds, according to the rank and responsibility of the offender. The priest that was anointed who sinned, they would have to bring a young bullock without blemish which was the same for the whole congregation. A ruler was to bring a kid of the goats and one of the common people was to bring a kid or lamb. This ritual would have to be done every time a sin was committed, but when Jesus came as the Lamb of God, He sacrificed Himself for the sins of humanity. When He took the sin of the humanity of upon Himself, He  didn’t have to repeat the sacrifice, it was finished to eternity.

John 1:37  – And the two disciples heard Him speak, and they followed Jesus. 

John intentions were for his disciples to hear the Son of God speak, therefore, turning them over to Jesus. He was willing to  turn them over to Jesus, he didn’t feel as though he was losing them, but giving them to the Son of God and allowing Him to equip them for their ministry. Although John was anointed, he couldn’t do for them what Jesus was going to do. They heard John speak of Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world, and this made them follow Him.

John 1:38 – Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say being interpreted, Master), where dwellest thou?  

The two disciples reverence Him as Master, and inquired where was He dwelling.

Jesus took noticed of them following Him, He didn’t  wait for them to say something first, but He spoke first, by giving them an invitation to get acquainted with Him. When the two disciples began to follow Jesus, He asked them “What seek ye”. He wanted to know what were their motives for following Him. To follow Christ for our own purpose is asking Christ to follow us, to align with us, to build our cause and not His. We must examine our motives for following Him, are we seeking His glory or ours? Many seek Him for what He can do for them rather than what they can do for Him.

John 1:39 – He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him that day: for it was about the tenth hour. 

This was ten o’clock in the morning. John used Roman time, not Jewish time. Their modest inquiry concerning His place of resident, and calling him Rabbi indicated they were following Him for the right motives. Rabbi signifies a master, a teaching master. They came to Christ to be His scholars. In asking Him where He lived, was an indication they wanted to get better acquainted with Him. They wanted to spend time in His presence, and today’s Christian should have the same desire to spend time with Him and get better acquainted with Him through reading His biography. Reading and studying the Bible gives us information about the character of Jesus, His behavior, His motives and His suffering for our sins. It gives us the instructions of His Father for the believer to live as a Christian.

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