John pt. 7 | John 1:35-51

again it is good to stand before you this morning if you will please turn to your

Bibles turn in your Bibles excuse me it's the gospel of John chapter 1 we will consider verses 35 through 51 the gospel of John chapter 1 verses 35 to 51 let me pray

Oh God the God of Abraham God of Isaac the

God of Jacob God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ we come to you and ask that you would please in this moment speak to us from your word through this vessel that stands before your people this day help us to ear here with our ears to see with our eyes and to believe with our heart your word this day in Jesus name

Amen all right so our theme for this

Lord's Day is the testimony of two or three this first chapter of this glorious gospel is focused on the witness of Jesus Christ right that's what we've been seeing it's it's the witness of Jesus Christ it is said if you want to know who

Jesus is read the gospel of John the writer of this gospel tells us in chapter 20 verse 31 it says this but these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the

Christ the Son of the Living God and that by believing you may have life in his name why was this book written so that we may know that Jesus is the

Christ of the long awaited Messiah the Son of God and that when we believe we have life and this life that we have in him it's through his name this book is a witness of Jesus chapter 1 has been a witness of who

Jesus is he is the word the logos right we saw that chapter 1 verses 1 through 2 in the beginning was the word this is this

Greek word logos logos logos however you want to pronounce it and this word was with God and this word was

God we saw that when you break that down in the Greek it says that God is the word the word was in the beginning it was with God and it was

God you saw that this word is the creator of all things verse 3 all things were made through him speaking of the word and without him was not anything made that was made him being the word that was in the beginning with God and was

God is the creator of all things and that that this creator of all things this word the creator enters into creation look at verse 14 and the word the logos became flesh and it dwelt among us and we have seen his glory remember

John 1st John he says we have seen him we've looked upon him we we've touched him we have seen his glory glory as of the only

Son from the Father full of grace and truth so if you want to know who

Jesus is then this gospel the gospel that we're gonna be walking through I don't know how long it's gonna take us right this is our seventh message so far this is the gospel that will answer your questions of who is

Jesus and in our outline we will see the witness of Jesus by others we broke down the witness of Jesus by prophet the prophet last week and we'll touch just a little bit on it today so the witness of Jesus by others is the witness of John the

Baptist the witness of Andrew the witness of Philip the witness of Nathanael and the witness of Scripture so point number one the witness of John the

Baptist point number two the witness of Andrew point number three the witness of Philip point number four the witness of Nathanael and point number five the witness of Scripture and I know that sometimes it takes me a whole message to get through a point not so today some of these points will go real quick so and don't let the five points scare you so as we transition excuse me as we transition it was only by the statement of two or three witnesses that a verdict can be made in a case

Deuteronomy tells us in order to put someone to death it had to be on the evidence of two or three witnesses and first Timothy chapter 5

Timothy is told that he is not to receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses if someone was to accuse an elder of a church of something if it was just one person

Timothy was not to receive that it was had to be on the evidence of two or three witnesses of course today the two or three witnesses can be more than just two or three people right you can have someone who has done something he is believed to have done something and the evidence could be a video of him doing something that's a second witness you were not to receive an accusation on an elder except for on the basis of two or three witnesses and in the letter of 2nd

Corinthians that this is the letter of 2nd Corinthians is

Paul's third witness against the Church of Corinth real quickly

I'm gonna read chapter 13 of 1st Corinthians look at verses 1 through 5 if you would put your finger in the

Gospel of John and turn there I just want you to see this Paul writes he says this is the third time

I am coming to you every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses

I warn those who sinned before and all the others and I warn them now and while absent as I did when present on my second visit that if I come again

I will not spare them sounds like he's a little fed up right since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me he is not weak and dealing with you but it's powerful among you for he was crucified in weakness but he lives by the power of God for we also are weak in him but in dealing with you we will live with you by the power of God listen verse 5 examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith test yourselves or do you not realize this about yourself that Christ Jesus is in you unless indeed you fell to meet the test this church the

Church of Corinth they were doubting the apostleship of Paul they were doubting that he was a true apostle and Paul Paul saying you're doubting me examine yourselves examine yourselves

I planted this church and you're doubting me examine yourselves because if Paul is not a true apostle then the

Church of Corinth is not a true church you're doubting me examine yourselves and he tells him how to know if he's a true apostle and it's that if Jesus Christ is living in them everything was to be established on the evidence of two or three witnesses let's go to our first point the witness of John the

Baptist we see this in the Gospel of John verse 35 chapter 135 and 36 before we read that I want you to notice it says it says the next day so verse 35 it begins with the next day what we have here is a four day period right the first day is from 19 to 28 the second day begins in verse 29 look 29 the next day the third day from 35 to 42 again 35 begins with the next day and the fourth day begins at verse 43 if you look at verse 43 it says the next day so what we're looking at here is a period of four days and so just understand that when whenever we whenever we started with John preaching when the

Pharisees and the Sadducees were coming to him it was day one when

John sees Jesus coming day two and we begin right here with day three verses 35 to 36 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 this is John's second time saying this statement we see that in verse 29 verse 29 speaking of the second day it says the next day he saw

Jesus coming toward him and he said behold the Lamb of God he he he kind of elaborates more on he says who takes away the sin of the world

John's witness of Jesus is that he is the Lamb of God this is speaking about the

Paschal Lamb the the Passover this this Jewish feast that they would celebrate year after year where they would slaughter a lamb and and they would put the blood on the doorpost and on the lentil and this was this was something that they did to celebrate a day that took place whenever Israel was enslaved to Egypt this was the the plague of the death of the firstborn and so what they were doing year after year year after year they were reenacting we looked at this last week there was reenacting this event as a celebration and John sees

Jesus and he says look reenacting is over we no longer have to apply the blood on the doorpost and on the lentil because behold the

Lamb of God has come and he's pointing to Jesus that's what he's doing here when he's with his disciples he's with his disciples and he says that's him that guy that you see walking that that's him that's the one he is the one that's the guy he's the one who takes away the sins of the world when these people came questioning me and asking me was

I the one and I said no I'm not the one but he who comes after me who is martyred and I who sandals

I'm unworthy to carry he who baptizes with Holy Spirit and fire that's him that's him point number two the witness of Andrew this takes place in verses 37 through 42 and what we have here in our text is two disciples of John who heard

John the Baptist say that Jesus was the lamb who takes away the sins of the world

John in one sense is saying to his disciples why are you still following me follow him follow him he must increase

I must decrease right I'm not the one he's the one why are you still here follow him we have two disciples here of John one of them is named

Andrew it gives us his name here and we'll see that in our our third point I believe it is who becomes a follower a disciple of Jesus Christ this is one of his disciples this is

Peter's brother and then the other one is unnamed which leads me to believe that it leads me and as well as theologians to believe that it's speaking about John the son of Zebedee the author of this book the disciple the

Apostle John John does not call himself out by name in this book but remember our first message we walked through and was trying to figure out who it was that wrote this gospel and over and over he called himself the beloved disciple the disciple whom

Jesus loved that's how he spoke of himself so he doesn't necessarily come out and speak of his name being

John or John the son of Zebedee but it's the disciple that Jesus loved other than that whenever it is mentioned is does not have a name the first witness of Jesus from these two disciples is that he is a rabbi which our text tells us means teacher so listen before they ever heard

Jesus speak before they ever heard him teach they called him a teacher he is a teacher they've never heard him speak they never heard him teach and yet they understood him to be a rabbi a teacher and at this time in order to follow a rabbi you had to have their permission right rabbis do not approach people and say follow me you would have to approach a rabbi and ask permission to follow him and a rabbi would test their knowledge through the

Tanakh before making a decision of allowing someone to follow him the

Tanakh is an acronym derived from the three divisions of the Hebrew Bible which we have the

Torah the Nehiv the Neviv excuse me and the Ketuviv so the

Torah is the law the Neviv is the prophets and the

Ketuviv is the writings so those are the three divisions of the

Hebrew Bible and what they were to do is is from my understanding of Jewish culture in order to follow a rabbi you had to memorize all of the

Torah the first five books word for word all right anyone want to give that a shot right any volunteers here anyone got that down you had to memorize word for word the

Torah now if I asked him like my daughter can name off the books of the

Bible she's got a little rap song that she does right but just imagine you had to memorize word for word the

Torah thank you I was getting in my eyes but you also had her memorize the 300 and something prophecies of the coming

Messiah that was in the Torah the net of the Naveen and the Ketuvim so you had to memorize the five books and all the prophecies of the coming

Messiah and once you were able to do that you could ask a rabbi permission can

I follow you and he would test you by asking you questions in other words you had to be the best of the best you had to be the best of the best the idea that Jesus's disciples were fishermen and tax collectors shows that they were not the best of the best but common

Jews at best common folk like you and I they were not the best of the best look with me at the text 37 through 39 the two disciples heard him speaking of John talking about Jesus being the

Lamb of God heard him say this and they followed Jesus Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them what are you seeking and they said to him rabbi which means teacher where are you staying and he said to them come and you will see so they came and saw where he was staying and he stayed with them that day for it was about the 10th hour the 10th hour in Jerusalem was from 4 p .m.

to 5 p .m. the 11th hour which was from 5 p .m. to 6 p .m.

was their afternoon liturgical service which concluded the end of the day with the burning of the incense sacrifices of the two lambs which embraced the burning of the incense making it a single sacrifice and that and that the priests would then read the benediction given from number 624 through 26 which you should know this really well the

Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you the

Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace the same benediction that we end our service with the 12th hour was from 6 p .m.

to sundown which began a new day Jewish time and our time is different so their new day would begin at sundown go all the way back to Genesis there was evening first then morning the first day so a day to them would be a blending of two of a two days to us we see morning to noon as our day

I mean our morning till bedtime as our day that's how we would view it but they would see it different when night fell nightfall came it was the beginning of a new day which will learn a lot more about that and we get the chapter 3 to find out why

Nicodemus visited Jesus at night now by understanding the time indicators we can conclude that Jesus and these two disciples did not join in the afternoon liturgical service they were walking to where Jesus was staying these two disciples understood that there was something more important taking place there's something more important happening right now than this liturgical service because they heard

John the Baptist say that's him that's the guy it's the one who takes away the sin of the world they left

John seeking Jesus remember the seek the

Lord your God with all your heart right like that's what we're called today we're to seek the kingdom of God as believers we are to seek holiness there's things in our lives that we are to seek and this is that these two disciples were seeking

Jesus isn't that where we're supposed to be right we hear the gospel we hear that he's the lamb we hear that he's the one who takes away the sins and we are to seek him and that's exactly what we see here taking place in the text and they wanted to know where he was staying in verse look at verse 40 through 42 40 through 42 so before I read this this tells us what happens on their way as they're following Jesus something else happens one of one of the two heard

John speaking and follow Jesus was Andrew so now it's introducing us to Andrew I spoke about him earlier

Simon Peter's brother he found his own brother Simon and said to him we have found the

Messiah which means Christ and 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 so here in verse 41

Andrew gives another witness and this witness that he gives he gives it to his brother he tells

Peter we have found the Messiah which means

Christ and later we like well not in the Gospel of John but in the

Gospel of Matthew Peter John I mean excuse me Jesus asks his disciples who men say that I am

Peter says you are the Christ the Son of the Living God Jesus responds by saying blessed are you

Simon son of John or Simon son of Jonah for man has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven he's told here that he they have found the

Messiah they have found the Christ but God himself has revealed him to you like I can stand before you today and I'm preaching to you say someone's in the congregation and they're lost when

I'm out street preaching and we're not we're door knocking and they're lost and I can reveal to them that Jesus is the

Son of God I'm telling them something but God is the one who reveals it to him who tells them that it's true they have found the

Messiah and as we transition John the Baptist was not the Messiah and he said he was not the

Messiah but John the Baptist pointed them to the Messiah when he says behold the

Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world let's look at our third witness point number three the witness of Philip we see this in verses 43 through 46 43 through 46 again this begins day 4 verse 43 the next day

Jesus decided to go to Galilee and he found

Philip and he said to him follow me remember rabbis at this time were not going around asking people to follow them you had to memorize the

Torah know the 300 and something prophecies of the Messiah and then you would ask

Jesus is flipping the Jewish culture upside down by saying those two words follow me he's not doing things the way that everyone else is doing him he's not acting in court of other rabbis he's doing something different we have here that he leaves where he was staying and he goes and he finds

Philip and he says to him Philip follow me I wonder if Philip knew the

Torah I wonder if Philip understood and knew the 300 something prophecies of the coming

Messiah I would say that he didn't let's finish reading through 46 verse 44 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 and the law and also our prop the prophets wrote

Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph him of whom

Moses wrote about in the law we looked at this what was it two weeks ago this being the

Prophet the Prophet that Moses spoke about after the

Lord comes down descending upon a mountain a mountain covered with smoke with fire and the

Israelite people were terrified please tell him to stop speaking to us we cannot endure his voice and God tells them that he's going to send them another voice a prophet that's going to be from among them and that when he comes they are to listen to him or else we saw a couple weeks ago that this is speaking about Jesus and Philip's witness to Nathanael is that we found him he's here it's the one that we were supposed to listen the one that Moses said was coming he was gonna be born among us he's here

I mean he's here Andrew he's here we have found him he's here celebrate with us and also of whom the prophets that the coming one of whom the prophets spoke about remember all the prophets they spoke about someone coming who was going to redeem them and as we transition look at verse 46 again says

Nathanael said can anything good come out of Nazareth Philip said to him come and see

Nazareth at this time was you could say a lower class of people my old pastor when he was preaching through the book of Matthew and every time he would say

Nazareth he would spit oh people of Nazareth he said that's what it was common for people at that time to do that because Nazareth was looked at as as a bad neighborhood right oh

I don't want to go to Nazareth them people are nasty them people are just thugs right for using common language whenever they would say

Nazareth they would spit meaning that they cared nothing about the

Nazarene people and he says can anything good come out of Nazareth and just imagine him spitting

Philip said come and see come and see see with your eyes fourth witness the witness of Nathanael on a verse first read verse 47

Nathanael I mean Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and he said to him behold an

Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit

Jesus was saying this is a true believer this is someone who has the faith of Moses who has the faith of Abraham he is a true believer him like Abraham believed and the promise of the coming one that one was going to come and that through this offspring of Abraham God was going to bless the entire world

Nathanael was a believer he believed that Jesus said a true

Israelite in whom there is no deceit verse 48

Nathanael said to him how do you know me Jesus answered listen before Philip called you when you were under the tree

I saw you Nathanael answered him rabbi you are the son of God you are the king of Israel Jesus tells

Nathanael that he saw him before Philip called him while he was under the tree now understand this this is

Jesus is not saying that I was a hundred yards away right I was a hundred yards away and I was able to see

Philip before Philip came talking to you know you said well how do you know that how do

I know that Jesus wasn't a hundred yards away able to see Nathanael under the tree before Philip came and talked to him how do

I know that I know that because of the witness of Nathanael listen after Jesus tells

Nathanael Jesus I mean after after Jesus tells him this

Nathanael calls Jesus rabbi calls him the

Son of God and calls him the King of Israel he acknowledges him

Jesus whom he's never heard teach as a teacher and he says to them

Jesus you are the rabbi you are the Son of God you are the

King of Kings because of that statement I am able to tell you with certainty that Jesus wasn't a hundred yards away looking down at a tree that he was under if Jesus was a hundred yards away looking down at what took place there would be no need for an

Nathanael to acknowledge him as a teacher to acknowledge him as the Son of God or to acknowledge him as the

King of Israel because Nathanael knew that Jesus wasn't around meaning they might have they must have had to travel a ways to get to him and Nathanael knew that Jesus saw him

I mean imagine that if they were able to look at each other like if Philip would have said hey come see look look you can look he's right there you can see him he's looking at us well that's nothing special I could see someone from a hundred yards away depending on the

Sun and you know if I clean my glasses right there's nothing special about that but there was something special that took place here in the text and it doesn't really reveal that to us

Nathanael knew that he was saw by Jesus and he responds with he's never heard him teach rabbi you are the

Son of God only the Son of God would know something like this you are the King of Israel and as we transition

Jesus response to him leads us to our last witness the fifth witness so our fifth point is the witness of Scripture and this is in verses 50 through 51 making good timing

Jesus answered him talking about Nathanael 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 now turn with me in your

Bibles to Genesis chapter 28 for some reason

I did not put my normal clips in here so I'm having to find it just like everyone else

Genesis chapter 28 we will read verses 10 through 16 before we do so I want to enlighten you on the context so Esau has already sold his birthright to Jacob Jacob has stolen the blessings by Esau going out hunting for game

Jacob mom makes the game for Jacob to bring to his father to receive the blessing to steal the blessing because Isaac was going to bless

Esau once he brought the game to him and it was cooked Jacob puts well his mother puts fur dead animal fur on him because Esau was a hairy man so he's manipulated manipulatively that a word we don't use it sneaks into his father's room pretends to be

Esau and steals the blessing which makes Esau angry and so Jacob leaves he's on the run from his brother and so which picks us up in verse 10 it says this

Jacob left Beersheba and went to Heron and he came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the

Sun had set taking one of the stones of that of the place he put it under his head as he laid down in that place to sleep verse 12 and he dreamed and behold there was a ladder set up on the earth and the top reached the heavens and behold the angels of God were ascending and descending on it and behold the

Lord this is this is yo hey hey this is capital LRD this is Yahweh behold

Yahweh stood above it and said I am the

Lord Yahweh the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac the land on which you lie

I will give to you and your offspring your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth and you shall spread abroad to the west to the east to the north and to the south and in you and your offspring shall all the family of the earth be blessed behold

I am with you and I will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land for I will not leave you until I have done all that I have promised verse 16 then

Jacob awoke from his sleep and said surely the

Lord is in this place and I did not know it I was in a

Bible study one time and the pastor of the church was in this

Bible study and the guy leading the Bible study at this time was my mentor he was the guy that I was under when

I was preaching in the jails and stuff like that and they read this verse that we had we came to in John and it said when

Jesus speaking to Nathanael he said he said to him verse 51 truly truly

I say to you you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the

Son of Man and I said man that sounds like Jacob's ladder pastor was like hmm

I don't know I'll have to look into it I said well sure sounds like it to me sounds like Jacob's ladder sounds like Jesus is the ladder that Jacob dreamt of now this was before I ever got into you know study

Bibles and stuff like that and some study Bibles will even kind of hint toward that most of them don't but some do but the way that they hint towards it is that well first of all the word here for ladder so the

Hebrew word a better way that you could translate it would be staircase so you heard a stairway to heaven like this is all speaking about Jacob's dream it's all taken from that whether a proper way our translation says ladder or it's a staircase either way

I believe that Jacob's dream to be pathetic but other people believe that this is just hinting at Jesus that that the staircase that that Jesus is something like what

Jacob dreamt about not that it is but listen to me I truly believe that this is a prophetic dream that God was showing

Jacob as he was running from his brother that he was going to fulfill the promises and bless all the people through this source by which man can't and by which angels can travel listen to verse 12 and he dreamed and behold there was a ladder and it's it set on the earth listen

Jesus the incarnation he God left heaven the Creator entered creation the infinite became finite it was on the earth and it's top reach the heavens

Jesus speaking of his deity and behold the angels of God were able to ascend and descend on it and we have angels appearing at the birth of Jesus we have angels appearing at the resurrection of Jesus we have angels appearing at the ascension of Jesus and read the book of Acts they're coming proclaiming the name of Jesus Jesus is the ladder

Jesus is the staircase Jesus is the ladder the staircase that Jacob dreamt about and it was to fulfill what it was spoken that he was going to bless all the world all the nations through this offspring that would come from Abraham and Nathanael believes because Jesus said that he saw him under a tree and then

Jesus says to him oh you believe because I said I saw you under a tree he's saying just wait just wait until what you see just wait until what you're about to see you're going to see angels ascending and descending upon me he calls himself here the

Son of Man and when Jesus says that he is the Son of God he is referring to his eternal

Sonship however when Jesus says that he is the Son of Man he is not listen he is not referring to his humanity when

Son of God his eternal Sonship Son of Man not speaking of his humanity at this time the

Son of Man was referred to be was referenced to be the Messiah the

Messiah was the Son of Man the Messiah was to come and was to establish a messianic kingdom on earth and the people at this time would have pointed to Daniel chapter 7 turn to Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 through 14 says this so this is

Daniel he's having a vision he says I saw in the night I saw in the night vision and behold there were cloud with the clouds of heaven there came one like the

Son of Man so they would say that this is the Messiah and he came to the ancient of days and presented before and was presented before him and to him was given dominion listen and glory and a kingdom that all people's nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which

I'll never pass away in his kingdom listen Saints one that shall not be destroyed

Jesus is referring to himself as the Son of Man as the one spoken about from Daniel the new covenant the kingdom of heaven is at hand right that's the message we hear the kingdom of heaven is a hand repent repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and something news taking place a new covenant the new kingdom the kingdom of heaven is at hand and angels and the angels of God are able to ascend and descend upon the

Son of Man this new kingdom is not the earthly kingdom it is a heavenly kingdom its tops reach the heavens in order the

Messiah in order to be presented before the ancient of days which would be the father thought God the father in order for the the

Messiah to be presented before the ancient of days and given a kingdom he had to die and he had to live like no human being could live he had to take upon himself the sin of the world in order for Jesus to be presented to the father and given this kingdom that will never end he had to live the life that none of us could live and then he had to die and take our sins upon himself then he had to prove who he said he was was true by triumphant victory over death busting forth from the grave

Jesus lived the life we could not live died the death that we should die was buried and rose again on the third day he was seen for over 40 days by many witnesses he ascended into heaven and he sits at the right hand of God on the throne of David ruling and reigning putting all enemies under his feet making intercessory and prayer for those that draw near to him by faith and in our text right here would have been a future but ladies and gentlemen for you and I this is past tense the kingdom has come it has been established the kingdom people are those who have been born again and have called upon the name of the

Lord and have received the covenant sign baptism he

Jesus has been given the testimony of two or three witnesses ladies and gentlemen it is established the witness of John the

Baptist the witness of Andrew the witness of Philip the witness of Nathanael and the witness of Scripture all say that Jesus is the one the long -awaited

Messiah he's here and I call you all to believe

I'm available to anyone who wants to talk pastor Cal as well so our deacon

Josh if you have you need to talk please come to me after the service join me as we pray father

Lord isn't it is indeed a great privilege one that I don't deserve to be able to stand before your people whom you have called by your name and proclaim your word

Lord I pray if I mishandled your word in any way

Lord that you will put me on the right path correct me but Lord I do pray that you use this word today to grow your

Saints as well as we partake in your supper Lord I pray that right now your people are preparing themselves and that you will also bless this this this meal the body and blood that we are about to partake in and that you will use that to grow us in holiness

Lord please put in us a greater love for you for one another help us to love our

God by believing in the name of the Son Jesus Christ and to love our neighbors as ourselves we pray this in Jesus name