John chapter 2 Jewish Wedding & Wine

1, 2, 3, 4, .... and million more disciples

Andrew, Peter, Philip, Nathanael …

 ... are mentioned in John as followers and disciples of Jesus. Jesus had confidence in them and asked them to come and join him. It was an honor to be called to follow a Rabbi. It was usually earned by fulfilling grades in the School of Torah.  In order to follow a Rabbi you had to proof that you were worthy of the task.

But to work as fishermen by the Sea of Galilee and be called to be disciples of a Rabbi wasn't following tradition as they knew it but something new and very different.  Jesus must have seen beyond traditional expectations when he called these men because regardless who they were when they started out on their journey with Jesus they were never to be the same  again. Jesus met them at where they were when he called them but he had a vision to make them into another kind of fishermen - fishers of men for the Kingdom of God.

 

When Jesus meets two of these men he makes remarks about their personalities.  Simon Peter is going to be a “rock” and Nathanael is praised as “a true son of Isra’el — nothing false in him!”

Simon Peter was not a courageous man although he usually made “statements” when nobody else had anything to say and just before Nathanael met Jesus he had questioned the credibility of Jesus by pointing out that very few good things, if any, came from Nazareth.

But it didn’t stop Jesus from seeing the potential in these men. They were going to learn from the Living Torah, personified in Jesus himself.

Eagle perspective

Staying on the ground you can only see as far as your eyes can look around. Your horizon can be restricted by obstacles that hinder a clear view. But if you get higher up your perspective changes and you get a bigger picture.

The gospel of John differs from the other three gospels. The symbol of the Apostle is an eagle and he starts with a wider perspective than the previous three synoptic books of Matthew, Mark and Luce.  From far above he takes a good look beyond where time starts and all the way to where it ends.

John chapter 1:3 shakes hands with Genesis chapter 1:1 reaching out from each side of the old and new covenant.

Jesus as the Son of God is the main theme. The spoken word is dominating through the gospel. Jesus had individual conversations with named persons as well as with his disciples and also some “battle discussions” with the leaders of the Jews.

John chapter 1

 What is said about Jesus?

Jesus is the Creator. Through him all things have come to existence and without him nothing would have been created. His speech shaped the entire cosmos.

Jesus is theLife and the Light  His breath filled all things with a living, breathing light—⁵ A light that thrives in the depths of darkness blazes through murky bottoms. It cannot and will not be quenched.  

(The voice)

Jesus is the true Light as opposed to the one who is darkness, but in order to deceive man “masquerades as an angel of light”. People can also appear as ” light for the people” but are doing the  works of the evil one.

2 Corinthians 11:14

for the Adversary himself masquerades as an angel of light; ¹⁵ so it’s no great thing if his workers masquerade as servants of righteousness. They will meet the end their deeds deserve. 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 (in Context) 2 Corinthians 11 (Whole Chapter)

Jesus is fully God and fully man

¹⁴ The Word became a human being and lived with us, and we saw his Sh’khinah, the Sh’khinah of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.(Complete Jewish Bible)

Jesus is Grace from God.  When Moses gave the people of Israel The Law the people could earn grace from God by obeying the Law, and by sacrificing animal they could atone for their sins. When Jesus came and gave his life for man; verse 16 says

”we have all received from his fullness, yes, grace upon grace".

Through the Law man received grace by fulfilling the Law, but in relation with Jesus you get grace as a gift because Jesus has fulfilled the Law for you. He has given the final sacrifice and you get “ grace upon grace.”

Jesus is Grace and Truth.  John 14:6 says:
“I AM the Way —and  the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:5-7 (in Context) John 14 (Whole Chapter)

Jesus is The Savior

¹² But to as many as did receive him, to those who put their trust in his person and power, he gave the right to become children of God, ¹³ not because of bloodline, physical impulse or human intention, but because of God.

Jesus id the lamb of God  ²⁹ The next day, John the Baptist  saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! God’s lamb! The one who is taking away the sin of the world! ³⁰ This is the man I was talking about when I said, ‘After me is coming someone who has come to rank above me, because he existed before me.’

Jesus is the giver of the Holy Spirit  John the Baptist said: ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining, this is the one who immerses in the Ruach HaKodesh.’ (the Holy Spirit) ³⁴ And I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

The first disciples

Andrew and a friend of him accepted the invitation when Jesus said “Come and see.” I wonder if they really understood what they had gotten into. Their lives were never to be the same again.

They spent a whole day with Jesus and after that Andrew was prepared to start a chain reaction. He started with family; his brother Peter and told him frankly; we have found the Messiah.  And Peter had a name-change at first but later on a change of heart and character.

Next was Philip a neighbor to Andrew and Peter. After family, neighbors seem to be a good target to give the good news about Jesus.  Philip found Nathanael and how they were related the word doesn’t say but Nathanael was on the “good-news-list”. Nathanael meant something to Philip and it was important that he also got the news about Messiah. Nathanael was a good man but there was only one catch; he had a kind of skew conception of people fromNazareth.

^“45-46 Philip went and found Nathanael and told him, “We’ve found the One Moses wrote of in the Law, the One preached by the prophets. It’s Jesus, Joseph’s son, the one from Nazareth!” Nathanael said, “Nazareth? You’ve got to be kidding.” (The Message)

The solusion to this problem with people fromNazareth was simple:

“But Philip said, “Come, see for yourself.”

Nathanael was going to find a Nazarene that did not fit the description of most people coming from Nazareth.

.... to be continued