For the full description and the COMMENTARY—WORD AND PHRASE MEANINGS, etc. go the http://ThingsTheBibleSays.com

General Idea: The following day after the baptism, Jesus walked by John the Baptist and he proclaimed, Look, there is the Lamb of God. Then Jesus began to call His twelve Disciples personally. He used different approaches that seemed daring and obscure. Using a direct approach, a challenge (“Why do you want this?”) He used them to call others too. Then, two of John’s disciples, John and Andrew, started to follow Jesus, but He challenged them, asking “what do you want?” He called His first two disciples with a challenge; Andrew, the first one, was so excited he told his brother Simon he had found the Messiah. Then, they stayed with Jesus. Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter; He then went to Galilee to call the other Disciples. He called Philip who was from the same town as Andrew and Peter. Philip got so excited; he told Nathanael that he found the One about whom the Prophets foretold. Nathanael could not believe that the Messiah could come from such a rough part of the county as Nazareth, but Jesus reassured him by telling him who and where He was and Nathanael believed and proclaimed that Jesus was the King of Israel and the Son of God. Jesus told him, “you will see even greater things—even heaven opening up with all the angels going up and down.”

Contexts and Background:
This passage is about transitions. The first transition is John the Baptist, who lived in the age of Law, and his ministry was preparatory to Christ. He transitioned his ministry and mission and his disciples over to Jesus the Christ. The new age and Covenant begins from the age of Law to the Covenant of grace. Jesus becomes the Bride as the Church is (Matt. 11:1-19; John 3:29; Eph. 5:25-27, 32). The second transition is the Disciples migrating from their positions to His position. Jesus is calling His first followers, those with whom He would spend three, close, intimate years, teaching them all they needed so to know God. They would be the authority to be the foundation that Christ used to form the Church to worship Him and proclaim the new age of the Kingdom of God. Jesus transformed their lives from fisher-men to fishers-of-men, from the rough and dirty to the pure of heart with a bold purpose and mission. They would be transformed by grace and be the bearers of grace and the prime instruments by whom others would be transformed too.

Devotional Thoughts:

Look! Look to Christ! See who He is and what He has done! Jesus is the great Victim, the pure, sinless One who sacrificed Himself for the dirt of humanity and the dirt of life; He lived and breathed as we do, experienced all as we do so He would know our burden and then lift it from us. Jesus is the Lamb of God who came to save you and lift your burden from you and give you a triumphant, new, eternal life of real, effectual hope and wonders beyond wonder. Think about this: if each one of us was more like Andrew, excited about our faith and bringing even just one to the Gospel, how much stronger the Church would be; how much more could be done.

Look! Look to Christ! This is the message that the preacher gives, not to have us look upon him but upon Him. Look to Christ and not to me. Any true Christian leader will always point people to Christ and not to themselves. Ministry and life are about Christ, not about “me;” it is not selfish or self-focused—it is always about Christ and nothing else matters. When a leader draws attention to himself or is prideful, it is a certainty he is not from above, but from down below; you can count on that they are up to no good.

Watch the Eternal Life video here: https://youtu.be/gfAxzvU1ofQ