2018.08.17 Hopewell @Home ▫ John 1:35-51

Read John 1:35-51

Questions for Littles: What does John tell two of his disciples about Jesus (v35-36)? And what do they do (v37-39)? Who was one of these two (v40)? Whom did he bring to Jesus (v41-42)? What did Jesus predict about him? Whom did Jesus call in v43? Whom did he tell in v45? What did he say about Jesus? But what did Nathanael answer (v46)? What does Jesus say about him in v47? But what makes Nathanael change his mind about Jesus in v48-49? What does Jesus tell him he will see in v51? 

In the Gospel reading this week, Jesus’s identity is the main focus.

John tells us that Jesus is the Lamb of God (v36), the unspotted sacrifice that God provides for the forgiveness of sins.

Andrew tells us that Jesus is the Messiah (v41), which is to say that He is the anointed one. By this time, this was primarily a reference to His kingship, though we know from the rest of Scripture that it is also a reference to His offices as Prophet and Priest.

Philip tells us that Jesus is the focus of the whole Bible. He is the one that Moses wrote about in the law, and the one about whom all the prophets wrote.

Nathanael tells us that Jesus is the Son of God and the King of Israel. That seems like quite a leap, except that he is taking Jesus’s knowledge of him as confirmation of what Philip had said.

Jesus Himself tells us that He is the new Israel. He is great Jacob’s greater son. It is valid to read Genesis 28:12 in the Hebrew as saying that the angels were ascending and descending upon him (Jacob). Not only does the grammar fit it better (the gender would have been incorrect for the word “it/him” to refer to the “ladder”), but John makes that parallel here.

Jesus has replaced Jacob. When heaven opens, what Nathanael—and every other believer—sees is that in order to be in covenant relationship with God, we must belong to Jesus Christ. This is a great shift from God’s covenant with Israel, but just like John the Baptist, all predecessors must give way to Christ. The question for you, then, is: do you belong to Christ?

How is Jesus your Sacrifice? King? Priest? Prophet? God? Salvation?

Suggested songs: ARP110B “The Lord Has Spoken” or TPH492 “How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds”