John 1:35-51

35The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!"

John says that again about the lamb of God. That must have really been an impressive thought on his mind about Jesus.

37When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?" They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?"

I like that. Jesus says "Whadda ya want?" He seems like a pretty plain spoken person so far.

39"Come," he replied, "and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour.
40Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). 42And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, when translated, is Peter).

Well, that is really interesting. He didn't even wait to hear if Peter was interested in Him; he just says there you are - you will be called Cephas ... or Peter (I never heard the word Cephas before. I have a brother named Peter - I wonder what he would think if I called him Cephas. hahaha.) It was like He knew that Peter was coming and that Peter would be an apostle - like it was a "given" - before He even had a chance to interview him.

43The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me."
44Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote-Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

Again, it sounds like this is all orchestrated ahead of time and these men are just being gathered. Am I missing something? Is there some dialogue that is not recorded?

46"Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," said Philip. 47When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false."
48"How do you know me?" Nathanael asked.

Yea! That is what I am wondering, too!

Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you."
49Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."

OK, so Jesus tells Nathaniel that He knew about something that He couldn't possibly have known about under any normal circumstances (very insignificant, too - where he was standing) and Nathaniel declares, (just based on that) that Jesus is the Son of God? Amazing - I think these guys were really looking for the Messiah - waiting for Him - or else why would they be so ready to jump at this?

50Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that."

Aha! So Jesus sounds like He is also a little surprised that such a small thing would impress Nathaniel so much.

51He then added, "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

Wow - now that is defiantely something big. I can't even picture that. I wonder what that means. I would bet that those guys were amazed at the saying too.

I am now done with chapter 1. That was neat. I learned things that I never before heard of. It started with these really incredible statements about Jesus creating the world, about Him being God Almightly - then it went into John the Baptist and his discovering who Jesus was. Then it went into Him walking in Israel and meeting some poeple (that he seemed to already know) and it ended with another big statement about heaven opening and angels going up and down on Jesus. What a very interesting thing to read! Thanks, DF! Next I will move on to chapter 2. I wonder what I will find there.