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Following The Lamb of God (John 1:35-42)

 John the Baptist says, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" again, and two more of his own disciples follow Jesus. A less humble man would be troubled by this, but he knows exactly who he is, and what he is there to do. He told us there in verse 31: he is baptizing so that the Lamb of God would be revealed to Israel.

Many students would follow rabbis in those days literally everywhere, which is why the two men ask Jesus where he was staying. We might imagine on another occasion that John the Baptist had told his followers, "When I point out the Lamb of God to you, follow him instead of me." He will say very similar things in the actual biblical text later on.

"The tenth hour" is about 4 o'clock, in a 12-hour workday.

There is a spiritual invitation in that, "come and see" from Jesus. Curiosity is one of the ways God uses to draw us closer to Him.

Andrew brings Peter, whose name is actually Simon. "Messiah" in Hebrew means "anointed one," and "Christ" in Greek means the same thing. So this is really interesting: the brothers give Jesus some titles, based on what they understand and what they hope for as Israelites, and in Simon's case, he gets a new name from Jesus. When God changes a name, that person is going to be important in the biblical story. For example, Abraham and Jacob from the book of Genesis are very important to this entire story, and they had their names changed. Let's just say, you might want to keep your eye on Peter. (Abram became Abraham, because he would be the father of many nations; Jacob's name became "Israel," which means, "he wrestles with God." Israelites therefore are literally the sons of Jacob. And Jesus has more to say later about the sons of Abraham, both true and false sons.)

"Peter" in Greek means "rock," and "Cephas" is Aramaic (the language Jesus spoke) for "rock." 


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