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Transcription
John the Baptist sees Jesus and tells his disciples that he is the Lamb of God. The disciples follow Jesus and ask where he is staying. Jesus invites them to come and see. Andrew tells his brother Simon about Jesus and brings him to meet Jesus. Jesus renames Simon as Peter. Jesus then invites Philip to follow him, who invites Nathanael. Nathanael questions if anything good can come from Nazareth, but Philip tells him to come and see. The passage emphasizes the invitation to come and see what God is doing in the world and to share that with others. Welcome to Christchurch's Daily Devotion for December 18th, 2023. Today we will be reading from John chapter 1, verses 35 through 46. The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, Look, the Lamb of God. When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them, following and asked, What do you want? They said, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying? Come, he replied, and you will see. So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, We have found the Messiah. And 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. The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, Follow me. Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip 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. Nazareth? Can anything good come from Nazareth? Nathanael asked. Come and see, said Philip. When two of John's disciples asked Jesus where he was staying, there was more to this question than casual curiosity about his lodging. They wanted to know more about, and more from, this Lamb of God. Jesus invited them to come and you will see. What an invitation! Each one of us, when we accept Jesus as the Christ, are invited to come with him and see, learn and grow. In just the few verses we read today, we see a rapidly growing circle of followers. Andrew, one of the two, goes to tell his brother, Simon Peter, who accepted the invitation and followed. Then Jesus invited Philip to follow him. Philip invited Nathanael to come along, and when Nathanael questioned whether anything good could come from Nazareth, Philip said, Come and see. These are Jesus's words. Do not fail to see something important in this. Jesus directly invited some to come, see and follow him, but those who responded and followed also reached out to invite others. Using the words of Jesus, come and see. What they and we are invited to see is what God is doing in the world. Do you remember the excitement you felt upon accepting Christ? Reflect on that today and remind yourself that you are still invited by Christ to come and see what God is doing in the world. At the end of the day today, be ready to tell someone what you saw God do today.
