John 1:41 – Emmanuel Pentecostal Church Gateshead Resources

SUNDAY 19^th

John 1:41

NIV – ‘The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, We have found the Messiah (that is, the Christ).’

ESV – ‘He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah (which means Christ).’

We have the same verse again today, but in this devotion, I want to look at the words ‘We have found the Messiah’. The nation of Israel had been waiting for a long time for the promised Messiah, you may remember that in John 4 when Jesus was talking with the woman at the well near Sychar in Samaria, that after he had told her about the living water,(vv10-15) they had the conversation about her many husbands, (vv16-8) she then perceived that Jesus was a prophet (v19) they then talked about true worship (vv21-24) after which the woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.’ Jesus then replied, ‘I who speak to you am he.’ In verse 26 she goes back to the town and tells the people ‘Come, see man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?’

The woman was still looking, Andrew had found him! But thankfully, the woman also came to the realization of who Jesus really was. Thank God today that we too have found him as we have entered into a personal relationship by faith and have been born again of the Spirit.

By the time we get to Jesus being identified as the Messiah here in John 1, he has already been described in several different ways. I have already mentioned some in an earlier devotion, (Wednesday 15^th July – The ‘Word’ in verse 1, is creator in verse 2, life and light in verse 4, becomes flesh (v14), full of grace and truth (v14) Jesus Christ (v17) and the Lamb of God in verse 29.) We add to the list the Lord (v23), Son of God (v34), Rabbi / Teacher (v38), Jesus of Nazareth (v45), King of Israel (v49), Son of Man (v51) and Messiah (The Christ) in verse 41.

The Messiah – The Greek ‘Christ’ is the equivalent to the Hebrew and Aramaic ‘Messiah’ and means ‘one who is anointed’ or ‘anointed one’. The chapter we are considering commences with ‘In the beginning was the Word . . . and the Word was God.’ V14 ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us’ In Isaiah 9:6 we have the prophetic declaration that a child is born, a son is given, the Word who became flesh was the Child born, and the Son given, the little baby lying in the crib was the arrival of the anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ.

Again in Isaiah chapter 61 we have the following words ‘The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.’ (vv1-2) And in Luke 4:18-19 we find that the Word who became flesh, the child born, the Son given used the very same words from Isaiah to describe who he was and what his mission was, thus declaring that he was the Messiah, the Christ.

In Matthews gospel when Jesus asked the disciples who did they say he was, Peter replied ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ The Messiah has come, and the good news is that he has accomplished all that the Father had anointed him or sent him to do. And as a result, as we believe by faith, we have life in his name. Remember where we started two weeks ago with John 20:30-31 ‘Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.’

We have only briefly gone through John chapter 1 over the last two weeks, but my prayer is that we will have either discovered or rediscovered something of the wonder of the redemption story, the wonder of who Jesus really is, the Christ, the Son of God, so that we will have life in his name.

As we conclude this look at chapter one, I bring a challenge to all who have read it in whatever format, do you know him? Have you responded by faith and accepted the one who was sent to be the Saviour, can you honestly say that you are born again by the Spirit of God? If not, then open up your life to him, allow him to come and to clean up the old and to recreate you into a new person, for ‘if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, behold the old has gone and the new has come.’ (2 Corinthians 5:17)

For those of us who do know him, may we allow him to be all that he is meant to be in our lives, both Lord and Christ. The one who has saved us and the one who is sovereign in our lives.

FRIDAY 17^th

John 1:41

NIV – ‘The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, We have found the Messiah (that is, the Christ).’

ESV – ‘He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah (which means Christ).’

We could call Andrew the first Evangelist, after John the Baptist, although John was more of a prophet. Immediately on meeting with Jesus he goes to find his brother Simon, and makes the declaration, ‘We have found the Messiah.’

Andrew does not appear very often in John’s gospel, but each time he does he is playing an important role. Here in the text bringing his brother to Jesus, he then appears in John 6:8-9 ‘One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?’ (Notice how he got stuck with the label Simon Peter’s brother – even though he was the first to meet Jesus!) Then again in John 12:20-22 ‘Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, Sir, we wish to see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.’ Here he is mentioned again but in relation to Philip coming from the same town in John 1:44

That is it, four mentions in John and then a few mentions in the other gospel and Acts regarding his official call along with Peter to follow Jesus, (Matthew 4:18. Mark 1:16) the three times he is mentioned in the list of the disciples (Matthew 10:2, Luke 6:14, Acts 1:13, and then in Mark 1:29, when Jesus visits the home of Simon Peter and Andrew and heals Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever.

But what I want us to notice that although he is only briefly mentioned it does not mean he was insignificant. As I have already mentioned he was like an Evangelist in immediately going to tell his brother he had found the Messiah, and in the purposes of God, and as a result, his brother was going to be a pillar in the eventual mission and outreach of the Church, it was Peter who while standing with the other eleven preached on the day of Pentecost, it is also Peter who is accepted as being the one who took the gospel to the Gentiles, Acts chapter 10 and 11. So remember we do not have to have a big profile to be effective for Jesus, and who knows what that person you will share the gospel with might become in the purpose of God.

In John 6 Andrew was instrumental in finding the lad with five loaves and two fishes that Jesus took and blessed and fed the whole crowd of 5000 men plus women and children with. You may feel that you have little to offer, you may feel that what you do seems insignificant but when Jesus takes your contribution, however small you may feel it is when compared to the task in hand, Jesus can achieve what needs to be achieved. Little is much in his hands.

In John 12 Andrew was in a place again where he was able to introduce people to Jesus, (some Greeks) as a result Jesus gave them a glimpse of his redemptive work, his death and resurrection in the example of the seed dying and bearing fruit. (vv23-24)

What do we learn from Andrew? Even the least among us can accomplish much in the purpose of God, and the importance of being faithful in even the smallest of things.