Hunkered Down Devotion

John 1:35-42 (Voice)
35-36 The day after, John saw Him again as he was visiting with two of his disciples. As Jesus walked by, he announced again:
John the Baptist: Do you see Him? This man is the Lamb of God, God’s sacrifice to cleanse our sins.
37 At that moment, the two disciples began to follow Jesus, 38-39 who turned back to them, saying:
Jesus: What is it that you want?
Two Disciples: We’d like to know where You are staying. Teacher, may we remain at Your side today?
Jesus: Come and see. Follow Me, and we will camp together.
It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when they met Jesus. They came and saw where He was staying, but they got more than they imagined. They remained with Him the rest of the day and followed Him for the rest of their lives. 40-41 One of these new disciples, Andrew, rushed to find his brother Simon and tell him they had found the One who is promised, God’s Anointed who will heal the world. 42 As Andrew approached with Simon, Jesus looked into him.
Jesus: Your name is Simon, and your father is called John. But from this day forward you will be known as Peter, the rock.

This short passage from John is easy to miss, not much seems to happen until the end where we get introduced to the brothers Andrew and Simon Peter.  While the calling of these two disciples is, obviously, important what I am really interested in today is how we got to that critical moment when Jesus renames Simon Peter.  Peter, of course, becomes the rock on which the church is built, so to say he is fairly important is a bit of an understatement.

But how did he get to that moment when he is standing in front of Jesus.  That story begins when two followers of John the Baptist, intrigued by John’s naming of Jesus as the Lamb of God, begin to follow (literally) Jesus.  

At this point he invites them to ‘Come and See’.    Jesus gives the invitation for to come and see and experience what a relationship with him is like.  Now, notice what the two disciples do at this point.  Andrew then ‘rushes’ to find his brother – unable to keep this good news to himself – and, while we don’t have the exact details of the conversation, my guess is the essence of it was an invitation from Andrew to Simon to ‘come and see’.  

This is what it means to share the gospel – to invite others to come and see what a relationship with Jesus is all about.  What I kept thinking about is what would have happened if Andrew hadn’t shared the gospel with is brother, would we know Simon Peter?  Would the church have the ‘rock’ upon which it was built?  That is one of the wonders of God’s plan for the world – all of us are woven into it, and we don’t know what role we might play.

Sharing God’s Love,
Chip

Prayer: You have invited us to come and see that you are good and that your love will save us. Having experienced that truth, help us to share that good news with others. Amen.