Character of Jesus 3

The Character of Jesus 3

Calling His First Disciples

John 1:35 – 51

• Characteristic: Flexibility
  • (35 – 39)  After a clear announcement by John the Baptist, Andrew and probably John are hesitant to declare their intentions.  Jesus took initiative to start a conversation (38) and went along with their evasive answer (39).
  • (42)  With Peter, Jesus was a bit cryptic but obviously forceful.
  • (47 – 51)  With Nathanael (most often identified as Bartholomew), Jesus started with a personal miracle.
• Applications
  • In general, are churches (or their representatives) flexible in their approach?
    • The people in this scene were to become apostles, yet Jesus started with each of them very differently.
    • How do we know what approach to take?
    • Jesus did not invite any of them to synagogue services on Saturday.
  • Approach 1:  What do you seek?
    • Open-ended question with a multitude of answers, shallow to deep.
    • “What are you looking for?”
    • Follow up a shallow answer with “Come and see.”  This was not an invitation to visit His living quarters, probably a rented room.
    • The resulting conversation went on for a few hours, probably not all theological.
  • Approach 2:  Make a non-miraculous prediction.
    • Nicknames were important in that culture.  This was like making the assertion that Simon had a solid character and would do great things in the kingdom of God, even though Simon had no clue about his future.
    • Tell people how you see them fitting into the kingdom.
  • Approach 3:  Do something miraculous.
    • Obviously, we do not have the same abilities as Jesus.
    • Can we do impossible stuff?
    • How can we challenge people with the miraculous?