Key Thought

John had already talked about Jesus being the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." This time, however, his message provokes a response in two of his own disciples. They followed Jesus. They shifted their allegiance from the human messenger to the glorious Message. As disciples of Jesus, our goal is to resist preacher or teacher infatuation -- our faith shouldn't be built on a preacher, a pastor, a teacher, an evangelist -- and remember the goal of their ministry: to get people to follow the Savior. Make sure your faith and hope are tied to Jesus and not to one of his messengers. The glory of any preacher's or teacher's message is Jesus, not that messenger's style or personality. Let's make sure we follow Jesus, for this is the Christian messenger's true glory!

Today's Prayer

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Father, thank you for those who have powerfully influenced my life toward faith. Your messengers that taught me about Jesus, stirred my heart to faith, and called me to righteousness are precious to me. However, dear Father, please guard me from so valuing your messenger that I forget your Message. By the power of your Holy Spirit, nudge me away from human dependency and help me to follow your Son wholeheartedly. In Jesus' name I live and pray. Amen.

Today's Verses in Context

The next day John was there again. John had two of his followers with him. John saw Jesus walking by. John said, "Look, the Lamb of God !" The two followers heard John say this, so they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw the two men following him. Jesus asked, "What do you want?" The two men said, "Rabbi, where are you staying?" ("Rabbi" means "Teacher.") Jesus answered, "Come with me and you will see." So the two men went with Jesus. They saw the place where Jesus stayed. They stayed there with Jesus that day. It was about four o'clock. These two men followed Jesus after they heard about Jesus from John. One of these two men was named Andrew. Andrew was Simon Peter's brother. The first thing Andrew did was to go find his brother, Simon. Andrew said to Simon, "We have found the Messiah." ("Messiah" means "Christ. ") Then Andrew brought Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at Simon and said, "You are Simon, the son of John. You will be called Cephas." ("Cephas" means "Peter. ") The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. Jesus found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." Philip was from the town of Bethsaida, the same as Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and told him, "Remember what Moses wrote in the law. Moses wrote about a man that was coming. The prophets wrote about him too. We have found him. His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph. He is from Nazareth." But Nathanael said to Philip, "Nazareth! Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Philip answered, "Come and see." Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him. Jesus said, "This man coming is truly one of God's people. There is nothing false in him." Nathanael asked, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered, "I saw you when you were under the fig tree. That was before Philip told you about me." Then Nathanael said to Jesus, "Teacher, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel (God's people)." Jesus said to Nathanael, "I told you that I saw you under the fig tree. That is why you believe in me. But you will see muchgreater things than that!" Jesus also said, "I tell you the truth. You will all see heaven open. You will see 'angels of God going up and coming down' on the Son of Man. "

— John 1:35-51 (ERV)

Easy-to-Read Version copyright © 2001 by World Bible Translation Center. All rights reserved.