My Earliest Followers

Meditations based on readings from

The Story of My Life As Told by Jesus Christ

August 6, 2019

My Earliest Followers

Page 50

John 1:35-51

John the Baptist affirmed the mission of Jesus: “Look! There is the Lamb of God!” (v.36) In The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ, we will see that as the Passover lamb was sacrificed for the sins of an individual, Jesus the Lamb of God will be sacrificed for the sins of the world.

I have long been fascinated with the two disciples’ answer to Jesus’ question, “What do you want?” They replied, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” (v.38). Their answer is pregnant with their desire to not just meet Jesus, but to know him, to become his disciples. When I was ordained, I opened my Bible to the Apostle Paul’s passionate affirmation of this same desire: “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead” (Philippians 3:10).

The depth of Jesus’ mission was revealed when Jesus engaged Nathanael in conversation. Nathanael immediately connected the dots and declared Jesus the Son of God. Jesus responded with a reference to Jacob’s ladder in Genesis 28. Jacob had a dream in which he saw a ladder extending to heaven with angels coming and going on the ladder. He named the place where he had the dream, Bethel, which means House of God. Later, Bethel would become the site of a great sanctuary for God’s people. This belief that God comes to meet his people, to interact with them, finds its fulfillment in the Jews’ understanding of the Temple, where God’s presence dwelled. Jesus told Nathanael that the miracles he will witness are evidence that God’s presence is within Jesus.

My Takeaway: I believe Jesus is showing us that when we are with him, it is like we are in God’s house; God’s presence is with us. As disciples of Jesus we can experience this truth as we sit quietly in our devotional time, as well as in our sanctuary when we gather with the saints of God for worship.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.