John 1:38-42

³⁸Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?" They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are You staying?" ³⁹"Come," He replied, "and you will see." So they went and saw where He was staying, and spent that day with Him. It was about the tenth hour. ⁴⁰Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. ⁴¹The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). ⁴²And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, when translated, is Peter).

Jesus speaks: Come and see. Jesus doesn’t wait to hear from these two men who come to Him; rather, He initiates the conversation. “What do you want?” This is not harsh like we might perceive it. It’s more like, “What can I do for you?” The apostle John will later quote Jesus as saying, “Whoever comes to Me I will not drive away” or “The one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37). And the two men, moved by the commendation of their former Rabbi, John the Baptist, hold Jesus to be a Prophet and teacher, which is the first step towards receiving instruction, so they call Him Rabbi.

They ask, “Where are You staying?” It’s a nice way to ask, “Can we come and rest in Your presence and be taught by You?” We can learn a very important truth here: Eric taught about this in Mark’s Gospel. Don’t just hear Jesus from the outskirts. You can do that, and you might hear some interesting stuff, but you won’t become His devoted follower that way. Instead, go with Jesus wherever He is and let Him personally instruct you. That’s what these two disciples want to do, and Jesus says to them, “Come and see. You want to know where I am staying? Come and see.” And so they went and spent the rest of the day with Jesus. It was the tenth hour (4 PM), late in the day to start “hanging out,” but they were so intrigued by Jesus that they had no concern for the time. They went to Him to learn from Him, and they didn’t care what time they’d get home. They weren’t even His disciples yet, but they were seeing if being His disciple would be something worthwhile. Do you have that type of experience in coming to Christ? I can remember staying up until 2 AM or later to stay immersed in the Word of God, to see if Jesus really was who He claimed to be, to see if I should devote myself to Him, or to carry on a conversation about spiritual things with others. Can you imagine what these two men experienced with Jesus that day? For them it was enough to conclude that He was the Messiah (v41), and enough to decide to follow Him for the rest of His ministry and beyond.

Jesus, Andrew, and Peter. John here gives us the identity of one of the two followers of John the Baptist who left him to follow Jesus, namely Andrew. (The other was presumably John himself.) We see that Andrew, who has spent only a short time with Jesus and has what would certainly be considered a child-like faith at this point, is on fire to spread the news of the coming of the Messiah. He immediately (the first thing he does) goes to his brother – Simon Peter – and excitedly declares, “We have found the Messiah!” Can you imagine Simon’s reaction? And notice that Simon doesn’t come excitedly to Jesus. Rather, Andrew brings him to Jesus. And Jesus says that Simon will be called by a new name – Cephas or Peter, which, of course, means “rock.”

Let’s look closer at this dialogue: Jesus says, “You are Simon, son of John.” Jesus is pointing out that this is an ordinary man from an ordinary family. There’s nothing special about Simon, and there’s nothing special about his father, John. Yet Jesus prophesies that he will be called Peter, and in so doing, prophesies that he will be an unshakably courageous man, boldly steadfast in faith. Calvin says of this prophecy, “I look upon it as a prediction, not only because Christ foresaw the future steadfastness of faith in Peter, but because He foretold what He would give to him. He now magnifies the grace which He determined afterwards to bestow upon him; and therefore He does not say that this is now his name, but delays it till a future time.” Furthermore, all believers may very realistically be called “Peters.” We are living stones with which Jesus as the chief cornerstone, our “Ebenezer” or “stone of help,” is building for Himself a church.

Notice another point about Andrew and Simon Peter here. Looking back we notice that Peter was a much more prominent figure in the early church than was Andrew. Yet without Andrew, Simon would have never become Peter. The point is that none of us, however excellent or important, should refuse to be taught by an inferior, by a lesser one. Also of note here is that the whole region, not merely the purebred Jews, was intrigued by the prophetic coming of the Messiah. Samaritans, half-breeds, and even Gentiles (pagan nations such as Babylon (Daniel 9:25-26)) would have known about this prophesied figure. Yet, as many as looked for Him, it is amazing that so few received Him when He came.