John 1:40-42

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

The DiscoveryAndrew was one of the men who heard Jesus. What a thrill it must have been to hear Jesus' message from His own lips. His words were pure words; His words were eternal words; His words were perfect words. All of these adjectives are used in the Scriptures to denote the words in our Bible, because every word we read is either directly or indirectly the words of Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6).

Andrew and the others with him had discovered the Messiah, who had spoken to them. It was a high day for Andrew. He knew truth as he had never known it. He had heard words that were so harmonious, so true, so penetrating that he could hardly receive the power of Jesus' words.

The Discipleship

This discovery of Jesus as the true Messiah was so amazing to Andrew that he went to his brother, Simon, and told him that the men had found the Messiah. Simon, no doubt, had long thought about the Messiah and studied about Him, but he had never thought, perhaps, that he would ever see Him or hear Him speak.

We can all hear the Gospel and the whole word of God with our ears, but that is not the same as hearing His words in our hearts. Our hearts burn within ourselves, as it was with the hearts of those men who were on their way to Emmaus when Jesus came to them, appeared to them, and spoke comforting words of His death, burial, and resurrection. See, now, what words were spoken concerning these two men:  Luke 24:31-32  And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.  32  And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? When we hear the true words of God, we, too, should be prompted by these divine words to approach others with these same words and introduce these ones to the Messiah, Jesus.

The Demarcation 

Jesus answers the appearance of Simon with these words:  John 1:42 . . . Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone. At the point of this conversation, Jesus changed Simon into a spiritual stone, knowing that He was to use this vulnerable man to do a great work for Him.

Simon would not have been my choice, especially if I had known his character; but Christ called him to be His disciples despite his changing nature. Simon Peter was arrogant, gregarious, and loquacious; yet Jesus called Him to be a disciple. When Cephas (Peter) was crumbling under the load of temptation, Jesus prayed for him that his faith fail not (Luke 22:32).

The line of demarcation between believers and unbelievers is the calling of God, the energy of life given by the Holy Spirit, and faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ; and, once you have been changed, you will never be the same as before.