The Gospel of John 1:19-51

"19 This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, 'Who are you?'
20 And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, 'I am not Christ'.
21 They asked him, 'What then? Are you Elijah?' and he said 'I am not' 'Are you the Prophet?' And he answered, 'No'.
22 Then they said to him, 'Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?'
23 He said, 'I am A VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, 'MAKESTRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD,' as Isaiah the Prophet said." -John 1: 19-23

So apparently John the Baptist was a non-prophet doing exactly the same thing as previous prophets ad done. No wonder the Jews were confused. Levites =Group comprised of Priests/ One of the 12 tribes of the Jewish Nation of Israel. Elijah = The person the character Gandalf from LOTR is based off of. Elijah represented the Power of God (like Moses represented the Laws of God). Elijah could resurrect the dead and worked many wonders before Jesus came. Isaiah = From the Book of Isaiah/ Was one of if not the greatest Prophets. He foretold of Jesus's coming. "Confessed" = Denotes the fact that many it was dangerous to go around preaching of Jesus to the wrong people, which is essentially what John the Baptist was doing.

"24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.
25 They asked him, and said to him, 'Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?'
26 John answered them saying, 'I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know.'
27 'It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie'.
28 These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where john was baptizing." -John 1: 24-28

You'd think after a while people would get the picture. John = a baptist here to announce and make way for Christ. Pharisees = Branch of Jewish Teachers (Kind of like the Inquisition in Europe/ Very serious about upholding the rules/ An institution that was Solid, Heartless, Merciless, Ennacting, Law Abiding, and Wealthy). Baptism = The way to reach Salvation/ A Commitment to being Christian/ Washes away Sins/ Creates a Sacred Space for the Holy Spirit to Dwell/ John the Baptist's way to get people to open their hearts and souls to the Word of Jesus yet to be spoken.

"29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
30 This is He on behalf of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man of higher rank than I, for He existed before me.'
31 'I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.'
32 John testified saying, 'I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove
33 'I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, 'He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.'
34 'I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.' -John 1: 29-34out of heaven, and He remained upon Him.




Lamb of God = Pretext of the concept that since the world was perfect, but sin led to it's imperfection, Death had to exist. Sin goes against God and the Divine and therefore leads to death in a world that was intended to be Everlasting. A person who sinned, must die. However God showed mercy initially by allowing man to sacrifice an animal in his place -Typically the best Lamb. The Lamb would be washed and cleaned, and then sacrificed to God on behalf of that man's sins. Through Christ living as the Universal Lamb for the Sins of the World, no more sacrifices needed to be made. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice. God sacrificed Himself and His son to cleanse the world.  The Dove here was not physical, just for the record. It would be hard to describe the Spirit descending, so instead it is compared to a dove -White, Graceful, Beautiful, Innocent, Pure. I believe it was probably more of a light that descended and remained upon Jesus. If ever there was a beacon of the White Light, it would have been Him. It would have radiated out like a light house directing people away from stormy rocks, safely to shore.

"35 Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples,
36 and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God!'
37 The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
38 And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, "What do you seek?" they said to Him, 'Rabbi (Teacher), where are You staying?"
39 He said to them 'Come and you will see.' So they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
41 He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, 'We have found the Messiah (Christ)'.
42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, 'You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas (Peter)'." -John 1: 35-42

Two of his disciples = 2 guys following John the Baptist around switch and start follwing Jesus when John announces Him. Poor John... What do you seek? I got that question once before and it's something I typically wonder about other people. Nobody usually asks it though because they typically don't know it themselves -which is probably why these two guys stwitched topics. Andrew, one of the Discpiles, becomes a follower of Jesus and brings his brother Simon in. Jesus then changes Simon's name to Peter. Yes, it is The Peter.

"43 The next day He purposed to go to Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, 'Follow Me'.
44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter.
45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, 'We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote -Jesus of Nazereth, the son of Joseph'.
46 Nathanael said to him, 'Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?' Philip said to him, 'Come and see.'
47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of him, 'Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!'
48 Nathanael said to Him, 'How do you know me?' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Before Philip called you, you were under the fig tree, I saw you.'
49 Nathanael answered Him, 'Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.'
50 Jesus answered and said to him, 'Because I said that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.'
51 And He said to him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.' -John 1: 43-51

Philip is the guy Jesus walked up to and said, "Follow Me". I wish getting people to follow me on Twitter was that easy. Phillip then found his buddy Nathanael . Nathanael was brought by Philip to meet Jesus, but initially had his doubts about him since he was from Nazareth. Nazareth back then was a sketchy area kind of like Oakland or East Palo Alto in California, which is why he was wondering if anything good could come out of it.  Then Jesus praised Nathanael for not being a deceitful person. Nathanael didn' know how Jesus, a stranger he just met could say that about him. Jesus then told him he psychically witnessed him under the fig tree, before Philip went to go get him. Then Nathanael was convinced entirely that he was the Messiah. Jesus was like, "Really? That was all I had to do to prove myself to you? Dang..." Some people are better at recognizing the Truth when it's in front of them than others. Jesus refers to Himself here as the Son of Man, even though most people refer to him as the Son of God. This is to show He is both sides of the coin.

I think it's interesting how John does not include stories that are covered in the accounts given by other disciples. I see myself doing this sometimes. Like with Gandalf and LOTR -If you don't know what those refer to go consult wikipedia. I'm more concerned with getting the main points out that recovering information that has already been well covered by others. It's more important for me to say why certain things are important than to go over the details I automatically presume to be common knowledge or easily obtained information.