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Introduction
C.S. Lewis tells a story in The Silver Chair about a group of travellers who are trapped deep underground. They are put under a spell and told that the land of Narnia above and Aslan the great lion are nothing more than childish fantasies.
The only “real” things, they are assured, are the dim lamps and stone floors they can touch.vAnd for a moment, the argument almost works. The enclosed world feels solid. The larger reality feels distant and unreal.
The character who ultimately breaks the spell is not the bravest or the most hopeful, but Puddleglum. He is gloomy, cautious, and endlessly aware of what might go wrong. Yet when almost all hope is lost, it is Puddleglum who refuses to give in to the spell. He presses his foot into the enchanted fire, enduring the pain, and in doing so breaks the spell for everyone else.
For almost all of human history, people have had a sense that there is more to reality than what we can see. It has only been in the last 200 years or so, and mostly in highly developed Western society, that a large portion of the population believes that the physical world is all there is.
Sociologist and theologian Peter Berger compares our modern secular age to a house without windows, a world sealed off from transcendence.
Casinos are a perfect modern example of how this works. They are intentionally designed without windows or clocks. You lose your sense of time, direction, and even yourself. The point is not just distraction but immersion, keeping you enclosed in a carefully controlled reality where nothing beyond the room matters.
What I want to suggest today is that much of modern life functions the same way. We live as though this enclosed world is all there is, and we find all sorts of creative ways of keeping out the possibility of being exposed to the windows of an unseen world.
The life and calling of Jesus, by contrast, leads us back to the windows we have long forgotten, to an experience of deeper reality, beyond what is immediately visible or measurable.
In his book, The Call, Os Guinness writes that “Jesus summons us explicitly to a kingdom and a life made qualitatively different by their supernatural dimensions.”
And Dallas Willard asserted that “spirituality is a matter of another reality.”
When Jesus calls people to follow him, he calls us into a life of transformation and renewal, made possible because of his incarnation, death, and resurrection.
Today, we will look at John chapter one verses 19-51. Within this passage, we will see what it means to meet, know, and follow Jesus into new life with him.
The Call of the Witness
The opening statement of this section is “Now this was John’s testimony…”
Verses 19-34 tell us that John the Baptist was calling attention to Jesus. The word used is testimony. Martyria, which is where we get the English word martyr.
When we think of the word testimony, what comes to mind?
For Christians undergoing persecution, a testimony is quite possibly their death sentence. And this was the case for John the Baptist. His testimony about Jesus eventually got him killed.
For us, giving a testimony has far less severe consequences. Perhaps some nervousness, discomfort, or fear related to speaking in public. For John, it was a serious and profound testimony that has had history-altering effects.
His testimony was this: “I am not the Messiah… rather, I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.”
The conversation John had with representatives of the Jewish legal council called the Sanhedrin, is interesting. The Sanhedrin were seen as the final authority on right thought and behaviour among the Jewish people.
When the law was unclear on a particular situation, they were responsible for interpreting the law and making a decision on various cases. When John’s influence began to spread and he gained a substantial number of followers, the Sanhedrin would have been alerted.
Out of a desire to keep the Jewish people in line, they sent representatives to assess the situation.
It seems the main issue was that John was baptizing people. Baptism was not uncommon at the time, but it was not done by just anyone. If someone was baptizing, it would have normally been people converting to Judaism.
But, these were Jews being baptized. So, this could mean only one thing. John must have thought himself a prophet or messiah. A prophet and a messiah both were representatives of God. They spoke and acted on behalf of God.
John immediately said to those sent by the Sanhedrin that he was not the Messiah. And, he denied being the Prophet. Which is to say, he is not the one mentioned in Malachi 4:5 “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.”
This is interesting because in Matthew 11:14, Jesus said of John, “if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come.”
This is because, looking back in hindsight at his ministry, John ultimately fulfilled what had been foretold about Elijah’s future return.
In Luke 1:17, referring back to Malachi chapter 4, the declaration spoken to John’s parents by an angel before John was conceived was that “he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
So, in a very real sense Jesus could say that he was Elijah. But the Jews remembered that Elijah had left the earth in a chariot of fire without passing through death.
2 Kings 2:11 “As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.”
They expected that in due course the identical figure would reappear. John was not Elijah in this sense. So, he had no option but to deny that he was.1
John the Baptist saw himself only as a witness, one who had a clear directive from God to prepare people to receive the Messiah. And when Jesus, the Messiah, made himself known, some of John’s followers turned from John and followed Jesus.
Normally, this would have been offensive to a Jewish teacher. But, John was happy for his followers to leave him and follow the only one worthy of following.
Like Puddleglum in C.S. Lewis’ story, he saw beyond the spell of the religious elite and pointed people to the one who could bring humans back out into the greater world.
The Call of Jesus to Himself
If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that the first followers are described not as being called or invited by Jesus.
Rather, Andrew and an unnamed man, most likely John, the author of this Gospel, believe John the Baptist’s testimony about Jesus and decide to start literally following him.
They were curious about Jesus. They wanted to be close to the one who very possibly might be the promised saviour of Israel and the world.
The first thing they ask is, “Jesus, where are you staying?” This is a way of saying they want to spend time with him.
The beginning of our journey as Christians is to be close to Jesus. To “stay with” him. This “staying with” is our default position. Jesus is our new home.
Jesus does send us out, but always in his name, in his way. We cannot go out unless we have already stayed with him a while, unless we know him.
And as we stay close to him, learn to hear his voice, and how he conducts our Heavenly Father’s business, we will learn to see that it doesn’t matter where we go, Jesus is with us. He is not only with us, but he is making us into who we are meant to be.
The wording in the final sentence of verse 42 is important. Jesus said, “You will be called Peter.” This is not to say, “Henceforth, you are Peter.” Rather, Jesus is making a statement about Peter’s future role.
Peter means rock. The idea is that Peter would become foundational to the continuation of Jesus’ ministry. But this new name is more than a statement of function. It is a new identity in Jesus.
Throughout the New Testament, we see that Jesus is often referred to in a similar way as the name he gave to Peter.
Ephesians 2:19–20 “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”
1 Corinthians 10:4 “and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.”
Exodus 17:6 “I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.”
1 Peter 2:4–5, which is written by Peter himself, says, “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
The implication is, as Peter gets close to Jesus, he takes on the identity of Jesus. And, in his letter, Peter passes along this promise to all who respond to Jesus’ call and get close to him.
All of us, like living stones, are the spiritual house, the temple of the living God. What this says about Jesus is that his presence not only helps us do what he asks of us, but his presence transforms our identity and our purpose.
This brings us to the call of Jesus to new life.
The Call of Jesus to New Life
The call to new life is that we are no longer searching for answers or for identity or purpose. We find all those in the person of Jesus.
Let’s look at another interaction that Jesus had with one of his followers, Nathanael. It’s another strange one. Nathanael started his relationship with Jesus on shaky ground. He doubted that the Messiah could come from Nazareth.
Jesus overlooked this doubt and immediately highlighted Nathanael’s true character. He said that he is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. This is a bit of wordplay, referring to Jacob, whose name was changed by God to Israel.
Genesis 25:26 “After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.”
The idea of grasping at someone’s heel was an idiom closely related to deception. If you read the stories about Jacob, you would see this was Jacob’s character in many ways. But God gave him a new name, a new purpose, and a new identity.
He would be known as Israel, which means, according to Genesis 32:28 “you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”
If you are curious about this story, I spoke about it on May 12 ,2024 in the Pentateuch series, part 4.
Coming back to John’s Gospel, what Jesus was saying to Nathanael was that, unlike Jacob, he is without deceit, a true Israelite, one who wrestles with God.
Nathanael is confused. How could he know this? And what was it about Jesus saying that he saw him under a fig tree that made him respond the way he did? Based on the best explanation I could find, I came up with a bit of an interpretation that I think is quite plausible.
Perhaps Nathanael, like so many others, found that the cool shade of a fig tree was an excellent spot to study and ponder the Scriptures. The fig tree was commonly associated with peace, meditation, and study of the Law.
Micah 4:4 “Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken.”
Perhaps what Nathanael was studying was the story of Jacob in Genesis chapters 28-32 in which not only does Jacob wrestle with God, but he has a dream known famously as Jacob’s ladder.
And perhaps Nathanael never saw or met Jesus before and had no idea how he could have known that he was under the fig tree that day.
And this comment about being a man without deceit would have been a very clear signal that Jesus knew that Nathanael was reading about Jacob.
Then Jesus makes a statement that is probably one of the most profound connections to Jesus and the Old Testament outside the more common prophecies about the Messiah.
Do you see the connection? Jacob saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
Jesus essentially said to Nathanael, “You are like Jacob, but without deceit. And you will see even greater things than Jacob. You’ll see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
The “Son of Man” in this statement is a reference to Daniel 7:13–14 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”
The call to new life is a call to be seen by Jesus, transformed by him, and to see the glory of God in Jesus. We cannot experience this unless Jesus opens our eyes. He is the gateway to God’s kingdom.
He not only shows us the window out of our dark world, but he is the doorway through which we must pass. There is no other way to the new life of this kingdom.
Conclusion
So, my invitation, which I extended last week, is for you to respond to the call of Jesus to this new life.
I invite you to stand as I pray a prayer that I read last week written originally by Thomas à Kempis.
Lord Jesus Christ, you are the true light, eternal and unchanging. To shine into the darkness, you chose to enter the confines of this world, showing us the path to our eternal home where you dwell forever with unfailing light.
Hear our humble prayers, and pour generously into our hearts that divine light you proclaimed and commanded to be proclaimed to all nations.
Let us know your way during our time as pilgrims on this earth, so that each of us may leave behind worldly vanity and the anxieties of earthly life, and follow you, our Creator and Redeemer, with loving devotion to the end of our days, in humility, patience and endurance, in faith, hope, and love, in self-control, purity, and complete obedience.
Be our joy, the delight of our souls. Live with us and us with you, shutting out all else. Be our teacher and master, our knowledge and wisdom.
Following you, we cannot lose our way; fixing our gaze on you, we pay no attention to those who would pull us back.
May your love, which helps overcome all things, accomplish this in us, and may it be followed by humility of heart that, even while achieving much, considers itself to have done nothing worthy.
You are our hope and the fulfillment of our longing, our rest and the enlightenment of our hearts.
You never abandon those who hope in you, though you allow them to be tested for a time so they may know themselves better and remember that without you they can do nothing.
Do as you have said and promised, when the struggle is over, bring us to yourself into eternal glory, where you live and reign as God forever and ever. Amen.
- Leon Morris, The Gospel according to John, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 118–119. ↩︎
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