Found him

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

FOUND HIM

John 1:40-42

40 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). 42 And 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).

NIV

 There are two stories within which should be told separately, one of finding him and bringing someone else to him and the other of having a new name. After Andrew discovered that he had actually found the Messiah, the long awaited Christ that had been prophesied about so many year ago, the very first thing he did was go find his brother and tell him all about finding Jesus. Remembering those first days after being saved, certainly we ran to our brothers and sisters, our children, our parents, our most best friends and told them we had found Jesus. But what about ten, twenty, thirty or more years later, are we still running to tell them about Jesus?  Sure Andrew was excited about finding him, his life was going to be changed, and things were going to be different. Andrew was living under Roman law and surely the prophesies told of the Jesus setting up a new kingdom, one in which Andrew would be a part of. He had not yet understood that Jesus was bringing the Kingdom of God, not overthrowing the earthly government, of course that fell on its own. But his first thought was of his brother, he had to get him and tell him to come and meet Jesus. So many of us believers think others will meet Jesus because of the way we live, or because we go out into the community and do good deeds, or because we say we love them, but the fact is we should be using our mouth, making words, that say, we have found Jesus, come and meet him. The second story here is about Jesus changing Andrew’s brothers name from Simon to Cephas. The scholars tell us that Cephas is Aramaic and the Greek word for Peter both mean rock. Some would say that when Jesus said, Upon this rock I will build my church, he was saying that Peter was the foundation of the church. How wrong can that be? Jesus is the cornerstone, he is the foundation. The Greek word Petros is Peters name, but Jesus used the word Petra which is a large rock, not a name of a man. That phrase is used metaphorically to mean the strength and firmness of a man’s soul. This is what Jesus will build his church on, the strength and firmness of our souls, not on any one man. But the other truth is Jesus gave Simon a new name, and he has given each and every one of us a new name as well. Yes, we will get a new name when we get to heaven, known only to us and Jesus. But for now we also have a new name, we no longer are children of the world, but we are children of the Most High God. We have been given the name after Christ, Christian. Our name is Christian.