We have had before us John's testimony reaching out far beyond the Messiah in Israel; we see now the effect of his ministry. “Again, on the morrow, stood John and two of his disciples; and, looking fit Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! and the two disciples heard him speak, and followed Jesus. But Jesus, having turned and beheld them following, saith to them, What seek ye? And they said to him, Rabbi (which is to say, being interpreted, Master), where abidest thou? He saith to them, Come and see.
They went therefore and saw where he abode, and abode with him that day. It was about the tenth hour.” (Ver. 35-39.) It is not the fullest or clearest statement of the truth which most acts on others. Nothing tells so powerfully as the expression of the heart's joy and delight in an object that is worthy. So it was now. “Looking at Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!” The greatest of woman-born acknowledges the Savior with unaffected homage, and his own disciples that heard him speak follow Jesus. “He must increase, but I must decrease.” And so it ought to be. Not John but Jesus is the center: a man but God, for none other could be such without derogation from the divine glory. Jesus maintains that glory, but this as man too. Wonderful truth, and for man how precious and cheering! John was the servant of God's purpose, and his mission was thus best executed when His disciples followed Jesus. The Spirit of God supplants human and earthly motives. How indeed could it be otherwise, if one really believed that He in His person was God on earth? He must be the one exclusive and attractive center for all that know Him; and John's work was to prepare the way before Him. So here his ministry gathers to Jesus, sends from himself to Jesus.
But if in the Gospel of Matthew the Lord has a city if not a home, which we can name, here in that of John it is unnoticed where He dwelt. The disciples heard His voice, came and saw where He dwelt, abode with Him that day; but for others it is unnamed and unknown. We can understand that so it should be with One who was not only God in man on earth, but this wholly rejected of the world. And so divine life effects in those that are His: “Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”
Nor does the work stop there or then. “Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two that heard from John and followed him. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith to him, We have found the Messiah (which interpreted is Christ), and he led him to Jesus. Jesus looking at him said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonas; thou shalt be called Cephas (which is interpreted Peter).” (Vers. 40, 42.) Deeply interesting are these glimpses at the first introduction to Jesus of those souls who receiving Him found life eternal in Him and were called afterward to be foundations of that now building which would supersede the old, God's habitation in the Spirit. But all here concentrates in the person of Jesus, to whom Simon is brought by his brother, one of the first two whose souls were drawn to Him, however little yet they appreciated His glory. Yet was it a divine work, and Simon's coming was answered with a knowledge of past and present and future that told out who and what He was, who now spoke to man on earth in grace.
Here the same principle re-appears. Jesus, the image of the invisible God, the only perfect manifestation of God, is the acknowledged center beyond all rivalry. He was to die, as this Gospel relates (chap, 11), to gather in one the scattered children of God; as He will by-and-by gather all things in heaven and all things on earth under His headship. (Eph. 1) But then His person could not but be the one center of attraction to every one who saw by faith, as it was entitled to be for every creature. Only He was come not only to declare God and show us the Father in Himself the Son, but to take all on the ground of His death and resurrection, having perfectly glorified God in respect of the sin which had ruined all; and thereon to take His place in heaven, the glorified Head over all things to the church His body on earth, as we know now. On this however, as involving the revelation of God's counsels and of the mystery hidden from ages and from generations, I do not enter, as it would carry us rather to the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, the vessel chosen for disclosing these heavenly wonders.
Our business now is with John who lets us see the Lord on earth, a man but very God, and so drawing to Himself the hearts of all taught of God. Had He not been God, it would have been robbery not only from God but sometimes also from man. But not so: all the fullness dwelt in Him—dwelt in Him bodily. He was therefore from the beginning the divine center for saints on earth as afterward when the exalted Man the center on high, to whom as Head the Spirit united them as members of His body. This last could not be till redemption made it possible according to grace, but on the basis of righteousness. What we see in John attaches to the glory of His divine person; otherwise to bring to Jesus would have been to separate from God, not to Him as it was. But, in truth, He was and is the sole revealed center, as He was and is the only full revealer of God, and this because He is God, though God manifest in flesh and so meeting and winning man to God.
“On the morrow he would go forth into Galilee, and Jesus findeth Philip and saith to him, Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter.” (Ver. 44, 45.) It is an immense thing to be delivered by Jesus from the waste of one's own will or from the attachment of the heart to the will of a man stronger than ourselves; an immense thing to know that we have found in Him, not the Messiah merely, but the center of all God's revelations, plans, and counsels, so that we are gathering with Him because we are gathering to Him. All else, whatever the plea or pretension, is but scattering, and therefore labor in vain, or worse.
But we need more and find more in Jesus, who deigns to be not only our center but our “way,” on earth indeed, but not of the world as He is not. For such He is, no less than the Truth and the Life. What a blessing in such a world! It is now a wilderness where is no way. He is the Way. Do we fear where to walk, what step to take? Here are snares to seduce, there dangers to affright. Above them says the voice of Jesus, “Follow me.” None other is safe. The best of His servants may err, as all have. But even were it not so, He says “Follow me.” Christian, hesitate no more. Follow Jesus. You will find a deeper and better fellowship with those that are His; but this by following Him whom they follow. Only look well to it that it be according to the word, not your own thoughts and feelings; for are they better than those of others? Search your motives according to the light where you walk. “If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” But singleness is secured by looking to Jesus, not to ourselves or others. We have seen enough of ourselves when we have judged ourselves before God. Let us follow Jesus: to Him only and absolutely, a divine person on earth, it is duo. It is the true dignity of a saint; it is the only security of him who has still to watch against the sin that is in him; it is the path of genuine humility and of real love. In this shall we be sure of the guidance of the Spirit who is here to glorify Him, taking of His and showing them to us.