John 1:29-51

The very next day, John saw Jesus coming to him to be baptized, and John cried out, “Look! There he is—God’s Lamb! He takes away the sin of the entire world! I told you that a Mighty One would come who is far greater than I am, because he existed long before I was born! My baptism was for the preparation of his appearing to Israel, even though I didn’t recognize him.” Then, as he baptized Jesus, he proclaimed these words: “I see the Spirit of God appear like a dove descending from the heavenly realm and landing upon him—and it remained on him! Before this I didn’t know who he was. But the one who sent me to baptize with water had told me, ‘You will see the Spirit come down and stay on someone. He will be the One I have sent to baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ Now I have seen this happen and I can tell you for sure that this man is the Son of God.” The next day, Jesus walked right past where John and two of his disciples were standing. John, gazing upon Jesus, pointed to him and prophesied, “Look! There’s God’s sacrificial Lamb!” And as soon as John’s two disciples heard this, they immediately left John and began to follow a short distance behind Jesus. Jesus turned around and saw they were following him and asked, “What do you want?” They responded, “Rabbi (which means, Master Teacher ), where are you staying?” Jesus answered, “Come and discover for yourselves.” So they went with him and saw where he was staying, and since it was late in the afternoon, they spent the rest of the day with Jesus. One of the two disciples who heard John’s words and began to follow Jesus was a man named Andrew. He first found his brother, Simon Peter, and told him, “We have found the Anointed One!” (Which is translated, the Christ.) Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. When he gazed upon Andrew’s brother, he prophesied to him, “You are Simon and your father’s name is John. But from now on, everyone will call you Cephas” (which means, Peter the Rock). The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee, where he found Philip. Jesus said to him, “Come and follow me.” (Now Philip, Andrew, and Peter had all grown up together in the village of Bethsaida.) Philip went to look for his friend, Nathanael, and told him, “We’ve found him! We’ve found the One we’ve been waiting for! It’s Jesus, son of Joseph from Nazareth! He’s the One whom Moses and the prophets prophesied would come!” Nathanael sneered, “Nazareth! What good thing could ever come from Nazareth?” Philip answered, “Come and let’s find out!” When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said, “Here comes a true son of Israel—an honest man with no hidden motive!” Nathanael was stunned and said, “But you’ve never met me—how do you know anything about me?” Jesus answered, “Nathanael, right before Philip came to you, I saw you sitting under the shade of a fig tree.” Nathanael blurted out, “Teacher, you are truly the Son of God and the King of Israel!” Jesus answered, “Do you believe simply because I told you I saw you sitting under a fig tree? You will experience even more impressive things than that! I prophesy to you eternal truth: From now on, you all will see an open heaven and gaze upon the Son of Man like a stairway reaching into the sky with the messengers of God climbing up and down upon him!”