We live in an age of online reviews. Every one is a critic, but every one is also an evangelist. If we get great service, experience something new or different, we want everyone to know. And those recommendations carry weight. The voice of friends and family does more to influence us than “expert” reviews.
While we live in a digital, electronic age, this basic human behavior has not changed for millennia.
When the first believers experienced Jesus, their first response was to tell others. We see this in John the Baptist. We see it in Andrew and Philip. We even see it later in Christ’s ministry with the woman at the well and even the centurion at the cross.
What is our response? Do we hide the Light of the World under a bushel? Do we keep quiet and keep the good news of Christ to ourselves? This is not the direction we see. We are to do what we were designed to do – tell others good news. We are called to point others to Christ, the same way we offer others a great taste, or wonderful smell, that we encourage them to feel something particularly soft or look at something exciting or desirable. This is part of our nature, part of what humans do. But, to do this in the way we are called we must first recognize just how amazing Christ is. What a miracle it is that we have a God who loves us so much that His only Son took the form of a man and suffered and died for our sins.
My Answers:
10.
JTB, led 2 to Jesus including Andrew. Andrew => Peter. Philip led Nathanael
11.
a.
He knew History and was steeped in Jewish tradition. Nazareth is never mentioned in the OT. If it wasn’t mentioned then it can’t have value now. But he still had His eyes and heart open and when He saw a miracle of God, He accepted it and did not continue in denial. He professed Jesus to be the Son of God
b.
I am a thinking person, I like to reason things out and I am biased based on what I think I know, but I strive to be honest.
12.
The reference is to the vision of Jacob’s ladder, but instead of a physical ladder, Jesus professes that He is the only way to the Father in Heaven
The Notes are Good 