John 1:40 Commentary and Bible Study

Here is the evidence of faith. ‘He first’, after this long session with Christ, ‘He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias.’ These are tremendous words to say. I am absolutely sure of it, he says. ‘We have found the Messias, which is the Christ’, the anointed of God. So he went to Simon, to be Simon Peter, and announced that they had found the Messiah, the one foretold in the books of Moses, in the types and the shadows, the one foretold by the prophet. Oh, if you could speak with him, you would know it. He has such authority, such depth of knowledge, and his bearing, his deportment, is so full of kindness and love. He only wears a Galilean robe. He is only dressed simply. He is not quite what we expected. But John the Baptist pointed to him and we have proved it to be true.The word ‘find’ is used five times in the passage. Why this word? It is full of purpose, energy, excitement. They had been with John the Baptist and as far as they were concerned, this was the key to everything – the Messiah. No time was to be wasted in informing the others who were not present when John spoke about what had happened. They may well have witnessed the baptism and noted Christ going away afterwards to face the tempter and now he was back. Andrew would have gone to great lengths to find Simon, for they have all been following John for some time.