The Two Disciples

 

The Two Disciples

 

There are three stories about the two disciples in the Bible. The first is the scene where the two disciples of John the Baptist follow Jesus.

John 1:37-39 『When the two disciples heard him speak, they followed Jesus (Ekolude san toe Jesus). Jesus turned and saw them following (Deasamenos). And he asked them, "What do you seek?" (Zeteite). And they said to him, "Rabbi, where do you dwell?" (Phu meneis) (Rabbi, which means, when translated, Teacher). Jesus said to them, "Come (Erkēsde) and see (Kai yosedes). So they came and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour.』 The two disciples of John the Baptist must have heard a lot about Jesus. So they went to Jesus to confirm whether he was the Messiah they thought he was, and they spent the day with him to confirm.

In the phrase “Ekoludesan To Jesus” (ἠκολούθησαν τῷ Ἰησοῦ), τῷ (to) is the dative case. Therefore, “To Jesus” does not simply mean that they followed Jesus, but that they followed Jesus in order to have a relationship with Him. In other words, it means that the two disciples of John followed Jesus with the purpose of becoming his disciples. As for why they followed him, it means that the two disciples heard his words in an instant and had an epiphany. Deasamenos (θεασάμενος) means to look closely. It means that Jesus looked at the two people closely and carefully.

Zeteite (ζητεῖτε) means to pursue. It implies a vision. It means for what purpose do you want to follow me? Phu meneis (ποῦ μένεις) is the question, where are you staying? Erkesde kai yepsesde (ἔρχεσθε καὶ ὄψεσθε) means, “Let yourselves come and you will see.” It tells us that everything we do to come to Jesus and see depends on us. Ten o’clock is around four o’clock in the afternoon today. They spent the day with Jesus in the house where He was staying and stayed until the afternoon. They would have had many conversations with Jesus during the day. It is like people today who do not know Jesus will be evangelized, come to know about Jesus, and go through the process of confirming that Jesus is the Christ.

The second two disciples were John and Peter. John 1:40-42 『One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first finds his own brother Simon and says to him, 'We have found the Messiah,' which is, when translated, the Christ. He brings him to Jesus. When Jesus saw him, he said, 'You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas, which is, when translated, Peter.'』

Proton (πρῶτον) does not mean first in the temporal concept, but rather one who is ahead. In other words, John, who was first, found Simon. We can see that Andrew was Peter's older brother. We can see that Simon Peter was someone who tried to find the Messiah. This is the moment when Simon becomes Peter. It tells us that he finally met the Messiah while searching for Him. Even today, those who seek Christ will meet Jesus. It means that God will meet those who truly earnestly seek Christ, who is Jesus. However, even though they tried so desperately to find Christ and eventually met Jesus Christ, they all ran away before the cross. This was because their physical bodies reacted.

The third two disciples appeared to the two disciples who were going down to Emmaus after Jesus’ resurrection. They did not recognize Jesus. They did not recognize at all that Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected. Of course, later Jesus showed them his resurrected body, helped them understand the Old Testament, and told them why he died and was resurrected.

The twelve disciples are not very different in appearance. Their acceptance of Jesus as their teacher was not for a spiritual reason, but because they thought that Jesus would take his place when he physically restored Israel as the Messiah.

The two disciples symbolize the appearance of believers today. When we first encounter Jesus Christ, we approach Him with a carnal mind. We think about what benefits Jesus Christ can give us. When Jesus was active, the Israelites thought of Jesus as a powerful leader who could heal the sick, experience miracles, and defeat Rome. Of course, the disciples were no different. When believers today first encounter Jesus Christ, they tend to think like this.

As their faith grows, they take the problem of sin seriously, think about the kingdom of God, and think about the meaning of salvation, and they pray and ask fervently to find out what they are curious about. They listen to sermons, read the Bible, and try to gain revelation through the experience of the Holy Spirit. However, when life’s difficulties come, they immediately become obsessed with the problem, and some people start to blame God and leave the church community. This is because they look at faith with their fleshly eyes. It is a mixture of omniscience, legalism, and gnosticism with Christian faith. Ultimately, it becomes a religion for themselves.

The most important part of the gospel is the death and resurrection of the cross. We believe that Jesus died on the cross to atone for our sins and become God's people, and we have a firm belief that after our physical bodies die, we will be resurrected and live in an immortal body that will never die. And if we are lucky while we are alive, we expect that we will be honored to be taken to the wedding feast in heaven when Jesus returns. This is what those who claim the rapture think.

Here we find two errors. First, although the death of the cross is the atoning death of Jesus, believers must also be buried with Jesus. All humans have a sin in their hearts that wants to be like God. This is called idolatry (covetousness). Genesis 3:6 says that sin entered the world when Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and gave it to her husband Adam to stop him. Death on the cross is the death of the body of sin that contains this covetousness. Romans 6:5 "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin." The body of sin refers to the soul that originated from the flesh as a physical body.

Second, most believers think of resurrection as a physical resurrection. They misunderstand that the dead body comes back to life after death. The physical body, or the physical body, must die, so the spirit also rises from the dead. Therefore, the spirit wears a spiritual body (soul) from heaven. Resurrection means returning to the previous state spiritually. It means returning to the previous angelic spirit. And resurrection does not happen when the body dies, but happens while alive. Of course, we cannot perceive the resurrection because of our physical eyes, but we must accept it with faith.

Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected three days later. His previous dead body disappeared, and he appeared to his disciples in a spiritual body. He spent forty years with his disciples and ascended to heaven. Only the disciples whose spiritual eyes were open could see his resurrected body. Jesus Christ opened the spiritual eyes of his disciples. Those whose spiritual eyes were closed could not see his resurrected body. This is because resurrection has a spiritual meaning. If a believer does not believe in his own death on the cross and spiritual resurrection, he will become a spiritual wanderer like the two disciples.