John 1:35-42
John the Baptist Disciples Follow Jesus
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
Luke 18:19
No One is Good but God Alone
19 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone.
Matthew 5:48
Be Perfect as God is Perfect
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Isaiah 6:3
Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD
3 And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."
1 Peter 2:22
Jesus Committed No Sin
22 “He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth.”
Acts 17:24-31
God Has Set a Judgment Day and Appointed Jesus as Judge
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
When the original disciples met Jesus they just followed Him...Jesus asked a simple, yet important question to two of them...When the two disciples heard John the Baptist call Jesus the Lamb of God, they followed Jesus...Turning around, Jesus saw them following and He asked this important question, “What do you want?”...The Disciples were searching for Something or Someone and they particularly noticed Him...They had their own reasons for following Him...I might guess they were searching for Someone different...They might have even been searching for Something Spiritual...They did find Someone very different...And they called Him Rabbi, which means Teacher...And what is interesting is that this Man, they were following had been a carpenter...But this question remained out there, "What do you want?"...This is a question for everyone and at any point in one's life...
Jesus went on to teach the Disciples many things...Jesus teaches us and His Disciples the eternities and about eternal life...To teach about and have eternal life, one must overcome death...Jesus teaches about God, who is eternal...He tells us that no one is good but God alone...He asks us to be perfect, like His Father is Perfect...We know it is very, very difficult to be Good and Perfect...We also know that God is Holy...So we can gather from what Jesus teaches us that God is our Moral Judge...And we might believe that if the Character of One is Good and Perfect and Holy, then they could be the Absolute Moral Judge...If One is Perfect and Good and Holy, then they very well are fit to be our Moral Judge...Who else and where does one find One who is Good and Perfect and Holy?...
The believer also believes that there is a Judgement Day and an End of Times and that there is a Day of Reckoning...And we will have a Judge...
Some people do not believe that they need a Moral Judge to believe that in the world where there is right and there is wrong...The non-believer can also believe that there is good and evil in this world without believing in God...But why do they want to believe in goodness and teach goodness to their children, if there is no Moral Judge?...Why not teach them about evil?...Where did these thoughts of morality originally come from?...Why have they remained with us?...And to further this, when the first murder happened and Cain killed Abel, did Cain feel justified and right?...Did he fear Abel and now feel less threatened with him gone?...Did Cain's surviving Abel make him feel safe for his own survival?...Or was it sin crouching at his door?...Was there a time when we only knew goodness, and not evil?...
How have we gotten this sense of right and wrong all throughout our history and maintained it?...There was a time centuries ago when almost everyone was religious...Some say that religion started to decline in the 1800’s as man reached for the Age of Reason...And some say that when knowledge and reason became more prevalent, that religion began to take a back seat to being religious...What good is knowledge and reason without Goodness, Perfectness, Forgiveness, Love, and Holiness?...
Man is Spiritual...Man is still Spiritual...Yet, I think at the same time man wants to believe that he is in control with his own knowledge and reason...But our knowledge and reasoning abilities are limited...There are some who believe in this majesty of man...There is this trend today to say that one is Spiritual But Not Religious (SBNR)...You can even google SBNR and Spiritual But Not Religious comes up as what the search engine has found...I believe by saying that one is Spiritual But Not Religious, lets man believe He is in control...Believing one is Spiritual But Not Religious also lets one sin...If one is just Spiritual and does not believe that God is our Moral Judge, what can he do...This belief can easily fit anyone's lifestyle...For the non-believer, he can believe that he will have no Day of Reckoning...
The traditional family can be many things today and the family is different than it was thousands of years ago, so fewer children get exposed to religion compared to what family life was like two thousand years ago...Children are the last generation for Christianity and to hold on to the belief in Jesus...
Paul tells us about the Moral Judge and says that God has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed...He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead...