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Scripture1 Corinthians Chapter 13, John Chapter 1, 2 and 3, Numbers 21:4-9
Script
The Cast of Characters: Paul, Narrator Peter, Peter, John, James, Israelite, Moses, Nathanael, Philip, Andrew, Pharisee, Nicodemus, Jesus
The Scene: Galilee, The road to Jerusalem, The Temple in Jerusalem, The wilderness near Edom, A home or encampment in Jerusalem. Click to View Maps
(Lights come up on our Readers/Characters, all in a row, perhaps with a slight curve to help with eye contact. The characters should, once again, be placed in such a way to make conversation easiest and the scene most powerful. Narrator Peter, and Paul, should stand separate from our row of characters.)
Jesus and Nicodemus by Debbie Clark
- All Parts (13)
- Paul
- Narrator Peter
- Peter
- John
- James
- Israelite
- Moses
- Nathanael
- Philip
- Andrew
- Pharisee
- Nicodemus
- Jesus
 | Paul: If I, Paul, speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. |
 | Peter: And if I, Peter, have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, |
| Andrew: …and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, |
| John: …I am nothing. |
| James: If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, |
| Paul: …I gain nothing. (Lights out, then immediately back up) |
| Narrator Peter: After Jesus said to me, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Peter,” the next day He decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him “Follow me”. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the same as me and Andrew, on the far north of the lake, the Sea of Galilee. Philip found Nathanael, and said to him: |
| Philip: We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. |
| (Sound Effect: A donkey clomps toward us and stops.) |
| Nathanael: Can anything good come out of Nazareth? |
| Philip: Come and see. |
| Narrator Peter: Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said of him, |
| Jesus: Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit! |
| Nathanael: How do you know me? |
| Jesus: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. |
| Nathanael: Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! |
| (Sound Effect: The donkey brays, then clomps away.) |
| Jesus: Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Son of God, Son of Man, The Messiah, The Christ. These were some lofty names. Perhaps I was the most jaded, the most cautious among us. Time would tell. Then Jesus asked us to go with Him to a wedding at Cana in Galilee. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; |
| John: …love does not envy or boast; |
| James: …it is not arrogant or rude. |
| Andrew: It does not insist on its own way; |
| Philip: …it is not irritable or resentful, |
| Nathanael: …it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, |
| John: …but rejoices with the truth. |
| James: Love bears all things, |
| Andrew: …believes all things, |
| Peter: …hopes all things, |
| Narrator Peter: …endures all things. |
| Paul: Love never ends. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: As you may know, at the wedding, Jesus performed a miracle, and turned water into wine. This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And we, His disciples so far, believed in Him. After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum, with His mother and His brothers and us, His disciples, and we stayed there a few days. For me and Andrew, James and John, this was still our home, where we were fishermen. |
| (Lights out, then back up. The six disciples are on the shore, preparing to go fishing.) | |
| (Sound Effect: A gull caws in the distance.) |
| Peter: You have that net mended? | |
| Andrew: It’s looking halfway decent. | |
| Peter: Let’s get to it! The fish aren’t going to catch themselves. | |
| John: Probably not! But that was quite a wedding back there!! | |
| James: Best wine I’ve ever had. I’m really liking this Jesus fellow! | |
| Nathanael: Do you think He can turn mutton into a big juicy steak? | |
| Philip: That’s what I’m talking about! | |
| Andrew: How about fish? We’ve got plenty of those! | |
| Nathanael: Mutton is funnier though. | |
| Peter: What really matters though, is here is the Messiah. Is He not? | |
| Andrew: He is! | |
| John: Has to be. I’ve never seen anything like that! | |
| James: Neither have I! | |
| Philip: What will He do next? | |
| (Sound Effect: The bird caws, closer now.) |
| Nathanael: What will we do? | |
| Peter: Passover is coming. We’ll go with Him there. And then we shall see. But first there are many fish to catch, and money that needs to be made. | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Ever since Moses led our people out of slavery, well over a thousand years earlier, we celebrated Passover week in the spring of each year. It was our most important observance. All Jews within 15 miles of Jerusalem were required to attend there, in Jerusalem. We were about 125 miles away, but this year, with The Messiah among us, we would not have missed it for the world. | |
| (Lights out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Hungry birds, swarming over a fresh catch.) |
| Narrator Peter: The day before the trip, we were on the shore after hauling in a catch. | |
| John: Peter, shall we knock off early and prepare for the journey? | |
| Peter: Certainly. The fishing has been good, which is good, since we’ll be gone for quite some time. Perhaps three weeks? | |
| James: It’s a long time to miss. But at least they can’t tax us on what we don’t make! | |
| Nathanael: You haven’t heard of the new Prophet Tax? | |
| Philip: What’s that? | |
| Nathanael: Instead of taxing you on your profit, they tax you on what their Prophet says you would have made. | |
| Philip: (Shaking his head) You’re trying too hard, my friend. | |
| Andrew: (Back to the subject at hand) How could we not go, though? | |
| John: Oh, we’re going. I am anyway. But have you guys thought about where this is headed? When Moses came, what, about 1300 or 1400 years ago? He led our people out of slavery, but they wandered in the desert down there for 40 years! David’s time was a thousand years ago, but we had an army then, when he delivered us from the Philistines and established us as a great nation. Now we’re nothing. |
| (Sound Effect: The birds caw, aggressively.) |
| Philip: And Rome may very well be the most powerful army that ever existed. | |
| Nathanael: Looks like Jesus has His work cut out for Him. | |
| Peter: And us, if we follow Him. | |
| Andrew: For sure there’s a price. But if He is The Christ, which He is, how could I not be a part of it? | |
 | Peter: You know, every time I go to Jerusalem, I think about what I saw a number of years ago there—a crucifixion. There was this man–they whipped him really badly, but carefully enough not to kill him. Then they forced him to carry the crossbeam of his cross quite a long way to where the shaft was already positioned in the ground, just outside the city, on a hill. Then, I suppose to shame him even more, or make an example, the Romans stripped him of all his clothes. Then they drove nails through his wrists, with his arms outstretched on the crossbeam he had carried. |
| Peter: Then they lifted him up to the shaft and nailed the crossbeam to it, maybe 10, maybe 12 feet up in the air. Then they nailed his feet to the shaft. Then they inserted a ledge to give him some support, to sit, but that just seemed to make sure he suffered for longer. They put a notice above his head with his name and his crime. | |
| John: What had he done? | |
| Peter: He had struck a Roman official, didn’t even hurt him much. But they thought they needed to make an example of him. It was brutal. It was obscene. | |
| Philip: (Slowly) Well that was a fun story. Thanks for cheering me up. | |
| Nathanael: Yes, it was quite uplifting! Get it? Uplifting? | |
| (Sound Effect: A Gull, directly overhead, caws loudly.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: The journey to Jerusalem was, actually, quite uplifting. I have never known a teacher so effective, and He was just easy to be around. He seemed gentle too, not like a warrior at all. Not like King David, not yet anyway. But that is what we expected Him to become. How else could He save us from Rome? How could He save us from ourselves? | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: When Jesus saw the corruption in Jerusalem, how the Temple had been turned into a marketplace, He was indeed upset. Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, |
| Jesus: Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade. |
| (Light out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Muffled voices in the distance. Perhaps a stray goat, bleating.) |
| John: Did you see that? Coins flying everywhere! | |
| James: Did I see it? A front row seat! | |
| Andrew: He showed them! What a mockery they’ve made of worship! This was their first glimpse of our Messiah! The Christ! | |
| John: But not the last. He had better start training us for battle. | |
| James: Fight! | |
| Andrew: The Sadducees can die and be buried with the Romans! | |
| James: And all our other enemies throughout history! | |
| Nathanael: Yeah, they’ll be quite sad, you see? | |
| Philip: I get it. Sad. You see. | |
| (Sound Effect: The goat, closer now, bleats, as if laughing at a bad joke.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Sure enough, the Jewish authorities questioned Jesus. | |
| Pharisee: (Angrily) What sign do you show us for doing these things? |
| Jesus: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. |
| Pharisee: It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? |
| Narrator Peter: But He was speaking about the temple of His body, and of course they did not understand this. At the time, neither did we. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing. But Jesus on His part did not entrust himself to them, |
| John: …because He knew all people and He needed no one to bear witness about man, for He himself knew what was in man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: In my day, when Jesus walked the earth, the Roman cross represented certain death. In Moses’ time, well over a thousand years earlier, when the Israelites were in the wilderness, fiery snakes, or serpents, represented certain death. | |
| Moses: After nearly forty years in the wilderness, after my brother, Aaron, died and was gathered to his people, we set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. Now this was an extra 180 miles, on foot, through harsh conditions. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against me, Moses. |
| Israelite: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. |
| Moses: Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to me and said, |
| Israelite: We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us. |
| Moses: So I prayed for the people. |
| Narrator Peter: And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: After Passover, we stayed a short time in Jerusalem. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, |
| Nicodemus: Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him. |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. |
| Nicodemus: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. |
| Nicodemus: How can these things be? |
| Jesus: Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Jesus: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| John: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| Narrator Peter: Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. |
| Peter: And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. |
| John: For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. |
| Philip: But whoever does what is true comes to the light, |
| Nathanael: …so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. |
| Narrator Peter: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
| Peter: Love never ends. |
| John: As for prophecies, they will pass away; |
| James: …as for tongues, they will cease; |
| Andrew: …as for knowledge, it will pass away. |
| Philip: For we know in part and we prophesy in part, |
| Nathanael: …but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. |
| Narrator Peter: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. |
| Peter: When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. |
| Paul: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; |
| Narrator Peter: …then I shall know fully, |
| Peter: …even as I have been fully known. |
| Paul: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; |
| Jesus: … but the greatest of these is love. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| Narrator Peter: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| Jesus: For God so loved the world, that He gave Me, His only Son, that whoever believes in Me should not perish but have eternal life. |
| (Action: Jesus walks downstage center.) | |
| Narrator Peter: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| (Action: Jesus lifts His hands to heaven, acknowledging the Father. He then outstretches His arms, as if on the cross. His eyes lift heavenward.) | |
| Jesus: Father, into your hands I commit My spirit! |
| (Action: Jesus closes His eyes and bows His head.) |
| Paul: If I, Paul, speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. |
| Peter: And if I, Peter, have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, |
| Andrew: …and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, |
| John: …I am nothing. |
| James: If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, |
| Paul: …I gain nothing. (Lights out, then immediately back up) |
| Narrator Peter: After Jesus said to me, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Peter,” the next day He decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him “Follow me”. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the same as me and Andrew, on the far north of the lake, the Sea of Galilee. Philip found Nathanael, and said to him: |
| Philip: We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. |
| (Sound Effect: A donkey clomps toward us and stops.) |
| Nathanael: Can anything good come out of Nazareth? |
| Philip: Come and see. |
| Narrator Peter: Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said of him, |
| Jesus: Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit! |
| Nathanael: How do you know me? |
| Jesus: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. |
| Nathanael: Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! |
| (Sound Effect: The donkey brays, then clomps away.) |
| Jesus: Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Son of God, Son of Man, The Messiah, The Christ. These were some lofty names. Perhaps I was the most jaded, the most cautious among us. Time would tell. Then Jesus asked us to go with Him to a wedding at Cana in Galilee. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; |
| John: …love does not envy or boast; |
| James: …it is not arrogant or rude. |
| Andrew: It does not insist on its own way; |
| Philip: …it is not irritable or resentful, |
| Nathanael: …it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, |
| John: …but rejoices with the truth. |
| James: Love bears all things, |
| Andrew: …believes all things, |
| Peter: …hopes all things, |
| Narrator Peter: …endures all things. |
| Paul: Love never ends. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: As you may know, at the wedding, Jesus performed a miracle, and turned water into wine. This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And we, His disciples so far, believed in Him. After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum, with His mother and His brothers and us, His disciples, and we stayed there a few days. For me and Andrew, James and John, this was still our home, where we were fishermen. |
| (Lights out, then back up. The six disciples are on the shore, preparing to go fishing.) | |
| (Sound Effect: A gull caws in the distance.) |
| Peter: You have that net mended? | |
| Andrew: It’s looking halfway decent. | |
| Peter: Let’s get to it! The fish aren’t going to catch themselves. | |
| John: Probably not! But that was quite a wedding back there!! | |
| James: Best wine I’ve ever had. I’m really liking this Jesus fellow! | |
| Nathanael: Do you think He can turn mutton into a big juicy steak? | |
| Philip: That’s what I’m talking about! | |
| Andrew: How about fish? We’ve got plenty of those! | |
| Nathanael: Mutton is funnier though. | |
| Peter: What really matters though, is here is the Messiah. Is He not? | |
| Andrew: He is! | |
| John: Has to be. I’ve never seen anything like that! | |
| James: Neither have I! | |
| Philip: What will He do next? | |
| (Sound Effect: The bird caws, closer now.) |
| Nathanael: What will we do? | |
| Peter: Passover is coming. We’ll go with Him there. And then we shall see. But first there are many fish to catch, and money that needs to be made. | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Ever since Moses led our people out of slavery, well over a thousand years earlier, we celebrated Passover week in the spring of each year. It was our most important observance. All Jews within 15 miles of Jerusalem were required to attend there, in Jerusalem. We were about 125 miles away, but this year, with The Messiah among us, we would not have missed it for the world. | |
| (Lights out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Hungry birds, swarming over a fresh catch.) |
| Narrator Peter: The day before the trip, we were on the shore after hauling in a catch. | |
| John: Peter, shall we knock off early and prepare for the journey? | |
| Peter: Certainly. The fishing has been good, which is good, since we’ll be gone for quite some time. Perhaps three weeks? | |
| James: It’s a long time to miss. But at least they can’t tax us on what we don’t make! | |
| Nathanael: You haven’t heard of the new Prophet Tax? | |
| Philip: What’s that? | |
| Nathanael: Instead of taxing you on your profit, they tax you on what their Prophet says you would have made. | |
| Philip: (Shaking his head) You’re trying too hard, my friend. | |
| Andrew: (Back to the subject at hand) How could we not go, though? | |
| John: Oh, we’re going. I am anyway. But have you guys thought about where this is headed? When Moses came, what, about 1300 or 1400 years ago? He led our people out of slavery, but they wandered in the desert down there for 40 years! David’s time was a thousand years ago, but we had an army then, when he delivered us from the Philistines and established us as a great nation. Now we’re nothing. |
| (Sound Effect: The birds caw, aggressively.) |
| Philip: And Rome may very well be the most powerful army that ever existed. | |
| Nathanael: Looks like Jesus has His work cut out for Him. | |
| Peter: And us, if we follow Him. | |
| Andrew: For sure there’s a price. But if He is The Christ, which He is, how could I not be a part of it? | |
| Peter: You know, every time I go to Jerusalem, I think about what I saw a number of years ago there—a crucifixion. There was this man–they whipped him really badly, but carefully enough not to kill him. Then they forced him to carry the crossbeam of his cross quite a long way to where the shaft was already positioned in the ground, just outside the city, on a hill. Then, I suppose to shame him even more, or make an example, the Romans stripped him of all his clothes. Then they drove nails through his wrists, with his arms outstretched on the crossbeam he had carried. |
| Peter: Then they lifted him up to the shaft and nailed the crossbeam to it, maybe 10, maybe 12 feet up in the air. Then they nailed his feet to the shaft. Then they inserted a ledge to give him some support, to sit, but that just seemed to make sure he suffered for longer. They put a notice above his head with his name and his crime. | |
| John: What had he done? | |
| Peter: He had struck a Roman official, didn’t even hurt him much. But they thought they needed to make an example of him. It was brutal. It was obscene. | |
| Philip: (Slowly) Well that was a fun story. Thanks for cheering me up. | |
| Nathanael: Yes, it was quite uplifting! Get it? Uplifting? | |
| (Sound Effect: A Gull, directly overhead, caws loudly.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: The journey to Jerusalem was, actually, quite uplifting. I have never known a teacher so effective, and He was just easy to be around. He seemed gentle too, not like a warrior at all. Not like King David, not yet anyway. But that is what we expected Him to become. How else could He save us from Rome? How could He save us from ourselves? | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: When Jesus saw the corruption in Jerusalem, how the Temple had been turned into a marketplace, He was indeed upset. Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, |
| Jesus: Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade. |
| (Light out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Muffled voices in the distance. Perhaps a stray goat, bleating.) |
| John: Did you see that? Coins flying everywhere! | |
| James: Did I see it? A front row seat! | |
| Andrew: He showed them! What a mockery they’ve made of worship! This was their first glimpse of our Messiah! The Christ! | |
| John: But not the last. He had better start training us for battle. | |
| James: Fight! | |
| Andrew: The Sadducees can die and be buried with the Romans! | |
| James: And all our other enemies throughout history! | |
| Nathanael: Yeah, they’ll be quite sad, you see? | |
| Philip: I get it. Sad. You see. | |
| (Sound Effect: The goat, closer now, bleats, as if laughing at a bad joke.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Sure enough, the Jewish authorities questioned Jesus. | |
| Pharisee: (Angrily) What sign do you show us for doing these things? |
| Jesus: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. |
| Pharisee: It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? |
| Narrator Peter: But He was speaking about the temple of His body, and of course they did not understand this. At the time, neither did we. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing. But Jesus on His part did not entrust himself to them, |
| John: …because He knew all people and He needed no one to bear witness about man, for He himself knew what was in man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: In my day, when Jesus walked the earth, the Roman cross represented certain death. In Moses’ time, well over a thousand years earlier, when the Israelites were in the wilderness, fiery snakes, or serpents, represented certain death. | |
| Moses: After nearly forty years in the wilderness, after my brother, Aaron, died and was gathered to his people, we set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. Now this was an extra 180 miles, on foot, through harsh conditions. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against me, Moses. |
| Israelite: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. |
| Moses: Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to me and said, |
| Israelite: We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us. |
| Moses: So I prayed for the people. |
| Narrator Peter: And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: After Passover, we stayed a short time in Jerusalem. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, |
| Nicodemus: Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him. |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. |
| Nicodemus: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. |
| Nicodemus: How can these things be? |
| Jesus: Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Jesus: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| John: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| Narrator Peter: Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. |
| Peter: And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. |
| John: For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. |
| Philip: But whoever does what is true comes to the light, |
| Nathanael: …so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. |
| Narrator Peter: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
| Peter: Love never ends. |
| John: As for prophecies, they will pass away; |
| James: …as for tongues, they will cease; |
| Andrew: …as for knowledge, it will pass away. |
| Philip: For we know in part and we prophesy in part, |
| Nathanael: …but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. |
| Narrator Peter: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. |
| Peter: When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. |
| Paul: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; |
| Narrator Peter: …then I shall know fully, |
| Peter: …even as I have been fully known. |
| Paul: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; |
| Jesus: … but the greatest of these is love. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| Narrator Peter: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| Jesus: For God so loved the world, that He gave Me, His only Son, that whoever believes in Me should not perish but have eternal life. |
| (Action: Jesus walks downstage center.) | |
| Narrator Peter: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| (Action: Jesus lifts His hands to heaven, acknowledging the Father. He then outstretches His arms, as if on the cross. His eyes lift heavenward.) | |
| Jesus: Father, into your hands I commit My spirit! |
| (Action: Jesus closes His eyes and bows His head.) |
Episode Spotlight:
In this episode, we find Peter and his companions out working by their fishing boats. While they are working, they are having a discussion about the various fees and taxes that they have to pay to the Roman government. We immediately see the oppression that the Romans have imposed on the Jewish people. But it gets worse if we continue in the scene. James, John, and Peter begin to discuss all of the fees they had to pay in the temple. The Jewish temple was the center of Jewish religious practice, but it was also an economic center that could cause a burden to the Jewish people. In both cases, we see the would-be disciples are looking for a messiah to come and resolve all of their issues. They were looking for a messiah to deliver them from their oppression.
We get to listen in on them as they describe what they think the Messiah would look like. It sounds more like a superhero than Jesus Christ. They were looking for a warrior that can rescue them from their oppression, but at the beginning of our story we see John describing Jesus. Let’s consider this his origin story. John says some really powerful things that while it may not look like Jesus is a superhero when his future disciples see him, it is clear that Jesus is more powerful than they ever could imagine. John describes Jesus as the physical manifestation of the Word of God. Not only is He the manifestation of the Word of God, but He is God himself. He is not just any superhero. He is the all-powerful Savior of the universe.
The beginning of the scene not only gives us an introduction to who Jesus is, but also why Jesus came to earth. There is a quotation from the prophet Isaiah that details Jesus’ plans. Jesus has come to bring liberty to people who are captive, to bring healing to people that are broken-hearted, and to bring good news to those that are downtrodden. This sounds like a superhero, but it doesn’t sound like someone who is coming to overthrow an empire. Rather, Jesus came to bring a different kind of power and a different way of looking at power. That’s not exactly what his future disciples were looking for at that point.
This is very important because this gives us an early look into how the disciples would view and receive Jesus. They were looking for a superhero, not just a religious leader. By the discussion that we imagined in the episode, we can tell that they were tired of their oppression, and they were looking for an answer. So when Andrew shows up, it is no wonder that they were so excited to go and meet Jesus.
Think back to when you first met Jesus. What was your life like? What needed to be changed about your life? What were the things that were oppressing you? This is important to remember so that we can share our testimony with others. If they know that Jesus delivered us from our oppression, they may be more inclined to let God deliver them from theirs. Remember how excited Andrew was when he came and told his brothers that he had seen the Messiah? Could you imagine what it felt like after living in darkness for so long, to see the light of Christ and know that your life was about to change? No wonder they wanted to follow him.
We see in this text three blueprints for Biblical witnesses. First of all, we learn from John that our discipleship is not to generate our own glory or make a name for ourselves, but to help people meet Jesus. Then we see that Jesus shows us that it’s not always our words that will convince us, but rather our actions that truly show the light of Christ. Finally, Andrew encourages us to bring others to Jesus after we have experienced His goodness. Look at the keyword “follow”. In the Greek, it means not only to go after, but also to obey. The fruit of these three witnessing events was that the disciples became obedient followers of Jesus. They weren’t just chasing after him, but they were also taking heed of his commandments.
| Paul: If I, Paul, speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. |
| Peter: And if I, Peter, have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, |
| Andrew: …and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, |
| John: …I am nothing. |
| James: If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, |
| Paul: …I gain nothing. (Lights out, then immediately back up) |
| Narrator Peter: After Jesus said to me, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Peter,” the next day He decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him “Follow me”. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the same as me and Andrew, on the far north of the lake, the Sea of Galilee. Philip found Nathanael, and said to him: |
| Philip: We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. |
| (Sound Effect: A donkey clomps toward us and stops.) |
| Nathanael: Can anything good come out of Nazareth? |
| Philip: Come and see. |
| Narrator Peter: Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said of him, |
| Jesus: Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit! |
| Nathanael: How do you know me? |
| Jesus: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. |
| Nathanael: Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! |
| (Sound Effect: The donkey brays, then clomps away.) |
| Jesus: Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Son of God, Son of Man, The Messiah, The Christ. These were some lofty names. Perhaps I was the most jaded, the most cautious among us. Time would tell. Then Jesus asked us to go with Him to a wedding at Cana in Galilee. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; |
| John: …love does not envy or boast; |
| James: …it is not arrogant or rude. |
| Andrew: It does not insist on its own way; |
| Philip: …it is not irritable or resentful, |
| Nathanael: …it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, |
| John: …but rejoices with the truth. |
| James: Love bears all things, |
| Andrew: …believes all things, |
| Peter: …hopes all things, |
| Narrator Peter: …endures all things. |
| Paul: Love never ends. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: As you may know, at the wedding, Jesus performed a miracle, and turned water into wine. This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And we, His disciples so far, believed in Him. After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum, with His mother and His brothers and us, His disciples, and we stayed there a few days. For me and Andrew, James and John, this was still our home, where we were fishermen. |
| (Lights out, then back up. The six disciples are on the shore, preparing to go fishing.) | |
| (Sound Effect: A gull caws in the distance.) |
| Peter: You have that net mended? | |
| Andrew: It’s looking halfway decent. | |
| Peter: Let’s get to it! The fish aren’t going to catch themselves. | |
| John: Probably not! But that was quite a wedding back there!! | |
| James: Best wine I’ve ever had. I’m really liking this Jesus fellow! | |
| Nathanael: Do you think He can turn mutton into a big juicy steak? | |
| Philip: That’s what I’m talking about! | |
| Andrew: How about fish? We’ve got plenty of those! | |
| Nathanael: Mutton is funnier though. | |
| Peter: What really matters though, is here is the Messiah. Is He not? | |
| Andrew: He is! | |
| John: Has to be. I’ve never seen anything like that! | |
| James: Neither have I! | |
| Philip: What will He do next? | |
| (Sound Effect: The bird caws, closer now.) |
| Nathanael: What will we do? | |
| Peter: Passover is coming. We’ll go with Him there. And then we shall see. But first there are many fish to catch, and money that needs to be made. | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Ever since Moses led our people out of slavery, well over a thousand years earlier, we celebrated Passover week in the spring of each year. It was our most important observance. All Jews within 15 miles of Jerusalem were required to attend there, in Jerusalem. We were about 125 miles away, but this year, with The Messiah among us, we would not have missed it for the world. | |
| (Lights out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Hungry birds, swarming over a fresh catch.) |
| Narrator Peter: The day before the trip, we were on the shore after hauling in a catch. | |
| John: Peter, shall we knock off early and prepare for the journey? | |
| Peter: Certainly. The fishing has been good, which is good, since we’ll be gone for quite some time. Perhaps three weeks? | |
| James: It’s a long time to miss. But at least they can’t tax us on what we don’t make! | |
| Nathanael: You haven’t heard of the new Prophet Tax? | |
| Philip: What’s that? | |
| Nathanael: Instead of taxing you on your profit, they tax you on what their Prophet says you would have made. | |
| Philip: (Shaking his head) You’re trying too hard, my friend. | |
| Andrew: (Back to the subject at hand) How could we not go, though? | |
| John: Oh, we’re going. I am anyway. But have you guys thought about where this is headed? When Moses came, what, about 1300 or 1400 years ago? He led our people out of slavery, but they wandered in the desert down there for 40 years! David’s time was a thousand years ago, but we had an army then, when he delivered us from the Philistines and established us as a great nation. Now we’re nothing. |
| (Sound Effect: The birds caw, aggressively.) |
| Philip: And Rome may very well be the most powerful army that ever existed. | |
| Nathanael: Looks like Jesus has His work cut out for Him. | |
| Peter: And us, if we follow Him. | |
| Andrew: For sure there’s a price. But if He is The Christ, which He is, how could I not be a part of it? | |
| Peter: You know, every time I go to Jerusalem, I think about what I saw a number of years ago there—a crucifixion. There was this man–they whipped him really badly, but carefully enough not to kill him. Then they forced him to carry the crossbeam of his cross quite a long way to where the shaft was already positioned in the ground, just outside the city, on a hill. Then, I suppose to shame him even more, or make an example, the Romans stripped him of all his clothes. Then they drove nails through his wrists, with his arms outstretched on the crossbeam he had carried. |
| Peter: Then they lifted him up to the shaft and nailed the crossbeam to it, maybe 10, maybe 12 feet up in the air. Then they nailed his feet to the shaft. Then they inserted a ledge to give him some support, to sit, but that just seemed to make sure he suffered for longer. They put a notice above his head with his name and his crime. | |
| John: What had he done? | |
| Peter: He had struck a Roman official, didn’t even hurt him much. But they thought they needed to make an example of him. It was brutal. It was obscene. | |
| Philip: (Slowly) Well that was a fun story. Thanks for cheering me up. | |
| Nathanael: Yes, it was quite uplifting! Get it? Uplifting? | |
| (Sound Effect: A Gull, directly overhead, caws loudly.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: The journey to Jerusalem was, actually, quite uplifting. I have never known a teacher so effective, and He was just easy to be around. He seemed gentle too, not like a warrior at all. Not like King David, not yet anyway. But that is what we expected Him to become. How else could He save us from Rome? How could He save us from ourselves? | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: When Jesus saw the corruption in Jerusalem, how the Temple had been turned into a marketplace, He was indeed upset. Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, |
| Jesus: Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade. |
| (Light out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Muffled voices in the distance. Perhaps a stray goat, bleating.) |
| John: Did you see that? Coins flying everywhere! | |
| James: Did I see it? A front row seat! | |
| Andrew: He showed them! What a mockery they’ve made of worship! This was their first glimpse of our Messiah! The Christ! | |
| John: But not the last. He had better start training us for battle. | |
| James: Fight! | |
| Andrew: The Sadducees can die and be buried with the Romans! | |
| James: And all our other enemies throughout history! | |
| Nathanael: Yeah, they’ll be quite sad, you see? | |
| Philip: I get it. Sad. You see. | |
| (Sound Effect: The goat, closer now, bleats, as if laughing at a bad joke.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Sure enough, the Jewish authorities questioned Jesus. | |
| Pharisee: (Angrily) What sign do you show us for doing these things? |
| Jesus: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. |
| Pharisee: It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? |
| Narrator Peter: But He was speaking about the temple of His body, and of course they did not understand this. At the time, neither did we. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing. But Jesus on His part did not entrust himself to them, |
| John: …because He knew all people and He needed no one to bear witness about man, for He himself knew what was in man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: In my day, when Jesus walked the earth, the Roman cross represented certain death. In Moses’ time, well over a thousand years earlier, when the Israelites were in the wilderness, fiery snakes, or serpents, represented certain death. | |
| Moses: After nearly forty years in the wilderness, after my brother, Aaron, died and was gathered to his people, we set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. Now this was an extra 180 miles, on foot, through harsh conditions. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against me, Moses. |
| Israelite: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. |
| Moses: Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to me and said, |
| Israelite: We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us. |
| Moses: So I prayed for the people. |
| Narrator Peter: And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: After Passover, we stayed a short time in Jerusalem. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, |
| Nicodemus: Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him. |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. |
| Nicodemus: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. |
| Nicodemus: How can these things be? |
| Jesus: Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Jesus: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| John: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| Narrator Peter: Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. |
| Peter: And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. |
| John: For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. |
| Philip: But whoever does what is true comes to the light, |
| Nathanael: …so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. |
| Narrator Peter: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
| Peter: Love never ends. |
| John: As for prophecies, they will pass away; |
| James: …as for tongues, they will cease; |
| Andrew: …as for knowledge, it will pass away. |
| Philip: For we know in part and we prophesy in part, |
| Nathanael: …but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. |
| Narrator Peter: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. |
| Peter: When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. |
| Paul: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; |
| Narrator Peter: …then I shall know fully, |
| Peter: …even as I have been fully known. |
| Paul: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; |
| Jesus: … but the greatest of these is love. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| Narrator Peter: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| Jesus: For God so loved the world, that He gave Me, His only Son, that whoever believes in Me should not perish but have eternal life. |
| (Action: Jesus walks downstage center.) | |
| Narrator Peter: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| (Action: Jesus lifts His hands to heaven, acknowledging the Father. He then outstretches His arms, as if on the cross. His eyes lift heavenward.) | |
| Jesus: Father, into your hands I commit My spirit! |
| (Action: Jesus closes His eyes and bows His head.) |
Episode Spotlight:
In this episode, we find Peter and his companions out working by their fishing boats. While they are working, they are having a discussion about the various fees and taxes that they have to pay to the Roman government. We immediately see the oppression that the Romans have imposed on the Jewish people. But it gets worse if we continue in the scene. James, John, and Peter begin to discuss all of the fees they had to pay in the temple. The Jewish temple was the center of Jewish religious practice, but it was also an economic center that could cause a burden to the Jewish people. In both cases, we see the would-be disciples are looking for a messiah to come and resolve all of their issues. They were looking for a messiah to deliver them from their oppression.
We get to listen in on them as they describe what they think the Messiah would look like. It sounds more like a superhero than Jesus Christ. They were looking for a warrior that can rescue them from their oppression, but at the beginning of our story we see John describing Jesus. Let’s consider this his origin story. John says some really powerful things that while it may not look like Jesus is a superhero when his future disciples see him, it is clear that Jesus is more powerful than they ever could imagine. John describes Jesus as the physical manifestation of the Word of God. Not only is He the manifestation of the Word of God, but He is God himself. He is not just any superhero. He is the all-powerful Savior of the universe.
The beginning of the scene not only gives us an introduction to who Jesus is, but also why Jesus came to earth. There is a quotation from the prophet Isaiah that details Jesus’ plans. Jesus has come to bring liberty to people who are captive, to bring healing to people that are broken-hearted, and to bring good news to those that are downtrodden. This sounds like a superhero, but it doesn’t sound like someone who is coming to overthrow an empire. Rather, Jesus came to bring a different kind of power and a different way of looking at power. That’s not exactly what his future disciples were looking for at that point.
This is very important because this gives us an early look into how the disciples would view and receive Jesus. They were looking for a superhero, not just a religious leader. By the discussion that we imagined in the episode, we can tell that they were tired of their oppression, and they were looking for an answer. So when Andrew shows up, it is no wonder that they were so excited to go and meet Jesus.
Think back to when you first met Jesus. What was your life like? What needed to be changed about your life? What were the things that were oppressing you? This is important to remember so that we can share our testimony with others. If they know that Jesus delivered us from our oppression, they may be more inclined to let God deliver them from theirs. Remember how excited Andrew was when he came and told his brothers that he had seen the Messiah? Could you imagine what it felt like after living in darkness for so long, to see the light of Christ and know that your life was about to change? No wonder they wanted to follow him.
We see in this text three blueprints for Biblical witnesses. First of all, we learn from John that our discipleship is not to generate our own glory or make a name for ourselves, but to help people meet Jesus. Then we see that Jesus shows us that it’s not always our words that will convince us, but rather our actions that truly show the light of Christ. Finally, Andrew encourages us to bring others to Jesus after we have experienced His goodness. Look at the keyword “follow”. In the Greek, it means not only to go after, but also to obey. The fruit of these three witnessing events was that the disciples became obedient followers of Jesus. They weren’t just chasing after him, but they were also taking heed of his commandments.
| Paul: If I, Paul, speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. |
| Peter: And if I, Peter, have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, |
| Andrew: …and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, |
| John: …I am nothing. |
| James: If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, |
| Paul: …I gain nothing. (Lights out, then immediately back up) |
| Narrator Peter: After Jesus said to me, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Peter,” the next day He decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him “Follow me”. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the same as me and Andrew, on the far north of the lake, the Sea of Galilee. Philip found Nathanael, and said to him: |
| Philip: We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. |
| (Sound Effect: A donkey clomps toward us and stops.) |
| Nathanael: Can anything good come out of Nazareth? |
| Philip: Come and see. |
| Narrator Peter: Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said of him, |
| Jesus: Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit! |
| Nathanael: How do you know me? |
| Jesus: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. |
| Nathanael: Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! |
| (Sound Effect: The donkey brays, then clomps away.) |
| Jesus: Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Son of God, Son of Man, The Messiah, The Christ. These were some lofty names. Perhaps I was the most jaded, the most cautious among us. Time would tell. Then Jesus asked us to go with Him to a wedding at Cana in Galilee. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; |
| John: …love does not envy or boast; |
| James: …it is not arrogant or rude. |
| Andrew: It does not insist on its own way; |
| Philip: …it is not irritable or resentful, |
| Nathanael: …it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, |
| John: …but rejoices with the truth. |
| James: Love bears all things, |
| Andrew: …believes all things, |
| Peter: …hopes all things, |
| Narrator Peter: …endures all things. |
| Paul: Love never ends. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: As you may know, at the wedding, Jesus performed a miracle, and turned water into wine. This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And we, His disciples so far, believed in Him. After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum, with His mother and His brothers and us, His disciples, and we stayed there a few days. For me and Andrew, James and John, this was still our home, where we were fishermen. |
| (Lights out, then back up. The six disciples are on the shore, preparing to go fishing.) | |
| (Sound Effect: A gull caws in the distance.) |
| Peter: You have that net mended? | |
| Andrew: It’s looking halfway decent. | |
| Peter: Let’s get to it! The fish aren’t going to catch themselves. | |
| John: Probably not! But that was quite a wedding back there!! | |
| James: Best wine I’ve ever had. I’m really liking this Jesus fellow! | |
| Nathanael: Do you think He can turn mutton into a big juicy steak? | |
| Philip: That’s what I’m talking about! | |
| Andrew: How about fish? We’ve got plenty of those! | |
| Nathanael: Mutton is funnier though. | |
| Peter: What really matters though, is here is the Messiah. Is He not? | |
| Andrew: He is! | |
| John: Has to be. I’ve never seen anything like that! | |
| James: Neither have I! | |
| Philip: What will He do next? | |
| (Sound Effect: The bird caws, closer now.) |
| Nathanael: What will we do? | |
| Peter: Passover is coming. We’ll go with Him there. And then we shall see. But first there are many fish to catch, and money that needs to be made. | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Ever since Moses led our people out of slavery, well over a thousand years earlier, we celebrated Passover week in the spring of each year. It was our most important observance. All Jews within 15 miles of Jerusalem were required to attend there, in Jerusalem. We were about 125 miles away, but this year, with The Messiah among us, we would not have missed it for the world. | |
| (Lights out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Hungry birds, swarming over a fresh catch.) |
| Narrator Peter: The day before the trip, we were on the shore after hauling in a catch. | |
| John: Peter, shall we knock off early and prepare for the journey? | |
| Peter: Certainly. The fishing has been good, which is good, since we’ll be gone for quite some time. Perhaps three weeks? | |
| James: It’s a long time to miss. But at least they can’t tax us on what we don’t make! | |
| Nathanael: You haven’t heard of the new Prophet Tax? | |
| Philip: What’s that? | |
| Nathanael: Instead of taxing you on your profit, they tax you on what their Prophet says you would have made. | |
| Philip: (Shaking his head) You’re trying too hard, my friend. | |
| Andrew: (Back to the subject at hand) How could we not go, though? | |
| John: Oh, we’re going. I am anyway. But have you guys thought about where this is headed? When Moses came, what, about 1300 or 1400 years ago? He led our people out of slavery, but they wandered in the desert down there for 40 years! David’s time was a thousand years ago, but we had an army then, when he delivered us from the Philistines and established us as a great nation. Now we’re nothing. |
| (Sound Effect: The birds caw, aggressively.) |
| Philip: And Rome may very well be the most powerful army that ever existed. | |
| Nathanael: Looks like Jesus has His work cut out for Him. | |
| Peter: And us, if we follow Him. | |
| Andrew: For sure there’s a price. But if He is The Christ, which He is, how could I not be a part of it? | |
| Peter: You know, every time I go to Jerusalem, I think about what I saw a number of years ago there—a crucifixion. There was this man–they whipped him really badly, but carefully enough not to kill him. Then they forced him to carry the crossbeam of his cross quite a long way to where the shaft was already positioned in the ground, just outside the city, on a hill. Then, I suppose to shame him even more, or make an example, the Romans stripped him of all his clothes. Then they drove nails through his wrists, with his arms outstretched on the crossbeam he had carried. |
| Peter: Then they lifted him up to the shaft and nailed the crossbeam to it, maybe 10, maybe 12 feet up in the air. Then they nailed his feet to the shaft. Then they inserted a ledge to give him some support, to sit, but that just seemed to make sure he suffered for longer. They put a notice above his head with his name and his crime. | |
| John: What had he done? | |
| Peter: He had struck a Roman official, didn’t even hurt him much. But they thought they needed to make an example of him. It was brutal. It was obscene. | |
| Philip: (Slowly) Well that was a fun story. Thanks for cheering me up. | |
| Nathanael: Yes, it was quite uplifting! Get it? Uplifting? | |
| (Sound Effect: A Gull, directly overhead, caws loudly.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: The journey to Jerusalem was, actually, quite uplifting. I have never known a teacher so effective, and He was just easy to be around. He seemed gentle too, not like a warrior at all. Not like King David, not yet anyway. But that is what we expected Him to become. How else could He save us from Rome? How could He save us from ourselves? | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: When Jesus saw the corruption in Jerusalem, how the Temple had been turned into a marketplace, He was indeed upset. Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, |
| Jesus: Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade. |
| (Light out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Muffled voices in the distance. Perhaps a stray goat, bleating.) |
| John: Did you see that? Coins flying everywhere! | |
| James: Did I see it? A front row seat! | |
| Andrew: He showed them! What a mockery they’ve made of worship! This was their first glimpse of our Messiah! The Christ! | |
| John: But not the last. He had better start training us for battle. | |
| James: Fight! | |
| Andrew: The Sadducees can die and be buried with the Romans! | |
| James: And all our other enemies throughout history! | |
| Nathanael: Yeah, they’ll be quite sad, you see? | |
| Philip: I get it. Sad. You see. | |
| (Sound Effect: The goat, closer now, bleats, as if laughing at a bad joke.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Sure enough, the Jewish authorities questioned Jesus. | |
| Pharisee: (Angrily) What sign do you show us for doing these things? |
| Jesus: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. |
| Pharisee: It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? |
| Narrator Peter: But He was speaking about the temple of His body, and of course they did not understand this. At the time, neither did we. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing. But Jesus on His part did not entrust himself to them, |
| John: …because He knew all people and He needed no one to bear witness about man, for He himself knew what was in man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: In my day, when Jesus walked the earth, the Roman cross represented certain death. In Moses’ time, well over a thousand years earlier, when the Israelites were in the wilderness, fiery snakes, or serpents, represented certain death. | |
| Moses: After nearly forty years in the wilderness, after my brother, Aaron, died and was gathered to his people, we set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. Now this was an extra 180 miles, on foot, through harsh conditions. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against me, Moses. |
| Israelite: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. |
| Moses: Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to me and said, |
| Israelite: We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us. |
| Moses: So I prayed for the people. |
| Narrator Peter: And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: After Passover, we stayed a short time in Jerusalem. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, |
| Nicodemus: Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him. |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. |
| Nicodemus: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. |
| Nicodemus: How can these things be? |
| Jesus: Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Jesus: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| John: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| Narrator Peter: Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. |
| Peter: And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. |
| John: For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. |
| Philip: But whoever does what is true comes to the light, |
| Nathanael: …so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. |
| Narrator Peter: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
| Peter: Love never ends. |
| John: As for prophecies, they will pass away; |
| James: …as for tongues, they will cease; |
| Andrew: …as for knowledge, it will pass away. |
| Philip: For we know in part and we prophesy in part, |
| Nathanael: …but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. |
| Narrator Peter: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. |
| Peter: When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. |
| Paul: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; |
| Narrator Peter: …then I shall know fully, |
| Peter: …even as I have been fully known. |
| Paul: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; |
| Jesus: … but the greatest of these is love. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| Narrator Peter: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| Jesus: For God so loved the world, that He gave Me, His only Son, that whoever believes in Me should not perish but have eternal life. |
| (Action: Jesus walks downstage center.) | |
| Narrator Peter: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| (Action: Jesus lifts His hands to heaven, acknowledging the Father. He then outstretches His arms, as if on the cross. His eyes lift heavenward.) | |
| Jesus: Father, into your hands I commit My spirit! |
| (Action: Jesus closes His eyes and bows His head.) |
Episode Spotlight:
In this episode, we find Peter and his companions out working by their fishing boats. While they are working, they are having a discussion about the various fees and taxes that they have to pay to the Roman government. We immediately see the oppression that the Romans have imposed on the Jewish people. But it gets worse if we continue in the scene. James, John, and Peter begin to discuss all of the fees they had to pay in the temple. The Jewish temple was the center of Jewish religious practice, but it was also an economic center that could cause a burden to the Jewish people. In both cases, we see the would-be disciples are looking for a messiah to come and resolve all of their issues. They were looking for a messiah to deliver them from their oppression.
We get to listen in on them as they describe what they think the Messiah would look like. It sounds more like a superhero than Jesus Christ. They were looking for a warrior that can rescue them from their oppression, but at the beginning of our story we see John describing Jesus. Let’s consider this his origin story. John says some really powerful things that while it may not look like Jesus is a superhero when his future disciples see him, it is clear that Jesus is more powerful than they ever could imagine. John describes Jesus as the physical manifestation of the Word of God. Not only is He the manifestation of the Word of God, but He is God himself. He is not just any superhero. He is the all-powerful Savior of the universe.
The beginning of the scene not only gives us an introduction to who Jesus is, but also why Jesus came to earth. There is a quotation from the prophet Isaiah that details Jesus’ plans. Jesus has come to bring liberty to people who are captive, to bring healing to people that are broken-hearted, and to bring good news to those that are downtrodden. This sounds like a superhero, but it doesn’t sound like someone who is coming to overthrow an empire. Rather, Jesus came to bring a different kind of power and a different way of looking at power. That’s not exactly what his future disciples were looking for at that point.
This is very important because this gives us an early look into how the disciples would view and receive Jesus. They were looking for a superhero, not just a religious leader. By the discussion that we imagined in the episode, we can tell that they were tired of their oppression, and they were looking for an answer. So when Andrew shows up, it is no wonder that they were so excited to go and meet Jesus.
Think back to when you first met Jesus. What was your life like? What needed to be changed about your life? What were the things that were oppressing you? This is important to remember so that we can share our testimony with others. If they know that Jesus delivered us from our oppression, they may be more inclined to let God deliver them from theirs. Remember how excited Andrew was when he came and told his brothers that he had seen the Messiah? Could you imagine what it felt like after living in darkness for so long, to see the light of Christ and know that your life was about to change? No wonder they wanted to follow him.
We see in this text three blueprints for Biblical witnesses. First of all, we learn from John that our discipleship is not to generate our own glory or make a name for ourselves, but to help people meet Jesus. Then we see that Jesus shows us that it’s not always our words that will convince us, but rather our actions that truly show the light of Christ. Finally, Andrew encourages us to bring others to Jesus after we have experienced His goodness. Look at the keyword “follow”. In the Greek, it means not only to go after, but also to obey. The fruit of these three witnessing events was that the disciples became obedient followers of Jesus. They weren’t just chasing after him, but they were also taking heed of his commandments.
| Paul: If I, Paul, speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. |
| Peter: And if I, Peter, have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, |
| Andrew: …and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, |
| John: …I am nothing. |
| James: If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, |
| Paul: …I gain nothing. (Lights out, then immediately back up) |
| Narrator Peter: After Jesus said to me, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Peter,” the next day He decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him “Follow me”. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the same as me and Andrew, on the far north of the lake, the Sea of Galilee. Philip found Nathanael, and said to him: |
| Philip: We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. |
| (Sound Effect: A donkey clomps toward us and stops.) |
| Nathanael: Can anything good come out of Nazareth? |
| Philip: Come and see. |
| Narrator Peter: Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said of him, |
| Jesus: Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit! |
| Nathanael: How do you know me? |
| Jesus: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. |
| Nathanael: Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! |
| (Sound Effect: The donkey brays, then clomps away.) |
| Jesus: Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Son of God, Son of Man, The Messiah, The Christ. These were some lofty names. Perhaps I was the most jaded, the most cautious among us. Time would tell. Then Jesus asked us to go with Him to a wedding at Cana in Galilee. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; |
| John: …love does not envy or boast; |
| James: …it is not arrogant or rude. |
| Andrew: It does not insist on its own way; |
| Philip: …it is not irritable or resentful, |
| Nathanael: …it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, |
| John: …but rejoices with the truth. |
| James: Love bears all things, |
| Andrew: …believes all things, |
| Peter: …hopes all things, |
| Narrator Peter: …endures all things. |
| Paul: Love never ends. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: As you may know, at the wedding, Jesus performed a miracle, and turned water into wine. This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And we, His disciples so far, believed in Him. After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum, with His mother and His brothers and us, His disciples, and we stayed there a few days. For me and Andrew, James and John, this was still our home, where we were fishermen. |
| (Lights out, then back up. The six disciples are on the shore, preparing to go fishing.) | |
| (Sound Effect: A gull caws in the distance.) |
| Peter: You have that net mended? | |
| Andrew: It’s looking halfway decent. | |
| Peter: Let’s get to it! The fish aren’t going to catch themselves. | |
| John: Probably not! But that was quite a wedding back there!! | |
| James: Best wine I’ve ever had. I’m really liking this Jesus fellow! | |
| Nathanael: Do you think He can turn mutton into a big juicy steak? | |
| Philip: That’s what I’m talking about! | |
| Andrew: How about fish? We’ve got plenty of those! | |
| Nathanael: Mutton is funnier though. | |
| Peter: What really matters though, is here is the Messiah. Is He not? | |
| Andrew: He is! | |
| John: Has to be. I’ve never seen anything like that! | |
| James: Neither have I! | |
| Philip: What will He do next? | |
| (Sound Effect: The bird caws, closer now.) |
| Nathanael: What will we do? | |
| Peter: Passover is coming. We’ll go with Him there. And then we shall see. But first there are many fish to catch, and money that needs to be made. | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Ever since Moses led our people out of slavery, well over a thousand years earlier, we celebrated Passover week in the spring of each year. It was our most important observance. All Jews within 15 miles of Jerusalem were required to attend there, in Jerusalem. We were about 125 miles away, but this year, with The Messiah among us, we would not have missed it for the world. | |
| (Lights out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Hungry birds, swarming over a fresh catch.) |
| Narrator Peter: The day before the trip, we were on the shore after hauling in a catch. | |
| John: Peter, shall we knock off early and prepare for the journey? | |
| Peter: Certainly. The fishing has been good, which is good, since we’ll be gone for quite some time. Perhaps three weeks? | |
| James: It’s a long time to miss. But at least they can’t tax us on what we don’t make! | |
| Nathanael: You haven’t heard of the new Prophet Tax? | |
| Philip: What’s that? | |
| Nathanael: Instead of taxing you on your profit, they tax you on what their Prophet says you would have made. | |
| Philip: (Shaking his head) You’re trying too hard, my friend. | |
| Andrew: (Back to the subject at hand) How could we not go, though? | |
| John: Oh, we’re going. I am anyway. But have you guys thought about where this is headed? When Moses came, what, about 1300 or 1400 years ago? He led our people out of slavery, but they wandered in the desert down there for 40 years! David’s time was a thousand years ago, but we had an army then, when he delivered us from the Philistines and established us as a great nation. Now we’re nothing. |
| (Sound Effect: The birds caw, aggressively.) |
| Philip: And Rome may very well be the most powerful army that ever existed. | |
| Nathanael: Looks like Jesus has His work cut out for Him. | |
| Peter: And us, if we follow Him. | |
| Andrew: For sure there’s a price. But if He is The Christ, which He is, how could I not be a part of it? | |
| Peter: You know, every time I go to Jerusalem, I think about what I saw a number of years ago there—a crucifixion. There was this man–they whipped him really badly, but carefully enough not to kill him. Then they forced him to carry the crossbeam of his cross quite a long way to where the shaft was already positioned in the ground, just outside the city, on a hill. Then, I suppose to shame him even more, or make an example, the Romans stripped him of all his clothes. Then they drove nails through his wrists, with his arms outstretched on the crossbeam he had carried. |
| Peter: Then they lifted him up to the shaft and nailed the crossbeam to it, maybe 10, maybe 12 feet up in the air. Then they nailed his feet to the shaft. Then they inserted a ledge to give him some support, to sit, but that just seemed to make sure he suffered for longer. They put a notice above his head with his name and his crime. | |
| John: What had he done? | |
| Peter: He had struck a Roman official, didn’t even hurt him much. But they thought they needed to make an example of him. It was brutal. It was obscene. | |
| Philip: (Slowly) Well that was a fun story. Thanks for cheering me up. | |
| Nathanael: Yes, it was quite uplifting! Get it? Uplifting? | |
| (Sound Effect: A Gull, directly overhead, caws loudly.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: The journey to Jerusalem was, actually, quite uplifting. I have never known a teacher so effective, and He was just easy to be around. He seemed gentle too, not like a warrior at all. Not like King David, not yet anyway. But that is what we expected Him to become. How else could He save us from Rome? How could He save us from ourselves? | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: When Jesus saw the corruption in Jerusalem, how the Temple had been turned into a marketplace, He was indeed upset. Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, |
| Jesus: Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade. |
| (Light out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Muffled voices in the distance. Perhaps a stray goat, bleating.) |
| John: Did you see that? Coins flying everywhere! | |
| James: Did I see it? A front row seat! | |
| Andrew: He showed them! What a mockery they’ve made of worship! This was their first glimpse of our Messiah! The Christ! | |
| John: But not the last. He had better start training us for battle. | |
| James: Fight! | |
| Andrew: The Sadducees can die and be buried with the Romans! | |
| James: And all our other enemies throughout history! | |
| Nathanael: Yeah, they’ll be quite sad, you see? | |
| Philip: I get it. Sad. You see. | |
| (Sound Effect: The goat, closer now, bleats, as if laughing at a bad joke.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Sure enough, the Jewish authorities questioned Jesus. | |
| Pharisee: (Angrily) What sign do you show us for doing these things? |
| Jesus: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. |
| Pharisee: It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? |
| Narrator Peter: But He was speaking about the temple of His body, and of course they did not understand this. At the time, neither did we. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing. But Jesus on His part did not entrust himself to them, |
| John: …because He knew all people and He needed no one to bear witness about man, for He himself knew what was in man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: In my day, when Jesus walked the earth, the Roman cross represented certain death. In Moses’ time, well over a thousand years earlier, when the Israelites were in the wilderness, fiery snakes, or serpents, represented certain death. | |
| Moses: After nearly forty years in the wilderness, after my brother, Aaron, died and was gathered to his people, we set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. Now this was an extra 180 miles, on foot, through harsh conditions. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against me, Moses. |
| Israelite: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. |
| Moses: Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to me and said, |
| Israelite: We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us. |
| Moses: So I prayed for the people. |
| Narrator Peter: And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: After Passover, we stayed a short time in Jerusalem. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, |
| Nicodemus: Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him. |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. |
| Nicodemus: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. |
| Nicodemus: How can these things be? |
| Jesus: Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Jesus: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| John: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| Narrator Peter: Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. |
| Peter: And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. |
| John: For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. |
| Philip: But whoever does what is true comes to the light, |
| Nathanael: …so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. |
| Narrator Peter: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
| Peter: Love never ends. |
| John: As for prophecies, they will pass away; |
| James: …as for tongues, they will cease; |
| Andrew: …as for knowledge, it will pass away. |
| Philip: For we know in part and we prophesy in part, |
| Nathanael: …but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. |
| Narrator Peter: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. |
| Peter: When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. |
| Paul: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; |
| Narrator Peter: …then I shall know fully, |
| Peter: …even as I have been fully known. |
| Paul: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; |
| Jesus: … but the greatest of these is love. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| Narrator Peter: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| Jesus: For God so loved the world, that He gave Me, His only Son, that whoever believes in Me should not perish but have eternal life. |
| (Action: Jesus walks downstage center.) | |
| Narrator Peter: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| (Action: Jesus lifts His hands to heaven, acknowledging the Father. He then outstretches His arms, as if on the cross. His eyes lift heavenward.) | |
| Jesus: Father, into your hands I commit My spirit! |
| (Action: Jesus closes His eyes and bows His head.) |
Episode Spotlight:
In this episode, we find Peter and his companions out working by their fishing boats. While they are working, they are having a discussion about the various fees and taxes that they have to pay to the Roman government. We immediately see the oppression that the Romans have imposed on the Jewish people. But it gets worse if we continue in the scene. James, John, and Peter begin to discuss all of the fees they had to pay in the temple. The Jewish temple was the center of Jewish religious practice, but it was also an economic center that could cause a burden to the Jewish people. In both cases, we see the would-be disciples are looking for a messiah to come and resolve all of their issues. They were looking for a messiah to deliver them from their oppression.
We get to listen in on them as they describe what they think the Messiah would look like. It sounds more like a superhero than Jesus Christ. They were looking for a warrior that can rescue them from their oppression, but at the beginning of our story we see John describing Jesus. Let’s consider this his origin story. John says some really powerful things that while it may not look like Jesus is a superhero when his future disciples see him, it is clear that Jesus is more powerful than they ever could imagine. John describes Jesus as the physical manifestation of the Word of God. Not only is He the manifestation of the Word of God, but He is God himself. He is not just any superhero. He is the all-powerful Savior of the universe.
The beginning of the scene not only gives us an introduction to who Jesus is, but also why Jesus came to earth. There is a quotation from the prophet Isaiah that details Jesus’ plans. Jesus has come to bring liberty to people who are captive, to bring healing to people that are broken-hearted, and to bring good news to those that are downtrodden. This sounds like a superhero, but it doesn’t sound like someone who is coming to overthrow an empire. Rather, Jesus came to bring a different kind of power and a different way of looking at power. That’s not exactly what his future disciples were looking for at that point.
This is very important because this gives us an early look into how the disciples would view and receive Jesus. They were looking for a superhero, not just a religious leader. By the discussion that we imagined in the episode, we can tell that they were tired of their oppression, and they were looking for an answer. So when Andrew shows up, it is no wonder that they were so excited to go and meet Jesus.
Think back to when you first met Jesus. What was your life like? What needed to be changed about your life? What were the things that were oppressing you? This is important to remember so that we can share our testimony with others. If they know that Jesus delivered us from our oppression, they may be more inclined to let God deliver them from theirs. Remember how excited Andrew was when he came and told his brothers that he had seen the Messiah? Could you imagine what it felt like after living in darkness for so long, to see the light of Christ and know that your life was about to change? No wonder they wanted to follow him.
We see in this text three blueprints for Biblical witnesses. First of all, we learn from John that our discipleship is not to generate our own glory or make a name for ourselves, but to help people meet Jesus. Then we see that Jesus shows us that it’s not always our words that will convince us, but rather our actions that truly show the light of Christ. Finally, Andrew encourages us to bring others to Jesus after we have experienced His goodness. Look at the keyword “follow”. In the Greek, it means not only to go after, but also to obey. The fruit of these three witnessing events was that the disciples became obedient followers of Jesus. They weren’t just chasing after him, but they were also taking heed of his commandments.
| Paul: If I, Paul, speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. |
| Peter: And if I, Peter, have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, |
| Andrew: …and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, |
| John: …I am nothing. |
| James: If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, |
| Paul: …I gain nothing. (Lights out, then immediately back up) |
| Narrator Peter: After Jesus said to me, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Peter,” the next day He decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him “Follow me”. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the same as me and Andrew, on the far north of the lake, the Sea of Galilee. Philip found Nathanael, and said to him: |
| Philip: We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. |
| (Sound Effect: A donkey clomps toward us and stops.) |
| Nathanael: Can anything good come out of Nazareth? |
| Philip: Come and see. |
| Narrator Peter: Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said of him, |
| Jesus: Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit! |
| Nathanael: How do you know me? |
| Jesus: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. |
| Nathanael: Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! |
| (Sound Effect: The donkey brays, then clomps away.) |
| Jesus: Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Son of God, Son of Man, The Messiah, The Christ. These were some lofty names. Perhaps I was the most jaded, the most cautious among us. Time would tell. Then Jesus asked us to go with Him to a wedding at Cana in Galilee. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; |
| John: …love does not envy or boast; |
| James: …it is not arrogant or rude. |
| Andrew: It does not insist on its own way; |
| Philip: …it is not irritable or resentful, |
| Nathanael: …it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, |
| John: …but rejoices with the truth. |
| James: Love bears all things, |
| Andrew: …believes all things, |
| Peter: …hopes all things, |
| Narrator Peter: …endures all things. |
| Paul: Love never ends. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: As you may know, at the wedding, Jesus performed a miracle, and turned water into wine. This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And we, His disciples so far, believed in Him. After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum, with His mother and His brothers and us, His disciples, and we stayed there a few days. For me and Andrew, James and John, this was still our home, where we were fishermen. |
| (Lights out, then back up. The six disciples are on the shore, preparing to go fishing.) | |
| (Sound Effect: A gull caws in the distance.) |
| Peter: You have that net mended? | |
| Andrew: It’s looking halfway decent. | |
| Peter: Let’s get to it! The fish aren’t going to catch themselves. | |
| John: Probably not! But that was quite a wedding back there!! | |
| James: Best wine I’ve ever had. I’m really liking this Jesus fellow! | |
| Nathanael: Do you think He can turn mutton into a big juicy steak? | |
| Philip: That’s what I’m talking about! | |
| Andrew: How about fish? We’ve got plenty of those! | |
| Nathanael: Mutton is funnier though. | |
| Peter: What really matters though, is here is the Messiah. Is He not? | |
| Andrew: He is! | |
| John: Has to be. I’ve never seen anything like that! | |
| James: Neither have I! | |
| Philip: What will He do next? | |
| (Sound Effect: The bird caws, closer now.) |
| Nathanael: What will we do? | |
| Peter: Passover is coming. We’ll go with Him there. And then we shall see. But first there are many fish to catch, and money that needs to be made. | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Ever since Moses led our people out of slavery, well over a thousand years earlier, we celebrated Passover week in the spring of each year. It was our most important observance. All Jews within 15 miles of Jerusalem were required to attend there, in Jerusalem. We were about 125 miles away, but this year, with The Messiah among us, we would not have missed it for the world. | |
| (Lights out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Hungry birds, swarming over a fresh catch.) |
| Narrator Peter: The day before the trip, we were on the shore after hauling in a catch. | |
| John: Peter, shall we knock off early and prepare for the journey? | |
| Peter: Certainly. The fishing has been good, which is good, since we’ll be gone for quite some time. Perhaps three weeks? | |
| James: It’s a long time to miss. But at least they can’t tax us on what we don’t make! | |
| Nathanael: You haven’t heard of the new Prophet Tax? | |
| Philip: What’s that? | |
| Nathanael: Instead of taxing you on your profit, they tax you on what their Prophet says you would have made. | |
| Philip: (Shaking his head) You’re trying too hard, my friend. | |
| Andrew: (Back to the subject at hand) How could we not go, though? | |
| John: Oh, we’re going. I am anyway. But have you guys thought about where this is headed? When Moses came, what, about 1300 or 1400 years ago? He led our people out of slavery, but they wandered in the desert down there for 40 years! David’s time was a thousand years ago, but we had an army then, when he delivered us from the Philistines and established us as a great nation. Now we’re nothing. |
| (Sound Effect: The birds caw, aggressively.) |
| Philip: And Rome may very well be the most powerful army that ever existed. | |
| Nathanael: Looks like Jesus has His work cut out for Him. | |
| Peter: And us, if we follow Him. | |
| Andrew: For sure there’s a price. But if He is The Christ, which He is, how could I not be a part of it? | |
| Peter: You know, every time I go to Jerusalem, I think about what I saw a number of years ago there—a crucifixion. There was this man–they whipped him really badly, but carefully enough not to kill him. Then they forced him to carry the crossbeam of his cross quite a long way to where the shaft was already positioned in the ground, just outside the city, on a hill. Then, I suppose to shame him even more, or make an example, the Romans stripped him of all his clothes. Then they drove nails through his wrists, with his arms outstretched on the crossbeam he had carried. |
| Peter: Then they lifted him up to the shaft and nailed the crossbeam to it, maybe 10, maybe 12 feet up in the air. Then they nailed his feet to the shaft. Then they inserted a ledge to give him some support, to sit, but that just seemed to make sure he suffered for longer. They put a notice above his head with his name and his crime. | |
| John: What had he done? | |
| Peter: He had struck a Roman official, didn’t even hurt him much. But they thought they needed to make an example of him. It was brutal. It was obscene. | |
| Philip: (Slowly) Well that was a fun story. Thanks for cheering me up. | |
| Nathanael: Yes, it was quite uplifting! Get it? Uplifting? | |
| (Sound Effect: A Gull, directly overhead, caws loudly.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: The journey to Jerusalem was, actually, quite uplifting. I have never known a teacher so effective, and He was just easy to be around. He seemed gentle too, not like a warrior at all. Not like King David, not yet anyway. But that is what we expected Him to become. How else could He save us from Rome? How could He save us from ourselves? | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: When Jesus saw the corruption in Jerusalem, how the Temple had been turned into a marketplace, He was indeed upset. Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, |
| Jesus: Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade. |
| (Light out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Muffled voices in the distance. Perhaps a stray goat, bleating.) |
| John: Did you see that? Coins flying everywhere! | |
| James: Did I see it? A front row seat! | |
| Andrew: He showed them! What a mockery they’ve made of worship! This was their first glimpse of our Messiah! The Christ! | |
| John: But not the last. He had better start training us for battle. | |
| James: Fight! | |
| Andrew: The Sadducees can die and be buried with the Romans! | |
| James: And all our other enemies throughout history! | |
| Nathanael: Yeah, they’ll be quite sad, you see? | |
| Philip: I get it. Sad. You see. | |
| (Sound Effect: The goat, closer now, bleats, as if laughing at a bad joke.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Sure enough, the Jewish authorities questioned Jesus. | |
| Pharisee: (Angrily) What sign do you show us for doing these things? |
| Jesus: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. |
| Pharisee: It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? |
| Narrator Peter: But He was speaking about the temple of His body, and of course they did not understand this. At the time, neither did we. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing. But Jesus on His part did not entrust himself to them, |
| John: …because He knew all people and He needed no one to bear witness about man, for He himself knew what was in man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: In my day, when Jesus walked the earth, the Roman cross represented certain death. In Moses’ time, well over a thousand years earlier, when the Israelites were in the wilderness, fiery snakes, or serpents, represented certain death. | |
| Moses: After nearly forty years in the wilderness, after my brother, Aaron, died and was gathered to his people, we set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. Now this was an extra 180 miles, on foot, through harsh conditions. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against me, Moses. |
| Israelite: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. |
| Moses: Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to me and said, |
| Israelite: We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us. |
| Moses: So I prayed for the people. |
| Narrator Peter: And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: After Passover, we stayed a short time in Jerusalem. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, |
| Nicodemus: Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him. |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. |
| Nicodemus: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. |
| Nicodemus: How can these things be? |
| Jesus: Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Jesus: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| John: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| Narrator Peter: Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. |
| Peter: And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. |
| John: For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. |
| Philip: But whoever does what is true comes to the light, |
| Nathanael: …so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. |
| Narrator Peter: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
| Peter: Love never ends. |
| John: As for prophecies, they will pass away; |
| James: …as for tongues, they will cease; |
| Andrew: …as for knowledge, it will pass away. |
| Philip: For we know in part and we prophesy in part, |
| Nathanael: …but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. |
| Narrator Peter: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. |
| Peter: When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. |
| Paul: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; |
| Narrator Peter: …then I shall know fully, |
| Peter: …even as I have been fully known. |
| Paul: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; |
| Jesus: … but the greatest of these is love. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| Narrator Peter: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| Jesus: For God so loved the world, that He gave Me, His only Son, that whoever believes in Me should not perish but have eternal life. |
| (Action: Jesus walks downstage center.) | |
| Narrator Peter: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| (Action: Jesus lifts His hands to heaven, acknowledging the Father. He then outstretches His arms, as if on the cross. His eyes lift heavenward.) | |
| Jesus: Father, into your hands I commit My spirit! |
| (Action: Jesus closes His eyes and bows His head.) |
Episode Spotlight:
In this episode, we find Peter and his companions out working by their fishing boats. While they are working, they are having a discussion about the various fees and taxes that they have to pay to the Roman government. We immediately see the oppression that the Romans have imposed on the Jewish people. But it gets worse if we continue in the scene. James, John, and Peter begin to discuss all of the fees they had to pay in the temple. The Jewish temple was the center of Jewish religious practice, but it was also an economic center that could cause a burden to the Jewish people. In both cases, we see the would-be disciples are looking for a messiah to come and resolve all of their issues. They were looking for a messiah to deliver them from their oppression.
We get to listen in on them as they describe what they think the Messiah would look like. It sounds more like a superhero than Jesus Christ. They were looking for a warrior that can rescue them from their oppression, but at the beginning of our story we see John describing Jesus. Let’s consider this his origin story. John says some really powerful things that while it may not look like Jesus is a superhero when his future disciples see him, it is clear that Jesus is more powerful than they ever could imagine. John describes Jesus as the physical manifestation of the Word of God. Not only is He the manifestation of the Word of God, but He is God himself. He is not just any superhero. He is the all-powerful Savior of the universe.
The beginning of the scene not only gives us an introduction to who Jesus is, but also why Jesus came to earth. There is a quotation from the prophet Isaiah that details Jesus’ plans. Jesus has come to bring liberty to people who are captive, to bring healing to people that are broken-hearted, and to bring good news to those that are downtrodden. This sounds like a superhero, but it doesn’t sound like someone who is coming to overthrow an empire. Rather, Jesus came to bring a different kind of power and a different way of looking at power. That’s not exactly what his future disciples were looking for at that point.
This is very important because this gives us an early look into how the disciples would view and receive Jesus. They were looking for a superhero, not just a religious leader. By the discussion that we imagined in the episode, we can tell that they were tired of their oppression, and they were looking for an answer. So when Andrew shows up, it is no wonder that they were so excited to go and meet Jesus.
Think back to when you first met Jesus. What was your life like? What needed to be changed about your life? What were the things that were oppressing you? This is important to remember so that we can share our testimony with others. If they know that Jesus delivered us from our oppression, they may be more inclined to let God deliver them from theirs. Remember how excited Andrew was when he came and told his brothers that he had seen the Messiah? Could you imagine what it felt like after living in darkness for so long, to see the light of Christ and know that your life was about to change? No wonder they wanted to follow him.
We see in this text three blueprints for Biblical witnesses. First of all, we learn from John that our discipleship is not to generate our own glory or make a name for ourselves, but to help people meet Jesus. Then we see that Jesus shows us that it’s not always our words that will convince us, but rather our actions that truly show the light of Christ. Finally, Andrew encourages us to bring others to Jesus after we have experienced His goodness. Look at the keyword “follow”. In the Greek, it means not only to go after, but also to obey. The fruit of these three witnessing events was that the disciples became obedient followers of Jesus. They weren’t just chasing after him, but they were also taking heed of his commandments.
| Paul: If I, Paul, speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. |
| Peter: And if I, Peter, have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, |
| Andrew: …and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, |
| John: …I am nothing. |
| James: If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, |
| Paul: …I gain nothing. (Lights out, then immediately back up) |
| Narrator Peter: After Jesus said to me, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Peter,” the next day He decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him “Follow me”. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the same as me and Andrew, on the far north of the lake, the Sea of Galilee. Philip found Nathanael, and said to him: |
| Philip: We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. |
| (Sound Effect: A donkey clomps toward us and stops.) |
| Nathanael: Can anything good come out of Nazareth? |
| Philip: Come and see. |
| Narrator Peter: Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said of him, |
| Jesus: Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit! |
| Nathanael: How do you know me? |
| Jesus: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. |
| Nathanael: Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! |
| (Sound Effect: The donkey brays, then clomps away.) |
| Jesus: Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Son of God, Son of Man, The Messiah, The Christ. These were some lofty names. Perhaps I was the most jaded, the most cautious among us. Time would tell. Then Jesus asked us to go with Him to a wedding at Cana in Galilee. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; |
| John: …love does not envy or boast; |
| James: …it is not arrogant or rude. |
| Andrew: It does not insist on its own way; |
| Philip: …it is not irritable or resentful, |
| Nathanael: …it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, |
| John: …but rejoices with the truth. |
| James: Love bears all things, |
| Andrew: …believes all things, |
| Peter: …hopes all things, |
| Narrator Peter: …endures all things. |
| Paul: Love never ends. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: As you may know, at the wedding, Jesus performed a miracle, and turned water into wine. This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And we, His disciples so far, believed in Him. After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum, with His mother and His brothers and us, His disciples, and we stayed there a few days. For me and Andrew, James and John, this was still our home, where we were fishermen. |
| (Lights out, then back up. The six disciples are on the shore, preparing to go fishing.) | |
| (Sound Effect: A gull caws in the distance.) |
| Peter: You have that net mended? | |
| Andrew: It’s looking halfway decent. | |
| Peter: Let’s get to it! The fish aren’t going to catch themselves. | |
| John: Probably not! But that was quite a wedding back there!! | |
| James: Best wine I’ve ever had. I’m really liking this Jesus fellow! | |
| Nathanael: Do you think He can turn mutton into a big juicy steak? | |
| Philip: That’s what I’m talking about! | |
| Andrew: How about fish? We’ve got plenty of those! | |
| Nathanael: Mutton is funnier though. | |
| Peter: What really matters though, is here is the Messiah. Is He not? | |
| Andrew: He is! | |
| John: Has to be. I’ve never seen anything like that! | |
| James: Neither have I! | |
| Philip: What will He do next? | |
| (Sound Effect: The bird caws, closer now.) |
| Nathanael: What will we do? | |
| Peter: Passover is coming. We’ll go with Him there. And then we shall see. But first there are many fish to catch, and money that needs to be made. | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Ever since Moses led our people out of slavery, well over a thousand years earlier, we celebrated Passover week in the spring of each year. It was our most important observance. All Jews within 15 miles of Jerusalem were required to attend there, in Jerusalem. We were about 125 miles away, but this year, with The Messiah among us, we would not have missed it for the world. | |
| (Lights out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Hungry birds, swarming over a fresh catch.) |
| Narrator Peter: The day before the trip, we were on the shore after hauling in a catch. | |
| John: Peter, shall we knock off early and prepare for the journey? | |
| Peter: Certainly. The fishing has been good, which is good, since we’ll be gone for quite some time. Perhaps three weeks? | |
| James: It’s a long time to miss. But at least they can’t tax us on what we don’t make! | |
| Nathanael: You haven’t heard of the new Prophet Tax? | |
| Philip: What’s that? | |
| Nathanael: Instead of taxing you on your profit, they tax you on what their Prophet says you would have made. | |
| Philip: (Shaking his head) You’re trying too hard, my friend. | |
| Andrew: (Back to the subject at hand) How could we not go, though? | |
| John: Oh, we’re going. I am anyway. But have you guys thought about where this is headed? When Moses came, what, about 1300 or 1400 years ago? He led our people out of slavery, but they wandered in the desert down there for 40 years! David’s time was a thousand years ago, but we had an army then, when he delivered us from the Philistines and established us as a great nation. Now we’re nothing. |
| (Sound Effect: The birds caw, aggressively.) |
| Philip: And Rome may very well be the most powerful army that ever existed. | |
| Nathanael: Looks like Jesus has His work cut out for Him. | |
| Peter: And us, if we follow Him. | |
| Andrew: For sure there’s a price. But if He is The Christ, which He is, how could I not be a part of it? | |
| Peter: You know, every time I go to Jerusalem, I think about what I saw a number of years ago there—a crucifixion. There was this man–they whipped him really badly, but carefully enough not to kill him. Then they forced him to carry the crossbeam of his cross quite a long way to where the shaft was already positioned in the ground, just outside the city, on a hill. Then, I suppose to shame him even more, or make an example, the Romans stripped him of all his clothes. Then they drove nails through his wrists, with his arms outstretched on the crossbeam he had carried. |
| Peter: Then they lifted him up to the shaft and nailed the crossbeam to it, maybe 10, maybe 12 feet up in the air. Then they nailed his feet to the shaft. Then they inserted a ledge to give him some support, to sit, but that just seemed to make sure he suffered for longer. They put a notice above his head with his name and his crime. | |
| John: What had he done? | |
| Peter: He had struck a Roman official, didn’t even hurt him much. But they thought they needed to make an example of him. It was brutal. It was obscene. | |
| Philip: (Slowly) Well that was a fun story. Thanks for cheering me up. | |
| Nathanael: Yes, it was quite uplifting! Get it? Uplifting? | |
| (Sound Effect: A Gull, directly overhead, caws loudly.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: The journey to Jerusalem was, actually, quite uplifting. I have never known a teacher so effective, and He was just easy to be around. He seemed gentle too, not like a warrior at all. Not like King David, not yet anyway. But that is what we expected Him to become. How else could He save us from Rome? How could He save us from ourselves? | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: When Jesus saw the corruption in Jerusalem, how the Temple had been turned into a marketplace, He was indeed upset. Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, |
| Jesus: Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade. |
| (Light out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Muffled voices in the distance. Perhaps a stray goat, bleating.) |
| John: Did you see that? Coins flying everywhere! | |
| James: Did I see it? A front row seat! | |
| Andrew: He showed them! What a mockery they’ve made of worship! This was their first glimpse of our Messiah! The Christ! | |
| John: But not the last. He had better start training us for battle. | |
| James: Fight! | |
| Andrew: The Sadducees can die and be buried with the Romans! | |
| James: And all our other enemies throughout history! | |
| Nathanael: Yeah, they’ll be quite sad, you see? | |
| Philip: I get it. Sad. You see. | |
| (Sound Effect: The goat, closer now, bleats, as if laughing at a bad joke.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Sure enough, the Jewish authorities questioned Jesus. | |
| Pharisee: (Angrily) What sign do you show us for doing these things? |
| Jesus: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. |
| Pharisee: It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? |
| Narrator Peter: But He was speaking about the temple of His body, and of course they did not understand this. At the time, neither did we. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing. But Jesus on His part did not entrust himself to them, |
| John: …because He knew all people and He needed no one to bear witness about man, for He himself knew what was in man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: In my day, when Jesus walked the earth, the Roman cross represented certain death. In Moses’ time, well over a thousand years earlier, when the Israelites were in the wilderness, fiery snakes, or serpents, represented certain death. | |
| Moses: After nearly forty years in the wilderness, after my brother, Aaron, died and was gathered to his people, we set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. Now this was an extra 180 miles, on foot, through harsh conditions. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against me, Moses. |
| Israelite: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. |
| Moses: Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to me and said, |
| Israelite: We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us. |
| Moses: So I prayed for the people. |
| Narrator Peter: And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: After Passover, we stayed a short time in Jerusalem. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, |
| Nicodemus: Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him. |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. |
| Nicodemus: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. |
| Nicodemus: How can these things be? |
| Jesus: Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Jesus: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| John: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| Narrator Peter: Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. |
| Peter: And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. |
| John: For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. |
| Philip: But whoever does what is true comes to the light, |
| Nathanael: …so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. |
| Narrator Peter: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
| Peter: Love never ends. |
| John: As for prophecies, they will pass away; |
| James: …as for tongues, they will cease; |
| Andrew: …as for knowledge, it will pass away. |
| Philip: For we know in part and we prophesy in part, |
| Nathanael: …but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. |
| Narrator Peter: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. |
| Peter: When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. |
| Paul: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; |
| Narrator Peter: …then I shall know fully, |
| Peter: …even as I have been fully known. |
| Paul: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; |
| Jesus: … but the greatest of these is love. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| Narrator Peter: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| Jesus: For God so loved the world, that He gave Me, His only Son, that whoever believes in Me should not perish but have eternal life. |
| (Action: Jesus walks downstage center.) | |
| Narrator Peter: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| (Action: Jesus lifts His hands to heaven, acknowledging the Father. He then outstretches His arms, as if on the cross. His eyes lift heavenward.) | |
| Jesus: Father, into your hands I commit My spirit! |
| (Action: Jesus closes His eyes and bows His head.) |
Episode Spotlight:
In this episode, we find Peter and his companions out working by their fishing boats. While they are working, they are having a discussion about the various fees and taxes that they have to pay to the Roman government. We immediately see the oppression that the Romans have imposed on the Jewish people. But it gets worse if we continue in the scene. James, John, and Peter begin to discuss all of the fees they had to pay in the temple. The Jewish temple was the center of Jewish religious practice, but it was also an economic center that could cause a burden to the Jewish people. In both cases, we see the would-be disciples are looking for a messiah to come and resolve all of their issues. They were looking for a messiah to deliver them from their oppression.
We get to listen in on them as they describe what they think the Messiah would look like. It sounds more like a superhero than Jesus Christ. They were looking for a warrior that can rescue them from their oppression, but at the beginning of our story we see John describing Jesus. Let’s consider this his origin story. John says some really powerful things that while it may not look like Jesus is a superhero when his future disciples see him, it is clear that Jesus is more powerful than they ever could imagine. John describes Jesus as the physical manifestation of the Word of God. Not only is He the manifestation of the Word of God, but He is God himself. He is not just any superhero. He is the all-powerful Savior of the universe.
The beginning of the scene not only gives us an introduction to who Jesus is, but also why Jesus came to earth. There is a quotation from the prophet Isaiah that details Jesus’ plans. Jesus has come to bring liberty to people who are captive, to bring healing to people that are broken-hearted, and to bring good news to those that are downtrodden. This sounds like a superhero, but it doesn’t sound like someone who is coming to overthrow an empire. Rather, Jesus came to bring a different kind of power and a different way of looking at power. That’s not exactly what his future disciples were looking for at that point.
This is very important because this gives us an early look into how the disciples would view and receive Jesus. They were looking for a superhero, not just a religious leader. By the discussion that we imagined in the episode, we can tell that they were tired of their oppression, and they were looking for an answer. So when Andrew shows up, it is no wonder that they were so excited to go and meet Jesus.
Think back to when you first met Jesus. What was your life like? What needed to be changed about your life? What were the things that were oppressing you? This is important to remember so that we can share our testimony with others. If they know that Jesus delivered us from our oppression, they may be more inclined to let God deliver them from theirs. Remember how excited Andrew was when he came and told his brothers that he had seen the Messiah? Could you imagine what it felt like after living in darkness for so long, to see the light of Christ and know that your life was about to change? No wonder they wanted to follow him.
We see in this text three blueprints for Biblical witnesses. First of all, we learn from John that our discipleship is not to generate our own glory or make a name for ourselves, but to help people meet Jesus. Then we see that Jesus shows us that it’s not always our words that will convince us, but rather our actions that truly show the light of Christ. Finally, Andrew encourages us to bring others to Jesus after we have experienced His goodness. Look at the keyword “follow”. In the Greek, it means not only to go after, but also to obey. The fruit of these three witnessing events was that the disciples became obedient followers of Jesus. They weren’t just chasing after him, but they were also taking heed of his commandments.
| Paul: If I, Paul, speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. |
| Peter: And if I, Peter, have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, |
| Andrew: …and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, |
| John: …I am nothing. |
| James: If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, |
| Paul: …I gain nothing. (Lights out, then immediately back up) |
| Narrator Peter: After Jesus said to me, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Peter,” the next day He decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him “Follow me”. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the same as me and Andrew, on the far north of the lake, the Sea of Galilee. Philip found Nathanael, and said to him: |
| Philip: We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. |
| (Sound Effect: A donkey clomps toward us and stops.) |
| Nathanael: Can anything good come out of Nazareth? |
| Philip: Come and see. |
| Narrator Peter: Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said of him, |
| Jesus: Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit! |
| Nathanael: How do you know me? |
| Jesus: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. |
| Nathanael: Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! |
| (Sound Effect: The donkey brays, then clomps away.) |
| Jesus: Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Son of God, Son of Man, The Messiah, The Christ. These were some lofty names. Perhaps I was the most jaded, the most cautious among us. Time would tell. Then Jesus asked us to go with Him to a wedding at Cana in Galilee. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; |
| John: …love does not envy or boast; |
| James: …it is not arrogant or rude. |
| Andrew: It does not insist on its own way; |
| Philip: …it is not irritable or resentful, |
| Nathanael: …it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, |
| John: …but rejoices with the truth. |
| James: Love bears all things, |
| Andrew: …believes all things, |
| Peter: …hopes all things, |
| Narrator Peter: …endures all things. |
| Paul: Love never ends. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: As you may know, at the wedding, Jesus performed a miracle, and turned water into wine. This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And we, His disciples so far, believed in Him. After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum, with His mother and His brothers and us, His disciples, and we stayed there a few days. For me and Andrew, James and John, this was still our home, where we were fishermen. |
| (Lights out, then back up. The six disciples are on the shore, preparing to go fishing.) | |
| (Sound Effect: A gull caws in the distance.) |
| Peter: You have that net mended? | |
| Andrew: It’s looking halfway decent. | |
| Peter: Let’s get to it! The fish aren’t going to catch themselves. | |
| John: Probably not! But that was quite a wedding back there!! | |
| James: Best wine I’ve ever had. I’m really liking this Jesus fellow! | |
| Nathanael: Do you think He can turn mutton into a big juicy steak? | |
| Philip: That’s what I’m talking about! | |
| Andrew: How about fish? We’ve got plenty of those! | |
| Nathanael: Mutton is funnier though. | |
| Peter: What really matters though, is here is the Messiah. Is He not? | |
| Andrew: He is! | |
| John: Has to be. I’ve never seen anything like that! | |
| James: Neither have I! | |
| Philip: What will He do next? | |
| (Sound Effect: The bird caws, closer now.) |
| Nathanael: What will we do? | |
| Peter: Passover is coming. We’ll go with Him there. And then we shall see. But first there are many fish to catch, and money that needs to be made. | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Ever since Moses led our people out of slavery, well over a thousand years earlier, we celebrated Passover week in the spring of each year. It was our most important observance. All Jews within 15 miles of Jerusalem were required to attend there, in Jerusalem. We were about 125 miles away, but this year, with The Messiah among us, we would not have missed it for the world. | |
| (Lights out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Hungry birds, swarming over a fresh catch.) |
| Narrator Peter: The day before the trip, we were on the shore after hauling in a catch. | |
| John: Peter, shall we knock off early and prepare for the journey? | |
| Peter: Certainly. The fishing has been good, which is good, since we’ll be gone for quite some time. Perhaps three weeks? | |
| James: It’s a long time to miss. But at least they can’t tax us on what we don’t make! | |
| Nathanael: You haven’t heard of the new Prophet Tax? | |
| Philip: What’s that? | |
| Nathanael: Instead of taxing you on your profit, they tax you on what their Prophet says you would have made. | |
| Philip: (Shaking his head) You’re trying too hard, my friend. | |
| Andrew: (Back to the subject at hand) How could we not go, though? | |
| John: Oh, we’re going. I am anyway. But have you guys thought about where this is headed? When Moses came, what, about 1300 or 1400 years ago? He led our people out of slavery, but they wandered in the desert down there for 40 years! David’s time was a thousand years ago, but we had an army then, when he delivered us from the Philistines and established us as a great nation. Now we’re nothing. |
| (Sound Effect: The birds caw, aggressively.) |
| Philip: And Rome may very well be the most powerful army that ever existed. | |
| Nathanael: Looks like Jesus has His work cut out for Him. | |
| Peter: And us, if we follow Him. | |
| Andrew: For sure there’s a price. But if He is The Christ, which He is, how could I not be a part of it? | |
| Peter: You know, every time I go to Jerusalem, I think about what I saw a number of years ago there—a crucifixion. There was this man–they whipped him really badly, but carefully enough not to kill him. Then they forced him to carry the crossbeam of his cross quite a long way to where the shaft was already positioned in the ground, just outside the city, on a hill. Then, I suppose to shame him even more, or make an example, the Romans stripped him of all his clothes. Then they drove nails through his wrists, with his arms outstretched on the crossbeam he had carried. |
| Peter: Then they lifted him up to the shaft and nailed the crossbeam to it, maybe 10, maybe 12 feet up in the air. Then they nailed his feet to the shaft. Then they inserted a ledge to give him some support, to sit, but that just seemed to make sure he suffered for longer. They put a notice above his head with his name and his crime. | |
| John: What had he done? | |
| Peter: He had struck a Roman official, didn’t even hurt him much. But they thought they needed to make an example of him. It was brutal. It was obscene. | |
| Philip: (Slowly) Well that was a fun story. Thanks for cheering me up. | |
| Nathanael: Yes, it was quite uplifting! Get it? Uplifting? | |
| (Sound Effect: A Gull, directly overhead, caws loudly.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: The journey to Jerusalem was, actually, quite uplifting. I have never known a teacher so effective, and He was just easy to be around. He seemed gentle too, not like a warrior at all. Not like King David, not yet anyway. But that is what we expected Him to become. How else could He save us from Rome? How could He save us from ourselves? | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: When Jesus saw the corruption in Jerusalem, how the Temple had been turned into a marketplace, He was indeed upset. Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, |
| Jesus: Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade. |
| (Light out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Muffled voices in the distance. Perhaps a stray goat, bleating.) |
| John: Did you see that? Coins flying everywhere! | |
| James: Did I see it? A front row seat! | |
| Andrew: He showed them! What a mockery they’ve made of worship! This was their first glimpse of our Messiah! The Christ! | |
| John: But not the last. He had better start training us for battle. | |
| James: Fight! | |
| Andrew: The Sadducees can die and be buried with the Romans! | |
| James: And all our other enemies throughout history! | |
| Nathanael: Yeah, they’ll be quite sad, you see? | |
| Philip: I get it. Sad. You see. | |
| (Sound Effect: The goat, closer now, bleats, as if laughing at a bad joke.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Sure enough, the Jewish authorities questioned Jesus. | |
| Pharisee: (Angrily) What sign do you show us for doing these things? |
| Jesus: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. |
| Pharisee: It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? |
| Narrator Peter: But He was speaking about the temple of His body, and of course they did not understand this. At the time, neither did we. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing. But Jesus on His part did not entrust himself to them, |
| John: …because He knew all people and He needed no one to bear witness about man, for He himself knew what was in man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: In my day, when Jesus walked the earth, the Roman cross represented certain death. In Moses’ time, well over a thousand years earlier, when the Israelites were in the wilderness, fiery snakes, or serpents, represented certain death. | |
| Moses: After nearly forty years in the wilderness, after my brother, Aaron, died and was gathered to his people, we set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. Now this was an extra 180 miles, on foot, through harsh conditions. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against me, Moses. |
| Israelite: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. |
| Moses: Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to me and said, |
| Israelite: We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us. |
| Moses: So I prayed for the people. |
| Narrator Peter: And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: After Passover, we stayed a short time in Jerusalem. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, |
| Nicodemus: Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him. |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. |
| Nicodemus: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. |
| Nicodemus: How can these things be? |
| Jesus: Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Jesus: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| John: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| Narrator Peter: Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. |
| Peter: And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. |
| John: For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. |
| Philip: But whoever does what is true comes to the light, |
| Nathanael: …so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. |
| Narrator Peter: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
| Peter: Love never ends. |
| John: As for prophecies, they will pass away; |
| James: …as for tongues, they will cease; |
| Andrew: …as for knowledge, it will pass away. |
| Philip: For we know in part and we prophesy in part, |
| Nathanael: …but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. |
| Narrator Peter: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. |
| Peter: When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. |
| Paul: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; |
| Narrator Peter: …then I shall know fully, |
| Peter: …even as I have been fully known. |
| Paul: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; |
| Jesus: … but the greatest of these is love. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| Narrator Peter: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| Jesus: For God so loved the world, that He gave Me, His only Son, that whoever believes in Me should not perish but have eternal life. |
| (Action: Jesus walks downstage center.) | |
| Narrator Peter: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| (Action: Jesus lifts His hands to heaven, acknowledging the Father. He then outstretches His arms, as if on the cross. His eyes lift heavenward.) | |
| Jesus: Father, into your hands I commit My spirit! |
| (Action: Jesus closes His eyes and bows His head.) |
Episode Spotlight:
In this episode, we find Peter and his companions out working by their fishing boats. While they are working, they are having a discussion about the various fees and taxes that they have to pay to the Roman government. We immediately see the oppression that the Romans have imposed on the Jewish people. But it gets worse if we continue in the scene. James, John, and Peter begin to discuss all of the fees they had to pay in the temple. The Jewish temple was the center of Jewish religious practice, but it was also an economic center that could cause a burden to the Jewish people. In both cases, we see the would-be disciples are looking for a messiah to come and resolve all of their issues. They were looking for a messiah to deliver them from their oppression.
We get to listen in on them as they describe what they think the Messiah would look like. It sounds more like a superhero than Jesus Christ. They were looking for a warrior that can rescue them from their oppression, but at the beginning of our story we see John describing Jesus. Let’s consider this his origin story. John says some really powerful things that while it may not look like Jesus is a superhero when his future disciples see him, it is clear that Jesus is more powerful than they ever could imagine. John describes Jesus as the physical manifestation of the Word of God. Not only is He the manifestation of the Word of God, but He is God himself. He is not just any superhero. He is the all-powerful Savior of the universe.
The beginning of the scene not only gives us an introduction to who Jesus is, but also why Jesus came to earth. There is a quotation from the prophet Isaiah that details Jesus’ plans. Jesus has come to bring liberty to people who are captive, to bring healing to people that are broken-hearted, and to bring good news to those that are downtrodden. This sounds like a superhero, but it doesn’t sound like someone who is coming to overthrow an empire. Rather, Jesus came to bring a different kind of power and a different way of looking at power. That’s not exactly what his future disciples were looking for at that point.
This is very important because this gives us an early look into how the disciples would view and receive Jesus. They were looking for a superhero, not just a religious leader. By the discussion that we imagined in the episode, we can tell that they were tired of their oppression, and they were looking for an answer. So when Andrew shows up, it is no wonder that they were so excited to go and meet Jesus.
Think back to when you first met Jesus. What was your life like? What needed to be changed about your life? What were the things that were oppressing you? This is important to remember so that we can share our testimony with others. If they know that Jesus delivered us from our oppression, they may be more inclined to let God deliver them from theirs. Remember how excited Andrew was when he came and told his brothers that he had seen the Messiah? Could you imagine what it felt like after living in darkness for so long, to see the light of Christ and know that your life was about to change? No wonder they wanted to follow him.
We see in this text three blueprints for Biblical witnesses. First of all, we learn from John that our discipleship is not to generate our own glory or make a name for ourselves, but to help people meet Jesus. Then we see that Jesus shows us that it’s not always our words that will convince us, but rather our actions that truly show the light of Christ. Finally, Andrew encourages us to bring others to Jesus after we have experienced His goodness. Look at the keyword “follow”. In the Greek, it means not only to go after, but also to obey. The fruit of these three witnessing events was that the disciples became obedient followers of Jesus. They weren’t just chasing after him, but they were also taking heed of his commandments.
| Paul: If I, Paul, speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. |
| Peter: And if I, Peter, have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, |
| Andrew: …and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, |
| John: …I am nothing. |
| James: If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, |
| Paul: …I gain nothing. (Lights out, then immediately back up) |
| Narrator Peter: After Jesus said to me, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Peter,” the next day He decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him “Follow me”. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the same as me and Andrew, on the far north of the lake, the Sea of Galilee. Philip found Nathanael, and said to him: |
| Philip: We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. |
| (Sound Effect: A donkey clomps toward us and stops.) |
| Nathanael: Can anything good come out of Nazareth? |
| Philip: Come and see. |
| Narrator Peter: Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said of him, |
| Jesus: Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit! |
| Nathanael: How do you know me? |
| Jesus: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. |
| Nathanael: Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! |
| (Sound Effect: The donkey brays, then clomps away.) |
| Jesus: Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Son of God, Son of Man, The Messiah, The Christ. These were some lofty names. Perhaps I was the most jaded, the most cautious among us. Time would tell. Then Jesus asked us to go with Him to a wedding at Cana in Galilee. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; |
| John: …love does not envy or boast; |
| James: …it is not arrogant or rude. |
| Andrew: It does not insist on its own way; |
| Philip: …it is not irritable or resentful, |
| Nathanael: …it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, |
| John: …but rejoices with the truth. |
| James: Love bears all things, |
| Andrew: …believes all things, |
| Peter: …hopes all things, |
| Narrator Peter: …endures all things. |
| Paul: Love never ends. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: As you may know, at the wedding, Jesus performed a miracle, and turned water into wine. This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And we, His disciples so far, believed in Him. After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum, with His mother and His brothers and us, His disciples, and we stayed there a few days. For me and Andrew, James and John, this was still our home, where we were fishermen. |
| (Lights out, then back up. The six disciples are on the shore, preparing to go fishing.) | |
| (Sound Effect: A gull caws in the distance.) |
| Peter: You have that net mended? | |
| Andrew: It’s looking halfway decent. | |
| Peter: Let’s get to it! The fish aren’t going to catch themselves. | |
| John: Probably not! But that was quite a wedding back there!! | |
| James: Best wine I’ve ever had. I’m really liking this Jesus fellow! | |
| Nathanael: Do you think He can turn mutton into a big juicy steak? | |
| Philip: That’s what I’m talking about! | |
| Andrew: How about fish? We’ve got plenty of those! | |
| Nathanael: Mutton is funnier though. | |
| Peter: What really matters though, is here is the Messiah. Is He not? | |
| Andrew: He is! | |
| John: Has to be. I’ve never seen anything like that! | |
| James: Neither have I! | |
| Philip: What will He do next? | |
| (Sound Effect: The bird caws, closer now.) |
| Nathanael: What will we do? | |
| Peter: Passover is coming. We’ll go with Him there. And then we shall see. But first there are many fish to catch, and money that needs to be made. | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Ever since Moses led our people out of slavery, well over a thousand years earlier, we celebrated Passover week in the spring of each year. It was our most important observance. All Jews within 15 miles of Jerusalem were required to attend there, in Jerusalem. We were about 125 miles away, but this year, with The Messiah among us, we would not have missed it for the world. | |
| (Lights out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Hungry birds, swarming over a fresh catch.) |
| Narrator Peter: The day before the trip, we were on the shore after hauling in a catch. | |
| John: Peter, shall we knock off early and prepare for the journey? | |
| Peter: Certainly. The fishing has been good, which is good, since we’ll be gone for quite some time. Perhaps three weeks? | |
| James: It’s a long time to miss. But at least they can’t tax us on what we don’t make! | |
| Nathanael: You haven’t heard of the new Prophet Tax? | |
| Philip: What’s that? | |
| Nathanael: Instead of taxing you on your profit, they tax you on what their Prophet says you would have made. | |
| Philip: (Shaking his head) You’re trying too hard, my friend. | |
| Andrew: (Back to the subject at hand) How could we not go, though? | |
| John: Oh, we’re going. I am anyway. But have you guys thought about where this is headed? When Moses came, what, about 1300 or 1400 years ago? He led our people out of slavery, but they wandered in the desert down there for 40 years! David’s time was a thousand years ago, but we had an army then, when he delivered us from the Philistines and established us as a great nation. Now we’re nothing. |
| (Sound Effect: The birds caw, aggressively.) |
| Philip: And Rome may very well be the most powerful army that ever existed. | |
| Nathanael: Looks like Jesus has His work cut out for Him. | |
| Peter: And us, if we follow Him. | |
| Andrew: For sure there’s a price. But if He is The Christ, which He is, how could I not be a part of it? | |
| Peter: You know, every time I go to Jerusalem, I think about what I saw a number of years ago there—a crucifixion. There was this man–they whipped him really badly, but carefully enough not to kill him. Then they forced him to carry the crossbeam of his cross quite a long way to where the shaft was already positioned in the ground, just outside the city, on a hill. Then, I suppose to shame him even more, or make an example, the Romans stripped him of all his clothes. Then they drove nails through his wrists, with his arms outstretched on the crossbeam he had carried. |
| Peter: Then they lifted him up to the shaft and nailed the crossbeam to it, maybe 10, maybe 12 feet up in the air. Then they nailed his feet to the shaft. Then they inserted a ledge to give him some support, to sit, but that just seemed to make sure he suffered for longer. They put a notice above his head with his name and his crime. | |
| John: What had he done? | |
| Peter: He had struck a Roman official, didn’t even hurt him much. But they thought they needed to make an example of him. It was brutal. It was obscene. | |
| Philip: (Slowly) Well that was a fun story. Thanks for cheering me up. | |
| (Sound Effect: A Gull, directly overhead, caws loudly.) |
| Nathanael: Yes, it was quite uplifting! Get it? Uplifting? | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: The journey to Jerusalem was, actually, quite uplifting. I have never known a teacher so effective, and He was just easy to be around. He seemed gentle too, not like a warrior at all. Not like King David, not yet anyway. But that is what we expected Him to become. How else could He save us from Rome? How could He save us from ourselves? | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: When Jesus saw the corruption in Jerusalem, how the Temple had been turned into a marketplace, He was indeed upset. Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, |
| Jesus: Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade. |
| (Light out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Muffled voices in the distance. Perhaps a stray goat, bleating.) |
| John: Did you see that? Coins flying everywhere! | |
| James: Did I see it? A front row seat! | |
| Andrew: He showed them! What a mockery they’ve made of worship! This was their first glimpse of our Messiah! The Christ! | |
| John: But not the last. He had better start training us for battle. | |
| James: Fight! | |
| Andrew: The Sadducees can die and be buried with the Romans! | |
| James: And all our other enemies throughout history! | |
| Nathanael: Yeah, they’ll be quite sad, you see? | |
| Philip: I get it. Sad. You see. | |
| (Sound Effect: The goat, closer now, bleats, as if laughing at a bad joke.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Sure enough, the Jewish authorities questioned Jesus. | |
| Pharisee: (Angrily) What sign do you show us for doing these things? |
| Jesus: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. |
| Pharisee: It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? |
| Narrator Peter: But He was speaking about the temple of His body, and of course they did not understand this. At the time, neither did we. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing. But Jesus on His part did not entrust himself to them, |
| John: …because He knew all people and He needed no one to bear witness about man, for He himself knew what was in man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: In my day, when Jesus walked the earth, the Roman cross represented certain death. In Moses’ time, well over a thousand years earlier, when the Israelites were in the wilderness, fiery snakes, or serpents, represented certain death. | |
| Moses: After nearly forty years in the wilderness, after my brother, Aaron, died and was gathered to his people, we set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. Now this was an extra 180 miles, on foot, through harsh conditions. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against me, Moses. |
| Israelite: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. |
| Moses: Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to me and said, |
| Israelite: We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us. |
| Moses: So I prayed for the people. |
| Narrator Peter: And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: After Passover, we stayed a short time in Jerusalem. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, |
| Nicodemus: Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him. |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. |
| Nicodemus: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. |
| Nicodemus: How can these things be? |
| Jesus: Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Jesus: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| John: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| Narrator Peter: Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. |
| Peter: And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. |
| John: For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. |
| Philip: But whoever does what is true comes to the light, |
| Nathanael: …so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. |
| Narrator Peter: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
| Peter: Love never ends. |
| John: As for prophecies, they will pass away; |
| James: …as for tongues, they will cease; |
| Andrew: …as for knowledge, it will pass away. |
| Philip: For we know in part and we prophesy in part, |
| Nathanael: …but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. |
| Narrator Peter: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. |
| Peter: When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. |
| Paul: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; |
| Narrator Peter: …then I shall know fully, |
| Peter: …even as I have been fully known. |
| Paul: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; |
| Jesus: … but the greatest of these is love. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| Narrator Peter: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| Jesus: For God so loved the world, that He gave Me, His only Son, that whoever believes in Me should not perish but have eternal life. |
| (Action: Jesus walks downstage center.) | |
| Narrator Peter: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| (Action: Jesus lifts His hands to heaven, acknowledging the Father. He then outstretches His arms, as if on the cross. His eyes lift heavenward.) | |
| Jesus: Father, into your hands I commit My spirit! |
| (Action: Jesus closes His eyes and bows His head.) |
Episode Spotlight:
In this episode, we find Peter and his companions out working by their fishing boats. While they are working, they are having a discussion about the various fees and taxes that they have to pay to the Roman government. We immediately see the oppression that the Romans have imposed on the Jewish people. But it gets worse if we continue in the scene. James, John, and Peter begin to discuss all of the fees they had to pay in the temple. The Jewish temple was the center of Jewish religious practice, but it was also an economic center that could cause a burden to the Jewish people. In both cases, we see the would-be disciples are looking for a messiah to come and resolve all of their issues. They were looking for a messiah to deliver them from their oppression.
We get to listen in on them as they describe what they think the Messiah would look like. It sounds more like a superhero than Jesus Christ. They were looking for a warrior that can rescue them from their oppression, but at the beginning of our story we see John describing Jesus. Let’s consider this his origin story. John says some really powerful things that while it may not look like Jesus is a superhero when his future disciples see him, it is clear that Jesus is more powerful than they ever could imagine. John describes Jesus as the physical manifestation of the Word of God. Not only is He the manifestation of the Word of God, but He is God himself. He is not just any superhero. He is the all-powerful Savior of the universe.
The beginning of the scene not only gives us an introduction to who Jesus is, but also why Jesus came to earth. There is a quotation from the prophet Isaiah that details Jesus’ plans. Jesus has come to bring liberty to people who are captive, to bring healing to people that are broken-hearted, and to bring good news to those that are downtrodden. This sounds like a superhero, but it doesn’t sound like someone who is coming to overthrow an empire. Rather, Jesus came to bring a different kind of power and a different way of looking at power. That’s not exactly what his future disciples were looking for at that point.
This is very important because this gives us an early look into how the disciples would view and receive Jesus. They were looking for a superhero, not just a religious leader. By the discussion that we imagined in the episode, we can tell that they were tired of their oppression, and they were looking for an answer. So when Andrew shows up, it is no wonder that they were so excited to go and meet Jesus.
Think back to when you first met Jesus. What was your life like? What needed to be changed about your life? What were the things that were oppressing you? This is important to remember so that we can share our testimony with others. If they know that Jesus delivered us from our oppression, they may be more inclined to let God deliver them from theirs. Remember how excited Andrew was when he came and told his brothers that he had seen the Messiah? Could you imagine what it felt like after living in darkness for so long, to see the light of Christ and know that your life was about to change? No wonder they wanted to follow him.
We see in this text three blueprints for Biblical witnesses. First of all, we learn from John that our discipleship is not to generate our own glory or make a name for ourselves, but to help people meet Jesus. Then we see that Jesus shows us that it’s not always our words that will convince us, but rather our actions that truly show the light of Christ. Finally, Andrew encourages us to bring others to Jesus after we have experienced His goodness. Look at the keyword “follow”. In the Greek, it means not only to go after, but also to obey. The fruit of these three witnessing events was that the disciples became obedient followers of Jesus. They weren’t just chasing after him, but they were also taking heed of his commandments.
| Paul: If I, Paul, speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. |
| Peter: And if I, Peter, have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, |
| Andrew: …and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, |
| John: …I am nothing. |
| James: If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, |
| Paul: …I gain nothing. (Lights out, then immediately back up) |
| Narrator Peter: After Jesus said to me, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Peter,” the next day He decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him “Follow me”. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the same as me and Andrew, on the far north of the lake, the Sea of Galilee. Philip found Nathanael, and said to him: |
| Philip: We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. |
| (Sound Effect: A donkey clomps toward us and stops.) |
| Nathanael: Can anything good come out of Nazareth? |
| Philip: Come and see. |
| Narrator Peter: Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said of him, |
| Jesus: Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit! |
| Nathanael: How do you know me? |
| Jesus: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. |
| Nathanael: Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! |
| (Sound Effect: The donkey brays, then clomps away.) |
| Jesus: Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Son of God, Son of Man, The Messiah, The Christ. These were some lofty names. Perhaps I was the most jaded, the most cautious among us. Time would tell. Then Jesus asked us to go with Him to a wedding at Cana in Galilee. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; |
| John: …love does not envy or boast; |
| James: …it is not arrogant or rude. |
| Andrew: It does not insist on its own way; |
| Philip: …it is not irritable or resentful, |
| Nathanael: …it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, |
| John: …but rejoices with the truth. |
| James: Love bears all things, |
| Andrew: …believes all things, |
| Peter: …hopes all things, |
| Narrator Peter: …endures all things. |
| Paul: Love never ends. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: As you may know, at the wedding, Jesus performed a miracle, and turned water into wine. This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And we, His disciples so far, believed in Him. After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum, with His mother and His brothers and us, His disciples, and we stayed there a few days. For me and Andrew, James and John, this was still our home, where we were fishermen. |
| (Lights out, then back up. The six disciples are on the shore, preparing to go fishing.) | |
| (Sound Effect: A gull caws in the distance.) |
| Peter: You have that net mended? | |
| Andrew: It’s looking halfway decent. | |
| Peter: Let’s get to it! The fish aren’t going to catch themselves. | |
| John: Probably not! But that was quite a wedding back there!! | |
| James: Best wine I’ve ever had. I’m really liking this Jesus fellow! | |
| Nathanael: Do you think He can turn mutton into a big juicy steak? | |
| Philip: That’s what I’m talking about! | |
| Andrew: How about fish? We’ve got plenty of those! | |
| Nathanael: Mutton is funnier though. | |
| Peter: What really matters though, is here is the Messiah. Is He not? | |
| Andrew: He is! | |
| John: Has to be. I’ve never seen anything like that! | |
| James: Neither have I! | |
| Philip: What will He do next? | |
| (Sound Effect: The bird caws, closer now.) |
| Nathanael: What will we do? | |
| Peter: Passover is coming. We’ll go with Him there. And then we shall see. But first there are many fish to catch, and money that needs to be made. | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Ever since Moses led our people out of slavery, well over a thousand years earlier, we celebrated Passover week in the spring of each year. It was our most important observance. All Jews within 15 miles of Jerusalem were required to attend there, in Jerusalem. We were about 125 miles away, but this year, with The Messiah among us, we would not have missed it for the world. | |
| (Lights out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Hungry birds, swarming over a fresh catch.) |
| Narrator Peter: The day before the trip, we were on the shore after hauling in a catch. | |
| John: Peter, shall we knock off early and prepare for the journey? | |
| Peter: Certainly. The fishing has been good, which is good, since we’ll be gone for quite some time. Perhaps three weeks? | |
| James: It’s a long time to miss. But at least they can’t tax us on what we don’t make! | |
| Nathanael: You haven’t heard of the new Prophet Tax? | |
| Philip: What’s that? | |
| Nathanael: Instead of taxing you on your profit, they tax you on what their Prophet says you would have made. | |
| Philip: (Shaking his head) You’re trying too hard, my friend. | |
| Andrew: (Back to the subject at hand) How could we not go, though? | |
| John: Oh, we’re going. I am anyway. But have you guys thought about where this is headed? When Moses came, what, about 1300 or 1400 years ago? He led our people out of slavery, but they wandered in the desert down there for 40 years! David’s time was a thousand years ago, but we had an army then, when he delivered us from the Philistines and established us as a great nation. Now we’re nothing. |
| (Sound Effect: The birds caw, aggressively.) |
| Philip: And Rome may very well be the most powerful army that ever existed. | |
| Nathanael: Looks like Jesus has His work cut out for Him. | |
| Peter: And us, if we follow Him. | |
| Andrew: For sure there’s a price. But if He is The Christ, which He is, how could I not be a part of it? | |
| Peter: You know, every time I go to Jerusalem, I think about what I saw a number of years ago there—a crucifixion. There was this man–they whipped him really badly, but carefully enough not to kill him. Then they forced him to carry the crossbeam of his cross quite a long way to where the shaft was already positioned in the ground, just outside the city, on a hill. Then, I suppose to shame him even more, or make an example, the Romans stripped him of all his clothes. Then they drove nails through his wrists, with his arms outstretched on the crossbeam he had carried. |
| Peter: Then they lifted him up to the shaft and nailed the crossbeam to it, maybe 10, maybe 12 feet up in the air. Then they nailed his feet to the shaft. Then they inserted a ledge to give him some support, to sit, but that just seemed to make sure he suffered for longer. They put a notice above his head with his name and his crime. | |
| John: What had he done? | |
| Peter: He had struck a Roman official, didn’t even hurt him much. But they thought they needed to make an example of him. It was brutal. It was obscene. | |
| Philip: (Slowly) Well that was a fun story. Thanks for cheering me up. | |
| (Sound Effect: A Gull, directly overhead, caws loudly.) |
| Nathanael: Yes, it was quite uplifting! Get it? Uplifting? | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: The journey to Jerusalem was, actually, quite uplifting. I have never known a teacher so effective, and He was just easy to be around. He seemed gentle too, not like a warrior at all. Not like King David, not yet anyway. But that is what we expected Him to become. How else could He save us from Rome? How could He save us from ourselves? | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: When Jesus saw the corruption in Jerusalem, how the Temple had been turned into a marketplace, He was indeed upset. Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, |
| Jesus: Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade. |
| (Light out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Muffled voices in the distance. Perhaps a stray goat, bleating.) |
| John: Did you see that? Coins flying everywhere! | |
| James: Did I see it? A front row seat! | |
| Andrew: He showed them! What a mockery they’ve made of worship! This was their first glimpse of our Messiah! The Christ! | |
| John: But not the last. He had better start training us for battle. | |
| James: Fight! | |
| Andrew: The Sadducees can die and be buried with the Romans! | |
| James: And all our other enemies throughout history! | |
| Nathanael: Yeah, they’ll be quite sad, you see? | |
| Philip: I get it. Sad. You see. | |
| (Sound Effect: The goat, closer now, bleats, as if laughing at a bad joke.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Sure enough, the Jewish authorities questioned Jesus. | |
| Pharisee: (Angrily) What sign do you show us for doing these things? |
| Jesus: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. |
| Pharisee: It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? |
| Narrator Peter: But He was speaking about the temple of His body, and of course they did not understand this. At the time, neither did we. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing. But Jesus on His part did not entrust himself to them, |
| John: …because He knew all people and He needed no one to bear witness about man, for He himself knew what was in man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: In my day, when Jesus walked the earth, the Roman cross represented certain death. In Moses’ time, well over a thousand years earlier, when the Israelites were in the wilderness, fiery snakes, or serpents, represented certain death. | |
| Moses: After nearly forty years in the wilderness, after my brother, Aaron, died and was gathered to his people, we set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. Now this was an extra 180 miles, on foot, through harsh conditions. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against me, Moses. |
| Israelite: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. |
| Moses: Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to me and said, |
| Israelite: We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us. |
| Moses: So I prayed for the people. |
| Narrator Peter: And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: After Passover, we stayed a short time in Jerusalem. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, |
| Nicodemus: Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him. |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. |
| Nicodemus: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. |
| Nicodemus: How can these things be? |
| Jesus: Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Jesus: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| John: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| Narrator Peter: Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. |
| Peter: And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. |
| John: For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. |
| Philip: But whoever does what is true comes to the light, |
| Nathanael: …so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. |
| Narrator Peter: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
| Peter: Love never ends. |
| John: As for prophecies, they will pass away; |
| James: …as for tongues, they will cease; |
| Andrew: …as for knowledge, it will pass away. |
| Philip: For we know in part and we prophesy in part, |
| Nathanael: …but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. |
| Narrator Peter: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. |
| Peter: When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. |
| Paul: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; |
| Narrator Peter: …then I shall know fully, |
| Peter: …even as I have been fully known. |
| Paul: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; |
| Jesus: … but the greatest of these is love. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| Narrator Peter: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| Jesus: For God so loved the world, that He gave Me, His only Son, that whoever believes in Me should not perish but have eternal life. |
| (Action: Jesus walks downstage center.) | |
| Narrator Peter: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| (Action: Jesus lifts His hands to heaven, acknowledging the Father. He then outstretches His arms, as if on the cross. His eyes lift heavenward.) | |
| Jesus: Father, into your hands I commit My spirit! |
| (Action: Jesus closes His eyes and bows His head.) |
Episode Spotlight:
In this episode, we find Peter and his companions out working by their fishing boats. While they are working, they are having a discussion about the various fees and taxes that they have to pay to the Roman government. We immediately see the oppression that the Romans have imposed on the Jewish people. But it gets worse if we continue in the scene. James, John, and Peter begin to discuss all of the fees they had to pay in the temple. The Jewish temple was the center of Jewish religious practice, but it was also an economic center that could cause a burden to the Jewish people. In both cases, we see the would-be disciples are looking for a messiah to come and resolve all of their issues. They were looking for a messiah to deliver them from their oppression.
We get to listen in on them as they describe what they think the Messiah would look like. It sounds more like a superhero than Jesus Christ. They were looking for a warrior that can rescue them from their oppression, but at the beginning of our story we see John describing Jesus. Let’s consider this his origin story. John says some really powerful things that while it may not look like Jesus is a superhero when his future disciples see him, it is clear that Jesus is more powerful than they ever could imagine. John describes Jesus as the physical manifestation of the Word of God. Not only is He the manifestation of the Word of God, but He is God himself. He is not just any superhero. He is the all-powerful Savior of the universe.
The beginning of the scene not only gives us an introduction to who Jesus is, but also why Jesus came to earth. There is a quotation from the prophet Isaiah that details Jesus’ plans. Jesus has come to bring liberty to people who are captive, to bring healing to people that are broken-hearted, and to bring good news to those that are downtrodden. This sounds like a superhero, but it doesn’t sound like someone who is coming to overthrow an empire. Rather, Jesus came to bring a different kind of power and a different way of looking at power. That’s not exactly what his future disciples were looking for at that point.
This is very important because this gives us an early look into how the disciples would view and receive Jesus. They were looking for a superhero, not just a religious leader. By the discussion that we imagined in the episode, we can tell that they were tired of their oppression, and they were looking for an answer. So when Andrew shows up, it is no wonder that they were so excited to go and meet Jesus.
Think back to when you first met Jesus. What was your life like? What needed to be changed about your life? What were the things that were oppressing you? This is important to remember so that we can share our testimony with others. If they know that Jesus delivered us from our oppression, they may be more inclined to let God deliver them from theirs. Remember how excited Andrew was when he came and told his brothers that he had seen the Messiah? Could you imagine what it felt like after living in darkness for so long, to see the light of Christ and know that your life was about to change? No wonder they wanted to follow him.
We see in this text three blueprints for Biblical witnesses. First of all, we learn from John that our discipleship is not to generate our own glory or make a name for ourselves, but to help people meet Jesus. Then we see that Jesus shows us that it’s not always our words that will convince us, but rather our actions that truly show the light of Christ. Finally, Andrew encourages us to bring others to Jesus after we have experienced His goodness. Look at the keyword “follow”. In the Greek, it means not only to go after, but also to obey. The fruit of these three witnessing events was that the disciples became obedient followers of Jesus. They weren’t just chasing after him, but they were also taking heed of his commandments.
| Paul: If I, Paul, speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. |
| Peter: And if I, Peter, have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, |
| Andrew: …and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, |
| John: …I am nothing. |
| James: If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, |
| Paul: …I gain nothing. (Lights out, then immediately back up) |
| Narrator Peter: After Jesus said to me, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Peter,” the next day He decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him “Follow me”. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the same as me and Andrew, on the far north of the lake, the Sea of Galilee. Philip found Nathanael, and said to him: |
| Philip: We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. |
| (Sound Effect: A donkey clomps toward us and stops.) |
| Nathanael: Can anything good come out of Nazareth? |
| Philip: Come and see. |
| Narrator Peter: Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said of him, |
| Jesus: Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit! |
| Nathanael: How do you know me? |
| Jesus: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. |
| Nathanael: Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! |
| (Sound Effect: The donkey brays, then clomps away.) |
| Jesus: Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Son of God, Son of Man, The Messiah, The Christ. These were some lofty names. Perhaps I was the most jaded, the most cautious among us. Time would tell. Then Jesus asked us to go with Him to a wedding at Cana in Galilee. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; |
| John: …love does not envy or boast; |
| James: …it is not arrogant or rude. |
| Andrew: It does not insist on its own way; |
| Philip: …it is not irritable or resentful, |
| Nathanael: …it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, |
| John: …but rejoices with the truth. |
| James: Love bears all things, |
| Andrew: …believes all things, |
| Peter: …hopes all things, |
| Narrator Peter: …endures all things. |
| Paul: Love never ends. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: As you may know, at the wedding, Jesus performed a miracle, and turned water into wine. This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And we, His disciples so far, believed in Him. After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum, with His mother and His brothers and us, His disciples, and we stayed there a few days. For me and Andrew, James and John, this was still our home, where we were fishermen. |
| (Lights out, then back up. The six disciples are on the shore, preparing to go fishing.) | |
| (Sound Effect: A gull caws in the distance.) |
| Peter: You have that net mended? | |
| Andrew: It’s looking halfway decent. | |
| Peter: Let’s get to it! The fish aren’t going to catch themselves. | |
| John: Probably not! But that was quite a wedding back there!! | |
| James: Best wine I’ve ever had. I’m really liking this Jesus fellow! | |
| Nathanael: Do you think He can turn mutton into a big juicy steak? | |
| Philip: That’s what I’m talking about! | |
| Andrew: How about fish? We’ve got plenty of those! | |
| Nathanael: Mutton is funnier though. | |
| Peter: What really matters though, is here is the Messiah. Is He not? | |
| Andrew: He is! | |
| John: Has to be. I’ve never seen anything like that! | |
| James: Neither have I! | |
| Philip: What will He do next? | |
| (Sound Effect: The bird caws, closer now.) |
| Nathanael: What will we do? | |
| Peter: Passover is coming. We’ll go with Him there. And then we shall see. But first there are many fish to catch, and money that needs to be made. | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Ever since Moses led our people out of slavery, well over a thousand years earlier, we celebrated Passover week in the spring of each year. It was our most important observance. All Jews within 15 miles of Jerusalem were required to attend there, in Jerusalem. We were about 125 miles away, but this year, with The Messiah among us, we would not have missed it for the world. | |
| (Lights out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Hungry birds, swarming over a fresh catch.) |
| Narrator Peter: The day before the trip, we were on the shore after hauling in a catch. | |
| John: Peter, shall we knock off early and prepare for the journey? | |
| Peter: Certainly. The fishing has been good, which is good, since we’ll be gone for quite some time. Perhaps three weeks? | |
| James: It’s a long time to miss. But at least they can’t tax us on what we don’t make! | |
| Nathanael: You haven’t heard of the new Prophet Tax? | |
| Philip: What’s that? | |
| Nathanael: Instead of taxing you on your profit, they tax you on what their Prophet says you would have made. | |
| Philip: (Shaking his head) You’re trying too hard, my friend. | |
| Andrew: (Back to the subject at hand) How could we not go, though? | |
| John: Oh, we’re going. I am anyway. But have you guys thought about where this is headed? When Moses came, what, about 1300 or 1400 years ago? He led our people out of slavery, but they wandered in the desert down there for 40 years! David’s time was a thousand years ago, but we had an army then, when he delivered us from the Philistines and established us as a great nation. Now we’re nothing. |
| (Sound Effect: The birds caw, aggressively.) |
| Philip: And Rome may very well be the most powerful army that ever existed. | |
| Nathanael: Looks like Jesus has His work cut out for Him. | |
| Peter: And us, if we follow Him. | |
| Andrew: For sure there’s a price. But if He is The Christ, which He is, how could I not be a part of it? | |
| Peter: You know, every time I go to Jerusalem, I think about what I saw a number of years ago there—a crucifixion. There was this man–they whipped him really badly, but carefully enough not to kill him. Then they forced him to carry the crossbeam of his cross quite a long way to where the shaft was already positioned in the ground, just outside the city, on a hill. Then, I suppose to shame him even more, or make an example, the Romans stripped him of all his clothes. Then they drove nails through his wrists, with his arms outstretched on the crossbeam he had carried. |
| Peter: Then they lifted him up to the shaft and nailed the crossbeam to it, maybe 10, maybe 12 feet up in the air. Then they nailed his feet to the shaft. Then they inserted a ledge to give him some support, to sit, but that just seemed to make sure he suffered for longer. They put a notice above his head with his name and his crime. | |
| John: What had he done? | |
| Peter: He had struck a Roman official, didn’t even hurt him much. But they thought they needed to make an example of him. It was brutal. It was obscene. | |
| Philip: (Slowly) Well that was a fun story. Thanks for cheering me up. | |
| (Sound Effect: A Gull, directly overhead, caws loudly.) |
| Nathanael: Yes, it was quite uplifting! Get it? Uplifting? | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: The journey to Jerusalem was, actually, quite uplifting. I have never known a teacher so effective, and He was just easy to be around. He seemed gentle too, not like a warrior at all. Not like King David, not yet anyway. But that is what we expected Him to become. How else could He save us from Rome? How could He save us from ourselves? | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: When Jesus saw the corruption in Jerusalem, how the Temple had been turned into a marketplace, He was indeed upset. Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, |
| Jesus: Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade. |
| (Light out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Muffled voices in the distance. Perhaps a stray goat, bleating.) |
| John: Did you see that? Coins flying everywhere! | |
| James: Did I see it? A front row seat! | |
| Andrew: He showed them! What a mockery they’ve made of worship! This was their first glimpse of our Messiah! The Christ! | |
| John: But not the last. He had better start training us for battle. | |
| James: Fight! | |
| Andrew: The Sadducees can die and be buried with the Romans! | |
| James: And all our other enemies throughout history! | |
| Nathanael: Yeah, they’ll be quite sad, you see? | |
| Philip: I get it. Sad. You see. | |
| (Sound Effect: The goat, closer now, bleats, as if laughing at a bad joke.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Sure enough, the Jewish authorities questioned Jesus. | |
| Pharisee: (Angrily) What sign do you show us for doing these things? |
| Jesus: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. |
| Pharisee: It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? |
| Narrator Peter: But He was speaking about the temple of His body, and of course they did not understand this. At the time, neither did we. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing. But Jesus on His part did not entrust himself to them, |
| John: …because He knew all people and He needed no one to bear witness about man, for He himself knew what was in man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: In my day, when Jesus walked the earth, the Roman cross represented certain death. In Moses’ time, well over a thousand years earlier, when the Israelites were in the wilderness, fiery snakes, or serpents, represented certain death. | |
| Moses: After nearly forty years in the wilderness, after my brother, Aaron, died and was gathered to his people, we set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. Now this was an extra 180 miles, on foot, through harsh conditions. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against me, Moses. |
| Israelite: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. |
| Moses: Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to me and said, |
| Israelite: We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us. |
| Moses: So I prayed for the people. |
| Narrator Peter: And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: After Passover, we stayed a short time in Jerusalem. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, |
| Nicodemus: Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him. |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. |
| Nicodemus: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. |
| Nicodemus: How can these things be? |
| Jesus: Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Jesus: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| John: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| Narrator Peter: Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. |
| Peter: And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. |
| John: For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. |
| Philip: But whoever does what is true comes to the light, |
| Nathanael: …so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. |
| Narrator Peter: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
| Peter: Love never ends. |
| John: As for prophecies, they will pass away; |
| James: …as for tongues, they will cease; |
| Andrew: …as for knowledge, it will pass away. |
| Philip: For we know in part and we prophesy in part, |
| Nathanael: …but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. |
| Narrator Peter: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. |
| Peter: When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. |
| Paul: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; |
| Narrator Peter: …then I shall know fully, |
| Peter: …even as I have been fully known. |
| Paul: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; |
| Jesus: … but the greatest of these is love. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| Narrator Peter: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| Jesus: For God so loved the world, that He gave Me, His only Son, that whoever believes in Me should not perish but have eternal life. |
| (Action: Jesus walks downstage center.) | |
| Narrator Peter: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| (Action: Jesus lifts His hands to heaven, acknowledging the Father. He then outstretches His arms, as if on the cross. His eyes lift heavenward.) | |
| Jesus: Father, into your hands I commit My spirit! |
| (Action: Jesus closes His eyes and bows His head.) |
Episode Spotlight:
In this episode, we find Peter and his companions out working by their fishing boats. While they are working, they are having a discussion about the various fees and taxes that they have to pay to the Roman government. We immediately see the oppression that the Romans have imposed on the Jewish people. But it gets worse if we continue in the scene. James, John, and Peter begin to discuss all of the fees they had to pay in the temple. The Jewish temple was the center of Jewish religious practice, but it was also an economic center that could cause a burden to the Jewish people. In both cases, we see the would-be disciples are looking for a messiah to come and resolve all of their issues. They were looking for a messiah to deliver them from their oppression.
We get to listen in on them as they describe what they think the Messiah would look like. It sounds more like a superhero than Jesus Christ. They were looking for a warrior that can rescue them from their oppression, but at the beginning of our story we see John describing Jesus. Let’s consider this his origin story. John says some really powerful things that while it may not look like Jesus is a superhero when his future disciples see him, it is clear that Jesus is more powerful than they ever could imagine. John describes Jesus as the physical manifestation of the Word of God. Not only is He the manifestation of the Word of God, but He is God himself. He is not just any superhero. He is the all-powerful Savior of the universe.
The beginning of the scene not only gives us an introduction to who Jesus is, but also why Jesus came to earth. There is a quotation from the prophet Isaiah that details Jesus’ plans. Jesus has come to bring liberty to people who are captive, to bring healing to people that are broken-hearted, and to bring good news to those that are downtrodden. This sounds like a superhero, but it doesn’t sound like someone who is coming to overthrow an empire. Rather, Jesus came to bring a different kind of power and a different way of looking at power. That’s not exactly what his future disciples were looking for at that point.
This is very important because this gives us an early look into how the disciples would view and receive Jesus. They were looking for a superhero, not just a religious leader. By the discussion that we imagined in the episode, we can tell that they were tired of their oppression, and they were looking for an answer. So when Andrew shows up, it is no wonder that they were so excited to go and meet Jesus.
Think back to when you first met Jesus. What was your life like? What needed to be changed about your life? What were the things that were oppressing you? This is important to remember so that we can share our testimony with others. If they know that Jesus delivered us from our oppression, they may be more inclined to let God deliver them from theirs. Remember how excited Andrew was when he came and told his brothers that he had seen the Messiah? Could you imagine what it felt like after living in darkness for so long, to see the light of Christ and know that your life was about to change? No wonder they wanted to follow him.
We see in this text three blueprints for Biblical witnesses. First of all, we learn from John that our discipleship is not to generate our own glory or make a name for ourselves, but to help people meet Jesus. Then we see that Jesus shows us that it’s not always our words that will convince us, but rather our actions that truly show the light of Christ. Finally, Andrew encourages us to bring others to Jesus after we have experienced His goodness. Look at the keyword “follow”. In the Greek, it means not only to go after, but also to obey. The fruit of these three witnessing events was that the disciples became obedient followers of Jesus. They weren’t just chasing after him, but they were also taking heed of his commandments.
| Paul: If I, Paul, speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. |
| Peter: And if I, Peter, have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, |
| Andrew: …and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, |
| John: …I am nothing. |
| James: If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, |
| Paul: …I gain nothing. (Lights out, then immediately back up) |
| Narrator Peter: After Jesus said to me, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Peter,” the next day He decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him “Follow me”. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the same as me and Andrew, on the far north of the lake, the Sea of Galilee. Philip found Nathanael, and said to him: |
| Philip: We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. |
| (Sound Effect: A donkey clomps toward us and stops.) |
| Nathanael: Can anything good come out of Nazareth? |
| Philip: Come and see. |
| Narrator Peter: Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said of him, |
| Jesus: Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit! |
| Nathanael: How do you know me? |
| Jesus: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. |
| Nathanael: Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! |
| (Sound Effect: The donkey brays, then clomps away.) |
| Jesus: Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Son of God, Son of Man, The Messiah, The Christ. These were some lofty names. Perhaps I was the most jaded, the most cautious among us. Time would tell. Then Jesus asked us to go with Him to a wedding at Cana in Galilee. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; |
| John: …love does not envy or boast; |
| James: …it is not arrogant or rude. |
| Andrew: It does not insist on its own way; |
| Philip: …it is not irritable or resentful, |
| Nathanael: …it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, |
| John: …but rejoices with the truth. |
| James: Love bears all things, |
| Andrew: …believes all things, |
| Peter: …hopes all things, |
| Narrator Peter: …endures all things. |
| Paul: Love never ends. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: As you may know, at the wedding, Jesus performed a miracle, and turned water into wine. This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And we, His disciples so far, believed in Him. After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum, with His mother and His brothers and us, His disciples, and we stayed there a few days. For me and Andrew, James and John, this was still our home, where we were fishermen. |
| (Lights out, then back up. The six disciples are on the shore, preparing to go fishing.) | |
| (Sound Effect: A gull caws in the distance.) |
| Peter: You have that net mended? | |
| Andrew: It’s looking halfway decent. | |
| Peter: Let’s get to it! The fish aren’t going to catch themselves. | |
| John: Probably not! But that was quite a wedding back there!! | |
| James: Best wine I’ve ever had. I’m really liking this Jesus fellow! | |
| Nathanael: Do you think He can turn mutton into a big juicy steak? | |
| Philip: That’s what I’m talking about! | |
| Andrew: How about fish? We’ve got plenty of those! | |
| Nathanael: Mutton is funnier though. | |
| Peter: What really matters though, is here is the Messiah. Is He not? | |
| Andrew: He is! | |
| John: Has to be. I’ve never seen anything like that! | |
| James: Neither have I! | |
| Philip: What will He do next? | |
| (Sound Effect: The bird caws, closer now.) |
| Nathanael: What will we do? | |
| Peter: Passover is coming. We’ll go with Him there. And then we shall see. But first there are many fish to catch, and money that needs to be made. | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Ever since Moses led our people out of slavery, well over a thousand years earlier, we celebrated Passover week in the spring of each year. It was our most important observance. All Jews within 15 miles of Jerusalem were required to attend there, in Jerusalem. We were about 125 miles away, but this year, with The Messiah among us, we would not have missed it for the world. | |
| (Lights out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Hungry birds, swarming over a fresh catch.) |
| Narrator Peter: The day before the trip, we were on the shore after hauling in a catch. | |
| John: Peter, shall we knock off early and prepare for the journey? | |
| Peter: Certainly. The fishing has been good, which is good, since we’ll be gone for quite some time. Perhaps three weeks? | |
| James: It’s a long time to miss. But at least they can’t tax us on what we don’t make! | |
| Nathanael: You haven’t heard of the new Prophet Tax? | |
| Philip: What’s that? | |
| Nathanael: Instead of taxing you on your profit, they tax you on what their Prophet says you would have made. | |
| Philip: (Shaking his head) You’re trying too hard, my friend. | |
| Andrew: (Back to the subject at hand) How could we not go, though? | |
| John: Oh, we’re going. I am anyway. But have you guys thought about where this is headed? When Moses came, what, about 1300 or 1400 years ago? He led our people out of slavery, but they wandered in the desert down there for 40 years! David’s time was a thousand years ago, but we had an army then, when he delivered us from the Philistines and established us as a great nation. Now we’re nothing. |
| (Sound Effect: The birds caw, aggressively.) |
| Philip: And Rome may very well be the most powerful army that ever existed. | |
| Nathanael: Looks like Jesus has His work cut out for Him. | |
| Peter: And us, if we follow Him. | |
| Andrew: For sure there’s a price. But if He is The Christ, which He is, how could I not be a part of it? | |
| Peter: You know, every time I go to Jerusalem, I think about what I saw a number of years ago there—a crucifixion. There was this man–they whipped him really badly, but carefully enough not to kill him. Then they forced him to carry the crossbeam of his cross quite a long way to where the shaft was already positioned in the ground, just outside the city, on a hill. Then, I suppose to shame him even more, or make an example, the Romans stripped him of all his clothes. Then they drove nails through his wrists, with his arms outstretched on the crossbeam he had carried. |
| Peter: Then they lifted him up to the shaft and nailed the crossbeam to it, maybe 10, maybe 12 feet up in the air. Then they nailed his feet to the shaft. Then they inserted a ledge to give him some support, to sit, but that just seemed to make sure he suffered for longer. They put a notice above his head with his name and his crime. | |
| John: What had he done? | |
| Peter: He had struck a Roman official, didn’t even hurt him much. But they thought they needed to make an example of him. It was brutal. It was obscene. | |
| Philip: (Slowly) Well that was a fun story. Thanks for cheering me up. | |
| Nathanael: Yes, it was quite uplifting! Get it? Uplifting? | |
| (Sound Effect: A Gull, directly overhead, caws loudly.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: The journey to Jerusalem was, actually, quite uplifting. I have never known a teacher so effective, and He was just easy to be around. He seemed gentle too, not like a warrior at all. Not like King David, not yet anyway. But that is what we expected Him to become. How else could He save us from Rome? How could He save us from ourselves? | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: When Jesus saw the corruption in Jerusalem, how the Temple had been turned into a marketplace, He was indeed upset. Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, |
| Jesus: Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade. |
| (Light out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Muffled voices in the distance. Perhaps a stray goat, bleating.) |
| John: Did you see that? Coins flying everywhere! | |
| James: Did I see it? A front row seat! | |
| Andrew: He showed them! What a mockery they’ve made of worship! This was their first glimpse of our Messiah! The Christ! | |
| John: But not the last. He had better start training us for battle. | |
| James: Fight! | |
| Andrew: The Sadducees can die and be buried with the Romans! | |
| James: And all our other enemies throughout history! | |
| Nathanael: Yeah, they’ll be quite sad, you see? | |
| Philip: I get it. Sad. You see. | |
| (Sound Effect: The goat, closer now, bleats, as if laughing at a bad joke.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Sure enough, the Jewish authorities questioned Jesus. | |
| Pharisee: (Angrily) What sign do you show us for doing these things? |
| Jesus: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. |
| Pharisee: It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? |
| Narrator Peter: But He was speaking about the temple of His body, and of course they did not understand this. At the time, neither did we. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing. But Jesus on His part did not entrust himself to them, |
| John: …because He knew all people and He needed no one to bear witness about man, for He himself knew what was in man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: In my day, when Jesus walked the earth, the Roman cross represented certain death. In Moses’ time, well over a thousand years earlier, when the Israelites were in the wilderness, fiery snakes, or serpents, represented certain death. | |
| Moses: After nearly forty years in the wilderness, after my brother, Aaron, died and was gathered to his people, we set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. Now this was an extra 180 miles, on foot, through harsh conditions. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against me, Moses. |
| Israelite: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. |
| Moses: Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to me and said, |
| Israelite: We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us. |
| Moses: So I prayed for the people. |
| Narrator Peter: And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: After Passover, we stayed a short time in Jerusalem. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, |
| Nicodemus: Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him. |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. |
| Nicodemus: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. |
| Nicodemus: How can these things be? |
| Jesus: Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Jesus: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| John: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| Narrator Peter: Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. |
| Peter: And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. |
| John: For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. |
| Philip: But whoever does what is true comes to the light, |
| Nathanael: …so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. |
| Narrator Peter: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
| Peter: Love never ends. |
| John: As for prophecies, they will pass away; |
| James: …as for tongues, they will cease; |
| Andrew: …as for knowledge, it will pass away. |
| Philip: For we know in part and we prophesy in part, |
| Nathanael: …but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. |
| Narrator Peter: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. |
| Peter: When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. |
| Paul: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; |
| Narrator Peter: …then I shall know fully, |
| Peter: …even as I have been fully known. |
| Paul: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; |
| Jesus: … but the greatest of these is love. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| Narrator Peter: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| Jesus: For God so loved the world, that He gave Me, His only Son, that whoever believes in Me should not perish but have eternal life. |
| (Action: Jesus walks downstage center.) | |
| Narrator Peter: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| (Action: Jesus lifts His hands to heaven, acknowledging the Father. He then outstretches His arms, as if on the cross. His eyes lift heavenward.) | |
| Jesus: Father, into your hands I commit My spirit! |
| (Action: Jesus closes His eyes and bows His head.) |
Episode Spotlight:
In this episode, we find Peter and his companions out working by their fishing boats. While they are working, they are having a discussion about the various fees and taxes that they have to pay to the Roman government. We immediately see the oppression that the Romans have imposed on the Jewish people. But it gets worse if we continue in the scene. James, John, and Peter begin to discuss all of the fees they had to pay in the temple. The Jewish temple was the center of Jewish religious practice, but it was also an economic center that could cause a burden to the Jewish people. In both cases, we see the would-be disciples are looking for a messiah to come and resolve all of their issues. They were looking for a messiah to deliver them from their oppression.
We get to listen in on them as they describe what they think the Messiah would look like. It sounds more like a superhero than Jesus Christ. They were looking for a warrior that can rescue them from their oppression, but at the beginning of our story we see John describing Jesus. Let’s consider this his origin story. John says some really powerful things that while it may not look like Jesus is a superhero when his future disciples see him, it is clear that Jesus is more powerful than they ever could imagine. John describes Jesus as the physical manifestation of the Word of God. Not only is He the manifestation of the Word of God, but He is God himself. He is not just any superhero. He is the all-powerful Savior of the universe.
The beginning of the scene not only gives us an introduction to who Jesus is, but also why Jesus came to earth. There is a quotation from the prophet Isaiah that details Jesus’ plans. Jesus has come to bring liberty to people who are captive, to bring healing to people that are broken-hearted, and to bring good news to those that are downtrodden. This sounds like a superhero, but it doesn’t sound like someone who is coming to overthrow an empire. Rather, Jesus came to bring a different kind of power and a different way of looking at power. That’s not exactly what his future disciples were looking for at that point.
This is very important because this gives us an early look into how the disciples would view and receive Jesus. They were looking for a superhero, not just a religious leader. By the discussion that we imagined in the episode, we can tell that they were tired of their oppression, and they were looking for an answer. So when Andrew shows up, it is no wonder that they were so excited to go and meet Jesus.
Think back to when you first met Jesus. What was your life like? What needed to be changed about your life? What were the things that were oppressing you? This is important to remember so that we can share our testimony with others. If they know that Jesus delivered us from our oppression, they may be more inclined to let God deliver them from theirs. Remember how excited Andrew was when he came and told his brothers that he had seen the Messiah? Could you imagine what it felt like after living in darkness for so long, to see the light of Christ and know that your life was about to change? No wonder they wanted to follow him.
We see in this text three blueprints for Biblical witnesses. First of all, we learn from John that our discipleship is not to generate our own glory or make a name for ourselves, but to help people meet Jesus. Then we see that Jesus shows us that it’s not always our words that will convince us, but rather our actions that truly show the light of Christ. Finally, Andrew encourages us to bring others to Jesus after we have experienced His goodness. Look at the keyword “follow”. In the Greek, it means not only to go after, but also to obey. The fruit of these three witnessing events was that the disciples became obedient followers of Jesus. They weren’t just chasing after him, but they were also taking heed of his commandments.
| Paul: If I, Paul, speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. |
| Peter: And if I, Peter, have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, |
| Andrew: …and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, |
| John: …I am nothing. |
| James: If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, |
| Paul: …I gain nothing. (Lights out, then immediately back up) |
| Narrator Peter: After Jesus said to me, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Peter,” the next day He decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him “Follow me”. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the same as me and Andrew, on the far north of the lake, the Sea of Galilee. Philip found Nathanael, and said to him: |
| Philip: We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. |
| (Sound Effect: A donkey clomps toward us and stops.) |
| Nathanael: Can anything good come out of Nazareth? |
| Philip: Come and see. |
| Narrator Peter: Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said of him, |
| Jesus: Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit! |
| Nathanael: How do you know me? |
| Jesus: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. |
| Nathanael: Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! |
| (Sound Effect: The donkey brays, then clomps away.) |
| Jesus: Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Son of God, Son of Man, The Messiah, The Christ. These were some lofty names. Perhaps I was the most jaded, the most cautious among us. Time would tell. Then Jesus asked us to go with Him to a wedding at Cana in Galilee. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; |
| John: …love does not envy or boast; |
| James: …it is not arrogant or rude. |
| Andrew: It does not insist on its own way; |
| Philip: …it is not irritable or resentful, |
| Nathanael: …it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, |
| John: …but rejoices with the truth. |
| James: Love bears all things, |
| Andrew: …believes all things, |
| Peter: …hopes all things, |
| Narrator Peter: …endures all things. |
| Paul: Love never ends. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: As you may know, at the wedding, Jesus performed a miracle, and turned water into wine. This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And we, His disciples so far, believed in Him. After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum, with His mother and His brothers and us, His disciples, and we stayed there a few days. For me and Andrew, James and John, this was still our home, where we were fishermen. |
| (Lights out, then back up. The six disciples are on the shore, preparing to go fishing.) | |
| (Sound Effect: A gull caws in the distance.) |
| Peter: You have that net mended? | |
| Andrew: It’s looking halfway decent. | |
| Peter: Let’s get to it! The fish aren’t going to catch themselves. | |
| John: Probably not! But that was quite a wedding back there!! | |
| James: Best wine I’ve ever had. I’m really liking this Jesus fellow! | |
| Nathanael: Do you think He can turn mutton into a big juicy steak? | |
| Philip: That’s what I’m talking about! | |
| Andrew: How about fish? We’ve got plenty of those! | |
| Nathanael: Mutton is funnier though. | |
| Peter: What really matters though, is here is the Messiah. Is He not? | |
| Andrew: He is! | |
| John: Has to be. I’ve never seen anything like that! | |
| James: Neither have I! | |
| Philip: What will He do next? | |
| (Sound Effect: The bird caws, closer now.) |
| Nathanael: What will we do? | |
| Peter: Passover is coming. We’ll go with Him there. And then we shall see. But first there are many fish to catch, and money that needs to be made. | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Ever since Moses led our people out of slavery, well over a thousand years earlier, we celebrated Passover week in the spring of each year. It was our most important observance. All Jews within 15 miles of Jerusalem were required to attend there, in Jerusalem. We were about 125 miles away, but this year, with The Messiah among us, we would not have missed it for the world. | |
| (Lights out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Hungry birds, swarming over a fresh catch.) |
| Narrator Peter: The day before the trip, we were on the shore after hauling in a catch. | |
| John: Peter, shall we knock off early and prepare for the journey? | |
| Peter: Certainly. The fishing has been good, which is good, since we’ll be gone for quite some time. Perhaps three weeks? | |
| James: It’s a long time to miss. But at least they can’t tax us on what we don’t make! | |
| Nathanael: You haven’t heard of the new Prophet Tax? | |
| Philip: What’s that? | |
| Nathanael: Instead of taxing you on your profit, they tax you on what their Prophet says you would have made. | |
| Philip: (Shaking his head) You’re trying too hard, my friend. | |
| Andrew: (Back to the subject at hand) How could we not go, though? | |
| John: Oh, we’re going. I am anyway. But have you guys thought about where this is headed? When Moses came, what, about 1300 or 1400 years ago? He led our people out of slavery, but they wandered in the desert down there for 40 years! David’s time was a thousand years ago, but we had an army then, when he delivered us from the Philistines and established us as a great nation. Now we’re nothing. |
| (Sound Effect: The birds caw, aggressively.) |
| Philip: And Rome may very well be the most powerful army that ever existed. | |
| Nathanael: Looks like Jesus has His work cut out for Him. | |
| Peter: And us, if we follow Him. | |
| Andrew: For sure there’s a price. But if He is The Christ, which He is, how could I not be a part of it? | |
| Peter: You know, every time I go to Jerusalem, I think about what I saw a number of years ago there—a crucifixion. There was this man–they whipped him really badly, but carefully enough not to kill him. Then they forced him to carry the crossbeam of his cross quite a long way to where the shaft was already positioned in the ground, just outside the city, on a hill. Then, I suppose to shame him even more, or make an example, the Romans stripped him of all his clothes. Then they drove nails through his wrists, with his arms outstretched on the crossbeam he had carried. |
| Peter: Then they lifted him up to the shaft and nailed the crossbeam to it, maybe 10, maybe 12 feet up in the air. Then they nailed his feet to the shaft. Then they inserted a ledge to give him some support, to sit, but that just seemed to make sure he suffered for longer. They put a notice above his head with his name and his crime. | |
| John: What had he done? | |
| Peter: He had struck a Roman official, didn’t even hurt him much. But they thought they needed to make an example of him. It was brutal. It was obscene. | |
| Philip: (Slowly) Well that was a fun story. Thanks for cheering me up. | |
| Nathanael: Yes, it was quite uplifting! Get it? Uplifting? | |
| (Sound Effect: A Gull, directly overhead, caws loudly.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: The journey to Jerusalem was, actually, quite uplifting. I have never known a teacher so effective, and He was just easy to be around. He seemed gentle too, not like a warrior at all. Not like King David, not yet anyway. But that is what we expected Him to become. How else could He save us from Rome? How could He save us from ourselves? | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: When Jesus saw the corruption in Jerusalem, how the Temple had been turned into a marketplace, He was indeed upset. Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, |
| Jesus: Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade. |
| (Light out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Muffled voices in the distance. Perhaps a stray goat, bleating.) |
| John: Did you see that? Coins flying everywhere! | |
| James: Did I see it? A front row seat! | |
| Andrew: He showed them! What a mockery they’ve made of worship! This was their first glimpse of our Messiah! The Christ! | |
| John: But not the last. He had better start training us for battle. | |
| James: Fight! | |
| Andrew: The Sadducees can die and be buried with the Romans! | |
| James: And all our other enemies throughout history! | |
| Nathanael: Yeah, they’ll be quite sad, you see? | |
| Philip: I get it. Sad. You see. | |
| (Sound Effect: The goat, closer now, bleats, as if laughing at a bad joke.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Sure enough, the Jewish authorities questioned Jesus. | |
| Pharisee: (Angrily) What sign do you show us for doing these things? |
| Jesus: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. |
| Pharisee: It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? |
| Narrator Peter: But He was speaking about the temple of His body, and of course they did not understand this. At the time, neither did we. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing. But Jesus on His part did not entrust himself to them, |
| John: …because He knew all people and He needed no one to bear witness about man, for He himself knew what was in man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: In my day, when Jesus walked the earth, the Roman cross represented certain death. In Moses’ time, well over a thousand years earlier, when the Israelites were in the wilderness, fiery snakes, or serpents, represented certain death. | |
| Moses: After nearly forty years in the wilderness, after my brother, Aaron, died and was gathered to his people, we set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. Now this was an extra 180 miles, on foot, through harsh conditions. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against me, Moses. |
| Israelite: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. |
| Moses: Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to me and said, |
| Israelite: We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us. |
| Moses: So I prayed for the people. |
| Narrator Peter: And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: After Passover, we stayed a short time in Jerusalem. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, |
| Nicodemus: Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him. |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. |
| Nicodemus: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. |
| Nicodemus: How can these things be? |
| Jesus: Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Jesus: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| John: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| Narrator Peter: Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. |
| Peter: And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. |
| John: For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. |
| Philip: But whoever does what is true comes to the light, |
| Nathanael: …so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. |
| Narrator Peter: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
| Peter: Love never ends. |
| John: As for prophecies, they will pass away; |
| James: …as for tongues, they will cease; |
| Andrew: …as for knowledge, it will pass away. |
| Philip: For we know in part and we prophesy in part, |
| Nathanael: …but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. |
| Narrator Peter: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. |
| Peter: When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. |
| Paul: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; |
| Narrator Peter: …then I shall know fully, |
| Peter: …even as I have been fully known. |
| Paul: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; |
| Jesus: … but the greatest of these is love. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| Narrator Peter: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| Jesus: For God so loved the world, that He gave Me, His only Son, that whoever believes in Me should not perish but have eternal life. |
| (Action: Jesus walks downstage center.) | |
| Narrator Peter: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| (Action: Jesus lifts His hands to heaven, acknowledging the Father. He then outstretches His arms, as if on the cross. His eyes lift heavenward.) | |
| Jesus: Father, into your hands I commit My spirit! |
| (Action: Jesus closes His eyes and bows His head.) |
Episode Spotlight:
In this episode, we find Peter and his companions out working by their fishing boats. While they are working, they are having a discussion about the various fees and taxes that they have to pay to the Roman government. We immediately see the oppression that the Romans have imposed on the Jewish people. But it gets worse if we continue in the scene. James, John, and Peter begin to discuss all of the fees they had to pay in the temple. The Jewish temple was the center of Jewish religious practice, but it was also an economic center that could cause a burden to the Jewish people. In both cases, we see the would-be disciples are looking for a messiah to come and resolve all of their issues. They were looking for a messiah to deliver them from their oppression.
We get to listen in on them as they describe what they think the Messiah would look like. It sounds more like a superhero than Jesus Christ. They were looking for a warrior that can rescue them from their oppression, but at the beginning of our story we see John describing Jesus. Let’s consider this his origin story. John says some really powerful things that while it may not look like Jesus is a superhero when his future disciples see him, it is clear that Jesus is more powerful than they ever could imagine. John describes Jesus as the physical manifestation of the Word of God. Not only is He the manifestation of the Word of God, but He is God himself. He is not just any superhero. He is the all-powerful Savior of the universe.
The beginning of the scene not only gives us an introduction to who Jesus is, but also why Jesus came to earth. There is a quotation from the prophet Isaiah that details Jesus’ plans. Jesus has come to bring liberty to people who are captive, to bring healing to people that are broken-hearted, and to bring good news to those that are downtrodden. This sounds like a superhero, but it doesn’t sound like someone who is coming to overthrow an empire. Rather, Jesus came to bring a different kind of power and a different way of looking at power. That’s not exactly what his future disciples were looking for at that point.
This is very important because this gives us an early look into how the disciples would view and receive Jesus. They were looking for a superhero, not just a religious leader. By the discussion that we imagined in the episode, we can tell that they were tired of their oppression, and they were looking for an answer. So when Andrew shows up, it is no wonder that they were so excited to go and meet Jesus.
Think back to when you first met Jesus. What was your life like? What needed to be changed about your life? What were the things that were oppressing you? This is important to remember so that we can share our testimony with others. If they know that Jesus delivered us from our oppression, they may be more inclined to let God deliver them from theirs. Remember how excited Andrew was when he came and told his brothers that he had seen the Messiah? Could you imagine what it felt like after living in darkness for so long, to see the light of Christ and know that your life was about to change? No wonder they wanted to follow him.
We see in this text three blueprints for Biblical witnesses. First of all, we learn from John that our discipleship is not to generate our own glory or make a name for ourselves, but to help people meet Jesus. Then we see that Jesus shows us that it’s not always our words that will convince us, but rather our actions that truly show the light of Christ. Finally, Andrew encourages us to bring others to Jesus after we have experienced His goodness. Look at the keyword “follow”. In the Greek, it means not only to go after, but also to obey. The fruit of these three witnessing events was that the disciples became obedient followers of Jesus. They weren’t just chasing after him, but they were also taking heed of his commandments.
| Paul: If I, Paul, speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. |
| Peter: And if I, Peter, have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, |
| Andrew: …and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, |
| John: …I am nothing. |
| James: If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, |
| Paul: …I gain nothing. (Lights out, then immediately back up) |
| Narrator Peter: After Jesus said to me, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Peter,” the next day He decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him “Follow me”. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the same as me and Andrew, on the far north of the lake, the Sea of Galilee. Philip found Nathanael, and said to him: |
| Philip: We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. |
| (Sound Effect: A donkey clomps toward us and stops.) |
| Nathanael: Can anything good come out of Nazareth? |
| Philip: Come and see. |
| Narrator Peter: Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said of him, |
| Jesus: Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit! |
| Nathanael: How do you know me? |
| Jesus: Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. |
| Nathanael: Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! |
| (Sound Effect: The donkey brays, then clomps away.) |
| Jesus: Because I said to you, “I saw you under the fig tree,” do you believe? You will see greater things than these. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Son of God, Son of Man, The Messiah, The Christ. These were some lofty names. Perhaps I was the most jaded, the most cautious among us. Time would tell. Then Jesus asked us to go with Him to a wedding at Cana in Galilee. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; |
| John: …love does not envy or boast; |
| James: …it is not arrogant or rude. |
| Andrew: It does not insist on its own way; |
| Philip: …it is not irritable or resentful, |
| Nathanael: …it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, |
| John: …but rejoices with the truth. |
| James: Love bears all things, |
| Andrew: …believes all things, |
| Peter: …hopes all things, |
| Narrator Peter: …endures all things. |
| Paul: Love never ends. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: As you may know, at the wedding, Jesus performed a miracle, and turned water into wine. This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested His glory. And we, His disciples so far, believed in Him. After this, Jesus went down to Capernaum, with His mother and His brothers and us, His disciples, and we stayed there a few days. For me and Andrew, James and John, this was still our home, where we were fishermen. |
| (Lights out, then back up. The six disciples are on the shore, preparing to go fishing.) | |
| (Sound Effect: A gull caws in the distance.) |
| Peter: You have that net mended? | |
| Andrew: It’s looking halfway decent. | |
| Peter: Let’s get to it! The fish aren’t going to catch themselves. | |
| John: Probably not! But that was quite a wedding back there!! | |
| James: Best wine I’ve ever had. I’m really liking this Jesus fellow! | |
| Nathanael: Do you think He can turn mutton into a big juicy steak? | |
| Philip: That’s what I’m talking about! | |
| Andrew: How about fish? We’ve got plenty of those! | |
| Nathanael: Mutton is funnier though. | |
| Peter: What really matters though, is here is the Messiah. Is He not? | |
| Andrew: He is! | |
| John: Has to be. I’ve never seen anything like that! | |
| James: Neither have I! | |
| Philip: What will He do next? | |
| (Sound Effect: The bird caws, closer now.) |
| Nathanael: What will we do? | |
| Peter: Passover is coming. We’ll go with Him there. And then we shall see. But first there are many fish to catch, and money that needs to be made. | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Ever since Moses led our people out of slavery, well over a thousand years earlier, we celebrated Passover week in the spring of each year. It was our most important observance. All Jews within 15 miles of Jerusalem were required to attend there, in Jerusalem. We were about 125 miles away, but this year, with The Messiah among us, we would not have missed it for the world. | |
| (Lights out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Hungry birds, swarming over a fresh catch.) |
| Narrator Peter: The day before the trip, we were on the shore after hauling in a catch. | |
| John: Peter, shall we knock off early and prepare for the journey? | |
| Peter: Certainly. The fishing has been good, which is good, since we’ll be gone for quite some time. Perhaps three weeks? | |
| James: It’s a long time to miss. But at least they can’t tax us on what we don’t make! | |
| Nathanael: You haven’t heard of the new Prophet Tax? | |
| Philip: What’s that? | |
| Nathanael: Instead of taxing you on your profit, they tax you on what their Prophet says you would have made. | |
| Philip: (Shaking his head) You’re trying too hard, my friend. | |
| Andrew: (Back to the subject at hand) How could we not go, though? | |
| John: Oh, we’re going. I am anyway. But have you guys thought about where this is headed? When Moses came, what, about 1300 or 1400 years ago? He led our people out of slavery, but they wandered in the desert down there for 40 years! David’s time was a thousand years ago, but we had an army then, when he delivered us from the Philistines and established us as a great nation. Now we’re nothing. |
| (Sound Effect: The birds caw, aggressively.) |
| Philip: And Rome may very well be the most powerful army that ever existed. | |
| Nathanael: Looks like Jesus has His work cut out for Him. | |
| Peter: And us, if we follow Him. | |
| Andrew: For sure there’s a price. But if He is The Christ, which He is, how could I not be a part of it? | |
| Peter: You know, every time I go to Jerusalem, I think about what I saw a number of years ago there—a crucifixion. There was this man–they whipped him really badly, but carefully enough not to kill him. Then they forced him to carry the crossbeam of his cross quite a long way to where the shaft was already positioned in the ground, just outside the city, on a hill. Then, I suppose to shame him even more, or make an example, the Romans stripped him of all his clothes. Then they drove nails through his wrists, with his arms outstretched on the crossbeam he had carried. |
| Peter: Then they lifted him up to the shaft and nailed the crossbeam to it, maybe 10, maybe 12 feet up in the air. Then they nailed his feet to the shaft. Then they inserted a ledge to give him some support, to sit, but that just seemed to make sure he suffered for longer. They put a notice above his head with his name and his crime. | |
| John: What had he done? | |
| Peter: He had struck a Roman official, didn’t even hurt him much. But they thought they needed to make an example of him. It was brutal. It was obscene. | |
| Philip: (Slowly) Well that was a fun story. Thanks for cheering me up. | |
| Nathanael: Yes, it was quite uplifting! Get it? Uplifting? | |
| (Sound Effect: A Gull, directly overhead, caws loudly.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: The journey to Jerusalem was, actually, quite uplifting. I have never known a teacher so effective, and He was just easy to be around. He seemed gentle too, not like a warrior at all. Not like King David, not yet anyway. But that is what we expected Him to become. How else could He save us from Rome? How could He save us from ourselves? | |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: When Jesus saw the corruption in Jerusalem, how the Temple had been turned into a marketplace, He was indeed upset. Making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. And He told those who sold the pigeons, |
| Jesus: Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade. |
| (Light out, then back up.) | |
| (Sound Effect: Muffled voices in the distance. Perhaps a stray goat, bleating.) |
| John: Did you see that? Coins flying everywhere! | |
| James: Did I see it? A front row seat! | |
| Andrew: He showed them! What a mockery they’ve made of worship! This was their first glimpse of our Messiah! The Christ! | |
| John: But not the last. He had better start training us for battle. | |
| James: Fight! | |
| Andrew: The Sadducees can die and be buried with the Romans! | |
| James: And all our other enemies throughout history! | |
| Nathanael: Yeah, they’ll be quite sad, you see? | |
| Philip: I get it. Sad. You see. | |
| (Sound Effect: The goat, closer now, bleats, as if laughing at a bad joke.) |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: Sure enough, the Jewish authorities questioned Jesus. | |
| Pharisee: (Angrily) What sign do you show us for doing these things? |
| Jesus: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. |
| Pharisee: It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? |
| Narrator Peter: But He was speaking about the temple of His body, and of course they did not understand this. At the time, neither did we. Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He was doing. But Jesus on His part did not entrust himself to them, |
| John: …because He knew all people and He needed no one to bear witness about man, for He himself knew what was in man. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: In my day, when Jesus walked the earth, the Roman cross represented certain death. In Moses’ time, well over a thousand years earlier, when the Israelites were in the wilderness, fiery snakes, or serpents, represented certain death. | |
| Moses: After nearly forty years in the wilderness, after my brother, Aaron, died and was gathered to his people, we set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. Now this was an extra 180 miles, on foot, through harsh conditions. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against me, Moses. |
| Israelite: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. |
| Moses: Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to me and said, |
| Israelite: We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the LORD, that He take away the serpents from us. |
| Moses: So I prayed for the people. |
| Narrator Peter: And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Narrator Peter: After Passover, we stayed a short time in Jerusalem. Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, |
| Nicodemus: Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him. |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. |
| Nicodemus: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? |
| Jesus: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. |
| Nicodemus: How can these things be? |
| Jesus: Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Jesus: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| John: For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| Narrator Peter: Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. |
| Peter: And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. |
| John: For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. |
| Philip: But whoever does what is true comes to the light, |
| Nathanael: …so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Paul: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. |
| Narrator Peter: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
| Peter: Love never ends. |
| John: As for prophecies, they will pass away; |
| James: …as for tongues, they will cease; |
| Andrew: …as for knowledge, it will pass away. |
| Philip: For we know in part and we prophesy in part, |
| Nathanael: …but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. |
| Narrator Peter: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. |
| Peter: When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. |
| Paul: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; |
| Narrator Peter: …then I shall know fully, |
| Peter: …even as I have been fully known. |
| Paul: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; |
| Jesus: … but the greatest of these is love. |
| (Lights out, then back up) | |
| Moses: So I made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. |
| Narrator Peter: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. |
| Jesus: For God so loved the world, that He gave Me, His only Son, that whoever believes in Me should not perish but have eternal life. |
| (Action: Jesus walks downstage center.) | |
| Narrator Peter: For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. |
| (Action: Jesus lifts His hands to heaven, acknowledging the Father. He then outstretches His arms, as if on the cross. His eyes lift heavenward.) | |
| Jesus: Father, into your hands I commit My spirit! |
| (Action: Jesus closes His eyes and bows His head.) |
Episode Spotlight:
In this episode, we find Peter and his companions out working by their fishing boats. While they are working, they are having a discussion about the various fees and taxes that they have to pay to the Roman government. We immediately see the oppression that the Romans have imposed on the Jewish people. But it gets worse if we continue in the scene. James, John, and Peter begin to discuss all of the fees they had to pay in the temple. The Jewish temple was the center of Jewish religious practice, but it was also an economic center that could cause a burden to the Jewish people. In both cases, we see the would-be disciples are looking for a messiah to come and resolve all of their issues. They were looking for a messiah to deliver them from their oppression.
We get to listen in on them as they describe what they think the Messiah would look like. It sounds more like a superhero than Jesus Christ. They were looking for a warrior that can rescue them from their oppression, but at the beginning of our story we see John describing Jesus. Let’s consider this his origin story. John says some really powerful things that while it may not look like Jesus is a superhero when his future disciples see him, it is clear that Jesus is more powerful than they ever could imagine. John describes Jesus as the physical manifestation of the Word of God. Not only is He the manifestation of the Word of God, but He is God himself. He is not just any superhero. He is the all-powerful Savior of the universe.
The beginning of the scene not only gives us an introduction to who Jesus is, but also why Jesus came to earth. There is a quotation from the prophet Isaiah that details Jesus’ plans. Jesus has come to bring liberty to people who are captive, to bring healing to people that are broken-hearted, and to bring good news to those that are downtrodden. This sounds like a superhero, but it doesn’t sound like someone who is coming to overthrow an empire. Rather, Jesus came to bring a different kind of power and a different way of looking at power. That’s not exactly what his future disciples were looking for at that point.
This is very important because this gives us an early look into how the disciples would view and receive Jesus. They were looking for a superhero, not just a religious leader. By the discussion that we imagined in the episode, we can tell that they were tired of their oppression, and they were looking for an answer. So when Andrew shows up, it is no wonder that they were so excited to go and meet Jesus.
Think back to when you first met Jesus. What was your life like? What needed to be changed about your life? What were the things that were oppressing you? This is important to remember so that we can share our testimony with others. If they know that Jesus delivered us from our oppression, they may be more inclined to let God deliver them from theirs. Remember how excited Andrew was when he came and told his brothers that he had seen the Messiah? Could you imagine what it felt like after living in darkness for so long, to see the light of Christ and know that your life was about to change? No wonder they wanted to follow him.
We see in this text three blueprints for Biblical witnesses. First of all, we learn from John that our discipleship is not to generate our own glory or make a name for ourselves, but to help people meet Jesus. Then we see that Jesus shows us that it’s not always our words that will convince us, but rather our actions that truly show the light of Christ. Finally, Andrew encourages us to bring others to Jesus after we have experienced His goodness. Look at the keyword “follow”. In the Greek, it means not only to go after, but also to obey. The fruit of these three witnessing events was that the disciples became obedient followers of Jesus. They weren’t just chasing after him, but they were also taking heed of his commandments.
Episode Spotlight
In this script, we find a series of reactions to events involving Jesus that His new disciples have witnessed. The first reaction is to Jesus’ first miracle at Cana. Jesus was at a wedding where the wine had run out, so Jesus turned water into wine. Place yourself in the position of Nathanael or Andrew. How exciting it must have been to see your teacher, who you think may be the Messiah, perform a miracle like that. Jesus is starting to look like the superhero that the disciples anticipated Him being. But then Jesus does something that reveals even more about His character. Jesus walked into a temple where people were consumed with commerce and politics, not worship and adoration for the one true God, and when He saw these things He was so angry that He ran the money changers out of the temple. Jesus turns over the tables and drives out the merchants who are selling animals to be sacrificed. If you were one of the disciples, would you have thought that Jesus was quite erratic and maybe even frightening? On the other hand, it is possible that the disciples were excited by Jesus’ behavior.
The temple was no longer just a place of worship at this time. In fact, King Herod had expanded the temple to make himself look good during this period in history. There was even an army barracks on the temple grounds. One might imagine that Jesus, the Son of God, would be quite angry to find out that the temple, which should be the house of God, had been turned into a place that was no longer focused on God.
Jesus literally cleaned God’s house.
As we think about this reading, let’s ask ourselves what our focus is when we enter the house of the Lord. Why do you go to church? Is it for social interaction? Is it because you believe God will bless you financially? Or is it to come in contact with the one true God?
As the story continues, we learn more about who Jesus is. The Pharisees ask Jesus what authority He has to do the things He is doing. He confirms that He is sent by God to perform the tasks that He is performing. They ask for a miracle to confirm His authority. Here’s where the story gets interesting. Jesus says, destroy this temple and in three days, I will raise it up again. But Jesus is not talking about the building that they are standing in. He is talking about His own body. Jesus is prophesying His own death and resurrection. But what does this mean for us?
Click the image for a brief history of the temple
The temple was the place where humans met God. In fact, before the Israelites had a temple, they would carry around a tent that they called the Tent of Meeting. It was like a portable temple that traveled with the nomadic people wherever they went. When they set it up, the presence of God would fill that tent, and they could experience God wherever they were. As they became more of a nation than a group of tribes, they built a temple, and that became the place where they could meet God, but that temple was eventually destroyed and a new temple was built.
Unfortunately, the Jewish people at this time were living under Roman occupation, and while they do have their temple, they are still dealing with Roman control. Roman culture had sadly been intermingled with the Jewish culture, so this present temple was what Jesus called in the Synoptic Gospels, a den of thieves, or a place where people who were taking advantage of others could hide. When Jesus walked into that temple, He didn’t meet God, He met merchants.
Jesus is making a theological statement in His allegory about the temple to the Pharisees, when He says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Jesus is saying that He Himself is the new place where humans can meet God. Because He is fully God and fully human, He is able to bridge the gap between God and people. In this story, Jesus changes what the temple means. It is no longer a building where everyone goes to meet God and experience His presence. Jesus says His very body is the temple of God.
Jesus becomes our connection to God. We see this even clearer in our final scene. Nicodemus, a Pharisee, part of the Jewish ruling council, comes to Jesus at night and tries to figure out how he could be a part of the kingdom of God. Jesus informs him that he must be born again. Nicodemus is an intelligent man, and a teacher of the Law, but he does not understand how a grown man can be born again. Here’s where we see a glimpse of who Jesus really is. Jesus is talking about being born of the Spirit and having a deep connection with God.
Jesus is not just a revolutionary, He is also God incarnate. What John is showing us through these episodes is that Jesus is truly the Son of God. Because He is the Son of God, He understands the oppression of the Roman army, but He also understands when God’s people have been distracted by their sinful nature. In this episode we get to see the many sides of Jesus. The disciples speak of His supernatural power by telling us about the miracle He performed during the marriage of Cana. They also show us His humanity when they describe His behavior in the temple. We also see through Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus that He is wise and understands what is needed to truly have a relationship with God. As the disciples recount these events, they are reminded of John the Baptist’s declaration about Jesus. John says Jesus is the Lamb of God that came to take away the sins of the world, by being God’s perfect sacrifice. That’s what Jesus was talking about when He was talking about destroying the temple of His body.
Jesus explains it in a different way to Nicodemus, He reminds him of the story of the serpent that Moses lifted up so that a sinful tribe of Israel could be saved from the wrath of God. Jesus tells Nicodemus that just like that serpent was lifted up from the earth, He will be lifted up, which means He is crucified, so that everyone will have the opportunity to be saved.
In the story, the people of Israel were disobedient, so God sent fiery serpents to punish them, but then God did something very peculiar. He tells Moses to put a bronze serpent on a staff and lift
it in the air. When the people would look at the serpent, they would be healed and experience God’s grace and mercy. Jesus compares himself to the bronze serpent in the wilderness. The serpent represented salvation from certain death, and Jesus became salvation from certain spiritual death. Earlier in the script we saw Peter recounting the time that he saw a crucifixion. It was horrifying. Crucifixion was the way that the Romans terrified their subjects so they would not revolt. It was not only something one would never want to experience, it was something one didn’t even want to look at. Jesus says that when He is crucified, we will look to His sacrifice to be saved. Jesus’ death on the cross was for our sins, but it was also to shame Rome. The worst thing Rome could do to someone is crucify them, but Jesus survived the crucifixion by being raised from the dead, showing that the power of God was much stronger than the power of Rome. Now we can look to His sacrifice and His resurrection as inspiration that we can also overcome oppressive powers.
These scenes are wrapped in a passage from 1 Corinthians chapter 13, which talks about the importance of love. The passage says that love is the most important quality one should have. It doesn’t matter how wealthy you are or how talented you are. What is important in the eyes of God is how well you love. Later on, Jesus will tell His disciples that they will be known by the ways they love their communities and the people around them. Jesus will even encourage them to love their enemies. This passage was used in this episode to demonstrate the love of Jesus Himself as He was willing to be lifted up like the snake in the wilderness, and be tortured and humiliated so that we might have life free from sin and live in abundance. As you reflect on this episode, what are you willing to sacrifice for those you love? Are you willing to tell the truth even when it’s not popular? Are you willing to go the extra mile for someone who may not show their gratitude? Are you willing to be nice to people even when they are not nice to you? In this episode, we see a preview of Jesus’ sacrificial love. It reminds us that we should also love our friends, our family, and even our enemies.
Let’s Discuss
Let’s Discuss
1. Did anything stand out to you as you experienced the Scripture?
2. How does God want you to respond to His Word today?
3. Jesus literally cleaned God’s house. As we think about this reading, let’s ask ourselves what our focus is when we enter the house of the Lord.
Why do you go to church?
Is it for social interaction?
Is it because you believe God will bless you financially?
Is it to come in contact with the one true God?
4. Jesus says, destroy this temple in three days, and I will raise it up again. But Jesus is not talking about the building they are standing in. He is talking about His own body. Jesus is prophesying His own death and resurrection.
But what does this mean for us?
5. As you reflect on this episode, what are you willing to sacrifice for those you love?
Are you willing to tell the truth even when it’s not popular?
Are you willing to go the extra mile for someone who may not show their gratitude?
Are you willing to be nice to people even when they are not nice to you?
Character Spotlight
Character Spotlight
The Disciples
In this episode, we see the disciples still trying to figure out who Jesus is and what He is really about. They still have their ideas of what they would like the Messiah to be, but Jesus is beginning to show them sides of Himself that they were not expecting.
What about your walk with Christ has been unexpected?
Was the Jesus you began to know as Lord and Savior the same Jesus you heard talked about by others?
Have you read the Bible to discover that Jesus is a lot more complex than you heard in Sunday School?
Who is Jesus to you and what experience have you had that helped you form your opinion of who Jesus is?
Nicodemus
Nicodemus was a very well-educated man, but when he comes in contact with Jesus, he seems to be confused. Jesus has changed his whole worldview. While Nicodemus was taught one way of looking at God, Jesus has come to show him another way. He had all of the knowledge of scripture that anyone could ask for, and yet something was missing. There is a difference between knowing about God and having a relationship with God. Jesus invites Nicodemus to go deeper. Jesus tells him he must be born again, which is very important to the situation. Nicodemus has been trained in Jewish laws and the Jewish religion. Jesus came to fulfill the Law and demonstrate a way to live out the Law more faithfully. He tells Nicodemus that he must be born again. He is not talking about a physical birth, but rather a spiritual birth. Jesus wants Nicodemus to start from the beginning and rework and rethink the way he understands God. It’s not necessarily that Nicodemus was taught wrong, but he was taught by human beings. Jesus has a deeper understanding of who God is because Jesus is God. Jesus and the Father are one. So what Jesus is actually asking Nicodemus to do is to rethink the way he interacts with God so that Nicodemus can be closer to God.
What would it take for you to get closer to God?
Do you need to rethink your actions or rethink your interactions?
Do you need to change your Bible study habits or the way you treat people?
As you go through this lesson, ask yourself what would it take to deepen your relationship with Jesus, to be a more mature Christian?
And…Action!
And…Action!
The Bridge by Debbie Clark
Sacrificial love is selfless love, putting the needs of another before your own and giving without expecting anything in return. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) The ultimate act of selfless love is sacrificing your life for another. Jesus was sacrificed on a Roman cross for our sins, because our sin separates us from a Holy God. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice and the only one that can connect us to God by bridging the sin gap. (Romans 5:6-8)
There are probably only a few people that we are willing to be uncomfortable for, much less die for, but Jesus allowed Himself to be sacrificed for all who would believe. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) God provided the sacrifice of Jesus and His perfect love to give us the gift of eternal life and free us from the oppression of sin today and for eternity!
Jesus was willing to be lifted up, not in pride, fame, wealth or power, but on a Roman cross so we could have the free gift of salvation. Real love requires sacrifice. Jesus says in (John 15:12), “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Sacrificial love isn’t optional, Jesus commands us to love like Him. Sacrificial love is more than giving someone the last piece of cake, staying up all night caring for a sick loved one, taking out the trash, or buying a gift. Sacrificial love is being completely selfless, laying yourself down for the purpose of lifting Him up.
Action: Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. (Hebrews 13:16)
- Pray for opportunities to show God’s love by giving of your time, energy, and resources and seize those opportunities when God provides them.
- Pray for God to help you love sacrificially. We can’t do it in our own power, without any selfish motives. We need the Spirit of God working through us.
- Hold your finances and other resources with an open hand. Be prepared to give sacrificially what God has given you.
- Allow God to change your schedule and plans. Sacrifice what you want for what God wants.
- Fill up with God’s never-ending unconditional love, so you can pour out God’s love sacrificially. What are you willing to sacrifice for someone to be born again?
What is your action plan?
If you truly ask God for opportunities and show people sacrificial love, they will notice and want to know why. Here are some ways to be ready to share God’s love, the greatest sacrifice of all:
Extras
ExtrasPaul
His circumcision-name was Saul, and probably the name Paul was also given to him in infancy “for use in the Gentile world,” as “Saul” would be his Hebrew home-name. He was a native of Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia, a Roman province in the south-east of Asia Minor. Tarsus was also the seat of a famous university, higher in reputation even than the universities of Athens and Alexandria, the only others that then existed. Here Saul was born, and here he spent his youth, doubtless enjoying the best education his native city could afford. His father was of the strictest sect of the Jews, a Pharisee, of the tribe of Benjamin, of pure and unmixed Jewish blood (Acts 23:6; Phil. 3:5). Though a Jew, his father was a Roman citizen. How he obtained this privilege we are not informed, but his son was freeborn. It was a valuable privilege, and one that was to prove of great use to Paul. Perhaps the most natural career for the youth to follow was that of a merchant. “But it was decided that…he should go to college and become a rabbi, that is, a minister, a teacher, and a lawyer all in one.”
According to Jewish custom, he learned a trade before entering on the more direct preparation for the sacred profession. The trade he acquired was the making of tents from goats’ hair cloth, a trade which was one of the commonest in Tarsus.
His preliminary education having been completed, Saul was sent, when about thirteen years of age probably, to the great Jewish school of sacred learning at Jerusalem as a student of the law. Here he became a pupil of the celebrated rabbi Gamaliel, and here he spent many years in an elaborate study of the Scriptures.
For some two years after Pentecost, Christianity was quietly spreading its influence in Jerusalem. At length Stephen, one of the seven deacons, gave forth more public and aggressive testimony that Jesus was the Messiah. Persecution arose against Stephen and the followers of Christ generally, in which Saul of Tarsus took a prominent part. He was at this time probably a member of the great Sanhedrin and became the active leader in the furious persecution by which the rulers then sought to exterminate Christianity.
But the object of this persecution failed. “They that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word.” The anger of the persecutor was thereby kindled into a fiercer flame. Hearing that fugitives had taken refuge in Damascus, he obtained from the chief priest letters authorizing him to proceed thither on his persecuting career. This was a long journey of about 130 miles, which would occupy perhaps six days, during which, with his few attendants, he steadily went onward, “breathing out threats and slaughter.” But the crisis of his life was at hand. He had reached the last stage of his journey and was within sight of Damascus. As he and his companions rode on, suddenly at mid-day a brilliant light shone round them, and Saul was laid prostrate in terror on the ground, a voice sounding in his ears, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” The risen Savior was there, clothed in the vesture of his glorified humanity. In answer to the anxious inquiry of the stricken persecutor, “Who art thou, Lord?” he said, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest” (Acts 9:5; 22:8; 26:15).
This was the moment of his conversion, the most solemn in all his life. Blinded by the dazzling light (Acts 9:8), his companions led him into the city, where absorbed in deep
thought for three days, he neither ate nor drank (9:11). Ananias, a disciple living in Damascus, was informed by a vision of the change that had happened to Saul, and was sent to him to open his eyes and admit him by baptism into the Christian church
(9:11-16). The whole purpose of his life was now permanently changed.
Immediately after his conversion he retired into the solitudes of Arabia (Gal. 1:17), perhaps of “Sinai in Arabia,” for the purpose, probably, of devout study and meditation on the marvelous revelation that had been made to him. It is a mysterious pause, a moment of suspense, in the apostle’s history, a breathless calm, which ushers in the tumultuous storm of his active missionary life.” Coming back, after three years, to Damascus, he began to preach the gospel “boldly in the name of Jesus” (Acts 9:27). Eventually the time came for his entering on his great lifework of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary 1897
Peter
Peter, originally called Simon (Simeon, “hearing”), a very common Jewish name in the New Testament. He was the son of Jona (Matt. 16:17). His mother is nowhere named in Scripture. He had a younger brother called Andrew, who first brought him to Jesus (John 1:40-42). His native town was Bethsaida, on the western coast of the Sea of Galilee, to which also Philip belonged. Here he was brought up by the shores of the Sea of Galilee and was trained to the occupation of a fisher. His father had probably died while he was still young, and he and his brother were brought up under the care of Zebedee and his wife Salome (Matt. 27:56; Mark 15:40; 16:1). There the four youths, Simon, Andrew, James, and John, spent their boyhood and early manhood in constant fellowship. Simon and his brother doubtless enjoyed all the advantages of a religious training and were early instructed in an acquaintance with the Scriptures and with the great prophecies regarding the coming of the Messiah. They did not probably enjoy, however, any special training in the study of the law under any of the rabbis. When Peter appeared before the Sanhedrin, he looked like an “unlearned man” (Acts 4:13).
“Simon was a Galilean, and he was that out and out…The Galileans had a marked character of their own. They had a reputation for an independence and energy which often ran out into turbulence. They were at the same time of a franker and more transparent disposition than their brethren in the south. In all these respects, in bluntness, impetuosity, headiness, and simplicity, Simon was a genuine Galilean. They spoke a particular dialect. They had a difficulty with the guttural sounds and some others, and their pronunciation was reckoned harsh in Judea. The Galilean accent stuck to Simon all through his career. It betrayed him as a follower of Christ when he stood within the judgment-hall (Mark 14:70). It betrayed his own nationality and that of those conjoined with him on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:7).” It would seem that Simon was married before he became an apostle. His wife’s mother is referred to (Matt. 8:14; Mark 1:30; Luke 4:38). He was in all probability accompanied by his wife on his missionary journeys (1 Cor. 9:5; comp. 1 Pet. 5:13).
He appears to have been settled at Capernaum when Christ entered on his public ministry and may have reached beyond the age of thirty. His house was large enough to give a home to his brother Andrew, his wife’s mother, and to Christ, who seems to have lived with him (Mark 1:29, 36; 2:1), as well as to his own family. It was apparently two stories high (2:4).
At Bethabara (R.V., John 1:28, “Bethany”), beyond Jordan, John the Baptist had borne testimony concerning Jesus as the “Lamb of God” (John 1:29-36). Andrew and John hearing it, followed Jesus, and abode with him where he was. They were convinced, by his gracious words and by the authority with which he spoke, that he was the Messiah (Luke 4:22; Matt. 7:29); and Andrew went forth and found Simon and brought him to Jesus (John 1:41).
Jesus at once recognized Simon, and declared that hereafter he would be called Cephas, an Aramaic name corresponding to the Greek Petros, which means “a mass of rock detached from the living rock.” The Aramaic name does not occur again, but the name Peter gradually displaces the old name Simon, though our Lord himself always uses the name Simon when addressing him (Matt. 17:25; Mark 14:37; Luke 22:31, comp. 21:15-17). We are not told what impression the first interview with Jesus produced on the mind of Simon. When we next meet him, it is by the Sea of Galilee (Matt. 4:18-22). There the four (Simon and Andrew, James and John) had had an unsuccessful night’s fishing. Jesus appeared suddenly, and entering Simon’s boat, bade him launch forth and let down the nets. He did so and enclosed a great multitude of fishes. This was plainly a miracle wrought before Simon’s eyes. The awe-stricken disciple cast himself at the feet of Jesus, crying, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). Jesus addressed him with the assuring words, “Fear not,” and announced to him his life’s work. Simon responded at once to the call to become a disciple, and after this we find him in constant attendance on our Lord.
He is next called into the rank of the apostleship and becomes a “fisher of men” (Matt. 4:19) in the stormy seas of the world of human life (Matt. 10:2-4; Mark 3:13-19; Luke 6:13-16) and takes a more and more prominent part in all the leading events of our Lord’s life. It is he who utters that notable profession of faith at Capernaum (John 6:66-69), and again at Caesarea Philippi (Matt. 16:13-20; Mark 8:27-30; Luke 9:18-20). This profession at Caesarea was one of supreme importance, and our Lord in response used these memorable words: “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.”
Easton’s Bible Dictionary 1897
John the Apostle
John the Apostle, brother of James the “Greater” (Matt.4:21;10:2; Mark 1:19; 3:17; 10:35). He was one of the sons of Zebedee, probably the younger Matt.4:21) and Salome (Matt.27:56; Mark 15:40) and was born at Bethsaida. His father was apparently a man of some wealth (comp. Mark 1:20; Luke 5:3; John 19:27). He was doubtless trained in all that constituted the ordinary education of Jewish youth. When he grew up he followed the occupation of a fisherman on the Lake of Galilee. When John the Baptist began his ministry in the wilderness of Judea, John, with many others, gathered around him, and was deeply influenced by his teaching. There he heard the announcement, “Behold the Lamb of God,” and on the invitation of Jesus, became a disciple and ranked among his followers for a time (John 1:36, 37). He and his brother then returned to their former avocation, for how long is uncertain. Jesus again called them (Matt. 4: 21; Luke 5:1-11), and now they left all and permanently attached themselves to the company of his disciples. He became one of the innermost circle (Mark 5:37; Matt. 17:1; 26:37; Mark 13:3). He was the disciple whom Jesus loved.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary 1897
James
The son of Zebedee and Salome; an elder brother of John the apostle. He was one of the twelve apostles. He was by trade a fisherman, in partnership with Peter (Matt. 20:20; 27:56). With John and Peter, he was present at the transfiguration (Matt. 17:1; Mark 9:2), at the raising of Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5:37-43), and in the garden with our Lord (14:33). Because, probably, of their boldness and energy, he and John were called Boanerges, i.e., “sons of thunder.” He was the first martyr among the apostles, having been beheaded by King Herod Agrippa (Acts 12:1, 2), A.D. 44 (Comp. Matt. 4:21; 20:20-23).
Easton’s Bible Dictionary 1897
Israelite
(Heb. Yisr, champion of God) A descendant of Israel, or Jacob; a Hebrew; a Jew.
Moses
Moses occurs frequently in the Psalms and Prophets as the chief of the prophets. In the New Testament he is referred to as the representative of the law and as a type of Christ (John 1:17; 2 Cor. 3:13-18; Heb. 3:5, 6). Moses is the only character in the Old Testament to whom Christ likens himself (John 5:46; comp. Deut. 18:15, 18,19; Acts 7:37). In Heb. 3:1-19 this likeness to Moses is set forth in various particulars.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary 1897
Nathanael
(given or gift of God) One of our Lord’s disciples, of Cana in Galilee (John 21:2). He was “an Israelite indeed, in whom was no guile” (1:47, 48).
Easton’s Bible Dictionary 1897
Philip
(lover of horses) One of the twelve apostles; a native of Bethsaida, “the city of Andrew and Peter” (John 1:44). He readily responded to the call of Jesus when first addressed to him (43) and forthwith brought Nathanael also to Jesus (45,46). He seems to have held a prominent place among the apostles (Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18; John 6:5-7; 12:21, 22; 14:8, 9; Acts 1:13).
Easton’s Bible Dictionary 1897
Andrew
(Greek, “manliness”) Andrew was one of the apostles of Jesus. He was from Bethsaida in Galilee (John 1:44) and was the brother of Simon Peter (Matt. 4:18; 10:2). At first, he was a disciple of John the Baptist. On one occasion John the Baptist, pointing to Jesus, said, “Behold the Lamb of God” (John 1:40); and Andrew, hearing him, immediately became a follower of Jesus, the first of Jesus’ disciples. After he had been led to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, his first care was to bring also his brother Simon to Jesus. The two brothers seem to have after this pursued for a while their usual calling as fishermen and did not become Apostles of the Lord until after John’s imprisonment (Matt. 4:18, 19; Mark 1:16, 17). Very little is related of Andrew. He was one of the confidential disciples (John 6:8; 12:22), and with Peter, James, and John inquired of our Lord privately regarding his future coming (Mark 13:3). He was present at the feeding of the five thousand (John 6:9), and he introduced the Greeks who desired to see Jesus (John 12:22); but of his subsequent history little is known. It is noteworthy that Andrew brings others to Christ three times, (1) Peter; (2) the boy with the loaves; and (3) certain Greeks. These incidents may be regarded as a key to his character.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary 1897
Pharisees
Separatists (Heb. persahin, from parash, “to separate”). A sect of the Jewish religion during the times of Jesus. The first mention of them is in a description by Josephus of the three
sects or schools into which the Jews were divided (B.C. 145). The other two sects were the Essenes and the Sadducees. In the time of our Lord, they were the popular party (John 7:48). They were extremely accurate and minute in all matters pertaining to the law of Moses (Matt. 9:14; 23:15; Luke 11:39; 18:12). Paul, when brought before the council of Jerusalem, professed himself a Pharisee (Acts 23:6-8; 26:4, 5).
There was much that was sound in their creed, yet their system of religion was a form and nothing more. Theirs was a very lax morality (Matt. 5:20; 15:4, 8; 23:3, 14, 23, 25; John 8:7). On the first notice of them in the New Testament (Matt. 3:7), they are ranked by our Lord with the Sadducees as a “generation of vipers.” They were noted for their self-righteousness and their pride (Matt. 9:11; Luke 7:39; 18:11, 12). They were frequently rebuked by our Lord (Matt. 12:39; 16:1-4). From the very beginning of his ministry the Pharisees showed themselves bitter and persistent enemies of our Lord. They could not bear his doctrines, and they sought by every means to destroy his influence among the people.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary 1897
Nicodemus
(the people is victor) A Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin. He is first noticed as visiting Jesus by night (John 3:1-21) for the purpose of learning more of his doctrines, which our Lord then unfolded to him, giving prominence to the necessity of being “born again.” He is next met with in the Sanhedrin (7:50-52), where he protested against the course they were taking in plotting against Christ. Once more he is mentioned as taking part in the preparation for the anointing and burial of the body of Christ (John 19:39). We hear nothing more of him. There can be little doubt that he became a true disciple.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary 1897
Jesus
The Savior; the name of the Son of God as announced by the angel to his parents; the personal name of Our Lord, in distinction from Christ. The life of Jesus on earth may be divided into two great periods, (1) that of his private life, until he was about thirty years of age; and (2) that of his public life, which lasted about three years.
In the “fulness of time” he was born at Bethlehem, in the reign of the emperor Augustus, of Mary, who was betrothed to Joseph, a carpenter (Matt. 1:1; Luke 3:23; comp. John 7:42). His birth was announced to the shepherds (Luke 2:8-20). Wise men from the east came to Bethlehem to see him who was born “King of the Jews,” bringing gifts with them (Matt. 2:1-12). Herod’s cruel jealousy led to Joseph’s flight into Egypt with Mary and the infant Jesus, where they tarried till the death of this king (Matt. 2:13-23), when they returned and settled in Nazareth, in Lower Galilee (2:23; comp. Luke 4:16; John 1:46, etc.). At the age of twelve years, he went up to Jerusalem to the Passover with his parents. There, in the temple, “in the midst of the doctors,” all that heard him were “astonished at his understanding and answers”(Luke 2:41).
Eighteen years pass, of which we have no record beyond this, that he returned to Nazareth and “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).
He entered on his public ministry when he was about thirty years of age. It is generally believed to be about three years.
(1.) The first year may be called the year of obscurity, both because the records of it which we possess are very scanty, and because he seems during it to have been only slowly emerging into public notice. It was spent for the most part in Judea.
(2.) The second year was the year of public favor, during which the country had become thoroughly aware of him; his activity was incessant, and his frame rang through the length and breadth of the land. It was almost wholly passed in Galilee.
(3.) The third was the year of opposition, when the public favor ebbed away. His enemies multiplied and assailed him with more and more pertinacity, and at last he fell a victim to their hatred. The first six months of this final year were passed in Galilee, and the last six in other parts of the land.
The only reliable sources of information regarding the life of Christ on earth are the Gospels, which present in historical detail the words and the work of Christ in so many different aspects.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary 1897
Maps
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