29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”
While baptizing with water, he finally saw the son of God face to face through the Holy Spirit, and now he knew for sure that the reason he had been baptizing was to reveal Him to Israel. Namely, his purpose of life was to testify His name. Since then, he was telling even his disciples that Jesus was the lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world as the ransom for all humans.
Starting from John, Andrew, Simon, and Nathanael and many other men went to see Jesus and found out that He was the Messiah who had been read and told about from their ancestors through the book of law. I think that there are the only ways to know and believe that Jesus was the son of God : through seeing Him face to face or hearing about Him through witnesses.
In my case, I used to hear about Him from my childhood, but I rarely understood with my little knowledge as my ears were shut tightly. Luckily, one day when my friend took me to Joy mission club at my age of 21, I saw all of my sins that were hidden through panorama scenes. And at the end of the scene, Jesus was carrying the cross for my sake and for all my sins that I should have put on my shoulders in life and that I would never take away with my own hands.
Since then, I became one of the witnesses of Jesus, and the friend who took me there used to tell me, "I am the one who took you to Jesus!", being proud of herself. Maybe she was Andrew, just saying "come and see". And she herself has worked as a missionary in China for 10 years, and now she lives in US, after being kicked out of China government some years ago.
I am thinking of the role of witnesses of the Heavenly kingdom: Just saying about what I have seen, read, or heard, and experienced as well, without caring about any responses of hearers because it is their choice: believe it or not!
