John chapter 1. John chapter
1. I had to put the iPad away. Mr. Vertigo decided to show up this
morning and watching that iPad move up and down is not easy. So I went back to the old notes.
John chapter 1. I titled this message, Come and
See. Come and See. That's what the
Lord said to the two disciples. And that's what Philip said,
or Nathanael said to Philip, come and see. Come and see. Come and see the Lord Jesus Christ. Look upon Him. Behold Him. Behold
Him. Now, when I first started reading
this in verse 35, the next day after John stood and two of his
disciples, I thought of John being about his father's business.
That was my first thought. Actually, that's what I started
to title the message, about our father's business. And as I thought
about John being about his father's business, I thought of a story. Henry told years ago, and I had
to call Tom Hardy, who's got a memory bank like Henry had. He can remember everything. And
I said, do you remember that story of the businessman and
the preacher flying together on a plane? And he did, and he
filled in the blanks for me. And he sent it to me. So I'm
going to give it to you this morning. I'm going to start out
with a story. There was a gospel preacher.
He was on his way to preach the gospel somewhere. And when he
boarded the plane, he sat down next to a businessman. And they
started a conversation about why they were on a trip. The
businessman said, I'm on an important trip for my father and his business
interests. The preacher replied, I too.
I too am on an important trip for my father and his business
interest." Well, the businessman said, my father's business is
very successful. We have clients and customers
all over the world. The preacher replied, my father's
business is also very successful. We too have clients all over
the world. The businessman said, my father only deals with the
best and highest quality products. The preacher replied, my father
also deals with the best and highest quality products. And
when they parted ways, they both said to each other, hope you
have a successful trip. Don't know if the businessman's
business was successful, continued, or was prosperous. But we know
the father's business is always successful, continuous, and always
prosperous. And his clients, sheep, are most
satisfied. are most satisfied. And that
thought was with me as I studied and I thought, I am about my
Father's business this morning. And it's to feed the sheep. And
I have learned over the years what it is to feed the sheep.
I have found the key to it. It's to lift up and exalt Jesus
Christ. If I lift up and exalt the Lamb
of God, the sheep will be fed, and you'll be most satisfied.
You'll leave here this morning satisfied, if you're His sheep
and you're able to feed on Him. Now here, the Lord Jesus Christ
has now officially entered into His public ministry. He has been
identified by His forerunner, John the Baptist, And now the
scene from here on will start to switch from John's ministry
to the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. And John's going to fade
into the background as all preachers should. We should all fade into
the background. It's not about me. And I don't
know why people do this. How big is your congregation?
I don't know. I don't know. You know, David
got in trouble for numbering Israel. He got in trouble for
numbering Israel. This is God's congregation. It's
His congregation. It's all about the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Now in verse 35, again, the next
day after John stood, no doubt he'd been speaking, And the Lord
Jesus Christ, He saw this time, see first time He saw Christ
coming to Him, because Christ coming to Him to be baptized,
to be identified to Israel. This time He saw the Lord walking. And He said there in verse 36,
He says to His disciples, Behold the Lamb of God. But John is
about his father's business. There's no loiterers in the kingdom
of God. How often do you see a sign on
the door, no loitering here? There's no loitering in the kingdom
of God. Everyone has a business to do.
Every child of God, every member of the body of Christ has a ministry.
Everyone has a ministry. And your ministry is where God
has put you. You're the light. You're the light there. You're
the light. In John's case, his business
was to fulfill his ministry in preaching and pointing out Christ
to Israel, as well as those sinners who came out to hear him. It
was his business to point his disciples, as this morning it's
my business to point the disciples of Christ here this morning to
Christ, the Lamb of God. Now in the case of our Lord,
His business was to fulfill the law and bring in an everlasting
righteousness that you and I have to have. And He accomplished. He brought in an everlasting
righteousness. My righteousness, my right doing,
and your righteousness, right doing, has no connection to His
as far as acceptance goes. Our conduct is because He has
saved us, but it doesn't save us. It does not save us. But
His business was to honor the law, magnify the law, and bring
in an everlasting righteousness. His business was to shed His
blood for the atonement of sin. It is through His blood that
we have forgiveness of sins." All our sins are forgiven through
the blood. All our sins. That's a lot. That's a lot of sins. You have
no concept, you and I have no concept how many sins we have.
Not only are we a mass of sin, we are sin by nature, but the
sins we do by the second. By the second. Augustus Toplady,
I wish I wrote this down, he calculated by the second how
many sins a person would have if they lived to be, I think
it was like 80. It was in the billions. And all the sins of
all God's elect were laid on Jesus Christ, and by His blood
they were washed away. Atoned for. Atoned for. And then it was His business,
and still is His business, to put down all rule and authority
that exalts itself against God. And one day He's going to deliver
up the kingdom to God the Father. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians. He's going to deliver up the
kingdom when it's all finished. Now, in verse 36, as John looked
upon Jesus the next day, he repeated his message from the previous
day. He didn't change his message. He said to his disciples that
two disciples were standing there. And the Lord did not just happen
to walk by. He walked by at that time for
John to point him out to those two disciples. John repeated
his message to his disciples, and they followed the Lord Jesus
Christ. This is the end of our preaching. The end and purpose of our preaching
is for you to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the end
of it. There comes a time when we hear
God's preacher. We believe the message. We believe
the message. And then we follow Christ from
then on, no matter who's preaching the gospel. I've seen some leave
when the preacher retired or died. But listen, if God is pleased
to continue the ministry here, He will provide us a preacher,
and as each one grows old or physically sick or dizzy or dies,
God will provide another. God will provide another. However,
the Lord remains the same. The Lord remains the same. And
our commitment to Him and following Him remains the same. The face
standing in His pulpit may change, but the person we believe and
follow and love will not change. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. It will always be Him. Just like
I was finished reading up as I was telling you in Bible class
in Deuteronomy. Moses over in Deuteronomy 31,
God told Moses, He said, you're not going to the promised land.
You're not going to take the children of Israel to the promised
land. And he points out Joshua to Moses, he's going to do it.
And so Moses tells Joshua and he tells the people, Joshua is
going to lead you over. And Moses goes up onto Mount
Pisgah, he gets to see it. But he doesn't get to go into
it. But Joshua leads them into it. And they were to follow Joshua
just like they did Moses. But they were following the same
God. The same God, the message didn't change. The message does
not change. Now in verse 37, we see the effect
of John's preaching. And they followed Jesus. See, they believed the message
John preached, they were following John, they were his disciples,
and when John pointed out the Lamb of God, they left Him. They
left Him. Boy, this is just... this is
the end, the goal of preaching, that you leave the preacher and
follow Christ. That you follow Him. After they
heard John speaking of Christ, they left Him and they followed
the Lord Jesus Christ. True faith is evidenced by following
Christ. That's how it's evidenced. It's
going after Him. It's believing on Him. It's looking
to Him from the heart. It's a heart work. It's heart
faith. And it's looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ from the heart and it's following after Him. When
you leave here today, you will follow after Him the rest of
the week, won't you? You'll think upon Him today, you'll think
upon Him in the morning, tomorrow, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, Saturday, because you're following Him. And they followed
Him. You see, this is more than a
decision. It is a lifelong commitment to following the Lord Jesus Christ
until He comes and takes you home. It's a lifelong commitment. And then the Lord asked them,
in verse 38, He asked a very sobering question, What seek
ye? He saw them. He being God, He's
omniscient, He knows all things, He knows their heart. They are
probably walking behind Him, following Him, observing Him.
And He turns around and says, What are you looking for? What
are you after? What are you after? Why are you following me? This is a searching question. It reaches into the heart. It
reaches to the motive. Why are you following me? What
are you seeking after? You remember when the Lord, over
in John chapter 6, He fed 5,000? And He said to them, I'm going
to just shorten it here, but He said to them in verse 26 of
John 6, Jesus answered them and said, "'Verily, verily, I say
unto you, ye seek Me not, not because you saw the miracles,
but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. You seek
Me because of what you got out of Me.'" We seek the Lord. When we seek
the Lord, when we really seek the Lord, we seek Him for Him.
We want to know Him. That's what Paul said in Philippians,
"...or that I might know Him." We seek Him for forgiveness,
we seek Him for mercy, and we seek Him to know Him. I want
to know Jesus Christ. I want to know Him. I want to
know Him savingly. I want to know Him. I want to
experience Jesus Christ. Why are you following me? Why
are you seeking? What are you looking for? And
they said in verse 38, where dwellest thou? Where do you live?
Where do you dwell? They wanted to talk to him. They
wanted to go with him and sit down and learn from him. They
wanted to know more about him. That song we sing, more about
Jesus, what I know. That's the heart of a child of
God. Isn't it? It's more about Him. I want to
know more about Him who is the wisdom of God. You cannot exhaust
infinite wisdom. He's the wisdom of God. He's
infinite wisdom. You cannot exhaust that. I cannot exhaust Him who's our
subject. He's the subject of heaven. He's
the subject of our worship this morning, isn't He? We can't exhaust
Him. Oh, they said, where dwellest
thou? And he said, come and see. Come
and see. But let me make a note here of
something about John's preaching. You know, the first time John
pointed him out as a lamb of God, we don't read of anybody
following him at that time. But the next time John points
him out, two disciples follow him. It's the continual preaching
of Christ crucified that sinners follow Christ. We
don't find another subject. We're not looking for another
subject. It's the continual preaching of Christ crucified that God
honors. God honors the preaching of Christ
and Him crucified. If I be lifted up, I'll draw
all men unto me." We preach the Lamb incarnate. We preach the
Lamb on the cross. We preach the Lamb on the throne. But it's always the Lamb. John
said when he went to the third heaven, you know what he saw?
A Lamb as it had been slain. He saw Him in His sacrificial
character. You see, Christ the Lamb in His
sacrificial character is the hub of everything we have to
say. From Christ crucified, the spokes
go out. Truth goes out. And that's how
we learn of Him. And then the Lord replies there
in verse 39, Come and see. Come and see. You see, coming
to Christ is an act of faith. That's what He's saying. Come
on, follow me. That's an act of faith. Seeing
is a revelation Christ gives of Himself. Come. Follow me. It's an act of faith.
See is a revelation He gives of Himself. And they abode with
Him that day. They stayed with Him. They didn't
even go home, they just stayed with Him. And we know they continued
to follow Him for the rest of their lives, and they're with
Him now. They are with Him now. And then they become witnesses.
I want you to notice this, how they become flaming witnesses
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll notice the first thing
they did after being with him, Andrew went, in verse 40 through
45, Andrew went and found his brother Peter, and he said, we
have found the Messiah, the Christ, we found Him. And Andrew brought Him to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He said, we have found Him, you've
got to come in here, you've got to come and see. You've got to
come and see the One that's the Christ, the promised Messiah,
the One that's spoken of in the Old Testament. Here He is. Here
he is. And then it says there, when
Christ found Philip, Philip went and found Nathanael, and he said,
We have found him whom Moses and the prophets wrote of, Jesus
of Nazareth. Oh, come and see, come and see. You see, each one that found
the Lord, I'm going to turn that around
in a minute. But each one that found the Lord, they had to go
to somebody else. They just couldn't keep it to
themselves. Couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. And he went to
Nathanael. Philip went to Nathanael and
he told him, Jesus of Nazareth, come and see. And he said, can
any good thing come out of Nazareth? It's amazing what prejudice will
keep us from. Prejudice will keep you from a lot of blessings.
He was willing not to go there. He was just like, Nazareth? Nothing
coming out of that place. But notice here how each one
went to someone close to them and compelled them to come and
see. This is how it's done. This is
how it's done. I was talking to someone about
this not too long ago. Radio and TV are good vehicles
of communication. They are. You can get to the
masses that way. But nothing can replace going
out into the highways and hedges and compelling them to come in.
Nothing replaces that. Nothing. In the military, it's called
boots on the ground. Boots on the ground. It's inviting sinners to come
and hear the gospel, and see what the Lord has done for me.
I want you to come and hear, I want you to come and see. And you'll notice it says here, and
I'm going to turn this around now, it says, they found Him. Come and see, we found the Messiah,
we found Him. Well, we know that Christ found
them first, don't we? We know who found them first.
But in our experience, now listen, in our experience, at first we
think we found him. Don't we? Then we come to realize
he found us first. He found the lost sheep. I was
lost, I was wondering, and he found me. And he carried me back
to the fold. We found him because he revealed
himself to us. He made himself known to us,
like Paul on the road to Damascus. He stopped him. There comes a
time when the Lord literally stands in front of you. You know,
you're going away, you're going along in your life and, you know,
just doing this and doing that. And one day he just steps in
front of you and he makes himself known to you. And your life takes
a different direction from then on. We see this in this conversation
our Lord has with Peter and Nathanael. Listen to this. Let me find this one up here. In verse 41, He first findeth
His own brother Simon, and said unto him, We have found the Messiah,
which is being interpreted to Christ. And He brought him to
Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, He said, Thou art Simon,
son of Jonah. Well, who told you who My Father
was? Who told you that? Who told you? He said, Thou shalt
be called Cephas, which is by interpretation of stone. Now
look down here at this conversation with Nathanael. In verse 45,
Philip findeth Nathanael and saith unto him, We have found
him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus
of Nazareth, son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him,
Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip said
unto him, Come and see. Now he came with a lot of doubt. And no doubt he came because
he was asked to come. But there's a lot of doubt here. And so when he shows up and comes
to see the Lord, Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him,
Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Nathanael
said unto him, Whence knowest thou me? How do you know me?
How do you know me? He knew they'd never met. He
knew they'd never met. Whence knowest thou me? Jesus
answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when
thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. I think when he was
under that fig tree, he was probably in prayer. He was probably in prayer, calling
upon God. And the Lord said, I saw you.
I heard you under that fig tree. Nathanael answered and said unto
him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of
Israel. And Jesus answered and said unto him, because I said
unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? You're
going to see greater things than these. You're going to see the
dead raised, the blind see, and the deaf hear, and the lame to
walk. You're going to see greater things
than this. And he saith unto him, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Hereafter you shall see heaven opened,
and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of
Man. He's making reference here to Jacob's ladder. That's what
he's making reference to, Jacob's ladder. Here's the ladder. Here's the connection between
heaven and earth, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. And I say one more
time, as John said, behold the Lamb of God. Come and see. Look, look to Him. Look to the
Lamb of God. Look to Him. All right.