Over and over again, this is
where we're going, he says, and here we are. And so we've come
to this place where we begin to start seeing the story. We
start seeing the narrative of the story of Jesus and the story
of John the Baptist. We're going to see the story
of the wedding at Cana in a week or so, months to come, that's
it. We're going to see the Nicodemus, the Pharisees sending Nicodemus.
We're going to see the woman at the well in Sychar, Samaritan. We're going to see the Jews.
We're going to see the multitude the first time he feeds the five
thousand. We're going to see the rejection
of Jesus. Time and time again, in every
dialogue, in every description, in every opportunity that man
is given without the power of the Holy Spirit, men reject Jesus. You see, men don't necessarily
reject Jesus just in the sense of say, I don't believe. Sometimes
we reject the truth of Jesus when we say, oh, I see it this
way. Sometimes we say, oh, yeah, I understand. A man must enter
into his mother's womb and be born again. That's a rejection
of Jesus. Because he could not see the truth that Jesus was
trying to teach him. Like when he told, or did the
miracle as we'll see in John 2, the wedding at Cana. They
didn't grasp and comprehend what was really happening. They gave
the bridegroom of that wedding, who was a total loser, total
failure socially, gave him credit for what Jesus had done. They
couldn't see. When we see Nicodemus and we
see the woman at Sychar, we see the Jews in John 11 when they
see that Jesus has raised Lazarus from the dead. We see the multitudes
coming to get food for their stomachs. And Jesus proclaims
the truth. And until the spirit of God opens
their eyes, they always reject Jesus by thinking of the natural,
thinking of the obvious, thinking of the logical and the context
of the confines of the universe. When Jesus transcends time, Jesus
transcends all things that seem to be wise. And so as we get
to this part today, it's very easy to really just sort of skip
over it if we're not careful. It's very easy to say, okay,
Jesus called some disciples, yada, yada, yada. They followed.
Now let's get to the meat of the ministry. But beloved, this is
the meat of the ministry. Because what happens here today
in John chapter one, when John the Baptist proclaims Jesus,
is exactly the same thing that happens in every chapter in all
of the synoptics, Matthew, Mark, and Luke's gospel. It's what
happens in the ministry of the apostles, the ministry of Paul,
the ministry of John, all of the apostles, Peter, and everything
that's ever written in the New Testament. And it's the exact
same thing that's happened from century to century to century
to century today to bring people to salvation in Jesus Christ
alone. It's the exact same thing. And what it is is that there
is a witness that takes place. But see, in our world, in our
world that we call evangelical, isn't that funny? Don't you find
that quite ironic that we call ourselves as a culture evangelical,
the evangelical church? I also find it very odd that
we call ourselves Protestants, which comes from the word protest,
which we protested against the heresies of Rome. against the
indulgences, against the abuses of Rome. Yet we call ourselves
evangelical because we believe in the mission of taking the
gospel to the world. We call ourselves protestant because
we protest against heresy. But yet the very people who hold
the label evangelical and protestant today are neither protesting
heresies nor taking the gospel of the Jesus Christ to the world.
It's just a badge of honor and it's come to mean Republican
and conservative more than it means Christ follower. It's come
to mean that we have a platform of politics or nationalism more
than it means that we stand on the cross of Christ and Him alone.
We even see that church, by definition, is where we go on Sunday. But church, by definition, is
who we are every day. And we are the ecclesia, we are
the called out, we are the gathered ones. And when we gather for
the sake of the glory of Christ, God does supernatural things
in the midst of our assembly. We're not here to be entertained,
though we may enjoy the music that we sing, though you may
enjoy the fodder of my voice and think it comical, or whatever
it is that you think you get from here. We come as a people
to gather together so that we might be fed and encouraged and
rebuked sometimes by the Word, but that through the Word of
God, that God does a supernatural work among us. The same supernatural
work that He did when He saved us from our sin. The same work
that He did when He cast us, when He grabbed, excuse me, snatched
us out of darkness into the light of His Son. The same work that
He's been doing since the beginning of time through Jesus Christ,
by grace alone. If we need something, listen
to me beloved, if any of us need anything in order to experience
God deeper than the Bible, we are lost in our understanding. I didn't say lost salvificly,
we are lost in our understanding of what it means to know God.
Which could mean that we don't have eternal life. If we need
to feel the Spirit apart from the Scripture, we have lost sight
of what the Scripture actually teaches about intimacy with God,
about knowledge of God. And most everyone, as we get
to John 6, John 6 is going to be as difficult as John 3. Because
John 6 is where Jesus eliminates 99% of everything that we see
done in the name of ministry today. And beloved, it starts
right here in chapter 1. And everybody here, to the sound
of my voice, whether you listen to it today or whether somebody's
going to listen to this tomorrow on the internet or years to come,
every one of us who are truly in Christ, we do have a desire
to see people come to faith in Christ. We may not think about
it often, but when we start to think about it, we go, wow, I
hope my neighbors are saved. I hope my children are saved. I hope
my spouse are saved. I hope my coworkers are saved. I hope my enemies
are saved. Lord, what do I do? How do I
do? And we've been inundated over the last 150 to 170 years
with processes and methods and all sorts of stuff that just
gets in the way of the power of God. Had a conversation yesterday
with someone who was saying that they quoted someone who was Islamic,
who tells the tale of when he was a Muslim walking the streets
of cities and he heard heralders of the gospel out in the open
air and how that it just offended him and he never would have come
to Christ through that type of preaching because they didn't
look at him as an individual, but he was just another man walking
by as an object to be part of their objective.
And my response to that is that, why I'm sick of whining. I don't
want to hear the whining. I don't want to hear another
man tell me why he couldn't come to Christ. I don't want to hear
somebody else say, but that guy wasn't nice to me, or that guy
didn't spend time with me, or that person didn't love me, or
there wasn't some tenderness there. Let me tell you something.
People are saved through hearing the words of Christ. And I don't
care if a cat meows it out, or a dog barks it out, or a snake
hisses it out, or a child who is two years old whines it out. If someone preaches the gospel,
even in rage, God will save a lost soul when God wants to save a
lost soul. And when people continue to make
excuses about why they didn't want to hear that message, though
it be a true message, They're doing nothing but dishonoring
the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they are rejecting Christ by
saying they reject Christ's messenger. Yes, what does the scripture
teach us? We need to be patient with those who doubt. The scripture
teaches us that we should be kind and gentle when trouble
comes in the church. Why? Because, oh Lord have mercy,
has God not been kind and gentle with us? If it weren't for the
kindness and the gentleness of God, we would all be condemned,
but we're not because He's kind and He's merciful. So in the
same way we are kind and merciful, we don't bring judgment upon
each other when God Himself has forbeared that judgment and put
it on Christ. And unbelievers, yes, we are to deal with, what
does Paul tell Timothy? We ought to deal with our enemies
with patience. We ought to be long-suffering.
We ought to pray that God grant them repentance, that they may
escape the snare of the devil. Those are the exact words from
Paul. But, oh beloved, our world is
so upside down. And they forget that this narrative
is written here so that we may learn. You know how we need to
approach this text this morning? Like every child that's sitting
in this room. We need to approach this text this morning as if
we were children, hearing it for the first time, not bringing
with us all this prior learning of presuppositions, not bringing
with us all these preconceived ideas of what evangelism is,
because this is the first fruitful evangelism that we see in the
Word of God. It's the first time that we see someone following
after Christ through the proclamation of who Christ was. So let's turn
to the Bible this morning in John chapter 1, verses 35 through
42. Let me read part of it. The next day again, and so you'll
see here, there's about four or five days in John one that
are depicted here. What day of the week and what
time of the hour is really not important. It doesn't really
matter, but here's the narrative on the next day. This is the
day after John the Baptist had proclaimed that Jesus was the
lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. After Jesus
had come out of the wilderness back into Jerusalem, John the
Baptist sees him coming and says, behold, the lamb. Not a day before,
he told what? He told the Pharisees, he's the
lamb of God. There's somebody that you do
not know that stands among me that is greater than me because
he was before. On the next day, John was standing with two of
his disciples, John the Baptist's disciples. And he looked at Jesus
as he walked by and said, behold, the lamb of God. Behold, the
lamb of God. The two disciples heard him say
this and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and saw them
following and said to them, what are you seeking? And they said
to him, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying? And he
said to them, come and you will see. So they came and saw where
he was staying and they stayed with him that day for it was
about the 10th hour. One of the two who heard John
speak, John the Baptist speak and follow Jesus was Andrew,
Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother
Simon and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which means
Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. And Jesus looked at him
and said, you are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called
Cephas, which means Peter. Let me remind us for a moment
that as we saw in John chapter 1 verse 6 and 7, remember these
words, it says, there was a man sent from God whose name was
John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light
that all might believe through him. The very next verse in verse
8 says he was not the light, but he came to bear witness about
the light. And see what we've seen in verses
19 through 28 is that John is under, what is it called? There's a light in your eyes
and you're answering. Interrogation. Thank you. He's under interrogation.
My brain is lack of sleep. He's under interrogation and
they're inquiring about him and what he does in that testimony
says, I'm not the light. So the very illustration here,
the very outline that John, the gospel writer gives, Then we
see it portrayed. I am not the light. He is not
the light. But then the very next section of verses, verses
29 through 34, when John starts to preach in the presence of
Christ, behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the
world. And he proclaims who he is and he says, this is his testimony
that I heard the voice, that I saw the Holy Spirit. And he
witnesses, so that he came to, what, bear witness about the
light. And what does the Scripture say? That all might believe through
him. This section of Scripture, verses
35 all the way through 51, but we're going to stop in verse
42 today, is the proof that John was not the light, that John
bore witness of the light, that all might believe through him.
And so that we see the first believers following after Christ.
See, this is why the Bible is important. Because not only do
we see the story, but we see the product of the efficacy of
God's power. That means the efficiency that
it's actually working. It's not just a probability.
It's just not possible. It's absolutely certain. So that
when God sends the gospel out through John the Baptist, it's
absolutely certain that people will come to faith and follow
after Christ. It's an absolute guarantee when we take the gospel
into the world that people will come to Christ, for God will
save His people out of the world through the hearing of the gospel.
Who are those people? Those who believe. That's how
we know who they are. I dare not quote other people.
I won't tell you where this came from, but there is a very...
Well, I'll tell you where it came from. I know now. Charles
Spurgeon. I'm gonna be talking about the
elect and talking about people who would argue about the idea
that God's just saving his own people. Why don't we just preach
to the elect? And of course we don't know who
they are. And he says, but if the elect had a big X on them,
he said, I would make it my mission to preach to the ones without
the X. Why? Because we're to preach to all
people. God is in the business of saving whosoever believes. So the next day here, in this
narrative, we see a continuance of the week. John the Baptist
was standing with two of his disciples. Now imagine what this
looks like. Here's John the Baptist coming on the scene like a wild
man. And he's preaching. And he's talking about the kingdom
of God is at hand. The kingdom of God is here. Repent
for the kingdom of heaven has come. And then everybody's following
him. And everybody's walking around
with him. Everybody's leaving their lives and their homes and
going out day by day listening to him teach. So much so that
the Pharisees now, The Jewish leaders, the spiritual head of
Israel, come out to inquire, who are you and now why are you
baptizing? Your preaching was one thing,
but now you're doing that which is only given to the priests. Now you're doing things. You're
baptizing people who don't need baptism. We're Jews, brother. You don't need to baptize us.
And what does John do? He continues to point to Christ.
He doesn't argue baptism. He doesn't argue the rituals
of Judaism. He doesn't give an apologetic against the precepts
of Moses. He doesn't do any of that because
none of that is effectual unto salvation. None of the debates
of apologetics. None of the arguments of philosophy.
None of the logical constraints of fighting the rationale of
this crazy world. brings people to faith. But what
brings people to faith is to point to Jesus Christ. We point
to Jesus Christ through the words of the apostles. John the Baptist,
his words are here and the apostles took that same message by the
power of the Holy Spirit and preached it and wrote it and
disseminated it that we might be saved, beloved. The gospel
is not a word of mouth issue. It's a word of God issue. God
will always preserve His Scripture. And here, these disciples of
John the Baptist had followed him around and everything that
he'd ever said, all of a sudden they heard him say, there he
is. The closest thing I can think
about that even relates to any sense in our world today, and
it's a very poor illustration, is fan clubs. You ever know what
a fan club is? I mean, I don't know who the
fan clubs are for today, but even after Elvis died, and how
old was I when Elvis died? Was I even born? I don't even
know. 79? Yeah. I don't remember Elvis. But oh, was Elvis pretty exciting
in my childhood. Fan clubs. From a ministry point
of view, remember the PTL club? the Praise the Lord Club, PTL
Club. And people were excited. They
were fans of praising the Lord. And they were fans of these people.
And if we look at history, and we see people who love Michael
Jackson or anything else, people who are famous, there's always
this hubbub and fire and zeal and passion when they get together.
Oh, we're going to talk about this person. We're going to listen
to their music. We're going to watch their movies. We're going to look at their
things. Oh my goodness, there he is. Let's go get his autograph. That's so different with Jesus.
Though there were some fan clubs. And there were also some John
the Baptist fan clubs, according to Acts chapter 20, 21. And we'll
see even in John's gospel, there were some John the Baptist fan
club that said, why are your disciples going to Jesus? But
see, in this particular instance, these two disciples, Andrew and
the other, we'll get to him in a minute, have been listening to the teaching
of John the Baptist about the Christ. And he kept saying that
the kingdom of God is here. The kingdom of God is here. And
they listened intently and they wanted to know more. And they
grew in their understanding of the teaching of Christ. And then
one day, John says, there he is. There he is. The one of whom I've been preaching.
There he is. Behold the Lamb of God. You know what? Those
two guys never looked at John the Baptist again. John the Baptist was just a voice
crying out in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord.
You hear that? Do you see that? I could quit
right now, preaching's over, let's go home. What difference does that make?
It makes all the difference. It makes all the difference.
If we believe that the word of God is to regulate our worship
together, And we believe the Word of God is the power and
the salvation. And we believe the Word of God is where we get
everything that we need to know about who Christ is and who God
is and about eternal life and the power of God and Godly living
and everything therein. Then why is it that we do not
use the Word of God as a culture to undergird and strap our evangelism
and missions to a strict standard? Because men are creative, beloved.
Men are creative and there's a lot of creativity in the body
of Christ that gets in the way of the power of God. Babel was
an experience of that. The Garden of Eden was an experience
of that. And so on and so on. The Lamb
of God. He proclaims again that the person
of Jesus is the Lamb of God, just like he did in the previous
verses. And this proclamation again is Jesus the Christ. John
didn't say, hey guys, listen to all the stuff. Remember what
I've been teaching? Well, there's the example. He didn't say, hey,
there's the guy that we meet about. There's the one that we
talk about. Hey, there's Jesus, the one that we've been learning.
Let's go have a meeting about what we just saw. Let's go and establish some religion. See, John the Baptist did not
establish a religion. Higher critics would say that people
left the religion of John the Baptist to follow after Christ.
No, the faith of John the Baptist was the Christ, is the Christ. It's proclamation. is the ministry
of John the Baptist, the first evangelist. This is his ministry. And there is no ministry of John
except to prepare the way of Jesus the Christ. There is no
ministry except that John points to Jesus. That's the only ministry
that he has. What other ministry is needed?
I mean, think about it. What books are published in this
present age that don't point to Jesus? Most all of them. Most
all of them. by Zondervan and Lifeway and
all sorts of other publishers. All they do is they talk about
how to assimilate, how to lead, how to do this, how to grow that,
how to have this, educational books and all these kind of things,
which, I mean, they're really interesting reads, but at the
end of the day, what did they do? They bogged down and get
in the way of the power of God. They bogged down and they hide,
they shadow, they overshadow. The work of the Holy Spirit through
the simplicity of proclaiming the Word of God to the lost of
the world. And the simplicity of proclaiming
the Word of God and praying that the church become intimate and
cohesive and unified in the Spirit. They bog it down. And Lord, help
me if I see another person, quote, Jesus calling. I'm going to explode. That heretic needs to quit. She
is not hearing from God. She is not hearing from the God
of heaven. She is hearing from the God who is Satan and that's
His name. Call it what it is. I don't usually
do that. But beloved, be careful of heresy.
Be careful of anyone who says that they hear from God and it's
not written in Scripture. They are a liar from the pits
of evil. Evil. No man hears God apart
from the Word of God. And in the Spirit of God who
talks to us in our spirit, it does happen. It is to confirm
that which the Spirit has already shown us with our eyes and with
our minds written in the Word. Anyone who claims anything else
must call God a liar, for God has said in His Word that anyone
who says they've heard from God is a liar if it is not from the
apostles. You say, why are you getting
all upset? Because brothers and sisters, this is ruining people's
faith. People are putting trust and
trying to go home and get in a closet and learn how to hear
from God and not picking up their Bibles. People are trying to
get in tune with some spiritual dimension of some force that
God is emitting. God is not emitting a force.
He is the Spirit. The Spirit is God and He is omnipresent. He is all powerful. Be careful,
beloved. John the Baptist had the greatest
opportunity in the world to become everything. And to become the
leader of the people of Israel. To stand there on the precipice
of his ministry and just hog it all for himself. But he was
nothing. He became nothing. He did not
want anything. He cared not about himself. But he pointed to Jesus Christ.
Oh, friends, be very careful that we do not love and adore
the ministry of our fellowship over the person of Jesus. Be careful. Be careful. There is no ministry except to
prepare the way of Christ. John the Baptist, his only mission
was to point to Christ and the only message that he had was
that he had was to proclaim the truth of Christ. And John's disciples,
walked away from him and followed after Jesus. Now, get this picture
a second. See, we often think of this a little bit differently
now. And I will go ahead and say, for those of you who like
to read other things and cross reference friends, this is not
a precursor to the call. This is the call. This is the
call of Andrew, and this is the call of John, the apostle. That
unnamed guy that's never named throughout the entirety of the
book is John, the writer of this letter, the writer of this gospel.
And John, this gospel writer, was with Andrew with John the
Baptist. This is the testimony of John
with his first encounter with Jesus. And beloved, if that doesn't
make you just giddy, stop and think on it for a minute. They follow Jesus because John
preached of Jesus. Who else were they looking for?
What else were they desiring? I mean, if I'm telling you about
this grand thing that's coming in the mail, and just trying
to get you all excited about it, about what it can do for
you, and what it's going to prepare you for, and all of a sudden
the UPS truck drives up, we're done. James, stop talking and
get it out of the box! Let's see it work! Shh! I don't
want to hear your display! That's what John the Baptist
was. He was just a commercial. He was just the one pointing to
Jesus. That's all we are, beloved. We're the ones that point to
Jesus. We point to Jesus through the
proclamation of the gospel. This natural outcome of John's
disciples was that they were looking to find Jesus, and John
says, Behold the Lamb of God, and they just walked away. They
didn't say, Hey John, we're going to talk to you for a minute.
They didn't say, hey John, we'll be right back. The Bible says that
they just followed after Jesus, that they just walked in His
direction. And He didn't come up and introduce
Him. He saw Jesus from a distance and said, behold the Lamb of
God! And they just walked away, mid-sentence. What were they
talking about? Probably Jesus Christ. And then John's like,
well, behold the Lamb of God! And they just walked away. They
walked away. They were looking and learning
about Jesus. So naturally they would go after
Him. They followed. But Jesus never commanded them
to follow, did He? You don't see that there. He
does command some to follow Me. It's not a request. It's not
a question. Will you follow Me? It's a command. But He didn't
command these. He didn't command Andrew and
He didn't command John. All of a sudden here are these
Man, they just walk away. They followed after Jesus. Why?
Because they had to follow after Jesus. They had to see Jesus.
They had to talk to Jesus. There was nothing else in their
life that mattered. They were compelled to follow
after the Christ. Why was that? What gave them
that power? Have you been listening? The
witness of John the Baptist by the power of the Spirit. the
witness of John the Baptist by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Have you ever desired someone to follow after Christ so badly
that you'd do anything? And we do everything but that
which God prescribes to actually cause the effect. We encourage. We should be encouraging. We
manipulate. We probably shouldn't be manipulative. I don't know, speaking undertones
and double innuendos and try to drop hints. Sometimes we just
get mean and nasty. You're just a devil. Have you
ever said that? You probably thought it. Don't point. When all that we have to do is
just proclaim Christ. Proclaim Christ. Where people
will say, well, I know. You ever heard that? I know.
You really, you do know? You may know of Christ, but do
you know Him? Do you know him? Do you know the gospel is the
power of God unto salvation? Do you know? The eyewitness of
John the Baptist, by the power of the spirit, regenerated these
men to the point that they would follow after Christ. And following after Christ in
their feet and following after Christ in their actions was not
proof of their election. Do you hear me? Because there
was one, Judas Iscariot, who did exemplary in his following. And yet he was the son of perdition. They followed after Jesus, so
therefore they detached themselves from the ministry of John, so
that they could attach themselves to the person of Jesus. Because
it is Jesus that John had preached. They followed normally with their
feet. They just went. They just walked. And they follow passionately
as disciples, as we'll see as this letter unfolds. Both of
these meanings here in this text are in play. The following after
Jesus in a natural sense, just walking in His direction, and
the following after Jesus in a needful sense, in a passionate
sense as disciples, is also at play. This is something that
happens constantly in John's Gospel. A natural meaning that
also has a deeper theological meaning. And it's not for us
to dig and figure it out. It simply appears to us. It appears
to us as we read the Bible when it says you must be born again,
you must be born of the spirit. Do not eat of the food that perishes,
but eat of the bread that endures eternal life. If you knew who
it was who were giving you were asking for a drink, you would
ask him for water and he would give you living water that in
what overflows to eternal life. See, we grasp those things. When
Jesus says in John 11, Untie him and let him go. Unbind him and let him go. Talking
about Lazarus, whose stiff wrapped corpse that was alive in his
grave wrappings was standing in the door of his tomb. That's
prophetic. Jesus was talking about taking
off his grave clothes, but ultimately Jesus also speaks of the fact
that when he unbinds us, we are free. The words follow me, follow,
mean to be a disciple as well as mean to walk in my direction.
So then Jesus, look what happens in verse 38. They follow after
Jesus. And then Jesus, walking, turns
around and looks back at them. How many people were on the street
that day? A lot. A lot. How many people were following
the direction of Jesus? A bunch. When John said, behold
the Lamb of God, I bet you 500 people followed him. Oh wow,
let's see what kind of magic he can do. Oh wow, I've heard
he's like powerful and stuff. I wonder if he's a good teacher.
Where do you get that? All throughout the narratives
of the Gospels. All throughout the narratives of the Book of
Acts. People followed after Jesus. Followed after Jesus. Can you
imagine 6,000 people following you around town? Can you imagine
when you see the story in Mark's Gospel where people pressed up
against Jesus and they couldn't move? You ever been to a carnival
on like free kid day? or go to the matinee on the summer
movie and it's like homeschool day, you go, you can't even get
in the bathroom. It's like, are there any adults
here? There's just children everywhere.
It's like the Minions, you're trying to get through. This is
what it's like in the days of Jesus, where people would come
out on the street and follow you around and get up close to
you. And in that particular moment
where there was a crowded opportunity, someone touched, someone got
down on their hands and knees and crawled under the crowd to
grab the hem of the garment of Jesus. And Jesus said, somebody
touch me. And the disciples were like,
who's not touching you? He said, no, somebody touched
me. Power left me. And Jesus is,
what, stupid? And neither was this woman, for
she had been given faith. Jesus knew there were two men
following Him and what their intentions were, and that they
were in the midst of a big crowd. But He turns and He stops. Imagine
them being at the back of the building, and there's a bunch
of other people. And Jesus turns and He stops,
and they stop. And He walks up and says, What
do you want? That's really what it means.
What are you seeking? What do you want? What do you
want? I believe that's an extremely
deep question coming from God. Because it's not like you want
to stick a gun and borrow a cigarette. I mean, you know, I have 50 cents,
I can have a cup of coffee. When God asks you what you want,
it's not superficial. But in their minds, what happened
then, Jesus inquires about their intentions, and as they were
naturally walking behind Jesus, He supernaturally knows they're
there, and He walks around and He knows every depth of their
soul. He knows everything about them.
As we'll see next week about Nathanael, He says, Oh, a Jew
in which there is no guile. And Nathanael in his arrogance
says, Oh, you've heard of me. He says, You think that's something?
I saw you before when you were sitting under the tree. I mean,
it caught my blow in your mind. You creep, are you spying on
me? Is there something on my cell phone? Are you peeking into
my life? Jesus knew these men. He knew them because He had called
them out through the gospel. And He called them out through
the witness. And He called them out through the evangelist. And
when He walked by, the only thing they could do was follow after
Him. And He questions their intentions.
What do you want? What are you seeking? See, Jesus,
as always, gets to the point of the matter, doesn't He? He
doesn't beat around the bush. He doesn't spend time saying,
hey guys, would you like some, you know, some Hebrews? Want
to go get some coffee? He doesn't go and say, hey, you
know, you wanna go to the game or you wanna hang out a little
while and let's get to know each other and then, oh, by the way,
look at that pop fly, you know? That was a really high pop fly. There's one higher. His name
is God. I mean, you know, he didn't go
there. He's not waiting for some crazy little opportunity. He
gets right to the point. What do you want? You must be born again. You can't
see me, Nicodemus. Why? Because eternity's at stake. There's not time to play life. There's not time to think we
can coerce someone into loving us and then loving the Jesus
that we love. There's nowhere prescribed this in Scripture.
There's nowhere in Scripture that it shows that we can lead
others to salvation through Jesus Christ in any other means except
proclaiming with our mouths that Jesus Christ is the God of heaven. And what's really crazy about
it, beloved, is I talk to hundreds of people a week that are not
part of this fellowship. Whether it's just in passing,
whether it's hey, or whether it's honk, get out of my way, would
you go, the light's green. Sorry about that. How many people do
we talk about, talk to, just in passing? We see hundreds of
people a week. And out of those hundreds of people a week, maybe
a dozen, we can have a meaningful conversation. And out of those
meaningful conversations, how often do we miss opportunity
to proclaim Christ? And how often do we hear them
say that they're like, well, be blessed, or Lord bless you,
or Christ bless you, or God bless you, or God is good. Oh, is that
a Bible in your hand? Praise the Lord. It's good to
see people with a Bible. Was that a wallet in your pocket?
It's good to see people with a wallet. You know, that's what
I'm thinking. Well, what makes it good to see
somebody with a Bible? Do you believe in Christ? What do you
think that means? I've been in church my whole
life. Great. I've lived in a house
my whole life. Doesn't make me a rug. I mean,
what are you getting at? I mean, I'm not saying be rude,
but that's the absurdity of such statements. We proclaim Christ. Many people believe they're born
again because of the religion that they follow, and the church
that they attend, and the Bible that they know, or the aisle
that they've walked, or the prayer that they've prayed. Many people
believe that they're born again because some great man of God,
who's just as big a sinner as everybody else sitting out there,
said that they were saved. Some people think they're saved
because they went into the baptismal waters and they came out and
everybody clapped. Some people think they're saved because they
felt something really warm and were overwhelmed with emotion.
You ever seen Bambi? I cried when
I saw Bambi. That wasn't salvation. I'm not trying to be funny. I'm
just trying to get to the point that Jesus asked him, what do
you want? It's an amazing thing. I find
it ironic then in the synoptics where we see the rich young ruler
going after Jesus and just tells Jesus through question what he
wants. How can I have eternal life?
Notice even it says, how can I inherit it? What can I do to
earn it? What can I do to grasp it? What
can I do that it's now going to be mine? Where is the seal
of what is due to me? What must I do? You must be holy.
Oh, I'm holy. All right. I got it together. Then go and
take all that you have and give it to those who do not deserve
it. And then come follow me. You have riches in heaven. And he's like,
see you later. See you later. He had not been
born of God. He's not been born of God like
Jesus would show. And he says that the kingdom of heaven is
like this, that a man in a field, and he's working the field and
he uncovers the treasure and he covers the treasure up and
he goes with joy and sells all that he has so that he may buy
the field. Why? Because he wants the treasure.
Oh, so that's what it takes to become a Christian? That's what
it takes to have eternal life? That I must be willing and actually
have such a passion to let go of everything? Nope. It doesn't
take that. It takes faith alone in Christ.
It takes faith alone in Christ. Faith alone in Christ. And friends,
Jesus Christ walked by and inquired, and these men did not even answer
His question. They didn't answer it. What do
you want? And they're like, oh, where are
you staying at? I mean, that's really the answer
they gave. It was like, now what do we say? Oh my gosh, he knows
we're following him. What do we say? Oh, where are you staying? You got a nice place? You want
to hang out a little while? I mean, that's really the situation
that's going on here. Where are you dwelling? Where
do you reside? That's what they ask. We know you're new in town. Where are you staying? Have you
tried this hotel? That's not what they wanted.
They wanted time with Christ. They wanted time with him. They
wanted to ask him questions. They wanted to fulfill every
emptiness that John had left when he proclaimed the gospel,
when he proclaimed the kingdom of heaven, when he proclaimed
that God was coming down to take away their sin. They wanted to
ask, who are you and how does this work and what's going to
take place? And so Jesus knows the truth. He knows the truth. This, where are you staying,
has a deeper, a deeper meaning that these disciples, that John,
the Apostle John and Andrew, the younger brother of Simon,
did not understand. Because we see later in the apostolic
ministry, we see later in the ministry of Jesus as the disciples
are there. When he says, I gotta go away,
and I'm like, where are you going? You remember Thomas? He said,
how do we get there? He said, you don't know. Didn't I just say? We don't know.
If we don't know where you're going, how are we going to follow? You know
the story there. Beloved, these people were looking to
get time with Jesus. And they wouldn't even answer
Him correctly. Because there's a fear there.
There's an uneasiness there. But look what they call Him.
What do they call Him? Rabbi. In Chinese, shifu means teacher,
but teacher means master. Rabbi means master. The teacher
was the one who's over the people, and they master over the people,
and they teach the people, they instruct the people. These people
called Jesus Rabbi. It was not a term that was thrown
around loosely, though it was a term in this century that was
not allocated just for credentialed rabbis. But it was for those
people who were held to the highest of honor because of what they
knew and how they taught. And they called Jesus Teacher, and in this natural thought,
they just wanted to know where He was going. And Jesus answers them in verse
39, and He says, Come and you will see. See, that's the answer
that Jesus gives all of us. Come and you will see. Now see, what they heard is Jesus
saying, well, come on and you'll see where I'm staying. But what
we know that Jesus also teaches throughout the New Testament
is that when you come, you will see. Come all who thirst, I will
give you living water. Come all who hunger, I'll be
the bread of life. Come all you who are blind, I
will give you sight. You will see, beloved, when the
witness of Jesus Christ is proclaimed, God the Spirit gives sight to
those who cannot see and they can see. And when we can see,
we come. When we can see, we believe.
When we can see, we follow. You see how that works? It goes exactly with the prologue.
The light shines in the darkness. and the darkness is not overcoming.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. Life comes
through illumination. Illumination is not the opportunity,
it is the rebirth. It is regeneration. It is life. And when we have life, we believe
on Christ. When we have life, we follow
after Christ, haphazardly sometimes. but just the same we follow.
Because we see. And so many people put the following
before the light. So many people put the actions
before the rebirth. So many people put the profession
before the regeneration. And they wonder why they never
see. Why can't I see what you see? Why can't I hear what you
hear? Where is the zeal? How do I have
it? As crazy as it sounds, I've actually had people ask me, could
I mentor them in being zealous? What does that look like? I mean,
the best I could think of is a cheerleader. Jesus, go. What else? And my answer to them
is, go read the Bible. Read it, and read it, and read
it, and read it. Three years ago, there was a
gentleman that found me online and emailed me something, and
he would not give me his number or his name. And he wanted me
to respond with MP3s to every question. And the first email,
he sent me 58 questions. And a week later, sent me a rebuke
that I didn't care about him, because I had not finished the
58 questions. I said, give me one more week.
And I sent him two and a half hours of audio to which he comes
back. I don't get it. To which after several more weeks
of shorter audios and email responses, I said, if you cannot read the
word of God and see it, I can't help you. I can't help you. If you want
to study the Word together, we'll do it. You need to give me your
phone number. You need to give me your email, your real name, something.
Let me send you to a pastor that I might know close to where you
live. No! No. Beloved, if we don't have the
light of God's grace, we cannot see. And the light of God's grace
comes through the witness of Jesus. None of us in this room
can lead someone to salvation. but we can point them in the
direction. We can point them to the Word. We can point them
to Jesus. And we can leave the work to God. We can leave the
work to God. And do you know how long it took
me to recognize that as a pastor? Too long. And I still labor. I still weep. I still stay up
late. I still pray. I'm worried about every one of
you. Some of you probably think, would you please stop texting
me? Why did y'all laugh? But when the Lord brings you
to my heart, I'm going to reach out. When the Lord brings you
to my heart, I'm going to send you a man. I'm going to pray.
And some of you who I know where you are, satisfies my soul. I know what's going on. I'm not
nosy. I'm burdened. And if I wasn't, you should probably
shop for another fellowship. But when I began to realize that
God has got it, when I find myself in these intense situations going,
Oh Lord Jesus, what in the world shall I do? And it's almost like
simultaneously, nothing. Pray and watch me work, boy.
I mean, you know, God doesn't say that to me audibly, but I
mean, that's sort of what I think if God were going to say, that's
probably what he would say with a smack upside the back of the
head. Jesus says, come and you'll see. Come and you'll see. If anyone's
will is to do the work of God, or the will of God, he will,
what does Jesus say, know whether the teaching is from God or whether
I'm speaking on my own authority. That's John chapter 7. Jesus
says that. Why is it that we would want
to do the will of God? Why is it that we come to the light?
What does Jesus say in John 3? The reason we come to the light
who is Jesus Christ is so that it may be clearly seen that our
works have been carried out in God. What must we be doing to
do the work of God? The people asked Jesus. Jesus
says, this is the work of God that you believe on the Son whom
He has sent. He answers them, come and you
will see. These things are clear to us
on this side of grace, beloved. Because we can see this side
of the cross. We come and see and we see the
light of life. We come and see and we see the
glory of God beheld in the face of Jesus Christ. We come and
see God Himself in all of His glory through the Word. We come
and see and we behold. You see why it's such a big mistake
to come to church? It's such a big mistake to come
to church because we are to be gathering as the church to see
and to behold and to worship together. Our worship, though
we worship in our own hearts and minds, we worship together
as a people. We worship together because we
have been given the eyes to see. And some of us are more mature
than others, and some of us are more mature in some areas than
others. And so we're all in need of grace, and we're all in need
of discipleship, and we're all in need of prayer, and we're
all in need of instruction, and we're all in need of intimacy
so that we can bear each other's burdens. Even if they're anonymous,
we can bear them in prayer. We don't have to have details
to pray. But the reason we can see this
is because God has given the light of grace. And we come expectantly. That's
why it baffles me. It baffles me at how easily the
flesh can be overcome. I mean, can overcome the Spirit. Sorry. The Spirit is willing,
but the flesh is weak. as Jesus would say to His inner
three at the Garden of Gethsemane. I just ask you to stay awake
and pray. They've been up for days. They just fell asleep.
They couldn't help it. And Jesus' intentions there were
not to show them and make them feel guilty, but it was to show
them the insufficiency of their flesh. The only thing that would
ever, ever work for them is what He was about to experience. The
power of the cross. The power of God's grace. The
effectual sacrifice of Jesus Christ, even when they could
not physically do it, it was still a sin. But the grace of Jesus Christ
is greater than all the sin of the church. Oh, the joy of John and Andrew
on this day. I'm a little disfigured in my
thinking because I've spent so much time thinking about this. What happened in that house?
What was said? What took place? What great truth
did John see? that he could write these words,
that he could write his letters, that he could write with such
power and authority, the apocalypse, to people who were dying because
of their faith, and he just wrote it. And they were set free, and
as their lives were taken, they were rejoicing. Who has that
type of power? Jesus Christ has that type of
power. Who has the type of power to draw a man away from his entire
life? Jesus Christ has that power.
And the joy of John and Andrew. What it must have been like for
John and Andrew to sit there, Jesus walking, turns around and
says, we'll come and see. And they're like, oh my goodness,
he just invited us to his house. We're going to spend the day
with Jesus. Little did they know they'd spend the rest of their
lives with Jesus. If we mix it up and we try to
think that people need to spend the rest of their lives with
us, that we might connect them to Jesus, we forget that we are
the ones to point to Christ. And when we put people in the
presence of Jesus through the Scripture, they're with Jesus
forever. Jesus is forever with us, beloved.
And one day we won't need this written Word, because it will
be before us face to face. He will be with us. Although
I sort of hope that we can have the written word so I can say,
what do you mean right there? What do you mean right there?
Can you finish this story? Can you tell me what really happened
in John 7, 52 through 8, whatever? Who wrote that anyway? Are you
here? Man, you have caused some confusion. But we don't need
it. But what did they hear when they
were with Jesus? They heard the gospel. They heard the gospel
from the mouth of the gospel. They heard the truth from the
mouth of the truth. They heard. They heard. And they saw. What does John
say? That which we have seen. That
was from the beginning. Oh, beloved. They sat in the
house with the God of the universe that was from the beginning.
and they heard Him teach. Oh, how we long for that day.
Oh, how we sometimes fantasize about that experience. We've
got it. Jesus isn't different. Just because
He's not in the flesh doesn't mean He's not present. If Jesus
could just hang out with me for a little while and counsel me, If Jesus was just here to comfort
me. If Jesus would just, you know, show my husband that he's
meany. My children, that they're bad.
I mean, you know, we could just go on and on and on. They heard
the gospel, they saw Him, they went after Him, and beloved,
they stayed with Him. And they stayed with Him. But
do you know the outcome of that? They came and saw where he was
staying and they stayed with him that day for it was about the
tenth hour. They came, they saw, they stayed. What did they hear? What did
they learn? Why did they stay? What happened? Did John break dance? Did Andrew
do back flips? Did they stand there with grins
on their faces that they couldn't stop? Did they weep with joy,
fall on the floor because they missed the chair? What happened?
I don't know. It wasn't important. It was what
they learned and what they saw and what they heard is continually
preached by them until the death of their bodies. But we do know what did happen.
And this is where we'll close today. What did happen is that
one of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was
Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He left the house where Jesus
was and he went and found his brother Simon. And what did he
do? He didn't argue with him. He
didn't debate him. He didn't give an apologetic.
He didn't say, you know, John said this and this and this happened
and this and then all this kind of and the prophecy sort of fulfilled
so this guy maybe. He said, we have found the Messiah. We found
the Messiah. We found the Messiah. And he
brought him to Jesus. You know what that looked like?
Come and see. It's the same thing. Come and see Jesus. We found
the Christ. Come and see. You want to be
an evangelist? Then you tell people to come
and see Jesus. You want to lead people to Christ?
Then say, come see Christ. Where do they come? Right to
your face. Open your word and teach them. Do you know God can
save people by reading the first five verses of John 1? You think you've got to have
Romans to lead people to salvation? No. Not at all. In the beginning was the Word.
The Word was God. The Word was with God. The Word
was God. He was in the beginning with
God. He made all things. He became flesh. He was the light,
which was the life of men. The light is shining in the darkness
and the darkness shall not overcome it. Do you know this Jesus? Do
you believe in this Jesus? Do you believe in the Gospel
of Christ? Do you know Jesus Christ? Here He is! This is what
He is! This is who He is! Behold the
Lamb of God! God saves people through that
stuff. We don't have to have all this academia to make it
work. That's just the gravy. That's
just the icing. That's just the added blessing
of digging deeper and learning and worshiping more and more
and more. We don't have to go through it. You want to be an
effective witness in your life, just memorize a small passage
of scripture and share it with people. Whether they're saved
or not, share it with them. But I'll tell you this, in my
experience, people will talk about their problems and their
fears and their burdens and their aggravations and their spouses
and their jobs and their bank accounts and everything else
back and forth and back and forth so much that there's always an
opportunity to share the good news of Jesus. How do I work
in the conversation? I don't know, somebody talking
about their flat tire? And when they get through talking, you
say, man, let me tell you something. Just tell them about Jesus. Did
you know that Jesus Christ is God? And He is eternal, and He
came to earth, and He died on the cross, and He rose from the
dead to satisfy God's judgment against my sin and your sin.
Did you know that? Would you believe in that Christ?
Do you believe in that Christ? And they'd be like, I don't need
your help changing the tire anymore. It's the gospel. And people argue
that with me. He found his brother Simon, and
he went and said, we found the Messiah, and he brought him to
Jesus. He brought him to Jesus. And
Jesus looked at him and said, You are, what? You are Simon,
the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which
means Peter. His name was Simon Peter. Jesus knew him intimately.
He knew him already. Andrew didn't come and say, Hey,
this is my brother Simon, Peter, the son of John. He walks in
and Jesus says, You're Simon, the son of John. Just like he's
going to say in a couple of voices, You're Nathaniel, in whom there
is no God. Just like he knew Judas from
the foundations of the earth. Just like he knew you before you ever
were. And he knew you intimately before
you ever were, before God ever said, let there be light. His
purpose was that he would come and take on humanity and save
you from your sin. Beloved, that is good news. There
is no greater news. And that's what evangelism is.
Nothing more and surely nothing less. Let's pray. How glorious, how glorious a
story. Not just a story, though, Lord,
a power. But the story of your son on
the cross and in this world and his ministry is how you lead
people to salvation. It's how you rebirth people in
spite of their inability. So Father, I pray this day that
all of us would be certain, that all of us would be sure,
that all of us would be at peace with the knowledge of Jesus Christ
as our only hope, that we might give praise to
you, glorious grace. And we thank you, Father, for
this power. We thank you, Lord, that you are a mighty God, that
you're not a weak God, like the God of myths, but that you are
the God of above all gods, the king above all kings. And Lord,
that you are great and worthy to be praised for your glorious
grace and for your justice and for your wrath. from which we
have escaped because you have poured it out upon Jesus Christ,
your eternal Son. And it's in His name we pray.
Amen.