3 April 2011
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to John 1:35-42
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
-- a groom and his new wife had just got married and had driven a long distance to get to their honeymoon location -- when they finally made it to the motel, they checked in and were escorted to the bridal suite in the wee hours of the morning -- they were both so tired from the long wedding and reception and from mingling with their guests and then the drive afterwards -- they were just looking forward to a few hours of sleep before they truly started to enjoy their new life together
-- so, you can imagine their disappointment when they finally got into their room and took a look around and couldn’t see a bed in sight -- there was a nice couch -- some chairs and a table -- but no bed -- what kind of bridal suite was this?
-- then they discovered that the couch was a hide-a-bed, complete with lumpy mattress and springs sagging to the floor -- so the newly married couple spent their honeymoon night on a hide-away-bed, waking up with sore backs and an even worse disposition
-- the next morning, the husband went to the hotel desk and gave the management a tongue-lashing for giving them such a terrible room, especially on their honeymoon
-- the manager asked, "Did you open the door in the room?" -- the manager carried the husband back up to the suite, and opened the door in back of the room -- and there, complete with fruit baskets and chocolates and wonderful decorations, was a beautiful bedroom -- the husband looked at his wife and then at the manager and said, "Oh, we thought it was a closet."
-- this illustration points to the way that many Christians are going through life today -- but it shouldn’t be like this
-- Jesus promised us in John 10:10 that He came to bring us life and life to the full -- the King James Version renders this as “abundant life” -- but if you look at most Christians, the lives that they are living could hardly be described as full or abundant lives
-- it’s almost like we’re missing the full gospel of Christ in our churches and in our lives -- think about the message of Jesus that is the focal point of most of our churches -- that is the focal point of most of our evangelistic efforts
-- we are told that Jesus is the way to heaven -- that He is the way and the truth and the life and that no one comes to the Father except through Him -- we tell people that they are dead in their sins and their trespasses, but that if they will receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior, then Jesus will come into their lives and forgive their sins and bring them into eternal life with Him
-- and all of this is true -- wonderfully true -- this is what Easter is all about -- this is what Lent is all about -- seeking the God who saves -- celebrating the truth that in Jesus, God became one of us and died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins so that we might receive forgiveness for our sins and eternal righteousness and life with Him
-- for 2000 years, the church has been really good at getting this message out -- at getting people to accept Jesus for their salvation -- at bringing them to the altar where they receive the justifying grace of God given to them at the cross of Calvary through the atoning death of Jesus
-- but, we’ve not done a very good job at helping people move past the altar to the wonders that await them in the next room -- we have failed to finish what Jesus called us to do when He told us in Matthew 28:18-20 to go and make disciples of all nations -- and, as a result, a lot of people have ended up getting stuck at the cross -- never maturing -- never growing -- never moving into the abundant life that Jesus promised
-- as A.W. Tozer put it almost 60 years ago, “Everything is made to center upon the initial act of ‘accepting’ Christ, and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls.”
-- but, isn’t there more to this Christian life than just punching a ticket to heaven? -- isn’t there more to Jesus than just salvation?
-- I have been spending time over Lent rereading the gospels -- not straight through -- but as I have been led by the Spirit to various passages -- and I noticed that Jesus’ message wasn’t as simple as we have made it -- it wasn’t just “come to Me and be saved -- come to Me and get to go to Heaven” -- no, His message was, “come to Me and enter the Kingdom of God -- come to Me and have life -- come to Me and live -- not just after you die and enter heaven -- but live to your fullest right now”
II. Scripture Lesson (John 1:35-42)
-- I think that’s why I found this passage in John so interesting -- it’s set at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry -- in fact, these verses cover the calling of Jesus’ first disciples
-- as these verses open, we read that Jesus has already been baptized by John in the Jordan River -- as you remember, John had been called by the Spirit to prepare the way for Jesus by preaching a gospel of repentance and baptism -- the Bible tells us that many people had gone out from the cities to see John and he had quite a large following with many disciples
-- one day, as John is standing there with his disciples -- preaching to the people and baptizing in the river -- he sees Jesus passing by
-- look back with me now at verse 35 and let’s pick up the story there
35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.
-- John knew exactly who Jesus was -- not only was Jesus his cousin, but he knew that Jesus was the promised Messiah -- the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world
-- when John had baptized Jesus the day before in the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit had come upon Jesus as a dove and the heavens had opened up and God the Father had spoken Jesus as He rose from the waters -- “You are my Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased”
-- John understood his role in the bigger picture -- he knew that his calling was to prepare the way for the Messiah, not to be the Messiah -- not to build a church -- not to gather disciples -- not to have a large following -- in John 3:30, when his disciples began to complain that everyone was going to Jesus and no one was coming out to see John anymore, John said, “He must become greater, I must become less”
-- John knew that there was more for Israel -- more for the world -- than the waters of the Jordan River -- than being called to the cross and being baptized in repentance of your sins
-- so, when Jesus walked by that day, John pointed Him out to the crowd and said, “There He goes -- there’s the One you have been looking for -- the Lamb of the World”
-- immediately, two of John’s disciples began to follow Jesus -- as I was reading that, I just tried to picture that in my head -- I could just see Jesus walking along the river and stopping to talk with someone and to shake someone’s hand -- to look at the wares that someone might have been selling in a booth out there
-- and there’s these two guys following Him -- when He stops, they stop -- when He moves, they move -- following Him but not really trying to make it obvious, you know? -- just kind of wandering around just to see what Jesus was doing -- at least, that’s how I pictured it since we don’t read that they ran up to Jesus and caught up to Him -- they didn’t stop Him and speak to Him -- no, they just followed Him
-- look with me at verse 38 -- and this really gets to the heart of what I want you to see
38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
-- you know that Jesus knew He was being followed -- you know that Jesus knew these two men were just following along at a distance and trying to watch Him and keep with Him -- so, finally, Jesus stops and turns around and asks the men, “What do you want?” -- the King James Version phrases it as, “What do you seek?”
-- in other words, Jesus wants to know, “Why are you following Me?”
-- how would you answer that question? -- if Jesus were to physically come in here this morning and walk up to you and look you in the eye and ask you, “Why are you here today? -- What do you want? -- Why are you following Me?” -- what would you say? -- why do you follow Jesus?
-- for many people, the answer is simple -- “because I want to go to heaven” -- “because I want to be saved” -- but, is that all we look to Jesus for -- an escape from the fires of Hell?
-- look at how John’s disciples respond to this question -- here they’ve been following Jesus around for some time and He finally turns around and confronts them, “What do you want? -- What do you seek?” -- and they respond by saying, “Where are you staying?”
-- it seems a shallow answer to such a profound question -- but, if you work through what they are really asking, they are proclaiming to Jesus, “O God, show us your glory -- “they want to taste, to touch with their hearts, to see with their inner eyes the wonder that is God.” [Source: A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God]
-- these disciples weren’t following Jesus because they wanted something from Him -- they didn’t follow Him that day because they wanted healing or bread from Heaven or financial gain -- they followed Jesus because He was who they were looking for -- He was the answer to all their questions -- He was the answer to life
-- this invitation of Jesus to these two disciples to come and go with Him to His home really gets to the heart of Christianity -- it gets to what’s missing in most of Christianity
-- let’s say that this was you in this story -- let’s say that when we leave here, we run across Jesus walking down the street -- and He turns to us and invites us to His house -- what are you going to say? -- what are you going to do?
-- would you say, “I’ve already got salvation -- I’ve already got my ticket to heaven -- I’ll see you when I die”
-- if we’re honest, that’s what most of us do -- that’s what most of us think -- we kind of treat Jesus like the spare tire in our cars -- we know He’s there in case of emergency, but we don’t pay any attention to Him except for when we need Him
-- He’s just something that we added to our lives as fire insurance -- and so we get stuck at the cross
-- we may be saved -- we may have received Jesus as our Lord and Savior and been washed in the blood of the Lamb, but we just go through life sleeping on a hide-away-bed rather than entering into the bridal suite
-- we have eternal life -- but not the abundant, full life that Jesus offers -- what are we missing by settling with just getting by at the cross and not entering into the full gospel that Jesus offers?
-- look at what happens in verse 39 -- when these disciples asked to see where Jesus was saying, Jesus told them to come and to go with Him to His home -- and we read that they spent the day with Him
-- can you imagine what it would be like to spend the day with Jesus?
-- I just finished a book yesterday by David Gregory called, “Dinner with a Perfect Stranger,” that was about this very subject -- it’s the story of a man who receives an invitation to have dinner with Jesus
-- can you imagine what it would be like to spend the day with Jesus or to share a meal with Him in a fine restaurant? -- to just sit in His presence and to listen as He talked? -- to be able to share with Him from your heart and know that He really cared about what you were saying -- about who you are?
-- if you could spend the day with Jesus like these two disciples, would you waste that time by just asking for things? -- would you spend all that time complaining about your day and about your life and about what could be better?
-- no, of course not -- we would simply sit there and enjoy the moment -- we would sit there and rejoice that we were in the presence of our God and Savior
-- our focus wouldn’t be on eternity -- it wouldn’t be on fire escapes or getting out of Hell free -- our focus would be on Jesus and Jesus alone
-- look at what happened to these disciples -- verse 40
39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
-- after spending a day with Jesus, these disciples went home changed -- after spending a day with Jesus, these disciples went home knowing that they had seen God -- knowing that they had been with the Messiah
-- so, the first they do is tell others about Jesus -- notice what Andrew told Simon -- he didn’t tell him, “I have found the path to God” -- he didn’t tell him, “I know what we have to do to get to heaven -- we have to go to the altar and pray the sinner’s prayer and get baptized and go to church”
-- no, Andrew told Simon, “We have found the Messiah -- we have found God” -- not a plan -- not a program -- a Person
-- you see, that’s what we have lost in our religion -- that’s what we have lost in most of our churches -- it’s not about what Jesus can do for us -- it’s not about us at all -- it’s about Jesus
-- Jesus died on the cross -- not only to save us for heaven -- but to invite us home
-- He died not just so that we could escape the flames of Hell -- but to restore our relationship with Him so we could enjoy His presence once again
-- Jesus didn’t just come to give us life -- He came to be our life
-- Why do we follow Jesus?
-- is it because of what can get -- or because of who He is?
-- the answer to that question is the difference between just living life or living an abundant life with Christ
III. Closing
-- as I close this morning, I want to invite you -- right now -- to just take a moment and think about your relationship with God
-- I pray that all of you have already entered into a relationship with Jesus -- that you have been to the cross and you’ve put your faith and trust in a God who saves and who forgives us of our sins -- if you haven’t, then I want to you invite you to do so right now and to ask Jesus to be your Savior
-- for those of you who have been to the cross -- who know that you are saved -- ask yourself this question, “How am I following Jesus now?” -- think about your life and think about the importance of Jesus in your life
-- is He just there to give you things or to be available in times of need -- or do you seek His presence and follow Him because you love Him and want to spend time with Him?
-- Easter isn’t just one day on a calendar -- Easter is our wedding day -- and Jesus is calling you to enter the bridal suite with Him and to enjoy life with Him for who He is and not for what He does
-- don’t go through life sleeping on a hide-away-bed waiting for eternity -- but follow Jesus home now and spend your life with Him from this moment on
-- let us pray
No comments:
Post a Comment