Episode Transcript
We at Living Hope Church, our vision is that within and beyond would know, love and serve Jesus, not just know about Jesus, not just do some things that are nice in the community, but to grow in their relationship with Jesus, that we would be transformed every day as God's people. And we believe that doing that, in order to do that well, it doesn't just happen on Sunday morning in an hour or so, but it happens in deeper relationship with other people. And so we want to move you into those places if you're not already there. Each year, for the last few years now, we've leaned into one of the main mission words for the church. So there's "gather, grow, and go." And every year we kind of lean into one of those words. We emphasize that a little bit more than other years, not that it's not important in other years, but this year is the third word, "go." And so there's more of an evangelistic outlook and the things that we're doing. And so this year, as we look at the word "go," we're in the book of John, we see that it's really important, so important, that we engage with people that don't yet know Jesus. That's really the point, the area that we're leaning into, evangelism, outreach, helping us as God's people to know how to do that and desire to do that well. And so today, verses 35 through 51 of John, I've entitled the message here, "Meeting the First Followers." We've been going through this series just for the last few weeks of John. So today we'll see really what God has for us. I don't think it's... Yeah, we'll just read through this passage together, and then we'll pray and we'll see what God has for us in the rest of our time. So chapter 1, verse 35, Pastor Les was looking at verses 29 through 34 last week in the emphasis of John's words saying, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." We've seen that. We saw that last week. Great message just reminding us of the power of Jesus coming into this world and what he does in our life when we believe in him. And John pointing people, John the Baptist, that is pointing people towards Jesus. So verse 35, "The next day," again, John, that is John the Baptist, was standing with his two disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked. Wouldn't that be cool to just look up and see Jesus walking by? He looked up and he, as Jesus was walking by and said, "Behold the Lamb of God." The two disciples heard him say this and they followed Jesus. 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 stayed with him that day for it was about the 10th hour. One of the two heard John speak and followed Jesus. It was named Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah," which means Christ. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon, son of John. You shall be called Cephas," which means Peter. Verse 43, "The next day," Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses and the law in the law and also the prophets wrote about, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Nathaniel said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said of him, "Behold, in Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit," Nathaniel said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under that one fig tree, I saw you." Nathaniel answered him, "Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel." Jesus answered him, "Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree. Do you believe? You will see greater things than these." And he said to him, "Truly, truly I say to you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man." Let's pray. Lord, you are the king, not just of Israel, but of the entire world. In your kingdom, there is not a democracy because you are good, you are faithful, and you are all-powerful. You alone are king, and you are our king today. Help us to see that in a new and powerful way that we would desire to see you as the one who is worthy of every breath that we take, every song that we sing. What we see in your words today, you would open our hearts and our minds that you would be more precious to us. And as we grow in our love and affection for you, you would stir us to action. We just ask that the things that I say would be from you, the things that we hear and that we say today is your body of believers this morning would be honoring to you, Lord. In Jesus' name, I pray, everyone said. Well, let's jump right in. I want to lean into just a few sentences that really is the big idea here that you're all going to see as we walk through this passage together. Something that I think is key for us to understand as we walk through this together. I put it on the screen. The big idea here is this kingdom growth occurs by invitation. It is the responsibility and duty of the Christian to bring another into experiencing Jesus and the knowledge of the gospel. It isn't the duty of just the church, the pastor, the event or the program. It is the duty of each Christian. I think as we walk through this, we're going to see this over and over again. So maybe take a picture of that in your mind or a device or write that down somewhere. That's the big idea or hold that in your head. That's the big idea that we will continue to see as we walk through this together. Now, let's get some context from what's happening in God's Word here before we get into the verse 35. What is it? What John does in these 21 chapters, that is the entire book of John, this gospel, is a mass evidence that Jesus is the Son of God. Remember at the end, he says he wrote this book so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And we talked a few weeks ago how it's like we're in this courtroom of John, if you will. And John is the one bringing evidence to those listening in in this courtroom setting. And what he does is in the first 18 verses, he says, "Here's the case I want to make that Jesus is the way that you and I have life and Jesus is the way that you and I have light in our life." He is the one who brought about all of the things in the world that you see and he's the one who brings direction to you and I. And so that's a pretty big statement to both the Jews who held tightly to the Old Testament and believed the Word of God was very significant. And then also to the Gentiles who said, "Man, I want to know where everything came from, which is true of many people today." John says in the first 18 verses, "Jesus is the answer to that." And then following verse 18 in John chapter one and then the rest of the 20 chapters or so, he says, "And here's the evidence that I'm going to bring that Jesus is the one to believe in." And he starts that off understandably with the first or last prophet we could say of the Old Testament, one of the greatest we see here is John the Baptist. And we saw that last week, the one who prepares the way, the forerunner who says, "Jesus is the answer to you, Jews, this Lamb of God, which all the Jews would have known." What is this Lamb that takes away sin? It's this, as Pastor Les talked about, it's this Lamb that is released into the wilderness to die. And now we're seeing Jesus is the one on whom takes all of the sin of the world. And John declares, this is his job as the forerunner, is say, "Someone more important is coming, pay attention." And that's why we see the word "behold" written so frequently, because John wants us to pay attention. Something important is going on here. So we see verse 35. That's kind of what's happened so far. John the Baptist is beginning to kind of take a back row, a back seat in this process. And pretty soon here, we're not even going to hear about him at all. And then he pops up just briefly, I think in chapter three, and that will be the end of the time that we see from John the Baptist. So we look at verse 35. It says this, "The next day," that is after we saw John speaking about the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, John was standing, hanging out, doing whatever John was doing. And he has two disciples that were with him. Look what it says in verse 35. He has two disciples, and he looks up and he sees Jesus walking by. And he says, and some might think, "Maybe John did this regularly when Jesus happened to be around. Maybe it was just this time that we see Jesus again walking by." He says, "There he is. Pay attention. Behold. This is that Lamb of God. This is, to you Jews here standing here, this is the one we are, the one most important, the one you should be paying attention to." Thus the word, "Behold." And these two disciples who probably were with John the day before, as they were his disciples, go, "Wait a minute. John just talked about this guy yesterday, right?" So I know who this person is because John just told us, "He's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Now, we didn't follow him at that time, but this time, Jesus walks by again, John makes the same statement. And I just imagine, maybe you can as well, that John and his disciples are standing there. Jesus walks by, he's, and John, John the Baptist says, "There, behold, the Lamb of God." And looks perhaps at his disciples. They look back at him. They look at Jesus. And I, it doesn't say this in the text, but I just imagine John kind of looking at them, them looking at him, and them thinking, "Should we follow him actually?" And John like, you know, just maybe a little head nod. "He's the guy. He's the guy you should be paying attention to. It's not about me anymore." And they have maybe this look of acknowledgement in each other's eyes. John knows that he's about to release two of his disciples to go and be the disciples of the King, the Lamb of God. They look perhaps knowingly at each other, and they walk towards Jesus. And this idea of looking at Jesus, it's not just, "Oh, there's Jesus." It's, "Wow, look at there, there he is." And then the disciples, right? So John the Baptist is standing there. The disciples begin to follow Jesus as Jesus is walking. You're imagining this with me? And they're walking along and they begin to follow Jesus. That's not strange at all. Someone just, you know, starts following you. Jesus turns around and he asks a question. You can go to the next couple slides there. He asked this question. And here's the big idea point that you could write down, "Jesus receives those who seek him." Jesus receives those who seek him. You can go to the next slide that the verse is on the screen. Jesus looks back and he asks these two people, these two followers who were disciples of John the Baptist, now following him. He says, "What are you?" What does he say? What are you seeking? Which is a reasonable question. Why are you following me? Perhaps it's what he's asking. And notice what these two other people, we'll see them named a little later on, don't say. They don't say, "Well, you know, John the Baptist says you're a pretty cool guy. And so we thought we would follow you." They don't say anything of the sort. They just reply after Jesus says, "What are you seeking?" They say, "Where are you staying?" Where are you staying, Jesus? And here's perhaps what they're saying even more so. We would like to learn more about you. We know you're significant. We don't know much. We don't know a whole lot. We would like to spend time with you. The question of Jesus here in John, the first here written words of Jesus after his ministry has begun, notice what they are. A question not just for these two disciples, but a question for all of us, for you and for me. And for all mankind, the first words of Jesus after he begins his ministry is this to all of us, what are you seeking? What are you seeking? A significant question for all of us to consider. When we want to take up this, I think Jesus might be the one to follow. I'm curious about Jesus. Jesus looks at every one of us into our hearts and says, "Why? Why? Why are you following me?" And they say, "Where are you staying?" And Jesus doesn't say, "I don't like that answer. I'd like something better." Here's what he says. He says, "Come and come and see." Wow. And Jesus again has the same response for all of us, doesn't he? He says, "Hey, what do you want? Why are you following? What are you seeking?" I don't maybe know yet. And Jesus invites us to spend time with him to figure out maybe even what we're looking for. Imagine spending the rest of the day with Jesus. Wouldn't that be so amazing? Jesus is willing to say, "Come and spend time with me." And I think for us Christians, there's something that we could learn from that. Jesus wasn't too busy. He didn't say, "You know what? I have a place to go. I have people to see and more important ministry to do." You may have to go talk to John the Baptist. He knows lots about me, but rather Jesus said, "Come and spend time with me." That, friends, is how we get to know about Jesus. Know Jesus. You can get to know about Jesus from other people, i.e. John the Baptist. There he is. But you get to know Jesus by spending time with him. The most important thing that we see here about Jesus in this moment is he's willing to say, "Come, spend time with me." Friends, I don't think we can miss this. He wants to receive us. The Lamb of God says, "You matter." And John the Baptist is willing to say, "I must," he says this later on, "I must decrease so that he can increase." So we see here, Jesus asking that, "What do you seek?" The first words that he says here, a question for all of us. And then John, notice what it says there. It says that he went and they stayed there in verse 39. He says, "Come and see," and you will see. And they came and they saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day for it was about the 10th hour, which is about 4 p.m. or so. These two disciples tried out Jesus because of... Maybe pay attention to this. Get this. They tried out Jesus because of a preacher, but they stayed because of personal experience. They stayed as followers of Jesus because they experienced intimate relationship with Jesus. And so concluding thoughts before we go to the next point is this. Too many of us, you and I, Christians in general, go to church, obey Jesus' commands, and seek to know him because of their relationship with people or because of their relationship with the church, not because of their relationship with Jesus. The church says that I should do this. I read this somewhere and I feel obligated to do this, not because of a relationship with Jesus. And so a question for all of you today, maybe to consider to write down, why did you follow Jesus? Maybe in your discussion groups this week as you get together, ask that question. Go around the circle. Ask each other. Why did you follow Jesus? What was the catalyst for that? And then after that question, the follow-up question is this. Why are you still following Jesus? Because those most likely are two different experiences. Someone invited me into a relationship, into the knowledge of the gospel, but why are you still there? Perhaps it's this, because I know Jesus. I wasn't just told about Jesus, but I've now experienced him. Could something happen in your personal relationship that would keep you from following Jesus? Could something happen with your friends, with the church, with bad experiences with people that would stop you, that would keep you from following Jesus? And that's a hard question if you think about maybe hard things that you have gone through. And if the answer is maybe I would stop following Jesus, doing the whole obedient follower of Jesus thing because of a hard experience, maybe the reason is this. Maybe it's because you and I, or others in our life, are seeking fulfillment in Christianity, not seeking fulfillment in Christ. If Christianity, the people who are Christians, fail us and that means I'm done with Jesus, it means you were following Christianity and not Christ. Christianity is made up of sinners. You and I, sinners. And if we try to find fulfillment and happiness and a reason to pursue this relationship with even Jesus and other people because Christianity says I should, we're missing something. Here Jesus says, what are you seeking? They could have replied, I'm seeking a new family. I'm seeking a pleasant experience. I'm seeking whatever, a popularity or notoriety over the next 2,000 years. If I follow you, people will remember us for 2,000 years and that's not the right way to follow. That's not the right reason to follow Jesus. Rather to know Him, fulfillment in Christ alone. How do you do that? We can unpack that in another day but in simple four words, spend time with Jesus. That's how those who, the first disciples, the first followers got to know Jesus. They spent time with Him and we see that Jesus will receive all who desire to seek Him. The second point on your outline is this. Jesus renames His followers. This is such a neat few verses here. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus, His name was anybody? Andrew. And just in case you don't know who Andrew is, he's Simon Peter's brother. Isn't it nice when people know you because of who you're related to? That's so fun. Like, oh, you're this person's, yeah, I have a name too. In this case, his name is Andrew. Andrew, he first, verse 41, first found his brother. So there's Andrew next to John the Baptist, right? He sees Jesus. Behold, there he is, the Lamb of God. I'm gonna follow him. What are you seeking? I wanna, where are you staying? Let's spend time with Jesus. Then we have this experience, right? So one of those, his Andrew, he goes and he said, "We just spent time with Jesus." And notice what he does, verse 41, he goes and finds his brother. And he says this, "We have found the Messiah." He now is not just saying, "Oh, you know, John said this guy's kind of popular. John says this guy's the Lamb of God. He says, "I have experienced Jesus, and now I wanna introduce him to you. I wanna invite you to come and see him." Now the word Messiah, it means anointed one. It's the Greek word for Christ there. And so verse 42, he says, "He brought him to Jesus." Have you brought anyone to Jesus? Jesus looks at him and says, "You are Simon," which by the way, Hebrew name means to listen or to hear, "Son of John, you shall be called Cephas." Isn't that fun? The first introduction he has, he's like, "I'm already changing your name." You shall be called Cephas. That's an Aramaic name, and it means an Aramaic, it's the word rock. The Greek word for rock is Peter. And so that's why we call him, he's called later on. We see from this point forward, we see him called Simon Peter. It's both of those names there together. So you're Simon, that's the original, his original name that he was given. Hebrew word here, listen, is where that's from. And then Peter, the name that Jesus gave him, and then later on we just see Peter. So now we get this understanding here that Andrew's literally saying, "I've met with Jesus, "and I want other people to experience this as well." - Amen. - Throughout the centuries, this is how people have come to faith in Jesus Christ, isn't it? Peter has an Andrew who introduces them to Jesus. Who, maybe write this down somewhere, I don't know, who introduced you to Jesus? This is natural, isn't it? When we experience something good, it is natural for us to say, "I would like you to come and experience "what I just experienced, because it is so, so good." Now we have to ask the question, I have to ask myself this question, as I was when I was writing through this and praying through this, is this, is Jesus so precious to me, so dear to me that nothing can stand in my way to say to somebody else, "You have to come and experience Jesus with me." Right, shouldn't that be our longing? Look, Jesus has changed my life, he's changing my life daily. He's continuing to interact with me. It's a relationship that I have, and I don't want you to miss out on that. It's not guilt-driven, it's relationship-driven. Every person, we have this other person who invites us into this. Now notice, someone, which I think is so neat here, someone as great in the life of the early church, like Peter, only got there because someone invited him. We think of great people in church history, or even in the past history, in the world, great preachers, they got there because someone, what? Invited them. Someone invited them. Now, it's to be clear, Jesus at this point isn't totally understood by Peter as someone who actually is the Christ later on. We realize, man, Peter had a lot to learn at the time. They thought the Messiah was a conquering king in the flesh who was gonna come and take over, in their case, the Romans, but really Jesus came as the conquering king for our souls. He came to save our souls, not just to save us in the flesh, to make all of our physical problems go away. Now, to some, that's really frustrating, isn't it? And to some, it's easier to preach. A gospel saying Jesus came to make your physical life way better rather than your spiritual life way better. Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior of our souls. Jesus then sees Simon. Without talking to him or learning about who he is, he just says, "I'm gonna give you a new name." And this name is important. Jesus, friends, is in the business of changing names, isn't he? We see, looking back, Saul to Paul, Abram to Abraham, Serai to Sarah, Jacob to Israel, and even for us today, the lost to found, the orphan to adopted, the enemy to friend, the guilt ridden to free, the debtor to redeemed. Every one of us as followers of Jesus have been given a new name. Concluding thought, what in this section here, what name are you holding on to? Or letting speak over you that isn't, that wasn't given to you by Jesus. I feel guilty because of this. I messed up because of this. I am unforgiven because of whatever it is. Whatever the past is, this is who I am. Is that an agreement with Jesus? Jesus changes names. And we can believe in the name that Jesus has given us. It gives us a significant amount of confidence in the world that we live in. Let's look at the third point here. The found find more. The found find more. The next day, right? So here we are in very, very logical steps. We have verse 35. It says the next day here again in verse 43, the next day. Jesus, and so one of the reasons that's so important to note here is because this shows it was an eyewitness account. If we're able to give that kind of detail, it's another, I should say, hint that it was an eyewitness account. Most notably, if you were to look up, it says there's two disciples with John the Baptist. Most people believe, and I agree with them, that these two disciples, we know one of them, his name was Andrew. The other one was most likely John the Apostle, or Apostle to be. So the author of this book is most likely that other disciple who was there at the beginning. So we see here, the next day, Jesus decides to go to Galilee. And I put a map on the screen just because... Now, this is not like I swung over a five-minute jaunt somewhere. This is probably somewhere around 90 miles or so. From further south, is there a map on the screen? From further south, neighborhood near Jordan, Jerusalem, and then they go up to Galilee. So it's quite a distance. You have to go around Samaria or through, depending on who's doing the journey. Usually the Jews went around Samaria and they went up to Galilee. And so what happens is Jesus says, "All right, we're going to go up..." Yeah, there you go. Further up, they're starting down lower, and then we go up to Galilee. The picture with more color there is Galilee in the surrounding areas. It says we're going to go up to Galilee. Bethsaida is on the map there in Galilee. And that's interesting because why are we deciding to go up there? Two reasons. One, Jesus has business to do. We're going to see here in a moment. He's going to find Philip. But also in chapter two, he has a wedding to attend in Cana, which is where the first miracle happened. So he's just like, "I'm going to go up to Galilee. Why?" Well, most likely he's like, "I have a wedding in a few days." "To go to attend a wedding in a few days." And so he's on his way up. He goes up to Galilee and then it says he finds Philip. And he says to him, "Follow me." Now, most likely they had some interaction before this, but we see here in John's account, "Follow me." Now, Philip was from Bethsaida. And Bethsaida literally means house of fishermen or fisher town. What do you think they do there? You guys are good. It goes from Bethsaida. It says the city. My Bible says the city and really it's not really a city. It's a small little town. It's a little fishing village of Andrew and Peter. Now, another thing to interesting to note, Andrew has already found his brother, right? His name Peter or Simon Peter. And so they've introduced John. The apostle is there. And then they go up to Bethsaida or they go up. Yeah, they go up to Bethsaida and they find Philip or Galilee, who's from Bethsaida. And most notably, what's interesting is they would have known each other. Like it seems like, oh, just Jesus just picked these random people. Jesus was down around Jerusalem. Bethany be on the Jordan, wherever that was, he find two of John's disciples, follow Jesus. John bring, then his brother comes, Andrew's brother comes. That's Simon Peter. Then Jesus travels like 90 miles and finds another friend of theirs. It's like Jesus knew he was there or something. Huh, Jesus knows things. Verse 45, Philip found Nathaniel. And again, maybe circle that underline, finds Nathaniel. And he says, we have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph. Philip here, later we see throughout actually acts specifically, he's called the evangelist. Philip the evangelist. He literally, every time we see him and through John, there's two other times we see Philip through John, through the Gospel of John, he's always bringing people to Jesus. What a great thing to be remembered for, isn't it? This person, that's what they do. They bring people to Jesus. So Philip, he goes, I'm going to go find someone to bring to Jesus. And he goes and he finds Nathaniel. The other Gospels say Nathaniel, his name is Bartholomew. So if you find another Gospel, someone named Bartholomew, that's Nathaniel as well. We won't get into all of the details of that. But what we see here is this from Philip. And this is the key point here, is the found, those who say, you know what, Jesus found me. Isn't that what it says? Jesus found Philip, the found, you and I go and find more. It's just a reasonable response. Philip demonstrates that well. We don't know a whole lot about him other than he knew he was found by the Lamb of God. And he says, I want other people to experience this Lamb of God as well. Now, this is a challenging point for a couple reasons, but let's just look at one. It's convicting, isn't it? We talk a lot about finding other people and bringing them to Jesus. But we rarely do that. This is probably the area that most of us Christians are consistently disobedient in. Every one of us pray that we would be a light, that we would share the Gospel, that we would be bold, that God would use us to reach the lost. Notice what it says about Philip. He went and found. He didn't sit back and say, I'm going to wait for God to bring someone to me. Though often, myself included, we have a tendency to say things like that. Let's preach in the Gospel. We sing about it. We preach about it. We talk about it. It's evangelism. We study it. We strategize. We preach about it. We teach about it. We get excited about it. We cheer other people on. We applaud other people who are doing it. We cast vision for evangelism all over the place. In churches, we create programs for it, but we rarely actually do it. Why? Is it because our affections aren't aligned with Christ's affections? There's so many things that we could dive into for why. But I think one analogy that maybe emphasizes this point a bit more is this. Now, I know that today there's a football game happening that people will be watching. How many of you care about football? Okay, only a few of you. How many don't care about football? Okay, a lot more of you. So this analogy will only be applicable to some of you or resonate with some of you. So imagine you're watching a football game, all 13 of you. Imagine you're watching a football game and you're in the stands. And maybe some of you are watching it on the TV just waiting for the commercials. But imagine you're watching a football game. And during this football game, you see the team goes out onto the field. And I know very little about football. So if I say things poorly, that's why. And you're watching this happen. So the team gets out on the field. They come around the quarterback. And the quarterback is like, here's the play we got. All right, here's what we're going to do, everybody. And the team's all around and they're like, yeah, that sounds great. Let's do that. That sounds so good. Great idea. And so then like everyone's like, all right, you clear on the play. Everyone's clear on the play. Yeah, super good. So good. All right, go or break or whatever they say. And then they and then the team walks back to the bench. They sit down and which with much enthusiasm, they discuss the play that the quarterback just shared with them. Like, man, that was good. He probably stayed up all night thinking about that. He probably studied for weeks thinking about that play that he just shared with us. And the quarterback is standing there on the field looking at the team going, what are you doing? Did you hear the play? Yeah, we heard it. We heard it. You going to do any of that? Oh, no, but but it's good. It's good. I might get hurt. It might not go well. Excuse me. My part in that play looks like me not being comfortable the whole time. So I don't think I'm going to do that part. And so he's like, all right, well, come back on the field. I got another play for you. Actually, it's the same play just rewarded. And so he comes around. They come around. All right, here's the new play and this goes on and you're there maybe as the coach, maybe as the as the people watching on the sidelines. How would you feel? Probably very frustrated because you came to watch a football game. Oftentimes you can see some parallel with this and Christians. Can't you? We come around. We hear the play. We get excited about it. We sing about it. We preach about it. We strategize about it. We amen it and all of those things and then we leave and we talk about it. And then nothing happens. And the one who wrote the plays is like, so were you unclear on what that meant? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, we understand it. It's just he might be uncomfortable for us. So maybe let's talk about this later. Okay, sounds good. The found find more. I don't really like that analogy. It's convicting. I think it makes the point. So get the last point together. Experience, experiencing Jesus causes doubt to exit. We'll just spend the last few minutes here and the faniole has been found by someone else who had been found by Jesus. Here's his response to Phillips saying, hey, we have found the Messiah. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? That is like what good things are going on in Galilee? There is nothing significant here and especially Nazareth. Like no one talks about Nazareth is his little town is mostly ignored. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? And that's a reasonable question for him to ask and notice what Philip doesn't say. Well, actually, yes, and here's all of the reasons why he simply says what come and sound familiar. Sound familiar? Isn't what Jesus said? Hey, what are you seeking? Come, come, follow me. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said of him, behold, in Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. This here is pointing to this important point. Jesus sees us on the inside before we've even interacted with him. Every single one of us here today and those who have never trusted in Jesus, their Lord and Savior, Jesus knows their heart. Nathaniel said to them, how do you know me? And Jesus says, well, I'm God. Well, he doesn't say that part yet. But Jesus, I am God. I am omniscient. I know all things. And then here's what Jesus said to make the point to Philip before to Nathaniel before Philip called you. When you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Jesus is clear here. Not only do I know what's happening on the inside with you, but also on the outside. And Nathaniel, great name, by the way, Nathaniel answers rabbi, which means teacher. You are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. What an explanation here. Wow. Like he just declares here that this person who says, I know what's going on on the inside and I saw you when I wasn't even there. This person knows significantly more about me than anybody else. How could you know that? I recognize it and most notably, most likely, Nathaniel knows the word. He knows that if someone were to know my heart and be able to see me when they weren't there, this person is God. Here, the son of God. You are the king of Israel. And here's what Jesus says to him. Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree. Do you believe me? Some people think this is a critical remark to his lack of belief. Others say maybe it's more of just a statement building up to what he's about to say. Here's what he says after that. You will see greater things than these. He's like, you have no idea what's coming. You're going to spend the next three years with me? You think that was cool? Watch this. Like this. There's some amazing stuff about to come. And then he says in verse 51, something that seems maybe strange. Why are we talking about this? Verse 51 says, and he said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. He's like, why are we talking about this here? Some people think that he was reading the story of Jacob and Jacob's ladder earlier. Some people think, well, he's just a good Jew. He would have known this. But either way, Jesus is making this statement. The way that you're going to hear from God now, the way that you're going to get to God, receive from God, is going to be through me. I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Nathaniel, I'm the way to God. And you just made a great statement to make that point. Notice also what Jesus says, who is no deceit, someone in whom there is no deceit. Maybe you remember this as well. The word Jacob is deceiver. Jacob, Israel, you are unlike other people, even from whom your founding Father got his name, Jacob, as deceiver. Israel, the deceiver. You, though, are pure in heart. It's not perfect, but you say it how it is. There's no mask with you. And that was something that Jesus applauded in him. You don't wear a mask. I think that could be and should be true of all of us as well. Come to Jesus as we are. He already sees what's going on inside of us. Why wear a mask? Let's conclude. Jesus was introduced. People, Andrew came to Jesus because of the preaching of John and the invitation of Jesus. Peter came to Jesus because of the invitation of his brother. Philip came to Jesus as a result of an invitation of Jesus. Nathaniel came to Jesus because of the invitation of Philip. Over and over, as we read through this, you're going to see people inviting people, others, to come experience Jesus with me. And what we have to hold on to as this, friends, the first followers were average people. Fishermen from a little town that no one cared about in the region that wasn't significant. They weren't trained. They weren't skilled. They didn't go through all the evangelism classes and all the discipleship classes. They hadn't read the latest book on strategy. They were people who were enthralled with the Messiah. And they said, "I want to invite other people to experience the Savior of the world with me." They weren't from prestigious families. They weren't rich. They weren't very special. They weren't significant. They were common people. Dare I say, like you and I, they were, though, people who followed Jesus and invited others to follow Jesus. We have to ask this question as we close. Who do you need to invite to follow Jesus with you? And maybe they're a Christian, a professing Christian already, but they're not following Jesus. Do you need to invite them to follow Jesus with you? Maybe it's a neighbor. Invite them to read the Bible with you. Invite them to join you in a church that they've never gone somewhere. Invite someone to be a part of the relationship that you have with Jesus. Like, that's scary. It might be uncomfortable, but really, like, that's the play that God has already written for us. And we can say, "Yeah, that sounds so good." And then go back and sit on the sidelines and say, "Somebody else should do it." I said this at the beginning and put this on the screen. Kingdom growth happens by invitation. It is the responsibility and duty of the Christian to bring another into experiencing Jesus and the knowledge of the gospel. It isn't the duty of the church. The church will do it. The program will do it. It's you and I. And that's how the gospel spread at the beginning, wasn't it? One person talking to another person. Not some big formulaic plan event that happened. It's us owning the identity as people who have been found to find more people. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the time that we are able to look at your word to see the power of what happened so many years ago. Your power, indwelt in your people that brought about a boldness and a courage to do some scary things. It's your power in us that can give us, that will give us courage, the boldness to step out and invite people into relationship with you. Help us to get off the benches. And to take it personally upon us to do our part, the part that you've called us to, whatever that may be. We have different roles, different responsibilities. Help us to own the mission that you've put us on. As the first followers did, that we would be people who invite others into relationship with you. And we thank you that we know we're not doing that alone. You are with us even to the end of the age. No matter where we are and where we're doing that. Lord, we pray as we leave here, as we go about our life, Lord, that we would recognize it is your life that we are instruments of. In Jesus' name.
