Following Jesus | John 1:35-51
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I told the 830 service I said, morning, sunshine. They left anyway, the 730 service is what we call it. On the Sunday, everyone's favorite Sunday. Daylight Savings Sunday. I don't know anyone who looks forward to this Sunday. I mean, you know, I don't know anyone who has a countdown or like, they're so excited that this Sunday is coming. And, you know, there's no like social media, like excitement, you know, it's more of like mornings, right. So I don't know anyone who looks forward to it, because we all lose an hour of sleep. And unless you're a little young child, you enjoy sleep. And so we all don't like you losing that hour, it takes a few days for us to recover. And as citizens, excuse me of the state and country, we really don't have much say, as to whether or not we can follow this rule or not. And as annoying as it is, every year, as we get into the spring and the summer, we start to see some of the benefits of daylight savings time, you know, the, the sun is out longer. You if you'd like to play golf or an outdoorsman outside longer, those kind of things. And so you see the benefits. Studies also show that, that depression rates go down during daylight savings time, because the days are longer, there's more sun, obviously more sun, in your life, more sun on your skin on your face is better provided you wear sunscreen, it's better for you, and it helps your hormone levels and all these things. So the change is actually good for us. As we just follow along what the government tells us, we're going to do. Now, in a similar way, when we become Christians, we are no longer in charge of our calendar. We're no longer in charge of our time, if we're following Christ the way he has called us to do so. But the change we make, and getting in line and following the dictates of our Heavenly Kingdom, the changes we make and falling Jesus is worth it. As we're going to see today, and John, chapter one is going to read verses 35 through 42. The next day again, John was standing with two of his disciples. And he looked at Jesus as he walked by, and said, Behold, the Lamb of God. The two disciples heard him say this, and they follow 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 you stay. And he said, have them come, and you will see. So they came in and saw where he was staying. And they stayed with him that day, for us about the 10th hour. One of the two who heard John 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. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon, the son of John, you shall be called Sisyphus, which means theater. Heavenly Father, as we gather here today, this this beautiful spring Sunday, to get close to Easter, we start thinking about things we have coming up, we start buying our Easter dresses and Easter ties and things like that and preparing our Easter meals and we start, start with Easter, or spring activities and pollen gets everywhere. We see kids out on the ball field and all these these spring like things happen or we're thankful that we can come here and still worship you. So Laura, as we look at this passage today, where we see you calling your first disciples, what that could look like for our lives, what that can mean to our lives, what we can learn from that. Father, I pray that my words today reflect that your intended meaning and your word, that you fill me with your Spirit through your preaching today that your spirit receives This message today in this congregation and touches our hearts elastics things in Jesus name, Amen. I want to give us today three things that happen when we follow Jesus. Three things that happen. When we place our faith in Christ. We were born again, we're saved, we start following Jesus Christ. Right, three things. Number one, following Jesus means changing our allegiance or allegiances, changing our allegiance. Verse 35, says that the next day again, John was standing with two of his disciples. And he looked at Jesus, as he walked by and said, Behold, the Lamb of God. Now, this is not the same, John, that the book of John is named after. That's another John, this is John the Baptist. He was Jesus's first cousin. And his role was to prepare the way for the Lord. And much of the first part of John chapter one describes John and his calling his purpose. Now, John's ministry preceded Jesus's ministry, for the sole purpose, the sole purpose of preparing his own disciples to become disciples of Jesus. That was his role. His primary purpose John the Baptist, was to get people to repent of their sins to be baptized. And when Jesus came to follow Him, that was his role, good John, chapter one, verse 21. That when he was baptizing, they asked him, What then are you Elijah? He said, I'm not referring to an Old Testament prophet that might have come back. He said, Are you the Prophet? The Prophet? He answered, No. So they said to him, Well, who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? He said, I am the voice of one, crying out in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord. As the prophet Isaiah said, they had an incident from the Pharisees. They asked him, then why are you baptizing, if you are needed the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet? And John answered them, I baptize with water, but among you stands, one you do not know even he you comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. So his ministry preceded that of Jesus Christ. So when John sees Jesus walking by and he says, there's the Messiah, it's not too shocking that his disciples then leave John, immediately follow Jesus. Look in verse 37, the two disciples heard him say this, and they follow Jesus. So we have a handoff, from John, to Jesus, as Christians, people of influence, and if you are a Christian, you have influence in what anybody has influenced. But as a Christian, you definitely influence in any of your circles, teachers, leaders in the church, pastors, that is our job. Our job is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. my calling is not to make you a disciple of me. Or another man or another teacher, if you're a Sunday school teacher, your calling is not to make people a disciple of you, or your class, what are ever influenced you have in the church, your calling is not to make disciples the view is to make disciples of Jesus. So the fact that John's disciples left him immediately to follow Jesus, as soon as he said, there's the Messiah, the fact that they left immediately shows the great job that John had done in preparing his disciples to follow Christ. Verse 38, Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, what are you looking for? What are you seeking? And they give them a weird answer. They followed up with another question. And they said, Rabbi, where do you live? What are you looking for? Where do you live? What does that mean? What does that about? Well, when Jesus asked them what they want, they don't come out and say, we're looking for you. We want you. They say instead, let's go see where you live. Take us to your or house. Now, if you meet somebody, right, especially guys meeting other guys, man, as friends, you don't usually come up to them and say, I really want to get to know you better. For some reason I told us that 830 no one laughs Maybe that's how they did it back then I don't know. Maybe they're still asleep. I thought it was kind of funny, you know, you're laughing. And he's not, you don't really do that. You don't say, hey, I really want to get to know you better. That would kind of what, you know, it gives Paul man don't We don't do that. When there's somebody to hang out with. We say, Hey, I gotta have to take into the game wanna come with me? And then you're getting to know them better. Or, you know, or, Hey, this guy got a boat, or let's go to Lake or Let's go fishing or you know, I got you know, I got some property, we can go shoot some ducks or whatever it is you want to do? Well, let's watch the game together. You know, at the restaurant, you don't say, oh, nice to meet you, hey, I really want to get to know you better. Where do you live? Not what you say. So what they're doing is they're saying, we want to spend time together. Let's so where do you live? Let's, let's go to your house. Right? So Jesus sees our interest in him. Essentially, what he says is, what are you looking for? And they basically said you but in a different way. So he said, verse 39. Come and you'll see. So they came. And they saw where he was staying. And they stayed with him that day, for about the 10th hour. So they hung out all day. Now a man's story of a man whose parents were were immigrant Jews from Europe who fled the war. And they came to Europe, and they came to America for safety. His parents lived and worked in New York the whole life. They were not well off. The man's father died when he was young. His mother lived on for a while. And in time, the man actually became very, very successful and wealthy and did well in life. And he often used to say, Mom, you know, I can take you anywhere in the world, where do you want to go and she never wanted to leave the United States of America. She was happy where she was. Mentally she died. And then went back to her house to recover the some safes and some valuables and things like that. And they found a safety box where she kept all this jewelry, and they got it out. And they found another box off to the side hidden that had no key and no way of opening it. And they were puzzled mister what in the world is in this. So they they drilled it open drill this box open, open the box up, and they wonder what possibly could be in this box and they lifted the lid and there's all this wrapping paper and unwrap the paper and Abner unwrap more paper than they found this envelope and they opened the envelope and inside the envelope were papers of for US citizenship. And we're gonna do came for safety. And that was more precious to her than any other possession is what she treasured. She had came over to America, her allegiance had changed so much where she didn't want to leave the country. We as believers are citizens of the kingdom of heaven. We are no longer citizens of this world. We live here. But we have one foot in the kingdom of heaven. We have one foot in the world that's where we are until Christ comes back. Following Jesus means changing allegiances. And when you follow Jesus, you will go anywhere with him, to be with them and to learn about him. So following Jesus means changing allegiance this number to following Jesus means changing our identity. Changing our identity was 41 of the two who heard John 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. Andrew when told the good news to his brother. But he didn't just tell about Jesus. Verse 42 says this. He brought him to Jesus. It's one thing to tell somebody about him. It's another thing to bring him to Jesus. we're commanded to make disciples. But are you willing to take people to Christ? Are you willing to take people to church we had invite cards, the Welcome Center. We have all these ways you can invite people to church and that kind of thing. But are you willing to bring them here? Are you willing to show up at their house? This Sunday might have been a little rough because you're probably asleep. But are you willing say I'll meet you in the parking lot? I'll drive over there with your Are you willing to take someone here? Meet them here? Are you doing all that you can to get somewhere I'm not only to hear Christ, but to seek Christ to experience Christ because the only way you can truly experience the glory of Jesus Christ is in this congregational worship in this room and see what you cannot get anywhere else in the world. But here on any given Sunday, any church in the world that is worshiping Jesus Christ, with God's people? Can you do that? Can you bring them here? If Jesus is your Lord and Savior, if he's changed your life? Wouldn't you want to get your family and your friends to see him? To be with? Jesus looked at him and said, Your son and the son of John, I'm going to call you Cifas. Which means Peter. Now as soon as Jesus sees Simon, he gives him a nickname. You know, some people just are easy to give nicknames. You know, I know my wife for over 20 years, I still have a nickname for her. I don't know why. Probably cuz she's, she's no Myoko talking about this stuff. There's some people just so easy to just give a nickname to and some people were difficult. I think Peter was one of those guys. He was just easy to give a nickname to. He said your name is going to be Peter, which is which means rock. But I think the renaming of Simon here is symbolic of his new identity in Christ. For whatever reason, Jesus knew it was critical for Simon to change his name, to have a break with his old identity. This Jewish man and we know this because he struggled in the New Testament. And in the book of Acts, he struggled bringing Gentiles into the church. He had some prejudices that he had to work on. Jesus knew this. So he says, You have a new name, you're you're going to be rock. Peter needed that change, perhaps for Peter to fully embrace his new identity, not just as a Jewish man, but as a Jewish Christ follower. Jesus knew he needed a complete change of identity. I have one other sibling sees my sister. She's older, a four and a half years. Her name is Jana, Lauren Wallace. Now her name Gina is a combination of my father's middle name of Jay and my mother's middle name of Anna. And so my parents just pushed it together and dropped in a in an in apparently, and came up with the name Jaina. They weren't hippies, but this is how they did it. So as she grew older, my sister Gina became less and less fond of that name. She didn't like it. It was unique. She got made fun of it. Sometimes. Some people loved it. She didn't like it's very polarizing. Okay. She went to college, she changed her name. We started going down the middle name. She had a new guest, you know, a new start. She goes, I'm not going by the name Lauren. we all laughed about it. I thought it was funny. But she never changed her mind. She is Lauren to this day. And this is who she is. Now, when someone asked about my sister. If they say how's Jaina do and I'm like, Who? Because it's got it's been so long. Now. The first few years are weird. The first decade was weird, she would come home, we would still call her Jaina. But now I almost forgot that was even her name. As I was writing this turn. It's been so long as Lauren, we all call her Lauren. We even call her Lauren when she's not around. Because that name has finally sunk in. She's now been Lauren longer than she was Jaina. That is her identity. That's who she is. That's what she chose years ago. Now. When we follow Christ, we assume a new identity. We don't have to change our name. But our identity is no longer in other things in our life. It's not in our work. It's no longer primarily in our family. It's certainly not in our sexuality or gender or anything like that. It's not in our race. Bad news. It's not in our Southern Heritage. Yeah. And for some of you who've moved down here, it's not in your order and heritage. And that's not primarily who you are. It's primarily in Jesus Christ. That's why when when when some of you moved down here from the north from the West, that's why you fit in right away, because we all Jesus Christ as the common denominator. Brothers and sisters in Christ, if you're a teacher, you're now a Christian teacher. If you are an American, you're now a Christian America. If you're a banker, you're a Christian banker. First and foremost, if you're a farmer, you are a Christian farmer that is now your identity. It is solidly in Christ, you can be all these other things. But the overlapping, enveloping primary trait is you are in Christ. First and foremost. That is your identity. And third, following Jesus means changing our mindset. So we, we have kind of default ways of thinking about things. Default ways of looking at the world based on personality based on what we've been taught based on experiences that we think are right. The more we walk in Christ, the more we realize some of these things have to be changed. Some of these things have to be more in line with the Bible. Jesus changes our mindset, he changes our worldview. Sometimes God calls us actually now to do more than just tell battle. You know, we may be told to tell and go somewhere else. Our mindset needs to change, we might be told to go somewhere that we would never do. Now, I love living amongst corner veneer. But I'm gonna live in years. And I hope to be here until I die, which I hope is much longer now. You know, I'm like, on hold 10 I'm rounding the back now starting the back nine of life, you know, made the turn right, so to speak, you know, and so I want to be here for a long time. But if I was not a believer, if I was not following Jesus, it's probably a good chance I wouldn't be living here. I'd definitely be living on Church Street. I wouldn't be in that house, I wouldn't be in this town where I would be as possible. You know that my wife had been less moved down in the low countries possibly might have moved down here or something like that. But there's a high possibility that we wouldn't have. When you follow Jesus, you don't know where he's going to take you. Look at verse 43. The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said, Follow me see, Jesus decided to go. Philip did decide to go. Two weeks ago, I was a chaperone for my son's school field trip. I took the bus and I had to come back on Saturday. So I drove. And I don't really like it. At first, I'm used to kind of like driving and making my own decisions and pulling off when I need to, and stopping and getting there when I need to. But you know, my job is to follow the bus. My job is not to decide what extra to get off, not where to eat all this kind of thing. I kind of like it's kind of nice. Let's put it on cruise control, and just follow the bus and it took a little bit longer, but who cares, right? Just following the bus all the way down there. They decide where to take off to get breakfast, they decide when to leave, they left the whole lot earlier than I would have ever left. But they're in charge. I'm just following the lead. So sometimes when we do that, it's a mindset change. God is going to do things that we might not think I may not do it that way. But it's much easier when we follow verse 43. He said to fillable, follow me. And he found Philip. Now verse 44, says Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter, let's say to means Fisher sound. So as a town of fishermen. You hear a lot about fisherman in the Bible, and God called me to be to be His disciples. So what were they like? What they were hardworking men, they had to be to, to load the boats in and out of the shore to work with these nets to do this hard job of fishing. But they were also considered a little crude. Right, a little rough around the edges. They were very much the working class. It was hard manual labor. They were not the highly educated lawyers, theologians who just sat around and interpreted the law. Were there nice robes and expensive clothing, the fishermen were not doing that. But Jesus wasn't looking for just highly educated men. He was looking for people who were willing to follow him. And he's still looking for that. He calls all types of people he calls the rich, he calls the poor. He calls the educated he calls the uneducated, he calls the white he calls the black he calls those who have their lives together, those who don't. He calls those with the 830 credit rating and there is with a 350 credit rating. He calls everybody whether you had your life together or what did you think you do? Or whether you were at the Rock Bottom Christ calls them all calls everyone. The only qualification in a person that Jesus calls is that you will follow Him wherever He leads. Built in them tells us friend verse 45. Build found the Daniel said the Daniel Nate We found of whom Moses in the law. And also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth assemblages. We found him. We found who he is. Jesus of Nazareth. Verse 46, Nathaniel saw that I can see Nathaniel right now thinking, Nazareth. anything good come out of Nazareth. gilstead Come and see. Now this saying, Nazareth, I want to I want you to think of a town that I couldn't pay you to live there. I'm not gonna name any out here, don't offend anyone, okay? Spices I will never want to live. I don't really want to drive through some places. Think of a town or a city that you would never live. You don't know why people live there. You will never want to live there. You can't imagine it. You couldn't be paid to live there. This is Nazareth. They were despised. It was a town of no importance. So when Philip hears that the Messiah, the hope is from Nazareth, ixnay. Again, what? Wait a second. He doubted because of his prejudice of the area and the communities. He doubted. Verse 47, Jesus knows how to destroy your prejudices, change your mindset. He saw Nathaniel coming toward them. And he said, Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. Now we lose a little bit in translation here, there's next two verses. This is kind of a play on words. The word Israelite literally means a man who sees God, this is what he's saying, seriously, he's saying, Behold, a man who sees God, imagine if he saw a man walk down the street. And he saw you and he said, Hey, God, you see God? Can you imagine what Nathaniel would have thought? And he said in verse 48, how do you know me? Jesus said, Before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Now, if you don't know the Greek here and know some of the expressions, you might a lot is lost here, which is what we have preaching, and which is why we've had Bible study. There's two reasons why he could have been shocked at this first, Nathaniel could have been unearthed victory. And he could have been hiding and isolated. And Jesus saw him when no one could see him. That's possible. But the phrase, under the fig tree was also an expression that meant I know all about you. I know all there is about you. So he says, Daniel, Daniel, Before Philip called you. I knew you. I knew all there was no value. You thought you were hiding. You're not hiding. You've been exposed this whole time. I know all there is about You see, Jesus knows all about us. He knows our good news or bad. And he still calls. He still calls us to follow him. No matter who we are, no matter what we've done, our good or bad, he still calls us and something happened in an exchange. And at this point, Nathaniel puts his faith in Jesus, maybe he realized, as Jesus was staring at him and told him to look in the eye and said, I know all about you. Maybe that's all he needed to know, to put his faith in Christ. And he did. He says, Rabbi, You are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel. And Jesus said, because I said to you, I saw you on the fig tree, do you believe you're going to see greater miracles in these things? When you follow me, when we follow Christ, our own salvation is a miracle that when with the more we follow him, man, we see more and more greater miracles throughout our life. And that's what he's saying, you're going to experience. I'm going to do much greater science with these, but he met with Jesus interact with Jesus and his mindset shifted. No longer was he thinking Nazareth, he knew he was walking with the Messiah, and all his prejudices went away. And then 51 He said to him, Truly, truly I say to you, you will see heaven opened an angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of what did Jesus say? Well, it's a reference to Genesis 2812. Or Jacob had a dream. It says this, and he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God was ascending and descending the stairway to heaven, the ladder to heaven. Jesus says the Daniel, and even more I want to tell you this, that I, ah, Jesus and the letter. This is man, this is God. I am the ladder to heaven. I am the connection. I am the mediator. And that is another mindset change that we have to undergo as believers that Jesus Christ is the only way to God. He is the only truth of who God is. And he is the only way to make our lives made right with God, no matter what you hear, no matter what is pushed on the media, no matter what, how anybody makes you feel about your belief, Jesus says, and we know that He is the Way, the Truth, and the life, whether it hurts your feelings are not, it's the truth. He is the Stairway to Heaven, He is the ladder to heaven. It takes a mindset to follow Christ. This is why I know many people who doubt who say they're atheist, they don't believe the Bible, they've never sat down and read the Bible. Oh, they might have been a part here and there, they might have looked for, you know, clips in here and there, they never sit down and read the book of Jonah. Hill or sit down and read the book of Romans read through the Gospels. If they did, they would encounter Jesus there. There's so many stories of people who've sat down and started reading the entire Bible in order to just prove it and they get broken before they can finish it and they turn to Christ. This is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword. It changes your minds. If you let God speak into your life. Following Jesus changes our legions, changes our identity. It changes our mindset. And as believers, it's something we must do every day, keep following him, we don't need to be out in front of them. We don't need to be taking the bus, in front of the bus. We're not the pace car for God. We are following him as he leads us, Father in heaven, we thank you, that you lead us that, that you're not our copilot, you're a pilot. We're just going with you. If other if there's one in here today that's never placed their faith in who you are that they would do so today. Today, it will be the day of their salvation, the day will be the day where they they hold on to you is that Stairway to Heaven. Or you bridge the gap between man and God. Today, Lord, that they would put their faith in you and father for those of us who are have been following you for a while that we know you were Christians or believers that you can keep encouraging us or that you would keep showing us how easy it is to follow you. Yes, it might be difficult at once. Yes, we might lose an hour of sleep. We might have to change a little bit of our of our routines. But it's worth it. When you're in the lead when you're in control, and we're following you. There's so much more peace. There's so much more change in our life. But when you get us where you want us to be while we ask these things in Christ.
