When God Calls Us Series

When God Calls Us

Series: Conversations with Jesus

Brad Bailey – February 11, 2018

Intro

Conversations. Some are just polite exchanges. Some are practical exchanges. [1]

But there are some that can be life altering. They can change our understanding of life…and ourselves. Some have an expansive effect.

No conversations have changed more people than those with Jesus.

So today we are beginning a series in which we are engaging conversations with Jesus… what are living and life-changing conversations with Jesus.

The first conversation is truly the first known. In John’s Gospel account… he begins capturing the profound nature of the One who has come…

John 1:4 (NIV)

In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

John 1: 18 (NIV)

No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

Now he tells how it began…he introduces how, just as prophesied in the Old Testament,… first one came who was to prepare the way for this coming Messiah. That figure was John the Baptist… who had come declaring that the time had come… God was providing a way… and it was time to turn and repent.

Now the John who was there and wrote this testimony… describes what unfolded…John 1:35-51.

It’s a long text but easy on the imagination.

John 1:35-51 (TLB)

The following day as John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 Jesus walked by. John looked at him intently and then declared, “See! There is the Lamb of God!”

37 Then John’s two disciples turned and followed Jesus.

38 Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?” he asked them.

“Sir,” they replied, “where do you live?”

39 “Come and see,” he said. So they went with him to the place where he was staying and were with him from about four o’clock that afternoon until the evening. 40 (One of these men was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.)

41 Andrew then went to find his brother Peter and told him, “We have found the Messiah!” 42 And he brought Peter to meet Jesus.

Jesus looked intently at Peter for a moment and then said, “You are Simon, John’s son—but you shall be called Peter, the rock!”

43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and told him, “Come with me.” 44 (Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown.)

45 Philip now went off to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the Messiah!—the very person Moses and the prophets told about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth!”

46 “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from there?”

“Just come and see for yourself,” Philip declared.

47 As they approached, Jesus said, “Here comes an honest man—a true son of Israel.”

48 “How do you know what I am like?” Nathanael demanded.

And Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”

49 Nathanael replied, “Sir, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”

50 Jesus asked him, “Do you believe all this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater proofs than this. 51 You will even see heaven open and the angels of God coming back and forth to me, the Messiah.”

Here is where the ministry of Jesus began.

One has been raised to prepare the way. And now that preparation leads to actually introducing some to Jesus himself.

These disciples have become so identified as being among the infamous 12 disciples of Jesus… that we forget they each were just ordinary lives before they were called.

Each was called by Christ… just as each of us are.

One of the interesting things that most of them share in common… is that they were introduced to Jesus by someone else.

Even in this very first set of exchanges… we see that some like the first two… were pointed to Jesus by a public figure (John the Baptist)…someone who carried clout.

And another was introduced by a family member …and another a friend….someone who there was reason to trust.

Most of us could identify someone who said…”come and see”…

It’s not a matter of proving…but pointing…sharing what they believe they have found….

In this series of exchanges… we engage the nature of God’s calling…a calling that I believe God has for each of us. That the calling is alive…and it will bear what we find lies here. Let’s consider the nature of God’s calling. [3]

1. God’s calling begins with awareness of our need.

What we hear is affected by what we are tuned to hear.

That’s why we speak of selective hearing. Dogs hear a certain frequency…humans do.