When God Calls Your Name Series

INTRODUCTION

 A Country farmer and his boy ventured to the big city for the first time. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and back together again. The boy asked his father, "What is this father?" The father (never having seen an elevator) responded, "Son, I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don’t know what it is."

While the boy and his father were watching wide-eyed, an old lady limping slightly with a cane slowly walks up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady walks between them and into a small room. The walls closed and the boy and his father watched; small circles of light with numbers above the wall light up. They continued to watch the circles light up in the reverse direction. The walls opened up again and a beautiful 24-year-old woman stepped out. With great enthusiasm, the father said to his son, "Boy, Go get your Mama!"

 The old farmer was ready for a change I guess.

 Each one of us comes to a crossroad in life. We come to a point where we need to make a decision that will impact the rest of our lives. The question is what do we do when we come to that crossroad and what is that crossroad?

 There comes a time when God calls your name. God will use many different ways to do this. God will not call you on the telephone, but He will use a variety of people and circumstances to call your name.

 As we pick up on our journey with Jesus, we last left Jesus being tempted in the wilderness.

 This is the third of four consecutive days described here in the first chapter of John (cf. vv. 29, 35, 43).

 According to Mark Moore’s book “The Chronological Life of Christ” on Thursday, the members from the Sanhedrin interview John the Baptist as to who he was (vv. 19-28). On Friday, Jesus returns from the wilderness (vv. 29-34).

 Saturday, for the second day in a row, John lays his eyes on Jesus and identifies him as the Lamb of God (vv. 35-42). John apparently only has two disciples with him. Perhaps the rest have taken the Sabbath off. Nevertheless, these two are the first to follow Jesus. And according to our Gospel records, this is the last time that John sees Jesus, as he marches off with two of John’s finer students. Sunday, Jesus meets Nathanael, via Philip, and his small entourage of disciples (Andrew, John, Peter, James, Philip, and Nathanael) pack their bags and return with Jesus to Galilee (vv. 43-51). Three days later they will find themselves in Cana at a wedding where Jesus performs His first miracle (John 2:1).

 Today we are going to look at what happened to four men when they came to the crossroads. We are going to see what happened to these four men when God called their name.

SERMON

I. WHEN GOD CALLED ANDREW AND JOHN 35-42

A. Their experience 35-37

1. They stood.

 THE PALESTINIAN SUN BEAT DOWN ON THE TWO FRIENDS AS THEY LISTENED TO JOHN EXHORT THE CROWDS TO REPENTANCE. FOR THE PAST FEW WEEKS THEY HAD FOLLOWED JOHN EVERY WHERE HE HAD GONE, LISTENED TO HIS MESSAGE, AND WATCHED THE CROWDS REACTION.

 AT FIRST THEY WERE SURE THAT HE WAS THE ONE THAT THE PROPHETS HAD POINTED TO. THE ONE WHO WOULD DELIVER ISRAEL FROM THE HANDS OF THE ROMANS. THIS GUY EVEN LOOKED LIKE A PROPHET, THAT LONG WILD HAIR, A BEARD THAT REACHED DOWN TO THE MIDDLE OF HIS CHEST AND THE EYES, HIS EYES SHONE WITH A ZEALOTS RAGE.

 Andrew stood where he could hear preaching about the kingdom of God.

 If a person wants to come to Jesus today, they need to put themselves in a position where they can hear the word of God. Romans 10:17 reminds us, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”

2. They heard.

 Andrew and John had listened intently of John the Baptist as he preached about the kingdom of God. They so wanted to promised messiah to come to them

 It is so important for us to get people around the Word of God if we want to bring them to Jesus.

 When I started going to church, I did not care about God, I was going to be with Robyn, but I was around the Word enough that it penetrated my heart. I saw the Word being lived out in the people at church and it caused me to want to know more about Jesus.