Follow The Leader

FOLLOW THE LEADER

John 1:35-51

S: Discipleship

Th: My Life as God’s Light

Pr: WE ARE TO FOLLOW JESUS.

?: Why?

KW: Reasons

TS: We will find in John 1:35-51 four reasons why we need to follow Jesus.

The ____ reason why we need to follow Jesus is He is the…

I. SAVIOR (35-37)

II. TEACHER (38-39)

III. MESSIAH (40-46)

IV. LORD (47-51)

INDUCTIVE

RMBC 1/21/01 AM

INTRODUCTION:

ILL Notebook: Expectation (5)

Frank believed that five was his spe-cial number. He was born on May 5, had five children and lived at 555 East 55 Street. At the track on his 55th birth-day, he was surprised to find a horse named Numero Cinco running in the fifth race. So five minutes before the race, he went to the fifth window and put five thousand down on Numero Cinco.

Sure enough, the horse finished fifth.

Well, poor Frank…

His trust was in a number, or the fortune behind a number…

Not very reliable, was it?

You know…

1. We look to follow that which is reliable.

But sometimes we learn the hard way, don’t we?

We don’t find that the path we are taking is not trustworthy until it is too late.

ILL Personal—Dog

Nothing teaches us more about trust, I think, than a dog. I have to admit that I am amazed at our dog, even though I am no dog lover. But our dog is a real people person, and he is, literally, always underfoot. When we move to one room to the other, he follows. If we lay down on the couch, he lays down on the floor below us. If we are eating, he is laying down under the table, very hopeful for something to come his way.

I don’t fully understand why, but he trusts us. Even if we fail him, by not feeding him or not walking him, he is always looking to us for his needs and friendship. Anytime that we call, he is there, ready to go.

It brings to mind, this question…

2. Who do you trust?

Who do you depend on?

Who can you rely on?

Is there anyone that is always there for you?

ILL Notebook: Help (crazy Indian)

There was this man who overheard a conversation about God between two believers. He interrupted them and told them he didn’t believe in their God and could they just keep it down. So, they engaged him in conversation about God and he said, “Yeah, I tried your God one time. I asked his help once when I was stuck in the desert. Dying in the glaring sun, I cried out for God’s help." One of the men said, “Well, something must have happened. You’re here now.” The guy said, “Not really. Some crazy Indian came along and saved me.”

I wonder, sometimes, how often I misinterpret the help that is offered to me.

We call it coincidence or luck, but what we need is an open mind.

We need discernment to understand what is going on around us.

OUR STUDY:

As we continue our study of the gospel of John, we come today to the end of chapter one.

For the last two weeks, we have been considering the person of John the Baptist.

The Baptist was a different kind of guy.

He was not at all like the religious types of that day, or our day for that matter.

Instead of looking for popularity, a following and a nice comfortable building to meet in, he preached out in the wilderness with an uncompromising message of repentance.

And he did not seem to care if you believed him or not, he was just doing his job.

His job was to prepare people for the One that was coming.

He was forward looking, and as we come to our text this morning, we find that he is ready.

Note our text…

(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 the Baptist discerned what was going on.

He gets it right.

He is an amazing type of guy, because when Jesus arrives on the scene, John shifts gears.

It is time to decrease.

It is time to be less.

It is time to point to someone else.

It is time to see God on the move.

So John tells two of his disciples, that it is time to move on.

We know that one is Andrew.

The other, is most likely the author of this text, the apostle John.

“There He is!”

“There is the One I have been telling you about.”

“Look the Lamb of God.”

“Look the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”