It Only Takes A Spark Series

John 1:35 – 51: It only takes a spark - Bringing others to Jesus.

It only take s a tiny spark to ignite a fire and only takes one individual filled with the Spirit of God to ignite others into becoming followers of Christ. It was one man John the Baptist, who saw Jesus passing by and proclaimed, “ look the lamb of God. ” When two of his disciples, responded, and began to follow Jesus one of those Andrew then found his brother told him they had found the Messiah, and brought his brother Simon Peter along to see for himself. Then the next day Jesus looked and found Philip who in turn brought Nathanial to Jesus who believed that Jesus was the Son of God eventually 12 disciples had been formed from those 12 developed to seventy disciples which went out to the villages from the 70 came 120 as on the day of Pentecost that number burst through the roof to 3000, later we read 5,000 came to believe. And commentators say over 10,000 had come to Christ in that first year of the early Church.

Friends It only takes a spark, it only takes an individual filled with the passion for Christ & for the lost to be saved, to ignite a mighty work for God right here in this chapel. Friend’s God wants that spark to be ignited in each one of us. And we can be ignited for God in a diversity of ways, when it comes to telling others & leading others to Jesus, let’s take a look at the passage in front of us to see just that.

1) The spark ignited in John the Baptist- public declaration (35 -39).

Public declaration: From the very beginning of Johns life, even from inside his mother’s womb John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit (Lke 1:15) the spark had been ignited in Him, before he was even born, God had a specific ministry for him to do, (Jer:1:5) as Jeremiah before him, he was set apart as a prophet of God. John was the fore runner to Jesus; he would prepare the way for the Christ, with a baptism of repentance, pointing others to Jesus. John was a public figure, in society, crowds listened to his ministry, he wasn’t afraid of publicly declaring Jesus as the lamb of God (v36) before others, as he does here once again.

Life Application:

Some Christians not all are called to a very public ministry, although God doesn’t call us as Prophets as in the OT sense of the word today, he does call us to prophetic ministries as Pastors, teachers, evangelists, proclaiming declaring the Word of God in this way, this type of spark is a very public ministry, where the declaration of God’s Word is very visible before others, ( whether a pastor before his congregation, an Evangelist in the open air or huge arena or a teacher in a class room/ conference setting) Again like John this type of ministry should never be pointing to oneself but always to Jesus, making much of Him.

And here we see the effectiveness of his public declaration before others two of his own disciples (37 -39 ) after hearing they follow Jesus and begin to sit under the ministry of Jesus and become his disciples the spark had been ignited in the hearts and minds of Andrew & possibly John (not mentioned). Spark begins to fan into a flame & spread. So in this public declaration there is a greater opportunity to communicate to the masses but also to the individuals within the crowds who will respond.

2) The spark ignited in Andrew - personal witness (40-42).

Personal witness: (41-42). We see Andrew has a very different approach from the public declaration, but one which is probably one of the most effective ways, in seeing others won to Christ. It is an approach all Christians are called to partake in, the personal witness of Christ too others. But the first thing that Andrew did before he was to go and seek out his brother and tell him he had found the Messiah (anointed One) and then he personally led him to Jesus.

Personal encounter: (38-39). But before we are to witness in this way there is something we must learn, we must be those who have sat at the feet of Jesus, we must know Jesus for ourselves, note the whole day was spent with Jesus before he even went to witness to his brother, he got to know Jesus for himself before he spoke of him to others.

a) Life Application: Personal encounter: We will only be able to speak, if we’ve genuinely gotten to know Jesus for ourselves, spent time with Jesus, then were equipped, like Andrew to tell others like our own brothers/sisters, sons/daughters, mothers/fathers.