Jesus The Lamb Of God

2. So what does that mean for me today?

I believe our response should be like that of St. Andrew.

In the Gospel passage this morning we read of St. Andrew, once he perceived who Jesus was - i.e. the Messiah - left John the Baptist and sought Jesus out.

And once he had found Jesus, he sought his brother Simon Peter out and told him all about Jesus.

He then brought Peter to Jesus.

In other words, Andrew was the first missionary.

If we really believe that Jesus is the Lamb of God, then this will change the way we live. And we will want to bring others to Him.

3. Conclusion

Bishop Graham in his pastoral letter, which I read out earlier, is challenging us to consider our vocation as baptised believers.

Is your vocation, like St. Andrew, to bring people to Jesus. Indeed is God calling you into a recognised ministry in the church to do just that?

I think the challenge to tell others about the Jesus we know was put very nicely by the ’Sunday Times’ journalist Matthew Parris – a man, who by his own confession, is not a Christian.

Parris wrote:

’The New Testament offers a picture of God, who does not sound at all vague.

He has sent His Son to earth. He has distinct plans for each of us personally and can communicate directly with us.

We are capable of forming a direct relationship, individually with Him, and are commanded to try.

We are told that this can be done only through his son. And we are offered the prospect of eternal life – an afterlife in happy, blissful or glorious circumstances if we live this life in a certain manner.

Friends, if I believed that, or even a tenth of that, how could I care which version of the prayer book is used? I would drop my job, sell my house, throw away all my possessions, leave my acquaintances and set out into the world burning with desire to know more and, when I had found more, to act upon it and tell others.

Far from being puzzled that the Mormons and Adventists should knock on the door, I am unable to understand how anyone who believed that (which) is written in the Bible could choose to spend their waking hours in any other endeavour.’ (Matthew Parris).

Now that really is a challenge isn’t it?