Time for an introduction
John 1:35-39
It took me 7 years to complete my 2 year master’s degree program. Part of the delay was out of my control, part of it was not. If I had to place a primary cause of my delay in graduating, I would say that I had not invested the time I needed to invest in the project.
- I needed to spend time reading
- I needed to spend time researching
- I needed to spend time writing
- I needed to spend time formatting
- I needed to spend time in conference with my advisor
And I kept putting it off. Sometimes for good reasons, sometimes for stupid reasons. Anything worthwhile is going to take an investment in time. An investment in time is something more than allowing years to pass while things around you happen by default.
Our relationship with Jesus will not happen by accident. If our spirits will grow and improve we will need to be intentional about it. As Dan says:
- Change is inevitable
- Improvement is optional
If we are going to become deeply personal disciples of Jesus, the way Andrew and John became disciples of Jesus, it is going to take some investment in time.
That’s how it began for Andrew and John:
The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!"
When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?"
They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?"
"Come," he replied, "and you will see."
So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour.
John 1:35-39 (NIV)
This passage has some notable features for us to explore. Some phrases stand out and invite further examination:
The next day
This is the day after John gives a specific testimony about Jesus’ identity. He sees Jesus and declares Him to be the Lamb of God. Then he recounts his vision at the time of Jesus’ baptism. He knows Jesus for who He is because of the word of the Holy Spirit.
Two disciples
John 1:40 clarifies that one of these two disciples was Andrew. Given John’s humility in referring to himself in this book, he is probably the other.
This tells us also that the disciples were not spiritual novices when they began exploring who Jesus was. They had already learned much about repentance, forgiveness, self denial, and spiritual cleansing from John. They probably had already been baptized.
They followed Jesus
Some say that this is the reason that John identified Jesus to his disciples. John specifically wanted them to quit following him and to turn their allegiance toward Jesus. Also, this is before Jesus saw them fishing and called them to follow permanently.
Where are you staying?
When it came to Jesus, this was a significant question. He probably stayed with a family and followed His own instructions. This is how he told his disciples to operate when they were traveling ministers:
When you enter a house, first say, Peace to this house. If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house. Luke 10:5-7 (NIV)
For the most part though, He did not have a permanent home in this region.
When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, ’Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’
Jesus replied, ’Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’ Matthew 8:18-20 (NIV)
Asking Him where He was staying was like asking him whose house he was staying at and where it was. The question itself and Jesus’ answer show that the disciples knew they were going to need time for this introduction to take root. There was more to it than exchanging names and phone numbers.
We see that the disciples knew because they did not try to delay Jesus for a short conversation. Instead they invited themselves to his house.
We see Jesus acknowledging this fact, because He invites them over. It is important that He does not answer their question. Instead, He maneuvers them into starting the relationship immediately. He does not give them directions and leave their meeting time to the disciples’ discretion. He indicates that there is no time like the present. He says, if you are going to follow Me, the time to start is now.
Spent the rest of the day
The tenth hour was about 4 PM. It was winter time, so the day was approaching sunset as they started walking to the place where Jesus was staying. That means they spent what we think of as all night and all the next day.
This time spent had its affect. The two disciples were quite excited by all they had learned. Andrew went immediately and found Peter to get him in on the action. Andrew was convinced that Jesus was the Messiah. We know that Jesus had not yet worked any miracles in front of His disciples, so it was His words that convinced Andrew and John.
Time is the key:
- Andrew and John had spent time with John the Baptist
- John the Baptist had already known Jesus for some time
- Andrew and John expressed a wish to spend time with Jesus
- Jesus invited them to spend time with Him
- They spent a whole day together
This indicates that all of them were on the same page in at least one important way:
- John the Baptist knew
- John and Andrew the disciples knew
- Jesus knew
If the disciples were going to get to know Jesus, it was going to take an investment of time. We know from reading the gospels that the disciples learned this lesson well. They spent years with Jesus, following Him and serving Him wherever He went. Jesus told them time and time again that dedication to Him was going to require their lives.
Incidentally, they invested the time and their lives and they had the times of their lives.
If we are going to become deeply personal disciples of Jesus, the way Andrew and John became disciples of Jesus, it is going to take some investment in time.
Our discipleship too will take time
Not just the years spent in slow inevitable change, but blocks of invested intentional time. Time is at a premium. We invest it where we hope for returns. Jesus wants us to train at His feet, but it will take significant time for Him to teach us His presence. John and Andrew took a day-long retreat with Jesus to gain an introduction. We often try to fit our familiarity with Jesus into a couple of hours on Sunday and 15 minutes of devotions each day.
Many of us need to approach our discipleship in a new and revitalized way. We need to enter into a more intentional approach to becoming disciples of Jesus
We call ourselves Christians, but do we think of ourselves as disciples? We tend to think that a Christian is a person who believes in Jesus, but remember, the word Christian was applied to people who were first known as disciples of Jesus.
- Are you a disciple?
- Or are you only a believer?
If your faith is going to mean anything to you in times of stress and crisis, your self is going to have to be molded into something that can take that stress. Most of us have some doubts about whether we would be able to stand up under persecution. The original disciples did not have those doubts. They embraced the persecution. They pursued their purpose knowing that persecution was part of the package.
There is a reason for that. Their belief had taken deep root and had reformed them as disciples. This process took time. It took several years of dedicated alignment of their lives with the path that Jesus followed. If they had followed their own paths, they would not have been formed into the people they became in the book of Acts.
For John and Andrew, discipleship began with a day-long retreat
- How will it begin for you?
For some of you, the question is, ’How will it change for you?’ Some of you, like Andrew and John are no novices of the faith. You know who Jesus is. The questions I have for you are these:
- Are you satisfied with the state of your discipleship?
- How will you get closer to Jesus as you approach the next stage of your life?
You may have heard the saying, ’Today is the first day of the rest of your life.’
I like to think of it with a twist, ’Eternity begins now.’
When Andrew and John wanted to start getting to know Jesus, He didn’t waste time. He made them begin immediately. The more you put it off, the less urgent it becomes.
So here is my suggestion. We are going to start a discipleship journey together. Here is the way it will begin:
Dedicate a whole day to acquainting yourself with Jesus
Take specific steps on a chosen day to better acquaint yourself with the Lord. This will take a little planning. I suggest three things to make this day complete:
Fast and pray
The most common way to fast is to go without food for a pre-set period of time, have liquids, but not solids. On the day that you are having your retreat with Jesus, fast. Fasting is a way of humbling yourself before God and seeking His face. It is a way of denying the flesh for the good of the spirit.
Some people must eat because of medical conditions. Fine, figure out a different way to fast. Here are some fasting suggestions for your retreat with Jesus. These are the most effective kinds of fasting I know of. Choose only one:
- Go without food for two or three meals
- Alternatively, limit your intake to bread, water and soup
- Deny yourself electronic entertainment of any kind (radio, TV, computer, recorded music, video games etc.)
- Maintain silence all day
Remember, this should be planned. Fasting is not forgetting to eat or being too busy to watch TV today. It is an intentional decision to notice how your life is different without something and dedicate that difference to the nurture of your spirit.
Fasting is accompanied by prayer. You need not use all the time you would have dedicated to these pursuits for prayer, but your prayer habits should significantly increase for the day. Remember, the point behind fasting is to nurture your spirit. Replace these worldly things with prayer.
Read a whole gospel in a single sitting
Ouch, that is a huge order. In fact, the best way to acquaint yourself with many biblical books is to read them in a single sitting. That is the way they were intended to be read, as letters, sermons, or short historical accounts. You are trying to spend a day with Jesus, so you are going to choose one of the accounts of His life and read it through from front to back.
An alternative is to listen to the gospel being read from a tape or CD. Bible Gateway is a website that offers audio Bibles for free. You can link to Bible Gateway from our Church’s website. But even if you listen, do it in a single sitting. Here are some things to consider:
- Matthew is the longest Gospel
- Mark is the shortest
- Luke is continued in the book of Acts and concentrates on the disciples
- John was written to add information left out by the other three gospel writers
Some considerations in choosing a gospel to read are:
- How much time do you have?
- Which gospel have you read the most often (read a different one)
- Matthew and Luke include the Christmas story
- John is the most theological of the gospels
- How good is your attention span?
I recommend reading the gospel sometime in the morning in order to fuel the next exercise for the day:
Observe Christ-like actions and attitudes that you can copy in your own life
It is a fact that Jesus changes His children to be more like Him. We may not directly observe Jesus’ behavior, but we can see how others behave like Him.
Take a worksheet. Fold it up and put it in your purse or pocket. Use it to serve as a tool for noticing Christ in other people. This exercise will force you to do two things:
- Look for good in other people
- Think of ways your own behavior can improve
This worksheet has an example along the top. It takes a relatively simple action and interprets it in terms of Christ’s own attitude. Notice that the two attitudes listed are fruit of the Spirit. They are virtues we would expect to find in Christ and His disciples. Notice that the important thing is attitude. It can be translated into a number of different kinds of action.
- Jennifer holds her tongue and does not interrupt
- This is a natural outgrowth of kindness and especially patience
- Jesus was patient with people who needed to accept Him only after their own barriers to understanding and belief were addressed. He addressed them, but did not force the issue
- I can behave more patiently in a number of different ways
Do it this week
I had a conversation with a friend one time who was thinking about putting off his Masters of Business Administration. He said he knew that most people who did not pursue it immediately after college would not pursue it at all, but he felt he should put it off anyway.
He acknowledged that he was setting himself up to be an exception to the rule or a failure in this goal
Jesus did not give Andrew and John directions to the house where He was staying. He said, ’Come with me.’
There is no time like the present to begin your discipleship journey. Do it this week. If you put it off, you will wish you had not. It will become easier and easier to delay.
This is not an easy day to plan. I know that. The best way to take care of a hard task is to do it first. Plan it for the first day you can practically do it.
There is no substitute. Those of you who have children know that.
- The trips to the zoo
- The ball games and school plays attended
- The help with hobbies and projects
- The playing on the livingroom floor
Are all investments in time that you have made to see your children develop into well adjusted and secure adults. Honestly, they are also minutes and hours invested in your own development in understanding of your children.
If we are going to become deeply personal disciples of Jesus, the way Andrew and John became disciples of Jesus, it is going to take some investment in time.
