John 1 :35-51 Jesus meets a Sceptic
preached at Jubilee Church by Adrian Warnock
Audio and slides available at
http://www.jubilee-church.org/sermons/john/john1v35ff.htm
Discussion Questions
· Does hearing about Church statistics discourage you or inspire you to want to make a difference?
· Why does Jesus choose the way of gathering a few faithful friends?
· How can we be better and more faithful friends of each other and help each other follow Jesus?
· What are the best ways for us to introduce our friends to Jesus?
· What friends do you have that you would like to first pray for, and then invite?
Sermon Notes
Intro-Bleeding to death
Archbishop George Carey in 1998 stated ‘Our mission is under attack. ... In some sections of our Western Church we are bleeding to death."1
Perhaps he had in mind his native country of England. The words are an apt description of where we might be going if one looks at them from a purely statistical point of view. In 1979 5.4 million people in England attended church on an average Sunday. Ten years later in 1989 that number had become 4.7 million. Nine years later in 1998 that number had become 3.7 million. A 0.7 million drop in 10 years has been followed by a 1.0 million drop in 9 years, a 13% decline over 10 years and a 22% decline over 9 years.
This has been at a time when the population has been increasing, from 46 million in 1979 to nearly 50 million by 1998. This means that Sunday church attendance, in percentage terms, has become:
· 11.7% attending church on an average Sunday in 1979
· 9.9% in 1989, and
· 7.5% in 1998.
We can take some solace from Worldwide statistics-
33% population ‘Christian’ of which 11% are evangelical and 22% are non-evangelical
BUT! Islam has recently taken over as fastest growing religion
Local figures do also provide us with some solace-
Enfield and Waltham Forest have both shown significant church growth. This is thought to be largely related to the growth in non white populations.
The questions remains though- are we going to be a significant part of this picture in Jubilee and what kind of churches are these people attending?
What are we doing about it?
‘The New Testament offers a picture: A God who does not sound at all vague to me. He has sent his son to Earth. He has distinct plans both for his son and for mankind. He knows each of us personally and can communicate directly with us. We are capable of forming a direct relationship, individually, with him, and we are commanded to try. We are told this can only be done through his son. And we are offered the prospect of eternal life — an afterlife in happy, blissful or glorious circumstances. Friends, if I believed that, or even a tenth of that, I would drop my job, sell my house, throw away my possessions, and set out into the world burning with the desire to tell others.’ Matthew Paris from the Times.(cited in Adrian Holloway)
54 MILLION people die each year! (UN, 1999)
‘Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!’ (1 Cor. 9:16)
General Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army said that if he could have done so, he would have finished the training of his officers by dangling them over hell for 24 hours, so that they could see its horrors. Only then would he put them onto the streets.” (cited in Adrian Holloway)
In this context, it is of course interesting to go back to the beginning and see what Jesus did about it. In his day the church was a tiny minority- one out of the whole worlds population.
What was his first step?
Was it to launch a large meeting series?
No it was to gather a few friends!
What a way to impact the world. What a way to launch a world movement that today affects 33% of the worlds population 2000 years on.
Just maybe we need to learn from this- instead of moaning about the sate of the church, lets set about building one that bucks the trend, or in our case locally simply joins the trend!!
Lets see how Jesus set about it- he’s a great example.
Whos seeking whom?
Seeing Jesus, John says LOOK, the others follow. There is no sense of competetion here- John existed to bring people to Jesus- do we?
As they turn to follow Jesus, I guess they didn’t think that ‘The LONGEST journey begins with a single step ‘ (quote from Lao-tsu (c 604–c 531 BC), founder of Taoism). But it is true, the journey of following Jesus begins for them and mankind here. It is always important to examine the beginnings of anything.
It is interesting to see this event in connection with the verses we looked at a couple of weeks ago ‘he came to what was his own and they did not receive him’. The wonder should not be that these two disciples followed Jesus, but that many others didn’t also at that moment.
But lets speculate for a moment, did Jesus wonder for a moment if these disciples of John had got it already. Was it going to be this easy? Had two people recognised him straight away for who he was?
As they follow Jesus little do they realise that they themselves being watched by the Lord. Whos doing the seeking here? Jesus states elsewhere-
For mthe Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”(Lk 19:10)[1]
The hound of heaven pursues vigorously but like the master fisherman, he lets them do the running as it were! They are hooked, now all he needs do is reel them in!
But he makes them think they are the ones doing the looking.
He asks them a key question ‘what do you seek?’
Bultmann observed, “It is the first question which must be addressed to anyone who comes to Jesus, the first thing about which he must be clear”[2]
Indeed, the truth is that we are all seeking for something.
Why is it that the most popular films from Lord of the Rings to Star Wars to Toy Story all seem to have about them this theme of a journey. We know at an instinctive level as human beings that there is something missing for us.
The greek word for ‘seek’ here has been described as ‘what one desires somehow to bring into relation w. oneself or to obtain without knowing where it is to be found’[3]
Seeking biblically is a mutual thing- Jesus seeks us, we seek him. There is a rightness about that. We seek a sense of meaning for life, and we seek happiness. Both are to be found only in Jesus.
Detailed notes
As the TDNT puts it ‘When used in a religious sense this word first denotes the “seeking” of what is lost which is undertaken by the Son of Man with a view to saving it (Lk. 19:10), as a shepherd looks for the lost sheep (Mt. 18:12) or a woman for the lost coin (Lk. 15:8). But the same term can also be used of the holy “demand” of God who requires much from him to whom much is given (Lk. 12:48), and who expects fruit from the tree (Lk. 13:6 f.), faithfulness from the steward (1 C. 4:2)1 and worship in spirit and in truth by the true righteous (Jn. 4:23). It is obvious that there are different nuances in the two uses. But the fact that the word is the same must be brought out so far as possible in translation. Thus the seeking of Jesus is accompanied by and grounded in a claim to what belongs to Him[4]
‘In most cases the subject of ζητέω is man. If we restrict our enquiry to passages with a religious reference, we find that in these instances the term denotes man’s general philosophical search or quest. The root of this concept is to be found in the frequent LXX use of ζητεῖν for בִּקֵּשׁ and also in the use of the term in secular literature, where it is a technical term for philosophical investigation.[5]
And yet, I don’t suppose those disciples woke up that morning thinking gee I must find Jesus! We often don’t realize even as Christians that the best place for us to find meaning and Joy is in Him This is why it states elsewhere-
I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”[6] cited from Is 65:1
Christianity is all about the quest to right that which is wrong!
44 “The kingdom of heaven xis like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy yhe goes and sells all that he has and zbuys that field.
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding aone pearl of great value, ywent and sold all that he had and zbought it.[7]
But who is the man, who is the merchant? Is it us or is it Jesus? Or is it even God with Jesus!? Ie only through salvation could the real treasure which is the wonder of who God is be shown
Notice the passion here, the seeking, the joy. IS this the same as nominal believism that is all too rampant in our churches in the west?
We live in a superficially Christianized society where thousands of lost people think they do believe in Jesus. In most of my witnessing to unbelievers and nominal Christians, the command "Believe in Jesus and you shall be saved," is virtually meaningless. Drunks on the street say they do. Unmarried couples sleeping together say they do. Elderly people who haven’t sought worship or fellowship for forty years say they do. Every stripe of world-loving church attendees say they do. My responsibility as a preacher of the gospel and a teacher of the church is not just to repeat precious Biblical sentences, but to speak the truth of those sentences in a way that will prick the conscience of the hearer and help you feel your need for Christ. (John Piper) [8]
We haven’t sought Christ despite having good reason too. Which person knowing that their daughter had been saved from certain death by a fireman would not like the Australian couple appear on our screens as eager to meet that man- we have even more to be grateful to God for than that couple. We should be eagerly seeking him yet we do not seek him, thank him or praise him even in the way the worlds media has praised a holidaying English fireman.
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they obecame futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.(Ro 1:21) [9]
If we want to be saved We must believe on him, receive him, turn from our sin, obey him, humble ourselves like little children, and love him more than we love our family, our possessions or our own life. This is what it means to be converted to Christ. And this alone is the way of life everlasting.[10]
Do we seek him putting all aside like Jack Nicholsons character in the film The pledge who even used a little girl as live bait for the killer?
We must turn to Jesus out of a desire for Joy and for us to be rewarded
‘What did Jesus say to Peter when Peter focused on his sacrificial self-denial and said, "Lo, we have left everything and followed you" (Mt. 19:27)? Jesus saw the seeds of pride: "We have made the heroic decision to sacrifice for Jesus." And how did he banish that pride out of Peter’s heart? He said:
There is no one who has left anything for my sake who will not receive a hundredfold … now and in the age to come eternal life.
Peter if you don’t come to me because I am a greater treasure than all those things you have left, then you don’t come to me at all. You are still in love with your own self-sufficiency. You have not become like a little child basking in the beneficence of his Father. It is pride that wants to be anything more than a little baby branch sucking righteousness, peace and joy from Christ the vine. The condition of salvation is that you come to Christ in search of reward and that you find in him a treasure chest of holy joy.[11]
Actually we ALL seek joy- American declaration of independence ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’
Kant felt apathy to be particularly excellent: bliss is a state of `complete independence from inclinations and desires’ THIS IS RUBBISH!!!!!
Too many Christians are half hearted in the seeking Jesus. This is seen in church attendance- I will come when I want to, in bible study (when did I last do that…..?), prayer (emergencies only!).
Lets commit together to seek God together. Lets become a band of faithful followers of Jesus who look to him for all our needs, and who go to even our sceptical friends like Nathaniel here and tell them also ‘Come and see’. We cant help but notice the way in this passage, two followers rapidly become four! Wouldn’t it be great if we could double our numbers- this is hard if it all depends on one or two people, but EASY if we all just seek to bring ONE friend!
These evening meetings are not designed for us to be comfortable but rather be encouraged and sent out on a mission to draw others to follow this Jesus. We may not change the world overnight, but when each of us are seeking out friends who can come to Jesus we WILL buck the trend, begin to grow and know the Joy of salvation in our meetings!
Lets pray for there to be new stories of people finding Jesus even this term before Christmas.
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m Ezek. 34:11, 16; [ch. 15:4; Matt. 9:13; 10:6; 15:24; 18:12]
[1]The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (electronic ed.) (Lk 19:10). Wheaton: Good News Publishers.
[2]Beasley-Murray, G. R. (1998). Vol. 36: Word Biblical Commentary : John (electronic ed.). Logos Library System;Word Biblical Commentary (Jn 1:36). Dallas: Word, Incorporated.
[3]Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature. "Based on Walter Bauer’s Griechisch-deutsches Wr̲terbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der frhüchristlichen [sic] Literatur, sixth edition, ed. Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, with Viktor Reichmann and on previous English editions by W.F. Arndt, F.W. Gingrich, and F.W. Danker." (3rd ed.) (Page 428). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
1 On the pass. ζητεῖται cf. Str.-B., I, 443.
[4]Theological dictionary of the New Testament. 1964-c1976. Vols. 5-9 edited by Gerhard Friedrich. Vol. 10 compiled by Ronald Pitkin. (G. Kittel, G. W. Bromiley & G. Friedrich, Ed.) (Vol. 2, Page 892). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
[5]Theological dictionary of the New Testament. 1964-c1976. Vols. 5-9 edited by Gerhard Friedrich. Vol. 10 compiled by Ronald Pitkin. (G. Kittel, G. W. Bromiley & G. Friedrich, Ed.) (Vol. 2, Page 893). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
[6]The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (electronic ed.) (Ro 10:20). Wheaton: Good News Publishers.
x Prov. 2:4
y [ch. 25:9; Prov. 23:23; Phil. 3:7, 8]
z [Isai. 55:1; Rev. 3:18]
a ch. 7:6
y [See ver. 44 above]
z [See ver. 44 above]
[7]The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (electronic ed.) (Mt 13:44-46). Wheaton: Good News Publishers.
[8]John Piper, sermon on Mt 13:44-46 available online at http://desiringgod.org/library/sermons/83/091883.html
o 2 Kin. 17:15; Jer. 2:5; Eph. 4:17, 18
[9]The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (electronic ed.) (Ro 1:21). Wheaton: Good News Publishers.
[10]John Piper, sermon on Mt 13:44-46 available online at http://desiringgod.org/library/sermons/83/091883.html
[11]John Piper, sermon on Mt 13:44-46 available online at http://desiringgod.org/library/sermons/83/091883.html
