“Bring them to Jesus or throw them in the fire” John 1: 35-46
How far will you go to bring someone to Jesus?
The question I need to ask, this morning is, should we be concerned about the lives and eternity of our family/friends or should we just mind our own business?
Is their eternity really any of our business?
Lately my burden for getting our families and friends to Jesus has increased tremendously. So I will tell you up front that these next two weeks the messages may be tough and you may not like what you hear…BUT
Think about something. How far did Jesus go for you? All the way to Calvary.
Was there someone in your life that God used to reach you? So how far should we be willing to go to get others to Jesus?
I want to look at two men who encountered Jesus and what they did IMMEDIATELY following their experience with Jesus.
1. The first was Andrew. Verses 35-39a. [Key words “Come and see”]
Andrew heard John the Baptist tell about the coming Messiah and he even pointed out Jesus as the One who was to come. That was the moment everything in Andrew’s life changed.
Andrew met Jesus and realized that Jesus was the answer to the prayers of his heart. He knew that Jesus could fill him with the peace and the joy that had been missing from his life so he accepted the Way, the Truth and the Life and immediately followed Him.
Look at verses 40-42a. Andrew gets lost in the big picture and many don’t know that he was one of the first two disciples called by Jesus.
How many used to hate when someone said of you, “Oh you’re so & so’s brother/sister”…
Yet Andrew loved his brother enough to bring him to Jesus…Andrew played a key role in bringing one of the major players to the 12.
After surrendering to Jesus, himself, Andrew’s first concern was for his brother, Simon Peter and he couldn’t wait to tell his brother about Jesus.
For some, we have been saved for so long that we seem to forget what we have been saved from…We have forgotten the joy and what it felt like to have the burden of sin lifted from our souls.
Do you know someone who could use some of what you’ve found in Jesus?
Look at verse 42b. When Andrew brought Peter to meet Jesus it says here that Jesus “LOOKED” at Simon. The KJV uses the word “Beheld” This is so much more than a passing glance. The word means “to look at intently” or to “concentrate on.” In other words, Jesus focused on Simon Peter, looking into the very depth of his soul.
There are two things I want you to see here.
a. Jesus looks at the heart of a person and this will be either a relief or a warning to that person. It really depends on how the person responds to Jesus.
Think about this. Jesus knows more about you than you know about yourself…
Guess what… He knows more about that family member than you will ever know…
b. Jesus sees the potential in every person, even when we don’t…Even when they don’t see it in themselves.
I am so glad that Jesus didn’t give up on me as quickly as those around me did.
Jesus longs to unlock the potential in each of us. His desire is to make us into men and women that we never thought we could be or would even strive to be…35+ years ago you would have never been able to convince me that I would standing in front of EBC or any church for that matter, preaching…pastoring. I could never have imagined that I would gain a college degree…Especially knowing that I didn’t even have a High School diploma.
As a matter of fact you would not have been able to convince me that I would be a follower of Jesus Christ…
All of this happened in my life because ONE person never gave up on me…Grandma Bessie never quit. When everyone else, including myself gave up, she kept praying…she kept witnessing…she kept loving. She never saw me as a lost cause. She could only see a grandson that she loved very much and refused to leave this world without seeing him come to Jesus. And I praise the Lord Jesus today that He allowed her prayer to be answered before she left this world. Grandma Bessie could go to glory shouting praises to her King.
How about you? Is there someone you would love to see come to Jesus, before you die? Have you given up on someone as a lost cause?
May I be the spokesperson for lost causes everywhere and say, “PLEASE DON’T GIVE UP ON US.”
Andrew was concerned with getting his own flesh and blood to Jesus…Are you?
2. The Next was Philip. Verses 43-45 Philip’s first concern was for Nathanael, his friend.
When Jesus saw Philip, the Bible tells us that he simply said; “Follow Me” and Philip apparently did just that.
Some people take very little convincing, while others may be a lifetime project.
Jesus had called Philip to, not only follow Him but to be just like Him. Notice that Philip did just like Jesus and immediately went and found his friend Nathanael.
Jesus didn’t wait for people to come to Him, He went out and found them Himself. He had all the answers and could have sit down and waited for the curious to come and have their needs met but he took the good news of salvation to the people… This is exactly what Jesus calls us to do.
EBC has the good news but we are NOT to keep it a secret. We are to go out and find others and bring them to Jesus.
Look at verses 46-49. Sometimes we’ll hit a roadblock.
I want to show you 3 things about the conversation and conversion of both Philip and Nathanael.
a. Philip was no stranger to Nathanael.
Philip and Nathanael were apparently close friends and had been friends for a long time.
Nathanael had the privilege of hearing about Jesus from someone who cared very much for him, not some stranger with a giant Bible beating him over the head with hellfire and brimstone.
What better way to have our friends and family come to Jesus than for those of us who love them WAY more than a stranger or even the pastor/deacon/Sunday school teacher…
Far too many leave the task of soul winning to the “professionals” but Philip and Andrew weren’t Sunday school teachers, deacons or pastors. These positions had not yet been created. They were just 2 guys who had a life changing experience with Jesus and told somebody!
Listen: There are thousands of voices out there promising a path to fulfilment, joy, peace and satisfaction. The problem is that sooner or later, their plans prove to be false and lead to nothing but a DEAD END road. A hopeless road which ends at the gates of hell.
Our friends soon find that what once promised hope now offers none. What they thought would bring peace only brings more turmoil.
That’s why it’s so important that we be willing to share Jesus with our friends.
[Eph 2:13-14a NIV] “13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace,…”
b. Our friends may not be as quick to respond as we hope.
Notice what Nathanael says in verse 46 [READ]
That’s like saying, “Can anything good come out of Elim!? They don’t even have their own Chief of Police!”
How should we handle rejection?
Just like Philip did, at the end of verse 46. “Come and see for yourself.”
Do those words sound familiar? What did Jesus say to Andrew and we believe John, in verse 39?.............“Come and see.”
You know, sometimes the best way to lead someone to Jesus is just to invite them to come and see for themselves. So many atheist have come to Christ and surrendered their lives to Him by studying the Scriptures, for the purpose of proving them wrong.
In his booklet “WHY I LEFT ATHEISM” John N. Clayton tells how his journey from atheism to Jesus began by reading the Bible.
He says; “I read the Bible through from cover to cover four times during my sophomore year in college for the explicit purpose of finding scientific contradictions in it.
By that, I mean statements in the Bible that were false that I could throw back at her to show her how ridiculous it was to believe in God.”
He was trying to convince a young lady, whom he eventually married that she was a fool for believing in God.
I’ve pulled a few statements from what he wrote; He said, “As I read the Bible through again and again, I began to realize that not all of the things I had been told about God and religion were what the Bible said…
I began to recognize that God was not an old man in the sky…
I began to recognize that the church was not a building…
I began to recognize that hypocrisy was not confined to religion. I had the idea that every hypocrite in the world sat in a pew on Sunday morning, and thus everybody who was not sitting in a pew was not a hypocrite. ”
Someone said to me once, “If you get all of the hypocrites out of the church I’ll come.”
My answer to that statement is, “I’d rather spend a few years here with a handful of hypocrites than to wander through hell for eternity with EVERY hypocrite.”
Sometimes it’s take a bit of convincing to bring them around but DON’T give up on them. Invite them to check Jesus out for themselves and NEVER belittle them, coerce them or shame them into salvation because that kind of salvation is hopeless.
c. Remember their salvation is not your decision to make.
Let me see if I can explain what I mean.
All we are to do is bring them to Jesus and He will do the convincing.
When Nathanael said what he did to Philip, Philip could have just walked away and said “Forget it man, I’m a Christian now and you’re not worth my time. You can burn in hell if you want too, see if I care.” Instead of walking away, Philip realized 3 things.
1. He realized that no matter how bad the sin, we still need to invite our friends to Jesus.
2. He realized ALL that Nathanael would have missed if he quit on him.
3. He realized the way to get his friend to Jesus was NOT by arguing with him but showing him Christ.
That’s why these movie nights, VBS, Back yard Bible clubs, picnics, water play days etc. are so important. It’s not just bringing children/teens to play but their parents too and when we get the children/teens in here the parents don’t need to be pushed away and ignored…Someone needs to make an effort to reach out to the parents and not do like so many and sit off staring, pointing and frowning at them…making them feel unwanted and unloved.
We need to get them to a place where they can sense the presence, the peace and the love of Jesus Christ…
EVERYTHING we do, here at EBC, should be done in a way to lead our family and friends to Jesus.
That means that we will need people who will be in their place, ON TIME, ready to serve, ready to love and ready to reach out. We need to step up and do what we said we would or move over and let someone else do it. It may mean rearranging or even moving some rooms so we can create more Sunday School/Bible study space. It means cleaning out rooms that we are using for storage and putting that stuff in the storage building.
We must decide today if we would rather be a storage unit or a hospital for the spiritually sick.
WE MUST decide if our stuff is more important than the eternity of our family/friends!
You must decide if YOUR way is more important to you than God’s way.
I want to go on record and say something that might get me in trouble.
If you are no longer interested in serving. If you are unable to give 100% or just don’t want to serve in your position of leadership anymore. OR maybe you just don’t care about reaching people or doing what you told the church you would do then, I am begging you, in the Name of Jesus PLEASE move over so someone else can take your place.
God is moving in our midst RIGHT NOW, so please let’s not hinder what God is doing by refusing to serve or refusing to get out of God’s way.
We have been doing a lot of talking and God opened the door for us to begin growing our children/youth ministry and if we don’t go through the door He has opened; I believe He has said to my spirit, in these past weeks, that door WILL close and we may NEVER get another chance.
Our business meeting, this afternoon may be one of the most important we have had in some time. We will look at some things that God has been doing and things we need to do if we are going to move forward. It is important that we ALL show up for this meeting…
