“Real Disciples catch Fish”
John 1: 35-42
When it comes down to sharing our faith I think there are two things that are pretty much true for all of us. First, every one of us want to see our friends and family come to know Jesus. I want to see everyone in this community come to Christ. That’s why we’re here. But unfortunately, a second thing is also true for most of us; many of us do not know where to start. Bill Bright, who is the founder of campus Crusade for Christ said this-in all the surveys we have done, all over the world, our research indicates that approximately 95% of all believers do not know how to effectively share their faith.
And for many of us it comes down to one reason. Fear.
• Fear we will say the wrong thing.
• Fear we will not know what to say at all
• fear that we may do more harm than good
• fear that we might offend someone
• fear that we will fail
But here is a truth we really need to understand and take to heart.
Every follower of Christ is called to share their faith.
God is responsible for the results. Not us.
Now look at the text with me. Verses 35-38. We know from our previous study of John’s Gospel that it was John who first recognized Jesus for who he really was. There was a period of silence between the writing of the OT and the NT. For 400 years, basically the prophets had not heard from God. Now John is preaching, reminding people that the Messiah is still coming... God has not forgotten about his people. Then John sees Jesus walking-out of the desert-and he then says those famous words-“behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
Now it is the next day. You know that was Saturday, now it’s Sunday. This is how quickly this was catching on. Just 24 hours. Notice the reading of verse 35. There is a time for reflection. These were not followers of Jesus. They were followers of John. These are two of John’s followers. They had received John’s baptism. John has been telling them about the Messiah and now he’s about to say, hey this is the guy I’ve been telling you about-he has finally arrived and now I want you to meet him in person. Can you imagine?
Apparently the introduction worked out very well. They basically said, please to meet you Jesus and then the Bible says right then they followed Jesus. The groundwork for this decision had already been laid and they immediately became disciples/followers of Jesus. This was Andrew and another man named John. And obviously it was not enough for them to just hear about Jesus; they wanted a personal introduction. So they got one and then they began to follow him. Literally. They were walking behind him, following him-ever had anyone follow you? It’s a strange feeling-you want to turn and asked them, “Hey why are you following me?” And that’s kind of what Jesus does. Jesus turns to them and says “hey, what are you looking for?” If you have a red letter addition of Scripture then you may know that these are the first words Jesus spoke in the gospel of John and they are remarkable. The first words of his public ministry are in the form of a question... “What are you looking for?” There is perhaps not a bigger question Jesus could ask of us than this. What are you looking for? Today he would ask, why did you come to this service today? What are you looking for in life? It is a question he asks of every person who considers following him and he asks us today... What are you looking for? So in turn they answer his question with a question. Jesus where are you staying? Obviously they want to spend time with him. They want to talk. Can you imagine all the questions they must’ve had? These guys are sick of religion; especially the religion of that day. So it is as though Jesus says take a moment to reflect on that question and then it’s time for you to do something. Time to take action. Some of you here today who have been thinking of making the next decision, taking the next step to follow Christ or jump in deeper need to hear this... There’s a time for reflection; but there comes a time for action also.
Verse 39. There is a time for a decision. Jesus says, come and you’ll see. Take your time. Ask what you want; but do make up your mind! John and Andrew are apparently the kind of guys who don’t move quickly. They like to investigate. I can identify with that. I tend to make decisions slowly. Some of you are like that as well-people cannot push you or drive you to do something-it takes time for you to make a decision. So Jesus says to people like that…..it’s okay. Investigate me.
Now, for John-the Baptist, his mind was already made up. He had already crossed the line. The line from unbelief to belief. For some it happens quickly, for others it takes more time-what matters is that we do it. We take the step. First he invites us to come and see, then investigate. Make a decision. And so they did. Just took one night. Notice they asked Jesus where he was staying. Remember, Jesus said that he had no place to lay his head. He was basically homeless, going from place to place, Asking people to come and see. So who knows where he took them that day but the Bible says they stayed with him until about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Now once we have asked our questions. Done our investigation. And taken that step of faith. He says now it’s time to speak up. That is when he gives them the final invitation, come after me and I will make you fishers of men. (Mark 1:17) and guess what? They never went home again.
Vvs. 40-42. There is a time to speak up. The result of all the time Andrew and John were with Jesus is that they realize they had something that was just too good to keep to themselves. So Andrew left immediately and found the person he loved the most, his brother, Simon and he brought him to Jesus. Verse 40 continues the story by telling us, “One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew.” (41). It is worth mentioning; it is significant that the first disciple to follow Jesus was the first to bring his own brother to Christ. In verse 41 and we read, he first found his own brother Simon. V. 41. Followers of Jesus will share their faith. Jesus said, follow me and I will make you a Fisher of men. If you’re not a fisher of men you must not be following Jesus.
I look at this again. He found first his brother Simon. I guess there are a couple of possibilities here of what this could mean. John could be saying that Andrew found his brother before he did anything else. Or he could be saying Andrew was the first of the disciples to find his brother and bring him to Christ. But the bottom line is this. Andrew had something he just had to share with his brother. Listen, to share your faith you don’t have to memorize the New Testament. You don’t have to be a pastor. You don’t even have to have the pastor’s permission. Okay? It’s your story, keep it simple and share it.
Did you know that every time we come across Andrew in John’s Gospel, he is bringing someone to Jesus.
• Obviously we see it in this passage in John one.
• We see it in chapter 6 at the feeding of the 5000. It was Andrew who brought the boy with the five loaves and two fish to Jesus.
• Then in chapter 12 some Greeks came to Philip and asked to see Jesus. Philip apparently didn’t know what to do so he runs in gets Andrew. Then Andrew gets them to Jesus. Andrew is our role model for sharing our faith.
Each time it reads and he brought him to Jesus and he brought him to Jesus and he brought them to Jesus. The Bible says now when Jesus looked at him, he said “you are Simon. You shall be called Cephas.” Cephas is translated a stone. Jesus first sees him as he is…. And he says “you are Simon.” The New Testament reveals that Simon was impetuous. Unstable. You will remember at one point he will deny Jesus three times. But the same time Jesus regard him not as he is, but as he shall become. He shall be called Cephas or Peter. Jesus changed his name from Simon to Peter which basically means he said you are unstable but now you will be a rock. Simon had a new relationship with Jesus and he would become a new person. This same experience is repeated over and over today. We come to the Lord as we are. He knows all about us, both our good and our bad qualities. He sees us not as we are, but as we can become if we allow him to control our lives. God not only looks at our past he looks at our potential. That is how he sees you.
Andrew was just an ordinary man. But his influence was extraordinary. Oswald Chambers says the world needs more ordinary men. Men and women like Andrew.
I heard of this game warden that a friend who would come back from fishing and every time his friend came back he would have hundreds of fish that he had caught, all iced down. The game warden was really curious as to how this man could catch so many fish every time he went out. So one day he was talking with his friend, and he ask him, how do you catch so many fish? His friend said well you should come with me the next time I go fishing and I’ll show you how. So they set a time and early one morning they made their way out to the lake. The game warden noticed that his friend only had a small bag with him. He had no rod and reel, no tackle box, not even any bait. But the game warden did wonder what he had in the bag. As they arrived in their boat at the right location on the lake, his friend reached into his bag and he pulled out a stick of dynamite. He lit the dynamite and threw it into the water. The dynamite then exploded and hundreds of fish floated to the surface and the man just scooped them up and put them into the boat. The game warden said to his friend, you can’t do that! I’m a game warden. This is illegal! The game warden was just beside himself and went on and on about how the man was breaking the law and…just kept talking and talking. The man calmly reached back into his sack, pulled out another stick of dynamite, lit the fuse and handed it to the game warden and said “now, are you going to sit there and talk or are you going to fish?”
As believers we do a lot of talking but we don’t do a lot of fishing. And even if we do a lot of fishing we don’t do a lot of catching fish. I think it’s time to start.
