Brother and sisters as I was thumbing through the archives of the scriptures I am held all struck, over the growth, the rapid growth and the extreme growth of the early church because the early church grew by leaps and bounds. The early church could not be compared to by our church of today’s time. The early church was an awesome role model for church growth, and church development, and I want to reintegrate that I am still held in amazement over the growth of the early church.
I am even more amazed when I think about what they didn’t have, compared to what we in our modern day do have. We have in our day and time television, radio, billboards, we have in our day and time, internet, satellite and computers whereas the early church of the scriptures did not have. And I am disturb because even though the early church didn’t have all of these perks that we now have, yet the early church, out grew us, they grew much faster than us, without any of the modern day technology.
What is so amazing about this is that Peter preached only one sermon, and the size of the church was increased by 3,000. John only preached one sermon (repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand), and not only did the church grow on the occasions of sermons and preaching, but between the church services and between the sermons the church continued to grow.
As a matter of fact the church grew so much that the scriptures tells us that it astonish the Roman authorities, and the Sanhedrin counsel, because the church was on the move, and the church kept on growing. And let me just through this in and that is whenever the church is on the move the devil will stick his head up. Whenever the church is on the move Satan himself is upset and maddddd!!!!!
The church of the early era grew with an amazing amount in numbers in spite of major persecution. In our day when we face one little harassment, maltreatment, singling out, hounding, and with one problem we are ready to just give up and throw in the towel. When the members of the early church were being, crucified, ostracize, monopolize and persecuted on every side, just because they love the Lord.
And we can’t take anyone looking at us funny. Whispering about us or pointing a finger. You know what you ought to do when people are blatantly lying on you; you ought to just laugh yourself to sleep. Do you know what you ought to do when people constantly lie on you and keep your name in their mouth? You ought to thank them, thank them? Yes because don’t you know that most advertising company will charge you a lot of money for advertisement and here you are getting for free.
What we must understand is that you could get killed in the days of the early church just for going to church. You could be killed just for owning up to Jesus, or just for calling on the name of Jesus, but in spite of mortal danger, in spite of the things that placed one live in jeopardy, the early church kept on growing. We live in a day and time in the U.S where dangers like this really don’t exist, we can come to church and worship freely without the fear of the lost of lives, without the fear of retribution. But what I am concerned about is why we are not growing at the rate as the early church did.
I ask the question what was the cause of the early church growth? And what I found out is that people care about the spiritual welfare of their neighbor. There cared about their family members, they wouldn’t run off and leave them at home. It was not each one would past up one, or each one would deny one, each one would lie on one, each one would discriminate one, differentiate, separate or alienate one but each one would reach one, each one was committed to reaching another with the good news of Jesus Christ. This is why the church kept doubling, and tripling in size. Yes neighbors would talk to neighbors about Jesus, workers would talk to co-workers about Jesus, and scripture tells us that people found themselves obsess, preoccupy, gripped, an consumed with sharing their faith with others and the church kept on growing.
They didn’t wait for the lost to come to them, but instead they went looking, and seeking to save those that were lost and that’s another reason why the church kept on growing. It used to be a time when we would be concerned about my four and no more but that time seems to be gone, on every hand we need to seek and to save.
Now the bible tells us during this time of growth is when Jesus was making his decision on his disciples. He was making the choice of those men who would walk with him and be a part of his movement in a very interment way.
At the time of our text John the Baptist who had been a great source of strength and power, and he has now started to decrease so that Jesus the Christ could increase.
Understand that John the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus, John the Baptist was not the way but he prepared the way for our Christ, John the Baptist declared that I am not that light, but I have come to bear witness of that light and I must tell you that the light has come.
John has started to decrease so that Jesus could increase, and that tells me that there should not be any person that is higher than Jesus. When we find ourselves more important then the master there is a problem, when we find ourselves more elevated then Jesus, when we are shinning more then the S.O.N. that’s is a major problem. There shouldn’t be, there can’t be, there ought not to be one that higher then Jesus.
When we find ourselves higher than Jesus, then I must tell you that we are traveling in the wrong direction, because our role is to draw people to him and not draw people to ourselves. Our roles is to lift him up not ourselves, our role is to sing how great thou art not how great I am. John had to decrease so that Jesus could increase.
You know the story some of the people that had been walking with John are now walking with Jesus and that upset some of John’s disciples but it didn’t upset John. And you can always tell when people want you to follow them because they will get upset with you when you begin to follow Jesus. You got to understand this whenever you have a clear understanding about what our purpose and our role is, we won’t have any problems in coming to church when other people stop coming to church. You know when there is a problem when other stop praising God and you stop praying him because of others.
Now the bible tells us about the many things that had taken place, and now Jesus has now gathered a great following, and many souls were being blessed. The report is that Andrew had came to meet Jesus, and Andrew would not be content until he had introduced Simon his brother, the one who would later be known as Peter to Jesus because they had the system of each one, reach one, and this was because they were greatly excited about meeting Jesus. And often time I wonder what would happen right here at our church if we were to obtain this kind of excitement? I wonder how it would be if we would use our phones for witnessing tools. I wonder what would happen if we use it for a prayer line, or as a line of encouragement, a line for comforting one another.
They were helping one another not hurting one another if we could adopt the ways of the early church others we would become attracted because of the excitement that is posted on us.
Now the bible tells us that later one by the name of Phillip would become exposed to Jesus and Phillip was not be
content until Nathanael came to meet Jesus.
Now let me call your attention two character in which the text evolves, and that is Phillip and Nathanael. And we need to thank God for Phillip and we need to thank God for Nathanael. Because Phillip had already met Jesus, Phillip had been exposed to Jesus, he had already had personal experiences with Jesus and he was excited about Jesus.
And what I learned through the years is that excitement and enthusiasm comes along with being exposed to Jesus. And I can witness to this fact because I met Jesus at the age of 9 years old and that’s been a long time ago but my excitement and my enthusiasm has not changed. Yes Jesus still rings my number, Jesus still rings my bell, Jesus still stirs my heart, Jesus still triggers my seat of emotion, Jesus still jump starts my morning, Jesus still generate my days, activate my mind, create my life style, stimulate my emotions, I still get excited about Jesus.
And I got to throw this in. This is when you truly know him and he truly knows you, when he abides in you and you abide in him there is a set excitement that will never leave, never disappear, depart or run off.
Well pastor how will you know that he’s there? Because you will get happy and don’t care who’s watching, you will rejoice and don’t care who’s setting beside you, you laugh when nothing is funny, cry when nobody is bothering, you run when nobody is chasing. You will delight yourself in the Lord, you will exalt his Holy name, and you will enter his gates with thanksgiving and enter into his courts with praise. And the reason that I mention this is because there are some dry representatives of God. There are some that say that they are fire baptized but no one knows it but them.
However when you are fire baptized there will be an outward expression from an inward conviction.
Yes the bible tells us that Phillip had been exposed to Jesus, and because he had been exposed as a result of his exposure he caught on fire. He was so on fire that he said this man Jesus is to good for me to just keep him all to myself, and since I know him I know somebody that needs to meet him. I know somebody that can benefit from knowing him; he said Nathanael needs to meet Jesus.
So the question arises who was Nathanael? Well first of all Nathanael was one of those that had not become acquainted with Jesus, and I need to tell yall that we got a whole lot of Nathanael right here in Jackson, MS.
No Nathanael didn’t know Jesus but Phillip did, and I better serve notice right here for all of the Phillips that are in the room, you need to go find your Nathanael.
So I can hear Phillip saying in my mind, this man Jesus would be good for Nathanael to meet. This man Jesus would be good for whatever ails him, I can hear Phillip saying that so many things would fall in place for Nathanael if he could just meet Jesus.
Somebody in here can attest to this fact that since you have become to know Jesus, it has save you some trips to the psychologist office, since you met Jesus his makes you sleep better at night, he make your blood pressure come down, he has regulated your sugar, your appetite has grown, when you know Jesus he will help you to face your problem. Can anybody attest to that fact? I am of the belief that all some people need is a good dose of Jesus.
What I love about Jesus is that Jesus has fixed me.
Yes Jesus has fixed it so that when I see trouble coming my way coming my way I don’t have to run because he has fixed me to know that trouble don’t last always. He has fixed me to know that weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning. He has fixed me to know that all things are working together for the good of them that love the Lord.
So now that I know that my God is bigger than any trouble I now have a new outlook on trouble. Since I’ve met Jesus I can deal with the storms of life much better.
As I hurry on to my close: Nathanael didn’t know the Lord but Phillip did. So it is said that Phillip was sent out looking for Nathanael, and I don’t know where Nathanael was, but he probably began to look into spots the he would normally hang out. He looked for Nathanael and I don’t know how long he looked for him but he finally caught up with him.
And when he seen Nate he started running, let me put some audio with this video. I can hear him call Nate, Nate I have some good news I have found him whom Moses and the prophet wrote about, it’s Jesus of Nazareth. But allow me to tell all of the Phillip’s in the house something and that is when you are looking for Nathanael, let me tell you what you might encounter once you find him, and that is resistance.
But the one thing that you must not do is give up on Nathanael when you find him. They just might pour water on your fire, because there is some Nate that just doesn’t want to hear it just like this Nathanael didn’t want to hear it. He was turn off and unmoved by what Phillip had to say.
I can hear Nate saying just a few days ago you were singing the praises of John the Baptist and now you are talking about you have found the Messiah and that you have found the Christ. 2ndly you say that he is from where Nazareth? You haven’t found him because what you are saying is that the messiah that we have been waiting for, for such a long time is coming from the hood I don’t think so. As a matter of fact, could any good thing come out of Nazareth?
But what I love about Phillip is that he had the right answer and that was, and if you don’t believe it come and see.
Some people just need to see for themselves what’s going on, and our job is just to get the people to Jesus and he will sell himself. He said come and see.
Come and see because he’s good for whatever ails, you just tell them to come and see, he is the solution for your problems come and see.
So Nate went to Jesus and when he got before Jesus he said Ahhh Nathanael the Israelite, and Nathaniel said how do you know me and Jesus said I know you, as a matter of fact I know more about you than you want me to tell, but just to help you out earlier today I saw where you were sitting, yes I saw you sitting under the fig tree after which Nathanael realize that Jesus was the real deal.
So it said that Nathanael fell down before Jesus and cried out with a loud voice that you are the one.
Now I don’t know about you, but I was once had a Nathaniel in my life time and God sent a Phillip after me, and my Phillip brought me to Jesus just as I was. I was wounded, weak and sad but I found in him a resting place and he has made me glad.
So I need to ask the question in the house this morning, and that is are there any Nathanael in the house this morning? If you are, then you need to come to Jesus while you can. Because He standing with his arms wide open just waiting on you.
And you don’t have to worry about how you’re dress; you don’t have to worry about your social status. Just come to Jesus just as you are and he will make you whole. He is a burden barer, Heart fixer, Mind regulator
So, now whereas I was a Nathaniel I am now a Phillip going out telling the world about man name Jesus whom I am well acquainted with and my question is do you know him?
So every person that you knows that you’re on the outside of the will of God please, please, please act as a Phillip and tell them to just come and see.
