GO TELL YOUR BROTHER
JOHN 1: 35-51
AUGUST 18, 2002
INTRODUCTION:
Around the corner I have a friend, In this great city that has no end, Yet the days go by
and weeks rush on, And before I know it, a year is gone. And I never see my old friend’s face, For life is a swift and terrible race, He knows I like him just as well, As in the days
when I rang his bell. And he rang mine if, we were younger then, And now we are busy, tired men. Tired of playing a foolish game, Tired of trying to make a name. "Tomorrow" I say "I will call on Jim" "Just to show that I’m thinking of him. "But tomorrow comes
and tomorrow goes, And distance between us grows and grows. Around the corner! -
yet miles away, "Here’s a telegram, sir." "Jim died today." And that’s what we get and deserve in the end. Around the corner, a vanished friend.
Remember to always say what you mean. If you love someone, tell them. Don’t be afraid to express yourself. Reach out and tell someone what they mean to you. Because when you decide that it is the right time it might be too late. Seize the day. Never have regrets. And most importantly, stay close to your friends and family, for they have helped make you the person that you are today.
A couple of weeks ago, a small group got together for a movie night. They watched “Unbreakable,” the latest movie from the writer and director of “The Sixth Sense.” In this movie, Bruce Willis discovers that he has a special gift, but he doesn’t yet know how to use it. So his new friend, played by Samuel L. Jackson gives him this advice: “Go where people are – and you’ll know what to do.”
That’s God’s advice to us too: Go where people are – and you’ll know what to do. I’ll show you. I’ll tell you. Just make yourself available. Go out in your yard when your neighbor is outside in his, sit and listen when your uncle wants to talk, go to the company picnic. Just go where people are – and you’ll know what to do!
Matthew Rogers
TRANSITION THOUGHT: As we continue on this Journey of discovering just how to share our faith, we realize that time is of the essence! But how we argue! And to that Samuel L. Jackson says, “Go where people are – and you’ll know what to do.” Our text for today continues with this theme of getting the word out. It is so simple and basic, but somehow we have made it so complicated! I feel this text teaches us why we have made it so difficult and why it truly is not! Jesus is responsible, not us!
THESIS SENTENCE: THE JOURNEY OF FAITH INCLUDES BRINGING OTHERS ALONG!
So, let us look at the Journey as found in John 1: 35-51!
I. THE JOURNEY BEGINS WITH COMING TO JESUS (VV. 35-39; 43)
A. Coming to Jesus is hearing what others are saying about Him!
1. Did you notice where this text got started? John sees Jesus, and responds, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
2. John is speaking with feeling here! He gets fired up when he sees Jesus! I get fired up when I see Jesus! Do you get fired up when Jesus walks by? Ask our Prayer team about when Jesus walks by! We get fired up!
3. John 1: 29 – 34 is the reason to get fired up!! (READ THIS TEXT!)
B. Coming to Jesus is our personal response to Him!
1. How did John’s disciples respond? They took off after Jesus! Have you taken off after Jesus!
2. Guess what? IF you start to follow Jesus, HE WILL TAKE NOTICE OF YOU AND WHEN HE DOES, HE WILL ASK YOU, “WHAT DO YOU WHAT?”
3. Are you ready to answer that question?
4. Their reply, in case you don’t get it, is we want to be where you are!! 5. Jesus reply is okay; you can be where I am!!
6. Did you get that? You can be where Jesus is!
7. Verse 39 is the Key to this thought, “COME,” HE REPLIED, “YOU WILL SEE.”
8. The call is to come to Jesus and when we receive the call, WE WILL SEE! BUT, YOU MUST COME FIRST IF YOU WANT TO SEE!!!!!!
9. The text reads, “So they went and saw…and spent that day with Him (verse 39).”
ILLUSTRATION: God does not ask your ability or your inability. He asks only your availability.
— Mary Kay Ash
TRUTH: UNLESS YOU COME YOU WILL NOT KNOW
II. THE JOURNEY CONTINUES WITH BRINGING OTHERS TO JESUS
A. First things First Go Tell a Seeker! (Go get your family)
1. Not only was the response a personal commitment to follow, these new followers put first things first!
2. “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him… (Verse 41).”
3. When we meet Jesus, the first response should be to find someone and tell them what has happened. How many of you remember doing this?
4. Did you have to be forced? If so, something is wrong!
5. But whom did Andrew seek out? It was his own brother! Andrew told Simon, “We have found the Messiah” (that is the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus (vv. 41-42).”
6.Who are you the most concerned about? I hope it is your family! It must not stop there, but telling the old, old story of Jesus and His love should start at home!
7. Surely, if you have met the Savior of the World and the one “Who takes away the sin of the World (verse 29),” you would want to share it with someone?!
ILLUSTRATION: "Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant."
- Robert Louis Stevenson
B. First things First, Go tell a skeptic! (Go get your friends)
1. The text does not end with Andrew telling Simon. Others have the exact same reaction!!
2. When Philip found Jesus, right away he went and told a friend!
3. Nathanael is not Philips brother, he is a friend!
4. Not only is he a friend, but he is not a willing recipient of the good news! He is a Skeptic! Do you know any of these? Are you afraid to tell them about Jesus? Philip went out on a limb and shared with a friend about this man called Jesus! Will you?
5. Philip did not defend Jesus, he just used Jesus language, “Come and See (verse 46).”
6. Don’t worry about your target audience; just tell people about this one you have found and let Jesus do His work!
ILLUSTRATON: Jim Wallis writes in The Call to Conversion (HarperCollins, 1992, p. 108) his testimony: "When I was a university student, I was unsuccessfully evangelized by almost every Christian group on campus. My basic response to their preaching was, “How can I believe when I look at the way the church lives?” They answered, “Don’t look at the church, look at Jesus.” I now believe that statement is one of the saddest in the history of the church. ...People should be able to look at the way we live and begin to understand what the gospel is about. Our lives must tell them who Jesus is and what he cares about."
ILLUSTRATION: Jesus is unique...This is highlighted in the ministry of a well-known missionary to India, Dr. E. Stanley Jones. Jones often lectured to Hindu audiences having Hindus as chairmen of the meetings. On one such occasion the chairman was a chief minister of state. During his introduction he said, "I shall reserve my remarks for the close of the address, for no matter what the speaker says, I will find parallel things in our own sacred books." At the close of the meeting he was at a loss for words. Dr. Jones had not presented "things"; he had presented a person, Jesus Christ; and that person was not found in their sacred books. As someone has put it, "Christ is the crisis of all religion."
Dr. R. A. Robinson MA in "With So Many Religions, Why Christianity"
TRUTH: UNLESS YOU BRING OTHERS THEY WILL NEVER KNOW
III. THE JOURNEY IS ABOUT SEEING OTHERS CHANGE BECAUSE OF JESUS (VV. 42; 47-51)
A. Jesus will rename you!
1. When you meet Jesus, you will never be the same.
2. Simon meet Jesus and he was renamed “The Rock.”
3. When you meet Jesus, He pulls out all your potential and you become who you really want to be.
4. Jesus alone can change you and others!
B. Jesus can defend himself!
1. Often we are so afraid to tell others, because they might not believe and will argue with us about just who Jesus is.
2. Philip had the answer, I will not answer you, “Come and See (verse 46).” 3. When we lead others to Jesus, he alone can change them!
4. Verses 47-49 tell the story! NOTICE THE RESULTS. THIS IS NOT BASED ON WHAT PHILIP SAID, BUT ON WHAT JESUS SAID!
5. “Then Nathanael declared, ‘rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel (verse 49).’”
6. Jesus alone can change a heart!
C. Jesus will be seen for who HE is!
1. We cannot hide who Jesus is!
2. He will reveal himself to us, to all who believe on his name.
3. It is not ours to explain it all, but to call others to “Come and See.”
4. When we do and they respond, they “shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man (verse 51).”
ILLUSTRATION: OVERWHELMING INFLUENCE
Historian Philip Schaff described the overwhelming influence which Jesus had on subsequent history and culture of the world: “This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science…he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of schools, he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, he set more pens in motion and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.”
SOURCE: Schaff, Phillip, "The Person of Christ," American Tract Society, 1913
TRUTH: UNLESS JESUS DOES THE WORK, NO ONE WILL EVER CHANGE
CONCLUSION: Are you on the Journey? Have you come to Jesus? Some of you are trapped at stage one, coming to Jesus. Some are experiencing bringing others to Jesus, but are trapped with trying to change them! The goal is to be different because of Jesus. The journey is not complete until you are. Are you where God wants you? Will you allow him the opportunity to make you whole and see others made whole as well! Only Jesus can change a soul, not you or me! GO TELL YOUR BROTHER!
BENEDICTION: HEBREWS 13: 20-21
