Larry C. Brincefield
pastorlarry@pastorlarry.net
Title: "What Does It Mean to Put Christ 1st?"
Text: John 1:35-46
Introduction
We have embraced the vision of Christ 1st for 2003.
And in our desire to put Christ 1st...
and learn more about Him...
we have been studying different events from His life.
We need to ask ourselves what it really means to put Christ 1st.
Tonight we come to a very important event in the life of Christ...
and in studying this event, we will begin to answer that question...
"What does it really mean to put Christ 1st"?
The event we will look at tonight is when Jesus called His disciples.
Read text: John 1:35-46
Body
1. What does it mean to put Christ 1st? Pointing people to Jesus
John the Baptist had been preparing the way for Jesus coming.
He had developed quite a following.
In fact, verse 35 (and other places throughout Scripture: Mt 11:2, Lk 11:1, Jn 4:1) tells us that he had disciples of his own.
I’m sure it was nice to have a group of people following you...
listening to your every word...
in fact, for many people, it can develop into the sin of pride...
you’ve seen this before...
preachers or television evangelists that think they are the greatest thing since sliced bread...
and they begin to think that all these people are following THEM
and they stop pointing people to Christ....
instead they are pointing at themselves and what they are doing.
And John made quite an impression on folks.
preaching out in the desert...
wearing wild clothing...
eating locusts and wild honey (sounds like something right off of "Fear Factor")
It would have been very easy for him,
when Jesus came on the scene...
to try to keep his disciples from following Christ...
But that isn’t what John did...
our Scripture says, "When
Other prophets, Rabbis, or Teachers would have probably said...
"wait a minute...
you get back here...
we need you here"
But not John...
John had put Christ 1st in his life....
and he knew that that meant that his job was to point people to Jesus.
He said,
"Hey...
everybody....
look....
there’s Jesus...
He’s the one I was telling you about...
He’s the Lamb of God
He’s the One you need to follow"
2. What does it mean to put Christ 1st? Following Jesus
And John’s disciples got up,
right in the middle of John’s sermon...
and began to follow Jesus...
It would have been easy to stick with John...
He’s the one that baptized them...
he’s the one that had been teaching them...
they were comfortable with John....
he was a known entity....
but following Jesus...
they didn’t know much about Jesus...
He didn’t have a formal education...
He was from Nazareth, for goodness sakes!
Nathanael said, "can anything good come from Nazarene"?
It is obvious from his tone that Nathaniel didn’t think so.
But when you put Christ 1st...
and when someone has pointed out Christ to you....
then you begin to follow Him
Can you picture this scene?
these 2 disciples of John (one was Andrew, the other one is generally accepted to be John, the Apostle, the author of this book)
kind of following Jesus at a distance...
watching him...
but trying not to be too obvious...
they wanted to try to learn a little bit more about this Jesus fellow before they would actually become His disciples.
And I can picture Jesus....
knowing that they are back there...
knowing what they are thinking....
knowing what He wants them to do...
I can picture the smile on His face...
as He turns a corner...
and He stops...
Andrew and John, not wanting to lose Jesus in the crowd...
runs to catch up...
turns the corner and literally bumps into Jesus!
And Jesus says, "What do you want?"
He puts them on the spot a little...
He wants them to voice their desire to learn more about Him.
Instead of saying....
"we want to learn more about you...
you fascinate us....
we feel strangely drawn to you....
No, they couldn’t say that...
that would be embarassing!!!
so they say..."uuuhhhh, so, where do you live?"
And Jesus simply says, "Come and you will see"
3. Putting Christ 1st: Becoming His Disciple
So here, Andrew and John come to the point of decision....
they could have said, "Well, thanks for the invitation...
but we’re busy right now....
we are on our way to Wal-Mart...
they’ve got blue jeans on sale...
and we need to get John some descent clothes...
maybe we will catch you later."
But they didn’t say that....
they just went with Jesus....
they spent the day with Him...
in fact, that was just the beginning....
that day became another...
and another...
and eventually became a life time of spending time with Jesus.
You see, there’s a big difference from hearing someone else tell you about Jesus...
and actually being with Jesus yourself!
And that is a huge difference!!!
Andrew and John could have just stuck with attending Church 2-3 times a week...
Listening to someone else talk about how great Jesus is...
But they weren’t content with that....
they wanted something more....
they wanted to be with Jesus every day!!
they wanted a RELATIONSHIP!!
Even today, we have that same choice...
we can be content to come to church 1-3 times/week...
listening to the preacher talk about Jesus...
and then go home and pretty much forget all about Him.
Or we can go home with Jesus...
spending each and every day....
talking to Him...
listening to Him....
doing whatever He wants us to do.
I have a great concern that,
in Christianity today, there are way too many people who are content to just have their ears tickled a little bit...
maybe get a blessing from a song that’s sung...
or something the preacher said...
But then they go home and forget all about Jesus until next Sunday.
When you put Christ 1st,
you are not content to simply come to church and HEAR about Christ...
you want to live your life every day WITH Jesus Christ.
4. Putting Christ 1st: Bringing Others to Jesus
If you’ve made it this far....
if you’ve had Jesus pointed out to you....
if you’ve followed Him....
if you’ve become His disciple...
spending each and every day in a sweet relationship with Jesus...
then you’ve made it further than probably 90% of all the people who CALL themselves Christians.
And you’ve gone a long way toward putting Christ 1st.
but there’s one more thing that you need to do...
We need to bring other people to Christ.
Look at verse 41, "The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus" John 1:41-42 (NIV)
The FIRST THING HE DID...was to bring someone to Jesus.
Look at verse 45, Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." John 1:45 (NIV)
Nathaniel says, "no way....Nazareth?"
And Philip uses the same language that Jesus used in verse 39, "Come and see"
When you put Christ 1st...
you will bring other people to Jesus...
Andrew brought Peter to Jesus...
Philip brought Nathaniel to Jesus
and Christ wants US to bring people to Him.
And when you bring other people to Jesus, you are truly putting Christ 1st...
and you have gone further than 99% of the people who call themselves Christians.
Conclusion
So, what do you think of our Vision? Christ 1st?
Do you think it is just a gimick to make Church more interesting?
Do you think it is the Church, trying to model their operations after big business?
Or do you feel that, indeed, our vision for 2003 is to put Christ first in our lives?
And if you believe that....
what does that mean?
what does that look like?
to put Christ 1st?
Putting Christ 1st means Pointing People to Jesus
Putting Chirst 1st means Following Jesus
Putting Christ 1st means becoming His disciple...
Putting Christ 1st means bringing other people to Christ.
