Tell And Show! Series

Bubble Busters

Pt. 3 - Tell and Show

I. Introduction

Can you remember the excitement? The anticipation? Days of planning. Preparing. It was a grade school phenomenon that we all probably experienced and loved. It as "Show and Tell" Day. That special day when it was our turn to bring the stuffed animal, special coin, special toy, valued treasure that no-one else possibly had or owned to show off to our classmates. I want to propose to you this morning that in order for us to be bubble busters we must simply revert back to this grade school practice. The only difference is the secret to busting bubbles is merely reversing the order we learned in grade school. We must tell and show.

Text: John 1:35-51 (TPT)

The next day, Jesus walked right past where John and two of his disciples were standing. John, gazing upon Jesus, pointed to him and prophesied, “Look! There’s God’s sacrificial Lamb!” And as soon as John’s two disciples heard this, they immediately left John and began to follow a short distance behind Jesus. Jesus turned around and saw they were following him and asked, “What do you want?” They responded, “Rabbi (which means, Master Teacher), where are you staying?” Jesus answered, “Come and discover for yourselves.” So they went with him and saw where he was staying, and since it was late in the afternoon, they spent the rest of the day with Jesus. One of the two disciples who heard John’s words and began to follow Jesus was a man named Andrew. He first found his brother, Simon Peter, and told him, “We have found the Anointed One!” (Which is translated, the Christ.) Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. When he gazed upon Andrew’s brother, he prophesied to him, “You are Simon and your father’s name is John. But from now on, everyone will call you Cephas” (which means, Peter the Rock). The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee, where he found Philip. Jesus said to him, “Come and follow me.” (Now Philip, Andrew, and Peter had all grown up together in the village of Bethsaida.) Philip went to look for his friend, Nathanael, and told him, “We’ve found him! We’ve found the One we’ve been waiting for! It’s Jesus, son of Joseph from Nazareth! He’s the One whom Moses and the prophets prophesied would come!” Nathanael sneered, “Nazareth! What good thing could ever come from Nazareth?” Philip answered, “Come and let’s find out!”

When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said, “Here comes a true son of Israel—an honest man with no hidden motive!” Nathanael was stunned and said, “But you’ve never met me—how do you know anything about me?” Jesus answered, “Nathanael, right before Philip came to you, I saw you sitting under the shade of a fig tree.” Nathanael blurted out, “Teacher, you are truly the Son of God and the King of Israel!” Jesus answered, “Do you believe simply because I told you I saw you sitting under a fig tree? You will experience even more impressive things than that! I prophesy to you eternal truth: From now on, you all will see an open heaven and gaze upon the Son of Man like a stairway reaching into the sky with the messengers of God climbing up and down upon him!”

I want to just mention this in passing but just because I don't camp here doesn't mean that it isn't important. Notice that the tell and show method worked with family and friends. I think that is important because I think we often believe we have to master all these special approaches to bust bubbles and win people to Jesus. The truth is if we will simply practice this one approach it effectively bust bubbles and break down barriers.

Bubbles are busted when we break our silence.

To bust bubbles we must tell!

In the passage I read to you, Andrew meets Jesus and instantly tells his brother Peter about the anointed One. The same process is repeated when meets Jesus and goes and tells his friend Nathaniel about the Christ.

In order to break bubbles, we must tell! Good news is not good news unless it is told. I told you in week one that 75% of believers today feel no responsibility to share their faith with anyone else. But did you know that it is also true that when surveyed 86% say they start attending church due to personal invitation as opposed to 2% who do so due to advertisements. In other words, what Andrew and Philip modeled for us is still the most effective way to get people to get to Jesus. We must tell. In fact, in one of His last commands to His disciples, Jesus informs them and us that we will receive the power of the Holy Spirit so that we can become witnesses in every part of the world. Witness requires words! Witness means to bear testimony. Is there anyone in the room that can testify that Jesus has changed your life? And yet, we have flipped the script and we will testify to people who already know Him and then we seem to hesitate when we are given the opportunity to witness to those who don't know Him. You don't have to convince us we already know. It is those who don't know that need to be told. I wonder if we have quit busting bubbles simply because we have quit telling about Jesus. I know we are talking when we leave this place. The question is what are you talking about? Do you ever bring the conversation around to the Good News about Jesus? Unless you tell you can't bust bubbles.