What Does It Mean To Put Christ 1st?

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 saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!" When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus" John 1:36-37 (NIV)

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....