Episode Transcript
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If you would please turn your attention
now to John Chapter One, versus thirty
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five through forty two. If you
have a one of the bibles from the
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cart this is on page eight hundred
and eighty six. Is the Fourth Gospel
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of the New Testament. In this
passage John, thirty five through forty two,
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Jesus is going to introduce us to
some of his first followers. We've
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already learned about John The baptist.
Now we hear about Andrew, his brother
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Simon and a mystery disciple as well. But, as you'll see as we
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read this passage, the focus is
not so much on these followers of themselves
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as it is this certain patterns of
following. This passage will teach us about
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how Jesus builds his kingdom and what
it means to follow him. So let's
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take a look out at now John
Chapter One, verses thirty five through forty
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two. The next day again,
John was standing with two of his disciples
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and he looked at Jesus as he
walked by and said, behold the lamb
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of God. The two disciples heard
him say this and they followed Jesus.
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Jesus turned and saw them following and
said to them, what are you seeking?
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They said to him, rabbi,
which means teacher. Where are you
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staying? He said to them,
come and you will see. So they
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came and saw where he was staying
and they stayed with him that day for
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it. It was about the ten
hour. One of the two who heard
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John Speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon, Peter's brother. He first
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found his own brother, Simon,
and said to him, we have found
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the Messiah, which means Christ.
He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked
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at him and said, so you
are Simon, the son of John.
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You shall be called Kapus or Cephus, which means rock or Peter. You
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may be seated. So if you're
on the Internet much, you probably know
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that the language of followers is something
that's a very common and popular today.
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Someone may say I have five hundred
followers on such and such social media platform.
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A company might boast, boast or
promise your business that they can boost
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your followers by fifty percent if you
do what they say. But of course
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you don't have to be on the
Internet to know what a follower is.
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A follower is someone who follow Hellos. Right. It's a very simple idea.
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Kids. Maybe there's a boy or
a girl at school that lots of
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people follow around. Maybe you are
the boy or the girl at school that
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people follow around. You see people
following you. Who you follow says something
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about who you are. Of course, doesn't necessarily mean you like that person,
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but maybe you're forced to follow them
in some way. No matter what,
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though, it impacts you, says
something about your life. It makes
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a difference. Who you follow directs
your mind in a certain way, your
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heart in a certain way, your
feet literally in a certain way. So
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in this Gospel, John has introduced
us something about Jesus and the news that
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he shares. And having introduced him, now he's going to start helping us
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know what it means to follow him. So let's start. What I want
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to do is just walk through this
passage, set it firmly in our minds
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by understanding and considering each of these
events. So first verses thirty five and
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thirty six, John Sees Jesus.
The new scene begins in verse Thirty Five,
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with John the Baptist being sort of
classic John The baptist, as we
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see the next day, a again, John was standing with to his his
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disciples, and he looked at Jesus
as he walked by and said, behold
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the lamb of God. This is
something he's already said, even in this
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passage, in another way and in
similar ways. As you read various commentaries
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on this text, you'll see that
preachers will often pause here to remind themselves
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of something, and I'm going to
do that too, and it's simply this.
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Just because you've proclaimed Christ once doesn't
mean you don't proclaim him again and
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again and again and again. If
you're a realtor, you talk about real
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estate, if you're a biologist,
you talk about biology, and if you're
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a Christian, especially if you're a
Christian preacher teacher, you talk about Christ.
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You talk about him a lot.
Here's how Cyril of Alexandria puts it.
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The Baptist does not repeat the same
explanation about the savior in vain.
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It's a mark of excellence in teaching
to implant a message that is not yet
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understood into the souls of learners,
without shrinking from repetition, but rather enduring
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it for the benefit of the students. And Cyril and others also like to
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point to Paul the Apostle, Paul
who says in Philippians three, to write
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the same thing to you is not
a bother to me, it is a
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safeguard for you. And we see
John Doing this same thing verse thirty five.
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The next day, John the Baptist
is saying the same thing again.
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John the Baptist doesn't move on to
a new message. As a preacher of
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Christ, his commission stays the same, to testify to the lamb of God
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who, as he says in Verse
Twenty Nine, takes away the sins of
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the world and, we might add, all the more necessary as Jesus walks
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by. Whenever Christ is present,
Christians should stop, take notice, focus
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their attention on him so that they
might proclaim him, praise him, confess
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him, worship him follow him.
Well, that takes us to verse thirty
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seven. Then, as disciples,
then follow Jesus. Happily for John,
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his preaching does not go unheard this
time. In verse thirty seven we read
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what happens next. The disciples reheard
John's simple sermon about Jesus and they followed
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Jesus. That's quite a switch,
isn't it? They were called John's disciples
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and now they're called Jesus is disciples. They're following Jesus with their feet.
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Now we don't know exactly how much
they truly under stood at this point,
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but that's okay. I think it's
safe to say that any commitment to Christ
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is better than no commitment at all. Any following of Jesus is better than
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no following him at all. Be
careful, though, as we see in
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the coming chapters, it's not enough
to follow Jesus externally if we don't follow
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him internally as well. Following Jesus
in an external way, I think,
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is better than nothing, but it's
not saving. Jesus wants all of us,
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not just some of us. He
wants us to be going where he
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goes, yes, but also wanting
what he wants, hearing what he says,
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caring about the things he cares about. Now, maybe you are like
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these two men. Maybe you are
at a time in your life where you
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are seeing Jesus for the first time
in a way, maybe you've heard about
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him for a long time even,
but you are starting to see him for
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the first time, you might put
it that way. If that is happening
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to you, then this is a
good example to follow. Scripture and experience
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tell us that there are people who
love to use overthinking as an excuse,
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people who, as Second Timothy Seven, are always three seven says, always
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learning and never able to arrive at
a knowledge of the truth. That's a
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dangerous thing. When Jesus walks by, that's not the time to say now,
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John, let's discuss this a little
bit more. I want to hear
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a little bit more. Tell me, what do you mean by Lamb of
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God? Meanwhile, John Screaming at
you. He's right there. Go follow
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him right. Overthinking can be not
so good. If I can quote Cyril
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again, here's what he says.
Souls who love to listen and learn truly
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show themselves to be this way,
they do not need long discourses in order
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to profit, nor do they bear
the fruit of their teaching months or years
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later. Rather, as soon as
the teaching begins, they attain the goal
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of understanding. He quotes proverbs and
saying. Give opportunity the wise and they
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will be wiser. Instruct the just
and they will receive more instruction. Or
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think about the words of Jesus.
If you go and you find a treasure
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chest in a field, what do
you do? You go by the field
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immediately. You don't hesitate. If
you are dying and somebody offers you life
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saving medicine, don't waste your time
learning about pill manufacturing processes. Just swallow
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the pill. It's really as simple
as that. Jesus walks by. Follow
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him, and that takes us to
verse Thirty Eight. They follow Jesus.
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What's Jesus's response? Well, noticing
that these men's are following him, Jesus
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turns around and asks them this question. What are you seeking now? If
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you don't know Jesus yet are you
will come to see that this question is
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just like him. He doesn't say
get off my back, leave me alone,
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I'm busy, I don't have time
for this right now. I'm an
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important person. Don't bother me.
He doesn't. Nor does he puff them
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up and congratulate them on their amazing
decision and great wisdom in following him,
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though of course, there is nothing
wiser than a person could do. Nor
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does he jump directly into long expositions
or prayers or fantastic miracles. He simply
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asks this direct, simple and searching
question. What are you seeking? It's
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a question, of course, that's
not just for them, but it's for
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us too. What are you seeking? What do you need? What do
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you want? What do you want
from following Jesus? Naming things helps us.
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When we name things, it helps
us to know them better and then
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to decide, and that's what Jesus
is asking them to do. Let's get
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specific. What are you seeking?
Tell me name it. When we name
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and then we act, we embrace
or we reject. Interestingly, the story
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begins with a certain kind of naming. John Sees Jesus, it says,
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and then he was and then he
says, behold the lamb of God.
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He sees any names, and this
story, this passage, also ends with
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a naming as well. Jesus sees
the same word as used there as John
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Seeing Jesus sees Peter, and he
says you will be called Kapus, which
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is Aramaic for rock or rocky,
translated in Greek patros Peter. Here,
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in the middle of the story,
Jesus asks these men to name themselves,
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to name the things in their hearts. What are you seeking? In Verse
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Thirty Eight, the second part of
that that disciples then respond very simply,
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perhaps even politely. Rabbi, they
say a Hebrew Word John tells us,
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which means teacher, rabbi. Where
are you staying? We begin to see
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what this new relationship is about in
their answer there. They are not there
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to ask Jesus for a dollar,
or even a miracle or a moment of
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teaching and then be on their way. They don't have a quick question for
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Jesus, just something to get out
of him and then move on. They
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want time with him, they want
to be with him. They've been following
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him and they want to keep following
with him. They want to be where
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he is. And what's Jesus's response? Come and you will see again,
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we see the patterns of following Christ
developing here. You don't follow Jesus at
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a safe distance, knowing everything about
him and then making your decisions. Following
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Jesus means submission. Following Jesus means
humility. Following Jesus means curiosity, excitement,
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wonder and trust. Some people think
following Jesus means mastering him first or
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all together, and it doesn't.
Following Jesus means following him, trusting him,
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waiting for him to reveal things in
his own time and his own way.
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Where are you staying? Come and
you will see, and I don't
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say we asked you a question.
Why don't you tell us the answer?
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No, that's rude, for one, but it's also not following, isn't?
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It's demanding you follow me, I
make the decisions. It's not that
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way with Jesus. It's trusting him. It's waiting for his time and his
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desire and his goodness to reveal things
when it is right now. If that
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frustrates you, let me be frank. You need to learn to get over
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it. You need a higher sense
of who he is and a lower sense
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of who you are. He's the
master, he's the teacher, not you.
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He reveals things in his own time
and his own way, and not
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for random or capricious reasons, but
out of love, not out of goodness.
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Imagine a surfer who will only acknowledge
the power of a riptide once he
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decides where the best place for it, in his mind is along the coast.
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Or imagine a tree that demands to
understand photosynthesis before it decides to accept
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the Sun's rays. This is not
how things work. You don't go to
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the God who made all the universe
and say well, all follow you on
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my schedule. I'll follow you when
I know what this is all about.
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No, when he says come,
you come. When you see him,
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you follow him. If you think
you've got your life perfectly under control,
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that you understand this world with next
to perfect knowledge, or your heart is
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perfectly attuned to everything that is pure
and lovely and admirable, then go ahead
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be my guest. Follow Jesus on
your own terms and your own ways.
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You clearly have it all together.
But if you're like me and you don't
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have it all together, if you're
like, I think, all of us
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in this room, and lack knowledge
and struggle with even the simple things of
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life, then you have every need
to follow Jesus, to find in him
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a savior. For those of us
who are perfect, well, I guess,
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go on your way, but for
those of us who are brokenhearted,
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who are tyrannized by sin, who
struggle with our physical bodies, then these
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words come and you will see,
will spark joy in you like no amount
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of close folding ever could. Come
and see, come and see. It's
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Jesus, the lamb of God,
who takes away the sins of the world,
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and he says to you, come
and you will see take him up
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on that. Well, continuing our
story, these two men here, and
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he Jesus's words, they come and
see the place where he is staying and
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even stayed the night, since it
was already the ten hour, which is
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about four o'clock pm on our on
our clocks. Just as a quick side
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note, we might note here that
all of that, their time with him
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and his time with them is with
thanks to the hospitality of an unknown host.
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The person isn't even mentioned, but
Matthew tells us in Matthew eight to
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fought. In Jesus's words, foxes
have holes and birds have air. Birds
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of the air have their nest,
but the son of man has no where
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to lay his head. Jesus was
a homeless man. He depended upon the
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hospitality of other people and as he
went to this place wherever he was staying,
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as he had these conversations with these
men, it was because somebody provided
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the space for them to do that
blessing. Indeed, the hospitality of others
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has provided the space of salvation for
an untold number of souls. No Wonder
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The Apostle Paul tells us to be
zealous for it. Moving on, we
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come to verse forty. And here
in verse forty, we start to finally
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learn a little bit more about who
these disciples are. We've been hearing about
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all about them and their interactions.
We here we begin to learn their names.
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The first thing we notice, or
rather it's easy not to notice,
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is that one of the two never
is named. One person, one of
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the two is named. His name
is Andrew, and get some attention,
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but the other is just was not
even there. It just talks about the
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other disciple. Who who is Andrew? Who is this unnamed disciple? So
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easy, so or sorry, so
early in Jesus's ministry? The other gospels
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suggest that it's either James or John, for many reasons that I can't get
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into now that the nearly unanimous testimony
or conclusion of the Church has been that
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this on the name unnamed disciple was
John, the author of this Gospel,
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which was written after James as martyrdom
and forty two a d. So John
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here is showing some we might say, authorial humility, as he does throughout
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the Gospel. He remains in the
background so that you can see Jesus,
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and so with that quick comment,
will will let him stay there. The
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other one of the two who heard
John Speak and followed Jesus, we are
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told, was Andrew, Simon,
peters brother, and we are told what
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then happened next. And sometime after
meeting and staying with Jesus, Andrew goes
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and finds his brother Simon and says
we have found the Messiah, which John
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Tells US means Christ, which is
a Greek word that means Messiah. Now,
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in English these words, both Messiah
and Christ, as Pastor Johnson told
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us last week, mean anointed one. They refer to a figure, a
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person in the Old Testament that God
promised a particular person that God would send
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and install over king of his people. The Jews were waiting for this Messiah,
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this promised King, who would reinstitute
the Kingdom of God, who would
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reinstitute the temple, who would give
God's grace and protection. He would be
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a son of David, but he
would be no ordinary son, because he
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would not just be anointed with the
oil and a kind of kingly ceremony,
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he would be anointed with God,
the Holy Spirit. Quite an amazing thing.
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On Isaiah Sixty one tells about that, tells us about this and look,
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Jesus says in Luke for that it
refers to him here Isaiah's words about
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the Messiah, the anointed one.
The spirit of the Lord God is upon
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me because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
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He has sent me to bind up
the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to
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the captives, in the opening of
the prison, to those who are bound.
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The spirit of the Lord God is
upon me because the Lord has anointed
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me for these things. The disapointed
one. It's a title. Jesus Christ
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is just another way, a short
way of saying Jesus. Who is the
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Christ, or Jesus, who is
the Messiah? Jesus, who is this
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promised anointed one? So John and
the rest of the New Testament will explain
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more about what this means, about
whom God has sent. But Andrew knows
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enough right now that he can look
his brother and say, Simon, we
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have found the Messiah, the one
Isaiah prophesied about, the one the Old
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Testament told us to look forward to. He wouldn't have called it the Old
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Testament at that point, for the
scriptures that's what he does. And then
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Andrew brings his brother Simon to Jesus
and I want to point out. This
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is an interesting shift here. Peter
doesn't follow Jesus the way Andrew and John
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did. He is brought to him. Right. Andrew and John See Jesus
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walking by and they follow him as
they ought to. Peter is then brought
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brought to Jesus. Some people see
Jesus and follow him. Other Times,
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before they follow Jesus, someone needs
to bring them. Then, just as
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the story began with this focused look
and naming the lamb of God, you
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remember, so it ends, Jesus
looks at Peter and says you're to Simon,
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son of John. You shall be
called Kafus, and Aramaic word,
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as I said before, that means
rock or rocky, or, to use
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the Greek word, Petros Peter.
So why do Jesus Name Simon Rocky?
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There are many reasons, but I
think we can be sure that Peter doesn't
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really know them at this point.
He just gets a nickname in a way,
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and I think this is another reminder
about what it means to follow Jesus.
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Am I Iraq because I'm stubborn or
because I'm strong, or both,
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or something else. Either way,
what we see is that Jesus is the
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one in charge. Jesus is powerful. He's like a King knighting someone,
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dubbing them, giving them a new
name, a new identity. Jesus has
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a way of changing how we think
about who we are when we follow him.
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This takes us through the end of
the passage. What conclusions can we
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draw from this? What is the
spirit showing us in this passage about Jesus?
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I think there's a number of things
we can say. One, of
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course, is that the spirit,
anointed son of David, son of God,
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has come into the world. We
are here at the beginning of the
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Gospel, but with these labels of
Messiah and Lamb of God, we know
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something great is about to happen.
The New Kingdom is about to be established,
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and in this we see the centrality
of Jesus. If you want to
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know what it means to follow Jesus, you have to start with that.
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It starts with Jesus. Though the
disciples are introduced here, we don't get
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vivid descriptions and backstories, though they
are fascinating an interesting people. The focus
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of the Gospel, of the Good
News, is on Jesus, who is
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the Christ. If you want to
follow Jesus, that's where your focus should
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be too, on him, because
he's the one who saves the world.
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He's the one who, through his
death, makes atonement for our sins that
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we can have peace with God.
This is where our focus should be,
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and this is important to remember,
because your sinful hearts and my sinful heart
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and this miserable world is going to
tell you to look all kinds of other
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places. Without Christ, you'll be
like a drug addict, always looking for
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a new high, never finding it. Apart from him, you will die
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separated from God, His forgiveness,
his saints, his kingdom. So don't
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let the devil fool you. Your
sinful appetite is just that, appetites that
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will grow and never be satisfied and
will ultimately gorge themselves to death. But
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when you trust in Christ, when
you put your focus on him, when
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you follow him and him alone,
he does all the things that the Messiah
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was promised to do. He binds
are broken hearts, he heals our wounds,
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he sets US free, he teaches
us to hunger and thirst, not
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after the things of this world,
but after righteousness and life. So what
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does it mean then, to follow
Jesus? Well, it means to keep
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our eyes focused on him as he
moves us from one moment to the next,
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all the way to glory. The
second thing I want to point out
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is that following him starts by noticing
him wherever he makes himself present, just
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as John and Andrew did when they
saw Jesus and heard the preacher proclaim behold
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this lamb of God. They looked
at him, they saw him. Now
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you might ask yourself, well,
how can I see Jesus? They saw
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him with their eyes and they followed
him. That's easy right. I can't
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see Jesus. He's in heaven.
Well, of course, one day God
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will make him known to your eyes. When Jesus comes again to collect his
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believers from this world, you will
see him with your eyes. But the
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good news is that God, the
Holy Spirit, has provided for us so
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another way for us to see him. And do you know what it is?
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Not with our eyes, but with
our ears. Strange right, but
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God, the one, God's the
one who made the body. Suppose he
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can make it work however he likes. Notice that this is also true even
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of these disciples. It wasn't the
sight of Christ that made Andrew and John
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Follow after Jesus, but it was
the preaching that John pointed to him and
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said, behold the lamb of God. Peter didn't see Jesus. It was
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Andrew's words, his brother, who
said we've found the Messiah. The spirit
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tells us in Romans that faith comes
through hearing, and hearing through this word
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of God. In fact, so
vivid is the word of God that Paul
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says to the glacians about his spoken
word preaching. He says to the glacians
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it was before your eyes that Jesus
Christ was publicly portrayed and crucified. It's
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not that an amazing way to speak
about preaching? You follow someone by being
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where they are, right. That's
a sort of basic following, and Christ
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has promised to beware. This is
a good, essential question, right,
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if I'm going to follow Jesus,
I need to be where Jesus is,
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I need to see him, I
need to be near him. Well,
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Jesus his promised to be in his
church and to be present with us through
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these means of grace, particularly the
word of God, preached, sacraments and
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prayer. The Church today is the
house where he is staying. It is
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the temple, the scriptures say,
in which the spirit dwells. If you
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want to follow Jesus, if you
want to be like Andrew and call others
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to follow Jesus, bring yourselves and
your friends to his house. Put yourself
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in places where he is promised to
be present, where he is central,
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where he and and and and and
where where he is focused on. Now,
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of course, not every church that
says they are a Christian or a
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Christian church is proclaiming Jesus. How
do you know? How do you know
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where he's present when he is not
visible? I can tell you this based
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on this passage and other ones.
Jesus in those is in those places where
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people are naming Jesus Christ as the
son of God and are being renamed by
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him as they follow him. Jesus
is in those places where he is being
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proclaimed and the people who are proclaiming
him are following in his footsteps, who
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are walking in his ways and following
in steps of grace and love. Because
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as we follow Jesus Christ, he
turns to us, just as he did
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to these two disciples. Remember Psalm
thirty four four. I sought the Lord
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and he heard me. How do
you follow Jesus? You follow him by
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going where he is found, and
he can be found, of course,
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wherever he wants, but he has
particularly promised to be found in his church
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and never leave it. How do
you know you've found the real church?
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You know it when you've found the
real Christ. You see him. Where
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are the worship and the discipleship faithfully
proclaims him in his name loved. The
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last thing I want to mention as
we think about what it means to follow
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Jesus is that, though our focus
is on Christ this does not mean that
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God leaves us lonely and separated from
other Christians. John The apostle learned about
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Jesus from John The baptist. Peter
learned about Jesus through his brother Andrew,
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and, as we'll see next time, the word keeps spreading, even from
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family and then to friends and neighbors. Come and see, we fi on
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the Messiah. Look, it's the
lamb of God. Jesus is not collecting
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followers like some people collect baseball cards, putting each one neatly into its sleeve,
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separated from all the others. Jesus
draws us together into a unified,
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confessing body. He uses us to
serve one another and even empowers us with
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his spirit to call those who are
outside of the body into the body.
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We've found the Messiah. Behold the
lamb of God. Look around you this
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morning. Look around see those who
are walking alongside of you and following Jesus.
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Every single one of you are here
today because someone told you about him,
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because even someone told you about this
particular church, whether that invitation was
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indure, was directly through someone you
know here or indirectly through a website or
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a flyer and an invitation from us
to come and follow Jesus with us.
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All of us are here, including
me, because some one told me about
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what God was doing, because of
the work that Jesus was doing among his
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people. You may not know the
name of every single person here. You
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certainly don't know the name of every
Christian who has come before you, but
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God knows them all and he's put
us all in it together. Praise God.
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We don't walk alone, we don't
fight alone, we don't follow alone.
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We have each other. We have
our Lord, who is the head
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of his church and calls us together. By listening to others, by getting
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to know others, by hosting people
in our homes. We see and we
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experience the work of God in us. We follow Jesus together and we call
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other people to follow him too,
and in that we enjoy the Kingdom of
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God. We find our salvation.
Our hearts are healed, our bodies one
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day will be glorified, and we
will glorify him together with one voice,
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singing holy, holy, holy,
to our triune God. Amen.
