Sermon
A Searching Soul - A Saving Savior
May 6-7, 2000
Pastor Donald Sheley

Take your Bible and join with me, and if you're using the pew Bible, it's page 714, John chapter 1. And if you're new with us, we're delighted that you've come. We've already spent I think three months in chapter 1 of John. We just move along verse after verse seeking to understand and grow in the knowledge of God's word. So we're not in a rush. We'll be here till Jesus comes anyway, and we may be still studying John when He comes. But we've arrived at verse 35, in your notes I started at 37, but really the paragraph in my Bible starts in John chapter 1 verse 35. And the entire scene that we're going to read is the early throbbing moments as the church of Jesus Christ begins to gather around Him. It's the early moments of the birth of the Christian church.

Look at what it says: Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God!" The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Now who are those two disciples? Well, most Bible scholars believe we know that one is Andrew because that's revealed to us later in the text. Most believe that that other disciple was none other than the author of the gospel that we're studying; so John and Andrew. And we note that first of all they were followers of John the Baptist. John introduces them to Jesus, they leave John, and they now become disciples of Jesus.

Verse 38: Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, "What do you seek?" Now the implied in the original is that it's with some intrepidation. It's almost with a shyness that John and Andrew begin to follow Christ. Maybe they're quite some distance. They just don't know how to handle this. They know that this is the Messiah. John has said this is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. This is that person who's been prophesied by the prophets of old, and there was most likely a reluctance to get too close. And so Jesus turns to them seeing them following Him. The implied is there could have been a distance between them, and Jesus asked the question, what's your purpose, and what's your motive in following Me? Now we read it only in the English text, what seek ye, but in the original text the implied is Jesus wants to know what's in your heart? Why are you reaching out to Me? What do you really want from Me? What's your purpose and your motive in becoming My follower? Now that's a good question in those days because that was a time when it was a farming society and people had little money, and they could be about and oft times they would only followed Jesus for the loaves and the fishes. He said so. So it's a good question, what's your reason? Why do you really want to become My follower?

Now I've handled that one over the years, and I find that some people come to church for various reasons. I've had business people come to church for business contacts. As soon as I locate them I make it very clear they're not welcome, because we're not here to turn this house into a house of merchandise. We're here to find Jesus, not to find a customer for our business. Others come seeking companionships with wrong motives. So it's a good question. Why do you really want Jesus? Why do you want to become His followers? Give me your motive. Give me your purpose. Now you'll notice that they answered Jesus; they say "Rabbi" (which is really an addresses, a title of honor. They say O honored one, where to You abide? In the original it's where do You live? or where do You abide? And the idea is Jesus, we're answering Your question why we're seeking You, really to tell You how we feel inside we can't do it right here along the roadside for just this passing conversation. Jesus, will You tell us where You live and we'll come to Your house and we can sit down, and we'll open up our hearts and we'll tell You why we want to become Your followers. Jesus we want to spend some time with You. That's the reason why they said, Jesus, where do You live? I want to come home. I want to be in Your presence.

And you'll notice it says that He turns to them and says, "Come and see." O what a graciousness. Jesus says sure, come and see. And you'll notice that in our text it says, and he remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour). Now commentators are somewhat confused as to what actually the time was because you see John was writing this letter about the year of 100 A.D. and, of course, he'd be writing it to Gentiles and they were all aware of Roman time. And Roman time is different than Jewish time. Roman time is like our time. The day starts at midnight. Our new day starts at midnight. It's the second after midnight the first, but in Jewish time your day starts at 6:00 in the morning. So if we're talking Roman time it could have been 10:00 at the morning, if we're talking Jewish time it could have been 4:00 in the afternoon. Most likely it was 4:00 in the afternoon when this conversation took place. Why are you seeking Me? Well Jesus, if You'll let us come to Your house we'll have a long discussion about it. Now something really happened in that conversation.

Can you imagine spending six hours with Jesus? You can on your knees in prayer. And these two disciples sat Jesus down. Something took place that transformed that, because notice the next verse: One of the two who heard John speak, followed Him, and his name was Andrew, and Andrew had a brother who's name was Peter, Simon Peter. What's he want to do? I mean he's just has come from the presence of Christ and the first thing he wants to do is to tell someone else about Jesus. So he runs over to Cephas because that's what his name was, he finds his brother Simon and he says, "We have found the Messiah (which is translated, the Christ)." And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, "You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas" (which means a Stone). Now you'll notice that John wants to be very precise here, because he's writing to Gentile readers and he's using some Jewish phrases such as, Messiah and Jewish words, and so that's why he has translated. He wants to make sure his readers understand the usage of these words, and so he is saying that Andrew says we have found the Messiah, and he brought him to Jesus, and Jesus said you're the son of Jonah but I'm changing your name to a Stone, Cephas.

The following day, Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, "Follow Me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. And Philip found Nathanael and he said to him, We have found Him of whom the prophets, wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Do you see what's happening? All of a sudden the church is coming alive. I heard about Jesus. I met Him. I spent some hours with Him. I want you to meet Him. Thus, the church becomes, the Christian church becomes alive with vibrancy as those new disciples begin to share with one another. And old Nathanael said to him, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Well, you say why did old Nathanael to say that? Because Nazareth didn't have a very good name. It's just like can anything good come out of San Francisco? I mean, Nazareth had a bad name because there was a Roman garrison of soldiers stationed up in Nazareth, and they misused the lady folk of that little village. And as a result, that little village had a bad name. And old Nathanael had a justifiable reason for saying, how can anything good come out of that place?

You'll notice what he says, "Come and see." He didn't waste a minute arguing. Boy that's the best way to witness, just come and see, see for yourself. So Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and He said, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!" In other words, here's a man that's genuine. You meet him once in a while, don't you? Something very pure, something very wholesome, you can trust him. Jesus said it's obvious you're a man without deceit, you're a sincere man. So Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?" Well Jesus answered him and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Nathanael answered and said to Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" Jesus answered and said to him, "Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these Nathanael." He said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." So here we have the scene of the early moments, the birth of the Christian church, the first two disciples. And over 2000 years that little nucleus has spread into the millions across the face of the earth, and we're a part of what was started in our text 2000 years ago.

Take your notes quickly. I'll reference them just briefly. I suggest that now the excitement begins. Our gospel started with the annunciation and the presentation of Jesus Christ as the eternal LOGOS, the Son of God, and then John the Baptist comes on the scene and says I want you to meet Him. Here is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. And Jesus immediately starts the gathering of His church. I suggest to you that it's an exciting time because there's nothing more exciting than seeing people come into the kingdom of God. You can remember back, some of you, when you lived your life in sin and you didn't have purpose and direction, and someone shared with you as these men of this text that we read today. They let you hear about Jesus, and as the result, your life was transformed. You never forgot that moment. And the joy of being your pastor is I see that take place almost every service. In the last service nearly a dozen people raised their hand for Jesus Christ. They've made their commitment to Jesus in the service. And that's the thrill, seeing the church grow and I can just imagine as Jesus saw those first two, here're My first two. It'll go to 2 million, and this will go to millions more as time and history marches on.

Let me tell you one, I trust my friend is in service today because this has been such a joy to my heart. We have a lovely group of folks who, of course, work throughout the city and one couple, I think, or two, works for a very fine gentleman, a very professional man, and so they for some time have been requesting his presence in church, and he was graciously turning them down. And finally he said I'll come to your church on Good Friday service. So he was here and he enjoyed it immensely, so much so, he says to those who invited him, I'm coming back on Sunday. And he was here, but when he arrives the place is full. There are no more seats, and we were already turning some people away. The only seats that were available were the two seats right here by the preacher, and nobody wants to get that close to the preacher. (Congregation laughs) But he came, and here he sat and I kind of greeted him because I had met him on Friday, and I was so delighted to see him here. And as I'm explaining the communion I see on his countenance God beginning to do an eternal work in his heart. Finally the tears began to flow, and by the time we got to the prayer time my friend is kneeling here before God pouring out his heart.

When the prayer is finished he stands and I walk over to him and we just hug each other. I say, can I say a prayer with you friend? He said, yes Pastor. So we prayed, still crying, and the person who'd invited him was nearby and he went to them and he's hugging them, and thanking them that they had been the Andrew in his life. They told him about Jesus. And if I remember correctly, when he left his eyes were still filled with tears because God had started a work in that man's life. So you know I'm thinking I'd like to be a fly on the wall of his office tomorrow. I want to see how Christianity is going to affect this wonderful professional man. And I got the report, I think it was almost the first or second client, he's fulfilling his professional duties and he says, you know, something happened to me in church the other day. I experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit. And while he's working on his patient, he's crying and finally the patient is crying, and I understand that throughout the week he shared this marvelous experience.

So last Sunday I waited for him, and at the end of service here he came and I gave him a great big hug and said, friend how did it go this week? He said, Pastor it was wonderful. I said, well I've been praying for you all week. Nothing thrills my heart more than to see God marvelously, wonderfully transform a life and see them brought into the kingdom. And I'm suggesting that the text that's before us is that beautiful picture of those glorious moments when the Christian church was just starting to explode.

Now time is against me and I don't want to take your dinnertime so I'll just set my notes aside, and just make some quick observations for you. When I read this story I notice some interesting things. First of all, John and Andrew, because those were the first two disciples, they came into the kingdom; they became followers of Christ because of the preaching of John the Baptist. And so I immediately conclude that in this picture that John sets forth in those early moments of the church as it begins now to grow, that preaching holds a very prominent position in God's plan and method of winning the world. That's the first converts or the first followers, John and Andrew, they become followers of Christ because of the proclamation in preaching. And you say, what does that say to you Pastor? What it says to me is my obligation in my world is a very solemn one, and I take it with great solemnity. To stand here before you every Lord's Day to me is an awesome, awesome responsibility. I do not take it lightly because I realize that God has used down through time, and Paul spoke of it as the foolishness of preaching, but it's through the proclamation of the gospel that Jesus Christ died for our sins whereby many come into the kingdom of God. And thus, gospel preaching holds an exceedingly high prominent position in the expansion of the church.

Remember, you're a Christian today not just to save you from going to hell, you're a Christian today because you're under divine assignment. You were brought to the kingdom to be a part of its expansion program. Now that's exciting. When I see this story I see that Andrew goes for Peter, Philip goes for Nathanael, and they bring them to Christ, and thus secondly, that in God's method of building His church was included personal evangelism. Sharing one to one, not only the open proclamation, but the sharing of our faith on a one to one basis.

You know back in the '70s my heart was bursting. I'd say, God, would You send to our church somebody who has the gift, somebody who has the burden, somebody whose heartbeat is for a lost world, send someone to us who will lead us out in evangelism - personal evangelism. I remember hearing about a man down in Southern California and his name was Mark Hinman, and Mark was a Pastor but he had become so involved in evangelism he left his church and on Monday night he helped a church in this city, Tuesday night a church in this city, Wednesday night a church in this city, and in the five nights of the week he was helping five different churches. So I flew into Pomona and I met him, and I said Brother Hinman we need you in our church, we want to help our people to become personal evangelists. And he said, that's wonderful Pastor, he said in fact, just today he said the church on Monday night has canceled me because they're changing pastors, and so I'm available on Monday evening. I said that's wonderful. You can come. But he said you're 400 miles away. I said there are airplanes. I said we'll fly you up each weekend, and you become our evangelism leader. And we fixed a little prophet's chamber over here, and fixed him a bed and a cup of water, and he flew in on Saturday and he was with us on Sunday, and his love for souls just touched all of our hearts. And on Monday many of our congregation, and we flew him in for 2 1/2 years every weekend. We finally moved him in. We thought that was cheaper. (Congregation laughs) But what happened is many people in this congregation today were trained by Mark, and you loved him much and he loved us. He's in heaven today watching the service, and I think there are thousands around him that are in heaven because of his work.

But we had a world that's different to evangelize than we've got today. Twenty years ago we could go to a home, ring a doorbell, and be welcomed in. We can't do that anymore. They don't want us around. You can't go because they've got bars, padlocks, sound boxes, and everything else and it's hard to get into a home today, and they don't want you. They don't even want me unless I've got an appointment. They don't. It's different. Twenty years ago - open the door, come and share the evening with us. So I'm praying, dear God, here it is the year 2000, we still want to reach out into our world as old Andrew did and as old Philip did, and the rest of the early church. We want to be about our business seeing our community come to Christ. How do we do it? because I've got a different world.

I read a survey the other day and this is the world we have to win now. This is what we have to win. Here's they're attitude. Number one, our world around us believes that science is more reliable than religion. Now that's different than it was twenty years ago, but you take Bible and you take religion and ethics out of the public school system and you tell them that science is their god, and I understand now why they say science is more reliable than religion; one of the great tragedies of public education today. Secondly, they consider Christianity's claim to uniqueness to be predicted to the extreme. We say as Christians, there is only one way to heaven, there is only one name given under heaven among men whereby we can be saved, and that is through Jesus Christ. There's only one door to heaven, and our world looks on and says, you bunch of bigots. I mean you think god is just as small as only the God of Christianity. Why there's the god of all the other religions of the world and we'll all get there someday. And you Christians are so bigoted you think you've got the only answer, man we know it. But now they really let us have it because the word today is toleration. You've got to be tolerant. You might not like nor agree with their lifestyle or their teaching, but you know you've got to be tolerant. No, I said no, I've got to be honest. If there's only one truth, and there is, and that's Jesus Christ, I don't back away for anyone. Gracious, yes, but to try to imply that by being tolerant everybody whose religious is going to go to heaven is wrong. There's only one door to heaven and that's Jesus Christ.

And thirdly, they say that the world that we've got to win today has lost their moral certainty. It's either shifted downward or they have none whatsoever. That's true, isn't it? You take away the Bible as a standard of godly conduct and righteousness, and then what do you tell kids? They have no standard to set to. Rip the Ten Commandments off the school wall and you've ripped away a standard for morality, and for ethics, and for honesty. So now we've got this call to be Andrews and Philips winning our world and winning this city. And I say I've got a world out here that says science has better answers than religion. I've got a world out here who says we're a bunch of bigots because we only believe there's one way to heaven, through Jesus Christ. And I've got a world out here who doesn't know the difference between right and wrong. That creates a tremendous challenge for the church today, brothers and sisters. So what's the answer? And I'm saying Jesus give us the answer. I'm not going to stand up here every day and downgrade and disprove evolution so that we can get rid of the science problem. We can't do that. So I say how did those guys handle it? They just said come and see, just come and see. You say that's a secret. If God can help us as Christians and our community here in this church, so anticipate and appreciate the wonderful presence of God that when you say, you know, I'd like for you to come to church with me. And they say we don't need any of that religion; well you ought to come and see. You ought to just come and see once, just once. That makes it easy. And my prayer is that God's presence becomes so real here when they come and see, they will come and know.

I can't combat, and none of us can, all the arguments out there in society today. We can argue ourselves till we're blue in the face, and they're going to come back with their arguments. But we can say this, you know I have found in Jesus Christ a wonderful friend, a wonderful Savior, and if you question about religion you ought to come and see. Just come with me to one church service. You know ladies and gentlemen, if every one of us here on our way to church would pray, God, so fill our church with Your presence and with Your glory that when people come they will immediately know there in Your presence. I don't have to say a thing, neither do you, when the Spirit of God begins to work in a heart. Just come and see. May it be when they come they see, they see the love of Jesus Christ in our lives, they see the joy that's ours in serving Christ, they see the celebration that's ours in worship. They see and they want.

Something happened the other day, and just as I close, a lovely couple some years ago came to church and they're Christians. They parked down in the parking lot and the man turned to his wife and said Honey, do you feel what I feel? I feel God's presence right here in the parking lot. He said I've never experienced it, so when he came to church he came up to me and said, you know Pastor, I've been in church for years but when we drove up on your parking lot today we sensed we were in the presence of God. I said praise God. That's exactly what we want. Just come and see, and may it be that the evidence of God's greatness and His love so shines forth from us His people. God takes care of all the rest of the arguments. Amen?

Lord Jesus, it's exciting to review the early moments of our Christian church. It's exciting to know that we have a divine assignment to go out and tell the world the story of Your love, and to make sure we tell it to our own community. And I thank you for the lives that are being transformed and changed in our church. To You we give all praise. But Jesus, what all of us here want is that Your presence, Your glory, Your wonder, Your majesty will so fill this house that when people come to see, their lives will be transformed through the work of Your precious Holy Spirit. Lord Jesus, You are welcome in this house and all of Your glory, in all of Your splendor. Come, precious Spirit of God, come. Thank you dear Jesus and everybody said, amen. God bless you folks. God bless you.