It's going to be John chapter 1. We're going to look at verses 35 to 51. Why don't you follow along as I read? Here's what it says. Again, the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples. And he looked at Jesus as he walked and said, behold, the Lamb of God. The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, what do you seek? They said to him, rabbi, which translated means teacher, where are you staying? He said to them, Come, and you will see. So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, We found the Messiah, which translated means Christ. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which is translated Peter. Well, the next day he purposed to go into Galilee, and he found Philip. And Jesus said to him, Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said to him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. Nathanael said to him, How do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him, Before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathaniel answered 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'll see greater things than these. And he said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. You know, as a young man, Kenneth Scott Latourette wanted to be a missionary specifically to teach in China. So after finishing his B.A. and his master's degree and then going on to get his Ph.D. in 1910, he joined the faculty of Yali School in Shengsha, China. It wasn't that very long, only a year, because he ended up with severe amoebic dysentery, and so he had to return to the United States. When he got back, he taught at a couple small colleges, and then in 1921, he joined the Yale faculty, where he taught at that school for the next 32 years. Now, LaTourette wrote some 80 books over his career, but the best known of his is the multi-volume series, The History of the Expansion of Christianity. Now, the first volume in that series, LaTourette gives some of the reasons that the Christian faith was able to spread so widely and so quickly in the early years of the church. As a believer, he understood that ultimately it was God who brought about the rapid spread of the faith. But he also understood that God works through history by preparing the world for the rise of that faith. The historian lays out some of the factors that he thinks were key in the spread of Christianity. First was the conquest of Alexander the Great and the spread of Greek culture. Because along with their culture, they brought their language, Koine Greek, which was the language spoken by the common people, which became the lingua de franca, in that area of the Middle East and the Mediterranean. You know, just as English is a second language for many people around the world, so Koine Greek was used as a second language for many. And of course that made it easier to spread the gospel if you can speak the same language. And the New Testament was written in Koine Greek. Second thing he sees as a factor is the Pax Romana, the Peace of Rome. The Romans who replaced the Greeks as the dominant power had brought vast areas under their control. They built networks of roads that made it easier to travel, and by clearing the land of bandits and the seas of pirates, they made it much safer to travel, which aided the early Christians in spreading their faith throughout the empire. Third reason, he said, was because of the decline of traditional religions. You see, by the time Christianity came on the scene, a lot of people had grown tired of their religions. I mean, they provided no real answers to life's problems and no hope beyond the grave. This was a time when people were searching for new ways to connect with the divine, and mystery religions from the East were starting to flow into Rome, but their followers found that they also left a God-sized vacuum in their hearts. The fourth reason, though, was the moral collapse of society. Like Western culture today, everybody could see that because society at that time was in decline. Divorce rates were skyrocketing. Sexual perversion was everywhere. People gave themselves primarily to the pursuit of entertainment. Bread and circuses. That's what they were looking for. Half the population of Rome was on the public dole. And there were moral philosophers like Seneca and Cicero and Plutarch who decried the moral rot in the culture, but they had no answer to stem the flow and slide. Now Judaism, on the other hand, demanded much higher morality. And while some Gentiles were drawn to it, it was viewed mainly as an ethnic religion tied to a particular group, the Jews, and to a particular place, Jerusalem. But Christianity, on the other hand, not only challenged the morality of the people, but also provided meaning in life and hope for the next. Now faith could be practiced anywhere by anyone, and in time it would become a worldwide religion, which included people from every tribe, and tongue, and nation. Now those are some of the reasons why Christianity was able to spread, but Latteret also explained how it spread. Yes, there were missionaries and merchants who brought the gospel message to far off lands. But for the most part, the gospel spread from one person to the next as they responded to the message and then just told it to others. Now, in the text that we have before us, we find Jesus calling his first disciples. But here we see that as soon as each one of these disciples decided to follow Jesus, they sought out family members and friends, urging them to do the same. Well, because all of us have family members and friends who we would like to see come to faith, we want to consider what this passage has to teach us. So why don't we pray and get into the text. Father God, I do pray for grace and mercy as we look at this. Open up our hearts to receive and our minds to understand what is here for us, so that we might be effective witnesses as well. So bless us that end, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I think we can divide this text into three parts. The first you can label John and his disciples. John and his disciples, that's verses 35 to 39. Secondly, Andrew and his brother. That's 40 to 42. Andrew and his brother. And finally, Philip and his friend. And that's 43 to 51. Now keep in mind what I said last week. The Apostle John, the writer of this Gospel, is trying to make his case that Jesus is the Son of God and that by believing in him you will have eternal life. It's a lot of courtroom language that he's using, and that's why you find words like witnessing and testimony, testify, judge and judgment. We're already told in the beginning of the Gospel, in John 1, 7-8, that there came a man sent from God whose name was John, meaning John the Baptist. He came as a witness to testify to the light, that all men might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came that he might testify to the light. John the Baptist's mission given to him by God was to point other people to Jesus so that by believing in him, they might be saved. And so after publicly declaring to the religious leaders that Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, he also solemnly testified saying of Jesus that this one is the Son of God. Now, John the Baptist not only declared that to his nation in public, but he also testified to the same in private to his disciples. We read, starting in verse 35, again, the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples. And he looked at Jesus, and as he walked, he said, Behold, the Lamb of God! Did you know that two of Jesus' disciples were originally disciples of John the Baptist? Now, a disciple was a student who followed after a teacher and learned from him. In a Jewish setting, that would be a rabbi. Now, we don't know how long these two disciples had followed John the Baptist, but it had probably been for some months. And unlike many today who shrug off concerns when they hear the truth, there were many people in that day who were convicted about their sins when they heard John preach. And some of them were moved enough that they would follow this rustic prophet. And now, as Jesus walked by, John the Baptist points to him and says, Behold, the Lamb of God. Well, what happened next? Well, it says, the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Hold it. If you're a teacher, you want students. If you're a rabbi, you want followers. And yet, after being taught by John, these two disciples left him to be taught by another. Having followed John, they now abandoned him to follow Jesus. You know, it's hard to be okay with the idea of being eclipsed by an upstart. Judy Garland was an actress and a singer. She starred in The Wizard of Oz. She sang that song, Somewhere Over the Rainbow. What a beautiful voice she had. You know, she was only 16 years old when she starred in that. Well, years later, Garland had her own television show from 1963 to 1964, where she'd bring on singers and celebrities to perform. And on one occasion, she invited an upcoming singer named Barbara Streisand to be on her show. Now, Garland was 41 at the time, and Streisand was only 21. And when Streisand came on stage, Judy hugged her, and then she said this, You're so thrilling. You're absolutely thrilling. I must say, we have all your albums at home. And you're so good that I hate you. I really hate you. You're so good. Now, that was supposed to be a joke, and the audience laughed at the time. But if you watch the clip and look at her body language, perhaps she was speaking more truth than what she knew out of jealousy. They then sang a duet, the older established Garland with a bright new upstart Streisand. And it was Streisand who stole the show that night. And I think that Judy Garland understood that she was being eclipsed by this star who had been born. Streisand went on to even greater heights, but Garland's career declined over the next six years. In 1969, she overdosed on sleeping pills and died. On a football team, if you're the starting quarterback, it's hard to be benched and replaced by the new one who's just been drafted. The famous conductor, Leonard Bernstein, was once asked what the hardest position was to fill in the orchestra. He said, second fiddle, because nobody wants to play that. Well, John had no problem playing second fiddle to Jesus. He knew that Jesus was the upcoming star of the show. And on one occasion, some of his disciples came to John complaining that more people were going out to be baptized by Jesus than John. In response, he said this to them, You yourselves are my witnesses, that I said I am not the Christ. but I've been sent ahead of him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, like the best man, who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. So this joy of mine has been made full." Listen to this. He must increase, but I must decrease. You know, there's a lot of megachurch celebrity pastors today who get their satisfaction from the number of Twitter followers they have. But faithful pastors, know that their job is to point away from themselves to Jesus. And when they do, their joy is made full. Verse 37 says this, Now Jesus called people to follow him, but he always wanted them to think through why they wanted to follow him. I mean, what were they really thinking? Now, you know, there's a lot of people who come to church But is it always because they're seeking the truth, hoping to be free from sin so that they can live for the glory of God? And many young people come to church only because their mom and dad make them come. Left to their own decision, they'd sooner sleep in Sunday morning or get up and go fishing or hunting. And when they do come, they don't actively listen. Rather, they daydream during the sermon and hardly pay attention during Sunday school class. Now some people come to church just because it's a family tradition. That's what they've always done. Or perhaps it's a function of social gathering. Heinrich Marx was raised Jewish but converted to Protestant Christianity not because he believed that Jesus was indeed the Jewish Messiah and therefore Christianity was true. Rather he converted because he thought it would help him in his business as an attorney. His son, Karl Marx, later became the communist leader referred to religion as the opiate of the people. Do you suppose his father's hypocritical embrace of Christianity may have influenced his later attitudes and ideas? You see, it's not just that we should follow Jesus, but Jesus wanted to make sure it was for the right reason. To his would-be followers, he would ask them to stop and to think about why they were following, what they were seeking, and what would be the cost in coming after him. I think all of this is implied in Jesus' question to these new followers when he simply asked, what do you seek? Now, I doubt they understood all of what was involved, so they said to him in verse 38, Rabbi, which translated means teacher, where are you staying? And he said to them, come and you will see. So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day for what was about the 10th hour. Come and see. You know, John, who wrote those words, was probably in his 80s or early 90s when he penned them. That day, he came to begin to see the light of truth that dawned on him. See, John is the unknown disciple, one of those two who followed Jesus that day, and he remembers the very day when he began to see the light. Now, if you're a Christian, do you remember the day that you first came to trust in Christ? For me, it was April 10th, 1981. I was sitting in my pickup truck in my high school parking lot, eating my lunch, listening to John MacArthur speak about hypocrisy, I came to realize that I was, in fact, not saved. I gave my life to Christ right then. If you're not a Christian, I want to give you the same invitation that Jesus gave his disciples that day. Come, put yourself in a place where you hear the truth of the Word of God. Ask God to open your eyes to see the truth that's being taught. Not only that it is true, but that it is truth, the truth that you need to be free from your sin and your guilt. That brings us to our next section, Andrew and his brother. Now, of course, that makes me think of Brother Andrew, the Dutch missionary who wrote the book, God Smuggler. He secretly brought Bibles into the Soviet Union during the Cold War period. The Soviets saw his ministry as such a threat that they actually infiltrated his organization, Open Door, with KGB agents. Well, that was brother Andrew. We're talking about Andrew and his brother. We read here, starting in verse 40, one of the two who heard him speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, we found the Messiah, which translated means Christ. And whenever anyone comes to faith, the first thing they want to do is tell others about what happened. I think it was Dina who mentioned to us that someone she knew was married to a Jewish man. and just probably out of respect for his wife, attended church with her. The pastor was teaching, I believe it was through Hebrews or some other book. And at that point, God opened the man's eyes and he was converted. And so he went back to his synagogue and he started telling all the people there, hey, did you know that Jesus was our Messiah? Like, they'd never heard that. I know that when I first became a Christian, I started witnessing to the guys I played in a band with and the co-workers I had at the restaurant. and a young Catholic girl that I was dating at the time. It took time for her to come around, but 40 years after, we're still married and she's doing well. But you know, for those of us who have been saved, we have come. And now we see. And so we sing songs like Johnny Nash's, who said, I can see clearly now the rain is gone. I can see all obstacles in my way. Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind. It's going to be a bright, bright, sunshiny day. It's going to be a bright, bright, sunshiny day. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness, is the one who's shown into our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ, 2 Corinthians 4.6. Sometimes when we pray for our family members, We'll say something like this, Lord, I ask that you'd send somebody to talk to my brother about you. Hmm. Who might be a good candidate? Maybe somebody who knows him? Somebody he knows well? Perhaps somebody who has a shared life experience? Someone who's genuinely concerned about his salvation? Maybe somebody who's praying for him? Maybe somebody who's praying for him right now? Maybe you! If you're a Christian, how did you come to faith? Was it by attending an evangelistic crusade? There's some. Was it by listening to a preacher on the radio like me? I'll bet for most of us, it was through a family member. A dad or mom who got us to church, a brother or sister who shared the gospel with us. I was on a plane heading for Florida once. I was reading a book, and a woman behind me was kind of looking for the title, and she struck up a conversation with me. It became clear in just a short time that she was a Christian. I asked her how she came to faith. She said she was raised Jewish, but then her dad became a believer, and through him, she and her five siblings all eventually came to Christ. Her mom wasn't a Christian yet, but she was hopeful. Isn't that a wonderful story? Look, your first ring of responsibility is to witness to your own family members, your parents, your brothers and sisters, your children, cousins. As a pastor, I've had the privilege of doing the funeral services for both my mom and my dad, and for several uncles and aunts. I got the opportunity to present the gospel to all my relatives at that time. Well, concerned about his own brother, Andrew brought, it says, him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which means Peter. Do you have any nicknames? Lots of people named John have the nickname Jack. J.F. Kennedy was always known as Jack by those closest to him. John Wayne. His nickname was Duke. He got that from a dog that he had when he was a kid. Good thing his dog's name was Duke and not Rover or Fido. Fido Wayne doesn't sound good. By the way, his real name was not John Wayne. His real name was Marion Morrison. Marion? Ooh, tough-sounding cowboy. Or how about Bob Hope? His real name was Leslie. Well, in the Bible, there's a number of people who are given different names than the one they were born with. Abram's name was changed to Abraham. Abram means father of many, but Abraham means father of many nations. Jacob's name was changed to Israel, which means prince, or one who prevails with God. Joshua's assistant, or Moses' assistant, Joshua, what was his actual name? Does anyone know? It was Hoshea. What was Esther's real name? Hadassah. I have a granddaughter. Her name is Elsa, but I call her Lena. I have a grandson whose name is Soren, but I've always called him Louie. But after he saw the Jungle Book cartoon and saw the orangutan character named King Louie, he informed me that he no longer wants to be known by that name. Now I have to call him Louis. Well, Jesus didn't rename Simon To be clever, he renamed him Cephas, which is Aramaic, and Peter, which is the Greek, because it means rock. And Jesus was eventually going to make him rock-like in his character. But like with us, it's going to take a long time for that transformation to come about. But God sees not only what we are, but what we can be by His grace. Peter, far more than Andrew, became a pillar in the early church. But before Peter became the rock, Andrew had to bring him to the rock, the rock of ages. And like Andrew, God can use you to reach a family member who may go on to do far greater things than you ever will. Everyone knows Charles Spurgeon. He was one of the great preachers of England. But no one knows the layman who was at the church, who filled in for the pastor that one Sunday when there was a snowstorm. He wasn't a preacher, but he presented the gospel and Spurgeon, who happened to be there, was converted that day. God bless all those who play the second fiddle well. That brings us to our third point though, Philip and his friend. It says, the next day he purposed to go, this is verse 43, the next day he purposed to go into Galilee and he found Philip and Jesus said to him, follow me. I will follow him, follow him wherever he may go. There isn't an ocean too deep or a mountain so high it can keep me away. I will follow him. Ever since he touched my hand, I knew that near him I always must be, and nothing can keep him from me. He is my destiny." That's a little Peggy Marsh saying about her boyfriend, but Philip and every other Christian could sing it about Jesus. When it comes to Christ, we agree to be his followers and follow him wherever he leads us. because He's our destiny. As it says in Colossians 3, 3-4, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, you also will be revealed with Him in glory. And you know, it won't always be easy to follow Him. Sometimes it's going to be hard. But He alone can act as your life guide to get you through this jungle we call the world. And as we sing, though none may join me, still I will follow. It's not just family we want to have join us in following Jesus. It's also friends. And Philip had a friend he wanted to speak to about Jesus. So it says in verse 44, Now Philip, who was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter, Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We found him, of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. You found him? Actually, if you look carefully in the text, Jesus found you. I sought the Lord, and afterwards I knew. He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me. It was not I that found, O Savior true. No, I was found of Thee. It's a good shepherd who goes out looking for the lost sheep. Jesus said, I am the good shepherd, and I know my own, and my own know me. Even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep who are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice, and they will become one flock with one shepherd. John 10, 14 to 16. The other sheep not of that fold are the Gentiles, people like us who are gathered into his church to be part of his flock. The good shepherd, the Messiah, has arisen in Nazareth. Nathaniel said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? I mean, can anything good come out of Detroit? Did you know that city at one time had the highest per capita income in the United States? And look at it today. Half of all the street lights don't even work. You can buy a house in some areas for $3,000, but you wouldn't want to live there. I mean, people from Jerusalem looked down on those from Nazareth. The Nazarenes were loose in their morals and they weren't serious about their religion. There was a lot of Gentiles who lived in the area, and the Galileans were known for being hotheads, troublemakers, hooligans. Can anything good come out of Liverpool? Well, the Beatles, but that's about it. Philip said to them, come and see. Again, the answer to the critics is to come and check it out for yourself. Many of mockers and critics have been converted, not by clever arguments, but simply by meeting Jesus in the pages of Scripture. Philip was challenging his friend, Nathanael, to meet Jesus in person. Philip was convinced that Moses, in the law and the prophets, had wrote about Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Verse 47 says this, I mentioned earlier that God changed Jacob's name to Israel. Israel means prince or else one who prevails with God. But what does the name Jacob mean? Remember the story? Rebecca was pregnant with twins. The first one came out, and he was all hairy. And so they called him Esau. But evidently, his hair was red, so they gave him the name Edom as well, which means red. You know, there's a lot of people that they say have red hair, but actually, it's orange. Let's not kid ourselves. So maybe he really looked like King Louis, the swinging orangutan of Jungle Book. Well, as they pulled out this red-headed fur boy, holding onto his heel was his twin brother, who they gave the name Jacob. It means grasper, manipulator. President Richard Nixon was called Tricky Dick by those who didn't like him. Well, Jacob was a tricky fellow as well, finagling his brother out of his birthright, and then later deceiving his dad, Isaac, so that he could steal the blessing. Jesus was saying that Nathanael was a true Israelite, but unlike his ancient forefather, there was nothing duplicitous in him. Nathaniel said to him, how do you know me? Have you been checking my social media? My Facebook account? Is my house bugged? Has my phone been tapped? You know, don't you, that if you have a smart phone, it is always listening to you. Remember a couple years ago, I took my grandkids on a walk when they were living down in Illinois, and as we were walking along, we were picking up acorns. Big, long acorns, not like the short ones we have here. And one of my grandkids asked me, Grandpa, can you eat acorns? I said, I think you can, but I think you have to do something special to them. I went back about an hour later, I'm looking through YouTube, and something comes up for acorn pie. Wow. You're only paranoid if they're not really after you. Well, Jesus had information about Nathanael, not from some ancient technology, but rather supernatural knowledge of this man. And we know this because he said, Jesus answered and said to him, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Now, there wasn't some drone hovering over the fig tree, narrowing down on Nathanael. Rather, Jesus, in his mind, saw him. And that knowledge shocked Nathanael. We can see that in his response because he says in verse 49, Nathanael answered and said, Rabbi, You are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel. Now, Nathaniel, you drew those conclusions from Jesus' comment about seeing you under a fig tree? Now, I don't know how he came to those conclusions or whether he understood the full weight of the truth that he was confessing, but what he said is true. Jesus was and is the Son of God, and Jesus was and is the King of Israel. Now it's likely that Nathanael had either been reading or at least thinking about the story of Jacob. Remember that after he escaped from his brother who was threatening to kill him, he lay down one night and went to sleep. And he had a dream where he saw a ladder or a stairway going from heaven to earth. And he saw angels going up and down on it. Well, Jesus is the stairway to heaven. And Nathanael would eventually come to see that there's no way to get to Bethel, the true house of God, apart from Jesus. Do you believe that? Do you believe Jesus when he said, I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me? Do you believe the testimony of John the Baptist who proclaimed Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world? Do you believe what Andrew said, that in Jesus they had found Israel's Messiah? Do you believe Philip's words when he said, this is the one of whom Moses and all the prophets wrote? Have you come to the same conclusion as Nathanael that this Jesus is the Son of God? The King of Israel? Do you believe? If so, then tell your family and friends about this one so they can believe and also be saved. This is still the way the gospel spreads and Christianity expands. May God make us to love our family members and friends enough to tell them about Jesus. Let's pray. Our Father in God, it is true that the Gospel is spread primarily through one person telling another. As they get excited about what God has done for them, and they declare the message, the Gospel has the power within itself to transform lives by opening up hearts, causing their sins to be forgiven when they believe it, and then empowering them to live for Jesus. And so Father God, we thank you for the opportunity we have to preach the gospel on Sunday mornings here. We thank you for the opportunities we have through the radio broadcast and for the internet. And we pray a blessing as those who hear respond. And Father God, we think about our own family members. Because for those of us who are believers, we all have people close to us who don't know you yet. And we're praying that you'd open up opportunities for us to tell them as well, and then for them to respond so that we can rejoice that they're not only children of ours, but children of God as well. So bless us to that end, for we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to sing 312, and if you want to stand for that, that would be great.