Over these Epiphany Sermons, the main theme is discipleship, and what they looks like.
This morning – Staying and Pointing.
Looking back, who pointed you to Jesus ?
For Andrew and the anonymous disciple – it was John the Baptist.
You may remember at Christmas, we read John 1 and in that John the Baptist was
described as ‘’a man sent by God, and he came as a witness’’.
Through his gospel John uses the noun – witness – and the verb ‘’to bear witness or to
testify’’ more than the other three gospels put together. It is one of the key ideas running through the gospel.
When we read about John the Baptist he is always witnessing about Jesus, pointing to
Jesus.
In v29-34, John points out three things about Jesus.
As Jesus comes to John, he says ‘’Look, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world.’’
The Lamb. To say that among the Jews would take them to the Passover, when the ancient Israelities wanted to leave slavery in Egypt, when the firstborn of Egypt were killed and the Israelites saved because they, at God’s command, had sacrificed a lamb, smeared its
blood on their doorposts, causing God to pass-over their houses.
But ‘’a lamb that takes away sin’’. John is pointing us to Isaiah 53 – Jesus the suffering
servant who is led like a ‘’lamb to the slaughter’’, who takes the sin of the world.
John is saying what he will do.
Second. John contrasts his own baptism of water, with the baptism that comes through
Jesus. John is known as John the Baptist yet Jesus’ baptism is greater than his. John – as a prophet – would have known the Spirit resting on him – but Jesus, the one who the Spirit had rested upon at his Baptism, he would give the Spirit to others. He is the Spirit baptizer.
John had said, Jesus can take away the sin of the world; he will baptize with the Holy Spirit; and finally he is the Son of God.
King David had been promised that one would come, from his line and God would be a
father to him, and he would be like a son to him – the Davidic Promise, of one to come,
whose kingdom would never end. Jesus is the One in whom God’s promises are being
fulfilled.
Having pointed Jesus out to his listeners – he does it again v35 – the next day – ‘’look the lamb of God’’ . And Andrew and the anonymous one start following Jesus…
Who pointed Jesus out to you?
Staying with Jesus .
Andrew and the anonymous other disciple, are following Jesus. ‘’Turning around, Jesus
saw they following and he asked them ‘’what do you want?’’ They ask ‘where are you
staying?’
‘’Come and you will see’’ Jesus replies.
‘Where are you staying?’Greek word for ‘staying’ is the same one Jesus uses in John 15 at the Last Supper – he tells his followers – Abide / Remain in me and I will abide / remain in you.
Andrew asks where Jesus is abiding, staying.
And then after Jesus says ‘’come and see’’, what do they do: they saw where he was
staying and spend that day with him. They abided / stayed with him.
In November, I attended a Church Planter Conference in Budapest, and a friend – actually my ex- flatmate – invited me to stay with him. They ask – where are you staying? – Jesus could have said ‘’I won’t say’’ but he did say ‘’come and see’’. He invites them.
Isn’t that amazing? Jesus invites them to where he stays and it isn’t for a quick cup of
coffee, they spend the day with him. He invites them to spend time with him.
Now, Jesus decides to leave Galilee. He finds Philip and says ‘Follow me’. The Greek word used for ‘’follow’’, means not only to ‘walk in the footsteps of the one you follow’. The word also means ‘ to accompany, to be with them.’ Jesus says, to Phillip – accompany me, be with me.
Later, after John has been imprisoned, Jesus chooses 12 out of the many around them.
And Mark 3 describes the aim of Jesus – there were to be with him and that he would send them out.
Andrew was following; Philip is called to follow. Yet this is not about follow me and do stuff for me, it is to be with him.
And Jesus invites us to ‘’stay with him’’. ‘’To spend time with him.’’
Jesus invites each of us to accompany him, to be with him, to stay with him, to have a deep personal relationship with him, to abide with him.
How can we be with Jesus? What does that look like for you?
Part of it setting aside time.
But there has to be more than just being there.
What does it mean to be with someone? In the Marriage Preparation course we talk about ‘’date night’’ – a dedicated time set aside, quality time together. But in the course
recommend us, that ideally we have our phones off or on silent. The course leaders – Nicky and Sila – talk about couples they have seen at meals, all on their phones as if they have forgotten how to talk to each other. They are not focused on the person but on, you could say – the world and the hundreds of other people in their social media or work feeds.
What does it look like to be with Jesus and also, second, how can that be quality time?
Maybe for some of you, it is to begin to parent your phone? John Mark Comer talks about how his phone is put away in a drawer in the evening and he will not get it out until after his quiet time in the morning. He realized that if he started using a phone before his quiet time, he may not get to that quiet time, or stuff he has seen will distract him. Maybe that means for some of you, you need to get back to reading a physical bible and not a digital one …
Maybe for others it is about when you have your time, or prioritizing that time above other things.
We have a course coming up – Practicing the Way – which draws on these issues, gives
helpful tools and allows you learn from each other. It takes it seriously that Jesus doesn’t only want to make you like him – ie holiness, sanctification etc – and he doesn’t only want you doing the stuff he did – he also wants to be with you and you to be with him. He wants you to wake up asking – ‘’Rabbi, where are you staying?’’ and then to go and spend time with him, knowing you are truly warmly invited…
I really want to recommend this 8 part course – 8 evenings or 8 mornings – and we will be doing via our Life Groups. Sign in via Hannah Koolstra.
Pointing others .
We come back to pointing.
Andrew stays with Jesus, and then when he returns, ”the first thing he did was find his
brother and tell him.” Andrew pointed his brother to Jesus. Philip, is called to follow Jesus, and Philip points his friend Nathanael to Jesus. We stopped the story short – Nathanael didn’t sound too impressed but if you read the rest of the chapter, you find out it has a happy ending…
Jesus gives us, his followers, the opportunity to do what John the Baptist, Andrew and
Nathanael do – to point others to him.
That will be a key part of Helena’s life as we have dedicated her. Sebastiaan and Amy and the others in Helena’s life are to point her to Jesus. Paul puts it in a different way: Romans 10:14
‘’Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’’ How, then, can they call on
the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?’’
Jesus does not need human agents. The legions of angels he commands, they could be
sent like Gabriel, who had visited his mother, they could be speak to anyone and everyone.
Done dusted. The world has heard. Yet he doesn’t. He uses us, his disciples to point
people to him.
At All Saints, we talk about, Up, In, Out. These are a summary of the core values we want to be reflected in our congregation. But not only in our congregation but in our individual lives, as we can see these elements in Jesus own life – Upward to his heavenly father, inward, sharing life with his followers, outward to God’s broken, damaged world.
OUT we talk about it being about ‘service of others’, and ‘evangelism’.
But when we mention evangelism, we may think of Billy Graham or of the apostles Peter or Paul. We think of evangelism being direct of confrontational, and preaching to people, like Peter; or it is intellectual, debating, apologetics, arguing – like Paul.
But those are just two evangelism styles we see in scripture.
We also see other ways faith is shared. There is the Samaritan Woman.
In John 4, she encounters Jesus and then we read – ”Then leaving her water jar, the woman went back into town and said to the people ”come and see a man who told me everything I ever did, could this be the Christ?” and the people came.
Inviting people so they can meet Jesus is a form of evangelism.
Now, today, he is not physically here, but he is present by his Spirit. And we consider to
what we can invite people so they have a chance to understand more of who he is and to encounter him.
Maybe it is to invite them to a Sunday service. All Saints seeks to be a welcoming church.
But we also want to be an invitational church. We remember Xander’s testimony when he was baptized in June. Things were happening spiritually in Xander’s life; and one of his best friends Tom Bakker warmly simply invited him to come to church. And God continued working from there.
Who could you invite to come to a service with you? Can you pray this week, asking the
Lord to lay on your heart a person, you could invite to come to this church?
Or to Alpha. Alpha is effectively – ‘’Come and See’’ – as Andrew said to Peter – come and see this man who Jesus is – who he is, what he has done and what it means to follow him and do what he did…
Now, Alpha we offer at least once a year, and it is happening on Tuesday 3rd Feb. Is there someone you can invite to come and see who Jesus is and what it means to follow him?
Can you pray this week inviting the Lord to lay a person on your heart to invite to Alpha.
You cannot make them come, but you can invite them.
Over 75 years ago, Archbishop William Temple, wrote a commentary on John. When he
came to the words in v43: ”And he brought him to Jesus.” Archbishop Temple wrote: ‘The greatest service one person can do to another.”
Simon Peter went on, to be one of the great Christian leaders in the history of Christianity.
You may not be able to do what Peter did.
But you CAN do what his brother did – you can bring someone to Jesus.
Just like Philip. You can say ”come and see” to your friends, family, work colleagues. You
can be part of God’s plan for people to hear about and respond to Jesus, through inviting them. That is basically what we are doing when we invite people to Alpha or to a Sunday Service. Andrew invited Peter because of who he had discovered; Philip, after following Jesus, found Nathanael because of who he had discovered; the Samaritan Women invited her whole village because of who she had discovered…Because of what we have discovered and know, we invite people to come and see – hear about Jesus and what it means to be a follower of his.
Queen Elisabeth II once said, in a Christmas message:
”Only a few acknowledged Jesus when he was born. Now billions follow him. The message of Jesus is never out of date and is needed as much as ever.” (2018).
Andrew discovered him. He knew Peter needed him.
Phillip discovered him and knew Nathanael needed him.
‘’Come and see’’ they said.
Conclusion:
Discipleship includes Staying and Pointing.
Staying.
You are invited to stay with Jesus. It is part of being a disciple, not just doing.
Pointing.
Each of us will do this differently, invitation is something we all can do. We do it for we
know the message and person of Jesus is never out of date and is needed as much as ever.
Shall we pray.
”Lord thank you that you are the Lamb who takes away my sins and the sins of 8 billion plus people, and you offer me the gift of forgiveness.
Thank you for your invitation to stay with you, to abide with you.
Help me to confidently to daily take that invitation from you Lord. You want to spend time with me.
And also help me also to introduce others to you, to invite people to ‘come and see.’ Amen.