John- So That You May Believe, Gospel of John, Part 07 John 1:35-42, "Come Follow Me"

                                                                                                                       October 27^th, 2024

From The Series: John- So That You May Believe

Part 07 Come, Follow Me.

The Gospel of John 1:35-42

Mountain View Evangelical Missionary Church

May I start with a question this morning? That was a question, but I’d like to start with a more meaningful question. Have you ever thought about the process God developed for your salvation? Or, do you think that God had anything to do with your salvation? Maybe, you haven’t given this topic any thought at all. I will tell you that I spend a lot of time thinking about this question because I feel that it affects how we live our lives and how we share the gospel.

I will confess that I do not fully understand exactly the process that God has chosen to implement. Think about this, God could have chosen that mankind should have to make a pilgrimage before we were to be saved. Imagine, if you will, if God had chosen to have each Christian make a trip to a far-off portion of the globe in order to prove our worthiness for salvation, or to prove our love for the Saviour.

Or, what if we had to ascend a set of steep stone steps on our knees in order to prove our level of commitment to following Jesus? Imagine having to spend a day and a night tied to a Wooden Roman Cross to show God how much we love Him. How many of those tests or trials would you be able to endure in the name of Jesus?

You may think that what I just listed were some crazy examples, but I can tell you that there are some manmade religions in the world that have their followers do these very things or something similar to them. Some religions expect you to perform at least one pilgrimage in your life as a way to show your devoutness and to garner favour with their God.

God decrees the ends and the means for our salvation. The One-True God has chosen a different method for His followers. A method so simple that it stands head and shoulders above the others when compared to the false religions of the world. A method that is not only described in the Bible once, but it is a method that is laid out in the Bible in a very obvious pattern. Obvious, if you know what to look for. Let us look together at the scriptures this morning and let’s see if we can determine what this divinely ordained method of salvation is.

We are once again in the Gospel of John this morning, we are still in the first chapter of this book, and today, we will be examining verses 35 to 42.

If you did not bring your Bible this morning, you should find one underneath one of the chairs in the row in front of you. The Gospel of John, chapter 1 will be found on page 860 of the pew bible. If you do not have a bible at home, please take that bible with you as a gift from Mountain View Church. We feel that it is vitally important that you have easy access to God’s Word. And God’s Word says…

READ JOHN 1:35-42

“³⁵ The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. ³⁶ When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

³⁷ When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. ³⁸ Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

³⁹ “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”

So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.

⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. ⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). ⁴² And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).”

So, this morning, if I have completed my presentation well, I should show how these three points can be drawn from scripture. Now I admit that not all three points are present in just this passage from John. I always hated when a pastor would start in one passage and then move to another passage and spend most of his time in the new passage that morning. That always felt like a bait-and-switch to me, and we will, as usual, be spending time in other passages of the Bible this morning, but I will be doing that in an attempt to demonstrate to you what I see as an obvious pattern contained in scripture.

Pastor Paul’s Points:

1.       A disciple is a student.

2.       Jesus calls disciples.

3.       Discipleship is a process.

Look with me again at verse 35, in chapter 1 of John’s Gospel, “³⁵ The next day John was there again with two of his disciples.” We have seen in previous lessons that in the Gospel of John, the author never refers to himself by name. Whenever we see the name “John” in the Gospel of John, the author is referring either to John the Baptist, or John, the father of Peter. Peter is introduced to us in the last verse of this morning’s passage, verse 42.

So, we see in verse 35, that John the Baptist is here with at least two of his disciples. Maybe we should stop right here for a moment and define what a disciple is.

According to the Lexham Theological Dictionary, a disciple​ is a person who follows and adheres to the teachings of another. In other words, a student, pupil, or learner. In the New Testament, it is a term used for Jesus’ followers. The term disciples often references the smaller group of faithful followers known as “the Twelve”, or “The Twelve Apostles” but the word “disciple” also indicates a wider group of followers. In Luke chapter 10, we find mention of a group of 72 disciples who were chosen by Jesus and were given the task to go and heal and evangelize in His name. So we see the term disciple refers to more than just the twelve apostles.

Actually, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, if you call yourself a Christian, you should also consider yourself to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Being a Christian isn’t a one-and-done type of thing. Being a Christian is not just saying a prayer, getting dunked or sprinkled with some water, and then you are set for life. If you call yourself a Christian, you should consider yourself a disciple of Jesus Christ. We will see later that discipleship is a process. We will also see this process played out in the lives of the Twelve as we progress through the Gospel of John. You will be aware of this process if you have ever read any of the Gospels from start to finish. But, more of that in a few minutes.

Now that we know what a disciple is, a student, pupil, or learner, look with me back at verse 35 and let’s examine the significance of this word, “disciple”. “³⁵ The next day John was there again with two of his disciples.” The gospel writer is resuming his account of John the Baptist after John was questioned by the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders on the shore of the river Jordan in the region of Bethany. On the day previous to this account, we saw last time how Jesus proclaimed the “Lamb of God” and all that that meant on a theological level. We also saw the last time that Jesus was baptized but John the Gospel writer records very little detail of that event.

We do see that John the Baptist had garnered disciples of his own. Interestingly enough, there exists today a small group called the Mandeans, in parts of Iraq and Iran, who claim to descend from the original movement started by John the Baptist.

In biblical times, the Baptist’s actions of emerging from the wilderness and preaching to whoever he came across their need to repent and be baptized had earned him some followers who were interested to hear what else John may have to proclaim. We see in verse 40 that one of the disciples is named, “⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus.” Andrew is one of the four who make up the Inner circle of Jesus’ followers. Along with his more famous and impulsive brother Simon/Peter, there were also the brothers James and John the sons of Zebedee. These four men were the ones most closely associated with Jesus during His earthly ministry.

From a careful reading of scripture, we can determine that these four men, Andrew, Simon, James, and John were friends and business partners before they began following Jesus. This bond between the two sets of brothers even extended into spiritual matters. We can deduce from the eye-witness point-of-view that this passage is written, that the second disciple mentioned in verse 35, was the Gospel writer himself. It appears that Andrew and the Apostle John were disciples of John the Baptist, at least for a short period.

Perhaps the two men were already concerned with the search for the Messiah before they met Jesus. We saw two weeks ago, how the Jewish and religious leaders had asked John the Baptist if he was the messiah, which he freely confessed that he was not. The leaders may not have been the only ones who thought that John the Baptist had some connection to the deliverer of the Jewish people.

Whatever his reason for being there, the gospel writer records some of the interactions between the cousins John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth over the two days. On the second day, when Andrew and John hear the Baptizer proclaim, “Look, the Lamb of God” as Jesus was passing by, their curiosity was aroused enough that they began to trial behind Jesus.

Sensing He was being followed, Jesus turned and asked the two men a question, “What do you want?” This is such an interesting question. It is much more profound than just the surface-level question that is meant whenever we are faced with this question by someone. If you have done any reading of the Gospels, you will be familiar with the fact that Jesus had the divine ability to know a person’s heart whenever He met someone. This is a question that Jesus posed while all the while being fully aware of the answer already.

Jesus posed this question to Andrew and John, in the same manner in which God the Father posed the question to Adam in the Garden, “Where are you?” Of course, an omniscient God would know exactly where Adam and Eve were before He asked the question. The posing of the question to man by God was to reveal to man the answer.

The same is true of the question posed to Andrew and John. “What do you want?” Jesus was already aware of the answer to the question asked of them, the deeper more existential meaning behind the question. But the two men were not prepared to answer the deeper question at that time so they answered the deeper question with their innocuous question, “Rabbi, where are you staying?”

Jesus answers, “Come”. We see in the New Testament, that disciples do not seek out Jesus; rather, they answer when He calls them. The other three Gospel writers record the call this way:

Slide 6

"Come, follow me" (Mk 1:17), "Come, follow me" (Mt 4:19), and "they left everything and followed him," (Lk 5:10b-11). This leads us to our second point this morning: Jesus calls His disciples. It is God who does the calling. The Bible makes this very clear and the Bible establishes this pattern. Even among the Godhead, there is a choosing taking place. Luke 9:35 states that Jesus was chosen. “³⁵ A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” This was God the Father proclaiming from the Heavens at the transfiguration of Jesus Christ. If you are not familiar with this account, Matthew, Mark, and Luke record an event near the end of Jesus’ ministry when He and His disciples were on their final trip to Jerusalem together, Jesus took Peter, James, and John to the top of Mount Hermon, where Jesus met with Elijah and Moses on top of the mountain and Jesus revealed some of His true Divine Nature in a dazzling display of light. At this display, the voice of the Father makes the declaration from Heaven that Jesus “is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to Him”.

We see that Jesus is chosen by the Father. In John chapter 6 we read, “⁷⁰ Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve?” Jesus admits through this question that He posed to His disciples, that it was He, Jesus who chose them. Jesus chose the Twelve, including “The Devil” Judas Iscariot as the rest of the verse proclaims.

Finally, we see that it is Jesus who chooses us. Ephesian 1:4 declares this truth. As a matter of fact, Ephesians declares that Jesus chose us before the foundations of the world were laid, before we were born, so that, His mercy on our lives would not be influenced at all by any of our actions, good or bad. Ephesians 1:4 says, “⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”

We can see from these three passages that a biblical pattern is emerging: God does the choosing. Jesus is chosen by the Father to come to Earth and do the Redemptive work on behalf of the Father for His chosen people. A work so significant that only the unique fully man, fully God person of Jesus Christ could pull it off.

What was this work? It was the redemptive work of reconciliation of God bringing His people back into a right relationship with Himself. We saw last week that the title of “Lamb of God” as applied to Jesus of Nazareth was no mere coincidence. We saw last week, that just as God provided the sacrificial Ram to Abraham in place of his son Isaac, God the Father provides the sacrificial Lamb in His Son to pay the penalty for all of the sins of His adoptive children.

What a marvellous gift this is friends! A gift so special and exceptional, that we have given it the name “Grace” to signify its uniqueness. All that is required from us to accept this unique gift of reconciliation is for us to confess with our mouths our sinfulness and believe in our hearts that Jesus was who He said He was, the very Son of God, and that He died for our sins and rose again after three days.

Confess with your mouth and believe in your heart and you shall be saved. This is a work of God. This is not just stated in Ephesians. Turn with me in your Bibles to the first chapter of the Book of 1 Corinthians starting at chapter 1. First Corinthians is a couple of books to your right in the Bible. After John, you will find the book of Acts, then Romans, then First Corinthians on page 923 of the Pew Bible.

Another word for chosen is the word “called”. Called is what we will see Paul using here in this letter when he is referring to those whom Jesus has chosen. Paul uses the word “called” to indicate a profound life-changing event on your life.

Look at 1 Corinthians 1, verse 1 and 2, “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

² To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:”

Right from the start of this letter, the Apostle Paul states that his authority comes not from himself, but from the fact that he was called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God. Paul states unequivocally that his call came from God. I need to spend a minute here clarifying the two calls that are present in verse 2 lest you get the wrong idea.

“To those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people”. “Called” here in Greek is the word eiskeleo which means literally “to call in” or “to invite”. An action initiated by God. The second “call” in the verse, “all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”, this call is the Greek word epikaleo is a passive tense which indicates “to be called by a person’s name”; hence it is used of being declared to be dedicated to a person, as to the Lord”. In other words, the person indicated here has already accepted the call extended by the Lord and now considers themselves to be members of the family of God.

Paul then goes on to state that the church in Corinth, those sanctified in Jesus, and His holy people everywhere are all called by Jesus in the name of Jesus. Jump down to verse 4 which says, “⁴ I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.” Grace is given by Christ. Grace is proof that you have been called. Grace is not extended to those whom God has not called. With Grace comes the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We are marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our inheritance.

Look with me at verse 9 in this chapter. “⁹ God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” We see again that it is God who is doing the calling. God is initiating the work.

Jump down to verses 22 to 24 which states, “²² Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Paul is telling us that along with the calling, we receive the power of God and the wisdom that comes with this power. The power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit. It is theis very power and wisdom which allows us to read and understand God’s Holy Word. It is this power and wisdom which guides us in our process of discipleship. The Spirit is our guide.

In verse 26, Paul encourages us to think back to who we were before we accepted Jesus. Paul tells us to do this so that we can realize and appreciate the differenc that the Holy Spirit has made in our lives. “²⁶ Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.” Paul reminds us that is through the mercy of Jesus alone that we were chosen to be called “Children of God”.

In verses 27 to 29, Paul pounds this nail all the way in and then he does a nice little counter-sink of the nail by telling us the reason why God does the choosing. “²⁷ But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸ God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹ so that no one may boast before him.”

BANG, God chose the foolish things, BANG, God chose the weak things, BANG, God chose the lowly things. Bang, Bang, Bang, God chose. That nail is pounded in, just as the nails were pounded into the flesh of our Lord and Saviour some two thousand years ago. The nail is then counter-sunk with the statement: “so that no one may boast before him”.

What a glorious God, what a glorious Savior, what an undeserved blessing for us all provided by the sovereign God of the Universe. All that is required from us is the humility to admit that we messed up and that we need rescuing. We made a mess of our lives, and we need guidance and wisdom from a loving Father in Heaven so that we may now live a life worthy of being called His children. Oh, what a glorious day and what a glorious plan. A plan so perfect, that it could only have been conceived by a divine mind.

Now that I have revealed the biblical plan for salvation, aren’t you glad that we don’t have to make a pilgrimage before we were to be saved, or make a trip to a far-off portion of the globe in order to prove our worthiness for salvation, or to prove our love for the Saviour?

Aren’t you glad that we don’t have to ascend a set of steep stone steps on our knees to prove our level of commitment to following Jesus? We don’t have to spend a day and a night tied to a Wooden Roman Cross to show God how much we love Him.

I have a bit of time before I address our final point this morning, so I would like to draw your attention to 2 Peter 3:9.

2 Peter 3:9 says the following, “⁹ The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” This verse is often quoted as an objection to the statement that God only chooses some for salvation.

First, let’s look at the argument that God is “not wanting anyone” to perish. The Bible is clear that some will perish. In order for the Glory of God’s mercy to be exhibited, there must be some that perish! We must determine, through the context of the verse, who the “anyone” is that Peter is referring to. The is an antecedent is there in the verse. The “you” preceeding the “anyone” gives us the context. “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone” of you to perish. If we look at verse 8 we see another indicator of who Peter is speaking to. “⁸ But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” “Dear friends” is a term that believers often use with each other. But for concrete evidence of who Peter is referring to, we simply have to turn to the first verse of the first chapter to see to who the entire letter is addressed.

“¹To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:” Peter is speaking to those who have received a faith as precious as his. In other words, Peter is speaking to those who were as he was, chosen by Jesus Christ. Those chosen by God are the ones that the Lord is desiring that none should perish. Peter is not referring to the whole world, the Lord through Peter is referring to those who are called in Christ.

The final point I wish to draw your attention to tonight is that discipleship is a process. Why don’t we define what discipleship is first? You can see a definition of discipleship in your bulletin this morning. Discipleship is the process of training people incrementally in some discipline or way of life. As Christians, we are called to be discipled in the way of Jesus. It is the life of Jesus that is to be our example of how we should live.

In John 14:15, just before Jesus promises the gift of the Holy Spirit to His followers, He gives them this warning, “¹⁵ “If you love me, keep my commands.” Jesus tells us that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. We don’t have to just follow His commandments, we can also follow the life that Jesus modelled for us. We can model Jesus just as the Twelve modelled Jesus in their lives.

As we read through the Gospel of John, or if you have read through any of the Gospels before this, you see that there is a pattern established for us discipleship is a process. Discipleship doesn’t happen overnight for us. Discipleship is a pattern of steady improvement in our lives causing a desire in us to become more like Jesus every day.

This often results in an increase in humility in our lives, and an increased sense of appreciation for what Jesus has done for us. Discipleship is a process that is best done with other Christians, usually in smaller groups. Groups such as a Bible study. The Bible study can be segregated by gender or done in a mixed group with other couples. Doing small groups with the same people over time allows for a sense of trust to be built up which usually results in more transparency and accountability happening in your life.

This transparency and accountability may result in life-changing actions. Take the life of Jill Dejewski for an example.

In 1997, Jill Dejewski decided to volunteer at a vacation Bible school in a mobile home community near her house in Minnesota. She never expected that week to turn into a lifelong commitment. As she worked in the area, she discovered that many of the families living in the community lived near or below the poverty line, and the heads of many of those households could not speak English. She recruited volunteers and set up programs to help the people of the community. Dejewski and her team now offer after-school homework help for kids, English language classes, food distribution, legal assistance, and summer camps for children.

During her frequent trips between the park and her two-story house, Jill was convicted that her family could serve the residents better if they moved in with them. So she and her husband sold their house and bought a mobile home through Craigslist. They no longer have a garage, attic, or basement, and despite a recent bout with frozen pipes, the family is glad they made the decision to move. Jill said, “We’re just building a better future here and we’re being obedient to what God’s called us to do.”^[1]

I would encourage you to get connected with a small group and see what the Lord has in store for you. We are not meant to do life by ourselves.

CONCLUSION

After listening and reading all this information from this morning, you are probably sitting there thinking, “Whew, that lets me off the hook! If God chooses, I don’t have to do anything, or tell anyone anything about Jesus anymore!”

Not so fast! What else did we learn from this morning’s passage?  Look at what John 1:41 said, “⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). ⁴² And he brought him to Jesus.” The first thing that Andrew did after he sat with Jesus was go and find someone to tell about Jesus. Andrew chose the person he was probably closest to, his brother Peter.

This morning, we saw that God indeed chooses the ends, but he also chooses the means to spread the Gospel. The method God has chosen, quite frankly, baffles me, but Jesus chooses to use broken people to reach broken people. Friends, I stand before you this morning and confess that I was one of the more broken people, and I do not understand why Jesus has chosen to place me in this pulpit. I can only explain it as His Grace.

Except, as Paul said, “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” My brokenness causes me to depend on Jesus all the more and ultimately brings Him the glory for the results.

We are all called to be Andrews. We have seen this morning that the results are up to God. That takes all the pressure off of us. All we are called to do is to share the Gospel with others. You don’t have to be a biblical scholar to share the Bible with others. Scripture tells us when we are presented with these opportunities, the Holy Spirit will provide us with the words to say. God is already at work in the hearts He has chosen. All you are responsible for is sharing the message of what Jesus has done for them and the love that Jesus has for them.

All you are required to do is plant the seeds of the Gospel in the lives of the people around you.

Doxology:

Let me close with this doxology:

²⁴ “The Lord bless you and keep you;

²⁵ may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

²⁶ may the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace."

Go in peace, you are dismissed.

Pastor Paul’s Points:

1)  A Disciple is a student.

2) Jesus calls His disciples.

3) Discipleship is a process.

Questions to meditate on this week:

A) How is your discipling going?

B) Are you a student of the Lord Jesus Christ?

C) Are you being an Andrew?

Discipleship: The process of training people incrementally in some discipline or way of life.

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^[1] Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell, “Moving into the Neighborhood to Help,” in 300 Illustrations for Preachers, ed. Elliot Ritzema (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015).