[0:00] Well, my thanks to Uncle Alan, the Lone Ranger, and not forgetting the singing grannies, the original crew. Well done. Thank you very much for leading us in that.
[0:18] If you have a Bible, we're going to be in John chapter 1, just a few verses in John chapter 1. We are going to be starting Mark's Gospel as a series soon in the next couple of weeks.
[0:33] But today, on this first Sunday of January, we're going to be looking at John chapter 1.
[0:47] I'm going to be reading from verse 43, just a few verses. John 1 from verse 43.
[1:08] The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, Follow me. Now, Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
[1:39] Nathanael said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see.
[1:50] Amen. Amen. This is God's Word, and we pray He blesses the reading of it. Often, there are two types of things that we encounter that compel us to tell other people.
[2:06] If we encounter something that is distressing or shocking, we're compelled to share that with others. Equally, if we encounter something that is notably good, really enjoyable or of great quality, we feel compelled to share it.
[2:25] Now, just think for a moment of examples of this in your own life. Think, what things over even just the past week, what things over the past week have you shared with someone, and do they fit into those categories?
[2:40] Something just shocking or something really good? Something that's just compelled you to tell someone about something that happened? Oh, did you hear about this?
[2:51] Or have you seen this? Or have you read? Or you know? Or tasted? Or let me tell you about the Christmas meal that I had. The parsnips. Amazing. Perhaps you heard a really good song.
[3:09] Or watched a good film. Told someone about it. Recommended it. Program worth recommending to a friend. Maybe you saw something shocking like that pretty serious car crash that I seen the other day on the way back from the shops with my mum.
[3:30] And what made it particularly shocking was the amount of damage to these two cars, considering where on the road it was. This stretch of road. There's nothing really that should go wrong on this stretch of road.
[3:44] And yet one car was smashed to pieces. Caved right in the front. And the other car was halfway in a bush. And it was like, what happened? Something like that, that you feel compelled to tell someone.
[3:57] Did you hear about that? Did you see that? Or something good that you just recommended to someone. When you've been spending time with family or friends or whatever.
[4:11] Hey, you need to see this. Someone did that to me recently. Told me about something that I should watch. And I watched it. Right enough, it was good.
[4:22] We are constantly sharing things. Constantly. Constantly sharing things. Constantly being selective about the things that we share.
[4:35] We don't normally share the uneventful and mundane portions of our lives. Do we? We switch between things that are notably good or notably shocking.
[4:49] But we don't really tell, oh, did you hear about that really mundane thing that happened yesterday? We don't do that. Things worth sharing. We're doing it all the time. We're all doing it all the time.
[5:02] Sharing things that are worth sharing. Now, Philip. Philip met Jesus. And that, to Philip, that was not mundane.
[5:14] This was an encounter like no other that he's had. And he was compelled to tell his friend, Nathaniel, about it. About this guy, Jesus.
[5:25] Now, think about the way that he told his friend. We have found him. Who? The one who Moses and the law and the prophets wrote about.
[5:38] That is a huge statement. Just think about how Philip shared that news. It is a huge statement that he made right there. Moses wrote about this day, Nathaniel.
[5:51] Moses wrote about this. Really? The prophets wrote about this day, Nathaniel. And all the Jews were anticipating this moment.
[6:02] The arrival of this person. Now, imagine being Philip for a moment. This happened in his life. Has anything ever happened in your life and you thought, wow, this happened in my lifetime?
[6:18] This huge event happened in my lifetime. So, Philip, he's like, this happened in my day. I got to see this. The one and the only Messiah has arrived.
[6:31] And he's arrived in our generation. And we found him. We found him. I mean, this is pretty astounding and pretty exciting.
[6:42] This does not fall into the category of uneventful, mundane things. This is firmly in the category of things worth sharing. And the way that he tells Nathaniel is pretty exciting.
[6:55] It is pretty exciting. The one who Moses wrote about. The one who the prophets wrote about. The way that he tells his friend is pretty exciting. Until he mentions a town.
[7:12] Until he mentions where this guy is from. Now, can you imagine being Nathaniel? Right? You're hearing this from your friend. And he's trying to compute. He's getting excited.
[7:23] What's happened, Philip? Look, I can see already. You've got something's happened in your life. And he starts to tell him. Oh my goodness. This is amazing. This is incredible. What?
[7:35] Nazareth? And he's trying to put these two things together. The one who Moses wrote about. Nazareth. That doesn't work. It doesn't fit.
[7:46] The Messiah? Nazareth? These things don't go together. It can't be. Philip, I'm sorry friend. You got something wrong.
[7:58] You've missed something. You've got it wrong. This cannot be right. Now, this is Nathaniel's friend. He likely trusts him.
[8:12] And just think about this encounter. Just use your imagination, if you will. Nathaniel is hearing about the arrival of the one and only Messiah.
[8:26] Moses. The law. The prophets have wrote about this moment. and they've been waiting hundreds of years. Nathaniel is like, wait, wait.
[8:38] You found him. Yeah. You found him. Yeah. The one who Moses wrote about.
[8:48] Yes. Are you sure? Yes, I'm sure. The one who the prophets wrote about. Yes. Nathaniel. Are you absolutely sure?
[9:01] Yes. Yes. Well, who is it? Who is it? The suspense is killing me. It's Jesus of Nazareth. Wait, what? Nazareth?
[9:13] Confused look on Nathaniel's face. Philip said, Yes. Yes, Jesus of Nazareth. Yes. Yes. And Nathaniel says, Philip, can anything good come out of Nazareth?
[9:34] And exasperated, Philip said, come and see. Like, just come and see. Okay?
[9:45] Stop getting hung up on the town. Just would you come and see, Nathaniel. This was not something that Philip was worried about sharing. I think this is a surprise and I was dwelling on this.
[9:58] Philip is not concerned about sharing this news. He's not worried about it. I don't think Philip had to be trying to work up the courage to tell his friend about Jesus.
[10:11] In fact, he wasn't even trying to be careful about the way that he shared it. Think about that. Jesus of Nazareth. Yeah, that place.
[10:25] Philip just did not care. Philip did not care about the way that he shared it. And so, I want to suggest two reasons that Philip both didn't need to work up the courage to tell his friend about Jesus, nor was he worried about the way that he said it.
[10:41] Two reasons. Firstly, because he's telling his friend the truth. Okay, when something's true, it's true. If you're sharing a truth, you don't need to sweat the details.
[10:56] Okay? You don't need to worry about the details. If it's true, it's true. So, firstly, he's not worried about it. He doesn't need to work up the courage because it's true.
[11:09] And if it's true, it doesn't matter what the details are. Secondly, because Jesus is good.
[11:22] Firstly, because it's true. And secondly, because Jesus is good. He was sharing something that is good. And we all know from our very lives that we are not troubled about sharing something that's good.
[11:38] Be it a film, a piece of music, a bit of information, a bit of news, no matter what it is. Generally speaking, we are not concerned. We don't need courage.
[11:50] We're not worried about sharing something that's good. Bill became a great-grandfather again. This is good. We're not worried about sharing it, even if Bill gives us any trouble for making him sound old.
[12:02] We're not worried. So, firstly, he's not worried because it's true. And you don't need to worry about sharing something that's true.
[12:13] Sharing a lie, you need to worry about that because you'll be caught out. But sharing something that's true, some detail that you don't know, you can't explain, doesn't matter.
[12:24] It's true. And secondly, it's good. It's so good. So, notice the question that Nathaniel has. Nathaniel's question was interesting to me because Nathaniel didn't say, can the Messiah come from Nazareth?
[12:42] That's not what Nathaniel said. Nathaniel said, can anything good? Anything good come from Nazareth. And so, the very simple message, and it's going to be a short message this morning, very simple message I have is a reminder and a motivator.
[13:03] And it is simply this. Jesus is so good. So good. Consider again how people are usually compelled and unworried about sharing things that are either shocking or really good.
[13:20] If there's something that's really good, people don't worry about sharing it. We don't get hung up on the details. We don't worry about even how we see it. We don't need great courage to share it. If we find something that's really good in our joy, we want to share it.
[13:35] We want to share it. Now, I'm not saying that it's easy. Don't get me wrong. But it really is that simple. And I honestly think that we spend far too much time myself included.
[13:48] We spend far too much time overthinking it. And of course, I am not unaware of the saying once bitten twice shy. Okay?
[13:58] We can be put off because we share something and someone bites their head off for it. I understand that. It's not easy, but it is simple. And so simply, the message that I was getting from this, don't be ashamed about Jesus because he is so good.
[14:18] He is so good. What have we got to worry about in sharing Jesus? What have we got to worry about? Now, perhaps we won't know everything.
[14:30] I'm sure that we won't. Perhaps someone will ask us a question or make a comment that we do not know how to answer. We share something and someone asks us a question, we don't know how to answer it.
[14:45] Well, stand in line because Philip was in that position as well. He was asked a question by his friend Nathaniel. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Just come and see.
[14:56] We won't know all the answers and it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Philip did not make excuses for Nazareth. He just said, come and see. So you could simply say something like this.
[15:11] Listen, I don't have all the answers. I don't understand every detail. But if he really is who he says he is, does it matter?
[15:23] These questions that you have, these concerns that you have, if he really is who he says he is, do these things matter? Wouldn't you want to know him? And will he not eventually fill in the blanks?
[15:38] If it is true, it's true. The details are not going to change that. What do we have to worry about if it's true? Look at the evidence that is stacked up, whether it's science or history or archaeology.
[15:51] The evidence is overwhelming. If it's true who he is, don't worry about the details. People will have questions we don't know how to answer.
[16:02] Don't worry about it. They won't matter so much if people just come and see for themselves. But again, it's not just about it being true.
[16:13] It is that Jesus is so good. There is a reason that many non-religious people just now in the media are talking about Jesus.
[16:24] So many people who aren't afraid to talk about Jesus who are not even churchy people and yet they're not afraid to talk about Jesus because he is so good.
[16:36] And there's this brilliant statement in John chapter 14 where Jesus said this on thinking about his approaching death. Jesus said this to his disciples.
[16:48] He said, the ruler of the world is coming. He has no claim on me. What a statement. Basically, what Jesus is saying is there's nothing in Jesus that the devil has any claim on.
[17:04] There is no dirt to accuse Jesus of anything. There is no sin to use against Jesus. Even as Jesus approaches death, Satan's sin and death have no right of claim on Jesus.
[17:21] Nothing on Jesus. He can only approach death because he's willing to lay down his life, but death has no claim on him, sin has no claim on him, and the devil has no claim on him whatsoever.
[17:35] There is absolutely no darkness or sin or anything not good in Jesus. Of all the people who have ever lived, he should be the one person that we have absolutely no shame to talk about.
[17:50] And so, there's this episode of the Simpsons program, it's a cartoon, maybe you know it, and there's this episode of the Simpsons where Homer Simpson is reading the Bible and his kids come up and he says, he says to his kids, talk about a preachy book.
[18:09] Everyone in here is a sinner except this one guy. Except this one guy, Jesus, he is the one guy that we have nothing to be ashamed about.
[18:23] He's the one guy who will never be exposed and never be disgraced. It's not like he just barely managed to avoid doing anything bad. He is so good.
[18:39] The world would not be anywhere near as good as it is today if he never came into it. There's absolutely no end to the riches and glory that are in Christ.
[18:52] You cannot exhaust his goodness. And if any of us have ever encountered Jesus, even in the slightest, then we know just a drop of his magnificent goodness.
[19:06] Is this not true? And I don't want to spell out his goodness because we each have our own journey just like Philip did and Nathaniel did and the rest did.
[19:17] We all have our own journey and we all have our own experience of his goodness. So why not spend a little time just reflecting on how good he is to you and ponder just how good he is in himself.
[19:33] And let us be challenged. challenged. And when I say that challenge, I don't mean as a burden. But I mean let us be challenged in the best possible way that there's absolutely no reason that we shouldn't be confident to share just something about Jesus to other people.
[19:52] and it doesn't need to be all the time. It doesn't need to be artificial. But the reason why I thought this would be good to consider today is because I think it actually comes down to us actually experiencing his goodness for ourselves.
[20:12] And so like Philip said to his friend, just come and see. You know, it will only make sense if you experience it for yourself. And so this morning this is not supposed to make us feel guilty about how little we talk about Jesus.
[20:28] No, it's not. Okay, we all do far less than we should. That's just a fact, me included. This is not meant to make us feel guilty. It's not meant to put us down or make us feel bad or add pressure.
[20:43] Not everyone's going to be an evangelist. Very few are. It's not about being a street preacher or even asking every stranger if they know about Jesus. Primarily, this is simply to stir us up to know Jesus for ourselves, to experience the absolute delight of his character and be continually refreshed in his infinite goodness.
[21:08] If we know and experience how good he is, if we really know and just enjoy his goodness, someone's going to find out. Someone's going to find out.
[21:20] Folks, you're going to let it slip that he is good if you know that he is good. You're just going to let it slip. If we know and experience how good he is, someone's going to find out.
[21:34] Not because we are preachy or religious, but because he is so good to us. If we experience something good, if we know something good, we will be compelled.
[21:46] And think about this, again, think of the examples of the things that we share, be it a movie, a book, a bit of music, some food, a relationship, a holiday destination, wherever it is, think about the things that we share and how we are compelled.
[22:04] What is it that compels us? Is it anything in us? Is it our own courage? Or is it simply the goodness of the thing itself? It's the goodness of the thing itself, that compels us.
[22:17] And so when it comes to Jesus, it is the goodness of him that will compel us, not anything to do with us or our courage or whatever, just simply his own goodness.
[22:32] Jesus is better than the best movie we have ever seen. He's greater than the greatest play and the grandest theater. He is more affecting than a thousand symphonies and more glorious than a thousand sunrises.
[22:46] There's nothing truer, nothing greater, nothing stronger, nothing brighter. Every living thing gets its life from him and all the universe is held together by his power.
[22:58] The world has never seen such light as Christ before, never known such compassion like his, never been graced by as much grace as overflowed from Jesus, and never heard such truth as it did from his lips.
[23:15] There's no deceit in his mouth and no lack of righteousness in his being. No one is like him. No power greater, no love greater, no sacrifice greater than Christ.
[23:30] There is nothing in him that is false. There's nothing in him to be ashamed or embarrassed about. Jesus is so, so good. And so, let me finish with just two things.
[23:45] Perhaps something for us to respond to. Firstly, just press into that. As Philip said to his friend, come and see, just find out for yourself.
[23:57] Even if you've known it for 40 years, let us know it today. Let us experience it afresh.
[24:08] Each day, how good he is. And secondly, find an opportunity to tell someone. Not just someone random, but perhaps a friend, family member, someone you know.
[24:23] Share a message. Someone that needs to hear something good. Even another Christian. Send a brother or sister a message, a reminder.
[24:35] Just simply say, hey, wanted you to know Jesus is so good. Let me pray. Oh, God, we thank you so much for the breath in our lungs, the life in our blood flowing through our veins.
[24:56] We thank you that we are alive today, and that we are here today, and that we can hear your word today, and that we can be confident that you are good. God, please help us to experience and encounter Christ today.
[25:11] Please fill us with the knowledge of Christ. Please overwhelm us with his goodness today, that we might know and experience and be delighted in just how good Jesus is.
[25:28] God, we thank you for Jesus. in his name we pray. Amen.