John: The Word Became Flesh - John 1:35-51

[0:00] Well, it's great to see all of you. Thank you for worshiping with us. It's always wonderful to sing together. And as Pastor Josh just said that we're doing it corporately. It's just such a blessing.

[0:11] So I'm so excited to teach this morning and to hopefully stall Christ and his calling on our lives. And I just want to say by way of preface, this passage is marvelous.

[0:25] It's wonderful. But it's remarkably simple. And so I got to just confess as I'm studying this passage and reading through it and trying to process all the information.

[0:37] There's a lot of information here. One thing the Lord really convicting me of was Eric. Keep it simple because this text is just that. But simple doesn't mean bad.

[0:47] Some doesn't mean that we're missing something or it's not meaty, but instead simple can mean something incredible. That the Lord is calling us to a task and all it takes is one step of faith.

[1:01] So I want to encourage us this morning to see the beauty of the simplicity of what it means to follow Jesus and to lead others to follow him.

[1:11] So let's pray this morning and we'll read. Lord, thank you so much for your word. Thank you that Lord is many truths as there are in the richness of Scripture that we see.

[1:23] We can always come to Lord that there is still this incredible simplicity to what you call us to do. To exercise faith, to trust you, to follow you.

[1:38] But we might lead others to you, Lord, in that same faith. So Jesus, thank you for making our job so incredibly beautiful and meaningful as we follow you step by step.

[1:52] Let me pray. Amen. The human heart is preconditioned by God.

[2:03] And it's preconditioned to follow. But because of sin, we so easily follow the wrong things.

[2:15] Yet the Lord has designed each and every one of us. So we would look to something or someone and freely surrender and faithful obedience and trust.

[2:30] Our favorite music artists, content creators, athletes and even pastors. They can win the allegiance of our hearts and actually pull us away from following the very person who we were designed to follow.

[2:48] And the reality is this morning we're going to see a text that shows us that there is only one person worth following. There's only one person who can lead us to life.

[3:01] And that person is Jesus Christ. So let's read together. We're going to read John chapter one. We're going to read 35 to 51 once more that Cassie just read. And as we do this, we're going to kind of break it down.

[3:13] We're going to see some truths and hopefully again keep it simple. But I want us to do as we read this is to see two things this morning.

[3:23] First, Jesus is the only one worth following. Jesus is the only one worth following. We're going to see that this morning. But then secondly, there's two things.

[3:35] Secondly, disciples make disciples. Disciples make disciples. And what's amazing about John's account of Jesus calling his first disciples is the variance we see in all the gospels.

[3:54] It's actually a really wonderful thing because it gives us these multifaceted pictures of God's truth and what he desires for us. And in Matthew's calling the disciples, the one that we're all mostly familiar with, we see a different sort of emphasis or telling of Jesus calling his disciples.

[4:13] But John's going to take it a little bit different direction. The same tenets, the same truths. And he's going to massage it a little bit to get us thinking about something related to disciple making.

[4:24] So I'm actually going to read really quickly Matthew's calling of the disciples passage so we can understand this. And it says this in Matthew 4, walking by the Sea of Galilee. He saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter and Andrew, his brother, casting it out into the sea for they were fishermen.

[4:40] And he said to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee and John, his brother, in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets.

[4:55] And he called them and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him. Marvelous, beautiful. We could study this all morning, but here's what I want to just say about Matthew's telling of this.

[5:09] The emphasis is on availability, sacrifice. Jesus calls these men out of something and into something. They're available, they respond and they sacrifice, they leave all to follow Jesus.

[5:24] That's the emphasis for Matthew. But here's the emphasis for John in this passage. Jesus is the Messiah.

[5:36] And he calls us to follow and make followers. So we have to answer this question quickly. What is a disciple?

[5:47] This passage is primarily about Jesus making disciples and then asking, calling his disciples to make more disciples. We have to define a disciple. A disciple in the biblical sense is simply a follower or you could even term it as a pupil.

[6:04] Someone that places themselves under the authority of another in order that they might learn, that they might grow, that they might devote themselves to the cause of the one they've devoted themselves to.

[6:15] And for Jesus, this idea of being his follower, sometimes I think can be difficult to understand because we've watered down the idea of a follower, following someone.

[6:32] Cheap into ideas a day about what it means to follow. Twitter feeds. I follow and I see the thought bubbles of the people that I've chosen to follow.

[6:44] There's a thought, maybe tomorrow I'll get another thought from this person. There's another one, you're just getting these little thoughts and man, I'm following this person on Twitter. Facebook feed, maybe it's a little more broad, Facebook feeds more like life snapshots.

[6:56] If Twitter's thought bubbles, now I'm seeing a little more, I'm seeing pictures and I'm seeing someone's lives and living it out and maybe they put something on thought and these are all good things, tools that we can use to be connected.

[7:09] But then the next step about sports teams, I'm an avid Dodgers fan. And if you know this, and I got a lot of Mariner fans right now that I'm just like feeling the pain and like, oh, we clinched like eight years ago, we're in the playoffs, but a lot of Mariner fans in there right now are on the edge of their seats.

[7:25] Are we going to make the playoffs? And here's the reality about sports, even sports. Sports teams, following a sports team, I follow the Dodgers, you follow the Marins, whatever.

[7:37] It's a highlight reel. I don't watch every game. I like to watch the game. I like to keep, oh, they won this game, they lost that game. I saw this highlight, but even me following the Dodgers, is that really what it means to follow?

[7:55] I follow the Dodgers simply for entertainment and fun. But I don't allow my heart, my mind and my soul to be captivated with how my favorite sports team is performing.

[8:07] I would never dedicate my life to that cause. But in this passage is for Christ, a follower of Jesus in the biblical sense is a heart conviction of the truth of who Jesus is and the cause that he calls us to, that leads to a total devotion and trust of my whole person.

[8:29] Body, strength, mind, soul. All of me will do all that I can to trust and fully absorb myself with this.

[8:42] And that's what Jesus is calling people to, to follow him. So we see that Jesus is the only one worth following. So we'll work through this passage twice to see both of these points.

[8:54] The first point, Jesus is the only one worth following. Let's see this. Why? Why is Jesus the only one worth following in a world that offers us role models and promises of success and models that claim to have all of life's promises and joys figured out if you just follow X.

[9:15] Why is Jesus feeling one worth following? Well, first, it's because he takes away our sin. Look with me at the beginning of this passage. The next day, John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and he said, Behold the Lamb of God.

[9:35] We heard last week, we saw in the passage previous that John says this actually twice. And the one previous, he says the same. He says, Behold the Lamb of God. And he adds this incredibly important phrase, who takes away the sin of the world.

[9:52] John's entire life was dedicated to one sole purpose. And here it was to point to the Savior.

[10:05] I just traveled to Italy with Pastor Josh and three friends recently and man, we went to a bunch of museums. It's always beautiful art and biblical art, tons and tons of thousands upon thousands of biblical paintings.

[10:17] And one of the key figures that we saw in every museum, there's John the Baptist. There's John the Baptist. All these pictures of John the Baptist. And here's what's so amazing about John the Baptist. You always know, like there's a lot of characters like Paul.

[10:29] I can't tell who that is. It's kind of like, look, John the Baptist was really easy to tell in every single painting because he's wearing a loin, a big animal fur and every painting he has a staff that is across on the top.

[10:43] And almost every single painting, he's pointing at it. I love that. John's entire life's purpose was to point to the cross.

[10:55] And here's what he see with John. He proclaims the gospel, repents and believe the kingdom of God is at hand. He makes straight the highways. He's preparing the path for Jesus to walk in and as he does this, people follow him.

[11:10] This is super important. We're told John has disciples. He's baptizing. He's preparing for Jesus. But why is he doing this? Is John called to have disciples of John?

[11:25] Look at verse 35. The next day, John was standing with two of his disciples. And he looked at Jesus walking the path that John is just prepared and he says, Behold the Lamb of God.

[11:39] Look at the next verse. The two disciples heard him say this and they followed Jesus. That's profound. John says, there he is. There he is. Behold the Lamb of God.

[11:51] That's him and his disciples followed Jesus. This was John's entire mission. And he does it with joy.

[12:03] But this phrase, Behold the Lamb of God. This is John's opening instruction to all who would listen that the King of the world is here.

[12:17] He was so fascinating Jesus and his royalty, his kingship. He comes. Here's the first thing John says about him. This King, he doesn't say there. He's the reigning majestic King. There he is.

[12:28] He's here to save the kingdom. He's here to bring just isn't say any of that. What is the opening line of John's introduction of the King of the world?

[12:43] He alludes immediately to his forthcoming death. Was John the Baptist gospel centered? Yes. This is kind of strange.

[12:53] Here's the guy I've been talking about. The Lamb of God. The one that's going to die sacrificially like the Lamb in the Old Testament given up on the day of Atonement to bring forgiveness to the people of God. But also there's an illusion here.

[13:04] I think even to Egypt that the people were commanded by the Lord to take an unblemished lamb to slay it and to spread the blood of that pure unblemished lamb over their doorposts at the Lord night Passover in judgment.

[13:18] And here's what John says. He's here. The one I've been talking about. He's like a lamb that's going to be slaughtered that God is giving for you to be forgiven. That's his opening line.

[13:30] Here's what's so amazing. John is screaming the gospel to all who will listen. Jesus is the only one we're following because he takes away our sin.

[13:43] Secondly, Jesus is the only one we're following because he is the fulfillment of all of God's promises. Look at me at verse 41.

[13:54] Excuse me, verse 38. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, what are you seeking? And they said to him rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying?

[14:06] 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 it was about the 10th hour. One of the two who heard John speak and follow Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

[14:20] And he first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which means Christ. And he brought him to Jesus.

[14:35] There's this man named Andrew. And he meets Jesus and we'll talk about him in a second. But what I want to focus on here is this.

[14:46] Here's what Andrew says to his own brother about Jesus, who he has just met. We have found the Messiah.

[14:57] And then it says the Christ, the anointed one. The one has been promised. The one that was always intended to come and redeem us.

[15:11] Free us. He's here. Here he is, the Messiah. Jesus is the fulfillment of all the promises of God. Andrew in this passage says this, John, behold the Lamb of God, he knows the promises of God and they're fulfilled in Jesus.

[15:26] We're going to see in a minute, Philip, he also says the same thing. We have found him of whom Moses in the law and all the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And then the faniel calls him Rabbi.

[15:36] You're the son of God. You were the king of Israel. Four indications from four different people that this is the guy who's always been promised.

[15:48] Meaning this, Jesus has the credentials. If him taking away sin wasn't enough to convince us, maybe the credentials of Jesus being the fulfillment of all time will.

[16:01] And this is what I want to encourage us to read the Word, but to read the Word and be able to see how the entire Scripture points forward to this figure.

[16:13] Read the Bible with Christ in mind, his work. And reading the Bible without Christ in mind is like reading Moby Dick without Captain Ahab or reading Les Mis without Jean Valjean.

[16:26] It just doesn't work. We're missing some figure. Here, what's going on with this story? And then thirdly, Jesus is the only one who would follow him because he gives us new purpose.

[16:39] In 42 and 43, we see this incredible picture of Andrew leading his own brother to Christ, Peter, the great apostle Peter.

[16:51] And it says this, he brought him to Jesus, verse 42, and Jesus looked at him and said, you are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which means Peter.

[17:03] Immediately upon Peter meeting this Messiah, Jesus gives him a new purpose, gives him a new entire identity, that you are mine and I have named you.

[17:15] But not only this, in verse 43, the next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee and he found Philip and said to him, follow me, he takes us and he repurposes our hearts.

[17:29] The hearts that we have been given by God to follow him naturally has been stained by sin. And then here's what Jesus does. He takes that stain of sin, he removes it through his blood and he repurposes.

[17:41] No, this is your real purpose. He reorients, he redirects, he gives us new identity. But then lastly, Jesus is the only one we're following because he sees and knows us.

[17:53] There's a man named Nathaniel. And the whole second part of this is dedicated to. So we'll read from verse 45 on, it says this, Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

[18:10] Nathaniel said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? And Philip said to him, come and see. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him instead of him.

[18:20] Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. And Nathaniel said to him, how do you know me? It's very important. How do you know me? And Jesus answered him before Philip called you.

[18:33] When you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathaniel answered him, Rabbi, you're the son of God. You're the king of Israel. Jesus answered him, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree.

[18:46] Do you believe? You will see greater things than these. And he said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened. And the angels have got ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

[18:58] What's happening here? Jesus has an intimate knowledge of Nathaniel that goes far beyond anything that Nathaniel has done.

[19:11] This phrase, I saw you under the fig tree. Literal, definitely. I would say Jesus literally saw Nathaniel under a fig tree. There's also some significance figuratively here that just sit under a fig tree.

[19:24] It's a sign of somebody sitting under a prosperous place. And Jesus is speaking to Nathaniel.

[19:34] He's saying this, I see you, Nathaniel. The divine knowledge that Jesus had for Nathaniel, even before Nathaniel existed.

[19:47] This is the truth of God's word that Jesus, our Creator, knows each and every one of us intimately. And he sees you, even if you may not feel that God sees you.

[20:05] This is why Psalm 139 teaches this. Before you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, friend, fearfully and wonderfully made.

[20:15] Wonderful are your works and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

[20:26] And then don't miss this. Your eyes saw my unformed substance. The Lord knows you and he sees you.

[20:38] Wherever you may be in life, whatever you may be going through right now, any trial, sitting under a fig tree. The Lord in his intimacy, he saw you before you existed and he sees you now.

[20:52] And the truth that Jesus is conveying to Nathaniel is, I have already known you before you ever came to me. That is our Creator.

[21:03] And that's one worth following. And then finally, we follow Jesus. He's the only one we're following because he is God verse 51. And we read this idea that Jesus says to Nathaniel, truly, truly I say to you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

[21:21] And this is a sort of allusion to Jacob's ladder in the Old Testament, where Jacob sees this ladder from heaven, angels coming and going. But here's what Jesus is doing in this verse.

[21:33] He's promising great divine things to occur because he is the God man. Through Jesus, the heavens are open and God's favor rests on him and will rest on those who trust in him for salvation.

[21:50] So the first truth here is Jesus is the only one worth following. I want to encourage everyone in here to consider why it is that you follow Jesus.

[22:02] Or to consider why it is that you don't follow Jesus. He takes away our sin. He fulfills God's promises. He gives us new purpose.

[22:12] He sees us. He knows us and he is God. But beyond all of those reasons, for those of us that have experienced new life in Christ, experienced forgiveness at the cross, Jesus is the only one we're following.

[22:30] Why? Because he died for us. The greatest leader in that will ever exist lays down his life to save his followers.

[22:45] And something that I think the Lord is challenging me to grow in as a leader in my family of church, of when any influence that he's given me is to consider more deeply what it means to sacrifice.

[22:59] The people that God has entrusted me to be over. How am I laying my life down for their benefit? Jesus is the only one worth following.

[23:12] But secondly, disciples make disciples. Jesus is the disciple maker. He, through his coming, dying, resurrection, his entire life, his work on the cross, through the gospel, the will of God accomplished and the purposes of Jesus Christ, through that and that alone, can we enter into relationship with God and through a pupiling student, loving, following relationship with Jesus.

[23:40] Only Jesus can establish what it means to be a follower. But here's the incredible truth of this passage that John is also teaching us. He is teaching us that disciples, those that follow you and I through Jesus Christ and faith in him, disciples make disciples.

[23:59] I've heard this phrase, I've said this phrase, I've heard this in probably 10 to 15 sermons in my life. Disciples make disciples. Yep, got it, check. But for me what God has done is He said, no, no, no, this is incredibly simple, but this is incredibly rich.

[24:14] And here's what's so amazing about this passage. Jesus goes through and He is constantly showing His favor, His grace on those that they might follow.

[24:25] Two disciples of John follow Him, then Andrew follows Him, then Simon or Peter follows Him, then Philip follows Him, and then finally, Nathaniel is called the follow Him at the end.

[24:36] This passage is about Jesus making disciples, but it's also, and this is super important, it's also about Jesus' disciples making disciples.

[24:53] The truth is this, that when we first find Jesus, we must help go others, go and help others find Jesus.

[25:05] John the baptizer, he mentored others into following Jesus. Jesus walks by as we said, and he, behold, the Lamb of God, essentially, there He is, go.

[25:16] Go follow Him, not me. I can't even untie His sandals, He says in another place, go follow Him. And here's the, there's a discipleship method of creating new believers that John actually employs here.

[25:30] It's proclamation. This is one of the ways that God calls us to make disciples is to proclaim. He looks at Jesus and He talks about how there He is, look at Him.

[25:41] That one is the Lamb of God that has laid Himself down that we might be saved. And that one is the one by whom we obtain salvation through forgiveness of sins.

[25:52] He points to Jesus and He preaches, He proclaims. You might be in here and say, I'm not a proclamer. This is not my deal. I want to encourage you. You can be a proclamer.

[26:04] We all can be a proclamer. For God's love in our hearts leads us to be about the business of our Savior.

[26:16] And to talk of the grace and mercy that we've received. Preaching Christ was John's M.O. Because he was a follower.

[26:26] And for John to be a follower is to make a follower, to be disciples, to make disciples. And the method that he uses is proclaiming Christ. And so when we proclaim Christ and we proclaim God's word to those that need it, to people who are lost in the darkness of the world, we should always include the gospel.

[26:45] We build up to the climax of Jesus Christ. And it can take time to get there. Relational evangelism is a big deal. Get to know somebody. Have them over. Build a relationship.

[26:55] That's totally a means by which we do this. But we need to have the boldness of John to say, I will proclaim Christ. And I will point this person to Jesus.

[27:07] Proclamation. But then second, we see another person. His name is Andrew. And in verse 41, he says, One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew.

[27:23] Now here's what's fascinating about Andrew. The first four disciples that Jesus reaches and calls are all very, very well known.

[27:35] Except Andrew. Who are the first four disciples Jesus calls? Two sets of brothers. You get Peter, James and John. These three are called the inner circle. These three are called the beloved disciple.

[27:48] John who writes this. But these are the three that are mentioned throughout the gospels. They're with Jesus. They're in his most intimate conversations. They're in his most intimate times of prayer. He instructs these three specifically apart from the rest at times.

[28:00] These three are the big three disciples. They go on to write for Jesus. They'd be able to want to preach for Jesus. They do missions for Jesus. All three of these people are well renowned church history pastors and preachers and proclaimers.

[28:16] But then there's Andrew. Who's Andrew? This is amazing. Andrew first hears and follows Jesus and look at verse 41.

[28:34] He first, first immediately upon receiving salvation and following the Savior of the world. His eyes are opened.

[28:45] He sees the beauty of Jesus. And here's what it says. He first found his own brother Simon. Jesus finds him and he finds his brother.

[29:03] Upon the first even the gospel message Andrew responds and he commits to his immediate first act of worship. This is incredible. He went and found his brother Peter.

[29:17] Who's Peter? Only one of the most prestigious Christians who's ever lived.

[29:28] The very one whom Jesus says, keys of the kingdom, hell will never prevail against my church. Peter, you are part of that church and my church will never fall.

[29:45] The one who goes to the preaches to the Jews and acts. The one who goes and delivers the first Holy Spirit empowered sermon.

[29:55] Of which 3,000 people are saved. Peter, the one that establishes churches that pastors from Rome to the end of his life being executed. Peter, the great apostle who led him to the Lord.

[30:08] Slowly brother Andrew that we know very little about. This is incredible. Here's the truth. Andrew was a disciple and immediately upon understanding that identity that I'm a follower of Jesus.

[30:22] He feels for others. They have to know him too. And he goes immediately to the one he's closest to his own brother.

[30:33] And it says this. He first found, he finds him. Jesus found him finding you Peter. And there's an incredible term. He brought him to Jesus.

[30:46] You have to come with me to see Jesus. There's such a passion here that is you're not careful, not careful. We overlook in Andrew.

[30:58] And here's the thing about Andrew is we know very little about him going forward. And the reason I would postulate is he has a humility of heart. His mission is to bring others to Christ like John the Baptist to make much of him and have himself decrease.

[31:14] And here's what I want us to feel in here today and take home. Don't ever let the enemy deceive you into thinking you aren't important enough in God's mission.

[31:26] Every one of us has a part to play. Every one of us can do what Andrew does.

[31:37] My mom comes from a family and a tradition of people who have not followed their Creator, have followed after other things. And I remember hearing this story when I was in middle school and just being blown away.

[31:50] My mom, you know, you think as someone that's raised with a Christian mom and a Christian dad, a Christian household, they've raised me to love the Lord. They have made sure that my aim in life is to follow Jesus as they have followed Jesus.

[32:01] My dad comes from a long line of followers of Jesus. My mom does not. I remember her sharing her testimony for the first time. And here's the true story of my mom's testimony. Divorced parents.

[32:12] She has mixed siblings and at home one day living on the ranch where they lived out in the country, there's this little faithful old lady. We don't even know her name to this day.

[32:24] And she would drive around the country and she'd drive down dryways. It's like 40 years ago. And she would just say, I'm going to church. Any kids want to go? They're welcome to come with me. I'll bring them right back in about an hour and a half.

[32:36] And my mom's mom would say, no, no, the kids say, no. Finally, my mom at eight years old will find out. I said, I want to go. This is a true story. She gets in the car with this little old lady who I will meet in glory someday.

[32:49] And she drives her to church. My mom receives the gospel. My mom is a product of someone's faithfulness who did not care about her own glory.

[33:06] She only cared about making disciples. And because of that old lady's faithfulness, I am a follower today. I don't even know her name. In the history of the church, hardly knows Andrew's name.

[33:22] But I want to encourage you today. If evangelism or making disciples scares you, it scares me too at times. But here's the truth of God's word that Jesus followers are the very ones that he looks to to bring others to Christ.

[33:43] And you have influence. You have opportunity all around you. And we should use the example of Andrew to encourage us towards that end. Next, we see Philip.

[33:56] And this is incredible. Philip, verse 43 of the next day. Jesus decided to go to Galilee and he found Philip. Again, he finds them first, then they become disciples. And he said to him, follow me.

[34:08] Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. And Philip, what? Found. There's a pattern we've seen twice now. Jesus, find someone. Follow me.

[34:19] After they've committed to following Jesus, what do they do? They go and find someone else. It's an incredible pattern that Jesus is laying here in this passage. And here's what Nathaniel does.

[34:30] He goes, Philip goes, he goes to his friend Nathaniel. And here's what he says, we have found. Again, I found Jesus's mind in whom the Moses and the law and the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

[34:43] And I love this. Philip faithful as a follower to go and make followers. So he feels a disciple to go and make disciples. Nathaniel said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth?

[34:54] You can just see this relationship. It's two friends. The Messiah is here in Nathaniel. You've got to come see him. You've got to come meet him. You've got to come find Jesus like I have. And he says, Nazareth, I hear the Messiah part, but Nazareth, dude, come on.

[35:10] Nazareth is just a no vain place. It's essentially what's happening here. And this is incredible. Look at Philip's response. Philip, you're going to find Jesus. Philip said to him, come and see.

[35:26] I want to remind us that we are intentional and courageous about making disciples in a lost world. Here's the truth. We need to be prepared for the doubts of the world.

[35:40] They have doubts. I once had doubts, major doubts. And as Philip is faithful to his friend, Nazareth, come on.

[35:56] Here's what faithful Philip does. He uses another method of disciple making here. He says, come and see.

[36:07] Come with me. I will personally show you Jesus. If you've got a friend or someone that you're trying to administer to that doesn't want to receive the gospel, has doubts, has a hard time defending the faith against them.

[36:20] You have a hard time breaking through their heart of stone, whatever it might be. Use the body. Bring them to a worship service. Bring them to a small group. Bring them to a Bible study, a prayer night, a game night, anything where they're interacting with the body of Christ and thus coming and seeing Jesus.

[36:37] If we are faithful as disciples, anyone that comes into our fellowship should see Jesus. But here's the evangelistic method of Philip.

[36:49] It's testimony. What he does is he says this, I have found the one the Scriptures have taught.

[37:01] I have seen him. I have connected the dots. He is the Messiah. He's the one that I have personally. I want to encourage you. You all have a testimony and a legitimate way of discipleship that we see here is to speak of your story in light of what God has done.

[37:21] Two vital elements of any personal testimony, a believer, my sin and God's grace. My sin, where I was, what I used to be, my life before him and then Jesus who has saved me and redeemed me and washed me.

[37:34] Paul does this time and time again in his letters. I was this, but now I'm this. Testimony, my sin and God's grace. And I want to encourage you a testimony, simply a story about something that happened, but a Christian biblical testimonies we see in Scripture is a personal story of how God became the hero of your life.

[37:55] If you've never thought through this, and there's a long period where I didn't even know my own testimony and to wrestle through what, how did God redeem me? How to become a hero?

[38:06] Try to boil your testimony down to see if you can do it in three minutes. Then see if you can do it in 10, and see if you can do it in 20. But a testimony, biblically, is God is the hero.

[38:19] But finally, we have to ask this. We see the disciples make disciples. John, Andrew, Philip, we see that Nathaniel interacts with Jesus and he calls him the king of Israel, the son of God, and Jesus answers him.

[38:33] And dialogues with him about, hey, just seeing isn't enough to ground belief. Jesus points to the greater things that he's going to do.

[38:45] You're going to see those too. But what Jesus is calling to is to trust him in obedience and in faith that we might, regardless of what our eyes see, because our eyes can be deceiving, even physical things that we see and know to be true can still deceive us.

[39:00] Here's what Jesus says, trust me, follow me, greater works than these I will even do. And what he's alluding to is all of the miracles that he's about to do. But ultimately, I believe Jesus is alluding to something that is of grand, grand quality.

[39:19] And that is his substitutionary death on the cross and subsequent resurrection. There's no greater work that any of these people ever saw than Jesus Christ going to the cross and resurrecting in victory.

[39:37] Finding Jesus is the greatest joy in this life, church. And it is the natural incarnation of the heart who would argue to want that for others when we have experienced it.

[39:50] So I want to encourage us this morning to first to be a disciple, but then secondly to make disciples with all of our lives.

[40:02] At the bedside, that's where personal discipleship begins of our own heart, to seek the Lord in prayer. The one that we follow, we can trust our whole lives to, that we talk to him, we hear from him, we pour our hearts out through the Spirit in prayer and we read his word, the bedside, you and the Lord.

[40:23] But then there's the dinner table, family discipleship, where parents, you and I have the incredible, unbelievable privilege to raise our children from birth all the way up into adulthood that they may, primary purpose, follow Jesus.

[40:42] That is our primary discipleship, parents. Then there's the coffee shop, where mentoring discipleship takes place. I'm meeting with a mentor, I've met with many godly men over the years that have shaped me.

[40:53] And it's my turn now to pour that out and to meet with other godly young men that I'm trying to lead to the Lord. The coffee shop, who are you meeting with to have that one-on-one accountability relationship with, to follow Jesus more closely.

[41:07] Then there's the living room, small group discipleship in community. Do you have people that you pray with, do you have people in this church that you read God's word with, you study with? We have all sorts of groups for this. Please talk to Pastor Jay, talk to Scott, talk to Melissa, myself, Josh.

[41:22] We will love to get you plugged in with groups that are doing these things. Then there's the park, social discipleship. Yes, I think this is discipleship too, that when we have fun, we play cornhole and we play games and we enjoy time drinking lemonade in the hot sun.

[41:39] Talking about Christ, we can disciple one another through what's fun and social. Then there's the sanctuary, as Josh just talked about. You and I singing to one another, hearing God's word together, encouraging one another as we meet together corporately.

[41:57] But then finally, the last arena of discipleship the Lord has given us is the streets. Disciple making among the lost.

[42:11] Those who have never followed, it is our role as it was John's and Andrew's and Phillips to go and to make disciples of all nations.

[42:27] Jesus is worth every step. He's worth every mile, He's worth every journey. Follow Jesus, be a disciple and make disciples.

[42:39] Let's pray. Lord, we ask for the strength to do this. This simple task, Lord, in accepting it and understanding it, but Lord, we need your strength to do this.

[42:53] I pray, Lord, in each one of those avenues and more that parents would be faithful, Lord, to raise their children, to love you and to follow you in this church. That we as small groups and men's groups and women's groups and youth and adults and every group that we have, Lord, that we would dedicate ourselves to the mutual goal of following you more closely.

[43:17] Teach us all of these habits of a disciple to proclaim your name, to share our testimony, to ensure that our primary mission in life is aligned with yours, Jesus, to make disciples.

[43:31] I pray that this church would be a disciple making church, Lord. Help us with this endeavor. Strengthen us by your spirit and allow us to see the glory and beauty of the way that you've ordered all things that we might follow you.

[43:47] Amen. Thank you.