Do sit and open your Bibles to John chapter 1.
John chapter 1.
If you've got a church Bible, that's page 886.
If you've got to grab a church Bible there, just by the door.
As you're turning there, let me again invite you to this evening's service.
Tonight we've got the joy and the privilege of installing Reuben Hunter as an elder
and the associate minister of this congregation.
That is a wonderful thing.
It's a gift from the Lord Jesus Christ.
We're really grateful for Reuben and Louisa and the family.
So can I ask you to come, encourage them.
Bring some cake if you've got it.
Bring your leftover desserts.
We'll eat and celebrate together.
David Field is going to be the preacher.
So we're looking forward to that.
I was at my nephew's wedding on Friday in Edinburgh.
It's a really lovely occasion.
They're in their mid-twenties.
After they'd got married, my sister-in-law turned to me and said,
they've got no idea what they've let themselves in for, have they?
My brother looked slightly alarmed.
But that's the case, isn't it, when young people get married.
They've got no idea what they let themselves in for.
I think it can often be like that a little bit in the Christian life.
It's certainly like that in John 1.
At the end of John 1 with these first disciples.
Last week, we saw John the Baptist.
Do you remember?
He drew the attention of everyone that would listen to him to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was so effective at pointing to the Lord Jesus that two of his disciples left him and started following Jesus.
And John the Baptist was effective in his ministry of preparing the way, clearing the way for Jesus.
John the Baptist was effective in heightening people's curiosity about Jesus.
And there must have been, mustn't there, in these disciples, great anticipation.
Even before Jesus arrived on the scene.
And so, they find themselves taking these initial steps in following him.
They're excited to know, where are you staying?
But they don't really know what they're letting themselves in for.
They don't know what is going to be ahead of them.
And in these verses, at the end of John 1,
Jesus shows them and us what we can expect in following him.
You see, John's Gospel is not just history.
Sometimes people describe the Gospels as a biography of Jesus.
That's hopelessly inadequate.
What is written down before you is history,
but it's got a much greater purpose than a history textbook.
Near the end of this book of John's Gospel,
John very carefully and very explicitly says,
Do you know what?
Many things could have been written about Jesus.
But these things I wrote so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
And that by believing you might have life, life in its fullness through his name.
And so, in every part of John, there's a clear and urgent purpose to what's written.
And John is saying to us, the readers of this Gospel,
God is saying to us, through John this morning,
make sure you understand why I'm writing.
More important even than John's focus,
God has designed this revelation,
this record,
to accomplish something in your heart.
So while what you've got on your laps is real history,
an accurate history,
it is calling forth belief.
It is going to change your life.
Look back with me at verse 9.
The true light,
which gives light to everyone,
was coming into the world.
He was in the world
and the world was made through him,
yet the world did not know him.
The true light,
which enlightens everyone,
was coming into the world.
He was in the world
and the world was made through him,
and yet the world did not know him.
He came to his own,
his own people.
and yet his own people didn't recognize him.
But to all who did receive him, what happened?
To all who believed in his name, he gives the right,
he gives the privilege to be children of God.
And so the question for this morning is for these disciples,
is what might they expect from Jesus as they turn to follow him?
What might they expect from Jesus as they turn to follow him?
And it's very clearly the purpose of John's gospel that he's writing for.
What should we expect from Jesus?
So first of all, my first point, only two points this morning,
is we should expect a claim on our lives.
As you follow Jesus, you should expect a claim on your life.
The moment we turn to Jesus and we begin to follow him,
we should expect a claim on our lives.
Jesus is not just going to let you be.
Here are these disciples.
They're really excited, aren't they?
They sense they're into something here.
Something exciting.
They want to tell others.
They want to bring others.
But can you please notice, in every case, in every case,
without fail,
as soon as a new person gets introduced to Jesus,
as soon as a new person comes to Jesus in John's gospel,
as soon as they meet Christ,
they are confronted, each one of them in a unique way.
Each one of them is confronted with someone who is making a claim on their lives.
That is the very first thing to expect when following Jesus.
He makes a claim on your life this morning.
Things will never remain the same.
Look at verse 40 with me.
Verse 40, it says,
One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus
was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
He first found his own brother, Simon,
and said to him,
We have found the Messiah,
which means Christ, God's anointed king.
He brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said,
You are Simon, the son of John.
You shall be called Cephas,
which means Peter.
Jesus immediately says,
I'm going to rename you.
You are Simon,
but I'm going to call you Cephas.
From now on, you will be called Cephas.
From now on, you will be known by something
other than what you have been known by.
And these words,
when Jesus speaks these words to Peter,
it's not as if he's making some predictive statement.
Can you see, it's a declaration.
It's a declaration of what Jesus will make this man.
You are, you now are Peter.
Do you know what Peter means?
You know what it means, don't you?
It means rock.
Jesus is saying,
Peter, I am going to build my church on you.
I am going to claim your life.
I am going to do something
that you could never have imagined
with your life.
Look at verse 43.
The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee.
He found Philip and said to him,
follow me.
Just like that.
No hesitation.
No apologies.
It doesn't matter what you're doing.
You follow me.
I lay claim on your life.
It's astonishing authority, isn't it, this man?
And then there's this remarkable,
intriguing interaction with Nathanael.
Look at verse 45.
Philip found Nathanael 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 David.
Nathanael said to him,
can anything good come out of Nazareth?
The people in the region of Galilee,
in the north of Israel,
the people of Galilee were despised
by everyone else.
And so they would pick on Nazareth,
isn't it?
It's like Americans always say,
thank goodness for Mississippi,
because Mississippi is always regarded
as the worst state, isn't it?
I wanted to give an English illustration,
but I thought you're bound to offend someone.
I'm not bothered by offending Americans.
But Galilee, isn't it?
Galilee was looked down on,
so they would look down on Nazareth.
They're despised.
In order to maintain some kind of self-esteem,
you look down on others.
And so here is Nathanael mocking Nazareth.
Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
Well, Philip says to Nathanael,
I think this might be the exception,
come and see.
And Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him.
Look what he says.
He says,
Behold an Israelite,
in whom there is no deceit,
there is no guile.
Then he says to him,
before you came,
before Philip called you,
verse 48,
when you were under the fig tree,
I saw you.
Nathanael can't believe it.
Despite Nathanael's incredulity,
despite his doubts about whether anything good can come from Nazareth,
while he's coming to Jesus,
Jesus x-rays him.
Jesus knows him.
Jesus scans him.
Jesus describes him.
And he lets him know,
Jesus says,
I know you.
I've seen you.
You thought, Nathanael,
you were just sitting under the fig tree,
resting in the shade,
in the heat of the day,
but I know you.
I saw you.
And I want you to know that.
I want you to know that.
Do you see what's happening in these little exchanges
between Jesus and these disciples?
Do you see,
as the readers of this gospel,
what you should expect from Jesus?
It is clear that Jesus takes the reins
in John's gospel.
I see you.
I know you.
This is who you are.
This is what you're going to do.
This is what you will be.
I make claim on your life.
Things will never be the same once you've met me.
And thankfully, wonderfully, gloriously,
the Lord Jesus is the same today.
That the moment we turn to Christ,
he openly lays claim on our lives.
He ever so graciously says to you,
things are never going to be the same again.
I see you.
I know you.
I know your circumstances.
I know everything about you.
I know when you get up.
I know when you lie down.
I know your words before you speak them.
I know the workings of your mind.
I know the desires of your heart.
I know every thought about you.
I know you full well.
And I have a plan for you.
I have an intention for you.
I have an intention for you and a purpose for you.
I'm not just going to rescue you.
I know you full well.
I'm not just going to rescue you from drowning
and leave you shivering on the shore.
I will lay claim to your life
because I am the Christ,
God's anointed king.
And I want to say to you,
for those of us who are Christians this morning,
trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as the people of God,
there is such great comfort in this, isn't there?
There is such security and joy that Christ sees me.
He knows me.
He knows me fully.
There is nothing of me to know that he does not know.
And he has laid claim to my life
and my life will not be wasted.
And my life will not be useless wandering around.
And we should remember, shouldn't we,
and remind ourselves and remind one another
that he has every right to lay claim on my life.
It's my only hope.
I need him to do a work in my life.
The fact that he knows me is impressive enough,
but his authority, his right to lay claim on my life
derives from a far greater reality than just his knowledge.
Yes, he says, I know you, I see you,
but over that and above that,
we hear him saying in John 1,
I made you.
Do you remember, in the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him,
and without him was not anything made that was made.
Which is John's way of saying to you and I this morning,
you were made by Christ.
You were made to be like Christ.
You were made for Christ.
That is the reason you exist.
That is the reason you were put on this planet.
That is the reason why you've got breath in your body.
So what should you expect from the Lord Jesus?
Well, first of all, expect him to lovingly,
graciously,
beneficently,
which means, for your good, I discovered this week,
he lays claim on your life.
He lays claim on your life that will result in the beginning
of a wonderful transformation.
But that is not all.
That's not all to expect from Jesus.
There's something more that you can expect from Jesus.
And I've tried to figure this out
and put it into kind of a catchy phrase,
but I haven't been able to do it.
So forgive my lack of brevity in the second point, okay?
Secondly, what can you expect from the Lord Jesus?
He lays claim to your life,
but secondly,
you can expect to be ushered into something
far bigger and far more glorious
than your otherwise small life.
What can you expect of Jesus?
You can expect to be ushered into something
far bigger and far more glorious
than your otherwise small life.
And I nearly said insignificant life,
but I wasn't brave enough to say it.
But that is true, isn't it?
Because apart from the Lord Jesus,
you might think that what you're doing
is grand and great,
but it is not.
And the world's estimation of your accomplishments
is not the right test.
But with Christ,
as you follow the Lord Jesus Christ,
you will be brought into something,
you'll be brought into something bigger,
you'll be brought into something more permanent,
you'll be brought into something
a million times more real
than the things of this world.
Look at this verse at the end of the chapter.
Look at verse 50.
Jesus answered Nathalia and said,
because I said to you,
I saw you under the fig tree,
do you believe?
You will see greater things than these.
You will see greater things than this.
And then Jesus says,
truly, truly,
it's the first time
he uses this really important phrase
in the gospel.
It's Jesus saying,
you can trust me on this one.
You can trust me on this one.
Truly, truly,
I say to you,
you will see heaven opened
and the angels of God
ascending and descending
on the Son of Man,
which is Jesus' way
of referring to himself.
What's Jesus saying there?
He is saying to Nathanael,
as you come to me
and as you follow me,
I'm going to open your eyes
and you will see
that there are greater things
that are happening
things more real
than the things
that so far have occupied your life.
Greater things that I am doing.
My purpose is being accomplished.
I'm going to let you see that.
I'm going to let you close
to that.
And in fact,
I'm going to let you get in on that.
And so what Nathanael,
as we'll see,
and the other disciples,
and all who follow Christ
will have the privilege of seeing
is the greatness of what God
is accomplishing in the Lord Jesus.
We see something of the greatness
of what Christ is bringing
to the men,
to the world of men and women
and boys and girls,
of what God is accomplishing
in Christ's presence.
Through the life and work of Christ
and not just seeing it,
but being part of it.
We cannot lose sight
of this thing
that Jesus is getting done,
that God,
according to John 1,
has now broken
into his world
in full force.
Heaven is open.
God is active
and all these angels
are ascending
and descending,
representing all that God
is accomplishing
through Christ.
Christ.
And so when you come
to verse 51 of John 1,
we're tempted to think,
isn't it,
that this is something
we will experience
when we die,
but that is not the point.
It's not a description
of what happens
when we die in heaven.
No, it's a description
of what the disciples
will begin to see
as soon as,
well, the very next day.
Chapter 2 and verse 1,
on the third day
there was a wedding
at Cana in Galilee
and Jesus,
the mother of Jesus
was there
and Jesus performs
his great miracle.
The first of the signs
of his glory,
it shows his uniqueness,
his power,
his authority
over creation
in ever so small a way
it's put on display.
And what they continue
to see through Jesus' life,
through his miracles,
John says,
listen, I can only write
a few of them.
If I were to write
all the things
that Jesus did in the world,
there wouldn't be
a library big enough
to contain it.
So I'm going to give you
just a few signs,
a few miracles
that the disciples
were able to witness
firsthand
through his teaching
that had an unprecedented
power,
an unprecedented authority.
And his life,
his sinless life
and through his death
and most obviously
through his resurrection
and ascension,
he will do greater things.
And it won't stop there,
will it?
The disciples
for the rest of their lives
would continue to see
heaven opened.
They will see the glory
of God's power
and purpose.
Through now the Holy Spirit
whom Christ has sent
continuing his work,
amazing things happen.
Amazing things happen,
things happen, didn't it?
people who worshipped idols
turned to worship
the living God.
Churches were planted,
the gospel spreads
like wildfire
through the whole
subcontinent of Turkey.
It leaps over the Aegean Sea
into Greece
and then it leaps
onto the peninsula of Italy.
It goes to the capital
of the then world,
Rome.
It spreads out to Spain.
Amazing things
that they are able
to witness.
And wonderfully,
it didn't stop there,
did it?
It hasn't stopped.
The gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ,
it is unstoppable.
Jesus said,
I will,
present continuous tense,
I will build my church
and the gates of hell
will not prevail against it.
But,
and so I,
like many of you,
could tell stories
of people
who have been brought
from darkness
into the kingdom of light.
I could tell you
of a tramp in Swansea
who begged for money,
who drank himself
nearly into oblivion
when I was growing up,
who we'd see on the streets,
who came into church
and was gloriously converted
and now preaches the gospel.
I could tell you
of a student
in York last year,
trapped in a spiral
of drugs and depression
and promiscuity
who has been transformed
by the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I could tell you
of a young mum
who'd seen her life
destroyed by others
and betrayal and abuse
who's put her trust
in the Lord Jesus Christ
and her life
is being put back together
again by God.
Nathaniel,
you're impressed
by what you saw
under the fig tree.
you're impressed
that I saw you,
I knew you.
You're impressed
that I can turn water
into wine
just as you wait,
Nathaniel.
You will see
greater things than these.
You will see heaven opened.
I could tell you
of stories
of missionaries
in Paraguay
into a place
where there's been
no witness
for the gospel
and yet now
in the last ten years
people have been
converted
and formed
into a church
and a church
has been established.
We could tell you
of what we heard
so wonderfully
on Wednesday night
from Kathleen
and Daniel
of how the gospel
has triumphed
in their lives
despite great opposition
and in Nigeria.
With the children
in Sunday school,
I often think of this
on a Sunday morning.
We are part
of a Mexican wave.
We did the Mexican wave
in Sunday school.
We won't do it here.
But you think,
you should think on this
on a Sunday morning.
When you get up,
they have already
started worshipping God,
haven't they?
In Fiji
and in Western Samoa
and in Tonga
and all those other places
we're hearing about
in the World Cup.
They began worshipping God
this morning
and then New Zealand
and Australia
and all over the world
and we're right
in the middle of it.
And the saints of God
gather to worship God
because Jesus said,
if you follow me,
you will see greater things
than these.
You will see heaven opened
and the angels of God
ascending and descending
through the person
and work of Jesus.
Nathaniel,
you're impressed
by my little display
of supernatural knowledge.
Just wait.
Wait till you see
what I will do in the world.
It's not just happening
out there, is it?
In other places,
in the UK
or other places
in the world
or on the mission field.
It's happening right here.
And so I look around
this room
and there are people
sitting next to you
who were without God
and without hope
who've been forgiven,
who've been brought
into God's family
and added to his church.
And it's not so dramatic,
is it,
as the tramp.
But it is wonderful
what is happening.
People have been given
a new life
and a new home
and have been brought
into God's kingdom.
They've been given,
you have been given
a whole new trajectory
marked by peace
and hope
and it won't be
without difficulty
and it won't be
without challenge.
But you've been made alive
in Christ
because God's power
and God's glory
and God's sovereignty
have been brought here
for us to see.
Because I said to you,
I saw you under the fig tree.
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 of God
ascending and descending
on the Son of Man.
What can you expect
from the Christian life?
You can expect
to be brought
into what God
is doing in the world.
Now just before I close,
I want us to do
one more thing.
A bit like a footnote
to the sermon.
Because this passage
teaches us
not only what we should expect
when we follow Christ.
That there would be
a claim put on our lives
that we would be brought
into something
greater and bigger.
But this passage
also models to us
how we get to participate
in it.
We get to play a part
in it, don't we?
You can't fail
to have noticed
the words,
I have found the Christ.
Come and see.
And the first thing
that Andrew does
after discovering Jesus
is he went
and he found his brother
and he brought him
to Jesus.
And Andrew
is the first
in a long line
of those
who've discovered
that the most common
and the most effective
testimony
is that simple
communication,
come and see.
I found the Christ.
The simple sharing
of one's discovery
with another.
You can't help
but notice,
can you,
that the very first thing
that Philip did
was go and find
Nathaniel
and tell him
about Jesus.
It's a basic principle
of the Christian life.
New followers
of Jesus
bear witness
to others
about Jesus
and they become
followers of Jesus
who then bear witness
to others
and then become
followers of Jesus.
Let me give you that again.
New followers of Jesus
bear witness
followers of Jesus
to others
who then become
followers of Jesus
who then bear witness
to others
who then become
followers of Jesus.
It's very simple,
isn't it?
It's probably
the reason
why you're sitting
here today.
Do you see the pattern?
If God has laid
a claim
on your life
which if you are
trusting in the Lord
Jesus Christ
he has
and if Christ
has allowed you
to see
that you are
part of a
far more glorious
and a far greater
thing that is
happening all
around you
then you have
also been given
the great privilege
of being used
by God
to share
what Jesus
has brought
into your life
with others.
I have found
the Christ.
Come and see
to his glory
let us pray.