“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).” John 1:40-41
WHO WE KNOW
As disciples, one of the first things we should desire is for others to know Jesus. But beyond this, one of the first things Andrew did was to go and find someone he knew. Andrew went and found his “own” brother.
As disciples, who would fall under this “own” category in our lives? Is it a relative, a close friend? I believe that private witness born out of relationship is still the predominant way that the Gospel of Jesus Christ finds an opened heart and takes root.
Still, who of us can demand a private audience with anyone? Usually, one is invited to have a private conversation. In our personal and private relationships, there are grounds for being heard that must be established:
- Reputation/Character - our reputation will precede our witness and help determine whether or not we will be welcomed and heard.
- Patience/Time - it took Jesus about 33 years to finish the work of salvation (though God created the world in 7 days!). So why do we think in our relationships with people that our being the audible, visible, and tangible evidence and expression of Jesus to them will ALWAYS instantaneously change them? We are called to PERSEVERE in our witnessing, out of love.
- Spiritual/Practical - Sunday after Sunday we sing our lungs out, pray fervently for one another, enjoy meaningful conversation with each other and then, Monday after Monday, go into work 15 minutes late. We passionately pursue the presence of God both privately and publicly, but then won’t follow through on our commitments to people or ministries we volunteer for. We espouse Biblical truth and attempt to influence people for the good, but couldn’t care less about the way we present that truth or treat them. God’s vocabulary includes “prayer” and “punctuality”, “spiritual disciplines” and “common sense”, “truth” and “wisdom”.
WHO WE’RE WITH
When Andrew found Simon and when Philip found Nathaniel (vs. 45), they said, “We have found...” We, not I. They already had a sense of community. They already understood that when Jesus found someone, Jesus brought them into a family. Being sent by Jesus must be understood with a “we” mindset, not a “me” mindset.
If Jesus, in His grace and in the power of His Spirit, empowers our witness to Him and to the cross and reveals Himself to someone, we do not then leave that person where we “found” them. We invite them and bring them into a local church. Why? Because a local church is where someone is shaped, formed, matured, equipped and sent out from. Neither you nor I are ever called to do the will of Jesus apart from His church.
Throughout the gospels we see many examples of Jesus sending out His disciples two by two (Mk. 6:7, 11:1; 14:13 18; Lk. 10:1). In particular, in Acts 2:1 we read that all the disciples, in obedience to Jesus’ command, were “all together in one place”. Certainly, Jesus could have sent them individually to their own homes and scattered them across Jerusalem to wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit. But Jesus commanded them to be together, empowered them together by the Holy Spirit, and sent them out together in His authority.
Mutual witness and example go a long way. Without question, when Jesus sends us into a private relationship with someone and we discerningly and lovingly witness to them, He will send another to confirm what we’ve said or shown. Jesus sends us together.
WHO WE’RE FROM
“We have found the Messiah”, Andrew told Simon (John 1:41). And Philip told Nathaniel, “We have found...Jesus of Nazareth” (John 1:45). We have found a person, someone local, someone you can come and see and hear and touch. Andrew and Philip had been changed by a person! They had come to know someone. They were living out of a living relationship with that someone - Jesus Christ.
When Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to Him, He said, “Before Philip called you... I saw you” (vs. 48). Before we go to our “own”, Jesus is already there. Before we ever knew their name or circumstance, Jesus knew. And when that moment comes where you’re “invited” or when they pour out their heart, you can rest assured that the One who can change and save and heal and deliver and rescue and transform is there with you and with them.
As disciples, we join Philip in saying to our “own”, “Come and see!” We now join Jesus in saying to others what He said to us, “Come and see.” “Come and see,” not a place, but a person. In our minds and hearts, when we’re deep in conversation, we can remember that we’re in the presence of the very Son of the Living God, Jesus Christ. When we’re ready to extend an invitation to a building we call “church”, we can remember that when we gather as a church, wherever we gather as a church, we do so in the presence and at the feet of our great Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and He can do in a moment what we could never do on our own in a lifetime.
This post is adapted from the sermon: http://elimgrace.org/media.php?pageID=20
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