THE FAITH NETWORK
John 1: 35-46
I. You Must Respond to the Invitation. 1:35-1:37
II. You Go Wherever Jesus Leads You. 1:38-1:39
III. You must seek those who are lost. 1:40-1:46
1. You Must Be Willing to Witness
to Those You Know. 1:40-1:42
2. You Must Be Willing to Witness
to Those You Don’t Know. 1:43-1:46
INTRODUCTION
Turn in your Bibles if you will to the first chapter of the Book of John. This morning I want to talk to you about THE FAITH NETWORK. No, I didn’t come up from Louisville to sell you on another cable channel. We will see today as we look in the Bible, John talks about a faith network, or if you prefer, a network of faith.
The concept of networking is all over our society today, particularly in business circles. Before I went to Seminary I worked in the mental health field. Part of my job was to network with other services and organizations. If you take a broad approach to the term, networking simply means to establish relationships for a specific purpose. In my case, I established relationships with outside organizations in order to provide better service. Many of you do that where you work. But this morning we are going to look at a picture of networking according to the writer of the Gospel of John. My hope and prayer is that the picture we see here can be reproduced here at PBC.
35 Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples,
36 and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!"
37 The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
38 And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, "What do you seek?" They said to Him, "Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?"
39 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 tenth hour.
40 One of the two who heard John {speak} and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
41 He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which translated means Christ).
42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter).
43 The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, "Follow Me."
44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter.
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 Joseph."
46 Nathanael said to him, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."
PRAYER
On a wall in the Museum of Natural Science in Chicago there is a checkerboard with 64 squares. In the lower left hand corner is a grain of wheat. The display includes this question: "If you doubled the amount of wheat as you move from square to square, how much would you have when you reached the 64th square? A carload? A trainload? In reality you would have enough wheat to cover the country of India six feet deep."
That is the power of exponential growth. Suppose on the first day of January there is only 1 Christian in the world. And suppose that Christian shares the Gospel with one other person. And then on the following day two Christians share the Gospel with two others. Now if each person accepted Christ, there would be 4 Christians on January 3rd. Suppose then on the 4th, each of the four Christians shares their Faith, and so on. There would be 16,384 Christians on January 15th. If that continued, the entire population of the world would be reached by the third day of February. Mathematically, it figures out to 8, 589,934,592.
Let’s scale it down a bit. The U.S. Census reports about 8,500 people in Switzerland County. Say we take 10 people from RBC. And each day they share the Gospel with 1 person, following the same pattern, every single person in Switzerland County would be reached with the Gospel message in 10 days.
When I say the faith network, that is exactly what I am talking about. You, as a believer in Jesus Christ, share the Gospel with someone, then that person in turn shares the gospel , and then that person, and so on, and so on, right down the line.
But being a part of this network is not for everyone. There are conditions. And as we look at verses 35-46 of John chapter 1, I believe we will be three conditions. First and foremost:
I. You Must Respond to the Invitation. 1:35-1:37
35 Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples,
36 and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!"
37 The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
If we were to draw a picture of this scene, we would see John the Baptist perhaps standing beside a river or stream teaching and baptizing. And all of a sudden, he becomes aware of Jesus’ presence. In verse 36 we see the word “Behold.” John says, Look! There He is-the One I have been preaching about-the One whose way I have prepared. “Behold, the Lamb of God.”
And then the picture turns to these two disciples-one of whom, we’re later told, is Andrew. The other one we are not told who he is. But the picture focuses on the two. They have heard John’s testimony. If we back up to verse 34 we can see what John’s testimony was: “I have seen and testify that this is the Son of God.” And with this truth before them, (as we would say today) the ball was in their court. The time had come to make a decision.
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, there was a time when a person or perhaps group of people witnessed to you, shared their faith with you, opened the Word of God and said to you, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” Just like these two disciples, the ball was in your court. The time came for you to make a decision. And you answered like these two disciples in verse 37: “The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.”
We see in vv. 35-37 the first person in this network of faith, John the Baptist. And John was part of this network because he had faith in Jesus Christ. And because He believed in Jesus, he shared his faith with these two disciples. As a result, they made a decision to follow Jesus Christ.
Now, let me ask you, suppose John had never shared his faith with these two men. Do you think they still would have gone on to share the Gospel with so many other people?
There is a story about this country school teacher who was applying for a job at a local high school. She admittedly was not very bright and the school administration began to catch on to this fact as the interview progressed. Finally one of the interviewers asked very candidly, “Can you teach something that you don’t know?” I love the answer she gave. She said, “You can no more teach what you don’t know than you can come from where you ain’t been!” (REPEAT)
Listen, it sounds so simple we sometimes overlook it, but if you want to be part of this network of faith, you must first be a believer in Jesus Christ. There must come a time when you acknowledge the sin in your life-there must be a time when you recognize that the sin in your life has separated you from the living God. There must be a time when you are willing to confess that sin before God and accept the forgiveness He offers through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. You must respond to the invitation!
II. You Must Be Willing To Go
Wherever Jesus Leads You. 1:38-1:39
38 And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, "What do you seek?" They said to Him, "Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?"
39 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 tenth hour.
I want you to focus your attention on that last question in verse 38. Now, these two disciples have responded to the invitation. And in verse 38, they catch up to Jesus and we see this brief interchange. Jesus asks the first question: “What do you seek?” He probes them to find out whether they are motivated by idle curiosity or by a real desire to know Him. Look at the disciples response to His question. “Rabbi, where are you staying?” (REPEAT) Now, don’t skip over that too quickly. Look at that phrase and think about what it means. What were they saying there? You might be thinking “That’s easy! They’re asking where He was staying!” And you’d be right. But in asking that question I also believe they were making a statement. In effect, they were saying, “Master, we will go wherever You go!” And in verse 39, we are told they went with Jesus. It wasn’t a concern to them where Jesus was going. The only thing that was driving them was a desire to be where Jesus was.
But we don’t think like that do we? You see, we DO CARE where Jesus is going, because if He is going someplace we don’t want to go… we simply don’t follow. We get so caught up in our careers, our bank accounts, our social status, our homes, even our churches, that we are unable to step out on faith and say, “Lord, where are you staying.”
Instead of saying, “Lord I will go where you go.” We say, “Lord you come stay with me.” That way I will set the parameters, I will be the one in control, and I won’t be lead to go someplace I don’t want to go.
We have had the opportunity to met a lot of wonderful people in the past two years: pastors, youth leaders, music leaders, missionaries. I remember one particular family. Richard and I had several classes together in my first semester-that’s how we came to know them. Richard shared with me one day this story:
He said when God called me to ministry, the first thing I did was to limit God. He said “I told Him Ok, I will accept the call, but I won’t be a missionary.” And he entered seminary with his mind pretty much made up. And one day after a class on Missions, Richard went up to the professor to justify his position, “God’s not calling me to missions. I really feel called to work in the local church.” And the professor, who was a missionary overseas for several years replied, “You know Richard, there are local churches all over the world.” Richard said later that that statement changed his entire outlook. He and his family are now serving as missionaries overseas, in one of the most challenging places to do mission work.
These two disciples we see in verse 37 responded to the invitation and they left everything they knew and were willing to go wherever Jesus led them. My question to you this morning is: Are you willing to go where Jesus lead you? Are you willing to step out and faith and say : “Master, I will go where you go-and not just to say it…but to do it!
In vv. 40-46 we see the third and final condition. Follow along as I read.
40 One of the two who heard John {speak} and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
41 He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which translated means Christ).
42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter).
43 The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, "Follow Me."
44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter.
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 Joseph."
46 Nathanael said to him, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."
Now, I want to turn your attention to v. 41 and v. 45. Look at those two verses and notice the first action verb in the two verses. What is it? It’s the word FOUND. We are told here that Andrew FOUND Simon and Philip FOUND Nathanael.
You must respond to the invitation
You must go where Jesus lead you
And, as we read in 41-46:
III. You must seek those who are lost 1:40-1:46
We see here that Andrew, before he did anything else, shared Jesus with a family member. We are told in verse 41 that “He found first his brother.” Now, notice that between verses 37 and 41, there is no mention of Andrew having gone to get a seminary education before he witnessed to Simon. You might think it’s funny to say that but there are a lot of people who think you cannot witness unless you have some kind of formal training, that you have to be a biblical scholar to share Jesus.
Andrew had no such training. He shared only what he knew. He had heard the testimony of John “This is the Son of God.” He had followed Christ, Because of that, his life was completely changed, and he wanted to share that with someone.
You know, so often we are afraid to witness to our family members and friends. We are too afraid that if we bring up the subject of Jesus that somehow we will jeopardize our relationship. “Oh but we have such a good relationship I just don’t want to mess that up!” Have you ever thought that? Well, let me ask you, as hard as it may be to hear, don’t you think their eternal destiny is more important than your relationship. Now, don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I am not saying that you should purposefully destroy your relationships in order to share Christ. But if you have a relationship with someone, shouldn’t you care for them enough to WANT to share Christ with them!?
Two Ladies were sharing lunch together when one said to the other: "I don’t know many Christians, but somehow I can’t help regarding them as hypocrites."
Said the other, "But your sister-in-law, she lives in the same house with you; surely you must acknowledge that she is a devoted Christian."
"That’s just it," was the laughing reply. "She has a very lovely disposition, and she devotes her life to missions and Sunday schools, but she has never said a word to me about becoming a Christian. It’s only make-believe with her about souls being in danger. You need not tell me! I know that she is fond of me, but if she believed all that, don’t you think she would not have said something?"
You see, it was BECAUSE Simon was his brother that Andrew brought him to the Lord. He didn’t care about the possibility of offending him. He loved him, and he wanted him to have the life-changing experience he had had.
Think about a friend or family member that is lost. Have you shared Jesus with that person. Presented him or her with the Scripture and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” Have you expanded the network of faith, or did the network stop because you have not shared what Jesus has done in your life?
As we continue on in the text we see that Philip, like Andrew, sought others to witness to. Only Philip sought after those he did not know. Look at vv.43ff.
43 The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, "Follow Me."
44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter.
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 Joseph."
46 Nathanael said to him, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."
In verse 45 we read that “Philip found Nathanael, Again, like Andrew, Philip looked for opportunities to witness. And when you have a burden for lost people, there will be people you come across who you don’t know.
Philip shared his testimony with Nathanael. From what we can gather, the two had never met. Even so, he goes to Nathanael and tells him, “Hey Nate, listen! You remember the One that the Prophets wrote about? Well, I have met Him. I Know where he is. He has changed my life. Come on, I’ll introduce you to Him.”
If we trace this back, the whole process got started because John the Baptist testified to his disciples of the reality of Jesus Christ. As a result, they believed. Then they shared with Simon Peter and Nathanael. And as we are told later in Scripture, that those two witnessed, and so grew the network of faith-all because these believers were faithful in witnessing to the truth of Jesus Christ.
And this faith network eventually reached you. Without those who were willing to expand this network, to share the gospel message, you and I would not be here today-We never would have come to know Jesus Christ. And we never could have experienced the forgiveness of God that is offered through the cross-nor would we have the promise of eternal life.
Just like you came to believe because of someone else, so now someone else waits for you to tell them about Jesus Christ. Will you be faithful. Will you love those around you, those you know-even those you don’t know-love them enough to tell them about Jesus. Don’t let the network of faith stop with you. Give other people the hope you have in Jesus Christ.
CONCLUSION
Some time ago an 18-year-old girl from Washington state attended a worship service. For the first time in her life she heard the gospel message. The following Tuesday the members of the church received a letter from her. It read:
Dear Church members:
Last Sunday I attended your church, and I heard the preacher. In the sermon the preacher said that all men have sinned and rebelled against God. Because of their rebellion and disobedience they all face eternal damnation and separation from God.
But then he also said God loved men and sent his Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to redeem men from their sins and that all those who believe in him would go to heaven and live with God eternally.
My parents recently died in rapid succession. I know they did not believe in Jesus Christ, whom you call the Savior of the world. If what you believe is true, they are damned.
You compel me to believe that either the message is true, that you yourself don’t believe this message, or that you don’t care. You see, we live only three blocks from your church, and no one ever told us.
