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This morning a question may be asked, and that question is, ‘ why go to Church? ‘ More specifically, the question that may be asked is ‘ why do you come to this Church? Why do you come to the Northlake’s Reformed Baptist Church? ‘
Maybe you haven’t heard a pastor be so direct with those who are sitting before him. Certainly it is not something that happens very often these days in churches, certainly not from the pulpit. And this is something which I find especially difficult to understand, given such texts as, ‘for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you (Hebrews 13:17).'
You see I am accountable before God for what I do and say as Pastor of this Church. His eyes are upon me, and He shall judge me, so I must be careful to serve as Pastor of this Church in a manner that is faithful to Him and His Word. That is the standard to which I must give careful heed.
Now given that, I cannot be unfaithful and cruel to your souls this morning, or any other morning, by not warning you about the common errors and soul damning mistakes that people make regarding the profession of Christianity.
So I ask you again, not in order to drive you away, but because I am concerned that none of you be missing when the roll is called up yonder - ‘ why do you come to this Church? ‘
Many people go to Church because they believe the mere practice of going to Church will be what will keep them from Hell, and therefore bring them into Heaven. Now I would hope that given the substance of the sermons thus far in the Gospel of John, that none of you are still so foolish as to believe that lie of the Devil.
For others it is the promise of a good meal, and social interaction. Now lets face it, we do get a good meal each week, and we certainly seem to get on very well around that table together; but I would rather that be scrapped, then to see a single soul perish eternally, if they can see no other reason in coming to Church then that meal and social time.
Others find that people in Church have a good shoulder to cry on, that they offer useful financial help, can get free baby sitting, and so on. Again, no reasons that will afford them comfort in the time to come.
So I ask you again, ‘ why do you come to this Church? ‘ Yes, you are all welcome to keep coming; no, we are not trying to drive you away; but we do desire a greater reason for your coming, we long to see you coming for the same reasons that we do - so I ask you that question, ‘ Why do you come to this Church? ‘
As you will see in our passage this morning, this same concern for the eternal well being of people is present in all the godly, and even in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
#1. John’s Concern
We have been following the course of John the Baptist’s ministry over a period of three days. We have seen him interrogated by the Jewish religious delegation from Jerusalem, we have seen him point people away from Himself to the ‘ Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world ‘, and now on this third day he once again points people away from himself to this very same Lamb of God.
What is significant about this third day? This third day he stands with just two of his disciples, and points them toward the Lord Jesus Christ, and then he is left alone when they follow after him.
From the passage it is very clear that one of these is Andrew, ‘ One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother (1:40).' The other was probably the John who wrote this Gospel, and I say this because throughout this book he refuses to even mention his name when speaking of himself. It is something that is common of John in this Gospel.
While John is standing there with these two, just engaged in every day activity, Jesus walks by. And John seeing Him says ‘ Behold the Lamb of God! ‘ This wasn’t just some casual, ‘ Oh look, there’s the Lamb of God again. ‘ No. This was the enthusiastic prophet, who when seeing Jesus pass by, seized the moment, and pressed with great earnestness upon these two men that they look to the one to whom he was pointing.
‘ Andrew, John, that is the Lamb of God! Look at Him, that’s Him! ‘ John was not interested in forming a Church of John the Baptist, but in pointing ALL, even those who had become dear friends to the Messiah. That was his role, his job in life as we have seen.
The day before had brought no response from what is written in this gospel, but today these two men are drawn from the side of the Baptist, to following after the Lord Jesus Christ.
There was nothing wrong with John the Baptist Himself, there was nothing wrong in the ministry going on out there at the Jordan, there was nothing wrong with being a friend of John the Baptist - but none of these things took away a person’s sin.
John didn’t want to see these men perish, he didn’t want to see them remain by his side as the Lamb of God walked away from them. He wanted them to know Him, and so he points to Him again. ‘ He is the one, not me, I must become lesser, He must become greater. ‘
And so this morning I plead with each of you, be not content with being an associate of myself, or of any other of these people. There is nothing wrong in being there friends, in spending time with them, in getting to know them, but don’t be content with that.
Get the picture if you will; there they are standing with John the Baptist as the Lord of Glory, and the Lamb of God is walking away from them. Can you imagine the agony of the Baptist if those two men remained with him, as he saw the back of Jesus fading into the distance? The only salvation available to these two men was walking away, and these two were content to stay with him - it would have broken his heart.
There is a sense whereby we can say the same thing here, as the Gospel is offered and proclaimed week by week, with this age moving towards its end, the salvation available to you is fading away, and it will soon be no longer available. Why are you holding back? Why are you contented to keep coming to this Church without going to this Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?
Time is running out, and soon it will be too late, and your entire going to this Church without the Lord Jesus Christ will be a waste of time for you.
Don’t let Him walk by, go to Him - ‘ Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world ‘.
Well the Baptist would have been overjoyed; these two disciples had heard his testimony and went off to follow the Lamb of God. What joy would there have been in his heart as he saw their backs fading into the distance alongside the Lord Jesus Christ.
What joy indeed will there be here as we see sinners who have been meeting with us, following after the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We will rejoice with you in your salvation. But until such time as that, we will continue to point you to the Lamb of God who alone takes away the sin of the world.
#2. Christ’s Concern
So off these two go to follow Jesus - and it would seem that they don’t make themselves known to Him immediately, ‘Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? '
At first glance this all appears as meaning very little. They just seemed to want to know ‘ where dwellest thou?' To this Jesus says, ‘ Come and see. ‘ And so off they went to see.
So there are some questions asked, answers given, and all seemingly about where Jesus is staying. Is there anything much in this exchange?
From what follows there appears as though there was quite a lot in all this. Andrew and John were keen to spend some quality time with Jesus it would seem. They didn’t want to just have a quick chat, they craved quality time, and Jesus seems certainly to be aware of this desire, and offers an invitation to the men to ‘ Come and see. ‘
So off they go, to spend time with Jesus.
We see in this exchange Jesus’ concern for these two men. Were these two men interested in the developing phenomenon surrounding Jesus? Just what was their interest in Him?
There would soon be those who were interested in free feeds, who were keen to see deeds of a miraculous and supernatural nature, others who were keen to hear the local religious leaders given a serve, others who were keen to see the Romans kicked out of the land ... what did these two want?
Even in Jesus’ day, people followed after Jesus for all manner of reasons. Today people associate with Jesus, or the idea of Jesus for various reasons. Some businesses associate with the idea of Jesus in order to make financial gain.
Some people associate with the idea of Jesus in order to gain a following, or to gain a sympathetic hearing for their problems and self-centred gratification, others for the social outlet that churches offer, etc.
‘ What do you want? What is it that you seek? Why do you come to this Church? ‘
All these are related questions. Are you after the right things, or are you after those things that just don’t rate in spiritual terms. ‘ What do you Want? What is your purpose, your desire in coming along? ‘
You see this is the idea behind the questions that Jesus asked of these two men. His desire was that they should be seeking after the right thing, the only thing, the very purpose of His coming into this world, as He ‘ who takes away the sin of the world. ‘
Are you guys really interested, or are you just curious spectators?
Well the answer given by the two men is one that indicates a real interest in the Messiah. They wanted to spend some quality time with Jesus. They weren’t primarily concerned with the everyday affairs, with the hoopla surrounding Jesus that men were inventing; they wanted to get to know the real Jesus.
So they accepted the invitation to ‘ Come and see. ‘ Not only did they come and see were Jesus was staying, but they ‘abode with him that day: for it was about the tenth hour. ‘
The significance of the tenth hour was that it was about 4pm Jewish time, and therefore it would seem that they stayed with Jesus that night. What happened then? Well it would seem they spoke about Jesus’ role, and why He had come to the world.
READ JOHN 1:40,41
Clearly, from what they heard from John the Baptist, and now from their time with Jesus Himself, these two men had come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as the ‘ Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. ‘ They had spent their time with Jesus wisely, they were seeking the Messiah, and they had found Him.
What about you? Is your time with Jesus spent wisely? And yes, He is present among His people in this place ... why do you come to this church?
You are in a place were the truth about Jesus is spoken and taught each week - what are you doing with this truth? You are in a place were Jesus fellowships with His people each week, all the time - what are you seeking in the place of His special Presence?
Are you seeking to spend quality time with Jesus? Are you seeking to know the true Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? Why do you come to this Church?
Have you found the Messiah? This is a place were He is to be found, are you looking for Him? Or are you caught up with the other lesser things that go on here, contented with those things that will leave you desolate in the end, for without the Lamb of God they really are without value.
What do you seek?
#3. Andrew’s Concern
As we have already said, Andrew and John had found the Messiah, the one whom they had sought after. They had become Christian’s, having exercised faith in the Lamb of God - how do we know this? From what we have read in John 1:40,41.
‘One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.'
These two verses tell us many things. They tell us of the excitement now found in Andrew, of the joy he had in having found the Messiah.
It tells us of his genuine faith, for in calling Jesus the Messiah, he is acknowledging all that he knew of the long promised Messiah, as written in the OT Scriptures, was to be found in Jesus. But not only was He ascribing these to Jesus, he was also acting upon this knowledge.
Andrew so knew that this was the Messiah that he just had to tell his brother Simon that he too might come to know the Messiah. So of he goes, straight to find his brother. He had to find him, and so he searched.
Then he tells Simon about Jesus, what we call evangelism, and then he brings his brother to Jesus, for he knew that Jesus was the giver of light, of life.
And so Andrew, in his first feeble acts of faith, and Christian evangelism, has brought one who would be one of the greatest Christian preachers and evangelists to the Messiah. This would prove to be a day of rejoicing, not only for Andrew and John, but also for Simon.
‘And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone (John 1:42).'
Though this verse seems to say so little, it says a lot. Here we see the transforming moment for Simon's life. This day he began to live again, he began that life that would bring him to be such a useful and important part of the early Church. It all began there, with a few simple words from Andrew.
Such was Andrew’s concern for his brother - that he too would know the Messiah, the ‘ Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world ‘, that he sought him out, spoke to him about Jesus from the little he then knew, and brought his brother to Jesus. The Christian’s concern is that none would perish through want of knowing the Gospel.
Christians know, that if a person is not a Christian, if they are not trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, that they will perish eternally. So burning within them is this longing that others would come to know Him.
We do not need to know everything about the Lord Jesus Christ in order to tell this perishing world about the Lamb of God. Clearly Andrew did not know it all, having just met the Messiah.
Let me offer you in conclusion, some practical ways as to how you might use your concern for the lost, that which you have inherited by virtue of becoming a Christian, in the context of this local Church.
Let me encourage you to speak to your friends, your neighbours, your family, and to speak a word to them about the Messiah you have met. You don’t need to be a theologian to do so, just take what you already know of Him from the Bible and tell others, bringing them to Jesus.
As Jesus said to the former demon-possessed man in Mark 5:19, ‘Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.'
You could get behind the Letterbox drops here, whether that be in the dropping of them in letterboxes, or by praying to the Lord of the Harvest, we can all participate in this evangelistic ministry here.
You could ask people to Church, that people might hear the preaching of the Messiah’s Gospel, 'for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth (Rom 1:16). ‘
You could give someone a tract or book, you could invite people to our social nights, but bring him or her to Jesus.
Salvation is not to be found in the mere association of sinners with Church people or Christians; they need a real relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ that has been entered into by faith, which is the gift of God. So bring them to Jesus.
If you are truly concerned for someone, that is what you will do. Bring them to Jesus, for it is He who has the Word’s of life. There is no other name under heaven whereby men are to be saved. Jesus is He ‘ who takes away the sin of the world. ‘.
So I plead with you all this morning, that if you come to this Church without knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as He who takes away your sin, go to Him by faith. Don’t leave it another day, but go to Him. Why will you perish when the way to life is so freely offered to you?
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10/10/2006
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