Driven By What’s Inside 

Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason,  June 22, 2003   

 Text:  John 1:29-51

To: Jesus, Son of Joseph
Woodcrafter's Carpenter Shop
Nazareth 25922

From: Jordan Management Consultants

 Dear Sir:

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for managerial positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.

The profiles of all tests are included, and you will want to study each of them carefully.

As part of our service, we make some general comments for your guidance, much as an auditor will include some general statements. This is given as a result of staff consultation, and comes without any additional fee.

It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.

Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale. We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew had been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.

One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind, and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.

We wish you every success in your new venture

God does not do things like we would do them.  He sees things differently than we do. And Praise God, He does!

Our text today is found in John 1:29-51:

²⁹The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰He is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘soon a man is coming who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before I did.’ ³¹I didn’t know he was the one, but I have been baptizing with water in order to point him out to Israel.”

³²Then John said, “I saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and resting upon him. ³³I didn’t know he was the one, but when God sent me to baptize with water, he told me, ‘When you see the Holy Spirit descending and resting upon someone, he is the one you are looking for. He is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴I saw this happen to Jesus, so I testify that he is the Son of God.”

³⁵The following day, John was again standing with two of his disciples. ³⁶As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and then declared, “Look! There is the Lamb of God!” ³⁷Then John’s two disciples turned and followed Jesus.

³⁸Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?” he asked them.

They replied, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?”

³⁹“Come and see,” he said. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went with him to the place, and they stayed there the rest of the day.

⁴⁰Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of these men who had heard what John said and then followed Jesus. ⁴¹The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother, Simon, and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means the Christ).

⁴²Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, “You are Simon, the son of John—but you will be called Cephas” (which means Peter).

⁴³The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come, be my disciple.” ⁴⁴Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown.

⁴⁵Philip went off to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

⁴⁶“Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from there?”

“Just come and see for yourself,” Philip said.

⁴⁷As they approached, Jesus said, “Here comes an honest man—a true son of Israel.”

⁴⁸“How do you know about me?” Nathanael asked. 

And Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”

⁴⁹Nathanael replied, “Teacher, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”

⁵⁰Jesus asked him, “Do you believe all this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” ⁵¹Then he said, “The truth is, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down upon the Son of Man.”

This is a very interesting passage of Scripture from several points of view:  

First of all, John has given us very clearly a summary of the Mission of the Messiah.

1.      The first part of the Mission of Jesus Christ is this: He came so that our sin might be taken away; so that there might be a cleansing process available to us and that we might be restored in our relationship with God by placing our faith or trust in Jesus Christ and his death on the cross as a substitute in payment for our sin.

2.      The second part of His Mission was the baptizing with the Holy Spirit, which is an enabling process. One of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to empower us, to enable us to do the work God has called us to do. That is available to us.

Notice what John records of the words of John the Baptist:  ‘Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” That deals with his saving, cleansing mission. And then he tells us that John the Baptist spoke of his baptism with water but that there was one coming who “…will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”  This is his enabling mission.

And then John goes on to tell us about the initial gathering of disciples by Jesus.

The interesting thing about this passage is that the other three gospels say nothing about this gathering of the first five disciples. What this tells us is that John, undoubtedly one of the first group of disciples to follow Jesus, as he begins his story of Jesus, remembers the early days about which no one else has written. And he includes it in his gospel.

According to 2 Timothy 3:16-17, We know that the Holy Spirit superintended the writing of the Scriptures so that what we have in our Bible today is fully the Word of God and the complete revelation of God  and  his plan for salvation.  We also know that the writers of Scripture had some latitude in what they included because all four of the gospels are all different even though they tell the same story.

These events depicted in John 1:29-51 involved in the first meeting of these men and Jesus were viewed as insignificant by everyone but John.  This is the beginning of an acquaintance with and of faith in Jesus on the part of certain individuals who subsequently became constant companions of Jesus and ultimately His Apostles.

To whom does Jesus go for the gathering of disciples?  Well, let’s think about it for a minute or two:  He does not go to Jerusalem or Judea to gather those who will follow him. He does not call the powerful or the rich to follow him. He does not go to the religious leaders of the day; even though you might think he would find a following there. There are no political movers or shakers. There are no religious superstars. He does not focus on “winners” or the social elite.

No. He chooses disciples from among the despised, provincial Galileans. These men are of no serious consequence. They have no inherent importance to any one outside their families. They have no political or religious standing. They are just ordinary people. But they are ordinary people who have a heart set and a mind set like that of John the Baptist. They are people who are looking for the coming Messiah. They are looking for a renewal of the true faith of Israel and have responded to John’s message of repentance, of preparation for the coming of the Messiah.

Who are these men?

First of all, there is Andrew. He was the first to find his brother…Simon. And He introduces Simon to the Messiah.  “We have found the Messiah,” he says. The implication is that there was another who also found his brother but not before Andrew did. The other was John and he found his brother James and introduced him to Jesus.  One of the things we know about Andrew is that he was always bringing someone to Jesus. He brought his brother Simon and then he brings the boy with the loaves and fishes to Jesus and then when the Greeks come to see Jesus it is Andrew who brings them to Jesus. He was the sort of man who would bring people to Jesus because they needed to know Him.

Then there is John.  He and his brother James were named “sons of thunder”. That tells us something about their basic character. He is the disciple who loved Jesus.

Simon is next.  He is renamed by Jesus and is told that he will be Peter from petros or rock in the Greek. We know him best as Peter. Jesus sees him and ascertains that his character is that as a man of rock... Jesus looks at him and he sees the latent qualities of faith, devotion, strength of character and strength in the man.

Philip was a shy and unimpressive young man; so much, so that Mark, Matthew and Luke tell us nothing about the man except the fact that Jesus called him to be an Apostle.

Nathanael presents an interesting case. Jesus describes him for us. “Behold, an Israelite in whom is no guile…in whom there is no Jacob. The suggestion here is that in Nathanael you have a person whose heart is pure; in whom there is no double mindedness, no impure motive, pride or unholy passion. Jesus saw all of that even before Philip went to him. Nathanael is probably the one identified as Bartholomew by the other gospel writers. He was the son of Thalomai.

Nathanael is the one who remarked when Philip told him about the Messiah he had found in Jesus of Nazareth:  “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”  He was a Galilean and as such despised by Judeans. He was as much a object of contempt as much as Nazarenes. He really meant this:  Surely, the Messiah can never come from among a poor despised people such as are we – from Nazareth or any other Galilean village or town.

Such are the first followers of Jesus. But note this:  they believe in Jesus on a moment’s notice; and they express their faith in terms that one would expect from mature Christians.

Just ordinary people - Chosen by Jesus to be more than just his followers.

When he sees Simon and Andrew on their boat, he calls them to follow him and tells them that they are going to be fishers of men. He notes their vocation and says in effect that he will take the qualities resident within them that make them successful fishermen and use them to win men to Jesus Christ. I know most of you well enough to recognize that he did not call you to be fisher of men. There are no fishermen here in this place today.

It is a good thing that that is true.  For you see I have never really been very good at fishing. I used to go fishing with a man named Elmer Johnson. We would go out in his motorboat and troll. He would use an old cane pole and a thick green line and from that point, he would catch fish. It would get so bad that when I wasn't catching fish, I would suggest that we change sides of the boat. It was obvious that all the fish were on his side of the boat. My state of the art rod and reel, with my modern lures and monofilament line should have given me the advantage. But as it was, it was completely different than I expected. Fishing is not what I am good at. As a result, Jesus would not tell me that he was going to make me a fisher of men.

What does he do with us?

He takes the qualities that are inherent and innate within us and he uses them for his purposes in reaching the lost and building the church and His Kingdom. Whatever there is within you is what he will take and use for His glory. All he needs is for you to be available for Him to use. All he requires is that you believe Him and trust Him each and every step along the way.

He uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things. That is how God does things differently that we would do them.

He uses the very people the world and ever the church ignores as not worthy, not good enough, not professional enough, not “winners”, not really fit for service in the public eye.

He uses those who are available to Him; he uses those who believe in him and who are willing to obey him. It is faith and obedience that lead us to those places in which we can serve him with power.

He gathers followers first of all.

He calls those who follow him to become disciples.

And all disciples are called to do the work of ministry in presenting the love and claims of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world.

He just wants you.

He will take you as you are.

He will remake you into a mature, faithful and obedient believer.

He will them take those qualities and characteristics of character that you possess and use them for his Glory. All you have to do is be available to him.

He calls people who are driven from within by the power of His Holy Spirit. He uses them to accomplish his work of reaching the world.

All he needs of you is your faith and your obedience. When he has those, he can use you to win your world for Him...

God’s work is cut out for Him…but He can and will complete what He has begun.

One last thought:  Dwight L. Moody once said this:  ‘It is better to train ten people than to do the work of ten people. But it is harder. “Moody.

Do you want to be more than a follower of Jesus Christ…and move on into a mature discipleship? The following might be helpful in getting started:

In Rebuilding Your Broken World, Gordon MacDonald suggests twenty-six questions to help develop accountability and invite feedback. If we desire to grow, we should submit our selves to a spiritual mentor and answer these questions honestly.

1. How is your relationship with God right now?
2. What have you read in the Bible in the past week?
3. What has God said to you in this reading?
4. Where do you find yourself resisting Him these days?
5. What specific things are you praying for in regard to yourself?
7. What are the specific tasks facing you right now that you consider incomplete?
8. What habits intimidate you?
9. What have you read in the secular press this week?
10. What general reading are you doing?
11. What have you done to play?
12. How are you doing with your spouse? Kids?
13. If I were to ask your spouse about your state of mind, state of spirit, state of energy level, what would the response be?
14. Are you sensing spiritual attacks from the enemy right now?
15. If Satan were to try to invalidate you as a person or as a servant of the Lord, how might he do it?
16. What is the state of your sexual perspective? Tempted? Dealing with fantasies? Entertainment?
17. Where are you financially right now? (things under control? under anxiety? in great debt?)
18. Are there any unresolved conflicts in your circle of relationships right now?
19. When was the last time you spent time with a good friend of your own gender?
20. What kind of time have you spent with anyone who is a non-Christian this month?
21. What challenges do you think you're going to face in the coming week? Month?
22. What would you say are your fears at this present time?
23. Are you sleeping well?
24. What three things are you most thankful for?
25. Do you like yourself at this point in your pilgrimage?
26. What are your greatest confusions about your relationship with God?

--- Dennis Gleason