SERMON NOTES FOR June 11, 2023

Sermon Prep Notes

Pray.

Illustration:

I love coffee.

I love strong, black coffee.

No sugar, no cream, stay away.

Some of you don’t enjoy coffee, and that’s ok.

It’s ok to not enjoy life as much as the rest of us who drink coffee.

Maybe one day you’ll realize there is more to life and you will start drinking it.

- It’s hard not having access to coffee.

When I make a list of things to pack for youth trips,

The coffee maker is item #1.

On a youth trip or at home, when my eyes open in the morning and I desire is a hot cup of coffee.

Every day, I follow that desire.

INTRODUCTION

Are you following Jesus?

Is He what you desire?

Is your identity Jesus?

I want you to know this morning, if Jesus is your identity, if we are following Him, did you know that He is calling us to great things?

Read John 1:35-42 “35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” 37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” 39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. 40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).”

John 1:50 “50 Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.””

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Here is the main point I would like us to see this morning:

Our Greatest DESIRE should be to IDENTIFY as a DISCIPLE of Jesus.

Or to say differently

A DISCIPLE of Jesus DESIRES to IDENTIFY with Him.

I have 3 questions to help us understand what I mean by this point this morning

What is a Disciple? John 1:35 & John 15:16

A follower who learns, studies, and passes along the sayings and teachings of the master.

By that definition then, another question must be asked.

Who is the master?

Who is the master than I am following?

What is demanding your attention every day?

What are you consuming daily, hourly, maybe even every moment of your day that is captivating your attention?

That can be your master.

A. John 15:16 “16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”

- first century disciples chose their master.

John 1:35 “35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples.”

2 men who chose to follow JTB.

However, when John the Baptist sees Jesus he proclaims a bold statement.

B. “Look, the Lamb of God!”

John uses this same term in John 1:29 and he explains, “Who takes away the sin of the world.”

We see references to the sacrificial lamb as early as Genesis 22 all the way through to Revelation 5 in Scripture.

The lamb references the payment for sin.

As John proclaims this, He is saying This lamb, Jesus, will pay that price of sin.

Jesus is God. (John 1:34 “34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.””

"SON OF GOD” - Better translation.

Now what happens next is interesting.

John 1:37 “37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.”

John’s disciples now follow Jesus.

Andrew, one of the two follow Jesus.

Later he will bring his brother Peter.

As soon as JTB made this proclamation, JTB calls his disciples to follow Jesus.

Rather than a “Look at me...” he immediately turns, sets his ego aside, and says, “Look at the Lamb...”

The master changed.

As time would go on, desires would change too.

JTB had the humility here to say, Follow Him!

Be His disciple. He is the only Master worth following completely.

A disciple of Jesus desires to identify with Him.

2. What is your desire?

This is really Jesus next question to Andrew and the other of John’s disciples.

Jesus then turns to John’s disciples and asks them, “What do you want?”

Their response is interesting because they just want to know where Jesus is going.

SO Jesus says “Come, and you will see” vs. 39.

Notice here, Jesus doesn’t tell them a long story.

He doesn’t give a long answer about what they will do, see, and experience if they follow Him.

Jesus simply offers an invitation.

Come and see...

In John 1:50, Jesus is talking to 2 more disciples Philip and Nathanael.

Nathanael is amazed at what Jesus is saying and so Nathaniel responds in vs. 49, “Rabbi, you are the son of God.”

Then Jesus says in John 1:50 “50 Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.””

When you put both of these accounts together we could say Jesus message to his first disciples is this.

Come and see great things.

Do you desire to see God do great things?

What would you define is God doing great things?

BRIEF ILLUSTRATION:

Recently I asked some of our teenagers here at BBC,

Hey guys, Where do you want to see yourself in 15 years?

Most of them said, “I want to have financial security.”

Now, there’s nothing with that.

There is a Biblical mandate to provide for your family and even leave an inheritance for your kids.

BUT!

At the same time, the great things Jesus leaves with his disciples has nothing to do with financial security.

I told our teens, I haven’t been a teenager in 13 years and I still don’t have financial security… but there are greater things to see…

When we desire Christ. We will see great things.

I think we should ask ourselves every day, Is what I’m desiring today Christ-focused or is it a distraction from the great things Christ is doing?

This brings me to my last point, If I’m searching for my identity in the distractions, my desires will not be for Christ.

So what is your identity?

3. What is your Identity?

Ultimately, the call to follow Jesus was a change in identity.

It was a call to move from the old life into the new.

In Matthew 4:18-22 “18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 20 At once they left their nets and followed him. 21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.”

In this account, Simon and Andrew were fishing.

So were James and John.

A question for us this morning. Which group were the better fisherman?

- Was it Peter and Andrew or John and James?

We know they were partners in fishing from Luke 5:10.

But I have no idea who was better or worse.

What identified these men before Christ was their job as fisherman.

However, Scripture places no value on the quality of the fisherman.

After Jesus called them from fishing, we see Andrew bringing his brother Peter to Jesus because he says “We have found the Messiah” John 1:41 .

After one day, their identity changed from fisherman to disciples of Christ.

However, in the end of the gospel of John, in John 21, it’s unclear whether Peter and 6 of the other disciple were wrong, but what is clear is that they went fishing.

Despite their best efforts in what they knew, John 21:3 says they caught nothing.

What was familiar to them yielded poor results.

Then Jesus shows up in vs. 4 and provides tons of fish for them.

Then, Jesus in a conversation with Peter reminds him to feed His sheep.

Now all of that seems simple and I’m not trying to oversimplify it, but note 2 quick things:

Jesus reminds the disciples their identity is not in fishing, it’s Him.

The difference between success and failure was the width of the ship.

Jesus reminds them who they followed in John 1.

Jesus is God, and on the other side of the ship God would provide.

It didn’t matter if they were good fisherman or bad fisherman.

It didn’t matter how many fish they had caught.

it mattered that they followed Jesus and his direction.

Let’s examine that same principle in our own lives.

I got these next two questions from one of my favorite podcasts right now, DadTired.

If you are a parent, teacher, or interested in investing in someone younger than you, there is much wisdom to gain from this podcast.

In a recent episode he asked 2 questions.

A. What if you are a parent and your child is the worst at their sport.

say it’s soccer.

You just watch week after week and your kid is terrible. He’s the worst on the team.

How are you going to speak life into your child as a parent?

How are you going to build him up and speak to his identity being greater than the sport he’s playing?

Ask good questions

What is your desire when you play?

Speak to the heart of your child.

Remind them whose they are.

Is the fact that your child stinks at soccer going to change the fact that He is your son or she is your daughter?

no.

So when our kid really stinks at something, we need to recognize this is an identity conversation.

Challenge kids when they need it… certainly.

BUT most importantly

Remind them whose they are.

Now here’s a more difficult question

B. What if your child is the Greatest at his sport?

What if your child ends up being the Michael Jordan of their profession.

How will you speak to their identity then?

Seeing your child get all the accolades

Seeing your child receive all the praise.

You will be so proud.

Some of you have been there, some of you will never be.

How do we speak to the identity of our son or daughter though in that place?

It’s the same!

Who you are, your identity isn’t based on what you do.

It’s based on who you are.

ONLY THE CHRISTIAN CAN SAY THAT!

Whether your the best or the worst.

We can look at our kids and say I love you in success.

I love you in failure.

I love you before you were great and I’ll love you after.

You see win or lose, our children need to know that they are loved by Christ above all else.

That’s not a cop-out answer.

That is the answer!

Being a disciple of Christ is being loved by God and loving God above all else.

If we aren’t calling our kids to identity with Christ, then we are calling them to identity with the wrong things.

Peter and Andrew may have been the worst fisherman.

John and James may have been the best.

Both were called to follow and they left what they knew behind.

They followed Christ.

They said “no” to the familiar (fishing) and followed Jesus into the unfamiliar (come and see).

Their desires changed, they became disciples, and Jesus changed their identity.

Now how do we apply this today.

APPLICATION:

Working with teens,

I think a lot of teens are struggling now days with perfection.

You’ve got to be the best student, best athlete, get into the best school…

I have good news.

Jesus doesn’t call perfect people.

He doesn’t even call the best people.

He just calls… people.

What if your sons and daughers have no desire for great life God is calling them too because we’ve exchanged the great calling for a lesser master.

maybe sports, school, quest for perfection, etc…

What about school?

99% of our kids will stress, contemplate taking their own lives, experience high anxiety due to social media pressures, all to result in them receiving an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper with their name on it saying they graduated.

Now, we all know it’s not about the paper but about the accomplishment.

But is that accomplishment the great thing Jesus is calling disciples to in John 1?

Listen sports, school, careers, financial security, these are good things.

But again

If we aren’t calling our kids to identity with Christ, then we are calling them to identity with the wrong things.

Jesus has called us to great things.

Don’t be discipled by the wrong master.

I would like to give you one thing to hold on to this morning and it came from Max Lucado.

Jesus calls thirsty people.

Matthew 4:4 “4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’””

I don’t think Jesus was speaking metaphorically here, but literally.

As important as food and water is to our physical health, knowing God’s Word is just as important to our spiritual health.

What’s the difference between physical thirst and spiritual thirst?

How absurd would it be if we treated physical thirst like we treat our spiritual thirst?

We don’t ignore the signs that we are thirsty!

We drink!

Why do we do that spiritually though?

When we are spiritually thirsty, we try to join a team, we follow new people or new trends on social media, we work harder, we get a new job…

But do we ever stop and satisfy our spiritual thirst for God?

Do we drink from Him?

Lucado says its not enough to show up to at the watering hole once or twice a week and drink water for 2 hours straight and think we will be good to go for the week!

No we drink every day, we drink regularly every day.

In the same way, just going to church isn’t enough, we need to drink from God’s Word every day because we are thirsty to know and be reminded of who we are in Christ.

When we drink from Christ...

John 7:38 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.””

A disciple of Jesus desires to identify with Him.

Are we drinking regularly, being filled with Jesus.

Knowing who we are in Christ.

Following Him to do great things.

Allowing God’s rivers of living waters to flow from within us.

May we follow that desire today above all else.

If you need to pray now or come talk about identifying Christ, let’s sing and ask God to change our desires this week.