Answer The Call
Notes
Transcript
The next day, John was standing with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
The two disciples heard him say this and followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and noticed them following him, he asked them, “What are you looking for?”
They said to him, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
“Come and you’ll see,” he replied. So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon.
Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John and followed him. He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated “the Christ”), and he brought Simon to Jesus.
When Jesus saw him, he said, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which is translated “Peter”).
The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. He found Philip and told him, “Follow me.”
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law (and so did the prophets): Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked him.
“Come and see,” Philip answered.
Then Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
“Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you,” Jesus answered.
“Rabbi,” Nathanael replied, “You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel!”
Jesus responded to him, “Do you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” Then he said, “Truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
How many of you have been to some time of Christian summer camp or retreat? Remember that excited feeling you had when you came home. You were pumped up ready to change the world. You had all these plans and then.....life happened. Stuff got in the way. School started back. Band and football and softball and volleyball and dating and on and on. Slowly you decided that you couldn’t change the world. Somehow in the midst of all this stuff you decided it was better to be ordinary. Changing the world is for someone else. Great things are for someone else. You can’t possibly be expected to follow the radical call of Jesus to come out from ordinary. It’s too hard, it’s too costly, it’s too much for you. Well all of that is a lie. It’s what you were created for. It’s why your here. All of us have been lulled to sleep with the lie that ordinary is ok. Don’t rock the boat....Don’t upset the old people....don’t be radical. I am going to speak to you right now and tell you that all that is garbage. All that is lies. Jesus called you to be radical....Jesus upset the old people....HE ROCKED THE BOAT....HE WALKED ON WATER....HE RAISED THE DEAD....AND DIED AND ROSE FROM THE DEAD.
Lets dig in a little bit.
So tonight I want to really dig in to not being ordinary. Not settling for second best…Not saying oh well I guess that’s good enough. The call of Jesus is not an ordinary thing. It’s not something that can take second place in your life.
With that being said let’s take a look at look at how Jesus called his first disciples and their response.
To set this up this is right after John the Baptist baptized Jesus.
The next day, John was standing with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
The two disciples heard him say this and followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and noticed them following him, he asked them, “What are you looking for?”
They said to him, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
“Come and you’ll see,” he replied. So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon.
Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John and followed him. He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated “the Christ”), and he brought Simon to Jesus.
When Jesus saw him, he said, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which is translated “Peter”).
The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. He found Philip and told him, “Follow me.”
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law (and so did the prophets): Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked him.
“Come and see,” Philip answered.
Then Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
“Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you,” Jesus answered.
“Rabbi,” Nathanael replied, “You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel!”
Jesus responded to him, “Do you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” Then he said, “Truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
So how did He call and how did the disciples respond? Jesus words are simple enough…come and you’ll see. Andrew was one of those first two that Jesus said this to. All it took was hanging around Jesus for a little while and He knew Jesus was the Messiah.
Jesus command is simple in words but very hard to live out. Follow me is all He says. Very hard to live out. How do we follow Him.
Spend Time with Him. Those first two they spent the day with Him and then they followed Him the rest of their lives. How do we follow Him if we don’t really know Him? A lot of us in this room have had an encounter with Jesus made a decision and then we just went back to what we were doing.
We decided to not follow Jesus or at best to put Him at arms length. No wonder we struggle so much. No wonder everything is hard. Listen to what Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew:
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Aren’t we all weary....a little tired…run down…depressed....anxious. He says to learn from Him and He will give us rest. But we continue to run down our own roads and our paths.. or we got stuck in the traditions of our parents and settled into an ordinary faith instead of pursuing the radical call of Jesus.
But what about the naysayers. What about the people who will make fun of me. What about the people on sunday mornings who will look at me weird if I raise my hands in worship? Jesus dealt with them too and so did His followers: Check out verse 46 in what we read from John.
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked him.
“Come and see,” Philip answered.
Nazareth was one of those towns. You know the type where its like a black hole. The arm pit of the area. That’s what the naysayers will say about you. Some of you have experienced it already and most of you will. Can anything good come out of paragould? Can anything good come out of depression. Can anything good come from a blended family. Addiction, foster care, abuse.
The answer to all those naysayers…all those people in the crowd…all those so called friends at school…all those church folk that give you looks…Come and See. Come and see what the risen Jesus has done in my life....come and see how he turned ordinary into radical. Come and see how he turned chains into freedom. COME AND SEE.
