John 1:29-42

Some things in life are urgent and they are important. When you’re sitting in bumper to bumper traffic going down I85 into Atlanta, and you just noticed that your gas light is on, you need gas. It’s urgent and it’s important. When you’re in labor, about to have a baby - there’s no saying, “Ah I’ll just put it off a couple days.” No it’s urgent and it’s important. When something is urgent and important, you can’t put it off, you’ve got to act right away.

We don’t change to be in relationship with Jesus, we enter into a relationship and then we are changed.

In our gospel reading this morning, Jesus is calling his first disciples. Now, disciple is an odd word, because we only ever use it or hear it in a religious context. You don’t hear people using it out on the streets. So what does it even mean to be a disciple?

And John had followers. Specifically, we learn that John had disciples. Verse 35:

The Greek word is mathetes, which is a derivative of the word, manthano, which is the verb, “to learn.” So mathetes, or disciple, simply means learner - one who learns. Jesus is calling his first, students, his first learners.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

But when the biblical authors used these terms, words like disciple, they had a very particular idea in mind. So what does disciple really mean? Well to be a disciple is to be a learner. A disciple is a student of a teacher. John is standing with two of his students.

But I’d say that there are few things in life that are both that urgent and that important. What happens more of the time, is that the important things in life are crowded out by the things that we feel are urgent. I was reading a book a while back called Deep Work, and the author was talking about how we spend so much time accomplishing the seemingly urgent tasks of the day, answering emails, checking in with people, writing reports, checking off the boxes on our To-Do lists, that we leave very little time for the really important things like strategic planning for the future. How many times have you come to the end of a work day, and you look at your To-Do list that’s all checked off, but you think to yourself, what did I actually accomplish today? That’s the seemingly urgent crowding out what’s really important.

II. To learn the way of Jesus, we have to spend time with Jesus.

Spending time with Jesus is important. Don’t let the urgent crowd out the important.

III. Making disciples takes time.

This can happen in parenting as well. We can spend the day getting a whole lot of things done around the house, transporting the kids to and from practice, and we’re really busy and we’re with our kids all day, but how much of that time was really spent investing in their lives, having meaningful time with them? Yeah all these tasks needed to be done, they were urgent, but did we do the important things?

And we can see this happen in our spiritual lives as well. Is what we’re doing this morning, gathering together as God’s people in worship, is this important? Yes! But how often does it crowded out by the seemingly urgent? What about spending time in the Scriptures and in prayer, is that important? Yes! And yet, how often is it crowded out by the seemingly urgent? We’re called to reach out to our neighbors and friends who do not know Jesus, but how often do we lose sleep thinking about them, thinking about how they don’t know the love and grace of Christ? But how often do we lose sleep over the tasks of our day, all the things we have to do at work the next day? Urgent things crowd out what’s most important.

Conclusion

Now, as God’s people, we don’t have to guess at what’s most important, because he has made it abundantly clear to us. Christ has given us a task, a mission, a purpose: , “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Is this important? Yes! But it is so often crowded out by what we feel is urgent.

This is the season of Epiphany, which is all about making Christ known to the world, unveiling Jesus to the world as the Savior and King. One of the ways that we make Christ known is by being and making disciples. So this morning we’re looking what it means to be a disciple and what does it mean to make disciples.

If you have your Bibles, turn with me to . Let’s set the stage, because this is the third different gospel we’ve read in three weeks. So where are we in the story of Jesus? As we talked about last week, Jesus has been baptized. The heavens were opened, the Spirit descended, and the voice from heaven spoke. That has all happened. What we’re looking at this morning happens some time after that. John is still doing his thing out in the wilderness, baptizing folks and teaching them to long for the Messiah, except now he’s got a name and face. It’s Jesus. He’s pointing people not to hidden figure, but to Jesus. So :

English Standard Version Chapter 1

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Okay let’s stop there. What’s this bit about Jesus being the Lamb of God? Well, John is speaking to Israelites, and you can bet that there were a number of images that would have come to their mind. A lamb was a symbol of sacrifice. There is quite a few famous lambs in the Old Testament:

1) When Abraham was tested by God and told to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, the son who was promised to him, Abraham is obedient and journeys with his son up the mountain, and Isaac asks where the lamb for the burnt offering was. We’ve got the fire and the wood, but where’s the sacrifice? And Abraham says, “God will provide the lamb.”

2) Quite possibly the most famous lamb would be the Passover lamb in the Exodus story. The blood of that lamb was spread across the doorposts of the homes of God’s people, marking them as God’s own, so that when God brought the final plague against Egypt, the Israelite’s would be saved.

3) Isaiah uses the image of the lamb when he talks about the Servant of the Lord who would come to save God’s people from their sins, but that salvation would come at great cost to the servant, who would be “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter.”

So John is painting a very familiar picture by calling Jesus the Lamb of God. He was a sacrifice, provided by God, for the benefit of God’s people. But there’s a difference, an important difference. The lambs of the Old Testament sacrifices were all passive victims. They had no agency, no control over what was happening to them. But John doesn’t allow us to think of Jesus in that regard. Jesus is not a victim, he is the victor. The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world, but he himself is not taken away. More than any other gospel writer, John intentionally shows us that Jesus was in control of his life. He chose the road he walked, the road that led to the cross. In Jesus says,

English Standard Version Chapter 10

I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.

Does that sound like a passive victim? Does that sound like someone unwilling? No it sounds like someone who knows exactly what he’s doing, and knows exactly how to do it. The Lamb of God confidently takes away the sin of the world.

This is so important that we understand, if we’re going to be disciples and if we’re going to make disciples.

Now,

Jesus chooses

So often it happens that we think to ourselves that God is good. He’s pure and holy and utterly good. And the only justifiable way that I can be in presence of God is if I’m good. If I’m pure and holy and without blemish. And so if I go through a season of life where I’m not good, then I need to change my ways, straighten myself out, and then and only then can I come back to God and be with God and be with God’s people. For me to be accepted by God, for me to be a disciple of Jesus, I’ve got to change.

And that’s the rub. If I want to be with God, to know him, be loved by him, and follow him, then I have to change for that to happen. Why? Because I am not worthy to follow, as I am. And if that is you: hear this morning what John is proclaiming: “Behold, look, here is Jesus, standing before you, and he takes away your sin.” The Lamb of God makes you worthy. It is not you and your accomplishments, it is not what you do, it is what Jesus has lovingly done for you on your behalf.

Do not confuse what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. We do not change in order to be in relationship with Jesus, we enter into a relationship with Jesus and then we are changed.

Jesus knows this as he’s interacting with John’s disciples in verse 38. These two disciples of John hear what John says about Jesus, and they start following him home. And Jesus turns to them and asks, “What are you looking for? What are you after?” I mean talk about a loaded question, and the disciples evidently don’t know quite how to respond. But what does Jesus do next? I’ll tell you what he doesn’t do: he doesn’t ask how long they spent praying that day, or when the last time they went to the Temple, or how much they donated to the poor that year, or how many drinks they have week. He doesn’t run them through a list of requirements for following him. He doesn’t ask them to change first. No, what does he say instead? He invites them to spend time with him, because he knows that by spending time with him, they will forever be changed.

Do you remember in high school or college when you and your friends were dating? I had this one friend in high school. We’d spend like every afternoon together. We’d be hanging out all the time. And then he started dating this girl, and all of sudden he wasn’t around much anymore. Over time his interests changed. How he wanted to spend the weekend changed. Why? Because he was in a relationship.

The same thing happens in marriage. I’m a completely different personthabn I was

The word disciple in the Greek simply means learner. To be a disciple of Jesus is to be a learner of Jesus. It would make no sense for us to think that in order to become a learner of Algebra you must first know Algebra. In order to learn Algebra, you’ve got to spend a lot of time with it. So it is with being a disciple of Jesus. If we are going to the learn the way of Jesus, we’ve got to spend time with Jesus. Which is exactly the invitation that Jesus offers. Come and see.

Jesus knows who you are. He knows what you’ve done. He knows where’ve you been. But the offer remains: Come and see.

We do not change in order to be in relationship with Jesus, we enter into a relationship with Jesus and then we are changed.

Jesus knows who you are. He knows what you’ve done. He knows where’ve you been. And he loves you and the offer is for you: Come and see. Do not wait to get your life together, because there is no life away from Jesus. Life is found in the following. Transformation and real change only comes when we’re with Christ. Jesus comes to the messy and the broken and offers himself. Come and see. Spend time with me, and you’ll be changed.

One of these disciples of John, now disciple of Jesus, is Andrew, a fascinating character - in the gospels, Andrew is always bringing people to Jesus. And here he brings his brother Simon, telling him that they had found the Messiah. Verse 41:

English Standard Version Chapter 1

41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which 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 means Peter).

In the first century, your name was your identity. Your name summed you up. So what’s happening here with Peter is far more than Jesus giving him a nickname. Throughout the Scriptures, when God gives someone a new name, think Abram and Abraham, think Jacob and Israel, that person is a new person altogether. They are a new character in the story. And so Simon is given a new name, a new identity. He’s Peter now. He’s the rock.

But here’s what we can’t miss. Throughout the gospels, Peter is anything but “the rock.” He’s impulsive, volatile, and unreliable. One professor I had likened him to a dopey golden retriever: he means well, but he doesn’t really know what he’s doing. But Jesus invites even Peter to come and see, to come and spend time and follow and learn from Jesus. And Jesus’ renaming of Peter points to the change that will happen in time as Peter follows and learns.

We do not change in order to be in relationship with Jesus, we enter into a relationship with Jesus and then we are changed.

This is what it means to be a disciple, and this is also what it means to make disciples. We who have been invited extend the same offer that we’ve received: come and see. To meet this Jesus. To learn from him. And to be changed by him.

Pray with me.