Lost and Found

Introduction

We’re tempted to wonder just how significant our faithfulness is in a Kingdom so large and so eternal. It feels like we’re anonymous so that if we mail it in, if we don’t follow through, there’s really no harm, no foul. When I was a teenager, our pastor told us about a man named Edward Kimball, and he’s had a profound impact on my thinking ever since. Kimball was a dry goods salesman in the 1800’s in Boston who agreed to teach a Sunday school class of teenage boys. He took his responsibility to those boys seriously and got to know their interests and backgrounds. And, in that class was one young man who had been forced to go to church by his uncle as part of an agreement to provide him with a job and way to leave his terrible home life. Kimball quickly recognized that the young man was particularly hopeless and far from God, becoming burdened for him.

So, he decided that he was going to find the young man at the shoe shop and talk with him about salvation. Later, Kimball admitted that he almost lost his nerve at the door of the shop, not wanting to bother or embarrass the young man, but he went in anyway. He shared with the young man about Christ’s love and the gospel and called for him to commit his life to Jesus. And, to everyone’s surprise, the young man did. And, that young man’s name was Dwight L. Moody, founder of the Moody Bible Institute, Moody Church, and the most prominent American evangelist of the 19th century. It is estimated that in his life, D.L. Moody saw over one million people respond to the gospel, and it all began with an anonymous dry goods salesman teaching his youth Sunday school class with all his might. You see, God has a detailed plan. It’s a plan so detailed that He even knows the number of hairs on your head, and He doesn’t share all of the details with you. But, you’re a part. You’re in there. You’re teaching Kidspraise or youth dNow or a senior adult connection group, and it can feel so insignificant. We’re asking you to identify one person to reach this year with the gospel, and it can feel so insignificant. You’re only one person; they’re only one person. But, this is the Kingdom that we’re talking about, and what starts as a mustard seed blossoms into a tree that shelters all who land there. Will you give in to the temptation dismiss your role as insignificant, or will you be faithful?

God’s Word

Read

How Jesus is Changing the World (headline)

2000 years ago something happened 7000 miles from here that’s affecting the way we live today. Have you ever stopped to think about that? And, it’s exactly what Jesus said would happen. He described the Kingdom as beginning like a small bit of leaven that, over time, permeates the entire loaf, or as beginning as small as a mustard seed before blooming into a tree large enough to shelter every nation. That is, in Jerusalem 2000 years ago, a man would raise from the dead and his disciples would explain it to the world so that it would shake the foundations of society so profoundly it would be affecting us, in a country that didn’t even exist at a time, all these years later. And, since the oldest person in this room is likely in their 80’s, not a single one of us witnessed it first hand. The gospel came to us by way of Jesus’ disciples, making us Jesus’ disciples, that now we might go and make more disciples of Jesus. Let me simplify what I’m saying: Jesus’ plan was and is to transform the whole world into his Kingdom and his method to accomplish this plan is us. Pitiful as we are, we are the plan of Jesus to change the world, and that’s what I want us to see in this text: How Jesus is Changing the World (headline).

Jesus “sends” us.

Disciples Go

v. 43 “He found Phillip and said to him, “Follow me.” First, Jesus “sends” us . And, I look at this and think, wow Jesus, that’s it? I’m your plan. But, that’s what we’re seeing here. You’ll notice that there’s a lot of finding going on here. That’s a clue given to us by John as to what he’s trying to say. Jesus finds Phillip. Phillip finds Nathanael. Phillip tells Nathanael that he’s found the One they’ve been looking for. Look at how this sets up everything else that will happen in the NT. So, first of all, Jesus finds Phillip, and He calls for him to follow after him. And, the response that John records is interesting. It’s different than what we read in a couple of weeks ago, isn’t it? There Matthew describes them as accepting the call to follow Jesus by saying that they left their boats and their nets to follow Jesus. But, John doesn’t describe Phillip following Jesus as much as he describes his going to Nathanael. The way that John tells us that Phillip accepts the call to follow Jesus is by showing him going to Nathanael and recruiting him to follow also. This is how John understands belief to look. In 1:12 he says of Jesus, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God...” And, what he means by that is that all who believe in Jesus will be children of God like Jesus that they might bear witness of him. Being a child of God comes with the right, the authority, the position to bear witness about who Jesus really is. So, our “belief” will be marked by our “going” in his Name and in his authority to bring others to him. Following means going. For Phillip, going to Nathanael was part of following Jesus. If following Jesus requires you going to your friends, are you really following?

Disciples Multiply

v. 45 “Phillip found Nathanael” So, Jesus finds Phillip, and then Phillip immediately knows who his ‘one’ is, doesn’t he? In just three words, Phillip undoes the majority of the excuses that we have. “I don’t know enough.” “I haven’t been a Christian long enough.” “I’m not strong enough.” And, even though all of those exact thoughts can describe Phillip, it says, “Phillip found Nathanael.” Jesus called, and then Phillip multiplied. And, that’s the shape that the Christian life is to take. That’s the method by which Jesus is seeking to change the world — unstoppable movement of multiplying disciples that can’t help but bear witness about him. That’s why we’re focused on making disciples, not converts. Converts may acknowledge Jesus with their lips and want Jesus’ reward, but converts spring up quickly, and then wither and die. Disciples spread. Disciples “multiply” to the next generation. We’re not aiming at church attendance records. We’re aiming at generational transformation. We’re aimed at disciples bringing their children to faith and their grandchildren to faith. Disciples bringing their friends to faith and their community to faith. So, when you become a disciple maker, not a church attendance maker and not a baptism number counter, but a disciple maker, you are seeing the seedlings of family cycles and generational advancement. You are seeing the seedlings of kingdom transformation that begins with only one person. When you make a disciple who makes a disciple who makes a disciple, you’ve taken part in the Kingdom revolution that Jesus began to transform the world. Man, that’s what we’re talking about.

Disciples Seek

v. 45b “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote.” John’s already told us that Jesus found Phillip; so, it’s interesting that Phillip tells Nathanael that “we have found him.” When Jesus finds you, you find what you’ve been looking for. They were looking for the One Moses’ promised. They were looking for the fulfillment of the Prophets. They were looking for their freedom, for their hope, and for their Deliverer. And, even though they’d been looking for him, He found them. We’re hunting for hope. We’re all in this together trying to figure it out. The creation is groaning, and we’re part of that. We’re trying to figure out how we fit and why we matter. And so, we look everywhere we know to look. Addicts become addicts because they’re looking, and adulterers become adulterers because they’re looking, and the power hungry and materialistic and greedy, it’s all looking for freedom and hope and help. But, when Jesus finds you, you’ve found your answer. You’ve found what you’ve been longing for. And, look, look, look! Jesus found Nathanael through Phillip. That’s the point. He didn’t have the same experience Phillip had, but now He had the same hope that Phillip did. Jesus is “sending” you because He is “seeking” them. Who’s Jesus going to find through you? You don’t need the same story. You need the same hope!

Jesus “secures” us.

That’s the point. He didn’t have the same experience Phillip had, but now He had the same hope that Phillip did.

v. 46 “Phillip said to him, ‘Come and see’.” But, Jesus doesn’t just send us; Jesus “secures” us. Honestly, the conversation that Nathanael has with Phillip is a worst case scenario for most of us. If we’re going to share the gospel, honestly, we want the person to sit down, shut up, cry a little, then be saved. But, Nathanael has questions, and this is a code red situation for evangelism. This is mayday evangelism. When he asks, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”, he’s really saying, “I have serious doubts. Nobody thinks the Messiah is coming from Nazareth, and so, you better have some proof.” And, calling on his many HOURS of following Jesus, Phillip responds back with a powerful, theological treatise! Actually, he doesn’t flinch. He just says, “Come and see for yourself.” It’s the same invitation that Jesus had given to his first disciples in verse 39, and Phillip is echoing the invitation he’s responded to himself. Phillip understood that Jesus isn’t turned off to “questions”; He invites them. We don’t steamroll people to the gospel; we invite them. We invite their questions. We walk with them toward Jesus.

A Secure Gospel

Consider the assurance and security that you have to have that you have the truth when you can say, “Come and see.” But, we’ve short-circuited ‘come and see’ evangelism with our results-driven model. We’ve asked people to check their questions and intellect at the door and to respond to a feeling we can promise to them but that we can’t consistently reproduce. And, in the process, we’ve created a generation of insecure converts with very few secure, assured, fastened disciples. As we’ve tried to steamroll people to Jesus, we’ve inadvertently communicated that our gospel won’t hold up under scrutiny. And, that’s why impatient evangelism is the enemy of real disciple-making. We don’t have an “insecure” gospel. The Gospel invites your questions. It calls for investigation. So, as we seek to reach our ‘one.’ This isn’t a one shot, and we give up. Y’all, it took me three years of hearing the gospel taught before I surrendered. It’s not a three strikes and your out. This is you inviting them to ‘come and see.’ They may have some questions, and that’s okay. Invite them to come and see Jesus themselves as you investigate it together. Why has Jesus constrained sex to marriage? Why has Jesus defined gender and sexual ethics as He has? Why do we still observe God’s commandments regarding sex and sexual orientation but don’t still observe food laws or animal sacrifices? These are good questions that you should ask and they might ask that all can be answered in the gospel. None of these ruin or dismantle the gospel. Instead, they’re all satisfied there!

Come and See

If you have questions this morning, then Phillip’s invitation applies to you too. “Come and see.” Investigate the claims of Jesus for yourself. You don’t have to check your intellect at the door to follow Jesus and trust the Bible. In fact, the Bible offers you the opportunity to indulge your intellect as deeply as you’d like to go so that you might use your mind to worship God.

If you have questions this morning, then Phillip’s invitation applies to you too. “Come and see.” Investigate the claims of Jesus for yourself. You don’t have to check your intellect at the door to follow Jesus and trust the Bible. In fact, the Bible offers you the opportunity to indulge your intellect as deeply as you’d like to go so that you might use your mind to worship God.

Jesus “supplies” us.

v. 50 “You will see greater things than these.” And, the security that we have is that Jesus “supplies” us as He sends us. Now, remember that when Phillip told Nathanael to ‘come and see’ that he really didn’t know how everything was going to work out. He only knew that He’d found Jesus and that Jesus would take care of it. He knew the what but not the how. So, he’s got a lot on the line here as he brings Nathanael back to Jesus. And, without even being prompted, Jesus tells Nathanael exactly who he is and where he’s been eating his picnic. Jesus transforms a skeptic into a worshiper. Phillip was sent by Jesus’ authority, and Phillip was supplied by Jesus’ sovereignty. That’s how we can be certain that this mission that Christ has given us will not be futile. He’s sending us, and He’s supplying us. The success of the “mission” has already been “secured”. Not everybody you share with will be saved, but Jesus will accomplish his purpose in you through every, single one. He will be glorified in you through every one. He will shape your character and your faith through every one.

If He Sends, He Supplies

Jesus is asking Nathanael, and He’s asking us: “Do you believe?” That is, will you go as a child of God to bear witness about the Son of God? And, if you will, if you believe, if you will go, you will see God come to man and man get to God, not on a ladder, but on Jesus — on the sovereign, reigning, saving, delivering Son of Man. You will witness the Kingdom being built one living stone at a time. If you will go, you will see God supply again and again so that more skeptics are worshipers. Jesus will not “send” you where He will not “supply” you. And, it’s your degree of certainty in that statement will determine your degree of faithfulness in going where God is sending you.

The Lord Gives Abundantly

George Muller and his wife committed their lives to do whatever God had set before them. They became burdened over the orphaned children, and they began to take in every child that they could, knowing that they did not have the resources to provide for them. Over the course of his life, Muller never received any government funding and never solicited a single dollar from another person. And, by the time of his death, only by saying ‘yes’ to God day in and day out, Muller had provided a home for more than 10,000 orphans. He had established 117 schools where more than 120,000 young people received a Christian education. Often, he would have no idea how he would feed the children. And, he tells the story in his autobiography of one occasion in which he, in faith, sat down at the table with his wife and the children to ask the blessing, even though they had no food to eat. Upon saying amen, he heard a knock at the door, and when he answered it was a baker with enough bread for everyone to eat. As the baker was bringing in the bread, the milkman’s cart broke down outside his door, and he happily shared the milk with everyone. It wouldn’t have been more miraculous if had fallen from the sky. And so he wrote: “The Lord not only gives as much as is absolutely necessary for his work, but he gives abundantly.”

Do you believe that? Do you believe it without any doubt in the back of your mind? Do you believe it enough to ask the blessing on a meal you haven’t received yet? Do you believe it enough to go to the one that God is sending you? Do you believe it enough to say ‘yes’ to God this morning, even if you don’t see a way? If you will believe it, “You will see greater things than these.”

Questions

What’s the difference in multiplication and most modern outreach strategies? Where do we see multiplication as the method of Jesus to revolutionize the world?

Who did Jesus use to find you? How many different people through how many different generations did it take? Why are so many professing Christians unwilling to multiply? What is our responsibility to the next generation?

What is Jesus’ plan to reach your kids, family, and friends? What’s your responsibility? What’s one step that you can take this week to live up to your responsibility?

Why are we so worried about people asking us questions as we share the gospel? What questions scare us the most? What would it look like to invite them to ‘come and see?’

How does being secure in the gospel change our evangelism? How does results-driven evangelism short-circuit ‘come and see’ evangelism? How long does it typically take for someone to surrender their life to Jesus?

Can you describe what it was like when you were investigating the claims of Jesus? Are you investigating now?

How does our thinking change when we realize that Jesus has already ensured that the mission will be successful? Does that mean that every person that you share with will be saved? What does it mean, and how does that help?

Do you have any stories of God sending you and then supplying you? How does your confidence in that reality change affect your willingness to witness? How do you increase your confidence in God’s supply?