John 1 43-51 (2)
St. Bartholomew
John 1:43-51
August 24, 2003
St. Bartholomew
The Church has set aside today to remember and celebrate the life and faith of St. Bartholomew. Who was St. Bartholomew? Bartholomew is one of the 12 apostles mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke . He is not mentioned by that name in John’s Gospel. John calls him Nathanael which seems to be a family name or father’s name. There is very little reliable information about Bartholomew/Nathanael. The historian Eusebius reports that Bartholomew preached in India and brought a Hebrew copy of Matthew’s Gospel along with him. Other traditions suggest that he also worked in Armenia. It is thought that he suffered martyrdom in Albanopolis, on the Caspian Sea, in a.d.68 at the hands of King Astyages, with death coming after being flayed alive and beheaded. St. Bartholomew has been remembered by the church on August 24 since the eighth century.
Context
Following the beautiful prologue to his Gospel (1:1–18), John describes the beginnings of Jesus’ public ministry and gathering of disciples. John the Baptist is confronted by priests and Levites from the temple in Jerusalem. They’ve been sent to inquire whether John claims to be the promised Messiah. Just as John insists that he is not the Messiah, Jesus appears. The very next day, Jesus comes to John the Baptist, who immediately confirms both Jesus’ identity and his mission. John says, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (1:29). Upon Jesus’ baptism, and the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus immediately turns to the task of making disciples. The first disciples are two former disciples of John the Baptist who leave him to follow Jesus. One of them is Andrew. He begins a pattern of going and telling others to come and see Jesus.
Introduction: The late president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, Dr. A. L. Barry, often encouraged its members to “Get the message straight, Missouri”; and then to “Get the message out, Missouri.” We might paraphrase it this way: “Go and tell everyone to come and see Jesus!” President Barry underlined two important points. The first was to get the message right. If we get the message wrong, we have nothing worth sharing. Second, we have two get the message out. If we keep the message to ourselves, we abandoned Jesus’ prime directive for each one of our lives. In the Great Commission Jesus clearly sends the children of God to point him out to others as the Lamb of God, the Messiah.
I. Others have gone and told us to come and see Jesus.
A. Others have gone and told us . . .
Each child of God was brought to the Lord Jesus Christ by someone else. For many lifelong Lutherans, this happened as parents, grandparents, sponsors, or someone else who cared, carried their dearly loved babies to be baptized. For others of us, it may have been a friend or a neighbor, a co-worker or relative, who took the time to speak to us about Jesus. The Holy Spirit empowered these people to bring us to Jesus, so that we could see the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! We can see how this works in the first chapter of John’s gospel. After Jesus Baptism where He is identified to the world as the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, Jesus begins calling His. Andrew and the unnamed disciple followed Jesus, directed by John the Baptist. After meeting Jesus the first thing Andrew did was to tell his brother, Simon Peter. Jesus called Philip directly. Then Philip told Nathanael. This is how God builds His kingdom on earth, one person at a time.
B. The message is received in different ways.
The message and invitation are received in different ways. Andrew and the unnamed disciple followed Jesus, to which Jesus asked them, ‘What do you want.” They responded by asking Jesus where He was staying. Jesus said, “Come and you will see”. When Andrew brought Simon to Jesus we are not told what His response was; but He came to Jesus and Jesus gave Him a new name, calling Him Peter. With Nathanael we have a different and interesting response to Philips invitation to see Jesus. Matter of fact, Nathanael didn’t respond well at all to Philip’s initial invitation. He said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” It was like he was making fun of Jesus and where He was from, much the way many people tell regional or ethnic jokes. When I lived at Houghton Lake, where there were a large number of Polish people, I heard a lot of Polish jokes. On vicarage, my chaplain, of Swedish/Norwegian descent, was always telling me “Sven and Ole” jokes. Maybe you have heard a few.
-Sven to Ole: "Ole, stand in front of da car and tell me if da turn signals are working." Ole to Sven: "Yes, No, Yes, No, Yes, No, Yes, No...."
-A non-churchgoer, Ole was finally prevailed upon by his friends and family to read the Bible. Asked sometime thereafter what he thought of the Scriptures, Ole scratched his head and muttered: "Vell, I don't know. Da Bible for sure says a lot about St. Paul, but it don't say nuttin' about Minneapolis!"
Whether it is Sven and Ole or Polish jokes, these jokes were basically put-downs, of people considered backward or inferior. Every region, you know, has its own ethnic jokes. To Nathanael, Jesus must have been Sven or Ole, the object of an ethnic joke. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” he asked, probably with a sneer or snicker on his face, and expected to hear, “Of course not!” Philip didn’t argue with him. He just said, “Come and see for yourself!”
And what Nathanael saw amazed him. Nathanael was amazed at Jesus’ omniscience, Jesus ability to know all things. They’d obviously never met before, but Jesus knew him—not just his name, but his personality and his faith. That was amazing. Only the Son of God, the Messiah, could be a man who knows everything. Nathanael would see more amazing things than that. Jesus pointed Nathanael ahead to the culmination of his ministry when Jesus would open Heaven. Nathanael too, would see the Son of Man appear in glory. Jesus’ glory would come after he was lifted up to die on the cross, not in defeat, but in victory. The cross is what Jesus was inviting Nathanael to see. This is what our parents or family or friends brought us to see. And we have seen it—the death of Jesus, which has saved us and which will raise us to meet our Lord someday in the skies.
II. We are empowered to go and tell others to come and see.
A. We are empowered to go and tell others. . .
This is the “mission statement” of the church. Jesus stated this clearly in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, “Go therefore and make disciples proclaiming the gospel to the whole of creation, that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in the name of Jesus. You are witnesses of these things. This is the “get the message out” admonition of Dr. Barry. This is the response to the Gospel expected from children of God, expected from us. When we understand our desperate need, our destitute sinful condition before God deserving nothing but His anger, as we come to understand more and more what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, who for our sakes, was declared to be the sinner in our place, and we in turn have been declared righteous and holy, we cannot help but go and tell about Jesus.
We, as the Children of God, are sometimes reluctant to be engaged in going and telling. Evangelism has always been a scary word. We’re modest when it comes to our willingness and effectiveness as witnesses to Jesus Christ—much more modest, it seems, than in other areas of our life! We’re afraid that people won’t listen to us. We’re afraid people will reject us. We’re afraid they might ask us questions we don’t feel qualified to answer. Illustration: Still, those who are parents understand perfectly the eagerness of Andrew, Philip, and Nathanael to tell others about Jesus. What’s the first thing that happens after the birth of a baby, aside from the mundane tasks of cleaning up the child? It’s to go and tell Grandma and Grandpa the good news . . . and then to go and tell the aunts and the uncles . . . and then the co-workers and the neighbors . . . and then anyone who’ll listen! The clerk at the convenience store, the mail carrier, the police officer on the corner—with great delight and many smiles we’ll tell them, “It’s a boy! It’s a girl!” After all, that’s how we celebrate new life!
We are encouraged to faithfulness in this mission as we sort out what we’re asked to do and what we’re not asked to do. We are not, for example, expected to bring people to faith. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. We are not asked to convince people to become Christians by theological arguments or persuasive presentations. It is not true that if we argue long enough or talk long enough we will convince people to believe. That is God’s job. We are asked to be faithful witnesses, to tell what God has done in us and for us. That is why God made us into people and not dumb animals, we have been given the gift of speech for a purpose, and that is to share what we’ve learned about Jesus. We’re not to worry about rejection. Jesus clearly said that we’re not the ones who’ll be rejected: “He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Lk 10:16).
B. . . . to come and see him.
We have a wonderful Lord to bring people to come and see: a Lord who is the Lamb of God, the Messiah of God. He takes away the sins of the world, and brings new life. Where do we bring people to come and see him today? -In his Word, as it is preached purely and taught faithfully. -In Holy Baptism, where he is present in water to bring new life. -In his Holy Supper, where he is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.
Conclusion: What fantastic news to go and tell the world! What a wonderful thing to ask people to come and see! Come and see Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away your sins and gives you new life in return.