Second Sunday after Epiphany ~ January 20, 2008

Dear brothers and sister in Christ. Epiphany is a time to remember that Jesus Christ has been revealed to the world as was promised in the Old Testament. It is a time to recall that we have heard the testimony of Jesus and have come to know Him as our Lord and Savior because of the witness born about Him. God’s Word is a light in our lives revealing the true light of Christ to the whole world. Epiphany is a time of reflecting on Jesus Christ being revealed to the world.

First and foremost we believe that Jesus came for you and me. Jesus, the light of the world has transformed our lives. We have seen the sin in our own lives and know from God’s Word that we are all born into sin. Sin has cause a separation of us from God. And there is nothing humanly possible that we can do to overcome our sin. But God has revealed to us that He has overcome sin through Jesus. Our Savior has come into the world and God’s plan of salvation has been revealed in Jesus Christ. That has changed our lives as we have heard through God’s Word.

Baptism is highlighted in the Epiphany season not only because we see Jesus’ ministry begin at His baptism but also we see in baptism God being revealed to us in Christ. In baptism Christ’s saving work comes to us as a means of grace. The water and the Word are used by the Spirit to being forgiveness, life and salvation to each and every one of us. The light of Christ has come into our darkness and revealed God’s mercy to us.

But in the revealing of Christ to us we are called to continue revealing Christ’s light to the world. Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew that we are to be lights on a hill and not be hidden so that the glory of God can be revealed. Epiphany is about missions – revealing Christ to the world. A couple of Sundays ago we had the privilege of hearing from Pastor Joel Scheiwe a missionary to China. It was great to hear how the Gospel is being proclaimed all the way around the globe. But don’t think missions are only something that happens in foreign lands! Mission work needs to happen in our own back yard. We are all missionaries carrying the light of Christ into our neighborhoods.

But too often we think of missions as a specialized work only to be done by professionals. Or at the very least done only by those gifted in evangelism. We think that we have to be well trained, well educated, well prepared and often we put off sharing our faith because we feel that we are not ready. We believe that to share about Jesus we have to be experts. But what if we have that wrong? What if doing mission work, being evangelists is really simple?

In our text today from the Gospel of John we see the simplicity of sharing Christ. First in our text we see John the Baptist who, after baptizing Jesus, is now proclaiming to all that Jesus is the Lamb of God, the one promised by God the Father, the Messiah. John’s disciples now see who John has preparing them for and two of them decide to check-out Jesus and followed Him. After spending some time with Jesus, Andrew, one of the two, goes and gets his brother – Simon Peter. The final statement of the text today is “He brought him to Jesus.”

Notice how simple that is. Andrew didn’t run off to the Synagogue to ask the Rabbi for a class in evangelism. He didn’t run off to the hills to pray and make sure that hew was perfectly ready. He didn’t enroll in the Jerusalem school of missionaries. He simply brought his brother to Jesus. It was that simple and yet profound. Simon Peter we know becomes, as well as his brother Andrew, one of the twelve disciples and one of Jesus “inner circle”. And all of this because Andrew did the simplest of tasks – he brought his brother to Jesus. Now I don’t know what was exchanged in the conversation between Andrew and Simon Peter, but I bet it wasn’t anything eloquent or a fully formed and reasoned statement. I bet it was something like this, “Hey Simon, you know John who I have been hanging out with? Well he told me about this amazing man and I got to meet him today. Maybe he is the Messiah the rabbi tells us about in the readings of the Torah. Why don’t you come with me to meet him?”

And that is where we can be with our lives – bringing people to Jesus. Today I would like for us to think about one person we know who needs to hear about Jesus. It might be a co-worker, a friend, a neighbor, maybe even a family member. But you know that they don’t have a relationship with Jesus Christ, or may have fallen away from the church. They need to hear about Jesus.

Once you have this person in mind you will need a way to remind yourself often about this person (in church we made a stick person out of a pipe cleaner). And then I want you to do three things as we are reminded about this person. First, pray for this person. Include them in our daily prayers, have a special prayer for them and pray that the opportunity would come for this person to hear about Jesus and the salvation He was won for the whole world.

Second, become aware of opportunities for you to share your personal faith story with this person. If you already have a relationship with this person find ways to talk about what Jesus means to you. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy but just share with them why Jesus is important in your life.

And third, bring this person to Mount Olive which is basically bringing them to hear Jesus. Just like Andrew we need to bring people to Jesus and that can happen as you bring them to church. Maybe you can bring them to a worship service or maybe to a church event. But just bring them to church to meet other fellow Christians and to give them the opportunity to hear more about Jesus Christ. Bring them to Jesus. It really is that simple!

Pray, share and invite – that is your task for the coming year with the person you have identified who needs Jesus. Bring them to Jesus. Amen.

€Who do you know who needs to hear about Jesus?