Brought to Jesus - John 1.42

 

"Brought to Jesus" John 1.42

 One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas” (which is translated, A Stone).

Introduction

     During the Christmas season we remember the way God came into the world. The Son of God was born of the Virgin Mary. During the Epiphany season we remember the way Jesus was revealed and made manifest to be the Son of God to the world. Since we are all by nature sinners, we do not seek God. Instead God seeks us. God said through the prophet Isaiah, "I was found by those who did not seek Me" (65.1). Throughout the Bible we see this again and again. When Adam and Eve first sinned, they hid from God, but He found them and brought them back. God found Abraham when, as the Bible says, he was "a wandering Aramean" (Deuteronomy 26.5). One by one, every believer was found by God and brought to God. All the apostles were found by Jesus and He drew them to Himself (John 12.32). That is how we become Christians, we are brought to Christ. As we shall see that is both a great comfort to us, and it is the key to living the Christian life and bringing others to Christ. 

Jesus Is the Messiah

     After Jesus was baptized, God revealed to the world that He was His own Son. Immediately people were being drawn to Him. In our Gospel lesson today from John chapter one we see how the first disciples were brought to Jesus. Our featured disciple this morning is Andrew, he is one that we don't hear much about in the New Testament. But what he did is something we should all remember: He brought his brother Peter to Jesus. 

     Andrew was blessed to be brought to John the Baptist. He heard John proclaim that Jesus was the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Why did John call Jesus a "lamb." That's not a mighty animal at all. Are there any football teams called "The Lambs"? If there was, people would laugh at a name like that. But John knew what he was talking about. Jesus was "The Lamb of God" because Jesus was the lamb of sacrifice for all of us sinners. God, who knows all things, knew that the only salvation from the horrible problem of sin was love, sacrificial love. Sin is full of anger, hate, and violence. On Judgement Day God will deal with sin in that way. Romans 1.18 tells us that God's wrath is "revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness." But to deliver us from that wrath, God first came to the horrible problem of sin in love, through Christ, the Messiah, His Annointed One. 

     Last Sunday I mentioned the four ways we know Jesus is the Messiah. The first is through the prophecies of the Old Testament. All of them tell us that the Messiah will take away sin and bring righteousness, not by more rules, but by grace, by forgiveness. This forgiveness will be earned by His suffering and dying. The second is through Jesus' teaching. The Gospels give us a one sentence summary of His teaching: Jesus preached, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand" (Matthew 3.2; Mark 1.15). The third way is through His miracles which were all given to save lives from the effects of sin. The fourth way is through His resurrection from the dead. In His resurrection Jesus proved that sin, death, and the devil were defeated. 

Three Wrong Ways

     This so important for us to know and believe. But we don't know it and believe by nature. Our nature is the opposite. Let's think about the three ways that human beings deal with sin. 

     The first and most ancient and common way is to Compensate. All other religions are based on the idea that we can oversome sin by trying to be good. The answer to sin is rules. Pray, give offerings, and force yourself to be a better person. Paul lived this way for many years as a Pharisee. But he finally had to admit that he was still a "wretched man" (Romans 7.24). No amount of good works can compensate for or removed the guilt of sin. That is just being honest. 

     The second way is to Compare. "Well, I'll admit I'm a sinner, but there are a lot of people worse than me." This person thinks that because others sin worse, God will somehow overlook their sins. But if God overlooks sin, He becomes a sinner Himself for He has commanded in James 2.10 "Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it." Pointing to the sins of others is just a deflection. You can't just break a window a little. If you break it, you break the whole thing. 

     The third way is becoming very popular. Some people think they can overcome the problem of sin by saying there is no such thing as sin. Driven by their worship of science and denying any place for God, the spiritual world, and the soul, they say all things are determined by our molecules. ALL THINGS. NO OTHER ASPECT OF LIFE. Since it's all just biochemistry, no one is guilty of anything because we are either born that way or conditioned to be that way. This is the moral insanity that fuels all mass murderers. The Bible is clear about this: "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no god'" (Psalm 14.1).

Saved

     Joel Chandler Harris was from Georgia. In the 1800s he went around and talked to former slaves to hear their stories. He put them together in a book titled "Uncle Remus Stories." If you want some good hearty laughs, please read this book. One story is about Brer Fox who was frustrated that Brer Rabbit kept tricking him. So he made a doll out of tar and set it up by the road. Brer Rabbit comes along and greets the Tar-Baby. When the Tar-Baby doesn't respond, he gets angry and starts punching and kicking it. Sure enough he gets completeley stuck to it. I'm not going to give away the end of the story, but I'll stop here to show how sin is like that Tar-Baby. We can't fight it ourselves. The more we do, the more we get stuck to it. We have to be pulled from it. We have to be cleansed of it. 

     I would like you to think about how you have been pulled and saved from the tar-pit of sin. Paul said, "By grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2.8). I was saved by my parents who brought me to Christ in baptism, prayers, Bible stories, and the catechism. Even after that God brought other people in my life who pulled me back from sin and temptation. If someone asks me how I became and Christian, I have to honestly say that God called me to faith by the Gospel that was given to me by many different people. My becoming a Christian was not my natural choice. It was God's choice as Jesus said, "You did not choose Me. I chose you" (John 15.16). Every day I thank God that, like Peter, I was brought to Jesus. 

For What?

     It doesn't end there. I said earlier that being brought to Jesus is a great comfort (it doesn't depend on us), and it is the key to living the Christian life and bringing others to Jesus. When you realize that you are a poor miserable sinner and cannot escape from sin, but that God rescued you from it anyway - what a great joy that is. Now, doing what God wants us to do is not a burden or chore. It's a blessing. I don't keep the commandments because I'm trying to save myself. I'm doing them because I'm already saved. I'm doing them out of thanksgiving to God. 

     I mentioned that Andrew is not the most well-known disciple. There's very little we know about him. But this little thing that he did is mentioned here in the Gospel for a good reason. God is telling us that everything we do as a Christian saved from the guilt of sin is important to Him. Let me emphasize that: EVERY LITTLE THING. 

     This is one of my favorite examples of that. One day an unhappy man was walking along a railroad track in India. As he walked he saw a cigarette butt that had some writing on it. Being bored as well as sad, he picked it up and unrolled it. Apparently someone had taken a Christian tract and used it for a rolling paper to make a cigarette. It was mostly burned up, but the few words that were left were these: "Whoever calls upon the Lord will be saved" from Romans 10.13. Well, this sounded okay to him. Maybe he should look into it. When he got to the next village, he began asking people about these words. Someone told him it was from the Bible and that he should go talk to the pastor in that village. He did, and when he heard the full Gospel, he believed and he was brought to Christ. This is also a good example of a small act of Christian love that brought someone to Christ. It might have seemed like a waste. Someone gave some money to a Christian tract society. They printed the tract and sent it to India. Someone brought in the train and hopefully read it. But someone else didn't care about it turned it into a cigarette. But God wasn't done with the small act of Christian love. The sad man picked up the butt and was brought to Christ. 

Conclusion

     Everything we do by faith in God has that same potential. Your coming to worship this morning makes a difference. People notice. When someone speak evil of you and love them anyway, people notice. When you do wrong and apologize instead blaming and playing the victim, people notice. When you live as a person who has been brought to Christ, that brings other people to Christ as well. God bless you this week as you remember this little passage about Andrew: "And he brought Him to Jesus." May it be a comfort that you were brought to Jesus, and may that comfort bring others to Jesus. Amen.