January 21, 2007
Everyday Disciples_The
Gospel of John Encouragement Session
Spending
Time with Jesus
John 1:35-41
Introduction: Preparing for Evangelism
The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he
looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, "Behold, the Lamb of
God!" The two disciples heard him
say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus
turned and saw them following and said to them, "What are you
seeking?" And they said to him, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher),
"where are you staying?" He
said to them, "Come and you will see." So they came and saw where he
was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth
hour. One of the two who heard John
speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said
to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which means Christ).[1]
I want
you to get the gist of what happened with Andrew in our text:
I want to suggest to you this evening that this
cycle is crucial to evangelism. As we
spend time with those who point us to Jesus, and as we spend time with Jesus
Himself, we become and remain disciples who are able to make disciples for
Jesus. I want to spend the next few
moments thinking about these things with you.
Disciples Make Disciples
First, it
takes disciples to make disciples.
Andrew was first a disciple of John—he followed John around and listened
to John's teaching, which was from God.
Ultimately, John, because of what he had learned about Jesus through
direct revelation from God, pointed Andrew to Jesus. Andrew, after having spent time with Jesus,
made a disciple of his brother, Simon Peter.
Disciples make disciples.
Before
Jesus ascended to the Father, He told His disciples—Andrew is included in this
group, by the way—to "Go therefore 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" (Matthew 28:19-20a, ESV). Disciples make disciples.
Another
thing we see in this text is that the good news travels best across bridges of
authentic relationships. Andrew first seeks
out Simon, his brother and business associate, a person with whom he already has
a relationship. Philip, later in the
chapter, seeks out Nathanael, who is apparently someone he already knew. There is something else that likely bonded
all of these men together, i.e., they were all looking for the Messiah; they
were all seekers. They all had a mind
prepared for the message. The good news
travel best across bridges of authentic relationships.
In this venture of
disciple-making, it is imperative that we are first disciples, and just not
nominally speaking. It is important that
people know that we've spent time with Jesus.
There was a day when a man could set up a tent, preach the good news and
convert people in droves. Set up a tent
today and very few will even come, let alone be converted. Today, you must earn a hearing, which means
that people must see in your life that you've been with Jesus.
What does
a person look like after he's spent time with Jesus? It's more than just being a good, moral
person. Morality is involved, but
Christians aren't the only moral people in the world. It's included, but it's so much more than
that. Perhaps Paul's description is
best—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness
and self-control. Jesus exemplified
these qualities for us, and as His disciples we must learn from Him and imitate
Him, or as John would later write in first epistle, "By this we may be
sure that we are in him: whoever says he
abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked" (1 John
2:5b-6). When people see that we've been with Jesus, thus seeing what Jesus does
to a person, they will want to know more about Him. It's then that we can point them in the right
direction.
Disciples
make disciples. This is our challenge,
though. We must be, and continue to be His
disciples. We must continue to cultivate
and grow in our life of discipleship, which leads us to the next two thoughts
for this evening: Spending time with
those who point us to Jesus and spending time with Jesus.
Spending Time with Those Who Point Us to Jesus
We all
began our life of discipleship because we spent time with others who were
already disciples of Jesus—parents, Bible class teachers, a preacher, a
co-worker, a friend, a brother or sister, etc.
We spent time with them and they pointed us to Jesus. They encouraged us, like John did Andrew, to
"Behold, the Lamb of God."
They helped us to become disciples.
Now,
after we have become disciples, our challenge is to continue to behold the Lamb
of God. There are plenty of people in
this world who are trying to encourage us to behold everything else in this
world—money, possessions, pleasures and other things. So what we need are those people who will
encourage us to behold Jesus—turn our eyes upon Jesus. In fact, that's why Jesus built a church—a
fellowship of people who would perform this service for one another. So we need to continue to spend time with
people who beg us to "Behold, the Lamb of God."
How do we
do this? Let me give two
suggestions. First, don't forsake the
assembly. The assembly is a crucial
part of our discipleship. It's a place
wherein we are edified and encouraged to continue to be a disciple of Jesus,
and to grow in our discipleship. I need
you to be here to do that for me, and you need to be here so that I can do that
for you.
Second,
seek out and create other opportunities to spend time with other disciples for
the purpose of encouraging one another to behold Jesus. You're around those other people who want to
you behold those other things nearly everyday, but many of us are only around
other disciples a few times a week.
Think about the possible results!
Let me also say that there doesn't have to be an official church
program—whatever that is—for this to happen.
The problem with such programs is two-fold: (1) When the program ends, so does the
function it was to perform; and (2) These things miss the whole point of being
the church. It's too institutional of an
approach. Read the latter part of Acts
2. Those disciples didn't get together,
share meals together and learn together because there was an official church
program. There were no such
programs. They didn't know what a
"church program" was, and I'm not totally sure they had the
understanding that they were the church.
They just knew that they were disciples of Jesus, and they wanted to be
together.
How do we
do this? It's simple. Just invite some disciples over to discuss
the passage of Scripture for the week.
Say to them, "Hey, do want to come over on Friday evening at 7 p.m.
to discuss the text for this week. Oh,
and we'll have some pie, too." It
might be that you need to spend time with the other disciples who live in your
home—your spouse, or your children, if they are disciples. (Family devotionals are an important way to
point our children to Jesus. One thing
we do nearly everyday is to sit at the table for dinner, but before we eat, or
after Abby has already taken her first bite, we sing and pray. Our song right now—I think a good song for a
little on who wants to be a big little girl or boy—is, "He's Still Workin'
on Me.")
It's
important that we spend time with other disciples who will point us to Jesus.
Spending Time with Jesus
Logically, if we're
spending time with people who are pointing us to Jesus, we will then spend time
with Jesus. Logically, if we're
disciples of Jesus, then we should be continual students of His. Here are a few suggestions to help you to
spend time with Jesus:
·
Don't forsake the assembly. This is a time, especially on Sundays, to
commune with Jesus and worship Him as a part of the church He built. We do things in worship to Him, especially on
Sundays, which we don't do at other times.
So it's essential that we don't miss these opportunities.
·
Make it a daily thing.
Assemblies aren't the only time we can spend time with Jesus. We can sit at His feet daily with His word,
sing praises to Him, and talk with Him.
Let me give you three suggestions to make this time profitable for you:
o
Get
alone with Him. "Steal
away" is how they said it in the old spiritual. Find a room in your house where you can shut
the door or ride the four-wheeler up on the hill—get alone with Him.
o
Get in the book. This is where we listen to His teaching, and
as disciples, there's nothing that can fill of the role of Scripture in
learning to be like Him.
o
Talk to Him. This is about prayer and praise. Praise can, and should, be a part of our
prayers, but it can also be done apart from prayer. Tell Him, "You are my strength when I am
weak, You are the treasure that I seek, You are my all in all. Seeking you as a precious jewel, Lord, to
give up I'd be a fool, You are my all in all.
Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is Your name.
Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is Your name."
It's important, if you're going to be a disciple of Jesus,
to spend time with Him.
Conclusion:
Preparing Our Lives for Leading People to Jesus
We are preparing our lives so that we can tell
our friends, our parents, our siblings, our neighbors, our co-workers, "We
have beheld the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! We have found the Messiah, who will throw off
the oppression of sin and death! Will
you come and see?"