Scripture Reading: John 1:29-42a
The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
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). He brought him to Jesus.
Come and See: Two Methods of Evangelism in John's Gospel
Pastor James Huenink
Keywords: evangelism methods, John the Baptist, Andrew evangelism, sharing faith, inviting to church, salvation by grace, Christian witness, gospel proclamation, Lamb of God, simple faith sharing
Opening Prayer
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Introduction: John Identifies Jesus
Today we get to hear a story about John identifying Jesus out in the midst of the crowds. He cries out, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."
Before we dive into what I really want to talk about today, you should note that this is the part where we get the Agnus Dei, which comes right after we do the Words of Institution: "O Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." What we're doing is reflecting on what John does—identifying Jesus out of the crowd and saying He takes away the sin of the world. The same thing we do when Holy Communion has been instituted. We say, "O Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."
Now that's not what I want to talk about today.
Two Evangelistic Moments
What I would like to talk about instead are the two times that Jesus is identified here as the Savior, and the people who come to see Jesus and get to know about Him. These are two evangelistic moments: one where John the Baptist speaks, and one where Andrew speaks to his brother, Simon Peter.
John the Baptist's Method: Theological Depth
The first one is pretty intense. John the Baptist—a great prophet, someone who is filled with the Holy Spirit and receives direct revelation from God—when he sees Jesus, he says:
"Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me.' I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel."
And later he says:
"I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God."
I want you to think about what it might be like to be the people who are there—maybe the disciples of John who have been listening to his teaching—and they go, "Huh, this guy Jesus seems important. But wow, John, you are impressive!"
This is a super theological way of telling the whole world about Jesus. Let's start with the first phrase: "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." John is talking about all sorts of Old Testament theology—Passover, sacrifices, sin, blood covenants. It's all packed in that little phrase. Pretty cool, right? He's burying a lot of theology in there.
Maybe he's also thinking about Isaac, Abraham's son, the great sacrifice up on the top of the mountain who was replaced by a lamb (well, a goat, but you know) replaced on the top of the mountain by the One who would come—Jesus, whom God provides as a sacrifice, and He is the one who takes away the sin of the world. Wow, what a lot of theology in just a few sentences!
But that's not it. Don't worry about this—John the Baptist also has direct revelation from God. So impressive, right? The Holy Spirit came to him and said, "The one that you see the Spirit descend on, that's the Savior." Oh, don't worry, he says God sent him to baptize so you all would know who this guy is.
Wow, that's a lot going on there. John is obviously a well-trained, well-understood guy. He knows what he's talking about. He spent four years at the seminary to make sure everybody out there knows exactly who Jesus is. Maybe he didn't go to seminary. Probably not. No, he got his seminary from the Holy Spirit, of course.
Pretty complicated and powerful message, right?
Andrew's Method: Simple Invitation
There's another moment, another evangelistic moment that almost gets lost in the story. It happens much later. It says:
"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.'"
Is that it? "We have found the Messiah"?
Where is the theology? Where is the depth? He doesn't apply the Old Testament or answer any questions. It's just, "We have found the Messiah," and then he brought him to Jesus. He just says, "We found the guy. Come on, check him out."
The Lesson for Us
I think the two methods of identifying Jesus, pointing Him out, and calling people to come to the Savior are instructive for us.
We Don't All Need to Be John the Baptist
I think a lot of people, when we think about telling others about Jesus, think we all need to be John the Baptist. We need to have a huge depth of understanding so that if they have any question—any question at all—we can be right on the spot to make sure they have it. In fact, maybe we even need to have direct revelation from the Holy Spirit to explain all the questions. And if we don't, that person is going to go to hell forever, and it will be because of you.
You should know that I'm joking, in case you're worried. That's not really how it's supposed to work.
John the Baptist has lots of training. John the Baptist knows what he's talking about. And most importantly, the Holy Spirit speaks to him directly because he is the last of the Old Testament prophets. We don't need to be like him.
Understanding Salvation Correctly
I think the fears that we have about talking to people about Jesus or inviting people to come and experience Him show some of our misunderstandings about salvation.
Bringing about faith is not about us. It's not about the technique that you use, your competence in arguing for the faith, or the complexity of your answers, or even about your knowledge. Faith doesn't come because you do a good job telling them about Jesus.
Faith comes by experiencing the Savior. Faith comes by hearing the Word, and the Holy Spirit does the work. It's not about you—not about how good you are or charismatic, or the complexity of your answers, or even if you know the answers at all. The Spirit works through the Word.
And then, if that person doesn't believe at that moment, that time, sometimes we assume that they will go to hell forever, and that too is taking on a burden that you don't need. Remember, God has written all the names in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world. All who are saved are predestined. It's not your job to put a new name in the Book of Life—just to tell others about Jesus. And that's what we do.
What Actually Works
But I think the best part about this is that it actually wasn't John's words that got people to follow Jesus. John had this long and fancy explanation, the Holy Spirit who identifies Him. And then what do they do? They go to Jesus and they say, "Rabbi, where are you staying?" And He says, "Come on, hang out with me."
And so even after all of John's words, after his revelation of the Spirit—"and I saw him, and we know what's going on, Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world"—the thing that actually works on them and gets them to follow Jesus is Jesus. They spend time with Him, experience who He is, understand His grace and His ministry, and that's what makes them the disciples.
And that's exactly the same thing that Andrew does. Andrew does a very simple thing. He is one of the ones who sees John give this whole sermon about who Jesus is. He goes and he stays with Jesus. And he doesn't have much training in understanding the gospel. He doesn't know a whole lot about what's going on. All he does—he finds his brother and he says, "We found the Messiah."
I wonder if Peter had questions that John didn't record, like "Who is he?" And Andrew goes, "Come on." And he goes, "What do you mean, the Messiah? What's he doing?" And Andrew just says, "Come on, let's see Jesus."
He did not have to go through fancy training. He did not knock on a door and talk to a stranger and say, "If you die tonight, where do you think you would go?" like that old evangelism method. He just said, "We found a Savior, Jesus Christ. Come and experience Him."
The Application: Come and See
And I think for most of us, this is really what works: We found Jesus the Savior. Come experience Him. Come see who He is. Come participate in what He has to provide.
Now, Jesus doesn't walk around like He did with the disciples. They don't get to go hang out at His house, spend the night there, and get to hear sermons from the Son of God Himself. But we do have a place where God comes to be among us, as He says, "Where two or three are gathered together, there am I among them."
It's here, of course, where we hear the Word of God read and proclaimed, where we sing the words in our hymns, where the message of salvation goes out to the world every single Sunday. This is the place where the Savior comes and people can hear, "Come and see."
Practical Evangelism
Which means there is a way that we can do this Andrew-style of evangelism. It is simply: Come and see. The Savior is here. Come and experience Him.
And we should do it with the idea that we're not trying to make people's lives better. This isn't a place where they can come and be relieved of their stress. It's not about feeling good. It's about coming and meeting Jesus, the Savior of the world, who died for them just as He died for you. It's a place where we can have them experience the Savior, and He does the work.
So bring your friends to church—people who don't have a place, who don't already go to church.
Now, some of you might say, "All of my friends are Christians." I bet they're not going to church, though, because there are lots and lots of people who call themselves Christians who haven't been to church in 20 years, who haven't heard about their Savior in 20 years, who haven't seen the inside of a building or heard a sermon preached in all of that time, and they need to experience Jesus too.
It's okay if they say no. Invite them again sometime. That's all right. We won't die if they say, "Sorry, can't make it." We just invite them to hear the same Word that we need to hear, to experience the same Savior that we need to experience, and receive the same grace that we do. God will handle the rest. That's His job.
Conclusion
We don't have to be like John, who was out in the wilderness, sent as a prophet, filled by the Holy Spirit, with complex, incredible theology. That's why God gives you a pastor to be able to help you out with those things.
We can be like Andrew. Very simple message: "We found the Messiah. Let's go see Him."
In Jesus' name. Amen.
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