Before we hear God's word this morning, let's take a moment to bow our hearts before Him in prayer. Our Lord and our God, we come before you to give you thanks for the privilege of gathering together. We thank you again for this day, the Lord's day, a day of rest, a day of worship, a day of fellowship with your people. We thank you for your word. We thank you that you bring it to us. We thank you for every jot and tidal of it. We thank you for this great body of people. Lord, we thank you for the relationships that you have fostered over the course of many years, for the new relationships that are coming to being even now. We thank you for those who have seen this church through many, many years and joy and sorrows. We thank you for those who are newer here. We thank you for those who have walked the course of the Christian life for 20, 50, 60, 70 years. We thank you for those who are newer to the faith and where Jesus is fresh to them. We thank you that you call people of every tongue and tribe and nation to yourself. We thank you that you called us as individuals to you as well. God, there are many people who we know of over the course of the last week and over the course of the last few months, even who are suffering. There are people here who have suffered great loss or people here who are just lonely. They don't have someone to talk to. They're struggling. There are people who are not here this morning that usually are, but are home because of illness. We remember people like Sue Sites, who's herniated disc, has been giving her such trouble and Jim, who is suffering with Alzheimer's. We remember Bill Coenka. We thank you so much that he is doing well, that he's out of the hospital. We remember those who are just undergoing chronic things, such as Trisha Gautier. We pray for her, Lord, just be merciful to her and bring her contentment and joy and rest in you and what you have done for her in the gospel. We remember those, our brethren, who have been affected by the earthquake in Chile. Lord, what a catastrophic event we're seeing these things in Haiti and Chile and other parts of the world. We pray for the church down there that it would love people in both word and indeed. We thank you that you have spared so many lands from tsunamis as well. God, you call us to pray for those who are in authority over us. We do pray for them. We pray for our presidents, our governor, those who represent us in the state legislature and in the House of Representatives and US Senate. We pray for our local leaders. We know that the heart of the king is in your hand and you channel it like a stream of water in whichever direction you desire. We pray that the hearts of our leaders might do things that accord to your will. We pray that you would make us a congregation that submits to them as well. Lord, finally, we pray for the reading and the preaching of your word. That's what we are here for. We need it. It is a lamp into our feet and a light into our path. You say, even in your word, that man shall not live by bread alone but on every word that proceeds from your mouth. We need your word for our souls like we need food for our bodies. So, impress it upon us and do this for Jesus' sake. Amen. I want to invite you to turn with me in your Bibles if you will to John chapter 1 and verse 35. I believe it's page 886 in your Bible, John chapter 1 verse 35. And as you know, we've been going through the gospel of John as of late. We've started a new series of sermons through John's gospel. And what I am praying for you and for me as we explore this gospel together is that we would see Jesus in a new and in a fresh way. I think that after we have been in the Christian faith and in the church for quite a while, one of the things that can creep up upon us is this sense in which we take for granted the gospel. We tend to take it for granted. Our senses become dull to Jesus and who he is and what he's done for us. So, I'm praying that he would revive our joy in him and that we would see him as beautiful and as glorious as he really is. So, with that in mind, let's take a moment now to read the passage from John chapter 1 beginning in verse 35. 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? And 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, Jesus looked at him and said, so are you Simon, the son of John? You shall be called Sephas which means Peter. The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, follow me. Now, Philip was from Bessedia, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathaniel said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, come and see. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said to him, behold an Israelite indeed and whom there is no deceit. Nathaniel said to him, how do you know me? Jesus answered him, before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathaniel answered him, rabbi, you are the son of God, you are the king of Israel. Jesus answered him because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these and he said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man. Amen, this is God's Word to us this morning. When someone or something entices you, you tell people about it, don't you? You tell people about others who are attractive to you, who entice you, someone with whom you have had a meaningful experience. And you do it and you don't feel coerced to do it, you just do it naturally. That's just part of our human experience to glorify the things that are glorious to us, just what we do. And I think it's vital for us to understand that, for those of us who are here at First Presbyterian Church, glorifying what is glorious to us. And what I mean by that is by putting on display in Word and indeed the beauty of Christ and His gospel to those within and outside of the church. Putting on display the beauty of Christ and His gospel to those within and outside of the church. That's glorifying what is glorious to us. That's fundamental to everything that we do and that we are about at this church. That God wants us to be about at this church. The fact that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sins of the world has to be more important than how respected we feel. The fact that Jesus is the one who has come and He has took on flesh and He dwells among us has to be more important than this building, than these four walls. The fact that Jesus is the glory of the Father full of grace and truth has to become more important to us than whatever else is important to us. Because unless Jesus and the good news that He has come to save sinners is blazing at the center of our personal lives and at the life of this church, we will become hard and cold. And our light will dim. John, the gospel writer here, has already reminded us that Jesus is the light and life and He has given us grace upon grace. He just pours it out. It just keeps coming and coming and coming. We just get grace upon grace. And if that is true, then we as individuals and we as the church have a brand new identity. Does that make sense? Our identity is all wrapped up and who Jesus is and what He has accomplished for us in the gospel. That's who we are. That defines us. And when that becomes more and more real to us on a personal level, He becomes bright and beautiful to us and our life and what we say and what we do begins to reflect that, begins to mirror who Jesus really is. And I think that's what John the Baptist is all about here in this passage. John the Baptist, he sees the glory of Jesus, there's a glory of Jesus' flavor and everything that we taste coming from John. And it's Jesus in his glory, which are the objects upon which his identity is built, to who he is, to who he sees himself. And so what he does is he tells other people to turn their attention to Jesus too. Jesus defines him and he is light and life and grace and the giver of life. And if that's the case for John and Jesus says he's come for the world, it just behooves him to point other people to Jesus. Because Jesus is the one where we're going to be fulfilled and satisfied, John is gripped by the glory and grace of Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And he's not simply pointing to Jesus as a number, one of a number of different ways to have a satisfying happy life. He's pointing to Jesus as the one who is the way, the truth and the life. You see that? He's not a Lamb of God, he is the Lamb of God who's come to take away the sin of the world. And so that reality pushes John out of himself and it pushes him to tell other people about Jesus, to point others to Jesus. So here's the point that I want you to see, for us to see and that's important for us as a congregation to grasp. Jesus centered, gospel-focused, spirit-filled churches and individuals are about beholding the beauty of Christ and pointing others to Him. Does that make sense? Let me just say that again. Jesus centered, gospel-focused, spirit-filled people are about seeing Jesus and His beauty and His glory. And about pointing other people who have yet to see that to Him, that's what we're to be about as a church. John here is showing us what gospel witness looks like. If Jesus is the focal point of our lives, he's the only hope for anybody in life and in death. And because that's the case, we want to hold Him, we want to know Him, we want to enjoy Him and follow Him and learn from Him and be satisfied with Him and we desire the same for other people. That's what this church is about. That's what the great commission is about. It's what He's called us to be. So there's a witness-bearing pattern that we see here, a witness-bearing pattern. John the Baptist, he has kind of an unpolished blunt style. He just sees Jesus and says, look at Him, behold Him. That's what He says to these two guys who are with Him and He has this knowledge of Jesus and so He calls His two students who are with Him to just cast their gaze upon Jesus. Look at Him. This is the guy who I've been telling you about. This is what my whole ministry is about. And now He's here. He's in the flesh. He's before your eyes. Cherish this person. Pay attention to Him. And so what happens is these two guys, Andrew and it seems John the Apostle, John the one who's writing this gospel, they start walking behind Jesus. They start literally following Him. And they're trying to discover something about Jesus. They don't know that much about Him. They're just trying to discover Him. And so Jesus invites them to come on in and see more. Share a meal with them. Come into the house to get to know Him face to face personally. Like it's a relationship with an actual person. That's what He's doing here. He's inviting them to come in and spend time with Him. And something about that time together and about John the Baptist ministry and the time that Andrew and John seem to have with Jesus entices John to go out and tell his brother Peter about Jesus. To say, come and see, come look at this guy. And so Peter Andrew brings his brother Peter and his friend Philip to see Jesus. And Philip latches on to who Jesus is all about. And so he goes out and he invites his friend Nathaniel, who's quite skeptical I might add about Jesus. Can anything good come from Nazareth? That's like saying, you know, the Messiah is going to come from Wiggins, Mississippi. And that's what he's thinking here. You know, can anything good come from Nazareth? He's skeptical, but he still goes to see Jesus and he's invited by his friend Philip. And so that's what we see here. That's what gospel witness is like. It's like a big snowball. It rolls down the hill and snow picks up new snow and it keeps rolling and picks up new or the new snow picks up new or snow. People bring people to Jesus. We bring people to Jesus. Jesus speaks to them. They embrace Christ. And they go out to those who are their friends, their family, their neighbors, people in their sphere of influence. And they tell people about Jesus too. Now, I want to put you at ease about that. When you start talking about witnessing and evangelism and things like that, people get the HEBGVs. They just do. I mean, I get the HEBGVs. When you start talking about witnessing, you think that sounds like a really, really good idea for someone else to do. That'd be great. I think we should be witnessing churches. And I hope that person down there is really excited about that. That's how we tend to view it. You know, that's how Rebecca and I felt about this whole moving into the house thing. We'd like to just wave our magic wand and have everything go into its place. We'd like to wave a magic wand and have lost people come to Christ, but that's not the way that it works. That's not the pattern. The pattern is that in our spheres of influence that we point people to Jesus. But I want to suggest to you that it's not as intimidating as it actually needs to be. We're very intimidated by it. I have all the excuses that you have. The fact that, you know, it seems awkward and a real kind of relationship killer and we worry about what to say and we come up with all the excuses in the book. I have the same ones you have. Believe me, going to seminary did not cure that problem in my life, but it isn't as intimidating as it needs to be because I want you to think about it. Where is Jesus going to be most clearly presented all the time at the church? If God saves people, and he saves them not just as individuals into himself, but he saves them into his people, where do those people gather? They gather here at the church. Is the word preached Sunday after Sunday? The sacraments presented which point to Jesus in the gospel. Where do we hear God's word prayed and sung? Where do we celebrate him together at the church? See, much of what our evangelism and witness to Jesus is is saying, come here. Come here amongst us. This is where you're going to see Jesus lived out in people's lives. This is where you're going to hear Jesus presented from the pulpit Sunday after Sunday and all the various other ministries of the church. This is where it's going to happen. Just inviting those who we have relationship with here to confront Jesus is where they'll see him as he is. They'll see him and the beauty that he's all about. So what that entails is us first of all having meaningful relationships with people who don't know the Lord, actually knowing and developing a real friendship, a relationship with those who don't know the Lord. And second of all, inviting them here. Just inviting them here. That doesn't take away our call to bring the gospel inward and indeed to individuals, but certainly nothing less than bringing them here to the church. It's not as intimidating as it sounds. And I would suggest to you that as Jesus becomes increasingly enticing to you, as he becomes the apple of your eye and the source of your self definition, you will be more and more willingly compelled to invite people here so that they will be confronted with Jesus and his people. You want to glorify him to others because he is most glorious to you. I think that John wants us to see that here. I think that's what God is calling first Presbyterian church to be. It is to be a church that's calling people to behold the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sins of the world. Who has come to you personally. Listen, he's come to you personally to remove that ginormous mountain of sin that existed between you and God that you can never overcome on your own merits. He's come to wash that away to move it as far as the east is from the west and remember it no more and reconcile you to God and forgive you and clothe you in his righteousness and make you his child and give you all the benefits of that. That's how glorious and how beautiful it is and it came at the expense of his own life. And as we see that, as that becomes real to us, we tell other people about it. We tell other people about him. That's a calling that we have, but it's a privilege that we have as well. Do you see it as a privilege? John's laid out for us what bearing witness to Jesus is to look like in our lives and in the church. But I think that should be understood under the umbrella of what God is trying to show us about the grace of God, how grace works in a person's life. See, you got to understand how grace works in your own life and in the lives of other people, how God does that in order to be compelled out of yourself and towards other people. I was reading a book this week by Skip Ryan. He's the chancellor of a redeemer seminary in Dallas, Texas. He used to be a pastor of a sister congregation of ours there. And he really helped me to see how grace is unfolding in the lives of these people who are coming to see Jesus here. And I think it would be really helpful for us to explore this together. And one of the things that he talks about is that grace works in stages. In other words, there's a process going on here with these people who are coming to see Jesus. They didn't go from dead in their trespasses and sins to a state of vast spiritual maturity at the snap of finger. There's a process here. So you'll notice that when two of John the Baptist disciples begin to follow Jesus, it's not as if they read all the books about him. They didn't know everything that there was to know about Jesus. They'd heard from their teacher something about him. They knew that people were becoming interested in Jesus, but they didn't know everything about him. It wasn't a blind faith, but it wasn't a faith based on knowing the ins and outs of Christ. So what they do is they go and they follow him. They spend time with him. We can assume that they had a lot of questions to ask. They were curious. Maybe they asked a lot of stupid questions. There's no such thing as a dumb question. I don't know. Maybe if there is. And maybe they asked some dumb questions, but that's okay. They were there with Jesus exploring him, trying to figure out what he's all about and why he matters for them, why he's actually worth following in life rather than just to his house. So when a person, this relates very personally to the way we live as a church, because when a person first starts getting acquainted with Jesus and the church and the gospel, they're going to come with a lot of questions. They may not even know the questions. Some of their questions and concerns and objections may just seem totally out of left field to those of us who've been walking with the Lord for quite a while. But it seems like if we as first Presbyterian Church in Blocsy, Mississippi, if we're going to be a welcoming, witnessing place, then we need to be a place where it's safe for those kinds of people to come in here and bring their questions and concerns and objections. There needs to be a place that's safe like that. And that very much affects the way in which we communicate with people. It affects how we engage with them. A number of years back, I started attending this new church that I really liked and I invited a friend of mine to come with me. I wanted her to check it out. So we go to this church and after the service, we get into a conversation with a man who just starts disparaging the public schools. I mean, just go in off on how awful the public schools are and all the immorality and all the junk in there. Guess what my friend did for a living? She was a public school teacher. As was I at the time. And guess where she went to church the next Sunday? I don't know where she went to church but it wasn't there. See, we got a major in the majors and the major thing is Jesus in the gospel. The way we talk about politics or parenting styles or societal problems, whatever it is and as right as you and I may possibly be, we want people to see Jesus here. That's what we're all about. And it affects the way in which we communicate to other people. That's part of what it means to be a safe, welcoming place. Not that you can't have those discussions but to have them with a glory and a grace of Jesus' flavor, undergirding all of our conversation. Because grace happens in stages. It does. That's what we see here from these disciples. I mean, I just want you to imagine the response of someone, if I would have taken someone to that church who didn't know the Lord. My friend knew the Lord. She was a convinced believer. She believed the gospel. They would have been repelled very likely from the Christian faith. It's Jesus who calls. I understand that but it would have been easy for them to just say, I don't want to have anything to do with this Christianity business. Because they're all about their hatred of the public schools. Let's focus our attention on Christ. Grace works in stages. John wants us to see that but he also wants us to see something I think is very important for each of us to grasp. And that is that grace is personal. Grace is personal. It's meant to be a personal reality within our lives. It's vital that you and I understand that God's grace test is personal because it's a relationship with God through a person. See, Jesus is a person. The Holy Spirit is a person who comes to dwell with NS. We've had all of a sudden incarnation talk about Jesus coming and taking on flesh and dwelling among us. And you'll notice that in the story here in verse 39 that Jesus, what he does is he personally invites these guys to come in and to get to know him. In verse 48 you'll look down. You'll see Nathaniel seems to get the sense that Jesus knows something about him. He knows his heart. He's speaking to what Nathaniel is like. He knows his heart. And Jesus says before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. He looked personally into the hearts of these people. And he saw that Nathaniel, he saw Nathaniel in a very personal way. You know, Jesus came to save sinners. He came to save them broadly. But if you have embraced him through faith, he's come to save you. He's come to save you. He's poured out his grace and his redeeming love upon you personally. It's amazing love. How can it be that thou my God should die for me? If you believe him, you can sing that with confidence. You understand that. That's your lifeline. That's what you're all about. Jesus is personal. He's not a concept. He's a person. And he's meant to be enjoyed and experienced as a person, as he really is. See, if Christianity for you is all about experience and it's all about feeling and it doesn't involve any engagement in the mind at all, it's just the ebb and flow of your emotions, that's how shallow it is. And it just is all dependent upon your circumstances and the hormonal fluctuations that you may have in your life, if it's all about experience. But if Christianity to you is all about getting your theological concepts in a row so that you could potentially pass an ordination exam in the PCA and it hasn't actually penetrated the depths of your heart, then all you have is a dead orthodoxy. All you have is a cold sterile and likely to become extraordinarily angry and bitter and unwelcoming faith until Jesus penetrates your heart and becomes real to you as a person. Jesus wants us to see that here. In fact, that's just flowing throughout the entire gospel of John, that Jesus has come to dwell among us as a person. So that we might know him and enjoy him and be satisfied by him. I was mentioning earlier that as we travel down the road of the Christian faith, it's very easy to take for granted that Jesus has redeemed us. He's called us into fellowship with himself and that he's to be personally known and cherished. I have to guard myself against that too. That's why I want us to pray and for me to pray to the Lord and say, show me where I've been blinded to this. Show me that your grace is not just meant to be theologically interesting to me but personally transformational. That's the prayer that we need to be praying all the time. We always need to be on guard for that. There's so many things coming our way that are drawing our attention to worship them other than Christ. It's so easy to get hardened. Now, we need to beg him for mercy to show us just how personal and beautiful his grace is. One last thing that I'll be done. If you take a look at verse 51 in this passage, you'll notice a really kind of weird thing that Jesus is saying here. He's talking to Nathaniel and he says, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. That's just crazy talk right there. What's he talking about? Well, he's pointing us back to Genesis chapter 28. This guy named Jacob is having a dream. He's having this weird dream about angels going up and down on a ladder on a staircase. It's an odd dream. And what he is doing is he's alone. Jacob is alone. He's isolated. He's fearful. He thinks that his brother is going to come and kill him. He's homeless. And God gives him this dream. And what it is is his vision that he's going to be faithful to his promise to his grandfather Abraham. That he promised Abraham that he would make his descendants a great nation. That he would come to redeem the people who are the true descendants of Abraham. And he is promising Jacob. He's reminding Jacob of that promise that one day someone would come to be the mediator to bring God to us on earth and to bring us to God in heaven. And what Jesus is saying here in this verse is that he is that person. That Jesus is the one that Jacob was dreaming about thousands of years before. That he is the one who has come to live on this earth who has come down from heaven to take on human flesh to live on this earth. On this earth the life that we should have lived but failed to live. The death that we should have died. He came to do that for us. And as we come to embrace him through faith by grace, he represents us to the Father. As clothed in his righteousness, eternally beloved by him, adopted as his sons, redeemed, ransomed, healed by him. Jesus is the one to whom that's pointing. That's the greater sign that Nathaniel is going to see. And that's what I need to see. That's what I need to cherish. And that's what you need to see and cherish as well. And it's my prayer for this church and for my own life that that would be the case. Folks, is Jesus and the gospel and this whole Christianity thing? Is it all up in your head or is it in your heart? Is it in your soul? Because for us as individuals and as a church to be a Christ witnessing, gospel loving, grace, embracing church, his grace has to be rooted in each of our lives. Let's ask him and beg him that that would be so as we leave here this morning. Amen, let's pray. Father, this passage reminds us and reminds me of just how patient you are, how you're willing to come to us and redeem us when we're in the pit, when we don't have it all together, that you're steadfast love endures forever despite our weaknesses, despite our failures, despite our hurt and our sadness and our fear and our anger and our physical and emotional and spiritual struggles. You've come and you have poured out grace upon grace, your steadfast love endures forever. You have clothed us in your righteousness. You have declared us holy. We are dearly loved, you rejoice over us with singing. So Lord I pray that that would become so known and experienced and true in our lives. That other people would see that and be attracted to you, that this church would be full of people like that, that Jesus would blaze at the center of this place, that he would be cherished above all things. That's our prayer and we bring it to you in the name of him who's come such a distance for us. Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.