This recording is from Willow Creek Church in Winter Springs, Florida. We're Reverend Kevin Labias, our senior pastor. Today's message is part four in a series on the Gospel of John, titled Abide. This sermon is taken from John Chapter 1 verses 35 through 42. Now here's Kevin with today's message. As the children head out, I'll ask you to turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of John Chapter 1. We'll be looking at verses 35 through 42 this morning. John Chapter 1 verses 35 through 42. After we read this passage this morning, I'd like to pray not only for the Holy Spirit to work here at Willow Creek among us, but also pray for Pastor Kurt, who's preaching at a sister church this morning as well, probably this very hour. John Chapter 1 verses 35 through 42. This is the Word 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 and they stayed with him that day for it was about the 10th hour. One of the two who had heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew. Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, we found the Messiah, which means Christ. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, you are Simon, the son of John. You should be called Seifas, which means Peter. Here ends the reading of God's most holy word. Let us pray, our Father, we thank you that you did not leave us in darkness, in hopelessness, in either delusion or despair. Instead, you shined your light into this world into our hearts and you have revealed to us your will for our salvation and you are revealing to us still what it means to be yours who you are and who we are before your throne. This morning as we opened your word, we pray that you would bless us not only with intellectual understanding but with a heart that receives these truths deeply and becomes increasingly defined by them. And then Father, we pray that that truth would radiate outwardly through our ministry as your ambassadors in the world. We know that many are losing hope. Many have lost it. We give you praise that we found it in your Son Jesus. And we ask that you would bless us that we might point others to Him. We pray at all in Jesus' name, amen. In the first couple of messages in this series, we said that it's very easy to be pessimistic, to lose hope, to even become cynical about the nature of the world in which we live. And if you paid any attention to the news this past week, you know that there's no shortage of proof for the many reasons why we should lose hope. If you're well acquainted with the world and the way it is, you're also well acquainted with the companion truth, something we discussed last week. And that is the sin that corrupts the world also entangles our own hearts and our own minds. And even as we can be pessimistic about humanity around us, we can also grow increasingly pessimistic about our own hearts within us. We might long to know more of the joy, what it means to follow Christ, and see ourselves stumbling and struggling to live the high calling that He's placed in our life. The good news is that Christ has not only entered the world ministering to fall in humanity, the good news is that He's entered our hearts. And that Christ is working to bring hope and healing where there's despair and brokenness. And the question this morning is, how does that transformation occur? When Christ not only enters humanity, enters into our hearts, how does He prompt change? How do we come to see and delight in Him in ways that we've never delighted before? That's where I want to turn our attention this morning. And to do so, I want to make three points. And the first point this morning is simply this, that until your desperate, you'll never delight in Christ. Until your desperate, you'll never delight in Christ. Look with me to verses 35 and 36 this morning. 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. Now this is very interesting. When you look more carefully at the gospel stories in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, something might escape your notice, but John draws our attention to it here. And it's simply this, that before Jesus took to himself disciples, many of those same disciples were first disciples of John the Baptist. Before Christ appeared, one of those disciples was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. And this passage records that there was another disciple with him, but doesn't give his name. And if you know anything of the Gospels, anything of the Bible, you know that this most assuredly is John himself, the writer of the gospel. Whenever John is mentioned in his own writings, he cloaks himself in anonymity. It's an expression of his humility, the humility that was cultivated in his life through a ministry with Christ. John earlier, as a younger man, longed for notoriety, positions of authority and power. He was easily angered when people would challenge his view of the world. In one telling passage, he wanted to call down fire from heaven and upon a Samaritan village that rejected the teaching of Christ. He was a short, tempered, egotistical man, but Christ changed him, transformed him into a man characterized by humility and service. You know, toward the end of his life, the apostle John is rumored by church historians of that age as traveling from church to church and and giving a singular command for us as brothers and sisters to love one another. To love one another is an expression of our love for God. So here we have Andrew, in most probably John, disciples of John the Baptist, until one moment when Christ walked by and John the Baptist, whose ministry was to prepare a way for Christ, pointed right to him and said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. In other words, behold the one who will offer his life as a sacrifice for the sins of many, the only one who can make you right before the throne of your father in heaven, the only one whose work can justify you, behold and look. Now Andrew and John had been prepared by John the Baptist for that precise moment. They'd been prepared to see the Christ appear and they'd been prepared through John the Baptist ministry to understand desperately how much they needed Christ. John the Baptist preaching ministry was one that emphasized the crushing weight of the law of God, how impossible it is for us to make ourselves acceptable to God through our obedience. John the Baptist disabused anyone living in and around that area at that time that their confidence before the Lord could be in themselves, either in their ethnic identity or in their religious performance. John the Baptist savaged those ideas. He was not a timid preacher. He was pretty, pretty over the top at times. Matthew chapter three verses four through twelve. We can hear some of John the Baptist preaching, the kind of preaching that John and Andrew would have heard. Matthew three began with verse four. Now John wore a garment. This is John the Baptist of camels here in a leather belt around his waist and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan confessing their sins. So all the people living in and around that place at that time were going down to be baptized by John the Baptist with water, a baptism of repentance because through John's preaching they were told to prepare for the coming of the chosen one. And preparation to receive Christ was to recognize one sin and unworthiness of him and to cry out to God for forgiveness. The baptism with water that John offered was an exterior sign of the need for cleansing and preparation to receive the gift of God in Christ. Verse seven goes on to say this though but when he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees those who had every reason to rejoice in their ethnic heritage they were Jews, Hebrews of Hebrews and those who had every reason to have confidence in their religious duties and position and power. When he saw many of those Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism he said to them you brute of vipers who warned you to flee the coming wrath. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance and don't presume to say to yourself we have Abraham as our father for I tell you God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Translation God doesn't need you and he doesn't need what you think you can offer him what you offer him is nothing. Verse 10 even now the acts is laid to the root of the trees every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance but he who is coming after me is mightier than I whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry he will baptize you with a holy spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand and he will clear the threshing floor and gather his weed into the barn but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. John's message and preaching were powerful and profound. What he taught is that faith without works is dead and that saving faith is living faith that our confidence in standing before God is not in our earthly distinctions our ethnicity our position our power our accomplishments it's not in our religious performance it's in faith born of grace expressing itself in love and a faith that's not characterized by repentance is not true faith the Pharisees and the Sadducees didn't want to hear that they were confident in themselves they were self-satisfied and puffed up and they weren't desperate for Jesus they thought they had what they needed one of the most succinct descriptions of the relationship between our faith and our works is in Ephesians 2 verses 8 to 10 Paul states that we're justified freely by God's grace that there's nothing we can do nothing that we can be to make ourselves forgiven before the throne of God the declaration that we are righteous in God's light comes entirely by God's grace through the work of Christ on our behalf as Christ offered his life on the cross an atoning sacrifice for our sins he suffered in our place and took the penalty for our sins for us and removed from us the wrath of God as he lived for us a perfect life of obedience of righteousness before God he established for us a record of righteousness that's now imputed to us we're not only forgiven of our sins we are now declared righteous in God's light that position in standing 100% by grace for it is by grace you've been saved through faith Paul said and this not of your doing it's the gift of God not the result of your works so that no one may boast but he goes on to say in verse 10 that that doesn't preclude works of obedience and righteousness in fact it forms the only true foundation for it only people who know they are loved and forgiven obey Jesus said if you love me you'll obey my commandments we're free to obey the Lord when we're set free from the power of sin and death by grace and are the recipients of a new nature by the Spirit first ten for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them when John the Baptist preaches the law and even to the Pharisees and the Sadducees exposes how utterly destitute they are in their obedience before God he's preaching it not to leave them in a position of depression or disillusionment he's preaching it to make them desperate to come to the end of themselves and their own foolish self-reliance that they would cry out for Christ and receive them that's one of the great reasons God in his grace gave his law that we would see how much we need Christ sometimes we agonize over the waywardness of those that we love some of you parents know this very well you have children who have yet to believe in Christ and you long for them to turn to the Lord in repentance to show the kind of fruit that gives you the confidence that they truly love the Lord they're obeying not to earn a position but out of love and affection for God you long to see their hearts stirred for the things of God and you don't see it all you see is their wandering and their waywardness what we need to recognize is that God's even in the waywardness and the wandering and that sometimes what we're agonizing over is precisely the process that God has ordained for our children to become desperate for something beyond themselves Augustine was an early church father and his mother Monaco was a believer in Christ and she longed for Augustine to believe but as a young man he did not believe he had a very harsh father and maybe in reaction and rejection of his father he went out into the world and all of its philosophies all of its religions and tried to find meaning and purpose for his life a sense of satisfaction and security he tried everything he recounts it beautifully in his autobiographical book confessions he talks about all the philosophies and the religions of his day to which he devoted himself and was tireless in that devotion but none of them gave him security and satisfaction at many times he gave himself over to carnal lust and hedonism to just pursue pleasure with no concern for meaning or purpose to find in that some semblance of peace but he only grew more and more restless and his mother Monaco was torn up over this she wanted him to believe to be desperate for Christ she actually wore out her pastor her priest with many tears and prayers for Augustine's soul and the priest his rumors have said to Monaco it's impossible for a child of so many tears to be lost she trusted that the Lord would eventually lead Augustine home and he did in a powerful way but his waywardness his deep sense of unworthiness and incompleteness the broken ness that came to him before the throne of God when he understood how unworthy he was because of all of his decisions and all of his behaviors these were the necessary and providential means that God used to make him desperate and until you're desperate you won't delight in Christ sometimes there are trials in our own lives be they financial or medical relational any number of other things and we wonder why does God Terry and bringing some relief one reason that God Terry's in bringing relief is to show that his grace is all surpassing and sufficient even then perhaps especially in our weakness if we did not have times of suffering of trial of tribulation we would be confident in and of ourselves we would be self-righteous and puffed up self-sufficient as the Pharisees and the Sadducees were not broken humble and desperate like Andrew and John grew to be and John the Baptist by the Spirit of God fully understood himself to be that brings us to the second thing we see in the passages morning until you're desperate for Jesus you'll never be a disciple of his desperation is a key ingredient in discipleship verse 37 the two disciples heard him say this and they follow Jesus Jesus turned and saw them following instead of 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'll see so they came and saw where he was staying and they stayed with him that day for it was about the 10th hour until that moment Andrew and John were disciples of John the Baptist but the second that John the Baptist identifies Christ as a promised Lamb of God they leave John and in follow Christ their desperation is finding relief and as John has taught them that there's one coming who can give superior satisfaction superior security far greater than he ever could in fact the one coming is so great he wasn't even worthy to carry his sandals when he appears John and Andrew know there's salvation and no one else we need to follow him now we must be his disciples and so they follow Jesus and Jesus turns around and says to them what are you seeking they respond with a very interesting question when I first read this passage one thing that occurred to me as it sounded like they were kind of just stalling they didn't know how to answer the question so they made up another question to buy time but that's not really what they're doing at first it sounds like they're stalling like they have no idea what they're really seeking but when they ask Jesus where are you staying they're answering his question they're saying we're seeking you where can we find you that we might be your disciples and if that's unclear consider that they turn Jesus a rabbi a teacher and remember that this is long before Jesus has a public teaching ministry sure when he was little he wowed religious leaders of the day at the temple with his biblical knowledge but there's no reason to believe from the gospel accounts that Jesus had a public ministry by which many people would have turned him rabbi but they understand that if he's a lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world he's our priest who offers a greater sacrifice than anyone coming before him but he's also a prophet one who will teach us in greater ways than the prophet John the Baptist ever could they want to follow him they understand who he is and their desperate to be his disciple Jesus asks us the same question every day in so many words and experiences what are you seeking what are you seeking with your life now it's very easy to say as a religious person well I'm seeking after Jesus and his will of God or and the will of God if you've grown up in the church you know that's the correct answer if you're in a small group or a Bible study and somebody says what are you seeking you respond as you've been conditioned to respond I'm seeking after the Lord but is that what your life says do your words your actions your deepest private thoughts evidence that you're seeking after the Lord or are you still chasing after other things to find a ground for security and satisfaction in this life I'll freely admit I'm chasing after everything but Jesus many times throughout the day in fact I would say I'm more inclined to chase after other things than I ever am inclined to follow after Christ thankfully my position and standing as one of God's people is not based on my fidelity to follow it's rooted in his fidelity to never leave or forsake the one who forsakes him all too often what does it mean to see where Christ is staying now that Christ is not here but is rather ascended into heaven on high all the Bible tells us where Christ is he's the word of God and he's revealed beautifully in the word of God as it's read as it's preached as it's studied do you long to be with Christ in his word Christ is wedded to his church he loves his church is a bride he communes with his church he's in an indesolable union with his church if you want to be with Christ you must be in his church where his spirit fills his people where he inhabits the praises of his people
whereas Christ but seated at the right hand of God where he intercedes for us and a throne room wherein we're invited to enter through prayer do you long to be with Christ are you seeking after him in the word and the fellowship of his church through prayer as you grow desperate as you come to the end of yourself isn't it true that these means of God's grace and the enjoyment of his great fellowship becomes so much more meaningful in a practical sense when I'm full of myself I have little time for the word I can disregard the church I can be negligent and fickle and prayer but when I'm desperate and I've come to the end of myself these things are dear I cling to them now I'm always in need of them but when I sense a deeper desperation and when you sense a deeper desperation how much more do they become a constant companion in verse 40 we read one of the two who heard John speak and follow Jesus with Andrew Simon Peter's brother he first found his own brother Simon and said to him we found the Messiah which means Christ he brought him to Jesus Jesus looked at him and said you are Simon the son of John you shall be called seaface which means Peter there's two things I want to show you in these verses as we close the first is that until you're desperate for Jesus you not only won't delight in him you won't enjoy being his disciple until you're desperate for Jesus you'll never be desperate for others to know him under John the Baptist ministry John and Andrew came to a fuller understanding of how bankrupt they are before God in and of themselves when Christ appeared as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world they recognize him for the treasure that he was the only one who could fill the void within their hearts the only one who could accomplish their redemption the only one who could give them lasting security and satisfaction and they left everything to follow in that moment but notice it doesn't end there Andrew knows that he's found the treasure of Christ in his kingdom and by extension he has to share it with those he loves we found the greatest treasure the world has never known the only one who can redeem rescue and restore the only one who can give everlasting life the only one who can take your deepest darkest sins and make them white as snow
when you're desperate for Jesus you'll be desperate for others to know him for others to know that great treasure the second thing to which I want to draw your attention is in the final verse of our passages morning Andrew his run to get his brother Simon Simon comes to Jesus and Jesus declares of him a most powerful truth you are Simon the son of John you shall be called seaface which means Peter from here on out you have a new name because it's my disciple you have a new identity the old for you is gone the new has come and is coming when Jesus lays claim to Simon Peter he reveals a deeper truth than any of the truths we've said up to this point because all of those truths speak to us before God but this speaks of God's great love for us that your desperation for Jesus is proof of a deeper infinitely more profound truth that Jesus is desperate for you John the Baptist was the last in a long string of prophets God working out throughout history his plan to rescue redeem and restore God doggedly working throughout human history to reveal himself to you that you might be his that he might lay claim to your life in his Adam name the animals in the garden to show his dominion over them Jesus renames Simon to show his dominion over him you shall be called seaface Christ claims Simon as his own and Christ claims you as his own the world may call you many things the world might throw into your face your past sins and failures even those nearest and dearest to you might call you many names rooted in your past failures in shame you might inwardly call yourself many names you remembering the deepest darkest secrets of your heart might keep nasty names upon yourself Satan most certainly calls you many things he's an accuser and a slanderer but what we see in his passage this morning shows that none of that matters none of those voices matter because Jesus calls you his not because you were good enough you weren't not because you were religious enough you weren't not because you could offer anything that would make you acceptable before him you can't but because you've come to the end of yourself and now you've turned to the one who is desperate for you has entered into human history and has now entered into your heart to bring you home let's pray father we thank you that you love us with an everlasting eternal love from eternity past you have purposed to rescue redeem and restore and you revealed in this world your son a lamb of God who takes away our sins the lamb of God who asked us what are you seeking and if we would only follow and seek after him we would find Father we pray this morning that no matter how long the struggle is the wandering and the waywardness and the lives of those we love that we would be like Andrew we would point them to Christ and that Father you would use their waywardness and their wandering to prepare them to come to the end of themselves and to be desperate desperate for your son and being desperate for him coming before him to seek forgiveness and then finding out a most surprising and awe-inspiring truth that he is desperate for us we pray it all in Jesus name amen. Willow Creek Church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America our website is www.Willow Creek Church.org and our phone number is 407-699-82-11