The Word: John Talk 5 (1:35-42)
Chris Cooke · The Word
12 October 2025
https://media.glenabbey.church/talks/the-word-john-talk-5-1-35-42

[0:00] If you are a visitor with us, we are spending some time going through the first sort of movement of John's Gospel.
[0:09] And at the risk of sounding like a broken record to people who are here every week, the reason we are going through John's Gospel is very simple.
[0:18] There's this question, what do we make of Jesus Christ?
[0:23] What are we to make of Jesus Christ?
[0:25] And you might be here this morning, and you might be asking that question.
[0:30] You might not know him yet.
[0:31] You might be looking into his claims.
[0:34] There is nowhere better to find out about that than in John's gospel.
[0:37] But then for the rest of us, probably the majority of us who are here, this is an opportunity for us to, if you remember back to this idea of scattering seeds of hope, this idea of us filling our bags full of that seed of God's word, understanding it more, getting the grips with it more so that we can go out and be scatterers, so that we can share that and be witnesses with other people and to other people.
[1:03] And that's why we're here.
[1:04] And so I want us to keep that in mind as we are working through this each week.
[1:08] Keep that front and center in our minds.
[1:10] And as we move towards the end of this series over the next couple of weeks, I also want to remind you that we do have the second sort of run of our 321 Discover Life in Jesus course coming up over four Wednesdays in November.
[1:24] And I seriously encourage you, if you're here and you want to find out more about Jesus, please come and speak to me afterwards or sign yourself up to that online.
[1:32] Or if you do, be thinking and praying about who you might be able to bring along to that.
[1:38] And we have a baptism coming up on the 23rd of November.
[1:42] So I should say about that, if anybody's interested in being baptized, you need to get yourself signed up for that.
[1:51] But I was looking at a list of names that are signed up already.
[1:54] And already just this weekend, there's one person who did the 321 course last time who signed up to be baptized on the 23rd.
[2:01] And that's a real encouragement to me.
[2:03] I hope it is to you as well.
[2:06] But as I mentioned that 321 course, I'm always wary of doing it because I'm always wary of making these sort of arbitrary lines that the only success in evangelism is somehow if you get somebody to come along to a course, or if you get somebody to sort of say the prayer and you get to convert them in that sense.
[2:27] But that's not the case.
[2:28] And the problem when we talk about this course all the time is that you might think that way or we default into that way of thinking.
[2:34] And that's not the case.
[2:35] There are so many other ways and means and opportunities.
[2:40] And if we just think I need to get somebody a course and I can't do that, we might end up being very passive with a lot of stuff.
[2:45] So I want to encourage you in a couple of other opportunities to think this stuff through and to encourage each other and to pray for each other.
[2:55] So the first is this.
[2:56] It's called Story Bearer Shorts.
[2:58] Hopefully there's a little image up there.
[3:00] There we are, good.
[3:00] My screen's showing something totally different.
[3:03] Story Bearer Shorts.
[3:04] And the idea behind this is really simple.
[3:07] If you are doing anything, anything at all, that is somehow scattering these seeds of hope, that might be inviting somebody out for a coffee, that might be dropping something about your faith into a conversation, And that might be actually opening God's word with them.
[3:23] It might be giving a John's gospel to them.
[3:25] It might be any sort of thing.
[3:27] Let's not think high bar here.
[3:29] Let's think everything.
[3:31] And what I want us to do, because we don't get to hear each other's stories, is if anything like that happens across your week, feel free to backdate it if you want to.
[3:41] But if anything like that happens across your week, please would you consider jumping on, tapping the little tag on your seat in front of you, or going, you can do it now if you want,
[3:50] you are going onto our website and finding this little link and there's a little form on there you've only got 100 words no more than that that's why it's called Story Bear Shorts and I want you to tell us your story
[4:01] and the idea behind that is we'll be able to share some of those with each other whether that's here on a Sunday morning whether that is in our WhatsApp channels you can be totally anonymous you don't even have to put your name so it's just an opportunity to share stories so that we can be encouraging one another so that we can be praying for one another as we engage in this task together of being witnesses.
[4:23] That's the first one.
[4:24] So please do consider if you've got something to say, if anything's going on, please do tell us so that we can pray and encourage one another.
[4:34] And then the second is this, and as you think about that, and none of these things are silver bullets, none of these things are amazing things that are gonna change the world, but they might just help a little bit.
[4:44] And this one is a little app that I've come across recently.
[4:47] It's called I-61.
[4:48] which is named after sort of Isaiah 61 and the famous verses from there.
[4:53] It's been developed by a guy called John Kirby, who was the guy who started CAP, Christians Against Poverty.
[4:58] And this was because he realized that he actually really struggled.
[5:03] First of all, to find non-Christian friends, but also to actually share his faith.
[5:07] And so basically this app is a really, really simple tool.
[5:12] You've got three options.
[5:12] You go into it and you've got the opportunity to record little intentions.
[5:16] The idea behind it is that intentions shape actions.
[5:21] So you might go on and say, do you know what?
[5:23] My next door neighbor, I want to invite them in before the end of October for a coffee or for dinner or that sort of thing.
[5:30] That might be a share life idea.
[5:32] And you might put a little date on it as a little goal.
[5:35] Share faith might be, I'm going to really try and drop into conversations some stuff about my faith whenever I'm meeting X, Y, or Z over the next month.
[5:44] And then share Jesus is the opportunity to actually sit down and actually explain or open up God's word with somebody and explain the gospel to them.
[5:53] And the idea again is that this would just take your thinking and your intentions from being sort of woolly and vague to being just that little bit more focused.
[6:03] And maybe all those things might feed into one another.
[6:06] Like I say, it's no silver bullet, just little tiny things that might encourage us, might help us as we try and think about what this role is that we have as witnesses.
[6:16] So let's get into, and you'll understand why when I read this passage this morning, why I'm talking about those things this morning.
[6:24] And here's the passage.
[6:25] We're in John 1 and in verse 35 to 42.
[6:30] The next day, John was there again with two of his disciples.
[6:35] When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, look, the Lamb of God.
[6:40] And when the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.
[6:43] Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, what do you want?
[6:49] Or the ESV puts it this way, what are you seeking?
[6:54] They said, Rabbi, which means teacher.
[6:58] John is translating the word here for his Greek readers.
[7:02] Where are you staying?
[7:04] Bit of a strange response.
[7:07] Come, he replied, and you will see.
[7:10] So they went and saw where he was staying and they spent that day with him.
[7:14] It was about four in the afternoon.
[7:16] Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus.
[7:22] The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, we have found the Messiah, that is the Christ.
[7:30] And he brought him to Jesus.
[7:32] Jesus looked at him and said, you are Simon, son of John.
[7:37] You will be called Cephas, which when translated is Peter.
[7:45] A simple story.
[7:49] Really simple story.
[7:50] I would imagine some of you are wondering, how's Chris going to get a talk out of these seven verses?
[7:53] Trust me, I will.
[7:55] And I'll miss a lot out along the way as I do it as well.
[7:58] There's so much depth and richness to be found in this encounter.
[8:04] So let's just, it is a narrative, so let's just make our way through the narrative, make our way through the story and see the things that we can pick out.
[8:13] Verse 35 then, where we begin, it begins the next day.
[8:19] And as you've been reading through this section of John's gospel for yourself, you might have started to pick up how John is arranging his material here.
[8:27] We have the prologue, those first 18 verses, and then we have in verse 19, the beginning of a set of specific days.
[8:37] So we have this first day of John bearing witness, day one, bearing witness to the priests and the Levites.
[8:44] Then in verse 29, where Gilbert was last week, we have the second day where John is bearing witness again, not told to who, but he says, look, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
[8:57] And then in verse 35, where we are this morning, which again begins the next day.
[9:03] So that's day three.
[9:05] And we'll see then how these verses then give way to day four in Andrew going and finding his brother Simon and bringing him to Jesus.
[9:15] Then next week we'll have day five, which says again the next day with Philip and Nathanael.
[9:21] And then we'll conclude in chapter two with what John says, on the third day, which in the way the Jews would have talked about days inclusively means that a wedding, a feast with an abundance of wine and joy happens on the seventh day.
[9:42] Interesting.
[9:44] Could it be that in this gospel opening begins in the beginning, John is seeking to mirror in some way the creation narrative and pointing us to that word that is bringing about this new creation.
[10:04] Maybe, maybe, I'm totally barking up the wrong tree, but maybe.
[10:08] But anyway, here we are then in this new day where John the Baptist's role as a witness culminates.
[10:16] The story moves on from him now.
[10:18] We don't see him again until later in chapter three, but here is John the Baptist with two of his disciples and Jesus passes by and John sees him and he does his job again one more time.
[10:31] Look, the Lamb of God.
[10:35] That's all he does.
[10:37] Gilbert told us about the significance of the Lamb of God title last week, But what strikes me here is the understatedness of this.
[10:48] The lack of drama in that sense.
[10:51] There's no miracle, there's no sign, there's no wonder.
[10:54] It is one man telling two other men about Jesus.
[10:59] And that is it.
[11:03] And we're told down in verse 40, that one of John's two disciples is Andrew, while the other is unnamed.
[11:12] And again, maybe a little bit of speculation, but while we can't be sure, many New Testament scholars are content to conclude that the unnamed disciple is the writer of the gospel himself, John.
[11:26] And that's why we have such details in here, like the time of day and those little details, because this first encounter of his with Jesus is etched on his memory.
[11:38] So we have Andrew and John.
[11:42] And John the Baptist doesn't say, look the Lamb of God to them and then say, go and follow him.
[11:49] He just says, look the Lamb of God.
[11:51] But I doubt that he was surprised or annoyed to be ditched, to be abandoned, to be left hanging by his two disciples as they go scurrying off down the road.
[12:03] In fact, this was the right, This was the natural progression after all for him to be abandoned in favor of the Lamb of God.
[12:13] And I can imagine him smiling with satisfaction as they leave him behind and scurry off down after Jesus.
[12:24] And then we have the first words that John records Jesus saying.
[12:29] The first words of the word.
[12:32] And what an intriguing.
[12:35] What a fascinating sentence.
[12:37] It's a question.
[12:40] Jesus asks lots of those in the Gospels, about 25 in John's alone.
[12:45] And as with so much of this passage and with the rest of the Gospel, it's got a surface level meaning and significance, but it's also got so much under the surface, deeper meaning and significance.
[12:59] Think about so much of what John talks about in his gospel, almost like an iceberg.
[13:04] There's the obvious above the surface meaning, but then there's so much underneath that we've got to unearth, if you like.
[13:12] All this depth and meaning and significance sitting below the surface.
[13:17] And the question that Jesus asks them is this, NIV translates it, what do you want?
[13:25] And as I mentioned, the ESV captures it, I think a little better in saying, what are you seeking?
[13:32] What are you seeking?
[13:36] What are you looking for?
[13:39] In one sense, it's an obvious question.
[13:42] If you turn around and you see two random strangers behind you, and they're quite clearly following you, what do you want?
[13:51] But of course, it is also one of the most profound questions anybody can ask you.
[13:57] at a sort of existential level, isn't it?
[14:01] What are you seeking in life?
[14:04] What are you looking for out of life?
[14:09] It touches on the questions of meaning and purpose and direction and goals and desires and hopes and dreams.
[14:17] What are you seeking?
[14:22] If I was to ask you one-to-one that question right now,
[14:27] how would you respond?
[14:33] It's a question that when it comes to being witnesses and scattering seeds, it's a question very much worth picking up on when we get the chance to have conversations with other people.
[14:44] What are you looking for?
[14:45] What are you seeking?
[14:48] The first words that John records Jesus speaking is this foundational question, and that's deeply significant.
[14:56] specifically when we consider the goal of John writing, so that you might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and then by believing that you might have life in his name.
[15:10] That's what John is claiming is to be found in Jesus.
[15:15] In Evangelical Alliance's recent Finding Jesus research, they interviewed 280 adults, I think, 280 people who came to faith in adulthood.
[15:28] And one of the questions they asked them was this one, what prompted you to begin exploring the Christian faith?
[15:35] And you can see here, these were the top two answers.
[15:38] I needed help with my life,
[15:42] and I was looking for meaning.
[15:46] I was looking for help.
[15:48] I was looking for meaning.
[15:52] just over a week ago one of the most listened to podcasts in the uk uh stephen bartlett's diary of a ceo i'm sure there are a few people in here listen to it they he got together a group of three people a a christian apologist an atheist and a spiritual thinker and they talked for three and a half hours i'd love to get that opportunity they talked for three and a half hours on this question are we living through the biggest crisis of purpose and meaning in history?
[16:22] We are not the only people talking about these questions in here.
[16:25] It's the conversation that is going on out there as well.
[16:31] And another research commissioned by another UK missions organization and carried out this summer, the question was asked, what would you say is missing from your life?
[16:43] And their top three answers were purpose,
[16:47] freedom.
[16:49] I find that one a really interesting one.
[16:52] Freedom.
[16:53] Is that not what we're all offered?
[16:55] And yet.
[16:57] And security.
[17:00] Interestingly, though, the bottom answer, as you can see there, was God.
[17:06] Some joining of the dots to do.
[17:08] And we'll come back to that later on.
[17:11] So that's the question Jesus asks.
[17:13] How do these two guys respond?
[17:17] Well, they might be thinking some of these things, but they don't say any of them.
[17:23] And actually, there's maybe a mini lesson in there as well that you might sometimes engage in a conversation with somebody.
[17:28] You might ask a question like this.
[17:30] The chances are you're not going to get the deepest, the most transparent answer straight away.
[17:36] You're going to need to give people time to think about that and maybe ask them again and again.
[17:42] but while their response might sound quite strange on first reading there's definitely some profundity and depth contained in it they respond to his question with a question of their own they were at it before Jesus was but rabbi which John translates as I said for the teacher for his Greek readers who don't understand Hebrew rabbi where are you staying and probably this was indicating in a sort of courteous way, you know,
[18:12] Jesus, we don't want to interrupt you.
[18:14] We know you're a busy man, but if we knew where you were staying, we could maybe look you up.
[18:17] We could maybe arrange an appointment at your convenience to come and speak to you and spend some time with you.
[18:22] That sort of idea.
[18:25] And that's at the surface level of the response to the question.
[18:27] But again, thinking about that iceberg analogy, there is so much more here to John recording this response in his account than that.
[18:37] He is a master at inviting us into deeper meaning and significance, and he does that here in the choice of the word that he uses for staying.
[18:47] It is a word that has a wider semantic range than that, that includes words like abiding and dwelling and enduring.
[18:57] And it's one of the hallmark words of his whole gospel.
[19:01] So we could rephrase this.
[19:03] Jesus, where are you remaining?
[19:06] Where are you dwelling?
[19:07] Where are you abiding?
[19:10] And as we do that, we might pick up on some places where you might have heard those sorts of words before in John's gospel.
[19:17] We've heard it already in the verses before.
[19:19] I saw the spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.
[19:25] And John continues to use it throughout his gospel.
[19:29] I'm sure some of you will be thinking end of John 15 in the imagery of the vine.
[19:33] Remain, abide in me as I also remain in you.
[19:37] No branch can bear fruit by itself.
[19:39] It must remain.
[19:41] It must abide in me.
[19:43] As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
[19:45] Now remain, abide in my love.
[19:50] If you keep my commands, you will remain.
[19:52] You will abide in my love.
[19:56] And of course, we can't miss the link either between this idea of remaining and abiding and dwelling and not think back to verse 14.
[20:06] The word became flesh and tabernacled, pitched his tent among us.
[20:12] This word leads us then into this idea of invitation into intimate life together, enduring relationship with Jesus.
[20:26] John's opening up the possibility here.
[20:29] The opportunity, the invitation into intimate relationship and the intimate presence of Jesus Christ.
[20:41] And Jesus then responds to them, come and you will see.
[20:48] Again, really simple at the top level.
[20:53] You don't need to wait, Jesus is saying.
[20:55] Don't need to make an appointment.
[20:57] Come now, spend time with me now.
[21:00] Remain and spend time and abide with me now.
[21:03] And see, see if there's anything to John's claim that I'm the Lamb of God.
[21:06] See what I've got to say for myself.
[21:08] See and find out about me.
[21:12] Come and see.
[21:16] But then, of course, beneath the surface, it's the invitation that is open to each one of us from Jesus.
[21:27] here's what he says you ask the question who is this Jesus he says come and see
[21:34] does he have anything to say to me and my life come and see
[21:43] is intimate relationship possible with him come and see will I find what I'm seeking will I find what I'm looking for in him he says come and see
[21:59] come and meet with me through my word come and find out who I say I am come and listen to my words come and see Jesus you see and I think a lot of people who are looking into Christianity get this wrong sometimes and probably that's the fault of us a lot of the time in the way we communicate it
[22:20] but Jesus is not inviting us into a set of rules and regulations a list of do's and don'ts a list of thy shalts and thy shalt nots he is inviting us into encounter with him he is inviting you into relationship with him into intimacy with him into his presence to get to know him to get to abide with him and in him.
[22:52] And Andrew and John, if that's who it is, readily accept the invitation.
[22:57] They don't need ask twice and they follow Jesus.
[23:00] And the text says that they stayed, they remained with him that day.
[23:05] And there's that little detail, they stayed with him that day for it was the 10th hour.
[23:10] The NIV translate that for us, it's four o'clock in the afternoon.
[23:13] So it's likely then, given this little detail, and because of how late on in the day it was, that they probably went to where Jesus was staying and spent the evening with him and stayed then in his lodgings and didn't leave until the next morning.
[23:31] And here's one of the most infuriating things from my perspective about John's account of this.
[23:37] He does not tell us anything at all about what was said.
[23:42] Nothing, Nothing about what Jesus said, nothing about what they asked him, nothing at all.
[23:48] I don't know about you, but I find that quite infuriating.
[23:52] I want to know.
[23:56] But in God's wisdom, through inspiring John, we don't find out.
[24:01] But all we know, all we find out is that they spent time with him.
[24:06] They abided with him.
[24:10] They stepped into the invitation to come and see,
[24:15] and the trajectory of their lives was changed forever.
[24:21] Their lives were transformed.
[24:24] They found what they were seeking.
[24:26] They found what they were looking for, and they found it in the person of Jesus.
[24:34] And it's at this point that John tells us that one of the disciples who heard John and Faldum was Andrew.
[24:40] I've obviously told you that already, but look how he identifies Andrew here, Simon Peter's brother.
[24:49] Now, Simon Peter hasn't been mentioned in the text at all yet, but we've got to understand, John's writing this sort of 60 years after.
[24:58] And of course, Simon Peter, that's a famous name in this part of the world.
[25:04] He would have been well known, prominent.
[25:08] And so that's how he identifies Andrew.
[25:11] Andrew, not so much.
[25:14] Obscure.
[25:16] Nobody knows very much about him.
[25:17] Mentioned only a handful of times across all four of the Gospels.
[25:22] And that's why this little cameo should be an encouragement for all of us.
[25:29] I've admitted in talks before how I am a backstory obsessive when it comes to any sort of story.
[25:36] So if I'm watching some sort of documentary or some sort of true life drama or something on TV, I will gently infuriate my wife by pausing all the time and going online and finding all about the different people on Wikipedia so that I can get as much depth as possible.
[25:53] And that's what happens here when I start thinking about Andrew.
[25:58] I can't wonder, I can't help but wonder, sorry, about the backstory, the Andrew and Simon fraternal backstory.
[26:05] Growing up in Bethesda, Galilee, born into the fishing trade from their earliest days, did Simon always eclipse Andrew?
[26:14] Was he always the brash one?
[26:17] Was he always the louder one?
[26:19] Was he always the more confident one?
[26:21] Was he always the center of attention?
[26:25] And if so, was there any sibling rivalry?
[26:27] Was there any envy on Andrew's part?
[26:30] I find myself asking all these sorts of questions.
[26:32] Maybe I'm weird.
[26:33] I apologize if I am.
[26:36] And let me be clear, there's nothing biblical about any of that.
[26:38] That is just my imagination.
[26:40] But whatever the backstory was, we're told that what Andrew did immediately after he left Jesus' presence was to go and find his brother Before he did anything else, he rushed to find his brother, to bear witness to his brother, to tell his brother, we have found the Messiah, and to bring his brother to Jesus.
[27:06] Again, I imagine, Andrew, as Jesus talks to the two of them, sitting on the edge of his seat, taking all of this in and going, I have got to tell Simon about this man.
[27:21] You're saying to Jesus, Jesus, you're not going anywhere, are you?
[27:23] Simon just wait there please I need to go and get my brother and he runs off maybe down to the shore to find Simon he says Simon we find the Messiah don't interrupt me don't speak just listen we find the Messiah and you've got to come with me and meet him and whatever it was in Andrew's voice whatever it was in his eyes, whatever it was in his demeanor, Simon goes with him.
[27:52] He does what his brother tells him to do.
[27:56] And Andrew brings him to Jesus.
[27:59] And even if my imagined backstory was accurate and there was some sibling rivalry perhaps, whatever it was he found in Jesus, And it's hard to know here what his understanding of Jesus as the Messiah was at this stage.
[28:18] There's no way he would have got all of the depth and breadth of what he meant by that.
[28:22] That would take time.
[28:25] But what he had found in his encounter, in his short time abiding with Jesus, was someone so loving and compassionate and captivating and expansive and insightful and compelling and authoritative and authentic that there was just no way that he could ever keep this Jesus to himself.
[28:50] He was completely, he was utterly compelled to find, to tell, and to bring Simon to Jesus.
[29:02] That's Andrew.
[29:05] We'll come back to him.
[29:08] Then we have Simon.
[29:10] let me just touch on him briefly again I find it so intriguing what John records here interestingly Simon a man who and we find out from the rest of the gospels and other places always has plenty to say for himself but in this instant he doesn't say a word he doesn't get the chance to speak to to introduce himself to give Jesus a CV to do any of that he doesn't say anything.
[29:40] It's only Jesus who speaks.
[29:43] Also, John could have just recorded the words that Jesus said, you are Simon, son of John, you shall be called Cephas.
[29:50] But John makes a point of this little detail.
[29:53] I wonder if you've seen it.
[29:55] Jesus looked at him.
[30:01] Jesus looked at him.
[30:06] There must have been something about the gaze of Jesus upon Simon in that moment that imprinted itself under the memory of either John or Andrew or Simon Peter or all three.
[30:21] I can imagine them reminiscing about their first encounter with Jesus.
[30:29] And maybe John saying to Simon Peter, I remember the way he looked at you.
[30:39] and Simon Peter going I know I remember it myself
[30:44] I knew in that moment that I was fully known
[30:50] and in this act of renaming Simon son of John
[30:57] becomes the rock Cephas in the Aramaic or Petros in the Greek and what Jesus is doing here is he is demonstrating his authority.
[31:08] Who else thinks they've got the authority to meet somebody for the first time and rename them on the spot?
[31:18] Only the word, only the lamb of God, only the true light.
[31:21] And as well as that, he's illustrating the transformation that takes place in a person's life when they come to him and when they submit themselves to his authority.
[31:34] A new name means a new identity.
[31:37] It means a new role.
[31:38] It means a new purpose in life.
[31:44] Jesus here is following the Old Testament pattern of God renaming.
[31:47] Think of Abram to Abraham, father of multitudes, father of nation.
[31:54] Or Jacob being renamed Israel.
[31:58] God prevails.
[32:02] And the truth is it will take a long time and a lot of struggle and a lot of failures and a lot of grace for Simon to step into the name Peter the rock.
[32:15] The unstable, impulsive Simon to become this rock on who Jesus will build his church.
[32:24] But the emphasis here in this section is on the fact that right at the very beginning,
[32:34] Jesus knows exactly who Simon is and exactly who he will turn him into.
[32:43] You are Simon, son of John.
[32:45] I know you.
[32:47] You will be called Cephas.
[32:51] I know who I've called you to be.
[32:54] and I know who I'll transform you into as well.
[33:00] And we'll find out a lot more about Simon Peter as we go through the rest of this gospel account of John's together.
[33:10] But we won't find out that much more about Andrew, so you'll forgive me for going back to him and giving me his little moment in the limelight.
[33:20] Simon Peter, the rock on whom the church would be built, was led to Jesus by what?
[33:32] Andrew's eloquent words?
[33:36] No.
[33:39] Andrew's rhetorical and persuasive skills?
[33:43] No.
[33:46] Peter was led to Jesus by his brother's compelled heart and his simple, sincere witness.
[33:55] By Andrew's compelled heart and simple, sincere witness.
[34:00] And so often, so often I think, we fall back into the trap of thinking.
[34:07] I've probably highlighted it already at the beginning.
[34:10] Of thinking that when it comes to evangelism, when it comes to witnessing, that there are all sorts of things that we have to be and do.
[34:18] I have to be an assertive conversation starter.
[34:21] I have to have a master's level understanding of the Bible.
[34:25] I have to have all these well-rehearsed and well-worked answers to those questions about suffering and evil and all of those sorts of things.
[34:34] And don't get me wrong, all those things are good things to have and good things to add and good things to work on.
[34:44] But they are not at the core of our calling.
[34:50] Andrew didn't do any of that.
[34:55] He followed Jesus.
[34:58] He dwelt in his presence.
[35:00] He abided in his presence.
[35:03] And then he went out and found his brother, told him who he had found, and brought him to meet him.
[35:10] And that's it.
[35:13] That's it.
[35:15] can you feel the freedom of that?
[35:19] The freedom of the Andrew pattern.
[35:24] On one hand, abide with Jesus.
[35:28] Enjoy intimate relationship with Jesus.
[35:33] He has pitched his tent beside you.
[35:35] Are you enjoying what is an offer to you?
[35:37] That's a big question to begin with anyway.
[35:39] But abide with him.
[35:41] Enjoy intimate relationship with him.
[35:43] and then on the other hand invest in relationships with other people, with siblings, with children, with parents, with friends, with neighbors.
[35:51] And in those relationships build love and respect and currency and trust and then courageously give in to the compulsion of your heart by the Holy Spirit to bring those two things together.
[36:07] Peter clearly trusted and respected and knew his brother enough to know that he couldn't ignore him when he came to say, we found a Messiah.
[36:19] And there should be, shouldn't there people in our lives, people who love and trust and respect and know us enough to know that they shouldn't ignore us and our compelled hearts and our simple witness to them.
[36:38] And I was thinking this through and I find this personally incredibly challenging.
[36:44] I honestly think that I find it easier to stand up here and talk to hundreds of people than I do to talk to some of the closest people to me.
[36:55] But that's a question.
[37:00] How much even in little snippets do we talk about the ongoing reality of how knowing and following and abiding in Jesus impacts our lives.
[37:12] How much abiding in him changes our sense of identity, changes our perspective on struggle and suffering.
[37:18] Kyle and Megan were talking about that earlier.
[37:22] Turns upside down what is valuable to us and why that is.
[37:27] Stabilizes us.
[37:30] Gives us peace in the most difficult seasons of life.
[37:35] Frees us, that freedom that people have been talking about frees us from having to prove ourselves from what we've talked about before, from having to write our own stories.
[37:45] Gives us,
[37:48] again, what Kyle and Megan were talking about, this extended, loving, slightly messy family, but this amazing family that we're given in Christ.
[38:00] How much do we talk about that?
[38:01] How much do we talk about how much abiding in Christ gives our life's purpose and direction and meaning and hope.
[38:06] And I'm not talking about all in one go.
[38:08] I'm not talking about setting somebody down and saying, I'm going to talk at you for the next hour and a half.
[38:12] Just letting our heart come out when we're talking to people.
[38:19] Asking the Holy Spirit to lead us where we can say one little thing.
[38:24] Where we can drop one little thing in there.
[38:28] Because as we go back to that research,
[38:33] The reality is lots of people are waiting for us to speak.
[38:41] Some of them might not even know it.
[38:43] Some of them do.
[38:44] Some of them might be in this room right now.
[38:48] People searching for help in their lives, for meaning in their lives, for purpose, for freedom, for security.
[38:54] And we are the people God is going to use to help them join the dots from those what are you seeking?
[39:02] Desires of the heart questions to finding the fulfillment, to finding the answer to those questions in Jesus.
[39:15] When I was a teacher, the joke about a school assembly was whatever the question is, the answer is Jesus.
[39:22] So if you asked a kid who's five or six in an assembly, what's four plus four, They're bound to put their hand up and just go, Jesus.
[39:30] Because that's what they think the answer is in the assembly all the time.
[39:32] But in reality, the answer to all of these questions that people have, what are you looking for?
[39:36] That's the reality.
[39:37] The truth is that they all find their answer in Jesus.
[39:42] The right answer is Jesus.
[39:45] We have been made.
[39:48] We've been made for friendship.
[39:51] We've been made for relationship, for communion with the relational triune, God is love through his son.
[40:00] That is our creator given purpose.
[40:06] And so, until we turn to him, until we receive the lamb of God's forgiveness, until we are reconciled to God through Christ, we are going to remain restless.
[40:24] That's what the Bible teaches.
[40:30] How can we help people join the dots between their questions and the answer?
[40:37] Let me finish with this.
[40:38] A few years ago, these are old now, but you might remember these Be Like Bill.
[40:42] Be like Bob memes that we're around.
[40:44] So here's one here.
[40:45] This is Bill.
[40:46] Bill wakes up to see that it is snowing.
[40:49] You may know a few Bills.
[40:50] Bill doesn't post to Facebook about this because he knows that his friends also have windows.
[40:55] Bill is smart.
[40:56] Be like Bill.
[40:57] In fact, you may know a lot of people who aren't Bill.
[40:58] I think that's what I was thinking.
[41:02] Be like Bill.
[41:04] Well, can I invite you,
[41:08] because I think this is the invitation that this passage is inviting us into, in the power of the Holy Spirit who indwells us to seek to be like Andrew.
[41:24] Follow Jesus.
[41:28] Stay with Jesus.
[41:29] Abide with him.
[41:31] Enjoy his intimate presence.
[41:38] and then follow that Holy Spirit inspired compulsion of your heart to find and tell and bring to Jesus.
[41:51] Let's pray together as the band then come back up to lead us.
[41:56] And as we do that, why don't we just take a few moments?
[41:59] There's lots of different groups of people probably represented in this room.
[42:05] So let me just ask a few things and let me remind you as well that we have a prayer team available in the prayer room just out at the back of the foyer if you want to follow up on any of this afterwards.
[42:18] So first of all, let's just
[42:22] bow our heads, close our eyes, think this stuff through and ask God to bring to bear out of this passage what he wants to bring to bear into our hearts and minds.
[42:34] First of all, there may be people here.
[42:40] And the question is, they're wrestling with this question, what are you seeking?
[42:46] What am I seeking?
[42:49] What am I looking for?
[42:56] Well, this passage testifies, and lots of people in this room will testify and bear witness to you.
[43:04] And that Jesus says you'll find it in him, and we have found it in him.
[43:11] He invites you to come and see.
[43:21] He invites you to find out more about him.
[43:22] He invites you to get to know him.
[43:27] And again, if that's you, there are many people here, myself included, who would love to help you in that come and see quest.
[43:41] Then there's others of us here who might have known Jesus for a long time.
[43:50] But we realize we need to step far more deeply into that invitation of his to abide in him.
[44:03] To step once again into that intimacy of relationship that he offers us.
[44:11] To get away from a dry and legalistic way of living our Christian lives and live out of
[44:20] the intimate relationship that he offers us, the friendship that he offers us.
[44:30] And then there's those of us
[44:34] who need to be asking,
[44:40] Lord, by your Spirit, compel my heart.
[44:47] Lead me to that place where I cannot help
[44:53] but talk about Jesus.
[44:57] Where I cannot help but find and tell and bring.
[45:06] Lead me and guide me to the people that you have for me to tell.
[45:17] Father, thank you for the enduring power of your word.
[45:25] And in whatever way you need to speak to us individually today, we ask that by your spirit you would do that.
[45:37] Change our lives as a result of our encounter with your revealed word.
[45:42] Change our church.
[45:47] as a result of you revealing yourself through your word we pray in jesus name amen