Dear God, we thank you for what you have done for us. We thank you for the the joy of young people that have just blessed us as we could sing in our head. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice and amazing grace. How sweet the sound. And Lord, as we open up your word today, may we be blessed. May we grow to be more like you. In your name we pray. Amen.
So the year was 1935. The Great Depression was still around, but it was doing better. It was improving. More and more people were driving their cars and touring around the country. And there was a gentleman named Garnet Carter. And he had a new thing, a new attraction that he wanted people to come and see.
He wanted people to drive their cars and to come experience this opportunity that he had for them. But he had to get the word out. He had to let people know. And so he hired a man named Clark, Clark Byer. And Clark Byer had to do the, you could say the dirty work, the dangerous work.
And Clark Byer, in his opportunities to get the word out, he braved dangerous bulls. He was almost struck by lightning. He was endangered on a top of a slippery roof. And by the time a few years had passed, Clark had gone to 19 different states and left behind over 900 different directional
signs encouraging people to come and to see this opportunity that Garnet Carter had left behind. You've seen some of these. Because he painted over 900 barns with an advertising slogan, C Rock City. 900 of them, they don't all remain, but you can actually look up on Google and they have maps you can find and see which ones are the best.
And so, in the end, these barns are still in place, pointing people to go and see Rock City. For the farmer, the barn owner, what they got out of this deal, probably the most important thing, their barn got painted, so that was very good. And they could also receive one of two things.
They could either get a little bit of swag, like a Rock City thermometer that they could hang in their barn, along with a pass to go and see Rock City, or they could get $3. But again, probably the most important thing was the barn getting painted and would get touched up from year to year.
And so now, almost 90 years later, some of these original barns still remain. Some of those original barns still encourage people driving down the road to go and see Rock City. How many have been to Rock City? I guess it worked. I guess the advertising worked.
So the question for us to consider today is, what are we pointing to? Or, who are we pointing to?
Today we're going to look at a character in the Bible that we know his name, but we don't usually consider much about his actions, what he did. And the Bible is really full of people that their characters are kind of unknown, relatively unknown, and yet they were really foundational to some of the Gospel story.
And so today we're going to look at a disciple, one of Jesus' 12 disciples, and in particular, a disciple named Andrew. Now almost every time that Andrew is named in the Bible, he's given a little tagline.
It goes something like this, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. Anybody have an older sibling? Have you ever been referred to as, oh, aren't you Chris's brother? Or whoever's sister, whatever the name happens to be.
If you've gone to the same school or participated in some of the same activities, we're often known that way. Incidentally, Peter is never, never referred to as Andrew's brother for whatever reason there.
So we know that about Andrew. We know a relationship that he has. We know that he was one of the disciples that was called to follow Jesus. We know that he was a fisherman. But what we sometimes may not realize is that what we see Andrew doing most often is pointing someone to Jesus, or even better, bringing someone to Jesus.
And that's what we're going to explore today. So we're going to start today in John chapter 1. So if you have your Bibles turned to John chapter 1, we'll have verses on the screen, but it's always better to look it up for yourself.
Now in John chapter 1, just the background, John the Baptist is preaching down by the Jordan River, and the crowds are flocking to him. The crowds are coming out to see this eccentric preacher down by the river to hear his words and to be baptized by him.
And incidentally, if you were to go to the Jordan River today, or any day, there's still people flocking to the Jordan River to be baptized in the same place that John was, in the same place that Jesus was baptized.
But some of the people who were coming to hear him or to be around him were perhaps coming for some ulterior motive, some different reasoning. So we're going to pick the story in John chapter 1 and verse 19.
It says, Now this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you? So that's the question, who are you?
And then down in verse 22, Then they said to him, Who are you? We may give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?
Now those are actually some legitimate questions. Who are you? What are you about? What's your ministry about?
But it seems from this context that these guys were not there in the attitude of wanting to learn more, but they were in the attitude of wanting to criticize, wanting to accuse, wanting to find something wrong that was going on.
And each time John answered, if you were to look at 20 and 21, he answered by uplifting someone else. Are you the Messiah? No. Are you Elijah? No. Who are you? What are you doing?
And then he said, Well, I'm preparing the way. I'm making the path straight. There's someone coming after me that I'm not worthy to even tie their sandals, buckle their sandals.
Someone else is much more important than I am. John was giving the best possible answer, even to these accusatory questions.
But then the day happened in verse 29. Finally, the one that John the Baptist had been preaching about, the one that he had been proclaiming, shows up to the place where John was.
And it says in verse 29, The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
So John is doing his thing, teaching, baptizing, and down the path comes Jesus, his cousin actually.
And he says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
You may not realize it because we use this term frequently, but that phrase, Lamb of God, is only used two times in all of scripture.
One is right here in verse 29, and the other is just a few verses later in verse 36.
But we use this term often because we recognize that this was the moment that all of those sacrifices, down through the pages of scripture,
that all of those ceremonies that took place in the tabernacle, in the sanctuary, in the temple, all of those lambs that were sacrificed were pointing to Jesus,
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
And that's why John the Baptist is here. And now he sees the final sacrifice, the one that the entire nation had been waiting for.
And he must have said it in such a way that it captured the attention of those that were listening.
Because it says in verse 35, again the next day, John stood with two of his disciples, and looking at Jesus as he walked, he said it again,
Behold the Lamb of God, Behold the Lamb of God. And that was enough for these two disciples.
Because it says in the very next verse, the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed him.
They heard the testimony of John the Baptist, and they said, That's enough. We're going to follow Jesus. We're going to walk with him.
Now it seems like they weren't going as like, you know, bodyguards, something like that.
They weren't going to criticize like the religious leaders were, but they were going to learn.
They were going as perhaps following a shepherd. They were going to see what this Lamb of God was all about.
They heard and they followed.
The famous pastor in our country named John Piper, and he describes it this way.
He says, We need to have our sins forgiven. We are weak, but he is strong.
We are foolish, but he is wise. We are hungry, and he is bread. We are thirsty, and he is living water.
They were sinners, and he was the sin remover.
And so that testimony of John the Baptist was enough.
And they followed, but it wasn't enough for them to just walk along close to Jesus, walk along behind or beside Jesus.
Because Jesus noticed these guys were there, and it says in verse 38,
Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them,
What do you seek? What do you seek? What are you doing here? Why are you following me?
And they said to him, Rabbi, where are you staying? Where are you staying?
Following behind Jesus, walking along was not enough.
They needed time with the Lamb of God.
They wanted to experience something more. Where are you staying?
And so Jesus responds, and he says, Come and see. Come and see.
And so they came and saw where he was staying and remained with him that day.
They wanted to linger in the presence of Jesus.
It wasn't enough just to walk by. They wanted to linger.
They wanted to see what was going on, to see what was happening in this ministry of Jesus.
They said, Where are you staying? And Jesus said, Come and check it out.
They were asking for an address, but they ended up finding the Savior.
And it seems like this was an impactful moment, and we can consider in our own life,
How do we respond to Jesus? How do we interact and experience Jesus?
Are we more like the religious leaders who from afar try to be critical?
Who are you, God? Who are you, Jesus?
Who are you, Jesus? Do you hear me when I pray?
Do you care about me at all? Do you really love me?
Do we read the Bible looking for things that are wrong, looking for ways that we can critique it
and excuse it out of our life?
Or are we more like these disciples who ask questions of Jesus, Where are you staying?
And we want to linger in His presence. We pick up God's Word not to criticize it,
But to see lessons we can learn and how it can change our heart and change our life.
Let's make sure that as we go through our week that we're taking time to linger in the presence of God.
Now for these disciples, this is an important moment.
Because the very next verse, which we read for our scripture,
It says, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother,
Wait, I skipped a line.
Nope, I didn't. I didn't put it all on there. I'm going to read all of verse 40.
It says, One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
Oh, I have it up there. Notice what he said.
We have found him. He followed him. He was Simon Peter's brother, just like he's always called.
But notice the first thing that he did. It says the first thing Andrew did,
He found his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah and he brought him to Jesus.
Andrew recognized that this was perhaps a life-changing event.
Now I don't think his life changed yet. He didn't understand totally everything that was going on.
But he recognized that this had the potential to be life-changing.
Because this Jesus, we have found the Messiah.
That's not just a title. That's not like Rabbi or teacher, as they said a few verses before.
That's not like pastor or counselor. This is something else.
We have found the Messiah, the anointed one, the one that our nation is asking for.
And then it says, He brought him to Jesus.
He didn't understand everything, but he had enough joy in his heart that he wanted someone else to experience it.
And so he went to his brother, his family member, and brought him to Jesus.
You know, I've noticed that sometimes our family members, sometimes they're the hardest ones to reach.
Because they know who we really are. They know the good and the bad.
And so if we're trying to share something positive about Jesus, they can remember that negative thing we said yesterday.
Or that negative response, the way we acted.
And so sometimes those family members are the hardest ones to reach.
But Andrew had so much joy that he had to go and find his brother.
And these early disciples, these early adapters we might call them today, these influencers, these first fruits, all of them here in this section, their first response was to tell someone else.
Andrew goes to his brother, we have found the Messiah.
If you scroll down through there, the next day Jesus calls another guy named Philip and he says, follow me.
And Philip is so excited that he goes and tells his friend, Nathaniel, you've got to come meet this Jesus of Nazareth.
He's the one that everybody has been writing about.
You remember this story, Nazareth, can anything good come from there?
And Philip says, Philip says, come and see, come and check it out.
And I think we can learn something here that we are not called as Christians to guilt everyone.
We are not called to correct every wrong in someone else's life.
The people that are closest to us, we are not called daily to remind them of times that they have made mistakes, that they are walking down a different path.
We are called to invite someone to Jesus.
We are called to share the joy that we have experienced and invite someone else to experience that same joy as well.
We are not the Holy Spirit.
If we spend all of our energy pointing out the negative things, the wrong things about somebody else,
where they are not going to want to take the time to look past that and to find positive things.
It's really easy for me, for all of us, to just point out the wrongs, to find the speck in someone else's eye.
It's a little bit harder sometimes to share the joy that we have experienced.
There is a verse in Psalm 34 that says, taste and see that the Lord is good.
Blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him.
We have to invite people to taste and see, to try out Jesus on their own.
When my son Brandon was about 4 or 5 years old, he is taller than me now, but when he was smaller,
he came to me one day and in a very grown up voice he said,
Daddy, father, he didn't say father, but daddy, are you aware that I like pickles now?
No Brandon, I was not aware that you like pickles now.
What happened? Well, what had happened was he did not like pickles because he thought they looked slimy.
He didn't want to eat this green thing out of this jar, but when he finally took the opportunity to taste the pickle,
suddenly he can say, are you aware that I like pickles now?
And it's like that with our relationship with God.
Many people are turned off from God because they haven't experienced it, they haven't tried it out for themselves.
The Bible says taste and see that the Lord is good.
That's what Andrew did. He brought his brother. We have found the Messiah.
That's what Philip did. Come and see.
And this pattern of invitation continues throughout the ministry of Andrew.
Now Andrew shows up three times in the Gospel of John.
Three stories, Andrew is mentioned by name.
We see one of them here where he brings his family member.
But each time we see Andrew, he's doing the same thing.
He's bringing someone to meet Jesus.
First, his brother. Let's go to the next story. It's in John chapter 6.
John chapter 6. The context of this story is Jesus is preaching to a great multitude of people, 5,000 or more people.
Jesus is preaching all day. All day.
He's not going to finish at noon or whatever. He's preaching all day.
And the disciples know that this mass of people are going to be human. They're going to be hungry.
And Jesus tests them a little bit. He challenges them.
And he says, where shall we buy bread that this group may eat?
The disciples are dumbfounded. We don't have enough money.
There's too many people. There's not enough.
And then here comes the next story in John chapter 6 verse 8.
It says, One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him,
There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish. But what are they?
Little lad, if you've read the My Bible Friends book, here's a little boy. He's got five loaves, two fish.
What form was that? A fish sandwich? Fish tacos? Fish and chips?
I'm not sure what the form was here, but it wasn't enough.
And so Andrew now brings this boy to Jesus, but he recognizes that a miracle still needs to take place.
There is still a desperate need for a miracle.
Andrew recognized that his actions that day were not enough.
Here's a little boy, but something else needs to happen.
It's like us today. You're here today. You're listening to me.
Let me assure you, that is not enough.
We are all still desperately in need of a revelation of God's power.
A revelation of God's power that created this world.
A revelation of God's power that could multiply that small little lunch and make enough to feed 5,000 and 12 baskets left over.
We need to experience that power of God to forgive our sins.
That power to change that situation in your life that you're uncertain about how to get around or what to do with that.
That power to help you overcome the obstacle that you are facing.
Even as we bring someone to Jesus, it needs something else. It needs the power of God.
It needs a miracle to take place.
That can give me assurance.
Because I know that I'm not enough and we know that we're not enough.
But we can partner with God, partner with Jesus, and place people in a situation where they can perhaps see that miracle worked out.
Some experience takes place.
Andrew first brings his family, Peter.
Then he brings someone with a little lunch, someone still in need of a miracle.
And finally we see Andrew bringing someone totally from the outside.
Totally that in normal circumstances have even been accepted.
We're going to turn over to John chapter 12.
John chapter 12, we're now to the very last week of Jesus' life.
The triumphal entry has taken place.
So we're the last days before the arrest, before the trial, before the cross.
Jesus is there in Jerusalem.
The crowds are listening to Him. They've coming to Him.
They've heard about Lazarus being raised from the dead in John chapter 11.
And even the opponents of Jesus are recognizing that something powerful has happened.
The Pharisees in verse 19 say, look how the whole world has gone after Him.
Everybody is listening to this Jesus.
The whole world has gone after Him.
And they probably didn't realize that they were speaking more truth than they thought.
Because the very next verse, verse 20, it says,
Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast.
So they're in the temple area.
And in the temple area there are certain boundaries.
There are certain lines that people can't cross.
The priests can go in as far as possible.
But then the men, they can't go as far as the priests.
And then there's the women, they can't go as far as the men and the priests.
And then there's the Greeks, they're kept totally out of the temple.
And so there's these Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast.
And they came to, who'd they come to?
Philip this time. They came to Philip who was from Bethsaida of Galilee.
And asked him saying, sir, we wish to see Jesus.
We've heard about the miracles. We want to see them.
We want to see him. We've heard about the teachings.
We want to see him. We've heard about the love and the grace that he has for everybody.
We want to see him.
An interesting side note, one of the very first churches I ever went in,
right here at the pulpit where only the speaker could see,
congregation couldn't see it, they had a little plaque engraved.
And it said these words, We wish to see Jesus.
That was a reminder that the reason we gather in a place like this
is not for funny stories, it's not to listen to the wit and wisdom of any person,
but it's so that together we can turn our eyes, we can look upon Jesus.
Sir, we wish to see Jesus.
And that's what these Greeks wanted. They had heard all those things.
And they wanted to see Jesus.
But we're not talking about Philip, are we?
Well, let's go to verse 22. It says,
Philip came and told Andrew.
And in turn, Andrew and Philip told Jesus.
It appears perhaps that Philip had noticed that Andrew was good at bringing people to Jesus.
And so when these Greeks came to Philip, he went to Andrew,
and together they brought them to Jesus.
And this was a turning point.
We're in the last week of Jesus' life, but notice what happens.
Verse 23, Jesus answered them, saying,
The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
The end of verse 27, For this purpose I came to this hour.
And then Jesus says in verse 32, What? What's the hour?
What's the hour? Jesus says, I, when I am lifted up from the earth,
will draw all people to myself.
And the very next verse says that he's signifying what manner of death he's going to come.
So when these outsiders, when these foreigners came to Jesus,
Jesus recognized that this was the moment, this is why he had come,
that all people would be drawn to him.
And this is the reason that we can bring people to Jesus.
We can bring family members. We can bring those still in need of miracles.
We can bring those that would seemingly be left outside,
that would have no place coming with a group of believers.
But Jesus says, Because of the cross, because I'm lifted up,
all people will be drawn to me.
And we kind of go full circle here.
Because in John 1, 29, where we started,
what did it say? Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.
And then here in John 12, we see some representatives of the world,
the Greeks coming.
And that is what reminded Jesus, that is what set Jesus to begin this last week,
to recognize the cross was coming.
Those Greeks were foreshadowing the complete success of Jesus' mission.
Here we are just days from the cross.
Jesus knew that soon he would be arrested, he would be mocked,
he would be beaten, he would be scourged, he would be killed.
But this could give him some hope.
Because he could look down through the ages,
and he could recognize that people around the world would come to him.
And I wonder, as Jesus looked down through the years of time,
did he see the multitudes of people coming to him?
Did he see vast crowds with blurry faces?
Or did somehow, in some miraculous minute, did Jesus see individuals?
Did he see faces of people? Did he see your face?
Did he see my face as those that are coming to him?
Matthew 28, just after the resurrection, just before Jesus goes back to heaven,
it's called the Great Commission.
Jesus says, therefore make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.
Make disciples of all nations. That's the role of the church,
but that's not your role.
Acts 1-8, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth. That's the role of the church.
But let me say it again, that is not your role.
That is not my role.
The ultimate goal of the Christian church is to go to the entire world,
but as an individual, that's not our role.
Because you and I cannot go to the whole earth.
Andrew couldn't go to the whole earth.
Even his more famous brother Peter couldn't go to the whole earth.
But like Andrew, we can bring an individual to meet Jesus.
We can bring a family member.
We can bring someone who is still deeply in need of a miracle.
We can bring someone who we might think is an outsider,
and yet Jesus says, if I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself.
And when we invite someone into the presence of Jesus to come and see,
to taste and see that the Lord is good,
when we share our joy and say, I have found the Savior,
when we help put people in that position, then the miracle can be worked.
Then they can see Jesus lifted up and dying for their sins.
Now the question is, how? How do we do that?
Well, sometimes it's out of our comfort zone.
We can pray for people.
I think I asked you a few weeks ago to write down some names to pray for,
and I'm sure you all have done that, but just in case you misplaced those names,
write down some names of people that you can be praying for.
You can pray for divine appointments that somehow during the week,
you're going to bump into somebody and the doors,
it's going to be incredible that you need to tell this person something about Jesus.
Then of course we've got a little plug for our seminar coming up in October.
Take some cards with you and those people that you're praying for,
say, hey, come and sit with me.
On October 10, we're going to have a seminar together
because that's a place where Jesus is going to be lifted up.
That's a place where miracles can happen.
Each of us can make a difference in the life of someone else.
It was September 10, just last week,
and the security camera showed just a typical scene on a bridge in Nashville,
a pedestrian bridge, and all the normal things that happen on a pedestrian bridge.
You can see people walking, couples holding hands, joggers going by,
cyclists riding their bikes down the bridge.
In the distance, maybe because it's Nashville, you can see a few people filming,
like a music video is filming there.
But then, if you happen to notice down in the lower left-hand corner,
in this video, you could see a woman standing next to the rail.
Man, she's halfway there.
She's living on a prayer because she's on the other side of the rail.
She's on the other side of the rail looking down at the Cumberland River, ready to jump.
In this video, you see just two people coming in that direction of that music video shoot.
You see them walk slowly up and start to talk to her from a distance,
get a little closer to the arm around them, and you see her turn around and hug.
You see these two people helping her back over the rail.
One of those happened to be a rock star, Bon Jovi, was filming a music video,
and he saw this happening.
Other people were walking by, looking, and they kept going, but one person noticed.
And one person was willing to come out of their comfort zone and go and talk to somebody,
go and make a difference, and bring them back to a place of safety.
Could we be someone like that, that makes a difference in somebody's life,
that brings somebody to a place of safety, to a place where they can meet Jesus,
to a place where they can experience His power, experience His love, and experience a miracle in their life?
Let that be our mission this week, to find someone who we can invite to come and see.
Let's bow our heads for a prayer.
Dear God, thank You for all that You do for us.
Thank You for bringing us into Your presence, into Your midst, for helping us to experience joy.
But help us to find someone else to share that with, to pass that along,
and invite someone else to come and see all that You have for them.
In Your name we pray, amen.