Our Gospel for today connects two stories; first, John’s announcement of Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and second, Andrew and John becoming Jesus’ first disciples. And these two stories need to be told together, as they give a model for us Christians to follow–we hear the word of Christ, and then we too are to issue the invitation to others to come and see Jesus.
The Christian Church as a whole is in a bit of a crisis, these days. Mind you, looking at the big, impressive new churches being built in the Winkler area you wouldn’t guess it, but the fact remains that the crisis is as real around here as anywhere. And that crisis, at its heart, is that by-and-large, our culture and our society no longer regards Christ as Lord. After roughly 1700 years of Christianity being the dominant social and cultural factor in our society, the influence of the church is waning.
There are two ways of responding to this. One is to complain about how hard things are getting and worry about the future. The other is simply to dig deeper into God’s Word, to trust in Him, and to bring the good news of salvation through Jesus to others.
A lot of churches and a lot of Christians make evangelism sound like it’s a hard thing to do, when at its core, there couldn’t be anything simpler. It’s not a matter of joining a committee, or memorizing a stock presentation of the Gospel, or even having a good set of pamphlets at the ready. It’s not a matter of hiring a professional evangelism guru or paying thousands of dollars for an outside consultant. Having said that, this is precisely how most churches go about evangelism these days. We leave it to the professionals. But that’s not what the Scriptures tell us to do. Evangelism is simply and purely what Andrew does in our Gospel for today. Andrew, so often overlooked in favour of his more famous brother, Peter, shows you and I how to be effective and soul-winning evangelists even today.
He simply says to Peter, “We’ve found the Messiah!” And he brought him to Jesus. That’s all there was to it.
Jesus says, “Come and see.” His disciples bring their family and friends to come and see Jesus as well. Shortly after this event recorded in today’s Gospel, we see Philip issuing the same invitation, “Come and see,” to Nathaniel. What gets in the way of you issuing the same offer to your family or neighbours or friends? Come and see.
Our congregations are rather unique in character among the local churches. We have been blessed with a long and rich history–both Trinity and Zion are each over 100 years old, both Trinity and Zion have deeply established networks of family and friends which make up the core of the congregation. And we thank God for the many blessings He has showered on us. We have, we believe, the pure teaching of the Word of God and of the Gospel in our church’s official statement of beliefs, the Book of Concord, and, hopefully, in our Sunday services.
So what’s keeping us from issuing that “Come and see” offer? What are we afraid of? What are we ashamed of?
Maybe the problem is that we don’t really believe Jesus at His Word. Maybe the problem is that we’ve forgotten about sin and how it causes eternal death. Maybe the problem is that it is too easy altogether, in our local situation, to be a Christian, so we don’t give it any real effort. After all, pretty much everyone around here seems to belong to a church, don’t they? Never mind the fact that in Winkler, the total church membership between all the different churches is less than half the total population, if I remember a statistic I once heard at our ministerial meetings once. Never mind the fact that the number is even lower in Morden or Altona or Manitou or any of the other area towns.
Now, I’m not suggesting that the thing to do is go out door-to-door in the -25 weather we’re currently experiencing or anything like that. Jesus’ disciples, for the most part, weren’t into that, either. But what we are called to do is tell our friends and neighbours about Jesus.
The specific thing about Jesus that we need to say is important, too. Most people in Canada know who Jesus was. There are some who have invented strange and impossible conspiracy theories that claim Jesus never even existed, but for the most part, the existence of a man named Jesus in 1st century Palestine, who went around doing miracles and telling parables, who died on a cross, is universally accepted as being the truth.
And this is good to know. It’s a nice baseline of information. But it is information which, in and of itself, cannot save anyone. To know that Jesus died is not that big a deal. Everyone dies. That includes you and me. This is why before anyone follows Jesus, we need to know what He has done for us. For you. For me. It wouldn’t be reasonable to believe in Jesus if He were just like anyone else. It wouldn’t make sense to be a Christian if all it meant was that we got together to learn good morals and there was nothing else there. Why celebrate a dead person, other than the occasional commemoration party?
So we need to hear again John’s declaration of just who this Jesus is: The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.' I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel." And John bore witness: "I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God." (John 1:29-34 ESV)
John saw something special when Jesus was baptized, something he had never seen from anyone else or anywhere else. He saw the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus and knew that Jesus would be the one to baptize with the Holy Spirit. He heard the voice of God declare that Jesus was the Son of God.
With this in mind, he could only conclude that Jesus was the Lamb of God foretold by the countless sacrifices of lambs at the altar of the Lord throughout the centuries, the innumerable lambs slaughtered for the Passover feasts each year. What’s more, calling Jesus the Lamb of God also pointed back to the great prophecy of Isaiah 53 about the Lord’s servant who would bear the sin of God’s people once and for all: “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:4-11 ESV)
Now this is something that not just anyone can deliver. Not just anyone can bear the griefs and sorrows and sins and transgressions and iniquities of all. But the Lamb of God could. All people are like sheep going astray, but the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is the one sheep who did not go astray but who instead stands in the place of the wayward flock, taking the punishment they deserve for wandering off.
Getting back to the initial thought, it’s important to realize that when we talk about the importance of salvation, this is where it has to start. People need to know from what they need salvation before they are aware of how badly they need a Saviour. That’s simply how it works. Or, put in other terms–the Law needs to precede the Gospel. It’s nice to hear that Jesus loves you, but it’s much better to know that Jesus receives sinners and saves them, especially when God’s Word has blasted its perfect hole through all your petty excuses and reasonings and understandings.
For the other reason why we are so scared of doing mission work today is that we have a million excuses on why people won’t listen to us. If people reject us, that’s certainly no different than what Jesus Himself experienced. After teaching at Capernaum one time, as you can read in John 6, almost everyone who was following Jesus quit. It got too hard for them to follow Jesus. Yet, as Jesus said on another occasion, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62) There’s no turning back. Jesus has called us to be His own. He bids us follow Him, and to bring others with us. Maybe it’s your family or your neighbours or your friend. The call remains for you to use what the Lord’s given you. If we are silent, the rocks themselves will proclaim the Lord–but why be silent when we have such an amazing Saviour?
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself give us His strength and boldness to proclaim Him as the Lamb of God to those we love, that they too might be saved. For there is nothing more important than to be counted among God’s own holy and elect people, nothing of greater worth than to be called by the Gospel, enlightened with Christ’s gifts, sanctified, and kept in the one true faith. For this is why the Lamb of God came, that you and I and indeed all people would be His own. That’s why He died to take away our sins, so we could live with Him instead of perishing in hell. Come and see Jesus each Sunday, dear friends–and bring a friend! Amen
Last updated January 2008 by the webmaster.