Who Did Andrew and Philip Find?

 

“The two disciples heard him [John the Baptist] speak, and they followed Jesus.”

 

Let’s state two things that ought to be before us at all times:

 

The first is that our desire ought to always be to speak in such a way that others follow Jesus Christ, and that they follow in such a way that they bring others to know Jesus, for to follow Jesus Christ entails witnessing to Jesus Christ and bringing others to Jesus Christ. How did we come to a place in the West, and in our congregations, where lesser forms of Christianity are the norm? A faithful Church is a witnessing Church. A faithful Bride is a Bride not ashamed of her Husband.

 

The second thing is that we need to be willing to leave the things we know, the things that are familiar to us, so that we might follow Jesus Christ and increasingly come to know Jesus Christ. Abraham, our Father in the Faith, left what he knew (Ur of the Chaldees) in order to obey the call of Yahweh; our fathers and mothers of Hebrews Chapter 11 were perpetually “going out” in order to follow the True and Living God, and Andrew and Philip would both leave the familiar in order to follow Jesus. Jesus was constantly calling men and women to leave what they knew, and often what they were secure within, to follow Him.

 

How different is the Biblical call of Jesus Christ from what we preach and teach and write about today? We often say, “Keep what you have. Keep your pleasures, keep your affluence, keep your egotism, keep your pursuit of temporal position and glory; come to Jesus and He will help you gain all of these things and enjoy them even more – Jesus will help you get what you want!”

 

Sadly, we even give sin new names, therapeutic names – so that we don’t think there is really anything wrong with us that can’t be fixed with some counseling and hugs or the acquisition of things – whether it is the sin nature with which we are all born, or specific sins of our hearts, minds, and bodies – we substitute therapeutic language for Biblical language, therapeutic concepts for Biblical concepts, the wisdom of man for the wisdom of God.

 

But make no mistake, we are not only called to leave sin, to leave the bad things, we are called to leave even some pretty good teaching, such as the teaching of John the Baptist, so that we can follow Jesus. In fact, for those of us raised in the de facto Law of Moses and traditions of men, which at times may have been helpful to us and others, we are called to leave even those things so that we may give Jesus Christ our all in all and find in Him our everything.

 

The Law of Moses was our tutor (Galatians 3:15 – 4:11; note 3:24), but to remain in the Law is to die, and to teach the Law as Law is to place others under condemnation (2 Cor. Chapter 3). There was a time when Andrew needed to leave John the Baptist, just as we are called to leave the Law, through the death of Jesus Christ, and be married to Another (Romans 7:1 – 6).

 

To truly understand the Law and the Prophets and the Writings is to see Jesus Christ in them (Luke 24:27, 44 – 45). Just as John the Baptist proclaims, “Behold the Lamb!”, the Old Testament shouts, “Behold the Lamb!”

 

I suppose I should make this point, we are not called to seek new things, new understandings, new revelations; we are called to seek and follow Jesus Christ. I am afraid that I must confess that I used to be a member of the “Revelation of the Month Club.” I was always seeking something newer and higher and more novel, rather than seeking a deeper and more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. I was more focused on sharing “truth” with others, understandings with others, than I was in sharing Jesus Christ with others. Let us not deceive ourselves, we can make some attractive religious idols – the most powerful idols are the attractive idols, not the ugly scary idols – just look at the winners of the show American Idols. We create talented religious idols, not dumb idols.

 

Usually it doesn’t cost us much, if anything, to share our spiritual and religious knowledge with others – after all, it is really just a social game. But to share Jesus Christ means that we must live in Jesus Christ as He lives in us and through us – and my dear friends, that means that the Cross is our nexus, that we live in Galatians 2:20 – and that will simply cost us our lives, for we must die with Christ so that others may live in Christ (John 12:24; Philippians 3:8 – 16; Acts 20:24; 2 Tim. 2:8 – 10).

 

May I please make another confession? There have been times (O I wish I had those times back to live them again!), in which I preached and taught about witnessing for Jesus Christ without speaking of suffering for Him, of bearing His reproach, of laying down our lives for Jesus and others. I look on those times with shame. Any book, any video series, any preaching or teaching that purports to speak of witnessing for Jesus without suffering for Jesus and others is an airplane with one wing – and what happens to such an airplane?

 

We ought not to read John 3:16 without 1 John 3:16.

 

What do you think about that statement?

 

We’ll pick Andrew and Philip up again in the next post in this series.