John 1:35-42 Part 3

Hello and welcome. This is our Possibly our third and final look at these particular verses verses 35 through 42 of chapter 1

I set out with good intentions to have all of this contained in a single sermon and now we're on sermon 3

But I hope it has been a blessing to you as we've looked at a theology of what it means to follow Jesus what does it mean to be a follower?

And as we've studied that in week one We looked at that we have to leave behind the comfortable in order to follow

Jesus like the disciples They left everything they put down their fishing nets. They left everything in order to follow

Jesus They didn't cling to their comforts. They left the comfortable in order to follow Christ. That's the first thing that we learned

The second thing we learned is that we have to know the reason that we follow him. We don't follow him for us We don't follow him for what he can give to us and what we might gain we follow him for him and for him alone

We follow him because he is beautiful and he is worthy and he is wonderful We follow him for him.

And then that leads to the third thing that we've learned is that we have a natural Longing to want to dwell with Christ just like these disciples who the very first thing that they did

It's like where are you staying? We want to know where Christ is and we find Christ in the Word of God so as disciples we want to dwell with Jesus in the

Word of God and in prayers to God and Then that leads to the fourth thing that we learned last not last week two weeks ago, which was

Jesus as a rabbi there is an expectation there that we would learn from him that we would follow him that we would study the

Word of God and I and what we pointed out was is that there's this this culture that we've been given where Faith is an emotional thing but it's never an

Academic or a knowledge thing but yet the disciples they follow Jesus and they learn from him

They studied the Bible with him and they learn doctrine from him and there is an expectation that if we're gonna follow

Christ Rightly, then we have to be people of the Word people who study the Word and who understand the Word and there there is that?

Expectation on us as well Ray Vanderlin, who is a he's a great Man, he does great

Bible studies. He said that our identity is Wrapped up in the dust of the rabbi and what he's trying to say

There is that these men left everything that they had to follow Jesus so closely that when the dust was kicked up from his sandals

It got on them because they were following him so closely Our identity it's just like that.

It's in the dust of the rabbi We follow Jesus closely to understand what it is that he wants to teach us

So that's what we've been learning now tonight We're gonna try to finish this out and we're gonna be looking at verses 40 through 42

But I'm gonna read the whole section just so that we have context So if you will, we're gonna read this together, we'll pray and then we'll get started again, the next day

John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus and as he walked and said behold the

Lamb of God the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus and Jesus turned and saw them following and he said to them.

What do you seek? And they said to him rabbi, which is translated teacher. Where are you staying?

And he said to them come and you will see So they came and they saw where he was staying and they stayed with him that day for it was about the 10th hour

One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew Simon Peter's brother He found first his own brother

Simon and said to him we have found the Messiah which is translated Christ and he brought him to Jesus and Jesus looked at him and said to him you were

Simon the son of John You shall be called Cephas which is translated Peter.

It's the Word of God. Let's pray Lord Jesus, I thank you so much for this text

Lord, I thank you so much that your word is living and active and it and it teaches us and Lord as we study it

You reveal things to us about your character and about your nature and what implications that has for our life

Lord, I pray that as we study this passage today that we will understand clearly who you are that we will understand clearly what this means for us and That Lord as we leave here as a worshiping people

Lord, would you let us leave here as a people who are taking the gospel of Jesus Christ everywhere that we go

In Jesus name we pray. Amen Now tonight we're gonna cover three things hopefully

We're gonna cover that followers of Christ point others to Christ The second thing we're gonna cover is that followers of Christ know who

Christ is and then the third is we're gonna cover that followers Of Christ gain a new identity in Christ The text says

One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew Simon Peter's brother and he found first It means as a matter of priority.

The very first thing that he did was that he found His brother Peter, so the first thing I would say is that followers of Jesus point other people to Jesus Maybe you say it this way true evangelism or true revelation explodes into evangelism when we understand who

Jesus is and we see him for who he Really is then we will not be able to stop talking about him.

Our faith will then explode into conversations and into sharing who

Christ is Andrew again, he leaves the familiar

He starts to get a grasp of who Jesus is. He follows him back to his house But what

I find so fascinating about Andrew is that Andrew doesn't stay with Jesus for very long before he's

Going to find his brother Andrew could have stayed there all day. He is with the

Son of God his Disciple or John the Baptist had already told him. This is the

Son of God. This is the Lamb of God Andrew could have stayed there all day long two days a week But he thought it was so important to tell his brother that he had to he understood who

Jesus was So he had to leave he had to share Christ with his brother His passionate joy and overwhelming excitement for who

Jesus was Propelled him to the people that he knew did not know Christ Now he doesn't do what we do what

I've done he doesn't stop to think about it He doesn't stop to pray about it

I remember the first time that I was gonna share Christ was in a Starbucks in Alabama And it was like something like this

Lord if it be thy will then I'll go up and share Christ with this person Yes, it is

God's will we don't need to pray that prayer. We don't need to ask that It is God's will that we share

Christ with the world the Holy Spirit rebuked me in that moment You know, we don't have to worry like if we have enough information

Andrew didn't worry He left immediately He didn't worry if Peter was gonna reject him.

He didn't worry if he knew all of the arguments All of the fine -sounding points on how to lead someone to Christ with four spiritual laws three spiritual principles or whatever other

Method that you want. He didn't need to know any of that He had been with Jesus for less than a day probably less than an hour

He understood immediately that being a follower of Jesus means pointing others to Jesus Now I've got seven reasons why this is true

If you know me for very long I also have seven sub points of those seven I'm just kidding The first thing is he saw how valuable

Jesus was because Andrew saw how Valuable Christ was he was willing to do everything in order to tell someone else about Jesus and he also with that He saw how diseased the sinful nature of man is

Without a single thought he just sprung into action and he ran to go get his brother and this teaches us a spiritual lesson

That the more we see the value of Jesus Christ the more we will long to share him with others

The more that we see Christ is supremely valuable The more we will long to share

Christ with others. We won't need to think about it. We won't need to pray about it We certainly don't need a seminary degree to do it

True revelation of Christ Explodes into evangelizing for Christ.

That's the first thing that I want us to see about this The second is I want us to see that Andrew understood who

Jesus really is Someone can be valuable and they might not have They might not know who they are or they might think that their value lies in something else

Peter or Andrew Understood who he really was He understood that he was not just a

Jewish rabbi because there was value in Jesus being a rabbi He understood that that was not what was special about him.

He doesn't introduce him that way Because if that were the case, then he would be appealing to 15 to 18 year old

Jewish males, and that's it And as we learned a couple weeks ago That's not very appealing to most of us in this room who aren't

Jewish who aren't 15 and who aren't male So there was something more to Jesus than just him being a rabbi.

He was the Lamb of God He was going to take away the sins of the world Andrew knew that He was the

Son of God who was going to come and reveal the Father to the people of God He was the

Messiah of God and he was the Savior of men If Jesus is only relevancy was that he was a

Jewish rabbi Then most of us in this room that message would be completely irrelevant and for Peter That message would have been irrelevant because we learned he was older too old

In fact to study under a rabbi in the typical Jewish culture Andrew did not leave the table to just go share the news that we had found another rabbi

He did not leave the Son of God Without knowing that this man was the

Son of God that there was something special about him He knew immediately that his brother needed

Jesus just as much as he did He knew immediately that his mother sister father neighbor that crazy guy that lives down the street

All need Jesus just as much as he did because if he understood who he is

Then every single person on planet Earth needs this Messiah this man

Because when you understand how infinitely valuable he is you understand that everyone needs Christ Jesus is not just appealing in a modern -day situation to white evangelicals and he is not just appealing to people in the

Western civilization He is the saint or he is the Savior of sinners whether that's white red black yellow whether it's male female

Child whether it's the strong or the weak the up or the down this Jesus is the

Savior of sinners He is the Lamb of God which is means that he is good news for every single person on planet

Earth because if every person is plagued with sin for all have fallen short of the glory of God and F and if every single person is heading to an eternity in hell, and if Jesus is the only cure

Then sharing him is the only appropriate thing that we could ever do with every single person that we ever know

I give you an example if you're I tonight

Were to go home and in a laboratory in our house because you have one of those if we were to discover the cure to the coronavirus

We would immediately drop everything that we're doing to tell everyone in the world We would call CNN.

We would call Fox. We would call MSNBC. We would call the Globe the Times we would get on YouTube We would do every possible thing that we could do in order to get the news out there that we had found the cure to the coronavirus and out of 300 million

Americans only 58 reported cases of this and we would put our lives on hold for Understanding that we had found the cure to this disease

But what about the disease of the soul? 58 Americans have been identified as having the coronavirus out of 300 million every human being who has ever lived walk or been conceived in their mother's womb is infected with the plague of sin and That plague of sin has far worse consequences.

It has far worse implications and while the coronavirus seems to be curable there is an there is an inoculation period when you were conceived in sin born in sin that if you don't have it cured before the moment that you died is incurable for eternity

Unlike almost every other disease that can have medicinal cure This one has no cure except for Jesus Christ and as Christians We found the cure

As Christians, we know the antidote We know the remedy to withhold that From the world because of fear or because of we don't want to make things awkward

Because we don't want to lose our job to withhold that It's one of the most unloving things that we can do

If you're familiar with a man named Penn Gillette, it's an atheist He's also the comedian who was from Penn and Teller the magicians

He's an atheist He is a skeptic and yet he says some of the most challenging and convicting words for Christians that I've ever read in my life

Penn Gillette says this I've always said that I don't respect people who don't proselytize and by that he just means share their faith.

I don't respect them at all if you believe that there's a heaven and a hell and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life and You think it's not really worth telling them because it would make it socially awkward.

How much do you have to hate someone? to not proselytize How much do you have to hate someone to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them?

I mean if I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you and you didn't believe that truck was bearing

Down on you. There is a certain point where I tackle you and This is more important These are very challenging words

When I heard them spoken I immediately started asking myself why

Why don't I share Christ? Why don't I in line at Chipotle or wherever find ways of bringing

Jesus into the discussion Why don't I think about my family member who is not yet a

Christian and why don't I broach that conversation? Wouldn't we rather?

Temporarily lose a relationship here on earth and know that they had heard the truth Than to momentarily gain a relationship and know that they're going to hell

If we think about it in this way Awkwardness and offense

Yes, we do it with love. Yes, we share with With love and gentleness and grace, but if we think about it in this way

It's the most important thing that we could do if he is who he said he is and if we know him

Then won't we like Andrew do the same things won't we get on the phone today? tonight

Maybe not tonight because we have communion meal maybe tomorrow But when we stop avoiding that conversation won't we stop

Putting off that relative that we need to catch up with won't we stop making excuses

I Believe the answer is yes, but we have to be Convinced that we know what sin is we know what hell is and we know that Jesus Christ is

Savior To have a low view of Christ and a low view of sin will result in a lazy view of angelism

That leads us to our third point about sharing Christ We share a person

We don't share a church we don't share a preacher we don't share ourselves we share

Christ the person Andrew wasn't placing his hopes and his dreams and anything other than the person of Jesus Christ When he went to go get

Peter He wasn't bringing him to a denomination. He wasn't bringing him to a podcast He wasn't bringing him to an article that he read.

He was bringing him to the person of Jesus Christ And this is important because when we share

Jesus we don't point to ourselves We don't point to our preferred spiritual leader

We don't just point to the life change that we have all of those things can change All of those things are fickle.

You may be walking with God in this season, but in the next season you're gonna struggle That spiritual leader pastor that you are following Hopefully he doesn't fall

But how many have fallen we don't even point to our experience or our testimony that can change

We point to Christ We must not point people to things that change

Because we must point them to what is far greater, which is the changeless Christ For me,

I don't want to point people to John Calvin. I love John Calvin, but I don't appoint them there.

I Want to point people to the Puritans. I don't want to point people first and foremost to reform theology I don't even want to point people first and foremost to the

Shepherd's Church. I want to point people to Jesus Christ Because he is the hope of the world not those other things.

Those other things are good, but they're not Almighty things Christ is Almighty Christ is the one who's

Savior Along those same lines the fourth point

I would say is that we point people not just to a person we point them personally Andrew didn't send

Jesus to go share the good news about Jesus in that interesting Andrew didn't share his friend or he didn't tell his friends to go do it for him

He didn't tell he didn't send an invite card to join him at this particular Church Andrew realized that he had a sacred duty and a responsibility himself to go and share the message of Jesus Christ and I bring this up for a couple reasons number one

Because you're already equipped enough to do this work. I Know we don't feel equipped

Every single time before I get up here to share I am trembling. I am praying. I'm begging

Lord God don't let me fall. Don't let me misspeak All of us are afraid to share Christ in whatever

Avenue He's called us to share Christ. If you go to your friend tomorrow, your voice is gonna be quivering.

It's gonna be dry Get some water beforehand. We are just nervous about doing the one thing that we're called to do, but we're qualified to do it

Andrew knew Peter less than a half an hour if you've been in the Shepherd's Church today and if you got saved at the beginning of service

You've known Jesus longer than Andrew did and in some ways you're more qualified than Andrew because he didn't have the

Holy Spirit He knew Jesus face to face and you can say well, that's better.

Jesus says no, I'm not It's better that I leave so that you could have the Holy Spirit. So you're in a better position than the Apostle Andrew to share

Christ Evangelism is not about what you know that that part is in the

Bible you point to Christ You don't have to worry about that if you don't know it literally open it up and read it and study it and find a verse that just Minister to you and point to Christ through that verse.

You don't have to worry about finding content You just need to worry about who God has called you to tell

He says you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth You've got seven point two billion options

If you count the Christians who are in that maybe five billion options, but there's plenty of people to tell about Jesus Andrew started with his brother who might the

Lord be calling you to start with? Now, maybe you don't feel like you have anyone

Maybe you feel like I don't have any family. I Live in a van down by the river. I Have no family and friends

Okay, well put your van and drive and drive into the city and tell someone about Jesus sell everything you own and move to a foreign country and tell someone about Jesus walk into Market Basket and Tell someone about Jesus.

There's plenty. I walked a market basket last night where I walked from the parking lot in a market basket There are plenty of people who need to know about Jesus in Market basket.

I got cut off so many times just going to the line. I'm like, I need to share the gospel All I'm saying is don't settle for a silent

Christian life Don't settle for a life where your muzzle don't settle for a life where you're afraid don't settle for a life where you're scared to Share what you actually believe in and hope in It's good news and it's good to share it.

The second thing I would say about sharing personally us all of us in this room having a

Convicted posture of sharing is because we live in a very desperate part of the country We live in a part of the country that is

Decaying around us that is leading the way and how fast they can run into moral insanity

That's where we live. It is too important for us not to share the gospel our

Towns are too important to Jesus for us not to share the gospel The Bible says how will they believe if they've never heard and how will they hear unless someone tells them?

And you may be saying well God is the author of salvation Kendall you have you have big God theology

And you know if God wants to save someone he will you're right But he has appointed the preaching and sharing of his word is the means by which he wants to do that God has chosen to use us as his witnesses.

And yes, God is sovereign. Yes. God is in control, but he has called us to do it So therefore

I think we have to obey it and we're in a perfect region to be able to do that The third thing

I think I would say is that the goal here at the Shepherd's Church is That we would be a

Christ exalting God glorifying word centered local and global mission sending Church John MacArthur says it this way.

We want to gather to worship and scatter to evangelize Now I'll just tell you this

My perspective on this is this We can create a church that is attractive to the world

We can water down the word We can up the ante on the performance and we can draw people here

What saving value is that if we do that or? We could equip every single person in this room.

We could teach the gospel. We could preach the gospel We can send people out as missionaries into the world

So therefore we are not just doing the work of evangelism on one night a week We are sending people 24 7 into culture who can do the work of Christ in our culture

Our goal is to be able to raise up missionaries who gather together To worship

God and to scatter to share the message of Christ Even Andrew he was in God's house and then he left to go evangelize and you say

He wasn't at church. He was literally at God's house. Jesus's house hanging out with Jesus and Then he left and he went to go share the gospel us tonight.

We are here in God's house Why so that we can worship the Creator of the universe? Why do we leave here?

We leave here to share Christ the fifth reason We're moving on from now sharing

Christ personally. We have a personal responsibility. The next thing is We're gonna cover this one quickly.

We can share Christ enthusiastically How many times? Have you tried to share something with someone that you know, they didn't agree with you and you almost feel like you're apologizing for it

You know, there's this thing I'm I'm really excited about it and then the person's like I can tell

Sharing Christ is not awkward when we love him more than the fear of man Sharing Christ is not lifeless or banal.

That's just boring. I just wanted to make a really interesting word there It's not boring It's not something we have to apologize for No one's gonna apologize if they say hey guess what

I have the cure to X Y or Z I can help you No one's gonna apologize for that we don't have to apologize for knowing

Christ and for sharing Christ because he is the hope of the world and If we know that it ought to make us excited it ought to make us thrilled it ought to make us you know that look that people give you when you're too much for them and they're like You know what?

I'm talking about. I've done this to people I come up and I'm sharing something and they're like It's okay

That's okay. We can be excited. We don't have to apologize for that. We don't have to make excuses for our excitement you never know what

God's gonna do and that leads to our sec our sixth point, which is We can point people to Christ expectantly

Now think about it this way. You never know what God's gonna do through your witness Andrew is a minor character in the gospel

Perhaps the most significant thing that he ever did in his life was he went here and got

Peter and He told him about Jesus Because if you think about it

Peter becomes the leader of the Jerusalem Church Peter in a single sermon Preaches and 3 ,000 people are converted

You never know what God is going to do Maybe the most significant thing that you'll ever do is share the gospel with your child

Maybe the most significant thing you'll ever do is have a conversation in line at a checkout

Maybe you share Christ with the next Billy Graham Maybe you share Christ with a woman who's going to sell everything that she has to go to a foreign country to tell someone about Christ our prayer should be not that our name becomes great our prayer should become that Christ's name becomes great no matter who it is from and Our prayer should be that the person that we tell

Christ to next should do more than we do should go further than we go We may be totally forgotten

But all I'm saying is that we get to spend the rest of our life making sure that Jesus is remembered Who cares if we're forgotten?

Because if his name is above all names, that's the way it should be. Our name doesn't have to be great

My point is just don't downplay what God can do through you The final point

I would say in this first point is To rest in God's sovereignty

We're not the author of salvation That person that we're sharing Christ with if they don't come to know

Jesus. It's not because we were a bad witness if God is the author of salvation then we are simply called to obedience

We are called to rest and trust in who he is and Charles Spurgeon Like he does all the time says it probably better than anyone

We are not responsible to God for the souls that are saved we are responsible for the gospel that is preached

That's it We are responsible for the gospel that is preached now you may be asking yourself.

What do I actually tell people? What do I actually share? What is this gospel that you're talking about?

Well that leads to our second point tonight is that we must know Christ in order to share Christ We must know

Christ in order to share Christ Andrew says that we have found the Messiah. Well, we need to know what that means

Now, I know that that's a Christian easy word Christ is Jesus's last name, right?

We know that it's on his birth certificate in Galilee or Bethlehem. Excuse me

But in order for us to share Christ, I don't want to make any assumptions I want us to understand what this word

Christ actually means. I This Christ is that's

Jesus. I want to understand what that word means and to do that. We need to look at some Greek and Hebrew together

This word that John is using is two languages in the same sentence.

One is Hebrew and one is Greek When he says when Andrew says this is the Messiah, which is translated

Christ John is translating the Hebrew into the Greek so that all of his Greek speaking readers would understand what he's talking about Andrew says this is the

Messiah Which is great fun word to say Moshiach That means

Messiah which is translated Christos which means Christ Now, why is

John? Taking the time here to give us two different words that mean the same thing

Because in his context they knew what the word Christos meant him an anointed one But he's pairing it with Moshiach, which is a

Hebrew word. It's an Old Testament word He's pairing those two together because he's trying to point to the simple fact when the

Greek speaking audience heard the word Christos and when us as English speakers hear the word Christ, we're supposed to pair it with a

Hebrew understanding of Messiah We're supposed to understand that this word didn't pop into existence when

Jesus came it is a word Messiah that shows up in the Old Testament and You'll be fascinated to know how

David is called Messiah at one point and I'll understand what that means The word

Messiah means anointed when it means someone who is anointed with olive oil for a specific task

And in fact in the Old Testament, there were three tasks that you would be anointed for the high priest the one man who served in the temple

The king who governed the people and the prophet who called the people to repentance

All three of these roles are called Moshiach Messiah like roles and I think for a minute we need to look at each of them so that we can understand what this means for us in Leviticus 8 10 through 12 we get our first glimpse of what this word means.

It says Moses then took the anointing oil and He anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it and consecrated them set it apart

He sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times and anointed the altar and all of its utensils and the basins and it stand to consecrate them

Then he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head and he anointed him to consecrate him.

He Moshiach Aaron and What this looks like is that the entire office of the high priest was from here on out an anointed role it was for the sacred and holy service in the temple and it's

These men were the only men who could go into the holiest place in all of Israel But only once per year.

These are men who represented the people before God they offered sacrifices and they performed a

Mediatorial role meaning they stood in the middle between God and man They served the people on behalf of God and they served

God on behalf of the people their uniform Is actually fascinating when we learn about what this mediatorial role looks like they had 12 stones on their breastplate

It was like they were armoring up to go into the presence of God because God's presence is dangerous So they put on padding with 12 stones 12 precious stones.

Why? Because the people of Israel were 12 tribes So they're carrying

God's people into God's presence Symbolically through these 12 stones on their shoulders were written the 12 tribes of Israel six on this side and six on this side why because they're bearing the people of God into the presence of God and If you know a little bit about the temple, the temple was decorated like the

Garden of Eden So once a year the high priest is symbolically walking

Instead of away from the garden like Adam they're walking back to the garden symbolically bearing the people of God into God's holy presence and They're celebrating

The day when sin will be eradicated They're celebrating the day when we're men and God will dwell together in holy unity forever and what

I find so fascinating about this office is that it's referred to as Mashiach as a

Messiah type role Leviticus 4 or 5. This is the first time the word is used in the entire

Bible. It says then the anointed Mashiach priest It's Aaron is to take some of the blood of the boy the bull and bring it into the tent of meeting

You can even be faithful as a Hebrew translator if you went home and you marked that out and you said then the

Messiah like priest is To take some of the blood of the bull and bring it into the tent of meeting the

Messiah like priest Why? Why is this word here in this context not because Aaron was was an actual

Messiah? But because the entire office of the priesthood pointed to the

Messiah It was a little office that pointed to the big high priest the true high priest

That is God look at it says that they bear the people into the presence of God carrying the blood of a lamb

How familiar is that that the that the spilled blood of Jesus Christ the lamb bears us into the presence of God The true

Messiah the true Mashiach is the one who brings us in Now if you know

About the Old Testament the men who served in the temple were not enough They were not enough.

They never accomplished bringing the people into God's presence. So what does that tell us? We need a better high priest

These men who symbolically carried their brothers and sisters into God's presence never did it officially

So we need a better mediator These Messiah like priest who offered sacrifices on behalf of the people

It wasn't effective. The sacrifice of blood and bulls was not enough to save so we needed a better sacrifice

If you know anything about the priest, they also anointed people with oils This is where a lot of people get their justification for essential oils

I'm not saying that's what it is, but they anointed people with oil.

They anointed their wounds. They wrapped them with bandages They were like medical care people in the in the nation and yet they never healed the greatest wound

Which is sin and death their office was entirely ill effective for that purpose. So we need a better healer

We need a better sacrifice. We need a better Messiah the one who would bear them

On his bruised and broken shoulders into the presence of God By not just being a good high priest, but by being the true lamb that was murdered for the sins of the people

This is who Jesus Christ is The one who healed our wounds by being wounded this word

Messiah In this passage tells us so much about what Andrew thought about Christ He saw him as the true and great high priest

He saw him as the one who would heal their brokenness. He's not just a rabbi. He's more than that Now the word also applies to the

Kings King Saul was the first king that was said to be

Moshiach Set apart consecrated commission to lead the people of God First Samuel 10 one says then

Samuel took the flask of oil And poured it over his head and he kissed him and he said has not the Lord anointed you ruler over his inheritance

Again like the high priest the office of the King was a small office that was supposed to symbolize something big

This King was supposed to be the one and although he wasn't a good King He was supposed to be the one who was called anointed set apart and to be a

Messiah like figure in the people of God Who led them into peace and prosperity in their land?

the purpose of the Israelite monarchy was So that they could defend the people of Israel conquer the land of Israel They had their own copy of the

Bible so that they could lead the people in the Word of God They were to lead the people into consistent living under the law.

They were to protect the kingdom from enemies They were to help everyone in that kingdom be citizens of a kingdom that looked like heaven

Where God's rule had come down to earth. That was the purpose of the Kings and Isn't it interesting that Saul?

Is spoken about in this way has not the Lord anointed you Messiah Jew as ruler over my inheritance that fascinating This teaches us again

That the Old Testament kingdom was not enough. The Kings were not enough If you know anything about the

Old Testament, you'll realize That they led their people into rampant sin and idolatry

They led their people Into wars and eventually they led their people into exile

They lost everything that they were supposed to do and they were not Honoring to that a

Shiite title that just teaches us that we need a better King The point of the

Old Testament is not to say that this is enough The point of the Old Testament is to say that we need Christ From Genesis to Malachi every word of the

Old Testament is that this is not enough. We need Christ We need a better King. We need one who's going to bring a true heavenly citizenship

We need a king who is going to bring the rule of God on heaven as it is on earth we need a better King a true son of David Who would lead the people into obedience to God?

I think it's fascinating that Jesus says Go into all the world and share the gospel and the gates of hell will not stand against it

Those are military terms that a king would share You will be my witnesses you will be my ambassadors we are soldiers for Christ Paul says that there's a citizenship in heaven that is being prepared for us

And when we get to Revelation, we see that we live forever with a king Jesus is the the true and the better King The final office that this refers to is the office of the

Prophet Elijah was the first Real prophet there were a couple before him, but that's what the

Israelites Believed kind of represented their first prophet And he was told by God that he was to be the mouthpiece of God He was to confront the lies and the heresy and the idolatry of the people who were worshiping the

Baals as we saw in Matthew 27 earlier God used this man and He was to remind the people of God of God's promises his covenants the prophets job in the

Old Testament was to go to the Kings and to Remind them of every promise that God had made in every way that they had broken it.

That is the role of the Prophet So if you read Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel Daniel They are covenant lawyers and they are suing the

Kings on grounds that they have violated the Covenant That is what the prophets do. So they're not especially happy books

You you don't read them when you when you want to get cheered up You read them when you want to fall under conviction because you like them have fallen short of God's standard now in first Kings 19, we see this and Behold the word of the

Lord came to Elijah and the Lord said to him go return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus and when you arrive you shall anoint

Hazael the king over Syria and Jehu the son of Nimshi You shall anoint to be king over Israel and on my

Shah The son of Shaphat you shall anoint him to be prophet It's interesting in The same passage where he says anoint these two

Kings. He also says anoint the Prophet He's drawing an equivalency here that the office of the

Prophet was also an office that was to be anointed Now the purpose of the

Prophet was to serve God faithfully to oppose sin in Israel To speak the words of God to call the people to repentance and Interestingly the prophets were the only ones in the

Old Testament who shared parables Because the point Was that if the people were so far gone that they could not understand

God's Word The prophets had to go and tell them stories that only or that even a child can understand

God is bringing them under such intense judgment that he's sharing parables with them because if they can't understand that they can understand nothing and if They don't repent from that.

They won't repent at all and generally speaking when the prophets start speaking parables The judgment of God is coming the prophets were to stand for God even when the entire world hated them and even when the people of Israel would murder them and What we see all throughout the history of Israel is that the prophets were an insufficient office just like the

Kings and just like the priests they tried to get the people to repent, but the people did not repent instead the people hated and they killed them and All of this points to the fact that just like we need a better King just like we need a better priest

We need a better prophet We need someone who will share the very words of God. Isn't it interesting that in John Jesus is said to be the

Word of God He's not just like an ordinary prophet that the Word of the Lord came to him.

He is the Word of the Lord He does come speaking parables and rebuke because in AD70 the

Roman armies would come and would destroy Israel for their rejection of the Savior and Jesus is warning them one final time as a true prophet and Not just a prophet as the one and only

Son of God See whether it's a prophet a priest or a king all three of these roles in the

Old Testament were utterly deficient No one of them could address the greatest and fundamental need of the human soul within the human heart

None of them could heal the blight upon man None of them could wash away the stains that our sin has caused and none of them were

Messiah enough None of them were Mashiach enough and what's interesting in the

Old Testament? None of them held all three offices ever Moses probably held to he held a priestly role and he held a kingly role, but he did not hold the other one the prophet role

None of the Old Testament Authors none of the Old Testament prophets held all three offices until Christ.

He is our true prophet He's our true priest and he is our true king Now when you think about how this relates to our life

You could be saying well, that's a great history lesson. Thank you so much for telling me that But how does that actually help me in my walk?

Well, if Jesus is your true prophet then you don't have to go to anyone other than him to hear the Word of God He's the true

Word of God He's the one who is the Word Incarnate like we said he is the one who calls us to repentance and he is the one who will free us from our idolatry and Unlike the

Old Testament prophets. He is always successful Christ is the one who not just called us to repentance

He got on a Roman cross to make sure that we would be saved and forgiven of our sins. He's the true prophet

He's our true priest. What wound is there that Christ cannot heal? He's the only sacrifice that we ever need because of his death on the cross sinners can be brought into right relationship with God Lost people can be found and people who are in the kingdom of darkness can be transferred into the kingdom of light

He is our true priest he bears us into the presence of God and he is also our true king as we said before He established a kingdom here on earth

He called each of us to be citizens in that kingdom he's sending us out as emissaries on behalf of him and he will return one day as a as a

Triumphant King to claim his kingdom and to bring us into God's presence for the rest of eternity

Now I say all of this Because when

Andrew saw Christ He used that word Messiah and that word

Messiah would have been very rich with meaning with him and he would have seen Even if it were limited, he would have seen that Jesus has a priestly kingly prophetic role and That he is the one and only

Son of God who can heal all of our wounds If you are a

Christian then this is who you are following you're not following just a good moral teacher

You're not following just a well -known rabbi. You're following the one and only anointed Son of God Now the final thing that I want us to share tonight is what the passage ends on We talked about the fact that we must share the gospel and we've talked about that We must share

Christ if you're spoken if you're speaking to someone who's wounded share with them that he's the true high priest

He's the one who can heal their brokenness If you're talking to someone who feels lost and doesn't know where to go.

He's the true King. He'll lead you that's how you share Christ, you know who he is in his office, but I Want to share the final point the most important out of the ones that we've shared so far if you're a follower of Christ This one must be true

If this one's not true, then none of it matters Because you can Leave the comfortable behind to follow someone to Disney World.

You don't need to follow Jesus to leave comfortable to leave comfort You can understand why we follow him

I read a professor who understood the gospel better than I did in seminary and I was moved to tears on his

Presentation of the gospel and I found out later that he was an atheist and he was just reciting what he had memorized in a book

You don't have to be a Christian to know the gospel You don't have to be a Christian to know why people follow

Jesus You can be a sociologist or an anthropologist and you can study this tribe this weird tribe of people called

Christians And you can come up with a great answer on why Christians genuinely follow Jesus. You don't have to be saved to do that You can long to dwell with Jesus because you think he's gonna give you something or he's gonna give you status or he's gonna give

You a family or he's gonna answer your prayers. You don't need to be a true sincere Christian in order to want to be with Jesus You can follow him as a rabbi because you're a nerd like me and you want to learn

Jewish history You can follow him by bringing others to him because you think that there's something great in that This last one is the most important one because if you don't have it, you don't have anything verse 42

It says he Andrew brought him Peter to Jesus Jesus looked at him and said you are

Simon the son of John you shall be called Cephas which is translated Peter The last and final point is that followers of Jesus Christ gained a new identity in Christ you get a new name

If you think about it Peter came as an old not old he's 20 but he came with that old name that he had carried since the day he was born and Jesus said

I'm not gonna allow you to identify with that man anymore. I'm gonna give you a new identity I'm gonna give you a new name.

You see in the Bible when you get a new name That's a very important thing. Adam is the one who names all the animals

There's every time in the Bible that your name is changed It means that you were getting a different status that you were getting a different owner and that you're getting a different Identity the fact that Jesus named

Peter and changed his name means that he is not only saying that I don't like your name Maybe you know, it's not that Simon just wasn't a great name or that he already had another

Simon disciple So that to distinguish them he had to rename him Cephas, which means little pebble No That's not what

Jesus was doing. Jesus changed his name because he's saying you are mine I'm changing your name.

I am the rock. I am the cornerstone on which this church is gonna build. So hey little pebble. I Want you to know me because I want you to get your identity from me.

I Want you to know who you are in relationship to me and you will no longer be called Simon You'll be called

Peter because I'm claiming you as my own and what this means to us Just like a father who names his kid claims ownership of that kid in Jesus Christ.

We've got a new name That's what it means to follow Jesus first and foremost above anything else

If you're following Jesus, you have a new identity in Christ. And if you don't you are following yourself

But if you're in Christ the name that is above all names There's a verse I got to read here. If you're in Christ, you get a new identity this same

Peter This same little pebble at the end of his time with Jesus and Jesus ascends to heaven.

This is what he says and Peter said to them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus for the giveness of sins and you will receive

The gift of the Holy Spirit this man who was a coward who denied Jesus three times in Matthew 27

Because of what Jesus Christ has done now has a new identity in Christ and he is boldly sharing

Jesus It is not because Peter woke up. It is not because Peter gained some courage or a backbone

It is because he was changed and in order to be a Christian we must be changed

No longer do I need to be known just as Kendall? I need to be known under the name that is above all names

His name has been applied to me and to you and if you're a Christian you get a new status and a new identity

If you don't have that you don't have anything But if you have that If you have his name

You can leave the you can leave the comfortable and you can follow him. You can long to dwell with him

You can share him with others with conviction and with passion You can follow him and learn from him you can submit your entire life to him

If you have the name That's what it means to follow Christ is that you are a new creation

Claimed by Christ Lord Jesus, thank you so much for the fact that you've given us your name that you've claimed us as your own just like a dad who

Calls us a certain name so that we can be identified with our family You have shared your name with us

So that we could be known as members of the family of God that is the work that we cannot do That is the thing that we cannot work really hard in order to get we can't work and do anything in order to impress you

In order to twist your arm and get you to save us based off our performance and our merit Lord.

We Are desperate to be identified with you when the books are open in heaven.

We want our Name to be written under your name We want to be found in you

Because without that we have nothing Lord I pray right now

Anyone who's listening to this or anyone who will be listening to this? Lord, I pray if if they are not in Christ that they would

They would humbly pray and ask you Lord to come and to save them and to share with them who you are in your name

To transfer them into a new creation Religion is not enough

We need you dear Jesus in everything that we do And Lord for all of us who are in Christ Who at some point in our life you came and you claimed us as your child and you transferred us into your family

Lord, please. Let us not stop there That's the narrow gate that we have to enter

Lord, but please help us to also walk on the narrow way Please help us to be people who share

Christ with our neighbors. Please help us to go from here as missionaries in this world