There is surely a great sermon to be preached on Sunday's Gospel (John 1v43-end) for The Second Sunday of Epiphany (Year B):
(1) Nathaniel a true Israelite (v47)
(2) Jesus the true Israel (v51)
Sadly I have not prepared that sermon yet!
But such as I have I give you.
Here's my last attempt at this passage: Jesus Calls You To Follow Him -
https://www.warbletonchurch.org.uk/sermons-talks/?sermon_id=221
And below are some jottings.
You might like to have
John 1, page 43, open before you.
And you might like to pray
for preacher and listeners.
You’ve probably heard about the advert the
polar explorer Ernest Shackleton in said to have put in the newspaper to try to
recruit men for his Endurance expedition, which began in 1914, to make the
first land-crossing of Antarctica:
“Men wanted for hazardous journey.
Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete
darkness.
Safe return doubtful.
Honour and recognition in event of success.”
He was at least upfront about the cost and the
difficulty.
But in the event of success: honour and
recognition!
Fame.
Immortality, we might say.
Challenge.
Exploration.
Discovery.
Be the best.
Go with the best.
We can see the attraction of Shackleton’s
advert to a certain kind of person, maybe, I think.
Jesus will say, “If anyone would come after
me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
Jesus too is clear and upfront about the
difficulty and the cost.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who
plotted against Hitler and who was executed by the Nazis once said:
“When Jesus calls a man (a person) he bids him
come and die (Bonhoeffer)”
But there is the basic invitation: Follow me.
You can see it there again in v43 of our
gospel reading.
[read v43]
Jesus said: “Follow me”
We often make stuff, we make the Christian
life, pretty complicated and subtle, and I guess it is in some ways.
But in a way isn’t it also very simple?
Follow Jesus.
You could have that tattooed on the inside of
your eyelids.
Follow Jesus.
That is today’s sermon, basically.
You could sum up today’s
sermon in 6 words:
Jesus calls you to follow
him.
[repeat]
And if you want a longer
sermon, as I’m sure you do, you could expand that by underlining some of those
words and meditating on them.
JESUS, this Jesus, calls
you to follow him – we’ll think a bit more about Jesus and what this passage
tells us about him.
Jesus calls YOU to follow
him.
We’ll say something about
what this passage tells us about ourselves.
Jesus calls you to FOLLOW
HIM. We’ll think about what that means.
Although not necessarily
quite in that order.
So, I hope that sounds
okay.
If you remember nothing
else from today: Jesus calls you to follow him.
That’s the agenda for this
sermon, for today.
When you wake up tomorrow,
what is number one on the to do list?
Follow Jesus.
When you come back next
week, why not speak to one another about how its gone following Jesus.
Follow Jesus.
Now what does it mean to
follow Jesus?
Not called to be an
apostle like Philip or Peter or Andrew or Nathaniel in our passage.
Apostles 12 / 13 – unique,
foundational etc.
Literally left everything
and went with Jesus everywhere full time
Enrolled for 3 years in
Jesus University
Literally following Jesus
You are not of course
called to that, it would be impossible
Jesus is bodily in heaven
But you and these first
guys are called to the same underlying reality:
Being J’s disciple
Learner
He is teacher, Lord, guru,
trainer, master
Apprentice
Lord Alan Sugar
People want to be Alan
Sugar’s Apprentice
Presumably they think they
might become rich or rich and famous
Far better to have Jesus
as your Apprentice-Master and Senior Partner
So the Christian life is being
with Jesus, listening to him and being like him
Doing Jesus’ work in his
way
Joining in with Jesus’
mission, Jesus’ kingdom and purposes and plans and family business
Jesus is in charge and we
are called to stick with him and be part of it
A wonderful adventure – of
course not easy, but the best life ever, life in all its fullness
The life for which you
were made
The best fit for you
What really matters
True fulfilment, glory,
honour, as well as challenge and all that
Inexhaustible
Life changing opportunity
Nothing matters more
How do we be with Jesus
and listen to him?
Not here!
Read the Bible and pray!
Always that!
Simple!
5 minutes most days?
Following Jesus also includes
inviting others to follow him
Cf. v41 – Andrew brings
Simon
Philip brings Nathaniel
V45 – we have found the
one…
V46b – come and see
Jesus says elsewhere, “come
and follow me and I will make you fishers of men” – we are going to catch
people together
Jesus will use us
Natural, spontaneous
What Jesus’ followers want
to do
The best news in the world
ever
Oak Hill guest events –
2-4 Feb
Pray! Plot! Invite!
Follow me, follow Jesus
Let’s just think about him a bit more for a moment
JESUS
V45 – the one the whole
Bible was on about
The one!
The X, the long-promised
rescuer king
V29 – The lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world
V26 – The one who is far
far greater than great J t B who will baptise with the Holy Spirit (v33)
New heart, clean on the
inside
V34 – The Son of God
God’s chosen king
God incarnate
V49
V51 – Bible quiz!
Jesus the true Israel /
Jacob – Genesis 28
The man from heaven
He is the one whom angels
worship
Jesus is the ladder - The
way to heaven
Think about J, focus on
him
Son of Man (v51) – Daniel
7
He is the one who has even
greater stuff to show you and to do through you (v50)
Inexhaustible
Wonderful!
Who else would you like to
follow?
The greatest teacher who
ever lived
The greatest person who
ever lived
Miracles
Wisdom
Character
Eternal glory, Birth,
life, death, resurrection, reign, return
Are you bored of Jesus?
What do you love about
him?
What have your learnt
about Jesus in the last year?
Jesus calls you to follow him
YOU
You!
Jesus wants you to follow
him
Surprise! He really does!
He knew Nathaniel
thoroughly
He could sum him up
Vv47-48
Nathaniel rightly
recognises Jesus’ supernatural knowledge (v49)
Jesus is God
God knows all things
Jesus knows all things
He knows you thoroughly
and fully
Ps 139 – always with you,
made you
He sees you when you are
alone under a tree (v48)
He understands you
Though perhaps no one else
understands you…
Though you do not really
understand yourself…
That means you can be
yourself with Jesus
There is no point
pretending with him
You don’t have to fake it
Almighty God, to whom all
hearts are open and from whom no secrets are hid
Being like Jesus doesn’t
mean obliterating you
He calls you despite the
bad stuff you’ve done
Jesus knows all the worst
skeletons in your cupboard
He knows about cupboards
within cupboards you don’t even know about!
And he calls you anyway
He calls sceptics like
Nathaniel (v46)
He calls the prejudiced
He calls those who take
some persuading
He calls those who call a
spade a shovel
Jesus calls you to follow
him.
I invite you today to
resolve for the first time, or to resolve afresh, by the grace of God in the
power of the Holy Spirit, to follow Jesus.
To spend some time
reflecting on what it means for you to follow Jesus.
And to pray that God might
enable you always to walk with Jesus as his faithful friend and disciple.
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