Sermon Tone Analysis

In May of 2002, the Lily Endowment conducted a survey of some 300,000 church attenders in over 2,200 churches spanning across eight denominations.

One of the statistics they found that I find fascinating is 75% of those 300,000 church attenders stated they came to the church for the very first time because someone had invited them.

The very first time they entered a church facility or became part of a church service was as a result of an invitation.

Yet the survey also stated 54% of them (of that same group) had not invited a single person to church in that previous year.

It lets me know people who are in church because someone invited them to church have not in turn seen the responsibility to invite someone else.

It seems as though across the board Christians just don't invite people to come to Jesus.

That is not the normal course it seems, of the reaction of faith in people's lives.

In our text today we're going to be introduced to a disciple, to a man named Andrew.

Andrew is a Greek name and it is a name that means basically manly.

Andrew was a fisherman.

He was an outdoorsman.

He's not a scholar.

He's not a 'theologian' at this point, by any means.

He's a common laborer from the regions of Galilee.

Here is a common, ordinary, outdoor, man's man who is going to show us how to invite people to come to know Jesus.

Andrew is a very quiet guy.

We do find his name mentioned in Scripture, but he's not a major character of the disciples like James and John and Peter certainly were.

Yet, what's interesting about Andrew is when his name is mentioned in the gospels, he's usually bringing somebody to Jesus.

There is the occasion where they're feeding the 5,000, and it is Andrew who brings that young boy who has that sack lunch (if you will) of the loaves and the fish, and brings him to Jesus.

Later on when some Greeks come to Phillip…Phillip of course very Greek name, we'll see this a little about Phillip next week perhaps.

But Phillip brings these people who want to meet Jesus to Andrew, and they together bring them to meet Christ, to introduce them to the Savior.

It seems Andrew has a passion about bringing people to Christ, and we certainly see that in our text today.

So I want to invite you to John, chapter 1.

I want us to pick up in the verse 35.

This is John the Baptist who is talking.

When we look at the scene today there are two disciples who are with John the Baptist.

One, we discover is Andrew, the other most likely is the Apostle John himself.

In John 1, in verse 35, it says, /"Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples.

And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, 'Behold the Lamb of God!' The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus."/

Now Andrew and, likely as I said, the Apostle John here heard the Baptist and they heard his declaration that there is the Messiah.

As Jesus is walking by he said, "Behold the Lamb of God."

In our message last week we talked about that very phrase…the Lamb of God.

That certainly has meaning to Jews like Andrew and to John.

We believe they were looking for the Messiah.

They were aware of the prophesies of Daniel.

They knew the calendar.

They knew the time had come, according to Daniel's prophesy, for the Messiah to appear on earth.

I'm sure the entire community, the entire nation in one form or another is very curious about the Messiah, and we also know historically because of that many false messiahs had already presented themselves, and had been dismissed and set aside.

So they're looking for this.

Here now they've become disciples of John the Baptist.

His preaching, his declaration to repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand has drawn John and Andrew to that teaching and to following John, and under his mentorship and his leadership to discover the truths of how God would have them live in those days.

Now on this day, John says, "There goes the Messiah.

Behold the Lamb of God." It's just so beautiful how it says in verse 37 that the disciples heard John the Baptist speak and they followed Jesus.

That's exactly how John wanted it.

John wasn't trying to build a large collection of disciples.

He wasn't trying to build a big group around him.

In fact, in chapter 3 we learn he would say, /"I must decrease in order for Jesus to increase."/

So what Andrew and John were doing was no doubt the result of John's urging (John the Baptist's urging).

He wanted them to follow Christ.

That's exactly what they did.

They knew what the Lamb of God implied.

After all they're in the Bible belt of Judaism.

They know exactly what those phrases mean.

They know what the Scriptures are saying.

Many of the people John the Baptist was preaching to very much knew what Messiah meant, the Anointed One, the coming King, the Savior of the world…many of them knew the promises of Scripture.

In many ways, Andrew and John, and the testimony of John to them and their conversion, so parallels the place we live today.

For we live in the Bible belt of America.

We live in a place where going to church is an accepted, normal thing, where most people have a church name they will at least attach themselves to, a particular denomination or faith they will at least claim some allegiance to.

We live in a part of the world that is saturated with church-going people, and so it was with John the Baptist.

If we adopted, or if John the Baptist adopted the attitude that many Christians in the Bible belt have today, John the Baptist might not have preached at all.

He might have said, "They already know the truth.

They've already know the truth.

They've already made up their mind.

There's nothing I can do."

I think sometimes one of the big hindrances in the South in witnessing and evangelizing is the assumption your neighbors already know about Jesus, your coworkers already know, your young people already know because they go to a church somewhere or at least say they do.

I stand up in this very pulpit each week under the assumption that the vast majority of the people I speak to in this room do not have a relationship with Christ.

That's a statistical reality because many people have the religious exercise.

Many of you are here today; many people fill churches this morning, out of a sense of religious duty.

It's the right thing to do.

You're in this part of the country and you get up and you go to church.

Some go to early mass, some go to different times of services, but they fulfill their duty.

Fulfilling the duty is not what Andrew and the Apostle John were seeking that day.

They were seeking a relationship with the very Messiah, the Anointed One of God.

They had religion.

They had Judaism.

They had ceremony.

They had holidays.

They had sacrifices.

They had the Temple.

They had all the trappings of religious duty and are still seeking.

There are those here today who are so bored with religion.

You've had church.

You've been raised in it.

You know what's going to happen next.

We don't even have to tell you to sit down after the 'amen,' you know that you do that.

You know when you're going to stand.

You know when the preacher says this phrase, or whatever that phrase might be, it's time to pack up camp, we're getting ready to go home.

The duty of it, the ritual of it, is embedded in the lives of so many people who do not have the exciting, vibrant, living relationship with Christ Monday, Tuesday, and throughout the week.

Andrew and John wanted more.

They wanted more than what had become the empty ritualism of their day.

So John the Baptist, when he preaches, he reaches the hearts of a lot of people…people who were tired of the emptiness of their lifestyle, the emptiness of their religion, who were tired of a so-called allegiance to God that didn't live itself out in a daily walk.

They wanted a daily walk.

So here comes the Messiah walking by and they're going to follow Him.

In verse 38, it says, /"Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, 'What do you seek?' They said to Him, 'Rabbi' (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), 'where are You staying?'"/

Notice the answer Christ gave.

He did not simply wave them into His fold.

You notice here are people seeking and He doesn't just give them, "Well, say this prayer, follow this prayer after Me, now you need to get baptized."

You notice He asked them a question because Jesus is not interested in just gathering large numbers of people in physical presence around Him. Jesus is interested in the heart.

He wants to know…what is in your heart, Andrew?

What's in your heart, John?