Alright. John chapter one. John chapter one. We'll be reading in verse 35 here in just a few moments. This morning's message, Christ's first disciples.

Christ begins to attract followers. We call them disciples. We speak regularly of 12 disciples and there was something very special about the 12 because Christ chose them that made them special. But we are all disciples who know Christ, who have chosen Christ as our Lord and savior. We too are his disciples.

We are followers of Christ. And so we'll talk about that a little more in just a moment. We began this a few weeks ago, this series on the earthly ministry of Christ. So we began not with his birth, what we began with his public ministry that begins with his baptism. So a couple weeks ago, Jesus begins his ministry with the approval of his father in heaven at his baptism as he publicly accepted his call to die in man's stead upon the cross.

As Jesus came up out of the water, what did his father say? This is my beloved son in whom I am. Well, to identify Jesus as the son of God. And it was God publicly approving of his ministry to come, which included the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as portrayed in believer's baptism and also in the baptism of John in Matthew. So, we looked at that.

That was the first event in Jesus' earthly mentor. Second, was he was immediately caught away by the spirit to the desert or the wilderness as it says in King James but that wilderness is a desert and for forty days and forty nights, he did not eat anything in the desert. If he didn't take anything to eat, well, there wasn't a whole lot to eat in the desert. And so for forty days and forty nights, Christ did not eat. However, while he was being weakened by his hungry state, he was being tested and tempted by who?

By Satan, by the devil himself. And Jesus continued his earthly ministry by doing that which Adam utterly failed to do in resisting the temptation and besting the devil in the wilderness under the most difficult of circumstances. Whereas in the first Adam failed, the second Adam was victorious, Jesus Christ. The God man. So we have Jesus' baptism which which identifies him as the son of God and that he was die upon the cross.

And then we see Jesus conquering the enemy, Satan, and sin, and being victorious where Adam failed. The Bible says, as in Adam, all die and Christ shall all be made alive. And then thirdly, Jesus now picks up his first students, his first disciples in Judea and Galilee. They are John, Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathaniel, who is also called Bartholomew in the scriptures. A king must have subjects.

A teacher must have students, and a Messiah needs to have disciples. Jesus was all of those things. He is king. He is a great teacher, and he is the Messiah, the appointed one, the anointed one that God had promised to send in the world to free his people from their sins and he did have subjects. He does have students and he definitely had disciples.

Chapters one through four in John describe events in the ministry of Christ not recorded in the other gospels. So, we started out in Matthew but now we're shifting over to John chapter one. These this early part of Christ's ministry begins in John one nineteen through John four forty two. We're going to look in John one thirty five to begin this morning on the first disciples. John one thirty five.

So, if you would follow along with me. Again, next day, after John stood now this is John the Baptist. And two of his disciples. So John the Baptist had students, okay, that he was teaching or disciples, followers. And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he said, behold the lamb of God.

Behold the lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them following and said unto them, what seek ye? And they said unto him, rabbi, which is to say which is to say being interpreted master, where dwellest thou? And he saith unto them, come and see.

They came and saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day for it was about the tenth hour. And we'll stop there for the moment. Let's pray once more. Dearly father, thank you Lord for this wonderful day that you've given us, for your wonderful word, for our wonderful savior. Lord, I pray that he may be truly exalted in this place today.

And that as we honor our savior, as we look into your word, that we might be transformed more into his image minute by minute, moment by moment, that we might be the salt and light on this earth that he has called us to be as disciples of Jesus Christ. In Jesus name, we do pray. Amen. It is at this point after Jesus' baptism and his time of temptation that John publicly identifies Jesus as the Messiah, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He identifies him as the Messiah, fulfilling his commission and beginning beginning to gradually fade away, to step aside.

Because John the Baptist ministry was all about who? It was all about Jesus. It was all about the Messiah. He was preparing people for the coming of the Messiah as identified in Isaiah and Malachi in the Old Testament. This was his privilege and his joy.

And as Jesus was identified publicly by John after his baptism, John began to step back out of the picture that Jesus might have the attention that he truly is due. It would seem clear from this statement that John had some knowledge as to the true purpose of this advent, this coming of the Messiah in being the Paschal Lamb. The sacrificial servant described in Isaiah chapter 53. The one by whose who is bruised for our iniquities. Who well, let me find that verse.

All of a sudden, can't quote it. Alright. Isaiah 53 and there it is. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement of his peace of our peace was upon him and by his stripes, we are what? Healed. He goes on to say in verse six, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him, on Christ, the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.

He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment. Who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Christ is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And that is how John introduces him here in John chapter one. Not as the conquering king, but as the lamb, the lamb of God, portrayed in the Passover lamb all the way back in Exodus chapter 12. So wonderfully portrayed. So specifically portrayed. And how is it that the Passover in Exodus twelve and thirteen and fourteen as Israel is leaving Egypt can so parallel the death and sacrifice of Christ was because God knew in Exodus 12 that he was sending his son in John chapter one to die for our sins.

And John seems to have some degree of understanding that many others did not in this in identifying Jesus as the lamb of God. John, who was to prepare the way of the Lord, was fulfilling commission by identifying Christ as the Messiah, the son of God, and the sacrificial lamb of God. And as he did that, we begin to see the first two of Christ's disciples were listening. They were listening. And they followed Christ.

They left John to follow Jesus just like that. Why? Because John had made it clear what his ministry was. It was to point men to who? To the Messiah, who is Jesus Christ.

So the two two of John's disciples, two of his students heard his identification of Jesus as the lamb of God, and they went to ask of Jesus if they could learn from the one thus identified. As great as John was, as great a teacher, as great a prophet, as great a calling, John said, he must increase and I must decrease. And his disciples were prepared for that and they went to Jesus to learn from him. John had made it clear for quite some time well, I already John is definitely identifying Christ as his superior and specifically as the Messiah to his disciples. And so they responded.

And Jesus, he saw them coming, he said in verse 38, what seek ye? What seek ye? What is it that you want? He was inquiring as to nature of their action. Now, Jesus is God.

He probably knew why they were coming. But oftentimes, God asked questions not because he needs to know, but he asked questions of us so that we will have to think through and and express why it is we're doing what we're doing. It's good for us to do that. Jesus often teaches using what? Questions.

Often, Jesus answers a question with a what? With another question to get people to think. So he asked them, why why are you following me? What is this about? And they responded in verse 38, Rabbi, which is to which is to say being interpreted master, where dwellest thou?

So their response to his question, What seek ye, is with another question themselves. Master, rabbi, where do you dwell? They showed great respect for only the most respected scribes and teachers were addressed as what? Rabbi. Rabbi was not as a word flippantly thrown around as we might throw around the word teacher today.

It was reserved only for the most respected teachers of Jesus' day and they addressed him immediately with this sign of respect, this title, master or rabbi, and they expressed their desire to hear and to learn to hear and to learn from him. The question, where are you dwelling, was not a question as we wanna know your address. Okay? What they were asking essentially is, where are you going? Where are you staying so that we can join you that we can learn from you?

Okay? That is what they are saying with where where are you dwelling so that we can come with you and that we can learn from you? That is what they are asking. It is something to notice here briefly. It's not in my notes, but it just kinda came to me.

Oftentimes, we have time for people at church. We have time for people at regularly scheduled Bible study. We also need to have time for people at other times. We also need to be hospitable and take time, even having people into our own homes that we might be able to help them as Jesus was willing to help and teach these disciples. Something which must be true of all who come to Christ and one which should only grow as we get to know him better and his word better is an interest in the in the Lord.

It is very sad that so many who name the name of Christ have so little interest in learning more about him and from him. If you're going to be a follower of Christ, you need to learn about who? You learn about Christ. How are you going to follow him if you don't know where he's going? If you don't know what he's doing?

If you do if you do not know what what he has to share and to teach you. And we find, sadly, so little interest. And, sadly, we find some of that little interest even in those that attend church or those who call themselves Christians. If you have so little interest in the things of the Lord and yet you call yourself a Christian, shame on you. You have the opportunity to know Christ, to know his word, to follow him, to draw close to him.

And yet, we are oftentimes so much more interested in things that are passing away. In in what the score is to a ballgame or or what the stock market is doing or what is happening in politics rather than spending time with the Lord. It's not about a particular number of minutes a day. It's not about having something every day, though that's probably a good thing. I think your spouse might think it odd if you didn't talk to them for two days.

You know, I just I just didn't care to talk today. But it's about a desire which should be present in the heart and which should be nurtured to grow, to know Jesus better, to spend time with him and his word. These men had that desire. It is obvious. They they immediately turned and said, where where are you going?

They wanted to spend time with it. Not just a a thirty minute lesson, you know. Not not just a brief instruction. They wanted to go down and go and sit with him for hours if he would have it. That should be our desire.

If that is the hunger of your heart, if you are hungry for the righteousness of God and the word of God, God be praised, you shall not regret it. You will be like a tree planted by the what? The rivers of water, it tells us in Psalm one. You will grow strong. You will produce fruit for Jesus Christ.

And thus, we see in John one thirty nine, Jesus saying to them, come and what? Come and see. He said, yeah. Come on. Come and see.

And that that is the heart of our savior. Come and see. Come and learn. Come on to come on to me. Jesus accepted their inquiry, invited them to get to know him, which was indicative of Christ throughout his ministry on earth and from heaven today.

He wants you to come and what? Come and see. You want to know what I'm about? He doesn't make a list of demands. You have to do this, do this, be this, be that.

All you have to have a desire to know who he is, to get to know him better, to spend time with him. And what is Jesus' response? He says what? He says, come and see. Come and see.

Matthew eleven twenty eight through 30 say, Jesus says this, come unto me all you labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lonely in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And for you that may not know what a yoke is, a yoke was that which was connected to a plow that was connected to the the shoulders and necks of oxen or horses that would pull the plow through the field to break up the ground for planting. And Christ says here, yes, he doesn't he doesn't say there is no yoke, there is no responsibility, there is no burden to carry as a child of God.

Yes, there is. But compared to the yoke that Satan and sin and the world is gonna put on you, Jesus' yoke is what? Is light. It is light indeed and it is joyful serving the king of kings and the Lord of the wards, the one who created us, the one who gave his life for us for he took his yoke upon himself that was heavy on the cross of Calvary that we might be able to take upon ourselves the yoke that is light in his service. He says it says in Romans 10, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Back in Jeremiah, he says, call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things. We are compelled to come boldly before the throne of grace that we might receive help from the Lord in time of need. And he says in Matthew seven, ask and it shall be given. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you.

For he that asketh receiveth, he that seeketh findest, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Jesus says what? Come. Come. Just come.

Wherever you are and whatever condition you find yourself, if you hear his voice, come. Come and learn of him. The tenth hour, it's referred to here in John one. It says, it was about the tenth hour at the end of verse 39. The tenth hour was likely 4PM by Jewish reckoning or it could have been 10AM by Roman reckoning.

We don't know which tenth hour for sure. But in either case, he said come. He didn't put any restrictions on it. You can you can say for an hour, you know, just an hour. And he didn't put any prerequisites on it.

He just welcomes them as he welcomes us today. He is that kind of savior. He has time for you. We need to learn to be more like him sometimes and have time for others. We see five disciples here listed in the following verses.

Disciple number one, disciple number one of one of the two of John's disciples isn't mentioned. His name is not mentioned. He's mentioned as one of the two but his name is not mentioned. The one whose name is not mentioned is probably John. And now not John the Baptist but John the son of Zebedee, John the brother of James.

John was a very common name. So, you read through the New Testament, you're going to read about a few Johns and you're to read about a few Marys, okay? Because both John and Mary were very common names in Jesus' day. So, John, the son of Zebedee, the writer of the gospel that we are reading from, does not name himself in his gospel. Several times, he refers to himself as the other disciple or in some cases, the disciple whom Jesus loved, but he does not like to name himself in his gospel.

So, this is very likely John the son of Zebedee. A friend of Andrew who is named, who we'll look at in a moment, and most likely in a business associate with Andrew, Both being fishermen from Bethsaida in Galilee. So, Judea is where they are now near Jerusalem in the South Of Israel. Galilee is in the North Of Israel near the Sea Of Galilee. That is where Jesus grew up in the city of Nazareth, a little west of the Sea Of Galilee and the city the town of Bethsaida where Andrew and John were from.

I have been on on the Sea Of Galilee. I have been actually stood in what is thought to be the ruins of the town of Bethsaida. The walls have were all covered up. They dug them all back up. The the walls in the most case are about this high now.

So you walk around and and there's this little walls on the you know, they don't stick up very far because over the hundreds of years, earthquakes, rain, you know, all that floods, they've been mostly washed away. But but I've been in this little where the ruins of this town are where these men grew up on the Sea Of Galilee but now, they were not in Galilee. They were down in Jerusalem. They were there for probably one of the feast that they were celebrating. There they were supposed to according to the law and particularly John and Andrew seem to be taken time not only to come for that reason but to spend time with John the Baptist as they are students of his.

John does not have a lot to say about himself in the gospel as he is not the star of the show as it should be. Who is the star of the show? Jesus Christ. So, talks a lot about Jesus. He mentions the other disciples but it's all about Jesus and it's not.

It's not about him. Watch out for those preachers, teachers, and so called prophets who like this to be the star of the show. Because if they are the star of the show, that means they're not giving proper reverence to who? To Jesus Christ. My hope today and every day I stand in this pulpit is not that you see me, but that we that I point you to Christ and that you see Christ because that's our purpose in being here today.

And was John's in writing this gospel. The second disciple mentioned is Andrew. Okay, Andrew is mentioned. If you look in John chapter one and verse forty and one of the two which heard John, that is John the Baptist speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon, Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother, Simon, and say it unto him, we have found the Messiah which is being interpreted the Christ.

As I mentioned before, every time you see Christ, think Messiah. Jesus Christ means Jesus the Messiah. Mhmm. And he brought him to Jesus, that is Andrew brought Simon to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, Simon, he said, thou art Simon, the son of Jonah.

Thou shall be called Cephas, which is interpreted a stone. Cephas is the Aramaic word for stone and Petros is the Greek word for stone. Petros being inter being translated in his English as Peter. Okay? We don't often call Simon Cephas by his Aramaic name, but by the name Christ gave him, Peter.

Although, he is not often referred to by Christ as Peter, but usually as Simon. The Peter part is coming. Okay? We'll get to that. The second disciple here is Andrew.

Andrew who is identified directly in the passage as the brother of Simon, Simon Peter. Fisherman of Galilee, he was introduced as as a brother to Peter, most likely due to the notoriety of his brother. See, John wrote this after Jesus had already ascended back into heaven. Actually, it is thought to be the last of the gospels that was actually written. By that time, one of the more well known of Christ's disciples was Peter, was Simon, and maybe not so much Andrew.

And so he is introduced as Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. That did not make him lesser in the eyes of Jesus Christ, his savior. It just meant he was less well known than others. That doesn't mean he was less well known to who? To God.

Each one of these men had a incredible, powerful ministry, though some are not mentioned to the degree that others. Andrew, we don't learn a whole lot about him here, but we do learn that his immediate response was to go and find who? Find Simon, his brother, and bring him to Jesus and invite him to come and meet the Messiah. Simon most likely having traveled with his brother, being also a follower of John the Baptist. This explains how it is that Jesus picked four fishermen and maybe more for his disciples and their unusual interest in the scriptures and the Messiah.

They were not just fishermen, they were students of the scriptures. They were believers in the coming Messiah and they were men of a repentant heart. How do I know that? They were followers of who? Before that, John the John the Baptist.

Why did John preach? Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. His message was one of what? Repentance. His baptism was one of demonstrating that what?

Repentance. So if if Peter or Simon and Andrew and John and probably James as well, John's brother, were were students of John the Baptist, they we know that they were men of a repentant heart. We know that they were students of the scriptures, and we know that they were believers in the coming messiah. So what does Andrew do? When he when he meets the messiah, he immediately runs to Simon says, I found him.

I found him. I found him. Why don't you come and meet him too? He's here. Just as John had told them, just as the Old Testament prophets said that he would come.

Andrew was excited because the Messiah, the long awaited anointed king of Israel, the one who would come to deliver his people, he was here just as John the Baptist had told them. And when he met him, he knew that he was indeed, and he ran to Simon. These men were on their way to becoming disciples indeed who met the criteria set forth by Christ. Not perfectly, but striving to be so. Matthew sixteen twenty four, then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.

And that's exactly what these men would do. They're not quite there yet, but they're they're coming. And Jesus didn't say, no, you can't come yet. No, gotta wait. You know?

He said, come and see. Come. I'll I'll I'll I'll make it happen. I'll make it happen. Just come.

Just come. Andrew displays his faith while yet his knowledge is incomplete. The fact is you can be a witness, should be a witness for Christ apart from years of training. You don't have to wait to know all the verses and to know all the methods and to no. You can just go out and tell somebody that you meet.

There is a savior. You can read about him in here. Hand him a gospel of John. Hand him a tract that tells him about Jesus. Tell him what Jesus has done for you.

You don't have to be a scholar. You don't have to be a seminary student. You don't have to have years of training to tell somebody that you have met the Messiah and the savior of the world. That's what Andrew did. And number two, Andrew displays the heart of a true disciple bringing his brother to Christ.

We too should be burdened for our relatives and bold enough to speak up to tell them about Jesus. If you don't, who will? Maybe nobody else. They need Jesus. Andrew loved his brother, and Andrew didn't didn't stop, didn't hesitate.

He ran to Peter to tell him. What an example for us to follow. Disciple number three is Simon or Peter himself. Upon meeting Simon, Jesus skips the formalities and demonstrates his knowledge not only of who Simon was, but something of his character and what he will become. If you look again at verse number 42 and he brought him unto Jesus and when Jesus beheld him, he said, thou art Simon, the son of Jonah.

Thou shall be called Cephas which is being interpreted a stone. Simon wasn't a stone. He wasn't a rock. He he he he got tossed to and fro. He rushed into things headlong.

Peter was brash. He was bold but he was also not well grounded sometimes. Jesus at one point had to say get behind me Satan when Peter rebuked Jesus for saying he was going to go to the cross. He's not there yet but he will be. By God's grace, he will be.

And by God's grace, we will be. We will be more each day like the person that God has declared us to be in Christ Jesus. He is working in us to change us into his image. Don't give up on him. Don't give up on you.

For he there's a there's a little song I sing with the kids. It's entitled, he's still working on me to make me what I ought to be. It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars, the sun and the earth, and Jupiter and Mars. But praise the Lord, loving and patient he must be for he's still what? He's still working on me.

He didn't give up on Peter. He's not giving up on you either. And he knows what you are capable of even when you may not. I thought back when God called me to do this when I was a teenager, I thought there's no way no way on earth I will ever be standing in a pulpit doing this day after day after day, week after week, year after year. I couldn't do that.

I could hardly get up here and speak my name without stuttering out of fear. But you know what God calls you to do, he enables you to do. And praise God, he's still working on me. Jesus knew Simon before he came. He even knew his father.

Simon, son of Jonah. Jesus told him what he would be called later on after God worked in his life. Jesus knows you also. If you too will hear his call as did Peter, you can also have a new name, child of God, Christian, disciple of Jesus Christ. The Bible says for all who come to him, become a new person in Christ Jesus.

Second Corinthians five seventeen. If any man be in Christ, he is a what? He is a new creation, new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.

And and we can see that as we read through the life of Christ in the person of Peter. By this, Jesus once again asserts his deity by his omniscience. When Jesus left heaven, he did not surrender all his abilities. He submitted them to the will of who? To the will of his father.

Jesus healed. Jesus stopped the storm in an instant. And Jesus called Peter. And Jesus knew all about him before he called him as he knows all about you. There are things you probably don't want everybody else to know about you.

Jesus does. And you know something? He still loves you, and he still wants to use you. And then disciple number four verse 43 to 45, the day following, Jesus went would go forth into Galilee and findeth Philip and say it unto him, follow me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

Philip findeth Nathaniel and say it unto him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Again, as Jesus is leaving Judea to go up to Galilee, he comes across Philip, an associate of John and Andrews, another probably another fisherman from Bethsaida. Jesus probably said more to him than is recorded here in this passage. Either way, Philip immediately recognized Jesus to be the Messiah, the one of whom the prophets and Moses wrote. He recognized Jesus to be the Messiah to the extent that like Andrew, he immediately found a friend to tell.

I found him. This is not a there's not a great deal mentioned about Philip in the gospels. He is not the deacon Philip from the book of Acts. We actually know more about the deacon Philip than we do the disciple Philip. Some of Christ's disciples are mentioned often and some little, but again, the gospel is not about them but about Christ.

And so what is often mentioned plays an important role in the narrative of Christ's identification, his ministry, and his redemptive work on the cross. But we know Philip was a soul winner, and we know he was bold, and we know that he believed. For immediately, went and found Nathaniel, and he told him, like Andrew, we found him. We found him. These men who will be greatly used to the Lord may not have been the most educated or respected in their day, but they were not as some supposed dummies or unlearned even before they met Christ.

They were literate. They were eager to learn God's word, and they were looking for who? The Messiah, the redeemer of Israel to come. If we are to be so used to the Lord, it behooves us also to dig into the word of God ourselves, to become students of the Bible. If we will, God will use us.

It's not determined by your IQ level. It's not determined by your number of years in college or the degrees that you have, but time spent with the Lord, learning. Philip would become more and more that person. And he went to Nathaniel, disciple number five. Again, we read in verse 45, Philip findeth Nathaniel and say it unto him, we have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

And Nathaniel said unto him, can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, come and see. Where is it turning? Come and see. You you want to know?

Well, come and see. You'll find out. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him and saith unto him, behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile, no hypocrisy, no dishonesty, a person of integrity. Jesus knew that about Nathaniel before Nathaniel knew Jesus. Nathaniel say it unto him, whence, knowest thou me?

And Jesus answered and said unto him, behold, there before that Philip called thee when thou was under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathaniel answered and said unto him, rabbi, thou art the son of God, thou art the king of Israel. Why did Nathaniel say that? Because Jesus said, well, I saw you under the fig tree. And he knew that nobody was there to see him and what he was thinking and what he was reading and what he was doing under the fig tree earlier in the day.

The only way Jesus knew what Nathaniel was doing where he was is if he was who? He was God. We're told plainly in Psalm one thirty nine. He sees when we stand up. He sees when we sit down.

He knows our thoughts of our mind. He knows the words before they come out of our mouth. Nathaniel believed that. And so when Jesus said, well, I saw you under the fig tree, you know? Wow.

You are the son of God, the king of Israel. Jesus answered, verse 50, and said unto him, because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these. And he say it unto him, verily, verily I say unto you, hereafter, you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man. Jesus is the what?

The way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the father but by him. Philip would have a front row seat as Jesus began, went through his ministry, changed the lives of thousands and thousands and literally millions of millions as he died on that cross and became the way to heaven. He is also hereby alluding to Genesis 28, maybe a passage Nathaniel had just been reading from where God was reaffirming the promises he made to Abraham and Isaac to Jacob. The promise of the coming what?

Messiah, the seed of Abraham in which all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Jesus is thus agreeing with Nathaniel and also encouraging him that this was just the beginning of God's fulfillment of these promises that he had made long ago. And Nathaniel, again, as I said, would have a front row seat. It is true also that we indeed have been invited to join the party, the party of Christ, the gospel party. No.

Not the wild celebration, though there is reason to rejoice in Christ. But like a hunting party or a scouting party, we too have been invited to join, the hunt for souls and the cause of Christ in the gospel like John and Andrew and Philip and Peter and Nathaniel. We have been invited also to come. To be fishers of men. And Jesus will get to that here in just a while once again.

Jesus says, if you're interested, come and see. If you have yet to accept Jesus Christ as savior, you know what Jesus says? He says, today is the day of salvation. If you have yet to join his cause, if you have yet to accept him as your Lord and Savior, he says come and see. We'll give an invitation here just a moment.

If you come, I'll meet you right down here. You are invited not only by me, but more so by Christ to come and see today and change this place. Leave this place a changed person. He cares about you. He knows you.

He is inviting you to come. Praise the Lord. Someone pointed out Christ to us as Andrew and Philip did in this passage. Christ invited us to come to him. We accepted in faith his invitation with a repentant heart, and Christ has made us his own.

He is showing to us great and mighty things while also giving to us peace and rest, joy, hope in this present world. And it is our joy to go and grab someone else, not literally grab them. Okay. And say, guess what? I found them.

Would you like to know? Come and see. Come and see. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for your word today.

Thank you for the invitation of our savior, for all to come to him so that he might take that heavy burden of guilt and sin off their shoulders. The bondage that Satan has laid upon them and receive the freedom and the joy and the peace and the fulfillment that only comes in serving the true king of kings and Lord of lords. The one who gave his life for us, the one who is risen again from the dead. And we pray, Lord, if there'd be one this morning that is yet to make that decision, that they would come as we give this hymn of invitation that they would come and see me. Allow time to go through the gospel today and choose Jesus.

In Jesus' precious name, we do pray. Amen.