Our part as witnesses to the kingdom of god (John 1:35-42)

Scripture reading:
(35) The next day, John was there again with two of his disciples. (36) When he saw Jesus standing by, he said “Look, the lamb of god!”

(37) When the two disciples heard him say this, they turned around and followed Jesus. (38) Turning around, Jesus saw them and asked, “What do you want?”
They said “Rabbi” (which means ‘teacher’) “Where are you staying?”

(39) “Come,” he replied, “and you will see. So they went and saw where he was staying and spent the day with him. It was about the tenth hour.

(40) Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. (41) The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him. “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). (42) And he bought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephras” (which, when translated, is Peter).


Observations:
I’d like to make some observations here about witnessing to the gospel.


(1) Witnesses to the gospel play an integral part of building the kingdom of god.

There are two paths via which people come to know god. Firstly, the bible records some people who came to god through either direct contact with Jesus or divine revelation. Whilst Jesus walked the earth, many came to know him through direct contact. And the bible records some examples (e.g. Paul) of people who received to gospel through divine revelation.

Yes, god can work divine miracles. However, in the majority of cases, people receive the gospel via other believers. This is what we see here – John witnessing to two of his own disciples (more on that in a later post) and Andrew, in turn, witnessing to Peter - witnesses witnessing about the gospel to others, who, in turn, become witnesses and witness about the gospel to yet others still.

God is not in any way reliant upon this method, but it seems to be the most common way for the kingdom of god to expand most of the time.

I believe that all who know Christ as their savior are given an active role in the growth of the kingdom of god. God, as we see in the book of Genesis (the first book in the bible), is an active god. He believes in activity, not passivity, and I believe that he has an active role for every believer.

True, I believe that god chooses to give special spiritual gifts to special people for specific purposes. But no matter what, every single follower of Jesus can (and should) be a witness for Jesus. There are no special qualifications.

Every believer, I feel, should seek to be active in two ways – knowing Christ themselves (usually through reading the bible) and making him known by being a witness to others.


(2) Being an effective witness to the gospel does not require education or talent. (v41)

Do you know your bible inside out? Are you particularly talented at speaking or presenting new ideas in a persuasive manner?

If the answer to one or both of these questions is yes, then I have good news. If the answer is no, I have the same good news:

You can be an effective witness to the gospel.

In verse 41, Andrew has only just heard the news about Jesus. Now it does appear that Andrew previously had a reasonable background knowledge of the old testament - after all, he was one of John’s disciples. But, this was Andrew’s first encounter with Jesus.

How did Andrew approach the task of making Jesus known to others?

Did he go away and study for six months to refine his knowledge of the OT and write a carefully scripted answer to every possible question about Jesus? No.

Did he follow Jesus for a while to undertake a detailed study of him? No.

Did he ‘brush up’ on his techniques at people persuasion? No.

He went straight into action. Immediately after meeting Jesus himself, he found his brother and shared his good news. Instinctively and instantaneously, Andrew found himself being an effective witness for the gospel. He did not need special skills or training - he simply went into action.

I’m certainly not saying that we should not undertake diligent study of the bible. Nor am I saying that careful preparation for sharing the gospel is a bad thing. Objections to the gospel must be expected, and in dealing with these, it does help, I think, to be battle ready.

What I am saying, is that we should not put off the task of sharing the gospel with others.
Start today.


(3) First, you must encounter Jesus
So, then. What does it take to be an effective witness to the gospel?

When we look at the story of Andrew, we can see, I think, three key aspects of Andrew witnessing to Peter.

First, Andrew had a personal encounter with Jesus. Before Andrew could tell Peter about Jesus, he had to know Jesus himself.

So must we. Before we go out and tell others about Jesus, we must first come to the point where we ourselves know Christ as our savior.

We can only share with others what we know ourselves.

Now, we will not, like Andrew, have a physical encounter with Jesus. Our encounter with Jesus will be spiritual. The point which we need to come to is where we can confidently affirm Jesus as our savior, where we have absolute faith that all of our sins have been covered by the death of Jesus on the cross.

If you have come to that position already, you are ready to be a witness to the gospel.

If not, I do not believe that you are ready to be a witness to the gospel at this point.


(4) Second, you must follow Jesus:

There was one thing Andrew, as well as the other disciple of Jesus, did betwee the point of encountering Jesus and the point of Andrew becoming a witness to Peter:

Andrew followed Jesus.

Andrew, and the other disciple, literally turned and followed Jesus. They turned around, giving up whatever else they were doing in their lives, and followed their messiah.

We, too, must follow Jesus in our own lives. For us, following Jesus will not be a physical act, as with Andrew, but a spiritual act. It’s turning around our lives and following a life worthy of the gospel. It’s turning from any areas of sin in our lives and instead following the ways of righteousness.

If we truly know Jesus, we will follow him. We won’t do it perfectly, and some of us will still fall back into sinful ways, but we will be drawn naturally to following the ways of Jesus – if we truly know him.

It’s all well and good to go out and share the gospel with others. But our sharing of the gospel will be much more effective if we, ourselves are living the gospel. We cannot share what we don’t follow. The people whom we share the gospel with must be able to see the grace of god in how we live, as well as what we say.


(5) We must bring people to jesus

In verse 42, the bible says that Andrew brought Peter to Jesus.

That’s exactly what sharing the gospel is about – bringing people to Jesus. In the same way that Andrew bought Peter to Jesus, we, too, must try to bring those with whom we share the gospel to Jesus.

In the case of Andrew, his act of bringing Peter to Jesus is a physical and literal act. In our case, bringing people to Jesus is a figurative act, not a literal one. We might choose to take them along to church or to a home bible study group. We might introduce them to online bible study groups.

Whatever we do, I think that we need to bring people to a place where they can meet other believers, learn about Jesus and experience some form of worship.

There, they will be able to experience Jesus for themselves. Whether or not they accept Jesus into their lives will depend on them and god. But we must bring them to a place where they can experience the saving grace of Christ.


Prayer:
Lord, I pray for two things.

First, for us to know you. Lord, we cannot witness effectively to others until we actually know you ourselves. So lord, ever so much more, please shower upon us more and more understanding of your perfect justice, power, mercy and love, so that we may know you more fully every day.

Second, I pray that you equip us with the courage and wisdom to follow you and to share the news of your great mercy and love to others. Lord, how often I fail in this simple task!

Lord, let others look upon us and not only hear about you from our mouths, but see your work and your grace in our lives. Let our words and our lives be a witness to your glory.

In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,

Amen.