The movie of John started with John the
Baptist who said in John 1:35, “Behold the Lamb of God”. Two of John’s disciples heard John and
followed Jesus. These two men spent the
whole day with Jesus. One of the two men
(Andrew) was obviously touched by the Holy Spirit because after spending the
day with Jesus, he then went to find his brother and told him, “we have found
the Messiah”. Andrew then brought his
brother to Jesus.
This reminds me of my own salvation because
I had been going to a Bible study for a number of years and had heard the
message but it was only by the Holy Spirit did I understand that Jesus is the
Messiah (the Anointed One = the way, the truth and the life). I can’t take any credit for being saved, it
is God’s gift revealed through His Holy Spirit.
I think it’s also important to remember that
John the Baptist spoke words that revealed to Andrew that Jesus is the Lamb of
God. Andrew then passed on the message
to his brother. Therefore, our salvation
was the result of God’s servants passing on the message to us and if we want
others to be saved, we have to be active in sharing the truth. We don’t have to freak out and fear what we
will say because we can keep it simple and just say one sentence at a
time. All John said was five words and
it was enough for Andrew to follow Jesus.
Andrew only spoke five words too.
If we want those around us to follow
Jesus, the important thing is to pray and ask for the Holy Spirit to speak
through us. We need to ask the Holy
Spirit to help those around us to understand God’s Word and for the Holy Spirit
to reveal the truth. We can say a whole
lot of words but without the Holy Spirit, those words will be useless. We can say only five words and with the Holy
Spirit, our friends, our family, our work colleagues, they can begin to follow
Jesus.
When Jesus saw Simon, He called him Cephas
which means Peter. The next day Jesus
found Philip and said, “Follow me”. So
he did. When Jesus calls you, you
somehow know it’s God and you follow. It’s
a miracle. How could Philip know it was
God? Imagine you are doing your own
thing and someone says, “follow me”. For
example, today my dog peed in my car. If
I didn’t clean up the mess, the pee would really smell after some time in that
hot Hamilton sun. After a few days, my
car would stink so bad.
Imagine if Bertila said, “Take me to the
supermarket, now”. First I would think
how rude is this girl. She speaks in the
imperative, demanding me to do something without even asking me nicely or using
the word please. So rude! Then I would think, I have better things to
do such as cleaning my car. I would even
think that Bertila is selfish for expecting me to just drop what I’m doing to
take her to the supermarket. The only
way I would do that, is if the Holy Spirit revealed to me.
I think the fact that Philip followed Jesus
is a miracle. I think the fact that we
are all gathered here tonight as followers of Jesus is a miracle. How did we know to follow Jesus? How did we know it was God calling us? Let’s remember tonight the miracle of
salvation and let’s thank God for all He has done for us. When Jesus was on earth, He didn’t tell every
person He met to follow Him. There were
only 12 disciples. We are privileged to
be one of Christ’s disciples. Let’s be
grateful and let’s also find ways of sharing this with others. It’s easy to tell someone a simple story of
how God has help us.
We can read in John 1:45 that Philip
went and found Nathanael and said, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law
and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Joseph”. Only the Holy Spirit could have revealed that
truth to Philip but ALSO he would have had to have read the scriptures to know
that he had found the one the scriptures talk about.
Therefore, it is important to read ALL
of the Bible. We should not think that
the Holy Spirit is all we need to teach us and lead us. We need to make an effort to read the Word of
God so that the Holy Spirit can teach us and lead us. If we don’t read the Word of God, we will
become confused and can easily be led astray.
We might follow after another god because we don’t know what is written
in the scriptures.
Mathew 24:4-5, “And Jesus answered and
said to them, ‘See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying ‘I am
the Christ,’ and will mislead many”. We
have to be careful because many will be misled.
Not just a few but many. I have
seen it already where Christians are too lazy to read the Word of God and
prefer to listen to preachings without checking if it matches the Bible. Let’s not be among those that are misled but
be like Philip who knew the Law and knew what the Prophets had said.
When Philip tells Nathanael the good
news, Nathanael isn’t convinced and answers, “Can anything good come out of
Nazareth?” Philip tells him to come and
see. When Nathanael meets Jesus, Jesus
says in John 1:47, “Behold an Israelite of whom is no guile”. Nathanael
answers, “How do you know me?” Jesus
replies, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you”. Nathanael suddenly believes but only the Holy
Spirit can convince. Nathanael could
have thought it was some kind of trick or simply hardened his heart but the
Holy Spirit convinced him.
When I became a true Christian, God used
scripture to convince me and I tried to wrestle out of it but it was
impossible. I fought all night with God
knowing that to be a true Christian meant giving up everything. Eventually I gave in. Just like Nicodemus in John 3, he came to
Jesus at night time and I’m sure he had to wrestle with God’s words too.
Night time (spiritual night) is the best
time to meet with Jesus because we are in darkness and that is the right time
for needing light in order to see clearly.
It’s when we are in sin that we need a saviour, John 3:19-21.
John 3:5, “Unless you are born again”,
we need the Holy Spirit for a spiritual birth. John 3:8, “The wind blows where it wishes and
you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is
going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” That is the way with the Holy Spirit, He goes
to whom God wishes. The Holy Spirit blew
on us and gave us life spiritually in the same way God blew on Adam and Eve and
gave them physical life. Adam didn’t ask
to be created or given life, that was God’s choice to blow on him.
Before the Holy Spirit touched my life,
I was walking around in darkness but I didn’t know it. Then the Holy Spirit blew on me and suddenly
I can see what I didn’t before. I saw
that I was a sinner and that I needed Jesus.
I began to understand the Bible which didn’t make much sense
before. The Holy Spirit blew on me and
gave me life.
As this verse says, you can’t see the
wind but you can see the effect of it. When
a person is saved, we should see the effect of this salvation, we should see fruit
of the Holy Spirit. We should see joy,
patience, love, forgiveness, kindness, gentleness, self-control, faithfulness and
peace. Not only should we see these
fruits but they should be growing and getting bigger and bigger.
More than once in my life I have been at
a meeting in a Pentecostal church and the believers have asked to pray for me
so I can be baptised in the Holy Spirit.
When I explain that I have been baptised, they don’t believe me because
they think the sign is speaking in tongues.
This is one thing that really annoys me.
The sign to know if you are baptised in the Holy Spirit is NOT speaking
in tongues. The sign is whether the
fruit of the Holy Spirit is growing in you.
For example, if my lemon tree grew tall
and provided shade for my dog and branches for the birds, this would be nice
but it wouldn’t prove the tree was a lemon tree. The lemons prove which tree it belongs. If I have the fruit of joy, patience, love
etc, then I prove I belong to God. If I have
the fruit of selfishness and bitterness, I prove I belong to satan.
Speaking in tongues isn’t proof you
belong to Jesus because even satan can provide you with that gift but what
satan can’t do is transform you into the likeness of Christ. As Jesus said to Nathanael, “you will see
greater things than these” and what is greater than seeing people’s lives
transformed? There is nothing greater
than seeing a person changed from an impatient, judgemental, rude, proud person
to one who is kind, merciful and compassionate.
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