Let us open our Bibles to the Gospel according to John, chapter 1, verse 35. As you're turning, we've seen in the 18-verse prologue of this Gospel that John declared Jesus of Nazareth to be the eternal Son of God. To be God Himself, the Creator of all things, now in human flesh. And following his own testimony of the incarnation of the eternal Son, John recorded the testimony of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was born five to six months before Jesus was born. But John testified that on the basis of divine revelation that Jesus existed before him. The apostle wrote, John testified about him and cried out, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me. Now we believe that the apostle John was there and that he saw and heard all that he has written here in chapter 1, as well as throughout his gospel. And that what he has left to us here is an eyewitness account of what occurred. Now chapter 1, beginning in verse 19, the apostles focused on a period of seven days. Four successive days. One that begins in verse 19. The second that begins in verse 29. Then another in verse 35. A fourth in verse 43. And then a third day after that in chapter 2, verse 1, in Cana of Galilee. And last Lord's Day, we looked at the first of those four days near the Jordan River. Now this location was about 50 miles, maybe 55 miles north of Jerusalem. About 10 to 15 miles south of the Sea of Galilee. And John is in a place across the Jordan to the east side, a place called Bethany. And he is baptizing. And the Jewish religious leaders sent to him some priests and some Levites, a security detail, to ask the Baptists, who are you and what are you doing? Are you the Messiah? Are you the prophet promised by Moses in Deuteronomy 18? Are you Elijah? Come back to life." Well, to each of those questions he answered, no, I'm not. They said to him, well, we need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you have to say about yourself? And John said, I'm a voice crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord. Now this is the words of Isaiah, the prophet. John said he'd been sent by God to prepare the hearts of the people for the arrival of the Messiah and of the kingdom of God among men. He was calling the people who were flocking to him in the Judean wilderness to be baptized and to confess their sins, being baptized as a symbol of their repentance. And John said something interesting, though. He said, I baptize in water, but there's a vast difference between what I'm doing and what Messiah will do. I am simply administering this sign, water, baptism. The Messiah, He alone will bestow the thing that is signified by this sign. And that is the cleansing power of God the Holy Spirit. And then John said to them, He's standing right here among you. This Messiah is here. And of him, John said, it's he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I'm not worthy to untie. So the next day, in verse 29, John's testimony had become even more profound. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and he said to him, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. It's the sin of the world, the sins of men from every nation, tribe, and tongue. Not merely the sins of the single nation of Israel that the Lamb was and is taking away. People from every nation, tribe, and tongue will be brought to faith and will have their sins forgiven by God. John said, verse 31, I didn't recognize him, but so that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water. This drew the crowd to him, and they heard his message. Repent, the kingdom of God is at hand. Now, he says, he's standing among you. He testified, I've seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven. I didn't recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water, God, said to me, he upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. And then in verse 34 is the climax of the testimony of John the Baptist. He says, I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God. This was the testimony of John the Baptist. Jesus would later say of him among those born of women, there's none greater than John. Although, Jesus would add, even the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. But here's what John said, I am nobody. I'm not worthy to untie his sandal. I'm not worthy to perform even the duties of a slave for him. I was merely sent to announce him to you. Now, verse 35, begins the third day of the apostle's eyewitness account of what he saw and heard during those four days along the Jordan River. So let us read John chapter 1, verse 35. Again the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples. And he looked at Jesus as he walked and said, Behold, the Lamb of God. The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, What do you seek? They said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying? He said to them, Come, and you will see. So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which means Christ. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon the son of John, you shall be called Kephas, which is translated Peter or Rock. The next day, the fourth day, he purposed to go into Galilee, and he found Philip. And Jesus said to him, Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael said to him, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. Well, Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. Nathanael said to him, How do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. And Nathanael answered him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel. So Jesus answered and said to him, Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these. And he said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Father, we are of all people most blessed to have your Word. We are so blessed that You have opened our minds and our hearts that we might read Your Word, hear it, and believe it, and trust in it. And Lord, we know that Your Word not only works renewal, rebirth spiritually, but it also has a sanctifying impact on those who hear it. And so, Lord, we pray that You will sanctify us by this truth. And Your Word is truth. And Lord, we thank You for giving it to us and pray that You would deliver it to us in the power of Your Spirit and transform us. John the Baptist and two disciples were talking. One of them was Andrew. The other, we believe, was the apostle John. John never mentions himself by name in his gospel. He does always mention all of the other apostles when he speaks of them, but he doesn't mention himself by name. And John's an eyewitness here, clearly, of what he's telling us. We also know that John and his brother James and Andrew and Simon Peter were among the very first of Jesus' disciples. So, we believe that this was Andrew and John who had now been following John the Baptist and had now had 24 hours to ponder the words that the Baptist had said to them the previous day. Now, the previous day, while the three of them were talking, They saw Jesus, and John said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And they've had a whole day now to think about this. And now they're talking again, and now the Baptist says again, Behold the Lamb of God. Now it's amazing really what the two disciples did when they heard John say this the second time. Because they were disciples of the Baptist. And as soon as John said this the second day, the two disciples, Andrew and John, heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Something had changed in them when they heard these words. What prompted them to follow Jesus? Well, they'd been disciples of John. They trusted John, obviously. And John, in his humility and obedience to God, had pointed them to Jesus. That's the calling of every Christian preacher, every Christian teacher, every Christian parent, to point his children to Jesus Christ. Not to gather followers to himself as many sadly do today. It's to lead people to Jesus. That's the only reason we're here. To lead people to Jesus and then disciple those who have come to follow Him. And the Baptist, one of the great things, one of the things that made him a great man was he understood that mission that God had given him and he was following it. He came as a witness to testify to the light. And that's what he did. And here, we see now God's eternal plan of redemption now beginning to unfold in real time. Now, Andrew and John begin to follow Jesus. And as they come to Jesus, He turns to them, and He sees them, and He asks them, What do you seek? What do you seek? These are the first words of Jesus that John records in his gospel. It's the first question that Jesus asked of these believers. What do you seek? His question wasn't who do you seek? What do you seek? What did they want from Jesus? What is it they thought He could provide them? This is a great question for us, isn't it? Why are we following Jesus? What is it we are seeking? What benefit do we hope to receive from following Him? I hope we have no doubt in our minds that He, and He alone, can and will provide us eternal life through believing in Him. This matters not only in our own faith walk, but also because we are called to tell the world about Jesus, and we must be prepared, Peter writes later, to give a defense to others, to anyone who asks, why do you believe in all this? Why do you hope for eternal life in Christ? We need to know why we believe what we believe. Jesus asked Andrew and John, what do you seek? He didn't respond directly to his question. Their response was, Rabbi, where are you staying? Well, we can only imagine the things which must have begun to stir in their hearts here. John has testified that this is the Lamb of God who's come to take away the sin of the world. And they, within them, had been stirred to want to seek Jesus. They're going to follow Him. They leave John and go to follow Jesus. Could they really be sure that the Messiah was going to receive them? We're not told how tepid they might have been, but they must have approached Him with great fear and wonder. And in verse 39, Jesus answers their question. He said to them, Come and you will see. He asks them, What do you seek? They say, Where are you staying? He says, Come and you will see. And I find this choice of words really interesting here. They'll see where Jesus was staying, yes. But more importantly, He would now open their eyes to the eternal divine truths. They would see. Notice, as soon as they asked, Jesus opened the door to them. Kings and politicians in the world today, could you walk up to one of them? They're all surrounded by large entourages. security forces. They're very unapproachable. So the most cannot reach them ever, and those who can are given a limited time, a limited audience in their presence. But here's the king of kings, and all are invited to come to him. He said, Come, and you will see. So they came, and they saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day," John writes. Now how does he know that? It was about the tenth hour. How does he know that? Well, it's because he was an eyewitness. He was, we believe, one of these two men here. So why does John mention the hour? Because this is his testimony. He's giving us the details of what he saw and heard that day and what he did that day. So this way he could testify from his own experience without mentioning his own name in the gospel. He had a great aversion to mentioning his own name. assumed, likely born of humility, but we don't really know. But this was the day that Jesus changed His life. He's writing about the day He was saved. The day He was born again. The day Jesus changed His eternal destiny. And he never forgot the exact hour when he had received this invitation from Jesus. It was the tenth hour. Now, they had different ways of computing time in those days, some from midnight, some from sunrise, so we don't know which it is. That hardly matters. He remembers the moment Jesus called him and said, Come to Me. We don't know where they went either, by the way, but obviously the location is utterly unimportant. But when we see what they did after spending that day with Jesus, we see that the things that He told them in His very presence as well must have affected them greatly. Look at verse 40. One of the two, now he identifies Andrew for the first time. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. And in verse 41, we learn how Andrew responded to having spent that day with Jesus. He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah. One day, we found the Messiah. They're waiting for 1,500 years as a nation. For 4,000 years since the promise of Genesis 3.15. We have found the Messiah. No hint of doubt at all in Andrew's words. He used this title, Messiah, that was so familiar to the Jews. Mashiach. He for whom the Jews had longed for so many centuries. The one in whom they placed all their hopes and aspirations. At the same time, we learn throughout the Gospels, these men lacked a full and clear understanding of what Messiah would bring. They didn't really know. They'd hoped for a Messiah who was going to overthrow Rome and restore the kingdom of Israel. But when Jesus came, when the Messiah came, He brought something far, far greater than a mere earthly kingdom of Israel. He brought the kingdom of God and the restoration of sinners to fellowship with God in His kingdom. Andrew's now on the road to discipleship. Eventually he's going to be sent into the world along with the others on his own apostolic mission. And eventually he's going to his own cross to die for a Savior. So Jesus tells us here though that Andrew first found his own brother. And there are those who read this as John saying that he had also found his own brother. Why would He say His own brother? We don't know that, but we do know that James, John, Andrew, and Peter were, if not the first four apostles, disciples called to Jesus, they were certainly among the first six. But what's interesting here is the good news is already spreading, even though the saving events hadn't even occurred yet. So their belief was in Jesus. They believed in Him. Notice, after hearing the words of John the Baptist spending the day with Jesus, Andrew believed that Jesus was the Messiah. And he immediately went and witnessed to his brother. And the number of disciples is now growing day by day. And whether or not James, John's brother, joined him that day, he did soon join them. This is how God has designed for His church to grow, by one person telling another. We've talked about this this morning, by believers sharing the good news. This is our calling now, telling others that Jesus is the Son of God who came and died for the sins of all who would believe in Him. So Andrew brought Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him, and He said, You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Kephos, which is translated Petros in Greek, Peter in English, rock in English, or stone. Talking about a rock you could pick up and throw. Now we're not told if Andrew had identified Simon by name to Jesus. Perhaps Andrew had mentioned his brother to Jesus. What John does tell us is that Jesus looked at Simon and gave him a new name. This name that means rock. Now, I don't want to leave that little section without talking about this idea that Peter is the rock upon whom the church has been built. That's a foolish heresy. Some serious error developed over the centuries in the Roman Catholic Church over this name. In Matthew 16, 18, Jesus said to him, after he had confessed, you are the Christ, the Son of God. And Jesus said, flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you, but my Father who's in heaven. And he said to Peter, you are Petras. And upon this rock, different word Petra, I will build my church. Two different words. One's the new name of Peter, which speaks of a stone you could pick up and throw. And the other which refers to a big boulder or a rocky cliff. So understand Jesus was speaking of two different things there that are to be distinguished. Peter, Petros, and this rock on the other hand. Why else would he have used two different words? He could have simply said, you're Peter and on you I will build my church. But of course, Jesus didn't say that. Nor is Christ's church built on Peter. Christ's church is built on Him and more to the point on the confession that Peter made that you are the Christ, the Son of God. That's the founding truth of this church. There are some who would claim that by these words, Christ actually surrendered all authority over His church to this man, Peter. And that over the last 20 centuries, that same authority has subsequently given to other men, passed on to others by a vote of men. And then these men who claim this authority exalt themselves as Holy Father, the name of God Himself, and the name of only God Himself. And that's obviously a very serious misunderstanding of Jesus' words here. And I want us to understand, the disciples certainly did not take Jesus' words as conferring some preeminent position on Peter. In Matthew 18.1 and Luke 22.24, we find that the twelve were disputing who among them was the greatest. Who would be the greatest in the kingdom? They didn't think Peter had been assigned some preeminent position. In Matthew 18 through 20 and John 20, 23, where Jesus places His doctrine in the possession of the care of disciples, there's no suggestion again of supremacy of Peter. And it's important we understand this. Sometimes we do see Peter as one of the leaders. But think about Galatians chapter 2 verse 11. It's 15 years after the resurrection and ascension of Christ. And there we see Peter again wavering to such an extent that Paul had to rebuke him in Galatia. The authority that was bestowed by Jesus upon His apostles was given to them all alike. Ephesians 2, 19 and 20, all of the apostles laid the foundation of Jesus' church. So I want us to understand when He gives Peter this name, the great rock upon which the foundation of Christ's church was laid, is the very truth that had been spoken by John the Baptist, and which was later spoken by the Apostles John and by Peter himself, that Jesus is the eternal Son of God in human flesh. That truth is the rock on which His church and on which our salvation rests. The idea of Peter sitting in the very place of Christ in His church is taught nowhere in Scripture. It is a sinful invention of men. The next day, day four, Jesus gathered two more to Himself, Philip and Nathanael. Verse 43, Jesus purposed to go into Galilee. And He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, Follow Me. Jesus crossed from Bethany on the east side of the Jordan over to the western shore of the Jordan now, and then north into Galilee. His earthly mission was now underway. And His purpose for going into Galilee was to gather two more who would become His disciples, two of the twelve, who in three years would be sent into the world with the gospel. Jesus found Philip. Now, we're told here Philip was also from Bethsaida, which was the city of Andrew and Peter. It was also the city, by the way, of John and James. And he called him, just with these simple words, follow me. The same thing he says to every one of us. And not just to a particular place that day, but for all eternity, as he calls us all. And as is apparent from the very first words we read from Philip, Jesus had opened Philip's eyes now to the truth. Verse 45, Philip found Nathanael, and he said to him, We have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. So five of the disciples were from this place called Bethsaida. which actually means house of fish. It's a fishing town. It was near Capernaum, near the Sea of Galilee. And what's interesting about this is, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus would later pronounce a woe on that city. Woe to you, Bethsaida. Because it refused to repent of its sins and believe in Him. He said, Matthew 11, 22, "...it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you." Now you don't want Jesus saying that to you. You don't want it to be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. But He's telling them, even in these Gentile cities, even in these Gentile cities, the judgment won't be as harsh. So Jesus gathered His first five disciples out of a town that was marked by its unwillingness to repent and believe in Him. And John doesn't tell us whether he knew Philip before that day, but Philip did know Nathaniel. And Nathanael, we read in chapter 21, was of Cana in Galilee, where we're going to see the wedding feast and the first miracle performed by Jesus. So Philip found Nathanael and tells him, we found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets wrote. And Philip says they had found Jesus. Did you find Jesus or did he find you? Well, from their perspective, they might have seemed that way. In their eyes, they'd found the one promised for many centuries. But John has already told us that Jesus found Philip. Let's understand. It's He who found us while we were not seeking Him. There's none who seeks after God. There's none who does good. There's none righteous. How quick we are to credit the work of Jesus to ourselves. And this is why we don't pray for people to do anything. We pray for God to do a work in people, to change their hearts and save them, rescue them from the darkness. Jesus is the finder. Well, it's clear Philip and Nathanael also knew of the promise of Messiah. They knew that both Moses and the prophets had written of the Anointed One who would one day come. But you have to wonder, did they expect Messiah to come during their lifetimes? I was about to ask the question, do we expect Jesus to return during our lifetimes? And I think the reasonable answer is the odds are very much against it, given it's been 2,000 years and He hasn't yet returned. And it could be another 50 million years before He returns. Or it could be tomorrow. But they didn't expect Messiah to come from Nazareth. Notice Philip affirms Moses is the author of the Torah here. The first five books of the Bible. And Jesus will later affirm that as well in John chapter 5. Moses wrote those first five books. So that's not a recent invention. They understood Moses wrote those books throughout the Old Testament. Moses was called by God to write down the account of creation. and the fall, and the promises of God. Moses received the law with all its symbols and types, which pointed to Christ. And all that's contained in the Torah is without meaning and without purpose, without the Messiah, without Christ, of whom Moses wrote in the law. All that Moses wrote points to Christ. The seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, in whom people from every family and nation on the earth will be blessed. The Lamb of God, the ark of salvation, the priest who would intercede for people before the Father. Deuteronomy 18, 15 through 18. Moses recorded the divine promise of the great mediator prophet to come. Now the Jewish rulers who went to John the Baptist in the first place didn't realize that Messiah and the prophet of Deuteronomy 18 were one and the same man, but he was. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen. You shall listen to him. Verse 18, I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And so now Philip rightly declared that the one of whom Moses and later the prophets had written, the anointed one of God, had come. Philip believed. He found Nathanael. He told him of this great news, just as Andrew had shared the good news with his brother Simon Peter. We have found the Messiah! Hallelujah! Nathanael, by the way, is also called Bartholomew sometimes, from Bartholomew, meaning son of Ptolemy. But he tells Nathanael, we found the Messiah. And at first Nathanael wasn't quite sure what to make of what Philip was saying. He said, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Now, if you desire, you can pick up some commentaries and read the debates over whether Nathanael's words simply revealed some bigotry against people in Nazareth, or whether he was simply amazed that this little town would be the place from which Messiah would come. Well, Philip simply said to him, Come and see. So Nathanael may have had his doubts, but he was interested enough to go along. You notice every one of them responded. And meet the man they were saying was the long-awaited Messiah. We don't think of this seven-day period, particularly this four-day period, as one of the major time periods in all of history. But it sure was. This was the beginning. This is where the seed of the church was planted. So Philip and Nathanael go to Jesus. And Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and He said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. Now the term is understood by many as referring to an honest and sincere Israelite, a Jew without deceit in him, unlike Jacob, who was Israel's namesake, but who had deceived his father Isaac and stolen his brother's birthright. But I'm not sure that's what Jesus was saying here. You know what Paul wrote in Romans 9, 6? They're not all Israel who are descended from Israel, nor are they all children because they're Abraham's descendants. But through Isaac, your descendants will be named. So physical descent from Abraham and Jacob didn't make one a true Israelite. Still doesn't. One is not a true child of God because he is of Jewish ethnicity. One can only become a child of God by the new birth, by being joined into Christ through faith. So when Jesus declared that Nathanael was a true Israelite, He affirmed he was one of the true sons of Abraham, those who believed in the promise of God, those who believe in Christ. So Nathanael said to Jesus, How do you know me? Well Jesus' answer to him was fascinating. He said to him, Nathanael, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. So not only could Jesus see Nathanael physically under the fig tree, but he had divine power to look into his heart. And he let Nathanael know he could see inside him. Notice how Jesus' words, under the fig tree I saw you, strike home at Nathanael's heart. Jesus said, when you're under the fig tree I saw you, and Nathanael says, Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel. Look at Nathanael's reaction. He sees that the very thoughts of his heart are laid open before Christ. He came to faith suddenly, and He proclaimed Jesus is the Son of God. Look at His words. You're the Son of God. You're the King of Israel. And by the way, for the Jews, if one was the Son of God, he must also be the King of Israel, the long-expected Messiah. And Nathanael quite possibly borrowed both these titles, Son of God, King of Israel, from Psalm 2, which we read earlier. Verse 6, I have installed my King upon Mount Zion, my holy mountain. Verse 7, You are my Son. Psalm 2 had revealed that the Son of God would be installed as king over the people of God. Now, Nathanael had not yet understood that Christ was to be appointed as king, not merely of Israel, but over people from every nation, tribe, and tongue, over the universe. And Jesus responded to Nathanael's faith with a promise. Verse 50, Jesus answered and said to him, Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these. Now, the Lord tells now this new disciple that there are still greater things that are going to be revealed to him. What were they? What was he talking about? Well, in verse 51, Jesus provided at least a partial answer. And the promise which Jesus now made was addressed not only to Nathanael, but to the whole group that was gathered there. He said to him, and again he's drawing back to Jacob in a passage in Genesis 28. Jesus said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Now in Genesis chapter 28, by way of explanation here, Jacob had been on a journey to Haran. He was going to find a wife from among his father's relatives. This was about 400 miles to the northeast of the land of Canaan. And he stopped to rest on the way and he had a dream. You may recall all of this. And in the dream he saw a ladder that was set on the earth which its top was reaching into heaven. And he saw the angels of God ascending and descending on this ladder. And then he heard the voice of God pronounce upon him a great blessing, which he climaxed with the words, And in you and in all your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Now this was a reaffirmation of God's covenant promise to Abraham. He had ratified that promise again to Isaac, and now he makes it a third time to Jacob. So now, as Jesus is speaking to Nathanael, he makes reference to this dream that Jacob had had. And he was saying to him that though the whole human race had, to that point, been banished from the kingdom of God, the gate of heaven was about to swing open again. Now, in Christ, the kingdom of God was about to be opened to men, to us. After nearly 500 years of silence, God was again going to speak to men. Men would again hear the voice of God. So Jacob's ladder from Genesis 28 found its fulfillment in Christ. This is the meaning of Jesus' words to Nathanael here. Jesus is here shown to be that ladder, the link between heaven and earth, between God and man, the one who by means of his sacrifice could reconcile sinners to God. and Nathanael, and the rest of the twelve, they would see the power of God in Jesus. So by these words, Jesus declared that all the power of heaven was at His disposal. And in all His miraculous works, they would see that there was no barrier between Him and heaven. At this point, now Jesus has gathered five, maybe six of His disciples to Himself. John the Baptist has done the work he was called by God to do. And the Apostle John has preserved for us the very first day that Christ began to gather His disciples, ultimately to gather His church. And the next two days, He began with two unknown men, Andrew and presumably John, men of no great reputation. But within 20 years of that day, the church would be spread onto three continents. It's not clear at this point that those first disciples had left behind their fishing nets to devote themselves full-time to following Him, but that would happen soon. The seed of faith had been planted in them, and their preparation as Christ's apostles had now begun. They would be the men sent into the world. Everyone who has been born again has had a day like this. Day when you realized and believed. A day when the Spirit of God began to illuminate your heart and your mind with divine truth. Before that day, all you knew were things of this world. You may have heard about Christ, but you didn't believe. Your eyes weren't opened. But He did that work in everyone who's been born again. The same work He did in these men those three days. opens your heart and mind, does a work in you. He stirs you to want to turn away from what you were. Turn away from the things of this world and turn to Him and follow Him. So what we see here is Jesus' call, follow me and the first who followed Him. It was His call to Philip. It's His call to us. And to follow Him, not just in our heads, as we were talking about earlier, but in our lives, in our hearts, from our hearts. Jesus is leading His people, folks, to an eternal kingdom, a kingdom in which there is only truth, justice, and love, and righteousness. It's the most glorious place there will ever be. A place where there's only love in each one of us for all of the others. Where there's true fellowship and communion with the Creator. This is where He's leading us. That's where He was leading them that day. And I wonder, why would anyone be foolish enough to refuse Him? I hope and pray none of us are among those, but if you are, stop refusing Him. Turn to Him and follow Him with all your heart. We come to Him without fear that He will withdraw from us or refuse us. He stretches out His hand to us. He'll meet all those who come to Him. Come to me, you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That's a promise. He even seeks those who have turned away from Him for a time, have gone astray, are wandering, to bring them back into the right road. That's what the parable of the lost sheep is all about. Jesus is unlike any other man who ever lived. Think about this. When Andrew and John asked where He was staying, He immediately invited them to come to Him. This is the King of kings we're talking about. He didn't tell them, well, stop by tomorrow or maybe I'll get in touch with you. Maybe next week would be good. He welcomed them just as He welcomes us. Come and you will see. The eyes of your heart will be opened. Andrew, Philip, Nathaniel, and the others believed in Jesus that very day. And they turned and began to follow Him. No, they didn't have a complete knowledge of all divine truth. That would come later. But they believed in Him, and their faith changed them. True faith transforms you. It changes you completely from who you were. What did they do? Here's another great lesson for us. Andrew and Philip both went and immediately brought the good news, one to his brother, one to his friend. This is what we're supposed to be about, sharing this news, following that example. We must never keep this good news hidden. It's amazing the world has convinced us not to wear our faith on our sleeve. Get it out there. Make sure with every encounter that people know you are of Christ. How else are they going to be saved if they don't hear the gospel? Do we have so little concern for the rest of the world that we won't even tell them? like a lamp. We're supposed to be shining this light into the world. A world whose people are lost and headed for eternity in hell. One man wrote, true saving faith does not conceal or quench this light, it spreads it everywhere. Andrew had that little spark of faith and yet the first thing he did was go to his brother and share this good news with him. So too with Philip, who went and told Nathanael. We don't hear a lot about either of these two men in the Gospels. They're mentioned occasionally. But there's much for us to learn from them. They met Jesus. They listened to Jesus. And they believed in Jesus. And then they told others about Jesus. We don't want to stand before Him on the last day and have to answer the question, why didn't you take every opportunity to tell people about me? I pray we'd follow the course of Andrew and Philip every day. Yes, in the face of rejection, even ridicule, even hostility. Because only by sharing the good news, as they did, can anyone be saved from eternal hell. Calvin, woe to our indolence, therefore, if we do not, after having been fully enlightened, endeavor to make others partakers of the same grace. Well, let's take a moment and meditate on the words spoken to us this morning. And then let us examine ourselves, and then we will gather at his table. Father, we come to You by Your Spirit, through Your Son. And Lord, we come in adoration and worship. I pray, Lord, You would give us hearts of gratitude for all that You've shown us in Your Word, for the work of Your Spirit in us, for sending Your Son to live and to die for us, for blessing us with His righteousness, for cleansing us with His blood, Lord, I pray you would work in all of our hearts and that you would equip us to be effective witnesses of this good news. In Christ's name.