The Messiah
John 1:29-42

Intro.:
1. There are lots of things that take a long time to learn. Experience comes through hard work and exposure to lots of different issues. Several years ago I talked with a young man who dropped out of school to start a computer store. The big problem in startup was money.
Where do you get money? He searched around and found people who were willing to loan money. I was interested in pursuing the information on money and talked with a man in Dallas, Tex. So I told the man that I was interested in securing a franchise and wondered if I could secure financing. He wanted to know how much money I needed, and I said about 750,000 dollars. His response was that the average amount that they raised was about 15 million dollars. If the numbers were right in projections they would probably help me. I did not go any further in that since I was not really interested in running a fast food business.
The point I want to make is that knowing the right person or persons is the key to doing lots of things. Knowing certain things will get one ahead in life.

2. Many of us may be lured by the hope of lots of money. But the truth is that lots of money is not satisfying. The disciples here were interested in something more important than money, wealth, prestige, or accomplishment. The excitement of their lives in seen in the verse, “We have found the Messiah!!” While this is not financial, one may well say that they had found the source for the understanding of life and happiness. They had found the one who brings peace and contentment. In the days before Jesus, there was an expectation of a coming Savior, a Messiah, foretold in the Old Testament, who would deliver them from their hopelessness and despair. This verse has the meaning that all they had ever wanted in life had now been fulfilled.

3.The glad news of the Messiah has commitments in other ways.

I. He is the Lamb of God.

1. What can this verse mean? John the Baptist was the son of a priest. He knew all the ritual of the Temple and its sacrifices. Every morning and evening a lamb was sacrificed in the Temple for the sins of the people. (Ex. 29:38-42.) So long as the Temple stood this daily sacrifice was made. Even when the people were starving in war and in siege they never omitted to offer the lamb until 70 AD when the Temple was destroyed. It may be that John is saying, “In the temple a lamb is offered every night and morning for the sins of the people, but in this Jesus is the only sacrifice which can deliver men from sin.”

2. There is another connection that is interesting. When this ritual was commanded in Exodus, the word from God was that he would meet with the people to speak to them at the door of the tabernacle. Here we have the Lamb of God meeting with us and speaking with us.

3. I had a student once who had been having doubts and questions. She was reared a Methodist and had been very active in the past. She was a biology major and a very good student. She had come to question some of the ideas of her church. I asked which ones?
She wondered about the ten commandments: she thought they were good for mankind but was not sure whether they came from God or not. Then the big issue came out. She was not sure about Jesus. Interestingly enough she had a great conviction that God was existing. There was no doubt about that in her mind. She had not required reasons for this or evidence, but she was sure God existed. But Jesus was a problem for her.

I tried to indicate to her that she was believing one big miracle, but doubting a lessor one. It is a stupendous thing to think about God creating the world. If you can believe that, does it pose such a big problem that God could visit us in the form of a human? Then I raised the question: if you only believe in God, what can you know about Him. The remarkable thing about Jesus is that he is the Son of God, or God in the flesh showing us what God is like. If we look at this phrase from the Old Testament in reference to Jesus, the Lamb of God, not just an animals, but the occasion for God to speak–appears in Jesus the Christ.

4. There is another picture which would be familiar to the Jews. Between the Old and New Testament period, those were the days of the struggles of the Maccabees. In those days, the Lamb was the symbol of a great conqueror. Judas Maccabees is so described as are Samuel, David and Solomon. The lamb–strange as it may sound to us–stood for the conquering champion of God. Jesus as the Lamb of God fought sin and mastered it in his lifetime. And he did it for us.

II. He is the discerner of thoughts. 48

1. The background to this verse is the story of Philip finding Nathanael, a friend, 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, “Come and see” Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him, ‘Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.” Nathanael said. “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree I saw you.” Nathanael answered, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.”

2. It was not such that Jesus had seen him under the fig-tree that surprised Nathanael. It was the fact that Jesus had read the thoughts of his inmost heart. Nathanael was experiencing a person who understood him, who knew his thoughts, his prayers, his meditations. Here was a man who had seen into his most intimate and secret longings, longings which he may never have put into words. Out of his experience, he proclaimed Jesus as God’s anointed one and no other.

3. Life involves a search for people who understand us. It is not uncommon for children to say, “My parents don’t understand me.” In Jesus we find one who understands us, who lived among us, and has come to give life in all its fullness.

Many years ago a man in Chicago was persuaded to go to church at Christmas time. After the service was over he asked his mother on the way home, “did you talk to the pastor about me?” What the pastor said cut to the heart of the man who really needed God.
Jesus knows what is in our hearts.

III. He commands to follow him. 43

1. This is the invitation to become a disciple, a learner. Philip accepted the invitation. The Master-Pupil relation is one of the most profound relations in terms of learning. It is so common and obvious that we often overlook it. Suppose a boy wants to learn how to be a good ball player. There is a lot to be learned in reading books, but a better way is to find someone who has excelled in teaching others how to play ball. That kind of person would be able to show you the real tricks of the game. There are things that look right to the novice, but are not in the long run. You need to learn things right so you can make improvement. If you don’t learn to play right you can never make improvements until you start over.

2. Several years ago I decided to learn to play golf. I did very well as far as learning on my own goes, but I had problems. Each time I had a problem there was also someone around who had not much better than myself to tell me how to correct my problems. I went on this way for a long time and enjoyed playing, but I never got better. Then one day I decided to submit myself to someone who really knew about golf. I went to a person at the college who taught golf and who was a good golfer. He took videos of my swing and after analyzing it, told me that if I wanted to improve, I would have to start all over again, from scratch. He told me I had never learned the basics and could never improve unless I learned it right. So I started all over trying to learn the game the way it was supposed to be played.
At first, everything seemed awkward, it did not feel right, but as I began to put the system into my thinking and my muscles and swing, I began to do better. Although I don’t play golf much anymore, whenever I do go out I can still get a decent score.
If you want to learn to play a game, learn to be a doctor, a chemist, a surgeon, and many other professions, you must search out a master who can teach you.

3. What does this say about life? Do you want to know how to live life? Search out the pro. Jesus is the Creator of life...what better person can one follow? Where is there better direction? Jesus said, Follow me...that is the invitation to become a disciple, a learner.

4. The disciples were looking for the Messiah, one who would deliver them from ignorance, from sin, and from a meaningless existence. The words of Jesus are still true for us today. Follow me.

5. If you are searching for the meaning of life, for forgiveness of sin, for help in living in a sinful world, let me introduce you to Jesus. The disciples were excited to find the Messiah, the hope of the world, and you will be excited when you come to know Him.