John Chapter 1:39-43

You may think, well, I just don't know enough.

You know what? I'm encouraged by the guy, and we base a hymn on it. In the Gospel of John, where they're asking him all these questions, he goes, you know what? I don't know anything except I know that I was blind, and now I see.

That's enough. See, when you begin to think, well, I got to wait until I get to a certain level of knowledge to begin sharing my faith, you have fallen into a trap of the enemy. Because at what point will you have Genesis to Revelation memorized? Probably be a while, won't it? Or maybe you're thinking, well, I got to get all this straightened out, this, that, and the other, and then when I get that straightened out, then I'll start to share my faith.

How long is that going to be? Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is a senior pastor of the bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina, and we're glad to have one of David McGee's associate pastors, D.A. Brown, here with us as Pastor David continues through the book of John. Yeah, Bob, sometimes we think that when we tell others about Jesus, we have to speak perfectly, not make any mistakes, and know everything about the Bible.

That's not true. God is wanting us to just simply tell people about Him, and He will empower that. What if I mess up and say the wrong thing? We've all messed up, Bob. None of us have been perfect. Jesus is perfect for us.

Well, that sounds encouraging. So, I'm excited to hear what David McGee has to say as he continues teaching through John, chapter 1. We are in the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 39.

If you remember, we are in the midst of Jesus calling some of the disciples. Last week, we talked about, what do you seek? And certainly, that's an awesome question in verse 38 for us. What are we looking for? What are we seeking? It's kind of a convicting question, really, when you begin to answer it, because a lot of times, we are not seeking first the kingdom of God as we're told to do. The Lord tells us in His Word, seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.

Now, we read that, and a lot of times, we think, well, that's an oversimplification or something. No, that's God's Word, and He means what He says, that if you will seek Him first, the Lord, it's amazing, will order every step in your life. Verse 39, He said to them, Jesus did come and see, when they said, Where are you staying?

Where do you live? He said to them, Come and see. And they came and saw where He was staying and remained with them that day.

Now, it was about the tenth hour. Another interesting thing, remember, John is writing to both the Jewish audience and the Gentile audience. And so, what you're going to do, you're going to see some things like John using Roman time instead of like the watches, which were common to the Jewish keeping of the time. And you'll also see him explain some of the Jewish terms. Now, what's interesting, here again, Jesus says, Well, come and see. What an awesome thing to tell somebody in regards to the Lord.

Amen? Come and see. Come check it out. Come and get a fresh start. Come and receive the forgiveness of your sins. Come and be led to the still waters. Come get your soul restored. And you realize, at that moment, He's speaking to two disciples. But do you realize Jesus is saying that to everybody? Come and see.

Come and see. I've heard some people say that Christianity is an exclusive religion. That is so bogus. It's not exclusive, meaning that people are excluded.

It's inclusive, meaning everybody is invited. Whosoever will. Praise God. Did you know that you're a whosoever?

Amen. Raise your hand. I'm a whosoever. Raise your hand if you're a whosoever. Everybody in here is a whosoever. So, whenever you read a scripture that says whosoever, that's you.

Okay? You're being called by name. One of the two who heard John, in verse 40, speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. We see several ways how people are drawn to Jesus. Here, when they heard John the Baptist speak, they were drawn to Jesus. In verse 41, he first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which is translated the Christ. Messiah is a Hebrew word. Mashiach is the given Hebrew, or anointed one. Another way to say Messiah is the anointed one. Not a anointed one, but the anointed one. Christos is the Greek word for anointed. That's where we get Christ, or Christos. So, his name is Yeshua Christos.

Yeshua, again, being a Hebrew word, also the same as Joshua. He first found his brother. It's good to go to family and tell them about Jesus. Amen.

It's hard, isn't it? Because so often, they are so familiar with our shortcomings and with our sins that we think, well, you know, I can't tell them. They know all the mistakes I've made. But do you understand that that just gives you a platform to share the gospel? And don't ever, gosh, gosh, gosh, don't ever sit and argue whether you're a sinner or not with family.

Don't do that. I used to be a sinner. I'm not a sinner anymore.

Because they know. But you can use that to share the gospel. You can say, yeah, you know what?

You're right. I'm not perfect. God is still at work in me. But praise God, He's at work in me. And I recognize from my own sinfulness that I need a Savior.

I need a Messiah. That's interesting that when we look at the life of Jesus, we don't ever see Him going more than about 70 miles from Nazareth. If you've been there to Israel, it's remarkable how small of a country it really is. And He could have gone anywhere. He could have gone everywhere.

But He stayed in a tight little circle to maximize His ministry. I find that intriguing and very interesting. Now, there's one, well, I was going to say branch of Christianity. It's more like a cult that says Jesus came to America. But we don't have any scriptural proof. We don't have any archaeological proof.

We don't have any historical proof that that was true. See, that challenges our notion, doesn't it, of ministry sometimes? We think the more spread out it is, the better it is.

Not necessarily. Sometimes it's the more focused it is, the more effective it is. In Matthew 4.18, it says, In Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Let me give you a little Bible study tip. Whenever you're introduced into a character in the Bible, pay close attention to what they're doing, because it is of special significance.

There's never any details in there. They're just kind of filler material thrown in. So look, we have these two guys, Peter, Simon, and Andrew. And what are they doing? Casting a net into the sea. How appropriate. How appropriate.

And what happens? Andrew is telling Peter about the Messiah. We found the guy. We got to tell people. It's interesting that it's not recorded that Andrew was told to go tell people, but he did. A lot of times when Jesus does miracles in the gospels, he does something that I, to be honest, still to this day, don't quite understand.

I kind of do, but I kind of don't. He would do something, raise somebody from the dead, like the daughter. And then he would say, don't tell anybody. That must've been difficult. And we read that oftentimes that was too difficult. That even though Jesus said, don't tell anybody, they went and they told people.

That strikes me as ironic. You know why? Because he told them not to tell, and they told he tells us to tell, and we don't. I want to encourage you in something. We're supposed to tell people about Jesus, but the thing that you have to understand is why are we supposed to tell people about Jesus?

And this is a trap that so many people have fallen into. If I ask you that question this morning, doubtless countless replies would be, we tell people about Jesus to see them get saved. Well, that sounds good and it sounds noble, but understand that's wrong scripturally.

Let me explain. If your motivation is to see somebody get saved and that's why you share the plan of salvation, what happens when they don't get saved? You've removed the motivation. As a matter of fact, so many believers start out on fire and then they're sharing to see people get saved. And the first time nobody gets saved, and the second time nobody gets saved, the third time nobody gets saved. And they go, you know what?

I can't do this. I must not be called to evangelism. And they quit sharing because they think through a lie of the enemy that they're being unsuccessful. But guys, Jesus told us to go and tell.

So let me ask you a question. At what point are we successful in the eyes of Jesus? The moment we open our mouth, the moment we open our mouth, Jesus is like, yeah, that's my boy or my girl.

Surrounded by a cloud of witnesses cheering us on. The moment you open your mouth, you are successful. You are being obedient to what Jesus told you to do. And the moment you don't open your mouth, you are being disobedient to what Jesus has told us to do. Now sometimes, and I understand guys, God's given me a boldness in sharing my faith.

And I'm glad he has. But understand, we're all supposed to be bold. And a lot of times people say, well, I just, I don't know enough yet to share my faith. Oh yeah, you do. If you were here last week, you got enough.

Go share. I mean, you guys, every week, you're getting filled up. You better go pour it out or you will begin to get stagnant. You know, stagnant, stagnant pond. That's a pretty picture.

And it smells real nice, doesn't it? Now, Jesus told us to be fishers of men. He never said be keepers of the aquarium. We're supposed to be sharing our faith. And again, you may think, well, I just don't know enough. You know what? I'm encouraged by the guy and we base a hymn on it. And the Gospel of John, where they're asking him all these questions, he goes, you know what? I don't know anything except I know that I was blind and now I see. That's enough.

That's enough. See, when you begin to think, well, I got to wait till I get to a certain level of knowledge to begin sharing my faith, you have fallen into a trap of the enemy. Because at what point will you have Genesis through Revelation memorized?

Probably be a while, won't it? Or maybe you're thinking, well, I got to get all this straightened out, this, that, and the other. And then when I get that straightened out, then I'll start to share my faith.

How long is that going to be before you get perfect enough to share your faith? See, these are pitfalls that we fall into. I'm afraid that we fall into. I'm afraid that I might say something wrong.

Well, let me liberate you on that. You will say something wrong. I promise you. You'll say the wrong thing at the wrong time. And you know what? That's part of the experience of learning. I've said the wrong thing at the wrong time many times.

And that's why I'm dependent upon the Holy Spirit. But you know what? Saying the wrong thing, you're still being obedient to the Lord. Maybe you messed up.

Maybe you said the wrong thing. But you know what? And this is life lesson number one. We only fail in telling when we fail to tell. We only fail in telling when we fail to tell. The only people that never make mistakes are people that never do anything.

You ever heard that one? So yes, you'll make some mistakes. You'll make some timing mistakes. You'll make some mistakes where you get distracted from the main issue of, you know, because look, the enemy gets into the conversation.

I understand that. You know, you start to share about the cross, about Jesus, and they want to talk about everything but that. What about Israel?

What is going on over there? Oh, let me tell you about Israel. Or, you know, what's some common ones?

Oh, the Bible contradicts itself. That's a real common. Just hand them a Bible and say, show me one. Or the pygmies in Africa.

Have y'all ever heard that? You're sharing them, Jesus, what about the pygmies in Africa? My reply is usually, well, let's get you saved. And since you got a burden for them, you can go over there and minister them. Praise God. But the real question is, what are you going to do with Jesus? What you're talking to them right then about the cross of Christ and what they're going to do with that. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor D.A. Brown.

Hey, Bob. We want to take a minute to pray for our listeners in these cities. In California, we have Joshua Tree, Lake Isabella, Lakehead, Las Cruces, Laurel, Lompoc, and the San Jose area. God, we thank you for these cities. We pray for the leaders in these cities, that you would give them wisdom and discernment. We pray that people would be following you with all their heart, all their soul, and all their strength, and they'd be sharing with others the hope that they found in you. We pray that many would accept that offer of hope and eternal salvation, and that they would get plugged in Bible-teaching churches, and they will begin to grow in their relationship with you and be a blessing to other people. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. I love verse 42, and it says, And he brought him to Jesus. He brought Simon to Jesus.

We don't follow a lot of what Andrew does after the Gospels, but boy, he sure hit a home run when he brought Peter to Jesus, didn't he? See, you never know. You never know who you're witnessing to. You might be witnessing to the next Billy Graham, the next Greg Laurie, the next Lewis Palau, the next fill in the blank.

You don't know. The Lord will give you the words. The Lord will give you gifts to share with people. See, a lot of times, we think spiritual gifts are for show. They're not for show.

I love what Donald Gee said. He said, The spiritual gifts, the Holy Spirit is like the steam in a train. And somebody, as we watch a steam engine go by and we see the steam coming up out of the whistle, you can mistakenly think, oh, the steam's for the whistle. No, the steam's not for the whistle.

The steam is to drive the train. See, the Holy Spirit is to give you power to be a witness. And sometimes, we think it's to blow our own whistle, don't we? That's just me. Not y'all, but sympathize with me for a moment, if you will.

Trust God. I've shared this story before, but this is just kind of a classic in showing that the Lord will have you share what He wants you to share. We were in a military town, and we went and we set a flatbed out in the parking lot. We were doing music and stuff. And it started raining all the gear, so we started putting stuff away. And Nora called from off to the side, and she said, Hey, David, can you come over here for a minute? And I'm putting all this gear away, and it's raining.

Did I say that? Yeah, it's raining on the gear. And my wife is going, come here, honey. I'm busy doing the work of God, honey. But when I looked over, I saw the look on her face, and I thought, well, something's going on. So I walked up, and she was talking to a guy that had been standing there, and I said, what's going on? And he looked at me, and he said, I don't want to go to hell. I thought, all right, well, this ought to be a pretty straightforward conversation.

I mean, we've already jumped to the issue, you know. And I said, we don't have to. And he goes, well, I just don't want to go to hell. And I said, well, that's how Jesus died.

Jesus died to forgive you of your sins. And he said, you don't understand. And I said, well, you're right. I probably don't understand.

But you know what? Jesus Christ does understand. He goes, no, you don't understand.

So this went back and forth for a minute or two. And then the Lord impressed upon me, you know what? Share about Paul. And I said, dude, do you know, have you ever heard of Paul?

And he said, yeah. I said, do you think Paul was a Christian? He said, well, yeah, he wrote part of the Bible. I said, yeah, he wrote two-thirds of the New Testament. I said, do you think Paul was a Christian? He said, yeah. I said, OK. Do you know what Paul was doing before he got saved?

The guy said, no. I said, he's running around persecuting Christians, killing them, we believe, for no other reason than them being Christians. And I said, if God can change the life of Paul and forgive him, whatever you've done, the Lord can forgive you. Well, a light went on. And I said, do you believe that? And he said, yeah. I said, can I pray with you? And he said, yeah. So we prayed.

I let him in the sinner's prayer that he asked for the forgiveness of his sins from Jesus Christ based upon his death upon the cross. And man, you know, sometimes people get quietly saved, you know, and there's no tears. They're still saved. But sometimes they get like saved to the bone. You know what I'm talking about?

You know what I'm talking about? I mean, you can look at him and go, wow, he just got saved. Incidentally, if you ever pray with somebody for them to receive the Lord, after you say, amen, do not look at them and go, how you feel? Because they may not feel any different. And we don't walk according to feelings.

We walk according to faith. But this guy, man, you know, his face was lit up and we started loading equipment again. And man, he was like, I feel good. And I looked over there and he was pouring a beer out that he had had in his pocket. Now I didn't say to him, you got to quit drinking now. He just took it on his own.

Kept loading, kept loading. I look over again. He's got his cigarettes out.

Done with it. I didn't tell him to quit smoking. So I said, look, dude, we're going to go out to eat if you want to go with us. He said, sure. So he went out to eat with us. We're in the middle of like a sit-down restaurant. And my bro, the dude's over there going, man, I feel good.

And people are like, oh, Martha, that gentleman over there feels good, apparently. When we got ready to leave, I said, you know, can I give you a ride back somewhere? And he goes, no, I actually have a driver that's assigned to me. All I have to do is communicate with him.

I've got this little electronic device. And he pulled back his jacket and he had this, I don't even know what all it did, this electronic device on it. And it said on there, Lieutenant Commander Navy Seals. I had no idea that this guy made a living, not only killing people, but teaching other people how to kill people.

I had no idea what he was struggling with. I had no idea what his burden was, but the Lord knew. And the Lord spoke to my heart about what to share. And you know what?

That's not just me, guys. The Lord wants to use you in that way. He wants to speak to your heart about what to share with people.

And it can be just as exciting and just as much an adventure if you're open. And if you open your mouth, let me assure you, God will fill your mouth. Praise the Lord. Verse 42, and it says, and he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, he said, you are Simon, the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas, which is translated a stone.

So he's a little rock, but he was going to be a big rock. And here again, we see in the original text, we see John translating for the Gentile who didn't speak Hebrew or Aramaic. Guys, you know what?

Don't miss something here. This is an extremely encouraging verse when you stop to think about it. Because when Andrew brought Peter, Jesus didn't look at him and go, oh my gosh, look what that cat drug in. He didn't say, oh man, you know what? I'm going to spend a whole lot of time on you and you're going to end up denying me. He didn't say any of that, did he?

Why? Because Jesus, oh, don't miss this. Jesus saw the end result of who Simon would end up to be. He saw the end result of who Simon would end up to be. Not the denier. Oh, he knew that.

Not somebody that would stick his foot in his mouth often. He did that too. But he saw Peter and he saw a strong man in the Lord. He saw a man that had denied him a few days before, but then stood on the steps of the temple and led 3000 people to the Lord. And then turned to the spiritual leaders of Israel when they said, you got to quit talking. He said, you know what?

I'm going to obey God and not man. He saw that. And if he saw that in Peter, guess what? He sees that in you. He sees where you're going to end up.

He sees where you're going to be. Praise God. Because the end result was Jesus turned him in this man into a rock. And do you understand it's the same power of God that wants to change us? Power of God hadn't changed. Well, it was the apostolic power of God.

No, don't give me that. It's the power of God. The power of God is the same. See, in life lesson number two, God accepts us the way we are and loves us too much to leave us that way. And God not only desires to change us, but gives us the power to change. God can change us. Let's say that. God can change us.

Say that. God can change us. Some of you aren't sure. Let's do it again. God can change us.

Some of you are still going on the fence again. God can change us. Let's make it a little more personal. God can change me. God can change me. Do you believe it? He can do it.

He can do it. You're looking at a Gentile heathen dog that God got ahold of. I wasn't born a pastor, but God got ahold of me. In verse 43, the following day, Jesus wanted to go to Galilee and he found Philip and said to him, follow me.

I love that. Follow me. He didn't give him some big dissertation on eschatology. He just said two words, follow me.

And he did it. We get so distracted so easily spiritually, don't we? We get our eyes off of Jesus. We get our eyes on other things.

We get our eyes on other people. And Jesus is going, hey, over here, over here, over here. Follow me. Pick up your cross daily.

Follow me. You ever notice how Jesus repeats himself a lot? Paul didn't really repeat himself very often. He would follow this little logic and awesome teacher, but Jesus repeated himself a lot.

I was confused about that when I was a younger Christian, but then I had children. And you know what I find myself doing? Repeating myself. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that.

Don't do that again or you're in big trouble. That's why Jesus repeats himself. He reminds us, hey, follow me. Follow me.

Why? Because he understands that we are so easily distracted and we need to follow someone. You're going to follow somebody. Only decision that you have to make is who are you going to follow? Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said he would not turn anybody away from you. He turned anybody away who comes to him.

And he came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources in your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27117, and share how God is working in your life. Well, D.A., before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee.

That sounds good, Pastor D.A., and again, it's been great to have you with us on the program today. But tell us, what else can our listeners find on crossthebridge.com? If you're not able to make it to your home church this Sunday, why not join us for our live stream at 10 a.m. Eastern Time, or on Thursday nights at 7 p.m. Eastern Time? Just visit crossthebridge.com and click on our live stream link. There, you'll experience a live service from David's Home Church, the Bridge in North Carolina. Again, that website is crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.