Sunday Gathering - John 1 : 29-34 - Nick Lugg - Sermon Only

Amen. Amen. Good morning. Nice to see you all.

Just a quick note, just to reiterate what Roland said about the men's lunch we're having on the 8th of February,

that's going to be the first step towards hopefully a cycle of events for men.

So please do come along to that after the service on the Sunday and I'll send out the invitations as he said.

Erica's not with us this morning.

she's okay

but she gets periodic pain

in her hands and joints and things

and swelling and anyway

don't need all those details

but she's not feeling too great

so she's resting at home

so please pray for her as well

Roland just mentioned

when we've done the offering we can then

move on to the word

no criticism of what Roland was saying at all

but it's interesting, it just struck me

we're going to move on, we've got another section

but in actual fact there's so much that's been

and always when you preach the word

and you want to hear what God is saying

because that's the whole point of the message

you want God to speak

so somebody told me a long time ago

don't be self-conscious or shy

or apologetic about what you preach

because if God has given you something to say

it's because people are there that need to hear it

and so we need to know what it is that God is saying

but through from beginning to end

you're always looking for those threads

and things that are connecting the dots

about what it is that God is saying to us as a church,

not what I'm saying as a preacher,

but what he's saying to all of us as a community.

And there's so much been said this morning

and done that's been so really, you know,

encouraging along the lines of what I've felt

from the beginning through this week

as I prepared that God has wanted to say.

And so I want to thank Graham for his word.

And I think, you know, we're not just going to leave that there.

I think that's still live with us.

You know, that's a really important emphasis

that he's brought in terms of understanding

our identity in christ and and not uh being resigned not being drawn back from uh you know

just just into the routines of life and uh and what chioma has shared as well just there's that

um there's a song it always used to make me smile because it starts by saying there must be more

than this it sounds quite there must be more than this but there there there you know there must be

more than this when we come to our faith in in jesus there must be more to what it means to meet

the living son of God

and have him live in power amongst us

and have him move in our lives

and you know the

temptation that Chioma would have

felt would have been resignation

just to, not to resign

but just to think oh well what can we do

there's nothing we can do

the anxiety is king

and yet choosing faith

to say there is more than this

is so much

is so important

in our lives and so as we continue in John's gospel we're discovering what it means to

to see Jesus face to face not just to be part of the system but to meet Jesus and

the passage that we've come to this morning is in John chapter 1 and verse 29 just a few verses

is verse 29 to 34 and I'm going to read it now the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and

said look the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world he is the one I was talking about

when I said a man is coming after me who is far greater than I am for he existed long before me

I did not recognize him as the Messiah but I have been baptizing with water so that he might be

revealed to Israel. Then John testified, I saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove from heaven

and resting upon him. I didn't know he was the one, but when God sent me to baptize with water,

he told me, the one on whom you see the Spirit descend and rest is the one who will baptize with

the Holy Spirit. I saw this happen to Jesus, so I testify that he is the chosen one of God.

we heard last week from Chris

about the ministry of John the Baptist

how he understood his identity

not the Messiah

he wasn't the main show

he wasn't the big noise

but he was a signpost

he was a pointer

someone who would direct people to Jesus

and then fade into the background

elsewhere he said he must become more

I must become less

and so there was no doubt in John's mind

that even if he didn't get the full picture

he knew that there was something else

there was more to it than this

there was more to it than him

there was more to it than his ministry

and there was one coming after him

that was so much greater

and so much more worthy of honour

that he was a voice announcing

the coming of the word as Chris said

just a voice announcing the word

that was coming onto the scene

the word of God

have you ever thought

I mean John the Baptist is quite

a mysterious sort of figure

well, you know, wearing camel's hair

and eating locusts and honey and all of those things.

This all sounds a bit strange,

but he had to be quite a remarkable man

to have all the attention, all the fame, all the interest,

and to consistently point people away from himself

and say, no, actually, there's somebody coming after me.

That's greater than me.

Not taking any of it for himself,

saying there is more to it than this.

Don't settle for this.

there's so much more because Jesus is coming

and that to me is a beautiful depiction of the ministry of the church

whatever the church can offer you

whatever we can give

however connected you are to it

it's nothing compared to the fullness of knowing Jesus

and in our culture we've got a lot of focus on church

you know it's great that there's so many resources and things available

I go on YouTube

we listen to preachers and watch what's going on and all of that

but there's so much focus and attention

that is on the church.

And in many ways, things seem to be,

like Chris mentioned last week,

things seem to be breaking apart a little bit.

The wheels seem to be coming off a little.

The sort of the church industry, if you like.

And because there is so much more to knowing Jesus

than just having a glitzy, shiny church,

which is good news for us, isn't it?

John said, I'm not fit to untie the straps of his sandals,

but let Jesus be glorified.

And so we must never draw our security or our identity

from anything else other than knowing Jesus.

Not from the church, not from our activity,

not from our ministry, not from our gifts, our talents.

None of those things.

Not what we do, what makes us useful.

All of those things are part of it.

But we have no worthwhile message except Jesus.

Verse 29 says,

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said,

look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

He is the one I have been talking about.

And then he goes on to say something really interesting.

He said, I did not recognize him.

And then it repeats in these few verses.

That theme repeats over and over again.

He said, there is one among you whom you did not recognize.

I did not know he was the one.

But God told me, I have been baptizing with water

so that he might be revealed to Israel.

And so the question asked as I was going through all of this

is what makes Jesus remarkable?

How do we recognise Jesus and his worth in our lives?

Because it doesn't come naturally.

Jesus was there and yet they didn't recognise him.

John was talking about the one that was coming after him.

We didn't really know what that meant or what he looked like

until God revealed it to him.

And it's possible that Jesus can be standing among us

and we see nothing out of the ordinary.

Jesus carries the anointing.

He carries the mission, but people weren't seeing it.

And there's something so challenging about this

because we can be so close to what God is doing

and still miss who Jesus really is.

We can be full on.

We're not just talking about being on the fringe of the church.

We can be full in the mainstream of the church.

We can be fully tied up.

And for people like myself in leadership and ministry,

that temptation is so real

that you can just get into the routines of everything

and you miss Jesus.

You don't recognise him.

You don't see him for what he is.

You're part of the crowd.

You're in the flow.

You hear the right words.

You do the right things,

but you don't quite recognise Jesus.

And so the question, what makes Jesus remarkable,

is open when we say,

what makes him remarkable is when God shows us who he is.

When God opens up our eyes to see Jesus for who he is.

So coming to know Jesus is a spiritual thing.

It's a spiritual encounter.

It's a revelation.

It's not something that we can sit and we can learn.

I remember my dad when he,

I was the first in my family to become a Christian

and then my mum and dad sort of came after me.

I hope he doesn't mind if he's watching.

But, you know, he said he got really interested

in stuff that I was talking about.

That's a miracle in itself, isn't it?

But, you know, he started reading books

and he got into reading Martin Luther,

all this before he became a Christian,

Martin Lloyd-Jones.

And he just got so confused with everything

because he was trying to educate himself into faith.

And somebody said to him one day,

stop trying to understand everything

and put your faith in Jesus.

And that day he did it.

And that day he saw Jesus for the first time.

In his heart, in his spirit, he understood.

And some of the things that he'd been trying to understand

became clear in a way that was impossible

beforehand. And so coming to know Jesus is a spiritual encounter. And I wonder what you feel

like sometimes. Do you feel, when you think about the crowds around John the Baptist, how easy it is

to be just one of the crowd, to be lost in the melee, to think, well, you know, I don't know,

you know, what my life really, what my life really means. I'm sort of hanging around. I want to see

what's going on, but I don't really feel like I see Jesus. Driven to understand. You want to live

right. You want to have faith. You want to do the right thing. You order your life. You sort things

out, but there's something missing. You can't quite see Jesus. He's here. He's around. People say, oh,

the presence of God was here this morning. You don't really see him. You don't feel him. You

don't recognize him in the way that other people seem to and what we need in those moments is for

God to open our eyes we don't need to feel that I'm not good enough or I'm not the right sort of

person or I'm not I haven't got enough faith or I I don't I'm not like all those other people in

the church all those mature Christians that know everything I'm not like that but you know and I

could never I've got a long road to walk I've got a high mountain to climb before I can ever get

close to knowing who Jesus is. In actual fact, what you need is for God to open the eyes of your

heart. You need God to show you who he is. And that can be a moment. That can be, and that is a

miraculous power. That is something that God does for us. So don't settle. Don't resign, as Graham

said, to just being, well, this is just me. But know that there is more. There is so much more than

this. There is so much more to seeing Jesus, to understanding Jesus, to knowing him for yourself

and it's possible for each and every one. John Wesley, many of you will have heard of John Wesley.

John Wesley was in the 1700s, the leader of a great revival that led to the establishment of

the Methodist church and there was like a nationwide and worldwide revivals and awakenings

going on at the time and John Wesley was a big part of that. He, you know, and the hymns that

we sing, the old hymns that we sing, was certainly Charles Wesley's brother, you know, wrote those.

And so he's a big part of the history of Christianity in our country. But he describes

a moment in his journal on May the 24th, 1738. And this was at a time when he was an ordained minister,

he'd been a missionary, he was highly educated, he was disciplined, he was devout, he was committed

to living a holy life. He preached, he prayed, he fasted, he studied scripture and then he wrote

these words. In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street where one was

reading Luther's preface to the epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was

describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely

warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that

he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. A man who was

steeped in Christianity, and yet in that moment, he's like he saw Jesus for the first time.

So vital that we seek God for all that he has for us. He'd never seen Jesus like that before.

he had an encounter with God

I remember in my own life

when I was a young, young, young man

very much younger than I am now

and I'd become a Christian

and put my faith in God

and yet I was struggling myself with what it all meant

there was a battle

and there was a turmoil in my mind

I wanted to know God, I wanted to see him

but it was just like

people said

come to Jesus and it will be great

become a Christian and you'll see

you'll get to speak in other languages

which I thought was great because I was doing French O level

at the time and you could

you know

you'll have peace

I had none of all that, it was just turmoil and anxiety

and stuff going on

it doesn't make sense

to me and I remember going to sleep one night

with my head going

around like a washing machine and thinking

well what, you know, it's like

what happens here? So I went to sleep

and when I woke up the next morning

without doing anything, without praying anything

without meditating on anything

without doing anything religious

I woke up

complete peace

and calm

followed by a total awareness of the presence of God

overwhelming

overwhelmed by his love for me

and overwhelming love for him

and with a determination

and a desire to give my whole life to him

to do whatever

I had a little Honda C50 moped

and I remember going down the road

steaming down the road at 29 miles an hour

because they were limited

and just singing to God

this isn't me, I'm not very demonstrative

you know me

and yet I was just overwhelmed

by the Spirit of God

and it lasted for two or three days

it was a long journey

and I've never experienced anything

like it since to be honest

but I remember it for the rest of my life

because it was a moment when I really saw Jesus in clear focus

and I just

would urge you

not to work at it or whatever

but just to make that your prayer

there's a time in the bible

in the gospels where people came

and they said we would see

Jesus, that old lang, we would see Jesus, we want to see

Jesus, what a prayer

we want to see Jesus

if that be our prayer today

then it's a powerful prayer, we want

to see Jesus, there's lots going

on, there's lots we have to do, there's lots of notices

there's lots in the what's on, there's all of that

but through it all we want to see Jesus

John the Baptist represents the ends of hundreds of years of religious understanding he was a

prophet like the old testament prophets what he was announcing was something brand new and so much

more powerful he was saying God himself now is present amongst us and so he was he was like the

last of a tradition he was the last of a of a style of of ministry and prophet and as he went

through it and he did it all and the crowds gathered around him and he he baptized and he

He preached and he did all that he did.

All of a sudden, he looked up and he said,

look, the Lamb of God,

introducing a new era of encounter,

the embodiment of this good news

that the angels sang about all those years ago.

Look, the Lamb of God

who takes away the sins of the world.

And that's why our vision

can never be just to be a good church,

a popular church, an effective church,

a well-known church, good people,

all trying to make a difference all those things are so valuable they're so important but there is

so much more to it because in actual fact if you think in terms of the youtube ministries that

there are john the baptist was successful he was a mega church pastor he had crowds going out to him

he had people gathering around him he had he had such there was something going on he was preaching

repentance for the forgiveness of sins he was baptizing people in water he was doing all that

we do and yet still he said there's more still he said this isn't it still in the middle of that

ministry in the middle of all that popularity and all of that success he was able to say look

the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world he's coming and we're breaking into a new

era a new order the new the new gospel age that's all about jesus powerful three-dimensional

encounter. It affects our heads, our

hearts, our thoughts, our feelings,

everything. You know, we

have a thing where we say, it's not all about feelings.

No, it's not all about feelings.

Feelings are important. Feelings are a

part of it. Feelings are the things that

actually, once we,

they're the things that make sense

to us, once we get things, once we get

our understanding together.

John said, look, the Lamb of

God, and that's our message.

If you like, when people come

to us and they, for whatever reason,

we join and we connect ourselves

to the community of the church

the message has to be not just at the beginning

but throughout every day of our lives

look, the Lamb of God who takes away

the sin of the world

Jesus is here

so we don't have a message that says

join the church for a lifetime

of trying to overcome your sin

of trying to be a better person

of trying to get things straight

of struggling and battling and all of that

but Jesus

the Lamb of God who takes away

the sin of the world. Takes it

away. John Wesley

said, I knew that he had

taken away my sin. I

felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone

for salvation, and an assurance was given

me that he had taken away my sins, even

mine, and saved me from the

law of sin and death.

Let our journey of

faith with Christ be at that

starting point. He's taken away my sins.

He said it to the prophet Isaiah, see

this coal has touched your lips, your guilt is swept

away. Taken away, your sin is atoned

for you are free now to serve me as we come to Jesus as we look up and we see Jesus just like

John Wesley who said why he's done it he's taken it away he's given me an open door to life and

and an opportunity to live and to and to discover an age of discovery the the to discover the

unsearchable riches of Christ let that be our life not not trying to get to the starting point let

let me just let me just overcome all of these problems and then I'll be ready to worship

no in actual fact

no that the Lamb of God

takes all that away

and gives us an open door

to life

and an opportunity

there might be struggle

there might be challenge

there's a process to go through

but it's all on the basis

that he has taken it all away from us

and he's given us life

and we can settle

we can resign

to use that word again

for a powerless gospel

and our expectations can diminish over time

and we can just become settled

but Jesus hasn't changed

Somebody said, if God seems far away, guess who moved?

God told John, the one on whom you see the spirit rest

is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

John baptized with water,

preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Jesus brings something else.

Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

And again, this is not something that's optional.

This is something that is for some Christians and not others.

Or do you go to a church where they baptize in the Holy Spirit

or do you go to another church where they don't?

You know, that doesn't actually make sense when you read the Scripture

because God revealed to John, he said,

the one on whom you see the Spirit descend and rest

is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

It's what he does.

If you meet Jesus, that's what he does to you.

He baptizes you with the Holy Spirit.

He fills you with unimaginable power.

He sweeps away your sin and he gives you power for living a life

that is way beyond anything that the ministry of John the Baptist could offer.

Jesus said, even the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist.

Not because John the Baptist wasn't a great man,

but because they've understood something of what God is doing,

that he's taking us on beyond from powerlessness to power,

to be filled, immersed, overwhelmed, swept away and raised up in power.

And so it's not a restrained thing in our lives when we meet Jesus.

He unleashes power to transform.

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us.

What power is that?

And so the danger is this.

We join the crowds, we be in the flow of what God is doing,

we can worship, serve, attend, believe, we can give, we can pray,

and yet we still struggle to see him,

struggle to recognize him for who he really is.

are we honest enough, humble enough

and open enough to ask God

to open our eyes

where are you today, what is going on

in your heart today as you're coming

like you can come in with all sorts

of burdens, all sorts of things clouding

your vision, all sorts of disappointment

all sorts of discouragement, all sorts of challenge

maybe you're on top of the world and you're

in total love with Jesus, that's absolutely

brilliant as well

we always go on the negative side don't we

carrying all the pain, but that's a reality as well

Do you get tired of not quite seeing him?

Are you willing to ask simply and honestly to see Jesus afresh?

Maybe the team can come back and we can respond to the word.

It's a very personal question in a corporate setting.

It's a very direct question.

It's a question we need to ask ourselves.

and it's one, you know, we often look for a response

and it's great when people respond

but it's usually a handful, one or two, three or four

because the bulk of us, we tend to think,

well, this is what we do.

We come to church on a Sunday.

It's not the sort of thing I usually do, which is respond.

But there's a moment when we have to ask ourselves,

actually, am I seeing Jesus?

Am I understanding the fullness of what it means

to be baptised in the Spirit?

Am I understanding what it means to live in the reality

that my sin has been taken away?

Or are we prepared just to settle for a good thing?

John's ministry was a good thing.

It was an effective thing.

It gave people a sense of understanding and purpose.

It gave them a sense of new beginning and everything else.

But John himself was saying, no, Jesus is more.

Do you know that you've connected with Jesus

or are you just getting into the routines?

And there's a question for you to ask yourself.

It's not one for me to keep pushing.

Let's ask ourselves, are we seeing Jesus?

And if not, do you have the desire that,

oh, I want to see, I want to see more,

I want to see, I want to understand more,

I want to feel that joy,

I want to, I want to, I want to see Jesus.

We're going to worship as we, we're not closing,

we've got time

but we're going to worship

and ask ourselves that question

and if there's anything in you

then you need to ask the question

you need to ask God

it's not about receiving ministry from me

or from anybody else

but you're very very welcome

to give legs to your prayer

and come and stand here at the front

and just ask God to reveal himself to you

Jehovah said

simple word

change the whole life

change the whole album

and today can be a powerful day like that in your life as well

and so if you want to come

and if you need to, you know you need to come

come and respond

don't worry about what people might think

or anything else

people are going to be celebrating

because we're all going to be responding in a way

we're all going to be responding to Jesus

and so let's just

spend some time in worship

and we'll pick it up from there