We Found the Messiah John 1:35-42 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO

In this passage we find something very interesting concerning John the Baptist and the Messiah. John’s purpose in the ministry was to manifest Jesus toIsrael(John 1:31). Therefore, his ministry would have been a total failure if he had only been able to get disciples for himself. Andrew and the other disciple were John’s disciples.

Preachers should never lose sight of what we see in this text because there is a temptation to build the work for one’s self and not for the Lord (1 Cor. 1:11-18). It severely weakens a ministry when it is built around a man instead of Jesus Christ. In such a case that man becomes a failure. John did not have this problem as his disciples recognized and followed the Messiah when they met Him (John 1:37). Therefore, we want to examine how John got his disciples to find the Messiah.

John preached Jesus Christ – Any man who preaches himself and his new revelation ends up with a congregation that follows the man. John was not like this; rather he was more like Paul (2 Cor. 4:5). Paul had every reason to become exalted in his ministry because God had given him special revelations of the Lord Jesus Christ. To prevent this, God gave him a thorn in the flesh, a minister of Satan to buffet him lest he should be exalted above measure. Paul preached Jesus Christ and himself as only a servant of Jesus (1 Cor.1:23, 1:21).

John exalted Jesus Christ – John put Jesus Christ high above everything, everybody and every detail of his ministry (John 1:29, 1:36). That was the appropriate place for John to place Jesus because God has done the same thing (Acts 5:31, Phil. 2:9-10).

John allowed his followers to abide with Jesus Christ – John understood that when they had found the Messiah they would leave him and spend time following Jesus (John 15:1-7, 1 John 1:3). The greatest thing we have to do as Christians on this side of glory is to have fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, too many people have this idea that all they need do is spend an hour in service on Sunday and then they can go on throughout the rest of their week without giving Jesus a second thought. That just will not work, my friend. We are to seek fellowship with Jesus Christ every day.

John encouraged his followers to go and tell others about Jesus – When we go out and tell others about Jesus Christ we reproduce Christians (Acts 8:27-39, 1 Cor.1:17, 2 Tim. 3:15) who in turn can go forth and do the same thing. This is how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is spread to the world (Mark 16:15).