Episode 144: CHS Downtown sermon | Tim Henderson+

How you doing, Eric? I'm good. How are y'all doing? Did we sell all our music stands? Yeah, there's literally no music stand. The thing is a monster. Eric, do you have another song you wanna sing? Sure. Am I coming up early? No, you're not coming up early. I have plenty of songs I wanna sing, but you're not coming up early. You just haven't left yet. So I'm like, can I do something wrong? But you can hang out. It'd be good. No, I'll leave. Whatever you like. We could do it together.

My name is Tim. You guys wanna sit down for a minute? You're gonna have to get back up again, but you can sit down for a second at least and catch your breath. My name is Tim. This is Eric. We're so glad you're here with us at the table. Thanks for coming out on this beautiful evening. I know you could just stay outside, and that's got a lot to commend itself. But we're so glad to spend some time with you guys.

You're at Church of the Holy Spirit downtown, which has our main campus at Merriman Avenue up in the Cave Spring area. We started this experiment to be here downtown, and we're so fun to be with you. If you're new here, on the way out, we've got these wine glasses we'd love to give you as a gift, with a little card you can fill out and give us your information. We'd love to make the swap. You can grab one right now if you want. And we'd love to tell you more about what we're doing at any time.

We're gonna begin here with a little bit of time in the scriptures. If you've never been, it's a little bit of a weird night. What we're gonna do is spend some time looking at a passage from scripture, and we're gonna celebrate communion. But when we do it, there's an extended meal, and you're gonna have a chance to fellowship with the folks around the table and engage in conversation. I think that when Jesus instituted communion, it wasn't meant to just be a symbolic meal, but a real meal that is symbolic and celebrates and honors his death and his resurrection.

Scripture Reading

As we begin, we're gonna look at a passage from the gospel of John. If you have a Bible, I'd love you to open it up or flip to it. And I'd love to invite you to stand in honor of God's word as I read this to you.

This is from the gospel according to John, chapter one, verses 35 to 46:

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God." When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?" They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?" "Come," he replied, "and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, when translated, is Peter). The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me." Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one that Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," said Philip. — John 1:35-46

That's the gospel of our Lord according to John. Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Indeed. Glory to him. Have a seat, but keep your Bibles open to John's gospel here.

I'm in the process right now of studying John's gospel, maybe more in-depth than I have ever studied it before, and it's incredibly fun. John has packed in so much insight into this book. And in the first chapter, which we're in right now, there are basically three main movements. It begins with this prologue, which is famous. How does John one begin? Do you guys have it in your brain at all? Yeah. That's it.

It's just a crazy poem, and it's unbelievably deep in its theological insight.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God. The word was God. It was with God in the beginning. — John 1:1

It goes on to all these extraordinary things. The second section is an introduction to John the Baptist, which is really curious. It's stunning to me. I think I'd underestimated what a big deal John the Baptist is. I mean, he shows up almost—it's almost like you're watching this beautiful play in the prologue, this amazing thing, and then, like, the janitor comes on the stage, just kinda walks through sweeping in the middle of it all. It's like, what is John the Baptist doing here? And I think that we underestimate his role.

And then the third movement is this thing here, which you could look at it and say that it's, on the one hand, really the origin story of how Jesus gathers his disciples. We're seeing all these main characters are gonna end up being the disciples, the ones that he's gathering in. Andy, you're getting ahead of the game, aren't you? You write stuff down. This is like our John's—we're studying John with Andy. He's getting a sneak peek of where we're going. But it's not just about how the 12 gathered. Rather, what I think John is doing is he's giving us this description of normal Christianity. This is simply the way Christianity works because the gospel always comes to someone on the way to someone else. And that's what we're gonna see here as we unpack this.

How the Gospel Spreads

Take a look at verses 35 to 39:

The next day, John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the lamb of God." And when the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?" They said, "Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying?" He replied, "Come, and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour. — John 1:35-39

Here's what's going on. John the Baptist has known—when did John the Baptist first learn about Jesus? In the womb. It is literally in the womb. How do you make that case? Well, Mary went to see her cousin, and she entered the door. The baby leaped with her cousin's womb. That's exactly what it says. From the very beginning, it's something like prenatal—John the Baptist had some experience, some understanding that this one who's essentially his cousin is something special. We don't know if they grew up together or what their experiences were like. But there's this moment where John the Baptist sees Jesus and he says to two of his disciples, "Behold, it's the lamb of God." When he sees him, he recognizes, or at the very least communicates, that something incredibly significant is here. The thing that God has been pointing to for all time is finally here.

Which is to say that though John already had some understanding of who Jesus is, that understanding came to him on the way to somebody else. Now who's the somebody else? Who is John the Baptist sharing this information with? Can you tell from the text? Who are the two men that he's talking to? Do you know? Andrew. That's right. Andrew is named. Not in the passage we read, but in the next verse, he gets identified. Look at verse 40:

Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who would follow Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah, that is the Christ," and he brought him to Jesus. — John 1:40-41

So John the Baptist knows something's going on with Jesus, and he talks to two people—Andrew and somebody else who's not named. And then Andrew's first move is to go and get Simon Peter. He doesn't call him Peter yet. He says, "Simon, come here. We found him. We found him. He's the one. You need to come meet this guy." And though John doesn't really explore it in this moment, we don't hear a whole lot more about Simon, Peter, but Simon's whole world is about to be turned upside down. His brother comes to get him, and it's just an ordinary day until it becomes the absolute transforming moment of his life.

And that's what happens. People meet Jesus, and two things tend to happen. Number one, they go and they tell somebody else about him. And number two, their whole world gets turned upside down. I think that's part of what John is showing. So this is just normal Christianity. This is just how it works.

And for Peter, we said the gospel came to Andrew on the way to Peter, but the gospel came to Peter on the way to thousands and thousands of people. I mean, Peter's gonna have days in his life where he leads 3,000, 5,000 people to faith in Christ. It's absolutely exceptional. But so begins this chain—I want you to see this. You got John the Baptist at the top of the chain, and John talks to Andrew and somebody else who doesn't get named. And then Andrew talks to Simon. And there's this chain of events as the gospel message spreads through relational networks from person to person to person.

And then, content with his work here, Jesus goes and he starts another line. Take a look at verse 43.

The next day, Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. And finding Philip, he said to him, follow me. — John 1:43

Now without looking, can you guess what Philip's gonna do? He's gonna go talk to somebody else. He does. In verse 44, Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. And so Philip found Nathaniel. Philip found Nathaniel and told him:

We have found the one that Moses wrote about in the law and about whom the prophets also wrote. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. — John 1:45

And of course, Nathaniel famously replies, "Nazareth, can anything good come from there?" And Philip says, "Come and see." That is such a great answer. When you're talking to people about Jesus, Philip and Nathaniel could have gotten in an argument. Philip could have tried to persuade him, tried to woo him, tried to win him, tried to show him why he's wrong, tried to address the inherent racism behind his disinterest in Nazareth. But instead, he's like, "No, just come. Come and see." And this is the absolute essence of evangelism.

You see it here in John. When John pictures it, this is not the only time. Who else plays the "come and see" game in John's gospel? Can you think of other places where that happens? The woman at the well. What does she say? She's gonna see that they told her everything about herself. John 4—the woman at the well. She has this experience with Jesus. She's there, probably at the time where she's not gonna have to have a conversation with anybody. And Jesus kinda blows through all these barriers, sits down with her, and it blows her mind so much that she rushes back to her town and says:

Come meet a man who told me everything I ever did. — John 4:29

And this whole town comes crowding around to see who has transformed this woman's life. It's really interesting that they begin to believe because of her testimony. But then they say, "You told us something, and that was helpful to us. But you know what's really changed us? As we met him." Because it's the coming and the seeing, the coming to see him, that has a transforming effect.

You guys, the thing that I hope will echo in your ears as you look at John 1 is that John is not simply explaining how Andrew and Peter became followers of Christ or how Philip and Nathaniel became followers of Jesus. Rather, this is showing us that this is just normal, run-of-the-mill, ordinary Christianity. In its normal, essential form, Christianity is incredibly contagious because Jesus is exceptional. And the normal thing that you wanna do when you meet somebody that's amazing like him is tell somebody else. And so the gospel spreads. It's contagious. It spreads through personal relational networks. And that means, by the way, that the gospel came to someone else on the way to you, and the gospel perhaps has come to you on the way to someone else.

The Gospel Chain Through History

John continues this thing. You'll see it in John 4. You'll see it in John 9. You'll see it over and over again. But I want you to think about these chains. Go back two thousand years in world history. This chain that we're seeing from John the Baptist to Andrew to Peter, from Philip to Nathaniel and on down the line—it doesn't end with Peter. It doesn't end with Nathaniel. It actually traces down through the centuries. In Acts, we'll see these people having this massive outsized impact as thousands and thousands of people hear the gospel from them and then turn around and share it with others.

Oh, and by the way, we dropped the thread. I wanna go back to something. Do you recall the two guys that John the Baptist shared with? Who's the one that we've named? Andrew. Right? You see, if you're drawing your map here, John the Baptist shares with Andrew. The other guy doesn't get named. He's not named anywhere in the text. Do you have a guess on who it is? It's not Andrew. It's not Philip. It's not Nathaniel.

Do you know who it almost certainly is, the second guy in that thread? John. I think it's John, the author of this gospel. Why do you think that, Josh? Yes. And John in particular likes that trick. So whenever John references himself—what's the circumlocution he uses for himself in this book? Do you remember? Right? The disciple that Jesus loved. He never tells us it's him, but it's him. Right? And he's almost certainly this one, which is interesting because this gospel message comes to Andrew on the way to Peter. It comes to Philip on the way to Nathaniel. But it comes to John on its way to you—the very end of his book.

Listen to what he writes here. This is in John chapter 20:

Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that by believing you may have life in his name. He is the son of God. — John 20:30-31

That chain that starts from Jesus—that Jesus is pushing dominoes over. He pushes a domino over with Philip. He pushes a domino over with John the Baptist, and it ticks down to Andrew. It ticks down to John, the disciple here, and it goes all the way through the ages to you.

Have you ever wondered, if you're into tracing your family tree back to Charlemagne or something, do you realize that it is probably the case that you are a spiritual descendant of one of the twelve disciples? You ever wonder about that? It could very well be. Smart money's on Paul because Paul was like a beast. I mean, he shares the gospel with a billion people. But it's some Paul or Nathaniel, somebody shared the gospel with somebody who shared the gospel with somebody all the way down the line to you. Nathaniel—you might be in Nathaniel's line for all we know. It could be true. But somebody talked to somebody who talked to somebody who talked to you.

Two Questions for Reflection

So tonight, as we jump into this meal, I want you guys to explore two questions. Just want you to reflect and think. Number one: Who shared the gospel with you? Who was it? Who is the person? Maybe there's five different people. Maybe it was your mom or your dad. Maybe it was a Sunday school teacher. Maybe it was a Young Life staff member. Maybe it was a student leader involved with crew. Maybe it was somebody in prison. Maybe it was a stranger. Maybe it was your grandmother or a school teacher. I'd love you guys to hear each other's stories. Who was it? Randy, whose chain are you in? The gospel came to you from somebody else. Who was it? Maybe it was an author. Maybe you read a book.

But then the second question—you wanna guess the second question? Where's it going? Yeah. Where's it going? Because the gospel came to you via somebody else, but it came to you on the way to yet another. The gospel came to you on the way to who? Is it somebody at work? Is it somebody in your family? Is it a neighbor? Who are the people right now—right now—is there anybody on the earth whose best chance to hear the gospel in a winsome, compelling, gracious, persuasive way is you? Are you, Steve, somebody's best hope to hear the gospel? I bet you are.

There's somebody in your world, somebody who shares your love of music, somebody who shares your street. And if they're gonna hear the gospel, it's gonna be because you have a consciousness that the gospel came to you on the way to them. And so you're gonna take a relational risk. You're gonna be gracious. You're gonna be kind, and you're gonna talk. You're gonna say to them, in effect, come and see—because there's somebody that I've met who's so absolutely extraordinary.

So those are gonna be your two questions: How did the gospel get to me, and where is it going next? And I would love to hear some of the highlights of those stories. And I want you guys to think about that and discuss that over a meal that celebrates the very essence of the reason that Jesus came.

This one particular night—a very significant night for us, the night before he was crucified—he shared a meal with these twelve people: with Philip, with Nathaniel, with John, with Andrew, Simon. And he gave import and meaning to the reason that he came and the reason that their whole lives were turned upside down. So we're gonna celebrate that meal. And as we do, let's think about how the gospel came to us and where's it going next.