Over the last few years, in the realm of pro sports, trading deadlines have taken on greater importance. It seems that this window of opportunity for sports franchises to get new players or to unload players that aren’t doing very well has become almost monumental news. So-much-so, that I notice in the last couple of weeks that the front pages of The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail have been dealing with one such transaction with a Toronto franchise.
Whether teams want to acquire someone who makes them better or players themselves want to join a franchise that is going to take them to new heights, it really doesn’t matter, there is a great deal of suspense when it comes to who is going to go where. The media love to cover it – right to the very last minute of a trade deadline. There will be the experts giving their opinions on if a trade is going to work, and if it is in the benefit of a franchise. They never really know. In fact, often they are just wrong, but nevertheless they give their opinion and we want to hear it, because of the suspense involved.
I often think that the trade deadline reminds me of the Second Act of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, where there are all these different story lines coming together and they don’t seem to fit, and eventually the story unfolds and all the different story lines make sense. Those who love sport love the suspense of it. Those who don’t love sport think it is a complete waste of time. Otherwise, suspense grabs you.
We love suspense! We go to movies, do we not, because we really want suspense? We don’t want to know the ending until it arrives. Even on an election night, when there is an election for a Member of Parliament, we are on the edge of our seats because we don’t know what is going to happen. We wait. We want to see. The suspense! Even that most atrocious of all human traits, gossip, is based on suspense, is it not? We will wait and see what we think we know, and we will talk about it until we finally do. It is a human trait. We love it; it gets us; and we are involved in it.
Well, if you want suspense and you‘ll find it in the Bible, today’s text is a suspenseful text. Now, you can read this and do it in a flat way. In other words, it can mean nothing to you. It can just be the story of John the Baptist and some of his friends and something happens and blah, blah, blah.... Jesus comes along and it is all over.... Or, you can try and read it theologically and understand the doctrine of Baptism and the Holy Spirit that arises out of this, and read it in a doctrinal way, which might be productive, but it is only when you really start to put yourself in the story that the suspense of it really grabs you.
This morning, I want you to go with me into this story. I want it to grab you, and I want you to see the relevance for your own life, because after all, that is why John wrote it. He wrote it in order that it might engage those who were to read it later. And it is incredibly suspenseful! It might not appear that way to us, but certainly at the time it was very suspenseful. You see, the bottom line is that the people of Israel had waited for hundreds of years for someone to release them from captivity.
Once again, in the biblical time of Jesus, Israel was captive to the Romans. Before that there were others – from the Babylonians to the Assyrians. They had always wanted someone to liberate them: someone from the line of David. What they wanted is a Messiah, which as out text tells us, means “anointed.” They wanted someone who was blessed by God, even God in the person to come and set them free. Well, now the word is out: the Messiah is come. He is here. What we have waited for, what we have hoped for as a nation has actually arrived. You can imagine the excitement then when the first character to start to tell about this, bursts on to the scene, and his name is John the Baptist.
There were others who had spoken about it and wished for it and hoped for it. Mary had prayed that this would happen. Simeon had declared that something special was there when Jesus himself was brought into the Temple, but it is the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist that really starts the word that the Messiah had come.
The irony of all this must not be lost. John the Baptist was thought by many to be that Messiah. He had a following. He had disciples. He was roaming around preaching as an itinerant leader. He was charismatic. He wore weird clothes. He probably had weird hair. He certainly ate very unusual food. He was different, and people were looking to him and wondering if this could be the Messiah. Some even went as far as to say that he was Elijah, who had come back.
That might not mean much to you, but to the people of his day that was immense. It was because the very last words of The Old Testament in Malachi, Chapter 4, state that Elijah would return before the Messiah, who would come and liberate Israel, so people thought that at least he might be Elijah coming back again. This was a strong belief within the People of Israel. Others thought he was Moses, Moses coming back again to lead the people to the Promised Land, to take them out of slavery in Egypt, but this time from the hands of Romans, and to bring about the power of the law. They believed that John the Baptist was all of these things.
John categorically, empathically said, “I am not the one you are looking for.” On the contrary, he points to Jesus and says, “The one who has come ahead of me, he is the one that you should be looking to.” John is standing now with two of his disciples, two of the followers who think that he is the Messiah. The next day, Jesus walks by. John the Baptist says to his two disciples, “Look, there is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
“The Lamb of God” motif was a powerful one in Israel. It has to do with the sacrificial gift: the one who cleanses, the one who forgives, and the atonement of sacrifice. This is the one who forgives, because only God can forgive. If Jesus is the Lamb of God, then Jesus is the source of God’s forgiveness. He says this to his two disciples who are with him and his disciples are caught up with what he is saying. They think, “Oh, my goodness, John the Baptist is pointing to the one who is actually the Messiah.” John says to them, “Look, before he was and before I am, he was. He existed before me. He is the Lamb of God. When he was baptized the Spirit descended and confirmed that this was in fact the Messiah.”
In the baptism of Jesus, it was revealed that he was in fact the Son of God – the Messiah, and so, this stunned! You can imagine, can’t you, they had been following John, but John is now saying it is someone else: it is Jesus of Nazareth. So, what happens? A trade takes place: a one-way trade. John hands over to Jesus these two followers of his. What he is inviting them to do is to go and follow Jesus now. John takes a back step, he gets out of the way in order that his followers can actually follow Jesus.
It is just like when, do you remember, political parties used to have – they don’t do it as much now – these great big conventions. Finally, it gets to that dramatic point where the runner-up has to send their supporters to somebody, and they become in a sense the king-makers? We’ve all seen that. Remember those? They were suspenseful. They gripped you. It was just like that. John the Baptist is standing to one side, his is saying “I am not the Messiah; Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. Go to him.” The trade is complete!
You can imagine how this must have felt for John the Baptist. He had done everything now that he needed to do. It was his job to introduce Jesus. It was his job to point to Jesus. It was his job to pave the way and to preach in preparation for Jesus. His job is done. He steps to one side, and in friendship he takes his followers and he hands them to Jesus. It is an incredible moment in their lives!
Who takes up the mantle there? The friends of John the Baptist become the disciples of Jesus. The most notable of those was Andrew. Andrew was one who was a follower of John the Baptist, and Andrew now is told to go and follow Jesus. So, they go up to Jesus, and Jesus starts to speak to them. Finally, they say to Jesus, “Where are you staying? We’d like to spend time with you,” a natural question.
Jesus says, “Come and see.”
So, they came and they saw and, they went with Jesus.
I love the detail in John’s Gospel. They spent a whole day with him right up to four o’clock in the afternoon. It is that specific – four o’clock in the afternoon. The sun is setting in other words: the sun is setting and the day is ending. They had spent the day with Jesus. What happens? They are convinced he is the Messiah. Spending a day with Jesus changed them. So, what happens next? Andrew does what you or I would do if we had met someone great: they would go and tell the one that they loved.
I will never forget the only time in my life when I ever met what I consider a real, real old time superstar, and that was when I was a young boy. I met Muhammad Ali in a hotel lobby in Bermuda. I asked for his autograph, and I was looking at his autograph last week with Marial actually. It is still in my little autograph book. There are only eight names in it. That is it: Eight names! I am pathetic in autographs, but I got Muhammad Ali! What did I do? Come on now, what did I do when I got Muhammad Ali’s autograph? Who did I call? My parents, right! “Dad, you are not going to believe this! I have Muhammad Ali’s autograph.”
Dad said, “Sure son, very nice for you!” He didn’t believe me at first.
I said, “Dad, I am serious, I have Muhammad Ali’s autograph.”
Ali said something to me. I have forgotten what it was now, but he said something to me – something about stinging like a bee.
Finally, my father believed me. But, I think that is how Peter, Simon Peter, who was Andrew’s brother, must have felt. Andrew went to Simon Peter and said, “You aren’t going to believe this, I have actually found the Messiah.”
Peter would have gone: “Have you lost your mind? I mean who are you that you should find the Messiah? You are my brother. You have no credibility! I mean, really, honestly, have you really seen the Messiah?”
Andrew says, “Look, we have seen the Messiah. John is with me. We have spent time with the Messiah for a whole afternoon until four o’clock at his place.”
You can imagine how Simon Peter must have felt. So, he goes and checks out Jesus.
Jesus is introduced to Simon Peter by his brother, Andrew. All of a sudden, Peter gets it. Jesus just says one thing to him really, and that is that he calls him by his name, “Cephas,” which when translated in Greek as “Petros” and this when translated into English would mean “rock.” He would be the rock on which Jesus was going to build everything. This Cephas was an ordinary guy. We forget this. He was originally from Bethseda, a small town. He eventually became a fisherman and worked in Capernaum. In Capernaum, he got married and he had children, and he entered into a partnership with James and John, the sons of Zebedee, and they owned a boat and they went fishing on the Sea of Galilee.
Peter wasn’t well educated. He wasn’t from the hierarchy. He was really a “nobody” except that he followed John the Baptist at some point probably. Maybe he had given up on that or who knows? But now, now, the Messiah is calling him by name! Not only is he calling him by name, but he is saying “You are going to be the rock on which I am going to build everything.” It is all because Andrew introduced him to Jesus and all because John the Baptist introduced Jesus to Andrew. Do you see the link that is developing here? It is the power of the introduction and the invitation. It is the power of the message that is passed on.
When you think of what this resulted in, when you think that this fisherman from Capernaum would travel to Antioch and Corinth and Rome. This man would be martyred and persecuted because he had been with Jesus of Nazareth for all the major events from his entrance into the Temple to his crucifixion to his resurrection and ascension. Peter had been there for good or ill, sometimes making mistakes, but always being there: there when the Messiah was doing his work. This was immensely important. This man who seemed like a nobody fisherman from Capernaum had become the one who would be one of the supreme inviters and witnesses of Jesus. It is a remarkable story!
I remember sitting in a restaurant in Tiberius on the coast of Galilee. There wasn’t much on the menu, but there was one thing that sure was in the menu, and it was called “Peter’s fish.” Those of you who have been to Israel know what I speak of. “Peter’s fish” – they even have named a fish after him! You go to Rome, and there is a little church there that has been named after him – right? There are monuments to him – in Antioch and Corinth and Ephesus. His name is a name that has been mentioned and synonymous with Jesus of Nazareth: Simon Peter. He is there and he is doing what he is doing, because of an invitation from his brother. This is not where it ends. The story of the power of invitation continues. It has continued for two thousand years and it is the most important thing that we, as people of faith, can do today.
When I visited Chile some years ago, at one of the meetings I met an assistant pastor at one of the biggest churches in the world, in Santiago – the Jotabeche Church. This church has 150,000 members. That is a little church! They have hundreds of pastors. I asked the Third Minister who was there, and it was in an Anglican room actually when I was there with Anglican theologians, and this is not an Anglican, and I asked him, “What is your secret? Come on, let me know.”
He said, “Well, we have some good preaching. We have miracles. A lot of people like to sing. But, that is not what does it. What really does it is the faith of our members who are willing to introduce people themselves to Jesus. Not just to bring them to church, say ‘Come and see all the nice things that we do’, but to actually introduce them to the Messiah. That is why it happens. That is how it spreads. That is how the Church has spread from the very earliest moments.”
That is exactly what John the Baptist did with Andrew, and Andrew did with Simon Peter, and Simon Peter did with people all over the world. It is what those who have followed him have always done. It is actually not about the big event, it is not about the great sermon, it is not about the great music, it is not about the great cathedrals, it is not about power; it is about the power of invitation and the willingness of the people of God and the passion of the people of God to be the introducers. That is the way it has always been, and what a difference it can make to the world.
Even when you take a great theologian like Francis Schaeffer, one of the great writers of the twentieth century, founder of the L’Abri movement in Switzerland, a compassionate man of outreach and intellect. He said it was an encounter with a friend that not only caused him in his life to really take Jesus of Nazareth seriously, but he said that there were a number of his friends over his life that changed the way he looked at the world. He said, “I even changed the way I looked at the environment and the earth we are in.”
Often, people of faith don’t give a lot of thought to the environment and to the earth and to the world, and they sort of treat it as if it is a secondary thing. Schaeffer said, “You know, there is a friend of mine who said ‘How do you think Jesus wants the thing that he created to be looked after?’” Francis Schaeffer wrote this: "Of all people, Christians should not be the destroyers. We should treat nature with an overwhelming respect and each thing in its own order, each thing the way He made it: the tree like a tree, the machine like a machine, the human like a human. This seems to me to be the correct approach to everything that Christ and God has made." It was a friend that got him to think that way. It is that power of friendship that speaks of Christ that changes everything.
The great Charles Swindoll tells the story of his mother who knew a lady called Thelma. Thelma married later on in life, and she was madly in love with her husband. He was everything to her. Suddenly, unexpectedly, he died of a heart attack one night. Thelma of all Swindoll’s mother’s friends was the most devastated she had ever seen. After the service and after the burial, every single day she would go to the graveside and she would try and plead with her husband to come back. Thelma would try and contact him, speak to him. She was so lonely!
Swindoll’s mother saw this, and her heart was broken for her friend. So, one day she went to the cemetery and she sat down with Thelma, and she said, “You know, Thelma, this isn’t going to change anything.” She started to talk to her about the Resurrection and the life everlasting and the hope of eternal life and life with those that we love in Christ, the saints. She continued, “You are not going to heal by just simply wanting to return to what was; you will heal with the hope of what is to come.”
Thelma was overwhelmed by this, but then she was given another word of advice and counsel. She said, “You know what you can do. You can come here every day. You can still come here every day. But, when you see others that are coming and grieving and mourning and have lost a loved one, why don’t you go to them and comfort them from the comfort that you have received. Why don’t you go to them, because you know what grief is, and spend time with them, and in friendship reveal to them the hope that is to come? Maybe that is the best use of your time.
For the next few years, Thelma went almost every day to the place where her husband was buried, but rather than focussing just on him, she focussed on others who were around, who were grieving in the cemetery at the time. Thelma became well known as a gracious, a kind, and a faithful friend. You see, my friends: that is the power of friendship.
That is the power of the invitation. That is the power of faith. It leaves it up to us to decide if we are going to follow the example of John the Baptist to Andrew, or Andrew to Peter, or Peter to thousands more, and to all those who by name have called Christ as Lord. Whether we are going to do the same, I leave it with you as a friend to think about: an invitation to be a friend to others in Christ, as Christ is a friend to us. Amen.