Following Jesus: The First Five Disciples - John 1:35-51

1:54Are you a true follower? And the definitive mark of a true follower, and this is going to be true throughout John, is what he's going to explain is this whole concept of remaining, remaining. Just as he saw the Spirit of God come down and remain upon John, or John the Baptist saw the Spirit of God come and remain upon Jesus. That same thought, remaining, is going to be true of disciples. It's what John 15 is going to be all about. Those who are born of God are the ones who are currently believing in him. Those who remain. How, I mean, are you a true follower of Christ? Will you remain with him?

2:39And that's the idea. And we have in our text this morning five disciples. We have this first encounter with five disciples who truly remain with him throughout. There's going to be many disciples that come and go in the Gospel of John. There are many reasons to follow Christ for many reasons. And many reasons why people are drawn to Christ, but throughout those who remain. And these five remain. And what we have is this encounter, and we can look at their life and this description that John the Apostle gives us this morning and see how they went from zero to five with five that will remain and some characteristics and a pattern, a basic pattern of discipleship that begins with John the Baptist and is going to continue until the Lord comes in all of his glory. So I want to look at that this morning. But for those of you who are here today who do truly follow Christ, then the question becomes: how do we make disciples? What is the pattern?

3:51What is the basic pattern of discipleship? Well, we are going to see that this morning in our passage. Remember last week, we looked at four declarations that John the Baptist made concerning who Jesus was and is. Behold, he is the Lamb of God, verse 29. He is the preeminent one, verse 30 and 31. Jesus is the true baptizer in verses 32 through 33. And Jesus is the Son of God in verse 34. I want to make two points of clarification that were asked. Number one, when did this Event actually take place? When did the events of John chapter 1 actually take place?

4:36And as I said, it took place probably some six weeks after John the Baptist actually baptized Jesus. So a week in the first day, one of the first weeks in Jesus' public life, he is baptized by John the Baptist. He went out into the wilderness. And in verse 29, when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to him, he was probably coming out of the wilderness. And I say that based on verse 32, John testified, saying, I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove. So this is past tense. He had seen, and that's how he knew who he was. Second point of clarification that gets a lot of discussion is this. What exactly does John mean in verse 29? Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In what way does he take away the sin of the world? And what does he mean by the world? Is he talking the world without distinction and without exception? Clearly, John is not teaching universalism here. He is not taking away all sin to such a degree that everyone goes to heaven. He's already made the comment that those who are born of him, that those who receive him are the ones who are born of him. So they are the ones who will be called children. Children of God. So he's not teaching universalism here.

6:06And both, by the way, both Augustine and Calvin see this world here as the world without distinction and the world without exception, not just Jew, Gentile, not just, but world without exception, that he takes away the sin of the world. And as I look at this, so in what sense does he take away the sin of the world? And I, as you know, I go with the plain language. He takes away the weight. He is the one, literally, he is, the passage speaks of he is the one taking away the sin of the world, present tense. He is the one currently taking away the weight of sin, that burden that keeps the world oppressed, enslaved, and under a curse. And he is the one taking that away.

6:58And Jesus indeed is the one who takes away the sin of the world, as the rest of John and all of his other writings and the rest of Scripture declares. Jesus takes away the sin of the world. He is the one taking away the sin of the world. And he does it one of two ways. As I mentioned last time, he will do it through judgment or he is going to do it through redemption. But he is the one taking away the sin of the world. When Jesus has finished his ministry on earth, In all forms, there will be no sin on planet earth. There will be no sin. It'll either be taken out by judgment or he'll be taken out by redemption. So he takes sin out in two different ways. Number one, he can take the sinner out of the world. He takes the sinner out of the world by death.

7:56Listen, every sinner, every individual has a limit on sin. That's what death is there for. That's why they don't eat from the tree of life. He puts an end to it. And that should alone just say, what kind of God allows evil to exist? Well, he is the God who brings it to an end. And he also puts an end. He takes the sinner out of the world. He takes them out by death. And he takes them out through eternal death. That there's coming a great separation, a second death, a second separation. Permanently, he takes the sinner out of the world, out of his heaven, out of his new heavens, a new earth. They are gone. That's one way he removes sin. He takes away the sin of the world. So he takes it away in judgment. But the second way is he takes the sin out of the sinner. So not only does he take the sinner out of the world through judgment, but he takes the sin out of the sinner through redemption.

9:00But he is the one who takes the sin out of the world. He takes it away. I want to just take a few moments to set the big picture stage here. It's good to see where you are in the midst of redemptive history and what's taking place. This is a monumental moment as Jesus begins his public ministry. And I want to set this in the larger context of Scripture. You'll remember in Genesis 3:15, you remember what happens? There's the fall, and then there's the curse. Remember, in Genesis 2:17, God says, do not eat of this tree.

9:43Genesis 3:6, they ate, and they died spiritually. Verse 3:8, they ran from God's presence. That's what spiritual death does. That's the characteristic of someone who's spiritually dead, is they are moving away from God through philosophical arguments, through whatever way they can, they run themselves away from God. They excuse and they run and they hide. And then in chapter 4, you see this human competition and misery sets in, and every evil in the human heart is just released into the world, out of the garden, and this is.

10:30What grieves and crushes and harms earth and keeps it enslaved. But sin fundamentally is anti-government, it's anti-God's government. And then he gives this promise in Genesis 3:15, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head. Basically, he's saying in the first prophetic promise, you see this, he is going to crush your influence. Sin that entered in the world, that wreaks havoc and brings destruction and decay and sorrow and misery. Right at the onset, God says, There is coming one that's going to crush you, that's going to bring an end of your influence on planet earth.

11:29And then you get to Revelation 20. Get to the end of the book. What do you have? You have Revelation 20:10. You have this, and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. There is that crushing. His influence is gone permanently. Forever incarcerated, never again to influence. That is the crushing, the final crushing. There will be no more influence of anti-God's government.

12:17And so you read in chapter 21 and verse 4: and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no longer any death, no mourning, nor crying, or pain, for the first things have passed away. See, sin is what is the cause of death, and crying, and pain, and curse. And in chapter 22, verse 1 through 5, you see this beautiful picture of the glory of the new Jerusalem, waters, the river of water of life, the tree of life. In adversary, there will no longer be any curse, and the throne of God will be there, and he will reign with them forever and ever.

13:04So, from the beginning to the end, man has been looking forward to this one who will deal with sin in humanity and put it away forever. And as we come back to John chapter 1 and our passage this morning, we have this monumental event, the one. Who has prophesied in the beginning, the one who has prophesied at the end, now shows up on the scene. He doesn't have any disciples, and he begins his public ministry. And he begins this monumental moment of taking away the sin in the world.

13:50He's going to do it through judgment, and he's going to do it through redemption. And it's through this second mechanism, through redemption, that I want us to focus on or keep in mind as we walk through our passage this morning. He will bring an end to judgment, but he can do that at any given moment, if he so chose. But he is calling out, he is bringing out his people through redemption. And as the Lamb of God, he removes the penalty of sin through his sacrifice. That is, he justifies his people. And then as our teacher, he removes our patterns of sin when he sanctifies us. So as a follower of Christ, I come to him as the Lamb of God. He is able to remove the penalty of my sin and your sin. But he, as my teacher, he also continues to lead me and guide me and sanctify me. And he removes the patterns of sin. That is how he removes sin. He removes the penalty. And he removes the pattern. This is the work of this individual and only this individual, Jesus Christ. So I want to look at the process by which the Lamb of God, the true baptizer, the Son of God, begins removing sin from the sinner. And I want to do so in the terms that really is before us in John's narrative. It won't be a high theological piece. I mean, it'll be high theology, but it'll be in the terms that John uses here.

15:34So I want to walk through our text this morning. I want to walk through it and relive this monumental moment. I just want to walk through the text, and then I want to draw some conclusions or a pattern of discipleship that I think jumps out at us. So we'll just walk through it. First five disciples. The first two we come to is John and Andrew, verses 35 to 39. And we'll just start walking through it. Verse 35, again the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked and said, Behold the Lamb of God. Now, notice he doesn't go through all the other declarations that he made in verses 29 through 34, but just this one, the first one: Behold the Lamb of God, the one who takes away this. Sin of the world. And as he makes this declaration, it's a real touching moment. John the Baptist bids his disciples to leave him and follow the Lamb. And if you think about it, he has built quite a relationship with these guys. John is a pretty prominent figure. And here he is pointing to Jesus and saying, it's time for you to go and follow him. It'd be good to have more ministers like that. Right? What a gift. What a gift John the Baptist gave his disciples. He pointed them to their true Messiah, to the true Lamb. And what a gift he gave his Lord. Here, here are the first disciples and their good ones.

17:22Well, John's testimony obviously awakened a curiosity in the disciples. The two disciples, verse 37, heard him speak and they followed Jesus. John the Baptist, his declaration obviously hearkens back to what he had said earlier: the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I mean, that's an incredible statement. Here is somebody, what John the Baptist is saying, here is the guy on the scene that is dealing with the true problem in humanity. This is an individual who can take away the sin out of the world. He.

18:00Is able, and this is exactly what he is doing. He takes away the burden of sin, he takes away the disposition to sin. He removes every wrong act, every motivation, every wrong motivation, every injustice, every fraud, every theft, every murder. He's saying, This is the one who takes that away. If somebody came along and said to you, okay, look, this is a guy over here that's going to take away the sin of the world, would you be curious? Would you follow him where John and Andrew were curious?

18:34There was an awakened curiosity, and they wanted to know more about Jesus, so they sought to spend some time with him. And they sought to do it in a more private setting, so they went and followed him. Pick it up in verse 38. As they heard John's testimony, it awakened a curiosity. They decided to follow, and then they were met with this genuine invitation. Look in verse 38. And Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, What do you seek? It's the first words in John's Gospel. What do you seek? Now, he knew what they were seeking. They wanted a deeper understanding of him.

19:14Jesus says, What do you seek? They said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher of high level of respect. They said to him, Rabbi, where are you staying? He said to them, Come and see. So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. For it was about the 10th hour. Now, the 10th hour, John is using Roman time, and it is probably somewhere around 10 a.m. And I say he's using Roman time as you reconcile the accounts of the Passion week.

19:49It's clear, and certainly by the time of this writing, Jerusalem has fallen, and so it's very probable and most likely that he is using Roman time, in which case it would be about 10 a.m. I mean, if it was Jewish time, it'd be about 4 p.m. But I believe he's using Roman time, 10 a.m. But the point here is that this is a very memorable event. This is how we know this is John. There's an eyewitness account here. John doesn't name himself, but this moment, this week, so burned in John's mind that he can remember the precise moment at when this event took place. I mean, sometimes you can remember very memorable moments, right? I remember where I was at when the space shuttle blew up. I remember where I was at 9-11. I remember where I was at when I got news, my grandfather died.

20:39You remember those things. Well, this was a very special moment in John's life, and he remembered that moment. What do you seek? You remember the first words. Jesus says to them, Come, and you will see. You see, their curiosity was met with an open invitation. Jesus knew why they were. Following him. And so he gives them it. He says, Come and see. What you want is a deeper understanding of who I am, and I am happy to give it. Come and see. Come and see. And so they stayed with him. I don't know where he was staying in. I don't know if it was a little booth of some sort. Don't really out there in the wilderness, not quite sure what text doesn't tell us, but it was a humble place. You can be sure just by the location.

21:28And they came and they spent the day with him. And certainly, they spent a long time with him, probably had a meal or two with him. But they had their curiosity, met with this invitation. They responded to Christ's invitation, and they came away with a conviction. What John was saying is true, and now we know for ourselves. They came away with an awe. They came away with more truth. And they came away with an incredible amount of joy, having spent time with Christ.

22:04They found the Lamb. They found the true baptizer. They found the Son of God as John, their mentor, John the Baptist, appointed them. So now we have two disciples. Now, let's go to a third. And the third one is Peter. Pick it up in verse 40. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew. Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which means the Christ, which translated means Christ.

22:45So here's Andrew's testimony. Notice now, John the Baptist's testimony led to Andrew finding Christ, and now Andrew is now giving his testimony. We have found the Christ. Finds Peter, and he testifies. So Andrew gives his testimony. He's obviously convinced that John the Baptist's testimony was true. And he's obviously full of joy. He uses the word Eureka. We have found. I have found the Messiah. Now, if you're a student of any of the sciences, you'll probably learn a little bit about Archimedes. Remember Archimedes? Back in the 16th century, the king of Syracuse had this crown, allegedly, that he had given a bunch of gold, pure gold, to the goldsmith, and he made him this crown. But what he suspected was that this goldsmith had mixed in a bunch of silver, and so this crown was mixed, and he felt like he'd been defrauded by this goldsmith, and he wanted to find out and message. How much gold is in there? And so that's the problem. And so Archimedes is trying to figure out how do you measure the volume of this weird and irregular object? How do you get the volume of this? I mean, it's easy to get a block of something, but how do you measure something like this? And then that great moment happened. Archimedes decides to take a bath. And he gets into the bath and he notices that the water level goes up the same amount of the volume of his body that went in. And he's, Eureka, I get it. I can measure the volume of an irregular object. I found it. And it says that he got so excited that he jumped out and went running out of his house, buck naked, down the streets of Syracuse, saying, Eureka, I found it. I figured out the problem, the solution to the king's problem. And sure enough, it turned out that the king had been defrauded. But that's the idea. Eureka found it. And that's exactly what Andrew is saying. I found it. I found it. We have found the Messiah, Eureka. And he runs and he tells Peter.

25:23And obviously, Andrew's testimony awakened a curiosity in Peter. Because look back at. 42. He brought him to Jesus. That is Peter. Obviously, Peter came. Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon, son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which is translated Peter, which means rock. You are Simon. You are. And he's going to use that to refer to his vacillating spirit, vacillating Peter. But then he says, But you're going to be called Peter. You're going to become a rock.

26:02So now we have three disciples. Let's go on to the fourth. So Jesus picks up Philip. Verse 43: The next day he purposed to go into Galilee and he found Philip. And he said to him, Follow me. Now, Philip was from Bessaeda, the city of Andrew, and Peter. Name Philip means lover of horses. So we probably, in all reality, have the first cowboy that's ever been brought to Christ, right? And this proves, this really does prove that God really does extend to all, he extends his kingdom to all the world without distinction, without exception. I mean, if he'll take in a cowboy, take him in, right?

26:51But so he finds Philip. Philip obviously spends some time with Christ, and he becomes convinced in his own heart. And then. And then he gets up and goes and finds Nathanael. Nathanael. Look back at verse 45. And this is where most of the narrative is placed upon Nathanael. Verse 45: Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. So same expression. Philip was so excited that he too, Eureka, but found him. We have found him, the prophet, the one who Moses spoke about, Moses in the law and the prophets. We have found him.

27:46So it's kind of like you get this. Jesus found Nathanael. I mean, Philip went and found Nathanael, and then he testified to him of what he had found. So Jesus found Philip. Philip found Jesus. And then Philip couldn't keep it a secret, so he went and found Nathanael. And he brings Nathanael. And Nathanael's going to find him too. But notice the first skeptic we come to in John's Gospel. Nathanael said to him in verse 46, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip answered. Come and see. Notice the first skeptic, and notice the answer to the first skeptic. Come and see. Come and see. This is the challenge. You're going to meet skeptics all the time. And here's the biblical challenge. Come and see for yourself. Be honest in your search. Come and see. Come and see.

28:56And so, Philip's testimony to Nathanael, which is Bartholomew in the other Gospels. Obviously, Philip's testimony awakened his curiosity, and he came. Philip's testimony was also Philip's invitation, and Nathanael went. Now, look at what happens when he comes to him. Verse 47: Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said to him, Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit, no deceit. The word for deceit is hook. There is no hook in him. He is not double-minded. He is not coming here with trickery. Like Jacob, many people see, and I think very rightfully, they see in this a connection to Jacob. Jacob.

29:58And that's what's going on here is a. Reference to the whole Jacob becoming Israel event in the Old Testament. You remember in Genesis 27, 35, when Esau had been tricked out of his, or Isaac had given the blessing away, and Esau missed it, and he came. Esau came and he said, and Isaac says, Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing. Your brother Jacob has come with a hook. Basically, he came and he hooked me. And Esau said, Isn't he rightly named Jacob?

30:37But you know, something happens to Jacob, right? He meets the Lord, he's transformed. And in Genesis 32, 28, God says, Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel. And he goes from the deceiver to one who is triumphant with God, or to one who prevails with God. But what's clear here is that Jesus recognizes Nathanael's honest disposition and inquiry. Someone, here is an Israelite, true one. And so, verse 48, Nathanael said to him, How do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Now, the text doesn't tell us what Nathaniel was doing. Under that fig tree, it appears that he may have been praying and meditating upon this whole Jacob-Israel event. But what is clear is that Jesus knew something about Nathanael that only God could know, and Nathanael knew that. He said, There's no way you could know anything about me, you could not know about the fig tree at all, unless God had told. That's only something that God could know.

32:03And so, look at what Nathaniel says. Nathanael answered him, verse 49: Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel. Wow, what a remarkable profession. So, something very personal had happened there. The thing to point out here: Jesus has an infallible ability to read an individual's soul, to read an individual's thoughts, and even in the most private, even the most private ones, Jesus has this ability, and this is why he is the judge of all. He can read people like a book, he knows them inside, he knows you inside and out, he knows your thoughts from afar, Rabbi.

33:00Look at this profession. Rabbi, Son of God, King of Israel. What Nathaniel is saying here is, my teacher, my God, and my king. Remarkable profession. Look at verse 50. Jesus answered and said to him, Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these. I think Jesus was grinning from ear to ear right here. If you want to put a little smiley face where Jesus is grinning, this is one of those. He is grinning from ear to ear. And he said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

33:53It's like Jesus wanted to add one more title in there, the Son of Man. But what was he saying? What in the world is he saying? You shall see heaven opened up and you will see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. What is he saying there? Well, is he talking about something like what John the Baptist said, like we saw the Spirit of God descend like a dove? Is that what he's seeing? Well, there's a description of descending, but there's really no description of ascending there. Is he talking about the transfiguration or maybe Gethsemane? Where the angels ministered to him. But in neither one of these do we see Nathaniel is even there. So, what is Jesus referring to? Well, I think the only other time this phrase ascending and descending is used is in Genesis 28, when Jacob is fleeing from Esau. And he has this dream at Bethel. I'll just read you that account. Genesis 28, 10. Then Jacob departed from Bersheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head and laid down in that place. So his stone was a pillow. Stone was a pillow. And he had a dream. And behold, a ladder was set on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. And in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

36:00Nathanael had described Jesus as the Son of God. And Jesus says, but you're going to see the angels descending and ascending on the Son of Man. And that ladder, if this is indeed a reference to Genesis 28, the ladder is Christ with the bottom planted on earth and the top reaching into heaven. And that he is the link between God and man. that is anchored on earth, that reaches into heaven. The way to heaven is through a man, through a person.

36:37And so Jesus gives this title of himself, Son of Man. It's like Nathanael said, Rabbi, my teacher, Son of God, my God, King of Israel, my king. And then Jesus says, and let me tell you, Son of Man, bone of your bone, and flesh of your flesh. Obviously, they didn't understand, or the thought is how could they make such great professions about Christ so early in their ministry? Well, I think their sanctification process involved learning what these high titles meant.

37:21Day by day, they grew in a greater understanding of what it meant for him to be our teacher, for him to be our God, and to be our king, and to be our humanity. And that's true with us. I mean, I think our confessions and professions are usually higher than our reality, aren't they? I mean, if you could really, if we could just be put into practice the songs we just sung, if they could really be true of us. I think we're constantly, that's the process of sanctification, that we would grow and that our reality will more and more resemble our confessions and our professions. But one thing that is really evident here, clear in the text, truth was rewarded with the promise of more truth. As Daniel, I mean, as Nathaniel came, as his curiosity was awakened, as Jesus made himself known to him, as he came to Jesus honestly seeking truth, he was rewarded with more truth.

38:37And so it is. Nathaniel's curiosity was met with a genuine invitation and proof and reward, reward, joy, and more truth. So now we have the first five disciples. I want to, in the last couple of moments, Moments. Just look at this pattern. If we look at what has taken place and just try to summarize a pattern that we see in these calling of these first five disciples, first of all, there is a testimony that always starts with a testimony, right? John the Baptist. And that testimony awakened a curiosity. That's what the testimony does. It awakened a curiosity and a true curiosity, which then led to a response to an invitation. The testimony led to a curiosity. The curiosity led to the realization that there is an open invitation, invitation to Christ, which then taking Christ up on this invitation led to a personal belief, which led to a personal reward. That reward was joy, understanding, conviction. So the testimony awakened a curiosity, which led to taking Christ up on his invitation, which led to a personal belief, which led to personal reward, which led to testimony again. You see, John the Baptist started this thing. He gave a testimony. It awakened the curiosity of the two. They responded to Christ's invitation. They sat with him all day. They came to believe truly for themselves, not just because of what John said, but because of a personal belief. And they were rewarded with understanding. And they were rewarded with joy, and they couldn't wait to go testify. And then Andrew runs off and he testifies to Peter and awakens Peter's curiosity, and Peter sees that as the invitation to go, and he meets Christ, and then he then experiences a personal belief and a personal reward. And then you know the rest of the story for Peter: a testifier of huge proportions.

41:01That's it. Testimony leads to curiosity, which leads to invitation, which leads to a personal belief, which leads to a personal reward, and the cycle continues. And at the end of the first century, the truth of the gospel had spread all over the known world. And that's how it goes. Testimony, your testimony, awakens curiosity, which then seeks, which then will find an open invitation, which will lead to personal belief, which leads to personal reward, conviction, understanding, and joy. This is the pattern. And this is the pattern that continues today.

41:49This is the pattern that continues today. And let me tell you something: it's not dying, nor is it letting up. I have personally seen what God is doing around the world. We may see in our little part of the world, and this is why it's very important to be involved in missions, because you get a glimpse of what God is doing around the world. If you just looked at our little microcosm here in the United States, you might get the feeling like, oh, Christianity is dying out. No, it is going on, and it is continuing to grow, and it is continuing to move, especially in the southern hemisphere. In fact, just this last week, I met a guy in East Asia who was telling me that by the year 2030, that the largest Christian population is going to be in China. And he was telling me of the incredible things that were happening in China.

42:50I could tell you about the southern. I have personally been down into parts of the world where they have never had a biblical witness like they are having today, and it is going strong. No, God is doing it, it's not dying, it is growing. You see, the tribe of Christians transcends all barriers. No governments goes beyond government barriers, it goes beyond national barriers, it goes beyond ethnicity, it goes beyond gender, it goes beyond all social status. The tribe of the Christians continue to grow, they are a distinct people, and they will. Not be reckoned among the nations.

43:34Very distinct. Well, it's interesting to note that of the four declarations that John the Baptist made, only one was recorded in this second round. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I mean, this is an incredible statement. This one is taking away the sin of the world. Let's bring it to our presidential candidate or our presidential election. Wouldn't you love to have a presidential candidate that would take away every sin, every wrong, every injustice in our society?

44:16Don't worry about, if you want to go check on him, that might be okay. Don't worry, you guys, we'll just finish up. But just think about that for a moment. Just think about that for a moment. If we had a candidate that would come on the stage and promise and say, I'm going to get rid of every assault of every kind, every battery, every aggravated assault, every assault of any kind, of any nature, every bribery. There'll be no more child abandonment. There will be no more abuse. There'll be no more crime. There'll be no more.

45:00Domestic violence, there'll be no more drug manufacturing, no more drug trafficking, no more DWIs, no more DUIs, no more embezzlements, no more thefts, no more money laundering, no more extortion, no more harassment. I'll do away with forgery of every kind, all fraud, whether credit card, insurance, telemarketing, or religious fraud, it'll all be done away with. I'll do away with all hate crimes, all jealousy crimes, all theft of every kind, every identity theft, murder, racketeering, human trafficking. I'll get rid of it all. And I'll even get rid of cyberbullying.

45:37Would you be inclined to vote for him? That'd be a pretty remarkable candidate, right? Or would you prefer, and this is the sad commentary of our times, I think many of us would prefer to have somebody just remove the sins that offend us. We really don't want someone to remove the sin from the world or the sin from us. We want them to remove the sins that really irritate us and let us alone in our sin.

46:10I mean, do you want a Savior who will remove sin from the sinner? I mean, the best that government can do is manage sin in society. They can't remove it. We need a king, right? Can deal with the real problem and remove the real problem. You and I need someone that can take the sin out of us. That's why we can truthfully say we have no king but King Jesus, because only Jesus can remove and deal with the real problem.

46:52Well, this is a monumental moment. This is when the one that was going to crush the serpent begins his ministry. And this morning you have heard the testimony of Scripture. Testimony has been given to you. You have heard the testimony of John the Baptist. You've heard the testimony of John the Apostle, of Andrew, of Philip, and of Jesus Himself. And the testimonies that you have heard have awakened a curiosity. And the question is: what are you going to do? You are invited to come and see for yourself. Are you a true follower of Christ?

47:36Will you come and see for yourself that he truly is the Son of God, Son of Man, the only link, the King, your teacher, your God, your priest? That's who he is. And he is saying, come and find out. You will see. He is. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you. Thank you for your word and for your grace. In Jesus' name.