The title of our sermon series is Bring Them to Jesus. And the reason is that's exactly what happens all throughout the Gospels. When Jesus comes and people begin to recognize who he is, the way that they approach everything about ministry in terms of who he is, is finding people who don't know him and bringing them to him. So I want you to see three things about evangelism with me this morning. Number one, evangelism is a happy announcement of God's goodness. Evangelism is a happy announcement of God's goodness. We learn further back in the Gospel of John that as John the Baptist's ministry has carried forward, he has affirmed the identity of Jesus. He has said in front of his disciples that Jesus is the Messiah that they've been waiting for and whom he has been sent to run ahead of and to announce. It reaches a point in verse 35 where as John is continuing to fulfill his ministry, he's standing here with two of his own disciples. He sees Jesus and he essentially tells them, hey, it's time for you to leave me and go be with him. So they do, they hear about what John says concerning Jesus. As John says, behold the Lamb of God, they go and they follow him. And as this begins to happen, they begin to go and tell others and bring others into the presence of Jesus. As we come to verse 43, we see that Jesus is beginning the process of gathering disciples to himself. Verse 43, we read, the next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, follow me. This is a really simple thing that happens throughout the Gospels as Jesus is accumulating followers. He goes and he says, follow me. and people either follow him or they don't. Here Jesus comes and he meets Philip and he says, follow me and Philip determines to do it. Verse 44, now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip was from the same hometown as Andrew and Peter. He likely knew them well. Verse 45, Philip found Nathanael. Before we think about what Nathanael does here, I want you to notice how Nathanael presents Jesus to, or Philip presents Jesus to Nathanael. It's significant. he doesn't begin by saying who he is, he begins by saying the context into which Jesus has entered the world. He begins by identifying him in terms of the promises of God as they're articulated in the Old Testament. He says, we have found him of whom Moses in the law, this is probably an allusion to this greater prophet that's going to come, one day and bring a greater level of clarity to God's people concerning God's will for them. And also the prophets, so all the Old Testament now, Moses and the Law, and also the prophets, they've been talking about somebody, and Philip says, we found him. And then he tells Nathanael who he is. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. See, Philip recognizes that there's something significant about Jesus. It was not uncommon for teachers to travel around and gather followers. There were all kinds of different rabbis who were carrying out different teaching works or ministries in the area where these disciples were. That wasn't the weird part. The weird part was what they realized was true of Jesus that was absolutely not true of any other. Jesus was a great rabbi who was going around to teach, but he was far more than that, wasn't he? Jesus was the one who is bringing to fulfillment all of the promises of God as they were revealed in the Old Testament. He was the one, the great prophet, priest, and king, the Lord's anointed Messiah, who was coming to deliver upon the good news that God had promised to send into the world. This was Jesus. And he was the one who was going to satisfy all the longings of his people. That's the context into which Philip introduces Nathanael to Jesus. that he's the one who satisfies the longings of the hearts of God's people. Jesus, in other words, is the good news. The good news is that Jesus is, that he is all that God said he would be, that he does all that God said he would do, that he brings to fulfillment all of the promises of the true and living God, and that he satisfies all the longings of our hearts. As Philip goes to Nathanael, he says, Now, here's where this becomes significant for us. We recognize that Jesus does the same thing in our lives. That Jesus is the one who, for us, brings all of the promises of God to their fulfillment. That Jesus is the one who satisfies all of the great longings of our heart and gives to us all that God originally purposed for us when he created us. Jesus is the one who makes sense of all of the brokenness of the world that we're in. Jesus is the one who deals with sin and its consequences. Jesus is the one who wipes away every tear from our eyes and who finally and ultimately defeats death so that we can live forever with him. Jesus is the one who shows that God is actually good on his word and he is good to his people. That's who Jesus is. And here's what happens with evangelism. Sometimes we forget that we're the ones with the good news. We forget that we're the ones who know the one that everybody actually wants. Everybody actually in their heart of hearts, the Bible would teach us, really just wants the God of the universe. They want to be in fellowship with the God who created them for himself. As St. Augustine famously said, you have created us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you. He said that in prayer to God. That's exactly what the human experience is like. As a number of theologians and philosophers have noted for us, we're all created with this basic emptiness, this void that can only be filled by the God who made us. And because of our sin, that void is empty and we try to fill it with all kinds of other stuff. We fill it with relationships. We fill it with money. We fill it with pleasure and its pursuit. We fill it with work and we fill it with sports and we fill it with family. We even fill it with service in places like churches. But that's not what fills the void that we have in our hearts. God made us for fellowship first and foremost with him. And as we feel the hollowness of life, devoid of the presence and power of God, Jesus steps into the world and says, hey, that thing you've been looking for, I'm it. And as we look at the world around us, there are people that are looking for Jesus that don't even know it yet. And yet so often, when we actually come to the work of evangelism, we act like we have a hard job ahead of us to tell people that Jesus is actually all that and more. We don't have anything to be embarrassed about do we? Because we understand who Jesus is and for all that people might do in response to what we have to say we know that we win in him. A few weeks ago, we opened Christmas gifts, and Hannah received Pretty Pretty Princess. Have you ever played Pretty Pretty Princess before? Anybody ever played Pretty Pretty Princess before? You can imagine what Pretty Pretty Princess involves. It's a game where you work your way around a board, and everybody has different colors assigned to them, and those colors are accompanied by an assortment of jewelry. Earrings, bracelets, necklaces, crown, and the objective of the game is to be the first one to assemble and to wear all the jewelry. That's how you win the game, okay? Well, you know what I did on Christmas morning? I put on a blue bracelet and a blue ring that only went about down to here, and a crown and some earrings, and I played Pretty, Pretty Princess. My mother-in-law was taking pictures like it was going to embarrass me. She's going to listen to this and she's going to hear this. And it's true. There are certain circumstances in my life where I wouldn't want that picture posted without context. But guess what? I'm not embarrassed at all that I played Pretty, Pretty Princess. You know why? Because I love my girl and I do all kinds of things for her. She's worth it. I'm not going to be embarrassed to show the love that I have for her because at the end of the day, she means more to me than my reputation. What about Jesus? Some people would look at the gospel and say, aren't you embarrassed to tell people about this? Listen, if I'm not embarrassed to put on a set of clip-on blue earrings that dangle down below my ear, and to carefully perch a crown on my head that was made for somebody much smaller than me, and to let somebody take my picture, how am I going to be embarrassed to tell people about the most important thing in any of our lives? Evangelism is the happy announcement of God's goodness. We don't have anything to be embarrassed about. We've got what people really want. Second thing I want you to see with me. Evangelism is the happy expression of our love. Evangelism is the happy expression of our love. We've looked at how Nathaniel, or Philip rather, articulates what he has to say to Nathaniel. He explains Jesus in light of all of God's promises in the Old Testament. And he says to him, look, we found the one we've been looking for. We found what we've all been waiting for. But I also want you to see just what he's done. Philip finds the one that he and Nathaniel and everybody else have been waiting for. And what's his first reaction? He's going to go find somebody he knows and tell him about what he's found. He goes and finds somebody he already knows and loves and says, Hey, I want you to know about this Jesus guy that I've met. He's the one that brings all of God's promises to fulfillment. Nathanael's skeptical, verse 46. Nathanael said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? There was rivalry between all these little towns. And apparently, even though Nathanael was a backwoodsman himself, he didn't think much of Nazareth where Jesus was coming from. Philip just says to him, hey, that's all right, come and see. But I want you to see that in all of this, evangelism is going to people that you already know and telling them, hey, I want you to meet Jesus. You know, I think sometimes we think of evangelism as something that we have to do out there, and it is. But how many people do you already know and do you already love who are living far from God? We'll use that language, okay? Can we use the language far from God? Because we all know people who have made a profession of faith at some time in their past and who would describe themselves as Christians because they live in Webster County, Mississippi. What else are they gonna be? But, when the rubber meets the road, you're not really sure if they're Christian. You don't see a lot of evidence of it in their lives. And so, whether you wanna call them a non-Christian, which they may be, or you just wanna say, hey, this person is far from God, the old-fashioned word is backslidden, right? Whatever they are, you and I, we know these people, don't we? Already, people who are far from the God who loved them and sent Jesus to live, die, be raised, and intercede for them. They're far from that God. And all that evangelism is in so many ways is a recognition that what God has done for me in Jesus, I want to share with somebody else. I want other people who I love, who I know, I want them to get to experience what I have experienced. If you look throughout the Gospel of John, it happens over and over and over again. It happens in the passage immediately before this one with Andrew. Andrew goes and he tells his brother Simon about who he's found in Jesus, and Simon becomes Simon Peter. And what does Simon Peter spend his life doing after he stops putting his foot in his mouth so much? He brings people to Jesus. Go all throughout the gospel of John, you'll see other examples. The Samaritan woman in John chapter four, she meets with Jesus and Jesus tells her everything she's ever done. And so what does she do? She goes and tells people, you've got to come meet this Jesus guy. What happens when persecution breaks out in the book of Acts and the Christians are forced to flee from Jerusalem after the death of Stephen? They run, but they don't stop telling people about Jesus. Why? They wanna bring people to him. And they wanna do it because as they go, their hearts are inclined with love toward people to bring them to Christ. Listen, evangelism is a happy expression of the love that we have for people. Now, that doesn't mean that that's easy. You ever notice that it can be easier to share the gospel on a mission trip than it is to share the gospel with people at home? I have a theory about why that's the case. You go on a mission trip, and you go share the gospel with somebody that you probably won't ever see again, it's no sweat off your back if you go home and you never see them again, if they reject you. You're happy if they trust Christ, but if they don't, you go, well, that was awkward, and you just move on with your life. But what happens when you share the gospel with a parent who's nearing the end of his or her life, and you know is not a Christian, and they reject you again? What happens if you have a child who has done everything that he or she can to run from Jesus, even though you've done everything that you can to bring them to Jesus, and you share the gospel with them, and they say, Mom, Dad, I don't wanna hear it anymore. Why do you keep telling me about all this? What happens when you have a close friend who maybe once was walking through this Christian life with you and he was turned and gone the other direction and has made it clear to you that if you won't stop trying to get them to come back to Jesus they won't have anything to do with you anymore? You see, I think a lot of us in the face of those kinds of consequences go, I can't, I can't talk to this person. But here's what we have to understand. When we refuse to tell people about Jesus, to bring them to Jesus and into his presence, you know what we're doing? We're loving ourselves more than we're loving them. You know why you and I are unwilling to tell people about Jesus when there are consequences? To try to bring the people we already know to Jesus. You know why we're not willing to do that sometimes? It's because we love feeling like everybody likes us. Or we love papering over life and acting like everything's okay. Or we love pretending that sin and unbelief aren't really all that consequential. At the end of the day, we just love the convenience of not being disrupted from the lives that we already lead. But if we really love those people, you know what's gonna be the desperate desire of our hearts? Not just to spend a few years getting along with them, but to spend eternity worshiping with them. Evangelism is the happy expression of our love. And maybe you're one of those people, I think many of us are like this, where we're like, well, I don't love strangers very much. I know I should, but it's not easy. I don't love random people I've never met. It's just hard, and I get that. But you do love people that need Jesus, don't you? We all do. And the most loving thing that we can do for somebody is introduce them to the person who loves them far better than we ever could. Evangelism is a happy expression of our love. The last thing I want you to see with me is evangelism is a happy introduction to Jesus himself. Evangelism is a happy introduction to Jesus himself. I want you to see what happens when Nathaniel begins to express skepticism about Philip's claim that he's found the Messiah. He says, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Now maybe Nathaniel knows that the Messiah is supposed to be born in Bethlehem, so that's why he's having a problem here. We all know that he was, but maybe he's struggling with that, and Philip doesn't have an answer for that yet. Or maybe he's just so locked in to his own expectations or perspectives that he's just unwilling to consider that somebody from Nazareth could do anything good like he seems to ask. But whatever the case is, notice what Philip does. Philip doesn't start an argument with him. He could. He doesn't start an argument with him though. What does Philip say? He says, come and see. What is he saying to come and see? The Sea of Galilee? No, he's saying come and see Jesus. He's coming to introduce Nathanael to Jesus. In verse 47, Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said to him, behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. Jesus likes Nathanael because Nathanael's honest. Verse 48, Nathanael said to him, how do you know me? Jesus answered him, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. What? You can see it's Nathaniel's reaction. I mean, you weren't around. How did you know that I was under a fig tree? Who's working for you? I mean, this is not the days like we are in today where everything's tracking us everywhere we go, right? This is a different time. They don't have cameras everywhere. They don't have trackers on their phone and GPS signals being sent all around. There's no way that Jesus can see where Nathanael is unless he's a little bit different than anybody Nathanael's ever met. And that's exactly what Nathanael realizes. He jumps all the way up in verse 49. Nathanael answered him, Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. I mean, Nathanael has just gone from skeptical to completely on board, perhaps even more than Philip is. Rabbi, you are the son of God, you are the king of Israel, you are the long-awaited son of David who's going to bring God's promises to their fulfillment. There is something utterly unique about you. And then Jesus answered him, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these. This is an allusion to an Old Testament story that I hope many of you know. It's the story of Jacob, right? Jacob's on the run. He's messed up. Well, he did it on purpose. He didn't just mess up. Jacob has sinned, all right? And Jacob's on the run, and he's trying to get away from Esau. He's trying to get to his uncle's house where he's going to have some asylum until Esau cools off. And on the way, he lays down and he puts his head on a rock, and as he's there, he has a vision. He has a vision of heaven being opened and angels ascending and descending on a stairway that goes up into heaven. And what Jesus is here saying is, Nathanael, As significant as it is that I know what you're doing when you know that I'm not around, as significant as it is that you have recognized that there's something special about me, I want you to understand something even greater. I am the link between heaven and earth. I am the one who enables you to go up into heaven and to be in the presence of God. And I'm the one who's bringing heaven down to earth so that you can experience God's saving power. Jesus is saying, I'm God. and I'm here to do something incredible. And the whole Gospel of John is gonna lead up to this pronouncement in John 14, six, you know it. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through whom? Through him. Jesus is saying, here I am. And you're gonna see even greater things than what you've already seen. Now, here's what I want you to notice. Philip goes and tells Nathanael, and we never hear Philip say another word after come and see, do we? Does Philip say anything else? No. Who takes over? Jesus. Jesus, by his word and by his power, is the one who seals the evangelistic deal. He's the one who brings Nathanael over the finish line so that Nathanael actually can say, you are the son of God, you are the king of Israel. And here's why this is important for us. Listen, we think so often that evangelism is a one-on-one conversation between us and a lost person. And we think it's entirely up to us to do the work, to bring them to Jesus. We've gotta make arguments, and we've gotta communicate ideas, and we've gotta convince them that they need to change the way they believe, and they need to change the way they live, and they need to become like us. But what we forget is in the midst of the fires of evangelism, there's one like a son of God who's with us. You know the story. of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They get thrown into the fiery furnace because they refused to obey the king's edict. And as they're there, the guards who threw them in burned because it was so hot. Nebuchadnezzar looks and he sees them walking in the midst of the fire. And as he does, he notices that there's not just three in there, there's four. And the one he sees is one like a son of God. Listen, evangelism can feel like a fire, can't it? And it can feel really hot, and you can feel really uncomfortable. You know you're probably not gonna catch on fire, but it might feel that way sometimes. And you need to remember that when you're engaged in the work of evangelism, it's not up to you. Jesus is the one who works among his people. Jesus by his word and by his spirit works through his people so that he's the one that is actually engaged in the work of evangelism with you. And listen, this leads us to another realization. As important as it is to tell people the gospel, the gospel as a message is a message about a person. And that person is not dead. That person is not inactive. That person is not just sitting up in heaven, twiddling his thumbs and hoping that we're gonna be able to accomplish the mission that he's given us. That person, the Lord Jesus Christ, is alive and reigning over all creation. He is active in the world and when you share the gospel, guess who's at work with you? The one who was raised from the dead, the one who possesses all authority in heaven and on earth, the one who when he gives the Great Commission says, I will be with you always to the very end of the age. You see, one of the things that I think kills our faithfulness in evangelism is we forget that our goal is not just to communicate a system of truth, as important as that is. It's not just to convey a need for change in lifestyle, as important as that is. Our goal is to help people to know the real risen and reigning Christ. And when people meet Jesus, things seem to change, don't they? Think about the way that evangelism gets done a lot of times. We can really quickly stoop to what Paul can call underhanded ways. You've probably seen this before. You're into evangelistic settings and somebody says, you don't want to go to hell, do you? Sign this card. Come on. That's not what evangelism's about. And I don't think that's saving a whole lot of people. You see, what changes things, what leads to real, genuine conversion is people coming into relationship with a real Jesus. And the amazing thing is he does it. If you think about Paul going into Corinth, he has some really interesting things to say about the way that he approaches evangelism there. 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, Paul is admitting that he's not particularly impressive. Verse 1 of chapter 2, he says, And I, when I came to you, brothers and sisters, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. And my speech and my message were not implausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." Do you catch what Paul's saying here? Paul is consciously trying to make sure that people are aware that when they hear him preach the gospel, it's not about Paul, it's about Jesus. And the amazing thing is, outside of Jesus, nobody has influenced Christianity more in some ways than the Apostle Paul. You see, when we think about the work of evangelism, we need to remember that at the end of the day, It's Jesus' work. And Jesus doesn't fail. He doesn't. He accomplishes everything the Father gives Him to do. He fulfills all of His purpose and promise and He does it all perfectly according to the plan that He and the Father chose before the foundation of the world. If that's the same Jesus that's at work in your evangelism, what does that mean? You're going to be successful. Evangelism as a happy introduction to Jesus himself. Now, with all of that, I would be the first to acknowledge that as we think through these issues together and as we process the demands of evangelism in the scriptures, we need to get clear who this Jesus is. We need to understand the significance of what he's done. And I would encourage you to come back tonight, because that's part of what we're going to wrestle through with our Sunday night study. It's called From Small Talk to Big God, and we're going to think about why we should have gospel conversations and what's involved in all of that. So come back tonight and hear that. But I don't want to leave this morning without leaving you with the simple truth of who this Jesus that we're introducing people to is. Because he's utterly better than anybody else that you could introduce somebody to. You ever meet somebody and get really excited to introduce all your friends to them? Hopefully it's your spouse, right? When I met Elise, I was really excited to introduce everybody to her. Family, friends. The first time we went to an event in my hometown, my brother was in the play Annie that our local high school was performing. And because of some different stuff, we ended up sitting in the very front and we noticed this parade of all of my brother's friends walking out across the front of the theater before the play started and suddenly looking at us because they wanted to see my girlfriend. Because they were like, wait, he has a girlfriend? And I was proud. One of the boys said, I shouldn't tell this, but I will. He said, Elliot, your brother's girlfriend's hot. And I said, yes, she is. I was excited to introduce people to her because she could stand on her own and they were going to be amazed once they got to know her. You should be excited to introduce people to Jesus because he is utterly amazing. Perfect in holiness and righteousness, fulfilling all that God required for you and for me. Perfect in love and mercy bearing your penalty for your sin on the cross and giving to you as you trust in him his righteousness as your own so that you can be one with the Father through him. Perfect in resurrection power as he was raised from the dead showing everyone that he was exactly who he claims to be with all the approval of heaven behind him. Ascending into heaven where he takes his seat at the right hand of God to reign until all of his enemies are put under his feet and where he lives as a great high priest to pray for you when you don't even know how to pray for yourself. Promising to return. As his gospel goes forward and as the nations are reached, promising to return to gather his people and to establish an eternal kingdom where all of his sin and brokenness is gone and he reigns forever in joy and peace and perfect love. Elise is awesome, but she can't give me that. Jesus does. He offers it to you. If you've never trusted Christ, you can come to him today and you can have all of it. And most importantly, you can have him. And if you have, go introduce people. Go tell people about Jesus. You know somebody, and we're going to think more about this in the coming weeks, but you know somebody. Who do you need to go introduce to the Jesus who changes everything?