Rev. Alan J. Meenan
I was converted to a follower of Jesus Christ at age fifteen, and it was so good that I couldn’t understand why everyone wasn’t a Christian. I remember in my zeal accosting a gentleman in my hometown and talking to him about Jesus. He looked at me blankly and asked "What do I get out of it if I become a follower of Christ?” I stammered and stuttered and didn’t know quite how to respond to the question. What do I get out of it? Will I be financially richer? Will I have a better position in my firm? What do I get out of this Christian faith? I want to ponder that question and reflect upon how the four men in our text might have responded to it.
What does it mean to follow Jesus Christ? If we were to ask Andrew, Simon, Philip, and Nathanael, they would say things like 'contentment' and 'joy' and 'purpose.' Perhaps for us it means a life of prayer, fellowship with other Christians, or Bible study and getting to know God’s word. For Andrew, following Jesus brought him contentment. Everyone likes to be acknowledged. don’t get pious on me. We all like people to know who we are. If you doubt me, think about the time you were introduced to a person for the fifth time and he said, “What did you say your name was?” You probably wondered, “Am I so unimpressive that he can’t even remember my name?” Growing up as a kid in Belfast I was accepted in a variety of places because my parents were known there. “That’s Jack’s kid,” they'd say, and we'd be allowed to come inside. I couldn’t wait for the day when I'd be a grown man, accepted by my own right. Of course, now I’m told, “Oh yes, you're Kimberly Meenan’s father, aren’t you?” I can identify with Andrew. Every time you read about Andrew, the Bible refers to him as Simon Peter’s brother. In many ways, this seems his only claim to fame. The wonderful thing is that when Andrew decided to follow Jesus Christ, he experienced contentment. He was prepared to accept second place, because position and honor and prestige meant nothing more to him. The only thing that really mattered for Andrew was being with Jesus. If we honestly follow Jesus with all our heart, one thing that results is contentment. It takes away all the strivings of life. Financial security, fame or fortune, become less important, because we have a different focus. As one hymnist put it: The things of the world grow strangely dim in the light of God’s glory and grace. We realize that the most important thing in life is being with Jesus.
Samuel Rutherford lived centuries ago, and was a Presbyterian clergyman for the Church of Scotland. He was persecuted for his outspoken faith, and was put in prison because of his teachings about Jesus, and the conversions that were taking place. The powers that be were afraid that these conversions might change their society, so they imprisoned him in Aberdeen. Every day he wrote a letter to his parishioners. Eventually, these letters were published and they become famous. He ended one with these words: Jesus Christ came into my prison-cell last night. And every stone in it glowed like a ruby. Samuel Rutherford understood that the most important thing in life was not his imprisonment. It was keeping company with Jesus.
Hudson Taylor, one of the greatest missionaries the church has ever produced, loved a particular hymn by Jean Sophie Pigott:
“Jesus! I am resting, resting,
In the joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the greatness
Of Thy loving heart.
Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee,
And Thy beauty fills my soul,
For, by Thy transforming power,
Thou hast made me whole.”
Following Jesus affected Andrew in another way. One of the things you notice about Andrew is that he’s always bringing someone to Jesus. Here, he is bringing Peter to Jesus. In the story of the feeding of the five thousand, it is Andrew who finds the young lad with the barley loaf and the fish and introduces him to Jesus. Still later in the gospel, the inquiring Greeks want to know who this Jesus of Nazareth is, and Andrew introduces them to Jesus. Andrew has an emissary’s heart.
For Simon, discovering Jesus meant rock character. Jesus gazed into his eyes, right into his soul and said, “No longer will your name be Simon. I’m going to call you Peter the Rock.” Peter knew himself very well. He knew he wasn’t the stuff of rocks. He was an odd mixture of weakness and strength, and his character needed stability. He was notoriously unstable and unreliable. Peter suffered from foot-in-mouth disease. Open your mouth. Say something. Then let your brain catch up with what you said. That’s Peter. He was hardly someone to rely on. He was hardly the rock. However, on the day that Jesus looked into Peter’s eyes and gazed into his soul, how could he possibly fail to believe that it was so?
Every time a name is changed in the Bible, a relationship changes. Before "Abraham" was so called, he was called "Abram.” Abram means "father of many", so people would ask him "How many do you have?” He would have to reply, “I don’t have any.” How embarrassing! Then the day came when Abram announced to Sarah, “Sarah, I've decided to change my name.” She says, “Thank God. What’s it going to be?” And he says, “Well it’s not going to be 'Father of Many', It’s going to be 'Father of the Multitudes.'" You can imagine Sarah running a mile down the road before anybody could catch up with her. But…God was going to do something wonderful in the life of Abraham, and through him all the families of the earth would be blessed.
Do you remember the story of Jacob wrestling with God on the other side of the Jordan? God asked Jacob, “What’s your name?” "Jacob,” he replied. Jacob? Jacob means "cheater.” It means "supplanter.” It means "the worm.” And God said to Jacob, “No longer will your name be Jacob. Your name will be 'Israel.'" Do you know what "Israel" means? It means Prince with God. When Jesus told Simon his name was to be "rock", it was an opportunity to wipe out the past. Following Jesus means that you can put the past behind you. All of the blunders and all the messes you've made of your life, all the things that you're terribly sorry for, all the guilt that you've been carrying are wiped away. That is what following Jesus meant to Simon.
Then there was Philip. Philip was the shy, retiring, slow, unimpressive chap of which there wasn’t mush to say. In fact, he did so little that was commendable, that Matthew, Mark, and Luke don’t even mention him, except to say that he was one of the twelve disciples. Yet, this man who could not aspire to anything more than mediocrity, was given a purpose and a mission by Jesus! When Philip met Jesus, he could not keep Him to himself. In fact, there’s an entire chapter in the New Testament devoted to Philip. Look at Acts chapter eight. He journeys way up to Samaria, the capital of the ancient northern kingdom of Israel, and he tells people of Jesus Christ, and a revival breaks out. So great was the harvest, that they had to send other Apostles up there because of Philip. Then God sent him down to the road to Gaza, and along the way he meets a great nobleman of the courts of the Queen of Ethiopia riding in a chariot. The nobleman is sitting in his chariot reading the Bible, and Philip asked, “Do you understand that?” "No,” he replied, “How can I understand it unless someone explains it to me?” Getting up into the chariot, Philip tells him about Jesus and they go. Because of that, the Gospel reached Africa. This shy, unassuming, unimpressive, character took the gospel to Africa!
John Wesley once said, “Give me a hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God and I will shake the gates of hell, and set up the kingdom of heaven upon earth.” Do we desire to rise up and shake the gates of hell in Hollywood, California? Do we hope to settle the Kingdom of God in this place? In an unprecedented way, young followers of Jesus Christ are turning to missionary endeavors to work with Muslim people around the world. The church has never been very good at sending missionaries to the Muslim world because of the resistance. If a Muslim turns to faith in Jesus Christ, the missionary is deported, and the convert is labeled a heretic and is liable to death. So, it has always been a very difficult mission field. This changed a year ago. On September 11th, hundreds of thousands of young Muslims in Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the Far East and other countries of the Middle East began asking questions. “Our faith,” they remarked, “seems to be a faith of violence where there is no forgiveness. Tell us about Jesus.” Suddenly, missionaries who had never seen a convert are seeing converts by the hundreds. We need more Philips.
Finally, let’s look at Nathanael. For Nathanael, following Jesus meant a continuing adventure. He was the young intellectual. He was bigoted and biased about people who came from Nazareth and he needed a good dose of empathy for others. Do you know the name Robbie Burns? He wrote a poem called "To a Louse.” I think he was sitting in church behind a woman with one of those big fancy hats. As he watched this monstrosity creeping down her neck, he wrote these words. O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us.
That is what happened to Nathanael. As soon as he was able to see through new eyes, he was cleansed of the pride and the prejudice. In Jesus Christ, he saw one who understood him and who would satisfy the deepest longings of his heart. Nathanael is the one who said, “This is a man who understands my dreams, who knows my prayers, who has seen the most intimate, secret longings of my heart. And, while he was thinking such amazing things, Jesus broke in and said, “You think it’s great that I can read your mind and see into your heart. If you follow me, you will see even greater things. I tell you the truth, you will see the heavens open and Angels of God ascending and descending. I will be to you the ladder of heaven.”
For each of these men, following Christ provoked eagerness. They left everything behind. What is the measure of your commitment to Christ? Their cry carried around the world, throughout the centuries, “We have found Him! We have found the Messiah! We have found the Son of God!” They were so excited. And, I long to see an excited church. Somehow, the Church of Christ has lost so much of the fire. It reminds me of the gentleman who while kissing his wife, suddenly backed away, and put his finger on her wrist. “What’s this?” she said. “I’m just seeing if I can feel a pulse,” he answered. It’s hard on the ego to kiss someone and feel like you're kissing a wooden Indian. Yet so often, the Lord gets kissed like that. The word that is most commonly used in the Bible for worship is the Greek word Proskenaeo. It means to lean forward to kiss. To worship God with enthusiasm means to lean forward to kiss.
Being a follower of Christ means having your life radically changed. You start living as you've never lived before. Following Christ means engaging a missionary heart of zeal. The one purpose and goal for each of these characters was to bring others to Jesus. May that be the thrust of our mission. This is our year of discovery at Hollywood Presbyterian Church. This is the year when we say publicly and unapologetically that we believe that God wants everyone saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. Let us go into the highways and the byways and invite them to come. This is the greatest thing in the world. There is nothing more exciting happening anywhere in the entire universe than what is happening right here, right this moment. Nothing else matters compared to this. In this there is contentment, there is courage, there is character, and there is a continuing adventure. Why would anyone ever stay away? Why would anyone not embrace this man of Galilee? He is the only hope of the world…the only Savior.
I was converted to a follower of Jesus Christ at age fifteen, and it was so good that I couldn’t understand why everyone wasn’t a Christian. I remember in my zeal accosting a gentleman in my hometown and talking to him about Jesus. He looked at me blankly and asked "What do I get out of it if I become a follower of Christ?” I stammered and stuttered and didn’t know quite how to respond to the question. What do I get out of it? Will I be financially richer? Will I have a better position in my firm? What do I get out of this Christian faith? I want to ponder that question and reflect upon how the four men in our text might have responded to it.
What does it mean to follow Jesus Christ? If we were to ask Andrew, Simon, Philip, and Nathanael, they would say things like 'contentment' and 'joy' and 'purpose.' Perhaps for us it means a life of prayer, fellowship with other Christians, or Bible study and getting to know God’s word. For Andrew, following Jesus brought him contentment. Everyone likes to be acknowledged. don’t get pious on me. We all like people to know who we are. If you doubt me, think about the time you were introduced to a person for the fifth time and he said, “What did you say your name was?” You probably wondered, “Am I so unimpressive that he can’t even remember my name?” Growing up as a kid in Belfast I was accepted in a variety of places because my parents were known there. “That’s Jack’s kid,” they'd say, and we'd be allowed to come inside. I couldn’t wait for the day when I'd be a grown man, accepted by my own right. Of course, now I’m told, “Oh yes, you're Kimberly Meenan’s father, aren’t you?” I can identify with Andrew. Every time you read about Andrew, the Bible refers to him as Simon Peter’s brother. In many ways, this seems his only claim to fame. The wonderful thing is that when Andrew decided to follow Jesus Christ, he experienced contentment. He was prepared to accept second place, because position and honor and prestige meant nothing more to him. The only thing that really mattered for Andrew was being with Jesus. If we honestly follow Jesus with all our heart, one thing that results is contentment. It takes away all the strivings of life. Financial security, fame or fortune, become less important, because we have a different focus. As one hymnist put it: The things of the world grow strangely dim in the light of God’s glory and grace. We realize that the most important thing in life is being with Jesus.
Samuel Rutherford lived centuries ago, and was a Presbyterian clergyman for the Church of Scotland. He was persecuted for his outspoken faith, and was put in prison because of his teachings about Jesus, and the conversions that were taking place. The powers that be were afraid that these conversions might change their society, so they imprisoned him in Aberdeen. Every day he wrote a letter to his parishioners. Eventually, these letters were published and they become famous. He ended one with these words: Jesus Christ came into my prison-cell last night. And every stone in it glowed like a ruby. Samuel Rutherford understood that the most important thing in life was not his imprisonment. It was keeping company with Jesus.
Hudson Taylor, one of the greatest missionaries the church has ever produced, loved a particular hymn by Jean Sophie Pigott:
“Jesus! I am resting, resting,
In the joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the greatness
Of Thy loving heart.
Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee,
And Thy beauty fills my soul,
For, by Thy transforming power,
Thou hast made me whole.”
Following Jesus affected Andrew in another way. One of the things you notice about Andrew is that he’s always bringing someone to Jesus. Here, he is bringing Peter to Jesus. In the story of the feeding of the five thousand, it is Andrew who finds the young lad with the barley loaf and the fish and introduces him to Jesus. Still later in the gospel, the inquiring Greeks want to know who this Jesus of Nazareth is, and Andrew introduces them to Jesus. Andrew has an emissary’s heart.
For Simon, discovering Jesus meant rock character. Jesus gazed into his eyes, right into his soul and said, “No longer will your name be Simon. I’m going to call you Peter the Rock.” Peter knew himself very well. He knew he wasn’t the stuff of rocks. He was an odd mixture of weakness and strength, and his character needed stability. He was notoriously unstable and unreliable. Peter suffered from foot-in-mouth disease. Open your mouth. Say something. Then let your brain catch up with what you said. That’s Peter. He was hardly someone to rely on. He was hardly the rock. However, on the day that Jesus looked into Peter’s eyes and gazed into his soul, how could he possibly fail to believe that it was so?
Every time a name is changed in the Bible, a relationship changes. Before "Abraham" was so called, he was called "Abram.” Abram means "father of many", so people would ask him "How many do you have?” He would have to reply, “I don’t have any.” How embarrassing! Then the day came when Abram announced to Sarah, “Sarah, I've decided to change my name.” She says, “Thank God. What’s it going to be?” And he says, “Well it’s not going to be 'Father of Many', It’s going to be 'Father of the Multitudes.'" You can imagine Sarah running a mile down the road before anybody could catch up with her. But…God was going to do something wonderful in the life of Abraham, and through him all the families of the earth would be blessed.
Do you remember the story of Jacob wrestling with God on the other side of the Jordan? God asked Jacob, “What’s your name?” "Jacob,” he replied. Jacob? Jacob means "cheater.” It means "supplanter.” It means "the worm.” And God said to Jacob, “No longer will your name be Jacob. Your name will be 'Israel.'" Do you know what "Israel" means? It means Prince with God. When Jesus told Simon his name was to be "rock", it was an opportunity to wipe out the past. Following Jesus means that you can put the past behind you. All of the blunders and all the messes you've made of your life, all the things that you're terribly sorry for, all the guilt that you've been carrying are wiped away. That is what following Jesus meant to Simon.
Then there was Philip. Philip was the shy, retiring, slow, unimpressive chap of which there wasn’t mush to say. In fact, he did so little that was commendable, that Matthew, Mark, and Luke don’t even mention him, except to say that he was one of the twelve disciples. Yet, this man who could not aspire to anything more than mediocrity, was given a purpose and a mission by Jesus! When Philip met Jesus, he could not keep Him to himself. In fact, there’s an entire chapter in the New Testament devoted to Philip. Look at Acts chapter eight. He journeys way up to Samaria, the capital of the ancient northern kingdom of Israel, and he tells people of Jesus Christ, and a revival breaks out. So great was the harvest, that they had to send other Apostles up there because of Philip. Then God sent him down to the road to Gaza, and along the way he meets a great nobleman of the courts of the Queen of Ethiopia riding in a chariot. The nobleman is sitting in his chariot reading the Bible, and Philip asked, “Do you understand that?” "No,” he replied, “How can I understand it unless someone explains it to me?” Getting up into the chariot, Philip tells him about Jesus and they go. Because of that, the Gospel reached Africa. This shy, unassuming, unimpressive, character took the gospel to Africa!
John Wesley once said, “Give me a hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God and I will shake the gates of hell, and set up the kingdom of heaven upon earth.” Do we desire to rise up and shake the gates of hell in Hollywood, California? Do we hope to settle the Kingdom of God in this place? In an unprecedented way, young followers of Jesus Christ are turning to missionary endeavors to work with Muslim people around the world. The church has never been very good at sending missionaries to the Muslim world because of the resistance. If a Muslim turns to faith in Jesus Christ, the missionary is deported, and the convert is labeled a heretic and is liable to death. So, it has always been a very difficult mission field. This changed a year ago. On September 11th, hundreds of thousands of young Muslims in Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, the Far East and other countries of the Middle East began asking questions. “Our faith,” they remarked, “seems to be a faith of violence where there is no forgiveness. Tell us about Jesus.” Suddenly, missionaries who had never seen a convert are seeing converts by the hundreds. We need more Philips.
Finally, let’s look at Nathanael. For Nathanael, following Jesus meant a continuing adventure. He was the young intellectual. He was bigoted and biased about people who came from Nazareth and he needed a good dose of empathy for others. Do you know the name Robbie Burns? He wrote a poem called "To a Louse.” I think he was sitting in church behind a woman with one of those big fancy hats. As he watched this monstrosity creeping down her neck, he wrote these words. O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us.
That is what happened to Nathanael. As soon as he was able to see through new eyes, he was cleansed of the pride and the prejudice. In Jesus Christ, he saw one who understood him and who would satisfy the deepest longings of his heart. Nathanael is the one who said, “This is a man who understands my dreams, who knows my prayers, who has seen the most intimate, secret longings of my heart. And, while he was thinking such amazing things, Jesus broke in and said, “You think it’s great that I can read your mind and see into your heart. If you follow me, you will see even greater things. I tell you the truth, you will see the heavens open and Angels of God ascending and descending. I will be to you the ladder of heaven.”
For each of these men, following Christ provoked eagerness. They left everything behind. What is the measure of your commitment to Christ? Their cry carried around the world, throughout the centuries, “We have found Him! We have found the Messiah! We have found the Son of God!” They were so excited. And, I long to see an excited church. Somehow, the Church of Christ has lost so much of the fire. It reminds me of the gentleman who while kissing his wife, suddenly backed away, and put his finger on her wrist. “What’s this?” she said. “I’m just seeing if I can feel a pulse,” he answered. It’s hard on the ego to kiss someone and feel like you're kissing a wooden Indian. Yet so often, the Lord gets kissed like that. The word that is most commonly used in the Bible for worship is the Greek word Proskenaeo. It means to lean forward to kiss. To worship God with enthusiasm means to lean forward to kiss.
Being a follower of Christ means having your life radically changed. You start living as you've never lived before. Following Christ means engaging a missionary heart of zeal. The one purpose and goal for each of these characters was to bring others to Jesus. May that be the thrust of our mission. This is our year of discovery at Hollywood Presbyterian Church. This is the year when we say publicly and unapologetically that we believe that God wants everyone saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. Let us go into the highways and the byways and invite them to come. This is the greatest thing in the world. There is nothing more exciting happening anywhere in the entire universe than what is happening right here, right this moment. Nothing else matters compared to this. In this there is contentment, there is courage, there is character, and there is a continuing adventure. Why would anyone ever stay away? Why would anyone not embrace this man of Galilee? He is the only hope of the world…the only Savior.
