Epiphany 2
1 Samuel 3:1-10; 1 Corinthians 6:12-20; John 1:43-51[29-51]
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I.
I shared an article with your senior warden this past week. Its title was grim and its contents lived up to its name.
It was called “After COVID: The Deepening Decline of the Church of England.”
The article makes two points.
The first is that since the turn of the millennium, attendance in the Church of England is down by 50%. In 2000, the average Sunday attendance was 950,000. In 2022, attendance was 549,000.
The article does not try to account for the pandemic years as the data from 2020 and 2021 is unusable. The article also speculates that those who stopped attending during the pandemic, if they haven’t yet come back, are not likely to.
The second point is that children no longer attend church. Sunday attendance for children is down 23% since 2019.
The article concludes that Covid aged the church statistically, with 36% of the Church of England being over 70, whereas only 13.5 percent of the population of England are over 70.
Nearly the same story can be said about The Episcopal Church.
Now, you may be expecting me to preach about a new program for growing the church, particularly your congregation, and are eagerly awaiting for me to produce the silver bullet.
Instead, I am going to preach the gospel for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany.
II.
Today’s reading is John 1:43-51. The first chapter of the Gospel of John covers the first three days in Jesus’ early ministry.
On the first day John the Baptist sees Jesus coming towards him. He says:
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”1
Here is everything you need to know about the significance of the life and work of Jesus. He is the Lamb of God. Yet these are words that are meaningless to the modern ear.
Lamb of God?
Sin?
But two of John the Baptist’s disciples knew exactly what it meant. The next day, on Day 2, John again says — this time within earshot of two of John’s own disciples — “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
John, the writer of this gospel, tells us the name of one of these disciples, Andrew, who is Simon Peter’s brother. We can assume from authorial modesty that the other disciple is John the gospel writer himself.
Andrew and John go to Andrew’s brother, Simon Peter, and tell him, “We have found the Messiah.”
John the Evangelist is beginning to unravel the mystery behind John the Baptist’s declaration, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
The Lamb of God is the Messiah.
By the end of Day 2, Jesus has three disciples of His own: Andrew, John, and Peter.
Finally, we are ready to explore today’s reading, which begins on Day 3 of Jesus’ public ministry. We read:
“The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. And he found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’”
So far, on days one and two, the Church has grown in only one way: by prophetic declaration.
(You will recall I began this sermon describing the Church’s decline.)
John the Baptist was a prophet, and he preached an infallible word, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
John offers no debate, no reasoned discourse, no explanation. Instead, he simply declares the truth of who Jesus is.
We know that John had many other disciples, yet only two leave him at this point to follow Jesus. They do so because they at once believe on John’s authority that Jesus is the Messiah.
Andrew repeats the infallible, prophetic declaration to Peter saying, “We have found the Messiah.”2
So, if the Church wants to grow, here is a proven formula: proclaim the words that grow the Church:
“Behold, the Lamb of God!”
“We have found the Messiah.”
III.
On Day 3 we are told about two other ways the Church grows.
The second way the Church grows is by a direct command of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
John 1:43:
“The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. And he found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’”
Many people join the Church in response to Jesus’ personal instruction to them.
(Do you not think that Jesus is speaking to each and every one of us all of the time?)
The way in which Jesus makes Himself heard in our lives is as varied as our lives themselves. But make no mistake. When Jesus wants to be heard in our lives, He will make Himself heard.
Many times (perhaps most of the time) this kind of direct command comes to unbelievers, those who never go to church, or who think of themselves as secular, agnostic, atheist, or spiritual.
Jesus says to them, “Follow me.”
Often, they will hear Jesus instruct them as they reach once again for the bottle, scroll habitually that pornographic feed, or return to that sinful embrace.
“Follow me,” is also the test of whether or not a church ais true or apostate.
Newcomers will come to a local church because they expect (innocently enough) that because we call ourselves a “church” that here they can find Jesus.
But too many churches fail to preach the prophetic word that compels belief:
“Behold, the Lamb of God!”
“We have found the Messiah.”
And so, when these newcomers come, if they don’t find Jesus, they will leave and keep looking until they find Him in a church that does know Him.
Because, after all He has instructed them to “Follow me.”
The third way the Church grows is by invitation.
This third way has two parts to it.
The first part is witness, the second is invitation.
Picking up at John 1:45, after Philip is converted, we read about the witness part:
“Philip found Nathan′a-el, 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.’”
Another word for witness is testimony. As Christians, each of us has a testimony to give about Jesus. I’ve just read Philip’s to you.
Philip is speaking on behalf of all of the apostles (so far): “We have found him….”
Here, at the very beginning, the Church is united in her witness. All three members of the Church agree that they have found the Messiah.
Here is another way to test for a faithful or an apostate Church: is that church united in its witness? Specifically, is it united it what it says about who Jesus is?
Now, there is something very important to point out first, before you apply this test.
It’s about the nature of Philip’s testimony about Jesus. Philip’s testimony is biblical.
Philip appeals to the Bible. Jesus is the Messiah because Moses and the prophets wrote about Jesus.
Jesus is the Messiah not because He fulfills some popular ideas about the Cosmic Christ, or because he heals the sick (he hasn’t healed anyone yet) but because He embodies what was said about Him in the Old Testament, in the law of Moses and in the prophets.
Now, if a church were to stand united in its testimony that Jesus is a pink-haired baboon, then that church would surely be apostate. The Bible says no such thing.
But if a church is united in its testimony that Jesus is the Messiah because that is what the Bible says, then that church is faithful.
After biblical witness comes invitation. Nathanael responds skeptically at verse 46. He asks:
“‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’”
Nathanael doesn’t mean any disrespect to Nazareth, but because he knows his Bible, he knows that Moses and the Prophets never once mentioned a town called Nazareth!
He’s doing something every member (or prospective member) of the Church needs to do. He is testing the testimony of the preacher and the other members of the congregation by the word of God.
There is a reason Protestant churches put the Bible in the pews! You know your preacher is an apostate if what he’s telling you isn’t in the good book!
Nathanael’s objection is the reason we put so much emphasis on Bethlehem during Christmas and Epiphany, because Bethlehem is where the prophets said the Messiah would be born.3
But Philip doesn’t respond with proof from Scripture. He responds with an invitation to “Come and see.”
Here is a final test for sorting out the faithful from the apostate churches. When the newcomers come to see, what do they see?
They don’t come looking for an argument. They won’t be persuaded by a proof text.
They will only stay if they find Jesus.
IV.
We read about the strange first meeting between Nathanael and Jesus in verses 48-49:
“Nathan′a-el 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.’ Nathan′a-el answered him, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’”
This encounter under the fig tree depicts the mystical call of Christ to each and every one of us. As surely as it happened to Nathanael, it happens to us.
Christ sees us before we see Him. Christ sees us in our honest, searching moments. He sees us in our sinful, shameful moments.
There is certainly something about the shade of a tree that is conducive to contemplation. Teachers of Israel often taught under the shade of fig trees. It’s a natural place to gather or to be alone.
I remember the peace and comfort of sitting under a tall elm tree in New Haven many summers long ago. Often, I sat there reading my Bible. Sometimes I sat there reading my Bible with my friends. Other times I just took a nap.
Reading the Bible is one way, perhaps the best way, we can open ourselves up to hearing Jesus’ instructions. They are right there after all, in black and white.
He will certainly speak His words of instruction to us when we are in the middle of committing some sin or another, but how much better will our meeting with Him go — how much less judgmental, how much more affirming — if He’s seen us under the tree, like Nathanael, opening our hearts to Him, trying to understand His word.
Nathanael was sinner, just like all of us are, but Jesus had a special word for him. Jesus says:
“Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!”
Nathanael had already done a good deal of the work it takes to see Jesus. When the invitation came from Philip to “come and see,” Nathanael was ready.
V.
Don’t be discouraged by news of the Church’s decline.
Jesus has a cure for the Church’s decline. The cure lies in the hearts of the many Nathanaels the world over who are open to and yearning for Jesus to visit them.
Every church needs to understand this. We don’t grow the Church, Jesus does. That is why the Church never stops growing. This is what Jesus means in Matthew 9:37-38:
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
The church that knows Jesus will labor in this harvest. The church that doesn’t will be judged.
Paul’s warning in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 was not just to individuals, but to entire congregations as well:
“If any one will not work, let him not eat.”
Nathanael adds two declarations to the two we have already heard from John the Baptist and Andrew, John, and Philip:
“Behold, the Lamb of God!”
“We have found the Messiah.”
To these, Nathanael adds:
“Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
The Lamb of God links Jesus to all the sacrifices Israel made on its altars throughout its history. It also foreshadows Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross.
The Messiah is the one who will come to redeem and restore Israel’s status among the nations. The disciples declare Jesus is the Messiah.
The Son of God can be none other than God Himself. Nathanael speaks this truth before anyone else.
King of Israel means that Jesus commands not just spiritual but temporal power. He is a king, a head of state, a ruler, a judge — just like any other — but both Paul and John later declare Jesus to be supreme over them all, to be the “king of kings and lord of lords.”4
Because of this, Jesus is the end of politics, the end of ethnic strife, the end of war, and even the end of history. In this way, He is truly the Prince of peace.
All this I think Jesus had in mind when He said to Nathanael:
“You shall see greater things than these.”
But He had something else in mind too, and so I close with a final point about what the Church does when she assembles in individual congregations.
Jesus says, “You shall see greater things than these,” and immediately adds:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”
This is a reference to Jacob’s Ladder, Jacob’s dream of angels ascending and descending (which is found in Genesis 28).
This was a dream Jacob had while spending the night at a place he later called Bethel, which means in Hebrew, “House of God.”
Every church is a Bethel.
When we gather at our church we go to Bethlehem. We go to Calvary. We memorialize here what happened there.
That is why it is fitting to decorate and beautify our churches. That is why it is fitting to use worthy musical instruments in worship. So that, when newcomers walk in, they are captured by a sense of wonder and awe, a feeling of peace, of having come and seen.
Then it is up to one of us to say, “Because our church is beautiful, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these. Come and see.” And we take them to meet Jesus. Amen.
John 1:29.
John 1:41.
Greater things than these