Today on Summit Life with J.D.
Greer. What does it mean to become a Christian? What's it mean to become a Christian? According to the Gospels, very simply, to become a Christian is to begin to follow Jesus.
Following Jesus means seeking to know what he knows and also do what he does. Hello, and happy Christmas Eve to all of you. Thanks for spending some time with us here today on Summit Life with Pastor J.D.
Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. You know, Jesus could have come to earth as the lion, a powerful leader who demanded respect, but instead he came as an innocent lamb, meek and mild, but who conquered death and now offer salvation to anyone who humbly receives it. Today, Pastor J.D. continues to look at our response to who Jesus is by walking through the final question we must answer.
After we understand that Jesus knows everything about us and still loves us anyway, he asks, will you follow me? Let's rejoin Pastor J.D. in John chapter one. The apostle John gives us the why of Christmas. In the first half of John one, he gave us Jesus's resume. If you remember from last week, Jesus is the word. He is the light.
He is the life and he is glory in flesh. And now, and now in the second half, he's going to show us how to respond. He's going to do so by asking us three questions. Or you could think of these as Jesus's first three questions for us.
Number one, what are you really searching for? Number two, what is your name? And then number three, will you follow? Will you follow?
Here we go. Let's begin in verse 35. The next day, John the Baptist, not John who wrote this apostle, but a different John, the cousin of Jesus, John. John the Baptist was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and he said, behold, behold the lamb of God. The admonition that John gives is behold him. Behold means look at him, recognize who he is, pay attention to him. Two of John's disciples heard John say this. And so they began to follow Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, what are you seeking?
These are Jesus's first words in the gospel of John and they have profound significance because this is going to be the question that undergirds a lot of Jesus's encounters in the rest of the gospel. What are you really looking for? What are you really looking for?
And what do I have to do with that? Their response, verse 38. Rabbi, we need a place to stay tonight.
That's what we're looking for. They think Jesus is literally asking them what they're looking for at the current moment. The point is Jesus was often talking way up here and his disciples are thinking way down here. That's what you got going on here in John 1. Jesus is talking about what they're really seeking in life, where they're really trying to go and they think he's asking them where they're headed at the moment.
But you know that's okay. Jesus didn't turn them away. Verse 39, he very patiently says to them, come and you'll see.
Jesus said come and see. So they came and they saw where he was staying and they stayed with him the rest of that day for it was about the 10th hour or about four in the afternoon because they started counting the hours at 6 a.m. Verse 40, one of them was Andrew, Simon's brother. He went and found Simon and said to him, we have found the Messiah. He brought Peter, that's going to become Simon's new name here in a minute. He brought Simon Peter to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, you are Simon the son of John but from this point on you're going to be called Cephas. This is where Jesus first meets the apostle Peter and it's our second major question.
What's really your name? I want you to notice that in the first meeting Jesus gives Peter a nickname. Peter was not jockeying for a nickname but Jesus gave him one that prophesied his future. In verse 42, Jesus goes through three iterations of Peter's identity. Simon, that's his current name. Son of John, that's his family identity.
You could almost think of that as his past name and then Cephas which means rock, that's a picture of what Jesus is going to make him into. Y'all that was all in their first conversation. What an introduction but there's an important lesson there for you and for me. See when you come to Jesus you cease to be defined by your past, who your parents were. You also cease to be defined by your present, what you've accomplished or your mistakes and your failures and you start to be defined by who Jesus is making you into and the plans that he has for you.
All right, let's review what we've seen thus far. Jesus appears before us as the lamb of God who alone can take away our sins. He asked us what we're really searching for in life. He gives us a new name and now he extends to us the essential invitation of the gospels, follow me or in Hebrew leacharai which to me just sounds cooler than follow me doesn't it leacharai. What does it mean to become a Christian? What's it mean to become a Christian? According to the gospels very simply to become a Christian is to begin to follow Jesus. Following Jesus means seeking to know what he knows and also do what he does. Around the summit you will hear us simplify that into the five identities of the disciple. We say that basically to follow Jesus you become these five things because these five things summarize the essence of Jesus life.
He was a worshiper, a family member, a servant, a steward and a witness. As a worshiper that means you'll be part of this weekend gathering regularly and consistently in the word and in prayer. As a family member you're going to be part of a smaller community of discipleship in our church since church is not an event you should attend it's a family you belong to. So you're going to be a family member and you'll be in something like a small group. As a servant you're going to commit to serving in our church and then through our church in our city.
As a steward you're going to be committed to giving generously of your time, your talent and your treasure. As a witness you're going to be praying for and sharing the gospel with friends in your life that don't know Jesus specifically. You're one. You're one which is that one person that you have identified that God has put into your life to reach out to. A worshiper, a family member, a servant, a steward and a witness. We call that our discipleship pathway.
What it looks like practically speaking to follow Jesus. Verse 45 Philip then went and found a friend named Nathaniel and he said to him we have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph. Nathaniel said to him give in good come out of Nazareth.
Yes that was as snobby as it sounds. Real quick Nazareth was the redneck part of Israel. All dueling banjos and pickup trucks and spitting tobacco and marrying your cousins and whatnot out there. And Nathaniel was like look can anything good come out of that place? Veronica and I really appreciate this because I'm from Wheeling West Virginia and she is from Andalusia Alabama. Can anything good come out of Wheeling West Virginia or Andalusia Alabama? In college my family lived in Yackenville North Carolina. Can anything good come out of Yackenville? So for all you all you from redneck hole in the wall wrong side of the tracks kind of towns Jesus feels you. Nathaniel was like anything good come out of that place?
Totally snobby. Philip said to him come and see. By the way I love this. I love this as an evangelism strategy. Philip tells Nathaniel his story with Jesus. How amazing Jesus is. Then Nathaniel asks an antagonistic question. How can the Messiah possibly come out of Nazareth? Philip doesn't even attempt to answer it. He's like hey come see for yourself. Some of you have a friend that you want to tell Jesus about or tell about Jesus.
But you're afraid of how that friend's going to react aren't you? You just need to follow the example of Philip. Jesus does not need your help converting that person. He'll do all that.
He is fully sufficient on his own. You just got to tell them your story like Philip did and then when they ask you an antagonistic question you just say come and see for yourself. Come to our Christmas services with me. Hey why don't we just read the Bible together?
Jesus will do all the converting. You just got to extend the invitation. I always think of it like like if you were charged to defend a caged lion. You don't need to defend the lion. Somebody's attacking, insulting the lion. Just open up the gate of the cage.
The lion will do all his own defending. What I say is just come and see. Come and see. Let's read the Bible together.
Come to our Christmas services. Verse 47 Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and he said of him behold there is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. And Nathaniel said to him how do you know me? Jesus answered him well before Philip called you when you run to the fig tree I saw you. Nathaniel answered him rabbi you're the son of God and you're the king of Israel. Now let's just be honest on the surface that seems like a pretty disproportionate response right? I mean we get in this Bible mode where we read it and just accept it but just think about it actually happening. Jesus is like I saw you under the fig tree and Nathaniel responds rabbi you are the son of God you're the king of Israel.
That seems a little extreme to me. If you and I have never met think about it and one day somebody introduces us and I say well I know you. I saw you in Walmart the other day in the kitchenware aisle. You might be impressed by my memory perhaps even a little creeped out but you probably aren't going to say pastor surely you are the son of God the king of Israel. What's going on here?
I may be using a little artistic license here but only just a little. The only reason Nathaniel would respond that way is if something had happened under that fig tree that was so personal and so private when Nathaniel that Jesus just knowing about it indicated to Nathaniel that Jesus knew everything about him. We'll return to our Christmas Eve teaching in just a moment but first let's look ahead to 2025 for a moment. Here at Summit Life our eyes are always looking ahead for opportunities to bring the greatest kingdom impact and you can join us in amplifying that gospel message in your neighborhood. Maybe you start by praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are planting churches across the globe or perhaps you become one of our show's prayer partners lifting up those who hear the gospel for the first time on this radio program or maybe you join with us as a gospel partner so that we can be equipped to share Summit Life broadcasts in more communities every day. Our goal is always for everyone within our listening audience to put Jesus first in their lives and when you become a partner or simply support this ministry with a one-time gift of forty-five dollars or more we'll send you our 2025 daily planner that includes a one-year bible reading plan which focuses on some of the teaching passages and books of the bible that you'll hear taught on Summit Life in 2025. Whatever your partnership looks like moving forward consider joining with us in a new way this next year by visiting jdgrier.com or by giving us a call at 866-335-5220. We'd love to talk with you about what that next step might be. Now let's finish up our teaching for the day. Once again here's Pastor J.D.
I feel like all of us. You're probably a fig tree that represents your deepest hurts, your deepest shame. I want you to think about what it's like for Jesus to say to you, there I saw you there. By the way, I think that phrase, behold an Israelite in whom there's no God, indicates that Nathaniel had been falsely accused and everybody thinks he's guilty and Jesus says, I know the truth.
I know the injustice you've endured when you felt like nobody was listening, when you cried out under injustice, I saw you, I see you. What if there was a savior who knew everything about you, who understood you, when nobody else understood you, who knew all your sin and all your shame and loved you anyway. Would you follow him? Would you follow him? This is our third question.
Will you follow? This section of scripture started with Jesus saying to a couple of would-be followers, what do you seek? It ends with Jesus revealing to a man named Nathaniel that he knows everything about him and has never turned his face away. This is Jesus's answer to his question. What are you really searching for? I'll tell you what you're searching for. You're searching for a God who knows your deepest pain, a God who knows your deepest shame and loves you anyway. You're looking for me. You see, psychologists say that one of the deepest human needs, even in our day, is to feel known and loved.
It's got to be both. Known and loved. Because to be known but not loved, well, of course, that's rejection. But to be loved and not really known, that just feels sentimental.
It feels shallow. We want somebody to really know us, to really see us, all of us, the secret parts, the broken parts, and then to love us anyway. But see, all that presents a dilemma, doesn't it? There's so much about us like Nathaniel that is unlovable, even shameful, and we're afraid. We're afraid that when people see those parts of us, they're not going to love us.
And so we keep a lot of ourselves hidden under that fig tree. We have what I've heard called the porcupine's dilemma. You say, what's the porcupine's dilemma? The North American porcupine has 30,000 quills. They look cute, but if you pick up one and one of those quills sticks into you, the barb expands and it's nearly impossible to pull it out.
It's like a fish hook. You've got to cut it out. So here's the dilemma. You've got to be careful. You've got to be careful.
So here's the dilemma. Porcupines need love and tenderness like everybody else. But if you're a porcupine, how do you get close to another porcupine without hurting them or getting hurt yourself? Jesus answered the porcupine's dilemma. He absorbed the barbs of our sin when he died for them. He saw us under the fig tree in our sin and absorbed that sin onto himself so that you and I could be made new. See, that's why he came as the lamb. He had to come as the lamb so we could meet us in our pain and rescue us. Israel thought they needed a mighty Messiah who would deliver them from the problems in the world.
All the problems out there, violent oppressors and greedy strong men and weird stock markets and poverty and social inequities. But what they really needed was somebody who would deliver them back to God to remove the curse of sin from their own souls to debarb their hearts, which is what Jesus explains in the last two verses of this chapter. Jesus answered, Nathanael, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree.
You believe now? Oh, you're going to see greater things than that. And then he said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you're going to see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man.
Y'all that phrase, the angels of God ascending and descending, that's a reference back to the beginning of the Bible. Genesis 28, Jacob, the younger son of Isaac is running for his life. His older brother Esau is trying to kill him because Jacob has cheated him out of his birthright. Jacob is family-less.
He's virtually penniless now. His father who had protected him from Esau all those years has just died. So now Jacob is completely and totally alone.
He is vulnerable. And that's when Jacob has a dream. And in that dream, he sees a ladder between heaven and earth. By the way, ladder is really not the best translation.
The word in Hebrew means something more like a grand ramp or a gigantic causeway. And on that gigantic causeway, Jacob sees angels going up and down. By the way, just to be clear, Hallmark always gets angels wrong. Angels are not the soft, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, massage therapist looking guys with wings and robes and Birkenstocks.
They certainly are not chubby toddlers and diapers with nerf bows and arrows. Angels are the military might of heaven. We know they're terrifying to behold because every single time in the Bible somebody encounters an angel, the angel's first words are always, don't die, don't die.
Fear not. So Jacob has this dream of a great ramp on which heaven's mighty militia are traveling to and fro. And the promise for Jacob is that this might is now going to assist Jacob in his journey. Jacob has been a liar and a cheat, but God promises to help him anyway. Jesus then draws a parallel to Nathaniel and says, you, Nathaniel, you're like Jacob, vulnerable, friendless, empty, guilty, but salvation has found you under the fig tree, Nathaniel, just like it found Jacob in the wilderness. But then Jesus puts one amazing twist in there. Verse 51, you're going to see these angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man, me.
Oh, that is an astounding claim. Jesus says, I am the mighty power of God. All of heaven's military might rest on me.
I know it doesn't look like it, Nathaniel. I'm just a humble teacher from Nazareth, but the might of God has come to earth as a poor baby born in a stable, a baby who's gonna, who grew up to become a humble carpenter walking through Jerusalem, a meek man who will lay down his life for his enemies rather than slaying them. Jesus could have come to earth as the lion. He could have come to earth as the lion with justice, but instead he came as the lamb. Our God showed his real power, not by destroying his enemies, but by dying for them.
And then by conquering their greatest fear by rising from the grave on their behalf. And now that lamb offers salvation to all who will receive it, not just to the strong like Esau, not to all the winners. He offers it to the ones hiding under the fig trees, to any who are humble enough to receive it. This section of scripture started with Jesus saying to a couple of would be followers, what are you seeking? It ends with Jesus revealing to a man named Nathaniel that he knows everything about him and loves him anyway. And then saying, will you follow me? Ready for me to blow your mind?
That question, what are you seeking? That's not only the first question that Jesus asked in the gospel of John, it's also one of the last. After Jesus had been crucified and resurrected, Mary Magdalene, remember this from last week? He was outside the tomb. Jesus assumed she was weeping because she's looking for his dead body so she can embalm it. Jesus of course is fully alive.
He has no need of embalming. So Jesus comes up behind her. Look at it later, John 20, and he asked her the exact same question he opened up the gospel with.
What are you seeking? She's so overcome with grief and her eyes so blinded with tears that she doesn't recognize him. That's when he does the most simple thing. He just says her name, Mary.
Tenderly, he just says Mary. Because see, that's what she's really been searching for, isn't it? It's the same thing that they ain't been searching for.
It's the same thing you were searching for. Let me borrow the words here of Ronald Rolheiser. In the end, that hearing God call our name again with affection, that's what we're all looking for and it's what we're all looking for and it's what we most need. It's what gives us substance and identity and justification beyond our own efforts to make ourselves lovable, worthwhile, and immortal. All of us, whether we realize it or not, we're all searching for something to give us identity, security, and happiness. Something to fill this gap in our heart.
What we need to hear is Jesus, the Son of God, affectionately and personally pronouncing our names. Jennifer. Shane. Molly. Rebecca.
Michael. I see you. I understand you. Nobody else saw you under that fig tree, that place where you were trying to hide, that place of pain where you were yelling at God, are you even there?
But I saw you. I know your pain. I know all your mistakes. I know all your sin.
I know all your shame, and I love you anyway. I have never turned my face away from you. Follow me. So, what's your answer?
What's your answer? Will you follow Jesus? Why don't you bow your heads if you would? Right now, I believe that for many of you, he is calling your name right now. I believe that because I've been praying about it all week, and I'm absolutely confident it's happening right now. You hear it in your soul. It's not an audible voice, but you just hear it in your soul. He's calling you.
He may not do that forever, but he's doing it today. I see you. I love you. Follow me. If you want to respond, you just say what Nathaniel said, what Philip said, what Peter said.
Yes, I will follow. I surrender to you as Lord. I receive you as my Lamb, given for my sin. As you're doing that, listen, believers, I want you to think about the simplicity of evangelism again.
You've got some friend that you want to say, come and see, but you've been afraid to invite them, to talk to them, because you're afraid of the questions they're going to ask you and the scorn and the things you're not going to know how to respond to. I want you just to learn right here from Philip and just say, come and see. I want you to think of that name right now, maybe one, two, three names of people you need to invite to our Christmas services right now. Let the Holy Spirit put them in your heart and say, Lord, give me the opportunity.
I'm going to say, come and see, come and see. Lord Jesus, you are the same person that we encounter in John 1, and you are still seeking and saving the law. So Lord, for all those who just began to follow you, I give you thanks. For all those names that were just uttered from our hearts to you, I pray God, that you would give us the ability this week to invite them to our Christmas services and that you would make them receive that invitation. And then when they're here, I pray that you would seek and save them the way you went after Nathaniel and Peter and all of these guys. We pray, we pray in Jesus name.
As we celebrate Christmas Eve, we're faced with a critical question. Will you follow Jesus? If you haven't, what better time to embrace His free gift of eternal life than right now? If you missed any part of today's teaching or would like to listen again, just head to jdgrier.com at any time. You'll also have the option to download a transcript of today's message. It's a great resource to have on hand if you like taking notes or studying further.
And right now we have another resource we'd like to get into your hands as well. Pastor JD often talks about the importance of using our resources for God's glory, and that includes the resource of time. Our team at Summit Life has created a brand new resource, the 2025 Summit Life Day Planner. As you use the monthly and weekly agendas, you're also going to notice Bible verses that remind you of the timely and important truth that God is walking with you in each season. This planner will help you stay organized, and it also includes a Bible reading plan to remind you to keep God at the center of every day. Ask for a copy when you support the ministry with a generous year-end donation by calling 866-335-5220.
That's 866-335-5220. Or request the planner when you give online or when you make your first gift as a monthly gospel partner at jdgrier.com. While you're on the website, you can also sign up for our email list to get ministry updates, information about new resources, and Pastor JD's latest blog posts delivered straight to your inbox. It's a great way to stay connected with Summit Life.
Sign up for the email list when you go to jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vitovich, and I hope you'll spend some time with us tomorrow as we celebrate Christmas. We'll hear a special Christmas message from Pastor JD called, When Jesus Found What He Was Looking For. We'll see you right here Wednesday for Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.
