You Are Invited

September 22, 2013

You Are Invited!

John 1:42                    NOT EDITED.  GRAMMAR POLICE BE WARNED!

SIS—A simple, yet effective way to get started sharing your faith is to invite people to church.

VIDEO:  The Evangelism Linebacker.  Everybody shares the gospel in their own unique way.

READING:  Just three verses, John 1:40-42

We don’t all have to be “Evangelism Linebackers.”  Some can be very effective taking a more subtle approach to evangelism.  It is the type of approach Andrew took in evangelism.  I call it, “Being an Inviter.”

A simple, yet effective way to get started sharing your faith is to invite people to church.

The life of Andrew demonstrates three important truths about the power of an invitation to church.

1.  It is a personal matter (41)

He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah!” (which means “Anointed  One”)

You cannot lead someone to some place you have never been.  Oh, I guess you could perhaps stumble upon a place together, but that is not likely in regard to discovering that Jesus Christ is the Messiah.  As I’ve said many times, the Bible tells us (Rom 10:17):

So faith comes from what is heard,  and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.

Andrew was able to “invite” his brother to meet Jesus because Andrew had already discovered that Jesus was the Messiah.  I explain that term in a second.

You cannot invite someone to a place you have never been or to a church where you are not an enthusiastic participant.  Many people downplay the importance of church. I’m sure you have heard someone say, or maybe you have said it yourself, “you don’t have to go to church to be a Christian.”  That has a ring of truth to it, but it is not the “whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

No, you do not need the church to “become a Christian.”  The church does not have the power of salvation.  This is a “false” doctrine mostly perpetuated by the Catholic Church.  Catholic doctrine in regard to the Catholic Church and salvation has been articulated continually for thousands of years.  The common teaching of the Catholic Church is summarized in the ancient saying, Extra ecclesiam nulla salus ,"Outside the Church there is no salvation." Now, modern popes have tried to restate this doctrine and reformulate it so it does not seem to say so bluntly what it so bluntly says, but the matter remains clear that Catholics teach that grace comes through, and only through the Catholic Church as it provides the eucharis and other sacraments.

That is false.  The church is the result of people being saved, not the cause.  The Person and Work of Jesus Christ is the cause for which the church is the effect.  Acts 4:12 makes it crystal clear what is the source of our salvation:

¹² There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people, and we must be saved by it.”

So, it is true, salvation does not come through the church or as a result of going to church.  Salvation comes wholly by a personal response to God’s offer of salvation as provided by Jesus Christ on the cross. 

Yet, this does not mean that the Church is unimportant or inconsequential to our faith.  The Bible tells us clearly,

^{Eph. 5    25} Husbands, love your wives,  just as Christ loved 
the church and gave Himself  for her

We cannot honor Christ if we disparage, disregard, or disrespect His Bride, the Church.  Also, we cannot grow in faith without the Community of Faithful, which is the Church.  A Christian that is not attached to a local body is like an arm that is not attached to a physical body.  It will die and slowly decay.  The Bible says,

^{Rom 12   4}Now as we have many parts in one body,  and all the parts do not have the same function, ⁵ in the same way we who are many  are one body in Christ  and individually members of one another.

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Inviting someone to church, then, is a very personal matter.  You will not be affective in inviting others to church if you are not active in and excited about the church. 

There is another matter in regard to personally inviting others to church.  You must be confident in, and excited about, the Church.  That means, you must be confident in Jesus Christ, the head of the Church.  The Bible says,

^{Eph 5   23} for the husband is the head of the wife 
as Christ is the head  of the church.

Don’t put your confidence in the pastor’s preaching—I sure don’t!  Don’t put your confidence in the choir’s singing.  Don’t put your confidence in the building or its programs.  Put your confidence in Jesus Christ.  Trust that if you get someone to church, Christ will make Himself known to that person in a powerful way.  Jesus said, Himself,

^{Jn 12   32}As for Me, if I am lifted up  from the earth
I will draw all people to Myself.”

When you invite someone to church, you are really bringing them to Jesus.  You can be confident that any guest you invite will hear the gospel of Jesus Christ clearly, consistently, and continually. 

Becoming a “good inviter,” like Andrew, you have to be personally invested in the church yourself.  You have to have had a personal experience with Christ and have absolute confidence in His power to draw men, women and children to Himself.  Being a good inviter is a personal matter.

2.  It’s an urgent matter (41).

“He FIRST found his own brother.”

There is some discussion as to what “first” refers to in this passage.  It could refer to the fact that Andrew found his brother, Simon, before John found his brother, James.  In verse 35 it says that “two disciples of John the Baptist were together.”  One is named, and that is Andrew.  Ancient testimony has always identified the other as John the Apostle. 

The other way to view the passage is to have it refer to Andrew.  The form of the word is somewhat disputed and can be a predicate adjective (protos) or an adverb (proton).  In the first case of the adjective it would mean Andrew was the first to share the gospel with another.  In the second case, as an adverb, it would mean that the first thing Andrew did was go look for his brother. This is the reading most scholars prefer, and I think it is the most likely.  But, the key issue, regardless of what “first” refers to is that it indicates a high sense of urgency.  Inviting people to meet Jesus, whether at church, in the market, or on a street corner must be a matter of extreme urgency.

Now, the urgency with inviting people to come see Jesus did not stop with Andrew’s brother.  In fact, in all three references to Andrew in the N.T. he is inviting people to come to Jesus.  Andrew is a master at the “invitation.”

Here in our text, Andrew invited his brother, Simon (Peter), to come meet Jesus.  In John 6 we have the story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand with just the lunch of a little boy.  It was Andrew that invited that little boy to come see Jesus.  The third time we see Andrew in the Gospel of John comes in the last week of the Lord’s ministry (Jn. 12:20-22).  Andrew invites a group of Greeks to come see Jesus. Jesus had spent His earthly ministry primarily with the Jews.  The gospel had not yet been fully opened to the Gentiles.  But, Jesus never turns away a seeker, regardless of nationality or other standing in life.  It was Andrew that invited these “outsiders” to come and see Jesus.

Andrew had a wonderful instrument, but it really only played one note.  His note was “inviting others to come and see.”

Andrew was sort of like Billy Ray Cyrus (Picture). Name one song of Billy Ray Cyrus.  That’s right, “Achy, Breaky Heart.”  Now, name another one!  Thought so.  That’s not so easy to come up with another hit even though he did make several albums.  He had one great song and rode that song into fame and fortune.  Andrew had one presentation, and he used it in every situation.  There was never a situation that stumped Andrew.  He always had the answer:  invite them to meet Jesus!

Andrew personally experienced Jesus and from that day on it became the most urgent need in his life to invite others to meet Jesus.  Andrew was a “master-inviter” and was highly effective.  You can be a master-inviter also!  Come rain or shine you can bet that on Sunday First Baptist Church will be open for business and preaching Jesus!  Be an inviter.

3.  Is most of all an eternal matter. (v41-42)

How did Jesus respond to Andrew’s inviting his brother?  Notice, he didn’t say much about Andrew—in fact, nothing.  Jesus did say something very important about the one that Andrew invited:

⁴¹He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah!”(which means “Anointed  One”), ⁴² and he brought Simon to Jesus.  When Jesus saw him, He said, “You are Simon, son of John.  You will be called Cephas” (which means “Rock”).

The transformation in the life of Peter was immediate and dramatic from the language of these verses.  So dramatic would be the change in Peter, that his name would be changed.  Everything about Peter changed because his brother, Andrew, loved him enough to care about his soul and invite him to meet Jesus.  That invitation eternally changed Peter’s life, and also radically altered the course of human history through the work of Peter, the great apostle.

Andrew did not just make a casual invitation to a meaningless event.  He said, “We have found the Messiah.”  That’s what church is all about, “The Messiah.”

Messiah, or Anointed One, is a powerful term that would have been immediately understood by Andrew’s brother, Peter, they being Jews. The word, “messiah,” in Hebrew is an adjective meaning, “Anointed One.”  When a person was “anointed” it meant they were set aside for very special service to God.  Messiah referred to the King of Israel as well as priests, particularly the High Priest. The Hebrew term, Messiah, or Christ in Greek, came to refer to the special messenger of God that would come and bring salvation to all mankind—thus, Jesus is called “Christ,” or “Messiah” referring to His person and work, as that of God’s Deliverer.  So, as it was, Andrew did not merely invite others to some meaningless event, or some worldly celebrity, but Andrew invited people to meet the very Son of God.  In the case of Peter, this radically transformed Peter immediately.

If you invite someone to a fine restaurant, they can experience a fine meal.  In a few hours, they will be hungry again.  If you invite someone to a superb Broadway musical, they can have a wonderful experience.  They may even talk about it for days, perhaps even weeks, but sooner or later this great experience will become a distant memory.  Now, if you invite someone to church, they hear the gospel and get saved, then that experience will last for eternity.

All that we do for someone in this life, however noble or even spectacular, will not survive the grave, except one—leading another to discover Who Jesus is and What He has done.  You can be a part of something eternal with something as simple as an invitation to church.

CLOSE:  The consequences of your one invitation can actually affect the lives of untold thousands, even millions. 

The story of Edward Kimball. That picture is a picture of D.L. Moody, the great evangelist in the late 19^th century.  Many of us have never heard of Edward Kimball, a Sunday school teacher. I could find no picture of Edward Kimball.  He won a young D.L. Moody to the Lord, while Moody was in Boston working as a very successful shoe salesman.  So on fire that Moody became the well-known evangelist who shook two continents for Christ .   After evangelizing America, D. L. Moody started on England. There in England Frederick B. Meyer heard his message.  Moody’s influence soon affected F. B. Meyer in a powerful way.  Meyer’s own ministry began to open up and spread, and as it did, he was invited to come to America.  F. B. Meyer was invited to Furman University to preach. The message by Mr. Meyer was given with such fervor and flame that the young fellow stepped out, came forward and renewed his vow to preach the gospel. He became the evangelist and pastor, R. G. Lee.  F. B. Meyer went on to preach at another location. In this service a young fellow caught fire and began to evangelize. His meetings spread out all over areas of New England and the mid-Atlantic coast, until they were bulging at the seams. J. Wilbur Chapman, inspired by the preaching of F. B. Meyer, began to stir up the whole northeastern coast. Then, because of Chapman’s preaching, he was invited to speak at a certain place. His ministry was changing and he needed someone to come and help him in his ministry. Mr. Chapman found Billy Sunday a recent convert and mentored him.  Billy Sunday, influenced by J. Wilbur Chapman, got into the ministry and went to Charlotte, North Carolina. There a group of business men got so inspired and so stirred up that they organized a committee to invite other evangelists back. One invited was Mordecai Ham from Louisville, Kentucky. He preached in a meeting, and Billy Graham came to salvation.  Billy Graham’s ministry is known throughout the world.  We must acknowledge that Billy Graham’s preaching and crusades have influenced hundreds of thousands if not millions. All this happened because of one Edward Kimball. One nobody who won other nobody and started a series of dominoes falling that ended up with millions acknowledging Jesus as Savior in Moody’s ministry, hundreds of thousands in Meyer’s ministry, hundreds of thousands more in Chapman’s ministry, hundreds of thousands more in Lee’s ministry, and hundreds of thousands more in Graham’s ministry. All because one fellow won one soul to Christ!

Now all of you are familiar with Billy Graham.  A few may even have heard of Billy Sunday or R.G. Lee.  Fewer have heard of F.B. Meyer or J. Wilbur Chapman.  And probably none of you have heard of Edward Kimble.  These string of great evangelist over the last hundred years or so have accounted for the salvation of literally millions of souls.  But, it all started when on Sunday School teacher invited a young man to Sunday School.

A forest fire, especially in the dry, wooded areas of California and the West, can reduce thousands of acres of tall timber to smoldering ashes in just a matter of days.  All that raging, uncontrollable fury of such an inferno can be released by the tip of one tiny match!  The same holds true in regard to inviting someone to church who discovers Jesus is the Messiah.  The tip of Andrew’s match set off the blazing passion of Peter’s ministry and whole continents would soon be caught in the fires of salvation.  A simple invitation can lead to nearly immeasurable eternal results.

I am so impressed by the few, bold soldiers of Christ who seem to share their faith so effortlessly seeing people saved in restaurants, airplane seats, golf courses, and nearly any place you might imagine.  Such soul-winners bring so much joy to heaven and glory to the Father.  Jesus said very clearly,

Jn 15:8  My Father is glorified  by this: that you produce much fruit
and prove to be  My disciples.

However, I don’t believe we should ever discount the power of inviting friends and family to church.  7 our of 10 people who are not attending church reported in a survey that they would be “highly likely to attend church if someone invited them.”

So . . . be an inviter!  Start there with you adventure into soul-winning.  This can be highly affective.  It was Andrew’s way, and it was a highly effective way.

Here you are today.  Some of you are here because someone invited you, today.  Some of you are here because someone invited you to church long ago and you met Jesus.  What wonderful love is demonstrated by inviting someone to church.

But, getting someone to church is only part of Operation Andrew.  As we said above, being in church will never make you a Christian.  As my good friend, Charles Massegee often said, “You can sit in a pew every Sunday without fail and still split hell wide open!”

It takes something more than merely accepting an invitation to church in order to secure a place in heaven.  That’s a good—no a great start—but that is not enough.  In order to gain heaven, one must also accept the invitation of grace offered by God based upon the Person and Work of Jesus Christ.

Have you made secure your place in God’s heaven?  You can do that today by rejecting your sin and accepting Christ’s invitation to grace.

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