Christ’s Love is Seeking

Epiphany 2

Pastor Steven D. Spencer

John 1:43-51

John 1:43 The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, "Follow Me." 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael 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." 46 And Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!" 48 Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." 49 Nathanael answered and said to Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" 50 Jesus answered and said to him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these." 51 And He said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

One of the first things I learned about college was to choose professors wisely. That’s the usual order of things; students select classes and professors whenever possible. One attempts to avoid taking "potluck" when it comes to selecting one's teachers. Students select their professors based a number of reasons; one might be that the professor is knowledgeable and a good teacher. A student who wants to learn something will select that kind of professor. Another student might select a particular professor because the professor has the reputation of giving an easy "A" or "B." Whatever the reasons, students normally do the selecting. Few professors go out and select students, although I imagine that some professors might actually find this a tempting alternative to taking whatever students have signed up for his or her class.

In Jesus' day, it was customary for students to select their teachers, too. A student would attach himself to a particular rabbi for the purpose of learning from him. The student asked permission to become this rabbi's disciple. But, in our Gospel reading we see all of this reversed. Jesus came seeking His disciples; He did not wait for them to find him. This is the pattern of how God deals with all humanity. John shows us here "That Christ’s Love is Seeking.”

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Can you imagine what it would have been like to be one of the original Twelve Disciples?  What do you think it would have been like if Jesus Christ had come up to you personally, looked you straight in the eyes and said: "FOLLOW ME" It happened to a couple of people in our text for today. 

Andrew was the first disciple, having heard John the Baptizer point to Jesus as the Lamb of God. Andrew then found his brother Simon Peter, telling him that he had found the Christ. In our Gospel reading today John tells us that Jesus "found Philip and said to him, 'Follow me.'" In each case, it was Jesus who did the finding, even though both Andrew and Philip say, "We have found the Christ." In truth, they did not find the Christ; He found them because He had been seeking them.

One of the great mysteries of God is that Jesus sought out men whom we would never choose to be disciples of the Christ. He chose fishermen and tax collectors, commoners, not men from the priesthood or Bible scholars or that of that of the ruling class. He chose common men, ordinary everyday sort of people, every one of them fitting into that category.

When Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him, He remarked that this was a man with no guile; in other words, here was an honest man with no deceit about him. Nathaniel answering, asked Jesus: "How do you know me?" Nathaniel hadn’t approached Jesus. In fact, he didn't know Jesus at all. But Jesus knew him and was going to call Nathaniel to discipleship. Jesus said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were still under the fig tree, I saw you."

Before we move on, there’s something in this first verse that could easily escape our attention but is very significant, and also has a deep application for each of us.  It’s the fact that Jesus found Philip, and not the other way around.  In other words, Jesus (who is true God) is the One who made the move toward Philip in establishing what would soon become a close spiritual relationship.  Later in this Gospel, Jesus would tell all of His disciples that they didn’t choose Him, but undeniably He chose them.  It’s the same way for all of us today, which would gladly call ourselves His disciples.  We didn’t choose Him; He chose us…

What an awe-inspiring picture of "Christ’s Love Seeking!" God doesn’t wait for us to come to Him. In fact, we can’t come to Him because we are born dead in sin. We are just like our first parents who ran away from God when they had sinned. They even hid from God in the Garden. God's love is not something that we seek. God's love is something that seeks us. God seeks us because he knows us before we know him. We don’t "get to know" Jesus before we make some kind of decision that He will be our Savior. The Bible shows nothing of this kind of " theology."

Someone who understood this well was 19^th century English Christian Josiah Condor.  He is the one who wrote the first hymn we sang today, articulating this truth in the following words: (TLH #37)

Lord ‘tis not that I did choose you; That, I know, could never be,

For this heart would still refuse you, Had your grace not chosen me.

Practically speaking, consider what this means for our lives.  Some of us – most of us – may not have been chosen to be valedictorian of our high school class, or chosen as captain of the football team, or chosen as head cheerleader or chosen as employee of the month or chosen as mother of the year, and consequently we may have never received all the accompanying recognition that goes along with those things.  In fact, just the reverse may be true for many of us.  Some of us may have had the humiliating experience of being the last one picked when choosing up sides or being the one who wasn’t invited to the party or the one who was passed over for a job promotion.  Whereas the world celebrates the mover and the shaker and the great achiever, many of us would have to rank ourselves as being nothing other than extremely average or just plain ordinary.

But here’s the deal:  With God there’s no such thing as ordinary people.  With God, you are the chosen ones.  Think about this.  Regardless of your name, rank, serial number or native ability; regardless of whether we have a Ph.D. or a GED after your name; regardless of whether you’re living high or just scraping by – you have been chosen by God to be His own.  Because of the redeeming work of His Son, to which He in His grace has called you to faith, you will someday live with Him forever in heaven.  I guarantee that if you keep that bit of information in mind when you’re having a bad day or feeling rather ordinary, it can lift your spirits…

A look at our Old Testament reading shares this same information. “Samuel did not yet know the LORD, nor had the word of the LORD yet been revealed to him.” The boy Samuel doesn’t know that God is calling him until Eli reveals to him that God is the one seeking him for the office of prophet. Or consider these Words of God given through the prophet Isaiah.

"But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. "[Isaiah 43:1]

God knows us before we know him. God has chosen us in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ has been sent by the Father to redeem us from sin, death and the devil. The Father and the Son send God the Holy Spirit who calls us by name in Holy Baptism. It has been the custom of the Christian Church down through the millennia that children are not named until they are named in Holy Baptism. So it is that in our prayers of thanksgiving for new parents, the child's name is not spoken until that moment when it is given in Holy Baptism. Here, God calls us by name as surely as He called Samuel, as surely as He called Andrew, Simon Peter, Philip, and Nathaniel.

Jesus seeks us so that He might forgive us and bestow His life in place of our death. That's the meaning of Holy Baptism. We go down into Christ's tomb into His death and arise in His resurrection. Holy Baptism is all about giving-what God gives us through Christ: new life, forgiveness, and eternal salvation. God does not wait for us to come to Him. He seeks us out! He knows from all eternity those who are His. He finds them and brings them to Himself.

God seeks you in Christ because he loves you. Most of you have belonged to Jesus Christ since you were infants because your parents brought you to Holy Baptism. You see, they too, had been found by "The Love of Christ Seeking." Some can trace their spiritual roots back for many generations. But all of us can trace our roots back to Andrew, Simon Peter, Philip, Nathaniel, and the rest of the Apostles because Jesus chose them to go out into the entire world proclaiming the saving Gospel of forgiveness and baptizing for the remission of sins.

At the beginning of this sermon I asked you to speculate on what it would be like if Christ looked directly into your eyes as He did to Philip and Nathaniel and asked us to follow Him.  We are removed from that point in history by some 2000 years, yet Jesus Christ has called each of you to be His own in no less personal or dramatic fashion than He did those two.  Through the waters of baptism He found you and brought us into His kingdom.  Through Word and Sacrament He strengthens and sustains your faith.  You are His disciples.  To you, as to the two in our text, Jesus says, "Follow Me."  And by God’s grace you will.

May you always continue along the path of committed and confessing discipleship, richly and daily giving honor to the One who died that you might live.  And may your daily prayer be that God will use you more and more to carry out His purposes. For all this we gladly and willingly do, For Christ's Love is Seeking and when He found you, He has did all that was necessary for salvation, He has done it all, for you. Amen.