Bible Study John 1:35-:51 They Found and were Convinced that Jesus was the Messiah

It started with Baptist John's two disciples who went to find out more about Jesus after John pointed out to them that Jesus was the Lamb of God. They wanted to make sure. Jesus invited them to come and see. The next day, Jesus went to look for Philip to ask him to follow Him. Philip told Nathanael about Jesus as the Messiah. Nathanael could not believe it and Philip asked him to go and see. They all were finally convinced that Jesus was the Messiah who they have been waiting and looking for.

 Q1 Who and how did they find Jesus as the Messiah?

• Two of Baptist John's disciples. v35
• From v40, one of them was Andrew, brother of Simon.
• Baptist John pointed out Jesus as the lamb of God to them. v36
• They believed in John and went to follow Jesus to find out more. v37-38
• Jesus invited them to come to His home and see. v39
• They spent the rest of the day (after 4pm) talking to Jesus。
• They concluded that Jesus was the Messiah. v41
• Andrew told his brother Simon and they went to see Jesus. v42
• Jesus gave Simon a new name Peter the Rock, signifying Peter's future leadership in the Church. v42

Q2 How did Nathanael figure out that Jesus was the Messiah?

• The day after Andrew & Peter's visit, Jesus went into Galilee to find Philip of Bethsaida and asked him to follow Him. v43-44
• Philip went to tell Nathanael that they found the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph v45.
• Nathanael expressed doubts about any great one that can come from Nazareth. v46
• Philip did not argue but just said to come and see --- to verify for himself. v46
• Jesus told Nathanael that he was a person without cunningness and said He had seen him under the fig tree before Philip found him. 47-48
• Nathanael was shocked that Jesus could tell him where he was before they found him. This insight/foreknowledge convinced Nathanael that Jesus was the Messiah. v49
• Jesus told Nathanael that he would see greater things and even see heaven open and angels ascending and descending on Him, the son of man. Indicating that Jesus is the Way to and from God. v50-51

Lessons Learned:

1. Be like Baptist John, know and fulfill our calling; pointing people to Jesus.
2. Don't argue, "Come and See", be a testimony for Jesus. Preaching the Gospel through our living.
3. Sharing of Good News and Discovery like Andrew. Tell others about Jesus
4. Give a new name for a changed life. 1:42 from Simon to peter the rock.
5. People need pieces of evidence and miracles to want to know and believe v48-49
6. Jesus is the Way and He will reveal Himself through miracles and revelation of God. v51

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Preachings that Cut to the Heart to Change Life - Learning from Tim Keller

The purpose of any preaching is to change the behavior and the life of the listeners with the Biblical truths through touching their hearts. Tim Keller gave us six ways to engaging the hearts. Ancient Chinese wisdom also tells us to touch the heart first to get reasonings to be accepted and thereby causes a change in behavior.

This post is my learning from the sermon of Tim Keller in Preaching to the Heart « TGC | The Gospel Coalition. Here is the mindmap ...

Preaching to the Heart by Tim Keller Mind Mapped by Lim Liat 

• Contents

• the truth, not just your opinion - expository preaching.
• the good news, not just good advice- Christ-centered
• to make the truth real to the heart, not just clear to the mind.- application

• Purpose

• Biblical Truth touching the heart to cause changes in behavior & life.
• the truth - Gospel 
• to cause the listeners to apply the truth and be changed 
• preaching changes people not from your information but from the feeling they get when listening to you.

• Mind & heart/feelings

• Greeks - heart-emotion, passion/body is evil. Mind to manage the heart to be good
• Modern - Heart is good so do the things that the heart one. follow the passion
• Bible heart - the things we trusted most
• pro 3:5-6 trust in the God with all your heart
• Matthew 6 where your treasure is your heart
• the heart is not primarily the emotions but rather the seat of our fundamental commitments and trusts, and therefore it is the control center of the whole life.
• So to preach to the heart means to go right for the commanding commitments of people's lives that drive their desires, thinking, feeling, and action.

• Methods

• The universal principle is found in Acts 2:37—preaching must “cut to the heart.” The means and methods we take to get to that end depend on the listeners' culture.
• 1 Culturally
• culture is a collective heart. It is a set of commanding commitments held and shared by a community of people. e.g. Keller's cosmopolitan culture of Manhattan. This ethos is pulling on the hearts of all its residents. It is the source of so many of their deep aspirations, unspoken fears, and inner conflicts. The Culture has a set of values that may contradict the Bible
• Our hearts are set by the cultures we are in.
• The “cultural references,” then, are simply Keller's way of entering the world of his hearers, helping them understand at a deep level what is shaping their daily work, their romantic and family relationships, their attitudes toward sex, money, and power.
• Need to make plain the foundations of the city's culture in order to help people understand themselves more fully and imagine what it means to live as a Christian here.
• e.g. Teenagers, "I don't see anything wrong with two people having sex when they love each other."
• cultural narratives
• love -> sex
• identity- be yourself -right or wrong is up to you
• I have no right to impose my values on others
• Must Show Christianity has a better offer and the held belief is incorrect
• Liat：preach to
• connect to the hearers' culture
• to bring out the wrongs e.g. UGB Ungodly Beliefs, the past hurts and bad experiences.
• corrected by the truth of the Bible
• how to live a Christian testimony within
• 2 affectionately 
• emotional transparency
• not plain reading through a text
• not excitable & emotionally charged - working too hard to be passionate
•  cannot fake true authenticity. Such is manipulative.
• § preach from the heart to preach to the heart
• need in-depth knowledge of the topic
• prepared with prayers and the gospels
• 3 imaginatively
• use illustrations and stories
• make it feel more real
• get across vividly - like something you experience
• e.g. J Edwards: all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock.
• Gen 4:7 God warned Cain - sin crouching at your door. it desires to have you
• 4 practically - application
• ask questions that relate to a real life issue.
• e.g. what's keeping you from sharing the gospel with your neighbor? Is it pride? 
• 5 wondrously
• fairies tales - Deep Desires of People
• escape time
• escape death
• hold conversations with non-human 
• perfect love that never parts
• good triumphs over evil
• Jesus' gospel is exactly that! It fulfills all the deep desires of people and it is a fact!
• 6 Christocentricly 
• preach Christ from every text

Ancient Chinese Wisdom on Touching the Hearts

See The Chinese Ways of Influencing People and for a more detailed guide 

see Maximizing Your Persuasive Power with Gui Gu Zi Chapter 9 权篇 Power

Pre-evangelism

A related topic to preaching is sharing the Gospel, see Pre-Evangelism or Conversational Evangelism. It is all about touching the hearts and earning the right to speak and be listened to. 

Conclusions:

The purpose of preaching is not just about sharing the truth. Preaching the truth, sharing of information, at the very most, only engage the mind and gets mental assent. It does not cause any change in the behavior of the listeners. The real purpose of preaching is about changing behavior and life, and that is possible only through understanding the hearts and touching the hearts of the listeners with the grace and truth of the Bible. Please follow the six ways recommended by Tim Keller and also the details steps of the Ancient Chinese Wisdom to be an effective preacher.

Lim Liat (c) 3 April 2017