Let me introduce you

Introductions are important and sometimes socially awkward. When you meet someone or perhaps you introduce a friend or acquaintance to others for the first time, do you struggle for just the right words? Perhaps you include in the initial phrases something about where the friend lives or hails from. Perhaps you say what they do for a living or what common interest brought you together. Looking back on life, it is interesting and often remarkable to call to mind the exact circumstances as well as the words that were spoken when we first met people who later became extremely important and even precious to us.

Consider the first chapter of John’s Gospel as the writer John introducing us to the most important person in all the universe, the God of eternity! The beloved apostle does not make small talk, but rather gets right to the point. “World” he says, “Here is the Word!” Here is the One who was with God from the very beginning and helped him create the universe. Nothing was made without Him. He is the source of all life and His life/light came into a dark world and shines. Darkness attempts to extinguish the light but the light will outlast the darkness. The Light who comes from God wants to meet and indwell everyone who has been cut off from the Light of God through the disobedience of Adam.

Next the gospel writer teaches The Word had a forerunner to announce His coming! There was a man called John whom God sent to make the introduction. He was sent into the world of men to bear witness to the Son of God who was Life and Light. Since Christ the Word that expressed the Father’s Mind was the divine agent in creating the universe, He came into the world so men and women could “know” Him and “receive” Him. Thus a new birth, a new creation, was made available to fallen people who were made for living in the light forever but who had been darkened by sin and death.

John the Baptist was not the Light but he announced the true Light was in the world. He declared that God had pitched His tent in our world and we could see His glory as he lived out His life of unprecedented “grace and truth.” John lamented that even though He came to His own people, they did not receive Him. But the Good news of the gospel of John is that “as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God.” John 1:12 NKJV. Receiving Him would bring about a new birth of the spirit, not by the passion of the flesh or human effort, but by the will and power of a loving God.

Think of what a privilege it was for John the beloved disciple to introduce God incarnate to the world. His words in the fourteenth verse of the first chapter of his book recording the life of Christ are immortal and known and loved by millions of people. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among  us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Today we have that very same privilege as modern day disciples of Jesus the Messiah. We get to share the Good News. We can go tell it on the mountains. Tell it in the cities. Tell it in the small towns and in the rural settings. It is our great honor to share the Savior on social media and share Him in person. He wants to be introduced to so many who don’t know Him yet. Let’s have the manners and good graces to step up to folks and say,  “World, here’s the Word.”

Now after the opening fourteen verses we have just read and pondered, the Gospel of John says that religious people began to pepper John the Baptist with questions. They were not asking for an introduction to the Lord. They were questioning and searching for something about John and his message to discredit. The religious know -it -alls asked the Baptist, “Who are you?” “Are you Elijah?” “Are you the prophet Moses said God would raise up?” The Baptizer protested that he was not the Christ nor any of the prophets, but rather “a voice crying in the wilderness” quoting Isaiah chapter 40 verse 3.

Then Pharisees’ henchmen pressed John further and said, “Who gives you the authority to baptize if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the prophet that was promised?” Then in response to these inquiries John the Baptist had the privilege of introducing another member of the Triune God. He said, “I only baptize with water but there is One in your midst whom you do not know. I am declaring that the One upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, this is He who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Here John says, “World and even religious world, here is the Holy Spirit!”

Next day the Gospel tells us that John the Baptist was standing with two of His disciples when Jesus approached them. These two disciples were Andrew and probably John the writer of the story. John the voice crying in the wilderness points to the Lord Jesus and declares with authority, “Behold the Lamb of God!” Those two seekers of truth turned from the Baptizer to the King he heralded that day. They began to follow Jesus and the Lord turned to them and said to them, “What do you seek?” They replied “Teacher, where are you staying?” To which the Lord simply answered, “Come and see.” They followed and stayed close to Him the remainder of that day.

The next introduction in this book of important introductions is when one of the two who we are told is Andrew went to find his brother Simon Peter so he could meet the Messiah. Andrew soon located his brother and “brought him to Jesus.”  Jesus looked at Simon and said, “You are Simon, the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas which translated means ‘the stone.'” What an odd meeting this was. Jesus is drawing men to Himself and then naming them and speaking a new identity and destiny over them in His service.

The next day after Simon Peter and Andrew were brought into His circle, Christ travelled to their home town Bethsaida in Galilee where He found Philip. Jesus told Philip to follow Him and he did. Then Philip went to get his friend Nathaniel and encouraged him to come meet Jesus whom Philip said is “the One that Moses and the prophets had foretold.” He told Nathaniel that the man’s name was Jesus of Nazareth to which Nathaniel replied with a question, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip simply replied, “Come and see.”

In a little while when Nathaniel got within sight of Jesus, the Lord spoke out and said, “Behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile.” To this strange greeting, Nathaniel asked how Jesus knew him or his character. Without batting an eye Jesus countered that he had seen Nathaniel sitting under a fig tree before Philip had even come for him. This word of knowledge made an impression on Nathaniel since he immediately believed and declared, “You are the Son of God. You are the king of Israel.”

Jesus was amazed that such a small demonstration of his power had won Nathaniel’s heart. He said to his newest disciple, “Because I said to you ‘I saw you under the fig tree’ you believe? You will see greater things than these.” Then the Lord went so far as to promise Nathaniel and his disciples that “hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

I love this first chapter of the Gospel of John so full of introductions and first encounters. This scene with Nathaniel and our Lord interacting at the beginning of their relationship is my favorite. Jesus reveals to this honest Jew with no deceit in his heart that He is the Messiah and that He has climbed down the ladder of his Jewish lineage and now stands in the human family as a Redeemer of sinful, wasted lives and the source of new birth and Holy Spirit infilling. He is available to Jew or Gentile, male or female, rich or poor, slave or free. He is the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of all. Jesus is the ladder God showed their ancestor Jacob. He is the link between heaven and earth. Angels ascend and descend on Him and by Him to our aid.

In the spirit of this Gospel of John, let’s get busy introducing people to Jesus. You could start right where you are. You could say something like, “Let me introduce you to a download from heaven, share a link to a great God, befriend the friend of all sinners and tell you the name that is above all names. Jesus descended the ladder from heaven and offers to give you access to God in heaven. He will take you to heaven. Like Nathaniel, He sees you sitting there in front of your computer. He even knows if it’s an Apple.