The Miracle of Miracles

We read the Word of God from John chapter 1, verse 29 through verse 42. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.

And this is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me. And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bore witness, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.

And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he who baptizeth with the Holy Spirit. And I saw and bore witness that this is the Son of God. Again, the next day John stood in two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God.

And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.

One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus.

And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of John. Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is, by interpretation, a stone. And he brought him to Jesus.

May this word bring many to Jesus. And he brought him to Jesus. Those simple words from John chapter 1, verse 42, describe for us the greatest privilege and the greatest miracle that anybody could experience.

And he brought him to Jesus. He, Andrew, brought him, Simon, to Jesus. And little did Simon realize that day that this would be the beginning of miracles for him.

Over in John chapter 2, we have the miracle of the turning of the water into wine, and the writer says, This beginning of miracles did Jesus. And it was the first of his public miracles, but back in John chapter 1, a miracle had taken place, and he brought him to Jesus. And Simon experienced that miracle of miracles, which is the beginning of miracles.

Little did he realize that he'd have a miracle life from then on, that he would see miracles in his home, that he would see miracles in his business, that he would experience miracles of deliverance, and miracles of protection, and miracles of provision, and best of all, miracles of character. For Jesus Christ was going to take a piece of clay named Simon and turn him into a rock, and that's a great miracle. Simon was going to become a living miracle, and he was going to reach out and touch other people, and they would experience the miracle.

This is what the Christian life is all about. And he brought him to Jesus. Now I'm sure that each of us here today is interested in sharing in the miracle working of God.

God still performs miracles. God is still in the miracle-working business, in homes and in businesses. He still has miracles of protection and provision and guidance and salvation.

I don't want to live an ordinary life. I want to live an extraordinary life. Life is too short to be spent in some kind of a boring parenthesis.

I want life to be filled with power and abundance and blessing from the hand of God. I'm not talking necessarily about material things. I'm talking about spiritual things.

Peter was never a wealthy man. He said to a beggar one day, Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I unto thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Stand up and walk.

And a miracle took place. And I would rather go through life touching the lives of people and sharing a miracle than handing out money. You and I can experience the miracle of God.

Perhaps if we look at Simon and Andrew and Jesus, we will understand what it means to experience the miracle of God. And he brought him to Jesus. There were three persons involved in this miracle, and if we examine these three persons, I think we will understand what it means to be a part of the miracle working of God.

Three persons. First, there was Simon, the sinner. And then there was Andrew, the soul winner.

And then there was Jesus, the Savior. The names may change this morning, except that Jesus won't. It may not be Simon and Andrew.

It may be two other persons, but it will always be Jesus. And he brought him to Jesus. Let's look at him, Simon the sinner.

Many people have a false view of Peter because during a crisis in his life he cursed and denied the Lord Jesus. There are people who have the idea that Simon Peter was always a worldly-minded, impetuous, rough, cursing fisherman, and that's not true. You wouldn't judge Abraham because twice he told a lie about his wife.

Abraham is the man of faith. You wouldn't judge David because David committed adultery. David was a great man of courage and victory.

You certainly wouldn't judge Moses because one day he lost his temper. My Bible tells me Moses was the meekest of all men on the face of the earth. And so don't move in on Peter and say, Hey, Peter, in the garden when you were under pressure, you cursed and swore.

So all of your life you must have been a cursing, swearing fisherman. No, no. When you read the record, you discover that Simon was a devoted, obedient Jew.

Simon kept a kosher home. In Acts 10, when Simon was up on the top of the house waiting for them to fix some dinner, the Lord gave him that vision of that great sheet that was let down. Remember that? In that sheet were all kinds of living creatures.

God said to Peter, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. And Peter said, Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that's common or unclean. He kept the Old Testament law.

Don't get the idea that Simon Peter was a rough, worldly minded, sinful, disobedient Jewish fisherman. Oh, no, just the opposite is true. Simon Peter knew the Old Testament law, and he obeyed the Old Testament law.

And when Andrew came to get Simon, he was laying hands on a man who was obedient to the law. He was not an irreligious man. He was a religious man.

But you know, Simon Peter had discovered something about that law. He couldn't keep it. In Acts chapter 15, when the Jewish council, the church, is getting together and meeting about whether or not Gentiles have to become Jews before they can become Christians.

Peter gave testimony. Peter said, You remember how God chose me to go to the Gentiles and open to them the door of salvation. Now says Peter in Acts 15, Why should we put on the Gentiles a yoke which we ourselves could not bear? You put Acts 10 and Acts 15 together and you see what Peter was like before he was saved.

An obedient, religious, kosher Jew wearing a yoke of bondage that was galling him and breaking him. But you see, the law served its purpose in Simon's life. Galatians 3.24 tells me that the purpose of the law was to be a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.

And that's exactly what it did with Simon. All of these years he had been studying the law and trying to obey the law. He was crushed under the burden of the yoke of the law.

But you know what that law did? That law prepared him so that when Jesus Christ came, Simon was ready to meet him. And Andrew came and said, Simon, you and I have been trying to keep this law all of our lives and we can't do it. But we found the Messiah.

We have found the one that we've been studying about. We found the one that we've been searching for. And he brought him to Jesus.

And it was there that Simon discovered a different yoke. Jesus Christ had said, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

And Simon said, That's what I've been looking for—rest. And he took off the yoke of bondage and religion and law, and by faith he put on the yoke of Jesus Christ, and he was saved. And Jesus gave him a new name.

Jesus said, Now I know your name is Simon. That means a hearer. It's the Old Testament word simeon, to hear.

And you've heard. And faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I'm going to give you a new name, Peter Cephas, a rock.

I suppose if anybody from his business had been there other than his brother, they would have smiled and said, A rock. This hunk of clay, a rock. This sand dune, a rock.

But that's what Jesus said. A new name signifying a new nature. Something had happened down in Peter.

Now my friend, the Lord prepares people to come to Christ. He prepared Simon. I don't know how he's preparing you.

Sometimes people go through a stricken conscience. Sometimes there are those whose consciences are just beating at them. The judge is sitting behind the desk, pounding the gavel and saying, Guilty, guilty, guilty.

Now, if that's your situation, my friend, God's saying what you need to do is to come to Jesus the way Simon did. Sometimes God prepares people with great blessing. Someone has said that they feel sorry for atheists because when they have something to be thankful for, they have no one to thank.

And sometimes God brings blessing to people. The goodness of God leads us to repentance. And I have met people who have said, God has been so good to me and I have not been good to him.

What must I do to be saved? Sometimes God takes people through sorrow or tragedy or emptiness. Life just seems so empty and so dry and so barren. Instead of living in a paradise, we're crawling through a desert.

And that's God saying, you need to come to Christ. I don't know how God prepares you, but he prepared Simon. He wants to prepare you to meet the Lord Jesus, Simon the sinner.

And he came to Jesus. Now let's look at Andrew the soul winner. I appreciate this man, Andrew.

Poor fellow always had to take second fiddle to Simon Peter, his brother. It's never Andrew, Peter. It's always Peter, Andrew.

In fact, it's Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew. It's always Peter. Peter's first.

That didn't make any difference to Andrew. Whenever you find Andrew in the gospel of John, he's always doing the same thing. He's always bringing someone to Jesus.

You ever notice that? Some years ago over in England, they had a program called Operation Andrew. I don't think we'll find any sermons from Andrew in the Bible. We don't have any records of his preaching.

We do Peter. We have two or three long sermons from Peter, but not from Andrew. We don't have any details about Andrew's life, but we know this about Andrew.

Whenever you find him in the gospel of John, he's got someone in tow, and he's bringing that person to Jesus. He brought his brother to Jesus. In John chapter 6, he brought that lad to Jesus who had the loaves and the fishes.

They were wondering, what are we going to do to feed 5,000 people? They said, well, there's a lad here, and Andrew brought that lad to Jesus. Over in John chapter 12, some Gentiles showed up, and they wanted to talk to the Lord. They came and told Philip, and Philip told Andrew, and it was Philip and Andrew who brought them to Jesus.

You know, when we get on the other side, when we exchange the smog of Chicago for the glory of heaven, the one thing that's really going to count is, did we bring someone to Jesus? I appreciate Andrew, the soul winner. You say, well, can I be a soul winner? Yes. I don't have any record here that Andrew took any special courses.

We have the privilege of taking courses, and we ought to. I don't see here that Andrew read any special books or listened to any lectures, but there was something in Andrew's life that made him a soul winner. Now what was it? Well, I think, first of all, he was a converted man.

He had met the Lord Jesus Christ, and he had something to talk about. After all, a witness, a soul winner, is not a prosecuting attorney who goes out to argue with people. Andrew didn't go and argue with Simon.

He would have gotten nowhere. Simon would have talked him right down. No, Andrew just simply went and said, we have found the Messiah.

That's all he said. He didn't sit him down and say, I'm going to preach a three-point sermon. No.

He said, we have found the Messiah. I have found something. Simon, you and I for years have been looking for something, and we have found it.

We have found the Messiah. We have found the Savior. Andrew had been listening to John the Baptist preach.

You know, God wins people in different ways. John and Andrew were won through the preaching of John the Baptist. Some people are won through preaching.

Simon was won through the personal witness of his brother Andrew. Later on in this chapter, Jesus goes and talks to a man personally and doesn't even use another person to win him. God wins people in different ways.

But those of us who are going to share Jesus Christ had better have something to share. This was the problem John Wesley had. John Wesley came over to the United States to convert the Indians, and he himself needed to be converted.

And when he got back to London and went to that meeting in Aldersgate Street and discovered that he had never trusted Christ, Andrew was a converted man. Andrew and John are listening to John the Baptist preach, and along comes Jesus. You see, John the Baptist had a job to do, and that was to get rid of his followers and make them the Lord's followers.

You beware of anybody who wants you to be his follower. God never called us to make disciples for ourselves. He called us to make disciples for the Lord Jesus.

And here comes Jesus walking, and John the Baptist says, Behold the Lamb of God. And he lost two of his best disciples. He didn't care.

That's why he was there. And these men went and followed the Lord Jesus, and Jesus turned around and asked two questions. He asked a question.

He said, What are you seeking? That's a good question. What are you looking for? Why are you following me? Do you want material gain? Do you want a better job? Do you want physical healing? Do you want faith? What do you want? Why are you following me? Why do you want to follow the Lord Jesus? I hope you want to trust him because you know you are a sinner needing a Savior. And Jesus said to them, What are you looking for? What are you seeking? And they said, Where are you dwelling? That's a good question.

Where does God dwell? Back in Exodus, he dwelt in a tabernacle. In Kings, he dwelt in a temple. When Jesus Christ was born on this earth, God came in the flesh.

In John 1, verse 14, the word was made flesh and tabernacled among us. Where do you dwell? Isaiah had a good answer to that question in Isaiah 57, verse 15, where God says he dwells with that person who is of a contrite and a humble heart. I suppose our Lord had a little booth someplace where he was living because he really had no place where he could lay his head.

And Jesus said to them, Come and see. First there was interrogation. What are you looking for? Then there was invitation.

Come and see. John likes this word come. In John 1, it's come and see.

In John 7, it's come and drink. In John 21, it's come and dine. Jesus said, Come and see.

And so they came. I think that John uses Roman time, and it would have been 10 o'clock in the morning. And they had all day to fellowship with the Lord.

But Andrew said, You know, this is too good to keep to ourselves. John, you've got a brother named James. You go get him.

I've got a brother named Simon. I'm going to go get him. Let's go get our brothers.

Let's start at home, and let's share what we have. And Andrew first found Simon, and then John found James, and they brought him to Jesus. You see, he was a converted man.

You've got to be a converted person, a saved person, if you're going to share it with somebody else. I appreciate the fact that he was a communing man. He communed with the Lord.

It says here that they abode with him, for it was about the tenth hour. That word abide was going to take on deeper meaning for Andrew and for John. Abide.

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Abide in me, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, neither can you except you abide in me. If you abide in me, my Father will come and dwell with you, and will make your life our home.

They abode with him. This is the kind of a person God uses to win somebody else. He was a man who was converted.

He was a man who was communing in fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. After all, witnessing is not something that we do. Witnessing is something God does through us.

Something else I noticed about Andrew, he was a man of compassion, a man of concern. As he was sharing the blessings of the Lord, he said, you know, I'm my brother's keeper. Now Cain had asked that question in derision.

Am I my brother's keeper? And the answer to that question is yes, yes. God said to Andrew, you know, you've got a brother who needs to be saved. What are you going to do about it? And because of the concern of his heart, he went and found his brother and he brought him to Jesus.

You see, our problem, friends, is that we enjoy spiritual blessings so much we don't think about other people. I'm grateful for those in the Moody Church who are concerned, who have a deep, compassionate concern to share Jesus Christ with other people. We're going to have many opportunities in these days to come to do that.

We have found the Messiah. The Greek word is Eureka. That's what Archimedes said, wasn't it, when he discovered his famous law? Eureka! I have found it! But what happened in the city of Chicago, where hundreds of people were going around saying, Eureka! I have found it! What have you found? Oh, we're going to find that out.

We have found the Lord Jesus, Andrew the soul winner. Andrew is never going to go down in history as a great theologian. He's not going to go down in history as a great preacher.

But Andrew has gone down in history as a man who was concerned about reaching other people. Which leads us to the third person involved in this miracle, Jesus Christ the Savior. And he, Andrew the soul winner, brought him, Simon the sinner, to Jesus, Jesus the Savior.

Now when he brought him to Jesus, to whom was he bringing him? He didn't bring him to John the Baptist. He didn't say, Simon, what you need to do is meet John the Baptist. Oh, no, no.

He brought him to Jesus. He didn't bring him to the Jordan River. Peter was baptized, but that's not why he brought him.

He brought him to Jesus. He didn't bring him to Moses. He brought him to Jesus.

To whom did he bring him? It's beautiful to walk into the Gospel of John, and right away you meet Jesus. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him.

Simon, here is your Creator. Simon, here is the light. In him was life, and the life was the light of man, and the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness cannot put it out.

Simon, I want you to step out of the darkness into the light. Simon, here is the one who has grace. What does John say? For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, and of his fullness have all we received, and grace upon grace.

Simon, I want you to step out of the darkness into the light. I want you to step out of law into grace. I want you to step out of that yoke of bondage into the liberty of his salvation.

He brought him to the Lamb of God. Oh, what a service. John the Baptist said, Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

They'd never heard a message like that before. Millions of lambs had been slain in Old Testament days, but not a one of them was the Lamb of God. They were lambs brought to God, but here is the Lamb of God.

Back in the Old Testament, there were many lambs. Here is one lamb. Back in the Old Testament, the Lamb died for Israel, but here is one who dies for the world.

In the Old Testament, the blood of the Lamb could never take away sin. All it could do was cover sin, but here is one whose death takes away sin. No wonder John the Baptist was excited.

Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Simon, I want you to meet Jesus. He'll take away your sin.

That's what you need. That's what we all need. He said, Simon, I want you to meet the Son of God.

Can you imagine that? The Son of God. Simon, you and I are dead in trespasses and sins, but here is the Son of God who can give us life and light and liberty. And he brought him to Jesus.

Now, what did Jesus do when Simon came to him? What will Jesus do when you come to him? Well, first of all, he's going to receive you. Our Lord didn't hang a sign out and say, not available. Later on in this gospel, Jesus is going to say this.

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. He didn't say, you're too wicked. No, he received him.

Now, when you come to the Lord Jesus Christ, he'll receive you. Regardless of how you come or who brings you, he'll receive you. And having received Simon, he looked at him.

My Bible said he beheld him. That word means he looked right through his eyes and right down into his heart. That's what some people don't like.

They want to stay hidden. They want to masquerade. Simon stood there and Jesus just looked at him, and he saw what he was.

I know you. You're Simon. He knows who you are.

He knows the house you live in. He knows what street it's on. He knows all about you.

Simon, I know you. I see what you are. But I also see what you can be.

Thou art Simon. Thou shalt be a rock. Whenever I read that little verse, I'm reminded of something that John writes over in verse 12.

But as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the children of God. Take that little phrase, power to become, authority to become. That's what happens when you're saved.

First there's a crisis and you're born into God's family. Then there's a process. You start becoming what he wants you to become.

I know you. You're Simon. But you shall be a rock.

Now, rocks are made out of sand and clay, and it takes a lot of pressure and a lot of heat to turn clay into a rock, and that's what Peter went through. Throughout Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts, you find the Lord Jesus applying the pressure and the heat, and he's making a rock. It wasn't easy, but it was wonderful.

Miracle after miracle. And Peter would be in some tight situation, and the Lord would come in with his miracle power, and he'd rescue him and make a little more solid rock out of him. You know, the last time Peter is referred to in the Bible, he's not in 2 Peter.

The last time he's referred to is in the book of Revelation. John is looking at that holy city, and he said, On the foundations are the names of the apostles of Jesus Christ, and in those foundations are embedded beautiful stones. How about that? Thou art Simon, a hunk of clay.

I'm going to make you into Peter, a rock, and when I'm finished with you, you're going to be one of my jewels up there in that heavenly city. It takes a lot of heat and pressure to make a jewel, but God did it, and God can do it for you. There are people here in this Moody Church congregation today who years ago were the dirtiest possible clay, and they came to Jesus, and he began to work on them.

First he saved them, took them up out of the miry clay, and then he began to work on them, and he's turning them into jewels, his jewels. Oh, there's been pressure, and there's been heat, and there's been difficulty, but there's been polishing and pressing and molding by the gracious hands of God. There's been miracle after miracle after miracle, and today they are the jewels of God.

Only Jesus can do that. I know who you are, but I know what you can be. A drunken barber wandered into the Pacific Garden Mission and got saved, and a miracle took place in his life, and Mel Trotter went up and down this country winning people to Jesus Christ.

A successful ball player gave his heart to Jesus Christ, and Billy Sunday went up and down the country winning thousands of people to Jesus Christ. And God can take you and God can take me, a hunk of clay, and mold us into a rock, something he can build upon. And by the time we get to glory, that rock is going to be a jewel shining forth for him.

And he brought him to Jesus. That's the greatest privilege and the greatest miracle that anybody could ever experience. Have you experienced the miracle? Have you come to Jesus? We sing in one of our songs, Come to the Savior, make no delay.

Here in his word he's shown us the way. Here in our midst he's standing today tenderly saying, Come. If you have come to Jesus, are you sharing this miracle with others? That's what Chicago needs.

People who will wake up in the morning and say, Father, make this a miracle day. Give me the privilege of helping someone to come to Jesus. And he brought him to Jesus.

Would you come to the Savior today and let him save you? And would you make yourself available to the Savior today that he might use you in a miracle ministry of touching the lives of others? We're thankful, our Father, that as weak as we are, as ignorant as we are, you can still use us. We want to be stronger and we want to be smarter. We want to be better witnesses and we make ourselves available now, O Lord, that we might share in this wonderful privilege of bringing people to Jesus.

I pray now, Father, for any here without the Savior, those who need to come, give their hearts to Christ, help them to come. I pray for any of your people, Father, who have gotten cold, critical hearts. Who have been careless about this matter of trying to win others.

O Lord, we have found the Lord Jesus and he has found us. And all around us are people who need to be found. Please help us to touch their lives.

Lord, make our lives a miracle. May we day after day experience the miracle power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, for Jesus' sake. Amen.