Stream services online at www.sjlc.com/live

January 20, 2008

We Have Found the Messiah

Preacher: Rev. Jack Meehan Category: Biblical Scripture: John 1:29–1:42

Second Sunday after Epiphany

John 1:29-42

 "We Have Found the Messiah!"


This is the second week of our January mission focus, and today that focus is upon Mission India. It was one year ago that I had the privilege of traveling to India to see the great work which the Holy Spirit is doing there in the lives of men, women, and children as they come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. At the heart of Mission India's Gospel outreach efforts are three well-developed programs: Children's Bible Clubs, Adult Literacy Training, and Church Planter Training. Rather than my explaining what this looks like to you, it would be better for those who are directly involved with Mission India - the people themselves - to do this, and so a short video will be shown. (Show "Unnoticed" at 5:00 pm JOY! Service, "Abdul's Joy" at 8:00 am service, and "Raysumi" at 10:30 am service.)

A different video is being shown at each service this weekend to show the three Gospel outreach programs of Mission India. At the JOY! service, we heard about Meenaben and how she came to know Jesus through Adult Literacy Training. At the 8:00 am service, we heard about Abdul and the joy he radiates as he shares Jesus through Church Planter Training. At the 10:30 am service, we heard about Raysumi, a little girl whose life has been transformed in Christ through the Children's Bible Clubs. All of these people - Meenaben, Abdul, and Raysumi, and millions of others in India are saying what Andrew said in today's Gospel lesson: "We have found the Messiah!" (John 1:41). That brief sentence, found in today's worship bulletin, ends in a period. I don't think a plain, old period captures the new-found joy of a person like Andrew, Meenaben, Abdul, or Raysumi who has come to faith in the Lord Jesus. This calls for an exclamation point: "We have found the Messiah!"

God is working a spiritual transformation in India, a land struggling with bondage to angry and vengeful gods, illiteracy, disease, child labor and other evils. India is on the front lines of a spiritual battle, where one-fourth of the world's 1.6 billion unreached people live. That amounts to 412 million people who have never heard the Gospel, not even once. By law, Western missionaries are no longer allowed in the country, and India's own Christians, who number only 2.3% of the population, are rising to the challenge. They know the 1600+ languages and dialects of India. They know the customs and traditions of the people, and they're already there. To a large extent, the people of India are being reached through children. India's children make up one of the largest, unreached, responsive people groups in the world. One is six people live in India (1.03 billion), and of these, one-half are under 20 years old - more than the total population of the USA.

In a recent planning meeting for 50 Days Ablaze!, which our congregation will be focusing on in the Easter season, several people said: "God is really doing amazing things in places like India and Africa, but I'm not there. I'm here, and I need to know how to reach out to people where I am." Well said! In many respects, our challenge here is as great, if not greater, than India. The gods holding our nation captive are materialism, complacency, and greed. The need is the same: that people may come to know Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and not just the sin of the world, but my sin. Burdens are lifted as repentance and forgiveness are made known to people, and the result is joy because they have found the Messiah! That joy and the peace which accompanies it, are gifts of the Spirit, are what so many people are desperately searching for. Our challenge is to see where God is working in the world and follow his lead, that the mighty work which He is doing in India may come among us also. Amen.