I was enjoying a regular Friday night praise team rehearsal in the main auditorium of our church building in South Florida, when suddenly the doors open in the back and in walks a young woman I’d never seen before; and whose eyes immediately captivate me. Later on that night, as she starts to sing with our praise team, I became thoroughly impressed with the beautiful texture, range and skill of her voice. It would only be a week later that I’d be on the phone with her for hours laughing and talking as if we’d known each other for years. Then three months later, after being inspired by a scene from the film Brown Sugar, I’d write her a note on a yellow post it that read, “Will you be my boo?”, which was then followed by three small boxes saying “yes, no, or maybe”. She laughed with her usual smile that brightens up an entire room and checked “yes”. Three years later she’d say “yes” again as we stood on the stage of the same church building where we met, exchanged vows and got married. This year Deedre and I celebrate 17 years of marriage. Now after all these years of life together, why am I still laughing with her, flirting with her, dating her and celebrating anniversaries with her? Because I was, and still am, drawn to her.

Now with this drawing still in your mind, come with me to the year 27 AD in Judaea of Palestine near the Jordan River. As we stand in the midst of an onlooking crowd, we suddenly hear a cry ringing out through the air, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” This is the passionate declaration of John the Baptist as he sees Jesus coming before him. This moment happens after John baptized Jesus; when the Spirit descended upon Him like a dove and the voice of the Father spoke declaring Jesus to be His beloved Son. This moment happened after Jesus was in the wilderness tempted by the Devil for 40 days and nights. It was upon Jesus’ return from the wilderness, that John spots Jesus mingling among the crowd as He walks by the river Jordan and makes the declaration that his enter life and ministry was building up to. John’s announcement of Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” mysteriously carried such incomprehensible depths of the compelling love of Christ that it wouldn’t be until His resurrection, ascension and then Pentecost, that those standing there in the crowd would even begin to understand it! John had been preaching and teaching the crowds, and specifically the people he’d been relationally investing in as students, the Good News about the Messiah and His coming Kingdom. However this declaration of his now pointed directly at Jesus of Nazareth in such a stirring way, that two of his disciples would soon be drawn to Jesus as the compelling Why for their lives.

And maybe you too can relate with the experience of these two disciples at this kind of moment. Like the four people we witnessed get baptized last week, you heard the message of the Good News and were drawn to Jesus. But then what? What’s the next step Jesus seeks to bring you to on the pathway to being His follower; His disciple? In other words, whether you’re seeking Jesus, new to church or have been in the church for a long time, the question you need to be seriously asking is: When the love of Christ is revealed to you as the Why for your life, then what’s the first step He leads your life into? Well, my friends, what we’re about to witness, as we enter the story in John 1:35, is how Jesus made His first disciples, which will inform us on what our first step on the pathway to discipleship should be. So if you have an ear to hear, then let’s allow the Holy Spirit to guide us to the answer beginning in verse 35, which says…