Children’s Sermon

John 1:29-42

Two Billion!

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John 1:29-42

Two Billion!

By Dr. Carol J Miller

Did you know that Christian churches can be found in almost every country in the world? Jesus started with twelve men––the ones wesee Jesus inviting to join him in this week’s Scripture. Just twelve people! Do you know how many there are in the world today who say they follow Jesus? Well over 2 BILLION! Do you know how many a billion is? If a billion kids stood on each other’s’ shoulders, they could reach the moon. If you had a billion goldfish, you would need a fish tank the size of a great big football stadium.

How did the church get to be two billion people big? Well, remember our Scripture this morning? John the Baptizer told two of his disciples that Jesus was God’s Son, so they followed Jesus and started learning from him. One of those two disciples was Andrew. He told his brother, Simon Peter. Jesus invited Philip and Philip invited Nathanael. And it’s been going on like that for over 2000 years. One person invites another and on and on it goes.

Now, of course, there are churches all over the world and a person can just walk in on a Sunday and start to find out about Jesus. The Church even has ads on TV. But you know what? Most people who walk into a church come because a member of the church invited them to come. The most powerful way for someone to find out about God’s love is for a friend to ask them to come to church.

Does anyone have a friend, or a cousin, or someone else you know who does not go to church? No names, please, just put a hand up. How many in the congregation know someone? Can you imagine how many people would be here if we only invited them? You are Jesus’ disciples; so am I. If we invite people to church, maybe the Church could have three billion people!

Scripture quotations from the World English Bible