Come and See

Let me set the scene for you this morning. Imagine you are going about your daily business when a friend, someone you care something about, comes up to you and says. So..... you have a relationship with Jesus right? What exactly does that mean. (pause)

I mean what does it look like to “follow” Jesus, what do you have to do or not do, how does it make your day different from what it would be otherwise. I am interested in this Jesus thing but I am just not sure what I would be getting into.

How would you respond, what would you say or do........how do you answer those questions? Would you like to know how I would answer such questions?.........come and see.

John 1:35–51 NASB95

Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?” He said to them, “Come, and you will see.” So they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed 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 found first his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which translated means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter). The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, “Follow Me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And He said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Here we have two men who are seeking God, they have been following John the Baptist because he seems to have a line on what God is doing and what they need to do and one day John the Baptist says here is the guy I have been talking about, so they go to follow him. The question they ask seems strange to us, not are you the messiah or what does God want from us or what can you teach us but where are you staying.

Now if you had been following John, who lived in the wilderness and ate bugs and honey and you were considering following a new teacher you might be concerned with the accommodations yourself.

Of course by calling him Rabbi and asking where he was staying they were opening the discussion of begin his students, since they called him teacher, and of following him since they were concerned about where he was staying, in other words is there room for two more.

Jesus’ reply was to set the tone for all of Christianity, come and see. Of all the things Jesus could have said he merely said come and see and then led them away, to others he would say follow me and then lead them away.

To Simon Jesus gave him the name Peter. Jesus renamed him, he hinted at a new purpose and a new life, Jesus did not give him any details or a job description but Peter was looking for something, searching for a new life, a new purpose and without telling him anything about it or revealing any of what was to come Jesus offered him purpose and Peter followed.

Nathanael was sitting under a tree when a friend came to him and told him he had found the Messiah and when Nathanael doubted he said come and see.

When Nathanael met Jesus Jesus told him about his past, a simple thing to tell him he had been sitting under a tree but it changed Nathanael’s life. Jesus has been changing lives ever since.

So why does Jesus not explain himself better, explain who he is and what he is doing. Whey don’t we as Christians explain who we are and the changes in our lives better. Why haven’t we come up with some well defined job descriptions of what a Christian is and what Jesus expects of his followers? After over 2000 years you would think that we could line everything out and explain it so that everyone knows exactly what Christianity is and exactly what is expected of a Christian......you would think we would have a better handle on this thing by now........wouldn’t you?

If you were to join a 12 step program you could probably find a list of each step and an in depth description of what each step means and how to perform each step, you could find step by step instructions.

When I go out and work with the railroads we have what is called a job briefing which covers all kinds of information that someone might need to know. We talk about the specific work we are going to be doing that day and the specific place we are going to be doing it. We talk about any unique or even any common hazards that might exist at that sight and we make sure everyone knows where the nearest hospital is, how to contact the train dispatcher, who is CPR qualified and what to do in case of an emergency. We discuss any medical problems someone may have, we make sure everyone understands how we are are going to keep from getting hit by a train and how we are going to stay safe. Before anyone starts to work we cover everything we can think of about how to do the job safely.

When Jesus calls someone to follow him, to begin their life with him and to be a part of his plan he simply says come and follow me......... and we really don’t like it.

Most of us would prefer a comprehensive job briefing. We want to know what God is doing and what will be expected of us, we want to check out the job before we commit to it. We want the right to express our opinions and have our say about the master plan and about our part in it. We would really like to have a line item veto so that we could look at God’s plan and examine exactly what is expected of us and exactly what that might cost us and veto any item that looks too risky or too dangerous. We want to be in control and Jesus says come and follow me.

If we can’t be in control we at least want to be fully aware of everything that is going to happen so that we can prepare ourselves, we want to see the end from the beginning. We want to know everything. Jesus says come and see.

Of course when we job brief on the railroad it is so that everyone checks everyone else and we make sure no one misses anything, there is always the possibility that someone will have a better idea or that their experience will help make everyone else safer and we accept this as human beings and we feel better because we have had our chance to contribute, it makes sense.

With Jesus it does not make sense. Do you think that if Jesus shared his plans with us and gave us all a chance to give our opinions we would come up with something Jesus hadn’t thought of, something the creator God of the universe had missed. Would one of us have had more experience in something than the eternally existing God of time and space? Would the fact that Jesus was able to hear our opinions make the unchangeable God of who knows sees the end from the beginning revise his master plan?

Really, what could we add to God to make him better than he is.........nothing. The best we can do is follow him, the best plan is his plan, the best way is his way.

If Jesus took the time to have an extensive training session on the plans of God and explain all the various reasons why God does what he does and all the contributing factors that God considers before making a particular decision do you imagine that we could understand the mind of God, could we hold in our head all of the options that God must consider and understand all of the possibilities that God sees open to him. could we get inside the mind of God and understand the mind of the infinite God and weigh all the possibilities that God considers in an instant, do we imagine that we can get inside the mind of God.

It is not that God is trying to conceal his plan from us it is just that we could never understand all the intricacies of a plan that takes into consideration every detail of every life and every possibility in the wold. We just are not equipped to understand the mind of God. So how do you explain something to someone else that you can’t understand yourself. It’s actually very easy.

I don’t understand everything there is to know about how a car operates, I am not a very good mechanic and there is no way I could build a car from scratch, but I know what happens when you turn the key, I know what the brake and gas pedals do, I know where to put the oil and where to put the gas, how do I know these things, because someone showed me.

During my life I learned a lot about electricity. I studied electrical and electronic theory in school and and I learned about how and why electrons travel down a conductor and what they do when they get to their destination. I could tell you a little about how a light works and how a radio works and even about how a radar works but long before I studied any of that someone told me that if you pull the tiny lever on the wall down the light goes off and if you pull the tiny lever on the wall up the light comes on. I didn’t have to understand electricity to use a light switch. All I had to do was say come and see.

I could show someone what to do even when I didn’t fully understand it myself. I could teach my kids to drive without understanding how a car works. I could teach them to mow the lawn even though I could not fix the lawnmower when it broke. I could show them what I had learned to be true through my own life experience and without fully understanding all the intricacies of the internal combustion engine I could say do what I do, follow me and you will be fine.

Did you know that this is exactly what Jesus tells us to do. If is what his first disciples did. We have found the messiah come and see. I have found Jesus come and see. You don’t have to be a theologian and understand everything about God and how he thinks and what his plan is, no one does. You just have to say this is what I have found out in my life through my own experiences to be true. This is what happened to me and how it worked out.

The bible calls this being a witness. A witness is someone who tells what they say or what they did, something they have direct knowledge of. In fact in court a witness is not supposed to guess or try to fill in the blanks, they are not supposed to tell what they heard from somewhere else or what they have been told, a witness is supposed to tell what they know from their own observations or their own experience.

Why come and see, because if you come with me and see what I see I can show you what happens to me, how God works in my life and what God is dealing with me about. I can’t tell you what God will do in your life or what he is doing in everyone else’s life. I don’t have to know everything about God or understand everything there is, I don’t have to be able to answer any question or know everything. I just show you what has happened to me, what I see, what I experience, what God is doing in my life.

Like the light switch I may not understand how it all works but I can see the difference between light and dark. I may not be able to explain exactly how God works or why he does what he does but I can see the results. The results are obvious. Anyone can tell the difference between light and dark, anyone can tell the difference between God and no God, the effect is obvious, we may not be able to explain how it works but we can easily show the difference God has made in our own life, its like the difference between light and dark.

All you have to do is say come with me and let me show you the difference in my life, come and see.