Come and See

I hope you really enjoyed this program this morning. The theme of the program is Come and See, and that is the invitation for all of us this morning.

This program celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. This whole holiday, Christmas, exists to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Not to sound too cliché, but he is the reason for the season.

From the time that sin entered into the world when Adam and Eve fell to temptation in the Garden of Eden, humanity had been awaiting the moment of Jesus' birth. God himself had promised Adam and Eve that there would be a child, born of a virgin, that would defeat the curse of sin.

Throughout the Bible, God continued to reveal to his people more and more knowledge about this special baby. To Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarchs of the nation of Israel, God revealed that it would be through their descendants that the whole world would be blessed because through their nation would come the savior.

As the people of Israel grew into a nation, God spoke to them through prophets. Each of these prophets would prophesy of a coming savior, the Son of God that would shed his blood willingly to pay for the sins of the world and restore the relationship between God and mankind.

These words were studied and hung on to by the nation as a whole. Father's would teach their sons about the coming Messiah, the chosen one of God that would forgive the world of sin.

Generations came and went, each one listening to the prophets of the day, each one remembering the teachings of their fathers and passing down the hope that was in these words to the next generation. But even as they did, the people of Israel often disobeyed and disregarded the Lord and his commandments. They worshipped other, false gods, and with that, God eventually gave them up to destruction and captivity by other foreign nations.

When the Jews were finally able to go back and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple that had ben utterly destroyed, they did so still under the rule of foreign powers. More and more they looked for signs of the promise of this Messiah, this deliverer. They well recognized that what had happened to them had resulted because of the sin of the people, so their eyes set on the Redeemer that would come and wash away all sin. Again, they turned to the prophets that revealed signs of the coming of the Messiah.

But there came a time when new prophecy ceased. For a period of around 400 years, there was no new word of God being preached. New prophecies had stopped, so the people continued to pass down, generation to generation, the promises made to them by previous prophets and the hope that had been taught to them by their fathers.

Then it happened, one night out in the fields surrounding the little town of Bethlehem, a group of shepherds were watching their sheep. All of a sudden, an angel appeared and began to speak to them. He announced that there in Bethlehem, otherwise known as the city of David, the savior had been born.

The angel gave them a sign by which to recognize this special child: he would be swaddled and lying in a manger. After this news, the sky was filled with angels that praised God. The shepherds left their sheep and immediately ran to find this baby. When they came to the stable where Joseph and Mary were staying and where Jesus had been born, they worshipped Jesus.

But that is not all they did. The Bible continues to tell us that when they left, they did not immediately return to the fields to watch their sheep, but instead they went throughout the town and said these three words: "Come and see." Come and see this baby that has been born to Mary; the Son of God; the Savior of the world.

These three words would mark three important events in the life of Jesus. They would be uttered once by Jesus himself, once by a follower of his, and once to Jesus by a group of grieving friends.

See, as Jesus grew older, he got to a point in his life where it was time for him to start preaching and telling others of his heavenly Father. His ministry began after he was baptized, and after having been revealed to others as the Son of God and the Lamb that would take away the sins of the world by the audible voice of God after his baptism and by John the Baptist every time he saw Jesus walking by, two men were intrigued by Jesus.

John and Andrew, future disciples of Jesus, were very curious how this savior of the world lived his life. They were not content in just knowing about Jesus, they wanted to know Jesus. So these two men approached Jesus and said, "Jesus, show us where you live. Bring us into the part of your life that few are privy to."

And Jesus' response could not have been better: "Come and see."

And with those three simple words, Andrew and John became followers of Jesus. Followers that would one day turn the world upside down. But it all started with the invitation, "Come and see."

These three little words would be uttered by another disciple of Jesus a few weeks later. As Jesus preached and taught throughout Galilee, he found a man named Philip. Jesus looked at Philip and said, "Follow me." And Philip did just that! He became a faithful follower of the Jesus Christ, and one of the first things he did was to go tell a friend of his, Nathanael. He approached Nathanael and said, "We found him! The one of whom all the prophets spoke of! The savior of the world has finally arrived!"

When Nathanael met Philip's claims with skepticism, Philip didn't argue, he simply said, "Come and see."

As Jesus would go throughout the land preaching, teaching, and healing, he made many good and genuine friends along the way. There was a family, 2 sister and a brother, that lived in a town called Bethany. Mary, Martha, and Lazarus had become very close to Jesus, often hosting him when he was passing through. But one day Jesus receives word that Lazarus is deathly ill. When Jesus finally makes it to Bethany, Lazarus has been dead for 4 days. Mary and Martha are distraught, knowing that if Jesus had just arrived a few days earlier, he could have healed their brother. They wept, and as they wept, Jesus also wept. But then, he asked where Lazarus had been buried, and was met with these words as a response, "Come and see."

Shortly after, Mary, Martha, and the other Jews would all witness one of the most amazing miracles that Jesus performed - raising Lazarus from the dead.

This morning, I want to point out these instances in the Bible where we find come and see and compare them to how Jesus is calling you now.

1. Those shepherds were the first to spread the news about Jesus' birth. They called to the towns people, "Come and see! Come see the baby, the savior of the world!" And that is my call to you this morning. If you are here without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, this morning I urge you to come and see. You are invited this morning to know Jesus personally as you savior.

2. If you are here this morning and you are saved, then as Jesus invited his first two disciples, John and Andrew, to "Come and see" where and how he lived, I now invite you to follow Jesus so closely that you experience him in your daily life. That you study and learn and follow him so closely that you begin to adopt his personality, much like John ended up doing. Once a "son of thunder," loud, boisterous, proud, and easily offended, he became known for his meekness and his teachings on loving fellowship among Christians because he dared to follow Jesus when the invitation came to "Come and see."

3. And now we remember Philip who went to his friend Nathanael and told him about Jesus and how Jesus had called him. When Nathanael expressed skepticism about Jesus actually being the Son of God, Philip just answered, "Come and see." If you are a visitor here this morning, this is essentially what those people that invited you have asked you to do - to "come and see." Not so much a Christmas program, though we are happy that you have come to see that. But for anyone that is visiting Good News this morning, we want you to see this: We want you to hopefully see a church that, though imperfect, loves Jesus, loves God, and wants to impact this city and the world with the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Those that have invited you, want you to come and see that we are trying our best to know Jesus so we can be like Jesus, and hopefully, you will join us like Nathanael joined Philip and became of disciple of Jesus too.

4. Lastly, I want to bring your attention to the invitation given to Jesus to "come and see" where Lazarus had been laid to rest. This symbolizes something in each of us. There is no one in this room that is a stranger to pain. Those that are young will eventually know deep pain and sorrow. It is an horrible consequence of sin in this earth. But even in grief, Jesus wants to be present. Even in pain, Jesus offers healing and peace and joy that surpasses all understanding. The thing is, each person must be willing to invite Jesus into that pain.

I know, sometimes it seems easier to just close that pain off to everyone, even to ourselves, but if you want healing and victory over your struggles, you have to invite Jesus into that place. You have to be willing to lay it bare to Him and say, "Jesus, come and see."

If your are here this morning and you are not saved, I want you to know that Jesus is not expecting you to be perfect before he can save you. Lay bare your sin to him, confess that there is nothing that you can do to erase your sin, and invite him to be your savior. Only then will you experience true healing and deliverance from your sin.

If you are here and you already are saved, are there areas in your life you have closed off to Jesus? Pains of the past, bitterness and unforgiveness toward others? If you expect to be healed of those things and delivered from that pain, you have to invite Jesus to come and see. You need to take him there and let him give you the strength to overcome that unforgiveness, that bitterness. To overcome that secret sin that is causing so much stress and anxiety.

And maybe, you just need to be reminded of Philip's example. A man who so admired Jesus that he immediately told others about Jesus. He immediately invited his friend to come and experience the savior the same way he had.

Would you be like Philip and invite others to come and see?