Come and See

When I am at pastor’s conferences, often we have a name tag that also says where we are serving. In this district, it is fairly easy if someone asks where I am serving, since I can say Palm Beach County or west of West Palm Beach and people know where that is. In my previous district, it was different. Someone would see my nametag, and ask about Wagner, SD, and what it is near what it is near. It was kind of a hard question to answer. Sometimes, just to make it easy, I would tell them we aren't really near anything. Now, I don’t mean that in the literal sense, of course, but I mean we aren't really near anything that someone outside of that area would recognize. So sometimes they would push me a little more and I will ask if they know where Mitchell is. Usually they don’t. I’ll ask if they know where Yankton is. Usually they don’t, but they think they may have heard of it. So I usually ended up just telling them we are in SD near the border of Nebraska, and 2 hours worth and west of Sioux Falls roughly.

When we lived in Wagner, we would sometimes drive to Sioux Falls, since that was the nearest place (about 2 hours away) that was sizeable enough to have certain commerce we wanted to engage in. I had a particular route I liked to take, because I knew there were good bathrooms on the way. I would drive straight east to Beresford and then get on the interstate. I’ve found that people often think their route is better than your route, but as I had my route, and was happy with my route.

OK, so what is the point. Well, I liked the little town of Beresford. They have a nice truck stop with nice bathrooms, and they have a burger king with nice bathrooms on the other side of the interstate. I haven't gone into Beresford any further than the Burger King. I have no idea what it is like, I just know it is a small town. And very often, we can have a tendency to look down on small towns. Whether we think our town has a better school, or businesses, or whatever, we tend to look down on other towns. Imagine how much someone from a big city must also look down on a small town. I liked Beresford because they have nice bathrooms, but someone who lives in a big city and is coming up the interstate and needs to stop probably looks down their nose a little at Beresford. Other than a stop to fill the gas tank and get some food, a big city person probably thinks not much good comes out of Beresford.

I found out that some important people have come out of Beresford, that little town. William Bulow was a Governor and Senator, and came from Beresford. Vince Lloyd, the famous Chicago Cubs announcer from the good old days was from Beresford. Ernest Lundeen, another Senator, was from Beresford. Don Fedderson, who produced the TV show my 3 sons, and the Lawrence Welk show, was from Beresford. Mike Busch, who was a NY Giants quarterback, was from Beresford, and finally, Robert Casey, who was a WW1 Vet and a journalist in Chicago, was also from Beresford.

Well, there was a town called Nazareth, and many people in the days described in John’s gospel looked at Nazareth perhaps like some people would look at a little town like Beresford. But in that humble little villageof Nazareth resided the most important person, Jesus. And today as we pick up again in John 1, we will see how some of his first followers responded to him.

Big Idea: Jesus invites us to come and see; we need to invite others to come and see

To those who seek, Jesus says “come and see”

To those who believe Jesus says “follow me”

To those who are lost, Christians say “come and see”

John 1:35–51 ESV

The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which 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 Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which 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 means Peter). The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, 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 anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward 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 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 him, “Because I said to you, ‘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 heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Our first point is that to those who are seeking, Jesus says, “Come and see” Or come and you will see. Now, here we see how important the ministry of John the Baptist was. John had great influence, because he was anointed by God to prepare the way for Christ. John had preached a hard message to hear, a message of repentance, yet people flocked to hear that message and they were baptized by him to show their repentance. Many people were cut to the heart by his message. As is the case with all prophets, there were also people opposed to his ministry. He wasn't operating within the jurisdiction of the religious leaders. However, it was not too bad for John at first. His message of repentance, as far as scripture tells us, was not so offensive that the religious leaders tried to disrupt him. It seems he was allowed freedom to continue his ministry.

That is, until he began proclaiming that Jesus was the Christ. The gospel tells how John clearly testified about who Jesus was, and in our passage this morning we see another affirmation of John the Baptist pointing people to Jesus. Now one of John the Baptists disciples was Andrew. And Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter. Now, what happens here is what every minister of the gospel should hope for. John the Baptist’s disciple hears John declare that Jesus is the son of God, and two of his disciples just walk away after Jesus. That is my dream!

That if I can point people to Jesus, they would follow him and not me! That they may even graduate out of my ministry and enter into the ministry of Christ himself. It is so sad that so many who are in ministry seem more interested in having followers after them than followers after Christ. But these disciples, only one of whom we learn the name of, walk away from John and follow Jesus. We see a crystal clear picture of what John was doing. He wasn't in it for his own fame, he wasn't counting his followers and comparing it to someone else. John 3:30 tells us that John the Baptist invited that Jesus must increase, while John the Baptist decreased.

So they ask Jesus where He is staying and Jesus replies, “Come and you will see”. Now, here is our first point, that to seekers, Jesus tells them come and see. These men were seekers. We hear this word tossed around a lot in the church today. Seeker friendly. We need to be friendly to seekers. Well, whatever that means, there are a lot of opinions. But about these two disciples there can be no mistake. They were seekers, but what were they seeking? Everyone is seeking something. The question is: What are you seeking? They are seeking next steps after being John’s disciples. They were seeking truth, not a tickle of the ears. I can tell you that John the Baptist was not tickling any ears. His message was blunt. He told people what they were, they were sinners. The man of God today will tell people what they are: sinners. But John told them a very promising thing: He told them they needed to repent.

Repent! Sometimes you see Preachers mocked in a TV show or a movie, they are always shouting repent! People say it is too harsh to tell people to repent. They say you need to nuzzle up to people softly and make them feel really good about themselves, and very carefully tell them Jesus will make their life better, and blah blah blah. Poppycock! The last thing people in the world today need is someone else telling them they are ok the way they are. Live your dreams, make yourself happy. Do what feels good. That doesn't help anyone! But John the Baptist told them to Repent. And guess what? So did Jesus, so did the apostles.

But now we are suddenly supposed to tone it down, to soften it up. We aren't supposed to make people feel bad about themselves. Well, guess what? Anyone who is a sinner, and that is everyone, needs to hear that they need to repent. They need to turn aside from their wicked ways and turn to Jesus Christ. And this is what John the Baptist did, he prepared people for Jesus. He prepared the way for the Christ. How did it he do it? By commanding people to repent. This is clear as can be, this is God’s way of preparing a heart to put faith in Jesus. The way is prepared for Jesus through a message of repentance. Do all receive this message? No, many reject it. Many hate it. Many do not want to hear that they are sinful and under God’s wrath. But that doesn't change the need for the message. Eventually, John preaches this message until they literally take his head off for it, but that is a story for another day.

So John’s disciples have already accepted his message. They have repented. Now they are ready for Jesus. When John points out Jesus, they follow Him! Now, here we see that Jesus calls Simon Cephas. Many times we hear people say that Jesus changed his name here. Well, not really.

I love the Rocky movies. Rocky Balboa is the great boxer. But Rocky was not his real name. Does anyone know what his real name was? It was Robert. Rocky was a nickname. He was this guy who could take a lot of punches, and could hit hard. His fists would hit his opponents like rocks. There is an actor and wrestler who calls himself the Rock. But that isnt his real name, His real name is Dwayne.

But we see 4 different names at times for Peter, we see Simon, which in Hebrew is Simeon, and we see Cephas, which means Peter, the rock. So when you see the name Simon Peter, it would be like saying Simon the Rock. It was to be a descriptive of who he would become. We also see in Mt 16:17 Jesus calls him Simon Bar Jonah, which would be the more formal name, meaning Simon son of John. So clearly Jesus is not replacing his given name Simon, but adding to it, so he will be Simon the rock.

Big Idea: Jesus invites us to come and see; we need to invite others to come and see

To those who seek, Jesus says “come and see”

To those who believe Jesus says “follow me”

To those who are lost, Christians say “come and see”

Believers are to be followers. Jesus says “Follow me”. This isn’t a request, it is a command. So this is to Philip. He says follow me. This implies that to be a disciple of Jesus we need to start with an attitude of obedience to Him. Philip is given a command by Jesus and he follows it. Jesus said follow me. He says to believers today “follow me”. I heard a testimoy once, the man shared how he had a sort of shift in understanding through a study called “not a fan”. He said he realized he didn't want to be just a fan of Jesus, but a follower. And Jesus isn't looking for fans, he is looking for followers. But what does it mean to follow? Let’s say someone in the acreage invited you over, and you said, that’s sounds fun! But I don’t know where your place is. They might say follow me. And you would follow his taillights to the farm. But is that what Jesus meant when He said “follow me?”.

No. Being a follower of Jesus does not mean thoughtlessly following a person named Jesus, any more than following someone in their car would make you a disciple of that person. Jesus wants people to walk with Him, to truly be a follower, who wants to learn about him, and work to become like Him. He doesn't want a fan, He doesn't want a groupie, He doesn't want a Facebook share, He wants followers. Since I bought it up, just so you know, about those posts that are on Facebook that say one like equals one prayer, you do know that isn't how it works, right? I remember seeing a documentary about Tibet, and these people had these little wheel type things, and they would walk past them and give them a spin, like a miniature version of the wheel on price is right. And that was their prayer, they would spin the little wheels and say that that was a prayer. And when I see these Facebook posts that say one like equals one prayer, I always think about those little wheels spinning. Jesus doesn't want us to spin a little wheel and keep walking. He wants a relationship with us, a relationship that meets those deep needs we have.

So Philip follows Jesus. He is convinced that Jesus is the one prophesied by Moses and the prophets, and so He goes to find Nathanael. He says, “we have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph” And Nathanael says, “Can anything good come out of Beresford?

And just as Jesus had said to the two disciples of John the Baptist, now Philip says to nathanael, come and see. Nathanael is skeptical, but curious. So Philip tries to convince him with logic of the truth of his statement. No? He tells him the 6 steps to peace with God. No? He gives him the Romans Road? No, it hadn't been written yet. No, Philip realizes that he does not have the power to convince Nathanael, and we need to realize when sharing our faith that we absolutely, positively, do not have the power to convince someone of the truth claims of Jesus. We cannot do it.

Philip realizes that nathanael needs to experience it himself. He needs to experience what, though? A warm fuzzy brought on by emotional music, with chord changes in just the right places, and proper lighting? Through a 10 or 20 year time period of watching Philip live out his faith? No, Philip realizes that perhaps the only thing going for him in his desire to bring Nathanael along on his faith journey is to peak his curiosity a little. And then, he hopes that God himself will teach the truth. You see, you could memorize Ray Comfort, or Romans Road, or any of the other witnessing tools out there, but you cannot expect that your words, your personality, your kindness, your bright smile, or anything else will ever convince someone to put their faith in Christ.

Only the Holy Spirit can do this. We are to be obedient. We are to learn the faith. We are to know how to explain what we believe. Our part is obedience, but results are not up to us. Besides the fact that Philip cannot possibly convince Nathanael outside of the intervention of the holy Spirit, Nathanael doesn't really know much yet. Come and see is what Jesus says to us, and as believers, we are to ask others to come and see for themselves. Converts make new converts, disciples make new disciples. That is how it is supposed to be.

For a new convert, they don’t know much. They believe, yet haven't yet learned everything. So what does a new convert, excited to share their faith, do? Well, they usually bring someone to the teacher who taught them. That is fine and dandy, and the teacher will be pleased to have their student bring another student along. That is ok for a new Christian, and perhaps much safer than perhaps misstating something. Even the newest convert can share their faith and what God has done through Jesus Christ for them. But of course, we don’t expect someone who was just introduced to the faith three weeks ago to be a teacher of someone else.

But here is the goal: Every Christian ought to desire to learn and mature in the faith enough to be able to teach others, and present the Word of God to them so that they may also come and see for themselves. Again, no matter how much you learn and practice and memorize scripture, you do not have the talent or power to save anyone, or convince them of truth. That’s the job of the Holy Spirit. But obedience demands that we learn all we can.

And this may challenge some of you quite a bit. I am going to say something that I believe to be true, and it may offend you. I am not trying to offend you. That is not my goal at all, but I am trying to challenge you. You see, many Christians could not explain the basic doctrines of the faith. And when people cannot explain the basic doctrines of the faith, they either are uncomfortable sharing their faith in a real way with someone, or worse, they repeat bad doctrine that they have learned or something they misunderstood. I’m saying this as a blanket statement. I’m not trying to be offensive.

When the church called me to come here, the number one thing that was wanted was biblical preaching and teaching. That is, helping people to be followers of Jesus, not fans. I believe we are doing that, and want to do even better. Now, I am going to read something, and I want to ask you to do an honest evaluation of yourself. I’m going to read the statement of faith of the C&MA. It is in our church bylaws, and on our website and the C&MA website if you want to look at it later. I will read it, and I want you to ask yourself “Could I explain this to someone?” Could you explain it to your family? To a coworker? To a new believer?

Our Statement of Faith

There is one God, who is infinitely perfect, existing eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ is the true God and the true man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He died upon the cross, the Just for the unjust, as a substitutionary sacrifice, and all who believe in Him are justified on the ground of His shed blood.

He arose from the dead according to the Scriptures. He is now at the right hand of Majesty on high as our great High Priest. He will come again to establish His kingdom, righteousness and peace.

The Holy Spirit is a divine person, sent to indwell, guide, teach, empower the believer, and convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

The Old and New Testaments, inerrant as originally given, were verbally inspired by God and are a complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men. They constitute the divine and only rule of Christian faith and practice.

Man was originally created in the image and likeness of God: he fell through disobedience, incurring thereby both physical and spiritual death. All men are born with a sinful nature, are separated from the life of God, and can be saved only through the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The portion of the unrepentant and unbelieving is existence forever in conscious torment; and that of the believer, in everlasting joy and bliss.

Salvation has been provided through Jesus Christ for all men; and those who repent and believe in Him are born again of the Holy Spirit, receive the gift of eternal life, and become the children of God.

It is the will of God that each believer should be filled with the Holy Spirit and be sanctified wholly, being separated from sin and the world and fully dedicated to the will of God, thereby receiving power for holy living and effective service. This is both a crisis and a progressive experience wrought in the life of the believer subsequent to conversion.

Provision is made in the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ for the healing of the mortal body. Prayer for the sick and anointing with oil are taught in the Scriptures and are privileges for the Church in this present age.

The Church consists of all those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, are redeemed through His blood, and are born again of the Holy Spirit. Christ is the Head of the Body, the Church, which has been commissioned by Him to go into all the world as a witness, preaching the gospel to all nations.

The local church is a body of believers in Christ who are joined together for the worship of God, for edification through the Word of God, for prayer, fellowship, the proclamation of the gospel, and observance of the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

There shall be a bodily resurrection of the just and of the unjust; for the former, a resurrection unto life; for the latter, a resurrection unto judgment.

The second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is imminent and will be personal, visible, and premillennial. This is the believer’s blessed hope and is a vital truth which is an incentive to holy living and faithful service.

We need to understand what we believe. And we need to understand it, first and foremost, so that we can live it out. But secondly, we need to understand it so that we can share it with others. Can you give a correct theological explanation of who Jesus is? Most new converts have an intense love of God, and are often riding high on the emotional experience of having the burden of sin lifted. It is sad to state that most Christians cannot explain most of the things in the statement of faith, and so long as I am your pastor, I will continue to do my best to teach anyone who wants to be taught. Love of God is obviously a necessity for the Christian, but so is understanding the content of the faith.

Philip said to Nathanael, :Follow me”. Now he comes face to face with Jesus, who says behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit! (guile). Why did Jesus say this? Remember Jacob? Who became Israel, the patriarch? Jacob was deceitful. His entire legacy, all of his descendants, carried this history with them, but Jesus looks at one who will be his disciple, and an apostle, and we see that surely, all things become new in Christ Jesus. Here is a man with no guile, no deceit. And as Philip the new follower of Christ, who did not yet know enough to explain everything to Nathanael, trusted that Nathanael would understand for himself when he encountered Christ, we see Jesus offer a proof to him, even when he had not requested it. Jesus did something only a true prophet could do, he told nathanael something true that he could not have witnessed first hand. Jesus had seen him under the fig tree, and Nathanael immediately had the faith to believe.

Nathanael believes, and in one breath calls Jesus Rabbi, which means teacher, and by saying this, he is submitting to Jesus. He says you are the Son of God, You are King of Israel. And we must note that in this chapter, we have seen many titles for Jesus. In just this chapter he is called the Word, he is called God, he is called the true light, the only Son from the Father, Jesus Christ, the Lord, the Messiah, the Prophet, Jesus, Lamb of God, one who baptizes with the Spirit, chosen Son of God, rabbi (teacher) Christ, the anointed one, son of Joseph the Nazarene, Son of God, King of Israel, and Son of Man. Many titles for Jesus, in just this first chapter of John. Those titles tell us who he is. We need to keep learning.

Big Idea: Jesus invites us to come and see; we need to invite others to come and see

To those who seek, Jesus says “come and see”

To those who believe Jesus says “follow me”

To those who are lost, Christians say “come and see”

I close with some questions. Do we bring others to Jesus, or do we bring Jesus to them? It’s not a trick question, but to get you to think a little bit. Ultimately, we don’t bring people to Jesus, nor do we bring Jesus to them. We are to tell others about him. We are, like Philip to say, Come and see. But we cant physically bring them to see Jesus as Philip could. Jesus was there in the flesh and He is not now, though He will come again.

So how do we tell people, “Come and see”. We need to tell them to come and see, and show them the scripture. We need to learn the scripture so we know how to show them. And as John needed to come ahead of Jesus and prepare the way by preaching a message of repentance, we need to take notice of this. Only people who respond first to a message of repentance can see their salvation completed in Christ Jesus. It is simple, but should not be oversimplified either.

I guarantee there are people in your life that are wondering where the answers are. There are people seeking, but they don't even know what they seek for. ANd they need someone to show them

Romans 10:13–21 ESV

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.” But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.” Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

You cannot always know if someone is truly seeking truth or just being polite to listen, or looking for a way to scoff at you. Share the gospel anyway. If they are seeking, they will listen as though their lives depend upon it.

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