Go and Do - Come and See!
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Come and See!
Come and See!
Intro
The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter). The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip. When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.” Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”
---
pray
[lamb of god]
Before we dig in too much in this text, we absolutely have to recap and see the context in which the scripture, and these events, take place...
[expository recap]
John (the baptizer) testifies to Christ! …but no one follows
hash that out in our lives briefly
…There are far too many moments when God sends someone to testify in our lives, to show His power and plan, and in those moments, unfortunately, we tend to fail to answer the invitation.
[compare to bible study or school. Ask for input, ask for ideas and participation, but we don’t do it. ]
…If we ever expect to Go and Do, we must answer God’s invitation.
[picof Jesus calling disciples]
So that is the direct context for this scripture…[read vs 35-36]
This time someone answered the call! This time, two of John’s disciples took the hint!
[Star Wars end scene…SPOILER ALERT…tell it generally]
That is what I see in this moment. The light comes on, and they take the hint.
So these two disciples start to follow Jesus, and wouldn’t you know it, the second they start following Jesus, He calls their motives into question.
[expand on that idea]
It seems like the second we decide we want to be a part of what Jesus is doing, there is some nagging little thing in the back of our minds asking, “what do you want?”
What are you looking for?
What is it you think you want me to do? Jesus would ask.
What are you trying to find?
I mean, it is pretty easy to figure out isn’t it? At least for these disciples, it is. They announce their intentions right away! Rabbi, they call Him. Teacher. So they are trying to find a teacher. Oh but church, I hate to break it to you, and to them, but Jesus doesn’t just want to be our teacher. No - teacher implies a far too superficial relationship! Teacher is someone who prepares you to do it yourself, but Jesus intends for us to know Him and to allow Him to know us completely! To come and take over our hearts, and our minds - our whole lives!
So if you, and they, are just trying to find a teacher - someone who prepares you to do well, but isn’t capable of being there every second of the day to make sure you say and do the right things, then you are barking up the wrong tree!
What do you want?
No, they didn’t want that. And if you truly wish to follow Christ, neither can you. No you have to want something far bigger than that. This invitation to follow Christ isn’t as easy as learning a couple phrases and a secret handshake, or some slogans! This is the family of God! A people who set their hearts and minds on knowing the Creator of all things and doing things His way!
So the only thing that they, or we could really want, is to look into the eyes of our salvation and let their hearts speak, not their minds.
Where are you staying?
Where are you staying? They ask. If I was looking for you, where could I find you? I want to know where you come from. I want to know who you are! I want to know where you live!
And why do they, and hopefully we, want to know that?
So we can be where He is.
In the depths of our souls, we want to be where Jesus is. I truly believe that. I truly believe that all people, at some point, just want to feel that love and acceptance and peace, that can only come from the Grace of Jesus! We all want it.
And there, in the midst of our desire to want to know Him, Jesus opens the door! He sets aside the fact that we are completely unqualified to be with Him! He looks past our outward appearance! He doesn’t care what country we come from, or the troubles in our lives, or the issues that might arise from His spending time with us! No, Jesus drops all of that at the foot of the cross, and He holds out His hands to these disciples, and to us, and to every person in this world - No matter their location and heritage!
Come and see...
Such a simple request. Come and see. But that simple request holds within it a great point. And to get that, I need you to think back in your life. Back to a simpler time.
Back to a time when you thought the world was amazing. You remember that? Do you remember thinking that everyone you met could be your friend? A time when, if you saw something you had never seen before you just had to run and find someone to show them?
A time when you wanted to share joy with everyone! A time when if you saw something awesome, or got a new toy, or met someone new, you would go to your friends or family, or whoever you could grab, and you would jump up and down and scream, “Come and see! Come and see!”
That is Jesus. Come and see. I have this amazing life waiting for you! I have all this stuff that you will go crazy over! I have endless love, and endless goodness, and endless joy! Come and see! Come and see!
He just wants us to see where He lives, because church, if we would just follow Him to see where He lives, we would realize that He lives in everyone we meet!
Notice in this text, it never mentions that anyone ever gets to His house! There is no mention of them making it there. Instead, what we read something far less spectacular!
John 1:
“Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
They spent the day with Him. They hung out. They talked. Maybe they got a piece of fish or some bread and wine. Maybe they sat around the well talking.
We just don’t know. But we know that they decided to take Jesus up on His invitation to come and see what He was up to. And what is even more important than that, we know that when they did go and see what the deal was they became just like us!
[read vs 40-41]
WE FOUND HIM! COME AND SEE! THIS IS IT!
Now this is the moment when I am going to shift gears from the traditional viewpoint. You see, this text can easily be extracted and diluted as a call to personal evangelism. And it very much is that. But it is so much more than that! To think that God is ONLY saying that we should tell others about Jesus in this text is selling it far short of what it really can say.
I say that because of this implication that we must do some following in order to do some telling. Sure they only followed for a little bit, but they had been following John, and trying to get closer to God for some time! And after living that life, and THEN seeing Jesus interact with the world, they knew they had to tell everyone!
But if we want to see that interaction, we have to both answer the invitation AND then follow Him. And following someone, or something, implies that the person or thing we follow matters more than what we think is logical or right.
It implies that we must drop our prejudices and our fore-drawn conclusions, and see where Jesus lives. See what Jesus is up to, and what He can do with anyone, anywhere.
And this isn’t just me projecting that into this text. It is right there, in the next section.
The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.” Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip.
John 1:
[recap in relaxed words]
....NAZARETH!?!?!? CAN ANYTHING GOOD COME FROM THERE???
Let me be real with you. That kind of thought, while funny when we are talking about football teams, and other stuff that doesn’t matter, is wholly unchristian when applied to people, and more importantly, God’s ability to use whatever and whomever He chooses to carry out His will.
Nathanael, who some scholars say is Bartholomew, was obviously a fried of Phillip. But in this moment, he speaks like us, I believe, so that we can hear our voices and see our own issues clearly!
You see, that prejudice, that moment of thought that would disallow Jesus from being not just the messiah, but ANYTHING GOOD AT ALL!!!! That moment is one we can all identify with. We all have those moments. We all see those moments play out every day. And church, in those moments we need to remember this text! We need to remember that God brought Jesus from a place NO ONE thought could produce anything good!
God brought salvation from a poor manger, not a nice mansion.
And church, the only way we will ever be able to overcome that prejudice, those things that limit God’s reach into our lives and our world, is to take Jesus up on His invitation, echoed so perfectly in this moment in our text by a good friend.
Come and see
Come and see.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Just stop trying to act like you know everything for a second, and come and see. Stop looking at the world the way you always have and look at it as having been made exactly the way God wants it to be!
We need to realize that it isn’t the world that needs to change, it is us.
Don’t believe me? Come and see.
Come and see, as John says, “that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes!” Things we have looked at, and have touched! That is what we proclaim church - that is the Word of life!
And that life appeared to this world and to us! We have seen it and testify to it with our words and deeds! And we proclaim through those same words and deeds the eternal life, “which was with the Father and has now appeared to us!” And we proclaim that, we live that, not so that we can have a good life, and be blessed, but so that this world - Haitians, Africans, Europeans, Russians, Asians, South Americans, Middle Eastern peoples - EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO LIVES ON THIS EARTH, ALL MADE IN THE VERY IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF OUR GOD AND FATHER! WE PROCLAIM LIFE TO ALL PEOPLE!
We want fellowship with all people! We call to everyone, “come and see!” That is the message we have heard from Christ and declare to this world.
“God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from allsin.
Listen, if we claim to be perfect, without sin, we are deceiving ourselves! The truth is not in us, John says! But if we confess our sins - those prejudices, those thoughts, those moments when we trust ourselves more than God - than God’s invitation to us stands and He “is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
But when we claim we have not sinned, and act like we know everything, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
1 John
But for those who have answered the call. Those who have spent any time with our Lord! Those who have heard him call out, “come and see!” Those children of God - they have overcome those hurdles! That doesn’t mean they don’t have those thoughts, but they let those thoughts go in light of the surpassing joy that comes with inviting everyone to know Jesus through our words and deeds!
GREATER IS HE THAT IS LIVING IN ME, THAN HE WHO IS LIVING IN THE WORLD!
YOU SEE, THE WORLD SPEAKS FROM THEIR OWN VIEWPOINT, AND WHEN THEY SPEAK, OTHER PEOPLE WHO THINK LIKE THAT LISTEN! BUT NOT US! NOT US! NO WE ARE FROM GOD!AND WHOEVER KNOWS GOD LISTENS TO GOD! THEY LISTEN TO THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH!
AND IF YOU LISTEN TO GOD, AND ARE BORN OF GOD, AND KNOW GOD, THEN YOU KNOW THE ONLY TRUTH THAT YOU REALLY EVER NEED KNOW!
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:
[god is love]
GOD IS LOVE!
AND GOD SHOWED THAT LOVE BY SENDING HIS SON TO LIVE AMONG US! AND CHURCH, WE MUST SHOW THAT LOVE BY LIVING AMONG ALL PEOPLE - INVITING THEM WITH OUR THOUGHTS, WORDS, AND DEEDS, TO COME AND SEE JESUS! TO COME AND SEE HOPE! TO COME AND SEE PEACE! TO COME AND SEE JOY!
TO COME AND KNOW THAT TRUTH THAT IS SELF EVIDENT TO ALL WHO HAVE SPENT ANYTIME WITH JESUS! THE TRUTH THAT ANDREW CAN’T HOLD BACK! THE THING THAT SHOULD EXCITE US AND MOVE US TO ACTION!
HE IS THE MESSIAH! WE HAVE FOUND HIM! WE HAVE FOUND THE HOPE OF ALL THE WORLD! WE HAVE FOUND GOD IN FLESH, AND HE IS LOVE!
1 JOHN
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
And this is how love is made complete church. This is how we can have confidence that we are doing things God’s way. We follow the one God sent into the world so that we could live THROUGH Him.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
You see, in this world we are like Jesus. We are called to be like Him, and to bring His presence to all we meet. We are called to love EVERYONE - even our enemies. Church, there is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.
We have that perfect love, and in turn, we love because he first loved us. “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar,” John reminds us. “For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”
So come and see. Come and see the only truth you need ever see. He is the Son of God. He is love. And you can be a part of that love, right here, right now.
Invitation