Sermon Tone Analysis

Come and See!

Intro

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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:

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!