Come and See

Still trying to get caught up on my sermons. Here is my sermon from 1/15/12. I'll have audio available for the next 2 for anyone interested. Also, I've reactivated the Feedburner subscriptions. I'm going to stop send out manual emails in a week or so. If you want to be notified of a new post via email, click above to sign up for the feed.

In the 28^th chapter of Genesis we’re told of a dream Jacob has. He fled his home. He’s running for his life trying to escape his brother Esau. Being on the run, he’s exhausted, so he lies down to sleep. While he is asleep he dreams of a ladder. Scholars tell us it may have been more like a stairway. Regardless, Jacob sees this link between heaven and earth. Angels are ascending and descending, passing freely between heaven and earth.

As Jacob stands there in his dream watching this ladder, watching the angels coming and going between heaven and earth, God is beside him. Jacob hears God’s voice tell him, “I’ll be with you. I’ll never leave you.”

In our scripture for this morning, Jesus draws on that same imagery. Last week, we read in Mark that at Jesus’ baptism the sky was ripped open. Heaven and earth were exposed to one another. That through Jesus, we have ready access to God. Jesus will use the imagery of Jacob’s dream in explaining his role to his disciples.

John 1:35-51 - 

35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples,³⁶and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, ‘Look, here is the Lamb of God!’ ³⁷The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’ They said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which translated means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ ³⁹He said to them, ‘Come and see.’ They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. ⁴⁰One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. ⁴¹He first found his brother Simon and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated Anointed). ⁴²He brought Simonto Jesus, who looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter).

43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ ⁴⁴Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. ⁴⁵Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.’ ⁴⁶Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’ ⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!’ ⁴⁸Nathanael asked him, ‘Where did you come to know me?’ Jesus answered, ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.’ ⁴⁹Nathanael replied, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!’ ⁵⁰Jesus answered, ‘Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.’ ⁵¹And he said to him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’

The day after John baptized Jesus in the Jordan River, he is taking with two of his disciples. He sees Jesus and tells the disciples, “Look, the lamb of God.” The disciples follow Jesus and he asks them “What are you looking for?” They want to know where he is staying. He tells them, “Come and see.”

The next day, Jesus calls Philip to follow him. He agrees and immediately goes to tell Nathanael. He tells him all about Jesus. “We’ve found the one Moses and the prophets wrote about. He is Jesus, son of Joseph from Nazareth!” Nathanael is skeptical. I love his response, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” In other words, “There’s no way this guy is who you say he is, because the Messiah wouldn’t come from a Podunk, nothing village like Nazareth.” Philip responds with familiar words, “Come and see.”

The two disciples of John, Andrew and another, whose name we’re not told, spend the day with Jesus. We’re not told what they do, just that they spend the day with him. By that afternoon, Andrew is convinced that what John said is true. He is so convinced that he runs to find his brother. He finds him and tells him, “We’ve found the messiah!” We’re not told how Simon Peter responds to this news, but given what we know about Peter it wouldn’t surprise me if he took off running before Andrew even told him where they were going. They find Jesus and he gives Simon the name Cephas or Peter – Rock. We don’t know the details of Peter’s response, but we know that he chooses to follow Jesus. He and Andrew become disciples of Jesus.

Nathanael is skeptical upon hearing about Jesus. So he goes with Philip to meet him. After talking with Jesus for a few minutes he is convinced as well, that Jesus is exactly who Philip says he is.

Then Jesus gives us that allusion to Genesis. Jacob’s dream. And as we read, we know that through Jesus, these men experienced God and that experience changed them.

Initially they were all told about Jesus. John told Andrew and the other disciple. Andrew told Simon Peter. In Galilee, Philip experiences Jesus before anyone can tell him, but he goes and tells Nathanael. In each case the one who hears about Jesus is skeptical, a little unsure. John‘s disciples will listen to John, but they don’t really take his word at face value. They want to see for themselves, so they go home with Jesus and spend the day with him.

Nathanael’s first reaction to Philip’s raving about Jesus is, “Yeah right! I’m not buying it.” In both circumstances each skeptic is given a simple invitation. “Come and see.” You don’t believe it? Well, experience it for yourself. There are no arguments. They don’t spend hours or days trying to convince the skeptics that Jesus is the Son of God, they just invite them to experience it for themselves. They are invited to experience God. To spend time with the Lamb of God, a rabbi, the Messiah, the one Moses and the prophets wrote about, son of Joseph of Nazareth, the Son of God, the King of Israel, the Son of Man. All of these words and phrases are used to describe Jesus in this short passage. All of them tell us something about who those in the story believe Jesus to be and who Jesus is.

What they tell us is that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. By spending time with Jesus, the disciples not only experience the human, Jesus, they experience God. And that experience changes them. They aren’t asked to join a club or follow a bunch of rules or say some specific words. They are invited to begin a relationship. You want to know what Jesus is like? Come and see. You want to know what God is like? Come and experience God.

At some point in our lives we were invited to “come and see.” Maybe it wasn’t in those words. Maybe it was an invitation to “give your life to Jesus” or “invite Jesus into your heart” or “get saved.” But at the heart of each of those should be an invitation into a relationship. Not a onetime meeting. Notice that the disciples in our passage didn’t believe simply by meeting Jesus. It was in their interactions with Jesus that their belief blossomed. It was their relationships. Their experiences.

That is what we are invited into. We are invited to experience God through Jesus. We’re invited to come and see. It’s those experiences with God that show us who God is. These experiences each teach us a little about God.

Sometimes we forget about experiencing God and we miss out. Sometimes we are oblivious to God’s presence around us.

I want to share a couple of my experiences with God. Last week I mentioned helping with the baptisms of some teenagers from my youth group on a trip to the beach. That day the gulf was really rough. Big waves and a strong undertow. And there were little fish that kept nibbling our feet all day.

When we went out to baptize these kids, I didn’t think anything about it. 

We performed the baptisms and came back in to the beach. When I got close enough to see and hear the kids on the beach they all had these looks of amazement and were raving about something. I had no idea what was going on. When I asked, one of them said something about a wave that just broke. I needed an explanation. They told me that the water where we were standing for the baptisms was as smooth as glass. Waves were breaking on either side, but not where we stood. Then as we approached the beach a wave broke behind us. About that time I realized that there was no undertow while we were out there and the fish were gone.

The second one was also on a beach trip. I showed you this Bible a few weeks ago. I think I mentioned rescuing it from the ocean. On these beach trips I would get up early and go out to the beach and sit and read and pray. You know preparing myself for another day of dealing with teenagers. This day there was a perfect little ledge 2-3 feet from the water. I guess it was formed by the tide, but it was perfect for a seat. I sat and read for a bit, the water lapped over my feet a couple of times. When I closed my eyes to pray, I noticed my shins were wet, then my calves, then my rear-end. I opened my eyes and saw my Bible floating in the huge wave that decided to come in and soak my pants.

I took both of those experiences as simple little reminders of God’s presence. And maybe God’s sense of humor. They weren’t anything life changing or anything huge and powerful, but they deepened my relationship with God. And because of my relationship I was able to see them as experiences with God. I’m sure some of you could share similar experiences and probably much more powerful experiences.

But that is what it means to come and see. To come and experience God.

It’s also an invitation for us to give to others. I read a great quote last night. It said “It’s not our job to convert, just to invite.” I can’t think of truer words. We are called to make disciples, but none of us can convert anyone to Christianity. None of us can make someone a disciple. But we can invite them to experience God’s grace. We can invite them to come see. To meet God. To experience Jesus for themselves. Then through their own experiences, and through God’s grace, disciples are made.

So, come and see. And invite others to come along.