1/15/23 John 1:43-51 “Come and See”

13 Jan 1/15/23 John 1:43-51 “Come and See”

1/15/23       John 1:43-51       “Come and See”

I would guess that many of you think that I have always found it easy to talk about Jesus.  After all, He is my best friend.  The truth is that I am like most of you and had some real trouble with evangelism.  This is not something that comes naturally to me or for most people.  The first few times I went up to a strange door and knocked as we were starting our new church in West Fargo, I was actually hoping that no one would answer.  But I got used to it and now it doesn’t bother me at all.  There are many people and even pastors who feel uncomfortable talking about Jesus being our Lord and Savior and the only Lord and Savior for the whole world.  As I began preaching several years ago, I had to make a decision as how I was going to present Jesus every time I talked.  One of the problems in the modern church is that most pastors will not even extend the invitation to come and join Jesus.  This is not the way it is supposed to be.  How can we be inviting when we don’t even invite?  Today’s Scripture shows us Jesus calling some of the disciples.  Let’s see if we can learn from Jesus.

Allan Quak tells the story of a fencing contractor talking to a rich property owner about his chances of going to heaven.  The rich man believed that he would get there because he was hard working and gave to worthy causes.  He confessed that he did hide a little income so he would have lower taxes but everyone did this.  In the rich man’s business you had to do a bit of lying and cheating to get ahead.  And anyway, he was basically a nice person, basically a nice person!  The conversation ended and it was time to build the fence. Two weeks later the fence was ready and the property owner came and had a look. He was shocked by what he saw because there were a number of gaps in the fence. Angrily he asked, “What have you done”. The fencing contractor replied. “Well as I was building, I left a few gaps on the way. But don’t worry, there is a lot of fence still left and, in some places I even made it double thickness. The gaps only represent 2% of the fence, which means 98% is just fine”.  The rich property owner replied “98% isn’t OK because you can be sure that the animals will find the hole in the fence and get out. Near enough is just not good enough and I will have nothing left to show.”  At that point the fencing contractor said. “You can see that truth when it comes to your fence … how come you can’t apply the same thing when it comes to your relationship with God?”  I think that this is a question we might ask in our own lives from time to time.

In the verses just prior to todays, we find that Jesus had just called Peter and Andrew.  This is the next day and He tells Philip to “follow me.”  Philip is one of the disciples that we really don’t know too much about.  I think that he is only mentioned about 4 times.  I also think that he was probably a practical man as we read about how he told Jesus that it would take more than 8 months wages to feed the 5000 people.  He was also a knowledgeable man as he tells Nathanael that Jesus is the man Moses talked about in the Law.  I guess what I’m trying to say here is that he was probably a pretty regular intelligent guy.

We all know how Jesus works.  He works in ways that we don’t understand.  So we understand Jesus by not understanding Him.  Anyway, in this case Jesus came looking for Philip and the Scriptures says that Jesus found Philip.  This is a little different than when Peter and Andrew followed Jesus.  I’m thinking that Philip was a special evangelist in the making, maybe even a second career local pastor.  He was among those who were scattered after Stephen was stoned.  It was after this that Philip goes to the enemy camp in Samaria to spread the word.  I think Jesus had special plans for Philip.

I think that this has vast applications for us in today’s world.  There are those who seek and find Jesus and there are those who Jesus comes and gets.  Either way you will enter into a life like you have never known before.  When Jesus comes to you and says “Follow me,” He has a plan for you.  There are many people in our world and in this area, including pastors, who are like the rich man in our opening story.  They cheat a little, lie a little but they are basically good people.  That is not how it works.  You have to believe 100% in Jesus, not 98%!

We went to a funeral several years ago that was a little different.  The pastor never really talked about Jesus.  He was never mentioned.  Several people got up and told wonderful stories about this fellow.  He was obviously deeply loved.  But there was no assurance that he would go to heaven.  There wasn’t even a mention of it.  I would guess that the man didn’t know a thing about Jesus.  He was just another nice guy who probably didn’t make it to heaven.  This seems so sad when it is so easy for anyone to get the assurance of heaven.

So here we have a practical man named Philip who is knowledgeable enough to know that Jesus is the Messiah.  He doesn’t have to be told twice or be convinced.  He knows.  It is the same way with us.  When you give yourself to Jesus, you know right away that you have made the right decision.  You know.  I knew the day I gave my life to Jesus that something great had just happened.  I knew.  No one had to tell me.

If you are sitting here today thinking that you are basically a good person and this will get you into heaven, you are wrong.  You are missing the point.  If you have any doubts as to where you will spend eternity, then you just might not spend it in a very nice place.  As a matter of fact it may be very bad.  If you are thinking these types of things and there are many bad things happening in your life, then today is the day to ask Jesus to live in your heart.  Confess you sins.  Give all your sins to Jesus and make Him Lord of your life.  I guarantee, I guarantee that you will have a better life, a lot better life.  Jesus is there to help you and everyone about you.  Follow his command when He says, “Follow me.”

Now if you are a practical person like Philip, I would say to you to just look at what happened to him and the other disciples.  They began a life where great things were happening.  They left the ways of sin behind them as much as they humanly could.  Then they served.  Don’t worry that you might end up a missionary in South America.  Don’t worry that you will end up being in my place preaching.  It is more than enough to know that Jesus is the way and the real deal.  Don’t worry about being practical.  Just accept Jesus and follow Him.  You will never regret it.

Notice the first thing that Philip does.  You can tell that he is going to be a great evangelist.  He goes and tells Nathanael.  And of course, Nathanael says the famous lines, “What good can come from Nazareth.”  When I was at school several years ago, a professor was preaching this passage one day and read it like this, “what good can come from Nebraska.”  I’m sure you can fill in the blank on this one.  Anyway, Philip is undaunted as he replies, “Come and see.”

So Nathanael comes and sees but he is still very skeptical.  Jesus greets him in a curious way as He says, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.”  Experts feel that Jesus is referring to Jacob here who was a liar and a cheat.  He also talks of Jacob in verse 51.  Anyway, Nathanael finds out that Jesus already knows him.  He knows Nathanael before He ever sees Nathanael so therefore Nathanael believes.

I mentioned in the opening how I used to be scared to talk to people about Jesus.  It took a little practice but it came.  The reason I could finally talk about Jesus is that Jesus wanted me to do this so He helped and equipped me.  He knew me before I knew me.

Evangelism is not really very hard.  One very easy question is “Where to you go to church?”  No one really gets upset with this unless it is the pastor asking.  Then there might be a little shuffling of the feet.  Anyway, coming from one of you, this is an innocent question.  Don’t be afraid to ask it.  Where do you go to church?

Another thing you can do is tell about your God moments.  We all have them all the time.  I want you to share these moments with others every week so that you will be able to do it a little easier to someone new.  Also if you know someone who is having a hard time of it, ask if you can pray for them.  Just about everyone in this area would gladly let you pray for them.

And if talking about Jesus is really putting you in a tough way, then tell me about it and I will go and see the person or I will find someone who can.  I did the sermon series last year about radical hospitality and I made the same offer at that time.  I know there are new people out there.  Please, help us out and give me the name if you are unable to do it yourself.  You may think that this is really too tough for you to do but you have to keep in mind that someone may be going to the wrong place, to hell, because you haven’t talked to them or given me their names.  There are eternal consequences for not doing these things.

Hopefully, we have the ‘come’ part down now.  If you can’t invite them yourself, then recruit some help.  The other part of this command is ‘see,’ come and see.  What in the world do we want these people to see?  When Philip told Nathanael this, he had no idea of what was to come.  You see, Philip was just a practical guy and he wasn’t like one of these hot line psychics who are based in California that you can talk to for $.99 a minute.  He didn’t know what was to come.  All he knew was that he had found the Messiah and this one was the real deal.

They had trouble seeing the real deal then just like we do today.  We have seen David Koresh murder hundreds as did Jim Jones.  We always have people who predict the end of the world.  You can probably find this every year.  Remember when we had the definite end coming with the end of the Mayan calendar.  The list just goes on and on and every one of them is false.  The ancients had this problem also.  The leader of the Maccabee revolution was thought to be the Messiah.  People thought that John the Baptist was the Messiah.  This is a problem that has been around for a long time.  But Philip knew this was the real thing.  Some how when you are dealing with Jesus, you just know things.

So, Jesus begins by telling Nathanael what Nathanael had been doing.  He had been sitting under a fig tree before Philip found him.  No one could have known this because he would have been alone.  This is one of the minor miracles that Jesus slips in on us almost as if it should be unnoticed.  I did a little reading on this from the commentaries and it was interesting.  The fig tree means something special because everything had special meaning according to the experts.  However, I think that Nathanael was under a fig tree and Jesus told him about it, period.  Then Jesus tells him basically that “You ain’t seen nothin yet!”

Here comes the tough question for many of us.  What is it that Jesus has done for me that I want other people to see?  I invite them to come but what shall they see?  I really have to stand with Philip on this and say I don’t have a clue what someone will see.  But I do know what He has done for me.  Jesus took a load off my shoulders that had weighed me down my whole life.  Jesus gave me something to live for every day.  Jesus took me from working every day at a monotonous job with no future except to make it to retirement and gave me purpose in my life.  Jesus helped bring Sharon and I together.  Jesus gave me the wonderful life I have now and all of you as new friends.  Jesus gave me this broadcast.  I owe everything to Jesus.

I know that each of you has a story to tell.  Maybe Jesus has saved your life or the life of a loved one.  Practice your story and tell it.  Maybe He has pulled someone from the depths of depression or mental illness.  Tell the story.  Maybe your story is just all the blessings that you have that you know came from Jesus.  Each one of us has many, many things that Jesus has given us.  Please don’t be afraid to tell your story because it is the best story ever and Jesus will help you tell it.

This happened several years ago.  One of our daughters, who worked at a bank in uptown Minneapolis, was robbed at gun point, or at least he said he had a gun.  Anyway she was scared to death and gave the man the money and he fled.  Later she told her mother that during her devotions that morning, she read that she was to have a good day if she would just stay calm and keep things under control or something to this effect.  Something else had gone wrong that day besides this and she told her mother, “I don’t understand it.  I was supposed to have a pretty good day according to my devotions and all of these terrible things happened.”  Her very wise mother said that things did turn out great because things sure could have been a lot worse.  Things don’t always turn out the way we like or expect.  We could have lost our daughter that day.  I praise the Lord that He kept her safe and made the best out of a very bad situation, a Jesus story.

The bottom line is that Jesus loves you, every one of you.  You are loved and you are special to Jesus, extra special.  Don’t ever forget this and tell others about this love.  Share your story.  Every person you know deserves Jesus.  Go tell your neighbor, “come and see.”  Praise the Lord.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us. Let’s pray.