“Come & See”

John 1:35-51

Why is someone a follower of Jesus?

This morning, on your handout, I want you to take a minute and if you are a follower of Jesus, write down why you follow Jesus.

If you are not a follower of Jesus, I want you to write down why you are not yet a follower of Jesus

Being a follower of Jesus is not just an emotional or relational experience but it engages both our hearts and our minds.  Jesus longs for us to know WHY we are following Him, and John 1 provides a theological model for what it means to follow Jesus. 

To be a disciple, one must know WHO Jesus is AND they must have a PERSONAL EXPERIENCE that completely re-orients who THEY ARE

Something extraordinary happens in a person’s life when they become a follower of Jesus and…

Following Jesus engages both our hearts and mind

In this passage, we meet 4 men who each have an encounter with Jesus that profoundly changes them.  They discover not only something about WHO Jesus is but also something of the significance of his purpose.  It is the significance of his purpose that is astounding because it involves them.  Jesus’ purpose for his life was not about himself, but it was 100% about His Father and them and as they discover that reality, it sets Him apart as worthy to follow. 

One of the striking features of this story is that people who become disciples of Jesus know who He is and what to call him.  Within this story, there is a litany of titles that could almost serve as an index of the New Testament list of names for Jesus…

·         Jesus – v36

·         Lamb of God – v36

·         Rabbi – V38-49

·         Messiah – v41

·         Christ / anointed one – v 41

·         Son of Joseph – v 45

·         Nazarene – v 45

·         Son of God – v49

·         King of Israel - v 49

·         Son of Man – v 51

No other passage in the New Testament provides a comprehensive list like this, what is surprising here is that this early in Jesus ministry, these first followers have an accurate appraisal of who He is.  This brief passage begins to set the framework of what followers of Jesus need to know about this person they are following. 

Following Jesus engages our MINDs

Followers of Jesus should begin to understand that He is both divinely God and humanly man.  He is both the Messiah / savior who by his power provides salvation and at the same time becomes the sacrifice necessary to exact that salvation as the Lamb of God.  He is an everyman as the son of Joseph from a little unknown village of Nazareth and a Rabbi of unparalleled wisdom and truth.  He is the anointed one of God and the king of Israel in its truest sense. 

These early followers no doubt did not yet take in the significance of who they knew him to be and yet they were on the path of discovery and as we read this story, we are witnessing what we need to know to become true disciples of Jesus.  Being a follower of Jesus does not mean thoughtlessly following a person named Jesus.  It does not mean having an experience that is void of theological content.  Discipleship is a necessary commitment to content as well as personal conversion; it is a relationship that includes both the heart and the mind. 

Here at The Bridge, a phrase that has guided what we do is…

We want to KNOW, LOVE, FOLLOW Jesus and MAKE HIS LOVE KNOWN.  And we see this encapsulated in this passage.  John provides us with a theological model for what it means to follow Jesus.

We begin this story where we left off last Sunday, with John the Baptist and we see him here with two of his disciples and he pronounces again when he sees Jesus passing by “Look, the Lamb of God” and those disciples immediately began to follow Jesus.  John had probably prepared his followers, much like a university professor who points his students towards a particular field or employer and says “this is the next step for you”. 

Jesus notices these two tagging along.  Jesus is never oblivious to what is going on around him.  Jesus turns to face them and asks “what do you want”  - what is your interest here?  Are you just casually hanging out for a nice walk?  Do you want to pick up a few tidbits along the way and then go home and fit them into your already busy life?  What do you want.  From the beginning Jesus is engaging prospective followers with honest challenges. 

They quickly and respectively respond by calling him rabbi / teacher “where are you staying?”  in effect they were saying, we want to get to know you, and that is bigger than just a simple question, but they were wanting to begin to understand who he was and what he was about.  They were willing to put in the time and effort to get to know him and that was the right starting place for them to become disciples of Jesus and so he responds with an invitation  -  “Come and you will see” 

To discover who Jesus is requires initiative on our part

A follower of Jesus takes responsibility for their spiritual growth

He doesn’t give that invitation to just anyone.  He isn’t playing games and he is not interested in his disciples playing games with him.   He is not taking them on their times schedule but on His, He is looking for people who are willing to re-arrange their lives for him, because he is going to show them himself and it is more than they ever dreamed of experiencing.

So they went and spent the day with Him – all day – until about the tenth hour – or 4pm the time when workers would go home after a full days work.

We discover who one of the two disciples is – Andrew, Peters brother.  The undisclosed ‘other’ is believed to be the first reference to John, our hidden author.  We will find throughout this book that the apostle John, our beloved author, keeps himself humbly cloaked, though we pick up glimpses of him.  We know from the synoptic gospels(Mark 1:16ff)  that John is one of the first of the young men to follow Jesus and he may be our second disciple here. 

1.       The Personal INVITATION -   Converts Invite new converts

The first step in the “Come & See” model is the invitation.  Inviting someone to discover who Jesus is and what He is doing. 

In V 41 it says “THE FIRST THING Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him we have found the Messiah” and he brings him to Jesus that very evening.  Each time we meet Andrew in the Gospel of John he is bringing someone to Jesus (6:8, 12:22)

Jesus looks at him and the first thing he does upon meeting him is to change his name.  “You are Simon son of John.  You will be called Cephas” (Aramaic for Peter - “rock”).  Peter has a very personal experience with Jesus – He changes his name, his identity, his place in life, who he is connected to. 

In the Jewish culture, naming is a significant event.  They convey something of the person’s character and to re-name a person indicates something of the authority of one person over another.  Jesus here is asserting his authority over Peter and telling him that he is a different man, his life is changing, his character is changing.  You once belonged to your father, he had authority over you, but as my disciple, your life is now mine. 

This is an important step in becoming a disciple of Jesus, we belong to him, he is to have authority over our lives and he begins to change us, changing our character, the ways and how’s that we live. 

The next day we pick up two more guys; Phillip and Nathanael. 

Jesus encounters Phillip first and calls him to “Follow me” – Phillip appears only rarely in the Gospels; he is in the list of the twelve apostles (Mk 3:18; Acts 1:13).   In the John’s gospel he expresses concern about feeding five thousand (Jn 6:7).  When some Greeks want to meet Jesus they come first to Phillip, an apparent gatekeeper to Christ (Jn 12:21).  It was also Phillip who tells Jesus in their final evening together that if He would just show them the Father, they would be happy (14:8).

Nathanael is not listed among the apostles and he doesn’t show up again.  Some commentators have speculated he may have been Bartholomew because he is often listed with Phillip, but we don’t know.  Jesus had many other disciples besides the 12, Nathanael may have been one of them. 

In any case, when Nathanael hears about Jesus as a man who fulfills the messianic predictions of Moses, his response is curious cynicism of a man who has not yet met the compelling evidence that will win his life.  There had already been a number of men coming forward claiming to be the messiah and Nathaniel was not interested in it.  Phillip responds wisely however.  Evidence becomes convincing when it is experienced personally, and so he responds “Come and See”  - he challenges Nathaniel to check it out for yourself. 

2.       The Personal EXPERIENCE - Human and Divine come together for conversion

The second step in the “Come & See” model of disciple making is to meet the divine, to have an encounter with a supernatural God.  It doesn’t mean strange circumstances happen, but in the persons heart they know they have just encountered God.  Truth is revealed and it is unescapable.

When Jesus sees Nathaniel coming to meet him He already knows him and the cynicism within him.  “here is a true Israelite, someone who wants it straight, he is not playing games here”.  And it catches Nathaniel off guard – “how do you know me? You don’t know me or anything about me!” Jesus orchestrated this encounter beautifully. 

“I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Phillip called you”

We don’t know what Nathaniel was doing under the fig tree – whether it was honorable or not, but the point is Nathaniel knows exactly what Jesus was talking about; Jesus has the capacity for knowing more than humanly possible.

Jesus KNOWS Nathaniel before Nathaniel knows Jesus.  Nathaniel witnessed a miracle that broke down his cynicism.  He had a personal encounter with Christ’s divinity.  He couldn’t rationally explain what he just experienced and as a result he makes a remarkable step of faith. 

3.        The Personal RESPONSE – A response that re-orients their life

Instantly, Nathaniel who has experienced Jesus for himself addresses him with an amazing set of titles: “Rabbi!...Son of God…King of Israel.” 

Teacher, the diety of God, and the leader of our nation – Nathaniel now KNOWS Jesus is the Messiah and he is willing to bow his knee to Jesus – this person he had just scoffed at. 

In this short scene the apostle John identifies a model that we will see throughout his gospel… The “Come and See” model

1.       The Invitation –

Jesus starts it in v 39 with an invitation -  “Come and you will see”

Andrew finds his brother Peter and says “you’ve got to come and see this”

Phillip tells his cynic friend Nathaniel “Come and See”

Andrew and Phillip bring others quite intentionally.  Converts invite new converts .  They speak of what they know about Jesus and bring others so they can “come and see” 

Who are you inviting to discover Jesus?

2.       The Personal Experience

Everyone has to have a personal experience with Jesus that leads them to faith in Him. 

Conversion requires our hearts and minds to be fully engaged.  We must know who Jesus is but it is not about knowledge alone, Jesus also engages our hearts and we know that we are known like never before, that He knows us better than we even know ourselves.  Jesus knows you, He knows everything about you, where you have been, what you have done, what you have said and what you have thought, and He invites you to know him, love him, follow him –; Nathaniel’s cynicism is dispelled

3.       The Personal Response that re-orients their life

Jesus changes Peter’s name, his identity, his world changes because Peter knows he just encountered a man and God worth following.  Everyone who encounters Jesus has to  personally responding to an invitation and experience, coming yourself and taking the responsibility to exploring a relationship with Jesus personally. 

This morning, I want you to look at what you wrote down at the beginning of our time – why you follow Jesus. 

Can you identify in your life where your heart and mind encountered Jesus? 

Do you know Him as both God and man, your savior and the sacrifice for your salvation? 

Is He your teacher and authority for life?  Do you belong to Him?  Who should you share Him with, who should you invite to encounter what you have experienced?

If you do not yet following Jesus, what is keeping you from knowing Him and experiencing the life he has for you? 

Jesus’ supernatural knowledge and God’s soverign awareness  of who will respond to His light becomes an anchor in our own relationship with Jesus.  Because Jesus knows us and invites us to “come and see” we can have assurance that He actually wants us with him.

The Point:  Jesus invites us to “come and see” so we may know, experience and follow him with assurance.