Come and See

[00:00:00] Let us pray. [00:00:04] Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. [00:00:15] Amen. [00:00:17] Yeah, I'd like to start with just a review of a few verses of our Gospel lesson today from John 1:29. And following the next day, John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. [00:00:34] This is he of whom I said, after me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me and I myself did not know him. [00:00:42] But for this reason I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel. And John bore witness. I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. [00:00:55] I myself did not know him. [00:00:57] But he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, he on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. [00:01:12] Well, I've always been kind of intrigued by the fact that John the Baptist says, I myself did not know him. [00:01:19] He says it twice not. Did you wonder at that? [00:01:23] I mean, he and Jesus are cousins. [00:01:27] They had to have, I don't know, played in the dirt together and chummed around. And they knew each other's family and stories went to the temple together. [00:01:37] There was relationship between the two of them, but he didn't know that Jesus was the one who was being sent. [00:01:49] And the Lord told him. The Lord gave him this sign. He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain watch. [00:01:57] He's the one. [00:02:00] And it was a sign for him to watch. [00:02:05] And it was a sign that would assure John the Baptist that Jesus is indeed the Christian. [00:02:14] And when he saw him, he couldn't hold himself back. [00:02:19] It's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. [00:02:23] He says it two times. John, who had his own disciples to lead. [00:02:28] He testifies. He says, I have seen and I have borne witness that this is the Son of God. [00:02:37] And with that, Jesus bounds onto the stage of this earth as the hope for all the ages. Ages. He splits open the seams of eternity and steps down into the muddy Jordan River. [00:02:54] I mean, from a worldly standpoint, could it be any more ridiculous? [00:02:59] The savior of humanity. [00:03:01] What, he doesn't descend upon Rome, you know, the center of the universe. In those days, he's unheralded in Jerusalem, the Jewish capital? [00:03:14] No, no, it's that wily finger of a weathered prophet, John the Baptist, who points at him and says, here stands the author of redemption. [00:03:31] And Jesus. [00:03:32] Jesus is on a mission to take away the sin of the world. It's really big stuff. It's CEO of the universe stuff. [00:03:40] And John says to his disciples, there he is, like, follow him. [00:03:48] And they do two of them, two of them, they go after Jesus. And Jesus notices and turning around, look at your text. And Turning around, verse 38. Did you see that? [00:04:00] Turning around? [00:04:02] Jesus senses the disciples following him. And he turned to them and saw them following. And he asked this question, what are you seeking? [00:04:12] Now, it's not kind of accusation like, what do you want? [00:04:17] Why are you bothering me? You know, can't you see I'm on a mission trip for God? [00:04:24] We can't even imagine Jesus being insolent or rude like that, can we? [00:04:29] But it's more like, what do you treasure? [00:04:38] What do you worship? [00:04:41] What have you been looking for your entire life in your heart of hearts? [00:04:47] What is your greatest hope? See the text here? The word that gets used in John's gospel means all of that. In other words, Jesus uses very strong language with Andrew and John to help them voice their deepest desires. Can you even imagine that God himself in human flesh makes these his first words to his followers? Jesus, in the full force of his mission, he turns toward two young men and he says, what are you looking for? [00:05:18] And in that moment, these two young men might actually have been at a loss for words, maybe awestruck, maybe speechless. [00:05:27] I mean, this is the Messiah, who even their own rabbi, their own master, John the Baptist, will bow and imagine. I mean, it might even be a humorous scene. Andrew might have begun. [00:05:40] You go talk to him. [00:05:42] No, you go talk to him. [00:05:45] I'm not going to talk to him. [00:05:48] You talk to him. You're older. [00:05:51] Like, what do you want me to say? What do you say to the Lamb of God? Ba it's not going to work. [00:05:59] So what do they say? [00:06:04] Where are you staying? [00:06:07] Holiday Inn. [00:06:09] Do they have a pool? Free breakfast. [00:06:14] I mean, imagine yourself face to face with Jesus. Imagine the intensity of standing before him, eye to eye, close enough to feel his breath. [00:06:24] The king of all creation. He turns to you and he asks, what's your heart's desire? [00:06:33] What would you say? [00:06:38] Salvation. [00:06:42] World peace. [00:06:44] Unity among believers. [00:06:51] End world hunger. [00:06:55] Chances are we mortals would shift our weight from one foot to the other and maybe avert our eyes and say, I don't know. [00:07:05] The best these two apostles can muster and scratch out is a meager, oh, where are you staying? [00:07:15] And yet the kingdom of heaven is built upon such questions. There's no Pretense here. No attempt to impress God with deep theological knowledge. Salvation, you see, is ultimately about hearing and following, not knowing and doing. [00:07:35] And Jesus answer is so wonderful. What does he say? [00:07:40] Come and see. [00:07:42] Come and see. [00:07:48] I want to go back a minute to John and his sign. [00:07:54] He actually watched for the sign that God had given him. You remember that sign God had given him? [00:08:05] He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, he on whom the Spirit descends and remains, this is the one who. Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. In other words, this is the one we've been looking for for the ages. This is the Messiah. This is our Savior. [00:08:25] He actually was watching for the sign God had given him. [00:08:30] And look what he started. [00:08:33] His own disciples given up to become Jesus disciples. Look what God started. [00:08:39] The ushering of salvation upon the earth so that we can sit here today as followers of Jesus. [00:08:55] I asked for a sign once. [00:08:58] Well, maybe more than once, but in this particular instance, I have to tell you, there was this young couple who came to America, to our little area in Northern California by the name of Mei Liu and Yan. [00:09:16] Mei Liu and Yan. [00:09:19] They were Communists, members of the Communist Party, but they had come to America to study medicine. And it just so happened that one of the members of our church began to work with them in a medical profession, in a hospital, and invited them to come to church. And they said, no, we really don't want to come to church, but we sure would like to know more about Jesus. Can we study the Bible with you? [00:09:43] Okay. And so this member invited them to come to our Sunday morning Bible class that happened to be on world religions. [00:09:51] And Mei Lu and Yan were faithful in attendance as I spoke about things like Buddhism. [00:09:57] Boy, don't you know? I was trying to make sure I said everything correctly because they could have corrected me because they lived in the environment of Buddhism as well. [00:10:08] Well, Meloo and Jan were faithful in attendance on Sunday morning to that Bible class. And I finally sidled up to him and I said, you know, we keep talking about Jesus with respect to these religions that are all over the world. Do you want to maybe learn more about Jesus? And they said, we absolutely do want to learn more about Jesus. And I said, well, I have a little small group that meets on Sunday evenings at our house, and we'd like to invite you to come and be part of it. [00:10:37] We're studying what we call the Gospel of John. Would you like to do that? They said, oh, yes, we absolutely would. And they came and were faithful attenders. And Faithful students of God's word in the gospel of John. And the more they kept coming, the more I realized I got to spring some kind of a evangelistic question upon them. [00:10:58] I've got to say something or do something to bring them to faith in Jesus. [00:11:08] And I didn't want to use the four spiritual laws. You know, that's a kind of an Americanized here's how you get to know Jesus kind of thing. It just seemed like that would fall flat. So I called up a pastor friend, and I said, here's what's going on. I've got this couple from China, and they're asking all kinds of questions about Jesus, and I don't know how to take it to the next step of understanding them and helping them see faith in Jesus. [00:11:37] He said, you're overthinking it. [00:11:44] He said, all you have to do is just listen for them to say something that they couldn't possibly say if they weren't believers. [00:11:55] Okay, there was my sign, and I began to watch and I began to listen. [00:12:03] And it wasn't. But about two weeks later, I don't know what chapter of John we were in, but we were going along. And meilu interrupts the conversation and says, what does glorify mean? [00:12:21] I answered. I said, well, glorify is where we talk back to God and thank him for all of his wonderful gifts to us and praise him that he's saved us and forgiven our sins and given us life with him forever. [00:12:43] A few other people in the bible study said this or that, and Mei Liu looked at her husband. Yan looked back at me and said, we glorify God. [00:13:01] And that was it. [00:13:03] That was the moment. [00:13:05] That was the very thing that I had been listening for, the sign that they were believers in Jesus, and. And boy, did we celebrate, because it was like the kingdom of heaven opened up and swooped down and gathered that couple up and said, you are mine. [00:13:28] Just a remarkable moment, a sign. [00:13:34] That was it. [00:13:38] There's more to that story. [00:13:41] Just. I think I've told some of you this, but the next teaser is they went home to China and told their families, and their families became believers. [00:13:59] You know, I've noticed something in my brief tenure here as an associate and interim pastor. [00:14:08] Interim Bob, Notice something? [00:14:17] I've noticed people praying over the deficit budget that we passed last year and the challenge that it created, and I've noticed people talking with one another about that and being prayerful about it. [00:14:37] And now what I take to be his answer, a $1.7 million answer, is it A sign. [00:14:54] I think it is. [00:14:57] I think it's a sign. And I think it's an answer to what are you looking for? [00:15:06] And if it is, I think Jesus words are apt to us today. [00:15:13] Come and see. [00:15:16] Come and see. And if we come and see, where do we find Jesus to be staying? [00:15:24] Here in our church? [00:15:26] Oh, yeah. [00:15:30] Here in our school? [00:15:33] Oh, yes. [00:15:37] And I don't know about you, but I'm hoping it energizes your mind and your heart for ministry here like it does mine. I mean, might it also cause us to ask him, okay, Lord, so what is next? [00:15:52] Come and see. [00:15:55] What's your heart's desire? [00:15:57] Come and see. [00:16:01] Because you see, he's also in our neighborhoods and our hospitals and our rest homes and our homeless shelters and our jails and our places of business and the places where we go to do our shopping. And the whole time, he's calling us to go where he is and take his love with us into that place, wherever it is. [00:16:30] See, Jesus asks a question and makes a statement that is deep theologically. [00:16:43] Couldn't be deeper. [00:16:44] What do you seek? [00:16:48] What? [00:16:49] Come and see. [00:16:52] It's deep because of the sincerity that's in that question and the transparency in the statement. Sincerity. Because he's asking these disciples to voice their greatest fears and their greatest hopes. And he wants to know, and he listens. [00:17:11] And it's transparency because he's inviting them to walk alongside of him and learn his heart, learn his mission by spending time with him and learning how to trust him. [00:17:26] Sometimes I think our greatest loss in church work is that we rely too much on programs instead of relationships. [00:17:32] Come and see. [00:17:35] It's a relationship language. It's a far cry from listen and learn or even go and do. [00:17:44] Now, eventually, Jesus does speak those words, go and do. Remember, right before he ascends into heaven, he says, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. [00:17:58] You know that passage. [00:18:02] But it's not till the very end where he gives that charge. [00:18:10] Meanwhile, during his time on earth, his life was never a mystery. [00:18:14] Those who wanted to know Jesus found he was like an open book. And all they had to do was believe and follow, believe and follow. [00:18:28] To know Jesus was to hang around him. The very essence of discipleship is that very thing we learn by watching good role models deal with life. We grow by watching someone do activities and then doing them with them and then maybe even doing them in place of them so they can move on to yet another area of ministry. [00:18:50] Jesus Himself, he washed his disciples feet. [00:18:55] And do you remember what he said? Then follow my example. [00:19:01] Building relationship we have really so little relationship learning today really for a whole variety of reasons. But chief among them is, well, it requires time and it requires living a life that says imitate what I do and imitate what I say. [00:19:27] This goes deep and beyond challenging to us. Doesn't means living up to what we say we believe, not living a duplicitous life or having a public Persona that could be contradicted by a hidden or private Persona. [00:19:51] But in our, well, let's be honest, segmented and impersonal society, it's much easier to compartmentalize our identity. You know, on Sundays from 8 to noon, I'm the public me for the rest of the week. [00:20:11] I have to admit wanting to revel in the private me, the my time me, the my interests me. [00:20:21] But come and see means transparency, not compartmentalization. [00:20:28] Being one me to Jesus and the same me to my community, and again the same me to my family and to my friends. [00:20:40] Without a doubt, we need Jesus help to be that transparent. [00:20:45] Yet he's willing to go forward with us. Sin and failure and mistakes notwithstanding, his power of grace and His Word are what makes us able to be transparent as he is transparent. I mean, after all, he's the one who took away the sins of the world doing what he said he would do from the moment that Adam and Eve broke away from him in the garden. [00:21:18] And how did he do it? He did it by sacrificing himself for us in our place on the cross. I mean, come and see, will you? [00:21:34] So we follow him and he turns and he asks you and me, what are you looking for? [00:21:44] What's your deepest desire? [00:21:47] What do you worship? [00:21:51] And we might mutter some answer. [00:21:55] No matter. [00:21:56] He says, come and see. [00:22:02] Come and see how I can make the deepest desire of your heart interface with my mission to the world. [00:22:10] Just like John the Baptist did by pointing his disciples to go and follow Jesus. Just like Andrew did in bringing his brother Simon to Jesus. Just like. Like how I learned to watch for signs of faith in Meloo and yon. [00:22:26] Don't you see? [00:22:31] We have found the Messiah. [00:22:34] Amen.