You Gotta See This!
We all want people to come and see what we think is truly amazing.
I’ve got a special relationship with my dad and my brother in law. I guess we all share a similar sense of humor and, maybe you have something like this with a group of friends or family members, but the three of us have a text thread where we share things that we think are funny. Probably no one else thinks they are as funny as we do.
Like the other day, someone posted this picture on our text thread…
And then there was this one…
And anytime there’s some sort of Bible joke, we have to send it. Like this one…
Or this one…
We all want people to come and see what we think is truly amazing.
Sometimes it’s a post on social media. Sometimes it’s a viral video. Sometimes it’s a close game or a great play. Sometimes it’s an incredible movie.
It can be something that is really good! You’ve got to come look at this! This is amazing!
But it can also be something really bad! (Different tone) You’ve got to come look at this! This is something!
THE PROBLEM?
There’s something in all of us that wants others to see what we see, for better or for worse! But what we sometimes forget is that whatever it is we’re looking at, the longer we look, the longer we allow our gaze to linger, the more we become like whatever it is we behold.
This is the reason why it’s so important, and we teach our kids this, be careful what you look at online. What you allow in your social media feed. What you watch on your screens. What you watch on Netflix or YouTube.
We are always in the process of becoming and we are always becoming to one degree or another like what we are beholding.
This is the reason why it’s so important, and we teach our kids this, to choose their friends wisely, because we become like who we behold. Who we’re with.
There are certain friends, when I’m around them, I become the very best version of myself. And there are other people, when I’m with them… not so much!
We all want people to come and see what we think is truly amazing. But we become like whatever we behold. Whatever or whoever we constantly and consistently fix our eyes on will determine our future.
Come & See
For our brother John, he wanted people to come and see Jesus because he thought Jesus was truly amazing. And he knew that if we could come and see what he sees, if we would fix our eyes on Jesus, if we would constantly and consistently look at him, we just might become a little more like Him.
So John writes this good news story about the life and ministry of Jesus with this invitation on every page, “Come & See!”
All throughout this gospel story you see this invitation to come and see Jesus, to come and see who He is, to come and see what He is doing and what He has done! To come and hear His teaching. To come and experience His love and His grace.
What you may not know is that John uses the name Jesus more than any other gospel writer, some 237 times! That’s more than Matthew, Mark, or Luke! John is absorbed in Jesus. He’s consumed with Jesus. He sees everything in the light of who Jesus is and the importance of His coming to earth to live and die and rise again for us!
But John isn’t going to tell you what to believe, or even that you have to believe what he believes, he just wants you to come and see for yourself what he thinks is truly amazing. And John believes everything about Jesus is truly amazing.
There is a man by the name of John the Baptist who is telling everyone that there is someone coming who they need to come and see. They called him John the Baptist because he was baptizing people in the Jordan river.
Baptism wasn’t anything knew. It was common practice to baptize yourself before entering the Temple to worship as a way of cleansing, purification, and preparing for worship. But this idea of one person baptizing another person as a means of repentance, this was something new.
Crowds are coming from everywhere to see John the Baptist. Some are even wondering if John the Baptist is the coming Messiah. But John the Baptist makes it clear that he’s not the One, but the One everyone is looking for is on the way! And John the Baptist wants everyone to come and see HIM!
And then, this happens…
“Look!”
…John was again standing with two of his disciples. As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, “Look! There is the Lamb of God!” – John 1.35-36
In other words… “Look!” – There is the ONE you’ve been looking for.
The unspoken question all throughout the gospel of John that John is trying to answer is simply this: “What are you looking for?”
And John believes that whatever it is you’re looking for, Jesus is the answer.
When John the Baptizer sees Jesus walking by, he tells his disciples, his followers, there HE is! Look! Behold! SEE! It’s Him. It’s Jesus! He’s the ONE you’ve been looking for! Waiting on! Hoping for!
When John’s two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus. – John 1.37
They wanted to SEE for themselves who Jesus is, and if He is the Lamb of God, which was a really interesting title to give Jesus by the way, then they wanted to see for themselves who He was and what that meant.
Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?” he asked them.
They replied, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” – John 1.38
Notice these two questions. These two questions really frame the entire gospel story for John. “What do you want?” And… “Where are you staying.”
That first question, “What do you want?” is the question that every one of us has to ask and answer on a fundamental level. What do you want? What are you seeking? What are you after?
Jesus is a lot of things and in John’s gospel he is given many names. One of those names, those titles, is Teacher. Or Rabbi.
In first century Israel a Rabbi was a master teacher who would travel from place to place teaching his unique perspective and understanding of the Scriptures as well as his unique way of living it out. These Rabbis would call or invite prospective students who showed great promise and potential to come and follow them. To come and learn from them. These students were called disciples.
Talmidim
In the original language they were called Talmidim (singular). Talmid (plural).
And to be a talmidim meant that you were a disciple, a student, a learner, an apprentice to your Rabbi.
As a talmidim you are seeking to follow, learn from, and become like your Rabbi.
If you were a talmidim, you dedicated yourself to learning the ways and the teachings of your Rabbi. To be a talmidim was to sit at the feet of your Rabbi. To be covered in the dust of your Rabbi. That saying came from the idea that you followed so closely behind your Rabbi learning from him as you walked along the path that he walked that you would be covered at the end of the day by the dirt and dust kicked up by his sandals as you walked with him right behind him.
Rabbi Jesus is about to start calling disciples to come and follow Him, to be his talmidim, but when he sees these two men following Him His first question is, “What do you want?” “What are you seeking?” “What are you after?”
And I absolutely love the way these two men answer this question. They answer Jesus’ question with a question. They ask, “Where are you staying?” That word staying is the same word used throughout this gospel and it’s translated in different ways as “dwelling” or “abiding.”
Jesus asks them, What do you want? And they respond, we want to be where you are, we want to dwell and abide with you. Where are you staying? Where are you dwelling? Where are you abiding? And Jesus responds…
“Come and see…” – John 1.39
The Invitation
Jesus responds with an invitation.
Jesus doesn’t respond with a set of instructions, He doesn’t give them an address, He doesn’t tell them to go get their stuff together and then come and see, He doesn’t make them go figure out what they believe about this or that before they come and see, He doesn’t make perfection a prerequisite to come and see, He doesn’t call them to change, He doesn’t even require that they believe what He believes before they come and see!
Jesus just extends the invitation: COME & SEE!
It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went with him to the place where he was staying, and they remained with him the rest of the day.
Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. – John 1.39-42
Andrew was so excited about Jesus that he went and got his brother Simon, who Jesus is about to rename Peter!, and when Andrew finds his brother he invites him to “COME & SEE!”
And then this happens…
The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”
Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked. – John 1.43-46
Sometimes we give Nathanael a hard time for saying this… “Can anything good come out of Nazareth!?”
But Nathanael knew his scriptures. He knew God’s Messiah would come from Bethlehem, not Nazareth. He knew Messiah would be a son of David, not the son of Joseph.
And Nazareth, just so you know, was nothing more than a spot on the map and barely that! It’s like that town you drive through that has maybe one red light and an old gas station and that’s it. There’s nothing in Nazareth, there’s no reason to go to Nazareth, and the idea that anything good could come from Nazareth is ridiculous.
To suggest God’s Messiah could come from Nazareth is beyond belief. it doesn’t even compute. It doesn’t make sense to a good Jew like Nathanael.
But do you know what Philip said to Nathanael?
“Come and see,” said Philip.
And the reason that John, the writer of this gospel, wants us to come and see Jesus is because he knows that if we will come and see what he has come to see, that we just might believe.
That if we will come and see what Peter and Andrew came to see, we just might believe.
That if we come and see what Philip and Nathanael came to see, we just might believe.
In fact, if you fast forward to the end of John’s gospel, John is going to show you his cards. He’s going to reveal why he’s written down this story of the life and ministry of Jesus.
The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name. – John 20.30-31
Believe
We all want people to come and see what we think is truly amazing.
What is it that you want people to come and see?
What are you spending your life pointing people toward?
Another picture you may recognize is a scene that is depicted in all four gospels. We commonly refer to it as the Last Supper. Leonardo da Vinci painted this in the 15th century in Milan and it may be the single most recognized painting in the world.
In order to protect it, only 1300 people are allowed to see it each day, 25 people for every 15 minute viewing slot. The painting shows Jesus in the center surrounded by His closest friends and followers in the upper room celebrating the Passover Meal and what would become our regular celebration of Communion. A time when we remember Jesus.
Leonardo da Vinci wanted to capture the emotion of this moment when Jesus told his disciples, his talmid, that someone among them would betray him. After washing their feet from being covered in his dust, he shares with them the bread and says that it is His body. He gives them the cup of redemption to drink and tells them it is His blood.
Jesus wants them to come and see HIM in this meal from now on. He wants them to..
Come, see and believe.
And that’s what He wants for you today, too. He wants you to come and see and to believe.
This week, can I ask you to think about the kinds of things you want people to come and see? Because we want people to come and see what we truly think is amazing. Are you inviting the people in our life and within your circle of influence to come and see Jesus?
We invite people to come and see what we truly believe is amazing. And we become like what we behold.
May we, like John the Baptizer, like Andrew, like Philip, and like so many more who have come before us, invite others to come and see Jesus.
And in coming to see Him, may they believe what we believe. That Jesus is our Rabbi, our ever present Teacher. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
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