Scripture: John 1:43-51; 1 Samuel 3:1-10 and Call to Worship (Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18)
Theme: Epiphany
Title: Listening Eyes
In this sermon we examine what it means to be invited to follow Jesus -
1. An invitation to follow Jesus is always personal in nature 2. An invitation to Jesus is a "COME AND SEE" (Experiential) Invitation and 3. An Invitation to Jesus is an Invitation to experience a Supernatural Connection
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God our Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
Let's dig into God's Word this morning!
Our passage in the Gospel of John takes place in a small fishing village on the north side of the Sea of Galilee called Bethsaida. Our passage tells us that Bethsaida was the home of a number of the disciples including Philip along with Andrew and Peter. It was also the place where a number of amazing miracles occurred:
+Jesus’ famous walk on water (Mark 6:45-51).
+It was here that Jesus was said to have cured a blind man (Mark 8:22-25)
+The feeding of five thousand (Luke 9:12-17).
As we read our passage we are to understand that our writer, the Apostle John is continuing his ever widening story of witness and faith in Jesus as Messiah and Lord. Just a few verses prior to our passage, our writer is sharing the testimony of John the Baptist concerning Jesus along with the calling of Jesus' first disciples who also have come to believe in Jesus as Messiah and Lord.
In our passage we see the calling of two more disciples in the persons of Philip and Nathaniel. From Andrew down to Nathaniel we read a similar invitation - "COME AND SEE".
"Come and see". It is such a simple, open and gracious invitation. "Come and see" sums up for the most part the heart of Jesus' message and the whole of the Christian life. "Come and see" is an invitation to be rescued and redeemed and to have the penalty of sin removed from our lives and the power of sin broken.
But "come and see" is a little more interesting than it seems on the surface. The words "come and see" for a Jewish person mean something far more deeper and richer than those words do for a Gentile. And for us to fully understand what Jesus wants us to understand we have to go back and capture that deeper and richer meaning.
Judaism is a religion dedication to the art of listening. The emphasis on listening is one of Judaism's greatest contributions to the human race especially as it deals with the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. To be Jewish is to be a listener.
One of the greatest words in the Jewish faith is the word SHEMA. Shema is a word that is full of so many special meanings: to hear, to listen, to pay attention, to visualize, to understand, to internalize, to respond and to obey and those are only some of its most well-known meanings. Shema means to hear what God is saying. Shema means to obediently respond to the words of the LORD. Shema means to invite God's words to sink into your heart, soul and your mind and become a part of all your whole being.
A vast number of social and cultural anthropologists tell us that the majority of the world's modern culture hinges on two main foundations: That which comes from the ancient culture of Greece and that which comes from the ancient culture of Israel. These two cultures could not have been nor can they still be more different from one another.
Greece was fundamentally a visual culture. Its greatest accomplishments and its greatest contributions to our world have been those that you can take in with your physical eyes. Greece gave our world some of the greatest art, sculpture and architecture the world has ever seen. Greece gave the world some of the greatest theater, literature and sports that the world has ever seen. Each one of those things are sight related. Art, sculpture and architecture are by their very nature things to be viewed and peered upon. Everything about theater is visual and everything about sports is visual as well. Plato, the greatest philosopher of the Hellenistic culture thought of knowledge as a type of depth vision in which one learned how to see beneath the surface to see the true form of things.
The Greeks believed that one gained knowledge through seeing and observing things, forms and shapes. Seeing allowed one to gain the ability to have insight, foresight and even hindsight. It is from the Greeks that we get words and ideas like observation, perception and illustration. We shed light on a subject. When we understand something we often use the comment - "Now, I see." Much of today's Western thought has evolved around the fundamental use of sight. We have the Greeks to thank for much of that thought.
Judaism on the other hand offered a radical alternative. It's not as if they opposed seeing or observing but at the core of the Jewish faith are the words spirit, listening and connection.
God for the Jew is a Being who we cannot see and One whom we are commanded to not make into any graven image. While the Greeks made millions of little statues and images of all their gods and goddesses the Jews had none. It was written into the very fabric of Jewish that that NO ONE was to make or even try to make an image of the Lord God Almighty:
"You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments." (Exodus 20:4-6 ESV)
Instead, they believed that the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY created them to be a people who concentrated on listening, on hearing and obeying. In Deuteronomy 4:12 we hear these words from Moses in reference to the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY:
"You heard the sound of words, but saw no image; there was only a voice."
To the Jew the LORD communicated mainly through words and not through visual symbols. God speaks. His word creates. He commands. He invites. He calls. God uses words. Words that need to be heard. Words that connect. Words that create deep and lasting relationship. That is why to the Jew the most important and highest sacred act is that of listening.
"Hear O Israel: The LORD our God the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when your rise." - Dt. 6:4-7
Now, of course Greeks talked and listened And Jews created their own particular art and other visual items to look at and wonder. But at their very core the way to knowledge for the Greek was through the eyes and the way to knowledge for the Jewish person was through the ears.
That may seem like a small difference but it is one that takes one down a different journey when it comes to assimilating information and creating deep relationships. For the Greeks, the idea form of knowledge allowed a person to be detached from a certain object or subject. That is to say, one could enjoy distance from that upon which they were observing and perceiving. For example, a person looks at a painting or a sculpture or a play or at the games and they themselves to not necessarily need to be a part of the art, the drama or the games. They can enjoy being only a spectator. They can enjoy distance. They are able to detach themselves from all those things. They are able to look from another place. Knowledge and understanding can therefore include detachment, distance and space.
For Jews it is different. They must be engaged. They must have relationship. Even their word which means knowledge has at its basic core the ideas of connection, closeness and intimacy. In Genesis 4:1 we read where "Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and gave birth". That is not the way that the Greeks would look at marriage or having a child but it is the Jewish way. Knowledge included the ideas of oneness, of relationship and of intimacy.
Understanding God, knowing God therefore required that one enter into a relationship with God. One could not be detached, isolated or disconnected. The means by which a person entered into a God relationship was through the listening of words, the hearing of words and the sharing of words. That is why the 10 Commandments are sometimes called the 10 Words. They are God speak. God speaks to us. We hear and listen to God. We speak to God. God hears and listens to us. If you want to know how deep someone's relationship is to God the Jews would say don't look at their religious items instead listen to their words, their speech. The way they talk about God lets you know how well they know God.
Seeing for the Jew is therefore happens mainly through listening, hearing, following and obeying.
We have to get a hold of this idea or we will lose a great deal of the richness of our passage and we will miss some key ways we are be a witness for our Lord and Savior Jesus. With all of that in mind, let's now go back to our passage and see what it says to us today:
1. An invitation to follow Jesus is always personal in nature
Philip's invitation did not come by way of accident nor was it the result of a mass evangelism program or message. Philip's invitation was individual. Philip's invitation was personal. Philip's invitation was connectional.
Now, that does not mean that mass evangelism is a bad thing. It does not mean that a mass evangelism program is a bad thing. Let's not go there.
However, the truth is that the Gospel of Jesus is a person to person message. Jesus goes to Philip and calls Philip. Philip goes to Nathaniel and witnesses. Jesus then goes to Nathaniel and calls him as well. Person to person, heart to heart, soul to soul.
But if we adopted that approach how in the world could we tell the world about Jesus? I mean there are over 7 billion people on the planet. Well, let's see - 1 tells 1 and the 2 tells 2 and then four tells four - and it goes like this:
1 - 2 - 4 - 8 - 16 - 32 - 64 - 128 - 256 - 512 - 1024 ect...
I did the math - if one person told another person and then those two told one each and so on in less than a month (29 days) 536, 870, 912 people would hear about Jesus. That means in less than a month more than every person in our nation could hear about Jesus. In 33 days everyone on the planet could hear the message of Jesus.
Think about that. In 33 days everyone on the planet could hear the Good News about Jesus. Person to person - individual to individual. Now, that would be mass evangelism!
What do I mean by this? I believe that God's greatest plan is still person to person, heart to heart and soul to soul. I believe that God's greatest plan is that of one person telling another person about Jesus. One person sharing their story of faith with another person.
Paul reminds us of this in Romans 10:14 - "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard."
There is nothing wrong with billboards and signs that speak about Jesus. There is nothing wrong with all the pretty pictures of Jesus and heaven. But the reality is we serve a God who decided a long time ago to use talking, words and hearing/listening as the best way to communicate with us humans and for us humans to communicate with one another. God could easily use all kinds of spectacular signs and wonders to get His message across but He usually chooses to speak into our hearts, minds and ears through His Holy Spirit. And there is no more powerful witness for the LORD than one human being telling another human being about how the Lord Jesus has transformed their lives.
Martha Grace Reese has published a number of books that share the news that mainline churches are having trouble with the e-word (evangelism) and witnessing about Jesus. Over the past few years she has worked with over 20,000 churches in 49 different denominations trying her best to help them understand that we must not be silent in our witnessing of Jesus. Too many people view religion like politics that one should be silent around polite company and yet if we know anything in our nation today people are vocal about politics all the time all over the place. Isn't it time we need to be vocal about the very thing that defines our very being?
Now, more than ever we need to be talking about Jesus. We need to be sharing the Good News person to person, heart to heart and soul to soul.
II. An invitation to Jesus is a "COME AND SEE" (Experiential) Invitation
Philip was not telling Nathaniel to come and be amazed at Jesus' physical appearance. He was not telling Nathaniel that if you just see this man you will be amazed. In fact, the Bible tells us that as far as appearances were concerned our LORD JESUS had nothing that set him apart and above other people. Isaiah 53:2 tells us:
"For he grew up before him like a tender plant, and like a root out of the dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him." (ESV)
At times it seems like Isaiah's words are offensive to us in the Church. We don't want to think of Jesus that way. We want Jesus to be like some Adonis. We want a Jesus that is at least a hunk of burning love. We want him to have bronze skin, whiter than white teeth, penetrating eyes with all these beautiful locks of hair falling all around his face.
The reality is our eyes have caused us humans a great deal of problems. When Eve should have been listening to the real words of the LORD she got caught up in looking at the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Bible tells us that Eve got all caught up the fact that the fruit was "a delight to the eyes."
When David should have been listening to the words of the LORD he got caught up looking and lusting after a woman who was not his wife. David had no business watching Bathsheba take a ritual bath. It was her beauty that captured him - his eyes led him to sin. Is it any wonder that the Apostle John tells us:
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions is not from the Father but is from the world." - 1 John 2:15 - 16 (ESV)
Our eyes can be caught in a second but in order to truly hear someone or something we have to slow down and focus. We can multitask and watch things but to really hear you must slow down and connect and become engaged.
So, when Philip challenged Nathaniel to come and see it wasn't to come and look at this man named Jesus. Nathaniel would not been impressed at all visually. All Nathaniel would have seen was a man who pretty much looked like every other Middle Eastern man at the time. All Nathaniel would have seen was a man who looked like pretty much every carpenter/stone mason looked at that time.
No, when Jewish Nathaniel heard those words it was a challenge to come and listen to Jesus. It was a challenge to come and sit and connect with Jesus. It was a challenge to come and experience this person named Jesus from Nazareth.
For when others had spent time with him and listened to Jesus it was amazing what those encounters had accomplished.
+John the Baptist calls Jesus the "Lamb of the God, who has come to take away the sin of the world".
+Andrew calls Jesus Messiah after spending time with Him
+Philip calls Jesus - "him whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote"
+Nathaniel ends up calling Jesus - "Rabbi" "Son of God" "King of Israel"
Now, was Jesus wearing some kind of shepherd's coat? Did he have a sign on him that said - "Sin Eater" ? Was Jesus walking around with two stone tablets in his hands? Was Jesus dressed like one of the ancient prophets? Did Jesus have some magnificent intellectual degree to show off? Was there a supernatural halo around his head? Did Jesus have a golden crown full of precious gems to wear as a head piece?
Of course not. So, what made the difference? What caused John the Baptist, those first two disciples and millions of disciples after them to follow Jesus. What has caused people for over 2,000 years to accept Jesus' invitation to follow Him? It is Jesus' words - it is Jesus speaking to us - it is His Holy Spirit communicating with us. It is us experiencing Jesus first hand. It is us hearing Jesus and realizing that He is the Truth, the Way and the Life.
The way of Jesus is therefore the way of listening , following , telling others (witnessing) and inviting. Listen, follow, tell and invite. Inviting others to listen and follow so that to may tell and invite.
It is easy for us moderns to get caught up in all the sight stuff. We like razzle and dazzle. We like flash and dance. We like big and bold. We get all confused and think if we create just the right program that will knock it out of the park that people will fall in love with us and will decide to become a part of our fellowship. And so we do all kinds of crazy things to get people's attention.
Yes, it is true that we need to smell good, look good and feel good. If our buildings are dumpy and inadequate, they smell of old diapers or other unpleasant smells and the atmosphere feels toxic then we need desperately need a do over.
But in all of this we must remember people are to HEAR the message of Jesus. They are to HEAR the message of rescue and redemption. They are to encounter the one who will free them and enable them to be forgiven and infilled with His Holy Spirit. All of that requires words - listening, receiving and obeying. All of that requires connection, relationship and intimacy.
The reason Nathaniel decided to follow Jesus was not because he was wearing the newest Middle Eastern wear or because he had a great light show or he could do some miracle tricks. He followed Jesus because the words he heard resonated in the inner part of his soul. He followed Jesus because God in flesh spoke life into Nathaniel's soul. He followed Jesus because in listening to Jesus a whole new world opened up for Nathaniel. He followed Jesus because in Jesus he experienced a life transformation.
III. An Invitation to Jesus is an Invitation to experience a Supernatural Connection
Much has been made about Jesus' knowledge of Nathaniel concerning his meditation and his alone time with God. Much has been made how Jesus knew these things.
The Apostle John does not take a great deal of space to explain and neither shall we. We can come up with all kinds of conjectures but in the end that is all that they would be - conjectures. The truth is Jesus revealed a little bit of His own divine identity by sharing a little bit of Nathaniel's private life. In some circles that might be called a "word of knowledge" or "spiritual discernment".
Jesus merely revealed to Nathaniel that he (Jesus) was not bound by human limitations. He allowed Nathaniel to understand that the person standing in front of him was a person that was more than worthy of his time and attention. Jesus opened up a little bit of heaven for Nathaniel to hear and receive. In verses 50 - 51 Jesus does even more by sharing a little bit about what will happen in the future if Nathaniel accepts his invitation. Jesus wants Nathaniel to know that there is so much more to both see and hear!
When Nathaniel heard Jesus' words, his heart, his mind and his soul opened and he began to understand that the person in front of him was more than a rabbi from the nearby town of Nazareth. Nathaniel heard Jesus' words and realized that he was in the midst of the very Son of God and King of Israel. There were no thunder bolts and there were no great sign other than Jesus' words - hearing, listening, following and connecting.
Why did our Lord Jesus go this route? Why does God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit normally go this route? Why not a light show and big event or a sign across the sky? Why not a red moon, an asteroid screaming across the sky or some other sign or wonder? Why does listening lie at the very heart of what Jesus did for Nathaniel and as we see later for Nicodemus, the Woman at the Well and others? It's not that God does not use visible means at times but the majority of times it is through words - hearing, listening and connecting.
I don't have all the answers but there is something about listening that lies at the very heart of intimacy and deep relationships. Listening means that we are fully engaged. Listening means that we are open to one another. Listening means connection and love. Listening means caring and listening can lead to great life changes.
Listening to God enables us to be better listeners to others. The more we hear God, listen to God and follow God the better we are at listening to our spouse, our children and others. The more we tune our ears to hear God speak it is remarkable how much better we hear the voices and needs of the poor, the marginalized, the disenfranchised, the unchurched and the lost.
It's one thing to see a needy person it is quite another to listen to them. It's one thing to see a lost person it is quite another to take the time to hear them, to hear their doubt and even at times their confusion or anger. It's one thing to see people going the wrong direction it is quite another to take the time to listen to their story so that you can help them back on the right path.
One of the great truths this morning is that we serve a God who loves to leisurely spend time with us. In fact, according to His perfect plan we have a whole day to spend with him and with one another. A day in which we are not to work, we are not to try to scheme and make money but we are to merely connect with one another and with Him. A day to spend time talking and listening, hearing and sharing and finding connection with one another and with our LORD.
True listening takes time and energy. Listening requires us to be quiet and to give our full attention to another's voice. Listening requires us to focus, to be engaged and to participate. Listening requires commitment. Listening requires us to be vulnerable. Listening and hearing one another is like sharing a wonderful meal. We take in their words and we absorb them and they become a part of us even as they take in our words and absorb them as well. Listening and hearing one another allows us to grow closer and to be one with one another.
It has been said that "crowds are moved by great speakers, but lives are changed by great listeners."
John the Baptist, Andrew, Peter, Philip and Nathaniel were all transformed because they experienced an epiphany. An epiphany that came by way of personal invitation. An epiphany that came by way of "come and see" (experientially). An epiphany that came by way of hearing and receiving Jesus as rabbi, Messiah, Son of God and King of Israel. An epiphany that was an invitation to supernatural connect with the LORD and then to experience a lifelong transformation.
As we come to a close let's allow the Holy Spirit to ask us some questions this morning:
+Have we accepted Jesus' personal invitation as our Savior and Lord? Have we allowed Jesus to forgive us of our sins? Have we allowed Jesus to redeem us and infill us with His Holy Spirit?
+Are we enjoying a life of "come and see"? Are we able to hear Him? Are we committed to focus on being able to hear the Lord better in our lives?
+Are we enjoying a walk of life transformation? Are we relishing time with God in reading His word, in connecting with Him in prayer and allowing His Holy Spirit to lead, guide and direct our lives?
As we share a closing hymn our altars are open and our prayer support team is here to help you in any way possible. Let's allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us and to anoint us anew this morning. Let us be open to the One who loves us the most and let us open our ears to hear Him today.
Closing Song/Invitation/Open Altar/Prayer/Blessing
