Come And See Jesus. The Words Of An Excited Friend

1.21.24 John 1:43–51 (EHV)

43 The next day, Jesus wanted to leave for Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. 45 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.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” “Come and see!” Philip told him. 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him, “Truly, here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” 48 Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered, “Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus replied, “You believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that!” 51 Then he added, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Come and See Jesus. The Words of An Excited Friend

How do you get to meet people? I saw a documentary on a guy who was catfished by a gal. He met this gal online. She was a nice looking gal, and she seemed to be interested in him. But then when he went to visit her in the U.P., he found out she wasn’t who she said she was. Some older married lady had used someone else’s picture to invent a fake online persona. That’s kind of scary if you think about it. It was a sad trip for the guy to find that out.

When I was in Topeka we had a man from India that joined our congregation. He had turned 30 years old, and according to his culture he should have been married at that point. So he had his aunt from India set him up with a gal that she personally knew. They spoke online for a few months, and then got married in a somewhat arranged way. It worked! They are still married today with kids. It helped because of the personal connection that they had with their aunt.

When it comes to your relationship with Jesus, God tends to use these personal connections quite a bit. John introduced Jesus to Andrew, who was from Bethsaida. Andrew then told his brother Peter. Then Jesus went and personally found and called Philip, who was probably an acquaintance with these two brothers as well. Philip then went to Nathanael in order to introduce him to Jesus as well. So at least four of Jesus' disciples were from this small little town that was on the northeastern edge of the Sea of Galilee.

That’s how evangelism usually works, when someone you know and you trust invites you to church. Statistics show that over 80% of people join church due to a personal invite they received from a friend or neighbor. Maybe it was your parents who brought you here. Some people have a problem with that. They say, “You wouldn’t believe if your parents hadn’t brought you here.” Maybe that’s true. But what of it? Should it really matter if you’re happy in your relationship with Jesus? You don’t hear people say, “You wouldn’t be a Michigan fan if you hadn’t grown up in Michigan.” So what if you did? So it goes with church. What does it matter how you got here? The message of Christ crucified still affected you and gave you comfort and strength and hope. You learned about what love is, patience, kindness, and forgiveness here. Maybe you learned it from little on. You didn’t reject it. You liked it. That’s why you’re STILL here.

Did you know that over 70% of unchurched people have never even been invited to church? Philip didn’t wait. He went and told Nathanael right away. “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.” You can almost sense the excitement in his voice. It would appear they had been in deep discussion about the Messiah coming, probably even discussing prophecies from the Old Testament. Maybe they had been looking into this even for years. Either way, he was excited about it! Are you? Do you show an excitement to know who Jesus is as your Lord and Savior? Are you excited to hear and learn more about Him? Or have you gotten bored in your faith? Has God taking on the flesh become old news to you? What a sad thing! People can sense it - one way or another. Maybe you can too. Don’t take it lightly.