Come & See for yourself

John 1:19-51

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Jesus understood the devil’s tactics and he prepared himself through knowing the word of God and practicing spiritual disciplines like fasting and study but this is not the end. The way forward through temptation is repentance, sacrifice, and practicing your faith. 

When you have finally gotten a hold of yourself and have made some real and measurable changes, the obvious next step is to tell others what God has done for you and invite others to be a part of it and we see this modeled in and through John the Baptist.  

¹⁹ This is John’s testimony when the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?”

This was a committee of Jewish religious leaders sent from Jerusalem who had every right to interrogate John the Baptist because they were the guardians of the faith. The Levites were the priests in charge of maintaining orthodox faith and sometimes acted as temple police.

²⁰ He did not refuse to answer, but he declared: “I am not the Messiah.”

Here we see the Jewish leaders were a little puzzled by John’s response probably because they expected him to just claim to be the Messiah because there were lots of people claiming the title at this time but he says, no. So they ask him if he’s Elijah or “the prophet” from Deut 18 and he says, no again. Who are you?

²³ He said, “I am a voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord—just as Isaiah the prophet said.”

They were obviously frustrated at this point because John had no authority to baptize Jewish people. They baptized gentiles when they converted to Judaism because gentiles are unclean, but not Jewish people. They believed Jews had no need to be saved so they were offended.

²⁶ “I baptize with water,” John answered them. “Someone stands among you, but you don’t know Him. ²⁷ He is the One coming after me, whose sandal strap I’m not worthy to untie.”

²⁹ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰ This is the One I told you about: ‘After me comes a man who has surpassed me, because He existed before me.’ ³¹ I didn’t know Him, but I came baptizing with water so He might be revealed to Israel.”

This may sound odd, but the question, “Where is the lamb?” comes from the story of Abraham and his son, Isaac. In the story, God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son and Isaac asks, “Where is the lamb?” and Abraham replied, “God himself will provide the lamb…” 

This is why Jesus was also compared to the Passover lamb. The blood of the lamb was offered to protect Israel from the curse that fell on Egypt and because John’s dad was a priest he obviously knew all the rituals. The difference was Jesus is the Passover Lamb for the whole world.

³⁷ The two disciples heard him say this and followed Jesus. ³⁸ When Jesus turned and noticed them following Him, He asked them, “What are you looking for?”

The men weren’t quite sure so they asked to meet with Jesus later but Jesus invited them,

³⁹ “Come and you’ll see,” He replied. So they went and saw where He was staying, and they stayed with Him that day. It was about 10 in the morning.

⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John and followed Him. ⁴¹ He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah!” (which means “Anointed One”), ⁴² and he brought Simon to Jesus.

When Jesus saw him, He said, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which means “Rock”). 

⁴³ The next day He decided to leave for Galilee. Jesus found Philip and told 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 so did the prophets): Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth!”

⁴⁶ “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked him.

“Come and see,” Philip answered.

⁴⁷ Then Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him and said about him, “Here is a true Israelite; no deceit is in him.”

⁴⁸ “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

“Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you,” Jesus answered.

⁴⁹ “Rabbi,” Nathanael replied, “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

⁵⁰ Jesus responded to him, “Do you believe only because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” ⁵¹ Then He said, “I assure you: You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” [Gen 28:10–22, Dan 7:13]

John 1:35-51

1. True discipleship begins with humility

When John was questioned, it would have been easy to claim to be someone important. He was so popular that the temple priests in Jerusalem had heard about him. Jesus even went out of his way to meet John and yet John wanted no attention. When asked who he was, he said,

"I am only a voice."

He explained that Jesus is the one who continually takes away our sins as we repent and grow and he doesn’t just understand he is less than Jesus, he says,  

²⁷ He is coming, and I’m not worthy to untie his sandals.”

He is saying that, by comparison to Jesus, he is not even worthy of doing the work of a slave. In the same way, for us to find Christ and grow in faith, our journey must begin with humility. We must not just logically know, we must embrace the fact that Jesus is more important than us.  

John the Baptist embraced this and that’s why he was happy when people left him to follow Jesus. He constantly pointed people to Jesus which leads us to point #2…

2. A true disciple points people to their master

36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

John 1:36

John constantly pointed people to his master. In fact, this is how all of our relationships begin, with an introduction, and Jesus honors the introduction by meeting us with a question.

“What are you looking for?”

John 1:37-38a

Now it might seem like simple, but this was a type of philosophical question Rabbis asked their disciples. The point of the question is, “What are you hoping to get out of following me? What is your goal?” The answer was they wanted to learn from him and Jesus responds with,

39 “Come and see…” 

John 1:39

This was another rabbinic phrase that finds its origin in God’s conversation with Isaiah when God said, “Let us reason together.” When Jesus said: ‘Come and see!’ he was inviting them to come, talk, and learn for themselves. We follow this same method today. 

Once you introduce someone to Jesus, they need to "see" something. This means that they need to see the reality of Jesus in your life. Those around you are watching to see if this faith is real because being a person of faith is a rare thing and we can see that the followers of John the Baptist did not question him because he had proven his humility and faith day in and day out. 

Of course, not everyone is ready to seek the truth on their own. 

3. A true disciple brings people to Jesus

John saw himself, like Isaiah did, as a voice in the desert and, in this role, he said his purpose was to ‘make straight the way of the Lord’ which means to make the path of God clear because it is on the path of God that we get to meet the Lord which is why these people regularly “found” Jesus. 

“We have found the Messiah!”

Jesus found Philip and told him, “Follow Me!”

Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the One Moses wrote about John 1:41-44

“For this word, “we have found,” is the expression of a soul which travails for His presence, and looks for His coming from above, and is made overjoyed when the looked-for thing has happened, and hastens to impart to others the good tidings…now, having chosen this of themselves, they afterwards remained firm.”

John Chrysostom

Everyone must take their first step of faith but it is the job of God’s people to guide others to the path so that they get the chance to find Jesus on their own. This is because when you have proven yourself and someone trusts you, they are more likely to trust those you trust as well.

So we see this happen: John points to and sends people to Jesus, but Andrew brings Peter and Philip brings Nathanael and none of these men were professional evangelists or preachers. They simply shared what they had discovered. Andrew says, "We have found the Messiah." Philip says, "Come and see." They were all just sharing something amazing with those they love.

Interestingly, when Nathanael sarcastically asks, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip doesn’t argue or make a case, he just invites him to Come and see, come and judge for yourself. This is because faith must be chosen because it is a journey of daily spiritual growth,

4. A true disciple never stops growing in faith

Nathanael had just made a snarky comment but soon he is fascinated by what Jesus actually has to say and Jesus tells him,

…You will see greater things than this.” Then He said, “I assure you: You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” John 1:35-51

This language comes from the story of Jacob’s dream where he saw a stairway on earth that reached to heaven and the angels were going up and down it in service to God. Jacob was so excited that he built a shrine at that place. This is famously known as Jacob’s Ladder.

This means Nathanael would see Jesus as the divine line of communication between heaven and earth. He is the Son of Man who replaces Jacob’s ladder as God’s link between worlds. Jesus is telling him that more and more of heaven will be revealed to him as he grows in faith.

This is why Jesus asks, “What are you looking for?” He wants us to define our purposes and goals. He wants us to count the cost and to decide, for ourselves, whether this is a relationship we want to pursue because it all depends on whether or not your intentions are pure and humble.

This is because discipleship is a lifetime commitment to growth and deeper understanding. Even Jesus seeks to lead his disciples up, little by little, from their basic understanding of his grace and mercy to a fuller understanding of his will and godhood.

We see this in his comment to Peter. He says, “your name will be Peter” which means “little rock” but this is not just a nickname, this represents a change of character. We see this same thing happen throughout scripture as God’s people give themselves over to God’s will, he sometimes marks this commitment and change by granting a new name to his followers. 

We see this with Abram becoming “Abraham,” Sarai to “Sarah,” Jacob to “Israel” and Simon becoming Peter. What these name changes represent is the death of the old life and rebirth into the new and anyone can have this new life if only they would humbly follow him.

The only way to this true, authentic, and real change is through a relationship with Jesus Christ. He holds the keys to heaven, he is our king and he is the Son of man. Jesus is the living link between God’s heavenly will and this earth. No one comes to the father except through him.

In the end, Andrew and John trusted Jesus through the faithful preaching of John the Baptist. Peter and James came to Jesus through an invitation from their brothers. Later, Jesus won Philip over to himself with a simple command to “follow me.” This led to Philip inviting his hesitant and sarcastic friend, Nathanael. 

The point is that everyone comes to faith for different reasons but all people come to faith through humility and love. Whether it is your patience over time as you invite a neighbor or a friend or you visit someone in the hospital or you are just kind and lend out someone your snow blower every once in a while, you have no idea how that love will affect that person.

This requires you to try to live your faith and consider the people in your life. Whether they are a friend, relative, neighbor, or just someone you meet at the grocery store; look for opportunities to serve them. Like the Good Samaritan, prove you are willing to sacrifice for a stranger. 

You very well could be helping to plant a new seed in God’s garden.