| Psalm 63:1-8 1 Samuel 3:1-10 1 Corinthians 6:11b-20 John 1:43-51 |
After Jesus’ baptism He left for Galilee. He found Philip and said "Follow me."
Philip followed Him.
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."
Nathanael’s response was, "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?"
Philip didn’t argue with him. He simply said, "Come and see".
Now we might want to clarify something about Nathanael. He does not appear in any of the other Gospels and is absent from their list of the Twelve.
But, John does not define discipleship in terms of the formal company of the Twelve. We are all disciples of Christ.
Philip extended the same invitation to Nathanael "come and see" as Jesus extended to His first disciples, in v 39 of John I. "Come, and you will see."
He invites Nathanael to see for himself that the fulfillment of Scripture is indeed occurring in this human (son of Joseph) from Nazareth.
It is not unlike us asking a child to come and see what we have found. In other words, if there is a frog jumping across the grass, how do you explain to a toddler what the frog is so that he/she understands it?
You want them to actually come and see and touch, to understand what it is.
Philip wanted Nathanael to come and see and talk to Jesus. Only by interacting with Him would Nathanael be able to understand Philip’s excitement.
Is Nathanael skeptical because how could anything as good as the Son of God be born only a few miles from his home. Or is it because Nazareth was despised by the Jews because a Roman army garrison was located there. This created an attitude and poor reputation in morals and religion on the part of the people of Nazareth.
Whatever the reason, fortunately for Nathanael he went to meet Jesus and became a disciple.
Come and See. Do we invite people to come and see?
Look at Moses. God invited him to come and see. Yes he was afraid.
But he was also curious. When he heard God’s voice he hid his face. He was afraid to look at the face of God. But God reassured him and told him what he wanted him to do.
In Exodus 3: 11 Moses responded, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt? And God said, "I will be with you."
Fortunately, Moses took that step.
Simple folk, with no particular gifts of their own can do wonderful things for Christ through those they influence.
Andrew, who hovers on the edges of the inner circle of the disciples, occasionally in it but usually not, has no prominence in the Gospels.
But when we do glimpse him, he is always doing the same thing, bringing others to Christ: and through them, mighty things for Christ were happening, which but for him would not have been done at all.
Then there is Peter, one of the most vividly drawn characters in literature; intensely human always and lovable even in his worst blunderings, and there were many. He was as sudden and as fickle in his quickly changing moods as the Sea of Galilee.
Yet Christ looked at him and said with confidence, "You will be a strong rock of a man, upon whom I can found my church."
The possibilities that Christ sees in His people is astonishing. All we have to do is "Come and See".
Take that leap of faith that He asks us to take. As Paul says, no one who believes in Christ will ever be disappointed.
If Christ said it, He can do it, and He will.
In 1 Samuel God calls to Samuel. Samuel thinks it is his master Eli calling to him in the night. He responds, but Eli tells him he has not called him and to go back to sleep.
It wasn’t until the third time God called to Samuel that Eli realized it was the Lord calling to Samuel.
Eli told Samuel to go back and lie down and if he calls you, say, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening."
Samuel would never had known it was the Lord calling him if Eli had not told him.
Eli was telling Samuel to listen. He will hear the Lord calling him.
Listening and responding is vital in a relationship with God. To receive His messages, we must be ready to listen and to act upon what he tells us.
Like Samuel, be ready to say, "Here I am" when God calls you to action.
When was the last time God, asked you to "Come and See"? Did you say no?
Do we argue with Him and turn the other way? Or do we just ignore Him and pretend we didn’t hear.
Moses at least said, "I am here Lord", and then listened to Him.
Progress everywhere is built up on faith; is due to an adventurous spirit that looks out ahead, and thinks it sees something, and puts it to the test.
Here at St. Philips we put ourselves to the test. We had a vision, a renovation of our building, our church home. We stepped out in faith and asked God for help. Our adventurous spirit kicked in and we did it.
Do you think God would ask any less with the individual? Of course not! That is how He gets things done.
Calling us to serve Him is putting His spirit with our adventurous spirit. We can’t pretend to be something we’re not, so God only asks us to do what He knows we can do.
He asks us to use our gifts. The gifts He gave us. So why do we say no? We have what He has given us to do the job. Don’t be afraid. He will be with us.
When you ask people to "Come and See", you are asking them to find out for themselves. You are not forcing anything on them. But your faith in Christ tells you that they will see.
Christ is also only asking us to "Come and See". He is not forcing us to do anything.
When you are asked to be on a committee here at church or in the community do you say no before investigating just what that job is?
If you are asked to be an Acolyte, a LEM, an usher, a Lector, you are not being told you have to be one once you take the training. You are asked to come and see. To talk about it. You may be surprised that that was the ministry God has asked you to do.
You just needed someone to invite you to "come and see".
It is the same with the unchurched in our community. They just need someone to say to them, "come and see".
Will we say yes? Come and See. As Philip said to Nathanael, Come and talk with Him. Get to know Him. You will see.
At my ordination I had a song that meant a lot to me. It was titled. "I will say yes".
In essence it was asking me to give my heart, mind and soul to Jesus.
To empty myself of me, and be filled with Him.
I said "yes" at my ordination.
That does not mean that it is easy now. On the contrary, it is very difficult at times.
I ask, "why me?".
Through friends, through scripture, through faith, I am assured He will be with me.
If I see a vision or have a goal that I really want to work. I ask for God’s help.
I know He was the one who put the vision there in the first place. But I need His assurance.
Come and See. Test it.
That seems mere common sense.
Amen.