COME AND SEE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are You staying?”

“Come,” He replied, “and you will see.”

So they went and saw where He was staying, and they spent that day with Him. It was about four in the afternoon.

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.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).

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.

“Come and see,” said Philip.

When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

“How do You know me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the king of Israel.”

Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”

John 1:35-51

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Jesus and others had been baptized by John the Baptist who then endured an interrogation by Jewish religious leaders. He then proclaimed the truth about who Jesus was, how He ended up on earth, and what He would bring to all people.

Today, we find some of John’s disciples, shifting alliances while still others were selected by Jesus to be His followers. Look again at the words from the closing verses of the first chapter in John’s Gospel:

Of interest these parts of John, Chapter 1 progress by days. Here we find the events in these closing verses beginning the day after John declares Jesus as God’s chosen One and the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world, an addressing he repeats here in the presence of two of his disciples, one of which we discover is Andrew who follows Jesus with his unidentified counterpart.

Jesus, sensing He was being followed, turned and asked the two men what they wanted to which they answered:

“Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are You staying?”

Their reply indicated they were interested in going where Jesus was staying and so He simply told them:

“Come and you will see.”

And so the scriptures tells us that Andrew and the other disciple went and saw where Jesus was staying before spending the day with Him until around “four in the afternoon”. It had to be an amazing day for both those men and we sense the amazement and enjoyment Andrew gained as he ran off to tell his brother Simon, exclaiming as he found him:

“We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ).

And with that, he took his brother to meet Jesus.

When Andrew and his brother arrived, Jesus took one look at Peter and said:

“You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).

And now you know why we often see Peter referred to as Simon Peter in the scriptures.

As we move to the day after Jesus’ meeting with Andrew, Peter, and the other unnamed disciple of John, we read where Jesus set out for Galilee and on the way He encountered a man named Philip who He simply commanded to:

“Follow me.”

Of interest, we read that Philip shared the same hometown, Bethsaida, as Andrew and Simon Peter. And just as Andrew ran off to find his brother Peter after encountering Jesus, we find Philip going to a man named Nathanuel, telling 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.”

It was an incredible claim, one that you would have thought would have elicited excitement in the heart of any Jew, excitement in knowing the long awaited Messiah had finally come, the One Moses and the prophets wrote of.

But as we see in Nathanuel’s words, he was only fixated on one thing, the hometown of Jesus:

“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?”

Through Nathanuel’s attitude, we get a sense that Nazareth was anything but a town which was held in high esteem. In fact, before Jesus, Nathanuel’s statement leads us to believe that no one of any fame or significance had ever come from Nazareth, something Jesus changed in a big way.

Well, Philip, in response to Nathanuel’s reply, gave him the same simple challenge we found Jesus giving to Andrew and his colleague earlier:

“Come and see.”

And so Nathanuel took Philip up on his offer and the scriptures tell us that as soon as “Jesus saw Nathanael approaching”, He said:

“Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

What fascinates me about Jesus’ words here is that He is now making a judgment on Nathanuel who had before passed judgment on Jesus, wondering if anything good could come from Nazareth even before he met Jesus to find out. The difference in these two judgments comes in that Jesus’ was positive in nature as He complimented Nathanuel as being a man of the highest integrity, a man who had no deceit within him.

Imagine how these words had to impact Nathanuel. He had to be stunned and as we see, he wondered how Jesus could have made such an assessment about him, especially since this was the first time they had met. Nathanuel asked Jesus:

“How do You know me?”

To which Jesus replied:

“I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

Wow! Basically, Jesus was telling Nathanuel that He could supernaturally be present in any place, at any time, and know the heart of anyone who He chose to probe. Indeed, no one but the One who was to come from God could be able to do that. This is why we find Nathanuel exclaim:

“Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the king of Israel.”

Yet another person had their eyes opened to Jesus’ true nature. Indeed, Nathanuel’s words contradicted his earlier statement for the Son of God, the new king of Israel had arrived and He was from Nazareth. And to continue to wet Nathanuel’s appetite for appreciating the greatness he realized in Jesus, the newly found Messiah promised this:

“You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that. Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”

In other words, Jesus was essentially telling Nathanuel to stick around with Him and come and see that the best was still yet to come, that what he had seen so far was just the top of the iceberg as to what lied ahead.

In applying this to our present day and age, maybe you or someone you know, like the earliest disciples, are people who don’t really know Jesus that well.

Maybe you’re not sure if He can provide you any true benefit.

Maybe you wonder who He is and what that means to you.

In response to those thoughts, I would simply repeat words spoken twice in our passage today to those who were inquisitive:

Come and see.

Come and see who Jesus is for yourself.

Come and see what He means to you on a personal level.

Come and see how you can guarantee you will have an eternal future hope and life in Him.

Come and see. I promise you won’t regret it.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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