By Rev Bill Stewart
Several years ago I had been invited to a dinner party at the home of some friends from Church. I had accepted the invitation the week before. But when the time came to get ready to go I really didn’t feel up to going. It had been a very busy week at work. When I got home about 5.30 I was feeling exhausted. I lay down on my bed and tried to persuade myself that my friends would understand if I gave my apologies. Then I told myself that it was a bit late to pull out now with just over an hour to go. After all they would have done all the preparations. Dinner would be made and they had probably even set the table. Eventually I managed to drag myself up off the bed and get changed. I made my way wearily to car to drive out to their house; all the time asking myself why I was going because I really needed an early night.
Have you ever received an invitation to something that you really didn’t think would be any good? I’m sure you all have. But you ended up going to it because of the person or people who gave you the invitation? I’m sure you have done that too. And when you went it actually turned out to be really good! Of course we have all been along to something that we thought wouldn’t we enjoy and we didn’t, but sometimes we are pleasantly surprised.
There’s one other thing I have to tell you before I tell you more about this dinner party. And that is that my two least favourite subjects in high school were maths and physics. So who do I end up seated next too at this party but someone who studied maths and physics at university. And that person was working as a physicist with an aluminium company! It is good that I didn’t know that beforehand or I definitely would not have gone! But to cut a long story short, that physicist is now my wife!
2. Come and see, follow me
Before we get into today’s section from the Gospel of John is really a series of invitations. Let me begin reading from verse 35 of chapter 1 as we listen together for the invitations:
John the Baptist to Andrew (and another disciple) to Jesus (vs. 35-39)
35The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!" 37The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?" 39He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon.
John the Baptist invited Andrew and another disciple: "Look, here is the Lamb of God!" … and they followed Jesus. Jesus saw them following and said: "What are you looking for?" And then he gave them an invitation: "’Come and see.’ They came and saw…" Let’s continue to read:
Andrew to Simon to Jesus (vs. 41-42)
40One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed). 42He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter).
Andrew found his brother Simon and brought Simon to Jesus ... Then:
Jesus to Philip to Nathanael to Jesus (vs. 43-46)
43The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." 44Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth." 46Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."
Jesus found Philip. Philip found Nathanael and said: "We have found Jesus … Come and see."
I expect that you are beginning to notice some patterns here. I’m sure John, the author of the Gospel, wanted us to see these patterns. Let’s look at some of those patterns.
The first thing we find is people sharing what they have discovered about Jesus with others: John the Baptist, then Andrew, then Philip:
v. 36: "Look, here is the Lamb of God!"
v. 41: "We have found the Messiah"
v. 45: "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth."
The second thing we see is people being invited to "come and see": first, John’s disciples; then, Nathanael:
v. 39: "Jesus said to John’s disciples, ’Come and see.’ They came and saw..."
v. 46: "Philip said to Nathanael, ’Come and see’."
The third thing we see is after they see Jesus there is an invitation to follow him. This not just an invitation to spend time with him but to become a disciple of Jesus, a "follower": first, John’s disciples, then Simon, then Philip:
v. 37: "The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus."
v. 38: "When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, ’What are you looking for?’"
v. 40: "One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother."
v. 43: "The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, ’Follow me.’"
And all the way through these conversations there is an implied invitation isn’t there? John recorded these words as an invitation to us the readers (Don Carson). Perhaps for some of us the invitation is to really read the Gospels for the first time. To look to see who Jesus really is? Or maybe it is to take that step and follow?
I know that many of us here are involved in business or in other professions where we are always being told that we need to be "networking" – winning friends and influencing people! How many of you have been to seminars to teach you about "networking"? It is one of those trendy buzzwords isn’t it. Well it seems to me that Jesus and his disciples were very good at "networking". Did you notice how the message was passed from person to person by word of mouth?
John to Andrew (and another disciple) to Jesus
Andrew to Simon to Jesus
Jesus to Philip to Nathanael to Jesus
Of course there are exceptions, but in general the studies tell us that people don’t just come to church. They don’t just get up on a Sunday morning and suddenly say "I think I’ll go to church this morning" after not going for 25 years or 40 years or 80 years. Most people don’t just suddenly open the Bible and read it after never reading it before. They need an invitation.
But the good news is that when they are invited, many people will still "come and see" Jesus. And the most powerful witness or testimony to Jesus is still people who say: "I’ve found something here, come and see". And people have many objections to Christianity and the church. But they are still curious if they can see that something has made a difference in our lives.
3. You will see heaven opened
Nathanael criticised Jesus’ hometown Nazareth as a place of no importance. And because it was a place of no importance he believed no one important could come from there. If the Messiah was born today it would happen in Melbourne not Mildura wouldn’t it! (My apologies to anyone here from Mildura. If we were in Queensland I would have used the name of my hometown but no one would know where it is). But Nathanael was still ready to go and see for himself if the claims made about Jesus were true:
47When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!" 48Nathanael asked him, "Where did you get to know me?" Jesus answered, "I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you." 49Nathanael replied, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" 50Jesus answered, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these." 51And he said to him, "Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."
There are lots of other details of this meeting between Nathanael and Jesus that we could talk about for a long time this morning. But I just want us to look at the last two verses. Jesus answered Nathanael: "YOU WILL SEE greater things than these, YOU WILL SEE heaven opened" (vs. 50-51). Come and see; follow me and you will see even greater things.
Jesus was referring to the vision of what we now call "Jacob’s ladder". This vision is recorded in the book of Genesis, chapter 28:
12[Jacob] dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13And the LORD stood beside him and said, "I am the LORD... 16Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place – and I did not know it!" 17And he was afraid, and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." (Genesis 28:12-17)
When we read this history of Jacob the point Jesus was making to Nathanael becomes clearer: "you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man" (v. 51). "The Son of Man" is an expression Jesus often uses in the Gospels to speak about himself. So Jesus is now "the gate of heaven". Jesus is the point of contact between heaven and earth. The angels ascend and descend upon Jesus. Jesus is the presence of God in the world. Jesus was saying to Nathanael: "Surely the LORD is in this place – and you did not know it!" You don’t understand that now but come and follow me and you will come to see it.
And what happened? When we go from the first chapter of John’s Gospel to the last we find the disciples, Jesus’ followers, beside the sea of Galilee. And John tells us that among those gathered together was "Nathanael of Cana in Galilee" (John 21:2). Then Jesus appeared to them after his resurrection for the dead. Nathanel did see greater things. He saw heaven opened. He saw Jesus risen from the dead!
In my experience the majority of people in Australia do not really know anything much about Jesus. And most of what the do know is wrong. This is not necessarily their fault. They have been told things and they have heard things on the radio and seen things on TV. They believe they know what is in the Bible but they have never read it carefully for themselves. I believe that this passage should give us great confidence as followers of Jesus today. The confidence to say: "come and see". Invitations are still powerful. And personal face-to-face invitations are still the best way to share the good news that "We have found the Messiah". Come and read the Bible with me. Come along to our Bible study. Come along to a service and hear someone explain the Bible. Have you got 5 or 10 minutes for me to share with you why I believe what I believe? Some of them will see "the gate of heaven" opened.
4. Which is translated
I want to conclude with one brief but I think very important point from this passage of John’s Gospel. Did you notice how many times John used the words "which translated means" or "which is translated"? Three times in just a few verses:
v. 38: "They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher)"
v. 41: "’We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated Anointed) [in English, it is usually translated Christ]"
v. 35: "’You are to be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter)"
From the very beginning the church has been multi-lingual. What we are doing this morning in using a Cantonese-English prayer book is exactly what the first Christians had to do. They prayed together, studied God’s word together, worshipped together, despite coming from different cultures and speaking different native languages. John wrote his Gospel in Greek – the international language of his time – the equivalent of English today. And John knew that his Greek-speaking readers would not understand Hebrew words like "Rabbi" and "Messiah" or Aramaic words like "Cephas". To those of you here this morning whose first language is not English I apologise that I am not able to translate for you like John did for his readers. I hope that God has spoken to you despite my inability to read or speak in Cantonese. And let our prayer for 2009 be that many people will "come and see" and that they will be able to say: "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Christ).
