ENGAGE
I’d like to ask all of you to think for a moment about how you got here this morning. I’m not talking about the mode of transportation that you used, but rather your spiritual journey that resulted in being a part of our gathering today.
For me, that journey began as a small child. Although I don’t remember a lot of the details, my parents took us to church for a period of time when I was a young child. But then when my dad began to work a lot on Sundays, it seems like we kind of just drifted away from that. So for quite a good chunk of my childhood and teenage years, I really had anything to do with church or organized religion and really didn’t know much at all about Jesus.
But after Mary and I started dating, she asked me if I would come to church with her. To be real honest, that wasn’t something I was necessarily real excited to do, but because I liked her a lot, I figured I could do that for a week or two.
But because she had been willing to invite me to “come and see”, I began to be exposed to Jesus and the gospel and over time I committed my life to Jesus and became His disciple.
I know that your story is probably a lot different than mine, but probably all of you here this morning are here because at some point in your life, there was someone who loved you enough to invite you to “come and see” Jesus. For many of you, your parents were the ones who did that. For others it might have been a friend, or a co-worker, or a classmate, or even a boyfriend or girlfriend. Actually most of us probably had multiple people in our lives who did that for us.
TENSION
But right now, I’d like you to think of the one person in your life who was most responsible for inviting you to “come and see” Jesus. Then go ahead and write their name down. And then, if it’s possible, I want you to seek that person out this week, preferably in person, and tell them thank you for doing that.
TRUTH
I wanted to begin by getting you to think about the person, or the people, in your life that first invited you to “come and see” Jesus, because for every single one of us here today, that was the first step in our spiritual journey. So it’s appropriate that it is also the first step in the discipleship path that we introduced last week:
THORNYDALE FAMILY CHURCH
DISCIPLESHIP PATH
As we spend some time explaining and developing this discipleship path over the next five weeks, there are 4 questions that I want all of us to be able to answer at the conclusion of each message:
FOUR QUESTIONS:
1. Have I already taken this step in my personal relationship with Jesus?
• If I have, I need to thank God and the person or people who helped me take that step.
• If not, I then I need to answer the next question:
2. What concrete actions can I take right now to take this next step in my relationship with Jesus?
3. How can I help someone else I know take this step in his or her life?
4. What can we do as a church to help people take this step in their lives?
This morning we’ll look at two passages that will help us answer those questions when it comes to the first step in the discipleship path – Come.
The first is found in John chapter 1. John’s gospel account is the fourth gospel account and you’ll find it near the beginning of the New Testament right after Matthew, Mark and Luke. If you don’t have a Bible with you, there are some in the seat backs in front of you. Also feel free to use the Bible on our church app. If you don’t already have that I encourage you to download it this week from your appropriate app store.
The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter).
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
(John 1:35-51 ESV)
This is one of those passages where it’s much more effective to take a step back and look at the entire passage as a whole rather than to get too wrapped up in all the details. And when we do that, we see several themes running throughout this passage:
• The first thing I want us to see here is the way the invitation to “come and see” is passed on so naturally from person to person:
o As Jesus walks by, John turns to the two people he is standing with and merely shares what he already knows about Jesus – “Behold the Lamb of God!”
o Those two disciples hear John and they follow Jesus. One of those disciples is identified as Andrew and the other is undoubtedly John, who rarely identifies himself in his gospel account. We don’t really know how much either of them knew about Jesus at this point. Certainly they knew of Him, but Jesus’ response to them indicates they certainly didn’t know Him well at this point.
o When Jesus sees the two of them following Him, He asks “What are you seeking?” Andrew and john ask Jesus “Where are you staying” which was probably their way of inviting themselves over to get to know Jesus better. So Jesus invites them to “Come and see.”
o After spending some time with Jesus, Andrew was obviously impressed enough to go and find his brother and he not only invited him to come see Jesus but actually brought Simon with him. And this is not the only time in John’s gospel where we see Andrew bringing people to Jesus, In John 6, he is the one who brings the boy with the loaves of bread and fish to Jesus. And in John 12, we see him bringing a group of Greeks to Jesus.
o The next day, Jesus invites Philip, who is from the same city as Andrew and Simon Peter, to follow him. Apparently Philip gets to know enough about Jesus that he goes and invites Nathaniel to come and see the one who had been prophesied about in the Old Testament.
The thing that is common to all these invitations is that they just naturally flowed out of existing relationships. As people got to know Jesus, they were so impressed with Him that is was natural to invite their family and friends to come see Him for themselves.
• The second thing I want us to see is that inviting others to come and see Jesus didn’t require any special training or education. For the most part these were uneducated fishermen who had little or no formal religious education. They hadn’t been through Evangelism Explosion training or completed the “How to Become a Contagious Christian” Bible study. They just shared what they knew about Jesus based on their personal interactions with Him. Some, like John and Philip, did seem to have some idea that Jesus was the Messiah, but even that understanding was very primitive at this point.
• The third thing that I want us to see is that every invitation was an invitation to come and meet a person, not a call to become part of a religion or to join a movement, or to enroll in a program or to become a member in an organization.
• Although there are probably a lot more things we could take away from this passage, the last thing I want to call your attention to is that none of these people tried to change the other person. They just called them to come and see Jesus and allowed Jesus to be the one who transformed their lives.
Before we use what we’ve learned here to answer the four questions I posed earlier, let’s look at one more passage that will give us some additional insights into this first step in our discipleship path - Come. This passage is found in Matthew’s gospel account near the beginning of the New Testament. I’ll read from chapter 9, beginning in verse 9:
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
(Matthew 9:9-13 ESV)
The fact that Jesus would call Matthew to follow Him is even more amazing than we might imagine. In our country, most of us probably wouldn’t go out of our way to initiate a relationship with an IRS agent we didn’t already know. But the tax collectors of Jesus’ day were far more despised than any IRS agent would be today.
Unlike today, there was no IRS code that could be used to calculate how much each person owed in taxes. The Roman government would just decide the total amount of taxes that they required from each taxing district and then they would assign a tax collector to that district who was responsible for making sure that the Roman government received that amount of taxes.
The way that the tax collectors made a living was to collect the most taxes they could by any means possible, including lying to and cheating the people, because they got to keep whatever amount they collected over the amount they had to give the Roman government. That is why we later see another tax collector – Zacchaeus – promising to repay fourfold anyone who he had defrauded.
So if there was anyone there in Capernaum that day who would have been the least likely person to become a disciple of Jesus, it had to be Matthew. In general, the tax collectors were despised by the Jews because of their collaboration with the Roman government, but as a Jew himself, Matthew would have been seen as betraying his own people. And yet Jesus singles him out and calls Matthew to follow Him.
And when the Jewish religious leaders questioned Jesus on His association with sinners like Matthew, Jesus replied that He had come to call sinners like that to be healed spiritually.
Again, I want us to think about the big picture here. And when we do that, there are two important themes that I want us to focus on here.
• First, we see that Jesus sought out relationships with unbelievers. That was certainly a sore point with the Jewish religious leaders who regarded any kind of contact with those who they considered to be unrighteous as something that would defile them. But throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus not only refused to shy away from these people, He continually sought them out.
• The second, and even more important thing we see here is that Jesus did not expect people to clean up their lives before He invited them to follow Him. Certainly Matthew’s life did change starting that day when he left his career as a tax collector to follow Jesus, But Jesus never made that a condition of inviting Matthew to follow Him. He didn’t tell Matthew to clean up his life first and then when he had it all together to come and follow Jesus. Jesus trusted that once Matthew entered into a relationship with Him that Jesus would then begin to change Matthew’s life through that relationship.
APPLICATION
Let’s see if we can take what we’ve learned from these two passages and apply it as we answer the four questions that I posed to you earlier:
FOUR QUESTIONS:
1. Have I already taken this step in my personal relationship with Jesus?
We’re not going to need to spend a lot of time to answer that question, are we? The very fact that you’re here this morning, means that at a very minimum you’ve taken the step to “come and see”. So, as I’ve already suggested…
• I need to thank God and thank the people who helped me take this first step
There is no need to really spend any time on the second question, since I think we can safely assume that we’ve all answered this first question “yes”.
2. What concrete actions can I take right now to take this next step in my relationship with Jesus?
So let’s use our remaining time to focus on the last two questions.
3. How can I help someone else I know take this step in his or her life?
Let’s look at four things we can do.
• Initiate and develop relationships with unbelievers.
All of the invitations to “come and see” that we saw in the passage in John grew out of existing relationships. But one of the problems that many Christians have is that they just don’t have many genuine relationships with unbelievers. Obviously there is a balance here and our relationships with other believers are essential to our spiritual growth. But at the same time, it’s important that we also develop some relationships with those who are not yet disciples of Jesus.
And that won’t usually just happen by accident. So we need to be proactive in developing those relationships. But that doesn’t mean that process has to uncomfortable or painful. All of us can probably find some ways to develop those relationships that are actually very enjoyable and natural. Let me suggest a few ideas in case you need a little help here:
o Start with those people with whom you already have some kind of relationship – family, friends, neighbors, co-workers. Get to know them enough to find out some of the things they like to do and then offer to engage in those activities with them.
o If you have a hobby or some activity you enjoy, see if you can find a group to join rather than just doing it on your own. For me, officiating sports has been one of the ways that I have been able to initiate and develop relationships with unbelievers. I know there are some of you who have done something similar. For instance, Sylvia is involved with 4-H.
o Join a civic organization or volunteer for a charity. I know Steve Ponzo has been active in the Rotary Club and Natalie and Ryan have been involved in raising funds and promoting awareness for PMG.
o Coach a youth sports team. A lot of you already have kids who are active there. Even if you don’t coach, you can offer to bring snacks or get involved in other ways.
o Do something to serve a neighbor or ask them to help you with a project.
The possibilities are really endless here, but the point is that all of us can find ways to initiates and develop relationships with unbelievers.
• Before I talk to my friends about Jesus, I need to talk to Jesus about my friends
While this step doesn’t really flow directly from the passages we looked at today, this is a “no-brainer” isn’t it? We need to pray and ask God to give us the right opportunities and the right words when we invite others to “come and see”.
• Invite others to “come and see” a Person
There are a number of ways we can invite people to “come and see” Jesus and we’re going to discuss them further in our Bible Roundtable today. But we need to keep in mind that we’re not inviting people to a building, or an organization, or a program – we’re inviting them to come and know a person – Jesus. All those other things might be pathways that are a part of that process, but we need to make sure that we clearly communicate to others that we are asking them to come and meet Jesus.
• Let Jesus change the other person
There are a couple of potential pitfalls that we need to avoid here. First, I think there is often a tendency on our part to look at someone’s life and think that there is just no way that other person could possibly ever become a Christian. But I’m pretty sure that Matthew was sure happy Jesus didn’t think that about him. Our responsibility is just to issue the invitation. The response is really out of our hands.
The other pitfall to avoid is the tendency to expect unbelievers to act like believers. While it is true that Jesus was often very direct in confronting people about their sin, He didn’t do that until He had first taken the time to develop a relationship with that person and after He first expressed His love, concern, and compassion for the other person.
In our culture today, it seems that the church is often known far better for what we’re against than what we’re for. And that often becomes an almost insurmountable barrier when we’re inviting people to “come and see” Jesus. There is undoubtedly a right time to stand upon the truth of God’s Word and let God’s Holy Spirit bring people face-to-face with their sin. But I wonder how often we unnecessarily turn people away from ever meeting Jesus by trying to usurp the role of the Holy Spirit and condemn them for their sin.
4. What can we do as a church to help people take this step in their lives?
• Be a safe place for seekers and skeptics…
This week I read a blog post from Carey Nieuwhof, a Canadian pastor and church leadership expert titled “9 Signs Your Church Is Ready To Reach Unchurched People”. I’m not going to share all 9 signs, but I think several of them are particularly relevant here, so I’m going to us them to help explain what I mean:
Sign #3: Your attenders are prepared to be non-judgmental. Unchurched people do not come ‘pre-converted’. They will have lifestyle issues that might take years to change (and let’s be honest, don’t you?)
Sign #4: You’re good with questions… I think one of the reasons unchurched people flee churches is they feel shut down when every question they ask has a snappy or even quick answer. They will find answers, but you need to give them time.
Sign #5: You’re honest about your struggles. Unchurched people get suspicious when church leaders and Christians want to appear to have it ‘all together’.
Sign #7: You’ve dumped all assumptions. It’s so easy to assume that unchurch people ‘must know’ at least the basics of the Christian faith. Lose that thinking.
There is obviously a lot more I could say here, but I think that’s a pretty good start. We do need to be a safe place for seekers and skeptics. But we need to do that…
• Without “watering down” the gospel
There are a lot of churches in our country, many of them very large churches, who have adopted what is usually known as a “seeker-friendly” or “seeker-sensitive” model. In most cases they have done that out of a desire to reach people for Jesus and to make it comfortable for people to “come and see”.
But the problem is that they go so far in that direction that the gospel is no longer presented in its entirety. People are told about God’s love, but any mention of sin is carefully avoided in order not to offend anyone. All of the benefits of committing one’s life to Jesus are presented, but the cost of becoming a disciple is never mentioned.
I’m of the opinion that not only is this approach unbiblical, but in the long run it does more harm than good for those people who are seeking a relationship with Jesus because they have unrealistic expectations about the nature of that relationship. In fact, I would go so far as to say that when people visit a church they are expecting to find a community of people who hold fast to a set of beliefs and principles and when the church minimizes those things, it actually ends up turning people off rather than being attractive to them.
INSPIRATION
I am so thankful for the people in my life who invited me to “come and see” Jesus. And that gratitude motivates me to want to be that person in the lives of other unbelievers I know. I pray that is true for you as well.
[Prayer]
ACTION
Before I share a few announcements, let me remind all of us of some possible actions that we ought to consider taking in response to this message:
1. If possible, thank the person or people who invited you to “come and see” Jesus.
2. Pray for unbelievers with whom you already have a relationship and ask God to provide the right opportunity and the right words to invite them to “come and see” Jesus.
3. If you don’t already have some relationships with unbelievers, consider what you could do to develop new relationships.
Discussion questions for the Bible Roundtable
1. What changes might we need to make in our lives in order to be more effective in inviting people to “come and see” Jesus?
2. What are some ways that we can invite people to “come and see” Jesus other than just inviting them to come to church with us?
3. What specific things could our church do to make it a more inviting community without sacrificing a commitment to the truth of God’s Word?
