Think about the power of an invitation. While I was growing up my parents would, many times, invite some of the neighborhood kids over for lunch or dinner or to celebrate the holidays with us. My parents always made room at the table. I had no idea at the time but years later they told me that these kids they invited came from broken homes. These kids would come around our house because they knew they were always invited, always welcome in our home. Many of these kids went on to get married, and raise families of their own, and still keep in touch with the family.
We have received invitations to birthdays celebrations, family events, weddings, sports events, diplomatic functions, and yesterday for the first time in my life, I was invited to a baby shower. It’s a blessing to receive invitations as they are generally a positive experience because it signifies that someone values your presence and wants you to be part of something special. It’s an invitation to connect more intimately with others.
When I was thinking about the power of an invitation, I thought about the story of Steve Jobs. When he was 12 years old, he called Bill Hewlett, the co-founder of Hewlett Packard, and asked him for some spare computer parts. Hewlett not only gave this 12-year old the parts he wanted, but he invited him to work at HP learning to put together computers. Having someone invest in his life and invite him into something new became a catalyst for his life. And as we all know, Jobs grew up to start Apple and changed the way the world communicates. It all started with an invitation.
You never know what new possibilities and potentials are created by invitations. If you look back at your life and how you got to where you are today, there is probably a major intersection that started with an invitation. Because there is power in an invitation.
These are life-changing invitations, but the Bible gives us an invitation that impacts us both now and for all of eternity. Let’s read John 1:35-39:
35The following day John was again standing with two of his disciples. 36As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, “Look! There is the Lamb of God!” 37When John’s two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus.
38Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?” he asked them.
They replied, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
39“Come and see,” he said. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went with him to the place where he was staying, and they remained with him the rest of the day (John 1:35-39).
Jesus asked these men “what do you want - what are you looking for?” What were they looking for? For a Savior, a Redeemer? Maybe they were not sure exactly how to answer - or what to expect.
But their response, “Where are you staying?” expressed a desire to know more about who this Messiah was. How did Jesus answer? He didn’t launch into a lengthy discussion about who He was, why He was there, what He came to do. Jesus simply invited these two followers of John to come and see where He was staying, to come and see who He was. He didn’t use a lot of words to describe where He was staying, or complicate things with a series of steps and procedures when it came to following Him. He wanted them to actively come and ‘SEE’ for themselves.
Jesus was inviting them into His presence, into fellowship with the Living God. “See” speaks of perceiving… looking, learning about, discerning clearly - Jesus was saying - if you really want to know more about Me, then come and see. When Jesus invited John’s disciples to come and see, it says they came and stayed with Him. One of them who stayed with Jesus realized that He was the Messiah and He went and invited his brother Simon Peter and brought him to Jesus. Peter and Andrew became Jesus’ disciples and later the apostles. (who turned the world upside down)
Jesus invites us to come and not just meet Him but to get to know Him daily. Do we ever feel reluctant to accept His daily invitation because we think it will be boring, maybe take too much time out of our schedule, and then maybe we create such a difficult devotional regime that we just stop coming? Jesus just wants to invite us to experience life with Him, eternal life.
This is a reason why we have “Church in the Park” - so people can come and see Jesus for themselves. The most powerful invitation we could ever give another person is an invitation to meet the Creator of the universe. You are inviting that person to life-that-is-truly-life, to what it really means to live. It’s not an invitation to religion, moral standards, or to a life of restrictions, a life of “no fun.” You have the opportunity to completely change the trajectory of a person’s life through a single, or series of invitations.
We have found week after week that when we go out and share the gospel, share about God’s love for the world, people are hungry and thirsty for life. Even though some say “I am content and have no need for a belief in God,” you can see they are thirsty through their ambitions. We all have, as Augustine, Blaise Pascal, and others described, “a void or vacuum” “a God shaped hole” - a deep-seated yearning for meaning, truth, and eternal fulfillment. By nature we try to fill that void with career advancement, financial stability, intellectualism, self-directed spirituality, or a picture-perfect family - but these only give partial or short-lived satisfaction that, over time, can lead to frustration, or even despair and cynicism. God alone can fulfill this profound need through a relationship made possible by Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.
This is why God invites each one of us to Himself, to the only One who can satisfy our souls. In the book of Isaiah God spoke to people who lived in a time of political, social and spiritual unrest. He said: Read slowly
Is anyone thirsty? Come and drink - even if you have no money! Come, take your choice of wine or milk - it’s all free! Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength? Why pay for food that does you no good? Listen to me, and you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the finest food. Come to me with your ears wide open. Listen, and you will find life. I will make an everlasting covenant with you.
Jesus spoke out in the midst of a religious people thirsty for a living relationship with God:
If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink (John 7:37).
One of the last verses written in the Bible in Revelation 22 says:
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price (Rev 22:17).
An eternal, loving, just, and gracious God is inviting those who are hungering and thirsting for something deeper, more satisfying than the physical or material realm. He’s inviting us to “Come and see!” And this is not just a one time invitation.
As a church on mission this summer we want to be going, growing, loving, and inviting. When I say, inviting, I’m talking about a church that welcomes others, just like Jesus had welcomed us into His family for the glory of God (Rom 15:7). Jesus' invitation is open to all and He offers a new life to all who accept it, regardless of past history or present circumstances. There is room at His table. Accepting this invitation leads to personal transformation, will change a person’s entire life’s trajectory, and their eternal destination. This is the most significant invitation anyone can ever accept.
