The next day John was standing there with two of his disciples. Gazing at Jesus as he walked by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” When John’s two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Jesus turned around and saw them following and said to them, “What do you want?”
So they said to him, “Rabbi” (which is translated Teacher), “Where are you staying?” Jesus answered, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. Now it was about four o’clock in the afternoon.
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two disciples who heard what John said and followed Jesus. He first found his own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah!” (which is translated Christ). Andrew brought Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon, the son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).
On the next day Jesus wanted to set out for Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” (Now Philip was from Bethsaida , the town of Andrew and Peter.) Philip found Nathanael (Bartholemew?) and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets also wrote about—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Nathanael replied, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip replied, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and exclaimed, “Look, a true Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” Jesus replied, “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 said to him, “Because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” He continued, “I tell all of you the solemn truth—you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Come and See
If you’ve ever had someone try to explain a new game to you, eventually they probably say something like this, “Let’s just start to play. It will make sense once we get started.” And sure enough – often, it starts to click when you actually begin to experience what before had just been theoretical.
I’ve discovered it’s one thing to know about a sport and another thing to know a sport. I know basketball because I have tasted and seen that basketball is good. I know about football, but I don’t know football. I know about pickleball, but I don’t know pickleball. And all of you pickleball fans are like, “Come and see. Play it once, and you’ll know why we show up places at the crack of dawn.”
That’s the idea, I think. Jesus says to those looking and wondering, “Come and see.” Then that becomes the approach they pass on to others. There is a reason for this.
If you just see Jesus but don’t draw closer, it will be just head knowledge and not heart investment.
If you just draw closer but don’t actually want to see Jesus clearly, you may well invest your heart - but in false image of Jesus.
“Come and see” is a call to learn and know who Jesus is , as well as what it means to follow him. “Taste and see,” said the Psalmist, “that the Lord is good.”
A couple truths follow from this.
Following Jesus means not following …not Jesus.
Brilliant insight, I know, but we have to leave one thing to go to another thing. Have you seen those videos where two people are with a dog, and they suddenly sprint in opposite directions to see which one the dog follows? Eventually the dog always chooses one.
That’s the idea here. You can’t serve God and ____________. The Bible uses language of loving and imagery of clinging to describe what it’s like to attach ourselves to God. You can’t love/cling to God and something else. We are called to be ‘all in’ for Jesus. This reminds of marriage language – the ‘leaving’ a family and ‘cleaving’ or clinging to the spouse. You have to leave one to cling to the other – and that’s an exclusive kind of clinging. It’s different from all our other attachments.
Jesus specifically highlighted one particular thing we can’t love along with God: mammon/money/material things. But he also uses language of things we love vs. things we hate as a way of saying (as his audience would have understood) that loyalty demands preferential allegiance in all areas of life. At the end of the day, when our loyalty options sprint in different directions, we can’t choose both. Our loyalty will be revealed by that to which we give preferential allegiance in terms of time, money, study, emotional investment, formative influence, etc. We can’t share preferential allegiance with God and….
Money. Clinton’s “It’s the economy, stupid” was both a winning political insight and a sad reflection of human motivation.
Family. If it’s Jesus vs. family pressure, it’s got to be Jesus.
Friends. Who will you follow when there is a fork in the road of righteousness vs. unrighteousness?
Vocation. If your work makes you compromise your faith, your choice has already been made.
Culture. All cultures have beastly values motivated by a dragon.
Politics. There will always be sketchy things at odds with the Kingdom and the King we serve.
Organizations. Denominations and conventions do not deserve allegiance. The SBC is making this abundantly clear right now, though picking on them alone would be timely but unfair.
There will be something or someone that we treat as ultimate, and God has made it clear that He has no interest in sharing that space with other things. When it comes to our primary, life-orienting allegiance, Jesus demands exclusivity.
Seeing Jesus means looking away from…not Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters, fill your minds with beauty and truth. Meditate on whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is good, whatever is virtuous and praiseworthy. (Philippians 4:8)
This word translated as “fill” here comes from logízomai:
the root of the English terms "logic, logical"
properly, compute, "take into account"
reckon (come to a "bottom-line")
reason to a logical conclusion (decision).
The things Paul listed are supposed to be the thing on which we build a firm foundations that properly organizes how we conclude we ought to live in the Kingdom of God. In order for that to happen, the virtuous things in the list need to carry the weight of our spiritual, mental and emotional formation.
It’s worth noting that Paul – who wrote that verse – was clearly versed in Greek and Roman culture and entertainment. We have no idea how much of it he was forced to be aware of and how much of it he freely chose. We just know he wasn’t isolated from his culture. The early church records show that Christians used Greek and Roman stories (like Aesop) as part of the training for their kids. So this isn’t necessarily building a wall between us and culture, but when there aren’t walls, we sure need to talk about fences.
It’s so hard, in a world that demands our attention constantly, to keep our focus on Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith, to make sure He is the one who gets the first and last word in anything that is meaningfully formative in our lives. I think the first fence we must build is an awareness that culture has its own list of “whatsoevers” with which it wants to fill us: “Whatsoever things are…
Mammon (money and things = the good life)
Sexy (value wrapped up in being physically desirable)
Scandalous (love of gossip)
Self-expressive (I can do/be/say what I want all the time everywhere)
Adrenaline-building (the good life must always be exciting!)
Anger-inducing (cancel culture, for example, thrives on the next outrage)
Performance-based (we earn our value; so do others)
Fear-mongering (Chicken Little Syndrome - “Life as we know it/our culture/our world is going to END if we don’t deal with…”)
Reputation protecting (coverups, dishonesty, gaslighting to save reputation and power)
…think on these things.”
But we don’t have to go straight to culture to deal with these issues. Do you remember when Jesus told the Pharisees they were making disciples of hell? The Pharisees, who tried so hard to get every last detail right? The Pharisees, who missed the mark so badly that Jesus told them they were actually accomplishing the exact opposite of what they thought they were?
Can we be honest? People haven’t changed over time. You bet the Romans had issues – but the Pharisees were throwing stones from a glass house. We have to be careful. Church culture can have its own list of “whatsoevers” on which it causes follower of Jesus to dwell that can also lead away from Jesus: “Whatsoever things are…
Luxurious (prosperity gospel: wealth = God’s blessing/approval)
AMAZING (only extraordinary people and events have an impact)
Flashy (the spectacular vs. acts of service to build the kingdom)
Performance-based (downplaying grace – and the gift of rest)
Adrenaline-building (our faith is only alive when we feel all the feels!)
Anger-inducing (“Can you call down fire on the Samaritans?” )
Fear-mongering (Chicken Little Syndrome - - “Life as we know it/our culture/our world/the church is going to END if we don’t deal with THAT!”)
Reputation-protecting (coverups, dishonesty, gaslighting to save reputation and power)
…think on these things.”
Can we chat about the state of the church in the United States? I am not picking on us, by the way. I am feeling this because of recent headlines about things happening in the American church, and we are part of that broader community, so….
When Jesus invited people to come and see him, the moment he got disciples, the folks were going to see the disciples too. Hanging out with Jesus included hanging out with the people who followed Jesus.
When people “come and see” Jesus, what will they see in the followers of Jesus, in the family they are now supposed to enter and in which they are intended to flourish? Does it look like a new kind of Kingdom with a glorious King, or does it remind them of the Empire which they just left?
The Southern Baptist Convention made headlines this week because of decades of responding badly to abuse within the circle of SBC churches as well as in leadership. By “badly,” I mean 700+ leaders guilty of moral and legal crimes, and the SBC as an organization shaming victims, covering it up, not reporting crimes, moving perpetrators on to new congregations.
Now, those on the outside looking in are saying, “Come and see? No thanks. I see Jesus, and I like Jesus, but I also see the people of Jesus, and I’d like to keep my distance.”
Many on the inside are saying roughly the same thing. Russell Moore, who was President of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2013 to 2021 and currently works for Christianity Today:
“If people reject the church because they reject Jesus and the gospel, we should be saddened but not surprised. But what happens when people reject the church because they think we reject Jesus and the gospel? People have always left the church because they want to gratify the flesh, but what happens when people leave because they believe the church exists to gratify the flesh – in orgies of sex or anger or materialism?
That’s a far different problem. What if people don’t leave the church because they disapprove of Jesus, but because they’ve read the Bible and have come to the conclusion that the church itself would disapprove of Jesus? That’s a crisis… What they are really asking is about integrity – about whether all of this holds together.
Challenging an evangelical movement about conduct that is “not in step with the truth of the gospel” (Gal. 2:14 ESV) often prompts a charge of fostering disunity…Yet unity is not silence before injustice, or the hoarding of temporal influence, but a concern for the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church – provided that the scandal they encounter is the scandal of the cross rather than the scandal of us.”
We may say it’s not fair – we were supposed to see Jesus, not the flawed follower of Jesus. But we are ambassadors; we are “the hands and feet of Jesus,” a phrase full of promise – and peril. “We are the only Bible some people will ever read,” is a great motto when things are going well and a damning indictment when they are not.
So is there anything we can do so that when anyone in the church or outside of the church is here to see Jesus, we help to clarify their vision rather than cloud it? Yes.
I just bought a book by Alan Kreider called The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire. He’s looking at the first few centuries of the church and asking how it grew so, well, improbably? Here’s a summary of a much more complex answer:
“The Christians’ focus was not on “saving” people or recruiting them; it was on living faithfully—in the belief that when people’s lives are rehabituated in the way of Jesus, others will want to join them.”
I don’t think he means to say they didn’t spread the good news of Jesus. I think he is just stressing that the first Christians understood that living was witnessing, and that inconsistent living would drown out even the most passionate words. When we become someone new in Christ - and then live as someone new in Christ - there is something really compelling about the Kingdom community – and thus the King. And this is, indeed, what happened in the early church. From the Epistle to Diognetus which was written in 130 A.D, concerning followers of Jesus:
They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all others; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring.
They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death and restored to life.
They are poor yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things and yet abound in all; they are dishonored and yet in their very dishonor are glorified. They are evil spoken of and yet are justified; they are reviled and bless; they are insulted and repay the insult with honor; they do good yet are punished as evildoers.
When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred. To sum it all up in one word -- what the soul is to the body, that are Christians in the world.
Tertullian, a North African scholar who lived from around AD 160-225:
"We are a body knit together as such by a common religious profession, by unity of discipline, and by the bond of a common hope. We meet together as an assembly and congregation, that, offering up prayer to God as with united force, we may wrestle with Him in our supplications. This strong exertion God delights in.
We pray, too, for the emperors, for their ministers and for all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for the prevalence of peace, for the delay of the [return of Jesus]. We assemble to read our sacred writings . . . and with the sacred words we nourish our faith, we animate our hope, we make our confidence more steadfast; and no less by inculcations of God’s precepts we confirm good habits….
On the monthly day, if he likes, each puts in a small donation; but only if it be his pleasure, and only if he be able: for there is no compulsion; all is voluntary. These gifts are . . . not spent on feasts, and drinking-bouts, and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house;such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; and if there happen to be any in the mines or banished to the islands or shut up in the prisons, for nothing but their fidelity to the cause of God's Church, they become the nurslings of their confession. But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us.
See, they say, how they love one another, for they themselves are animated by mutual hatred. See, they say about us, how they are ready even to die for one another, for they themselves would sooner kill."
In 256 Cyprian wrote this to his his people:
“Beloved brethren,[we] are philosophers not in words but in deeds; we exhibit our wisdom not by our dress, but by truth; we know virtues by their practice rather than through boasting of them; we do not speak great things but we live them… It [is] not at all remarkable if we cherish only our own brethren with a proper observance of love.” Instead, Christians should do “more than the publican or the pagan.” They should exercise “a divine-like clemency, loving even their enemies . . . and praying for the salvation of their persecutors.”
Alan Kredier imagines Cyprian warming to his point in this way:
“You Christians, you are my people and flock, you know the mercy of God, and you demonstrate this by providing visits, bread, and water for other believers who are suffering. I praise God for your faithfulness. Now I am calling you to broaden your view, to exercise ‘a divine-like clemency’ by loving your pagan neighbors.
Visit them, too; encourage them; provide bread and water for them. I know that in recent months some pagans have been involved in persecuting you. Pray for them; ‘pray for their salvation,’ and help them. You are God’s children: the descendants of a good Father should ‘prove the imitation of his goodness.’”
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I posted this in the wrong format. Here are footnotes that went with the original.
“Come … and you will see,” he replies. This language is consciously designed to describe discipleship: to “follow” (Gk. akoulotheo), to “come and see,” and to “stay, remain” (Gk. meno) each describe aspects of discipleship. (NIV Application Commentary)
Andrew is constantly bringing someone to Jesus (John 6:8; 12:22).
“Cephas” is Aramaic, and “Peter” Greek, for “rock.” Nicknames were common, especially to distinguish various persons with the same name (such as Simon; cf. Mark 3:16–18), although adding the father’s name (“child of”) could serve the same purpose (for Simon’s father, cf. also Matt. 16:17; John 21:15–17). Rabbis sometimes gave characterizing nicknames to their disciples (m. Avot 2:8). In the Old Testament, God often changed names to describe some new characteristic of a person (Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Joshua; as a negative declaration see Jer. 20:3). For this naming, cf. also Mark 3:16; esp. Matt. 16:17–18. (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary On The New Testament) “Neither Petros in Greek nor Kephas in Aramaic are usual names but are actually nicknames (like the American “Rocky”), which often point to some feature of a person’s character.” (NIV Application Commentary)
Nathanael is not listed among the apostles; in all three Synoptic stories Batholomew is listed with Philip (Matt. 10:3). But Jesus had other disciples (Luke 10) who worked with the Twelve; Nathanael may have been one of them. (NIV Application Commentary)
The joke on Galilee started in the time of Solomon. From 1 Kings 9: 10-13 (keep in mind that Galilee and Nazareth are in the land of Cabul): “Now at the end of the twenty years…King Solomon gave twenty towns in the land of Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre… so Hiram went out from Tyre to inspect the towns that Solomon had given him, but he was not pleased with them. “What are these towns you have given me, my brother?” asked Hiram, and he called them the Land of Cabul, as they are called to this day.” Also, this: “By 724 BC, Assyria had captured northern Israel. In its place, a wave of Gentile immigration repopulated the region, bringing with them a legion of pagan idols and ways of life. ‘The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria [the capital of Northern Israel] in place of the sons of Israel. So they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities.’ (2 Kings 17:24) For this reason, the region took on the name Galil ha’Goyim (Galilee of the Nations or Galilee of the Gentiles). These Gentiles incorporated Jewish customs into their own pagan practices, developing a range of superstitions and false doctrines.” (“How Can the Messiah Come from Galilee?” https://free.messianicbible.com/feature/can-messiah-come-galilee/
Jesus plays on the Old Testament Jacob, or “Israel,” who was a man of guile (Gen. 27:35; 31:26); see John 1:51. (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary On The New Testament). In the language here, there is an evident allusion to the ladder that Jacob saw in a dream, and to the angels ascending and descending on it, Genesis 28:12. “What Jacob had dreamt was in Christ realized. “(Expositor’s Greek New Testament)
Psalms 46: “Come and see what the Lord has done, the amazing things he has done on the earth.” Psalm 66:5: “Come and see the works of God; how awesome are His deeds toward mankind.” John 4:29, the Woman at the well: “Come, see a man…”
“Anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)
That his name was Paulus means, as a Jewish man, he almost certainly had a Roman mentor. It’s one reason he was primed to be the apostle to the Gentiles. He knew Gentiles.
I’m not picking on CLG. I’m looking at church history, the American church in the headlines, etc.
“The number of Americans now affiliated with a church is just 47 percent. What’s significant is not just the low number, but also the speed of the plummet – from 69 percent twenty years ago to 47 percent now. And the numbers are even worse than they appear. Generation X is less affiliated than Baby Boomers, Millennials less than Gen-X, and Generation Z looks likely to be even less affiliated than them all… the most reliable studies available show us that as little as 8 percent of White Millennials identify as evangelicals, as compared to 26 percent of senior adults. With Generation Z, the numbers are even more jarring – with 34 percent (and growing) identifying as religiously unaffiliated.” http://www.plough.com/en/topics/faith/witness/integrity-and-the-future-of-the-church