John, The Love of God

The first thing we want to do after meeting an important person who we admire or is admired by others is to show and tell others about it. When we experience a life-changing event, the first thing we do is to TELL someone else. We take selfies to memorialize the event, we post it on social media, we snapchat it or instagram the news and then text our close friends with all the details. We use words like awesome, incredible, off the chart, followed by unbelievable. However we do it, we do it because we are excited and joyful!

I think of our lives now as I read our next passage. John writes of the quickly spreading news of the ONE who has come. The Messiah is here! Jesus is quickly gaining followers who want to go where He goes and be with Him always. Their witness is contagious. One tells another, then that person tells his brother and on and on it goes! Exponential gospel planting! Maybe we should change the name of “church” planting to Gospel planting! Mm.

John 1, The Message
Come, See for Yourself
35-36 The next day John was back at his post with two disciples, who were watching. He looked up, saw Jesus walking nearby, and said, “Here he is, God’s Passover Lamb.”

37-38 The two disciples heard him and went after Jesus. Jesus looked over his shoulder and said to them, “What are you after?”

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

39 He replied, “Come along and see for yourself.”

They came, saw where he was living, and ended up staying with him for the day. It was late afternoon when this happened.

40-42 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John’s witness and followed Jesus. The first thing he did after finding where Jesus lived was find his own brother, Simon, telling him, “We’ve found the Messiah” (that is, “Christ”). He immediately led him to Jesus.

Jesus took one look up and said, “You’re John’s son, Simon? From now on your name is Cephas” (or Peter, which means “Rock”).

43-44 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. When he got there, he ran across Philip and said, “Come, follow me.” (Philip’s hometown was Bethsaida, the same as Andrew and Peter.)

45-46 Philip went and found Nathanael and told him, “We’ve found the One Moses wrote of in the Law, the One preached by the prophets. It’s Jesus, Joseph’s son, the one from Nazareth!” Nathanael said, “Nazareth? You’ve got to be kidding.”

But Philip said, “Come, see for yourself.”

47 When Jesus saw him coming he said, “There’s a real Israelite, not a false bone in his body.”

48 Nathanael said, “Where did you get that idea? You don’t know me.”

Jesus answered, “One day, long before Philip called you here, I saw you under the fig tree.”

49 Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi! You are the Son of God, the King of Israel!”

50-51 Jesus said, “You’ve become a believer simply because I say I saw you one day sitting under the fig tree? You haven’t seen anything yet! Before this is over you’re going to see heaven open and God’s angels descending to the Son of Man and ascending again.”

THESE WORDS EXCITE US!

“Come, see for yourself” is the excited, tenacious witness of simplicity. Come, see Jesus, the Christ! He is the ONE we’ve been waiting for. We found Him! Come and see!

We can be that witness today! Think about it. What is the first thing you want to say or do when you see the glory of God right before your eyes? Who is the first person you want to tell? How can we point others to Jesus? Is it the first thing we think of when we open our eyes each morning? Fill in the blank, “I can’t wait to go tell ________________ who Jesus is and what He has done! I’m so excited!

I love what Jesus says, “You haven’t seen anything yet!” It gets better, folks. Simply believe and revel in the joy of His salvation and then go tell someone else!

Dear Heavenly Father, 
What can I say that has not already been said? Who can I tell about the joy of your salvation in me? What is the first thing I will say? You are God and we are not. You sent Your Son to become the Lamb who was slain. Jesus, You also taught us how to love and to live in your love. Come, see for yourself. 
That’s what I will say. To you be all glory, honor and praise! May Your word go out today and touch someone’s heart with a desire to follow you.
In Jesus Name, Amen