John 1:46 - "Come and See"

Good morning.

So, as you may have noticed, I'm not very good at finishing what I started. For example, it's usually the times when I commit to writing on here more that I end up going weeks without typing a single sentence. I don't know why that is, but I'm asking the Lord to make my "yes" a "yes" and my "no" a "no". Instead of everything just turning into a "maybe, but probably not".

But I am glad that my weaknesses are so evident on here - or at least I really hope they are. I wouldn't want anyone putting me up on a pedestal that the Lord should be standing on instead (I've been there done that). So I'm glad that He's made me so incredibly weak and unable to accomplish anything I set my mind to because it just shows how powerful He is when something actually does end up working out. Without him, though, all my plans and commitments go out the window for some reason.

If none of that made any sense, I'm sorry. My brain feels like a baked potato right now. So this should be interesting.  :)


Well, on that note, I'm just going to talk about one verse today: John 1:46.

"Nathanael said to him, 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?' Philip said to him, 'Come and see.'

Here's a little background. Jesus has been going around to different nearby villages and towns and he's calling his disciples. John 1:43 says he found Philip and said to him, "Follow me". Philip, it says, just so happened to be from the same town as Andrew and Peter, who are to two men Jesus just finished calling as his other disciples a couple verses before. (Side note: Jesus very likely already knew these guys personally. They grew up and lived only a little over 15 miles away from Nazareth, Jesus' home town, on the other side of the Sea of Galilee - which was more like a big lake. Which would explain why they followed him so quickly when he called them - they already knew him and seen what kind of a person he was. What does this say about the kinds of people God wants us to disciple? Maybe that little sister or brother you can't stand is your "mission field"? Or maybe those people you grew up who know all the dirty little secrets of your past and who you'd just as soon never talk to again? The Lord puts us in the places we are for a reason. Just a thought.)  

So anyways, Jesus has just called Philip, and Philip goes and gets Nathanael and tells him that they'd found the one who the prophets and Moses wrote about - that guys Jesus from Nazareth. You know, Joseph's son? The one who makes those great tables that never break? And Nathanael asks him something that sounds an awful lot like the kinds of questions people are asking us today, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" ("Does anything good come from your religion?" Yep, sounds familiar.)  He said this because Nazareth was about as exciting as one of those small towns you drive through on a road trip that have a couple stop signs and a creepy looking gas station - except that Nazareth wasn't even by a main road and they didn't even have a Walmart. So you'd never go there unless you lived there, type of thing. (Yep, Jesus was a small town, country boy from the lamest town around. Wonder why so many people got offended by him? Who did this guy think he was anyways?) 

And so after Nathanael makes that snide, but completely understandable, comment about nothing good coming out of (ewwww) Nazareth, Philip says what I think we should try saying every once in awhile. Instead of Philip getting defensive and arguing with Nathanael that, yes, in fact they do have a pretty good, family owned burger joint on Main Street, and those small town girls were actually pretty cute, he just smiles and says to the skeptic, "Come and see."

That's all. No arguments or smart remarks. Philip just invites Nathanael to see for himself whether or not Jesus is worth it. I know that I, for one, am planning on putting this easy evangelism method into practice as soon as possible. :) Because all we really have to do is get people to come and see Jesus for themselves - and the rest is history. 

Nathanael follows Philip and they find Jesus. And when they get close enough for Jesus to hear their footsteps coming, and right about when Nathanael is about to cross his arms and put his guard up, Jesus says to him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!" Haha, maybe Jesus was joking with the skeptical Nathanael and saying, "Oh, you can't pull the wool over this guys eyes! He's not one to be fooled!" Or maybe he was sincerely saying, "Wow, now here's someone who values the truth above all else!". I don't know which one it was, but do like to think Jesus was joking around a little bit with Nathanael. :) 

But I do know that it kinda creeped Nathanael out because he asks Jesus, "How do you know me?" ("Why you actin like you know me?") Nathanael was, after all, only the friend of a friend and so it sounds like he and Jesus were acquaintances at best. So of course Nathanael is a little bit confused and maybe even annoyed about how Jesus would act like he knows the deepest parts of his heart. (Jesus seems to have this effect on people a lot. Before the conversations already begun, he's pointing out what's really going on in your heart. It's terrifying and incredibly freeing to be known so deeply, yet loved so perfectly anyways.)  Nathanael, for one, is not quite sure about this guy.

And then Jesus looks at him with that look in his eyes that always put people at ease (pure, selfless love tends to do that) and he said to him, "Before Philip call you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."  And Nathanael answers him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" 

Yep. Jesus says two sentences to Nathanael and he's a believer. It's that easy folks. We bring the people: Jesus does the rest. We couldn't have an easier job description. All we have to say to all those skeptics and critics out there who can't get enough of our endless arguments and proofs is,"Come and see. Before you judge what you do not know, just come with me and take a good hard look at this guys Jesus. And then after that, if you're not satisfied, you're free to write him off as a lie. You're free to walk away. But until you've looked in his eyes and talked to him face to face, you don't even know what you're ignoring. Just come and see for yourself!"  

Are there mysteries that I don't understand about this Jesus and the God who is his father? YES! YES! And YES! But just go ahead and put all those questions and doubts aside, my friend, and just take a good long look at Jesus for awhile. Keep looking at him until the mist starts to clear and the blurry lines begin to come in focus, and you are able to see just a glimpse of the face of Jesus. And once you've seen him, if he doesn't satisfy you, please, by all means, go and find something that is real! Go find the truth if you can't see it in Jesus. I'm not asking you to believe a lie. But you will never know what you are rejecting until you come and see for yourself. Then you'll find out if he's all he's cracked up to be. Then you'll be able to understand what all the commotion is about. 

Just come and see for yourself. Then let me know what you think.