Come and See

“Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see.’"—John 1:46

Walking with Jesus includes introducing others to Him. In our passage for today, we have Philip, who had just met Jesus, talking to Nathanael about Him. Philip told Nathanael everything he knew about Jesus. He said,  

"We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph”—John 1:45. 

He was excited and He was convinced that Jesus was the one whom the Scriptures pointed to, and he was right. But what was the response of Nathanael? He said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nazareth was a backwoods town and not the place Messiahs came from. It’s amazing that Philip’s excitement for Jesus elicited such an incredulous response from Nathanael: “Can anything good….?” For most of us, such a question would be like taking a fire extinguisher to the fire of our faith, but not to Philip. Philip didn’t want to simply give information; He wanted to give an introduction. He didn’t want to talk about the Master; he wanted Nathanael to meet the Master.

Most of us get excited when we first come to know Jesus. We want to tell everyone we know about Him, but after some unfavorable encounters, our fire gets dampened and our witness gets less bold. Our fire for Christ dissipates and we become cold and ineffective. It is moments like these when we need to be encouraged by Philip’s response to Nathanael’s question: “Come and see.” Evangelism doesn’t mean that we have to answer every question—we can try, but we can’t. We simply must take people to the Savior the best we can. And while we physically can’t take people to Jesus Christ, we can continue to testify about Him.

Our responsibility in evangelism isn’t to change someone’s sinful behavior, get their intellectual assent to the Gospel message, or get them to adopt or even live in the Christian subculture. It’s simple: Jesus Christ and Him crucified for our sins and risen again for our justification. He died so that we don’t have to, and paid the price we couldn’t pay. We take our unsaved family and friends back to the cross time and time again. Don't take them to weighty theological issues that they don’t know (or probably care about). Don’t focus on behaviors or blessings, but on the blessed Lord, our Savior Jesus Christ. Tell them about Christ and continue to tell them about Christ until they are ready to come and see for themselves. He is the Gospel and He is the reason for the hope that we have. Without Him, nothing else has meaning. He is our Lord, our Savior, and our God, and He is the one whom we worship. It was His sacrifice on the cross that brought about our salvation, and it is only through someone seeing the story for themselves that they will be able to come to truly know and love Him.

So, dear brother or sister, come and see the Christ, the Savior of the world, who is the fulfillment of every hope and dream, and the answer to every question and longing that beats in our hearts. God will show Himself to all who “come and see,” in order that they, too, like us, may "go and tell" (Matthew 28:19). And may He do it to His honor, glory and praise. Amen.