Come and See

Last Sunday at church was really hectic, but pretty amazing. We had a guest speaker, Paul Lundstrom, from Talking Bibles come to share his ministry, vision, and how his device has reached countless people for Jesus Christ in foreign lands. For some reason guest speakers always come with technical issues. I was in First Impressions Ministry working the front door greeting people, but constantly led away to help in the sound booth loading Powerpoint and videos, along with helping others in their ministries with time sensitive things. But every time I turned around to go back to my station, new people visiting showed up. By the time service started we had a full house.

One of those newbies was Tyler. He was pretty disheveled and looked beat up from the world. One of our members, Jon, brought him in and introduced him to me. I asked, “So, how long have you known each other,” to which Jon replied, “He was just walking down the street and I asked him if he wanted to come inside, hear God’s Word and get a bite to eat.”

My eyes widened. “Really, just now, out there?”

“Yeah, there’s always people walking by as I’m coming in. Till today, no one ever stops to take me up on it. But he’s wanting to hear the gospel and maybe you or Pastor can help him out.”

Is it really that simple?

Americans love to complicate things, don’t we? We have got to have all our ducks in a row, make sure we have it all under control, the right words, the right tracts or information, and if the slightest thing can go wrong, we just don’t do it. Why is that? Isn’t that odd? The more I think about it, the crazier it seems.

But isn’t it supposed to be simple?

I’m currently reading a book called, “4 Chair Discipling: Growing a Movement of Disciple-Makers” by Dann Spader. In the book, he teaches that disciples sit in all four chairs in their discipleship journey. Those chairs are:

1. Chair 1: Come and see — John 1:39.
2. Chair 2: Follow Me — John 1:43.
3. Chair 3: Become a Fisher of People — Matthew 4:19.
4. Chair 4: Go and Bear Fruit — John 15:16.

In essence, disciple making is a process of moving people through four chairs, from someone seeking to know more about Christ all the way to someone who makes disciples themselves. This is what the Lord commanded us to do:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Matthew 28:19-20 NKJV

Jesus didn’t say, ‘go into all the world and make converts.’ In essence He said, ‘make disciples who will make disciples,’ making them fishers of men (Matthew 4:19). But in order to become fishers of men, Jesus had to invite them to come and see. The Lord of glory was inviting them to see what He was going to do in the midst of them.

Come and see the works of God; He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men.

Psalm 66:5 NKJV

Come and see…

We first see Jesus starting to gather His disciples, calling them to a life with Him. But first, he wanted to wet their appetite. He was inviting them to check Him out. We see several of these exchanges recorded in the first chapter of the Gospel of John.

First, Jesus invites two would-be disciples to “come and see.” John the Baptizer sees Jesus approaching and declares Him to be the sacrificial Lamb of God that will take away the sins of the world (John 1:35-36). Two of John’s disciples, Andrew and John, heard what he said and started to follow Jesus (John 1:37). Jesus notices the two following Him and asks, “What do you seek?” They respond by asking where the Lord was staying (John 1:38). They probably didn’t even know what to ask, or how to approach Him. Maybe they didn’t even know who they were following, or even know why? Jesus then says, “Come and see,” (John 1:39) and the two stayed with Jesus because it was already the tenth hour — around 4 p.m. I’m sure Andrew and John had many questions and probably were not only fed food, but spiritual food by Jesus as well.

Next, we see this same Andrew sharing with his brother, Simon Peter, that he found the Messiah, and took him to see Jesus (John 1:40-42). Philip, who was also called by Jesus and was obviously heavily persuaded by Andrew and Simon Peter, became Jesus’ disciple as well (John 1:43-46). When Philip approaches his friend, Nethaniel (Bartholomew), Philip invites him to experience Jesus and says to him, “Come and see.” (John 1:46) Nethaniel was skeptical at first, but in the end is convinced that Jesus is the Son of God.

What my friend, Jon, was doing was the same thing that was written in the first chapter of the Gospel of John. All he did was invite this guy to church and say, “Come and see.” That’s when Jon introduced him to me; more specifically, we were about to introduce him to the Lord. Tyler came and got more than he expected.

Conversation with Tyler

After the three of us went into Pastor’s office and sat down for a conversation. I had some tracts with me and a Gideon New Testament to give him. But we needed to know where he was at and how much he knew already. He didn’t know much; just a little from his grandmother who taught him some things when he was little. So, I basically started the conversation with, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth” (Genesis 1:1). It would be crazy to talk about the entire hour-long conversation, but many times his eyes widened and you could tell he was understanding what I was saying. The conversation went along like this:

1. Creation: That God through Jesus Christ created all things.
2. The Fall: Man rebelled against God and listened to the serpent (Satan) instead of Him. This brought sin into the world and therefore brought death to all men.
3. Corruption: Because of sin we are corrupted and spiritually dead following the dictates of our own heart and Satan’s will. Since we are spiritually dead, we are incapable on our own of being restored to fellowship with the Father.
4. Catastrophe: Because of man’s sin and rebellion to Him, God judged the world and flooded the earth with water to purify it, and killed all life with the exception of Noah and his family, two of every kind of animal, birds, and fish. Through the ark, God was able to preserve his creation.
5. Animal sacrifices: God made a way be forgiven of our sin through blood sacrifices of perfect animals and the blood of goats, rams, sheep, and bulls. But these sin offerings could only cover sin, not wash it away. Why? Because there is no righteousness in an animal.
6. But God: Because of God’s great love and mercy for us, He made a way for us to be forgiven and restored to Him. His plan was from the beginning with a perfect blood sacrifice of the Lamb of God — Jesus Christ. It is by His death, burial, and resurrection that we have eternal life with the Father.
7. How we receive that forgiveness: Believing on Jesus through faith that His perfect sacrifice will cleanse us from all sin. This is not just a passive belief, but an active one. If a person believes in a parachute to save him from a plane crash, he will put it on correctly and securely. Also repenting of the sin that came between us and God. To be sorry for it, with the hope to change and be a new creation in Christ.
8. Live out the rest of your life for God because you were bought with a price of His one and only Son. In our flesh we were slaves of sin; now we are slaves of righteousness for His kingdom. We do good because of our love for Him, because He first loved us. We show our thankfulness by learning God’s Word, growing in holiness, joining a local church, and being obedient to His will inwardly and outwardly.

Now, if you’re thinking that’s a lot for someone to learn all at once, you are right. Jon and I hit all the points, but may not have been in depth or just glanced through them. In the end, Tyler was able to share the gospel to me, and understand fully why Jesus had to suffer and die a horrible death so that through Him we can have restored fellowship which was broken by Adam’s sin and our own.

Several of us prayed over Tyler, but he said he needed time to think about what we talked about. What more can you ask for? That’s why I don’t believe in praying the sinner’s prayer, which is an unbiblical practice. He needs time alone with the Holy Spirit alongside him and repent of his sin and receive forgiveness. I shouldn’t have to tell a man how to say he’s sorry for committing adultery against his wife. He will know, and if I have to give him the words, he is not really sorry. We hope to see him again soon.

Remember though, that none of this could have happened unless Jon went outside the walls of the church and said to him, “Come and see.”