Come and See: The Cost of Discipleship
Come and See: The Cost of Discipleship by Rev. L. John Gable
January 9, 2022
Every author, producer and storyteller has to make a decision as to how best to introduce the characters in the story they intend to tell, both the lead actors and the supporting cast. Should they front load them or gradually introduce them as the story unfolds? As we begin our study of John’s Gospel we see that he chooses the former. In the opening verses of chapter one he introduces Jesus as the Logos, the Word of God, which was from the beginning with God because He was God, Who then, in the fullness of time, took on human flesh and came to live among us. He then introduces us to the primary supporting character, John the Baptist, who, as Terri explained last week, was cast in the role of being the one who “prepared the way” for the coming of the Messiah. His ministry was one of proclamation and conviction, challenging his listeners to take seriously the depth and pervasiveness of their sin and of their need for a Savior, and then pointing them to Jesus as that promised Savior, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” So when Jesus appeared on the scene he pointed even his own followers to Him, which is where our lesson for this morning picks up.
We read, “The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” and with that, “the two disciples heard him say this and they followed Jesus.” We soon learn that one of those two was a fellow named Andrew, who would become one of the first, if not the first, disciple of Jesus, and how did he come to be that? Through the witness and influence of his mentor, John the Baptist. It is worth noting again that John knew who he was and who he was not; he was the announcer, the preparer, not the Messiah; so despite his own popularity, he continually pointed people, even his own followers, to Jesus.
There are many different ways people come to be introduced to Jesus and one of them is through the witness, the preaching and teaching, the ministry of one perceived to be an authority: a pastor, a priest, a teacher, a youth leader, an evangelist. In Andrew’s case it was by the influence of the one under whose teaching he was already sitting.
Perhaps some of you have come to faith in this same way. You remember a particular moment when you heard the Gospel message in a particularly meaningful way, whether for the first time or not. Perhaps in a sermon or a lesson, at a revival or crusade, perhaps over a Coke or a cup of coffee with a trusted mentor or friend. Church history is replete with stories such as this one: In 1858 a Sunday School teacher, Mr. Kimball, led a Boston shoe clerk, Dwight L. Moody, to give his life to Christ. Moody became an evangelist and while preaching in England in 1879 awakened evangelical zeal in the heart of Frederick B. Meyer, the pastor of a small church. Meyer, preaching on a small American college campus, brought Christ to a student, J. Wilbur Chapman. Chapman, later engaged in YMCA work, employed former baseball player, Billy Sunday, to do evangelistic work. Sunday held a revival in Charlotte, NC. A group of local leaders were so enthusiastic afterward they planned another campaign bringing Mordecai Hamm to preach. In that revival a young man name Billy Graham heard the Gospel and yielded his life to Christ. And you know the rest of that story.
There are many among us who have Andrew-like stories to tell. Those who first heard the Gospel in a meaningful way from someone they trusted, someone in authority, with a title and position. When John the Baptist pointed Andrew to Jesus, we are told he began to follow Him, literally to follow Him, such that when Jesus turned back to look at him, Andrew rather simplistically asked, “Where are you staying?” to which Jesus responded, “Come and see!” They spent the day together and that’s all it took. Andrew was convinced that Jesus was the promised Messiah, so he continued to follow Him.
In first century Palestine the rabbi/disciple, mentor/mentee relationship typically followed a prescribed pattern. One became a disciple of another because they wanted to model their life after that one. They wanted, not only to learn what they knew, as in a typical teacher/student relationship, but more importantly they wanted to learn to do life in the way the other did life. They wanted to apprentice themselves to their teacher, live with them, work with them, walk and talk with them, follow them. So typically the would-be learner would approach the would-be rabbi and ask to be his student, his disciple, his apprentice. The rabbi or teacher would then examine the student as to their intelligence and background and their level of commitment before deciding to take them on or not; but not so Jesus. Jesus, rather than waiting to be asked by a would-be disciple, took the initiative to do the asking, to do the inviting, so here we see Him inviting Andrew to “come and see” and more frequently we will hear Him say, “Follow Me.” Even now, regardless of how we first hear His invitation, Jesus is always the One who does the inviting, He just uses various means and persons to do so.
Once Andrew was convinced that Jesus was the One, he went immediately and found his brother, Simon Peter, and told him, “We have found the Messiah!” This is a second way many of us have come to faith, through the witness of a family member: a parent or grandparent, a brother or sister, perhaps even your own child, who shares with you the Good News of the love and forgiveness of Jesus. This is how I came to faith: through the faithful witness and practice of my parents and grandparents. I had the privilege of being nurtured in the faith. My family raised me in an environment in which I heard good preaching and had good teaching at my home church, but the greatest single influence in my coming to faith was my family, and for that I am, and will always be, eternally grateful.
I was reading an article in Christianity Today this week in which the author states, “All empirical data tells us that for intergenerational religious transmission today, the key agents are parents, not clergy or other religious professionals. The key location is in the home, not religious congregations. And the key mechanisms of socialization are the formation of ordinary life practices and identities, not programs, preaching or formal rites of passage.” (Christian Smith and Amy Adamczyk, Jan/Feb, 2022). This is true today as it has been for generations. Any number of you have expressed your concern to me in recent years when you read the statistics that church attendance is declining and for decades now the fastest growing religious group according to the US Census is “none” – those having no religious affiliation. I share the concern and on behalf of all those who stand on this side of the pulpit accept my share of the blame if in any way our actions or inactions have added to that trend, but still we, as parents and grandparents, need to take seriously our responsibility to apprentice our own children and grandchildren in the faith. The family is still the first and most influential frontline of evangelism. Our faith is much better caught than it is taught, and that is best done in the home. We see here that it was Andrew who introduced his own brother Peter to Jesus.
We are then told of yet a third means of faith sharing in our Gospel lesson this morning, one we might call “friendship evangelism.” John writes “The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Phillip and said to him, “Follow Me” – there is that familiar invitation! Phillip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter, so perhaps they had already told him about Jesus, but never the less, Phillip responded to Jesus’ invitation and immediately went to tell his friend Nathanael, saying “We have found Him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” Now, unlike the others, Nathanael was not so easily persuaded. He knew that Nazareth was a backwater, no-where little village hardly worth mentioning because he was from Cana, a cross-county rival. His response to hearing about the Nazarene was “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” But Jesus soon convinced him simply by telling him He had seen him sitting under a fig tree, which by the way is a Rabbinic figure of speech for “studying the Torah”. Jesus could see that Nathanael was a seeker and upon hearing that Jesus had taken notice of him Nathanael was so impressed he blurted out, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are King of Israel!” to which Jesus in effect said, “You ain’t seen nothing yet” – although I’m sure He said it in proper Aramaic.
The point is, Nathanael was introduced to Jesus, not by some authority figure, or by a family member, but by a close friend, Phillip, and likely Phillip had been introduced by his friends, Andrew and Peter. I know there are many among us today who can give thanks for the Phillips or the Phyllises, the Andrews or Andreas, the Peters or Pattys in our lives who first introduced us to Jesus. This kind of “friendship evangelism” is a ministry which has been given to each and every one of us.
Who were these first disciples Jesus invited to follow Him? From all we know about them, they were remarkably ordinary people, like you and like me, fishermen and tax collectors, religious and irreligious alike. Today we ordained and installed new deacons and elders and my guess is that they, very much like those who have assumed these offices before them, are wondering to themselves, “Who am I that I should be selected to serve in this way?” You are simply you, and we believe God has gifted and called you to serve in these ministries and your church family has recognized that gifting in you. So, just be who you are and allow God to use you, as He has used John the Baptist and countless others before you, to point people to Jesus, and He will.
One of the questions I find myself asking when I read stories such as these in the Gospels is, “How did they so readily pick up and follow Him?” It sounds so unnatural and unrealistic. Was it something He said or the way He said it? Was it that they had previously heard about Him or heard Him speak, so the Gospel writer is just giving us the Reader’s Digest version of a longer process? Or could it be that there was something in them, a longing or a desire, for that which only Jesus could offer, a longing that is within each of us as well? “What I am looking for”, writes Bruce Thielman, “What I am looking for is a Savior, not Someone who will just tell me what I ought to be, but Someone who will forgive me for what I am, and then with His very love will enable me to become more than I ever believed I could be. It is exactly that that Jesus does.” I believe those first disciples dropped their nets and followed Jesus because they knew He was offering them something they could find nowhere, and in no one, else, and the same is still true today. And in their decision to follow, God used them in ways beyond their imagining, and I believe He continues to do the same with us.
Oswald Chambers writes, “If you abandon to Jesus and come when He says “Come”, He will continue to say “Come” to others through you; you will go out into life reproducing the echo of Christ’s “Come”. That is the result of every soul who has abandoned and come to Jesus.”
As we close, I invite you to sit silently for a moment and think about all those who had some part in introducing you to Him: a parent, a family member, a friend, a pastor, a teacher, a coach, a neighbor, a colleague. Give thanks to God for them. And then I’d like for you to consider that one who God may use you to introduce them to Jesus, not in any heavy-handed, manipulative kind of way, we see nothing of that in the passage we read this morning, but just by you being you, coming alongside them, loving them into a relationship with Him. Ask God to bring to your mind and attention the name of that one with whom He is asking you to share His love and Good News, and then make the commitment to follow where He leads you so that they too may “Come and see!”, then I’ll close us in prayer.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN