Come and See

 

Coming and See

 

In John 1:43-51 Jesus has encounters with Philip & Nathanael after which each of them begins to follow Jesus.

 

In John 1:43 Jesus finds Philip & says to him, “Follow Me.” Philip in verse 45 finds Nathanael & tells him that they have found the Messiah & that He is Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael’s response was, “Can anything good come of out of Nazareth?” And Philip’s response was, “Come and see.” Nathanael encounters Jesus & he too begins to follow Jesus.

 

The invitation of Philip to Nathanael was simply to come & see Jesus. This is the invitation that we can offer others.

 

What is that we are inviting others to see?

 

We are inviting them to see the love & grace of Jesus. Jesus is love & He through His love pours out grace on us. People can come & see His love & grace for them through us.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about manifesting the love & grace of Jesus through our lives to others.

 

We are inviting them to come & see the power of Jesus. Jesus’ power is demonstrated in our lives by the transformation we have experienced. The evidence of Jesus’ power in a person’s life is not in perfect theology or pious prayers or religious talk, but in a changed life. It is a life lived differently than the world who does not know Jesus & has not experienced His presence.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about people seeing our lives changed by the power & presence of Jesus.

 

We are inviting them to come & see the justice & compassion of Jesus.

 

We see the justice & compassion of Jesus displayed on the cross. God judged sin & His wrath was poured out on our sin on the cross. God is holy & He has to judge sin & He did, but His compassion is shown because Jesus became our sacrifice for sin. We talk a lot about justice in our culture, but human-based justice is either revenge or letting people off with no consequences. God-based justice is righteous, but also with compassion. It is real justice.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about seeking God-based justice, not human-based justice.

 

We are inviting them to come & see the salvation & forgiveness of Jesus.

 

Jesus makes it very clear that He came with the mission of seeking & saving the lost, fallen, broken, messy people of the world (that is all of us). So, we can show the salvation that we have experienced through Jesus & the forgiveness He has given us by being forgiving to others. We can also show it by being honest about our sin & how Jesus has forgiven us.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls is about, because of our free gift of salvation & forgiveness through Jesus, showing others that same kind of forgiveness.

 

Notice we don’t invite them to come & see the judgement of Jesus. His judgement will come, but our mission is to invite others to come to Jesus & surrender their lives to Him as Savior & Lord because He loves them & died for their sin.

 

Raise the Roof & Remove the Walls,

Joe