Come and you will see

John 1:35-42

Key Verse 1:38a 

“Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”

Good morning. How are you today? This week, we have very exciting conference coming on. So today’s message is a special message for the conference. The title for today’s message is ‘Come and you will see.’ The key verse comes from verse 38a. May we read this verse together? Let’s go. “Come,’ he replied, ‘and you will see.’” Let’s pray. (prayer)

It was 1975. I was a college student. During the summer I really wanted to have summer vacation by going to a trip. I looked for my high school friends. But they all had appointment with other people. So I was left alone. I wanted to go for a trip, but it was hard to go to a trip by yourself. Then one of my classmates, who became my best friend, said that there was UBF Summer Bible Conference in “Jeju” island. Although he said UBF Summer Bible Conference, (at that time he was studying the bible in UBF) since I did not know the bible, I did not know the church, or conference, it didn’t register any thing about the conference. All I was thinking was going to a trip. And Jeju island was the biggest island in South Korea. And I never had a chance to go to other islands. Until that time I went to beach maybe two or three times maximum. So it was a greatly excited experience, great opportunity for me to have a wonderful trip. Most of all, the price was fantastic. (laugh) That really hooked me up. 4,000 Korean Won at that time. Now I know why the price was so cheap. We have Spring bible conference and regular church members pay $180.00 and new comers, how much? $60.00. And I was a new comer of new comers. 4,000 Korean Won was so great! So I decided to go the conference. The night before the conference I went to the center I found one lady washing coffee cups. I looked at her and she was like 10 years older than I. I was very naïve, 18 or 19 years old boy. I looked at her and in one sense she looked she married. And in another sense she did not marry. I did not know. But anyhow I talked to her and said, “Okay. I am going to go there as my trip. What I mean is ‘basically I am not going to attend any conference program although I did not know what it meant at that time. I am going to use your cheap price to go for a trip, and pay for all room and board and all other things. Will you accept me?” I was wondering if she may say ‘No’. She surprised me saying, “Sure.” So I paid the conference fee and the next day I was on the trip. During the whole conference time, though, I ended up attending every program. (laugh) Why? I was never rebellious in action for my parent or schools or any authorities over me. I did not rebel anything like that although in my heart I was rebellious many times to my parents. But in action I was never rebellious. So I attended all the conference, and listened to all the messages. There were many messages, of course. There was only one sentence remained. That is, “In John’s gospel there are 3 “L”s. The messenger said it was “love, life, and light”. That sentence struck me because the messenger used the English letter, “L”. But I did not think about love, light, and life. On our way back, the person who took my registration fee, was very kind to me. She saved all the delicious food and fed me, and my heart melted down by her love. I was a young man, and without knowing what was going on, I was already hooked up to 1:1 bible study with her. So my bible study started after summer bible conference. Now here I am. Come to think, what if my friend did not invite me to the bible conference what would happen? I don’t know. Surely God used my friend’s invitation, mentioning about the bible conference, turned around my life upside down. So most of us, and all of us, were invited to Christ by someone. And in today’s passage we also see John the Baptist’s invitation and Andrew’s invitation for his disciples and his brother. Most of all, the invitation of Jesus Christ. So let us see how it goes.

Part I. “Look, the Lamb of God!” (v.35-37)

Let’s read verse 35-37 responsively. I will go first. “³⁵ The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. ³⁶ When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” ³⁷ When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus.”

Here “John” in verse 35 refers to John the Baptist. The day before John the Baptist witnessed Jesus saying, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” when he saw Jesus approaching him. But no one responded. And the next day John did not despair. When Jesus passed by he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” This time two of his disciples heard him and responded him by following Jesus. So the first day of his invitation did not bear any fruit. But the second day of his invitation bore the fruit. John was a good in inviting because he kept inviting people to Jesus.

Jim Tonne was once a Cal State Long Beach student. He was invited to bible study twice which he rejected. But in his heart he thought, “If I am invited the third time by someone I will say ‘yes’.” Guess who invited? I invited. (laugh) I was very lucky. John the Baptist kept talking, “Look, the Lamb of God!” and two of his disciples responded the next day. But why didn’t he say next day, “Look the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”? Why did he just say, “Look the Lamb of God!”? The first day “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Why did his testimony become shorter? I don’t know. Maybe he despaired a little bit. Maybe he was discouraged a little bit. Anyhow he testified, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

Have you looked the Lamb of God? We do not see with our physical eyes. But we can see with our spiritual eyes in our minds. “Look, the Lamb of God!” “Look, the Lamb of God” means we do not look ourselves. If we look the Lamb of God what do you see? We can see many things. But I think we can see three things.

First, forgiveness of our sins. When we look at ourselves, we see tons of sins and power of darkness working in our practical lives. So when we look at ourselves we despair so much. It is not difficult to understand people who wanted to commit suicide if we really look at ourselves honestly. But when we look Jesus there is forgiveness of our sins, once for all; eternal forgiveness of all of our sins because he paid the price of all of our sins.

 Twenty years ago, there was a genocide in Rwandar. 600,000 people were killed in 100 days. One of men found that his 52 relatives were all killed when he returned home. And he couldn’t bear such wounds and scars. So he went to a seminary school and he accepted Christ and became a pastor. But he could not forgive those people who killed his 52 relatives. They were in a jail prisoners at that time. One day he had a dream. In his dream Jesus was beaten by people. And the voice told him, “Those who beat Jesus are the ones Jesus served.” When he woke up he cried a lot. After much cry a light has dawned in his heart. And then he realized what he needed to do. He decided to serve those prisoners, 15 people who killed 52 relatives of himself. Forgive of sins is given to us because all the price of our sin is paid off. When you receive bills from government or other companies you are supposed to pay you are not surprised or afraid of when you have receipts which proves that you had already paid them in full. When we look the Lamb of God we see him saying, “It is finished” (paid in full). 

All the powerful working of sin and death in our lives makes us crazy, makes us despair, makes us so depressed. But when we look the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, we have hope. Although sin is abounding in our lives, we can live peacefully. We can live in courage and hope and peace when we look the Lamb of God. We can forgive those whom we cannot forgive. 

Second, when we look the Lamb of God, we see ‘there is no condemnation.’ Why are we sensitive about people’s criticism? When somebody told me, “You did a good job” 100 times and “you did a poor job” one time, I would feel that his criticism is 100 times greater than his times of positive comments. Why do we feel that way? Because we are so condemned in our hearts because of our sins. Since we are already so condemned in our sins we are sensitive toward others’ criticism. But when we look the Lamb of God there is no condemnation because he was condemned in our place. 

Third, healing of wounds and scars. Bible says “by his (Jesus) wounds we have been healed.” Jesus had a lot of wounds. His side was pierced by a spear. He was flogged. His hands and feet were pierced. And by his wounds we have been healed. I have anger problem. But about 7 or 10 years ago, suddenly one day God kind of flashed me and showed me how I had been angry in a panoramic view. At that moment, I realized, “Wow! That is what I have been doing to Maria.” Of course each case I was very sorry to her and my daughter, but it was never shown in a panoramic view with a clear picture. And I was wondering why it happened in 7 or 10 years ago, and why didn’t it happen in earlier times. And I realized there was a healing in my side. My sensitive nerve, somehow, was healed by Jesus’ wounds. I don’t know how it happened. 

When you dream you don’t know you are dreaming. You know you are dreaming only after you woke up from your dream. This is how I feel. I was able to see my wounds and scars which is my anger problem because I was healed to a certain degree. I feel that at least 50% was healed. When your wounds and scars are really deep you cannot see it. You do it and you keep doing it but you cannot see it as your problem as if you cannot tell you that you have a dream when you are dreaming. 

You will be able to see only when your wounds and scars are healed maybe 50%. You will be surprised to see, “Wow! I have had this problem.” When we look the Lamb of God there is healing about our wounds and scars physically and spiritually. By Jesus’ wounds we have been healed. When we look at ourselves there is despair, frustration, and desire to kill ourselves; deep darkness. Last night Debbie Tonne talked about “darkness” and I was reminded of my darkness in 1975. I made a vow to God, “If you help me to overcome darkness in my heart in my practical life you will be my God and I will live for you.” That was my vow in 1975. “Darkness”. I didn’t know how to overcome it. We can overcome darkness in our hearts when we look the Lamb of God instead of looking at ourselves. We look at ourselves we despair. When we look the Lamb of God we find hope and strength. 

To the two of John’s disciples, “the Lamb of God” refers to the promised Messiah. They could not believe the person walking in front of them was the very promised Messiah, the Lamb of God. So they began to follow Jesus. 

Let’s read verses 38 and 39 responsively. I will go first. ³⁸ Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” ³⁹ “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.”

 Jesus asked them, “What do you want?” They didn’t say what they wanted. They said, “Rabbi, where you are staying?” It is not a direct answer. But there is possibility that their answer means “we want to be your disciples” because at that time to be a disciple of someone is to spend time together with him all the time.” Then Jesus said, “Come, and you will see.” “Come” is invitation and ‘you will see’ is promise. So Jesus invited them with a promise, “If you come you will see me.” “You will see me if I am the Lamb of God.” That was his promise. 

Jesus wants to invite all peoples to him. Jesus wants to send out his invitation, “come, and you will see” to everyone. How can he invite to everyone, saying, “Come and you will see”? How can he invite people who are not saved to him, saying, “Come and you will see.”? “If you come you will see me. You will see me the Lamb of God.” How can he invite unsaved people to him? How? Do you agree that Jesus wants to invite everyone to him? You all know that. Then how can he invite people to him? How can he say to people, “Come and you will see.” How? Andrew Casias? How? How can Jesus say to your friend, “Come and you will see.”? (He said he doesn’t know.) You don’t know. (laugh). How can he say “Come and you will see?” How can he do that? Anyone answer? (someone in the audience says ‘through us’). Yes! “Through us”. We are chosen by God. We are chosen people. We are called by God, elected by God and loved by God. And we are Jesus’ body. Jesus sends us to other people, “Come and you will see.”

Do you know Dwight Moddy? Do you know Billy Graham? Andrew Cacias doesn’t know any of them? (laugh) He doesn’t know Dwight Moddy or Billy Graham. Interesting! (laugh). They are famous preachers. Okay. Do you know the names of the people who invited Billy Graham or Dwight Moddy? I don’t know. But they were invited. The person who invited Dwight Moddy, who was a young shoe repair person, said, I invited him basically ‘come and you will see’ but my invitation and appeal was very weak. But God used it and Dwight Moddy invited millions of people to Christ. Billy Graham experienced the same thing.

In 1975 since I started to have 1:1 bible study from time to time I stayed at center. And those leaders, fellowship leaders and bible teachers, had prayer meetings or meetings at 9 pm or 10 pm many times. Somehow I knew that they worked during the day and in the evening they went to campuses and invite students to bible study or did bible study. And that was not it. They gathered evenings like 10 pm or so and they had a prayer meeting for their bible students. I saw that and I thought, “wow! That’s too much.” ‘Too much hard work’. Missionary Mari Lope yesterday told us when she went to Toyko UBF at first there were so many bible studies and testimony writings. She was confused whether it was a Christian thing or Korean thing because they were all Korean missionaries. And I was confused whether it was Christian thing or UBF thing. I remember there were so many meetings for those leaders and I thought that they were basically harassed in a way. 7 or 8 years later I was born again. Then my thought had been changed completely. Do you know how it was changed? 

After I was born again, my thought was, “Sure, they should work even harder!” “They should work even harder!!! Why was my thought changed? Why was my thought changed from ‘they work too much or too hard’ to ‘they should work even harder’? What changed? What changed my thought? My thought was changed because of me. Basically I was unbeliever and I was not saved. Right? To these people who were saved, to invite people to bible study and save them was sacrifice of several hours, several hours of lack of sleeping, ten times of pain of being rejected, lot more pressure, something like that. But to those who were not saved like me it was the matter of life and death. Not only it is the matter of life and death but also it is matter of eternal life and death. 

Think about it and compare it. “Several hours of sufferings such suffering of being rejected, lack of sleep” verses “the matter of eternal life and death”. Can you compare? Cannot be! So I nodded my head in my heart and said, “They should have worked even harder!” Seriously! One of them was the Bonn UBF director missionary Peter Chang. So ‘come and you will see” shows that Jesus uses us and sends out his invitation through us. 

Let’s read Romans 10:14-15. May we read together? Slowly let’s go. “¹⁴ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ¹⁵ And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

So these two disciples of John the Baptist went and saw where Jesus was staying and they spent the day with him. And it was about four in the afternoon. The author could not forget about the day and the time. It was a historical moment in his life as if I cannot forget about 1975 UBF Summer Bible Conference where I was invited by my friend. 

Our conference time, the time of our conference, could be the time for us to be with Jesus and spend time with him and see who Jesus is, and see him “the Lamb of God”.

Part II. “We have found the Messiah” (v.40-42)

Let’s read verses 40-42 responsively. I will go first. “⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. ⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). ⁴² And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).” 

So one of the two was Andrew. After spending the time with Jesus he realized Jesus is the Messiah. So the first thing he did was to grab his brother, to find his brother. Simon was somewhere else. So he found his brother and said, “We have found the Messiah”. And he brought him to Jesus. “We have found the Messiah.” So Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, which means God’s anointed one. So in the old testament period God anointed kings, prophets, and priests. So Jesus is the King, the prophet, and the priest.

In addition, Jesus baptizes people with the Holy Spirit. Jesus anoints his believers with the Holy Spirit as well. Jesus said that he was crucified and was risen again and he would go to his Father and he will send the Holy Spirit to believers. 

For a long time, could be the entire time of my believing period, I wanted to know what I have, inside of me. For example, bible study and prayer are two essential things for believers. But my trouble is Bible study and prayer is something that I need to make an effort. It doesn’t come naturally. Can anyone pray and study Bible without any kind of exercise of will or any effort, just kind of come effortlessly like sleeping? Can anyone do that? Raise your hands. So this is something outside. As missionary Isaac and Rebekah moved to Redding I realized I have to and I ended up relying on God more. About 3 weeks ago, I said, “Wow! I have something inside of me, completely from bible reading and praying, that is the presence of the Holy Spirit.” It is very funny because I taught people indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I thought about it. I knew. I taught all these years. But I found that He, the Holy Spirit, dwelling in us, is I have without any effort. The Holy Spirit was given to us  as a gift from God when we are born again. And He is the almighty Creator God. So the bible says ‘the one inside is greater than the one who is in the world.’ 

So Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, baptizes people with the Holy Spirit. He sends the Holy Spirit to us when we are born again. So when Andrew brought Simon Peter to Jesus, Jesus was very happy to see him. And he told Simon, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).” Jesus saw a great vision. Simon Peter would be a spiritual rock. 

In conclusion, as you see, Jesus invites people through us because we are Jesus’ bodies. Jesus’ invitation ‘come and you will see’, ‘if you come you will see me; you will see me as the Lamb of God, the Messiah and Christ’ should be sent to all people through us because we are his people and his body. So the conference is coming up. So let’s invite relatives and friends and people and pray those who are coming to the conference may spend time with Jesus and see Jesus and know Jesus and meet Jesus, the Lamb of God, the Christ.

One word: come and you will see.

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