Come and See

SERMON OUTLINE:

Life with Jesus #2 

Today’s Passage: John 1:29-51

Come and See…

The One Who Fulfills Scripture (1:45)

1- The Lamb of God (1:29, 35)

Exodus 12:3-13

Isaiah 53:7

2- The Messiah (Anointed King) (1:31, 41, 49)

Psalm 2:1-12

2 Samuel 7:12-16

3- The One Who Gives the Spirit (1:33)

Joel 2:28-32

Ezekiel 36:25-27

4- The Greater Moses (1:45)

Deuteronomy 18:15-19

Exodus 33:18-23

5- The Son of Man (1:51)

Daniel 7:13-14

Genesis 28:10-17

The One Who Finds Us

– He Sees Us (1:48)

– He Knows Us (1:47)

– He Forgives Us (1:29)

– He Invites Us (1:39, 43)

Final Question

“What are you looking for?” (1:38)

SERMON MANUSCRIPT:

Opening Illustration

In 2019, Barie and I had the opportunity to visit Israel. For the first few days, we were in the Galilee region,

and we had a fantastic tour guide. He knew the history, understood the biblical significance of the places we

visited, and patiently answered all our questions.

Then we traveled south to Jerusalem, and we changed tour guides.

And our new guide was…not quite the same.

He seemed irritated that we were there. Every question felt like we were bothering him. His answers were

short. His attitude made you wonder whether he even wanted to show us anything.

And if I am being honest, for a little while, it affected the experience.

But then we went to the Garden of Gethsemane. We stood near the place where Jesus prayed on the night He

was betrayed. We thought about Jesus falling to the ground and praying, “Not my will, but yours be done.”

Then we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the traditional location of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial.

And suddenly, I wasn’t thinking about our tour guide anymore.

All of that irritation melted away because I realized where I was and, more importantly, who I was there to

think about. The guide could disappoint me. The guide could have a bad attitude. The guide could do a poor

job of representing what I had come to see.

But none of that changed Jesus.

Need

What’s my point? I think some people have let their negative experience with Christians determine what they

think about Christ. Maybe you have met Christians who disappointed you. Maybe somebody who claimed to

follow Jesus treated you badly. Maybe a church failed you. Maybe a pastor or spiritual leader sinned in a way

that deeply hurt you.

Those things matter. We should never excuse them. Scripture holds spiritual leaders to a high standard, and

Christians should be the first people willing to repent when we fail and hurt others.

But eventually, you have to look past the tour guide and look at Jesus. You have to look past the uninformed

park ranger and look at the grandeur of the Grand Canyon. You have to look past the mistakes of the NASA

program and look into the splendor of the galaxies above us. You can’t allow the storms to keep you from

seeing the brightness of the sun.That is essentially the invitation of John 1.

Subject

Come and see.

Draw near. Open your heart. Look closely at Jesus Himself.

Don’t decide who Jesus is merely by looking at the imperfect people who claim to follow Him.

Come and see who He is.

Come and see what He has done.

And then decide for yourself whether Jesus really is who He claims to be.

We believe Jesus is real and alive.

And that if you come to Him with an open heart, He will change your life.

How do we know that?

Because He did that in the first century, and He continues to do that today.

This church is full of people whose lives have been radically changed by the living Christ.

I want to invite you to come and see the real Jesus.

Because real life is found in the real Jesus.

Can you open your Bibles to John 1:29 and stand for the reading of God’s Word?

TEXT: John 1:29-51

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the

sin of the world! 30 This is the one I told you about: ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me, because

he existed before me.’ 31 I didn’t know him, but I came baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to

Israel.” 32 And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he rested on him. 33 I

didn’t know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The one you see the Spirit descending

and resting on—he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and testified that this is the

Son of God.”

35 The next day, John was standing with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look,

the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this and followed Jesus. 38 When Jesus turned and

noticed them following him, he asked them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which

means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” 39 “Come and you’ll see,” he replied. So they went and saw

where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon.

40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John and followed him. 41 He first found his

own brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah”, (which is translated “the Christ”), 42 and he

brought Simon to Jesus. When Jesus saw him, he said, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas”

(which is translated “Peter”).

43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. He found Philip and told him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip

was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have

found the one Moses wrote about in the law (and so did the prophets): Jesus the son of Joseph, from

Nazareth.”46 “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked him. “Come and see,” Philip answered.

47 Then Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there

is no deceit.” 48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. “Before Philip called you, when you were under

the fig tree, I saw you,” Jesus answered. 49 “Rabbi,” Nathanael replied, “You are the Son of God; you are the

King of Israel!”

50 Jesus responded to him, “Do you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see

greater things than this.” 51 Then he said, “Truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of

God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Preview:

Come and See…

– The One who Fulfills Scripture

– The One who Finds Us

Sermon:

Come and See…

The One Who Fulfills Scripture (1:45)

Let’s start at the end of the passage to get the main idea. Philip tells Nathaniel in verse 45, “We have found

the one Moses wrote about in the law (and so did the prophets): Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”

This is interesting for two reasons. One, it roots Jesus in his contemporary time and place – the son of Joseph

from Nazareth. But two, it connects Him to all the promises of the Old Testament. The phrase “Moses and

the Prophets” is shorthand for “all of the Old Testament.”

The apostle John fills up this first chapter (and honestly the rest of this gospel) with Old Testament quotes to

help us get the full picture of Jesus’ identity. I would caution you not to ignore the Old Testament when you

read your Bible. Without the Old Testament, you miss the true identity of Jesus as revealed in the New

Testament.

The Bible is unique among sacred books because it is 66 different books written by 40 different authors over

1500 years that tell one unified story.

When I first started exploring Christianity for myself in high school, someone put Josh McDowell’s Evidence

that Demands a Verdict in my hands, which is a large 500-page apologetics textbook that looks carefully at the

historical evidence for Jesus being the unique Son of God and Messiah.

I still remember when I got to the section where Josh looks at the hundreds of Old Testament prophecies Jesus

fulfilled. I was in awe. To this day, so much of my confidence in Jesus comes from two historical realities: the

empty tomb on Easter Sunday and the detailed way Jesus fulfilled prophecies written hundreds of years

before He was born.

John introduces us to this reality in John 1. Jesus is…

The Lamb of God (1:29, 35)

John the Baptizer sees Jesus coming toward him and says, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the

sin of the world!”

For a Jewish audience, the image of a lamb carried enormous meaning. In Exodus 12:3-13, when God

rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt, every family was instructed to sacrifice a lamb and put its blood

on the doorposts of the house. When judgment came, the blood of the lamb meant that judgment

passed over that home. The lamb died so that others could live.

Then Isaiah 53:7 describes the coming suffering servant as one who was “like a lamb led to the

slaughter,” and Isaiah says that this servant would bear the sins of many.

So when John points at Jesus and says, “There is the Lamb of God,” he is making an enormous claim.

Jesus came as the final sacrifice for sin, fulfilling the pattern of the Passover lamb and the suffering

servant of Isaiah 53.

Jesus did not merely come to teach us about sin or tell us how to behave better. He came to bear our

sin and take it away. The deepest problem in our lives is not simply that we need better habits, better

circumstances, or a little more self-control.

Our deepest problem is sin, and Jesus came to deal with it.

The Messiah (Anointed King) (1:31, 41, 49)

A little later Andrew tells Simon Peter, “We have found the Messiah.”

Messiah means “Anointed One.” In the Old Testament, kings were anointed with oil as a sign that God

had set them apart to rule. Over time, Israel began looking forward to a particular King, a coming

descendant of David who would rule God’s people and establish God’s kingdom.

Psalm 2 speaks about the nations raging against the Lord and against “his Anointed One,” yet God says,

“I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.” Then in 2 Samuel 7, God promises David that one

of his descendants will reign and that his kingdom will endure.

Israel waited for that King, and by the time we reach John 1, Nathanael looks at Jesus and says, “Rabbi,

you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel!”

Jesus is the promised Anointed King from David’s line. He is not simply a spiritual teacher whose ideas

we can appreciate while keeping control of our own lives. If Jesus is the Messiah, then He is the rightful

King, and the proper response to a King is allegiance.

The question Christianity puts before us is not merely, “Do you think Jesus had some good ideas?” The

deeper question is, “Is He King?” And if He is, then our lives belong to Him.

The One Who Gives the Spirit (1:33)

John tells us something else about Jesus in verse 33: “He is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.”The Old Testament prophets had promised that a day was coming when God would do something new

in His people. Joel 2 says, “I will pour out my Spirit on all humanity,” and Ezekiel 36 says that God

would cleanse His people, give them a new heart, and put His Spirit within them.

God was promising more than external religion. He was promising inner transformation, and John says

Jesus is the One through whom that promised gift of the Holy Spirit comes.

That means Christianity is not simply about trying harder to become a better version of yourself. Jesus

forgives us, but He also gives us His Spirit. God comes to dwell within His people and begins changing

us from the inside out.

4- The Greater Moses (1:45)

Philip says something very specific in verse 45: “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the

Law.”

Moses had said in Deuteronomy 18 that God would raise up another prophet like him and that God’s

people should listen to Him. Moses was one of the towering figures of the Old Testament. God used

him to deliver Israel from slavery, to receive the Law, and to speak God’s Word to His people.

Yet even Moses was limited. In Exodus 33, Moses asks God, “Please, let me see your glory.” God allows

Moses to experience something of His presence, but Moses cannot see the fullness of God’s glory.

Then John tells us that Jesus has come. Earlier in chapter one, John said, “We observed his glory.”

Moses pointed people toward God, but Jesus perfectly reveals God. Moses spoke God’s words, but

Jesus is the Word made flesh. Moses led Israel out of slavery in Egypt, but Jesus leads us out of slavery

to sin.

Jesus is not simply another Moses. He is the One Moses was pointing toward.

5- The Son of Man (1:51)

Finally, Jesus gives Himself a title. He says, “Truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels

of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

“Son of Man” comes directly out of Daniel 7. Daniel sees “one like a son of man” coming with the

clouds of heaven. He is given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, and people from every nation and

language serve Him. His kingdom will never pass away.

Jesus is identifying Himself with that figure, but He is also reaching even further back into the Old

Testament. In Genesis 28, Jacob has a dream and sees a stairway stretching between earth and heaven

with angels ascending and descending on it. It was a picture of heaven and earth meeting.

Now Jesus says the angels will ascend and descend on “the Son of Man.” In other words, Jesus Himself

is the meeting place between heaven and earth. If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. If

you want to come to God, you come through Jesus.All of Scripture has been moving toward Him: the Lamb of God, the Messiah, the One who gives the

Spirit, the Greater Moses, and the Son of Man.

You cannot really understand Jesus without understanding the big story of the Bible, because Jesus is

the One the whole story has been pointing toward. John is inviting us to come and see, to look

carefully, and to ask whether Jesus really is who Scripture says He is.

But John does not leave Jesus at the level of prophecy, history, and God’s great plan for the world. The same

Jesus who fulfills the hopes of Israel and the promises of Scripture also comes near to individual people.

He is not only the Messiah for the world; He is the Messiah who cares about you personally. The story now

moves from the big picture of what God is doing in history to the deeply personal way Jesus meets people one

at a time.

Jesus is the Promised One who is also…

The One Who Finds Us

So who finds whom? Do we find Jesus, or does Jesus find us?

The answer in this passage is both. From our vantage point, we find Jesus. We hear about Him, we investigate,

we ask questions, and we begin to believe. But from God’s vantage point, He has been finding us all along.

Look at four ways Jesus finds Peter, Andrew, Philip, and Nathaniel, and how He finds us…

– He Sees Us (1:48)

Nathanael asks Jesus, “How do you know me?” Jesus answers, “Before Philip called you, when you

were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

Before Nathanael ever saw Jesus, Jesus saw Nathanael. The same is true for us. Before we ever started

looking for God, He saw us, and there has never been a moment of our lives when we were outside His

sight.

– He Knows Us (1:47)

Before Nathanael even speaks, Jesus says, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

Jesus knew him, and Jesus knows us in the same way. He does not merely know the image we project

or the version of ourselves that other people see. He knows our motives, our fears, our wounds, our

questions, our strengths, our failures, and our sin.

We can hide from other people, but we can’t hide from God. He knows us completely.

– He Forgives Us (1:29)

That is what makes John’s first description of Jesus so beautiful. The One who sees us and knows us

completely is also the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.He knows the worst thing about us, and He came to do something about it. Jesus does not find us

because we are impressive; He finds us because we need saving. We are the sick who need a doctor.

He finds us in our sin, washes us clean, makes us new, and gives us a new identity and a new purpose.

The One who knows us most completely is also the One who came to forgive us.

– He Invites Us (1:39, 43)

Then Jesus invites us to follow. To the first disciples He says, “Come and you’ll see,” and to Philip He

simply says, “Follow me.”

That is still His invitation today. Come and see who Jesus really is, and then follow Him.

Christianity is not about admiring Jesus from a distance. It is about trusting Him with your life and

following Him wherever He leads.

I hope you can see past the tour guides and see the true object of our worship today: Jesus the Christ.

He is the fulfillment of all the hopes and promises of the people of God.

And He is the One who knows you perfectly and loves you anyway.

He is calling your name today.

But I also think He is asking you one personal question:

Final Question

“What are you looking for?” (1:38)

So let Jesus’ question sit with you for a moment: “What are you looking for?”

What do you really want from Jesus? Some people want a Jesus who will bless the life they have already

decided to live, affirm the desires they have already chosen, and help them accomplish the plans they have

already made.

We want Jesus to forgive us, help us, protect us, and bless us without ever challenging our sin or taking control

of our lives. But that is not why Jesus came. He did not come simply to affirm us as we are; He came to forgive

us, transform us, and call us to follow Him.

So what are you looking for? Are you looking for a Jesus you can use to accomplish your purposes, or are you

ready to bow before the real Jesus and surrender your life to His?

Come and see who He really is—and then decide whether you will follow Him.