Come and See

Cross Connection Church believes that God has called us to live in connection with Him. He has placed all of us in various locations around the county to connect with others and bring them into connection with Him. This week, we'll talk about how we can connect our friends, family members, co-workers, and neighbors with God through Christ Jesus. Follow along with us in the Gospel of John.

Welcome to Cross Connection Church! If you're new here, my name is Pastor Miles, and I am the lead pastor. I love teaching through the Word. Isn't it awesome to go through the Scriptures together every single week? Praise the Lord! We just finished a seven-month study through the book of Hebrews. It was an awesome study, and I enjoyed it. I hope you did too. However, I have to be honest: I am glad to step out of the book of Hebrews. That was really some deep theological stuff. Not that where we're going next is not theological, but I am really looking forward to this next season in the Scriptures.

We're going to start a new series in a couple of weeks on September 10th in the book of 1st Timothy, which is one of the books I really like a lot. I am especially excited because we are coming into my favorite season of the year. A couple of weeks ago, I was playing golf, and there was a beautiful breeze. The weather was perfect, and I caught a little whiff of fall. I thought, "Oh, fall!" But then I looked at the weather report yesterday, and it was like the Southern California gym; it is going to be hot this week—terribly hot!

Despite that, I think we are moving into a fun season as we get into the fall. As a parentheses to where we're going in the Scriptures in a couple of weeks, I have a message from the Gospel of John today. You can open your Bibles; we will be there in just a minute. If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. The Gospel of John is about two-thirds of the way through your Bible, right after the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, just before the book of Acts.

As you're turning there, you know that every single week, if you attend regularly, we talk about this card that's in your bulletin. This is one of the ways that we first and foremost connect with God. Our vision is life in connection with God, one another, and the world.

Through Jesus, we know that one of the ways we connect with God is through prayer. We use this as our prayer request card. We receive about seventy-five to a hundred of these every single week with your prayer requests, and we pray for them as a staff on Tuesday mornings. There is also another group that prays for them on Wednesday afternoons. Every week, these requests are prayed for, and we know that God answers those prayers. We hear about the praise reports constantly, and it's a wonderful thing.

The other side of this card is how we are able to connect with you, or you with us, through our connection card. You can let us know who you are and your visit, especially if this is your first time here. You'll also notice in your bulletin today there's a new card for this week that says "You Connect." If you want to hold on to this, we will be talking about it today as we go through the Scriptures together.

With that, would you stand? We are going to read in John's Gospel, chapter 1, beginning at verse 29. In John 1:29, we read, "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, "After me comes a man who was preferred before me, for he was before me." I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.'"

John bore witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained upon him. I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God."

Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples, looking at Jesus as he walked, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and, seeing them following, said to them, "What do you seek?" They said to him, "Rabbi," which is to say, when translated, "Teacher, where are you staying?" He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. Now it was about the tenth hour, or four o'clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew.

Simon Peter's brother first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah," which is translated "the Christ." He brought him to Jesus. Now, when Jesus looked at Peter, or Simon, He said to him, "You are Simon, son of Jonah; you shall be called Cephas," which is translated "a stone."

The following day, Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." Now, Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."

Father, as we consider this passage of Scripture this morning, I pray that You would speak to us, that You would give us insight and wisdom, but that You would also challenge us by the working of Your Spirit, Lord. Help us to reach out to people who have yet to come to the place where they know who You are. So, God, stir our hearts, speak to us, and transform us. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen." You can be seated.

John's Gospel is a wonderful work of Scripture, nestled among the other three Gospels. It is, however, a little bit different from the previous three Gospels: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the synoptic Gospels; they give a brief synopsis of the life and ministry of Jesus. They highlight the high points and are all pretty similar.

The Gospel of John, which was written after Matthew, Mark, and Luke, is a little bit different in structure, form, focus, and purpose. The Gospel of John has a very specific purpose for why it was written. As we see in this opening passage, we are introduced to a man by the name of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was a very interesting character; we see him in the Gospels, but John focuses a little bit more on John the Baptist and speaks about him.

This is where it can sometimes get confusing: the writer John, who wrote the Gospel of John, is not John the Baptist. He just writes about John the Baptist at the beginning of this passage, so it can be confusing.

There were a lot of guys named John, and so John, the one who wrote the Gospel of John, also wrote First, Second, and Third John, as well as the Book of Revelation. At the opening of his work, the Gospel, he writes about John the Baptist. John the Baptist was this crazy character who shows up in the Gospels just before Jesus does. He is announcing the coming of the Kingdom of God. He is preaching a message out in the wilderness, and multitudes of people are coming out of the cities to find this fiery preacher who is out in the middle of nowhere. It's like he is out in the Alpine or something, and people are coming to find this guy who is just by the rivers speaking.

His message was really simple: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Turn from your sin; repent because the Kingdom of God is coming." That was his message, and people were excited about it. So many people were coming to hear him because they could tell that this guy had a prophetic bent to him. In fact, he is referred to as one of the last Old Testament prophets. People were excited about John the Baptist because there had not been a prophet of God for 400 years. God had not spoken to His people through prophets for four centuries.

Now, when John the Baptist shows up, he is this kind of crazy dude wearing camel's hair clothing that has been knit together. I imagine him with this big, huge beard. The Scriptures say that he was eating locusts and wild honey. I mean, he is like so Pacific Northwest in every possible way, fully embracing the vegan lifestyle. People were coming out to see this guy and to check him out as he preached his message: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."

People were so stirred by the message he was giving that they were looking for something. They needed to respond. How should we respond to what this guy is saying? He would call them to be baptized, to be dunked down in the water, if you will. This was not an abnormal thing in Jewish culture. If you were going to worship God at the Temple in Jerusalem during that time, when you would go up to the Temple, there were pools called mikvah just outside the precincts, the gates of the Temple. You would go down into them and self-baptize; you would wash yourself ceremonially. This was not a bath; it was just preparing yourself for going into the Temple to worship. So here is John, and he is...

Calling these people to turn from their sins and to repent, John the Baptist says to bear fruits worthy of repentance. They would go down to him in the water, and he would baptize them. After that, they would go on their merry way, but they were looking for the coming of the Messiah. That's what he was preaching: the coming of the kingdom of God.

What was the purpose of this whole baptism thing? Interestingly, John the Baptist tells us why he was baptizing in this passage. Look at verse 29. It says, "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and he said, 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, "After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me." I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.'" Did you catch that? So that this Messiah, this Jesus, this Christ, would be revealed to Israel. That's why he came baptizing.

What is he talking about? Look at verse 32. John bore witness, saying, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he remained upon him." He emphasizes again, "I did not know him, but he who sent me, God, who sent me as a prophet to preach, he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God."

Now, the Gospel account of John is written to prove that point: that this Jesus is the Son of God. That was the purpose for which he wrote. He tells us that at the very end of this book. In John chapter 20, verse 30, the gospel writer John says, "And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name."

That's the purpose of the Gospel of John: to prove the divinity and the majesty of Jesus. The miracles that are recorded, seven miracles in total, and the seven "I am" statements are given to prove that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the one that all the Old Testament prophets prophesied of, and that he is the Son of God. John the Baptist is the first to announce it.

In this passage, it says, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." This is the Son of God. How did John know that this was the Son of God? God prophetically spoke to John and said, "Listen, Johnny, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go down there into the wilderness. I want you to preach, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' People are going to come down there, and then you're going to baptize them. The one upon whom you see the Spirit of God descending like a dove and remaining on him, that's the Messiah."

I imagine that John's baptizing looked something like this: people would come to John, he would baptize them, and they would come up out of the water. Then he would look and wait. One day, Jesus came to him. Notice that John said, "I did not know him." That's really interesting because John did know Jesus; he knew who he was. The Scriptures tell us that John's mother, Elizabeth, and Jesus's mother, Mary, were relatives. They were believed to be cousins, at least first or second cousins. We don't know for sure, but they are related somehow.

So, John knew the person, the guy Jesus, who grew up in their community. However, he did not know Jesus's true identity; he didn't know who he really was. Then one day, Jesus came, like so many other people had come to be baptized. John baptized him, and when he did, the Spirit descended like a dove. I don't know exactly what that looked like. You see the movies, and there's this little white fluttering dove, but I don't think it was like that. It came down and remained on him, and God affirmed, "This is the Son of God."

When God affirmed, "This is the Son of God," the ministry of John the Baptist changed. He began to say, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is the Son of God." The ministry of John changed so much that just a couple of chapters later, in John chapter 3, verse 30, John the Baptist himself says, "I must decrease; he must increase." John the Baptist begins to fade from view, and Jesus takes center stage. John says this is okay. In fact, in John's Gospel, chapter 3, some of the disciples of John the Baptist were a little bothered by this. He reassures them, saying, "No, this is how it is supposed to be. I must decrease; he must increase."

Increase, and just like John the Baptist, I believe point number one is that we live to point people to Jesus. This is one of the things that will become very clear as we go through these verses in John chapter 1. What that means is that you might be a teacher, an engineer, in law enforcement, a doctor, a lawyer, a contractor, or a stay-at-home mom or dad. Wherever you are and whatever you do, your purpose is to point people to Jesus, just like John the Baptist did.

Now, listen. If you grasp this point and take it to heart, and if you really incorporate this into your life, I guarantee it will radically transform the way you view your work, your job, and your place. Whatever it is—whether it's that project that's bothering you, that office mate who upsets you, or that situation you're dealing with—if you come into it recognizing, "God, you've placed me here for the purpose of pointing people to Jesus," I absolutely guarantee you will begin to view that situation differently.

You will start to realize that you get paid by General Atomics, the city of Poway, Sharp Healthcare, or whoever it is, to do the very work that God has called you to do in that place. Whether you realize it or not, you have a missionary call from God to the very place He has placed you. He put you there for a purpose: to point people to Jesus.

Now, we have to use tact in the way we do that. We must ensure that we honor the job we are doing for our employer, but we also need to recognize that wherever we are, we are there to point people to Jesus. The question then arises: how exactly do we do that?

Look at what John does in John chapter 1, verse 35. The next day, John stood with two of his disciples, two of his associates, and looking at Jesus walking, he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God."

Now he has to say it again: "Behold the Lamb of God." He uses a metaphor that the people in his day would have understood. In our day, however, this metaphor is probably not well understood, especially for people who haven't been around the Bible. Our culture is becoming more biblically illiterate than at any other time in American history. Many people do not know the Bible, and while that is not necessarily a bad thing, it means that a metaphor like "the Lamb of God" often goes over people's heads. They might think, "The lamb? What does that mean? Explain that to me; I don't understand."

To the people hearing this 2,000 years ago, the concept was clear. This entire culture, called by God to point people to Jesus, would go to the temple multiple times a year to offer lambs as sacrifices to God. The idea of a lamb being offered as a sacrifice for one's sins was well understood. When John says, "This is the Lamb of God," he is indicating that God is offering a sacrifice. But for what? For His own sins? No, God is sinless. So, what is God offering a sacrifice for? It is for you and me.

This is similar to what the high priest would do on Yom Kippur, which is still celebrated today, though not in the same way as it was 2,000 years ago. The high priest would offer a lamb as a sacrifice for the sins of the nation. So, when John says, "Behold the Lamb of God," he is referring to the one who will take away the sin of the world.

We need to recognize that in our day, the metaphors might need to change when we talk about Jesus with people who live in Southern California. We may need to discover new metaphors to describe who Jesus is and what He did, because "Lamb of God" might not make sense to everyone.

John the Baptist now knows the true identity of Jesus. He declares, "Behold the Lamb of God." Before this moment, he knew who Jesus of Nazareth was; he knew Mary, His mother, and His brothers and sisters. He was related to them and grew up with them. John was six months older than Jesus, so they were very close in age. He had an idea of who Jesus was, but there came a day when he truly recognized Jesus' identity. He saw His true nature, and that realization is significant.

For a lot of you, maybe you grew up around this whole Christian thing. Perhaps you grew up going to church, but you didn't really know who Jesus was. You knew about Jesus; you could even quote verses about Him. However, there came a day in your life when it hit you, and you saw the true identity of Jesus. When you come to the realization of who Jesus truly is, that changes the nature of who you are. It changes the way that you live and the things that you do.

I imagine that it changed John the Baptist in a number of ways. First, I think that after John realized who Jesus really was, he stopped baptizing. This might be a controversial point; maybe some people would disagree with me. Perhaps when I get to heaven, John will say, "No, I still did that," but I don't think he did. Why? Because God said, "I want you to baptize for this purpose: to reveal the Messiah." That was done. Once that was accomplished, I don't think he needed to baptize anymore.

Now, I think some of his disciples kept baptizing, but I don't believe John did. Furthermore, John instantly started pointing people to Jesus. He said, "Behold the Lamb of God! Follow Him, don't follow me. Follow Him; He's the one I'm telling you to repent from your sins. He's the one who can forgive you of your sins." John's life changed immediately. He realized who Jesus is and began pointing people to Him.

If they didn't listen the first time, he just kept telling them the second time. It says again, "The next day he stood with his disciples and said, 'Behold.'" If they hadn't listened the second time, he would have told them a third time, and a fourth time. He would have kept telling them until they responded to his call.

Well, what was the outcome? Look at verse 37: "The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus."

Point number two: We point to Jesus so that others will follow Him. We point to Jesus so that others will follow Him, and we don't stop. We don't give up until we see a response. It can be a positive response or a negative response, but even if it's a negative response, we have to keep going on, pointing people to Jesus. Why? Because we live to point people to Jesus.

Jesus invites them to follow Him. In verse 38, He turns and sees them following Him. He asks, "What do you seek?" They respond, "Rabbi," which means "Teacher," "where are you staying?"

I have a feeling, though I could be wrong, that these guys were following Jesus and mumbling to each other, wondering what they thought about Him. They might have been asking, "Where do you think He’s going?" Then Jesus turns around and looks at them, asking, "What’s up, guys? What are you seeking?" One of them immediately asks where He is staying.

Jesus replies, "Come and see." They came and saw where He was staying, and they remained with Him that day. It was about the tenth hour, which is 4:00 in the afternoon.

I suspect they didn’t know how to respond when Jesus asked what they were looking for. Many times, people don’t exactly know what it is they seek. They are searching for something, and in fact, I think it’s fair to say that every single person we know is searching for something. Many people in our lives are looking for more from life. Sometimes we hear them ask, "Is this all that it really is?" They are pursuing something deeper.

Ultimately, as Blaise Pascal, the great French philosopher, said, all men seek happiness. At the end of the day, the pursuit is for happiness, which is also reflected in the founding documents of our nation. We are pursuing happiness; we are looking for more fulfillment from life.

People search for this fulfillment in various areas. They may seek it in possessions, promotions, power, prestige, or pleasure. They are looking for it in some area and are actively seeking it. However, we know from our own experiences and what we hear in our culture that people in this pursuit are often not satisfied. We even sing about it in popular songs, like "I can't get no satisfaction."

Haven't you found what you're looking for? When you've tried your best and you don't succeed, these are the hit songs; these are the lyrics that connect with us at a deep soul level. We can all identify with the reality that the pursuit for more fulfillment is often a pursuit that does not fulfill.

We've seen the interviews with people who have reached great heights. They succeed, and in an interview, they confess, "I got to that point, and it didn't satisfy." They reached a high point and realized there was a low valley on the other side. They ask the question, "Is this all there is?"

C.S. Lewis, in his great book Mere Christianity, says early in the book, "Nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, class, empire, slavery—is the long, terrible story of man trying to find something other than God that will make him happy."

But Jesus said 2,000 years ago in this same passage of Scripture, John's Gospel, chapter 10, "I have come that you may have life and that you may have it to the fullest, more abundantly." Jesus said He came that we would have an abundant life.

The disciples of John, now following Jesus at a distance, are caught off guard when He turns around and asks them, "What are you seeking? Where are you staying? Come and see." In that response, Jesus offers a simple invitation.

Point number three on your outline: Jesus invites seekers to come, see, and remain with Him. Verse 40 goes on to say that one of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. One of these two guys following Jesus gets caught up in the moment. Jesus asks, "What are you looking for? Where are you staying? Come and see."

One of them is Andrew. Now, that name might not connect with you; you may not know that name. But you know Peter. If you've read the Gospels, everybody knows Peter. Peter is awesome.

I can relate to Peter in so many ways. He had this terrible syndrome that I suffer from called foot-in-mouth syndrome. Some of the guys in here probably suffer from the same thing. Peter had that issue, but sometimes lesser-known individuals, like Andrew, come into play. I perceive that Andrew was probably Peter's younger brother because Peter has all the marks of a firstborn.

Andrew was one of those guys who was with John the Baptist and then started following Jesus. It says he first found his own brother, Simon. He went looking for his brother and said to him, "We have found the Messiah!" Isn't it great when your younger brother comes and says that? The term "Messiah" is translated to "Christ." Andrew brought Simon to Jesus.

Now, when Jesus looked at Simon, He said, "You are Simon, son of Jonah." Jesus knew who he was. I mean, everybody probably knew who Simon was, but anyway, Jesus knew who he was. He said, "You are Simon, son of Jonah; you shall be called Cephas," which is to say a stone or Petrus in Greek, Peter.

Andrew went looking for his brother and said, "We found the Messiah! You have to come and see Him. You have to check this guy out." He invited his brother along, and his brother came.

Every single one of us in this room has people like Peter in our lives—like Simon—people who don't yet know Jesus. They may be co-workers, family members, or friends. Like Andrew, we are in the position of having to invite them to come and see Jesus. However, many people are fearful to do that. One of the top five reasons people don't invite others is because they fear rejection. They think the odds are that they will get rejected.

So, what are the odds that you'll get rejected? This last week, although you don't have to admit it—nobody raised their hand—some of you probably went to a 7-Eleven and bought a little piece of paper with numbers on it because there was a big jackpot in the Powerball lottery, three-quarters of a billion dollars. You don't have to admit it; some of you did. You might have said, "I'm going to tie it on if I win."

You did that, and you went because you thought maybe, just maybe, you might win this. What were the odds? One in 292 million. Amazingly, one gal on the East Coast won, and she got to make that call to her employer: "I'm not coming in today, or tomorrow, or ever."

One in 292 million. Some of you think that if I invited someone to church, like Andrew invites Peter here to come see Jesus, that the odds are they’re going to say yes—one in 292 million. But there was a research study done ten years ago. They asked a whole group of people who don’t go to church this question: "If a friend invited you to come to church, would you say yes or no?" They found that 82 percent would say yes. Eight out of ten is slightly better than one in 292 million. The odds are in your favor. This is not like asking someone out to prom; don’t worry. You’re just inviting someone to come and see.

He found his brother and said to him, "We have found the Messiah." New followers are often the best new finders. He goes and finds his brother, saying, "We have found the Messiah." What have you found in Jesus? Have you found a Savior? Have you found the Lord? Have you found love, acceptance, forgiveness, grace, purpose, meaning, identity, significance, joy, and peace? Do you think that maybe some of your co-workers, family members, or friends are seeking some of those things that you have found in Christ? I’d venture to guess that they are.

Peter came to Jesus, and when Jesus saw him, He said, "You are Simon, son of Jonah, but you’re going to be called Petros, Cephas." Jesus knows everything about you when you come to Him. Now, that might be scary for some people, but here’s the awesome part: not only does Jesus know everything about you when you come to Him, but He knows exactly what He wants to make you in the end. He knows what He wants to do with you when you come.

Point number four: Jesus has a plan for everyone that comes to Him. Jesus has a plan for you.

Everyone that comes to Him, the following day, verse 43 of John chapter 1, Jesus wanted to go to Galilee. He was in Judea, which is the area near Jerusalem, and He wanted to go to Galilee. If you look on a map and see that area of Jerusalem and the surrounding county, Galilee is to the north. Jesus lived in the region of Galilee, in a city called Nazareth; that's where He is from.

So, the following day, Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip. He said to him, "Follow me." Where does Jesus want to go with you, and who does He want to reach through you? He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me."

Now, we know that one of the two disciples of John who followed Jesus was a guy named Andrew, who had a brother named Simon. It is my assumption that the other one was this guy whom Jesus finds, named Philip. Jesus seeks seekers to make them His followers.

Philip, we are told in verse 44, was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter, so he knew Andrew and Peter; he was from the same town. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote." He spoke to Nathanael in a way that this Jewish man would understand.

"We found the one that Moses prophesied about; we found the one that all the prophets were speaking of. We found Him, the Messiah." He said, "It's Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Nathanael responded, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?"

It's as if he was saying, "We found Jesus," and then he questioned, "Can anything good come from Him?" This is similar to how my wife, who grew up in Poway, might say, "Can anything good come from Escondido?" I would remind her, "You married him!"

Nathanael questioned, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Philip replied with the last words at the end of verse 46, "Come and see."

Did we see that already? Where did Philip hear that? He said, "Master, teacher, rabbi, where are you staying?" Jesus replied, "Come and see." Nathanael then asked, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Philip responded, "Come and see."

One of the top reasons that many people will not share their faith with a co-worker, family member, or friend, or invite someone to church, is that they are afraid that person will ask them a question they can't answer. Nathanael asks a really important question here. Philip says, "We found the Messiah; he's from Nazareth." Nathanael responds, "I didn't see that in the prophets. Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Philip did not have a good answer; he didn't know what to say. So he simply said, "Come and see."

I think this is a valid response when people ask you hard questions. You will get hard questions; I get hard questions sometimes, and I don't know the answers to them. A valid answer is to say, "Come and see. Come investigate it for yourself." You've been searching in all these other places; have you searched here yet? A lot of times, people would have to honestly say no. They have a bias against that; they have a preconceived notion, a stereotype of what happens in those buildings called churches.

Listen, every single person you know who doesn't go to church has a view of what happens there, and 99% of it is not true. So we just say, "Come and see," like Philip did.

In verse 47, Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit." Essentially, he was saying, "You are a man of a pure heart." Nathanael was one of the 80%; he was skeptical and had questions, but he came. It's okay for skeptics to come to church. I think the church should be filled with skeptics. We all should be skeptical of this; we are banking our eternity on it. We should investigate it. So here, a skeptic comes because his friends said, "Come and see." He thought, "Sure, I'm not doing anything; let's go."

A solid man in Israel with no deceit, no pretense, Nathanael said to Him, "You talking to me?" That's what he said, right? "How do you know me?" Jesus answered and said, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Nathanael answered and said to Him, "Rabbi, Master, Teacher, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."

This is amazing to me. Nathanael comes as a skeptic. He's got a question: "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" It's a valid question, and he comes to investigate this individual, this Jesus. Jesus says one thing to him, and he instantly becomes a believer. "You're the Son of God." All Jesus said was, "Before your buddy Philip called you, when you were sitting under the fig tree, I saw you." That was a trigger for Nathanael.

Something happened in Nathanael's life; we don't know what it is, but he can tell us when we get to heaven. There was something that happened at some point, some private, important thing of value to him. It was under a fig tree, apparently a private moment. Maybe no one else was there, but Jesus says, "I was there because I'm all-knowing, all-present." Nathanael says, "You're the Son of God; you have the nature of God. If you know about that, you must be God."

What does that tell us? Point number six: God is already working in the people He wants to reach through you. This is so important. God is already working in the people He wants to reach through you in ways you can't even begin to imagine.

Notice that Nathanael had a question: "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" He left his question; he doesn't even bring it up. Jesus didn't even need to deal with that question because something else triggered in his mind. He says, "You are the Son of God." He became an instant follower. "You're the King."

You connect with all kinds of people throughout this county. You connect with people on school campuses, in office buildings, on construction sites, and at the mailbox in front of your house. You connect with people at the gas station and at the grocery store. All over the place, you are in connection with people all the time who are like Nathanael and Simon—people who are seeking, people who are searching for more fulfillment. They are looking for something in this life, thinking they might find it in that next promotion or in the next thing they buy. Yet, they will always be unsatisfied with those things, and you know it, I know it, and they know it.

So many people in our culture have adopted a nihilistic view that there is no meaning and no purpose; we are just here to exist. You are in connection with them every single day. Who does God want to connect with through you? Who are those people going through a difficult time right now that you are connected with? I will never know most of them, and many people in this room will never know them, but you know them because they are on the construction site with you on Monday.

I want everyone to take this card out. There is a pen in the seat back in front of you, and you will notice on the back of this card there are three little blanks. I want you to take just a moment to think about who you connect with on a weekly basis that you would love to see connect with Jesus. Maybe you have already invited them before, and they said no. John had to say a couple of times, "Behold, I am." Or maybe you are too afraid because they might ask a question that you don’t know the answer to, and you think, "I don’t know how I would answer that." That’s okay.

Or perhaps you think the odds are stacked against you. Eight out of ten people said if they were invited, they would go. I want you to take just a moment and write down three names. Maybe it’s a family member, a neighbor, a co-worker, your child’s teacher at school, or the coach on the fall baseball team. Whoever it may be, write down a name—write down three of them. Take a moment. Once you have written them down, you can tear that off, fold it in half, and Christian and our worship team are going to come up. In a moment, I am going to pray.

As I do, the worship team is going to play a song in just a minute, and the ushers are going to come and collect these at the center aisles. So, just write the names, fold them up, and pass them to the center. We’re going to collect them, and then we’re going to pray.

In a couple of weeks, we’re going to start a new series after Labor Day. A lot of people have plans for Labor Day; they’re going out to the desert or doing something special. But the following week, September 10th, marks a new time of year, a new school year, and new things going on. People are thinking about the next phase until Christmas and all that sort of stuff. We’re going to pray that God gives us an opportunity to invite some friends to church, to say, "Come and see," as we get ready to start a new series in the Scripture.

If you haven’t done it already, write those names down, tear it off, fold it in half, and pass it to the center aisles.

Father, we come before You. We know that by Your Spirit, You are working in the lives of these people at this moment because You are the one who draws people. You sovereignly work through us to invite. So, God, we just pray right now. We’re going to pray in a minute again, but Lord, do a work because You are worthy of worship and praise. You deserve the praise of all peoples in all places.

In this county, only 9% of the 2.3 million people who call San Diego County home are connected to a gospel-preaching church. God, do work. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.