Come And See

Hi everybody, it’s Pastor Dave at Word By Mail. It is a great day to get Alone With God! It is a beautiful day where I’m at; I trust it is where you’re at as well. If you’ve got an Alone With God journal, grab it and open it to your next “Daily Journal” page. If you don’t have one and you want one, get it at wordbymail.com. If you don’t have our Alone With God journal, grab any journal that you use, and I’ll walk you through our Alone With God steps, and you can use your blank journal. If you’re not a journaler, number one, you should consider being a journaler. There’s something special to it. But, if you’re not a journaler, just set this time aside and say, “Lord, this is you and me. This is my time alone with you.” Open your Bible – absolutely, you have to open your Bible. Just prepare your heart to hear from God through his Living Word and to apply and respond to what the Holy Spirit points out to you today.

Grab your Bible. Open it to John Chapter 1. I love John Chapter 1. I love the whole chapter, and I have so many favorite teaching texts in John Chapter 1. This is definitely one of them. We’re reading verses 35-39. I want you today, if you will, focus on your Bible as I’m talking. Really be looking at it. I use the NLT – the New Living Translation – you look at whatever Bible you have. Again, John 1:35-39. I’m going to talk you through these verses and point some things out while I’m reading the verses. Maybe highlight. Make some notes. Underline. Do something to interact with God’s Word today.

John 1:35 says, 35 The following day John (that’s John the Baptist, you can read back a little and catch up on what’s going on) was again standing with two of his disciples. So, a Disciple is a “learner.” An “adherent.” Someone who adheres to the instruction of a leader. They learn from a leader enough to become like their leader. So, these are John the Baptist’s Disciples. We know one of these is Andrew. Pretty much everybody is certain the other Disciple here is John – the Apostle John.

John the Baptist is standing with two of his Disciples. Verse 36 says, 36 As Jesus walked by, John looked at him . . . And this word for looking at doesn’t mean that John just saw him and glanced at him. It means that John the Baptist is longing, gazing upon. It means “to give a penetrating look.” And so, John the Baptist is totally caught up, focused on Jesus Christ. And, listen, here’s the incredible thing. There is a chance that this is the last time that John the Baptist saw Jesus on this side of Heaven. So, John the Baptist is really, really looking at Jesus.

And verse 36 says, John (John the Baptist) looked at him and declared, “Look! (Your Bible might say Behold! Again, it’s this word of intense gazing, beholding, longing at.) “Look! There is the Lamb of God!” “Behold! The Lamb of God.” John the Baptist says to his Disciples, “Don’t look at me anymore. Look at Jesus.” Behold, Jesus!

And then verse 37 says, 37 When John’s two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus. Which means they stopped following John the Baptist. And this is a perfect picture of what should happen when you lead people to Jesus. You, as a friend or co-worker or family member, you disciple them. You show them Jesus. You give them Jesus, and then the goal is to have them stop following you and follow Jesus. So, I hope that has happened to you. I hope that someone else has done that for you. I hope that you are doing that for someone else – actually leading them to follow Jesus. So, that’s what happens in verse 37. John the Baptist’s Disciples leave John the Baptist and start following Jesus. And it means – literally following him. It means that they walked away from John the Baptist and started following Jesus as he was walking.

Verse 38 says, 38 Jesus looked around (he turned around) and saw them following. And here’s what Jesus says to them. “What do you want?” Like, “Hey. What do you guys want? Why are you following me?” “What do you want?” he asked them. This is so big! Because this is such a loaded question. It’s what are you looking for? What do you want? Why are you right now physically following me? “What do you want?” he asked them. They replied, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), (here’s their reply) “where are you staying?” Jesus says to them in verse 38, “What do you want?” They respond by saying, “where are you staying?" In other words, “We want to be where you are. We want to follow you where you are going. We want to be in your presence. We want to spend time with you.” So they say, “where are you staying?” Such a great interaction here. Jesus says to us, “What do you want?” The question is, do we say, “I want a better job and more money and a better car and a better situation,” or do we say, “Jesus. Where are you because that’s where I want to be. Where are you staying? I want to be where you are.”

And then, look at verse 39. It’s incredible. Jesus says, “Come and see,” Notice he does not tell these brand new Disciples where he’s going or what he’s going to do. He says, “Look. If you want to be where I am, come and see. Come and follow me.” “Come and see,” he said. And then the end of verse 39 says, It was about four o’clock in the afternoon . . . Most scholars believe that John (the Apostle John) is noting the time because this is the moment that he began following Jesus. So, he writes, It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went with him to the place where he was staying, and they remained with him the rest of the day.

What an awesome text!! What an awesome text.

So, in the steps for our Alone With God journal, the first step is Meditate. Meditate on these verses. Think about them. John the Baptist says to his own Disciples, Behold! Look! There’s the Lamb of God. Leave me – follow him. And then they started following him, and Jesus says, “What do you guys want?” And they replied, “We want to be where you’re at. Wherever you’re going, we want to be there.” And Jesus says, “Come and see.” He says, “I’m not telling you where I’m going or what I’m doing. But if you want to be with me, you follow me, and you’ll see.” And man, did they ever! It’s so great! So, meditate on that Word. Go over it again.

And then, the second step is to Apply it. How does that apply to your life today? How does that apply to your life? Write that down in your journal.

And then the next step is Respond. What action will you take today in response to incredible interaction with the first followers of Christ? The first Disciples.

And then Pray. I really encourage you to write your prayer to God. I’m going to pray with you, and then you can do your journal, write in your journal, and pray to end, yourself.

Let’s pray. Lord, Jesus, you are an incredible Messiah. Lord, you are an incredible Lord of our lives. Lord, we thank you so much that you are the Lamb of God who has taken away our sin and the sin of the world, for all those who will receive you. Lord, may we have this heart of the first Disciples. When you ask us, “What do we want?” may we say, “We want to be where you are.” And Lord, when you say, “Come and see,” may we say, “Yes, Lord.” God, please make this real in our heart today and in our lives. In your name, Jesus, amen.

That’s a great set of verses. Alright, guys, if you need an Alone With God journal, grab one at wordbymail.com. Go to wordbymail.com anyway. There’re over a thousand full verse-by-verse Bible-teaching messages there. So much at Wordbymail – it is incredible. Twenty-three years of Bible teaching there from me, and some other great Bible teachers are there as well. So, go to wordbymail.com. If you need us, you can contact us there. Any questions, any needs, anything we can do, contact us. You can text us right now, you can text us at (877) 790-WORD. (877) 790-9673. Contact us.

Spend some time alone with God right now. Finish out your journal. And then, go and have a great day. God bless you. Bye-bye.