Mission Sunday: Come & See

The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, Behold, the Lamb of God.

The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, What are you seeking?

And they said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying?

He said to them, Come and you will see.

So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day.

For it was about the tenth hour, four o'clock.

One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which means Christ.

He brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon, the son of John.

You shall be called Cephas, which means Peter.

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee.

He found Philip and said to him, Follow me.

Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, We have found him whom Moses in the law 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.

Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said to him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit.

Nathanael said to him, How do you know me?

Jesus answered him, Before Philip called you, when you are under the fig tree, I saw you.

Nathaniel answered him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God.

You are the king of Israel.

Jesus answered him, Because I said to you, I saw you under the tree.

Do you believe?

You will see greater things than these.

And he said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God descending, ascending, and descending on the Son of Man.

This is God's word.

Again, we are glad everyone is here this morning to just uh dive into John 1.

Uh, it is a mission Sunday for us, it's a new space.

Uh as Nombilo has uh uttered, we are going to be moving to a bigger space, but we are here this morning just to encourage our hearts.

And I'm glad you made it.

The weather is not that great, but uh God had you here this morning.

And my question to you is like the convenience store employee, what are you seeking?

In other words, why are you here?

Uh what do you want next, as it were?

What are you asking for in your life?

What what are you asking life to give you?

What are you asking life to kind of like form you?

What are you asking of life to say now?

When once you've received that, you'll be like, now I'm finally okay.

And here's what's interesting, friends.

Before Jesus ever asks them what they are seeking in the text, somebody has already told them where to look.

John the Baptist sees Jesus walking past and says to him, Behold, he says to the other disciple who's quiet, he doesn't, he's always remains anonymous.

His name is John, the author of this uh gospel.

He's there with with Andrew, and and Jesus says to him, Um, John, the apostle John is there, and John the Baptist is also there.

He's the one who was the prophet preaching, and he tells them, Behold, the one whom I was preaching about, the one whom my ministry was pointing to, behold the Lamb of God, behold uh the one whom every other shadow of the Old Testament was pointing to.

Behold the one whom even the sacrificial system was pointing to.

Behold the sufficient sacrifice, behold the Lamb of God, look at him.

And when they began, friends, to look at him, they began to what?

To follow him.

And Jesus then asked them, What are you seeking?

What are you seeking?

What are you looking for?

Jesus, Jesus is giving them, as it were, an invitation.

Come and you will see.

He he he he gives that invitation as they ask, Where do you where do you live?

I I don't think they were they were very clear on what they were asking or in terms of what they were seeking.

The idea of where do you live is like it's it's an idea of a call, is it as it were to say, we wanna be where you are.

We want to live with you.

Where where you're going, we we want to go there, we wanna get to get to know you.

Whether you believe this morning, whether you have questions this morning, whether you think you've already got it together in terms of who Jesus is and have it figured out.

Jesus, even this morning, is saying to us, come and see.

Come and see.

That's the first point we're gonna look at.

We have three points this morning is come and see, go and tell, and there's something more to see.

Come and see, go and tell, and there's something more to what?

To see.

The idea then, friends, of uh what are you seeking for, what are you longing for?

It's it's it's it's a question that plagues the hearts of people living in a city.

Is it money?

Is it is it companionship?

Is it is it is it significance?

Is it the idea of feeling respected, as it were?

Is it the idea of being taken seriously finally?

Maybe maybe someone inviting you and uh maybe someone who is curious about your life, seeing you, is it is it that?

Is it you being seen?

What are you what are you seeking?

And as Jesus uh responds to them, he he's inviting them to kind of like man, be invested as a disciple to see something more, a bigger reality.

In other words, if you think about it, he's like, Well, I'm a New Zealand fan, quote unquote.

I'm watching, I can't, I make all the commentaries, but but Jesus is saying, hey, would you get in the game?

Would you would you get into the scrum?

Would you, would you, would you wrestle with with the reality of who I am, not from afar?

You've heard the testimony of John, behold the Lamb of God, and you're asking me, where do you stay?

Jesus says, Come and see.

Let's look at it, friends.

Look at verse 38.

Verse 38 says, Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, What are you seeking?

Two men have started following Jesus, and he turns and asks them, What are you seeking?

The question is deeper to you now.

What are you seeking from Jesus?

What are you asking Jesus for?

What are you assuming about Jesus?

Their answer is Rabbi, meaning teacher.

Where do you stay?

Jesus says, Come and you will see.

Come, you will behold.

Come, your eyes will be opened.

John doesn't waste words, friends.

It's like a peeling of an onion.

There's a deeper sense of the usage of the word.

When he says, Behold, when he says, come, when he says you will see, he's he's kind of saying, Your life will unravel before you as you follow me.

So they come, friends, they see, and what they what do they do?

They stay.

Sounds almost ordinary.

An address, an afternoon, a place where Jesus is staying.

But now look at verse 41 quickly.

He first found his own brother Simon.

That's Andrew.

Andrew, after having seen, he first found his brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah.

I would even say they have been found by the Messiah.

We have found the Christ.

We have found the one whom the hope of the Old Testament was pointing to.

We have found him.

They have stayed with him, they have seen him, they've they've spent time with him, and that kind of revealed something about Christ.

That always kind of unravels your life.

When you have seen Christ, when you have spent time, when you have leaned in, you behold the Christ, you behold the Messiah, the anointed one, the prophet, the priest, the king.

And verse 29, friends, has already told us who this is.

He says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Don't miss that.

The idea of his purpose here.

That following Jesus is not this pragmatic idea of saying, Man, I'm gonna follow, I'm gonna come, I wanna stay where you stay because I want, I want, I want money, I want prosperity, I want the finer things in life.

No, he's here to take away the sin of the what?

The world.

Now we are told, friends, this these two disciples kind of like um were following this Jesus, and and and and yes, they had followed John, but John was saying, man, my whole ministry has been pointing to this Jesus, this this Lamb who who came to take away what the sins of the world.

And friends, that's where Christianity begins.

It's not to take away your problems.

Although we'd like our problems to go away.

But but but where Christianity begins, friends, is with this question of our sins.

Not with what Jesus can do for you, but with what only Jesus can do for you.

You know, you know, you you can get these other things elsewhere, but this idea of taking away your sins, your education can't take away your sins.

Your income bracket can't take away your sins.

You you cannot achieve enough to erase your sins, you cannot become religious enough to remove your sins.

You need the Lamb of God.

Now, what are you seeking?

Because, friends, it is entirely possible to follow Jesus while actually seeking something other than Jesus.

I want him to fix my marriage, I want him to bless my ambitions, I want him to give me children and good values, I want him to calm my anxiety, I want him to make my life work.

And and friends, none of these things are necessarily bad desires.

Don't hear me wrongly today.

Those are not bad what desires.

A student can can try to prove something to their family back home by working harder.

But that's the precisely the point, friends.

Jesus is inviting you not to prove yourself, he's inviting you to find significance and meaning in him alone.

A prayer and trying to create security around their children.

That's not a bad thing, friends.

That that's that's being human, especially in Joburg.

But the deeper question is am I seeking Jesus or merely seeking something from Jesus?

There's a difference, friends.

Although very subtle, friends, we could pray uh, as it were, as as as people who are longing for the means, who are longing for actually using Jesus as as a means to an end, a means to our own agenda.

But but but seeking, coming to see Jesus, Jesus says, man, I'm the end.

If you've lost everything and have me, I'm enough.

I'm enough.

One theologian by the name of Herman Bavink once described this this idea of our restless hearts uh by saying that we we we we we seek Jesus in money, we we seek Jesus in in property, in fame, in power, in passion.

And and and and friends, that's a haunting description of us.

We we are seeking something, as it were, more ultimate.

Something more ultimate, something that will tell us you meta, you have arrived, you have finally found rest, and we keep asking creator things to give us what only the creator himself can give.

In that sense, friends, we're kind of like seeking God while fleeing from God.

And that's not only, friends, a Jobet problem.

That's a that's a any other city in the world, you you'll experience people who are like men, they they they they kind of like know that there's a sense of uncertainty in their lives, and so the the there's a certainty of the temptation of what friends of of trying to climb up in life through your works, through your qualifications, through your access, trying to find recognition and significance through getting to the next level, as it were.

But friends, these things cannot carry the weight of God.

They cannot bear the weight of what you are looking for in them.

What are you seeking?

Jesus says, Come and see.

Now look again, friends, verse 39.

They stayed with him.

Verse 41, we have found the Messiah.

Verse 42, Andrew brings Simon to Jesus.

So Andrew and John.

John, John is a bit shy, friends.

If you read the book of John, you don't see much of John in the book of John.

John is very shy.

He'll call himself the disciple whom Jesus loved.

He'll never say John.

Uh he's very he's very shy.

But but Andrew came, he saw, he stayed, he found Jesus.

And then he went and brought somebody else to see.

So, by implication of that, the second point is go and tell.

Go, go and what?

And and and and and tell.

The spider movie is out.

Spider-Man movie is out, not the spider movie.

The spider-man movie is what?

People are like, duh.

Obviously, it's out.

And and we we we kind of all know that.

And even if we we have watched it, friends, somebody in your circle has to know that you've watched it.

Somebody has to know you you you sneak it into a conversation.

Wow, that movie.

And then you spoiler alert, you spoil it for them, but there's a sense of someone has you've posted about it.

Some people have, I've seen popcorn and and legs raised and them watching Spider-Man.

Kind of like you mentioned it more than necessarily in a conversation.

The spider movie is man, you should see that spider movie.

I told you, you need to go see this movie.

We we do this, friends, with with many other things, with restaurants, with with with a football club or a rugby club, quote unquote.

Uh the day is finally the day, friends, a club wins.

You want to tell everyone about it.

I mean, I was tempted to say, hey, the ladies are here.

But but the whole idea here, friends, that there's something deeply human about wanting other people to know what we've experienced.

Especially when we think we've experienced something great.

We want to attach ourselves publicly to what we consider glorious.

Now, friends, Joe Beck wants to hush us from sharing the most glorious news of experiencing Jesus.

When it comes to God, as long as you don't bring people in.

As long as you don't go to uh Simon and hey, hey, bro, come and see.

As long as you you don't intentionally lean into uh one relationship with someone and say, hey man, I've seen someone more significant.

I I've seen someone more glorious than Spider-Man.

Again, friends, this is not to guilt trip you from not sharing the gospel.

This is to say you've seen someone more glorious.

Would would you would you would you share that?

Would would you intentionally build relationships with people where you're like, hey, come and see, come and check this out.

This gives more significance.

And why wouldn't we want to?

And and friends, this the this this idea then I want to kind of uh dismiss here by saying this.

People talk about blessings, about church, about spirituality, about what they believe and don't believe quite openly, right?

And and this is in friends a city that that has gone silent in terms of that.

Uh quote unquote, in Jobak, we have Christian influencers.

Which is weird, but anyway, we have Christian influencers.

Not weird, it's it's yeah, it's your lane, it's your lane.

But the point is, there's a sense in which we have influencers.

So the there's a sense of like there's a a prophet around there.

I don't know, but the there are Christian influencers here.

There we have it.

I think we we should all be that.

There's a sense in which the Great Commission calls us, compels us to all be that, to to be the salt and and the light of the world, to to be people who share the beauty of this glory of Christ, the the beauty of how the gospel is forming us and shaping us.

We should all be like, hey, have you?

Come and see.

Man, you you may have questions.

I don't have the answers, but hey, come and see.

Friends, there's a difference then between being publicly religious and actually bringing someone you love toward Jesus.

That's what Simon did for his brother.

I mean, that's what Andrew did for Simon.

The irony of Andrew, I'm like, hey, Andrew did this for his brother who will then eventually be his leader.

Remember, this this Cephas, this Cai first, this, this, this is Peter, friends.

We we know Peter.

Peter has the the epistle of Peter, there's no epistle of of Andrew.

But Andrew did something significant.

Like, bro, the Messiah.

We have we have found the Messiah.

Come and see.

And his whole life changed.

That's that's the beauty of the gospel, friends.

That as we share it with our loved ones, as we share with with people, we know that, friends, it's the the brokenness is is affecting all of us.

It's as if you you you have the medicine and you see this person needs it.

How are you not sharing it?

Again, don't be that person, that weird person that bombards them.

Collagen says we must move wisely towards outsiders.

We must be wise in how we call people to Christ, in how we engage people with the gospel.

But we have to go.

Right, friends?

That's that's what Andrew does.

He goes and tells his his brother.

He encounters Jesus, and he wants somebody he loves to encounter Jesus to.

And now, watch the repetition.

Look at verse 43 quickly.

I went, I digress, but we we back on the text.

The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee.

He found Philip.

Talk about a founder.

He found Philip and said to him, Follow me.

Verse 45, Philip found Nathaniel.

We are found as friends.

Do you see the order?

Jesus finds Philip, Philip finds Nathaniel.

There's always someone to be found.

You see, the idea of being found is basically saying there's grace that precedes mission.

The grace is what fuels the mission.

It's God's kindness towards you that compels you to move towards.

Others with the same kindness.

You you were lost, you are found.

Now you are moving towards others who are lost and will be found.

It's grace, friends.

Before Philip does uh goes looking for anybody, Jesus has already come looking for who?

For Philip.

He's very famous.

He's called Philip the evangelist.

But but he was evangelized, he was found.

That's that's what uh uh keeps friends witnessing uh from turning into an idea of self-righteousness.

Remembering that you are found.

Remembering that you are what?

You are found.

I I was found.

That means I was lost, but I was found.

It's not look what I figured out.

Look, look how I found him.

Look how how I found myself in him.

Look at me.

Look at what Philip does.

Actually, he tells Nathaniel in verse 45.

Look at it quickly.

Philip found Nathaniel 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.

Do you see that, friends?

That's not, I found something that works for me.

Philip is making a much bigger claim.

God has kept his promise.

The promise he made to Moses, God has kept his promise.

Nathaniel, God has kept his what?

His promise.

Everything the scriptures have been pointing toward has arrived.

No, Nathaniel, guys, I know people like Nathaniel, and I had to repent.

You know, I had to be like, Lord, okay, there are interesting characters like Nathaniel, whom you call we'll see it now in um when Jesus responds to him.

Right?

In in verse 50, Jesus, because I said to you, uh, oh wait, we'll see it now.

Let me okay, yeah, yeah.

So Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said to him, Behold, an ancient, and uh an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit.

I mean, Jesus speaks to a character like Nathaniel like that.

I thought Nathaniel was a skeptic, right, right?

But but but Nathaniel is what we call a straight talker.

Get out of here.

What good can come out of Nazareth?

He he's he's truthful, friends.

Nathaniel is true.

Philip says, Nathanael, I found him whom God had had promised, and and Nathaniel isn't convinced.

Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

It's not him being arrogant, friends.

He's he's just an honest man.

And that's why Jesus plays on that.

In whom there's no deceit.

Nathanael, I know I I saw you under the fig tree.

In whom there's no Nathaniel, I've seen you and no one else sees you.

I'm not implying anything by that, but I'm just saying, here comes Nathaniel in whom there's no deceit, who was like, get get get out of here.

What good can come out of Nazareth?

That's that's a that's an accurate uh kind of like critique and interrogation of the the truth.

The gospel is not afraid, friends, of our questions, of our doubts, of our not skepticism, but our but there's a sense in which there's always a come and see.

I can't argue our way your questions.

I can put you before the one who's not afraid of them.

Come and see.

Come and what, friends?

Um come and see.

And and Jesus plays on that as I said, he he he pulls back Jacob, the man of deceit, the man who navigated people, who you know, he he he he always had a plan.

Nathaniel is very straightforward, friends.

Can anything good come out of the church?

Maybe that's your question.

Maybe you've seen the hypocrisy up close and personal, and your question is can anything good out come out of the church?

Philip doesn't kind of shame Nathaniel, he he's asking the question, he doesn't even panic, he doesn't pretend to have every answer.

I can imagine Philip saying, Well, I I I don't know, but let's go check it out.

Notice what Philip says simply come and what, friends?

See, I don't want you to miss that.

That Philip says what Jesus had said at first in verse 39.

Now in verse 46, Philip is saying it.

You see, friends, the invitation of Jesus has become the language of our witness.

That that anyone who is asking questions, let us not point them to ourselves and our own intelligence.

Let us not point them to our own arguments, let us point them to Jesus.

That's what discipleship is.

It's not screaming at the corner at the top of your lungs.

Well, we we do that sometimes when we go out there and preach the gospel, but it's it's it's a coffee table, it's a conversation, it's it's it's a leaning into God's word.

It's it's you saying, come, come and see.

I don't have the answers, but he sure does.

He sure is the answer.

Anyway, friends, as we move into the text, um, there's a sense in which then I want to encourage you in terms of go and tell to actually lean into people's lives with the gospel, walk with them.

Uh, Tim Keller tells of a story of a woman who after the service, she was sitting right there in the service, and then uh everyone is leaving, you know, we we're having muffins and whatever, and and everyone is going home, and the and the lady is just sitting in that chair.

She doesn't want to move.

And and Keller asks the lady, hey, what why why are you why go home, girl?

And she says, Wow, this is so true for me every Sunday morning.

I I don't want to leave and forget it.

I I don't want to leave this place lest I forget or lest my life become something else.

You know what you are saying, as Tim Keller's point is, she needed a friend.

So this is not a go and tell just for non-Christians, it's for everyone.

To to say, hey friends, we we need friends.

Because our hearts are prone to wander, we we need people to have conversations about the gospel with.

Because there is more in Christ.

There is so much more in Christ.

We we need people to to pray with, we need people to walk with.

There's no such thing as me and my personal savior, and just that's just me, I'm doing me, boo.

There's no such that the gospel calls us into community.

The gospel calls us into community because we struggle in life, we have doubts in life, we stumble in life.

There's a sense in which, as you go and tell, there's a sense in which you have to be that to someone else.

That person who says, Hey, I don't have the answers, but let's let's let's look into the scriptures.

There are people who are mature Christians.

I always joke and say there are no graduate Christians, but there are mature Christians who are also navigating life.

Would you walk with someone as a friend?

And friends, there's a deeper question whether we've seen Jesus or not.

Jesus says, There is more.

There's what, friends?

There's more to see.

Look at it in verse 47 to 51.

There's more to what, friends, to see.

We're almost there.

I'm not gonna preach 50 minutes.

I I'm promising you guys.

There's a secular song that um I like the jazz cover of it.

Um, it's called How Much Does a Dollar Cost?

Yeah, yeah, I think that's that's what it's called.

How much does a what a dollar cost?

Um the artist's name is uh Kendrick Lemar.

Uh so the reason why it like drew my attention is because that song refers to uh an encounter Kendrick had in Cape Town.

Um so he he tells or narrates the story of him meeting this this beggar as you are sitting in a in a nice car, and the beggar is asking for uh 10 rand.

10 rand, you know, and and so he's a homeless man, as it were, and he's asking, and and and in that space of a few seconds, then Kendrick decides to um kind of like dissect this human being.

He he kind of dissect he kind of decides to say, Man, uh I know I know exactly I know your kind, I know exactly who you are.

I I know your type.

I know what you are going to do with the money, I know why you are asking, I know what kind of person does this.

Friends, he he thinks he can see this man clearly.

But but as the encounter unfolds, he uh he discovers just how little he could actually see.

The person standing in front of him is far more than what he had assumed.

And friends, that's a that that's not a bad description of what we see in verse 46.

As what we see as verse 46 opens the world to us too.

Nathanael said, Can anything good come out of what?

Nazareth.

Nathanael's assumption about Nazareth, I know what comes from there.

And Philip doesn't argue with him, as I said.

What does he do?

Simply says, Come in what?

Come and see.

So Nathaniel comes to see himself.

Look at verse 47 again.

We are in the text, guys.

Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said to him, Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit.

Nathaniel is asking the obvious question, How do you know me?

How do you know me?

And Jesus answered, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.

Friends, now we don't know what Nathaniel was doing under the fig tree, as I said before.

John doesn't tell us that.

So if we were to kind of go at it, I I wouldn't even give a guess.

But the point is much simpler than that.

And but it cuts more deeper.

Nathanael came to see Jesus only to discover that Jesus had already seen Nathaniel.

Before Philip called you, before you started walking toward me, before you had worked out your questions, I saw you.

And and and and friends, that's frightening, but at the same time, it's a great comfort.

You can hide yourself from other people with your your your pretentiousness, or you can hide yourself from other people with your self-righteousness.

You're an upstanding citizen, you are a good moral person, but I saw you.

I see behind your ambition.

I see behind your fears, I see behind I see your insecurities, I see under the skepticism, I see the thing that nobody knows.

I see it.

The questions you haven't even found words for yet.

I see them.

I see you.

Again, Keller would say to be known and to be loved is the greatest gift of all.

To be known fully and to be loved fully, it's it's the greatest gift of all.

Because this God that that that that is calling us to himself knows our brokenness.

He knows our fears.

He knows us fully.

Friends, some of us here in the in this room are afraid to open ourselves up to other people because if they found you out, they probably reject you.

This one says, I see you.

You you can't hide from me.

I I know you fully.

He knows you completely, and and and that's why he came, friends.

He came to bear on himself.

No wonder Nathaniel responds like this.

Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.

That's friends, that's the enormous confession that he makes.

Surely that's that's the the the the summit of it all, friends.

But Jesus isn't finished.

Look at verse 50.

Oh, you're amazed by that.

You want to see greater things.

Nathaniel, there is more.

Stand back from the passage for a moment because that's what John has been doing all along, friends.

Check with me quickly.

Who is Jesus?

The Lamb of God, right?

The rabbi, the Messiah, the one Moses and the prophets wrote about, the Son of God, the King of Israel.

And now in verse 51, it says, the Son of who?

The Son of Man.

Every time somebody thinks they've seen enough of Jesus, John enlarges the picture.

Jesus is saying, Hey, there is more.

Look at it again, verse 51.

Truly, truly, this is when we say, in other languages, Amen and Amen.

Very truly, very truly.

This is not common, friends.

Jesus is attesting by himself.

He's revealing who he actually is.

He's the God man.

I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

Jesus is taking us all the way back to Genesis 28.

Jacob is on the run, he's alone, he he lies down for the night with a stone as a pillow, and while he sleeps, he he sees a stairway between heaven and earth with the angels of God ascending and descending.

Jacob wakes up and says, Surely the Lord is at this place.

And then he builds the house of God.

The gate of heaven, as it were.

But notice something here, friends.

Jacob was asleep when heaven opened.

He didn't build the stairway, he didn't climb up the stairs.

He wasn't even awake for it.

God did the initiating.

Now back to Jesus in verse 51.

The angels are no longer ascending and descending on Jacob's stairway.

Jesus says they are ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

I'm the stairway to heaven.

Jesus takes the place occupied by that stairway.

Jacob woke up and said, This is the gate of heaven.

Jesus, friends, is saying that the meeting place between heaven and earth is ultimately not a location, it's a person.

It's Jesus.

That's interesting, friends.

How much of our language for the good life is about climbing the ladder of success?

Remember where we started, friends?

The whole idea here is this, friends, so much of life in this city is about growing up, moving up in life, getting that qualification, getting that promotion, getting that property, building something of yourself.

But the question is, how high is high enough?

How successful can you be to know that you matter?

How secure before I stop being afraid?

How much before I can finally rest?

How good before God accepts me?

How far up do I have to climb?

There's an old song.

Guys, I'm young but I'm old at the same time.

There's an old song, it's a rock song.

I didn't like it at first, but I had to like it because of the work I was doing.

It's called Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin.

Somehow I've got to find myself up there.

That's the that's the premise of Stairway to Heaven.

And religion can become another version of the same climb.

Try harder, become better, become worthy, become moral enough, become spiritual enough.

Climb, climb, climb, climb.

But remember, Jacob friends was asleep and heaven opened.

And Jesus doesn't tell Nathaniel how to climb.

He doesn't.

He doesn't tell Nathaniel how to climb.

He says, You will see heaven opened.

And that's grace.

You don't have to buy the stairway, you don't have to build the stairway to heaven.

You don't have to discover your own way up.

Because, friends, what the gospel does is that it's it's not the final story of humanity finding their way up to God.

That's that's not what the gospel is.

The gospel is God coming to us.

He came all the way down.

And in John 1, it says, He the word became flesh.

The Lamb came to bear your sin.

The Son of Man came to open the way to God.

Jesus lived the life we should have lived.

He died the death.

Sinners deserve to die.

He died in our place so that people could find finally find rest in him and not their works.

Friends, there's more to see.

There's more to what, friends?

There's more to see.

Years ago, um I three years ago, about I had a very good relationship with this young man.

We did life together.

I watched the grace of God take hold of him.

And he died.

He died uh tragic accident, actually.

To this day, it's one of the hardest things I I think about.

I've walked through ministry, but that was one of the hardest things I've had to face, like his burial.

I remember standing by the graveside and they played a song, uh, Coplay, a sky full of stars.

And they released doves into the air.

There's a line in that song, I think I see you.

I think I see you.

And I remember just thinking about it because I was like, how can this happen?

There moments, friends, when words like heaven, resurrection, and eternal life stop being just vocab.

You're standing at a graveside, and suddenly the question isn't academic anymore.

Is there more than what I can see right now?

More than this coffin, more than this grave, more than death.

And my hope that afternoon wasn't ultimately that the doves went up.

My hope was someone came down.

That's John 1.

You will see heaven opened.

Not a ladder we climb.

A person who came down.

The one who came down entered, friends, our suffering.

He bore our sin.

He went all the way down into death, all the way into the grave, and on the third day, he walked back out.

So, whatever brought you in here this morning, a dream you are chasing, a fear you are outrunning, a question you you just cannot shake.

Christianity was never going to give you merely a technique for getting more out of your life.

At the center of the faith, friends, is this man Jesus Christ.

John said, Behold, look.

Jesus asked, What are you seeking?

Jesus said, Come and see.

Andrew said, We have found the Messiah.

Jesus said, Follow me.

Philip said, We have found him.

Philip said again, Come and see.

Jesus said, I saw you to Nathaniel.

Nathanael said, You are the Son of God.

And Jesus said, There's more to see.

There's more to see.

Come and see the one who saw you before anybody knew your name.

Come and see the one who knows what sits underneath your ambitions, your anxieties, your questions, the version of yourself you work so hard to maintain.

Come and see the one who knows the worst thing about you and did not stay away.

Come and see the Lamb of God who takes away your sin.

Come and see the Messiah, the one this story has been waiting to see.

Come and see the king you don't have to impress.

Come and see the Son of God you don't have to perform for.

Come and see the Son of Man who came down for people who could never make their way up.

Come and see the one who does not need your CV.

He does not need your connections, it does not need you to prove yourself to belong in the room.

It doesn't ask you to clean yourself up, then climb your way up.

He came down.

Come and see the one who entered the world, carried our sin, entered our suffering, who went all the way to death and walked back out.

Come and see the Lamb who was crucified.

Come and see the King who is alive today.

Come and see Jesus.

The great I am, the one who says, I am the bread of life.

When everything else you've been feeding on leaves you hungry, I am the bread of life.

I am the light of the world when you cannot see your way through darkness.

I am the door when you're searching for a way home.

You've lost, you've come to the end of yourself.

I am the door.

I am the good shepherd when you are tired of trying to lead yourself.

I am the resurrection and the life when you are standing in front of a grave, and death looks like it's got the final say.

I'm the way, the truth, and the life.

When a thousand voices are telling you to find your way on your own.

Before Abraham was, I am.

Church, this is someone who's not merely trying to improve your life.

This is someone who says, I'm the Lord of all of life.

It's either he's a liar, a lunatic, or he's Lord.

There's no other way.

There's no other way.

Let me pray for us.

Oh Jesus, thank you for your kindness and grace.