Invitation

Hey everyone, this is Josh from Encounter Church

Henley, and thanks so much for tuning into our

podcast. Our prayer is that through this podcast,

you can have an encounter with Jesus that'll

change your life. And now get ready for an inspiring

message from our preaching team. Alright, so

today's reading is from John 1, 43 to 51. The

next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He

found Philip and said to him, come, follow me.

Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter's

hometown. Philip went to look for Nathaniel and

told him, we have found the very person Moses

and the prophets wrote about. His name is Jesus,

the son of Joseph from Nazareth. Nazareth, exclaimed

Nathaniel, can anything good come from Nazareth?

Come and see for yourself, Philip replied. As

they approached, Jesus said, now here is a genuine

son of Israel, a man of complete integrity. How

do you know about me? Nathaniel asked. Jesus

replied, I could see you under the fig tree before

Philip found you. Then Nathaniel exclaimed, Rabbi,

you are the son of God, the King of Israel. Jesus

asked him, do you believe this just because I

told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You

will see greater things than this. Then he said,

I tell you the truth. You will all see heaven

open and angels of God coming up and down on

the son of man The one who is the stairway between

heaven and earth This is the word of the Lord

Thanks be to God is a great joy to worship together

with you and to bring the word this morning afternoon

even I I went to high school which this will

date me, in the era of the New Atheists. So New

Atheism tried to pit science against religion,

forgetting of course that all scientific principles

are built upon a Judeo -Christian worldview.

They were aggressive going so far as to declare

any faith to be irrational, delusional, and even

dangerous. And in high school, of course, because

high schoolers are far more mature than adults

and better behaved, and kinder. The trickle -down

effect meant that it was cool to be mean to Christians

and it was very uncool to be a Christian. So

I used to get sent videos mocking Christianity

by my friends and they were my friends. They

used to call me Jesus boy sometimes but by year

12 I had ceased to care because I knew God was

real and I knew it was true so whatever like

Say what you like. And I spent a lot of year

12 trying to talk to people about God and about

faith, but I found I wasn't very good at it.

But I still somehow, despite all of this, got

to be a part of two conversations about faith

with two people from high school who then went

on to become Christians. But aside from them,

I never actually invited anyone to church. I

didn't even really try. And that's because I

had this line of thinking in my mind that said

they wouldn't want to come. They wouldn't want

to come. They'll think it's dumb. Or worse, they'll

think that I'm dumb. And so I didn't invite because

I expected them to say no. I had actually made

up their mind for them. And maybe I was right,

maybe in the era of the new atheist, you could

expect that only a small percentage of people

would be interested in faith. But this was almost

14 years ago, because I am so old, that is a

long time. Things have changed, right? The new

atheist, they had their 15 minutes in the sun,

and our society, in a decade and a half, is radically

more open to faith and spirituality something

more in this world something uncontrollable unmeasurable

other and this was driven home most for me at

a school drop -off the other week when I was

talking to a mom and she was telling me about

how poorly her kid is sleeping at the moment

and I said well you know what are you thinking

about doing to help you know your kids sleep

better and she said well I'm gonna put a dream

catcher up in their room and I was waiting for

it like the her to laugh with like haha and and

then tell me what she was gonna do to help her

kids sleep but she was serious that was her plan

to help her kids sleep to catch bad dreams with

a dream catcher that's so many to me that people

are wildly more open to spirituality and do something

more than 15 years ago when I was in school and

the data backs this up The 2020 community survey

found that in depth an invitation to church,

if it was from a close friend or family member.

So that's like, I'm not the math person in my

family, that's Ashley, but that's like one in

three, right? Right? Yeah, great. One in three.

So if you think of three close friends or family

members, you'd love to come to church. If you

invite all three statistically, one's gonna say

yes. mean that's just math what do you want you

can't argue with math right yeah so they'll come

to church let alone come go to a coffee with

you to read the Bible like Hannah did or let

alone come and see sit around your dinner table

enjoy a meal together one in three and as I think

about this research and the conversation at school

drop -off it makes me wonder Do we run on old

software when it comes to invitation? Do we wander

around thinking that people just wouldn't be

interested in reading the Bible with us or coming

to church? Because maybe we asked three friends

five, 10, 15, 20 years ago and we were disappointed

or they said no. Well, because we've made up

our minds for them that they wouldn't be interested.

We're running on old software when things have

actually changed. There is a new season, a new

moment in the church, a new moment in Australia

where people are radically open to God and to

something more. What if the old software is plain

wrong? And what if we need new software in this

moment? A new way of seeing the invitations we

make for people to come to come and meet Jesus

in this moment and a new expectation that they

may in fact accept our invitations if we are

courageous enough to ask. We are in the middle

of a six -week series called evangelism for everyone.

If you've not heard the word evangelism, it just

means good news, the sharing of good news because

we have good news to share. In our faith, God

has done something amazing for us and it is something

worth sharing. And in our series, we're going

through six habits that every single follower

of Jesus can do. Everyone means everyone to share

with those that we love that what we have found

for ourselves in Jesus Christ, to speak about

the faith and hope that we have found. And today

we're talking about the habit of invitation.

And in our teaching text today, we see Philip

issue an invitation. He has met Jesus, and he

immediately goes and finds Nathaniel. And he

tells him, we have found the very person Moses

and the prophets talked about. His name is Jesus,

the son of Joseph from Nazareth. And his response

is, Nazareth? He's skeptical. Why Nazareth? You

say he's the person that Moses wrote about this

Jesus, but he's from Nazareth like he's just

completely he's thrown by this Nazareth and it

makes sense because Nazareth is not mentioned

once in the Old Testament and not once in the

writings between the end of the Old Testament

and When Jesus begins his ministry Nazareth is

is nowhere. It's it's nothing. It's not significant

at all and if Jesus was the person that the moses

and the prophets were right it was spoke about

prophesied about then then this person would

be from somewhere important right like bethlehem

not nazareth and in response to the skepticism

of nathaniel philip responds well come and see

for yourself and so despite his skepticism that

the the messiah the person wrote prophesied about

and written about It could be from Nazareth.

Nathaniel does, he goes. He goes to Jesus. And

before he can even get to Jesus, Jesus noticed

him and calls him out. He says, because he knows

him. He says, now here is a genuine son of Israel,

a man of complete integrity. And Nathaniel was

like, how do you know about me? Well, I can see

you under the fig tree before Philip found you.

And clearly there's some kind of inside joke

going on here because we don't know what happened

under the fig tree. What is it about, what happened

under the fig tree that would make Jesus make

such a positive, strong positive character judgment

about who Nathaniel is? We don't know. But what

we do know is that it's exactly what Nathaniel

needs to hear for him to understand who Jesus

is. to declare Him Jesus the Son of God, the

King of Israel, which are both words that just

kind of mean the same thing. Jesus is the long

-awaited Messiah, the promised one who would

come and redeem Israel. And Jesus is like, oh,

you believe because of this? Well, you're going

to see greater things. You'll see heaven open.

You'll see the Messiah in all His glory. And

there's so much we can learn from this invitation.

This little interaction here between Philip and

Jesus and Nathaniel, there's so much we can learn

that will help us, I think, to build some new

software around inviting people to come and meet

Jesus. And this is the first thing I think we

can learn from this. Philip already knows Nathaniel

deeply. The depth of the relationship is already

there. He goes to Nathaniel, he says, we, we

have found the one, we. We've been looking for

the Messiah and we have found him and it's Jesus.

And despite his skepticism, despite his questions

of the legitimacy of Jesus, Nathaniel does accept

Philip's invitation to come and see for himself.

Remember the one in three stat. That's one in

three close friends and family. That's not some

random you meet on the street or the person that

you're forced to sit next to on the airplane.

The depth of the relationship does matter for

whether someone will accept your invitation.

You're not just gonna, someone comes up to you

and is like, do you want to come out for dinner

with me? You're like, I don't know you. Are they

paying? Maybe. All metaphors just, yeah, anyway.

The depth of the relationship does matter, but

that's also the difficulty of it. isn't it? Because

it's harder to ask a family member or a close

friend to go to church with you. Because it feels

like there's more at stake. But there's actually

a better chance that they will respond positively.

But it's not just the depth of the relationship.

Philip knows what he has found and he knows what

Nathaniel is looking for. Philip can articulate

what it is he's found in Jesus, but he also knows

that Jesus is what Nathaniel has been looking

for as well. That's why he says we, we have found.

Philip's telling him because he knows that Nathaniel

was going to want in on this. He knows that Messiah

is who Nathaniel has been searching for and he

invites him to come and find out for himself.

Philip doesn't play it off like ah I just I just

met this really cool guy do you want to come

and meet him? Or like you know like I do this

thing on Sundays do you want to do you want to

come? No, his invitation is very specific to

Nathaniel's deepest desires and deepest wants.

We have found the Messiah, we've found the one

we've been looking for. Friends, if you're a

follower of Jesus in this room, I wonder, do

you know what you have found in Jesus? Can you

articulate it? Do you know what it is that Jesus

is to you? To quote Simon Sinek, which really

isn't hard, you know everything about a Simon

Sinek book by looking at the cover and reading

the title. Do you know your why? Do you know

your why? Why are you a follower of Jesus? What

have you found in him? Tex is going to preach

more about this next week. Philip knows what

he's found in Jesus. And the next important question

he asks himself is, well, who else needs to hear

about this? Who wants to? Who needs to hear?

Who needs to come and meet this Jesus? Ah, Nathaniel,

he's going to want to know. And so he goes and

he finds him. Friends, who needs what you have?

Who needs what you have? Who needs an invitation

into what you have discovered in Jesus? And maybe

as you sit with that question, a name comes to

mind. And I want to encourage you, don't dismiss

that name. It might be the random name, someone

you've not talked to in a long time, but don't

dismiss it. Jot down in your phone or on your

notepad and test it, pray about it because it

might be the Spirit's voice. Maybe you need to

reach out to them and invite them out for coffee

or something deeper to read the Bible, maybe

to come to church and join us. The third thing

that we see in Philip's invitation is that Jesus

actually already knows, Nathaniel. Philip invites

him, but Jesus actually knows more about Nathaniel

than maybe Philip does. Not only that, Philip

doesn't get a chance to invite and to introduce

Jesus to Nathaniel. Jesus calls him out. I know

you, I saw you, I see you. And he knows exactly

the right thing to say to help Nathaniel see

exactly who Jesus is. Friends, I know with my

family and my friends and with the people I meet

at school drop off and out and about. I feel

like sometimes I have to have the exact right

way to answer all the questions that they will

have. And it's easy to feel like it's essentially

on me to convince them that Jesus is who he says

he is. I got into that trap a lot in high school

of trying to convince people in the car park

at McDonald's that Jesus was the Lord of the

universe and shock horror, they did not believe

me. How often do we feel like talking about our

faith and inviting people has to come with this

perfect theological speech about the divine nature

of the triune God? How often do we feel like

we have to have the right words to say to help

that person that we love see what we have found?

But Philip doesn't do that. It's actually Jesus

who has the right words. even in Nathaniel's

doubt, even in his skepticism, it's Jesus that

meets him exactly where he is with the right

words that bring about faith. So why do we think

it'd be different with our friends or our family?

Philip doesn't bring an argument. He doesn't

convince him at all. He just literally goes and

points to Jesus and go, well, go find out for

yourself. Like in response to Nathaniel's philosophical

theological question, Well, yeah, but okay, so

the Messiah, the Messiah can't come from Nazareth,

right? Like Nazareth, he just shrugs at him.

Go find out. Come and see. He doesn't get into

the debate. He doesn't have the right things

to say. He just goes, come and see for yourself.

You know what Philip has here? It's confidence.

He has a confidence that he knows who Jesus is.

He's not trying so hard to convince his friend.

He's confident that Jesus, meeting Jesus will

do it for him. And I want to ask friends, where

is our confidence? Jesus is the one sitting at

the right hand of the Father. He's the one who

has all power and authority. He's the one reconciling

all creation back to himself. Why do we find

it so hard to trust that if we play the role

of Philip and share what we found and invite

them to come and meet Jesus, that Jesus will

play his role. He knows your friends and your

family better than you do. He knows the right

words to say. He knows exactly what they need

to hear. He can prove himself to them. So there

are three things that Philips Interaction with

Nathaniel can teach us about our invitations.

The first is that we must keep developing deep

relationships with people. We have to know people

deeply. We must be able to articulate what it

is that we've found in Jesus. What's our why?

And we also must find proper confidence in Jesus

to do his thing. So why do we find this so hard?

And maybe part of it is because Jesus isn't sitting

right now at the Grange pub having a schnitty.

We can't just walk over. and introduced our friends

and our family to Jesus. Because Jesus isn't

in the flesh for us like he was for Philip. It's

hard because we don't want to be awkward. We

don't want to impose ourselves. And we fear rejection.

We fear what an invitation would mean. We worry

that we won't say the right thing. It is harder

for us than it was for Philip, no doubt. But

people can still meet Jesus today. And people

still do meet Jesus today. Jesus ascended to

heaven but he did not abandon us. He left his

spirit. And people are so open to the spiritual

today. There are places where people can be more

open to hearing the voice of God. Thin places

that are soaked with prayer like the prayer room.

Book into it what jazz is coming for you. Just

do it. It'll be great. People are more open to

hear the voice of the Spirit in deep conversation,

in the prayer of a believer, your prayers for

them, while exploring the Scriptures with an

open heart and in the midst of a gathered community

of faith, a church. We can still invite people

to come and meet Jesus today. And so I want to

challenge you as your Henley homework, one thing

you can do to put it into action this week is

to invite one person. And I've even given you

three options of how you can invite them. You

can invite someone into a deeper relationship

with you and that means you invite someone around

for dinner that you've never invited around for

dinner before. Or you invite someone out to coffee

that you've never taken out for coffee before.

You invite them into a deeper relationship. You

invite them to take a step closer to you in relationship.

You can invite someone to church. We're here

every Sunday. Or you can invite someone as Hannah

did to read the Bible with you. Now I was talking

to Dan about this yesterday and he said a great

line which I May or not may not be remembering

properly, but I'm gonna attribute it to you.

Anyway, Dan. Thank you He said and I quote him

You know the thing about with an invitation is

that we just have to do it Did you say that?

I don't know. It's good You know him it might

be awkward at first and it probably will be uncomfortable.

They may say no, but what if they say yes? What

if they say yes? And if you won't take Dan's

advice to just do it, honestly, who will? Who

will go and invite them? You know, I wonder if

the big reason we don't invite is because we

expect or maybe we hope that someone else is

going to invite them. That it will be someone

else. But what if there isn't anyone else? You

know, the thing that strikes me about Philip

and Nathaniel is that Jesus only calls Philip.

He goes to Philip and says, come and follow me.

Jesus decides to go to Galilee and he seeks out

Philip in Galilee, but he doesn't seek out Nathaniel.

He finds Philip and he says to him, come and

follow me. Jesus doesn't go to Nathaniel. Philip

goes to Nathaniel. It's Philip that goes and

seeks out Nathaniel to share the good news of

who he has found. Philip is invited by Jesus

so that Nathaniel also can be. And friends, this

is actually the entire pattern of God's work

throughout scripture. He calls out the few in

order to reach the whole. With Abraham, he calls

out Abraham and he says to him, I will make you

a great nation. I will bless you and I'll make

you famous and you will be a blessing to others.

I will bless those who bless you and curse those

who curse you with contempt. And all of the families

on earth will be blessed through you. He calls

out one man to start a family, a nation for the

sake of blessing all the other nations. And Jesus,

He calls out a few disciples. And before he ascends

he says, all authority on heaven and earth has

been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples

of all nations. Baptise them in the name of the

Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and teach them

to obey everything I have commanded you and surely

I am with you always to the very end of the age.

See God has always called out a few in order

to reach the whole. And if you are a believer

in this room, God has called you out. He has

rescued you from the kingdom of darkness and

brought you into the kingdom of His Son. He has

called this little church here, this church plant

into existence. He's invited us so that through

you, through me, through us together, we might

reach the whole world. God has invited you so

that through you, others could also be invited.

Maybe you've been called out. into faith so that

you can reach your friends, your families, your

colleagues, your neighbours. Maybe no one else

is coming. Maybe you are the reinforcements.

Maybe they are your Nathaniel and Jesus has called

you out so that you can go and get them. You

can go invite them. You can go share the hope

that you have found in Jesus. And they might

be costly because it might feel uncomfortable.

And it might feel risky because they may say

no or they may say yes and come and see for themselves

that it's all true. All of it. That Jesus is

exactly who He says He is and exactly who we

need. That Jesus has called you out into faith.

He's invited you but it did not come cheaply

for Him. His invitation to come alive, become

conscious of God, alive to God again, to be reconciled

to Him through faith, it came at a cost. He's

invited us to be adopted, as Ash said, as sons

and daughters of the living God, to be a part

of His family forever. But to make that invitation,

friends, it costs Him His very life. And Jesus

willingly paid it. He went to the cross for us.

so that there could even be the opportunity,

the possibility for us to accept God's invitation.

That's how much He loves us. And if we really

understand this, if we really get the love of

God has for us, friends, what's a bit of potential

awkwardness? What's a little bit of potential

discomfort? What's a little bit of possible rejection?

if it means that those we love can discover the

love that God has for them. God knows them, God

loves them, and maybe God has called you out

to follow him so that you would go and invite

them to come and see for themselves. You know,

in high school, my old software told me that

people wouldn't respond to my invitation, that

I was afraid of rejection, and I was afraid of

rejection, so I didn't really want to invite

people. But one night I took a risk. I was talking

to a friend on Facebook Messenger, which was

really cool and new back then in the past. In

the midst of a deep conversation with a friend

from school, I shared what I had found in Jesus.

And I invited him to come and see for himself.

And he found what I found. He found Jesus. And

shortly after, together led by the Spirit, we

approached a girl at a party and explained what

And he explained what he had found of Jesus.

And we invited her to come and see for herself.

And she found what we found. And on and on and

on it has gone. And this was 14 years ago. Maybe

back then it was one in 30 would accept an invitation.

Maybe one in 50, maybe. But even in that climate

there was always one who was willing to accept.

an invitation. It's now a one in three friends.

One in three of your friends and family will

probably accept an invitation. We could have

a genuine revival on our hands if we were willing

to be courageous. Invite someone deeper, invite

someone to church, invite someone to read the

Bible with you. To come and see what we have

found. To come and meet Jesus. Jesus has always

called out Phillips to go and find Nathaniel's

and invite them to come and see and he always

will until he returns to put everything right.

Friends if you're a Philip you've been called

out by Jesus to come and follow him. Who's your

Nathaniel? Who's your Nathaniel? Do you need

to go and tell him? Thanks so much for tuning

into this week's message. If you felt challenged

or need prayer, we'd love to hear from you on

Instagram at encounterhenley. Or if you're interested

in how you can support this ministry, please

go to our website encounteradelaide .com .au.

Thanks again for listening. God bless you.