John's gospel chapter one. And as you're turning there, you know, it's always wonderful when we are able to welcome someone into membership with us. It's very special when it just happens to be my wife. But as we turn the page to another new year, as we have these membership vows that are fresh in our minds, what I thought we would consider this morning is exactly what these vows mean. Why are these vows so important? And what's really going on when someone takes these vows into membership in the church? And as we are all taking stock of a new year and there's things that we hope to accomplish, there's things that we want to do, goals that we've set for ourselves, maybe one of those things that's on your mind is the church. and membership in the church and maybe even just generally speaking about Christ and about what it means to be a Christian. Maybe you're wondering about all of these things. And so what I want to do this morning is to address some of those questions right from the text itself. Because this story in John's Gospel from the first chapter here It gives us a glimpse of the beginning of the Christian church, of the very first disciples and followers of Jesus Christ. These followers who would eventually go on to turn the whole world upside down. And this passage, it brings us back to the beginning. It brings us back to the very core of what it means to be a Christian. What does it mean to profess your faith and your belief in Christ? And what does it mean to follow him? What is this all about? And when we get down to it, it all comes back to these few simple words that we'll see in our text, which is come and see. So let's read the text now together. Let me read it for us. John chapter one, and I'm going to begin reading in verse 35. 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 him, 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 about that day for it was about the 10th hour. One of the two who heard John speak and follow 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 and he found Philip and said to him, follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses and 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. Jesus saw Nathanael 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, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathanael 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 fig 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 the heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man. Let us pray. Gracious Lord Jesus, as we have just read your word, and now as we hear the word preached, may we be like these first disciples and come and see for ourselves all that you really are, our teacher, our savior, our king, and our friend. Amen. Well, our story picks up at the very beginning of Jesus's ministry. He has been baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. And now we're told that Jesus is passing by on his way. And as he's walking by, John cries out and he says, look, this is the lamb of God. This is the one I've been talking about. He is the one I've spent my whole life waiting for. My entire ministry has been preparing for this moment, and now he is here. And what follows is the beginning, not only of Jesus's ministry, but this is the beginning of Jesus's church. This is how the very first Christians became Christians. This is how the first disciples came to Christ. And there is no more important question and topic for us to consider than how it is to become a Christian. Nothing more important than understanding how we can come to Christ. And so I want us then to follow along with the story, looking at the example from each of these different disciples, who in one way or another, they come and they follow after Jesus. And we will draw some application from these stories as we go along. But we can already state what the main idea is. There's a central theme. There's a connecting thread throughout all these stories. And that is that each of these disciples, in one way or another, they all must come and see for themselves. And that is true of every Christian. It's true of those first Christians in the first century. It's true of us today. We all must come and see for ourselves. But how? How do we do that? And what does it look like for us to go to Jesus? And when we go to him, what are we going to find? What can we expect to see? These are all the questions we want to consider. What does it mean for us to come and to see Jesus? And well, the first thing that we want to consider, this first part, of coming to see Christ is what it means to come to Christ. In our story that we just read, we meet a total of five different disciples, and all of them, in some way, they come to Christ, but how is it that they do? What were the circumstances that brought them there? How did they come to Christ? The first thing we see in their story is that we come to Christ because we are told to go. The first two disciples, they follow Christ because of John the Baptist's words. He tells them that this is the Lamb of God. And so they go. Then later, one of those two, we're told his name is Andrew, he goes and he finds his brother, Simon Peter, and he tells them that we have found the Messiah. And so Simon Peter comes along to Christ because of Andrew's words. And then Philip follows Christ because of Christ's own words. Jesus sees Philip and he says, follow me, and Philip does. And then finally, we see Nathanael, he reluctantly comes to Christ because of Philip's words. Philip tells them, we found him, we found the one who was prophesied, who was promised in Moses and the law and all the prophets, this Jesus of Nazareth, he is the one. And so they all come because someone at some point, even the Lord himself at one time, they all bid him and bid them to come and to see. And this is true for all of us. This is the first truth we see in this passage from these stories is that God uses and he works through his word to bring people to himself. And maybe this seems like an obvious point, but it's one that we cannot overlook. The word of God, whether it's the preached word on Sunday morning, whether it's the word read, or whether it's the word spoken with one another in encouragement, whether it's your own personal or private devotions, God is using the means of his word to bring sinners to himself. This is the point that the Bible makes clear in Romans 10, 14, says, how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him in whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? See, that was the benefit these first two disciples had. They had someone preaching to them about Christ. Notice that these men, they were disciples of John the Baptist first. They had sat under many of John's sermons. And so the last sermon of his that they heard, that sermon where he says, behold, it is the Lamb of God. He is here. And what did these disciples of John do? Well, they left immediately. And they went to follow a new teacher. This is my testimony as well. I was blessed to grow up in the church. I was told about Christ in children's Sunday school. I heard him preached from the pulpit on Sunday mornings. I learned about him in the catechism. My parents and grandparents reiterated that teaching to me throughout the week. And I still have fond memories of sitting at the dinner table at my grandparents' home. We would go just about every Sunday after service. And we would have lunch there and we'd have lunch with my grandparents. And without fail, my grandfather, after lunch, no matter how hard we tried to distract him, he always remembered to go to the cabinet drawer where the family Bible was kept. And he would take it out and he would read scripture in a devotional to us. And I have to confess there are many times where I just wished he would forget just this once. so I could go outside and play and do whatever I wanted to do. Do we really need to read this today, grandpa? Can't we just go and do something else? But he was diligent in telling us about Christ. But you see, his faith had not yet become my own. I was told diligently by him, by so many others to come and see for myself, but I had not yet. I had not yet made that myself, not personally. And that brings us to the second point. You see, I was told to go, but I didn't. And the question is, why not? We read that many of these new disciples, that they went immediately. And so what explains the urgency in which they went to Jesus? Why were these two disciples, why were they willing to leave John the Baptist, their old teacher, behind without even a second thought? Why was Philip willing to drop everything and follow Jesus with just a simple word from him? And that's our second thing we see in this text is that we come to Christ because we are in need. See, I didn't value those Sunday afternoon devotionals because I didn't understand my need for them, not yet. I didn't understand my need for Christ, the Jesus who was presented in those devotionals and in scripture and on Sunday mornings. But finally, God granted me the eyes to see, to truly see my need, and that's what changed everything. I saw what the men in our story saw, that they needed Christ, that they needed to follow him. And so here's the secret about the church, is that none of us have made it. None of us here are perfect. But we're all in need. None of us have figured it out. We're all seekers. We're all needy people who are searching for something and better someone. And we found that in the person of Christ. And that's what that first vow of membership, that's what that teaches us. Do you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner? Do you understand your need? Do you grasp the urgency of the situation? Do you understand that we, by nature, are sons of wrath and under God's judgment, without hope, apart from his sovereign mercy? That is what those two disciples of John understood as they leapt to follow Jesus, because they knew this was the Lamb of God. What is the Lamb of God? He's a sacrificial lamb who takes away the sin of the world and more personally to them, not just the sins of the world, but their sins. My sin. So wherever that Lamb of God is going, that's where I'm going to go to. They knew their need, and they saw that solution. They saw their need walking by, and so they followed him, and so they go, and they follow him. These two disciples, they start following him, and what does Jesus say? He says, what are you seeking? What do you want? Now, we don't need to formalize Jesus' words here as if he said, what seekest thou? No, he said, what do you guys want? Why are you following me? What do you seek? He was asking them a question, not in a mean way at all, but he was wanting to have them understand what was really on their hearts and on their minds. And how do they respond? They answer him in a weird way. They ask Jesus a question of their own. Well, Rabbi, well, teacher, where are you staying? Well, that's odd. Why would they ask that question? Were they starstruck? Had they just met a celebrity? Had they no idea what to say? Were they stalling so that they could think of a better question to ask? No. It's because they understood their need and they knew who Jesus was. They knew the salvation that he brings. And so they asked him, Rabbi, please tell us where you are staying so that we might come and stay with you. You see, they had the desire, that desire of Psalm 27. It says, one thing have I asked the Lord, one thing will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. I want to dwell with you, Lord Jesus. To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, the psalmist says, to inquire, to study, or to meditate, to learn more about. the Lord, to learn from Him. And so wherever the Lamb of God was staying, that's where they knew they needed to be staying as well. They desired nothing else but to spend time with Jesus, to gaze upon Him, to learn humbly at His feet. Have you felt that desire? Have you felt that way about Jesus? Do you have that desire to be with Him? And so we've seen two things from our text so far this morning. We see that we come to Christ because we're told to go by his word. We also come to Christ because we understand our need of a savior. That tells us what it looks like to come to Christ. We come to him because we're seeking something and sometimes we can't even articulate it well, what it is that we need, but we know we need something and we see that in who Jesus is. We recognize he is what we need, and so we come to Christ. But that doesn't answer all of our questions. Specifically, when we come to him, what can we expect to find? When we come to Christ, what are we going to see? That's the next thing we want to consider. What is it that we're going to find? What will we see when we come to him? And so a third point we see in this text is that when we come to Christ, we see that he will never turn us away. So look back at that conversation between those first two disciples. They come and Jesus asks them, what do you seek? And Jesus does not turn them away. He doesn't turn away any who seek after him. Jesus says, what do you seek? They say, Jesus, rabbi, where are you staying? And what does Jesus say? Oh, hold on, that's a pretty personal question. You can't just ask me where I'm staying. I can't just give you my address to two complete strangers. Oh. He says, come and see. He bids all to come and to see. Jesus, he dines with tax collectors and sinners. He's a friend of sinners. He reaches down and he helps the poor. He touches the sick and the unclean and he heals them. That's who Jesus is. And as his audience will grow throughout his ministry from these five men to 12, to multitudes of crowds will follow after him, he will tell those crowds later that I am the bread of life and whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall not thirst. And he'll likewise say, all whom the Father gives to me will come to me, and whoever comes, I will never, I will no wise cast out. We have all felt the sting of rejection. We've all felt that kind of deep pain of letting someone into your life only to end up being rejected and hurt. It's a painful experience. But you see, Jesus, he understood that more than any other human who's ever lived. These same disciples in our story who were so excited, so eager to follow him, only three years later would all abandon him during his most pressing hour of need. As he walked the road to Calvary and on the cross, Jesus would cry out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You see, this Jesus, this man, he was rejected by men, he was abandoned by his friends, but he will never reject you. And we find that he will never forsake you. And so come to him, you will never find rejection in Jesus. He will never cast you away. And you might still have doubts about that. And that's okay too, because the next thing we see, the fourth thing we see is that when we come to Christ, we see that we do not need to hide our doubts. We've already touched on this briefly that the church is made up of just a bunch of sinners who also need grace. None of us here have arrived, none of us have made it, none of us here have rock solid faith that never wavers. Sometimes we doubt. And we see this difference in the calling of Philip and Nathanael. It's fascinating. Philip responds, he responds immediately to the gospel and he follows at once, but Nathanael is skeptical. And this is what it is in the Christian's life. Sometimes we can feel confident like Philip, and we can be on fire for the Lord, and that candle can be burning brightly, and whatever God's word says, whatever the Lord said, we say yes, Lord. We leap at opportunities to serve Him. We love His commands, and His law truly is the delight to us. But other times, we can feel like Nathaniel, and we can doubt, we can be skeptical. And that difference plays out across our lives and in different seasons of life. And even every day we can fluctuate in that way. And maybe you've not believed in Christ at all. Maybe you shared Nathaniel's unbelieving skepticism. You tell yourself, really, you're telling me that that guy, Jesus of Nazareth, is the one that Moses wrote about. You're telling me this book, that was completed 2,000 years ago has any impact, any meaning, or any importance in my life. Like Nathaniel, we can say, has anything good ever come from Nazareth? There is no way. We're told that Philip and Nathanael were from the city of Bethsaida, which is, in Nathanael's estimation, he considers it a much better and more proper place to live and to be from than little Nazareth, which was about 15 miles down the road. And so truly, Nathanael, he cannot believe what he's hearing. Nothing good has ever come from Nazareth, and you're telling me now that's the place that God picked for his Messiah to be from. We spend our entire lives and our parents and grandparents and generations before I've been waiting for this Messiah and that's where he's coming from. I don't believe that for a second. This is so vital that we can't miss this. How does Philip respond to Nathaniel's snarky questioning? How does he respond? Does Philip load up? Ligonier's 10-part series on his phone on classical apologetics, does he start laying out the cosmological argument? Does he start turning to all these different Anselm's ontological arguments or turning to any of these other apologetical means? He doesn't. There's no argument to be made. And now let me be clear that faith in Jesus Christ is in every way reasonable and our reason and our faith works together. And there's good use and good reasons to have those kinds of arguments as we lay out the case for belief in Christ. Those are good things. But you cannot be reasoned into faith. but you come by faith. Faith comes by hearing. And that was Philip's answer. The only answer he could give to doubting Nathanael was come and see for yourself. So what are your doubts? What are your reasons? What are your questions? None of this is real. Or God would not accept me if I came to him. Or I have no need of God to begin with. whatever they are, whatever doubts you have in Christ, when you bring yourself to him, bring those doubts with you. Because when we come to Christ, we see that we are not, not only are we not rejected, but even when we bring all of our doubts, we also find that when we come to Christ, we see that he already knows who we are. He already knows what we're struggling with. He already knows all of our doubts. As Nathaniel, perhaps even reluctantly, he agrees to go with Philip to come and see this Christ for himself. And before he even gets there, we read that Jesus calls out to him and he says, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. And Nathaniel answered him and he says, How do you know me? We've just met. How do you know my name? Nathanael, he was an Israelite indeed. Why does Jesus call him that? What does he mean by that? Well, it's because Jesus knew him. He knew this man, Nathanael. He knew that he was a student of his Hebrew Bible of our Old Testament. He knew that he was an Israelite, a son of Abraham, a child of the covenant, someone who had dedicated his life to the teaching of Moses, to the law and to the prophets. There is no deceit in him regarding that. And Jesus acknowledges that fact. Jesus knew this man. He knew the desires of his heart. And is that not the most pressing thing that our society needs? At least one of them. How often have we heard something like that? Like, nobody understands me. Or nobody gets me. Nobody understands what I'm going through. Have you felt that way? Maybe you do feel that way. Is there someone in your life that knows you inside and out and knows you better than you know yourself? And if that's the longing of your heart to be known, truly known, don't you think that your maker, the creator of heaven and earth would know you that way? And not only that, but we also see another thing. We see that when we come to Christ, we see that he already knows everything about us. Look at how Jesus answers Nathaniel. He says, how do I know you? Well, before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. I saw you there, Nathaniel, underneath that fig tree. Now fig trees, they play an important part in our Bibles. They carry a lot of symbolic meaning at times, but at this part in our story, it's a very straightforward meaning here. Fig trees, they can grow large, they can grow large branches that stay low to the ground and they offer a lot of shade as they extend outward. And it was common for many to find rest underneath those fig trees and underneath the shade. And so there Nathaniel was, he's sitting under this fig tree, thinking he was alone. These trees were a place of solitude, or at least so he thought. And so he was looking for somewhere to be alone, isolated. We don't know why, so that he could think, so he could quiet his mind. Maybe he's even reading scripture, meditating on scripture and in prayer. We don't know, but we do know that he knew that he was alone. But Jesus knew where he was. And that's why when he hears that, Nathaniel can exclaim that you are the son of God. You must be the king of Israel. No one knew I was there. No one could know I was there. But you did. And he knows all about us. He knows every detail, and that's either a very comforting thought or a terrifying thought. It can be a terrifying thought, should be, because God is a righteous judge. In Psalm 34, for example, says that the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. You see, God is just, and he will by no means clear the guilty. But there is mercy in Christ. And the psalm also says that the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. The great Puritan Richard Sibbes, he sums it up perfectly and he puts it this way. He says, there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us. There's more mercy in Christ than sin in us. And so the question for us this morning is, are you in Christ? Because that is where mercy is found. And let's conclude on that point. One final thing that we see when we come to Christ. One last thing that we'll find when we come to Christ is we will see that he is indeed truly full of mercy. And so do you understand your need this morning? As that vow said, do you acknowledge yourself to be a sinner in the sight of God, justly deserving his displeasure and without hope, save in his sovereign mercy? You see, that is true. Every person here, none of us have arrived. We are all sinners in need of this grace. We see that's not the only vow that we take. That second vow asks us about the precious words of the gospel. It asks, do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of sinners? And do you receive and rest upon him alone for salvation as he is offered in the gospel? See, Jesus is the Lamb of God. He is the one who takes away the sin of the world. Every Christian from these first two disciples all the way up to today, we've all confessed Every one of us, we have all confessed the same thing. Isn't that a wonderful, marvelous thought? For the past 2,000 years and even before, God's people have all confessed the very same thing. That is the essence of our vows. That's what it means when we make this profession of our faith. We confess the same faith with the rest of the saints throughout the ages, and we have all come, we have all seen for ourselves, we've all confessed the same thing, that we have come to Christ. And we confess we have tasted for ourselves and we have seen that the Lord is good, that he is the lamb of God, that he has taken away every one of our sins. And when we were without hope, we found mercy in Christ. And if all that sounds too good to be true, but come and see for yourself. Let's pray. Jesus, we love you. Thank you that you never leave us or forsake us. Thank you that you answer our questions and our doubts. We are free to bring those along with us when we come to you. Thank you that you are not ashamed to call us friends. And thank you that you are the savior of our souls and that you'll never let us go. Amen.