Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote —Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.“Come and see,” said Philip. John 1:44-46

In Johns account of Jesus beginning His ministry we see when Jesus began to call His disciples. Just prior to the verses above Jesus has just called a guy called Philip to follow Him. Philip had been following John the Baptist up until this point.

After Philip follows Jesus, he goes on to tell his friend Nathanael about what has happened and about this man Jesus. What Philip is telling Nathanael is pretty difficult to understand especially the fact that this man, this potential Messiah, comes from a pretty down and out place. The next bit is fascinating. How would Philip convince him, how would he prove that Jesus is the real deal? He does it by simply saying;

COME AND SEE

He doesn’t try and reason with logic or agrument.

There is no scripture backup or anything.

He doesn’t invite him to a class, course or event.

No, Philip has such confidence in Jesus that he knows if Nathanael just hangs around Jesus for long enough that it will become clear – wow! We know from reading the story that this is exactly what happened.

That has challenged me greatly. Would we have had the same confidence? Would we have that confidence now? Would we invite someone to a service or to join us on our daily life with confidence knowing that if they came with us they would experience Jesus in some way?

I fear I know what the answer would be

It makes me sad to think that many of us who follow Jesus aren’t living lives that cause others to come and see. We’re not Jesus, I get that, but we get to walk with Jesus everyday and we have His assurance that the Holy Spirit would be with us. With the power of the Holy Spirit we have the opportunity to see incredible things through our incredible God. It makes me sad that as the church people show up to services with no or little expectation of life change.

I wonder what would change in our worlds if we began to live a come and see life, a life that reflected Jesus in some way?