Second Sunday after the Epiphany

Second Sunday after the Epiphany (A)

January 19, 2020

Text: John 1:29-42a

            “Come and you will see” (John 1:39; ESV).  That’s it!  That is Jesus’ evangelism program.  An invitation.  Come.  A Promise.  You will see.  He who opens the eyes of the blind will make sure of that.  Come to the place where Jesus is abiding.  That is really what the disciples, Andrew and the other, are asking.  “Rabbi… where are you staying?” (v. 38).  It is better rendered, “where are you abiding?”  And while they may well have been asking about His accommodations for the night, He has something much more profound in mind.  They come and they see, as He has promised, and they abide with Him where He is, where He is present, and they hear Him and come to know Him.  Where Jesus is present in the flesh, where He speaks His Word, that is where He abides.  And you know that this is a description of what happens here, now, in His Church, gathered around His Word and the Sacrament of His body and blood.  And it is from that presence and with that Word that the disciples go forth.  Andrew first finds his brother Simon.  You know, Peter.  “We have found the Messiah,” he proclaims (v. 41), and he invites his dear brother, probably with the same words of Jesus, “Come and you will see.”  And he brings him to the place.  He brings him to the Presence.  He brings him to the Word.  He brings him to Jesus. 

            How do you do that?  The same way.  You say to people you know and love, with whom you have a relationship, “We have found the Messiah.  We know the Savior.  Come and you will see.”  That is, you invite them to Church.  We make evangelism way too hard.  There are many things we may do, that certainly couldn’t hurt, that may even help, and when they result in great things happening, praise be to God, who gives the growth through the Spirit, in the preaching of Christ, His Son.  I’m talking about things like great evangelism campaigns, canvassing neighborhoods, manning phone banks, street preaching, and the like.  That is all fine and good.  Maybe we should give some of that a try.  But you know, and I know, that not all of us are built for that, guilt trips from denominational leaders and church growth gurus notwithstanding.  And while God certainly can and does work through those things, and I’d be the last person to discourage you if that’s what you want to do (knock yourself out, go with God’s blessing and mine!), I’m not all that sure those methods are the most effective.  What we see in this text is quite simple.  And it isn’t very hard.  Andrew goes to his brother, with whom he is already in relationship, and he invites him to come and see Jesus.  Just after our text, Jesus comes to Philip, and Philip invites his friend Nathanael to come and see (vv. 43 ff.).  And the point is, while I’m thrilled if you want to go knock on doors, I’m even more eager for you to invite your friends and neighbors to come to Church.  Invite them to come to the place where Jesus abides, where He speaks His forgiving and life-giving Word.  Invite them to come and see.

            It all begins with a preacher sent by God, not to knock on doors, but to the wilderness, where I’m sure he was a lonely preacher for much of his ministry.  But the word got out.  St. John, the fiery preacher of repentance, baptizing in the Jordan for the forgiveness of sins.  Could this be the Messiah?  No, John is sent to prepare His way.  “After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me” (v. 30).  It is He who stood in the Jordan to be baptized by John, upon whom the Spirit descended from heaven, upon whom the Spirit remained.  It is He, baptized by John with water, who now baptizes with the Holy Spirit, Jesus, the Son of God.  And when John sees Him coming, he points and he preaches, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (v. 29).  It is a Gospel sermon beyond compare.  That is what the preacher is given to preach.  Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  The cross.  He is the sacrifice for our sins, the sacrificial Lamb.  And He takes our sins away, the sins of the whole world, takes them into Himself, and puts them to death in His flesh, leaving for us His forgiveness, His Spirit, His life.  He is the Passover Lamb, whose blood now marks our doors so that the angel of death passes over, the Lamb we eat as we are freed from Egyptian slavery to sin, death, and the devil.  He is the sacrifice of atonement, the One to whom all the Old Testament sacrifices pointed.  This whole theology is all contained in that finger pointing, and those few words spoken, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”

            “Behold!”  “See!”  “Come and you will see.”  That is what happens when you bring someone here to the place where Jesus abides and where He speaks.  They hear the preaching: The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  They hear the living voice of Jesus.  They see with their ears.  The Spirit gives faith.  Sins are forgiven.  Baptism washes.  Body and blood feeds with the Passover Lamb Himself.  His blood marks and saves and frees.  Now that, that(!), is evangelism.  It is Gospeling.  Evangelism just means Gospeling.  When you evangelize someone, you Gospel them.  We found Him!  We know where He is!  We know where He always promises to be for us!  Come and you will see!  Jesus, for you!  

            Now, I know what you are thinking.  I have this constant struggle within myself.  What if they reject me?  What if they don’t want to hear it?  What if they say no to my invitation?  Okay, let’s ask that question.  What if?  What if they do reject it?  What if they don’t want to hear it?  What if they say no to the invitation?  What?  Did you die?  Did they kill you?  Or maybe now you have to walk around hanging your head in shame all day because they said no when you invited them somewhere?  Look, I get it.  I have the same fears you do.  But do you see how irrational those fears are?  Some places in the world, they will kill you for inviting them to Church.  And God be praised!  The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church, as the Church fathers say.  That is, where people really suffer persecution for being Christians, not only are they not afraid to suffer rejection, humiliation, imprisonment, and even death for the sake of the Gospel, the Church grows and thrives.  Much to the devil’s chagrin.  But he has us duped, that old wily serpent.  Here, where it’s not all that realistic that we’ll be killed for asking a sibling or a friend to come to Church, we’re paralyzed.  And it’s so silly.  They might laugh.  They might tell me not to talk about Jesus around them.  Well, okay, it could be worse, right? 

            Bring them to the preaching.  At the very least, bring them to God in prayer.  But I’ll warn you, if you start praying for somebody, God just might give you wide open opportunities to invite them to come and see.  That would be just like Him, wouldn’t it?  And He just might give you the courage and the words to speak.  And I hate to tell you this, but I’m praying He does just that.  “Hey, you, person that I know so well and with whom I share all sorts of intimate conversation… would you ever want to come to Church with me?  I hear Jesus there.  He forgives my sins there.  Come and you will see.”

            Many people will probably say “No, thank you,” or make up some lame excuse why they can’t make it, but maybe someday.  Okay, so they say “No thank you.”  But now they know you have loved them in the Name of Jesus.  Some may come once and never come again.  Alright, at least they came once, and they were Gospelized.  They came and they saw.  Look, the results aren’t up to us.  We’re not called to be successful, we’re called to be faithful.  The Holy Spirit is the One responsible for results, for creating faith, for growing the Church.  He calls by the Gospel.  He enlightens with His gifts (i.e. the Word and the Sacraments).  He gathers and sanctifies a Church for Himself and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. 

            But it is that one in a hundred.  It is the one who comes and sees and hears and believes.  It is that one who is gathered into the sheepfold of the Church here with us, under the watchful eye of the Good Shepherd… The Shepherd who is also the Lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the Lamb who is crucified, the Lamb who is risen from the dead. 

            I’m sick to death of evangelism programs and church growth methods based on human wisdom and bait and switch trickery.  I think Jesus has a better way.  In fact, I know He has the only way.  Come where He is doing His Jesus thing, His forgiving, His enlivening, His saving.  Come where He is present and where He is speaking.  Come and you will see.  Whether you go and invite anyone else, at the very least, know this: Jesus takes away your sins.  You are forgiven.  See!  Now you’ve been Gospelized.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.