Come and See

Jn 1:35-51

 

1. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the gracious invitation for sinners to the forgiveness of sins and new life of love, peace, and freedom in eternity. God loved me and Jesus died on the cross to pay for my sins. To believe this historical and eternal truth and follow Him is eternal life, while to reject and despise God’s kind invitation results in eternal punishment. Therefore, this Gospel is the most important and crucial Good News in our lifetime. Spreading this Good News of salvation is called evangelism.

2. For the last two thousands years, Christians have continuously offered the Gospel to the human race, and now two billion people accepted it through some kinds of evangelistic work. It is natural that evangelizing churches grow and non-evangelizing churches struggle to exist or disappear. Last year, our congregation had successfully settled 32 new people, 18 adults and 14 children. But this year, we have only a small number of new people.

3. What’s the problem? Our congregation is wonderful! Our worship is dynamic and moving, and our people warmly welcome new people to settle comfortably. In comparison to other churches, our retention rate is very high. It means that we are ready to accept new people. But our problem is to be simply passive. When new people come to our church, we welcome and accept them. But we do not actively invite people to our church except a few. Why? It seems because you have fear in evangelism. But not only you but so many Christians do not attempt evangelistic activity, for they have fears like not knowing what to say and what to answer, doing more harm than good, invading other’s privacy, being attacked and ashamed, and most of all, being rejected. Evangelism is not easy especially in our times. But we must not forget that all of us became Christians by the way of somebody’s evangelism and still 166 thousand people are converted everyday in the world by evangelism. Not your power of speech but the Gospel itself has the power to save and bring them to God. Spiritual conditions differ greatly, and their responses differ greatly. Don’t be ashamed of your failure, because it is normal for the spiritually dead not to understand and accept the Gospel. It will work only when the Holy Spirit works supernaturally. It is not under our control.

4. The purpose of evangelism is not church growth, but church becomes stronger by evangelism. I will let you know how our congregation can grow greatly: two methods. First, actively invite people to Jesus Christ and our church, saying “come and see!” When Jesus invited his disciples to Jis salvation, he simply said: “come and see!”(39) Seeing is believing: “So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him.” Even though Jesus is not here with us now, His bodily church and His Spirit are here. When they come and see, experience spiritual fellowship and brotherly love, they will be one of us in God’s appointed time (1Tim 2:6). Of course, you may introduce the Gospel to them directly. But if it is hard to you, just invite them to church. Our church and our people have wonderful thing to show and offer. It is not easy to find this quality of spiritual fellowship in this lonely world. Andrew invited his brother Simon Peter to Jesus. Philip invited Nathanael to Jesus, saying “come and see!”(46) Nathanael first rejected it and challenged Philip, but Philip simply said “come and see!” When he came and saw Jesus, he happened to believe in Christ. Do not argue with them, but simply invite them to church that there is a wonderful congregation and great worship. Simply invite them, simply saying why you enjoy church life according to your own level of faith. When they come, they will be Christians gradually by the work of the Holy Spirit through the worship of praise and preaching as well as the loving fellowship of the saints.

5. For successful invitation, you have to be trusted by them. When Andrew invited his brother, Simon Peter came to see Jesus because he trusted his brother as honest and sincere person. Nathanael followed Philip even with some suspicion because he trusted Philip. Therefore, invite someone who trust you and like you with sincerity and love. Then, they will come and see the reality of the Gospel. If you want to invite a stranger, first pray for him or her and build up trust and love before invitation. It does not necessarily take long time. It is up to your heart. Evangelism without love could be hypocrisy, for salvation is a matter of life and love. You have the great power to save them or let them simply perish eternally. You eat together, play together, travel together, but if you do not love them serious enough you may let them go to hell. But if you really care them and would like to share the most precious secret of happiness with them, you will invite them to Christ and His church.

6. Second, we have to improve our congregation continuously to be effective channel of salvation. When we invite people, we should not disappoint them. What makes people to see Christ in church and believe Him? It is when it becomes the true Body of Christ, obedient to the commandment of the Head, to love God and neighbors, even enemies. Reconciliation and unity is the sign of genuine church and therefore the effective medium of evangelism. Jesus prayed “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”(Jn 17:21) Removing darkness and corruption from the church to be the light and salt of the world will make people to glorify God: “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”(Matt 5:16)

7. It is necessary to restructure our congregation and church culture for evangelism that newcomers would be comfortable and welcomed instead of our own comfort and security. So, we changed church structure and worship style in the last year. Whoever comes, we have to welcome them. Whatever they do, we have to understand and respect them. Like Paul, we need welcoming atmosphere and cultural flexibility to win souls even they are a few: “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews… To those not having the law I became like one not having the law… To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings.”(1Cor 9:19-23) Amen.