Trinity
Connecting for Impact
#5
Subject: “Come and
see”
Complement: Come and
see how a follower of Christ can lovingly point to truth and answer tuff life
questions
Introduction: Review of Connecting to God and each other. God is one and personal, we love Him with a balance of all heart soul and strength because He is the perfect example of balance as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Since we are created in His image we aught to love Him with a total balance of our entire being. We connect with each others as believers in Christ by having the attitude of Christ, being humble, selfless, and keeping our motives in check. And also by being a unified body that is growing my replacing the old with the new.
Transition: So today we are focusing on the third phase of connecting for impact. That is our connection to other. Specifically believers in Christ to those who are not yet believers.
The term we use for this kind of connection is evangelism. Simply sharing Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results up to God. Now, in the ministry really there are all kinds of how to books, methods, and ideas of what works best when connecting with non-believers. 1. Some talk about confrontational evangelism where you may go knock on a door and very pointedly confront someone about their sin problem and need for forgiveness. 2. Others would rather use the reasoning method, where you debate with a person about why they should receive Christ. 3. There is what some call friendship evangelism where you build a friendship with a person and then as their friend tell them the gospel. 4. Another is servant evangelism. This is where you serve someone free of charge as a simple demonstration of God’s love in a practical way.
These all certainly have there place, and may or may not be the best Biblical method, but today we are going to look at a principle, or method for connecting to others that comes from Jesus and His first followers. It is this.
COME AND SEE…
Turn with me to John chapter One. (Give context) Going to read verses 35-51.
Transition: The principle that we are looking at for connecting with others is “COME AND SEE”. As we read through this passage we see multiple example of this principle working, but I want to focus on the example of Phillip is verses 43-46.
What was Nathanael coming to see?
Come and see…
I.
Follower
of Christ
A. Phillip was following Jesus.
B. The principle for us is that we need to following Jesus.
C. So that by our practice, our lifestyle, those we talk to will see Who we follow.
D. In Jesus day they were leaving jobs, family, homes, religious groups to follow Christ.
E. In our day here are just a few area in which you might invite someone to come and see what it is like to follow Christ:
1. As a father
2. Ball game/ entertainment
3. Work
4. Dinner, family, home
5. Church
II.
Truth
A. Phillip used the law of Moses and the prophets as his basis for telling Nathanial to come and see.
B. For you and I we must have some substance for our evangelism. We must have something deeper than mere experience to connect with others.
C. The principle can be understood in this little rhyme: The faith that we share is truth not error.
D. God’s word is the foundational truth: How do we know this?
1. Internally
a. Written by over 40 different authors.
b. Written over 1500 years
c. All with one major theme. Its all inter connected. Without contradiction.
d. The prophecy in OT was written years before fulfilled in NT. No way that it could be so accurate without Devine inspiration.
e. The Bible itself claims to be inspired. II Tim 3:16, I Peter 1:20-21
2. External
a. Indestructible, preserved, more manuscript evidence
b. Historically accurate
c. Archeological
d. Scientific
E. In effect when I tell some one to come and see the truth, I am saying come and see what is real, what is concrete, what will never change, what will give you the firm foundation in which to filter every other aspect of your life.
F. Something more than a service, more than life, more than feel good religion.
III.
Answers
to tuff questions
A. Nathanael
asked can anything good come out of
B. Today as we rub shoulders with friends, neighbors, family, and co workers they may have some tuff questions. And quite frankly we may not always have the direct answers. But we can always answer with this, COME AND SEE.
C. So when they ask:
1. Anything good come out of this divorce?
2. Anything good come from my struggle wit this addiction?
3. Anything good come from loosing my Job?
4. Anything good come from the death of my spouse?
5. Anything good come from the horrible fight I had with my friend?
6. Is there really anything to this Jesus stuff?
7. What if my friends make fun of me when I go to church with my wife?
8. Will people look at me funny if I go to church?
D. We can look straight into the eyes of those who ask these questions and say, COME AND SEE.
E. We can boldly stand before the world and say just as Phillip said, COME AND SEE!!!!!
Closing: In every example in this passage I believe there is one common denominator for connecting to others. It is relational. We must connect some way, some how. We must speak the truth in love. Invest and invite.