Try Before You Buy | Pastor Johnnie Simpson Jr

John 1:43-51 NRSV

43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 

44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 

45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” 

46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 

47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” 

48 Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 

49 Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 

50 Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” 

51 And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you,[a] you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Try before you buy, it’s one of the many comforts that have been strained during this time, the ability to try something out before we buy it. People don't buy homes without walking through them, we try on clothes before we buy them, even take cars for test drives. 

Now many online shopping places allow us to “try and buy.” They have made it easier to return items we purchased online, the websites have apps that show us what we would look like with the clothing, or glasses, or whatever item we purchased. They give us a virtual try before you buy experience. While it may not give the exact look and feel of shopping in person it still gives us the chance to sample what we want to buy. 

An opportunity to try before you buy happened right here in the Fourth Gospel, the Gospel According to John. In the passage I read we find Jesus right after baptism, going out into the world to recruit disciples. Jesus went right to work, no confirmation certificate, no banquet, no special Sunday service, he went right to work. Nothing wrong with celebrating but I appreciate skipping the formalities, pomp, and circumstance sometimes and getting right down to business.  Not only did Jesus get started without a bunch of ceremonies, but Jesus also went out into the community looking for people to share the good news with. Jesus was baptized, then found Andrew and Peter, then found Philip. 

Philip a new disciple, is going to testify to Nathanael about Jesus and this is the first time that someone’s testimony is met with resistance. Nathanael hears where Jesus is from and asks can anything good come out of Nazareth? Nathanael is looking down on Jesus at first based on where he came from. Nazareth was considered insignificant during the biblical time. Nazareth is not mentioned much before Jesus, and not mentioned in other sources like Josephus. Nazareth was a small town with an estimated population of 300 to 400 people. Compared to Sepphoris, the capital of Galilee which had 10 times the number of people in its city. In other words, Nazareth was a small county suburb and the people in the other big cities didn't think much of it. 

It's easy to judge Nathanael because he looked down at the mention of Jesus’ hometown but let's not point the finger at him too hard now. If a homeless person came into the church, some good Christians would look down on them, if someone came into the church didn't speak English fluently, some good Christians would look down on them, if a woman walked into the church with too many kids for your liking some good Christians would look down on them. That is why so many churches are struggling now, not because of the pandemic, the pandemic is only ripping the proverbial band-aid off and exposing some churches failure to connect with community faster. Churches are struggling because the church is supposed to be out in the world making disciples, but the church won't get close to people because the church doesn’t approve of them.

Philip's response to Nathanael’s challenge is something I aspire to; the Lord is still working on me though. Philip doesn't argue with Nathanael, Philip just says "come and see" come test this Jesus out for yourself. Philip asks Nathanael to “come see,” and Nathanael was willing to follow Philip, I believe Nathanael followed Philip because Philip's witness was authentic. Jesus said later on in the text that Nathanael was an Israelite without deceit, and I believe Nathanael was willing to check this Jesus out because Nathanael thought Philip was authentic as well. Being authentic Christians is a whole sermon by itself but I will just say for now that I get upset looking at what kind of example so-called Christians are setting for Christianity these days especially surrounding public events. 

Last Presidential election in 2016, people told us to obey those who are in authority over us quoting Romans chapter 13, now the same people are quiet when people are storming the capital and actively planning to kidnap and kill elected officials because their candidate lost the election. When people are standing in the pulpit telling their church members to get as many guns and ammo as they can. Pastors putting curses on people who voted for the candidate they didn't like, so-called Christians claiming they are pro-life but say nothing about people on social media saying all the n-words and liberals need to die. Matter of fact I hear more that deleting their preferred politician’s social media account or shutting their preferred social media application down is a violation of free speech. Blue lives matter until they are stopping you from storming the senate then they don't seem to matter as much. The witness is not authentic. And if that is the Christianity you are out here trying to give me; I don't want it. No wonder the church is failing.

And there are those who find some way not to address injustice at all, they are just as harmful. I get just as mad at those who are quiet while destruction is happening as those who cause the destruction. Problems don’t get solved by saying nothing while evil persists.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theologian alive during the Nazi rule of Germany said: 

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

Martin Luther King said in his letter from a Birmingham jail that the moderate was the biggest stumbling block to the Civil Rights movement. The Church has to be willing to engage the community, along with the world at large and speak truth to power. 

Nathanael and the church have been looking at the external qualifications, but Jesus looks at the heart. Jesus wasn't worried about what Nathanael said, he looked into his heart, and still engaged him. 

Jesus is the fulfillment of scripture, Jesus is God and man, that is why the text calls him Jesus son of Joseph of Nazareth and the Son of Man. 

Jesus is the replacement for Jacob's ladder, the place where heaven and earth meet. Jacob has a dream in Genesis where he saw angels going up and down a ladder from heaven to earth and back. That place connected the earthly and the divine. Jesus says he is that new connection. Jesus is the perfect bridge between heaven and earth. Just like Jesus connects the people to heaven we can connect the people to Jesus. Connect authentically like Philip and Nathanael did. 

Jesus not only says “try and buy” (“come and see”) in this reading, but he says (to Philip): “Follow me.” I

So to what does Jesus invite us? If we use John’s gospel as a source, Jesus invites us:

• to see where he lives.

• to observe the signs and wonders he performs.

• to stay and pray.

• to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

• to feed the flock (a life of service).

 

Let’s accept the invitation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to take a look. We can tell others to come and see what God is doing. It can’t hurt. Let’s stop what we’re doing and think about what Jesus is inviting us to do, or to be. Perhaps we’ve been followers of Jesus for many years, but we’ve never really considered what — specifically — Jesus has invited us to do. It’s possible we don’t have a clue as to our role, our mission, our ministry. Jesus says, “Come and see” — try and buy — and it’s an invitation that could change our lives.

Living Victoriously (John 17:1-11)

http://goo.gl/wpU82B (link to live sermon)

            This particular passage of scripture is called the High Priestly Prayer, and also the Farewell Discourse. The Gospel according John Chapter is divided into 2 books, the book of signs, and the book of glory, it is also has 7 discourses;

Sign No. 1wedding at Cana-John Chapter 2

Sign No. 2            Healing of the nobleman's son-John Chapter 4

Sign No. 3            Healing of the lame man in Jerusalem-John Chapter 5

Sign No. 4            The feeding of the 5,000-John Chapter 6

Sign No. 5            Jesus walks on water-John Chapter 6

Sign No. 6            Healing of the man born blind-John Chapter 9

Sign No. 7            Raising Lazarus from the dead-John Chapter 11

Discourse No. 1            Early Judean ministry: Nicodemus-John Chapter 3

Discourse No. 2            The Samaritan woman: woman at the well/living water-John Chapter 4

Discourse No. 3            The discourse on the father and the son-John Chapter 5

Discourse No. 4            The bread of life discourse-John Chapter 6

Discourse No. 5            Feast of tabernacles: the spirit-John Chapter 7

Discourse No. 6            Jesus as light of the world-John Chapter 8

Discourse No. 7            Jesus as the good shepherd-John Chapter 10

But John chapters 14-17 are known as the Farewell Discourse, it is given by Jesus to 11 of his disciples after the Passover meal, that we Christians refer to as the Last Supper. This is a passing of the baton of sorts, Jesus knows what he has to do, so he is preparing himself and the Disciples not only for what is to come, but what they have to do afterwards.

As I was studying the passage, I thought this was going to be a real complicated piece to preach, I thought I was going to have to prune and take it piece by piece not trying to overcomplicate the message with some sort of profound revelation, but the more I studied the more I realized the purpose of this prayer was real simple. Eternal life is to know God and know Jesus. All right there in verse 3, know God and Jesus, you will know eternal life. That is what we are all here for right? Once we get past tradition, and maybe our parents making us come, that is why we are all here, we want there to be something more than the 70-100 if we are real strong, years on this planet. Here Jesus provides a prayer and gives us the answer, because he gives us the answer, he is operating like he already has the victory.  Notice also this prayer is not alone, clutching a rock, like so many artist have painted when he is in the garden; this prayer is right within earshot of all the other disciples.

Jesus prays for his own glorification in the first 8 verses, and he prays that the people know God, that word that Jesus uses for know in the Greek, is comparable to the Hebrew word used for know in the Old Testament, it means to intimately know God, develop a relationship with Him. The next part of the passage, Jesus intercedes for the disciples praying for them because he is going to the Father, they still have work to do on Earth. Jesus is not praying with defeat, he is praying from a position of victory.

I am a fan of video games; I am a fan of all kinds of games but mostly video games and particularly those from the 80s and early 90s, for the home console systems. Something that I understand about those games is that they are expensive to make. Teams of computer programmers, hardware and software specialist come together to make a video game along with testers, graphic designers, musicians, etc. They work together for a year or some years to develop a game, which is why they cost so much. These days, they try to make the video game long to play  (60 hours on some) so that the customer doesn’t feel like they wasted $60, but back in the 80s and 90s there was not much room on the disks and cartridges so to make the customer feel good about their purchase, they made the game hard. I would spend entire weekends, and when school was out, the whole summer trying to figure out how to win some of these games, some I got really good at, others, not so much.

Just recently I came across a group of professional gamers who “speed run” they have made a career out of playing a video game better than everybody else, and some specialize in beating the game in the fastest way possible. So games that would take me all weekend to get halfway through, they can beat from start to finish in 10-15 minutes. Some of these speed runners put on an annual charity marathon where they speed run these games live and raise money for charity. For example somebody will call in to the marathon and say they will donate $1000 to autism research if someone can beat a certain game in 13 minutes, and the speed runner will do it.

Now after getting over the pain of watching them make my childhood video game skills seem trivial I started to watch how they played and noticed they didn’t play the same way I used to play or play now, they have a whole different approach, and I found a sermon in it. The speed runners play the game victoriously.

First off, they prepare, they know the game sometimes better than the people who programmed it. We should all study our craft no matter what it is.

2 Timothy 2:15

King James Version (KJV)

¹⁵ Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

That word study has other translations, be diligent, do your best, The Message Bible even says concentrate. The fact is if you want to be victorious, you have to prepare. One of my favorite music producers Leon Lewis, says all the time, “I am not the best musician, not the smartest, not the most creative, but you will NEVER out prepare me.” We ought to spend time studying what ever it is we want to do, but especially study God’s word.

Something else I noticed about the speed runners, they don’t stop when the enemy comes, nor do they fight every enemy. I watched the speed runners walk right past enemies, straight up ignore them and what they were doing, didn’t fuss, didn’t stress, didn’t stop, just kept moving. That is hard to do for some of us, we won’t allow ourselves to be disrespected. We argue every motion, fight every battle, resist every bit of change, because we want to do it our way and our way is best. We might think so, but I noticed in the game when you stop to fight every enemy, you might win, but you lose energy.

Psalm 23:4-5

King James Version (KJV)

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Thirdly when they enemy does lay a hand on the runner, they allow the damage caused or the way that they enemy hit them, push them forward. Everything is used to push the runner forward and not backwards, instead of sitting around complaining about getting hit they let the hit push them further toward the end. Too many times we let our setbacks be our stopping points, we want to spend the rest of our lives talking about something that happened years ago instead of learning from it and moving on.

Philippians 3:13-14

King James Version (KJV)

¹³ Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

¹⁴ I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Last point I noticed about the runners, they played with victory in mind, they knew in the end, they were going to win, just like Jesus knew in the prayer Glory was his. Even though it was the last supper he knew he had to be whipped all night long. Crown of thorns on his head, nails in his hands, piercing in his side, fed vinegar for water, hang his head and die. Be put in a borrowed tomb, but early on the third day rise again!