I like the story of the young woman who wanted to go to college, but her heart sank when she read the question on the application blank that asked, "Are you a leader?" Being both honest and conscientious, she wrote, "No," and returned the application, expecting the worst. To her surprise, she received this letter from the college: "Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new leaders. We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have at least one follower."

In our text for this morning, Phillip comes to Nathanael and proclaims that he has found the One whom Moses wrote about. He is Jesus of Nazareth! We don't know what expression Nathanael had on his face when he responded, but I think there was a little cynicism in his response… "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Philip answered: "Come and see."

You see, we have the same problem. The world is full of those sure of themselves. So is the church! We may even get to the point where we believe very little that we are told. We sit back under the fig tree with the sneer of a Nathanael and we ask, "Can anything good come from Cross of Life? Can anything good come from a church that meets in a school gym? Can anything good come from such a small group?" People come in and out the doors of this school with a critical eye. Skepticism is nothing new! Doubting Thomases and Nathanaels have been around awhile. By nature we don't want to be led. We want to lead. But, when Jesus is involved, it is imperative that we have followers. In fact, it is imperative for all of us to be followers.

Nathanael learned this. He was transformed. He became a follower because Phillip invited him. Let me ask you: What was it that Phillip saw in Christ that moved him to follow, that stirred him so to invite his friend Nathanael? Come and see what? What did Phillip see in Jesus of Nazareth? I want to attempt to answer that question this morning. Come and see what?

First, Phillip asked Nathanael to come and see the souls redeemed. The day before, Andrew began following Jesus and invited Peter. Then Phillip began following and invited Nathanael. There were eight others who would become Jesus' inner circle, 12 in all. This was just the beginning. Soon there were 70, the outer circle. Hundreds were soon following, by the end of the century half a million. Today souls are being redeemed in South America and Africa at ten times the rate of North America and Europe. The church's work is not yet done. The church is exploding.

But it was Andrew who made the first invitation to his brother, and Phillip who made the second to a friend. They were watching as people began trusting in this man from Nazareth as the Savior who would redeem them from their sins. They listened as Jesus spoke to people in a way that made them understand their lives better than they understood them themselves. They had seen souls redeemed just as they had seen their own redeemed. So when Phillip asked Nathanael to come and see, he knew Jesus would redeem Nathanael as well. He knew that Nathanael, like himself, would find the peace of forgiveness from God that he could only find in Jesus. He knew that Nathanael would see Jesus redeeming souls by sharing the good news of forgiveness that He would win for us all with his death and resurrection! He would see souls being redeemed, bought back by God, so that we no longer belong to sin, but to a loving and gracious Father in heaven! That's something worth coming and seeing! It's what we see too!

I know that every Christian here believes that God can redeem a soul. I know you believe that. So I ask you from this moment on to follow Phillip's example. Go out and ask someone to come and see. Invite them to bible study, invite them to Sunday school, invite them to a worship service, invite them to a church activity.

There were two men who had been business partners for over twenty years. They met one Sunday morning as they were leaving a restaurant. One of them asked, "Where are you going this morning?" "I'm going to play golf. What about you?" The first man responded rather apologetically, "I'm going to church." The other man said, "Why don't you give up that church stuff?" The man asked, "What do you mean?" "Well, we have been partners for twenty years. We have worked together, attended board meetings together, and had lunch together, and all of these twenty years you have never asked me about going to church. You have never invited me to go with you. Obviously, it doesn't mean that much to you."

Don't be like Baskin' Robins! Have you ever heard the story of the two robins sitting in a tree? "I'm really hungry," said the first one. "Me too," said the second one. "Let's fly down and find some lunch." They flew to the ground and found a nice plot of plowed ground full of worms. They ate and ate and ate and ate 'til they could eat no more. "I'm so full I don't think I can fly back up to the tree," said the one. "Me either." said the second. "Let's just lay here and bask in the warm sun." "O.K.," said the first robin. They plopped down, basking in the sun. No sooner had they fallen asleep than a big fat cat snuck up and gobbled them up. As he sat washing his face after his meal, the cat thought, "I love baskin' robins."

Will we be people who have eaten so much of God's good food that we sit and bask? Or, will we invite others? Will we go out of our way to say to people, "Come and see?" Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if each of us, at least once a month, invited another human being to "Come and See? Wouldn't it be wonderful if "Come and See" became a natural part of our life?

Second, Phillip asked Nathanael to come and see the lives transformed. Paul Tournier was a famous Swiss physician and a dedicated Christian author of many insightful books. After he had written his first book, he returned to his medical school to visit his favorite old professor. Granted an afternoon of the venerable man's time, Tournier read his new book to his teacher. As he completed his reading, he looked up to find tears in the old man's eyes. "Oh, Paul," said the professor, "That's a wonderful book. Every one of us Christians should read it." Tournier was surprised. "I didn't know you were a Christian, professor. When did you become one?" His old teacher's answer surprised him: "Just now, as you read your book." His life was transformed, because God's Word convinced him that Jesus was his Savior!

Phillip had his moment like that, too. A moment with Jesus that transformed him. A moment where joy flooded into his world and made him want to go out and speak to someone. He found Nathanael. But you can understand Nathanael's skepticism. Look at what Phillip is asking him to believe. He tells him, "I have found the one that Moses wrote about in the Law, and the one the Prophets foretold." It sounds a little too fantastic for Nathanael. You almost can't fault Nathanael. Jesus doesn't. He recognizes his doubt and helps him along. And Nathanael is transformed. "I saw you while you were under the fig tree before Phillip called you," Jesus says. Now Jesus has his attention. Nathanael is shaking in his sandals. "Rabbi," he says, and here Nathanael has his transforming moment, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel." But that wasn't to be the only moment. There were more to come. Jesus said, "you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You're going to see greater things than that."

That's the third thing Phillip asked Nathanael to come and see. Come and see the heavens opened. Come and see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. That's what Jesus said to Nathanael, and as he and the other 11 disciples spent the next three years living and ministering with their Master, they saw the heavens open! When Jesus was baptized they saw the heavens opened. When Jesus was transfigured they saw the heavens opened. When He fed the 5000 and the 4000 they saw the heavens opened and the bounty of that food. When Lazarus was raised from the grave they saw the heavens open and bring life to a dead man's bones. When Jesus died, the heavens closed and grew silent. But the stone…the heavens opened when the stone was rolled away! When Jesus stood before the disciples behind that locked door on Easter, they saw the heavens open and the Lord glorified that day!

When Jesus told Nathanael he would see "the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man," it brings to mind Jacob's dream, in which the angels going up and down the stairway assured Jacob of the truthfulness of God's promise and the sureness of his communion with the true God. In Jesus, the gap between heaven and earth has been bridged perfectly and completely! Through Jesus' intimate communion with the Father, which Nathanael and the other disciples would witness, the Mediator's work of redemption would be completed. In Jesus, heavenly truth is brought to earth and sinners are assured of being taken to eternal glory where there will be perfect, endless communion with God! Come and see Jesus, because He has opened heaven to you! He has redeemed you and redeemed me! Made us right with God again! And the same wonderful things await all those we invite to come and see!

Let me close with the story of the man with two umbrellas. A pastor from Massachusetts was crossing the Atlantic by ship some years ago. He noticed on several occasions a dark-skinned man sitting in a deck chair reading a Bible. One day he sat down beside him and said, "Forgive my curiosity. I'm a minister. I notice you are a faithful Bible reader. I'd like to meet you." After introductions, the dark-skinned man said, "I am Filipino. I was born into a good Catholic home. I went to the United States as a young man to study in one of your universities, intending to become a lawyer. On my first day on campus, a student dropped by to visit. He welcomed me and offered to help in any way he could. Then he asked me where I went to church. I told him I was Catholic. He explained that the Catholic Church was quite a distance away, but he sat down and drew me a map. I thanked him and he left."

"On the following Sunday morning it was raining. I decided to just skip church. But then there was a knock on my door. There stood my new friend and he was holding two umbrellas. He said that he worried that I might not be able to read his map. So, he said he would escort me to the Catholic Church. I hurriedly dressed, thinking all the while what an unusually thoughtful person he was. I wondered what church he belonged to. As we walked along I asked him about his church. He said that his church was just around the corner. So, I suggested that we go to his church this Sunday, and then to mine the following Sunday. He agreed. But somehow I felt so much at home in his church that I never got around to finding mine. After four years I felt that God was leading me into the ministry rather than into law. So I went to a seminary instead and became an ordained minister. Then I returned to the Philippines to serve in a mission church. I am a Bishop in the church there now."

The hero of the story is not the bishop, important though he is. The hero is that anonymous young man with two umbrellas. Go all the way back to the beginning of Christian history and you'll always find him. He is behind almost every Christian convert...that unnamed man or woman with two umbrellas...that person with a winsome faith who builds a bridge of friendship with another person. And across that bridge walks the living Christ and claims another eternal soul. You can be that person with two umbrellas! With God's help! You can be like Phillip. Come and See! Because what good thing comes from Nazareth? A Savior who redeems, transforms, and brings you to heaven! Amen.

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