Come and You Will See

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

COME AND YOU WILL SEE

John 1:35-42

35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!" 37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?" They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?" 39 "Come," he replied, "and you will see." So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour. 40 Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, when translated, is Peter).

NIV

Although this is a very interesting story or narrative of the first two who followed Jesus, and how that came to be, what fascinates us more is the words of Jesus. “What do you want, come, and you will see.” We would certainly think Jesus already knew what that wanted, but it is necessary to make the request. This requesting would first apply to our salvation. We have to ask for the forgiveness of our sin, although Jesus already knows we will. We have to ask for him to be our Savior, although Jesus already knows we are going to. And we have to ask him to be the Lord of our life and come into our heart, although Jesus already knows we are. This is the difference between foreknowledge and predestination. It is not that he predetermined we would ask, but he knew in advance of our asking that we would. So, he knew what Andrew and the other wanted before they asked them. Upon their request, his simple answer, “Come” was enough. Jesus always bids us come to him or come after him, which is to follow after him. When we ask Jesus to forgive our sin and be the Lord of our life, he never refuses, he always simply responds, “come”. We are not asking him to come to us, we are asking to come to him, to follow him, to be one of his disciples, to see where he is staying. Those two were certainly thinking in terms of his earthly home, or dwelling place, but we know where Jesus is staying at this moment. He is at the right hand of the Father, the place of honor and when we ask to see where he is staying, we are seeking to see heaven. We want to follow him to where he is staying and he bids us to come after him and we will see. How thrilling to know that because we left everything else behind, as they left John the Baptist behind, to follow Jesus, he will show us where he is staying and we will see the glories of heaven. We will continue next with the rest of this narrative, but for now, we will simply relish in the truth of those words of Jesus. “Come and you will see”.