Jesus’ 5 Invitations Pt. 1 — A ‘Time With God’ Devotion

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Transcript

Good morning. There’s no better way to start your week than by listening to God, because God wants to be involved in your week, and when you put God at the center of your life, then your life comes into order. The things that are broken, He begins to mend, and the things that are in disarray, He begins to put into the way they ought to be.

Well, as we start our day with God, we want to open the Bible, and this week we’re going to be looking at Jesus’ 5 invitations.

Let me read you a few verses from John chapter one.

The Pharisees had sent some people to John the Baptist, and they asked him, why are you baptizing if you are neither the Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet.

And John answered, I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know. Well, that’s Jesus. John has already baptized Jesus. Jesus has gone away to the wilderness and been tempted for 40 days, and He’s come back, and John says among you stands one you do not know. He who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.

While the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and he said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now just imagine you’re one of John’s disciples, and you’re there when Jesus is baptized and the voice comes from heaven. And then here you hear John saying, I’m not even worthy to untie this guy’s sandals.

And the next day you’re with John and he says, look, it’s the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

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You come down a few verses later. It says, the next day again, John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, Behold the Lamb of God. Well, the first thing you’re going to do is to find out more about that person. It says the two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, What are you seeking?

And they said to him, Rabbi, where are you staying? And He said to them, come and see.

Come and see…

They went and they spent an entire day with Him, they came away believing in Him as the Messiah. Andrew was one of them. He found his brother Peter and said, we’ve found the Messiah.

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee, he found Philip, likely the other one who had been there, and said to him, Follow me. Philip was from Bethiada, the city of Andrew and Peter, and Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathaniel said, can any good thing come out of Nazareth?

And Philip said to him, come and see.

Well, what a great invitation from Jesus, and it’s so significant that when Jesus is helping people move towards God, He always gives them an invitation, right? He doesn’t come down on them, pressure them, guilt them into getting right with God.

He gives them an invitation, and the first invitation He gives is come and see. What a warm, inviting invitation. And I don’t know where you are in your life right now, but if you’re at a place where you’re looking for answers, the first step is just to come and see. If you’re feeling broken and you really need some healing in your inner life, your first step is to come and see.

If you’ve met someone who is a real Christian and you’re saying, man, there’s something so different in this person’s life, I want to know what they’ve got – come and see.

Come and see just means, talk to that real Christian, you know, and just ask them the question. What is it that’s different about you? What does it mean to have a relationship with God? If you don’t know anyone like that, then go to the church that’s near you.

Just look up when it’s Sunday services and rock up. It’s not some weird mumbo jumbo. It’s a group of people meeting, someone will be teaching from the Bible, and after the meeting ends, just go up to that person and say, I’m wanting to find out more about God. They love getting that question and they’ll sit down with you, they’ll talk with you, they’ll set a time to get together.

Come and see. Just spend time finding out who Jesus is and what it means to know Him.

I’m John North.

To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.

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