Recommendations are something many of use on regular basis. We listen to the critics and we listen to our friends. We either accept these recommendations or reject them. We generally recommend things that we enjoy, that we know something about, that benefits us. We say: “Come and see,” “Try it, you’ll like it!” “This will be good for you.” “You’ll enjoy it.”
“Come and see!” We hear this same message from Philip in John 1:43-51. Philip says to his friend Nathanael, “Come and see. We have found the one promised by Moses and the Prophets.”
When Philip invites Nathanael in verse 46 to “come and see for yourself,” it occurs to me that there are numerous people, places, and events that we recommend and invite our friends, family and acquaintances to “come and see.” The most important recommendation or invitation that we might ever make is the same one that Philip makes to Nathanael: “Come and see the Lord.”
There must be countless people that you know or encounter on a daily basis who are looking for the love, joy, peace, hope, forgiveness, and the salvation of the Christian Gospel. People are looking for some Good News in the midst of all the bad news.
We all have neighbors, friends, co-workers, and family members who are awaiting the invitation or our recommendation to “come and see!” Just as Nathanael had been eagerly awaiting the same invitation, there are those around us, people in our lives, who are awaiting our invitation.
Who are the people we know who are waiting an invitation?…not to a movie or a restaurant, but to “come and see!” the Lord Jesus Christ. If we, ourselves, have discovered the Good News of the Gospel, if we have encountered the love, forgiveness, peace, fellowship, and salvation as a member of God’s faithful people, then we have a recommendation, an invitation, to make.
We never know what our actions or our words might produce and since we are already in the habit of recommending movies, restaurants, and books to all sorts of people, might we also recommend the faith that is within us by sharing the love and the joy and the peace of Jesus Christ with our friends and be like Philip who shared with his friend. Seek them out, as Philip did, and invite them to “come and see!” This is what will bring about the change that is needed in our world.