Come, See, Pray, Go and Tell – Sermon 21 April, 2013
Come, See, Pray, Go and Tell
The topic “Come, See, Pray, Go and Tell” that I have chosen for today clearly refers to five actions we should take as Christians.
Actions that we should put into practice as individuals and as a church. We already have come and seen who Christ is but we lack the strength and the power to pray more often individually and collectively, to take the bold action to go out there and start telling others about what God has done to us through His Son Jesus Christ.
If we look around we will see that many Christians have these things lacking in their lives. Therefore it is helpful to look into this knowing that there is an exciting Good News that we want to pass on to others.
The main reason to do this is because Jesus tells us that we are the Salt of the earth and the Light of the world. He chose these two symbols, because they are essential in life. Salt gives taste and also preserves. On the other hand the light helps us to see, leads the way and gives safety. If our light shines, people will see our good deeds and praise the Father in heaven.
Let us look to the five actions that we should do:
- 1. Come
The first thing to do is to come. It is actually to leave our comfort zone, stand up, take step and go or move forward. The invitation on its own does not mean anything unless we decide to take the necessary steps. Sometimes we receive many invitations and yet decide not to respond. We should be like a young child who is at the stage of taking his or her first steps and we say: “Come, come mummy or daddy is here”. And when the child gets the courage to take the step and then we open our arms and prepare to hug them.
We need to take that kind of an action as believers. God invites us to come. As Jesus invited ordinary people to come after him. And the good thing is that they took the first step. Some left their fishing boats others left very good and successful business.
Andrew, Peter’s brother, was one of the first disciples who accepted Jesus’s invitation and went after Him. He accepted the invitation before Peter did. In fact he invited Peter to come and see.
- 2. See
The second thing is to see. If we don’t get up and come to the way, the truth and the life we will never experience the joy and the excitement that Jesus can bring into our lives. In reality if we as Christians and “Churched People” don’t have that excitement and joy it means that we are missing something. It could be that we don’t have a full and complete vision to see who Jesus is and what He can do in our lives. We are not there yet. In reality you will not complete your journey until you reach your desired destination.
In our first reading we see Philip telling Nathanael that they have found the One about whom Moses and the prophets had written many years ago; but Nathanael was not convinced saying that nothing good can come from Nazareth. Philip’s response to him is simple: “Come and see”.
At this stage you will say we have come to God and we have seen what He has done and can still do. But coming to God and seeing the truth is not enough. These two actions are not sufficient; we as Christians need to take some further actions. This brings us to the next three steps.
- 3. Pray
I personally believe that this is the integral and primary part of our Christian life. This could be considered the high point or the station to be filled with the power we need, to take the following two steps.
Prayer is very effective. It can change situations, even life. Prayer is an open conversation with God where we give thanks for all He has done, we praise Him for who He is, confess our sins and ask for His mercy and bring our requests for our needs and for the needs of others in the name of Jesus. But also, Prayer gives us the confidence and self-assurance to endure the difficult paths of our life journey and feel ready to face the different challenges of life. Prayer is the source of the power we need to persevere trying to reach our goals in life.
We have many examples in the Bible where we see the believers pray for certain things and how God responds to them. Some were healed, some were brought back to life, some were released from prison the chains fell down, the disciples were filled with the Spirit and the room where they were gathered was shaken, etc. Also Jesus, the Son of God, himself prayed seeking the Fathers help.
Yes, dear friends, prayer is essential, we need to pray. We need to pray on our own and we need to pray together if we want to see the act of God in our lives and also in the world around us.
Praying and being filled with the power we need should lead us to take the next two steps.
- 4. Go
You know for every action there should be a reaction. In some instances people tell us not to react, because that will worsen the situation. I accept that. But in reality not reacting in itself is a reaction.
In the lines of today’s message it is expected from us to react and do the necessary. The idea of going in the life of the believer is a step taken to proclaim the good news. God expects and demands from us to go and act. Jesus in His great commission commanded His disciples to go. Yes initially He said go gather in a room, pray and wait till the Spirit comes and fills you. Then go out and proclaim, communicate the message which is all about Jesus and what He has done in your lives and the lives of the people around you.
This is an action, or reaction, that every believer should have. Without this the new life and the experience will become meaningless. It is time for the believers to stand up and go out there and do what they ought to do. We know that outside the doors of the church is the danger zone. It is time for the church and “Churched People” to get out of their comfort zone and act on behalf of the Lord. You know sometimes people say “Pastor we should be out there, we should react to what Jesus has said and go”. That’s right. But remember this is the fourth action that we are talking about. We need to fulfil the first three steps before we can actually go out there and act.
- 5. Tell
And finally when we go out there we have a job to do. We have to tell others what God has done for us and in our lives. We have to tell our story. Like the blind man who said: “I don’t care who you think He is. One thing I know that I was blind but now I see”.
The command of Jesus is simple and clear. Go and tell: teach, make disciples, baptise, etc.
Andrew, as we mentioned earlier came, saw, went and told his brother Peter about the Lord. We have said on St. Andrew’s day that every time we read about Andrew he is leading someone to Jesus. In this case he led Peter to Jesus and later many lives were affected by Peter.
Many years ago a farmer’s son who was not interested with God was invited by a group of friends to attend a big evangelistic gathering. He did not want to go. One of his friends asked him to drive the group to the gathering in his van. So he went there as the driver, but he had the most joyful experience in his life of knowing Christ. Since then he has talked to 210 million people about Jesus in person, he was friends with 9 presidents and probably half of the world’s population have seen and heard him speak on the radio or the TV. He is Southern Baptist Evangelist born in 1918 and his name is Billy Graham.
The church has to tell people what God did and can do. It is telling about the faith. Jesus told us to do so. We should do this out of love. After all, the God we believe in is the God of Love.
We should remember that we can make a difference in people’s lives, no matter how small it could be. As long as we are willing to come, see, PRAY, go and tell.
A man was walking on the sea shore in Mexico where thousands of star fish were lying on the sand as the result of the low tide. The man saw a young boy who was picking up the starfish and throwing them back into the sea. The man approached the boy and said. “Do you think you could be able to get all the star-fish in the sea and make a difference”. The boy took another star fish and threw in the sea and said: “That made a difference to that star-fish”.
That’s what we should do. That’s what the church should do. That’s what the church has been doing for two thousand years. The history proves that there were many who were ready to obey the command of our Lord and Saviour and tried their best to make a change and they did.
We should not give up from taking action. We should do our part and leave the rest to God.
This church has done that for many years. In fact it did for more than 110 years. But the church is not the building. We are the church, who is called to come, see, Pray, go and tell. God calls us to act like this. Let’s be brave and do our part for His glory.
Krikor Youmshajekian