How would you begin a global movement?
Maybe you would start with a thoughtful strategy, carefully crafted on a marker board in a ministry war room. Maybe you would start by recruiting the biggest and brightest minds to speak into the process or even acquire some generous donors for funding.
While these steps make sense to us, Jesus did none of them. He had no written plan. He had no financial backers. He had no marketing or social media goals. He began in the simplest of ways: he launched his ministry one person at a time.
Jesus chose a different path
Jesus used the phrase “come and see” multiple times (John 1:39; 1:46; 4:29). It was an invitation for spiritual explorers – those who were curious about his teachings – to hear his claims and find answers to their spiritual questions.
For the next eighteen months, Jesus engaged all kinds of spiritual explorers. First, he gathered his initial disciples. I like to call these men the “starting five.” They would become the small nucleus of Jesus’ ever-growing cadre of followers and disciples.
Meeting spiritual explorers where they were
Jesus engaged a very powerful spiritual leader in Jerusalem who came to him with questions on his mind and a longing in his heart. He then swung the pendulum to the opposite end of the social scale and conversed with an ostracized Samaritan woman at a well who eventually led her whole village to Jesus. Lastly, Jesus engaged a desperate father who exhibited great faith, as well as a hardened hometown who had no faith at all.
In each case, Jesus engaged spiritual explorers and invited them to come and see who he was and what his ministry was all about.
“Come and you will see,” he replied (John 1:39).
Jesus was a man on a mission
Immediately after being tempted in the wilderness, he was filled with the Holy Spirit and returned to the place where John the Baptist had baptized him (Luke 4:14).
Upon seeing him, John declared, “Look, the Lamb of God!” This was a clear reference to his pending sacrifice and saving work (Isaiah 53:7). Immediately, two disciples who had been listening named John and Andrew turned to follow Jesus.
Noticing that he was being followed, Jesus turned and asked them, “What do you want?” When they asked where he was staying, Jesus simply said, “Come and see.” For the rest of that day until late in the afternoon, they sat and talked with Jesus.
The first followers and the starting five
I would love to have been able to listen in on their conversations. We aren’t told exactly what Jesus said to them, but whatever it was, they were convinced by the end of it that he was the Messiah.
Andrew couldn’t hold back his excitement. He ran to his brother Peter, declared, “We have found the Messiah!”, and brought him to Jesus (John 1:41). When Jesus saw him, I imagine Jesus taking him by the shoulders and saying, “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which is translated “Peter”) (John 1:42).
Isn’t it interesting that the first thing Jesus did when he met Simon was to change his name? It’s as if he said, “From now on you are going to be Rocky!” Jesus saw Peter not just for who he was, but who he would become.
A growing circle of followers
The next day, they all returned to Galilee. When they arrived, Peter and Andrew introduced Jesus to Philip, a childhood friend who had grown up in their hometown of Bethsaida. Jesus said to Philip, “Follow me.” These words are short, and while I’m sure we don’t have all the dialogue, Philip was nonetheless quickly convinced that Jesus was the promised Messiah.
He swiftly went to his friend Nathanael and said, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law (and so did the prophets): Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth” (v. 1:44). Nathanael, however, wasn’t impressed. He shot back with a sarcastic quip and grin, saying, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” But Philip didn’t walk away in a huff or get frustrated with him. He just said, “Come and see” (John 1:46).
An honest question and a simple invitation
When Nathanael met Jesus, Jesus embraced him and identified him as a true Israelite who was full of integrity. It’s as if he said, “Nathanael, you are who you are! You tell it like it is and you don’t try to impress people around you. I like that about you!”
This caught Nathanael off guard, and he asked, “How do you know me?” Jesus replied, “I saw you under the fig tree.” This was enough for Nathanael to say, “You are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel!” (John 1:48-49).
I imagine Jesus grabbing him around the shoulders and laughing, saying, “Oh Nathanael, you will see greater things than this! You are going to see heaven open and angels descending on the Son of Man.” This certainly was a reference to Jesus’ ascension (Acts 1:9-11).
These men were Jesus’s starting five; the first followers. These were the men who were there from the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, and for the next eighteen months, he both invested in them and revealed his identity to them. During this time, he also engaged other spiritual explorers of all different backgrounds and types and invited them to “come and see.”
Convinced by the Word of God
As I read this account I often wonder, what caused these men to be so convinced that Jesus was who He claimed to be? I believe Philip’s words give us a hint. He told Nathanael, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law (and so did the prophets).” (John 1:45) Their confidence in Jesus was rooted in the fact that they believed him to be the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah.
The Old Testament prophecies that pointed to Jesus
For example, the Messiah was prophesied to come from the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10), and Jesus came from the tribe of Judah (Luke 3:33). He was to come from the line of David (2 Samuel 7:12-13), and Jesus was from the line of David (Matthew 1:1). He was to be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), and Jesus was born of a virgin (Luke 1:35). He was to come out of Egypt (Hosea 11:1), and Jesus came out of Egypt (Matthew 2:14-15).
The list could go on. All these facts were puzzle pieces that came together to reveal the identity of the Messiah. They all pointed perfectly to Jesus. They were convinced by the Word of God that Jesus really was the Son of God, but their journey had only begun. There was so much more that Jesus was ready to reveal to them.
This blog features an excerpt from one of our books, His Way Still Works.
