When John pointed out Jesus as He was passing by and declared him to be the Lamb of God in John 1:35, it got the attention of Andrew and another disciple of John. The two of them started following Jesus, but there was no commitment yet, and there was no confession of faith in Jesus.
What made the difference for Andrew? What happened that allowed Andrew to see Jesus for Who He really was?
Just because John the Baptist was convinced that Jesus was the Lamb of God, that wasn’t enough for Andrew. He had to see for himself. Andrew was looking for the Messiah, desperately hoping to find Him, but he needed proof.
We must understand this. No one is likely to come to true faith in Jesus Christ based on my testimony alone. My testimony may spark curiosity and interest in those that hear it, but people need to see for themselves. That is why it is not effective, and can even be detrimental, to push people into making a decision for Christ after simply sharing your own testimony. That may ignite interest, but people need more than that. You may have shared your experience with them, but they need their own experience. People need to be allowed a chance to do their own investigation and to see for themselves whether or not this is truth. They need to prove it for themselves.
A good friend once asked me, “Why do you believe in God?” She had grown up agnostic with no religious tradition in her family. No one in her family believed in God, and she saw no need for this belief, but she was open to consider it. Nothing that I said in response to her question prompted her to place her faith in Jesus. She needed proof.
Jesus was fully aware of this need for proof. His response to Andrew was “Come and see” (John 1:39). It is significant that Phillip used the same words, “Come and see,” later in the same chapter (John 1:46) when Nathaniel expressed a need for proof.
God doesn’t discourage those who sincerely seek proof. He invites it! As He declares in Malachi:
“I am the LORD All-Powerful, and I challenge you to put me to the test. Bring the entire ten percent into the storehouse, so there will be food in my house. Then I will open the windows of heaven and flood you with blessing after blessing.”—Malachi 3:10 (CEV)
Jesus also willingly offered proof when Thomas expressed a need for it.
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”
“My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.—John 20:27-28 (NLT)
“Come and see.”
After Jesus spoke these words to Andrew and the disciple who was with him, there is no more conversation recorded before Andrew confessed Jesus as the Messiah. So what happened?
If the words that were spoken between them that afternoon had been important, they would have been included in this passage. God did not leave anything out of Scripture that was important for our instruction (2 Timothy 3:16).
If it wasn’t something that Jesus said, what was it that convinced Andrew that this was indeed the Messiah? All that it says in this passage is, “So they went and saw where He was staying, and they remained with Him that day. It was then about the tenth hour (about four o’clock in the afternoon)” (John 1:39 AMPC). All they did was hang out with Jesus, and that was enough to convince Andrew that this was the Messiah—just being with Him for one evening! Wow!
We don’t have all the details, but from what is written in this passage, it was not words that convinced Andrew of the truth, but it was the person of Jesus Himself, His character, that convinced Andrew that this was the Christ! It was just being with Jesus that made the difference, and completely changed Andrew’s life.
Has anyone ever come to faith in Christ after just hanging out with you—just being around you? Your first thought may be that you have never experienced that and that there is little likelihood that you ever will, but don’t sell yourself short. You have more influence on people around you than you may have imagined. People are watching you all the time, desperately hoping that you will be different—that YOU will finally be the one genuine person they have been looking for all their lives who is a real Christian. People are looking, not so much for miracles, but for integrity of character, for someone who truly demonstrates the virtues of Christ. People are not necessarily looking for someone who is perfect, but for someone who is real.
Jesus said it this way, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35 NIV).
I attended a Christian conference in Scotland, where I ministered with teams who offered prophetic words and dream interpretations. Near the end of the week, one of my fellow team members surprised me by giving me one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received, but one that I feel I didn’t deserve. He said that he had been watching me that week, and that my gifting and character seemed to him to be just like Jesus. He told me that I just emanated Jesus! I didn’t understand what he saw in me that gave him that impression. I still don’t understand it, but it was a lesson to me that we constantly influence people more than we realize!
That lesson was brought home to me again when I reconnected with an old high school friend 34 years after I graduated. When he saw that I had published a book, he let people know about it on his Facebook page.
“Alan Drake was one of the first real Christian’s I knew. I never really understood what he was taking about as we worked together during our high school years. God planted that seed early on in my life, but it took many decades to sink in.”
Sometimes the greatest hindrance to people coming to Christ is Christians, sadly. People may seem very cynical, eager to criticize the hypocrisies in the lives of Christians they know, but that only goes to show that they are watching us carefully, and secretly hoping to find that we really do live out the faith that we say that we believe.
“Now among those who went up to worship at the Feast were some Greeks. These came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and they made this request, Sir, we desire to see Jesus.”—John 12:20-21 (AMP)
This is the cry of the hearts of the people around us! “We desire to see Jesus!”
As Julian Barnes once said, “I don’t believe in God, but I miss Him.”1
Reference:
1 Barnes, J. (2009). Nothing to be frightened of. New York: Vintage International.
