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 2 of 3
 There's the mystery of the Christian experience. We come. We lay down our life, and yet we find it again. Paul says, "I die daily." He says, "Nevertheless, I live in Christ Jesus." There's that strange paradox. And who can explain it but those who come to Jesus, lay down their lives and find new life. We are told to "See" and experience faith personally.The second imperative is found in the word see. "Come and see the place where Jesus lay." This is an imperative to gain your own personal experience rather than to go forward on hearsay. You know there are a lot of people who have no personal experience with God. They know something about him, but it is all word of mouth. It is all by hearsay. The angel said to the women, "Come in. Don't be afraid. Come right in. I want you to see the place where Jesus lay. He's not there. Investigate it for yourself. Test it out. Look at it. Come to an understanding on the basis of your own experience. You don't have to take my word for it." You see, this is an invitation to personal faith, no longer secondhand faith. It was David duPlessis who said profoundly that God has no grandchildren. Your mother and father could have been devout Christians, but that says nothing whatever about you. You cannot enter the kingdom of heaven on the basis of a relationship to a godly parent. You see, there comes a point at which you respond to the Lord God. You see for yourself. You enter in. It's so important that we understand this. One finds it all the way through the Gospels, particularly in the writings of John. I turn to the first chapter of John's Gospel, and this is what we read. Philip has told the good news to Nathanael and he said, "I want you to come and hear a prophet from Nazareth." And in a rather cynical way, Nathanael said, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" And Philip said unto him, "Come and see." Come and see. You don't have to take my word for it. I want you to come, listen yourself, make up your own mind, and conclude on the basis of the evidence that you discover. You see, all the way through authentic Christianity there is that call to personal experience. It's not simply listening to another person give a testimony. It's not simply using the words of someone else. It's come and see. Come and look for yourself. Investigate. Use your brain. Look at the evidence. One finds that everywhere. I'm thinking also of a passage in the fourth chapter of John's Gospel, the interview with the woman at the well. And she is so impressed with this man that she has met at the well that she excuses herself, runs back to town and says, "Come, see a man who told me all that ever I did. Can this be the Christ?" You see, something's happened to her and she goes back and she tells the people, "Come, come and see the man who told me all that ever I did." I think if I met a man who told me all that ever I did, that the last thing I would want to do is invite people to come too. But she was so impressed with what he had to say that she said, "Listen! Don't miss out. Don't miss out." But I want you to hear the response of the people who came, because the whole village turned out on the basis of her testimony. Verse 41 says, "And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman 'It is no longer because of your words that we believe. For we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.'" You see, they came first on the basis of someone else's witness, but then having come, then they discovered for themselves. You know there's a strange thing about Episcopalians. I run into it everywhere, all over the world. Episcopalians have been told a half-truth and they've believed it. The half-truth is that Christian faith is personal and private. Well the half-truth is the Christian faith is personal. Christian faith is nothing if it is not personal. But it is never private. Sometimes I hear Episcopalians say, "Oh, my faith is so precious to me. It is so personal. I hold it so close to my heart I couldn't possibly talk about it." Well, listen. If you can't talk about it, you haven't got it. Something happens to people who meet Jesus Christ. They know it. For a time they may be operating on the testimony of somebody else, but there comes a point where they say, as the people of the town of Samaria said, "We came because of what you said, but now we no longer believe on your word, for we have seen him ourselves." "Come and see," the angel said. We are told to "Go" and be sent out into the world. Then third imperative is Go! Go. All who come are received, welcomed warmly. But then they're sent out again. Strange movement of coming and going, always coming and going. Now the temptation has always been for God's people just to want to come, just to sit at the feet of Jesus. You remember Peter wanted to build three tabernacles on the Mount of Transfiguration. Such a wonderful spiritual experience it was. He said, "I never want to leave here. This is marvelous." But I have to tell you, it is not the will of God that we simply cultivate our own personal and private experience of God. No, if we really come to him, we discover that there's another imperative, and that is go. Jesus said to the three on the Mount of Transfiguration, "I don't want you to stay up here on the mountaintop. I want you to go down in the valley. That's where people live. I don't want you to enter a monastery. I don't want you to pull way from the world. I want you to get into the world." That's the place where the Christian life is to be lived—on Main Street, in the marketplace, in the classroom, in the home, not in the church. Something funny happens to people when they live in churches. I remember saying to a woman in this congregation, "If I see you around this church any more, I will think there's something wrong with your home." And there was. She was running away. Some people use the church to avoid the world. Even worse, they would seek to use the Lord to avoid the world. No - if you come and see, then you go. Remember, the commission is, "Go into all the world and make disciples from among all nations." That is a universal command of Jesus Christ. It's called the Great Commission of the church. And unless you have received a personal exemption from heaven itself, it means you. You come. You see. And you go. Now you may not be called to move all around the world. You don't have to be. Consider your world. Your world is the whole circle of people that you touch with your life, the whole realm of your experience, your influence. It may not be as great as someone else's. That's of no consequence. But your world is to be penetrated by your witness for Jesus Christ. The workaday world, your home world, your leisure world, all of that is a part of what is intended to be salted with the salt of your life, to be seasoned with the grace of your life, to be illuminated with the light of your life, to be warmed by the love of your life. That is your world, and you are to go out in it and penetrate it utterly with the grace of God and the life of God.
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