Desire to Meet Jesus

Now there were some Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast; these then came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and began to ask him, saying, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip came and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip came and told Jesus. (John 12:20-22)

I see a number of things I want to look into here.

Greeks – non-Jews – were coming to worship the God of the Jews at the most important festival in the Jewish religion. Were these just Jews living in Greece or were they actually Greeks? I tend to believe that they were really gentiles who had become influenced by Jews they knew and were genuinely interested in learning more about their religion and wanted to know their God better. They saw validity in the teachings of the Jews and were coming to sense the superiority of the Jewish religion over all others. They had decided to come to Jerusalem possibly along with their Jewish friends to see first-hand the religion of the Jews, but in the process they became aware of reports about a radical Jewish teacher who was rocking the whole country with His teachings and miracles. They became so intrigued by these reports that they decided to seek Him out for themselves and investigate Him personally.

These Greeks had not just come as casual observers of a different religion; they had come with the purpose of personally worshiping God. What they didn't know was that they were about to encounter God personally in a way that not even the disciples had experienced. Their honesty of heart, their sincerity, their openness to truth unlike that of the prejudiced Jews allowed Jesus to in turn open up to them new revelations about God that He could not share with the unbelieving religious people around Him. Like the woman at the well in Samaria, Jesus could be more transparent and direct with these Greeks because they were not seeking to distort everything He said and taught about His Father.

These Greeks found Philip likely as part of their process of trying to track down Jesus. How did they know that Philip could lead them to Jesus? Very likely someone else had steered them in his direction informing them that this man was one of Jesus' disciples. Obviously Philip was not with Jesus at the time but was somewhere alone when these Greeks introduced themselves to him. I find this to be interesting as well as instructive.

Philip did not immediately take these men to Jesus but went to look up his partner and friend Andrew. Andrew is most known for being a person who loved to introduce people to Jesus. Philip is more known for asking questions than for bringing people to Jesus, but he also had learned from Jesus that it is important to work in teams, especially when it comes to working with souls. Jesus had sent out His disciples several times to do evangelism and He always sent them out in pairs. He did this for their benefit and protection so that they could compliment each other's weaknesses with their own strengths. Just as God saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone He knows that it is not good for us to work for Him in the rescuing of lost souls alone. A lone disciple is too vulnerable to work with deceived minds and darkened hearts and it is very important that we learn this lesson ourselves.

“We wish to see Jesus.” I looked up the Greek word for wish and found something interesting. This word implies that they may have really said, “We would be delighted to meet Jesus! We would love to see Jesus.”

This really grabs my attention. I experience those same feelings myself many times. It is a symptom of the drawing power of Jesus and His reputation working on the heart when anyone expresses this kind of urge to meet Jesus personally. It is the main purpose of true evangelism to awaken in hearts this very desire. But it is also important to connect with another friend of Jesus in order to successfully escort such a hungry, curious person to meet Jesus in person for themselves rather than offering to answer their questions ourselves.

How often we spoil or dampen the hunger of people yearning to meet Jesus and to experience His power in their own lives by directing attention to ourselves, our opinions, our answers rather than leading them to Jesus directly to let Him teach them. How sad that churches and religious leaders tend to get people to depend on them to find truth and direction in life rather than showing people how to form a direct connection with Jesus and learn from Him personally. Imagine what would have been lost to these men and to all of us if Philip and Andrew had not taken them to Jesus but had rather tried to answer their questions themselves. One of the most surprising affirmations of the divinity of Jesus would not have occurred if these disciples had treated these seekers like we too often do today.

I notice as well that when the disciples arrived with these men in Jesus' presence they did not tell the men about Jesus but talked to Jesus about these seekers. How does this translate into our own practices in religion? Do we find ourselves talking to people about God more than we talk to God about people? Why do we find it so hard to encourage others to talk to God themselves without us interfering and trying to stay in the center of their attention? The reason God is drawing all unto Himself is to have a personal relationship with each one, not to have us act as constant intermediaries for others.

Certainly there is a period of time when we need to act our part in bringing people to Jesus. They usually meet one of God's friends first in their quest to know Him better and we certainly can share our own testimony as we are guiding them to meet Him in person. But if we fail to take them directly to Jesus and instead try to nurture them ourselves, we in essence are replacing Jesus in their lives and may actually be endorsing a false form of religion that has all the appearances of piety and truth.

We must learn the lesson that we have failed to learn for so long, that Jesus is to be the main focus of attention in every true believer's life. It is essential that we get this straight or we will fall into the scheme of the enemy who is always waiting to enhance our pride and make us the center of attention. God and the truth about His character is the focal point of all true religion. Anything other than this is a needless distraction and can easily lead all of us into a subtle form of religion while denying its power; and the true power of genuine religion can only be found in a personal encounter with the Son of God.

It is not enough that we may know Jesus personally and have a long-term relationship with Him. We must learn the importance of duplicating ourselves by teaching and modeling to others how they can know Him personally themselves. Philip and Andrew modeled the right way to lead people to Jesus and we could learn a great deal from their example. I am saddened by how far from this model we act in relating to those around us who are hungry and seeking to meet Jesus too.

I confess that I am often guilty of drawing too much attention to myself instead of focusing on helping others know Jesus for themselves. It is so easy to want to display how much I am learning about God without taking the time and carefulness to help others get into right relationship with Him so they can be taught of God too. I also need to team with other disciples in order to be more balanced and be more successful in leading curious hearts to know Jesus for themselves.

But the wonderful benefits of getting it right is that we can then share even greater joy as more and more people become personal disciples of our best friend. We do not lose these new friends by making them intimate friends with Jesus; rather, as we encourage them to connect with Jesus directly they become even better friends with us than if we had tried to tell them all about the truth ourselves.

I have been learning that the true nature of the rewards Jesus talks about that we will enjoy in heaven, and even here today, have to do with the joy we experience as we bond with those we have helped to encounter Jesus personally for themselves. This is the kind of investment that will last for eternity and is how we can store up fuel for our ever-increasing joy forever. It is up to us now how much fuel we are willing to invest in to produce these future and even present joys.