“ Come and See”
I. P. C. 2017 MISSIONS CONFERENCE
John 4:29-30“ The woman then left her water pot, went her way into the city, and said to the men,‘ Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ’? Then they went out of the city and came to Him.”
The opening chapters of the Gospel according to John paint a simple, beautiful picture of what should happen after one encounters the Christ. John, the apostle, introduces Him as the Creator, as having life that is the light of men, the light shining in the darkness. John, the baptizer, sets the stage and proclaims that Jesus, the Word made flesh, is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the Son of God, indeed the Messiah – the Savior of the world. Two of John’ s disciples( one of them Andrew, Simon Peter’ s brother) inquire of Jesus, wanting to know where He is staying( to learn from Him). Jesus uses the simple phrase,“ Come, and see.” The evangelization of the world begins to take place with very simple invitations to come and see Jesus. Andrew says to Simon,“ We’ ve found the Messiah.” Philip says to Nathanael,“ Come, and see” after Nathanael’ s challenge,“ Can anything good come out of Nazareth”? We’ re not even out of chapter one and the invitation to come and see has been issued several times.
In chapter 4 the woman at the well encounters Jesus— you know the story. She then intentionally sets aside her business( getting water) and goes into the city— not a comfortable place for her to be, and says,“ Come and see.” This simple invitation brought the men of Sychar out to see Jesus. We are called individually and as a church to extend the invitation to“ come and see” the Christ, the
Savior, who has reconciled us to God, brought light into our darkness, and is preparing a place for us in eternity.
The 2017 I. P. C. World Missions Conference( February 26 – 29) will help us to better understand our call to world evangelization. We will be reminded to support and pray for those who’ ve set aside their“ water pot” and gone out to the world. We will be challenged to think more deeply about our personal responsibilities to share the Gospel. The work of missions is the work of inviting those on the outside to“ come and see” the Christ. We extend the invitation as we individually go through our normal routines, and as a church involved in ministries and missions locally, around our state, nation, and world. Each of us is called in some way. Please use this year’ s conference to grow in your understanding of missions.
It is a great pleasure every year to host our missionary guests. They always encourage and challenge us, and this year will be no different. I. P. C.’ s support of missions reaches into a wide variety of ministry types, and we try to get a good representation of the various ministries. This year we’ ll
Dr. Paul Kooistra have church planters( church planting is a philosophical emphasis of our missions committee, so we try to have a church planter every year), field team administrators, and theological educators. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Paul Kooistra, will bring us devotionals each night and preach twice on Sunday.
Dr. Kooistra has had a significant role in the church and missions for the PCA since 1967. He’ s served as a pastor, principal, professor, and seminary president. From 1994 to 2014, Dr. Kooistra was Coordinator of Mission To The World, the PCA’ s missionary sending organization. We anticipate that hearing from him will be a delightful blend
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