Found by Jesus, and Finding Jesus

Found by Jesus, and Finding Jesus
                                     
                                    by
                              C. H. Spurgeon
                             August 26th, 1894


"The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth 
Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida, 
the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto 
him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the 
prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."--John 1:43-
45.

For a soul to come to Jesus, is the grandest event in its history. It is 
spiritually dead till that day; but it then begins to live, and a saved 
man may reckon his age from the time in which he first knew the 
Lord. That day of first knowing Christ is important in the highest 
degree, because it affects all the man's past career; it sheds another 
light on all the years that have gone by If he has lived in sin, as no 
doubt he has, the transaction of that day blots out all the sin. The day 
in which a man comes to Christ, that very day his transgressions and 
iniquities are blotted out, even as the thick clouds are driven from the 
sky when God's strong wind chases them away. Is not that a grand day 
in which our sins are cast into the depths of the sea so that henceforth 
it can be said of them, "They may be sought for, but they shall not be 
found; yea, they shall not be, saith the Lord"? I say that the day in 
which a soul comes into contact with Christ is the greatest day of its 
history, because all the past is changed by it; and as for the present, 
what a different life does a man begin to live on the day in which he 
finds the Lord! He commences to live in the light instead of being 
dead in the darkness; he begins to enjoy the privileges of liberty, 
instead of suffering the horrors of slavery; he is started on the way to 
heaven, instead of continuing on the road to hell. He is such a new 
creature that he cannot tell how changed he is. One said to me, "Sir, 
the change in me is of this kind; either the whole world is altered, or 
else I am." So is it when we are brought to know Christ; it is a real, 
total, radical change. With many, it is a most joyous alteration; they 
feel like the man who had been lame, and who, when Peter spoke to 
him in the name of Jesus, and lifted him up, so that his feet and ankle 
bones received strength, was not satisfied with walking, for we read, 
"He leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the 
temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God." He was walking, and 
leaping, and praising God; do you wonder at it? If you had lost the use 
of your legs for a while, you would feel like leaping and praising God 
when you had them all right again; and thus is it with a soul when it 
first finds the Saviour. Oh! happy, happy day, when the miraculous 
hand of Christ takes away the infirmities of the soul, and makes the 
lame man to leap as a hart, and causes the tongue of the dumb to sing!

The day in which a man comes to Christ is also a wonderful day in its 
effect upon all his future. It is as when the helm of a ship is put right 
about; the man now sails in a totally different direction. His future will 
never be what his past was. There may be faults; there may be 
infirmities and shortcomings; but there will never be the old love of 
sin any more. "Sin shall not have dominion over you." This is God's 
own promise to us, given through his servant Paul. When Christ 
comes to our soul, he so breaks the neck of sin, that though it lives a 
struggling, dying life, and often makes a deal of howling in the heart, 
yet it is doomed to die. The cross of Christ has broken its back, and 
broken its neck, too, and die it must. Henceforth the man is bound for 
holiness, and bound for heaven.

Now, dear friends, have any of you come to Christ? I know that you 
have, the great mass of you, and I bless God, and so do you, that it is 
so with you; but if there are any of you who have never come to the 
Saviour, I wish that this might be the night when you should find him. 
I am but a poor lame preacher; you are not often troubled with the 
sight of one sitting down and preaching; yet I think that if I had lost 
my legs, and had always to lie on my back, I would like even then to 
preach Christ crucified, and to--

                          "Tell to sinners round,
                    What a dear Saviour I have found."

I do pray that some of you to-night, made to think all the more by the 
infirmity of the preacher, may be led to seek and to find the Saviour, 
and then it shall be a happy day indeed for you, as it has been for so 
many more.

I am going to talk to you about Philip's conversion, and first, I ask you 
to notice, in our text, the convert's description of it: "Philip findeth 
Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses 
in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of 
Joseph." That is Philip's description of it: "We have found Jesus." It 
was a true description, but it was not all the truth; so, in the second 
place, we will notice the Holy Spirit's description of it: "The day 
following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip." 
Philip's account of the incident is that he found Christ; but the Holy 
Spirit's record of it is that Christ found Philip. They are both true, 
however; although the latter is the fuller. We will talk a little about 
both descriptions of Philip's conversion.

I. First then, THE CONVERT'S DESCRIPTION OF HIS COMING TO CHRIST is given in 
these words, "We have found...Jesus," and what he says is perfectly true.

If any one of you is saved, it will be by finding Christ, by your 
personally making a discovery of him, as that man did who found the 
treasure that was hid in the field. There must be a search after Christ; 
but if there be a search after him, we may be certain of this one thing, 
that there will first be a consciousness of needing him.

Philip had sought Christ, or else he would never have said that he had 
found him; but, before that, Philip knew that there was need of a 
Messiah. When he looked round about on the world, and on the 
church, he said to himself, "Oh, that the promised Messiah would 
come! There is great need of him. The people need him, the church 
needs him, the world needs him." When Philip looked into his own 
heart, he said, "Oh, for the coming of the Messiah! I feel that I want 
him; I have urgent need of him." Dear hearer, do you feel that you 
need a Saviour? You never will seek him until you do feel your need of 
him. You must recognize that there is sin in you, sin for which you 
cannot make atonement, sin that you cannot overcome. You must 
realize that you need another and a stronger arm than your own, that 
you need divine help, that you need One who can be your Brother, to 
sympathize with you, and be patient with you, and yet who can be the 
Mighty God to conquer all your sin for you. You do need a Saviour; 
that is the first thing that will prompt you to search for him.

Wanting a Messiah, Philip read the Scriptures concerning him. He 
speaks about Moses and the prophets, and of what they had written 
concerning the promised Deliverer. O my dear hearers, if you want to 
find Christ, you must search the Scriptures, for they testify of him! Oh, 
that you did search the Scriptures more, with the definite object of 
finding the Saviour! Probably, the great majority of unconverted 
people never read their Bibles at all; or they read only just enough to 
satisfy their curiosity, or their conscience. Perhaps they read the Bible 
as a part of literature which cannot be quite ignored; but they do not 
take down the Holy Book, and read it carefully and prayerfully, saying, 
"Oh, that I might find holiness here! Oh, that I might find Christ 
here!" If they did, it would not be long before they found Jesus. Well 
does Dr. Watts sing,--

                   "Laden with guilt, and full of fears,
                          I fly to thee, my Lord,
                     And not a glimpse of hope appears
                         But in thy written Word.
                      The volume of my Father's grace
                        Does all my griefs assuage;
                      Here I behold my Saviour's face
                          Almost in every page."

He who reads the Bible with the view of finding Christ, will not be 
long before some passage of Scripture will seem to leap up, to attract 
his attention, as though it were set on fire, and then it will speak to 
him of Jesus, whispering to him of the great sacrifice on Calvary, and 
speaking to his heart of divine love and mercy. Philip was a searcher 
after Christ in the place where Christ loves to be,--in the pages of 
Scripture,--and you must be the same if you desire to find Jesus.

But then Philip also gave himself to prayer. We are not told so, but we 
feel sure of it. He asked the Lord to reveal Christ to him, to guide him 
to where the Christ would be, to let him know the Christ. Oh, if you 
want to be saved, be much in prayer! I do not mean merely saying 
prayers; what is the good of that? I do not mean simply saying fine 
words of your own, merely for the sake of uttering them. Prayer is 
communing with God; it is asking the Lord for what you really feel 
that you need. What waggon-loads of sham prayers are shot down at 
God's door, as if they were so much rubbish thrown away! Let it not be 
so with your prayers; but speak to the Lord out of your very soul when 
you come to the throne of grace. I cannot give you a better prayer than 
the one we have been singing,--

                    "Gracious Lord, incline Thine ear,
                      My requests vouchsafe to hear;
                        Hear my never-ceasing cry;
                      Give me Christ, or else I die.
                      "Lord, deny me what Thou wilt,
                         Only ease me of my guilt;
                       Suppliant at Thy feet I lie,
                      Give me Christ, or else I die.
                     "Thou dost freely save the lost!
                        Only in Thy grace I trust:
                       With my earnest suit comply;
                      Give me Christ, or else I die.
                      "Thou hast promised to forgive
                        All who in Thy Son believe;
                     Lord, I know Thou canst not lie;
                      Give me Christ, or else I die."
                                       
With the open Bible before you to guide your understanding, kneel 
down, and say, "O God, graciously reveal Christ to me by thy Holy 
Spirit; bring me to know him, bring me this day to find him as my 
own Saviour!"

It is certain, also, that Philip realized that he might claim the Messiah 
for himself. One of the things that every man, who would find the 
Saviour, must do, is to make sure of his right to come and take the 
Saviour. The question that puzzles many is, "May I have the Saviour?" 
My dear friends, every sinner in the world is permitted to come and 
trust the Saviour, if he wills to do so. "Whosoever will, let him take 
the water of life freely." "But," asks some troubled soul, "will Christ 
have me?" That is not the question; the question is, "Will you have 
Christ?" He says, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." It 
is you who cast out the Saviour, not the Saviour who casts you out. 
The bolt to the door is on the inside; it is you who have bolted it, and it 
is you who must undo the bolt, and invite the Saviour to enter your 
heart. He is willing enough to come in; wherever there is a soul that 
wants him, he comes at once; therefore, do not raise any quibbling 
questions about whether a sinner may come to Christ, or may not 
come. Is he not bidden to come? We are told to preach the gospel to 
every creature, and he who gave us our great commission also added, 
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth 
not shall be damned."

Philip accepted Christ as the Messiah. Do you ask, "What am I to do 
that I may find the Saviour?" Well, what you have to do is practically 
this, accept him. If you were sick, and the doctor stood before you, 
with the medicine ready prepared, you would not say, "What am I to 
do with this medicine, sir? Am I to rub my hand on the outside of the 
bottle?" You know very well that there are certain directions as to how 
much is to be taken, and how often. What you have to do with the 
medicine is to take it. "But I cannot make that medicine work for my 
restoration." Who said you could? All you have to do is to take it. It is 
just this that you have to do with Christ; take him, accept him, receive 
him. Remember the twelfth verse of this chapter out of which our text 
is taken: "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become 
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." That is it, you 
see, receive him, believe on his name. "But surely I am to do some 
good works." Certainly, you will do good works after you have 
received Christ; but for your soul's salvation, you are to do no good 
works, but simply to receive Christ. "Oh, but I must lead a holy life!" 
Yes, and you will lead a holy life after you have received Christ; but in 
order to the leading of a holy life you must have a new heart, and to 
get a new heart, you have to receive Christ. He will change you, he 
will renew you, he will make you a new creature in himself. What you 
have to do is to receive him, and to believe on his name. O my dear 
hearers, I do trust that I am speaking to some this evening who will 
understand what I am saying. I fear that I am addressing many who 
will not believe, though I may put the truth as plainly as it can be 
preached. You know that you may hold a candle right against a blind 
man's eyes, and yet he will not see even then. The Holy Spirit must 
open your eyes to see what is meant by this receiving Christ, or else 
you will not understand what you are to do. You are not to give 
anything to Christ; you are to take all from him. You are not to give 
anything to Christ; you are to take all from him. You are not to bring 
anything to Christ; you are to come to him just as you are, and he will 
bring to you everything that you need. Then, when you have accepted 
him by the simple act of faith, you will say with Philip, "We have 
found Jesus." That is the convert's description, and a very good one, 
too: "We have found Jesus."

II. But now, secondly, what is THE HOLY GHOST'S DESCRIPTION? 
I will read to you the very words again; here they are: "The day 
following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip." Jesus 
finds Philip before Philip finds Jesus; Philip finds Jesus because Jesus 
has found Philip.

Now, notice, that this is the previous work; it came before Philip's own 
finding. Jesus would go forth into Galilee to find Philip. Dear friends, 
I recollect very well that, after I had found the Lord, I did not at first 
fully understand the doctrines of grace. I had heard them preached; but 
I had not comprehended them. I think at the time I should have been 
very much puzzled with the doctrine of election, if anybody had 
spoken to me about it; but I was sitting down, one day, gratefully 
reflecting on what God had done for me. I knew that my sins were 
pardoned, I knew that I was accepted in Christ Jesus, and I knew that I 
was renewed in heart, and in one moment the revelation came to me, 
"All this is the work of God." The instant I saw that truth, I said to 
myself, "Yes, that is the fact, and God be glorified for it! But why has 
this great work been wrought in me?" I knew that there was no merit 
in me before the Lord had dealt in mercy with my soul, so I said to 
myself, "This is the effect of sovereign distinguishing grace." Then I 
understood in a moment how it is that God begins with us, and that it 
is God's will and God's eternal purpose, which, after all, lie deeper 
down than our will or our purpose; and God's will and God's eternal 
purpose must have the glory. What a revelation it was to me! I saw the 
doctrines of grace immediately; and I think that anybody who has been 
brought to find the Saviour, and who prayerfully studies the reasons 
for his salvation, can see the same truth that the Lord revealed to me. 
Because, first of all, you began to be thoughtful, did you not? Who 
made you thoughtful? You would never have found the Savour if you 
had not become thoughtful instead of careless and indifferent. Who 
made you think of divine things? What influence was it which 
wrought upon you, and caused you to feel that you must think about 
eternity, and heaven, and hell? Surely it was God the Holy Ghost 
going forth, in the name of Jesus Christ, and dealing with you in 
mercy.

Then you had a sense of your need and of your sinfulness. There was a 
time when you had no such sense; then, who gave it to you? Where do 
you think that repentance, that sorrow for sin, that desire after Christ, 
came from? Did all that grow in your own fallen human nature? Ah, 
believe me, that dunghill never brought forth such fair flowers as 
these! No, it was Christ who sowed the good seed in your soul; it was 
he who made you feel your need of him.

Next, when you read the Bible, you understood it. You perceived that 
Jesus was the only Saviour of sinners, you saw his fitness to meet your 
case, and you understood the plan of salvation. Who made you 
understand it? I know that it is plain enough for a child to 
comprehend; but no one ever does understand spiritual things except 
by the operation of the Spirit of God. It was the Holy Spirit who gave 
you the spiritual power by which you were able to grasp the simple 
truth concerning the way of salvation.

Then you began to pray. I have spoken of that matter already. But who 
taught you to pray? You had not been accustomed to real prayer; you 
had often had great mouthfuls of words, that was all; but now you 
began to cry, "God be merciful to me, a sinner!" Oh, the groaning of 
your spirit, and the anguish of your heart, as you cried to God! Who 
gave you that anguish? Who broke you all to pieces, and made every 
broken bone cry out for mercy? Who, indeed, but Christ who wrought 
mightily in your soul by the power of the Holy Spirit?

And when you yielded yourself up to Christ, when you believed in 
Jesus, and found salvation, where did that faith come from? Is it not 
always the work of the Spirit of God? Is not faith the gift of God, and 
do you not confess that it is so in your case? Once, when I was a little 
child, I thought I saw a needle moving across the table; and I should 
have been wondering who made the needle march as it did, but I was 
old enough to understand that somebody was moving a magnet 
underneath the table, and the needle was following the magnet which I 
could not see. Thus the Lord, with his mighty magnet of grace, is often 
at work upon the hearts of men, and we think that their desire after 
God, and their faith in Christ, are of themselves. In a sense, the desire 
and the faith are their own; but there is a divine force that is at work 
upon them, producing these results. It is Jesus finding Philip, though 
Philip does not know it. Philip thinks that he is finding Jesus, but 
behind the veil it is Jesus finding Philip. This was the previous work.

And, dear friends, this was very delightful work for the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Notice how it is put: "The day following Jesus would go forth 
into Galilee, and findeth Philip." O my blessed Lord, how he will go 
forth to find a soul! A journey is never too long for him, and he never 
wastes a day. "The day following Jesus would go forth, and findeth 
Philip." Oh, may my Lord delight to come forth, and find some of you! 
You are to-night in a place where he has found a good many; I pray 
that he may find some of you. Perhaps you do not know how it was 
that you came here. You did not mean to come out to-night; but here 
you are in this crowd, in the thick of this great throng. My Lord has 
found many a precious jewel here; to its own self it seemed nothing but 
a poor pebble, but to him it was a diamond of the first water. O my 
Master, find some more of thy jewels to-night! Lord Jesus, come and 
find Philip, and find Mary, and then let Philip and Mary declare that 
they have found thee!

When our dear Master goes forth to find a soul, it is very effectual 
work. He said to Philip, "Follow me." I will gladly end my sermon just 
here if my Master will preach to some of you his two-worded sermon, 
"Follow me," "Follow me," "FOLLOW ME." "Come, poor soul, you do 
not know the way! 'Follow me.' You want some one to go before you, 
to be your leader. 'Follow me.' You want some one to be your shelter, 
your companion, your all. 'Follow me.'" That is what you have to do, 
good woman. You have been worrying about what you have heard 
from different preachers; Christ says to you, "Follow me." That is what 
you have to do, young man. You have been reading those rubbishing 
modern thought books till you do not know whether you are on your 
head or on your heels. Burn them. Jesus says, "Follow me." I know 
that some of you have been distracted with all sorts of silly talk; let 
that go to the dogs. Jesus says, "Follow me." The crucified Saviour 
says, "Follow me." Take him for your atonement. The risen Saviour 
says, "Follow me." Take him for your life. The Saviour on the throne 
says, "Follow me." Take him for your joy. The Saviour coming in 
glory hereafter says, "Follow me." Take him to be your hope. "Follow 
me," "Follow me," that is the text for to-night, and that is the sermon, 
too. Jesus said to Philip, "Follow me," and Philip followed him 
directly; and he not only followed Christ himself, but he began 
immediately to try to get others to follow him.

Please to notice also that Philip was found by Christ in a very different 
way from the other disciples. Two of them had been found through the 
teaching of John the Baptist; but Philip had apparently had no 
teaching. Another of the little company had been found through the 
private call of his brother; Philip may not have had any relative or 
friend to speak to him, but the Saviour just said to him, "Follow me," 
and he followed him. Dear friends, do not begin comparing your 
conversion with somebody else's. If the Lord Jesus Christ calls you, 
and says to you, "Follow me," and you follow him, if there never was 
another soul converted in exactly the same way, it does not matter at 
all. If you have come to him, if you have trusted in him, you are saved.

The pith of all that I have to say is this. Do not get worrying 
yourselves, as some of you do, about God's eternal purpose, and about 
the secret working of the Holy Spirit, and about how this can be 
consistent with your following Christ when he bids you. They are 
perfectly consistent. Some persons have asked me at times to reconcile 
these two things; and I have said to them, "Very well, tell me the 
difficulties, and I will reconcile them." It would be quite as easy to 
state them as to meet them, for in fact there are none. "Oh, but," says 
one, "you tell me to believe in Christ, and yet you constantly preach 
that faith is the work of the Spirit of God." I do. "And yet you say that 
men are to choose Christ?" I do. "Well, how do you reconcile those 
two things?" Show me that there is any difficulty about the two things, 
and then I will reconcile them. You imagine the difficulty, for there is 
none in reality, there does not exist any in practical life. I believe that 
God has predestinated whether I am going down to the Lord's supper 
at the close of this service; but I shall go down as well as my legs can 
carry me. "Oh!" say you, "you make it out to be a matter of your own 
free will?" Yes, I do. "And yet you believe it to be God's eternal 
purpose?" Yes, I do. "Well, then, reconcile the two things." Again I 
say that there is no difficulty in the case, there is nothing to be 
reconciled, for both statements are true. You might as well ask me to 
reconcile the land and the water, or to reconcile the dog star, Sirius, 
and a farthing rushlight. There is no quarrel between them, and I have 
no time to waste on needless argument. Come you to Christ; and if you 
do, it will be because the Holy Spirit draws you. If you find the 
Saviour, it will be because the Saviour first found you. Perhaps, in 
heaven, you may see some difficulties, and get them explained; down 
here, you need not see them, and you need not ask to have them 
explained. Salvation is all of God's grace, from first to last; yet is it 
true that the grace of God leads men to do what Moses did, according 
to our subject this morning,*--to make a choice and to choose rather to 
suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of 
sin for a season. God grant that you may make an equally wise choice!

I have done when I have said this one thing more. Philip, and Peter, 
and Andrew, were all of Bethsaida: "Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the 
city of Andrew and Peter." These three good men, these three apostles, 
were all of Bethsaida. That ought to be some comfort to many of you, 
my dear hearers, because there are numbers of you, who are here to-
night, who are of Bethsaida. Sitting all round me, I see people who, I 
believe, are of Bethsaida. "Oh!" say you, "we never were there in all 
our lives." Listen. Bethsaida was one of the places in which Christ had 
done many of his mighty works; and you remember that, when the 
people repented not, Jesus uttered over them that sad lamentation, 
"Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty 
works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they 
would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto 
you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of 
judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto 
heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which 
have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have 
remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more 
tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee."

Now, there are some of you here who have heard the gospel for many 
years, and have seen the power of the grace of God in your families, 
and it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, and for Sodom and 
Gomorrah, in the day of judgment, than it will be for you, inasmuch as 
you have rejected the Saviour. But, as there were these three men, 
Philip, and Peter, and Andrew, who were of Bethsaida,--and I should 
think that the home of James and John was not very far off from the 
same place,--why should not you come to Christ? Why should not you 
become members of his Church, and, if it be the Lord's will, preachers 
of his Word? God grant that it may be so!

Oh, how I long in my soul for the salvation of every one of you! Many 
of you, who have come here to-night, are strangers to me. I trust that 
you will not be strangers to my Master. To-night, I pray you, here in 
the very heat of midsummer, ere yet the harvest shall be past, and the 
summer shall be ended, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call 
ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the 
unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and 
he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly 
pardon." Receive Christ, trust in him. God grant that you may do so, 
for Jesu's sake! Amen.


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