A
Study of the Book of John
“That
You May Believe”
Sermon
# 5
“A
Personal Encounter With Jesus.”
John
1:43-51
Last week we looked at “The Requirement
of Following Jesus” by looking at the call of Andrew. What stands out about
Andrew is that he is a very ordinary guy. In the story of Andrew we witnessed him engaging
in a type of evangelism we referred to as invitational evangelism. Any one can do this! There can be no
question that the most effective means of bringing people to Christ is one at a time, on
an individual basis.
You don’t have
to memorize some special plan. You don’t have to memorize the New Testament. You don’t
have to be licensed or ordained or have the church’s permission. All you have to do
is spend time with Jesus and then go and tell someone about it!
Today
we look on as Nathanael has a personal encounter with Jesus. From this encounter we are
going to learn four things about Jesus!
First,
He Reaches Out No Matter Who We Are.
(1:43-46)
Like Andrew, Philip was not
one of the most well known of the disciples. If Andrew is remembered as just an ordinary
guy, Philip would be remembered as being a practical guy. We
are introduced to Philip in verse forty-three, “The
following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow
Me.” (44) Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.”
Philip was from the same town as Peter and
Andrew. Bethsaida was a small town on along the Sea of Galilee. Philip seems to have been
an ordinary kind of guy who was at times in over his head. I don’t know about you but I can
identify with that. Last week we noted
that every time we saw Andrew he was bringing someone to Jesus. We noted in John 6 that it
was Andrew who brought the young boy to Jesus who had the loaves and fishes from which
Jesus fed the multitude. But earlier in that same account as Jesus looked out over the
multitude who had gathered to hear him teach he turned to Philip and in order to test him
asked, “Where can we get enough to feed all
these people?” (John 6:5). Philip in true analytical style did his calculations
and said, “If we had more than six months
wages it would not be enough to give them all even a taste” (Jn. 6:7). Philip did not really have a clue.
Again in John 12 when some
Greeks came to Philip in Jerusalem asking to see (literally have a private appointment)
Jesus, Philip again clearly did not know what to do. So he went to Andrew and Andrew took
them to Jesus.
But we have to give Philip
some credit when his first reaction after Jesus found him was to go to his friend with the
news. Verse forty-five says, “Philip found Nathanael.” We really know very little about Nathanael. In
fact all that we know about him we find here in this story of Philip bringing him to Jesus
and on the occasion of the fishing expedition recorded in John 21. There are some good
reasons for supposing the Nathanael is the Bartholomew mentioned in the synoptic
gospels.
· Philip’
Statement (v. 45)
Philip’s
opening words to his friend were
“….and he said to him, We have found Him of
whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets,
wrote - Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Philip was a very happy man and he
told Nathanael all about it so that he could share in his joy. Philip’s opening words
to Nathanael are, “We have found him of whom
the scriptures speak. Nathanael we have found
the one whom we have been searching for all of our lives.” Nathanael, however,
fails to be as impressed as Philip would have wished.
· Nathanael’s
Response (v. 46)
“And Nathanael said to him, “Can
anything good come out of Nazareth?”
One thing Nathanael heard seems to bother him a
great deal. It is not that Jesus is referred to as “the son
of Joseph” but that He is “Jesus of Nazareth.”
We know that in Jesus own time as well as ours, that there is prejudice towards
certain places and people groups. For example there are certain attitudes toward people
who live in the Ozarks or Appalachia. There is an assumption that great people come from
certain areas, while those in other areas are somehow inferior.
For example my folks are genuine hill folks
from the Ozarks. Sometimes people from some other parts of the country do not think too
kindly of “Hillbillies.” They say
that the only thing to come out of
the “Hills” is moonshine, bluegrass, coon dogs and men that are none to
bright. It may have been my kinfolk that Jeff Foxworthy was talking about when
he originated his “You may be a Redneck If - Jokes.” In fact I can make up a few
Hillybilly jokes based on my family. “You
may be a HillBilly if your father was ever injured when the family still blew-up.
No I am not kidding.” You may be a
HillBilly if your family ever engaged in a feud where someone was killed! NO I really am not making this up.
Galilee seems to have been the “Ozarks”
of Jesus’ day, so being called a Galilean appears to have been no compliment. (see
Mark 14: 69-70). For Nathanael at least coming from Nazareth is not in Jesus’ favor
as far as any claim of being the Messiah is concerned.
Whatever the reasoning
behind Nathanael’s supposition, how do you answer a question like that? Philip
did not know the answer. In fact he made no attempt to answer the question, but simply
said, “Come and see” (v. 46). He could not argue the point
convincingly, and was wise enough to know that he could not argue Nathanael out of his
skepticism, so he simply suggests that Nathanael come and see for himself if what he said
about Jesus is true.
Not
Only Does He Reach Out No Matter Who We Are but ….
Secondly, He
Knows What We Are. (1:47)
“Jesus saw Nathanael coming
toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in
whom is no deceit!”
Nathanael may have been skeptical but he
went along with his friend Philip to meet this man from Nazareth. When he arrived, the
words of Jesus stop Nathanael in his tracks. He has not yet met Jesus or talked to him and
yet Jesus sees directly into his heart and accurately describes his character as “… an Israelite indeed, in whom is no
deceit!” (v. 47). We
should stop just long enough to note that Jesus does not say, “Behold an Israelite in whom there is no sin.”
Nathanael is a sinner just like you and I.
What Jesus
was emphasizing was that Nathanael was a transparent, honest man. In fact what Jesus
literally said was, “Behold an Israelite in
whom there is no Jacob!” You will remember that Jacob whose name means “deceiver” did indeed deceive his
brother Esau out of his birth right (Gen 27).
This
brings up the possibility that there is more here than is immediately apparent. More about
that in a moment.
He
Not Only Knows Where We Are but…
Third, He
Knows Where We Are (spiritually)
(1:48-49)
· Nathanael’s
Question and Jesus’ Response (v.48)
“Nathanael said to Him, “How
do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you
were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
Rabbi’s frequently used
the phrase “being under your fig tree”
like we might use the idea of “being in your
prayer closet” or being “in your
quiet time” to refer figuratively to prayer. Jesus is saying to Nathanael, “I saw you praying. I heard what you asked.”
What I think is important here is that Nathanael had a religious experience that no
one but Jesus knew about. The point is, Nathanael had a spiritual experience in his
private prayer time and Jesus was saying, “I
know all about that experience you had that you shared only with God!”
As the Psalmist says in (Psalm
139:1-4), “O Lord, you have searched me and known me. (2)
You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. (3) You
comprehend my path and my laying down, And you are acquainted with all my ways. (4) For
there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.”
Good or bad, nothing is hidden from God!
· Nathanael’s
Response (v. 49)
“Nathanael answered and said to Him,
“Rabbi, You are the
Son of God! You are the
King of Israel!”
Jesus’ response to
Nathanael clearly blew him away, he clearly had not expected anything like Jesus’
answer and it had a profound effect on him. First note that he respectfully addresses
Jesus as “Rabbi” or “Teacher.” He definitely has had a change of
attitude about whether something good can come out of Nazareth. He then proceeds to affirm
that Jesus is indeed “The Son of God.” Nathanael is not saying that Jesus is
merely “a” son of
God but rather that He is “the”
only unique Son of God the rightful King of Israel. .
He
Not Only Knows What We Are but….
Fourth,
He Meets Us Where We Are. (1:50-51)
“Jesus answered and said to him,
“Because I said
to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater
things than these.”
(51) And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you
shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”
Jesus reassures Nathanael that this is just the
beginning. Jesus says, “Nathanael, because you saw that I am omniscient
you believe. You have not seen anything yet!”
Think
for a moment at all that Nathanael will witness as one of Jesus’ disciples. He will
literally see Jesus perform miracles. He will hear the truth expounded by the master
teacher. He will be a witness of the resurrection and the ascension. He will
himself be a recipient of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He was a witness of greater things indeed!
In verse fifty-one Jesus uses the term “most assuredly,” (translated “Verily, Verily”
in the KJV) to introduce His words of reassurance to Nathanael. The term “verily”
or “truly” are words used to introduce a subject of great importance that needs
to be heard with special care and attention.
Jesus takes Nathanael back almost 2,000 years
to the time of Jacob. (Genesis 28:10-12),
“Now Jacob went out from
Beersheba and went toward Haran. (11) So he came to a certain place
and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that
place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. (12) Then he dreamed, and behold, a
ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God
were ascending and descending on it.”
God gave Jacob a vision of encouragement. He
said, “Jacob, look even when you think you are
all alone out here, there is traffic between heaven and earth on your behalf.” Isn’t true that God is often closest
when He seems farthest away!
Jacob’s response to the vision of the
heaven’s being opened is revealed Genesis 28:16, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” A failure to recognize the presence of Jesus is
the tragedy of much of the modern Church. As a result an invitation to Christianity is not
very interesting to us, much less to a lost world.
The angels are ascending and
descending not on a ladder as in Jacob’s vision but rather they were
“… ascending and descending
upon the Son of Man”
– this
means Jesus is the ladder. Perhaps
Nathanael had an attachment to a special place, like Jacob did to Bethel. Perhaps he held
that one had to be in that special place to meet with God. But the issue is not the place
but the person. What Jesus wants Nathanael to know is that He himself is the ladder. Jesus
is the one mediator between God and men (1 Tim 2:5). No matter what modern skeptics may
say, Jesus consistently presented himself as the one and only way to God. Jesus said in John
14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes
to the Father except by me!” Have you had a personal encounter with Jesus? If
not there is no time like the present. Jesus is still seeking those who would follow Him!