Nathanael

The Guileless Apostle

In all four lists of the twelve he is referred to as Bartholomew

Bartholomew is a Hebrew surname

It means “son of Tolmai”

Nathanael means “God has given”

The Synoptic Gospels and book of Acts contain no details about Nathaniel’s background

Nathanael was from Cana

John 21:2 “Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together.”

Phillip and Nathaniel are often seen together as brothers of choice

Nathaniel was clearly a student of the Old Testimony

John 1:45 “Philip found Nathanael and 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.””

This is also an indicator as to why he was in the wilderness to hear from John the Baptist about the coming Messiah

Phillip peaked his interest by referring to Jesus in this sense

“[It is] Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

“Jesus” was a common name-Y’shua in its Aramaic form.

It is the same name rendered “Joshua” in the Old Testament.

It meant, significantly, “Yahweh is salvation”

Matthew 1:21 “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.””

There must have been a certain amount of surprise in the voice of Philip. It was as if he were saying, “You’ll never believe this, but Jesus, son of Joseph, the carpenter’s son from Nazareth is the Messiah!”

Nathaniel was quick to respond

His Prejudice

John 1:46 “Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.””

Why not Bethlehem

Micah 5:2 “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.”

Why not Jerusalem

Jeremiah 3:17 “At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart.”

Not a rational or Biblical objection, but one of emotion

Cana is not spectacular

its off the beaten path and on the way to no where

Nazareth was rough & full of uneducated, unrefined individuals

It was inconceivable to Nathanael that the Messiah would come out of a tacky place like Nazareth

He was even overlooking the fact that he was from a similar environment

Prejudice is ugly.

Generalizations based on feelings of superiority, not on fact, can be spiritually debilitating.

Prejudice cuts a lot of people off from the truth.

Belittlement of Nicodemus

John 7:52 “They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.””

Even his Hometown was prejudice against Him

Luke 4:22–24 “And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘ “Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’ ” And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.”

John Bunyan understood the danger of prejudice. In his famous allegory The Holy War, he pictures the forces of Immanuel coming to bring the gospel to the town of Mansoul. They directed their assault on Mansoul at the Ear-gate, because faith comes by hearing. But Diabolus, the enemy of Immanuel and His forces, wanted to hold Mansoul captive to hell. So Diabolus decided to meet the attack by stationing a special guard at Ear-gate. The guard he chose was “one old Mr. Prejudice, an angry and ill-conditioned fellow.” According to Bunyan, they made Mr. Prejudice “captain of the ward at that gate, and put under his power sixty men, called deaf men; men advantageous for that service, forasmuch as they mattered no words of the captains, nor of the soldiers.” That is a very vivid description of precisely how many people are rendered impervious to the truth of the gospel. Their own prejudice renders them deaf to the truth.

Men’s ears are closed to the gospel by many kinds of prejudice

racial prejudice

social prejudice

religious prejudice

intellectual prejudice

Prejudice effectively caused the majority of the Jewish nation to remain deaf to the Messiah. Satan had stationed at the Ear-gate of Israel Mr. Prejudice and his band of deaf men.

John 1:11 “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”

“Come and see”

Fortunately, his prejudiced mind was not as powerful as his seeking heart.

His sincerity of heart

John 1:47 “Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!””

Jesus knew Nathaniel before Nathaniel knew him

John 2:25 “and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.”

His Character

He was pure-hearted from the beginning.

Certainly, he was human.

He had sinful faults.

His mind was tainted by a degree of prejudice.

But His heart was not poisoned by deceit.

He was no hypocrite.

His love for God, and His desire to see the Messiah, were genuine.

His heart was sincere and without guile.

Hypocrisy was rampant in the nation of Israel

Romans 9:6–7 “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.””

Romans 2:28–29 “For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.”

“Israelite indeed”

The word in the Greek text is alethos, meaning “truly, genuinely.”

He was an authentic Israelite.

John 8:31 “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,”

His eager faith

John 1:48 “Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.””

In some degree Nathaniel was still questioning if Jesus was the Messiah

Jesus displayed His omniscience

in a sense the reference to the fig tree showed that Jesus did not only know his physical location, but also the state of his heart

His response

John 1:49 “Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!””

He would have known

Psalm 2 “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

Zephaniah 3:15 “The Lord has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil.”

Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

The entire purpose of John’s Gospel was to reveal who Jesus is

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John 20:31 “but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

He was fully committed on day one

His friend Phillip even struggled all the way to the end

John 14:8–9 “Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

The ministry of Christ only affirmed what he already knew about Christ

Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Jacob’s Ladder

Genesis 28:12 “And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!”

Nathaniel saw Jesus as this ladder

That’s all we know about Nathanael from Scripture.

Early church records suggest that he ministered in Persia and India and took the gospel as far as Armenia.

There is no reliable record of how he died.

One tradition says he was tied up in a sack and cast into the sea.

Another tradition says he was crucified.

By all accounts, he was martyred like all the apostles except John. What we do know is that Nathanael was faithful to the end because he was faithful from the start.

Everything he experienced with Christ and whatever he experienced after the birth of the New Testament church ultimately only made his faith stronger.

Nathanael, like the other apostles, stands as proof that God can take the most common people, from the most insignificant places, and use them to His glory.