Jesus, the Son of God
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Grandma is 80% Irish, people call her Iris.
Jenn and I often laugh at how competitive we are.... but I laugh more.
Nathanael’s Experience
46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
Nathanaels friend was the one who shared the good news with him. Nathanael was lucky to be able to hear the Gospel from someone who cared about him, someone that loved him enough to share with him. Philip had this amazing experience that changed his life and the first one he could think of to go to was Nathanael, what a blessing. Who is the Nathanael in your life, who have you shared that with? Who are you wanting to share that experience with. Maybe we need to experience Jesus in a real way all over again so we can get to that place.
Nathanael was A Man of Despair and Prejudice
Look at what he says here, there is despair in his voice, as well as prejudice. can anything good come out of Nazareth?
See the despair… His reaction to Philip is immediately skeptical and negative.... HE struck out at Philip… he questioned him… he didn’t want to accept or believe it because there is this sense of hopelessness in his voice… Church history says Nathanael had tried to follow so many different things and teachings of the time that he had just lost hope. He had many promises made to him, many different voices telling him how they could help and what they could do for him, so many promises of a better life, but he still was empty. Why should he believe Philip? Why would his news be any different?
Much of the world is not different than Nathanael
There are so many voices promising a perfect path to fulfillment and joy and satisfaction. They claim they have the answer to happiness and joy and fulfillment.
Just follow your own truth; just do you. Follow your heart and its truth and it will save you. You can and you will have whatever you ask. 12 steps to happiness
And you do alll of these things and nothing seems to work. You’ve tried every twelve step program. Nothing amounts to anything. All you need is 10K followers on instagram and you will be happy and fulfilled… and it doesnt get better… we still feel empty.... we chase after money and all the promotions to get us more stuff.... and we are still empty… and we begin to wonder about life...
So many people find themselves like those psalmists....
10 For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.
6 and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.
But look at what the new testament tells us in relation to that
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.
12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Apparently there is a difference once we come to know Jesus… and that is what we will see in the life of Nathanael as well. He had no hope because he was chasing after all the wrong answers. And some of you in this room you are still empty and alone because you have been chasing after the wrong answer… the world is telling you that the better paying job will get you there.... it hasnt… it will tell you your spouse will fulfill you.... they havent… it will tell you that your kids will fulfill you… and they may.... until they leave the house… then they don’t.... and clearly what you need to see is Jesus is the answer.
A Man invited to follow Jesus despite prejudice
Remember, there was tons of prejudice in that response too.... he said… Nazareth, can anything good come from there? Well? Can it? Talk about Nazareth… dumb… accent… people knew...
The Gospel according to John (King James Version) I. Jesus the Son of God, the King of Israel: The Witness of Nathanael, 1:46–49
the town was an obscure village in Galilee. Galilee bordered Gentile or heathen nations; therefore, it was sometimes called Galilee of the Gentiles. The Jews were so deeply prejudiced against the Gentiles that they considered anyone or anything touched by a Gentile to be unclean in the sight of God. Nazareth was despised by the Jews because it was on the border of Gentile country and was so commercially touched by Gentiles. It was despised by the Romans because its citizens were a conquered people.
And he had this prejudice when it came to Jesus… He couldn’t seem him clearly because of his preconceived notions about the people of Galilee… And this prejudice is crippling, because it looks past the wrong in ourselves, our situations, our own homes, and tries to find it in someone else. And there is some of this today when it comes to Jesus… people can’t see him for who he really is because of how bad the church has messed it up… and dont get me wrong, I still believe the local church is the single greatest means of moving the gospel in a broken world, but the problem is, people outside the church and inside it for that matter have some prejudices against Jesus because of what they believe about the church.... and thats kind of what was going on with Philip… he couldn’t see Jesus correctly beasue of his people...
We have those same prejudices when we think about SHARING our faith.... or look at people in the church....we look at people and think there is no way they DO know Jesus… you know we know their past so there is no way they can know him now… remember, we shoot the wounded in the church… I mentioned this a few weeks ago with a guy I went to high school with… but we think there is no way that guy can be telling the truth… and our prejudices get in the way of what we are seeing and hearing....
WE don’t want to share we people outside the church because we know their pasts and the way they are living and don’t think there is anyway they would ever accept the message… this is like not fishing because we know fish are dirty and we only want to catch clean ones… you know you have to CATCH a fish before you can ever begin to clean it...
but look at what Peter said in Acts
34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality,
35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
Or Paul in Romans
11 For God shows no partiality.
He sees us all the same we are all people who need his son to be cleansed and made whole...
The amazing thing about all of this, seeing that Nathanael was without hope, skeptical, and prejudiced, he was still invited to follow Jesus...
None of that, none of his sin, or despair, discouragement, or prejudice kept first Philip from coming to sat come and see, nor did it keep him from the invite of Jesus. And a cool thing to notice here, is after the retort from N, Philip didn’t argue with him, he just said, come and see… and this should teach us a few things about sharing the gospel with those around us...
No matter the sin, we should still invite people to come and see, and this should be especially comforting becasue it means you dont have to have all the answers… come and see a person that might… come and see a place where you might experience him… COME AND SEEE
We have to think about what Nathanael would have missed had he let his prejudice deter him from going to see Jesus.... or let his wallowing in despair keep him from Jesus… and we have to think the same way about the church.... we aren’t going to see him the same way N did, but we can allow those same feelings to keep us home on Sunday mornings… there are so many times when people talk about they just didn’t feel like going… it was a bad weeek.... they were tired… but think of all you have missed… think about all N would have missed
And this shows us that we dont win our friends by arguing with them, but by confronting them with Jesus...
Two important things happened during Nathanael’s confrontation with Jesus
Jesus knew his belief and character
Don’t follow? Look at what it says here
47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”
Did you catch it? He said an Israelite indeed… He KNEW what he was thinking.. he knew that he was the epitome of what an Israelite should be, he knew that N would have believed all of the promises of God. And here is what is so cool about that, Jesus knows the same thing about you. He knows your thoughts and beliefs…the good ones and the bad ones...
25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
and this can be comforting, but scary at the same time.. he knows all that is in you… but even when you are wrong what that means is he knows how to bring you BACK.
Jesus knew him deeply
Look at John 1:48
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 the ancient world, the Fig tree stood for peacem security, rest, and worship. People would often sit in quietness under a fig tree and worship there. This is most likely what N had been doing. And Jesus telling him he had seen him under the fig tree is a call out.. its telling him I saw you tehre… saw the deep longings of your heart… what you were asking God for, how you were seeking him. Saw your hopelessness with the world. And hes just calling all of that out.
And this can be looked at two ways… it can be hopeful...
1. HOpeful because he can give direction… yes thats it… no child turn
2. a warning… if you think you are sinning and getting away with it… you won’t .... He will bring everything to light… so you need to get it all straight… dont keep going the wrong way and think it is going to be okay...
2 Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
Look at the result of all of this:
49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
Nathanael Confessed: Jesus is the Son of God
Look at how quick after all of this he was willing to talk about it… He had pointed out the need in his heart and he immediately knew that he was the one he was waiting on… When Jesus meets our needs this is what happens to us as well… this is why it is so important for us to share....
KING OF ISRAEL.... HE knew that he was the answer.. and he had to talk about it
Are you talking about Jesus? Are you sharing emphatically and declaring who he is?