Untitled Sermon (48)
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43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 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.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” 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.” 49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered 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, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”
The first disciples found Jesus because John the Baptist introduced them to Jesus. Here, Jesus calls philip.
Philip is a fisherman.
44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
Philip, Andrew and Peter were likely fisherman. The city in Galilee where they were from is Behsaida, and it means “house of fishing.”
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.”
Don’t discount the importance of telling someone about Jesus. The witness of Philip brings Nathanael to Jesus.
Nathanael was apparently a student of the pentateuch or torah, and Philip appealed to him on the basis of the prediction in the law and the prophets.
46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
Apparently, Nazareth did not have a good reputation in Galilee. A rival village? immoral?
47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”
No Deceit. That’s a key word. Hold onto that word “deceit” for a moment, I’m going to come back to it.
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.”
49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”
50 Jesus answered 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, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Let’s go back to the word “deceit” now. When you couple the word “deceit” with this last phrase, “angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man,”, you suddenly make a connection with another story in the OT.
Any novice student of the Torah would have immediately taken cues from these two phrases. “deceit” and “angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
In fact, a person and a scripture would have immediately come to mind.
Jacob, and Genesis 28.10-17. We will read that in a moment, but let’s first take a moment to do an introductory or refresher course on Jacob.
Jacob, the name, means deceptive, tricky, . To fill in the blanks, Jacob was a twin brother to Esau. At his birth, he came out holding onto his brother’s ankle. And lived the next twenty years or so trying to trip his brother up!
And he did. In really big and significant ways. First, He lied to his father and then he swindled his brother. In the process he took very sacred things from his brother, Esau. He stole not only the birthright- he also stole the blessing.
Those two words may not hold the significance they would have in Jacob’s day, but please understood he did something extremely significant to his brother. He really stole his everything, his identity, his future. The birthright and the blessings.
So, these actions forced him to leave home because his brother wanted to kill him. So he left his famikly.
And in the passage i am going to read to you this morning, he is headed back home after many years. He was being forced to leave home, and he was scared literally to death. It was the night he left, and God gives him a reassurance that one day he would return and be kept by God.that happens in Genesis 28.10-17
10 Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. 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! 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
The two phrases tie the meeting of Jesus with Nathanael inextricably to this passage.
Jesus, when he met Nathanael, said “there is no guile” in him. And secondly, he would see “angels ascending and descending” from heaven, as recorded in the dream that Jacob had.
The message you should take away from this passage is simple. If Jacob, who was deceptive and wily and tricky, was worthy of a revelation from God- how much more was Nathanael worthy of one?
Nathanael was impressed that Jesus knew his name and what he had been doing. Jesus says to Nathanael, you will see greater things than this. You’ll see the angels ascending and descending from heaven.
This gives us a clue as to what is happening in this passage. He tells Jacob that he will be with him. Presence. Jacob would be at Bethel when he had this dream, which means house of God. They would worship here later in the OT.
And in the passage in John this morning, it is fitting because John goes to great lengths to tell us that Jesus is God’s answer to the presence of God in the temple, but He is present in person.
Consider...
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,
You see, Jacob was promised one day he would see the angels ascending and descending. But Nathanael, what he’s being told, is that he is going to see so much more. The angels continuously present, up and down, and while he may have thought the implication was angels- which was what most Jews thought was the case- what He was truly being told is that the presence of God would be continuous in the person of Christ.
I want to focus on one verse for just a minute. Look at John 1.50
50 Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.”
There are three tenses of verbs in Jesus’ statement. Saw=past tense. Believe- present tense. Will see-future tense.
That is how our faith grows. God sees us, before we ever see him. Prevenient grace.
He draws us to himself and we come to faith. Nathanael was a believer based on what happened with Jesus in this passage… He saw him, told him about himself, revealed Himself to Him.
Finally, You will see greater things. The promise of deeper and deeper revelations of Jesus when we come to faith in Him.
A simple invitation from Philip allowed Nathanael to have greater and deeper revelations of God based upon His belief (faith) in God.
Bottom line:
The Deeper Our Faith The Greater Our Sight
The Deeper Our Faith The Greater Our Sight