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Reading John 1:43-51 where Jesus calls Philip and Nathanael, and draws some interesting parallels between Nathanael and an Old Testament figure. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Jesus told Nathanael he would see great things, heaven opened, and angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man. We who are also disciples will see great things also, in His Word, when we understand the text.
You're listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty. Find videos and more at our website, www .tt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. We come back to John chapter 1, and picking up where we left off yesterday, I'll read verses 43 -51. The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, Follow me.
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 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.
Nathanael said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit.
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. Nathanael answered him, Rabbi, you are the son of God, you are the king of Israel.
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. 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.
And so I mentioned yesterday that there were three main apostles here that I wanted to focus on and how Jesus called them to himself and that was Andrew and Peter and Nathanael. So we only got as far as Andrew and Peter yesterday, we'll consider Nathanael today.
So going back to verse 43, the next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. So this is another day that is transpired here. We have several occasions in which it has said the next day. So you have the testimony of John verses 19 on John the Baptist.
We get to verse 29 after John had been interrogated by some of the messengers of the Pharisees. It says the next day he saw Jesus coming toward him. And then we get to verse 35. The next day, again, John was standing with two of his disciples.
And then we have this that transpires between Andrew and and this other disciple. And it even says what time of the day it was when they had this encounter and were with Jesus and visited with him. It says it was about the 10th hour, which was about four o 'clock in the afternoon.
And then verse 43, the next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, follow me. Now, Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. So let me give you a kind of a brief geographical lesson here as to where they are.
So this would have been on the northern end of the Jordan River, not not down near Jerusalem. The Jordan wasn't real near to Jerusalem anyway, but they would have been further north past Samaria, northern end of the Jordan River, close to the Sea of Galilee.
So just walking a little bit to the north, they would have entered into the region that is known as Galilee. Now, Nazareth, the town that Jesus was from, is a little bit to the southwest of the Sea of Galilee.
Bethsaida is right on the Sea of Galilee, just a little bit to the north there. And again, that's where Andrew and Peter were from. Remember that Peter is married. And we read in the Synoptic Gospels that Peter's mother-in-law was sick and Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law.
And then she got up and served everyone in the home. Since that's where Peter and his wife, his family, lived, it's likely that whenever Jesus was in that region and ministering, he may have stayed at Peter's home.
He didn't stay with his brother and sisters and mother. Now, a little bit, there was a time in which they were with one another. We read this in chapter 2, verse 12, after the wedding at Cana, he went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
So there was some relationship at the very beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry in which he was with his mother and his brothers. But later on, they scoffed at him. They mocked him for the stuff that he claimed and what he was teaching and doing and what other people were saying about him.
So eventually, he probably broke fellowship with them. And he was not staying with his siblings. He was staying in the households of his own disciples. And that would have included Peter, who lived up there around the community of Bethsaida.
Now, Bethsaida is one of the towns that Jesus will eventually curse. It's in Matthew 11, 21, where he says, Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyree and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
So Jesus did miracles there in Bethsaida. I already mentioned one to you where he healed Peter's mother-in-law. But then there's also the healing of the blind man at Bethsaida that we read about in Mark 8, 22.
Some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. Jesus healed the blind man before people there in the community. And yet they did not believe and follow Jesus. So eventually, Jesus says to his disciples not to go back there because they had already preached the gospel there and the people refused to believe.
So there were other places yet that they needed to go. So that's the significance of Bethsaida, which we see come up in the gospel accounts several more times. That's where Peter and Andrew were from.
And now we find out Philip was from there as well. Philip would go to find Nathanael and he said to Nathanael back in John 1, 45. He said to Nathanael, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote.
And it is Moses, of course, in Deuteronomy 18, who talks about the prophet who is going to come, God speaking through Moses and saying, I will bring another prophet who is like Moses. We also know greater than Moses and you will listen to him.
So Moses wrote about him. Then, of course, the prophets are testifying about him, are speaking about him. And they knew about all of this, not just because of some kind of Jewish heritage, but because John the Baptist was proclaiming about it in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord.
We've found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote. And who is this person that Philip is telling Nathanael that they have found? Why it's Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. What was Nathanael's response to that?
Are you serious? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said, well, come and see. So here we have that again. When the two disciples that came from John the Baptist were following Jesus, he said, what are you seeking?
And they said, Rabbi, where are you staying? And Jesus said to them, come and you will see. And so they did. They followed him. And whatever it was that they saw, which, again, we're not told exactly what it was they saw, though they stayed with him there at four o 'clock in the afternoon.
It confirmed for them this was the Messiah. For Andrew then goes and finds Peter and says, we found him. We have found the Messiah that has been prophesied about. So then it's said to Philip. Philip is kind of mocking the idea that the Messiah could possibly come out of Nazareth.
This is a little podun town. What is there good that comes out of Nazareth? And Nathanael said to him, come and see. And so Nathanael did. And Jesus, verse 47, saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is found no deceit.
Now, it's a very interesting thing that Jesus calls him an Israelite indeed. What would be the significance of that? Well, because a Jew is not one outwardly, but is one inwardly. That's what we read about in Romans chapter two, verse 28, where Paul says, 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. So Jesus is able to look into the heart of Nathanael. Jesus says of himself in the book of Revelation, I am he who searches mind and heart.
So he is able to see into the heart of Nathanael and know that he is an Israelite indeed. He's not just someone who is an Israelite in heritage just because he has a shared DNA that he was descended from the line of Abraham, but very specifically because Nathanael's heart was bound with God.
Remember that we read in Romans 9, 6, not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. Not everyone who calls themselves Israel is true Israel. But Jesus sees into the heart of Nathanael and he knows this is a true Israelite.
Now recognize that a great number of the Jews were incredibly corrupted at this particular period of time. They were corrupted because of the Romans. They were corrupted by the Romans own paganism and the promise of power that the Romans gave to the Herods.
For example, Jesus said in Mark 8, 15, watch out, beware the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. So there was a corruption that came into the people that way. They were also corrupted by the Pharisees who had so twisted the word of God and had added to it and had made it into legalism and the belief of the Jewish people into kind of a state religion.
It was heartless. They would acknowledge God with their lips, but their heart was far from God, just as what was said through the prophet Isaiah. And Jesus repeated that as well. People believe that they merited their own salvation by the works that they did.
So as long as we're keeping the law of Moses, as long as we're doing these things and we're even keeping those commandments that the Pharisees have kind of added on to us, if we're able to do all of that, then we're righteous people and we're better than everybody else.
And so it was extremely rare to find a Jew whose heart truly desired God and had not been self-righteous because of the law of Moses that they had or because they were descended from Abraham. So therefore, I've inherently earned the favor of God because of these things.
Nathaniel was one such a person who was whose heart truly desired God. It was not just something that he did with his lips, but his heart actually sought after the Lord. And so Jesus says of him, behold, an Israelite, indeed, in whom there is no deceit.
His beliefs had not been corrupted by the Herod's and the Pharisees, but rather he truly desired to know God and would come to know God through Jesus Christ. Nathaniel said to him, verse 48, John 1, 48.
Now, how do you know me? And Jesus answered him before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree. I saw you. And Nathaniel answered him, Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel.
So recognize here that Jesus saw Nathaniel under a fig tree, not physically with his own eyes, but but but as a prophet. This is what he saw. And Nathaniel knew that Jesus could not have just seen him under the fig tree.
However, they were separated wherever it was that Nathaniel was. He knew that Jesus did not see him with physical eyes, that he was there, but rather he's saying something prophetic to Nathaniel, which is what makes Nathaniel declare of him.
You have to be the son of God, this promised Messiah that I was just told about, because there was no way that you could have possibly known that he was alone. He was by himself. There was no one else there.
And this speaks further of Nathaniel's genuineness as an Israelite. Indeed, Nathaniel may have been there under that tree praying. He was by himself, not attracting attention from anybody else or not even caring for attention from anybody else.
Remember what Jesus said in Matthew chapter six about how we are properly to pray in six verse five. He says, when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. They love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, and they may be seen by others.
That's what it is that they want. They want the recognition of others. And so Jesus says, truly, I say to you, they've received their reward. They've gotten what they're going to get from that. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your father who is in secret and your father who sees in secret will reward you.
And this is essentially what Jesus saw of Nathaniel. He saw him in secret. Nobody else could have possibly seen that. So Nathaniel knew that Jesus was indeed a prophet, just as Philip had said to him.
Jesus saw a man who was genuine in heart, who truly sought after the Lord. And again, this is not something that is born out of the will of man. It is born by the will of God. This is what we read back in John 1, 13.
We are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. This is the Lord providentially working all these things together for the good of these disciples and ultimately for God's glory.
And Nathaniel's declaration of him is rabbi calls him teacher as well. You are the son of God and you are the king of Israel. This is who they were waiting for. The Messiah, the one who was going to be descended from David on whose throne God would establish his kingdom forever.
So Nathaniel is excited about this, and he may have seen exactly what the rest of the disciples saw in Jesus, somebody that they thought was literally going to sit on a throne, literally like King David did and literally deliver Israel from the hands of their captors who were the Romans.
Once again, Israel is going to be a great kingdom as they were under David and under Solomon. But of course, that is not what is being implied when we use the term Jesus as the king of Israel. He was descended from David to be king of kings and lord of lords, but not that he would deliver an earthly kingdom, but rather he's building a heavenly one.
Nathaniel may not understand this yet, but he is going to see even greater things. As Jesus goes on to say, verse 50, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? I say you will see greater things than these.
Jesus was basically saying, this is nothing. Me knowing that you were under that fig tree under there, you're going to see even greater than this. Verse 51, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man.
Now, I've read various different interpretations of this as to what this could possibly mean. Maybe it's metaphorical, maybe through the miracles that they would witness, they would recognize that he is indeed the son of God, the son of man.
And so it would be as obvious as if they were to literally see angels ascending and descending on to the son of man. Maybe that's the interpretation of it. I tend to take this very literally because there are a lot of things that were never written down that were quite miraculous that Jesus did.
John even talks about this in chapter 20, where he says there's not enough parchment manuscript out there to write down all of the things that happened in Jesus earthly ministry. So this may very well have been one of those things that Nathaniel very specifically got to see, just like Peter, James and John got to see the transfiguration, the Mount of Transfiguration, where Christ and his glory was revealed to them and Moses and Elijah stood with Jesus there before them.
Just as they got to see that, maybe Nathaniel literally got to see this vision of heaven opening up and angels ascending and descending on the son of man. That would quite fit with the description that Jesus gave of Nathaniel as somebody who was a true Israelite, an Israelite, indeed, somebody who was sitting by himself under a fig tree.
How would this with the angels descending and ascending on the son of man, how would that tie in with that description that Jesus gave of Nathaniel? Because it's remarkably similar to a description that we have of Jacob in the book of Genesis.
Remember that Jacob wrestled with God and Jacob wrestled with God alone. And we have this implication here that that's what Nathan or I'm sorry, Nathaniel, the same thing, Nathan, Nathaniel, Nathaniel under the tree was doing is he was meditating with God and he was doing this alone.
And so Jesus also refers to Nathaniel as a true Israelite. Well, who else was called Israel in the Old Testament? Well, that's Jacob. That's Jacob's name. That's the name Israel is applied because that was the name that God gave to Jacob.
And it means man who wrestles with man and God. That's what that name means. So here you have Nathaniel by himself kind of wrestling with God, and then he finds the Messiah as he's brought to him by Philip, you have Jesus referred to him as an Israelite indeed, and then finally says that you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man.
Who was it that saw a vision like that? It was Jacob. It was Jacob when he was sleeping alone in the wilderness with a rock as his pillow. And at that very place, he saw angels descending and ascending from heaven, Jacob's ladder or Jacob's staircase, as it's often described, that vision that Jacob got to have.
And Jesus was saying to Nathaniel, you're going to get to see the same thing. So we see some interconnectedness here. And this is a regular theme that comes up in the book of John. It's not as explicit as we see it in Matthew, like Matthew will directly quote a prophet or something out of the Old Testament and will say this was to fulfill this prophet or this prophecy or something like that.
John is not that explicit as Matthew is, but yet we will see thematically in various areas that John is definitely calling into the reader's attention Old Testament symbolism here. And regarding Nathaniel, it's that interconnectedness with Jacob, these three thematic elements that apply here.
So we must know that somebody who is truly an Israelite, you are true Israel if you are a follower of Jesus. You are the people of God. You are he whom Christ has called out to himself. You are one who has wrestled with the things of man and wrestled with the deep concepts of God.
And you are one who alone will meditate on the Lord. You are never truly alone because your mind and your heart are bound to Christ. That's who each and every one of us should be as followers and disciples of Jesus.
So in this way, we can take an example from Nathaniel, and we also will get to see glorious, heavenly, wonderful things when we leave this life and go join our Lord in glory. Amen. Let us pray. Our great God, we thank you for all the wonderful things that you've shown to us in your word.
We would never have found these things or come to know this any other way except that you have given us your spirit and by your providential hand have brought us into fellowship with you through the preaching of your gospel, which we heard and were convicted of our sin and we repented and we believed and became followers of Jesus Christ.
And so show us great things all the more, great things that we would never see without this fellowship that we have with Christ. Show us your glory in the face of Christ through the power of your word, that we may behold you and marvel at you and follow you and declare your name to others that they may hear the gospel also and turn from their sin and believe.
Keep us steadfast in your love. Protect us from any of these things in the world that attempt to draw us away. Let us not be corrupted by corrupt versions of Christianity, but in our hearts, let us desire the true Christ that we read about in the Bible.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen. This is When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. There are lots of great Bible teaching programs on the web and we thank you for selecting ours, but this is no replacement for regular fellowship with a church family.
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