Nathanael aka Bartholomew

The Apostle we're going to be looking at this Sunday is the Apostle Nathanael. Only the Gospel of John mentions his name Nathanael. In the other Gospels, he's called Bartholomew, which is a surname likely meaning the son of Ptolemy.

So the name Nathanael means God has given, and he appears to be close friends with another apostle, Philip, who is the one we covered last time. In John chapter 1, we read about Nathanael's meeting Jesus for the first time.

After Philip made the decision to follow Jesus, he immediately told his friend Nathanael. And he said to him in John 1 .45, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

And Nathanael, if you remember the story, he's a little skeptical at first. Do you remember what he says? Yeah. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Because nobody really was expecting the Messiah to come out of Nazareth.

And people obviously were looking down on people from that city. But Philip said to him, come and see, come and see. And when Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom is no deceit.

And Nathanael said to Jesus, how do you know me? And Jesus answered and said to him before Philip called you, When you were under the fig tree, I saw you. At which point Nathanael answered and said to him, Rabbi, You are the son of God, the king of Israel, which really makes you wonder what was going on under the fig tree.

And we're not really sure what the details are, except that it seems to this response from Jesus, I saw you. It seems to be communicating to Nathanael that Jesus was omniscient. He knew all about him.

He knew his thoughts, his heart. Maybe he was praying to God, show me the Messiah. And Jesus recognized that, hey, I was there when you prayed that. I know what you prayed, whatever it is. Nathanael became a faithful follower of Christ.

Not much else is said about him, though, in scripture. But tradition says that Nathanael ministered in Persia and took the gospel as far east as India. And while there is no reliable record of how he died, one tradition says that he drowned.

Another says he was crucified. So obviously we don't know whatever happened. All accounts record him persevering in the faith and being faithful for the rest of his life.