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But if you haven't done so, please turn with me this morning to the Gospel of John. What I'd like to do, this is a part four of this series we're going through of Jesus calling the very first disciples.
And today's message is from John, chapter 1, from verse 43 to the end of the chapter, verse 51. I want to recap a little bit today, for those that have not been sitting under this series, and I think it's very important and significant, so I'm going to do my best, by God's help, to recap and just let the Word of God speak to us.
And because it is God's Word, I like what Spurgeon says, he said, my voice is just an echo of what God is saying. It's not really our voices, per se, that has any power to it. The power is within the Word of God.
So I just pray today that the Lord just continues to make Himself very known and real to us, and He does that through His Word, doesn't He? As we hear the Gospel, as we hear the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by God's Word.
So before we look at our text this morning, verse 43 to 51, I want to come up to it, we're going to recap, but first of all, let's bow in prayer. Oh Father, I would be wrong to say, may You bless Your Word.
You have already blessed it. But we need the blessing as Joshua, or should I say Joshua, not, but Jacob, wrestled with.
You.
Lord, we thank You for the reading this morning, of what we heard. Thank You for the opening word from Psalm 119, how all these words from Your Word, Holy Word, pierces and convicts our heart, Lord, but we thank You for it.
And we want to do what Joshua did, Lord, bow down and worship before the Captain, the Lord and His wonderful host. Jesus is Lord, and Your Son is building the church for Your glory, Father, and we thank You for this.
So Father, yes, like Jacob wrestled with You, the blessing was the wounding. It came in a painful way, but that was something He desired, is to meet with You, O God. And that's our desire today, is just not to hear just a perfect sermon, by no means, it's far from that, but to hear Your Word, and to meet with the living God.
So Lord, take Your Word from the hearing of our ears to our hearts this morning, and Lord our Father, we pray, Lord, speak, for Your servant hears, and may we be obedient to the words in which You speak to us, Lord, by Your Spirit and by Your help.
In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. This whole entire series of what we've been looking through is hinged upon one person, and actually we could say that, considering in context of the entire Bible, it hinges on one, Jesus Christ.
And the Gospel of John is actually answering page by page, verse by verse, precept by precept of who Jesus Christ is. Who Jesus Christ is, really that's the single most important question ever given. And as we've been studying together through this Gospel of John, the fourth Gospel, known as the fourth Gospel, chapter one we've been seeing the answer to that all important question.
In matter of fact, everything that we see here points to the deity of Jesus Christ, that He is Lord. He is God. It's really magnificent because a lot of what Burt Parson was saying this morning, it really is right here.
But after all, Scripture interprets Scripture, doesn't it? That's what Thomas Watson, I believe, said, a diamond cuts diamond, so Scripture interprets Scripture. Nothing contradicts itself in Scripture.
It all connects, and it connects to the person and works of Jesus Christ. So here we see the deity of Christ, and as we've been studying together here in chapter one of John, this glorious Gospel, we have been seeing several names that has been given to Jesus that helps us truly understand who He is.
Who He is.
I want to go through these, and take us through the verses of Scripture here, and just do a recap and take us to where we are today in the text. First of all, we saw that Jesus is the Word. He is the Word.
He's the Logos, the Logos. Verse one through three, it reads, "...and the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.". He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
And in verse two, then we basically saw that Jesus is that Logos. And then it goes on to say that Jesus is the Life and Light. He's the Life and Light. Look at verse four through nine,. "...and Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men, and the Light shines in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.".
Or another translation, "...did not overpower it.". And then it introduces John the Baptist. There was a man sent from God whose name was John, speaking of John the Baptist. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light.
And now all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which gives Light to every man coming into the world. So basically, Light reveals Truth, and Light means Life.
And it's all in Jesus Christ. He is that true Light. He is the true Life. He says, "...I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.". So third, it goes on. Then we saw that Jesus is the Son of God.
He's the Son of God. That's actually the theme through the Gospel of John. He is God's Son. He is the Deity. The second person of the Trinity. God's Son. In verses 10 through 18, it says,. "...He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
And He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.". Verse 12, "...but...". Don't you love that but? One commentator says, "...anytime you see that but, God, but, as many...". There's a hinge. There's a revelation about to be revealed, but the hinge, the door opens up.
"...but as many as received Him. To them He gave the right to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name.". Verse 13, "...who were born...". Here's regeneration, beloved. "...who were born, not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word, the Logos, became flesh.". Here's the incarnation. "...became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and full of truth.".
"...And John bore witness of Him, and cried out, saying, This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me. And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace, and for the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.".
No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. So we see that Jesus reveals the Father, the heart of the Father. He comes from the heart of God, the second person of the Trinity when made flesh, pitched His tent among us, came in flesh, the incarnation.
Fourth, then we noted that Jesus is the Christ, He's the Messiah, He's the Anointed One. We see this, this is very important. He's the Son of God, He's the life, He's the light, He's the Logos, but He's also the Messiah, He's the Anointed One.
We read this in verse 19 through 28, verse 19 through 28, there's a testimony, and John the Baptist gives this first testimony as the forerunner. Now this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask Him, who are you?
He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked Him, what then? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And He answered, no.
So simple.
And then they said to Him, who are you that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself? Notice what He says in verse 23, He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
I'm just a voice.
His humility here.
Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. And now those who were sent were from the Pharisees, and they asked Him, saying, then why do you baptize if you're not Christ, the Christ, the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?
John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there stands one among you whom you do not know. It is He who coming after me is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I'm not worthy to lose. These things were done in Beth Barba, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptized.
So we see that section, that there is a testimony that John the Baptist says that he is not the Christ, he's not the Messiah, but Jesus is. And now we see, fifthly, that Jesus comes on the scene in verse 19 through 28.
Verse 19 through 28, we see that Jesus is not only the Logos, the life and the light, the Son of the living God, the Messiah, but He's also the Lamb of God. He's the Lamb of God. John proclaimed this by revelation.
The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Says that to all there.
This is He of whom I said, after me comes a man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.
He repeats Himself on that.
He's before me. He's God. I did not know Him, but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water. John bore witness, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.
I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.
So there you have at the beginning of verse 29, day 1, Jesus is here. He's here. Then He shows up. He shows up and He says, Behold, the Lamb of God. Look, the Lamb of God. He's here. Look at Him. Then in verse 35 to verse 42, He basically speaks to His own disciples, and He says,.
Follow Him. Follow Him.
And this is why He says this, in verse 35, again the next day, John stood with two of His disciples. We will see that that is actually John the Apostle. He does not name Himself, but He always does this all the way through this gospel.
He speaks of Himself and does not name Himself, but He, the Apostle, the disciple whom Jesus loved because of the humility that He has. And in verse 36, and looking at Jesus as He walked, He said, Behold, the Lamb of God.
He's telling His two disciples this. There He is. Go follow Him. So the two disciples heard Him speak and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and seeing them follow and said to them, the first question we see that comes in this gospel from our Lord's lips is, What do you seek?
What a question. What do you seek? What are we seeking? What are you seeking? What do you seek? And they said to Him, Rabbi, which is to say, when translated, Teacher, where are you staying? What a wonderful, wise reply.
They answered His question with a question. Where are you staying? And I love this, in verse 39, and He said to them, Come and see. Come and see. What an invitation. What an invitation from our Lord. Come and see.
And He says the same to us today. And they came and saw where He was staying and remained with Him that day, and that was about the tenth hour. And one of the two who heard John speak and followed Him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
So we see Andrew is definitely one of the very first ones here that's named. One of the very first disciples. And he first found his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which is translated the Christ.
And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, You're Simon, the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas, which is translated a stone. So we see day one, day two, day three. Verse 43, where we pick up the following day is day four.
The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee. So we come to day four here in our text. Today we will look at these last two names that are given, and it's amazing, Burt Parsons mentions this, that He's the Son of Man and He's the King of Israel.
And what he was speaking of in the Great Commission there is here in our text. Wonderful. So we will see the last two names here in this wonderful chapter, what we're looking at that will help us see Jesus for who He is.
Isn't that the all-important question?
Who is Jesus?
That's a wonderful way to start to ask somebody that doesn't know the Lord, Who is Jesus? I know Brother Keith mentions this quite often, but he likes to mention this to Miami Bar and you visit an example for a minute.
He likes to mention, what comes to your mind when you think of God? That's a good question. Well we should be asking in a similar way, Who's Jesus? Who do you say Jesus is? And I guarantee the answers that they give, if you know your Bible very correctly and study the scriptures like a good Berean and however a person responds to that question, you will know where they are, spiritually, guaranteed.
Because a lot of times people say, well He's just a good man, He's a good prophet. A lot of religious Muslims, they basically say He's a prophet, but He's not the Son of God, the Living God. He's not the Anointed One, the Christ, who is incarnate, who came from heaven to earth and came here and pitched His tent.
He was made flesh. What a mystery, but what a great revelation. But that will tell us much about people. Ask those questions. Our Lord does this constantly with His disciples. He's asking them questions.
He's probing their hearts and minds to draw out what they need to see.
He already knows it.
He knows their answers, what they're going to say before it comes to their lips. It almost reminds me back in the garden when sin entered into the world and Adam lost communion with God and there was a separation and God comes in the midst of the day as He usually did to commune with Adam and then on that day when sin entered into the world and the fall came through Adam and Eve, who is to be named later, the mother of all the living.
But God asked the questions, Adam, where are you?
Where art thou?
Where are you, Adam? Well God knew where Adam was, but God wanted Adam to know, where are you? Where are you with me? And communion, not just necessarily location, God knows the location. But he was separated, he was severe, severed from the presence of God.
And God asked these questions, and I love the questions, don't you? They probe me to help me to search my own heart. Where am I with the Lord? So we see here, the sixth name is seen in verse 49, we will see this, the King of Israel, the King of Israel, and seventh name is seen in verse 51, the Son of Man, He's the Son.
Of Man.
So we will see those two, that Jesus is the King of Israel, He's the Son of Man. And again, these names for Christ are all helping us see and understand who Jesus is, that we can understand Him and know Him, just not intellectually, but to know Him in a more intimate, deeper way, a richer way, a wonderful way, who He is.
Christ, the Son of the Living God. And by God's grace and help today, the Holy Spirit, and by the way, the real teacher here is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God teaches us, right? He's the Spirit of Truth.
He reveals Jesus to us. He glorifies Jesus Christ. That's when you know the Spirit of God's presence is, He glorifies Christ. He lifts up, He doesn't lift up His own, even though He's God, the third person of the Trinity, but He always lifts Christ up, He glorifies Christ, because Jesus said that about Him,.
Didn't He?
He said, He will glorify Me. And the Father looks down and said, this is my beloved Son, and hear Him. So the focal point, even of the Trinity, is Jesus Christ. He's the mediator. And it's almost like that's the only way, and we see this at the end of the chapter here that Jesus tells Nathanael, most assuredly I say to you here, after you shall see heaven open, the angels of God descending and descending upon the Son of Man.
He's the mediator. This is the only way that we could get to God, or anyone could get to God, is through.
Jesus Christ. There's no other way.
But aren't you glad there's a way? Praise God, there is a way. And Jesus is the way. He said that of Himself. Now, from verse 1 through verse 18, as I already read, we see the theology of the Son of God.
There's theology, as much theology, it's deep theology. We've already pressed our way through that, and we've waved in some quite very deep waters, haven't we? The eternal Word of God, the eternal Word became flesh, He dwelt among us, He pitched His tent among us.
Great depths is the Incarnation. And then, there's a transition that takes place in verse 19 all the way to the end of the chapter 51, and we basically see at the end, to this end of the chapter, that transition is that we see the Son of God's ministry that begins among us, among the men.
And He chooses disciples, and the first, actually, the first disciples was John the Baptist's disciples, and John the Baptist actually points them to Christ, so they go and follow Jesus. John the Baptist, great humility as we saw, and I've heard Pastor MacArthur say this, he said, every minister, whether it be like a small M or a capital M, must see John the Baptist as a great example for us, because his life is a life of true humility, he points people to the Messiah, he's just the voice, he says, of his humility, he says, I'm not even worthy to stoop down and unlatch the shoes, the sandals of Christ, points everything to Jesus Christ, points all people to Jesus, whether they be religious, non-religious, and then even his own disciples to Jesus Christ, to the Son of the Living God.
Well, we see, we are witnessing from John, in chapter 1, from verse 35 to 51, which takes place very early in the life and ministry of Jesus, when He, here, first gathered His own disciples, and this is very significant for us, isn't it?
As we have previously seen, and we saw last Lord's Day, the verse 35, which the text says again, the next day, the next day, the text says again, the next day, here, the beginning of the third day, which is in verse 35, John stood with two of his disciples, he points them to Jesus Christ, go follow Him, He's the Lamb of God, the two disciples heard Him speak and they followed Jesus, they did exactly what John told them to.
So the text follows, in verse 38 to 42, those very first disciples followed Jesus. Follow Him, that's very important, those two words, follow Him. Then in verse 41, He first, He first, and being Andrew, found his own brother Simon and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which is translated to Christ.
Notice with me in verse 42, He brought him to Jesus. He brought him to Jesus. Andrew brings his own brother Simon, the son of Jonah, to Jesus. And when Jesus looked at him and said, you are Simon, the son of Jonah, you shall be called Cephas, which is translated as stone.
This brings us up to speed right here to verse 43. To the fourth day, the following day, Jesus wanted to go to Galilee and He found Philip and said to him, follow me. So you see, actually, the call to follow me, Jesus first speaks to Philip.
Even though John and Andrew are already following Jesus, Jesus specifically speaks to Philip and says, follow me. Well, the story here begins with Jesus finding Philip and isn't that wonderful? He finds Philip and saying to him, follow me.
Everything we know about Philip points to him being simply an ordinary man. And it's very obvious in verse 43 that Philip wasn't seeking after Jesus at all. But Jesus was seeking after Philip. And notice Jesus finds Philip just like Jesus found us.
Jesus seeks out when we were not looking for Him. That's our great Savior. Right here, Jesus said this in the scriptures, many times, the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost and we were lost.
We were lost in the trespasses of our sins and more than that, we're not only in blindness and darkness, but dead, dead, dead, dead. How can a dead person even choose Christ? He can't until the regenerated power of Christ comes to us.
God uses His word to ignite and just spark that light supernaturally just like God did when He created the world. Darkness and void was upon the face of the deep and God spoke, let there be light and there was light.
And that's what happens in the new creation. God speaks and light comes. It's a supernatural thing, being born from above. Beloved, that's exactly where we were. We were lost, wandering, aimless and without hope, without God, dead in trespasses of our sins, not seeking God, not looking for God, but living for our lusts and our desires, living for ourselves and not living for God and living for others and serving others and serving God.
No, the scripture says it. There is none that seeks God, no, not one, not one, then but God. Don't you love the but God? Who is, as Ephesians 2 says, is rich in mercy because of His great love we're with.
He loved us even when we were dead and trespasses made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up together, I love that, together with Christ,.
With Christ.
You died with Christ, you're buried with Christ, you're raised with Christ, made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Jesus came and sought us and bought us and purchased us with His redeeming blood and He did more than that, even brought us out of the miry clay, as David says, brought us out of the miry clay of sin and set our feet upon a rock and put a new song in our heart.
Even praise to our God, many shall see it and fear the Lord. Isn't that wonderful? This is what He's done for us and that's what He's done for you. He's set us on a rock and who's that rock?
Christ.
A sure foundation, a sure firm foundation. David even says that rock is higher than I. Lead me to the rock that's higher than I. He found us, He sought us, He bought us with His glorious gospel and He placed His holy calling upon our lives and gave us purpose.
And that purpose we know is to know Him, who is life, who is eternal life and we have found the Messiah. It's almost like here as we see Philip and Nathaniel, we've found the Messiah but first.
He found us.
He found us first. One song said it like this, O love that found me wondrous thought, O love that will not let me go, found me when I sought Him not. So Jesus calls us even as He called and sought out Philip and said to him, follow me, follow.
Me.
Beloved, that's the gospel call. We've talked about this before in a sense. There's two calls. There's a general call that to whosoever will and Burt Parsons touched on this this morning that that general call is to all.
That's why the scripture speaks of all, that all will hear, all will hear God's word and hear the gospel and God has a desire for the whole world to hear it. But those who believe are His elect. Someone asked John Calvin one time, John Calvin's a well-known reformer of the doctrine of election and so forth.
He didn't get that originally from himself, he got it from scripture. Someone asked him, he said, how do you know that I'm, I'm God's elect? He said, believe the gospel. Believe the gospel and Spurgeon takes it a step further and he says, one person come up to Spurgeon one time and says, well, how do I know that I'm not the elect?
He said, let's go to the word of God and just see if you are. Ask the Lord.
I love that.
It's, it's almost like what we see in a few minutes. And we saw a little bit last Lord's Day, um, Philip evangelizes Nathaniel and he doesn't argue with him. He says, come and see, you come and see. Give the invitation.
He learns from the Lord. Give the invitation. Just be gracious. So Jesus calls us even as he called and sought out Philip and said to him, follow me, follow.
Beloved, that's the gospel calling. It's a general call and also is that internal effectual call. That's that effectual means effective. It's the calling that those that are of the elect, that God will always get his person, his man, his woman to those.
And like Parsons mentioned, we don't know who the elect is. Spurgeon even mentioned it once. He said, I, when I'm witnessing to people, I don't see whosoever will in the back and marks that God puts on people.
But I am to obey the great commission that God says it's to whosoever will. But God brings in those who will believe. Those that have been appointed and ordained believe the gospel. You know that the call, you see this in the Old Testament, Jesus, Jesus says, follow me.
Let's understand here that what Jesus is saying is it simply just walk this way. He's saying, be my disciple, be my disciple, my learner, my worshiper, be mine forever. And it begins here on this earth and it goes through eternity.
Isn't that wonderful? That's what the meaning of the original language actually says, be my disciple. And actually I've been contemplating a little bit. You know, you talk to people about the Lord, especially here in the South and everybody says they're a Christian.
But did you know in the Old Testament, I'm sorry, the New Testament in Acts, the word Christian came about, it was disdained. It was derogatory.
Amen.
And then, but how many times do we see in the gospel account that Jesus speaks of disciples? How many people you hear today says, and you ask them the question about the Lord, I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian, I said a prayer, I said a sinner's prayer, I've gone to church, but I don't go, I only go when I want to.
What about a disciple? Ravenhill put it this way, he said, I don't even ask if they're Christians anymore. I just go up to them and ask, does Christ live in you? That gets to the truth of the matter, doesn't it?
You know, it's not uncommon here in the New Testament when men see in our, when we say our bibles that Jesus says, follow me, be my disciple. How many times the word disciple comes, crops up, pops up?
Follow me for the purpose of being my disciple. A lifetime follower and learner and a worshiper of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior, Messiah, the King of Glory. Well, we're going to see these three important truths of Jesus, and I want to tell them as I go.
The first thing we see here, number one, Jesus is the one with all authority, by the way. All authority. He's the one with all authority, or all power. It's incredible, but we saw that, again, in our Sunday school lesson, Matthew 28, 18, Jesus says to them, came and spoke to them saying, all authority, all power has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
All rims. Heaven and on earth. Now, who is Jesus to say, you come follow me and be my disciple? Well, we know that person. We see that as we have come to him by grace, through faith, who he is, this glorious person.
You know, as you well know, as myself, Jesus is, Jesus the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah, the Son of the living God, the God-man. He's the only one with all authority, but he's just not a, just another individual, is he, to follow.
He is God. He is Lord of heaven and earth. He has all power. He's the link that brings us to God. He says, basically, hear his voice. Follow me. Follow me. Psalm 95, 9 through 6, David echoes this in a sense.
Oh, come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker, for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you will hear his voice, listen to that, today, it doesn't say tomorrow, today is the day of salvation.
Today.
God is always focused in the present, today, because he knows our life is a vapor. It's very short in comparison to eternity. And when we speak to people with urgency, say, today's the day, don't put this off.
One of the biggest lies that Satan perpetrated is, put it off, procrastinate, put it off another day. But today's the day of salvation. Hear his voice today. Do not harden your heart, scripture says. Notice how he doesn't say, even though the mind is important, he says, your heart.
Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness. Verse 9, he says, when your fathers tested me, they tried me, though they saw my work. They witnessed it. They saw the miracles, the power of God, as God took them, that generation out of, delivered them from the hand of Pharaoh in Egypt, and God sent the plagues upon plagues, and the miracles after miracles, and those, it's amazing when you read that, when God sends the darkness, the lies, the small things, the lice, the flies, those little things, and what God was doing, they actually worshipped those things.
They worshipped the creation rather than the creator. God shows him who God is. He's the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth, the one who created it all. You know, I think of this, when I think about this text I just read from Psalm 95, I think about how much revelation they sinned against, and I think about today and the day of grace and all the revelation of the 66 books that we have.
How much revelation have we received? As has been said this morning, much is given, much will be required. We were going to give an account, we're going to give an account one day where all the truth that we have, and that humbles me and says, I say to myself, Lord, help me to even obey all the revelation I have.
It makes me tremble. May we not harden our hearts, but come before our Lord with a broken and contrite heart. And that's what God is pleased with, isn't it? Brokenness and a contrite heart. Listen to Isaiah 66, 1 and 2, and I know some of you know this is one of the most wonderful verses in Isaiah.
Right at the last chapter, thus says the Lord, don't you love the thus says the Lord? Thus says the Lord. Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you will build me? And where is the place of my rest for all of those things my hand has made and all those things that exist, says the Lord, but here, here's his point.
God says I've made those places, but, but on this one, I will look on him who is poor. That means be humbled, contrite, poor, and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my.
Word.
I tremble at my word. Beloved God seeks true worshipers, doesn't he? Worship God's spirit and those that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And God, Jesus was telling that to a prostitute that was married several times.
He tells her that great truth. Isn't it wonderful how gracious our Lord is? Back to John chapter 1, let's look at verse 44 as we go through this very quickly as fast as I can and try to make application as we go.
Verse 44, now Philip was from Bethsaida in the city of Andrew and Peter. Verse 45, Philip found Nathanael. Now here goes Philip. He's an evangelist. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
Did you notice in the text what just happened? One disciple finds another.
One by one.
You know, I really believe this is the way our Lord builds his church. One by one. One person at a time. Not necessarily the masses, even though that can happen at times when the spirit of God does something on the day of Pentecost.
God could do that, but here, even in the life of our Lord and Savior, he begins one by one and the disciples in whom he chooses, one by one. First we see Andrew going to his brother. He goes to his family.
And then here we see Philip goes to his friend Nathanael. They found who? Him whom Moses and the law and the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. He's been studying the Old Testament prophets.
He has been in the word of God. He's been studying. He's been hearing about the prophecies of Jesus. That's another way of saying, we found the Messiah. He's excited. He's urgent about it. Philip goes to him as an evangelist.
Don't you love this? And he points back to the Old Testament prophets. And this, we once again, as John writes the gospel, he's pointing to who Jesus is.
Who Jesus is.
Jesus is the Messiah. He's the anointed one of God. He's God's son. He's God. He's the son of man. Now keep in mind that John's purpose in writing this gospel is all evangelistic, right? We see this. And he closes it with this in chapter 20, verse 31.
This is his purpose, folks. That you may believe that Jesus is what?
The Christ. The Christ.
The son of God. And that by believing, you may have life in his name. That's John's purpose. That's his goal. He's evangelistic. And writing this glorious gospel, it's glorious, isn't it? Verse 46, we see Nathaniel surprised that Philip is calling the Messiah.
Verse 46, Nathaniel said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Who's he to speak? Canaan was an insignificant little town, as we will see in chapter 2. But here he is speaking about Nazareth.
What good could come out of there? Well, let's look at why he says that. It's interesting, isn't it? Galileans were despised by Judeans. And Galileans themselves despised people from Nazareth. So even though Nathaniel knew that the Old Testament prophets had predicted the Messiah that would be born in Bethlehem, Nazareth was obscure and small and insignificant village without seeming prophetic importance.
How can anything good come out of Nazareth?
How?
A town that was so insignificant and lowly and nothing, nothing, little known. Nathaniel is showing prejudice here, folks. He's very prejudiced. And as I was reading about this and studying his character, it's interesting.
You know, God has no prejudice whatsoever. He shows no favor. He has no respect to respecters of persons, does he? And aren't you glad? We get this ingrained in us from our first parents. It's a birthday gift.
It's almost like as little children, when they come into the world, you don't have to teach them to say no with a fist. That comes natural, doesn't it? But teaching them to obey? And it's almost like Nathaniel here, he is very prejudiced.
Listen to this. But what do we see here also from God's perspective? Let me back up a little bit. We see that God delights and takes pleasure in using common, weak, lowly things of the world, right? And don't you love this?
Ordinary men. These are just low class, so to speak, in the class in that time period, fishermen that were nothings. And Jesus comes from Nazareth, a nothing little town, an obscure village. And don't you love it what the scripture says?
You don't have to go there, but 1 Corinthians 1 .27, I'll basically paraphrase it. God calls people from the most despised locations, the nothingness. God takes a flawed person who is blinded by prejudice here, and he could change that person into someone used to transform the world.
And he does this with Nathaniel, by the way, in the synoptics he's known as Bartholomew. This is Bartholomew. So it's interesting. So at the end, God's only explanation is the power of God through the gospel, and that the glory of God belongs to God.
It's him alone that does this, and he chooses the lowly things of the world to confound the wise and the mighty. That's the way God works. It's almost like when God chose Israel. I chose you not because you were so great.
They were the smallest in number, but God chose them that he may be glorified. And I think about this as what he does for us. He chooses the lowly, the weak things, isn't it wonderful the way God works?
It just makes my heart leap for joy. But here's Nathaniel. He's prejudice. MacArthur said prejudice is very ugly. In his book, Twelve Ordinary Men, he speaks about this, about Nathaniel. He says prejudice is ugly.
Listen to what he says here. Generalizations based on feelings of superiority, not on fact, can be spiritually debilitating. Prejudice cuts a lot of people off from the truth, and as a matter of fact, much of the nation of Israel rejected their Messiah because of prejudice.
They did not believe their Messiah should come out of Nazareth either, and it was inconceivable to them that the Messiah and all his apostles would come from Galilee. They mocked the apostles as uneducated Galileans, and the Pharisees taunted Nicodemus by saying, Are you also from Galilee?
Search and look for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee. That comes from John 7, 52. If you have that book, Twelve Ordinary Men, I'm telling you, you've got to get that book. MacArthur breaks down each apostle, even goes to Judas, and from what the scripture says all about these men.
And they were lowly folks. And I think also how these men died. Every single one of them martyred, except for Judas, he committed suicide and hung himself. And John the Apostle, here, is the only one that did not die a martyrdom of death, and they did try to kill him.
They put him in hot boiling oil, tradition says, on the island of Patmos, and tried to boil him alive. But all the rest of them were filleted, skin stripped out of them, hung upside down on a cross, Peter and his wife, sawn in two, beheaded by James.
Every single one of them died for their Lord, because they had something to die for, someone to die for, that was worthy. I'm telling you, Jesus is worth it, isn't he?
Because he's the worthy one.
Why do we see that?
Because we see such a great Messiah, a great Lord. And he is dictator to us, but he's a loving dictator. The righteousness is loved, and holiness is adorned. He doesn't beat us with a stick, does he? He's a good master.
He's gracious. Now speaking about prejudice, I thought about John Bunyan. He understood the dangers of prejudice, allow me just for a few minutes to elaborate on this very quickly. In the Holy War, he pictures the forces of Emmanuel coming to bring the gospel to the town of Mansoul.
They directed their assault on Mansoul, at where? The Irrigate. The Irrigate. What an allegory. Listen to this. Because faith comes by hearing, through the Irrigate. But Diablos, Satan basically, the enemy of the Emmanuel, and the forces of evil, wanted to hold Mansoul captive to hell.
So Diablos decided to meet the attack by stationing a special guard at the Irrigate. The guard he chose was, quote, I write from the book here, one old Mr. Prejudice, an angry and ill-conditioned fellow.
According to Bunyan, they made Mr. Prejudice captain of the ward of the Irrigate. Put under his power 60 men, called deaf men, and advantageous, I hope I said that right, for that service, for as much as they mattered, he quotes, no words of the captains, nor of the soldiers.
Think of that, John Bunyan uses that, Prejudice is a very ugly monster, used the imagery of deafness at the Irrigate. But the Apostle Paul uses the metaphor of blindness, in 2 Corinthians 4, 3 -4, listen to the scriptures, if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is in the image of God, should shine on them.
Folks, I'm telling you, this world is great, and as you well know, is in great need of Jesus Christ. More and more so now, as we see, we don't know when the very last trumpet, when the trumpet's going to blow, someone asked Alistair Begg, he said, are we in the last days?
He said, well, according to the scriptures, since Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in a stable, he said, that's when the last days began right there. He says, up until the apostles, and up until now, 2 ,000 years, yes, we've been in the last days, but to say, when is the last time, the very day, he said, I would be wrong in telling you, because the Bible says, no one knows.
And if anybody does set a date to the time the Lord's come out, you know that they're a false teacher, assure you of that. But I love the answer that he gave there, but yes, we're in the last days, but all this is about the gospel, isn't it?
Praise God. My prejudice wasn't strong enough, though, to keep Nathanael from Christ. Isn't that wonderful? Philip responds to Nathanael, that critical question, Philip says in such wisdom, he doesn't argue with him, he just says, come and see, come and see, isn't that great?
And Philip was saying, in essence, if you can't believe, basically, just come and see for yourself. And he did, and this is why Jesus actually complimented him. Notice the second point I have, Jesus is the one who knows you the most, but he loves you the most.
Look at how Jesus addresses Nathanael. Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, behold, I'm an Israelite, behold, an Israelite, indeed, of whom there is no guile, no deceit. Now this is interesting, because this is another pointer here in scripture of the deity of.
Jesus knows everything about us. He looks at us, through us, sees us, he knows our motive, our minds, our very thoughts, before we even think it, before we put it to the lips, and much, much more, folks.
Our very motives. Hebrews 4 .13 says this, and there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. What about Revelation 2 .23, and B says this, and all churches shall know that I am he who searches the minds and the hearts, examines the minds and the hearts.
And then he says, I will give to each one of you according to your works. Beloved God, Jesus Christ has perfect knowledge of you today, of me, intimate knowledge of every human heart, and no evil can be hidden from his sight.
Listen to Psalm 7 .9, David says, Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the just, for the righteous God tests the hearts and minds. What about Proverbs 24 .12, this is a loaded verse.
If you say, surely, surely we did not know this, does not he who weighs the hearts consider.
It?
He who keeps your soul, does he not know it? And will he not render to each man according to his deeds? That is so convicting. Jesus even said in Luke 12 .7, but the very hairs of your head are numbered.
So he says, do not fear therefore, for you are more a value of sparrows. That's such a wonderful encouraging text, because even though he knows everything about us, even the very hairs of our head, he loves you the most.
He cares for you the most. So without any previous acquaintance with Nathaniel, Jesus declared him to be an Israelite, with no deceit, no guile, you know what he's saying, no trickery. No trickery. Like Jacob in the Old Testament gained reputation for using business methods and was not entirely honest, but Nathaniel was an Israelite in whom there was no Jacob.
He was not deceitful. In other words, Nathaniel, who also is known as Bartholomew in the Synoptics, is an Israelite of whom that he was willing to examine for himself the claims being made about Jesus.
And don't you love that about Nathaniel? He wanted to see Christ for himself. Well very quickly, we must move on. Think of this, Jesus knows us the most, but he loves us the most. He said in John 15, 16, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain.
Notice in case of any pretense might exist among the disciples in terms of spiritual pride, the privileges they enjoyed, Jesus our Lord made it very clear that such privilege rested not on their own merit, right?
Not their own good works. Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, have fallen short of the glory of God, but verse 24 says this, and are justified by grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
It is Christ and Christ alone. By no means Jesus is suggesting that Nathaniel is a perfect man, but he's a sinner. He's basically just saying, well you're upright, you're honest, you will seek for yourself and Jesus commends you.
But he still needs a Savior, he needs a Lord, just like us. The exchange comes here in verse 48, Nathaniel said to him, how do you know me? That's a good question, how do you know me? Jesus said, answer to him, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree I saw.
So at this time Jesus points to when Nathaniel was under the fig tree, when? We don't know. Some commentators suggest that this might be a reference to the place where Nathaniel went to study the Old Testament scriptures, but the scriptures doesn't tell us that.
We don't know. But we do know that whatever the case, Nathaniel had some significant outstanding experience in communion with God in wherever the location, under the fig tree, and he recognized Jesus as the Messiah, the King of Israel.
Notice what he says. This should be our full attention here. He sees Jesus Christ, he knows him, he comes to know him as the Messiah. Nathaniel answered him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.
No doubt.
Jesus displayed a supernatural knowledge of Philip's witness removed Nathaniel's doubt so John added the witness of Nathaniel to this section. But he points out two names, you are the Son of God, that points to the truth that Jesus is the Messiah, and he adds, you are the King of Israel, that he is basically the King.
You know, it's interesting here, those two things go together in the life of a disciple who follows Christ. Recognition of Jesus' authority over him as he's Lord, and his submission to Christ when he says you are the King of Israel, you are King!
You are Lord and Sovereign, I have all authority, and you are King! You know, the response to one who believes is to submit to Jesus as King, right? Submit our own life, confess Christ before the world.
Jesus said that. You confess me before me and I'll confess you before the Father. Our faith is a public faith, not a private faith. As Spurgeon says, every Christian is a missionary or an imposter. Jesus said, I saw you underneath the fig tree, do you believe you will see greater things than these?
So Jesus essentially is saying to Nathaniel, you may have been moved to believe what I've told you about yourself, but we're only scratching the surface, just beginning. So the Lord promised that he would see greater proofs.
Number three, Jesus is the one who reveals the love of God to us as the mediator, and I don't have time to unpack this, we'll pick it up, Lord willing, next week, and God willing we'll have communion.
But verse 51, Jesus said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, and Jesus is basically saying truly, truly, amen, amen. He gives his amens before, and anytime Jesus says this, he's saying, cut your ears off.
I'm about to say something very, very important, everything Jesus says is important, but when he says this, truly, truly, amen, amen, it's something very powerful and significant for.
Us.
Cut your ears off, and I say to you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. So Jesus says that, telling Nathaniel to listen up closely, because the great importance here, and this can very much refer to the prophecy in Daniel, that Jesus is referring to the kingdom that he will reign as Lord of lords and King of kings, and the kingdom to come on this earth, as it is in heaven.
He said, you will see the things of heaven revealed to you. He gives Nathaniel this great truth revealed, and the kingdom of heaven comes down to earth. Because heaven and earth meet in Jesus, and this business about the angels of God ascending and descending, isn't it great?
He's basically recalling the story of Jacob's ladder, remember that? In Genesis 28, 12, Jacob had a dream about a ladder running between heaven and earth, and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending, and Jacob called the place Bethel, the house of God.
And basically saying that's the gate of heaven, well, that's what happens when Jesus, in Jesus, he opens heaven for us, Jesus, Jesus's cross, his sacrifice upon Calvary's cross, is Jacob's ladder for us.
He is the, he opens up the gates of heaven, everything from heaven comes from Jesus. Isn't it glorious? Jesus and Jesus alone. You know, I was going to have time to do this, I saw something on YouTube, somebody posted about all these six steps of spirituality, how you can know God, and not one time Jesus.
Was mentioned.
And I said, this is absolutely false to the core, and it all sounded good, I was going to write it down for you and let you hear it. It sounded fluffy and spiritual, but isn't that the way the cults are?
It's sheep's clothing. But Christ was not mentioned once, and that let me know right there, it's false. If Christ isn't mentioned, if Christ isn't adored, if Christ isn't preeminent, if Christ isn't all in all, throw it out.
It must be Christ and Christ alone.
And that's why redeeming grace church exists, that he may have the preeminence. Not only in worship, but as we enter the worship, but we exit the serve, and we tell people about Jesus Christ. Christ came down from heaven for us men, in our salvation, and by being lifted up on the cross, he raises us up from the depths of sin and death, and by his resurrection from the dead and ascension to heaven, he guarantees our resurrection and eternal life and the.
Hope to come.
Praise his name, so we don't have to fear death. It's lost its theme, beloved. Christ took it out by his death on the cross. The cross of Christ is Jacob's ladder, and that's what Jesus is basically saying.
And so the church of God is our Bethel, amen? The house of God where we find Christ in the scriptures. In the scriptures, everything about the scriptures, and these 66 wonderful books that's compiled as the Bible, is all about Christ.
Christ and Christ alone. And here we receive a foretaste of heaven on earth as we come to worship together. Psalm 24 talks about that glorious time. Well, I think Brother Keith mentioned this, and I saw this in Warren Wiersbe's notes, and I'm going to close down with this.
As in being a disciple to hear Jesus follow me, he says, he calls each one of us to follow.
Him.
He guides us into the highways and byways and compels us to compel people to come to Jesus Christ. John 139, come and see, and it basically goes to go and tell. In John 7, 37, Jesus says, come and drink.
And then in John 21, 12, he says, come and dine. You get that? Come and see, come and drink, come and dine. There's an old gospel song I love, and when I first came to the Lord, it was one of my favorites, it has a little gospel twang to it, but I love the words to it.
It says this, Jesus has a table spread where the saints of God are fed. He invites his chosen people, come and dine. With his manna he doth feed, he supplies our every need. Oh, it is so sweet to sup with Jesus all the time.
The disciples came to land, thus obeying Christ's command, for the master calls unto them, come.
And dine.
For they found their heart's desire, bread and fish, upon the fire. He satisfies the hungry every time. Last stanza, and I love this one, soon the lamb will take his bride to be ever at his.
Side.
Oh, where all the hosts of heaven will assemble thee, oh, to be a glorious sight, all the saints in spotless white, there we will feast with Jesus eternally. Come and dine, the master calls, come and dine.
You can feast at Jesus' table all the time. He who fed the multitudes, turned the water into wine, to the hungry he calls now, come.
Come and dine, Revelation 3 20. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come unto him and dine with him, and he with me.
Amen? Amen.
Let's pray. Father, what a wonderful time this is to worship as your people, as we have come to worship.
Lord, of hearing your Scriptures, to hear your Word, Lord, and everything that you have, and what a promise is given to us in Revelation to even the apostate church, Laodiceans. You welcome them to even open the door.
You're outside of the door of the church, and you're knocking. And to him that opens, you even come in and sup with him. And then you give the promise to him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne, and I also will overcome and sit down with my father, as I have overcome and sit down with my father on his throne.
And then you say, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Lord, may we hear you. Oh God, thank you for the great invitation. Thank you for the gracious call that we have to follow you.
What a privilege that you have called us, you have chosen us. It's not us choosing you, you chose us. In your grace, in your goodness, what a sobering reminder, and what a great responsibility. Lord, you've given us this glorious truth, not as an end, but as a means to tell others about the Lord Jesus Christ and your love and mercy.
So Lord, I pray, may each and every one of us be like Andrew who found Peter in his family, to tell our family about the Lord. And Philip the evangelist who found his friend Nathanael, may we spend our lives finding others and declaring the truth in Jesus to them.
Lord, I pray, use us, use us for your glory, that we, for your glory and honor, will give you the thanks and the praise, because it is all due to you for the glory of your grace. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen and amen.