The First Followers | Sermon 10/02/2022

Apologia Utah

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A lot to cover today. We'll be going in detail in some specific areas, but then going a little more quickly, since there's a lot to cover in this narrative passage.

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But Church, starting in verse 35 in the

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Gospel according to John, chapter 1, hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true

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God. Again, the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus, and as he walked, and said,

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Behold, the Lamb of God. The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

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And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, What do you seek? They said to him,

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Rabbi, which translated means where are you staying? He said to them,

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Come, and you will see. So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.

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One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

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He found first his own brother Simon, and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which translated means

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Christ. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, You are

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Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which is translated

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Peter. The next day he purposed to go into Galilee, and he found Philip. And Jesus said to him,

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Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida of the city of Andrew and Peter.

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Philip found Nathanael and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and all the prophets wrote,

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Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael said to him, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?

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Philip said to him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said of him,

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Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. Nathanael said to him,

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How do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him, Before Philip called you, you were under the fig tree.

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When you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathanael answered him, Rabbi, you are the son of God, that you are the king of Israel.

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Jesus answered and said to him, Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.

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And he said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the

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Son of Man. Thus ending the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray quickly, church, as we begin the homily.

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Lord, I come before you as one who recognizes full dependence on you,

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Lord. I am merely a vessel. Would you please speak through me today, Lord? Would you please,

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Father, teach your people, illumine the scriptures by the Holy Spirit, the same

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Holy Spirit that inspired these very words? Lord, would you help us to gain from this what you want us to?

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Not for this to be simply information or knowledge, but Lord, for this to be transformative in our lives.

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So, Father, I ask you that you would bless our time. Please, Lord, help that all that I say to be clear and helpful, and let it always be true.

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I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So, from the moment we're born, we follow people.

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We follow things. Babies and toddlers will follow after mom and dad, right?

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As soon as mom thinks she has a quiet moment, all of a sudden like a head pops up, right?

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It's like, where'd you come from? As a young boy, I remember my mom would be very serious about me following her in the grocery store.

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Me and my brother and my sister, don't get lost. Stop looking at that candy. Stop looking at that toy.

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Follow me. Follow me. Hold on to the cart. I don't want to hold on to the cart, right?

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Some of you have to do that. I remember in the grocery store, I got separated from my mom, and I figured she was actually the one who was lost.

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She had to find me, and I was waiting for her. I was looking around. Okay, she's not coming.

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Where's my mom? So, I started looking for the person that I follow.

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Where's the person that I follow? I started walking down the aisles, peering into every aisle. In fact,

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I remember it was at the Thrifty store. Thrifty. Any of you heard of Thrifty?

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Yeah, they had Thrifty stores, and they even had ice cream. At this Thrifty, they had these mirrors that were at a diagonal.

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I'm even looking in the mirrors. I'm looking down the aisles. I'm looking in the mirrors. Any chance, where's my mom?

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Eventually, I find her. As I'm looking for her, I'm bold as a lion, but once I see my mom,

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I'm crying to let her know that I still want to follow.

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Of course, she consoled me, and all was well. Eventually, we get to the point in our lives where we want to follow others who we think will elevate our own status or will stand something to gain by following them.

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Of course, eight -year -olds will follow 10 -year -olds, and 10 -year -olds will follow 12 -year -olds.

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The vast knowledge of kids that are a little older than each one of them will get passed on to them.

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And by vast, I mean deeply foolish knowledge, typically, as 10 -year -olds teach eight -year -olds.

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Because when you follow someone, you end up learning from them, okay? So, if you follow a fool, you too will become a fool.

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The proverb says as so. And yet, we're meant to follow someone or something greater.

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We follow instructions, we follow directions, we follow the flow of other people as we walk down a sidewalk.

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If you're driving down the I -15, and you suddenly in your lane act like you just missed something, and there's a line of cars behind you,

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I guarantee that many of them will probably go like this too as they see you change lanes or swerve, right?

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We follow. We follow. But for some, there comes a point when they believe all whom they have followed has led them astray.

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And for many, that's true. Many whom they have followed has led them astray.

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That is absolutely true. In fact, there's only one whom you can follow who will not lead you astray, and we'll see that.

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But what we don't realize is because of the sin in this fallen world, when we say, I want to follow my own way, because we feel like everything else and everyone else we've ever followed has led us astray, we're like, then

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I'm just following myself. I have no one else to trust. I will follow myself. I want it my way and my way alone.

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My way's the best way. But actually, when we say that, we're still following another way.

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Okay? Paul says the sons and daughters of disobedience follow the prince of the power of the air.

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We follow the carnalities of this world, but we think we are free. The fact is, when we've done that, we follow that way right into the place where captives are kept.

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When we follow our own way, we walk ourselves right into the place of captivity.

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When people follow their desires, they actually follow the devil, because the devil wanted his own way.

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And therefore, they don't follow anything new, let alone themselves. They follow a long line of people down the broad and easy way that leads to destruction, as Matthew 7 says.

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But the good news is, one has come to set those captives free.

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He has come to show you the correct way, the narrow way that leads to life.

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And this time, you won't follow the guy in front of you. You won't follow your own intuitions, knowing that even those can lead you astray.

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This time, you follow the one who actually calls himself the way. The way, the truth, and the life.

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Jesus Christ bids every person in this world to follow Him. Every single person.

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And we will see in our text how many men turn their way, and they follow

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Him. But also, ultimately, Jesus demonstrates in the entirety of His Word, and in the rest of this

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Gospel account, that He is the one who initiates. He is the one that approaches sinners to bring them to faith.

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He initiates. These men couldn't have turned a single head, let alone move an eye toward Jesus, apart from Him and His will.

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And the astounding part is what Jesus will eventually show us, He says, is going to be amazing.

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We'll see that at the end, right? It's like what

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He promises, He says, you will see the greater things. It's as if when a child comes with his parents, they're in their minivan, and they're approaching a theme park, and they can see the lights, they can see the tops of the rides, and these children start screaming in eagerness, we're here, we're finally at the theme park.

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And the dad's like, you're that excited when you've only seen the outside?

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Wait till you get in. And that's what Jesus alludes to here.

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Wait until you see the heavens open. So Jesus has saved you.

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He has saved these disciples, if you have turned to Him. And whatever wonders, whatever miracles, whatever glory and goodness you think that you've seen now, just wait until you see

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His kingdom. No one and nothing else are worth following like following Jesus.

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And let's see that now, starting in verse 35 to verse 37.

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Again, the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, behold, the

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Lamb of God. The two disciples heard Him speak, and they followed Jesus. So another day has now passed, if you remember from our sermon last week.

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We went over the Lamb of God passage before, the first one in verse 29. Now we are at the transition of the public ministry of John the

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Baptist into the public ministry of Jesus Christ. We saw

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John's testimony concerning Jesus. We saw the Father and the

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Spirit's testimony concerning Jesus as the heavens opened during the baptism of Christ.

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And now we will see the testimony of the disciples, the testimony of Jesus with the disciples.

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The link from the Old Testament prophets to the apostles,

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New Testament apostles, is being made right here. So not only is there a transition of water baptism to what

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John said is spirit baptism, but John himself will move from having disciples of his own to becoming a disciple himself.

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Notice how John is still out there, though, beyond the Jordan, doing what he's called to do. However, things are about to change.

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He makes the same glorious declaration. He says, behold, the Lamb of God.

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As I said, the first time John did this was in verse 29, and that was an announcement before a very large public crowd of Jews.

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Now he makes the same announcement in front of two of his own disciples. Have you noticed the difference, though, if you think back to verse 29?

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In verse 29 it said, John saw Jesus coming to him, but now

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Jesus, it says, is walking by. He looked at Jesus as he walked.

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Jesus' ministry has begun. John is not mentioned again in chapter 1 at this point.

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He says, behold, look to Jesus. He gives once again the most important words in his ministry.

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The glorious replacement is underway. He is the forerunner. He is pointed to the coming

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Messiah, and the Messiah is here, and now he's pointing all types of people to him.

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Here he is, behold, the Lamb of God. And that's really the point.

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John's ministry is fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus. And that has to go for all of us.

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Some may think they have a ministry, but if a ministry doesn't ultimately flow into the ministry of Jesus, it is useless.

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There's ministries all over this country, all over the world. We have a ministry. Great. But does your ministry flow into the ministry of Jesus Christ, into the work that Jesus has done?

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The other thing we can see from John's example is that he doesn't just talk about Jesus casually or in a supposed neutral way.

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He actually points others to Jesus. You see, in some rare occasions, people will ask us about our faith.

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You know, I've seen the way you live. Tell me a little bit about what you believe. Yeah, that can happen.

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But I don't think that's normative. I don't think that happens all the time. Right? For whatever reason, it comes up.

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And in that case, many of us have talked about Jesus like this. Well, for me,

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Jesus was a good option. Jesus was a good option for me. I understand

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Jesus may not be the thing for you and that's you, but Jesus is who

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I follow, so that's who I have faith in. And we kind of talk like that sometimes. Or maybe we talk about how it's changed our lives, but we don't tell them how it'll change their lives.

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That's definitely part of it. But John points sinners to the only one who can actually take away the sins of the world.

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And do we do that? Do we do that? Do I do that? Do we point people to the one who actually can take away their sins?

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He's not just a good option. He's the only option to have peace with God, to be reconciled with God.

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Notice the progression in verse 37. It says, the two disciples heard him speak and they followed.

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So someone spoke, they heard, and then they followed. Spoke, heard, followed.

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You see, we are called to speak. That's what I'm getting at. As much as we think someone will see our good deeds and turn to Jesus, that is not typical.

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That is atypical. Our actions should point to Jesus. I think that's a given.

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Your life should represent that of Christ. You're a Christian. It should look different.

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But it says, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. It's not

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Daniel's life is the power of God unto salvation. Right?

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It's not our example. Someone says example is the power of God unto salvation,

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Mother Teresa, whatever you want to say. It's the gospel. And how is the gospel going to be proclaimed through your life?

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That's a given. I just said it. The gospel has to be spoken. It must be heard. They must turn and follow

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Christ. You know,

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I was thinking, we like, we do small things sometimes.

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We will return a shopping cart to the cart return go. We'll look around.

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Yeah. Who saw that? I follow Jesus. Or if you don't, you'll get punched in the head for it.

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I'll explain that to the chili cook off. For those of you who don't know, I got punched in the head at a

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Smith's parking lot. But we'll do things like we'll rent a car from Hertz or something like that.

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And we'll return it and we'll leave it on like Chris Tomlin. I just saved 100 people.

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Right? I'm going to leave that on. They're going to turn the ignition on. They're going to hear it. Their lives are going to change.

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So it's funny how we do things like that. But we are called primarily to speak.

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To speak. Romans chapter 10 verse 14 through 17.

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How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in him whom they have not heard?

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And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent?

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Just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good tidings.

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So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. That is an integral element.

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You know, the gospels show Jesus preaching. It says Jesus then went throughout Galilee preaching the good news.

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John the Baptist went preaching that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Preaching, teaching out loud.

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Jesus would go into the synagogues and teach. The disciples didn't just follow him to observe his life.

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When it says they went to go see where he was staying, that wasn't enough. Oh, this is where you live.

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No, they didn't just want to see his life. They wanted to see, hear his teachings. That's what happened with discipleship.

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They followed him to hear something. From Matthew to the Acts of the

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Apostles. The gospels to the Acts of the Apostles. You have 32 times is the word proclaim or proclamation.

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51 times is the word preach. And 145 times it says to speak in reference to the right thing or the good news.

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Proclaim liberty to the Proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. Proclaim the gospel.

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Preach the kingdom of God. This is a religion of proclamation.

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Hands down. And so these two disciples of John depart from John and they follow

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Jesus. There was no holding on to them. He wouldn't, even if he could.

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John pointed to them. He wouldn't have it any other way. Every existing disciple and master should now be following the divine master, according to John.

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So go to verses 38 and 39, continuing on. And Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, what do you seek?

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They said to him, Rabbi, which translated means teacher, where are you staying? He said to them, come and you will see.

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So they came and saw where he was staying and they stayed with him that day for it was about the 10th hour.

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What you can see is Jesus turned. See that? And Jesus turned.

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Jesus turns. He sees them following. They don't intend to just walk behind him.

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A transition is happening for these men. This word following in the

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Greek is akaloutheo. Akaloutheo. It is used 86 times in the

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New Testament. Almost every single reference of akaloutheo is used in regards to Jesus telling someone to follow him or disciples actually following him.

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The word comes from the word for road or way, a way that people walked on.

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The idea is that many disciples would accompany their masters on walks and journeys down roads.

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And this isn't just following someone like you're following a friend who's in the car in front of you. The context is following someone who you see as an authority.

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Someone worthy to be obedient to. Someone to learn from.

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That's what that word means. One commentator says that there is more to this word turned than just Jesus physically turning and looking back at them.

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That there's some sort of symbolism happening here. That it's reminiscent of God's turning to his people.

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It says in Psalm 90, turn O Lord. How long will it be? Turn O Lord.

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How long? Zechariah 1 .3 says, Thus says the Lord of hosts, return to me declares the

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Lord that I may return to you. And the instant these two disciples of John turned from the

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Baptist to Jesus, Jesus then turned to them. Jesus turned.

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Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. We learned that in James. Jesus asked them then what they are seeking.

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His question can also be translated, what do you desire?

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What do you desire? What do you want? And often those who show interest in Jesus are faced with that question.

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We come to Jesus and he says, what do you want? What do you really want? If you want anything but the

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Savior, you cannot come. You cannot follow. They say,

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Rabbi, where are you staying? And if you're like me, you're thinking, that's it?

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That's it? This is the Messiah? And they're going to just ask him where he's staying?

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They might as well have just asked him about the weather. But of course, if you ask

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Jesus about the weather, he'd be like, I can calm storms. I can do this or that, you know. And he'd be glorious anyways.

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Where are you staying? And this question of theirs is not that they want a tour of his living quarters, because as they address him as Rabbi, as they ask him where he is staying, they are essentially saying, we are here to follow you.

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You are our new master. That's what they mean by calling him

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Rabbi. Rabbi literally means master or teacher. And a rabbi is a member of the clergy of Judaism.

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Rabbis often functioned as leaders of synagogues where they provided instruction in the

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Hebrew scriptures and Jewish traditions. Rabbis would often preach sermons, interpret the

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Old Testament, and perform other functions, even similar to that of a Christian pastor in many ways.

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In the first century, many weren't officially in the rabbinical order, but were called such because of their ministry of teaching.

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Jesus is a special rabbi though. Jesus is special as a rabbi.

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Even Nicodemus sees it in John chapter 3. He says, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God.

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He's not just any teacher. He's a teacher who has come from God. So then

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Jesus invites them to see where he is staying, and they remain with him the whole day.

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And it's just so incredible. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And these disciples get to see even his dwelling, right?

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God himself is here. God is now among men and women. He's in his own creation.

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God is here. So moving on, let's go to verses 40 through 42.

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Excuse me. Moving on to those, it says, one of the two who heard

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John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

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He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which translated means

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Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, you are

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Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which is translated Peter.

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So one of the two disciples of John, remember, two disciples of John sought to follow

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Jesus. And now one is identified as Andrew. Andrew.

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And Andrew is introduced to us in relation to his well -known brother,

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Simon Peter, who is not even on the scene yet. Some of you got that growing up.

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Hey, you're so -and -so's brother. You're so -and -so's sister, right? So we can sympathize with Andrew there.

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But, you know, I don't think Andrew would be upset with that. I don't think Andrew the Apostle would be upset with that.

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And we'll see why in just a moment. I'm going to say something more about him in a second. But as far as the second disciple, remember, there was two.

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The second disciple of John the Baptist, we are not given a name. This man remains anonymous to this day.

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We don't know who was the second disciple who left John and went with Andrew to follow after Jesus.

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Okay? There have been speculations over the centuries. Some argue that the best fit is probably

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John the Apostle, who wrote this fourth Gospel account, as he never adds himself or his name to the whole

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Gospel. We went over that in the first sermon, remember? John the

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Apostle, who wrote this Gospel, doesn't put his name or himself in there. He calls himself the disciple whom

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Jesus loved, the beloved disciple. But ultimately, there is no name.

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Could be John, could be someone else, we don't know. But it says that he remained and followed

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Jesus. He was even a disciple before Peter, whoever this man was. Okay?

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Having heard John say that Jesus is the Lamb of God, and possibly whatever Jesus told him at his lodging,

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Andrew goes to his brother Simon and tells him, we have found the Messiah. We have found the

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Messiah. And for so long they anticipated, they were expectant of that Messiah, and now he is here.

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We have found the Messiah. The Anointed One is found. It says in verse 42, he, Andrew, brought his brother

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Simon to Jesus. This word, agagon in the

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Greek for brought, also means to lead or to guide. And I guess what

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I wanted to finish mentioning about Andrew the Apostle, is that every time he is mentioned in the

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Gospel account, every single time, Andrew is bringing someone else to Jesus.

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He is bringing someone to the Christ. He was never as well known as his brother

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Peter. Never. Never. But what he's known for is significant.

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Amen? If it was remembered and said on your tombstone, this person led others to Christ, that would be an untouchable legacy.

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This person led other people to Jesus Christ. Can't touch that. So, praise

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God for the example of Andrew the Apostle, which of course, just is an example of Christ.

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It says, Jesus looked at Simon. You see that? Verse 42 at the bottom there,

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Jesus looked at him and said, that's where we're at. The word for looked here in the

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Greek really conveys more that Jesus looked intently at Simon. Okay?

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This was a powerful moment. The eyes of God himself, piercing through, knowing every thought, word, or deed that you've ever done, that he's currently thinking or ever that he will do,

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Jesus could size anyone up in that regard.

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Jesus even knows his name before he gives it. He says, you are Simon, son of John. But Jesus renames him.

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You shall be called Cephas, which is Aramaic. In the Greek New Testament, that is a kappa and a phi there.

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That would be Cephas. There's kappa, eta. But in English, we would say

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Cephas for the Aramaic. In the Greek, it would be Petros. Petros, Peter.

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And it means rock. Rock or stone. Now, when

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God names people or things in Genesis, when he calls man

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Adam or Adam, and Adam names the animals, and the

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Lord renames Jacob to Israel, it all denotes lordship and ownership, in a sense.

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And that's what's taking place here right now. One theologian says,

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Jesus looked, looking intently at Peter, declares him to be his disciple. The same man named

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Peter, yet now different, is also called Peter. Peter is a new man, yet not one thing in him made it so.

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It was only Jesus and his declaration that changed Peter. Something has changed.

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It is no longer John looking at the Lamb of God. It is the Lamb of God looking at the son of John, Peter.

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Something's changed. This is how we can know that the church was not founded upon Peter.

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Peter isn't the first pope or bishop, and it all goes from there.

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But it's about the one who called him the rock. The church is founded on the one who renamed him.

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The church is founded upon Jesus Christ and the rock of the gospel. Now, Peter will be a solid rock for the church.

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He will be steady, and in the face of death, he will remain all the way up until his death.

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Peter will be faithful. Of course, after the betrayal and the denials and everything like that.

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But when he receives the Holy Spirit, and the church begins in the book of Acts, he is a rock, steady for thousands of believers in that first century.

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But Jesus is the cornerstone, and the rock is the gospel.

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And nevertheless, Jesus intends to do something with Peter. This is not to be predictive of what

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Peter will do, but indicates what Jesus will make him into. Jesus isn't like, let me look forward.

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Okay, I'm going to call you the rock. I'm going to call you Peter because of what I see you will do. This is Jesus saying,

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I'm going to call you the rock because I'm making you into something new. That's the difference.

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So let's go on to verses 43 and 44. Keep moving. A lot of text. The next day he purposed to go into Galilee, and he found

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Philip. Jesus said to him, follow me. Now, Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

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If you remember, Jesus was beyond the Jordan. He was baptizing. I'm sorry, where John was baptizing is where Jesus was at.

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But on the next day, he purposed to go into Galilee. We don't know exactly where he met

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Philip. If it was kind of there by the waters of baptism, if it was on the way to Galilee, or if it was like once finally

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Jesus got to Galilee, that's where he saw Philip. We don't know exactly. But he finds him, and he gives an imperative, which in the

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Greek is a command form. It says, follow me, with tons of power behind that.

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It's an imperative. It's a command, follow me. We don't know if there was any other dialogue between them besides that, but it was enough.

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Follow me, Philip. With the same power that Jesus has to create worlds, the

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Savior says, follow me. And Philip obeys. It doesn't matter what it will cost him or what his family will say.

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He follows Christ. He's faced with Christ and knows that nothing else in the world is worth more than to follow

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Jesus. Philip is one of the 12 apostles. Matthew 10 lists each one of them off.

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It says, now the name of the 12 apostles are these, first Simon who is called Peter, Andrew his brother,

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James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector,

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James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus, Simon the zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.

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So real quickly, what else do we know about Philip? I talked about Andrew a bit.

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What else do we know about Philip? We'll see shortly that Philip will lead even

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Nathaniel to Jesus, so we know that. In John chapter 6, Philip calculates the cost to feed the 5 ,000.

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In John chapter 12, some Greeks who seem to be God -fearers who wanted to meet

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Jesus come to Philip and they ask him for an introduction. Okay, Philip was the one who said this.

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Later in the gospel, Philip says, show us the

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Father, Jesus, and it will be sufficient. That's when Jesus says, if you've seen me, you've seen the

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Father. So you have these moments. In each of these occurrences with Philip, he is often confused.

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He calculates what it would take to buy more bread and fish for the 5 ,000, and Jesus is like, that's not the point.

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He gets confused in these moments. And it just shows us that although these were incredible men, many were just plain ordinary people.

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And Jesus wants the ordinary follower. If you don't think you have it all right, then you're in good company, because neither did

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Philip. But he was faithful. He was faithful, and that's key.

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The last time the Bible mentions the apostle Philip is as one of those gathered in Jerusalem to pray after the

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Lord's ascension in Acts chapter 1, verse 13. That's the last time we hear of the apostle Philip. Tradition states that Philip went to Phrygia, or in Greek it's

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Phrygia, which is like a modern -day Turkey, that Philip went to.

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Modern -day Turkey is a missionary, and he was martyred there in the Hierapolis. That's what tradition says.

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We don't know for sure. And if you are thinking of another Philip in the book of Acts, the

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Philip who saw the Ethiopian eunuch and showed him what Isaiah 53 means about Jesus Christ, who then baptized the

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Ethiopian eunuch, and then it says that he got caught away by the Holy Spirit, and all of a sudden miraculously lands in a place.

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I don't know what that looks like, but it says that he was taken away and brought somewhere else. That Philip was called

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Philip the deacon, or Philip the evangelist. Different Philip.

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Just wanted to make that clear. Both great examples for us. But it says Philip was from the same town of Bethsaida, the same birthplace of Andrew and Peter.

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And Bethsaida is a small town northeast, and it is at the northeast tip of the

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Sea of Galilee, which is also called the Lake Gennesaret. And it's at this tip where the

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Jordan River flows into the Sea of Galilee. And Bethsaida literally means fisher's home.

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Fisher's home. Okay. Of course, you might even think about when

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Jesus came to them and said, I'm going to make you fishers of men. It's just amazing. Andrew, Peter, Philip all come from there.

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It was also one of those cities where Jesus gave his woes. He says, woe to you,

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Chorazin, woe to you, Bethsaida. It was one of those cities that Jesus had brought many signs and miracles to.

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He had brought the good news to Bethsaida, and they rejected him. And so he lists his woes to them.

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And to this day, church, to this very day, Bethsaida is buried ruins.

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Buried ruins. Go to verses 45 and 46. It reads,

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Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote.

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Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael said to him, can any good thing come out of Nazareth?

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Philip said to him, come and see. So Philip does what John the Baptist did and Andrew did before him.

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He told another person about Jesus Christ. He tells

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Nathanael, we have found him. The identity of the Messiah has been made.

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And Philip is truly believed. He adds even more depth to his understanding of who the anointed one is.

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He says, we have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets spoke about.

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By the way, when the term law and prophets are brought together, that is to mean the whole of the

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Hebrew Scriptures, the whole of the Old Testament. That's what Philip is saying. The whole Bible at this point in time, he's saying, talks about this one,

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Jesus of Nazareth, the law and the prophets, the one whom the whole

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Bible revolves around. Moses wrote about him in the law.

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And by law, they probably mean the Pentateuch, which means the first five books of the

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Bible. That is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. That's the Pentateuch.

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And that would be the books that Moses wrote until his death.

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And so, this echoes Jesus' own words. Jesus says in John chapter 5, for if you believed

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Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. He confirms it.

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Now, this is not exhaustive at all by any means, but let me list off a few of the things in the

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Pentateuch. I'm going to go real quick. So if you're a writer, you're not going to, you're not going to hear it, but I'll give you the list later if you want.

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Here's some things that reference Jesus in the

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Pentateuch from Genesis to Deuteronomy. Of course, you have Genesis 3 .15, the proto -evangelium, the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent.

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Genesis 12, in Abraham's seed, the whole earth will be blessed. Genesis 22 .8,

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the Lamb of God, we saw the promise that the Lamb of God would come. Genesis 26 .4,

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in Isaac's seed, the whole earth will be blessed as well. Genesis 49 .10, Jacob's prophecy over Judah, that Shiloh is coming, pointing to the

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Messiah. Then you have Exodus 3 .14, Jesus says that he is the

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I Am. Exodus 12, the blood of the Lamb saves from the wrath of God.

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During the Passover, Leviticus 16, we saw the sin offering and the scapegoat.

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Numbers 21 .9, the bronze serpent is lifted up, and all who look to the bronze serpent was saved.

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Jesus says that he is that bronze serpent, figuratively. Numbers 24,

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Balaam is a bad guy, but he prophesies the truth. In Numbers 24, he predicts the coming of Christ.

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Deuteronomy 17, a righteous king will come. Deuteronomy 18, the prophet from among their own countrymen is coming, and that's

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Jesus Christ. Deuteronomy 21, the one who hangs on a tree is cursed of God.

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All those point to Jesus, and there's so many more. Real quickly, again, now the prophets.

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2 Samuel 7 and 1 Chronicles 17 give a description of the

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Davidic covenant that from David's seed would come someone who would rule forever.

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They would have an everlasting kingdom, and Solomon is dead. He's dead to this day.

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So that was a promise of Jesus Christ, the king of king and lord of lords.

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So then you have Psalm 2, the Lord's anointed will reign, that the nations will pay homage to him.

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Psalm 22 is the crucifixion. Psalm 23 is burial and crucifixion.

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Psalm 24 is the exaltation of Christ. Psalm 72, his rule will be from sea to sea, into the river, into the ends of the earth.

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You have Psalm 110, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand, and I will make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

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Boy, there's just so many. Isaiah 2, Isaiah 6, Isaiah 7, Isaiah 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, a son will be given, a child will be born, and the government will rest upon his shoulders.

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He will be called mighty God, El Gabor. He will be called the eternal father, the prince of peace.

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All these things point to Jesus. You have, of course, even Isaiah 45, 48 says,

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I am, Yahweh says, I am the first and the last. Where does that come from? That comes from Revelation.

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Jesus says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Jesus says, he is

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Yahweh there. He is the Lord. 52, the servant.

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53, the suffering servant. Isaiah 61, the future messianic reign.

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Jeremiah 23, 31, 33, the new covenant. Ezekiel 34, 37,

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Daniel 7, the son of man goes up to the ancient of days. He's given a kingdom, an everlasting one, that will never fade away.

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Daniel 9, 10, Zechariah, basically 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14, all of Zechariah points to Jesus Christ.

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And then finally, the Old Testament ends with Malachi, and Malachi 3 says a forerunner is coming, and then the

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Lord's going to come into his house, his temple, and cleanse it. We're going to see later in this gospel, Jesus came and cleansed the temple of those who made it a den of thieves.

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And so, there it is. There it is, Jesus. And we could spend, honestly, years going into the messianic prophecies and fulfillments of Jesus, and Philip knew that this wasn't just another prophet.

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This was someone that the whole Bible anticipated his arrival. But after Philip said it was

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Jesus of Nazareth, he shows he's a bit skeptical.

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Nathaniel can't imagine the Messiah being from Nazareth. Why? Nazareth was a city roughly 55 miles north of Jerusalem.

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By the way, when they were leaving Nazareth and going to Jerusalem, it says that they were going down,

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I'm sorry, up to Jerusalem, even though they were heading south, and that's because Jerusalem was higher in elevation, so they would be climbing from north, going down to Jerusalem, they'd be increasing in elevation.

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So that's, anyways, that's why the Bible shows that they were going up, going up to Jerusalem. But it's north of Jerusalem.

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During the time of Jesus, the Jews held those from Nazareth, a city within the region of Galilee, they held it in low esteem.

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Even Acts chapter 24, verse 5 shows that disdain for the people of Nazareth, as they sometimes called

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Christ -followers the sect of the Nazarenes, in Acts chapter 24.

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But you can imagine, maybe, Nathaniel having grown up near Nazareth, he could not conceive of something so awesome coming from where he lives.

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It's like a young boy who's kicking cans and rocks during the hot summer, and he's bored, and he's like, nothing cool ever happens in this town.

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Nothing happens here. So in the same spirit, Nathaniel thinks the same thing.

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But it would make sense that Jesus would come from a place like Nazareth. In Psalm 22, it says that people mocked and scorned

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Jesus. Isaiah 53 says He was despised and rejected. This demonstrates the humility of Jesus Christ.

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So very humble. Not only did the Word become flesh, which is unfathomable for God to step into a fallen creation, but He's also from Nazareth.

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He could have been called Jesus the Bethlehemite. Jesus from Bethlehem.

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Right? It would have perfectly shown His royal lineage, His connection to the

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Davidic throne. It would have been a lot easier. But no.

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Jesus is born in Bethlehem, but He was raised as a child and into adulthood in Nazareth, a place that most

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Jews detested. So Nathaniel asks the question that everyone is wondering, can anything good come out of Nazareth?

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Yes. Yes. Goodness and perfection has come from Nazareth.

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It speaks to the fact that God humbled

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Himself in becoming man and how much more glory He'll receive as a result of it.

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Why? Why did God do this? Why didn't He just stay in Bethlehem?

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Why was Jesus raised in Nazareth, a place where people would despise Him? It says in 1

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Corinthians 1, God has chosen the foolish things of this world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world, and the despise

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God has chosen the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.

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He gets all the glory. Philip ends it with, come and see.

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Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip says, come and see. It's almost like he's saying,

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I can't fully explain it to you. You've just got to come and see it for yourself. Come, look,

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Nathaniel. So go to verses 47 through 49. Jesus saw

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Nathaniel coming to Him and said, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit.

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Nathaniel said to him, How do you know me? Jesus answered and said to him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree,

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I saw you. Nathaniel answered to him, Rabbi, you are the

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Son of God. You are the King of Israel. So, Nathaniel is not hindered by his skepticism.

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He still comes with Philip. It is actually Nathaniel's earnest desire to know and serve

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God that makes him head to Jesus. How do we know that? Because Jesus calls him an

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Israelite indeed. That word in the Greek, indeed, comes from the word truth.

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He was a true Israelite. He was a true Israelite. This is a man who has probably been invested since childhood to know and desperately find the

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Messiah. And what's amazing is that Jesus points him out.

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Maybe, I don't know. I don't know how I see this. I don't know how you see this, but I almost look at it like Philip tells him the

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Messiah has come and he's skeptical about Nazareth. How could it be Jesus of Nazareth?

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And you could almost imagine Nathaniel stomping toward Jesus like, I'm going to get to the bottom of this.

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Is this really the Messiah? Because if it's not, I'm going to shut him down.

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If it's not the Messiah, he better not be calling himself the Christ. That's kind of how devoted Nathaniel is to the truth.

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So, as he walks up though,

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Jesus disarms that kind of stomp and he says, behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit.

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And he's just like, he kind of, he's diffused now.

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He's kind of lost the will to fight and he's taken aback.

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He stands maybe a bit puzzled and then he continues walking. Now he's captivated with Jesus.

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Nathan, Nathaniel is perplexed. How do you know me? How do you know me?

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Jesus reveals before Philip came to Nathaniel, he saw Nathaniel under the fig tree.

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When we don't know, no one knows what Philip was, I'm sorry, what Nathaniel was doing under the fig tree.

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We don't know. We don't know. Maybe there was no one around and it was impossible for Jesus to know he was under a fig tree and that shocked him and it was supernatural in that way.

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It would, it would have been impossible for Jesus to know that Nathaniel was under the fig tree. Maybe that's it.

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Maybe under the fig tree he had the opportunity to sin. Maybe sin came walking its way up to Nathaniel and Nathaniel rejected it and he honored

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God and he did the right thing and Jesus knew that and he, how do you know who

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I am? How did you see that? I remember in Arizona we planted a fig tree for my father -in -law and it was like,

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I'm not even kidding, a guy at my work gave me a stick in a pot and it was like this tall.

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But if you know anything about fruit trees and you know that's one of my hobbies, I love fruit trees, is you know some you have to graft, some you have to graft onto good root stocks and things like that.

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You know in Arizona we have highly alkaline soil so we had to, you know, put like tangerines or grapefruit cuttings onto sour orange root stocks.

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They do better with alkaline clay soils and so anyways, basically fig trees can just propagate.

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You can just cut a piece off and put it in soil and typically it'll root out, okay. And so we take this stick and we put it in my father -in -law's backyard and I'm not even kidding, fig trees just love the heat.

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It's like 110 summer, just give it water and this thing blew up and it was, I mean it was feet taller than me in less than a year.

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It was just huge and if you've seen mature fig trees before, fig leaves can be almost, they're bigger than a man's hand.

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And so if you can imagine even in that time in Jerusalem and in Israel and Galilee in this point, the fig tree was a big shade tree.

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So often young men and women devoted to God would go under the shade of a fig tree and they would have a time of devotion, study, prayers to the living

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God. So it's possible, again, he had an intimate moment of prayer and study with God and there was no one around and maybe

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Jesus supernaturally saw that. So, but again, that's all speculation, we don't know, okay.

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So what we do know is that Jesus depicted the specific location where Nathaniel was, but he also depicted his heart condition.

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He was taken aback. That answer of Jesus was enough, supernatural enough to cause him to believe that Jesus is the

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Son of God, the King of Israel. Nathaniel is calling Jesus the very titles that are associated with the

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Messiah. Nathaniel was entirely convinced of who Jesus was.

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His skepticism is now intensely contrasted by his now faith and that's how every one of us should respond.

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You may come to Jesus with skepticism, but once Jesus shows you who you are and who he is, lay it aside, have faith, trust in him.

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Faith is inevitable at that point. So if you look, it says rabbi, you are the

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Son of God, you are the King of Israel. It looks like rabbi is one among three titles Nathaniel gives

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Jesus, but actually calling him rabbi shows more of a change in Nathaniel.

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He's committing to following Jesus, to be a disciple. He believes

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Jesus to be the Son of God and King of Israel, and the article here is not a

01:00:04

Son of God, it is the Son of God, the unique and one and only

01:00:11

Son of God. Nathaniel just doesn't see simply a man that is sent from God, he sees something more.

01:00:21

The promised Son of God would reign eternally. Also in places like Isaiah and Zephaniah, there is the title

01:00:29

King of Israel that was always placed with the Lord, placed with Yahweh. And here, now,

01:00:36

Nathaniel uses those titles that were only used for Yahweh, for the Lord in the

01:00:42

Old Testament, he uses that title King of Israel to Jesus. He sees something different.

01:00:50

Let's finish with our last verses, verses 50 and 51. Jesus answered and said to him, because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe you will see greater things than these?

01:01:08

And Jesus said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the

01:01:17

Son of Man. So Jesus' response is like, really?

01:01:24

Because I told you I saw you under the fig tree, you believe you're going to see greater things than these?

01:01:32

This is nothing compared to the signs and wonders and miracles you will see occur in my ministry, in a sense.

01:01:42

So Nathaniel is a bit short -sighted, and I would argue that at the very beginning, all the apostles were a little bit short -sighted.

01:01:51

They didn't know what to expect in some capacity about the Messiah. We've all been this way before.

01:02:01

When we were first saved or even now, maybe you're this way. We can be a bit short -sighted.

01:02:06

We often live in a faith that rests in what it sees and not what it knows by faith through the promises of Christ.

01:02:19

Even the titles he gave Jesus, I don't think at this time he fully understood what it would look like for the

01:02:27

Messiah to be on the earth. You remember, John and James were like, let's call down fire for Samaria and burn it up.

01:02:34

Let's burn all these people. And they all had this expectation that he was going to be this Davidic warrior king.

01:02:42

And so there's something going on here. He's a bit short -sighted.

01:02:52

He didn't get the mission yet. Nevertheless, it says he pastuo. He pastuo.

01:02:58

This is the root word for pistis, which is faith. Pistis is faith. Pastuo is belief.

01:03:05

They go hand in hand. Okay. It says he believed. He had faith at some level, at some capacity.

01:03:15

Honestly, all of them did to some level. Andrew, Philip, Simon Peter, Nathaniel.

01:03:23

They had a faith. Maybe a small one, but they had faith that Jesus was the

01:03:29

Christ. By the way, Nathaniel out of the four was the only one who didn't get to be an apostle.

01:03:37

Nathaniel was only a disciple. So I think we should be encouraged by that.

01:03:44

We often take for granted the simple faith we displayed at the beginning.

01:03:50

A naive but genuine faith. Little did we know what we would see just as they did.

01:03:59

Jesus is going to give an example to the disciples of what they can expect to see. He starts with, truly, truly,

01:04:08

I say to you. Now, some of you are thinking, Pastor Wade, we've been in here for a long time.

01:04:14

You're really going to go into the details about truly, truly, yes, I am. Because it's really cool.

01:04:20

We're almost done. Bear with me. Listen to this. Truly, truly is amen, amen in the

01:04:29

Greek. It's where we get the word, of course, amen or amen.

01:04:35

Truly, truly. It is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word that means to confirm.

01:04:41

It is meant to convey some sort of certainty. It is an affirmation of truth and agreement that something is true.

01:04:52

One commentator says the use of the term by Jesus to introduce his own speech is unique.

01:04:59

That is, there is no known Jewish use by a person in antiquity or in writing who did what

01:05:09

Jesus did before him or during this time. No one else said truly, truly. No one.

01:05:15

They've never seen it before. It was always used to affirm the statement of another.

01:05:24

So someone would speak something and you would say, amen, amen. But Jesus starts it at the beginning of all that.

01:05:32

Typically, most of what he says when he's teaching, he says, amen, amen, truly, truly. And what this implies is that Jesus sees his words to be more authoritative.

01:05:43

He sees his words to be truth. When he speaks, it's the word of God because he is

01:05:51

God. It becomes the authoritative truth. This is just like Jesus saying, thus saith the

01:05:58

Lord. But since he is the Lord, he just says, truly, truly. That's all he needs to say. Amen, amen.

01:06:05

And all four gospels show Jesus doing this, not just this one. So this is the last section here.

01:06:14

This would be a time for you to listen. This is just glorious. Jesus says, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the

01:06:27

Son of Man. And there are only a few times in the Bible that we see this moment where it says the heavens are opened.

01:06:37

The heavens opened. Ezekiel's vision of God during the time of exile, the heavens opened.

01:06:46

We saw last week during Jesus's baptism, the heavens opened. The Holy Spirit descended upon him as a dove and the

01:06:54

Father says, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Then you have

01:07:01

Stephen's martyrdom when he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. The revelation when

01:07:07

Christ was seen on a white horse judging and waging war. Those are times when the heavens opened.

01:07:16

And this definitely seems, though, to be a reference to what? Genesis 28, Jacob's ladder.

01:07:22

Did anyone think about that? Yeah, Jacob's ladder. In that passage in Genesis chapter 28, verse 12,

01:07:31

God reveals himself to Jacob. If you remember, Jacob wrestles with God. It was a theophany of God.

01:07:37

Maybe it was Christ, a Christophany. And so at this moment,

01:07:43

God reaffirms the covenant he made with Abraham and promises to Jacob the same future of innumerable descendants and how his name will now be called

01:07:54

Israel. And what is demonstrated with this word in the Hebrew, Salaam, which is ladder, is a connection between God and man.

01:08:07

Okay, God reaches down and interacts with man on his own terms in the way that he is determined.

01:08:20

Now, this is completely opposed to what? Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel. What were they trying to do?

01:08:27

They were trying to make their own way to climb up to God. But in Genesis 28, and in this passage, we see that God is the one who initiates the connection between God and man.

01:08:42

You cannot climb your way to heaven. You cannot make a ladder tall enough. God creates the ladder.

01:08:48

God is the ladder. God must come down.

01:08:55

We need God to do this. So the heavens opened as, as in he will show them the things of God, because Jesus is the one who has intimate access to the

01:09:07

Father. Jacob only saw a vision of the ladder, whereas Jesus is the very ladder that we need.

01:09:16

Jesus is the ladder. That's the point of this. He is the stairway to God.

01:09:23

He is the ladder. He is the only way by which we can dwell with God in peace and salvation.

01:09:30

And the glorious and magnificent things of God are about to ascend and descend upon Jesus.

01:09:38

That's the point. They're going to see amazing things. The God of heaven will be upon Jesus from beginning to end.

01:09:48

Jacob was then called Israel, but Jesus is the new and better Israel, the true

01:09:54

Israel. Through Jesus, the nations are blessed. Through Jesus, innumerable descendants who are called children of God will be born again.

01:10:07

And ultimately, the climax, the pinnacle of what the apostles will see is his death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation.

01:10:17

What they don't know now is that only through death will life come.

01:10:23

Only through the cross will the most glory manifest. Only through the resurrection will his power be fully seen.

01:10:33

So let me conclude here. I'm wrapping this up. There are a lot of things that went on with this section of scripture.

01:10:43

We went and saw a lot of different narratives. It was glorious though. Amazing narrative here.

01:10:50

But there's been a lot of changes. So I just want to remind you of five things real quick. Five things to be reminded of with the text we just went over.

01:10:58

Number one, God is the one who truly initiates and gathers his disciples.

01:11:04

Jesus came to that place by the river beyond the Jordan with a mission.

01:11:12

He was there with a purpose that day, and he was there to gather disciples for himself.

01:11:18

And we're going to see that truth re -emphasized time and time again in this gospel. It says in John chapter 6, it says, no one can come to me unless the

01:11:28

Father draws them. Right? We'll continue to see that. Number two, Jesus says, come and see.

01:11:37

Jesus said, come and see in one of the passages. And we are to continue to approach

01:11:45

Jesus in our lives as Christians, see what he wants to teach us.

01:11:50

Jesus bids us every day to come and see. Every day is an invitation to come and see what

01:11:57

Jesus has done daily as the Christ follower. Number three, we're called to be true

01:12:07

Israelites. Those who forsake their skepticism and doubt and trust fully by faith in him.

01:12:17

We're to be true Israelites. And we would be wrong if we thought

01:12:23

Nathaniel was a true Israelite because he was, he had some sort of blood heritage. We would be wrong to think that, that he was a true

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Israelite because he was born into it. That's not why Jesus calls him that. He's a true

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Israelite because he seeks after God and has come to faith in Jesus Christ. So in a sense, we are all true

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Israelites who have come to faith in Christ. Number four, don't ever assume that since we live in America, that we live in this context, that people have actually heard of Jesus Christ or the gospel.

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I mean, we talked with people yesterday who have never even heard the biblical gospel.

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They've never heard the truth of the gospel. So don't ever assume that they have.

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Each disciple went to the next man and to the next man. John pointed to Jesus for Andrew and the unknown disciple.

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Then Andrew pointed Simon Peter to Jesus. And then came

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Philip, probably some connection because they're both all living in Bethsaida.

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And Philip then brought Nathaniel. And we are to do the same thing. We are to lead people to Christ.

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So we are to tell our neighbor, tell our family in the same way, the one who has made the world, the one whom the whole

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Bible is about has come. And he calls you to follow him. Last one. Number five,

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Jesus reveals God. Jesus opens the heavens. Without Jesus being as earlier in the passage, it said, he is the exegesis, he is the explanation of God.

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We would remain in darkness. Jesus is the ladder. To speak of God without saying the name

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Jesus Christ is probably more acceptable to this world, right? You can talk about God all you want, but never mentioned the name

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Jesus Christ. That changes things for people because we live among people in this nation who have made gods after their own image and their own desires.

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And so you can say the name God all you want, but you say Jesus Christ. That's different.

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So Jesus is the ladder. We are to speak that because the reality is without the son of man, the world would not know

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God, not intimately. And so church, the disciples understood they met him.

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They met the one and they followed him and they got to see where he stayed.

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They saw where he's from. He's from Nazareth. But what

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Christ promises in this last verse in verse 51 is that they are going to see where he's truly from, the place beyond where the heavens open.

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And this is only the beginning. And in many ways, as we wait, this is only the beginning for us.

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Because in the resurrection, as Jesus promises, we will see far greater things than these.

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Let's pray. Lord, please bless the message that went out today for the glory of your namesake.

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Lord, please do a great work among your people. I pray that it was an encouragement to your body,

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Lord, and that it was something that would cause us to examine ourselves and to apply it to our lives,

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Lord. We thank you, Father, that you have done the same for us. You have called us.

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We have seen that you are the lamb of God. You initiated us and you said, follow me. And we have come to follow you.

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We'll give up everything to follow you. We love you. We praise you.