John 1, beginning in verse 35. The next day again, John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, behold, the Lamb of God. The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, what are you seeking? And they said to him, rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying? He said to them, 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 10th hour. One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew. Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which means Christ. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, so you are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which means Peter. The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. Nathanael said to him, how do you know me? Jesus answered him, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathanael answered him, Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. Jesus answered him, because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these. And he said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending. on the Son of Man. If you'll forgive me, I'm going to begin with a little bit of history. In the years leading up to the Reformation of the 16th century, there was a movement within the Roman Catholic Church called the Devozio Moderna. And there's a lot to say about that movement and its various practitioners, But the basic idea of the movement was to strive after a kind of reform. They looked at the late medieval church. They didn't call it the late medieval church, but we call it that now. They looked at the late medieval church and they saw lots of very clear and obvious problems. Great sin and corruption in the clergy, an abuse of the outward rituals of the church. There was a lot of people that were upset about problems within the church. And a movement arose in order to address these things. You might have heard of one of the most popular books to come out of that period. It's popular to this day. It's called The Imitation of Christ by a man named Thomas Akempis. That was a book associated with the Devotio Moderna. That's what we need, people said. We need to imitate Christ. That's where we've gone astray. Look around us in the church. There's so much sin and corruption because we have departed from an imitation of the Lord Jesus. Now there's another figure who ends up being a complicated but influential figure in the early Reformation, named Erasmus, and he studied in the Devotio Moderna, and he had his own idea that he called the Philosophia Christi, the philosophy of Christ, and it was the same idea. There's corruption in the church. We aren't living how we're supposed to live, and his idea of the philosophy of Christ was how to live in the sight of God according to the commands of Christ. Now that sounds like a good idea, right? What Christian would object to wanting to live in the sight of God according to the commands of Christ? If this is helpful, you could think of the Devotio Moderna as sort of a late medieval WWJD bracelet. That was the emphasis. You know, if the What Would Jesus Do bracelet was around back then, everybody in the Devotio Moderna would, you know, be proudly wearing one. But here's the problem, because when the Reformation started, it didn't grow out of the Devotio Moderna. That movement did not have within itself what the church so desperately needed to truly address the corruption of the late medieval church. And let me go back to the book I mentioned before, The Imitation of Christ. If you read that book, you'll probably be very convicted of good biblical principles about what it looks like to imitate Christ that you are not living up to. But here's the thing, if you are convicted about how you are not living up to the imitation of Christ, the Devotio Moderna has no way for you to take that guilt and to deal with it before the face of God. It's been the constant danger of moralism within the church to say, yes, what we need is to be more like Christ, but to not, first of all, reckon with the question of how we are reconciled to God in the first place. How we can have, if you find within your heart a deep conviction that you are not like Jesus, what do you do with that? How is that guilt dealt with? How is that sin dealt with? And those questions, the Devotio Moderna was bereft of spiritual vitality and gospel vitality to answer. And so, you know, enter Luther, and he looks at the Devotio Moderna and says, You can beat your head against the wall until you're bloodied trying to imitate Christ, but if you're not made new, if you're not clothed with the righteousness that is from outside of yourself, it is all in vain and self-righteousness in the sight of God. True peace with God does not come from the work we do in order to somehow climb up to God by our own strength. It's about God's gracious movement toward us in Jesus Christ, the gospel of his Son. Now, why are we talking about any of this? We're going to be keying in on a few phrases within the narrative we've just read. And I want us to key in, first of all, verse 43. Jesus called to Philip, follow me. What does that mean? How do we do it? It's the whole of the Christian life, but what does it look like? And in thinking through some of the issues surrounding the early Reformation, when we hear the command of Christ to follow him, it's not just a command to be more like him, because the Lord Jesus knows that in our own strength, we cannot do that. And that's the beauty, then, of the Gospel of John. It teaches us how to follow Jesus by teaching us who he is. In a command like follow me, it's only two words, it's actually quite profound and deep, because we have to know what the verb means, what it means to follow. We have to, first of all, though, know the me, the identity of the person that we are called to actually follow. And that is the beauty and glory of John's gospel. It's this kaleidoscopic presentation of who Jesus is. And from the opening words all the way through to the end of the first chapter that we've read just a moment ago, that's what consumes the apostle John. a presentation of who Jesus is, the me of follow me. And as we get to know the me, we learn more and more about what it actually means to follow. We learned from the first 18 verses that Jesus is the eternal word. that He is the light of men, and that He is the only begotten Son of the Father. And then John the Baptist came to us last week in verses 19 through 34, and he proclaimed Jesus as the Lamb of God. And if there's one glaring deficiency in the Devotio Moderna, or in any part of Christian history where the church has struggled with moralism, it's forgotten the testimony of John the Baptist. That this is, before we know Jesus as anything else, we must know him. as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That sin and guilt must be dealt with, that we have peace with God and can then obey his commands out of a newness of life that comes from the power of his Spirit. And John, through the testimony of Andrew now, through the testimony of Philip, through the testimony of Nathanael, continues to add on to this kaleidoscopic presentation of the glory of our Savior. Andrew here confesses him as the promised Messiah. And John adds in there for Greek speakers, And by the way, when you see the word Messiah, understand that we're talking about the Christ. This is the promised, anointed one, proclaimed by the Old Testament. And then, of course, Andrew gets to Peter. And then we're led to Philip, who gets his friend Nathanael, and Nathanael further adds to our understanding of Jesus because he is brought to faith in this incredible moment that we'll talk about a little bit later. And he confesses Jesus as the Son of God and the King of Israel. And not only are we taught about the identity of our Savior, but again, in knowing more about who he is, we learn more about the life of the disciple. Just as he called Philip to follow him, so we too must follow the Lord Jesus. And what's wonderful is as soon as Philip answers the call to follow Jesus, what does he do? And this is a theme of this passage. As soon as someone comes to understand who Jesus is, what is the first thing they do? They go out and they find someone to bring to Jesus. And so in verse 43, we have the command, follow me. And then in verse 46, as Philip is speaking with Nathanael, we have the invitation of the disciple, come and see. Jesus says to us, follow me. And then brothers and sisters, it should be our greatest privilege in this life to speak with those whom we love those with whom we are associated, and say to them, come, come and see this Jesus. Now, Philip's words there, come and see, verse 46, are remarkable, and I want us to think about them more. He's gone and found Nathanael, and he tells Nathanael, hey, we have found the one that Moses, in the law and the prophets, promised and talked about. And it's Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael has that fairly famous response. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Now normally when people study this passage or preach this passage or talk about this passage, we're trying to make sense out of what exactly Nathaniel meant when he said, can anything good come out of Nazareth? And for my part this afternoon, I want us to sort of ignore that. Whatever Nathaniel meant by that, whether he was offering up a more serious objection to what Philip was saying, or if he was trying to be a little more playful or tongue-in-cheek. The beautiful thing about that verse is not as much whatever it is Nathaniel is trying to say, it's how Philip responds. So in some sense or another, Nathaniel sort of throws up a roadblock. Well, can anything good come out of Nazareth? And what's Philip's response to that? It should be, this is the heart of evangelism, brothers and sisters, the heart of every apologetic encounter that you may ever have. And what I mean by that is any conversation with an unbeliever where they are offering up any sort of resistance to your testimony of Jesus, this is what, Philip is showing us the way. If Philip's showing us, you don't have to answer all the questions of the skeptics. You don't have to work out all of their concerns. You don't have to have the most insightful or clever response to every objection to the gospel. What do we know about unbelief? We know that Jesus deals with unbelief because he dealt with ours. What's the answer? You have to go to him, right? Your cleverness in responding to objections isn't what converts anyone. It's them actually encountering the Lord Jesus Christ as he is presented in the gospel. Philip shows us our most important job in every moment of evangelism, every moment of dialogue with an unbeliever, come and see. Now that may involve, in our own context, trying to answer some of the questions as best we can, but knowing every step of the way that nothing will truly deal with the heart of belief except for this. that this is what our unbelieving friends and loved ones need most of all. It's not about our intellectual ability to answer all their questions, but it's about the disciples' faithfulness to invite them to the Master. Come and see. And this is a pattern that persist throughout the chapter. Essentially, it's what John the Baptist is doing. He sees Jesus walking by and points and says, there he is. And what's the effect? Well, some of his disciples heard John's proclamation of Jesus as the Lamb of God, and they start following Jesus. One of them is Andrew. Heard, Andrew followed, and then Andrew found his brother, Simon Peter, and brought his brother to Jesus. He found him, he told him, and most importantly, he brought him to Jesus. And Philip does the same thing. He answers the call of Christ, and then he goes and he finds Philip, he finds Nathaniel, he tells Nathaniel, and he brings Nathaniel to Jesus. What is the goal of every spiritual interaction we have with unbelievers? Find them, tell them, and bring them to the Lord Jesus. Now, that looks like something particular in our own context. The Lord Jesus is no longer on the earth as he was during the time of his earthly ministry. But you know what we get the blessing to do? We can bring our unbelieving friends and loved ones and acquaintances to the place where Jesus has promised to be, to the place where they might hear his word and see his body, worshiping him and fellowshipping and loving and supporting one another. We can still bring people to Jesus when we bring them to his body, invite them into the worship of the church, to see his spiritual presence in the midst of his people. Now, another thing that's so remarkable about these verses is how people respond to Jesus when they are brought to him. And it would be helpful at this point to bring in a verse that we won't properly get to until the end of chapter two, but if you look forward to the end of chapter two, verse 24 or 25, there's something that John says in those verses that helps us greatly in working out some of what's going on at the end of chapter one. So John tells us at the end of chapter two, Jesus, on his part, did not entrust himself to them because, what? He knew all people, and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. And that helps us greatly when we come back to John chapter one, particularly in the interaction between Jesus and Nathanael. Jesus saw Nathanael, verse 47, coming toward him and said of him, behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. Nathanael said to him, how do you know me? Jesus answered him, before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. And then all of a sudden Nathanael's confessing him as the son of God and the king of Israel. And we're sort of left wondering, well, that was strange. How is it that it escalated so quickly? Jesus says a couple of pretty simple things about Nathanael and Nathanael is just broken open by it. And I think what we need to do is understand better the force of what Nathanael says in verse 48. How do you know me? When people encountered Jesus, it's clear that for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, there was the immediate recognition, this one knows me. not just can see me and knows my physical attributes or may have heard one or two things about me, this one knows my heart. When we see all of the disciples dropping everything to follow Jesus so immediately, it's the same dynamic. In the presence of The Lord Jesus, again, for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, it is clear that this is one that does not just look upon what he can see and take in what he can hear. This is one that searches the heart. And the Lord Jesus himself testifies to Nathanael's faithfulness to the God of Israel. And so Nathanael knows that God alone searches the heart. That beautiful testimony in the prophet Jeremiah. I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind. And as people encounter the Lord Jesus, the Spirit opens them to see that the one who spoke in the book of Jeremiah is now before them. One who can search the heart. One who has no need for someone to tell him about a man, for he knows what is in a man. which leads us to one of the most important questions of true faith. You say you know Jesus, does Jesus know you? Nathaniel said to him, how do you know me? This idea of God knowing us. The Bible explores it to profound depth. Think, for example, about the Sermon on the Mount. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never, what? I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. It was a wonderful thing that earlier in the service, Psalm 1 was requested. Because what did we just sing from Psalm 1? Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous, for the Lord knows. the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. So for all of the strangeness of the interaction, there's something very simple but profound going on between Jesus and Nathanael. Nathanael, a man of faith and the God of Israel, now has Messiah before him and sees this is the one who was promised. This is the one who knows. the people of God, who knows the way of the righteous. Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel. And that's a powerful combination. because it brings our minds back to the glorious covenant that God made with David, son of God, king of Israel. Remember, David was promised a son who would sit on the eternal throne of his kingdom, and that God himself would be his father. And then that is so wondrously confirmed in Psalm 2. The Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. And as for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. And so Nathanael finally encountering the promised Messiah sees him as the one that Israel has been waiting for these many long years. The son of God and the king of Israel. And that's when Jesus decides to up the ante, as it were, with Nathanael. Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these. What this teaches us, because Nathanael, Jesus spoke truly about Nathanael, right? He was an Israelite indeed, in whom there was no deceit. So Nathanael's not of double mind when he calls Jesus the Son of God and the King of Israel. But even though he's confessing Jesus in truth, Jesus wants to draw him deeper. You see, Nathanael has confessed faith, and Jesus now wants to deepen that faith. I wonder, do you want Jesus to do the same thing for you? Having confessed him, do you want him to take you deeper into his love? That's exactly what the Lord Jesus is doing here with Nathanael. And it's the occasion for the first truly, truly in the gospel of John. So one thing that's unique about the gospel of John is that it's punctuated in these beautiful high points of the gospel by statements from the mouth of Jesus, where he says, truly, truly, I say to you. And every time Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, we've got to listen up, right? Because something amazing is about to be revealed to us. And the truly, truly, by the way, is simply the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word, amen. And if you didn't know amen was a Hebrew word, there you go, there you have it. It's a Hebrew word, and if you look at the Greek here, it's amen, amen. Truly, truly, I say to you. And again, this is Jesus drawing Nathanael deeper into the knowledge of his grace and His glory. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Now, I hope you remember some of that language from our call to worship. We went back to Genesis 28, And we joined the patriarch Jacob, laying his head down on the rock, having left Beersheba and journeying on toward Haran, laying down to sleep on the rock and having this extraordinary dream. And remember, in Jacob's dream, there is this great ladder. that stretches from earth to heaven, and he sees the angels of God ascending and descending on the ladder. And the Lord is there, and the Lord is speaking to Jacob from the ladder. And Jesus is clearly wanting us to think of Jacob's dream in Bethel, here in chapter one in verse 51. But isn't it interesting in what Jesus says? There's no ladder. There's only the Son of Man. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. And Jesus is saying, to Nathanael, I am the latter. I am he who has come down from above, the way, the truth, and the life, the one apart from whom no one can come to the Father. You see, this statement to Nathanael is foreshadowing all of the things that Jesus will say about himself throughout the rest of the gospel. But gloriously and powerfully, Jesus is saying, do you remember the vision that Jacob had? It was of me. God was preparing his people, even in those early years, before there was yet a promised land into which the people of God had been delivered. God was preparing them for Messiah. And Jesus rejoices here to draw Nathanael deeper into the reality of who he is. I am the very latter that Jacob saw in his dream. As the Word made flesh, I am the one mediator between God and men. I am very God of very God, and all the powers of all the angels are at my disposal for the salvation of my people." Because one of the beautiful things about Jesus going back to Jacob's ladder is that if we're curious enough, we go back to Genesis 28, and we remember the sweet and powerful words of comfort that the Lord brings to Jacob in that moment. Behold, I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. the glorious, as theologians sometimes call it, the glorious condescension of God, to make promises. Nothing is required of God for him to bind himself in this way to us. He chooses sovereignly and graciously to bind himself to us by way of promise. And Jesus all the more shows himself to be the very ladder of Jacob when he says to his disciples at the end of the Great Commission, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And this wonderful comment that Jesus makes to Nathanael, that you will see heaven open, We best understand this not as though Jesus is promising to Nathanael some very specific and unique vision, but he's telling Nathanael, watch me, keep your eyes fixed on me. And over the course of the next years, as you see me out and about in Israel, performing the works of God, accomplishing salvation, this is as the opening of heaven to earth. Jesus is the kingdom. He is king, he is kingdom, he is the gate through which we must enter. And he is telling Nathaniel, keep your eyes fixed on me, and all that I will do, and you will see heaven opened. And the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. And as we close this afternoon, brothers and sisters, There's a beautiful little feature of verse 51 that all of us can grab onto now. The you. You know, if I asked you to guess, is that you in verse 51 singular or plural? Well, based on the context, you would guess singular, right? Because Jesus is speaking to one person, Nathanael. But it's actually plural. Truly, truly, I say to you, plural, you, plural, will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. In other words, this isn't just Jesus calling Nathanael deeper into his love, his knowledge, and his glory. It is Jesus calling all of us deeper and saying to each and every one of us, that we, if we keep our eyes fixed upon him, we will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. We too will be the recipients of the Lord's promise to Jacob, which is the Lord Jesus promised to us all, that lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Let's pray. A gracious Heavenly Father, this is our great need, to know our Savior better and to more fully and sincerely believe the things that we confess about Him. He knows our hearts. And so may we, day by day, not pretend, Lord God, or put up walls of deceit as though we could hide ourselves from him, but let us bear ourselves before him and take refuge in the power of his searching eye, knowing that he knows the depths of us, that there is nothing to hide. but that when we confess him and hold fast to him, we have life and light and peace with the living God. We want you, Lord God, to draw us deeper into the love of Christ, which has no measure, to abide in him, and to find rest for our souls. May we seek after his face and taste the sweetness of the Lord day by day as we rest in him and call upon him. We pray this in his name. Amen.