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Good afternoon, friends. It's
good to see you again. I helped myself to this music
stand because the pulpit is just a wee bit low. Just a wee bit low. Let's continue to worship the
Lord by publicly reading His Word. And the passage I want
to invite you to turn to is in the Gospel according to John.
Gospel according to John and chapter 1 and I'm going to begin
reading in verse 35 to the end of the chapter. So John chapter 1 and beginning in verse
35, let's read the Word of the Lord. 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 tenth hour. One of the two who heard John
speak and follow 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, 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 and 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. Our great Father in heaven, we
thank you for this precious gift of your word. And as we come
to your word now, we once again ask that with the help of your
Holy Spirit, You would help us to understand and to apply this
passage from Your Word, that it might strengthen us, that
it might sanctify us, that it might even lay before us this
Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. We pray all of that in
His name. Amen. Amen. Well, what does it take to turn
a skeptic into a believer? Well, the natural answer is evidence,
and let me give you an example of what that might look like. Evidence is what finally brought
an end to the belief that human beings could not travel on trains
at the speed of 50 miles an hour. That is a view that was popular
back in the 1800s. Now, for us today, 50 miles an
hour is nothing to write home about. It's not a significant
speed in any way, shape, or form. But back then, it was different. It was new. It was scary. And some learned people, some
very intelligent people could not believe that the human body
could travel at such speeds. But eventually we did, and that
turned the skeptics into believers. What they needed was to see the
evidence, and that overturned their doubt. Well, today we will
meet someone who is a bit skeptical about Jesus. But when he meets
him face-to-face, this man named Nathanael, he becomes a believer. Here at the end of John 1, we
have the first disciples beginning to follow Jesus. And we have
this pattern that when someone becomes a disciple, they immediately
begin to tell other people about Jesus. And so Andrew, who's now
become a follower of Jesus, he finds his brother Simon. whom
we know as Peter. And today we see that Philip
finds Nathanael. And so we see a journey for Nathanael
today, a journey that turns him from a skeptic into a believer. And what turns him into a believer
is Jesus Christ himself. And so we'll look at verses 45
to 51 in particular this afternoon. And I'm going to treat this passage
in three sections or in three acts. And so act one is that
Philip describes Jesus as the one promised in Scripture, but
Nathanael responds by doubting. Philip describes Jesus as the
one promised in Scripture, but Nathanael responds by doubting. This pattern emerges, as I said,
at the end of chapter 1, that the new disciples of Jesus tell
others about Jesus. In other words, they immediately
become active evangelistically. So Andrew finds his brother Simon
and says to him, we have found the Messiah. And what we see
now is that this guy, Philip, becomes a follower of Jesus. Jesus actually says to Philip,
follow me. And after that happened, he now
goes to find Nathanael and he tells him about Jesus. In verse 45, we have found him
of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus
of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Now this is a remarkable statement. It speaks of Jesus being very
unlike the rest of us. He has been promised for centuries
in what we now call the Old Testament. And at that time, of course,
that's all the Bible the people of God have. And in what Philip
says here, we have really two big points about the Old Testament. The first is that people who
read the Old Testament would come to the conclusion that there
is someone who is coming. And they might be confused about
how many people are coming. They might think it's one or
two. But there is a certainty of a coming one. There's a certainty
that a Messiah will appear on the scene at some point down
the line. But they were sure that this
promised person was coming. And the second point Philip makes
about the Old Testament is that this promised and expected man
is, in fact, Jesus, the one whom he has met and the one whom he
now follows, which is to say that this promised person has
now finally arrived. After centuries of waiting, here
he is. But what this highlights is that
the Old Testament It's about Jesus. And that's what Jesus
himself says about the Old Testament. John 5, you search the scriptures
because you think that in them you have eternal life. And it
is they that bear witness about me. Well, Luke 24, this is post-resurrection
on the road to Emmaus. And beginning with Moses and
all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning Himself. That's Luke 24-27. The Old Testament
is all about Jesus Christ. He is the center, not simply
of the New Testament, but of the entirety of Scripture, of
all the Bible. And that's not always been popular.
Some of you may have heard about a man named Marcion before. And Marcion basically wanted
to get rid of the Old Testament and he wanted to get rid of every
trace of the Old Testament in the new. And so he went through
scripture with a blackout pen to get rid of any Jewish trace
or any Old Testament trace that was left in scripture. which
is quite the task given what Philip says here and what Jesus
himself says elsewhere. But Marcion lived in the late
1st and early 2nd century, so maybe this is just one voice
in the ancient world who's not relevant anymore today. But you
have people today who argue that as a Christian, you should ignore
the Old Testament. That as a Christian, you do not
need anything that was written before the birth of Christ. There's
actually a famous, well-known pastor in America named Andy
Stanley, who is very influential. He's in Georgia and the US. And
he said that we should unhitch from the Old Testament. Tear
it out. Don't do it. that we should unhitch the Old
Testament from basically Christian teaching. But the truth is that
we should embrace the Old Testament not just as an interesting collection
of books that tell us about what God may have done in the past,
what God was doing among and through Israel, but as a collection
of books that tell us about Jesus Christ. And so the Old and the
New are all about Jesus. And why would we cut some of
it off? Think about it this way. The New Testament makes up about
a quarter of our Bibles. And if you buy a novel and you
only read the last quarter of that novel, there's a whole lot
you're missing. In fact, not only are you missing
the first three quarters of the character and the plot line and
all that's going on in that novel, but you actually are not going
to be able to understand the last quarter that you're actually
reading. And it's like that with the Bible. There's so much you
miss about Jesus if you skip the Old Testament, not just because
there's so much in the Old Testament about him, not just because the
Old Testament is, in fact, Scripture and therefore relevant and authoritative
for us as Christians today, but because we need the Old Testament
to have a good grasp of what the New Testament So, read the
whole Bible. The whole Bible is about Jesus
Christ, and that includes the Old Testament. And so, Philip
here is making the point that the promised one from the Old
Testament is this man, Jesus of Nazareth, who is the adopted
son of this man, Joseph. And we know, of course, that
he is the eternal son of God, but he's the adopted son of Joseph. Now, throughout the rest of this
Gospel, we see that come up again and again. We learn that Jesus
is the prophet like Moses, promised in the book of Deuteronomy. He
is the king riding into Jerusalem on a young donkey, promised in
the book of Zechariah. He is the long-awaited Messiah.
And so Philip makes this amazing statement to Nathanael, but Nathanael,
he's a bit skeptical. And so he says in verse 46, can
anything good come out of Nazareth? Now assuming this Nathanael is
the same as the one mentioned in chapter 21, then we know that
he is from Cana in Galilee. And Cana is only a few miles
from Nazareth, maybe six miles, which is to say that Nathanael
would have known about Nazareth, and there may have been a bit
of a town rivalry. He knows the place, and he knows
how insignificant of a place it is. And so he's skeptical. Can anything good come out of
Nazareth? And that's a response many have
when they hear the Gospel. I would venture to say that for
many of us, We were skeptical. We responded in skepticism when
we first heard the Gospel. Is that true for you? You responded
with skepticism when you first heard the Gospel. Most of us did not, when we first
heard the Gospel, immediately respond in faith. And so skepticism
is a near universal response to Gospel preaching. It is a
near universal response to the work of evangelism. And yet,
The skepticism turns into faith regularly. And it has for many
of you. I know that is what happened
to me. And so there is hope. And Philip,
instead of being discouraged by Nathanael's response, responds
by inviting Nathanael to meet Jesus. The second half of verse
46, Philip said to him, Come and see. Now, as people respond
negatively to the gospel, you can invite them to come and see. Ultimately, we don't want people
to simply hear an argument. We want them to come face-to-face
with Jesus Christ. And as our world has been so
rebellious against their Creator, and we can understand that theologically
in light of what the Bible says about sin and about where this
leaves us, alienated from God, with hearts and minds that are
hostile to God. That's what the world is like.
That's what we were like. And so we want people to come
face to face with Jesus Christ. And that was different for Nathanael
than it was for us. But let's aim to always point
people to Jesus, the compassionate and kind and glorious Savior,
the Word who became flesh. And they might be skeptical for
many years, but then God does a work in their life. And Nathanael
was skeptical for a while, but then he came face to face with
Jesus Christ. And that then takes us to the
second act of the end of John 1. So, Act 1, Philip describes
Jesus as the one promised in Scripture, but Nathanael responds
by doubting. And now, Act 2, Nathanael discovers
Jesus' supernatural knowledge and he believes. Nathanael discovers
Jesus' supernatural knowledge, and he believes. Nathanael and
Philip are on their way now to meet Jesus, and as Jesus sees
Nathanael approaching, he makes a remarkable declaration about
Nathanael. This is verse 47. Jesus saw Nathanael
coming toward him and said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed,
in whom there is no deceit. And if you read the Gospels,
and if you listen to what it is Jesus ordinarily says, then
you know this is a bit strange. But it's a very positive statement. Jesus describes Nathanael as
an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. He is like the man
described in Psalm 32. Blessed is the one whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom
the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no deceit. This would be the sort of man
who would properly examine the statement made by Philip. And this would be the sort of
man who would properly examine the man standing before him now. And so Nathanael changes from
someone who is skeptical to someone who is curious. Verse 48, Nathanael
said to him, how do you know me? And Jesus answered him, before
Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. And we have no idea what it is
that Nathaniel was doing underneath that fig tree. And as is often
the case, when we do not know and when we have no way of knowing
with certainty, people start speculating with great energy.
And you see that in the commentaries. The fig tree is occasionally
representative of good times. in the Old Testament, and some
have speculated, interacting with some rabbinic writings,
which are later than the New Testament, that Nathanael here
may have been meditating, or that he may have been praying. In any case, what happens is
not so much what Nathanael was doing while he was under the
fig tree. What matters is what Jesus was
doing. while Nathanael was under the
fig tree. Before Philip called you, when
you were under the fig tree, I saw you." And you can gauge
from his reaction that Nathanael thinks that this is a big deal.
That Nathanael thinks what Jesus just said is a big deal. Because at that moment, after
doubt had turned into curiosity, curiosity turned into faith. verse 49, Nathanael answered
him, Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel. Now before we look at that, confession
of faith, which is what that is. Let's consider what brought
it on. In this gospel, from time to
time, it becomes clear that Jesus has divine or supernatural knowledge. So, for example, at the end of
chapter 2, John says that when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover
feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that
he was doing. But Jesus, on his part, did not
entrust himself to them because he knew all people and needed
no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what
was in man." Jesus knew what was in man. And then another
example from John 4, Jesus is in conversation with the Samaritan
woman, and Jesus said to her, go, call your husband and come
here. The woman answered him, I have
no husband. Jesus said to her, you are right
in saying I have no husband, for you have had five husbands,
and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said
is true. And so in these examples and
others, we see that Jesus has this supernatural knowledge.
And this is what Nathanael gets here. How did Jesus know? And
Nathanael's response shows that he immediately thought that Jesus
is in some sense associated with God. And for us who are reading
this, We already know that Jesus is God. The very first verse
of this book makes that abundantly clear. You cannot read the Gospel
according to John, or any of the Gospels for that matter,
without coming to the conclusion that Jesus is God. But Nathanael, he's just meeting
Jesus. He just met him, but he trusts
in him because of what just happened. He believes in him because of
that quick exchange between himself and Jesus, and he declares him
to be the Messiah. Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel. Now there's an interesting thing
here, where when Nathanael declares Jesus to be the Son of God, he
might be referring to him as the Messiah, as the Christ. For
many, that's what Son of God meant. Or in the Old Testament,
Israel was at times referred to as God's Son. And Jesus certainly
is the true Israel. And so Nathanael believes in
Jesus, but he has much to learn in his understanding. But for
us, we know that Jesus is the one unique, Son of God. We see that a couple of times
in the prologue. We see that's in fact why John
wrote this gospel, that you who's reading this would believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing,
you would have life in his name. And so Nathanael responds in
faith. And then Jesus turns to all who are there, from speaking
just to Nathanael, to speaking to everybody, and he says, 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, for Nathanael,
it became personal. Up until that point, Jesus was
the one whom Philip called the Messiah. Up until that point,
Nathanael was having an interesting day. But now it's personal. Now he is a disciple of Jesus
Christ. And that's something we see with
the men at the end of John chapter 1. It becomes personal for them.
We cannot just follow Jesus via someone else. We don't become
a Christian by osmosis or through the virtue of someone else. There's
this verse in John, it's very famous, it's very well known,
that no one can come to the Father except through me. That's what
Jesus says. And the reality is that you cannot
come to the Father through a Christian. You can only come to the Father
through Christ. But as a Christian, you appoint
people to Christ. And so there's a role to play.
There are some things that we need to do personally. If you
have a doctor's appointment to check on your heart, it will
not help you to send someone else. And if the doctor examines
someone else's heart and the heart is fine, that might say
nothing about the state of your heart. If you're summoned by
the police or the court, You have to show up yourself. You
cannot send a substitute. And it's like that in the Christian
life. Becoming a Christian is a very personal affair. You cannot
do it by virtue of your parents or your friends or anybody else. But your parents and friends
can be helpful in the same way that Philip is helpful to Nathanael. to tell you about Jesus, to point
you to Jesus, but then it has to become personal. And there's
a wonderful couple of verses in Romans 10 where Paul says
this, he says, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will
be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have
not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they
have never heard? And how are they to hear without
someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless
they are sent as it is written. How beautiful are the feet of
those who preach the good news." Now let's take a minute to look
at that. So first of all, we have that great promise here.
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That's
from Joel chapter 2. And actually, a few verses earlier,
Paul says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved. So that's the promise, and that's
personal. But then you follow Paul's argument,
and in order to believe, someone needs to preach. So let me try
to take that principle and use that language here in John 1.
If you want someone to become a Nathanael, be a Philip. And don't you think that Nathanael
is eternally grateful to Philip that Philip went to him that
day and excitedly told him that he had found the Messiah? That
happened, and then it became personal. First, it was Philip
and Nathanael, and now it is Jesus and Nathanael. And that
is amazing. In any case, Let's move to the
third and final act. So act one, Philip describes
Jesus as the one promised in scripture, but Nathanael responds
by doubting. Act two, Nathanael discovers
Jesus' supernatural knowledge and he responds in faith. And
then act three now, Jesus promises his disciples they will see greater
things still. Verse 50. 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. Now, what happened here was phenomenal. And it changed Nathanael's life
forever. But there's more to come. Nathanael
will see greater things still. And of course, that's unpacked
for us the rest of this gospel. Nathanael is going to see the
signs that Jesus will do, including one that's right around the corner
of Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana in Galilee.
And then there's so much more throughout the rest of this book.
Their healings and their feedings of multitudes. Resurrection. And Nathanael would see all of
that. In fact, in John 21, the last chapter of the book, Nathanael
is there once again to meet with the risen Lord. So yes, there
are more amazing things to come, Nathanael. Now, the Son of Man here is a
reference to Jesus himself. He's using that language throughout
the Gospels, and it goes back to Daniel chapter 7. But the
rest of that verse actually goes back to what we read about Jacob
in the book of Genesis earlier today. Now, here's what you need
to know. First of all, Jacob is the son
of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham, and it's actually through
Isaac that we see the lineage of God's people. So Abraham had
other sons, especially Ishmael, who was born before Isaac, but
the line goes through Isaac. And then Jacob had a brother
named Esau. If you were here this morning,
we were reading some of that. Jacob had a brother named Esau,
but the lineage went through Jacob. In fact, Jacob was known
as someone who had acted with deceit. That's what we saw this
morning. He deceived his father to get
the blessing of the firstborn son. Jacob came to his basically
blind father and he made himself smell and feel like Esau in order
to get that blessing. And when Esau came to receive
the blessing, Isaac said to him, your brother came deceitfully
and he has taken away your blessing." And then later on, Jacob eventually
receives the name Israel, and so it is through him that we
have the physical descendants who make up the people of Israel.
It is not just all the descendants of Abraham or all the descendants
of Isaac, it is all the descendants of Jacob, who is now known as
Israel. But keep this in mind, here's
a man named Israel, in whom there is deceit. And remember now verse
47, Jesus saying to Nathanael and about Nathanael, Behold an
Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. And so if you are
familiar with the book of Genesis where we read about Jacob, you
might immediately think about Jacob when you read the end of
John 1 here. But then there's one more thing
that we need to know, one more episode from the book of Genesis.
In Genesis 28, Jacob has a dream. And let me quote from that chapter.
He dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth,
and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels
of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood
above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father,
and the God of Isaac. the land on which you lie, I
will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall
be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to
the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south.
And in you and your offspring shall all the families of the
earth be blessed." Continuing to read, it says,
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." And so Jacob has this marvelous
dream of a ladder set up to heaven, angels ascending, angels descending,
and he encounters the Lord in this dream. And now you fast
forward over a thousand years And Jesus tells Nathanael that
he will see greater things than this, because he is encountering
God in the flesh. Now imagine if you had walked
up to Nathanael right before Philip came to him, or even as
Philip came to him, and you say to him, do you remember that
amazing dream Jacob had? Do you remember how amazing it
was? So much so that when he awoke from his sleep, he said,
surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. That he
was afraid and said, how awesome is this place. This is none other
than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. Do you remember all of that?
And being an Israelite in whom there is no deceit, we might
expect him to say, yes, I remember that." And then you tell him, today
you will meet someone greater than Jacob. And from today on,
you will see greater things than Jacob did in the dream. How would
he respond? Well, we don't know. But what we do know is that this
doubter turned into a believer, that the skeptic became a disciple,
and that he remained a disciple, and that he saw amazing things.
Now, here's an interesting comment. Right here at the end of chapter
1, this is the first time that Jesus actually talks about himself.
Up until that point, it's been other people we talk about Jesus. Chiefly, it's been John the Baptist
and John the Gospel writer throughout the prologue. And if you listen
to them, then here's what you see throughout John chapter 1. You see that Jesus is the Word,
who is eternally God and through whom all things were made. You
see that he is light and that he is life. that He is the unique
Son of the Father, the Second Person of the Trinity, who took
on flesh and is now truly God and truly man. You see that He
came to bring salvation to all who believe, and that those who
do believe are adopted into God's family. You see that He is the
Promised One, the Messiah, and that as great a man as John the
Baptist is not even worthy to stoop down and untie the sandals
of the One who is to come. He's the One, in fact, who will
baptize with the Holy Spirit. He is the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world. The One who, as we've seen today,
was promised in the Old Testament. The One who has the supernatural
knowledge, who reveals God uniquely because He is God, and because
you became man. So what do we do with that? Well,
for you Christians, you're not like Nathanael was at the beginning
of this passage. You're not a doubter anymore.
You're not a skeptic anymore. You are one who has believed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You are someone who can sing
in a minute, my faith has found a resting place, that resting
place being Jesus Christ himself. And so you read this, you read
the entirety of John chapter 1, and how do you respond to
that? Well, you respond by worshiping,
which is in fact the reason you and I exist, to worship the one
true God. And so you worship the Lord Jesus
Christ. But not all of you can do that.
Not all of you can sing in a minute, My Faith Has Found a Resting
Place, because some of you doubt. Some of you are skeptics, like
Nathanael is at the beginning of our passage. And so let me
put before you what we've considered today. Let me say, come and see
and look at Jesus Christ. And let me encourage you not
just to read the end of John 1 or even the entirety of John
chapter 1, but let me encourage you to read the entirety of the
gospel according to John. As I've said when I quoted from
the end of chapter 20, the book is meant for you to understand
who Jesus is, but it's not simply to be a cognitive exercise, something
for you to understand that is ultimately meant for you to put
your faith in Jesus Christ. And I'm sure that if this is
of interest to you, there are disciples here, there are people
who are followers of Jesus Christ who would gladly sit down and
read the gospel according to John with you, so that you who
are a skeptic now, would become a believer, that you who are
doubting now would become a disciple. Let me pray to that end just
now. Let's pray. Our gracious God and Father,
we thank you that you are the God who is our God, the God of
a group of individuals who were once not a people, but who are
now your people, who are far off, who were rebellious against
you, and yet you have given us eternal life. Your Holy Spirit
was at work within us so that whatever doubts or concerns we've
had, whatever unbelief was embedded within us, whatever rebellion
was there against even considering your existence, you shattered
it all by giving us the new birth and by giving us eternal life.
And so Father, We pray for anyone here who is a skeptic, for anyone
here who doubts, that you would do in their life what you have
done in ours, and that you would help them to see Jesus Christ,
and that you would help them to see Him clearly, so that they
can declare not just who Jesus is, but that they can declare,
my faith has found a resting place. From guilt my soul is
freed. I trust the ever-living One. Let this be the prayer of every
person in this room, whether adult or child, whether man or female, that all
of us would be free from doubt and skepticism and would embrace
Jesus Christ our Lord. That we would rest in Him, that
we would trust in Him, that we would find in Him eternal life,
knowing that there is no other way to have it, that there's
no other way to you, but through Him who lived for us and who
died for us, who is the Savior of the world, who is the Lamb
of God, who takes away our sin. And so we pray all of that in
His name. Amen. We're going to stand and sing
now. Okay.
A Skeptic Meets Jesus
| Sermon ID | 212232012447482 |
| Duration | 40:11 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | John 1:35-51 |
| Language | English |
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