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.