But we are currently in a study of the 12 disciples. And we started this from our study of Mark chapter 3, because as we got to Mark chapter 3, we began to see a list that was given there of the disciples that Jesus called to himself, those that he appointed, those that he commissioned, those that he would send out as apostles. The word apostle means sent one. And I know that there are people today that claim to be apostles, but you can't be an apostle unless you've seen the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, according to Acts chapter 1. And also, according to 2 Corinthians chapter 12, you can't be an apostle unless you have the signs of an apostle, and that ability to do all the miraculous signs and wonders and mighty deeds, and all of that has ended. But is God still at work? Absolutely. And he continues to be at work, and I'll tell you right now, one of the greatest miracles is him saving a soul, granting them eternal life, freedom from their sin, from their guilt. And we enjoy that as well. And so as we come back to our study, today we're looking at the disciple that goes by the name Bartholomew. He's part of the second group that we started last week. If you remember last week, the first person in the second group was Philip. And now we're looking at Bartholomew. Now, Bartholomew, he finds himself in all four lists, just as the rest of them. And if you remember that, all the list, besides the one that's in Acts, occurs in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But what we learn about him is actually taken from the Gospel of John. So if you will, take your Bible and turn to John chapter 1. And as you're turning there, let me just introduce him a little bit before we actually look at the text. There is a phrase that's found in verse 45 that actually introduces us to Bartholomew, and here it is. Philip found Nathaniel. You say, well, wait a minute, that's not Bartholomew, that's Nathaniel. Well, yes, his name is Bartholomew, but that wasn't his first name. That was actually his last name. Here is a situation where we have someone identified by their first and last name. Nathaniel was his first name. And Bartholomew, it actually means son of Ptolemy. So it does have the surname there. But what we're seeing, and what we will see this morning, that Nathaniel and Bartholomew are the same individuals. And here's how we know this. This is what we look at. In the Gospels, that is in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, those are referred to as the synoptic Gospels. Synoptic means seen together. They all carry a similar testimony. Similar events are covered. They're all paralleled throughout those first three Gospels. When you get to the Gospel of John, he doesn't even mention most of them, but gives us additional information. And his Gospel is very unique because it presents Jesus as God. But in the Synoptic Gospels, we find Bartholomew mentioned, but we don't find Nathanael mentioned in the list. And then when you get to the Gospel of John, you don't find Bartholomew mentioned, you find Nathanael mentioned in the list. And so many scholars conclude that we're talking about the same person. Nathanael being his first name, Bartholomew being his last name. Now again, we don't know a whole lot about him. And as we continue to study these disciples, I find myself even asking a question, how much will I have to present here? Because as we continue to get deeper into the second and then the third list, we're gonna find that there's really not much of information there but their names. But we do have some information here about Bartholomew or Nathaniel, whichever name you wanna call him. We do know according to John 21 and verse 2 that he was from Cana of Galilee. And the rest of what we find is right here in John chapter 1 and verses 45 to 51. Let me read those to us. It says, 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. And Nathanael said to him, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said about him, behold, truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. Nathanael said to him, from where do you know me? Jesus answered and said to 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 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. And He 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 Son of Man." Well, there it is. That's all we know. But there's a lot of information here in this section of Scripture that we'll learn this morning. In fact, as we have addressed the disciples so far, we've asked a very important question is, what can we learn from them? I mean, because we're seeing that these are men just like we are, they are human just like us. They had mistakes, they had sin, they had unbelief, they had prejudice, they had selfishness, they had all kinds of things going on in their life that you and I deal with in our lives. What makes them special is what makes you and I special. God himself has called us to himself. God called them to himself. Jesus chose them for himself. And he chose them to change the world. You know, we ask a question sometimes, how can a small church make an impact? Well, ask that question with the disciples. There were only 12. And they changed the world. The world was not the same. In fact, what was said about them from the religious leaders is that you have turned the world upside down with your doctrine, with your teaching. And they were going from house to house every single day, breaking bread, which was the Lord's Supper, preaching the Word of God, calling people to repent. You know, that is the same activity that you and I are given in the Great Commission in Matthew 28, 19, and 20. We're to go and make disciples. And you've heard me say this before, the Greek text says, as you are going, as you're going throughout your daily routines of life, whatever you're doing, every day, make disciples. Another way to say it, every day, preach the gospel. Every day, live Christ. And that's exactly what they did. Now, as we look into this, we can see some things, some paralleling with Philip that we looked at last week, but we'll bring some emphasis to this. But there are some things that we can see. And the first thing that I want you to see this morning is his study of scripture. Both Philip and Nathanael had a very similar attitude towards scripture. In fact, all the disciples had the same attitude, but they were very studious. They were students of scripture. Do you see yourself as a student of scripture? We all are students of scripture. But notice what they were studying. Look at verse 45. 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. So it tells us right here that this is what they were studying. They were studying the Law of Moses. Now, you and I, we have a completed Bible right here. We pick it up. We have both Testaments bound in one book. But during this time, there was no New Testament. They had the Old Testament. They had the Law of God, the first five books of Moses. And they had others. And they had the Scriptures. And so what they were studying in the completion of the study of scripture is identified by those three phrases. Well, I added the third one and I'm thinking of Luke because Luke adds the Psalms to it, but the law of Moses, the prophets, and the third one would be the Psalms. And if you were studying the Jewish Old Testament, you would find the breakdown of the Old Testament corresponding to those three categories. But they were studying the Law of Moses. They were looking in the Law. They were looking in the prophets for the Messiah. How will they know Him? How will they spot Him? By the Old Testament Scriptures. You know, there were many that thought that they had eternal life. And Jesus even said in John 5, 39, you search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. But then Jesus adds this phrase to it. It is these that bear witness of Me. the scriptures bear witness of Christ. Even to be more specific, John 5, 46, for if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. So then that means that Jesus is mentioned in the first five books of the Bible. You say, well, I've read the Bible over and over. I've never seen his name in the first five books of the Bible. Well, he's there. I'll show you some of that. But this is really the stance of the whole gospel here. Jesus is the fulfillment of Old Testament scripture. You know, they were looking very hard for the Messiah. Even after the resurrection, Jesus said to his disciples, and this was the passage I was thinking about when I mentioned the Psalms, he says, I've given you those verses that talk about the Old Testament testifying of Christ. Where are some of these things? Let me give you a few verses. The first one's in Genesis 3.15. All the way in the first book of the Bible. Here's what it says. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed, and he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the hill." This is the judgment that was said to Satan, to the snake. Remember, Lucifer inhabited the snake, deceived Eve there to take of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And God says, I'm going to put enmity between you and the woman. between your seed and her seed, and He's going to bruise you on the head, and you're going to bruise Him on the heel, and that is a messianic passage. That's a passage that is speaking of Jesus and what He would do when He would come, and what Satan would do in trying to keep Him from going to the cross and providing redemption. Another passage is found in Deuteronomy chapter 18. Now both of these are part of the Law of Moses, and there are many other verses, but I'm just going to give you a couple of them. But it says in Deuteronomy 18, beginning at verse 15, Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers, you shall listen to him. This is according to all that you asked of Yahweh your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my God, let me not see this great fire anymore or I will die. And Yahweh said to me, they have spoken well. Here it is, I will raise up a prophet from among their brothers like you. and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him." Isn't that exactly what Jesus said when he came? The words that I speak are not mine, but my father's who sent me. Or I don't speak on my own initiative, but my father tells me what to say. This is a fulfillment of Deuteronomy 18, 18. Two verses that are out of the Pentateuch first five books of Moses, and again, there are many others, but let me also mention the prophets, because they were searching the scriptures, and they were searching in the law of Moses, and they were searching in the prophets, and perhaps they came across this verse in Isaiah 9, 6. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. there will be no end to the increase of his government or of his peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore." Now, who's that passage talking about? That's talking about Jesus as well. And here in this passage, it says that His name is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace, And he's going to have no end to the increase of his government or of his peace and on the throne of David. That's very important element there. Another passage in the Prophets would be Isaiah 53. And Isaiah 53 is the passage on the suffering servant. And this was an element that many of them did not get. They did not understand this at all, that the Messiah, when he would come, he would have to suffer. And listen to what it says. Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed? For he grew up before him like a tender shoot, like a root out of the parched ground. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. but he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our peace fell upon him, and by his wombs we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us have turned to his own way, but Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers. So he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. And as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, that for the transgression of my people, striking was due to him. So his grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with a rich man in his death. because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth. But Yahweh was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. It would have placed his soul as a guilt offering. He will see His seed, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of Yahweh will succeed in His hand. And as a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied. By His knowledge, the Righteous One, My servant, will justify the many and will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide for him a portion with the many, and he will divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors." I think that's pretty clear who that's about, wouldn't you say? They were studying the law and the prophets. They would have known these passages. And since Jesus mentioned also the Psalms speak of him, let me mention a few of those. Psalm 22, 1, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Where do we hear that? As Jesus is on the cross, right? Psalm 2, 7, I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Where do we hear that? We hear that in the Gospels. Psalm 110 verse 1, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. We find that also in the Gospels. In Psalm 118 verse 22, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. And again we find that as well. They were students of the Bible. You know, since we become followers of Jesus and Jesus saved us, made us his children, we should be known by that phrase as well as students of scripture. Because every time that we We read the scriptures. We're students. Every time we read, we want to know what God's Word says. We want to know what the Bible says about God, about Christ, about the Holy Spirit. So the first thing that we learn about Nathanael or Bartholomew, is that he was a student of Scripture. He was a searcher of the truth. He was a seeker of God. And together him and Philip hungered to know God's truth and they looked for the Messiah. But however, in verse 46, it tells us that there was a weakness in his character. And his weakness is the sin of prejudice. Look at verse 46. After Philip tells Nathanael about finding the Messiah and that it's Jesus of Nazareth, Nathanael says this, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Now that might not sound too bad on face value, but what was he really saying? I mean, Nathanael was from Cana and Cana was more obscure than Nazareth. Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament. It's not mentioned in the Talmud. It's not mentioned in any contemporary Gentile writings as the place that the Messiah would come. You remember even at one time the Pharisees had made that very point when they were talking about where the Messiah would come from. And that was one of the things that some of them could not get over. But if they were also studious in their understanding of scripture, they would find that he was born in Bethlehem, but he was raised in Nazareth. So in one sense, Nathaniel's question is correct, but he's also implying something else. He's implying something about Nazareth. And William Barclay gives us some insight here. He says, Nazareth was a quite undistinguished place. Nathanael himself came from Cana, another Galilean town, and in country places, jealousy between town and town and rivalry between village and village is notorious. We tend to see some of that kind of stuff here. And usually we see it in the rivals of football teams, right? College teams. You know, what college? Because we have here FSU, Florida State. We also have the University of Florida. We have two rival football teams that play against each other. And so a lot of that kind of jealousy goes on and people get all hyped up about it and they decorate their homes and their cars and I've even seen a house up in Callahan that was painted in Georgia colors. First time I'd ever seen an orange house. But it was there, and it's still there. And it's trimmed in that blue color that they use as well. I mean, I've seen that on golf carts. People decorate that. I've seen it on cars. I've seen it in a lot of places, but some people take it pretty seriously. And they get pretty upset if you talk against their team. Nazareth was not the kind of place that anything good was likely to come out of it. So Philip challenges him. He challenges him at the end of verse 46 with three words and rather than argue with him about Nazareth, he just simply says this, come and see. He puts the burden back on him. And he knew that if he came and met Jesus, all of his questions would be resolved. all of his questions would be answered. You know, come and see is really the best kind of answer that you can give a skeptic. Because again, it puts the burden on them, not on you. And I know sometimes when you're witnessing to somebody, you feel like all the burden's on you, because you're trying to convince them that Jesus is who he says he is in the Word of God, and you're trying to get them to commit their life to him. You know, sometimes all we need to do is just read the Scripture to them and let the Spirit of God do His work. In fact, all the time, let the Spirit do His work, regardless of what you say there. God has given us His Word. It contains everything man needs to know about Jesus and His purpose of coming into this world. John MacArthur says idle speculation is no substitute for personally investigating Christ. Philip was certainly that. His friend's questions would be answered and his doubts satisfied when he met Jesus just as his had been. And despite his preconceived notions about Nazareth, guess what? Nathaniel gets up and he goes with him. So he had a prejudice, but he wasn't bound by it. It didn't stop him from investigating what Philip had said. We have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. That's a pretty profound statement during that time, during that day. When John the Baptist came on the scene, they thought he was the Messiah, you remember? They even asked him, are you the one to come or do we look for another? Who are you? What shall we say for those who sin us? What did he say? I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. Prepare the way for the Lord. And he preached repentance. He preached the gospel to prepare them for the Messiah. Many did repent as well as many didn't. Same issue we have today. There are people that repent and there are people that don't. So we see the first thing about him that he was a student of scripture. Second thing we would say We would see in verse 47 that he had a sincere heart. Jesus' first statement to Nathanael was a character description. Look what happens here. Philip says to him, come and see, and Nathanael goes with him to Jesus, and as he's coming to Jesus, verse 47 says, that Jesus saw him coming and said to him, Behold, truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. Wow. I mean, if anything you want the Lord to say about you would be something like this, right? We could think of many things, I'm sure. But truly an Israelite. You may have, indeed, in your version, and that's the Greek word alethos. Alethos is sometimes translated truth. And it means here truly an Israelite. An Israelite not merely in descent, but in character. See, there are a lot of people that hold on to their heritage. But they don't have the character of that heritage. But here Nathanael was an Israelite genuinely or in truth. He was a true Israelite according to God's law because in him there was no deceit. And the word deceit means cunning, treachery. It's talking about religious and moral integrity. Now some believe that Jesus' response and what he said was a reference to the patriarch Jacob. And William Hendricks says this, he says, in light of the entire context, it becomes apparent that throughout this account of his conversation with Nathanael, Christ is thinking of the patriarch Jacob With reference to the latter, Father Isaac had complained, speaking to his son Esau, when he said in Genesis 27, 35, your brother came with deceit and has taken away your blessing. You remember that? When Joseph disguised, or Jacob disguised himself as Esau, and he stole his blessing, Henderson says, the employment of trickery for selfish advantage characterized not only Jacob himself, but also his descendants. A really honest and sincere Israelite, a Jew without duplicity, had become such an exception that at the approach of Nathanael, Jesus exclaimed, look, truly an Israelite in whom deceit does not exist. Here is a man that really was. in character and integrity, a seeker of God. And how do we know that? Well, if you look at verse 48, we see the truth exposed here in what he was doing because Nathaniel responds with amazement and says, where do you know me? We've never met. How do you know these things? And Jesus answered and said to him, before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. I saw you. Wow. Not only did Jesus accurately sum up his character without meeting him, but he also displayed supernatural knowledge about him that was only known to him. Most likely the fig tree in question was the place where he had studied, where he had meditated on the Old Testament. Marvin Vincent says the Jewish writings tell us of distinguished rabbis who were accustomed to rise early and to pursue their studies under the shade of a fig tree. And whatever happened there under that fig tree as Nathaniel was seeking God, Jesus says, I saw that, and I saw you. I saw what you were doing, and I saw your heart, and I saw here is a man in character that has no deceit. This is a true Israelite. Again, it's not based upon his heritage. It's based upon his character. And how does Nathanael respond to this? Well, immediately he responds in faith. Look at verse 49. He says, Rabbi, that means teacher, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel. As Jesus read his heart, as Jesus read what he was doing under that fig tree, Only information that Nathanael would know. That blows Nathanael's mind. He says, yes, this is the Messiah. But I'll take it a step further. He's the Son of God. He's the King of Israel. And if you remember in our study of Mark, how does Mark present Jesus? By this phrase right here, it's found in John. He presents Jesus as the Son of God. That was confident faith. That was something that they had long awaited for. And you know, there have been others that had similar responses. In verse 41, it says that he found his own, that is Andrew, Andrew found his brother Simon and what did he say to him? We have found the Messiah. So collectively together and individually they were all looking for the Messiah. Nicodemus had declared him as coming from God as a teacher in John 3.1. The Samaritan woman had declared him as one who told me all the things that I have done, John 1.29 or 4.29. After the people of Samaria heard the words of the woman and met him, they declared that this one is indeed the Savior of the world." John 4, 43. So Nathanael declares him as the Son of God. And the use of the definite article here indicates that the title here is used in its fullest sense, affirming Jesus' absolute equality with God. throughout his earthly ministry, those who had followed Jesus repeatedly acknowledge that He was the Son of God. Same way today, we repeatedly acknowledge that He is the Son of God, that He is God incarnate. But let me give you some places that shows us where this takes place. One of them is in John 11. If you want to turn to it, it's John 11, 25 and following. There's a conversation that Jesus has with Martha. He said to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life and he who believes in me will live even if he dies and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die, ever. And then he asked her, do you believe this? Listen to her response. Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who comes into the world. She put all of her trust, all of her hope, all of her faith in those statements. I believe that you are the Christ. What's she saying there? Well, Christ is Christos in Greek, means anointed one, but it's the equivalent of the Hebrew word Mashiach in the Old Testament, which Mashiach is Messiah. I believe that you are the Messiah. But I'll take it a step further. I believe that you are the Son of God. You are the one who comes into the world. You're the one we've been longing for. You're the one we've been waiting for. Remember when Jesus came to his disciples walking on water and then Peter asked if he could come and walk on water to him and Jesus allowed him? Well, after they both got into the boat, the storm stopped and they were at the shore. Just like that. They were several miles. Several miles out into the water. But when they got in the boat, immediately they were at the shore. Another supernatural event. And it says that those who were in the boat worshipped Him, saying, You are the Son of God. I mean, what would be your conclusion? First, He comes walking to you on the water? And then one of your own gets out of the boat and He walks on the water? These guys were professional fishermen. They knew if you got out of the boat, you're not going to walk, you're going to sink immediately. We all know that, right? But these activities, these miracles were done to show them He is the Son of God. Nobody could do what He did. And then, of course, Nathanael declared Him, in verse 49, as the King of Israel. And the Old Testament described the Messiah as the King of Israel. In Zechariah 9, in verse 9, it says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Make a loud shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you. He is righteous and endowed with salvation, lowly and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a packed animal. And what do we find in John chapter 12? This very story being fulfilled when it says, on the next day, the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they had heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of palm trees and went out to meet him and began to shout, Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the king of Israel. And Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it. As it is written, fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt. So the very prophecy that was mentioned in Zechariah, here it's mentioned in John 12 as being fulfilled. Jesus fulfilled that. He's the Son of God. He is the King of Israel. And you remember when Jesus was nailed to the cross, there was an inscription put above him, King of the Jews. Well, Jesus makes another statement, and it's in verses 50 and 51, and it gives us insight. It gives Nathanael actually insight into Jesus' power. He says in verse 50, Because I said to you that 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 the heavens open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. And that is most likely an allusion to an Old Testament account in Genesis 28, verses 12 and 13, when Jacob in his dream saw angels ascending and descending from heaven on a ladder. Do you remember that? And here, the latter is replaced with Jesus Himself. And the point of this statement that Jesus is making is saying that He is the link between heaven and earth. He is the revealer of heavenly truth to men. Well, there's one more phrase. And I'll tell you, all the disciples saw so many things. In fact, even John in his gospel, he said there were so many things that Jesus did that are not written in this book. Because all the world can contain it in books of all the things that he did. And that's why I say to us all the time, everything that God wants us to know about Him is right here in this book. Now, I don't have one of those little skinny Bibles you can't see. There's a lot here. A lot of information here about Him. And that's why we say, if you really want to know about Jesus, go to His Word. Everything God wants us to know about Him is right here in His Word. And we can go to his word and learn that. The last phrase that Jesus uses, he says, descending on the son of man. That was a very popular term. It's used 13 times in John's gospel. It was a favorite way that Jesus would refer to himself. He did it about 80 times in the gospels. In John's gospel, the phrase is associated with his suffering and with his death, with his provision of salvation and with his authority to judge. Son of God, Son of Man, King of Israel. Now, beloved, now, when we describe our salvation experience, we can't really describe it like this, can we? No, we can't, but we definitely can see a transformation take place in our life as He changes our desires, He changes our understanding, He convinces us of the truth of who Jesus is, that He is Son of God, that He is God, that He is God incarnate who came, who was born of a virgin, who was here for 33 years, who went to the cross for the purpose of bearing our sin in his own body on a tree. And he was cursed on a tree. And then he was placed in a borrowed tomb. We read that in Isaiah 53. And you remember the rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, who had hewned out that tomb. And no one had ever used it. And they laid Jesus right there. He rolled a large stone over the front of it. The Jews came and put a seal over it. Three days later, He resurrected. And the tomb being moved out of the way was not to let Him out, but it was to let people in to see that He wasn't there. He resurrected. Now, again, that's not something we hear about either. Now, I read some pretty interesting stories in the news of, you know, in some of these other countries where a person they believe is dead and they have them in the morgue and they're getting ready to prepare them and they wake up. Boy, that would be scary, wouldn't it? But it's happened. But that's not what happened with Jesus. First, he laid down his life, John 10. Secondly, he took it back. When we look at the human aspect of his crucifixion, men crucified him, Acts chapter 2. They nailed him to the tree. They put him to death. They murdered him. An innocent man. And all out of envy. They were envious over The popularity that he gained by his teaching and by his miracles, and instead of believing his teaching and believing his miracles that pointed to who he was, they rejected him altogether and had him put to death. I don't know what's worse, betraying the Son of Man, which Judas did, or just flat out rejecting Him. See, because Judas did reject Him too. He attached himself to Jesus for whatever reasons, and obviously it must have been for the popularity or maybe even money, because he sold him for 30 pieces of silver. He sold him out for money. That leaves us to ask the question that all of us should ask, what would it take for us to sell out a gun to your head? Somebody threatening to kill you, would that cause you to deny him? There's been a lot of people in both of those situations where they were forced to deny or die and they chose death. They couldn't deny their Lord. So we meet Nathanael Bartholomew, a seeker of truth, prejudiced but not bound by it, honest, open, man of prayer, man of meditation, man who made a complete surrender to Christ A man with a keen mind, a man with a heart of faith, he saw and he understood. And Jesus promised him wonderful revelations of his power. And from then on, he saw heaven's power displayed on earth. And as we've been learning, God uses all kinds of people, doesn't he? And we've also been saying that it's not who you are, but it's who you're willing to become. Let me close with this quote from John MacArthur. He says, This passage, which records Jesus' call of His first disciples to salvation, pictures the balance of salvation taught throughout Scripture. Salvation takes place when seeking souls come in faith to the Savior who has already sought them. Are you seeking after Christ? Every time I hear that word seeking, I think of Deuteronomy 4.29, which says, From there you will seek Yahweh your God, and you will find Him, for you will search for Him with all your heart and with all your soul. I hope that's how you have sought him. But you can seek him right now. And you can do that as we pray. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for what we learned about Nathaniel Bartholomew, what we've been learning about your disciples, and how all of these men were very raw. But you changed them, you transformed them, just like you're doing in us. And I pray, Lord, that the impact that these 12 had on the world, that we too could have an impact on the world as well. That we rest solely in your gospel, not in our abilities. We trust in Christ and we preach Christ. And I pray, Father, for those that are in here this morning that may not know you, that may not believe that you're the Son of God, that you're the King of Israel. I pray that you would give them the faith to believe that this morning. And that you would transform their life and grant them salvation. and we pray all this in Jesus name. Amen. As we've concluded our time