Out of the numerous conversations
that I have with many people every single week, it's always
baffling to me to see and hear just how people approach scripture. Some people approach scripture
as some relic, something that they, you know, hold like they
would an ancient scroll or An artifact dug from the ground
from millennia ago. And that's about as far as it
goes, just an ancient artifact. Some people hold the scripture
as an incredible teacher, something to which they want to align their
lives that they might follow after the instructions found
within and thus produce some type of ethics or morality that
is pleasing to the world or pleasing to the powers of the world. Some
people take that same mindset and say that in doing so they're
pleasing to God, even though Paul would say that as no one
is justified by the works of the law. Some people look at
the scripture as a discombobulated collection of writings that man
has done their best to try to press together and create something
to suit his own fancy. This is what we want. We want
a Messiah who is God, and we're gonna make this work for us.
And we just cram this stuff together. What intelligent men. Amazing
to me that they can do that over 1,500 years, but without Facebook. And some people look at the Bible
as an antiquated document, something that is to be studied as a historical
record, but not so much. Certainly it's not divine. Certainly
it doesn't have anything to teach us in 2000, nearly 18. After
all, we are the age of technology. We're the age of learning. We're
learning doubles every so many days or what have you. Versus
every hundred years like it used to. We're living in an age of
information where people don't even have to look at the Bible
anymore. Don't even have to read it anymore. They just say, well,
what does that mean? Let me go look at YouTube. Let me go find
out. Let me go find some place online
that'll tell me what I'm looking for. Yep, I thought that's what
it was. Moving right along, let's go have a sandwich. And that's
what happens in every generation of unbeliever. Every generation. from the days of Jesus, to the
days of Saul, to the days of Adam, the word of the Lord quickly
just moves to a place of non-import. In toto, completely, not partially. I mean, Adam and Eve, the first
humans, within just some short time span of hours, arguably,
They pushed the word of the living God away and listened to the
temptation. Why? Because it was pleasing
to the eye and it was good for food and it was good to make
one wise, which is what they wanted when offered the opportunity. The word of God today has always
been pushed to the corners by culture. But I believe in this
day, and I may be wrong, That's why I say, I believe. I believe
that in our current day, that the Word of God is more damaged
in the hands of people who confess Christ than it's ever been in
the history of it. What do I mean by that? I mean
that it's not the cults that we should fear. It's not evolutionists. It's not atheism. It's not this
undergird of bigotry or political or nationalistic mindset that's
coming against the church. It's people who profess Christ
who are coming against the church. It's people who sit in gatherings
like this with somebody standing up here like this in front of
them and preaching about something or teaching about something that's
not from Scripture that is going to cause the most damage to Christianity. And I say that very lightly for
nothing can damage the faith. No person, no ideal for God preserves
his word and it will never perish. But beloved, if we look at the
history, if we look at the history, the church is always small. Even
when big revivals come, even when the power of the Holy Spirit
comes and the proclamation of the gospel goes out and many
come to faith, out of that many who profess, a few remain. Out of the many in our culture
who profess Christ, only a few truly are. And even in the masses
that would follow after Jesus, He would say that I am the bread. And they would walk away. And that is why so often when
people hear exposition, when people get to a text like we
are today and last week and the week before where it's a narrative,
we can become very creative. Because it's not doctrinal explicits. Now what do I mean by that? If
you go to Romans, if you're with us on Wednesday night, we're
in Romans, that's doctrinal explicits. The prologue, verse 18 verses
of John, very, very particular teachings. about theology, and
who Christ is, and who God is, and what redemption looks like.
But when we get to what somebody said with somebody else, and
Philip went and found Nathanael, and Andrew went and found Peter,
and these things are happening, we have a tendency in our world,
in our day, to get very creative and say, oh, you know what, we
could do this, we could apply this this way, or we could interpret
this this way. Yet at the same time, it's not
just a story that we should learn. Beloved, as we teach our children
the scripture when they're young and we teach them the stories
of old and we teach them the narrative of the New Testament.
Friends, we're not teaching them the history of Christ. We're
not teaching them the history of the faith. We're teaching
them Christ. What difference does it make
that Jonah was swallowed by a fish for three days and then spat
out upon the ground? You know what difference it makes?
You can't run from God. You can't hide from God. And
if you belong to Him, whether in salvificly or not, as a created
creature, He will do with you as He pleases. And no matter
what you do or where you go, you cannot run from God. So He
will swallow you up in a fish and spit you out on the shores
of the place He commanded you to go, no matter how bad you
don't want to. That's a sovereign God, you see.
Don't teach our children they must be determined to follow
God. Show them they're going to follow Him whether they want
to or not. And that by the power of grace, by the power of the
gospel, God will establish in them a heart to love Him for
His grace. That's the work of God. Don't
teach them that Jesus was captured because old Judas and his stinky
self told on Him and ratted Him out and got Him arrested. Oh,
poor Jesus. Oh, poor Jesus. Just before it
happened, He said, you need to go and do what you were destined
to do. To betray Me. The narrative of Scripture shows
us the theology that's necessary for us to worship God in purity,
in spirit and in truth. And I give that caveat because
I am disturbed I'm disturbed at the lack of depth and the
lack of the essence of the truth that is found in commentaries,
like we were talking this morning, found in commentaries of men
who people run to and say, well, let me see what so-and-so says
about this. Oh, there it is. It must be true.
Beloved, in the same way, do not believe what I tell you this
morning if you are not reading it for yourself and the Holy
Spirit of God giving you the light to see it as truth. Do
not do it. For I'm no greater man than anything.
And in fact, I would say that I was probably the worst candidate
to stand here before you today. The worst possible person who
could open their mouth to teach you about the mercies of God.
But yet God, in His wisdom, see fit, sees fit to do such things,
to take the nothings of the world, to proclaim the excellencies
of His mercy. There's a couple of things that
as we get into this text this morning, I don't want to miss.
I'm going to say them in the beginning. Anywhere you see Jesus, use the
term or say the phrase, follow me. He is not asking anyone anything. When you see the same emphatic
expression from the scripture where God says, be holy, For
I am holy, he is not asking anyone to do anything. Both instances
are a commandment. I debated that just this morning,
about 9.15, when I asked the question of a gentleman, well,
how is it that you stand right before God? His answer was, read
the Bible and pray and live like the Bible says to live. And I
said, to what degree are you going to be held? He said, for
what I do good. To which the conversation came to
the feet. And not. Settled to which I said there
is no one justified through the obedience of the law. As a matter
of fact, even use the illustration that Jesus gave about the slave
working hard in the field, and then after he worked hard, Does
the master of the table, does the master of the house say,
come and recline and put your feet up and eat? He says, no slave.
Where's my supper? Well, that's sort of harsh. No,
it's not. We are condemned for our obedience, brothers and sisters.
Because if we think it is righteous, we've lost. We don't get rewarded
for obeying God when we've disobeyed God. I'm not talking about as
a believer. I'm not talking about the blessings
of obedience and following after Christ. I'm not talking about
the work of the Holy Spirit and how He works in us and how we
fight against Him. I'm talking about people who
think that they can be right and justify before the Lord because
they follow after certain rules, certain laws, certain regulations. We practice and exercise church
discipline as a church because the Bible commands it. But when we find ourself in discipline
and we correct the behavior, it is the Lord doing the work,
number one. And number two, it doesn't make us more sanctified
and more justified because God has done the work through Christ.
So that's one thing I want you to keep in mind. It's a commandment.
The other thing I want you to recognize is that what's recorded
in Scripture, especially in the Gospel of John, is such a minuscule
portion of the entirety of Jesus' ministry. As a matter of fact,
John would even state that if all that were recorded, everything
that Jesus said and taught and did were recorded in the annals
of humanity, that there be not room in the cosmos to hold the
paper. Now, let's say that again. In
other words, if everything Jesus taught and did were written down,
there wouldn't be enough room in the world to hold the books.
So that when we see this little tiny, short, concise, small,
thin page, of the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Matthew, Mark,
and Luke and all the other things, it is nothing. It's not even
1% of what's available to us about the absolute work of Jesus
Christ. So that we know that Jesus didn't
just go around and say to just a select few, follow me. He didn't
just stand around and say to just a select few people every
now and then, believe in me. He didn't just, John, just like
John the Baptist didn't go to a couple of 300 people and just
say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He did it
to the world. He proclaimed the gospel to every
person who had ears on their heads and even the ones who didn't. So that Jesus then, not only
did he command men to follow him everywhere, He commanded
women to follow Him everywhere. He commanded children to follow
Him. He's commanding people this very moment through His written
Word to follow Him. Now we have a misunderstanding
of what that means and we're going to go through it this morning.
Let's look at the narrative starting in verse 40. Let's back up for
last week, just a couple of verses. One of the two who heard John
speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother
Simon and said, 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. Verse 43, 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 and said, excuse me, Jesus of Nazareth,
the son of Joseph. Nathanael said to him, can anything
good come out of Nazareth? Jesus said to him, come, excuse
me, 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. Nathaniel 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.
Nathaniel answered him before. I'm excuse me, Rabbi, you are
the son of God. You are the king of Israel. And
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 was bright. Father, let your word be true
this morning to open our hearts and minds to hear and to understand
and to comprehend and to apply. Lord, let not my words and commentary
invade or obscure the truth of this text. And Father, let us
not come with our own ideas of what it may mean, but Father,
plainly, as it's revealed to us through your word, let us
absorb it and believe it. And Father, I pray that as we
go through this text, Lord, that we would, above all things, see
just how glorious you are and just how powerful you are to
save. and that it is a work of you fully and completely. And I pray that all that we've
done and all that we continue to do this day would give honor
and glory to your name. And if we discern that it hasn't,
we cut it and we strike it and we move on to try to honor you
again. But we know that we are not pleasing
to you because of what we are and what we've done. but we're pleasing to you because
of what Christ has done. And it's in His name we stand
before you today. It's by His power that we have
life. And it's in His name we pray.
Amen. Follow me. Now I start in verse
40 because I'm going to go back to it in a few minutes. Follow
me, Jesus says. It's not an inquiry. Will you
follow me? It's not a suggestion. You know,
you could follow me. It's a command. Follow me. So
that in this sense, that anyone that Jesus walked around and
saw, anyone that came into the path of Christ and he said to
them, follow me, and they didn't, guess what? They disobeyed God. Just like anyone who lives in
this earth today and we hear the command to be holy and we're
not, we have disobeyed God. There are many books, there are
many movements, if I might say movements, that means people
trying to get something started, to get some people excited about
something, that deal with the following after Christ. And there's
been, well, just go to a Christian bookstore and look at what's
on the shelves. What is on the shelves of a Christian
bookstore is ways that we can follow after Jesus a little bit
closer. Ways that we can walk in certain
steps that Jesus would want us to walk. And by doing so, then
we're pleasing to God. I've actually seen certain books
that have checklists at the end of every chapter that you can
tear out or copy or put into your journal and check them off
throughout the week so that as you get this thing under your
belt, then therefore you're more intimate with the Lord. Hogwash. What is hogwash? It's a Southern
way of showing that something is grotesquely disturbing. Because
if you took a hog and you washed it, what was left would be hogwash.
I don't want to look at it, breathe it, taste it. Nothing. That type
of discipleship is baloney. The type of discipleship that
teaches people to plug in and assimilate in a certain way or
plug into a certain rule of action, to memorize certain things. I
remember when we first decided in our ministry, when we first
decided unanimously to flush LifeAway publishers. I've never
told this story on a Sunday morning. But I remember reading through,
some man in the church brought me the quarterly for the Sunday
school material, which was by Lifeway. And he says, have you
read this? And I said, no, I haven't. You need to read this pastor.
He laid it on my desk and I pick it up and I begin to read it
about an hour later and I'm reading through and I'm reading through
and I'm reading through and it's on the book of Deuteronomy. It's
a quarterly study of the book of Deuteronomy. And in the third
or fourth chapter, it actually started to talk about the Ten
Commandments of God. And the application of that chapter
was, print out the Ten Commandments. Put them on your refrigerator,
on the dash of your car, on your child's notebook, etc. And pick one every week to work
on until you master it. Needless to say, I did not wisely
approach that. I reacted very quickly, and that
was on a Thursday. And the next Sunday, I announced
to the church, the elders have decided to pull all of this material. We will be writing our own Sunday
school material starting next week, which we did. And people
who had been using that material for a millennia, like to suck
me out of the pulpit that day. For surely the publisher knows
best. Friends, we're always going to
be inundated with people telling us what to believe, telling us
how to act, telling us what to do. But the Word of God is true. not my sermon, lest it be the
word of God, not our commentary, not our collective thoughts,
not our investment, not our home Bible studies. None of that stuff
is true if it not be the word of God. And even then, with most
careful attention, we can mistake application. So what should we
do with this text? Follow me. This is a divine command. We need to understand it as such.
We don't need to disciple people in following after Christ. We
need to command them to follow after Christ. Early days of ministry,
I was taught to view the world and everyone in it through concentric
circles. Concentric circles are circles that never overlap. They're
inside each other like a bull's eye. And what we want to do is
we want to gather the crowd out here and bring them into this
circle and bring them into this circle until we get them to the
core. And then we've got core, we've got Jesus followers and
Jesus lovers and church men and church women and church children
and everything else in between. And we tried it and we saw massive
numerical growth of people who hated the Bible and did not know
Christ from their left shoe. The command is to follow. The
work of that command is God's. God is who prepares a person
to follow. God is who calls us a person
to follow the spirit of God, rearranges, reconstructs, recreates. Why don't you just use the word
regenerates the heart of a dead man so that he could follow after
Christ? And so when Jesus came and said
to Philip, follow me, the word was heard and heeded. But so
many people heard that same command, follow me, and they ignored the
word and then hated Christ for the command. Who do you think
I am? Let me give you an example, the
rich young ruler. What must I do to inherit eternal life? What
does Jesus say? Let's just paraphrase it. Be
holy. Be holy. To which the young man
responds, I have kept all of the law since the days of my
youth. And Jesus tests him on that, doesn't he? Take everything
you own and love most and give it all away. And you will have
treasure in heaven. So you take the treasure that
you have and you give it away in exchange for treasure in heaven.
That's number one. And number two, he says what?
He commands him, follow me. And the young man heard it. and
ignored it, then hated it. Same word, same circumstance. Physical ears listening to the
physical voice of a physical man who is Jesus who is also
divine. Follow me, and the rich young ruler hated that. He walked
away dejected. Not weeping, oh man, I gotta
go give up all my money. Going, ain't no way I'm giving up my
money. and following that. Why did Philip
follow and see and the rich young ruler didn't? The same reason
sometimes our neighbors cannot believe and we have. The same
reason sometimes people in our own household, our own relatives
cannot see but we can see. Are we smarter than they? No. Are we more focused? No. It's a work of God. It's
a work of God's power. It's a work of God's grace. And
that's what's happening here. So the application of hearing
Jesus say, follow me, and Philip followed, is Jesus commands what
cannot be done, and then He causes what cannot be done to be done.
There's just some application. We oftentimes, and for those
of you who have been on Wednesday nights, you know I talked about the apostolic
office and where Paul talks about being a slave of Christ, and
that we need to be careful not to put in our own minds that
we need to be a slave like Paul was a slave. Because that would
mean we were called to be apostles. And the same thing that we follow,
we're not going to follow in the same manner that Philip followed,
but salvifically we follow in that we believe who does the
work. We often mistake the idea that
if we want to be like The people in the Bible, we need to do what
they do. We need to say what they say. We need to go where
they go. But ultimately, it's about the
rebirth. Ultimately, this is the fact that God's word does
not return void. And when Jesus commands any person
to believe and to follow him, the spirit of God, as he wishes,
either brings that person to life or doesn't. Did you hear
that, church? Follow Christ. Believe in Christ
today. That is a command from God Himself,
not from James. Not from a note, but from God
in His Word. And the only one who can do it
is God. And when you believe, you will
forever believe. And you will always believe,
even though you doubt. It's the work of God. He commands what
cannot be done. The word does not return void.
We go into the context of John's prologue. What do we see? The
life of man is what? The light. Jesus is the light.
The light that shines in the darkness and the darkness is
not overcome it. Jesus commanded Philip and the light of Christ
through the Holy Spirit helped him see. Matter of fact, helping
is not even the right word. Caused him to see. Because helping
suggests partnership. Well friend, there is two words
in that context that come out theologically, synergistic and
monogistic. There is no such thing as a synergistic
salvation. We don't work with God in power. He works alone. Rebirth then
is necessary to hear with power and receive the truth. This is
not a suggestion. This is not a request. This is
a command. And this is not something man
can do without divine birth. You must be born again, Jesus
will say. You must be born again. You cannot
see the kingdom. You cannot enter the kingdom. This is mostly what people do
in their words, isn't it? When it comes to following after
Christ, most people do it with words. How does the world look
at that? How do many false believers and
false converts look at the command to follow Christ? Well, I'm following
Christ because I'm saying I believe in Jesus. Okay, that's good.
Followers of Christ. Those who are born of the Spirit
of God do confess we believe in Christ. Great. But it's not
the confession that's effectual. In Romans chapter 9 and 10, we
don't see that the confession is what's effectual. What do
we see? We see the Spirit and the grace
of God is effectual. If the grace of God is given
to see, then one believes they're made alive. Followed after Jesus
isn't just about what we say, though what we say is important.
Followed after Jesus isn't just what we do with our feet and
our hands, or what we see and listen to, or how we behave,
or our attitudes. Even many people, Judas Iscariot
followed after Jesus in the very like manner that Philip would,
in the very like manner that Peter would. But yet, he what? He was not born of God. In fact,
his very purpose in living was that he would be the betrayer.
It's what he wanted. God is not looking for someone
to follow after him in human ability. As a matter of fact,
Jesus says in John chapter 6, we'll just stick with the gospel
of John in our proof text this morning. Jesus says in John chapter
6 that the Father is seeking worshippers who worship in spirit
and in truth. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere,
the woman who was not a worshipper becomes a worshipper. How did
that happen? Because Jesus spoke life to her.
and the Spirit of God, as He wishes, brought her to salvation. That she resolves every argument
that she had been debating with Jesus, she resolves it down to
one thing, her hope in Jesus Christ, Messiah. I guess Messiah
will tell us all things. That woman did not speak rightly
or truly. As a matter of fact, she was
a very deceitful woman. Lied to the God of heaven, right there.
But she spoke truthfully when she said she had had no husband.
Jesus even says that. No, you've had five. The man
you're with now is not your husband. All of a sudden, the divine power
of Christ is revealed to her. To which this woman responds,
you must be a prophet to know these things. So even then, in
unbelief, she begins to suggest that Christ is a prophet, is
a powerful man of God in some sense, but not God Himself. But
in the end, the Holy Spirit gives her the correct truth. The truth
that God creates, creates His worshippers. We don't create ourselves as
worshippers. We don't follow in such a way that we're worshipping,
like many people like to misapply and abuse Romans chapter 12,
verses 1 and 2. God creates worshippers. He would follow Christ. Philip
would follow Christ in ministry on earth. Philip would follow
Christ on earth in death. And Philip would follow Christ
into eternity. Beloved, that's the work of God.
That's the work of God. Let's look at 45. Philip found Nathanael. So Jesus
finds Philip and calls him out, commands him to follow him, and
he's immediately regenerated and he follows after Christ.
Just like the proclamation of John the Baptist just days before
when Andrew and John the Gospel writer were standing with John
the Baptist and he says, behold, see the Lamb of God. And they
just walk away and follow after Jesus. And Jesus, what do you
want? What are you doing? What are
you seeking? Where are you staying? He says,
come and see. And this is reiterated and repeated
throughout the Gospels. Come and see. What is the point
of seeing? Because the darkness is where
we live, beloved. And when we live in unbelief,
we cannot see the glory of God. But He, the God who is at the
Father's side, makes Him known. The light shines. The light is
life. His name is Jesus. If we were
to take this and put it in the outline of the prologue, there
was a man named John who came to bear witness that through
him all might believe. You see this. Last week we talked
about the witness. The week before we talked about
the fact that John was not the light. And today we see that
they believe because of the witness. John the Baptist proclaimed the
gospel, and people were saved. Jesus commanded him to come,
and Philip was saved. Now, all of a sudden, we see
something else. Philip, then, who was saved by
the grace of God, goes and finds Nathanael. And here, in this
text, above all the others, we see Nathanael, above the other
gospels, the synoptics, to which we'll just call him, according
to the synoptics, Bartholomew. That's who he is, Bartholomew. But Nathanael, as he's called
out in John's narrative, was not called out by Jesus. He was
called out by Philip. Here is this evangelism going,
continuing, continuing, continuing. Friends, what happened to evangelism
in our world today? Why is it Well, I know the answer,
but why is it that we think as human beings that the bigger
the better, the more opportunity. Yet these private evangelistic
efforts picked 12, one the devil, then another, then Paul. Fourteen men, one of which fell to bring salvation to the entirety
of the world. Why do we believe that it's necessary
to have these grandiose, drawing, earthly, worldly-ridden events
to bring people to the truth of Christ, when Jesus' own disciples
were engaged one-on-one with people going out and just proclaiming
Christ? More work is done through reaching
the lost with you and the life that you live, and the places
you go every day, then anyone will ever see the fruit of me
standing in a stadium of 10,000 people. Which I've done. You fill up the altars, and then
six months later, there's no one on record that's saved. Because they came to something
but Christ. They did something besides believe.
They put their faith in their own power to do something, to
secure, or as the rich young ruler would say, to inherit eternal
life. Philip found Nathanael and he proclaimed. What did he
say? What did Philip do? Did he give this grand treatise and
the argument from the Old Testament? And say, see, this man's done
this and he's done this and so here's his lineage. No, as a
matter of fact, I believe Philip in his excitement to proclaim
Christ just like Andrew, he didn't care about himself. He didn't
care that he found Jesus. He did, but he wasn't self-absorbed. All he could think about was,
I can't wait to go tell Nathaniel. Oftentimes when we find a fellowship
of believers, all we think about is, wow, look what I've got,
look what I'm doing, look what I'm experiencing. When the very
purpose of God establishing a people together for the sake of His
glory is that we invest in the lives of each other before we
invest in our own lives. In prayer and discipleship and
sorrows and burdens and everything else. And for those of you who
have experienced someone else sharing the burden that you have
in life, you know how glorious it is and only God can get the
praise for it. And God is glorified twice and
doubly in that. Number one, God is glorified
because you aren't carrying the burden and you're trusting in
His provision. And number two, He's glorified in that someone
else is giving of themselves to carry a burden instead of
worrying about their own. A little side note. What does Philip say? We have
found Him. Notice what he holds as his authority
of his evangelism. It's not an apologetic. It's
not a debate. It's not an online argument.
It's not a Greek exposition of the Septuagint. It's not even
a precursor to that. It's not going back to the Hebrew
root of a word, for Pete's sake. It's not necessary. He is going
to the Scripture and saying very clearly, we have found Him of
whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote. Sound familiar? Jesus will say the same thing
in John chapter five to the Pharisees. When he says to them, if you
knew me, you would know my father. He also says that I'm not going
to indict you when they were angry with him for declaring
himself to be God. He says, I'm not going to indict you, but
it's Moses who is going to indict you because he wrote of me. The
Word of God is the authority, not the argument, not the evidence,
not the philosophy, not the rationale, not the logic. It is Christ and
Christ alone who is the living Word of God who is established
through normal, natural means of communicating Himself through
language. The Holy Spirit brings to life
dead people and seals them and saves them. Friends, I wish upon
all things that I had understood this at 7 or 8 years old. 7 or 8 years old. I wish I had
understood this at 7 or 8. Because I made it a mission to
save people. To share the gospel. And every
time someone laughed at me, I felt like I had failed. Every time
someone said, child be quiet, shut up, we don't want to hear
you, we just want to look at you. be seen, not heard." I felt
like, wow, there's no way. I can't. And on through high
school and on, but the Lord was gracious and in His timing, He
showed it to me. Friends, hear this. We reach
people with the gospel of Jesus Christ by teaching them of Christ,
by sharing the Word of God, God saves. Or He doesn't. You're
off the hook. Jesus It was written about in
Moses and the law and also the prophets. And then he says, he
is Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. True statement. He
was born where? In Bethlehem. And then he ran
to Nazareth because of Herod. Just like Moses was put in seclusion. put in a basket, a seclusion,
and raised because of Pharaoh trying to kill everyone. And
here, Philip appeals to scripture and says, the one who was written
of, we have found him. And he's from Nazareth. He's
the son of Joseph, the carpenter. This is the argument that the
Pharisees and the Jews and the Sadducees use against Jesus.
When they murmur amongst themselves in Jesus and his divine omniscience,
he says, why are you arguing? Why are you murmuring? Is this not the son of Joseph?
How dare he say that he's the son of God? Who does he think
he is? He's not even a rabbi. Why does he come around here
teaching this way? See, they hated the word. They hated the teaching
of the gospel. Philip did not have to remark
this way, but he did. And I think he did so because of who Nathanael
was. I don't think Philip meant to,
but I think divinely Philip spoke these words because of who Nathanael
was. Nathanael was a Jew of all Jews. Why do you say that? Because
Jesus called him that. An Israelite indeed in whom there
is no guile. Look at verse 47. No guile, no
deceit. Nazareth was a hated place because
the people there were hated. They were despised. And now he's
saying that Jesus, the Messiah of whom Moses wrote and the prophets,
is from Nazareth. But the prophecy said what? He's
from Bethlehem, from the King of David, or the throne of David,
the lineage of David. So now we've got this problem.
You know what this shows me? Even when we mess it up, God's going to call people. Even
when we do something that's culturally insensitive, not that we do that
on purpose, God will still use it. Even when we're hitting the
pulpit and spitting on the front row, and people go, man, that's
going to run some folks off. The Word of God is not going
to run off the sheep of Christ. Let me say that again. The Word
of God is not going to run off the sheep of Christ. You know
who runs from the shepherd's voice? The goats. You know who
else? The wolves. This isn't the shepherd's voice.
This is the shepherd's voice. Philip did not have to remark,
but he did. And Nathanael's response was
a question, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Can anything
good come out of Nazareth? Now, this is where I would get
into the debate of bigotry. If I were witnessing to Nathaniel
today and he said that, I would just all of a sudden, naturally
in my mind, decide I'm going to forsake the evangel right
now and I'm going to deal with this man's bigotry. I'm going
to deal with this hatred of a people. I'm going to talk about how culturally
insensitive he is and how backwoods he is and how broken he is. But
you know what's crazy? The very thing that I would go
to to try to change in this man, the only thing that's going to
change that is the very first message that I started with,
we have found Jesus, the Messiah. So what does Philip say? Come
and see. To answer what? Does anything
good come out of Nazareth? He says, come and see. Just come
and see. We reveal the truth by revealing
Christ, we show the word, we share the word, and God, through
his power and through the spirit, brings people to salvation, no
matter how we mess it up, no matter how we do it right, when
we proclaim the truth below it. I want you to hear this, because
I know that as a church, many of us often feel guilty because
we're not sharing the faith the way we think we should. Leave it in the Lord's hands.
and just share the truth. But Jesus calls people out of
human evangelism. Even Philip, he called out of
human evangelism by his own mouth. The same message that called
the others through John the Baptist. Then verse 47, Jesus saw Nathanael
coming and said, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit.
You see, this shows us that Jesus knows the heart of all men. Jesus
knows Nathanael intimately. He knows him. Jesus ascribed
this to Nathanael not because he was being sarcastic. He was
being serious. Here is a man who is a devout
Jew. He's not a guy that puts on the
regalia and goes to temple. He's not a guy that goes to synagogue
for the looks. This man really wants to serve
the Lord. And it could even be suggested that maybe Nathanael
was praying or meditating under the fig tree, as we'll see in
a minute. But that's not given to us here so we don't impose
upon the text the traditions of the Mishnah, or the Jewish
writings, or the history. The point is that Jesus knew
the hearts of all men. Nathaniel was a true believer
of Judaism. He wasn't a false or a half-hearted believer. Because
in verse 48, Nathaniel says, How do you know me? as if someone
had told Jesus a little bit about Nathanael. Maybe he was thinking
Philip said, man, Nathanael was the real deal. He's a Jew of
all Jews. Man, you're going to be so impressed with him. He's doing
everything. He's even got a case of phylacteries he changes out
every hour. You know what phylacteries are?
It's the little leather boxes that the Jews would put the Word
of God in, the little tiny mini scrolls, and hang it just so
far out in front of their eyes so that they could actually fulfill
the Scripture that says, let the Word of God be in front of
your eyes and your heart. We're obeying God correctly.
I mean, can you imagine us walking around with chains and our Bibles
hanging out? How spiritual we would be. But that's not how Jesus knew
Nathaniel. Jesus knew him, and Jesus knows
us, and Jesus knows the heart of all men. And Jesus calls this
true Jew out of Judaism. You see, this is what's happening.
We're supposed to see here in the Scripture that one of the
most devout followers of Judaism was called out of Judaism by
Jesus to follow the King of the Jews, to follow the King of Israel. Because all that Israel was and
all that Israel believed and all that Israel followed was
worthless and useless. It was all just a shadow. Like
on the 21st when that shadow hits the earth, it's going to
be the shadow of the moon. The moon's not going to hit the
earth. It's not going to explode. And heavens to Betsy, Jesus isn't
coming back. Why? Because everybody says he is.
So we know he's not. Nothing's going to happen, except
it's going to be like, is it going to rain? No, it's not going
to rain. It's just a shadow. Jesus called Nathaniel out of
the shadow into the truth. He called him out and he knew
him intimately. And he says, how do you know
me? And Jesus, It says these words. Before Philip called you, when
you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Now think about this
for a second. Here's this devout Jew who believes
in the prophecy that Messiah is coming, and here's Philip
saying, we found the Messiah, but he's from Nazareth. to which
the other Jews of the day would go, well, this must not be him. But because he's so devout, because
he's so longing for the day Messiah will be revealed, he says, well,
we're just going to have to come and see. When Philip says, why
don't you come and see? He says that I'll go, I'll come
and I'll see for myself. And Jesus gives him something
that helps him see. A miracle. This is a miracle. This is a work of God. Jesus does this all the time.
Jesus promises what is not obvious. Just like in verse 41, where
He says, Your name is what? Simon, but you shall be called
Cephas or Kepha if you pronounce it correctly. Which means the
rock. Peter was anything but a rock.
Peter was a mud pie. He was a mud pie. Peter was like
Play-Doh with dirt in it. Melty chocolate on a summer day
in the sand. And Jesus says he's going to
be the rock. That's the biggest irony of John chapter 1 I've
ever seen in my life. Because Peter was a wishy-washy zealot. But Christ knew him. And Christ
not only knew him, Christ knew the decree of God and who Peter
would be. Christ knows Nathaniel. Christ
knows you. And Christ knows a lot of people.
What does this have to do with me? My hour's not yet come, he
says to his mother in John 2. In John 4, I have no husband.
I've already mentioned this. You're right. You say the truth
and you have no husband. I perceive you're a prophet. Jesus knew
their hearts. Jesus knew everything about them. Before they existed,
Jesus knew. John 6, did I not choose you, the twelve, and yet
one of you is the devil? John 9, 3, it is not that this
man has sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might
be displayed in him. In John 11, verse 4, one of my
favorite places It's a narrative of when Jesus
hears that Lazarus is sick. He says, this illness does not
lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son
of God may be glorified through it. Jesus knows all things at
all times. He's omniscient. And He regenerates
by the power of the gospel, the power of the Spirit, the life
giving. What happens to Nathanael when
Jesus says, I saw you before Philip came under the tree."
It's like Nathanael went, my goodness, this is Messiah. He
knows. He knows. And he calls Him teacher. Rabbi. Translated literally, master. Master. Then he calls Him the Son of
God. The Son of God. And then he calls him the king
of Israel. The king of Israel. Now put this
in perspective. The impossibility of reaching
a devout Jew who was looking for Messiah to be the ruler of
a people out of Bethlehem to sit on the throne of David in
the temple and a nomadic homeless Nazarene
professes to be Messiah through Philip, and this Jew of Jews
believes him. Jesus then asked the question, Do you believe because I said
I saw you under the fig tree? Isn't that sort of what he asked?
Because I said to you I saw you, do you believe? Is this why you
believe? And Jesus is sort of inquiring
so that Nathanael will understand, don't believe in the power, don't
believe in the miracle because many people would believe in
the miracles, wouldn't they? The Jews couldn't refute the miracles.
John chapter 12, he's already brought somebody back from the
dead, we gotta kill him. And we gotta kill the one that just
was resurrected, we gotta get rid of these people. The miracle that's about
to happen, which is why I believe Jesus was going to where he was
going. We're just going to take the water and turn it into wine.
Miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle.
And many people would believe, wow, Jesus is powerful. And they'd
see the miracles, which would validate his claim as God, as
Messiah, as Emmanuel, God with us. But believing in the miracle
is not what makes one born again. It's believing in spite of the
miracle, which is the greatest miracle. You see, because God
establishes life in the heart of one that had no life. And
that is a miracle. He regenerates by his life, given
power to which Nathaniel would call him the son of God and the
king of Israel. And he says, you haven't seen
anything yet. If you think this is something,
look at verse 51, and I've got to finish this next week. Truly,
truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels
of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." What did that mean to Nathaniel? What were the Jews really looking
for? For heaven to be opened to them.
That they have access to their God. That they have worship to
their God. They have intimacy with their
God. And Jesus says, you will see heaven opened. And you will
see angels descending and ascending on the Son of Man. That is the
only title that Jesus took for Himself. It is to illustrate His pure
humanity and to show that though He was God, He had a fully human
nature. But most importantly, Jesus is
the ladder through which heaven comes down. Make sense? And as a man, heaven comes down
on Jesus who represents humanity. And we'll stop there and preach
that next week. But as we close, relish the truth,
hold it, breathe it in and smell the aroma of the truth of the
gospel of Jesus that the evangelist saves. and that Jesus will save people
of every nation and every tribe and every tongue. Friends, if
Jesus saved Paul, a Hebrew of Hebrews, and Nathanael, how many
more Jews did He save? Jesus has not forsaken Israel.
Jesus has not forsaken your neighbor. Jesus has not forsaken you. Half the problem is we've given
up sometimes on people. their salvation. And in doing
so, we've given up on the very power of God for salvation. We stand here today, beloved,
because Christ has saved us. And there are many more sheep
to be had into the fold. Proclaim the gospel and praise
God for his glorious grace in the gospel. Let's pray. Lord, if we could just take and
have three or four hours a week, just bring snacks and eat while
we learn and pray and share. Father, one day we will never
have to leave your feet. We will never be dragged away
by life from the sublime glory of your son. but will forever
rest at his feet like Mary, never to labor again. Lord, your word is sufficient.
So no matter the completion thereof of this message or not, your
word is sufficient. So we trust in your work today. We trust in your power. We trust
in your gospel to hold us to save us and to send us out to
see others come to faith. Father, as we finish our time
here together in celebrating this grace, let us be intimate
with each other, even if brief, for the sake of your name. In
Jesus' name.