Nathanael & Come And See

GET READY FOR THE RESET

Nathanael & Come and See

John 1:43-51

As we start counting down to our special series on Resetting Our Lives, where we look at resetting, reigniting, and refueling our lives, I’d like to count down by looking at the various people that encountered Jesus, and not only how He reset their lives, but also look at what He said and how it relates to us today.

Last week we looked and the Samaritan Woman at the Well, and the gift of living waters that Jesus provides to spirits that are parched and dry, and how it radically changed and reset her life.

Today, I’d like to continue this resetting process by looking at another person, one who is hardly mentioned within the gospels, but one Jesus chose to be one of the 12 disciples and how He reset his life. And I’m talking about Nathanael.

Read John 1:43-51

“The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, "Follow Me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." And 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 is no deceit!" Nathanael said to Him, "How 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 and said to 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, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these." And He said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

As they were heading back from the Jordan River, Philip went to find his friend, Nathanael, who was from the town of Cana in Galilee.

Now, Cana was just 5 miles away from Nazareth. John identifies Nathanael as from Cana when he lists him after Jesus’s resurrection as one of the 7 disciples who went fishing on the Sea of Tiberias, also known as the Sea of Galilee. John describes him as “Nathanael of Cana in Galilee.”

But even more, in the other 3 gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Nathanael was one of the 12 disciples, but was called Bartholomew, and closely associated with Philip. “Philip and Bartholomew.”

So, which was it, was his name Nathanael, but changed to Bartholomew, like Simon, whom Jesus renamed, “Peter?” Actually, Bartholomew wasn’t his proper name but what is known as his surname. Bartholomew means, “son of Tolmai.” So, you could say that his name was Nathanael, son of Tolmai.

And Nathanael was a person whom Jesus said there was no guile or deceit. In other words, unless you could prove something beyond a shadow of a doubt, Nathanael wasn’t going for it.

And so, when Philip found Nathanael, he said, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” (John 1:45 NKJV)

Philip told Nathanael that Jesus of Nazareth was no one less than the Messiah Himself.

Now, to understand the significance of this statement, it has been calculated that over 300 prophecies of the coming of the Messiah were fulfilled when Jesus came. Just grasp that.

Peter Stoner, Mathematician, did the math and found that the odds of one person fulfilling just 8 of these prophecies, which he spelled out, would be the same as 1 out of ten to the 17th power, or 10 with 17 zeros following.

Further, one doesn’t think of Moses and the Law when speaking about the coming Messiah, but Moses made a remarkable statement in Deuteronomy 18:15 saying, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear.”

But who would be a prophet like Moses? It would be someone who would intercede for the people, as Moses acted as a mediator between God and the people. And the writer of Hebrews talks about how Jesus is a mediator of a better covenant than Moses, a new covenant based upon a better sacrifice and a better promise.

And so, Nathanael immediately responded to Philip’s statement saying, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” (John 1:46a NKJV)

Why would he say this? Well, Cana, where Nathanael was from was just 5 miles away from Nazareth. So, Nathanael had a good knowledge and understanding of that community. Further, Cana was a much larger town, of 8,500 people, whereas Nazareth had a population of 400. So, you can imagine Nathanael’s hesitancy or reticence to acknowledge that there was little if any chance that anything or anyone, no less the Messiah, would come from such a backwater town like Nazareth.