Let’s open our Bibles this morning to John chapter 1, where we have been studying for the past 3 months now. We have come to the end of the chapter today.
As you are turning, let me tell you about a rock band that came on the scene in the early 1970’s, a band by the name of Led Zeppelin. They became one of the most popular rock bands in history. One song in particular grabbed the heart and soul of world, it was called “Stairway to Heaven.” This song talks about a woman who thinks her happiness lies in money, and she’s convinced that money and material possessions are a path to true happiness. She thinks money will buy her a stairway to heaven.
The desire she had to escape into a fantasy world up above all the problems is a universal desire. We all share this desire to be rid of problems, to be free from heartache and sadness, to live in eternal happiness. What the lady did not understand is that money buys a phony happiness, a fake heaven.
But you know what I want to say to you this morning? There really is a pathway to eternal happiness. There really is a stairway to heaven. And His Name is Jesus. Let’s read our next section in John chapter 1 and I think we will see this truth:
43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me." 44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." 46 "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. "Come and see," said Philip. 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false." 48 "How do you know me?" Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you." 49 Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." 50 Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that." 51 He then added, "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." John 1:43-51 (NIV)
And in that last verse Jesus declares Himself to be the real Stairway to Heaven, the One Who opened heaven for us. He is our Ladder whereby we might get to God, and enjoy the real Paradise throughout all eternity. Let’s pray together as we consider this passage.
This passage in John chapter 1 shows us that that Jesus Christ is 3 things:
Jesus is the Leader: He said, “Follow Me”
Jesus is the Lord: He accepts the title “Son of God and King of Israel”
Jesus is the Ladder:
Now as a reminder of where we have come from, we have just completed studying about Jesus as the Lamb. John announced Him as the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world, in verses 29-36. Then we saw the first two disciples desire to “Live with the Lamb” to find out where He way staying and spend the day with Him, verses 37-39, and out of the overflow of the time spent with Jesus they had a desire to “Lead others to the Lamb”, that’s verses 40-42, and finally we saw that Simon would be a Life transformed by the Lamb in verse 42. Simon, sinking sand, would become Peter, the solid rock, because Jesus Christ transforms hearts and lives, and makes people into new creations where the old is gone, the new has come.
But now we see this Lamb moving, He goes to Galilee on a mission; He is going to find all those whom God had given to Him, and He will not lose one of them, so He goes to Galilee and finds Philip and says, “Follow Me.” Jesus calls Philip to come after Him, to be His disciple, to walk in His steps, to follow the Leader.
And so we see that Jesus is not only a Lamb Who takes away the sin of the world, but He is also the Shepherd Who leads those He redeems. I love this about Jesus: as the Lamb He suffers and bleeds and dies to forgive us, to remove our guilt, to wipe our slate clean. But as the Shepherd He leads us beside quiet waters, He guides us in paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake. Jesus Christ is both Lamb and Shepherd, Lamb and Leader all in One.
Jesus Christ invites Philip to follow Him, and in so doing shows us exactly what true Christianity is: it is following Jesus Christ. It is going where He leads us. Christianity is nothing less than being led by Jesus, of following Him, of daily walking in His steps.
Now, I want us to notice an amazing way that Jesus applies this truth of following Him, Look with me at John chapter 12. In this passage Jesus gives a beautiful illustration, or a word picture:
23 Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. John 12:23-26 (NIV)
So look at this word picture: if you were to take a kernel or seed of wheat and just set it on the desk here, it would remain alone, it would be a single seed. But if you dig a grave for this seed, and if it falls into the ground and dies and you bury it in the grave, well later it will come bursting up out of the ground, giving life to many other seeds. And Jesus came to this earth not to live alone, not to live for Himself, but rather to die for others, and be buried in a grave, so that later He might rise from the dead, giving eternal life to millions of people.
But notice how Jesus applies this word picture. He says “whoever serves me must follow Me”, the meaning is to follow Him to death. In other words, Christianity is not about living the American dream, lookin’ out for number 1, grabbing all you can get; no, it is about following Jesus by giving up my own plans, dying to my own life, giving myself up in service to others.
See a lot of people are happy to get a Savior, but not as many want a leader, especially when they are called to follow Him to the cross and to the grave, to hate their own life and to live for others. But this is exactly what Christianity is. Revelation 14:4 describes real Christians and says, “They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb”. Revelation 14:4 (NIV) Jesus Christ is the Lamb Who leads, and like Philip, we, too, are called to follow Him.
So let me apply this to us this morning by asking some questions: first of all, are we as individuals really committed to following the Lamb wherever He goes? Are we committed to dying to sinful habits and lifestyles and replacing them with godliness and purity? Are we committed to serving Him with our lives? What if He were to call some of us into missionary work overseas? Maybe Africa or Iraq or India? Will we give up our comfortable life and go? Parents, what if God truly calls our precious children to serve Him in the Congo or the dangers of the Sudan? Will we encourage our children to follow the Lamb?
So Jesus found Philip and said to him as he says to all of us, “Follow me.” And then we come to verse 44, and I want us to be encouraged about something here this morning:
If you look at verse 44 you see that Philip was from the town of Bethsaida. What is so encouraging about that? Well we need to compare other Scripture to see. Now according to Matthew 11:21, Bethsaida was a wicked place. It was one of the unrepentant cities, described as worse than Sodom. And yet Jesus called Philip out of that wicked place to come and follow Him. Into the wickedness Jesus goes to get those elected by grace, and bring them out to make them His disciples. And so let me say to you this morning, our Lord Jesus is able to take people out of the wickedness of their past, out of bad places, out of unrepentant environments, and make them useful disciples. Whatever your past, whatever your environment, however and wherever you grew up, Jesus is well able to . Oh don’t you just love His amazing grace that overcomes our past, with all of its problems and makes us useful to His kingdom.
Phillip then runs and tells Nathaniel, and it says in verse 45: Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." John 1:45 (NIV) Notice that Philip here is just enraptured with joy: “we’ve found the one we’ve talked about, the one we’ve longed for, we’ve found the Desire of all Nations. But notice something here, he did not get this right. Yes He is indeed the one Moses and the prophets wrote about, but he is not from Nazareth but from Bethlehem, and he is not the “son of Joseph.” He is not related to Joseph whatsoever, Joseph is more like his step-father and even the Old Testament that Philip was quoting stated the Messiah would be born of a virgin. Philip doesn’t have his theology all right here, but he did meet Jesus and he just has to tell somebody.
You know what I absolutely love to see? I love to see someone who is just freshly discovering Jesus Christ. The Holy spirit has opened their hearts to receive the gospel, and they are just so excited that they can’t hardly contain it. Now they probably don’t have their theology right at all…they say things like, “I just made Jesus Lord” (No you didn’t, God made Him Lord of your life, and every body else’s life a long time ago—what you did is you submitted to His Lordship and received His gift of righteousness). Remember the woman at the well, having just met Jesus. She runs off and tells the whole town “Come see a Man Who told me everything I ever did.” Wow, everything you ever did? No, it’s hyperbole, she’s excited, she just met Jesus. But oh what a drawing power these new believers have. The woman at the well first drew water and took it to people, then she drew people out of the town and took them to the Living Water of Jesus Christ. And here Philip draws Nathaniel to come and meet Jesus, even though Nathaniel is a bit prejudice against Nazareth, he is curious and interested.
But oh wait, it appears that Jesus already knows Nathaniel. Look at verse 47: 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false." 48 "How do you know me?" Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you." John 1:47-48 (NIV) We talked last week about Jesus’ omniscience, that He knows all things and all people. He knew Simon before they met, he knew Simon’s father was John, He knew Nathaniel, He knew His character, that Nathaniel was a man without guile, a man of integrity, a man who had no hypocrisy. Nathaniel did not say one thing and do another, he did not speak falsely, was not one way in the Temple and then another way in the marketplace, no he was a true Israelite. Jesus knew Nathaniel because He made Nathaniel.
And then here comes Nathaniel’s confession of faith, see it there in verse 49:
Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." John 1:49 (NIV) Nathaniel has it right. In one sentence he calls Jesus Teacher, Son of God and King of Israel. He was really just declaring Jesus to be Lord. Nathaniel here was bowing his knee and submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and confessing with his mouth. One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Nathaniel understands that Jesus knows him, that Jesus saw him before they ever met, that Jesus knows his thoughts, his heart and his character and so makes public confession of who Jesus is. He is Son of God, King of Israel, King of Kings. He is Leader and He is Lord.
And then we come to a most amazing statement that Jesus made. In commending Nathaniel Jesus says in verses 50:51:
50 Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that." 51 He then added, "I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." John 1:50-51 (NIV)
What in the world is He referring to here when He talks about heaven being opened and angels of God ascending and descending on Himself (the Son of Man)? Well He is referring Nathaniel back to a time in the life of Jacob. Let’s look at this story together, turn to Genesis chapter 28. In Genesis 28 Jacob had deceived his father and stole the blessing from his brother and now he was running away from his brother, and he lays down to sleep for the night, and let’s pick up the story in verse 11:
11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood the LORD, and he said: "I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." 16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it." 17 He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven." Genesis 28:11-17 (NIV)
So what in the world did Jacob see? He saw heaven opened, and there was this stairway, this ladder where the angels of God are ascending and descending; in other words, this ladder is full of glory as angels are representative of God’s glory, and Jacob sees this ladder that connects heaven and earth, that unites God and man, and He declares it to be “the gate of heaven” or the stairway of heaven. That ladder, full of the glory of God, showed Jacob that there was a connection between heaven and earth, between God and man.
Oh I can’t hardly contain my excitement to tell you, like Jesus told Nathaniel, that that ladder was a pictorial representation of Jesus Himself. So what can we learn from this ladder?
And it is Jesus that opened heaven for us. By that, I mean that we have access to God through Jesus. By His death He removed our sin, and then He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, going before us and opening heaven for us. He made a way for us, He is the ladder to heaven. 1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2 (NIV)
He mediates for us. He is the go-between. The One Who connects heaven and earth. Remember Job saying “Oh if only there was someone to arbitrate between us, someone to lay His hand on us both”. Well here He is. the songwriter says “He ever lives and pleads for me.”
He unites us with God. He is the bridge, the stairway, the ladder that connects God and man. Because of Jesus all who believe are united to God. So let me say it to you like this: if Jesus had not come to this earth and died for us, we could no more get to God than we could jump from earth to heaven. Jesus connects us. Jesus unites us.
He opens heaven for us, He mediates for us, and He connects us to God. All of this is what is shown in the stairway to heaven, our Lord Jesus Christ. You see the rock band Led Zeppelin is just so sad to me; it’s just so sad to me when people turn to so many different stairways, each one hoping to enjoy eternal happiness, each one leading to death and hell and misery, when Jesus is here and alive and available. He is the Lamb Who took away our sin, He is our Leader, He is our Lord, and He is our Ladder. He has opened heaven for us, mediates for us and connects us to God. Oh how I praise Him.
And let me close just now with the words from verse 50: Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that." John 1:50 (NIV)
Look at the anticipation Jesus builds up for Nathaniel. Look at how Jesus points him to the future and promises him fresh discoveries of great things. You could write those words over every discovery you make of Jesus in the Bible. Have you discovered Him to be your Savior and Lord? “You shall see greater things than that.” Have you found Him to meet all your needs according to all His riches? “You shall see greater things than that.” Have you found that He is able to keep you in Him to the very end?” “You will see greater things than that.” Christianity always has amazing grace for the past and a bright hope for the future. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, Ephesians 3:20 (NIV)
