1.21.24 John 1:43–51 (EHV)
43 The next day, Jesus wanted to leave for Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. 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 Nathanael said to him, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” “Come and see!” Philip told him. 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him, “Truly, here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” 48 Nathanael asked him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered, “Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus replied, “You believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that!” 51 Then he added, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
Come and See Jesus. The Words of An Excited Friend
How do you get to meet people? I saw a documentary on a guy who was catfished by a gal. He met this gal online. She was a nice looking gal, and she seemed to be interested in him. But then when he went to visit her in the U.P., he found out she wasn’t who she said she was. Some older married lady had used someone else’s picture to invent a fake online persona. That’s kind of scary if you think about it. It was a sad trip for the guy to find that out.
When I was in Topeka we had a man from India that joined our congregation. He had turned 30 years old, and according to his culture he should have been married at that point. So he had his aunt from India set him up with a gal that she personally knew. They spoke online for a few months, and then got married in a somewhat arranged way. It worked! They are still married today with kids. It helped because of the personal connection that they had with their aunt.
When it comes to your relationship with Jesus, God tends to use these personal connections quite a bit. John introduced Jesus to Andrew, who was from Bethsaida. Andrew then told his brother Peter. Then Jesus went and personally found and called Philip, who was probably an acquaintance with these two brothers as well. Philip then went to Nathanael in order to introduce him to Jesus as well. So at least four of Jesus' disciples were from this small little town that was on the northeastern edge of the Sea of Galilee.
That’s how evangelism usually works, when someone you know and you trust invites you to church. Statistics show that over 80% of people join church due to a personal invite they received from a friend or neighbor. Maybe it was your parents who brought you here. Some people have a problem with that. They say, “You wouldn’t believe if your parents hadn’t brought you here.” Maybe that’s true. But what of it? Should it really matter if you’re happy in your relationship with Jesus? You don’t hear people say, “You wouldn’t be a Michigan fan if you hadn’t grown up in Michigan.” So what if you did? So it goes with church. What does it matter how you got here? The message of Christ crucified still affected you and gave you comfort and strength and hope. You learned about what love is, patience, kindness, and forgiveness here. Maybe you learned it from little on. You didn’t reject it. You liked it. That’s why you’re STILL here.
Did you know that over 70% of unchurched people have never even been invited to church? Philip didn’t wait. He went and told Nathanael right away. “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.” You can almost sense the excitement in his voice. It would appear they had been in deep discussion about the Messiah coming, probably even discussing prophecies from the Old Testament. Maybe they had been looking into this even for years. Either way, he was excited about it! Are you? Do you show an excitement to know who Jesus is as your Lord and Savior? Are you excited to hear and learn more about Him? Or have you gotten bored in your faith? Has God taking on the flesh become old news to you? What a sad thing! People can sense it - one way or another. Maybe you can too. Don’t take it lightly.
Even though Philip was excited to talk about it, Nathanael didn’t sound too thrilled. “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” It happens. Nathanael had reason to be skeptical. The Bible predicted Bethlehem. It didn’t say ANYTHING about Nazareth or any son of Joseph. And Nazareth was just a little podunk town, much smaller than Bay City. But it’s kind of interesting how Luther interpreted these words. He wrote,
“Nathanael utters these words here as a pious, good, and simple-minded man who believes the sayings of Moses and the prophets. They were prompted by surprise at the statement that so much good could come from Nazareth. They reflect wonderment, not contempt; for he had hoped that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem and reside in Jerusalem, as all the prophets and all Holy Writ had foretold.” (LW Vol. 22 pg. 195)
Maybe he is right. What is it that gets in the way of faith so often? It’s skepticism and doubt - looking for reasons NOT to believe. I had one woman tell me she had rejected Christianity because of a seeming discrepancy in two Gospel accounts of Mary and Jesus after the resurrection. In one translation Jesus said to Mary, “Don’t touch me.” The woman said to me, “The other Gospel says that she was clinging to His feet.” That one seeming contradiction made her say, “I don’t believe.” What she didn’t know was that in the Greek, “Don’t touch me” is actually better translated as, “Don’t keep holding on to me.” But this lady didn’t even take the time to dig deeper. She didn’t WANT to believe, so that was it for her. How many are like that? They give up the faith after one person brings up a question they can’t answer.
Even if Nathanael was skeptical, and people often are, Philip didn’t give up. He just said, “Come and see.” Isn’t that just a wonderfully simple answer? You can get so bogged down in all kinds of minute questions and challenges that you never really get to the heart of the matter. “Here’s God in the flesh. He came to live and die for you, a sinner. He came to pay for your sins on the cross. He rose from the dead.” Open up the Gospels. Read it. Come and listen to a sermon. Listen to another one. Stop listening to what people SAY the church is about and who they THINK Jesus is and isn’t. Just say, “Come and see.” Let Jesus do the work Himself.
And what happens when Nathanael sees Jesus? Jesus starts with a complement. “Truly, here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” What did he mean by that? Nathanael wasn’t trying to be someone he wasn’t. He wasn’t trying to put on a persona of a super-believer with special clothing or living by made up rules. He was just a humble and simple believer from a small town. He knew he was a sinner. He knew he needed a Savior. He searched the Scripture to find prophecies of the Messiah, and he looked eagerly for the Messiah to come. That’s it. And Jesus was impressed!
There’s something to be said about the old farmer who bows his head and prays before every meal. Has a book of Meditations or an open Bible on his coffee table. You think of the widow who comes and goes without much fanfare. Comes to church on a regular basis, maybe doesn’t say too much. Most people don’t even know him or her. But they cherish the Word and the sacrament. They appreciate the Gospel. They sing the songs of the liturgy with humble and penitent hearts. God sees them and notices them, when nobody else does. Jesus knew who Nathanael was, and He knows who you are too.
That wasn’t enough for Nathanael. He asked, “How do you know me?” What was it that convinced Nathanael? A seemingly simple thing. Before Philip called you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” What was so special about this? Fig trees were common in Israel. God promised plenty of fig trees would grow there, which would point to prosperity and peace in the Promised Land. Nathanael was perhaps praying for the Messiah to come when Philip found him under that tree. Either way, that was enough to convince Nathanael that Jesus was the one. Such a simple thing. But that’s all that simple faith needs.
So after Jesus identified Nathanael, Nathanael identified Jesus. “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Philip called Jesus the son of Joseph. Nathanael called him the Son of God! The King of Israel! He was excited and bold in his profession of faith. Nazareth and Joseph were no longer in the conversation. He was sold.
I think about that. What is it that catches you? Gets you excited about Jesus? It’s different things at different times for me. One verse might not give me a double take one day. But three years later I read it and it’s like, “Wow! That’s really neat! I never thought about that!” It doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does, I enjoy it. That’s a part of the blessings of going through Bible studies together in class. Different students have different insights that take me down different rabbit holes that I never really thought about before. You need those in life. You don’t want your faith to get bored. It takes study and more study to get these neat little revelations from God’s Word. You have to work at it. You can’t be lazy with your faith. Sometimes it can be seemingly simple things, as it seems to have been with Nathanael.
Nathanael was excited about the private revelation that Jesus gave him, that he saw Nathanael while under the fig tree. But Jesus promised him, and us, much more. You will see greater things than that!” 51 Then he added, “Amen, Amen, I tell you: You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” There are different ways of interpreting this. It has some Old Testament flavor to it, from the story of Jacob when he had to flee from Esau. During a dream God opened heaven to him in the middle of northern Canaan, and God promised him that all of the land he was sleeping on would belong to his descendants someday. God’s picture to him was that his prayers were being answered. God was with him and would bring him back safely and successfully.
Something similar would happen to Jesus. He refers to Himself in the third person here as the Son of Man - His favorite term for Himself. All of the prayers of the Israelites and the kingdom to come would be answered in Jesus. He would do greater things than just reveal hidden things to people. He would still storms. He would heal the sick. He would boldly stand up against sin and hypocrisy. He would chase out demons. Angels would attend to him after His great struggles in the desert and the Garden of Gethsemane. He would be crucified on the cross and then come back from the dead. An angel would roll back the stone to the tomb, and announce to the world, “He is risen.” Later on he would be present at the miraculous catch of fish as Jesus appeared to them on the shore of Galilee. (John 21) He would ascend into heaven, and an angel would again speak up and say, “He’s coming again!” (Acts 1) If Nathanael was thrilled to faith through this one little thing, he hadn’t seen anything yet!
What happened with Nathanael after this? He is otherwise known as Bartholomew. Legend has it that he made a mission trip to the east. Having converted a king, he was then punished by being skinned alive and then beheaded. Michelangelo’s painting has him holding his own skin with a knife in his hand, showing Jesus how he died. Kind of a gruesome thing! But by faith in Christ, Nathanael would see greater things in his own resurrection! When we stay in the faith, we have the same promise! We will see greater things when we are face to face with Jesus in all His glory, by faith in Christ.
I don’t know how God called you or where God called you. It probably wasn’t through a personal visit of Jesus or a revelation as it was with Nathanael. I’m sure it wasn’t through an online dating site. Most likely, it was in your baptism, when your parents brought you to the font. Don’t let that worry you. It doesn’t diminish the glory of it all, that we, as filthy sinners, were wanted and called by our holy God. He has cut through the deceit of lies like we tell ourselves. We see the truth and confess it. “I confess that I am by nature sinful, and that I have disobeyed you in my thoughts, words, and actions. I have done what is evil and failed to do what is good. For this I deserve your punishment both now and in eternity. But I am truly sorry for my sins, and trusting in my Savior Jesus Christ, I pray: Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Yes, that’s it.
Philip was excited to tell Nathanael about Jesus. Do you know someone that could use an introduction to Jesus? Do you have grandchildren or nephews and nieces that aren’t baptized? Did you know that 56% of Christians feel their spiritual life is entirely private and it’s no one else’s business? How can anyone see the Light of Christ if we keep it to ourselves? Look at what Philip did for Nathanael by introducing him to Jesus! Jesus gave him light and hope, put him on a mission from God. May the Holy Spirit encourage you to open your mouth with the words of an excited friend and say, “Come and see Jesus.” Amen.
