John 1:43-51 says,...

Today's verses come from the Gospel According To John, chapter 1 and verses 43 through 51.  We end the first chapter with these words from God,...

v.43 - The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He found Philip.  And Jesus said to him, "Follow Me."

What a great verse.  We are now onto day 4.  Day 1 was John the Baptist testifying of a coming Messiah to the priests and Levities.  These were probably bringing skeptical questions.  Day 2 was John the Baptist speaking to the crowd of the baptism of Jesus, the Lamb of God, and pointing Him out to the crowd.  These were those curious and gathering on the river bank to hear from the man who came out of the wilderness wearing camel hair and eating locust and honey.  Day 3 was John the Baptist telling and pointing out to his disciples Jesus, the Lamb of God, with a desire that they follow this One instead of himself.  These are the committed to a life of repentance and preparation for the coming King.  It is now day 4 and Jesus is on purpose to go to a specific place, Galilee.  Jesus is looking for a specific person, Philip.  Jesus is giving a specific message, "Follow Me."  Jesus goes to a specific place, and finds a specific person, and gives a specific pronouncement.  

v.44-46 - Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of 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."  Nathanael said to him, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"  Philip said to him, "Come and see."

Now we have three possible disciples from one town, Bethsaida and maybe a fourth in Nathanael.  Jesus is assembling a team, a family of brothers, who probably knew each other from synagogue school.  Philip is to the point of saying that Jesus is the Messiah.  Philip associates Jesus with the Old Testament Law given to us by Moses and the Old Testament Prophets who prophesied profusely of His coming.  The sticky point is that Jesus identified with a city in the north called Nazareth.  For Nathanael, the city of Nazareth is a problem for he seems to be prejudice of anyone coming from there.  He is already suspect of Jesus because of where he was raised.  Maybe Bethsaida and Nazareth were rival towns when it came to high school sports like Twining which hosted Arenac Eastern High School and AuGres which hosted AuGres Sims High School only six miles apart.  Philip faces the prejudice with the words of Jesus and he says to his possible brother like Andrew did for Simon, "Come and see."  We already see Philip displaying disciple characteristics by mimicking the words of his Rabbi.

v.47-49 - Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said to him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there 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 Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel."

Philip got prejudice Nathanael to come to see Jesus.  Nathanael could be skeptical because the prophecies put the Messiah born in Bethlehem south of Jerusalem and not in the north in a town called Nazareth.  The prophecies also said the Messiah would be of the line of David and that was more possible of someone in the south rather than the north but he was given the information from Philip that this was Joseph's son who was of line of David and also Mary, His mother.  Nathanael gets this great compliment from Jesus.  He is skeptical of someone "buttering him up."  He throws out another question and Jesus answers this one.  Jesus gives some very specific things like He did for Philip.  He probably could see how Jesus would come up with a conversation between Philip and himself because they were together and Philip was bringing him to Jesus but the fig tree.  "How did He know about that?"  Nathanael's goes from skeptical to submission with that one statement from the Savior, Jesus.  He calls Jesus, Rabbi, Son of God, and the King of Israel.  

v.50, 51 - 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."

Jesus questions Nathanael's belief on the basis on which he is saying these claims about Him.  Jesus is going to give him more to stand upon that a proclamation of where he was sitting.  Nathanael was going to see greater things.  Could Jesus be telling Nathanael that he would be standing there when Jesus ascended into heaven into the future after the death and resurrection?  Could Jesus be referring to the story of Jacob in the Old Testament and his dream of a ladder to heaven.  Jacob got a vision of the supernatural and that Nathanael would receive the same.  Jesus makes His first claim upon Himself as the Messiah, the Anointed One, when He calls Himself, "the Son of Man."   That title is associated with Daniel's prophecies and reserved for that peculiar coming One and Jesus identifies Himself before Nathanael as He.  Nathanael is told that this brief glimpse of Jesus' supernatural knowledge is only the start of what He is going to see from Jesus .  Do you think Nathanael is excited?  I would be.

Are you excited about following after Jesus?  The ways in which Jesus has worked in your life, do you know that He can and will do more?  We see those things as we follow in His footsteps.  We stick close to Him and we have the opportunity to see what He sees.  Many times we drift to making Jesus less than He should be in our lives.  We substitute other things in that are so inferior to being around Jesus and getting fed by His word.  We give Him all the titles but we find ourselves tossed by the waves of this world because we have put ourselves there.  More is to come from Jesus.  Will you be in a position to see it?  Let us pray.

"Heavenly Father, thank You for going to a specific place to see a specific person to give a specific plea of invitation.  Thank You for Philip following Your example and even using Your words to bring another to You.  Thank You for Nathanael who believed on so little but was told from You that more was coming that would deepen that faith to the point of being willing to die for the One who would die for him.  We know these words are also for us today.  May we believe and see and believe all the more.  Amen."  

Pastor Adam