Welcome to the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verses 43 through 51.

I think I speak for all of us. We miss Pastor Chad, and I hope he would hear this, and that he would know how much we love and miss him. And certainly praying for their family, Lord, we pray that you would just be gracious and you would provide quick healing, Lord. For them, that you would prevent prolonged sickness. Lord, I pray for Brother Chris, that you would heal him as well, and that you would bring them all back into our fellowship quickly, Lord. COVID has certainly disrupted our fellowship and our gatherings, but you’re still good, and you’re still on the throne, Lord, and you’re still king in heaven, and it is what it is, and we will just keep trusting. And we pray for healing for the children, Lord. Pray that you would just drive that illness from their home. And Lord, so many more in our church just constantly battling illness and whatever else life has to throw at them, Lord. So I pray that you would just be the God of comfort and the God of peace now, Lord, that you would be with us and among us. In John 1, 43 through 51, I mentioned on Wednesday that I would like to preach through this passage at some point because we talked about it in Bible study. I didn’t think it was going to be four days later.

But here we are. Here’s the Word of God. The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida in 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, 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. Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, Behold! An Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. Nathanael said to him, How do you know me? Jesus answered 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. 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.

We all need to have a purpose in life. We don’t go about life just aimlessly wandering around, certainly as Christians. We have rhymes and reasons for everything that we do, I hope. Sure, there is some leisure time and there is some pleasure time to be had, but surely that’s intentional too, right? We wake up in the morning and we put our clothes on for a purpose, getting ready to go to work. When I get in my car, I know the roads that are going to take me to work. I know what direction I need to head. If I head north, I’m not going to end up at work. So I know where I need to be going and why I’m going there. I’m going because God has given me a job to provide food and clothing and shelter for my family, to provide resources for His kingdom, just on and on. There are reasons and purposes for the things that we do. And again, as Christians, we need to be keyed into those and well aware of what they are. It says, The next day, Jesus decided, to go to Galilee. Jesus, just previously, had called Andrew and Simon Peter. He called Andrew and Andrew evangelized Simon Peter. He told him that the Lord, you know, he found the Lord. And so he had had that interaction with those two brothers. And it says, The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. Jesus was not haphazardly traveling, going to Galilee, wondering what he may or may not find, thinking about what he may or may not do. Jesus very pointedly and with specific intention, decided to go to Galilee. Jesus purposed, as the NASB says, He purposed to go to Galilee. It was for a specific reason. Maybe not only one, but at least a specific reason. Jesus does nothing without cause, without intention, without purpose. Jesus wastes no time. Jesus understands what a great treasure His short span here is. And He is going to use every second of it to accomplish the will of the Father.

And He found Philip. And He said to him, There’s these notes, on the words found and said. The translators render them in past tense cases in our text. If you read your Bible, it’s found. It’s something that happened yesterday, in the past. The original language has a historical present about it. So, the story should read something like this. If John is telling you the story that he is writing, he’s bringing you mentally into the current situation. He’s bringing you into, yes, something that happened yesterday, but like it’s in the present. And Jesus finds Philip. He’s telling you a story, and He’s bringing you there. See how that kind of has a different tone to it? So, Jesus goes to Galilee, and He finds Philip. And He says to him,

This is powerful. It carries a certain weight to it. It’s bringing you there so that you can get up next to John and get close to Him and really be in the story, be in the situation that He’s telling you about. It’s real to you as well as it is to the person that it happened to yesterday. So, bring yourself there. Jesus goes to Galilee with great purpose for a reason. He’s not on vacation wondering what He’s going to do in the morning. He knows exactly what He’s going to do. And He finds Philip. And He says to him, follow Me. When Jesus calls you,

He calls you specifically and personally. Jesus went to Galilee to find Philip. Maybe there were other people in Galilee that Jesus was going to find, that He had purposed to find. John doesn’t give us that. He doesn’t give us that information. But what we do know is that Jesus went to find Philip specifically. And so each and every one of you in here this morning that have been found by Jesus, Jesus went looking for you specifically.

Jesus didn’t happen to brush shoulders with you in time and space. Oh, by the way, let me tell you about this kingdom. In this kingdom, Jesus purposed to come and live His life, and to accomplish the will of the Father. Jesus purposed for these texts to be preserved through thousands of years and much blood spilt on them. Jesus purposed for you to have an encounter with Him through the Spirit and the Word.

Jesus doesn’t do anything by chance. Jesus is the Lord of Providence, remember we learned last week.

He finds Philip and he says, follow me. Immediately in the next verse, it’s telling you about now what Philip’s doing after Jesus’ call. It doesn’t tell you that they deliberated for a while, and Philip reasoned in his mind, well, this is some pretty good evidence here for Jesus, and this, well, I don’t know about this, I’m kind of skeptical here. No. The immediate response is what John’s going to tell us. What’s going to tell us next?

Isabella, what is so special about the call of Jesus? He gives you the power to answer the call. I told her I was going to put her on the spot. I was pretty sure she was going to remember, but we learned that leading up to baptism, just reading through a book and just learning about what is the gospel, what is the kingdom of God, how does salvation happen, how does it work, all of that different stuff. And one of the things that we learned is one of the things that is so special about the call of Christ is that He gives you the power to answer the call. Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Philip, and Philip went and found Nathanael. So Jesus, when He calls you, He knows where to find you, right? Jesus knows exactly where to find you, right? He knows exactly where to go to find Philip, to find Isabella, to find Andre. He knows exactly when He’s going to find you. Jesus knows how to use you. Okay? It says Philip went and found. So something in Philip’s interaction with Jesus drove him to go and find somebody else. And it’s the same historical present. And now Philip finds Nathanael, right? We’re still in the moment. We’re still following the story as if we were there, tracking with it. Philip goes and finds Nathanael. So Christ has found Philip and He’s charged him with something, obviously. Or even if He hasn’t, whatever Philip found in Jesus was so valuable and so precious and so wonderful and so valuable that He’s going to find him. And so worth it. And so worth it as well that He goes and finds Nathanael. Jesus is not something to put in your back pocket. Jesus is not a book to keep on the shelf that you read once. And then maybe you offer it to a friend at some point. Like, hey, this is an interesting read. No, you go out and you bring it to Nathanael.

I don’t know how much time passed between Jesus calling Philip and Philip calling Nathanael. It doesn’t tell us. But the way that the text reads, it seems fairly natural to be immediate. You know, maybe he went home and got his stuff together and the next morning he shagged out and went and found Nathanael. I don’t know. Maybe it was a week. I don’t think it was very long. Because when you encounter Jesus, the natural response is now to overflow with Him. To speak about it. When something that great happens to you, you can’t keep it in. You can’t keep it contained.

He finds him and he says, we found Him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph. Again, Jesus, when He calls you, He knows how to use you. Philip goes and finds Nathanael. And he tells him, we found the one that Moses wrote about and also the prophets. He’s right on that. All of Moses, all of the writings of Moses and all of the prophets, their main aim and substance is pointing to Christ. Nothing less. It’s all Jesus. And so Philip is very right when he says, we found the one whom Moses and the prophets wrote about. That was the subject matter of Moses and the prophets. And Calvin says it like this. He says, we see then that the chief design of doctrine, everything that you could learn in Moses and the prophets, is that those who hear us should come to Christ in some way or another. So, Philip understands the nuts and bolts of what he’s talking about. But he’s still lacking because he introduces these couple errors after it. He says,

Jesus, Jesus, of Nazareth.

Jesus, yes, grew up in Nazareth. So, technically, alright, Philip, he’s from Nazareth. But Jesus, in the important sense, is not from Nazareth. Ultimately, Jesus is from heaven. Jesus is from the throne of God. Jesus is Jesus is Jesus is Jesus is

Jesus was born in Bethlehem as the prophet Isaiah would tell you. So, Philip may have, could have tweaked his testimony of Jesus a little bit. So, he got that wrong. And I said this on Wednesday in Bible study, and I couldn’t let it go. I went last night and I spent some time studying it because as far as I understood it, and I confirmed it with, with a couple, you know, commentators, there’s no Old Testament prophecy that specifically ties Jesus to Nazareth. There’s nothing special about Nazareth. And, we’re going to explore that in a little bit. He says, he says, the son of Joseph. Jesus is certainly not the son of Joseph. Jesus, Jesus is not stained with Joseph, his father’s sin. Jesus is the son of God. Jesus, Jesus is the son of God. So, this is why I find this passage so powerful, and I shared a little bit of this on Wednesday. Philip, called by Christ, charged to go out and find Nathaniel. He does it obediently. And it seems like he’s, he’s excited about it. He’s doing it with good intention. But he, but he, he doesn’t have all of his T’s crossed and his I’s dotted. He doesn’t have perfect doctrine per se. He, he kind of babbles on a little bit about who Jesus is. Maybe he doesn’t understand all the, the intricacies that he might need to.

That doesn’t matter. Jesus knows how to use you. I didn’t come up with this, but I think it’s a, a worthwhile saying that Jesus uses crooked sticks to draw straight lines. Jesus, Jesus can use faulty means to accomplish perfect goals. So, when you go to Big Spring Park today, and you’re preaching the gospel to these people in Huntsville, and you don’t know everything there is to know about Jesus, welcome to the club. Because Philip the Apostle didn’t know everything there was to know about Jesus. Philip got some stuff wrong. But he was still used by God, because God can do things like that. God can take weak, feeble, lacking means, and accomplish great, wonderful, mighty things with them. So when you, when you, when you go to school, when you’re interacting with your friends, or in your workplace, or when you, when you decide, I’m going to go to that cousin that I’ve been wanting to share the gospel with, and he comes at you with all this stuff, and you don’t have the answers to it, so what? Just preach Christ. Tell him about Jesus the Nazarene. Tell him about Jesus, Jesus the Son of God, the one who Moses and the prophets wrote about. Jesus opened the Old Testament books up to the disciples before his ascension, and he showed them how everything in there was pointing to him. He’s the sum and summation of it. It finds its climax and its meaning in him. Without Jesus, the Old Testament is for nothing.

Nathaniel said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Back to the point about no prophecy being specifically about Jesus from Nazareth, and that is true. There is no prophecy talking about Jesus coming from Nazareth. No prophecy about the Messiah coming from Nazareth. But it’s kind of confusing because if you go, and you look in Matthew chapter 2 at the end of it, I think it’s 34, Matthew says, and just like all the prophets wrote, that he shall be called a Nazarene. So what do you do with that? Where did you get that, Matthew? And I wrestle with this. There are a few different takes that I found common among different commentators. One of them that at first I thought was pretty convincing was that it alludes to Samson being a type and a shadow of Jesus in the sense that Samson was a Nazarite. It just means that somebody is set apart for special service unto God. I can see that. Samson was a type of a deliverer. He was a type of a redeemer. And so maybe that carries some weight to it. But still, Nazarite and Nazarene is not quite the same word. To be a Nazarite doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re from Nazareth, right? So, I don’t know. I’m not fully convinced by that. But I came across this little blurb in a commentary by R.T. France. And he said this.

He said that

what Matthew says about this is to confirm what the prophets said about he shall be called a Nazarene. He says, This suggests that it is not meant to be a quotation of a specific passage, but a summary of a theme of prophetic expectation. Thus it has been suggested that Matthew saw in the obscurity of Nazareth the fulfillment of Old Testament indications of a humble and a rejected Messiah. For Jesus to be known by the derogatory epithet Nazarios was not compatible with the expected royal dignity of the Messiah and thus fulfilled such passages as Psalm 22, Isaiah 53, Zechariah 11, 4-14. So, the commentator says that it’s not necessarily a specific quotation. And he also provides proof from the text that the way that he says and the prophets, this is to fulfill what the prophets said, it’s constructed, grammatically, it’s constructed, a little bit different than the other dozen or so cases like that in Matthew specifically. And so he says it a little bit differently. And so that’s kind of add to the evidence that he’s not necessarily quoting a prophet specifically. And I think you run into some trouble if you try to make it a specific quotation and you can’t find it in the Old Testament that we have. We can be confident in the Old Testament that we have the Jews laid the books up in the temple as holy books. They were recognized for a long time as these were from God and these other books may be helpful, not from God, not inspired by the Spirit. And so if you start looking for a prophet to validate what he’s saying, you’re going outside of the canon and you might run into some issues there. So, personally, I am content to say that it’s a general indication of Jesus was going to come as a suffering servant, as a humble Messiah, not someone on the earth robed in majesty and conquering Rome and slaying his enemies and all of this stuff. Yes, he is robed in majesty, but it’s a different kind of reign for now. So, I wanted to do a little digging on that because we talked about it on Wednesday and I just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t leading you astray on that one. So, that’s where I left it. I’ll land on that passage. So, in line with that, Nathanael, knowing the Old Testament, would say, can anything good come out of Nazareth? It’s a stanky fishing town. At some point, it did get built up into a city and it became a little more than it was in this time. But, it’s just a common man’s town. There was nothing special about it. You’re telling me the Messiah is coming out of Nazareth? Where are you finding that, Philip? You know? So, I can see his skepticism in it. And back to not having to have all of the answers. You’ve just got to have one of the answers and you’ve got to have it right. What does Philip say when Nathanael objects to his claim that he’s found the Messiah? Like, are you sure? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? What does Philip say? He says, come and see. I’ll show you. I’ll show you. If Philip didn’t, well, let’s go get the scrolls and I’ll show you. I’ll add this up and we can subtract a little bit here and then I can point you to this guy and if you read this just like this, you can see Jesus coming from… Philip doesn’t find the need to do that. Philip just says, you know what? Let me take you to Him. I’ll let you see for yourself.

So, we have to be like Philip. And at some point, our ability to persuade and argue our knowledge of Jesus, it can only go so high. At some point, you have to take them to Jesus specifically. Do you know how to do that? Do you know how to lead someone to the person of Christ? And again, are you as confident in having an encounter with Christ as Philip was? Philip knew that Jesus was there. He knew that, hey man, if I’m going to come with anything else, I’m going to go with what I know is going to work. I’m going to bring Him to Jesus. I’m not going to spin my wheels arguing and all of this stuff trying to convince you that I found the Messiah. I’m just going to bring Him to Him.

Think about your own testimony. Because obviously, testimonies are a useful tool.

Do you have in your own testimony an experience with Jesus where you can have the confidence as Philip did to know that when you take somebody to Jesus, they’re going to experience what they need to experience?

Jesus knows how to use you.

So,

obviously, Nathaniel grants Philip to go and see the Savior. It’s Jesus that He was telling him about. Because Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward Him and He said, Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. I don’t know about you, but that ain’t what I heard from Jesus whenever I came walking to Him. It wasn’t on me to have that praise. I think Jesus is legitimately complimenting Nathaniel about who He is. As a person, He’s an upright man. He’s not one of deceit. He’s what an Israelite, He’s what a Christian should be. Jesus is saying, Ah, that’s what I’m talking about. A man of integrity. A man who is true in his heart. He’s not double-minded. When Jesus saw me coming, He didn’t say that to me. I don’t know. Richard, I don’t know. Did He say that? No. I don’t think there are many people that He’s going to say, Ah, now that’s what I’m talking about. This is what I mean, fellas. Here is an example of what I need. No, I think those are far and few in between. Oh, man.

Nathaniel said to Him, How do you know me? Jesus answered him, Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, again, Jesus didn’t find me under no fig tree. No. When He called me, I wasn’t under the fig tree contemplating what is true and what isn’t and searching for the meaning of life and perusing over the Scriptures and trying to find Jesus the Messiah. No, He found me in the club. He found me buying illegal substances.

How did He find you? Think about it. Did He find you browsing websites you shouldn’t have been on? Did He find you hanging around crowds you shouldn’t have been around?

Philip said, How do you know me? I know when Jesus found me, I knew He knew me because He was weighing down on me. I shared a bit of my testimony the other night and I won’t share it all, but I got to the point where I was at my lowest and I was fully aware of it. I knew I had drifted from what my parents taught me. I believed at this point in my life that Jesus was truly who He said He was, but I didn’t want to submit to that. I didn’t want nothing to do with Jesus’ rule in my life. I wanted to go where I wanted to go. I didn’t want to sit under no fig tree. I had something better to do.

Nonetheless, Jesus didn’t crush me. So when you were sitting not under the fig tree, when you were hanging out in the club, when you were at the bar, when you were backbiting your friends behind their backs, when you were gossiping, when you were doubting God, when you were gossiping, When you were grumbling about everything in your life. When you were disobeying your parents. Jesus says, I saw you.

Think about that. Let the weight of that sit on you for a minute. Jesus saw you where you were when you were called. Somebody came and shared the gospel with you. It might have been when you were six. It might have been when you were 66.

But when Jesus found you, he saw you right where you were. Jesus is not only able to see you in your physical state sitting where you are. Jesus is saying that I knew the innermost part of your heart, Nathaniel. I know you. And you know what’s so amazing? That when Chase was doing the things that Chase was doing, Jesus still called him.

Jesus knew exactly where my heart was. A million and three miles away from him. And traveling on. And he said, hey, now come on, come follow me. See the graciousness of God.

You can’t be too low for God to come and snatch you up. So now, sitting in the chairs that you’re sitting in, and you know that for yourself, don’t forget it for those that you love and you just long to see come to Christ. They’re never too far gone. Don’t write them off. Only God can do that. You plead with him.

You’re never too low.

When you were at the peak of your rebellion, I saw you. I knew you. And I still wanted you. Before you were knit together in your mother’s wombs, I knew you. You ain’t no surprise to Jesus. When Jesus calls you, he knows exactly where to find you. And when he finds you, he knows exactly how to use you. And see the tenderness of Jesus. When he finds you, he knows how to woo you. Jesus will be heavy-handed and rule with a rod of iron at some point in time. But oh, Jesus has been so soft and so tender to the most undeserving, to the most wretched. I can personally testify to that. I’ve done some wicked things in my life. We all have. And yet Jesus still called us to come and partake in himself. To know his love and his affection. To receive all the benefits that he purchased for us on the cross. To let us inherit all that he has. Jesus has not given you a piece of his kingdom. He said, come and inherit the kingdom. All of it. Come and share with me in my Father’s kingdom. Come.

That truth is amazing to me. Jesus saw me.

Nathaniel said, Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel.

The Son of God in essence is who Jesus is.

In his person, who he is. I take the King of Israel as, what he actually does. Jesus backs up what he preaches. If Jesus says something, he has the ability to do it. 1 Corinthians 4, it says that the kingdom of God does not consist in word, but in power. So Jesus has the power to be the King of Israel. Jesus has the power when he calls you. For you to respond. Jesus doesn’t throw out words hoping that they do something. The word says that when he throws out his word, it brings some fruit back. It does some work. It accomplishes things. Jesus is the King of Israel. He reigns in power.

And he said, man, because I said I knew you when you were doing what you were doing, do you believe? Is that enough? That’s great. But he says, man, it doesn’t stop there. You’re going to see some awesome things. He says, you’re going to see greater things than these. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. And John is alluding to Jacob’s vision and the ladder. Jesus is saying, I’m the ladder. I’m the access between God and man. I am the conduit, the tunnel that allows all God’s blessings to flow down from him to you.

So when Jesus calls you, he calls you to come and receive all the benefits that he has to offer. Jesus calls you. He knows where to find you. He knows how to use you. He knows how to woo you to himself. And then he gives you everything that he has. He says, you’re going to see the heavens opened up and the angels ascending. Angels are considered messengers for God. They’re doers. They’re about his business. They accomplish things for him. The scripture says we all have an angel watching over us and protecting us. God uses things. And Jesus says, this is being realized in me. What Jacob saw, maybe he understood a little bit, but I’m telling you, I’m the point. I am the realization of that. Because of me, you’re going to see heaven opened and God just dumping out his blessings on you. So whatever you need, whatever you need when you go to Big Spring Park to share the gospel with those people, God’s going to give it to you. You may not see them fall to their knees and repent at that time, but you just got to be obedient and go. You just got to be obedient and go. You just got to have faith that God is going to use it. If not today, at some point in those people’s lives, you’re proclaiming the truth. Because when God calls, he gives the power to answer the call.

Lord Jesus, I thank you for your goodness toward us. I thank you that you came specifically to search and seek out those who were lost. I thank you that you have the power to bring them back and redeem them. I thank you that you’re so gracious that you don’t bring us back in and beat us over the head, but you bring us back in and dress us up in fine linens, put rings on our fingers. You cook up the finest feast, Lord. I thank you that you bring us back in and you supply everything that we could ever want and so much more. You’re such a good and a gracious King. We thank you, Lord Jesus. We thank you that you were born in a manger. We thank you that you didn’t come in the way that man would think you would come, but you came in humility. You came in lowly means. And you came to the sick and the broken and the poor. And you extended yourself to them. And you invite them in.

Lord Jesus, I thank you that included in those benefits is the promise that you’ll never lose us. And that we’re safe forever in your arms. And we’ll forever know you. And we have the hope of glory, Lord. And one day you’re coming back and you’re going to do away with all your enemies. And we’ll just live in peace with you. Forever and ever and ever, Lord. Come quickly. Thank you, Lord Jesus. And it’s your name we pray. Amen.