Three Surprises (John 1:43-51)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:06.040 Let's all turn our attention to John Chapter One. John One verses forty three 2 00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:12.070 through fifty one. This is the end of this chapter. John is the 3 00:00:12.150 --> 00:00:15.310 Fourth Gospel and the New Testament, and if you happen to have one of 4 00:00:15.349 --> 00:00:19.350 the black bibles from the cart, I mean you want to read along, 5 00:00:20.190 --> 00:00:25.940 you'll find this on page eight hundred and eighty seven. So in this passage 6 00:00:25.940 --> 00:00:30.339 we are introduced to two new disciples and we learn more about who Jesus is 7 00:00:30.940 --> 00:00:34.299 what it means to follow him. Let's give our attention to God's word now. 8 00:00:34.700 --> 00:00:40.850 First John, or sorry, John One, verse forty three. The 9 00:00:40.969 --> 00:00:45.490 next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to 10 00:00:45.570 --> 00:00:50.520 him follow me now. Philip was from Betsidah, the city of Andrew and 11 00:00:50.600 --> 00:00:56.159 Peter. Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, we have found him of 12 00:00:56.240 --> 00:01:00.119 whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, 13 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:04.629 the son of Joseph. Nathaniel said to him, can anything good come out 14 00:01:04.670 --> 00:01:11.510 of Nazareth? Philip said to him, come and see Jesus. Saw Nathaniel 15 00:01:11.590 --> 00:01:15.750 coming toward him and said of him. Behold in Israel, lighte in whom 16 00:01:15.790 --> 00:01:19.219 there is no deceit. Nathaniel said to him, how do you know me? 17 00:01:21.099 --> 00:01:25.219 Jesus answered him. Before Philip called you, when you were under the 18 00:01:25.340 --> 00:01:30.780 fig tree, I saw you. Nathaniel answered him. Rabbi, you are 19 00:01:30.859 --> 00:01:34.370 the son of God, you are the King of Israel. Jesus answered him, 20 00:01:34.849 --> 00:01:38.209 because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree. 21 00:01:38.290 --> 00:01:42.569 Do you believe you will see greater things than these? And he said to 22 00:01:42.650 --> 00:01:47.129 him, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven 23 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:52.000 opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man. 24 00:01:53.200 --> 00:02:16.340 May God bless his word to us. You may be seated. As I 25 00:02:16.460 --> 00:02:23.020 mentioned before, I read this book that we just read from is called John, 26 00:02:23.139 --> 00:02:27.699 or the Gospel according to John, and the Gospels, as we are 27 00:02:27.900 --> 00:02:36.129 learning, or perhaps you already know, are like little biographies about Jesus. 28 00:02:37.569 --> 00:02:43.050 Gospel means good news. It's the good news according to John, about Jesus, 29 00:02:43.569 --> 00:02:46.639 and so from the very beginning, from verse one of Chapter One all 30 00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:50.879 the way here to the end of this chapter, John has been telling us 31 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:55.120 about Jesus. He's been telling US why. That is why that news about 32 00:02:55.120 --> 00:03:00.189 Jesus is is Gospel. Why? That is good news. And so, 33 00:03:00.389 --> 00:03:04.150 as we come to the end of chapter one, I want to take a 34 00:03:04.270 --> 00:03:07.430 moment and review with you some of the things John has told us so far. 35 00:03:08.270 --> 00:03:14.659 Right, what is it? Who is this Jesus that Andrew and Peter 36 00:03:14.979 --> 00:03:20.460 and Philip and Nathaniel are following? What have we learned about him so far? 37 00:03:21.979 --> 00:03:25.139 Want to mention five things and I'll mention them very briefly. Number One, 38 00:03:25.979 --> 00:03:30.810 John tells us that Jesus is called the word of God. He comes 39 00:03:30.849 --> 00:03:36.689 from God, the father, as his eternal and fully divine son. He 40 00:03:36.849 --> 00:03:40.800 makes the father known. He is the word of God. Number two, 41 00:03:42.599 --> 00:03:46.000 John has told us in this chapter that Jesus is the lamb of God. 42 00:03:46.840 --> 00:03:52.879 He is like a sacrifice. He is a sacrifice, he takes away the 43 00:03:52.919 --> 00:03:58.030 sin of the world. Through Moses, God gave the law, but through 44 00:03:58.150 --> 00:04:04.710 Jesus we receive grace upon grace and a greater knowledge of God. Number three, 45 00:04:04.750 --> 00:04:10.860 John has told us that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, words 46 00:04:10.939 --> 00:04:16.180 that mean the anointed one. They point to one that was process prophesied about 47 00:04:16.339 --> 00:04:20.139 in the Old Testament, in the law and in the prophets, as we 48 00:04:20.259 --> 00:04:27.730 read here in our passage this morning. He is the one who would be, 49 00:04:28.009 --> 00:04:31.449 who would come and who would reign as God's King, as God's son, 50 00:04:31.649 --> 00:04:35.970 over his people. So Jesus is the word of God, he is 51 00:04:36.009 --> 00:04:40.839 the lamb of God, he is the Christ of God number four. He 52 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:45.759 is the Eternally Begotten Son Whom God has sent into the world as a light 53 00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:50.240 to overcome the darkness, to take away the sins of men, and he 54 00:04:50.360 --> 00:04:57.870 does this by becoming man. And finally, we see that the way that 55 00:04:58.029 --> 00:05:01.790 we come to benefit from this gift that God gives to us is through the 56 00:05:02.110 --> 00:05:08.620 use of people who spread this gift, who, by spreading the message, 57 00:05:09.500 --> 00:05:13.420 in other words, were not just recipients of this amazing grace that God has 58 00:05:13.500 --> 00:05:18.259 brought, but we come to be used as tools for God's grace. God 59 00:05:18.540 --> 00:05:23.009 first invites us. Come and see Jesus, says to these men that are 60 00:05:23.050 --> 00:05:27.410 following him, and pretty soon those men are saying, in turn, come 61 00:05:27.569 --> 00:05:31.449 and see a two other men, and that's what happens in our passage to 62 00:05:31.490 --> 00:05:36.639 day. All of these things are piling up and growing and growing and leading 63 00:05:36.639 --> 00:05:43.240 into something really wonderful. Jesus is forming a church. Jesus, who is 64 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:45.800 the light of the world, Jesus, who is the word of God, 65 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:48.480 who is the son of God, Jesus, who is the lamb of God, 66 00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:55.670 who takes away our sins. Andrew hears this word from John The baptist, 67 00:05:56.949 --> 00:06:00.430 who then tells his brother Peter. Then these brothers Tell Philip, their 68 00:06:00.470 --> 00:06:03.500 neighbor, who then goes and tells nathaniel. You see how it's happening. 69 00:06:04.100 --> 00:06:09.860 The word of God is fretting and in this way the number of people following 70 00:06:09.899 --> 00:06:14.500 Jesus continues to grow and grow and grow. It's like if you take a 71 00:06:14.819 --> 00:06:17.500 light, that the light is shining, and then you take a mirror and 72 00:06:17.610 --> 00:06:20.810 you reflect that light, and then you take another mirror and reflect that light 73 00:06:20.850 --> 00:06:24.689 and you take another mirror and reflect that light and you keep doing that and 74 00:06:24.769 --> 00:06:28.810 the light keeps bouncing and bouncing and bouncing and it's shining in some ways brighter 75 00:06:28.889 --> 00:06:33.800 and brighter as it's reflected, but it's still the same light every time, 76 00:06:34.639 --> 00:06:39.879 that same grace, the same God. This light, however, we are 77 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:44.800 learning in this passage, comes in a very particular form. This light that 78 00:06:44.920 --> 00:06:48.189 comes into the world comes and is shared from one person to the next through 79 00:06:48.589 --> 00:06:55.829 words, good words, Gospel Words, a Gospel that is shared from one 80 00:06:55.949 --> 00:07:00.990 person to the next, to the next to the next. You are here, 81 00:07:00.149 --> 00:07:04.500 every single one of you are here today because somebody shared that word with 82 00:07:04.660 --> 00:07:12.139 you. They shared that light with you. That news about Jesus and God 83 00:07:12.339 --> 00:07:15.370 worked in it. As we read earlier in the Propheti is ekially called these 84 00:07:15.449 --> 00:07:21.009 bones. He testified to these bones this good news about God's promise, and 85 00:07:21.129 --> 00:07:27.490 what happened? That came to life and do an exceedingly great, army and 86 00:07:27.610 --> 00:07:31.480 amazing thing. This is how God's Word Works. This is why Jesus is 87 00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:36.920 called the word of God, and the word is continuing to spread in the 88 00:07:38.040 --> 00:07:43.519 same way today. Jesus told his disciples before his ascension in Matthew, Chapter 89 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:47.709 Twenty Eight, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in 90 00:07:47.790 --> 00:07:50.589 the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit, 91 00:07:51.149 --> 00:07:56.949 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. So can you see 92 00:07:57.029 --> 00:08:01.339 how this command that Jesus gives to us at the end of his earthly ministry 93 00:08:01.740 --> 00:08:05.060 is connected to the things that he's doing here in the very beginning of his 94 00:08:05.180 --> 00:08:11.259 earthly ministry? The mission Jesus gave his disciples before his ascension to heaven is 95 00:08:11.379 --> 00:08:18.850 connected to the mission that Jesus gave when he descended from heaven. This means 96 00:08:18.970 --> 00:08:22.370 that what we do is a body of Christ what we do as we share 97 00:08:22.490 --> 00:08:26.370 the Gospel, what we do is rereceive the Gospel. Isn't some kind of 98 00:08:26.569 --> 00:08:31.800 extraneous thing, this kind of busy work that we add on or just decide 99 00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:37.639 to do. We do it because of who Jesus himself is. Or, 100 00:08:37.679 --> 00:08:43.070 to put it another way, who Jesus is determines who we are. What 101 00:08:43.269 --> 00:08:48.549 he does determines what we do. Well, that takes us up to our 102 00:08:48.590 --> 00:08:54.590 passage today. Then in our passage today, John Testifies again to some of 103 00:08:54.629 --> 00:08:58.539 these things he has been saying before. He reminds us, in Nathaniel's words, 104 00:08:58.620 --> 00:09:03.899 that Jesus is the son of God and the Messiah, the expected son 105 00:09:03.980 --> 00:09:09.259 of God, the King of Israel, and another old thought, that Ge 106 00:09:09.500 --> 00:09:13.570 that has been mentioned before, is made more explicit that the Old Testament testified 107 00:09:13.730 --> 00:09:20.289 to this one who is coming and is now here. If you don't know 108 00:09:20.490 --> 00:09:24.600 much about the Old Testament, Nathaniel's reaction and the reaction of the disciples may 109 00:09:24.639 --> 00:09:30.440 seem a kind of confusing. Imagine if somebody comes up to you and says 110 00:09:30.720 --> 00:09:33.320 we found the Messiah, but you don't know what a Messiah is. You 111 00:09:33.320 --> 00:09:37.789 would kind of shrug your shoulders and say what are you talking about? But 112 00:09:37.870 --> 00:09:43.470 if you understood that for a long, long time, for generations after generations, 113 00:09:43.909 --> 00:09:50.110 God had promised this anointed person, this special son, who would come 114 00:09:50.389 --> 00:09:56.860 to rule and reign in his kingdom, and this son, this son of 115 00:09:56.980 --> 00:10:01.740 David, this anointed chosen one, would not just rule in an ordinary way 116 00:10:03.100 --> 00:10:07.450 but would establish God's kingdom forever and ever, that he would be anointed by 117 00:10:07.529 --> 00:10:13.289 God's spirit himself and that in this kingdom the world would be changed. Through 118 00:10:13.490 --> 00:10:18.049 this kingdom, God's work would be done. And somebody came up to you 119 00:10:18.129 --> 00:10:24.919 then said we found him, totally different reaction right. And that's why these 120 00:10:24.039 --> 00:10:30.720 words are so powerful and so meaningful. When John the Baptist points to Jesus 121 00:10:30.759 --> 00:10:33.759 as he walks by and says behold the lamb of God who takes away the 122 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:39.509 sins of the world, or when Philip goes to Nathaniel and says we found 123 00:10:39.549 --> 00:10:43.549 him. Whom Moses in the law and all the also the prophets wrote Jesus 124 00:10:43.629 --> 00:10:48.750 of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Well, tell me about him, 125 00:10:50.539 --> 00:10:56.980 help me to understand him. Nathaniel is confused on some level. Their commentators 126 00:10:58.059 --> 00:11:07.169 disagrees to whether he's negative or positive in the question he asks. But Nathaniel 127 00:11:07.210 --> 00:11:11.210 asks, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Is this nathaniel being a 128 00:11:11.809 --> 00:11:16.929 studious theologian who's saying, wait, how does that fit with these other things 129 00:11:16.970 --> 00:11:22.639 I've learned? Or as Nathaniel being knit very negative towards Nazareth and saying can 130 00:11:22.759 --> 00:11:26.600 anything good come out of Nazareth? It's a little hard to say, and 131 00:11:26.720 --> 00:11:31.000 commentators disagree. But no matter what, Nathaniel's thinking through this problem. At 132 00:11:31.080 --> 00:11:37.149 some level or another he's trying to decide how is it that this one that 133 00:11:37.230 --> 00:11:41.389 you're telling me about comes from here? We'll come back to that in a 134 00:11:41.429 --> 00:11:45.509 moment. But Philip says, come and see this is important. Nathaniel goes 135 00:11:46.389 --> 00:11:54.419 and he encounters Jesus and he what he finds is amazing. What does he 136 00:11:54.580 --> 00:12:01.490 find? What do we learn more in this passage about this amazing Messiah who 137 00:12:01.529 --> 00:12:05.210 has come, this son of God, this lamb of God, the light 138 00:12:05.289 --> 00:12:09.850 of the world? Well, if that's not enough, if what John has 139 00:12:09.970 --> 00:12:15.879 already said is not enough. He adds more and if I may, I 140 00:12:15.960 --> 00:12:20.799 think we can put a few different ideas together, all under this word surprise. 141 00:12:22.840 --> 00:12:26.200 Three things I'll mention. You know what a surprise is, right. 142 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:33.149 A surprise is something that you weren't expecting. Right. A surprise is something 143 00:12:33.309 --> 00:12:37.350 where you are expecting one thing and you get another. You expect to walk 144 00:12:37.389 --> 00:12:39.950 into an empty room on a normal day and what you get as a room 145 00:12:39.990 --> 00:12:46.299 full of people singing happy birthday. Right. A surprise is thinking your tax 146 00:12:46.340 --> 00:12:50.019 return is going to be this big and then finding out it's this big surprise, 147 00:12:50.500 --> 00:12:56.299 something unexpected. There's several surprises here in our passage and it helps us 148 00:12:56.340 --> 00:13:03.929 understand the reaction that these these people are happy having, the things that we 149 00:13:03.009 --> 00:13:09.610 learn about Jesus. The first thing, the first way this surprise comes to 150 00:13:09.730 --> 00:13:15.639 us comes in the form of geography. Right now, you might not think 151 00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:18.559 geography is a very surprising thing, but maybe it is if you put it 152 00:13:18.639 --> 00:13:26.240 in a certain way. If I told you that the president was going to 153 00:13:26.190 --> 00:13:30.909 instead of take his position and do all of his work from the White House, 154 00:13:31.429 --> 00:13:35.750 but instead was going to do it in a in a farmhouse in Yuma. 155 00:13:35.549 --> 00:13:41.190 You might find that surprising, right. Or if I told you that 156 00:13:41.230 --> 00:13:48.940 a person was going to decided to direct great films and be a game changer 157 00:13:50.019 --> 00:13:54.299 in the film industry and they were going to do all of that from Green 158 00:13:54.419 --> 00:14:00.929 Valley, you might say, well, that's a surprising choice. Right, 159 00:14:01.090 --> 00:14:07.529 location often matters right where you do what you do these kinds of things, 160 00:14:07.809 --> 00:14:13.879 and that's not true just for professions, but it's particularly true for for leaders 161 00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:20.399 and for kings. It's I think, and almost an arguable point, that 162 00:14:20.600 --> 00:14:28.830 leaders lead from places of leadership. Kings live and rule from capitals and if 163 00:14:28.990 --> 00:14:31.230 they don't want to do that, they move the capital or they create a 164 00:14:31.389 --> 00:14:37.779 capital. Jesus, by every expectation, should be going to the capital, 165 00:14:39.139 --> 00:14:43.019 should be going into Jerusalem, and yet here he is out by the Jordan 166 00:14:43.059 --> 00:14:50.539 River. He he receives and the people receive this word from God, the 167 00:14:50.620 --> 00:14:54.409 Father in heaven, that this is his son and whom he is well pleased. 168 00:14:54.769 --> 00:14:58.649 Here is John, in the Line of the Old Testament prophets, pointing 169 00:14:58.690 --> 00:15:03.690 to this Jesus and saying here is the light of the world, who comes, 170 00:15:03.769 --> 00:15:05.330 who shines in the darkness, and on and on. These things that 171 00:15:05.610 --> 00:15:13.159 we've already talked about here with the disciples, are recognizing this is the Messiah, 172 00:15:13.240 --> 00:15:20.679 this is the anointed one. Every expectation that the king has come would 173 00:15:20.039 --> 00:15:26.190 lead you to believe that he is about to go into Jerusalem, where the 174 00:15:26.429 --> 00:15:31.269 temple is, where the capital is. And then we read that the next 175 00:15:31.309 --> 00:15:39.899 day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. To Galilee. Why would Jesus go 176 00:15:41.139 --> 00:15:46.139 to Galilee? And then we have these other place names to there's a lot 177 00:15:46.179 --> 00:15:50.889 of geography here. Philip was from Best Cida. Jesus is being pointed out 178 00:15:52.129 --> 00:15:58.210 as from Nazareth. These are not important places, these are outskirt towns, 179 00:15:58.409 --> 00:16:04.960 unimportant places, the really the regions on the edges. This is not what 180 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:17.039 you would expect. Now this becomes a surprise for an important reason, because 181 00:16:17.080 --> 00:16:22.350 what Jesus is doing here is not an accident. Jesus is doing something that 182 00:16:22.509 --> 00:16:27.509 is consistent with his ministry from beginning to end. It reminds us of one 183 00:16:27.549 --> 00:16:33.620 of the Central Aspects of the gospel of the good news about Jesus, and 184 00:16:33.820 --> 00:16:41.779 it's this that Jesus chooses what is weak and unimportant and foolish and struggling and 185 00:16:41.980 --> 00:16:49.649 sinful and sick, but to save. Finds the dry bones and he works 186 00:16:49.730 --> 00:16:56.769 with those. That's the good news of the Gospel. Everyone expects him to 187 00:16:56.889 --> 00:17:00.960 simply take humanity at its best and kind of level up just cause it to 188 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:04.079 level up. We're going to just move to the next level, take humanity 189 00:17:04.319 --> 00:17:08.079 and make it better. Right. He's going to go to the best people, 190 00:17:08.119 --> 00:17:11.680 and this is what you often do if you're running a business or something 191 00:17:11.759 --> 00:17:15.470 like this. You Go and you find the best talent you have and you 192 00:17:15.630 --> 00:17:19.630 gather together the most important people and you get the best connections and you pull 193 00:17:19.710 --> 00:17:23.190 it all together to create the best thing you can. And then Jesus, 194 00:17:23.309 --> 00:17:30.579 though, he goes to piles of bones, to Bethsaida, to Galilee, 195 00:17:32.700 --> 00:17:40.099 to tax collectors and prostitutes and sinners and fishermen and these kinds of things. 196 00:17:41.380 --> 00:17:45.529 The King of glory, who is so glorious, this eternal son of God 197 00:17:45.690 --> 00:17:48.769 who comes into the world to bring light to all of the world, he 198 00:17:49.089 --> 00:17:56.890 bypasses all that we think is glorious to take the inglorious things and make them 199 00:17:56.089 --> 00:18:02.559 shine with the glory of God. That's what Jesus does. This is who 200 00:18:02.559 --> 00:18:08.359 he is and it's marked even by his very footsteps as he goes into Galilee. 201 00:18:10.759 --> 00:18:17.349 God does not descend to take people at the highest levels who are important, 202 00:18:17.390 --> 00:18:21.430 or at least so they think they are. You take us at our 203 00:18:21.589 --> 00:18:27.059 best and then just sort of give us a little boost. The physician comes 204 00:18:27.140 --> 00:18:33.299 to heal people who are sick, for struggling, who know themselves to be 205 00:18:33.460 --> 00:18:41.930 weak. God descends a doesn't doesn't doesn't descend to just level up our humanity 206 00:18:41.049 --> 00:18:48.250 a little bit. God descends to bring us up into his divinity, to 207 00:18:48.369 --> 00:18:53.730 make us children of God. And for those of us who know ourselves to 208 00:18:53.809 --> 00:18:57.200 be, if I could put it in this way, a people of the 209 00:18:57.240 --> 00:19:04.400 outskirts, if we know ourselves to be not important, people who struggle with 210 00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:11.950 sin and suffering and weakness, then the fact that the king of glory, 211 00:19:12.069 --> 00:19:15.990 the Son of God, the light of the world, comes to you, 212 00:19:17.869 --> 00:19:26.940 well, that's good news, isn't it? Yes, good can come from 213 00:19:26.940 --> 00:19:32.940 Nazareth. As it turns out, our Lord comes from Nazareth and he goes 214 00:19:32.980 --> 00:19:37.890 to best CIDA and to Galilee. This is surprising news and it is very, 215 00:19:37.970 --> 00:19:45.369 very good news. The second surprise that we have is Jesus's miracle. 216 00:19:47.650 --> 00:19:52.769 Here we have testimony in proof of Jesus's divinity. That's as if we didn't 217 00:19:52.769 --> 00:19:56.200 have enough already. But God is gracious, right, and he gives us 218 00:19:56.240 --> 00:20:03.000 a bountiful feast of his revelation. What's the miracle? Well, after finding 219 00:20:03.039 --> 00:20:07.269 the Fanuel Jesus, Nathaniel goes to Jesus, Jesus sees him and says, 220 00:20:07.309 --> 00:20:11.509 behold in Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. Or maybe you've 221 00:20:11.789 --> 00:20:17.470 heard that in older translations. No guile. Now, imagine you meet someone, 222 00:20:17.630 --> 00:20:21.940 meet someone from the first time, and the very first thing that they 223 00:20:21.980 --> 00:20:26.140 say to you is something very personal about you. Right, none of the 224 00:20:26.220 --> 00:20:30.299 sort of normal, ordinary greetings, but I see that you are like this 225 00:20:30.539 --> 00:20:37.329 in your kind of inmost being. How would you respond to that? Now, 226 00:20:37.609 --> 00:20:41.769 maybe you'd say thank you or something like that, but my guess is 227 00:20:41.930 --> 00:20:45.849 most of us would probably sort of cut to the chase and before quickly say 228 00:20:45.930 --> 00:20:52.079 something exactly like what Nathaniel said. How do you know me? What's going 229 00:20:52.279 --> 00:20:55.640 on here? I came to meet you, I came to find out about 230 00:20:55.720 --> 00:20:56.880 you, know you as the Messiah and these sorts of things, and all 231 00:20:56.920 --> 00:21:03.079 of a sudden you're addressing me in this extremely personal way. How do you 232 00:21:03.920 --> 00:21:10.069 know me? Jesus, then shows that this statement about him wasn't just a 233 00:21:10.269 --> 00:21:14.390 lucky guess or information that Philip had supplied him. Hey, I want to 234 00:21:14.390 --> 00:21:17.309 tell you about my friend thaniel. Doesn't have any guy. I just thought 235 00:21:17.309 --> 00:21:19.380 you might like to know. I know, like you know, he doesn't 236 00:21:19.380 --> 00:21:25.380 have sort of the lowdown or the profile on Nathaniel, and he shows this 237 00:21:25.539 --> 00:21:33.009 to nathaniel and to us by saying, before Philip called you, before he 238 00:21:33.250 --> 00:21:36.809 came to you, before he came to me, when you were under the 239 00:21:36.930 --> 00:21:44.049 fig tree, I saw you before Philip call all do you? This is 240 00:21:44.130 --> 00:21:48.079 a way to reveal, to say this is something that Philip couldn't even have 241 00:21:48.359 --> 00:21:55.000 known. He didn't get his information through another person. And this is remarkable 242 00:21:55.160 --> 00:21:59.319 right. This is surprising. Imagine if somebody came up to you today and 243 00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:03.390 says I saw you and the number of how long you brush your teeth this 244 00:22:03.509 --> 00:22:08.349 morning, like, how do you know that? Who told you? How 245 00:22:08.470 --> 00:22:18.299 does this man, this person from Nazareth, know something about me that nobody 246 00:22:18.460 --> 00:22:25.539 could know, because he's not just a man, he's the son of God. 247 00:22:29.980 --> 00:22:33.650 Now, as a side note, I'll say if you're smart, for 248 00:22:33.730 --> 00:22:37.650 the rest of your life. You will try to be as quick a study 249 00:22:37.690 --> 00:22:44.839 as Nathaniel is. Is Nathaniel gets it fast. He's got these questions, 250 00:22:44.920 --> 00:22:48.240 he's trying to connect the dots. How could anything good come from Nazareth? 251 00:22:48.319 --> 00:22:52.440 How do you know mean? Jesus tells him. He says, before I 252 00:22:52.559 --> 00:22:55.359 saw you. I saw you, you under the FIG tree. And Nathaniel 253 00:22:55.400 --> 00:22:57.240 answers, rabbi, you are the son of God, you are the King 254 00:22:57.319 --> 00:23:00.309 of Israel. Right, like I said, if you're smart, you'll try 255 00:23:00.349 --> 00:23:07.509 to be as quick as nathaniel is in learning your lessons from Jesus. But 256 00:23:07.670 --> 00:23:17.460 this is all really marvelous, isn't, to God reveals himself and Nathaniel starts 257 00:23:17.500 --> 00:23:26.940 exulting, starts praising, starts confessing. This isn't, ultimately, this isn't 258 00:23:26.980 --> 00:23:33.009 because Nathaniel is just this amazing man. And Nathannuel is amazing, but he's 259 00:23:33.009 --> 00:23:38.450 amazing because Jesus is amazing, because he takes dry bones who have ignorance and 260 00:23:40.369 --> 00:23:45.799 confusion and sin and all the rest, and he puts sinews and flesh and 261 00:23:47.160 --> 00:23:53.319 skin on them and he breathes life into them so that they then confess with 262 00:23:53.480 --> 00:23:59.190 their own breath and the spirit that is working in them. You are the 263 00:23:59.309 --> 00:24:03.349 son of God, you are the King of Israel, and now I'm going 264 00:24:03.470 --> 00:24:11.019 to follow you. I wish that every time God revealed himself to me in 265 00:24:11.180 --> 00:24:15.339 this way, as he is even right now in the scriptures, that I 266 00:24:15.420 --> 00:24:21.140 would be like nathaniel, proclaiming and Exalting and confessing. What about you? 267 00:24:22.619 --> 00:24:26.369 Have you seen Jesus? Have you heard of his miracles you just did? 268 00:24:26.970 --> 00:24:32.490 What are you doing? What's in your heart? Do you confess him, 269 00:24:32.569 --> 00:24:37.730 praise him, exalt him? That is the appropriate sponse response when you come 270 00:24:37.809 --> 00:24:44.039 into contact with God, when he reveals himself to you and it's message of 271 00:24:44.119 --> 00:24:48.279 salvation and the things that he is going to do, you don't sort of 272 00:24:48.839 --> 00:24:53.150 give a disinterested strug. You don't say, well, I don't to think 273 00:24:53.230 --> 00:25:00.990 about this some more, I just don't know. No, he praises name 274 00:25:02.029 --> 00:25:08.339 and you follow him. Well, now we come to our final surprise. 275 00:25:10.339 --> 00:25:15.380 As amazing as the All seeen knowledge of the Divine Jesus, Our divine Jesus 276 00:25:15.380 --> 00:25:19.900 is, as we see it here in this event. Listen to what Jesus 277 00:25:19.940 --> 00:25:23.609 says next, he says truly, truly, I say to you, you 278 00:25:25.849 --> 00:25:30.650 will see heaven opened and the Angel Or, I'm sorry, you will see 279 00:25:30.849 --> 00:25:34.799 heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man. 280 00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:40.240 You think it was impressive that I saw you under the fig tree. 281 00:25:40.559 --> 00:25:45.279 You believed with that. Guess what, you are going to see much greater 282 00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:51.829 things than these. And then this image that he gives them, this thing 283 00:25:52.029 --> 00:25:56.430 that he tells them. You will see heaven opened and the angels of God 284 00:25:56.910 --> 00:26:03.269 ascending and descending on the son of man. If I could speak in a 285 00:26:03.309 --> 00:26:10.819 very familiar way, does this blow your mind? If not, you you 286 00:26:10.980 --> 00:26:17.059 do work on your imaginations. What does this mean? The angels of God 287 00:26:17.220 --> 00:26:22.690 ascending and descending on the son of man? I don't think methniel went. 288 00:26:22.769 --> 00:26:25.250 Oh, okay, that sounds really neat. I'm looking forward to that. 289 00:26:26.009 --> 00:26:29.049 He probably did what all of you do and what I do, which is 290 00:26:29.730 --> 00:26:34.480 what is that? How do we make sense of that? What does Jesus 291 00:26:34.599 --> 00:26:40.960 mean? How we know, we can be certain about this, that it 292 00:26:41.079 --> 00:26:45.079 is a reference to what the man Israel, also known as Jacobs, saw 293 00:26:45.559 --> 00:26:49.349 when he met the Lord at a place called Bethel, where he saw something 294 00:26:49.549 --> 00:26:53.750 like this. But honestly, it doesn't give us a whole lot more information 295 00:26:53.990 --> 00:26:59.470 other than what we read right here, that Jacob saw the angels and angels 296 00:26:59.990 --> 00:27:07.140 descending and descending on this ladder up up to heaven. Ironically, I think 297 00:27:07.220 --> 00:27:11.380 that this off when we read things like this, it really bothers us. 298 00:27:11.779 --> 00:27:17.690 God promises us this amazing thing, promises Nathaniel in particularly here, this amazing 299 00:27:17.809 --> 00:27:21.529 thing, that he's going to see this, and then we get bothered by 300 00:27:21.650 --> 00:27:26.650 our confusion, even maybe a little bit upset at God. Why does what 301 00:27:26.890 --> 00:27:30.279 are you do? What are you talking about? How could this be true? 302 00:27:30.319 --> 00:27:33.240 I don't understand stand this. Right, we like to sort of stand 303 00:27:33.400 --> 00:27:37.000 over God and say, you know, he sort of reveals us to one 304 00:27:37.039 --> 00:27:40.400 miracle and we say wow, that's really impressive, and then he shows us. 305 00:27:40.440 --> 00:27:41.559 He says, I'm going to show you something even greater, and we 306 00:27:41.640 --> 00:27:45.589 say, I don't know, I just don't really understand what you're talking about. 307 00:27:48.190 --> 00:27:53.470 If you would let me Yank the cover off of our pride and sin 308 00:27:53.710 --> 00:27:59.619 for a moment, I would like to do that. Why do we, 309 00:27:59.859 --> 00:28:07.299 in our hearts, read something like this and scoff at it or or somehow 310 00:28:07.420 --> 00:28:15.289 blame God for our confusion ask for more proof, when what he's doing is 311 00:28:15.490 --> 00:28:19.049 he's giving us the thing that we're always asking for, which is a sense 312 00:28:19.089 --> 00:28:25.410 of his transcendence and his greatness and his presence. Right people ask all the 313 00:28:25.529 --> 00:28:27.680 time for I want a miracle, I want to know something about God, 314 00:28:29.079 --> 00:28:30.960 I want him to reveal himself to me in some way. And then he 315 00:28:32.039 --> 00:28:34.720 said he does that, and then he promises US something even greater and we 316 00:28:34.720 --> 00:28:37.960 say, well, I just don't know. I don't think I understand that. 317 00:28:41.160 --> 00:28:47.269 How prideful we are, God reveals to us I'm going to show you 318 00:28:47.470 --> 00:28:51.509 something, so I'm going to show you something that so clearly shows you how 319 00:28:51.990 --> 00:28:55.190 far I am above you, and we kind of go. I don't know, 320 00:28:55.309 --> 00:28:57.660 I just don't really get it. I think I'm going to go do 321 00:28:57.819 --> 00:29:07.059 something else. How earthly we are, how simple minded, how foolish? 322 00:29:07.700 --> 00:29:11.569 Do you really want to worship a God who is everything that you always expected 323 00:29:11.650 --> 00:29:17.650 him to be, or will you worship a God who can never be fully 324 00:29:17.769 --> 00:29:22.450 comprehended by you, who promises to reveal things to you in the future that 325 00:29:22.569 --> 00:29:27.720 you can barely even understand what he's saying right now? I think there are 326 00:29:27.720 --> 00:29:30.680 a lot of things that we might be able to learn and pull from this 327 00:29:30.799 --> 00:29:37.240 vision. But I I only want to say this today, that when the 328 00:29:37.359 --> 00:29:44.710 Lord promises us these things, this revelation about himself, that he gives himself 329 00:29:44.869 --> 00:29:48.069 to us in this eternal son of God, his word, our response isn't 330 00:29:48.150 --> 00:29:52.589 to stand over him and say, well, let me think about this and 331 00:29:52.710 --> 00:29:56.460 analyze this more and I need to know more and give me more details. 332 00:29:57.019 --> 00:30:03.019 When the transcendent God of the world descends into the world to save you from 333 00:30:03.059 --> 00:30:07.289 your sin, you throw yourself at his feet. Do you say, save 334 00:30:07.529 --> 00:30:14.410 me, Lord, I am yours, I belong to you. He is 335 00:30:14.809 --> 00:30:19.690 surprising us. He has a surprising God because he is infinitely beyond us, 336 00:30:21.130 --> 00:30:26.799 and yet he has descended that far to save us, to save you, 337 00:30:26.839 --> 00:30:33.559 to love you. In these descriptions, that that we are I'm getting from 338 00:30:33.559 --> 00:30:37.509 John Here, in this Gospel, and the ways in which Jesus is revealing 339 00:30:37.549 --> 00:30:41.869 himself to his disciples and to you. As these are recorded by the spirit 340 00:30:42.150 --> 00:30:48.190 and given to us today, we come to know our king better in these 341 00:30:48.349 --> 00:30:53.140 descriptions. I need you to see that your king, who goes out to 342 00:30:53.180 --> 00:30:56.579 the outskirts and to the poor and to the broken into the sinners, is 343 00:30:57.059 --> 00:31:03.529 not merely the king of Israel. He is the King of Heaven, he 344 00:31:06.730 --> 00:31:15.849 is our God to worship and glorify and praise and repent before and to be 345 00:31:15.009 --> 00:31:22.480 saved by these angels of God that are sending and descending to heaven. Do 346 00:31:22.519 --> 00:31:25.119 you know what they are? Do you know what the Bible says they are? 347 00:31:26.160 --> 00:31:33.950 He says they're ministering spirits for you, his children. This Jesus, 348 00:31:33.990 --> 00:31:37.789 who descends all the way down to Earth to take on the form of a 349 00:31:37.910 --> 00:31:42.630 man to suffer and die on a cross. He does that so that heaven 350 00:31:42.670 --> 00:31:49.940 itself can be opened up, so that you can be exalted into it to 351 00:31:51.059 --> 00:31:56.420 live and do well with our Lord forever. So, whether you have known 352 00:31:56.460 --> 00:32:06.930 Jesus for one hour or for a hundred years, you will never be able 353 00:32:06.930 --> 00:32:12.890 to take in all the splendor of his dignity, the grandeur of His Majesty, 354 00:32:13.089 --> 00:32:20.519 The glory of His grace. I beloved, you don't need to. 355 00:32:22.200 --> 00:32:25.799 It's not your job to take in everything that God is and master him. 356 00:32:28.200 --> 00:32:34.750 It's your God. It's your job to trust him, submit before him, 357 00:32:34.910 --> 00:32:42.670 bow before him. You don't need the supersede God to be blessed by him. 358 00:32:44.380 --> 00:32:51.220 Why? Because God comes to you. He comes so far down that 359 00:32:51.339 --> 00:32:53.619 he could, that he would, and he did, establish a Kingdom of 360 00:32:54.380 --> 00:33:05.690 love by His grace on a cross for you. That's who Jesus is and 361 00:33:05.890 --> 00:33:10.769 that's who you are in him, and that's what we enjoy as as we 362 00:33:10.890 --> 00:33:16.880 follow him. Let's pray and ask that God would help us to do exactly 363 00:33:17.000 --> that.