“Accepting the Lord’s Vision”

Scripture: John 1:43-51

John’s gospel begins by proclaiming Jesus as the Word of God that will come to earth, with the sole purpose of destroying the hold that sin has on the world. The gospel then moves on to John the Baptist’s ministry of proclaiming that the truth and grace of the Lord would come to those who would place their trust in this Word made flesh.

And then, while we are still in the first chapter of John, we read of Jesus beginning to call his disciples to follow him, and learn from him. He has called Andrew, who has, in turn, invited his brother Simon to come to Jesus. And in today’s text, another of the first twelve, Philip, is called to “follow” Jesus, and he not only follows, but he also invites another to join him.

That is how the Church is supposed to grow – by each of those who have answered the Lord’s call to invite someone else to join them in the discovery. And as a way of demonstrating how effective this could be, if 1 person, who had accepted the Lord’s invitation to follow him, then invited another person to accept the Lord, and then the next day, the two of them invited two more, and so on, in only 31 days – 1 month - there would be over 1 Billion followers of Jesus.

But before we begin growing the Church that much, let’s see what we can learn from Philip and his discipleship of Jesus Christ.

Read John 1:43-45

And how does Philip offer the invitation? He tells Nathanael who this man is.
First, he identifies Jesus as the Messiah – “the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about who the prophets also wrote.” This recognizes the Lord from two perspectives – first, that the Law, the rule and standard for all of Israel, recognizes the authority of Messiah, and that it all rests on Jesus, and second, that the prophets, those who had been called to proclaim the word of God to the people, told them that Messiah would come as their savior, which also defines Jesus’ mission to the people of earth.

Philip cites the two greatest sources of authority for all of Israel to distinguish just who Jesus is. But this isn’t quite enough – he also identifies Jesus by his earthly connection – that he is the son of Joseph of Nazareth. Jesus is now fully identified. He is the source and authority of the Law (Matthew 5:17-20); he was proclaimed and promised by the prophets (Matthew 2:23, Matthew 26:56); and he also had an intimate and human connection with the people of earth (Matthew 1:22-23)

And Philip joyfully tells his friend that they had found Messiah. It wasn’t that Jesus had been lost, of course – from a spiritual perspective, it was the people of earth who had been lost. It was that same old problem of the darkness again – it was the sin of humanity that had dimmed their hearts and eyes to the glory of God, and which had led them far away from Messiah. But when the light of Christ settles upon you, vision becomes clear, the heart is strengthened, and the way back to Almighty God becomes clear again.

Being invited to discover who Jesus is, is our first step in faith.

Read John 1:46-48

There always seems to be some level of doubt before faith begins to flourish. And in this case, Nathanael finds it difficult to believe that anyone of importance, let alone Messiah, could possible come from such a backwater town as Nazareth. And it certainly was small – at that time, it may have had a population of about 200-300 at best. For many Israelites, including Nathanael, Messiah would be royal, and royalty always came from Jerusalem.

But doubt, and uncertainty, and the improbable have always been the quickest ways to discourage the faithful in their offering of invitations to others. But Philip is inspired, and doesn’t give up so quickly. He turns the question back onto his friend with the words “Come and see!” He is, in essence, telling Nathanael that if he didn’t trust the words he had just heard, then don’t just dismiss the possibility of finding Messiah for yourself – come, and meet him, and then make your own decision.

The point is that we are never to give up after a few negative responses! If the direct approach doesn’t work, turn the tables around and let your friend make his own judgment of Christ. But in order to make an informed decision, you have to get a little closer to the topic of interest - the truth can never be discovered when you keep it at arm’s length!

So Philip makes that suggestion to Nathanael – “Come and see for yourself!” And Nathanael accepts the offer, and goes to see this Jesus for himself, and in doing so, receives an affirmation regarding his own life. Jesus’ statement that this man is a “true Israelite” is a great compliment. A true Israelite is one who lives a life in faith and trust of God. To be referred to as “an Israelite”, not to mention as a “true Israelite”, is a very good thing.

Israel had been called to live and serve their Jehovah God in faithfulness. We aren’t sure of the depth of Nathanael’s righteous life, but we do know that he faithfully answered the call of God that was given to him through Philip. And when Jesus told Nathanael that there was nothing false in him, it could have been a prophecy that the truth of Christ would soon fill the man’s soul!

Discovering the truth of Christ is our second step in faith.

Read John 1:49-51

While Jesus had revealed Nathanael’s inner being to him earlier, now Nathanael reciprocates – he professes the truth of Christ’s Being. He identifies the Christ in two ways – first as the Son of God, and second as the King of Israel. The first speaks of the source and authority that rests upon Jesus, and the second speaks of how he has been called to exercise that authority. The fullness of Jesus is beginning to fill our friend, and he is growing in his Messiah.

Acknowledging who Jesus is, for each of us personally, is of vital importance in faith. And the Lord is always ready to help us learn. If his next words to Nathanael seem familiar, consider what he said when he told Thomas that, while he believed because he had seen the resurrected Christ, others would believe even though they had no similar evidence (John 20:24-29). But Jesus’ words to Nathanael are far more positive. The Lord was letting this new believer know that even though he had already experienced the truth of who Jesus was, he hadn’t even begun to see the glory that would come upon Messiah.

Nathanael had made a commitment to learn more about Jesus, and Jesus was telling him that it would all come in time.

Commitment to learning more and more about our Lord is our next step in faith.

And in Matthew 28:18-20, we discover that this is what the Lord was telling us in the Great Commission. Nathanael’s experience with Jesus is what we have been considering these past 3 weeks, and what Jesus’ call on our lives is all about.
Remember our text from a couple weeks ago, regarding the Light of God that rises upon us all? Opening our eyes to the potential of Jesus Christ in our life is only the first step in our discovery of faith. In Matthew 28, Jesus tells us that the call on the Church is, first of all, to make disciples of all nations. Andrew reached out to his brother Simon, and Philip reached out to his friend Nathanael, and each were brought to the Lord, but later, in the book of Acts (Acts 8:26-40), we find Philip answering another call that God placed on him. It was to witness and teach a court official from Ethiopia about Jesus Christ, and to baptize him. First in Israel, then for Ethiopia, and later to Caesarea. Philip would really get around, and the Lord was intimately involved in it all!

Baptism, as we discussed last week, is our outward sign of a commitment to follow and learn from Jesus, and baptism is the second part of our Commission. Discovery of Jesus is a good start, but without a commitment to continue to learn and share the Lord with others, our faith will be shallow and hollow at best. But even our commitment isn’t enough – there is one last step that Philip and Nathanael had to take.

Step three is to continue to learn about Jesus. We do that by reading scripture, and through bible study with others, and by living in Christ’s light and using it to reach out to those who are still buried in the darkness. Philip would become one of Jesus’ Twelve Disciples, and would spent years walking and watching and hearing and learning from the Master. He would then use what he knew to lead others into Christ’s way. I’m sure that we all would like to read more about Nathaniel and where his new found faith in his Messiah would lead him, but the only other mention of this believer is in John 21:1-3. Nathanael would be one of the seven who would meet the resurrected Christ after a night of frustrated fishing.

His life in Jesus didn’t end with his invitation and introduction by Philip, and neither of them would lose their zeal to live a full life in Christ. And that must be our goal, too. Our passion for living in Christ will bring us all the glories that Jesus promised to our new friend Nathanael – we shall see greater things than anything we have ever seen before – IF we live our faith in Christ to the fullest.