John 1:43-51
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, 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 anything good 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.”
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for Sunday, January 14, is from the Gospel of John chapter one, verses 43 through 51. The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee, he found Phillip and said to him, Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter, Philip found Nathaniel 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. Nathaniel said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. Nathaniel said to him, how do you know me? Jesus entered him. Before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathaniel entered 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, Here ends the reading. This passage takes place right after Jesus is identified by John as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And then we see Andrew and Peter following him. Then Jesus goes up, and he finds Philip and says, Follow me. Philip, then goes and finds Nathaniel and says, we found the Messiah, it's Jesus of Nazareth. Nathaniel has doubts. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Mean Nazareth is the podunk town out in the middle of nowhere, everybody's poor, nothing is good. It is the sticks. It is the hillbillies of Israel. Philip doesn't argue, and this is what I love about this passage. He doesn't argue with him. He doesn't try to debate him. He doesn't say, Oh, he does all these things. It's no evidence. It's just come and see. This is how we do it. Right? We we, we don't present evidence. We don't tell people like, here's a long list of why Jesus is awesome. We say come and see, experience Christ, experience His Word, experience His grace. It's not like being a Christian is good for your health. Being a Christian is good for the country, being a Christian will make Western culture great and wonderful. None of that it's experience Christ. Come and see. And so much of that is just like you invite someone to worship, you invite someone to hear the word of but God proclaimed to read the Bible, you, you gather together around Christ in His Word, and you just say, Come and see. And when Jesus sees Nathaniel, he shows Nathaniel right away, something is different about Jesus. He sees Nan Nathaniel says, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit. And Nathaniel says, what? You don't know me from Adam. How do you know me? He says, before it filled, Philip called you. When you're under the fig tree, I saw you. We have no idea what this means. There are hints, legends about fig trees and studying God's Word. And people have tried to fill in the gaps and understand what what it means about the fig tree or whatever it is. But what really matters is that Jesus proved himself to Philip or to Nathaniel. And Nathaniel responds, Rabbi, You are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel, whatever it was about the fig tree, and the no deceit and whatever it is. It was enough for the Nathaniel to know something was going on. And Jesus says, Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree do you believe you will see greater things Cindy's. So Jesus is predicting that Nathaniel and the rest of the disciples will see some pretty amazing things more amazing than Jesus knowing what was going on. And then he says, Truly, truly I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. They will see greater things, they will see miracles, they will see Jesus feeding the 5000, they will see him die, and then they will see him alive. These are amazing and great and powerful things. But what soulmate, what also is amazing about Jesus is that the end of this gospel, he turns to another disciple, who saw and only believed, because he saw Thomas, he says, Do you believe because you see me, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. And what we have is the witness, and of the apostles and the testimony of them, we get to hear their eyewitness versions of what Jesus did and said, and we get to believe, even though we weren't there, we get to believe their witness, and without seeing, and what a joy it is, we can hear what they saw, and understand what they did. Jesus ends this passage with truly, truly I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. This reminds me of the story of Jacob, Jacob after he had deceived his brother, he runs off on his way to his uncle Laban. And while he is in the wilderness, he sets his head down on a rock, and he has a dream. And the dream is that there is an a ladder, going up into heaven on the place where his head lies. And he sees angels ascending and descending on that place. And he when he wakes up, he's he says, surely this is the house of God, and I did not know it. What Jesus is doing is he's referencing this passage from the Old Testament about the God's house being in this place, this place called Beth l, a house of God. And we see Jesus now is God in this place. And many people would see him and not realize it, as the angels are ascending and descending. He is the Word made flesh, who who dwells among us, and we get to see the glory of God. And that's what this passage is referencing this Jacob's Ladder, and the location of God in this place is now Christ. And that is the most amazing thing. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai