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We return again to our study of the choosing of the 12 - I believe this is part six - we're going to be looking at Bartholomew today, and actually, the name that is used more than that in the New Testament is Nathanael. Before we do, I was thinking about a passage in Hebrews 13. You don't have it on the screen here, but in Hebrews 13 and verse seven, it says, "Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. And that's what we want to do as we examine the lives of the apostles, as well as others that God has used down through the course of our life to speak the word of God to us, to lead us, to shepherd us, and so forth. And so, I hope that will be your mindset as we look at these individual men. But I hope it will also be a time where you compare your life to those things that we see as we look at the various passages that speak about their characteristics, their interpersonal style of relating, their strengths, their weaknesses, and so forth.

Last week we looked at Philip, and this week, as I say, we'll look at Bartholomew. Verse 12 of Luke six is kind of our launching pad. It says, "It was at this time that Jesus went off to the mountain to pray, He spent the whole night in prayer to God.

"And when day came, He called His disciples to Him and chose 12 of them, whom He also named as apostles:

"Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James and John; and Philip, and Bartholomew;"

And we will stop there. Now, as we get to know Bartholomew, bear in mind that this was his Hebrew surname, meaning "son of Ptolemy," and so he's also called Nathanael in the Gospel of John. Nathanael, by the way, means "God has given," and since the Synoptic Gospels - - Matthew, Mark, and Luke; "synoptic" means they have a similar synopsis of the same issues - because of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and because in Acts he's just listed as one of the 12, the only way we can learn anything about Bartholomew is to go to two other passages in the Gospel of John, where we will be today in John chapter one and John 21. And there we will see that that they call him Nathanael.

Now, while the information is sketchy, we are able to reasonably come up with a picture of who he was in the list of the apostles found in John 21 and verse two, it tells us quote that he was from "Cana in Galilee," and so this was a town that was very close in proximity to Nazareth, where Jesus was from. And Cana, you will recall, was where Jesus performed his first miracle, turning the water into wine. In John one, however, we will discover some more helpful insights about this beloved apostle, and I've given you three headings that I think we can hang some of these truths on. We're going to see that he was a seeker of God. Secondly, he was prejudiced, and thirdly, he was sincere. And we will flesh this out as we go. So turn to John one, we're going to begin in verse 43 and read through verse 51, and then I will comment on the passages. John one verse 43.

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

"Now Philip was from Bethsaida of the city of Andrew and Peter.

And then we read in verse 45,

"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.'

"Jesus saw Nathanael coming to 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 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.'

"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.'"

Well, first we can see from this passage of Scripture that he was a seeker of God. Now, before we see that more clearly, remember, first you have Philip; remember, he's kind of the fastidious guy, the obsessive kind of hyper-organized process person. So, Jesus goes and finds him, and Philip follows Jesus, and then the first thing Philip does is he goes and he finds Nathanael. They were best friends. Their names are listed together in the lists that are found in the Gospels, plus early church legends depict them as close companions.

Now, Nathanael was probably kind of an easygoing, patient kind of guy. He would have had to have been in order to survive a personality like Philip's, where everything is by the book. Someone has well said that "Perfectionists make themselves and everyone around them miserable," and that would probably have been the bent of Philip. So Nathanael probably brought balance to that relationship. By the way, I've noticed the Lord tends to do that, he tends to bring people to us that are close to us, especially our spouses, that tend to balance us out. You know, as you can see with Nancy and me, Nancy is very, very aggressive and kind of harsh, and I am kind of the milquetoast passive type, and so she balances me out. Well, I would imagine you've got some of this going on with Philip and Nathanael.

So notice in verse 45, Philip speaking now, “’We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote...'" Now it's interesting, this is a reference, now, to others that Nathanael would have also known, other godly men, and I'm sure women who were looking for their Messiah. Now certainly this would have included Andrew, Peter, James, and John. Remember, they found him. John the Baptist says, "Behold, the Lamb of God." And so Philip tells him now, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote." By the way, can you imagine somebody getting on the news and telling the world that? That would be a great line in Facebook, would it not? Well, such a statement assumes something of profound importance. It assumes that Nathanael was seeking the Messiah. He was looking for the Savior, and his search was not guided by human wisdom, it was not guided by philosophies of the world or intuition or even logic, but it was guided by the revealed word of the living God. And since the things of God are foolishness to unbelievers, we can therefore surmise that Nathan's searching for divine truth proved that he had been justified by faith, like Abraham, according to Romans four and verse nine, whose "faith was reckoned to him as righteousness." Reckoned comes from a Greek term "logizomai", which denotes an economic and legal crediting of something to another person's account. And like Abraham, whose faith was imperfect, Nathanael was a recipient of divine grace, and he was justified. In other words, he was declared righteous by faith in God's saving mercy.

Now, let me remind you of some great theological truths here, so that you never forget these things. Faith in itself has no power to save. It is never the basis, or shall we say, the reason for salvation. Faith is a gift from God that provides the channel for redeeming grace to be bestowed. So God infused Nathanael with his own righteousness because Nathanael knew that his righteousness could never save him. Paul spoke about this in Romans four, having experienced it himself. He said in verse four,

"'Now to the one who works, his wage is not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due.

"'But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.'"

Now we must remember that the Jews lived under the old Mosaic covenant, where they were waiting for quote "something better" (Hebrews 11:40) - namely the new covenant of grace. That's what they were waiting for, that's what they were looking for (Jeremiah 31). They were looking for the great "Menache" - the great Consoler, the great Comforter, the Rest Giver. This was the one that was pictured in all of the symbols of the sacrificial system. So, the righteousness of Christ was imputed to them even before the Lamb was slain. In other words, prior to the cross, the believer's sin was paid in anticipation of Christ's atoning work, even though they did not fully understand all of that. Obviously, Nathanael longed to see his Savior, to see his Lord, his Messiah, his King; he was a seeker. In Psalm 69, verse 32, the psalmist, recognizing that salvation comes only from the Lord, David acknowledges that the hearts of those who seek God shall live. Nathanael would have understood this. He would have understood Psalm 40, beginning in verse 16,

"Let all who seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee; Let those who love Thy salvation say continually, 'The LORD be magnified!'

"Since I am afflicted and needy, let the Lord be mindful of me. Thou art my help and my deliverer; Do not delay, O my God."

Indeed, as the writer of Hebrews reminds us, pertaining to the reward of saving grace that Enoch sought, in Hebrews 11 and verse six, we read, "...he who comes to God must believe that He is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek Him."

Now, why did Nathanael seek the Messiah? Well, because he knew he was lost. I might add that one of Satan's greatest weapons in attacking the church today is to convince people that they're not really lost and dead in their sins; therefore, they really don't have a need to seek the Savior. Moreover, as we look at man according to Scripture, while he has a free will to do whatever he wants to do, he has no desire within him to exercise that will to embrace Christ, and so as we look around, even at the evangelical world today, most of which is apostate, the raging fires of apostasy in contemporary evangelicalism are fueled by false teachers who try to convince people that Jesus is primarily a blesser rather than primarily a Savior. Some will say, "Well, he was a great prophet. He was a model of self-sacrifice, a social justice warrior." But they will not say he was the Son of God that came and to seek and to save the lost. They will not admit that he was the second member of the triune Godhead, our sovereign Creator, Redeemer, and Lord. They will not acknowledge that he was the self-existent, pre-existent God that coexisted with the Father and the Spirit from all eternity. That he is the uncreated Creator of the universe.

Let me remind you of what John said earlier in John one; you remember the passage beginning in verse one. He says, "In the beginning was the Word." Let me expand on that just a moment. The "Word was" is the imperfect tense, we call it, of the verb "to be" - "eimi" - which denotes continuous action. So the word the "logos" in the original language, was continuously existing in the beginning when everything else came into existence. That's what the Spirit of God is telling us here. "In the beginning was the Word" - the logos - a person, not some invisible, mystical, abstract, non-personal force, like the Stoics believed in that day, and like a lot of pagans believe today. Remember the Star Wars movies, "May the force be with you," well, no, it's the "Word" here. The "logos" is a person. Remember later on in John one in verse 14, we read, "And the [logos] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth."

So again, back to John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word," and then it says, "And the Word was with God, and the Word was God." That is, Jesus pre-existed and coexisted with God in the beginning as the eternally pre-existent Word, and it says "He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him," it says, "was life." By the way, this is in Greek, it's "zōē" it means "spiritual life." It's not "bios,” - organic biological life - this is life beyond DNA. "In Him was" spiritual life, and the spiritual life it says "was," and there again the verb would indicate that this is continuously eternally existing, It was "the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." In other words, it did not overcome it. No opposing power is able to seize the light so as to hinder its radiance, and that Light, of course, is the light of Christ. By God's sovereign decree, we know that the Lord Jesus Christ entered Satan's domain of darkness - this wicked world - but this darkness cannot extinguish the light of his life and the life of those he saves. Colossians 1:13, "For He delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son."

Now, bear in mind, Nathaniel was just beginning to understand these things. If he could hear it now, he would say “Amen. But I didn't get all of that right at first.” He was just beginning to understand that Jesus was the incarnate Word, the Son of God, the Creator, the Redeemer, the Messiah, the long-awaited Prophet, Priest, and king, and how tragic to hear popular preachers today and the popular seeker-sensitive movement water down the gospel to somehow attract crowds, utterly oblivious to God's sovereign work of grace and salvation. So they wrongly assume that the gospel needs to be repackaged so that it will be more relevant to attract seekers.

By the way, I might add that what is happening in evangelicalism today is a failure to realize that their so-called seekers are not seeking salvation; they're seeking vindication. Big difference. They're not seeking salvation from sin. They're not coming saying, "What must I do to be saved?” But rather, they seek to be vindicated and exonerated. They want a God that will give them what they already want, not what they need, which is forgiveness of sins and a righteousness foreign to them. “Make me feel good. Be sensitive to my felt needs. Don't offend me by exposing my sin and telling me that all that I am and all that I do is fundamentally offensive to a holy God, and that I'm going to go to hell unless I repent. I don't want to hear that stuff.”  and that's why they want entertainment rather than exposition. They want a watered-down gospel that is palatable, and of course, you see all over the place. In churches, men coming up with gimmicks to somehow meet people's felt needs-the felt needs of the quote “seekers.” Methods that take precedence over theology, and of course the mindset is let's become more like the world in order to win the world. And worship services center around man and his needs rather than God and His glory.

I digress a little bit more for a moment. I remember, and you probably do, The Purpose-Driven Church and the Purpose-Driven Life that came out of that. Over a million copies sold, and I remember when I first read that, I thought, "My, what a, what, what a dangerous deception this is. And I remember early on in the days of Calvary Bible Church when I preached on that, we had a number of people leave. They were so offended because I made that comment, but it's filled with wide gate, broad way theology. Many people would be deceived. Making the gate as wide as possible. It's filled with bad theology, shallow doctrine, verses used out of context, unbiblical promises offered to people without making any distinction between who's a believer and not a believer. There's no discussion of the very heart of the gospel. No mention of the holiness of God, the law of God, the wrath of God, the judgment of God upon sinners for having violated the law of God. No, no real mention of hell. No reason for the cross, the sinfulness of man, the power of the flesh, need for repentance, the cost of discipleship, no mention of the sovereignty of God, living for His glory. Rather, the reader is merely asked to whisper the prayer that will change your eternity. 'Jesus, I believe in you, and I receive you.'" Believe what? Receive what? He goes on to say, "If you sincerely meant that prayer, congratulations, welcome to the family of God." Beloved, this is easy believeism at its worst. This is how you fill up a church with tares. An emphasis on the love of God, but never on the wrath of God.

But not so Nathanael. He did not seek God to somehow reduce his stress and simplify his decisions and increase his self-esteem or find purpose in life, he sought the Lord because he knew he was a sinner. He was lost. He was hopeless and desperate. He knew he had violated God's holy law, and he feared what he knew would happen, and that is eternal death. He could not save himself, so he sought God for mercy and pardon. I want you to notice, Philip did not come to Nathaniel and say, "We have found Him who will restore your poor self-esteem. We have found Him who will make you rich, who will make you successful, who will make your marriage work, heal all of your diseases, grant you personal fulfillment?" Now I know some will rightfully say, "Well, wait a minute, in Romans 3:11 and 12 it says, 'There is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one.'" Well, that that is true. Man is utterly unwilling and therefore unable, incapable of seeking after God unless the Father draws him. We know that (John 6:44). The human will, remember, has absolutely no inclination to holiness because man is utterly depraved. His eyes are blind; his ears are deaf. He's dead in his trespasses and sins, and so on. And a spiritual corpse cannot cooperate with grace in any way until it is regenerated, until it is given some spiritual life by the Holy Spirit - the Holy Spirit who has sovereignly determined in eternity past to save those that God had given to the Son. You might say regeneration is monergistic, not synergistic. Salvation is all of grace. We do not share in the glory of our salvation. To put it a little differently, we cannot cause ourselves to be born again, any more than we could cause ourselves to be born originally. The new birth, regeneration, must both precede and elicit saving faith in Christ.

Now, with respect to Nathanael, obviously this had happened to him. The Spirit of God had breathed the life of regeneration into that rotting corpse. There was that, as I say, that supernatural, instantaneous impartation of spiritual life to the spiritually dead. There was a resurrection, shall we say, and by the power and grace of the Spirit of God, he was miraculously born again. Suddenly, he had eyes to see the divine sword of justice looming over his unholy head. Maybe you remember when that happened with you, and in desperation of soul, he cried out, "Oh God, have mercy upon me, a sinner!" By grace alone, through faith alone, he was delivered from the kingdom of darkness and the wrath to come. He was redeemed by the blood of the Lamb that he did not even know fully yet. But now, imagine now standing before him is the incarnate Lamb of God. He had revealed himself in the flesh to Philip, and Philip comes to Nathanael and says, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the Prophets wrote - Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.'" Jesus, by the way, that's the Aramaic of Joshua, the Joshua of the Old Testament, meaning "Yahweh is salvation"; a name whose significance undoubtedly struck Nathanael, who knew the Old Testament scriptures and promises. You know, he had been, as you think about it, previously aware of a number of the prophets - Isaiah 53in particular - but also, I was thinking of Zephaniah two, and in verse two it says, "Before the Lord's fierce anger comes upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger comes upon you, seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth."

So Nathanael was looking for his Messiah. He was a seeker of God, evidenced by his desire to seek divine truth found in the Law and the Prophets. By the way, I want to remind you that we are all instructed to keep seeking, to keep looking for Christ's return. I mean, we just read a little bit ago in Romans eight that even we ourselves, having the first fruits of the spirit, in other words, believers, we groan inwardly. We are "waiting eagerly" it says for "the adoption as sons and the redemption of our bodies." And it says that if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it in perseverance and so forth. In Titus two in verse 13, we are told to keep "looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us." You know, is that true of you? Are you looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of Christ? Philippians 3:20 tells us that our citizenship is in heaven, right? "From which also we eagerly wait." We eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And in First Thessalonians five and verse six, believers are called to be "alert and sober" rather than spiritually drowsy, and Jesus taught his disciples to quote "be on the alert since you don't know the day when He is coming." And he teaches how we must quote "be ready because the Son of Man arrives at an hour when you do not think He will," Matthew 24. And First John three and verse three says, "And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." So, practically speaking, are you looking for Christ and his return? Well, I hope you are.

You know, I've noticed over the years that a key symptom of a person that's not looking for Christ - therefore they're out of fellowship with Christ; therefore they don't have a purifying hope - a key symptom is they're sour and sullen. They seldom smile. They seldom laugh. They're the kind of person that sees a problem in everybody else. The fruit of the Spirit's not really there. Instead of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, you have bitterness, sorrow, turmoil, impatience. They're unkind, evil, unfaithful, cruel, and self-indulgent, and they call themselves Christians. Maybe this applies to some of you. They don't get along with other people. They leave a trail of broken relationships behind them. They are what we might call dysfunctional in how they function in their marriage and in their family. They're chronically angry, controlling, depressed, self-absorbed, rather than Christ-absorbed. They're always upset with someone. It's the old log in my eye, but I can see the speck in yours from 100 yards. They keep a record of wrongs, talk about others behind their back, and when you're around them, you're always on duty, wondering what's going on with this person. I mean, those type of people are toxic; they're hard to be around. And what's going on with them? Well, they've left their first love for Christ, and they're not looking for him anymore. They're absorbed with all of the things around them. So when that happens, dear friends, is you forfeit that purifying hope that only comes when your hope is fixed on him, and you're eagerly awaiting, anticipating, longing for his return to be with him face to face. That's why we read in Colossians three and verse one: If you have been raised up with Christ," it could be translated "since you have been raised up with Christ,"

"....keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

"Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth.

"For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

"And when Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory."

I was thinking about that verse the other day, and you know how you read a verse, and suddenly the lyrics of a hymn or something will come to mind? Well, an old gospel song that I remember us singing, when we had a 12 member ensemble group that I led, Nancy was in,  back when we were at Bethany Baptist years ago, and one of the songs that we sang was Redemption Draweth Nigh. Maybe some of you remember that, but the phrase that stuck out to me was,

"Signs of the times are everywhere; there's a brand-new feeling in the air.

"Keep your eyes upon the eastern sky; lift up your head redemption draweth nigh."

Great lyrics. Maybe some of you remember singing that or hearing it.

Well, so Nathanael was looking for his Messiah. Secondly, we see he was prone to prejudice. Boy, I'm glad I don't have that problem, but I've known a lot of people that do. Verse 46, "And Nathanael said to him, 'Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?'" Like all of us, Nathanael had his biases and prejudices that are typically fueled by pride. We have that sense of superiority; and it's really funny, Nathanael's hometown of Cana wasn't even as prestigious as Nazareth down the road. I mean, it was off the beaten path, and you know it'd be like someone from Adams demeaning someone from Ashland City, or whatever, you get the idea. Now, sorry for you folks that live in Adams.

Now remember, most all of the Jews scoffed at folks from the region of Galilee. I mean, they were considered what we would say the kind of the uneducated rednecks, not the political and religious elite from Jerusalem, and throughout the New Testament the apostles, as well as Jesus, were ridiculed, you will recall because they were from Galilee, so everybody made fun of them. Remember in John seven, in verse 52, the Pharisees teased Nicodemus by saying, "Are you also from Galilee? Search, and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.

So to be sure, we all have to guard ourselves against prejudice. But notice how Philip responded to his friend's knee-jerk bias in verse 46. He said "Come and see." It's almost as if to say, "Hey, don't judge a book by its cover. Read it. You know, check him out." And so he heeded his friend's advice, and he set aside his prejudice, and he went to honestly evaluate the validity of his claim to get to know Jesus. Of course, we all know what happened, but there's another great insight that we can see to help us understand the character of Nathanael, and that is he was sincere. I mean, this guy was the real deal. He had real integrity.

Verse 47 says, "Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him..." Now, first of all, I've got to stop here. Whenever I read passages like this I just find myself astounded to think that our sovereign God decreed that moment to happen in eternity past, and now it's happening. He knew that that was going to happen before Nathanael was ever born. He saw him coming from his glorious throne in heaven...it's beyond me. The one who loved him with an everlasting love, while he was yet a a sinner, a guy filled with prejudice; the very Messiah who had sought him with his irresistible force of saving grace is now looking at his adopted son coming towards him through his incarnate eyes. It's astounding to me. The lover of his soul sees his searching child walking towards him. O child of God, the intimate love and involvement of our precious Savior should cause you to remain in a state of wonder and worship. I mean, think about it. Even as Jesus gazed upon Nathanael coming towards him, he had seen him before time began; and I want you to realize he has seen us all as well, and he continues to see us right now. He knows if we're looking for him and waiting eagerly for him, or if we've wandered off living for ourselves. Psalm 139:1 and following, "O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me; Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up, Thou dost understand my thought from afar; Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, and art intimately acquainted with all my ways." What an amazing thought! I'm reminded of Hagar's response to God's promise to her regarding her unborn son Ishmael. She said in Genesis 16:13, "Thou art a God who sees." The eyes of divine omniscience and omnipotence and omnipresence sees everything. And I also think about the myriad of eyes that watch us every moment with the holy and the unholy angels. You know they observe our character and our conduct? I didn't write these verses down for you, but I jotted some down this morning as I was thinking about this. First Corinthians 4:9, it says that believers are quote "a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men." You realize they watch us now? Angels do. They see us. Their eyes are riveted upon us. Hebrews 1:14, the angels are described as ministering spirits sent out to render service to believers and so forth. In Luke five and verse 10 says, "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." And you remember what Peter said in First Peter one in verse 12 that angels "long to look" to all that's happening with the gospel. They not only rejoice at the news of one sinner, they remain vigilant to minister to us, to protect us, to provide for us. And it's amazing to me to think that an invisible angelic host attends to our needs in ways that we could never imagine. Even as God hears our conversations, our prayers, our songs, observes all of our deeds, both good and bad, there are angels around as well, myriads of angelic spirits, unseen to us, battle against the forces of darkness and the prince of the power of the air to keep the elect safe upon the paths of divine providence. Oh child of God, please hear this: We do not walk through this life incognito. God sees it all. So do the angelic beings. But all this pales, of course, into the utter insignificant when we realize that we live under the full light of omniscience - the omniscient gaze of Almighty God - and that's what we see here. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and it gets better as we go on. What an astounding thing!

Nathanael eventually locks eyes now with his Creator. You know, somehow join me here. Let’s walk with Nathanael and see what's going on. Verse 47, "'Behold,'" Jesus says, "'An Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile!'" By the way, this is a remarkable tribute, isn't it? And what an anomaly that would have been in that day in Jewish culture. I mean, he's saying that this a genuine worshiper of Yahweh. This isn't just another self-righteous hypocrite, some religious phony with the trappings of religiosity, as I say, "all sizzle and no steak." The omniscient Christ peers into his soul, and he finds integrity. Is there sin there? Oh, yeah, absolutely. But a man who longed to be a man who worshiped in spirit and truth. You want to ask yourself, "Could Jesus say that of me?"  "Behold, a Tennessean indeed, in whom there is no guile." Nathanael's character illustrated Paul's commentary on Jewish hypocrisy. Remember in Romans two, beginning in verse 28, "He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, by the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God."

So he he's stunned now at Jesus' statement, and no doubt skeptical, and so he says in verse 48, "'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.'" My goodness! Can you imagine what Nathanael must have thought? Now, as I think about this, Jesus could have said, "Well, I saw you in your house," or "I saw you in the marketplace." Or "When you were walking along the road," or in some other place of significance, perhaps, but he said, "I saw you under the fig tree," and Nathanael's response indicates the profound significance of Jesus' choice of observation. I believe that it was under the cool shade of a fig tree where Nathaniel routinely met with God in private worship. The text doesn't say that, but it wouldn't surprise me.

It was probably there where he searched the scriptures to be able to understand more of the Messiah that he was awaiting - that he was longing to see - where he communed with God in prayer, his secret chamber where he did business with the lover of his soul, where he poured out his heart in confession, where he cries out in mercy, where his soul overflows with the doxologies of praise for undeserved grace. I've got my fig trees, and you probably have yours. Now suddenly he realizes he is standing in the presence of divine glory, and he says in verse 49, "'Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.'" Both statements indicating his familiarity with the Old Testament messianic prophecies, which spoke of the coming Messiah in these very terms.

By the way, remember the primary emphasis of John's Gospel is to exalt the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and over and over he demonstrates the fact that Jesus is the Son of God. We looked at that just for a moment when we looked at John one. So once again the inspired author underscores the glorious truth here, "'Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.'" Verse 50, "Jesus answered and said to him, 'Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe?'" By the way, I think this is more of a promise than a question. Jesus is saying, "Nathanael, this sample of my omniscience that has convinced you of who I am is merely the beginning of what I'm going to show you in the days to come."

Verse 50 goes on to say, "'You shall see greater things than these.'"  In other words, I'm going to show you things that are beyond your wildest imagination. Miracles that will demonstrate my power over sin, Satan, and death, and nature, and all these things are going to serve to strengthen your faith in me, even beyond its current capacity to trust in me. And notice he goes on to say, verse 51, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, you shall see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.'" Interesting statement. Here he is reaching back to Genesis 28. You will recall Jacob was a lonely traveler. He was leaving the land of Canaan. He was in need of divine comfort. The sun is setting. He has a stone for a pillow, and in a dream, he sees a stairway going up from earth to heaven. The angels were ascending and descending, and in that dream, God was trying to encourage Jacob. He was proving to him that he is intimately involved in the affairs of his life and of all of our lives, and how he dispatches angels to do his biddings to carry out his purpose. And there, God reminded Jacob that he would be faithful to all of his covenantal promises, reconfirming the Abrahamic covenant. That indeed Jacob's descendants would inherit the land - the promised seed - the blessing, and all of those things. And there, he demonstrated how his angels again are servants that are tirelessly involved in that glorious process.

Now, Nathaniel's theological and biblical understanding, along with the other faithful men that would have been listening to all of this, was not of such that he would, I'm sure, put all of this together, but later on, no doubt, he thought about this. As I think about it, what Jesus is saying is, "Nathanael, even as I allowed Jacob to see a vision of the supernatural involvement that I have in the affairs of men to accomplish my sovereign purposes, so too I will reveal myself to you and to others." But will you notice that in Jesus' description there in verse 51, there's no ladder, there's no staircase in the text, as in Genesis 21, only of the ascending and descending angel. Well, why is that? I would imagine that it's because the bridge between heaven and earth is now the Son of Man. He alone is the one that will provide access to God. He alone is our stairway to heaven.

What a thrilling moment that must have been in the life of Nathanael, a man who had, by divine grace, sought after God, a man that was still human, still prejudiced, and probably other issues as well, but a man of integrity, a man that God would gradually shape into one of his choice servants as an apostle.

Well, in conclusion, apart from this, we really know nothing about this dear apostle. Early church records indicate that he served the Lord in India and in Persia, modern-day Iran, and spread the gospel, possibly even as far as Armenia, which, as I recall, it touches Iran just a little bit, way up in the northwestern part, kind of sandwiched between Azerbaijan, and I think below Georgia, and I think Turkey is right to the left. I forget all that geography. Conflicting traditions regarding his death tell us, one group says, that he was tied up in a sack and thrown into the sea. Another tradition says that he was crucified. We don't know, but there's a high probability that he was martyred like all of the others, except John.

Well, folks, I challenge you to ponder these great truths, ponder them in your heart, and keep your eyes on the eastern sky, because your redemption draweth nigh. Let Jesus shape your life as he did Nathanael's. By the way, ask him to do so. Lord, do a mighty work in my heart, that I might be the man or the woman that you would have me be. And then yield to the leading of the Spirit through his Word and the workings of divine providence, and watch what he will do in and through you. Let's pray together,

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your Word that can penetrate the very core of each of us. Thank you for what you did in the life of Nathanael and the others, and what you're doing in our lives as well. Lord, take us, mold us, make us, use us, and again impress upon our hearts the need to keep setting our minds on things above, not on the things of the earth, as we anticipate your return to take us unto yourself. I ask for the glory of Christ, and in his name, Amen.