(John 1:48)
�Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.�
Last week I read in the religion section of our local weekend newspaper where a local church leader had said that Jesus received a divine nature at His resurrection. That is just not a stand that is backed by Scripture. Scripture describes Jesus as the Son, the Eternal God.
When we began to look at this first chapter of John there were clear references made to the deity of Jesus. In the very first verse Jesus was identified as God. In the second verse Jesus was described with the attribute of eternality which could only be said of God. In the third verse of the chapter Jesus is described as the One Who created everything which was created. John the Apostle made it quite clear that Jesus was not a created being; He was very God incarnate.
In our text verse this week we see that Jesus exhibits a knowledge about Nathanael which would not have been possible if Jesus were a mere mortal man.
Nathanael had a response to this knowledge of Jesus. Nathanael made an incredulous question. �Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me?...�
It is sort of interesting to note that the first words which Nathanael said about Jesus were, basically, �This guys from out in the �sticks.� What good can he possibly be!� He began by belittling Jesus. Jesus, however, began His conversation with Nathanael with a compliment.
Rather than simply accepting a compliment, Nathanael gave a pugnacious reply. I don�t believe that the reply of Nathanael gave any indication that he accepted the word of knowledge which the Savior displayed. In modern parlance I think Nathanael said, �You don�t even begin to know anything about me.�
In effect, Nathanael was still in the attack mode.
We have this same response from the unsaved in our own day. We will witness of the love and grace of Jesus. We might intimate the peril from which Jesus stands ready to rescue the sinner. The response given us is a complete denial of our witness. Normally this is even done with rancor and a questioning attitude about our mental capacities and moral qualifications to judge the status of the sinner as he stands before God.
Sometimes, too often in fact, this is because we have presumed to judge the person with whom we are speaking.
Too often this response triggers a like response from ourselves. We sneer something about the moral unworthiness of the sinner and go on our way in the smug confidence that �we are not as are other men.� Once rebuffed we slink back into our superior attitude and pity the poor sinner who is bound for a Christless Hell. �He�ll remember this event and rue the day that he turned down Jesus,� is our hearts response.
Well, first of all, they didn�t turn down Jesus. They rejected our attempt to �convert� them. Unless we have been in prayer for this person it is unlikely that they were convicted by the Spirit. Thus, they were unable to make a response toward Jesus. Their only response was toward what they saw as our audacious behavior.
We need to do two things at this point. Neither of these things is to consider ourselves as superior in any manner! First, we need to remain in an attitude of prayer for this person. The convicting power of the Holy Ghost is a necessary element for one to be led to Christ.
Second, we need to be in the Spirit ourselves so that we may respond as did Jesus at this point. This is the pursuing response.
When I first entered South Viet Nam as a foot soldier, I was in a unit that engaged in reconnaissance patrols. We would go out, four of us at a time, to scout the area and report back to our base camp on what we had seen. Always one of the last orders we were given was that we were to avoid contact with the enemy at all costs. Since there were only four of us, this seemed to make sense to me!
Our main tactical training for a �firefight,� should one occur, centered on disengaging. Basically, we were to find a way to get out of the situation.
Unfortunately, that is the attitude of the Christian who has seen his witness rebuffed. Such should not be the case. In the field of combat, our four man teams were at a decided disadvantage. In the field of spiritual warfare, we - through the medium of prayer, have all of the resources of Heaven at our disposal. A trust in Jesus, coupled with a prayer link to the Holy Spirit, means that we have all the advantage. We may not win every contest; but we have no need to fear the forces of the tempter.
Jesus responded to Nathanael with a probing retort.
The response of Jesus toward Nathanael was to display that divine nature of which John spoke earlier in our text chapter. Jesus simply moved past the rejection and presented His claim of just Who He was!
That needs to be our response as well. We are to move past the rejection and present the claims of Jesus. Once again we will do this in two ways. First we will rely upon the God inspired and God preserved Scripture. This is just one reason why we need to realize that we do have the inspired and preserved Word of God in our hands and hearts as we study �to show ourselves approved unto God.�
We are given the �assurance� from so many sources today that we can not have the truly inspired Words which God gave to us. That�s not assurance; that is designed - from the very work and will of the adversary, Satan, to destroy our faith and impede our witness in the world. We have a Word we can trust because we have a God we can trust. We have a preserved Word because the true Word of God is of His essence. It is His Word to man. As such that Word is of eternal composition; It is not subject to decay from the forces of time or man.
The Traditional Text, which underlies our King James Bibles, is the historical and eternal Word which God gave to His churches. We can trust this Word. But, we can not trust the word of any man who would denigrate the goodness and power of God by insisting that God somehow lost control of His Word for a thousand years. We can not trust the word of any man who would insist that we cannot know what were the Words which God inspired. We cannot trust the word of any who would say that we can only trust the scholarship of men who have tried to reconstruct those Words. We can not trust any who would discard faith in God, Almighty and replace that faith with a faith in man, so intelligent.
That�s one of the reasons why there is so little power in the churches of this day. We have replaced faith in the Word of God with faith in the scholarship of faithless critics of Scripture. Folks, this is a spiritual battle in which we are engaged. We need the spiritual guidance which comes only from the revealed, and preserved Word of God. To trust another word, so called, is to trust the creature rather than the Creator. Only the supernatural Scripture can be used to properly lead a sin stained soul from the depths of despair to the Hope of Glory. To trust the arm of man is to fail!
The other need we have as we engage in spiritual warfare is a relationship with the Spirit of God. At one time while I was in Viet Nam I was transferred from Pleiku, in the Central Highlands, down to the area around Saigon. I was not told to walk. I was given space on a transport airplane and flown to my new duty station. It would not have been safe to attempt to walk. I, in all probability, would not have survived the attempt.
Without the Spirit in our lives, actively engaged through prayer, we will never reach the destination of leading a soul to Jesus. None of us has the power to effect the salvation offered by Christ. This salvation is free. There is no cost, practice, or strings attached. But, without the convicting power of the Holy Ghost upon the soul of a sinner, that sinner will never break free of his bonds of sin. We need to be in prayer for people. We need to pray for them by name. This is the power we need to back our witness and energize that witness unto the salvation of souls for the Kingdom of God.
Notice, also, the instant reply of Jesus. �...Jesus answered and said unto him.�
After Jesus had met Nathanael with a compliment, after Nathanael had rebuffed Jesus with a question which seems to be laden with sarcasm, Jesus gave a very patient reply. Without skipping a beat, Jesus just continued on with His conversation.
Far too many Christians, when they do make their infrequent attempts at sharing the faith, will either get �flustered� or angry at any opposition from the one to whom they are witnessing.
I was watching a sports program last night. A fighter was being interviewed. He had just won a fight which was a big upset. The pundits could see no way that he could win the fight. This fighter, and his trainer, saw that the fight could easily be won if he would just follow the fight plan as it was laid out. They were right!
Part of the fight plan was to get the other fighter so upset that he would make foolish mistakes. A full court press in a basketball game is the same sort of plan. The idea is to get the other team running more than they should and force them to make mistakes. The tempter will do this to us as well!
When we meet opposition, especially angry opposition, it is very easy to become energized by our carnal spirits. We then ignore the leading of the Spirit of God. We will begin to use our own �best�argumentation - which will only cause us to fail as our own arguments are no match for the arguments of Satan. Or, we might go into a defensive stance and try to answer every single argument raised. This sounds like a good idea; but this will take our eyes, and the eyes of the one to whom we are witnessing, off of the Savior and place the entire conversation on our intellect, our ability, and our ego.
Sometimes we even get angry. A prize fight I was watching a few weeks ago saw a dramatic knock out. The fighter who was knocked out had just thrown a mighty punch. It really looked like a good punch. But, when he missed, this caused him to �run into� a counter punch from his opponent.
When we become angry, or even anxious, while attempting to witness, the temper is ever ready to �counter punch.� He will use our own ill will and lack of trust in the power of God to cause us to lose the victory.
Jesus didn�t get flustered or angry. He just continued to talk with Nathanael in a calm manner. Jesus gave a prophetic rejoinder.
We have seen so much T.V., watched so many movies, and read so many popular magazines and books that our theology often has little to do with the Truth revealed in the Word of God. We see prophecy as a sort of �fortune telling� parlor trick. Oh, I�m not suggesting that we consider the prophecies of God to be anything less than the true telling of events which must come to pass. What I am saying is that we do not consider all the glory that is prophecy. Prophecy is simply giving forth the Word of God.
Every preacher is a prophet as he stands in the pulpit and gives forth the Word of God during the Sunday sermon. But, so also is every Christian a prophet as he gives forth the message that Jesus died in time so that we might live in eternity.
Strictly speaking, from a theological point of view, what Jesus said to Nathanael was a word of knowledge. This is a word, or message, that we might not be expected to know or understand. It is supernaturally given to us by the Spirit for a specific purpose. Generally speaking, almost always!, this is something which the Spirit will bring to our remembrance which we have studied from the Scripture.
The words of Jesus, in this instance, were different. This was a Word from God because Jesus, being God incarnate, was the speaker. This was true prophecy. This was a message from God!
In a footrace, speed and youth will beat slow and old. In spiritual matters the Word of God will beat the words of Satan. We dare not trust our best arguments in dealing with souls. We can only trust that Word which God has preserved in His Word.
�Visions and dreams� may be a compelling substitute for many. But, these often are the result of pizza late at night, or fatigue, or wishful thinking, ...or seeds planted in our imaginations by the tempter! We need a true reliance on the true and preserved Word of God!
Jesus gave the perfect response because He gave the Words of God. We have access to that Perfect Word within the covers of our accurately translated King James Bibles. Use the Word. Trust the Word. Have a Godly faith in the Word! Don�t ever let anyone tell you anything different. This Bible is the Word of God for us in this day. We need no other argument. We need no other standard. We have that which God has given us for the task which God has given us.
This was an insightful statement which Jesus made to Nathanael. �...Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.�
Jesus gave a perfect review of what had come to pass. The general population, outside the household of faith, is generally not easily excited by the idea of what will come to pass. We can outline, exposit, teach and proclaim to prophecies of the Book of Revelation. Many people are anxious to hear our thoughts on the subject. I have had phone calls and interviews from newspapers seeking to get my view on current events in light of the predictions of the Bible. Never, not once, has any of this led to the salvation of a single soul to whom I�ve been speaking.
But, I have seen results when I have majored on the life which a person is presently living. I have seen results when this has been tied in with the promise of Jesus to offer a fulfilling life of true peace. We reach people by relating what Jesus is able to do for them, personally. They may be interested in what He will do in a future setting. But, it is that personal response to a personal Savior which will lead to a personal decision to follow Jesus.
That is why what Jesus said was a productive reply.
The reply of Jesus was productive in that it gained the desired result. He accomplished this by paying heed to the spiritual realities. Jesus did not �brow beat� Nathanael. This would only have served to push him away. Jesus did not �soft soap� Nathanael. This would have left Nathanael comfortable in his sins.
What Jesus did do was to politely acknowledge that Nathanael was a �good Israelite.� But, Jesus led Nathanael to discover that there was more to being truly �spiritual� - a follower of God - than being a religious person. Even being a good religious person was not enough. The true path to true worship leads through the Person of Jesus Christ.
Jesus offered a promised repose from trying to gain Heaven. He offers the certainty of a relationship with God and a home in Heaven. This is not offered on the basis of what we may do or be. This is offered because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary. He has paid the price so we do not have to do so. We are able to simply accept the gift of salvation from Him.
Have you accepted His gift?
Why not do so right now!