sermon this week and holiday club!

Series: Conversations with Jesus
“How Wide are Your Horizons?”

Conversations, Sandy and Angus, identical flats 7 rolls of wallpaper, 2 and half left over, so did I!
This first conversation with Jesus takes place with Nathanael
- A man we know little about, Early tradition says he went on to minister in Armenia, Persia, India flayed and beheaded or tied up in a sack and cast into the sea But all we really know about him is what John tells us here in
John 1:43-51
- On the surface, lots of things turn on their head in this story
1) Nathanael’s skepticism turned to sudden affirmation of Jesus
2) Jesus’ strange response
- Which makes us feel He is speaking in code, seems to be
concealing something, That John chooses to not explain Which is typical John Who is unwilling to accommodate to those who want fast, painless, effortless passages Quick and easy blessings
There is a hidden-ness here that invites us to dig deeper That at the end might hopefully lead to a rush of insight like the kind that comes to you at the end of a really good movie; The Sixth Sense, A Beautiful Mind You’ve been confused about something since the first scene, but suddenly it all comes together
In this case, it won’t come together until we work through a couple of layers
1) One of them is THE CULTURAL LAYER
In order for parts of the story to make sense, one must grasp the setting
Israel during the time of Jesus was under an oppressive regime, a pagan empire called Rome
And people coped with one of three responses:
A) Some chose to withdraw, like the Essenes, who inhabited the Jordan valley towards Masada, separatists who formed communities, believing their proper response was to separate from the wicked world and hope their righteousness would encourage the advent of Messiah
B) Closer to Jerusalem, others chose to be compromisers, collaborators, get along with the powers, get what you can out of them, hope that all of this is okay with God
The Pharisees sort of rode the fence between these first two groups
C) Finally, there were the zealots, who sort of went by the philosophy of “say your prayers, sharpen your swords, fight a holy war, and God will give the victory, God over the monsters” (NT Wright).
It’s within this third setting Jesus came (verse 43) “Jesus came to galilee”
Galilee was the site of numerous fishing villages (Bethsaida, Cana)
But you would be wrong to assume these were sleepy, peaceful, cozy towns
They may have looked more like modern day Iraq, Gaza near Israel breeding grounds for insurgents Who wanted no outside interference, no occupation, no domination Especially by pagans but What they did want was a deliverer
And so, Galilee, in particular, produced pseudo-Messiahs who periodically led rebellions, only to be crushed in ruthless crackdowns by the Romans Luke 13 describes one of the encounters in which Pilate was nothing short of cruel and cold-blooded
So Jesus came preaching kingdom language that resonated “Blessed are the poor, they shall inherit the earth” “Blessed are the oppressed, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”
And men responded Like Andrew who invited Simon, like Philip who found Nathanael
Men who were inclined to follow anyone brave enough to go public, speak out, and offer hope
Men desperate for a Messiah, But Nathanael was not so inclined to sign on Nathanael was a skeptic, like lots of people today He had his reasons, as verse 46 makes clear, It was inconceivable the messiah would come from a tacky place like Nazareth. Nazareth was a no-name town of about 300; so obscure it was not mentioned in a list of 63 Galilean towns in the Talmud
Whose inhabitants were largely unrefined, and uneducated
Like saying… We’ve found Him, Jesus of Bonnyrigg, Jesus of Penicuik
We’ve found the One we have waited for, Jesus of Dalkeith
The messiah, from boring
Judeans hated Galileans but Galileans hated people from Nazareth
- Philip did not debate, rather he responded, as we must to those who are skeptical
- “Come and see. Look into my life.”
- “Look into my Church.”
- “Look into Jesus.”
- “Meet Him for yourself and tell me what you think.”
- So Nathanael did, and here’s what he discovered
- It’s what we find when we come and see…
1) THIS IS THE ONE WHO KNOWS WHO WE ARE
- Jesus spoke to Nathanael as if He had met him, knew his heart, his choices
- And of course, He did (verse 47)” here comes one with no deceit in him, a true son of Israel” The opposite of Jacob, heHe knew what Nathanael was like, what his heart’s desire was. For Jesus knows everyone, and as the words suggest here, Jesus knows us inside out
- More than this, He knew Nathanael’s ways His going and sitting, just as He knows our movements (verse 48) “under the fig tree” the fig tree was the place of meditation, was Nathanael reading the account of Jacob? Was it his daily reading? If so this passage makes sense to us, Jacob means “he deceives, Nathanael is referred to as true, Jesus is showing him how well he knew him already!
- Jesus Knows our day to day lives as well with all it’s business Knows our needs, knows our tears, hears us even before we call Here is Someone who never discovers, is never surprised, never amazed, never needs to be informed
- There was something in His manner, His ways, His words that unnerved, convinced Nathanael
- That there is more than clairvoyance at work that this Jesus could see into his heart Such that in the span of a moment he moved from skeptic to follower
- But as the conversation continued, Nathanael came and saw, and discovered something even scarier (verse 51) “he will see heaven open………..”
- At first, I am not ready for the words I am expecting Jesus to say something like
this:
- “Nathanael, I like your immediate response, but whoa, whoa. I haven’t even explained the gospel. God loves you and has a plan for your life, but sin has separated you from God. God has provided a Saviour; His name is Jesus, that’s me Nathanael.” “Would you like to receive me into your heart?”
But Jesus in effect declares, “Nathanael, there’s something else you have to see, something God intends for all who come and see. But it will require working through another layer.
- The second layer - THE OT LAYER these words will make no sense until
we go back to the OT, Where Jesus was pushing Nathanael
And maybe it went something like this for him…
- “Wait a minute… I recognize these words. These were the same words Jacob heard. He too was linked to Israel; only he was a man with guile who cheated his brother out of his blessing. Not to mention his dealings with his uncle Laban, who one night fell asleep only to have a rather weird dream of angels ascending and descending on a ladder, standing on earth, leaning against heaven.”
- This was God breaking into Jacob’s small world Informing him life is a lot more than daddy’s blessing, Heaven is breaking into your world Jacob
- The reality of My presence and power is entering into your world
- “I will go with you” (Gen 28:15) “My angels will enter this world and surround you and guard you.”
- No, this was more. This was God breaking Nathanael’s world. I think Jesus knew that Nathanael was thinking and reading about Jacob, and this is why Nathanael is so convinced that not only Jesus is a rabbi, king of Israel but the son of God
2) JESUS IS THE ONE WHO BRINGS THE REALITY OF GOD’S PRESENCE AND POWER INTO OUR LIVES
A) God is once again revealing Himself, Jesus is saying to Nathanael
- I am that revelation Nathanael
- I am the one, God has done this, I am the culmination of God’s plan
- The Son of Man predicted in the OT is here
B) I am the promised Messiah, but not the One you are probably looking to sign up For I am bringing a kingdom far different than you have in mind
- A kingdom of justice and mercy a revolution far more radical than you imagined
- A revolution that goes neither with violence nor bloodshed, hatred nor revenge a revolution that is driven by a love that is stronger than death
A messiah who is not only for the nation of Israel but the whole world as well, and Jesus is the one who brings God’s presence for us today, his presence and his power, when Jesus speaks to Nathanael he is speaking of how the presence of God met with Jacob, how the presence of God is meeting with Nathanael, but also how his presence can meet with us today
V 51 is the key to this conversation, Jesus seems to be saying that you will see more than an act of insight into your life, before I even met you, what you will see from now on is the reality of Jacob’s ladder, if you follow me, you will see what it is like when heaven and earth are open to each other, you will have your life changed in amazing ways, Jesus is still saying that to us today.
The promise that God’s presence and God’s power is beside us is as true today as it was for Nathanael, when we let go of our skepticism, our hang ups and let God in, he will complete us in the most amazing ways that we can never expect. Nathanael had an open honest heart, that is all Jesus asks of you, to believe the truth not what you have always thought, or what you feel but the thing is we have to be open to Jesus, he always stands at the door and knocks, he awaits invitation and when he comes in he will make our lives so much sweeter than we have ever have thought, and when the power, the peace, the purpose, the presence of Jesus gets into us, not only are our lives changed, but the lives of others are changed too. Let him in, let him reveal his truth for you in your life, let God work in you, and know wherever you are he is with you, going ahead of you, and even when we fail, fall down make a mess of things, he is there to speak words of hope to you, to give you purpose and joy in this world and great expectation for the world to come..