Nathanael
Encountering Jesus (in the Gospel of John) • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction: Encounters with Jesus
Introduction: Encounters with Jesus
The Gospel of John
Has long portions of Jesus’s teachings… some of them can be harder to understand
But there are also very moving accounts of Jesus’s interactions with people
Very personal and intimate encounters
These are so important because Jesus shows us who God is
Same chapter (John 1)
So we are going to be spending the next 8 weeks looking at 8 different encounters Jesus has with people
My Goals through this series:
That we would learn more about Jesus—by the way he interacts with others
That we would encounter Jesus ourselves
Today we are starting with Jesus’s encounter with Nathanael in John 1
We will see Jesus encountering a skeptic
Oxford Dictionary: a person inclined to question or doubt accepted opinions.
How does God engage with those who question and doubt?
A better question: How does God encounter US when we question and doubt?
My Three Points:
We are all Skeptics
The Cure to Doubting
What Healthy Skepticism Looks Like
We will go quickly through these so we have time to discuss in small groups
We are All Skeptics
We are All Skeptics
John 1:43–47 (CSB)
The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. He found Philip and told him, “Follow me.”
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law (and so did the prophets): Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked him.
“Come and see,” Philip answered.
Then Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
I don’t know about you but I have had some serious doubts and questions about God in my life
I can share my college testimony with you if you’d like sometime
And I can almost be certain that all of you will encounter a time where skepticism arises
We see here the story of a man named Nathanael
And like Jesus says—He is a trustworthy Israelite
He most likely read Torah, attended the temple, gave sacrifices
But he has one big hang up on who Jesus is
How could the Messiah be from Nazareth?
Galilee (the Northern Region) was looked down upon by the rest of Israel
And not only was he from Galilee but the nowhere town of Nazareth
Besides, wasn’t the Messiah supposed to be born in Bethlehem?
And the funny thing was that Nathanael was from Galilee too!
From Bethsaida, a different city (about 37 miles away)
You see Nathanael had God in a box
This is how He should behave
These are the sort of things He does
These are the kind of people He uses
And when God works differently to what He was expecting—doubts arise
It’s challenging his assumptions about God
Is this really what God is like?
In his case: Could the Messiah come from Nazareth?
And guys, we are more alike Nathanael than we might initially think
Each and every one of us tries to put God in a box
We try to make a God in our image
How God would act if I were God
And when he often doesn’t—it leads us as skeptical—it leaves us with doubts and questions
Here are a couple of assumptions about God and the doubts that can arise:
God wants me to be happy—and happy means free from suffering
We are promised trials and hardships but also a joy and hope that endures beyond the grave
If I read my Bible and Pray every day—things will go good for my life
It’s not about outward acts but encountering the living God
If I pray for something long enough/hard enough God will give it to me
Sometimes God’s answers to prayers is: no or not yet
And so much more
But I want to say this: doubting and having questions about God isn’t sinful (its a natural human experience—its the process of us trying to understand God deeper)
—The Problem is when we are filled unbelief and we refuse to press in deeper
Jesus is invited to come and see
Just like Philip invited Nathanael
You have a doubt—a question—okay, well lets bring it to Jesus
The Cure to Doubting: Come and See
The Cure to Doubting: Come and See
John 1:46–49 (CSB)
“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Nathanael asked him.
“Come and see,” Philip answered.
Then Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
“Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you,” Jesus answered.
“Rabbi,” Nathanael replied, “You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel!”
The cure to doubting isn’t intellectual answers
Because the reality is—most people’s doubts are highly emotional and deeply personal
The cure to doubting is a fresh encounter with Jesus
Its the same thing we see in the book of Job
After questioning and doubting for the entire book—God comes down and approaches Job
After this encounter with God—Job didn’t get the intellectual answers to be content with
He had an encounter with the living God
Job 42:5–6 (CSB)
I had heard reports about you,
but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore, I reject my words and am sorry for them;
I am dust and ashes.
But we see that Nathanael went
The invitation was to come and see
He didn’t let unbelief stop him
He could’ve said… “yeah… no. The messiah couldn’t have come from Nazareth…”
But he kept his doubts and decided to go to Jesus to see for himself
And this story of Nathanael has stumped many Bible Scholars and commentators
What convinces Nathanael is Jesus’s knowledge of him sitting under the fig tree
What happened under the fig tree?
Jesus doesn’t explain
John doesn’t elaborate
But evidently it was exactly what Nathanael needed to hear
He had a deeply personal encounter with Jesus
He came to see Jesus, but Jesus already was watching him
And guys, when we bring out doubts to Jesus
It doesn’t surprise him
You see with this encounter with Jesus (and every encounter with Jesus)
Jesus initiates, Jesus pursues
He knows where we have been and what we have walked through
He might not give us the answers we are looking for
But He will encounter us and give us what we need
And it’s this awareness of God and his presence that is the cure to all doubts
But lastly, I want to talk about:
What Healthy Skepticism Looks Like: You will See Greater Things
What Healthy Skepticism Looks Like: You will See Greater Things
John 1:49–51 (CSB)
“Rabbi,” Nathanael replied, “You are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel!”
Jesus responded to him, “Do you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” Then he said, “Truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
I love this paraphrase by Tim Keller
“Oh, first you were too skeptical, and now you’re ready to adopt me; but I haven’t even begun to talk to you about who I really am. Yesterday you were rolling your eyes, and today you’ve had an emotional experience. You’ve found a man who has supernatural knowledge of you. But slow down; don’t be so impressed by appearances. You really still don’t understand who I am.”
In short, Nathanael had doubts
He was told to come and see
He went and he saw Jesus for himself
And he is astonished
And Jesus tells him that if you think this is great, you will see greater things
If you continue to come to Jesus you will continue to see greater and greater things
But Jesus says something that might seem strange
John 1:51 (CSB)
Then he said, “Truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
But this is profound…
Jesus is echoing back to Genesis 28:12; a familiar story
Jacob’s Ladder—Steals Blessing—On the Run
Genesis 28:12 (CSB)
And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching the sky, and God’s angels were going up and down on it.
Genesis 28:16–17 (CSB)
When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” He was afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.”
Jesus is saying:
I’m much more than your concept of what you think the Messiah is
I am Jacob’s ladder
I am the place that Heaven meets Earth
I am God himself
And you don’t see this now, but you will in time
Guys, our lives as Christians will be filled with questions and doubts
And like I started with—its often because we have put God in a box
And when our assumptions are challenged it feels like everything doesn’t make sense
But as we learn to open our minds and hearts to the greatness of who God is…
Like Nathanael, we will see greater and greater things
A healthy and honest skepticism actually causes our faith to grow
We are always curious
We remain humble, aware that we don’t have God all figured out
And it is often the start to an encounter with Jesus
We can tend to think that we have to work through our doubts and questions on our own
And once we do so, that God will be willing to encounter us
But what if those hard questions and doubts are the very places that God wants to meet us?
What would it look like for us to come and see?
Discussion Questions:
Discussion Questions:
Do you ever find yourself trying to "put God in a box" (expecting God to act a certain way)?
What are some ways this has led to doubt or frustration in your relationship with God?
What is the difference between doubting and unbelief?
How do you think God responds to each?
How can we be like Philip to those around us who are skeptical about Jesus?
What does it look like to invite others to “come and see” Jesus, even if they have doubts or questions?
