seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
John 1:43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”
44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.
“Come and see,” said Philip.
47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”
48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.
Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
49 Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”
50 Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”
I thought about yesterday's verses all day long. I know we will be dealing with these people until the end of the letters. I want to get them and their stations right.OK... we know Jesus, from Nazareth, the Messiah and King of the Jews.
We met His cousin John the Baptist. John was an odd sort who's only goal in life was to Baptize Jesus of Nazareth so that God could send a dove to light on Jesus and identify Him as the Savior. John was teaching repentance and the Pharisees were already trying to catch him doing anything they could use to run him out of the river. The Pharisees thought John the Baptist might be the Messiah.... that's why they were trying to catch him doing something.
We met John son of Zebedee. John is one of the Zebedee boys. John was a Disciple of John the Baptist. John the Baptist told John the Disciple [and author] about Jesus. John and another fellow [Andrew, his partner's brother] about Jesus and they just took off following Him.
We also met Andrew. Andrew was the other Disciple of John the Baptist. It turns out that Andrew was Simon Peter's brother. He was there when John [the author] met Jesus.
Andrew went out and found his brother, Simon Peter, [Jesus called Him Peter or Cephas], and introduced him to Jesus. It turns out Peter was John's [the author] business partner. They owned a fishing boat together.
Today we read that Jesus called Phillip. Phillip was from the same hometown as the others.
Phillip told Nathanael about Jesus. Apparently, Nathanael is a sort of nickname for Bartholomew. He was known as Bartholomew son of Tolnai. Phillip was one of those who had a doubt about Jesus. He was one of those thinking the Messiah would be a warrior, a head of state, a big wig. He chuckled at the idea that the Messiah was from a horrid town like Nazareth. Phillip said, "just come see".
When Nathanael met Jesus in person, Jesus told Nathaniel about things he did when he was alone. Nathanael changed his tune. Jesus knew things no one should know about him. That was way more impressive than being from Nazareth. Nathanael was hooked.
To close the chapter, Jesus told Nathanael.... "You think that's something.... you ain't seen nothing yet!" [paraphrased]
We ain't seen nothing yet!
