B Epiphany 2 - John 1:43-51 "Calling a practical person in a practical way"

John 1:43-51 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 is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.” 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 shall see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” 

I would like to speak about Nathanael, but before I do, we need to introduce the context of the events in which Jesus comes to Nathanael.

The season of Epiphany is all about Jesus of Nazareth being revealed as the Son of God.  And Jesus goes out at the start of his ministry and finds Phillip.  Notice how Jesus finds Phillip and the other disciples, so too Jesus finds us.  He finds us where we are at, he finds us where we are hidden.

Think of the Samuel story.  Samuel didn’t know about God.  He was living in the house of the Lord but still he didn’t know God.  And God came to him and called him.  The first time God came and called, ‘Samuel!’  Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, ‘here I am’. But Eli didn’t call him and sent him back to bed.  Three times this happened until Eli cottoned on to what was going on.  God was calling Samuel, so Eli told Samuel to listen to what God had to say, and when God came again Samuel listened to every word of the Lord.  From that time on Samuel became one of the greatest prophets of Israel; referred to as the seventh and greatest Judge of Israel, he ushered in the era of kingship requested by the Israelites.

So God comes to us and finds us, he calls us and says, ‘Follow me!’.  For most of us he does that in baptism and says, ‘Follow me!.  He puts the Spirit in us even when we don’t understand what is going on.  When we can’t do good works; when we can’t feel the right way, he comes to us and says, ‘Follow me!’

Now the word of God doesn’t come to us in a magical or supernatural way.  The word of God always comes to us in a practical way, a functional way.  The reason why we all come here to a church is that the word of God needs to come to us through means. 

Well then how does it come to us?  It comes to us first through Baptism; it comes to us through the preaching, through singing hymns to each other, we hear the Word of God come to us.

If it didn’t come to us in this practical way then we could all stay at home and wait for a big revelation to come to us.  But God comes to us very practically.  How does he come to us?  The text before us tells us, Philip found Nathanael and told him.  God came to Philip and then Philip call to Nathanael.  But was it Philip calling Nathanael or was it God calling Nathanael?  God always works through practical means; he works through people. 

Now Jesus is not her with us as he was in Galilee, he is here with us but he is hidden.  But he still needs to come to us in a practical way, he still needs to come and find us, and he does that through people.  He has done it for two thousand years, through the laying on of hands on first Peter and the Apostles and said, ‘Feed my sheep!’  And they laid their hands on the next generation, and the next generation, and so forth.  Their authority coming from the word of God to practically bring the word of God to the ears of people.  Jesus feeds the sheep through pastors, so that they might go and share the good news with others so they might come into the fold of salvation.  The word of God comes to us all in a practical way.

It comes to Nathanael. Philip says, ‘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… Come and see.’  The bible is like a big arrow.  The Old Testament points forward to something; the Epistles after the Gospels point back to something together with the book of Acts; which is the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles.  And where does the Holy Spirit always led us, to the gospel, to Jesus Christ.  If the Spirit doesn’t lead us to Jesus, it is not the Holy Spirit, he always leads us back to Jesus as does the Word of God always points us to Jesus Christ and his work of salvation for us, written down in the four books of the Gospel.

Everything in the Law, everything that had happened beforehand was pointing forward to this time, to this man being revealed as God.  But also notice in the text how he is being revealed to us as a human, this man from Nazareth, the son of Joseph.  Right here in the text Jesus is being revealed in time, location, and history as a human.  Jesus is a man. 

‘Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?’  [Location of sermon preached]! Can anything good come from there?  Nathanael is pretty straight up front; there are no flies on this bloke.  He says what he thinks. However, with Nathanael’s frank remarks, comes a message in the text which is not easily recognisable. Jesus compares Nathanael with a forefather from the Old Testament; it comes to us through a few clues.  Can you recognise to whom Jesus compares Nathanael?  When Jesus sees Nathanael approaching he says, ‘Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.’  And then later on Jesus says, ‘I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man’.  What does that remind you of in the Old Testament?  It reminds us of Jacob, sometimes referred to as Israel, the father of the twelve tribes.  So Jesus sees Nathanael coming as says, ‘here is a true Israelite, a true Jacob, in whom there is nothing false!’ The irony is that if you know anything about the Jacob of the Old Testament he was anything but truthful, he was a scoundrel and a very false man.  He was a heel grabber, clutching at the heel of his brother Esau right from birth. 

Here we have this man, as dinky-die as a true Aussie, hearing Philip, exclaims, ‘What could come from Nazareth?’  And Jesus calls him and says, ‘I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.’  Nathanael says, ‘How do you know me?’  How could Jesus have know all this? 

It is amazing that God could use someone to work through, calling Nathanael through Philip.  And God does that all the time, in a very practical way.  After Nathanael realises that Jesus has called him through Philip, and knows who he is, even his blunt honesty, he makes that great epiphany confession, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel’.  He is the king of Nathanael; the king of Jacob.  And after that Jesus says to him, ‘You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree’.  And we all believe only because God sees us and tells us who he is first, way before we could ever have the ability to seek him out.  God calls us and reveals himself to us so we can believe and make the same confession too.  Jesus, you are the Son of God, you are our saviour. 

Then Jesus says, ‘You shall see greater things than that.  I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man’.  Not on a ladder as Jacob dreamt but on the Son of Man!

God calls us to see that Jesus is the ladder through which God comes to us.  God descends to us in the person Jesus, who is not only the Son of Man, the son of Joseph, but is the Son of God.  Jacob saw the ladder of God going up into heaven with the angels ascending and descending, we can see God coming to us in much greater way, a practical way, coming to us through Christ; coming to us through means, his Word and the bread and wine.   God calls us to trust him that he, his Son, and the Holy Spirit could come to us in this practical way.  We can trust him because he has promised to come to us, and he does every day since we have been baptised.  We might break our promise to God all the time but he never breaks his promise to us; every day of our living lives the promise of God is offered to us a gift.  Amen.