CHAPTER THREE


John 1:40 One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
 41 He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated, the Christ).
 42 And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, "You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas" (which is translated, A Stone).
 43 The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, "Follow Me."
 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
 46 And Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."
 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!"
 48 Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."
 49 Nathanael answered and said to Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"
 50 Jesus answered and said to him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these."
 51 And He said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."

 (NKJV)


The pattern once begun, repeats.  One finds Christ and the joy of the event leads to telling another and another.  And then that other one tells another.

Story I heard listening to Pastor Gayle Erwin (I recommend his website and couldn't think of a better book than his "The Jesus Style."  Fair warning: bring your funny bone because you'll end up laughing a lot reading his website while his book will help you know our Savior in a deeper way.):  According to Pastor Gayle,  the Communist Chinese once tried to cope with the suddenly growing church in their country.  It spat in the face of institutionalized atheism merely by existing.  Killing them made martyrs.  The government responded in a different way.  They gave Christians the lowest job in the socialist pecking order.  They made them deliver the mail.  As a result, the church REALLY began to develop because Christians went to every door and witnessed while they did their jobs.

God opens the way to meet Christ every chance we give Him. Notice that these men were already actively searching, even as New Age believers are actively seeking, but their friends and brothers, when they found the Truth, when they saw the external proof of the Messiah and heard from someone they trusted, then they also realized the Truth.  The touch of the Holy Spirit moved them all. No massive gathering, no rock music about God being alive, no movie or play.  The door was opened because they were spiritually ready to hear.

Yet so many of us spend time ignoring or even slamming the door.  We seem to fear witnessing, maybe because it's become social anathema thanks to cults knocking on doors and creating negative impressions of Christianity because they passed themselves off as Christians.  Maybe we just fear the unsaved reactions, from threats to blows to mocking.  I know those have fed into my failures to witness.

And it's why so many of us need to learn from Andrew and Philip.  Just go and gently push the door open to any who will listen. We simply need to act.   We are told it will happen and then told to do it::

 Mt 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

Matthew 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
 20 "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen 
(NKJV)

But notice, too, that they then MEET JESUS.  Do we let them meet Jesus in US?  Are we filled with the Spirit when we meet them or do we let the trials of our day breach the love that indwelt us when we accepted him?  Do we have faith in him as we talk to them or are we "doing our duty"?

Am I asking questions and not answering?  Well, yes.  But the questions answer themselves in the results.  If we are moving in him we will "bear much fruit" either in friends and strangers converted.
when we move in our own power,the conversion never seems to occur, like me talking to my SF reading friend,  People are brought into our lives so we can love them.  Love them first.  the rest follows.  And, as all of us well know, loving people is sooooo hard.  WE just so often forget that we are people, too, and equally difficult to love.  Let him remind you who you are as you remember what he wants you to do.  Witness to the ones he put in your life, with your life, then in words.

Then notice what follows genuinely meeting Jesus.  He reveals miracles.  He tells you that he saw you under that fig tree and you are in awe.  And you either cling to him or...run away .

The Nathanaels of the world go with Christ and embrace the miracle as a part of his love.  The Pharisees see the miracles and fear Christ, see him as a threat to what they believe, correctly or incorrectly.  Miracles can confirm or scare.

 But always confirm the miracle.  Make certain it doesn't come from a charlatan, They act as the cults, closing public minds to Christ by claiming falsehood as truth and, like Simon the Mage in Acts, taking money for it.   The real miracle doesn't need a football stadium, a dance show, people falling in the aisle, and especially TV cameras,  Jesus picked the personal, the common incident. Simply sitting beneath a tree, contemplating God, maybe.  The fact of living is miracle and Jesus' touch makes even the simplest breath miraculous because he lets you SEE the miracle you missed all along.

Never worship the miracle as the Jews still worshiped the serpent image Jesus will mention later, but when you grasp a real one, believe on the one who created it and know others will follow, not because the  miraculous  confirms it, as it does, not because there will be other wonders, the protection of your family by his power, the conversion of your children because you exposed them to his teachings while they were young, a new job when a bad economy and age are designed to crush all hope, the resuscitation of a failing marriage when the door has been closed behind you, views of the universe from a telescope in space, the bud of trees in a new spring after a winter locked in feet of snow, but because they affirm externally what you feel internally,that this is real, that Christ is real and the only reality.

And you just have to tell someone.

Two other items:  1) Often commentaries note the Peter was the first to call Jesus Messiah.  But here we find it is Nathanael,  The studious one always seeking him recognized him.  Knew him by his miracle.

2) Nate's comment on Nazareth concerns the fact that nowhere in Messianic prophecy is the city mentioned.  It provides an opportunity to puncture a few gnostic comments on Jesus being a Nazarene.  One current cult called Nazarene Israel attempts to reintroduce Judaism into Christianity.
I watched this philosophy, a return to the Biblical Old Testament practices and feasts, destroy a church that started out believing in Christianity.  Our pastor slowly tried to introduce the belief system to his elders all of whom abandon him and then tried to convert to Saturday worship,  This pretty much emptied out the old church members and drew a congregation from another Judaic church.  The original cult of the Nazarenes rejected the virgin birth and clung to Judaic practices.

Some gnostics hold that the Nazarene cult existed before Christ and he was a member of it and learned their practices of personal revelation.  John's constant references to things contradictory to such statements clearly were meant to dispel such teaching then and even centuries later.


The third Failure of Myth: It doesn't allow for he person of Christ existing as he actually existed.  According to them, Christ cannot be personally known and salvation cannot come from him.