It is always a privilege, a great privilege, that we have to be able to open up the Word of God together. And in a moment, we're going to continue our examination of some of the apostles, we're going to look at Bartholomew, whose name was also called Nathaniel. And so we're going to launch out of Mark chapter three, verses 13, and following. But actually before we get there, I wanted to share just a few thoughts out of Hebrews 13 in verse seven. And this I think, will help frame our minds as we endeavor to look yet again at one of the other men that the Lord chose to be his representatives. In Hebrews 13 Seven, we're exhorted to do something that is most fascinating, something we seldom consider. Yet something that is very, very important in helping us run the race that God has set before us. And in that text, we read, "Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith." Three, present tense verbs, three actions that must be done in the present, but also must continue, we need to remember to consider, and we need to imitate all three being a part of the biblical concept of remembering. And this would have been a profound, a profoundly important concept for the early Jewish believers, who were tempted to fall back into Judaism because of all of the persecution that they were experience, to fall back into the old covenant, back into legalism. And how easy it is for all of us to fall back into the old ways of the world that were once so appealing to our flesh. So he's asking them, and he's asking us, to remember the unnamed ordinary people who lead you and who spoke the word of God to you. And one of the most amazing miracles of God's providence is how he, over the course of our lives will use ordinary people that the world will never know that the world will never applaud, to speak the Word of God to us, and through that bring us to a place of genuine saving faith. Those who have spoken the Word of God to you in the past, and then also those who lived a life of faith so that we could see the fruit of their conduct. We can examine it. And in the context of Hebrews 13, these are primarily those who had died in the faith, who finished well, some of them had been imprisoned, others had been martyred for their faith; leaders who established the church, who led the church, lay people within the church, moms, dads, grandparents, and so forth, who spoke the truths of divine revelation that they had received from Christ Himself and from the apostles. And through that, the Spirit of God saved them and oh dear friends, the power of godly examples. So often more is caught than taught. And he says, "Consider the result of their character, “or their "conduct." This is so precious to me. I mean, think about this, not only are we to remember those who brought us to a place of saving faith in Christ, by their proclamation of the Word to us, but also we are to carefully consider the outcome of their life, the result of their conduct, to literally meditate upon the effect of their manner of life, the lasting fruit of their faith. Consider how they ran their race without fading without wavering and how they finished well. Once again, we see the tremendous power of enduring faith and the profound influence it has on the next generation.

Think about this, the Old Testament, men and women, the apostles in the New Testament, the church fathers. Think of Martin Luther and John Calvin and John Owen and George Whitfield and John Bunyan, Richard Baxter. Think of John Knox and Charles Spurgeon. Think of Jonathan Edwards and David Brainerd and David Livingstone, William Carey, Jim Elliot, Martyn Lloyd Jones. Think of your parents if you had godly parents as I did, and godly grandparents, godly Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, pastors and so forth, men and women whose message and whose life pointed you to Jesus. And they finished well. You know, a lot of believers start out well, but they finish poorly. By the way, I might add, if you know nothing of church history, you live in a state of spiritual kindergarten at best. I attribute much of the superficiality and the doctrinal ignorance that we see in evangelicalism today to a shameful and even willful ignorance of not only sound doctrine, but also of church history, of familiarity with church history. So we're told here in this text to remember to consider an imitate their faith, I think of Paul in First Corinthians four, you will remember he described how he had worked to the point of just utter exhaustion, and how he had been slandered, how he had become the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, he said, even until now. And you just hurt with him as you hear his testimony. And then he talks about how he had become a, a spiritual father to the Corinthians. And then he said this in First Corinthians 4:16, "I exhort you, therefore, be imitators of me." Can you say that? To others? First Corinthians 11:1, "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." Can you say this moms and dads, Sunday school teachers, church leaders, whoever you are, grandparents? Can the next generation emulate your deep love for Christ? Can they look at your life and say, "My, I want to be like that person who had such an insatiable appetite for the Word of God. I want to be like that person who loved Christ supremely who had such a profound burden for the lost who loved other people who gave their life sacrificially in every way imaginable to bring glory to God." Can you say that? Can your children emulate your deep burden for the lost? Your personal pursuit of holiness? Your priority of prayer and perseverance come what may? Can they emulate the joy that they see in you even in the midst of sorrow? Can they look at you and see your faith in the midst of great adversity? Can they see your hope that is unwavering even in seasons of tragedy? Can they see that? Can they copy that? Can they imitate that? Can they see your love in the midst of oppressions? Is this what others are seeing in you? Dads if I can address you specifically, your children are watching and they need you desperately. What is your example to your children? I believe that your example is even more important than the mother's example. Are you the spiritual leader of your family or are you merely a follower? What kind of example are you leaving for your children? You know people ask what is wrong with this country? Well, obviously, Satan is at work, he's alive and he's wreaking havoc; havoc upon the country, but my the reason is because we have too few men who fear God. Men who know how to lead and speak the word of God, men whose message and whose life is gospel centered, men whose faith is exemplary, and worthy of imitation. Remember those who lead you he says, who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith.

Well, that's what we're doing as we remember the lives of the apostles that the Lord chose. Let me remind you of the context here. We're in Mark chapter three, beginning in verse 13, we read that Jesus, "went up on the mountain and summoned those who He Himself wanted, and they came to him. And He appointed 12, so that they would be with Him, and that He could send them out to preach and to have authority to cast out the demons. And He appointed the twelve: Simon, (to whom he gave the name Peter), and James, the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James (to them He gave the name Boanerges, which means "Sons of Thunder"); and Andrew and Philip and Bartholomew," that we will look at today, "and Matthew and Thomas and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot; and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him. Twelve very common, unremarkable ordinary men. They all had their besetting sins as we all do. They were impetuous, they were hard hearted at times. They were proud, they were cowardly. At times, they were unreliable. Some were hot headed spiritually immature, prejudiced, prone to depression, many times just downright stupid. I always love those examples because I can feel much more at home there. Yet, in each case, save Judas Iscariot, Jesus patiently and lovingly shaped them, these unlikely men, into the great pillars of the church. As we read in First Corinthians one "God has chosen the foolish things of the world, to shame the wise and the weak things of the world to shame, things which are strong." So we can find encouragement here, as we look at God's marvelous work in the lives of these men.

So today, we get to know Bartholomew. That was his Hebrew surname, meaning son of Ptolemy. He was also called Nathaniel, in the Gospel of John, Nathaniel means "God has given." And since the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, by the way, synoptic means a similar synopses of the same issues. Since Matthew, Mark and Luke, as well as the book of Acts only list him in the list of 12, we can only learn about Bartholomew in two passages in the Gospel of John, we see this in John one and John 21, where he is called Nathaniel. Now, while this information is sketchy, it's enough to draw a reasonably clear picture of his character. First of all, in the list of the apostles found in John 21 and verse two, we see that he was from Cana in Galilee, this would have been a town very close to where Jesus was from in Nazareth. Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle, as you will recall, where he turned water into wine. But then in John one, and if you'd like to turn there, that's where we're going to look for a few minutes beginning in verse 43. In John one, we discover some helpful insights about this beloved apostle. I've categorized these insights into three simple statements. We see first of all, that he sought after God, secondly, he was prone to prejudice, and finally, he was without deceit. So let's look at this closely. John one beginning in verse 43. "The next day Jesus purpose to go into Galilee and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, 'Follow me.' Now Philip was from Bethsaida of the city of Andrew and Peter, and Philip found Nathaniel 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.' Nathaniel said to him, 'Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?' Philip said to him, 'Come and see.' Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to Him and said of him, 'Behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit!' Nathaniel 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.' Nathaniel answered him, 'Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.' And He said to him, 'Truly, truly I say to you, you will see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.'"

So here we discover from the text that Nathaniel was a man that sought after God. Now remember, first of all, Philip the kind of obsessive hyper organized person that he was, He follows Jesus. And then in verse 45, he goes in, he finds Nathaniel, they were, obviously best of friends, and their names are always listed together. In the Gospels, and early church legends depict them as being buddies being companions. And Nathaniel was probably in here, I'm speculating a bit, but he was probably the counterpart to Philip, probably more easygoing, kind and patient, you have to be that way in order to be friends with a person that goes by the book on everything, you know, because perfectionist tend to drive themselves and everyone else crazy. And Philip was bent in that direction. So Nathaniel probably brought a little bit of balance and perspectives to his buddy's life. But notice, in verse 45, it goes on to say, Philip speaking, We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law, and also the Prophets wrote." "We" here would have been a reference to others that Nathaniel would have also known, other fellow Jews, men, godly men looking for their Messiah would have included, certainly, Andrew and Peter, James and John who found him when, as we read in what John the Baptist said in verse 36, "Behold the Lamb of God." So he says, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law, and also the Prophets wrote." By the way, can you imagine saying that to someone today? Imagine going to Vanderbilt University, and getting a large group of the people, the students together and saying to them, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law, and also the Prophets wrote," people think you're crazy. What are you talking about? But obviously, this tells us that Nathaniel was a man that was seeking the Messiah, he was looking for the Savior. He was not guided by human wisdom or the philosophies of the world, he was guided by the revealed word of God. And such the things of God are foolishness to unbelievers. We have every reason to believe that he was searching for divine truth and I believe this would indicate that Nathaniel was a man that had been justified by faith. He would have been like Abraham, whose faith was reckoned to him as righteousness. Remember, in Romans four nine, "reckoned..." "logizomai" a term that that denotes an economic and a legal indication of something being credited to someone else, to another person's account. And like Abraham, his faith would have been imperfect but Nathaniel, I believe, was a recipient of divine grace, he was justified by his faith in God's saving mercy. And remember, faith in itself has no power to save. Faith is never the basis or the reason of salvation. It is a gift from God that provides the channel of redeeming grace to be bestowed. And so God has infused Nathaniel with his own righteousness, because Nathaniel knew that his own righteousness could never save him. Remember what Paul said in Romans four beginning of verse four, "Now to the one who works, his wage not reckoned as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is," here it is again, "reckoned as righteousness." Now remember the Jews living under the old covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, we're waiting for, as Hebrews 11:40 says, quote "something better." They were waiting for something better, which was the New Covenant of God's grace that was promised. For example, in Jeremiah 31. They were looking for the great Menahem, which means the great consoler, the rest giver, the Comforter, the Messiah to come, the one pictured in the symbols of all of the sacrificial system. So the righteousness of Christ was imputed to them, even before the Lamb was slain. Prior to the cross a believer's sin was paid in anticipation of Christ's atoning work even though they didn't fully understand all of that. You might say they were saved on credit. Well, obviously Nathaniel longed to see his Savior. He longed to see his Messiah and King; he was looking for him through Scripture. He was a seeker Psalm 69:32 recognizes that salvation comes only from the Lord but David acknowledges that, quote, "the hearts of those who seek God shall live." He understood Psalm 40, verse 16, "Let all who seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee. Let those who love Thy salvation say continually, the Lord be magnified. Since I'm afflicted and needy, Let the LORD be mindful of me. Thou art my help and my deliverer. Do not delay Oh, my God." Indeed, as the writer of Hebrews reminds us pertaining to the reward of saving grace that Enoch sought in Hebrews 11, verse, "He who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."

Dave Harrell

Now, why didn't Nathaniel seek him? What was going on in his heart? What was that spirit wrought grace that caused him to seek after God? What was he thinking about? Let me digress for a moment. You know, one of Satan's greatest lies is to get people to believe that they are not lost in their sins, and therefore they don't really need a savior. Right? The raging fires of apostasy in contemporary evangelical evangelicalism are fueled by these kinds of false teachers that would have you believe that Jesus is much more of a blesser than a banker, than a Savior and Lord, and others, like the incredibly popular and dangerous seeker sensitive movement that is still quite prevalent today. They preach a watered down gospel to attract crowds, utterly oblivious to God's sovereign work in salvation. They wrongly assume that, that the gospel of Jesus Christ needs to be repackaged, so that somehow it can be more relevant and more attractive to sinners. But they failed to realize that these so called seekers are not seeking salvation. They're seeking vindication, something very, very different. They're not seeking salvation from sin. They're not saying "what must I do to be saved? I understand that God is holy, and I am not. And I understand that I must be reconciled to Him by faith. What must I do?" That's not what they're seeking? What they're seeking is, I want to feel good about myself, I want to feel good about my life. I want to go to a church that is sensitive to my felt needs. Don't offend me by exposing my so called sin and telling me that I'm going to hell unless I repent. I don't want to hear that stuff. And so as a result, what you have in these churches is entertainment rather than exposition. The gospel is watered down to be more palatable, and through the use of clever gimmicks, once you see the felt needs of the people are constantly addressed, methodology takes precedence over theology. The entire worship service centers around that. The idea is we've got to become like the world in order to win it. A better strategy for evangelism is being more worldly than just preaching the truth of the gospel. And so worship services are centered around man and his needs rather than God and his glory. We saw this for example, in The Purpose Driven Life. Remember that book that came out? It sold way over a million copies. It was kind of like a shooting star, you know, everybody saw it there for a little while. And now it's disappeared because there was no substance to it. I remember when I first read it I, you've heard me say this before, I thought to myself, my goodness, this is one of the most dangerous deceptions that I have ever read. It is a counterfeit of counterfeits. It is wide gate, broad way theology, many are going to be deceived by this. It's filled with bad theology, verses taken out of context, unbiblical promises offered to people who are never distinguished between believers and non believers. No discussion of the very heart of the gospel. You read nothing in there about the holiness of God, the holiness of his law, how we have violated his law, the wages of sin, you read nothing about the need to be reconciled to God, nothing about our fallen flesh. Nothing about the power of regeneration, the cost of discipleship, the sovereignty of God, living for His glory. The reader is merely asked to quote "Whisper the prayer that will change your eternity" and here it is, "Jesus I believe in you and I receive you." Okay, well what's wrong with that? Well this issue is believe in what? And receive what? He goes on to say quote, "If you sincerely meant that prayer, congratulations, welcome to the family of God." Frightening. This is easy believeism at its worst, and this is how you fill churches with tares more than wheat. The emphasis is on the love of God, a good self image, a successful marriage, spiritual success, unity, personal fulfillment, and so forth. Remember, the author Rick Warren's gives the advice and his advice centers around quote, "Refocusing your thoughts and joining a support group." The patterns of sin and our life are, are redefined and reduced to quote, "A repeating cycle of good intention, failure guilt, in which people need to be healed because they are sick." Warren admits that three of the four intended results of this book The Purpose Driven Life are and here they are, "To reduce your stress, simplify your decisions, and increase your satisfaction." Folks, that's not why I came to Christ. I came to Christ because I was a sinner in desperate need of saving grace. And likewise with Nathaniel, he was not a seeker of God to somehow reduce his stress, simplify his decisions and increase satisfaction and therefore find purpose in life. He sought after the Lord because he knew he was lost in his sins. He sought after the Lord because he was hopeless and desperate in his condition. He sought the Lord because he knew he was lost. He knew he had violated God's holy law that he deserved death. And he knew that he could not save himself. He was desperate for a Savior. So he sought after God for undeserved mercy for pardon. You know Philip did not come to Nathaniel and say we have found him who will give us a good self image, happy family, spiritual success, unity and personal fulfillment, etcetera. He didn't say that.

Now, some will say and rightfully so, well, Romans 3:11-12 says "There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside together they have become useless; There is no one who does good, there is not even one." Certainly that is true. Man is utterly unwilling and incapable of seeking after God unless the Father draws him, John 6:44 and many other passages, the human will, possesses no inherent inclination to holiness. Man is utterly depraved. His eyes are blind, his ears are deaf. He is a spiritual cadaver in every sense, you can't throw him a lifeline as he's sinking in the ocean of his sin and he's got to somehow reach up and grab it. Because he's dead. He's just floating there. God's got to do something. God has to initiate that by the Holy Spirit who sovereignly determined in eternity past to save sinners. I might add theologically that regeneration is monotheistic, it's not synergistic. Salvation is all of grace. We don't share in the glory of our salvation. The new birth regeneration must both precede and elicit saving faith in Christ and this is what had happened to Nathaniel. The Spirit of God had breathed life into the rotting corpse of his sin by the power of in grace of the Spirit of God. He had been miraculously born again. Regeneration is that instantaneous, supernatural impartation of spiritual life to the spiritually dead. And simultaneous with his new birth, he saw the sort of divine justice looming over his unholy head. And in desperation, he cried out to God, to have mercy upon him as a sinner. And God saved him and he was delivered from the kingdom of darkness in the wrath to come. He was redeemed by the blood of the lamb that had been symbolized and all that Judaism had done in their sacrificial system, and their feasts and in their convocations, and all of the rituals. And now, his buddy Philip comes to him, and says, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote," then he says, "Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Now that would have really shocked him, "Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." I mean, this is like the most unlikely candidate here. Jesus, there are more Aramaic form of Yeshua, Joshua, the Old Testament, meaning Yahweh is Salvation. Now this was a name that undoubtedly struck a nerve with Nathaniel, because he knew the Old Testament promises. He had previously responded to the Savior's invitation to repent given through the Prophet Zephaniah, you remember in Zephaniah two, beginning of verse two, we read this "Before the Lord's fierce anger comes upon you, before the day of the Lord's anger comes upon you seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth." Boy, try saying that to a massive crowd of seekers, right? That's not what they want to hear. I'm not signing up for that deal. Well, Nathaniel was looking for his Messiah, he was a seeker of God, because God in His grace had moved upon his heart and transformed him and justified him. And he's now eager to know who his Messiah is.

But secondly, he was prone to prejudice, verse 46. And now Nathaniel said to him, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? You know, we've all got our biases, right? I mean, let's face it, we all have them; prejudices that are typically fueled by pride, a sense of superiority, we all we all struggle with that a certain way. And I find it rather interesting, Nathaniel comes out of Cana, which wasn't even as prestigious as Nazareth. But he looks down on Nazareth, you know, if you will, it's like somebody from Adams making fun of people from Joelton. You know, it's come on, remember now most all of the Jews scoffed at people that lived in the Galilee. They thought that was the place where the uneducated rednecks lived. And they were not the political and religious elite of Jerusalem and throughout the New Testament, the apostles as well as Jesus, were constantly ridiculed because they were from Galilee. Remember, the Pharisees tease Nicodemus in John 7:52? Saying, "are you also from Galilee? Search and look for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee?" Certainly we have to all guard ourselves against prejudice, whether it's race or culture, education, I mean, there can be all kinds of things. By the way, there's absolutely no place for racial prejudice in the church. You know, there's only one race folks, don't forget that is one race is called the human race. Act 17:26. He made from one man, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth. Genetics is going to make us look a little bit different in various ways. But well, that's another topic. However, we are told to discriminate against false doctrine to discriminate against false teachers, grievous sin that can demean others in the church; we're to look upon that and discriminate with that. But the poisonous waters of prejudice are always drawn from the well of ignorance and pride. But notice how Philip responded to his friends, knee jerk bias, verse 46, he says, "Come and see." You know, don't laugh here why don't you come see, why don't you come meet him? Don't judge a book by its cover, read it. So he hates his friends advice and he sets aside his prejudice and he thinks, Okay, I'll honestly evaluate the validity of this claim that you have found the Messiah and he is "Jesus, the son of Joseph, from Nazareth."

This moves us to the third point that we see about him, he was without deceit. In other words, he was without duplicity, without hypocrisy. Verse 47, "Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to Him." And let me stop there for a moment. You know that's an incredible thought. He saw him coming to him. Even though he was a great distance away there speaks of something more than Oh, that looks like Nathaniel coming here. Beloved, a sovereign God had decreed in eternity past that Nathaniel would come to him. So he had seen this all along. He loved him with an everlasting love with all of his fault. Just like he's loved us, and continues to love us, the very Messiah that sought him by his irresistible grace, the force of his saving grace, was now looking at his adopted son, coming towards him. He was seeing him through incarnate eyes, the lover of his soul sees his searching child walking towards him. I'm always amazed at the intimate love, and the intimate involvement of our Savior in our lives, to know that he sees everything, and even as Jesus gazed upon Nathaniel coming towards him. He has seen all of us before time began, and all throughout our lives, isn't that amazing thought? He sees us when we come to Him. And He also sees us when we walk away. Psalm 139, beginning in verse one, "Oh Lord, Thou has searched me and known me, Thou does know when I sit down and when I rise up, Thou dost understand my thought from afar, Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways." An amazing thought, I'm reminded of Hagar's response to God's promised to her regarding her unborn son Ishmael. Genesis 16:13, she says, "Thou art a God who sees." Friends realize that a myriad of eyes watch us every moment of our life. Spiritually that are both holy, as well as unholy, are dispatched to observe our character and conduct. Their eyes are riveted upon us. They see what we do what we do in our family, how our church conducts itself. It hears these messages, on and on it goes. And the Holy Angels not only rejoice in every sinner that repents, but those angels, by God's decree, remain forever vigilant to minister to protect, to provide. Indeed, untold hosts of invisible creatures attend to our needs all the time in ways that we can't ever imagine. I often think that when I get to heaven, there's going to be some frustrated guardian angels that say, "Man, you gave us a run for our money." They hear our conversations, our prayers, our songs. They observe our deeds both good and bad. Beloved, we don't walk upon this world undetected. Others are watching. We are seen by devils and angels alike. But let me tell you this. All of that pales into utter insignificance in comparison to the omniscient gaze of our holy God that sees into the very core, the very inner resources of our imagination. He sees it all.

Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him, a gaze that began an eternity past. What an astounding testimony into the Savior's sight into the souls of His chosen one. So Nathaniel eventually locks eyes with his creator, something that I long to do one day, as you do, to see him face to face. Notice what Jesus says, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." My what a remarkable tribute. And I might add what an anomaly in the Jewish culture that was filled with self righteous, religiosity, external religion, hypocrisy. So he was a genuine worshipper of Yahweh. He was not one of the self righteous hypocrites, he was not a religious phony. He didn't merely have the trappings of spirituality, as we say, or at least as I say, he wasn't like those that are all sizzle, but no steak. This was the real deal and the omniscient Christ peers into his soul and sees that integrity. Still a sinner? Oh, yes, but a man who longed for Christ for the Messiah, to worship God in spirit and in truth. Can people say that of you? Can the Lord Jesus say that of you? Because he sees what we can't see, and often what you can't see.

Nathaniel's character is illustrated well by Paul's commentary on Jewish hypocrisy in Romans two, beginning in verse 28, we read this, "He is not a Jew who was one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not by the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God." So stunned at Jesus statement, and no doubt, skeptical, Nathaniel says, verse 48, "'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 know, folks here, Jesus displays once again, His deity. He displays His omniscience, and thus validates yet again, his Messiahship. Now, it's really important that you see this, Jesus could have said, well, you know, I saw you in your house earlier today. Or he could have said, I saw you in the marketplace, or I saw you walking alongside the road, or I saw you in some private place of no significance. But he said to him, I saw you under the fig tree. And Nathaniel's response indicates the profound significance of Jesus choice of observations. I believe it was under the cool shade of a fig tree where Nathaniel routinely met with God, as was the custom of many of the Jewish men in that day. It was under the fig tree where he searched the scriptures, where he was able to discern all of the things that were necessary for him to be a true seeker of God and be justified by faith alone. A place where Nathaniel communed with God and prayer this was his secret chamber, if you will, where he did business with the lover of his soul, report out his confessions to the Lord, where he cried out for mercy, where the doxologies of his heart continued to flow from within, as he longed for that time when his Messiah would come, and take him unto himself. This was the place where he rejoiced in undeserved grace. And now suddenly, he realizes he standing in the presence of his glory.

Notice what he says, verse 49, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God, You are the king of Israel." By the way, both of those statements indicate his familiarity with the Old Testament Messianic prophecies which spoke of the coming messiah in these very terms. Remember, the primary emphasis of John's gospel is to exalt the deity of Christ, and we see this once again here, over and over again, he demonstrates the fact that Jesus was and is the son of God. And now once again, the inspired author indicates this glorious truth, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God, You are the king of Israel." Verse 50, "Jesus answered and said to him, 'Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe?'" By the way this is more of a promise than a question. It's as if he's saying "Nathaniel, this sample of my omniscience that has convinced you of who I really am is merely the beginning of what I'm going to show you in the days to come." Verse 50, he goes on to say, "You shall see greater things than these." Nathaniel, I'm gonna show you things beyond your wildest imagination. Miracles that demonstrate my power over sin, and Satan and disease and death and over nature itself. When all of these things are going to strengthen your faith. These things will strengthen your resolve to trust in me come what may. And he goes on to say in verse 51, "Truly, truly I say to you, you shall see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." Now here we have a reference to Genesis 28. You remember the story, Jacob was a lonely traveler leaving the land of Canaan, he was in need of divine comfort. He was in need of God, helping him understand that he was going to be with him. The son said he had a stone for a pillow, he has a dream. And he sees a stairway going up from heaven to earth, and angels were ascending and descending. And in that dream, God was trying to encourage Jacob. He was reminding Jacob that he would indeed be faithful to his covenantal promises, to the covenant that he had made with Abraham, the Abrahamic covenant, that indeed, he would give Jacob's descendants the land and the promised seed and the blessing that he had promised. That's the reference. And then, and his angelic servants were tirelessly involved in that glorious process. So knowing Nathaniel's theological and biblical understanding, he uses this Old Testament event in the life of Jacob to simply say, Nathaniel, even as I allow Jacob to see a vision of my supernatural involvement in the affairs of men, so to I am going to accomplish my sovereign will, in you. I am going to reveal myself to you. I want you to notice there is no ladder or stairway in this text, like there is in Genesis 21, only the ascending and descending angels have the Son of Man, why is that? Because, beloved, the bridge between heaven and earth now is the son of man alone. He alone is our access to God, He alone is our stairway to heaven. What a thrilling moment that must have been in the life of Nathaniel, a man who had by divine grace sought after God, still human, struggling with prejudice and who knows what else. You had a man of integrity, not a hypocrite.

Well, apart from this, we know nothing about this dear apostle and early church records indicate that he served the Lord in India and Persia, which is modern day Iran and spread the gospel, possibly as far as Armenia. And there's conflicting traditions about the way he died. Some say that he was tied up in a sack and drowned in the sea. Others say that he was crucified. But there's high probability that he was martyred for his faith in Christ. Like all of the apostles, except John. So there we get to know another brother in Christ that we will get to know much better someday. And I would challenge you to ponder these great truths. I would challenge you to celebrate the omniscience of God who can peer into your very soul and examine you. I would challenge you to celebrate the intimacy of God, the One who knows all about you and continues to love you, continues to conform you into the image of Christ. I would challenge you to celebrate God's grace even as we've seen it, displayed here with Nathaniel. And then I would also challenge you to remember, consider and imitate those who gave the Word of God to you, that you would be like them, that others could one day remember you and consider you and imitate you. Let's pray together. Father, thank You for the eternal truths of your word. Thank you for Nathaniel and for the others that you've set your love upon that you use in such a powerful way to be the foundations of the church. And Lord, we pray that even as you use them, you will use each of us men and women, boys and girls, who love you, who are committed to you, Oh, Father, may we be godly, in our heart. May we be Christ like in our actions, that many will see the magnificent truths of the gospel, and be saved, be radically transformed. And I pray that even this day, that there'll be one within the sound of my voice that knows nothing of what it really means to be in relationship with the living Christ through faith. I pray that today will break their heart to a place to a point where they will cry out for the mercy that you will so readily grant them that today will be the day they will experience the miracle of the new birth. We thank you We give you praise for all that you are and all that you do. In Jesus name. Amen.