SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/30/2015
9:01 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 The Seeking Savior
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: John 1:43-51
Message of
the verses: “43 The next day He purposed to go into
Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, "Follow Me." 44
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of 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
Nathanael said to him, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?"
Philip said to him, "Come and see." 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to
Him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there 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 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 that I saw you under the fig tree, do you
believe? You will see greater things than these." 51 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.’”
We mentioned the initial skepticism that Nathanael
had when he heard that the Messiah came from Nazareth, but Philip simply says
to him, “Come and see.” Now if someone
whom you are talking to about the Lord Jesus Christ has questions as to who He
really is my advice would be what I learned from a sermon that I listened to by
John MacArthur where he stated to have that person read the book of John, and I
may add that it would also be advisable to have that person do two things
before they read the gospel of John.
First ask God to show them the truth that is found in John’s gospel
about Jesus and second begin with the key verse which we have been repeating
throughout our study in this first chapter of John: “but these have been written so that you may
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may
have life in His name (John 20:31).”
Next we look at what Jesus says to Nathanael: “Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said
of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” MacArthur writes “From the human perspective,
Nathanael came to Jesus through the witness of Philip. But, as his interview with Jesus reveals, he
did so only because Jesus had first sought him.
Gerald L. Borchert perceptively notes, ‘Jesus ‘finds’…Philip
(1:43). Philip in turn ‘finds’ Nathanael
and reports to Nathanael, ‘We have found’ him (1:45)…But it is intriguing to
ask the very simple question concerning these stories: Who really finds whom?
Christians have frequently been known to say that they found Christ or
found faith as Andrew and Philip reported, but maybe Jesus’ perspective in
these stories could profitably alter such a self-centered view of
salvation. It was not Jesus who was
lost!’”
MacArthur writes “Jesus described Nathanael as ‘an
Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!’
His point was that Nathanael’s blunt, honest reply to Philip revealed
his lack of duplicity and eagerness to examine Jesus’ claims for himself. Jesus may have been alluding to Jacob (and by
implication the nation descended from him) who, in contrast to Nathanael, was a
deceiver (Gen. 27:35; 31:20). But unlike
many of his fellow Jews, who were hypocrites (Matt. 6:2, 5, 16; 15:7; 22:18;
23:13ff.; Luke 12:1, 56; 13:15), Nathanael was ‘an Israelite’ indeed. Alethos
(indeed) means ‘genuinely,’ ‘in truth’ or ‘actually.’ Paul pointed out how mere external conformity
to the rites, rituals, and observances of Judaism did not make one ‘an
Israelite indeed:’ ‘28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is
circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. 29 But he is a Jew who is one
inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by
the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God… For they are not all
Israel who are descended from Israel; 7 nor are they all children because they
are Abraham’s descendants, but: "THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE
NAMED’ (Rom. 2:28-29; 9:6b-7). It is
those who continue in Jesus’ word who are His true (alethos) followers (8:31).
Nathanael was a true disciple from the beginning, as his response makes
clear.”
Nathanael’s response to Jesus was “How do You know
me?” to which He replied “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig
tree, I saw you.” John Gill whose
commentary on every verse in the Bible is on my Online Bible program and in one
of his sermons John MacArthur mentions what I am going to quote that comes from
John Gill, and I find it very interesting, although as to the truth of it we
really don’t know: “It is said of
Nathanael, in the Syriac dictionary {x }; that his mother laid him under a fig
tree, when the infants were slain, i.e. at Bethlehem; which, if it could be
depended upon, must be to Nathanael a surprising and undeniable proof of the
deity of Christ, and of his being the true Messiah; since, at that time, he was
an infant of days himself, and was the person Herod was seeking to destroy, as
the Messiah, and king of the Jews.”
John Gill also writes the following note on this
section: “before that Philip called
thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee; in which words Christ
gives two instances of his omniscience; the one is, that he knew Philip had
called him; he was privy to all that passed between them, though they were
alone, and the conversation was had in the most private manner. Christ knew
what an account Philip had given of him, and what objection Nathanael had made;
and what an invitation Philip had given him to go along with him to Christ, and
judge for himself; which is here meant by calling him, and with which he
complied: and the other is, that he saw him under the fig tree before that: he was
sitting under it, as men in those countries used to do; see #Mic 4:4, where he
might be reading the Scriptures, and meditating upon them; and if, as some
observe, he was reading, and thinking upon Jacob’s dream, concerning the ladder
which reached from earth to heaven, and on which he saw the angels of God
ascending and descending, the words of Christ in #Joh 1:51 must strike him with
fresh surprise, and give him another convincing proof of his omniscience: or he
might be praying here in secret, and so acted a different part from the
generality, of religious men of that nation, who chose to pray in synagogues,
and corners of the streets, that they might be seen; and likewise proved him to
be what Christ had said of him, a true and rare Israelite, without guile and
hypocrisy, which were so visible and prevailing among others. It was usual with
the doctors to read, and study in the law, under fig trees, and sometimes,
though rarely, to pray there. It is said {t }, “R. Jacob, and his companions,
were "sitting," studying in the law, תאינה חדא תחות, "under a
certain fig tree".””
Now Gill speaks of perhaps what Scripture that
Nathanael might have been reading, and although this fits in to what Jesus
tells him, to me, there is great speculation on his part to think that
Nathanael may have been reading under the fig tree from God’s word, but what
Jesus tells him does in fact go along with Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28:12.
I want at this point to go back and talk about Jesus’
reply, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you
believe?” MacArthur states that this “should
probably be understood not as a question, but as a statement of fact. Thus, Nathanael is the first person in John’s
gospel reported to have believed in Jesus (though the disciples called earlier
had as well). The Lord’s display of
supernatural knowledge in seeing Nathanael ‘under the fig tree’ was enough to
make him a believer, but Jesus promised that he would ‘see greater things than’
that. The first of the thirty-seven
miracles of Jesus recorded in the gospels would soon take place in Nathanael’s
own hometown of Cana (2:1-11). In
addition, Nathanael would witness countless other miracles beyond those
recorded in Scripture (cf. 21:25).”
Now one more comment on what Jesus says about “the
angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” In the dream that
Jacob had he saw a ladder and that ladder is the Lord Jesus Christ as He is the
link between heaven and earth, the revealer of heavenly truth to men. Jesus is the “one mediator…between God and
men as seen in 1 Timothy 2:5), and He is the mediator of a better and new
covenant spoken of by the author of Hebrews.
We see the title of which Jesus likes the best “Son
of Man” and John uses this thirteen times in his gospel but a total of around
80 times it is used in the gospels. The
title comes from the book of Daniel and is a Messianic title first given by
Daniel: “13 "I kept looking in the
night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He
came up to the Ancient of
Days And was presented before Him. 14 “And to Him was given dominion,
Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language
Might serve Him. His
dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will
not be destroyed (Daniel 7:13-14).”
MacArthur writes “In the future, the ‘Son of Man’ will receive the kingdom
from the Ancient of Days.”
MacArthur concludes this section which ends the
first chapter of John, a chapter which we began on the 24th of
November of this year. “This passage,
which records Jesus’ call of His first disciples to salvation, pictures the
balance of salvation taught throughout Scripture. Salvation takes place when seeking souls,
come in faith to the Savior who has already sought them.”
I want to say that before we get into the second
chapter of John it is my desire to do a review of what we have been learning in
this first chapter by quoting from a sermon which I listened to yesterday from
John MacArthur in which he preaches on the second chapter of John verses 1-11,
but before he does this in a way that he usually does he has to review what he
has been speaking of earlier. As I
listened to it I felt that this would be a fitting way to not only end the
first chapter of John, but also end 2015’s Spiritual Diaries. I have posted a total of 913 Spiritual
Diaries onto the two blogs that I write to and there has been many of them read
around the world to which I give glory to the Lord as I am both thankful and privileged
to be writing these Spiritual Diaries as a ministry that the Lord has given to
me. Again to God be the glory.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I am thankful for the Lord putting into my
heart almost 42 years ago a desire to seek Him as He was seeking me and found
me, for I was the one who was lost, not Jesus.
My Steps of Faith
for Today: Trust that the Lord will continue to give me the desire to write my
Spiritual Diaries and that He will continue to use them to bring glory to His
name.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “Caesarea” (Acts 10:1).
Today’s Bible question: “Who preached a sermon on The Day of
Pentecost?”
Answer in our next SD.
12/30/2015 10:25 AM
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