PT-1 "Looking at Nathanael" (Matt. 19:3a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/18/2021 9:21 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                Focus:  Intro to “Nathanael”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 10:3a

 

            Message of the verse:  “Philip and Bartholomew;” (who is called Nathanael).

 

            In today’s SD we begin to look at a man who had two names, Bartholomew and Nathanael, and as far as when we look at this in these SD’s that speak of him we will call him Nathanael.

 

            John MacArthur explains the meaning of his name using Bartholomew “Bartholomew means ‘son [Aramaic, bar] of Tolmai.’  He was much different than Philip, his close friend and companion with whom he is always paired in the New Testament.  The first three gospels refer to him only as Bartholomew, but John always as Nathanael, which may have been his first name.  The short account of John 1:45-51 is the only place this apostle is mentioned in the New Testament outside the four listings of the Twelve.” 

 

            Nathanael came from Cana of Galilee and according to John’s gospel was brought to Jesus by Philip right after Philip discovered that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah.  We read of this in John 1:45 “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.’”

 

            Like Philip who knew much of the Old Testament Scriptures, especially about the coming Messiah, we can say that Nathanael, his good friend also knew similar things too.  The Scripture also indicates that these two men were partners in Scripture study, having examined the Old Testament together for many years as they were certainly looking of the coming Messiah.  I have to believe that a part of their studies had to be in the book of Daniel as I have already mentioned in an earlier SD that the 9^th chapter of Daniel actually gives the time period when the Messiah would be rejected by the nation of Israel and then killed. 

 

            We can see from verse 46 “Nathanael said to him, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip *said to him, "Come and see.’” Nathanael was prejudice in an unwarranted generalization based on feelings of superiority and this can be a powerful obstacle to the truth.  I want to quote from Herbert Lockyer as MacArthur mentions him in this section of his commentary on Matthew.  Lockyer points out that in his allegory The Holy War, John Bunyan depicts Christ (called Emmanuel) invading and holding the life of a person (represented as the town Mansoul).  During the course of the siege on Mansoul, Emmanuel’s forces attack Eargate.  But Diabolus (Satan) sets up a formidable guard called “Old Mr. Prejudice, an angry and ill-conditioned fellow who has under his power sixty deaf men” (All the Apostles of the Bible [Grand Rapids:  Zondervan, 1972], 60).”

 

            Now when it came to Nathanael’s prejudice it was tempered by his genuine desire to know God’s truth.  He agreed to Philips suggest when he told him to “come and see.”

 

            John MacArthur writes “From the mouth of Jesus we learn still other characteristics of Nathanael.  As Nathanael approached, Jesus said, ‘Behold and Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!’ (v. 47v).  Alethos (‘indeed’) was a word of strong affirmation by which Jesus declared Nathanael to be the kind of man God intended His chosen people to be.  He was a Jew in the truest spiritual sense, ‘a Jew who is one inwardly,…[whose] praise is not from men, but from God’ (Rom. 2:29).  He was not merely a physical descendant of Abraham but, more important, a Jew in the true covenant with God, a spiritual descendant, a child of promise (Rom. 9:6-8).”

 

            I think that what we can see from this statement that Jesus said about Nathanael that it was a compliment for sure.  We will continue looking at this section from John’s gospel which has things in it about Nathanael in our next SD.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I would hope that it is the desire of every believer to have the Lord Jesus say good things about you, especially whenever the Judgment Seat of Christ will happen as that is when believers will receive crowns so that we will be able to lay them at the feet of Jesus because He is the One who paid it all for our salvation and deserves all the praise for that.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I trust that the Lord will cause me to do the things that He prepared for me in eternity past so that once I get to heaven and in the Judgment Seat of Christ that I will receive a crown so that I can lay it at the feet of Jesus, my Savior and my Lord.

 

8/18/2021 10:04 AM