Jesus knows who you are (John 1:43-50)

Scripture reading:
43 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 truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit."

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 will see greater things than that." 51 He then added, "Very truly I tell you, you will see 'heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."


Observations:
(1) God is not always who we expect.

I personally became a Christian and put my faith in Christ nine years ago.

However, I have often found that I have held ideas about god which I later found to be completely unsubstantiated by what the bible says.

Our natural tendency is to view god as how we think he should be – not how the bible says that he is. It can be difficult to cast aside pre-conceived notions about how we think the lord should be like and how we think he should act.

But god will not be confined to who we think that he should be. He acts the way he is.

We can see a good example here. Both Phillip and Nathanael had a were well-versed in the Old Testament – a fact that we can see from Philip’s reference to the law of Moses. Both were familiar with the concept of the messiah. Both had their own ideas about what the messiah should be like.

Nathanael’s idea was completely misplaced.We are not told what Nathanael expected. Perhaps, he expected the messiah to come in some form of grandeur and splendor. Maybe, he would descend from the clouds. At the very least, the messiah would come from a more dignified region or town.

Clearly, he did not expect the messiah to come from a modest region.

In Nathanael’s case, his pre-conceived notion of the messiah was blown apart by a physical encounter with Jesus. But I think we can learn an important lesson. Too often, we approach god with pre-conceived notions. This could lead to disappointment when god does not do what we think that he ought to.

God will not simply do what we think he should do. He rules over us, not the other way around.


(2) God knows your name.

Have you ever felt small and insignificant? Ever felt that that huge guy in heaven is too big to care about us or any of our daily lives?

Good news – god does not view us that way. God cares enough to know everything there is to know about us.

In the previous passage (John 1:42), when Peter was bought before Jesus, Jesus looked straight at him and said “You are Simon, son of John. You will be called Cephras (which, when translated, is Peter).”

Jesus knew Peter by name. Not only that, he knew about Peter’s family background. Peter was not some unimportant part of the masses of unknown. He meant enough to Jesus that Jesus already knew him by name.

Moreover, consider verse 47, when Jesus saw Nathanael approaching. Jesus already knew everything about his character, and confidently stated that there was nothing false about him.

That much, Jesus could not have known from simply being told by others. In order to be able to make that much of a statement about someone, you have to know their character inside out.

God is not distant. He does not consider us as unimportant. He knows each of us by name, family background and character. He knows everything that there is to know about us


(3) Jesus put his reputation on the line.

If someone came up and told you that you were going to see “heavens open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man,” what would you think? Would you think those claims might be a little extravagant?

By promising this, Jesus was putting himself on the line. If he had delivered something less, his credibility would have been shot to pieces and he would have been exposed as a fake. He could not, after making such elaborate promises, afford to come up short.


Prayer:
Dear heavenly father,

Lord I thank you that you are not distant. You do not sit up in heaven and take no interest in our lives. You are not some distant creator who doesn’t really know us.

You know us by name. You know what is happening in each of our lives.

Lord, so many times, we see you as we think you should be, not as your great word says that you are. Lord, help open our hearts and minds to learning more about your character. Let us dwell upon your great character every day.

Lord, you made great promises about what you would do through your son, Jesus Christ. Thank you lord, that throughout his life, your son fulfilled what was promised and your glory was on full display for us to see.

In these things, I pray and thank you for.

Amen.