Scott Brown's sermon 'I Found It!' explores the first encounters of Jesus' early disciples as described in John 1:35-51. The sermon emphasizes the phrase 'Come and see,' highlighting its significance in inviting individuals to experience Jesus personally. It describes the diverse paths to faith taken by John, Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathaniel, showcasing how Jesus meets people where they are—through preaching, family, or personal encounters. The sermon underscores the transformative experience of knowing Jesus, illustrated by the changing of Peter's name. It also draws parallels between these early disciples' experiences and modern evangelism, encouraging believers to invite others to 'come and see' Jesus. Through the narrative, Brown highlights the glory of Jesus, the uniqueness of each conversion experience, and the powerful impact of sharing faith with friends and family.

Good morning. The sermon text this morning is John chapter 1 verses 35 through 51. Again, the next day John stood with two of his disciples and looking at Jesus, he walked. And looking at Jesus as he walked, he said, Behold the Lamb of God. The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, what do you seek? They said to him, Rabbi, which is to say, when translated, teacher, where are you staying? He said to them, come and see. They came and saw where he was staying and remained with him that day. Now it was about the tenth hour.

One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which is translated the Christ. 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.

The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee. And he found Philip and said to him, Follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 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. And Nathaniel said to him, Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

Philip said to him, Come and see. Jesus said to Nathaniel, coming toward him. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said of him, Behold an Israelite indeed in whom 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 and said to 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 I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these. 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." Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for this section of scripture. We pray that when the word is preached it will find good soil, Lord, and produce 30, 60, 100-fold return. Lord, we pray that your presence would be powerfully felt here this morning through your Holy Spirit, that the fruit of the Spirit would be abundant among us as we can only do that through you, Lord. We thank you for allowing this church to gather today here in Wake Forest. We ask your blessing upon this service.

We ask that you be with Scott Brown as he preaches to us this morning from this word. In the name of Jesus, amen. Amen. This wonderful story that we read about in John 1.35 through 51, It could be carried under a number of titles. It could it could be carried under the title.

Follow me or come and see. That might be one of my favorite possible titles. And it could be carried under the title. I found it. But what you have here are the first five people who came to Jesus in his public ministry.

And, they show us what it means to believe, what happens to you when you believe, and how it happens. And what happens to somebody when they hear the words, come and see, and then they go and they see, and they see Jesus Christ? It's such a beautiful story. And so It's interesting that these are the first conversions in the ministry of Jesus. And I wonder who the first converted are in this room.

Who is converted first in this room? But these are the first five that were converted in the ministry of Jesus Christ. And there you have John himself, you have Andrew, you have Peter, and you have Philip, and you have Nathaniel. And one of the themes that you see throughout this story is that when you follow him and you see him, you actually experience Him. That you want other people to know about the joy that you received because of what He has done in your life.

And you find that what you never dreamed you could have you have and you say you say I found it you know you say I love it you say I enjoy it and the Greek word that's used here is Eureka I found it and so you you just see here in this passage what it means to find him. Now we know that when you find him, he's actually found you. And that the Bible says that it's God who draws every person to Jesus Christ. And so that's what we find here. You might say, I found it, but the truth is, He found you, and you realize that you got found.

It's a wonderful thing. Now I want us to just calibrate in terms of the context of the Gospel of John so that we see the basic order and structure and message of John. In the first 18 verses is the prologue, and it really sets up everything else that we'll read about in the Gospel of John. In the prologue, in verses 1 through 18, there's this description of who Jesus is. And then from verse 19 on, you see a picture of what He does, and you can't really understand His glory and what he's doing unless you see who he is.

Once you know who he is, you know he can do anything, and he does remarkable things, you know, carrying on here. And so we're in this section beginning in verse 19 in chapter 1 that goes a long way all the way to chapter 12 verse 50 where you see the signs of Jesus' glory. Remember this whole thing is about the glory of Jesus. You know, of his fullness we have received grace upon grace. We've received his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

So everything that we're reading now in this second section has to be seeing the the glory of Jesus Christ as he interacts with people and you'll see later how he interacts with nature and how he interacts with everything but we're in this section now and so these are illustrations of the glory of Jesus working in a person's heart and these are the first five people that you see the glory of Jesus touching. And so, this situation too, I just want to make very clear. I believe this is the moment of these five men's conversion. But there's another moment that happens later, And it's the moment where Jesus is walking by the Sea of Galilee. And these were fishermen.

And Jesus, later on, he's walking by the Sea of Galilee, and he sees these men mending their nets. And he says, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Now that's their that's their discipleship that's their following Jesus. This is their conversion I believe. So this scene happens earlier than the scene where they were mending their nets and Jesus says, now follow me, and then they immediately left their nets and followed him.

So just to sort of calibrate this. Now as you can see there There's an outline in front of you, and I have three main sections. And the first is that John the Baptist testifies of the Lamb of God for a second time. And then secondly, John the Apostle, Peter and Andrew follow Jesus. Now when you're reading the Gospel of John it's it's important that you understand that when the word John appears you need to find out what John is it.

Is it John the Baptist or is it John the Apostle who wrote this gospel? So understanding that distinction is critical. The third section is the account of where Philip and Nathaniel follow Jesus. And then I'm going to spend some time, maybe an extended time, just trying to see how this works in our own lives, how we should process it and how it should affect us and how we should live it out. So let's begin in this first section in verse 35 where John the Baptist testifies of the Lamb of God.

And also, by the way, if you remember in this context, John is giving us several days in the life of Jesus. And so in verse 35 we read, and the next day. This is the day after John the Baptist says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now John the Baptist is standing with two of his disciples and looking at Jesus as he walked he said behold the lamb of God. So John the Baptist is standing with two of his disciples and one is unnamed And in the Gospels we learn that that unnamed man is John the Apostle, John the writer of the Gospel of John and 1st John and Revelation.

And John, John the apostle is with Andrew and John the Baptist and It's a remarkable scene because Jesus is there too and John the Baptist Continues to do what he always does and what we should always do all the days of our lives and that is to point to Jesus to say behold behold the Lamb of God John's just doing what he always does his whole life is caught up in pointing to Jesus and saying look look at Jesus look at Jesus It's the most life-giving thing you can ever do. Don't look at me, look at Jesus. And so John is doing that again, and then he repeats what he already said earlier. He said, behold the Lamb of God. And Again, John, he's repeating the most blessed thing that ears can hear, that the Lamb of God, Jesus, takes away the sin of the world.

He's the one who separates your sin as far as the east is from the west. He's the one that buries your sin in the bottom of the sea. He burns it. He stomps it. He throws it behind his back.

That's the Lamb of God. John's saying that again. John the Baptist is making that really clear again because some things are just worth repeating over and over and over and John is willing to do that you know pastors and parents do that sometimes too oh there he goes again he's usually saying the same thing he said 400, 000 times amen that's what that's what we're supposed to do. That's what shepherds do. And so John repeats this great principle of the life of Jesus in the soul of man, and that is he takes away the sin of man.

Well we could spend the whole rest of time just giving thanks for that but we'll move on to this next section where we see John the Apostle, Peter and Andrew and they follow Jesus. Look at verse 37, the two disciples heard him speak. Of course, that's John the Apostle and Andrew, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and seeing them following, you know, they were just following Him. You know, can you imagine that?

Jesus is walking on these two guys who just follow, you know, they're just kind of following him wherever he's going. It can be kind of unnerving, a little bit creepy, but nothing's creepy to Jesus. He knows everything and he knows what's happening and he says to them, what do you seek? He asked them, why are you following me? And these were fishermen and Jesus asked them this really pointed question.

And he wants to know what they're all about. He wants to know what they're seeking, what they're looking for. And we know that, you know, if you read the Gospels, you know that some people followed Jesus because they liked the food, like the feeding of the 5, 000. Some followed him for the healing that they would receive. And you know this is this has never changed.

You know you still find people in the church, they're really not looking for Jesus. They're looking for something else. They're looking for something more practical. They might be looking for business cards, that happens. You wouldn't want to go to a church like this for business cards.

You'd want to go to a big church where there are lots of people you could pass your business cards out to. But people go to churches for different reasons. Some go, you know, for respectability. You know, of course, some people stay away from the church for respectability. But they, what were they looking for?

You know, some people, they're looking for relationships. Some people come to church because they want something for their children. You know, some people come to church because they want to fix their marriage. Maybe their wife is on their back, you know, or some might want to come to church just because, you know, every once in a while you find a really thrilling communicator. You know, you can go hear him and he'll move your heart.

He might make you cry. He'll make you laugh. You know, there are all kinds of reasons that people, you know, want to show up. But here Jesus is asking them what they're looking for. You know, it really matters what you're looking for.

I mean, the cults, like if you get involved in a cult, you know, the cults can help you deal with your fears. You know, they can make you feel better. They can help you get your sleep routine back. And you know, they can help you kind of, you know, deal with your relationships. So you can find these things in a lot of different places, But what are you looking for?

You know, that's the big question that Jesus is asking these men. And John and Andrew knew what they were after. What were they after? They wanted to get to know Jesus. And so they asked Jesus a question, where are you staying in verse 38?

Where are you staying? And they said rabbi, which is to say teacher when translated, where you sting. Now just a quick comment here. You have this interesting phraseology, which is translated teacher, where you sting. There's seven times that John does this in the Gospel of John where he uses a word and then he translates it, and he's translating it for a non-Jewish audience.

And I think John is clearly writing this for everybody, not just Jews. So he says, which is translated teacher. Rabbi, it means teacher. He's just making sure everybody understands what that means to a non-Jewish audience. But these men are declaring that they want to learn from Jesus.

And you know, how do we know this? Well, they call him rabbi. He's a teacher. And they wanted to learn from Jesus. And then they said, where are you staying?

And, you know, why did they ask that? It's because they wanted to be with him. It's almost like saying, you know, hey, can we go talk? Like, could we go out and have a cup of coffee? Could we just sort of go and stay with you?

And can we discuss this at length? They wanted to hear the instruction of Jesus. That's what they wanted. And you know this is very important for life in a local church. You know, what do you want?

What are you looking for? I mean, like, what are you looking for here? Do you want the voice of Jesus or is it some other benefit that you're really looking for? Here's the deal. We want to proclaim Jesus in our church And one reason we want to proclaim Jesus and speak of him all the time and preach from the Word of God and make the Word of God central is that we don't want anybody in this church to think there's any hope anywhere else but that in fellowship with Jesus.

We really want everybody in this church focused on Jesus. There's so many things you can, you know, you can get focused on politics and all kinds of things you can get wrapped around in a church or how people are treating you or whatever, but here's what makes a beautiful church. When God has moved the hearts of the people to want to be with Jesus, That's the most important thing. So that's what they wanted. And so then Jesus replied, they said, can we go stay with you?

And he says, come and see. So they came and They saw where he was staying and they remained with him that day and now it was about the tenth hour. So Jesus invites them to stay with him and they spent the entire day with them. And you know the time flies maybe fast it seems like and all of a sudden it's at the end of the day and John makes it clear that it's at on the on the tenth hour It's about four o'clock in the afternoon. It's almost get ready to get dark And you know, they don't have as many lights as we do.

It's you know, the the day is ending And it's interesting that john records this detail You know john was an eyewitness John was there and in etch in his mind was that they spent all day with Jesus, all the way to the end of the day, all the way to the tenth hour. And so there's this historical detail and, you know, John is an eyewitness and that's why in 1st John chapter 1 John speaks of Jesus and he says what we've heard what we've seen with our eyes what we have looked upon and our hands of handle, concerning the word of life. I mean, you're like this too. Like, there's certain things that happen And it reminds you of something that you experienced and you remember the exact time it was. You might even remember what people were wearing, but there are certain things that happen and you're taken back.

That's what John the apostle is doing. He's taking us back to a historical moment that he personally observed. This is not mythology This is a historical record of a man who remembers real events that took place in a real place where Jesus was staying And it was at the end of the day like a real day And so this is this is history now there's another thing I think that we should recognize is that how does Jesus deal with people? Well, He invites them to be with them. And you know, Jesus doesn't crash in, you know, with a big entourage, you know, with bearing arms and all this pomp and glory in his earthly ministry.

He doesn't do that. He comes quietly and he mingles with people and he actually invites people to come and be with him and spend time with him. And he's gentle. He's approachable with his disciples. And, you know, I like how Martin Luther describes us, the way that Jesus drew his disciples.

He says, he drew them with a friendly spirit before he invited them to become his apostles. And so they stayed with Jesus for an entire day. And then Andrew, after this he finds his brother and he identifies the name of his brother. And his brother's actually a really famous person. Andrew's not famous at all.

Oh, Andrew got in first though, didn't he? He met Jesus first. But his brother turns out to be the famous one among the apostles. Well, his name is Peter. Everybody knows who Peter is.

We know a little bit about Andrew, but verse 40, we read this, One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which has translated the Christ, and he brought him to Jesus. So Andrew introduces his brother to Jesus. That's how Peter became a Christian. His brother brought him.

And interestingly enough, Even though Andrew is really unknown for the most part, every time we encounter Andrew in the Bible, he's always doing the same thing. He's always introducing. And here in John 1, he's introducing his brother Peter to Jesus. You know, when we get to the feeding of the 5, 000 here in the Gospel of John, they're hungry, and Andrew brings a boy with five loaves, and he introduces him to Jesus. You know, he brings the boy.

In this scene here, he brings his brother. And then later on in John 12, there were these Greek men that came to a Jewish feast to worship God and they came to Philip and they said and they said to Philip, sir we would see Jesus okay. Philip tells Andrew and Andrew and Philip go to Jesus and they introduce Jesus to these Greek men. What Andrew does is he introduces people to Jesus. That's the only thing we ever find.

That's pretty much all we know about him. He just introduces people to Jesus. He's a lot like John, isn't he? John the Baptist. He's always pointing to Christ.

So now you have these brothers. Now, by the way, all the people here are very different I'm gonna get to that later, but These two brothers are are really different as well. You know Simon Peter. He's kind of hot-headed and impulsive Andrew is kind of have a calculating mind. He's always trying to put people together.

You know, Nathaniel seems to be kind of a meditative, retiring person. He has no guile. He's a really honest man. So they're different. Now Peter, as he enters the story, we realize that he comes from a very corrupt city.

He comes from Bethsaida. You remember what Jesus said about Bethsaida? He said, woe to you, charazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida. Why'd he say that?

Because they were so hard. They didn't respond to the message of the gospel. They were just a hardened people. That's where Peter came from. He came from a city that was just hardened.

But God takes this man from this messed up city and he changes him and He actually changes his name which is really what he does with all of us who come to him he changes your name And that's why we read here that Jesus looked at him and he said, You are Simon the son of Jonah, you shall be called Cephas, which is translated a stone. John's doing the same thing, he's translating this for the gentiles. But I think the new name that is given, Peter, is really just a sign of his salvation. He goes from a vacillating, of his salvation. You know, he goes from a vacillating, hot-headed, man-fearing, stumbling, rough fisherman, and God can take a man like that, and over time, he can make him like a rock.

He changes your name, and he changes you through and through. And then in heaven, he finally completely changes you. And there are a lot of people in the Bible where God changes their name, and it's figurative of this, too. You know, the changing of Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, changing of Jacob's name. This is really a picture of salvation, that Jesus takes people with a bad name and he cleanses them and he changes their name.

The thing that they, you know, the name is what you represent. Like when you pray in Jesus' name, you're praying according to what Jesus represents, but the name represents the person. And Jesus changes the name because He's changing who you represent. So that's exactly what happened with Peter, is that his name was changed. Then you read these words, come and see, come and see.

Now those are beautiful words, aren't they? The most important thing that they need is to come and see Jesus. And to take a long look at Jesus, to look into his face, be transformed into his image, to come and see Jesus is the most important thing that any person can ever experience in the world. You know, this phrase come and see, it's prominent here and it's prominent in the Gospel of John, but you know it's used in the sense of coming to see Jesus. You know, like the woman at the well uses this and she says after Jesus tells the whole story of her life, she goes into the town and she says, come and see the man who told me everything I ever did.

Come and see. So this phrase come and see is really important and you know interestingly enough something happened yesterday. We had some people down at the abortion clinic trying to talk to people about Jesus. And so somebody sent a note to the elders asking if we would just write up some prayers to help people pray while the people are there. You know, what should we pray for?

And so I wrote up a number of things just quickly, but it occurred to me That what we really want, what we really desire more than anything else, when we go to that abortion clinic, we want people to come and see Jesus. That's what we want. We want them to come and talk to us. When they're headed to that door, to have that, we want them to turn around and come and talk to us, and we want to talk to them about Jesus. That's what we want to do.

We want them to come and see Jesus. That's really the most critical thing that we want when we go. I was so thankful for that question that was asked because it just helped me realize what what are we doing? Well we're doing the same thing that's characterized in these these words come and see. Okay so that now we've just come to the end of the section of the encounter with Peter and Andrew and John the apostle.

Now we come to the second encounter with these with men and then now we now it's a different day. Do you see verse 43? The following day. Again this is history. You can't make this up.

The next day something else happened. And here in these verses, now Jesus takes the initiative with Nathaniel, And then Nathaniel takes initiative with somebody else. So the following day, Jesus wanted to go to Galilee. And he found Philip and said to him, follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, we've found him. I love that phrase. We found him. I found it. Eureka!

That's what he's saying. The Greek word actually is the word from which we get our word eureka. And we have found him, of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. So Jesus finds Philip, who in turn finds Nathaniel. So you have a different kind of case, right?

Now you have Jesus finds a man, and that man goes and finds his friend. You know, previously, Andrew went and found his brother, but now a family member. That's really important because the gospel spreads as we share it with family members, but then now there's this whole different category of finding your friend. But interestingly enough, with Nathaniel, he was found by Jesus. It doesn't seem like anybody brought him.

Jesus found him and was preaching to him. So you have all these different ways. You have people being found by the preaching of Jesus. You have Jesus being found by sharing with a relative, and now you have it with a friend. So there are all these different ways that are profiled right here in this passage.

And Jesus calls Philip and he says, follow me. Jesus initiates this. Jesus goes to Philip and he says, follow me. There are no other human beings involved, at least in the narrative. I believe this is an account of a conversion experience, what it means to become a Christian.

You listen to him and you believe and then you follow him. That's what a disciple is, is a person who follows somebody. And Philip seems to have thoughtfully weighed following Jesus. He recognizes that Jesus is the one whom Moses and the prophets wrote. This was a thoughtful following.

He had understood the prophecies in the law and in the prophets. And so he wasn't just knee-jerk reactioning. He understood the Old Testament and he saw the connections with Jesus and he heard Jesus speak to him and so this was a this was a thoughtful turning because he was well taught. And of course in the Old Testament we know that Israel was waiting for the Messiah and he had particular characteristics. They were waiting for somebody that fit those characteristics.

And so Philip says Eureka. He says Eureka. We have found the Messiah. You have this word eureka in two places in verse 41 and verse 45. We have found the Messiah, and then Philip says to Nathanael, we have found him of whom Moses.

Now when somebody finds something that causes them joy, you know, In a lot of places they say, Eureka! That's what they say. That's what these men said. These first five disciples were delighted to find him. They met him and then they pointed to him and they said, come and see.

And that's how the unconverted are saved. They see the glory of Jesus Christ and they're drawn to him and they say, you're a rica, I found it. Now, I grew up in California, and I was really aware growing up there and going to California public schools of California history. And one iconic moment in the history of California happened in 1849 at the time in the California gold rush and you had these what they called the 49ers you know 1849 and they were rushing into California and there was a city you know right in the center of gold country and they named that city Eureka, Eureka California. And it means, of course, I found it.

And, you know, Eureka is the official motto of the state of California. And I just want to say, I think that Eureka is the state, is the motto of the Church of Jesus Christ. I found it. I found Him. And He's wonderful.

Now, so you have Nathaniel. He's also called Bartholomew in the Gospels. Now, Nathaniel never becomes an apostle. He's just a regular disciple. And you can just see the warmth with which Jesus treats him, and he speaks this marvelous prophecy that he'll see angels ascending and descending, and his eyes will see the glory of Jesus.

But then Nathaniel says, can anything good come out of Nazareth? You know, maybe that's why he didn't become an apostle. Well, no, that's not true. What was he thinking? I don't think Nathaniel was any different than the way we are.

Like for an example, if you're from this part of the country and somebody comes down here and says, I'm from New Jersey. You know, a lot of people are out here think, oh yuck, New Jersey. I would hate to live in New Jersey or even talk like the people from New Jersey. I know. I mean that happens, right?

I mean I sympathize with this because you know, I'm from California. So I move out here with my family in 1988 and you know, we're having conversations and where are you from? Oh, well, you know, I grew up in California. Oh, yeah, California. It's the land of fruits and nuts and what ain't fruits is nuts, you know.

Okay, I don't know how many times I heard that when I first moved here, you know, but anyway, I sympathize with that. Well, that's, I, Nathaniel, I think this was backwater. Nazareth was nothing special. There was nothing all that good about it. It was just a crummy little town.

Can anything good come from Nazareth, you know? That's what he was saying. And that's true about Nazareth. And you know, some of the most glorious people come from the most inglorious places. That's how Jesus in his kingdom works, by the way.

You know, he grew up in this backwater town, Nazareth. Now, Maybe you've noticed this if you've read the Gospels, but Jesus, he's always going to humble towns, he's always going to broken cities, you know, He bypassed the rich and he gravitated to the poor. You know, here's what Martin Luther said, poor fishermen of good simple uncouth bumpkins. Not the aristocrats, he leaves them behind. Not the learned, not the distinguished.

Hey, the early disciples were, everybody knew they were uneducated, okay? They talked uneducated. And everybody knew that. Luther goes on, he says, that Jesus establishes his kingdom through none but beggars clumsy louts and lowly people namely the apostles Okay, I mean think about Jesus He's he He needs to preach to some people because they've crowded him down to the waterfront. He's going to get pushed in.

And what does he preach from? He preaches from a borrowed boat. When he comes in to, for his triumphal entry, remember how he came in? He borrowed a donkey. He borrowed a room for the Last Supper.

I'm just going to quote Luther again. Now Christ comes along and he shows that he wants to select his disciples, the beggars, the ignoramuses, and the fools. It might even be the poor harlot Mary Magdalene, or the murderer and knave Paul, or the malefactor on the cross. He wants it apparent to all that no one acquires God's mercy because of these gifts such as riches, wisdom, and power. So Christ goes to the backwater, everybody knows it, Can anything good come from Nazareth?

Answer no, except by the power of God Lots of good stuff can come out of lots of lousy cities and places and homes You know, you might have grown up in a really messed up home. That doesn't matter Jesus can pull you out of those waters in a second if you turn to Him and He'll be healing you. He'll take what got drowned in the back water and he'll give you living water. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. So you see this here, and then Philip, of course he invites his brother to come and see, and you know, Philip says what Jesus said earlier.

Philip's learning. He heard Jesus say, come and see. Now he's saying, come and see, to his brother. Now, Jesus looks right through Nathanael, verse 47, follow me, to verse 47, Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said of him, Behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit. Some of the translations say no guile.

You know, he was honest. He was a what you see is what you get, which is probably one reason why you find him saying, can anything good come from Nazareth? He didn't say, he wasn't being bitter, He was just being a person, you know, an honest person. But Jesus is speaking about the fact that there are two kinds of Israelites and there are two kinds of Christians. There are the true and the false.

Not all Israel is Israel, says Paul in Romans 9. There are Israelites in whom there is no guile, and then there are Israelites in whom there is a guile. One is a true lover of God and the other is not. So he's making this clear. But Nathaniel has an undivided heart, but he's also awake, He's critical, he's not impulsive, he's not ecstatic, he doesn't jump, he understands the prophecy, he understands that there are verifiable issues that need to be considered, that the Old Testament speaks about, that make it clear who the Messiah is.

He's weighed those things. And you know, he's under a tree. He's under this fig tree. Now some of the commentators said, You know, that was a place of contemplation and study. It doesn't say what he was doing under the fig tree, but he might have been doing what you do when you sit down under a tree and you open up your Bible.

Your heart's hungry. You want to feed upon Him. You know, you want to be alone and you want to relate with God. You want to fill your mind with the love of God. That's probably what he was doing, but we don't know for sure.

Then Nathaniel asks this question. He says, how do you know me? And Jesus answered, he said, before Philip called you, you were under the fig tree and I saw you. So Jesus makes it really clear. He sees into everybody's life.

Their geographical location. Jesus is the true GPS system who knows where you are all the time, exactly where you are, but he doesn't know just where you are. You don't even need to take your phone with you for him to find you. He knows what you're thinking. And there's nothing hidden from Jesus.

He looks right into your heart when you're under the fig tree, when you're walking down the road, he is omniscient. He knows everything, making it really clear that hypocrisy is futile, that unbelief is insane because he knows. The creator of the universe knows everything. You know, there's this tragic illustration in the Gospel of Matthew, in Matthew chapter 7, where Jesus is talking about all kinds of people who've had a dramatic impact for God. These are religious people, they go to church, they do powerful things, and he says to them, he says, you cast out demons in my name, you did many wonders in my name.

And then he says, depart from me. I never knew you. I never knew you. There are two kinds of knowing. There's just knowing exactly where you're at, but then there's this other kind of knowing where he knows you and you love him, and there's this interchange between the two.

And I think that's what Jesus was seeing with with with Nathaniel and then Nathaniel declares his belief in verse 49 and Nathaniel answered and said to him, Rabbi you are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel." So he declares that he believes that Jesus is the Son of God, that Jesus is the Messiah, he's the Savior of the world. This is a story of conversion, and it shows us how one might proceed if they want to be converted and that is that they confess that Jesus Christ is Lord from the heart and they say Lord I believe in you and they say Lord I want to follow you I want to quit following me I want to quit following this world. I want to follow you. That's what a Christian does, and that's exactly what Nathaniel does. Now, you know, of course, you know why John's writing this whole story here.

He told us at the very end of the Gospel of John why he's writing these things. Why does this story show up here? Here's exactly why it shows up. Well, in John 20 verse 30, we read that Jesus did lots of things that were not recorded in this book, but John says these things were written that you might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that believing in him you might have life in his name." And so John, the Apostle, includes the story to help us to know what it means to believe. And that is that you declare your allegiance to Him and you follow Him like Nathaniel did.

Then I love these next verses so much, verses 58 and 51, right at the end, where Jesus makes a promise to Nathaniel. Verse 50, Jesus answered and said to him, "'Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe?' And then Jesus is blessing him so much, and he says, "'You'll see greater things than these. You'll see greater things than these. That's wonderful. And then he says, 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." Now Jesus is actually taking Nathaniel back to the Old Testament.

He's taking him back to Genesis 28, where Jacob is in Bethel, and you know, the Jacob's ladder, where the angels are ascending and descending, heaven is coming down to Jacob, and God is declaring His love for him and that He's opened up heaven for him. And Jesus is saying that He is the house. Jacob says, this is the house of God. Now Jesus is saying, I'm the house of God. And go to Genesis 28, you can see this some other time, but what's interesting about this scene right here, I don't know if you caught it, but the angels are ascending and descending.

Like the angels start out on the ground. The angels are here. And you would think it'd be the other way around. You know, we always say, well, the angels are going to come down. Well, in here, it's not like that.

The angels are here and they're going up and down. They're moving back and forth. And the order is reversed from the way that you would think about it and the angels are here Well, you know, we're not alone This is a supernatural world You know the Bible says that some people have actually entertained angels and they didn't know it. So you never know who you're really talking to, you know, you should probably be nice to most people. Because you don't know who that is if you haven't seen him before.

You know, I love that that verse in Psalm 34 when we did the Fear of God conference a couple years ago. I was so captured by this verse where it says, the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. Isn't that wonderful? If you fear the Lord, you can know that the angel of the Lord, Jesus Christ himself, He's camping right next to you. He's pitched his tent right by you.

What a wonderful promise. You know, I think that this, what Jesus said to him is figurative. You know, there's no account where Nathaniel experiences this exact thing. He wasn't on the Mount of Transfiguration or anything like that. I think that Jesus is giving him a picture, a visual illustration of what it's going to be like.

And I think what Jesus is saying to him is, you know, you ain't seen nothing yet. I'm gonna take care of you so well. And you know, I think he's saying, I'm unlocking heaven to you. Every time you read your Bible, heaven is opened. Every time you pray, heaven is opened.

Every time you sing in your heart driving down the road in this church heaven is opened you know when we sing together we should just recognize what's happening we're connecting with God you know you know and you just said I in them and thou and me we're having fellowship with one another, we're teaching one another, but we're receiving teaching. And, you know, heaven, heaven is unlocked when we sing together. You know, every time you take the Lord's Supper, you know, every time you have true heart fellowship with another Christian, heaven is open. That's why Paul said our citizenship is in heaven and that we're seated with Christ at the right hand of God. Heaven is open.

We are in the household of God. We are the temple of God, and Jesus is the link between heaven and earth. And so he's talking about these angels coming down and the glory of God being seen. You know, he's the mediator between God and man. He opens up heaven.

Jesus is a mediator. He stands and he takes us to God in the same way that these early disciples said, come and see. Jesus says the same thing to us. Come and see. Come and see the glory of God in heaven.

Heaven and earth have become one in that sense for the Christian, and the gates of heaven are unlocked and we have free access to God and we enter into his presence with thanksgiving and we pray and we talk with one another and we actually bring heaven down. You know Jesus when he taught his disciples to pray he taught him to pray thy kingdom come. What does that mean? It means you're bringing his kingdom down Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven And so Jesus gives him this picture. Well what a beautiful story, isn't it?

Now how do we apply this? Okay, I'm going to try to give you, if I can get this done in just a couple minutes, I'm going to give you five ways to apply this. First of all, when it comes to evangelism, go simple. Notice the simplicity. The belief in these men started with a friend or a relative or some preaching.

You know, how many of us came that way? How many of us had our introduction to Jesus by a friend? It's really simple. Somebody you already know or a relative, somebody you grew up with. Maybe you grew up with somebody, but what we find here is that when you have a friend or when you grow up with somebody, It's really simple.

Say to them, come and see. Just say, come and see Jesus. The second is this. Of these cases of conversion, none of them were really alike, were they? The first three, Peter and Andrew and John, who had become, you know, they heard John the Baptist proclaiming that Jesus was the Lamb of God, and they sought out Jesus themselves.

It was the preaching that drew them. Peter was brought to Christ by his brother. It was a relative that drew him to Christ. Philip didn't seem to have any help at all. He found, Jesus found Philip and said, follow me.

He seemed to be saved without any human interaction. God's able to save anybody he wishes. So you see how it happened differently with all these different people, and Jesus related to these people in different ways, too. You know, Jesus is asking questions. He's asking really soul-searching questions, Like, what are you looking for?

What are you all about? You know, there's no formula, there's no single method, there's no standardized way of bringing people to Christ. You know, if you find if you find people who say there's just this one way, Or if you find a person, if you find a group of people who say, you have to know the exact moment that you are saved or you're not saved. Do you realize Jesus doesn't work this way? He works differently with different people.

And if you, you know, if you find a group of people who they say it happens in one particular way You just need to be wary because the Bible gives a really different picture God works with people right where they are. He comes to them in different ways Because of his love, you know the inner we're gonna get to the woman at the well later on totally different, totally different than everything we've just read here. I can't wait till we get there. Here's another application, number four, or number three. There are three general basic steps that you see here.

First you have a testimony, the testimony of Jesus. Then you have a response coming and then you have the joy that bears fruit, you know, the fruitfulness that causes you to want to tell others. Those are the three things that you see generally. And then also notice next that Andrew and Philip are two relatively unknown Apostles and you know who knows what God will do with an unknown man or an unknown woman? You know most of us we're gonna live our lives out really not being known.

We're going to die and we're going to leave behind something. I hope it's the aroma of Jesus. It's the only thing that really matters. But I was reflecting on a story of a church in Scotland. This church had a minister for 18 years and after a while it just everybody thought his preaching was flat, the congregation wasn't vibrant, And so the deacons came to him and they asked him about what he thought about moving on.

He was getting old and he recognized that there seemed to be a barrenness in that church and in his ministry and that there was only one man that he could even think of who'd come to Christ recently in that ministry and he felt a strong urge to resign and but then he thought he thought about it he said well what about we bobby what about we bobby Because there was one person who was converted and he was talking about a young man who came to Christ. He was uneducated. He was very poor. In fact, one time there's a story, the offering plate comes by and we Bobbies in his teens and he asked the deacon to put the offering plate on the ground And he steps into the onto the offering plate with his bare feet and he says, I'd have no money, all I have is me. I want to give my life to him.

Okay, that was That was Wee Bobby. But when he turned 21, he volunteered to become a missionary, and he went to Cape Town, Africa. And Wee Bobby was actually one of the greatest evangelists in Africa's history. It was Robert Moffat, and he led thousands to Christ. He had these humble beginnings.

You know, he was a gardener. He went, and he didn't have anything, so he went and he worked on other people's farms. That's what he, he was a gardener. And so he goes to Africa, and he makes the first translation of the Bible into the Setswana language. He translated Pilgrim's Progress into that language.

And then his daughter, while they were in Africa, marries David Livingstone, okay? The great evangelist in Africa. So, you know, who knows, who knows what God can do with an unknown disciple of Jesus Christ? God doesn't go by the numbers. He goes by faithfulness and by faithful preaching and ministry.

God is wise in that way. You know, it's interesting, last week, I wasn't here last Sunday, I was traveling in the Midwest And a man was taking me to meet with different pastors in different cities there, and I had this four-day tour And I realized you know these these pastors They were all they were all unknown But I heard them preach And these men preached with sincerity and fearlessness and beauty and the power of the gospel. It was amazing. And you know what? You know, a lot of them will never be, probably will never really be known by anybody.

And a lot of them are in little towns. They have little churches of 50 or 150 people in them. And, you know, here you see in this whole beautiful story how such small beginnings flourish in a heart. And it spreads. And it spreads from all kinds of different people.

You have Peter the great apostle, the great mighty preacher, and you have Nathaniel and Andrew, who nobody really hardly knows anymore. But God's no respecter of that. He does what he wishes in this world. Well, you know, the message here is that Jesus knows us. He calls us.

He knows our lives and you know he's so kind, you know he tells a man that he'll see heaven opened. You know he talks to you, he takes you by the hand, he changes your name, he unlocks heaven, and he sends his angels. And that's why what it means to be a Christian, why the motto of Christianity probably could easily be summed up in the word Eureka. I found it. Wow.

Gold. Pure gold that lasts forever. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord we thank you for showing us your glory as you cared for these men and sent them to do such sweet things that we are experiencing right now, 2, 000 years later. Lord, I praise you for the power of the gospel that converts and comforts.

Oh Lord, we pray that you would make us such living pictures of these glories that we've seen and that we would open up our mouths with our friends and our relatives and we would say come and see I found it. Amen.