Called to Follow: A Savior for the Skeptical

Jesus responds to that. So let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for grace. I just ask that you would be with us as we open your word. May you strengthen us, encourage us, correct us, teach us, help us. May your spirit be working to show us your goodness and your grace. May we be a people who are encouraged and strengthened, who are filled with love and transformed by your mercy. So in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So there are times, at least in our household, where Rachel walks into the kitchen and she will find me standing in front of the refrigerator with the door open, sort of staring inside with like a thousand yard stare. And often I'm pondering, in that moment, the choices that are available to me. And I'm pondering them with the door open, because as a child I was told that the refrigerator had to ponder your choices, then open the refrigerator, take out what you want.

But now that I'm an adult, I can ponder my choices with the refrigerator open. And sometimes, right, it's the lack of choices that are present in front of me, right? It may be because we're close to grocery day, and we don't have what I want. Or maybe it's just the lack of something that I really like or that I really want. And the question that I get almost every time is simply this: What are you looking for? Now, sometimes I know what I'm looking for, but there are some times that I know and I just don't want to admit it, right? Because dinner's already started, and I don't really like something else, generally from DoorDash. And so there are these moments where we stand and we look. And sometimes I just have no idea, right? We've all had those moments where we look and it just seems like nothing sounds good whatsoever.

And I don't want that, and I don't want that, and I don't want anything, and I'm just having a bad day. We've all had those moments of indecision. Maybe it's with our refrigerator, maybe it's with a menu, maybe it's with those big decisions of life. And we're simply sitting there and the question comes, "What are we looking for?" And this is the question that Jesus asks His first two disciples, the very first two disciples, in John chapter 1. So they've been following a guy by the name of John. He is in the wilderness, and they have been following him, and they've been listening to his teaching. And in recent days, John has, in two different occasions, made a declaration about who Jesus is. And his first declaration is simply this: "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

And the second time Jesus comes by, John looks, and he goes, "Behold the Lamb of God." And these two disciples began to follow Jesus. I don't think that they're necessarily very good at being sneaky, because as they come to Jesus, he notices them, and he says this to them in John 1:37, The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus, and Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, "What are you seeking?" And they said to him, "Rabbi," which means teacher, "Where are you staying?" And so Jesus sees these two guys following him, and like we might do, he says, "What do you want? What are you looking for? What are you seeking?" And they give him an answer. They say, "Where are you staying?" Now they are not, in their answer, being 100% honest. They know exactly what John has just announced about Jesus.

They know that he has said, "This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." And then again, a couple days later, this is the Lamb of God. They know what they're looking for. They are looking for the promised Messiah, the one that in Genesis 3 will crush the head of the serpent and right the wrongs. They're looking for the descendant of Abraham, through whom the whole world would be blessed in Genesis 12 and Genesis 22. They're looking for the one who would sit on the throne of David. And if you just stop for a minute and think about it, for them this is a wonderful thing. If you look at our world, right, every four years we go through this election cycle, and it's always angrier than the next, and more divisive than the next,

and here they're looking at their political situation, and if we can have the promised one who sits on the throne of David forever, right, it's going to fix all of the brokenness in the world that surrounds us. That's who they're looking for. They're looking for the one who in Isaiah, the one who, this child who will be born, a son will be given, the government will be on his shoulders, his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace, Everlasting Father. And Isaiah will continue, and of his kingdom there will be no end. They're looking for the Messiah. All of those Old Testament prophecies, it's not just a bunch of scattered predictions throughout the Old Testament, but there is a unified promise and plan of God. And they're all related and connected. And this is what they are looking for.

They're waiting for the Messiah, which simply means anointed one. The problem is they only have a shallow or superficial view of who Jesus is. They have a small idea, and it's mainly political, and they're missing the greater reality of who Jesus is. They're waiting for the one who will come, who will overthrow everything and make life better for them. And these two disciples, they're not brave enough, or maybe certain enough, to vocalize their hopes to Jesus. And so when he says, "What are you looking for?" instead of answering him with the truth, "We're looking for the one who's going to put things right." They say, "Well, where are you staying?" And Jesus wonderfully answers their question. He both answers the question they ask and the question they don't ask because Jesus sees to the depth of their heart.

And he simply says this in verse 39. He says, "Come and you will see." And this is so remarkable because they want to know where Jesus is staying. So he says, "Come and see." But they also would like to know, "Is Jesus really the one?" And he simply says, "Come and see." And here is what is so remarkable of this. Jesus doesn't just know them. He knows what they need. And it's not through arguments or persuasive manipulation. He simply says, "Come and see for yourself." And he gives them not what they want, but what ultimately they need. And here is a remarkable truth that Jesus knows us. He loves us. And he gives us exactly what we need. They're seeking a political ruler who will give them political freedom. And Jesus comes with something much more wonderful.

And here is what is sometimes hard for us to understand. Jesus gives us what we need, and it's far more wonderful than all we have ever wanted. And I, at least, immediately have an objection to that. Because I have trouble separating my wants and my needs, and I always have. I know what I want, and I know when I want it, and I know what I need. And those two, for me at least, in my mind, are the same thing. But what I've learned as I've grown up is that wants and needs are vastly different. And Jesus comes not to meet their wants, but to meet their needs. And maybe you're like me, and you say, "Well, how does Jesus really know what I need?" And so these two disciples who hear Jesus and follow Him, it's a remarkable thing.

Do you know who these two disciples are in verse 27? These two disciples, one is named Andrew, and the other is named John, and he is the author of this book that we are looking at. And John writes this gospel about Jesus, and he doesn't just do it to give us some intellectual information or as a good story. He does so with a very specific purpose. John writes this for this purpose. He says, "I am writing so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life in his name." And so here comes this man who doesn't really want to tell Jesus what he needs, but then ends up writing and saying, "He knew exactly what I needed." And it's easy to say, but John simply doesn't just talk about Jesus. He has been transformed with Jesus.

John and his brother. Jesus gives them a nickname. He calls them the Sons of Thunder. And it's not just sort of a cutesy nickname. He names them that because they have an incredibly short fuse. John and his brother are incredibly angry men. In fact, one time a village rejects Jesus. And John and his brother come to Jesus and they go, "You want us to call down fire upon this village?" And it's a horrific thing that they're asking. And Jesus goes, "Absolutely not." These Sons of Thunder. They're rough. They're rowdy. And they're ready to fight anybody who disagrees with them. And Jesus takes these angry men. And John, and he transforms them. John, the only disciple of Jesus to die of natural causes, both proclaims the good news about Jesus until he is almost a hundred years old, but he suffers.

And he doesn't just simply suffer in terms of being socially ostracized or people make fun of him. He suffers by being tortured and exiled. And in his latter years, when he is able to come home, this man who started angry and full of fire carried into church because he can't walk. And the Christians, we know from church history, gather around to hear what he has to say. And John, so overwhelmed by the love of God, says, "Love each other." Little children is what he says in his epistles. Little children love one another. When John writes, and he says, "So that you may believe, and that by believing you may have life in his name," he's not just talking in a hypothetical sense. He's saying that in my life, God has transformed me. He's changed me. He's taken me from being this son of thunder to this apostle who loves God's church,

and is willing to suffer for it. And it's here that John introduces us to this guy by the name of Nathaniel. And so I want to introduce you just briefly this morning to Nathaniel. So there's a guy by the name of Philip. These are Jesus' first disciples. They follow Jesus. And we read this, "Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter, and Philip found Nathaniel, and he said to him, 'We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also in the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.' And Nathaniel said to him, 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth?' And Philip said to him, 'Come and see.'" So Philip here, as he says this, he is making a big assertion about Jesus. He is saying all of those promises throughout the Old Testament, all of the hope, all those things that Moses wrote about, all the things that the prophets wrote about.

We found the guy who sums all of those things up. That is a big assertion. And Nathaniel is skeptical. And I think he is skeptical for good reason. First of all, because culturally, this is a big deal. Josephus, a first-century historian who is current to this time in history, writes about those who claimed to be Messiahs in this area of Israel. And from about 47 years before the birth of Jesus until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, there are a lot of people who show up and say, "I'm the one from whom Moses and the prophets wrote about." And in fact, it's not very long from this period of time where one of these Messiahs takes a group of people to the top of a mountain in Samaria to start a rebellion, and Pilate, the same one who sentenced Jesus to death, takes his troops and just kills them all.

And so, for Nathaniel to hear, "There's the Messiah," he's skeptical. And I think with good reason, because it's not the first time he's heard this. And it's not the first time that he's seen this. And it has never ended well. Now, we know from history that Jesus is different. These others are historical footnotes. And Jesus, however, we try to sometimes disguise this, our very calendar is centered around his birth. And so, Nathaniel is skeptical, and I think with good reason. He's heard this before. Secondly, he's skeptical because, biblically, this is a big claim. We have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets wrote. There's a lot of prophecies about the Messiah. And for Philip to show up and say, "We've got the guy who meets all the criteria, and his name is Jesus of Nazareth,"

there is a problem. Because in Micah chapter 5 and verse 2, we know the Messiah isn't born in Nazareth. He's born in Bethlehem. And so Nathaniel, skeptical, not just culturally, because everybody claims to be the Messiah, but also biblically, because he hears this, and he doesn't know the whole story. He says, "I don't know." And also, locally, this is a big claim, right? Nazareth is a small town. It's not important. It has a bad reputation. In fact, this whole area of Galilee has a bad reputation, and then Nazareth has the bad reputation in the area of having a bad reputation. And what's interesting is, Nathaniel, he's from a town called Cana. It's less than five miles from Nazareth. In fact, in the next chapter, Jesus' mom is in Cana, helping out with a wedding. And while it doesn't seem that Nathaniel knows Jesus,

it seems maybe he's heard of Jesus' family, because he kind of responds with a joke. He says, "What good comes out of Nazareth?" What good? There's nothing good. The implication is, nothing good has ever happened here. Nothing good ever will happen here. And if there is some guy claiming to be the Messiah, I've heard this before. I know the Bible, and I know Nazareth, and this is not possible. Nathaniel, I think rightfully, is skeptical. And so he goes to Jesus anyway, and I like this picture. Philip just simply invites him. He says, "Come and see." "Come see for yourself." Not manipulating. Not trying to argue him into it. But rather, he says, "Just come and see Jesus." And listen to Jesus' response to Nathaniel's skepticism. First of all, we find out that Jesus knows Nathaniel.

And before we look at the skepticism, know that Jesus isn't mad. He doesn't get mad at what it is. He's not frustrated. He's not hurt by it. It's almost as if Jesus accepts it in stride. And one of the things we see is honest, real questions to Jesus. He always responds not with anger or meanness, but with gentleness to those who are asking. And so Jesus sees Nathanael coming toward him, and he says, "And I think in a little bit of humor, but also with a little bit of truth. Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit." So to understand a little bit about what Jesus says here, we need to know about a man by the name of Jacob. He's the second son of Isaac. He's the grandson of Abraham. And Jacob has spent much of his life chasing something bigger.

In fact, in this time and culture, he's born second, which means you receive less of an inheritance, less of a blessing, less of a future. And from his very birth, he is born, holding on to his brother's foot as if he has been fighting to be first. And if you read Jacob's story, he's a trickster, he's a swindler, and he is basically a terrible human being. His brother comes in one day from hunting. Jacob, knowing he's going to be hungry, and knowing his brother's impulsive, he has this beautiful meal, this fragrant stew. And his brother comes in, and he goes, like my kids do, "I'm dying of hunger," right? And he comes in. His brother says, "Well, I'll trade you the blessings of your birthright for some soup." And Esau's like, "Yeah, whatever. What good is it to me if I'm dead from hunger?"

And he's not going to die from hunger. He's short-sighted. Jacob steals his birthright. But then, the blessing from his father, which would go to the firstborn. And Jacob's brother Esau goes out to hunt, to prepare a meal for his father in this ceremony to receive the blessing. And Esau, while he's out hunting, Jacob comes, and he takes some fur of an animal, and he makes a stew. And he goes into his father, and he says, "I've brought the animal. God's given me great fortune." Begins to feed. His father eats this meal. His father says, "Ah, you kind of sound like Jacob. Let me feel your arms, because your brother's hairy." And so he has this animal skin on his arms. He says, "Yeah, that's Esau." And Jacob, tricking and deceiving his father, steals the blessing that is intended for his brother.

And when his brother hears this, he says, "I am going to kill him." And not figuratively, how we might joke with our brothers, "I'm going to kill you." Jacob literally is on the run for his life. And he lives a life, for most of it, of this struggle to get more through deceit, through shady dealings. And then in Genesis 32, Jacob gets into a fight he can't win. And he loses this fight. But in his determination, he clings tightly to the one in whom he is fighting. This angel of the Lord, which, theologically, is the pre-incarnate Christ. And the blessing he receives this: "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God, or wrestled with God, and have prevailed." And here Jesus is, looking at Nathanael, and he says, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no receipt."

You are part of this family of Israel, but you are also a wrestler with God. But not in a deceitful way like Jacob. You're skeptical. You don't believe it the first time you hear it. You struggle to see, culturally and biblically, and in the area in which you live, how this can be true. And you're wrestling, but you're doing so in a way that is honest, and without deceit. And in this, Jesus acknowledges the objections. He acknowledges his skepticalness, and he says, "Welcome. I know who you are." And what you find, Jesus knows Nathaniel, and look at how he responds to him. This is in verse 48. Nathaniel goes, "How do you know me?" And Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." And so Nathaniel goes, "How do you know that I'm wrestling? How do you know my character?"

And Jesus says, "You're under the fig tree. I saw you." Listen to Nathaniel's response. Nathaniel answered him, "Rabbi or teacher, you are the Son of God, and you are the king of Israel." And this seems like an out-of-proportioned response. How has Nathaniel gone from making fun of Nazareth to declaring Jesus to be the Messiah in just a verse? How has he gone from saying, "There's been a bunch of people who claim to be Messiah." From Nazareth? That place has a terrible reputation. How has he gone from that to declaring Jesus so quickly? It seems like it is out of proportion. There are a few things happening here in what Jesus says. In the writings of the rabbis of this day, we find that the fig tree is frequently used as a place to teach. It's frequently used as a place to sit and study. It's shady, and it's quiet.

And there's enough light that you can sit if you are studying the Scriptures or the Torah. And you're meditating on it, and you are praying on it. And Nathaniel has come from this place of meditation and study and prayer. Which is the picture we find in the first century of those who sit under fig trees. And he's reading, and he's studying, and I think he's praying. But I think Nathaniel under that fig tree is wrestling with God. And I think we know that because Jesus says, "Here comes an honest Israelite. Somebody who has wrestled with God." His friend goes, "We found the one from whom the law of Moses and the prophets speak." Almost knowing you're sitting there studying. We found the one whom you are studying. And what I think Jesus is saying in these words, when he says, "I saw you under the fig tree, and I know you."

I know what you've been doing. You've been searching the Scripture. You've been meditating on it. You've been wrestling with God in prayer. You've been thinking about the coming of the Messiah. And you've been praying for these things. And Nathaniel, it clicks. How does this guy know what I'm praying for? Right? This isn't just Jesus going, "I know where you come from." This is Jesus, in these words, saying, "I know what you have been praying for." And Nathaniel goes, "There's only one person who knows what I have been praying for." And in Jesus' response, we see gentleness. We see love. We see Jesus trying to show him who he is, not just with some kind of good argument, but with an example of his deity, evidence of his identity. Then Jesus makes this promise. Jesus answered him, "Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe?

You will see greater things in these." And he said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels ascending and descending before the Son of Man." You can almost hear the humor in Jesus' voice. "I know you, and I love you, and I hear your declaration, but I am going to show you something that is even more wonderful." The promise of Jesus is that Nathaniel would see something that is greater than simply understanding that Jesus knows what he is praying for. In Genesis 28, Jacob is on the run. He stops for the night, and it's kind of a rough situation. Scripture says he has a rock for a pillow. And in that moment, as he goes to sleep, on the run for his life, he has this dream. And this dream of Jacob's ladder, of this ladder extending to heaven, and angels going up and down it.

And God promising him there would be a future for him. Jacob's response in Genesis is to call this place Bethel, God's house. And this becomes one of the great sanctuaries of Israel. And it does so because Jacob says, "This is where God is. This is where he lives." And we know that that's a small picture of the reality of the situation. But the promise to Nathaniel is going back to the story of Jacob again. Something better than Bethel. These prophecies you've been studying and wrestling with and praying about, they point to me. Just like Bethel points to the presence of God, "When you're with Jesus," N.T. Wright says, "It is as if you are in the house of God, the temple itself, God's angels coming and going, God's own presence there beside you." So the question that I want us to consider is just simply this: What about us?

We've got a skeptical guy who humbly takes his skepticism to try to verify it, not just simply assuming, but saying, "I'm going to go dig into this and find out what is going on." He's honest about his struggles. He's honest about his skepticism. Jesus knows him and responds and makes this wonderful promise. So what about us? And I don't want you, if you're a Christian, I don't want you to think for a minute that this is not about you or for you. It can be about belief, as Nathaniel comes, but it can also be for us, we see in Scripture, not just skeptical of who Jesus is, but maybe skeptical of his promises. He says, "I love you," and you may say, "Well, do you know me? How can you love me?" Or maybe it's we're skeptical of what he has called us to do.

If you keep reading the Gospel, Jesus' followers are skeptical people. Thomas at the resurrection. Peter, when Jesus sends him to the Gentiles going, "Lord, are you sure you want me to do this?" Ananias in Damascus. And God comes and says, "There's a guy by the name of Saul, and I need you to go tell him about me." And Ananias goes, "That guy, I have heard nothing good about him." So many times it's easy for us to think, when we think about being skeptical, it's for somebody other than us. But we find if we're honest, we struggle a lot as well. And what you find is we have this call to take our struggles to Jesus. I'll go back to the fridge with you for just a minute. Standing in front of the fridge, and I'm going, "I don't know what's in here. I don't know what I want."

My wife goes, "What are you looking for?" And here we stand in church, or sit, and we're going, "What are we looking for?" And so last week, one of those moments where I was standing there at the fridge going, "What am I looking for?" And we were talking about dinner, and I'm just standing looking. I said, "There's nothing here. Nothing good. When I get hungry, I get real cranky. And everything's bad, and it's terrible." And Rachel goes, "Let me make something for dinner." And I go, "What are you going to make? Everything's bad." I sound like a three-year-old. It may be where my kids get it from. Just don't quote me on that. And she goes, "I got this thing I'm going to make." And she tells me what it is. And it's times like this I wish I had volume control for my face, because evidently the expression that I made was not good.

And she just goes, "Trust me on this." I'm like, "I don't know if I can." You know what? It was delicious. It was exactly what I wanted, even though I didn't know it at the time. When I'm standing in front of the fridge with a bad attitude. But here's the thing I should have known, right? Rachel knows me. She knows what I like. And just like I know her, and I'm not going to serve her something with red onions in it, right? She's not going to do that to me, either. She's not going to give me something terrible. This morning I want you to know that there is one who knows you. Just like he knew Nathaniel. And Nathaniel struggles, and he cares for you. You say, "Well, how do I know Jesus?" I think one of the answers is we've got to talk to him.

I love the Bible as it talks about prayer, because sometimes we think of prayer as this big formal thing. And sometimes in Scripture it is. Formal thing in a formal place. But there's also times where it's in the darkest moment, in the deepest, blackest situation, and there's short and there's long. If we say, "I want to see Jesus," have we talked to him? Have we listened to him? Hebrews chapter 1 says that God long ago spoke to the fathers through the prophets in many portions and in many ways, and in these last days has spoken to us through his Son? Have you seen Jesus and heard what he has to say? Or with his people who have walked with him for a while? There are a lot of reasons this morning that I'm a Christian.

A lot of my reasons, at least I think, are pretty reasonable. I see how the world works. I see the Word of God. And I know the arguments. I know the reasons. And I know the logical arguments and the philosophical arguments that are made. And I understand them and I agree with them. But I also know the Bible. And I see how it is written and how it is tied together. And I see the truth and reliability of Scripture. Some might say, "Well, what about science?" And I see God in the revelation of science, in every new discovery, showing us His magnificence. And we see the history that goes along with the Word of God. And how it is all tied together. And I love talking about these. And if I'm honest, I really like to argue.

And I like to argue about this stuff. And I'll argue with anybody, anytime, because I just like to argue. Whether I agree with you or not, I'm going to argue with you. But you know what captures my heart? What really captures my heart in relationship to Jesus? It's built upon this foundation that I see of truth, and of logic, and of the solidity of God's Word. All of that supports my faith. But the reason that I'm a Christian is because God has always been there, and He's always been good. Not always what I expect or what I want. It's not always been in health. It's not really ever been in prosperity. But it's in the midst of fear, and in anguish, and in loss, and in those dark moments where you're 100% by yourself, and you're about to go into an operating room, and you don't know if you're coming out on the other side, and you're not fearful.

In fact, your heart is saying with the psalmist, "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire beside you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my soul, and my portion forever." That's why I'm a Christian. The foundation of truth and reliability, but it's because as well in those darkest moments, God has always been there, and He has always been good. Psalm 34:8 says it this way, "Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him." And I love this. Because I do this all the time with my kids. You serve them dinner. This has to be the most frustrating thing, isn't it? And they go, "Ew." And you go, "Try it!" And they finally take a bite, and it's the most amazing thing they've ever had.

That's what the psalmist is saying. He goes, "Taste and see that the Lord is good." Jesus says it this way, "What are you seeking?" He said, "Where are you staying?" And Jesus just simply says this, "Come and you will see." Taste and see that the Lord is good. Come and see. Let's pray. Father, I thank you that you are here with us in the darkness and in the joy. I thank you that you are the light of our soul and our strength forever. I thank you that you answer our questions. You answer our hard questions. You're not angry and frustrated with us when we ask them. Thank you for Jesus and for grace. It's in his name we pray. Amen. We're going to sing. We're going to sing, "I Set My Hope on Jesus."