How Do You Know Me?

I learned early on in pastoral ministry, a key tool for being successful in ministry. And that tool is the power of the personal ask. See, a lot of people in church, when you take on a project and you want help, you want to recruit people. A lot of people, the first thing that they do is what? Try to get help. They make sure an announcement's in the bulletin and that the preacher will announce it from the pulpit, right? But here's now that there's some things that need to be done, especially better for the whole church, right? But here's what typically happens when we announce something from the pulpit, right? Everybody looks around and says, oh, there's lots of other people, someone else will do it, right? And invariably, we have about five people here who will always stand up and do it and will eventually burn them out. But there's a better way of recruiting, right? And here's a little pro tip. In order to recruit effectively, you have to go small, right? So if you want to grab people, maybe send an email or text to 10 people or maybe just do it to one person. Or here is the absolute best way of recruiting. Face to face. Ask someone personally, right? There is no substitute for a personal ask. Technology is great, right? But nothing can replace a face-to-face relationship. Now, Jesus, when he walked the earth, he didn't have a smart phone, he didn't have a laptop and I can imagine if he were living today, he would make use of those tools. But I can also imagine that he would have invested in people. He would have invested in relationships and in walking and talking with people and sharing meals so much of the gospels of his life are doing just that, living with in community with other people and encouraging them and even confronting them face-to-face. And in John 1, we get an account of the calling of the first disciples. We see Jesus recruiting people face-to-face, right? And we read what I think is a fascinating interaction with a man and a man that he wanted to have as part of his team. So we're gonna read that, John 1. Let's stand for this reading of God's Word. Beginning in verse 43. The next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, follow me. Now, Philip was from Bethesida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, we found him of who Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathaniel said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, come and see. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said of him, behold, an Israelite indeed and whom there is no deceit. Nathaniel said to him, how do you know me? Jesus answered him before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. Nathaniel answered him, rabbi, you are the son of God, you are the king of Israel. And Jesus answered 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, truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man. This is God's word for God's people and for the good of the world, please be seated. First thing that strikes me about this story is that Jesus is looking for disciples. They go, yeah, obviously. But what it tells me is that Christianity at its core is a shared faith, it's a shared faith, right? You hear a lot of people these days talk about how their faith is private, right? My religion is personal, you know, I don't really want to talk about it. And there are even people who say, you know, my relationship with Jesus is private. You know, I don't need a church, I don't need a community, it's just me and Bible, maybe, and Jesus, right? But Jesus tells us from the start of his ministry that the Christian faith is to be lived in community, right? You can't just believe on your own, you won't grow on your own. And I would argue, you can't even really understand the true gospel on your own. And it's not meant to keep to yourself anyway, right? If anybody could have done it, it would have been Jesus. They could have done it on their own. But no, we see him choosing to raise up a group of disciples to live life with them, to train them, and then to empower them to take the work onto others. And Jesus starts his ministry, starts with two disciples, two brothers, Andrew and Simon Peter. And then he also calls a third man, Philip, to come and follow him. And so we got three down, nine to go, right? And so far it's been pretty easy, right? Partly do, I think, to the ministry of John the Baptist. These first three have been very willing to follow Jesus, basically all we read is that he says, follow me. And they say, yeah, absolutely, wherever you want to go, lead on Jesus. But then we get to a challenge in the Daniel. But before we can talk really about this story about Nathaniel, we need to talk about one sort of background bit of historical information. It's really about another character, one of the central characters in the book of Genesis. His name is Jacob. Now Jacob was a twin. He was a younger brother of Esau. And in Jewish families, the older brother was given the bulk of the inheritance of his father's estate. He was expected to provide for his mom and everybody else there to keep the family business going. And so he got the bulk of the estate. And that was also called the birthright. Now, a defining time in young Jacob's life was when he stole the birthright, talked Esau out of it, essentially. And then deceived his father to give him the blessing that was intended for his older brother, Esau. And Jacob becomes known as the deceiver. The deceiver. And Esau, when he finds out all this happened, he has lived. And he vows to kill Jacob. And because he's much bigger and stronger, Jacob high tails it out of his father's house. He goes to his uncle's house. But while he's on the way, Jacob actually stops. And he kind of camps out in the wilderness. And while he's sleeping under the stars, he has a dream one night. And the dream is of a ladder that stretches from Earth into heaven. And he sees angels going up and down the ladder. And he sees God at the top of the ladder. And God speaks to him in the dream. And he promises Jacob a whole bunch of things. He says, first of all, he will be with Jacob. He says that he will inherit all this land around him, even though he's the younger brother, right? And he's gonna inherit all this land. He's gonna have many children. And through his offspring and through his life, he's gonna be a blessing to every nation on Earth. Pretty awesome promises. And if you read the continuation of Jacob's story and throughout the Old Testament, you see those promises come true. They weren't just a dream. They were actual promises from God. Okay, so now you think, what does that have to do with Jesus and Nathaniel? Well, here's the connection. Jesus knows that Nathaniel is a faithful Israelite. He's a student of Scripture, which in that time was the Old Testament, right? He knows Nathaniel would have known the story of Jacob. And so he drops these illusions to Jacob, I mean, to Nathaniel, to let him know not only who Jesus is, but to also let Nathaniel know that he knows who Nathaniel is. And here's, we're gonna draw all that out as we go, right? But here's the big thing I want you to see today. And that is that Jesus is a personal savior. He is a personal savior who knows you uniquely and he calls you uniquely and to accept him or reject him as a personal and relational choice. Let me say it again, Jesus is a personal savior. He knows each one of us and calls each one of us uniquely and relationally and to accept him or reject him and he is a personal and relational choice. Now, again, let's draw that out a bit, going through the story of Nathaniel. The first thing I want to talk about here is this thought. Jesus has planted pointers to himself in every culture. He has, God has sort of tilled the soil in every culture to lead us to him to tell us about Jesus. Now, there are a lot of people that don't necessarily believe that, right? There are some people who believe that religion is culturally specific, right? There's one religion that's good for this country and other religion for this region and other for this and it's probably best not to mix them, you know? And certainly we see that some cultures are naturally geared for some truth claims. But it was interesting. I was on my day off Friday. I went to see Martin Scorsese's new film Silence, which is about a couple of Jesuit priests in the 1600s who go to Japan at a time when Christianity has been outlawed in Japan and they find a lot of persecution there and their faith is severely tested. And at one point in the movie they're brought before the political authorities and they're told, listen, what you're trying to do is to read Christianity is futile because Japanese people can't understand the gospel. And your Christianity, they say, will never take root because as Japan is a swamp. And it'll never nourish the roots of Christianity. Now, it'll nourish the roots of Buddhism, but not Christianity. Now, the interesting thing, here's the thing. This was political authorities who were telling them that. They were really using that for political ends. And the other thing is this, the followers, the believers, and all of the major world religions do not believe that. They do not believe that religion is culturally specific. And they find it infuriating and salting for you to say that your truths about God are only good for this set of people and not those. This is all major religions because they see that if it's truth, all truth is God's truth, and it's truthful, maybe harder for some people to understand, but it is still the truth wherever it goes. Jesus taught that himself. Jesus gave instructions, his great commission before he ascended in heaven. And he says, go and make disciples of what? All nations, teach them to obey all that I have commanded you. And Jesus as followers believed that he was the true light that enlightens all people everywhere. And it's interesting. The early Christians, as they, many of them were Jewish and they started out in Jerusalem, but as they went out into Judea and then some area into the outward from there, rather than going into different cultures and different people groups and just coming in and saying, ah, everything you know is wrong, they were very wise. And they would go and they would look for how God had been preparing the soil. And they looked for things that would tell them, kind of tell a mini story of the gospel. The Apostle Paul, if you read in Acts, when he preaches, he preaches the two different audiences. When he preaches to Jewish people, he tells, he preaches to what they know, which is what? Old Testament scriptures. And he says, you know the scriptures, I'll show you how Jesus is the point of those scriptures. But when he preaches to Gentiles, those are not Jewish, he doesn't talk about the scriptures necessarily. He talks about creation. He talks about natural law. He appeals to their poets and to their philosophers and even to their art. Look, you have this idol to an unknown God. Let me tell you the name of the true God. The Greeks, the Greek philosophers had an idea they called the Logos, which was, in their mind was the divine principle, organizing principle, undergirding all things. John in chapter one, at the beginning of this chapter, he takes that and he says, yes, there's a Logos. There is a divine word, and he has a name, his name is Jesus. Don Richardson tells about how the Sawie tribe and New Guinea had an unusual custom when he met them. And that was, if a Sawie father offered his son to another group, another tribe, as a peace child, there was often warfare between the tribes and people groups. If he offered his son as a peace child, not only would pass grievances settle, but future grievances could be avoided as well. And as they began, the Sawie tribe, the people began to interact with the story of scripture, they began to realize that not only did they need a peacemaker, a peace child, between themselves and other people, they needed a peace child between them and God. Jesus is that peace child. The dyak people of Borneo had a custom of taking two chickens, this is a very unusual custom. When Christians came and found that they found this custom, they'd take two chickens and they would go down to the river and they would slaughter one and they would sprinkle its blood on the shore. And then they would take the other chicken, they would tie it to a boat, and then they would bring all the people from the village and they would empty imaginary sacks of dosaku, which means literally their sins onto the boat and they would send the boat off with the chicken as a literal scape boat. Their sins would be an unwaithful. It didn't take long for them to realize their hearts need, how God had placed on their hearts the need for forgiveness for the blood of another. See Jesus has planted himself, he has planted pointers in every culture, he has prepared himself for every people and he's prepared every people group for himself. Paul says essentially that in Romans one, what can be known about God is plain to them. He's talking about all people, right? For God has shown it to them. His invisible attributes, his eternal power, divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made so they are without excuse. God reveals himself different ways, different people and uniquely so. Now in the thing, I'll get him back to the thing, on the thing, you'll, seems to me to be a cultural snob when we first meet him, right? When Philip comes and he says, hey, you gotta meet this guy, all of our prophets, they were talking about him, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, and what is, what is the thing you'll say? What, Nazareth, that little backwards town, can anything good come out of Nazareth and Philip's will come and see, right? And then, I love, to Nathaniel's mind, see, there are some places that are so bad that God can't go, right? That God's grace cannot penetrate. And yet, Jesus blows all his categories, right? Because God can go anywhere and God is, has people everywhere. Where about you? Do you write people off because of where they're from? Do you believe the gospel is powerful enough to go anywhere? Well, Jesus has planted not only pointers in every culture but he knows every one of his people uniquely. Look at how Jesus meets Nathaniel. Look what happens. Look what he calls him, verse 47. When he sees him coming, he says, behold in Israelite in whom there is no deceit. Now again, Jesus is referring back to the story of Jacob. And he's telling Nathaniel that, hey, I recognize your character. You are a true Israelite. You have strong characters, no deceit in you. You're gonna give me a fair shake. And then Nathaniel says, well, how do you know me? I love Jesus' response. Look at what he says, verse 48. Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. And immediately, Nathaniel goes from being a complete skeptic to having the most sound orthodox theology available, right? He says, rabbi, you're the son of God, the king of Israel. Now, what happened? What just happened, right? What changed his heart and mind so completely that Nathan, the Jesus went from being a bad guy from the wrong side of the tracks to being the son of God, the rightful ruler of Israel because he saw him under a fig tree? Now, it's very helpful to know what fig trees represent. In the Old Testament, they represent in a rabbinic literature, they represent home. They represent a place of security and prosperity and contentment. If the fig tree can grow in this place, it's good land. We should settle here. And rabbis and their students would often go and pray under a fig tree. And they would meditate and rabbinical students trained to be rabbis would sit under there and they would study. And they would pray and often specifically for the coming of the promised one, the Messiah. Now, we don't know for sure that Nathaniel was a rabbinical student, but it's interesting, the first thing he says when he sort of the light goes on about Jesus, he says rabbi, but he goes further than that, not just teacher, you're the son of God. How does he know that? Well, it seems clear that he knows that Jesus didn't see him with his eyes, that somehow Jesus saw Nathaniel with godly knowledge. As God with divine knowledge, he saw Nathaniel under the fig tree, he heard his prayer, he knew that he was the answer to Nathaniel's prayers. That is a special and unique knowledge. You know what else knew? And Nathaniel immediately understood, this is someone, this is a teacher like no other. This must be God himself. Nathaniel knew, Jesus knew Nathaniel on a heart level. And then he calls him to follow him. You know, sometimes we wonder if God really knows, if he really knows what's going on in our lives. I'm kind of convinced that a lot of our self-destructive behavior becomes because we don't think anybody is looking and we want someone to see us and love us. And Jesus tells us, I do see you, I do know you. In Matthew 10, Jesus says, the hairs on your head are all counted. You ever get a haircut and then try to count all the hairs? No. But Jesus knows every single one on your head and the heads of everyone in this room, everyone in the world. In John 10, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me. He knows them all individually and uniquely. Jesus knows you more than you know yourself. He knows you more than anyone else. And Jesus is calling you personally to follow him. And this is what he's offering. He's offering a stairway to heaven. But it's not a stairway that you have to travel yourself. Because he himself is the stairway. Remember Jacob's vision? Jacob saw a ladder stretching from heaven earth and these angels sending and descending and God at the top. This God is at the top of the ladder. But Jesus gives the picture, that same picture but fills in in detail. He says, truly I say to you, you'll see heaven open. The angels God is ascending and descending on the son of man. The son of man was a particular title that Jesus took to himself. You see, if you'll have faith in me, you'll have heaven open to you. Now this is a place where Christianity is unlike any other religion. Because every other religion basically says that yeah, there's a stairway but you have to work your way up it, right? God is at the top of the stairway and there are different ways depending on what religion to get up that stairway. Know the law, do the law, do good works. Please the deity and you will make, hopefully eventually make your way up there. Christianity's only religion says, no, you will never make it on your own. You'll never make it on your own. That is why God had to come down from heaven to earth to make a way. And Jesus is Jacob's ladder. Jesus is the one who brings us to heaven. And so here's the thing, you need to see, if you reject the call of Christ, if you reject Christianity, you need to realize what you're rejecting at core, okay? Because you're not a core rejecting a set of doctrines, right? You may disagree with a lot of Christian doctrines, you may have another worldview or you may do what a lot of people do, take some of Christian doctrines, some of others, right? But that's not primarily, you're not primarily rejecting a system of doctrine. You're also not primarily rejecting Christian spiritual practices, you may not be one much for prayer or for reading the Bible or fasting or tithing, but that, those things, well they're important, they're not what God is going to hold you accountable for. You're also not primarily rejecting other people, other Christians or the church. You can rail on all the hypocrites in the church, and we make a fine lot of hypocrites, if I do say so myself. But God is not going to hold you accountable for not becoming a Presbyterian or a Baptist or a Catholic. When you reject the call of Christ, you reject Christ Himself. You need to realize that you are rejecting the only person who could die for you and for your sins. And the one person who loves you in a deeper way than anyone else can and can bring you to heaven. The gospel is personal. I think so many people reject Jesus because they want to reject a lot of other things, right? And when young people want to reject their parents or they want to reject, you know, televangelists or hypocrites in the church, right? But when you do that, those are two different things. Yes, we are called to represent Christ. We are the hands and feet of Christ, but it's two different things. And you need to separate in your mind what is a good and accurate representation of Christ? And sometimes what is not? And sometimes you need to reject those. But make sure you don't reject Christ because he's calling you individually, personally, to follow him and to know him. Don't confuse him with imperfect people, imperfect institutions. And here's the thing, if you do respond to Jesus and you do follow him, you'll be changed completely for the good. We see it in the life of Jacob, right? Jacob went from being this deceitful schemer to being a father of many believers. In fact, God esteems Jacob so much. He takes on the title, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of that deceiver. He changed Jacob's life for the good. We see it with Nathaniel. Nathaniel went from being a skeptical student to becoming the apostle, Bartholomew, who would take the gospel out, would be martyred for his faith. And truly, you will see greater things than that. If you respond to Christ's call, come, follow me. Let's pray.