Lessons from Nathaniel

Lessons from the story of Nathaniel

I’ve planted many many trees on the property. I’ve planted, pine trees, many oak trees which I grew from acorns, Jacaranda trees, fig trees, Mop tops, Willow trees, Box tops etc etc, but one of my favourites is a poplar tree. There are different types of ‘poplars’, but the one I like spreads out, not like the narrow ones. This particular tree I planted about 50 m away from the house and must be at least 4m tall now. And a week or so ago, on one of those very hot days I was watering some of my trees and went and stood under this poplar tree in the shade. I don’t know if you have experienced it or not,  but each tree makes a different sound as the wind goes through the leaves, and with poplar trees there’s this gentle, ever changing rustle as the wind ebbs and flows. Strange as it may be, this sound in poplar trees is like music to my ears!  I love that sound. And I found myself on this hot day just standing there in the shade of the poplar tree listening to that rustle in the leaves day and just praying and thanking God for the miracle of creation and all that He has given us. And on the property we have a most beautiful bird called a Rainbow Bee-eater. I thought we only had about two, but we actually now at this time have about 20. Photos don’t do it justice! And as I was under this tree, I could hear the characteristic sound they make trrrrrp, trrrrp and then I saw them flying about. And I stood there just thanking God for this grandeur of creation and how blessed we are to have a Father that has given us so much beauty in this world. I stood there quite a while just being in the presence of God- well that’s how I felt! Anyway later when I got back to the house Di asked “who were you on the phone to?”  I couldn’t work it out, I wasn’t on the phone at all and I asked why she thought I was on the phone and Di said “I saw you standing under a tree and thought you may be on the phone”.  I knew exactly which tree she was talking about because  there was something very special about that time under the poplar tree. Which brings me to the story of Nathaniel, and what I believe he experienced.

John 1:43-51   Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael

43 The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”

44 Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45 Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

46 “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.

“Come and see,” said Philip.

47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

48 “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

49 Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”

50 Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”

 I believe that Nathanael was speaking to God and close to God under that fig tree and only God would have known this. So when Jesus says to him ‘I saw you under the fig tree”- this is just so so special and Nathanael says “ Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel”

But there is a lot going on in these verses and I would like to just see what we can learn from them. There is however one key message, you can call it rhema if you like, that I want to share with you- but I will do that at the end.

Before we start I want to just mention an interesting point, many scholars believe that it is highly likely that Nathaniel and the disciple Bartholomew is one and the same person. I personally believe this because when I read John 21 it reads

21 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way:  Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus]), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee,…. and he goes on to mention some of the others.S o he seems to be included in the list of disciple- so it seems likely. The early church even before the 9th century also recorded that they were one and the same person?

Bartholomew is a family name meaning “son of [Hebrew: bar] Tolmai, or Talmai,” so his full name would then be Nathanael bar Tolmai.

However true or not, it’s an excuse just to have a quick look at Bartholomew, which may  or may not also give us an idea of what happened to Nathanael. Bartholomew became quite a missionary travelling to India where he is said to have translated the Gospel of Matthew into the local dialect , after which he travelled to greater Armenia, where he brought Christianity to this whole region and maybe parts of Africa as well? In fact in the year 301 Armenia became the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion. And is still Christian! Bartholomew had a major impact on this nation. Unfortunately he was eventually martyred in what is now Azerbaijan and Muslim in a most gruesome manner for bringing the message of Christ.  Foxes Book of Martyrs reads (in old English) “At last in Albinopolis, a City of Greater Armenia, after divers (sic)  persecutions, he was beaten down with staves, then crucified, and after being excoriate, he was beheaded”

The Saint Bartholomew Church (Baku) was built in 1892 (in now Azerbaijan) with donations from the local Christian population on the site where the Bartholomew was believed to have been crucified and killed by pagans around 71 AD. The church continued to operate until 1936, when it was demolished as a part of the Soviet campaign against religion.

1. Let’s get back to Nathaniel’s story in John.  Firstly we see Jesus drawing a comparison with the story of Jacob in Genesis that is quite striking.

If you recall in Genesis 25 Jacob was given this name because he was grasping the heel of Esau. Jacob means “he grasps the heel or figuratively he deceives”. So that name Jacob is a euphemism for deceit. Later God changes Jacobs name to Israel,” because you have struggled with God and men and overcome”.

So getting back to John 1:47 Jesus says ““Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”- He is saying ‘here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no Jacob’. 

Keep in mind also the Israel is often represented as a vine or a fig tree in the bible (Hosea 9:10, Jeremiah 24, Micah 4:4). So figuratively we have here a man who is no longer Jacob (who must be Israel) coming from the fig tree, Israel

Then Jesus says to Nathaniel, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”

Remember Jacob’s dream in Genesis?

 Genesis 28:12

12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

This really does emphasise the analogy to Jacob!

 By the way that word “you” in vs 51 is plural, so Jesus is talking to all present. And Jesus says to all ‘ I am that ladder’ .  Jesus goes on to say says in vs 51 “you [plural] will see ‘heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” 

Do you know what, we see this right now- spiritually!  I almost feel its right there in front of me! Right now in the word of God, and spiritually we see heaven opened! We sing the song “I see the Lord and He is high and lifted up”! - we see it spiritually. We see Jesus as the “ladder” to heaven and know that ministering spirits or angel are all around. Again we sing that song …”there are angels all around…”  One day we will see it in the physical, but I am so happy we live in an age where we can see it now spiritually. The analogy with Jacob also points to a time when all Israel will see it. What a day that will be!

2.  Then secondly we note that Jesus says to Nathanael in John. ‘I saw you under the fig tree’. 

Do you realise that Jesus see’s you, wherever you may be. ‘I see you Jenny, Kevin, Brian, Steve, Shirley… when things are tough and you call out to me’. He sees us when we cry out “Lord what is going on?” And like Jesus says to Nathaniel, I know who you are Nathaniel, I know your name and I see you. Do we really fully grasp that it’s the same for each one of us? That Jesus sees us where we are……when things are not going well. That He knows your name!

But Jesus just doesn’t see us under the tree, He sees who we are- ‘here is a man with no deceit’. Nathaniel wasn’t sinless, but Jesus saw the good in him. He didn’t say I saw you Nathaniel, coveting that convertible donkey cart, leather straps, 0-10kmh in 10minutes, with 4 donkey power, 16 Valves , bucket seats, sporty spoked wheels and painted in Ferrari red- No, - he looks for the good- and He sees the good in you too!  That’s because the sin is gone- washed by the blood of His Son. That is a message for you today- no matter what the past is, we have a Father that is gracious, compassionate and abounding in love and forgiveness- and He sees you (with all your challenges and concerns) and He knows your name! Just like Nathanael.

3. Then finally. As I was thinking about Nathaneal and just thinking about how wonderful it is that God sees us, knows us by name, I had one of those Habakkuk moments. I said yes, You see us Lord and You call us by name, but why do we still have all these issues in life that don’t seem to be resolved. At every level, whether it be in families, in health, geo-politically, in our nation, let alone all these conflicts going on at the moment? Why?

In the book of Habakkuk, Habakkuk asks God these questions too. Why are You silent God? Why do you tolerate what’s going on? Why do you allow this to continue?

So I read Habakkuk again and God replies to Habakkuk questions and says to him a revelation is coming and awaits an appointed time, it will not come immediately and though it linger wait for it for it will certainly come, and then the verse that changed the course of history of the world and heralded the reformation, and that is despite the turmoil around you, the righteous should live by faith, in other words steadfastness. Is the answer any different for us? And I had to ask myself the question, Cliff do you really understand the sovereignty of God- probably not

I went to bed that night with this head knowledge- and the head is a long long way from the heart. And as is not uncommon these days I woke up at about 2:30am, which is sometimes a very good time for me to just lie and meditate or pray about something. And I went back to thinking about this verse “the righteous should live by faith (or being faithful) in the context of the many problems and challenges people are facing in our church and around the world. Conflict, health, family, spiritually mentally? Lord there are some big problems facing so many families and nations. Lord sometimes these problems seem insurmountable.  Why don’t you step in Lord and bring justice and order and peace to the nations and families?

And as I was lying there God reminded me of a picture I had seen, and He gave me the clearest answer I could imagine about the problems we face! It was a picture of the size of the earth relative to the sun! (see below)

On this picture I can just about see the earth, let alone, Australia! Let alone Boyup Brook! God seemed to say to me if the Sun is the S-O-N, and your problems are somewhere on that planet earth, how big do you think your problems are Cliff? -in comparison to the Son! How big do you think your God is! Do you still think you have big problems Cliff? I actually laughed, it certainly put my “big” problems in perspective! I rolled over and was asleep in seconds. But I don’t believe this message is just for me, because the next morning I distinctly felt that I needed to share this with you today. Maybe it helps someone in particular- who knows!

God sees you, God knows your name, He knows the goodness of your heart, and while your problems may seem big and even insurmountable, we serve a God who is much much much bigger. Revelation of how it is all resolved, awaits an appointed time, though it linger wait for it. Your steadfastness, your faithfulness will be rewarded. The Sovereign Lord is (and will be) your strength!