Faithbase

Hey y'all. Okay. So as you know, we are working our way through the chosen series. And right now we are in season two. Today we're going to be talking about episode two of season two. And it is where Jesus meets Nathanael. But first we see Nathanael under the fig tree. And this story is honestly one that I had read in scripture. And even watching the episode of the chosen, I really did not understand a lot of what was happening. And when I came to sorry, this thing is not sitting straight. All right, I think that's a little more centered. Sorry about that. Um, but the thing that I just I really couldn't understand a lot of the story because I didn't understand some of the verbiage that is used and what the original words actually meant versus the way that we read them in our Bibles today is a little bit different. So today we're going to kind of do more of a scripture study rather than just talking about it. So um, so yeah, with that, let's just dive in. If you want to follow along with me, we are in john chapter one, verses 43 through 51. And it says the next day, Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. He found Philip and told him follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and told him we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law. And so did the prophets, Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Nathanael asked him, come and see Philip answered. Then Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. How do you know me? Nathanael asked before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you answered Jesus. Sorry, I'm using a new Bible on my pages stick still. Rabbi Nathanael replied, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. Jesus responded to him. Do you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree, you will see greater than this. Then he said, truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man. So at first glance, we see Philip who is now a believer in Jesus as the Messiah. He goes to his friend Nathanael and he's like, hey, this is the one we've studied about. This is the one we've waited for. He's here. And Nathanael is immediately prejudiced against Jesus because of where he came from. That is not something that necessarily needs a whole lot of interpretation. However, he when Jesus sees Nathanael and he says, here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. How do you know me? Nathanael asked before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you Jesus answered. And so the phrase under the fig tree, this was a phrase that rabbis use to mean meditating on scripture. And so when we read it this way, Jesus is saying, I know you know scripture and that's where I've seen you. And now I just kind of think about it as, you know, earlier in John, earlier in this exact chapter of John, John opens with, um, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. And so thinking of Jesus in this context in which John has already written about Jesus and then John, I mean, and then Jesus looking at Nathanael and saying, I've seen you there. So then Nathanael is like, okay, wow, he's, he's seen things. And one thing in the commentary that I read that I want to read to you guys that I found so interesting, um, was come and see. Um, nope, that's not it. So Nathanael gives his testimony about Jesus. So now Nathanael is like, okay, you are the son of God, the King of Israel. And Jesus says, you have said this because you, because I told you, I saw you under a fig tree. Like you haven't even seen anything yet. And he goes, you will see the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man. Now as readers of scripture, we could, we have kind of become used to the term son of man. We don't really think a whole lot about it, but the usage of that word versus the, um, the son of the King, the son of, um, what are some of the other ways they would have said it? The King of glory or the King glory. Those were words that had a direct correlation to political figures, to these Kings that were coming in to slay the enemy. And so Jesus is very careful to say, I'm not coming as the one that you think I am. I'm not coming for the reasons that you think I am. But then he references, you will see the angels ascending and descending on the son of man. And what is so beautiful that angels are on the son of man and what Nathaniel, as Jesus has already said, you contemplate scripture, you know, the old Testament, you, he would have immediately thought back to the Genesis account of Jacob who had this dream and he saw a stairway with angels going up and down. And then Jesus then turns and says, I am the, the angels are ascending and descending on the son of man. Jesus is the bridge. He bridges the gap between heaven and earth between God and man. And so he is trying to help Nathaniel see not only am I the one that has been prophesied about, not only do you understand all of that, you get that, but you are going to see just what that means soon. And that is just absolutely beautiful to think about, especially as we study scripture, like it just blows my mind how we can have these moments of sitting and wrestling in scripture, but know that God has sent Jesus. Jesus is the connection. So even though I had read this passage, I had seen it played out, I still didn't understand. When I relied on the Holy Spirit and took a second to just sit in it, studied more, it made so much more sense. And that's one of the greatest things of scripture is that it is alive and active and he will bring it alive and active to you. So anyway, I just thought that was a beautiful example of really diving in and looking into the scriptures to get a better understanding.