Nathaniel - No insignificant disciples

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Thank you. Now I'm all charged up, ready to go. And it's a real honour and a privilege to be able to share from God's Word. Even this morning as I come to church and just going over things during the week in preparation for today, I stood in awe and amazement of God's oversight of things. We've been encouraged in recent weeks, particularly focusing on our values here and that aspect of we're committed to going, committed to growing in Christ and committed to going for Christ. And then our key verse, that's right at the bottom there in John 15 verse 8, appears on the front of our newsletter this morning. Not because it's a key verse of here, but Colette tells me that it comes from the vision ministries that have a key verse for the year as well. It happens to be the same one. They must have copied us, I think. And it's the words of Jesus in John 15 and verse 8. This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. During my years of pastoring, from time to time, people would say to me, oh, I'm not a very significant disciple. I feel a bit of a nobody really. And perhaps you find yourself in that position as well. A few months before Christmas, I was asked to preach at another church and I began just reflecting and praying on what it might be that I would share. And I found myself looking at the characters of the disciples whom Jesus called to follow him, the twelve of them. And there seems to be a lot of emphasis on the Peters, the James and John of the discipleship crew. That inner cabinet, if you like, they seem to be the one that hits the headlines all the time. And there's others that, perhaps a little less, you know, the Andrew that brought his brother to Jesus or the Andrew that found the little boy with the loaves and fishes and brought him along. Now, there's a Philip that would ask the questions on behalf of the team. He seemed to be a spokesman at times and the Thomas and those sorts of folks. But maybe you feel more like a Thaddeus or Simon the zealot or Nathaniel. You know, those disciples that their names are mentioned, but we don't hear a lot about them. They don't seem to be too significant in the scheme of things. And as I was reading through this and thinking about it, my mind became focused on the disciple Nathaniel. Nathaniel. This so-called insignificant guy really touched my life as I looked into his life. He became a signpost, if you like, of directing me into a closer relationship with Jesus. And I want to share with you this morning some of my findings on this character and Nathaniel and trust that as his life has become a blessing to me, so you too may be blessed with what God's Word has to say about him. I've got to say that I was tremendously helped by a fellow named Sam, this will get you, Sam Kashton Schmidt. Sam Kashton Schmidt. You probably don't know him. He may be a relative of Ron and Joe. I don't think to hear Schmitz, but Sam Kashton Schmidt is, they call the president, would be the principal of a Presbyterian college in Florida in America called Bethany Christian School. And I happened to find in my research some words that he spoke that I found very, very helpful, so I need to acknowledge him. And then to my own home group, as I was preparing this for that other church, I ran past them some of the ideas and they gave me the thumbs up and apologies to them, although they probably can't remember it anyhow, but they got to listen and sit through it again, some of the things that I want to share today. But friends, if you're one of those folks who gets to sermon time and thinks, well, now's my opportunity to doze off and catch up on a bit of sleep that I've missed during the week, then before you do, hang on to this statement that from God's perspective, if you are a disciple of Jesus, you are a person of tremendous significance. From God's perspective, if you are a disciple of Jesus, you are a person of tremendous significance. There are no insignificant disciples in the family of God. What about we pray? Father, as we dig into your Holy Word today, may your Holy Spirit enable our ears to hear what it is you want to say to us. May your Holy Spirit enable our minds to comprehend the truths that come to our attention. And may your Holy Spirit give us the courage to respond in accordance with your will and purpose to what it is you are saying. And we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. If you've got your Bibles with you, you might want to open them to John chapter 1, because that's sort of the text. I'll be flitting all over the place, but John chapter 1 is the basic text from which I am starting. John the Baptist has got a key ministry in John chapter 1. He's out round the River Jordan there, preaching repentance of sin, encouraging people to declare their wrongdoing and demonstrate that in baptism. He's dressed in this crazy clothes of camel skin. His morning tea comprises locusts mixed with honey and just a strange sort of a character, but he was focused on directing people toward the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus. And this coming Messiah had not yet been revealed, and the Jewish leaders were getting a little bit worried. Who is this coming Messiah? And they came out and they asked John the Baptist if it was him, and he said, no, not me. Was it the prophet Elijah? No, it's not Elijah. Then who is it? And John kept it a bit of a secret, and John said that he's the one that God has appointed to be the Messiah as the prophet says, all I am is the one crying in the wilderness to tell you that he's coming. Well, that got the legal eagles off his back. They went back to there wherever, and John continued on. And the next day, John sees Jesus coming, and he says to his disciples in verse 35, here's the one I've been talking about, the one who will take away the sin of the world, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus. And at that, two of John's disciples, you see, John the Baptist had his own disciples, his own followers. Two of John's disciples chased after this Jesus, this Messiah. And Jesus turned around and asked them, what are you guys on about? And they said, oh, we're wanting to know where you're staying. He said, well, come with me and you'll see. And they came and obviously they were enthralled with what Jesus had to say to them. And we are told then in verse 41, that Andrew goes off to find his brother, Simon, and brings Simon along. And Jesus sees Simon coming and he looks intently at him, the Bible says. And he said, your name is Simon, but from now on you will be Peter. Peter is a Greek word, Petros, which means rock. Jesus was to say, upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Peter became a staunch foundation stone, if you like, of the establishment of the Christian church. So we've got Andrew and we've got Simon or Peter. The next day after that we've got Philip. Now two disciples went from John the Baptist to follow Jesus on that initial day, only named Andrew. We're not told exactly who the second one is, but I have a hunch it may have been Philip because Philip was in this conversation and he took off and he goes looking for Nathaniel. Now you can put that slide up for me now. Thank you, Steph. This is about the extent of my IT skills. Can you read it? Okay, if you can't just listen, don't go to sleep. Well the next day Philip goes looking for Nathaniel. Now if I do my maths right according to John's record, Nathaniel is the fourth disciple chosen. I don't know whether you experience what I used to experience at school sometimes, you know, when it was lunchtime or playtime we'd go out and we'd have two guys that would sort of be captains and they'd need to choose a team and we'd all line up and captains would take it in turns to choose somebody for their team. And all the good handball players would be chosen first on the team and those not so good would be dragging down toward the end of the line and I often found myself there, am I going to be chosen or not or you know you're really just to fill the numbers and you'd feel a bit insignificant. And although Nathaniel is one of these guys that we don't hear mentioned a lot, we don't hear a lot about him. There's a tendency for us to perhaps say oh he's just one of those insignificant ones, but Jesus chose him as number four. If you have a look at the listings of disciples in the other gospels, he's at number six but it's still not the end, is it? Not right down the end. And I want to suggest to you that it's not so much because of the credentials of Nathaniel himself but because of the grace of God in Christ that there are no insignificant disciples among the people of Jesus. Jesus chose him as one of his crew. Interestingly, and I'll read these verses from verse 43, it's up there on the screen for you because this is what we will be looking at for most of our study this morning. It says there in verse 43, the next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, come follow me. Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter's hometown. Philip went to look for Nathaniel and told him, we found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about. His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth. Nazareth, exclaimed Nathaniel, can anything good come from Nazareth? Come and see for yourself, Philip replied. As they approached Jesus said, now here is a genuine son of Israel, a man of complete integrity. How do you know about me, Nathaniel asked. Jesus replied, I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you. Then Nathaniel exclaimed, Rabbi, you are the son of God, the king of Israel. Jesus asked him, do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this. Then he said, I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the son of man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth. It is only here in the New Testament that Nathaniel is referred to as Nathaniel. Matthew, Mark, Luke and in the listing in the book of Acts, the name Nathaniel does not occur in the list of disciples. As you go to find out who has replaced the name Nathaniel, you will come across a name like Bartholomew. Back in Matthew 16, when we are introduced to Simon Peter, he is introduced as Simon Barjona or Barjonas. You see Bartholomew, Barjonas, are surnames. In all of the other accounts of the disciples listed in Matthew, Mark, Luke and again in the book of Acts, Bartholomew is referring to the son of. Bar is son of. In the case of Simon, Barjonas is the son of John. As many of the translations now put it, Simon, son of John. When you get to Nathaniel, Bartholomew, son of Thaddeus, son of Ptolemy, sorry, son of Ptolemy. And so he is referred to by his surname. None of the others seem to be and there is certainly no other Nathaniel's in the group that you would need to change. And surnames intrigue me at times. There was a time when I was motor mechanic in one particular place that I motor mechanic, they didn't call me Alan, they called me Greazy. I didn't take offense at that as sort of an expression of acceptance of, hey mate, Greazy, come and help us out here, just like we have our Potsie, a name of endearment, a name of inclusion. You will see in our defense personnel and their uniforms their names, it's not their Christian name, it's their surname that is on there. Surnames have some sort of significance and sometimes we don't recognize it. When I went to school I used to mark a roll morning and in the afternoon to make sure you were there for the full day, that mark a roll and tick it off and always call your name out as a surname, not with your Christian name. I grew up in a church youth group with some friends and we both, three of us, went to a particular school that was out of our area and we used to ride our push bikes about 12 kilometers to get to school and one of my friends was Graham Knott and the other one Ian and myself and they'd read out the roll and they'd get grieve and I'd say here sir, that's the way you had to reply, Smith here sir and get Graham's name, not here sir and get marked absent most days. But surnames can have some significance, can't they? And in most instances they are a term of endearment, Bartholomew. If he was among Australian disciples he certainly wouldn't have been called Bartholomew, that's just too much of a mouth name for Aussies, it'd be Bart or Barty or something like that. But Bartholomew, the son of Ptolemy. Philip says to Nathaniel in verse 45, we found the Messiah, his name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth. To which Nathaniel replies in verse 46, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Like it would be like saying to somebody in Ascot, we found the prime minister living in Cabulture and that person is saying can anything good come out of Cabo? You know there's still this sense of some suburbs are lesser than others. And Nathaniel along with the other guys that were chosen lived down by the Sea of Galilee, you know the posh area looking out over the water. Nazareth was back up in the hills a bit and not as well developed and for some people a bit of a backward area. And Nathaniel says really can anything good come out of Nazareth? Friends it's interesting to note that the word Nazareth, the first part of it, comes from a Hebrew word, netzar. Netzar in Hebrew language means branch. You go back into the book of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah under the inspiration of God says in Isaiah chapter 11 verses 1 and 2, out of the stump of David's family, that's King David, will grow a shoot. Yes a new branch bearing fruit from the old root and the spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of council and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. Nazareth, the place of the branch where the new shoot will come from. Sometimes you know when we're looking into scriptures and we're trying to work out how things are going to come together it just doesn't seem to make sense. And it's almost as though God has these little hidden secrets if you like and all of a sudden they come to our attention and we are caused to sit and look and say wow. In Jeremiah chapter 23 Jeremiah was the poor old prophet that fulfilled his ministry in tears pretty well because the people were just walking away from the Lord and in Jeremiah 23 verses 8 to 6 he writes, sorry, can't be 8 to 6, that's just seeing whether you had gone to sleep because I had. But in Jeremiah 23 5 to 6 the prophet quotes the words that God had given to him for the time his coming says the Lord, when I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David's line he will be a king who rules with wisdom, he will do what is right and just throughout the land and this will be his name, the Lord is our righteousness in that day Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This special one will be coming the branch to shoot in the line of David. So Nathaniel perhaps a little bit of a skeptic really can anything good come out of Nazareth you've got to be joking Philip but he goes and before Nathaniel even gets a chance to open his mouth and question Jesus about anything or make any response Jesus sees Nathaniel coming and he says here is a genuine son of Israel a man of complete integrity. Jesus thought pretty highly of Nathaniel others may not have recognized him with those sort of credentials but Jesus did here is a genuine son of Israel a man of complete integrity. Let me ask ourselves a question who is Israel for Nathaniel to be a son of that person? Nathaniel was Jacob Jacob the deceiver Jacob the one who stole his brother's birthright the one who diddle his brother Esau out of the inheritance the one who went off to look for a wife and in a sense copped a bit of his own medicine for he found this good-looking sort named Rebecca asked permission from the father to marry her had a bit of a party lost the plot woke up with Leah not Rebecca he'd worked seven years for this girl his father in law at Laban said well work another seven years and you can have Rebecca too and then there came a time where Jacob got back to his old tricks of mixing the gene pool of the sheep and goats so that he got the better offspring and the father in law got the worst he deceived his father in law and then took off with all his family his wives his kids his stock all his possessions and some of Laban's possessions as well and the way they went but well Jacob was on his way to look for this wife we read in Genesis chapter 28 verses 10 to 13 meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran at sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stop there for the night Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep as he slept he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven and he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway at the top of the stairway stood the Lord and he said I am the Lord the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac the ground you are lying on belongs to you I'm giving it to you and to your descendants Jacob has this amazing dream probably had no idea what it meant really and then he goes he spends the years getting his wives and establishing his family and then in chapter 32 he takes off and he sends all his family and all his possessions all his servants on ahead of him so it's just him himself alone because he knew he had to go and make amends with his brother Esau whom he had deceived many years prior and while they had all gone he's there on his own and he falls asleep and a messenger from God comes to him and wrestles with him and in the process of that wrestle this messenger dislocates Jacob's hip so he walks with a limp for the rest of his life and Jacob says don't go don't just curse me at least share some blessing that messenger from God in Genesis chapter 32 verses 22 following gave him the name Israel from now on you will be called Israel Jacob becomes Israel the deceiver and when Nathan is introduced to Jesus Jesus sees Nathan coming and he says here is a genuine son of Israel a man of integrity complete integrity what a great transformation this man Nathaniel is a pretty special sort of a character and as we read in our scripture reading in John it's not just the fact that he's a man of integrity but Jesus can say to he and his other disciples in verses 51 I tell you the truth of John chapter 1 you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth the dream that Jacob had had 17 or 1800 years prior to Jesus coming becomes a reality to comes to our attention through the person of Nathaniel the man of complete integrity that's all a little bit too much for Nathaniel to take in and in verse 48 he he asked Jesus how do you know me Jesus said I saw you sitting under the fig tree before Philip came to you and Nathaniel is blown away he's blown away with those words rabbi you are the Son of God the King of Israel Nathaniel has his great respect for Jesus for the knowledge that Jesus has of him as an individual person the fact that he is a special one about to become part of the discipleship group I saw you under the fig tree you know I asked myself the question I wonder what he was doing under the fig tree I've looked through the scriptures and I'll share some of the insights with you in a little while but it seems to me that the fig tree is a significant parable if you like throughout the scriptures a parable of the the Israelite people a parable of the the Jewish family if you like those chosen people of God and there's a lot of symbolism attached to it Nathaniel sitting under his fig tree it's like the Aussie bloke that goes out to his shed in America they go to the den in Israel you sit under your fig tree it's that place where you where you go and and I suspect that Nathaniel had been sitting under his fig tree from time to time researching who is this Messiah that John the Baptist is talking about where does he come from how will we know him searching through what what pieces of manuscript he might have had of the Old Testament trying to glean information from people like John the Baptist who is this Jesus he sits under his fig tree and now he had found Jesus and he's blown away that Jesus knew him and that he was in fact a person of significance of course the fig tree is introduced to us way way back in the beginning of creation in fact we are told that the Garden of Eden was filled of all kinds of plants that were pleasing to the eye but the only plant we know of is the fig tree no others oh we've got the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil that's not a species of plant they're just labels that were put on a couple of particular trees within the Garden of Eden the fig tree is the only species of plant that we are aware of and we're only aware of that because when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit they were able to be enlightened about certain things and noticed that they were naked and we are told they made clothes out of fig leaves to cover their nakedness they stitched fig leaves together now they seem to have been the the first clothing producers of biodegradable clothing they stitched together these fig leaves but of course fig leaf was not going to last too long once it snapped from the branch of the tree the life goes out of it and it would soon break up and be the source of embarrassment I suppose but it's interesting to note that in Genesis chapter 3 verse 21 Jesus realizing that the fig leaf was not going to be an appropriate form of clothing he clothes Adam and Eve with animal skin what does that involve it involves sacrifice it involves the shedding of blood and the clothed way way back there with a symbol that would have significance in the life of Jesus the fig leaf in the very last book of the Old Testament in the book of Zechariah we read about the fig tree in verses 8 to 10 of Zechariah chapter 3 the prophet says listen to me oh Jeshua the high priest and all of you are the priests you are symbols of things to come soon I am coming to bring my servant the branch now look at the jewel that I set before Jeshua a single stone with seven facets I'll engrave an inscription on it says the Lord of Heaven's armies and I will remove the sins of this land in a single day and on that day says the Lord of Heaven's armies each of you will invite your neighbor to sit with you peacefully under your grapevine and fig tree the fig tree that symbol of refuge that symbol of of peace and satisfaction on that day you'll sit under your fig tree without fears of judgment and what's going on or in the book of Micah in Micah chapter 4 and verse 4 in that coming day says the Lord I will gather together those who are lame and who have been exiles and those whom I have filled with grief be better for read verse 4 I'm reading verse 6 everyone will live in peace and prosperity enjoying their own grapevines and fig trees for there will be nothing to fear the fig tree seems to be that place where you go in times of difficulty when you're comfortable you can sit back under your fig tree under your pagoda and enjoy the atmosphere and Jeremiah that poor old wailing prophet in chapter 8 and verse 13 says I will surely consume them there will be no more harvest of figs and grapes their fruit trees will all die whatever I have given them will soon be gone either Lord has spoken Jeremiah was this prophet of bringing God's judgment upon a rebellious nation and he said they're going to become a time where there'll be no fruit on your fig trees it'll be barren it'll be hard time and then the prophet Habakkuk is probably the one that we know more about the fig tree than any other because it was a popular song for a period of time and the prophet Habakkuk has realized that the Israelite nation had gone astray they were turning their backs on God they were pursuing the idols of other nations and the prophet can say even though the fig trees have no blossoms and there's no grapes on the vine even though the olive crop fails and the fields lie empty and barren even though the flocks die in the fields and the cattle barns are empty yet will I rejoice in the Lord I'll be joyful in the God of my salvation even though the fig tree doesn't blossom even though the fig tree is not going to produce fruit this special nation of God have turned their back on him yet says Habakkuk I'm going to continue on to praise God and to live my life for him and then there's that very interesting passage in the gospel of Matthew in the concluding weeks of Jesus earthly ministry he's gone into the temple which had become just a marketplace perhaps if you like a gaming institute it's a place that had been defiled by the practices of people selling things that were inappropriate carrying on teachings and stuff that were not right offering sacrifices without real thought about what the significance of that was and Jesus came in and he upturned the tables and he changed out the the money changes and he got rid of it and then he went away to Bethany and then he comes back and in Matthew chapter 21 verses 18 to 22 we read in the morning as Jesus was returning to Jerusalem he was hungry and he noticed the fig tree beside the road he went over to see if there were any figs but there were only leaves then he said to it may you never bear fruit again and immediately the fig tree withered up the disciples were amazed when they saw this and they asked how did the fig tree weather so quickly then Jesus told them I tell you the truth if you have faith and don't doubt you can do things like this and much more you can even say to this mountain may you be lifted up and thrown into the sea and it will happen you can pray for anything and if you have faith you will receive it suddenly there versus the scripture in my opinion that has too often been taken out of context the gospel the prosperity gospel preachers use it if you have any problem in your life any mountain an illness a business problem a work situation a personal family issue if if you've got any of these sort of problems if you've got faith you know just a small amount of faith it'll go and of course many times it doesn't go and when the first one comes back I said well yeah I do have faith and it's still there and what's the reply of the prosperity preachers you haven't got enough faith that's a put down friends Jesus has dealt with a temple that had fallen into disgrace and now he's coming back into the city after a night away this morning time he goes to a fig tree there's no fruit on it he curses the fig tree and the disciples say wow that's smart how do you do that Jesus says if you have faith you can remove this mountain and say tell it they go in the sea what was the mountain it's a temple mountain as Jesus is coming into the city of Jerusalem right there before him is the temple mountain the fig tree the symbol of his people was not bearing fruit it had fallen into disgrace God cursed that he judged it and he says instead of needing to go through all the rituals and the systems that have been put in place by man they're up on the temple if you've got faith in me was his inference you don't need that to use an icy colloquial term you can tell all the ritual and the pomp and ceremony to go jump in the lake just keep your focus on me have faith in me Jesus is the new the new Messiah has come the new means of connecting with God Nathaniel that insignificant disciple but as I dug into the background of his life and the things he said and the responses he received I got to tell you my life was so richly blessed it blows me away just to see how God's Word just holds together statements made 17 1800 years prior to the incident come to life in the person of Jesus all those years later symbols that are there have significant meaning for the kind of people that we are to be as his disciples there is no such person as an indiscreet insignificant disciple in the family of God let's pray Father we we hear the words of Jesus telling us what it is to the Father's glory that we bear much fruit showing ourselves to be his disciples and sometimes Lord we find that a huge task sometimes we feel that we're just an insignificant disciple Father remind us constantly of Nathaniel Bartholomew no such thing as an insignificant disciple for through them you can teach us so much you can enable us to be a signpost that others will look at and in looking at that signpost be directed to Jesus may we be a church of disciples who are committed to growing in Jesus and committed to going for Jesus in his name we pray amen